Was King Louis XIV unpopular and why?

Answer 1

King Louis XIV was not popular among citizens. He was considered to be an extremely indecisive person, which lead to his leadership not being firm enough. King Louis XIV also inherited an enormous amount of debt when he received the throne. This debt affected the country negatively.Ê

Answer 2

King Louis XVI and his wife Queen Marie Antoinette inherited an enormous state debt (by Louis XIV and Louis XV). Also, Louis XVI was indecisive and not firm enough to rule.

Radical financial reforms by Turgot and Malesherbes angered the nobles and were blocked by the parlements who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. So Turgot was dismissed in 1776 and Malesherbes resigned in 1776 to be replaced by Jacques Necker. Necker supported the American Revolution, and proceeded with a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. When this policy failed miserably, Louis dismissed him, and replaced him in 1783 with Charles Alexandre de Calonne, who increased public spending to buy the country's way out of debt. Again this failed, so Louis convoked the Assembly of Notables in 1787 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Calonne. When the nobles were told the extent of the debt, they were shocked into rejecting the plan. This negative turn of events signaled to Louis that he had lost the ability to rule as an absolute monarch, and he fell into depression. The French didn't want to be ruled by monarchs anymore, but wanted to become a republic without "tyrannizing" monarchs that they thought spend all their tax money and wanted equality, and also no more nobility with all their benefits. The revolutionists captured King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, held them prisoners and eventually had them beheaded by a guillotine.

Answer 3

No, he was inept, ineffective and indecisive, but the large French debt was not of his making. He had inherited a bad economic situation and was found lacking at the task of rebuilding the Nation's wealth.

Answer 4

He wasn't, he was one of the most loved kings of France ever.

He reigned from 1743 until 1715, his reign lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, the longest documented for any European monarch to date.