Louis Xiv Absolutism Essay

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Absolutism as a type of rule Many kings and queens have been absolute monarchs and sadly most of them have misused it proving its inadequacy. Absolutism is when a rulers power is above all else, nobody can tell him what to do and his word is top priority for everyone. Absolute monarchy was an ineffective way to rule Europe during the 16th-19th century because nobody can control the king as proven by Cromwell, if the king is ineffective nobody can replace him as shown by Henry VIII and too much power for a single man is not good as demonstrated by Louis XIV. A king which has too much power and nobody to control his decisions will more than likely be an ineffective ruler. This theory is supported by Cromwell taking over the…show more content…
Louis began his rule when he was only 5 years old, at that time his advisors were taking care of everything, when he grew older he was a fine king until he decided that he wanted to build the biggest palace in Europe in the worst location imaginable. He was smart, he put all the royals into Versailles, except he went overboard with the palace. He insisted everything be the best and there was so much gold in the palace that the treasury started running dry. Advisors should have advised against this sort of project but nobody did. Today this palace is considered amazing, rightfully so, but I don’t think that King Louis should have built such an extravagant palace without the economy to back it up. When he lost so much money he started wars which he couldn't pay for, even more money was being lost. At the end of these wars he would either lose land or not get any more. The wars were a failure and led to the bankruptcy during which he had to take apart parts of his palace and sell them to be able to pay his men. King Louis started off as a very good ruler, if he had listened more to his advisors and or had better advisors he would have been one of the most successful rulers in France. One man who is given too much power will rarely do well, in general he will get too big for his power and start wars and become an ineffective

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