Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, was the monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as the king of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His rule was the longest of any monarch in a major in European nation. As king, Louis XIV had many successes, including great military growth, limiting the power of the French nobility, and enforcing the economic system of mercantilism. However, with these successes came failures, such as his revocation of the Edict of Nantes, poor economic management, and the foundations he laid that led to future civil war. Louis XIV believed in centralized power and throughout his reign he geared France toward absolutism. Peter the Great of Russia also believed in centralized power, as he directed Russia into becoming …show more content…
an absolutist state throughout his reign. Peter the Great ruled the Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire from 1682 until his death in 1725. As ruler of Russia, Peter the Great led a cultural revolution that replaced many previous medieval, traditional political and social systems with those of more modern standards based around scientific advancements and the Enlightenment period. Many current Russian policies to this day trace back to the reign of Peter the Great. In addition, he was responsible for trying to make Russia a part of Europe after centuries of domination by the Mongols. But like all leaders, Peter the Great had his flaws and failures. A majority of his reign was spent in war and in addition, his treatment of the lower class resulted in many riots and deaths and caused a large gap between social classes. The successes brought on by Louis XIV of France and Peter the Great of Russia were extensive and vastly different, but their failures were very similar. Louis XIV had many successes throughout his reign. His main goal was to transform France and make it more powerful. Using Louis XIII’s policies of extending absolute royal rule as a foundation, Louis XIV went further than any French ruler before him in centralizing the country. As a strong advocate for absolutism, Louis XIV was able to dominate the government and people of France by using techniques such as secret police and the intendant system. He also used letters de cachet in order to imprison or exile people without trial. Louis XIV had complete control over the nobility, reducing their status to servants who argued amongst themselves over who would have the privilege to perform the simplest of tasks for the king. He forced nobility to work at his palace of Versailles, where he would essentially enslave them in order to gain control. Louis XIV used a group of hand selected ministers to assist him with his rule. These people were known as his chief counsel, also referred to as the conseil d’en haut. The council consisted of men who were loyal to him. As king, he believed he could best work with men who relied on him for their position in both French society and politics, seeing him as superior. As a ruler, he favored the middle class and not those who had a history of rebelling. France, during this time, became a mercantilist nation, enforcing exclusively exports and no imports with a main goal of becoming completely self sufficient. Many small businesses and industries throughout the country were sponsored in order to compete with other global companies and for the first time, industry was regulated to insure quality products. Skilled immigrants were encouraged to move to France and internal tariffs were abolished, making French goods more affordable. The famous Canal des Deux Mers was completed during Louis XIV’s reign, and roads and bridges were improved nationwide. Russia experienced many successes during the reign of Peter the Great. He was determined to reform the domestic structure of the country. Working hard to modernize many traditional political and social systems, Peter the Great succeeded in transitioning the country from traditional medieval policies to a modern era with many policies based around the new scientific advancements and ideas expressed during the Enlightenment. He reformed education, military power, and industry. While in power, he increased taxation amongst the people of Russia to intensify revenues to pay for his reforms. Most of his policies were based around strengthening the military to increase Russia’s global power. All nobles were required to serve in either the military or the government for life. Schools and universities were created to provide skilled technicians and nobles were required to attend school away from home for five years. Peasant males were recruited into the army for life and taxes on all peasants were tripled. Serfs were ordered to work in factories and mines, he invited skilled, western artisans to Russia. Though the successes of Louis XIV and Peter the Great vastly differed, their failures remained similar.
Both leaders were able to raise money within their countries through taxation and other reforms, but this money was invested in things such as extravagant palaces rather than beneficial causes for their country. Louis XIV spent a large amount of France’s wealth on his palace of Versailles. Versailles, originally Louis XIII’s hunting lodge, became one of the most prominent architectural pieces of the time. The façade of the structure was 2000 feet long, and was built to house 10,000 nobles. The grounds surrounding the palace included 1,400 fountains. Unfortunately, nearly 60% of the royal tax revenue went into maintaining Versailles, rather than benefiting the country. As a result, many peasants began to starve, setting the stage for future war within France. Parallel to Versailles was Peter the Great’s Peterhof palace, built in the middle of St. Petersburg to represent his absolutist powers. The hard, labor intensive building of this palace took the lives of many common men. Much like in France, Peter the Great’s palace drained Russia’s funds, and led toward an unstable economy. In addition to spending their nation’s money on large buildings to reflect their power, both Louis XIV and Peter the Great involved their country’s in many wars which drained their economies. A majority of Louis XIV’s reign was spent involved in various wars in order to expand France territorially and show his superiority. Peter the Great believed in territorial expansion as well. These desires to expand resulted their countries accumulating massive debt that counteracted all good economic properties established. Louis XIV and Peter the Great also both encountered failures through stabilizing religion within their countries. Louis XIV was a divine right monarch, believing that he was chosen specifically by God to be king and this made him superior to all others. He also believed that in
order to maintain a strong, centralized government, there should be only one religion, uniform throughout the nation. With this state of mind, he revoked the Edict of Nantes and kicked many Huguenots out of the country. This was a huge failure on his part because many of these Huguenots that left were skilled laborers and their absence hurt France’s economy. Peter the Great also encountered failures through religion. Peter, himself, was not religious, but as an absolute monarch he could not stand the idea that religious officials could have more power than him. As a result, he abolished the Patriarchy, replacing it with a Holy Synod. The Holy Synod was under the control of a senior bureaucrat and the Tsar appointed all bishops. Peter created a law that stated no Russian man could join a monastery before the age of 50. He felt that too many competent Russian men were being wasted on clerical work when they could be joining his army and fighting for the country. These selfish views upset many religious people in Russia. In conclusion, the successes of Louis XIV of France and Peter the Great of Russia differed, but their failures were similar. Louix XIV brought many new forms of economic enhancements to France by improving roads, abolishing internal tariffs, supporting small local industries, and regulating industry. He helped to bring down the power of the nobility through his palace of Versailles, and in general, strengthened the power of the crown, centralizing France to a level that had never before been accomplished. Peter the Great’s successes were based around transforming Russia into a more modern nation, based around current advancements in science and new ideas brought forth by the Enlightenment. Peter helped strengthen his armies by placing many new reforms nationwide. He raised taxation to help pay for these new reforms and increased Russia’s global power through expansion and superiority in the military. The failures of Louis XIV and Peter the Great were very similar, both making mistakes economically through the raise of armies, the creation of extravagant palaces and they both created controversy through religion and their people. Without these successes and failures these two leaders may not have been able to accomplish everything they were able to, both resulting in growth throughout Europe.
Louis XIV and Peter the great were absolute monarchs who created strong armies, and built strong central governments to obtain absolute power. Both absolute monarchs controlled the nobles and did several things to expand their land. Both rulers wanted to limit the power of the nobility and increase the power of monarchs in order to gain absolute power. Louis XIV and Peter had many goals in common and they also had some goals that were different. Even though they had similar goals, they both used different strategies and ways to achieve their goals.
One of the most notable of which would be his decision to completely reconstruct a new palace at Versailles. Such a great expenditure is blatantly criticized in Doc 7 where the Duc de Saint-Simon states, “the foundations and groves have buried more money than could ever appear”. Such expenditures, undoubtedly funded by taxpayer dollars expose Louis’ extremely self-serving distribution of funds when it came to matters of his own comfort. However, it is important to realize that Doc 7, written by a noble, must also be read with a watchful eye. The Duc de Saint-Simon’s assertions could possibly, though construction of a new palace would likely cost a tremendous amount of capital, be riddled by bias as a result of the absolutist King’s extreme suppression of nobility perks and privileges. The idea that Louis acted in his own interest in terms of capital distribution may be explained away by such bias had it not been for the evidence presented in Doc 4. Though on the surface it seems to show the public’s appreciation for the King, one must acknowledge the fact that an ‘inscription on a ceremonial arch of great architectural importance in Tournai’ was most likely commissioned by the King, and again funded by taxpayer dollars. Such a commission would expose the fact that the words stated in the inscription is not the point of view of the French people, but rather the desired
Absolutism was at its most popular in the 17th century. Monarchs Louis XIV who ruled France from 1643 to 1715, and Peter the Great who ruled Russia from 1682 to 1725 both secured absolute power in their kingdom. Peter the Great, however, managed to accomplish more during his reign than Louis XIV with politics and military. Peter was able to tax his nobles but still keep their loyalty and also change how his army was run by using Prussian organization and discipline.
During the 16th and 17th centuries a new type of ruling emerged as a result of unorganized government called royal absolutism. This type of government was seen in many European countries including France and Russia where King Louis XIV and Peter the Great ruled respectively. Both had ways of ruling that were similar to each other and different to each other. Politically, economically and socially both Louis XIV and Peter the Great were similar to and different from how they ruled and what their reign resulted.
While England lost its power to the nobles, France was able to control them .Instead of having the live among the peasants and the middle class, Louis XIV built the Palace of Versailles in order to force the nobles to be near the king to make sure that they were unable to create conflict with the will of the monarch. This way, the nobles no longer were the people that the middle class would run to when they had a
The palace of Versailles was built by King Louis XIV of France and the Escorial was built by King Philip II of Spain. The two kings each had their differences about their beliefs on how to rule, yet there are some similarities. Louis XIV believed in showing off his power and being open. Philip II was a simplistic guy devoted to Catholicism. They both had military to spread their beliefs and ideas. Despite the kings’ beliefs, their palaces reflected their ideals.
Duc de Saint-Simon lived in the Palace of Versailles with King Louis XIV of France during the late seventeenth century. Louis did not move his court to Versailles until 1682, so it can be assumed that this document was written after. In his memoirs, he took detailed notes describing Louis’ attributes overwhelmingly positive, but seemingly accurate. This author creates a somewhat skewed look for the king of France with the immense positivity. Louis ruled with an absolute monarchy, Saint-Simon seems to be composing this to please the king and also for later to understand what life was truly like in the court and life at Versailles.
nation. In order to become a true absolute ruler Louis xiv needed to make sure
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.
One of the most important elements of Versailles that affected Louis XIV’s reign was the use of propaganda. The Palace contained “paintings, statues, tapestries” (Page) and a general grandness that significantly promoted Louis’ name. Louis himself was a “prominent subject in the artwork” (Montclos 330) and was portrayed as handsome and god-like. Even in the aspects of the Palace where Louis wasn’t literally being represented, the grand nature of Versailles sent out a message that the King was living lavishly, and was therefore very powerful. Louis XIV used the grandiosity of his Palace and the art inside to promote himself to his people.
The Palace of Versailles leads back to the regime of Louis XIV. Louis inherited the crown in 1643 at the young age of four, much too young to rule, especially in the midst of France’s chaos. Anne of Austria, his mother, and her Chief Minister, Cardinal Jules Mazarin, ruled on Louis’s behalf. Mazarin died in 1661,however, Louis took over with a revolutionary announcement: he would rule without a prime minister, thus all power will fall solely upon himself. He believed he was divinely appointed to lead France and used “L’Etat c’est moi” or “I am the State” as his motto. Louis chose the sun as his personal symbol of dominance, creating himself a legacy as the “Sun King” (History.com).
Peter the Great had many goals during the time he ruled. One of his biggest goals was to modernize and westernize Russia. The main reason Peter the Great modernized Russia was because he did not want the country he ruled to be left vulnerable to expansionist powers in Europe. The powers were constantly at war, fighting to take over each other’...
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.
King Louis XIV staged demonstrations of sovereignty by having a third of a mile in his castle, in Versailles, be filled with artwork celebrating religious triumphs and royal triumphs. His garden also had several statues of the Greek god Apollo to recall his claim of being the “sun king” of France. He often invited nobles to stay with him a part of the year and the magnificence of his court was supposed to keep them from disobedience and increased their social prestige by associating them with himself. He managed to force the nobles to depend on the crown but did not seek to undermine their superior place in society. Nobles were excluded from paying taxes so a lot of the burden fell on to the peasants. In addition to raising land taxes he also created new taxes.
The Palace of Versailles was the official home of the Kings of France from 1682 until 1790. Originally, a hunting lodge built in 1624 by Louis XIII, but then was expanded by Louis XIV in the beginning of 1669. With beautiful architecture and amazing landscape, it is one of the most well- known and beautiful palaces in France. Its garden is so unique and one of Europe's largest. It played a huge responsibility in French government and was used for some of the biggest meetings of Kings and Queens. It is a very reflective place for the French and showed a basis of culture for the people. The small structure became the base on which was constructed into one of the most extravagant buildings in the world. The Palace of Versailles is a famous French landmark due to its elaborate construction, its role as a center of government, and its influence on French culture.