During the long reign of Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715), the French monarchy reached the peak of absolutist development. Louis believed in the divine right of kings: God had established kings as his rulers on earth, and they were answerable ultimately to him alone. To symbolize his central role in the divine order, when he was fifteen years old Louis danced at a court ballet dressed as the sun, thereby acquiring the title “Sun King.” However, he also recognized that even though kings were divinely anointed and shared in the sacred nature of divinity, they could not simply do as they pleased. They had to obey God’s laws and rule for the good of the people.

Like his counterpart, the Kangxi emperor of China, who inherited his realm only two decades after the Sun King did (see “Competent and Long-Lived Emperors” in Chapter 21), Louis XIV impressed his subjects with his majestic bearing and his discipline and hard work. (See “Viewpoints 18.1: Descriptions of Louis XIV of France and the Kangxi Emperor of China.”) Louis ruled his realm through several councils of state and insisted on taking a personal role in many of the councils’ decisions. Despite increasing financial problems, Louis never called a meeting of the Estates General, the traditional French representative assembly composed of the three estates of clergy, nobility, and commoners. The nobility, therefore, had no means of united expression or action. Nor did Louis have a first minister. He alone was in command.

Although personally tolerant, Louis hated division. He insisted that religious unity was essential to his royal dignity and to the security of the state. In 1685 Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, ordering the Catholic baptism of Huguenots, the destruction of Huguenot churches, the closing of schools, and the exile of Huguenot pastors who refused to renounce their faith. Around two hundred thousand Protestants, including some of the kingdom’s most highly skilled artisans, fled France. Louis’s insistence on “one king, one law, one religion” contrasts sharply with the religious tolerance exhibited by the Ottoman Empire (see “Non-Muslims Under Muslim Rule” in Chapter 17).

Despite his claims to absolute authority, there were multiple constraints on Louis’s power. As a representative of divine power, he was obliged to rule in a way that seemed consistent with virtue and benevolent authority. He had to uphold the laws issued by his royal predecessors. Moreover, he also relied on the collaboration of nobles, who maintained authority in their ancestral lands. Without their cooperation, it would have been impossible for Louis to extend his power throughout France or wage his many foreign wars.