King Louis Xiv Essay

King Louis XIV ruled France from 1638-1718, his reign is the longest in European history(Textbook 470). Louis XIV was called the sun king and rightly so, since all aspects of French society revolved around him. King Louis the fourteenth was an absolutist monarch, who unified France by centralizing France's government, laws and religion.

Louis placed himself at the center of all decision making and surrounded himself with men who posed no threat to his power. Louis’s successful leadership can be attributed to Louis setting himself at the top of the hierarchy and making all those under him work for his favors. Louis who believed it was his divine right to be king, and worked with men who were loyal and dependent upon only him. Louis did not

want the Nobles to have a voice in how France was ruled so, he made men from the upper middle class his councilors instead. Louis had several councils of state and inserted himself in all their decisions thus, Louis lived up to his nickname the Sun king by being in the center of all government affairs. Louis explained his choice of councilors saying, "the public should know, from the rank of those whom I chose to serve me, that I had no intention of sharing power with them" (470). Louis cleverly did not ever call the Estates General to meet; thwarting the Nobles ability to gather assert their needs. Louis unlike his ancestors did not have a first minister, allowing him to limit the church's influence upon him and his subjects (Textbook 470).

Louis controlled France's religious leaders, as their divinely appointed leader, and with their dependance, further strengthened his dominance.

Louis XIV was a Catholic who felt that all of France should have one religion. Unlike previous French kings, he did not tolerate Protestants. He felt that,"religious unity was essential to his royal dignity and to the security of the state" (Textbook 471). He rescinded the Edict of Nantes and passed a law that insisted that Huguenots give up their Protestant faith and convert to Catholicism. The Huguenots who did not convert were forced to leave the country. Louis XIV answered to nobody but God, but he was wise enough to know that he did need to appease the Nobles. Louis XIV kept a close eye on the Nobles by having many of them live with him at massive palace, Versailles. He made Versailles the center of the political, social and cultural life in France and Nobles feared rebelling against the king since,"he controlled the distribution of state power and wealth, nobles had no choice but to obey and compete with each other for his favor at Versailles" (Textbook 472). Louis XIV had a lot of wealth to distribute to keep his subjects happy and obedient to him. Louis also controlled those under him by moving the court and government outside of Paris to his palace,Versailles where he could oversee all

activity.

Louis XIV's absolutist style of governing was supported not only by new forms of taxation, but by his elevating France's position in the world.

France expanded her boundaries, "after conquering Strasbourg and the province of France-Comte, at the moment the King seemed invincible"(476). Louis strengthened France's economy with the help of his controller general, Jean-Babtiste Colbert. Mercantilist policies were used to regulate France's imports and exports. The aim was to have more exports than imports. Domestic tariffs were ended and tariffs raised on imports(474). With money flowing into France, Louis XVI did not have to increase taxes much in his early reign. Louis helped unify France by creating a professional uniformed army funded by the state not the Nobles. Under Louis XIV, France was at war for 33 years (Textbook 475). The success of conquering new territories made Louis popular in his early years and,"represented the peak of Louis's success in reforming government"(Textbook 476). During the rule of Louis, France became the country to look to for the latest in fashion and "French became the language of polite society and international diplomacy.."(Textbook 474). Louis supported the arts and he lived and made those at Versailles, follow many different etiquette rituals and Louis's subjects competed with each other to be a part of the king's rituals in order to gain his favor. "The king controlled immense resources and privileges; access to him meant favored treatment

for government offices, military and religious posts, state pensions, honorary titles and a host of other benefits"(Textbook 474). Louis played men and women against each other so that they were so busy looking to promote their own interests that they did not question his authority. Louis once again made himself the center of France, through whom all decisions, not just political, but cultural as well were decided.

The majority of Louis’s long rule was extraordinary. It was only towards the end of his rule that the many wars that Louis XIV's army fought used up a lot of France's money. This angered his subjects when taxes were raised to support the army. Another negative was when Louis exiled the Huguenots who refused to convert to Catholicism, he lost many people who were productive members of French society. While Louis did unify France under” one king, one law and one religion”, he did set France up for a violent future. During his reign Louis XIV centralized France’s government, built a strong army which added territory and his investment in French’s culture made France a top country.