Failing to comprehend changing conditions, the same old problem, with a towering house of Hapsburg, obscured her view, and remained the great unchanging fact about which her policy revolved.
Louis XV.

was five years old when, in 1715, he became heir to a throne absolutely rigid.

The best work of Richelieu and Mazarin and Louis XIV.

had been expended upon it.

Absolutism could go no farther.