french absolutism. 1560-1650: age of crisis accompanied by decline in religious orientation ...
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French Absolutism
1560-1650: Age of Crisis
Accompanied by decline in religious orientation
Growing secularization that affected political and intellectual worlds of Europe.
Modern State System Developed
17th century was a turning point in the evolution of the modern state system.
Idea of united Christendom in Europe gave way to practical realities of a system of secular states in which reason of state took precedence over salvation of subjects’ souls.
By 17th century, the credibility of Christianity had been so weakened in the religious wars that more and more Europeans could think of politics in secular terms.
Responses to Crisis
Privileged classes of society, the aristocrats, remained in control.
One of the responses to the crisis was a search for order within society.
The most general trend saw an extension of monarchical power as a stabilizing force – absolutism – most evident in France during the reign of Louis XIV.
But absolutism wasn’t the only response. Others, like England reacted differently to domestic crisis and another system emerged where monarchs were limited by power of their representative assemblies.
Characteristics of Western European
Absolutism Sovereignty of a country embodied in the person of the
ruler
Absolute monarchs not subordinate to national assemblies
Nobility was effectively brought under control
Bureaucracies often composed of career officials appointed by and solely accountable to the king
Monarchies gained effective control of the Roman Catholic Church
Maintained large standing armies
Employed secret police to weaken political opponents
Theory of Absolutism:Bodin
Jean Bodin (1530-1596)
Among first to provide theoretical basis for absolutism
Wrote during French Civil Wars: only absolutism could provide
order and force people to obey government.
Believed sovereign power consisted of the authority to make laws,
tax, administer justice, control the state’s administrative system,
and determine foreign policy.
Theory of Absolutism:Bossuet
Bishop Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704)
Principle advocate of “divine right of kings” during reign of Louis XIV
Argued government was divinely ordained so humans could live in an organized society.
He did caution that although a king’s authority was absolute, his power was not since he was limited by the law of God.
There was a large gulf between the theory of absolutism as expressed by Bossuet and the practice of absolutism. A monarch’s power was often limited by practical realities.
Development of French Absolutism –
17th century French society divided into 3 estates made up of various
classes:
- First Estate: clergy; 1% of population
- Second Estate: nobility; 3-4% of population
- Third Estate: bourgeoisie; artisans, urban workers, peasants
This hierarchy of social orders, based on rank and privilege was restored under the reign of Henry IV.
France primarily agrarian – 90% lived in countryside.
French population = 17 million
- largest country in Europe (20% of population)
France’s Religious Wars
1559: King Henry II of France died
Left four young sons – 3 of whom ruled one after the other, but incompetently
The real power behind the throne was Catherine de Medicis – their mother
Catherine tried to preserve royal power for her sons, but growing conflicts between Catholics and Huguenots were rocking France
St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre
Many Huguenot nobles were in Paris attending the marriage of Catherine’s daughter to the Huguenot prince, Henry of Navarre
Catherine had received reports that the Huguenots were planning on causing some trouble
Thousands of Huguenots were dragged from their beds and slaughtered – most of the nobles attending the wedding died
The rampage went on for six weeks
St. Bartholomew’s Day Massare
Henry of Navarre
Henry survived
1589: Henry inherited the throne of France when both Catherine and her last son died
He became Henry IV, the first king of the Bourbon dynasty
As king he was decisive, fearless in battle, and a clever politician – a politique
Henry and Religion
France was a Catholic country, most people opposed Henry as king
To save France, Henry gave up Protestantism and became a Catholic
He explained his conversion by declaring, “Paris is well worth a Mass.”
1598: Henry issued the Edict of Nantes – a declaration of religious tolerance toward Huguenots, who were free to practice their religion openly - except in Catholic episcopal towns and around Paris
Henry’s Legacy
Henry had enacted wise financial policies
He devoted his reign to rebuilding France and its prosperity
He restored the French monarchy to a strong position
The French people welcomed the peace after the religious wars
Henry was killed by a fanatic who hated him for his religious compromises
Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu
Henry IV’s son Louis XIII took reign after his father’s death
He was a weak king, but in 1624 he appointed a strong minister, Cardinal Richelieu
Richelieu became, in effect, the ruler of France
Although he tried to lead according to moral principles, he was also ambitious and enjoyed exercising authority
Steps Toward Absolutism
Richelieu took two steps to increase the power of the Bourbon dynasty
1) He moved against the Huguenots
- allowed worship but forbid walled cities and their
armies
2) He sought to weaken the power of the nobles cautiously
- made them take down fortified castles
- increased power of government agents from the
middle class; ended need for noble officials
- creeated elaborate network of spies to uncover conspiracies
Strengthening of Central Administration Sent out royal officials called intendants to
provinces to execute orders of the central government
Intendants came into conflict with provincial governors, but most of the time intendants won out.
Richelieu and the Thirty Years’ War
Richelieu wanted to make France the strongest state in Europe
He believed the greatest obstacle in achieving this goal was the Habsburg rulers whose lands surrounded France
Habsburgs ruled Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and parts of Germany
To limit Habsburg power, Richelieu involved France in the Thirty Years’ War; subsidized Protestant Sweden and sent troops to support Protestant cause against the Habsburgs.
Richelieu’s Finances
Here he was less capable.
Basic system of state finances were corrupt.
Many people benefited from the system’s inefficiency and injustice when it tried to reform it.
Taille (annual direct tax on land) was increased.
Expenditures, especially the cost of war, soon outstripped additional revenues.
French debt continued to spiral.
Richelieu’s Death
Richelieu died in 1642.
Louis XIII died five months later.
Skepticism
A new French intellectual movement developed after witnessing the religious wars
They turned to skepticism, the idea that nothing can ever be known for certain
These thinkers expressed an attitude of doubt toward churches that claimed to have the only correct set of doctrines
They believed to doubt old ideas was the first step toward finding truth
Montaigne and the Essay
After witnessing the death of a dear friend during the religious wars, Michel de Montaigne thought deeply about life’s meaning
To communicate his ideas, he developed a new form of literature – the essay
An essay is a brief work that expresses a person’s thoughts and opinions
He believed that humans could never have absolute knowledge of what is true – the beams of his study were painted with the sentence, “All that is certain is that nothing is certain.”
Rene Descartes
French writer and brilliant thinker
Wrote Meditations of First Philosophy which examined the skeptical argument that one could never be certain of anything
He used his observations and his reason to answer such arguments
He created a philosophy that influenced modern thinkers and helped to develop the scientific method
He became an important figure of the Enlightenment
Louis XIV and Cardinal Mazarin
1643: Louis became king when he was only 5 yrs. old, his great grandfather was Philip II (both believed in divine right rule)
Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, became Louis XIV regent.
She allowed Cardinal Mazarin, Richelieu’s successor, to be the true ruler of France.
Cardinal Mazarin
Impressions of Mazarin
Mazarin was greatly disliked by all elements of the French population because he was a foreigner – came from Italy as a papal legate.
Nobles resented the building of central power at the expense of the provincial nobility and they temporarily allied with members of the Parlement of Paris, who opposed new taxes bing levied by the government to pay for the Thirty Years’ War.
Masses were also angry at additional taxes.
The First Fronde1648-1649
The Parlement of Paris was the most important court in France. It had jurisdiction over half of the kingdom.
Members of the Parlement of Paris formed the nobles of the robe. These were the service nobility of lawyers and administrators.
The Parlement of Paris led the First Fronde which broke out in Paris and was ended by compromise.
The Second Fronde1650-1652
1648-1653: Anti-Mazarin riots, known as the Fronde, tore France apart
Nobles of the sword, ancestors of medieval nobles, led the riots that threatened the young king’s life.
They were interested in overthrowing Mazarin for their own purposes – to increase their power.
After the violence was over, Louis never forgot his fear or his anger at the nobility
He was determined to become so strong that they could never threaten him again
Failure of the Fronde The Fronde failed for three reasons:
1) Its leaders distrusted one another even more than
they distrusted Mazarin
2) The government used violent repression against it
3) Peasants and townspeople grew weary of disorder
and fighting
** For many years after it, the people of France accepted the
oppressive power of the absolute king believing rebellion was worse
Louis and Absolutism Henry IV, Richelieu, and Mazarin strengthened the French
monarchy
Mazarin died in 1661 and 23 yr. old Louis took control of the government
Louis weakened the power of the nobles by excluding them from his councils
He increased the power of the government agents, called intendants, who collected taxes and administered justice. These jobs went to wealthy middle class men.
Everyone in government was to communicate directly to him.
Louis never called the Estates General, the medieval council of representatives of all French social classes. They did not meet from 1614-1789. They were then no check on royal power.
Jean Baptiste Colbert
Colbert became Louis chief minister of finance
Colbert believed in the economic theory of mercantilism
Mercantilism relies upon a favorable balance of trade; so to keep wealth in France, Colbert tried to make France self-sufficient
He wanted to manufacture everything and not rely on imports
Colbert’s Mercantilist Policies
1) Gave government funds and tax benefits to French
companies
2) He placed a high tariff on goods from other countries
3) He recognized the importance of colonies as a source
of raw materials and markets for French goods
- He encouraged migration to French colony of
Canada where the fur trade added to French
commerce
Revocation of theEdict of Nantes
After Colbert’s death, Louis announced a policy that slowed France’s economic progress
1685: Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes which had protected the religious freedom of the Huguenots
In response, thousands of Huguenot artisans and business people fled the country
Louis’s policy thus robbed France of many skilled workers
Versailles Palace
VersaillesThe Hall of Mirrors
Louis’s Grand Style:Versailles
Louis spent a fortune surrounding himself with luxury
He built a splendid palace at Versailles, 11 miles southwest of Paris
Its rich decorations and furnishings clearly showed the wealth and power of Louis
He involved the nobility in elaborate court ceremonies like the levee to make them think that they were important
Having the nobles at the palace increased royal authority and allowed the intendants to have more power
The Palace at Versailles
Cost: $2 billion in 1994 dollars
Size: 500 yards; 2 wings (each 150 yds), 2,000 rooms
Gardens: 15,000 acres, 1,400 fountains
It took 36,000 laborers and 6,000 horses to build it
It took so much water to run all of the fountains at the same time that it was only done on special occasions
Patronage of the Arts
Versailles was the center of the arts during Louis’s reign
He made opera and ballet more popular
One of Louis’s favorite writers was Moliere
- wrote Tartuffe which mocks religious hypocrisy
- The Would-be Gentleman, mocks the newly rich
- The Imaginary Invalid, mocks hypochondriacs
Chief purpose of art under Louis was to glorify the king and promote values that supported Louis’s absolute rule
Louis’s Disastrous Wars
France became the most powerful country in Europe under Louis XIV
In 1660, they had 20 million people – 4x as many as England, and 10x the size of the Dutch republic
The French army numbered 100,000 in peacetime and 400,000 in wartime – far ahead of others in terms of size, training, and weaponry
Attempts to Expand France’s Boundaries
1667: Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands
- gained 12 towns
1672: He invaded the Dutch Netherlands
- Dutch saved their country by opening the dikes and
flooding the countryside (used tactic earlier against
Spain)
- Treaty of Nijmegen ended the war with France getting
several towns and a region called Franche-Comte
Balance of Power Politics
In the 1680s, a European-wide alliance had formed to stop France and Louis as he tried to create his “universal monarchy”
By joining together, weaker countries could match France’s strength
This defensive strategy was meant to achieve a balance of power, in which European nations maintained military and economic power so no single country or group of countries could dominate others
In 1689, William of Orange, the Dutch prince, became the king of England (in the Glorious Revolution). He joined the League of Augsburg which consisted of the Habsburg emperor, the kings of Sweden and Spain, and leaders of several smaller European states. Joined they equaled France’s strength.
War of the Spanish Succession
By this time the French were longing for peace.
France had been weakened by a series of poor harvests.
They also were suffering from constant warfare.
Louis’s added new taxes to finance his wars.
But in 1700, when the childless king of Spain, Charles II, died, Louis saw the opportunity to increase France’s power
Before his death, Charles had promised the throne to Louis XIV’s 17 year old grandson, Philip of Anjou.
The two greatest powers in Europe, enemies for so long, were going to both be ruled by Bourbons.
But other countries were resolved to not let this happen.
In 1701, England, Austria, the Dutch republic, Portugal, and several German and Italian states joined together against France and Spain in a struggle known as the War of the Spanish Succession.
The costly war dragged on until 1713 when the Treaty of Utrecht was signed.
Under the treaty, Louis’s grandson was to remain king of Spain so long as the thrones of France and Spain were not united
The Austrian Habsburgs took the Spanish Netherlands and other Spanish lands in Italy
Prussia and Savoy were recognized as kingdoms
Britain: The Big Winner
Britain took Gibraltar from Spain, a fortress that controlled the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea
Spain also granted a British company an asiento – permission to send enslaved Africans to Spain’s American colonies.
- this increased Britain’s involvement in trading
enslaved Africans
France gave Britain the North American territories of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, and abandoned claims to the Hudson Bay region
Louis’s Death and Legacy
When Louis was paving his way as the most powerful ruler in French history, he boasted, “L’etat, c’est moi,” meaning – “I am the state.”
But Louis’s last years were more sad than glorious.
He regretted the suffering he had brought to his people as a result of his disastrous wars.
He died in bed in 1715 – which brought rejoicing in France – they had had enough of the “Sun King.”
He had ruled for 72 yrs. – longer than any other European monarch
Louis had definitely left France as a power to be reckoned with in Europe
But his staggering debts and resentment over the royal abuse of power would plague Louis’s heirs.
Eventually this resentment led to a revolution.