Louis XIV DBQ
Madi Lindsey
Period 2
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many countries were ruled by absolutists, a
monarch that has all the power under their personal control and who doesn’t have limits of the law like
a constitutional government. Louis XIV is a famous example of an absolutist of France, ruling from 15431715. Although there are many ways that King Louis XIV was able to establish an absolutist rule, the way
he surrounded himself with an allusion of treasures, making himself the center of all, and selling offices
to nobles were three crucial steps toward his rule.
Firstly, King Louis XIV surrounded himself with luxurious items to symbolize his power. He was a
patron of the arts in French classicism as well as renaissance art. This showed his wealth and glorified
him as king. Louis XIV also built the Palace of Versailles as a permanent place for the courts. JeanBaptiste Colbert said, “Nothing marks the greatness of princes better than the buildings that compel
people to look on them with awe, and all of history judges them by the superb palaces they have built
during their lifetime.” Colbert therefore supported the construction of the palace as a way to reveal
wealth and power; however, he was the minister of finance, taxation, and public works for King Louis.
Because Colbert worked for him, he likely was of higher class and didn’t feel the financial effects that
lower classes felt in order to pay for construction. Therefore, he was biased due to his position.
(Document 3) A noble of the robe, Madame de La Fayette, described being at Versailles as “a
memorable pleasure, worth a lifetime’s savings.” She also said that the only greater desires were sex
and hunger, which could be found there. She most likely felt this way toward Versailles because most
nobles greatly treasured their positions serving Louis and others saw it as an honor to serve him;
therefore, the noble described Versailles as a grand place possibly to avoid putting her position at risk,
for she said this at a time while Louis still reigned, but also because of the honor she felt and because of
the distractions of sex and food enjoyed by the nobles despite other problems of the palace. (Document
1) A noble of the sword, Duc de Saint-Simon, revealed what the true living quarters of the Palace of
Louis XIV DBQ
Madi Lindsey
Period 2
Versailles were like fore the nobility. He described them as cold and dark with not a sufficient number of
toilet facilities; the gardens were poorly made, and the water was green, thick, and muddy. It is also
known that the palace was open to public and was consequently reeking and crowded. Being a noble, he
was required to stay at Versailles from time to time and observed these circumstances directly; Duc de
Saint-Simon is most likely an accurate source of this information. It is however ironic that his words are
mentioned in The age of Magnificence: Memoirs of the Court of Louis XIV and Versailles was perhaps not
as “magnificent” as it was portrayed to be. (Document 16) Art as well as the Palace of Versailles were
ways in which King Louis XIV showed his power and wealth but they weren’t always as glorious as they
were said to be, but it is the allusion that mattered.
In addition, Louis XIV’s ability to present himself as the center of all was a major step in
establishing his absolutism. Being an absolutist, all power was in his hands, therefore, he had to portray
that through his actions and in everything he did. When Louis was very young, a mob had burst into his
room during the noble revolt, after which he became determined to maintain control. In the document,
Louis was describing the fear that he’d had at the time. This is likely a source as to why Louis’ reign was
of absolutism. Louis’ purpose in the document was to explain why control is so vital. (Document 6) King
Louis made the sun his emblem and called himself the Sun King. At this point in time, the idea of the sun
being the center of the universe, not the earth, had already been brought about. The purpose of Louis
declaring this was quite clear that the sun was to symbolize his own importance and role at the center of
everything. (Document 2) In 1665, Louis XIV disbanded the Parlement de Paris when he found them
meeting over his royal decrees. He had directly said, “The function of the Parlement de Paris as a
superior court of the nobility will be taken over by the Conseil Privé, always subject to me!” Louis said
this because he, as an absolutist and a monarch with divine right, had all power, not the parlements to
make decisions and discuss his decrees. Therefore, he then took over and placed it under his power.
(Document 7) One noble of the sword, Jean de La Fonatine, wrote that men that served Louis
Louis XIV DBQ
Madi Lindsey
Period 2
“considered themselves honored to hold the sleeve of the royal nightshirt or take a sip from the royal
bath water or clean out the terre de Dieu from the royal chamber pots.” In other words, King Louis put
himself in a position to where it became an honor for anyone to do even the smallest or most disgusting
of tasks. Based on the way that the noble described the men as those “whose ancestors had made the
kings of France tremble with fear” that tells us that those that served the king were very likely to be the
nobles because the nobles are the ones that could have caused fear in the kings due to their power.
Therefore, Jean de La Fonatine, being a noble of the sword, may have been one of those men that now
served Louis instead of intimidating him and he would most likely have viewed it as an honor to do so. In
this way, Jean de La Fonatine was most likely a reliable source of the information given, for the diary
entry he wrote applied to himself. (Document 4) Jacques Bénigne Bossuet expressed his feelings
concerning God and absolute power, saying that even an absolute monarch must have reason and
cannot overcome God’s laws even with divine right. Bossuet was a Gallican bishop and tutored Louis
when he was young; therefore, he most likely has an abundance of knowledge when it comes to the
subjects of absolutism and God and is an accurate source based on that. He was accessing Louis’
leadership in his words, possibly implying that King Louis had taken absolutism too far. (Document 9) In
all of these ways, Louis was able to center himself amongst everything in order to maintain control and,
thus, his absolutist rule.
Finally, Louis’ methods of selling offices and controlling the nobles were a key factor of his
establishment of absolutism. King Louis XIV surrounded himself with nobility. One official said, “In the
past the major posts of government had been filled by the grand seigneurs, the great Nobles of the
Sword who looked upon these posts as due to then by their bloodline.” In other words, the positions of
nobility had been passed down through the generations in the past. The official also stated that Louis
had changed this and instead hired Nobles of the Robe, to surround himself with individuals that were
loyal and thankful. The document is not opinionated, and coming from an official that was most likely
Louis XIV DBQ
Madi Lindsey
Period 2
directly observing the changes, he is probably a truthful source of this information. His tone in the
document also seems to be indifferent on the subject, so he was probably merely just telling the
information as it was. (Document 14) King Louis, in his royal decree, said, “Though most of these families
can trace their common origins back several generations, I shall expand the nobility by 500.” As
mentioned above, the king began to hire nobility that was not of the bloodline as it had been in the past.
Louis did this so as to surround himself with loyal nobles that were less of a threat and more easily
controlled. (Document 10) One anonymous minister criticized, “As soon as the crown creates an office
God creates a fool willing to buy it.” This document makes it clear that the king was selling offices for the
nobility positions. In this way, the king could be sure that those who were hired were loyal and thankful
because they had chosen to be a noble and were willing to pay. The minister has a negative tone toward
the crown, most likely because church and state often fought for power, unless they were unified, and
Louis demanded all power. Because of this, the minister was almost certainly biased. (Document 8) A
philosopher named Voltaire mentioned, “The grand seigneurs no longer remained quartered on their
estates but moved to Versailles.” He also discussed how the king only gave to those that worked for it
and the nobles feared being dismissed from their positions more than anything. Because of these things,
King Louis was then able to gain control over the nobles. Basically, the nobles got so caught up in
everything at Versailles that they are distracted from their duties, and Louis can take over their power.
(Document 15) Simon de la Rouen, a noble of the sword, said, “Operas, fetes, balls, gossip, gambling,
and affairs occupied the nobles’ time and attention.” This goes to show that those who stayed at the
Palace of Versailles were constantly preoccupied. Most likely this was King Louis’ intention because
those nobles that stayed were the highest and most powerful; the more they are distracted, the more
power he would have. By the tone of the noble, it seems as if he is aware of the king’s doings but isn’t
very criticizing of him as if he doesn’t realize that it puts more power in Louis’ hands. The noble may
have been so compliant because of the enjoyment and entertainment at Versailles. Louis’ reign was
Louis XIV DBQ
Madi Lindsey
Period 2
after the period of the Renaissance where a more secular view of life came into play. People began to
live in the now; thus, this may have had an effect on the noble to the point where as long as he could
find pleasure at Versailles and received the honor of working for Louis, he could afford to ignore the
intentions of the king more. (Document 13) Ninon de Lenclos described the way to the king as through
his bed. Intercourse was entertainment for the court and the king, even above gambling. This is another
source that indicates the distractions at Versailles. Ninon de Lenclon was a prostitute as well as the
daughter of a noble; thus, she is likely an accurate source as she would be directly involved with the
situation. As a female, she probably couldn’t be involved with gambling so much, but she described sex
as a passion and that “to love the king is to sleep with God,” and her occupation as a prostitute even as a
noble’s daughter, meaning she was likely of a higher class, could indicate that she did not mind it.
Because of these things, she likely saw sex as a beneficial activity and source of entertainment at
Versailles. (Document 5) Voltaire, the philosopher mentioned earlier, expressed some of his feelings
concerning Louis’ rule, saying, “Never has there been a more glorious monarch, a greater King who
achieved the complete domestication of the nobility.” This reveals that it actually was Louis’ intentions
to control the nobility, which he did so by hiring Nobles of the Robe and by preoccupying them.
Voltaire, being the philosopher that he was and with his assessments of King Louis XIV, was most likely a
reliable source. His tone appears to praise Louis’ methods and accomplishment over the nobles based
on his word choice: glorious, greater, achieved, and welfare. (Document 17) All of the things Louis did to
overpower nobility greatly contributed to his establishment of absolutism.
In short, all of the topics discussed greatly impacted Louis’ ability to create an absolutist rule.
There may have been numerous factors that allowed him to establish his control, but the luxury he
surrounded himself with, the methods by which he made himself the center of all, and the ways in
which he was able to control the nobility were the most important contributors to King Louis XIV’s
historical, absolute rule.