ABSOLUTE
MONARCHY IN
FRANCE
It’s good to be king!
European Age of Absolutism
ABSOLUTISM
1648-1763): Period of the growth of absolute monarchies in Spain, France, Austria,
Russia, and Prussia.
A. Sovereignty
No rival armies within the state
No rival courts of law within the state
B. TYPES OF government
1. Absolute Monarchy: France, Spain, Russia;
sovereignty lies in the person of the ruler - rule by Divine Right –
the power to rule comes from God
2. Constitutional State: Great Britain Netherlands
BOURBON DYNASTY
HENRY IV
A. Begun by Henry IV (1589-1610): Le bon roi Henri'' (good King Henry Emblem of the
Bourbons - fleurs-de-lis; married Marie d'Medici (2nd wife)
1. Accomplishments: Restored order, trade, and industry following the religious wars;
famous quote - A chicken in every pot - shows concern for his people; 1598 Edict of
Nantes granted freedom of worship and other civil rights to the Huguenots.
BOURBON DYNASTY
HENRY IV
2. Duc de Sully: Chief Minister to Henry IV; together they
a. lowered taxes on the peasants
b. revived the paulette - an annual tax on people who had
purchased judicial and financial offices
c. reduced the royal debt and built up the treasury (through
reliance on sale of government offices)
d. promoted overseas trade by giving subsidies to trading
companies; colonization begun in Canada
e. began national highway system
f. introduced silk culture to France
BOURBON DYNASTY
HENRY IV
B. By the seventeenth century France was the most
populous country in Europe
C. Death of Henry IV: murdered by Francois Ravaillac, a
Catholic fanatic on May 14, 1610.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIII
Louis XIII (1610-1643): Nine years old at the time of the death of
his father, Henry IV. Louis XIII did not develop the confidence
necessary to rule on his own. His mother Marie de'Medici served
as regent until 1617.
A. Anne of Austria: Louis XIII
married this daughter of the Spanish
king Philip III, in 1615 but ignored her
for most of the time. She dallied
with the Duke of Buckingham (woven
into Dumas' The Three Musketeers)
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIII
B. Cardinal Richelieu: Louis would show sporadic ruling
abilities and displayed courage on the battlefield against a
Huguenot rebellion in 1622, but his mental instability and
chronic ill health would undermine his ability for sustained
effort. In 1624 Marie de'Medici, appointed Cardinal
Richelieu to the Council of Ministers. In 1628 Richelieu
became the chief minister. This advisor to Louis XIII held
the real power
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIII/RICHELIEU
1. Raison d'etat: Reason of State - what is done for the state is done for God justification for actions
2. Abolished fortified castles and fortified Protestant towns to reduce the power of the
nobility; 1628 captured Huguenot rebel stronghold of La Rochelle
3. Reorganized the government bureaucracy: 32 generalities or districts each with an
intendant responsible to the monarchy
4. Established French academy for the standardization of the French language in 1635
5. supported the enemies of the Hapsburgs to thwart Hapsburg territorial ambitions by
supporting Protestants in the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years War 1631
6. 1640 new coinage introduced: new gold coin the Louis and new silver coin, the Ecu
C. The End: Richelieu died in December, 1642: Louis XIII died 5 months later of
tuberculosis.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
LOUIS XIV (1638-1715): King of France from 1643
until 1715 (72 years). He had the longest reign in
European history. During this time he brought
absolute monarchy to its height.
THE MINORITY OF LOUIS XIV (1643-1661)
A. Parents: Louis XIII and Anne of Austria (Hapsburg
- daughter of Philip III of Spain). He was their first
child after a marriage of 23 years (married in 1615).
They considered him ''god-given''. He succeeded his
father on the throne at the age of five
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
B. The REGENCY: Anne served as regent for her
son. She relied on Richelieu's successor, Cardinal
Mazarin. Rumor hath that their relationship was very
close; he might have been her secret spouse.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
C. The Fronde ''slingshot'' - rebels as naughty children (1648-53): The great nobles
and the judges of the Parlement of Paris launched major but uncoordinated revolt in
reaction to the centralizing policies of Richelieu and Mazarin. Louis was ten years old
when the revolt began. There were riots in Paris and the countryside. The royal family
was twice driven out of Paris and when Louis was 13 he and Anne were held under
virtual arrest in the royal palace in Paris.
This was a frightening experience for the boy and resulted in his dislike of Paris.
Mazarin finally suppressed the Fronde and restored internal order. The tax exempt
status was re-affirmed but the French economy had been disrupted during the
rebellion.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
D. FRANCE BECOMES LEADING POWER IN EUROPE:
The Peace of
Westphalia (1648) which ended the Thirty Years' War,
together with the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), which
concluded prolonged warfare with Spain, made France
the leading European power.
E. Marriage: The latter treaty was sealed by Louis XIV's
marriage on June 9, 1660 to Marie Therese (1638-83), the
daughter of Philip IV of Spain and sister of Charles II. They
had seven children but only one survived to adulthood.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
LOUIS XIV takes CONTROL
A. END OF THE CHIEF MINISTERS: On Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis astounded his
court by becoming his own chief minister, thereby ending the long ''reign of the
cardinal-ministers.'‘
B. LOUIS IN Charge: The king controlled his own government until his death, acting
through his high state council (conseil d'en haut) and a few select ministers, whom
he called or dismissed at will.
Breaking with tradition, Louis excluded from his council members of his immediate
family, great princes, and others of the old military nobility (noblesse d'epee); his
reliance on the newer judicial nobility (noblesse de robe) led the duc de SaintSimone to call this, mistakenly, ''the reign of the lowborn-bourgeoisie
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
A.
THE GOOD YEARS (1661-1683)
ADMINISTRATION
1. National Government: The parlements lost their traditional power to obstruct
legislation; the judicial structure was reformed by the codes of civil procedure (1667) and
criminal procedure (1669), although the overlapping and confusing laws were left
untouched.
2. Local Government: increasingly placed under removable intendants - responsible
directly to the king.
3. City Government: Urban law enforcement was improved by creation (1667) of the
office of lieutenant general of police for Paris, later imitated in other towns.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
B. Finance: Jean Baptiste Colbert served as Minister
of Finance from 1665-1683. He sponsored several
programs which increased the wealth and prosperity
of France. He adhered to the economic policy of
mercantilism, an economic theory which said a
country's economic strength rested upon acquiring
gold and silver, expanding manufacturing,
encouraging commerce, owning colonies, building up
shipping and the navy, and a favorable balance of
trade. To accomplish these things Colbert used tight
control over standards of quality, government
subsidies and a high protective tariff. He eliminated
internal trade barriers. He was not able to solve the
basic problem of tax inequities.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV -MERCANTILISM
1) expanded manufacturing, particularly glassmaking,
weaving, and silk production, by granting subsidies and tax
benefits to French companies
2) developed mining and agriculture
3) encouraged skilled workers from other countries to settle in
France.
4) established protective tariff.
5) encouraged people to migrate to Canada for the fur trade.
6) encouraged the building of roads and canals.
7) added 100 warships to French navy
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – The Arts
C.The Arts" Colbert and the king shared the idea of
glorifying the monarch and monarchy through the
arts. Louis was a discriminating patron of the great
literary and artistic figures of France's classical age.
Louis established or developed in rapid succession
academies for painting and sculpture (1663),
inscriptions (1663), French artists at Rome (16661:
and science (1666), followed by the Paris
Observatory (1667) and the academies of
architecture (1671) and music (1672). The literary
Academia Francaise also came under formal royal
control in 1671. France set the cultured standards
for all of Europe.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – the Arts
1. Jean Baptiste (Poquelin) Moliere (1622-1673):
Comic dramatist; actor, director, playwright. He
was the official provider of entertainment to the
king. The French national theater, the Comedie
Francaise, has been known as the House of
Moliere. His works include The School for
Husbands (1661), The School for Wives (1662),
Tartuffe (1564), Don Juan (1665), The
Misanthrope (1666)
2 . Pierre Corneille: French writer of tragic plays;
modeled works on plays of Aeschylus and
Sophocles. These plays had emphasized the
classical unities, ie. single action, single locale,
single day
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – the Arts
3 . Jean Baptiste Racine: French writer of tragic plays;
modeled works on plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles
4 . Jean Baptiste Lully (1632-1687): Chief musician at
the court. He composed operas and ballets in which
sometimes the king danced (His first role was as the
sun). In 1662 he became music master to the royal
family. At the peak of his career, while beating time with
a heavy baton, he accidentally struck his foot; the
resulting gangrene caused his death.
5. Codification of French Language: French dictionary
begun in 1638 at French Academy. It took 56 years to
complete.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV - Building
D. BUILDING: Money was lavished on buildings.
1. In Paris the Louvre was essentially completed with the classical colonnade
by Claude Perrault.. (Louis had rejected Bernini's Baroque design. Artistic
supremacy passes from Italy to France)
2. At Versailles (11 miles southwest of Paris), Louis XIII's hunting lodge was
transformed between 1668-1710 into a remarkable palace and park, which
were copied by Louis' fellow monarchs across Europe. It was unfortified,
contained a chapel, theater, library. council chambers, 226 rooms. The most
famous room at Versailles is the Hall of Mirrors. It overlooked palace gardens;
windows on one side reflected in 17 huge gold framed mirrors on other side.
When the king moved permanently to Versailles in 1682, an elaborate court
etiquette was established that had the aristocracy, including former rebel
princes, vying to participate in Louis' rising (leve) and retiring (couche).
Versailles served as a visual display of Louis XIV's absolute power. It
surrounded him with a mystique of royalty. To keep the nobility in check Louis
required that they live at least part of the year at Versailles.
LOUIS XIV - VERSAILLES
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV
E. Image:
Louis saw himself as the center of
French government. His nickname was
the Sun King, around which everything
else revolved. He said L'etat, c'est moi,
"I am the state" reflecting the belief that
he and the country were one. He
projected a commanding persona even
though only 5'5" tall
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Foreign Affairs
1. War of Devolution (1667-68): against
the Spanish Netherlands. Louis XIV
claimed that those provinces had
''devolved'' by succession to his Spanish
wife rather than to her half brother
Charles II, who had inherited the Spanish
crown.
The war brought him some valuable
frontier towns in Flanders
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Foreign Affairs
2 . Anglo-Dutch War (1672-78): Louis turned
next against the United Provinces of the
Netherlands. The intent this time was to
take revenge against Dutch intervention in
the previous war and to break Dutch trade.
By the Peace of Nijemegen (1678-79) he
gained more territory in Flanders and the
formerly Spanish Franche Comte was
added to France's eastern frontier, now
fortified by the great siege expert, Sebastian
Le Prestre de Vauban
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Foreign Affairs
3 . “Courts of Reunion": Now at the height of his power, the king
set up ''courts of reunion'' to provide legal pretexts for the
annexation of a series of towns along the Franco-German border.
More blatantly he seized both the Alsatian city of Strasbourg and
Casale, in northern Italy, in 1681.
LOUIS XIV CONQUESTS
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Declining Years
A.
Turning Point: The turning point in Louis' reign between the
earlier grandeur and the later disasters came after Colbert's death
in 1683.
B. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685): the
king took the disastrous step of revoking the
Huguenot minority's right to worship by his Edict
of Fontainebleau. 200,000 Huguenots--who
constituted an industrious segment of French
society--left the country, taking with them
considerable capital as well as skills. In addition
Louis' display of religious intolerance helped
unite the Protestant powers of Europe against
him
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Declining Years
C. War of the League of Augsburg (16881697): In September, 1688, Louis sent
French troops into the Palatinate, hoping to
disrupt his enemies who had formed the
League of Augsburg against him.
France barely held its own against the
United Provinces and England, both under
William III as well as Austria, Spain, and
minor powers; but the Treaty of Rijswijk
(1697) preserved Strasbourg and Louis'
''reunion'' acquisitions along the FrancoGerman border.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Declining Years
D. War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714): The aging ruler was almost
immediately drawn into this disastrous war, in which he defended his grandson
Philip V's inheritance of Spain and its empire on the death of Charles II. The
genius of the English general the Duke of Marlborough and his Austrian
counterpart, Eugene of Savoy, was almost too much for the ducs de Villars,
Berwick, and Vendome, who were Louis' principal generals. The terrible French
winter of 1709 and near fiscal collapse also took their toll. Nonetheless, France
rallied. By the Peace of Utrecht, France retained most of its earlier conquests,
and the Spanish empire was divided between Philip V, who received Spain and
its overseas colonies, and Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. who acquired the
Spanish Netherlands and Spain's Italian possessions. Louis was forced to
agree that the crowns of France and Spain would remain separate despite the
Bourbon dynastic connection. Britain got Gibraltar giving it control of that
strategic gateway to the Mediterranean. France gave Britain Nova Scotia,
Newfoundland, Hudson Bay. The treaty established a new balance of power
with France and Spain versus Britain, Austria, and the Netherlands
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Personal Life
A. Mistresses: After a series of celebrated liaisons
with mistresses, notably Louise de la Valliere and
Madame de Montespan, Louis settled down to a
more sedate life with Madame de Maintenon, whom
he secretly married about 1683 (the year Marie
Therese died - she and Maintenon were friends and
Marie Therese had died in the other woman's arms).
She shared with Louis the grief of lost battles and the
successive deaths of all but two of his direct
descendants. The two who survived him were his
grandson Philip V of Spain and a great-grandson
Louis.
BOURBON DYNASTY
LOUIS XIV – Personal Life
B. The End: The Sun King died of gangrene
on Sept. 1, 1715. His son, Louis the Grand
Dauphin (1661-1711) spent his life avoiding
politics and work. He hunted, partied, and
grew fat. He died of smallpox in 1711. He had
fought in the War of the League of Augsburg
and the War of the Spanish Succession
(1709-10). In 1679, he had married Marie
Christine of Bavaria. He fathered three
children Louis, duc de Bourgogne, 16821712, (the father of Louis XV) ; Philip V of
Spain, 1683-1746, Charles, duc de Berry,
1684 (?)- 1714. Louis died at the age of fifty
and his son and heir the crippled Duc de
Bourgogne, died one year later, and the
throne was inherited by his infant grandson
Louis (XV) in 1715.