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it was the desire for system and order, for unity and obedience, that first claimed Louis' attention. He believed with a political theorist of his day "that the king alone is sovereign in his kingdom and that sovereignty is no more divisible than the point in geometry." all power had to be gathered in his hands. he denied the great nobles a significant role in the government, but to win their loyalty he brought them to court and treated them to a series of entertainments. He heaped on them titles, honorary positions, and pensions. To their younger sons went the richest ecclesiastical benefices. When court life became dull, there was usually a war on which king and noble could embark in search of honor and glory. No noble could hope for advancement without winning favor at court, and royal generosity was a heavy financial drain on France. Louis finally tamed the French nobility, but in doing so he became their captive. From the time of his reign, the fortunes of king and great noble were so closely bound together that they could not be separated. Their alliance led to their mutual destruction in the Revolution.

Eugenia (Ginia) Hochberg (now Gina Lanceter) is the daughter of Bernard and Dina (Harmelin) Hochberg. She was born November 27, 1928 in Brody, Poland, where her father earned a living as a grain shipper. She had one brother, Sigmund (b. 1922). Eugenia attended a private, non-religious, Jewish school in Brody. After the German invasion and the repartition of Poland in the fall of 1939, Brody came under Soviet occupation. For two years the Hochbergs remained in their home, but were compelled to share their living quarters with other Jewish families. No longer permitted to run his own business, Bernard was forced to take work as a night watchman. In June 1941, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Brody fell under Nazi domination. On November 27, 1941 Bernard was deported to a labor/concentration camp in Zborow, where he remained for five months until his wife could purchase his freedom and bring him home. The Hochbergs relocated to the ghetto after its establishment in the winter of 1942. During this period Eugenia was sent for forced labor to various sites outside the ghetto. She also performed secretarial tasks in the offices of the Judenrat. The family was rounded-up during the final liquidation of the Brody ghetto on May 21, 1943. While on the deportation train to Majdanek, Eugenia's parents forced her to jump off before they reached their destination. Eugenia was found semi-conscious by Polish peasants who stole her clothing and were about to take her to the police, when a railway worker appeared and insisted on taking her himself. Instead of turning her in, however, he offered her temporary shelter and found clothes for her to wear. Eugenia found her way back to Brody, where she smuggled herself into the forced labor camp. Several weeks later, she smuggled herself back out and found refuge with a Polish woman, who harbored other Jews for payment. Eugenia narrowly escaped capture by the Gestapo during a raid on her place of refuge in November 1943. Though she was able to find another hiding place in the home of a Russian woman, Eugenia had to spend the last six weeks of the war concealed in a hole under a bed where two German officers were billeted. Following her liberation in March 1944, Eugenia lived for a time in Brody and then in Lublin. She married Henryk Lanceter in July 1945, and five months later left for Germany. The couple took up residence in the Finkenschlag displaced persons camp in Fuerth, where their daughter was born. In the summer of 1949 the family emigrated to the United States, sailing aboard the General Holbrook to Boston.

Absolute monarchy or absolutism meant that the sovereign power or ultimate authority in the state rested in the hands of a king who claimed to rule by divine right. But what did sovereignty mean? Late sixteenth century political theorists believed that sovereign power consisted of the authority to make laws, tax, administer justice, control the state's administrative system, and determine foreign policy. These powers made a ruler sovereign.

The day after Cardinal Mazarin's death, Louis XIV, at the age of twenty three, expressed his deterrnination to be a real king and the sole ruler of France: Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the gov emment of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govem them myself. You [secretaries and ministers of state] will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders except by my com mand, . . . I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport . . . without my command; to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one.

Versailles served as a dazzling and awe-inspiring setting for state affairs and for the reception of foreign dignitaries, where the attention was not shared with the capital and the people, but was assumed solely by the person of the king. Court life centered on magnificence; courtiers lived lives of expensive luxury, dressed with suitable magnificence and constantly attended balls, dinners, performances, and celebrations. Thus, many noblemen had perforce either to give up all influence, or to depend entirely on the king for grants and subsidies. Instead of exercising power and potentially creating trouble, the nobles vied for the honour of dining at the king's table or the privilege of carrying a candlestick as the king retired to his bedroom.

Danish nobleman and astronomer Tycho Brahe [wiki] was one interesting fellow. He kept a dwarf as a court jester who sat under the table during dinner. He even had a tame pet moose.

By dying, Vallandigham succeeded in demonstrating the plausibility of the accidental shooting and got his client acquitted.