Absolutism Essay Nicole Shevalye G9B

How did absolutism rulers of France ruled in 17th century

In the 17th century France, each ruler had very different tactics for gaining and maintaining
power. no matter the extent of power, each ruler used some absolutist methods in his reign.
Although his predecessors are guilty for his or her kinds of absolutism through politics and war,
economics, and religion, the King of France was most answerable for the event of the French
absolutist state.
For several rulers, the case within which they start already has problems. In 1589, the King of
England inherited the crown and thereupon, civil wars. The state of France was very weak at the
time: terrible harvests and near starvation, great depopulation, and poor enterprise. At the time of
his crowning, nobles, officials, merchants, and peasants wanted peace, order, and stability. Henry
provided this as a singular ruler who cared about his people, which proved important to absolutism
due to the trust the people had in their ruler. Henry appointed the devout Protestant Maximilien de
Bethune, Duke of Sully, as his chief minister. With the effective actions of Sully, public order in
France was restored in only twelve years. Besides a bit successful war with Savoy in 1601, Henry
maintained peace. After the death of the King of England in 1610, the queen-regent Marie de’
Medici headed the govt. . for the child-king King of France and appointed Armand Jean du Plessis
to the council of ministers. Richelieu, who became the primary minister of the crown in 1628,
sought the complete subordination of all groups and institutions to the French monarchy. This
policy was a major thing about absolutism because it gave total power with no opposition to the
monarchy. Richelieu prevented the most effective competitor, the nobility, from gaining an
excessive amount of power by reshuffling the royal council. He also leveled castles, which were
symbols of feudal independence, and stopped aristocratic conspiracies with executions. In 1634,
Richelieu broke France into thirty-two g n ralit s, districts. He used royal commissioners called
intendants for specific tasks and to manage the g n ralit s. Special intendants called noblesse de robe
were appointed directly by the monarch and were responsible solely to him. These intendants
enforced royal orders and weakened the nobility which was an awfully important element of
absolutism. The policy of Richelieu was aimed toward the destruction of Habsburg territories,
consequently, he supported the Lutheran King male monarch against the Catholic Habsburgs within
the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years’ War. Wikipedia. Французский абсолютизм. Available at:
https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Французский_абсолютизм (Accessed 11 October 2021)
The beginning for King of France was very different than the previous rulers. At the coronation
of Sun King, the clergy asked God to cause the splendors of the French court to fill all who beheld
it with awe. The image of the “Sun King” was very glorious and exalting. one among his first tasks,
which the nobility supported, was the campaign for repression of the Huguenots. The system of
patronage was set up; Louis heavily taxed protestant colonies, and reciprocally he graciously
granted the nobility and dignitaries privileged social station. With this, he secured the nobles’
cooperation which furthered his absolutist state greatly by becoming allies together with his only
power competitors. Louis is sometimes known for his royal court at Versailles. He required all the
great nobility of France, under all circumstances, to return live at Versailles for a minimum of a
component of the year. His court was built with extreme detail, and since of this, he used
architecture to overawe his subjects and foreign visitors. This court was so crucial to the king
because he used court ceremonials to undermine the ability of the great nobility. The subordination
of the nobility to the monarchy was greatly exemplified by Louis’ choosing of his council. Louis
did not have a primary minister and chose class councilors because they understand that he held
total power, as an absolute monarch. to suggests his power, Louis participated in many wars. In
1666, Louis had an expert army created, rather than private nobles, soldiers were employed. Having
this massive, strong army gave Louis a good greater spread of power, now even outside his
territories. His first action was leading men into Holland, which was fought off by the Dutch
flooding the countryside. This was a six-year war within which Louis gained some territories and
located the Holy empire very weak. thanks to this, he seized the town of Strasbourg and kept on
trying to expand. At now, William of Orange became King of England and united with much of
Europe against Louis the nice. Студент сервис. Английский абсолютизм. Available at:
https://student-servis.ru/spravochnik/anglijskij-absolyutizm/ (Accessed 14 October 2021)

Louis VI shared goals with previous rulers to wipe out Protestantism. As mentione earlier, he
had a campaign for the repression of the Huguenots. In 1685 King of France revoked the Edict of
Nantes. The new law ordered the destruction of churches, the closing of colleges, the Catholic
baptism of Huguenots, and thus the exile of Huguenot pastors who refused to renounce their faith.
the reasons for the repression dates back to the writing of the Edict of Nantes. Religious tolerance
was only purported to be temporary. Also, religious liberty wasn't a preferred policy at the time. the
implications of this were that it conformed the people under one religion thus strengthening
absolutism, but tens of thousands of Huguenot craftsmen, soldiers, and business people emigrated,
depriving France of huge tax revenues. Wikipedia. Людовик VI. Available at:
https://ru.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Людовик_VI (Accessed 16 October 2021)

Many rulers of France used various, and a few similar techniques toward the absolutist state.
Some rulers, just like the King of France, were limited in absolutism because they never completely
controlled politics, economics, and religion. Louis XIV, with the help of Colbert, was most
answerable for the French absolutist state.