King Louis XIV ruled France from 1643 to 1715, the longest reign in European history. He centralized power around himself by weakening the nobility and strengthening the monarchy. Louis pursued policies like mercantilism that made France economically and militarily powerful, though debt increased from his lavish lifestyle and wars. By his death, France was the dominant force in Europe.

1. France’s Ultimate Monarch

3. 12
Huguenot,
12!

4. • Tensions increased. The Catholics were afraid the
Huguenots would commit violence, so they struck
first.
• Huguenots nobles were dragged out of the palace
and killed in the streets. Commoners hunted
protestants, barring streets so they couldn’t leave.
It took a week to restore order.
• The killing spread to other cities when they got word
of what happened in Paris.
• The estimated death toll over the several weeks and
cities ranges from 10,000 to 100,000.

7. King Henry IV
• Prince Henry of Navarre eventually becomes King Henry
IV in 1589. He converted to Catholicism in order to do
so.
• He also issued the Edict of Nantes in 1598.
• The Edict gave protestants various civil rights
including holding office, private worship, limited
public worship, freedom of conscience, guarantee of
safety, and others.
• It was the first in France that protestants were
treated as anything but heretics to be stamped out.
• It was also the first time in Europe that there was
any kind of royal religious tolerance wherein people
of the minority religion were allowed to practice it
even when it was not the ruler’s religion.

8. • The Edict winds up getting revoked in 1685 by Louis
XIV. It caused a French brain drain when 200,000 to
500,000 protestants emigrated from France to other
European countries, taking their talents with them.
• The Edict’s terms had already been eroded by Cardinal
Richelieu, Louis the XIII’s powerful advisor.
• He revoked some protestant rights, such as the
control of certain cities.

9. Cardinal Richelieu

10. He was also the villain in the Three Musketeers.

11. Skepticism!

12. Louis XIV
• Was king of France for 72(!) years, from 1643 when he
was a few months shy of five years old until 1715 when
he died at almost 77.
• He didn’t take personal control of France until the
death of his First Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, when
Louis was 23.

13. • Mazarin was a very effective leader who worked to
consolidate power in the king. He, however,
cheesed off the nobles because of high taxes and
this centralization.
• There’s even juicy speculation he and the queen,
Anne, were secretly married after Louis XIII’s
death.
• Anyway, the nobles revolted a couple of times and
Louis XIV didn’t forget it.
Mazarin

14. • Louis was a multinational child with French, Spanish,
Italian (Medici!) and German royal blood.
• Upon taking control of France in 1661, Louis goes about
centralizing power in himself.
• His big stroke of genius was to surround himself with
the nobles at his court, turning them into courtiers
instead of government figures.

15. • He commissioned commoners or newer nobles as
intendants, who were his regional agents and
administered his government.
• With the nobles stuck being around Louis with no
government positions and not out administering the
province of which they were technically the lord,
their political power was significantly weakened.
• The noble courtiers, however, vied for the king’s
attention because he gave them gifts. Who doesn’t
like gifts?

16. • Louis encouraged mercantilism as put forth by Colbert.
• Under this policy, the country accumulates gold and
silver, exploits colonies, develops its own
manufacturing, limits imports, has high tariffs, etc.
It tries to make the country self-dependent.

19. • Various wars, including the War of Spanish Succession
to put and keep his nephew on the Spanish throne,
built up debt.
• His nephew was allowed to stay king of Spain by the
Treaty of Utrecht, thereby having Bourbons as kings
of both France and Spain and negating the chance of
hostilities, so long as the throne did not unite.

20. • Louis’s lavishness also built up debt and nearly
bankrupted the treasury.
• All the gifts, the palaces (which included
Versailles), the lifestyle, the money spent on
increasing France’s role in academics and the
arts, etc., also built up debt.
• The State was nearly bankrupt, the country was
very well off.

21. • By the time Louis died,
though people were tired
of him, he had expanded
French territory,
strengthened the
economy, made the
military more powerful,
increased its colonial
influence, made its arts
and language the
standard, and made
France the preeminent
and most powerful
country in Europe.
• He was the bomb, yo.