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88 - Story of Old France by H. A. Guerber · Story of Old France

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  Speaker 1: Section eighty seven of the Story of Old France. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Marc Desanzo. The Story of
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  Speaker 1: Old France by H. A. Gerber, Section eighty seven, Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Maintenon. Thanks to Louis the fourteenth executive ability and
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  Speaker 1: to his famous helpers Colbert and Louvois, the period from
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  Speaker 1: sixteen seventy four to sixteen eighty nine proved most prosperous
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  Speaker 1: for France. In fact, the country progressed more in those
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  Speaker 1: fifteen years than it did in the next hundred. After
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  Speaker 1: Fauquet's disgrace, Colbert became Minister of Finances and was charged
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  Speaker 1: to watch over the commercial, agricultural, and industrial interests of
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  Speaker 1: the country. Although though it was Colbert's office to supply
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  Speaker 1: money enough for the King's wars, buildings, and other extravagances,
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  Speaker 1: he earnestly tried to diminish and equalize the taxes, and
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  Speaker 1: to check a dangerous tendency to borrow money. He also
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  Speaker 1: encouraged the planting of flax and cotton, and of mulberry
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  Speaker 1: trees for the silkworm industry, had roads built, and supplied
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  Speaker 1: funds for digging the Great Canal which connects the Mediterranean
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  Speaker 1: Sea and the Atlantic Ocean Canal de Lnge do'cue. He
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  Speaker 1: also founded factories for making cloth, silk mirrors, tapestry, carpets, lace,
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  Speaker 1: et cetera, and encouraged and protected the French colonies, which
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  Speaker 1: until his day had been rather neglected. Colbert faithfully served
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  Speaker 1: the king from Mazarin's death until his own in sixteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty three, although his last days were saddened by the
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  Speaker 1: knowledge that Louvois had supplanted him in the royal favour.
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  Speaker 1: When a letter from the king was handed to him
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  Speaker 1: on a sad deathbed, he refused to read it, saying, bitterly,
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  Speaker 1: like Wolsey, I will not hear the king spoken of again.
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  Speaker 1: Let me die in peace. It is to the King
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  Speaker 1: of kings I now have to answer, had I done
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  Speaker 1: for God what I have done for that man? I
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  Speaker 1: should have found salvation ten times over? And now I
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  Speaker 1: do not know what will become of me. The people
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  Speaker 1: wrongly blamed Colbert for the heavy taxes and hated him
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  Speaker 1: so intensely that they would have liked to insult his remains.
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  Speaker 1: He therefore had to be buried secretly at night. But
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  Speaker 1: he is now generally recognized as the creator of French industry, commerce,
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  Speaker 1: navy and finances. Louvois, of whom the dying Colbert was
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  Speaker 1: so jealous, not only reformed the army but established the
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  Speaker 1: famous naval ports of Brest and Toulon, and by diplomatic arts,
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  Speaker 1: enabled France to take possession of the city of Strasbourg
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  Speaker 1: in time of peace without striking a single blow sixteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty one. For nearly two hundred years thereafter, this fortified
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  Speaker 1: town belonged to France and was one of the principal
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  Speaker 1: French strongholds of the northeast. The defenses of Strasbourg were
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  Speaker 1: greatly strengthened by Vaubant, Louis great military engineer, who is
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  Speaker 1: said to have created an iron frontier by repairing five
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  Speaker 1: hundred old forts and building fifty five new ones. He
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  Speaker 1: is also said to have been present at fifty three
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  Speaker 1: sieges and to have taken part in one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: forty three engagements. His talents were such that French people
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  Speaker 1: said a city besieged by Vaubant is a taken city.
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  Speaker 1: A city fortified by Vaubant is an impregnable city. Although
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  Speaker 1: personally bold to the verge of foolhardiness, Vaubant was always
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  Speaker 1: careful with his men's lives, and so loyal a Frenchman
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  Speaker 1: that he earned the title of Patriot war. Having ceased
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  Speaker 1: at home after the Treaty of Nimvigen, Louis turned his
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  Speaker 1: attention to the serious depredations of the Barbary pirates and
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  Speaker 1: put an end to them by sending a fleet to
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  Speaker 1: bombard Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, and to liberate the Christian
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  Speaker 1: captives detained there and hired slavery. Then, having discovered that
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  Speaker 1: the people of Genoa had secretly supplied these pirates with ammunition,
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  Speaker 1: Louis next had that city bombarded also, and refused to
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  Speaker 1: make peace until the Doge president of the Republic came
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  Speaker 1: in person to Versailles to apologize the constitution of Genoa. However,
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  Speaker 1: strictly forbade the Doges leaving this city while in office,
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  Speaker 1: So when a courtier asked him what surprised him most
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  Speaker 1: among all the wonders he beheld at Versailles, he simply
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  Speaker 1: and truthfully answered, it is to see myself here. Maria
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  Speaker 1: Teresa Louis, Queen died in sixteen eighty three. Although Louis
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  Speaker 1: had not been a good husband, he had always treated
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  Speaker 1: her with outward courtesy, and when she had passed away,
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  Speaker 1: he said, quote, God has deprived me of a consort
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  Speaker 1: who never gave me any cause for grief except by
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  Speaker 1: her death end quote. She had done her duty by
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  Speaker 1: giving her husband a son to inherit the crown, but
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  Speaker 1: the court made only a pretense of mourning her death.
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  Speaker 1: Tired of favorites, one of whom Madame de Montespaint had
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  Speaker 1: much influence over him for many years, Louis the fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: at last secretly married the governess of his children, Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Mantainan, a lady whom the courtiers punningly called Madame
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  Speaker 1: de Matinan, meaning the present Madame. She was, however, never
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  Speaker 1: openly recognized as queen, although she was often present at
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  Speaker 1: the Royal Council, and the King frequently asked for her opinion,
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  Speaker 1: calling her playfully your solidity and your reason of noble birth.
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  Speaker 1: Although extremely poor, Madame de Matinand had been glad when
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  Speaker 1: only sixteen to marry a sickly hunched back poet Scarrot,
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  Speaker 1: who lived only eight years after their marriage in his house.
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  Speaker 1: She proved such a witty and entertaining hostess that all
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  Speaker 1: the most noted people came to visit her. Sometimes, when
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  Speaker 1: the poor poet's modest table was insufficiently supplied to satisfy
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  Speaker 1: the appetites of so many guests, the waiter, knowing his
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  Speaker 1: mistress's fascinating arts, would whisper another story, please, madam, for
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  Speaker 1: the roast is too small to day. A woman whose
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  Speaker 1: brilliant conversation could make hungry people forget to eat, was
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  Speaker 1: of course able to amuse the old king, who, having
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  Speaker 1: tired of everything, was apt to be capricious and easily bored.
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  Speaker 1: But as Madame de Matinan was very devout, she insisted
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  Speaker 1: upon Louis being pious too, and encouraged the clergy to
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  Speaker 1: appear at court. She also helped to persuade the king
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  Speaker 1: that it was his duty to stamp out Protestantism in
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  Speaker 1: his realm. You remember, do you not, that ever since
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  Speaker 1: the Edict of Nats, granted by Henry the Fourth, the
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  Speaker 1: Protestants had been permitted to hold their form of worship
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  Speaker 1: in France. They were still most numerous in the south,
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  Speaker 1: and had by this time increased in numbers to such
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  Speaker 1: an extent that there were more than a million Huguenots
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  Speaker 1: in France. Louis the fourteenth tried to convert these people,
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  Speaker 1: at first by persuasion and then by force, actually sending
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  Speaker 1: dragoons to live in their houses and annoy them until
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  Speaker 1: they renounced their religion, a system of persecution which is
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  Speaker 1: known as the Dragonad. Next, the king revoked the Edict
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  Speaker 1: of Nantz sixteen eighty five, decreed that no more Huguenot
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  Speaker 1: worship should be permitted in France, ordered that all Protestant
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  Speaker 1: ministers should be forced to leave the country, and forbade
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  Speaker 1: any other Huguenots to follow them. The result of the
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  Speaker 1: dragonad and of the harsh edict of revocation was that
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  Speaker 1: many Protestants perished, about two hundred thousand escaped, and the
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  Speaker 1: rest feigned conversion for the sake of peace. As as
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  Speaker 1: the Huguenot emigrants were largely of the industrial class, France
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  Speaker 1: was greatly impoverished by their loss, while neighboring countries were
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  Speaker 1: correspondingly enriched Lyon, for instance, which had boasted of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: thousand silk looms before the persecution began, had only four
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  Speaker 1: thousand in operation when it was over. Moreover, Protestants everywhere
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  Speaker 1: resented the cruel treatment their brethren had suffered in France,
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  Speaker 1: so that Lewis thus created many bitter enemies abroad. End
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  Speaker 1: of Section eighty seven