The entire complex was a place where his every move could take place in a suitably grand setting. "Without dancing a gentleman can do nothing," said the professor in the Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Bassompierre owed 1,600,000 livres and had no money with which to pay his creditors.1 It had been incurred by lavish expenditure, keeping a great establishment, dressing in the pink of fashion, and entertaining with magnificence. One gentleman praised the memory of another. Persons of good position could live with comfort on sums which would now be utterly inadequate. If he went on a walk, it would be in the gardens on foot or in a Barouche with the ladies. Deer, wolves, and wild boars were hunted on horseback, and birds of various sorts were chased by falcons. Besides limiting their power, it meant that they had to be away from their hotels particulier in Paris and provincial chateaus. Background. His statement was hardly exaggerated. Originally built in 1624, Versailles served as a hunting lodge for Louis XIII, but was transformed into the palace of his son, Louis XIV, over many decades. In the meantime the king would sign the numerous letters prepared by his secretary, then go to the apartments of Mme de Maintenon, where he studied important paperwork with one of his four Secretaries of State. The latter said a good memory implied small judgment, and he insisted on a duel to avenge this affront.1 The seconds must fight also, but gentlemen were reckless of life, and an invitation to act as a second was regarded as a favor. Pontis says, that during the eight years of the regency of Anne of Austria, 935 gentlemen were known to have been killed in duels." var setNptTechAdblockerCookie = function(adblocker) { An aristocracy that was idle, and of which a large portion was unfitted for any active work except war, gradually lost its influence in the nation. The great Sun King had lost his wife Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche to a sudden illness in 1683. As serious employment could not be allowed, amusements were largely sought. Louis XIV was one of Europe’s longest ever reigning sovereigns, keeping his throne for an incredible 72 years. Versailles also had public toilets, but considering how many people were in need of those, it were far too few. Duelling was somewhat checked by Richelieu, but the practice still continued. The purpose of Versailles was not just to inspire awe, though, but also deference and servitude. document.cookie = "__adblocker=" + (adblocker ? But a very different and far more pernicious amusement occupied a large portion of the time, and the taste for it extended somewhat to other social classes. However he never had complete control other the aristocracy and it died with him in 1715. Some, it was said, in Lorraine had incomes of less than two thousand livres, but they were usually those who had fraudulently assumed the rank of nobility. During the reign of Louis XIV, who did France fight wars against? First of all you need to know that Louis XIV had already stripped the nobles of all their effective power. A family could not live now in any great city and support such an establishment for five times that amount. Revise your French history with help from the artworks of the Palace of Versailles! For a man to keep on his hat was still the privilege and the practice of the nobles. The famous memorialist the Duke of Saint-Simon wrote of Louis XIV: “With an almanach and a watch, one could, from 300 leagues away, say with accuracy what he was doing”. Louis XIV built the Palace of Versailles in an effort to keep his Nobles close to him so that he could keep an eye on them all. To keep an eye on them. Palacefrom 9:00 am to 5:30 pmclosed on Mondays, Estate of Trianonfrom 12:00 pm to 5:30 pmclosed on Mondays, Coach Galleryfrom 12:30 pm to 5:30 pmclosed on Mondays, + 33 1 30 83 78 00price of a call to France, Musical Fountains Shows and Musical Gardens, Louis XIV’s guide to the gardens of Versailles, New Year’s gifts at Versailles during the Ancien Régime, Research centre of the Palace of Versailles. Causes: Fronde The Fronde was one of the main reasons why Louis XIV ruled the way he did. The usage was confined to the upper classes. The nobles always went to Louis first. He knew well how to make use of them. On Tuesdays and Saturdays it was the Financial Council, while Fridays were taken up with the Council of Conscience (religious affairs). The same spirit made the bravery of the gentlemen in battle often become mere foolhardiness. In the 1660s, Louis XIV made a radical decision to renovate Louix XIII’s country hunting lodge and transform it into France’s new royal palace: Versailles. A key use of propaganda in Versailles was the depiction of Louis XIV in paintings. According to historian Philip Mansel , the king turned the palace into: an irresistible combination of marriage market, employment agency and entertainment capital of aristocratic Europe, boasting the best theater, opera, music, gambling, sex and (most important) hunting. For nearly two decades, the men carved the Palace of Versailles out of the thick wooded marshes and achieved Louis's vision of enormity and splendor. Some could speak briefly to him or slip him a written note. Orleans, Tubeuf and Cardinal Mazarin lost over half a million at a sitting. Many also assumed the rank without being entitled to it, in order to obtain social position and to enjoy exemption from taxation. There were fewer nobles then, than a century later, who had for their patrimony only their titles and their pride. 11.30 pm: the going-to-bed ceremony. script.setAttribute("async", true); The question is simple: why Louis XIV, the man who stated l’état c’est moi (the State is me) and worked hard to be the centre of France’s universe turning the country into an absolute monarchy, decided to move from the capital to a swampy (and stinking) game reserve? This marked the beginning of the long civil war known as the Fronde , in the course of which Louis suffered poverty, misfortune, fear, humiliation, cold, and hunger. This public ritual, when the king retired to his bedchamber, was the exact reverse of the getting-up ceremony. Louis XIV's France was emblematic of the age of absolutism in Europe. The king’s day was timed to the minute to allow the officers in his service to plan their own work accordingly. var d = new Date(); From morning to evening his day ran like clockwork, to a schedule that was just as strictly ordered as life in the Court. Introduced at the end of the sixteenth century, they came gradually into use, and became very common during the Fronde. Louis had the nobles of France live with him in the Palace to keep them under his watch and deter them from partcipating in politics. However much such a life may have unfitted the nobility for being of use in the world, it doubtless perfected their manners. Through our new partnership with the French American Cultural Foundation, American citizens can easily support the Palace of Versailles. Many others had as little as eight or ten thousand livres. Other forms of government were failing from lack of control, so the people of France turned to an Absolute Monarch, named Louis XIV.The only problem with Louis was that he was self-centered, and did not care a whole lot about governing his kingdom. They witnessed their own ruin with as much indifference of manner as they had witnessed the ruin of others. this absurd and pernicious practice was largely checked. He gave them offices and fancy titles but little power. And yet the evidence seems to indicate that the money which was raised by the sale of these offices cost the state less, in the seventeenth century at least, than the loans which it made or the annuities which it sold. A nobleman complained that they would all be better off without any pensions, for the country gentleman, who lived quietly at home with one valet, came up to Paris in the hope of obtaining a pension, and there had his squire, two gentlemen in attendance, and many pages, was covered with plumes and gold lace, and consumed his whole income in two or three months.1 Those of still higher position lived in great splendor, and usually spent more than they received. "There is nothing so necessary as dancing." Louis was nine years old when the nobles and the Paris Parlement (a powerful law court), driven by hatred of the prime minister Jules Cardinal Mazarin, rose against the crown in 1648. It seems an absurd method of raising money to sell the right to the salaried offices of the state - even the hereditary right to them - and especially to create new and unnecessary offices for the sake of selling them. The condition of finances of the state were in extreme confusion. Abstract. Also, I read that during the reign of Louis XIV, Versailles was open to the public - even the apartments (and bedrooms) of royalty. Ancre lost 80,000 pistoles in one night. Why, in your view, did Louis XIV keep such regular and orderly routines each day? BBC Two’s Versailles returned on 21 April for its second series, exploring the decadent and turbulent early reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV. These declared that the French were consuming their estates in an excessive passion for luxury and dress. The French sought death, it was said, as if the resurrection were tomorrow. He built it as a way to keep his nobles in line. (function(src){var a=document.createElement("script");a.type="text/javascript";a.async=true;a.src=src;var b=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];b.parentNode.insertBefore(a,b)})("//experience.tinypass.com/xbuilder/experience/load?aid=bYdYZQml5V"); In considering the customs and modes of life of the classes which were raised above the necessity of manual labor, the nobility naturally first attract our attention. By putting the court under his roof, Louis could control his nobility with a tight grip in a velvet glove. The custom, however, disappeared in the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV. The nobility had to spend a large portion of the year at Versailles with Louis, that way he could keep them under his watch. Louis XIV used the grandiosity of his Palace and the art inside to promote himself to his people. Before that, the two things which he studied most and understood best were riding and dancing. The king sat down to dinner with the members of the royal family. When Louis XIV was 10, he was chased out of France by a band of angry aristocrats who wanted to keep royal powers in check. Politeness required that the masque should be raised in the presence of one of superior rank. Born on September 5, 1638, to King Louis XIII of France (1601-1643) and his Habsburg queen, Anne of Austria (1601-1666), the future Louis XIV was his parents’ first child after 23 years of marriage; in recognition of this apparent miracle, he was christened Louis-Dieudonné, meaning “gift of God.” A younger brother, Philippe (1640-1701), followed two years later. 8.30 am: the First Valet de Chambre woke the king with “Sire, it’s time to get up”. Louis XIV had two servants that were charged with cleaning his pot and handing him the cloth. 5. The premise is simple: Louis XI, the Universal Spider, is reborn in the body of Louis XIV. This has the effect of reducing one major threat to his power - Nobility. He had sat atop the throne for … He wanted them there so that they couldn’t gain independent provinces. de Chevreuse over 200,000 livres to pay her debts. Pont de Courlay, Richelieu's nephew, ran in debt 400,000 livres in ten years by his profuse mode of living. In 1650 the incomes of the Princes of Conde and Conti and of the Duke of Longueville amounted altogether to nearly two million livres. 1 pm: the king ate alone in his bedchamber, seated at a table facing the windows. But the edicts had no effect in checking such customs. Here, historian Lynn Wood Mollenauer considers the ambitious aristocrats who battled for power within the court and sheds light on the ‘affair of the poisons’, a scandal that reached right into the inner circle of the king… They dined there in the open air, finding a zest in the cannon balls that flew about them. Her husband paid the money and told her to play no more. After a visit from the First Doctor and First Surgeon, the first getting-up ceremony began. On this side also corruption helped to increase the difficulties of the government. By attaching nobles to his court at Versailles, Louis achieved increased control over the French aristocracy. No less than twelve took part in one encounter, five seconds on each side.' Members of the entourage, those with important roles and certain friends who enjoyed the privilege of attending such moments successively entered the King’s Bedchamber while the sovereign was washed, combed and shaved. In Poitou, in 1664, many are reported with incomes of twenty or thirty thousand livres (forty or sixty thousand francs). The manner in which this sum was to be divided shows the difference in modes of life. The credit of the state was very low. Six thousand livres was allowed for the table, and three thousand for the dress, expenses, and magnificence of monsieur. It is impossible to give the average incomes of so large a body as the nobility. The body of the nobles was a very large one, and it was estimated that it contained in all as many as four hundred thousand persons. Beginning in 1661, the architect Louis Le Vau, landscape architect André Le Nôtre, and painter-decorator Charles Lebrun began a detailed renovation and expansion of the château. Commerce and trade were forbidden. But they possessed also the breeding which enables one to meet the vicissitudes of life and the overthrow of fortune without change of countenance. Though le Roi Soleil was no superman in the sense that he would have fought his way to the front had he not been of royal descent, he gave his name to the greatest era in French history, and his rays penetrated to every corner of Europe. var script = document.createElement("script"); Follow King Louis XIV's reign during France's classical age, including his revocation of the Edict of Nantes and aggressive foreign policy, on Biography.com. Choose from 71 different sets of term:louis xiv = palace of versailles flashcards on Quizlet. Because Louis was fond of fashion he dictated the style of dress that was permitted at court so again the nobles spent a great deal of their time … When Louis XIIV died, his son the later Louis XIV was only a kid. 2 pm: the king gave his orders and announced his plans in the morning. What are the effects on French foreign and internal policy, and how does Louis XI's way of doing things affect the rest of Europe? M. de Crequi lost 600,000 francs, and it was charged that he only paid half the debt. He required all the great nobility of France, to come live at Versailles for at least part of the year. script.setAttribute("src", "//www.npttech.com/advertising.js"); Discover the history of the Palace of Versailles and its characters in this illustrated video for young and old alike ! The first problem which confronted Louis XIV when he assumed the government was a financial one. 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