Louis XIV: How did Louis XIV become the epitome of absolutism?

From a young age, Louis XIV had a fear of the nobility as the Fronde often spent time in his room in an attempt to keep him and his mother safe from the numerous outside threats. The freaks in his bedroom caused Louis XIV to resent these aristocratic men that encroached on his privacy as a young child and caused him everlasting humiliation.

Louis XIV is called the “Sun King” because of the grandeur of his court and cultural brilliance evident in every aspect of French culture. Louis’ long reign and unification of France under absolutist forms of rule contributed to his legendary status.

Receiving a practical education, Louis studied state papers and attended government meetings and courts in which Louis could learn foreign policy and receive authentic experience. Louis was raised with the belief that God had established earthly rulers in the form of kings. Because of the scarring experiences of his youth, with the weirdos in his home, Louis remained isolated, cautious and secret, all of which allowed his absolutist regime to become so successful.

Louis XIV is known for his “complete domestication of the nobility”, where he eliminated the pre-existing power threat of the aristocratic class of French society. In doing so, Louis XIC received complete control over the monarchy and governing of France. Louis did so through the peaceful means of cooperation between the nobility and the monarchy. An example of such cooperation is seen in the treatment of the province of Languedoc where Louis persuades the lords to support the construction of the Canal des Deux Mers or a canal that linked the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Because of this, the provincial business added to national business. As a result of cooperation, Louis won the increase of military taxation. While Louis won increased military taxation from the Estates of Languedoc as he granted the nobility of France privileged social status and increased access to the king. The French government under Louis XIV was one that relied heavily on this historical social structure where the nobility had power.

Louis XIV used Versailles, the town in which he established his royal courts, as a power play, forcing all nobility to come live with him there in luxury for a set amount of time. Versailles was a property of grandeur, vastness and elegance with intricate detailing in ever part of the mansion. The Hall of Mirrors is the best-known historical room within Versailles. The King used the expected awe that came upon living in Versailles to distract the nobles and other visitors. In this way, Versailles can be considered a “reflection of French genius.”

Louis XIV weakened the nobles by using the court ceremonials in which, by excluding them, he weakened their ancient right to advise the king and to participate in government. Nobles became instruments of royal policy. Social events that flaunted the noble’s status took up their time and attention instead of governmental concerns. Through Louis’ actions, he reduced the persistent threat to the monarchy by separating power from status without the nobles noticing. In doing so, he achieved their cooperation and content.

Through his entire reign as King, he never called a meeting of the Estates General, therefore avoiding any connection or potential gain of power from the nobility. The relationship between Louis XIV and the nobles was one of a superficial basis. Without the influence of the nobility, Louis XIV had absolute power over France. Louis XIV had “ninety-nine problems but absolutism ain’t (wasn’t) one!”

The Pasta Eater:

The Pasta Eater by Luca Giordano was a painting that was exemplary of Louis the XIV’s rule. Louis the XIV was getting his power without he fork of the nobility. The pasta can be considered governmental power, so without the use of the nobility (the rich used forks) he devoured the pasta that made his rule grow to be of the absolutist nature that it is known for.

Thanks guys! 

Franny <3

Absolute Unity Does Not Exist and Absolute Power Does Not Exist Absolutely 

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Those Wacky French. 

As it has generally been established, the life of the French peasantry in the Middle Ages was so terrible that if one were to apply the Hindu-caste system rationale to it then being born French was definitely a punishment for some seriously heinous karma. Following this logic, Hell is not a place, people's souls just travel back in time and reincarnate as Medieval European peasants.

Pictured: Hitler, Columbus, and Hussein in the Seventh Circle.

The peasants were unhappy with their situation and tried to deal with it just as their leaders had so set as precedent: by throwing tantrums and smashing things. 

Things were rather disorderly in the Court with all this rioting combined with the nobility's ever ongoing stubborn sulking. However, the crown and the nobles worked well enough together in their passive-aggressive system of checks and balances that France was almost a sovereign nation.  

• Sovereignty - when a state possesses a monopoly over the instruments of justice and the use of force within clearly defined boundaries. 

Eventually, the geniuses stepped up to solve the problem in France just as they always have when the croissant hits the fan. Henry IV, Cardinal Richelieu, and Louis XIV were the sort-of-Washington,  fascist Locke, and  Super-Nixon of 16th and 17th-century Not-America. 

Absolutionism

In the 17th and 18th centuries, France tried to unite itself by claiming that the monarchy held the divine right to rule and make the law of the land as a consequence. In order to enforce their power the kings weakened the nobles by leveling their castles and outlawing anyone from having a standing 

army other than the king. 

• Each ruling monarch sought to be seen as the embodiment of the state. 
• Features 
• expanded administrative bureaucracy 
• centralized government
• consent of the governed
• lack a rule of law - law made by a representative body.

Administrative Monarchy

The French Monarchy was not really absolute because it had to compromise with the nobles as the military, financial, and technological power of the state alone were not strong enough to handle affairs.

Some French You Should Love: 

It's about time something good happened to the French.

Henry IV 

was a model ruler. He had no trouble with the concept that so many monarchs fail to grasp; the reality that a king's one job is to hire the right people for a position. A king is basically a human magic 8 ball, when no one really knows what to do they just follow whatever nonsense spews from it so that something will get done.

Anyway. 

Henry created a country-wide highway system which increased prosperity. 

Kept France at peace, very little war 

Hired: 

Maximilien de Bethune, duke of Sully - the real genius in Henry's Court, the Hamilton to his Washington (see where that was going now?).  The changes he made to France's finances managed to pull the country out of ruin and into prosperity in only twelve years. 

• sharply lowered taxes
• to compensate introduced the paulette - an annual fee paid to royal officers to guarantee heredity in their offices. 
• indirect taxes on salt, sales, and leased their collection to financiers.

Armand Jean du Pleiss - Cardinal Richelieu - picked up where Henry and Sully left off. 

The Cardinal was placed into a position of authority by Marie de Medici, mother of Henry IV's successor, Louis XIII. 

Where Sully reformed France's finances for optimal efficency, Richelieu reformed the French government to function at full efficiency. 

Restored the tie of faith between the church and government, crushed Spain, Got the nobles to cooperate
Oh, and I brought the French vernacular to be the universal language. 

• General Philosophy: all groups and institutions are total subordinate to the French Monarchy. 
• Reforms
• Divided France into 32 districts 
• Put royal intendants in charge of the districts 
• Made communication between the crown and local governments much more effective. 
• Decreased the power of nobles. 
• Religious Unity - Roman Catholicism
• Ended all Protestant military and political dependence 
• Louis XIII's victory over the Protestant commercial center of La Rochelle weakened the influence of the aristocratic adherents of Calvinism. 
• Foreign Policy focus: destruction of the Habsburg territories that surrounded France.
• Supported the creation of a dictionary to standardize the French language. 
• Got the nobles to cooperate with the tax system of the monarchy despite limiting their power. Did this by sharing the proceeds of the revenue with local powers and permanently establishing the noble's freedom from taxation. 
• Created a philosophical reasoning that religiously justified the sometimes sacraligious nature of the state. 
• raison d'etat -  "Where the interests of the State are concerned, God absolves actions which, if privately committed, would be a crime.

The Fronde 

Removing Richelieu from the French Equation

• The interum between the Louis XIII/Richelieu rule and that of Louis XIV 
• A frondeur - anyone who opposed the policies of the government.
• Characterized by a lot of Civil War. 
• So horribly chaotic it would tramatize King Louis XIV, the greatest king of Europe, for the rest of his life. 
• Also notable for the defeat of Spain by the French in 1643, marking the end if Spanish military power in Europe. 

Louis XIV 

Stay tuned...

The Duc Quacks

Duc de Saint-Simon's Louis XIV Tell All

 According to Duc Louis de Rouvroy, King Louis XIV was ignored in his childhood because he was unattractive and had no talent, which caused him to develop an inferiority-superiority complex as an adult to make up for it. This caused the French Revolution because no one could stand him, yet he had the longest reign of any European monarch and it slowly drove the French mad.

Your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Versailles' elite. XOXO, the Duc.

Not that he did not have any good sides. Louis XIV worked hard to make up for his faults and is said to have had the smarts and heart of a potentially good king, it's just that his massive inferiority-superiority complex got in the way. His childhood was so bad that as a king he only favored sycophants who complimented everything he did no matter how wasteful or stupid and due to the spoils system that the French government was operating on at the time; this led to an entire Court and Church full of under-qualified suck-ups. 

Further, because he was still really paranoid that deep down no one loved him, he pulled a Richard Nixon and spied on those he did not like to varying degrees of secrecy. Unlike Nixon, no one could do anything about this, and it probably caused a lot of bad blood among the nobility over the years. 

Another quirk of Louis XIV according to Duc was his love of spending inordinate sums of cash and enjoyment of spending time with friends who spend just as much as he. As everyone was a suck up in his court, this caused all the nobles to spend beyond their means to gain his favor, which then made it a general social custom of France to show off your wealth using luxury. Oddly, this proved somewhat of a wise political move as it made most of the nobles even more dependent on him due to his control over their debts.

However, this all feels a lot like a member of an opponent party slinging mud at their rival parties candidate. Given the nasty murder habit of the unhappy French peasant and Louis XIV's incredibly long reign, the Duc's entertaining biography on the man should be taken with a grain of salt. 

hobbes nugget

·      Hobbes was an English philosopher and theorist famous for his Leviathan.

definitely a delby boy

·      Hobbes defined the natural condition of man as the merciless enemy of his peers. Thus, he believed, there was no point in working hard or developing one’s self or society as other men could and would rob you of the fruits of your labors.

"The condition of man is a condition of warre of everyone against everyone”

·      He was kind of like a Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God/predestination type, as exhibited by this portion of his extreme run on sentence, “worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short….”. He presented the natural fact that everyone was damned and then presented a solution.

when he realized that life is terrible

•      Hobbes believed that man’s fear of death and desire to live comfortably incline him to peace, and that man’s reason suggest that he draw a peaceful agreement with others. (reasonable, right?) However, this peace cannot be achieved because man is naturally always at everyone else’s throats. (so man's nature overpowered his passion and reason)
• o   There was absolutely no hope because the rights of man even stated that men are entitled to each other’s lives.

·      The only solution to this damned position was the establishment of an absolute monarchy, a man or assembly of men to whom everyone ceded all of their rights.

everything's going to be all right !!!!

o   The purpose of this common power was so that people weren’t just living as loners worrying about who would try to kill them next. This common power created a community and defense against the injuries brought on by foreigners and each other.

o   The establishment of this common power, known as absolutism, exploits man’s fear of death and desire for a comfortable life by guaranteeing these two wants and promising that there will be a price to pay if the line is crossed (and these tenets of absolutism are threatened).

§  This power also promises men that their work will be worth something, the fruits of their labor protected.

finally!!

·      Essentially, the people make up the leader because they have concentrated all of their voices, wills, judgments, and freedoms in him.
o   Hence the title,  Leviathan—very large and powerful sea creature that is the absolute monarch.

"I Authorize and give up my Right of Governing myself to this Man, or to this Assembly of men, on this condition, that thou give up thy Right to him, and Authorize all his Actions in like manner."

Rousseau's Essential Nugget

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(my reading was very long, so bear with me)
(and I don't know why everything is different fonts and size, the blog is not being cooperative)

• has two distinct social contract theories, found in his Second Discourse (an account of the moral and political evolution of human beings over time, from a State of Nature to modern society)
• naturalized/problematic account of the social contract
• normative/idealized theory of the social contract
• in his Second Discourse, he describes how the State of Nature progressed into civil society
• life used to be simple and peaceful, and there was no competition à when the population increased, there was more competition, conflict, and comparisons between people
• introduction of private property created more inequality, social classes, and ultimately the government to protect private property from those who don't have it
• invention of private property constitutes humanity's "fall from  grace" out of the State of Nature
• government claims to be in the interests of everyone equally, but it is really in the interests of the few who have become stronger and richer
• in The Social Contract, the normative social contract is supposed to respond to this state affairs and fix the social and moral ills that society has produced
• this distinction between the factual situation of mankind and how it ought to live together is very important to Rousseau à we must resolve the problems through our capacity to choose how we ought to live
• "Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains."
• humans are essentially free, but the "progress" of civilization has substituted subservience to others for that freedom, through dependence, economic and social inequalities, and the extent to which we judge ourselves through comparisons with others
• the purpose of politics is to restore freedom to us, reconciling who we are with how we live together à how can we be free and live together? how can we live together without succumbing to the force and coercion of others? à we can do so by submitting our individual wills to the collective/general will, created through agreement with other people
• since all men are naturally equal, no one has the right to govern others à the only justified authority is generated out of agreements/covenants
• most basic covenant = social pact, where people renounce their individual rights and become the foundation of society à general will is directed towards the common good now à the group is committed to the good of the individuals and the individuals are committed to the good of the group
• Rousseau implies a strong form of democracy where one can not transfer one's will to another
• the general will depends on every citizen coming together to decide how to live together, what laws to enact, etc.
• only possible in small states because people must be able to identify with each other and be united under common laws
• conditions for true democracy are strict and the only way we can save ourselves and regain the freedom to which we are naturally entitled
• in conclusion, we are endowed with freedom and equality by nature, but our nature has been corrupted by our social history à we can overcome this corruption by invoking our free will to reconstitute ourselves politically, along strongly democratic principles, which is good for us, both individually and collectively

Cardinal Richelieu's Political Testament

Let's learn about Richelieu-- the "cornerstone of French absolutism"

• Cardinal Richelieu was appointed by Marie de’Medici to the council of ministers and a year later became the first minister of the French crown. 
• "Richelieu used his strong influence over King Louis XIII (who was only thirteen at the time) to exalt the French monarchy as the embodiment of the French state”

the true embodiment of the French

• Richelieu wanted complete submission of all groups to the French monarchy. 
• In his Political Testament, he talks about how the government had been overrun by Huguenots, government officials, and nobles who do what they want. 
• Richelieu wanted to curb the power of the nobility and crush conspiracies.

• He said that the people who had managed the king’s foreign and domestic affairs had done badly and that they should be replaced. 
• He said, “the sad state of your affairs seemed to force you to hasty decisions.”

Richelieu to King Louis XIII

• The Cardinal wanted the French monarchy to hold all power. This involves bringing down the Huguenot's party, discrediting the pride of the nobles, and bringing back the good reputation and power of the king. 
• Richelieu believed in the centralization of the monarchy’s power would bring France back to its former glory.

-Cory :)