The main
themes of
the
seventeenth
century,
when France
was ruled by
just two
kings,
Louis
XIII
(1610-43)
and
Louis
XIV
(1643-1715),
were, on the
domestic
front, the
strengthening
of the
centralized
state
embodied in
the person
of the king;
and in
external
affairs, the
securing of
frontiers in
the
Pyrenees, on
the Rhine
and in the
north,
coupled with
the attempt
to prevent
the
unification
of the
territories
of the
Habsburg
kings of
Spain and
Austria.
Both kings
had the good
fortune to
be served by
capable,
hard-working
ministers
dedicated to
these
objectives.
Louis XIII
had
Cardinal
Richelieu
and Louis
XIV had
cardinals
Mazarin
and
Colbert
. Both
reigns were
disturbed in
their early
years by the
inevitable
aristocratic
attempts at
a coup d'état.
Having
crushed
revolts by
Louis XIII's
brother
Gaston, Duke
of Orléans,
Richelieu
's
commitment
to extending
royal
absolutism
brought him
into renewed
conflict
with the
Protestants.
Believing
that their
retention of
separate
fortresses
within the
kingdom was
a threat to
security, he
attacked and
took La
Rochelle in
1627.
Although he
was unable
to extirpate
their
religion
altogether,
Protestants
were never
again to
present a
military
threat.
The other
important
facet of
Richelieu's
domestic
policy was
the
promotion of
economic
self-sufficiency
- mercantilism
. To this
end, he
encouraged
the growth
of the
luxury craft
industries,
especially
textiles, in
which France
was to excel
right up to
the
Revolution.
He built up
the navy and
granted
privileges
to companies
involved in
establishing
colonies
in North
America,
Africa and
the West
Indies.
In
pursuing his
foreign
policy
objectives,
Richelieu
adroitly
kept France
out of
actual
military
involvement
by paying
substantial
sums to the
great
Swedish king
and general,
Gustavus
Adolphus,
helping him
to fund war
against the
Habsburgs in
Germany.
When in
1635, the
French were
finally
obliged to
commit their
own troops,
they made
significant
gains
against the
Spanish in
the
Netherlands,
Alsace and
Lorraine,
and won
Roussillon
for France.
Richelieu
died just a
few months
before Louis
XIII in
1642. As
Louis XIV
was still an
infant, his
mother, Anne
of Austria,
acted as
regent,
served by
Richelieu's
protégé, Cardinal
Mazarin
, who was
hated just
as much as
his
predecessor
by the
traditional
aristocracy
and the parlements
. These
unelected
bodies,
which had
the function
of high
courts and
administrative
councils,
were
protective
of their
privileges
and angry
that an
upstart
should
receive such
preferment.
Spurred by
these
grievances,
which were
in any case
exacerbated
by the
ruinous cost
of the
Spanish
wars,
various
groups in
French
society
combined in
a series of
revolts,
known as the
Frondes
.
The first
Fronde, in
1648, was
led by the parlement
of Paris,
which took
up the cause
of the
hereditary
provincial
tax-collecting
officials -
a group that
resented the
supervisory
role of the intendants
, who had
been
appointed by
the central
royal
bureaucracy
to keep an
eye on them.
Paris rose
in revolt
but
capitulated
at the
advance of
royal
troops. This
was quickly
followed by
an
aristocratic
Fronde,
supported by
various
peasant
risings
round the
country.
These
revolts were
suppressed
easily
enough. They
were not
really
revolutionary
movements
but, rather,
the attempts
of various
groups to
preserve
their
privileges
in the face
of growing
state power.
The
economic
pressures
that
contributed
to their
support were
relieved
when in 1659
Mazarin
successfully
brought the
Spanish wars
to an end
with the Treaty
of the
Pyrenees
, cemented
by the
marriage of
Louis XIV
and the
daughter of
Philip IV of
Spain. On
reaching the
age of
majority in
1661, Louis
XIV
declared
that he was
going to be
his own man
and do
without a
first
minister. He
proceeded to
appoint a
number of
able
ministers,
with whose
aid he
embarked on
a long
struggle to
modernize
the
administration.
The war
ministers,
Le Tellier
and his son
Louvois,
provided
Louis with a
well-equipped
and
well-trained
professional
army that
could muster
some 400,000
men by 1670.
But the
principal
reforms were
carried out
by Colbert
, who set
about
streamlining
the state's
finances and
tackling
bureaucratic
corruption.
Although he
was never
able to
overcome the
opposition
completely,
he did
manage to
produce a
surplus in
state
revenue.
Attempting
to
compensate
for
deficiencies
in the
taxation
system by
stimulating
trade, he
set up a
free-trade
area in
northern and
central
France,
continued
Richelieu's
mercantilist
economic
policies,
established
the French
East India
Company, and
built up the
navy and
merchant
fleets with
a view to
challenging
the world
commercial
supremacy of
the Dutch.
These
were all
policies
that the
hard-working
king was
involved in
and approved
of. But in
addition to
his love of
an
extravagant
court life
at
Versailles,
which earned
him the
title of the
Sun King
, he had
another
obsession,
ruinous to
the state:
the love of
a
prestigious
military
victory.
There were
sound
political
reasons for
the campaigns
he embarked
on, but they
did not help
balance the
budget.
Using his
wife's
Spanish
connection,
Louis
demanded the
cession of
certain
Spanish
provinces in
the Low
Countries,
and then
embarked on
a war
against the
Dutch in
1672. Forced
to make
peace at the
Treaty of
Nijmegen
in 1678 by
his
arch-enemy,
the
Protestant
William of
Orange
(later king
of England),
he
nonetheless
came out of
the war with
the
annexation
to French
territory of
Franche-Comté
, plus a
number of
northern
towns. In
1681 he
simply
grabbed
Strasbourg,
and got away
with it.
In 1685,
under the
influence of
his very
Catholic
mistress,
Madame de
Maintenon,
the king
removed all
privileges
from the Huguenots
by revoking
the Edict of
Nantes. This
incensed the
Protestant
powers, who
combined
under the
auspices of
the League
of Augsburg.
Another long
and
exhausting
war
followed,
ending, most
unfavourably
to the
French, in
the Peace
of Rijswik
(1697).
No sooner
was this
concluded
than Louis
became
embroiled in
the question
of who was
to succeed
the moribund
Charles II
of Spain.
Both Louis
and Leopold
Habsburg,
the Holy
Roman
Emperor, had
married
sisters of
Charles. The
prospect of
Leopold
acquiring
the Spanish
Habsburgs'
possessions
in addition
to his own
vast lands
was not
welcome to
Louis or any
other
European
power.
However,
when Charles
died and it
was
discovered
that he'd
named Louis'
grandson,
Philippe, as
his heir,
that was a
shift in the
balance of
power the
English,
Dutch and
Austrians
were not
prepared to
tolerate.
William
of Orange,
now king of
England as
well as
ruler of the
Dutch United
Provinces,
organized a
Grand
Alliance
against
Louis. The
so-called War
of Spanish
Succession
broke out
and it went
badly for
the French,
thanks
largely to
the
brilliant
generalship
of the Duke
of
Marlborough.
A severe
winter in
1709
compounded
the
hardships
with famine
and bread
riots at
home,
causing
Louis to
seek
negotiations.
The terms
were too
harsh for
him and the
war dragged
on until
1713,
leaving the
country
totally
impoverished.
The Sun King
went out
with
scarcely a
whimper.
