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Absolute monarchies thesis
New monarchies vs. absolute monarchies
Absolute monarchies thesis
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Many absolute monarchies have risen and fallen from power but none have been as great as King Louis XIV. He took up his kingdom at the age of five after the death of his Father, King Louis XIII and ruled for another seventy two years, the longest reigning of any monarch in Europe. He brought up France from an insignificant country in Europe to a great power. His great leadership was really prominent through his ability to centralize power, pacified nobility, increased revenue, and how he was able to control his army in the countless battles he fought. Even with his many flaw he still proved to be the one of the best absolute monarchs of the 17th century. The legacy he left behind is still studied and very well documented till this day. King …show more content…
Instead of appointing a new adviser he took total control and became the head of France. Louis XIV planed to unify France, but they only way he could do that was to rid France of its non-christian people. His word was far superior than any law and so he revoked the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes provided “a measure of toleration, civil rights and liberties, and security for French HUGUENOTS.” (Nantes, Edict of). The law made the king pay for support of the reformed church and give money to many Huguenot leader. It gave Huguenots the right to live and worship anywhere in France, while also letting them hold nobel positions and attend college. The nobles saw the Edict as some way to take power away from the King rather than something that is right; providing a measure of toleration, civil rights and liberties, and security for French HUGUENOTS. (Nantes, Edict of). King Louis XIV in order to gain favor with the Church did away with the law but brought up many problems in France. The Huguenots were very talented in the arts and help boosted the economy but with them gone France suffered a huge hit to its financial problems it had been going through. Throughout King Louis XIV rule he demonstrates his total control over his government by issuing war and changing around laws but always with his country in …show more content…
His war like behavior is shown more prominently in the later parts of his life when saying “I will burn you….I will neither rest nor sleep until [Louis XIV] has done so.” (Horne). Although they would lead to France falling into huge debt they still proved to Europe that they were not a forced to be reckoned with. Louis XIV wanted to expand France but other countries opposed viciously; Alliances were formed in order to stop France from even trying like the Triple Alliance, the alliance was made up of England, Sweden, and the United Provinces were enough to scare them into stopping. Louis XIV wanted to go to war with Spain but his financial advisor Jean-Baptiste Colbert convinced him to instead fight the Dutch. The Dutch at that time were in control of the Dutch East India Company that monopolized trade with Asia. Jean-Baptiste Colbert knew that if they fought against the Dutch France would be able to gain “a larger share of European trade for French merchants.” (Dutch War). France won many battles and them seems almost unstoppable. They captured big Dutch cities during their war, “ Utrecht fell on 30 June, Nijmegen on 9 July” (Dutch War), further proving their dominance and strengthen over their enemy. The Dutch tried offering peace but Louis XIV kept fighting to destroy the Dutch. Although continuing to fight in this war proved to only worsen France’s financial state, France’s army were
The Edict of Nantes had given Protestants, or Huguenots, in France the ability to practice their religion without fear of violence or persecution. Enacted in the late 1500s in an effort to resemble France after the destruction of the French Wars of Religion, the Edict of Nantes served as a means to unite the French population and end the violence that often accompanied religious persecution. Louis’ decision to revoke such a peace-promoting edict, in an effort to homogenize his country and align his subjects with his own beliefs, clearly illustrates his giving of priority to his own agenda, as opposed to that which would best benefit his country. However, while the claim that the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was detrimental to French society, seems to be disproven by Doc 6, which essentially asserts that the king’s revocation has resulted in the rapid conversion of “whole towns” and describes the king as “the invincible hero destined to… destroy the terrible monster of heresy”, the author’s inherently biased point of view must be addressed. This description, which could be used as evidence to support the fact that Louis did act in interest of the state, must be taken with a grain of salt as the author himself, a member of the Assembly of the Clergy, does not even have the best interest of the state in mind; rather, he is
Louis XIV was an absolute monarch in France from 1643 to 1715. His father died when he was just four years old, making Louis XIV the throne’s successor at a very young age. Because of this, he ruled for seventy-two years, which made him “the longest monarch to rule a major country in European history” (Eggert). But it was when he was twenty-three years old when he decided to rule without a prime minister, believing it was his divine right. Translated by Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon, the author of the book The Memoirs of Louis XIV:
During the fifteenth to nineteenth century, there were several leaders from different countries, who abused their powers as absolute monarchs. The misuse of their powers led to downfall of their country. An example of an absolute monarch who abused their powers is Louis XIV. He is a very important figure in history because he would make decisions and everyone would be under his power and control. For example, he controlled all the taxations, military power and justice. Furthermore, he did not set a list of defined rules. What this meant was that whatever he wanted to do at the time became the law and he could change it anytime. Louis built the Palace of Versailles which demonstrated the wealth and power of the monarch. The expenses for building the palace ended up with peasants unable to pay the increased tax. The country was enraged, countless suffered from poverty and famine. The proposition of a revolution was spread and Louis divine rights were being stripped away. The inevitable failure of absolute monarchy led to the uprising of the Reign of Terror and Napoleon Bonaparte. After the beheading of the King and Queen, France ...
“Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.” The French Revolution was a painful era that molded the lives of every citizen living in France and changed their ways of life forever. Beginning in 1789 and lasting ten years until 1799, the people of France lived in a monarch society under King Louis XVI’s rule. He was a very harsh ruler and had many restrictions placed on his people. They eventually overthrow him and become a monarch society. Among his deceptive ways, the people also experienced “The Reign of Terror,” which was a period where many lives were taken by the guillotine. Other revolutionary events included rebellions, constitutions, and groups. One of the popular groups that contributed greatly to the French Revolution were the Jacobins who were led by Maximilien Robespierre.
When Louis the XIV began his rule in 1643, his actions immediately began to suggest and absolute dictatorship. Because of the misery he had previously suffered, one of the first things he did was to decrease the power of the nobility. He withdrew himself from the rich upper class, doing everything secretly. The wealth had no connection to Louis, and therefore all power they previously had was gone. He had complete control over the nobles, spying, going through mail, and a secret police force made sure that Louis had absolute power. Louis appointed all of his officials, middle class men who served him without wanting any power. Louis wanted it clear that none of his power would be shared. He wanted "people to know by the rank of the men who served him that he had no intention of sharing power with them." If Louis XIV appointed advisors from the upper classes, they would expect to gain power, and Louis was not willing to give it to them. The way Louis XIV ruled, the sole powerful leader, made him an absolute ruler. He had divine rule, and did not want to give any power to anyone other than himself. These beliefs made him an absolute ruler.
One of the first actions Louis did when he came to power was revoke the Edict of Nantes which originally allowed protestants to worship in many towns. With the revocation Huguenot churches and schools were closed and Huguenot pastors that did not renounce their faith were sent to exile. However, besides the Edict of Nantes, Louis did not have many other laws that directly changed the way people lived compared with Peter, who had many. Peter wanted to modernize, and therefore, ‘westernize’ Russia. Peter also used St. Petersburg to modernize Russia. The new capital was designed to reflect modern urban planning with new features such as wider avenues and aline buildings. He prohibited men from having beards and had them taxed if they did so. He also changed men and women’s clothing to be more like France and England’s styles. Furthermore, he changed the way Russians entertained; now, both men and women would be in the same hall during celebrations and parties. When Peter’s social changes resulted in more modernization for Russia, Louis’ social changes resulted in international prestige for France. By the end of Louis’ reign, France was a country that all other countries looked up to and French replaced Latin as the common language. The French language and French customs became a symbol for the wealthy and
Louis XIV exemplified absolutism, and his ruling set the example for other monarchs throughout Europe. The aims for absolute monarchy was to provide ‘stability, prosperity, and order’ for your territories (458). The way Louis XIV set forth to accomplish this was to claim complete sovereignty to make laws, sanction justice, declare wars, and implement taxes on its subjects. This was all done without the approval of any government or Parliament, as monarchs were to govern ‘by divine right, just as fathers ruled their households’ (458). In Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet’s Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture, he described that absolution was one of the four characteristics imperative to royal authority, “Without this absolute authority, he can do neither good nor suppress evil; his power must be such that no one can hope to escape him” (460). This was epitomized when Louis XIV sought to control the legal system as well as the funding of the financial resources through a centralized bureaucracy for the monarchy. The church was also brought under control, and Louis sought to do away with all other religions by revoking the Edict of Nantes. Political power was given to noblemen, who were seen as ...
Louis XIV is considered the “perfect absolutist” and he has been said to have been one of the greatest rulers in France’s history. He came up with several different strategic plans to gain absolute
Power- something so potent, yet so easy to misuse. Not everyone can obtain power, however those who possess it often acquire arrogance. Louis XIV held total control of France, abusing his dominance. Louis called himself ‘the Sun King’, believing that everything revolved around him. His pompousness led him to making foolish decisions, as he considered himself to be superior. If you don’t use your brain, you will ultimately lose it, as Louis was beheaded by the determined citizens of France. Likewise, in Antigone, King Creon is the ruler of Thebes. Creon makes an arbitrary ruling, swearing the ‘disloyal’ Polyneices should never be buried. When Antigone goes against this, Creon is infuriated. Creon lets his arrogance take over, and continuously makes unwise decisions. Power simply creates narcissism, as Creon’s pride causes him to commit foolish actions.
In order to gain the power he desired as an absolute monarch, Louis used a few key techniques that were very successful. His first and most necessary step to get all control was to take all of the nobles’ power, and make it so they were completely under his control. He first did this by taking the nobles’ positions of power, and either getting rid of them by doing it himself, or giving the jobs to loyal middleclass or some nobles who were completely loyal and under his control. Louis had very simple reasoning for doing this, which was that if the nobles had any power or control, they would have a better chance of overthrowing him, and that since there can only be so much total power, the more they had, the less ...
Louis fought his early wars for defensive purposes— to secure France’s northern border and to remove the Spanish from strategic towns. However, the Sun King pursued many subsequent wars to increase his power and influence. For example, Louis believed that if France had once historically controlled a region, France was justified in winning the region once again. Louis believed, as a divine right ruler, that he had the authority to break truces at will. Consequently, Louis made many enemies out of nearby countries, including Spain, England, and the Netherlands. After Louis won the Campaign in the Franche-Comte region in 1668, Europe was not interested in having France become the preeminent power in Europe. Louis believed that trade would generate wealth and by keeping trade within his own colonies, he could capture the profits that would have been otherwise outside of his control. By reorganizing the administrative and financial aspects of his kingdom and developing trade and manufacturing, he improved the prosperity of his empire. Louis sought to finance his military objectives from this new income stream, but ultimately, it was not enough. Louis XIV’s many wars, and the lavish life at Versailles, exhausted France of funds. Since only the lowest French classes such as the farmers paid the
... move, defunding any revolts they might plan, and preoccupying their time with petty social matters instead of matters of the state. If Louis’ reign was not supported by the enabling qualities of the Palace of Versailles, his reign would certainly not be as absolute as it was.
This historical study will define the absolute monarchy as it was defied through the French government in the 17th century. The term ‘absolute” is defined I the monarchy through the absolute control over the people through the king and the royal family. All matters of civic, financial, and political governance was controlled through the king’s sole power as the monarchical ruler of the French people. In France, Louis XIII is an important example of the absolute monarchy, which controlled all facts of military and economic power through a single ruler. Udder Louis XIII’s reign, the consolidation of power away from the Edicts of Nantes to dominant local politics and sovereignty in Europe. These forms of absolute power define the role of the monarch in controlling the people without the influence of the nobility or a parliament in the decision making process. In essence, the various aspects of absolute monarchy will be defined win the example of , Louis XIII as the sole sovereign of his people during the 17th century.
King Louis XIV's 72 year reign was incredibly influential in shaping French history. King Louis XIV’s childhood was traumatic because of “La Fronde” which was a noble rebellion against the monarchy. This experience taught King Louis XIV to distrust the nobles. It was for this reason that he eventually excluded nobility from the council and surrounded himself with loyal ministers whom he could control. He also separated the aristocracy from the people of France by moving the court to the Palace of Versailles. One of the most notable of King Louis XIV’s decisions was that he refused to appoint another Prime Minister after the death of Prime Minister Mazarin. Every decision, from the declaration of war to the approval of a passport, went through him personally. During his reign as king, France participated in several wars including the War of Devolution, in Anglo-Dutch War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. Another major action he took was the proclamation of the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes, imposing religious uniformity through Catholi...
Louis' reign brought large economic gain and severe economic recession. He was the first king to embrace mercantilism in his country as the form of economy. Unfortunately, Louis was a devout Catholic, and ruined his economy with one move. He revoked the Edict of Nantes, the document that said that Huguenots could worship Protestantism in peace. This infuriated the Huguenots, and they left with their skills. By the loss of 200,000 skilled workers and business leaders, France's income dropped.