Louis XIV and the Theories of Absolutism and Divine Right

In: Canadian journal of economics and political science: the journal of the Canadian Political Science Association = Revue canadienne d'économique et de science politique, Band 26, Heft 1, S. 128-142

Abstract

The political theory of Louis XIV is contained for the most part in the King's manuscripts which repose in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. These include the longest and most fruitful source, the Mémoires de Louis XIV pour l'instruction du Dauphin, some of his letters, and some of his miscellaneous short pieces. Many of the several thousand additional letters which Louis wrote either have been destroyed or scattered far and wide. There are a number of editions of his works but they have been almost entirely literary and designed for the popular market.In spite of the plethora of literature on Louis XIV and his grand siècle (1638–1715), no systematic exposition of his political theory has ever been published, though a number of authors have touched on his ideas in passing, including the historian Lacour-Gayet who promised a study of Louis' political theory but completed only a preliminary survey of its antecedents. The purpose of this paper is to attempt in brief compass to remedy this deficiency.Louis XIV is a classic example of a political thinker whose ideas are frequently alluded to but rarely examined. The popular tendency to refer to him as the prototype of all autocrats suffers the usual inadequacies of a stereotype; it overlooks the subtleties in his theories which greatly affect their interpretation. In order to avoid semantic wrangles it may be useful to follow the broad lines of Aristotle's analysis of monarchy presented in his Politics, Book IV, chapter x.