Glossary28-99

Assignats:	paper currency issued by the National Assembly.
Huguenot:	a French Calvinist.
Maria Teresa(1638-83):	queen of France after her marriage to Louis XIV in 1661, daughter of Philip IV of Spain.
taille:	the principle French tax paid by peasantry almost exclusively.
Fronde:	the effort by upper classes to assert their authority over the king during the Mazarin reign.
Parlementes:	local courts which had no power to a legislate but traditionally had the power to recognize or not the legality of a law promulgated by the king.
Edict of Nantes:	granted religious freedom to the French Huguenots in 1610 under Henry IV. It was rejected by Louis XIV in 1685 because he thought religious unity was necessary for the monarchy's strength and dignity.
Maria de Medici (1574-1642):	wife of Henry IV, regent for Louis XIII after 1610.
Absolutism:	Absolute monarchy or absolutism meant that the sovereign power or ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine right.
Bishop Jacques Bossuet (1627-1704):	argued that government was divinely ordained so that humans could live in an organized society. Of all forms of government, monarchy, he claimed, was the most general, most ancient, most natural, and the best, since God established kings and through them reigned over all the peoples of the world. Since kings received their power from God, their authority was absolute. They were responsible to no one (including parliaments) except God.
Mercantilism:	an economic system developing during the decay of feudalism to unify and increase the power and especially the monetary wealth of a nation by a strict governmental regulation of the entire national economy usually through policies designed to secure an accumulation of bullion, a favorable balance of trade, the development of agriculture and manufactures, and the establishment of foreign trading monopolies.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert: (1614-83):	head of royal council of finances under Louis XIV in 1661.
Cardinal Richelieu:	chief minister to Louis XIII, and helped strengthen royal authority by eliminating the private armies and fortified cities of the Huguenots and by crushing aristocratic conspiracies.
War of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697):	an eight year struggle between France and the League of Augsburg after Louis XIV annexed the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine and occupied the city of Strasburg.
War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713):	caused by the threat of French succession to the Spanish throne. There was a coalition of England, Holland, Habsburg Austria, and German states against France and Spain in Europe and the colonial empires in North America.
Peace of Utrecht (1713):	peace treaty that ended the War of Spanish Succession. It confirmed Philip V as the Spanish ruler and that the thrones of Spain and France were to be separated. The Spanish Netherlands, Naples, and Milan were given to Austria while Brandenburg-Prussia gained additional territories as well. England received Gibraltar in addition to French possessions in America of Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay Territory, and Nova Scotia.
Age of Enlightenment:	a movement of intellectuals who dared to know. They were greatly impressed with the accomplishments of the Scientific Revolution, and when they used the word reason they were advocating the application of the scientific method to the understanding of all life.
despot:	an absolute ruler or a person who wields power oppressively.
courtier;	a member of the Louis XIV's Versailles court who participated in the daily cultural life of the palace that included attending theatrical productions and participated in insignificant ceremonies rather than taking part in business affairs of France. In this way, Louis XIV was able to have absolute control over economic, political, and social matters.
Versailles Palace:	Louis XIV's cultural center of French life where he kept his courtiers distracted by its beauty and provided housing for them and their families.