King Louis XIV: Absolute Monarchy In France

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.

Louis XIV, the ruler of France from the late seventeenth century to the early eighteenth century, claimed, “I am the state.” He considered this to be absolutism. His goal, also acquainted with absolutism, was, “one king, one law, one faith;” Furthermore, Louis wanted to promote religious unity, royal dignity, and security of the state. In order to achieve this goal, he had to rule with a firm hand, laying down the law for all to see. Louis XIV’s absolutism fostered in four major parts: the building of Versailles to control the nobility, the breeding of a strong military, the improvement of France’s economy, and, while quite harsh, the brutal extinction of religious toleration.

Of all the absolute rulers in Europe, by far the best example of one, and the most powerful, was Louis XIV of France. Although Louis had some failures, he also had many successes. He controlled France’s money and had many different ways to get, as well as keep his power, and he knew how to delegate jobs to smart, but loyal people.

Regarding the Baroque period, it is stated "the period of time in Western Europe from about 1600 to the mid 1700s was one of religious, political, and scientific upheaval, and these tensions are reflected in the arts of the age." Focusing on the political end, King Louis XIV of France used the style of art during this period to portray himself as an absolute monarch. The phrase "absolute monarch" refers to the method that kings would use to consolidate their power and resources at the expense of the "nobility of the church." King Louis XIV is known to be the most successful of the absolute monarchs. In order to achieve this, he relied heavily on the art and style of the Baroque period. The art was used to emulate their power, and many looked

Many countries started to split that had previously been allies for a long time due to the unrest. Absolute Monarchy was again established in Germany, Austria and Italy; they were scared of the socialist’s proposals and eventually led to strengthen the police forces. Coup d’état was the reaction France had against Price Louis after 1848. Even though a lot had been solved not everything had been resolved. Lots of decisions were made by the ruler of each empire that helped their goals but in other ways it made their empire worse because of the reactions they were faced with.

Louis XIV or Louis the 14th was an absolute monarch of France for 72 years. In these 72 years he transformed the monarchy, introduced a golden age of art and literature and built a gigantic palace known as the Palace of Versailles that would show the world his power (Louis XIV history.com). He was born on September 5th, 1638 and took the crown at only four years old. When Louis XIV took the crown, France was fractured and unstable, he would go on to repair some of France's problems as well as create new ones.

Situated in France, The Palace of Versailles, is not only famous as a building but it stood as a symbol of absolute monarchy. Starting in 1623 with the assistance of Louis XIII, the château started as a chasing lodge built of brick and stone. Then it was transformed into a royal palace soon after by Louis XIV. The first phase of expansion took place between 1661 and 1678, it was designed by Louis Le Vau who also served as the supervisor. These additional three new wings of stone surrounded the original Louis XIII building on the South, North, and West. Despite the fact that Le Vau passed away before the development was done, it was completed by his assistant François d'Orbay. Starting the same year in 1678, the second expansion began almost

In 1575, the position of lordship of Versailles was bought by Albert de Gondi, who invited Louis XIII on multiple hunting trips in the forests around the area of Versailles. He was happy with the location, Louis ordered the construction of a hunting lodge in 1624. Eight years later, Louis got the lordship title of Versailles from the Gondi family and began to make his chateau bigger. Louis XIII's successor, Louis XIV, had it expanded into one of the largest palaces in the world. This structure would become the core of the new palace. Following the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678, he began to gradually move the court to Versailles. The court was officially established there on May sixth, 1682.

Throughout the rule of King Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu served the nation of France faithfully. In particular, Richelieu contributed a revolutionary idea during the Thirty Years War, which would be used throughout the coming centuries. This idea was called Raison d’Etat, which is a political theory that holds that the interests and needs of the state may take precedence over traditional moral and international law.

Maybe one of the most famous of European monarchs, King Louis XIV ruled France for about 72 years, was the French head of state. King Louis XIV reign was believed to be reputably famous as one of Absolute government, mainly because the king had his own dominating and particular way of governing the nation. At a young age of only 5 years old he attained the powers of a a king, Louis XIV ruled with the help of his mother and Cardinal Mazarin acting as head of the state deciding most of the civilian and official problems concerning the governance of France. With no from of formal and proper education. Louis XIV but grew with huge vision on nearly all matters of governance and developed up to be an extremely brilliant head of state. Since then start of his adulthood, XIV had supposed many plans for his country, and if one was to grade Louis XIV to today 's standards, one would surely place him in the group of 'Type-A personality '. It was because Louis XIV had learned and also from childhood that the top way to rule was to control the matter with absolute authority. By doing this, the King chose his consultants and advisors from the group of 'non-nobles, with the goal of inviting smallest disagreement, and for reasons of daunting his motives and decision without being questioned. The nobles were also useful, and had to remain engaged around the King 's loop, mainly because to win over their assurance, in return to there wealth and positions offered to them from the

Louis XVI of France was born August 23, 1752 in Palace of Versailles, France. He was the last King of France, from May 1774-September 1792 when the monarchy was destroyed. As the King he tried to abolish many things, like serfdom and the taille, tax on the third estate. With these attempted abolitions it caused revolt with the second estate. They were angered The King was part of the first estate, or the clergy; this encompassed the country’s leaders and churchmen. He was later arrested during the French Revolution when the Republicans captured the Tuileries Palace on August 10, 1792. After five months of imprisonment he was tried and convicted of high treason, then was beheaded, at the age of 38, by guillotine on January 21, 1793. For his

Louis Xvi was born on August 23, 1754. Versailles, France. He died on January 21, 1793 in Paris, he was the last king of France and ruled from 1774-1792. He was the last of the Bourbon Monarchs that ruled before the French Revolution in 1789. Louis Xvi was first known as the duc de berry. Louis was educated by duc de la vauguyon, and he was taught to not let others know what he was thinking. These led many to believe that he was not very intelligent. However, in reality, Louis had an excellent memory, enjoyed studying history and geography and was fluent in several languages. He married Marie-Antoinette, an Austrian archduchess, in 1770. When he became King of France upon the death of his grandfather, Louis Xv, on May 10, 1774 he was still

Throughout history, people have sought opportunities to have complete control and power over a country. Many monarchs around the world have held absolute power and control over their people and lands. The French King, Louis XIV is one of these monarchs. He can be considered an 18th century enlightened despot. The reasons he can be considered as this are; the absolute power he held, the control of the religious institutions of France, and the strong economy which he built.

On June 21, 1791 King Louis XVI and the royal family left the city of Paris in an attempt to escape the city’s turmoil, and the King’s Jacobin enemies. The King, his wife Marie Antoinette, their two children, the king’s sister, and a governess, began their escape east towards the Austrian border. The escape party managed to make it to Sainte-Menehould, just a couple hours away from the border, before the relay stables manager Drouet recognized them. Drouet followed the party until they stopped to just outside of the town of Varennes. Drouet continued on to Varennes to inform members of the town’s national guard that he had spotted the monarch. After a brief period of disbelief, the guardsmen left to retrieve a couple town councilmen, and Drouet went to delay the royal family until a town leader had arrived. When the escape party arrived in Varennes, the town manager, Jean-Baptiste Sauce met the carriages and asked for their travel papers. Although the passenger’s papers appeared in order, some were skeptical, and the escape party was told that they would have to wait until the morning for their paperwork to be properly inspected. Only a short while later Louis admitted his real identity claiming that he was forced to leave Paris because the Jacobins had taken over the city and that he was not trying to flee France, but get to Montmédy. Although the town leaders initially agreed to help the king to Montmédy, they began to have second thoughts.

King Louis XIV was the king of France from 1638 to 1715, he reigned longer than any other European monarch. King Louis XIV was one of the most powerful absolute monarchs in the history of Europe. He was thought of as the quintessence of what an absolute monarch should be. Throughout this paper, I will discuss the many important aspects of King Louis’s reign and some of the influential things he did and their effects on society at the time.