Louis XIV's Consolidation of Power:  Military's Power in France and Abroad

The instigators of the Fronde, the nobility and the parliaments, learned through incentive, intimidation, and punishment to heed the will of the king. Yet Louis still needed to deal with a far more dangerous foe, the people of France. The loyalty of the people is a fickle thing as it could change at a moment’s notice and without warning. Louis learned this when he had been but a child, as the people of Paris stormed the palace during the Fronde. Yet, Louis passively speaks of how to handle rebellion or if a rebellion ever occurred during his rule. This tells us two things, the first that he did not wish to focus on such things but rather on his achievements. The second that this had most likely not been a serious problem during his reign. This had been thanks to the standardization of the French military, as they became more discipline, well-equipped, and even larger in size. These facts allowed Louis' armies to end revolts, such as the one that occurred in 1674 in Bordeaux that would spread to Guyenne and Rennes. However, these revolts, like all others during Louis' reign, because they had been ended with great speed thanks to the standardized military. By quickly repressing uprisings, Louis XIV prevented the emergence of another situation like the Fronde.