<P> For most of the reign of Louis XIV ( 1643 -- 1715 ) , ( `` The Sun King '' ) , France was the dominant power in Europe , aided by the diplomacy of Cardinal Richelieu 's successor as the King 's chief minister , ( 1642 -- 61 ) Cardinal Jules Mazarin , ( 1602 -- 61 ) . Cardinal Mazarin oversaw the creation of a French Royal Navy that rivalled England 's , expanding it from 25 ships to almost 200 . The size of the Army was also considerably increased . Renewed wars ( the War of Devolution , 1667 -- 68 and the Franco - Dutch War , 1672 -- 78 ) brought further territorial gains ( Artois and western Flanders and the free county of Burgundy , previously left to the Empire in 1482 ) , but at the cost of the increasingly concerted opposition of rival royal powers , and a legacy of an increasingly enormous national debt . An adherent of the theory of the `` Divine Right of Kings '' , which advocates the divine origin of temporal power and any lack of earthly restraint of monarchical rule , Louis XIV continued his predecessors ' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital of Paris . He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism still persisting in parts of France and , by compelling the noble elite to regularly inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles , built on the outskirts of Paris , succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy , many members of which had participated in the earlier `` Fronde '' rebellion during Louis ' minority youth . By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured 150 years until the French Revolution . McCabe says critics used fiction to portray the degraded Turkish Court , using `` the harem , the Sultan court , oriental despotism , luxury , gems and spices , carpets , and silk cushions '' as an unfavorable analogy to the corruption of the French royal court . </P>
<P> For most of the reign of Louis XIV ( 1643 -- 1715 ) , ( `` The Sun King '' ) , France was the dominant power in Europe , aided by the diplomacy of Cardinal Richelieu 's successor as the King 's chief minister , ( 1642 -- 61 ) Cardinal Jules Mazarin , ( 1602 -- 61 ) . Cardinal Mazarin oversaw the creation of a French Royal Navy that rivalled England 's , expanding it from 25 ships to almost 200 . The size of the Army was also considerably increased . Renewed wars ( the War of Devolution , 1667 -- 68 and the Franco - Dutch War , 1672 -- 78 ) brought further territorial gains ( Artois and western Flanders and the free county of Burgundy , previously left to the Empire in 1482 ) , but at the cost of the increasingly concerted opposition of rival royal powers , and a legacy of an increasingly enormous national debt . An adherent of the theory of the `` Divine Right of Kings '' , which advocates the divine origin of temporal power and any lack of earthly restraint of monarchical rule , Louis XIV continued his predecessors ' work of creating a centralized state governed from the capital of Paris . He sought to eliminate the remnants of feudalism still persisting in parts of France and , by compelling the noble elite to regularly inhabit his lavish Palace of Versailles , built on the outskirts of Paris , succeeded in pacifying the aristocracy , many members of which had participated in the earlier `` Fronde '' rebellion during Louis ' minority youth . By these means he consolidated a system of absolute monarchy in France that endured 150 years until the French Revolution . McCabe says critics used fiction to portray the degraded Turkish Court , using `` the harem , the Sultan court , oriental despotism , luxury , gems and spices , carpets , and silk cushions '' as an unfavorable analogy to the corruption of the French royal court . </P>
what city was the seat of the french monarchy
what city was the seat of the french monarchy
Paris
Paris