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France's Bourbon Monarchy
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)