For many rulers, the situation in which they start already has problems. In 1589, Henry IV inherited the crown and with that, civil wars. The state of France was very weak at the time: terrible harvests and near starvation, great depopulation, and poor commercial activity. At the time of his crowning, nobles, officials, merchants and peasants wanted peace, order, and stability. Henry provided this as a unique ruler who actually cared about his people, which proved important to absolutism because of the trust the people had in their ruler. Henry appointed the devout Protestant Maximilien de Bethune, duke of Sully, as his chief minister. With the effective actions of Sully, public order in France was restored in only twelve years. Besides a small successful war with Savoy in 1601, Henry maintained peace. After the death of Henry IV i

The contrasts among French absolutist leaders was also apparent in their approach to the economy. Under the influence of Sully, Henry IV accomplished many economic achievements. He sharply lowered taxes on the overburdened peasents, but in compensation for the lost revenues, in 1602-1604 he introduced the paulette which was an anual fee by royal officials to guarantee hereditary in their offices. Also, indirect taxes were placed salt, sales and transit. The collection of these taxes was leased to financiers. The tax reduction gained Henry the people's support, and the indirect tax allowed for revenues to be collected without the brazen tax increases. Sully also appreciated overseas trade and started the Company for Trade with the Indies. Reforms such as this, and the building of a country-wide highway system proved Henry's rule to be very progressive, and in only twelve years restored social order and laid the foundations for economic prosperity. With the death of Henry, and the division of France into generalites, a new system was adopted. Louis XIII put the intendants in charge of finance and tax collection for each region. These intendants regulated commerce, trade, the guilds, and marketplaces. The intendants reported directly back to the monarch, thus giving the King superior power. The main fault in Richelieu's system was the process of taxation. Because of the division into generalites, the rights of some assemblies in some provinces to vote their own taxes; the hereditary exemption from taxation; and the royal pension system drastically limited the government's power to tax. As a temporary solution, Richelieu secured the cooperation of local elites, but the government never gained all the income it needed. Because the French monarchy could not tax at will, it never completely controlled the financial system, therefore, French absolutism was limited.

Religion also played a major factor in control. Rulers such Henry IV compromised his religious preference to better himself, and the state. Henry IV converted to Catholicism for better relations with the Pope. He tried to gain protestant support be issuing the Edict of Nantes which allowed Huguenots to practice publically in only 150 selected cities. This edict was very important because it created temporary and provisional religious tolerance in order to secure "religious and civil concord" which was that all French people were united under the king's religion. In Henry's decision, he gave money to each of the protestant cities to protec

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Approximate Word count = 1707
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)