Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/693

 LOUVOIS LOUVRE 687 its principal public edifices is .the cathedral, partly built during the crusades, and the maison des templiers, a Gothic building of the 13th or 14th century. Louviers was in the middle ages surrounded by fortifications. In 1196 a treaty of peace was here concluded between Philip Augustus and Richard Ooaur de Lion. During the 14th century it suffered severely, and was several times taken and lost by the English. It joined the league, and when Rouen fell into the hands of the Huguenots, its parliament as- sembled at Louviers. LOUVOIS, Francois Michel Letellier, marquis de, a French statesman, born in Paris, Jan. 18, 1641, died there, July 16, 1691. He was the son of Michel Letellier, chancellor of France under Louis XIV., by whose influence he was appointed a secretary to the ministry of war. At the age of 21 he married Anne de Souvr, marchioness de Courtanvaux, one of the richest heiresses in France, and soon after renounced the dissipations and pleasures of the court, to which he had been greatly addicted, and, as a preparation for his future functions, examined into the condition of the army, visited the differ- ent fortified places in the kingdom, and in vari- ous ways endeavored to impress the king favor- ably by his industry and capacity for business. At the same time he flattered him with the idea that the most successful measures were the re- sult of the royal suggestions, until Louis grad- ually began to consider the young minister as in some sort his own pupil in the art of states- manship. By careful management Louvois was thus enabled, in spite of his haughty and over- bearing disposition, which made him unpopular with both courtiers and people, to assume and retain for more than a quarter of a century so great an ascendancy in the royal councils that Mme. de Sevigne, writing about him in 1676, said, " He possesses absolute power, and armies advance or retreat at his pleasure." From 1666, about which time he assumed the sole direction of the war department, until the peace of Nime- guen in 1678, he was incessantly employed in planning and conducting campaigns. The cruel devastation of the Palatinate during this war is generally supposed to have been instigated by Louvois. On the other hand, he conceived the plan of the H6tel des Invalides in Paris, established hospitals and asylums in various parts of the country, and made great ameliora- tions and improvements in the army. In times of peace his plans for the aggrandizement of the kingdom were scarcely less magnificent than his achievements in war. He projected the palace of Versailles, the Place Vendome in Paris, and the great aqueducts of Maintenon. After the death of Colbert in 1683 Louvois exercised almost absolute power. He was a bitter enemy of the Huguenots, against whom he eventually directed the drqgonnades, and in October, 1685, induced the king to revoke the edict of Nantes, thereby expelling from France more than half a million of its most useful in- habitants. In 1688 war broke out between France and the league of continental powers headed by the prince of Orange, and the energy, capacity, and unscrupulousness of Louvois be- came more conspicuous than ever. His dic- tatorial manner and affectation of supreme control, however, were beginning to incense the king; and after the siege and capture of Mons in 1691, during which he had provoked Louis by interfering with operations which he desired to carry out himself, the king re- proached him with the numerous cruelties per- petrated under the royal name. Louvois de- clined rapidly in health, and died suddenly after a stormy interview with his master, not with- out suspicion of poison. LOUVRE, a public building of Paris, situated in the central part of the city, near the right bank of the Seine. Before its partial destruc- tion by the commune in 1871, it consisted of the old and the new Louvre. The old Louvre formed nearly a square 576 ft. long and 538 wide, enclosing a quadrangle of about 400 ft. square, and containing a vast collection of sculp- tures, paintings, and other works of art. Its E. facade, looking toward the church of St. Ger- main 1'Auxerrois, was a colonnade of 28 twin Corinthian columns, and was one of the finest works of architecture of any age or country. The new Louvre, inaugurated in August, 1857, consisted of two lateral piles of buildings, pro- jecting at right angles from the two parallel galleries which joined the old Louvre with the Tuileries, and forming the E. boundary of the Place du Carrousel. Between the place or square called Napoleon III. and the rue Rivoli, they presented on the E. side a frontage of nearly 300 ft. intersected by three sumptuous pavilions, which were occupied by the depart- ments of state and of the interior, the adminis- tration of the telegraphs, library of the Louvre, and a permanent exhibition of fine arts. On the other side of the square were galleries set apart for periodical exhibitions of the works of living artists. In the central part of the building, between the gallery facing the quay and that opposite the Place Napoleon, was the council chamber which was used by the public bodies of the empire on the opening of the legislature and on other solemn occasions, and which communicated through the museum gallery with the palace of the Tuileries. The early history of the Louvre is obscure. Saint- Foix says Dagobert I. kept his horses and hounds in a building on its site about 629. Philip Augustus repaired the edifice in the beginning of the 13th century, built a large tower, and converted it into a state prison. About the middle of the 14th century it was used as a residence for foreign princes visit- ing the king. Charles V. greatly embellished it, constructed gardens and terraces, and placed here the royal collection of books, which became the nucleus of the library. Charles VI. lived here in 1380, but afterward quitted it for the Tuileries. Francis I. commenced the present edifice in 1539. Charles IX. fired 511 VOL. x. 44