Was Louis XIV Successful?
The Great Louis XIV reigned as a successful king in France from 1643 through 1715. Louis was considered the embodiment of an “absolute” monarch, because of his need for sole power and ruling. As Louis started his reign, many things needed to be changed, from being a disconnected age, to a integrate procedure. He commenced this process by taking full power over France and converting to only one religion. He made himself the center of attention and took every barrier head on, to remain the leader. Though Louis was perceived as a self-indulged and vain absolutist, Louis was a king who made many advancements and upgrades to France. The determined, hardworking, and prosperous Louis XIV was a successful king by utilizing his methods as “one king, one law, one faith”, declaring his ruling as absolutism, with no parliament, mobilization of war and gathering tax revenue with no other court, and centralized religion. To achieve Louis goal of “one king”, he ruled France as an absolutism, having no parliament, to essentially have total power and success, without any obstacles. …show more content…
One of the first things Louis did when he was reigning was decrease the power of the nobility. He did this so he could watch over the nobles and so he could keep an eye on the people to make sure he had complete power. Louis would not share any of his power. He wanted everyone, especially the upper class men that had more authority than others, that he had no aim or intention to share his power (Mckay 469-470). If Louis would have let the nobles and the upper class have any say or help guide him, they would expect to obtain some of his power, which Louis was not about to do. Louis ruled as the sole influential leader, making him the epitome of an absolute leader. He had divine power and did not give anyone a chance to interfere with that. These views made France an absolutist. Louis strived for his idea of “one law”, by governing over his people, and by limiting the powers of nobles, assemble the laws, leading the mobility of the wars, increase in taxes and economic regulations. Louis started his leading by increasing the taxes, for the mobility and reform of the military and their wars. Though, he decided not to tax the nobles and the upper class, because then they wouldn’t have any say in what the tax money was spent on, so he could use it for wars, instead of the people. Louis could use the peasant's, poor and middle class people's money anyway he wanted, because no one thought they had a say or enough money for respect or a voice. This just was another way the king gave himself more power for his absolutism. Louis still did not have enough money from the poor, so being such an intelligent ruler, he launched mercantilism in France (Mckay 474). He made a trading system importing and exporting goods, making sure that he was making profit. This made France's economy improve significantly, and made it extremely mantaniple and controlled. Louis made his people and France a well balanced place and all that power has within his hands. His success was a step further into absolute control and power. Louis centralized religion to “one faith” to gain and keep
The Great Louis XIV reigned as a successful king in France from 1643 through 1715. Louis was considered the embodiment of an “absolute” monarch, because of his need for sole power and ruling. As Louis started his reign, many things needed to be changed, from being a disconnected age, to a integrate procedure. He commenced this process by taking full power over France and converting to only one religion. He made himself the center of attention and took every barrier head on, to remain the leader. Though Louis was perceived as a self-indulged and vain absolutist, Louis was a king who made many advancements and upgrades to France. The determined, hardworking, and prosperous Louis XIV was a successful king by utilizing his methods as “one king, one law, one faith”, declaring his ruling as absolutism, with no parliament, mobilization of war and gathering tax revenue with no other court, and centralized religion. To achieve Louis goal of “one king”, he ruled France as an absolutism, having no parliament, to essentially have total power and success, without any obstacles. …show more content…
One of the first things Louis did when he was reigning was decrease the power of the nobility. He did this so he could watch over the nobles and so he could keep an eye on the people to make sure he had complete power. Louis would not share any of his power. He wanted everyone, especially the upper class men that had more authority than others, that he had no aim or intention to share his power (Mckay 469-470). If Louis would have let the nobles and the upper class have any say or help guide him, they would expect to obtain some of his power, which Louis was not about to do. Louis ruled as the sole influential leader, making him the epitome of an absolute leader. He had divine power and did not give anyone a chance to interfere with that. These views made France an absolutist. Louis strived for his idea of “one law”, by governing over his people, and by limiting the powers of nobles, assemble the laws, leading the mobility of the wars, increase in taxes and economic regulations. Louis started his leading by increasing the taxes, for the mobility and reform of the military and their wars. Though, he decided not to tax the nobles and the upper class, because then they wouldn’t have any say in what the tax money was spent on, so he could use it for wars, instead of the people. Louis could use the peasant's, poor and middle class people's money anyway he wanted, because no one thought they had a say or enough money for respect or a voice. This just was another way the king gave himself more power for his absolutism. Louis still did not have enough money from the poor, so being such an intelligent ruler, he launched mercantilism in France (Mckay 474). He made a trading system importing and exporting goods, making sure that he was making profit. This made France's economy improve significantly, and made it extremely mantaniple and controlled. Louis made his people and France a well balanced place and all that power has within his hands. His success was a step further into absolute control and power. Louis centralized religion to “one faith” to gain and keep