FRANCE 



the persecution of the Huguenots, 

 good and useful citizens, and 

 revoked the Edict of Nantes. This 

 reduced Protestantism in France 

 to negligible dimensions and shut 

 her out from the current of in- 

 vigorating mental atmosphere 

 which was then passing through 

 other lands. In the Cevennes, 

 professors of the reformed faith 

 were exterminated. Even those 

 within the boundaries of the 

 Church who ventured to embrace 

 new doctrines were severely re- 

 pressed. Thus the Jansenists 

 were made victims of royal vanity 

 and impatience. 



France and the Netherlands 



The wars of Louis were equally 

 due to his defects of character. 

 His most dangerous opponent was 

 the prince of Orange, later Wil- 

 liam III of England. Louis at- 

 tempted to crush the government 

 of the United Provinces of the 

 Netherlands which had freed 

 themselves from the dominion of 

 Spain. He hoped to annex them, 

 but he was beaten by the obstinate 

 spirit of the Dutch. The prince 

 of Orange stiffened their resistance 

 at a moment when all seemed lost, 

 and from that time onward he 

 spared no efforts to make Louis re- 

 gret his attempt to subdue a liberty- 

 loving race. Turenne was a general 

 of ability, Vauban a master of 

 fortification, but the obstinacy of 

 William and the genius of Marl- 

 borough brought disaster on the 

 French armies, and, after William's 

 death, the pride of Louis was 

 humbled by defeats at Ramillies, 

 Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. 



The end of this " magnificent " 

 reign was pitiful, yet such as might 

 have been foreseen. The best 

 minds in France saw that the king 

 had brought ruin upon the coun- 

 try. The national finances were 

 worse than ever before. The minis- 

 ter Colbert had done his best to 

 bring them into some kind of order. 

 He tried to give an impetus to in- 

 dustry .and to colonial expansion, 

 and he built a navy to defend the 

 new possessions. For a time France 

 seemed to be on the way to be- 

 come a greater colonial Power 

 than England. In India, Canada, 

 the W. Indies, Louisiana, and 

 W. Africa the French established 

 themselves. But the settlers and 

 the generals commanding the 

 French forces never received full 

 support from home. One by one 

 their greater colonial possessions 

 fell into British hands. 



Colbert might possibly have 

 rescued France from her desperate 

 financial sickness ift he had been 

 allowed a free hand, but he had to 

 provide continually huge funds for 

 the carrying on of unsuccessful 



3298 



wars, and he failed completely to 

 improve conditions for the mass of 

 the people. They felt resentment 

 which they were afraid to utter, 

 until the death of the king gave 

 their tongues freedom. Then they 

 openly rejoiced. 



The new sovereign, Louis XV, 

 began with everything in his favour 

 so far as popular feeling was con- 

 cerned. He was no more than a 

 child, and the kingdom was placed 

 under a regent, the duke of Orleans. 

 But from the first all went awry. 

 Cardinal Fleury, who became chief 

 minister, brought France low 

 through unsuccessful wars. The 

 finances showed no improvement. 

 At one time it was hoped to restore 

 them by adopting the scheme of a 

 Scottish banker named John Law, 

 who blew the Mississippi Bubble. 

 After an orgy of wild speculation, 

 he failed ignominiously, and left 

 things more disordered than he 

 found them. Louis XV was weak 

 both in character and in intellect. 

 He caused scandals by his love 

 affairs, which smirched royalty in 

 the eyes of the nation. His most 

 notorious mistress was Madame de 

 Pompadour, who governed him in 

 everything. 



Decadence of the Court 



The result was catastrophic. 

 Abroad France became more and 

 more contemptible. At home there 

 was distress and even famine. Yet 

 the court and the fashionable world 

 kept up a round of pleasure, poured 

 out the money wrung from tenants 

 and taxpayers, and danced to the 

 tune of "After us the Deluge." 

 Under the sway of Madame du 

 Barry the king fell into even worse 

 ways. The consequence was that 

 when he died the same feeling of 

 relief was experienced as on the 

 death of Louis XIV. 



There was hope that the new 

 king would do better. Hopeful- 

 ness was the keynote to the phil- 

 osophy of the age, and in that age 

 philosophy was the common read- 

 ing of all educated men and women. 

 The philosophers, Rousseau, Vol- 

 taire, Diderot, and the contributors 

 to the great Encyclopedic, which 

 was put together during the 18th 

 century with the object of making 

 knowledge supreme over supersti- 

 tion, wrote in a popular style. 

 They saw that France was in a sad 

 plight, but they held out the hope 

 that all could soon be improved 

 upon by " a return to Nature." 

 There was little writing which 

 could be called revolutionary in the 

 political sense, yet all that was 

 written of a serious kind prepared 

 the way for revolution. A new 

 spirit of human brotherhood, a 

 fresh desire for simplicity and fair 

 dealing, a readiness to consider 



FRANCE 



great changes as inevitable and 

 desirable, were found in the most 

 unlikely quarters. 



The young Louis XVI and his 

 queen, Marie Antoinette, began 

 their reign under favourable omens, 

 at any rate on the surface. The 

 king was an ignorant, well-mean- 

 ing, self-indulgent young fellow, 

 who preferred his hobby of lock- 

 making to looking into state 

 business. The queen was an 

 attractive, high-spirited young 

 woman, devoting herself, body and 

 soul; to the pleasures of an ex- 

 travagant and licentious society ; 

 she was inexperienced, injudicious, 

 ill-advised. But no one told them 

 that they were in the utmost 

 danger. Unfortunately, the queen 

 took to advising her weak husband 

 as to his choice of ministers. Her 

 advice was mostly bad, partly be- 

 cause others made her the tool of 

 their private interests. Thus, she 

 was persuaded to take part in over- 

 throwing the one statesman who 

 might have saved the monarchy. 



This was Turgot, who saw that 

 more was required than tinkering 

 with finance. He set to work to 

 cut down expenses and introduce 

 social reforms. He proposed to let 

 the people have some share in 

 governing themselves. After he 

 had been dismissed at the bidding 

 of the queen, came Necker, a Swiss 

 banker, who pleased nobody, and 

 after him the queen secured the ap- 

 pointment of Calonne, whose im- 

 becile methods made it impossible 

 for the king to carry on any longer. 

 He was compelled, now, to ask for 

 guidance from a body known as the 

 Assembly of Notables, the so- 

 called parliament, which for a 

 short time exercised more power 

 than the monarch. But its place 

 was quickly taken by the States- 

 General, a representative body of 

 ancient institution, elected by the 

 nation, which met after a long 

 period of inaction on May 5, 1789. 

 The States-General, 1789 



The three estates of the realm 

 WsBre the king, the privileged classes, 

 and the people. Very soon the 

 Third Estate claimed to act as the 

 nation, and demanded that hence- 

 forth no taxes should be imposed 

 without their consent. This 

 brought them into conflict with 

 the monarchy, and on July 14 the 

 Revolution began by the taking of 

 the Bastille by an enthusiastic, 

 mostly unarmed crowd. 



At once there followed out- 

 breaks of violence all over the 

 country. The peasants, infuriated 

 by heavy taxation and by their 

 liability to be forced to work for 

 the benefit of the indolent and 

 luxurious rich, attacked the houses 

 of the aristocracy, refused to pay 



