You Won’t Forget Good King Louis XIV…
 And I am now, as I once was a mere 300 years ago, your faithful and dutiful





divine-right leader of the world
My discourse is intoxicating…
…as is my love of all that is luxurious, lavish, and sumptuous
I am an absolute monarch who believes in absolutism which is absolutely the
best form of government…
Since I know all…I rule all…all for the good of France in the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…
Those who are seated at the right hand of the Father shall draw guidance from
Bishop Jacques Bossuet’s eloquent work (though not-so-eloquently titled)
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture
 Bossuet said that first government was divinely ordained so that humans could




live in an organized society
And, of course, I shall be the leader of that organized society, in the Name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…
Since the Lord established kings and reigned through them over all the peoples of
the world, I receive my power directly from Him and my authority, like His is
absolute
I am responsible to no one except God, INCLUDING PARLIAMENT
My power is limited…by God, for He will hold me accountable for my actions
 My dear father, Good King Louis XIII rose to the thrown when he





‘twas just a boy
Therefore, unable to competently lead, he leaned on his chief
minister Cardinal Richelieu from 1624-1642
Richelieu strengthened the power of the monarchy by
eliminating the political and military rights of the Huguenots
while preserving their religious ones
This made the Huguenots more reliable subjects…however the
nobility were not as easy to turn
Slowly, gently, Richelieu developed an efficient network of spies
to uncover noble plots…
…he then crushed the conspiracies by executing the conspirators
so there would be no threat to the crown…in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…
 Economically, things were different
 Richelieu sent out royal officials called intendants to the




provinces to execute the orders of the central
government…which didn’t sit well with provincial governors
Richelieu ruled with order but much of the country’s finances
were corrupt
However, since so many people benefited from the government’s
inefficiency and injustice, they felt strong opposition to potential
reforms
The tallie (an annual direct tax levied on land or property)
increased and crown lands were mortgaged again
Combine that with Richelieu’s foreign policy goal of confronting
the growing power of the Habsburgs in the Thirty Years war led
to a continued upward spiral of French debt
 Richelieu died in 1642
 My father, King Louis XIII, sadly died five months later
 I was anointed to the throne!...at the age of 4…seriously…none of you can say





that…
Anne of Austria, the wife of the dead king, allowed Cardinal Mazarin to
dominate government
Mazarin was Richelieu’s trained successor and attempted to continue his
policies until death in 1661
Mazarin, an Italian (meaning he was a foreigner) had united the French
people…
…in their hatred of him
The most noteworthy event of Mazarin’s rule was the Fronde
 The nobles allied with members of the Parlement of Paris (the most important
court of France) and the masses to oppose the new taxes levied by government to
pay the costs of the Thirty Years’ War
 The first Fronde (1648-1649) broke out in Paris and ended with compromise
 The second Fronde (1650-1652) was led by the nobles of the sword (ancestors of
medieval nobles) who wanted to overthrow Mazarin to secure their positions and
increase their own power
 The second Fronde was crushed by 1652, partially because the nobles started
fighting each other instead of Mazarin
 Mazarin continued to rule until his death in 1661…then it was my time!
 At the ripe old age of 23, I run France
 Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the
government of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time
that I govern them myself. You will assist me with your
counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal
no orders except by my command…I order you not to sign
anything, not even a passport…without my command; to
render account to me personally each day and to favor no one
 In other words, I own all y’all!...in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit…
 Have you ever seen what I created at Versailles? How
majestic…
Both Versailles and my taste in monarchy are majestic
I set the standard for monarchy and aristocracy
Where are your French jokes at now?
I am THE SUN KING!...for I am the source of light for all of my
people! (or so I say…because many provinces had their own
regionals courts, estates, and laws)
 In fact, Voltaire named my whole reign as an Age…and historians
agreed! How cool is that? The Age of Louis XIV…Majestic…
 I built the royal court at Versailles then, within it, placed:









My personal household
The central governmental machinery
The place where powerful subjects came to find favors ;-)
Offices for the powerful subjects and their clients
The aristocracy fought over power there
 High princes tried to assert themselves as policy-making authorities…silly
princes, Trix are for kids
 I stopped that by removing them from the royal council
 They got to be at my court, dealing with court life outside of politics…ha ha ha ha
haaaaaaa…
 I like my subservient ministers instead
 “I had no intention of sharing my authority with them.”
 Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa…
 If I dominate then I rule all!
 I make foreign policy
 I make war and peace
 I say that secular power is stronger than any religious authority (in the Name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…)
 I levy taxes
 I want it all.
 I was close, but I didn’t get it all—all—all—all
 The nobles, officials, town councils, guilds, and representative Estates in some
provinces were too powerful for me to have direct control…so I bribed people to
enact my policies
 I did have considerable control over the parlements though (the provincial law
courts that controlled economics and politics)…like I said I want it all—all—
all—all…
 The Protestants shall not practice their faith in Catholic




France!
“One king, one law, one faith!” in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…
My Edict of Fontainebleau revoked the Edict of Nantes so I
can destroy those dirty lil’ Huguenot churches and close
Protestant schools
200,000 may have fled, but that’s fine because I got some
English and Irish political and religious refugees
back…some loved the one true God…and some could really
drink so our tavern owners were happy (the last part is a
not-very-funny joke…but you’ll laugh…or you’ll die)
Many of my loyal peasants wanted the Protestants gone,
even destroying churches. I say, that is fine.
 God Bless Jean-Baptiste Colbert!
 He used mercantilism to increase our power and wealth despite the high costs
of Versailles
 He needed to regulate the economic activities to benefit the state
 He tried to expand the quantity and improve the quality of French
manufactured goods so we could export more and have to import less
 Look at all these luxurious industries and duties!










The royal tapestry works at Beauvais
Venetian glassmaking businesses
Flemish clothmakers
Strict guidelines on regulating the quality of goods produced
Training of workers
I let him grant special privileges (including tax exemptions, loans, and subsidies
to those who established new industries)
He improved communications and the transportation of goods internally
He built roads and canals
He raised tariffs on foreign manufactured goods, especially English and Dutch
cloth
He created a merchant marine to allow the conveyance of French goods
 God Bless Jean-Baptiste Colbert!
 I don’t care
 Some think they didn’t
 I don’t care
 They worked for me
 French trading wasn’t competitive with the English
and Dutch? So what. I ruled well.
 The burden of taxes fell on the peasants? Well, my
grandson can deal with that one…ha ha ha ha haaaaa…
 Some think that economic growth happened because
of Colbert too…and I am one of those people…and isn’t
that all that matters?
 I did whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted
 Money was no object
 My palace is my everlasting image…and I love every bit of




that reality
I had no privacy; I needed no privacy
I had it all—all—all—all…
Everything was a ceremony for me…and nobles would be
the ones to do them…or else they would be shut out of
obtaining offices, titles, and pensions that only I could
grant. Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa…
The best part of my ceremonies were the appartement; we
all had much fun. Someone describe to me some of the fun
 My secretary of war Francois-Michel Le Tellier was a beautiful man who had a
100,000 man standing army, ready to increase to 400,000 in time of war…which
was often
 1667-1668: I won a few towns in the Spanish Netherlands, though the Dutch’s
Triple Alliance would be forever rued
 1672-1678: I invade the United Provinces with some success, forcing an alliance
between the Dutch, Spain, Brandenburg, and the Holy Roman Empire. I made
peace for now…but only after gaining Franche-Comte from Spain
 1689-1697: I occupied Strasbourg after annexing Alsace and Loraine which led
to the League of Augsburg (Spain, Holy Roman Empire, United Provinces,
Sweden, England)
 This may have been a mistake as my country fell into an economic depression
and famine and I had to give up man of my conquests throughout my empire (I
did keep Strasbourg and part of Alsace)
 1702-1713: The War of the Spanish Succession was about succession to the
Spanish throne
 Charles II was sickly and childless and left the throne to a grandson of mine,
King Philip V
 Unfortunately, England, the United Provinces, Habsburg Austria, and German
states didn’t want a Bourbon king hegemony a fought us for eleven years
 The Peace of Utrecht (1713) and Peace of Ratstatt (1714) ended the war
 Philip was able to keep the throne, but it was officially established the Spain and
France remain separate
 On my death bed at 76 years young I showed some
remorse, telling my successor
 “Soon you will be King of a great kingdom. I urge you
not to forget your duty to God; remember that you owe
everything to Him. Try to remain at peace with your
neighbors. I loved war too much. Do not follow me in
that or in overspending. Take advice in everything; try
to find the best course and follow it. Lighten your
people’s burden as soon as possible, and do what I
have had the misfortune not to do myself.”
 Though today, clearly was not a misfortune…