-
Ancien Regime
- France's aristocratic, social, and political system from the 15th century to the 18th century (late Valois-->Bourbon)
- Francis I, Henry II, Charles IX (St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre), Henry III (War of 3 Henrys), Henry IV (1st Bourbon King), Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI
-
Laying the Groundwork (1)
Cardinal Richelieu
- Chief minister (1624-1642)
- wanted to weaken Hapsburg power (Austro-Spanish)
- aligned w/ Protestants outside of France during 30 Years' War (persecuted them at home)
- created a dominant centralized state; secured royal power and weakened noble power; nobles began to resent crown's increase of power
- Reason of State: well-being and stability of the state (gov.) is most important; all gov. action should be directed to this end; includes actions considered illegal/immoral under ordinary circumstances; Realpolitik or Machiavellian
- secured French monarchy against internal and external rivals
- growth of modern French state amounts to transfer of power from nobility of crown
- Siege of La Rochelle (1628): apex of tensions b/w Catholics and Protestants in France
- Peace of Alais/Edict of Grace (1629): ends Siege of La Rochelle; brings 1st modification to Henry IV's Edict of Nantes; Huguenots lose their special fortified territories
- Day of Dupes (1630): Louis XIII chooses Richelieu over his mother, Marie de' Medici
- Intendants: tax official that works directly for the crown; collected taxes more efficiently
- "Creatures of Gratitude": people who are loyal to the monarchy because they have been provided with jobs they would usually not have
- foreign policy for greater glorty of France; sustained effort against Hapsburgs
-
Laying the Groundwork (2)
Cardinal Mazarin
- succeeded Richelieu (r. 1643-1661); continues his policies
- functioned as co-ruler of France b/c Louis XIV was too young to rule
- preaches Absolutism to Louis XIV; follows aggressive anti-Spanish policy
- Both Cardinals' actions spark the Fronde (1649-1652); series of noble rebellions against the increasing power of the monarchy; convinces Louis that his rule must include the support of the nobles
-
Louis XIV "The Sun King" (1638-1715)
- assumes total control of gov. in 1661; appoints no chief minister; wants absolute power; wants nobles to like him (they hated chief ministers)
- marries Marie Theresa of Spain
- Coutume: legal customs
- shapes established institutions to his will
- gov. advisors/ministers=mix of nobles and intellectuals w/o noble blood old aristocratic army commanders are replaced by new obedient professional offers with no royal blood
- meets w/ regional judicial bodies calledparlements before making laws; represented opposition to king
- Parlements passed laws that applied to their jurisdictions; they could also appeal national laws that were put in place by the king
- Parlement of Paris: notorious for refusing legislation in which they disagreed
- Edict of 1673: requires parlements to register lawsbefore they appeal them; deprived parlements of the ability to remonstrate (complain); most other parlements resented the Parlement of Paris' power and supported Louis' edict; weakened nobles and enemies of Louis XIV
- all of France feels Louis' rule, but none more than the nobility
-
Louis XIV "The Sun King" (1638-1715)
Propaganda
- Versailles: palace built (1676-1708) to show Louis' financial supremacy over French nobles
- meticulously designed to show grandeur and glory of the Sun King
- court life organized around daily routine
- example of Baroque architecture
-
Louis XIV "The Sun King" (1638-1715)
Divine Right
- Jacques Benigne Bossuet: Louis' son's tutor; defended "divine right of kings"; kings=popes (judged only by God); not judged by people or nobles; "L'Etat c'est moi" ("I am the state")-Louis XIV
- Lettres de cachet: letters enclosed with royal seal; allowed Louis to send enemies to prison w/o a trial; allows him to push national laws past apealing parlements; becomes symbol of abuses of Ancien Regime monarchies
-
Jean Baptiste Colbert (1)
- served Louis XIV as controller general of finances from 1662-1683
- Mercantilist: promote national economic prosperity by maximising exports (expansion of commerce)
- Mercantilism: economic growth in one state requires a decline in others; economics, like diplomacy,. is a war carried on by peaceful means; nations are seeaking a "favorable balance of trade" (export>import)
- wealth measured by amount of precious metals in a country's possession (build up France's gold and silver supply)
- hoped that France would become self-sufficient by manufacturing everything and not relying on imports; high tarifs on foreign goods (mainly Dutch and English)
- founded East and West India trading companies
-
Jean Baptiste Colbert (2)
- attempted to eliminate nobility's economic power; unable to do so (ineffective taxation system)
- nobles and clergy exempt from most direct taxes (land taxes)
- main tax burden falls onto peasants to increase France's merchant fleet; Gabelle (tax on salt)
- need for a good internal transportation network connecting ports to industries increases; revives the corvee (forced labor)
- despite his effots, France becomes exceedingly impoverished because of Louis' excessive spending on wars and extravagance
-
Louis XIV at War (1667-1685)
Louis' Concerns with Expansion
- secure borders along Spanish Netherlands, Franche-Comte, Alsace and Lorrain
- frustrate Hapsburg ambitions by securing the South near Spain
- Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668): settles War of Devolution; mediated by the Triple Alliance (England, Dutch Republic, Sweden); France gains portions of Spanish Netherlands (forced to give back Franche-Comte)
- Right of Devolution: reason why Louis goes to war in Spanish Netherlands
- Treaty of Dover (1670): secret alignment with Charles II and England against Netherlands; France had to assist England in rejoining the Roman Catholic Church; England had to help France in the war
- Dutch War (1672-1678): France wins more territory in the east and northeast
-
War at Home (1)
Gallicanism
- in Catholic Christendom, French crown has special privileges over clerical establishment in its own boundaries
- king exercises administrative control over Catholic Church in Frances; recognizes the pope's authority over faith and morals
- Ultramontanism: opposite of Gallicanism; Catholic doctrine of central papal supremacy
-
War at Home (2)
Jansenists and Huguenots
- Cornelius Jansen: founder of Jansenism; believed political unity and stability require religious conformity
- Jansenists: Roman Catholics who oppose Jesuit monopoly on education; disagree with Jesuit ideas on free will; favor St. Augustine's ideas about original sin and mankind's inability to influence their salvation; becomes allies with members of the Fronde rebellions (many Jansenists were nobles); Louis XIV enforces papal bull by Pope Innocent X deeming Jansenists heretics (closes their monasteries)
- Dragonnades (1681): policy to intimidate Huguenots into Roman Catholic conversion/leave France; many seek asylum in England
-
War at Home (3)
Edict of Fontainbleau/Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685)
- Madame de Maintenon: mistress and second "wife" of Louis XIV; staunch Catholic; convinced Louis to go after Huguenots; they were previously protected by Colbert (they helped France financially); after Colbert dies, he pursues them more aggressively; Louis becomes "New Constantine"
- Louis revokes the edict of Nantes and forbids Huguenots to practice their faith; demolishes Protestant churches and schools; ministers had 15 days to leave France or become imprisoned; Protestant children were kidnapped and baptized by Catholic priests
- about 200,000 Protestants leave France for England, the Dutch Republic, and Brandenburg-Prussia
- emigres: French Protestants forced to leave; took skills to new countries; economically helping new countries and hurting France
- Protestants across Europe consider Louis XIV a fanatic who must be opposed
-
Louis XIV vs. All of Europe
England: The Unexpected Enemy
- Glorious Revolution installs William and Mary; replaces louis' ally James II (William and Mary=Protestants)
- King William III engineers the League of Augsburg
- League of Augsburg: formed to defend Palatinate from France; Great Britain, Spain, Sweden, united Dutch provinces, and major German city states
-
Louis XIV vs. All of Europe
Nine Years' War (1688-1697)
- Leage of Augsburg vs. France
- France attempted to extend its borderrs
- France supports Jacobite rebellions to reinstall House of Stuart in England
- France loses war
- Peace of Ryswick: ends Nine Years' War
-
Louis XIV vs. All of Europe
War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
- Charles II: last Spanish habsburg king; Philip IV's son; died without an heir; Spanish territories go to Philip of Anjou/Philip V on the condition that he renounces his claim to the throne of France
- Philip of Anjou/Philip V: grandson of louis XIV; great-nephew of Charles II
- Louis XIV and the Bourbon family are the most powerful people in Europe
- Grand Alliance: Great Britain, Dutch Republic, major German city states; formed to preserve the balance of power against France and Spain
- Treaty of Utrecht: Philip can be king of Spain; neither he nor his successors can ever occupy the French throne; split of Spanish Bourbons and French Bourbons; Bourbon family is no longer the most powerful
- Treaty of Rastatt: ended hostilities b/w France and Austria from the War of the Spanish Succession; Louis had to return conquered lands (Spanish Netherlands, Italy, Spain); most of it goes to Austria
- Both the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession severely weaken France
-
France after Louis XIV's Death (1)
- Louis dies in 1715
- succeeded by his great-grandson who becomes Louis XV
- Philippe Duke of Orleans (1715-1723): regent for Louis XV; handed financial management over to John Law (Englishman); renewed authority of the parlements; French nobility given power in the government again
- John Law: propsed printing paper notes as a meanst to alleviate France's debt; creation of National Bank; Mississippi Bubble: increase in paper-money not backed by enough silver and gold leads to financial problems (inflation)
- Bubble: term in economics that is applied to an unusually rapid increase in stock prices/value of some other asset such as real estate
-
France after Louis XIV's Death (2)
Cardinal Fleury (1726-1743)
- chief minister of Louis XV
- enables fiscal reforms; allow French finances to recover from costly wars of Louis XIV and extravagances of Philippe
- maintains peace in foreign affiars mainly w/ cooperation of Sir Robert Walpole
- cannot prevent France from entering the world-wide conflict (War of Austrian Succession) in the 1740s
-
French Conclusion
- From 1589 to the early 1640s, King Henry IV and Louis XIII (along with their chief ministers the Duke of Sully and Cardinal Richelieu) established foundations of French absolute monarcy
- Cardinal Mazarin's success (mid 17th century) in suppressing Fronde marked end of nobility's efforts to reassert its independence from royal authority, although nobles retained some of their traditional privileges
- King Louis XIV enjoyed virtually unchallenged authority
- revocation of the Edic of Nantes=blunder
- wars=extremely expensive
- when Louis XIV died in 1715, he left a legacy of financial problems for his successors to deal with
-
|
|
