Early European History Part 121

DIVINITY OF KINGS

Royal absolutism formed a natural development of the old belief in the divinity of kings. Many primitive peoples regard their headmen and chiefs as holy and give to them the control of peace and war, of life and death.

Oriental rulers in antiquity bore a sacred character. Even in the lifetime of an Egyptian Pharaoh temples were erected to him and offerings were made to his sacred majesty. The Hebrew monarch was the Lord's anointed, and his person was holy. The h.e.l.lenistic kings of the East and the Roman emperors received divine honors from their adoring subjects. An element of sanct.i.ty also attached to medieval sovereigns, who, at their coronation, were anointed with a magic oil, girt with a sacred sword, and given a supernatural banner. Even Shakespeare could speak of the divinity which "doth hedge a king." [2]

"Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord." [3]

DIVINE RIGHT AFTER THE REFORMATION

The Reformation tended to emphasize the sacred character of kingship. The reformers set up the authority of the State against the authority of the Church, which they rejected and condemned. Providence, they argued, had never sanctioned the Papacy, but Providence had really ordained the State and had placed over it a king whom it was a religious duty to obey. Even those who were not reformers distorted the Christian idea that government has a divine basis to represent kings as G.o.d's vicegerents upon earth, as in fact earthly deities.

BOSSUET ON DIVINE RIGHT

The theory of divine right received its fullest expression in a famous book [4] written by Bossuet, a learned French bishop of the seventeenth century. A hereditary monarchy, declared Bossuet, is the most ancient and natural, the strongest and most efficient, of all forms of government.

Royal power emanates from G.o.d; hence the person of the king is sacred and it is sacrilege to conspire against him. His authority is absolute and autocratic. No man may rightfully resist the king's commands; his subjects owe him obedience in all matters. To the violence of a king the people can oppose only respectful remonstrances and prayers for his conversion. A king, to be sure, ought not to be a tyrant, but he can be one in perfect security. "As in G.o.d are united all perfection and every virtue, so all the power of all the individuals in a community is united in the person of the king."

242. THE ABSOLUTISM OF LOUIS XIV, 1661-1715 A.D.

CARDINAL RICHELIEU

France in the seventeenth century furnished the best example of an absolute monarchy supported by pretensions to divine right. French absolutism owed most of all to Cardinal Richelieu, [5] the chief minister of Louis XIII. Though a man of poor physique and in weak health, he possessed such strength of will, together with such thorough understanding of politics, that he was able to dominate the king and through the king to govern France for eighteen years (1624-1642 A.D.).

POLICIES OF RICHELIEU

Richelieu's foreign policy led to his intervention on the side of the Protestants at a decisive moment in the Thirty Years' War. The great cardinal, however, did not live to see the triumph of his measures in the Peace of Westphalia, which humiliated the Hapsburgs and raised France to the first place among the states of western Europe. Richelieu's domestic policy--to make the French king supreme--was equally successful. Though the n.o.bles were still rich and influential, Richelieu beat down their opposition by forbidding the practice of duelling, that last remnant of private warfare, by ordering many castles to be blown up with gunpowder, and by bringing rebellious dukes and counts to the scaffold. Henceforth the n.o.bles were no longer feudal lords but only courtiers.

CARDINAL MAZARIN

Richelieu died in 1642 A.D., and the next year Louis XIII, the master whom he had served so faithfully, also pa.s.sed away. The new ruler, Louis XIV, was only a child, and the management of affairs for a second period of eighteen years pa.s.sed into the hands of Cardinal Mazarin. Though an Italian by birth, he became a naturalized Frenchman and carried out Richelieu's policies. Against the Hapsburgs Mazarin continued the great war which Richelieu had begun and brought it to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Peace of Westphalia was Mazarin's greatest triumph. He also crushed a formidable uprising against the crown, on the part of discontented n.o.bles.

Having achieved all this, the cardinal could truly say that "if his language was not French, his heart was," His death in 1661 A.D. found the royal authority more firmly established than ever before.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARDINAL MAZARIN A miniature by Pet.i.tot, in the South Kensington Museum, London.]

LOUIS XIV, THE MAN

Louis XIV, who now in his twenty-third year took up the reins of government, ranks among the ablest of French monarchs. He was a man of handsome presence, slightly below the middle height, with a prominent nose and abundant hair, which he allowed to fall over his shoulders. In manner he was dignified, reserved, courteous, and as majestic, it is said, in his dressing-gown as in his robes of state. A contemporary wrote that he would have been every inch a king, "even if he had been born under the roof of a beggar." Louis possessed much natural intelligence, a retentive memory, and great capacity for work. It must be added, however, that his general education had been much neglected, and that throughout his life he remained ignorant and superst.i.tious. Vanity formed a striking trait in the character of Louis. He accepted the most fulsome compliments and delighted to be known as the "Grand Monarch" and the "Sun-king."

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUIS XIV A portrait by J. Gale, in the Sutherland Collection, London.]

COURT OF LOUIS XIV AT VERSAILLES

Louis gathered around him a magnificent court, which he located at Versailles, near Paris. Here a whole royal city, with palaces, parks, groves, and fountains, sprang into being at his fiat. Here the "Grand Monarch" lived surrounded by crowds of fawning courtiers. The French n.o.bles now spent little time on their country estates; they preferred to remain at Versailles in attendance on the king, to whose favor they owed offices, pensions, and honors. The king's countenance, it was said, is the courtier's supreme felicity; "he pa.s.ses his life looking on it and within sight of it."

[Ill.u.s.tration: VERSAILLES The view shows the rear of the palace a part of the gardens and the grand stairway leading to the Fountain of Latona. The palace now forms a magnificent picture gallery of French historical scenes and personages while the park with its many fine fountains is a place of holiday resort for Parisians. It is estimated that Louis XIV spent one hundred million dollars on the buildings and grounds of Versailles.]

LOUIS XIV, THE KING

Louis taught and put into practice the doctrine of divine right. In his memoirs he declares that the king is G.o.d's representative and for his actions is answerable to G.o.d alone. The famous saying, "I am the State,"

[6] though not uttered by Louis, accurately expressed his conviction that in him was embodied the power and greatness of France. Few monarchs have tried harder to justify their despotic rule. He was fond of gaiety and sport, but he never permitted himself to be turned away from the punctual discharge of his royal duties. Until the close of his reign--the longest in the annals of Europe--Louis devoted from five to nine hours a day to what he called the "trade of a king."

ABSOLUTISM IN FRANCE

Conditions in France made possible the despotism of Louis. Richelieu and Mazarin had labored with great success to strengthen the crown at the expense of the n.o.bles and the commons. The nation had no Parliament to represent it and voice its demands, for the Estates-General [7] had not been summoned since 1614 A.D. It did not meet again till 1789 A.D., just before the outbreak of the French Revolution. In France there was no Magna Carta to protect the liberties of the people by limiting the right of a ruler to impose taxes at will. The French, furthermore, lacked independent law courts which could interfere with the king's power of exiling, imprisoning, or executing his subjects. Thus absolute monarchy became so firmly rooted in France that a revolution was necessary to overthrow it.

243. FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV

COLBERT

No absolute ruler, however conscientious and painstaking, can shoulder the entire burden of government. Louis XIV necessarily had to rely very much on his ministers, of whom Colbert was the most eminent. Colbert, until his death in 1683 A.D., gave France the best administration it had ever known.

His reforming hand was especially felt in the finances. He made many improvements in the methods of tax-collection and turned the annual deficit in the revenues into a surplus. One of Colbert's innovations, now adopted by all European states, was the budget system. Before his time expenditures had been made at random, without consulting the treasury receipts. Colbert drew up careful estimates, one year in advance, of the probable revenues and expenditures, so that outlay would never exceed income.

COLBERT'S ECONOMIC MEASURES

Although the science of economics or political economy was little developed in the seventeenth century, Colbert realized that the chief object of a minister of finance should be the increase of the national wealth. Hence he tried in every way to foster manufactures and commerce.

Among other measures Colbert placed heavy duties on the importation of foreign products, as a means of protecting the "infant industries" of France. This was the inauguration of the protective system, since followed by many European countries and from Europe introduced into America.

Colbert regarded protectionism as only a temporary device, however, and spoke of tariffs as crutches by the help of which manufacturers might learn to walk and then throw them away.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MEDAL OF LOUIS XIV Commemorates the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The obverse bears a representation of 'Louis the Great the Most Christian King' the reverse contains a legend meaning "Heresy Extinguished."]

COLBERT AND COLONIAL EXPANSION

Colbert shared the erroneous views of most economists of his age in supposing that the wealth of a country is measured by the amount of gold and silver which it possesses. He wished, therefore, to provide the French with colonies, where they could obtain the products which they had previously been obliged to purchase from the Spaniards, Dutch, and English. At this time many islands in the West Indies were acquired, Canada was developed, and Louisiana, the vast territory drained by the Mississippi, was opened up to settlement. France, under Colbert, became one of the leading colonial powers of Europe.

REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES, 1685 A.D.

As long as Colbert lived, he kept on good terms with the Huguenots, who formed such useful and industrious subjects. But Louis hated them as heretics and suspected them of little love for absolute monarchy. To Louis religious unity in the state seemed as necessary as political unity.

Accordingly, he revoked in 1685 A.D. the Edict of Nantes, [8] after the French for almost a century had enjoyed religious toleration. The Huguenots were allowed to keep their Protestant faith, but their freedom of worship was taken away and was not restored till the time of the French Revolution. The Protestants in France to-day are about as numerous, in proportion to the Roman Catholic population, as they were under Louis XIV.

EMIGRATION OF THE HUGUENOTS

The revocation of the Edict of Nantes resulted in a considerable emigration of Huguenots from France. What was a loss to that country was a gain to England and Holland, where the Huguenots settled and where they introduced their arts and trades. Prussia, also, profited by the emigration of the Huguenots. Many of them went to Berlin, and that capital owed the beginning of its importance to its Huguenot population. Louis by his bigotry thus strengthened the chief Protestant foes of France.

ART UNDER LOUIS XIV

Louis was a generous patron of art. French painters and sculptors led the world at this time. One of his architects, Mansard, invented the mansard roof, which has been largely used in France and other European countries.

This architectural device makes it possible to provide extra rooms at a small expense, without adding an additional story to the building. Among the monuments of Louis's reign are the Hotel des Invalides, [9] now the tomb of Napoleon, additions to the Louvre, [10] perhaps the masterpiece of all modern architecture, and the huge palace of Versailles. Louis also founded the Gobelins manufactory, so celebrated for fine carpets, furniture, and metal work.

LITERATURE UNDER LOUIS XIV

The long list of French authors who flourished during the reign of Louis includes Moliere, the greatest of French dramatists, La Fontaine, whose fables are still popular, Perrault, now remembered for his fairy tales, and Madame de Sevigne, whose letters are regarded as models of French prose. Probably the most famous work composed at this time is the _Memoirs_ of Saint-Simon. It presents an intimate and not very flattering picture of the "Grand Monarch" and his court.

LEARNING UNDER LOUIS XIV

Louis and his ministers believed that the government should encourage research and the diffusion of knowledge. Richelieu founded and Colbert fostered the French Academy. Its forty members, sometimes called the "Immortals," are chosen for their eminent contributions to language and literature. The great dictionary of the French language, on which they have labored for more than two centuries, is still unfinished. The academy now forms a section of the Inst.i.tute of France. The patronage of Colbert also did much to enrich the National Library at Paris. It contains the largest collection of books in the world.

THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV