43. Louis XIV.
CHAPTER XLIII. Louis XIV.
(1643-1715)
When Louis XIII. died in 1643, his son Louis was only four years old. This child, who became king while he was hardly old enough to know anything about, it, had such a reign as no King of France or England has ever had before or since. It lasted for seventy-two years. When it began Charles I. was King of England, and when it ended George I. had just come to the throne. During all that happened in England in those seventy-two years — the war between Charles I. and his people, Charles's execution, the reign of Cromwell as Protector, the return of Charles II. to be king, the whole of his reign, the reign of his brother James II., and the disturbances that were caused by his being a Roman Catholic, the Revolution by which he was driven out of the country and William III. made king, during the reign of William III., and during the reign of Anne — Louis XIV. still governed the French people. And his long reign was full of great events; it had in it five wars, some long and all important. Many great men lived in it, who not only made themselves remembered by what they did and wrote, but made every one admire the time in which they lived, and speak of it as an age by itself, though all Frenchmen at that time admired the king so greatly and believed so firmly that everything good in the country came from him, that the age of great men was called after him, and not after the names of any of the people who really made it famous, and is known as the age of Louis XIV.
When Louis XIII. died, he <directed>(settled) by his will that his wife, Anne of Austria, should be Regent of France, and that she should have a council, made up of men whom he chose for the purpose, to help her to govern. Anne had till then had no power in the country; but she was ambitious, and now that she had an opportunity of making herself the most important person in the kingdom, she did not lose the chance, but managed to persuade the Parliament of Paris to declare that she should be regent alone, so that the council of regency never had any power in the country at all.
The chief friend of the queen was the man who soon afterwards became the chief minister of France, and who had been a friend and helper of Richelieu's in the last reign; his name was Mazarin, and the Pope had lately made him a cardinal. Anne of Austria had so strong an affection for Mazarin, that some people believe that after Louis XIII. died she was secretly married to him.
The first business to which the queen and Mazarin had to attend, was the carrying on of the war which had been begun under Louis XIII. It was the Thirty Years' War, which was now coming very near to an end. An army had been lately sent against the Spaniards, under the command of a very young general, who was descended from a warlike family, and who, Richelieu had hoped, would distinguish himself as his forefathers had done.
This was the eldest son of the Prince of Condé, who was only twenty-two years old, and who was sent with an army and two of the best French generals to help him by their advice and experience, into the north part of France, where he found a large Spanish army attacking a French town called Rocroy, pleasing themselves with the thought that now Richelieu and the French king were dead, they had nothing to fear. Condé and his advisers heard that a fresh body of men were on their way to join with those who were already there, so that their numbers would increase even the next day, and they <decided>(settled) at once to begin the battle. They marched upon the Spaniards, and after a long struggle the French were successful, the Spaniards were completely defeated, and Rocroy was saved.
The French people were so much delighted at this victory that it made them satisfied and pleased with their rulers, Queen Anne and Mazarin, who at this time became first minister. The young prince who had gained the battle also became a great favourite with the people, and he grew up, as they expected, to be a brilliant soldier, though a few years later, when his father died, and he had become Prince of Condé, he gave a great deal of trouble in the country by his ambition and his restless, warlike spirit.
After the battle of Rocroy there were five more years of war with the Spaniards, and several other great victories were won by Condé, and by another young general, the Count of Turenne, who was as calm and prudent as Condé was brilliant and rash, and who knew more about the rules of war than almost any general of the time; besides being famed for his honesty, and virtues of all kinds. At last, after many meetings between the ministers of the different nations, a peace was arranged and signed, called the Peace of Westphalia, which put an end to the Thirty Years' War in the year 1648. It did not stop all the fighting that had been going on, for the war between France and Spain still continued; but the Emperor made peace with every one, and the Spaniards made a treaty with the Dutch, ending the war that had been going on between them since the time of Philip II.
By this peace the French gained the province of Alsace, on the eastern side of France, and not only did they grow stronger, but the Emperor, their enemy, grew weaker, for the German princes succeeded in freeing themselves from his great power, and in making him promise to ask their advice henceforward about many matters which he had before settled for himself, so that his power was much lessened, and Louis XIV. had one strong enemy the less to fear. The French having been successful in several great battles, were more feared and respected in Europe than they had been before the war.
At exactly the same time as the signing of the Peace of Westphalia there began a civil war in France, which lasted for five years. Towards the end of the time it was carried on for very absurd reasons, and sometimes almost as a joke; but it caused the death of many Frenchmen, and almost every one who took part in it disgraced himself more or less. It was called the war of the Fronde, or the sling, because the people fighting in it on one side were compared by their enemies to boys playing in the streets with slings and stones, who run away as soon as a watchman appears, and begin their play again when his back is turned. This absurd name pleased the people to whom it was given, and the war took its name from them.
These wars of the Fronde are very difficult to understand, for the sides were constantly changing, and the questions which were being disputed were changing too. The first war began between the Government, that is the Queen-Regent, with her minister, Cardinal Mazarin, and the Parliament. The Government wanted to set up certain taxes, which the Parliament said were not lawful; then the queen had one of the chief men of the Parliament arrested and put in prison, which made all his friends extremely angry. The people rose all through Paris, and put up barricades in the streets, as they had done in the time of the Duke of Guise. They refused to take down the barricades, till Broussel, the counsellor who had been arrested, was set free again. The queen agreed at last, very unwillingly; she let him go, but she prepared troops to be revenged upon the Parliament. She soon after escaped out of Paris, taking the little king with her.
After this the Parliament tried to make a peace with her; but she refused to promise what they wished, and both sides began to look for new allies to carry on the war. The Prince of Condé came to the help of the queen, and several great nobles who hated Mazarin were persuaded to take the side of the Parliament. These men had no real interest in the questions which the war was to <decide>(settle). They made a joke of the war; they appeared in their gay clothes with plumes flying in their hats, with their sisters and wives by their sides. There were feasting and singing always going on at the headquarters of the army, the Hotel de Ville, but very little business was done there. As soon as these gay soldiers were attacked by Condé, they gave way at once; and a peace was made the year after the first disturbance had begun. No one was satisfied by the peace: the Parliament <were displeased>, because no promises had been made to them about many of the questions which they considered of great importance, and their friends, the nobles and great lords, because they had not received any of the places and honours for which they had asked, and which were what they had really been fighting for. This war was called the old Fronde, and very soon after its end a second war, the new Fronde, began. In this struggle the Parliament took no part. The nobles fought against the court, and this time the Prince of Condé was on their side. He offended the queen so much that she had him arrested and put into prison. But he was soon after set free, and he, the Count of Turenne, and many of the other great nobles, made a treaty with the Spaniards, the enemies of France, who were to attack it from the north side, where they were settled in the Netherlands. When the court was in this great danger the Count of Turenne was persuaded to come back to the side of the queen, and he led the royal army against the Frondeurs, with Condé for their general. A great battle was fought outside Paris, and Condé was near being both defeated and killed. But his friends inside the town came to his help, and the people of Paris, when he was once inside the walls, took his side warmly. After a time the Frondeurs turned against Condé again; he left France for a time, and his enemy Mazarin also went away, thinking that peace would perhaps be made more easily without him. After this the Fronde soon came to an end. Its chief leaders were sent into exile; Condé was condemned to death, which, as he was not in France, did him no harm; the king and his court came back to Paris; and, after a time, Mazarin came back as well, and was received as a friend by the people who before had hated him so much.
Before the end of the Fronde the young king had been declared to be of age, and able to govern for himself, being thirteen years old. His mother still had as much real power as when she was regent, and the king did not interfere in public matters for some time to come. The war of the Fronde had done nothing to make the royal power less than it had been in France. Under Henry IV. and under Richelieu the French kings had been continually growing more and more powerful Richelieu had made it a great object to subdue all the nobles who were strong enough to be dangerous enemies to the Crown; he had succeeded so well that Louis XIV. had no trouble with any of them, except perhaps the Prince of Condé, all through his reign. He never held any States-Generals, and we have seen how little the Parliament was able to do to prevent the court from having everything their own way. In this reign France had a very strong army, and the successful wars of Louis against the most powerful countries in Europe gave him much strength and fame at home.
Few people had yet found out that Louis XIV. was likely to be a remarkable man. He was a solemn silent boy, and was thought dull and stupid, except by those who knew him best. Mazarin took care that he should be taught as little as possible. He wished the king to take no interest in the affairs of the country, that he might keep them in his own hands. Still he knew something of the character of Louis. He said of him once, "He will set off late, but will go farther than others;" and another time, that "he had stuff in him to make four kings and an honest man." While the Fronde was going on through his childhood, Louis was brought up to look upon the Parliament as his chief enemy. When he heard of a victory won by the French army, he cried out, "How vexed the Parliament will be !" and one of the first acts of which we hear after his coming of age is his going into the Chamber where the Parliament were discussing whether or not some new taxes for which he wished should be imposed, and the commands which he had given about them obeyed. The king, who had been at Vincennes hunting, heard of what they were doing, came to the Parliament in his hunting-dress and his great boots, with all his lords about him dressed in the same way, and made the members a short speech, commanding them to obey his edicts instantly, and to assemble no more. This was an example of the way in which he was prepared to treat any one who seemed likely to resist his power.
The war with Spain went on for several years after this, but at last a peace was made, by which it was settled that Louis should marry the daughter of the King of Spain, the princess Maria Theresa. There was some chance that this princess or her children might some day come to rule in Spain, for her father was old and ill, and had only one delicate little son. The King of Spain made Maria Theresa give up her right to the crown for herself before she married, but he could not prevent her children from succeeding her brother if he had none of his own. The only difficulty was that Louis himself loved another lady, but he was persuaded by his mother and Mazarin to give her up. This treaty of the Pyrenees was the second in the reign of Louis XIV, Very soon after it was ended Cardinal Mazarin died. He was not so great a man as Richelieu, but he was more successful, and many of Richelieu's wise plans first showed their result under him. He had managed the affairs of the country well in all that had to do with foreign matters, though he had paid little attention to what went on at home.
Before he died he gave Louis much advice about carrying on the Government, in particular, telling him never to trust to a minister. The young king had probably already settled this. After Mazarin's death he called together his ministers, his chancellor, and the other chief men in the Government. He told them that he would henceforward have no first minister, that they must come to him to receive orders, and do nothing without his leave. They were so much surprised that at first they did not believe he could be in earnest, and thought that after a short trial he would find the work too hard for him, and give it up. But, on the contrary, he continued through the whole of his life to do the governing of the country entirely by himself, and his ministers, as time went on, had continually less and less power left to them, for he liked best the men who behaved most humbly, and most fully owned him as their master.
One of the first things that happened after Louis began to reign in this way was the disgrace of one of his ministers, whose duty it was to manage the money of the Government, and who had been thinking more of his own good while he did it than of that of the country. The name of this man was Fouquet; he used to make up false accounts, saying that he had received less money and spent more than was really the case, and then kept for himself the money which he pretended not to have received. Some one pointed this out to the king, who naturally resolved that Fouquet should soon be removed from his place. He had many friends, for he was gay, brilliant, and clever, and many men of that time, if they knew of his dishonesty, would not have thought much the worse of him for it. The king said nothing of his purpose of punishing Fouquet, or even of having found out his crimes. Fouquet gave a magnificent party at his country house, to which he invited Louis. He had spent on his country house some of the enormous riches which he had gathered together. The estate had cost more than three hundred thousand pounds. It had been adorned with buildings, canals, fountains, gardens, and every kind of ornament. The house had its walls and ceilings painted by one of the greatest French artists of the time, and Fouquet had sent to Italy to buy three shiploads of statues to ornament the castle and the gardens. He received the king with the greatest splendour possible, and at each fresh sign of his riches and grandeur Louis secretly became more angry with him, and more determined to ruin a man who seemed likely to make himself so great a person in the kingdom.
A few weeks after the entertainment Fouquet was arrested and tried for his life, for there were found in his papers all the arrangements for a plot against the king, orders for making cannon balls, oaths to Fouquet which the captains were to take, and other such writings. Fouquet's life was spared; but he was shut up in prison for the rest of his life, which lasted nineteen years, and was never even allowed to see his friends till a few months before his death. After this Louis began to be feared by his subjects, and his power was firmly established over them. There are still more than fifty years of his reign to come, which must be left for another chapter.
