In the sixteenth century, northern Europe was separated from the Church. Luther, Henry VIII and Calvin brought in the sects which spread scepticism of all teaching, and opened the why for the Deists and rationalism. Calvin was a Frenchman, with about three per cent of Frenchmen following his ideas; they were mostly of the middle class, opposed to absolute monarchy, as they sought popular influence in the government. Calvinist influence in this regard was felt by Mary of Scotland, Philip II in the Dutch Republican move, Louis XIII in France, and Charles I and James II in Eng¬land in the Puritan revolt, where in each case the power of the people was being forced against the monarchs.
Religion had become identified with nations and thus with the government and autocracy; the rise of autocracy in kings rejecting the authority of the Church and of the Holy Roman Empire, the beginnings of national., literatures, and their competition in trade made the nations self—conscious and made the kings more autocratic.
And though there were some restrictions on monarchy, for instance, possible dethronement, parliament¬ary representation of the clergy, nobility and commons, and some recognised inviolable rights of the people, still, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, its power grew beyond all limits because of their personal ability, their strength in armed forces with gunpowder weapons, their control of what was formerly Church property and affairs, and the revival of the idea that the king is above the law. The traders and merchants supported the king as against the nobles, and in return, had new colonies founded for them as well as having the protection of. the navies of their country for their ships.
In England, the Tudors, Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth urged their autocracy to the full. In France, which is our chief concern, the Bourbons brought it to its greatest development.
Henry IV of Navarre came to power after civil wars of devastation and chaos. He reduced the power of the petty nobles and local rulers and favoured the traders with security. His son, Louis XIII (1610 --1643) had his country administered by the very able Cardinal Richelieu, who strove for the removal of all limitation from the King's power. Hence, the Parlia¬ment or States General was never allowed to meet. In fact, from 1614 to 1789 it had not one session. He. destroyed all fortified castles of the nobles, crushed Calvinism, the Huguenots in France, and set up new local governors or "intendants" chosen from the middle class, to supervise the law and the collection of taxes in the provinces.
Louis XIV, at five years of age, succeeded his father in 1643, with Cardinal Mazarin as his prime minister. This reign of the Grand Monarch was the climax of autocracy. He lived in splendour and luxury, fawned upon by Dukes and Counts, but attending carefully to finance and the affairs of government.
Commerce and prosperity increased for the bour-geoisie after he had crushed the Fronde or Rising of the Nobles. He denied freedom of religion to the Huguenots, who fled the country, thereby consolidating his power. At times he had more than four hundred thousand men in arms, and wars were constant with their accompaniment of plunder and miseries.
He sought to extend his boundaries to the Rhine and to get the mastery over the House of Hapsburg, which, however, continued to rule Austria, Spain, part of Italy, part of the Netherlands, Hungary, Bohemia, part of east France, and the American colonies. During the sixty seven years of his rule, France was at war for nearly thirty two years. Such European wars impeded France's commerce and colonies and naval development, though they gave strength to the monarchy and the idea of the divine-right, whilst they entailed enormous expense of funds.
Louis XV succeeded in 1715, just after the close of the War of the Spanish Succession. Devoted to ease and luxury, he spent lavishly the taxes he imposed, produced no reforms for the benefit of his people, and buried the country in debt by his wars.
The War of the Austrian Succession, 1714 - 17)8, and the Seven Years' War, 1756 -- 1763, left Britain , mistress of the seas with a vast colonial empire; whilst France and Spain, the monarchical autocracies, had been unable to defend their trade and possessions, and France was practically bankrupt. This state of affairs had its effect in fostering the revolutionary spirit.
This same spirit was aided by the knowledge of the success of the English revolution against the ab¬solute monarchy in 1688; the break away of Holland from Spain finalised in 1648; the American revolution of 1776 against English rule, and the writings of the French philosophers Montesglaell., Rousseau, and Quesnoy, who borrowed much from John Locke, the Englishman. The philosophers found a ready hearing among the bourgeois, who were reasonably educated, for their theories of liberty, equality, sovereignty of the people, freedom of trading and distrust of religion.
The French nation at the end of the eighteenth century was divided into three classes or "Estates." The First Estate was that of the clergy; the Second, that of the nobility; the Third being the rest, that is, the peasants and the burghers or merchants, towns-men, professional men. The first two classes were "privileged" and were about one and a half per cent of the population; they were assured of their income and paid no taxes.
The Clergy - the country priests were poorly salaried, laboured for their people and were respected by them. The higher clergy - Bishops and Arch-bishops - were mostly sons of noble families, with many benefices and big incomes, spending their time about the Court in luxury and ease.
The Nobility - since Richelieu's time they had little power, but lived near the Court, absentee land-lords, hated by their peasants. .
The Third Estate - the peasants, had to support the King and the "privileged" classes by about four fifths of their income for taxes and rents. The bour¬geoisie as business men and professional men and arti¬sans, had many government restrictions on their trading from the guilds, chartered stock companies, customs barriers within the country, and royal monopolies.
In a word - the interests of the Third Estate clashed with those of the First and Second.
Louis XV had dissipated the prestige and the finance of his country. - Louis XVI (177.-- 1792) set upon some reforms for taxation and commerce, but, on protest from the nobles, he desisted. Then he yielded to the desire for revenge upon England, and declared war against her in 1778, during her difficulties with the revolution in America. As a result, his country became bankrupt, and the success of the American venture again¬st the English king, gave a headline for the agitation in France.
The "privileged" classes were asked to share the common burdens of expenses and refused.. Louis decided to summon the three Estates, the Estates General, to Versailles in May, 1789. The Clergy had three hundred representatives, the Nobility had the same number, and the Third Estate had six hundred. Each Estate voted as a unit, and any two could together carry any measure; the First and Second generally stood together.
When the three Estates met, because the Third, led by Mirabeau, though a Count, represented the bulk ' of the people, it demanded a change in organisation and in the voting system. It wanted a single body, a National Assembly, where each member should have one vote, and the majority would carry any measure. This demand was backed by some of the Second and many of the lower clergy of the First Estate. Louis, afraid to displease the nobles, refused the demand, and, in June, 1789, locked out the Third Estate from the meetings.
These representatives then met in a public builde ing nearby, which was used as a tennis court, and took an oath that, as members of the National Assembly, they would draw up a Constitution for France. This was de-fiance of the King and of autocracy.
A week later, Louis weakened and had the three Estates sit together as a National Assembly, with voting by heads. But the royal troops were ordered to cone verge upon Versailles at the same time. The Assembly asked for their withdrawal, which the King refused. The populace of Paris then sided with the Assembly against the King and wild rioting was everywhere in the city.
The Bastille, a royal fortress and symbol of its authority, was captured and rased to the ground by the mob. Paris was now outside of royal control; the Commune was organised by the prominent citizens for local government, and the National Guard. was ex enrolled for the citizens' army, with Lafayette as its commander.
Louis withdrew the royal troops from Versailles, but they soon again appeared. In October, news was abroad in Paris that the soldiers were feasting and drinking liberally. Paris was in a state of starvation because of the failure of crops the summer before, and it seemed the King's army would not help the food posi¬tion. A large host of women, enraged with hunger, with sticks and clubs in their hands, walked the twelve miles to Versailles to demonstrate and yell for bread.
Religion had become identified with nations and thus with the government and autocracy; the rise of autocracy in kings rejecting the authority of the Church and of the Holy Roman Empire, the beginnings of national., literatures, and their competition in trade made the nations self—conscious and made the kings more autocratic.
And though there were some restrictions on monarchy, for instance, possible dethronement, parliament¬ary representation of the clergy, nobility and commons, and some recognised inviolable rights of the people, still, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, its power grew beyond all limits because of their personal ability, their strength in armed forces with gunpowder weapons, their control of what was formerly Church property and affairs, and the revival of the idea that the king is above the law. The traders and merchants supported the king as against the nobles, and in return, had new colonies founded for them as well as having the protection of. the navies of their country for their ships.
In England, the Tudors, Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth urged their autocracy to the full. In France, which is our chief concern, the Bourbons brought it to its greatest development.
Henry IV of Navarre came to power after civil wars of devastation and chaos. He reduced the power of the petty nobles and local rulers and favoured the traders with security. His son, Louis XIII (1610 --1643) had his country administered by the very able Cardinal Richelieu, who strove for the removal of all limitation from the King's power. Hence, the Parlia¬ment or States General was never allowed to meet. In fact, from 1614 to 1789 it had not one session. He. destroyed all fortified castles of the nobles, crushed Calvinism, the Huguenots in France, and set up new local governors or "intendants" chosen from the middle class, to supervise the law and the collection of taxes in the provinces.
Louis XIV, at five years of age, succeeded his father in 1643, with Cardinal Mazarin as his prime minister. This reign of the Grand Monarch was the climax of autocracy. He lived in splendour and luxury, fawned upon by Dukes and Counts, but attending carefully to finance and the affairs of government.
Commerce and prosperity increased for the bour-geoisie after he had crushed the Fronde or Rising of the Nobles. He denied freedom of religion to the Huguenots, who fled the country, thereby consolidating his power. At times he had more than four hundred thousand men in arms, and wars were constant with their accompaniment of plunder and miseries.
He sought to extend his boundaries to the Rhine and to get the mastery over the House of Hapsburg, which, however, continued to rule Austria, Spain, part of Italy, part of the Netherlands, Hungary, Bohemia, part of east France, and the American colonies. During the sixty seven years of his rule, France was at war for nearly thirty two years. Such European wars impeded France's commerce and colonies and naval development, though they gave strength to the monarchy and the idea of the divine-right, whilst they entailed enormous expense of funds.
Louis XV succeeded in 1715, just after the close of the War of the Spanish Succession. Devoted to ease and luxury, he spent lavishly the taxes he imposed, produced no reforms for the benefit of his people, and buried the country in debt by his wars.
The War of the Austrian Succession, 1714 - 17)8, and the Seven Years' War, 1756 -- 1763, left Britain , mistress of the seas with a vast colonial empire; whilst France and Spain, the monarchical autocracies, had been unable to defend their trade and possessions, and France was practically bankrupt. This state of affairs had its effect in fostering the revolutionary spirit.
This same spirit was aided by the knowledge of the success of the English revolution against the ab¬solute monarchy in 1688; the break away of Holland from Spain finalised in 1648; the American revolution of 1776 against English rule, and the writings of the French philosophers Montesglaell., Rousseau, and Quesnoy, who borrowed much from John Locke, the Englishman. The philosophers found a ready hearing among the bourgeois, who were reasonably educated, for their theories of liberty, equality, sovereignty of the people, freedom of trading and distrust of religion.
The French nation at the end of the eighteenth century was divided into three classes or "Estates." The First Estate was that of the clergy; the Second, that of the nobility; the Third being the rest, that is, the peasants and the burghers or merchants, towns-men, professional men. The first two classes were "privileged" and were about one and a half per cent of the population; they were assured of their income and paid no taxes.
The Clergy - the country priests were poorly salaried, laboured for their people and were respected by them. The higher clergy - Bishops and Arch-bishops - were mostly sons of noble families, with many benefices and big incomes, spending their time about the Court in luxury and ease.
The Nobility - since Richelieu's time they had little power, but lived near the Court, absentee land-lords, hated by their peasants. .
The Third Estate - the peasants, had to support the King and the "privileged" classes by about four fifths of their income for taxes and rents. The bour¬geoisie as business men and professional men and arti¬sans, had many government restrictions on their trading from the guilds, chartered stock companies, customs barriers within the country, and royal monopolies.
In a word - the interests of the Third Estate clashed with those of the First and Second.
Louis XV had dissipated the prestige and the finance of his country. - Louis XVI (177.-- 1792) set upon some reforms for taxation and commerce, but, on protest from the nobles, he desisted. Then he yielded to the desire for revenge upon England, and declared war against her in 1778, during her difficulties with the revolution in America. As a result, his country became bankrupt, and the success of the American venture again¬st the English king, gave a headline for the agitation in France.
The "privileged" classes were asked to share the common burdens of expenses and refused.. Louis decided to summon the three Estates, the Estates General, to Versailles in May, 1789. The Clergy had three hundred representatives, the Nobility had the same number, and the Third Estate had six hundred. Each Estate voted as a unit, and any two could together carry any measure; the First and Second generally stood together.
When the three Estates met, because the Third, led by Mirabeau, though a Count, represented the bulk ' of the people, it demanded a change in organisation and in the voting system. It wanted a single body, a National Assembly, where each member should have one vote, and the majority would carry any measure. This demand was backed by some of the Second and many of the lower clergy of the First Estate. Louis, afraid to displease the nobles, refused the demand, and, in June, 1789, locked out the Third Estate from the meetings.
These representatives then met in a public builde ing nearby, which was used as a tennis court, and took an oath that, as members of the National Assembly, they would draw up a Constitution for France. This was de-fiance of the King and of autocracy.
A week later, Louis weakened and had the three Estates sit together as a National Assembly, with voting by heads. But the royal troops were ordered to cone verge upon Versailles at the same time. The Assembly asked for their withdrawal, which the King refused. The populace of Paris then sided with the Assembly against the King and wild rioting was everywhere in the city.
The Bastille, a royal fortress and symbol of its authority, was captured and rased to the ground by the mob. Paris was now outside of royal control; the Commune was organised by the prominent citizens for local government, and the National Guard. was ex enrolled for the citizens' army, with Lafayette as its commander.
Louis withdrew the royal troops from Versailles, but they soon again appeared. In October, news was abroad in Paris that the soldiers were feasting and drinking liberally. Paris was in a state of starvation because of the failure of crops the summer before, and it seemed the King's army would not help the food posi¬tion. A large host of women, enraged with hunger, with sticks and clubs in their hands, walked the twelve miles to Versailles to demonstrate and yell for bread.
