He collected taxes without the consent of the estates general in order establish many things, fund a series of wars, build a bigger and stronger military and to build his palace, the Palace of Versailles, when it was built he insisted that the nobles spend more time there (Doc 2). This eventually led the nobles into debt because they spent most of their time and money at the Palace of Versailles. The nobles being in debt meant that they lost status and power, which ultimately fed the basis for the French Revolution. Document 3 states; “The aftermath of the revocation was disastrous for France. Many of those who abjured [gave up] their Protestant religion repented of their weakness.”(Doc 3) This demonstrates that the removal of the Edict of Nantes drove people insane because it granted the people France substantial rights, however when the rights were removed by Louis XIV people became infuriated, which is another reason to why the French Revolution occurred. Fundamentally, the actions that Louis XIV took had a great impact towards his people. His actions ultimately led the people of France initiate the French Revolution, which left France and its people in a vulnerable
During the 1600s and 1700s a new type of monarch emerged known as an absolute ruler. Some of these rulers were Louis XIV, the Fredericks of Prussia, and Peter the Great. These rulers believed that a monarch had a divine right to rule and should only listen to God. All these rulers had characteristics that defined them as absolutists. Louis XIV was constantly at war during his reign which resulted in a powerful army. Also, during this time period, Frederick William I transformed Prussia into a military state. To become an absolute ruler, Peter the Great made many reforms throughout Russia. However, all these absolute leaders had the same goal. Even though they reigned over different countries, they all strengthened their armies, raised taxes, and unified religion.
In 1789, France was precariously balanced on the edge of chaos. King Louis XVI was ruling monarch of France. King Louis’ youth depicted him as reckless, thoughtless, and unwise. A series of bad financial and political decisions, lead to his unpopularity among the people of France. King Louis was young, distracted and misguided. He did make several bad decisions that endangered France and contributed to the beginning of the French Revolution. However, he is not entirely to blame due to several other highly contributing factors.
Louis XIV was a very conceited person. He thought that everything and everyone should revolve around him. Louis XIV led an absolute monarchy in France. He called himself “Sun King” because he thought that everyone and everything should revolve around him. He made sure that he had absolute power over everyone and no one else had a say in what happened.
During this time period, a majority of the rulers were absolute rulers, having absolute power over their country. King Louis XIV of France recommended absolute rule because he believed that the less people there are to exploit it. (Document 3) I agree with him and I believe it is one of the reasons for the prosperity of absolutism. When one person controls an entire country,
The government was known to be corrupt and there was a major gap in wealth. While the monarchy and nobility were very well off, lower classes were taxed highly and starving, and the country was close to bankruptcy. The king, Louis XVI, was becoming extremely unpopular, due to his extravagant spending and lack of contact with the public. People were becoming more and more discontent with the way the country was being run – people wanted change.
Such as Frederick William I of Prussia, otherwise known as “The Soldier King”. He increased his army, and land which therefore increased his power over the country. By increasing his army he made his country feel safe, and instilled fear in his people. This caused for his power over the people to increase therefore allowing him to become an absolute monarch. Louis the XIV also increased his military powers, which increased his total power. He had many wars that he fought in order to increase his land. He grew the country the France with these wars. By growing the land that France owned he increased his power by increasing the amount of people he ruled over, and also gained the respect of the people making it easier for him to be an absolute
Even though Philip II and Louis XIV were both absolute monarchs, they were still very different types of rulers with similarities and differences. Philip II and Louis XIV were absolute monarchs who believed that they should have supreme power over everyone. In addition to this similarity, they both loved art and control over territory shown by the way they prioritized it. While they both share a love for power and art, they do not share a love for each other’s lifestyles. Louis XIV lived a lavish lifestyle while Philip lived a spartan lifestyle. Despite their very different lifestyles, Philip II and Louis XIV both were similar in their way of enforcing supreme power with divine right, and they both made the arts and expansion of their countries
Since Louis XIV inherited his monarchy at the mere age of five years old, his nation was run by Cardinal Mazarin until his death in 1642. After the cardinal’s death, Louis began to reform France through his absolute rule which is apparent in the words he uttered the day he came into power: “Messieurs, I have come to my Parliament to tell you that, following the law of the land, I intend to take over the government myself; and I hope with the goodness of God it will be with piety and justice” (Horne 107). Even when he just began to rule, Louis XIV had full intent to take over France absolutely for the betterment of the country. The main principle of his absolute monarchy was weakening his nobility so that they had little to no control over the state. This was quite simple when he forced his nobility to live in the Palace of Versailles, planning various parties and banquets in order to keep the nobles preoccupied so that he could truly rule France. By weakening his nobility, Louis XIV had to ability to make sure anything that happened in France was under his control. These nobles did not even have to ability employ someone without specifically asking their king for his permission. An example of his authority over French nobles is shown in a meeting he once prevented from occurring
Between the years of 1785 and 1793, the French society was on the verge of collapsing. There was poverty and famine roaming the streets, making it nearly impossible to survive given the ridiculously high and unjust taxing system. King Louis XVI, who was the ruler at the time, was a main contributor to these problems that led France to its downfall. The country had a massive lack of resources and food, which led King Louis XVI to borrow more money than he could afford, thus putting the country in immense debt. Despite the very visible crisis overthrowing the country, the king was incapable of accepting his mistakes and refused to change his ways. He maintained the unjust voting system, known as the Estates-General, and worsened the taxing system in order to pay off his debts. The people, especially those of the Third Estate, were clearly angry and dissatisfied with the state of the country, which led them seek out a movement for what was right. They began the French Revolution, which wouldn’t have been possible if Louis’ actions hadn’t been as drastic as they were. To a greater extent, King Louis XVI can be held accountable for the main causes of the French Revolution due to the wars that he refused to drop because of his stubborn personality and the National
This document review describes and compares three documents written by the rulers of three European nations: Louis XIV, the king of France; Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg-Prussia; and Peter the Great, the emperor of Russia. Through these documents, we are able to see what was most important to these monarchs, and what they considered best for themselves and their countries. Although textbooks are useful for reading descriptions of historical people and events, through reading documents such as these, we are able to see not only what these rulers did, but also their motives and their rationalizations of their decisions.
This can help to increase the land of country. It is also important that the ruler has to have a superior knowledge about politics and economy. So that they will have less possibility of getting into trouble with other countries and they can prevent the country from having a lot of debt. He should not share his power with anyone such as parliament, because he should have full power over his country. He should have the courage to make any sort of decisions without any hesitation and according to me they should also think about themselves and have a bit self-interest . An ideal example for an absolute monarch is Louis XIV. Louis XIV was France’s king in 1643, He became the king at the age of 4. Louis XIV had control over everything after reconstructing the french government and he had all the decision making power. During his period of rule, which was from 1643 to 1715 he had brought his empire to the top of the chain. He made it very clear that he would hear everyone’s opinion but his decision would be his decision and wouldn’t be influenced by
This type of ruling system seems as if it were set up to fail from the start. Giving land and some power to vassals is risky; control would be hard to maintain. Somehow, the monarchy found a way to keep them in check and it worked for a long time. The ingenious way they were able to keep order was through war. King William was able to keep his vassals in check due to his show of strength (source 1). It would have not been possible to control them if he were a weak king. Just showing a little flex in his rule scared the rebellion into submission. The rebellion would have lasted a lot longer if the King did not build those fortresses. The vassals went into rebellion because their leashes were very loose. They forgot that they were under the rule
You wake up tomorrow morning, and discover that The President has crowned himself king. He then continues today that you must be Christian, he also single handedly controls the military, and the economy. How long would that last? That's right, he would be dead by the end of the month.We as a people refuse to be ruled by a single entity for any reason, so why would the people of this time period bend so easily? Power, God, and Trust. These three things are what makes kings king. But is an absolute monarchy practical for the state? Can it be considered a viable form of government? Absolutely, albeit with its flaws, a good monarch can lead a country to greatness
At the age of twenty-three Louis XIV of France declared his determination to be what he referred to as ‘real king’ – to become the sole and absolute ruler of France. To achieve this he invested himself in establishing a meticulous routine, but never did the king view his duties as a toil as his belief was that it was the primary duty of a royal prince to always present himself as noble and composed. Willing in his search for glorification, Louis spent his lifetime creating a magnificent and grand spectacle at the court of Versailles. The self-proclaimed ‘Roi du Soleil’ believed wholly in the theory of absolute monarchy and consciously spent his years embodying the spirit of the sun, and employing countless displays of spectacle which frequently