Aspects of European History 1494-1789 (Studies in Culture and Communication) by Stephen J. Lee

Author:Stephen J. Lee [Lee, Stephen J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2005-06-20T04:30:00+00:00

22

France Under Louis XIV

The peak of French absolutism was reached during the personal rule of Louis XIV (1661–1715). His authority was fully enshrined in the concept of the Divine Right of Kings as expressed by Bossuet: ‘The person of the King is sacred...all the state is in him; the will of the entire people is contained in his.’1 This hinged on the precept that ‘It is God who establishes Kings.’ Louis XIV was determined to act the part of absolute monarch to the full, referring to kings as ‘fathers of their people’ and emphasizing the importance of a government ‘that is directed by Kings whom God alone can judge’.2 He departed from the more passive role of Louis XIII, who had been content to entrust the use of his prerogatives to a leading minister.

Yet it is possible to oversimplify the significance of Louis XIV's powers in practical terms and to exaggerate the actual range of his authority. Even the theory of Divine Right was circumscribed. Bossuet, for example, warned that ‘Kings, like all others, are subject to the equity of the laws.’1 When they were applied, the prerogative powers frequently came up against the forces of tradition and privilege. Louis XIV soon came to realize that the changes he sought to impose from above could rarely be carried to their logical conclusion, and that absolutism would have to accept certain boundaries in practice as well as in theory. Indeed, the very security of his position depended on his being able to establish a degree of balance and harmony within French society. Absolutism was the elevation of royal power above all other levels, but it could be accomplished only by the maintenance of everything in its ‘natural and legitmate order’.3 To destroy all obstacles would upset this balance and would invoke the accusation of tyranny. Louis XIV therefore accepted the continuation of many privileges and traditional powers which actually militated against absolutism.

The main theme of this chapter, the development of royal power encountering the resistance of tradition, can be illustrated by Louis XIV's administrative, economic and clerical policies.

Louis XIV exercised more complete personal authority over the process of government than had any of his predecessors. He openly acknowledged his enjoyment of responsibility and power: ‘Le metier de roiest grand, noble, delicieux’4 and, according to Voltaire, he had ‘trained and inured himself to work’.5 He was, therefore, careful not to appoint a successor to Mazarin, and he insisted that ultimate reference for instructions should be made ‘à moi’. Where Louis XIII had used a Principal Minister, Louis XIV employed Secretaries of State, none of whom were allowed to become too elevated. Colbert, Le Tellier, Louvois and Pomponne did not possess the range of authority entrusted to Richelieu; this was now exercised by the King himself. Nevertheless, there were certain inevitable limitations to his authority. Louis made no major structural alterations in the Royal Councils, which comprised the Conseil d'Etat, the Conseil d'en Haut, the Conseil des Finances, the Conseil des Dépêches and the Conseil Privé.

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