The reign of Louis XIV lasted an astounding length of seventy-two years. Louis XIV was born on September 16, 1638. His reign started when he was only four years old when his father Louis XIII died on May 14, 1643. Louis XIV chose the sun as his emblem. The sun was associated with Apollo, god of peace and arts, and was also a heavenly body that gave life to all things. Like Apollo, Louis XIV brought peace and was a patron of the arts. Soon after Louis XIV became king, disorder ran rampant through France. Nobles, merchants, peasants and the poor rebelled, each for their own causes.
Louis XIV was not highly liked among the people of France. Previously the kings of France had lived rather close to their people, travelling about a good deal, in war or peace, visiting towns and their poorer subjects. When Louis XIV became a deity, the people bowed down, but felt that the king no longer belonged to them. The French, however, only really love what belongs to them. Louis XIV held a very strict court. He forced all the nobles to live with him at the Palace of Versailles. The daily rituals of his court were elaborate and for nobles mandatory. For example, the day started with the king's awakening at eight o' clock. First the queen and the children,
then the court officials and important nobles were admitted to the king's chambers and he dressed and ate breakfast, all according to a rigid daily schedule. At lunch and dinner there were always large numbers of courtiers all hanging upon the king's every word? When the king went to bed, the same formality prevailed as in the morning.
Louis XIV was a huge patron of the arts. The king became the born protector of writers and artists who he paid regularly. Louis XIV founded the French Academy, the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, the Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Architecture, and the Academy of Music. Louis XIV patronized almost all the great writers of his time without enslaving or limiting their inspiration.
The influence of Louis XIV dominated the arts even more than it did writing. The buildings that were constructed during his reign were the Louvre, the Invalides, the Palace of Versailles, Trainon, and Marly. He himself examined the plans of the works, directed the artists, and imposed his taste. The painter Le Brun was Louis XIV's main adviser in the Fine Arts, and in particular he directed the decoration of Versailles. The Palace of Versailles was one of Louis XIV's greatest achievements. He had some of the greatest artists come to work on Versailles. It took more than thirty years to build this masterpiece, under the direction of Louis XIV. The chief architects of Versailles were Louis Le Van and his successor Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Louis XIV lived in the core of the palace in the large luxurious chateau. Versailles was built with huge elegant gardens on all sides of it. The French landscape architect Andre Le Norte designed the gardens. The gardens are laid out in broad avenues lined with trees, shrubbery, and groups of sculpture.
When it came to foreign affairs, Louis XIV's consistent aim was to glorify France. Louis's army consisted of one hundred thousand solders in peacetime and four hundred thousand solders in wartime. In four wars he displayed before all of Europe his ability as a military leader. In 1667, Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands. His quick victories impelled England, Holland, and Sweden to check France and force the Peace of Aix-la-Chapellein in 1668. Louis gained twelve fortresses in Flanders and soon isolated the Dutch by buying England and Swedish neutrality. In 1672 Louis sent an army against Holland. For six years the Dutch aided by Spain and Austria, staved off French attacks. The treaties signed at Nijmegen, in 1678, did not dismantle Holland but gave Louis the Franche-Comte region and more forts in Flanders. When Louis's armies were battling Dutch Protestants, Louis had been denying religious liberty to the Protestants of France. In 1685, determined to force conversion of the Protestants, Louis revoked their Charter of Liberties. The Edict of Nantes forced more than two hundred thousand into exile and ignited the Camisard's revolt. The overconfident Louis sent an army into the Rhineland in 1688 to claim the palatinate for his sister-in-law Elizabeth Charlotte of Bavaria. This war of the League of Augsburg revealed serious problems in Louis's army. Louis's last military venture was the War of Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1713. This stemmed form his acceptance to the Spanish throne on behalf of his grandson, Phillip. Louis's armies, opposed by an alliance of the European powers lost most of the major battles, but won control of Spain. Louis ruled a war-weary France until his health broke in 1715.
From 1485 to 1603, England was ruled by the Tudor dynasty. Although the Tudors believed in divine right, they recognized the value of having a strong Parliament. When Henry VIII broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, he sought the approval of the Parliament. Parliament went ahead with the Act of Supremacy, making him the head of the Church of England and allowed him to seize monastery lands. A constant need for money also kept Henry going back to Parliament frequently. Although he inherited a swollen treasury, he wasted it fighting overseas wars. To levy new taxes, the king had to seek Parliamentary approval. Parliament members often voted as instructed, but were used to being consulted on important matters. Elizabeth I used Parliament and controlled it to her advantage. Her aides expressed her wishes to Parliament and outlawed certain topics, including her marriage. Her skill in controlling the Parliament made her a popular and successful ruler. King James repeatedly clashed with Parliament over money and foreign policy. Leaders in the House of Commons fiercely resisted the king's claim to absolute power. Charles I inherited the throne in 1625. He behaved like an absolute ruler. There was a long-term power struggle before the civil war; there were also many short-term arguments and disputes. Firstly, Charles I was not only king of England; he was king of England & Wales and Scotland and Ireland; he also claimed that he had authority and a right to be the power, the king of the French throne as well. Charles (although the king of multiple nations) stayed mainly in London England. The main power theme was the dispute between the power of the King and
the power of Parliament. The king had always believed in The Divine Right of Kings' and therefore he wanted to put his own supreme power and authority in place. Parliament's ideas on how to govern the nation were different to Charles' thoughts. Most MPs were the richest people in the country and they had lots of land, they would probably argue that money means authority, Parliament kept making more and more demands; they wanted the king to give members of parliament more attention. They wanted the king to allow them to meet more regularly. MPs, the puritans, believed that they should have more authority and freedom of speech they did not want to have
to follow the king's command exactly. The king's advisors were hated by almost everybody. Parliament thought that they should choose some MPs to be the king's advisors; they reckoned they were clever and they could actually help the king. The old advisors had made the king's reputation worse.
He imprisoned foes for no reason and squeezed the nation of money. In his search for capital, he went to the Parliament. Parliament forced him to sign the Petition of Right, forbidding him from imposing any new taxes without Parliamentary consent or imprisoning anyone without just cause. Charles signed the petition, but he then dissolved Parliament in 1629. For 11 years he ignored the petition and ruled without Parliament. In 1642, Charles led troops into the House of Commons to arrest its most radical leaders because Parliament tried and executed most of Charles' chief ministers. They escaped and soon raised their own army. Eventually Parliament set up a court to put Charles on trial. It found him guilty and condemned him to death as "a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy." On a cold January day in 1649, Charles declared "I am a martyr of the people." He told the executioner that he himself would give the sign to strike. After a short prayer, Charles placed his head on the wooden block. The executioner raised his axe and off went Charles' head. The execution sent shock waves throughout Europe. In the past, kings had occasionally died on the battlefield or were murdered by rivals. But, this was the first time that a ruling monarch had been tried and executed by his own people. The parliamentary forces had sent a clear signal that, in England, no ruler could claim absolute power and ignore the rule of law.
Louis outlived his sons and grandsons. When he died in 1715, his five year old great-grandson inherited the throne as Louis XV. Louis XV was far too weak a king to deal with all the problems in France. He neglected his duties and squandered any hope for a positive tenure as king. He knew reform was needed, but he left that up to a future leader. English rulers still had a lot of power, but they had to deal with Parliament. In the age of absolute monarchy elsewhere in Europe, a limited monarchy in England was radical enough.
