essays on king louis xiv

Enter Your Search Terms to Get Started! King Louis XIV King Louis XIV Historians of three centuries have both defended and ridiculed King Louis XIV’s controversial reign. Many people have hailed him as a great king; mighty as the sun he took for his emblem. Being “great” as a king entails putting people before personal ambition, taking only necessary military action, achieving big things for his country, and instilling a sense of national pride in the people he rules. Louis the XIV did indeed instill national pride but his other faults negate his claim to “greatness”. King Louis XIV staffed his government with men who would obey him without question. Instead of appointing nobles he filled all of the positions with advisors drawn from the middle class. This way the people only had claim to what the king gave and could easily take away. Therefore the nobles couldn’t get a chance to overpower him. In order to express the power he had and attempt to scare off his enemies he organized civil services, reorganized the military, and improved the economy. He made himself the symbol of the state. Louis XIV used the people for his own benefit, so that he could completely control the government and keep his power for as long as possible. Louis XIV fought many wars, some beneficial and others not so worthwhile. As previously stated, one factor of being great is only taking necessary military action. Louis did not fit this requirement. Most of his wars were benefit to himself more than to his country, while others did not achieve anything. The Spanish Succession war was one without national gain. This war occurred so that King Louis could get his grandson in the Spanish throne. It was fought for 12 years and the territorial changes were minor. In addition the war also left both France and Spain exhausted. Louis XIV centralized France as a state, but his wars added little territory.
Louis XIV Length: 782 words (2.2 double-spaced pages) Rating: Red (FREE)   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Louis XIV      In the seventeenth century there were different types of leaders in Europe. The classic monarchial rule was giving way to absolutist rule. Absolute kings claimed to be ruling directly from God, therefore having divine rule that could not be interfered with. In 1643 Louis XIV began his reign over France as an absolute king.      When Louis the XIV began his rule in 1643, his actions immediately began to suggest and absolute dictatorship. Because of the misery he had previously suffered, one of the first things he did was to decrease the power of the nobility. He withdrew himself from the rich upper class, doing everything secretly. The wealth had no connection to Louis, and therefore all power they previously had was gone. He had complete control over the nobles, spying, going through mail, and a secret police force made sure that Louis had absolute power. Louis appointed all of his officials, middle class men who served him without wanting any power. Louis wanted it clear that none of his power would be shared. He wanted people to know by the rank of the men who served him that he had no intention of sharing power with them. If Louis XIV appointed advisors from the upper classes, they would expect to gain power, and Louis was not willing to give it to them. The way Louis XIV ruled, the sole powerful leader, made him an absolute ruler. He had divine rule, and did not want to give any power to anyone other than himself. These beliefs made him an absolute ruler.      Louis XIV controlled France’s economy. He began to heavily tax to support the military reforms. Louis agreed not to tax the nobility, therefore taking away the right for the upper class to have a say in where the taxation money was spent. This gave.
In 1663, two years after assuming absolute power, Louis XIV appointed a supervisor for the royal furniture. In the letter of appointment, the king wrote, “There is nothing that indicates more clearly the magnificence of great princes than their superb palaces and their precious furniture.” With the intention of glorifying the monarchy, Louis XIV embarked on grand building programs that entailed the design and manufacture of splendid sets of furniture. Emulating the lavish tastes of his mentor, Cardinal Mazarin, he acquired or commissioned a dazzling series of seventy-six wood cabinets; some were decorated with lacquer, but many displayed combinations of precious materials such as lapis lazuli, agate, marble, silver, and ivory. (Three of these cabinets are known to have survived: one, somewhat altered, in a Paris museum and a pair in an English private collection.) The king also favored carved and gilded wood furniture and commissioned a broad range of objects in solid silver that included tall candlestands, massive tables, benches and stools, chandeliers, and mirror frames. Among the foremost cabinetmakers of this period were Pierre Gole, named cabinetmaker to Louis XIV in 1651, and Domenico Cucci (ca. 1635–1704/5), who was employed at the Gobelins manufactory under the direction of Charles Le Brun. André-Charles Boulle (1642–1732), appointed royal cabinetmaker in 1672, specialized at this time in furniture set with wood-marquetry panels of high quality; he was later to work in the metal-marquetry technique (brass or pewter inlaid on tortoiseshell) for which he is best known. Contrast in the treatment of colors and surfaces as well as bold and sometimes exaggerated movement, features of the Baroque style, are characteristic of the furniture produced in these craftmen’s workshops. The practice of veneering with tortoiseshell, believed to date to the first century B.C.
Louis XIV was only four years old when he succeeded his father to the French throne. Often uncared for, he nearly drowned because no one was watching him as he played near a pond. This began to shape in his young mind an early fear of God. Louis’ character was also shaped by the French Civil War. In this, the Paris Parlement rose against the crown. For five years, Louis would suffer fear, cold, hunger and other spirit-breaking events. He would never forgive Paris, the nobles, or the common people. Finally, in 1653, Cardinal Jules Mazarin was able to end the rebellion. He began to instruct Louis on his position as king. Even though Louis XIV was now of age, the Cardinal remained the dominant authority in French politics. French kings gained respect as a soldier; Louis served with the French army during France’s war with Spain. His biggest battle, however, was sacrificing his love for Mazarin’s niece for politics. In 1660 he married the daughter of the king of Spain to bring peace between the two countries. Mazarin died March 9, 1661. On March 10, Louis claimed supreme authority in France. Not since Henry IV had such a claim been made. Louis saw himself as God’s representative on earth, therefore, infallible. He oversaw roadbuilding, court decorum, defense, and disputes within the church. He had the support initially of his ministers, then that of the French people. He had given France the image it desired-youth and vitality surrounded by magnificence. Louis won the favor of the nobles by making it evident that their future depended on their ability stay on his good side. This weakened the nobility, and would eventually weaken France. Louis had among his supportors a wide spectrum of individuals. Writers such as Moliere were ordered to glorify him. Monuments rose throughout the country and Louis had palaces built in his honor. The most elaborate was Versailles, located.
In the latter half of the 1600's, monarchial systems of both England and France were changing. In England, the move was away from an absolute monarch, and toward a more powerful Parliament. In France, the opposite was happening as Louis XIV strengthened his own office while weakening the general assembly of France, the Estates General. Absolutism, the political situation in which a monarch controls all aspects of government with no checks or balances, had been introduced in England by James I and Charles I, but never quite took hold. In France, on the other hand, Louis XIV took absolutism to extremes, claiming to be a servant of God (the divine right of Kings ) and dissolving France's only general assembly. Why absolutism failed in England but flourished in France is due mainly to the political situation in each country when the idea was first introduced. In England, during the first half of the 17th century, two monarches came to power that attempted to develop royal absolutism in that country. Both James I (James VI of Scotland) and Charles I tried to rule without consenting Parliament, but Parliament had so much control at the time that neither James nor Charles successfully decreased the role of Parliament in English government. The English had been under the combined rule of both the king and the assembly for so long that they weren't ready to give all the power of government to a single person. The merchants and land-owning nobles supported Parliament, where members could be elected and changed in necessary, rather than an absolute monarch with no restraints. In 1642, differences between Charles I and Parliament sparked England's civil war, which was caused partly by royal stubbornness to share control of the country, and partly by Parliament's refusal to give up their power in government. This was the major turning point for absolutism in England. Monarches.