. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. 723, Louis XV as-sumed the personal government, but heseldom busied himself with the hardwork of administration. His ministerswere sometimes capable men. Up to1741, France was most of the time atpeace and tolerably well governed. Af-ter that date disastrous wars set in,from which the French reaped no profitfrom their victories, and sheer dishonorby their unnecessary defeats. The life of Louis XV was one longround of idle, vicious frivolity, whereinthe accumulated loyalty of the Frenchnation to the throne was wantonly frit-tered
. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. 723, Louis XV as-sumed the personal government, but heseldom busied himself with the hardwork of administration. His ministerswere sometimes capable men. Up to1741, France was most of the time atpeace and tolerably well governed. Af-ter that date disastrous wars set in,from which the French reaped no profitfrom their victories, and sheer dishonorby their unnecessary defeats. The life of Louis XV was one longround of idle, vicious frivolity, whereinthe accumulated loyalty of the Frenchnation to the throne was wantonly frit-tered away. The king was too indolent and dissipated to playthe tyrant, yet some of his ministers did, and at times themisgovernment of France was frightful. It was a terrible set-back to the first monarchy of Christendom that for fifty-nine years the first gentleman of Europe (so the Frenchking was styled) was a man of utterly vicious life; far more 1 The English navy, of course, was first on the seas, but England never claimedto compete with France as a land A FRENCH SECRETARY OFSTATE, ABOUT 1720Note that while the wig andcostume are still elaborate,the} are less absurd than werethe sixteenth - century cos-tumes. {After a drawing bya Ulin) 35° HISTORY OF EUROPE important than Louiss queen, a weak Polish princess, was hismistress, the beautiful, witty, selfish, worthless Marquise dePompadour. Her reign extended from 1745 to 1764. Dur-ing that time she controlled the king utterly, and, throughhim, the State. Ministers were appointed anddismissed, wars were declared and ended, atthe bidding of a profligate and selfish womanwho had not the slightest conception of theinterests of France. After her death the kingfound a second favorite, Madame du Barry,upon whom he was able to squander 180,000,000livres (say $36,000,000)l in five years, and thiswhile the finances of France were declining inever-increasing disorder. In 1774, Louis XV sank unwept to the his personal
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