From that time began the bitter animosity of Louis against Leopold, which lasted half a century, and was the cause of threo long and bloody wars.
Meantime the war with Spain was brought to a close in November 1659, by cardinal Mazarin, by the treaty of the Bidasoa, iu which the marriage between the Iufanta Maria Theresa, daughter of Philip IV. of Spain, and Louis XIV., was concluded. Spain gave up the Artois and Rousaillon, and stipulated for a free pardon to the Prince of Conde. The new queen was married and made her entrance into Paris the following year (1660). She brought with her half a million of crowns as a dowry. She was extremely weak in her intellect and childish in her habits, but harmless and good-natured. Louis XIV.
always behaved to her with considerate regard, but never felt any affection towards her, and he resorted to the society of a succession of mistresses, of whom Mademoiselle de la Vallilire, Madame de Montes pan, and Madame de Maintenon are the moat known.
In February 1661 Mazarin concluded at Vincennes a third and last treaty with Charles, duke of Lorraine, by which Strasburg, Phalsburg, Stenai, and other places were given up to France. Nine days after this treaty Mazarin expired, at fifty-nine years of leaving a large fortune to his nieces Mancini, and to his nephew, he made duke of Nevers.
With the death of Cardinal Mazarin began tho real emancipation of Louis XIV., who from that moment took the reins of the government entirely into his hands. He dismissed and imprisoned Fouquet, the superintendent or minister of finance, and had him tried on the charges of peculation and treason by an extraordinary commission, which condemned him to banishment; but Louis aggravated the sentence by shutting him up in the castle of Pignerol, in the Alps, where he died in 1680. In appointing Colbert in the room of Fouquet, Louis made a good choice, and much of the splendour of his reign is due to that able minister. [COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE.] The ruling principle of Louis XIV. was pure absolutism. The king, according to him, repre sented the whole nation; all power, all authority, were vested in him.
" L'etat, c'est moi 1 " was his well-known expression. This form of government, he said, was the best suited to the character of the nation, its habits, its tastes, its situation. In his written instructions to the dauphin he tells him that "all which is found in the exteut of our dominions, of whatever nature it be, belongs to us. The monies in
our treasury, as well as those which are in charge of the receivers and treasurers, and those which we leave in the hands of cur subjects for the purposes of trade, are all alike under our care. You must be con vinced that kings are absolute lords, and have the full and entire disposal of all property, whether in the possession of the clergy or of laymen, and may use it at all times as wise economists. Likewise the lives of their subjects are their own property, and they ought to be careful and sparing of them. . . . Ile who has given kings to men has ordered them to be respected as his lieutenants, reserving to himself alone the right of examining their conduct. It is his will that whoever is born a subject should obey without discrimination or reservation The essential defect of the monarchy of England is that the prince cannot raise men or money without the parliament, nor keep the parliament assembled without lessening thereby his own authority." (` (Euvres de Louis XIV.,' vol. ii., Paris, 1816.) Louis XIV. completed the work begun by Richelieu: be changed France from a feudal monarchy into an absolute one. Ximenes, Charles V., and Philip II. had effected the same change in Spain ; but they had the clergy and the Inquisition to support and share their power, and the absolutism of Spain stood longer than that of France. Louis enticed the high nobility from their rural mansions, attracted them to court, employed them about his person, gave them pensions or placed them in his regular army, and completely broke down their former spirit of independence. With regard to the church, ho distri buted its temporalities to his favourites, both clerical and lay, bestowed livings and pensions and abbacies in commeudam on courtly abb6s, and thus rendered the clergy docile and subservient to the crown. He had several disputes with the court of Rome, in which he treated the pope with great asperity : twice he braved the pontiff, through his ambassador, in the middle of Rome [ALEXANDER VII; INNO CENT XL]; twice he seized upon Avignon, and twice he obliged the papal court to make him bumble apologies. In his old age he became very devout, intolerant, and superstitious, and yet he mistrusted the papal court, and withstood its encroachments.