Absolutism and Louis XIV Louis XIV of France had had both a long and powerful reign on the throne. He was able to achieve this due to the development of absolutism in France. Absolutism is defined as the political idea that absolute power should be vested in a single ruler. The whole idea of absolutism originally came from philosopher Jean Bodin in the 16th Century. Louis¹ absolutism developed with four major parts: The breeding of a strong and controlled military, The building of Versailles to control the nobility, The selling of nobility, and The appointed of an advisor. The first step to the creation of Louis¹ absolutism was the building of the military. Louis made war an activity of the state. He made sure all armed persons in France fought only for him. Much of this idea that law and force within a country should be monopolized by the lawful king came from Bishop Bossuet. This idea led to domestic peace. Louis also put the artillery organically into the army, systematized the military rankings and grades, and clarified the chain of command, putting himself at the top. The government also supervised recruiting and took most of the responsibility for equipping, provisioning, clothing, and housing the troops. Louis also established civilian administration in military. Under Louis, the army went from about 100,000 soldiers to about 400,000. The military made many gains under Louis, thus helping him gain absolutism. Louis built Versailles as both a relaxing and entertaining place for himself, and to disable the nobles and gain an edge in absolutism. Louis demanded that nearly half of France¹s 10,000 nobles be present at court everyday for ³role.² These 5,00 nobles were those who were thought to pose the most risk to Louis XIV¹s absolutism. Louis reputedly said to these nobles ³If I cannot see you [at court], you do not exist.² As a result, the nobles spent much time at Versailles and were unable to get into any ³political mis...