Louis XIV and the Decline of Absolutism in France
             Question Posed: What steps did Louis XIV take to increase the power of the crown in France and what did he do that led to its eventual demise.
             Louis XIV was a charismatic fool with an ego the size of Texas. He took some major steps to increase his power but then he took some even bigger steps and managed to take the most powerful nation on earth and send it down the toilet.
             Louis did however do some things well just before he screwed France over, but even these things contributed to France's eventual decline. First of all Louis build Versailles, and for all practical purposes Versailles was nothing but an up scaled Disney World for nobles. Louis saw that he had a big problem with the nobles taking power away form him so he decided to tame them with entertainment and ritual so he built Versailles. Versailles was the Mecca of higher living in France and all around Europe. Nobles would come there and be entertained all day and all night by hunting, sports, theater, and the beautiful atmosphere. Versailles did such a good job of dumbing up the nobles that soon after its construction Louis had nearly all of them under his control. The downside of Versailles is that it drained about 40 percent of the France's economy.
             Louis second contribution to absolutism in France was his new policies of taxation that basically relied on the middle class for most of France's income. The downside of this is that Louis eventually evicted most of his middle class in a pig headed move that would soon cost him his power.
             Louis saw things were starting to look up for him with an enormous cash flow and nobles that were fighting over who could bring Louis his clothes in the morning so he got cocky and revoked the Edict of Nantes. This basically said that if you weren't catholic you better get out or your going to be killed. And
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