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1. Louis XVI and Charles I: A Condemned King's Mediations
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Prophet_101-150.indd 141 3/2/12 10:29 PM IV ... I The Trial of "Le Stuart Fran~ais" l LOUIS XVI AND CHARLES 1: A CoNDEMNED KINe's MEDITATIONS We remember that during Hume's visit to Versailles in 1763 the historian of the Stuarts had been complimented on his great reputation in France by a nine-year-old boy, the future king, Louis XVI. As it turned out, the young prince was to remain an avid and faithful reader of history all his life. No study, everyone agreed, was more suited to form part of the education of a future ruler: The second way to gain knowledge of men is to compare them to men of the past, and that comparison is made by reading history. Of all the sciences, history is the one that a prince must study most. . . . He must read it as one who seriously wishes to discover the true principles of government and to learn how to know men. He will derive far more enlightenment from the history of monarchies than from the history of republics, which are driven by mechanisms that he will be unable to make use of in a monarchy.... 1 1. Rijlexions sur mes entretiens avec M. le Due de La Vauguyon, par LouisAuguste , Dauphin, in Oeuvres de Louis XVI, Paris, 1864, I. 310. Prophet_101-150.indd 142 3/2/12 10:29 PM THE TRIAL OF "LE STUART FRAN~AIS" The history of the Stuart monarchy, in particular, was of special significance: If the prince wishes to become familiar with the spirit of an illgoverned people, and to know to what extremes it can go, he has only to read Lord Clarendon 's History ofthe Rebellion and Civil Wars in England. He will discover that all weak princes conduct themselves like the unfortunate Charles I, that every people in ferment and rebellion are like the people of England; that every factious and venturesome man possesses the inclinations of a Cromwell, and that, if he lacks Cromwell's talents, he will at least have his hotheadedness and malice.2 It was not long before Louis XVI was to see his own kingdom in the grip of similar revolutionary upheaval. His former rather scholarly meditations on the lessons of Stuart history were suddenly transformed into something much more urgent. In fact, as the time of his trial approached, one can almost say that his preoccupation with the events of Charles I's reign, Hume's account of which he seems finally to have preferred above all others,3 had become a veritable obsession. 2. Ibid., I. 314. Louis XVI was not limited to reading English history in translation. His own knowledge of English was apparently excellent and he had even translated Walpole's work on Richard III (published later as RegnedeRichard III, ou Doutes historiques sur les crimes qui lui sont imputes, Paris, 18oo) , as well as fragments of Gibbon and other English historians. With regard to Louis XVI's reading habits, Necker notes the following in 1792: "I have always seen the King reading, diligently and by preference, the great works of history, politics, and morals, written in French or in English." (Rejlexions presentees d La nation Jrancaise sur leproces deLouis XVI, in Oeuvres completes de M. Necker, publiees par M. le baron de Stael, Paris, 1820-21 , XI. 363.) 3ยท The official inventory of Louis XVI's books, made at the Temple after his execution, shows that Hume's was the only work of English history in the imprisoned king's possession. (Archives Nationales, F. 17, 1200, No. 70: see Bapst, op. cit., La Revolution Francaise, XXI. 533.) Delisle de Sales, who had his information from Malesherbes's son-in-law, the president Rosanbo, stated in 1803 that Louis XVI "had his former minister (i.e. Malesherbes) obtain from Nyon the bookseller David Hume's History ofthe Stuarts, in order to look at the trial and execution of Charles I. " He goes on to add, however, that Louis returned the work to Malesherbes after reading it and that "this copy, made precious by such use, was in the library at the chateau of Malesherbes when the revolutionary vandals invaded ." (See Delisle de Sales, Malesherbes, Paris, 1803, p. 268.) It thus seems prob- [44.222.249.19] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 22:25 GMT) Prophet_101-150.indd 143 3/2/12 10:29 PM LOUIS XVI AND CHARLES I The obsessive nature of Louis's interest in Stuart history...