Louis XIV

Shaftesbury, already in disgrace when he left England, had been imprisoned in the Tower for a year, but by a sudden turn of fortune was now reinstated in office as President of the newly created council.

Of the circumstances which had brought about this change, the story of the Popish plot, the discovery of the King's nefarious negotiations with Louis XIV, and the impeachment of Danby, it is not necessary here to speak.

That Shaftesbury, when he saw the prospect of restoration to power, should wish to avail himself as before of Locke's advice and services was only to be expected, and it was the expression of this desire which had hastened Locke's return to England.

What, however, were the exact relations between the new Lord President and his former secretary during Shaftesbury's second tenure of office we are not informed.

It is no small matter in such stations to be acceptable to the people one has to do with, in being able to accommodate oneself to their fashions, and I imagine, whatever I may do there myself, the knowing of what others are doing is at least one half of my business, and I know no such rack in the world to draw out men's thoughts as a well-managed bottle.

If, therefore, it were fit for me to advise in this case, I should think it more for the king's interest to send a man of equal parts that could drink his share than the soberest man in the kingdom.

But though Locke shrank from this post, the importance of which could hardly be exaggerated, for Frederick was the ally on whom William most confided in his opposition to Louis XIV, he was ready to place his services at the disposal of the government for domestic work.

If there be anything wherein I may flatter myself I have attained any degree of capacity to serve his majesty, it is in some little knowledge I perhaps may have in the constitutions of my country, the temper of my countrymen, and the divisions amongst them, whereby I persuade myself I may be more useful to him at home, though I cannot but see that such an employment would be of greater advantage to myself abroad would but my health assent to it.

I say he was a Boer, but as may be guessed from both his Christian and surname, his origin was Huguenot.

His forefather, who was also named Henry Marais, although I think the Marais was spelt rather differently then, having been one of the first of that faith who emigrated to South Africa to escape the cruelties of Louis XIV at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

Unlike most Boers of similar descent, these particular Marais, for of course there are many other families so called, never forgot their origin.

Indeed, from father to son they kept up some knowledge of the French tongue, and among themselves often spoke it after a fashion.

But French imperialists of the nineteenth century sought and found compensation, relatively small compensation, in the great peninsula which juts down east of India.

The beginnings of French empire in this region are traced back by French historians to the reign of Louis XIV, when a French missionary persuaded the Emperor of Annam to seek the aid of France in his wars, with the result that in seventeen eighty-seven a treaty was signed giving France a bay and an island on the Indochinese coast.

The treaty was allowed, however, to become a dead letter.

The new French empire in the East was founded by French admirals during the reign of Napoleon III.

But French imperialists of the 19th century sought and found compensation, relatively small compensation, in the great peninsula which juts down east of India.

The beginnings of French empire in this region are traced back by French historians to the reign of Louis XIV, when a French missionary persuaded the emperor of Annam to seek the aid of France in his wars, with the result that in 1787 a treaty was signed giving France a bay and an island on the Indochinese coast.

The treaty was allowed, however, to become a dead letter.

The new French empire in the east was founded by French admirals during the reign of Napoleon III.

But I found fads from the 1700s, from the 1600s, from the 1800s.

People imitated King Louis XIV when he had bowel surgery and he wore bandages around.

The fashionistas of Paris in the 1600s started imitating the surgery that he got and then wearing their bandages as a status symbol.

Or radio came about because people wanted to listen to symphony halls.

No contemporary source records Henry IV promising a chicken for every farmer's pot.

The first written attestation is Parafixé's Histoire du Roi Henri Le Grand, written for Louis XIV and published in 1661, roughly half a century after the king's death.

Even the encyclopedias split on their own date.

Yet the unspoken promise outlived the king.

Some days ago he heard of a dealer upon one of the quays who had acquired some old rubbish found in a cupboard in an ancient house at the back end of the Rue Mathurien in the Quarter Latin.

The dining-room of this old house is decorated with a coat of arms, chevrons, and bars rouge upon a field argent, which prove upon inquiry to be the shield of Nicholas de la Renée, a high official of King Louis XIV.

There can be no doubt that the other articles in the cupboard date back to the early days of that king.

The inference is, therefore, that they were all the property of this Nicholas de la Renée, who was, as I understand, the gentleman especially concerned with the maintenance and execution of the draconic laws of that epoch.

Was that a guess or did you already know

that? I sort of vaguely knew it about Louis XIV being, you know, so decadent and...

Yep, so sort of a vague knowledge.

Yes, it was a lit de justice.