The Bourbons [1589-1715]

• Henri IV of Navarre [1589-1610]  Brother-in-law of Henri II; Henri converted to Catholicism in 1593; Put an end to the religious wars in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes which gave limited religious freedom to the Protestants; Québec was founded in 1608; Assassinated.

• Louis XIII, the Just [1610-1643]  Became king at 17; Son of Henry IV; From 1610 to 1617 his mother, Marie de Médici, was the Regent [Louis came of age in 1614 but she continued to govern 3 more
  years].  Put on the throne by Richelieu; Cardinal Richelieu became the principal minister in 1624; La Gazette, France's first newspaper, was founded in 1631.  The Académie Française was founded in 1634 and in 1635, the Thirty Years' War began.  Descartes published his Discourse on Method in 1637.  The playwright Jean Racine was born in 1639.  Cardinal Richelieu died in 1642.

• Louis XIV, the Great [1643-1715]  Anne of Austria was the regent from 1643-1651.  The Sun King was dominated by Mazarin, his principal minister, until his majority; he consolidated the absolute rule of the king; 1648 - 1652 was the period of the Fronde: the French Civil wars.  Mazarin died in 1661 and Louis XIV became his own principal minister.  Louis' finance minister, Colbert, reformed the crown's finances.  The Comédie Française was created in 1680 and the royal court moved to Versailles in 1682.  The Edict of Nantes was revoked and Protestantism was banned in 1685.  The first coffee house in Paris, the café Procope, was opened in Paris.  Louis XIV began his major wars in 1689.  1709 was the date of the last great French famine.

• Louis XV, the Good Friend [1715-1774]  Great-grandson of Louis XIV; Philippe d’Orléans was regent from 1715 - 1723, followed by Fleury; The plague's last outbreak in France was in 1720 when it decimated the population of Marseilles.  In 1751, Diderot published the first volume of his Encyclopedia.  In the Seven Years' War, from 1756 to 1763, lost Canada and other possessions, to England under the Treaty of Paris.  Corsica was annexed in 1768.  The wars and court extravagance set the stage for the decline.

• Louis XVI [1774-1792]  Grandson of Louis XV; Married Marie Antoinette; From 1778 to 1783, France aided the American colonists in their revolution against England.  The first balloon ascent was made by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783.  The French Revolution started in 1789 Map of France, 1789][with the storming of the Bastille, feudalism was abolished and a constitutional monarchy was established; Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded in 17939 (their son, Louis XVII [1785 -1795] never reigned); The National Assembly July 9, 1789 to Sept. 1791; Suspended August 10, 1792; Guillotined on Jan. 21, 1793.
  
                                        The First to Third Republic [1792-1804]