Worst Monarch of France?

Worst French Monarch?

  • John II the Good

    Votes: 8 7.8%
  • Henry I

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Philip IV the Fair

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Charles VI the Beloved, the Mad

    Votes: 12 11.7%
  • Charles IX

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Louis XV the Beloved

    Votes: 7 6.8%
  • Louis XVI the Restorer of French Liberty

    Votes: 17 16.5%
  • Philip VI the Fortunate

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Charles X

    Votes: 35 34.0%
  • Napoleon III

    Votes: 10 9.7%
  • Louis-Philippe I the Citizen-King

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • Other? Specify.

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • Louis VII

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Louis XIV

    Votes: 3 2.9%

  • Total voters
    103
  • Poll closed .
Oh come on. Louis XIV annexed large chunks of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Franche-Comté, pieces of Alsace and lots more.
He made France not only militarily but also and especially culturally dominant in Europe, a state of affairs that would last well until the Industrial Revolution.
Sure, he warred too much. He made mistakes and was too bigoted (he should've taken the Generality Lands from the Dutch when offered). But it is not as much his fault that the revolution took place as much as Louis XV and the Régent's mistakes.
 
His system was so bound to "collapse" that Napoleon's first decisions was to found a political system even more centralized than Louis XIV's and that this system basically remained France's system for the 2 following centuries.

Now if you think France has been collapsing again and again for 3 centuries, this is another debate. I don't mean such a statement would be utterly pointless but it would be very difficult to defend.
You could argue the times France collapsed is when it wasn't fully centralised under a central power with a tight grip :D

Oh come on. Louis XIV annexed large chunks of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Franche-Comté, pieces of Alsace and lots more.
He made France not only militarily but also and especially culturally dominant in Europe, a state of affairs that would last well until the Industrial Revolution.
Sure, he warred too much. He made mistakes and was too bigoted (he should've taken the Generality Lands from the Dutch when offered). But it is not as much his fault that the revolution took place as much as Louis XV and the Régent's mistakes.
Agreed. We need to look at legacies. Why is France remembered? Because Louis XIV did so much, because he built Versailles, because he was a patron of the arts. What he did four centuries ago is still a major instrument of France's soft power today. Hard to argue he's the worst with that kind of legacy
 
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