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Excerpt from The French Monarchy, Vol. 2: 1483-1789 The Peace of the Pyrenees, closely followed by the death of Mazarin, materially changed the situation in France. Since the time of Sully the power of the Monarchy had been maintained and enhanced chiefly by the great ministers of the King. Richelieu had broken the power of the nobility and restored and raised the international prestige of France. Mazarin had eluded or quelled the last rally of aristocratic revolt, and following in the steps of his predecessor had exhibited France, both in war and diplomacy, as decidedly the first power in Europe. But Richelieu and Mazarin had left no obvious successor, though public opinion confidently expected that one would appear, for it had passed into a proverb that "the King and the ruler were two different persons." Such anticipations, however, were falsified by the unexpectedly energetic action of Louis XIV. The King was barely 22, and had not yet given any indications, even to those who stood nearest to him, of the self-confidence and tenacity that he was soon to manifest. He had seen, without any apparent jealousy, Mazarin regarded as the source of influence and power; the minister's rooms had been thronged with politicians, whilst the King's apartments were comparatively empty, but Louis, instead of resenting this, had exhibited towards his minister a certain amount of deference and submission. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.