Lord Acton once said that...
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
- Lord Acton1
Was this true in Absolutist France? After all, they had an absolute monarchy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Further, what is an absolute monarchy? How did it begin in France, and how did it end? Let us dig deep into the concepts of absolutism and what it looked like throughout European History.
Absolutist Monarchy France
Absolutism began with the concept of the Divine Right of Kings. Absolute rulers centered the surrounding government, controlling taxation, lawmaking, and military operations. Absolutism intended to provide some much-needed central control after decades of war during the sixteenth century.
Divine Right of Kings
The belief kings were God's appointed lieutenants on Earth and, as such, their subjects should follow their rule absolutely.
French Absolutism Summary
French Absolutism rose out of the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598), a series of civil wars that tore the realm apart and destroyed the economy. After these wars ended, King Henry IV sought to strengthen the government. His efforts centralized government operations around the king and less around the nobility to provide more efficient tax collection to recoup finances and restore order after chaos.
Jean Bodin
Jean Bodin represented absolutism theory in France. He supported the monarch as a father figure to his subjects. To Bodin, the king provided a stern and benevolent hand over his realm that could calm left behind by war. Bodin's writings helped to win the French people over to absolutist rule. However, Bodin also advised against a king using his full power against his subjects' property.
Fig. 1 Jean Bodin
French Absolutism Timeline
French absolutism emerged gradually over the 16th century, was officially established during the 17th century, and found its demise in the 18th century.
| Date | Event |
| 1651 | The thirteen-year-old Louis XIV took control of the French Throne. |
| 1653 | Louis ended the Fronde by centralizing government power in himself and eliminating opposition. |
| 1661 | Louis XIV married Spanish princess Maria Theresa (1638-1683) to cement peace with Spain. This match would later serve as the basis for the War of Spanish Succession. |
| 1661 | Mazarin, who served as foreign relations minister for the remainder of his life, died. Louis XIV declared that he would henceforward have no minister. |
| 1665 | Colbert was appointed Controller-General of Finance, replacing the corrupt Nicolas Fouquet. |
| 1682 | The Declaration of the Clergy, led by Louis XIV, granted power over the French church to the king over the Pope. |
| 1685 | Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, forcing the conversion or banishment of the Huguenots. |
| 1701-1713 | The War of the Spanish Succession. The last Spanish Habsburg King Carlos II died without any children, so he named his cousin, Louis XIV's grandson Philippe d'Anjou, as his heir. The Austrian Habsburgs, who controlled the Holy Roman Empire, favored the emperor's younger son, Archduke Charles. A fifteen-year war broke out over the succession, which the French won. Phillipe became King Philip V. |
| 1715 | Louis XIV died at 76 years old. Because he outlived most of his immediate family, his five-year-old great-grandson Louis became king. His nephew Philippe, Duke d'Orleans, served as regent. |
| 1723 | King Louis XV claimed control over the throne from his regent. |
| 1749-1758 | The Jansenist crisis weakened the monarchy's control over the French church and, by extension, the government. It also strengthened the political authority of the Parlement of Paris, who branded themselves as protectors of French liberties. The Parlement claimed the right to administer church matters. |
| 1756-1763 | The Seven Years' War with Britain and Prussia destroyed France's finances, weakening the monarchy's financial control over the state. France also lost many of its colonies in the war. |
| 1771 | Louis XV's Chancellor tried to make a tax law permanent, which roused the anger of the Parlement. Louis abolished the Parlement in response. This conflict brought conversations about which governing body represented the people's best interests into the public eye. |
| 1774 | The unpopular Louis XV died, and his son succeeded as King Louis XVI. The new king attempted to reform the state by recalling the Parlement and ending tax exemptions for clerics and nobles but aroused intense opposition instead. |
| 1776 | Louis XVI bankrupted France's economy by aiding the Americans in their revolutionary war, leading to a financial crisis. |
| 1789 | After several ineffectual attempts to appease or gain control over his nobles and subjects, France erupted into chaos. The French Revolution began, and the period of French Absolutism ended. |
Did you know?
Jansenism was a theology based on Catholicism but disagreed with certain fundamental elements. It was based on the writings of Cornelius Jansen and gained great popularity in France. However, the Catholic Church declared Jansenism a heresy in 1713 because of its Calvinist leanings, including justification by faith alone and the denial of free will in the acceptance or rejection of God's grace. As a result, Louis XV expelled Jansenists from France by 1764!
First Absolutist Ruler of France
King Henry IV was assassinated in 1610, leaving his nine-year-old son king. The new King Louis XIII's mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent while still underage, and he took the throne in 1617. Louis XIII (1601-1643) seized upon the foundations of the absolute rule laid down by his father, making him the first absolutist ruler of France. His closest advisor was Cardinal Armand Jean du Pessis de Richelieu (1585-1642), a shrewd administrator who worked with the king to expand the monarchy's reach across France significantly.
Cardinal Armand Jean du Pessis de Richelieu
French clergyman and statesman, Cardinal Armand Jean du Pessis de Richelieu was also known as the 'Red Eminence' because of the red robes which cardinals wore during this period. Richelieu is often remembered due to his involvement in the political sector of the Thirty Years' War, contributing to the secularization of international politics.
Fig. 2 Louis XIII receiving the keys to the city of Caen
Richelieu and Louis XIII broke the Huguenot stronghold in La Rochelle in 1628, eliminating opposition to his absolute rule. During the Thirty Years' War, they prevailed against the Habsburg Empire, which controlled Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. They also extended France's international reach by establishing colonies in the Americas and trade relationships with Morocco and parts of Asia.
Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu are immortalized in Alexandre Dumas' classic novel, The Three Musketeers.
Louis XIV
Louis XIII's son, Louis XIV, is the best example of French Absolutist rule. Louis XIV was only four years old when his father died of tuberculosis, so his mother, Anne of Austria (1601-1666), served as his regent until 1651. Anne's advisor, Cardinal Mazarin (1602-1661), sought to prolong the Thirty Years' War and continue striking against Spain, sparking a five-year revolt called the Fronde (1648-1653). The young king eliminated the threat by minimizing the political power of the nobility and removing those who opposed his authority.
Fig. 3 Louis XIV
Louis XIV is best known for his carefully constructed image of a ruler appointed by God. In his view, he and the state were one. He used art and architecture to liken himself to the Greek Sun God, Apollo. His ultimate display of grandeur was the Palace of Versailles, finished in 1686. He moved the entire government from Paris to Versailles, approximately twelve miles away, and built a structure that still incites awe and admiration even today.
Fun Fact!
Apollo was the Greek god of an abundance of matters, which accurately portrays the ideology of Absolutism. A few of these responsibilities were the following... (and more!)
- Poetry
- Art
- Music
- Truth
- Prophecy
- Healing
- The sun
Absolutist France Economy
Louis XIV's finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) helped the king maximize the critical elements of his absolute monarchy: taxes, public works projects, and rooting out corruption in his administration. In addition, they employed mercantilism to boost finances and bring France's resources under state control. Under mercantilism, the French monarchy became self-sufficient.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Mercantilism
Colbert's economic reforms helped restore France's financial stability under Louis XIV. As Controller-General, he expanded international trade, increased taxation efficiency, and expanded domestic manufacturing. His economic practices, often called Colbertism after him, are a variant of mercantilism, which seeks to decrease imports and boost exports. Colbert strengthened the economy by buying within France and selling outside France.
Fig. 4 Jean-Baptiste Colbert
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing.
- Jean-Baptiste Colbert 2
Mercantilism is an economic system of trade that governments used during the 16th and 18th centuries. Promoting colonialism, imperialism, subsidies, and tariffs on trading to minimize imports, and maximizing exports. It is said that these arguments state power at the expense of the countries around them. France wasn't the only country to engage in Mercantilism, western European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Germany also practices this economic system.
Mercantilism influences the creation of monopolistic trading companies such as the French East India Company.
Military Absolutist France
The French army was the central symbol of a monarch's authority as it was used to enforce its power. Without a strong military power, an absolute monarch would be vulnerable as it not only acts as an offensive force to instruct and present power but as a defensive means to protect the monarch and their family. According to Niall Ferguson, France is noted to have the most successful military force in history.3
Fig. 5 Thirty Years' War Map
- Engaged in 50 of the 125 large European wars that have been fought since the year 1495.
- The Wars of Religion in the 16th century weakened the nation.
- French victory over Spain during the Thirty Years' War reestablished their dominance and power.
- France achieved military supremacy over its rivals during the reign of Louis XIV.
Absolutist France - Key takeaways
- Absolutism is a form of government where a monarch assumes absolute control over the realm's finances, military, and administration. The central monarch is the strongest part of the government, and the influence of the nobility is diminished.
- French Absolutism began after the French Wars of Religion in 1598 under Henry IV and became more centralized and efficient during the reign of his son, Louis XIII.
- Louis XIV represents the apex of absolute rule in France. The Sun King established France as the center of the European world and carefully cultivated an image of strength, divine authority, and majesty through war, financial reform, architecture, and art.
- After Louis XIV died in 1715, absolutism declined through a crippling financial crisis brought on by costly wars and a strengthened Parlement that opposed the king's rule. Absolutism finally dissolved in 1789 with the French Revolution.
References
- Lord Acton, (1887). Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton. Transcript of, published in Historical Essays and Studies, edited by J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence (London: Macmillan, 1907)
- Jean-Baptiste Colbert 1619–83 French statesman: attributed. Susan Ratcliffe, (2018). Oxford Essential Quotations (6 ed.)
- Niall Ferguson, (2001). "The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000; p.25-27.
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