Versailles housed some ten-thousand people, from the royal family to servants to nobles- which is precisely what Louis intended. Versailles was much more than a glorious palace; it was part of Louis’s plan to control the nobles. If left alone in their castles, they might revolt. So Louis commanded they come live with him in the thousands of rooms in Versailles. There, he could keep an eye on them.
     Louis was so successful that, in time, they became little more than pleasure-seeking courtiers obsessed with fashion, dancing, and above all, pleasing the king. Nobles fought for the great honor of handing Louis his slippers, help him change clothes, or wiping the royal behind. One word from the king meant glory and honor; it was a silly popularity contest.
     All these policies transformed Louis into the most powerful and admired king in Europe. Every monarch copied his clothes, hairstyles, and manners. Louis sponsored artists, plays, ballet, opera, literature, and music, turning France into the cultural capital of Europe.
     Even his private life was news. Louis was married to a Spanish princess, but he was obsessed with women. He was said to have bedded ten thousand women in his life, from peasant girls to noblewomen, and had over twenty-five bastard children.
But amazingly, it was still not enough for Louis. He wanted more power and more glory, and so, like Charlemagne, another great French monarch, he decided to invade and conquer other countries. For most of his later reign, Louis was preoccupied as much with war-making and conquest as he was with art, luxury, and bedding beautiful women.
     At first, Louis did gain new territories, but soon, the other European powers did something they had never done before- they united against Louis’s aggressive military expansion. For years, the wars dragged on with no end in sight. Louis, as an absolute monarch, could not be stopped, and his generals did not dare tell him the wars were a disaster for France, the economy, and the rapidly-emptying treasure. Louis insisted on fighting on.
     And then came another blunder. As mentioned before, France had a large number if Protestants called Huguenots. Since the 1500s, they were protected by a law called the Edict of Nantes. Louis, however, was a deeply religious Catholic, and so he cancelled the Edict of Nantes. As a reuslt, tens of thousands of Huguenots left France, taking with them money, businesses, and skills. It was a disastrous blunder, but, again, no one dared to tell Louis that.
     By the early 1700s, Louis was in his seventies, having ruled longer than any other monarch in Europesn history. Although he was slower, he still worked tirelessly to make France- and himself- greater. He was completely drunk on his own power, obsessed with his own importance, vain to the point of silliness, and tolerating no opinion different from his own. Indeed, on the very day he died, the seventy-seven year old monarch still found time to visit his teenage mistress.
     Louis XIV left Europe a very different place from before. France was now the dominant power in politics, military, and culture/art. Nearly every other monarch adopted the absolute monarchy that Louis came to personify. Thus, Louis XIV was quite correct when he famously declared: “L’etat, c’est moi.”

The original descendant of mine that came to America was on August 19, 1729.  From the stories of my relatives, they said that this descendant of mine came to America to continue his practice in the Brethren religion. In France, he was not able to do that because the French Protestants (the Huguenots) where disliked by the majority, the Catholics. Which was proven on St. Bartholomew’s day massacre where they killed a lot of the Huguenots. So this  descendant of mine came to America to escape all that. There is not a lot of information about what happened to him but he was most likely a farmer since he settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

My dad’s great great grandfather migrated from Pennsylvania to Kansas in 1889 to become a farmer and a stonecutter. Not every country allows you get up and move just because you want to make a change in your living style and place. In America, we have the freedom to pursue what we want. As our family name bears, we take pride in ourselves and our freedom, which persuaded the first descendant of mine to come over as well.

Americans may come from different countries but we are able to put away our differences and say hey that’s okay if you are French, Mexican, German, or El Salvadorian. America is a place where people come from all over the world in search of freedom do be what they want to be and do what they want to do.

In 1527, when Catherine was aged just 8, the Medici were temporarily overthrown by the mob (as they were from time to time) and forced to flee Florence. To make good their escape they were willing to leave Catherine behind as a hostage. Though she remained unharmed it was a frightening experience. The rebellion was soon crushed by the forces of Giulio de Medici, now Pope Clement VIII, and the Medici restored. But Catherine never forgot, not just her sense of terror, but her feelings of abandonment. She was now sent away to Rome for her own safety. There she remained until 1533, when aged 14 she was betrothed to Henry of Orleans, the second son of King Francis 1 of France.

Catherine was by no means a beauty. Described as “small and slender with fair hair, thin and not pretty in the face, but with the eyes peculiar to all the Medici” (described in some quarters as protruding or bug eyes). Despite her physical disadvantages Catherine was determined to make an impression on the French Court. She employed an artisan to devise something that would disguise her lack of stature and slightness of build and give her a grander appearance. What he designed was the first high-heeled shoes. They caused a sensation.

Even so being an Italian, and even worse a Medici, she was not popular in France. Indeed she was referred to as – that Italian woman. She didn’t endear herself further by scorning French manners and French cuisine. She employed only Italian cooks and ate only Italian food. She was an unambiguous lover of luxury and magnificence and could be said to have introduced a culture and sophistication to the French Court that it had never previously experienced, though it wasn’t seen that way at the time.

In 1536, the King’s eldest son died, leaving Catherine’s husband Henry, heir to the throne. But her marriage was not a happy one. She was neither loved by her husband or the French people, and over time she became ever closer to the elderly King Francis. When he died in 1546 she was devastated. Her elevation to Queen did little to alleviate her misery.

Henry spent most of his time with his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who ruled the King with a rod of iron. At 38 she was twice the age of the King and he was to be besotted with her for the rest of her life, and like a child he would sit on her lap and fondle her breasts, something he liked to do in public. Henry was a poor King and a weak man. Of the two of them, it was said, it was not the King who governed. It was an infirmity of mind that was to infect his children who were to follow him. Catherine, however, bore the humiliation of being sidelined in her husband’s affections with fortitude, and despite the neglect still managed to bear him ten children, though only after a barren first ten years that almost bought in their wake divorce proceedings. Catherine wisely remained in the background while the King’s mistress remained alive, a silent but acute observer.

Three of Catherine’s children were to ascend to the throne of France following Henry’s death: Francis II when aged 15 (1559-60) Charles IX aged 10 (1560-74) and Henry II. For much of this time Catherine was the effective regent of France. As Queen Dowager she earned the epithet of Snake Woman and was suspected of being a mass poisoner (as all powerful women of the period were). She also became a great admirer of the French physician and seer, Nostradamus. He had earlier predicted the death of her husband and that three of her sons would reign as King. He had initially feared for his life when summoned to Court but Catherine was so impressed that she consulted him for the rest of his life and made him effectively astrologer in residence to the French Court.

St Bartholemews Day Massacre 24/5 August, 1572

Following three bloody Civil Wars between the Catholic majority and the Huguenots (French Protestants) Catherine determined upon an unpopular peace policy. The Peace of Saint-Germaine signed in 1570 had brought the most recent conflict to an end, but it was a tenuous peace. The controversial proposed marriage of Catherine’s daughter, Marguerite de Valois, to the Huguenot Prince Henry of Navarre, was intended to cement this peace. But to a great many Catholics the mere presence in France of Protestants was unacceptable, any notion of a marriage between their two respective Royal Houses unthinkable.

The marriage was to go ahead, however; and most of the leading Huguenots were in Paris for the wedding including their military commander Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. It presented an opportunity not to be missed and Catherine was persuaded by the powerful Guise family to agree to a plan hatched to eliminate de Coligny. After the wedding ceremony de Coligny and other prominent Huguenot’s remained in Paris to discuss aspects of the peace treaty. On 22 August de Coligny was shot in an assassination attempt but he was only wounded. Catherine fearing that her complicity in the plot would be discovered now urged her nobles to kill all the Huguenots still in Paris. On the evening of 23 August she visited her son King Charles IX, and begged him to order the death of all the Huguenot leaders. Charles’s exasperated outburst of ” Well then, so be it! Kill them! Kill them all! Don’t leave a single one alive to reproach me”, suggests how hard she pressed her son.

Years of enmity and hatred were now unleashed. Huguenot homes were burned and shops looted. Areas of Paris inhabited by Protestants of all denominations and Jews were cordoned off and their inhabitants butchered. Up to 4000 were killed in Paris alone, but the killings were soon to spread throughout the country. A Royal Order was issued for the killings to cease but it was done so half-heartedly and no effort was made to enforce it. In no time the massacres had spread to Rouen, Bourges, Lyon, Orleans and Bordeaux. The killings continued for another three months. It has been estimated that as many as 50,000 Huguenots and others were slaughtered. Thousands of others were forced to flee, many to London. De Coligny had been dragged from his sick bed and murdered on 24 August, his naked body then being tossed unceremoniously out of the window.

The Catholic world rejoiced, though some with a deep sense of guilt. Pope Gregory XII was not one of them. He did not hide his delight and ordered that Te Deums be sung and medals struck to commemorate the event. Catherine, despite her initial attempt to be peacemaker had displayed her hostility towards the Huguenots before. She had previously withdrawn all their rights of worship and forced their Ministers to flee the country on pain of being tried as heretics. Already disliked and mistrusted by her people her constant manoeuvrings as she wavered between reconciliation and open hostility only increased the antipathy. She alienated the powerful Guise family whose hard line Catholicism was winning them popular support and who were to effectively set up a State within a State in direct opposition to Catherine. Unable to grasp either the depths of hatred that existed or the complex theological issues at play, she floundered as she tried to secure the French throne for her family. A shrewd and scheming woman she was nonetheless often politically out of her depth. Following the death of Charles IX in 1574, and the succession to the throne of her third son, Henry, Catherine’s influence declined. She died of pneumonia on 5 January, 1589. Her death, it was said, made no more stir than that of a goat.

Catherine had been an Italian and a Medici, she understood that deceit and assassination were admirable tools in the sphere of political activity. That she was insensitive to the pain of others there seems little doubt. Whereas her son was overwhelmed with remorse at the events of St Bartholemew’s Day, Catherine merely basked in the spotlight and gladly received the plaudits. But despite all her best endeavours she could not save her family; with the murder of her son Henri, the House of Valois became extinct.

In 1589, the year of Catherine’s death, Henry of Navarre, whose wedding had sparked off the St Bartholemews Day Massacre, became King Henry IV of France. He converted to Catholicism to better serve his country, and sought toleration for all religions. His Edict of Nantes, 1598, promised freedom of conscience, freedom of worship, and civil rights for Protestants. He publicly stated that “We are all Frenchmen and fellow citizens of the same fatherland; therefore we must be brought to agreement by reason and kindness and not by strictness and cruelty”. Not long after, Henry IV was brutally stabbed to death by a Catholic fanatic, Francois Ravaillac.