‘the Power of Louis Xiv Was Absolute in Theory but Limited in Practise.’ Discuss.

‘The power of Louis XIV was absolute in theory but limited in practise.’ Discuss.

Louis XIV of France and Navarre, also known as the “Sun King” and “Louis the Great,” ruled as the King of France from 1661 to 1715. He strengthened the monarchy which became an absolute monarchy of divine right. Louis XIV reached the throne a few months before his fifth birthday, but only assumed personal control of the government after the death of his main Minister, Cardinal Mazarin, in 1661. From then on, he assumed direct leadership over the government. During his reign, he gradually increased the direct role of the State after the death of the powerful Ministers such as Colbert in 1683 and Louvois in 1691. His reign marked the peak of the secular construction of a royal absolutism of divine right. Absolutism is defined as the “political doctrine and practice of unlimited, centralized authority and absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator.”1

The Sun King reduced almost to nothing the freedom of the media, freedom of opinion and thought, censored literary works and imposed Catholicism.

The King set up a centralized administration of the country. He ensured that the nobility had to spend time in court in Paris with the King to obtain benefits. To this effect, he invited many and often. This forced many noblemen to spend more time out of their estates than they would have liked to which limited their propensity to lead local wars against rival lordships. In order to obtain favours, one had to entertain a presence in Paris as part of Louis’s court. This gradually cultivated the predisposition for a ceremonial aristocracy rather than a combating one of strong warlords.

The King also adopt what one might call a divide and conquer approach: he hired commoners or low noblemen with only limited power and lineage in order to be able to keep them in close scrutiny and to dislodge them more easily if they ever posed a threat. This would obviously prove...