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 LOUIS XIV. (FKANCE) 657 foreign dangers. The careless and profligate Charles II. of England was privately a pen- sioner of the French king ; Spain, though her prodigious empire was yet unbroken in extent, was weakened by dissensions among her ill- compacted constituent kingdoms ; Germany was divided by religious animosities ; and Hol- land was torn by internal factions, and was wasting her energies in attempts at conquest in Brazil. In France, on the other hand, the policy of Richelieu and Mazarin, notwithstand- ing the civil commotions stirred up against the latter by the turbulent leaders of the Fronde, had at length completely triumphed, and there was no longer among either the people or the aristocracy any serious opposition to the royal authority. The ability unexpectedly displayed by the king, the grace and dignity of his per- son, the weariness which the nation felt of civil contentions, the change from poverty and distress to prosperity and abundance produced by the reforms in the finances, and the humili- ation of Spain and the pope, all tended to in- crease the power of the crown and to render the people submissive and contented. The nobles, whose turbulence and feudal indepen- dence had been hitherto the chief check upon the royal power, now turned courtiers and vied with each other in flattery and subserviency ; and devotion to the king became as much a fashion as opposition to the court had been in the times of the Fronde. The king, with the aid of Colbert and other able ministers, made great and successful efforts to advance the industries of his kingdom, to improve the roads and means of travelling, and to foster literature, science, and the arts. A large pro- portion of the great monuments of France had their origin in his reign; among others, the stupendous harbors, ship yards, and for- tifications of Brest, Rochefort, Lorient, Havre, Dunkirk, Cette, and Toulon ; the canal of Languedoc, which unites the Atlantic with the Mediterranean, was constructed by his orders. In 1663 the academy of inscriptions and belles-lettres was founded, and in 1666 the academy of sciences, and eminent for- eign men of science were invited to take up their abode in France. Cassini was called from Italy, Huygens from Holland, and Roemer from Denmark. An observatory was erected at Paris, and apartments were assigned to the academy of sciences in the palace of the Lou- vre. An academy of painting and sculpture was also founded at Paris, and in 1667 the French academy of art was established at Rome for the benefit of young French artists. Every man distinguished in letters or in art was rewarded with substantial benefits ; large sums were set apart for increasing the royal library; men of learning and discrimination were sent to every part of the world to collect books, manuscripts, and antiques ; and 19 pro- fessorships were founded in the royal college. Many of the narrow and dark streets which deformed Paris were cleared away, and splen- did buildings erected in their stead, while al- most the whole of the city was repaved and relighted, and it soon became the most cleanly, orderly, and secure capital in Europe. Re- forms of still greater importance were made by the promulgation, in 1667, of the famous ordonnance civile, which created a great and beneficial change in the whole body of French law, and swept away a mass of abuses and absurdities which had been accumulating for ages. This was followed by an improved crim- inal code in 1670, and subsequently by the regulation of commercial law and by the abo- lition of local jurisdictions belonging to the great nobles. In his foreign policy, Louis pur- chased Dunkirk from Charles II. of England for 5,000,000 livres in 1662, covertly aided Portugal against Spain in 1665, notwithstand- ing his treaty obligations to the latter power, concluded a commercial alliance with Holland in 1666, and aided that republic against Eng- land during the war of 1665-'7. At the same time his fleet in the Mediterranean swept that sea of the Barbary pirates, and humbled the Algerines, who w^ere compelled to set free their Christian slaves. After long negotiations with the duke of Lorraine, Louis himself in 1667 marched into the territories of that prince and forced him to cede the town of Marsal to France. In 1665 Philip IV. of Spain died, and Louis raised a claim to the Spanish possessions in the Netherlands on behalf of his wife, the daughter of Philip. In support of this claim he suddenly invaded Flanders at the head of an army of 35,000 men, and in three weeks had taken a dozen important towns, including the strongly fortified city of Lille, which after a siege of nine days had surrendered to Louis in person. These rapid conquests alarmed the whole of Europe. A triple alliance was formed, Jan. 23, 1668, between Holland, England, and Sweden, for the purpose of obliging France and Spain to make peace. Louis, however, continued his career of conquest, and in Feb- ruary, 1668, Franche-Comt6 was invaded by an army led by the great Conde" assisted by the king, and in 14 days the whole of that prov- ince had submitted. The commissioners of Swe- den, Holland, and England now met at Aix-la- Chapelle with those of France and Spain, and a treaty was signed, May 2, 1668, by which the important and strongly fortified territory known afterward as French Flanders was re- tained by Louis, and Franche-Comte", which was entirely surrounded by his own domin- ions and was at his mercy whenever he chose to take it, was restored to Spain. Louis now endeavored to break up by diplomacy the coali- tion against him, which had extended to the German states. The electors of Cologne and Hanover, the bishops of Mtinster, Osnabruck, and Strasburg, and the king of Sweden were gained over, and Spain itself was partially con- ciliated. The great object of his policy at this time, however, was to detach England from her alliance with Holland, in order that his