Transcript King Louis XIV

• Why have historical landmarks been spared by
war?
King Louis “Sun King”
Ruled for longer than any other Monarch in
European History 1643-1715
Louis XIV Reign
Absolute Monarch
Sun King
The sun was associated with Apollo, god of peace and arts, and was
also the heavenly body which gave life to all things, regulating
everything as it rose and set. Like Apollo, the warrior-king Louis XIV
brought peace, was a patron of the arts, and dispensed his bounty.
Educated
Practical
1. Modest when speaking about his education
2. Fluent Italian and Spanish
3. Spoke and wrote French
4. French History
5. European geography
King Louis XIV
Time period has been
characterized
•1650-1700
•Grand Century
•Age of Magnificence
•Age of Louis XIV
Sun King
Becoming the Absolutist
• Intimidate those who opposed the
government
• Do anything to further France at home or
aboard
Manzarin /King Louis XIV
King Louis education
– Learned to speak
• Italian
• Spanish
– Fluently
• Spoke and wrote French eloquently
• Knew French History
• Knew European geography
– Learned by direct experience and on the job training
• Studied state papers
• Attended council
– Learned foreign information
Religion
• Catholic
• Attended mass daily
– Didn’t pay attention to mass
– Said Rosary
• Divine Right
– Taught that God created him to rule on Earth
– He was Gods connection on Earth
Fronde
• Learned that nobility could not be trusted
• Witnessed the chaos up close and personnel
– Mob broke into his bedroom and scared him silly
• Convinced France needed strong central
government
• collaborated with the nobility instead of
subduing them by force
– Allowed him to control the nobility without them
realizing it
– Convinced nobles on more then one occasion to
support measures that benefited both nobility and
the monarchy
• Louis loved being the monarch
• Loved the grandeur (appearance, or style, or
social importance).
• He convinced the nobility to love the grandeur
• He crave the attention from the court
Using Versailles
• Louis XIII
– Hunting Lodge
– Get a ways from his wife he did not like
– 10 miles outside of Paris
• Louise XIV turned it into most expensive palace
ever built
– Russia
– Prussia tried to create a replica of Versailles
Court Life
• Versailles
• 10 miles outside Paris
• Required all of Nobility
to live at Versailles for
1 year
• Louis XIII created it as
Hunting Lodge
• Retreat from the Queen
• Peter the Great of Russia, modeled Peterhof Palace after
Versailles
• Frederick the Great, modeled Postdam outside Berlin
– Used to intimidate other Monarchs and Countries
Government Innovations
1. Complete domestication of the Nobility
a. King Louis XIV
a.
Exercised complete control over powerful social class that
historically opposed “centralizing goal" of the French
monarch
b. Actually achieved cooperation of Nobility
c. Nobility agreed to participate in projects
a.
b.
reinforced the monarchy
Aristocratic prestige
d. Relationship between Monarchy constituted collaboration
then absolute control (pg 538)
• Louis created Versailles
– to be a get a way
– a place for entertainment
• for nobles and foreign dignitaries.
– Wanted all who laid eyes on Versailles to be awed
• Foreign visitors to imagine Frances vast wealth
• Visitors to be intimidated by his grandeur, his
majesty, and opulence (rich and luxury)
– He succeeded
– Tens of thousands worked everyday to turn
Versailles in the grandest chateau (castle like)
• 10=20% of Frances entire budget went to the
building of Versailles.
– 2,000 acres
– 12 miles of road and enclosing roads
– 26 acres of rooftops
– 700 rooms
– 67 staircases
– 6,000 paintings
– 2,100 more sculptures
– Finest Furniture
– Host several thousand guests
– Few thousand full staff
– Louis used Versailles to intimidate visitors and to
magnify his image and that of France
Versailles
Versailles
Versailles
Inside Versailles
Peter the Great of Russia, modeled Peterhof
Palace after Versailles
Peter the Great of Russia, modeled Peterhof
Palace after Versailles
Frederick the Great, modeled Postdam outside
Berlin
Frederick the Great, modeled Postdam outside
Berlin
Versailles and Nobility
• Louis used Versailles to keep nobility in check
• How?
– Required ALL uppermost nobles to spend at least part
of the year at Versailles
• Skeptical
• Considered it an honor to be invited
– Once at Versailles Nobles fell in love with the luxury
– King feasts and balls
• Put on plays on ballets
• Fortunate few were
allowed in Kings presence
• Bed chambers
• Watch him rise
• Put on his robe
• Made nobility believe that
they were fortunate to be
in his palace
Ulterior Motive
• By requiring, or inviting nobles to to stay at
Versailles
– Potential advocates and opponents in one place
• He/Officers could keep tabs on nobles
– Agents who eavesdrop / intercepted
correspondence to be sure there were not plots
against King Louis
– Versailles was used as a tool to keep nobles in
check
French Religion
• Believed he had duty to defend his faith
• Believed no room for more than one religion
• Forced Jansenists (protestant like catholic's) into
hiding
• Huguegnots
– Revoked the Edict of Nantes
– Stripped Hugegnots of rights they enjoyed
– Closed Calvinist church's burned and banned literature
– Exiled anyone who refused to convert to Catholicism
– Bad for economy = Hardworking Protestants moved
out of country = took large tax base
Why Revoke the Edict of Nantes
First
• France never intended permanent religious
tolerance
• One king, one law, one faith
• Religious unity essential to the security of the
state
Second
• Not a popular policy
– Aristocrats had petitioned King Louis to banish
Protestantism
– One act of his reign that was popular with all his
subjects
• Revocation
– Impacted economy and Foreign affairs
• Skilled Huguenots left France and so did the tax base
Study the French Classicism
• The Rape of the Sabine women
Colbert and Mercantalism
• Used intendant’s
• Placed great trust in
particular ministers
– Helped them make
important decisions
– Louise XIV most
influenced by Jean
Baptiste Colbert
Under Solbert’s Leasdership
Economic policy Mercantilism
• Mercantilist bureaucracy created increase in
the number of government officials to keep
economy going
– Benefits were huge
– Overseas trade
– Colonization in places like Canada and Mississippi
Valley
– Creation of trade companies
– Mercantilist profit went straight to the state.
Colbert
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Helped France expand its Navy
Created Industries
regulated the quality of goods produced
Encouraged formation of guilds
– group of craftsmen from same profession =
develop master craftsmen
• Mercantilism would have been successful if it
was not for King Louis deficit spending
King Louis XIV War
• Poured a lot of $$$ into his military
– Paid off
• Created the largest, most intimidating,
professional, standing army that Europe has
ever seen
• Create this huge impressive army
– Louis taxed his people heavily
– Diverted funds from hunger relief
– Social relief
Louis Army over the years
• Richelieu (King Louis XIII) = 25,000 men
• Treaty of Pyrenees = Ended the war with Spain
– 1659 = 250,000 men
• 1667-68 = Captured Spanish Netherlands
– Continued to fight in Spanish Netherlands = 1672- 1678
– King Louis wars and expansion goals got tiring for other
countries
• Louis engaged in battles with:
– English
– Dutch - Treaty of Nijmegen (1678) Flemish towns/ France-Comte
– Spanish
– Holy Roman Empire
• Despite alliances against him
– Expanded eastward into Germany
– Weak divisions of German empire
• Fed up with expansion (p. 543)
– Coalition of countries put a stop to King Louis advances
– Prevent France from becoming to strong
– Check Frances expanding commercial power
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Dutch
Spanish
English
Swedes
Austrian emperor
German Princes
• Fighting ended with the Peace of Utrecht
– Louis had to return all land he conquered over the last
20 years.
• Except Strasburg
Peace of Utrecht
• Prevented in once country from gaining too
much power
• Completed the decline of Spain
• Expanded the British Empire
• Gave European powers experience in
international cooperation
• Marked end of French expansion
• Military used to expose his absolutism
– Used military, taxes, conscription (enlist in
military) to control the people
• French paid heavily
– Taxes
– Fed soldiers
– Gave their lives
– Only to lose the land they wagered so much to
conquer
• At war 33 of the 54 years he ruled
• Louis didn’t just rule France he was France
• By controlling every aspect of France, Louis
determined how the world saw him
• He was the trend setter for Europe
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Art
Music
Fashion
Culture
• Redefined the modern military
• Bankrupted the country
• France is defined by Louis XIV