Rise of Absolute Monarchy in France: The World of Louis

XIV

By: Vanessa Garcia, Michael Wilson, Elliot Sherell, James

Carr-Thomas, and Karla Armenta

Years of Personal Rule

His reign is look on as when the French monarchy took total control of the nation on all levels.

It began with two powerful chief ministers; Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642)Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661)

Years of Personal Rule

Due to their involvement, they provoked a series of rebellions among French nobles between 1649-1652 called Fronded.

He then changed his game plan, realizing that his heavy handed authority and policies would only threaten this Throne.

His changes tactics involved a more “gentle” approach then his predecessors.

Years of Personal Rule

His genius was to make the monarchy the most important and powerful political institution in France while also assuring the nobles and other wealthy groups of their social standing and influence on the local level.

He ruled developing enormous energy in to his political tasks.

With the support of the hand picked council of royal families, he ruled through councils that controlled foreign affairs, the army, domestic administration, and economic relations.

Years of Personal Rule

He made sure that the nobility and other major social groups would benefit from the growth of his own authority.

Even with all his power, he never tried to abolish those institutions or limit their local authority. He would consult with these political institutions of authority called Parliaments in France developed out of the previous council of the king.

They had customary rights of consultation and deliberation with the king, he in judicial bodies would consult with them before passing laws that would effect them.

So for a time regional parliaments and other authorities resented the power of the Parisian body and supported the Monarch

Versailles

Louis never missed an opportunity to show of his crown, when the dauphin was born he dresses himself as a Roman Emperor.

The central element of the image of the monarch was the Palace of Versailles, which was the largest secular structure in Europe.

Versailles

Louis was known as the Sun KingVersailles housed thousands of the

more important nobles, royal officials, and servants.

Louis supported France’s traditional social structure and the social privileges of the nobility.

King by Divine Right

Louis success was due to the political theorist Jacques-Benigne Bossuet

Bossuet quoted the Old Testament that Kings were appointed by and answerable only to God

Although Kings might be duty bound to reflect God’s will in their rule, yet as God’s regents on earth they could not be bound to dictate of mere nobles and parliaments.

King by Divine Right

Louis XIV declared “L’etat, c’est moi” or I am the state.

His absolutism functioned primarily in the classic areas of European state action—the making of war and peace, the regulation of religion, and the oversight of economic activity

Louis’s Early Wars

Louis XIV wanted to secure its northern borders along the Spanish Netherlands, the Franche-Comté, Alsace, and Lorraine from which foreign armies had invaded France and could easily do so again

Louis’s Early Wars

Conflicts with Spain and the United Netherlands: War of the Devolution (he supported the alleged right of

his first wife, Marie Therese, to inherit the Spanish Netherlands)

In 1667, his armies invaded Flanders and the Franche-Comté

By the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668) he got control of certain towns bordering the Spanish Netherlands.

Treaty of Dover, England and France became allies against the Dutch. Then Louis XIV invaded the Netherlands again.

Prince of Orange forged an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor, Spain, Lorraine, and Brandenburg against Louis, and the war ended with the Peace of Nijmwegen.

Louis’s Repressive Religious PoliciesLouis believed that political unity and

stability required religious conformity, he carried out many repressive actions against both Roman Catholics and Protestants.

The French crown and the French Roman Catholic Church jealously guarded their ecclesiastical independence or “Gallican Liberties” from the papal authority in Rome

Louis’s Repressive Religious PoliciesAfter Henry IV conversion to Roman

Catholicism Jesuits monopolized the education of French upper-class men.

Jesuits served as confessors for Henry IV, Louis XIII, and Louis XIV

Jansenism arose in the 1630’s as an opposition to the theology and the political influence of the Jesuits.

Louis’s Repressive Religious PoliciesJansenism was modeled after the

teachings of St. Augustine, who had influenced many Protestant doctrines.

Jansenists, were known to live extremely pious and morally austere lives.

Louis’s Repressive Religious PoliciesJansenists became associated with

opposition to royal authority, and sympathized with those families involves in the Fronde.

Pope Innocent X declared heretical five Jansenist theological propositions, and banned Jansenism

Louis’s Repressive Religious PoliciesPope Clement XI issued the Bill of

Unigenitus which again extensively condemned Jansenist teachings.

Louis instructed the French church to accept the bill despite internal ecclesiastical opposition

By prosecuting the Jansenist Louis turned his back on the long tradition of protecting the Gallican Liberties of the French Church

Louis’s Repressive Religious PoliciesLouis influenced by Madame de

Maintenon revoked the Edict of Nantes, causing thousands to join the resistance to Louis

France became a symbol of religious repression in contrast to England’s reputation for moderate, it not complete religious toleration.

Louis’s Later Wars

After the Treaty of Nijmwegen Louis maintained his army to full strength and probed beyond his borders.

Charles II, last Habsburg king of Spain, died without a direct heir leaving everything to Louis grandson Philip V of Spain.

Louis’s Later Wars

England, Holland, and the Holy Roman Empire formed the Grand Alliance to preserve the balance of power by once and for all securing Flanders as a neutral barrier between Holland and France.

Louis’s Later Wars

In the War of the Spanish Succession England had the upper hand, although French arms triumphed in Spain

Soon after the war was called a stalemate.

France kept the throne, but England got Gibraltar and the island of Minorca, and Louis recognized the right of the House of Hanover to the English Throne.

France of After Louis XIV

John Law, a Scottish mathematician and gambler, took over the financial management of the Kingdom from the Duke of Orleans

He Believed that a paper-money increase would stimulate France’s economy

France of After Louis XIV

Law organized the bank of Paris called the Mississippi Company which issued paper-money then organized a monopoly.

When stock value suddenly rose greatly, smart investors took their stock and sold them for paper-money. Which they later took and traded for gold.

France of After Louis XIV

In February 1720, all gold payments were halted in France. Soon after, Law fled the country. This problem was called the Mississippi Bubble.

The Mississippi Company was later reorganized and functioned profitably, but the fear of paper-money and speculation marked French economic life for decades.

France of After Louis XIV

The Duke of Orleans made a second-decision that also lessened the power of the monarchy.He set up a system of councils in which

nobles were to serve along with beaurocrats.

Years of idle domestication at Versailles worked too well, nobility seemed to lack talent and desire to govern.

France of After Louis XIV

The most effective instrument in this process was the parliaments, or courts dominated by the nobility.

The Duke of Orleans reversed the policy of Louis XIV and formally approved the reinstitution of the full power of The Parliament of Paris to allow or disallow laws.

Parliament: National lawmaking body

Parlement: Regional court in France during the time of Louis XIV

The End

The End