Rise of France

* Beginnings and struggle

  - Capet family from Paris consolidates power

-> starts with Count of Paris, Hugh Capet in 987

-> following Salic Law (primogeniture) of ancient Franks, keeps land in family

  - loss of Italian War to Spain (1494-1559)

    -> a spur to getting it together

  - civil war between Bourbons and Guises (Bourbons win)

  - 1562-1598 - civil war between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants)

* Beginnings of a stable nation

  - Henry IV 1589-1610

    -> a Huguenot, he gave up his religion to be king

       => "Paris is worth a mass"

    -> promulgates (puts out) the Edict of Nantes

       => religious toleration

       => done fighting itself, France can build

  - Cardinal Richelieu becomes the leader in 1624

    -> weakens the feudal nobles

       => no fortified castles

       => replaces feudal nobles' duties with paid government workers

          as much as possible

  - 1600s, Haiti becomes the Pearl of the Caribbean

    -> brings France enormous amounts of sugar money

 * 1643-1715 Louis XIV - the Sun King

  - the model for absolutist rulers

     -> all-powerful

     -> lived long enough to have an enormous impact

  - increased the power of the central government at the expense of the nobility

     -> forced all of the nobles to court where they could be watched and threatened

     -> he agreed to exempt nobles from taxes if they turned over power to him

       => he got power, but lost a lot in tax revenue

  - repairing the tax problem

     -> lack of noble middlemen helped

        => no one to skim the taxes at first

        => tax farmers later became a problem

     -> turned to taxing the poor and middle class quite harshly

        => salt, wealth, and other picky little taxes

  - support local industry

     -> big on weapons production and forestry

     -> saw canals and roads built to increase trade and integration

  - developed French colonies

     -> Haiti and Canada expanded and defended

  - in 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes

     -> many Huguenots fled the country to England

        => many Huguenots were skilled urban types, so France lost a

             lot of rich and skilled people

        => England suddenly get skilled and rich help

  - spent too much on courtly life and building projects

     -> feasting and palace upkeep were expensive

     -> Louis XIV kept a stable of artists and writers

     -> built fantastical building of great cost like the Palace of Versailles