Excerpt from The History of France From the Earliest Times to 1848, Vol. 2 of 8 A second fact, less apparent and less remarkable, but nevertheless, not without importance or without effect upon the history of the kingship in France, is the extreme variety Of character, of faculties, of intellectual and moral bent, of policy and personal conduct amongst the French kings. In the long roll of thirty-three kings who reigned in France from Hugh Capet to Louis XVI. There were kings wise and kings foolish, kings able and kings incapable, kings rash and kings slothful, kings earnest and kings frivolous, kings saintly and kings licentious, kings good and sympathetic towards their people, kings egotistical and concerned solely about them selves, kings lovable and beloved, kings sombre and dreaded or detested. As We go forward and encounter them on our 'way, all these kingly characters will be seen appearing and acting in all their diversity and all their incoherence. Abso lute monarchical power in France was, almost in every succes sive reign, singularly modified, being at one time aggravated and at another alleviated according to the ideas, sentiments, morals, and spontaneous instincts of the monarchs. Nowhere else, throughout the great European monarchies, has the dif ference between kingly personages exercised SO much influ ence on government and national condition. In that country the free action of individuals has filled a prominent place and taken a prominent part in the course Of events. 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.