On November 11, 1630, historically known as the ôDay of Dupesö, Louis XIII rejected the Queen Mother and her claims for family in favor of the Cardinal and his claims for the state, saying, ôI am more obligated to the stateö (Huntington, 379). It is argued that this day, ôMore than any other single dayàmay be called the birthday of the modern stateö (Friedrich, 215). More specifically, this was the birth of an idea that would lead to the facilitation of the modern state, which was a little farther off. Though not all at once, France would see the birth of modernity before the end of the seventeenth century, inevitably during the reign of Louis XIV.
Before Louis XIV, Voltaire explains, ôthe Italians called all the peoples beyond the Alps barbarians, and one must admit that the French partially deserved the insultö (Voltaire 124). He goes on to explain that at this time, France did not have culture, in part, because they did not have the necessities of life. France, he explains, had no fleet, and sparse industry. He describes a desolate France in which the nobility tyrannize the provinces, and France allowed other nations to carry on its commerce. Essentially, he surmises that ôever since the decline of the family of Charlemagne, France had been more of less languishing in this same state of weakness, because she had hardly ever enjoyed a good governmentö (Voltaire 125).
In Memoires, Louis XIV himself, describes the state of France at the time he was to take the throne.
Disorder reigned everywhere. My court, In general was still quite far removed from the sentiments in which I hope that you will find it. People of quality, accustomed to continual bargaining with a minister who did not mind it, and who had sometimes found it necessary, were always inventing an imaginary right to whatever was to their fancy; no governor of a stronghold that was not difficult to govern; no request that was not mingled with some repro...