This paper deals with the perception of the early modern French monarchy, interpreting sources like underground literature, popular songs, police records and petitions. It criticizes the concept of royal sacredness/desecration in the course of the 18th century. By contrast, the stability of the king’s image is guaranteed by what we can call a regenerating circle, articulating the subject’s belief in a Golden Age that was to be instituted and that had been realized in an earlier time. There was not one image of the king, but a multitude of different and contradictory representations, that can partly be explained as counter-concept to the crown’s official representation. Subjects blame the king for not governing well, but, all the same, he is the only person who can do it. There are two poles of perception, contrasting the idealized symbol of the king with what we can describe as the practical use of its name, including disrespectful manipulations.