King Louis XIV King Louis XIV of France had an impact on France and the French people. King Louis XIV was an unruly ruler of France over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He loved having all the power to himself and not trusting any other people. King Louis XIV believed in absolutism, which is the belief in an almighty Monarch to rule the country. King Louis could be considered a very destructive monarch to France’s reputation and to France itself.
However, wars generally led to very expensive costs to the country. Henry's father, Henry VII, left the country in quite a stable state economically, but Henry devoted most of England's money into his campaigns to take over France, because he believed had a right to the Throne. To some extent source 4 supports the idea that the foreign policy did fail due to the lack of resources, because it states that “the young warrior family accepted the fact that royal finances could not support a repetition of the campaign of 1513”. This quote implies that the lack of resources seems to be the dominant reason for stopping Henry from invading France and therefore source 4 supports the statement to some extent. In source 4 we also learn that much must have depended on diplomatic relations with Maximilian and Ferdinand, however Henry’s allies proved unfaithful and unreliable.
The ministers and the king of France gave full support to the American rebels, both financially and militarily. In total France spent 1066 million livres, most of it raised through loans rather than taxes. This meant that the money would have to be paid back with interest at some point- and clearly the government was not capable of this. This caused France to slide farther into bankruptcy. Ironically, what the government chose to do in order to raise the royal income was increasing the amount of tax the Third Estates had to pay.
There was a massive loss of resources and income after the recline of land in France, leading to the powerful men of England to take arms in aid of their lords this lead to the battle of St Albans The weakness of royal power can be pin pointed to the king. Henry was never a fit king to rule a country such as England; he was not the man his father Henry V would ever be. And this caused a sense of unrest to the people of England. This can be reflected by his counterproductive peace policy with France, that lead to the loss of royal lands that his father had once gained. Henry was supported and manipulated by William de la Pole, Edmund Beaufort and his French wife, Margaret of Anjou.
The French Kings after Louis XIII enjoyed such power until the last half of the 18th century under Louis XVI reign. Although being all powerful in government and having one person making all the rules in the country did have its obvious draw backs at the time. In an absolutist monarchy one of the biggest factors that would ultimately lead to the monarchies reduction in power and eventually the end of the monarchy all together was the economic pressure that this style of government places on society. Louis XIII and Louis XIV failed to get an independent source of revenue to be able to fund the lavish life stlyes that the royal family and the high nobles became accustomed to. Even with the many flaws at this point in European history absolute monarchies were in most of the key countries in Western
The causes of the American revolution differ a lot from the causes of the French revolution. Both revolutions intended to change the actual government into a republic, but the causes that brought them in a revolution were different for many reasons. The French were used to the idea and life associated with a monarchy, and they did not have this change necessary until a nearly fatal economic depression showed them the weak points of their absolute monarchy. Before the revolution in France there were many inequalities in society. Under the Old Order with the King at the top, then the First, Second and the Third Estate there was a distinct difference between the rich people and the poor ones.
The housing market also plummeted leading to negative equity, which the majority of the working class could not afford resulting in the repossession of their houses combined with the drastic increase in unemployment Britain was in a mess. However Major did have some success, he abolished poll tax, which was very popular among the public, he increased spending on the NHS and introduced transport subsides to keep travel fares low.
King Louis XIV was a further powerful absolute monarch than King Philip II because he had more control over his people by forcing them to spend money on fashion while Philip didn’t. He used taxes and monopolies more efficient than Philip to make France more prosperous, and had the utmost powerful army in Europe. King Louis XIV started fashion in France so people could spend their money on it and don’t have enough to by weapons and finance themselves to rebel him. While as Philip didn’t pay attention to the importance of the idea so he lost the Dutch Netherlands by the rebellion of the people, which was imperative to his empire. He gave tax benefits to French companies, and to the middle class he gave them monopolies and who accepted would return him with a profit percentage and would collect taxes from people and return it to him.
He began to rule on his own Louis XIV filled his counsels with families loyal to royalty and rising politicians (who would be dependent on him for their status) He did not take away the nobility's local powers Usually informally consulted with the parlement before making decisions Exception: Curtailed Paris parlement's power to register the King's laws • Had to register the law before questioning it ➢ Versailles Louis XIV used propaganda against the nobles He could outspend them He created an enormous palace in Versailles Modeled after the “sun king” Cost a ton of money, but the political dividends were amazing Nobles could pay to live there • Depleting their resources • Becoming dependent on Louis XIV Nobles realized that Louis XIV would preserve the social structure, keeping them in control of local politics ➢ King by Divine Right Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet defended the
He heavily taxed the third estate, which comprised of merchants and peasants all together totaling to 98% of the population, in hopes to relieve the financial problems of France. A major cause of the French Revolution was political problems. The weak leadership of Louis XVI contributed to these problems. He was a weak leader, who at age of 19 did not have the experience necessary to effective rule France. Estates are divisions of social classes of the French in the 1780's.