Letter to Louis

Below is a post set in the 17th century. It is a letter to Louis XIV king of France about a peasants reaction to the palace of Versailles and its impact on everyday life.

Dear all ruling king of France,

            The great Louis XIV. Good morrow sir. It is great to finally be able to write to you. I have been saving up my money from working in the fields and got to by some ink and paper for this letter. I recently saw the great palace of Versailles. It is truly magnificent the grandness of your palace. It truly is fit for a king of your magnitude. But the reason I wrote this letter was not to show my adoration towards the palace of Versailles. I wrote because the palace is too grand. It cost so much of the countries money that could be put into the poor commoners such as my fellow towns people and myself. Instead of spending all your money on palaces and parties why not spend it on your people

            I can tell you that everyone would admire you a lot more if you helped the country out a little more. The peasants such as myself are really struggling. All of the people I know barely have enough food to survive. Versailles has close to 700 rooms and most of us have only one room in our house. One room. That means the kitchen, bedroom and living room are all in one room. Versailles has so many windows and I cannot even afford windows. Glass is so much money. And your gardens. They are so magnificent. The intricate designs in the grass are amazing. I do not even have a yard. I just go to the park for grass. The most amazing thing in your palace was all the artwork. The murals on the ceiling were awe inspiring and so beautiful. In my house the only artwork is a tiny picture of Jesus Christ. The picture is so small I can fit it in the palm of my hand. Oh I almost forgot the chandeliers. Rows and rows of chandeliers in the grand palace. It was too much to take in all at once. In my house all we have is three handles!

            Now I am not saying take down the palace. I would never ask you to do that. It would be like making one of your favorite children leave the family. I am just asking for you to not throw the most lavish of parties. You can still throw them but do not have parties every week. I promise you if you just spend a little more money on us peasants you will go down as the best king the world has ever seen. You already are the best king but you could be even better.

Sincerely,

Anonymous

P.S.

I hope my requests were not too unrealistic. If you cannot fix them I do not blame you.

Pictures of Versailles Taken by me