In 1685, King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, depriving the Protestant Huguenots of all religious and civil liberties granted them by Henry IV in 1598.

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Historians quibble about whether the modern level was invented by Mechisedech Thevenot , royal librarian to King Louis XIV of France, or by legendary English natural scientist Robert Hooke .

FORBES: No. 18 The Level

In 1669, in a bid to cut down on violence, King Louis XIV of France decreed all pointed knives on the street or the dinner table illegal, and ordered all knife points ground down.

FORBES: No. 1 The Knife