302 Chapter 16
miles away (see illustration 16.5). To occupy his new
courtiers, Louis developed an elaborate ritual centered
around his own person. Every royal action was accom-
panied by great ceremony, and proud aristocrats
contended for the honor of emptying the king’s cham-
berpot or handing him his shirt (see illustration 16.6).
The world of Versailles was cramped, artificial, and rid-
dled with intrigue, but it was a world controlled in
every particular by a king who knew what was happen-
ing under his own roof (see document 16.5). To stay
was to sacrifice one’s independence; to leave was to lose
all hope of honor or profit. By 1670 the French nobility
had been domesticated.
The centralization implied by Versailles was ex-
tended to the royal administration, though in this case
Louis followed precedents established by Henry IV and
Richelieu. Richelieu in particular had worked to replace
the old system of governing through councils with min-
istries, in which one man was responsible to the crown
for each of the major functions of government. He had
also brought royal authority to the provinces by intro-
ducing intendants, commissioners who supervised the
collection of taxes and served as a constant check on
local authorities. Louis expanded and perfected this sys-
tem. Intendancies transcended provincial borders, fur-
ther weakening the ties of local privilege. The ministers
of war, finance, foreign affairs, and even of roads and
bridges reported directly to the king who, unlike his fa-
ther, served as his own prime minister. Louis may have
been the Sun King, surrounded by ritual and devoted to
the pleasures of the bed, the table, and the hunt, but he
was a hard worker. At least six hours a day, seven days a
week, were devoted to public business. Significantly, he
usually drew his ministers from the nobles de la robe,the
great legal dynasties of the French towns, not from the
old nobility.
Because war was the primary function of the early
modern state and accounted for the vast majority of its
expenditures, every effort was made to bring the mili-
tary under control. Louis instituted a series of reforms
under the guidance of the war ministers Michel Le Tel-
lier (1603–85) and his son, the Marquis de Louvois
(1639–91). A tableau of ranks, comparable to that used
by most modern armies, established a hierarchy of
command that in theory superseded civilian titles. The
cost of quartering troops was allocated to entire
provinces instead of to specific towns, and, like military
justice, financial arrangements were placed under the
control of the intendants.
On the battlefield, the French army abandoned the
old combination of pike and shot in favor of volleys of
musket fire from ranks that were rarely more than three
deep. Based on the innovations of Gustav Adolph, this
tactic required regular drill and marching in step, prac-
tices that had first been introduced by Maurice of Nas-
sau but generally ignored by other armies. To improve
discipline and unit cohesion, barracks, uniforms, and
standardized muskets were all adopted by 1691. Com-
bined with the scientific principles of siege warfare per-
fected by Sebastian le Prestre de Vauban (1633–1707),
the reforms of Le Tellier and Louvois created whatDOCUMENT 16.4
Absolutism in Theory
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, bishop of Meaux (1627–1704)
was court preacher to Louis XIV and tutor to his son. In this
passage, which reveals something of his power as a preacher,
he describes the divine basis of royal absolutism in unmistak-
able terms.The royal power is absolute.... The prince need
render account of his acts to no one.... Without
this absolute authority the king could neither do
good nor repress evil. It is necessary that his power
be such that no one can escape him, and finally, the
only protection of individuals against the public au-
thority should be their innocence. This confirms
the teaching of St. Paul: “Wilt thou not be afraid of
the power? Do that which is good” [Rom. 13:3].
God is infinite, God is all. The prince, as
prince, is not regarded as a private person: he is a
public personage, all the state is in him. As all per-
fection and all strength are united in God, so all
power of individuals is united in the person of the
prince. What grandeur that a single man should
embody so much!
Behold an immense people united in a single
person; behold this holy power, paternal and ab-
solute; behold the secret cause which governs the
whole body of the state, contained in a single
head: you see the image of God in the king, and
you have the idea of royal majesty. God is holiness
itself, goodness itself, and power itself. In these
things lies the majesty of God. In the image of
these things lies the majesty of the prince.
Bossuet, Jacques-Bénigne. ”Politics Drawn from the Very
Words of Holy Scripture.” In J. H. Robinson, ed. Readings in
European History, vol. 2. Boston: Ginn, 1906.