welcome to france its 1694
and king louis xiv is well into his
60-year reign
from the time he came to the throne he
faced a civil war
against his own family the parliament
and the people of paris he
was insanely paranoid of revolt he made
everyone that was in power
stay in this massively ornate palace at
versailles
to keep an eye on everyone he ruled
absolutely
and without question meanwhile roughly
20 miles from the palace voltaire was
born
and he would make all that come crashing
down
louis xiv although he looked like he
ruled with unlimited power
like with all dictators he relied on
other people to run his kingdom
and plan his wars but he fought too many
wars
and he was desperate for money so he had
to resort to sell positions
in his government and in the legal
system for money
one of the people that benefited from
selling legal offices
was francois arouet now an assistant
lawyer
the father of francois marie arouet
later known as voltaire. francois marie
didn't listen to authority he had a
rocky relationship with his dad
he was pretty rich though so he hired
two bishops to teach francois marie
but they weren't exactly into their
religion and they were more into
the enlightenment and basically taught
him to be more skeptical
of religion until it was time to go to
school
at the louis le grand and like all
schools
it was boring as hell reciting sermons
hymns and memorizing bible passages
was really boring but since he was at
the best school in france
he hung around a lot of poets and
playwrights that hated the monarchy
and restrictions on freedom of the press
that louis xiv put on them
he got into writing satirical poetry
talking about politics of the day
and he's getting pretty good at it and
he's gaining a reputation
so in his final year francois marie
decides to tell his dad
i don't want to become a lawyer after
school i want to be a poet
his dad didn't take it well a poet
after all the education i spent on you
do you intend to be a wastrel
be a burden on the family to die poor
don't you realize how hard i've worked
to get our status
where's the job security the
intellectual seriousness
the moral worth you're going to be a
broke alcoholic!
do you think you're going to be the next
virgil the next sophocles
instead his dad forced him to go to law
school and considering he'd get kicked
out of his house
and more importantly his inheritance if
he didn't
he decides to go to law school he tried
really hard for three months but it was
so boring
and writing poetry and insulting the
government was too much fun
but he's starting to get noticed a few
months after abandoning law school
francois gets a letter in the mail it
basically said something like this
hey so i shared some more poetry around
and the nobles at this place
really liked your stuff so they wanted
to offer you a place to stay
at a castle do you want to come francois
marie
giving the side eye to his dad says yeah
and legged it straight there
when he got to the house in the
countryside he was pretty amazed
especially with louise benedict bourbon the
person who ran this whole place
she left that massive palace at versailles
and created a little court
where she entertained famous people and
immersed herself in politics
she also invited a bunch of poets and
playwrights for fun and parties
all these writers helped francois write
more poetry
and refine his craft then the news came
louis xiv the longest reigning monarch
in the history of europe
was dead and politics was heating up and
this is when his writing
took on a lot more political tone since
louis xiv
was so old he outlived his son and his
grandson
and they died suspiciously within a year
of each other
and the new king was five and he
couldn't exactly
rule himself so a load of people wanted
to rule the kingdom
for him until he was old enough so he
begins writing a load of stuff
attacking philippe the official regent
of france
who was the guy that was supposed to be
running the kingdom for the young king
he said that philippe had louis and his
son
poisoned and also that he was a bit too
close with one of his daughters
philippe heard and read what francois
wrote
he wasn't happy francois was getting
some popularity
and an ego and people were starting to
question philippe's rule
he needed to be dealt with a few months
later
francois was walking around paris and
philippe approached him
and said well it seems you know a lot
about the court
and the current political climate but i
can show you something you haven't seen
the inside of the bastille francois said
oh i'll take that as seen even though he
was clearly given a warning
the fame was just too much he kept
writing
but someone published some really bad
stuff and blamed it on him
and philippe followed through with his
threat and jailed francois
in the bastille when he was ordered into
the bastille
being young and cocky he said oh good i
need a week's rest
he would be in there... for 11 months... he
didn't care though
he was gonna keep writing he was gonna
say what needed to be said
consequences be damned no one should be
imprisoned for expressing their ideas
freedom of speech is very very important
and this is one idea he would spend the
rest of his life championing
while he was imprisoned he had a lot of
time to think
and he says well while i was at the sew
my poetry was good but it wasn't really
getting me any more status
or a better reputation so i'll write a
play that's going to be performed in the
best theater in the country
and it's going to be a ripoff uhh I mean a
rework of sophocles classic
oedipus and it's at this point he
decides
i want a name change i'd want to be
associated with my dad
he was his own man and it's at this
point
he changes his name to Voltaire. Voltaire
left the bastille and started his play
on oedipus
he thought the gods are dumb the oracle
is done and the prophecies are stupid
but
i'm uncreative and also lazy so i'll
make the plot believable enough
that he can accidentally murder his dad
and marry his mum
not because of some stupid prophecy
after seven months of writing
he finally has the play ready and it's
approved and ready to be performed in
france's greatest theatre
the comedy francaise it was a huge
success
and 25 000 people went to see it
for the two months it was performed
voltaire's dad was in the audience
and he finally admitted well you do have
some talent
being only 18 and after this huge
success
you could only go upward right well
after gaining some popularity after a
few more plays
in 1726 a nobleman
called Rohan Chabot taunted voltaire
about his name change
and he says oh are you so ashamed of
your parents
and up your background that you're
willing to change your name
voltaire replies well i'm going to honor
mine
whereas you can only dishonor yours
pissed Rohan arranged for voltaire to be
jumped
when he got jumped voltaire challenged
him to a duel
Chabot went home panicked cried and
instead
got his dad to talk to the royal family
and he got put in the bastille
again seeing how rigged the whole thing
was
and he knew from last time that he
didn't know when he would be out
he could be in there for years so
instead he goes to court
and asks can i go to britain instead?
the regent thought well he's out of my
hair he can't cause that much chaos
and so he lets him go it's at this point
he decides to aim for the literary crown
and instead of copying sophocles he was
going to copy the kings of epic
literature
homer and virgil and make his own epic
poem
called the Henriade. voltaire set off for
england
and set about finding a publisher for
his epic poem about henry
iv of france the king during the french
wars of religion
who converted from protestantism to a
catholic
but since louis xiv took power he
persecuted
all protestants and france was basically
all catholic
and considering how controversial that
subject was in france
he couldn't publish it but considering
how well-known voltaire was with his
play
and his run-ins with the law when he
wrote it
it was hugely successful people went
nuts
and a load of pirate copies got into
france
he writes in the play religion shouldn't
matter
to the point of murdering millions of
people judging by the amount of copies
sold
it seemed people agreed
so after his play was finished he starts
to record his experience in england
in his letters concerning the english
nation
this document compares how different
england is to france
and how free and liberated the english
people were compared to that mess in
france
he writes about the quakers who said to
voltaire
we don't sprinkle holy water on
someone's head and claim them a
christian
it's due to their actions and they can
leave as they choose
he writes about politics and how even
though england has a monarchy
there's a limit on their power and stuff
gets solved with votes and talking
rather than with guns and bloodshed and
most importantly
britain's effect on literature and
science especially that cult magician
sometimes scientist and eternal virgin
isaac newton
nobody really knew who newton was
outside of britain
and voltaire writes a lot about him
especially his idea of gravity
and optics instead that he's the guy
that popularized the idea of
newton's apple falling on his head
because it's just an easy way to explain
gravity
so this book about religion trade
politics and science
starts doing the rounds in france and
introduced a lot of stuff back into the
country
but speaking of france he was feeling
homesick
and sort of broke it's around this time
a mathematician talks to voltaire about
his plan
to rig the lottery and voltaire
eventually got
50 million dollars in today's money
now this is where voltaire really comes
into his own
not having to rely on the government to
get money or
really bothered about his work reaching
a wide audience
it's time for another play about brutus
that guy that betrayed caesar
and in that play he shows how great he
was for killing caesar
for trying to be king while hoping it
would be performed
in a theater owned by the monarchy it
wasn't well received
it would catch on a few decades later
though then
he finally decides to publish his
letters concerning the english nation
in france it didn't go well
and people burned it at the french court
of justice
and he had to hide in different houses
to avoid an arrest warrant
and this is where he meets philosopher
scientist
and mathematician emile du chatelet
voltaire hid at her husband's house the
marquis de chatelet
and he sometimes stayed at the chateau
with his wife
but that wasn't a lot and there was a
lot of free time when he wasn't home
emile and voltaire clicked immediately
emile's husband surprisingly didn't
really care
his marriage was for property and status
he had a mistress anyway
voltaire and emily collected around 21
000 books and they wrote about newton
philosophy and science after three years
of writing
and publishing articles voltaire caught
the attention of somebody
very high up not in france but in
germany
the prince of prussia later known as
frederick the great
and he was a huge fan of voltaire's work
they started talking about philosophy
politics and history
and start writing letters to each other
after a while of talking
and becoming king frederick becomes way
more aggressive in his letters
treaties are only oaths of deception and
faithlessness
the law of kings is the law of the
strongest
i have acquired 16 new battalions for
the army plus five squadrons of hussars
and a squadron of guards it's pretty
obvious from these letters
that frederick was preparing for war the
french government was scared
and so they called voltaire and he was
sent to frederick's court
to gauge frederick's military intentions
in the soon-to-be
austrian war of succession voltaire
he really really liked prussia he got paid
a pension
he didn't have to do anything he got
drunk he had parties and he wrote a lot
but frederick didn't allow emily to come
and after being away for so long and
voltaire never actually writing to her
for weeks or even months they separated
although once they came back from
prussia they kept up appearances
but the relationship was over after
emily died
he moved back to prussia life went well
for voltaire at first
especially because he got given money he
wrote micro magis
one of the earliest pieces of sci-fi but
his relationship with frederick the
great
began to go sour after he insulted
frederick's friend
who was the head of the berlin academy
of science
voltaire got kicked out he was going to
go back to france
but the king banned him for working with
frederick considering that prussia
and france were at war and also the fact
that he forgot
that he was supposed to spy for france
so he has to go back to switzerland
but learning from the experience he
settles near the border in case he needs
to flee again
he would stay there for 20 years
he gets a letter by some guys about this
idea
people wanted to make a collection of
all human knowledge
the first encyclopedia and people asked
him
do you want to write some articles he
was pretty enthusiastic
but he thought this encyclopedia wasn't
going to do much
i would like to know what harm can come
of a book that cost
300 libra 20 volumes of a book
will never start a revolution it's the
pocketbooks
at 30 suit that represent the real
threat and inspired by this idea
he decides to make a dictionary of
philosophy
and this is the work that defines
voltaire
and is probably his most influential
work
this book does not demand continuous
reading but where
or whenever you open it you will find
matter for reflection
this book is meant to spark a
conversation he writes about the
catholic church
and how the catholic church as organized
religion
doesn't actually do much for the people
if there was only one religion
there'd be danger of tyranny with nobody
questioning that religion
if there are two they will cut each
other's throats
but if there are 30 you'll live happily
and together in peace
which was a pretty novel concept
especially for the french
whose wars of religion happened 100
years earlier
led to 3 million deaths and he also
writes about religious sects
there are no sects in geometry no one
says i only believe euclid are not
archimedes
when truth is self-evident it's
impossible for factions to arise
no one ever disputes there's daylight at
noon there is no justifiable way
for people to say their religion is the
best and dismiss
all others he also writes a poem
basically insulting and degrading the
memory of
joan of arc and it makes fun of a guy's
theory
that we live in the best possible
version of the world
by writing candide but explaining the
genius of that
isn't exactly in my wheelhouse after 20
years
he was getting bored of switzerland and
with the new king on the throne
he went back to france to see a play he
made be performed
he was treated like a rock star who was
celebrated
a massive change from 20 years earlier
but he started to get ill
and within four months he was dead and
buried
but his legacy wasn't over yet barely a
decade after he died
france was descending into revolution
and inspired by volta's criticism
of the catholic church and of the
monarchy france would become
a republic and persecute religious
people like a fanatic
exactly what voltaire wanted to avoid
but his drive to equestrian authority
critique institutions
and champion freedom of speech would
outlast the revolution
and as a cornerstone of western
democracies until today
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