War Of Devolution: The Reign Of King Louis XIV

Louis XIV was an absolute monarch who ruled France from 1643, taking the throne at 5 years old, until his death in 1715. His goal was to make France the strongest country in the world, and be the intellectual guide for the rest of the world. Though he accomplished many things, his arrogance and self-centeredness caused some conflicts and challenges during his rule, mostly because he thought the world revolved around him. This earned him the nickname “The Sun King”. Louis XIV put France through tremendous struggles. One major struggle was fighting in the War of Devolution, which ultimately led to the Franco-Dutch war. Most of these wars and conflicts were resolved in domestic and foreign policies, some of which benefited France, and some of

France was led by a very arrogant and self-centered ruler. No other leader built a 17 acre, two billion dollar palace for themselves! His style of ruling led to a very problematic country. France faced a wide variety of problems whilst under Louis XIV’s rule. Going back to the very beginning, Louis wasn’t even old enough to run a country when he inherited the throne. His advisor, Cardinal Mazarin, mostly made all of his decisions for him. He was a very hated “ruler” because he increased taxes heavily, and wanted to strengthen the central government. Nobles in particular disliked him in particular. They rioted, and protested, and tried to threaten the life of their king, though he wasn’t making any of the decisions. A big issue faced during Louis rule was when he revoked the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes gave huguenots, which were French protestants, religious freedom. When it was dissolved, obviously many people were very mad. As a consequence, many artisans and business workers fled the country, and France lost many of their skilled workers. Louis XIV personally led an army into the Dutch Netherlands, and was not able to gain any land in the initial attack. This wasted various resources, and killed many men. Eventually, a

Some of them were to address the big problems that the country faced during his reign. The Treaties of Nijmegen were somewhat effective. They ended conflict between the Dutch Netherlands and France, and also gained France some land. The downside to the entire thing is that Louis XIV did not achieve his initial goal of taking over all of the land, or at least most of it. Also, it will not have much of an effect later on, when the War of Spanish Succession takes place, and the Dutch republic sides with other European countries to fight against France and Spain. Therefore, all peace between the Netherlands and France that came from the Treaties was ignored just a mere two decades later. The Treaties of Utrecht, however, were extremely effective, considering the state that Louis XIV and his nation were in coming into the War of Spanish Succession. France was drained of money from past problems, and Louis the XIV was exhausted, to say the least. They struggled throughout the war, and when Louis saw the opportunity to reach a compromise, he took it (Steingrad, “War of Spanish Succession”). The Peace of Utrecht said that Louis XIV’s grandson, Philip, was allowed to continue ruling his nation of Spain, but only if it did not rule united with France. This was an effective policy because it allowed most European countries to maintain an equality of sorts, and France was able to somewhat