Monday, October 20, 2008

Morning Gazettes

Louis XVI and his newspapers.
Louis subscribed not only to the daily Gazette de France, but also to the main European newspapers of the day. Some of these included the Morning Chronicle of London and the Gazette de Leyden, a premiere Dutch publication. He would not read them all over breakfast but spent many hours in his library pouring over both books and the news. So if you assumed he was not on the 'in' he was in fact very well informed of events in Europe from point of views outside of France!
The mystery of Lapérouse.
Louis XVI, who personally supervised the planning of the voyage, specifically forbade the mistreatment of any native peoples and stated that he would consider it "one of the highest accomplishments of the expedition that it be completed without costing a single human life."
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3 comments:

Barbara Martin said...

Thank you for posting these snippets about life in the French court with Louis XVI.

lara77 said...

His Most Christian Majesty, King Louis XVI was intelligent, very well read, fascinated by how things work, loved maps and geography. This is certainly not the man the French Republic would have you believe. He was also a good Catholic and a gentle man in heart and spirit. What a great constitutional monarch he would have made; it was the French rabid republicans that destroyed him and the nation.

elena maria vidal said...

You are welcome, Barbara!

Yes, Lara, Louis XVI was a very intelligent and educated monarch who has never been fully appreciated.