The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-18


privilege Of the highest lords to be present
at the Kings morning toilet, and to hand
him his shirt, wash basin or dressing gown,
At mass, which Louis, along with the whole
court, attended every morning, it was the
custom for the courtiers to turn their backs
toward the altar ID that they might face the
King. At table he ate alone, his wife at
most p~resuning TO sit beside him; his
brother handed him, from time TO time,
the napkin. When he rent 10 bed the
magnates and favorites were again in
waiting, each 10 discharge his function
Thus from his waking to his going to sleep
he was the object Of the ceaseless adula-
ton, and commanded the services Of the
most illustrious penBonages Of France.
Our author points out that at the base
OF all this elaborate etiquette lay deep
political calculation. Could any feeling of
Independence or Of self respect survive
among men who competed for the honor
Of handing the King a dish or Of buttoning
his coat2
There could be no greater mistake than
to suppose that from the time when Louis
XIV. began to discharge in his sole person
the duties Of an autocrat he led q life Of
frivolity. He did not take things easy" He
laboTed increasingly and with pleasure at
his calling Of absolute sovereign, not omit
ting the driest details and reading with
attention every despatch from his numerous
diplomats. He ultimately arrived at the
conviction that in his capacity Of King he
received from on high illumination, and in
this conviction he was confirmed by his
confessor and by BishopeL His Ministers
had 80 to arrange matters that every de-
cisiont they reached should seem to originate
with him. and they were o to make tri-
fling errors so that he might nave the
pleasure of correcting them and Of ascrib-
ing any measure Of success to himself.
Yet, although Louis did not possess sufficient
genius to save him from succumbing often
to the skilful guidance Of those about him,
he had a judgment sound enough to discern
whether he was well or i'll served.
OF course, it does not follow that because
Louis XIV. was a hard working man and
gave more of his daily life to business than
to pleasure he did not at the same time
arrogate the right to dispense with the or
binary rules OF morality in his relations to
the other sex. 1t is an interesting fact that
his wife, the Infauta Maria Theresa, a mild,
pious woman, more given to heavenly than
w $1,000 NAoSt "eO wv ~
Louis with respectful Difference. Our
author recalls that she in return neither in
terfered with private business nor with the
numerous love affairs Of her husband. In
the first years of his reign his favorite mis-
tress was Louise de Valliere, a gentle, slender
blonde, devoted to the King with passionate
fondness, but constantly suffering from
remorse for her fall. She was little able to
keep her hold on Louis when the volup-
tuously beautiful Nine. de Montespan set
herself to conquer the King. Montespan
triumphed, and La VALERIE retired into a
convent (1o7i), while the new favorite's
husband had to flee to escape the Bastille,
and the Duke Of Montlausier, the go-be-
tween, was named tutor Of the Dauphin.'
III.
It was characteristic Of his time and Of
the willingness of p~relates and priests to
exempt the sovereign from paying even
a decent respect to the dictates of ethics
and religion that the children Of the SOW
ereign, illegitimate and legitimatei lived
together at courtS as IL no other arrange-
ment were possible. AS a matter of fact
the King manifested much moro affection
for his illegitimate children than for the
Dauphin and the latter's SOD All the
former bore the name dc B%ourbon;' just
as the legitimate princes Of tho blood did,
and they took rank between the latter and
the ordinary dukes. Only princes were
permitted to marry the illegitimate daugh-
ters. Here again our author recognizes
policy in Louis's care for his Legitimate
children. Whatever sprang from the mon
archy was to be proclaimed ~preeminent
over all the rest of mankind.
II Is Prof. Philippson's conviction that
Louis XIV. deliberately sought to under
mine the influence and power Of leading
mobiles by running them financially. Our
author believes that it was with no other
end that the King encouraged gambling at
courtI and competition in offering brilliant
festivals. For example, the Duke Of Ven
dome was tempted to give a series Of enter
tainmente; with Lully's music and with
male and female dancers from the Paris
OPERA Of which fAtes one alone cost 10000
livres. In the end to satisfy his c%reditorsy
the Duke Of Vendome had to sell houses
and estates to the value Of nearly 2,500,o 600
livres. Since the great could nc longer
vie with one another in politics they
could easily be persuaded to gRtify their
ambition by outshining one another in pomp
and luxury. Inc consequence was that
one after another Of the prinoely estates
melted aways and one after another Of the
great families sank into poverty and was
lost to sight. To be sure, it pleased the
King to come to the help Of people whose
ruin he had indirectly brought about. He
would give them ~remunerative offices,
money! pensions or letters OF protection
against their creditorst thus at the same
time sealing their bondage. Notwithstand-
ing these benevolent actss however, more
and more of the great families died out,
and what possessions they left fell to the
Kings bastards. In a word Louis XIV.
as the apt scholar of Riohelieu and Mazarin,
and as an improver upon their methods,
contrived to give the nobility an impossible
positionI which was the remote cause of
t. fearful reprisals OF the Revolution,
becausey the more subservient the mag
mates showed themselves toward the King
the more brutal they became toward their
interiors; and the more mercilessly did
they deal with their peasantry.
Louis XIV. had too good a memory and
too much foresight to live much in Paris.
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