Autocratic rule of louis xvi biography
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Ancien régime
1400s–1789 sociopolitical system of the Kingdom of France
The ancien régime (; French:[ɑ̃sjɛ̃ʁeʒim]ⓘ; lit. 'old rule') was the political and social system of the Kingdom of France that the French Revolution overturned[1] through its abolition in 1790 of the feudal system of the French nobility[2] and in 1792 through its execution of the king and declaration of a republic.[3] "Ancien régime" is now a common metaphor for "a system or mode no longer prevailing".[4][a]
The administrative and social structures of the ancien régime in France evolved across years of state-building, legislative acts (like the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts), and internal conflicts. The attempts of the Valois Dynasty to reform and re-establish control over the scattered political centres of the country were hindered by the Wars of Religion from 1562 to 1598.[5] During the Bourbon Dynasty, much of the re
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Overview
Episode 3, ‘One Revolutionary War’, explores the character of France’s new King, Louis XVI, as well as his policies once in government. Louis’ decisions regarding the Parlements and the American Revolutionary War had a tremendous impact on French samhälle and laid the building blocks for the Revolution of 1789.
Louis XVI
Upon the death of King Louis XV, the French nation was holding out for a hero. Louis the Well-Beloved (more accurately, Louis the Well-Hated) had spent 58 long years on the throne, and many in France were happy to see him gone. The rise of the dead king’s grandson, Louis XVI, supposedly heralded the coming of a new golden age for France. In reality, no such golden age would occur.
An incompetent King at an inconvenient time
King Louis XVI held few of the autocratic and kingly characteristics required of a monarch who sat atop an increasingly divided and troubled kultur. Weak-willed and awkward, the new King fo
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Early Life of Louis XIV
Born on September 5, 1638, to King Louis XIII of France and his Habsburg queen, Anne of Austria, 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, followed two years later. When his father died on May 14, 1643, 4-year-old Louis inherited the crown of a fractured, unstable and nearly insolvent France.
After orchestrating the annulment of Louis XIII’s will, which had appointed a regency council to rule on the young king’s behalf, Anne served as sole regent for her son, assisted by her chief minister and close confidant, the Italian-born Cardinal Jules Mazarin.
Did you know? At the Palace of Versailles, aristocrats were expected to compete for the privilege of watching Louis XIV wake up, eat meals and prepare for bed.
The Fronde
During the early years of Louis XIV’s reign, Anne and Mazarin introd