Thursday 23 May 2024 – Morning
A Level History A
Y313/01 The Ascendancy of France 1610–1715
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Turn over
, 2
SECTION A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of the impact of Versailles. [30]
Passage A
In 1682, Versailles became the official home of the king, the court, and the government. One wing of
the palace was an administrative block. From this time bureaucratic government developed rapidly.
The vigour of the ministry declined, and the king took more matters into his own hands. Councils,
apart from the King’s Council, became purely administrative bodies. The king dealt directly with
officials and individual ministers, but he was overworked and had many interests and concerns other
than administration. The result was that officials, entrenched in their growing departments, became
more and more their own masters, and at times the initiators of policy. The same process was of
course going on in the provinces. By the time of Colbert’s death, the intendants were all-powerful in
most regions, and in defiance of his regulations, had built up their own bureaucracies. More and more
they tended to remain in one administrative area.
The king’s government had stagnated. Louis encouraged hard work, routine, and formalism. Faced
with large issues, he was apt to plunge in and out of his depth without realising the consequences of
his actions. His first great ministry had been a guiding force, but after the deaths of its members, and
Louvois, the king’s ministers were little more than clerks. Louis was almost indomitably complacent,
his pride excluded criticism, and he believed in divine inspiration.
W. E. Brown, The First Bourbon Century in France, published in 1971.
Passage B
This famous palace [Versailles] is always seen as the physical representation par excellence of the
Sun King’s reign. And rightly so, for Versailles was planned and built in accordance with Louis XIV’s
wishes. A countryman at heart, he insisted on being surrounded by acres of carefully planned gardens
and ponds, while the palace itself was all windows and balconies. Louis imposed his conception on
reluctant ministers and courtiers who preferred the convenience and bustle of Paris.
It has been suggested that Versailles epitomised all that was wrong with French society between 1661
and 1715. Contemporaries and historians have depicted the Sun King surrounded by his courtiers
indulging themselves while France starved. Or there is the familiar picture of Louis imprisoning his
potentially creative nobles in an endless round of sterile court ritual. Or, while the artistic excellence
of the palace is conceded, we are told this was an élite culture; ninety per cent of the population was
left in ignorance. This morally rotten edifice was hallowed by the church, whose wealthy, absentee
bishops scuttled round the corridors of Versailles, ignoring their dioceses. For, above all, Versailles
allegedly represents the scandal of social and economic inequality, since the expense of financing the
Sun King’s and his courtiers’ self-indulgence was met by the wretched tax payer. And it was the poor
who paid most.
R Wilkinson, Louis XIV, France and Europe 1661–1715, published in 2002.
, 3
SECTION B
Answer any two questions.
2* ‘Noble privileges were the greatest limiting factor to the development of absolutism in the period
from 1610 to 1715.’
How far do you agree? [25]
3* ‘Noble and court unrest was a serious threat to the French monarchy in the period from 1610 to
1715.’
How far do you agree? [25]
4* ‘The Treaty of the Pyrenees was the most important turning point in the development of France
as an international power in the period from 1610 to 1715.’
How far do you agree? [25]
END OF QUESTION PAPER
Turn over
A Level History A
Y313/01 The Ascendancy of France 1610–1715
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Turn over
, 2
SECTION A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of the impact of Versailles. [30]
Passage A
In 1682, Versailles became the official home of the king, the court, and the government. One wing of
the palace was an administrative block. From this time bureaucratic government developed rapidly.
The vigour of the ministry declined, and the king took more matters into his own hands. Councils,
apart from the King’s Council, became purely administrative bodies. The king dealt directly with
officials and individual ministers, but he was overworked and had many interests and concerns other
than administration. The result was that officials, entrenched in their growing departments, became
more and more their own masters, and at times the initiators of policy. The same process was of
course going on in the provinces. By the time of Colbert’s death, the intendants were all-powerful in
most regions, and in defiance of his regulations, had built up their own bureaucracies. More and more
they tended to remain in one administrative area.
The king’s government had stagnated. Louis encouraged hard work, routine, and formalism. Faced
with large issues, he was apt to plunge in and out of his depth without realising the consequences of
his actions. His first great ministry had been a guiding force, but after the deaths of its members, and
Louvois, the king’s ministers were little more than clerks. Louis was almost indomitably complacent,
his pride excluded criticism, and he believed in divine inspiration.
W. E. Brown, The First Bourbon Century in France, published in 1971.
Passage B
This famous palace [Versailles] is always seen as the physical representation par excellence of the
Sun King’s reign. And rightly so, for Versailles was planned and built in accordance with Louis XIV’s
wishes. A countryman at heart, he insisted on being surrounded by acres of carefully planned gardens
and ponds, while the palace itself was all windows and balconies. Louis imposed his conception on
reluctant ministers and courtiers who preferred the convenience and bustle of Paris.
It has been suggested that Versailles epitomised all that was wrong with French society between 1661
and 1715. Contemporaries and historians have depicted the Sun King surrounded by his courtiers
indulging themselves while France starved. Or there is the familiar picture of Louis imprisoning his
potentially creative nobles in an endless round of sterile court ritual. Or, while the artistic excellence
of the palace is conceded, we are told this was an élite culture; ninety per cent of the population was
left in ignorance. This morally rotten edifice was hallowed by the church, whose wealthy, absentee
bishops scuttled round the corridors of Versailles, ignoring their dioceses. For, above all, Versailles
allegedly represents the scandal of social and economic inequality, since the expense of financing the
Sun King’s and his courtiers’ self-indulgence was met by the wretched tax payer. And it was the poor
who paid most.
R Wilkinson, Louis XIV, France and Europe 1661–1715, published in 2002.
, 3
SECTION B
Answer any two questions.
2* ‘Noble privileges were the greatest limiting factor to the development of absolutism in the period
from 1610 to 1715.’
How far do you agree? [25]
3* ‘Noble and court unrest was a serious threat to the French monarchy in the period from 1610 to
1715.’
How far do you agree? [25]
4* ‘The Treaty of the Pyrenees was the most important turning point in the development of France
as an international power in the period from 1610 to 1715.’
How far do you agree? [25]
END OF QUESTION PAPER
Turn over
