Throughout history, the monarchies that ruled France and England have played very influential and significant roles in shaping not only their own countries, but all of Europe. The Sun King, King Louis XIV of France, had arguably the most dominant reign over France of any monarch who has ever ruled the country. His 72-year reign is the longest ever experienced by a European monarch. During his time, England was ruled by a multitude of different monarchs, all members of the same house, the House of Stuart. The rulers of the House of Stuart can also be considered among the most important rulers when it comes to shaping both the history of England and the history of Europe. The first queen of Great Britain was a member of the House of Stuart. To truly understand how influential the monarchs of England and France were, an analysis of the similarities and differences between the two offers a better look than an analysis of the two great monarchs separately could. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Louis XIV was born on September 5, 1638 to Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was the first child between the two after numerous stillbirths, which increased the illusion that he was a gift from God. At the age of four, he succeeded his father on the throne of the King of France after Louis XIII, on his deathbed , decided not to hand over power to his wife, Anna of Austria, due to his lack of confidence in his political abilities. In the early years of Louis XIV, Cardinal Jules Mazarin carried out all his political duties, serving as the official Prime Minister of France. Mazarin ruled alongside Anna during this period, although Anna was no longer queen and had much less power than Mazarin. Mazarin made moves to increase the French king's power over the country. He slowly increased France's position in Europe with the Peace of Westphalia (the treaty that ended the Thirty Years' War) when he claimed to be working towards a common Catholic goal, but was ultimately only interested in what was best for France . It also began to set the tone for France's religious intolerance towards Protestants. His attempts to increase the monarch's power eventually led to violence when he attempted to create a specific tax for the Parliament of France. These moves lead to the first of the two Fronds. The Fronde was a small civil war in which the goal was not the complete overthrow of the government. The goal was instead to put an end to the monarch's growing power. The Second Fronde ended in 1653 with Parliament gaining little ground in stopping Mazarin's efforts. With Mazarin's death in 1661, Louis XIV would finally gain complete power as king of France. King Louis' first move was to appoint himself Prime Minister of France, a position never actually held by a king. His next move was to solve the financial problems France was having as the treasury was on the verge of bankruptcy. He removed Nicolas Fouqet, the corrupt superintendent of finances, and replaced him with Jean Baptiste-Colbert, whom he personally chose for the job. Although Fouqet had not actually been the one to put France in the bad financial position it was currently in, Louis saw him as a threat because he was Mazarin's legitimate heir to the position of Prime Minister. Thanks to the joint efforts of Louis and Colbert, the country's financial problems quickly disappeared thanks to the development of new tax methods. Although no new taxes have actually been added, just more efficient versions of previous taxes. Louis brought uniformityacross the country regarding laws. Before his reign, many provinces of France decided how to apply the laws within their borders. With the Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile of 1667 the provinces were obliged to follow and enforce all the same regulations (Carr, page 24). Louis used his power as ruler of one of the great European forces of the time to intimidate and bribe other countries into complying with his desires. When France was trying to eliminate the Dutch, to break the alliance that England had with the Dutch, Louis XIV made a secret agreement with Charles II to realign him to the French side. The agreement involved a large payment made to England by France. This temporary peace between the two countries did not last long. In 1685, Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes with his Edict of Fontainebleu. The edict recognized Protestants' right to freely practice their religion. Protestant pastors had to choose a secular life or be forced to live in exile. This move ultimately led to approximately 200,000 French Protestants fleeing France to the more accepting Dutch and English. In 1688, France was forced to enter the War of the League of Augsburg. The war was happening in the time of the Glorious Revolution in England. Louis XIV supported the Catholic James II, but even Louis could not prevent the Protestant William III from conquering England. A strong point of difference between the two monarchies was the religious tolerance shown. France was very intolerant of any religion outside of Catholicism and remained so throughout Louis' reign, as seen by Louis' revocation of the Edict of Nantes. During the times of James I and Charles I, England was also very intolerant towards all other than the Church of England, especially Protestantism. This view changed significantly, with England becoming much more tolerant as time went on, but Catholicism was never welcomed with completely open arms. The decline of Louis XIV's empire began in 1701. France took part in the War of the Spanish Succession, and although it was unofficially defeated, the country emerged with far more losses than gains. The end of his reign came as quickly as it had begun when he first gained control of France. The end of his life was marked by the deaths of many of those he considered close to him. Because of all the pain that was forced upon him, he became a shell of his former self and soon fell ill. When he finally died, as both his son and grandson were already dead, he was forced to cede the throne of King of France to his five-year-old great-grandson Louis XV. The first to rule England from the House of Stuart was James Stuart on 24 March 1603. James I was an experienced king before he even took control of the throne of England, as he was crowned King of Scotland when he was only thirteen months old in 1567. He succeeded to the Scottish throne after his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, had been removed from power. Although James I grew up in a time of turmoil for Scotland, he received a Presbyterian and classical education. His first kingdom in Scotland was not established until he was seventeen. In 1586 he signed a treaty with Queen Elizabeth I of England in an attempt to increase his chances of gaining the throne of England as Elizabeth had no true heir being completely childless. With the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, James I, King of Scotland, was declared ruler of England. There were a number of different monarchical conditions that James had to adapt to between England and Scotland. The King of Scots had very little power, considered little more than first among equals. James waswas actually kidnapped and held prisoner twice by his subjects while living in Scotland. The majority of governing power was given to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In England, the king was the chief executive, the supreme ruler of the Church, the possessor of hereditary wealth, and the leader of his subjects in war and peace. Despite all this, his authority was still constitutionally limited by tradition. The English Parliament had to be consulted before taking any radical decision such as to wage war or to meet the extraordinary expenses it might accrue. The difference in each country's distribution of power is another main point where the two monarchies differ greatly. During Louis' time as ruler, his rule over France became more absolute as time went on. The opposite can be said of the House of Stuart. Although James had much more power in England than in Scotland, the distribution of English power continued to favor the House of Commons throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. James I faced numerous problems when he immediately took the throne. Most urgent was the growing Puritan movement that wished to take over the Roman Catholics in the church. Another was Parliament's attempts to gain more power over England, which meant less power for him. He showed sympathy for the Puritans because he himself had been raised as a Calvinist, and because of this sympathy he never made any attempt during his reign to harm their cause. He was quite religiously tolerant throughout his time as ruler, although he responded accordingly with punishment of the Catholics for their Gunpowder Plot in 1605, a plot which involved blowing up the House of Parliament (Lloyd, page 58). James I believed strongly in the Divine Right of Kings. He often exaggerated the king's rights when addressing Parliament. In his book Basilikon Doron, he emphasized the patriarchal nature of kingship and compared monarchs to gods. Despite all this, he continued to reject the idea put forward by some that he believed he was above the law. One of James' goals was to unite the kingdoms of England and Scotland under one name. He even went so far as to call himself King of Great Britain, although Parliament did not accept his attempts to unite the two countries. In 1613, James entered into an alliance with the German Protestant Union and considered himself a Protestant champion when his daughter Elizabeth married Frederick the Elector Palantine. He began to have a bad relationship with Parliament due to his desire to maintain the King's rights while Parliament wanted to limit them. His dislike of Parliament remained with him until his death in 1625. He warned his heir of the growing influence of the House of Commons. King Louis XIV related closely to James I regarding the divine right of kings. Louis often referred to himself as the Sun King due to the prominence he thought he was born with. This opinion remained with Louis XIV throughout his reign, but was only an afterthought by subsequent members of the House of Stuart. The loss of power of the English Parliament will continue for the remainder of the House's reign. Charles I was the second son of James I, born on 19 November 1600. He ascended the throne on 27 March 1625 and within two months married Henrietta Maria, the sister of King Louis XIII of France, although the two never had much mutual interest in each other. He was often at odds with Parliament as was his father. Parliament never gave him the funds he needed to fight the wars he would later be engaged in, and nothe liked his attitude towards religious affairs. Although he was educated by a Scottish Calvinist, he disliked the type of religious services that the Puritans most approved of. Many accused him of promoting high clergymen who believed in free will rather than predestination to achieve salvation. The House of Commons drafted a petition of right that would limit Charles' power. Among other grievances, the petition condemned forced labor, the cornering of soldiers, and the incarceration of subjects without cause. Although Charles signed the petition, he rarely complied with it. Charles continued to try to create religious uniformity in Scotland and England. He went so far as to raise an army to force Scotland to do what he wanted. His army was easily defeated. Moves such as raising taxes without Parliament's permission and Charles I's complete disregard for their petition of right led to Parliament's complete distrust of him. Parliament began to take away more power from him, although the two points on which he did not budge were the reform of the Church of England and the control of the militias. In 1642 all-out civil war broke out between opposing Members of Parliament who followed Charles, the Royalists, and those who did not, the Parliamentarians. After seven years, Charles had officially lost the war, eventually being captured by parliamentarians and found guilty of treason for waging war on his own people. Charles I was put to death on 3 January 1649. The two monarchies were similar in that neither was truly loved by the common man. The monarchies of the House of Stuart were often overthrown by their people with the help of Parliament. Louis on the other hand was never overthrown due to the lack of leadership from the people. The English Parliament had the ability to lead and mobilize the people for a single cause. There was no branch of government over which Louis did not have complete control, being able to easily remove from power anyone he deemed a threat. From 1649 until another member of the House of Stuart took control in 1660, Parliament remained in complete control of England. Oliver Cromwell, the man who led the Parliamentarians in the war against Charles I, was considered the leader of England, although he declined Parliament's offer to make him King of England as he thought the king's role should be completely removed from government English. Charles II was only twelve years old when civil war broke out in 1642. Despite being so young, his father, Charles I, saw great potential in him. Charles II filled numerous roles in his father's army during the civil war, but still ultimately lost along with his father. In 1650, upon hearing of his father's execution, he fled to Scotland where he was made King of the Scots. His goal was to reclaim the British throne and he made an attempt in 1651. He and his Scottish army were easily defeated by Cromwell. It was only upon Cromwell's death in 1660 that Charles II regained his rightful throne. He made great efforts to initiate negotiations between the supporters of the old Church of England and the Presbyterians, although nothing ever came to fruition. England viewed France as the most dangerous threat in all of England, so Charles made a secret treaty with them. to declare war on the Dutch, with whom they were currently on good terms as both were members of the Protestant Alliance. One of the terms of the treaty was that Charles should declare himself a Roman Catholic when the time was right. He never kept this promise, as the House of Commons would not allow it. The House of Commons, being very anti-French and anti-Catholic, urgedCharles to declare war on France. Opposing views on France between Charles and Parliament remained throughout his reign. After being welcomed into the Roman Catholic Church, he died on 6 February 1685. The two monarchs viewed each other in a very different light. France saw England as they saw many others, just another pawn to be manipulated to achieve their goals. England saw France as many others saw it, the military power of which it did not want to be an enemy. The two were never on good or worse terms, sometimes allies and sometimes enemies. James II, the second son of Charles I, was brought up in just as unstable a situation as his brother, Charles II. He prospered as a general in his father's army and would also serve as Lord High Admiral under his brother Charles during Charles' tenure as King of England. He was much more open about his Roman Catholic views than his brother, putting him in an even worse position in Parliament. When he ascended the throne in 1685, many were surprised by how calmly this happened. This was only because he swore to maintain the Church of England and the power it held. Parliament thought this meant that James would attempt to eliminate all dissenters from the Church, but instead meant the opposite, in which he would grant power to anyone he thought deserved it regardless of their religion. James II would pursue complete religious equality despite Parliament's efforts against it. He made it much easier for Catholics to gain positions of power throughout the country, and anyone who discriminated based on religious differences was punished. He attempted to punish seven bishops for disobeying these laws. When the bishops were found innocent of James's accusations, the English people rejoiced. These same people invited William of Orange to come and take the throne from James II. When William arrived in England with an army, the English army immediately disbanded when confronted. William would easily take control of the throne while James would eventually flee to France where he never did anything more significant until his death at the age of sixty-six. William III married Mary II in 1677, a marriage between the Calvinist duke and his Roman Catholic Bride. William had always remained on relatively good terms with England before his accession to the throne in 1688. He gained his footing in the bloodless war known as the Glorious Revolution when English Protestants welcomed him as their new king. Before William and Mary became king and queen, they were asked to sign a Bill of Rights that would give them a much more limited monarchy than their predecessors, and the two willingly signed. During the joint reign, Mary accepted her role as William's subordinate and allowed him to make most decisions. She was considered the more people-oriented of the two monarchs. Many constitutional changes occurred during Williams' reign, slowly removing more and more power from the monarchs. Religious tolerance also increased, although not initially towards Roman Catholics. Parliament made the decision to require all future monarchs to be members of the Church of England before even being considered a candidate for the throne. When Mary died in 1964, public opinion towards the king began to waver. He did not align himself with either of the new political parties, the Tories or the Whigs, as he disagreed with the pro-French views of the Tories and the pro-parliamentary views of the Whigs. Before he died in 1702, William III found a suitable heir in Anna, his sister.