Map from Reference 97
Louis XIV was suspected by the rest of Europe of wanting to conquer the continent, but actually his military objectives may have been much less extensive, wanting only to secure his own borders from the Spanish Netherlands in the north down to the Barcelonette Valley, which had access from Italy. Thus, the two aggressive wars of France were the War of Devolution to lay claim to a part of the Spanish Netherlands (1667-1678) and the attack in the Dutch Republic in 1672, which unfortunately flared into a European-wide war, in spite of Louis' best attempts at arbitration. Louis XIV built the great palace at Versailles near the end of the century so that he would never have to return to Paris, but actually he lived there only during his later years. Like most feudal kings he was always on the move, generally at war. (Ref. 147 ) Louis kept a standing peace-time army of 150,000 men, which was increased to 400,000 in the event of war. Versailles became the official seat of government in May of 1682. The palace had 3,000 mica-paned windows in 270 rooms, but no baths or toilets. There were 1,500 jets of water from octagonal lakes. When there was no war in progress with Holland, some 4 million tulip bulbs were imported from that country each year. The construction required 36,000 men, 6,000 horses and there was a high mortality rate from both injury and malaria. (Ref. 131 )
Louis' relations with the Protestant Huguenots of France were one of the crucial defects of his reign. Fluctuating between tolerance and non-tolerance for years, this Catholic king finally, in 1681, turned again to a Holy war against the Protestant Huguenots. The majority of the latter, terrified, pretended conversion, but thousands fled, abandoning homes and properties. In 1685 the king revoked the Edict of Nantes and France was almost entirely Catholic. The few remaining Huguenots in many provinces were then subjected to horrible tortures, some say much worse than the later revolutionary terror of 1793. Of the 1,500,000 Huguenots in the country in 1660, 400,000 escaped across guarded borders. The Elector of Brandenburg gave them so friendly a reception that by 1697 one-fifth of Berlin was French. The Protestants were unpopular in France probably for the same reason that Jews were unpopular in pre-World War II Germany - they were too rich, successful and clannish. (Ref. 147 )
Colbert's massive system of state-regulated commerce and industry had begun to collapse before his death in 1683. (Ref. 53 ) Many factors played their part - the drain of men from the farm to the factory and battlefield, self strangulation from governmental regulation, the loss of the Huguenot economic skills and some of their savings. Taxes rose even as prosperity declined. Then, as a final straw, Louis XIV's imperialism frightened Emperor Leopold I, Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria, the Elector of Brandenburg, King Karl (Charles) XI of Sweden and Stadhalder William III of the United Provinces (Netherlands) into forming the League of Augsburg for defense against the French. Louis then made a great mistake. He attacked Germany and thus committed himself to a long, debilitating war and freed his Dutch enemy to help launch William III in his conquest of England. By 1695 Louis had only second-rate generals left and although they were still celebrating victories, the French people, taxed as never before, were nearing exhaustion in body and spirit. In 1694 famine had been added, the national economy verged on collapse, transportation was in chaos, foreign commerce was at a standstill because of enemy fleet blockades and privateers. (Ref. 53 ) Poverty, famine, disease and war reduced the population of France from some 23,000,000 in 1670 to some 19,000,000 in 1700. At last Louis realized his follies in continuing warfare and the Peace of Ryswick (1697) ended the war in so far as England, Holland and Spain were concerned. Separate peace was signed later with the German empire.