949 



LOUVOIS, MARQUIS DE. 



LOVAT, LORD. 



950 





forte lay in landscape, he was enabled by his education to give to that 

 branch of the art a greater compass and range of subjects than usual, 

 as iu his various battle and bunting pieces, besides others that claim 

 to ba considered as strictly historical in subject; for instance, his 

 'Storming of Valenciennes,' and ' Lord Howe's Victory in June 1794.' 

 His works are stamped by great vigour and mastery of pencil, and by 

 excellent management in regard to composition. After having obtained 

 considerable reputation at Paris by the works which he exhibited at 

 the Louvre, and having been admitted a member of the Academy 

 there in 1768, Loutherbourg came over to England (where he was 

 afterwards elected a Royal Academician) in 1771, and was engaged as 

 scene-painter at the Opera-House, a department of art for which his 

 vigorous style of execution, his poetical imagination, and his know- 

 ledge of scenic effect well qualified him. Soon after his settling in 

 this country, Loutherbourg got np, under the name of the ' Eidophu- 

 rikon,' a novel sod very ingenious exhibition, displaying the changes 

 of the elements and their phenomena in a cairn, a moonlight, and a 

 sunset and a storm st sea. Of this very interesting pictorial con- 

 trivance, which may be said not only to have anticipated, but in some 

 respect* to have surpassed our present dioramas, although upon a 

 smaller scale, a tolerably full account is given in Pyne's ' Wiae and 

 Walnut*' His best landscapes are his views of Lake and Coast 

 scenery. Louthfrbourg etched several of his own compositions. Late 

 in life Loutherboiirg became a disciple of the 'prophet' Brothers 

 [BROTHERS, RICHARD], and even set up as a prophet and curer of 

 diseases on his own account ; but the mob having broken the windows 

 of his house at Hammersmith on account of the failure of some of his 

 promise*, which he had announced by a public advertisement, he 

 thenceforth abandoned the publication of his predictions. He died 

 at his residence at Hammersmith-terrace, on the llth of March 1812. 



LOUVOI8, FRANCOIS-MICHEL LETELLIER, MARQUIS DE, 

 Prime Minister to Louis XIV., daring the more brilliant part of his 

 reign, was born on the 18th of January 1641, at Paris. His father, 

 the Chancellor Letellier, the subject of one of Bossuet's 'Oraisons 

 Funebres,' served the same monarch in high offices of trust, during a 

 course of forty-one years, until his death in 1685. So powerful was 

 Letellicr's influence at court, that as early as 1654, when the yonth 

 Francois-Michel was only in his fourteenth year, the king consented 

 that the office of secretary of war, then filled by the father, should in 

 doe time be transferred to the son, the youth being trained to its 

 duties in the interim under his father's eye. He married in 1662 Anne 

 de Souvrd, marquise de Courtanvaux, who brought him an ample 

 fortune anil great connections. Hitherto he had been of i lie habits, 

 but he henceforth became remarkable for the diligence with which he 

 prosecuted his duties. Nothing was in fact left unexplored which 

 belonged to bis military functions, nor did any abuse escape his vigi- 

 lance, whila for every evil which he denounced he was ready with a 

 remedy. He thus gradually won the esteem of the king, who was 

 induced to believe that he bad in some sort formed the minister whose 

 abilities were BO eminent, while to the last Louvois used to flatter the 

 monarch by intimating that all bis moat successful measures had 

 really emanated from the suggestions of his Majesty. At first the 

 office of war minister had been held jointly by Louvois and his father, 

 but from 1666 until 1691, comprising all the chief campaigns of 

 Turenue, and several of the most brilliant of those of Conde 1 

 [Locis XIV.], Lonvois alone directed the administration of war. 

 Meanwhile a still greater minister, Colbert, was expanding to the 

 utmost all the resources of the kingdom. 



In 1687 the king opened the campaign, with the Vicomte de Turenne 

 as second in command, and captured several fortified places, which 

 Louvois was afterwards commissioned to garrison with French troops. 

 In 1663 the conquest of Franche Comtd increased his credit, and he 

 was made Surintendant-Udneral des Postes. In 1671 he became 

 Chancellor des Ordres du Rot; in 1673, Administrateur-Ge'neral des 

 Ordres de Saint-Lazare et du Mont Cannel, and then Grand Veneur, 

 or Master of the Hounds honorary places awarded to him for his 

 services, but none of which remained sinecures in the hands of a man 

 whose energy seemed indefatigable. Whatever may and must be said 

 of hU ambition, his lust of power, and disregard of the French 

 people, whom he oppressed with burdens, it must be acknowledged 

 that the military glory of Louis XIV. was mainly due to Louvois. It 

 must also be added to his credit that he founded some hospitals, 

 restored others, and provided asylums for hundreds of old and dis- 

 abled officers. It was he who conceived the plan of the Hotel des 

 Invalides, and began its erection in 1671. 



The arrogance of Louvois rendered him as unpopular with the 

 courtiers as his harsh measures did with the people. His hatred of 

 Tnrenn* is said to have led him to thwart and impede that com- 

 m inker's great military successes when they were at their height; and 

 to Louvois, rather than to Turenne, recent historians have attributed 

 the atrocious devastation of the Palatinate. [Louis XIV.] But 

 Louvois shared in the honours of the capture of Ghent (March 4th, 

 1 678), his own plan having been preferred for the siege of the place. 

 The peace of Nimeguen being concluded in 1678, the minister was at 

 length able to turn his attention to domestic improvements. A war of 

 twelve years' duration had not yet exhausted those resources and 

 expedients which the sagacity of Colbert had collected; and, prompted 

 by Louvoh, the king commenced the foundation of those national 



edifices which have ever since been identified with his name. The 

 palace of Versailles, the two Trianoua, the magnificent Place Vendome, 

 where Napoleon's column of Austerlitz now stands, and the great 

 aqueducts of Maintenon, involving an outlay of many millions sterling, 

 were all erected at the instigation of Louvois. This prodigal expendi- 

 ture, after the great charges of the war, was vainly resisted by Colbert, 

 who, having to provide the means to support it, was compelled to lay 

 heavy burdens on the people, whereby he became the object of 

 unmerited aversion during the last days of his life. [COLBERT.] 



On the death of that illustrious financier, September 6th, 1683, the 

 power of Louvoh became almost absolute. Colbert had always 

 fostered and protected the Protestants, even against the king, who 

 disliked them. This was enough to provoke Louvois to prosecute 

 them, from a feeling of rivalry. He began by employing Roman 

 Catholic missionaries to argue with the reformed (les reforme's) ; but 

 this was too slow for his impatience, so he replaced them by dragoons. 

 A ruthless system of extermination was begun : the unhappy Pro- 

 testants in vain sought concealment iu the woods and amidst the 

 rocks; men, women, and children were killed unarmed, sometimes 

 singly, at others in families or parties. To one governor of a province 

 Louvois wrote " His Majesty orders you to employ the utmost rizour 

 against those who refuse to be converted." In Octob3r 1GS5, chiefly 

 by means of this inflexible.mau, the Edict of Nantes, which Henri IV. 

 had passed to secure the lives and estates of his Protestant subjects, 

 was revoked a measure which dealt a fatal blow to the interests of 

 agriculture and commerce, and was not uufelt either in the army or 

 navy. This revocation was followed by a vast emigration : great 

 numbers of Protestants of every rank fled from France, more particu- 

 larly those who belonged to trade and commerce. 



A new league, headed by the Prince of Orange, was formed against 

 Louis XIV., and the war was renewed. In October 1688 Philipsburg 

 surrendered to Louvois and Vauban after a siege of nineteen days ; 

 after which several other fortresses fell into their hands. In February 

 1689 the Palatinate was invaded a second time, the open country 

 wasted, the towns and villages burned, and all the licence of war 

 indulged in stilHmore inhumanly than during Turenne's campaign of 

 1674-75. This war, fanned by religious discord, extended so rapidly 

 as soon to embrace Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy, and a part of 

 Spain ; whilst the active minister found means to raise well-appointed 

 armies for each, without regard to the clamour of the suffering people. 

 Stern and cruel as he was, his reputation for capacity increased ; even 

 his enemies acknowledged his talents and his vigour. Meanwhile 

 every year strengthened the confederacy against the French mouarch, 

 and the Prince of Orange, now become king of England, united his 

 troops to the armies of the allies, whilst his fleets threatened the 

 French coast along the whole seabord. But the minister's fall was 

 approaching. After tho campaign of 1691 had been opened by 

 Louis XIV., aad during the siege of Mons, Louvois, whose long 

 administration had raised his pride above all bounds, ventured to 

 provoke his master by repeated contradictions. After the capture of 

 Alous, Louvois followed the king to Versailles, and resumed his usual 

 functions ; but the frigid behaviour of Louis made him sensible that 

 his power was drawing to an end. Still he persisted in going to the 

 palace; though on one occasion, it is said the king was so incensed at 

 his arrogance as to lift his baud against the minister, but Madame de 

 Maintenon interposed to prevent the indignity. From the disgrace of 

 dismissal he was however saved by his sudden death. His health, 

 broken by prolonged labour and anxiety, had wholly given way under 

 the repeated mortifications he had lately been made to endure. 

 Having fainted in the royal council-room at Versailles, on the 10th of 

 July 1691, he was removed to his hotel, where, after being bled, he 

 expired in the course of a few hours. The Marquis de Louvois was 

 then in his fifty-first year, and had been thirty-six years in the service 

 of the ' grand monarque." 



LOVAT, LORD. SIMON FRASER, afterwards Lord Lovat, was born 

 in 16t>8, at Beaufort, near Inverness, iu Scotland. He belonged to tho 

 family of the Frasers, who were powerful as early as the reign of 

 Malcolm IV. about 1153, and who had large possessions in Tweedale 

 and elsewhere in the south of Scotland. .Simon Eraser's father died 

 when his son was very young. After receiving the usual instruction 

 at a grammar-school, he was sent to the University of Aberdeen, where 

 he distinguished himself by his acquirements iu classical learning. 



In 1692 Fraser, through the interest of the Marquis of Athol, 

 received a commission as captain of a company in Lord Tullibardine's 

 regiment, but soon afterwards resigned in consequence of a dispute 

 with the marquis, who was grandfather to the eldest daughter of the 

 last Lord Lovat, and claimed the estates for her. Sioiou Fraser, on 

 the contrary, asserted his own right, as nearest male heir, not only to 

 the estates, but to be chief of the Fraeers. In 1694 he succeeded in 

 winning clandestinely the affections of the heiress, then fifteen years 

 of age, and living with her mother, the dowager Lady Lovat, near 

 Inverness, and she consented to elope with him. She did elope, but 

 the man whom Fraser had engaged to conduct her changed his iniad, 

 took her back, and disclosed the plot to Lady Lorat. The heiress was 

 immediately sent under an escort to Dunkeld, the seat of the Marquis 

 of Athol. Fraser made some daring efforts to obtain possession of 

 her, but without success. 



About 1700 Fraser went to France, and to ingratiate himself with 



