This is a document of complete notes for the first year of the history a level course on the Sun King, Louis XIV. Whilst they include the detail necessary to achieve top grades in the depth study side of the history course, they are also concise and easy to follow. These notes include important tim...
Includes:
● Regency period
● The establishment of absolutism at home
● Louis XVI foreign policy till 1678
The french monarchy in 1643:
- The legacy of Richelieu and louis XIII
- The establishment of the regency
RICHELIEU
French chief minister 1624-1642.
- He founded France’s navy and promoted colonies.
● Richelieu was a reforming bishop from a relatively poor bishopric Lucon
● He came into politics as a client of Marie de Medici, which included a brief period on the royal council
in 1616-17
● During her exile, richelieu acter as her chief minister and a ‘go between’ for her and the government.
● After rejoining the council in April 1624, he quickly earned the of Louis XIII.
In August he became chief minister and consolidated his grip on power by removing his rivals and
promoting those loyal to him.
Traditionally Historians view his career positively.
In his testament Politique he claimed to have come to the royal council with a clear, three part plan for the
reform of the Kingdom. Appealing directly to the three most deeply held concerns for the King.
- Root out heresy and destroy the huguenots
- Check power of the Spanish Habsburgs abroad
- Tame the pride of the nobility
However, also viewed as a cynical, political manipulator who used religion for his own ends.
- Argued that his position as chief minister should give him natural political preeminence
- Although Richelieu used his position in the church to advance his own interests and as a tool of
government, this is not inconsistent with his sincere religious belief and passion for catholic reform.
- His Chambres de l’arsenal quickly tried a removed royal opponents
- He weakened the Paris parliament and its right to remonstrance against royal edicts
- Louis used lit de justice to override remonstrances and force through an edict preventing discussion
of state affairs without his permission
- By 1643, state affairs were the Crown’s legislative prerogative.
Royal infringement of parliamentary liberties by 1643 included:
, Actions: Consequences:
➢ Handpicked Judges Lost prestige and revenue
➢ Extensive use of commissaries
➢ Intendants supervised judicial affairs and civil Sovereign courts overruled
cases
➢ Richelieu exploited the office system selling Undermining the value and status of existing judicial
government service jobs and threatening to and administrative posts.
create and sell more.
Richelieu increased royal power in the provinces of France by extending government administration
to Dauphine, Burgundy and Provence.
He also increased the use of intendants and their powers.
Richelieu's career was hampered by the political opposition of faction of court known as the devots, who
wanted the interests of the catholic church laced above any national or secular concerns.
● Conflict arose over Richelieu’s plans to contain the power of catholic Spain.
➔ He was willing to ally France with protestant powers abroad and move away from rooting out the last
vestiges of Protestantism within France.
Richelieu's career was inextricably linked to, and shaped by, war with Spain.
- His political style largely grew out of the enormous financial and administrative pressures that arose
from it
- Thus, richelieu could not simply impose his will.
- The pressures of conducting war and domestic political dangers did not even allow the luxury of
seriously entertaining grand schemes to modernise the French state, as much of Richelieu's attention
was taken up by foreign policy.
- He has been viewed in the past as an aggressive French nationalist. However, his policies were not
designed to push France to some imaginary ‘natural boundaries’ - rather his concern was with
maintaining bridgeheads across the Rhine or the Alps in order to be able to maintain French influence
abroad and keep the Habsburgs from consolidating their apparent universal ambitions.
Richelieu and domestic policy
- Hoped to centralise the government of france, a very difficult task for such a large country in the 17th
century
- Eliminated political and military rights of the huguenots while preserving their religious privileges,
Richelieu transformed the huguenots into more reliable subjects.
- Richelieu understood the role played by the nobles in the french state. The dangerous ones were
those who asserted their territorial independence when they were excluded from participating in the
central government.
- Richelieu developed a network of spies to uncover noble plots and then crush their conspiracies and
execute their conspirators, thereby eliminating a major threat to royal authority.
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