The Age of Napoleon

di Thomas Dyer (Autore)

Ozymandias Press, 2018

THE celebrated phrase of Louis XIV, "I am the State", proclaimed the consummation of despotism. He asserted, and it was true, that the people, as a body politic, had been annulled by the Crown. Before a century had elapsed the maxim was reversed. The head of Louis's second successor fell upon the scaffold, and the revolutionary disciples of Rousseau established the principle that the real sovereign is the people itself. Hence it would appear that, for all practical purposes, the causes of the French Revolution may be sought between the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XVI; or, in other words, that the inquiry may be limited to the nature of the institutions left by the former Monarch, and the causes which gradually led the people to desire their overthrow under the latter. Even within these limits the extent of the subject might demand a volume rather than a chapter. We can pretend only to indicate its principal heads, leaving the historical student to fill up the outline from his own researches and reflections. Louis XI and his successors had begun to undermine their power, which was terribly shaken by the wars of the League, and finally overthrown by Richelieu. One of the most successful measures adopted by Louis XIV was, to entice the nobles to reside in Paris by the attractions of that capital, and thus to destroy their influence in their own provinces. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the abandonment of their estates for a town life had become almost general among the nobles; few remained in the provinces who had the means of living with becoming splendor in the capital. The dissipation and extravagance in which they thus became involved leading to their gradual impoverishment, they were compelled to sell their lands bit by bit; so that in the reign of Louis XVI it was computed that five-eighths of all the land in France was in the hands of roturiers, and for the most part of very small proprietors. Arthur Young, who travelled in France at the outbreak of the Revolution, had often seen a property of ten rods with only a single fruit tree upon it...

• Autore: Thomas Dyer
• Anno edizione: 2018
• Editore: Ozymandias Press
• Formato: EPUB2 con Adobe DRM
• Compatibilità: Tutti i dispositivi (eccetto Kindle)
• Layout: Reflowable
• EAN: 9781531284497

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