Towards the end of his life Louis expressed some courage. The moral courage with Louis saw the end draw near was free of the ostentation of the rest of his life. He died on September 1, at 8:15 A.M., aged seventy-seven minus three days, after having reigned for seventy-two years, three months and eighteen days. (Panicucci 74). Through seventy-two of his seventy-seven years of life, Louis had occupied the throne of France, he had presided over the most illustrious period in French history, the Age of Louis XIV. Under his sway, he had created the modern state, centrally organized, bureaucratically administered, concerned mostly with conquest but also with economic and cultural progress. From that background arouse the national governments of our own time.