| abstract
| - François IV of France was the son of François III and his wife. Born in 1601, he became king of France as an infant. After becoming politically mature, he had to cut down the power of the nobles at the court (1619-25), finally succeeding and making France an absolutist state. During the 1620s, the formerly good relations between the Triple Monarchy of England-Castille-Portugal and France cooled down dangerously, which was also the fault of both the two new monarchs, Henry VI and François respectively. So it was no wonder that France supported uprisings in Castille 1628 - and when the Castillians had been successful, France also supported uprisings in Aragon and Portugal during the Castillian Civil War, to weaken its neighbor further. In 1629, he used the opportunity to grab Algeria, where the Castillian rule wasn't firm enough yet. In Atlantis, the French-Spanish border between Caroline and Florida was moved south, giving Virginia (OTL Georgia - named after the Virgin Mary) to France. He lead France into several wars against the Rum-Seljuks, as the second and the third French-Seljuk War. These wars expanded France's influence on the Balkans and along the route to India. He also managed to conquer Jerusalem back, being the first European ruler since the Crusades to do so. But he also made several wars in Europe: He interfered in the second Swiss-Savoy War, making both participants members of the Alliance des Alpes and thus his satellites. 1630-35, France and Denmark-Braunschweig fought the Netherlands in the anti-Dutch War. In the peace of Bremen, the Dutch gave Denmark-Braunschweig Nieuw-Nederland, and France got a good part of Flanders and all of Hennegau / Hainaut. 1660-64, he made Luxemburgian War of Succession: France and its allies Venice, Bavaria, Switzerland and Nassau made claims for Luxembourgian territories, although they were highly doubtful. But with the absolutist François IV as French king, things like this didn't matter. Although Luxemburg had (most of) the HRE on its side, they were defeated and dismembered. Afterwards, he himself was elected Roman king in 1664. 1637, Poland had joined the HREGN with his help, and even got one electoral vote. Its German neighbors secretly claimed that this was for keeping them in check. Having his relative Charles / Károly IV elected Karl VIII, he pushed through the Reichsdeputationshauptbeschluss in 1653: All the free cities and other smaller territories of the HREGN were mediatized (given to bigger states). France itself received some lands too - the Grafschaften (counties) of Mömpelgard, Salm, Saarwerden-Saarbrücken, Veldenz and Sponheim, now extending into German-speaking territory. With his help, Nassau defeated the Gottesfreistaat Münster (1676-79), annexed it. Denmark-Braunschweig was angered somewhat by this because France had promised them earlier to get all of Münster. Economically, he continued the policy of his predecessors to encourage trade with India. 1612: French merchants from Suez arrived in Ethiopia, started diplomatic connections. France took Djibouti to secure the way to India. 1620, the first French ship (coming from Suez) arrived in India. In the 1630s, French traders were allowed to trade in the Portuguese colonies in Africa, after Portugal had become independent with French help. 1664, French traders reached Canton in China. The king also promoted the fine arts: In the castle of Fontainebleau, the first "Mexican Garden" was made in 1645. (Mexican gardens are influenced by the Aztec way of gardening / planting crops, putting many different colorful plants next to each other, forming geometrical patterns, with colors matching of course.) Under him, the style of Victorianisme reached its height. François IV died in 1681, leaving the throne to his only son François V.
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