éralités, districts. He used royal comissioners called intendants for specific tasks and to control the généralités. Special intendants called noblesse de robe were apointed directly by the monarch and were responsible solely to him. These intendants enforced royal orders, and weakened the nobility which was a very important element of absolutism. The foreign policy of Richelieu was aimed at the destruction of Habsburg territories, consequently he supported the Lutheran King Gustavus Adolphus against the Catholic Habsburgs in the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years' War.
             The beginning for Louis XIV was very different than the previous rulers. At the coronation of Louis XIV the clergy asked God to cause the splendors of the French court to fill all who beheld it with awe. The image of the "Sun King" was very glorious and exalting. One of his first tasks, which the nobility supported, was the campaign for repression of the Huguenots. The system of patronage was set up; Louis heavily taxed protestant colonies, and in return he graciously granted the nobility and dignitaries priveleged social st
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