Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The History of France From the Earliest Times to 1848, Vol. 2 of 8
A second fact, less apparent and less remarkable, but nevertheless, not without importance or without effect upon the history of the kingship in France, is the extreme variety Of character, of faculties, of intellectual and moral bent, of policy and personal conduct amongst the French kings. In the long roll of thirty-three kings who reigned in France from Hugh Capet to Louis XVI. There were kings wise and kings foolish, kings able and kings incapable, kings rash and kings slothful, kings earnest and kings frivolous, kings saintly and kings licentious, kings good and sympathetic towards their people, kings egotistical and concerned solely about them selves, kings lovable and beloved, kings sombre and dreaded or detested. As We go forward and encounter them on our 'way, all these kingly characters will be seen appearing and acting in all their diversity and all their incoherence. Abso lute monarchical power in France was, almost in every succes sive reign, singularly modified, being at one time aggravated and at another alleviated according to the ideas, sentiments, morals, and spontaneous instincts of the monarchs. Nowhere else, throughout the great European monarchies, has the dif ference between kingly personages exercised SO much in?u ence on government and national condition. In that country the free action of individuals has filled a prominent place and taken a prominent part in the course Of events.
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