Louis XIV Failure Of Absolutism During The Glorious Revolution

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The old regime of France failure to squash the growing uprising of the third estate is what lead to their demise. The monarchy did not stand firm in their archaic values such as absolutism which weakened their view in the merchant class eyes. The modern values that was emerging during this time was strengthened by the merchant class seeing the monarchy inability to lead in the archaic way they had before. Once the weakness was seen then the merchant class acted and started working harder for the changes they wanted. Louis XIV was the Grand Monarch of Europe in the 17th Century, known as the Sun King. His time as ruler from an archaic point of view dictated that he was a great king. Louis wholeheartedly practiced absolutism. Which he ruled …show more content…

Mary II was the Protestant daughter of James II from his first wife. William of Orange was the Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic and the primary opponent of King Louis XIV. During The Glorious Revolution in 1689. William III and Mary II took a small fleet from the Netherlands to England and marched on London. Which caused James II and his family to flee London to seek refuge at the court of Louis XIV. Parliament had proven its superiority to the king and had victory over the king. Parliament established specific guidelines for the king to rule under. If Louis XIV had helped James II reestablish himself as an absolute ruler then maybe when his son came to power there may would have been more hesitation by the people to rebel. There would a universal showing by the ruling monarchs that the king is the absolute ruler and all his policies are the only …show more content…

This resulted in him being an unfit king. So, when France goes into a steady decline economically and socially before and during his reign he has little solutions for the problem. America further pushes the French into a crisis by not reciprocating the help they gave in the American Revolution. Minister of Finance, Calonne, organizes Assembly of Notables from among the aristocracy and clergy. The group wanted any new taxes to be approved by the Estates General, who were the representative body of the three estates. Louis xvi summoned them to meet in 1789 to address the economic crisis and financial chaos. The third estate convinced Louis finance minister to tell Louis to agree to their demands. This led Abbé Sieyès to write “What is the third estate? His answer was everything. The king was scared off by the violent language, in the article backed away from supporting the third estate. The third estate decided to break off and form the national assembly. Louis made a weak attempt to stop the national assembly from meeting. They still met on the tennis court of the meeting hall. They vowed to not disband until France has a constitution. The masses start to take part of the revolution because they see Louis is unfit and they want change also. They start attacking the well to do citizen’s in French society to show they are fed up with the disparaging conditions they live in. Louis fails to squash National

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