Death of Mazarin. Louis XIV (1661–1715) declared he would be his own first minister and created an ABSOLUTE MONARCHY(“L'état c'est moi”). Louis gained control of the French military. He also focused high society on the court at Versailles, impoverishing nobles by encouraging them to emulate him. He extended the French bureaucracy and thus enlarged the number of nobles holding offices who owed their loyalty solely to the king. Three customary limitations on the crown continued: the king must be a Catholic; no woman could occupy the throne (Salic law); the king could not alienate his lands by appanage system.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–83) controller general until his death. Colbert subscribed to mercantilistic policies. He believed that French trade could be advanced only at the expense of another country's trade. Colbert responded to hardships within France by reducing the taille and shifting some of the tax burden away from the peasantry. He also regulated tax farming closely. Such policies resulted in increased revenues for the crown between 1662 and 1672.
Series of institutions directed at furthering academic and scientific knowledge founded: Academy of Inscriptions and Belle Lettres (1663), Academy of Sciences (1666), Royal Observatory (1667).
