L'Anse-Saint-Jean was founded in 1838 by the Société des Vingt-et-un, a group of lumber prospectors and investors from Charlevoix which was responsible for opening up the Saguenay region to colonization.

The village's citizens held a referendum on 21 January 1997, to turn the village into Le Royaume de L'Anse-Saint-Jean (the kingdom of L'Anse Saint Jean), the continent's first "municipal monarchy.

The king was crowned on 24 June, Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, in the Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste, and announced plans to build a "vegetable oratory," Saint-Jean-du-Millénaire (Saint John of the Millennium).

[5] This micronational project was cheerfully conceded to be a way of boosting tourism in the region, which had been hit by the 1996 Saguenay Flood.

[6] Denis I abdicated on 14 January 2000, bringing the purported kingdom to an end.