The Regency, 1643-1661

Question 1

Who was Richelieu?

Answer 1

The Chief Minister of France between 1624-42, under Louis XIII.

Question 2

What were Richelieu’s most notable achievements?

Answer 2

1. Quelling Huguenot revolts. The 1629 Edict of Grace limited the Huguenots’ ability to rebel.
2. Enhanced state propaganda, particularly through the Académie Française, which was formed in 1635.
3. Increased royal power in the Provinces by extending government administration into Dauphiné and Burgundy.
4. Increased the power of the intendants, who used troops to enforce taxation and suppress revolts. They also oversaw the assiette, the assessment of the taille.

Question 3

What was a ‘pays d’élection’?

Answer 3

A généralité which was taxed directly by the King, with no intermediary party. Comprised of areas which have always been under the control of the monarch, such as Champagne and Guyenne.

Question 4

What was a ‘pays d’État’?

Answer 4

A généralité which retained a degree of autonomy. Nobles here are required to be loyal to the King but are allowed to form assemblies which challenge the monarch’s royal prerogative over tax. This results in a disparity between the amount of tax collected in these areas and the pays d’élection. The pays d’État included areas such as Brittany and Languedoc.

Question 5

What was a ‘pays d’imposition’?

Answer 5

Généralités which have been recently acquired by the French monarch and are thus under his direct control - similar to the pays d’élection. This included overseas territories which were also taxed by the French crown. Some pays d’imposition are Alsace and Franche-Comté

Question 6

What were the three estates?

Answer 6

1. The Clergy.
2. The nobility. This is divided into two categories.
   a) The noblesse de la robe. Usually holders of venal offices, who have worked their way up the ranks. They enjoy regular noble privilege, and typically had the highest incomes.
   b) The noblesse d’epée. Nobles who owed military service to the monarch in return for the possession of feudal landed estates. One of the oldest classes of nobility.
3. The Third Estate, which comprises the bourgeoisie and the peasantry.

Question 7

What was the Estates General?

Answer 7

French equivalent of English parliament. First meets in 1302 and last meets in 1614. Contains representatives of the three estates and helps vote on the ability of the King to raise tax.

Question 8

What was the Estates Provincial?

Answer 8

A body which represents estates in the pays d’État and discusses tax.

Question 9

What were the Parlements?

Answer 9

Appellate courts which negotiate whether certain laws have been broken in cases which have already been discussed by judges. Includes the Paris Parlement which controlled around a third of France - mostly the pays d’élection. These courts do not create laws or make decisions on taxes.

Question 10

How did Richelieu and Louis XIII limit parlementary liberties by 1643?

Answer 10

1. Richelieu created the Chambres de l’Arsenal which tried and removed royal opponents and usurped the authority of the Parliaments.
2. Richelieu limited the right of the Paris Parlement to remonstrate against royal edicts.
3. Louis used the lits de justice to override remonstrances and force edicts.
4. Richelieu exploited the office system by selling government service jobs, undermining their value.
   By 1643, state affairs were under the control of the Crown.

Question 11

What was a lit de justice?

Answer 11

A session in which Parlement met with the King present, deterring any opposition.

Question 12

What were Richelieu’s intentions for France?

Answer 12

1. To weaken Habsburg power and, by extension, protect France’s Eastern border.
2. Take the province of Alsace.
3. Frustrate the ambitions of Philip IV, King of Spain.

Question 13

Richelieu’s engagement with the Thirty Years’ War.

Answer 13

Richelieu dragged France into the Thirty Years’ War against Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor in 1635.

Question 14

Name some territories France captured as a result of the Thirty Years’ War.

Answer 14

Artois, Alsace, Rhine Bridgeheads and Roussillon, among others. This bolstered French power in Europe.

Question 15

Religion in France in 1643, especially in response to the Thirty Years War.

Answer 15

1. By 1643, the monarchy’s natural Catholic supporters were somewhat alienated. This was due to:
   a) Huguenot religious freedom (especially in Languedoc), the theological aspect of which had not been limit by the Edict of Grace.
   b) The Thirty Years War, which was fought against the Catholic Habsburgs. France had allied with the United Provinces and, from 1630, Sweden, all Protestant powers.

Question 16

Opposition to the Thirty Years War: religious, political.

Answer 16

Religious: The monarchy’s natural Catholic followers disapproved of France’s antagonism towards the Catholic Habsburgs, and their alliance with Protestant powers such as Sweden and the United Provinces.

Political: By 1643, many members of the government and royal family opposed the war.
a) The Duc de Bouillon had negotiated for peace with Spain.
b) Gaston d’Orléans, the King’s brother, tried several times to remove Richelieu. Between 1641-2, he plotted his murder and negotiated peace with Bouillon, Cinq-Mars and Olivares.
c) Anne of Austria, the King’s wife, confessed to treacherous correspondence with the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of Spain, her brother.

Question 17

What political problems remained after the deaths of Richelieu and Louis XIII?

Answer 17

Following the execution of Cinq-Mars in 1642, Louis absolved other traitors such as Gaston and Anne, even allowing those exiled to return home. This invited future rebellion.

Louis’ will stipulated that the Thirty Years War must continue until a decisive outcome was reached, prolonging the biggest cause of instability and conflict.

Question 18

How did Richelieu and Louis set up conditions for revolt among the parlements?

Answer 18

The chambres de requêtes (civil appeal courts) were rejected in 1641 by the parlements of Aix and Rouen.

In 1643 Parlement delayed and modified plans to extend Intendant control over taxation.

By 1643, parlements and tax payers were alienated. Taille and troop tax levies had trebled since 1620, and indirect taxes had more than doubled.

Question 19

What were the economic impacts of the Thirty Years War?

Answer 19

Taille and troop tax levies had trebled since 1620, and indirect taxes had more than doubled.
Annual military costs rose, and war expenditure consumed 75% of revenue. Averaging around 25 million livres per year, royal debt interest began to spiral.

Question 20

What were some of the key economic issues of Richelieu’s time?

Answer 20

Tax collection was inefficient - over 75% of the gabelle (indirect tax on luxury goods) collected in 1641 was lost. Tax evasion was common and much of France was undertaxed. The pays d’état, for example, compromised one third of France but paid only 10% of overall tax.

As a result, revenue became more and more dependent on high interest loans (between 20-33%), and office sales. This increased salary and pension costs and put unsavoury characters in charge of tax collection.

By 1643, revenues from these measured reached 700 million livres. Richelieu also:
1. Burned old Treasury accounts.
2. Ignored the chambres des comptes (financial sovereign courts)
3. Secretly paying financiers (almost 172 million livres)

By 1643, revolt erupted in Orléans against royal taxes. Richelieu’s tax system, which unfairly burdened those unable to pay, left France open to civil war.

Question 21

What problems did Richelieu leave in terms of the military?

Answer 21

Richelieu’s army was not big or well-trained enough to deal with its opponents. The troops were often unpaid and prone to looting, and corrupt commanders often cheated muster rolls by borrowing other regiments’ troops or temporarily recruiting peasants. French troops also engendered hostility by plundering property and food.

Richelieu and Louis left behind financial and social disorder, an extremely unpopular war, huge amounts of debt and a country open to revolt and civil war.

Question 22

What did Louis XIII’s will stipulate?

Answer 22

Louis intended to set up a Council of Regency which would allow Anne to take control as regent within the limits of the Council.
Anne could not change the members of the Council, and state policies required a majority vote.

Question 23

How did Anne of Austria undermine Louis XIII’s will?

Answer 23

She placed Louis on the throne of state in the Parlement Hall of Justice and took a seat to his right, emphasising her own power.
She surrounded herself with figures such as Gaston and the Prince de Condé, reinforcing the idea that her position was supported.
She used her son to initiate the request to overturn Louis’ will.

She also appeased the Parlement by offering it an advisory role about the state’s welfare during her regency, and removed the need for magistrates to swear new oaths of loyalty.