Louis XIV

1. Louis XIV The Sun King

2. Today we will… • Describe how Louis XIV strengthened royal power in France. • Explain why Louis XIV was afraid of the nobility and how he sought to control them. • List the successes of Louis XIV. • List the failures of Louis XIV.

3. Louis Early Life… • He was the great grandson of Phillip II of Spain. • When Louis was five he inherited the throne. • He entrusted the government to his adviser Cardinal Jules Mazarin. • While a child, Louis was driven from the royal palace by a riot called the Fronde. • The Frondeleft Louis emotionally scarred. • The Fronde was comprised of nobles, merchants, peasants, and the urban poor who were unhappy with conditions in France.

4. STOP!! Fill in Box 1 Now

5. What do you think Louis XIV meant when he said, “I am the State?”

6. STOP!! Fill in Box 2 Now

7. “I Am the State” or “L’etat, c’est moi” • Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661 and Louis resolved to take over the government. • “I have been pleased to entrust the government of my affairs to the late cardinal,” he declared • “It is now time that I govern them myself.”

8. The Sun King • Louis took the sun as his symbol of royal power. • Just as the sun stands at the center of our solar system, he argued, so the Sun King stands at the center of our nation. • During his reign, Louis did not call a meeting of the Estates-General, the medieval council made up of representatives of all French social classes. • In fact, the Estates-General did not meet between 1614-1789. • The Estates-General played no role in checking royal power.

9. STOP!! Fill in Box 3 Now

10. Strengthening Royal Power • Louis spent many hours each day attending to government affairs. • To strengthen the state, he followed the policies of Cardinal Richelieu. • He expanded the bureaucracy and appointed intendants (royal officials) • The office of intendant and other governmental jobs went to wealthy middle-class men. • The intendants recruited soldiers, collected taxes, and carried out government policies. • By using intendants, Louis cemented ties between himself and the middle class.

11. Louis Strengthens the Army • As with all absolute monarchs, Louis created a permanent standing army. • The French army became the strongest in Europe. • The state paid, fed, trained, and supplied up to 300,000 soldiers. • Louis used this army to enforce his policies at home and abroad.

12. STOP!! Fill in Box 4 Now

13. Colbert and the Economy (Mercantilism) • Louis had a brilliant minister named Jean Baptiste Colbert. • Colbert followed mercantilist policies to bolster the economy. • His goal was to make France self-sufficient. • A nation’s wealth is determined by how much gold it is able to keep within the country. A favorable balance of trade. • He built up French farming and manufacturing. • He put high tariffs on imported goods. • He encouraged overseas colonies in North America (New France) and regulated trade with the colonies.

14. Colbert’s Effect on France • Colbert’s policies helped make France the wealthiest state in Europe. • Nonetheless, Louis was often short of cash. • Not even the financial genius of Colbert could produce enough income to support the huge costs of Louis’ courts or pay for his many foreign wars.

15. STOP!! Fill in Box 5Now

16. A High-Maintenance King • “No expense is too great.” Applying this rule certainly helped Louis XIV make sure his every wish was fulfilled. • For Example – • As much as 1.5 billion may have been taken from the French treasury to build his lavish palace Versailles. Tens of thousands of workers spent decades building this project. • One minor item for Versailles was his bathtub, which was carved out of a single piece of priceless Languedoc marble. • Guards were stationed at every fountain in Versailles gardens. The guards job was to turn the fountain on whenever the king approached.

17. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power

18. Versailles

19. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power • In the countryside near Paris, Louis turned a royal hunting lodge into the immense palace of Versailles. • He spared no expense to make it the most magnificent in Europe. • Its halls and salons displayed the finest paintings, status, glittering chandeliers and mirrors. • In the royal gardens, millions of flowers, trees, and fountains were set out in precise geometric patterns. • The greatest room remains the hall of mirrors.

20. My Trip To Versailles

21. My Trip to Versailles

22. Versailles, Symbol of Royal Power • Versailles became the perfect symbol of the Sun King’s wealth and power. • As both the King’s home and the seat of government, it housed at least 10,000 people, from nobles to servants. • Court life was a mixture of parties, balls, puppet shows, concerts, hunting and hawking expeditions, and a dozen other types of diversions.

23. Court Ceremonies • With such titles as “The Sun King,” “The Grand Monarch,” and “Louis the Great,” the king drew much attention to his position. • Louis perfected elaborate ceremonies to occupy the nobles of France. • Each day began in the king’s bedroom with a major ritual known as the leve’e or rising. High ranking nobles would compete for the honor of holding the royal wash basin or handing the king his diamond-buckled shoes. • At night the nobles competed for the honor of undressing him called the corve’e.

24. STOP!! Fill in Box 6 Now

25. Court Ceremonies • Rituals such as these served a serious purpose. • French nobles were descendants of feudal lords who held power in medieval times. • Left at their estates, these nobles were a threat to the monarchy. • By luring the nobles to Versailles, Louis subtlety turned them into courtiers angling for privileges rather than warriors battling for power. • Louis carefully protected their prestige and excused them from paying taxes.

26. Versailles Had its Problems too! • Versailles became the home to thousands of noble men and women. • The odors caused the grounds to smell constantly. • Louis ordered hundreds of fragrant orange trees in boxes to be placed about the grounds to cover up the stench. • The palace was also drafty and cold. • Water would freeze on the bed stands at night. • Meals were served cold because the kitchen was far away.

27. Louis’ Control of France • Louis was paranoid about having ultimate control of France. • The Fronde left him emotionally scarred and bitter. • In order to take power away from the nobles, he sold noble titles called peerages. • He also could be ruthless and tyrannical. • By using a power called the letter de cachet, any document which bore the royal seal could send them into exile or imprisonment.

28. Cultural Flowering • The king and his court supported a “splendid century” of the arts. • Louis sponsored musical entertainments and commissioned plays by the best playwrights. • Louis was particularly fond of ballet. Performing in many during his lifetime. • In painting, music, architecture, and decorative arts, French style became the model for all of Europe.

29. Successes and Failures • Louis ruled France for 72 years, far longer than any other monarch. • During his reign, French culture, manners, and customs replaced those of Renaissance Italy. • In both foreign and domestic affairs, many of Louis’ policies were costly failures.

30. STOP!! Fill in Box 7 Now

31. Wars of Louis XIV • Louis XIV poured vast resources into wars to expand France’s borders. • At first, he did gain some territory. • His later wars were disastrous, though, because rival rulers joined forces to check French ambitions. • Led by the Dutch or English, these alliances fought to maintain the balance of power in Europe.

32. War of the Spanish Succession • In 1700, Louis’ grandson, Phillip V, inherited the throne of Spain. • Louis declared that France and Spain must regard themselves as “one.” • But neighboring powers led by England were determined to prevent this union. • The War of the Spanish Succession dragged on until 1713. • In 1713, an exhausted France signed the Treaty of Utrecht. • Phillip remained the Spanish king but France agreed never to unite the two crowns. Phillip V

33. Persecution of the Huguenots • Louis saw France’s protestant minority as a threat to religious and political unity. • Jansenism Threat • In 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes. • More than 100,000 Huguenots fled France. • The persecution of the Huguenots was perhaps the king’s most costly blunder. • The Huguenots had been among the most hard-working and prosperous of Louis’ subjects. • Their loss was a serious blow to the French economy, just as the expulsion of Jews and Muslims had been in Spain.

34. STOP!! Fill in Box 8 Now

35. Looking Ahead • Louis outlived his sons and grandsons. • When he died in 1715, his five year old great grandson inherited the throne as Louis XV. • The prosperity nurtured by Colbert evaporated under heavy taxation, poor harvests, and bad decisions. • Louis XV was too weak a king to deal with such problems. • He devoted his days to pleasure and ignored the pleas for reform. • He often quoted an old proverb, “after us, the deluge.” • As you will see later on, the deluge came during the reign of the next king. Louis XV

36. Random facts about Louis XIV • A clock at the palace of King Louis XIV stopped at 7:45am, the time of his death. • The clock has not been fixed since that day, and to this day still reads a quarter to eight. • When Louis XVI of France was a child, an astrologer warned him to be always on his guard on the twenty-first day of every month. • His date of death is January 21st, 1793. Now that's scary. • Louisiana was named in honor of Louis XIV

38. In your opinion…. • Was Louis XIV a good king or a bad king? Give at least 3 reasons why you feel this way.

39. Another wonderful powerpoint presentation brought to you by JTM ProductionsWritten by Jon McLaughlinEdited by Jon McLaughlinDirected by Jon McLaughlinTravel provided by Air FranceHave a wonderful day!!!