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--- Begin Message ---Wednesday, July 14, 2004 CNN'S LOU DOBBS IN CONTEXT STAPLES FROM THE BASKET OF GLEN KEALEY :LOUIS, Kings of France and Other Places. Also See 'OUI' (YES in French) and 'A Boy Called Su' (SOO) styled after King Saul and Sault Ste. Marie The first of the many French kings to bear the name Louis was actually Clovis. He ruled from 481 to 511 and founded the kingdom of the German Franks. Later, in French, the "C" was dropped and the "v" was written as "u," thus making the name Louis. It is the same as the English Lewis (see lewisson) and the German Ludwig. CHARLES MARTEL (688-741). In 732 Charles Martel and his barbarian German 'Frankish' army fought a battle near Tours, France, that affected the history of Europe. Their foes were inspired Muslim, or Saracen, troops who were bent on world conquest for the religion of Islam. In a hundred years the Saracens had established a vast empire that stretched from Persia (now Iran) westward across northern Africa. They had gained a foothold in Europe by taking Spain. As they advanced into the region that is now France, reportedly the fate of Christian Europe hung in the balance. CHARLEMAGNE (742-814). "By the sword and the cross," Charlemagne (Charles the Great) became master of Western Europe. It was falling into decay when Charlemagne became joint king of the German Franks in 768. Except in the monasteries, people had all but forgotten education and the arts. Boldly Charlemagne conquered barbarians and kings alike. By restoring the roots of learning and order, he preserved many political rights and revived culture. Charlemagne's grandfather was Charles Martel, the warrior who had reportedly 'crushed' the Saracens. Charlemagne's character was contradictory. In an age when the usual penalty for defeat was death, Charlemagne several times spared the lives of his defeated foes; yet in 782 at Verden, after a Saxon uprising, he ordered 4,500 Saxons beheaded. He compelled the clergy and nobles to reform, but he divorced two of his four wives without any cause. He forced kings and princes to kneel at his feet, yet his mother and his two favorite wives often overruled him in his own household. Louis the Pious (born 778, ruled 814-40) is usually reckoned as Louis I. The son of Charlemagne, he succeeded his father as king of the German Franks and Holy Roman emperor. The great empire built up by Charlemagne was divided after Louis I died, and the next four rulers of this name left little mark on the course of history. Louis II, the German (804-76), king of East Franks; 3rd son of Louis the Pious and grandson of Charlemagne; his share of Charlemagne's empire after Partition of Verdun (843) formed nucleus of modern Germany. Louis II (827-875), Holy Roman emperor (crowned 850) and king of Italy (came to throne 839), son of Lothair I; fought Saracens and restored order in Italy. Louis III, the Blind (880-928), Holy Roman emperor (crowned 901) and king of the Lombards (chosen 900), grandson of Louis II; his eyes were put out 905 by Berengar, rival king of the Lombards; exiled to Provence. LOUIS IV and V of France are not named (see Capetian Line Ecclesiastic Freemasonry and Secular Freemasonry) CAPETIAN DYNASTY. In 987 the descendants of Charlemagne were displaced on the throne of France by Hugh Capet. This 'CAPED' dynasty, or sequence of rulers, that he founded encompassed 15 kings, the last of whom was Charles IV, who died in 1328. These kings are known as Capetians "of the direct line." They were followed by the 13 kings of the Valois branch of the family. In 1589 the Capetians (NATSI) of the Bourbon line succeeded them. Descendants of the Bourbon line are King Juan Carlos of Spain, who came to the throne in 1975, is a Bourbon. Three Capetians were also emperors at Constantinople between 1216 and 1261. Louis VI, the Fat (born 1081, ruled 1108-37), was the first important king of the Capetian line. This line sprang from Hugh Capet, who became king in 987. Louis the Fat was a great fighter, a great hunter, and a great eater. At 46 he became too fat to mount a horse, but he remained the embodiment of warlike energy. His great task was to reduce to order the petty nobles of the royal domain, who could truly be called robber barons. When Louis came to the throne, every lord of a castle robbed at will and it was not safe for even the king to pass along the road. Twenty years of hard fighting were necessary to remedy this condition, but in the end, law and order prevailed. So that such evils might not recur, every castle that was captured was destroyed or given to faithful followers. Louis VII (born 1120, ruled 1137-80) was the eldest son of Louis VI. Shortly before his death, Louis VI arranged for his son's marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine. By this marriage southwest France was added to the domains of the new Frankish French king. Unfortunately for Louis, who was very religious and prone to be jealous, soon discovered that his beautiful queen was a capricious flirt. In 1147 Louis departed for the Holy Land on the Second Crusade, taking his queen with him. This Crusade was a miserable failure. After they returned, Louis had his marriage annulled in 1152. Eleanor at once sent an embassy to Henry, count of Anjou and duke of Normandy, proposing marriage. Henry was overjoyed because the alliance transferred to him the great BASQUE duchy of Guienne. Two years later Henry and Eleanor were crowned king and queen of England (see Kings of England, "Henry II"). Reportedly, France thus lost a rich territory to England, its greatest rival. See Aquitaine, a historical region of southwest France between the Pyrenees and the Garonne River. It was reconquered by France in 1453. Louis VIII (born 1187, ruled 1223-26), the son of Philip Augustus, reportedly reigned too short a time to accomplish anything of real importance. Louis IX (born 1214, ruled 1226-70), called St. Louis, was one of the most virtuous and heroic kings of France. He was the dutiful son of Louis VIII and his queen, Blanche of Castile. Blanche bravely faced numerous revolts of powerful feudal nobles during her son's youth. Louis IX had all the good qualities and few of the bad ones of the age in which he lived. Indeed, his virtues were so remarkable that after his death the Roman Catholic church declared him a saint; canonized in 1297; festival August 25. Louis's reported acts of piety, such as wearing a haircloth shirt, fasting, and waiting on lepers, were usually performed in private. To the world he was a fearless knight, thoroughly trained in the art of war, and a conscientious, just, and able king--usually good-humored and kindly, but at times impatient and angry. He was a strong ruler, who greatly strengthened the royal power. He improved the government by appointing local officials who were responsible to him for the administration of justice, the collection of taxes, and the government of their districts. He encouraged the people to appeal to him if the nobles oppressed them or if his officials were unjust. He improved the administration of justice by abolishing trials by combat and by using in his courts the new lawyers, trained in the Roman law, in place of the churchmen who formerly were the only people who could read and write. These reforms not only benefited the peasants but also checked the power of the nobles, who, according to a writer of the time, "undertook nothing against their king, seeing clearly that the hand of the Lord was with him." St. Louis made two crusades--to Egypt and the Holy Land, from 1248 to 1254, on which he was reportedly captured and held for ransom by Muhammadans; and to Tunis, in 1270, where he died of the plague. Louis X (born 1289) ruled for only two years, from 1314 to 1316. Louis I, the Great (1326-82), king of Hungary from 1342 and of Poland (as Louis) from 1370. Louis IV, the Bavarian (about 1287-1347), Holy Roman emperor (crowned 1328) and king of Germany (elected 1314); despite his being almost constantly at war, first with his brother over Bavaria, then with the pope over Germany, Louis enlarged his domains, and fostered trade and learning. Louis XI (born 1423, ruled 1461-83) presented a striking contrast to Louis IX. In appearance Louis XI was ugly and unkingly; in character he was unscrupulous and underhanded. Like his contemporaries, Cesare Borgia and Richard III, he was an embodiment of the principles that are called Machiavellian. He believed that "he who has success has honor" and cared nothing for the way in which he attained success. He made promises only to break them, unless he had sworn by one particular saint: then his word was good. His one ambition seemed to be to extend the boundaries of France. Although he was too stingy to buy a hat to replace the shabby one he wore, he spent large sums in buying back border cities. In his conflicts with the nobles, especially with Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, he also acquired much territory, so that by the time of his death most of the land of France was under the direct control of the king. The power of the crown in the latter part of his reign was truly absolute over the territory it held. Sir Walter Scott, in his novel 'Quentin Durward' about a young Scotsman who finds adventure at the court of Louis XI of France, gives a fine description of the court, as well as an excellent survey of the customs and traditions of the period. Louis XII (born 1462, ruled 1498-1515) is chiefly noted for the Italian wars, begun by his predecessor, Charles VIII, and continued after the reign of Louis XII by Francis I. Louis XIII (born 1601, ruled 1610-43) kept his able minister, Richelieu, in power for 18 years despite strong opposition. The first years of the reign were filled with anarchy and disorder. The king was a child, and his mother, who ruled for him, was weak and selfish. When Richelieu came into power, however, all this was changed. The Huguenots were reduced from a powerful political party to a mere religious body, and the nobles were humbled. National unity and religious peace were secured at home, and France was raised to the first position among the powers of Europe. Louis XIV (born 1638, ruled 1643-1715) inherited this power from his father and carried it further. He was styled the Grand Monarch, and his brilliant court at Versailles became the model and the despair of other less rich and powerful princes, who accepted his theory of absolute monarchy (L'etat c'est moi, "I am the state"). Until 1661 the government was largely in the hands of the wily Italian Cardinal Mazarin. At the cardinal's death Louis declared that he would be his own prime minister. From then on he worked faithfully at his "trade of a king." A passion for fame and the desire to increase French territory in Europe were the leading motives of Louis XIV. He neglected the opportunities to gain an empire in America and India and involved France in wars that ruined the country financially and paved the way for the outbreak of the French Revolution. His first war, fought from 1667 to 1668, was an attempt to enforce claims to part of the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium). His second (1672-78) was directed against "their High Mightinesses," the States-General of Holland, who had blocked his objective in the first contest. In spite of the great military power of France, the Dutch admiral De Ruyter twice defeated the fleets of the French and their English allies, and Louis XIV failed ingloriously in his attempt to conquer Holland. The third war (1689-97) also was directed chiefly against Holland, whose stadholder had by then become King William III of England. The German province of the Palatinate was terribly wasted, but the Peace of Ryswick brought only slight gains for France. Louis's last and greatest effort was the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13). In this conflict the English duke of Marlborough was the principal leader of the opposing European coalition. The right to seat his grandson Philip V on the throne of Spain was small compensation for the thousands of lives and the millions in treasure that the French king wasted in the struggle. Millions more were spent by Louis XIV in building the beautiful palace at Versailles, near Paris, and in maintaining his brilliant court. There, etiquette became the "real constitution of France." It required seven persons, some of them the highest princes of the realm, to put the king's shirt on him at his rising (levee) in the morning. A French historian says of Louis XIV: "He was a god in his temple, celebrating his own worship in the midst of his host of priests and faithful." This extravagance of the court meant a heavy burden of taxation for the common people, who were thereby reduced to a misery so great that they eventually rose up in rebellion and drove the Bourbons from the throne. Louis XIV had the distinction of ruling longer than any other European king: it was 72 years from the time when he ascended the throne, as a child of less than 5, until his death in 1715. The Grand Monarch, who had outlived both his son and his son's son, was succeeded by his 5-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV, the last son of the duke of Burgundy. Louis XV (born 1710, ruled 1715-74). The luxurious court of Louis XIV was continued under Louis XV. The evils from which the country suffered were clearly recognized, but by the time the king grew up he was too lazy and selfish to try to remedy them. Misgovernment was common at home, and the position of France abroad was lowered by the loss of its colonial possessions in India and America. These misfortunes, however, made little impression on the king, whose attitude was expressed in the phrase, "After me the deluge!" (See 2016) Louis I (1838-89), king of Portugal, born in Lisbon; came to throne 1861; abolished slavery in Portuguese colonies; promoted literature, translated Shakespeare and works from French. Louis II (1870-1949), prince of Monaco, born in Baden-Baden, Germany; succeeded to throne of principality of Monaco 1922; son of Albert I; served in French army with rank of major general. SEESAW: Lord of the Rings ~ Return of the Kings The SculPTor http://www.kealey.net __________________________________________________________________ Switch to Netscape Internet Service. As low as $9.95 a month -- Sign up today at http://isp.netscape.com/register Netscape. Just the Net You Need. New! Netscape Toolbar for Internet Explorer Search from anywhere on the Web and block those annoying pop-ups. Download now at http://channels.netscape.com/ns/search/install.jsp ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <FONT COLOR="#000099">Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. 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