French Rulers

Question 1

Louis XIV

Answer 1

Sun king. Renovated the hunting lodge into the palace of Versailles. Believed in the devine right of kings.

Question 2

Louis XVI

Answer 2

Executed during the French Revolution. Married to Marie Antoinette.

Question 3

Marie Antoinette

Answer 3

Austrian queen consort of King Louis XVI of France (1774–93). Mother was Maria Theresa Holy Roman Empress.

Question 4

Napoleon I

Answer 4

Napoleon Bonaparte. Called himself Emperor after a coup in 1799.

Question 5

Napoleon III

Answer 5

“Louis-Napoleon declared Emperor of the French. He took the regnal name of Napoleon III, after his uncle (Napoleon I) and his cousin (Napoleon II, who was declared but uncrowned as heir to the Imperial throne).

Napoleon III would later be overthrown during the events of the Franco-Prussian War. He was the last monarch to rule France; thereafter, the country was ruled by a succession of republican governments (see French Third Republic).”

Question 6

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Answer 6

queen consort of both Louis VII of France (1137–52) and Henry II of England (1152–1204) and mother of Richard I (the Lion-Heart) and John of England.

Question 7

Catherine de Medici

Answer 7

queen consort of Henry II of France (reigned 1547–59) and subsequently regent of France (1560–74), who was one of the most influential personalities of the Catholic–Huguenot wars. Three of her sons were kings of France: Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III.

Question 8

Phillip II

Answer 8

(r. 1180 - 1223) Philip II Augustus. First king to assume the name King of France.

Question 9

Henry IV

Answer 9

(r. 1589 - 1610) First monarch of the House of Bourbon. Despite converting to Catholicism, he signed the Edict of Nantes to promote religious tolerance to Protestants.

Question 10

Charles X

Answer 10

The Bourbon Restoration came to an end with the July Revolution of 1830, which deposed Charles X and replaced him with Louis-Philippe I, a distant cousin with more liberal politics.

Question 11

Louis-Phillippe I

Answer 11

tooke the throne after the July revolution of 1830 when Charles X was deposed.

Question 12

Clovis I

Answer 12

(r. 509 - 511) The first Frankish monarch.

Question 13

Hugh Capet

Answer 13

(r. 987 - 996) The first king of the Capetian Dynasty, transforming the small Kingdom of the Franks into what we know as France.

Question 14

Charles IV

Answer 14

(r. 1322 - 1328) Last of the Capetian dynasty. Younger son of Phillip IV.

Question 15

Louis XVIII

Answer 15

Louis XVIII, younger brother to Louis XVI, ruled after the Bourbon Restoration.

Question 16

Charles V

Answer 16

First to bear the title of Dauphin after receiving the province of Dauphine to rule.

Question 17

Louis XV

Answer 17

Weakened the monarchy and helped lead to the revolution. He ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain at the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of the Duchy of Lorraine and the Corsican Republic into the Kingdom of France.

Question 18

Phillip VI

Answer 18

Started the Hundred Years War was a result of fighting between the Valois and the Plantagenet houses for control over the crown. Edward III of England tried to take the throne but was unable to due to Salic Law. Phillip VI took it instead.

Question 19

Louis XIV

Answer 19

the ‘Universal Spider’. Louis XI’s reign saw the end of the Hundred Years War in 1453. Although no real winner was ever announced, the English were driven home, allowing the French monarchy to claim a victory.