The civil-religious wars at the end of the sixteenth century created a time of confusion and anarchy in France. However, through the help of Louis IV, Duke of Sully, and Cardinal Richelieu France was returned to order and the beginning of a French royal absolutism sprung into action. Henry IV was a beloved ruler who many of his people looked up to. He created the Edict of Nantes, allowing both Catholics and Calvinists to live in France, which returned the country to peace after the religious wars. This peace Henry obtained was essential to creating a government with one head ruler because people wanted a strong ruler who could stabilize the country. Henry also centralized all power in France making himself the head of all judicial, legislative, and executive councils. …show more content…
Lastly, the king created a budget surplus for himself to be able to run all of his councils. He acquired this money through allowing citizens to purchase titles from the king, like the Duke of Sully did. The Duke of Sully contributed to the rise of absolutism by a financial standpoint. He reformed the tax system and created a better technique in bookkeeping for all accounts. This lead to the citizens having trust in the government and them believing that their taxes went to good use such as an increase in transportation and a military. Finally, Cardinal Richelieu had a huge impact on the decline of nobles leading to a rise in power for the king. He created an intendant system for thirty two districts where he replaced local officials with civil servants, mainly middle class citizens, who were responsible for the justice, policies, and finance of that district. This intensely weakened the nobles and gave more power to middle class officials who supported the king and would listen to