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The France of Henry IV
Henry IV resumed the strenghtening of royal power. He modified the traditional landed aristocracy, nobility of the sword. The principle bureaucrats controlled the countries administrations. Henry turned their interests to his benifit. All crown offices had to bought; he used the system to raise revenues and to guarantee the loyalty of bureaucrats. He accelerated the sales of offices and invented a new device known as the paulette, an annual fee. -
Henry's Effects
Henry imposed his will throughout France. He was secure enough to plan an invasion of the HRE. He was assassinated before he could join his army. The invasion was called off. His heritage and economic affairs outlived him by a long amount of time.
France's agriculture had one negative effect. Successful merchants abandoned comerce when they could afford to move and buy the title of nobility. -
Richeliu
Armand du Plessis de Richelieu was a churchamn who rose to be a cardinal through Marie de Medici's favor. He became the cgief minister abd took control of government. He resumed Henry IV's assertion of royal authority. The bureaucracy was the strongest of interests under Richieu -
Revolt and Succession
Provinces begin to feel like their local independence is being threatened because of Castile's, a centrilized regime, dominance. They saw the Union of Arms (as imposed by Olivares) as the tip of the iceburgh. France declared war on the Habsburghs. Funds for army suppost were begining to get harder to raise. Olivares pressed vigorously for the Union of Arms. All he was able to do was provoke war against Castile by Catalonia, Portugal, Naples, and Sicily. -
Mazarin
Louis XXIII dies. His rule was followed by a regency because Louis XIV was just five years old. Louis XXIII's death offered an oppertunity to those whom wanted to reverse the rise of absolutism. Anne of Austria took the government over, placing power with Cardinal Giulio Mazarin, an Italian. Mazarin sought to gain a respite from the monarch's financial trouble. Members of various Paris institutions drew up a charter of demands. -
The Ending
The Catalonian rebellion continued for 11 years. It ended because the peasents and town mobs transformed the resistance to the central government into an attack on privilaged and wealthy classes. The nobility abandoned the cause and joined the government's side. the Fronde forced withdrawl of French troops from Catalonia. Barcelona fell to a royal Army. The nobles could regain their rights and powers. The revolt was over. -
Intendants Cause Peasant Uprising
Sale of offices broke all bounds. It accounted for about 1/2 of royal revenues. After 10 years, more than three wuarters of the crown's direct taxation was needed. Richelieu had increased the power of the governemnts chief agents. As they soon became hated figures, because of rising taxes and because they threatened the nobles' power, a succession of peasent uprising began. It was led by local nobles who resented the rise of intendants and royal power.
