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Essay / The Biography of French King Louis , but from all over Europe. The Sun King, King Louis XIV of France, arguably had the most dominant reign over France of any monarch to ever rule the country. His reign of 72 years is the longest of any European monarch. During his time, England was ruled by a multitude of different monarchs, all members of the same house, the House of Stuart. The rulers of House Stuart can also claim to be among the most important rulers when it comes to shaping both the history of England and the history of Europe. The very first queen of Great Britain was a member of the House of Stuart. To fully understand the influence of the monarchs of England and France, an analysis of the similarities and differences between the two provides better insight than analyzing the two great monarchs separately. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayLouis XIV was born on September 5, 1638 to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was the first child of the two after numerous stillbirths, adding to the illusion that he was a gift from God. At the age of four, he succeeded his father to the throne of the King of France after Louis XIII decided on his deathbed not to cede power to his wife, Anne of Austria, due to his lack of confidence in his political abilities. In the early years of Louis XIV, Cardinal Jules Mazarin assumed all his political functions, having an official role as Prime Minister of France. Mazarin ruled alongside Anne during this period, although Anne was no longer queen and had much less power than Mazarin. Mazarin took steps to increase the power of the French king over the country. He gradually increased France's position in Europe during the Peace of Westphalia (the treaty that ended the Thirty Years' War) when he claimed to be working for a common Catholic goal, but ultimately he was only interested in what was best for France. He also began to set the tone regarding France's religious intolerance towards Protestants. His attempts to increase the monarch's power eventually led to violence when he attempted to create a tax specifically for the Parliament of France. These movements lead to the first of the two Fronde. The Fronde was a small civil war in which the complete overthrow of the government was not the objective. Rather, the goal was to end the growing power of the monarch. The second Fronde ended in 1653, with Parliament failing to stop Mazarin's efforts. With Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis XIV would finally hold complete power as king of France. King Louis's first action was to appoint himself chief minister of France, a position never held by a king. His next action was to resolve the money problems France was experiencing as the Treasury was on the verge of bankruptcy. He dismissed Nicolas Fouqet, the corrupt superintendent of Finance, and replaced him with Jean Baptiste-Colbert, whom he chose for the position. Although Fouqet was not the one who put France in the current bad financial situation, Louis saw him as a threat due to the fact that he was Mazarin's rightful heir to the position of chief minister. Thanks to the joint efforts of Louis and Colbert, the country's financial problems quickly disappeared thanks to the development of new tax methods. Although no new taxes have been added, just more efficient versions of the taxesfrom before. Louis brought uniformity across the country regarding laws. Before his reign, many French provinces decided how laws were enforced within their borders. With the Great Ordinance of Civil Procedure of 1667, the provinces were required to follow and apply all the same laws (Carr, page 24). Louis used his power as leader of one of the great European forces of the time to intimidate and bribe other countries into carrying out his desires. As France attempted to eliminate the Dutch and break an alliance between England and the Dutch, Louis XIV made a secret deal with Charles II to realign himself on the French side. The agreement provided for a large payment to England from France. This temporary peace between the two countries did not last long. In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes with his Edict of Fontainebleu. The edict granted Protestants the right to freely practice their religion. Protestant pastors either had to choose a secular life or be forced to live in exile. This decision ultimately led to around 200,000 French Protestants fleeing France to the more tolerant Dutch and English. In 1688, France was forced to enter the War of the League of Augsburg. The war took place during the time of the Glorious Revolution in England. Louis XIV supported the Catholic James II, but even Louis could not stop the Protestant William III from taking England. A strong point of difference between the two monarchies was the religious tolerance displayed. France was very intolerant of any religion outside of Catholicism and remained so throughout Louis's reign, as evidenced by Louis's revocation of the Edict of Nantes. During the time of James I and Charles I, England was also very intolerant of anything other than that of the Anglican Church, notably Protestantism. This view has changed considerably, with England becoming much more tolerant over time, but Catholicism has still never been welcomed with completely open arms. The decline of Louis what gains. The end of his reign came as quickly as it had begun when he took control of France. The end of his life was marked by the deaths of many people he considered close to him. Due to all the grief that was forced upon him, he became a shell of himself and quickly became ill. When he finally died, his son and grandson having already passed away, he was forced to hand over the throne of the French king to his five-year-old great-grandson Louis XV. The first to rule England from the House of Stuart was James Stuart on March 24, 1603. James I was an experienced king even before taking control of the English throne, as he was crowned King of Scotland while he was only thirteen months old in 1567. He succeeded to the Scottish throne after his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was removed from power. Although James I was raised during a time of unrest in Scotland, he received a Presbyterian and classical education. His first rule over Scotland was not established until he was seventeen. In 1586, he signed a treaty with Queen Elizabeth I of England in an attempt to increase his chances of obtaining the English throne, as Elizabeth had no true heir and was completely childless. On the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, James I, King of Scotland. was declared sovereign of England. There were a number of different monarchical conditions that James had to adapt to between England and Scotland.The King of Scotland had very little power and was considered first among equals. James had in fact been kidnapped and held prisoner twice by his subjects while living in Scotland. The majority of power was vested in the General Assembly of the Scottish Church. In England, the king was the head of the executive, the supreme governor of the Church, the holder of hereditary wealth, and the leader of his subjects in war and peace. Despite all this, his authority was still constitutionally limited by tradition. The English Parliament had to be consulted before taking a radical decision, such as going to war or facing the extraordinary expenses that it may accumulate. The difference in each country's distribution of power is another main point on which the two monarchies differ greatly. During Louis' reign, his rule over France became more absolute over time. The opposite can be said of House Stuart. Although James had much more power in England than in Scotland, the distribution of power in England would continue to favor the House of Commons throughout the 17th century and into the 18th century. James I faced many problems when he immediately took the throne. Most pressing was the growing Puritan movement that wanted to take over Roman Catholics in the Church. Another reason was Parliament's attempts to gain more power over England, which meant less power for itself. He showed sympathy for the Puritans because he himself had been raised as a Calvinist, and because of this sympathy he never attempted throughout his reign to harm their cause. He was rather religiously tolerant throughout his tenure, although he responded accordingly by punishing Catholics for their Gunpowder Plot in 1605, a plot which included blowing up the House of Parliament (Lloyd, page 58). James I firmly believed in the Divine Right of Kings. He often exaggerated the rights of the king when addressing Parliament. In his book Basilikon Doron, he emphasizes the patriarchal nature of kingship and compares monarchs to gods. Despite all this, he always rejected the idea put forward by some that he believed himself to be above the law. One of James's goals was to unite the kingdoms of England and Scotland under one name. He even went so far as to call himself King of Great Britain, although Parliament did not accept his attempts at union between the two countries. In 1613, James entered into an alliance with the German Protestant Union and considered himself a Protestant champion when his daughter Elizabeth married Frederick the Elector Palantine. He began to have poor relations with Parliament due to his desire to maintain the king's rights while Parliament wanted to limit them. His aversion to Parliament followed him until his death in 1625. He warned his heir of the growing influence of the House of Commons. King Louis XIV had a close relationship with James I regarding the divine right of kings. Louis often presented himself as the Sun King because of the importance he believed he was born with. This view would remain with Louis XIV throughout his reign, but it was only a secondary thought of later members of the House of Stuart. The English Parliament's loss of power would continue for the remainder of the House's rule. Charles I was the second son of James I, born on November 19, 1600. He acceded to the throne on March 27, 1625, and two months later married Henrietta Maria, the sister of King Louis XIII of France, although the two never married. had a lot of mutual interest. He was often at odds with Parliament, just like his father. Parliament never gave him the funds thathe needed to fight the wars he would later engage in, and he disliked his attitude toward religious matters. Although he was taught by a Scottish Calvinist, he disliked the kind of religious services that the Puritans most approved of. Many accused him of promoting high-ranking churchmen who believed in free will rather than predestination to achieve salvation. The House of Commons drafted a petition of law which would limit Charles's power. Among other grievances, the petition condemned forced loans, the quartering of soldiers and the imprisonment of subjects without just cause. Although Charles signed the petition, he rarely respected it. Charles then attempted to create religious uniformity in Scotland and England. It got to the point where he raised an army to force Scotland to do what he wanted. His army was easily defeated. Measures such as raising taxes without Parliament's permission and Charles I's complete disregard for their petition of right led to Parliament's complete distrust of him. Parliament began to take more power away from him, although the two issues on which he would not budge were reform of the Anglican Church and control of the militia. In 1642, an all-out civil war broke out between the opposing Parliamentarians who followed Charles - the Royalists - and those who did not - the Parliamentarians. After seven years, Charles had officially lost the war, before finally being captured by the Parliamentarians and convicted of treason for waging war against his own people. Charles I was put to death on January 3, 1649. The two monarchies were similar in the sense that neither was truly beloved by ordinary people. Monarchies of the House of Stuart were often overthrown by their people with the help of Parliament. Louis, on the other hand, was never overthrown due to the people's lack of leadership. The English Parliament had the ability to lead and rally the people around a single cause. There was no branch of government over which Louis did not have complete control, easily being able to remove from power anyone he considered a threat. From 1649 until another member of the House of Stuart took control in 1660, Parliament held complete control. from England. Oliver Cromwell, the man who led the Parliamentarians in the war against Charles I, was considered the leader of England, although he refused Parliament's offer to make him King of England, believing that the The king's role should be completely removed from English government. Charles II was only twelve years old when the civil war broke out in 1642. Despite his young age, his father, Charles I, saw some potential in him. Charles II would serve many roles in his father's army during the Civil War, but ultimately lost with his father. In 1650, after learning of his father's execution, he fled to Scotland where he was named King of Scots. His goal was to regain the British throne and attempted to achieve this in 1651. He and his Scottish army were easily defeated by Cromwell. It was not until Cromwell's death in 1660 that Charles II regained his rightful throne. He made great efforts to initiate negotiations between the supporters of the old Church of England and the Presbyterians, although nothing came of it. England considered France the most dangerous threat in all of England, so Charles made a secret treaty with them. waging war against the Dutch, with whom they were currently on good terms as both were members of the Protestant Alliance. One of the conditions of the treaty was that Charles was to declare himself a Catholic when the time came. He never kept that promise because the Houseof the communes did not allow it. The very anti-French and anti-Catholic House of Commons urged Charles to declare war on France. Opposing views regarding France between Charles and Parliament persisted throughout his reign. After being received into the Roman Catholic Church, he died on February 6, 1685. The two monarchs saw each other from very different angles. France saw England as it saw many others, just another pawn it could manipulate to achieve its goals. England saw France as many others saw it, the military power whose enemy it did not want to be. The two have never been on the best or worst terms, sometimes allies and sometimes enemies. James II, the second son of Charles I, was raised in a situation just as unstable as his brother Charles II. He prospered as a general in his father's army and would also serve as Lord High Admiral under his brother Charles during Charles' tenure as King of England. He was much more open about his Roman Catholic views than his brother, which placed him in an even worse position with Parliament. When he came to the throne in 1685, many were surprised at how peaceful it was. This was only because he had sworn to retain the Church of England and the power it held. Parliament thought this meant that James would attempt to eliminate all dissenters from the Church, but instead he meant the opposite, in which he would grant power to anyone he believed deserved it, regardless of their religion. James II would pursue complete religious equality despite Parliament's efforts against him. He made it much easier for Catholics to rise to positions of power throughout the country, and that anyone who discriminated based on religious differences would be punished. He attempted to punish seven bishops for disobeying these laws. When the bishops were declared innocent of James' accusations, the English people rejoiced. These same people call on William of Orange to come and take the throne from James II. When William arrived in England with an army, the English army immediately disbanded when confronted. William would easily take control of the throne while James would eventually flee to France where he did nothing of importance again until his death at the age of sixty-six. William III married Mary II in 1677, a marriage between the Calvinist duke and his Roman Catholic bride. William had always remained on relatively good terms with England before his accession to the throne in 1688. He gained this position during the bloodless war known as the Glorious Revolution when English Protestants welcomed him as their new king. Before William and Mary became king and queen, they were asked to sign a Bill of Rights that would give them a much more limited monarchy than that of their predecessors, and both signed voluntarily. During the joint reign, Mary accepted her role as William's subordinate and allowed him to make most decisions. She was considered the more people-oriented of the two monarchs. Many constitutional changes took place during Williams' reign, gradually taking more and more power away from monarchs. Religious tolerance also increased, but not towards Roman Catholics at first. Parliament took the decision to require any future monarch to be a member of the Anglican Church before even being considered as a candidate for the throne. When Mary died in 1964, public opinion of the king began to wane. He did not align himself with any.
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