Louis XIV

The Ultimate Absolute Ruler

All others were wannabes

Baby Steps to an Absolute State

Henry IV and Sully

middle class = civil servants to spy on nobles and collect taxes INTENDANTS

Mercantilism - economic policy in which the state increased exports and decreased imports to create a favorable balance of trade to add bouillon to the treasury. Included state monopolies, protection of new industry, new taxes and control over colonial economy

Government monopolies for gunpowder and salt

Gave money to Company of Trade with Indies

Connected Atlantic and Mediterranean with canal

Set Corvee and paulette( DEFINE THIS) taxes

Goal: Increase treasury with trade and end nobles’ privileges because they were tax-exempt and self absorbed

Centralize government under one ruler

Louis XIII and RichelieuGoal: Subordinate ALL to the State, enforce ONE law (royal) and weaken nobility

Destroyed all nobles’ fortified castles and crushed all conspirators

Destroyed walled cities in Huguenot strongholds - ONE RULER ONE RELIGION

Divided France into 32 districts and replaced local government officials with INTENDANTS from the middle class (60,000) who answered only to the KING. (Could not be natives of the district) They handled justice, police and TAXES. Reduced power of local agents to distribute patronage and power

Destroyed Hapsburg power by supporting German Protestant princes during 30 Yrs War

Developed French culture and dictionary to standardize French Language

MAZARIN

Fronde - revolts of nobles and local townspeople who saw their control given to royal agents and were imprisoned for disobedience. Led by Parlements of Paris

Achieved 2 results;

Convinced young King Louis to concentrate all power in the monarchy

Would not repeat errors or predecessors - might have to compromise with nobility. Local assemblies voted their own taxes, Nobles were tax-exempt and royal pensions drained the economy. Louis would share these profits with local authorities to get their cooperation.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

The Ultimate Mercantilist Colbert

Gave government subsidies to cloth industry

Special exemptions for rug and tapestry industry

Developed mirror industry to compete with Italians

Built Steel Foundries

Supported guilds to insure good quality

Encouraged foreign craftsmen to come to France

Improved roads and canals to transport goods

Abolished domestic taxes on goods and created a trade free zone - Great Five Farms

Increased Taille

Established a merchant marine to transport French goods

Used resources from French colonies - Canada

So Why did the economy fail ???????

L’etat c’est moiDemanded French Unity with ONE religion

Ruled by Divine Right

Members of the upper-middle class used to enforce royal will (intendents) Bureaucracy

Army (first standing army with uniforms, hospital and food) to wage war and expand French culture

Nobles were placed under his control by offering them social status in return for no political power [levee, couchee, soiree]

D.R. M.A.N.

Needed a lot of money from his financial advisors to run the government, wage war and build……..

Versailles

Louis XIVRuled by “Divine Right”

He was God’s lieutenant on earth and could not be questioned

According to his tutor, Bishop Bossuet, none save God could judge the King. They could not be bound by princes or parlements.

L’Etat C’est Moi

The Sun King

King’s Royal Chapel

Each day, generally at 10 a.m., the Court would attend the king’s mass. The king would sit in the royal gallery, surrounded by his family. The ladies of the Court occupied the side galleries. The “officers” and the public sat in the nave. The king would only go down to the nave for important religious celebrations during which he received communion, for the Order of the Holy Spirit ceremonies, the baptisms and weddings of the Children of France which were celebrated there between 1710 and 1789.

Above the altar, around the Cliquot organ played by the greatest maestros like François Couperin, the Music of the Chapel, renowned across Europe, would sing motets each day throughout the entire church service.

Nave

One Religion

Nave

One Religion

INTENDANTS

Members of the lower nobility (middle class) owed their occupations and allegiance to the King.

They replaced upper nobility in local districts, now they replaced upper nobility in politics.

The king holds council in his cabinet. Sundays and Wednesdays are devoted to Councils of State; on Tuesdays and Saturdays, finances are dealt with; Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, another Council of State might replace a Dispatch Council (domestic affairs) or Religious Council, or perhaps the king will decide to focus on his building program. Five or six ministers usually advise the monarch who speaks little, listens a great deal, and always decides.

Standing ArmyTellier and Louvois imposed a high level of discipline of the troops - his drill master was Jean Martinet: - so strict an officer that the word martinet is used to mean a rigid disciplinarian. Recruitment was 4 years and just single men.Louvois also organized promotions by merit, good salaries,a commissariat department to supply the French army. Until his system of magazines and supply dumps was introduced, armies had to forage the surrounding area for food and supplies. Now they could concentrate on the military objective

The armies of Louis XIV were also more modern in their weaponry. The introduction of the flintlock rifle (which used a flint to ignite the gunpowder, rather than the burning twisted cord or "match" used until then) made possible sustained fire even in wet and windy conditions, and allowed surprise at night. Because the flintlock fired in all conditions, pike men were no longer needed to protect the musketeers - particularly after the introduction of the bayonet. The bayonet let the musketeer defend himself in close-quarter fighting. The first "plug" bayonets were inserted into the musket's barrel, but Vauban perfected a socket bayonet that allowed the gun to be fired even when the bayonet was in place.

The levee, or ceremonial rising,begins. Doctors, family and a few favored friends successively enter the King's Bedchamber where he is washed, combed, and every other day,shaven. The Officers of the Chamber and the Wardrobe then enter in turn for full levee, during which the king is dressed and has a breakfast of broth. The most important officials of the kingdom are admitted; it is estimated that the usual number of people attending numbered one hundred, all male.

The couchee, or public ritual of retiring, is a reverse, shortened version of the levee.

Louis XIV presided over the private social gatherings known as soirées. The king himself might sign the many letters prepared by his secretary, then go to Madame de Maintenon's (mistress) quarters where he might study an important file with one of his four secretaries of state.

Nobility

Philip III

Anne m Louis XIII Philip IV Maria Anna m Ferdinand III (HRE)

Louis XIV Maria Margaret Leopold

Charles II

Charles

Philip Duke of Anjou

Dauphin

Spain

Wars of Louis XIVWar of Devolution 1667 - 1668

When Louis XIV married Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV, she formally renounced her claims to succeed as ruler of any Spanish territory in lieu of dowry- 500,000 crown to be paid within eighteen months of the marriage, an undertaking Spain failed to fulfill.

In 1665, Philip IV died, and was succeeded by his son by his second marriage,the four-year-old Charles (Carlos) II. Louis XIV announced that because the dowry had not been paid, and because the local laws gave the children of a first marriage priority in inheritance over those of a second, the land devolved to Maria Theresa who was the true ruler of much of the Spanish Netherlands. (Belgium)

Louis had an army of 72,000 troops. He was opposed by the Triple Alliance of England, Holland, and Sweden. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle gave France several border towns along the border of the Spanish Netherlands

Invasion of the Netherlands 1672 - 1678

Cause:

Louis broke the Triple Alliance by signing the Treaty of Dover - 1670- with Charles II England. He invaded Holland.

William of Orange (great-grandson of William the Silent) formed an alliance with the HRE, Spain, Lorraine and Brandenburg was able to defend his country by opening

the dikes and flooding the land Result:

Treaty of Nijmegen Louis got Franche Compte and more border towns in the Spanish Netherlands

War of the League of Augsburg 1688 - 1697Cause:

Louis tried to increase borders of France by invading Strasbourg who had allied with England, Spain, Sweden, the seven Provinces, Bavaria, Saxony and Palatinate in the HRE. Fought to a stalemate.

Results:

Treaty of Ryswick

France lost previous gains but kept Alsace and Strasbourg

Holland protected its borders and the HRE kept Louis out.

War of the Spanish Succession 1701 - 1714

CausePhilip IV of Spain leaves lands to Charles II who is crazy. Europe knows this and divides up Spanish Hapsburg lands to achieve a balance of power.

When Charles II dies he leaves land to Philip V of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, who seizes French and Spanish crown

Result:

Grand Alliance (England, Holland, Austria and Prussia) form against Louis & defeat him.

Treat of Utrecht:

Philip renounces French crown to rule Spain. European countries experience a balance of power. End of Louis