Episode 474: The Sun King

the European theater at large were yet to come. Now. In order to govern an increasely vast and ambitious kingdom, Louis turned not to nobles of ancient pedigree, but who he didn't trust, of course, and that was again because of the rebellion that he faced early on when he was very much a child. But instead he wanted a new kind of servant. Today we would call these bureaucrats

or technocrats. I suppose it'd be more accurate loyal, competent men who were unencumbered by feudal interests, and chief amongst these. In Louis's second half of his reign was Jean Baptiste Colbert, a man who would come to embody the financial and administrative heartbeat of Louis's reign. Born in Reims in sixteen nineteen to a family of cloth merchants, Colbert rose through

not lineage, but through sheer bureaucratic genius. He entered royal service in the household of Cardinal Nazarene, who of course had led France when Louis was a child, and there he gained a reputation for discipline, thrift, and a boundless energy and commitment to cause. By the time of Mazarine's death in sixteen sixty one, Colbert had proven himself indispensable to Louis, who made him Controller General des Finance in

sixteen sixty five. Over the next two decades, Colbert would reshape the French economy in the way that Louis wanted it, and Colbert famously told Louis quote since the death of Henry the fourth, there has been want of necessity in our finances. It is well to determine how we have come about so long a time without a tolerably satisfactory income end quote Wow, where would that income come from? To find it, Colbert embarked on a truly sweeping campaign

of economic reform. He centralized royal revenues, he curbed the corrupt excesses of tax farmers, and he forced local parliaments into tighter obedience. One of the things we have to remember about France is that, really, even going into the Revolution, it is, to a large extent but still a patchwork of feudal kingdoms. The laws in Provence could be different in the laws of the royal demands around Paris. Likewise,

that could be different in Burgundy. That was something that France was going to have to deal with, but that it wouldn't truly deal with until the aftermath of the revolution. Still under Colbert's guidance, forests became state managed resources. The sixteen sixty nine Forestry Ordinance established sustainable harvest quotas for

the first time and detailed inventories of royal woodlands. New manufactories producing mirrors, tapestries, lace and porcelain sprang up under royal charters, many of them directly funded or subsidized by the Crown. These weren't merely economic ventures. They were declarations of national prestige and designed to keep French money within

France and rival foreign luxury. Now, of course, the Court of Versailles, as we'll discuss in the moment, once just a symbol of grandeur, quickly became also a tool of governance. Nobles were kept close by, and that was by design. Embers of potential rebellion were simply smothered in court etiquette, pageantry, and crushing, crushing debt. In the place of these noble families, long since decayed, Louis and Corbe built a vast bureaucracy

of intendance and inspectors, loyal and all replaceable. This was more than just royal micromanagement. It was the transformation of France into a centralized state, modern inform but of course absolutist in spirit, As Louis famously declared, I am the state now. Louis the fourteenth did a lot more than just tax and regulate. He curated culture as well. He founded the Paris Observatory in sixteen sixty seven, the Academie

Desciences Sciences, and the Royal Opera. He maintained personal friendships with artists like Mouliere Luis Roissan, cultivating an image of a king not just as a ruler, but as a patron above all other patrons. And then, of course, as I've alluded to multiple times, there was the Great Palace at Versailles. Versailles wasn't just a palace. It was a statement, a manifesto, built in marble and glass and gold, designed not merely to house a king, but to some extent,

to be the king. To walk through the gilded halls was to enter the very mind of Louis the fourteenth, the son king whose vision transformed a modest hunting lodge into one of the most famous and influential buildings in the history of the world. Now the site of Versailles began modestly enough. In sixteen twenty three, Louis the thirteenth built a hunting lodge in the Marsha woodlands west of Paris.

It was a place to escape to, not to create spectacle, but his son, Louis the fourteenth saw in the wilderness

something different. After the trauma of the Frond, the rebellion I mentioned before, and a youth spent fleeing rebellious nobles, Louis wanted to create a court he could control completely geographically removed from Paris, architecturally overwhelming and psychologically irresistible construction began in earnest in sixteen sixty one, the very year, in fact, if you're keeping score, that Louis assumed personal rule.

He employed some of the greatest talents of the age, Andre leynt Levau and of course his great master of gardens, Charles Lebrun. Over the next two decades, Versailles would swell into a sprawling symbol of royal authority. Everything at Versailles revolves literally around the King. Louis the fourteenth was often compared to Apollo, the sun god, and of course he liked that the celestial metaphor desfined the design. The palace simply radiates out if you look at it on a

map from the King's bedroom at the very center. Like the sun itself. It is a universe and miniature in so many ways, and Louis is always at the center. The gardens extend in geometrical patterns, enforcing order over nature and allegory for the monarch himself. Nothing wild grows in Versailles without royal permission. Every tree is pruned, every fountain

precisely aligned. Power at Versailles was never hidden. It was carefully choreographed and open for display inside the palace positively bursts with paintings, sculptures, and tapestries depicting Louis's military triumphs, divine blessings, and classical virtues. It's propaganda by architecture, a world that flatters and subdues. At the heart of the palace is the famous Gallerie de Glacis, the Hall of Mirrors,

completed in sixteen eighty four. Stretching two hundred and forty feet long, it is lined with seventeen mirrored arches, reflecting the seventeen windows opposite, which overlooked the royal gardens. This was the spot where courtiers gathered, ambassadors were awed, and power became visible. It was here, actually, two centuries later, that the German Empire would be proclaimed in eighteen seventy one, and later on, after the Great War, the Treaty of

Versailles was signed in nineteen nineteen. A couple other notable things to point out as the King's bedchamber, the symbolic center of the palace, where Louis rose and retired in public ritual, reminding every one present that the state and the king were inseparable. There was the Royal Chapel, which was begun in sixteen eighty nine, combining Gothic verticality with classical grace. This was where every single morning Louis performed

his role as Rex Christianimus, the most Christian King. And of course there were the guards, with their groves, fountains and sculptures arraigned along strict axial lines. These were used for performance as well strolls and state occasions. Versaill was not just a home, It was a machine of monarchy. By relocating the nobility to Versailles, Louis neutralized their independence.

Ambitious courtiers now spent their days buying for favors who could be present at the LeVert the king's waking ceremony, or sit in the right row of his opera. In this glittering cage, political rivalry quickly turned into theater. The palace became a center not just of power, but of style, defining everything that it meant to be French dress, etiquette, even language. French became the language of diplomacy. Versailles became the model of taste all the way from Moscow to Madrid.

Versailles shaped how power was seen. It pione near the idea that monarchy was performative. It was visible, endless, and with so much grandeur. The palace inspired rulers across Europe. Peter the Great built the Peterhoff, Frederick the Great had Saskanai, The Habsburgs remodeled the Sacher Run, all borrowed and mirrored on Versailles. But Versailles also foreshadowed the tensions that will ultimately pull apart the Assien regime. Its extravagance became for

the common people a symbol of royal detachments. Its rituals came to seem hollow by the eve of the Revolution. Versailles, once the instrument of control, was seen as a gilded prison, totally out of touch with the suffering nation. In the end, the Palace of Versailles is both mirror and mask. It reflects the supreme ambition of one man and conceals the fragility that lay beneath. It remains one of the greatest

architectural achievements in Western history. Not because it's beautiful, though of course it is, but because it made architecture speak the language of politics. To visit Versailles is to understand how stone, glass and garden were marshaled to embody an idea that all things in France turned towards their Apollo, their son, king, their Louis. Now, of course, there was a lot more to louis reign than just simply Versailles. Let's consider a couple of the wars, but also some

of the religious ramifications. When Louis revoked the Edict of Nonsense sixteen eighty five and strengthened the grip on his realm, Protestant Europe was insulted, and so in sixteen eighty six the League of Augsburg was formed by the Holy Roman Empire Spain, which was definitely not but this is the era of strange bedfellows. What can I say Sweden, Bavaria, Saxony and others, which is essentially a defensive alliance against

the shadow of French aggression. William of Orange's ascension to the English throne in sixteen eighty eight increased and expanded the coalition of the Grand Alliance, a federation that now included England, the Dutch Republic, Brandenburg, Russia and more. Now, the immediate cause of the war that was to come, which is referred to as the War of the Grand Alliance,

was strategic sensing. Habsburg weakness after their triumph over the Turks, Louis seized the Palatinate in sixteen eighty eight, hoping to fill the power vacuum, but instead of forcing Europe to bow, he triggered an unprecedented coalition. Now battles flared up all across Europe at sea. The Dutch victory at La Hugue in sixteen ninety two ultimately would end French hopes of

invading England. On land, the warfocused on the Spanish Netherlands, the Rhineland, Catalonium, and the small territory of Piedmont in northern Italy southern France. Despite some early successes, the French war machine, without their strongest general who actually died in sixteen ninety one, started to spot her out of control.

A devastating famine gripped France. At the same time, public finances buckled and savoid, and that little kingdom defected actually in sixteen ninety six, which forced Louis to consider peace. The Peace of Riswick in sixteen ninety seven forced Louis to relinquish territories on the Rhine and Laurent and accept William's legitimacy in England. Ultimately It curtailed many of his ambitions, but he was able to maintain at least some of the gains that he had made in the territory of Alsays.

As a consequence of the War of the Grand Coalition, Europe did remain very balanced. France was checked, it was militarily contained, and it had been humbled to an extent. Louis emerged with wounded pride. His frontier was now half intact and a determination and understanding that if Europe was left unchecked, that it could easily uncouple his grand design. The bigger war, though, was the War of the Spanish Succession,

fought from seventeen oh one to seventeen fourteen. When Spain's Charles the Second died in seventeen hundred without a child, he bequeathed his empire to Philip, Duke of Anjous, Louis's grandson. Accepting this inheritance risked swallowing Europe with Bourbon hegemony everywhere. The Grand Alliance reformed, this time supporting the Hamsburg Archduke Charles, England later Great Britain, the Dutch, Austria and others all

joined forces, this time against France and Spain. There were a couple of key battles that were fought throughout the period. The first was Blenheim in seventeen oh four. There, the Dukes of Savoy and several others were able to rout the French, which basically ended any hope that Louis had to be able to extend his own hegemony into the Danube River, recognizing once and for all that his territorial

ambitions were going to be enclosed by the Rhine River. Again, at Remaze in seventeen o six there was another devastating blow struck as France was crushed in the low countries. Now more victories by the Allied forces were to come at Nard and Lilais and I'm doing my best, these pronunciations both fought in seventeen oh eight. Again, these were massive defeats along the northern frontier for the French and actually exposed northern France to the prospect of invasion for

the first time in anyone's memory. Then, finally, in seventeen ten, there was finally a French victory at Renau, isolating British troops, and this ultimately confined the war to the Iberian theater once and for all. The war wound down seventeen fourteen, but Philip the Fifth was able to capture Barcelona, which ended the end of pro Habsburg resistance in Catalonia. But really it was a more of a question of exhaustion.

By seventeen thirteen to seventeen fourteen, both sides had really fought to a draw, and both sides recognized they couldn't go forward, and so they signed the famous Treaty of Utrecht in seventeen thirteen and then was reinforced by a Treaty of Rastact Baden in seventeen fourteen. This recognized Philip the Fifth as King of Spain, but there was a proviso that France and Spain were barred from unifying. This is actually when Great Britain gains control of that tiny

tip of the end of the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar. They also got Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and a slave trading monopoly with Spanish America. Austria received the Spanish Netherlands territories. France retained al Saints and of course got a boorbom Spain, but doubtless it had lost a significant amount of influence the war, more than anything else. And I'm going to build on this in our next few episodes cemented Great Britain's rise as the pre eminent European and colonial power.

France emerged heavily bruised from the conflict. Its economy had been drained, its population over taxed, and its army quite frankly humbled in a variety of ways. In the end, Louis's final years were marked by personal loss, his age, his heirs, and ultimately the realization that his absolutist dream came at too great of a cost. Though the French Revolution, which he would never live to see, would be the ultimate consequence of the reign of Louis the fourteenth because

even as the kingdom expanded, internal cohesion fell apart. Louis, ever insistent on Catholic uniformity, unleashed the infamous Dragonauts, and most consequently, as I mentioned, the revocation of the edictive Nons in sixteen eighty five. Without the Edict of Nons, the Huguenot or Protestant population of France was stripped of all of its rights. Skilled artisans, merchants and thinkers, people that France could use all fled in mass. Though the

Palace had bassed in Golden ceremony. Now entire towns were emptied of all of their spirit of commerce and innovation. Colbert had once warned that his reforms require quotes the sacrifice of the king's amusements and even revenue. Some of that had come to pass, but it was honestly the exile of industrial and industrious Protestants French citizens that proved

just as costly. Colbert's mercantilist policies did bolster revenue. Royal domains and indirect taxes surged in the early sixteen seventies. This forestalled inflation and gave France some breathing room. Now I want to talk about mercantilism for a moment. Mercantilism is the predominant economic theory of the colonial period. It is the economic theory that would dominate frankly European policy

from the sixteen to the eighteenth centuries. At its core, mercantilism is the idea that a nation's wealth and power are best served by increasing exports and accumulating precious metals, especially gold and silver. Under mercantilist thinking, the global economy was a zero sum game. Every time your country got something, it was someone else's loss. We're actually kind of moving

back into this. Interestingly enough, in modern day economic thinking, so countries sought to maximize their own economic output will minimizing imports through tariffs. Remember those trade monopolies and state sponsored manufacturing colonies played a crucial role in this, providing raw materials and serving as captive markets for finished goods. In France, of course, it was Colbert who became the

great architect of kintilist policy. Colbert invested in state run industries, imposed high tariffs on royal goods, built roads and canals, and sought to make France economically self sufficient. Think France first, right, He wrote, quote the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing unquote. Sadly, that goose would be hissing before too long. Now, in short,

mercantilism is more than an economic concept. It's really the marriage of economics and empire. Trade, not really as an economic idea of free exchange, but trade as a weapon of state power. Now, there's a couple of other things that happened in Louis's reign that are worth pointing out here. Louis codified civil procedure, the Code Louis in sixteen sixty seven,

criminal regulation, forest law, and colonial slave codes. These laid the administrative foundations that would endure well beyond his and louis lifetime, of course, you know, and it's actually worth pointing out at this point that there is still one state in the United States that follows code law and not common law, and that is Louisiana, thanks to its French influence. Unfortunately, despite all these reforms and efforts, France at the end of Louis's reign continued to lag behind

England and the Dutch Republic in per capita growth. Despite booming state creation, the economy was extremely poorous. These endless wars drained the treasuries, they took away France's manpower, and they chained peasants to mounting tax burdens. As Louis aged, the brilliant shine of Versailles dimmed under the weight of war and economic exhaustion. In seventeen fifteen, after seventy two years on the throne, the king whispered, according to a legend,

I depart, but the state shall always remain. Now, look whether he was pursuing divine goals or pragmatic ones. The reality is Louis the fourteenth had transformed France. It was now the dominant culture of Europe. It was administratively centralized, and it was globally assertive. But its economy remained underdeveloped and was not able to lift the huge ambitions that Louis had hoisted on top of it. Loui's legacy is contradictory. He left Europe with a modern, centralized monarchy. He left

France with an enormous debt. He vanished in splendor at Versailles, but his wars and his religious intolerance altered France's and the continent's future. The craftsmen who fled the Huguenots would ultimately fuel England's Industrial Revolution. Colonial wealth grew at home, but the poor groaned under taxation. Sure, the king had burned brightly, but the embers he left behind would shape revolution in ways They were quite literal