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Unit 3: Topic 3.2 – Legitimizing Political Rule Case Study Student Handout
Today’s Inquiry Questions
● What methods did French monarch Louis XIV use to legitimize and consolidate his power in the 1450-1750 time period?
● How does Louis XIV embody the concept of absolute monarchy?

Define: What is absolutism?

Artifact What methods did French monarch Louis XIV use to legitimize and consolidate his power?
Artifact What methods did French monarch Louis XIV use to legitimize and consolidate his power?
1
Map of Louis XIV’s military exploits

2
Versailles: Biography of a Palace by Tony Spawforth
3
Engraving of Louis XIV meeting embassy from Siam

4
Versailles, France – Ultimate Royal Palace (video)

5
Memoirs by Duc de Saint-Simon

6
Map of the Palace of Versailles

7
Louis XIV’s silver furniture

8
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes

9
Portrait of Louis XIV

10
Wikipedia description of Divine Right

Respond to the inquiry lesson question using specific information, examples, and evidence from the artifacts. Answer this as if it were a DBQ thesis statement for an essay you were writing on the topic.

Explain how rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power in land-based empires from 1450 to 1750.
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How did Louis XIV use religious ideas to legitimize his rule? How did Louis XIV use art and monumental architecture to legitimize his rule?

Compare in regards to methods used to legitimize and consolidate their power.