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France’s Ultimate Monarch
Chapter 21 section 2
Page 518
What is a Protestant?
Is a protestant Catholic?
 Is a Protestant Christian?
 What is the difference between a
Protestant and a Catholic?
 Give an example of a Protestant religion

In 1559, King Henry II of France died
leaving 4 young sons
 Three of them ruled, but all were
incompetent
 Real power behind the throne was their
mother, Catherine de Medicis
 She tried to preserve royal authority but
conflicts between Catholics and
Huguenots (French Protestants) rocked
the country

Religious Wars Create a Crisis
1562-1598, Catholics
and Huguenots fought
8 religious wars
 St. Bartholomew’s
Day Massacre in Paris
sparked a 6 week,
nationwide slaughter
of the Huguenots

Henry of Navarre
Massacre began when many Huguenot
nobles were in Paris attending the
marriage of Catherine’s daughter to a
Huguenot prince- Henry of Navarre
 Most of the nobles died, but Henry
survived
 He was a descendent of Louis IX, and was
athletic, strong and handsome

Kingdom of Navarre
From Protestant to Catholicism
Henry inherited the French throne after
Catherine and her last son died in 1589
 He became Henry IV, the first king of the
Bourbon dynasty in France
 Many Catholics opposed Henry
 For the sake of his country, Henry chose
to give up Protestantism and become a
Catholic, saying “Paris is well worth a
mass”

Edict of Nantes
In 1598, Henry declared that Huguenots
could live in peace in France, and set up
own churches in some cities
 Declaration of religious toleration known
as the Edict of Nantes

Henry concentrated on rebuilding
France and its prosperity, or wealth
 He restored the French monarchy to a
strong position
 French people welcomed this peace
 Some hated Henry for compromising
his religion
 In 1610, someone leaped into his
carriage and stabbed Henry to death

Next Ruler of France
Henry’s son Louis XIII became a king, but
was weak
 In 1624 he appointed a strong minister
who made up for all of Louis’s
weaknesses, Cardinal Richelieu
 The cardinal became, in effect, the leader
of France

Cardinal Richelieu
Was a hard working leader in the Catholic
church in France
 Was ambitious and enjoyed exercising his
authority
 Finally able to pursue ambitions in the
political field as minister to Louis XIII

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The cardinal increased the power of
the Bourbon monarchy by doing two
things:
1) he moved against the Huguenots
 He believed that Protestantism was an
excuse to conspire against the king
 He didn’t end the right to worship, but
wouldn’t allow Protestant cities to have
walls
 He didn’t want them able to defy the
king, and then hide behind protective
walls
2) Sought to weaken nobles power by
 Ordering them to take down their fortified
castles
 Increasing power of government agencies
in the middle class, ending the need for
the king to use noble officials
Richelieu wanted to make France the strongest
state in Europe
 He believed his greatest obstacle was the
Hapsburg rulers who lands surrounded France
 Hapsburg family members ruled Spain, Austria
and the Netherlands as well as parts of Germany
 To limit Hapsburg power, Richelieu involved
France in the Thirty Years War

Hapsburg Empire
= Hapsburg lands
Writers Express Skepticism
French thinkers had witnessed the religious wars
in France with horror
 What they saw turned them towards skepticisman idea that nothing can ever be known for
certain
 Michel de Montaigne pointed out that whenever
a new belief arose, it replaced one that people
had accepted as truth
 This was a cycle that would always be repeated,
and he argued that humans could never have
absolute knowledge of what is true

Louis XIV
The efforts of Henry IV and Richelieu
paved the way for the most powerful ruler
in French history- Louis XIV, who became
king when he was just 5 years old
 In Louis’s view, he and the state were one
and the same

Louis XIV
Called himself the Sun King –
believed that just like the
sun, all power radiated from
him
 Was only 5ft 5in
 Wore high heeled
shoes to make him
look taller
 as a child he was neglectedalmost drowned in a pond
because no one was watching
him
 As a king he worked hard and
paid great attention to the
smallest details

Cardinal Mazarin
Louis became king in 1643
 France’s true ruler was
Cardinal Mazarin,
Richelieu’s successor
 Mazarin’s greatest triumph
was ending the Thirty
Years’ War, and the peace
treaty made France the
most powerful country in
Europe

A Fearful Little King

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Many people, especially the nobles in France,
hated Mazarin
He increased taxes and strengthened central
government
1648-1653, riots led by nobles tore France apart
The young king Louis XIV felt threatened at
times, and never forgot his fear or anger
towards the nobility
He was determined to become so strong, that
the nobles could never threaten him again
Louis Takes Control
Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, and Louis took
control of the government himself at age 23
 He weakened the power of the nobles by
excluding them from his council
 Increased the power of government agents,
called intendants, who collected taxes and
administered justice
 Made sure that local officials communicated
regularly with him

Jean Baptiste Colbert
Louis focused on helping France attain
political, economic, and cultural brilliance
 His minister of finance, Jean Baptiste
Colbert helped him achieve these goals
 Colbert believed in the theory of
mercantilism and tried to make France self
sufficient
 He wanted to be able to manufacture
everything France needed instead of
importing it

Economic Growth
To expand financing, Colbert gave tax
benefits and government funds to French
companies
 Used raw materials from French colonies,
and encouraged people to migrate to
French colonies, especially in Canada
where the fur trade added to French
commerce

Economic Slow Down
After Colbert’s death, Louis slowed down
the economic progress of France by
canceling the Edict of Nantes, which
protected the religious freedoms of the
Huguenots
 Thousands of Huguenot artists and
business people fled the country, robbing
France of skilled workers

Louis’s Grand Style
Louis spent a fortune to surround himself
with luxury
 Each meal was a feast- an observer
claimed the king devoured in one sitting:

-4 plates of soup
-a salad
-a whole pheasant
-a partridge in garlic sauce
-2 slices of ham
-a plate of pastries
-fruit
-hard boiled eggs
Controlling the Nobility

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Every morning, the chief valet woke Louis at
7:30
Outside of the canopy bed curtains waited 100
privileged nobles of the court waiting to help the
King get dressed
Only 4 had the honor of handing Louis his
slippers, or holding his sleeves for him
Outside the bed chamber, lesser nobles waited
for him in the halls, hoping the king would
notice them by giving a nod or smile
Louis would notice which nobles were not there
to flatter him, and would turn against them
Louis required hundreds of nobles to
live at the Palace of Versailles
 increased Louis’s royal authority by
taking them from their homes, and
becoming dependent on Louis

Palace of Versailles
Built 11 miles southwest of Paris on top of
a hill
 Huge royal courtyard with a statue of
Louis XIV
 Palace itself stretched over 500 yards
 Palace was so long, that food from the
kitchen was often cold by the time it
reached the king
 Kitchen large enough to house 500 cooks

Palace of Versailles in Numbers
2,000 rooms
 2 wings- each 150 yards
 Main building -500 yards
 Cost- $2 billion dollars (1994 est.)
 36,000 workers and 6,000 horses worked
on the palace
 15,000 acres of lawns and gardens
 1,400 fountains

Water Fountains
It took so much water to run all the fountains at
the same time that it was only done on special
occasions
 Supplying water to the palace on a hill was a
problem
 On other days when the king walked in the
garden, servants would turn on the fountains
just before he reached them, and as he walked
away, they would shut them off

A Garden Outside the Palace
Some of the Fountains
Entrance
Louis- Patron of the Arts

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Versailles was like a small royal city
Rich decorations and art clearly showed Louis’s
wealth and power
Elaborate ceremonies were often held there, and
impressed other European monarchs
Louis supported the arts more than any other
king
No longer was the purpose of art to glorify God,
now it was to glorify the king
The ceiling of the
Versailles Chapel
Louis also made ballet and opera
popular
 He danced the title role in the ballet

The Sun King
Louis Fights Disastrous Wars
1660, under Louis, France the most
powerful country in Europe
 Had 20 million people- 4 times as many as
England, and 10 times as many as the
Dutch Republic
 French army 100,000 in peacetime, and
400,000 during in wartime
 Far more advanced in size, training and
weapons


1667, Louis invaded the Spanish
Netherlands, gaining 12 towns
Open the Floodgates….Again

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Encouraged by his
success, Louis personally
led an army into the
Dutch Netherlands in
1672
The Dutch saved their
country by opening the
dikes and flooding the
countryside- the same
tactic they had used in
their revolt against Spain
a century earlier
War ended in 1678 with
the Treaty of Nijmegen
and France gaining a
region called FrancheComte

Franche-Comte
Joining Together
Louis fought additional wars, but his luck
ran out
 By the end of the 1680s, a European-wide
alliance had formed to stop France
 By joining together, weaker countries
could match France's strength
 This defensive strategy was meant to
achieve a balance of power, where no
single country, or group of countries could
dominate others

In 1689, Dutch prince William of Orange
became king of England
 He joined the League of Augsburg, which
was made up of the Hapsburg emperor,
the kings of Sweden and Spain, and
leaders of other smaller European states
 Joined together, these countries equaled
France’s strength

Problems in France
Series of poor harvests
 Constant warfare (which brought great
suffering to French people)
 High taxes Louis imposed to pay for wars
 People of France longed for peace, but
what they got was another war- War of
the Spanish Succession

1700 king of Spain, Charles II died,
without an heir
 He 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 now both ruled
by Bourbons

War of the Spanish Succession
Other European countries felt threatened
by this union
 1701, the Dutch Republic, England,
Austria, Portugal, and several German and
Italian states joined together against
France and Spain
 Long struggle that followed known as the
War of the Spanish Succession

Costly war dragged on for 12 year 1713, Treaty of Utrecht signed- allowed
Louis grandson to remain king of Spain as
long as the thrones of France and Spain
did not unite

Winners and Losers
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Big winner was Great Britain- took Gibraltar, a
fortress that controlled the entrance to the
Mediterranean from Spain
Spain also gave a British company an asientopermission to send enslaved Africans to Spain’s
American colonies, increasing Britain’s
involvement in the slave trade
France gave Britain the North American
territories of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland
Austrian Hapsburgs took the Spanish
Netherlands and other Spanish lands in Italy
Prussia and Savoy were recognized as kingdoms
Louis’s Death and Legacy
Outlived his son and 2 grandsons
 Last years were more sad than glorious
 He realized his wars ruined France and
regretted the suffering he brought to his
people
 Died in bed 1715
 News prompted celebration throughout
France
 His people had had enough of the Sun
King

Assignment:
AIMS is coming SOON!
 Write a paragraph (5 sentences) about the
differences between the Protestant and
Catholic religions.
 Remember to have a topic and concluding
sentence.
