If one can possibly imagine, this precious young child full of innocence and promise became king at the tender age of four in 1643 upon the death of his beloved father Louis III. As he was far too young to make any decisions about anything other than his favorite toy or what food he preferred, the spoiled little boy had to rely upon Cardinal Mazarin to rule France in his name until his death in 1661. By this stage, twenty – three year old Louis the XIV had been rigorously trained to be a worthy, powerful monarch to his beloved country, France.
He was extremely popular with his subjects when he assumed the role of king. His maniacal belief his authority was inherited and came directly from God was a theory heavily supported by the Catholic Church that taught kings had only to answer to God, and since all power came from God, the king was only responsible to God, not to the people in the manner he chose to exercise that power. Thereby, he didn’t feel the necessity to account to anyone but his own conscience as he so cleverly stated, “L’Etat c’est moi.” “I am the state.” Louis also believed, “However bad a king may be, the revolt of his subjects is criminal.” Only God could punish a bad ruler. Louis’s mindset was greatly influenced by his court preacher, Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet who wrote; “As all perfection and all strength are united in God, so all the power of individuals is united in the person of the king. What grandeur that a single man should embody so much.” Thereby, he fit the bill perfectly of an absolute monarch which in essence is; a ruler who governs alone and is not restrained by laws, a constitution, or custom.
Whilst in training under the direction of his mother, Louis the XIV saw the French monarchy was weakened for a very long time with the corruption of the nobles of which many were much wealthier than the king. He realized his monarch would be shaky as long as a minister controlled the finances of the kingdom. Upon becoming king, he surprised everyone by taking immense interest in the day to day operations – especially the finances; then purely under the control of Nicholas Fouquet who had amassed extreme wealth at the expense of the monarchy. Fouquet greatly underestimated Louis XIV as being a gad about who loved court, theatre and beautiful women, and also didn’t consider him to be very intelligent. He was certain Louis would soon bore of the tedium of finance. He went to great lengths to entertain Louis and his paramour at his exquisite Palace at Vaux-le-Vicomte which proved to be his undoing. What Louis lacked in intelligence, he made up for in common sense and a sense of duty to his monarch. Very carefully, he set about a plan while presiding over the Breton Parliament to have Fouquet arrested and made an example of. Fouquet was so shocked by this public humiliation he proclaimed, “I thought I stood as high with the king as any man in France.” It was supposedly, in celebration of his assuming full control of the monarch that the king uttered the joyous words, “L’Etat c’est moi.” “I am the state.” If anyone dared question his authority, his reply was, “It is legal because I wish it.” “Laws are the sovereign of the sovereigns.”
Peter the Great and Louis the XIV were very similar in their way of thinking regarding absolute power. Both thought it was their God given right. The difference being, Louis saw the damage nobility cause the monarchy and therefore became an absolute ruler in part towards his hatred of them and self preservation. Peter on the other hand, wanted this power and felt he had the right. Peter affected daily life of his peoples customs, whereas, Louis was more practical, such as overhauling taxes cutting nobles out of collection, etc. Louis most visible legacy was the ‘Palace of Versailles”, Peter’s was the fortress of St. Petersburg on the Neva River, his ‘window to the west’.
Undoubtedly the longest running king in European history, Louis XIV ruled for seventy – two years until his death with unwavering faith his every decision was made for the benefit of the monarch and the people of France. As stated earlier, he took complete personal control of his government knowing his peoples would support him completely because they were sick and tired of the constant foreign wars and civil disputes. He was calm, proud, and intimidating, and in spite of his vast social duties in court, absolutely noting interfered with his conduct of public business. He used incredible common sense in very carefully selecting his good ministers and kept them by giving his full support. This started by removing Fouquet from power and giving him life imprisonment for embezzling. Of course, all were guilty including Mazarin, but none as blatant as Fouquet. The powerful Fouquet’s removal and sentencing set precedence. Colbert was his principal minister until his death in 1685. Colbert, who was never given a title but was simply an agent of the king, accomplished several milestones during his tenure. He was responsible for rebuilding powerful French navy, organized French possessions in Canada, West Indies, Madagascar, and India. Additionally, he reformed most sections of the administration, systemized the laws, created a better system of taxation, greatly improved roads, and river navigation and canals. He also sharply reduced the annual treasury deficit, and commerce, industry, and overseas colonies were developed by state subsidies with tight control over quality. Louis was a patron of the arts both literary and artistic and spent lavishly on buildings to house the arts, such as the Louvre. He loved the idea of glorifying the monarch. He also established a number of academies for painting and sculpting, architecture, inscriptions, the Paris Observatory, science, literary and so many others including his greatest extravagance the Palace of Versailles.
Under his tenure as king, there were three major wars and two minor; the War of Devolution 1667 -68, Franco Dutch War 72 -78, War of the Reunions 83-84, War of the League of Augsburg 88-97, and the Spanish Succession War 1701-14. The latter was fought during Louis’s declining years.
Louis XIV had no problem challenging the nobility because of his deep distrust and hatred of them. His very control of the Crown was at their expense. He very cleverly used the nobles to his advantage by constructing a massive amount of apartments in his Palace of Versailles where they would reside to be in favor with him. Marvelously charming, they didn’t mind giving up their private armies so as not to interfere with his reign. They were stripped of their privacy in every way including him personally opening their mail to ascertain total loyalty. Louis also insisted in receiving complete attention from all of the nobles, so in this way he could always know where they were.
Louis XIV ensured the legal system received the much needed modernization required to carry it through future leaders’ reforms. He reformed the civil law in 1667, making it mandatory to record baptisms, marriages, and deaths in the registers of the civil state instead of the Church. Criminal law in 1670 was a system where punishment was fairly broken into categories; retribution, deterrence, and incapacitation. The Maritime Code was presented in 1672. To enforce his reformed legal system, he required a vast army. At the time of his death, he had amassed 350,000 soldiers to fight for France. This modern army was completely controlled by the state and answered to the Secretary of the State of War and the Intendants who worked for him.
These men relied on Louis for professional advancement so they added the feudal noble’s armies from the past to the state’s army; which served a two fold purpose - increased absolute power and reduced nobility power. To avoid regional governors from becoming too powerful, Louis regularly moved them from province to province.
The French Treasury was close to bankrupt when Louis took over the reins. He gained wealth back by first removing the existing Finance Minister Fouquet and replacing with his senior Minister, Colbert. Together, they reduced the national debt via efficient taxation; in four categories. The aides and douanes were customs duties; the gabelle was a tax on salt, and the taille was a tax on land of which the nobles were no longer allowed to take a part of this money. However, they were still allowed a good tax break. France’s finances were strengthened through commerce and trade as well as new manufacturers, industries, and inventors who created silk and tapestries to produce for France. He also commissioned professional manufacturers and artisans from all parts of Europe to decrease French dependence on foreign imported goods at the same time increasing French exports.This considerably decreased the flow of money leaving France. Colbert also improved the navy and its prestige to gain control of the seas in time of war and peace. His improvements extended to the highways and waterways of France to decrease the cost of transportation of goods domestically. Outside of France, Colbert and the king thoroughly encouraged the development of colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Americas to provide markets for French exports and resources for French industries. The above changes brought immense wealth back to France.
Due to Louis love and close contact with his mother during his growing years, he developed a discriminating love of the arts, both literal and visual. His favorite written work was none other than the dramatist, Jean Racine whom he later kept as his official historian. When the opportunity arose, he loved Racine’s books being read to him. Through his mother’s training, he was polite, had a commanding regal air, and accomplished at ceremonial functions and display. He was very devout in attending mass everyday as a Catholic and deeply suspicious of Protestants and Jansenets; a group of Catholic Augestinian, in general. He really believed in his heart of hearts until his death, as king he answered to no one but God. This was his right. He was arrogant, attended court regularly with socializing, dancing, fencing, and riding. However, when it came to matters of the state or studying, he was very hard working. What he lacked in intelligence, he more than made up for in common sense which bordered on genius when it came to selecting the very finest ministers or major decisions to improve France; such as breaking down the nobles to work for him rather than against. He also paid tremendous attention to the tiniest details.
In conclusion, Louis XIV ruled France from 1643 – 1715, was the premier example of the absolute European monarch. During his reign, he increased the Crown’s influence and authority over the Church and aristocracy, thereby consolidating absolute monarchy in France. Louis XIV was known as the sun king, everything in France and Europe revolved around him; he was the source of power. His construction of the Palace of Versailles not only further weakened the nobility; it was a future base for kings to come. He brought immense culture to France. He ruled with dignity, self control, used an iron hand all while remaining polite and somewhat affable. Most decisions benefitted France; and the mistake that harmed him most was the revocation of the Edict of Nantes which pushed Protestants to leave France.
