CHAPTER XXXVIII .-- --LOUIS XIII., CARDINAL RICHELIEU, AND THE COURT.
(1622-1642.) The characteristic of Louis XIV.'s reign is the uncontested empire of the sovereign over the nation, the authority of the court throughout the country.

All intellectual movement proceeded from the court or radiated about it; the whole government, whether for war or peace, was concentrated in its hands.

Conde, Turenne, Catinat, Luxembourg, Villars, Vendome belonged, as well as Louvois or Colbert, to the court; from the court went the governors and administrators of provinces; there was no longer any greatness existing outside of the court; there were no longer any petty private courts.

As for the state, the king was it.
For ages past, France had enjoyed the rare good fortune of seeing her throne successively occupied by Charlemagne and Charles V., by St.Louis and Louis XI., by Louis XII., Francis I.

and Henry IV., great conquerors or wise administrators, heroic saints or profound politicians, brilliant knights or models of patriot-kings.