Chapter 17, Section 2: France Under Louis XIV

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Chapter 17, Section 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.

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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
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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.  
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A. Henry IV

• To protect Protestants, he issued the Edict of
  Nantes in 1598, granting the Huguenots religious
  toleration

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

• Henry IV was killed by an assassin in 1610, and
  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."
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B. Richelieu

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

Louis XIII
Richelieu
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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
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II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

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

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II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

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

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II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

• Shortly after taking the throne, violence swept
  France in an uprising called the Fronde

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A. "I Am the State"

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

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A. "I Am the State"

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

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B. Strengthening Royal Power

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

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B. Strengthening Royal Power

• Finance minister Jean Colbert followed
  mercantilist policies, making France the
  wealthiest state in Europe

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III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

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

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III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

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

The Levee
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III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

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

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IV. Successes and Failures

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

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IV. Successes and Failures

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

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A. Wars of Louis XIV

• Louis XIV fought costly wars to expand French
  borders

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A. Wars of Louis XIV

• Later wars were disastrous - rival rulers formed
  alliances to maintain the balance of power in
  Europe

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A. Wars of Louis XIV

• When his grandson Philip V became king of Spain
  in 1700, Louis declared that France and Spain
  "must regard themselves as one"

Philip Vs accession to the Spanish throne in
1700 united French and Spanish kingdoms in the
same family, and resulted in several succession
wars in Europe
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A. Wars of Louis XIV

• This led to the War of the Spanish Succession,
  which was ended by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713

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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
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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