Lesson 2F.1.1

2F.1.1 The Sun King, 1643–1685 Quiz: AQA History, Unit 17

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 2F.1.1, The Sun King, 1643–1685: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA History (7042), Unit 17: 2F The Sun King: Louis XIV, France and Europe, 1643–1715, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. In what year did Louis XIV succeed to the French throne?

    • 1610
    • 1648
    • 1643
    • 1661

  2. Which cardinal served as chief minister during the minority of Louis XIV?

    • Mazarin
    • Richelieu
    • Fleury
    • Colbert

  3. What were the Frondes of 1648-53?

    • Revolts by the nobility and the Parlement of Paris against royal government and Mazarin
    • A peasant rising against the taxes of the royal treasury
    • A rebellion of the Huguenots in the south of France
    • A war fought between France and Spain over the Netherlands

  4. Which 1648 treaty ended the Thirty Years' War and was a major step in France's rise?

    • The Treaty of Nijmegen
    • The Treaty of Utrecht
    • The Treaty of Westphalia
    • The Treaty of Ryswick

  5. Which 1659 treaty ended the war between France and Spain?

    • The Treaty of Ratisbon
    • The Treaty of Pyrenees
    • The Treaty of Madrid
    • The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

  6. Which controller-general of finances, appointed in 1665, pursued mercantilist policies in France?

    • Colbert
    • Louvois
    • Mazarin
    • Fouquet

  7. Which 1685 edict withdrew legal toleration from French Protestants?

    • The Edict of Restitution
    • The Edict of Nantes
    • The Revocation Edict of Fontainebleau
    • The Edict of Worms

  8. Who was Louis XIV's war minister, who reformed the French army and its administration?

    • Fouquet
    • Louvois
    • Colbert
    • Mazarin

  9. What was the War of Devolution of 1667-68 fought over?

    • Louis XIV's claim to parts of the Spanish Netherlands through his wife
    • The succession to the Holy Roman Empire
    • A dispute over the Duchy of Savoy in northern Italy
    • Protestant rights in the Palatinate

  10. Which 1678 treaty ended the Franco-Dutch War and gave France important gains?

    • The Peace of Nijmegen
    • The Peace of Westphalia
    • The Peace of Utrecht
    • The Peace of Ryswick

  11. What were the Reunions that Louis XIV pursued in the 1680s?

    • Unions between the Catholic and Protestant churches in France
    • The merger of the French and Spanish crowns through marriage
    • Legal claims and annexations of territories supposedly lost to France, enforced by special courts
    • A plan to reunite the German princes into a single empire

  12. Why did Louis XIV move the royal court to the palace of Versailles?

    • To be closer to the Spanish border and its armies
    • To control the nobility by making them attend the court at Versailles
    • To escape the plague epidemics that struck Paris in the 1660s
    • To remove the Parlement from the capital and close it down

  13. In what year was the Royal Academy of Sciences founded under Colbert's patronage?

    • 1666
    • 1653
    • 1648
    • 1661

  14. Which religious movement, centred on the convent of Port-Royal, was suppressed by Louis XIV?

    • Quietism
    • Calvinism
    • Jansenism
    • Lutheranism

  15. Which two powers were the main opponents of France in the Franco-Dutch War of 1672-78?

    • The Holy Roman Empire and Sweden
    • Spain and Portugal
    • Russia and Poland-Lithuania
    • The Dutch Republic and Spain, with Brandenburg and the Empire

  16. Which English king made a secret treaty with Louis XIV at Dover in 1670?

    • William III
    • Charles I
    • Charles II
    • James II

  17. Which best explains the growth of French absolutism under Louis XIV?

    • Louis combined royal propaganda, patronage and a loyal bureaucracy to centralise power at the court
    • The Pope granted Louis the right to rule without any council of state
    • The Parlements were given equal authority with the king in all matters of state
    • Louis relied on the Estates-General, which met regularly and controlled taxation

  18. Which best evaluates Colbert's economic policies?

    • They strengthened royal finances and manufacturing, although they relied on heavy taxation and did not solve structural problems
    • They had no lasting effect, since trade and manufacturing declined after 1665
    • They failed completely, since France's economy was in crisis at Louis's death in 1715
    • They were limited to agriculture and had no effect on manufacturing

  19. Which best explains the consequences of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685?

    • It brought peace to France, since Protestants accepted Catholic teaching
    • It strengthened the French economy by removing the tax privileges of the Huguenots
    • It weakened French industry and population, as many skilled Huguenots fled to Protestant states
    • It had no lasting consequences because few Huguenots actually left the country

  20. In which year did Louis XIV's army invade the Dutch Republic, beginning the Franco-Dutch War?

    • 1667
    • 1672
    • 1685
    • 1678

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