01:360:401 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: French Wars Of Religion, Intendant Of New France, Fronde

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Chapter 16: Absolutism and
Constitutionalism in Western Europe
1. Absolutism
1. Introduction
1. In the absolutist state, sovereignty is embodied in the person of the
ruler and absolute kings claimed to rule by divine right, (they were
responsible to God alone)
2. Absolute kings secured the cooperation of the nobility, the greatest
threat to monarch
3. The key to the power and success of absolute monarchs lay in how
they solved their financial problems and the absolutist solution was
the creation of new state bureau-cracies that forced taxes ever higher
or devised alternative methods or raising revenue
1. Bureaucracies were posed of career officials
appointed/accountable to the king
2. The key difference between seventeenth-century bureaucracies
and their predecessors was that they served the state as
represented by the king (public or state positions and not
supposed to use their positions for private gain)
4. Absolute monarchs also maintained permanent standing armies
(secret police)
5. Rule of absolute monarchs was not totalitarian
1. Totalitarianism: seeks to direct all facets of a state’s cultureart,
education, religion, the economy, and politicsin the interests of
the state (lacked resources)
2. Resembled totalitarianism in glorification of the state over all other
aspects of the culture and in the use of war and an expansionist
foreign policy to divert attention
2. The Foundations of French Absolutism: Sully and Richelieu
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1. The Huguenot-turned-Catholic Henry IV ended the French religious
wars with the Edict of Nantes and with his minister Maximilian de
Bethune, duke of Sully, laid the foundations of later French absolutism
1. Henry lowered the taxes on the overburdened peasantry
2.
3. Sully began to build up the treasury by reviving an annual tax,
the paulette, on people who had purchases judicial and financial
offices who had preciously been exempt from taxation (provided a
specific amount of revenue each year)
4. In twelve years, Henry IV and Sully restored public order in
France and laid the foundations for economic prosperity -- Henry
IV murdered in 1610
2. After the death of Henry IV, Marie de’ Medici headed the government
for the child-king Louis XIII but the feudal nobles and princes of the
blood dominated politics
3. In 1624, Marie de’ Medici secured the appointment of Armand Jean
du Plessis (Cardinal Richelieu) to the council of ministers -- became
first minister of the Crown
1. Richelieu’s policy was the total subordination of all groups and
institutions to the French monarchy and broke up the power of the
nobility by reshuffling the royal council, leveling castles, and
executing aristocratic conspirators against the king
2. He divided France into thirty-two generalites (districts) in each of
which a royal intendant had extensive responsibility for justice,
police, and finances
3. Intendants recruited soldiers for the army, supervised tax
collection, kept an eye on the local nobility, presided over the
administration of local laws, and regulated economic activity
4. Intendants were to use their power to enforce royal orders in the
generalites of their jurisdiction and to weaken the power and
influence of the regional nobility
4. French foreign policy under Richelieu was aimed at the destruction of
the fence of Habsburg territories that surrounded France (factor in
political future of Germany)
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5. Richelieu supported foundation of the French Academy and
standardization of French language by the academy of philologists
6. Richelieu and Louis XIII temporarily solved their financial problems by
sharing the money from increased taxation with local elites
7. Jules Mazarin was appointed as the successor of Richelieu and when
Louis XIII died in 1643, a regency headed by Queen Anne of Austria
governed for the child-king Louis XIV and Mazarin became dominant
power in the government
8. Mazarin provoked aristocratic rebellion (frondeurs -- the nobility and
middle class) called the Fronde in 1648 when he proposed new
methods of raising state income
9. Fronde showed the government would have to compromise with the
bureaucrats and social elites, the economy would take years to
rebuild, and Louis XIV decided the only alternative to anarchy was
turning to absolute monarchy
3. The Absolute Monarchy of Louis XIV
1. The reign of Louis XIV (Sun King) was the longest in European
history and the French monarchy reached the peak of absolutist
development
2. Louis grew up with absolute sense of his royal dignity and he married
Queen Maria Theresa, whom he married as a result of a diplomatic
agreement with Spain
3. Louis XIV achieved constituted collaboration with the nobility rather
than absolute
4. French government rested on the social and political structure of
France and Louis XIV installed his royal court at Versailles that was
used to awe subjects and visiting dignitaries (state policy) -- others
constructed versions of Versailles
5. Beginning in the reign of Louis XIV, French became the language of
polite society and the vehicle of diplomatic exchange
6. Louis XIV separated power from status and grandeur using court
ceremonies, entertainment, spies, and informers to reduce the power
of the nobility
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Document Summary

France and laid the foundations for economic prosperity -- henry. Queen maria theresa, whom he married as a result of a diplomatic agreement with spain: louis xiv achieved constituted collaboration with the nobility rather than absolute, french government rested on the social and political structure of. 1659, which ended the french-spanish wars, spain was compelled to surrender extensive territories to france: the most cherished spanish ideals were military glory and strong. Commission (cid:1679) enforced uniformity of church services: in 1637, laud attempted to impose on the church organization in. Scotland: a new prayer book, modeled on the anglican book of. Commission: the english civil war (1642-1649) tested whether sovereignty in. Act of 1673, those who refused the sacrament of the church of. Charles 200,000 pounds ad in return, charles would relax the laws against catholics, re-catholicizing england: but details slipped out, a anti-catholic fear swept england because.

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