Chapter Thirteen - The Sun King / 第十三章 - 太阳王

The white walls墙壁/wɔːlz/ of France's royal palace宫殿/ˈpæləs/ glowed in the warm afternoon sunshine阳光/ˈsʌnʃaɪn/. The king国王/kɪŋ/ of France, Louis XIII, was deep in a meeting会议/ˈmiːtɪŋ/ with his ministers大臣/ˈmɪnɪstərz/.

The queen王后/kwiːn/ was writing letters信件/ˈletərz/ in her boudoir. Servants仆人/ˈsɜːrvənts/ scurried through the corridors走廊/ˈkɔːrɪdɔːrz/. Upstairs, in the nursery育儿室/ˈnɜːrsəri/, one maid女仆/meɪd/ scrubbed at the grass-stained clothes衣服/kloʊðz/ of the Dauphin, the heir继承人/er/ to the throne王位/θroʊn/.

Another polished the little boy's silver-plated breakfast早餐/ˈbrekfəst/ dishes. Down in the kitchen厨房/ˈkɪtʃən/, the Dauphin's nurse保姆/nɜːrs/ was telling the cook厨师/kʊk/ to fix Flemish soup (egg yolks beaten with wine and salt and then boiled) for the Dauphin's dinner晚餐/ˈdɪnər/; he'd been suffering from a slight cold感冒/koʊld/, and she wanted him fed a proper invalid's supper.

Outside, the little boy himself wandered through the gardens花园/ˈɡɑːrdənz/ alone. He was barely four四/fɔːr/ years old, but somehow he had managed to escape逃脱/ɪˈskeɪp/ from the palace without anyone noticing. He'd found a stick棍子/stɪk/ on the ground, and he poked at the grass草/ɡræs/ along the path as he walked.

Just ahead, a fountain喷泉/ˈfaʊntən/ bubbled down into a wide basin. The little boy bent over it, stirring the water水/ˈwɔːtər/ with his stick. He leaned a little further over. His foot slipped. He fell—into water that was over his head! If a passing peasant农民/ˈpezənt/ hadn't heard the sound of splashes and hauled him out, the Dauphin would have drowned.

Not long after the little prince's swim, his father父亲/ˈfɑːðər/ died. At the age of four years and eight months, Louis XIV was now the king of France. He was the lord of every French citizen and the master of every blade of French grass and clump of dirt.

You see, the French king claimed to be the owner拥有者/ˈoʊnər/ of the country国家/ˈkʌntri/ he ruled. The French called their king a "visible divinity神性/dɪˈvɪnəti/"—God's representative on earth.

So while Charles II struggled to keep his throne, Louis XIV ruled without opposition反对/ˌɑːpəˈzɪʃən/. His father and his father's minister, Cardinal Richelieu, had made France into one of the most powerful强大的/ˈpaʊərfəl/ nations in Europe. And Louis XIV was the most powerful man in this powerful nation.

While he was still young, Louis's advisor顾问/ədˈvaɪzər/ Cardinal Mazarin ruled for him. Mazarin had been trained by Richelieu to rule with a ruthless and strict hand, demanding that every French citizen obey the word of the king without question.

He continually reminded Louis that the king should be treated almost like a god神/ɡɑːd/. When Mazarin died, Louis announced that he would now rule absolutely绝对地/ˈæbsəluːtli/, without a council of advisors. He would be his own "First Minister."

His ministers were astounded! No French king had ruled without advisors for almost a hundred一百/ˈhʌndrəd/ years. And no one believed that this elegant young man, skilled at dancing and court life, would be an efficient高效的/ɪˈfɪʃənt/ ruler.

But Louis himself knew what he wanted. In his memoirs, he later wrote, "In my heart I prefer fame名声/feɪm/ above all else, even life itself." For the next fifty years, Louis ruled as absolute king of France. He worked all day long, every day, wielding absolute control over every part of his reign.

He chose the sun太阳/sʌn/ as his emblem徽章/ˈembləm/, to represent his power, and was called "the Sun King" by his courtiers. Only a nobleman贵族/ˈnoʊbəlmən/ of high rank was allowed to dry him after he had a bath.

Other aristocrats fought over the privilege特权/ˈprɪvəlɪdʒ/ of handing Louis XIV his shirt and pants as he dressed! Louis thought that this was a very proper relationship for a king to have with his subjects臣民/ˈsʌbdʒɪkts/.

In a letter to his son, he wrote, "Letting your people lay down the law to you is the worst calamity灾难/kəˈlæməti/ that a man of our rank can suffer....When the people try to take power for themselves, the more you grant them, the more they want."

The Sun King needed a palace worthy of his greatness, so Louis XIV decided to build a huge new house房子/haʊs/ at Versailles, where a tiny hunting lodge stood. After almost fifty years of labor, this tiny hunting lodge had been transformed into an enormous palace, a quarter of a mile long.

Canals were dug to bring water水/ˈwɔːtər/ from the river and to drain the marshland. Versailles was full of elaborate rooms like the famous Hall of Mirrors, where seventeen huge mirrors镜子/ˈmɪrərz/ stood across from seventeen large windows, and the Salon of Apollo, where a solid silver throne stood.

Hundreds of statues of Greek gods such as Apollo, Jupiter, and Neptune stood in the gardens; each god had Louis's face! Every night, thousands of candles lit the palace into brilliance for balls, concerts, and floating parades held on the Grand Canal that ran through the grounds.

To increase his power, Louis brought his noblemen to Versailles to live. He forced them to pay attention to court manners. The noblemen and women女人/ˈwɪmən/ spent all of their time时间/taɪm/ trying to please the king, rather than planning revolt.

Noblemen would do whatever Louis asked, if it meant that they would receive a sign of his favor—permission to wear clothing reserved for the king's favorites, a position standing a little closer to the front of the throne room, or a more ornate chair at a royal dinner.

The Duc de Simon, who lived at Versailles for many years, wrote that Louis also encouraged his noblemen to spend money金钱/ˈmʌni/, in order to make them more loyal. "[The king] loved splendour, magnificence, and profusion in all things," the Duc remarked.

"and encouraged similar tastes in his Court; to spend money freely on...feasting and at cards, was a sure way to gain his favour, perhaps to obtain the honour of a word from him....By making expensive habits the fashion, and, for people in a certain position, a necessity, he compelled his courtiers to live beyond their income, and gradually reduced them to depend on his bounty for the means of subsistence."

The Sun King spent most of his reign fighting wars战争/wɔːrz/ to expand France's borders. During Louis's reign, France became the largest and most important nation in Europe.

But in the last years of Louis's life, his army军队/ˈɑːrmi/ began to falter. Other European nations joined together to oppose the ambitious French king. France lost some of its new territory. And then Louis's son, the Dauphin, died suddenly of smallpox天花/ˈsmɔːlpɑːks/.

Louis didn't mourn too much; he disliked his son, who was slothful and self-absorbed. "He feared nothing more in this world世界/wɜːrld/ than to become king," the Dauphin's aunt remarked, tartly. "He was frightfully lazy, could sit the whole long day on a bed."

With the Dauphin's death死亡/deθ/, Louis's grandson became the new heir to the French crown. But not long after, the grandson's wife—a cheerful, affectionate girl, whom Louis XIV loved like a daughter—began to complain of toothache. She didn't have a toothache. She had the measles麻疹/ˈmiːzəlz/.

After a week of illness, she died. A few days later, her husband died as well. Then one of Louis's grandsons fell from a horse马/hɔːrs/ and was killed. Faced with so many catastrophes, Louis himself began to grow ill.

One day, he went hunting and came back looking exhausted, complaining about pain in his left leg. His doctors医生/ˈdɑːktərz/ told him nothing was wrong. But the doctors had missed an infection, growing below Louis's knee. In just a few days, Louis was suffering from gangrene.

When he died, his only remaining grandson, a sickly five-year-old, inherited the throne of France. The Sun King had made himself a god on earth—but he had also made a great mistake.

He had made himself powerful by forcing the common people人民/ˈpiːpəl/ of France to pay heavy taxes to support his wars and his lavish palaces. French peasants and craftsmen had labored for decades to build Versailles; one French aristocrat remarked that the hard work and swampy climate was so bad for the workmen that dead bodies of peasants had to be removed every morning.

Thousands and thousands of Frenchmen had died in Louis's unending wars. And throughout the French countryside, anger愤怒/ˈæŋɡər/ was growing—anger which would eventually destroy the French crown forever.