French Absolutism and Dutch Republicanism

I. Louis XIV.

A. Born, you might guess, to Louis XIII, and his wife, Anne of Austria, in 1638, after 23 years of marriage. Father dies in 1643, so ascends to the throne as a five-year-old. Louis XIII´s famous minister, Cardinal Richelieu, had died the year before. So a regency under the Queen Mother and the new minister, Cardinal Mazarin (1602-61). (Mazarin was Italian.)
B. The fundamental impact of the Fronde, 1649-53.
C. Youth, education, marriage--the life of royalty and nobility.
D. Louis XIV had made his first real decision by marrying the Spanish princess--to advance the interests of the state even at the expense of his love. Elevating the institution of the crown was now his goal.

II. To understand Louis XIV, also need to go back to the French Wars of Religion, which I mentioned last time. Out of these wars came: 1) a doctrine of resistance, and 2) a doctrine of absolutism.

A. Doctrine of resistance first formulated by French and Dutch Calvinists.

III. Yet on the other side, we see, not resistance, but the rise in power and legitimacy of the state.

A. Henry IV (rules 1589-1610).

1. Cath., Cal., Cath., Cal., and, finally, Cath. "Paris is worth a mass," he supposedly said.
2. Edict of Nantes 1598.

B. Louis XIII (ruled 1610-43).

1. Comes to power when Henry IV assassinated 1610 after coming to the throne in 1589.
2. Richelieu the architect of enhanced royal power.

C. Richelieu and Louis XIII died within six months of one another 1642-43.

IV. And to the throne comes Louis XIV, who was perhaps the greatest practitioner of absolutism.

A. Louis XIV may never have said, "L´état c´ést moi," but it perfectly expresses his views nonetheless.
B. In these matters he was utterly convinced: as king, had a very special relationship to God. The doctrine of the divine right of kings.

V. The rituals of absolutism.

A. Versailles.
B. Court etiquette.
C. The rituals associated with the court were decisive in the exercise of power.

1. They presented the public face of power, most notably in Versailles.
2. They kept the nobility preoccupied with preference and etiquette, and under the careful eye of the king and his ministers.

VI. But critical to the exercise of absolutism was also warfare and the stamping out of enemies, domestic and foreign.

A. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 1685.
B. Wars and geographic expansion.
C. Administrative reforms that strengthened the state.

VII. Louis XIV makes France Europe´s greatest power. French becomes the language of diplomacy and culture. French culture reaches new heights via royal patronage. France comes to rival the Netherlands for commercial predominance, England for naval predominance. Europe´s most populous nation with 20 million people.

VIII. Close geographically, but worlds removed in orientation, lay the Netherlands--a bourgeois countenance versus the royal absolutism of Louis XIV.