550 



LOUIS XIII. LOUIS XIV 



niul cardinal Wolsey. His generals, Trivulce, De la 

 Tremouille, Gaston de Foix (nephew of Louis XII.), 

 Bayard, ami others, maintained, even in misfortune, 

 the glory of the French irnns. See P. L. Roederer's 

 Louis XJJ et Francois /., ott Memoires pour servir d 

 une nouvelle Histoire du Regne de Louis XII. et de 

 Francois J. (Paris, 1825, 2'vols.) 



LOUIS X11I., surnamed the Just, in the early 

 part of his reign, from what cause is not known, 

 was born in 1601, the son of Henry IV. and Maria 

 de' Medici. He ascended the throne May 14, 1610, 

 after the murder of his father. Maria de' Medici, 

 who was made guardian of her son, and regent of 

 the kingdom, squandered the treasures of the crown 

 in forming a party for herself, and departed from the 

 principles of her husband, especially by forming a 

 close alliance with Spain. The troops were dismiss- 

 ed, and Sully was obliged to retire from the court. 

 The princes of the blood and the nobles took advan- 

 tage of the weakness of the kingdom occasioned by 

 these measures ; they rose in rebellion, with the 

 marshal Bouillon at their head. The government 

 was compelled to yield to their demands, and these 

 concessions led to still greater encroachments upon 

 the rights of the crown and people. France became 

 the prey of internal parties and civil dissensions, which 

 the Florentine Concini, marshal D'Ancre, prime 

 minister at that time, was utterly unable to suppress. 

 The disturbances rose to the highest, when the king, 

 in 1615, married a Spanish princess. Henry II., 

 prince of Conde, abandoned the royal party, and took 

 up arms in conjunction with the Huguenots. The 

 king, too weak to oppose this attack, made peace with 

 the prince, but sent him to the Bastile some time 

 after, whereby another civil war was kindled, in 

 which, however, the insurgents had no success, and 

 the marshal D'Ancre, whom the young king hated, 

 being murdered with his connivance, (1617), tranquil- 

 lity appeared to be again restored. (See Luynes.) 

 But when the king, soon after, banished his mother 

 to Blois, new disturbances arose ; for the people, 

 who had hated Maria for her tyranny, now took 

 compassion upon her, in her misfortune. The king 

 was obliged to be reconciled with her, and a formal 

 peace was concluded at Angoul&me (1619), between 

 the contending parties. But it was hardly signed, 

 when it was again broken. Maria, at the instiga- 

 tion of the bishop of Lugon, again took up arms 

 against her son. A new reconciliation took place, 

 only to be followed by new dissensions. During 

 these disturbances, the Huguenots rose in arms, with 

 Rohan and Soubise at their head ; and a great part 

 of the kingdom rebelled against the king, who now 

 delivered himself up to the guidance of the cardinal 

 Hichelieu. After victory had inclined, sometimes to 

 Jne side, sometimes to the other, and both parties 

 felt deeply the necessity of repose, peace was again 

 concluded between the king and the Huguenots 

 (1623). This also continued no longer than the pre- 

 ceding. Rochelle, the head-quarters of the Hugue- 

 nots, revolted, and was supported by England. The 

 king drove the English to the sea, conquered the 

 island of R^, and at last (Oct. 28, 1628), Rochelle 

 likewise, which, under the spirited command of the 

 mother of the duke of Rohan, had defended itself for 

 more than a year, and contended with all the horrors 

 of a siege. This siege cost the crown 40 million 

 livres. Afterwards a war arose with the emperor, 

 who had refused to the duke of Nevers the investi- 

 ture of Mantua. The united forces of the emperor, 

 Spain and Savoy, were again defeated by the French, 

 at Vegliano (1630), and the duke of Mantua con- 

 firmed iu his possessions by the peace of Chierasco 

 (1630). The only brother of the king, Gaston of 

 Orleans, now revolted against him, in conjunction 



with the queen mother. The insurgents were, 

 nevertheless, defeated ; the duke of Montmorenci, 

 in alliance with Gaston, was vanquished in the battle 

 of Castelnaudary, Sept. 1, 1632, taken prisoner, and 

 executed at Toulouse, October 30, of the. same year. 

 Gaston received a pardon. In the succeeding war 

 with Spain, which continued twenty-five years, during 

 thirteen of which it was waged in Germany, success 

 inclined sometimes to one side, sometimes to the 

 other ; yet the king was at last enabled (1636) to 

 expel from the French dominions the Spaniards, who 

 had landed in Provence, and the imperial troops 

 which had penetrated as far as Burgundy. The 

 events of the following year were yet more favoura- 

 ble to France; but the exhausted state of the finances 

 opposed an insuperable obstacle to the progress of 

 the French arms. In this state of misfortune, Louis 

 XIII. died, May 4, 1643. During this war, Louis 

 had (Aug. 15, 1638) put his person, his crown, and 

 kingdom, under the protection of the holy virgin ; a 

 day which was long regarded as a festival in France. 

 His equestrian statue, in bronze, erected 1639, was 

 destroyed by the people in 1792. 



LOUIS XIV., king of France and Navarre, was 

 born Sept. 5, 1638, after a barrenness of twenty -two 

 years on the part of his mother. Being, therefore, 

 considered a particular gift of Heaven, he was called 

 Dieu-donne. He came into the world with several 

 teeth, on which subject Grotius has some jests in his 

 letters. He died Sept. 1, 1715. He married, in 

 1660, Maria Theresa, daughter of king Philip IV., 

 who died July 30, 1683. In the same year he secret- 

 ly married Frangoise d'Aubigne, widow of Scarron 

 (madame de Maintenon, who died April 15, 1719). 

 His principal mistresses were Frangoise, duchess de 

 la Valliire (see Falliere), the. marchioness of Mont- 

 espan, mother of the duke of Maine and of the court 

 of Toulouse (see Rochechouart) , and Maria Angelica 

 d'Escorailles, duchess of Fontanges, who died in 

 1681. 



Louis XIV. was five years of age when his father, 

 Louis XIII., died. His mother caused herself to be 

 declared regent and guardian. To Mazarin was in- 

 trusted the superintendence of the education of the 

 king, which was much neglected. But, although 

 Louis learned nothing from his teacher, the archbishop 

 Perefixe, he observed much. A deep impression was 

 made on him, during his minority, by the commo- 

 tions of the Fronde (see Fronde and Retz), which set 

 so many different characters in action. Sept. 7, 

 1651, Louis proclaimed his majority ; but Mazarin 

 continued at the head of the government till his 

 death, March 9, 1661. From this time, Louis reign- 

 ed fifty-four years, without any prime minister, in 

 complete accordance with his own words L'etat, 

 c'est moi ! From Mazarin he had learned an ambi- 

 tious policy, and a contempt of the parliament. On 

 one occasion, when Mazarin could not effect his 

 purpose, the young king, seventeen years of age, 

 entered the hall of the parliament of Paris, booted 

 and spurred, with his whip in his hand, and com- 

 manded an edict to be registered. Every thing 

 united to surround him with splendour. History, 

 however, has not confirmed his title of great. Louis 

 possessed some royal qualities, perhaps all that are 

 requisite for show. Thus he was enabled to gratify 

 the inclination of the French for theatrical display ; 

 he even gave this inclination a permanent direction. 

 His reign was adorned by great statesmen and gene- 

 rals, ecclesiastics, and men of literature and science. 

 The civil wars had produced the same effect, which 

 the revolution afterwards produced, of calling forth 

 men of talent and energy, who made the national 

 glory and the splendour of the king the object of 

 their exertions. Louis himself had a taste for a kind 



