FAMILY RIVALRIES

• King lacked power

• Caused a power struggle between three prominent families:

• ​VALOIS (Catholic)

• ​Family of the kings of France

• After Henry II dies, dominated by his wife, Catherine de Medici, as regent to the kings.

• GUISE (Catholic)

• ​Noble family backed by Jesuits, the Pope and Spain

• BOURBON (Protestant -- Calvinist Huguenots)

• Headed by Admiral Coligny

• And Henry of Navarre (future King Henry IV)

ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY MASSACRE 1572

• To bring peace between Bourbon & Valois families (against Guise)

• Catherine de Medici married her daughter, Margaret to Henry of Navarre

• Thousands of Huguenots came to Paris for the wedding

• Two days later, Huguenot leader, Coligny was shot and wounded (attempted assassination on Catherine's orders)

• For fear of retaliation,

• King Charles IX pressured by his mother, Catherine

• Ordered a massacre of Huguenots

• More than 3,000 Huguenots killed in Paris

• ​About 70,000 in the rest of France

• Henry of Navarre escaped

BOURBON MONARCHS

HENRY IV (r. 1589-1610)

• Henry III died 1598, Henry of Navarre become king

• Because none of Valois kings had sons (Salic Law = a male heir)

• Because of common ancestor, Louis IX (r. 1226-1270)

• Because of his Henry's marriage to Margaret

• Because Henry III wanted Henry of Navarre to succeed him.

• Personal

• ​Married to Margaret in 1572 (see above)

• Marriage annulled in 1599

• Married Marie de Medici (1600)

• Had son Louis XIII

• Religion

• As King, Henry IV renounced Protestantism and became Catholic

• Said "Paris is worth a mass"​

• But ended religious wars (Protestants v. Catholics) by issuing the Edict of Nantes (1598)

• Granting Huguenots (French Protestants) religious toleration

• and 200 fortified cities to protect them against oppression.

• New nobles

• To raise money and strengthen support among non-noble wealthy Frenchmen

• Henry sold offices and ennoblement to rich merchants, lawyers, land owners etc.

• New nobles known as "nobility of the robe" (old nobles = "nobility of the sword")

• Nobles don't have to pay taxes.

• Economics

• Duke of Sully, Finance Minister

• Government monopolies on gunpowder, mines, salt

• Improved transportation by fixing roads, bridges etc.

• Work was done by free labor (a form of taxation called Corvee)

• Henry Assassinated 1610 by a fanatical Catholic

LOUIS XIII (1610-1643)

• Personal

• ​Nine years old when father (Henry IV) died

• His mother, Marie de Medici, was regent

• (ruler while king was a minor)

• ​Because of opposition to her regency, Marie called Estates General, 1614 (see below)

• 1615 Louis XIII married Anne of Austria (Daughter of Philip III of Spain)

• Had "miracle baby" - Louis XIV

• Louis XIII began ruling on his own in 1617

• Put his mother in prison.

• Cardinal Richelieu (r. 1616-1642)

• Louis XIII's Chief Minister

• Nobles

• To strengthen power of monarchy against nobility

• Richelieu divided France in 30 districts

• Each ruled by a court-appointed intendent

• Took power away from local nobles ruling in the provisional parlements

• Defiant noblemen were imprisoned and executed, castles destroyed

• Protestants (Huguenots)

• In 1629, Protestants lost special military and political privileges from Edict of Nantes

• No longer allowed to have garrisoned cities, separate political organizations and independent law courts.

• Only kept religious liberties

• Foreign Policy

• Peace with Spain in 1611 (Treaty of Fontainebleau)

• Richelieu brought France into the Thirty Years War 1618-1648

• ​Supported Protestants

• To weaken power of the Spanish and Austrian Hapsburgs (awkward for Anne)

• Economics

• ​Richelieu doubled taxes to pay for wars

LOUIS XIV (1643-1715)

• Youth

• 5 years old when father died

• Regent was his mother, Anne of Austria and Italian Cardinal Mazarin (1642-1661)

• Mazarin had replaced Richelieu after his death.

• Fronde (1648-1652) ("slingshot")

• Rebellion of French nobility and townspeople

• Causes

• Richelieu’s and Mazarin’s decrees against nobles

• High taxes

• War (cost of Thirty Years War and war with Spain)

• Fear of growing power of monarchy

• 1651-1652 Mazarin, Anne and Louis forced to flee Paris (left chaos)

• Fronde ended 1653 when Mazarin bought off nobles.

• Personal

• Louis XIV married Marie-Thérèse of Spain (1660) (his cousin)

• Begins ruling on his own in 1661 after Mazarin's death.

• Absolute Power

• Known as "Sun King" (symbolic - universe orbits around sun)

• Proclaimed L’etat, c’est moi (1661) "The state is me" or "I am the state"

• Believed in Divine Right of Kings"

• Reinforced by Bishop Bossuet.​

• Said: All power comes from God and kings were the representatives of God on earth.

• “Un roi, une foi, une loi” ("One king, one faith, one law")

• "One King"

• "Divine Right of Kings" (see above)

• Limited power of nobles by moving them into the Palace of Versailles and turning them into his eager servants

• Relied on intendants (see above)

• Limited power of independent colonels by controlling the military.

• "One faith"

• Revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685

• Repressed Jansenists (left-wing Catholic offshoot)

• "One law"

• National laws created to replace differing local laws

• Economics

• Direct taxes (like taille land tax) heavy and corrupt tax collectors taking money.

• ​Government raised money by selling titles of nobility to bourgeoisie (meant no future tax)

• Clergy and nobility exempt from paying taxes.

• Jean Baptiste Colbert (in office 1665-1683) Louis's economic minister

• ​Proponent of mercantilism (export more than import)

• ​Protected local industries with high import tariffs.

• Increased France's reputation for high quality exports.

• Highly regulated manufacturing

• Supported arts and founded Royal Academy of Sciences in 1666

• By 1683, balanced budget

• Colonies

• New France (Canada, Acadia, Louisiana, Newfoundland) founded 1608

• In 1663 became royal province (non-Catholics not permitted to settle in colonies)

• In 1664, Colbert founded French East India Company

• To compete with British in Asia

• (See Seven Years War)

Louis XIV's Wars

• Thirty Years War ended 1648

• War of Devolution (1667-69)

• Fr. v. Spain over French claims in Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comte.

• United Provinces, England and Sweden joined Spain to prevent France from upsetting balance of power.

• Grand Alliance

• Louis later made enemies

• With Austria: By refusing to help in their war againt Turks

• And with Protestants: By turning against Huguenots (Revoking Edict of Nantes)

• Fear that France would upset balance of power

• Much of Europe formed the Grand Alliance against him.

• War of League of Augsburg (1688-1697)

• ​Between France and Grand Alliance

• Grand Alliance was formed in 1686 among European countries to stop Louis XIV's expansionist policies

• Led by William of Orange (William III of England)

• Austria, Dutch Republic, England, HRE, Sweden, Scotland, Savoy, Saxony, Portugal, Ireland, Palatinate of the Rhine.

• 8-year gained France little territory at cost of much bloodshed and misery

• War of Spanish Succession (LINK) (1702-1713)

• Battle over Spanish throne after death of childless Spanish Hapsburg, Charles II in 1700.

• Louis XIV wanted his grandson, Philip to be ruler of Spain and France (as his successor)

• Hapsburg Emperor Leopold wanted his son, Charles, to be ruler of Spain

• Peace of Utrecht (1713)

• Philip, Duke of Anjou (Louis's grandson) would be king of Spain

• But he and his descendants could never rule France

• Crown of France to Louis XIV's other grandson, Louis XV

Louis XV (1715-1774)

• Great-grandson of Louis XIV

• To power age 5 (1715)

• His uncle, Duke d’Orleans, ruled as regent

• Returned some of power that nobles had lost under Louis XIV

• Because of suffering in Louis XIV's wars.

• Reinstated parlements (including Parlement of Paris)

• Judges of the parlements had bought their positions with titles of nobility.

• Because they owned their offices, they could not be removed by the king.

• Parlements broadened power to refuse to enforce govt. laws they didn't suppoort.

• Hired John Law (a Scottish economist) for financial management

• In 1716, Law established the Banque Generale.

• A bank with the authority to issue notes.

• Also took over collection of French taxes and minting of money.

• 1717 established the Compgnie d"Occident ("Company of the West")

• To develop French territoires in the Mississippi River valley in N. America.

• Monopolized French tobacco and African slave trade.

• By 1719, the Company (now called Compagnie des Indes) had monopoly of France's colonial trade.

• French public bought shares of the company (price per share from 500-18,000 livres) - 625,000 stock shares were sold.

• Law merged Banque Generale with Compagnie des Indes.

• Hoped to retire public debt from Louis XIV's reign

• by selling his company's shars to the public

• in exchange for state-issued public securities (billets d'etat) which consequently rose sharply in value.

• Frenzy of wild specualtion tht led to stock-market boom across Europe.

• French govt. jprinted more money - causing inflation.

• Both paper money nd the billets d'etat began to lose their value.

• And profits from compny slow to mateiralize.

• Because stock and state's finances were linked.

• caused complete disaster 1720

• when the value of the shares plummeted

• causing general stock market crah in france and other ountires.

• Law forced to fee France Dec. 172.

• Debt of compny and bank consolidated and take over by the state

• which raised taxes to retire it.

• Louis XV was a gambler

• Cardinal Fleury (1653-1743)

• Louis XV's chief minister from 1726

• Worked to block nobility

Louis XVI (1774-1791)

• Married Marie Antoinette, daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, April 1770

• At age 20, Louis XVI becomes absolute monarch of France 1774

• Supported American colonists against Britain in American Revolution (1778)

• To humiliate Britain

• and regain territory lost during Seven Years War

• Caused increase in bread prices by deregulating grain market (under minister Turgot)

• Because of financial crisis, Louis XVI called the Estates General in 1789

• Meeting of three "estates":

• 1st: clergy, 2nd: nobility, 3rd; everyone else

• Resulted in creation of Constituent Assembly dominated by the Third Estate

• July 14th, 1789 mobs stormed the Bastille prison

• Signals the beginning of the French Revolution

• October 1789, King and Queen forced to move back to Paris (from Versailles)

• In June 1791, Louis and Marie try to flee to Austria but are stopped at Varennes.

• August 1792, Louis XVI is arrested

• Tried by the National Convention for high treason

• September 1792, the First French Republic is proclaimed

• Louis is executed by guillotine January 1793 (Marie is executed soon after)

ESTATES GENERAL

• Assembly of the three estates

• First: Clergy

• Second: Nobility

• Third: Everyone else

• Primary role: to present petitions from the estates to the king.

• No power in its own right (unlike Britain's parliament)

• But was advisory body to king

• In Middle Ages (until mid 14th c.) king couldn't levy general taxes

• Only lords could collect taxes in their regions

• Then king collected royal taxes (like taille and gabelle)

• Origin:

• Created 1302 and called intermittently (for example, to collect money for Wars of Religion)

• Called in 1614 (under Marie de Medici)

• Then in 1789 (under Louis XVI)