The Bourbons
[1589-1715]
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The Bourbons
[1589-1715]
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Henri
IV of Navarre [1589-1610] Brother-in-law of Henri II; Henri converted to Catholicism in
1593; Put an end to the religious wars in 1598 with the
Edict of
Nantes which gave limited religious freedom to the Protestants;
Québec was founded in 1608; Assassinated.
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Louis
XIII, the Just [1610-1643]
Became king at 17; Son of Henry IV;
From 1610 to 1617 his mother,
Marie de Médici, was the Regent
[Louis came of age in 1614 but she continued to govern 3 more
years]. Put on the throne by Richelieu;
Cardinal Richelieu became the principal minister in 1624;
La Gazette, France's first newspaper, was founded in 1631.
The Académie Française was founded in 1634 and in 1635, the
Thirty Years' War began. Descartes published his Discourse
on Method in 1637. The playwright Jean Racine was born in
1639. Cardinal Richelieu died in 1642.
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Louis
XIV, the Great [1643-1715]
Anne of Austria was the regent from 1643-1651. The
Sun King was dominated by Mazarin, his principal minister, until
his majority; he consolidated the absolute rule of the king;
1648 - 1652 was the period of the Fronde: the French Civil wars.
Mazarin died in 1661 and Louis XIV became his own principal
minister. Louis' finance minister, Colbert, reformed the
crown's finances. The Comédie Française was created in
1680 and the royal court moved to
Versailles in 1682. The
Edict of Nantes was revoked and Protestantism was banned in
1685. The first coffee house in
Paris, the
café Procope,
was opened in
Paris. Louis XIV began his major wars in
1689. 1709 was the date of the last great French famine.
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Louis
XV, the Good Friend [1715-1774]
Great-grandson of Louis XIV;
Philippe d’Orléans was regent
from 1715 - 1723,
followed by Fleury; The plague's last outbreak in France was
in 1720 when it decimated the population of
Marseilles. In
1751, Diderot published the first volume of his Encyclopedia.
In the Seven Years' War, from 1756 to 1763, lost
Canada and
other possessions, to England under the Treaty of
Paris.
Corsica was annexed in
1768. The wars and court extravagance set the stage for
the decline.
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Louis
XVI [1774-1792] Grandson of Louis XV; Married Marie Antoinette;
From 1778 to 1783, France aided the American colonists in
their revolution against England. The first balloon ascent
was made by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783. The French Revolution started in 1789
Map of France, 1789][with the storming of the Bastille, feudalism was abolished and a
constitutional monarchy was established;
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded in 17939 (their
son,
Louis XVII [1785 -1795] never reigned); The
National Assembly July 9, 1789 to Sept. 1791; Suspended August
10, 1792; Guillotined on Jan. 21, 1793.
The First to Third
Republic [1792-1804]
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