was the fate reserved for the vaunted conqueror of Mons, for the magnificent lord of Versailles." The vain and arrogant monarch was at length compelled humbly to sue for peace, he not only offered to abandon the cause of his grandson, but even to contribute funds to assist in dethroning him. The offer was rejected; but at this crisis he was saved from ruin by the overthrow of the whig ministry in England, and the accession to office of the tories, who from base party motives concluded the treaty of Utrecht on terms much more favourable to Louis than he had any right to expect. He survived this event about two years, and died on the 1st of September, 1715, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. By his first wife he had one son, who died in 1711, and several natural children by his mistresses. He was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis XV.
Louis was possessed of some amiable, and even great qualities. His abilities were highly respectable, and his industry most exemplary. He was an able administrator himself, and possessed in a remarkable degree the invaluable talent of choosing his servants well, was ever ready to reward them for their services, though he generally contrived to appropriate to himself a large share of the credit due to their achievements. His manner was noble, his appearance prepossessing, and he acted the part of a powerful and magnificent sovereign with great dignity and grace. Though his education had been neglected and his acquirements were limited, he was a munificent patron of learning, science, and art. He encouraged manufactures and commerce, adorned the capital with not a few of its most splendid buildings, and founded many useful public institutions. If he was arrogant in prosperity, it must be admitted that he showed a brave front in the midst of his perils, and bore with great equanimity the disasters of his closing years. But he was inordinately ambitious, proud, and vain-glorious, and fond of absolute authority. He was intensely selfish, insolent, perfidious, and violent, and broke his promises and most solemn engagements without scruple or shame. His scandalous licentiousness, bigotry, and intolerance, and cruel persecution of the protestants and the jansenists, were productive of most disastrous results to his country, and have left a deep stain upon his memory.
The reign of Louis is regarded as the Augustan age of French history; and it was certainly adorned by a brilliant constellation of great men in every department of literature, science, and art. His councils were guided by Louvois and Torcy; his finances were managed by Colbert; his armies were led by Turenne, Condè, Luxemburg, Catinat, Boufflers, Vendôme, and Villars; and the genius of Vauban constructed his fortresses. His clergy could boast of Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Massillon, and Fenelon, and his lawyers of D'Augesseau and Talon; while literature was enriched by the masterpieces of Corneille, Racine, Molière, La Fontaine, and La Bruyère. To Louis himself must be awarded the commendation due to a generous patron of those eminent men who have shed such a lustre on his reign.—J. T.
Louis XV. was the third son of Louis, duke of Burgundy, second dauphin, and Marie Adelaide of Savoy. He was the great-grandson of Louis XIV., and was born at Versailles, 15th February, 1710, and died there on the 10th May, 1774. He was only five years of age when he came to the throne, and the kingdom was placed under the regency of Philip, duke of Orleans. The young prince had for his tutor Fleury, afterwards cardinal, and for governor Marshal Villeroy, who taught him that the whole people of France belonged to him—a doctrine too easily believed by kings. An orphan from his birth, Louis placed his affections on Madame de Ventadour, whom he called his mother. He was declared major in 1723. The death of the duke of Orleans terminated the regency, and the duke of Bourbon came to the king and offered his services as minister. "In two minutes he was master of the kingdom;" and one of his first acts was to send back the little Spanish princess to whom the king was affianced, and to plot a marriage with his own sister. The sister, however, would not entertain the project, and Louis was married to Maria Leczinska of Poland. In 1726 Fleury became minister, and great reforms were effected. Economy led to prosperity, such as France enjoyed at no other period during the century. In 1734 war broke out, France supporting the claims of Stanislaus, the queen's father, to the throne of Poland. This unsuccessful war was followed by another in 1740, when France opposed Maria Theresa, and suffered defeat. Fleury died in 1743, and Louis then took the management of affairs. He even placed himself at the head of the army, accompanied by one of his mistresses, who endeavoured to rouse him from his indolence, and to infuse some ambition into his sluggish nature. At Metz he fell ill, and was smitten with religious remorse, which made him send his mistress away, only to be recalled when he recovered. On the 10th of May, 1745, he was present at the battle of Fontenoy, the first successful encounter with the English that a king of France had seen since the days of St. Louis. He became master of the Netherlands; and on the 18th of October, 1748, concluded the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. On his return to Paris his life was one of the utmost licentiousness. He was governed by women. The ladies of France, titled and untitled, competed for royal favour. Mistress succeeded to mistress. The marchioness of Pompadour, a butcher's daughter, went even farther. When her own influence waned, she kept her place by procuring other mistresses for the monarch. Extravagance was the natural result; new taxes were imposed; a deficit that could not be cured gradually began to show itself, and thus the corruption of the French court prepared the way for the terrible curative process of the French revolution. The clergy became discontented, and opposed the court. The people were indignant, and on the 5th of January, 1757, Louis was struck by the knife of Damiens as he was about to enter his carriage. The wound, however, was not dangerous. Foreign affairs went no better. England took the French colonies, and destroyed the French fleets. As Louis grew older he descended to lower depths, and took for favourite a woman called Du Barry, who was a scandal and reproach even among the Pompadours and Chateauroux. With the wretched old monarch vice was a pursuit; and when the minister Choiseul fell and was exiled, there was nothing left to support the dignity of France. All was corruption and intrigue. Into this lazar-house of infamy the brilliant Marie Antoinette was brought as the consort of the dauphin, both to pay by their death on the scaffold for the sins of one predecessor and the tyranny of another. The seeds of anarchy and convulsion were being sown broadcast over France. An "age of reason" had become necessary to sweep away an age of infamy. The pupil of Fenelon had shown the French what the old system ended in, and they were resolved to discover something new for themselves. Louis even foresaw that he was preparing the ruin of his successors. On the 28th of April, 1774, Louis was taken ill at Versailles; small-pox made itself known, and the danger was soon understood. On the 5th of May Louis confessed, on the 9th received extreme unction, and on the 10th expired. His body was carried to St. Denis and interred in that sepulchre of kings, the people insulting his memory as the cortege passed along. It may almost be said that the French monarchy expired with Louis XV. The following reign only shows us the funeral ceremony and interment.—P. E. D.
Louis XVI. was born at Versailles on the 23rd of August, 1754. His father, Louis, dauphin of France, was the eldest son of Louis XV. Louis XVI. received from nature a vigorous physical constitution, and an amiable disposition. His other qualifications for discharging the functions of the kingly office, especially under circumstances the most trying and difficult, were but slight. His intellect was moderate, his character was very deficient in energy and spirit, and personally he was without any of those royal gifts and graces which sometimes compensate for the absence of great qualities. His education had yielded him a tolerable acquaintance with history and geography, and he had a taste for the unkingly pursuit of lock-making. A strong wish for the prosperity and happiness of France cannot be denied him. At sixteen he was married to Maria Antoinette, daughter of Maria Theresa, a beautiful and spirited princess, but in whom courage was not sufficiently tempered by prudence and considerateness. Over her husband she gained an ascendancy, which precipitated his fall. King by the death of Louis XV., on the 10th of May, 1774, Louis XVI. began his reign under circumstances partly favourable and partly unfavourable to its prosperity. On the one hand France hailed in him a young and well-conditioned successor to the worn-out debauchee of the Parc-aux-Cerfs. On the other hand the finances of the country were in the most deplorable state, and the courtiers and connections by whom the new king was surrounded, and whose influence over his feeble mind was considerable, were opposed to the reforms called for by the strong and indignant public opinion which the writings of the French philosophes had contributed to create. Louis XVI. began well. If the old Maurepas, light and reckless,
