Elizabeth Kennedy Shloss Western Civ 19 November 2014 Louis XIV: The Sun King Louis XIV was a dominant, compelling King who ruled as an absolute monarch of France from 1628-1715. Louis had a great impact on France and subsequently the Western world. Louis XIV, during his reign in France made several innovations and achievements in ruling a nation that have been broadly adopted in the western world including centralizing government, expanding France’s borders, and raised influence of the arts. The palace of Versailles was built in order to centralize government and King Louis XIV’s absolute power, which affected France’s nation by shifting the center of government under his control. In 1682, King Louis XIV moved his court and government to the new, exquisite Palace of Versailles.
The damaging habits of the king and the damaged economy nearly pushed France to disaster and were just one of the many problems that emerged from the reign of Louis XIV. Another aspect of Louis XIV’s reign was the fact that he had a very powerful and influential personality and he had absolute control over the people of France. Louis forced many important nobles to live with him in the Versailles palace so that they would not be influenced by the lower class people to revolt. By doing this, he essentially became the centre of their lives. The nobles had to take ballet lessons
In Harry Ammon’s book, The Genet Mission, the author describes how the impact of Edmond Genet, who served as ambassador to the United States of the newly formed French Republic, affected the United States who was divided on the issue of neutrality in the Wars of the French Revolution. Genet attempted to persuade the United States into fostering relations with the new French nation through the creation of a French influence in the states while he rallied American support to enter into the wars that were plaguing Europe. However, the author’s message to the audience shows how vital Genet was, not just in terms of foreign affairs of the United States, but also in its domestic policies. Before starting, it is important to take an in-depth examination of Ammon’s thesis. Ammon rationalizes that the affairs of the ambassador were significant in the development of the political parties of the country.
King Louis XIV hoped this would deter the noble class “from developing their own regional power,” according to the article, The Palace of Versailles. Louis XIV truly believed that for the government of France to stay in good hands, he would need to have absolute control, and by keeping rich nobles close to him in Versailles, nothing would be treating his control, and to King Louis, that translates to him doing a good job as
Louis XVI had a huge role in causing the French Revolution. However it was not just Louis who caused the French Revolution, there was bad harvest which led the people hungry and there were the very angry peasants. Louis played a large role in causing the French Revolution. For example, he was a very stupid because he did not lead the country properly because he was more interested in making clocks rather than ruling the country and that lead to his wife to interfere with the running of the country and had gained more power than she already had. Another reason for why Louis was blamed was the unhappiness of the third estate.
He did not share his power with anyone or any organization. He limited the power of his nobles and princes by having them live in his palace where their power would have been void. The nobles over time felt they needed to please Louis in return for letting them live in the Palace of Versailles (Doc 5). Louis attempted to control Protestants in France by making them convert to Catholicism. In addition he would not allow them to leave the country and he took down their churches (Doc 6).
Even though Philip II and Louis XIV use supreme power for different purposes, they both thought every decision they made was the correct one. This confidence would lead to the people of their regions having trust in their decisions, which is one of the reasons they did not revolt against these absolute monarchs. The sourcebook reads, “During his reign, Louis did not once call a meeting of the Estates General, the medieval council made up of representatives of all French social classes.” Louis XIV was so confident, he felt that he did not think anyone’s opinion but his own mattered. Everyone saw Louis confidence so much that he received the nickname, “the grand monarch.” Louis did not even bother to ask for anyone else's input, he just did what he thought would be best for himself. Philip had quiet confidence, which means he did not think that he was the smartest, he knew he was the smartest and so did everyone else.
Lous XIV was a foreordained regent for the throne, as the predecessor, after his father passed away. Though in succession, not long after his father died, the actual power was first handed to Cardinal Mazarin, Louis was 5 at the time. It wasn’t until 1661, after the death of Mazarin that Louis was finally seated on the throne and began his reign of ruling tyranny as a King. After Mazarin’s death, Louis took absolute power as the new king of France — though, by this time, France was not economically strong after the Thirty Year War. Although Louis was seated on the throne at the age of 5 in1643, he wasn’t fully taken to the position until he was 22 years old.
4). The French Revolution was not against Louis XVI. but against the despotic principles of the Government (doc. 4). These principles were no longer able to be removed.
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