Download The Wars of Louis XIV

Paths to Constitutionalism and
Absolutism in England and
France
England
• England will develop in this unit into a
parliamentary monarchy with a policy of
religious toleration.
• Parliament composed of a House of Lords
and a House of Commons will come to
share responsibility for running the
government with the Monarch.
France
• France will develop an absolutist,
centralized form of government dominated
by a monarchy that will share little power
with any other national institutions. (i.e. no
Parliament in France).
• Louis XIV will also abandon the religious
toleration of Henry IV, revoking the Edict
of Nantes and allowing only Roman
Catholicism.
• Louis XIV’s genius was to make the
Monarchy the most important and powerful
political institution in France while also
assuring the nobles and other groups of
the social standing and political and social
influence on the local level.
• Rather than destroying existing local social
and political institutions, Louis largely
worked through them.
• Once nobles knew the King would support
their local authority, they supported his
central Royal authority.
Sovereign
• Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme,
independent authority over a geographic area, such as a
territory.
• The current notion of state sovereignty is often traced
back to the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which, in
relation to states, codified the basic principles:
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territorial integrity
border inviolability
supremacy of the state (rather than the Church)
a sovereign is the supreme lawmaking authority within
its jurisdiction.
Absolutism
a form of government where the
monarch has the power to rule
their land freely, with no laws or
legally-organized direct opposition
in force.
Absolutism vs. Feudalism
• Feudalism had a decentralized
government, where local nobles within a
country exercised sovereignty apart from
the King
• To create an absolutist state then the
central government must take power from
the local governments.
• The Central government must be
sovereign, competing with no other entity
for political power.
Henry IV
1589-1610
Henry IV 1589-1610
• Sought to curtail the privileges of the
French nobility.
• His targets were the provincial governors
and the regional Parlements, especially
the Parlement of Paris.
• Parlements were Local French Courts,
capable of resisting the King and were
dominated by the Nobility
Apotheosis of Henry IV and the regency of Marie
De Medici 1610 (By Rubens)
Louis XIII r. 1610-1643
Cardinal Richilieu Prime
Minister 1629- 1642
Richelieu-Foreign Policy
• Richelieu pursued a strong anti-Habsburg
policy.
• Although he supported the Spanish
Alliance of the Queen and Catholic
religious unity within France, he was
determined to contain Spanish power and
influence, even when that meant aiding
Protestant Europe.
• Thirty Years War.
Richelieu-Domestic Policy
• Within France Richelieu pursued
centralizing policies.
• Richelieu stepped up the campaign
against separatist provincial govenors and
parlements.
• He made it clear that there was only one
law, that of the King and no one could
stand above it.
• Disobedient nobles were arrested and
even executed.
Intendant System
• Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII's principal minister, in
the early 17th cent.; used Intendants extensively to
consolidate the country and undermine feudal
authority.
• At first the intendant lacked power outside his specific
commission from the king. Under Louis XIV's rule
(1643–1715), however, the intendant became a vital
permanent state official, appointed by the king.
Granted full powers in the fields of justice, finance,
and police in the provinces, the intendant often tried
civil and criminal cases, suspended unsuitable
judges, summoned special tribunals, regulated
municipal government, stamped out banditry and
smuggling, levied and collected taxes, and drew the
militia by lot.
• Initially, intendants were non-nobles, dependent upon
royal favor for advancement. As faithful instruments
of royal centralization they aroused the hostility of the
local authorities, notably the parlements and the
provincial governors
Hueguenot revolt in La Rochelle
• In 1625, a new Huguenot revolt led by Duke
Henri de Rohan and his brother Soubise led to
the Capture of Ré island by the forces of Louis
XIII. Soubise conquered large parts of the
Atlantic coast, but the supporting fleet of La
Rochelle was finally defeated by Montmorency,
as was Soubise with 3,000 when he led a
counter-attack against the royal troops who had
landed on the island of Ré.
Huguenot uprising at La Rochelle
• Following these events, Louis XIII and his
Chief Minister Cardinal Richelieu declared the
suppression of the Huguenot revolt the first
priority of the kingdom.
• The English came to the support of La
Rochelle, starting an Anglo-French War
(1627-1629)
• This resulted in the Siege of La Rochelle in
which Cardinal Richelieu blockaded the city
for 14 months, until the city surrendered and
lost its mayor and its privileges.
Peace of Alais 1629
• The Peace of Alais, was a treaty signed between the
Huguenots and King Louis XIII of France on 28 June
and was negotiated by Cardinal Richelieu, 1629.
• It confirmed the basic principles of the Edict of
Nantes, but differed in that it contained additional
clauses, stating that the Huguenots no longer had
political rights and further demanding they relinquish
all cities and fortresses immediately.
• It ended the religious warring while granting the
Huguenots amnesty and guaranteeing tolerance for
the group.
• Unfortunately for the Hugenots, the Peace nor the
Edict of Nantes lasted very long. Louis XIV revoked
the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and began a brutal
persecution of the French Protestants.
France and the 30 years war
• During the Thirty Years' War, in which various Protestant
forces battled Imperial armies, France provided
subsidies to the enemies of the empire.
• France generously supported a Swedish invasion of the
Empire after 1630. After some early successes, the
Swedish army was decisively defeated in 1634 by a
combined Spanish-Imperial army in the Battle of
Nordlingen, leading to a peace treaty favorable to the
Emperor.
• Unhappy with this outcome, France's First Minister,
Cardinal Richelieu, decided in 1635 to actively involve
his kingdom in the fighting and declared war on Spain.
• The open war with Spain started
disastrously for the French. After an initial
French attack and victory in the Battle of
Les Avins in 1635, Spanish and Imperial
forces, operating from the Spanish
Netherlands launched in 1636 lightening
campaigns through northern France and
looked likely to invade Paris when the vast
fiscal commitments of the Thirty Years
War forced them to suspend their attacks.
• This gave the French a chance to regroup
and force Spanish forces back towards the
northern border. The French also sent
forces through Lorraine into the Alsace to
cut the Spanish Road, the vital supply line
connecting the Spanish Netherlands to
Spain through the Mediterranean port of
Genoa.
Treaty of the Pyrenees 1659
• France gained Roussillon, Artois, parts of
Luxembourg and Flanders, and a new border
with Spain was fixed at the Pyrenees.
• The treaty also arranged for a marriage
between Louis XIV of France and Maria
Theresa of Spain, the daughter of Philip IV of
Spain.
• Maria Theresa was forced to renounce her
claim to the Spanish throne, in return for a
monetary settlement as part of her dowry.
• This settlement was never paid, a factor that
eventually led to the War of Devolution in
1668.
Richilieu’s Legacy
• Laid the foundation for expanded royal
authority
• Created strong resentment for the
monarchy by the nobility
• Alexander Dumas “the Three Musketeers”
Louis XIV (mother Queen Anne)
The Fronde 1649-1652
• Series of widespread Noble rebellions
• Begun by the Parlement of Paris in 1649
• The chaos of the Fronde convinced most
French people that the rule of a strong
King was preferred
The Fronde
• The original goal of the insurrection was not
revolutionary; its aim was to protect the
ancient liberties from encroachments by the
royal power, to defend the established right of
the parlements, which were courts of appeals
rather than legislative bodies like the English
parliaments, and especially the right of the
Parlement of Paris to limit the king's power by
refusing to register decrees that ran counter
to custom.
• The liberties under attack were feudal. The
Fronde provided additional incentive in
France for the establishment of absolutism,
since the disorders eventually discredited the
older, feudal concept of liberty in France.
Louis’ personal rule 1661-1715
• Louis did not replace Mazarin after he died in
1661
• Strategies used by Louis to insure his power:
– Use of Propaganda “sun King”
– Ensured French Nobles would benefit from the growth
of his own authority
– Claim Divine Right of Kings
• Bishop Bossuet “politics from the very words of Holy
Scripture”.
– Crush Religious Dissent
– Domesticated the Nobility at Versailles
Divine Right of Kings
• The divine right of kings is a political and
religious doctrine of royal absolutism.
• It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly
authority, deriving his right to rule directly from
the will of God.
• The king is thus not subject to the will of his
people, the aristocracy, or any other estate of
the realm, including the church.
• The doctrine implies that any attempt to depose
the king or to restrict his powers runs contrary to
the will of God and may constitute heresy.
Versailles
Colbert Louis XIV’s finance minister
• Created the economic
base that Louis
needed to fight his
wars
• Mercantilism
• Limit imports,
maximize exports
• Accumulate gold and
silver
Mercantilism
• Mercantilism is an economic theory that holds that the
prosperity of a nation is dependent upon its economic
assets represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade
value) held by the state.
• Bullion quantities are best increased through a positive
balance of trade with other nations (exports minus
imports).
• Mercantilism suggests that the ruling government should
advance these goals by playing a protectionist role in the
economy
• by encouraging exports and discouraging imports,
notably through the use of tariffs and subsidies.
Jansenism
• Jansenism was a branch of Catholic thought
(condemned by Pope Innocent X in 1655) that
arose in the frame of the Counter-Reformation
and the aftermath of the Council of Trent (15451563).
• It emphasized original sin, human depravity, the
necessity of divine grace, and predestination.
• Originating in the writings of the Dutch
theologian Cornelius Otto Jansen, Jansenism
formed a distinct movement within the Catholic
Church from the 16th to 18th centuries, and
found its most important stronghold in the
Parisian convent of Port-Royal.
• The term itself was coined by its Jesuit
opponents, who accused them of being close to
Calvinists, as Jansenists identified themselves
as rigorous followers of Augustinism.
The Wars of Louis XIV
• The long-range objective of French foreign policy
during the reign of Louis XIV was to achieve what he
called the “natural frontiers” of France:the Pyrenees,
the alps, and the Rhine river.
• To extend French power to the Rhine involved
acquiring territories ruled by German Princes plus the
conquest of the Spanish Netherlands and the United
Provinces.
• French Foreign Policy from 1648 to 1715
• The French attempt to conquer the territories west of
the Rhine involved France in four wars. France was
opposed by a different coalition of European states in
each war. These coalitions were trying to preserve
the Balance of Power in Europe.
The War of Devolution 1667-1668
The war of Devolution 1667-1668
Louis XIV contended that the Spanish Netherlands
belonged to his wife by the custom of Devolution.
French armies invaded Flanders and FrancheComte.
England, the United Provinces, and Sweden formed the
triple alliance to counterbalance France
Louis, wishing to avoid a prolonged war against a
coalition, arranged a compromise treaty, the Peace
of Aix La Chapelle
France received eleven border towns from the Spanish
Netherlands but abandoned Franche-Comte
The Dutch war 1672-1678
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Followed Dutch boasting that they had defeated and
humbled Louis.
Louis first isolated the Dutch diplomatically by bribing
the English to leave the triple alliance (Treaty of
Dover 1670) and arranging Swedish neutrality by
similar means.
The Dutch were divided internally by the debate over
whether the United Provinces should be a
decentralized republic or a centralized hereditary
monarchy ruled by William of Orange.
As the Dutch were debating, Louis invaded. The
Dutch murdered the proponent of a Republic and
entrusted the defense of the country to William of
Orange.
Again the French invaded Flanders and FrancheComte and again the European powers formed an
alliance to check the French.
Dutch war, cont.
• The new alliance included: The Holy Roman Empire,
Denmark, Spain, and the Electorate of Brandenburg
• In 1677 William of Orange married Mary, the daughter of
King James II of England.
• Louis thought this marriage would draw England into the
war against France so peace negotiations were begun.
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Treaty of Nimwegen
• France received all of Franche-Comte and more border
towns in the Spanish Netherlands.
The War of the League of Augsburg
1688-1697
• The inexact terminology of earlier peace treaties left
the control of various territories in the vicinity of the
Rhine in doubt.
• Louis took possession of Alsace and Luxemburg.
• This spurred yet another alliance to protect the
European Balance of Power-the League of Augsburg
• Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Sweden and several of
the German States. When the English Glorious
revolution of 1688 placed William of Orange as the
King of England, England and the United Provinces
joined the League.
• The French were initially successful, but the French
could not match the combined English and Dutch
fleets. The league could not muster the strength
necessary to invade France. The Peace of Ryswick
(1697) resulted from this stalemate.
Cause of the War of Spanish
Succession
• King Philip IV of Spain died in 1665, leaving behind only
one surviving son, Charles, who became Charles II.
• Charles II — disfigured and mentally challenged —
ascended the throne at the age of 4, the last of the
Spanish Hapsburgs.
• He came to be known as El Hechizado, "The
Bewitched," because it was popularly believed that his
disfigurement was caused by sorcery. (It was more likely
caused by generations of inbreeding.)
• So as not to overtax him physically or mentally, he was
left totally uneducated and not even expected to keep
himself clean.
• In his will, Charles II left all of his possessions to
Philip, duc d'Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, King
of France.
• When Charles II died in late 1700, Philip thus
became Philip V, King of Spain.
The war of Spanish Succession 17021713
• War fought to determine who would inherit the throne of
Spain.
• Charles II would die without an heir
• The leading contenders were the Austrian Habsburgs
and the French Bourbons.
• When Charles II died in 1700 he left a will giving his
throne to the grandson of Louis XIV who was to become
Phillip V of Spain.
• Louis knew that war would follow if his grandson became
the King of Spain. If he refused the Crown, however
France would be surrounded again by Habsburg power.
Louis accepted the will.
• The Pyrenees exist no longer.
Spanish succession, cont.
• In this war France had only the slender aid provided
by Spain and Bavaria against the Grand Alliance-put
together by William of Orange.
• England, the United Provinces, the Holy roman
Empire, the Electorate of Brandenburg, and Portugal
• From 1702-1709 the French suffered one defeat after
another, but when Louis asked for peace terms, the
allies provisions were so harsh that the French and
Spanish carried on. In 1711, Archduke Charles
became the Holy roman Emperor Charles VI and the
English and French did not want one man to occupy
both the imperil and the Spanish thrones as Charles
V had done.
• Allied disunity allowed Louis XIV to negotiate an
acceptable peace settlement.
Treaty of Utrecht 1713
• in January, 1712. Great Britain, France, Savoy, Portugal,
the Emperor, Prussia, and the Dutch Republic were
represented, and later Spain. In March and April, 1713,
the main treaties were signed.
• France ceded Newfoundland, Acadia or Nova Scotia, the
district around Hudson Bay, and St Kitt's to Great Britain,
which had conquered them. From Spain Great Britain
acquired Gibraltar and Minorca, as well as the monopoly
of the slave trade with Spanish America, called the
Asiento. Louis XIV recognized the Protestant succession
in England, and promised to give no further aid to the
Stuarts.
• The crown of Spain, with its American
possessions, was given to the French claimant,
Philip V. It was stipulated, however, that the
same person should never be king of both
France and Spain. Philip's Austrian rival, the
emperor Charles, was consoled with Naples,
Milan, Sardinia, and the Spanish, henceforward
called the Austrian, Netherlands. All these had
been Spanish. Prussia was recognized as a
kingdom, and received part of Gelder-land, while
France promised to secure the title of king for
the duke of Savoy, who received Sicily.
The Treaty of Utrecht 1713
• The English gained the most:
– Gibraltar, Minorca, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the Hudson
Bay territory and the Asiento
• Austria received the Spanish Netherlands,
the Kingdom of Naples, the Duchy of Milan
and the island of Sardinia.
• The elector of Brandenburg was recognized
as the King in Prussia
• The Duke of Savoy was recognized as the
King of Savoy and given the island of Sicily
which was exchanged for Sardinia in 1720