HUM 223 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Fronde, Protestant Reformation
8 Jun 2018
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Louis XIV and Absolutism
French Wars of Religion
•Reformation initiated a period of religious warfare in Europe
•France suffered discord just like Germany and England
•Conflict centered on Catholic-Huguenot rivalries
•Dynastic rivalry between the
Bourbons and Valois
Governing a Divided Realm
•Kings Francis I (d. 1547) and Henry II (d. 1559) remained staunchly Catholic
•Regency for the child Charles IX dominated by rivalries within the royal court
–Guise faction=pro-Catholics
–Bourbon faction=pro-Protestants
Restoration of Royal Authority
•“Conversion” of Henry IV to Catholicism in 1593
•Catholic League officially backs Henry IV
•Edict of Nantes (1598)—official tolerance of Protestantism
•Royal ideology as representing Catholic views on authority
Louis XIV
•Son of King Louis XIII of France (1643)
•Louis XIII and his chief advisor, Cardinal Richelieu, established the framework for
absolutism
•Problem of the Fronde (1648)—aristocratic effort to kidnap the young king
•Goal of Parlement—“liberate” the king from the influence of his advisor
•Coming of age in 1653 ends the efforts of the Frondeurs
Impact of the Fronde
•Louis XIV comes of age in 1653—coronation on 7 June 1654
•Fronde introduced Louis XIV to problems of French government
–Factionalism between Parlement and rural aristocracy
•Politics of controlling the king
Louis XIV and Absolutism
•Death of First Minister Mazarin in 1661
•Louis XIV refuses to appoint another first minister
•Louis XIV will govern “alone” for the rest of his reign
•Absolutism represents the sole authority of the monarch
•Goals of absolutism
–Free royal decisions from the factionalism of aristocratic politics
–Free the aristocracy from the burden of governing the realm
–Ensure absolute loyalty to the crown despite factionalism in France
•Louis XIV as the “Most Christian King”—identity as a French Catholic
•Absolutism was not a means of arbitrary authority
–Louis XIV created a vast bureaucracy to govern France
–Creation of a regency council to guide royal decisions
–Louis XIV’s authority was the final word on all policies
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