Death Just Can’t Be Defeated
Louis XI, Emperor of France, died some 500 years ago. He never wanted to die. He made many attempts to try to live forever, but of course he failed.
When Louis was 58, he fell sick with paralysis. He knew he wasn’t going to live long now. In his family, no king had been able to celebrate his 60th birthday.
Louis wanted to live in safety. So, he began to live in a palace where very few people had permission to enter. A moat was dug around the building. 40 archers were stationed on the walls. They were told that if anyone dared to come near the palace without permission they should be killed. 400 horsemen patrolled the area day and night. Inside the palace, the Emperor lived in great luxury.
Although he had grown physically weak, Louis still exercised total control over his subjects. But he was constantly worried that some power-hungry nobleman of his might topple him. He desperately wanted to convince his people that he was still very powerful.
The Emperor began to doubt everyone. He doubted even his old servants. And so, he dismissed them and replaced them with foreigners. He would constantly change the latter too, as well as the officers who were appointed for his safety. He would tell them, “Nature is very fond of change.” He had become too old to handle the affairs of state and was scared that his subjects might even forget that he was still alive. So, in order to demonstrate that he was still the ruler, he resorted to all sorts of ploys. He would dismiss officers and appoint new men in their place. He would decrease the salary of some and increase the salary of others. He sent representatives throughout Europe to buy horses and dogs, of which he was very fond. The animals would be brought to his palace, but his health was so bad that he couldn’t even see them or talk to the people who had bought them. But he was aware that he was being able to still enter transactions and buy commodities from all over Europe and thus he was still alive.
In the hope that his health might thereby improve, the Emperor ordered that the word ‘death’ must never be spoken in his presence. He richly rewarded his personal physician with a huge salary of 10,000 gold crowns a month. At that time, in the whole of Europe an army officer who had served in the battlefield for 40 long years wouldn’t have earned so much money! So desperate was the Emperor to continue living that if someone could extend his life by even a single day, he was ready to give him his entire treasury!
When his 60th birthday was nearing, Louis XI became even more worried. He had become so weak that it was with difficulty that he could lift a morsel of food and put it in his mouth. He gathered all the religious resources he could in order to live as long as possible. He sent thousands of gold coins to churches in Germany, Rome and Naples and distributed money to religious leaders. He despatched ships to an island to fetch big turtles from there. He had been told that these turtles had life-giving properties.
But despite all these desperate measures, the Emperor died, in an attack of paralysis. His last words were, “I am not as ill as you think I am.”
When Louis at last died, as he had to, he realized that no one, not even an Emperor, can win over death.
