King Louis XIV of France was born on September 5th, 1638 in Saint-Germain en Laye, France. The reign of France’s Louis XIV, lasted for seventy-two years, longer than that of any other known European monarch. At the age of five, Louis XIV succeeded the throne after his father, Louis XIII. By the time he died, Louis XIV had outlived his son and his grandson. He was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis XV. Louis XIV’s reign was important in French history not only because of its long duration but also because he was an aggressive, war hungry ruler who was determined to make his subjects obey him and fought to make his kingdom the most sought-after power in Europe. During the pivotal years in French history where King Louis XIV was the King, many wars broke out. This was not helped by Louis XIV’s aggressive personality. Louis XIV seemed to enjoy war and sending his people out to die. These war had drastic costs and left France in a terrible financial state after his reign. Louis XIV was a villain because he hurt France more than he helped the country prospered during his seventy two year reign due to financial reasons, wars, persecutions, and his decisions related to religion.
One of the ways King Louis XIV hurt France was his view on religion. Louis was an extremely religious king, however he was only supportive of his own ideas and his own religion. King Henry IV, King Louis XIV’s grandfather, granted French Protestants, political and religious freedoms in France by establishing the Edict of Nantes. This Edict granted a religious liberty to Protestant subjects. The edict was one of the first decrees of religious tolerance in Europe. This Edict brought an end to the violent Wars of Religion that had begun in 1562. By the 1680s, King Louis XIV believed his faith should be the only religion of France. On October 18, 1685, Louis XIV formally revoked the Edict of Nantes which came before by a series of repressive measures which King Louis took against Protestants and the reformed church. These repressive measures deprived French Protestants of all religious and civil freedoms. King Louis replaced the Edict of Nantes with the Edicts of Fontainebleau. This edict forbade religious practice for the Protestant Reformed Church and demanded that all their church buildings in France be destroyed. Additionally, pastors who taught the Protestant religion had to go into exile. Every Protestant school had to be closed and baptism and education in the Catholic faith would be required of all children. Protestants would be forbaid from assembling and their marriages would be invalid. Every extremely faithful follower of the Protestant Reformed Church lost their identity as a devout Protestant. The followers were then declared Catholic. Many chose to leave their country and settle permanently in another, even though it was forbidden, rather than to submit to becoming a Catholic. The Protestants who stayed in France were called the “new converts”. They were forced to comply with Catholic religious practice. They had to attend Mass, have their children baptized, and receive Extreme Unction before dying. Many of the new converts kept on practicing their Reformed religion with their own family. The would hold private gatherings and secret meetings which would be held in remote areas. When they were caught, punishments were extremely severe. Those who opposed the ban of the religion faced prison or the galley. Other than persecuted the Protestants in France King Louis XIV also lead France into some financial issues during his reign as king.
King Louis XIV built one of the most beautiful palaces known today, the Palace of Versailles. The Palace of Versailles is an extravagant former royal residence and center of government. However, it was one of the most expensive building projects in history. The building of the Palace had begun in 1623, King Louis XIII, who was King Louis XIV’s father, had wanted to build a hunting lodge for his family. However, Louis XIV had decided to make the palace bigger and more lavish throughout the second half of the 17th century. Every detail of the construction was meant to glorify the King Louis. Louis XIV hired a landscape artist, Andre le Notre, who created symmetrical French gardens which included ornate fountains with “magically” still water. This still water expressed the power of humanity, specifically, the kings power over nature. The Palace of Versailles is estimated to have cost anywhere between two billion dollars to a maximum cost of $299,520,000,000. The cost of building the lavish palace is an example difference in the daily life and lavish habits of the French aristocracy and the struggles of the common citizen. One struggle came from Louis XIV building on Louis XIII’s policy of extending centralized absolutism to all areas of the kingdom. Centralized absolutism meant that the power of the monarch would, in theory, be unlimited except by divine law. Divine law is any law that is believed to have come directly from a divine source, such as the will of God or Gods. One fundamental weakness of the French economy under the reign of King Louis XIV was that those who could afford to pay more taxes paid the least and those who could not afford to pay more taxes paid the most. This system kept many people in poverty. Therefore, the greatest number of people were the poor who paid the most tax. This left the poor with barely enough to live off of let alone buy goods that were taxed. Not as many people had the money to spend and their total tax responsibility was completely disproportionate to their wealth.
King Louis XIV, lead by an absolute monarchy which meant that the ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by the divine right which is lead by the eternal law. The eternal law of God is the idea that God conceived as the Ruler of the Universe. Louis XIV believed he as appointed by God, because of this he felt as though he had no obligations to any human being. Louis XIV asserted his divine rights aggressively. Unsurprisingly, Louis’s attempts to centralize power that had been dispersed among the aristocracy angered aristocrats. Louis chose to make decisions about regional policies in France that had been the right of noblemen who owned the land in that region. Louis XIV was had tried to reduce the powers of the judicial bodies. And because of his attempts to centralize so much power to himself, this resulted in a civil war called the Fronde. This was was when the nobles in France rebelled against Louis XIV. This uprising lasted from 1648-1653 before it was finally crushed by Louis XIV’s army. Louis was too controlling and focused on himself when it came to the majority of events. He wanted absolute power. By giving himself divine rights he was essentially telling the people of France he was a God among men.
Many people can make arguments for King Louis XIV being a hero. He was a long-reigning king and kept France stable for an extremely long time. However, some things he did cannot be overlooked when making a final judgment on the kind of person he was. The terrible persecutions which thousands of people in France had to live with because their religion did not agree with King Louis’s cost many religious freedoms. King Louis was too focused on centralizing not only power in the government, but also centralizing religion. His building of the Palace of Versailles could be seen as a positive when discussing Louis XIV. However, the hunting lodge which turned into the extravagant palace we know today focused more on showing the “glory” of Louis XIV then a place to hold government meetings. The cost of this palace showed the extreme difference between the common people and the aristocrats. King Louis XIV’s reign was not all negative. However, many of the events which happened in his time as the king of France cannot be overlooked for there unjust, selfish ways.