7 B. Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI

• Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715), the Sun King: absolutism's architecture — "L'état, c'est moi" (attributed; in truth Fronde's lesson: nobles tamed at Versailles (court as prison of the aristocracy); Colbert's mercantilism; the wars (to the Rhine and Spain's succession); the Edict of Nantes revoked (1685 — Protestants driven out); Bossuet's divine-right theology. The arts' golden age atop the debt's mountain.• Louis XV (r. 1715–74): the regency's debt-finance (Law's bubble), the wars lost (Seven Years' — India and Canada to Britain), Mme de Pompadour, "Après moi, le déluge" (attributed) — absolutism coasting on fumes; the parlements' resistance growing.• Louis XVI (r. 1774–92): the decent man in the wrong century — attempted reform (Turgot, Necker) blocked by privilege; the American war's glory bought with bankruptcy; the harvest failing and the bread rioting; the Estates-General summoned (May 1789 — the first since1614) — the trap of the three chambers: 1st estate (clergy), 2nd (nobility), 3rd (everyone — 97%).