King Louis XIV

King Louis XIV contributed in many ways to the French Revolution. King Louis was known as the “Sun King”. He believed himself to be a god or a person with great power. He also could be heard saying “I am the state”. This is an example of how he believed he was superior to everyone else.

King Louis did many things to anger the people of France. One thing that angered them was the Edict of Nantes. This took away the freedom of religion for the Protestants. This in turn caused the Huguenots, who were wealthy hard-working Protestants to leave France and to move somewhere where they could live free of religious persecution. In addition other ways in which King Louis brought the French revolution upon himself was when he decided to build his palace at Versailles. He decided to spend great deals of money on this palace, meanwhile, the hard working middle class could have used some help economically. The king could have donated some money to medical or other needs but instead he decided to build an extravagant palace for himself. This palace was very large. It had hundreds of rooms, large amounts of staircases, chimneys and mirrors. The roof space alone reached a total of 27 Acres! He had fountains and flower gardens and many servants working for him. He also waged a war in an attempt to increase his territory, yet the expense was not worth it for the little land he received.

As you can see due to generous spending for his own pleasure, starting a war that had no point, and the laws such as the Edict of Nantes resulted in the French revolution. These many things are some of the reasons why King Louis XIV helped cause the French Revolution.