Answer: King Louis XIV

If you want to set records for sitting on the throne, then you’d better start young. Really young. How young? King Louis XIV of France, also known as Louis the Great and the Sun King, ascended to the throne in the spring of 1643 at the ripe old age of four.

This peculiar turn of events came about when his father, Louis XIII, decreed that his son would rule upon his death instead of his mother, Queen Anne (who he believed lacked the political acumen to lead the country). Because Louis XIV was so young, his father appointed a regency council to rule on his behalf; the Sun King wouldn’t assume full control over his kingdom until 1661.

Upon his death in 1715 at the age of 76, the Sun King had ruled for 72 years and 110 days making him the longest seated ruler of a major European country by a long shot.

For the curious and trivia obsessed who note that we defined his long standing rulership as that of a major European country, here is a bonus tidbit of trivia. If we expand the net to include any European monarchy big or small, then the longest reigning ruler becomes King Bernhard VII. Bernhard ruled over the tiny German state of the Principality of Lippe for 81 years and 234 days from the mid-15th century into the early 16th century.

If we expand our net to include any monarchy around the globe, then we find the longest reigning monarch was Sobhuza II, King of Swaziland, who is not just the longest reigning monarch, but a rather contemporary one. He ruled from December of 1899 to August of 1982 for a lengthy sit on the throne encompassing 82 years and 254 days.