King Louis XIV ruled France for 72 years from 1643 to 1715, the longest reign in European history. He centralized power around himself by weakening the nobility and strengthening the royal administration. Louis grew the French economy through policies like mercantilism but also accrued major debts through wars and lavish spending. By the end of his reign, Louis had expanded French lands, strengthened its military and economy, and established France as the dominant power in Europe.

1. France’s Ultimate Monarch

2. Religious wars in France Between 1562 and 1598, France is rocked by a series of religious wars between the Catholics and the protestant (Calvinist) Huguenots. The worst episode was the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre 1572. Catherine de Medici, the queen, was marrying her daughter to Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot prince. The very Catholic population of Paris was incensed at the idea of this marriage. They were also put out at the display of luxury when the farming had been bad recently. Many Huguenots were in Paris because of the marriage and an assassination attempt was made on a prominent Huguenot.

3. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. Cardinal Richelieu

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

9. Skepticism!

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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?

14. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.