. . . profligate extravagance, revolting cruelty, and tottering incapacity--is as fatiguing as it is uninstructive.Today's installment concludes

He was building Versailles: transplanting to its arid sands whole groves of full-grown trees from the depths of distant forests. . . ."Continuing

But Louis' mad career of triumph against the Dutch was gradually being brought to a close.Continuing Louis XIV Establishes Absolute Monarchy in

The government was not plundered as it had been, but itself was exhausting the very springs of wealth by its impoverishment of the people.Continuing

Louis XIV's kingly power soared, single and supreme, over prostrate foes.Continuing Louis XIV Establishes Absolute Monarchy in France,our

The government of France had become a machine depending upon the action of a single spring.Continuing Louis XIV Establishes Absolute Monarchy in