Absolute Monarchy: Crash Course European History #13

Summary

In this episode of Crash Course European History, John Green explores the rise of absolutism in the 17th century, focusing on the reign of Louis XIV of France. Known as the Sun King, Louis ruled with the belief in divine right, amassing power and centralizing control over France. The episode examines his opulent court life at Versailles, the heavy taxes levied on commoners, and the costly wars Louis waged. While his reign embodied absolute monarchy, it also laid the groundwork for future challenges to authoritarian rule in Europe.

Takeaways

• 👑 Louis XIV, the Sun King, reigned for over 70 years and is often seen as the epitome of absolutist monarchy.
• ⚔️ Absolutism gave kings, like Louis XIV, divine rights to rule without opposition, elevating their power and authority.
• 🌍 The Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years War, but life remained difficult for the majority of people, with heavy taxes and famines due to ongoing conflicts.
• 🎨 Louis XIV, in his iconic portraits, is depicted in grand attire, reflecting both his power and the era's standards of masculine beauty, such as wearing heels to show off his legs.
• ⚖️ During Louis XIV's early reign, heavy taxation and military pressures led to widespread revolts from both peasants and the nobility, such as the Fronde uprisings.
• 👨‍👩‍👦 Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin ruled as regents during Louis XIV's early reign, facing resistance from the nobles of the robe, judges, and ordinary citizens.
• 🏰 Louis XIV moved the French court to Versailles, transforming it into a grand palace that became a symbol of his absolute rule and a way to distract the nobility.
• 📜 The divine right theory supported absolute monarchy, with Bishop Bossuet preaching that kings were God's representatives on earth and had divine authority.
• 🚢 Louis XIV promoted mercantilism, aiming to increase France's wealth by controlling trade and waging wars to gain more territory, although some of these wars ended in losses.
• 💣 Although absolutism brought centralized power, it drained France's resources through endless wars and heavy taxes, leading to criticism from various groups, including exiled Huguenots.

Q & A

Who was Louis XIV and why was he referred to as the 'Sun King'?

Louis XIV, also known as the 'Sun King,' was the king of France for over 70 years. He earned the title due to his central role in the French monarchy and his grand court at Versailles, which symbolized his perceived power as the source of light and warmth for France.

What role did Anne of Austria play during Louis XIV's early reign?

Anne of Austria, Louis XIV’s mother, served as his regent when he was too young to rule. Alongside Cardinal Mazarin, she governed France during the final years of the Thirty Years War and managed numerous protests and uprisings.

What were some challenges faced by France during the early reign of Louis XIV?

During Louis XIV’s early reign, France was strained by heavy taxes, famine, and the aftereffects of the Thirty Years War. Uprisings like the Fronde occurred, where both peasants and nobility resisted the increasing financial burdens.

What was the significance of the Paulette tax in French history?

The Paulette tax, introduced by Henry IV, allowed government officials to pay a tax to keep their jobs for life or pass them on to successors. This created a powerful class of bureaucrats, known as the 'nobles of the robe,' who held significant influence.

How did Louis XIV’s court life at Versailles distract the French nobility?

Louis XIV built the grand palace of Versailles and moved his court there. The extravagant lifestyle and numerous duties at court, like attending to the king’s personal needs, diverted the nobility from political affairs, ensuring their loyalty.

What was the role of Jean-Baptiste Colbert in Louis XIV's administration?

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was one of Louis XIV's most important officials, managing finances and public works. He supported mercantilism, an economic policy aimed at strengthening France’s economy by controlling trade and promoting manufacturing.

How did the revocation of the Edict of Nantes affect France?

Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 led to the persecution of Protestants in France. Many fled the country, taking their skills and businesses to other parts of Europe and North America, which weakened France's economy.

What were the major wars waged by Louis XIV, and what were the outcomes?

Louis XIV fought four major wars: the War of Devolution, the Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession. While he initially gained territory, his later wars resulted in significant losses, especially in Canada to Britain.

What is mercantilism, and how did it influence Louis XIV’s policies?

Mercantilism is an economic theory that views global wealth as finite, meaning one country must lose for another to gain. Under Colbert, France adopted mercantilist policies, focusing on trade, manufacturing, and tariffs to strengthen the nation’s wealth.

How did the concept of absolutism influence Louis XIV’s rule?

Absolutism, the belief that the king’s power is divinely granted, was central to Louis XIV’s reign. He was viewed as the embodiment of the state, with authority over all aspects of government, religion, and society. This belief justified his centralized control and authoritarian policies.

Outlines

00:00

👑 The Rise of Absolutism and Louis XIV

This section introduces Louis XIV, the French 'Sun King,' and the concept of absolutism in 17th-century Europe. The video discusses how kings, especially Louis XIV, were considered to have divine rights to rule. It highlights Louis's early life, beginning his reign at four years old, and describes his eventual rise to power under his mother, Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin. Despite protests and rebellions caused by high taxes and famine, the monarchy survived. The king’s image was built on grandeur, with symbolic displays of power, such as his elaborate clothing and demeanor, demonstrating his absolute authority.

05:08

✊ The Challenge to Absolute Power: Jansenism and the Fronde

This section focuses on various movements and opposition to Louis XIV's rule, including the rise of Jansenism, which called for spiritual reform and austerity. The nobility, courts, and the Catholic movement all challenged the monarchy's power, leading to the Fronde, a series of uprisings from 1648 to 1653. The resistance mainly came from the nobility and courts, who opposed taxation without their consent. Despite these challenges, Louis XIV's regime persevered, particularly through his elaborate court life and the construction of the palace of Versailles, which diverted noble attention and solidified his authority.

10:13

☀️ Versailles: The Symbol of Louis XIV’s Absolute Power

This paragraph details Louis XIV’s strategy to strengthen his rule through grandeur, particularly his construction of the Versailles Palace. The court life at Versailles was extravagant and demanding, with nobles vying for status and the privilege of serving the king personally. The palace housed thousands, and the king’s presence was celebrated in operas, plays, and daily rituals, reinforcing his image as a divine ruler, or the 'Sun King.' Louis XIV's divine right to rule was promoted by thinkers like Bishop Bossuet, who preached that kings acted as ministers of God, with Louis XIV embodying the state itself.

⚔️ Mercantilism, Wars, and Power Struggles of Louis XIV

This part covers the wars Louis XIV fought and his embrace of mercantilism, a system that saw economic competition as a zero-sum game, fueling wars for territorial expansion. Louis waged four major wars, including the War of Devolution and the War of the Spanish Succession. Although France gained territory, these wars eventually led to exhaustion of resources and significant losses, particularly to Britain. Despite the grandeur of his reign, Louis's absolute rule faced increasing criticism and unrest by the end of his reign, questioning the effectiveness of his militaristic and authoritarian policies.

📉 The Downfall of Absolutism and Its Legacy

The conclusion reflects on the eventual decline of absolutism, as critics both within and outside of France began to see the system as tyrannical and unsustainable. Louis XIV's legacy left France financially drained and politically unstable, despite its initial grandeur. Absolutism required significant taxation, war, and conformity, and though it centralized power under the monarchy, it alienated many. At the same time, other systems like constitutionalism in England were also developing, which, while violent, laid the groundwork for ideas about human rights and power-sharing.

Keywords

💡Absolutism

Absolutism refers to a political system where a monarch holds absolute power, often justified by the divine right to rule. In the video, it is exemplified by Louis XIV, who was seen as the embodiment of absolute authority in France. His long reign was marked by centralized control, where he made decisions without needing approval from other political bodies. Louis XIV's divine right to the throne and his ability to shape the state around his personal rule are key themes in the video.

💡Divine Right

The concept of divine right refers to the belief that a monarch’s authority to rule comes directly from God, making them accountable only to divine law, not to their subjects. In the video, Louis XIV is highlighted as the prime example of a ruler who embodied divine right, with the Bishop Bossuet preaching that kings acted as God's ministers on earth. This ideology was used to justify his absolute rule and maintain control over the kingdom.

💡Thirty Years War

The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) was a religious and political conflict that ravaged much of Europe, including France. It ended with the Treaty of Westphalia, but the war's effects, particularly in terms of economic strain and social upheaval, are shown as the backdrop for Louis XIV’s rise to power. The war also influenced the heavy taxation that provoked widespread revolts in France during Louis XIII’s reign and into the early years of Louis XIV’s rule.

💡Fronde

The Fronde refers to a series of civil wars in France (1648-1653) during the minority of Louis XIV. The video describes how both peasants and the nobility revolted against the increasing taxation and the attempts by Louis XIV’s mother, Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin to centralize power. The Fronde was significant in shaping Louis XIV’s approach to governance, convincing him to further strengthen the monarchy’s authority and limit the power of the nobility.

💡Sun King

Louis XIV is famously known as the 'Sun King,' symbolizing his role as the source of light and order in France. The video discusses how he used elaborate court life at Versailles to reinforce his image as the central figure of authority, around whom all of France revolved. His grandiose displays of power, such as court ceremonies and artistic patronage, enhanced this persona, making him the ultimate example of an absolutist monarch.

💡Mercantilism

Mercantilism is an economic theory that views global wealth as finite, meaning nations must compete to accumulate resources at the expense of others. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's finance minister, is noted in the video for promoting mercantilism by regulating trade and industries to enhance France’s economic power. This system aimed to increase national wealth by fostering exports and reducing imports, as seen in France’s control of trade and expansion into North America.

💡Versailles

Versailles was the magnificent palace built by Louis XIV outside of Paris, serving as the center of political power and royal extravagance. In the video, the palace is depicted as a tool for Louis XIV to control the nobility by immersing them in a lavish court life. The grandeur of Versailles reinforced the king’s image as an all-powerful ruler and provided a physical space where he could display his dominance over France.

💡Treaty of Westphalia

The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) ended the Thirty Years War and is mentioned in the video as a key event that shaped the political landscape of Europe. For France, the treaty marked a shift in power, as it helped establish the country's dominance over rival states like Spain and the Austrian Habsburgs. The treaty’s significance in ending religious wars and shaping state sovereignty influenced the subsequent rise of absolutism under Louis XIV.

💡Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes, issued in 1598, granted religious freedom to Protestants in France, but its revocation by Louis XIV in 1685 is highlighted in the video as a major moment in his reign. By revoking the edict, Louis XIV forced many Protestants to flee France, weakening the country’s economy but strengthening his vision of a unified, Catholic state. This decision reflects the absolutist emphasis on religious conformity.

💡Cardinal Mazarin

Cardinal Mazarin was the chief minister during the early reign of Louis XIV, acting as regent alongside Louis's mother, Anne of Austria. The video portrays Mazarin as a key figure in the centralization of royal power and in France’s military successes, particularly against the Habsburgs. His unpopularity due to heavy taxation and his foreign origin, however, contributed to the unrest during the Fronde, shaping the early challenges of Louis XIV's rule.

Highlights

The 30 Years War ended with the Treaty of Westphalia, and absolutism began to rise in Europe, particularly under Louis XIV.

Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, ruled France for over 70 years and was the epitome of absolute monarchs, with a belief in the divine right to rule.

Louis XIV started his reign at the age of four in 1643, but his mother, Anne of Austria, and Cardinal Mazarin initially governed as regents.

The 17th century in France saw widespread famine and rising taxes, leading to uprisings such as the Fronde, where both peasants and nobility protested.

Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin faced significant opposition, including from the nobles of the robe, a powerful class of bureaucrats.

The nobility of the sword and nobles of the robe were in conflict, with the latter having paid for their positions and growing in influence.

The Jansenist movement arose in France during this time, promoting intense religious fervor and a rejection of the perceived corruption in the Catholic Church.

Louis XIV eventually built Versailles, a massive palace complex that became the symbol of his absolute rule and grandeur, diverting nobles with court life.

Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet defended absolutism, preaching that kings ruled by divine right and were akin to gods in their authority.

Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685, forcing thousands of Protestants to flee France, taking their skills and businesses to other nations.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s most important official, strengthened France's economy through mercantilism and promoted overseas expansion, including to North America.

Mercantilism, the dominant economic policy of the time, saw trade as a form of warfare, with nations competing for finite wealth in a zero-sum game.

Despite Louis XIV's military ambitions, many of his wars, such as the War of the Spanish Succession, ended with significant losses for France.

Absolutism, while empowering the monarchy, imposed heavy taxation and caused large losses of life through endless warfare.

By the end of Louis XIV's reign, absolutism was being questioned, with critics describing France as a 'state full of boils and wounds and putrid sores.'

Transcripts

Hi, I'm John Green and this is crash course European history

So today we're moving into the second half of the 17th century

The 30 Years War has ended with the Treaty of Westphalia and the Scientific Revolution is producing amazing new universal laws

but life is still pretty terrible for the vast majority of people. For Kings though, things were changing with the advent of absolutism

in which the king is said to have a divine right to the throne and the

Divinest divine right monarch of them all Louis XIV,

led Western Europe's most powerful Kingdom for more than 70 years

So this is a portrait of Louis XIV - the French Sun King, painted when he was 63

Louis XIV looks regal in his massive black wig and swaths of ermine

Embellished with fleurs-de-lis the symbol of the former french royal house

His high heels show off his shapely legs in white hose

demonstrating the king's

perfection. Men's legs garbed in tightly fitted stockings were a key indication of

desirability at the time and while he may not appear super masculine to us

Louis XIV was the model of powerful kingship and indeed absolute power

Louis was four years old when he started his reign in

1643 while Europe was attempting to pull itself out of the 30 Years War earlier under Louis's father Louis XIII

rebellions abounded in the hundreds across the kingdom

Because of increasingly heavy taxation to pay for the war and the famine conditions due to the relentless little ice age

It seemed almost unthinkable to ordinary people that the king would betray his subjects with

rising taxes in a time of famine. So instead they usually blamed tax collectors and local officials

not the king after Louis XIII died, his

four-year-old son was a smidge small for France ruling

So the job was taken over by his Regent, his mother, Anne of Austria

With help from her sidekick and rumored lover the Italian born Cardinal Mazarin

The first years of Anne's Regency were the last years of the 30 Years War and she increased French military

deployments even amid all these protests with the simple and eventually successful goal of defeating the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs

To gain more territory alongside increasing the desperation of ordinary people. This constant warfare stretched

Aristocratic resources because Nobles raised and paid for their own armies in wartime

Louis's mother had to move him several times to keep him safe amid protests from peasants and nobility

Alike some of whom even went to the point of plotting Coups d'état

which is after all a French phrase. the Pieds Nus - or barefooted ones, the Croquants - or

crunchers or crispies, and even judges of Paris were among the people resisting. One judge listed the

sacrifices of ordinary people such as selling all their furniture and sleeping on straw in order to pay rising taxes

He said to maintain the luxury of Paris millions of innocent souls are obliged to live on black bread and oats

Did the center of the world just open? Is there a pumpernickel bagel in there?

It's the closest we could get to black bread. Now. This is a

properly great bagel

Hmm

I'm gonna eat that whole thing. Once this is done but black bread in 17th century, France...Not good. For one thing

It was often cut with sawdust, which you know, isn't ideal for bread making and also isn't ideal for nutrition

in fact, our contemporary bread is so good that it's hard for us to imagine just

How difficult the circumstances were in the 17th century?

Like just how desperate you have to be to add sawdust to your dough

So we're gonna jump back in time for a bit, earlier in the 17th century, a group of judges

managed to undermine the monarchy,

if only temporarily. You'll recall that France ended their religious civil war with Henry,

Paris's well worth amassed the fourth ruling. Henry was Louis XIV's

grandfather and to pay for ongoing wars Henry raised a new tax called the Paulette that was paid by government officials

including judges over a nine-year period

and if you paid the Paulette you could keep your job for life or even sell your job to a

successor and this created a powerful class of bureaucrats who were basically immune from state oversight

But Henry couldn't afford to get rid of the Paulette because he needed the cash to wage wars

The officials who bought their positions came to be known as the nobles of the robe as opposed to the old-school

nobles who were called the nobles of the sword because they'd gotten their status via military

service to the king

Flash forward a few decades Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin are trying to throw these Nobles of the robe out of office

Which the new nobles are of course not keen on leading and to threaten to arrest them

I mean after all they'd paid a lot of money for those robes all of this pushed the people of Paris to their most menacing

protests until the

monarchy back down and released the judges that they had imprisoned and this triumph over the monarchy made the nobility of the robe a force

to be reckoned with and also indicated that maybe the absolute power of the monarchy

Wasn't actually that absolute. Alongside these protesters another contender for influence arose a new Catholic movement

Jansenism, called for a complete purging of the self and a fervent

spirituality to replace the insufficient and even deluded practices of the church.

Like for instance being a cardinal who is probably hooking up with the king's mom

the Jansenist believe only intense and full religious commitment could pull France from its dire straits and their menaced

established authority, but the most threatening uprising was the Fronde, a series of opposition movements between

1648 and

1653 in which the old nobility and the courts were like, " you can't just raise our taxes willy-nilly without asking permission "

And Anne of Austria was like, " of course we can it's a kingdom and we are ,well

if not, exactly the king at least the Kings Regent and her sidekick ".

Let's go to the thought-bubble

Louis XIV was officially crowned king in 1654 when he was 15

And as he grew older his urgent task became organizing the administration of his kingdom

Raising funds and uniting his subjects in loyalty to him

part of his brilliance was to divert the nobility and in fact a good part of France with a

spectacular court life, rather how a parent might divert a relentless unhappy child would, say, an IPad

But Louie's court was even more diverting than, I don't know

what kids like? TiKTok ?

in the 1660s the King began the task of removing his

Government from the tumult of Paris by converting a hunting lodge at Versailles outside of Paris into the most spectacular

European palace complex of its day it has some

15,000 people when the court moved there in the 1680s and further thousands in the many adjacent

buildings for servants and smaller Chateau built for Louis's mistresses

The nobility was kept busy attending to the king and queen as well as serving the monarchs

legitimate and many illegitimate children

They also outdid themselves in maneuvering for status

One of the highest honors being to hand the king his nightshirt in the evening or to oversee his use of the commode. The king

also sponsored and sometimes starred in spectacular operas and concerts and plays to add to the feeling of his greatness and power

While the nobility enhanced the scene by behaving as if the King were in fact more than humanly powerful

It was almost like the king was a bright sun whose presence warmed all those it graced and indeed,

That's why Louis XIV came to be known as the Sun King

Thanks, thought-bubble ! In the days of absolutism monarchs across Europe embraced the idea that they had the divine right to their absolute

rule. The Bishop Jacques-Benigne Bossuet preached in the royal chapel of Versailles that quote : " It is God who

establishes kings...he vested royalty in the House of David, and ordered him to cause Solomon, his son to reign in his place...

Princes thus act as ministers of God. "

He continued, " This is why we have seen that the royal throne is not the throne of a man, but the throne of God himself. "

To his mind, " God has placed in Princes something divine. " and in fact, Bossuet maintained,

" Princes are gods. ". The kings divinity allowed for his regime to be free from arbitrariness or the tyranny of

anarchy because whatever he did was

necessarily correct. Louis XIV probably never said the line most famously attributed to him,

" L'etat c'est moi " or " the state is me ", but it has endured for a reason

He really was the state's power and authority

and he felt that even if he never said it. But Divine Right theory also meant religious conformity. Louis XIV viewed the presence of

protestants in his realm as disorderly and sinful, causing him to revoke the Edict de Nantes in 1685

Thousands of Protestants then fled France, taking their skills and successful businesses to the Netherlands, the German states, North America, South Africa

and other places. And for all the surface grandeur of Louis's regime

it worked mostly because of accomplished bureaucrats including the intendants or

InEnDantS, if I'm pretending to be able to pronounce French, whose jobs were regularized to oversee tax collections, and the

administration's of the various regions of the kingdom. The most prominent and important of all Louis's officials was Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who oversaw

finances and public works among other things. Despite being of middle-class birth, Colbert drove the kingdom's economy

Including its merchants, shipbuilders and artisans. Colbert also oversaw French expansion into North America

sending out settlers and officials, traders combed the continent for the

desperately needed furs that were in high demand during the intense cold of the Little Ice Age

Colbert is most famous for his support of

mercantilism, a policy that saw economic development and trade as

akin to war. Merkin to his thinkers believed that there was only so much wealth in the world a finite and fixed amount

And in such a zero-sum world, the only way for one kingdom to win would be for other kingdoms to lose

We now know this isn't true. But mercantilism was an important driver of policy and foreign relations at the time

there were many applications of this theory refusing entry of another Kingdom ships for instance or

enacting high tariffs on competitors goods

We can see one example of this in cotton textiles, which were

wildly popular but Europeans had no idea how to produce such lively and washable fabrics

So they were outlawed in France

Smuggling, however, thrived with women and men alike

Wearing cotton and even high officials brought them in illegally. In this and other areas of life people did disobey

Absolutist rules. Still, Louis had a lot of power, including the power to wage war

He waged four major ones first the war of devolution in which France gained territory in the north

Second, the Dutch war which gained additional land to the north and along the eastern border

Third, the War of the League of Augsburg

In which he lost much of the land won in the Dutch war. And fourth, the war of the Spanish Succession

again with significant losses

including in Canada this time to Britain, who you might not have expected to be mixed up in the Spanish war of succession

but

Everyone wanted in on warring in 17th century Europe. Clearly, like the ideal reality TV contestant, Louis was not there to make friends

but we can see through this exchange of lands, through endless war how a

zero-sum, I can only win if you lose world view ends up exhausting resources rather than expanding them. By the

end of his reign, the idea of absolutist rules was being thrown into question. An English critic called

absolutist France a " State full of boils and wounds and putrid sores "

exiled Huguenots called the French under Louis " slaves. " his rule directed only " to satisfy both his

ambition and his vengeance ." Again, satisfying ones ambition and ones vengeance makes you a great reality TV contestant

But maybe not necessarily the perfect king

So absolutism can be seen as a form of tyrannical rule demanding religious, economic and social conformity

based on a political theory of monarchical divinity

It cost huge amounts in taxation and loss of life in wars to create this system of civility to royal power and

it was pretty disempowering to the French public. But then again the rise of a political system of power sharing in England called

Constitutionalism wasn't really less violent. Although it did enshrine certain ideas about human rights

Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time

Thanks for watching crash course European history

Which is made by all these nice people and filmed here in the Jaden Smith studio in Indianapolis

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