Chapter 17 Section 2 France Under Louis XIV

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Chapter 17 Section 2 - France Under Louis XIV
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• Setting the Scene
• "I have had an idea that will give much pleasure
  to the people here wrote Louis XIV. His plan was
  to throw a grand party. Each guest would receive
  a ticket for a prize of jewelry, and every ticket
  would be a winner. At Louis's bidding, some 600
  noble guests flocked to the royal palace for a
  week of sumptuous feasts, pageants, sports,
  dances, plays, and music. This extravaganza was
  the first of many spectacles organized by Louis
  XIV. By the late 1600s, Louis was absolute
  monarch of France and the most powerful ruler in
  Europe. Yet, just 100 years earlier, France had
  been torn apart by turbulent wars of religion.

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I. Rebuilding France

• 1560s - 1590s Religious wars between Catholics
  and Huguenots (French Protestants) tore France
  apart

On August 24, 1572 thousands of Protestants were
killed in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew
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A. Henry IV

• 1589 - Huguenot prince Henry IV inherited the
  throne and became a Catholic

Early in his career he was a major leader of the
Protestant Huguenot party.  For three years after
his accession to the throne of France in 1589,
the strongly pro-Catholic Paris stood in
opposition to him.  Finally Henry yielded to
these stronger political interests by converting
to Catholicism, claiming that Paris is worth a
mass.
Henry IV (1553-1610)
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A. Henry IV

• 1598 - the Edict of Nantes protected the
  Huguenots by granting religious toleration

400th Anniversary - Edict of Nantes
Huguenot Cross
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A. Henry IV

• 1610 - Henry IV was killed by an assassin and his
  9 year-old son Louis XIII inherited the throne

Assassin François Ravaillac "Before being drawn
and quartered, he was scalded with burning
sulphur, molten lead and boiling oil and resin,
his flesh then being torn by pincers."
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B. Richelieu

• 1624 - Louis appointed Cardinal Armand Richelieu
  as his chief minister

Louis XIII
Richelieu
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B. Richelieu

• Richelieu sought to destroy the power of the
  Huguenots and nobles, groups that did not bow to
  royal authority

Cardinal Richelieu at the Siege of La Rochelle
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II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

• 1643 - 5 year-old Louis XIV inherited the throne

"Le Roi du Soleil" (the Sun King)
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II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

• Cardinal Jules Mazarin, Richelieus successor,
  became chief minister and worked to expand royal
  power

Cardinal Jules Mazarin(1602-1661)
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II. Louis XIV, the Sun King

• Soon after Louis became king, violence swept
  France in an uprising called the Fronde

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A. "I Am the State"

• Louis IV firmly believed in divine right and took
  the sun as the symbol of his absolute power

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A. "I Am the State"

• Louis often said I am the state and never
  called a meeting of the Estates General

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B. Strengthening Royal Power

• Louis XIV expanded the bureaucracy and made the
  French army the strongest in Europe

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B. Strengthening Royal Power

• Finance minister Jean Colbert practiced
  mercantilist policies that made France the
  wealthiest state in Europe

Jean Baptiste Colbert, 1619-1683
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III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

• Louis XIV turned a hunting lodge into the palace
  of Versailles, the grandest in Europe

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III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

• He held ceremonies that emphasized his own
  importance and tied the nobles to their king

The Levee
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III. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

• Louis supported a "splendid century" of the arts
  French culture replaced Renaissance Italy as the
  new standard

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IV. Successes and Failures

• Louis XIV ruled France for 72 years, longer than
  any other monarch

Louis XIV and his Family as Olympian Gods Jean
Nocroit, 1670
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A. Wars of Louis XIV

• Louis XIV fought to expand France Rival rulers
  formed alliances to maintain the balance of power

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A. Wars of Louis XIV

• 1700 - Louis grandson Philip V became king of
  Spain Louis believed France and Spain "must
  regard themselves as one"

King Philip V of Spain or Philippe of Anjou (1683
- 1746) was king of Spain from 1700 to 1746, the
first of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. He was the
son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin and Maria Anna of
Bavaria. His paternal grandparents were Louis XIV
of France and Maria Theresa of Spain. His
maternal grandparents were Ferdinand Maria,
Elector of Bavaria and Adelaide Henriette of Savoy
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A. Wars of Louis XIV

• 1713 - The War of the Spanish Succession ended
  with the Treaty of Utrecht Spain and France did
  not unite

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B. Persecution of the Huguenots

• 1685 - Louis viewed the Huguenots as a threat to
  religious and political unity and revoked the
  Edict of Nantes

Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 1685
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B. Persecution of the Huguenots

• Thousands of Huguenots fled France their loss
  was a serious blow to the French economy

Effect Of Revoking The Edict Of Nantes