French History

Page 2 of 3 - The dawn of the seventeenth century presented France with one of the greats: Cardinal Richelieu. From a family of five, he rose in the ranks of the clergy to become bishop at age twenty-two. He did some various work with France's Estates General, a Legislative body, until he fell out of favor and was exiled in 1617. This did not last long, however, and he was brought back in 1619 and was made a cardinal. Louis XIII, King of France (1610-1643) made him the "first minister", one of the most powerful posts in France. One of the first moves of Richelieu was to suppress the nobles who staged several revolts between 1625 and 1627. He then went on and crushed Huguenot military forts, thus ending any military threat from within. Richelieu helped direct the construction of a better French navy and continued colonial expansion for France in the Americas and Indies. France became involved in the War of Mantuan Succession and the Thirty Years' War during this time. These conflicts ended in favorable terms for France. He had helped shape France for the better during his career. His passing away in 1642 left another cardinal, Jules Mazarin, to take over the helm of the state.

After the Thirty Years' War, the conflict between Spain and France continued until 1659, a decade after the Thirty Years' War had ended. The finances of France again went under during this time. Additional revenue was sought out rigorously. From the time of the ending of the Thirty Years' War, 1648, several other rebellions erupted. These rebellions became known as the "Frondes". These were ended in 1653 after causing Louis XIV many problems.

Louis XIV, the Sun King, is one of France's most celebrated leaders. His extremely lengthy rule, 1643-1715, is the longest in French history. Louis established a High Council of ministers who helped him rule the nation with efficiency. The Sun King stepped up efforts to eradicate and hinder Protestantism and various religious organizations outside of the Roman Catholic faith. He ordered the construction of Versailles, the vast palace that is a hallmark of French history. He bent himself on unifying the entirety of the French population, rallying it behind himself as the embodiment of the State.

His Minister of War, Louvois, helped reorganize and bring the French army up to par. The army grew from a small sixteenth century force, to a national army of fully four hundred thousand troops! With his new army, Louis set out to enlarge France to her "natural frontiers" (the Rhine, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Alps, Pyrenees, and the English Channel). Several wars were fought over territories on the French frontier, disputed by the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs. In 1667, Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands and scored several victories, culminating in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle giving the French several fortresses in Flanders. In 1672, a French army invaded Holland. Spanish and Austrian troops arrived to aid the Dutch and eventually the Treaty of Nijmegan ended the war with more forts in Flanders being turned over to France in 1678. In 1688, Louis began the War of the Grand Alliance by marching an army into the Palatinate. The invasion backfired as the whole of Europe suddenly turned on Louis. Several years of war resulted, battles being fought as far away as the Americas, in Italy, on the Rhine, and in other states bordering France. The French won several victories, but were unable to make anything of them. By 1697, a movement for peace was made and accepted. It proved, short-lived however.

In 1700, the War of the Spanish Succession broke out as Charles II died heirless and left the throne to the ascension of Philip (V), Louis XIV's grandson. The English, Dutch, and Austrian/Germans signed an alliance in 1701 to oppose Philip V and the ambitions of Louis. The Duke of Marlborough was dispatched by England and proved himself a worthy general in the field. The armies of France were repeatedly defeated in all the theaters of the conflict, the Rhine, Italy, the Lower Counties, everywhere the French armies were defeated. The ambitions of the new Emperor Charles of Austria and the Holy Roman Empire, however, frightened Britain, and so the House of Bourbon was allowed to be established in Spain under Philip V and peace was concluded in 1713 and 1714. The emerging power of Britain over Continental affairs and the gradual decline of the Spanish and French colonial empires was becoming apparent. In 1715, Louis XIV died.

Louis XV was not the great man his grandfather Louis XIV had been. During his reign, 1715-1774, France became involved in increasingly unsuccessful military campaigns. In 1740, Frederick II invaded Austrian-held Silesia. France was Prussia's ally, and soon after, invaded Bohemia. The Austrians and British rallied, however, and by 1743 had pushed the French back across their own frontiers. One French hero did immerge, the Marshal de Saxe, who conquered the Austrian Netherlands in 1745. In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed and few gains were made.

In 1756, France did an about-face and allied itself with Austria, and declared war on Prussia and Great Britain. This evolved into the Seven Years' War. Russia, Sweden, and several other German states joined the effort against Frederick the Great and his ambitions for Prussia. At first France enjoyed some success, by defeating the Duke of Cumberland's Hanoverian army. The French then advanced against Frederick, who met them and their allied contingents at Rossbach and dealt them a decisive defeat. In 1758, a British-Hanoverian army defeated the French at Krefeld. Simultaneously, the British conducted an excellent offensive campaign throughout the Americas, Indies, and India. The Treaty of Paris, 1763, ended the war between France and Britain. France lost almost the entirety of its North American possessions and most of its domains in India. This was a cruel blow to the aspirations of the French empire.

Louis XV's reign continued its stagnation and decline. France made no gains during the partition of Poland--its influence in the central and eastern Europe was waning. Her great colonial empire had almost vanished. She still had the largest army and population in Europe, but she was starting to totter, from the inside. Louis XV died an in 1774. Continued ...

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