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Report Card- Louis XIV
Letter Grade
Leadership Ability
A+
Accomplishments/Strengths
A+
Commentary
King Louis XIV had great leadership ability, proved during his 72 long years
of ruling. After the death of the prime minister, Cardinal Mazarin, he
declared that he would himself govern his empire at age 23. Through his
reign, he was able to develop trade and manufacturing in his empire and
reform his army, which led the French to many military victories. Louis was
successful in expanding France’s northern and eastern borders by
recapturing all lands that were ever under French rule, and was praised by
many in his court. King Louis was a believer in dictatorship by divine right,
and he viewed himself as God’s representative on earth. His astonishing
leadership abilities led him to be viewed as the Sun King, after Apollo, sun
god of peace and arts, by his people.
In the first twenty years of King Louis’ personal reign, he carried out
administrative and financial reorganization of the kingdom, which helped
with the development of trade and manufacturing. With the help of the
French Secretary of State for war, Marquis de Loivois, he increased the
French Army to about 400,000 soldiers, who fought for France in four wars
to come. With the help of his ministers Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Marquis
de Loivois, Louis weakened the power of nobles by excluding them from his
councils and making them dependent on the crown. Under Colbert,
commerce, industry, and overseas colonies were developed by tight control
of high protective tariffs. Being in charge of finances, Colbert made a
noticeable reduce in the annual treasury deficit by efficient taxation,
although sometimes the nobility and clergy experienced heavier weight with
the taxes. Louis also had accomplishments with his success in the
architecture of his buildings. In 1669, he expanded the famous Palace of
Versailles, and in 1682, this was where he decided to move his home
Areas of Concern
A+
Global Implications
A
permanently .Through this action, Louis established elaborate court
etiquette in this ‘Chateau de Versailles’ that awed the nobility and
aristocracy of Europe, just like he had planned.
Louis XIV had interest and concern in the spreading of art and culture
through music, architecture, painting, sculpture, and sciences. Because
Louis took great action in the encouragement of writing and arts, his reign is
often referred to as “The Century of Louis XIV”. Louis XIV followed the
design for an academy suggested by Charles Perrault, a member of
Colbert’s advisory group, and in 1665 he created a General Academy
composed of scientists, historians, and philosophers. This academy made
its way into the Royal Academy of Sciences. The scholars were encouraged
in the process of learning and made many educational advances, especially
in the fields of science, mathematics, and navigation, such as the precise
method for determination of longitude and the accurate mapping of the
world to help mariners plot directions. The services performed by this
academy made France a great maritime power, which also helped to
maintain Louis XIV’s personal reign.
Louis launched the War of Devolution from 1667-68 against the Spanish
Netherlands, which allowed him to gain a few towns in Flanders. Again,
Louis turned against the United Provinces of the Netherlands in the Third
Dutch War of 1672-78 with intention to break Dutch trade, and by the
Peace of Nijmegen treaty of 1678, Louis gained more territory in
Flanders and the Spanish French Comte lands were added to French
eastern territory. At the height of his success, King Louis set up ‘courts of
reunion’ to provide legal pretexts for the annexation of towns along the
French/German border. In 1681, he seized the Alsatian cities Strasbourg
and Casale in northern Italy.
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