Monarchs From France

"This blond, barbarian giant, who slept with a slate under his pillow, and made the English scholar, Alcuin of York, his chief counsellor and head of his palace school, conceived the tremendous ambition of reuniting the West in a new Roman empire in place of the remote and now almost entirely oriental empire of Byzantium."

"Take care that none of them escapes."

"Yet more than to the eastern forests from which his forbears had come, Charlemagne's spirit was drawn to the Roman south. He saw himself as the head of Christendom and its guardian. Like his father, Pepin, he led a Frankish army across the Alps against the Lombard conquerors of north Italy. And on Christmas day 800, as he knelt at mass in St. Peter's, Rome, his ally the pope crowned him with traditional imperial rites as Augustus and emperor of the Romans. To dreamers it appeared as if the hand of time had been set back and the Roman Empire was restored. And it was now, it seemed, a Holy Roman Empire."

"If only I could have a dozen churchmen as wise and as well taught in all human knowledge as were Jerome and Augustine!"

"Under this tomb lies the body of Charles, the great and orthodox emperor, who gloriously increased the Kingdom of the Franks and reigned with great success for forty-seven years. He died in his seventies in the year of our Lord 814, in the seventh Indiction, on the twenty-eighth day of January."

"Right action is better than knowledge; but in order to do what is right, we must know what is right."

"It is not lack of self-restraint but care for others which makes me dine in Lent before the hour of evening."

"You nobles, you sons of my leading men, soft and dandified, trusting in your birth and your wealth, paying no attention to my command and your advancement, you neglected the pursuit of learning and indulged yourselves in the sport of pleasure and idleness and foolish pastimes. By the King of the heavens I think nothing of your nobility and your beauty. Others can admire you. Know this without any doubt; unless you rapidly make up for your idleness by eager effort, you will never receive any benefit from Charlemagne."

"The most famous and greatest of men."

"Nothing of that which was gained by fraud can go to the liberation of his soul. Let his wealth be divided among the workmen of this our building, and the poorer servants of our palace."

"This was a king, wise in his councils, valiant in his armies and magnanimous in his victories."

"[A]s the country had nearly relapsed into Anarchy again, through the Frondist revolt, only one resource remained to it, the direct rule of the King; in other words, monarchical autocracy. That is why Louis XIV's first pronouncement on attaining his majority was the famous apophthegm "L’Etat, c’est moi!" All France applauded that utterance. And indeed the observation was interpreted as announcing, not a despotism, but a deliverance. Henceforth the State was, not a minister, nor the great nobles and fair ladies of the Fronde, nor the magistrates of Parliament, nor the lords of Finance (hence the importance and the significance of the Fouquet trial). The governing power would now be in the undisputed possession of its lawful representative, the heir to the Kings of France."

"Lewis XIV. was by far the ablest man who was born in modern times on the steps of a throne. He was laborious, and devoted nine hours a day to public business. He had an excellent memory and immense fertility of resource. Few men knew how to pursue such complex political calculations, or to see so many moves ahead. He was patient and constant and unwearied, and there is a persistent unity in his policy, founded, not on likes and dislikes, but on the unvarying facts in the political stage of Europe."

"Je mettrais plutôt toute l'Europe d'accord que deux femmes."

"Je m'en vais, mais l'État demeurera toujours."

"After Westphalia brought peace to Europe, the second half of the seventeenth century saw a further spread of resident ambassadors, with Louis XIV’s France leading the way, and French replaced Latin as the lingua franca. There was, however, still scope for summitry, for instance during Peter the Great’s tour of Western Europe in 1697–8. His meetings with William III of England helped bring Russia belatedly into the European diplomatic orbit. In due course, the czar created a “Diplomatic Chancellery” and a network of foreign embassies on the European model."

"Louis XIV was the only king of France worthy the name, but though a great king, he was not, like Francis I and Henry IV, un militaire."

"Despots always insist that they are merciful...When Louis XIV. revoked the edict of Nantz, and proclaimed two millions of his subjects free plunder for persecution-when from the English channel to the Pyrennees the mangled bodies of the Protestants were dragged on reeking hurdles by a shouting populace, he claimed to be "the father of his people," and wrote himself "His most Christian Majesty.""

"The personal qualities of the French King added to the respect inspired by the power and importance of his kingdom. No sovereign has ever represented the majesty of a great state with more dignity and grace."

"The French people were quick to realize the deep significance of the King's ideas, or rather, perhaps, it was the King who grasped what it was that France required. France gave him a free hand and thus enabled him to abolish the final vestiges of ancient wrongs, and to display to the world the inspiring picture of a prince and his people working harmoniously to a common end, for the like of which we should search through history in vain. We know what came of it—the "pré carré" all but completed; in Europe, the prestige of France raised to a height that has never been surpassed; amazing prosperity at home; literature and the arts flourishing as never before; our frontiers inviolate for a century—in a word the Age of Louis XIV!"

"Humans also start wars because of what Hobbes called ‘trifles’: ‘a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name’. Honour and glory are abstract concepts yet they can matter more than life itself. Alexander the Great, it is said, modelled himself on the great warrior Achilles, who would not suffer insults, and slept with a copy of the Iliad under his pillow. Louis XIV, the Sun King, beggared France and inflicted years of war on Europe in a search for glory, not for his country but for himself. ‘I shall not attempt to justify myself,’ he said after starting a war with the Dutch. ‘Ambition and [the pursuit of] glory are always pardonable in a prince …’ Victory in battle, the acquisition of territory, the quest to put the king’s relatives on other European thrones, even if the wars that followed did not benefit France, were for Louis’s glory. Napoleon, who seems to have admired Louis’s great antagonist the Duke of Marl-borough more than the king, shared the hunger."

"L'État, c'est moi."

"Toutes les fois que je donne une place vacante, je fais cent mécontents et un ingrat."

"Il n'y a plus de Pyrénées."

"J'ai failli attendre."

"Your opinion is right, that the members of the Académie Royale des Sciences must not be pestered if it does not appear that they are pleased to see that which has been prepared for them. Those are fruits that grow best on their own soil, which is so well cultivated under the protection of one of the greatest kings that has ever been."

"No sovereign in the world was more a king than this prince. Obedience, under his reign, was a veritable cult, and never were the French more submissive and greater."

"Rex Angliæ modo in Hybernia, modo in Anglia, modo in Normannia, volare potius judicandus est quam vel equum vel navem conscendere."

"In politics nothing is immutable. Events carry within them an invincible power. The unwise destroy themselves in resistance. The skillful accept events, take strong hold of them and direct them."

"I do not believe it is in our nature to love impartially. We deceive ourselves when we think we can love two beings, even our own children, equally. There is always a dominant affection."

"Immortality is the best recollection one leaves."

"In love the only safety is in flight."

"The best way to keep one's word is not to give it."

"Had it not been for that fatal suspension of arms, in 1813, to which I was induced to consent by Austria, I should have succeeded. The victories of Lutzen and Wurtzen (Bautzen) had restored confidence in the French forces. The King of Saxony was triumphantly brought back to his capital; one of the corps of the French army was at the gates of Berlin, and the enemy had been driven from Hamburg. The Russian and Prussian armies were preparing to pass the Vistula, when the cabinet of Austria, acting with its characteristic perfidy, advised the suspension of hostilities, at a time when it had already entered into engagements with Russia and Prussia; the armistice was only a delusion to gain the time necessary to make preparations, it being intended to declare against France in May. The unexpected successes obliged it to act with more circumspection. It was necessary to gain more time, and negociations went on at the congress of Prague. Metternich insisted that Austria should have the half of Italy, and made other exorbitant conditions, which were only demanded in order to be refused. As soon as she had got her army ready, Austria declared against France. After the victory of Dresden, I was superior, and had formed the project to deceive the enemy, by marching towards Magdeburgh, then to rcross the Elbe at Wittenberg, and march upon Berlin. Several divisions of the army were occupied in these manoeuvres, when a letter was brough to me from the King of Wirtemberg, announcing that the Bavarian army had joined the Austrians, and to the amount of eighty thousand men, were marching towards the Rhine, under the command of Wrede; that he, being compelled by the presence of that army, was obliged to join his contingent to it, and that Mentz would soon be invested by a hundred thousand men."

"The Allied Powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, he, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even to relinquish life, for the good of his country."

"It is not necessary to prohibit or encourage oddities of conduct which are not harmful."

"One must learn to forgive and not to hold a hostile, bitter attitude of mind, which offends those about us and prevents us from enjoying ourselves; one must recognize human shortcomings and adjust himself to them rather than to be constantly finding fault with them."

"You have already been informed of my arrival on the borders of the Red Sea, with an innumerable and invincible Army, full of the desire of delivering you from the iron yoke of England. I eagerly embrace this opportunity of testifying to you the desire I have of being informed by you, by the way of Muscat and Mocha, as to your political situation. I would even wish you could send some intelligent person to Suez or Cairo, possessing your confidence, with whom I may confer. May the Almighty increase your power and destroy your enemies."

"Simpletons talk of the past, wise men of the present, and fools of the future."

"The fool has one great advantage over a man of sense — he is always satisfied with himself."

"A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than an hundred thousand bayonets."

"The bullet that will kill me is not yet cast."

"Commerce unites men and make them; therefore it is fatal to despotic power."

"How many seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by resolute men because they had to do, or die."

"True character stands the test of emergencies. Do not be mistaken, it is weakness from which the awakening is rude."

"The true conquests, the only ones that cause no regret, are those made over ignorance."

"There is nothing so imperious as feebleness which feels itself supported by force."

"Ordinarily men exercise their memory much more than their judgment."

"A cowardly act! What do I care about that? You may be sure that I should never fear to commit one if it were to my advantage."

"France is invaded; I am leaving to take command of my troops, and, with God's help and their valor, I hope soon to drive the enemy beyond the frontier."