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The Bourbons

The Bourbons

The Absolute Monarchs

The Bourbons

The Bourbons were one of the most important ruling in Europe. At various times, they ruled , , Naples, Sicily, and Parma. In France, the Bourbons ruled as absolute monarchs from 1589–1792. Bourbon returned to the French throne after the Revolution, ruling again from 1814–1848.

King Louis XIV

Louis the Just, or Louis XIII, was of France from 1610–1643. During his reign, he, along with his chief minister Cardinal de Richelieu, made France a powerhouse among the European countries. He was married to the Spanish queen, . When Louis the Just died, his four-year-old son became Louis XIV, ruler of France and owner (per the ancien régime) of the more than 19 million people who lived on French land. In reality, Louis’s mother and France’s First Minister, , governed the country in the young king’s name. In 1648, when Louis was nine, the of , spurred by nobles, revolted against the . The Parlement was France’s supreme court during the ancien régime. (It is not to be confused with the British , .) This rebellion launched a civil war called , which had a huge impact on Louis XIV. It shaped the way he viewed Paris, the nobles, and the common people for the rest of his life. The Fronde was an outgrowth of the nobles’ hatred of Cardinal Mazarin. Mazarin defeated the rebels and took young Louis under his wing. Louis came to see Mazarin as a father figure, and Mazarin, governing with near absolute power, made sure Louis was surrounded by a loyal, able administration. By the , the ongoing wars between France and Spain were winding down. To secure peace between the two countries, Louis XIV married the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, a princess named Marie-Thérèse, in 1660. When Cardinal Mazarin died in 1661, Louis XIV refused to name a replacement. In doing so, Louis claimed the sole rulership of France. Believing his rule was by divine right, Louis dedicated himself to the task. He sought to control even the smallest details of and court life. As he told the Parlement, “L’etat c’est moi”—“I am the .” Louis chose the sun as his royal symbol. For just as the sun was the center of the solar system, Louis was the center of France. Everything revolved around him. He became known as the Sun King. Louis ruled for seventy-two years, until his death in 1715. He was one of the longest reigning monarchs in European history. Versailles Under Mazarin’s tutelage, Louis developed an appreciation of the arts. As king, he became a patron of the arts. He himself exercised his artistic vision by building and . None were more extravagant than Versailles.

1 Located twelve miles outside of Paris, the and of Versailles cover seventeen acres, about the size of a modern airport. Under Louis XIV’s supervision, architects turned a royal hunting lodge into an ostentatious display of royal power. The palace has seven hundred rooms and a courtyard of marble, and is decorated with gilded wrought- iron and marble statues. The most famous room in the palace is the , which alone took nine years to complete. The room is 230 feet long, and its walls hold seventeen wide mirrors. The hall became the site of court ceremonies, a use that continued long after the monarchy ended. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, for example, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors. Louis XIV relocated the from Paris to Versailles, making the lavish estate the center of French government. French royals continued to rule from Versailles until the 1789 Revolution.

King Louis XV

Louis the Beloved, or Louis XV, was king of France from 1715–1774. He was the great-grandson of Louis XIV, and the son of Louis, duc de Bourgogne, and Marie-Adelaide of . His parents and only brother all died in 1712, so when his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, died in 1715, Louis XV became king at the age of five. Until Louis XV was of legal age to rule, France was governed by a . When Louis did come of age, he had several chief ministers help him govern, as he was an ineffectual ruler himself. He was known as lazy and lacked any sort of confidence to make national policy decisions. Because of this, France and its government continued to degenerate into separate factions all vying for power. Rather than try to correct this burgeoning downward spiral, Louis found comfort in entertaining. The morale of France declined measurably during Louis XV’s ineffective reign. In addition, France lost many of the foreign and military advances it had reveled in up to that point.

King Louis XVI

Louis-August, duc de Berry, or Louis XVI, was king of France from 1774–1792. He was the last of the Bourbon monarchs preceding the . He was the third son of the dauphin Louis and Maria Josepha of (eastern Germany). He was known to have an excellent memory, was well- versed in Latin and English, and was particularly interested in history and geography. He married , the archduchess of Austria. Louis became heir to the throne when his father died in 1765, and became king when his grandfather, Louis XV, passed away in 1774. Louis XVI was only nineteen at the time. He was immature, lacked confidence and strength of character, and was unable to make decisions. He struggled from the start with matters of finance. He was not able to support the efforts of the reforming finance minister . He spent lavishly to support the American colonists in their battle against the British, and while this was a bold move politically, and gained him some popularity among those who favored strong foreign policy, it was a financial disaster for his own country’s pocketbooks—it brought France to the brink of bankruptcy. He tried to support special reform to recover from the heavy loans, but was unable to do so. This prompted his call of -General.

2 Louis XVI failed to react when he needed to react the most. When deputies were meeting at Versailles, Louis XVI excused himself, partially out of royal dignity, and partially out of lack of interest. He spent his time instead partaking in personal hobbies. He essentially did as little as possible to get by. When he made mistakes, such as firing Necker, he made concessions to make amends with the public. The biggest concession that he made was approving the Declaration of the Rights of Man. While the people of France became increasingly unhappy with the old regime, and reforms were brewing, Louis deep down believed that the Revolution would burn itself out. A battle with Austria, for which France was unprepared, ultimately was the final straw for the people of France. The people of France and provincial militia captured the palace of the Tuileries, forced a suspension of the king’s powers by the Legislative Assembly, and proclaimed France a . Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were put on trial for . They were sentenced to death by .

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