USA: +1 (725) 712-1730 
Sign in
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
State Building and the
Search for O r der in the
Seventeenth Century
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
There are several interesting topics of chapter 15 but I chose to focus
on just a few areas like The witchcraft craze. When we think or hear the
word witch, most of us instantly think of H alloween or some movie or old
folktale they have heard. Logic tells u s that the likely hood of real witches
flying around on brooms ticks casting spells and putting curses on people
are just pure fiction.
Even though the idea makes for a great bedtime or
campsite spooky storyline. It is very hard to believe that some of these wild
stories actually have some truth based on real events well before our time.
I can admit, I am the beli eve what I see type; but , m uch to my dismay, there
were many recounts of strange behavior during the 16th -17th century era .
People felt the need to blame the unexplainable and so -called weird
happenings on something or someone. One writer writes; reports of
strange behavior, such as Roman complaints about Strigae, women who
could fly when they turned themselves into owl -like creatures and went
about stealing babies. The cult of Diana involved nocturnal women on
horseback, and stories circulated about peculiar pagan fertility cults.
Moreover, there was a long -standing tradition of popular belief in various
forms of magic, practiced by many lay people, and often to helpful ends.
Cunning women, diviners, healers, and astrologers were among those who
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
ordinary people might consult in the belief that these spe cialists could
utilize the magical properties that reputedly were inherent in nature and
not the monopoly of the Christian Church. On occasion, such people might
turn their talents to more destructive ends (practicing bad magic or
maleficia) and others might be more inherently or persistently malicious
(WitchcraftExplained1) . The phase was not all negative as many were able
to gain capital off being noted as witch es by selling things that could heal,
rid or cure someone. Many had come increasingly more and more
comfortable and accepting of the craze as reli gion spread forcing people to
think differently and outside the box. more people were questioning
traditional attitudes toward religion and finding it contrary to reason to
believe in the old view of a world haunted by evi l spirits (Spielvogel359) .
LOUIS XVI REIGN
If you search the internet for information pertaining to Louis XVI,
you will find both enlightening and confusing knowledge about his life,
failures , and accomplishments .
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
Louis s story begins in Versailles, where he was born on August 23, 1754.
Married a woman named Marie Antoinette who happened to be the
daughter of the emperor and empress of Austria in 1770; their union was
thought to be able to bring better relations between France and Austria .
Depending on where you retrieve information about Louis, you will find
accounts of a heroic ruler, as well as behavior that could be deemed
questionable for a king. Louis took over as king in 1774 , holding this
position was nothing new for his family since his grandfather; Louis XV
was the previous ruler. Several little unknown facts about Louis exist ; like ,
1. Few monarchs have ruled for longer.
Born in 1638, Louis XIV became king at age 4 following the death of
his father, Louis XIII, and remained on the throne for the next 72
years. This marks him as both the longest -reigning French monarch in
history and the longest -reigning monarch of any extant European
nation.
2. Louis mother served as his regent.
In his will, Louis XIII arranged for a regency council to rule on his
young sons behalf. However, his Habsburg wif e, Anne of Austria,
orchestrated an annulment of the council and took over as sole regent.
In that capacity, she and her chief minister, Italian -born Cardinal Jules
Mazarin, conflicted with the countrys nobles and judges, who rose up
against the crown in a s eries of rebellions from 1648 to 1653. Mazarin
was eventually able to crush the dissenters, but not before Louis XIV
suffered numerous perceived humiliations, including twice having to
flee Paris. From then on, Louis XIV distrusted not only aristocrats and
commoners alike, but also Paris itself.
3. He ruled without a chief minister.
As a young man, Louis XIV largely left the decision -making to Mazarin,
his mentor and godfather. But when Mazarin died in 1661, the 22 -year –
old immediately informed his astonished court that he would
henceforth rule without a chief minister something no French king
had done for generations. Though many officials apparently expected
him to soon bore of this role, he continued carrying out the routine,
monotonous affairs of government for the rest of his life. Sitting in on
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
council meetings, writing letters, reading documents, hosting foreign
representatives and planning military strategy, he all the while
consolidate d power in his own hands.
4. Louis considered himself God s representative on Earth.
Although Louis XIV did not invent the divine right of kings doctrine,
which held that monarchs derived their authority from God and were
therefore entitled to wield absolute power, he was certainly an
adherent. He made a partic ular point of associating himself with the
Greek and Roman sun god Apollo, adopting the sun as his emblem and
even playing Apollo in a royal ballet. Like many other kings, Louis XIV
also claimed to possess miraculous healing powers. On major holidays,
he we nt around touching those infected with scrofula (also known as
tuberculosis of the neck).
5. He was quite open about his infidelities.
In 1660, Louis XIV married Marie -Th?r?se, the daughter of Spains
king, a politically expedient move that cemented peace b etween the
two nations. Yet he also took on a string of mistresses, three of whom
gained semi -official status, appearing next to him at church and even
going off with him to war. Among other benefits, the first of those
three became a duchess, the second r eceived a chateau with 1,200
gardeners, and the third wed Louis XIV in a secret ceremony following
the death of the queen. Many of his i llegitimate children were given the
proper education and considered part of royal society.
6. He was a religio us bigot.
A devout Catholic, Louis XIV believed in the motto, one king, one law,
one faith. To that end, he mercilessly cracked down on the countrys
Protestants, known as Huguenots, who made up roughly 5 percent of
the population. The coup de gr?ce came in 1685, when, in revoking the
nearly century -old Edict of Nantes, he stripped them of all religious
and civil liberties. Hundreds of Huguenots who continued practicing
their religion were put to death and at least 200,000 others fled France
for lands that are more tolerant . At around the same time, Louis XIV
expelled all Jews from the French West Indies. He even went after
other Catholics who did not adhere to his narrow view of the faith,
such as the Jansenists, who believed that humankind was inherently
corrupt a nd that God bestowed salvation arbitrarily. In 1709, he
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
banished the nuns from the movements main convent and soon after
ordered its destruction, all the while lobbying the pope to condemn
Jansenism as heretical.
7. He was constantly at war.
Disingenuously claiming the Spanish Netherlands (roughly
corresponding to present -day Belgium) as the inheritance of his wife,
Louis XIV launched the War of Devolution in 1667. This invasion,
along with the Dutch War (1672 -1678) and the War of the Reunions
(1683 -1684), netted him a number of new territories that remain part
of France to this day. Yet in aggressively expanding his borders, he
attracted the enmity of much of the rest of Europe, which united in a
Grand Alliance against him during the next two conflicts: The Nine
Years War (1688 -1697) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 –
1714). With countless lives lost, disease and famine rampant, the
economy in shambles and taxes high, Louis XIV had an apparent
change of heart late in life. Do not follow the bad example that I have
set for you, a dying Louis told his heir. I have often undertaken war
too lightly and have sustained it for vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a
peaceful prince.
8. Louis owned the Hope Diamond.
As one might expect from the creator of the 700 -room Palace of
Versailles, Louis XIV knew a thing or two about luxury. One of his
prized possessions was an immense diamond, and then called the
French Blue, which purportedly produced the dazzling illusion of a sun
at its center when positioned again st a gold background. Stolen during
the French Revolution, well after Louis XIVs death, it reemerged in
Great Britain years later with a new cut and then bounced around from
one owner to another. Now known as the Hope Diamond, this 45.52 –
carat stone, argu ably the most famous jewel in the world, is housed at
the Smithsonians Natural History Museum in Washington, D.C. Not
until 2009, when a lead replica of the French Blue turned up, did
experts confirm definitively that the French Blue and the Hope
Diamond are the same.
9. His successor was Frances second -longest -reigning monarch. In the
last few years of his life, Louis XIV suffered through a series of family
tragedies. First, in 1711, his son and heir apparent died of smallpox.
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
Then, the following year, measles claimed the lives of a grandson and a
great -grandson, as well as a beloved granddaug hter -in -law. Two
grandsons remained alive. However, one died in the aftermath of a
1714 hunting accident, and the other was forced to renounce the
French th rone as part of a deal in, which he remained ruler of Spain.
Louis XIV was now down to just one potential heir: a sickly great –
grandson. Though in desperation he declared that two of his
illegitimate sons could become king if his direct line died out, it ne ver
came to that. Taking over at age 5, his great -grandson would go on to
govern France for the next 59 years as Louis XV (Greenspan2015) .
The Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights came about because people were tired of being
taken advantage of and having standards only apply to certain things and
individuals. They sought for a way to make things fair and bring more
structure. They demonstrated a modern day protest that forced the hand of
many people, bring ing forth change. In 1688 Stuart king James II was
replaced by Mary, Jamess daughter, and her husband, William of
Orange. After William and Mary had assumed power, Parliament
passed a bill of rights that specified the rights of the parliament and
laid the foundation for a constituti onal monarchy (Spielvogel377) .
MONICA CAMP
Final Paper
12 -04 -2018
Works Cited
Greenspan, Jesse. “”9 Things you may not know about Louis XIV.”” History 31 august 2015.
history4everyone.wordpress.com. “”The Seventeetn Century European witchcraft Explained.”” 21 June
2012.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization . Cenveo, 2015.
