Louis XIV and His Court

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There were many negative comments and many positive comments about Louis XIV and his court. In Louis XIV’s court, the closer a person was to the king, or the more he did for a person, the more that person likes him. The more distant you were from the king, the more you disliked him.
People that were more distant from the king disliked him more. Madame de Motteville’s Account of The Parisian Disturbances (which was a second hand account) painted a positive picture of the court. Madame de Motteville was a person who was closer to the king. She painted a positive picture because she liked the king due to her good position in the court. “And without considering the duty they owed to Marshal La Meilleraye, they threw rocks at him.” (I, 24) The quote reflects that she thinks of the nobles and upper class as better, and assumes they are correct, while the peasants are lesser and wrong. She states in the above quote that the peasants threw rocks without thinking of the duty that they owed to the Marshal. She disregarded reasons why the peasants would be throwing rocks and went straight to why the peasants should not be throwing rocks.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who was a French minister, held the king in high esteem because he had a good position in the royal courts. “He [Colbert] also thought that it would be necessary to strike a large number of medals, to consecrate for posterity the memory of the great deeds which the king had already achieved and which he foresaw would be followed by deeds even greater and more noteworthy.” (VIII, 200) Colbert thought so highly of the king that he assumed the above quote. He thought of the king so highly because of the good position he had and how much the king liked him.
Primi Visconti, w...

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...han the feeling that the heart belongs to another creature [Madame de Montespan] when God would like to have it. How hard it must be to withdraw from this arrangement! Still, it must be done, Sire, or there is no hope of salvation.” (VII, 171) Bossuet tell Louis XIV this without stressing over losing his popularity with the king and therefore power and influence on other important people because Bossuet is a Bishop, so the king could not simply disregard him, as he could with nobles.
The more positive things Louis XIV could do for a person, the more that person liked him (or at least pretended to like him), such as Madame de Motteville’s and Jean-Baptiste Colbert. On the contrary, if Louis XIV had more of a negative effect on a person’s life, the less that person liked him, such as the peasants and Esprit Fléchier.

Works Cited
Louis XIV and His Court. n.d.

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