Foundations of French Absolutism – Louis XIV:

The Ancien Regime

Why surrender rights to an Absolute Monarch? Balancing liberty and order.

Henri IV

Louis XIII Richelieu

The French Royal Academy

Richelieu and Machiavelli

• Raison d’etat – Reason of State: “Where the interests of the state are concerned, God absolves actions which, if privately committed, would be a crime.”

Empire: Total War

• How do you win?

Louis XIV: the Source of his Political Policies and Actions (r. 1643 – 1715)

• Louis XIV and predecessors understood the importance of crushing both popular and aristocratic dissent and unrest. “How did Henri IV and Richelieu deal with dissent?”

• Upheaval originating from the people and the nobility was common during the reign of Louis XIV. “Why were the estates upset?”

• In fact, during the Fronde (civil wars 1648 – 1653), Louis and his mother were held as prisoners by various aristocratic fashions.

• The Fronde formed the cornerstone of the Grand Monarch’s political education - the alternative to anarchy is absolute monarchy.

Louis XIV Political Polices and Actions: the Sun King and the Cult of Monarchy

• In the spirit of New Monarchy, Louis’s policies involved the centralization of power in effort to strengthen the French Monarchy or French state. In essence, the monarchy becomes the state.

• In fact, Louis is once thought to have said “L’etat, c’est moi!” or “I am the state.”

• Louis XIV like many of his contemporaries claimed the divine right of kings. “what does this doctrine imply?” “What does this doctrine justify?”

• In addition, Louis adopts the sun as his symbol.

• “Overall why are these actions significant?”

Versailles

• Early in his reign Louis re-establishes his seat of government at Versailles – 10 miles from Paris. “Why is this action significant?”

• High ranking nobles were actually required to live at Versailles for part of the year. Some scholars refer to this as the “domestication of the nobility.” How credible is this idea or notion?” (See Versailles)

Louis XIV: Political and Economic PoliciesPolitical Policies

• Intendants enforced political and economic policies.

• For the most part government officials came from the noblesse de robe (nobility of the robe).

• Louis chose bourgeois officials because he wanted “people to know by the rank of the men who served him that he had no intention of sharing power with them.”

• Louis’s use of a secret police force, a system informers, and his practice of opening private letters – foreshadowed…

Economic Policies• Tax farming consistently failed to

meet the economic needs of the French state.

• Tax exemptions enjoyed by the nobility further limited revenue. 40,000 offices were sold thus increasing the number of families exempt from future taxtion.

• Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis’s XIV top economic advisor, promoted mercantilist policies.

• Colbert promoted self-sufficiency at home by encouraging industry and discouraging internal tariffs.

• For example the monarchy supported the development of the Canal des Deux Mers that linked to the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Revocation of the Edict Nantes 1685“One King, One Law, One Faith”

French Classicism

September 1, 1715

• “Those …wearied by the heavy and oppressive rule of the King and his ministers, felt a delighted freedom…Paris…found relief in the hope of liberation…The provinces…quivered with delight…”