1. Absolute Monarchy in France
Absolutism defined
A political theory that encouraged rulers to claim complete sovereignty within their territories
Sometimes defined by “divine right”          
Louis XIV (r )
Squabbles among the nobility meant he must rule assertively
Absolutist “control”
Command of the state's army
Control over the legal system
Right to collect and spend the state's financial resources
The need to create an efficient centralized bureaucracy
Weakening privileged “special interests”
Obstacles
Legally-privileged estates of the nobility and clergy
The political authority of semi-autonomous regions
Interference of parliaments, diets, and estates general

2. Louis XIV

3. The Absolutism of Louis XIV
The façade that was Louis
Performing royalty at Versailles
A stage upon which Louis mesmerized the nobility into obedience
Daily rituals and demonstrations of royalty
Royal “choreography”
Nobles were required to live at Versailles for part of the years
Raised their prestige
Louis could keep an eye on them
Louis as hard working and conscientious
Personal responsibility for the well-being of all his subjects      

4. Administration and centralization
For Louis, royal power meant domestic tranquility
Conciliated the upper bourgeoisie by making them royal administrators - Intendants:
Taxation - Collection of taxes necessary to maintain a large standing army
Louis XIV’s religious policies
Louis was determined to impose religious unity on France
Outside Roman Catholicism
Quietists – Catholics who preached personal mysticism
Jansenists – held to the Augustinian notion of predestination
Jesuits – earned the support of Louis
Huguenots – French Calvinists
Protestant churches were destroyed
Protestants banned from many professions

5. 1685: Louis revokes the Edict of Nantes
Protestant clerics were exiled
Laymen were sent to the galleys as slaves
Children were forcibly baptized as Catholics
200,000 Protestants flee to England, Holland, Germany, and America

6. L’ etat c’est moi! By Hyacinthe Rigaud
As an absolute monarch, Louis was not subject to any constitutional limitations, leading him to declare “l’etat, c’est moi” (“I am the state”). Louis ruled by divine right, receiving his authority directly from God. The concept of divine right allowed Louis to quash emerging rebellions while establishing legitimacy. Louis became known as le Roi Soleil, the Sun King, furthering his claim of divine lineage by recalling the ancient Greek god Apollo and declaring himself, in his usual modest manner, to be the center of the universe. 

7. Louis XIV’s Carriage

8. The Sun Symbol

9. Francoise d’Aubigne, Madame de Maintenon
Mistress – secret second wife – large political influence

10. Jean-Baptiste Colbert

11. Versailles Today

12. The Orangery

13. Hall of Mirrors

14. The King’s Bed
The Queen’s Bed

15. The wars of Louis XIV to 1697
For Louis, glory at home was to be achieved by military victories abroad
1667/68: attacks the Spanish Netherlands
1672: attacks Holland and William of Orange
Captures Strasbourg (1681), Luxembourg (1684), and Cologne (1688)
Pushes across the Rhine and burns the middle Rhineland