ABSTRACT
At Louis XIV's coronation in Reims cathedral on 7 June 1654, the bishop of Soissons placed a ring on the king's third finger. It was a very pretty ring, donated by the queen mother because the treasury could not afford so expensive a bauble. It was actually a rather important bauble, symbolising the marriage between Louis and his people. As in a marriage service, the two parties–monarch and subjects–entered into obligations. This chapter discusses Louis's attitudes towards the French people and their needs, and their response to their monarch. Louis XIV expressed appreciation of his good fortune when he succeeded Mazarin. France was not only divided geographically but socially and economically. There were three estates–clergy, nobility and everyone else. It is historically accurate to separate the French into estates or orders rather than classes, in that money controlled people's positions in society less than in a classically Marxist context, where class based on cash is paramount.
