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Tag Archives: Bourbons

France Becomes the Leading Country of Europe

Louis XIV

From early morning until midnight every great French noble and those who hoped to be great, worked at doing and saying what would please the King in his palace at Versailles. From all over France came these noblemen, for the only road to success was by way of the Grand Monarch’s favour. In 1670 a French bishop described the tremendous power of the King in these words: “Behold an immense people united in a single person; . . you see the image of God in the King, and you have the idea of royal majesty . . . borrowed from God, who gives it to him for the good of the people.” So the nobles flocked to Versailles to see and — much more importantly — to be seen and known by the King. These courtiers, or nobles at the court, had no easy time carrying out the endless ceremonies at Versailles. The following account gives you a picture of what courtiers had to do. The courtier was obliged to leave his bed for the icy corridors of Versailles at a very early hour. He then attended the King at Mass, at his dinner, his walk, his supper at ten, his going to bed at midnight and whenever he changed his boots and coat, as well as at any entertainments which happened to be taking place. The ceremonies of the King’s rising involved the attendance of 150 or 200 people. Long before eight o’clock the anteroom was filled with a whispering crowd studying requests they had to make. As the clock struck, the valet in chief entered the King’s bedroom and pulled up the gold and white blinds . . . When the King was fully roused, there filed in a brilliant assembly of the princes of the blood [those …

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Russia Under the Tsars 1462-1796

tsars

IN THE LAST PART of the fifteenth century, the monks and courtiers of Moscow began to say that Moscow was destined to become the “Third Rome.” The first Rome, they said had been great as the centre of Christianity; but when the Romans had recognized the pope, Rome had been punished by destruction. The second Rome had been Constantinople, the centre of the Orthodox Church; but Constantinople, too, had briefly recognized the pope, and it, too, had fallen. Now Moscow, where the Orthodox faith still remained pure, was to become the Third Rome — the great centre of the Christian world. It would remain so, “for two Romes have fallen, the third stands and a fourth will not be.” Once Moscow had been small and unimportant, but the dukes of Moscow had been bold and ambitious, seizing every opportunity to make Moscow stronger. Sometimes they acted more like thieves than princes. Grand Duke Daniel once invited another prince to dinner, pretending friendship. When the guest arrived, Daniel threw him into prison and seized his lands. Daniel’s son, Ivan, who was called Ivan Moneybags, made Moscow the home of the Metropolitan, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Ivan Moneybags also became the tax collector for the Tatar overlords and he kept a good part of the taxes, for himself. Other dukes stole or bought or conquered new lands to make Moscow greater. THE BOYARS So, when Ivan III became Grand Duke in 1462, he inherited one of the most powerful kingdoms of Russia. Ivan acted very much as though he believed the story of the Third Rome. He married Sophia, niece of the last Byzantine emperor. He put the two-headed eagle of Rome on his own state seal. He sometimes even called himself tsar, which was the Russian way of …

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