Essay about Absolutism and Louis Xiv

Louis XIV’s excessive grandeur made the French economy weak. His palace at Versaille, his constant need to gain more territory, and the crumbling of France’s economic system and caused the greatest revolution the world has ever seen. His grandiose estate, the palace at Versailles, required half of Louis XIV’s revenues to maintain. Although this palace may have kept up appearances for the sake of foreign

The 17th century of European history, colloquially known as the “Age of Crisis”, gave rise to a new form of government: absolutism. Religious wars, economic troubles, inflation, and new agricultural challenges such as the Little Ice Age wracked the nations of Europe and caused tremendous fear and uncertainty among the masses. Thus, as many felt that life itself was endangered, they were willing to accept the rise of a strong, independent ruler who might lead them from the darkness. In this way, absolutism emerged- a new form of monarchy based on a hereditary ruler with complete authority. Perhaps the most well known example of an absolute monarch in European history is Louis XIV, the ruler of France from 1643 to 1715.

It is often debated whether or not the reign of King Louis XIV had a positive or negative effect on France. Although there were improvements during his reign in transportation, culture, and national defense, there were far more negative aspects. He depleted the national treasury with his liberal spending on personal luxuries and massive monuments. His extreme fear of the loss of power led to poor decision making, which caused the court to be of lower quality. King Louis XIV’s disastrous rule brought about a series of effects that influenced the French Revolution in the following century.

Before the revolution France was ruled under the Ancien Regime system, meaning the country and all its people were under the reign of an absolute monarch. This was a tradition that had been upheld through the years and the Royal family had enjoyed a life funded by the people of France, the royal family’s lifestyle unaffected by the situation outside their palace. The Palace, Versailles, was built by king Louis XIV and the expenses for building this “village” was very high, and in later years the cost for its upkeep would play a significant role in Frances financial difficulties. In order for these difficulties to be overcome France needed a tax reform. The government had a very high tax rate on the poorest of their people, the Third Estate, and they were still not getting enough money to get out of their

In 1661 Louis appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert as controller general of finances. This proved to be very successful in adding to the increase of France’s economy, and it helped Louis achieve his second goal of having “one law.” Colbert’s ideas were similar to that of mercantilism. He insisted on having an economic system that would make France a self-sufficient powerful country where they exported more than they imported. He improved France’s economy through the invention of a merchant marine fleet, the support of industries, the control of tariffs on French goods, and the collection of taxes. All of these gained money for France, which led to the creation of a powerful army. Due to a powerful army, France was able to secure its natural frontiers, even in the North East, which was France’s weakest natural border. While Louis claimed a flaw of his was that, “I loved war too much,” he was able to make a strong French presence in Europe, adding to his idea of “one law.”

The two predecessors of Louis XVI, his father and grandfather, Louis XV and Louis XIV, left him great debts because of excessive spending. The country of France was close to being bankrupt. Though the nobles and clergy were very wealthy, Louis couldn't tax them because they were wealthy. Then the First and Second Estates did not accept a land taxed proposed by Louis, which would cover some of the debt. By the year 1789 the country of France was in great debt and financial crisis. Other unfortunate events happened the year leading up to the storming of the Bastille. During the beginning of 1789 the bad weather had reduced the grain crops by almost one-quarter the normal yield. The cold winter made for frozen rivers, which also halted the transport and milling of flour in many parts of the nation. This then raised the price of bread in Paris from

Louis would make the nobles do many embarrassing things, such as dress him, and even take out his chamber pot after going to the bathroom. Nobles would also be honored to see the king wake up in the morning, and watch him eat, things that had never been seen done by nobles for any other leader in history. By making the nobles do things like this, it made them feel less highly about themselves, less powerful, and less likely to try to overthrow him.

Louis XIV was a very generous spender. He put in large amounts of money to finance the royal court, and operated as a supporter of the arts, funding literary and cultural figures. He also kept his army in mind by building military complex known as the Hôtel des Invalides to give a home for officers and soldiers who had served him loyally in the army. The Hôtel des Invalides established new treatments frequently and set a new standard for the rather barbarous hospice treatment styles of the period. To support a Machiavellian tactic, Louis XIV didn?t have any mercenaries or auxiliaries, he controlled his own army, and was a self-sufficient ruler that didn?t rely on the help of others in battle.

Tristan Maracha Mr. McKinney Global 10 December 18, 2014 Peter the Great What is an absolute monarch? This is a form of government in which the ruling monarch has absolute power amongst the people.

To try to get out of this debt, the king started to tax everyone in his kingdom.

Cardinal Marazin died on March 9, 1661. This was a turning point in Louis’ life. Louis announced that he was going to take on full responsibility for the ruling of the kingdom. This shows an example of how Louis did not follow tradition. This marked the end of the power of the French nobility. There was no longer going to be a chief minister. Louis wanted to deal with the nobles directly. He had a new way of dictatorship, which Louis claimed was by divine right. Louis XIV viewed himself as a representative of God and considered all rebellion and disobedience sinful. He believed that he had the right to dictate because he was put on Earth by God to rule.

In the 1700's there was social unfairness in France. Taxes and laws were different in each area of control/area of land causing confusion and terribly unfair treatment. Louis XIV and Louis XV both left big (money owed) when they died, and this made France almost out of money to pay bills. The (priests, bishops, deacons, etc.) and kings and queens had plenty of money but the king couldn't tax the wealthy. Louis XVI asked the First and Second Huge houses to accept a land tax, but they refused. In 1789, the country was in need of money and almost completely

Despite these arguments, it is clear that Louis’ contributions to France outweighed the negative aspects of his reign. In his early personal reign, Louis was highly successful in both internal and foreign affairs. At home the parliaments lost their traditional power to obstruct legislation, and the judicial structure was reformed by the codes of civil procedure and criminal procedure. Urban law enforcement was improved by the

Louis became unpopular because he was so sure of himself. He felt that everyone should revolve around him, so he took the sun as his image, because they had just discovered that the world revolved around the sun. He persecuted Protestants. He also used bribery. King Louis XIV forced Protestants to pay extra taxes and forced the people who kept the Protestant religion to house soldiers whenever they were in town. He taxed the Protestants because they chose to believe in something different then his beliefs. Louis threw out the Edict of Nantes because it gave people the freedom to choose their own religion and he believed that people should have only one religion, Catholicism. This act took away the people's right to freedom of religion.

The King of France, Louis XV died on the 10 May 1774, he was succeeded by his grandson, twenty year old Louis XVI. When Louis XVI took the throne riots had already begun. The reason for this, the cost of grain and bread, which was the staple diet (mainly among the peasants) had risen to beyond what the commoners could afford. He had in inherited a Kingdom already in great difficulty. In order to enact reforms he changed the political team of his grandfather and had a succession of ministers, such as Turgot and Necker. Louis XVI lack of strength of character and his inability to make decision did not lend to these ministers the support needed to sort out the fiscal problems of France.