Today's Scripture Reading (May 8, 2026): Isaiah 11
We do so much by
appearances. We always have.
I love history, so let
me spin a tale of ancient France for you. This story comes from long before the
famous tale of D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers. The date is early June 1316,
and Louis X is sitting on the throne of France. If you are a tennis fan, then
Louis X is important to you. He holds the distinction of being the first tennis
player whom we can actually name. Louis loved to play tennis. In fact, he loved
it so much that he grew tired of tennis matches being ruled by something as
unpredictable as the weather. And so, Louis X had the first indoor tennis court
built so he could play whenever he felt like it.
On this day in June
1316, Louis X is doing what he loved: playing tennis. Louis plays hard,
exhausting himself. And then he settles down and cools off, enjoying vast
quantities of cooled wine. A short time later, Louis X died. The official cause
of death was pneumonia, supposedly because he drank too much cooled wine after
an exhausting tennis match. (I am not sure that makes any sense.) Louis X was
26 years old when he died.
For Louis X, the
mystery of the story was not quite over. Part of the problem was that, at the
time of his death, Louis had a four-year-old daughter, but the nobles in France
were unsure whether they wanted a Queen to rule over them. Luckily, Louis's
wife was pregnant, so there was at least the possibility of a son to rule over
the nation. So, France waited somewhat patiently for the baby's birth.
John was born on
November 15, 1316. And he is one of the few who can say that he was the King
from his very first breath. But the story of this baby boy also highlights the
dangers of having an infant King. John I of France was King of France for five
days. On November 20, 1316, John I, the King of France, died. Now, the reality
is that infant mortality in the 14th century was high. It is
possible that a baby, even one as affluent and well cared for as John, could
have died of natural causes. But for some, there is too much of a coincidence here.
A 26-year-old athlete dies of pneumonia after a hard day of playing tennis, and
then his son dies five days after being born. Within days of John's death,
there were accusations that these deaths couldn't be blamed on natural causes. Some
began to believe that the kings were both poisoned.
The most obvious
beneficiary of the deaths of these Kings was Philip the Tall, John's uncle, who
engineered a hasty coronation as soon as his nephew was dead, becoming Philip
V. But who really knew? At the time, Palace intrigue was normal, even when it
involved children. Philip would die at the age of 29, after suffering from many
mysterious illnesses, and he left no male heir. Philip was succeeded as King by
Charles IV of France, his younger brother, who died at 33. Charles IV also died
without a male heir, and France, ever since Louis's death, had been unwilling
to allow a daughter to sit on the throne. It was not that Charles had no
children. He had five at the time of his death, and his wife, like Louis's, was
pregnant. However, all of Charles' children died young, including his two sons:
Philip, who died at 8, and Louis, who did not make it to one year. Charles's
wife gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Blanche, after his death, and, as
a woman, she was not eligible to ascend the French throne. That might have been
the best thing to happen to Blanche. Blanche, disqualified from the throne by
law, died at the age of 65, beating all of her relatives in recent memory.
The Messiah would come
from humble beginnings and judge by righteousness, not by wealth or power. In
his reign, ideas like right and wrong were not based on who you were. It wouldn't
be based on political alignment or even religious alignment. Right would be
right and wrong would be wrong. It is a world where children, even the children
of kings, could be protected.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 12 & 13
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