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112-397: By the mid-16th century, Paris was defended by walls which had been built and rebuilt over the preceding centuries, but apart from the latest additions were largely obsolete for modern warfare and enclosed too small an area to contain the growing suburbs. In 1670, King Louis XIV ordered the demolition of all the walls surrounding Paris on the grounds that France was militarily secure and that

224-466: A centralised state governed from the capital. He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism persisting in parts of France; by compelling many members of the nobility to reside at his lavish Palace of Versailles , he succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy, many of whom had participated in the Fronde rebellions during his minority. He thus became one of the most powerful French monarchs and consolidated

336-505: A redoubt at Chatillon in an attempt to remedy the most obvious case, but otherwise little was done. However, once news of the French defeats at Spicheren and Wörth reached Paris at the beginning of August, work commenced in earnest. Some 80,000 men were employed in clearing fields of fire in front of the fortifications, including felling many of the trees in the parkland of the Bois de Boulogne ,

448-428: A trench is intended to provide cover to the defenders. In military fortifications the side of a ditch farthest from the enemy and closest to the next line of defence is known as the scarp while the side of a ditch closest to the enemy is known as the counterscarp . In early fortifications, ditches were often used in combination with ramparts to slow down the enemy whilst defensive fire could be brought to bear from

560-426: A zone non aedificandi ("building-free zone") of 974 metres was envisaged, which would have been laid out as public parkland; however the final solution was a zone of 250 metres beyond the ditch on which it was forbidden to erect anything except a wooden fence. Although landowners whose property was confiscated for the actual fortifications were paid compensation, there was nothing for those whose property lay within

672-420: A chain of detached forts manned by the regular field army, which could prevent an enemy from establishing positions from which they could bombard the city and create a line so long that it would be difficult for besiegers to enforce a tight blockade. A further point in favour of this dual approach was that regular troops would not come into close contact with the notoriously rebellious Parisians, which might lead to

784-479: A chief minister: "Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the government of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govern them myself. You [secretaries and ministers] will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders except by my command . . . I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport . . . without my command; to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one". Capitalizing on

896-529: A common diplomatic front against France, leading to the Triple Alliance , between England, the Dutch and Sweden . The threat of an escalation and a secret treaty to divide Spanish possessions with Emperor Leopold , the other major claimant to the throne of Spain, led Louis to relinquish many of his gains in the 1668 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle . Louis placed little reliance on his agreement with Leopold and as it

1008-471: A conservative and monarchist dominated government led by Adolphe Thiers. This completely alienated the radical working class Parisians, represented by the National Guard which was still under arms in the city. This led to a clash on 18 March between the National Guard and regular soldiers over some cannon stored at Montmartre ; the government was forced to withdraw to Versailles and a second siege began while

1120-508: A counterweight against his domestic Orangist opponents. Louis provided support in the 1665-1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War but used the opportunity to launch the War of Devolution in 1667. This captured Franche-Comté and much of the Spanish Netherlands ; French expansion in this area was a direct threat to Dutch economic interests. The Dutch opened talks with Charles II of England on

1232-457: A favoured few. Financial officials were required to keep regular accounts, revising inventories and removing unauthorized exemptions: up to 1661 only 10 per cent of income from the royal domain reached the king. Reform had to overcome vested interests: the taille was collected by officers of the Crown who had purchased their post at a high price, and punishment of abuses necessarily lowered the value of

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1344-554: A loss of discipline. On 1 March 1840, Adolphe Thiers returned to office as prime minister and soon war threatened over the Oriental Crisis , when France found itself in opposition to Britain and Austria over events in Egypt. He was therefore amenable to an approach by the Duke of Orléans and François Chabaud-Latour to implement the commission's recommendations to fortify Paris. Chabaud-Latour

1456-453: A modern system of border fortifications had been constructed at great expense, and that like London and Madrid, Paris had become too large to fortify. Following the course of the demolished walls, the first boulevards were laid out, wide tree-lined avenues whose name is the French word for " bulwark ". An ambitious scheme of fortification for Paris proposed in 1689 by France's leading military engineer , Marshal Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban ,

1568-688: A powerful but war-weary kingdom, in major debt after the War of the Spanish Succession that had raged on since 1701. Some of his other notable achievements include the construction of the Canal du Midi , the patronage of artists , and the founding of the French Academy of Sciences . Louis   XIV was born on 5 September 1638 in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye , to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria . He

1680-412: A result, and Anne was forced, under intense pressure, to free Broussel. Moreover, on the night of 9–10 February 1651, when Louis was twelve, a mob of angry Parisians broke into the royal palace and demanded to see their king. Led into the royal bed-chamber, they gazed upon Louis, who was feigning sleep, were appeased, and then quietly departed. The threat to the royal family prompted Anne to flee Paris with

1792-573: A secret marriage to Queen Anne. However, Louis's coming-of-age and subsequent coronation deprived them of the Frondeurs ' pretext for revolt. The Fronde thus gradually lost steam and ended in 1653, when Mazarin returned triumphantly from exile. From that time until his death, Mazarin was in charge of foreign and financial policy without the daily supervision of Anne, who was no longer regent. During this period, Louis fell in love with Mazarin's niece Marie Mancini , but Anne and Mazarin ended

1904-671: A similar barrier to the integration of Paris with its suburbs as the old fortifications did and in 2016 resulted in the creation of the Métropole du Grand Paris , an administrative body for the whole Paris conurbation. Despite the systematic demolition of the Thiers wall in the 1920s, some remnants have been preserved: 48°54′00″N 2°20′49″E  /  48.89995°N 2.34695°E  / 48.89995; 2.34695 Louis XIV Louis   XIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), also known as Louis

2016-484: A strong position and on the Spanish marriage. Additionally, Mazarin's relations with Marie Mancini were not good, and he did not trust her to support his position. All of Louis's tears and his supplications to his mother did not make her change her mind. The Spanish marriage would be very important both for its role in ending the war between France and Spain, because many of the claims and objectives of Louis's foreign policy for

2128-793: A system of absolute monarchy in France that endured until the French Revolution . Louis also enforced uniformity of religion under the Catholic Church . His revocation of the Edict of Nantes abolished the rights of the Huguenot Protestant minority and subjected them to a wave of dragonnades , effectively forcing Huguenots to emigrate or convert, virtually destroying the French Protestant community. During Louis's long reign, France emerged as

2240-523: Is choking in her straitjacket "). A scheme to replace the fortifications with a great circular housing estate was devised in 1884 by Adolphe Alphand , the director of public works for Paris. However, the grassy ramparts had become a popular promenade for the people of the suburbs, and were depicted romantically by artists such as Vincent van Gogh in his watercolours Gate in the Paris ramp (1886) and The Fortifications of Paris with Houses (1887). In 1908,

2352-639: The Battle of Lens , Mazarin, on Queen Anne's insistence, arrested certain members in a show of force. The most important arrest, from Anne's point of view, concerned Pierre Broussel , one of the most important leaders in the Parlement de Paris . People in France were complaining about the expansion of royal authority, the high rate of taxation, and the reduction of the authority of the Parlement de Paris and other regional representative entities. Paris erupted in rioting as

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2464-503: The Boulevards des Maréchaux , and were completed in their present form in 1861. In 1869, a supporting railway line was completed which also followed the course of the wall and could be requisitioned by the military in an emergency, the Chemin de fer de Petite Ceinture ("Little Belt Railway"), which in peacetime conveniently linked the various rail termini of the capital. In the enthusiasm of

2576-480: The Duchess of Longueville ; dukes of legitimised royal descent, such as Henri, Duke of Longueville , and François, Duke of Beaufort ; so-called " foreign princes " such as Frédéric Maurice, Duke of Bouillon , his brother Marshal Turenne , and Marie de Rohan , Duchess of Chevreuse; and scions of France's oldest families, such as François de La Rochefoucauld . Queen Anne played the most important role in defeating

2688-562: The Duke of Beaufort and Marie de Rohan , who conspired against him in 1643. The best example of Anne's loyalty to France was her treatment of one of Richelieu's men, the Chancellor Pierre Séguier . Séguier had brusquely interrogated Anne in 1637 (like a "common criminal", as she recalled) following the discovery that she was giving military secrets to her father in Spain, and Anne was virtually under house arrest for years. By keeping

2800-597: The Electorate of Cologne . Rapid French advance led to a coup that toppled De Witt and brought William III to power. Leopold viewed French expansion into the Rhineland as an increasing threat, especially after they seized the strategic Duchy of Lorraine in 1670. The prospect of Dutch defeat led Leopold to an alliance with Brandenburg-Prussia on 23 June, followed by another with the Republic on 25th. Although Brandenburg

2912-926: The Peace of Westphalia , which ended the Thirty Years' War . Its terms ensured Dutch independence from Spain , awarded some autonomy to the various German princes of the Holy Roman Empire , and granted Sweden seats on the Imperial Diet and territories controlling the mouths of the Oder , Elbe , and Weser Rivers . France, however, profited most from the settlement. Austria, ruled by the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III , ceded all Habsburg lands and claims in Alsace to France and acknowledged her de facto sovereignty over

3024-645: The Secretary of War , helped maintain large field armies that could be mobilised much more quickly, allowing them to mount offensives in early spring before their opponents were ready. The French were nevertheless forced to retreat from most of the Dutch Republic, which deeply shocked Louis; he retreated to St Germain for a time, where no one, except a few intimates, was allowed to disturb him. French military advantages allowed them however to hold their ground in Alsace and

3136-589: The Three Bishoprics of Metz , Verdun , and Toul . Moreover, many petty German states sought French protection, eager to emancipate themselves from Habsburg domination. This anticipated the formation of the 1658 League of the Rhine , which further diminished Imperial power. As the Thirty Years' War came to an end, a civil war known as the Fronde erupted in France. It effectively checked France's ability to exploit

3248-506: The polygonal forts being built by the Prussians at that time. The work was undertaken by military engineers and commercial contractors and used a workforce of 20,000 troops and civilians. The course of the works crossed through 13 suburbs and was completed in 1846. The 33 kilometres (21 mi) long main wall, colloquially referred to as "the fortress", consisted of 94 bastions . These were numbered counting anti-clockwise from Bastion No 1 on

3360-558: The Emperor (distracted by the Great Turkish War ) abandoned them, and the Dutch only supported them minimally. By the Truce of Ratisbon , in 1684, Spain was forced to acquiesce in the French occupation of most of the conquered territories, for 20 years. Ditch (fortification) In military engineering , a ditch is an obstacle designed to slow down or break up an attacking force, while

3472-443: The French crown and nobility: the king might raise taxes on the nation without consent if only he exempted the nobility. Only the "unprivileged" classes paid direct taxes, which came to mean the peasants only, as most bourgeois finagled exemptions in one way or another. The system laid the whole burden of state expenses on the backs of the poor and powerless. After 1700, with the support of Louis's pious secret wife Madame de Maintenon ,

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3584-485: The Fronde because she wanted to transfer absolute authority to her son. In addition, most of the princes refused to deal with Mazarin, who went into exile for a number of years. The Frondeurs claimed to act on Louis's behalf, and in his real interest, against his mother and Mazarin. Queen Anne had a very close relationship with the Cardinal, and many observers believed that Mazarin became Louis   XIV's stepfather by

3696-869: The Great ( Louis le Grand ) or the Sun King ( le Roi Soleil ), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the longest of any sovereign . An emblematic character of the Age of Absolutism in Europe, Louis XIV's legacy is widely characterized by French colonial expansion , the conclusion of Eighty Years' War involving the Habsburgs , and his architectural bequest , marked by commissioned works of art and buildings. His pageantry, opulent lifestyle and ornate cultivated image earned him enduring admiration. Louis   XIV raised France to be

3808-510: The King's authority, in a manner that was much more radical than the one proposed by Mazarin. The Cardinal depended totally on Anne's support and had to use all his influence on the Queen to temper some of her radical actions. Anne imprisoned any aristocrat or member of parliament who challenged her will; her main aim was to transfer to her son an absolute authority in the matters of finance and justice. One of

3920-514: The Parisians elected their own government known as the Commune. Initial fighting was over the outlying forts which had been abandoned in accordance with the peace treaty with the Prussians. On the morning of 3 April, a massed foray westwards towards Versailles by 27,000 National Guards was easily dispersed by artillery fire from Fort Mont-Valérien which had been reoccupied by government troops. Fort d'Issy

4032-510: The Peace of Westphalia. Anne and Mazarin had largely pursued the policies of Cardinal Richelieu, augmenting the Crown's power at the expense of the nobility and the Parlements . Anne was more concerned with internal policy than foreign affairs; she was a very proud queen who insisted on the divine rights of the King of France. All this led her to advocate a forceful policy in all matters relating to

4144-530: The Reunions . Warfare defined Louis's foreign policy, impelled by his personal ambition for glory and power: "a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique". His wars strained France's resources to the utmost, while in peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military. Upon his death in 1715, Louis   XIV left his great-grandson and successor, Louis XV ,

4256-611: The Spanish Netherlands while retaking Franche-Comté. By 1678, mutual exhaustion led to the Treaty of Nijmegen , which was generally settled in France's favour and allowed Louis to intervene in the Scanian War . Despite the military defeat, his ally Sweden regained much of what it had lost under the 1679 treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye , Fontainebleau and Lund imposed on Denmark–Norway and Brandenburg. Yet Louis's two primary goals,

4368-501: The Thiers wall caused an immense alteration to the social structure of the outer parts of the city. The legislative boundary of Paris since the 18th century had been the Wall of the Ferme Générale , sometimes translated as the "Farmers-General Wall", which had no defensive function being only 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) high, but served to enforce the octroi , a tariff on goods entering

4480-556: The aristocracy, this rebellion represented a protest for the reversal of their political demotion from vassals to courtiers . It was headed by the highest-ranking French nobles, among them Louis's uncle Gaston, Duke of Orléans and first cousin Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier , known as la Grande Mademoiselle ; Princes of the Blood such as Condé, his brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti , and their sister

4592-488: The boundaries of his kingdom. Contemporary treaties were intentionally phrased ambiguously. Louis established the Chambers of Reunion to determine the full extent of his rights and obligations under those treaties. Cities and territories, such as Luxembourg and Casale , were prized for their strategic positions on the frontier and access to important waterways. Louis also sought Strasbourg , an important strategic crossing on

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4704-518: The breach until a friendly civilian appeared on the parapet to tell the attackers that the National Guard sentries had all gone off to find shelter, allowing the Versailles army to pour into the city. In the "Bloody Week" that followed, the Communards fought from one street barricade to another, although Haussmann's new wide and straight avenues gave the government artillery good fields of fire and enabled

4816-479: The capital and the larger strategic picture, with the old military aristocracy ( noblesse d'épée , nobility of the sword) monopolizing senior military positions and the higher ranks. Louvois modernized the army and reorganised it into a professional, disciplined, well-trained force. He was devoted to the soldiers' material well-being and morale, and even tried to direct campaigns. Louis's legal reforms were enacted in his numerous Great Ordinances . Prior to that, France

4928-417: The capital. After the construction of the Thiers wall, the open grassland of the zone non aedificandi immediately outside the new wall quickly became a popular venue for walks and picnics by prosperous Parisians. This encouraged the development inside the walls of restaurants and dancehalls to entertain them and being beyond the Ferme Générale wall, allowed food and drink to be sold tax-free. The area between

5040-408: The collection of taxes and tariffs; some of the main portes were fitted with drawbridges . The wall was also pierced in five places by rivers and canals and later, eight railway crossing points were constructed. All these access ways made the wall harder to defend, but in peacetime, there were insufficient crossings for a major commercial centre which resulted in congestion. The enceinte wall itself

5152-414: The creation of a coalition headed mainly by Marie de Rohan and the duchess of Longueville. This aristocratic coalition was strong enough to liberate the princes, exile Mazarin, and impose a condition of virtual house arrest on Queen Anne. All these events were witnessed by Louis and largely explained his later distrust of Paris and the higher aristocracy. "In one sense, Louis's childhood came to an end with

5264-552: The declaration of war against Prussia in July 1870, there was little thought given to the defence of Paris, as it was assumed that the fighting would all be in Germany. In the thirty years since the construction of the wall and the outlying forts, the range of artillery had almost doubled, and there were many vantage points in the hills surrounding the city from which modern guns could dominate the fortifications. During August, work had commenced on

5376-565: The destruction of the Dutch Republic and the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands, had failed. Louis was at the height of his power, but at the cost of uniting his opponents; this increased as he continued his expansion. In 1679, he dismissed his foreign minister Simon Arnauld, marquis de Pomponne , because he was seen as having compromised too much with the allies. Louis maintained the strength of his army, but in his next series of territorial claims avoided using military force alone. Rather, he combined it with legal pretexts in his efforts to augment

5488-522: The detached forts, were intended to threaten the Parisians in case of a revolt against the monarchy. Other arguments suggested that by making Paris a fortress, it would make the city an irresistible objective for any invading army. Thiers was forced to resign over foreign policy in October, but his successor, Marshal Soult , was determined to press on with the plan. Debate began in the legislature in January 1841 and

5600-417: The direction of religious policy strongly in hand until her son's majority in 1661. She appointed Cardinal Mazarin as chief minister, giving him the daily administration of policy. She continued the policies of her late husband and Cardinal Richelieu , despite their persecution of her, in order to win absolute authority in France and victory abroad for her son. Anne protected Mazarin by exiling her followers

5712-412: The dress of a queen". However, the construction of new roads and other infrastructure brought great improvements to the new arrondissements , although it was the more prosperous suburbs that benefitted most. The zone non aedificandi outside the ditch of the wall, generally referred to as La Zone  [ fr ] , had remained privately owned and although buildings of any sort were forbidden, it

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5824-513: The edge of the ditch. An order to clear the shacks and huts built on the zone non aedificandi was enacted by the city council but was revoked shortly afterwards. Following the First Battle of the Marne in early September and the removal of an imminent threat, there were popular demonstrations against the inconvenience caused by the barriers and they were dismantled by December of 1914. The building of

5936-522: The effective Séguier in his post, Anne sacrificed her own feelings for the interests of France and her son Louis. The Queen sought a lasting peace between Catholic nations, but only after a French victory over her native Spain. She also gave a partial Catholic orientation to French foreign policy. This was felt by the Netherlands, France's Protestant ally, which negotiated a separate peace with Spain in 1648. In 1648, Anne and Mazarin successfully negotiated

6048-428: The exemplar nation-state of the early modern period , and established a cultural prestige which lasted through the subsequent centuries until today. Louis began his personal rule of France in 1661, after the death of his chief minister Cardinal Mazarin , when the King famously declared that he would take over the job himself. An adherent of the divine right of kings , Louis continued his predecessors' work of creating

6160-444: The first knots which tied me to my mother. But attachments formed later by shared qualities of the spirit are far more difficult to break than those formed merely by blood." It was his mother who gave Louis his belief in the absolute and divine power of his monarchical rule. During his childhood, he was taken care of by the governesses Françoise de Lansac and Marie-Catherine de Senecey . In 1646, Nicolas V de Villeroy became

6272-539: The garrison; however, supplying sufficient artillery ammunition proved problematic until late in the siege. Eventually, the loss of the Armée de la Loire at the Second Battle of Orléans which was the defender's main hope of relief and the starvation of the civil population resulted in a ceasefire on 26 January 1871 and a surrender two days later. Shortly after the end of the siege, a national legislative election resulted in

6384-480: The grandson of Louis   XIV and Maria Theresa. The War of Devolution did not focus on the payment of the dowry; rather, the lack of payment was what Louis   XIV used as a pretext for nullifying Maria Theresa's renunciation of her claims, allowing the land to "devolve" to him. In Brabant (the location of the land in dispute), children of first marriages traditionally were not disadvantaged by their parents' remarriages and still inherited property. Louis's wife

6496-444: The huge renovation of Paris project, starting with the sweeping away of overcrowded slum housing in the city centre. In 1859, the start of the second phase of development extending beyond the recently demolished Ferme Générale wall was made possible by the extension of the Paris boundary to the Thiers wall. The inclusion of these slum areas was initially unpopular with Parisians; one journalist complained that "They have sewn rags onto

6608-585: The infantry to outflank fixed positions. After the outbreak of war, the French reverses in the Battle of the Frontiers and the subsequent Great Retreat at the end of August 1914 showed that Paris was once again threatened. On 3 September, the military governor, General Joseph Gallieni , ordered that the outlying forts be armed and the gates of the Thiers wall be made defensible by the addition of barbed wire and barriers of oak beams pierced with embrasures. Roadside plane trees were cut down to create an abatis along

6720-446: The king and his courtiers. Shortly thereafter, the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia allowed Condé's army to return to aid Louis and his court. Condé's family was close to Anne at that time, and he agreed to help her attempt to restore the king's authority. The queen's army, headed by Condé, attacked the rebels in Paris; the rebels were under the political control of Anne's old friend Marie de Rohan . Beaufort, who had escaped from

6832-520: The king at the opulent château of Vaux-le-Vicomte , flaunting a wealth which could hardly have accumulated except through embezzlement of government funds. Fouquet appeared eager to succeed Mazarin and Richelieu in power, and he indiscreetly purchased and privately fortified the remote island of Belle Île . These acts sealed his doom. Fouquet was charged with embezzlement; the Parlement found him guilty and sentenced him to exile; and finally Louis altered

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6944-421: The king was persuaded to change his fiscal policy. Though willing enough to tax the nobles, Louis feared the political concessions which they would demand in return. Only towards the close of his reign under the extreme exigency of war, was he able, for the first time in French history, to impose direct taxes on the aristocracy. This was a step toward equality before the law and toward sound public finance, though it

7056-544: The king's infatuation by sending Mancini away from court to be married in Italy. While Mazarin might have been tempted for a short time to marry his niece to the King of France, Queen Anne was absolutely against this; she wanted to marry her son to the daughter of her brother, Philip IV of Spain , for both dynastic and political reasons. Mazarin soon supported the Queen's position because he knew that her support for his power and his foreign policy depended on making peace with Spain from

7168-478: The leaders of the Parlement of Paris, whom she had jailed, died in prison. The Frondeurs , political heirs of the disaffected feudal aristocracy, sought to protect their traditional feudal privileges from the increasingly centralized royal government. Furthermore, they believed their traditional influence and authority was being usurped by the recently ennobled bureaucrats (the Noblesse de Robe , or "nobility of

7280-515: The leading European power and regularly made war. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood, while during his personal rule, Louis fought three major continental conflicts, each against powerful foreign alliances: the Franco-Dutch War , the Nine Years' War , and the War of the Spanish Succession . In addition, France contested shorter wars such as the War of Devolution and the War of

7392-414: The left bank of the Rhine and theretofore a Free Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire , annexing it and other territories in 1681. Although a part of Alsace, Strasbourg was not part of Habsburg-ruled Alsace and was thus not ceded to France in the Peace of Westphalia. Following these annexations, Spain declared war, precipitating the War of the Reunions . However, the Spanish were rapidly defeated because

7504-432: The municipal council began negotiations with the war ministry, resulting in two treaties ratified in 1912 to entirely demilitarise the fortifications, the first legal step towards their demolition. On 19 April 1919, there was a vote on the laws to permit the demolition of the enceinte fortifications. which was only completed in 1932. Some of the space created was used to double the width of the Boulevards des Maréchaux and on

7616-409: The necessary legislation was passed on 3 April. This legislation appropriated 140 million French francs for the work, including 17,970 million francs for land acquisition, 16,608 million francs for earthworks and 83,356 million francs for masonry. It was also necessary to clear an area in front of the fortifications to ensure that there was an unobstructed field of fire . Initially, an area known as

7728-433: The net outflow of precious metals from France. Louis instituted reforms in military administration through Michel le Tellier and his son François-Michel le Tellier , successive Marquis de Louvois. They helped to curb the independent spirit of the nobility, imposing order on them at court and in the army. Gone were the days when generals protracted war at the frontiers while bickering over precedence and ignoring orders from

7840-511: The next 50 years would be based upon this marriage, and because it was through this marriage that the Spanish throne would ultimately be delivered to the House of Bourbon. Louis XIV was declared to have reached the age of majority on the 7th of September 1651. On the death of Mazarin, in March 1661, Louis personally took the reins of government and astonished his court by declaring that he would rule without

7952-461: The outbreak of the Fronde. It was not only that life became insecure and unpleasant – a fate meted out to many children in all ages – but that Louis had to be taken into the confidence of his mother and Mazarin on political and military matters of which he could have no deep understanding". "The family home became at times a near-prison when Paris had to be abandoned, not in carefree outings to other chateaux but in humiliating flights". The royal family

8064-404: The practice by prohibiting the separation of families. Additionally, in the colonies, only Roman Catholics could own slaves, and these had to be baptised. Louis ruled through a number of councils: The death of Louis's maternal uncle King Philip IV of Spain in 1665 precipitated the War of Devolution . In 1660, Louis had married Philip   IV's eldest daughter, Maria Theresa , as one of

8176-437: The prison where Anne had incarcerated him five years before, was the military leader in Paris, under the nominal control of Conti. After a few battles, a political compromise was reached; the Peace of Rueil was signed, and the court returned to Paris. Unfortunately for Anne, her partial victory depended on Condé, who wanted to control the queen and destroy Mazarin's influence. It was Condé's sister who pushed him to turn against

8288-613: The provisions of the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees . The marriage treaty specified that Maria Theresa was to renounce all claims to Spanish territory for herself and all her descendants. Mazarin and Lionne , however, made the renunciation conditional on the full payment of a Spanish dowry of 500,000 écus . The dowry was never paid and would later play a part persuading his maternal first cousin Charles ;II of Spain to leave his empire to Philip, Duke of Anjou (later Philip V of Spain ),

8400-485: The purchase. Nevertheless, Colbert achieved excellent results, with the deficit of 1661 turning into a surplus by 1666, with interest on the debt decreasing from 52 million to 24 million livres. The taille was reduced to 42 million in 1661 and 35 million in 1665, while revenue from indirect taxation progressed from 26 million to 55 million. The revenues of the royal domain were raised from 80,000 livres in 1661 to 5.5 million in 1671. In 1661,

8512-411: The queen. After striking a deal with her old friend Marie de Rohan, who was able to impose the nomination of Charles de l'Aubespine, marquis de Châteauneuf as minister of justice, Anne arrested Condé, his brother Armand de Bourbon, Prince of Conti , and the husband of their sister Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, duchess of Longueville . This situation did not last long, and Mazarin's unpopularity led to

8624-402: The receipts were equivalent to 26 million British pounds, of which 10 million reached the treasury. The expenditure was around 18 million pounds, leaving a deficit of 8 million. In 1667, the net receipts had risen to 20 million pounds sterling , while expenditure had fallen to 11 million, leaving a surplus of 9 million pounds. Money was the essential support of

8736-480: The relative protection afforded by the rampart and possibly the palisade . In medieval fortification , a ditch was often constructed in front of a defensive wall to hinder mining and escalade activities from an attacker. When filled with water, such a defensive ditch is called a moat . However, moats may also be dry. Later star forts designed by military engineers like Vauban , comprised elaborate networks of ditches and parapets , carefully calculated so that

8848-489: The reorganized and enlarged army, the panoply of Versailles, and the growing civil administration. Finance had always been the weakness of the French monarchy: tax collection was costly and inefficient; direct taxes dwindled as they passed through the hands of many intermediate officials; and indirect taxes were collected by private contractors called tax farmers who made a handsome profit. The state coffers leaked at every joint. The main weakness arose from an old bargain between

8960-449: The rest, 40,000 new homes were built. This mostly took the form of affordable housing known as habitations à bon marché or HBM, generally in austere seven-storey apartment blocks built around narrow alleys and courtyards. In the west, some more expensive apartment buildings were constructed in Art Deco style of that era. In the south, the space was used to create the parkland setting for

9072-606: The right (northern) bank of the River Seine in the southeast of Paris, round to Bastion No 94 which completed the circuit on the opposite bank. For command purposes, the wall was divided into nine military sectors, each sector consisting of between eight and twelve bastions. The wall was pierced by 17 gates (French: portes ) for routes nationales , or major roads, 23 secondary road crossings (French: barrières ) for routes départementales , and 12 posterns for local access. The gates were closeable by barriers and acted as toll booths

9184-417: The robe"), who administered the kingdom and on whom the monarchy increasingly began to rely. This belief intensified the nobles' resentment. In 1648, Anne and Mazarin attempted to tax members of the Parlement de Paris . The members refused to comply and ordered all of the king's earlier financial edicts burned. Buoyed by the victory of Louis, duc d'Enghien (later known as le Grand Condé ) at

9296-464: The scarp wall. Originally, there was a covered way which passed along the top of the counterscarp below the crest of the glacis, but by 1856 this had largely been eroded away. The enceinte wall was serviced and supplied by the Rue Militaire (" military road ") which passed directly behind the works; different sections of which were named after various Marshals of France and are collectively called

9408-402: The sentence to life imprisonment. Fouquet's downfall gave Colbert a free hand to reduce the national debt through more efficient taxation. The principal taxes included the aides and douanes (both customs duties ), the gabelle (salt tax), and the taille (land tax). The taille was reduced at first, and certain tax-collection contracts were auctioned instead of being sold privately to

9520-558: The sole regent of France, the king decreed that a regency council would rule on his son's behalf, with Anne at its head. Louis XIII died on 14 May 1643. On 18 May Queen Anne had her husband's will annulled by the Parlement de Paris , a judicial body of nobles and high clergymen, and she became sole regent. She exiled her husband's ministers Chavigny and Bouthilier and appointed the Count of Brienne as her minister of foreign affairs. Anne kept

9632-623: The state's registers, not the church's, and it strictly regulated the right of the Parlements to remonstrate. The Code Louis later became the basis for the Napoleonic code , which in turn inspired many modern legal codes. One of Louis's more infamous decrees was the Grande Ordonnance sur les Colonies of 1685, the Code Noir (black code). Although it sanctioned slavery, it attempted to humanise

9744-588: The student halls of residence of the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris . On 17 February 1953, a law proposed by Bernard Lafay was passed which finally abolished the legal status of the zone non aedificandi and allowed work to start on a new ring road , the Boulevard Périphérique , which was finally opened in 1973. However, the Périphérique , which now carries 1.1 million vehicles daily, now represents

9856-447: The time. Contemporaries and eyewitnesses claimed that the Queen would spend all her time with Louis. Both were greatly interested in food and theatre, and it is highly likely that Louis developed these interests through his close relationship with his mother. This long-lasting and loving relationship can be evidenced by excerpts in Louis's journal entries, such as: "Nature was responsible for

9968-422: The top of the counterscarp was the glacis , a ridge intended to defend the scarp wall from direct bombardment, but the slope away from the fortress was angled so as to allow the defenders to fire on any attacking troops. However, a United States Army commission who visited in 1856 noted that the glacis, which rose 6 metres (20 ft) above the floor of the ditch, only partially protected the vulnerable masonry of

10080-411: The treasury verged on bankruptcy. To rectify the situation, Louis chose Jean-Baptiste Colbert as Controller-General of Finances in 1665. However, Louis first had to neutralize Nicolas Fouquet , the powerful Superintendent of Finances . Although Fouquet's financial indiscretions were not very different from Mazarin's before him or Colbert's after him, his ambition worried Louis. He lavishly entertained

10192-449: The two walls became known as the petit banlieue or "little suburb", which underwent rapid development over the following decades, primarily of working class housing and industrial sites, expanding from a population of 75,000 in 1831 to 173,000 in 1856. A few areas between the walls remained rural; the last vineyards in Paris were at Butte-aux-Cailles in the south. In 1853, the appointment of Georges-Eugène Haussmann as prefect began

10304-430: The wall in an attempt cover any dead ground between the forts and to deny the high ground above them to the enemy. Immediately to the northeast of the wall, the area in front of Saint-Denis was flooded. On the wall itself, embrasures were cut into the parapets, traverses (embankments to protect against enfilade fire ) were installed and shelters were constructed to protect against plunging mortar fire. The National Guard

10416-453: The widespread public yearning for peace and order after decades of foreign and civil strife, the young king consolidated central political authority and at the expense of the feudal aristocracy. Praising his ability to choose and encourage men of talent, the historian Chateaubriand noted: "it is the voice of genius of all kinds which sounds from the tomb of Louis". Louis began his personal reign with administrative and fiscal reforms. In 1661,

10528-461: The wood from which was used to build obstacles. Another 12,000 workers set about blocking or obstructing the gates to allow a minimum of traffic to pass. The openings for canals and aqueducts were blocked or closed with gratings. Dams were constructed in the Seine to allow the normally dry ditch of the wall to fill with water. A large number of redoubts, entrenchments and artillery batteries were built beyond

10640-496: The young king's tutor. Louis   XIV became friends with Villeroy's young children, particularly François de Villeroy , and divided his time between the Palais-Royal and the nearby Hotel de Villeroy. Sensing imminent death in the spring of 1643, King Louis XIII decided to put his affairs in order for his four-year-old son Louis   XIV. Not trusting the judgement of his Spanish wife Queen Anne, who would normally have become

10752-536: The zone and was thus devalued. The construction of the new works were overseen by Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie , the inspector-general of engineers and chairman of the fortifications committee. The fortifications not only included a continuous defensive wall or enceinte around the capital, but also a line of sixteen bastion forts lying between 2 and 5 kilometres from the wall. Although designed for all-round defence, these forts, such as Fort d'Issy , were not positioned so as to be able to support each other, unlike

10864-551: The zone. By 1926, the population of the zone was more than 42,000. In the inter-war period , there were efforts to clear these slums but progress was slow due to legal disputes with land owners and was only completed during the wartime Vichy regime . The French slang " zonard " ("lad" in a pejorative sense) derives from the Paris zone. In 1882, Martin Nadaud proposed the demolition of the wall to parliament, stating that "la grande ville étouffe dans sa camisole de force" ("the great city

10976-606: Was Philip   IV's daughter by his first marriage, while the new king of Spain, Charles   II, was his son by a subsequent marriage. Thus, Brabant allegedly "devolved" to Maria Theresa, justifying France to attack the Spanish Netherlands . During the Eighty Years' War with Spain , France supported the Dutch Republic as part of a general policy of opposing Habsburg power. Johan de Witt , Dutch Grand Pensionary from 1653 to 1672, viewed this as crucial for Dutch security and

11088-501: Was a patchwork of legal systems, with as many traditional legal regimes as there were provinces, and two co-existing legal systems— customary law in the north and Roman civil law in the south. The Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile of 1667, the Code Louis , was a comprehensive legal code imposing a uniform regulation of civil procedure throughout the kingdom. Among other things, it prescribed baptismal, marriage and death records in

11200-485: Was an army officer who had worked on the commission's plans and was also a deputy in the National Assembly . Thiers obtained the backing of his cabinet for the scheme while the deputies were away on holiday, but then found there was fierce resistance from the left , led by François Arago and Alphonse de Lamartine , who suspected that the government had ulterior political motives: that the fortifications, especially

11312-409: Was completed a week later when they had entrenched themselves on all the commanding heights, a front of some 80 kilometres (50 mi). The Prussian force was outnumbered, having some 240,000 men and 1,140 guns, so it was decided not to take the city by direct assault, but by bombarding the garrison into submission. Despite their numerical inferiority, the Prussians were able to defeat several sorties by

11424-434: Was constructed following the system devised by Louis de Cormontaigne nearly a century previously. The rampart was composed of packed earth and revetted by a vertical scarp (or front face) wall of stone, topped by a broad earthen parapet. In front of this was a 25 metres (82 ft) wide dry ditch , bounded on the far side by an earthen counterscarp which sloped at an angle of 45° and was not revetted. Extending out from

11536-649: Was driven out of Paris twice in this manner, and at one point Louis   XIV and Anne were held under virtual arrest in the royal palace in Paris. The Fronde years planted in Louis a hatred of Paris and a consequent determination to move out of the ancient capital as soon as possible, never to return. Just as the first Fronde (the Fronde parlementaire of 1648–1649) ended, a second one (the Fronde des princes of 1650–1653) began. Unlike that which preceded it, tales of sordid intrigue and half-hearted warfare characterized this second phase of upper-class insurrection. To

11648-416: Was expanded from 24,000 in Paris at the start of the war to 350,000 men, although Louis-Jules Trochu , the new president, quipped that "We have many men but few soldiers". In all the garrison numbered about half a million men, with 3,000 cannon of various types, many manned by naval reservists. When the Prussians arrived on 2 September, they began a wide encirclement of Paris starting from the southwest which

11760-834: Was forced out of the war by the June 1673 Treaty of Vossem , in August an anti-French alliance was formed by the Dutch, Spain , Emperor Leopold and the Duke of Lorraine . The French alliance was deeply unpopular in England, and only more so after the disappointing battles against Michiel de Ruyter 's fleet. Charles   II of England made peace with the Dutch in the February 1674 Treaty of Westminster . However, French armies held significant advantages over their opponents; an undivided command, talented generals like Turenne , Condé and Luxembourg and vastly superior logistics. Reforms introduced by Louvois ,

11872-473: Was named Louis Dieudonné (Louis the God-given) and bore the traditional title of French heirs apparent : Dauphin . At the time of his birth, his parents had been married for 23 years. His mother had experienced four stillbirths between 1619 and 1631. Leading contemporaries thus regarded him as a divine gift and his birth a miracle of God. Louis's relationship with his mother was uncommonly affectionate for

11984-485: Was not proceeded with. Following the Battle of Paris in 1814 , when the Coalition armies had captured the city after a single day's fighting, there was renewed political pressure for the capital to be fortified. A royal commission for the defence of the kingdom considered the issue between 1818 and 1820, finally recommending a detailed plan of defences in the following year, but it was never implemented. When Louis-Philippe

12096-510: Was now clear French and Dutch aims were in direct conflict, he decided to first defeat the Republic , then seize the Spanish Netherlands. This required breaking up the Triple Alliance; he paid Sweden to remain neutral and signed the 1670 Secret Treaty of Dover with Charles, an Anglo-French alliance against the Dutch Republic. In May 1672, France invaded the Republic , supported by Münster and

12208-399: Was occupied by the Communards and were only dislodged by a prolonged bombardment lasting until 8 May. Once sufficient troops and guns had been gathered, the Versailles government began a bombardment of the Thiers wall itself, concentrating on a southwestern section at Point-du-Jour on the right bank of the Seine. By 25 May the wall there was partly demolished, but there was no move to assault

12320-702: Was predictably diminished by concessions and exemptions won by the insistent efforts of nobles and bourgeois. Louis and Colbert also had wide-ranging plans to grow French commerce and trade. Colbert's mercantilist administration established new industries and encouraged manufacturers and inventors, such as the Lyon silk manufacturers and the Gobelins tapestry manufactory . He invited manufacturers and artisans from all over Europe to France, such as Murano glassmakers, Swedish ironworkers, and Dutch shipbuilders. He aimed to decrease imports while increasing French exports, hence reducing

12432-498: Was proclaimed king of the French in 1830, there was renewed interest in the issue. A further commission on the defence of the kingdom first met in 1836 and by May 1838 began to consider the defence of Paris. After much debate, it was decided that the capital should be fortified in two ways; by a continuous wall which could be manned by the National Guard and would prevent infiltration or a surprise attack, and further out from that, by

12544-589: Was quickly occupied by poor settlers, many of whom had been evicted during the improvements in central Paris. The zone was completely cleared in the siege preparations of 1870, but was reoccupied soon afterwards and several shanty towns developed, the population of which was swelled by migrants and Romani people from the provinces and neighbouring countries. The zone varied along its length from open fields and vegetable gardens to homes made from old railway carriages, sheds and masonry slums. The last outbreak of bubonic plague in France in 1921 killed twenty rag pickers in

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