ach over the past, or with some veiled threat of future dissatisfaction. Graces exacted and torn rather than awaited, and extorted in consequence of each other, no longer really obligated anyone, merely serving to offend those to whom they were refused (Louis XIV 24).
Certainly, France needed the reform that Louis XIV would eventually undertake. The king goes on to describe, in this letter to his son, that ôThe financesàwere so exhausted that there hardly seemed to be any recourse left,ö and both the church and the state were in a state of utter disrepair (Louis XIV 24-25).
When Louis XIV took the throne in 1661, however, this reality was that the state of France had already begun to improve. The weakness that Voltaire describes had already begun to change under the leadership of decent government for a while in Henry IV until his assassination in 1610, and Cardinal Richelieu had established the French Academy in 1635. So, one can surmise that Louis XIV ascended the throne during a time of great changes for France, which was a country rising into the age of Enlightenment. It would be his leadership that would take the citizens of France into modernity.
The most important aspect of this argument is seemingly the Louisquatorzian form of government; that is, absolutism. France and Louis XIV, as most European Nations, believed that the ruling monarch had a divine right to absolute rule. While this notion was advantageous for some, it had proven to be highly disadvantageous for others. For instance, the French Aristocracy were generally unhappy with absolute rule by the Bourbons, due to the fact that this meant that they could not impose their own rule. And, perhaps more importantly, absolutism hindered the practice of any religion other than Catholicism in France. Protestants were in 1861, even forced to convert, as Louis XIV believed that the citizens should honor one king, one law, and one faith.
Dumont agues against...