[4] It no longer exists following its annexation in the 17th century by the nearby Collège d'Harcourt [fr], and stood on a location that is now part of the Lycée Saint-Louis.

[6]: 359  In July 1563, the Jesuits were finally able to purchase the former Parisian estate of the bishop of Langres on rue Saint-Jacques, where its current cour d'honneur now stands, and started teaching there in late 1563 (Old Style).

[6]: 361 The college soon met considerable success, as it was both free and of high quality, disrupting the antiquated business models and longstanding conventions of the University of Paris.

[7]: 351  That opposition was temporarily overcome at the monarchy's initiative during the Colloquy of Poissy on 15 September 1561, but the university kept debating the matter after the college started teaching in 1564.

[6]: 360-362  The multiple cases brought by the university before the court of the Parlement of Paris, and counter-cases from the Jesuits, resulted in a stalemate that lasted over the next three decades: the Collège de Clermont was not readmitted into the university system, but the Jesuits were able to continue and expand their activities,[6]: 363-364  even though Maldonado was removed from Paris in 1575 following accusations of heresy by Sorbonne theologians.

[7]: 363  While the courses were free of charge, boarding costs for the resident students, who typically came from elite families, were covered by gifts and scholarships, and the corresponding accounts were kept separate until the Jesuits' departure in 1762.

[6]: 376  Its adversaries made sure that it would still not obtain admission into the university,[6]: 379-380  but otherwise their attempts to undermine it met with decreasing success, given the continuing support the Jesuits were able to secure from the monarchy and high nobility.

On the latter occasion, the king donated a painting by Jean Jouvenet, Alexander and the family of Darius, which remains to this day in the office of Louis-le-Grand's principal.

[8]: 8 Several notable scholars were resident in the college, including mathematician Pierre Bourdin (1595-1653), historian Philippe Labbe (1607-1667), or Latinist Charles de la Rue (1643-1725).

[6]: 387  Other faculty included author René Rapin (1621-1687), scientist Ignace-Gaston Pardies (1636-1673), historian Claude Buffier (1661-1737), theologian René-Joseph de Tournemine (1661-1739), sinologist Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674-1743), rhetorician Charles Porée (1675-1741), and humanist Pierre Brumoy (1688-1742).

The college library had about 40,000 volumes as of 1718,[4] and included unique manuscripts such as the Chronicle of Fredegar (occasionally known for that reason as Codex Claromontanus) or Anonymus Valesianus.

[6]: 391  Also as in other colleges, in 1660 the Jesuits opened an observatory, and in 1679 they created the elaborate sundials, augmented in the 18th century, that survive to this day on the northern side of the cour d'honneur thanks to preservation campaigns in 1842 and 1988.

[6]: 377-378 Also in 1682, Louis XIV formally authorized the college to change its name to Collegium Ludovici Magni (French: Collège Louis-le-Grand).

That act confirmed its royal patronage, despite the near-simultaneous Declaration of the Clergy of France and the kingdom's ongoing conflicts with the Papacy, to which the Jesuits were directly tied by their vows.

The scholarship students (French: boursiers) of twenty-six smaller colleges of the University of Paris, known as the petits collèges, were invited to follow classes at Louis-le-Grand.

[15]: 227–228 As a broader consequence of the Jesuits' termination, the French state in 1766 initiated the Aggregation examination to raise the standards of teaching in secondary education.

[19] Eventually, Louis-le-Grand was almost entirely reconstructed between 1885 and 1898 on a design by architect Charles Le Cœur [fr], on a complex schedule so that teaching activities could continue during the works, and at a record high cost.

Le Coeur's design only preserved the northern and southern sides of the inner court (now cour d'honneur) from the earlier college facilities.

[24] During World War II, Jacques Lusseyran founded the resistance group Volontaires de la Liberté, in which a number of his fellow Louis-le-Grand students participated.

[25] The last significant new building project was a new auditorium (French: salle des fêtes), located in the southeastern corner of the premises and completed in the late 1950s.

The Louis-le-Grand alumni laureates are, by chronological order of prize-winning: Frédéric Passy (Peace, 1901); Henri Becquerel (Physics, 1903); Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (Medicine, 1907); Paul d'Estournelles de Constant (Peace, 1909); Romain Rolland (Literature, 1915); Jean-Paul Sartre (Literature, 1964); Maurice Allais (Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, 1988); and Serge Haroche (Physics, 2012).

Other notable alumni include: The Collège de Clermont made a series of purchases in Gentilly to establish a rural retreat there, in 1632, 1638, 1640 and 1659, thus forming a major property that was eventually sold after the order's suppression in the early 1770s.

In 1882, a law awarded a former tree nursery ground of the Jardin du Luxembourg to Louis-le-Grand for the creation of new classrooms, in anticipation of the main building's reconstruction.

The students who made up the Advanced Math and Science Pilot Class graduated at the end of the 12th grade and were awarded a certificate of academic recognition by Louis-le-Grand.