C17'2: France Under Louis XIV

1
C17.2 France Under Louis XIV

• Setting the Scene "I have had an idea that will
  give much pleasure to the people here wrote
  Louis XIV. His plan was to throw a grand party.
  Each guest would receive a ticket for a prize of
  jewelry - and every ticket would be a winner. At
  Louis's bidding, some 600 noble guests flocked to
  the royal palace for a week of sumptuous feasts,
  pageants, sports, dances, plays, and music. This
  extravaganza was the first of many spectacles
  organized by Louis XIV. By the late 1600s, Louis
  was absolute monarch of France and the most
  powerful ruler in Europe. Yet, just 100 years
  earlier, France had been torn apart by turbulent
  wars of religion.

2
I. Rebuilding France

• From the 1560s to the 1590s, religious wars
  between Huguenots (French Protestants) and the
  Catholics tore France apart

On August 24, 1572 thousands of Protestants were
killed in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew
3
A. Henry IV

• In 1589, the Huguenot prince Henry IV inherited
  the throne and became a Catholic

Early in his career he was a major leader of the
Protestant Huguenot party.  For three years after
his accession to the throne of France in 1589,
the strongly pro-Catholic Paris stood in
opposition to him.  Finally Henry yielded to
these stronger political interests by converting
to Catholicism, claiming that Paris was worth a
mass.  
4
A. Henry IV

• In 1598 the Edict of Nantes protected the
  Huguenots by granting religious toleration

400th Anniversary - Edict of Nantes
Huguenot Cross
5
B. Richelieu

• Henry IV was killed by an assassin in 1610. His 9
  year old son Louis XIII inherited the throne

Assassin François Ravaillac "Before being drawn
and quartered, he was scalded with burning
sulphur, molten lead and boiling oil and resin,
his flesh then being torn by pincers."
6
B. Richelieu

• In 1624, Louis appointed Cardinal Armand
  Richelieu as his chief minister

Louis XIII
Richelieu
7
B. Richelieu

• Richelieu sought to destroy the power of the
  Huguenots and nobles, groups that did not bow to
  royal authority

Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle
8
II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

• Louis XIV inherited the throne in 1643, when he
  was 5 years old

"Le Roi du Soleil" (the Sun King)
9
II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

• Cardinal Jules Mazarin replaced Richelieu as
  chief minister and worked to expand royal power

Cardinal Jules Mazarin(1602-1661)
10
II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

• Shortly after Louis became king, violence swept
  France in an uprising called the Fronde

11
A. "I Am the State"

• Louis IV firmly believed in divine right and took
  the sun as the symbol of his absolute power

12
A. "I Am the State"

• Louis often said I am the state and never
  called a meeting of the Estates General during
  his reign

13
B. Strengthening Royal Power

• Louis XIV expanded the bureaucracy and made the
  French army the strongest in Europe

14
B. Strengthening Royal Power

• Finance minister Jean Colbert followed
  mercantilist policies and made France the
  wealthiest state in Europe

Jean Baptiste Colbert, 1619-1683
15
III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

• Louis XIV turned a hunting lodge into the palace
  of Versailles, the grandest in Europe

16
III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

• He held ceremonies that emphasized his own
  importance and tied the nobles to their king

The Levee
17
III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

• The court supported a "splendid century" of the
  arts and French style became the model for Europe

18
IV. Successes and Failures

• Louis XIV ruled France for 72 years, longer than
  any other monarch

19
IV. Successes and Failures

• French culture replaced Renaissance Italy as the
  standard for European taste

20
A. Wars of Louis XIV

• Louis XIV fought to expand French borders. Rival
  rulers formed alliances to maintain the balance
  of power in Europe

21
A. Wars of Louis XIV

• In 1700 Louis grandson Philip V became king of
  Spain Louis believed France and Spain "must
  regard themselves as one"

King Philip V of Spain or Philippe of Anjou (1683
- 1746) was king of Spain from 1700 to 1746, the
first of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. He was the
son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin and Maria Anna of
Bavaria. His paternal grandparents were Louis XIV
of France and Maria Theresa of Spain. His
maternal grandparents were Ferdinand Maria,
Elector of Bavaria and Adelaide Henriette of Savoy
22
A. Wars of Louis XIV

• Philip Vs accession led to the War of the
  Spanish Succession, ended by the Treaty of
  Utrecht in 1713

23
B. Persecution of the Huguenots

• Louis saw the Huguenots as a threat and revoked
  the Edict of Nantes in 1685

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 1685
24
B. Persecution of the Huguenots

• Many Huguenots fled France and their loss was a
  serious blow to the French economy

Effect Of Revoking The Edict Of Nantes