Glass DC 53 Book , D95 ,. M' 1 B20 C?0PYRK5HT DEPOSUV A HISTORY OF FRANCE BY VICTOR pURUY Member of the French Academy TRANSLATED BY M. GARY With an Introduction and Continuation by J. FRANKLIN JAMESON, Ph.D. NEW EDITION Revised and Continued to 1919 by MABELL S. C. SMITH, A.B., A.M. Author of "The Spirit of French Letters," "Twenty Centuries of Paris," "The Maid of Orleans," etc. HQ ^^^"^ NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY PUBLISHERS 33 3 '~^' Dl3 Copyright, 1889 and 1896 By THOM.A.S Y. CROWELL COMPANY COPYKIGHT, 1917 By JOHN FRANKLIN JAMESON COPYEIGHT, 1920 By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY ©CU597073 3 1920 CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. p^^^^ Geogkaphical Description of Gaul 1 FIRST PERIOD. Chapter Gaul INDEPENDENT (TO 50 B.C.). I. Primitive populations : manners and customs (to 125 B.C.) 9 II. Migrations of the Gauls (to 123 B.C.) 15 III. Conquest of Gaul by the Romans (125-50 B.C.) 19 SECOND PERIOD. Gaul under the Romans (50 B.C.-476 a.d.). IV. The Gauls under the Empire (50 B.C.-395 a.d.) 26 V. luA^asion of the barbarians. — The Franks before Clovis (241-481 a.d.) 32 THIRD PERIOD. Merovingian France (481-687). VI. Clovis (481-511 a.d.) 36 VII. The sons of Clovis (511-564 a.d.) 43 VIII. The sons and grandsons of Chlothar I. (561-613 A.D.) 48 IX. Condition of Gaul in the sixth century » 53 X. Chlothar II. and Dagobert sole kings of the Franks : after them, anarchy (613-687 a.d.) ° 61 FOURTH PERIOD. Carolingian France (687-887). XI. Reconstitution of the Empire and of authority by the mayors of Austrasia (687-752 a.d.) 66 XII. Wars of Pippin and Charlemagne (752-814 a.d.) 72 XIII. Government of Charlemagne 78 XIV. Dismemberment of the Empire of Charlemagne by the revolt of the nations (814-843 a.d.) 86 XV. Dismemberment of the kingdom of France by the usurpa- tions of the Leudes (843-887 a.d.) 91 IV CONTENTS. FIFTH PERIOD. Chapter Feudal Fraxce (887-1180). Pagb XVI. The last Carolingians and the dukes of France (887-987 A.D.) 100 XVII. The first four Capetians (987-1108 a.d.) 105 XVII [. France in the eleventh century: exposition of the Feudal System Ill XIX. External enterprises ia the second half of the eleventh ceutury 1 26 XX. The first crusade (1095-1099 a.d.) 129 XXI. The rural classes, the url)an population, and the communes : Louis VI. (1108^-1137 a.d.) 135 XXII. Louis VII., the Young (1137-1180 A.D.) 144 SIXTH PERIOD. First Victory of Royalty over the Feudal Aristocracy (1180-1328). XXIII. Philip Augustus and Louis VIII. (1180-1223 a.d.) . . 148 XXIV. St. Louis (1226-1270 a.d.) 159 XXV. Civilization iu the thirteenth century. 166 XXVI. Philip III. the Bold and Philip IV. the Fair (1270- 1314 A.D.) 175 XXVII. The three sons of Philip the Fair (1314-1328 a.d.) . . 183 SEVENTH PERIOD. Hundred Years' War; Renewal of Anarchy (1328-1436). XXVIII. House of Capet- Valois : Philip VI. (1328-1350 a.d.) 187 XXIX. John the Good (1350-1364 a.d.) 194 XXX. Charles V. the Wise (1364-1380 a.d.) 203 XXXI. Charles VI. (1380-1422 a.d.) 212 XXXII. Charles VII., to his return to Paris (1422-1436 a.d.) 225 EIGHTH PERIOD. Final Victory of the Crown over the Feudal Akistocract (1436-1491). XXXIII. The English expelled from France : government of Charles VII. (1436-1461 a.d.) 239 XXXIV. Louis XI. (1461-1483) : his reign to the death of his brother (1461-1472 a.d.) 251 XXXV. The reign of Louis XI. (1472-1483 a.d.) 263 XXXVI. The reign of Charles VIII. (1483-1491 a.d.) 275 XXXVII. XXXVIII. NINTH PERIOD. Italian Wars (1494-1515). First Italian War (1494-1498 ad.) 283 Louis XII. (1498-1515 a.d.) 288 CONTENTS. V TENTH PERIOD. First Struggle ok Fraxck against the House of Austria. — Increase of the IIoyai. Power. — The Renaissance. Chapter (1515-1559.) pagi XXXIX. Francis I. (1515-1547 a.d.) 299 XL. Henry II. (1547-1549 a.d.) 314 XLI. Government of Francis I. and Henry II 319 XLII. The Renaissance under Francis I. and Henry II. 324 ELEVENTH PERIOD. Religious Wars. — Feudal and Comjiunal Anarchy renewed. XLIII. Francis II. (1559-1560 a.d.) 332 XLIV. Charles IX. (1560-1574 a.d.) 338 XLV. Henry III. (1574-1589 a.d.) 350 XLVI. Reign of Henry IV. (1589-1598 a.d.) 365 TWELFTH PERIOD. The Re-establishment of Internal Order by Royalty, and the Second Struggle of France against the House OF Austria (1598-1659). XL VII. Reorganization of France by Henry IV. (1598-1610 A.D.) 377 XL VIII. Louis XIII. (1610-1643 a.d.) 385 XLIX. Minority of Louis XIV. and administration of Maza- rin (1643-1661 a.d.) 404 THIRTEENTH PERIOD. Triumph of Absolute Monarchy (1661-1715). L. Louis XIV.: Internal organization; Colbert; Lou- vois ; Vauban. (1661-1683 a.d.) 416 LI. Louis XIV. : external history and conquests, from 1661-1679 430 LII. The last part of the reign of Louis XIV. (1679-1715 A.D.) 440 LIII. Government of Louis XIV 460 LIV. The age of Louis XIV 468 FOURTEENTH PERIOD. The Eighteenth Century. — Development of the Abuses of Absolute Monarchy. — Progress of Public Opinion. (1715-1789.) LV. Minority of Louis XV. and regency of the Duke of Orleans (1715-1723 a.d.) . . . .^ . . .* 480 LVI. Reign of Louis XV. (1723-1774 a.d.) 487 LVII. Condition of France at the end of the reign of Louis XV 506 LVIII. Reign of Louis XVI. to the Revolution (1774-1789 a.d.) 522 Vi CONTENTS. FIFTEENTH PERIOD. Chapter Constitutional France, since 1789. Page LIX. The Constituent Assembly (1789-1791 a.d.) 535 LX. The Legislative Assembly (1791-1792 a.d.) 550 LXI. The Convention (1792-1795 a.d.) 555 LXII. The Directory (October, 1795-November, 1799) 566 LXIII. The Consulate (November, 1799-May, 1804) 579 LXIV. Reign of Napoleon I. to the peace of Tilsit (1804-1807 A.D.) 590 LXV. The Empire, from 1807 to 1812 604 LXVI. The Empire, from 1812 to 1814 610 LXVII. The first restoration and the hundred days (1814-1815 A.D.) 624 APPENDIX. Summary of Events fkom 1815 to 1919. The Restoration , 632 The July Monarchy (1830-1848 a.d.) 635 The RepubUc of 1848 644 The Second Empire (1852-1870 a.d.) ' 649 The German War and the Third RepubUc (1870-1896 a.d.)--- 657 The Dreyfus Case 685 The Bloc 690 The Associations Lavs^ 691 The Separation of Church and State 692 Labor Agitation and Social Betterment 693 Industry'" 698 Ti-ansportation 699 The Merchant Marine 700 The Peasantry 701 Finances and Colonies 702 The Fashoda Incident 704 The Entente Cordiale 705 The Agadir Incident 706 Preparation for the World War 709 Proportional Representation 712 The World War 713-750 Reconstruction 750 Literature 752 Music, Painting and Sculpture 754 Science and Invention 756 Education 757 Women 757 The Future 758 Index ,.,.,..,,, 759 LIST OF MAPS FAGE Gaul under the Roman Empire 18 Empire of the Merovingians 36 Empire of Charlemagne 76 France before the Crusades 128 France at the Time of the Valois 188 France under Louis XI 260 France under Francis 1 300 France at the Time of the Death of Louis XIV 440 Egypt and Syria 572 Central Europe, 1792 to 1813 588 Spain and Portugal, 1807-1814 604 Itinerary of Napoleon on His Return from Elba 628 France and Belgium, 1814-1815 628 INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. The work which follows is an abridged translation of the sev- enteenth edition (1884) of the Histoire de France, in two volumes, by the distinguished French historian, M. Victor Duruy. A good, short history of France is, it is believed, a book widely desired ; and perhaps this is especially true in the present year, when that great country, its past and its present, is attracting an unusual degree of attention. For this purpose no better choice could be made than that of the famous work of M. Duruy. Ex-President Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, whose especial familiarity with French historical literature is well known, has said of it that, " of all the short summaries of French history, this is probably the best." President C. K. Adams, in his Manual of Historical Litera- ture, declares that it is " beyond question, the best history of France ever published in the small space of two volumes." Its popularity iu France itself is attested by the extraordinary number of the editions through which it has passed. In preparing the present abridgment, the effort has been made to follow as closely as possi- ble the text of the original. A continuation has been added, bring- ing down the narrative from 1870 to the present year. It has been thought not unfitting that this work should be intro- duced to the American public with some notice of its eminent author. His life has been marked not only by distinguished lit- erary achievements, but by public services of an unusually interest- ing character. Victor Duruy was born at Paris on the 11th of September, 1811, of a family of artists employed in the Gobelin tapestry works. At first he was himself destined to the same employment ; but at the age of twelve he entered the Collfege Sainte-Barbe, now called the College Rollin, and began his classical studies. Seven years later, in 1830, he was admitted into the ficole Normale Superieure. Here viii ri'TTRODUCTORY NOTICE. his taste for historical studies already showed itself, and at his graduation from the institution, in 1833, he was sent as professor of history to the college at Rheiras. Thence, after a few months' service, he was recalled to Paris, and was given charge of the same department in the College Henri IV. Here, and at the College St. Louis, he continued as professor until 1861, exercising throughout that period a strong influence upon historical education in the sec- ondary schools of France, both by his instructions and by his writings. The first in the long series of M. Duruy's published writings began to appear soon after his recall to Paris. At first he ren- dered anonymous assistance in the production of several text-books of history. The earliest of his writings which appeared under his own name were on subjects in the field of historical geography. They were, first, his Geographic Politique de la Republique Romaine et de VEmpire, which appeared in 1838 ; second, his Geographie His- lorique du Moyen Age (1839) ; and third, his Ge'ograpMe Historigue de la France (1840). The three works had a common aim, to im- prove historical education in France by making it easy to accom- pany the study of history with that indispensable adjunct, the study of historical geography ; in 1841 the labors performed in the prep- aration of the three works were summed up in an Atlas de la Ge'ograpMe Histdrique Universelle. For some years after this, M. Duruy's attention was mainly given to ancient history. In 1844 he began the publication of a Histoire des Remains et des Peuples soumis a leur Domination, in' two volumes, announced at the time as the prelude to a more extensive work upon the same subject. What was substantially a third volume of the same, a work entitled Etat du Monde Romain vers la Fondation de V Empire, appeared in 1853, nearly contemporaneously with the foundation of that other military empire with whose fortunes the author was in so distinguished a manner to be connected. This last work was used by the author as a thesis for the degree of docteur es lettres, which he received in 1853. Meanwhile he had published, in 1845, an Histoire Sainte d'apres la Bible, which in 1884 had reached its eighth edition, and of which the author also prepared an abridgment, in 1848 an Histoire Romaine in one volume, and in 1851 an Histoire Grecque of similar extent. These last two had in 1884 reached their sixteenth and twelfth editions respectively. His works in the INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. IX department of French history began with the publication of a small text-book in 1848 ; four years later he brought out the first edition of his Histoire de France^ in two volumes, of the seven- teenth edition of which the present volume is an abridged transla- tion. So extensive was the popularity of M. Duruy's works that they had sold in 1860 to the amount of more than two hundred thousand copies. That their favor with the reading public and their use for purposes of instruction has not since declined may be judged from the fact that in 1879 it was estimated that, including in addition the works which the indefatigable historian had pub- lished in the interval up to that date, the extraordinary number of a million and a half copies of his books had then been printed. In 1861 M. Dm-uy resigned his professorship, and became, first, inspector of the Academy of Paris, and then lecturer at the £cole Normale. Continuing his studies of classical history, he pub- lished in 1862 a larger work of Greek history, Histoire de la Grece Ancienne, which received the honor of being "crowned" by the French Academy. It is no secret that he rendered very consider- able assistance to the emperor Napoleon III. in the preparation of the latter's well-known history of Julius Caesar. At the personal desire of the emperor he was next appointed inspector-general of secondary instruction, and professor of history in the ficole Poly- technique. He then published, in the year 1863, an Histoire des Temps Modernes, now in its tenth edition, and an Histoire Populaire Illustree de la France ; in 1864, as a companion to this, an Histoire Populaire Contemporaine ; and in 1865 an Introduction Ge'nerale a r Histoire de France. Several of the historical works which have been mentioned, together with the Histoire du Moyen Age, which has now passed its twelfth edition, form part of the collection of historical manuals called the Histoire Universelle, published under the editorship of M. Duruy, concerning which it may suffice to quote the statement of President Adams of Cornell, in his work referred to above, that, "as a whole, they probably form the most valuable series of historical text-books ever published." Mention of several minor school text-books of M. Duruy has necessarily been omitted. The desire to treat together a group of the author's historical works has led us to a slight anticipation in the narrative of his life. A new career began for M. Duruy in the summer of 1863. A.t the end of June of that year, while he was making the tour of X INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. the departments in his capacity of inspector-general of secondary education, an imperial missive, which, forwarded from his home, had pursued him from department to department, finally reached him in one of the southern departments, and informed him that he had been appointed minister of public instruction. M. Duruy has himself told us that he never received from the Emperor any other instructions than these words, in a letter written soon after liis appointment : " Maintain, as I do, an enthusiasm for all that is great and noble." The new minister entered at once and with vigor upon a career of wide and far-seeing educational reform. His tenure of office during six years, a period almost unexampled among modern French administrations, gave abundant opportu- nity for carrying out such designs, and the years 1863 to 1869 form an epoch of the most signal importance in the annals of Fi-ench education. It is impossible to do more than mention the chief measures of improvement which signalized this great administration. M. Duruy restored the study of philosophy to an important place in the cur- ricula of the lycees, or secondary schools. He introduced into them, against strong opposition, the study of contemporary history, rightly contending that it was absurd to know the history of Fyrrhus, yet to be ignorant of that of Napoleon I., Louis XVIII., and Louis Philippe. He introduced gymnastic exercises and mili- tai*y drill into the lycees, colleges, and normal schools, and arranged with Marshal Niel a plan by which six or eight hundred instructors would have been sent each year into the village schools, to prepare the youthful portion of the rural population for national defence. He arranged upon a more satisfactory basis the mutual relations of scientific and literary studies in secondary schools. He pro- vided a commission to which professors displaced from state insti- tutions might appeal. He reorganized the Museum of Natural History, and so developed the courses of instruction afforded by it that they might serve the interests of agricultural education. Recognizing the benefits which German university instruction had derived from the system of seminaries, he established, for similar purposes, the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, and provided numerous laboratories for scientific instruction and research. The learned societies of the provinces were encouraged and their labors systematized ; and a professional normal school was established in INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. x\ the buildings of the old abbey of Cluny, to which students might be sent from each department. M. Duruy also entered with enthusiasm into the work of improv- ing and extending elementary education. He developed, at Paris and in most of the important French cities, a system of evening schools for the instruction of adults. One of the most compre- hensive of his schemes of reform proposed that elementary educa- tion should be made both gratuitous and compulsory throughout France. The former element of his plan was accepted for gradual introduction; to the latter, serious objections were made, and it was deferred. Another important innovation consisted in the establishment of free courses of public lectures and instruction. Courses of this sort, under competent professors, were established in almost all the leading cities. All these progressive measures, it should be said, were carried out by M. Duruy at the cost of an astonishingly small expenditure from the national funds. Finally, toward the end of the year 1867, M. Duruy went further, and attempted to inaugurate state instruction of girls by establishing special public courses for them. At Paris, the Empress conducted her nieces, the daughters of the Duchess of Alba, to one of these lectures; but in the provinces the clergy, from the beginning, declared themselves hostile to a project which looked toward the secular education of women. Mgr. Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, headed this opposition, and argued with much vigor and eloquence against the proposed innovation. A strong agitation against it was undertaken, to which the Pope lent his approval. Many of the previous meas- ures of M. Duruy had excited considerable opposition and aroused heated discussion, as was natural when so many comprehensive reforms were so rapidly brought forward. The result was that by an imperial message of July 17, 1869, M. Duruy was replaced in the ministry of public instruction by another. Among the acts which distinguished his brilliant and extraordinarily fruitful offi- cial career, mention should also be made of the publication of the valuable and comprehensive series of Rapports Officiels sur les Progres des Lettres et des Sciences, prepared under his direction on the occasion of the universal exposition of 1867 at Paris. On retiring from the office of minister, M. Duruy was made a senator of the Empire, with a dotation of 30,000 francs. Decorated with the badge of the Legion of Honor in 1845, he had been sue- Xii INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. cessively promoted to be an officer, commander, and finally, in 1867, grand officer of the Legion. He had been made an officer of the Turkish order of the Medjidieh in 1857. M. Duruy retained his seat in the Senate until the faU of the Empire in 1870. He maintained an enthusiastically patriotic attitude during the Franco- German War, and took part in it as a volunteer. He has since pursued his historical studies, and produced not only several new editions of his former works, but especially, what may probably be regarded as the most conspicuous of his works, a much enlarged reproduction of his Histoire des Romains (1870-76). A sumptuous edition in seven volumes (1879-85), covering the whole period from the most ancient times to the invasions of the Roman Empire by the barbarians, represents doubtless the final form of this work. The author is now engaged in producing a similarly en- larged and sumptuous edition of his Histoire des Grecques. He has also published a volume of Causeries de Voyage. In 1873 M. Duruy was elected a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres, succeeding M. Vitet. After the fall of the Empire he remained an imperialist, and as such, in January, 1876, offered himself as a candidate for the Senate, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, but was defeated. In 1879 he was chosen a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences. On December 4th, 1884, the distinguished historian received the highest and most coveted honor which the literary career in France aifords, being elected, practically without opposition, a member of the French Academy. He was chosen as the successor of the great historian Mignet. He was received into the Academy in June, 1885, the discours de reception being pronounced by Mgr. Perraud, Bishop of Autun, who, together with three other Academi- cians, — the Duke of Aumale, Emile Augier, and Victorien Sardou, • — was formerly a pupil of M. Duruy. J. FRANKLIN JAMESON. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. A GREAT poet of another nation called France the soldier of (rod. For more than twelve centuries, indeed, she seems to have acted, fought, and conquered or suffered, for the whole world. It has been her singular privilege that nothing of the greatest magni- tude has been accomplished in Europe without her having a hand in it ; no great political or social expeiinient has been tried that has not first been worked out within her borders ; and her history is a summary and abstract of the whole history of modern civiliza- tion. Such was the part played by Athens in the Greek world, and later, in the third age of ancient civilization, that of Rome. For there is always one point at which the general life is most intense and rich, a focus in which civilization concentrates its scattered rays. I will venture in a few lines to sum up the general course of our history and the civilizing role of France. At first, upon the soil of Gaul, the fortunate configuration of which Strabo admired to the degree of finding in it the proof of a divine providence, we see only a confused mixture of nmtually alien populations, Iberians and Gaels, Kymry and Teutons, Greeks and Italians, with the old Celtic element pred9minating. Yet to sub- due them required ten legions, Csesar, and his genius. Rome gives to this chaos its first organization. To these warlike nations, whose taste for wandering and for war so greatly disturbed the ancient world, she brings order and civilization ; she covers their country with roads, with monuments, and with schools. She gives them her laws, her municipal system, and, later, her adminis- trative traditions. Gaul then becomes the most prosperous, most Roman, and therefore the first, of the provinces of the Empire. But this empire, to which its poets were promising an eternal duration, begins to crumble beneath the weight of the defects of its own government. New nations burst in upon its provinces, scattering the seeds of ruin and death. The invasion of the bar- Xiv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION barians takes place in every province ; it is in Gaul alone that it succeeds. There it establishes the state into which all the others are to be merged. How long did the frail kingdoms of the Bur- gundians and the Suevi, of the Vandals and the Heruli, of the Goths and the Lombards continue? The strongest of them did not last three centuries, while the successors of Clovis and of Charle- magne transmitted their crown and their title to a house which is even yet not extinct. After having spread over all lands, the invasion halts, recoils, and disappears. What has Africa retained of the Vandals, Italy of the Goths, Spain of the Alans and the Suevi? In France, on the other hand, it takes root and acquires permanent organization, on condition of ceasing to be itself, by suffering itself to be led by those whom it has subdued, and especially by the Church. " When thou fightest," a bishop of Valence wrote to Clovis, "the victory is ours." The bishop was right. The victory of the Franks was the salva- tion of the Catholic clergy : for at that hour they were threatened by the most serious dangers to which they had ever been subjected ; Arianism was everywhere triumphant. What ardent desires, then, did it not entertain for the success of that Frankish tribe which alone did not bear upon its forehead the mark of heresy, which was to give security and power to the Church, to conquer all in order to lay all at its feet ! Mitis, depone colla, Sicamber. An enemy hitherto invincible approaches. Islam, starting out from the depths of Arabia, has spread in less than a century from the Ganges to the Pyrenees. It desires to throw down this barrier also. Its light horsemen pass the Garonne and cross the Loire; Christian Europe is at its mercy. The Franks check its fiery enthusiasm and hurl back over the mountains the Moslem in- vasion, broken and henceforward powerless against Western Europe. The Papacy, lately freed from the supremacy of the Byzantine emperors, was in danger of falling under that of the Lombard kings. In an age when all questions tended to become religious questions, when all society was enclosed and enfolded within the Church, when the nations yielded with docile obedience to the words which fell from the throne of St. Peter, it was not well that the head of Christendom should, for lack of political independence, run the risk of becoming an instrument of oppression in the hands of a PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xt single prince. Pippin and Charlemagne founded his temporal independence. The barbarian world remains fluctuating and undecided, aban- doning itself without control to the manifold influences which were acting upon it, without sense of common interests, and there- fore without strength or stability. Charlemagne takes it in his powerful hands, gives it form and organization, and seeks to breathe the breath of life into this refractory mass. He gives form to Grerraan and Christian Europe, and, by making Rome its central point, shows that it must necessarily rest upon ancient civilization, purified and transformed by Christianity. Unfortunately for Italy, he revives the Western Empire ; but he creates Germany, which did not exist before his time, and he confers upon France that European supremacy which the Merovingians set before its eyes for a mo- ment, and which it has so many times exercised since then. Charle- magne dies, his work dissolves ; but he did not entirely die, for his grand form rises above the feudal times, like the genius of order, constantly inviting the nations to emerge from chaos and seek union under some glorious and powerful head. How greatly kings were aided by the recollection of the great emperor in their efforts to re-establish their power and that of the state ! Under Charlemagne, almost all Christian Europe was the territory of the Franks, and the old provinces of northeastern Gaul, from which they had come, formed but the centre of theu* empire. But his successors suffered this too heavy crown to fall from their heads. The Empire becomes divided into kingdoms, the kingdoms in turn dissolve ; France, pushed back from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Meuse, becomes a confused agglomeration of little independent states, and thick darkness settles down upon the world. When it clears away, a new society appears, feudal society, and modern civilization begins, its point of departure being pre- eminently France. The feudal revolution, it is true, went on in all parts of Ger- manic Europe, but it took definite form in France. It was French feudalism which settled in England with William the Bastard, in Southern Italy with Robert Guiscard, in Portugal with Henry of Burgundy, in the Holy Land with Godfrey of Bouillon. It was the French lords who drew up the typical charter of feudalism, the Assizes of Jerusalem ; who called into existence tournaments, the military orders, chivalry and heraldry ; who conceived that ideal XVI PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. of courage, purity, devotion, and gallantry which has left inefface- able traces in modern manners. It was in France, in a word, that feudalism and chivalry and aristocratic society had theu' highest expression, as later was to be true of absolute monarchy and later still of democracy ; as if upon the people of France were laid the charge, in behaK of other nations, to make trial of all forms of political constitution to their utmost consequences. Feudalism, so oppressive in its age of decline, had had its time of rightful rule, when it checked the second barbarian invasion, that of the Northmen, Hungarians, and Saracens; for every form, of power gains a footing by its services and falls by reason of its abuse. It had also its heroic age, in the time of the Crusades, when millions of men gathered together to march to the conquest of a tomb. The Crusades are the greatest achievement 6f the Middle Ages, and they belong almost wholly to France, as does the Truce of God which preceded them. The East has recognized this ; to it, from those days to this, every European is a Frank, and the historian of the Crusades gave to his book the title of Gesla Dei per Francos. The Middle Ages were then at their apogee, and it is in France that they attained their highest greatness. Italy has illustrious pontiffs, but a saint, the eldest son of the Church, sits upon the throne of France. The clergy is everywhere powerful, but where does one find in greater number or in greater impressiveness those lessons of equality and respect for intellect which the Church gave to feudal society, by preserving the system of election, elsewhere lost, and by summoning the least of the sons of the people to sit on its pontifical thrones as the equals of the great ones of the earth? Where did monasticisra, and the fortunate results which at first attended it, achieve so great an extension ? A French monk, St. Bernard, governs all Europe; and what order can rival that of Citeaux, whose head was called the abbot of abbots, had under his command more than three thousand monasteries, and was the superior of the military orders of Calatrava and Alcdntara in Spain, of Avis and of Christ in Portugal? A new art, which neither Greece nor Rome knew, which is neither German nor Saracen, though the Orient perhaps gave its first suggestion, rears those mountains of stone, whose mass, at once imposing and light, still fills us with admiration. Paris, " the city of the philosophers," is the focus of all light; from the remotest regions students flock PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xvii to its schools, which have drawn forth learning from the retirement of the monasteries, and given it a secular complexion. Great reputations are made at its university alone, which counts twenty thousand scholars, and at which the most illustrious doctors of Ger- many, Italy, and England are in turn pupils and masters. Their idiom is Latin, their science Scolasticism ; but the language of Villehardouin and Joinville aspires to universal sway, thanks to the crusaders, who carried it everywhere, thanks to the troubadours and trouveres, who poui-ed a great flood of poetry upon Europe. "It is ctirrent throughout the world," says, in 1275, an Italian, who is translating into French a chronicle of his own country; and Dante's teacher uses it to write his Tresor, because " the lan- guage of France is most common among all nations." The intel- lectual dominion over Europe already belongs to France. Civilization does not always advance in a straight line. It has its times of halt and of retreat, which would make us despair if we did not know that the life of humanity is a long journey upon a difficult path, in which the eternal traveller ascends and descends, while still pressing forward. When, in the times of St. Louis and the Doctor Angelicus, the Middle Ages have reached the highest attainments of Catholic art and science, they descend rapidly down the opposite slope and lose themselves in the lower levels of the succeeding century, one of those most abundant in miseries. Scarcely, indeed, has the great thirteenth century ended, when all that it has loved and glorified declines or falls. The Papacy is unworthily buffeted at Anagni and held captive in Avignon by the hand of that very France which had aided it to rise above the thrones of kings. The Chui'ch is torn by schism, the Crusade goes to the stake in the person of the knights of the Temple, and feudalism, silently undermined, begins to fall. A prominent lord, nephew of the Pope, is hanged like a peasant, and a peasant, a money-changer, receives a patent of nobility. What then is the force that thus spreads ruin about it and rises upon the debris ? The great revolutionary at this time is the king, as the aristocracy had been in the times before Hugh Capet, and as the people were to be after Louis XIV. But lately a prisoner in the four or five towns which were all that Philip I. possessed, royalty had in two centuries broken through the circle of feudal fortresses which hemmed it in, and had marched with great strides, from usurpation to usurpation, as the nobles said, toward absolute au- Xviii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. thority. In other words, it had recovered, one by one, the powers of state usurped by the lords, had imposed upon these insubordi- nate vassals, who dated their charters by the reign of God, in the absence of any king, Deo regnante, the king's peace, the king's jus- tice, the king's money, and, after an interval of three centuries, had resumed the exercise of the right to make laws for the whole state. The last capitulary is one of Charles the Simple ; the first ordinance of general import is one of Philip Augustus. At the accession of the House of Valois, feudalism had no longer any other than administrative and military power. This revolution from above had been possible because a revo- lution from below had also been effected. Philosophy and Chris- tianity had undermined the slavery of ancient times : the barbarian invasion had disorganized it, and gradually the slaves had become serfs, owing customary instead of arbitrary services, living and dying, remote from a capricious and violent master, upon soil on which they had been born, and upon which the rural household now at last began to take form. This new class gained accessions from two sources : slaves rose into it, coloni and dispossessed freemen sank into it. In the tenth century the transformation was com- plete. There remained very few slaves, and in general only serfs were to be found among the rural population as well as in a great part of the population of the towns. Then another process began. Bishop Adalberon, in a Latin poem addressed to King Robert, recognizes only two classes in society, — the clerks who pray, the nobles who fight : far below creep about the serfs and villeins, who work, but count for nothing in the state. These men, whom Bishop Adalberon did not reckon, nevertheless caused him apprehensions. He foresaw with grief a coming rev- olution. "Our ways are changing," he cries; "the social order is disturbed." It is the cry of all the fortunate ones of every age, at each sound of clamor from below. He was right : a revolution was commencing which was to draw the peasants out of their servitude and set them upon a level with those who were then masters of the land : but the revolution required seven centuries for its achieve- ment. The towns gave the signal : communal insurrections introduced freedom and order within their walls. The crown favored this movement, outside of its own domains, upon the lands of the lords: and the communal soldiery, in turn, aided the king in his feuda» PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xiX •wars. They gathered under the oriflamme before all the castles which Louis VI. desired to destroy, and aided Philip Augustus to gain our first national victory at Bouvines. The communes sought a jealous independence, but the independ- ence of towns was no more to be desired than that of castles : the royal power struck them both down, for they would have prevented the formation of the national life. But instead of restraining these anarchical liberties by reducing them to liberties compatible with good order and unity in the state, the royal power struck them dovrn completely, and thus prepared the void which later spread around itself. But if the castles and the communes lose, the simple villes de bourgeoisie and the rural districts gain. The first obtain guarantees for their ilidustry and their commerce, for the security of the prop- erty and persons of their inhabitants : the others witness still fur- ther improvement in the condition of the rural populations. In the twelfth century serfs are admitted to bear witness in court : in the thirteenth, enfranchisements become more numerous, for the lords begin to perceive that they will gain by having on their lands industrious freemen, rather than serfs, " who neglect their work, saying that they work for others : " in the fourteenth the country districts receive organization, the ecclesiastical parishes become civil communities : finally, in the fifteenth, they for a mo- ment enter upon political life; the peasants take part, in their primary assemblies, in the nomination of deputies to the States- (leneral of 1484. Burgesses deprived of exclusive privileges and enfranchised serfs thus come together, half way from servitude to liberty, and extend the hand to each other. All countries have had communes and serfs. France alone has already formed out of its entire non-noble population the Third Estate, which in the rest of Europe is still in process of formation. A new form of society is coming into existence, and France is its standard-bearer. So those slaves who, in ancient times, were only things, instru- ments of labor, instrumentum vocale, bought and sold indiscrimi- nately with cattle, horses, and implements, instrumentum mutum: who, in the Middle Ages, have recovered their personality and become men, now rise still another stage and become citizens. En- riched by commerce, enlightened by the knowledge which they have acquired at the universities, and prepared for the conduct of publLp XX PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, affairs through the management of municipal interests, they are called into political life by Philip the Fair. Little by little tiiey install themselves, in the persons of their principal men, in the ministry, in the Parliament, in the great council, in the cour des comptes, in the cour des aides, in all financial and judicial offices. From these they rule the kingdom and sometimes the king : but they likewise, in their fear of feudalism, direct the king toward absolute power or confirm him in it. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the States-General, in which they are represented, dispose of the crown : they set up the king; in 1357 and in 1484 they seemed disposed to set him aside. But feudalism was still rich and powerful, the strong au- thority of an individual too plainly needed, and these attempts failed. Moreover, they had not arisen out of the settled and gen- eral consciousness of the nation, but from the bold thought of a tew men who perceived the frightful miseries in which France was plunged. Royalty, in fact, forgetting for a moment those who had made its fortune, and again becoming chivalrous and feudal, had led the country into deep abysses, from which it extricated itself after untold sufferings. Warned by this cruel lesson, royalty dismounts from its war-horse, lays aside the battle-axe and lance which had so ill served Philip VI. and John : it becomes bourgepise, and recalls its plebeian counsellors. The nobility has only disdain and in- sults for such men, and from time to time sends them to the scaf- fold or into exile and seizes their goods. But these plebeians continually advance, sheltering themselves under the royal authoi ity, which needs their intelligence and has nothing to fear from their weakness. Holding in their hands their political gospel, the Roman law, they go on, widening the domain of their common law, which rests on equality, in opposition to the feudal law which rests on privilege, and the day comes when they banish a count of Armagnac, condemn to death a duke of Alen9on, burn a marshal de Retz, or throw a bastard of Bourbon into the river, sewn up in a sack on which they have written, " Make way for the king's justice." Whence do they derive this confidence and this strength ? It is because they have made the king the great justice-of-the-peace of the kingdom and have given him three things, the possession of which brings all the rest : the support of public opinion, money, aud an army. The Middle Ages knew neither permanent armies PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xxi nor permanent taxes. In those times the king lived upon the proceeds of his own domain, and had no soldiers, save those which his lords brought him for a limited time and limited uses. The councillors of Charles VII., going back ten centuries, borrowed from the Roman Empire its system of permanent taxes and per- manent armies. This system had originated at Rome at the same time with absolute power, and had contributed to its establishment. It had the same eifects in France. Louis XI. completed the de- struction of the feudal aristocracy; Charles VIIT. and Francis I. led it away upon foreign expeditions and accustomed it to military discipline in their camps. In the sixteenth century feudalism had become simply the French noblesse. Under cover of the wars of religion and those consequent on the minority of kings, it attempts again to possess itself of power. Richelieu brings the loftiest heads to the scaffold and razes the last fortresses. Decimated and ruined, the nobility falls back into the ante-chambers of I^ouis XIV., who adorns it with titles and decorations, but chains it to the triumphant car of royalty. While accomplishing this internal revolution, France was also acting upon foreign countries. Charles VIII. by his Italian ex- pedition had begun the great wars which, by mingling nations, interests, and ideas, had established in respect to politics that solidarity of European nations which France had essayed to estab- lish at two periods of the Middle Ages ; at the time of the Crusades, in respect to religion, at the time of Charlemagne in a first grand project of social organization. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries she defends the liberties of Europe against the House of Austria. Under Louis XIV. she begins herself to threaten them, but compensates for it by the prodigious eclat of her civilization, which spreads to the most remote regions. At this epoch of unlooked-for greatness, French society has taken a new form. The successor of Hugh Capet, the inheritor of that humble crown which a few bishops and lords gave and took away, now reigns over twenty million men, and signs his ordi- nances with the formula, "Such is my good pleasure." Like the Roman emperor, he is the living law, lex animata. He goes back even further than the Empire, even to those Oriental monarchies in which political and religious despotism, in order the better to assure the blind obedience of the people, attributes to the monarch a portion of divinity. He calls himself the vicar of God upon xxil PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION: earth, proclaims his divine right, and places himself apart from oi-dinaiy humanity. The neighboring nations accept the new theory -which France is formulating and practising. The divine right of kings is everywhere asserted; and Europe with strange docility models all its royalties after that of Versailles. Louis XIV. is certainly not a great man, but he is assuredly a great king, and the greatest that Europe has seen. When in the history of the world a considerable phenomenon is persistently reproduced, it is inferred that permanent and necessary causes are behind it; and these give it legitimacy. But there is nothing eternal upon earth. Nations, assemblages of active and free beings, have continually new needs ; to them immobility would be death. Born of general needs and compelled to satisfy them in order to continue in existence, constitutions ought to accommodate themselves to the changes which have been effected in ideas and habits, like the elastic and supple envelope which, surrounding and protecting the growing germ, conforms itself to its growth. In order to impose peace and order upon so many discordant wills and hostile passions, in order to bring into association so inany oppos- ing elements, it was necessary that a single power should force all the rest into subordination ; it was necessary that the local springs of independent life should become extinct, and that France should feel itself to be living in the life of one man before it felt the national life throbbing in it. In a word, it was necessary that Louis XIV. should be able to say, " I am the state," in order that Sieyes might be able to reply, " We are the state." While royalty, under ideas of divine right, surrounded by legiti- mate homages, was ascending that Capitolian Hill to which the Tarpeian Rock is so near, a silent and slow movement was still going on in the lower strata of society. The Middle Ages, in the midst of their anarchy and their violence, had had great and influ- ential maxims of public rights ; no tax could be raised save with the consent of the taxed, no law was valid unless accepted by those who would owe obedience to it, no sentence legal unless rendered by the peers of the accused. These principles and many others, though opposed and stifled, incessantly reappeared. There is always some voice which recalls them to mind and prevents their lapsing through prescription ; it is the Sire de Pecquigny in the States of 1357, the Sire de la Roche in those of 1484, and many others in the States of Orleans and of Poutoise, in the two assem- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITIOX. xxiii blies of Blois, and especially in that of 1614, whose cahiers include almost all the demands of 1789. Thus the tradition of public securities and national rights was never lost. Each generation transmitted it to the generation succeeding, and so the tradition went on growing stronger from age to age as the national life de- veloped and the feeling for general interests rose above the feeling for particular interests. The kings had heard with entire displeasure this voice of the deputies of the country. In order to stifle it, they ceased after 1614 to call them together. "It is not good," said Louis XIV., " that any one should speak in the name of all." But even from the foot of the throne this voice still spoke, feeble and timid, yet powerful through the echoes which it awakened. The Parliament, the king's court, tried to rise out of the obscurity of its judicial functions, and aspired to a political role. It assumed the position of natural protector of the people ; and if in times before Louis XIV. it kept silent, after him it grew bold to the point of filling the whole eighteenth century with its quarrels with the court. Alone, the Parliament would have been powerless. An aris- tocracy of officials, it could speak for the people, but could not make them act. But the national education had been effected, by the work of hands and brains. The Third Estate had in each gen- eration gained in wealth and intelligence. In the Middle Ages there had been but one form of wealth, — landed property, — and this the lords possessed. Free labor had finally created another, — capi- tal, — and this was in the hands of the burgesses. With leisure came study and enlightenment. France had not had Luther and his religious reformation, which would have pushed it backward, but it had had Descartes and his philosophical reformation, which had urged it forward. It had remained Catholic without having the Inquisition, and a renaissance, almost as brilliant as that of Italy, had opened to the minds of men the paths in which lay art and science and truth. All these great movements produced in intel- ligent minds an awakening which, with the fortunate concurrence of men of genius, brought to France the greatest age of her litera- ture, and secured to her, for the second time, the intellectual supremacy over Europe. Louis XIV., arriving in the midst of this rilliant expansion of the French ititellect, gave it order and disci- pline ; but the noble regard which he showed for those whose only gifts were those of intelligence reacted against his own political XXiV PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. system. Corneille, in the palace of Richelieu, was little more than a servant employed to make verses ; Racine, Boileau, Moliere, were almost the friends of the great king. It shows a curious connec- tion of influences, that Louis XIV., the establisher of absolute mon- archy, was obliged to encourage industry and literature, the two forces destined to cast down what he was building up ; for the one gave the Third Estate the wealth which led it to demand guarantees ; the other, the intelligence which led it to lay claim to rights. In the seventeenth century literature was confined to artistic effort ; opposition, to the sphere of religious beliefs. The leaders of the opposition were the Protestants and the Jansenists; the great pamphlet of the age was written against the Jesuits. In the eighteenth century, absolutism having endangered these material interests which commerce and industry were every day multiplying, the opposition extended to the domain of political ideas, and litera- ture, as the expression of this new need, invaded everything and claimed a right to regulate eveiything. The most masculine forces of the French mind seemed to be wholly devoted to the seeking of the public weal, and sought not to write fine verses, but to utter tine maxims. They depicted the absurdities of the social organization, not in order to laugh at them, but in order to change society itself. Literature became a weapon which every one, the imprudent as well as the skilful, tried to use, and which, incessantly striking blows on all sides, inflicted terrible and incurable wounds. By a strange inconsequence, those who had most to suffer from this invasion of politics by literary men were the loudest in their applause. The society of the eighteenth century, frivolovis, sensual, and selfish as it was, nevertheless maintained in the midst of its vices a sincere devotion to the things of the mind. Never were salons so ani- mated, manners so exquisite, conversation so brilliant. Talent had place there almost as its birthright, and the nobility, with a chival- rous temerity like that of Fontenoy, invited, with a smile upon its lips, the fire of those ardent polemics which the sons of the bourgeois directed against them. Then begins a vast inquest. Some seek out and note the vices of the social organization ; they lift the veil behind which are con- cealed the deep sores which are enervating and exhausting the country, and will kill it if not healed. Others even make no ac- count of the old edifice in which society has so long been sheltered ; in thought they cast it down, and desire upon the cleared ground to PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XXV build up a new society. These voices from France are heard be- yond its frontiers ; governments awaken, kings and ministers set themselves to work, dig canals, make roads and encourage industry, commerce, and agriculture. Everywhere men speak of justice and beneficence. But France, which has sounded the alarm, shown the danger, pointed out the remedy and impelled the princes to undertake one part of the task, — material reforms, — can for her- self obtain nothing. Turgot and Necker are dismissed as danger- ous visionaries ; even Calontie falls when he begins to speak of reforms. The old regime, unwilling to give up anything, loses everything. The Revolution breaks out, and proclaims the ideas which are to-day the foundations of our public and private law, which the Republic and the Empire, by their victories, disseminated in every part of Europe, and which are destined to spread over the whole world because they are summed up in the one word justice. It has often been said that the distinctive characteristic of the literary genius of France is good sense, rationality ; I would add, from a certain point of view, impersonality; for Rabelais and Montaigne, Descartes and Moliere, Pascal, Voltaire, and Montes- quieu write for the whole world quite as much as for their own land. The end which they seek is the true, their personal enemy the false, and the immortal types which they sketch, belong to humanity even more than to France. In this sense our literature, like our arts, is of all literatures the most human, because it is the least exclusively national. This is also the distinctive characteristic of the political genius of France and of its history. That which is extreme does not long continue there. Feudalism stops and retreats before having made the country another Germany, the communes undergo a transformation before having made it another Italy, so that we have been subjected neither to that feudal anarchy from which the one has escaped only in our own time, nor to that municipal anarchy which so long delivered over the other to foreign domina- tion. Absolute monarchy, necessary in order to clear the ground, could not by its divine right maintain itself forever, as it expected to do, nor can radicalism make itself eternal by what it dares to call its revolutionary right. This oscillating and continual advance is what makes the charm of French history, because in it is recognized the advance of humanity itself. It is not that France has led the world ; but it XXVi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. has often had its post in the advance-guard and has held aloft the flag by which others have often been guided. They have followed afar off, trying to resist the powerful influence ; they have spoken loudly of our faults and of our mistakes ; they have awakened theii' most patriotic traditions and exalted their national glories ; but the first language which they learned after that -of home was ours, and the first glance which they directed outside "of their own boundaries and their own history fell upon France. After the battle of Salamis, the Greek chieftains met to decide the bestowal of the prize of valor. Each assigned to himself the first, but all awarded the second to Themistocles. HISTORY OF FRANCE. INTRODUCTION. GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF GAUL. Boundaries. — The Ocean and the Mediterranean, the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Rhine formed in ancient times the limits of Gaul, a fourth larger than the France of to- day. Not till 843 did France retire behind the Meuse and the Ehone. She has not ceased to reclaim her ancient her- itage. She has recovered the barrier of the Alps, accepted that of the Jura on the east, and till lately had a frontier of forty leagues upon the Rhine. But on the northeast there has remained that wide opening through which all invasions have come and which has required the greatest efforts for its defence. General Aspect. — This vast and well-defined territory forms an inclined plane, sloping from the summit of the Alps to the ocean. Its upper portion, backed by the central chain of the greater Alps, with Mont Blanc as the apex, is comprised within two and a half degrees of latitude. But the country widens as it descends towards the ocean, and from the mouth of the Rhine to that of the Adour it occu- pies a space of nine degrees. The Pyrenees also, on the French side, descend in a gentle slope towards the Atlantic. There are thus two distinct regions. In the south and southeast are mountains, forests and pastures, lakes and impetuous rivers, populations sober, laborious, little used to manufacturing, but essentially military. To the west and the north are gently undulating hills and fertile valleys, open plains, and navigable rivers, marshes and landes, indus- trial cities and ports. Yet the great valleys of the Rhine and the Rhone traverse the mountainous region of the east, while the last spurs of the mountains extend far into the 2 INTRODUCTION. west : SO that Auvergne, in the centre of France, has, like the Alps, its shepherds and goatherds, while the valleys of the Rhone and the Rhine have, like those of the great western rivers, their great trading and manufacturing towns. This parallelism is the foundation of the national unity of France ; for if the east had had only mountaineers and the west only sailors, two nations would have been formed in France. The Cevennes and the Vosges. — The characteristic feature of the French land is the long chain of tiie Cevennes and the Vosges. Entirely enclosed within the territory of France, they form, as it were, its backbone. But while they determine the direction of its rivers, they sink low enough at various places to allow the passage of roads, canals, and railways. The Cevennes, properly speaking, belong only to the department of Loz^re. But they extend their spurs and their name, on the one side toward the neighborhood of Castelnaudary, where they meet the last hills of the Pyre- nees, and on the other, to the neighborhood of Ch&lon, where they encounter the heights of the C6te-d'0r, which unite the Cevennes with the Vosges. The highest moun- tains of the Vosges have an altitude of 1431 meters, the highes of the Cevennes an altitude of 1774 meters. Taken together, the Cevennes and the Vosges form a chain 960 kilometers long and 280 kilometers wide at the broadest part. Western Spurs of the Cevennes. — This chain has a steep escarpment on the east toward the Sa6ne and the Rhone ; but on the western side branch out the mountains of Velay and Forez, which separate the Loire from the Allier, and, further south, a loftier group, which joins the Cevennes to the high mountains of Auvergne, where the Puy de Sancy rises to the height of 1897 meters. From the latter group ramify all the heights that cover the country between the Garonne and the Loire, the undulating surface of Quercy, P^rigord, and Limousin. In Auvergne, three hundred cra- ters of now extinct volcanoes have been counted. Ramifications of the Cote-d'Or. — To the mountains of Burgundy are joined the hills of Morvan and Nivernais, which separate the Seine and the Loire. Behind Orleans, these heights broaden out into a vast plateau, and then rise into a little chain, which farther on divides : its two GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF GAUL. 3 branches form the framework of the two bold peninsulas of the Cotentin and Brittany, with their great military har- bors of Brest and Cherbourg. The Argonne and the Ardennes. — From the plateau of Langres extend the Argonne and the Ardennes, which enclose the Metise. The Ardennes cross that river, and between the sources of the Somme, the Scheldt, and the Sambre, form a moimtain-kuot from which branch out the hills of Picardy and the Pays de Caux, those of Artois and the Boulonnais, and those of Belgium. The eastern Ar- dennes, a wild and marshy plateau (698 meters), join the volcanic hills to the eastward, of which the remotest heights overlook the Rhine. Northern Extremity of the Vosges. — The Vosges also extend to the Rhine, between Speyer and Mainz. Closely confined by the parallel streams of the Moselle and the Rhine, the Vosges do not have extensive ramifications. On the side toward Alsace, their hills are still covered Avith feudal ruins, contrasting picturesquely with the busy man- ufacturing towns of the plain. Interior Valleys ; the Moselle, the Mouse, the Somme. — The valleys of France are of two classes, those wholly within French territory, rising in the C^vennes and the Vosges, and those which have their sources beyond the frontier. The first have been the cradle of the French nation and genius . by the others the foreign influences have come in. The eastern slope of the Cevennes gives rise to insignifi- cant streams only, but to the west and to the north flow large rivers, sprung from the centre of the land : the Moselle, which flows toAvard the lower Rhine; the Meuse, Avhich gives France an outlet into the North Sea ; the Scheldt, the estuary of which forms at Antwerp the best harbor in the north of Europe ; the Somme ; and finally the Seine and the Loire, the two great French rivers, upon whose banks the nationality was born and grew up. The Loire. — The Loire, so dangerous because of its sud- den floods and its shifting shallows, has its sources upon a h^gh mountain in the Vivarais, 1400 meters above the level of the sea. The Allier brings it a part of the waters of Auvergne, the Cher those of Berry, the Vienne part of the waters of' Limousin and Poitou, the Mayenne those of Maine, Anjou, and Perche. In spite of the considerable vol- nme of its waters, it is not navigable above St. Nazaire. 4 iXTRor:rc'Tio2r, The Seine. — The Seine, rising in the C6te-d'0r, is fed by all the streams of Orleanais, Western Burgundy, Champagne, Picardy, and Normandy. Its principal affluents are the Yonne, the Marne, and the Oise, into Which the waters of the Aisne have flowed. Below the Marne and above the Oise, in the centre of the basin, stands Paris. The river, by modern improvements, has been made navigable up to the city itself. Exterior Valleys. — The valleys of the Garonne, the Rhone, and the Ehine are exterior or eccentric, for these three rivers have their sources outside of Prench territory. They have also been the last to be attached to the kingdom, the first in 1271 and 1453, the second in 1481, the third in 1648. Since the loss of Alsace Prance no longer touches the Rhine. If the provinces acquired three centuries ago contributed little to the formation of Prench nationality, they completed it admirably, bringing it almost to its natural limits. And all the activity of Prance extended itself out into these ex- tremities also, which have ever since been filled with a fuller and more brilliant life than the old provinces, none of whose towns compare with Bordeaux, Marseilles, Mtil- hausen, and Strassburg. The Valley of the Garonne, and the Pyrenean Isthmus. — The valley of the Garonne has, between the Pyrenees and the mountains of Auvergne, a width of 300 kilometers. Prom' the Tarn, the Lot, the Dordogne, and other streams the river receives so considerable a quantity of- water, that at Bordeaux it is seven or eight hundred meters wide. The Pyrenean Isthmus, between the Gulf of Lyons and the Bay of Biscay, measures 320 kilometers. But in a diago- nal direction it is traversed for two-thirds of its extent by the Garonne, one of the finest rivers of Prance, forming an admirable line of natural navigation. Prom the bend of the Garonne at Toulouse, to the Aude, which flows into the Mediterranean, is a distance of only 80 kilometers, with but a slight elevation intervening. Here, according to Strabo, lay one of the great routes of Gallic commerce. The Romans, and later the Visigoths, pursued this route in order to reach Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Poitiers. The Pranks traversed the same road in the opposite direction to reach Narbonne. Here now passes the Languedoc canal. This magnificent valley ought to have two great cities, the one maritime, the other agricultural and industrial : for GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTIOl^ OF GAUL. 5 this phenomenon, is found in the case of all our rivers. The Khone has Lyons and Marseilles ; the Loire, Orleans and Nantes ; the Seine, Paris and Rouen and Havre. Identical causes explain this singular parallelism. Life is naturally- concentrated at two points to correspond to the double pur- pose which the river serves : the exploitation of the sea and that of the land. On the Garonne these two cities are Bor- deaux and Toulouse. The Valley of the Rhone ; the Camargue. — The Ehone has a longer but narrower valley. It rises in the glacier of La Furca. In the Valais, its basin is often only a league wide, at St. Maurice only a few yards. Further on lies Lake Leman, the most beautiful lake in Europe. There the space widens, the valley enlarges. But three leagues below Geneva, at Fort recluse, the Rhone again traverses a very narrow gorge. After it has turned the extremity of the Jura, its basin at last extends from the Alps to the C^vennes, but the valley is still narrow, and the river itself preserves a capri- cious and dangerous character. From Lyons to the sea it flows with the swiftness of an arrow. In vain are its borders embanked ; it breaks through the embankment and spreads desolation far and wide, especially when a south wind has rapidly melted the snows of winter, or when abundant rains have fallen upon the Alps. The detritus which the Rhone thus receives, it carries along its course, strewn with numerous shallows, down to the Mediterranean, into which it carries every year 20,- 000,000 cubic meters of solid matter. All the space from Aries to the sea has thus been filled up. A delta of sand and gravel, 74,000 hectares in extent, called the Camargue, forces the Rhone to divide into, several branches, of which only one is at present navigable ; and even it is closed by a bar which makes entrance extremely difficult. Therefore the great port of the Rhone valley is not at the mouth of the river, but fifty miles farther east, at Marseilles. Tributaries of the Rhone. — The Rhone receives from the C6vennes small streams only, which, however, are subject to formidable floods. But the Jura sends it the Ain ; the Alps, the Durance and the Is^re. The Durance, though 320 kilo- meters long, is only a capricious and devastating torrent. The rocks and sands which it carries down, the rapidity of its course, its sudden changes, make it unsuited to navigar tion. Yet it was in the basin of the Durance that all the 6 INTRODUCTION. old Gallic cities not situated on the seacoast or on the Rhone arose. The Is6re enters the Khone at Grenoble. Its overflows, though less frequent than those of the Durance, have sometimes been more terrible. If there were no other tributaries, the Rhone might be a good line of military de- fence behind the Alps : it would never have had a vital importance for commerce and politics. But by means of the Sa6ne its basin opens toward Burgundy and Champagne, and by this means the products and the ideas of old France are imported into the provinces traversed by the Rhone. The Sa6ne is therefore one of the great arteries of the country, a connecting link between the southeast and the north : at its confluence with the Rhone stands the largest city of France after Paris, the city of Lyons. The Valley of the Rhine. — The courses of the Rhine and the Rhone are mutually symmetrical. Rising upon oppo- site slopes of the St. Gothard, they flow rapidly away, the one toward the north, the other toward the west. Kear Bregenz, the Rhine enters Lake Constance, just as the Rhone enters the Lake of Geneva. Each turns an extremity of the Jura, the one then impinging upon the C6vennes, the other upon the Vosges, which force them to assume their final directions, the one toward the Mediterranean, the other toward the Xorth Sea. Less swift and impetuous, the Rhine makes longer detours. From Basel to the neighborhood of Mainz, its course is im- peded by the numerous islands which have so often facili- tated the passage of the river by armies. Further down, the beauty of its scenery, its towns, the rich culture of its slopes, the feudal ruins upon its heights, make this valley one of the most beautiful in Europe. Below Cologne, the Rhine flows gently towards Holland, increased by the Xeckar, the Main, and the Moselle. Like the Rhone, it divides into several branches, of which the Waal and the Lech join the IVIeuse, the Yssel flows into the Zuyder Zee, while the branch which continues to bear the name of Rhine has at Leyden, after a course of 1200 kilometers, only the width of a large canal. The Waal and the Lech put the Rhine into communication with the great estuary of the Meuse, and thus throw it open to navigation. Communication between the River Basins. — The C^vennes and the Vosges are not so high as to prevent inter-communi- cation. In the south they permit the passage of the Lan- GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF GAUL. 7 guedoc canal; in the centre, of those of Charolais and Burgundy ; in the north, of that connecting the Marne with the Ehine. Their outlying spurs present still less serious obstacles. Canals have been constructed which connect the Seine with the Loire,' the Scheldt, the Meuse, the Sa6ne, and the Rhone ; the Ehone with the Rhine and the Garonne ; the Marne and the Meuse with the Sadne. Oreat Lines of Depression and Population of the French Territory. — The general outlines of France run parallel to the equator and the meridians. Its frontier from Bayonne to Antibes runs in the direction of the parallels of latitude. The western shores of the Bay of Biscay and the Cotentin, and on the east, the line of the Alps, the Jura, and the Rhine, almost exactly follow two meridians. The great interior routes take the same direction. Thus if one were to trace upon a map of France a square having its four corners at Caen, Bordeaux, Marseilles, and Dunkirk, and having as diagonals two curved lines drawn from Marseilles to Havre and from Bordeaux to Strassburg, he would have marked the great lines of depression of the soil of Gaul, those which the great roads, railroads, and canals now in use or pro- jected have followed. Herein lies the explanation of some of the facts of history. These hollows of the mountains, these depressions of the soil, afford, in fact, the only and natural pathways which men have long followed. War. commerce, ideas, and, in a word, the whole life of nations, have passed along these natural paths. At their entrances, at their exits, and at their middle points, great cities have arisen like so many halting-places for merchants and for armies, like so many luminous points from which civiliza- tion has radiated all around. The great lines of depression of the soil have been not only the great lines of commu- nication and population, but also the great paths of French unity and nationality. If there had been high mountains between all the great rivers of France, the inhabitants of each valley would for long ages have formed a separate nation. In hermetically enclosed valleys, life is exclusive and patriotism local. The least open of the great valleys of France, that of the Garonne, has also been the one whose population has most energetically resisted centralizing influ- ences. The Loire and the Seine, on the contrary, between which communication is so easy, have almost always fol- lowed the same laws. Paris and Orleans were the two patri- 8 INtltODUGTlON. monial cities of the French kings, and the first acquisition made by reviving royalty was Bourges. The Valois even seemed to hesitate between the two rivers. Blois and Tours were for some time the capitals of Henry III. and Henry lY. The Sa6ne, too, has almost always been dependent upon the Seine. Burgundy scarcely ever had any other than Cape- tian dukes. Lyons, Grenoble, and Montpellier were in the hands of the French king a century before Bordeaux. Unity and Central Situation of the French Territory. — One of the great causes of the physical, and therefore of the moral unity of France is, assuredly, this facility of com- munication between its different valleys. They descend to all the seas, yet are easily connected one with another. There is unity in variety, the best condition for the devel- opment of a great society and a powerful civilization. Va- riety of climate and natural productions is included. More- over, if France is not in a material sense the centre of Europe, it nevertheless occupies a position central with respect to the European waters, the Mediterranean, the Bay of Biscay, the Channel, and the North Sea, and with respect to the principal nations of the Continent, Spain, Italy, Switz- erland, Germany, and England. Hence have come its long wars and the dangers which it has so often encountered, but hence also has come the influence it has so often exerted abroad. FIRST PERIOD. Gaul Independent. — To 50 b.c. CHAPTER I. PRIMITIVE POPULATIONS: MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. (To 125 B.C.) Primitive Populations. — Unknown races at first inhabited Ganl, at the same time with the reindeer and the mammoth, and remains of prehistoric man have frequently been found in caves, — his arms, his implements of bone or stone, and even his rude drawings, — mingled with remains of animals now extinct. At the dawn of history Gaul appears divided among three or four hundred tribes belonging to the great families of the Celts and the Iberians. The Celts. — ^The Celts had marched westward at an un- known epoch from the plains of Central Asia, where they had been associated with the ancestors of the Greeks, the Italians, the Slavs, and the Germans. During this march numerous bodies halted in the valley of the Danube and all along the Alps, while the head of the column advanced westward to the shores of the Atlantic. Brittany and Ire- land also became part of their domain. Over this vast ter- ritory the Celts extended their settlements and maltiplied. Their language shows the relationship which united the Celts or Gauls with the great family of Indo-European na- tions. This language is still spoken in Brittany, in Wales, in the Highlands of Scotland, and in Ireland. The Belgse, whom some have regarded as a distinct race, occupied Northern Gaul about 600 b.c. The Iberians or Basques. — The Celts had found a people established in Gaul before their arrival, the Iberians, who, 10 PRIMITIVE POPULATIONS: under the name of Aquitanians, were gradually pushed back to the south of the G-aronne. Their language, the Basque, still spoken in the Pyrenees, is related to that of the Finns. The Phoenicians and Greeks. — The adventurous navi- gators of Tyre and Carthage, who so early voyaged around all the shores of the Mediterranean, appeared also at the mouths of the Rhone. At first they traded along the coast, then advanced into the interior of the country. The Greeks, following the Phoenicians into the western Mediterranean^ ended by supplanting them in Gaul. The Ehodians estab- lished themselves at the mouths of the Rhone, while the Phoenician colonies of the interior were falling into the hands of the natives. About the year 600 the Phocaeans founded Marseilles. Character, Manners, and Customs of Gaul. — A.11 the Celtic and Belgian tribes had customs very nearly alike, and in the eyes of foreigners they formed but one single people. The Greeks and Romans noted especially their courage. " It is an indomitable race," said they, " which makes war not only upon men, but upon nature and the gods ; they shoot their arrows up against the sky when it thunders : they take arms against tempests : they march with sword in hand against overflowing rivers or the angry ocean." Their nature was as generous as brave. " Every one," says Strabo, " resents injuries done to his neighbor, and so keenly that they all assemble to take revenge for them." Diodorus Siculus describes the Gauls as tall, with fair complexions and light hair. '' The nobles," he says, " shave their beards, but let their moustaches grow. They take their feasts seated upon the skins of wolves or dogs ; whole quarters of meat are provided. They honor the brave by offering them the best portions. They are hospitable but quarrelsome, and are much given to hyperbole. They are intelligent, and susceptible to instruction. They also have poets who are called bards, and who sing the praise or the blame of men, accompanying themselves upon an instrument resembling a lyre. . . ." Costumes, Arms, and Mode of Fighting. — "The Gauls," he says, "wear tunics of variegated color, breeches, and plaid cloaks attached to their shoulders by clasps. For de- fensive armor they have shields as tall as a man, artistically decorated, and brazen helmets fantastically adorned. Some of them confine their tunics with girdles of gold and silver. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 11 ■ Their swords are nearly as long as tlie javelins of other nations, and the heavy pikes which they throw have points longer than their swords. In travel and in battle many of them make use of two-horse chariots. They hurl the lance, and then at once alight to attack the ensmy with the sword. Some of them despise death to such a degree that they rush into battle Avithout other covering than a ^rdle around the body. Before joining battle they challenge individual ene- mies to single combat, sing the prowess of their ancestors, vaunt their own valor, and insult their adversaries. They cut ofE the heads of their vanquished enemies and preserve them as trophies." Various Customs. — Women were free in the choice of their husbands, to whom they brought a dowry. The hus- band had rights of life and death over his wife and over his children. " The funerals of their chieftains," says Caesar, " are magnificent. Whatever is supposed to have been dear to the deceased is thrown upon the funeral pyre, even ani- mals. A little time before the expedition of Caesar it was still the custom to burn with the dead the slaves and re- tainers whom he was known to have loved." Religion. — The G-auls at first worshipped the thunder, stars, the ocean, rivers, lakes, the wind, — in a word, the for- ces of nature. Later, the Druids undoubtedly taught the peo- ple to worship moral and intelligent forces : Hesus, the God of War ; Teutates, the God of Commerce and inventor of the arts ; and Ogmius, the God of Poetry and Eloquence. The feast of Teutates was celebrated on the first night of the new year, in the forest, by the light of torches. To Hesus they often, before the battle, dedicated the spoils of the enemy, and, after the victory, they sacrificed to him what remained of the cattle which they had captured. The Druids. — The priests of the Gauls, the Druids, had elevated beliefs, including a doctrine of rewards and punish- ments in the future life. But horrible superstitions, human sacrifices, stained the rude altars which they raised in the depths of ancestral forests or in the midst of desolate plains. " The Gauls," says Caesar, " think that the life of a man must be paid to secure that of another man, and that the immortal gods can be appeased only at this price : they have even instituted public sacrifices of this sort. They sometimes weave, of osiers, large constructions resembling the human figure, which they fill with living men: they 12 PRIMITIVE POPULATIONS: then set fire to it and cause their victims to perish in the flames." All the Druids had. a single chief whose authority was unlimited. His successor was elected by the other Druids. " At a certain period in the year they assemble in a conse- crated place on the frontier of the territory of the Carnutes, which is regarded as the central point of all Gaul, and there their disputes are settled, but their doctrine is believed to have originated in Britain. The Druids do not go to war, and pay no taxes. To enter this order it is necessary to learn a great number of verses, and there are those who pass twenty years in this novitiate. It is not allowed to commit these verses to writing, though, in most other public and private affairs, the Greek letters are used. A belief which they especially seek to establish is that the souls of men do not perish, but after death pass from one body to another, a belief which seems to them especially adapted to inspire courage, by removing the fear of death. The move- jnents of the stars, the immensity of the universe, the great- ness of the earth, the nature of things, the power of the immortal gods, such are the subjects of their discussions and teachings." Bards, Soothsayers, and Prophetesses. — Associated with the order of Druids, we find bards, soothsayers, and proph- etesses. These last redoubtable magicians loved to live upon wild promontories beaten by a stormy sea. The sooth- sayers were charged with all the material affairs of worship. It was they who sought for revelations of the future in the entrails of victims or by consulting the flight of birds. A Gaul undertook no important act without having recourse to their divinations. While the power of the Druids was undisputed, the bards were the sacred poets, called upon at all religious ceremonies. They celebrated the praises of the powerful and rich military chieftains. From singers of the gods and heroes, they became the courtiers of men. At the tables of the great they paid by their verses for the privilege of entertainment. Druidical Monuments. — Monuments called druidical are still found in great numbers in the western provinces of France. First, there are the menhirs, enormous blocks of rough stone fixed in the soil, isolated or ranged in avenues like those of Carnac. The cromlechs were menhirs ranged in a circle or in several concentric circles : the dolmens were rude MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 13 altars formed by one or several great fiat stones, placed hori- zontally upon upright stones. These singular monuments, though called druidical, are really due to an earlier period, and are, in fact, the grand architecture of the stone age. Sometimes they bear rude carvings and various symbols, — crescents, round holes arranged in circles, spirals, and figures, which perhaps represent animals, or trees with interlacing branches. A large number of these megalithic monuments are found in Brittany, along the Loire, in Poitou, Auvergne, and the C^vennes : but they are also to be found in other parts of the Avorld, and are the work of very various popu- lations, representing, at very different epochs, a similar stage of civilization. Tumuli, or mounds of earth heaped up over a tomb, are also found in France. Ideas are as durable as granite. Some relics of druidical ceremony were still practised, not two centuries ago, in the forests of Dauphiny ; and many traces of them might even now be found in the remoter p^rts of the provinces. Government. — The Druids, ministers of a sanguinary worship and sole depositories of all knowledge, long held sway through intellectual superiority and religious terror. About three centuries before our era the chiefs of the tribes and the nobles, by a bloody revolution, threw off the yoke of the priestly caste. But after its victory the military aris- tocracy found two enemies : some of their number made themselves kings ; elsewhere the inferior classes, especially the inhabitants of the towns, rose in revolt. The Druids took sides with the rebels against the nobles, and in most of the tribes aristocratic and royal government was abolished and replaced by democratic governments of varied consti- tution. State of Gaul in 58 B.C. — This revolution had just been accomplished when Caesar entered Gaul. He found in the country, he tells us, only two sorts of men who were honored : the Druids and the nobles. '' As for the multitude, their lot is little better than that of slaves. The Druids, as minis- ters of divine things, perform the public sacrifices and are the judges of the people. If an individual does not submit to their decision, they interdict him from the sacrifices : this is the rarest of punishments among them. Those who in- cur this interdiction are avoided by all: all privileges of justice are refused them, and they have no part in any honors. 14 PRIMITIVE POPULATIONS. " The second class is that of the nobles, who, in the fre« quent times of war, are surrounded by numbers of retainers proportioned to the distinction of their birth and wealth. Some of these retainers devote themselves to their chief- tain for life or death. They share all the goods of life witJa those to whom they have thus devoted themselves : if the chief dies a violent death, they share his fate, and kill themselves with their own hands : and it has not yet" oc- curred within the memory of man that one of those who have devoted themselves to a chieftain by such an agree- ment has refused, when the chief has died, to accompany him in death at once." There were general assemblies in which public aifairs were discussed. Industry; Commerce. — The Phoenicians and the Greeks had taught the Gauls the art of mining. The JEdui (in Burgundy) had manufactures of gold and silver, the Bituri- ges (in Berry) of iron. The Bituriges and Arverni prac- tised the art of welding tin to copper. The ^^dui invented metal plating. Gaul was not less distinguished for the arts of weaving and knitting : its dyes were not withou.t reputa- tion. In agriculture the Gauls devised the wheel plough and the use of marl as a manure. They composed various sorts of fermented drinks : and many of their coins are extant. Commerce could not be highly active, for there were but few objects of exchange, yet the Sequani (Franche-Comte) sent salted provisions down the Sadne and the Rhone to Marseilles, whence they were exported to Italy and Greece. Gaul also exported coarse cloths, and had a considerable trade with Britain. MIGRATIONS OF THE GAULS. 15 CHAPTER 11. MIGRATIONS OF THE GAULS. (To 123 B.C.) Invasion of Spain. — Led on by their warlike spirit, tlie Celts of the valley of the Danube and of Gaul fell upon all the neighboring countries. They went to seek their for- tune beyond the Alps and beyond the Pyrenees, in Greece, and even in Asia. Having pushed back the Aquitanians from the banks of the Loire to those of the Garonne, they made their way, at a period of unknown antiquity, into Spain. The Celtiberians of a later time, the people who made the most vigorous resistance to the Romans, were a mixture of Celts and Iberians. Invasion of Italy (587 b.c.) ; Capture of Rome (390 b.c). — About the year 587 the Insubres, the Cenomani, the Boii, and the Senones invaded and conquered the north of Italy. Their wars with the Romans were long and sauguinary: alone among all the enemies of Rome they scaled those walls which Pyrrhus and Hannibal were barely able to view from a distance. In 390 b.c. 30,000 Senones invaded Etruria and demanded lands from the inhabitants of Clusium, who shut their gates and implored the assistance of Rome. The senate sent three ambassadors, the three Fabii, to interpose their mediation. Irritated at their reception, and forgetting their character of ambassadors, the Fabii took part with the besieged in a sortie. Immediately the barbarians broke off their hostilities against Clusium and demanded reparation from Rome. But all reparation was refused. At news of this the Senones, re-enforced by other bands, marched on Rome, and inflicted a tremendous defeat on the Romans on the banks of the river Allia, near the city. The inhabitants retired to the citadel, or deserted the city in panic, and the Gauls entered it without opposition, But the Capitol still held out. The barbarians attempted to scale it, but the Romans had little difficulty in repulsing them, and they were obliged to under- Id MIGRATIONS OF THE GAULS, take a blockade. For seven months, it is said, the Gauls encamped amid the ruins of Rome. A night attack on the Capitol was frustrated by Manlius : but provisions became exhausted, and Camillus, who had been proclaimed dictator by the Romans at Veil, did not appear. The military tribune, Sulpicius, agreed with the generalissimo . of the Gauls^ who was summoned back to his own country by an attack of the Veneti, that the Gauls should withdraw on payment of a ransom of a thousand pounds of gold. The barbarians withdrew : but Camillus annulled the treaty by virtue of his authority as dictator. Some slight successes were gained over the retreating Gauls. Roman vanity took advantage of them to assert in after ages a vic- tory so complete that not a single barbarian had escaped the avenging sword of the soldiers of Camillus. War of Rome against the Cisalpine Gauls (283 b.c.-192 B.C.). — Rome could not take revenge until a century later. In 283 the consul Dolabella penetrated into the country of the Senones with superior forces. He burned their vil- lages, killed the men, sold the women and children, and did not leave the country until he had made it a desert. Yet it was not until 232 that Rome dared to order the distribution among its poor citizens of the lands taken from this nation. The Boii refused to allow the Romans to settle so near them, and at their summons almost all the Cisalpine Gauls took the field. A formidable army marched on Rome. Terror was at its height in the city. All Italy was aroused to repulse the Gauls. They came within three days' journey of the city ; but, enclosed between two armies near Cape Telamon, they were signally defeated (215 b.c). The senate decided to make the very greatest effort to deliver Italy from such dangers. Two consuls crossed the Po, and suc- ceeded in conquering the territory of the Insubres. The Gauls of the valley of the Po appeared to be com- pletely subjected, when Hannibal descended from the Alps with a Carthaginian army, which he had led thither from Spain. The Boii had guided his march across the Alps. After the victories of the Ticinus and the Trebia, the Cisal- pine Gauls hastened in great numbers to his camp. They followed him in his march toward Rome, and it was with Gallic blood that he gained the victories of Lake Trasimenus and Cannae. When his marvellous struggle had ended, after the battle of Zama, Rome resumed the work of con- 17 «4 er lie 3k 3h ad in m. r. %• s X r ^<» ad ad ry at- )es to ed Is. of in- he ce- es- ill ire up of he to )re ed ed 3d, m- )ld 'ly ;rs la- he je, srs je. es ■n MIGRATIONS OF THE GAULS. 17 c[uest wliicli liad. been interrupted by his arrival: lier legions pushed the frontier of the Eepublic forward to the Alps, The Boii abandoned their land and went to seek upon the borders of the Danube, in two countries which have preserved their name, Bohemia (Boiohemum) and Bavaria (Boiaria), a country in which they could live in freedom (192 b.c). Invasions of Greece. — At an earlier time the Gauls had established themselves in the valley of the Danube. Alex- ander found them there as he approached that river, and gave them the title of allies and friends. Half a century later we discover them again, this time in arms and threat- ening hostility. About the year 280 b.c, three new tribes from Gaiil joined them, and the whole body decided to invade Macedonia and Thrace. A formidable army forced its way into Macedonia. The phalanx was broken through, and all the low country fell into the hands of the Gauls. They then withdrew to put their plunder in a place of security. Macedonia breathed again : but during the win- ter the Gauls gathered together new forces, and in the spring of 279 B.C., again entered the country of the Mace- donians, crushed their last army, and descended into Thes- saly in enormous force. All the men of courage that still remained to Greece hastened to Thermopylae in order there to check the host, and the last ships of Athens took up their station in the Maliac gulf to aid in the defence of the pass. Vigorously repulsed from Thermopylae, the Gauls discovered the path which had opened Greece to Xerxes, and which, strangely enough, had not been more carefully guarded this time. They immediately marched upon Delphi in order to plunder its treasures. Repulsed from Delphi, which they seem however to have pillaged, the Gauls made a retreat which the attacks of the moun- taineers rendered highly disastrous. Hunger and cold caused them terrible sufferings. Their general, dangerously wounded, killed himself to escape the anger of his soldiers or the shame of his defeat (278 b.c). The Gauls in the Valley of the Danuhe; in Asia (Gala- tians). — The fragments of the Gallic army returned to the north. Some remained upon the banks of the Danube, where they formed the great tribe of the Scordisci : others joined their companions who were encamped in Thrace. The Gaiils of the Danube served frequently as mercenaries 18 MIGRATIONS OF THE GAULS. in tlie armies of the time. They furnished Pyrrhus with his best soldiers. The Gauls of Thrace had a more brilliant fortune. Two princes were then disputing the crown of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. One of them took the Gauls into his pay. They set him upon the throne : then, finding the country good, the inhabitants timid, and the cities rich, they roved about over the peninsula for forty years, levying contributions from princes and peoples. Driven back finally into the centre of the peninsula, they established themselves under several chieftains in the country which from them received the name of Galatia. When the Eoman legions had van- quished Antiochus, king of Syria, at Magnesia, the consul Manlius made a successful expedition against the Galatians (189 B.C.). Contented with having defeated the Galatians, Rome left them their liberty, which they retained until 25 B.C. At that time, without further warfare, Galatia was reduced to the form of a Roman province : but, four centuries \ater, St. Jerome found again, in the district around Ancyra, the language which in his youth he had heard spoken upon the banks of the Moselle and the Rhine. These restless adven- turers, whom one would have supposed so prompt to lose in their wanderings the remembrance of their coiiutry and so ready to adopt the manners of other nations, still piously pre- served their ancestral customs and language. So in our days, in the midst of English rule, upon the banks of the St. Law- rence and in the remote valleys of the Cape of Good Hope, is still preserved the tongue which was brought there from the banks of the Seine and the Loire by the colonists of Henry IV. or of Colbert and the Huguenots of the disper= sion. The race so often spoken of as light-headed has shown on foreign soil the same persistence as the Bretons in their native district. COJf QUEST OF GAUL BY THE ROMAICS. 19 CHAPTER III. CONQUEST OF OAUL BY THE ROMANS. (125-50 B.C.) Formation of the Provincia Narbonensis (125). — It was years before Eome dared to attack the Gauls. Nevertheless it was necessary for her to secure, at any price, an overland route from Italy to Spain. The Greeks of Marseilles, long the allies of Rome, furnished her an opportunity to do this. Attacked by the neighboring tribes, Marseilles had applied to the Roman senate, and a Roman army after having con- quered the Ligurians gave their lands to the Massilians (154). In the year 125, fresh complaints led the legions to march a second time against the Salyes, who were defeated. This time Rome kept what she had conquered ; she thus had a new province between the Rhone and the Alps, with its capital at Aix (Aquae Sextiae, 122). The ^dui, be- tween the Sa6ne and the Loire, at once asked to be admitted into alliance with Rome. The Allobroges, on the contrary^ attacked her, but were defeated (121). The following year the Romans also defeated the king of the Arverni. All the country on both sides of the Rhone up to the Lake of Geneva was united to the province, which, in the follow- ing year; was extended to the Pyrenees. The Volcae Tecto- sages, dwelling around Toulouse, accepted the title of fede- rati; and the colony of Narbo Martins (Narbonne) was founded, to watch over the new subjects (118). The Cimbri and Teutones (110) ; Battle of Aix (102) . — The invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones came near sweep- ing away this recently established domination. Three hun- dred thousand of these barbarians crossed the Rhine, spread over Gaul, and, on the borders of the Rhone, crushed succes- sively three Roman armies. But, instead of crossing the Alps, they passed over the Pyrenees and wasted their time and their strength in fighting against the warlike Celtibe- rians. This was the salvation of Rome. She had time to send Marius to guard her province in Gaul. That skilful 20 CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE ROMANS. general placed his camp on the left bank of the Rhone, and labored to restore discipline in the army. It was near Aix that the horde encountered him. He was camped on a hill where the supply of water was insufficient. In crossing a river which lay in front of them, the barba- rians broke their lines and had not had time to reform them, when the Romans came down upon them from their ele- vated position with such overwhelming force that they were obliged, after a bloody struggle, to take to flight. The Ro- mans, after this first victory, regained their position at night- fall, but passed the whole night in watching and apprehen- sion, expecting a nocturnal attack. But the Teutones did not come out of their camp either that night or the next day ; they employed their time in preparing for battle. This second battle, which took place two days after the first, was not more successful for the barbarians ; attacked in front by the legions, surprised in the rear by a lieutenant of Marius, they could not resist. The massacre was horrible, as in all the battles of the ancients, in which men fought hand to hand. The Suevi and the Helvetii; Caesar in Gaul (58). — The civil wars prevented Rome from following up this victory. Meanwhile the Suevi set out upon the path which the Cim- bri had undertaken to follow ; 120,000 of them entered the valley of the Sa6ne under Ariovistus. The ^dui and the Sequani (in Burgundy and Franche-Comt6) implored the protection of Rome against them. At the same time the Helvetii in Switzerland, incessantly harassed by the Ger- mans, proposed to abandon the country, cross G-aul, and settle on the shore of the Ocean. Julius Caesar, who was consul at the time, wishing, for political purposes, to acquire military resources and prestige, had himself appointed gov- ernor of lUyricum and the two G-auls» (Cisalpine and Trans- alpine), with orders to repress the Helvetii and drive away tlie Suevi. First Campaign (58) ; Submission of the Valley of the Saone. — Caesar began with the Helvetii; he repulsed them in a great battle on the borders of the Sadne, and forced them to return to their country. This first expedition finished, he marched against Ariovistus and by a bloody battle put the barbarians to flight. Ariovistus recrossed the river with a few of his men ; the rest of the Suevi returned to their forests. Two formidable wars had been terminated in a single campaign (58). CONiiOEST OF GAUL BY THE ROMANS. 21 Second and Third Campaigns ; Conquest of Gallia Belgica (57), of Armorica and Aquitania {56). — The Belgse, disturbed at seeing the legions so near them, took up arms, and in the spring Caesar encountered on the banks of the Aisne 300,000 barbarians renowned as the bravest in all Gaul. A skilful diversion caused certain tribes to withdraw, and a cavalry charge turned this retreat into a disorderly flight. The coalition dissolved, it was necessary to conquer, one after the other, all these tribes. The Suessiones, the Bellovaci, and the Ambiani (Soissons, Beauvais, and Amiens) made no resistance ; but the Nervii (Hainault) awaited the legions behind the Sambre and came near exterminating them. Finally the whole Nervian army was destroyed. This des- perate battle placed Gallia Belgica at Caesar's feet. The next year Caesar himself attacked the Veneti (Mor- bihan), defeated them in a naval battle, and reduced them to subjection. At the same time Sabinus in the north had dispersed the army of the Aulerci (Le Mans), the Eburovices (^fivreux), the Unelli (St. L6), and the Lexovii (Lisieux). In the south, Crassus had penetrated without hindrance as far as the Garonne, and received the submission of almost all Aquitania. The conquest of Gaul seemed complete (56). Fourth and Fifth Campaigns; Expeditions beyond the Ahine and into Britain (55-54). — An invasion by the Usip- etes and the Tencteri, with difficulty repulsed, and the assistance which, the preceding year, the Armoricans had received from the island of Britain, showed Caesar that he would be obliged to isolate Gaul from Britain and Ger- many. He then crossed the Bhine, terrified the neighboring tribes, and returned to strike a sudden blow at Britain. The disembarkation was difficult ; but the Eomans landed after a battle in the midst of the waves. The tide and a violent wind dispersed a squadron which was bringing Caesar's cavalry to him, and shattered his ships of burden. He hastened to give battle to the islanders in order to be able to return quickly bu.t with honor to the continent. He reappeared in Britain the foUoAving year. This time he forced the Britains to give him hostages and to promise an annual tribute. Ambiorix. — The war with the Gauls was supposed to be finished ; in reality it had scarcely begun. Until then the tribes had fought separately ; united movements were now 22 CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE ROMANS. to follow. In order to keep tliem in subjection Caesar had favored the elevation of certain ambitions persons in some tribes, or formed a Roman party in others. The deceptive calm and apparent resignation of the chiefs of the Gauls inspired him with a sense of complete security, and a famine rendering provisions scarce, he scattered his eight legions over a wide territory. But a vast conspiracy existed, of which Ambiorix, a chief of the Eburones, and Indutiomarus, a Treveran, were the leading spirits. It was their intention to take up arms, call the Germans, and attack the legions in their quarters, cutting off entirely all communications between them. The secret was well kept. Ambiorix, on his part, making a sudden attack, massacred a whole legion and attacked the camp of Quintus Cicero. On the north and east of the Loire the movement became general. In spite of his vigilance it was some time before Caesar learned of Cicero's danger. He had at command only 7000 men, and the assailants numbered at least 60,000 ; never- theless he attacked them, and delivered Cicero's camp. Labienus was equally successful against the Treveri; he killed Indutiomarus. Ambiorix escaped, but the Eburones were exterminated. Sixth Campaign; General Revolt; Vercingetorix (52). — During the winter a new insurrection was prepared; the signal for it came from the country of the Carnutes (Chartres). All the Romans established at Genabiim (Gien) were massacred ; tjie same day the news of it was transmitted to Gergovia (near Clermont), about 150 miles distant. There was living there a young and noble Arvernian, Vercinget' orix. As soon as he heard of the massacre of Genabum, he aroused the people, had himself invested with military command, and caused the meeting of a supreme council of the tribes of Gaul. From the Garonne to the Seine, all the tribes responded to his appeal and bestowed on him the conduct of the war. He pushed forward his preparations with energy, and gave the league an organization, which in all the previous attempts of the Gauls had not been achieved. His plan of attack was skilful : one of his lieutenants was to march southward and invade Gallia Narbonensis, while he himself was to march to the north against the legions j but a slight delay gave Caesar time to return from Italy. In a few days the proconsul organized the defence of the province, drove off the enemy, crossed the G^vennes in spite CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE ROMANS. 2S of six feet of snow, and desolated the whole Arvernian territory. Then, recrossing the mountains, he went along the Rhone and Sa6ne by forced marches, and joined the main body of his legions. His courage and his tremendous activity had baffled the double project of the Gallic general. Csesar recaptured Genabum, crossed the Loire, and began taking the towns of the Bituriges. Vercingetorix saw that with such an adversary it would be necessary to fight another war. The Bituriges and other tribes heroically burned their villages in order to starve the enemy, but their intention was not fully carried out; Avaricum (Bourges), the capital of the country, was spared ; Caesar went there at once. In twenty -five days he had constructed his towers for attack, and an earthwork 300 feet long and 80 feet high. The town was taken. The provisions which he found in it fed his army during the last three months of winter ; when spring came, he detached Labienus with four legions against the Senones (Sens) and the Parisii (Paris), while he himself conducted the rest of the army against the Arverni (Auvergne). But Vercingetorix covered Gergovia (near Clermont); he re- pelled an attack in which forty-six centurions perished, and Caesar retreated, to rejoin Labienus, and boldly marched northward, leaving 100,000 Gauls between him and Gallia Narbonensis. The league of the north had taken as its chief Camulo- genus, an old warrior, skilful and energetic, who had taken up his headquarters at Lutetia (Paris). Attacked by Labi- .enus, Camulogenus burned the city and the bridges, and retired to the heights on the left bank. Labienus crossed the Seine, and defeated him in a bloody action. Camulo- genus perished with almost all his warriors, and Labienus joined his general. Caesar encountered Vercingetorix not far from the Sa6ne. The Gallic cavalrymen had sworn that they would never see their wives and children again till they had crossed the Eoman lines at least twice. Caesar incurred the greatest dangers, but his legions bravely with- stood that furious charge, and, in their turn, pursued the enemy, who fled in disorder to the very walls of Alesia. Siege of Alesia (52) . — Alesia, situated on the top of a steep hill, was considered one of the strongest positions in Gaul. In front of her walls, on the sides of the hill, Ver- cingetorix laid out a camp for his army, which numbered about 80,000 foot-soldiers and 10,000 cavalry. Caesar con- 24 CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE ROMANS. ceived the bold design of ending tlie war with one blow by besieging at once both the city and the army. Works were begun. Lines of circunivallation ten miles long and of elaborate construction were drawn around the town and the hostile camp. All these works were repeated on the side next the open country, where the contravallation had a cir- cuit of sixteen miles. Five weeks and less than 60,000 men sufficed for this undertaking. Vercingetorix, sending away his cavalry, promised to hold out thirty days, and called on the Gallic tribes to rise in a body. His appeal was responded to ; 248,000 tried warriors assembled from all parts of Gaul to deliver their brethren : they dashed themselves against tlie impregnable ramparts of the legions. After having sustained several assaults, Caesar led the attack himself, repulsed the Gauls, cut their rear guard in pieces, spread panic through their ranks, and scattered them. This time Gaul was thoroughly and forever conquered. The garrison of Alesia had no alternative but to accept such terms of capitulation as it pleased the conqueror to grant. Vercingetorix came in and surrendered himself. Six years later, after having graced Csesar's triumph, he was put to death. Seventh Campaign (51) ; Pacification of Gaul (50). — Some movements on the north and east were still to be suppressed. Csesar chastised the communities of the Bituriges (Bourges), the Carnutes (Chartres), and the Bellovaci (Beauvais) ; all the tribes of the northeast renewed their promises of obe- dience. He overran Gallia Belgica, exacted hostages of the Armorican communities, and stifled all insurrection between the Loire and the Garonne. There was soon no longer any war except among the Cadurci (Cahors) at Uxellodunum. Cifisar reduced that city, and caused the hands of all those Avhom he found in it to be cut off. This odious deed was the last act in the terrible struggle which decided that the Gauls should not remain free to foUoAV the natural development of their national genius. Their native civilization was further advanced than the usual accounts would indicate ; and, if it is not possible to say what this civilization, left to its own inspirations, would have become, we may feel justified in honoring a heroic resistance and pitying the premature end of a great, brave people. For Rome the Gallic war ended gloriously the list of the CONQUEST OF GAUL BY THE ROMANS. 25 conquests of the Republic. Caesar had employed in them eight years, ten legions, and the inexhaustible resources of Roman discipline, of his own military genius and incom- parable energy. Gaul was reduced to a province, but the cities retained their laws and their governments ; the only sign of the conquest was a tribute of forty million sesterces ($1,600,000). SECOND PERIOD. Gaul under the Romans (50 b.c. -476 a.d.), CHAPTER IV. THE GAULS UNDER THE EMPIRE. (50 B.C. — 395 A.D.) Organization of Gaul by Augustus. — The civil war and his premature death prevented Caesar from paying much atten- tion to Gaul. Augustus, even, could not think of doing so, until after he had become sole master of the Roman world. Visiting Gaul in 27 B.C., he changed the boundaries of the provinces and the names of several cities. Aquitania was extended to the Loire. Gallia Celtica, or Lugdunensis, was limited to the countries comprised between the Loire, the Seine, and the Marne. The rest formed Gallia Belgica. Numerous Roman colonies were established in Gaul. Fr^jus became one of the great arsenals of the Empire, and Aries was greatly enla,rged. The capitals of the Suessiones (Soissons), the Veromandui (St. Quentin), the Tricasses (Troyes), the Ausci (Audi), and the Treveri (Trier) took the name of Augusta. The city of the Turones became Csesaro- dunum (Tours) ; that of the Lemovices was called Augus- toritum (Limoges), and Bibracte, Augustodunum (Autun). Privileges were unequally distributed; the ^dui, the Remi, and the Carnutes retained the title of allies ; the Santones, the Arverni, the Bituriges, and the Suessiones, their laws. Finally, Gaul was divided into sixty munici- palities ; that is, the number of recognized Gallic tribes was reduced to that figure. Each of these sixty cities became responsible for disturbances which broke out within its territory. Lugdunum (Lyons) was made the centre of the THE GAULS UNDER THE EMPIRE.- 27 imperial administration in Gaul. Four great military high- ways extended thence to the Ocean, to the Rhine, to the Channel and along the Rhone and the Mediterranean coast to the Pyrenees. Augustus forbade human sacrifices and promised municipal rights to those alone who should aban- don the druidical worship. The province quickly became Roman. Beorganization in the Fourth Century. — This first organ- ization was modified in the fourth century. A prefecture of the Gauls was then formed, the seat of which was at Trier, and which comprised the three dioceses of Spain, Britain, and Gaul, the last divided into seventeen provinces, which were subdivided into 120 municipalities. The praeto- rian prefect, the vicar of the diocese, the seventeen presidents or governors of provinces, exercised only civil authority; military authority was vested in the comites and duces. Each city ruled over the minor towns of its territory. In each, a hereditary senate and municipal officers managed the affairs of the city and its territory, under the direction of the governor of the province. This governor revised, upon appeal, the sentences rendered by the municipal senates, and he received the taxes, the assessment and collection of which were made by the municipal council itself. In 365 Valentinian instituted a defender of the city, charged with defending its interests against the imperial officers and against oppressions of every kind. This office was almost immediately and nearly everywhere bestowed upon the bish- ops, and became the basis of their power in the cities. Roman Civilization in Gaul. — The Gauls carried into peaceful employments the energy which they had shown during times of war. The druidical forests were hewn down, or were cut through by roads. Cities were multiplied; Greek art planted itself among them. Triumphal arches^ temples, circuses, theatres, and aqueducts were constructed, and not always by the hands of foreign artists. Orange still preserves a triumphal arch, the most beautiful one which the Romans have left in JFrance ; Vienne, the temple of Augustus and Livia; Nimes, one of the best preserved of the Roman amphitheatres, the Maison-Carr^e, and also, at a short distance from the town, the Pont du Gard. This colossal construction, which crosses the valley of the Gardon at an elevation of forty-eight meters, was only a part of the immense aqueducts of that city. At the same period the 28 THE GAULS UNDER THE EMPIRE. schools of Bordeaux, Autun, Lyons, and Vienne rivalled those of Greece, and conquered Gaul sent to the masters of the world grammarians, orators, and poets ; Valerius Cato, called the Latin Siren, Cornelius Gallus, the elegiac poet, and friend of Virgil and Augustus ; Trogus Pompeius, the first Latin author of a universal history; Domitius Afer, the master of Quintilian and Petronius ; Favorinus, a cele- brated sophist, a friend of Plutarch and the emperor Hadrian, was himself astonished that, being a Gaul, he should be able to speak Greek so fluently. Later, there flourished, in the fourth century, the amiable poet Ausonius ; in the fifth, Sidonius ApoUinaris, poet and bishop. Commerce and industry were developed even more rapidly than the arts and letters. In the time of Augustus the most flourishing cities were found only at the points where Gaul touched Italy ; as early as the second century, industry had spread through the whole country and brought wealth with it. Toulouse eclipsed Narbonne ; Nlmes surpassed the ancient Phocaean city of Marseilles. Lyons, the ancient metropolis, feared a rival in the city of the Treveri (Trier). Mainz, Cologne, twenty other cities bordering on the Rhine ; Vienne, Autun, and Eheims, with their schools ; Lutetia (Paris), which became the residence of the Caesars ; Langres and Saintes, with their manufacture of woollen cloaks ; Bordeaux, the principal port for Spain and Britain, show life spreading in every quarter. Not only did the language, laws, and arts of Eome take possession of Gaul, but also the Roman life. Yet the Gallic nationality was not completely stifled under this foreign civilization. The old Celtic idiom existed, particularly in the west and in the north. Many of the customs, also, were retained. Druidism itself, though persecuted by the em- perors, had not entirely disappeared. Christianity in Gaul. — As early as the second century there were Christians beyond the Alps. Lyons had the first Gallic church and the first martyrs. Towards the middle of the century there had arrived in that city some priests of the church of Smyrna, having as their head the bishop Pothinus, a disciple of Saint Polycarp, who himself, in hih. youth, had heard the apostle John. Pothinus, in a few years, won over a large number to the faith. One day the populace of Lyons rose against the Christians. Conducted before the governor, the faithful were condemned to torture. THE GAULS UNDER THE EMPIRE. 29 The greater part of them faced martyrdom. Pothinus died in prison at the age of ninety. Forty-seven other confessors perished, being either devoured by lions, or put to the sword (177). The church of Lyons, scattered for the moment, was again reunited by St. Irenseus. The Gospel of Christ had not 3^et been .carried into the rest of Gaul. About the year 250 seven bishops set out from Rome to accomplish its conver- sion. Paul, Trophimus, and Saturninus established them- selves at Narbonne, Aries, and Toulouse ; Martial and Ga- tian went to Limoges and Tours ; Stremonius, to the country of the Arverni ; and Dionysius (St. Denis), to Lutetia. But persecution put a stop to their pious undertakings. Diony- sius was beheaded. The disciples whom they left behind them had the same zeal, and endured the same sufferings ; but dangers doubled their fervor and devotion ; noble men were seen to seek the humblest occupations in order to gain free access to all classes of the people, and be able to aid vigorously the spread of the Gospel. A century later St. Martin took up and completed, in the regions of the north and west, the work of St. Denis. But Christianity was already seated, with Constantine, on the imperial throne. In this great revolution, Gaul could claim a glorious part, and it was through the support of the churches of Gaul and Africa that Christianity maintained its unity against the Oriental heresies. The temporal power of the clergy had followed the progress of its moral power ; and in the decline of the Empire the cities bestowed upon their bishops, with the title of defensor civitatis, the princi- pal aiithority in the city. Political Events; Civilis. — In the reign of Tiberius two revolts were easily suppressed. Claudius, so severe toward the Druids, offered to the Gauls the entrance to the senate. The movement which overthrew Nero came from the borders of the Sa6ne ; the Aquitanian Vindex, governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, gave the signal for it. The Empire was vio- lently shaken ; in two years (68-70) four emperors wore the purple. Civilis, a Batavian, conceived that the time had come to break the bonds which Caesar had forced upon the land. The Druids announced the fall of the Latin race and the advent of the Transalpine nations. Sabinus, a Gaul, assumed the title of emperor. But Vespasian was already 30 THE GAULS UNDER THE EMPIRE. in Rome ; everything was reorganized under his powerful hand ; the legions returned to their duty, and Civilis fled to the marshes of Batavia, whence he asked for peace. Sabinus hid his ephemeral royalty in a subterranean dwelling, where he lived nine years with his wife Eponina. Being at last discovered and conducted to Rome, he was put to death, and Eponina with him. The Third and Fourth Centuries. — In the third century the continual revolutions to which the Roman world was a prey emboldened the barbarians. Powerful confederations were forined in Germany, which incessantly assailed the left bank of the Rhine. In the universal disorder a suc- cession of Gallic Caesars arose. As soon as the barbarians learned of the death of Aurelian, they dashed into Gaul and sacked seventy cities. Probus came up and drove the Ger- mans back into their forests. The prosperity which the provinces had enjoyed for two centuries disappeared beneath the sufferings arising from these frequent incursions and the fiscal oppression of the Roman administration. Poverty increased throughout the country ; in the time of Diocletian, the peasants arose under the name of Bagaudae. Maximian found it necessary to make regular war upon them, and destroyed their entrenched camp near Paris. Ravages of the Barbarians ; Julian in Gaul. — Constantius Chlorus ruled Gaul mildly and sought to heal her wounds. His son, Constantine (306), taught the barbarians some severe lessons, the remembrance of which kept them quiet during his entire reign. Under Constantius they reap- peared, and in offder to save Gallia Belgica from the Franks and Alemanni, this prince was obliged to send Julian thither (355). The young Caesar delivered Gaul from them by a battle near Strassburg in 357. Yet Julian allowed the Salian Franks to establish themselves on the lower Meuse. He took great pleasure in dwelling at Lutetia, and there he was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers (360). Soon after his reign the Empire was divided into the Eastern and West- ern Empires. Gaul falls to the Share of Honorius (395). — Valentinian, who reigned over the West (364), and his son Gratian (375), held the barbarians in subjection. But they entered the legions first as paid auxiliaries, then obtained ofiices and honors ; for in the midst of these degenerate Romans they alone retained courage, boldness, and energy. The Frank THE GAULS UNDER THE EMPIRE. 31 Arbogast killed Valentinian II. and made Eugenius, the rhetorician, emperor (392). Theodosius overthrew them, and for some time reigned over all the provinces; but at his death the Empire was again divided, and Gaul feU to the lot of Honorius (SQS'i. 32 INVASION OF THE BARBARIANS. CHAPTER V. INVASION OF THE BARBARIANS. — THE FRANKS BEFORE CLOVIS. (341-481 A.I>.) Decline of the Empire. — The Roman Empire had existed four centuries, — two with honor and prosperity, two in misery and shame. At the end of the fourth century there was no longer courage among the soldiers nor patriotism among the citizens, who were ruined by the increasing exactions of a government each day becoming more inca- pable of protecting its subjects. And finally, Christianity itself was one cause of the dissolution of the Empire. The Gauls did not know how to defend themselves ; they did not even know how to act in concert. As soon as the incon- siderable line of soldiers on the borders of the Rhine was broken through, the barbarians overran the country with impunity. When Italy recalled to her aid the remnant of the legions, and the borders of the Rhine were no longer guarded, the barbarians crossed the river triumphantly. Origin of the Franks. — The Germans who inhabited the country on the right side of the Rhine were still in that primitive state of civilization in which the nations are divided into tribes almost independent of each other; in which the family forms a society by itself ; in which the individual, bound by no special law, can give vent freely to all his passions. At this stage of civilization the nations, unskilled in agricultural or industrial pursuits, do not accu- mulate, and war is their principal occupation ; poverty pro- tects them from certain vices, war cultivates in them some virtues. The Germans of Tacitus had the good qualities and the defects of all barbarians. Erom about the middle of the third century of our era the Germans on the right bank of the Rhine had formed two confederations : to the south, that of the Suevic tribes, who were called the Alemanni (all men) ; in the north, that of the Salians, the Sicambri, the Bructeri, the Cherusci, the Chatti, THE FRANKS BEFORE CLOVIS. 33 etc., wlio took the name of Franks (the brave). The first mention made of the latter, in the Eoman writings, is in the year 241, when Aurelian defeated a body of Franks. In the year 286 a body of Franks traversed the whole ot Gaul, crossed the Pyrenees, ravaged Spain, and perished in Africa. Probus transported a colony of Franks to the Black Sea (277). But soon wearying of this exile, they seized upon some vessels, passed through the straits, crossed the Mediterranean, and, pillaging by turns the coasts of Asia, Greece, and Africa as far as the Pillars of Hercules, circumnavigating Spain and Gaul, returned and informed their fellow-countrymen on the banks of the Ehine of the weakness of the great Empire. The Franks within the Empire. — As soon as Rome relaxed her vigilance, they crossed the Ehine (368) and devastated Gallia Belgica. Julian found they had so com- pletely ruined the valley of the Meuse that it was best to leave it to them to repopulate. Consequently the Franks were the first to cross the Rhine, the first to establish them- selves in Gaul as auxiliaries and allies of the Empire ; they were the last to found a state there. Not only did the Franks establish themselves peaceably in the Empire ; but a few of them rose to the highest offices. The career of the Frank Arbogast and of his emperor, Eugenius, has already been described. The Great Invasion of 406; Kingdoms of the Burgun- dians (413) and the Visigoths (419). — Towards the end of the year 406, while the legions were occupied in Italy, the Suevi, the Alans, and the Vandals advanced towards the Rhine. The Franks established on the left bank endeavored to stop their progress, but were defeated, and the horde crossed the river. After immense ravages, the tide of destruction passed beyond the Pyrenees and inundated Spain. The Burgundians remained in Eastern Gaul, and Honorius granted them all the land extending from Lake Geneva to the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle (413). About the same time the Visigoths, whom Alaric had led from the banks of the Danube into Italy, were conducted by his brother-in-law Ataulf into Southern Gaul. This bar- barian became a Roman with all his heart, endeavored to repair the ruin wrought by his people, and began, in the name of the Empire, the conquest of Spain from the Suevi and the Alans. His successor, Wallia, continued the war 34 mVASIOIf OF THE BARBARIANS. on his own account. The Visigoths, masters of Aqnitania as far as the Loire, and of the greater part of Spain, had thus acquired a powerful empire of which Toulouse was the capital (419). The Salian Franks under Clodion and Meroveus; Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451). — A few years later the Franks advanced into the interior of the country. About 428 the Salian Franks were commanded by King Clodion, who resided in what is now Limburg. Clodion took Tournai and Cambrai, put to death all the Romans whom he found in them, and advancing upon the Somme arrived near Hes- din (431), but was there surprised and defeated by the Roman general Aetius, then the most formidable defender of the Empire. Meroveus, a relative of Clodion, succeeded him as chief of the Salians ; three years after (461) the Franks united with all the barbarians colonized in Gaul and with the remnant of the Romans to arrest the formidable invasion of the Huns. These Huns, who had come three-quarters of a century before from the depths of Asia, were a source of terror to all. They had nothing in common with the tribes of the West, either in personal characteristics or in habits of life. They wandered through the immense steppes in enormous chariots or on small, untiring horses. Their food was the milk of their mares or a little meat. Casting themselves upon Europe in the second half of the fourth century, they unsettled the whole barbarian world and precipitated it upon the Roman Empire. The Goths were fleeing before them, when they crossed the Danube ; the Vandals and the Burgundians, when they crossed the Rhine. After a halt of half a century in the centre of Europe, the Huns were now again in motion. Attila, their king, constrained all the wandering tribes from the Rhine to the Ural to join him, crossed the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Seine, and marched upon Orleans. The populace fled in unutterable fright before the Scourge of God. Metz and twenty other cities had been destroyed. The immense army surrounded Orleans, the key of the southern provinces, but Aetius arrived with all the bar- barian nations settled in Gaul. Attila retreated in order to choose a field of battle suitable for his cavalry ; he halted in the Catalaunian plains, near M6ry-sur-Seine. There a fearful encounter took place. On the day of the chief fight, THE FRANKS BEFORE CLOVIS. . 35 165,000 combatants strewed the bloody field. Attila was defeated, but the allies allowed him to re-enter Germany (451). After an invasion of upper Italy in the next year, he died, and his kingdom perished with him. The Visigoths, whose king had fallen, and the Franks of Meroveus, had shared with Aetius the chief honor of that memorable day on the Catalaunian plains. The Salian Franks under Childeric (456-481). — Meroveus was succeeded, in 456, by his son Childeric. The Franks, whom he irritated by his luxurious habits, drove him away, and put in his place the Roman general, ^gidius. Childeric took refuge in Thuringia, but at the end of eight years re- turned and was re-established in his power. Basina, queen of Thuringia, followed him. Childeric married her, and had by her one son who was called Clovis. Childeric died in 481, and was biiried at Tournai. Chaos in Gaul. — After the battle of M6ry and the great league formed for the moment against Attila, all was again confusion for thirty years. The Western Empire had come to an end in 476, when Odoacer, a Herulian chief, deposed the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and established the first barbarian kingdom in Italy. In Gaul this was not per- ceived ; for ^gidius, a Roman general, retained control of the countries between the Loire and the Somme, which had not as yet been occupied by any barbarous tribe, and be- queathed them to his son Syagrius. The cities of Armorica had long had an independent government. The Franks entered Gallia Belgica in still greater numbers. The Britons, attacked in their island by Saxon pirates, came, in their turn, to pillage Angers, near the Loire (470). One of the last emperors had ceded to the Visigoths all the southern part of Gaul west of the Rhone; they also seized upon Aries, Marseilles, and Aix on the east side of the river (480). Some Britons penetrated into Berry, some Franks as far as Narbonne, which they sacked. There was a per- petual coming and going. The tribes came into collision, and mingled together from north to south, from east to west ; all were seeking their fortunes, sword in hand. The peaceful Gallo-Roman cities reorganized their militia, and profited by the universal confusion to decide long-standing quarrels. In the midst of this chaos, the deep voice of the Church alone spoke of peace and order to those furious crea- tures, and she alone stretched out her hand to protect the weak. THIRD PERIOD. Mekovingian France (481-687). CHAPTER VI. CLOVIS. (481-511 A.D.) Gaul in 481 . — At the accession of Clovis there were many states in Gaul : 1. Between the Loire and the Pyrenees, the Visigoths, masters of more than three-quarters of Spain, and, beyond the Rhone, of all the countries between the Durance and the sea ; 2. in the valley of the Sa6ne and of the Rhone down to the Durance, the Burgundians ; 3. be- tween the mouth of the Loire and that of the Seine, the Armorican free cities ; 4. between the Mayenne, the middle Loire, and the Somme, Syagrius ruled over the remnant of the Empire ; 5. between the Vosges and the Rhine, a body of Alemanni had settled; 6. a colony which had come over from Britain during the previous century had settled in Armorica ; 7. all Gallia Belgica was in the power of the Franks, Their principal chiefs resided at Cologne, Tournai, Cambrai, and Th^rouanne. The state of Syagrius was only a mass of ruins, neither sufficiently Roman nor sufficiently barbarian to have any chance of permanency. The Armo- ricans aspired only to maintain their existence apart from the rest. The Burgundians and the Visigoths. — The Burgundians were still barbarians, but they had for a long time enjoyed a near view of Roman society. When the invasion cast them into Gaul, they took, without violence, two-thirds of the land and one-third of the slaves, but manifested towards the Gallo-Romans, who remained in their midst, neither GERMA - Limoges \ tf ■' Angaxdeme EMPIRE FRANCS MEROVINGIEXS (NftiA«Eu i< aoDiiAr k eg., n.v. MM ■ CLOVIS. 37 scornful indifference nor outspoken insolence. Their na- tional law was borrowed in great part from the laws of the Romans, and possessed characteristics of refinement unusual among these adventurers of the fifth century. Unfortu- nately for their power, it was by Arian missionaries that they had been converted. The Visigoths were no longer terrible. They had been cantoned in the Empire for a century and in the heart of the richest provinces. Consequently the court of the Visigothic kings at Toulouse was already full of elegance and refine- ment, in spite of the presence of numerous barbarians who came to solicit the protection of the powerful king who ruled over three-quarters of Spain and a third of Gaul. If at that time the question had arisen, which tribe would eventually possess Gaul, the unhesitating answer would have been, the Visigoths. But that tribe had lost its savage energy. Moreover, like the Burgundians, it was Arian ; that is, it possessed a religious faith opposed to that of the Gallo- Romans. Already the antipathy between the orthodox sub- jects and the heretic masters was causing some friction. The Franks ; Manners and Religion. — "The Franks," says Augustin Thierry, "wore their red blond hair rolled up in a sort of tufted knot on the top of the head, allowing the ends to hang down behind like a horse's tail. Their faces were smoothly shaven, with the exception of two long moustaches. They wore linen coats girded round the waist by a broad belt from which hung a sword. Their favorite weapon was an axe having one or two edges. They began a fight by throwing it from a distance. They also car- ried pikes of medium length having long and strong points armed with several barbs or hooks, sharp and bent like fish- hooks. When this pike had transfixed a shield, the hooks with which it was furnished rendering its extraction impos- sible, it remained suspended and dragged its other end upon the ground. Then the Frank who had thrown it leaped for- ward, and placing his foot upon the javelin, leaned upon it with all his weight, so that the adversary, being obliged to lower his arm, exposed his head and breast. Sometimes the pike, with a cord attached to the end, served as a sort of harpoon to drag in whatever it reached." The religion of the Franks was the coarse and warlike worship of Odin, the god of the Scandinavians. They believed that after death the brave ascended to Walhalla, 38 CLoris, a palace reared in the clouds, wliere pleasure consisted of perpetual combats interrupted by long feastings, when beet and mead were circulated without intermission in the skulls of the enemies whom the heroes had killed. "Thus the Franks loved war passionately, as a means of becoming rich in this world, and in another the guests of the gods. The youngest and most violent of them sometimes experienced in battle those paroxysms of frantic ecstasy which were afterward exhibited by the ISTorthmen." Political Institutions of the Franks. — The institutions of the Franks were the same as those of all the Germanic tribes. Each tribe had a chief, whom the Komans called king. These kings, among the greater part of the Germanic nations, were chosen exclusively from a family invested with a sort of religious consecration. Among the Franks, the family was that of Meroveus, But allegiance to these kings was lightly held. Public Assemblies. — " Among the Germans," says Tacitus, " small affairs are submitted to the deliberation of the chiefs ; large ones, to that of the whole tribe. Those very affairs, however, which are reserved for the decision of the tribe are first discussed by the chiefs. They assemble, except in case of some sudden and unforeseen event, upon appointed days, at the time of the new or full moon. An abuse grows out of their independence ; namely, that, instead of assembling all at once, as if they were obeying an order, they lose two or three days in gathering together. When the assembly appears to be sufficiently numerous, they hold a meeting, all armed. The priests, to whom is entrusted the power of preventing disorder, command silence. Then the king, or the chief most distinguished on account of his age, his noble rank, his exploits, or his eloquence, speaks, and gains a hearing by the power of persuasion rather than by the authority of command. If the advice is displeasing, they reject it by murmurs ; if it is approved, they shake their spears : this suffrage of arms is the most honorable sign of their assent." The Salians; Victory of Soissons (486). — In 481, Clovis possessed only a few districts of Gallia-Belgica, with the title of king of the Salian Franks of Tournai. His army did not exceed four or five thousand warriors. In 486, at twenty years of age, he proposed to his Franks to make a warlike expedition, induced Ragnachar, king of Cambrai, to join CLOVIS. 39 him ; and the two, at the head of five thousand -warTiors, defeated, near Soissons, Syagrius, who fled to the Visigoths : he was afterwards given up to Clovis and put to death. Here occurred the famous incident of the vase of Soissons. Clo- vis desired to reserve from the booty a vase belonging to the Church. All consented to it except one soldier, who, striking the vase with his battle-axe, cried out, " Thou shalt only have what the lot accords thee ! " The following year Clovis was reviewing the army ; when he came to him who had struck the vase, reproving him for the condition of his arms, he took them from him, and threw them upon the ground. As the soldier stooped to pick them up, the king cleft his skull with a blow of his own axe, saying, " It shall be done to thee as thou didst to the vase last year at Sois- sons." Attention should here be drawn to the unlimited and at the same time restricted rights of this barbaric roy- alty ; Clovis has only hisv allotted portion of the booty, as one of the soldiers ; at the same time, he strikes a man dead, without judgment, and no one murmurs. Marriage of Clovis and Clotilda (493) . — Clovis next de- sired to lay his hand on Paris. He harassed it a long time. But a saintly girl, Sainte Genevieve, sustained the steadfast- ness of the inhabitants. A war between Clovis and the Thuringians, who had crossed the Rhine, then his marriage with Clotilda, niece of Gundebald, king of the Burgundians, gave another course to events. Clotilda was a Catholic, and she had obtained a promise that her first-born " should be consecrated to Christ by baptism," This was an event of the greatest importance. War against the Alemanni; Conversion of Clovis (496). — The Alemanni, seeing the JFranks gain possession of so many rich Roman cities, resolved to force them to divide with them, and crossed the Ehine in great numbers. The Franks hastened to meet them, with Clovis at their head. The encounter took place probably in Alsace. The fight was terrible ; Clovis for a moment believed himself defeated, and, in his distress, invoked the God of Clotilda. Another violent effort turned the tide of battle. The Alemanni, driven back across the Rhine, were pursued as far as Suabia, and they and the neighboring Bavarians recognized the supremacy of the Franks. The greater the victory, the m^re Clovis felt obliged to keep his word. Saint Renii baptized him and three thou- 40 cLoris. sand of his soldiers with him. This baptism did not, as will be seen, change the habits of Clovis ; but by a curious acci- dent, he thus became the only orthodox prince in Gaul, or in the whole Christian world. The Gallo-Roman popula- tion, oppressed by the Arian Burgundians and Visigoths, henceforth turned hopefully towards the converted chief of the Franks. The Burgundians rendered Tributary (500) and the Visi- goths conquered (507). — After having acquired the country between the Loire and the Somme, and gained the alliance of Armorica, Clovis attacked the Burgundians. Clotilda induced her husband to undertake this war in order to avenge the death of her father, who had been assassinated by Gundebald. The late king had left four sons, among whom his kingdom had been divided. The elder, Gunde- bald, in order to gain the v/hole inheritance, had killed, with his own hands, one of his brothers, the father of Clo- tilda, and caused another to be burned ; the youngest, Godegisel, still kept his portion, but feared a similar fate, and secretly called upon Clovis. Gundebald, defeated near Dijon (500), fled to Avignon. Clovis followed him thither, and forced him to acknowledge himself a tributary. The king of the Franks had scarcely withdrawn when Gundebald surprised Godegisel and put him to death. Syagrius, after his defeat, had taken refuge among the Visigoths. These latter, already fearing a war with the Franks, delivered up the fugitive. Gregory of Tours tells us that a great many people in all the Gallic states at that time desired extremely to be subject to the domination of the Franks. Finally . Clovis one day said to his soldiers : " It is a great mortification to me that these Arians possess a part of Gaul. Let us march against them, and by the help of God, we will first defeat them, and then subjugate their country." This speech pleased all his warriors, and the army immediately set out towards Poitiers. According to the legends their advance was marked by miracles. The two armies met in the plain of Vouill^, near Poitiers. The king of the Visigoths, with his best soldiers, was killed (507). Poitiers, Saintes, Bordeaux, opened their gates to the conqueror; the following year he entered Toulouse. The Visigoths would have lost all their possessions north of the Pyrenees, but for the assistance sent by Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths of Italy. The West Goths retained CLOVIS. 41 Septimania, wliile tlie country south of the Durance fell to the East Goths. Clovis Master of the Greater Part of Gaul. — With the exception of this narrow strip along the seacoast of the Mediterranean, Clovis controlled the whole country from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, either by his own authority or through his allies. A great barbarian kingdom was being formed. When Clovis entered Tours, he found there the envoys of the Eastern Emperor, Anastasius, who, delighted at seeing a rival to the great prince of the Ostrogoths of Italy arise on the other side of the Alps, sent to the king of the Franks the titles of Consul and Patrician, with the purple tunic and the chlamys. The remembrance of the Eoman Empire was still alive. Its titles, conferred by the Emperor, seemed to bestow right upon him who had before possessed only force. Clovis, in the eyes of the Gallo-Eomans, was no longer the barbarous and pagan con- queror, but the orthodox prince and the consul of Eome. Other Frankish Kings slain. — Clovis fixed his residence at Paris. He instigated Chloderic, son of Sigebert, king of the Franks at Cologne, to murder his father, and then sent emissaries who assassinated Chloderic himself. When Clovis learned that Sigebert and his son were both dead, he came to Cologne, called the people together there, denied all com- plicity in either murder, and induced them to elect him as their king. In the war against Syagriiis, Clovis had called to his aid Chararic, king of Th^rouanne ; but the latter held aloof, awaiting the result of the battle, intending to make an alliance with him who should be the victor. Clovis remem- bered this, and as soon as he could, he took him prisoner, with his son, and forced them both to receive the tonsure, commanding that they should be ordained priests. Soon after, fearing conspiracy on their part, he ordered that both should be beheaded. After their death, he seized upon their kingdom, their treasures, and their people. There was at Cambrai another king, named Ragnachar, so unbridled in his debaucheries that he scarcely spared his own relatives ; Clovis gave presents to the leudes of Rag- nachar to excite them against him. He afterwards marched, with his army, against that chief, and defeated him. The soldiers of Ragnachar themselves brought him and his brother to the conqueror, with their hands tied behind their 42 CLOVIS. backs. Clovis slew them both with his own hand. These kings of whom mention has just been made were relatives of Clovis. Another Frankish king was killed by order of Clovis in the city of Le Mans. After their death, Clovis took possession of their kingdoms and all their treasures. Clovis Sole Chief of All the Frankish Tribes; his Death (511). — "So," says Gregory of Tours, "he extended his poAver throughout all Gaul. . . . "After all these things had happened, Clovis died at Paris, Avhere he was buried in the church of the Holy Apostles (Sainte-Genevi^ve), which had been built by the king and queen. He was forty-five years old, and had reigned thirty years." Clovis was an intelligent and fortu- nate barbarian. The battle of Soissons, a successful conj) de main, was the beginning of his fortune ; the marriage with Clotilda, his conversion and baptism, the alliance with the bishops, completed it. To the Gallo-Romans, abandoned by the Empire, the Catholic Church took the place of native country ; the bishop was the real chief of the city. Among the barbarians, all of whom they equally scorned, the bishops and the faithful preferred the Catholic Salians to the Arian Goths or Bur- gundians. Clovis, moreover, conducted himself generously and deferentially towards the Church. The very year of his death he presided at a great council. He respected the customs and laws of the GaMo-Romans ; he did not treat them as conquered subjects, and in reality he had not con- quered them. He had simply siibsticutcd his rule for that of other barbarians, and founded the first permanent mon- archy. THE SONS OF CLOYIS. 4^ CHAPTER VII. THE SONS OF CLOVIS. (511-564 A.I>.) Division of the Frankish Monarchy among the Four Sons of Clovis. — At the death of Clovis, the state which he had founded comprised the whole of Gaul, with the exception of Gascony and Brittany. The Alemanni, also, were only nominally subject. The Burgundians, after having for a time paid tribute, refused to do so even during the life-time of Clovis ; and the cities of Aquitaine remained almost independent. The victorious nation, united solely for the purpose of conquest and pillage, had contented itself with driving the Visigoths out of Aquitaine, without taking their place. The war ended, the Franks had returned, with their booty, to their ancient dwelling-places in the north. The four sons of Clovis divided his heritage into four parts, and also his leudes, or followers, so that each one of them had almost an equal portion of the territory north of the Rhine, where the Frankish nation had established itself, and also some of the Roman cities of Aquitaine which paid rich tribute. Childebert Avas king of Paris, together with Poitiers, Perigueux, Saintes, and Bordeaux ; Chlothar, of Soissons, with Limoges ; Chlodomir, of Orleans, with Bourges ; Theoderic, of Metz, with Cahors and Auvergne. These strange divisions paved the way for quarrels which soon broke out. The old hatred between the Gallic cities was also aroused by this, and their militia engaged more than once in bloody lights on account of their masters' quarrels. Conquest of Thuringia (530). — For several years the im- pulse given by Clovis continued. Theoderic victoriously repelled some Danes who had landed at the mouth of the Meuse, and, in 530, he made the conquest of Thuringia. This country had three kings, brothers, — Baderic, Herman- fried, and Berthar. Hermanfried killed Berthar; but, not daring to attack Baderic, he secretly instigated Theoderic 44 THE SONS OF CLOVIS. to do so. Baderic was slain ; but Hermanfried did not keep faith with Theoderic, and there arose between them a bitter hatred. Having assembled the Franks, King Theoderic marched against the Thuringians, massacred a great number of them, gained entire possession of their country, and caused Hermanfried to be assassinated. . Conquest of the Country of the Burgundians (534) . — Clovis had rendered the Burgundians tributary ; but Clotilda was not satisfied. The death of Grundebald, in 516, was not sufl&cient to appease her hate. Instigated by her, her sons marched against the two kings of the Burgundians, Gunde- mar and Sigismund. The latter had recently smothered his son while asleep. The Burgundians were defeated, and Sigismund was captured ; Chlodomir caused him to be thrown down a well, with his wife and another son. But one day, as he was pursuing the enemy with great haste, he was surrounded and killed (524). His death postponed the conquest of Burgundy ; but, in 532, Chlothar and Childebert prepared a new expedition, and invited their brother Theod- eric to join them. The king of Austrasia refused. His followers thereupon threatening to abandon him, he promised, instead, to lead them into the wealthy district of Auvergne. Chlothar and Childebert then marched alone into Burgundy, laid siege to Autun, and, having put G-undemar to flight, occupied the whole country (534). Meantime, Theoderic kept his word with his followers ; he abandoned Auvergne to them, and it was completely devastated. War against the Visigoths and Ostrogoths (539-542). — Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, the poAverful ruler of Italy, who had put a stop to the successes of Clovis, in 523 took the Valais from the Burgundians, and three small dis- tricts from the Franks. On his death, the Franks, taking the offensive, ravaged the whole of Septimania (531). This province remained, nevertheless, in the possession of the Visigoths for two centuries more. In 533, the Austrasians recaptured their lost districts ; three years after, Vitiges, king of the Ostrogoths, ceded Provence to the Franks, in order to gain their alliance against the Greeks. Theodebert, who had succeeded his father, Theoderic, in the kingdom of Austrasia, led a numerous army into Italy, and defeated both the Goths and the Greeks (539). Childebert and Chlothar, in order to retain their followers, held out to them a promise of booty equally rich in Spain. They THE SONS OF CLOVIS. .46 crossed the Pyrenees, and took Pampeluna, but were forced to retreat (542). Violent Deaths of the Frankish Princes (524-555). — In those days princes never lived to be old ; they died young from excessive dissipations, even when they escaped death at the hands of their kinsmen. Of the four sons of Clovis, Chlodomir, king of Orleans, was killed first, in 524, but killed by the hand of an enemy. He left three sons, who were brought up by Clotilda, their grandmother. One day Childebert sent secretly for his brother, bidding him come to Paris, that they might decide whether their nephews should be tonsured or killed. Chlothar came to Paris. Childebert had already spread a report among the people, that the two kings had determined to place these children on the throne of their father. They despatched messengers to the queen, telling her to " send the children, that we may place them upon the throne." She, filled with joy, sent them. Having got the children into their power, Childebert and Chlothar sent another messenger to the queen, bearing a pair of scissors and a naked sword, to bid her choose whether they should live with shaven heads or be killed. In her grief, scarcely knowing what she said, she imprudently ■answered : " If they are not to succeed to the throne, I \\^ould rather see them dead than tonsured." Chlothar forthwith slew them both with his own hand, mounted his horse, and went off unconcerned. The third child, Chlod- wald, who was saved by the assistance of certain brave warriors, refusing an earthly kingdom, consecrated himself to God, cut off his hair with his own hand, and became a cleric. The village to which he retired is named Saint- Cloud in memory of him. Upon the death of Theoderic, in 534, Chlothar and Childe- bert would gladly have treated his son Theodebert as they had treated the children of Chlodomir. But Theodebert, already arrived at the age of manhood, and beloved by his followers, was able to defend himself. He was the most active and brilliant of the Merovingian princes. After his remarkable expedition into Italy, he meditated another against Constantinople, but was killed, while hunting, in 547. Theodebald, his son, died in 553, at the age of four- teen. Chlothar seized upon his inheritance. The new king of Austrasia was almost immediately obliged to quell a revolt among the Saxons, who refused to pay their tribute •^6 THS SONS OF CLOVIS. of five hundred cows. . As lie was advancing against them with an army, they sent to him pledges of submission, which he was inclined to accept ; but the soldiers, enraged, fell upon him, tore up his tent, wounded him terribly, and dragged liian off, wishing to kill him. He followed them then, but they were defeated. It is necessary to bear in mind the habits and uncontrolled wills of these Erankish warriors, in order to comprehend the profound abasement of royalty under the first two dynasties, after therir glorious beginning. Chlothar I. Sole King of the Franks (558-561). — In 558, Childebert, king of Paris, died. Chlothar seized upon his inheritance also, and thus became sole king of the Franks. He reigned only three years over the whole mon- archy of Clovis. His son had entered, into a conspiracy with Childebert against him. After the death of his uncle, this prince took refuge in Brittany; his father followed him thither, defeated the Bretons, who tried to defend him, and having taken him prisoner, shut him up, with his wife and his children, in a peasant's cabin, which he caused to be set on fire. Chlothar only survived his son one year, and died at his villa of Compiegne, where he often went to enjoy, in the immense forests which surround it, those great hunts in which all the Merovingian kings took such delight. Saint Radegund. — Among the wives of Clothar, there was one whose history may serve as a relief after so many bloody scenes. Radeguncl was the daughter of Berthar, king of Thuringia, and formed a part of the booty of Chlothar. Struck by her precocious beauty, he had her reared carefully, and afterwards married her. Eadegund viewed this marriage with horror. Her memory carried her unceasingly back to the midst of her miu'dered family, and she forgot them only when stealing away from the honors of her official jjosition to live among the poor, to provide for their needs, and dress their most repiilsive wounds, or to listen attentively to some learned cleric and converse at length upon the Holy Scriptures with some bishop. " She is a nun," said Clilothar brutally, " and not a, queen." The cloister, indeed, was the asylum to which this delicate and loving soul desired to flee from the coarse passions which surrounded her. One day, when the king had caused her last-remaining brother to be killed, she hastened to Noyon, and finding the holy Bishop Medard at the altar, begged him to consecrate her to the Lord. THE SONS OF CLOVIS. 47 Chlothar was greatly incensed. Conquered at last, how- ever, by the patient resistance of the bishops, he permitted the daughter of the Thuringian kings to found a monastery for women, of which she became the patroness. She shut herself up there in 550, never to go out until her death in 587. During this long seclusion she mingled the culture of letters with her good works and austere religious exer- cises. Fortunatus, the greatest poet of her time, became a priest so as not to be separated from her. Thus human nature never loses its rights ; in the midst of the exercise of the most Tinbridled passions there still exist some pure and delicate feelings. It was the Church which in the sixth century offered an asylum to those ten- der and elevated souls which increasing barbarism filled with dismay; the cloister for those who sought solitude , and meditation ; the regular clergy for the exercise of the more active virtues, for those who did not fear to speak words of peace, justice, and love to men of blood. This is the reason why the worst periods of the Middle Ages pro- duced virtues which were unknown to the most brilliant periods of Paganism, and why, thanks to a few fine souls, animated by pure Christian spirit, humanity stopped on the edge of the abyss into which it was upon the point of being precipitated. 48 THE SONS AND GRANDSONS OF CHLOTHAR I. CHAPTER VIII. THE SONS AND GRANDSONS OP CHLOTHAR 1. (561-613 A.D.) New Division (561). — After the death of Chlothar I. (561), the monarchy was again divided into four kingdoms : those of Paris, Soissons, Metz, and Burgundy. The prema- ture death of Charibert, king of Paris, reduced them to three, in 567. This last partition was of longer duration than the preceding ones, because it corresponded to real divisions, distinct nationalities. Guntram ruled the Bur- gundians ; Sigebert, the Austrasian, or eastern Franks ; and Chilperic, that mixed population of Gallo-Eomans, called Neustrians. Aquitania continued to be divided between the three kings. Paris was to belong to all three, and neither one of them was to enter the city without the con- sent of the other two. Under the sons of Clovis the spirit of conquest was still rife among the Franks ; after that, there was for a century and a half only the spirit of rapine and murder. Opposition of Neustria and Austrasia. — In Austrasia (Bel- gium and Lorraine), which was nearer the Rhine, and filled with a more numerous Prankish population, German cus- toms prevailed ; and a crowd of petty chiefs formed there a powerful and warlike aristocracy, jealous of the kings. Neustria (lle-de-France, Normandy, etc.), more Roman, because it contained fewer barbarians and more ancient cities, accorded more authority to her kings, and preserved some characteristics and customs of the imperial adminis- tration. This difference of citstoms and condition created a spirit of political opposition between Neustria and Aus- trasia, which showed itself first in the rivalry between Fredegunde and Brunehilde, one the wife of Chilperic, and the other the wife of Sigebert; and later, between Ebroin and the mayors of Austrasia. Invasion of the Avars and the Lombards (562-576), — A new tribe came from Asia by the route the Huns had taken, THE SONS AND GRANDSONS OF CHLOTHAR I. 49 and daslied into the Frankisli empire. Sigebert, king of Austrasia, defeated the Avars first, in 562. Six years later, they penetrated as far as Bavaria and Franconia, defeated Sigebert, and made him prisoner, but soon released him, and returned into Pannonia. At the same time, the Lom- bards, who had lately become masters of Italy, invaded the states of Guntram at three different points (571-576), but were driven back beyond the Alps. Murder of Galeswintha (567) . — While the king of Aus- trasia was fighting in the interest of the common cause, his brothers took advantage of his absence, to pillage his western provinces. To this injury Chilperic added another. Gales- wintha, his wife, was the sister of Brunehilde, Sigebert's queen, both being daughters of Athanagild, king of the Visigoths, who had hoped to purchase, by this union, the friendship of the Franks. Brunehilde, a woman of masculine spirit, had accepted without repugnance this marriage with one of those chiefs, who, in the eyes of the Goths, softened by the warm climate of Spain, were still barbarians. But Galeswintha, less ambitious of power, had seen with terror the dawn of the day when she would be obliged to leave her mother, and go to find in the far-off north an unknown husband. Sorrowfully leaving her mother, she journeyed, under escort of Frankish warriors, from Toledo to Eouen, where the marriage was to be celebrated. Even before her arival, Galeswintha had a rival, Frede- gunde, whose name is infamous for bitterness and implaca- ble cruelty. Set aside for the moment by the arrival of Galeswintha, she soon regained her former ascendancy over Chilperic. The queen ventured to complain, then demanded to return to her own country ; but Chilperic feared to lose the treasure she had brought him. One night he sent into her chamber a trusty servant, who strangled her while she slept. Murder of Sigebert (575). — Brunehilde endeavored to pre- vail upon her husband to make war and avenge her sister's death. But Guntram interposed. The affair was submitted to the decision of the assembled people, and by it Chilperic was compelled to deliver to Brunehilde five cities of Aqui- tania, which he had set apart as a dower for Galeswintha. In 575, he endeavored to revoke this cession and invaded the do- mains of Sigebert in Aquitania. The king of Austrasia has- tened to meet him, followed by an immense army. Chilperic bo THE SOIitS AND GRANDSONS OF CHLOTHAR I. again ceded the cities ; but soon fresh encroachments called Sigebert back to Keustria. No power could repel him; he entered Paris, and the Neustrians promised to receive him as their king. Chilperic retained only Tournai ; Sige- bert marched against him in order to take that town also from him. But Fredegunde Avas watching over her husband as well as herself ; two soldiers whom she had imbued with fanatical zeal repaired to Sigebert's camp, obtained audi- ence of him, and slew him with long, poisoned knives. Murder of Chilperic and Two of His Sons (584) . — Bru- rfehilde, then at Paris Avitli her treasures and her young son Childebert IL, was at the mercy of Chilperic. The king of Neustria took the treasures. A faithful friend of Sigebert escaped to Metz with the child. Though he was only five years old, the lendes proclaimed him king, and gave him a mayor of the palace to govern in his stead. Such a minority was favorable to their desires for independence. Meanwhile Fredegunde appalled Neustria by her assas- sinations. Her husband had, by a previous marriage, two sons, Meroveus and Clovis, Avhose rights were prior to those of her son Chlothar. Meroveus either had himself killed by one of his own followers because of the queen's persecutions, or fell by the hand of one of her confidants. His friends perished by the most atrocious means. The Bishop of Rouen, who had blessed this marriage, was himself murdered in his church, on the steps of the altar, while celebrating mass. Clovis was slain soon after, then one of his sis- ters, and Audowere, their mother, Chilperic himself was perhaps one of Fredegunde's victims. One evening, on his return from the chase to his royal villa of Chelles, he was stabbed, as he dismounted from his horse, by one of the queen's servants (584) : some, it is true, accuse Brunehilde of the deed. This prince, whom Gregory of Tours calls a Nero, a Herod, possessed nevertheless, in the midst of all his vices and barbarity, some instincts of administration, and some literary tastes. He made verses, and admired the organ- ization established by the emperors. Doubtless what he especially prized was their financial system. " King Chil- peric," says Gregory of Tours, "caused to be drawn up, in all parts of his kingdom, tax-lists, after new and burden- some systems, which caused many persons to leave their cities and abandon their property." The tribes, by frequent THE SONS AND GRANDSONS OF CHLOTHAR I. 51 revolts, protested against the renewal of that exorbitant fiscal system, which had brought about the ruin of the old Empire. Conspiracies; Treaty of Andelot (587). — Fredegunde had bestowed upon Guntrani the guardianship of her son, the young Chlothar II., but the king of Burgundy felt that he was surrounded on a-il sides by dangers. He feared the leucles, who, from day to day, grew less and less Avilling to be subject to royalty ; and a great conspiracy had just been organized in the south. Aquitania, which had continued to be entirely Roman, had endeavored to separate from the barbarous countries of the north, and maintain itself under a king of its own, and had nearly succeeded (585). Another plot, even more formidable, was formed in 587, among the letides of Austrasia and of Burgundy. The object was to assassinate the two kings and divide the country among the conspirators. The plot was discovered, and the conspirators perished. Childebert and (juntram, alarmed, had an interview at Andelot (Haute-Marne), at which they agreed that the inheritance of either one of them who should die without children, should pass to the survivor; that the leucles should no longer he permitted to change their allegiance from one king to the other at will ; but, on the other hand, the leucles were guaranteed in the possession of the lands which they held by royal grant. Power of Brunehilde in Austrasia, and in Burgundy. — Guntram died in 593 ; Childebert II. reunited the two king- doms, and tried to take possession of that of his cousin, Chlothar II., the son of Fredegunde ; his troops were de- feated, and he died soon after (596). The eldest of his sons, Theodebert II., obtained Austrasia; the other, Theoderic II., Burgundy. Brunehilde hoped to reign in Austrasia under her grandson, as she had reigned under her son. But she irritated the Austrasians by endeavoring to restore the state to some degree of order, and subjecting the leudes to stricter obedience, and was driven out (599). An asylum being offered her in Burgundy, at the court of her other grandson, she carried thither the same thirst for power, combining, it must be acknowledged, with her imperious ambition, higher ideas than were usually entertained by the princes of that time. She had a taste for arts and letters ; she perceived that kings should not only enjoy the tribute paid them by the people, but that they should give, in 52 THE SONS AND GRANDSONS OF CHLOTHAR I. exchange, order and useful public works ; she built churches, caused roads to be constructed, and called to mind the Eoman administration which she would have wished to restore. Unhappily, in her opinion, all means were justifi- able, especially assassination. She had Desiderius, Bishop of Vienne, stoned to death, and expelled St. Columban, an Irish monk, who went through Gaul, seeking to discipline the monks and teaching the princes themselves humanity. In the midst of these court intrigues there were wars among the nations. The Neustrians had twice defeated the Austrasians, in 593 and 596 ; but they were completely routed, in 600 and 604, by the Burgundians ; Paris was taken. All would have been over with Chlothar II. if the king of Austrasia had not saved him by making a treaty with him. Brunehilde, furious at seeing him escape the vengeance with which she had pursued him for thirty years, laid the blame of it on Theodebert. In 610, defeated by his brother, Theoderic, he was put to death with his children. His larother survived him only three years (613). Conspiracy against Brunehilde ; her Death (613) . — There were now no more men to reign in Austrasia and Burgundy, — only four children and their grandmother, Brunehilde. The nobles groaned at the thought of finding themselves at the mercy of that imperious woman, and a plot was secretly contrived. While marching against Chlothar II. she was surrendered to him by her own soldiers. He reproached her for the death of ten kings, abandoned her for three whole days to the insults of his army, and then bound her to the tail of a wild horse, to be torn in pieces. The four sons of Theoderic II. had been already murdered ; Chlothar II. found himself, like his grandfather, Chlothar I,, sole king of the Franks (613). The horrible Fredegunde, his mother, had died, " full of years," in 597. CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. 53 CHAPTER IX. CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. Disorder and Gloom of the Period. — Humanity has passed through few periods so unhappy as the sixth and seventh centuries. The documents of that sad time show the want of discipline, the brutal violence of the barbarians, the absence of all order, the revival of the old animosities between city and city, between canton and canton, and everywhere a sort of return to a state of nature. Pillage, fire, or some sudden attack and murder were always to be feared. Each year these barbarous kings made war, and each year they made peace. Then they mutually surren- dered hostages ; these were always the sons of rich Gallo- Romans, who in the earlier disturbances had been reduced to servitude by both parties. To complete the description of this deplorable period, let us add that all mental culture had ceased; that the Latin language became distorted in those uncivilized mouths ; that neither king nor chiefs, no one, in fact, outside of the Church and the municipal admin- istrations, cared to learn either to read or write. Civiliza- tion retreated and seemed ready to disappear under the ruins piled up by the barbarians. Three Societies in Gaul. — When the invasion passed over Gaul, breaking up old ties and bringing in new political and social ideas, and new nations, three societies confronted each other, one of which served as a bond between the other two ; the Gallo-Romans, the barbarians, and between them, recruited from both sides, the Church. The Clergy ; Important Part played by the Bishops. — The Church vanquished its conquerors, led them to the foot of her altars, made them bow their heads to her com- mand, and continued to play in the state the political part which the Emperor had allowed her to take ; but by contact with barbarism she herself took on some degree of rude- :Dess. Germans and Pranks aspired to the honors of the episcopate, and brought into the churches customs unknown 64 CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. before. The grand intellectual movement which formerly animated the religious society was retarded and finally stopped. The clergy, however, preserved the tradition of ancient culture, and if their knowledge diminished, their influence increased, in the cities, where the bishop was the real chief; with the kings, who found wise counsellors among them ; and among the nobles, who repaid their prayers by rich gifts of alms, preferring to do penance by giving lands to the Church rather than by giving good examples to their followers. Armed with excommunication, the bishops inspired in the most violent men, even in the kings, a salutary fear; and they added to their moral authority a real power, by obtaining from Chlothar I. or Chlothar II. the right to receive, concurrently with the count or gov- ernor of the city, the right to prosecute the crimes of theft, sedition, and arson. This participation of the clergy in the affairs of the world was fortunate, because there was more intelligence, impartiality, and gentleness in their courts than in those of the barbarians. They thus formed a vanguard for society, and the eighty-three councils held in Gaul from the sixth to the eighth century attest not only the political ac- tivity of the church, and the fervor of its zeal, but also its con- stant efforts to improve the national customs and to introduce into the social organization more justice and less inequality. The Church courageously took the afflicted under her pro- tection. She gathered to her bosom the widow, the orphan, the poor, the proscribed, and it was because she had all the weak ones on her side that she was so strong ; for the weak and the oppressed then constituted the greater portion of the world. The Monasteries. — Beside the churches rose the monas- teries. St. Martin had introduced the cenobitical life into the West. He had founded, in 390, the monastery of Liguge, near Poitiers, and later, that of Marmoutiers, near Tours. Thereafter, convents multiplied rapidly ; in the sixth cen- tury there were already 238. The cenobites lived without a general rule. But about 530, St. Benedict drew up, for the monks of Monte Cassino, statutes which were promptly adopted throughout Gaul. These wise regulations threw aside useless maceration, and divided the time of the monks into periods of prayer, mental and manual labor ; they were obliged to cultivate the land, but also to read and copy manuscripts. Some little literary life was thus preserved CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CLNTURY. 55 in the retirement of the monasteries, and its dependencies formed what are now called model farms ; they presented examples of activity and industry for the laborer, the me- chanic, and the landowner. The Gallo-Eomans. — The barbarians had overthrown the imperial administration, but not the internal organization of the cities. A Frankish court was established in each one to represent the king, to collect the taxes which the Gallo-Eomans continued to pay, and to administer justice. The conquered people retained their curia, their magistracies, the practice of the E-oman law ; and these institutions have, in a great number of the cities, survived the Middle Ages. The Gallo-Roman society presents three principal classes : the land-owning freemen, the coloyii attached to the soil which they cultivated, and the domestic or agricultural slaves. The free Gallo-Eomans lived mostly in the cities, according to the customs of Greek and Eoman society, — the rich on their incomes, the poor on the remnant of in- dustry and commerce that still remained. The barbarians, on the contrary, scorned to dwell in towns, and preferred to remain like those on the other side of the Ehine, in the open air, under the great trees, and within reach of the hunting-grounds. The more wealthy of the Gallo-Eoman landowners followed the example of the masters of the country. Thus an important revolution was accomplished. The preponderance of power possessed by the cities among the ancients passed into the country, and so remained throughout the Middle Ages. The Barbarians; Status of Lands and Individuals. — After the conquest, the Franks had not dispossessed the pro- prietors of the soil, as a general rule ; but their kings had reserved for themselves the lands of the imperial treasury and many others, which had become vacant during the Avidespread confusion of the invasion. It was from these estates that they took the domains with which they re- warded their confidential followers, — domains called allodial {all od, land held in full possession). After their conver- sion, princes and warriors maie numerous donations to the clergy, who became very great landed proprietors. The rest of the Gallic territory remained subject to tribute. Individuals were thus divided: 1. Free men, Gallic or Frankish, who were obliged to bring gifts to the king, and owed military service to the nation in time of war ; and tho 56 CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. leudes, who were bound to fulJBl certain duties towards those from whom they held their land. The royal leudes, from among whom the king usually chose the dukes and counts whom he sent to command armies, to rule over provinces or cities, were those who had received domains directly from the king, and, with the less dependent chieftains, formed an aristocracy, whose power and pretensions were daily increased. 2. The littis, who, like the Roman colonus, could not be removed at will from the land which he culti- vated as a farmer, and for which he paid the proprietor a fixed rent. 3. The slave. In the penal system of the barbaric laws, everything — murders as well as thefts — could be compensated for by payment of money (wergeld). The following are a few examples of that curious social hierarchy, indicated by the price of each one's blood. For the murder of a free-born leude of the king among the Salians, 1500 solidi (the solidus = $1.80 in weight, ten times as much in value). The freedman, leude of the king, among the Salians, 900 solidi. A count, a free-born priest, a free judge, 600. A deacon, among the Salians, 400. The free Salian, 200. The slave who was a good worker in gold, 150. The litus, 100. The freedman, 80. The barbarian slave, 55. Barbarian Codes. — Each German tribe had its own code of law. That of the Visigoths and the Burgundians nearly resembled the Roman law, under which the clergy and G-allo-Romans lived. We also have the laws of the Ale- manni, the Bavarians, the Ripuarians, and the Salians. Three principal characteristics distinguished them from the Roman law. In the first place, they are especially penal codes, which indicates a society singularly rude and violent. In the second place, they allow all sorts of in- juries to be redeemed by money, the prices varying accord- ing to the degree of the offence. Finally, they admit, as proof of the facts, the witness of a certain number of rela- tives and friends, whether of the accused or the accuser. The judge, however, could order combat, or judicial duel, and the ordeals of cold water, boiling water, and the red- hot iron. In the first case, the accused, being bound hand and foot, and thrown into a tub full of water, was regarded as criminal if he floated. In the second, he plunged his hand to the bottom of a vase filled with boiling water ; if^ on withdrawing it, there was no trace of scalding, he was CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. 57 acquitted. It was considered a judgment of God. In the trial by red-hot iron, the accused had to carry a bar of red- hot iron some distance ; if, three days after, his hand was without a wound, or if the wound appeared to be in a certain condition, the accused was innocent. Tortures and punish- ments were reserved for slaves and serfs convicted of crime. The freeman was usually subject only to wergeld. In the judicial combat, women and old men could be represented by a champion. The Salic law allowed no woman to inherit land for which a Frank owed military service. This exclusion was natural ; later, the kingdom was declared similar to Salic land, and women have always been excluded from the throne of France. Disorganization of Slavery. — The increasing progress of moral doctrines had already robbed the ancient servitude of some of its rigor, when the Church, by preaching the doc- trine of human fraternity and common redemption, dealt it the most deadly blow. Enfranchisements became more frequent, and the slave was less at the disposal of his mas- ter. Then came the invasion, which, disorganizing every- thing else, also disorganized slavery. In that time of general misfortune, the distance between master and slave dimin- ished. Luxury disappeared, and, German manners being adopted, there were fewer domestic slaves. Eelegated to the country, they became like the Eoman coloni, serfs of the glebe ; that is, attached to the soil, and obliged to do only certain work. This new class gained numbers from above and below. Slaves rose in it, and ruined freemen joined it. In the ninth and tenth centuries this transforma- tion was still in operation ; at that time there were scarcely any slaves remaining ; there were only serfs : but eight cen- turies more were needed to destroy this second servitude. Government of the Merovingians ; the King. — The kings were elected, but always chosen from the family of the Merovingians. The badge of their kingship was their long hair. Cutting it off was equivalent to deposing them. Be- yond the Rhine, the kings possessed only a very restricted authority. But it was inevitable that Germanic royalty, henceforth exercised upon tribes accustomed to the absolute power of the Roman emperors, should be greatly modified. The Gallo-Romans taught this royalty the traditions of the Empire; the bishops imbued it with a high idea of its 58 CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. power, which they represented to it as delegated by God ; and, during nearly a century and a half, these kings exercised great power. The Merovingian king dressed after the fash- ion of the Romans, wrote and spoke in Latin, and sat, as the Emperor had done, in the praetorium, to judge suitors ; he was addressed by the titles of lord (dominus) and maj- esty ; he made laAvs and constitutions by his own authority : he declared war and signed treaties of peace. His power was unlimited. In Germany there had been an assembly of the people, in which was vested the real sovereignty ; these assemblies were no longer possible in vast kingdoms over which the freemen were widely scattered. In the sixth century a sort of political assembly is sometimes found ; but it is rather a gathering of the aristocracy than a national as- sembly. Administration. — About the king were a great number of officers holding positions in the personal service of the king and in the public service. There were the major domus, or mayor of the palace, an oiiicer Avhom we shall encounter later ; the marshal, the treasurer, the cup-bearer, the cham- berlains, and a crowd of inferior officers, porters, couriers, etc. Political functions belonged more particularly to the count of the palace, who sat in the king's court, and to the referendary, a sort of chancellor, and keeper of the royal seal, which he affixed to the royal acts. These officers were the domestici; that is, they formed the king's house- hold. With them lived the antrustions, or companions of the king. But the court (jjalatium) was the resort for all important personages, — counts, dukes, and bishops, — who formed its floating population. All these people could be called into the king's council, and sit in the tribunal. The court had no fixed residence ; the king went from villa to villa, according to necessity or pleasure. The royal authority was represented in the counties, which corresponded to the civitates of the Romans, by the counts. The count was judge, general, and financial administrator. He was judge of the Gallo-Romans and of the Franks. He convoked the ban of the freemen and led them to the army. He collected the public taxes, which were only the old Ro- man taxes. Many of these officers abused their power ; a few were faithful officers of justice. Superior to the count was the duke, whose administrative jurisdiction comprised CONDITION OF GAUL IN THE SIXTH CENTURY. 59 several counties. But this territorial division was neither regular nor permanent. The Bishops. — Under the Christian emperors the author- ity of the bishops had been very great. They had received the right of arbitration, even of judgment, when the two parties consented; the right to hear complaints against unjust judges, to watch over the provisioning of the cities, to visit prisons, to protect widows, minors, orphans, and the poor. The barbarian invasion increased these rights. A bishop could be judged only by the bishops of his province, and each one claimed to be sole judge of the ecclesiastics and even the monks in his diocese. The Merovingian kings were compelled to respect these powerful personages ; at the same time they knew how to make them the instru- ments of their own power. First of all, they laid their hands on the ecclesiastical elections, which, though made by the people and by the clergy of the city, had always re- quired royal confirmation. But the Merovingian kings, not content with this right, nominated directly, and sometimes made singular choices. The frequent councils in which were assembled the bishops of a province or a kingdom, formed another element of power for the Church. The Merovingian kings watched over these assemblies, often took part in them, and in such cases presided over them. Their authority was necessary for the assembling of a coun- cil, and its canons required the royal approbation in order to be valid. Decline of the Royal Power. — Why was it that this great power declined so rapidly ? Why did the kings called rois faineants so immediately succeed Dagobert, the most power- ful of the Merovingian kings ? Because the kings them- selves weakened the royal authority by grants of land and privileges which ruined both their treasury and their power. At the expense of their domains, they made grants of lands which were, not benefices conceded temporarily in exchange for military service, but property alienated without other condition than a vague obligation of fidelity. Commendation also personally attached some of their subjects to the kings. He who was commended passed under the protection of the chieftain to whom he promised his services. Public authority would have been in danger, if the king alone had thus formed about him a sort of clientage, by grants of land and commendation ; but the clergy and the 60 CONDITION OF GAUL IN THU SIXTH CENTURY. leudes also gave lands in order to establish ties of fidelity between themselves and those whom they rewarded. The Church, especially, made grants of its lands, called benefices or precaria. These grants are the origin of the benefice or fief which afterwards played so prominent a part in the Middle Ages. Commendation was also made to the clergy and the leudes, for in those days the weak had great need of the protection of the strong. Many freemen who should have remained followers of the king, joined the clientage of pow- erful personages. Thus were formed in the state groups of individuals whose chieftains stood between them and the king. The kings did still more to bring ruin upon public author- ity when they granted, together with a domain, what was called immunity; this is to say, exemption from taxation. Since the revenues of justice, penalties and confiscations, were included, this carried with it exemption from royal justice and royal authority. The Merovingians were not long masters of the counts. These offices, remaining in the same family, finally came to be considered hereditary prop- erty. As the kings had need of the leudes in the civil wars, then so frequent, they sought to attach them to themselves by grants. The latter became conscious of their power by finding that they were necessary ; they therefore drew nearer to each other, and likewise to the bishops, and soon nothing remained to the Merovingians themselves. The last princes of that house would have been powerless, even if they had not merited their name of rots faineants (do- nothing kings). CHLOTHAR 11., DAGOBERT, ETC. 61 CHAPTER X. CHLOTHAR II. AND DAGOBERT SOLE KINGS OF THE PRANKS. — AFTER THEM, ANARCHY. (613-687 A.D.) Chlothar H. Sole King (613-628). —In 615, under Chlo- thar II., who by the death of Brunehilde and the children of Theoderic had become sole king, there was a considerable effort made to organize that society whose disorder has just been described. Seventy-nine bishops united, at Paris, with the leudes of the three kingdoms, and Chlothar sanctioned, by an edict or perpetual constitution, the decisions of that assembly. The election of bishops was especially reserved to the clergy and the people of the dioceses, the king only reserving the right to confirm the election, after which the metropolitan was to consecrate the person elected. A cleric could only be called to account by his bishop ; the direct taxes recently established were abolished ; but the tolls on the highways and the duties on entering the cities were continued; the judges of the counties were to be always chosen from among the landowners of the district, a measure extremely favorable to the aristocracy. Many of the arti- cles of this constitution were directed against royalty, for the advantage of that aristocracy, both ecclesiastical and military, which was being established. The chroniclers know nothing further concerning the reign of Chlothar II., whom they represent as kind and good to every one, learned in letters, fearing God, and a munificent patron of the churches, the priests, and the poor ; whose only fault was too ardent love of pleasure and the chase. The mayors of the palace of Burgundy and Austrasia made him swear that he would not deprive them of their functions, and that he would not interfere in the elections to that office, a matter exclusively reserved to the leudes. In 622 Chlothar II. made his son Dagobert king of the Austrasians, under the direction of the mayor, Pippin of Landen, and of St. Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, These two persons were ancestors 62 CHLOTHAR II., DAGOBERT, ETC. of the Carolingian house ; the son of Arnulf had married a daughter of Pippin of Landen, and Pippin of Heristal was born of that union. Dagobert Sole King (628-638) ; Height of the Merovin- gian Power. — Dagobert, who succeeded his father in 628, was the most powerful of the Merovingian kings. Under him the Vascones or Basques, who inhabited the country south of the Garonne, were conquered, and promised obedi- ence. The dukes of the Bretons made formal submission , the greater part of the Prisons and Saxons paid tribute, and the Thuringians, the Alemanni, and the Bavarians submis- sively received the commands of the king. The empire of the Franks extended from the Weser to the Pyrenees, and from the Western Ocean to the frontiers of Bohemia. Dagobert was the ally of the emperors of Constantinople, and inter- vened in the affairs of the other barbarian kingdoms. At home, Dagobert applied himself to rendering just judg- ment. He visited his kingdoms in person, to repress disturb- ances. He had the laws of the barbarian tribes, his subjects, written down, and, though liberal to the clergy, he took back from the churches and convents a great number of domains diverted by usurpation from the royal possession. Dagobert founded the abbey of St. Denis, encouraged the remnant of art still lingering among the people, and mani- fested a taste for luxury unknown to his. savage predecessors. The name of the goldsmith Eligius (St. Eloi) is remembered in connection with his. Symptoms of Approaching Decline. — The reign of Dago- bert was also the beginning of reverses. He was obliged to cede the greater part of Aquitania to his brother Charibert. He was unsuccessful in an expedition against the Wends of Bohemia and Moravia. During his life-time, but especially after his death, disturbances increased. The Saxons refused tribute; the Thuringians and the Alemanni paid only a nominal obedience. In Gaul itself the national heads of the Gascons, the Aquitanians and the Burgundians, resumed their independence, and in the provinces which remained loyal the kings were confronted by powerful officers who robbed them of their authority. The Mayors of the Palace. — Under the sons of Dagobert, the monarchical authority declined rapidly; the power of the mayors of the palace increased, and the Carolingian, family made its appearance in history. The mayor of the CHLOTHAR II., DAGOBERT, ETC. 63 palace, major domus, was an officer who had had charge of the management of the royal household. Under the Mero- vingians, each prince appears to have had several of them, perhaps one for each of his permanent residences. Later, there was only one for each kingdom. The office then, became important, because to the administration of the royal household was added that of the royal domain ; then, as the private revenues of the king were confounded with the public revenues, the mayor of the palace had the admin- istration of the treasury of the state. He had the care and education of the royal children, and during minorities, which were frequent, his position became preponderant. In 613, with the consent of the nobles who had surrendered Brunehilde to Chlothar II., three mayors of the palace were instituted, one in each of the three kingdoms. But though elected by the nobles, these mayors inspired them with fear, and the office would certainly have been suppressed if it had not become hereditary in the Austrasian family of the Carolingians. The Sons of Dagobert (638-656). — When Dagobert died (638), his two sons were still children: one, Sigebert II., reigned in Austrasia under the tutelage of Pippin of Landen ; the other, Clovis II., under that of Erkenwald, another mayor, in ISTeustria and Burgundy. Sigebert died in 656, and Grimwald, son and successor of Pippin in the mayoralty of Austrasia, believed himself sufficiently assured of the support of the nobles to make his own son king. Clovis overthrew the usurper and reunited the monarchy (656) ; but he died the same year. Ebroin Mayor (659-681); St. Leger. — Mayor Erkenwald left the royalty undivided between the sons of Clovis II. Chlothar III., the elder, appears to have reigngd under the guardianship of his mother. Queen Bathilda, an Anglo- Saxon slave whom pirates had brought and sold on the shores of the Prankish country. Bathilda did not forget . her origin, and during her ten years of power she strove to ameliorate the condition of the slaves and the poor. But the nobles grew tired of the authority of a woman whom they found always surrounded by bishops. In 664 they murdered her principal counsellor, the Bishop of Paris, and Bathilda retired to a monastery. Erkenwald died in 659, and was succeeded by Ebroin. Ebroin was an ambitious man, full of talent, who proposed to 64 CHLOTHAR IL, DAGOBELT, ETC. raise the royal authority, now entirely under his control, since there were then only children on the throne, — Chlothar III., in Neustria and Burgundy ; and, since 660, Childeric II., in Austrasia. The aristocracy, and therefore anarchy, was tri- umphant. Ebroin undertook to put an end to this turbu- lence of the nobles ; he exiled some, deprived others of their estates, caused others to be killed, and refused to give the offices of duke and count to those who possessed great estates in the provinces of which they asked the command. At the death of Chlothar III., in 670, he placed on the throne, by his own authority alone, the third son of Clovis II., Theoderic III. Consequently the office of mayor of the palace, which the nobles had rendered so powerful, in order to make it a weapon of defence against royalty, turned against them, and Ebroi'n undertook the fulfilment of Brunehilde's designs against the Frankish aristocracy. The bishops and leudes of the three kingdom^ took up arms against him, under the direction of Leger, Bishop of Autun. The mayor and his king were captured, tonsured, and shut up as monks in a monastery ; Childeric II. of Austrasia was left sole king (670). But the quarrel soon recommenced between the leudes and the new king. St. Leger was shut up in the same prison where Ebroin was confined. The two enemies be- came, for the moment, reconciled. The death of Childeric II. opened for them the door of the cloister (673). There was then such terrible confusion " that it was believed that the advent of Antichrist was near at hand." Ebroin, being the ablest man, was the first to recover his power from the chaos ; he defeated the leudes, caused St. Leger's eyes to be put out, and afterwards had him beheaded (678), and re- stored Theoderic III. It was not so easy to overcome the aristocracy of Aus- trasia. After the violent death of Dagobert IJ., who was assassinated in 678, the nobles of Austrasia, renouncing kingship, had bestowed the titles of dukes of the Franks upon their mayor, Martin, and his cousin Pippin. An Aus- trasian army set out, in 680, to attack Ebroin ; but it was defeated, and Martin, drawn into a conference, was killed by Ebroin. The mayor of the palace of Neustria was him- self assassinated the following year, and with him fell the last defender of the Merovingian royalty. Battle of Testry (687). — The successor of Ebroin pes- CHLOTHAB II., DAGOBERT, ETC. 65 sessed neither his energy nor his talents. He attacked Pippin ; but Roman France, as Neustria began to be called, was conquered at Testry (near P^ronne) by Teutonic France (687). This battle really ended the first dynasty of the Prankish kings. For though the degenerate Mero- vingians bore the title till 752, they nc longer possessed even a shadow of power. FOURTH PERIOD. »oJ 5' td o B* O B »^ »: z. w z ^ S. M S o ? ^ M ;^ !2i 72 WARS OF PIPPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. CHAPTER XII. WABS OF PIPPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. (752-814 A.D.) Expeditions of Pippin in Germany and in Italy (754-757) ; his Donation. — Though Pippin had won ecclesiastical sanc- tion for his assumption of royalty, he hastened to justify it by services. He occupied himself but little with the country which is now called Germany. He made only two expedi- tions against the Saxons. All his attention and all his strength were turned towards the southern countries, Italy, Aquitania, and Southern Gaul. In 753 Pope Stephen II. came in person to France to im- plore his protection against the Lombards : he bestowed upon him the title of Patrician of the Romans. Pippin had himself consecrated a second time by the pontiff, forced the passage of the Alps, and besieged the Lombard king in Pavia. Astolf promised to restore the lands taken from the Church of Eome, but did not do so. Pippin reappeared in Italy the following year, caused Eavenna, with all the Exarchate, which belonged to the Greek Empire, to be sur- rendered to him, and bestowed them upon St. Peter. This donation was the origin of the temporal power of the popes (754-756). Conquest of Septimania and Aquitania (752-768) ; Death of Pippin. — The Goths of Septimania had revolted against the Arabs, and called the Pranks to assist them. Nimes, Agde, Bdziers, and Carcassonne opened their gates to them, but Narbonne resisted for seven years. When it surren- dered, in 759, the empire of the Franks extended to the eastern Pyrenees. Then Pippin summoned Duke Waifer of Aqiiitania to surrender to him the fugitive leudes of Austrasia, and restore the property stolen from the churches. Waifer refused. Pippin immediately crossed the Loire, and from that moment Aquitania was subjected to a sys- tematic devastation. Each year the devastation extended farther. Waifer, with a handful of brave men, fell back WAES OF PIPPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. 73 continually, yet always fighting. He was finally overcome only by assassination (768). The independence of Aquitania perished with him ; but its sense of liberty remained strong, its hatred of the Eranks profound. Pippin died in Paris in 768, " and," says Eginliard, " his sons Carl and Carloman were made kings by the consent of the Pranks." Under him the general assemblies were trans- ferred from the month of March to the month of May, and he held them very regularly each year, convoking the bish- ops as well as the nobles. Carl and Carloman (768-771). — The Empire remained divided only three years ; and those three years were em- ployed in accomplishing the work begun by Pippin in Aqui- tania. At the news of the death of Waifer, Hunald, his father, had again taken up arms. Being defeated, he was surrendered by the Vascons, escaped, and took refuge with the Lombards. Carloman had ill sustained, his brother dur- ing the war, and the misunderstanding between the two princes seemed likely to produce civil discord, when Carlo- man died. He left sons. The Austrasians, having it in their power to choose between these children and a valiant prince who had already shown himself a worthy successor of Pippin, did not hesitate to proclaim the latter, Carl or Charles (Charlemagne), their king. Charlemagne Sole King (771). — Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus) reigned forty-four years. This long reign is nat- urally divided into two parts, conquests and administration. The result of the first was to extend the boundaries of the Empire eastward as far as the Elbe, the Theiss, and the Bosna, southward as far as the G-arigliano in Italy, and the Ebro in Spain. The state of Pippin was doubled. For the incentives to these conquests we need not imagine any other than the ordinary motives, ambition and love of glory. There was no invasion to be feared. The Arabs were divided, the Avars weakened, and the Saxons powerless to make war beyond the borders of their forests and their marshes. Conquests in Italy (773-774). — The sons of Carloman had taken refuge with Desiderius, king of the Lombards, who had already given an asylum to Hunald. Charlemagne had recently outraged Desiderius by sending back to him his daughter, to whom he had been married a year. Deside- rius, instigated by resentment and by the advice of Hunald, desired the Pope to consecrate as kings the two sons of 74 WAES OF PIPPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. Carloir.an. Adrian sent word of this to Charlemagne, who undertook an expedition beyond the Alps. The cities of Pavia and Verona alone resisted. Charles left an army in front of the two, went to Rome to receive the title of Patri- cian, with the oath of allegiance on the part of the Romans, and to confirm Pippin's donation to the Pope. Pavia sur- rendered. Desiderius and his children were shut up in a monastery, and Charles assumed the title of King of Italy (774). The Lombards retained all their possessions in the southern part of the Peninsula. The Prankish domination ended at the Garigliano ; the dukes of Benevento were only nominally tributary. Saxon War (772-803). — This was a difficult and perilous war ; for the Saxons, a brave and energetic race, heroically defended their liberty. Religion was the pretext for the war. The Saxons burned a church and threatened to kill the missionaries. Charlemagne immediately entered their country, devastated it with fire and sword, took the castle of Eresburg, and cast down the idol Irminsul. In 774, while Charlemagne was in Italy, the Saxons tried to burn another church ; he returned and began a war of extermination, the principal events of which were several bloody victories, the massacre of 4500 Saxons at Verden, the removal of a portion of the tribe into other provinces, and the forced conversion of the inhabitants. The hero of the resisting army, Witi- kind, continued to fight till 785 ; he then surrendered and was baptized at Attigny. In 787 Charles promulgated, for the organization of Sax- ony, a capitulary of extreme severity, wherein the penalty of death was prescribed even for the smallest infractions of the ordinances of the Church. These means, although atrocious, succeeded. Saxony came from his hands subdued and Christianized, divided into eight bishoprics, and covered with new cities and abbeys, which were radiating centres of civilization. War between the Elbe and the Oder (789). — Conquerors are obliged to extend their conquests incessantly. Charle- magne rendered the Wiltzi tributary (789), crossed the Weser and the Elbe, penetrated as far as the Oder, and at the Eider closed the entrance to Germany against the Danes. His armies also penetrated into Bohemia. War against the Avars (781-796). — Tassilo, duke of the Bavarians, submitted unwillingly to the Prankish domina- WARS OF PIPPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. 75 tion. In 786 a vast conspiracy was formed. Tassilo, aided by the Avars of Pannonia, was to attack Austrasia, while the Greeks, in conjunction with the Dnke of Benevento, threw themselves upon Italy. Charlemagne anticipated the danger by skilful and energetic measures. Tassilo was surrounded by three armies, and, with his son, consigned to a monastery.; his duchy of Bavaria was absorbed. The Italian conspirators did not have time to act. The Avars arrived too late. They attacked Friuli and Bavaria at the same time (788). Driven back into Pannonia, they were followed thither by the Franks. This war was only ended, in 798, by the capture of the ring or camp of the Avars, where the Franks found enormous treasures. The struggle had been fatal to the Avars. A part of their country formed the Eastern March, from which Austria was evolved, as Prussia has been from the Saxon March. Spanish War (778-812). — A Saracen emir, hostile to the caliph of Cordova, offered to put the Franks in possession of the cities which he held south of the Pyrenees. Charles accepted, and, with a numerous army, traversed Gascony, whose duke, Lupus, was compelled to take the oath of allegiance to him. He captured Pampeluna and Saragossa. But, his allies giving him but little assistance, he returned to France through the passes of the Pyrenees. The army was marching through the valley of Roncesvalles, when the Basques, who were ambushed in the woods, made a dash upon the rear-guard, throwing them into disorder, and killing several counts. Among them was Roland, commander of the Marches of Brittany, a hero celebrated in mediaeval legend. The Franks made six other expeditions beyond the Pyr- enees. They were conducted by the sons of Charlemagne, and resulted in the creation of the Spanish March, or county of Barcelona, and the March of Gascony, which afterwards be- came the kingdom of Navarre. The Empire extended nearly to the Ebro. A fleet sent against Corsica, Sardinia, and the Ba^ learic Isles, drove away from them the Saracen pirates (799). Charlemagne Emperor of the "West (800). — By the year 800 Charlemagne found himself master of France, Germany, three-fourths of Italy, and a part of Spain ; he had increased the country left him by his father by more than one-third. These vast possessions were no longer a kingdom, but an empire. He believed he had done enough to authorize him in seating himself on the throne of the West. 76 WARS OF PIPPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. About the middle of the year 800 Chaiiemagne went to Italy, heard and dismissed accusations against the Pope, and received the keys of the Holy Sepulchre, sent by the patriarch of Jerusalem. " On the sacred day of the birth of the Lord," says Eginhard, " while the king was praying before the altar of the blessed Apostle Peter, the Pope placed a crown upon his head, and all the Roman people cried out, 'Long life and victory to Charles Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor of the E-omans ! ' " This ceremony was a great event. The title of Emperor of the West, which had been buried under the ruins wrought by the barbarians, was drawn forth by the pontiff of Rome, and held up to the view of the scattered and hostile nations as an ensign around which they might rally. A new right was created for those who should inherit this crown, — the right to command the Italian, G-erman, and Prench nations, who were thus united under the authority of the Prankish emperor. Another person acquired at this time an important preroga- tive. In crowning Charlemagne, Pope Leo III. had merely performed a religious ceremony. His successors exalted this to a political right, and the pontiffs considered them- selves the dispensers of crowns. During all the Middle Ages the imperial consecration could only be obtained in Rome itself, and at the hands of the Holy Father. More than one war was the result of this new right. Results of the Wars of Charlemagne. — All that he at- tempted beyond the Pyrenees miscarried. It would have been better if he had thoroughly subdued the Bretons, so as to cause them to adopt more rapidly the French nationality and mode of life, instead of contenting himself with a pre- carious submission. The conquest of the kingdom of the Lombards profited neither Italy nor Prance ; the Pope alone derived any benefit from it. The country for which those long wars had the most beneficial results was that which suffered most from them, Germany. Before the time of Charlemagne, Germany was still an unformed chaos of tribes, — some Pagan, some Christian, all barbarian, hostile and disunited. After him there was a German people, and a German kingdom was soon to follow. Appearance of the Northmen. — Incited by the hope of plunder and by dissensions at home, the Northmen set sail, and made their piratical expeditions all along the coast. ulogne Rhi. I M J*arl 'input rone rX^i^Es m WABS OF PIPPIN AND CHARLEMAGNE. 77 They are said to have penetrated into the Mediterranean, even during the lifetime of the Emperor, and he was forced to take defensive measures against them; two fleets were assembled at Boulogne, and near Ghent, two others on the Garonne and the Ehone. 'f^ GOVERNMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE, CHAPTER Xlll. GOVERNMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE. Extent of the Empire. — The boundaries of the Empire were on the north and east the Ocean, from the mouth of the Elbe to the Spanish shore of the Bay of Biscay, with the exception of the Armorican peninsula, which was only tributary ; on the south the Pyrenees, and in Spain the lower course of the Ebro ; in Italy, the Garigliano and the Pes- cara, excluding Gaeta and Venice, which acknowledged the sovereignty of Constantinople; and finally, most of the coast of Illyria. On the east the boundary was marked in Illyria by the Bosna and the Save; in Germany, by the Theiss, the mountains to the east of Bohemia, the Saale, and the Elbe. The country between the Elbe and the Eider waS' subject to Charlemagne. But beyond these frontiers were tribes half subjugated, half independent ; the Navarrese in the Pyrenees, the people of the duke of Benevento in Italy, the Bretons and Bohemi- ans, and, between the Elbe and the Oder, the Obotriti and the Wiltzi. To these may be added the Balearic Isles, Cor- sica, perhaps also Sardinia, which were disputed possessions. Restoration of Royal Authority. — The first Carolingians had violently seized upon the authority which the Merovin- gians had allowed to fall from their enfeebled hands. They had driven usurping officers from the counties, dispossessed a number of the bishops, reconquered Gaul, and re-established, while at the same time increasing the extent of, the Prank- ish nation, which then seemed about to perish. Disturb- ances were inevitable during the reconstruction of public authority and of the Empire. Under Pippin the Short and Carloman, regular government had commenced. These two princes had become reconciled with the Church, by making amends for some of the violent measures of their father, but at the same time maintained their recovered authority. With this new line of Germans reappeared some German customs. The Emperor. - — The court of Charlemagne greatly resem- GOVERNMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE. 79 bled that of the Merovingians, but it was more numerous and more capable ; during the last years of his reign, it was held regularly at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), the favorite resi- dence of Charlemagne. About him were his royal officers, a number of bishops, counts, dukes, of missi dominid, forming when assembled that floating council which was seen around the Merovingians, a council which, if necessary, could be- come a tribunal. To render justice was one of the principal occupations of the sovereign at the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle ; litigants flocked thither. This prince must not be thought of as a solemn personage, clothed in purple, a crown on his head and a sceptre in his hand. He usually wore tight-fitting garments, of German fashion, and in the country the large cloak of the Prisons. He lived familiarly with his own family, was very indulgent to his daughters, who followed him everywhere, to the chase and even to battle. He took no rest during the day except during the hours appointed for religious services. At church he himself sang and directed the choir. General Assemblies. — " It was the custom of those times," says Hincmar, archbishop of Eheims, " to hold two assem- blies, one in the spring and one in the autumn. At both of them were submitted to the nobles the articles called capitula, which the king himself had drawn up under the inspiration of God, or the necessity of which had been mani- fested during the intervals between meetings. After having received these communications, they deliberated upon them two or three days at most, according to the importance of the subjects. The results of these deliberations were laid before the great prince, who then, with the wisdom which he had received from God, adopted a resolution, to which all submitted. "While these affairs were thus discussed without the king's presence, that prince himself was in the midst of the multitude who gathered at the general assembly, occupied in receiving presents, saluting the most distinguished men, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, conversing with those whom he saw rarely, showing an affectionate interest in the aged, or joining in the gayety of the young. " If the weather was fine, all this took place in the open air, if not, in several different buildings. The places ap- pointed for these assemblies of the nobles were divided into two parts so that the bishops, the abbots and the clergy of 80 GOVERNMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE. distinguished rank, could meet witliout mixing with the lay- men. Also the counts and other distinguished officers of the State withdrew in the morning from the rest of the mul- titude. Then both repaired to the hall which had been assigned to them. They could sit together or apart, accord- ing to the nature of the affairs upon which they were delib- erating. The second occupation of the king was to ask each one what he had to report concerning that part of the king- dom from whence he had come." These assemblies then no longer resembled the ancient Champs de Mars of the Franks, where each freeman took part in the deliberation, but the laws bore, as a sign of royal sanction, "And all this has been approved by the people." In reality, the Emperor made the laws ; he consulted the nobles, but the initiative and the decision came from him. The Army; Taxation. — For each expedition the Emperor convoked the freemen who owed military service. The pos- session of a certain number of acres of . land created the obligation to furnish men for the army, fully equipped, mounted, and furnished with all necessary provisions. If, in order to reach the required number of acres, it was neces- sary that several landowners should unite, one of them became the soldier, the others furnished the equipment, the arms, and provisions. Under the Carolingians, there were no more public taxes. The resources of the king were the revenues of his immense domains, the gratuitous gifts of the freemen, and the trib- ute of money or produce from conquered countries. The State no longer expended money for the public works any more than for the army, — roads and bridges being kept in order by the landowners. The administration cost nothing, because the officers lived, as did the counts, from the revenue of their offices. So Charlemagne had nothing to ask of the people, and could govern as an absolute king. If he had to make gifts he took from the estates of the church precaria or benefices, which he assigned to his followers as rewards or favors. Government ; the Count ; the Centenarius. — The Empire was divided into counties, which were of about the size of the Eoman cities. The counts, the ordinary and resident agents of the general administration, combined all civil, judicial, and military functions. Along with the count, under the first Carolingians, there was the centenarius (hun- GOVERNMENT 01' cffARLEMAGNE. 81 dred-man) or vicar, wlio ruled over a district, in whicli he held three courts each year, assisted by the scabini or royal judges, and the freemen of the country. He judged all causes except certain graver ones, which could only be car- ried before the court of the count. . The Missi Dominici, etc. — The missi dominici, usually a count and a bishop, went over the counties committed to their charge four times a year, so as to be able to keep the Emperor informed as to the wishes of the people. They heard the complaints of his subjects, reformed abuses, and received appeals from sentences rendered by the counts. This institution, known under the Merovingians, became under Charlemagne a regular institution, and would have saved the French royalty if it had been properly maintained. Charlemagne never placed more than one county in charge of the same person, except on the frontiers, in the Marches, where it was a military necessity. He instituted no duchies, which rendered their possessor too powerful. The Church. — The Church was closely united to the State. Charlemagne served it in all his wars. He pro- claimed himself the devoted defender of Holy Church. He presided over as many councils as assemblies ; in his capitu- laries he recommends the observance of the laws of God and the Church, and excuses himself for not being able to direct each one of his subjects in the path of salvation. Everywhere he employs bishops in the government. He commits to them the supervision of the counts. They were, in his eyes, public officers of a high rank. He appointed them himself, and chose them often from among the clergy of his chapel. This close union of Church and State was to cause danger in the future, but while the glorious monarch was living, the government was strengthened by this close union of the two powers. Aristocracy. — Charlemagne, powerful as he was, could not stop the progress of society, for no man has sufficient strength for that. Consequently we are forced to observe the persistence and even the progress of that aristocracy which was to stifle the Carolingian monarchy, after having stifled that of the Merovingians. Beneficiaries. — The Merovingians had granted lands with- out any positive conditions. The obligation of military service to the donors appears first under the Carolingians. Thus was created that armed clientage of which they had 82 Government of charlemagne. need ; but the result was that the beneficiaries lost the idea of public obligation, and regarded the king, not as their king, but as their lord. The nobles gave benefices also, and their beneficiaries followed the example of those of the king; so that the small private group, of which the lord was the chief, became more strongly organized. Vassals. — The number of the vassals of the king or of the nobles was very great even in the time of Charlemagne. The simple freemen, those who owed service only to the king, disappeared. Charlemagne made vain efforts to retain them. Sometimes the freeman, feeling the need of protec- tion, takes refuge of his own accord in the condition of vassal ; sometimes he is compelled to enter into it by those more powerful than himself. Charlemagne, however, recog- nized the legal existence of vassals. He determined the conditions under which the vassal could leave his lord; which shows that, except in such cases, the lord had a right to claim and to pursue the fugitive. Immuiiities. — Immunities continued to be distributed, es- pecially to the Church. Special jurisdictions were formed everywhere, as a consequence of the immunity, which freed a territory from public jurisdiction. Charlemagne recognized the legal existence of these particular jurisdictions, which were soon to become quasi sovereignties. Thus were devel- oped those customs and institutions which were to result in ruining central authority and constituting feudalism. Conclusion. — There is, then, in the government of Char- lemagne a great visible strength and a hidden weakness. The strength of it is due both to historical circumstances and to the personal character of Charlemagne. The circum- stances are, the perpetual wars which demanded the activ- ity of the whole people, and the very newness of the Empire founded by the Carolingians. With regard to the personal character of Charlemagne, his energy and his strict sense of duty are well known ; he had also a clear perception of what was possible under the conditions of society which then existed. The causes for the weakening of the royal authority, on the contrary, were permanent, because they were inherent in the constitution of society. Capitularies. — There are sixty-five of these capitularies, comprising 1151 articles. The diversity of the affairs of whifth they treat proves the intense energy of the prince, and bis ardent desire to bring order into the state. They GOVERNMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE. 83 show liow everything was brought under his personal super- vision. While presiding over councils and discussing mth bishops, he regulated also the smallest details of the man- agement of his farms. He opposed the usurpation of the estates of the royal domain, and at the same time, warned the people by his advice and counsel against impostors and forgers. He tried to exterminate beggary, and imposed upon each parishioner an obligation to give tithes to his church, dividing them into three parts : the first for the maintenance and ornamentation of the church ; the second, for the use of the poor and of strangers ; the third alone for the priests. The introduction of the Gregorian chant into the churches was one of his great achievements; another was the reformation of the monasteries, which was carried out by St. Benedict of Aniane. He enlarged the jurisdic- tion of the Church so as to free it from the royal jurisdic- tion, and attempted to regulate weights and measures ; he fixed a maximum of prices, and tried to repress theft. Public Works and Schools. — The bishops' sees which he established in Saxony and Pannonia each gave birth to an important city. He began a canal between the Rhine and the Danube ; he constructed a bridge at Mainz, a basilica at Aix- la-Chapelle, two palaces at Nymwegen and Ingelheim. He restored a number of churches, and exacted that the priests should be not only pious but learned and charitable, and that they should live in a manner suitable to their profes- sion. He estabhshed schools in the bishoprics, in the mon- asteries, even in his palace. He assisted in the lessons, rewarded the most diligent, and reproved the sons of the nobles when they allowed the sons of the poor to surpass them. First Literary Renaissance. — He himself studied dili- gently. Not limiting himself to the study of his mother tongue, he desired to know foreign languages, and learned Latin so thoroughly that he could speak it as well as his own. He understood Greek better than he could speak it. He was so fluent in conversation that he appeared to be fond of talking. Passionately fond of the liberal arts, he respected the men who excelled in them, and loaded them with honors. Under Alcuin, the most learned man of his age, Charlemagne devoted much time to the study of rhetoric, dialectics, and astronomy. He even tried to write, but had little success in this study, having begun too late. 84 GOVERNMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE. He ordered that the customs of the nations comprised in his Empire should be written out ; also the barbarian poems which celebrated the exploits of the ancient chiefs, and thus preserved them for posterity. He also began a gram- mar of the national language. Alcuin and Eginhard. — France was at that time behind the other countries of Europe. Charlemagne was obliged to seek beyond his own provinces for men capable of carry- ing out his ideas. All the schoolmasters of the palace school were foreigners ; prominent as their leader was the Anglo-Saxon Alcuin, whom Charlemagne with diJSiculty retained in his service. A Erank, however, eclipsed them all, Eginhard, the Emperor's secretary. His Life of Charle- magne is not only a precious collection of authentic facts, but a book of history, a truly literary composition. It is known that Charlemagne himself had a seat in this academy. The discussions which took place there show that science among them was in its extreme infancy. But we need not value less highly on that account the efforts of these men to emerge from barbarism. Charlemagne was, in fact, fos- tering a literary renaissance, which doubtless developed slowly, but which thenceforth never ceased. Foreign Relations of Charlemagne. — Thus the successors of the rois faineants could give a good account of their usurpa- tion. The Empire of the Franks, which was falling to ruin, had been restored and enlarged; and governmental authority, which was collapsing, had been recovered and strengthened. It was not an empty title which Charlemagne had assumed at Eome : he was truly the Emperor of the West. Eginhard shows him to us in his palace of Aix-la-Chapelle, continually surrounded by kings and ambassadors from countries even the most distant. The brilliant and formidable master of Western Asia, the Caliph Haroun-al-Easchid, sought his friendship, and sent him presents. The Emperor of Con- stantinople made a treaty with him. He was, if we may believe the account of a writer of Byzantium, even on the point of marrying the Empress Irene, and thus uniting the two Empires. Death of Charlemagne. — The great Emperor died on the 28th of January, 814. His reign was one continual and glorious effort to fuse together the barbarian world and the remnant of Eoman civilization, to reduce to order the chaos born of invasions, and to found a well-regulated society, in GOVERNMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE. 85 which the authority of the Emperor, co-operating with that of the Pope, should maintain order in the Church as well as in the State, — a very difficult problem, which Charlemagne was able to solve, but all the difficulties of which reappeared after his time. The work of Charlemagne, it is true, did not last; the causes of its failure will be seen presently. Yet, if this chain of nations which he wished to form was broken, his grand image soared above the feudal ages like the genius of order, unceasingly inviting the people to emerge from chaos, to seek union and peace under a strong and glorious chieftain. 86 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. CHAPTER XIV. DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE OP CHARLEMAGNE BY THE REVOLT OP THE NATIONS. (814-843 A.D.) Louis the Pious (814-840). — Charlemagne had indeed founded a vast empire ; but he could not give to these na- tions, differing in origin, languages, and customs, the pos- session of common interests and sentiments, or even a desire to remain united in one great political family. When Charlemagne disappeared, all fell apart. The personal am- bitions of the princes of the imperial family contributed to the dismemberment of the nations ; those of the great land- owners and imperial officers favored the parcelling out of the fiefs. Charlemagne had made his three sons kings: Louis the Pious, of the Aquitanians ; Pippin, of the Italians ; Charles, of the Germans. The last two died before their father, and this division was annulled; afterwards, Charlemagne be- stowed Italy upon Bernard, son of Pippin. But when his strong hand was withdrawn the edifice fell. The nations desired kings ; the kings longed for independence. In order to restrain these ambitious desires, a strong will was needed; and the weakest of men succeeded to this weighty heritage. This heir, Louis, was pious and honest ; but his piety was that of a monk, and not of a king ; and his justice degen- erated either into weakness or into cruelty. He began by acts of reparation which involved an imprudent abandon- ment of the rights of the Empire, and allowed the Eomans to institute a new Pope without waiting for the imperial confirmation. At the same time, Louis made great reforms in the court, and severely punished criminals. He offended the great landowners by requiring that all freemen should take the oath of allegiance directly to him. To allay dis- content he was lavish of benefices, bestowing them as per- petual possessions. As there had been no public taxation for two centuries, the prince had no revenues other than DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. 87 those accruing from, his own domains, and in alienating his domains, he alienated his revenues. In 817 the monastic order was subjected universally to the rule of St. Benedict, and the Emperor made a division of his estates among his sons. Pippin received Aquitania ; Louis, Bavaria; Lothair, the eldest, was associated with him in the Empire. But they were not to make war, con- clude a treaty, or cede a city, without his authority. Revolt and Death of Bernard (817-818) . — Bernard, whom his grandfather had made king of Italy, pretended to consider himself wronged by this division. The people and cities of Italy, eager for independence, joined him in resenting it. The Emperor collected troops from every direction, and came as far as Chdlons with a numerous army. Bernard, feeling himself too weak to contend against such forces, sur- rendered to the Emperor, together with the lords of his kingdom and a great number of clergymen and laity. The Emperor relieved Bernard and his accomplices from the sen- tence of death, but had their eyes put out. Bernard died a few days after. The rest of the guilty were banished or degraded. Repression of Insurrection. — The Erankish people were not yet willing that their empire should be dissolved, and they supported with enthusiasm all the wars intended to assure its preservation. The death of Charlemagne had been a signal for armed outbreaks on the part of the tribu- tary and hostile nations. The Slavs of the Elbe had invaded Saxony ; the Avars of Pannonia were in revolt ; the Bretons came from their peninsula ; the Basques destroyed a Prank- ish army; and the Arabs of Spain invaded Septimania; while the Saracens ravaged the southern coasts, and the Northmen the northern and western. All were repulsed or subdued, and Louis seemed, for a while, to wield the imperial sceptre as worthily as his father. Public Penance of Louis (822) . — But soon the dishearten- ing weakness of this prince became apparent to all. In 822, in the presence of a general assembly of ecclesiastics and nobles at Attigny, he made a public confession of his faults, especially in the matter of Bernard, and did penance for all. However creditable his penitence, Louis went out of the palace of Attigny belittled and degraded, because he had received his absolution from a political body, whose author- ity rivalled his own. 88 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. Deposition and Restoration of Louis (830) . — In 823, Judith, the second wife of the Emperor, gave birth to a son who was named Charles. The mother desired that this child should also have a kingdom, and the father, cancelling the partition of 816, made another in 829, by which Aleman- nia was given to him. The elder sons immediately stirred up the people ; the Emperor fell into the hands of the rebels. They compelled the Empress to take the veil and shut their father up in a monastery. But the monks organized another conspiracy with Louis and Pippin, to whom the supremacy of Lothair was already odious, and the assembly of Nym- wegen restored Louis to his authority (830). Second Deposition of Louis (833) . — Though restored to the throne he knew no better how to govern. He deposed Pippin and gave his kingdom of Aquitania to the son of Judith ; the other sons saw in this a menace to themselves ; they again joined forces and attacked their father with three armies near Colmar in Alsace. The Pope was with them. Louis had a considerable number of troops and a battle seemed imminent. Bu.t his army was corrupted; and the Emperor gave himself up, with Judith and Charles into their hands. On account of this great treason the place was called Liigenfeld, the field of Lies. The conquerors insulted the old age and dignity of their father by compelling him to read publicly a long account of his errors, after which the bishops came solemnly and took olf his military baldric and gave him the dress of a penitent. Second Restoration of Louis (834); Ms Death (840). — The humiliation and pious resignation of Louis, the revolt- ing cruelty of his sons, excited the compassion of the people. The brothers moreover came to no better understanding than before. Louis and Pippin would not agree to obey Lothair, who proposed to maintain the unity of the imperial command. They then drew forth Louis from the monastery in which Lothair kept him, and restored him to power (834). The Emperor, released from the cloister, committed the same errors. In 835 he gave Burgundy, Provence and Sep- timania to Charles. Pippin king of Aquitania, dying the following year, his children were robbed and Charles received this kingdom also. Then Louis the German and Lothair, being reduced the one to Bavaria and the other to Italy, again took tip arms. The Emperor made a treaty with Lothair (839). He gave up to him all the provinces east DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. 89 of the Meuse, the Jura and the Rhone, with the title of Emperor ; the western provinces were the portion of the son of Judith, Louis the German retaining only Bavaria. The latter cried out against this unjust division and the old Emperor spent his last days in this impious war (d. 840). Battle of Fontanetum (841) and Treaty of Verdun (843). Since the death of Charlemagne the Empire had been in a constant state of agitation. Each prince wished to have a kingdom and each grand division of the Empire wished to have a king of its own, so as to form a separate state. Finally the question received its decision at the solemn bat- tle of Fontanetum near Auxerre. All the tribes of Germany under Louis the German, and the Neustrians, the Burgun- dians, and the Provencals under Charles the Bald, sought to overthrow the imperial system. The Austrasian Franks and the Italians fought to maintain it. The Emperor Lo- thair, the eldest son of Louis the Pious, was at their head (841). Both sides prepared themselves for conflict with a sort of religious enthusiasm, which proved that the people had come to this supreme contest as to a judgment of God. After a severe struggle, Lothair was compelled to retreat. But Louis and Charles, in obedience to sentiments foreign to earlier ages of Prankish history, refused to push to ex- tremities their war against their brother. The battle of Fontanetum was thiis indecisive, and the war continued. Louis and Charles met at Strassburg and swore alliance in the presence of their soldiers, one in the Tudesque or German tongue, the other in Romance or French. The Strassburg oaths are the earliest monument of the French language, formed by the combination of the three idioms which were spoken in Gaul, the Latin and, to a much less extent, the German and Celtic. Lothair determined to treat. A hundred and ten com- missioners went through all the provinces and drew up a list so that an equal division could be made. It was accom- plished at Verdun (843). The three principal nations of the Empire, the Germans, Gallo-Franks, and Italians, sepa- rated forever, the first under Louis, the second under Charles, the third under Lothair, who retained, with Bome, the title of Emperor, and received also a long and narrow strip of territory which extended from the Meuse to the Rhine, and from the Sadne and the Rhone to the Alps (Belgium, Loth- aringia or Lorraine, the county of Burgundy, Dauphiny and 90 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EMPIRE. Provence). This treaty reduced Gaul one-third and took away for the first time her boundary of the Ehine and the Alps, never yet completely and permanently recovered. Charles the Bald, who signed this fatal convention, thus became, in truth, the first king of modern France, as Louis the German was the first king of Germany ; Lothair con- tinued the kingdom of Italy. Thus the rending of the unity of Christian Europe was accomplished. DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. dl CHAPTER XV. DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM OP PRANCE BY THE USURPATIONS OP THE LEUDES. (843-887 A.D.) Charles the Bald (843-877). —Thus far we have been writing the history of the Gauls, the Gallo-Eomans, and the Franks ; with the treaty of Verdun we begin the history of the French. France, at this period, had received all the races of which her population is composed, with the excep- tion of the Northmen, and all the elements, — Celtic, Roman, Christian, and German, — from the combination of which her civilization has resulted. The fusion was even then sufficiently advanced to leave no distinction between the Gallo-Romans and the Franks. All had the same manners and customs and almost the same language ; law was ceas- ing to be personal, and becoming local; the customs took the place of either the Roman or the barbarian code ; there were scarcely any slaves, and few freemen, and it would not be long before there were only serfs and lords. The Empire of Charlemagne was divided into three kingdoms; France was about to be broken up into feudal principalities, some of which aspired to become wholly independent states. The son of Judith and Louis the Pious, Charles the Bald, king of France from the year 840, was only a man of vulgar ambitions, who accomplished little in his long reign of thirty- seven years. His embarrassments, it is true, were great. In the first years of his reign the Count of Jacca assumed the sovereignty of Kavarre, and the Northmen burned Rouen and pillaged Nantes, Saintes, and Bordeaux ; the Aquitanians revolted, desiring to have a national king; the Bretons made Nomenoe their king ; Septimania took Bernard for her chief. The Saracens and the Greek pirates ravaged the south, while the Northmen devastated the north and west, and the Hungarians, successors of the Huns and Avars, came in from the east. The Northmen. — Those much dreaded pirates, the North* 92 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. men, were men whom hunger, thirst for pillage, and love of adventure drove out every year from the sterile regions of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. In three days an east wind would bear their two-sailed vessels to the mouth of the Seine. Each fleet was under command of a kuning, or king. He was king only on the sea and in time of battle ; but was everywhere followed with fidelity, and always obeyed with zeal, because he was always the one reputed to be the bravest of the brave. Equals under such a chief, the Danish pirates sailed gaily over the "swan-path," now coasting along the shore, and fighting their enemies on the straits, bays, and small anchorages, which gave them the name of vikings, or bay-men ; now darting off in pursuit of them across the ocean. The violent storms of the Northern seas dispersed and shattered their frail vessels ; but those who survived their shipwrecked companions had, in conse- quence, no less courage, and no more care ; they laughed at the winds and waves which had not been able to harm them. Often some of them, in the midst of the clash of arms, and at the sight of blood, were seized with a sort of "berserker" madness, which doubled their strength and rendered them insensible to wounds, as though they saw spread before their eyes the palace of their god Odin and the resplendent halls of Walhalla. Others affected, under torture, an indomitable energy, and sang, even in the midst of their tormentors, their own death-song. Religious fanaticism was added to warlike fanaticism ; these pirates loved to shed the blood of priests. Charle- magne had seen these terrible invaders at a distance ; under Louis the Pious they became bolder. A few established a colony, in 837, in the island of Walcheren, and sallied forth thence to levy contributions on the countries along the banks of the Meuse and the Waal. From the year 843 they came each year. They entered the estuaries of the rivers, and penetrated into the interior of the countries. A num- ber of cities, even among the most important ones, as Orleans and Paris, were taken and pillaged by them, and Charles was unable to defend them. Finally, it became their custom not to return to their own country during the winter. They established themselves on the islands in the rivers ; thither they carried their booty, and thence they set out upon new expeditions. Edict of Mersen (847) ; Hasting. — The fifty-three expedi- DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. 93 tions of diarlemagne had worn, out the Prankish race, and his conquests had spread it over three kingdoms. The dis- sensions among the sons of Louis the Pious had completed the work. The freemen had almost all lost, or for the sake of protection renounced, their independence. The edict of Mersen declares, " Each freeman may choose a lord, either the king or one of his vassals ; and no vassal of the king shall be obliged to follow him to war, except against a foreign enemy." Thus the king in civil war was powerless ; and as he could neither force the nobles to obey, nor protect the lower classes, the latter formed themselves into groups about the former. On all sides the national interest was made secondary to the personal. Patriotism being thus entirely absent, even small bands could ravage the country with impunity. Charles tried to send them back by giving them gold ; this was the surest means of attracting them. The real Northmen were not very numerous. But many inhabitants of the country joined the heathen forces, and these renegades were most to be dreaded. They served as guides to the invaders, and showed even less respect and pity than the Northmen for the faith and the people whom they had deserted. Sometimes a few of the nobles allowed themselves to be bribed by the Northmen not to interfere with their proceedings, and thus secured a tithe of the pillage of France. The most formidable of these pirates was Hasting, who ravaged the banks of the Loire from 843 to 850, sacked Bordeaux and Saintes, threatened Tarbes, sailed around Spain, and, pillaging as he went, reached even the shores of Italy. He was attracted by the great name and the riches of the capital of the Christian world ; but he mistook Luna for Rome. A pretence of desiring baptism failing to open the gates. Hasting feigned death. His companions were allowed to bring his body into the city for Christian burial, when suddenly, in the cathedral, he rose from the bier and, with his friends, fell upon and massacred priests, soldiers, and inhabitants. Robert the Strong. — Charles the Bald had united part of the country between the Seine and the Loire under the command of Eobert the Strong, ancestor of the Capetians, so as to oppose a more effectual resistance to the Northmen and the Bretons, a great number of the latter having made it their habit to join the pirates. Robert twice conquered 94 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KllTGDOM. the Bretons and defeated a body of Northmen laden with booty. It was this valiant chieftain whom Hasting encoun- tered on his return from Italy. He had just sacked Le Mans, when Robert and the duke of Aquitania attacked him near Angers. The heathens threw themselves into a church and barricaded themselves there ; then, suddenly sallying forth at night, surprised their assailants and slew both Robert and the duke (866). Hasting, delivered from this formid- able adversary, went up the Loire and penetrated as far as Clermont-Ferrand. No other means could be found to rid France of him than to bestow upon him the county of Chartres, in 882. Commenceinent of the Great Fiefs. — The Northmen were not the only embarrassment to Charles the Bald ; the Breton Nomenoe repelled all his attacks, and had himself crowned king. Revolts occurred among the Aquitanians. Charles lost Aquitania for some time, recovered it and gave it to one of his sons. But the real masters of the country were the Count of Toulouse, who also ruled over Rouerg-ue and Quercy, the Count of AngouMme, the Duke of Gascony, the Marquis of Septimania, the Duke of Aquitania and Count of Poitiers, and the Count of Auvergne, who all founded hereditary houses. To the north of the Loire, Charles had even been obliged to constitute, for Robert the Strong, the duchy of France, and for others the county of Flanders and the powerful duchy of Burgundy. Yet Charles from time to time made efforts to retain in his service and in that of the state the class of freemen, as for instance in 863 by the edict of Pistes. Foreign Wars. Edict of Kiersy (877). — This prince, so weak at home, was especially anxious to be great abroad. At the death of the Emperor Lothair, in 855, his heritage had been divided among his three sons. The eldest received Italy, the second Lotharingia, the third Provence. The last lived only till the year 863, the king of Lotharingia till 869, and none of them left children. Charles the Bald tried after their death to get possession of their domains. He failed at first, in 863, but succeeded in 870, and divided Lorraine with his brother, Louis the German. At the death of the eldest brother, the Emperor Louis II., in 876, Charles again aspired to the imperial crown. He went to Rome to have it given him by the Pope, and, his brother, Louis the German, being dead, he undertook to add Germany to DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. 95 France. He was defeated on the Rhine ; Italy also escaped him. In order to secure the support of his vassals in this quarrel, he signed at Kiersy-sur-Oise a capitulary declaring that the sons of those of his counts who should follow him to Italy should succeed their fathers in the oJ9B.ce of count. By such heredity of public functions royalty was despoiled of the powers which she had conferred. Charles died on this expedition at the foot of Mt. Cenis. Louis the Stammerer (877-879) ; Louis III. and Carloman (879-884) ; Charles the Fat (884-887) . — The son of Charles the Bald, Louis the Stammerer, succeeded him as king of France. To conciliate his nobles, he gave up to them some of the domains which still remained in possession of the crown, concessions which his two sons, Louis III. and Carlo- man, multiplied. These two princes reigned harmoniously, the one in Neustria, the other in Aquitania and Burgundy. The evils of the time continued, however, none the less to increase. Provence became a separate kingdom. Lorraine was abandoned to Germany. Two victories were gained over the Northmen, but did not prevent their robberies from immediately recommencing. The two kings were killed accidentally, Louis in 882, Carloman two years after. They left a brother, Charles the Simple ; but the nobles preferred Charles the Fat, then emperor of Germany. The whole heritage of Charlemagne was united under his con- trol. But this man who bore so many crowns could not even intimidate the Northmen. Siege of Paris (885-886) . — He had already ceded Frisia to one of their chiefs. Another, the famous RoUo, had just taken Bouen and Pontoise, and killed the duke of Le Mans. At the approach of his countrymen, the new count of Chartres, the former pirate Hasting, hastened to join them, and all marched upon Paris, which they had already three times pillaged. But Paris had lately been fortified ; great towers covered the bridges which united the island of the city to the faubourgs on the two banks ; the Seine was thus closed to the seven hundred great barges which the North- men wished to row up to Burgundy, into which they had never gone. The inhabitants, encouraged by their bishop, Gozlin, and their Count, Eudes, son of Robert the Strong, resisted for a year. The Northmen established themselves in an entrenched camp. Deserters taught them all that was then known of the military science of the Bomans. The 96 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. siege was pushed by every possible means. The inhabitants defended their city with the most desperate bravery. Noth- ing was talked of over the whole country, but the courage of the Parisians, and some were emboldened to emulate them. Several bands of pirates who had quitted the siege were defeated. Dvike Henry, the counsellor of Emperor Charles, even succeeded in throwing some reinforcements into the place; but the heathen maintained the blockade. The suffering in the city became extreme; many persons died. The brave Count Eudes escaped in order to hasten the arrival of the Emperor, and as soon as he saw him on the road returned to shut himself up with his people. The promised assistance appeared at last. Duke Henry con- ducted it, but he was killed and those who followed him were disbanded. Paris then seemed abandoned to its fate. The ISTorthmen believed that total discouragement prevailed and that they could easily overcome the exhausted people. They attempted a general assault; the walls, everywhere manned by brave defenders, were still unapproachable. At the end of long months Charles at last arrived, with an army, on the heights of Montmartre. The Parisians, full of enthusiasm, were awaiting the signal for the combat, when they were told that the Emperor had again purchased the retreat of this enemy whom they had half conquered, and had allowed him to go and winter in Burgundy ; that is, to ravage that province. The Parisians refused to have any- thing to do with this disgraceful treaty and, when the barges of the Northmen presented themselves to go through the bridges, refused to allow them to pass. The pirates were forced to drag their crafts over land, taking a roundabout way, in order to avoid the heroic city. Paris had gloriously won her title of capital of France; her chief, the brave Count Eudes, was destined to found the first national dynasty. The cowardly Emperor was deposed (887). The Carolin- gian Empire was irrevocably dismembered ; its ruins served to form seven kingdoms : Prance, Navarre, Cisjurane Bur- gundy, Transjurane Burgundy, Lorraine, Italy, and Ger- many. Beginning of the Feudal R6gime. — But it was not only the Empire which was dismembered, it was also the king- dom and royalty. At the end of the reign of Charlemagne, feudalism was still not definitely constituted ; at the ter- DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. 97 mination of the reign of Charles the Bald, half a century later, it was almost complete. For the royal authority had been ruined, as it had been under the last of the Merovin- gians, by the same causes and in the same manner. The king had no more money and no more lands to distribute. Destruction of Public Authority. — After the reign of Charles the Bald, public authority had disappeared. The kingdom, ravaged by the Northmen, the Bretons, and the Aquitanians, was a prey to robbery. Robbery had become so much the custom of the country, that in his 23d capitulary (857), the king orders the bishops, counts, and missi to hold general courts, to which they should call every one without exception. The bishop was then to read the precepts of the Evangelists, the Fathers, and the prophets against rob- bers. He was to threaten the incorrigible with anathema, and to explain to them the terror of this penalty. The counts and the missi on their part were to read the laws of Charles and Louis against robbery. If the criminal should contemn both the sentences of the bishops and the prosecu- tions of the judges, the king was to order him into his pres- ence. If he refused to come, he was to be excluded from Holy Church on earth and in heaven. He was to be pursued until he was driven from the kingdom. But for this, pub- lic force was necessary, and there was no longer any ; and this was in fact the reason why the king endeavored to replace it by oaths and the fear of hell. C At no period of history did the weak need protection ^ore than during the tenth and eleventh centuries. Con- sequently the last of the freemen disappeared from a great portion of Gaul, especially to the north of the Loire. Meanwhile, here and there in the gorges of the moun- tains, at the fords of the rivers, on the hills overlooking the plains, entrenchments and walls were thrown up, where the brave and the strong protected themselves. The country was soon covered with them, and the invaders often dashed against them in vain. Invasions ceased. The lords of these castles were afterwards the terror of the country dis- tricts, but at the beginning they had saved them. Feudal- ism, so oppressive in its season of decline, had nevertheless had its season of legitimacy. These castles, it is true, be- came nests of robbers. Yet, little by littlfe, a new order arose from this confvision. The Fief. — It has been seen how the king and the nobles 98 DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. assured th-emselves of the services of a number of men more or less considerable, by granting them benefices, or even by- taking them tinder their protection, by making them their vassals. It was possible to be a beneficiary without being a vassal, and a vassal without being a beneficiary. Yet without doubt it more often happens that the man who receives a grant of land becomes the vassal of him who bestows it; the two qualities end by being confounded. A man was both beneficiary and vassal at once ; he united the very strict obligations of both conditions. When an estate had been held for several generations by men who inherited these obligations with the soil, it seemed that this piece of land bore in itself its rights and its duties, which were communicated to him who held it. The result was that the estate, which lasted, was considered, rather than the man, who passed away and died. This land, thus charged with obligations, is the fief. Feudal France. — When France had become covered with fiefs each estate had its fixed conditions ; it had its lord, great or small, and there was no land without a lord, no lord without land. Relations were established between the fiefs ; there were fiefs dominants, and fiefs domines. The fiefs dominant were those of the dukes and counts, who were like small kings in their duchies and their counties. Their vas- sals and their arri^re-vassals depended upon them, more than upon the .king. The counts and dukes were the vas- sals of the king ; but by degrees, as one rose higher in the feudal hierarchy, the. obligation of the vassal became looser. Such is the great revolution which was accomplished at the end of the ninth and beginning of the tenth centuries. After the deposition of Charles the Eat, those great fiefs appeared, the names of which are found throughout the whole history of France. The Duke of Gascony possessed almost all the country south of the Garonne ; the counts of Toulouse, Auvergne, P^rigord, Poitou, and Berry, the prov- inces between the Garonne and the Loire. To the east and north of the Loire all belonged to the Count of Forez, the Duke of Burgundy, the Duke of France, and the counts of Flanders and Brittany, who exercised regal rights over their estates. There only remained for the king a few cities which he had not yet been obliged to bestow as fiefs. Power of the Church. — In the ninth century, royalty had lost its power ; feudalism had not yet acquired what it soon DISMEMBERMENT OF THE KINGDOM. 99 afterwards possessed; the Church alone exercised its full authority. Nothing was lacking to it ; superiority of intel- ligence and morality, the enthusiastic faith of the people, nor rich domains. Finally, at a time when everything was being subdivided, the ecclesiastical body was manifesting its unity and vigor by the fifty-six councils assembled in France during the reign of Charles the Bald alone. The bishops, starting from the right of the Church to interfere in the management of every man guilty of sin, logically arrived at the point of claiming the right to depose kings and dispose of crowns. They took part in the public administration. From the time of Charlemagne they are found participating in all affairs and speaking on all occa- sions with authority. It was they who degraded or restored Louis the Pious, who decided, at Fontanetum, which side was just. This power of the Church was a fortunate thing in those ages ; for when everything was a prey to the strongest, she alone was capable of reminding the people that above strength there was justice. In the face of the aristocratic principle of feudal organization, she held up that of human fraternity ; in the place of heredity and primogeniture, she practised election and proclaimed the rights of intelligence. If her claim to depose kings was a usurpation of temporal authority, it must be remembered that the latter had no counterpoise but the sacerdotal power, and that the weak and the oppressed had no refuge except in the protection of the churches. When law was powerless and opinion without authority, it was fortunate that somewhere could be found an avenger of outraged morality. FIFTH PERIOD. Feudal France (887-1180). CHAPTER XVI. THE LAST CAROLINGIANS AND THE DUKES OP FRANCE. (887-987 A.D.) Decline of Royalty. — Three-quarters of a century had not passed after the death of Charlemagne when there was no longer either Empire or Emperor. The king of France possessed little more than a title. Yet the tenth century was filled with the quarrel between the two houses which contended for the kingship. These fatal discords favored the invasions of fresh barbarians and the progress of feu- dalism. Eudes, Duke of France (887-898). — After the deposition of Charles the Fat, Count Eudes, who had so bravely de- fended Paris against the Northmen, and who, as a reward, had received from the Emperor the duchy of France, was elected king. He was the son of Robert the Strong and ancestor of all the Capetians. But Eudes was recognized only by the lords between the Loire and the Meuse. Beyond the Meuse Arnulf, king of Germany, reigned ; and south of the Loire, the Duke of Aquitania had taken the title of king. At the same time the kingdom of Provence was divided into two parts : Cisjurane Burgundy under Louis, and Transju- rane Burgundy under Rodolph. Thus France had five kings. She was soon also to ■ have a sixth, Charles the Simple, to say nothing of the kings of Navarre, or the kings of the Bretons. She had also, as constant and terrible guests, the Northmen, who henceforth never left her borders, and THE LAST CAROLINGIAirS. 101 the Saracens, who, in 889, established themselves at Fraxine- tum, on the coast of Provence. Success of Eudes against the Northmen. — Eudes bravely extricated himself from all these difB.culties. He did not recover either Lorraine or the two kingdoms of Burgundy, left the Bretons to quarrel among themselves, forgot Na- varre, and agreed to recognize a sort of suzerainty on the part of the Carolingian Arnulf . But he forced the Duke of Aqui tania to renounce the title of king and swear fealty to him, and he gained two victories over the Northmen. But the heathen had spread over too much of the country to feel intimidated by the defeat of one of their bands. They at this same time captured and sacked Meaux, Troyes, Toul, Verdun, Dreux and St. L6. Rivalry of Eudes and Charles the Simple (893) . — To the evils caused by the hew barbarians were added those of civil war. The partisans of the Carolingian dynasty placed at their head Charles the Simple, a posthumous son of Louis II., and the archbishop of E-heims consecrated him (893). His partisans were only seeking to complete the ruin of royalty and to establish themselves in their usurpations. But Eudes appeared before Rheims with such an army that his competitor fled for refuge to Arnulf of Germany. The latter commanded the counts and bishops of Lotharingia to re-establish his kinsman in his paternal kingdom. The counts refused, and Eudes remained victorious. But he was unhappily carried off by a premature death at the age of forty. His brother, Robert, inherited his duchy of France, and Charles the Simple succeeded him as king without opposition. Charles the Simple (898-922) ; Establishment of the North- men in France (911). — Charles ceded to the Norse chief, Rollo, the province which was ever after called Normandy. This treaty, signed at St, Clair-sur-Epte, was a fortunate agreement, for it put an end to those devastating proceedings which had lasted for a century. The new lords of the land mingled with the old inhabitants, forgot their own language and their ferocity, but retained that spirit of adventure, that love of gain, which had carried them into so many countries, and which was one day to take them into Southern Italy and England. The new duke consented to be baptized at Eouen, and his companions imitated his example (912). He divided the country among them and established good 102 THE LAST CAR0LINQIAN8 order. Peace and good order restored cultivation in this rich province; servitude was abolished in it at an early- date. It was in Normandy that the feudal regime was con- stituted with the greatest regularity, that the schools of the convents were most flourishing. And there also that new art seemed to take its rise, which was to erect such mag- nificent monuments, the pointed style of architecture. Election of Robert, Duke of France (922); and of Rodolph, Duke of Burgundy (923-926). — In 920, the lords declared that they would no longer obey king Charles, unless within a year he changed his conduct and sent away his minister Haganon. They kept their word; in 922, they crowned Robert, Duke of France, as their king. An encounter took place the following year between the two princes. Charles was defeated, his rival killed. But the son-in-law of Robert, Rodolph, Duke of Burgundy, succeeded him. Germany, more faithful to the blood of Charlemagne, furnished aid to Charles the Simple against his new adver- sary; but without avail. Made prisoner by the treason of Herbert, Count of Vermandois, he was shut up in the castle of P4ronne, where he died in 929. Rodolph reigned seven years more without much glory. Cessions of land like that made to Rollo had put an end to the ravages of the northern pirates. Provence suffered a great deal from the Saracens, who maintained themselves there for eighty-four years. The Hungarians, more numerous and more terrible than the Saracens, happily made only occasional incursions into Prance. louis rV. d'Outre-Mer (936-954). — At the death of Ro- dolph, Hugh the Great, Duke of Prance, his brother-in-law, recalled from England a son of Charles the Simple, Louis IV., surnamed d'Outre-Mer, aged fifteen. His activity and courage were useless. He obtained the support of some lords who were jealous of the power of the Duke of Prance. But when he tried to re-create a domain for himself, Hugh took up arms to check this unexpected ambition, and Louis being taken prisoner was kept in captivity for a whole year. Hugh did not open the doors of his prison until he had com- pelled him to cede to him the city of Laon, the last which remained in the possession of the unfortunate king. Louis complained to the Pope and to the king of Germany, and a council excommunicated the Duke of Prance. The latter withstood all threats and even an invasion of Otto the Great. AND THE DUKES OF FRANCE. 103 Lothair and Louis V. (954-987). — Louis IV. was killed accidentally, while hunting, in 955, at the age of thirty-four, and thus ended "this life so full of grief and trouble." Hugh the Great, his brother-in-law, gave the crown to his nephew Lothair, the son of Louis. This prince showed considerable energy ; the pretensions of Otto to restore the empire rallied around the king of France the great vassals of several countries. The war which ensued was disastrous to Otto. It was much for Lothair to have been able to with- stand so powerful a monarch. Obliged to abandon upper Lorraine (980), he nevertheless obtained for his brother Charles the duchy of lower Lorraine or Brabant. He died in 986. His son, Louis V., was killed the following year by a fall from his horse, before having accomplished anything of which history has any record". With him ended the race of Carolingians in France. The last descendants of Charlemagne evinced greater cour- age and activity than the last descendants of Clovis, and they deserved a better ending. The cause of their weak- ness was the extreme poverty to which they were reduced in consequence of the heredity of fiefs. As they had nothing to bestow in return for services rendered them, they were gradually abandoned. In their isolation they sought assistance abroad ; they made friends with the for- eigners. But the invasions of the Germans in their behalf brought about the peaceable advent of a new dynasty, more French and more national. 104 GENEALOGICAL TABLE. Genealogical Table of the Kings of the Second Race. (The date which follows each name is that of death.) Pippin of Landen Saint Arnulf , 640 1 Grimwald, 639 Pippin Ansegis, 678 I of Heristal, ' ,714 Charles Martel, 741 I Carloman, 747 Pippin the Short (king in 752), 768 Charlemag^ne, 814 liOuis the Pious, 840 Carloman, 771 Lothair, 855 Pippin, 838 Louis, 876. Charles the Bald, 877 Charles the Fat, : rouis III., 882 rothair, 986 liOaiB v., 987 king and emperor I.oui8 II., 879 Carloman, 884 Charles the Simple, 929 liouis IV., d'Outre-Mer, 959 Charles, Duke of Lorraine, 992 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIANS. 105 CHAPTER Xyil. THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIANS. (987-1108 A.D.) Hugh Capet (987-996). —Charles, the Carolingian Duke of Lower Lorraine, was still living. But Hugh Capet, eldest son of Hugh the Great, and Duke of France, Count of Paris and Orleans, also abbot of St. Martin of Tours, St. Denis and St. Germain des Pres, that is to say, having at his disposal the revenues of three of the richest abbeys of Prance, decided to assume at last the title of king. The Duke of Burgundy was his brother, the Duke of Normandy his brother-in-law. These princes, meeting in conference at Senlis with the principal lords and bishops of France, re- jected Charles of Lorraine and proclaimed Hugh Capet, who was crowned at Noyon. Thus Prance became finally sepa- rated from Germany and the Empire. Union of a Great Fief with the Crown. — Hugh Capet founded a house which but lately still ruled from several of the thrones of Europe. But the name of king in the tenth century carried with it so little real power, that this termination of the Carolingian dynasty and this advent of a third royal race caused little sensation in the remote provinces. It was however an important event. The princes of the first race had been kings of the Pranks ; those of the second, Emperors. Hugh Capet was king of Prance, territorial sovereign. Besides, the crown was united to a great fief. The king became, as Duke of Prance, Count of Paris, Orleans, etc., if not as king, the equal of the most powerful lords. He had his son crowned king during the first year of his reign, and so abolished elections with their attending anarchy. Opposition to the New King. — The powerful counts of Planders, Vermandois, and Troyes, and the archbishop of Sens, declared for Charles of Lorraine. But Hugh reduced the archbishop of Sens, by threatening to have him deposed by the Pope and Xij the bishops of his ecclesiastical province. 106 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIANS. He made preparations, formidable for that period, against the counts of Flanders and Vermandois, and the two counts submitted. In 991, treason terminated the struggle. Charles, delivered into the hands of his rival by the bishop of Laon, was imprisoned in the tower of Orleans, where he died the following year. Hugh .Capet was less successful in Aqui- tania. He thoroughly overcame the Count of Poitiers, who paid him homage ; but did not insist upon gaining the sub- mission of the intractable Aquitanians. Forced Inactivity of the First Gapetians. — During their first century, the Capetians reigned but did not govern. They had a title, but they had not the power necessary to enforce the ancient rights with which this title had been traditionally invested. Of the first three successors of Hugh Capet (906-1108), history has little to say. But we ought not to demand of the first Capetians more than they could accomplish. Since the heredity of fiefs had parcelled out the territory, and heredity of offices had divided author- ity, there remained to the king neither sufficient material power, nor sufficient influence, to act efficiently outside of his own domains. He lived upon his own domains as did the other feudal lords. He held his court of justice, plenary court and parliament ; made journeys from one of his cities to another, and interrupted his long periods of leisure only by repeated acts of devotion, long hunts in the forests, or a war against some neighboring baron. In the rest of the kingdom everything took its own course ; the lords, each on his own estate, made laws and made war, judged and executed, without any interference from the king. Alliance of the First Capetians with the Church. — The Capetians had, however, followed the example of the first Carolingians, and united themselves closely with the Church. The Church consecrated their claim and made it popular. Hugh Capet restored to the Church several abbeys in his possession. Robert was a real saint ; the princes of the new dynasty deserve the title bestowed upon them by grate- ful Rome, the eldest sons of the Church. Hence the bishops and abbots of the lle-de-France were often important aux- iliaries to the first Capetians. Character of Capetian Royalty. — The Roman tradition was perpetuated, preserved by the Church, and in the feudal suzerain; the sovereign was respected even when he was not obeyed. All the inhabitants of the kingdom of the Franks THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIANS. 107 were, in law, the Jideles of the Capetians. Kings, whether of the first, second, or third race, all were kings by the same title, had the same agents or royal officers ; the difference is only in the means of action. Robert (996-1031) ; Clueen Constance and the Aquitanians. — Hugh Capet died in 996, at the age of fifty-four. Robert, his son, began his reign in the midst of the fears which filled the hearts of many of the faithful, at the approach of the year 1000; a date at Avhich, in accordance with the Apocalypse, the world was expected to come to an end. Robert was more a monk than a king, constantly occupied with charities and the chants of the Church. Yet the Pope excommunicated him for having married his cousin Bertha. In spite of his piety, Robert at first resisted the thunder- bolts of Rome. But the terror spread among the people by the Papal sentence was so great that Robert submitted ; he separated from Bertha and married Constance. This imperious woman, whom the king himself soon found reason to fear, was the daughter of the Count of Toulouse. She brought with her some of the troubadours who were charming all the Southern country by their songs. But these Aquitanians by their elegance, their luxury, and the frivolity of their manners, greatly shocked the French of the North, and we see in the writers of the time curious evidences of the antipathy of the two races. It will be necessary when we arrive at the Albigensian crusade to remember these old prejudices of the French of the jSTorth against those of the South, in order to understand the atrocious character of that war. Constance became the torment of the king. He concealed himself from her in order to devote himself to his charities ; and she incited to revolt, first her eldest son Hugh, who died in 1025, then Henry, her third son. Foreign Affairs; Acquisition of the Duchy of Burgundy (1016). — Abroad the king of France was more regarded than at home. Under the preceding reign, Duke Borel, who commanded in the Spanish Marches, threatened by the Saracens, had invoked the aid of Hugh Capet. The Italians, wishing to rid themselves of the German domina- tion, offered the crown of their country to Robert ; the lords of Lorraine offered to recognize him as their sovereign. Robert declined both offers. Yet he acquired the duchy of Burgundy, after a war of five years (1016). The royal 108 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIANS. house found itself temporarily possessed of two of the largest fiefs, the duchies of France and Burgundy. Persecution of the Jews (1010) ; First Burning of Heretics (1022). — We must notice under Eobert's reign, in 997, an insurrection of the serfs of Normandy, a persecution of the Jews, and the first execution of heretics in France. Thir- teen of these unfortunate persons were burned at Orleans (1022), and others elsewhere. Heresy roused the indigna- tion of the faithful and the Church, but it attested a certain movement of mind. The first renaissance began in the eleventh century. Henry I. (1031-1060). — Henry I. was only the third son of Robert; one of his elder brothers was dead, and the other, "being an imbecile, was not king." Henry had to suffer from the ambition of his mother. Constance wished that the crown should pass to her fourth son, Robert. Henry only rid himself of this rivalry by ceding Burgundy to his brother. This Robert was the head of the first Cape- tian house of Burgundy, which continued to exist until the year 1361. Henry's reign of thirty years is void of events. With the exception of a few expeditions into Normandy, most of which were unsuccessful, Henry I. did nothing. The most remarkable act of his reign was the marriage of the king to a daughter of the G-rand Duke of Russia. Henry selected a princess from a house so remote in order to be sure that she could not be related to him in a degree prohibited by the Church. Anne, it was said, was descended through her mother, the daughter of the Emperor Romanus II., from Philip of Macedon, whence her first-born son received the name of Philip. The Dukes of Normandy ; the Counts of Blois and Anjou. — While royalty accomplished nothing, the lords accom- plished much. Three of them especially, at that time, filled all France with the noise of their ambitious designs and their wars. Robert, surnamed the Magnificent by the nobles, and the Devil by the people, had usurped the ducal crown of Nor- mandy. By the force of his energy and courage he over- came all resistance, and, having made himself incontestably master of Normandy, interfered in the affairs of all of his neighbors. He sustained king Henry against his brother, which gained him^ as ^ re;vvard, French Vexin- .He invaded THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIANS. 109 Brittany and forced Duke Alan to do him homage (1033). In 1035, seized with remorse, he went to Jerusalem to seek repose for his conscience, and died while on his return. The son and successor of Robert the Magnificent was the celebrated William the Bastard, who had at first great difficulty in securing the obedience of his vassals. The battle of Val des Dunes, near Caen (1046), finally delivered him from his adversaries. King Henry, his sovereign, who had fought for him, soon found the young duke too power- ful, and became the ally of his enemies. This was the cause of the numerous encounters between the Normans and the French (inhabitants of the tle-de-France), the lat- ter being usually sustained by the Angevins and the Bretons. The most bloody of these combats was that of Mortemer, in 1054, a signal victory for the Normans, after which the frightened king retired in great haste, and Geoffrey Martel, Count of Anjou, was obliged to abandon to William the sov- ereignty of Maine. Eudes II., Count of Blois, tried to seize upon the kingdom of Provence, and afterwards upon Lorraine, and even counted upon adding, to the Lotharingia thus reconsti- tuted, the crown of Italy. But a battle in the Barrois annihi- lated the hopes of the turbulent baron. Eudes was defeated there and kHled (1037). Eulk Nerra, or the Black, Count of Anjou, was still more celebrated. He made three pilgrimages to the Holy Land, where he underwent severe penance. Eulk had indeed many crimes to expiate. Of his two wives he had had one burned, or, according to some accounts, had himself stabbed her with a dagger, after she had escaped from a precipice whence he had had her thrown. He compelled the other, by his cruel treatment, to retire to Palestine. His son, Geof- frey Martel, was also a fighter. He had attempted, in 1036, to compel his father, by force of arms, to cede to him the county of Anjou ; but old Eulk conquered him and forced the rebel son to crawl on his hands and knees for several miles, with a saddle on his back, and thus come to the count's feet to implore pardon. Geoffrey Martel, jealous of the power of the Duke of Normandy, joined Henry I. against him. His successors carried out this policy, and the kings of France possessed, in the counts of Anjou, useful allies against the Norman dukes, and Norman kings of England, up to the moment when these counts themselves fell heirs to the Britannic crown. 110 THE FIRST FOUR CAPETIANS. Philip I. (1060-1108). — Philip I, was only seven years old at the time of his father's death. He saw a few gentle- men from Coutances subjugate Southern Italy and Sicily, a Capetian of the house of Burgundy found the kingdom of Portugal, the Duke of ISTormandy, William the Bastard, achieve the conquest of England, and all the chivalry of Prance set out on the first crusade. He allowed all these things to be accomplished without taking any part in them. At last, however, urged by jealousy of his too powerful rival, the Duke of Normandy, he made some opposition to him. He took part with the Bretons against him, and helped his eldest son Robert, who had revolted against his father. William entered the domains of the king, destroying every- thing by fire and sword. Mantes was taken and burned, even the churches, and his skirmishers burned the villages even to the very gates of Paris. Fortunately he met with an accident at Mantes and died soon after near Eouen (1087). The king of Prance continued the same policy under the successor of the Conqueror, but with the same inefficiency. He again took part with Eobert, Duke of Normandy, against William Bufus, who had usurped from his eldest brother the kingdom of England, and then suffered himself to bo bought off by the latter. He clearly perceived the peril which threatened France with a king of England possessing Normandy and thus master of the approaches to Paris, but he had not the courage to make the effort necessary to avert it. Yet under this indolent prince, the domain was increased by the addition of French Vexin, G^tinais, and the viscounty of Bourges, which he bought. FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. Ill CHAPTER XVIII. FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. — EXPOSITION OP THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. Three Different Societies, — In the sixth century there were three societies in Gaul (p. 53) : the Gallo-E.onians, the Barbarians, and the Church. In the eleventh there were also three : the lords, the clergy, and the serfs, each having its customs, its dwn organizattS^n, and to a certain extent its own special language and literature ; the first two, rich, powerful and active ; the last, poor and oppressed. The Feudal Society; Fiefs and Vassals. — It has been seen that the edict of Mersen, in 847, allowed every free man to choose his lord, and that the edict of Kiersy paved the way, in 877, for heredity of royal officers. These edicts set the seal upon a revolution begun long before, and out of which arose a new social order, which, after having ruled Europe completely for several centuries, has even yet not entirely disappeared. There had been since the time of the Carolingians two principal kinds of landed property : allods, lands free from taxation and dues ; and benefices, lands burdened with dues more or less numerous. He who had received a benefice or fief was obliged to render to him who had bestowed it either personal services, or payments in kind, in exchange for which he could count upon being protected by the donor. The most important of these obligations was that of military service. Owners of allods, free of all rents, but isolated, soiTght for protection by "recommending themselves to some powerful man in the vicinity ; i.e., by making a fictitious cession of lands to the protector whom they had chosen, in order to receive it again from his hands as a benefice, with all those charges of military service and payments in kind with which the beneficiary property was burdened. This custom became general. Charlemagne himself con- tributed to render it so by the obligation which he imposed upon all freemen to choose a lord and to remain faithful to 112 FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. him. Towards the end of the reign of Charles the Bald, the revolution was accomplished ; henceforth there were, in general, no lands which were not benefices, or fiefs ; that is to say, each estate was dependent upon another and each man upon some other man. The former was the fief mouvant held by the vassals; the latter the fief dominant held by the suzerain or lord. Such fiefs naturally tended to become hereditary, and under the weak successors of Charlemagne heredity of benefices acquired the force of a custom and soon of a right. Heredity of Public Functions or Offices. — It was the same with the public offices and the titles of duke, count, etc., to which was attached an authority delegated by the prince. Charlemagne watched over the too free manners of his counts and kept them aware that he himself was the master. His successors could not carry out this wise policy. Without money, without lands, the kings had no longer the power to prevent their officers from assuming hereditary possession of the functions with which they were invested. This usurpation of the royal rights gave each great land- owner or lord sovereign prerogatives; the right to make war, to coin money, to make laws, to judge and to execute sentences, etc. This usurpation took place in all degrees of the administrative hierarchy, among the dukes, counts, viscounts, and centenarii, and the result was the feudal sys- tem. One hundred and fifty tenants-in-chief, at the acces- sion of Hugh Capet, exercised the right of coining money, and many others made war at will, legislated, and judged. Throughout the whole territory, public office was trans- formed into individual privilege. Each great proprietor had had, from time immemorial, a domestic jurisdiction over his slaves, serving-men, coloni and tenants. The usurpation of the lords therefore did not consist in attributing to them- selves the right to administer justice, but in assuming the right, as sovereigns, to pronounce final sentence. There were few landowners in the Middle Ages ; but landownership was much more strongly constituted than at the present day, because it bestowed political, legislative, and judical power. Property and magistracy were one and the same thing. The feudal lord was at once both proprie- tor and sovereign. The Feudal Hierarchy. — Those lords who did homage to the kin^ in person, as the counts of Champagne and EXPOSITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 113 Flanders, the dukes of Burgundy and Aquitania, were called grand vassals. The proprietors of fiefs formed a vast hie- rarchy in which each usually sustained the double character of sovereign and vassal. Thus a count, the vassal of a duke or a king, was suzerain of several viscounts, barons or knights. The king of France was himself the vassal of the abbot of St. Denis for an estate which he held of that abbey. But it is to be observed that a count was not always and everywhere superior to a viscount and subordinate to a duke. The hierarchical subordination existed only in the interior of each fief ; and the Count of Anjou had nothing in common with the Duke of Burgundy, except his title of vassal of the crown of France. In many of the fiefs the vassals treated their suzerain as the great nobles treated the king of France. It was the expressly recognized right of the vassal to make war against his lord whenever he thought proper, withdrawing his homage, on condition of restoring the fief, which he usually took care not to do. Finally, a man might be the vassal of two different sovereigns and be required by each of them at the same time to perform military service. Homage ; Fidelity; Investiture. — The feudal relation was established by a ceremony which consisted of three princi- pal formalities. He who received land from another knelt before him, his hands in those of his future lord, and declared that he would become his man. Then he took the oath of fidelity. Then the lord, in his turn, gave him the land by investiture, giving him a turf, a twig from a tree, or, in the case of the great fiefs, a standard. Suzerain and Vassal. — This triple ceremony over, the one became the suzerain, the other the vassal, and from that moment duties and reciprocal rights bound them together. The suzerain owed justice and protection to his vassal and could not withdraw his fief except by reason of forfeiture or treason. , The most important of all the obligations im- posed upon the vassal was that of following the suzerain to war. The conditions upon which the vassals received their fiefs determined for how many days they should render this service, and with how many men. Some rendered this ser- vice only within the limits of the estates of the suzerain, and for his defence, not for attack. Abbots and women, per- sonally exempt from service, furnished substitutes. The vassal was also obliged to assist his overlord by his counsel. 114 FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. when he required it, and to serve him in his court of justice. There were also the feudal aids. The vassal was under obli- gation to help his suzerain to pay his ransom, to marry his eldest daughter, to arm his eldest son as knight, to equip himself for the journey to the Holy Land. At each succes- sion to a fief, the lord collected a relief, which was paid by the heir of the fief when he received investiture. It was a sum of money, or a war horse, a saddle, arms, etc. If a vas- sal sold his fief, a sum equal to a year's revenue was paid to the suzerain. The fief left without an heir, or under confiscation for faithlessness on the part of the vassal, re- verted to the lord. The vassal who was a minor was under the guardianship of the suzerain, who collected the income until his majority. Female wards must marry none but the man presented to them by their suzerain, or pay a consider- able sum. There were, moreover, moral obligations. The vassal was expected to keep the secrets of his suzerain, to expose the intrigues of his enemies, and always to defend his honor ; in a word, he was to spare neither his person nor his prop- erty in order to save him from peril or shame. These obli- gations fulfilled, the vassal became almost absolute master of his own fief, and could lose it only through unfaithfulness. Peers ; Judicial Duel ; Private War. — The vassals of the same lord were peers or equals of each other (pares), and composed his court of justice, from which appeal was per- mitted to the court of the superior suzerain. In all cases, judicial combat, or duel in the arena, decided questions of justice and truth. The conquered was necessarily the crim- inal. It was God who pronounced the sentence. When one of the parties was a woman, a cleric, a child, or an old man, she or he could have a champion for a substitute, but ran all the risks of the combat. The defeat of the champion was the condemnation of him whom he represented. If men were too impatient for these processes, they immediately had recourse to arms, exercising the right of private war. All the lords did not have equal jurisdiction. There was the higher, the middle, and the lower justice, and certain nobles had only the second and the last. The distinctions between them sometimes depended upon the nature of pen- alties, sometimes upon the status of the persons amenable to the tribunal. The right of high justice carried with it the right to pronounce sentence of death. EXPOSITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 115 A Feudal Castle. — The castles of the feudal lords were generally enormous edifices, round or square, placed on high positions so as to secure an extensive outlook, massive, with- out architecture or ornament, and pierced only by a few loop-holes, through which arrows were shot, and having often five walls each higher than the other. The draw-bridge, when raised, covered the castle gate, which was still further defended by the portcullis or heavy iron grating, sliding in grooves. In the angles of the for- tress rose large towers furnished with battlements which protected the defenders of the place against arrows shot from outside ; and by machicolations, parapets opening be- low, through Avhich laoiling water and burning pitch could be poured on the assailants when they came to the foot of the wall. It being desirable to place the donjon in the most inaccessible part of the castle, so as to occupy and command the whole place, it was usually constructed in the middle, though sometimes it touched the ramj^arts. Im- mense subterranean passages led from it to an opening far away in the plain or the forest. The Troubadour and the Trouvere. — Man can neither fight nor hunt always. The pilgrim, who passed by from time to time, entertained the inhabitants of the manorial res- idence by pious recitals and news from foreign countries. But a fortunate thing was the arrival of a bard, called in the North trouvere and in the South troiibado^ir, who, seated by the fireside of the lord, sang to him, during the long even- ings, tiie marvellous exploits of the knights of the Round Table, of Roland, Charlemagne and his twelve peers, or tragical adventures, or the exploits of Reynard the Fox. Tournaments. — There were also plays and festivals ; but the plays and feasts of this warlike society were challenges and combats often mortal, jousts, and tournaments. Only arms of courtesy were borne at these tournaments ; that is, arms without point or of blunt edge ; but in combats d, outrance, ordinary arms were carried. The judges of the tournament made the knights swear to fight loyalh^, and after measuring the lances and swords, gave the signal for the combat. The combatants rushed against each other ; if their lances broke against the bucklers, or the iron armor of their opponents, they fought with the sword or the battle- axe till one of the two was conquered. The ladies often awarded the prize. These festivals always attracted a great 116 FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. number of princes, lords, and knights, but always some were borne from tlie lists dying or dead. Arms. — Untn the time of Charlemagne arms had been mostly offensive ; in the Middle Ages they were mostly de- fensive. From the eleventh to the fourteenth century, the knights wore the coat of mail or hauberk, which covered the warrior from head to foot, and under it the gambeson or hacqueton. The helmet, of thin iron, covered the head and allowed sight and breathing only through narrow openings. The helmet was only worn by knights, but all warriors wore an iron cap. The shield or buckler completed the defensive armor. The offensive arms were the sword, the lance, the battle-axe, the mace, the flail, and the dagger. Foot-soldiers carried only a knife and bow, or the crossbow, which had been brought from Asia in the twelfth century. Eeligious Society ; Ecclesiastical Feudalism. — In the tenth century, the ecclesiastical lands, acquired by the gifts of the faithful, covered vast tracts throughout all Catholic Europe. The relative security which was enjoyed upon such lands increased the population. Many of the small proprietors commended themselves and their lands to the churches, in order to secure their protection. The tithes, rendered obligatory by Charlemagne, assured still other riches to the clergy, and the voluntary jurisdiction, which Constantine had recognized as belonging to them, in- creased from day to day at the expense of the ordinary tri- bunals. In the last days of the Eoman Empire, the bishops had held a high position in the cities. They had often been invested with the office of defensores civitatis. After- wards the barbarian kings had called them to their councils, employed them as missi dominid, and often as counts. Thus uniting political and spiritual authority, the bishop was often the suzerain of all the lords of his diocese. The church possessed immense wealth. In order to protect it from the robberies of the times, she chose laymen to whom she confided her domains, that they might defend them with the sword. But these advocati of the monasteries and the churches, like the king's counts, rendered their func- tions hereditary and took for themselves the property which had been committed to their care. They however consented to consider themselves vassals of those whom they had de- spoiled. The abbots and bishops thus became temporal lords, having numerous vassals ready to take up arms for EXPOSITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 117 their cause, a court of justice, — all the prerogatives, indeed, which were exercised by the great proprietors. The ecclesi- astical feudalism was so extensive, so powerful, that in France and in England, it possessed in the Middle Ages more than a fifth of all the lands ; in Germany almost a third. For the church was daily acquiring new lands. There were indeed few of the faithful who died without leaving her some property. Councils ; the Papacy. — This external situation of the church seemed necessarily to react upon its internal organi- zation. The bishops and abbots, who were seated among the great ones of the land, and who, in such assemblies, held the first rank, formed in temporal affairs a great aristocratic body, having political independence, and de- siring also to have, in a certain degree, spiritual indepen- dence. They also tried to create, for the regulation of the religious interests of their dioceses, a sort of parliamentary government, by frequently convening provincial and national councils. But these bishops had a chief, the Pope. After the energetic pontificate of Nicholas I. (858-867), the Papacy, dominated by the factions which desolated the city of Rome, fell into extreme decline, and lived in the midst of great scandals. Yet meanwhile the theologians drew up, un- opposed, the False Decretals, which made the Pope the judge of all bishops and all kings ; and the monks, in their preaching, were everywhere advocating the sovereign inter- vention of the head of the Church. Then this unarmed priest, whose voice was powerless in Rome, was heard to speak with authority beyond the mountains, through his legates, to bishops and kings ; removed convents from the jurisdic- tion of bishops, in order to place them directly under his own authority ; encouraged the institution of chapters, which soon arrogated to themselves, at the expense of the bishop, a direct authority in the administration of the diocese ; and finally declared, by the mouth of Nicholas I., that the decrees of the Pope should be law throughout the whole Church, and that under the title of universal bishop the sovereign pontiff could exercise episcopal rights in all churches. The pontifical monarchy was therefore, from the ninth century on, firmly established; but in the tenth, the im- perial authority, reconstructed by Otto of Germany, would not suffer partition, and the result was the famous quarrel on_the. subject of investitures. 118 FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. The Monks. — Martin of Tours founded the first monastery of Gaul, that of Ligug6, near Poitiers. In the sixth cen- tury St. Benedict drew up the famous rule which, adopted by almost all the monks of the West, gave rise to the celebrated order of the Benedictines. It imposed prayer but also manual labor, which led the brothers to work uncultivated lands ; reading, which obliged them to copy manuscripts ; perpetual vows, which permitted stricter dis- cipline and a more regular organization. The abbot was elected, but after the election his authority was almost absolute in the monastery. In those terrible times, men who were not made to live amid the violence of the world experienced great relief in placing their entire intellectual being under a paternal guidance, with the certainty of pos- sessing during this life a secure and peaceful retreat; in the other, salvation. Consequently monasteries multiplied rapidly. They were endowed with great domains through the piety of the kings and of the faithful, favored by the bishops, to whose jurisdiction they were subject, and, in those days, did great good. These monasteries were most often asylums of peace, of piety, of work, and even of learning. Letters in the Church. — Charlemagne had had, like all great minds, a strong desire to rule over a civilized empire rather than over barbarians. He gave orders that schools should be established, and that they should be attended not only by the sons of serfs, but by those of freemen. Such commands tended to form an intelligent society among the laity, which would have changed the whole history of the Middle Ages. But after Charlemagne was dead, the nobility in the schools threw away Latin grammar and Teutonic grammar. They saw with delight the opening of the career of civil war, — a career in which each one could do as. he liked, and in which everything was the prize of courage. Hincmar and Scotus Erigena. — Ecclesiastical society, at least, preserved something of the' impulse given to study by Charlemagne. The ninth century showed an intellectual development which is not without a certain grandeur. Hinc- mar succeeded Alcuin, and Charles the Bald strove to imitate Charlemagne. Education was recommended by laws and councils ; attempts were made to restore the Carolingian schools. There was even a movement of philosophic ideas which EXPOSITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 119 presaged those of tlie great centuries of the Middle Ages. The monk Gottschalk had believed that he could find in the writings of St. Augustine the dogma of predestination, but was silenced, condemned by two councils and shut up for life in a cloister, by Hincmar. The celebrated John Scotus Erigena {i.e., the Irishman) also provoked repression by his purely human and philosophical reasoning, founded on the study of the philosophy of the ancients. Fresh Decline at the End of the Ninth Century, and Sec- ond Renaissance in the Eleventh. — But political confusion increased. Learning took refuge in isolated monasteries. Frightful misery prevailed everj^where ; pestilence and fam- ine decimated the nations. The year 1000 approached; nothing was built, nothing repaired, nothing laid by for the future. But this troubled time passed by as all others had done. The sun rose as usual in the first day of the year 1000. Suspended life resumed its course with renewed activity. The world thanked God, who had allowed it to live, by a great desire for Christian unity and religious heroism which found its expression in the Crusades. Churches were re- built, and monasteries founded ; 326 were established in the eleventh century, 802 in the twelfth. Mental activity re- vived. Pope Sylvester II. attained a scientific knowledge which later caused him to pass among the ignorant for a magician sold to the devil. The second renaissance occurred especially in Prance and particularly in Normandy. The abbey of Bee, made famous from its foundation by the presence of the two great doctors, Lanfranc and St. Anselm, and many others, were built in this period. In the seclu- sion of these monasteries the monks were no longer content with copying manuscripts. They were interested in the events which took place around them and wrote descrip- tions of them, or strove to establish their faith firmly by theological discussions which again became learned. Richer and William of Jumi^ges composed valuable histories. Lanfranc and Anselm, Berengar and Roscelinus. — Still others taught, and the scholars gathered about them. At Caen, the Italian Lanfranc (1005-1089), afterward arch- bishop of Canterbury, had more than 4000 auditors. This renewed mental activity sometimes led men astray from the old paths. We have spoken of the heresy which brought thirteen unfortunate persons to the stake in 1022. Another, 120 FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. stirred up by Berengar of Tours, troubled the Church for more than thirty years (1050-1080). Berengar tried to gire reasons for his faith, and boldly attempted to reason con- cerning the mysteries of the Eucharist. Lanfranc was his principal adversary. Anselm, an Italian like Lanfranc, and his successor in the abbey of Bee and the see of Canterbury, revived the study of dogmatic theology, which had been almost laid aside since the time of St. Augustine. He employed all the strength of his powerful mind and all the resources of dialectics in demonstrating the truths of Christian dogma. Anselm, like Lanfranc, attacked the bold innovators, who essayed to subject the dogmas to reasoning founded on the logic of Aristotle. Berengar had tried to interpret the mystery of the Eucharist. Roscelinus, about the year 1085, attacked that of the Trinity, and scholasticism began its subtle discussions with the quarrels between the realists and the nominalists. The Arts in the Church. — The Church also formed and directed architects, painters, and sculptors. The eleventh century was the first period of the grand architecture of the Middle Ages. In the East, Christian architecture had found its form as early as the sixth century ; the Greek cross and the dome were its distinguishing characteristics. But, on the one hand, the construction of a dome with a circular base at the centre of a cross, that is, of a dome superimposed upon a square, presented great architectural difficulties. On the other hand, the religious edifice needed to cover a great space in order to shelter the multitude of the faithful who came to witness the ceremonies and hear the pastoral instructions. The problem was solved by a system of con- struction of which St. Sophia, at Constantinople, was the most beautiful expression, and of which the characteristic feature was the central dome resting on four high arches and supported by secondary vaultings. In the West, the Christians established themselves at first in basilicas, vast quadrangular buildings, intended for mer- chants and lawyers, the interior of which was divided into three naves by a double colonnade, terminating in a semi- circle, the apsis, where the judge sat. The necessities of worship soon modified the Eoman basilica. Its ground- plan was given the form of the Latin cross. Then the apsis was crossed by transepts, the centre of which formed the EXPOSITION OF THE FEUDAL ,'SYlSTEM. 121 choir. The necessities of the climate, which required that the roofs should be sloping, so as not to retain either rain or snow, and the difficulty, insurmountable to the barbarous people of the tenth century, of rearing the Byzantine dome, compelled them to cover the churches with heavy timber- work, the thrust of which would have thrown down the walls if the latter had not been supported by powerful ex- ternal buttresses. Finally, to admit air and light, openinga were made in the fagade and sides by windows terminating at the top in a semicircle. The result of these divers in- novations was the architecture called Saxon in England, Lombard in Italy and Romance in France, where it prevailed from the tenth to the thirteenth century. Then the stout pillars of the old Carolingian churches grew lighter; the low arches rose more boldly, the naves became less sombre, the towers more lofty. The use of decorative sculpture com- menced, and the pointed arch began to appear. Serfs. — In the eleventh century, France was covered with a multitude of fiefs, each of which formed a state having its own life, laws, and customs, and its ecclesiastical or lay chief, almost an independent sovereign. This chief, or noble, had not only vassals, but also subjects residing on that part of his fief which he had not subjected to subin- feudation. These were, first, the serfs, properly speaking, beings entirely at his disposal. "The lord," says Beau- manoir, " can take from them all that they have and keep them in prison as long as he likes, whether justly or un- justly, and he is expected to render account of all this to God alone." Mainmortables. — Besides these are the mainmortables, "more humanely treated," continues the old jurist, "for the lord can demand nothing of them, if they do well, be- yond their quit-rents and dues which it is their custom to pay in lieu of their services." But the mainmortahle cannot marry without the consent of the lord, and if he take as wife a free woman or one born out of the lordship, " he can be fined according to the pleasure of the lord." The children were equally divided between the two lords. If there were only one he belonged to the lord of the mother. At the death of the mainmortahle all he possessed belonged to his lord. Villeins. — Of a higher degree were the free under-farm- ers, called villeins or roturiers. Their condition was less 122 FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. precarious. They had preserved their liberty, and they held, on condition of an annual rent and corvees, the quit- rent lands which the proprietor of the demesne had ceded to them, and which they could transmit with all their posses- sions to their children. But the quit-rent tenures were in the absolute jurisdiction of the proprietors, and the villeins, especially those of the rural districts, were subject to a power generally unlimited. The abandonment of all rights to the lord, but in ex- change an obligation resting upon him to defend the weak, — such is the principle of feudal society with regard to sub- jects. Royalty no longer fufiUing the ofiice for which it was instituted, the people asked from the bishops, counts, and barons, that protection which they could not expect from the nominal head of the State. Dues of the Dependent Classes. — Everything belonged to the lord ; but the requirements of the lord were not at lirst oppressive, and for the villeins they were regularly de- termined, although, in the Middle Ages, one must always take into account the prevalence of arbitrariness and vio- lence such as the law would not now permit. The obligations of the villeins then were payments in kind, such as provisions, the products of the land and the farm ; manual labor, such as the corvees on the lands and vineyards of the lords, in the construction of the castle and repairing of the roads, etc. In the cities and wherever there was a little prosperity, the lord did not fail to exact rental in money. The customs or rents in kind and in money were regulated ; the failles were not, and were levied arbitrarily. There were also whimsical payments which enlivened the joyless life of the feudal lord, shut up all the year round within the gloomy walls of his castle. Feudalism, wearied with itself, sometimes laughed with the poor people, as the Church also did, when she authorized the cel'ebration, in the churches, of the Feast of the Ass. The powerful, the fortu- nate, in those hard, sad times, when misery was everywhere and security nowhere, owed their villeins and serfs a few moments of forgetfulness and gayety. Anarchy and Violence. — The Middle Ages were indeed a iiard time for the poor. In theory, the principles of the feudal relation were excellent ; in reality, they led to anar- chy, for the judicial institutions Avere too defective to pre- EXPOSITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 123 vent the bond of vassalage being broken every instant. Each man could call his fellow to account with his sword for any wrong sustained, or sentence which he considered unjust; war was the usual condition of society. Every hill became a fortress ; every plain a battle-field. Cantoned in strong fortresses, covered with iron armor, surrounded by armed men, the feudal lords loved combats and knew of no other means to enrich themselves than pillage. There was no trade, for the highways were not safe ; no industry, for the lords, masters also of the cities, levied contributions upon the burghers as soon as they showed any signs of opulence. The clergy, the guardians of moral law, found themselves not able to forbid violence, but only to regulate it, by establishing the truce of God, which forbade killing or robbery from Wednesday evening to Monday morning. Frightful Misery ; a Famine in the Eleventh Century. — Upon whom did the weight of all these feudal miseries fall ? Not extremely destructive to the nobles covered with iron, they were fatal to the serfs, unprovided with defen- sive armor. At Brenneville, where the two kings of France and England fought a battle, 900 knights were engaged and only three were left on the field. The lord captured, another calamity arose; his ransom must be paid. But who would pay for the burned hut and harvest of the poor laborer ? Who would heal his wounds ? Who would feed his widow and orphans ? William, archbishop of Tyre, one of the historians of the crusades, thus paints these dreadful times : " There was no security for property ; a man's being reputed to be rich was sufficient reason for throwing him into prison, keeping him in chains, and subjecting him to cruel tortures. Rob- bers, girt with swords, infested the highways, started from ambushes, and spared neither strangers nor men devoted to the service of God. Neither cities nor fortresses were ex- empt from these calamities ; assassins rendered their streets and places dangerous for men of wealth." Frequent famines caused intense sufferings, insomuch that not a few even resorted to cannibalism, and children and travellers were slain to satisfy the hunger of the peasants. At the present day, improved means of com- munication and the spirit of order and foresight enable us to combat such calamities, so that they produce but little suffering, and what is still better they do not unsettle pub- 124 FRANCE IN THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. lie morality. Formerly there was nothing to guard against the inclemencies of the seasons. Every poor harvest brought about a scarcity, every scarcity a famine, and with famine came crimes and atrocities. During the seventy years be- tween 970 and 1040 there were forty-eight years of famine or epidemic. Some Fortunate Results. — But meanwhile the general prog- ress of civilization was by no means completely suspended. In the Church, thought revived, and in the lay society, poetry appeared. There was even progress in morality, at least in the highest classes. In the isolation in which each man lived, exposed to every peril, the soul strengthened itself to endurance. The feeling of the dignity of man, which despotism had destroyed, was restored; and that society which shed blood with such deplorable facility, bequeathed to modern times the sentiment of honor. Another fortunate consequence was the reorganization of the family. In the ancient cities, a man lived outside of his own house, in the fields or the forum. In feudal society, where men lived in isolation, the father was brought nearer to his family. The Church, which had caused these rude soldiers to kneel at the feet of a virgin, which made them respect in the mother of the Saviour all the virtues of women, softened the ferocious spirit of warriors and prepared them to appreciate the charm of the finer mind and more delicate sentiments of womankind. Woman then took her place in the family and in society ; she even be- came the object of a worship which called into existence the new sentiments of chivalry. Outside of the family, the State was doubtless very ill or- ganized. Yet we ought to take notice of the political theory which that society represented. If the serf had no rights, the vassal had, and very important ones. The feudal bond was entered into only on conditions thoroughly understood and accepted by him in advance. New conditions could be imposed upon him only Avith his consent. Hence came those great and forcible maxims of jmblic right which in spite of a thousand violations have come down to us. ]SIo tax could be exacted except with the express consent of the tax-payers ; no law was of any value if it was not accepted by those who would owe obedience to it or by their repre- sentatives ; no sentence was lawful unless rendered by the peers of the accused. As a guarantee of his rights, the EXPOSITION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. 125 vassal had the right to break the tie of vassalage by giving back his fief, or to reply by war to any denial of justice on the part of his suzerain. This right of armed resistance made society weak, but it made the individual exceedingly strong. Before even thinking of constituting the State intelligently, it was necessary to elevate the individual and the family ; this double task was the work of the Middle Ages. The Church worked at it energetically : by establishing the sanctity of marriage, even for the serf; by preaching the equality of all men in the eyes of God ; by proclaiming, through its maiiStenance of the principle of election, the rights of intelligence in the face of the feudal world which recognized only the rights of blood ; by raising to the chair of St. Peter a serf like Adrian IV., or the son of a poor carpenter like Gregory VII. 126 EXTERNAL ENTERPRISES. CHAPTER XIX. EXTEENAL ENTERPRISES IN THE SECOND HALF OP THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. Pilgrimages. — The eleventh century was the period of the most ardent faith among the people. Everywhere piety found relics of forgotten saints, and monasteries were raised over their tombs. Upon the announcement of some pious discovery, the people gathered in throngs from all the neighboring provinces. By degrees they were encouraged to go farther still; to St. Martin of Tours on the Loire, to St. James (Santiago) of Compostella in Galicia, to Monte Cassino in Italy, to the tombs of the apostles at Rome. From thence to Jerusalem there was only the sea to cross. It was a perilous journey, but faith took no account of perils. As early as the days of king Henry, " an innumerable crowd came from the ends of the world to visit the holy sepulchre at Jerusalem." Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, went thither three times. Robert the Magnificent, Duke of Normandy, also made this pilgrimage, and died at Nice (1035). The counts of Barcelona, Flanders, and Verdun, attempted the voyage and succeeded. In 1054, the bishop of Cambrai set out with 3000 Flemings; in 1067, four German bishops, with 7000 men. Effects of the Reforms in the Church by Gregory VII. — The world was thus setting itself in motion, when Gregory VII. gave it a fresh impulse which shook the Church and, through her, lay society also. In the eleventh century the Church was very rich ; many of her members assumed the habits of feudal lords. Discipline was as lax as manners and morals. Celibacy was no longer strictly observed ; and it appears that the offices of the Church were about to become hereditary, as those of the State had already become. Hildebrand, who had been made Pope under the name of Gregory VII., in 1073, saved the Church from this danger. He brought the clergy back to the exercise of the virtues of abstinence and sacrifice, and endeavored to place it above EXTERNAL ENTERPRISES. 127 the influence of temporal power. In order to bring it again under the sole authority of the see of Rome, he desired that, when granting spiritual consecration to a bishop, the Pope should bestow upon him at the same time the investiture of the lands pertaining to his Church. Although he failed in this part of his great undertaking, yet the Holy See acquired new life through his efforts, the Church a greater influence over the people and the affairs of the world. She owed it to Gregory VII. that she was able to accomplish one of the most important events of the Middle Ages, — the changing of pilgrimages into crusades. Conquest of Southern Italy by the Normans (1083-1130). — First there were military expeditions undertaken under the influence of the Holy See. For instance, some Norman pilgrims, who came to Rome about the year 1016, were employed by the Pope against the Greeks who were attack- ing Benevento. Others, returning from Jerusalem, aided the inhabitants of Salerno to drive away the Saracens who were besieging them. The reports of their success attracted other Normans, who soon became masters of the country. Pope Leo IX. marched against them with an army of Ger- mans. They took him prisoner, but soon declared them- selves his vassals, and received from him in fief all that they had conquered (1053). This constituted the Duchy of Apulia, to which the Normans soon added Sicily. A Nor- man dynasty, having for its chiefs Robert Guiscard and Roger, sons of a gentleman of Coutances, reigned at Naples. Conquest of England by the Normans (1066). — Another Norman dynasty seated itself at the same time on the throne of England. Edward the Confessor, who had been restored to that throne on the expulsion of the Danish line, showed great favor to the Normans, among whom he had lived during his exile. When William, Duke of Normandy, went to visit the Anglo-Saxon king, he saw Normans every- where ; it seemed to him that it would be an easy matter to exchange his crown of duke for that of king. But the Saxons forced Edward to send away his dangerous friend from across the channel, and the Englishman Harold resumed all his influence at court and throughout the country. We are told that Harold, being shipwrecked on the coast of Normandy, was forced by William to swear that he would support the latter's claim to the English throna 128 • EXTERNAL ENTERPRISES. Harold's return was followed by the death of Edward. The Witenagemot, or great national council, bestowed the crown upon him. William immediately sent to remind him of his promise. Harold replied that having been extorted from him by force it was of no value, and that, besides, the bestowal of the crown belonged to the English people. Wil- liam treated him as a usurper, as a sacrilegious person, and appealed to the court of Eome. Hildebrand caused Harold to be excommunicated, and the crown of England to be given to William. The duke then published his ban of war. A crowd of adventurers hastened to join him, and an army of 60,000 men set out in September, 1066. They disem- barked at Pevensey, in the county of Sussex. Harold, who had just repelled a Norwegian invasion on the coasts of Yorkshire, came up with all haste ; but he was conquered and killed at the battle of Hastings (1066), after having fought valiantly. The English nationality succumbed. William divided the country among all those who had fol- lowed him, keeping the best part for himself. French customs, French civilization, the French language, and French feudal institutions were planted in England. But France paid dearly for this conquest made by her arms, her manners, and her idiom. The dukes of Normandy, on be- coming kings of England, possessed a power which long held the French kings in check. Conquest of Portugal by a French Prince (1095). — The infidels were in Sicily and at Jerusalem; they were still nearer and more threatening in Spain. A great number of knights crossed the mountains and assisted Spain to drive the Arabs down into Andalusia. Among them came, towards the end of the eleventh century, two princes, Raymond, Count of Toulouse, and Henry, fourth son of the Duke of Burgundy. In reward for their services, the king of Castile gave them his two daughters in marriage, and Henry re- ceived a territory which extended from the Minho to the Mondego (1095). He undertook to enlarge his small domain at the expense of the infidels. He gained seventeen victories over them, and gloriously established the independence of Portugal, over which his descendants have reigned until the present day. -"— mm^ THE FIRST CRUSADE. 129 CHAPTER XX. THE FIRST CRUSADE. (1095-1099 A.D.) Peter the Hermit and the Council of Clermont. — Jerusalem had just fallen into the hands of a horde of savage Turks, and instead of the tolerance which the caliphs of Bagdad and Cairo had shown towards the pilgrims, the latter were now loaded with outrages. Peter the Hermit made France resound with the recital of these calamities, and the people everywhere, seized with a pious enthusiasm, took up arms for the purpose of delivering the tomb of Christ from the infidels. The council of Clermont assembled in 1095, under the presidency of the French Pope. Urban II. preached the criisade. The number of those who, in that and the fol- lowing year, affixed to their breasts the cross of red cloth, the symbol of their engagement in this holy enterprise, amounted to more than a million. Departure of the First Crusaders (1096). — Men came from the most remote countries. The poor, the most eager, con- fiding in God alone, were the first to set out, with the cry of "God wills it!" without preparations, almost without arms. Women, children, old men, accompanied their hus- bands, their fathers, and their sons. A van-guard of 15,000 ill-armed men led the way, under the command of a poor Norman knight, Walter the Penniless. Peter the Hermit followed with 100,000 men. A third troop brought up the rear. They passed through Germany, slaying the Jews whom they met in the way, pillaging everywhere in order to procure food, and accustoming themselves to violence. In Hungary their disorderliness was such that the people took up arms and drove the crusaders into Thrace, after having killed a large number of them. Only a small part of them reached Constantinople. The Emperor Alexis, in order to get rid of such auxiliaries, hastened to send them into Asia. They all fell by the sabre of the Turks, in the plain of Nicaea. 130 THE FIRST CRUSADE. Departure of the Second Army of the Crusaders (1096). — Meanwhile the nobles were taking up arms and organizing, and set out at last, with an army numbering, it is said, 100,000 knights and 600,000 infantry, on different routes and under different chieftains. The French of the North and the Lorrainers went by way of Germany and Hungary, under command of Godfrey, Duke of Bouillon and lower Lorraine, the bravest, the strongest, the most pious of the crusaders, and his two brothers. The French of the South, with the rich and powerful Count of Toulouse, crossed the Alps, and marching through Dalmatia and Slavonia, reached Thrace. The Duke of Normandy, the counts of Blois, Flanders and Vermandois, joined the Normans of Itah^, Bohemond, Prince of Tarento, and his cousin Tancred, next to Godfrey the most perfect knight of his time : and all together crossed the Adriatic and passed through Greece and Macedonia. The Crusaders at Constantinople and in Asia Minor (1097). — The general rendezvous was at Constantinople. The Emperor trembled lest they should wish to begin their crusade there by seizing upon the great city. Some of them, indeed, thought of doing so, but Godfrey of Bouillon opposed it. Alexis, however, was not reassured until he had sent into Asia the last one of these warriors. On the point of taking Nicaea they were defrauded of it by the Greeks. In crossing Asia Minor, they endured frightful sufferings. The light Turkish squadrons of the sultan of Iconium circled around them constantly, harass- ing them and cutting off the stragglers. When the sultan believed them to be sufficiently weakened and discouraged, he came with an immense body of cavalry, to give them battle in the plain of Dorylaeum in Phrygia. The action Avas for some time uncertain, when the arrival of Godfrey of Bouillon and a large corps of cavalry forced the Turks to flee. The Crusaders at Antioch (1098). — After enduring still further sufferings they arrived, in October, 1097, before the great city of Antioch, which was defended by a strong wall- and a garrison of 20,000 men. The crusaders now num- bered not more than 300,000. They remained seven months in front of the place. Finally they were enabled by treach- ery to scale the walls, and dashed into the city with cries of " God wills it ! " Ten thousand persons were killed. The THE FIRST CRUSADE. 131 crusaders compensated themselves for their long privation by excesses which thinned their ranks ; and were then in turn besieged in the captured city by an innumerable multi- tude of Turks. Soon pestilence and famine took possession of the city. A great many of the crusaders, despairing of ever reaching Jerusalem, left the army, to return to Europe. Others, sustained by their courage, remained ; their faith saved them. The lance which pierced the side of Christ having been miraculously discovered, the crusaders were filled with enthusiasm; they marched against the Turks and cut their army to pieces. Capture of Jerusalem (1099). — When after long delays they finally set out from Antioch, there were scarcely more than 50,000 of them left. Enthusiasm increased by de- grees as they approached the holy city. Finally they reached the top of the last hill, and Jerusalem appeared be- fore them. Tears streamed from their eyes. They uttered cries of " Jerusalem ! Jerusalem ! God wills it ! God wills it ! " stretched out their arms to it, and threw themselves on their knees, kissing the earth. Jerusalem was defended by the Eatimite caliph of Cairo, who had recently taken it from the Turks. The crusaders suffered still more before these walls. Finally on the 14th of July, 1099, at the break of day, a general assault was made. But it was not until the next day that the crusaders succeeded in taking the city. Tancred and Godfrey Avere the first to scale the walls. They were still obliged to fight in the streets and force the mosque of Omar, where the Moslems were defending themselves. Blood flowed in tor- rents. ■ The battle over, the chiefs and all the people, laying aside their arms, changed their clothing, washed their hands, and, with bare feet and singing sacred songs with ardent devotion, went to visit the sacred places. Foundation of a French Kingdom in Palestine (1099). — In order to ensure the conquest, it was necessary to organize it and give it a head. Godfrey of Bouillon was proclaimed king. He consented only to assume the title of Defender and Baron of the Holy Sepulchre, refusing " to wear a crown of gold, when the King of kings had worn a crown of thorns." The victory of Ascalon, which he won a short time after, over an Egyptian army, ensured the conquest to the crusaders. But already the Christians were in haste to refiVim to their own firesides ; only 300 knights were left 132 THE FIRST CRUSADE. with Godfrey at Jerusalem. Thus left to itself, the little kingdom was organized and constituted according to the principles of feudalism transported into Asia. The laws, language, and manners of France were preserved in it. Its code was the assizes of Jerusalem, in which we find a com- plete representation of the feudal regime. Fiefs were es- tablished; the principalities of Edessa and Antioch, the county of Tripoli and the marquisate of Tyre; the lord- ships of ISTablous, Jaffa, Eamla, and Tiberias. Part taken by France in the Crusades. — This great move- ment, which continued for a century and a half, and which led away all the people of Europe, emanated from France. The French indeed formed, almost alone, the first crusade. They shared the second (1147) with the Germans, the third (1190) with the English, the fourth (1202) with the Vene- tians. The fifth (1217) and the sixth (1228) were unim- portant. The seventh (1248) and the eighth (1270) were exclusively French. And at the present day in the East, all Christians, no matter what language they speak, are known as Franks. General Results of the Crusades. — Thus, in the eleventh century the French, like their Celtic ancestors, began a great movement of national expansion. The French went to England and Naples only to seek their fortunes. In Spain and in the East, they fought and died for their faith. The sight of these millions of men, rising and eagerly hastening to the conquest of a tomb, is one of the grandest spectacles ever presented to the world. Very few of them ever returned. The crusaders did not attain their end ; Jerusalem, delivered for a moment, fell again into the power of the infidels. But in those countries whence the crusaders departed, and in the minds of those men and their contemporaries, what changes ! Previously they had lived apart and as enemies ; the crusades diminished isolation and divisions. The crusaders learned to recognize each other as brothers in Jesus Christ ; the men of the same country to look upon each other as members of the same family. The French of the North drew neai to the French of the South; national fraternity was found on the road to Jerusalem. At Clermont Urban II. had not preached the crusade for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre alone, but also with a view of putting an end to the curse of private war. The THE FIRST CRUSADE. .133 brief cessation of private wars gave the world a respite and favored the expansion of two new powers, — royalty and the communes, — both of which desired the public peace. Results of Commerce and Industry. — These great expedi- tions also opened the way to commerce, which had been closed since the time of the invasions. The East became again accessible to merchants from the West. Industry in its turn was aroused, and this movement, once set on foot, never stopped. Mechanics increased in number, as well as merchants. For the protection of their different industries they formed guilds, and by degrees accumulated much wealth. A new element of strength was thus found ; per- sonal property, which henceforth increased as over against real property, elevated the burgesses to an equality with the nobility. Institution of Military Orders ; Armprial Bearings. — The crusades were the cause of some new institutions, especially the military orders of the Hospitallers and the Templars. In these great armies of crusaders, means of recognition were necessary ; armorial bearings were invented and multiplied, and since the thirteenth century have descended from father to son. These armorial bearings gave rise to the complicated language and science of heraldry. Family names were also introduced about this period. Chivalry. — Another product of the age was the institu- tion of chivalry. " From the early age of seven years the future knight was taken out of the hands of women and confided to the care of some valiant baron who set him an example of knightly virtues. Until he was fourteen he accompanied the lord and lady of the castle as page. He followed them to the chase and practised all manner of manly and warlike exercises. These, with the example of some lord who was held up as a model of knighthood, the great exploits of arms and love which were related in the long winter evenings in the hall, and sometimes the trouba- dour's songs of Charlemagne and Arthur, constituted the moral and intellectual education which the young man received. "At fifteen he became a squire. The squire accompanied the lord and lady on horseback, served the lord at table, or carried his lance and his various pieces of armor. The ideas of the period ennobled these domestic services. The initiation of the squire was consecrated by religious services. 134 THE FIRST CRUSADE. His physical, military, and moral education was continued by means of violent exercises. Covered with a heavy armor, he leaped ditches and scaled walls, and the legends of chivalry developed more and more in his mind the model of chivalrous courage and virtue. The precepts of the Christian religion were also deeply impressed upon the future knight, and imbued him with its principles. At seventeen the squire often went off on distant expeditions under a vow of accomplishing some feat of proAvess before receiving the order of knighthood. " Finally, when he was twenty-one years old and seemed worthy on account of his bravery to be made a knight, he prepared himself for this initiation by symbolical ceremo- nies. The bath, a symbol of purity of body and miiid, the watching of his arms through the night, the confession, the communion, preceded the reception of the new knight. Dressed in garments of white linen, another symbol of moral purity, he was led to the altar by two tried knights, A priest said mass and blessed the sword. The lord who was to arm the new knight struck him with the blade of the sword, saying to him: 'I dub thee knight, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' He made him swear to consecrate his arms to the defence of the weak and the oppressed; then he embraced him and girded on his sword. The two knights clothed the new knight with the different pieces of armor, and fastened on his gilded spurs, the distinctive sign of the knightly dignity. The ceremony was often ended by a tournament " (Ch^ruel), THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. 135 CHAPTER XXL THE RURAL CLASSES, THE URBAN POPULATION AND THE COMMUNES. — LOUIS VL (1108-1137 A.D.) Parishes and Village Commimities. — The gradual rise of the lower orders next claims attention. In the eighth cen- tury, the serfs were still alienable apart from the land. But two centuries later we see them all living in families. Their cabins and the surrounding land have become their heritage. The family spirit led to the spirit of association. When these families of serfs were gathered together in a favorable spot, and the lord was not too harsh, they multi- plied and became a village. Finally, perhaps, they built a church, and the bishop formed a new parish. This parish existed at first only as an ecclesiastical division, but it was soon utilized for purposes of administration. The Church bestowed on the rural communities their first organization ; a second was given when the intendant of the lord took some of the villeins to serve him as assessors, to assist him in judgment. For the majority of the villages things con- tinued in this condition for a long time ; but those which had increased so far as to become towns, in which there was property to be guarded against exaction, were animated, in the eleventh century, by new desires. The serfs wished to restrain the rights of their lord over their land and their persons. Communal life grew until, in the thirteenth cen- tury, the village communities had definite resources and obligations. Ancient Cities ; Feasant Insurrections. — The Roman Em- pire had left on the soil of Gaul a great number of cities which remained, in the midst of the general confusion, cen- tres of industry and commerce. A few of them, particu- larly in the South, retained their municipal organization, their senates, and even enlarged the jurisdiction of their popularly elected magistrates. Among all of them the 136 THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. memory of the ancient liberties was preserved ; it revived with energy when oppression reached its height. As early as the year 997 the villeins of Normandy, under king Robert, had prepared for a general revolt. Proclaim- ing the equality of all men, they bound themselves by an oath, and deputies from all the districts united in a general assembly. But the plot was noised about, and the chiefs, surprised by the Count of ^fivreux and his knights, were atrociously tortured. In 1024 the Breton peasants revolted. The struggle was a desperate one. Many noblemen per- ished ; but the insurrection was drowned in the blood of the peasants. The Truce of God. — At the end of the eleventh century the Church made a great effort to protect the clergy and the rural population against the violence of the perpetual wars carried on by the lords. In 1095 the council of Clermont, which prerxhed the crusade, decreed at the same time the peace of God. It ordered that churches, cemeteries, oxen, asses, cows, plow-horses, sheep and lambs, provosts and mayors of villages with their households, collectors of tithes, canons, the clergy, monks, and travellers should be allowed a perpetual peace. For other places and other persons there was to be a truce from Wednesday at sunset till Monday at sunrise, also from the first day of Advent to the octave of Epiphany, from the first day of Lent to the octave of Pentecost. The violator of the peace was to be punished by excommunication and by an exile of seven years, and his castle was to be demolished. The provincial council of Eouen prescribed that all young men from the age of twelve up should swear to maintain the truce, and formed associations for its maintenance. More was accomplished toward bestowing peace upon France where the king imposed his truce, the quarantaine le roi. This was better observed than the truce of God. The parishes assisted in the maintenance of it. The burgess communities accompanied the king to siege and battle. The parochial militia followed Louis VI. to the assault upon the dens of robbers. The enclosure of the communes was sometimes designated by the words confinia pads, and the men of the commune as the men of the peace. The Commimes. — In the second half of the eleventh cen- tury sufficient property had been accumulated in the cities to cause the inhabitants to wish to protect themselves from THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. 137 feudal rapacity, by causing their right to manage their own affairs, through their own elected magistrates, to be recog- nized. Some, taking advantage of the necessities of the nobles, who were eager to set out upon the crusade, bought concessions ; others obtained them by force ; others still, who had preserved since the time of the E-omans their local and elective administration, had their privileges increased. An earnest desire for freedom animated all the cities of Nor- thern France. Le Mans (1066), then Cambrai (1076), gave the signal, followed by Noyon, Beauvais, St. Quentin, Laon, Amiens, and Soissons, etc., which all extorted communal charters from their lords, who were for the most part ecclesiastics. For an instance, the charter of Laon granted to the com- mune an elective magistracy, composed of a mayor and twelve sworn men, who had the right to assemble the people by the ringing of the bell, to judge crimes committed in the city and the suburbs, and to have their sentences executed. The bishop sold his consent ; then swore to respect the privileges of the new commune. The burgesses, in order to have every security, bought also a conformation by Louis VI. The efforts of the communes failed of permanent success, because they remained isolated, because each city thought only of establishing its own special liberties ; and royalty, when in the fourteenth century it became all-powerful, tore up the charters of the communes. But they had been suffi- ciently numerous to enable a new class to be formed under their protection. When the communes disappeared, the third estate appeared. Villes de Bourgeoisie. — It was not in the commune alone that the third estate came into existence; it was formed also in the villes de bourgeoisie. Settlers gathered around the great walls of the castle. The lord was interested in increasing their number, in order to increase his revenues and even his military forces. Hence he endeavored to attract the peasants by the privileges which he granted on his land. This was the origin of so many cities and towns which bear the name of Villeneuve. He granted in advance and caused to be published far and wide a charter like the following : " I, Henry, Count of Troyes, make known to all present and to come, that I have established the customs herein announced for the inhabitants of my ncAv town between 138 THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. the roadways of the bridges of Pugny. Every man living in the aforesaid town shall pay each year twelve pence and two bushels of hay for the price of his house ; and if he wishes to have a portion of land or of meadow he shall give a rent of fourpence an acre. The houses, vineyards, and meadows shall be vendible or alienable at the will of the purchaser. (Thus the villein became a proprietor.) The men residing in the aforesaid town shall neither join the army nor go upon any expedition unless I am at their head. I grant them, besides, the right to have six echevins, who shall administer the common affairs of the city, and assist my provost in his pleas. I forbid any lord, knight, or other person, to carry away from the town any of the new in- habitants, for any reason whatever, unless the latter be his body servant or owe him arrears of taxes. Given at Provins; in the year of the Incarnation 1175." Ancient cities also obtained similar privileges to those of the new towns, by remaining, likewise, in subjection to the provost of the lord or of the king. This occurred principally in the royal domain. In this category are Orleans and Paris, which in spite of their antiquity appear not to have preserved the Roman municipal regime, but to have received all their franchises from the Middle Ages and the kings. The dif- ference between the communes and the villes de bourgeoisie is, that the former had the right to administer justice and the latter had not. In the latter the provost of the lord or the king retained the jurisdiction. For instance, Orleans and Paris were never communes, but their inhabitants had securities for person and property, and privileges for com- merce, and these advantages sufficed to attract to the villes de bourgeoisie a numerous population. Individual Enfranchisemeiits, — The condition of the serf was very painful. Nevertheless, custom accorded him the right to dispose of his peculium, which gave him, in a sense, some rights of property. Serfs had no real rights over the land they acquired ; they could not alienate it without the consent of the lord. If they had no direct heirs, the lord inherited it ; he deducted in every case of succession a cer- tain portion, the mortuarium; but direct heirs shared the heritage of their fathers, in equal parts. This peculium, or money of his own, the serf employed in purchasing certain rights, the loss of which bore hard upon him, as for instance the right to take a wife outside of the THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. 139 lordship. . He used it also to purchase his freedom. It appears that the enfranehisements were begun first by the Church. She had first defended the life of the serf against the violence of his lord, and also the indissolubility of his marriage. She uttered severe denunciations against the oppression of unjust masters. Abbot Suger, who had him- self sprung from this oppressed class, freed the serfs of St. Denis, and Louis VI., whose minister he was, followed his example. Extent of the Royal Domain at the Accession of Louis VI. — The royal domain had greatly diminished since the times of Hugh Capet. Philip L possessed at his death only the counties of Paris, Melun, Etampes, Orleans, and Sens ; nor did he possess a clear passage from one of these cities to the other. On all sides the domains of powerful barons came close to Paris. In the North the king still had, as Duke of Prance, powerful vassals in the counts of Ponthieu, Amiens, Soissons, Clermont, Beauvaisis, Valois and Verman- dois. South of the Loire, the king had just bought the viscounty of Bourges, and the other lords of Berry, the prince of Deols and the sire of Bourbon, did direct homage to him. Grand Vassals of the Crown. — Around the royal domain extended vast feudal principalities, the possessors of which rivalled the king in wealth and power. In the North there was the Count of Flanders ; in the West the Duke of Nor- mandy and the Duke of Brittany; in the Southwest the Count of Anjou; in the East the Count of Champagne; and in the Southeast the Duke of Burgundy. Farther away, to the south of the Loire, were the dukes of Aquitaine and Gascony, and the counts of Toulouse and Barcelona with their innumerable vassals. The clergy also occupied an important place in the feudal hierarchy. Its heads were dukes, counts, and lords, having all the regal rights exercised by other suzerains, so that with the exception of five or six cities possessed by the king, the whole of France belonged to lords, either lay or ecclesiastical, great or small. But this royalty, though so feeble, had on its side those memories of power, justice, national unity, and public order which were associated with its title ; and when a brave and active prince should succeed to it, he would be able to cause his rights to be recognized. Activity of Louis VI. — While the French nation was 140 THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. crossing all its borders at once to conquer England, Naples, and Jerusalem, and to found a kingdom in Spain, the in- dolent Philip I. slept upon his throne. The people began to be irritated by this inertia of the Capetians. " It is the duty of kings," said Suger, " to repress, by their power and the innate right of their office, the audacity of the nobles who rend the State by ceaseless wars, desolate the poor and destroy the churches." Louis VI. was the sort of king demanded by Suger. Always on horseback, lance in hand, he constantly fought against the nobles who plundered travellers, or pillaged the property of the churches, and succeeded in restoring some degree of order and security in his narrow domain of the lle-de-France. All the weak, all the oppressed, gathered around the protecting standard which he raised. The clergy put their soldiery at ,his service. He obtained fresh allies by intervening in the communal revolution. His Intervention in the Communal Revolution. — The com- munes were first established in the episcopal or abbatical cities of the North of France. Louis VI., however, played a part in this revolution. Himself engaged in a contest with the same enemy, he' purposely aided this insurrec- tion which secured allies for him in the very midst of those whom he was fighting. He confirmed eight char- ters of communes ; that is, he granted the royal sanction and guaranty to the treaties of peace concluded between the rebel subjects and their lords, which secured the concessions obtained by the subjects. This wise policy immediately gave great power to the king, because the communes Jience- forth regarded him as their patron. From that time, in fact, may be dated the intense enthusiasm of the French people for their king. Yet though Louis the Fat favored the establishment of communes on the estates of the lords, he did not allow a single one on his own domains. But often when, in his own struggles against the robber barons, the warriors and the knights abandoned him, the militia of the churches and the communes flocked to his support. His efforts to protect the weak and discipline feudal society were rewarded. In his war against Henry L, king of England, the communal militia rallied around his banner, and at the report of a proposed attack by the Emperor of Germany, a numerous army of burgesses and vassals held itself in readiness to defend him. THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. 141 Relations with Henry I., King of England. — In the war against Henry I., Louis had proposed to assure JSTormandy to William Clito, a nephew of the English king. This was a wise project, the success of which would have averted a danger which constantly threatened the crown of France, so long as England was united to the duchy of Normandy ; but Louis was defeated at Brenneville (1119). The Eng- lish king, however, fighting his suzerain, dared not carry the war to extremes, not wishing to set an example of re- bellion of vassal against lord. A few days after, a terrible affliction befell King Henry. He embarked at Honfleur, to return to England. His only son, and a brilliant retinue of youthful nobility, followed him in the ill-fated White Ship. In the channel the White Ship struck upon a rock, and sank with all on board save one man. Union of Normandy, England, and Anjou. — This misfor- tune was fatal also to France. Henry had remaining only one daughter, Matilda ; he declared her his heiress. Matilda was the widow of the Emperor Henry V. In 1127 she was married a second time to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou. Hitherto the kings of France had been able to rely upon the support of Anjou against Normandy. The marriage of Matilda put an end to that policy, and extended the Anglo-Norman domination to the Loire. Another union, that of Henry, son of Matilda, with Eleanor of Guienne, carried it to the Pyrenees. Murder of the Count of Flanders (1127). — Flanders was already covered with busy cities, and her burgesses, numer- ous and proud, held in light esteem the social distinctions which elsewhere were of so much importance. Many serfs had crept into their ranks and had acquired wealth and power. In 1127 the most prominent personage in the prov- ince, next to the count, was a serf, Berthold, provost of the chapter of St. Donatian at Bruges. But Count Charles the Good, a pious man, beloved by the poor, but attached to the old order of things, caused an examination to be made throughout his county, to ascertain the condition of all per- sons, in order to remand to servitude all those who had not been legally set free. The provost and all his followers, thus directly threatened, conspired to assassinate the count, and slew him in the church of St. Donatian. This murder caused a great commotion. All the chivalry of the country 142 THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. took up arms against the traitors, who, besieged in the castle of Bruges, and afterwards in the Yexy church where the murder was committed, defended themselves with despera- tion. King Louis, the count's suzerain, himself came to attack them there and compelled them to surrender. The ringleaders were put to death with frightful tortures. But the friends and relatives of the provost aroused Ghent, Lille, Furnes and Alost, and the influence of Louis VI. in Flanders proved but short-lived. Influence of Louis VI. in the South. — Louis succeeded better in the South. His influence and even his authority were felt there. The bishop of Clermont, being at war with the Count of Auvergne, sought the aid of the king, who crossed the Loire with a numerous army, and pushed the war so vigorously that the Duke of Aquitaine came himself to ask pardon for his vassal (1126). Two lords contended for the Bourbonnais. Louis decided the question between them, and one of them refusing to accept his decision, he by force of arms compelled him to accept it. Thus the king, as a reward for having made himself " a great justice of the peace " in times of trouble and violence, saw the authority which had been lost return to him little by little. Three Popes in France. — The quarrel concerning Investi- tures, or the rivalry between the Holy See and the Empire, begun with Gregory VII., had not ended, and the Popes, driven from Eome by the arms and intrigues of the Em- peror, sought refuge and assistance in France. Gelasius 11. was elected then, and in 1119 assembled at Eheims, for the purpose of ending this great debate, a council by which canons were promulgated against simoniacs, and the mar- riage of the clergy again forbidden, the truce of God con- firmed, and the licentious lives of several princes condemned. Three years after, the negotiations commenced by Calixtus 11. at Eheims with the Emperor ended in the concordat of Worms, the first of those difiicult treaties of peace which have regulated the relations between the temporal and the spiritual power. In 1130 Innocent II., forced to leave Eome to a rival Pope, took refuge in France. Louis the Fat assembled at Etampes a council which examined into the pretensions of tlie two rivals, and, on the proposition of Bernard, declared for Innocent II. France thus became the asylum of pon- tiffs, and the place where the great affairs of the Church THE RURAL CLASSES AND THE COMMUNES. 143 were discussed. E,oyalty necessarily gained importance by thus playing the part of protector of the Popes. Abelard. — The disputes between the realists and the nominalists, which divided the schoolmen throughout the Middle Ages, did much to awaken thought. William of Champeaux expounded the realistic doctrine with great brilliancy. But he was eclipsed by one of his disciples, Abelard, born in 1079, near Nantes ; a noble and handsome young man, full of genius and extraordinarily popular. But the greatest man in the Church in those days, and one of the great doctors of all time, St. Bernard, thought he saw heresy in the writings of the brilliant professor. The council of Soissons ordered his book on the Trinity to be burned (1122) ; and the council of Sens again condemned him in 1140. Abelard died two years after, a monk at Cluny. His eloquence, his contest with Bernard, rendered him celebrated during his lifetime. His misfortunes and the love of Heloise have perpetuated his memory. 144 LOUIS VIL, THE YOUNG. CHAPTER XXII. LOUIS VII., THE YOUNG. (1137-1180 A.D.) Louis VII. (1137-1180) ; his Marriage. — Louis the Fat left six sons. The eldest, Louis VII., called the Young, had contracted, before the death of his father, a brilliant marriage. He had married Eleanor of Guienne, heiress of Poitou and the duchy of Aquitaine. The inheritance of fiefs by women was one of the most active causes of the ruin of the feudal families. Women, by marriage, carried the fiefs from one house to another, till the greater part of them were added to that of France, which lasted while others became extinct. The dower of Eleanor was the most important one yet received by any of the French kings. It was nothing less than the half of Southern France. Un- happily Louis VII. did not retain it. Continuation of the Policy of Louis the Fat (1137-1147). — Louis the Young carried out the policy of his father. A communal insurrection at Poitiers was quelled. Several lords were deprived of their fiefs on account of their vio- lent acts. A war against the Count of Champagne had even more important results. The Pope had appointed his own nephew archbishop of Bourges, without regard to the royal right of presentation. Louis drove the new prelate from his see and the Count of Champagne granted him an asylum. The king seized the opportunity to humiliate his refractory vassal. He entered his domains, ravaged them, and burned the small city of Vitry. Thirteen hundred per- sons who had taken refuge in the church perished in the flames. The Second Crusade (1147). — Such an event was not unusual, but it weighed heavily upon the king's conscience, and to expiate it Louis assumed the cross. His father had owed his success partly to the fact that the richest lords had exhausted their resources in order to go to Jerusalem, and many of them had never returned. It was a mistake LOUIS VII., THE YOUNG. 145 to renounce this system. But the Emperor of Germany proposed to go this time, and the king of France could not remain behind and abandon the kingdom of Jerusalem which had been established by the French, and which was now on the brink of ruin. The Atabeks of Aleppo had just taken Edessa, and Noureddin threatened Palestine. In spite of the prudent counsels of abbot Suger, Louis resolved to place himself at the head of a second expedition to the Holy Land. The crusade was preached in France and Germany by St. Bernard, but the zeal of the people had already grown cool. Louis, however, set out from France and marched by way of Metz and Germany towards Constantinople. The Em- peror Manuel sent his deputies a great distance to meet the crusaders, desiring that they should take an oath of fidelity to him, to which they again consented. The Ger- mans were already in the midst of Asia Minor. But, betrayed by their Greek guides, they wandered about in the defiles of the Taurus, and fell by the sword of the Turks. The Emperor Conrad returned almost alone to Constanti- nople. Louis, warned of the danger, took the route by the sea- shore, and at first gained there the victory of the Maeander. But as soon as they entered the mountains, the unskilful- ness of the commanders and the want of discipline among the soldiers brought about severe disasters. At Satalieh it was thought impossible to go any farther. The king and the nobles embarked in certain Greek vessels, in order to finish their pilgrimage by sea, abandoning the vast multitude of the pilgrims, who were either killed by the arrows of the Turks, or, to escape death, became Moslems. Having reached Antioch, Louis thought no more of battles, but of accomplishing his pilgrim's vow, praying at the Holy Sepulchre, and ending as quickly as possible this unfortu- nate enterprise. He hastened to Jerusalem. It was neces- sary however to do something, and to draw the sword at least once in Palestine. An attack on Damascus was first proposed. The attack at first seemed to be successful, but disputes and dissensions arising between the Christian princes, the Moslems had time to be reinforced. The siege had to be raised. Few of those who left Europe ever returned. The first crusade had at least accomplished its aim, it had delivered Jerusalem; the second had shed 146 LOUIS riL, THE YOUNG, Christian blood without result. After it, Palestine found itself weaker, Islam stronger, and the crusaders earned by their undertaking only shame and dishonor. Divorce of Louis Vn. (1152) ; its Consequences. — On his return, the king found his States in peace, thanks to the wise administration of Suger; but he divorced his wife Eleanor, with whom he had become displeased during the crusade, to which she had followed him. The princess, by another marriage, soon carried her duchy of Guienne to Henry Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, Duke of Normandy, and heir to the crown of England (1152). When, two years later, Henry came into possession of his heritage, and when he had added Brittany to it by the marriage of one of his sons to the only daughter of the count of that coiintry, he found himself master of almost the whole of Western France. The king of France had cause to tremble for his crown> but Henry II. hesitated to attack his suzerain, lest the example should affect his own vassals. Louis found fur- ther means of defending himself by sustaining the continual revolts of the four sons of Henry II. against their father. The assassination of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canter- bury, also deeply injiired Henry's cause, and he passed his last days in fighting against his subjects, his sons, and the king of France. Administration of Louis VII. ; Suger. — Louis VII., though by no means an active and resolute king, seconded the com- munal movement. His efforts to maintain order by means of his provosts favored the progress of the urban population. Under him, says a chronicler, a great number of towns were built, and a great many old ones enlarged. Forests were cut down, and vast tracts of land were brought under culti- vation. He also confirmed the ancient privileges of the Hanse, or society of merchants in Paris. Suger, a man of humble parentage, deservedly won by his sense of right, by his activity of mind, by his devotion to the interests of the king and the kingdom, the friendship of Louis VI., and the confidence of Louis VII. Elected abbot of St. Denis, he renounced the magnificence with which prelates then surrounded themselves, and employed all his resources in decorating the interior of the church and in rebuilding parts of it. Louis VII. appointed him adminis- trator of the kingdom during his crusade. He showed the LOUIS VIL, THE YOUNG. 147 same modesty in tliat position, and by his skilfulness in the management of affairs restored order to the finances and peace to the kingdom. It is true that the departure of so many turbulent lords rendered his task easy. Though hardly to be compared with Sully, Eichelieu or Colbert, he at least possessed in common with them a sense of the duties of royalty and the need of order. His position as abbot of St. Denis won to his side the episcopate, which sustained him with all its power, and that support was 3'ngularly favorable to royalty. SIXTH PERIOD. First Victory op Royalty over the Feudal Aristocracy (1180-1328). CHAPTER XXHI. PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIIL (1180-1333 A.D.) Elements of Strength possessed by French Royalty. — From the ninth to the twelfth centuries, public powers had become domanial pov/ers, exercised by the great landholders. This aristocratic revolution, which had broken up the unity of the country, was succeeded by a monarchical revolution. The king was to become the sole judge, sole administrator, and sole legislator of the country. This revolution, begun by Philip Augustus and St. Louis, who reconstituted a cen- tral government, was not destined to be completely accom- plished till the advent of Louis XIV., because the Hundred Years' War in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the religious wars in the sixteenth, suspended this great inter- nal work. Social transformations are prepared by latent energies which are gradually set in motion and direct events. When Capetian royalty appeared weakest, it was silently guarding elements of power which time would call into action. As nominal head of the feudal society, the king had a great title ; he was the suzerain, and the great vassals owed him homage and military service. Legally, the king was the supreme justice of the kingdom ; the vassals were amenable to the king's court. This court was both a great deliberative council and a court of justice. When the great vassals con- PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS nil. 149 tended with each other, was not the arbiter necessarily their common sovereign ? They had, however, the right to require the presence of their equals or peers in the tribunal. In such cases the court of the king became the court of peers. Besides, the suzerain inherited by right when the fief fell into escheat; in case of minority, he had the care of the fief. The suzerain, proprietor of a fief, had the right to require that without his consent no changes should be made in it which could in any way diminish its value. If a vassal granted any privileges in his fief, he was obliged to have them confirmed by his suzerain. Philip Augustus knew how to make use of these prerogatives, which until his time had been almost valueless. Philip Augustus (1180-1223); Acquisitions. — Philip as- cended the throne at the age of fifteen. His relatives and vassals thought they would be able to do as they pleased with such a child. He surprised them by his activity and resolution. The result of the wars which he was compelled to sustain, was the acquisition of the counties of Amiens, Yermandois, and Valois. Artois, which fell to him in 1191, through his wife, Isabella of Hainault, extended the domaiiis of the crown as far as the frontiers of Flanders. Philip repressed feudal disorder, banished the Jews, seizing most of their property, and had a number of heretics burned. Lastly, the insurrection of the cotereaux, bands of robbers who ravaged the central portion of Prance, was quelled by royal troops assisted by the inhabitants of the communes. Third Crusade (1190-1191). — Jerusalem had fallen, in 1187, into the hands of the infidels. Its last king had been made prisoner by Saladin at the battle of Tiberias. Chris- tendom made a powerful effort ; Kichard Coeur de Lion, king of England, and Philip Augustus set out together. The Emperor Frederic Barbarossa had preceded them. They did not go farther than Acre, which was recaptured. During the long siege misunderstandings arose between the two kings. Philip, eclipsed by his brilliant rival, hastened to return to France so as to be able to work the ruin of the too powerful house of England. He had a secret under- standing with John, the brother whom Richard had left in charge of his kingdom. But Richard, returning, made war on Philip Augustus and defeated him, yet without gaining anything by the victory. Pope Innocent III. interposed and 150 Fill LIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIII. induced them to sign a truce for five years (1199). Two months after, Richard was killed while attacking a castle in the Limousin. Condemnation of John Lackland; Acquisition of Several Provinces (1204). — Richard was succeeded by his brother (1199). The king of France immediately became the enemy of his former ally and took, against him, the part of John's nephew Arthur, whom John is supposed to have stabbed with his own hand. Philip had before this summoned John to appear before the twelve grand vassals of the crown or peers of the kingdom. On his refusal he confiscated his fiefs, entered with an army into Normandy, which John liad left defenceless, and following up his victories, took possession of all the cities of the province, even Rouen. Anjou, Touraine, and Poitou were also easily united to the royal domain. These were the most brilliant conquests that a king of France had ever yet made. Victory of Bouvines (1214). — Coward though he was, John could not submit to such humiliation. He formed a vast coalition. While he himself was attacking France on the southwest, the Emperor of Germany, Otto IV., the counts of Flanders and Boulogne, with all the princes of the Low Countries, were to attack the northern portion. But France aroused herself to repel the foreign invasion. Louis, the king's son, went to confront the English king in Poitou ; and Philip, with his knights and the militia of the northern communes, marched against the enemy, whom they met near the bridge of Bouvines, between Lille and Tournai. The hostile chiefs, surrounded by a force estimated at 100,000 men, were confident of victory. The two armies remained for some time at a distance from each other without daring to begin the battle, and the French were retiring by way of the bridge of Bouvines for the purpose of marching upon Hainault, when the enemy, attacking their rear guard, compelled them to turn about. When the battle began, the communal militia was already beyond Bouvines ; they hastily recrossed the bridge and came to the centre in front of the king and his battal- ions. The German knights, and among them the Eiuperor Otto, charged these brave men, and cut through them in order to reach the king ; but the most renowned warriors of France threw themselves before them and stopped them. During this fray, the German foot-soldiers came up behind PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIIL 151 their cavalry, and reached the spot where Philip was. They dragged him from his horse, and while he was down, tried to pierce his visor or some joint of his armor. Certain knights and men of the communes hastened to his assist- ance. They delivered the king, placed him on a charger, and he again rushed into the fight. The Emperor also nar- rowly escaped being taken, but was finally rescued. On the right, the Count of Elanders fell wounded into the hands of the French ; in the centre, the Emperor with his German princes fled; but on the left, the Count of Boulogne and the English held the field. At sight of this, the warlike bishop of Beauvais attacked them vigorously, and soon the English were entirely routed. The Count of Boulogne, after a brave resistance, was captured ; five other counts and twenty-five bannerets were already captives. The king's return to Paris was a triumphal march. Thanksgiving services were held in all the churches as he passed along, and the chants of the clergy were heard mingled with the bells and the harmonious sounds of mar- tial music. The houses were hung with curtains and tap- estries; the roads were strewn with green branches and fresh flowers. All the people, men and women, old men and children, came in crowds to the cross-roads. At Paris the burgesses and a great number of clergy, scholars, and other people, went to meet the king, singing hymns and canticles. They kept up unprecedented festivities, which went on by night as well as by day. During these rejoicings, the com- munal militia, which had conducted itself so bravely during the fight, came with great pomp to deliver their prisoners to the provost of Paris. One hundred and ten knights had fallen into their hands, to say nothing of common soldiers. The king gave them a part of these to be held for ransom, and imprisoned the rest. Philip did not, by this great victory, acquire any addi- tional territory. But he had repelled a formidable invasion, caused an emperor and a king to fly before him, frustrated the evil designs of several great vassals, and, best of all, given to the Capetian dynasty a prestige which until then it had not enjoyed, and revealed to France her own power. The victory gave a great impetus to the national spirit and to patriotism, — a feeble sentiment still, and one which was destined more than once to seem extinguished, but only to reappear with victorious energy. 152 PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIII. Fourth Crusade (1202-1204).— The nobility manifested its warlike activity under this reign by two enterprises : the fourth crusade, which changed the Greek Empire into a French Empire, and the war against the Albigenses, which once more attached to France the people of the South. Philip took no part in either. He left the nobles to expend their resources and their turbulence in these enterprises which were doubly profitable to France, by the order which he was thus enabled to establish in the kingdom, and by the lustre which was shed on her name abroad. Since the failure of the third crusade, Jerusalem had been forgotten. The great Pope, Innocent III., wished to call the attention of Christendom to it; he therefore preached a crusade promising remission of sins to all those who would serve God for one year. Fulk, cure of Neuilly-sur-Marne, was the preacher of this crusade, and persuaded many to take the cross. Again the kings held aloof, and the people also. It was determined to take the route by sea, and deputies were sent to Venice to hire ships (1201). The republic made the necessary agreement with them, on con- dition that they should aid it in taking Zara in Dalmatia, to which they consented (1202). Next, the Venetians per- suaded their allies that the keys of Jerusalem were at Cairo or at Constantinople. There was some truth in this idea, but there was still more of commercial interest. The possession of Cairo opened the route to India to the Venetian mer- chants ; that of Constantinople assured them of the commerce of the Black Sea and the whole of the Archipelago. It was decided to go by way of Constantinople, whither a young Greek prince, Alexis, offered to conduct them,' on condition that they should re-establish on the throne his father, Isaac Angelos, who had been deposed (1203). The disembarkation of the French was but feebly opposed, and in July, 1203, the city was carried by assault. The old Emperor, taken from his prison, was re-established on the throne. Alexis had made the most extravagant promi- ses to the crusaders. In order to fulfil them, he levied new taxes and exasperated his subjects to such a degree that they slew their Emperor and created another, named Mourzoufle, and closed the gates of the city. The crusaders immediately attacked it. In three days they again took possession of it (March, 1204) ; this time they sacked it. Constantinople captured, they divided the Empire among PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIIL 153 themselves. Baldwin IV., Count of Flanders, was elected Emperor ; other lords and princes, king of Macedonia, prince of Achaia, dukes of Athens and Naxos, count of Cephalonia, lords of Thebes and Corinth. Venice retained one-quarter of Constantinople with all the ports of the Empire and all the islands. A new France with its feudal customs arose at the extremity of Europe. But the crusaders were too few in number to be able to' keep their conquest long, and in 1261 the Latin Empire fell to pieces, though some of its feudal principalities remained. The Albigenses. — Meanwhile the attention of France was strongly excited by the presence of heresy in its Southern provinces. Peter de Brueys, Henry the Deacon, and Peter Waldo rejected the baptism of infants, the sacrifice of the mass, the adoration of the cross, the traf&c in indulgences, etc. They admitted no authority in religious matters but the Bible, and wished to return to the Christianity of the Gospels. In the South of France, in the midst of a people made up of so many races, this return of the religious spirit to the old paths also again brought up the Gnostic doctrines which had troubled the Church so much during the first centuries. The Eoman ecclesiastics were treated with scorn ; missionaries were sent everywhere ; the offensive doctrines began to make their appearance in Flanders, in Germany, in England, and even in Italy. Among these rich and splendid cities of the South, the chief was Toulouse, whose count was Raymond VI., one of the greatest lords of the South, The other powers were the house of Barcelona and Aragon, which possessed, in France, Roussillon and Provence, and the lesser lords of the Pyrenees, proud, independent, and adventurous. The South of France, indeed, had long been separated from the North, It had another language and other customs. Com- merce had there diffused ease among the citizens, luxury among the lords. But in these rich cities, in these brilliant courts enlivened by the songs of the troubadours, religious doctrines were as lightly treated as manners and morals. The Albigensian Crusade (1208). — The all-powerful In- nocent III. resolved to crush out this nest of impiety. He first organized against the sectarians the famous Inquisition, a tribunal for the purpose of examining and judging heretics by means of torture, and sent to Raymond VI. his legate, Peter of Castelnau, who required the expulsion of the 154 PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIIL heretics. But the heretics composed almost the whole of the inhabitants. Peter accomplished nothing. Eaymond was excommunicated and threatened by the legate. One of his knights followed the latter and slew him. The Pope proclaimed a crusade against the Count of Toulouse. Many French lords and bishops hastened to the quarry, and three armies invaded the South ; Simon de Montf ort, an ambitious, fanatical, and cruel man, was their commander. They first attacked the viscount of B^ziers. That city was taken. The conquerors hesitated to slay, not being able to distinguish the heretics : " Kill them all," said one of the chiefs ; " God will know his own." Thirty thousand perished. Carcassonne fell also. Raymond hoped to be spared, but the papal legates offered pardon to the Count of Toulouse only on condition that he should dismiss his soldiers, pull down his castles, and go off to the Holy Land. The count scorned such propositions and the attack was renewed under Simon de Montfort. Raymond, conquered at Castelnaudary, fled to Aragon, and the conquerors divided his territory among them. In order to put a stop to this invasion of the South by the men of the North, the king of Aragon, Pedro II., crossed the mountains with a large force; but the battle of Muret, in which he was killed, decided the fate of Languedoc (1213) . The Lateran Coun- cil, two years later, ratified the deposition of Eaymond. and the greater part of the lords of the country. The legate of the Holy See gave their fiefs to Simon de Montfort. The civilization of the South, crushed out by these harsh measures, perished. In their misery, ,the people of Languedoc appealed to the king of France. Montpellier gave herself to him. After the death of Simon de Montfort, who was killed be- fore Toulouse, of which the son of Count Raymond had resumed possession, the heir of De Montfort, Amaury, offered to cede to the king the acquisitions made by his father, which he could no longer defend against the univer- sal reprobation of his subjects. This offer was accepted later. Expedition to England (1216). — After the defeat of the allies at Bouvines, the nobles and commons, clergy and laity of England, uniting, compelled king John to sign the Great Charter of English liberties (1215). John, supported by the Pope, soon after began war against the barons. The PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIIL 155 latter called to their assistance Louis, the son of Philip Augustus. In 1216 he landed in England, in spite of an excommunication from the Pope, and was likely to have succeeded but for the death of king John, who left as his successor an infant son, Henry III. The barons perceived that this infant king was better for them than a foreign prince. Louis was therefore gradually abandoned, and obliged to return to France (1217). Relations of Philip with the Court of Rome. — Philip's second wife was Ingeborg of Denmark, whom he married in 1193, and divorced the day after their marriage. He soon after married Agnes of Meran. Ingeborg appealed to the Pope, who took her cause in hand, and, on Philip's refusing to abandon Agnes, placed the kingdom under an interdict. The services ceased in all the churches ; the people were without prayers. In the end the king was obliged to yield. He sent away Agnes of Meran, who died of grief, and took Ingeborg back in 1213. On the other hand, in 1203, when Philip invaded the fiefs which John had lost by his felony, and Innocent III. threatened him with the anath- emas of the Church if he proceeded, Philip compelled his great vassals to give him a written pledge to sustain him against all persons, even against the lord Pope, and con- tinued his expedition. Louis VIII. (1223-1226). —Philip Augustus died in July, 1223, at the age of fifty-nine. The reign of his son was only a continuation of his own. From the English he con- quered what Philip Augustus had not taken of Poitou, Aunis, Kochelle, Limoges, Perigueux; in Lang-uedoc, he acquired Avignon by siege. The country from the Ehone to within four leagues of Toulouse submitted to him. Thus the whole South, west of the Ehone, with the exception of Guienne and Toiilouse, recognized the royal authority ; the work of territorial unity was advancing. Louis VIII. died on his return from this expedition, at the age of thirty-nine. The Government of Philip Augustus. — Philip Augustus had reigned gloriously for forty-three years. He had doubled the royal domain by the acquisition of Verman- dois, Ami^nois, Artois, Normandy, Maine, Anjou, Touraine, Poitou, and a part of Auvergne. He had given to royalty the strength which it needed in order to enforce its rights. Some powerful feudatories still remained. The king ruled directly only in his own domain ; but he in fact governed -156 PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIII. all France. Beginning with his reign we find general ordi nances, which were to be in force throughout the kingdom. Of the great court officers, with functions half domestic, half political, as those of the butler, the constable, the chamberlain, the seneschal, etc., Philip Augustus discon- tinued the last in 1191. The king's court remained what it was under the first Capetians, but its importance had in- creased with that of royalty. A judgment rendered by this court could dispossess of his fiefs the most powerful vassal of the king of France. Philip carefully avoided enfeoffing the new lands ac- quired by the crown. He divided his domain into bailliages and provostships. The provost administered justice, made military levies, and collected at his own risk the taxes of his district, which he had at farm. Each hailliage contained several provostships supervised by the hailli, who also, each month, heard appeals from the provosts' divisions. The king's court, in its turn, judged the appeals against the hailli. Pour times a year the royal assizes, to which these officers were summoned to give the king an account of the affairs of their bailiwicks, were held at Paris. They also carried to him, three times a year, the revenues of his domain. The accounts were received by six burgesses and a clerk who kept the registers. The great lords were purposely kept out of administrative offices. Philip set himself boldly against feudal traditions. When he acquired Amienois, he owed homage for this fief to the bishop of Amiens. He refused it, saying that the king of France ought not to be a vassal of any one. He attacked feudalism in one of its most cherished rights, the right of private war. To prevent the relatives of one of the two ad- versaries, ignorant of the injury done, being attacked with- out warning, Philip ordered that su.ch persons should have forty days ' truce and due notice. Besides, from the neces- sity of escaping such continual violences, a custom originated of which Philip made use, and which was of special service to royalty. One of the two parties could claim the asseure- ment of his suzerain ; that is to say, his guaranty against all attacks. The suzerain commanded the other party to ap- pear before him, offered him also the asseurement, and, if he refused it, imposed it upon him. Violations of such truce and asseurement were subject to severe penalties. But an army was necessary in order to enforce them, PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS Vzil. 157 The feudal array was a very irregular army, difficult to get together, and still more difficult to conduct. The rule was that the vassal owed the suzerain forty days' service for a full fief, but one claimed to be obliged to serve only within the limits of a certain territory ; another, to go to the army for only a certain number of days. When the question arose at whose expense the knight should serve, or by how many men the vassal should be followed, fresh contests arose. Kings therefore early felt the need of mercenaries. Thus the necessity of a royal army became apparent ; but in order to maintain it royal finances were needed. The Church was another power whose encroachments it was necessary to repel. The bishops had a double jurisdic- tion : as proprietors of fiefs, they had a seignorial tribunal to judge their lay vassals ; as bishops a court Christian, in which they judged delicts and crimes committed by ecclesi- astics. Before this court they claimed to call a number of lay cases, as involving violations of the commands of God and the Church. They claimed, for instance, the judgment of perjury. But Philip and his barons refused them cogni- zance of perjury in feudal matters. They also took precau- tion against the indefinite increase of estates of mortmain, against the abuse of excommunication and of the right of asylum. Thus the king of France allied himself to the barons in order to defend his power against the Church, and the Church aided him often in defending himself against the barons. The king could always count upon the aid of the burgesses, for he instituted new communes, he con- firmed a great number of charters, and he employed the burgesses in the councils of the government. The citizen soldiery fought for him in all his wars. Thus is the increasing strength of French royalty ex- plained. While in England the barons, bishops, and com- mons united to limit the royal power, in France the royal power, feeble in the beginning, incessantly increased at the expense of the three orders, two of which generally united with it against the third. Philip fortified Paris, embellished the city, paved the streets, built market-houses, instituted a police, and pushed actively forward the work upon the church of Notre Dame. He constructed the fortress of the Louvre for himself. He 158 PHILIP AUGUSTUS AND LOUIS VIIL rounded the Archives, and prescribed for the schools of Paris a regulation which granted great privileges to the scholars; they and their professors were made amenable only to the ecclesiastical tribunal, and, about 1250, took the name of University. ST. LOUIS. 159 CHAPTER XXIV. ST. LOUIS. (1336-1370 A.D.) St. Louis. — St. Louis (Louis IX.) is the true hero of the Middle Ages, a prince as pious as brave, who loved feudalism yet dealt it most deadly blows, who venerated the Church, yet if necessary could resist its chief ; a sweet and sincere spirit, a loving heart, filled with Christian charity, yet who condemned the body of the sinner to torture in order to save his soul, who on earth thought only of heaven, and who made his office of king a magistracy of order and equity. This saint, this man of peace, did more, in the simplicity of his heart, for the progress of royalty, than the most subtle counsellors or ten warlike monarchs, because, after him, the king seemed to the people the incarnation of justice and order. Regency of Blanche of Castile. — The son of Louis VIII. was a child of eleven years. A coalition of great vassals was formed immediately, to take advantage of his minority. The recent, Blanche of Castile, his mother, won over one of the confederates, the powerful Count of Champagne, and obtained from him the important counties of Blois, Chartres, and Sancerre. A treaty, signed in 1229, assured the inheri- tance of the Count of Toulouse to a brother of the king, and a marriage contracted between the king's second brother and the heiress of Provence paved the way for the union of that country to France at another time. Thus the king found himself master, directly or through his brothers, of a great part of the South of France. The majority of St. Louis was proclaimed in 1236 ; but the wise regent retained her influence. The great pontificate of Innocent III. had given fresh energy to the Church and to religious feeling. The spirit of the crusaders was again aroused. Jews were massacred and heretics burned. But the crusade itself (1289) was a failure, and Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Kharesmians. 160 ST. LOUIS. Relations with Foreign Powers. — In 1241, the Emperor Frederick II. having detained the French prelates who had gone to Kome to the council, St. Louis firmly insisted that they should be set at liberty. He refused, when requested by the Pope, to modify a royal ordinance of 1234 which restricted the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical tribunals. At- tacked by the English, in 1242, St. Louis defeated them at Taillebourg and Saintes. He would perhaps have been able to drive them out of France, but he refused to follow up his victory. The territorial acquisitions made during the past half-century had trebled the extent of the royal domains; but they seemed to him stained with violence, being the gains of two confiscations. By reason of con- scientious scruples, he allowed the king of England to take the duchy of Guienne, on condition of doing homage to the crown. Finally, in order to prevent perjuries, he compelled all lords who held fiefs of two crowns to choose between the two sovereigns. His southern boundary was fixed, by an agreement with the king of Aragon, and the county of Barcelona ceased to depend upon the crown of France (1258) . In 1245 Pope Innocent IV., driven from Italy by the Empe- ror Frederick, took refuge in Lyons, and held there the thirteenth ecumenical council, which was attended by one hundred and forty bishops. First Crusade of St. Louis (1248-1254). — During an ill- ness which nearly proved fatal, in 1244, Louis made a vow to go to the Holy Land. His mother and his counsellors at- tempted in vain to dissuade him from this resolution. Louis left the royal power again in the hands of Queen Blanche, and embarked at Aigues-Mortes, on the Mediterranean. The Sire de Joinville, the king's friend and biographer, describes the departure of the fleet, priests and warriors, all singing together the hymn Veni, creator Spiritus, as they set sail, and the delightful talk of the good king during the voyage. St. Louis had for two years caused a great quantity of pro- visions to be collected in the island of Cyprus. The army thence set out for Egypt in 1800 vessels, large and small. Damietta, at one of the mouths of the Nile, was taken (June, 1249), but precious time was lost before marching upon Cairo. Five months and a half of delay restored the courage of the Mamelukes. Finally the crusaders advanced slowly to Mansourah. A badly managed battle at that place cost the lives of a large number of knights and the ST. LOUIS. 161 Count of Artois, the brother of St. Louis. Soon the army was surrounded by enemies and the ranks thinned by pestilence. The retreat was disastrous ; they were obliged at last to surrender. The saintly king rendered his captivity honor- able by his courage, and inspired even his enemies with respect for his virtues. They released him in consideration of a large ransom. On being set at liberty he went into Palestine, where he remained three years, employing his influence and his zeal in maintaining harmony among the Christians, and his resources in repairing the fortifications of the places which they still occupied. The Pastoureaux ; Return of Louis (1254). — The news of these disasters only increased the king's popularity in France. With wild enthusiasm, an immense crowd of serfs and peasants assembled to cross the sea and go to the rescue of the king. This was the crusade of the Pastou- reaux ; but these men lived by pillage as they went along ; even murder was committed; it became necessary to deal rigorously with them. The news of the death of the regent (December, 1252) at last recalled Louis to Prance. In 1264 he was chosen arbiter between the king of England and his barons, on the subject of the Provisions of Oxford. He decided in favor of the king, but unsuccessfully ; for the barons paid no attention to the arbiter's sentence, and put Henry III. under severe restrictions. More fortunate else- where, he decided a question of succession which delivered Flanders from civil war. Last Crusade of St. Louis. — In the year 1270 St. Louis undertook another crusade, this time directed against Tunis ; but died of the pestilence, under the walls of the place, with the greater part of his army. The French had, in this reign, made another great ex- pedition without the aid of royalty. Charles of Anjou, , Count of Provence, summoned by the Pope to aid him against King Manfred, son of the Emperor Frederick II., had conquered, in 1266, the kingdom of Naples. It was to the self-interested advice of Charles of Anjou that the direction taken by the last crusade was due, for he ex- pected that the submission of the king of Tunis would secure Sicily from the continual incursions of the Saracens into that island. Administration of St. Louis. — Capetian royalty had made great progress. The counts of Flanders and Brittany and 162 ST. LOUIS. the Duke of Guienne were almost the only lords who had not descended to the condition of obedient vassals ; but feudalism still retained great prerogatives. St. Louis at- tacked them in the name of justice and religion. By per- severing in the execution of the ordinances respecting the quarantaine le roy and asseurement, he suppressed almost all private wars. As a Christian, he was opposed to these wars which sent into the presence of God so many ill-prepared souls ; as a prince, he desired to arrest the devastation of the country districts. He forbade the judiciary duel in his own domains. The king's justice was thus substituted for individual violence, and the evidence of witnesses and writ- ten proceedings replaced trials by combat. Appeals and Eoyal Cases. — The lords rendered justice on their own estates. The villein could not question their judgment, but the vassal had the right to appeal to the suzerain from the sentence of his lord. The king also favored the custom of appealing directly to his court, which subordinated seignorial justice to his own. When a cause carried before a seignorial tribunal touched the king's inter- ests, the bailli interposed and claimed jurisdiction, the king not being amenable to a lord. These causes were the royal cases. It was easy to multiply them. At the same time the institution of the bourgeoisie of the king was established. An inhabitant of a seignorial estate could, under certain conditions of establishment and temporary residence in a royal city, acquire the quality of king's burgess. The king's burgess could be judged by the king's officers only. The King's Court. — The king's court continued to accu- mulate all sorts of attributes ; it was a court of accounts, and if it pleased the king, a political council ; but it was par- ticularly, in the time of St. Louis, a court of justice. The royal finances were always very simple ; in case of a crusade, of the captivity of the king, of knighthood conferred upon his eldest son, and of his marriage, the prince, as in the case of all lords, could claim the feudal aids. The revenues of the domain, well administered, were still sufficient to sustain royalty. But in the court, the role of the great vassals and officers of the crown had diminished. Since they had not sufficient learning to administer the law under the new system of procedure in writing, legists were added. At first the barons scornfully seated these plebeians on stools at their ST. LOUIS. 163 feet. Soon the baron was silent in presence of his learned counsellors ; the latter acquired complete control of judg- ments, and the fate of criminals, even the most noble, was placed in their hands. This court had its regular ses- sions at Paris, generally four times a year. The Provincial Administration ; Baillis, Royal Inquisitors, and Provosts. — In the provincial administration, Louis, to protect his own power and his subjects, forbade the baillis and seneschals making presents to the members of the coun- cil, receiving, or even borrowing money from suitors in their courts, taking part in sales and leases granted in the name of the king. They were forbidden to buy any land in their jurisdictions, or to marry their sons and daughters without the permission of the king. If they "did wrong," they were punished in their property and in their persons. On going out of office they were made answerable to those whom they had wronged. St. Louis sent through the provinces commissioners or royal inquisitors to defend the rights of the king, and also those of his subjects. In all these measures the influence of the legists and the memories of the Eoman administration are to be seen. We have spoken of the organization of the provostships. Those who formed that of Paris, according to Joinville, oppressed the lower class, sustained their families in any outrages which they committed, allowed themselves to be corrupted by the wealthy class, and took no notice of thieves and evil-doers, who crowded Paris and the^ environs. The king removed them and put in their place Etienne Boileau, who kept order with rigid severity. The King and Feudalism. — Louis had dealt feudalism some severe blows by the suppression of the judicial duel, the interdiction of private wars, and the introduction of appeals. He was not a revolutionary king, but he regarded it as the duty of royalty to assure peace and repose to its subjects. The spirit of justice and Christian sentiments were his guiding motives. He was determined that all should submit to this justice which he thought he had been delegated by God to estab- lish. His brother, the Count of Anjou, had in a trial con- demned a knight, and the latter having taken an appeal to the king's court, the count had thrown him into prison. The king informed his brother that there was only one king in France, and that, brother of the king though he was, 164 6T. LOUIS. he would not be spared contrary to justice. The Count of Anjou was obliged to release his prisoner ; he came in per- son to defend himself against the appeal to the king's court, which, however, pronounced in favor of the knight. Ordinances respecting Money. — The right of coining money belonged to more than twenty-four lords, who often coined bad money. St. Louis decided that his own should pass throughout the kingdom ; that it alone should be re- ceived in the royal domain, and in the territories of lords who had not the right to coin money ; that the seignorial money should pass only in the territory of the lord who issued it, and that these lords should coin only certain pieces of de- termined value. He also determined to coin better parisis and better tournois than those of his lords, so that his money, like his justice, should be worth more than that of his vassals. He held his lords responsible for the police of the roads in their lordships. At Paris, he instituted the royal watch and caused the provost, ^tienne Boileau, to reduce to writing the ancient regulations of the hundred trades which existed in that city. These trades were grouped in great corporations ; in the fifteenth century all the merchants of Paris formed six bodies of arts and trades. The King and the Church. — St. Louis showed a respectful firmness toward the papal authority. He maintained the liberties of the Galilean Church and restricted the imposi- tions which the Church of Eome placed upon the churches of France. His earnest faith insured him against all fear of injuring the Church ; it even led him to harsh acts which now seem barbarous. He punished blasphemers by pierc- ing their tongues with a red-hot iron. Decline of the Communes. — He was extremely generous to the cities. Yet communal independence did not seem better to him than feudal independence, and he favored the transformation of communes into royal cities, the latter de- pendent on the supreme power, yet enjoying municipal privi- leges. Thus the communes began to disappear, and with them their proud sentiments, their grand ideas of right and liberty ; but the third estate was beginning its course. By the weakening of feudal and communal independence, by his firm government with regard to the Church, Louis showed to his successors the paths which were to lead French royalty on to absolute power. He rendered them another service. The memory of his virtues did not perish ST. LOUIS. 165 with him. Venerated during his lifetime as a saint, he was canonized after his death, and, as it were, sanctified French royalty. The Sainte Chapelle ; the Sorbonne. — He built the hospi- tal of the Quinze-Vingts for the blind, several h6tels-Dieu, and the church of Vincennes. To contain the crown of thorns, which the Venetians had sold him, he built in his palace, now the palace of justice, the Sainte Chapelle. His confessor, Robert de Sorbon, founded a community under the name of " Congregation of the poor masters students of theology." This congregation became the Sorbonne, a fac- ulty of theology celebrated throughout Christendom. .166 CIVILIZATION IN TEE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. CHAPTER XXV. CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Greatness of the Thirteenth Century. — The most remark- able period of the Middle Ages is the thirteenth century. Two great Popes, Innocent III. and Innocent IV., then occu- pied the chair of St. Peter ; ■ a saint sat on the throne of Prance, and on that of the Empire a prince upon whom the gaze of the world has rested ever since, Frederick II. Italy temporarily regained her independence. England established her public liberties, wrote her great charter, instituted her Parliament. The crusades failed ; but the results of these great enterprises were still dazzlingiy manifest. That great movement of men led to a great movement of things and ideas. Commerce, industry, letters, the arts, advanced by leaps and bounds ; schools multiplied ; studies progressed ; national literature was started ; great names appeared, — Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Eoger Bacon, Dante. Power of French Royalty. — In Prance great changes had occurred in the last one hundred and fifty years. The great revolutionist, at this period, was the king, as the aristocracy had been before Hugh Capet, as the people were to be after Louis XIV. Royalty advanced with long strides towards ab- solute power. It had imposed upon its turbulent vassals the king's peace, the king's justice, the king's money, and it made laws for all. Formation of the Third Estate. — To this revolution among the upper classes there corresponded a revolution among the lower classes. In the eleventh century the people had united for common defence. They had extorted from the lords the right to administer their own affairs, they had built walls and towers, organized a militia, and elected mag- istrates. They had lived in this way for a century and a half, in a proud independence, but also in isolation, and always on the watch. Royalty, on coming into absolute power, was disturbed by the free discussion and independence of these communities. Its intervention became greater from CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 167 day to day, and the communes little by little disappeared. France thus escaped the danger of having, like Italy, a thousand republics, and of being, like her, delivered over for several centuries to be the prey of municipal anarchy and foreign rule. Yet from another point of view it was a misfortune that those urban liberties were suppressed, by which the nation would have obtained the strong political education which it has always lacked. But though no more comniunal charters were granted, there were charters of bourgeoisie and of enfranchisement. In the twelfth century the serfs had already been admitted to witness in courts of justice ; and Popes had demanded their liberty. In the thirteenth, enfranchisements were very numerous, for the lords began to perceive the superior economic advantage of having free tenants. Thus there were two movements uniting to form of the non-nobles a class whose members should have a strong feeling of com- mon interests, — the Third Estate. The Legists and the Roman Law. — This new class was animated by quite another spirit than that of feudalism. While this latter bestowed everything upon the eldest and rendered inheritances inalienable, the bourgeois embodied in their charters some of the principles of rational law, such as equal division of property among all the children. The new popular law could not have struggled successfully with the aristocratic law, if it had not found a powerful auxiliary in the old law of the Roman Emperors. Long neglected but not entirely forgotten, this law was taken up again with enthusiasm in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in some of the cities of Italy, especially in Bologna, to which numbers of scholars resorted from all Europe. Soon Montpellier, Angers, and Orleans had professorships of Roman law. In the eyes of the men of that time, wandering in the chaos of feudal law, the Roman code, an admirable collection of logical deductions, which have for starting-points natural equity and common utility, seemed to be truly, as they called it, written reason. The rich bourgeoisie devoted their chil- dren to this study in which they found a weapon of defence against the feudal regime, and with these laws, whose origin and antiquity rendered them doubly venerable, the legists were able to work out, in a thousand different ways, en- franchisement from the two great servitudes of the Middle Ages, — that of man, and that of the land. Several provinces 168 CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. were authorized to follow the Roman law as their municipal law. In those which retained their special legislation the Roman law insensibly penetrated their habits of thought. Thus commenced in the thirteenth century the war of rational law, whether Roman or customary, against the aristocratic law of feudal society ; a war sustained and directed by the legists, and which only ended in the great triumph of equality over privilege in 1789. The commons demanded only civil liberty ; they did not then dream of political liberty, and the most intelligent among them willingly accepted the equality of all under one master. The Emperor had in ancient times been absolute ; the legists made the king the heir of the emperors; and royalty employed the legists to administer France. Thus two powers confronted each other, — feudal aristocracy, which had possession of the soil and the military forces ; and royalty, which, supported by the third estate, counselled by the legists, endeavored to regain all the power which had slipped away from it, and to unite again to the crown the ancient prerogatives of imperial power. At the death of Louis it was already evident which of the two forces would prevail. Commerce. — Before the crusades, intercourse with Asia was rare ; a few cities of Italy, of Provence, and of Catalonia were the only ones not deterred by the distance ; but now those of Germany and France would follow the roads which had just been opened. The merchants of Lyons, Nlmes, Avignon, Marseilles, went twice a year to Alexandria to obtain the commodities of the East, which also reached France by way of Venice, Genoa, and Amalfi. With increased activity of trade, annual fairs were held, which were celebrated through- out Europe. The merchants of the southern towns traded with the rich manufactories of Flanders and the immense emporium of Bruges. Bordeaux already exported wines to England and Flanders ; the cities of Languedoc bought arms at Toledo, and leather tapestries at Cordova. The Basque sailors of Bayonne and Biarritz began the whale fishery. Paris had a hanse, or association for merchandise which came to her by water. Industries and New Cultures. — The crusaders also brought from the East new industries ; the tissues of Damascus, glass from Tyre, the use of windmills, flax, silk, some useful plants, as the damson plum, the sugar-cane, the product CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 169 of which was to take the place of honey ; the orange, origi- nally from Farther India, and the mulberry, which enriched first Italy and then France. The use of cotton goods began at this time to become general. Paper made of cotton had long been known; linen paper was made by the end of the thirteenth century ; but it is only since the sixteenth that it has generally been substituted for parchment. Damascening, the engraving of seals, and coining were brought nearer to perfection. The application of enamel was learned, and the goldsmith's art made great progress. Corporations. — In the time of the Eoman Empire work- men of the same profession formed associations among them- selves. The Germans, on. their part, introduced the use of guilds, all the members of which promised to support each other and celebrated their union by festivals. The two institutions, merged, formed the corporations of the Middle Ages. The members of a corporation obtained from it mutual protection, and aid for old men, widows, and orphans. Each had a patron saint, festivals, and a treasury. The chiefs prevented frauds and watched over the observance of the regulations. These regulations required a long and strict apprenticeship, and assured to the members of the corporation the monopoly of their industry ; so that for each profession the number of masters was fixed by the corporation itself. The result was that there was no com- petition, because there was no liberty, and prices were main- tained at a high rate. But this severe discipline was neces- sary to an infant industry. Condition of the Rural Districts; the Merchants. — The corporations gave some security to the industries of the cities, but agriculture had no security. Forests and plains covered a vast extent of the country, and cultivated land was found only around the cities and walled towns and the strong castles and monasteries. For the laborer dared not venture into the country, far from any place of refuge. If the peasant was obliged to take such precautions, what had not the merchant to fear ? He was obliged to pay, be- side his custom-house duties, town-dues and toll, levied at the entrance of the provinces, at the gates of the cities, on the highways, at the bridges and entrances of the forests, and a payment, for escort, to each lord whose domain he crossed, in order to be guarded from robbery. Marine merchants 170 CIVILIZATION IN THE THIliTEENTII CENTURY. were equally subject to various exactions, and particularly to the odious rights of wreckage. When there was a ship- wreck, the lords of the adjacent shore appropriated all that was thrown up by the sea. Naturally, wrecking by false signals was common. St. Louis required the lords taking toll to take care of the roads and afford protection to travel- lers from sunrise to sunset. One result of prosperity and increasing security was a considerable advancement in popu- lation. The Church proscribing interest on loans, usurers increased in numbers. These were generally Jews. This was one of the causes of the general hatred against them. In order to conceal their wealth, and at the same time cause their money to circulate freely, they invented the letter of exchange. Universities. — Few abbeys of any importance were with- out a school. But the need of instruction became so general, that these monastic schools were not suf&cient. Others were opened in all the great cities. But in the Middle Ages everything took the form of a corporation. At Paris, Angers, Orleans, Toulouse, Montpellier, the masters and pupils united and formed in each city, under the name of University, a body which had extensive privileges. The University of Paris received its statutes from Philip Augus- tus, in 1215. It was divided into four faculties, — of theol- ogy, of canon law, of medicine, and of arts ; the last taught grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, the trivium, and also the quadrivium, or arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. Koman law was principally studied at Orleans ; medicine at Montpellier. Important privileges attracted students to these universities. That of Paris numbered fifteen or twenty thousand students, who were not svibject to the authority of the magistrates of the city, who could not be arrested for debt, and who very frequently disturbed the city by their quarrels or their dissipations, but from among , whom arose, in the thirteenth century alone, seven popes, and a great number of cardinals, bishops, and scholars. Scholasticism. — The Middle Ages, in their profound faith, remained a long time without demanding of any one but their theologians the solution of the great problems which continually agitate the soul Avith regard to itself and God ; the mind, however, cannot remain forever shut up within the same formulas. Philosophy reappeared, but in the special form called scholasticism. CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. Ill St. Anselm, in the eleventh century, employed for the proof of religious truth the same processes of reasoning which Aristotle had used to discover scientific truths. Later, when the Spanish Jews had translated from Arabic into Latin many hitherto unknown works of Aristotle, he at once acquired entire ascendancy in all the chairs of philosophy. Unhappily the mediaeval mind was uncritical in its study of his methods. All science was reduced to the art of reasoning. Scholasticism was not a system of philosophy, a body of doctrines upon great questions ; it was much rather a certain manner of debating on all questions, by deductions from assumed premises. It re- mained a sort of intellectual gymnastics in which the aim was not the discovery of truth, but the victory gained in the combats of words, by the aid of subtle distinctions and a technical jargon. The mind was nevertheless sharpened and strengthened by these unproductive contests. The thirteenth century witnessed the long debates be- tween Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, who both studied and taught at Paris, with great distinction, divided between them the Schools and Christendom itself, and continued to agitate the whole of the fourteenth century through the disputes of their followers, the Scotists and the Thomists. They had been preceded in the school of Paris by the German Albertus Magnus. After these superior men, for- eigners by birth, may be mentioned Vincent of Beauvais, chaplain of St. Louis, who wrote an encyclopaedia em- bracing all the knowledge of his time, the Speculum Majus. Invention appeared with Eoger Bacon, an English monk, who also studied at Paris, who discovered gunpowder, mag- nifying-glasses, and the air-pump, or at least described them in his writings, and foreshadowed the reform of the calen- dar effected by Gregory XIII. It was also at Paris that the Spaniard Raymond Lulli published his Ars magna, a power- ful but vain effort to trace out a classification of the sciences. Astrology ; Alchemy. — One of the whims of this age was astrology ; it grew until the sixteenth century, and was not extinguished until the seventeenth. The astrologers pre- tended to read in the stars the destinies of human life. Another folly was that of the alchemists, who sought for the philosopher's stone, the means of making gold by the transmutation of metals. Yet these were the germs of astronomy and chemistry respectively. Witchcraft also abounded. 172 CIVILIZATION IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. The French Language. — In the thirteenth century the French language disengaged itself finally from Latin forms to assume its true character. It became the language of legislation. Villehardouin, the historian of the fourth cru- sade, Joinville, the biographer of St. Louis, wrote in French. A Venetian, translating into French a chronicle of his own country in 1275, excused himself for doing so by saying that the French language " is current throughout the world^ and is more pleasant to listen to than any other." Ten years earlier Brunetto Latini, the master of Dante, wrote in French his Tresor, because "the French language is the most widely spoken among men." The Trouveres. — The French genius was at this time spreading over all the adjoining countries a flood of grand poetry. The voice of the troubadours had been silent since the Albigensian crusade had drowned in blood the civiliza- tion of Languedoe. But north of the Loire the trouveres still composed chansons de geste, true epic poems, which were translated or imitated by Italy, England, and Germany. From the twelfth century the intellectual domination of Europe belonged incontestably to France. The most cele- brated of those trouveres was Eobert Wace, " a clerk of Oaen," who had written, about 1155, the firut, a fabulous history of the kings of England ; Chrestien de Troyes (after 1100), the author of the Chevalier au Lion; and lastly Rute- boeuf, a contemporary of St. Louis, the earliest type of the professional poet, poor but gay, sarcastic and bold. Fabliaux; Roman de la Rose, etc. — Euteboeuf is the best known of the authors of the fabliaux, the bold tales which the old French loved so well, in which priest and noble were not spared. These attacks are found also in the famous poem of Renart, a satire upon feudal society, and in the most popular work of its time, the Roman de la Rose, by Guillaume de L orris and Jehan de Meung. We ought not, however, to make precocious revolutionists of these unrestrained story-tellers ; they are the press of that period ; we find in their verses an echo, as it were, of all the rumors of the day and all the emotions of the crowd ; also that good sense and rude feeling of justice which were later to raise Jacques Bonhomme from his low estate. Villehardouin and Joinville. — One thing in literature which belongs peculiarly to the thirteenth century is the appearance of French prose. But the first prose-writers of CIVILIZATION OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 173 France were not writers by profession ; they were two dis- tinguished lords, both of whom had taken part in the events which they related. Geoffrey de Villehardouin, Marshal of Champagne, has left ns the history of the fourth crusade, the Conquete de Constantinople. He writes as a soldier, in a strong, terse style, not without a certain military stiffness. The Sire de Joinville shows in his Memoirs of the seventh crusade more suppleness of style and more delicacy of mind ; he observes, reflects, and talks freely of his own feelings as well as of the events of the war. Art. — The triumph of pointed architecture was at last assured. The arch was still further elongated, so as to bear higher, nearer to heaven, the vault of the temple and the prayers of the people. At this time were reared the vast and lofty cathedrals of Paris, Rouen, Amiens, Sens, Chartres, Rheims, Bourges, and Strassburg, and the Sainte Chapelle of St. Louis, at Paris. Romance architecture, heavy and massive, gave way before this newer style, which gave constant evidence of great boldness of conception and eleva- tion and fervor of religious feeling. Colonies of French artists carried the new style to Canterbury, to Utrecht, to Milan, and even to Sweden. Coarse and naive statuary decorated the churches, and stained glass produced magic effects in the windows. The miniature paintings, which ornamented the missals and hour-books, have left us precious masterpieces. The Friars. — The thirteenth century witnessed an impor- tant innovation in the Church, — the creation of the orders of mendicants. St. Benedict had promulgated, about the year 529, a monastic rule under which all the monks of the West had successively ranged themselves ; this rule im- posed both manualand mental labor. The Benedictines associated agriculture with preaching, the copying of manu- scripts and teaching with prayer. The different orders of monks subsequently created continued more or less faithful to this idea. The order of the Franciscans, instituted in 1207 by St. Francis of Assisi, and that of the Dominicans, founded by the Spaniard St. Dominic at Toulouse in 1215, were of quite another character. The Franciscans and the Dominicans, exempt from the jurisdictions of the bishops and devoted soldiers of the Holy See, were required to live by charity, to possess nothing, to go out into the world everywhere to carry the Gospel to those places into which 174 CIVILIZATION OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. the too luxurious clergy would no longer go, into the midst of the poor, in the alleys and highways. The influence exerted by these enthusiastic preachers upon the Church and the people was very great. The Dominicans, to whom the conversion of the heretics had been especially com- mitted, were invested, in 1229, with inquisitorial functions ; but the tribunal of the inquisition happily did not take root in France. Duns Scotus, Raymond Lulli, and Eoger Bacon were Franciscans; Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus were Dominicans. The Carmelites and the Augus- tine friars originated in the same century, and with those already mentioned, formed the four orders of the mendicants. The austerity and exalted piety of these new monks, the learning of some of their doctors, aroused emulation among the old cenobites and even the secular clergy ; ecclesiastical discipline was restored. PHILIP THE BOLD AND PHILIP THE FAIR. 175 CHAPTER XXVI. PHILIP III, THE BOLD AND PHILIP IV, THE FAIR, (1370-1314 A.D.) Philip m. (1270-1285) ; Aggrandizement of the Royal Domain. — Little is known of the reign of the eldest son of Louis, though it lasted fifteen years. Under him, however, may still be observed the upward march of royalty, which, by the extinction of several feudal races, united to its do- main Valois, Poitou, the counties of Toulouse and Venais- sin. But Philip III, abandoned to the Pope this last fief and half of Avignon. The Count of Foix was compelled to promise faithful obedience and to cede a part of his estate. The domination of the king of France was thus approach- ing the Pyrenees ; it even crossed them, Philip had the heiress of the kingdom of Navarre married to his son, and made an expedition into Catalonia, which, however, was un- successful. Its cause was a family interest, Philip en- deavored to punish Pedro, king of Aragon, for the assist- ance he had rendered the Sicilians in their revolt against Charles of Anjou, after the murder of all the French who resided in the island, in the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers (1282), Philip rv. (1285-1314) ; Wars of Guienne and Flanders. — Philip IV., surnamed the Fair, who succeeded his father (1285), got rid of useless wars, and occupied himself with enlarging his own domain by acquisitions within his reach. His marriage with the heiress of Navarre and Champagne had already brought him two great provinces. A decree of parliament also ensured him the possession of La Marche and Angoumois. In addition to this, his second son married the heiress of Franche-Comt4. Thus by marriage, forfeitures, and conquests, the whole of France was being united to the royal domain. But there were still some powerful vassals ; the Duke of Brittany, the Count of Flanders, and especially the Duke of Guienne. Philip first attacked the last. He was a formidable adversary, because he was also king of 176 PHILIP III. THE BOLD England. Fortunately, Edward I. was too much occupied with his Welsh and Scotch wars to cross over to the conti- nent. The royal army was therefore able to make rapid progress in Guienne. Another army, led by the king in person, entered Flanders, whose count had declared for the king of England, and defeated the Flemings at Furnes (1297). The intervention of Pope Boniface VIII. brought about peace between the two kings. The Count of Flanders surrendered himself, and Flanders was reunited to the royal domain (1300). Flanders was the richest country in Europe, because it was the one in which most work was done. On this fertile land population had grown with the harvests ; cities were numerous, the people active and industrious, but attached to England, whence they obtained the wool necessary for their manufactures. The cloths of Flanders were sold in all Christian lands, and even in Constantinople ; and the cities of the Low Countries were the markets in which the commodities of the North, brought from the Baltic, were ex- changed for those of the South, which came from Venice and Italy by way of the Rhine. Among so many cities, defended by their walls, and better still by a population accustomed to work and to frugality, but at the same time proud of its numbers, its strength, and its wealth, knight- hood had stood a poor chance, and there was but little feudalism in Flanders. All its cities had their privileges. It was not prudent to interfere with them. Financial Embarrassments of Philip the Fair. — French royalty was, under Philip the Fair, in that transitional stage which rendered it necessarily troublesome and op- pressive. The royal domain at that time comprised, in- stead of four or five cities, two-thirds of France. It was therefore necessary to have baillis, seneschals, and provosts, in order to maintain order and secure the execution of the laws, judges for the administration of justice, counsellors for government. All these agents desired payment for their trouble. War, instead of being made within a short dis- tance, was transported to the Pyrenees, the Garonne, and the Scheldt ; instead of a battle there was a campaign. The feudal levies became insufiicient. In order to keep them under the flag beyond the time fixed by the conditions of their tenure, the king offered them pay, and when necessary enlisted hired soldiers. Philip the Fair, continually short AND PHILIP IV. THE FAIR. 177 of money, was obliged to resort to all sorts of means to ob- tain it ; as financial science was of late birth^ the ill-chosen methods of doing this were to prove ruinous to the people, without being greatly beneficial to the government. For instance, he despoiled the bankers of the time, the Jews and Lombards, which caused them to conceal their money ; changed the value of coins, which made commerce impos- sible ; promulgated sumptuary laws, which would ruin in- dustry; taxed the clergy, and destroyed the order of the Temple, to obtain its wealth. One of his methods was honest and good ; he sold liberty to many of the serfs of his domains, and commuted his dues of service for cash pay- ments. These considerations explain not only the reign of Philip the Eair, but the whole fourteenth century. All the kings of that period were in continual need of money, and did not know how to obtain it in any other ways than these. Another War with Flanders (1302-1304) ; Battle of Courtray (1302). — Philip had made Jacques de Ch§,tillon governor of the Flemings. They revolted against him. Philip sent Robert of Artois with a numerous army to revenge the insult. Twenty thousand Flemings bravely awaited this chivalry near Courtray, behind a canal. The assailants advanced in bad order, sure of conqtiering, and not doing these villeins the justice to believe that they would dare to look them in the face. They had not even taken the precaution to recon- noitre the position of the Flemings. The first ranks of the heavy column of cavalry, sent forward at full speed, fell into the canal- which covered the enemy's line, and the Flemings had only to plunge their long lances into the confused mass of men and horses to kill without danger to themselves. A sortie which they made from the two ends of the canal com- pleted the rout. Two hundred lords of high degree and 6000 men at arms perished, among them the constable and the Count of Artois. ® The battle of Courtray, a defeat of the flower of the chiv- alry by the peasantry, had a powerful effect, but did not all at once cure the nobility of its presumptuous folly. The defeats of Cr^cy, Poitiers, and Agincourt were to follow; the feudal nobility was to lose the prestige which had so long surrounded it, and to see itself confronted by another army, that of the king and the people, which completed its downfall. 178 PHILIP III. THE BOLD Battle of Mons-en-Puelle (1304).— Philip the Fair took active measures to repair the disastrous defeat of Courtray. In two months he assembled 10,000 men-at-arms and 60,000 foot-soldiers. The cities of Flanders brought out 80,000 combatants. But nothing decisive was done on either side till 1304, when Philip attacked Flanders by land and sea. His fleet defeated that of the Flemings near Zierickzee, and he himself revenged at Mons-en-Puelle the defeat of Courtray. Yet in a few days they returned, as numerous as before, to demand another battle, and the king prepared to treat instead of fighting again. They promised him money; they ceded to him all of Walloon, or French-speak- ing, Flanders, between the Lys and the Scheldt. On these conditions he restored to the Flemings their count, who promised only feudal homage. Thus French royalty re- treated before Flemish democracy, as German royalty was at the same time retreating before Swiss democracy. Quarrels with Boniface VIII. — From the time of Gregory VII. to Boniface VIII., the Papacy had furnished itself with powerful means of action, until the Pope could hardly fail to think himself superior to kings. At the time of the jubilee in the year 1300, the Papacy seemed placed on the highest pinnacle of power. Three years after, all had changed; the temporal power, so often conquered, was triumphant, and it had been decided that Europe was not to be a theocracy. This great blow was struck by the hand of France. Yet France had always deserved the title of eldest daughter of the Roman Church. She had been its right arm under Clovis, under the Carolingians, against the Albigenses. She had conducted the crusades, given asylum to fugitive Popes ; she was covered with monasteries, and her Univer- sity of Paris, her doctors, her St. Bernard, had been the lights of Catholicism. But interests which had been com- mon for so long became divided. War was declared under a man stern and merciless, whom no consideration held back. The quarrel between Philip the Fair and Boniface Vllf . had begun in 1296. In 1301 it was renewed, over the case of a papal legate who had defied the king's authority. The Pope threatened the king with excommunication for having dared to lift his hand against a bishop. At the same time he issued the bull Ausculta fili, in which he reproached him with oppressing his people, clergy and laity, by cruel exac- tions, with annoying them by changes of the coin, with AND PHILIP IV. THE FAIR. 179 trenching upon ecclesiastical jurisdiction, witli hindering the execution of episcopal sentences, and appropriating the reve- nues of vacant churches. Moreover, the pontiff hinted that there was a power in the kingdom superior to that of the king, that of the Holy See. Thus he believed himself in a position to judge, and to punish by the thunderbolts of the Church, the reprehensible acts of the prince ; while the latter, guided by the legists, who, according to the spirit of the Roman law, recognized in the king an absolute power, claimed the right to intervene in the administration of the churches, and desired that the bishops, as well as the rest of his subjects, should be in subjection to his officers and courts. Philip declared that he would recognize no authority but that of God as superior to his own in temporal affairs, had the bull of the pontiff publicly burned, and, to win the approbation of the nation, called to his presence the deputies . of the States-General, divided into three orders, — the clergy, nobility, and bourgeoisie or third estate (1302). In the following year, the king again convoked the States- General, and counting on the firm support which he had received from these representatives of the country, carried the contest to extremes. The Pope, threatened by a general council, before which Philip proposed to bring him, prepared on his part a bull deposing the king. The latter anticipated him. One of his agents, William of ISTogaret, and Sciarra Colonna, a Roman noble and a mortal enemy of the Pope, seized Anagni, where the Pope then was, and summoned him to abdicate. The Pope refusing, Sciarra Colonna dragged him from his throne, struck him in the face with his gaunt- let, and would have killed him if Nogaret had not prevented him. Death of Boniface VIII. (1304) ; Election of Clement V. (1305). — A short time after, Boniface died of shame and anger at the scandalous insults to which he had been sub- jected. His successor, Benedict XI., who tried to avenge him, died soon after, perhaps by poison. This time Philip took measures to control the election of the new pontiff. Bertrand de Goth, archbishop of Bordeaux, was nominated, after he had promised the king to comply with his requests. The new Pope, who took the name of Clement V., abandoned Rome, and in 1308 removed to Avignon, a possession of the Holy See, beyond the Alps, where he was under the control and at the disposal of the king of Prance. His successors 180 PHILIP III. THE BOLD remained, there until 1376. The sojourn of the Popes at Avignon, which deeply unsettled the Church, was called the Babylonish Captivity. Condemnation of the Templars (1307). — Among the stip- ulations made with Clement, one was for the destruction of the Order of the Templars. The wealth of these warlike monks had tempted the avarice of the king, and their power was an obstacle to his despotism. They numbered 15,500 knights ; together they could defy all the royal armies of Europe. They possessed in the Christian world more than 10,000 manors and a large number of fortresses. In the treasury of the Order there were 150,000 florins of gold, to say nothing of silver and precious vessels. A strong organization held the Knights under the control of the grand master. What passed in their temples was not known ; but vague rumors told of orgies, scandals, impious acts, and terrible crimes. They were really guilty only of some de- generacy of morals, and their religious ceremonies were probably mixed, in the East, with the base alloy of heathen- ish practices. Secret orders were issued for their arrest (1307). The Knights, surprised, had time neither to consult nor to resist. Torture forced from them such confessions as it has always secured. Philip, wishing to cause the nation to take part in this great trial, convened the States-General at Tours ; the accusations and confessions were read before them, and the deputies declared that the Knights were guilty of death. Provincial councils condemned them. That of Paris caused fifty-four of the Templars, who had retracted their confes- sions, to be burned. Nine were burned at Senlis, others elsewhere. The Pope, at the council of Vienne, pronounced the dissolution of the Order throughout Christendom. All the money found in the Temple, two-thirds of the personal property, and the collectable debts, with a considerable number of domains, remained in the possession of the king. In Italy, England, Spain, and Germany, the Order of the Templars was abolished and its property partly confiscated by the princes. This same council of Vienne condemned several errors which had arisen in the midst of the Order of the Francis- cans; that of the Spirituals, who regarded St. Francis as a fresh incarnation of Jesus ; that of the Beguins, and that of the Praticelli, antinomians and communists respectively. AND PHILIP IV. THE FAIR. 181 Last Years of Philip the Fair. — In 1313 the great dig- nitaries of the Order of the Temple were taken from their prisons, examined before a papal commission, and condemned to imprisonment for life. But the grand master, Jacques du Molay, and another dignitary at this moment recanted their confessions. During adjournment of the court Philip had the two Templars carried off and burned at the stake (1314). In the king's own family bloody tragedies took place. His three daughters-in-law, accused of scandalous deportment, were thrown into prison, where one of them was afterwards strangled, and another died of despair. Meantime public hatred of the government increased. As alterations of the coinage did not suffice to furnish resources, the king levied tithes and aids on various pre- texts, and finally resorted to arbitrary taxation. The gen- eral oppression almost brought on an insurrection, when Philip established a new tax upon the sale of all sorts of merchandise. Signs of the beginning of a union between the nobles and the bourgeois appeared. This time Philip retreated ; he withdrew the tax and promised for the fut- ure to make only good money. But this sinister king, the sternest who had ever yet ruled in France, though only forty-six years old, had already reached the end of his life (d. 1314). Under his reign the domain made important acquisitions ; the counties of La Marche, Angoumois, Champagne, Franche- Comt6, Lectoure, a part of Flanders, Quercy, Lyons, and a part of Montpellier. The Parliament. — With the progress of royalty the func- tions of the king's court increased. A division became nec- essary ; it fell into two parts, the political court or Great Council, and the judiciary court or Parliament. Philip the Fair defined the organization of the Parliament. He pro- vided that it should assemble at Paris twice a year, for two months (1302). This sovereign court of justice, which claimed to exercise jurisdiction over the whole kingdom, was to be the great instrument of the kings in bringing all France under their absolute authority. The institution of magistrates appointed to defend the rights of the king and society in all cases, appeared to owe its origin to Philip the Fair. As he had selected the Parliament from the Great Council or king's court, so he separated from the Par- liament the Chamber of Accounts. There were then three 182 PHILIP THE BOLD AND PHILIP THE FAIR. great bodies for the higher administration of the coun- try, —one judicial, the Parliament; another financial, the Chamber of Accounts ; the third political, the Great Council. Ordinances of Philip IV. ; Finances. — The numerous ordi- nances of Philip the Pair which have been preserved, prove his . activity in organizing the new administration which royalty owed to the country, since it had substituted its own rule for that of the feudal lords. If these laws often bear the impress of a despotic and avaricious mind, there are some of them which show a true spirit of government. One of them forbade private wars and single combat during the wars of the king. Another forbade the lords to coin money. It was decided that appanages, or lands ceded by the king to one of his sons, should revert to the crown in default of male heirs ; a decision of immense consequence. Philip created the frontier custom-houses, by imposing an export-duty on all merchandise, and established new taxes. Until then kings had had no other regular revenue than that accruing from their domains. The continual wars of Philip rendered the feudal aids frequently necessary. But as they could not be levied until after having been agreed to, the king was obliged to call regular assemblies of repre- sentatives from the provostships and bailliages, or even from all the royal domain. These assemblies gave rise to the provincial States and the States-General. First States-General. — The most important event in the administration of Philii3 IV. was the convocation, in 1302, of the first States-General. The most despotic of the French kings had been obliged to call about him the dep- uties of the nation, to obtain from them the aid which he needed, and to protect himself against the Pope by the approval of Prance. This was a tacit recognition of the old right of national sovereignty, so persistently kept in the background for centuries, and the men who, in 1302, fought for the king against the Pope, who, in 1326, determined the disposal of the crown, afterwards grew so bold as to en- deavor to lay lands on the crown itself. THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP THE FAIR. 183 CHAPTER XXVII. THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP THE FAIR. (1314-1338 A.D.) Louis X. (1314-1316). — Three sons of Philip the Fair reigned one after the other : Louis X., le Hutin, from 1314 to 1316 ; Philip V., the Long, till 1322 ; Charles IV., the Fair, till 1328. The first of these princes wore the crown only eighteen months, and only two important events took place during his reign, — an unsuccessful expedition against the Flemings, and a strong feudal reaction, which struck down the councillors of Philip the Fair, and attempted the de- struction of his work. The minister of finances of the late king was hung, and the nobles of several provinces secured the restoration of the privileges of which they had been de- prived : the re-establishment of their ancient courts of jus- tice, of trial by single combat, and of the right of private war, the abolition of procedure by written depositions, which rendered lawyers necessary, the removal of royal judges, etc. At the same time Louis, in order to procure money, solemnly declared that, " according to the right of nature, every man ought to be born free," and he therefore concluded that the serfs of the royal domain had the right to ransom themselves. Servitude diminished constantly from that period ; liberty became the rule, and bondage the exception. The last serfs, however, were not freed until the time of Louis XVI. Louis also readmitted the Jews, on condition that they should transfer to him two-thirds of the debts due them. The Salic Law. — Louis X. left only one daughter ; but the queen, some months after, gave birth to a posthumous son, who was named John, and who lived only eight days. Should his sister wear the crown? It was not desirable that a foreigner should obtain France by marriage, and the States-General, applying to the crown the ancient rule of succession established for Salic lands, excluded the daughter of Louis X. from the throne. Thus the right of inheritance 184 TEE THREE SONS OF PHILIP THE FAIR. allowed to daughters in the case of fiefs was not recognized in the case of the crown. Philip the Long was proclaimed king instead of his niece (1316). This decision proved un- favorable to his own house, for he himself had only daugh- ters, who were set aside in favor of Charles IV., their uncle, and the posthumous daughter of Charles was in turn set aside in favor of Philip of Valois (1328). The way to the throne was thus opened to a new branch of the Capetians, that of the Valois. PMUp V. (1316-1322).— The reigns of Philip V. and of Charles IV. are marked by few military events, but by many measures for regulating the administration of the country. Philip V. three times convoked the States-General, and renewed the exclusion of churchmen from the Parliament. He instituted in 1318 the Council of State. Philip V. en- deavored to establish unity of coins, weights, and measures, and issued, upon finances, upon the organization of the Chamber of Accounts, upon the administration of waters and forests, etc., several ordinances which show a remarkable spirit of order and economy. The royal domain was declared inalienable. Like his grandfather Philip III., Philip the Long bestowed titles of nobility upon plebeians, an innova- tion which, by renewing the aristocratic body, assured its duration, but altered its spirit, separating it from the feudal possession of land. Threatened from above by the kings, feudalism was also threatened from below by the people. The bourgeoisie obtained from Philip V. the right of military organization ; and it was in this century, indeed under this reign, that the ecclesiastical parishes became civil communities. The country people had gradually united under the superinten- dence of an ofiicer of the lord, afterwards under a syndic or a mayor, usually appointed by the lord, and who called them together to deliberate upon their common interests. Charles IV. (1322-1328). —Charles IV. published various regulations relative to commerce ; he increased the duties upon exportation, and drove out the Lombards whom Louis X. had recalled. Abroad, the king favored in England the revolution which drove Edward II. from the throne, and received the homage of the son of that prince for Guienne and Poitou ; in G-ermany, he was on the point of obtaining the imperial crown. But a sort of fatality seemed to pursue the house. Its princes died in the flower of their age; THE THREE SONS OF PHILIP THE FAIR. 185 Philip tlie Fair at forty-six, Louis X. at twenty-seven, Philip the Long at twenty-eight, Charles the Fair at thirty-four. The people saw in these premature deaths a sign of the ven- geance of Heaven upon that family which had buffeted Bon- iface VIIL, perhaps poisoned Benedict XI., and burned the Templars. The Middle Ages themselves were at this period, at least in France, almost at their end ; for all that they had loved, the crusades, chivalry, feudalism, had ended or was perish- ing ; the Papacy, scoffed at in Boniface VIIL, was captive at Avignon ; the successor of Hugh Capet was a despot, and the sons of villeins were seated in the States-General, face to face with the nobles and the clergy 186 GENEALOGICAL TABLE. Genealogy of the Elder Branch of the Capetians. (The date which follows each name is that of death.) Robert the Strong, 866 Endes, ct. of Paris, and king, 898 Hugh, ct. of Paris, and d. of France, 956 Hugh Capet, king, 996 Kobert, 1031 Robert, d. of France, 923 Erama, wife of Rodolph, k. of France, 936 Henry I., 1060 Philip I., 1108 liouis VI., 1137 I.ouis VII., 1180 I Philip II. Augustus, 1223 Louis VIII., 1226 Robert, ancestor of the Ist Capetian house of Burgundy. Liouis IX. (St. Louis), 1270 Charles of Anjou, k. of Naples, 1285 Philip III., 1285 Robert, ct. of Clermont (6th son), ancestor of the Bourbons. Philip IV. the Fair, 1314 Charles, ct. of Valois, ancestor of the house of Valoi*. liOuis X., 1316 Philip T. 1322 Charles IV., 1328 Philip vi., 1350 SEVENTH PERIOD. Hundred Years' War ; Renewal of Anarchy (1328-1436.) CHAPTER XXVIII. HOUSE OP CAPET-V ALOIS, — PHILIP VI. (1338-1350 A.I>.) Power of the King of France. — Philip VI. of Valois, cousin of Charles IV., and grandson of Philip III., came to the throne by virtue of the exclusion of women, thrice asserted in twelve years. Edward III., king of England, grandson of Philip IV. by his mother Isabella, protested against this exclusion and claimed the crown ; but the internal troubles of England forced him to recognize the rights of Philip VI., to whom he did homage for his duchy of Guienne. The great victory of Cassel which Philip won, for the Count of Elanders, from the revolted subjects of the latter, gave the new royal house the prestige of military success (1328). Never since Charlemagne had the king of France found himself so powerful. Direct master of three-fourths of the kingdom, suzerain of the kings of Majorca, Navarre, and England, as to the fiefs which they possessed in France, ally of the kings of Bohemia and Scotland, kinsman of those of Naples and Hungary, patron of the Pope, whom he held in honorable captivity at Avignon, Philip VI. was by far the most powerful monarch in Christendom. It was in the midst of this prosperity of monarchy and nation that the unfortunate war broke out which thrust France back, for more than a century, into chaos. Claims of Edward III. : Robert of Artois. — Circum- 188 HOUSE OF CAPET-V ALOIS. stances had compelled Edward III., in 1328, to recognize Philip of Valois ; but he had done so reluctantly. Philip, to check his ambitious schemes, aided the Scotch, who were at war against him. For Erance, as long as Scotland was independent, always sought and found devoted friends in that country. But Edward defeated the Scotch, and was ready to give similar aid to any enemy of France, when Eobert of Artois arrived in England. This Robert, a prince of the blood, had claimed the county of Artois, held by his aunt, and after her by her daughters. To support his claims he forged documents and suborned false witnesses. On the trial it also appeared that he had probably poisoned his aunt and the elder of his cousins. He was condemned to forfeiture of his property and banishment for life (1332). He withdrew to Brabant, and, to revenge himself, tried magical arts against the king's son. Thence, in fear of a trial for sorcery, he fled to Eng- land, where he urged on Edward to war (1334). Affairs of Flanders ; Arteveld. — Edward had a more serious reason for taking up arms. The Flemings were then the most industrious, the richest, and the freest people in Europe. Their cloth was manufactured from English wool, so that they were attached to England by interest. In 1336 they drove out their count, who had violated their privileges ; and their popular chief, Arteveld, immediately invoked the assistance of Edward III., advising him to take the title of king of France, in order to remove all scruples of the Flemings, who might, perhaps, have hesitated to fight against their suzerain. The war, begun in 1337, lan- guished for several years. The French, defeated in a sea- fight off Sluys, were victorious ■ on land : finally a truce in- terrupted the strife. Affairs of Brittany (1341-1343). — In 1341 hostilities began anew in Brittany, where the two kings sustained each a different candidate for the ducal throne. The two claimants were Jeanne of Penthi^vre, who had married Charles of Blois, and John of Montfort. Charles of Blois, being a nephew of Philip VI., won his case. John of Mont- fort at once crossed over to England, and promised to recog- nize Edward III. as king of France and to hold Brittany of him as a fief, if Edward would swear to assist him. Then began one of those wars full of " encounters, fair deeds of arms, and fair prowess," which Froissart relates so enthusi- N O K ;)>*^ Chateui^'au \\ * o PHILIP VI. 189 asfcically and so cliarnimgly, but which inflicted terrible misery on the people. Charles of Blois, supported by a numerous French army, captured Nantes and took John of Montfort prisoner. But his countess, Jeanne of Montfort, valiantly maintained his cause in arms. Little by little the two kings found themselves entangled in these hostilities. In 1342 Edward himself repaired to Brittany and was present at the sieges of Vannes, of Rennes, and of Nantes. The Erench assembled a large army to meet him; but at this point the legates of the Pope intervened and induced the acceptance, in January, 1343, of a truce which was to be observed till Michaelmas of 1346. Expedition of Edward III. to France. — Some time after- ward Olivier de Clisson and fourteen Breton knights of the party of the king of England were invited by Philip VI. to a grand tournament at Paris, arrested immediately, and beheaded without trial. Edward undertook to avenge therrv, and the war began anew, at first in Guienne. In England, Edward had gathered together a considerable armament; but where should he make his attack ? In Brittany, the Erench party had regained the upper hand. Guienne was remote. In Flanders, Arteveld, on suspicion of plotting to deliver up the country to him, had been killed in his house by that same populace of whom he had been the idol. Finally the English fleet sailed for Normandy. The king landed with 32,000 men in July, 1346, at Cape la Hogue. A few days later he captured Caen after some resistance. An attempt upon Eouen failed : he ascended the left bank of the Seine and burnt several towns. His skirmishers even came in sight of Paris, and burned Bourg-la-Eeine and St. Cloud. Meanwhile Philip had assembled a great army and marched against the English. Edward crossed the Seine and retreated upon Ponthieu, to put himself in a position of safety behind the Somme. Philip had had all the fords of this river fortified and guarded. Edward forced the passage of Blanchetaque, but, recognizing that he could retreat no further, stopped, and, on the 27th of August, put his army in battle array on the slope of a hill near Cr6cy, with his troops in good order and thoroughly rested. Battle of Cr^cy (1346). — Philip had set out from Abbe- ville in the morning to seek the enemy. A heavy rain 190 HOUSE OF CAPET-VALOIS. accompanied the army during its entire march. When the English were discovered, Philip ordered a halt; but the great lords of France and their undisciplined hosts pushed on, until they found themselves in the presence of the enemy. The English, on seeing them approach, calmly arranged themselves in order of battle. The rain had injured the bow-strings of the Genoese arch- ers in the French army. When ordered to begin the attack they were very weary with their march, yet they began it with great courage. But the English, who had protected the strings of their cross-bows from the rain, poured upon them a shower of arrows. Edward had mingled with his archers " bombards which, with fire, sent little balls of iron to frighten and destroy the horses : and the firing of these bombards caused such tremblings and noise that it seemed that Grod was thundering, with great massacre of people and overturning of horses." The Genoese lost courage and began to flee. The men-at-arms behind them, at the king's order, fell upon them. This necessarily caused the loss of the battle, for it produced great confusion, by which the English profited. The blind old King John of Bohemia and his lords rode together into the midst of the enemy and found their death. The French princes, who had brought on the battle by their imprudence, paid for it bravely with their lives. There was one moment at which the efforts of the French seemed not unlikely to succeed. But the arrows of the English archers and the lances of their men-at-arms brought down a great number of knights who, with wearied horses, were in disorder attacking troops well posted and in good condition. Philip of Valois, who had fought bravely, was finally forced by his companions to flee. Never had France undergone so terrible a defeat. Eleven princes, eighty bannerets, twelve hundred knights, and thirty thousand soldiers remained upon the field of battle, without counting two bodies of soldiers who, separated from the rest, fell next day into the hands of the English and were en- tirely destroyed. Siege of Calais; Eustache de St. Pierre (1347). — Edward continued his retreat, for he had no fortified place in which he could stop nor a single port to which reinforcements might come from England. He brought his army before Calais and undertook its siege. The city was strong, and he readily perceived that he could not take it by assault : PHILIP VL 191 he resolved to obtain it by famine. He threw up intrench- ments around Calais, in whicli the English were comfortably established. Philip gathered together an army at Amiens, but with a despairing slowness. It was not ready till the middle of July, 1347 : then, finding all openings impracti- cable or occupied by the enemy, it dispersed. When every- thing within the place had been consumed, the besieged were forced to appeal to the generosity of the king of England. Edward demanded first that the whole popula- tion should surrender at discretion, but finally reduced his demands to this, that six citizens should come, in their shirts, and with halters about their necks, to bring him the keys of the town and place themselves at his disposal. These conditions were reported to the townspeople. "When they heard the report," says Eroissart, " they all began to cry and to weep after such a fashion that there is no heart in the world so hard that it would not have been moved to pity. Then after a space arose the richest burgess of the town, who was called Sire Eustache de St. Pierre, and spoke before all thus : ' My lords, great pity and great harm it would be to let die such a people as there is here, by famine or otherwise, when one can find remedy for it : and he should have great mercy and grace before Our Lord who should be able to keep it from such harm. I have so great hope of having grace and pardon before Our Lord if I die to save this people that I will be the first, and will willingly put myself barefoot and with a halter about my neck at the mercy of the king of England.' When Sire Eustache de St. Pierre had said this word, every one came and did reverence unto him of pity, and many men and women cast themselves at his feet, weeping tenderly." Eive others arose and declared their willingness to share in his self-devotion. The six were led before King Edward. Regarding them with bitter resentment, he sternly ordered that they should be beheaded. " All the lords and knights that were there, weeping, prayed the king as earnestly as they could that he would have pity and mercy upon them : but he would not hear of it. Then did the noble queen of England a deed of great humility, being great with child, and weeping so tenderly for pity, that she could not stand upright. She threw herself on her knees before the king her lord, and said : ' Ah, gentle sir, since I crossed the sea in great peril, as you know, I have not asked or besougk^ 192 HOUSE OF CAPET-VALOIS. anything of you. Now I humbly pray and desire of you as a gift that for the Son of St. Mary and for the love of me, you will have mercy upon these six men.' The king listened a little, and looked at the good lady his wife, who was weeping on her knees very tenderly, and his heart softened, and he said : ' Ah, lady, I had much rather that you had been elsewhere than here. You pray me so ear- nestly that I dare not refuse you; and although I do it unwillingly, see, I give them to you. Do your pleasure with them.' " Subsequently Edward ordered all the inhabitants to evacuate the town, and repeopled it with English. Soon after. Pope Clement VI. offered his mediation. In Sep- tember, 1347, the two kings signed a truce, to last ten months, leaving each in possession of what he then had. The Black Death (1348). — To the calamities of war was now added a still more terrible scourge. The Black Death, after having ravaged the greater part of Europe, arrived in France. "In many places," says a chronicler, "of twenty men there remained only two alive. In the H6tel-Dieu of Paris the mortality was so great that for a long time five hundred corpses were carried out each day in carts to the cemetery of the Innocents." The people accused the Jews of having poisoned the fountains and wells, and attacked and massacred them in several towns. The Black Death is said to have destroyed a third part of the inhabitants of Europe ; at Paris, according to a report made to Pope Clement VI., it carried off eighty thousand persons. Internal Administration; Acquisitions. — Philip instituted a tax called gdbelle. An ordinance of 1343 decreed that no one should sell any salt in France save such as had been bought at the storehouses of the king at a price fixed by him. Duties on exports were raised, and another tax, ruinous to commerce, was imposed on all provisions sold in the interior and on articles of drink in the towns. The king's counsel- lors continued their war on privileges. In 1329 was insti- tuted the appel comme d'abus, which permitted appeals to the king from the sentences of bishops and recourse to him for redress of abuses committed by clerks. In 1338 an assembly of the States-General ordained the following ar- ticle : " The king shall raise no extraordinary taxes from the people without the vote of the three estates, and he shall take oath thereto at his coronation." This was a proclama- PHILIP VI. 193 tion of the great principle that the people should pay only those taxes to which their representatives had given con- sent. Philip VI., to escape from this obligation, made frequent resort to debasement of the coinage. One of the last acts of Philip VI. was the important acquisition of the province of Dauphiny. Humbert II., dauphin of Vienne, sold his estates to Philip in 1349. The eldest son of the king of France, from that time on, bore the title of Dauphin. The new province covered Lyons and brought the frontier of France at last to the Alps. The annexation of Provence was thenceforth only a question of time. Montpellier was also bought of the king of Majorca. Gunpowder. — At the moment when the kings obtained absolute power they received important aid from a , new invention. Roger Bacon had invented, or at least first made known, the composition of gunpowder, which had long been known to the Orientals, and which the Arabs used in Spain in the thirteenth century. The first mention of it which has been found in France occurs in the year 1338. The cannon of the time, composed of iron bands fastened together, were very imperfect. But soon no town, no fortress, will be able to shelter feudal independence from the king's artillery, and the least of foot-soldiers, armed with arquebuss, will overthrow the most powerful lord in spite of his hitherto impenetrable Milan armor. 194 JOHN THE GOOD. CHAPTER XXIX. JOHN THE GOOD. (1350-1364 A.D.) King John; Charles the Bad. — The death of Philip of Valois, in 1350, made no change in the situation of the king. John, who succeeded him, was, like his father, im- petuous and violent, brave and extravagant, altogether an ill sort of a king. Such was his prodigality to the courtiers, that money was soon wanting: to procure it, the king had recourse to the most singular expedients : among them, alterations in the coinage, even to the number of eighteen in a single year, so that the silver mark sometimes varied more than a hundred per cent in a month. These singular expedients were still far from sufficing, and John was obliged to convoke the States-General at Paris in 1351. Many complaints were made, some promises, but no reforms. ■ Beside the two princes who disputed the title of king of France, there was a third who claimed to have more right to it than either of the others, — the turbulent, intriguing Charles the Bad, king of Navarre. Son of the daughter of Louis X., he would have inherited the crown but for the alleged Salic law. Meanwhile he claimed Champagne and Angoumois ; and Angoumois having been given to one of the king's friends, he caused him to be assassinated. John then seized his fiefs in Normandy, and Charles crossed over to England. The English had gained so much by their for-, mer expedition that they were ready to return to France. Edward conducted them thither by way of Calais in 1355, and ravaged Artois. His son, the Black Prince, entered France by way of Bordeaux, and plundered Languedoc. John did not engage in a single battle, but his expenditures compelled him again to summon the States-General. States-General of 1355. — The deputies were indignant at the frightful mismanagement to which the finances of the state had been subjected, and urgently demanded reforms : the establishment of an invariable coinage and the suppres- JOHN THE GOOD. 195 sion of the exercise of the right of purveyance by the king's offisers. The states engaged to furnish the king at once with thirty thousand soldiers and five million livres parisis to pay them for a year, by a tax falling on all classes alike ; insisting, however, that both the raising of the sum and its expenditure should be supervised by commissioners ap- pointed by them. This was nothing less than a revolution : for to vote and raise the taxes, to regulate and supervise their expenditure, was to exercise a considerable portion of sovereignty. The idea of paying a tax was very abhorrent to the nobles. The king of Navarre, now again in France, and the Count of Harcourt formed a cabal against it. John arrested them himself at the table of his son in Eouen, threw the king of Navarre into prison, and beheaded the Count of Harcourt. Battle of Poitiers (1356) ; Captivity of the King. — Mean- while the Prince of Wales had again taken the field with two thousand men-at-arms and six thousand archers, had crossed the Garonne and the Dordogne, and sacked and ravaged Rouergue, Auvergne, Limousin and Berry. The king of France crossed the Loire and arrived at Poitiers in advance of the English army, so that he cut off its retreat to Bordeaux. The Black Prince, on approaching Poitiers, took his station on the summit of a steep slope planted with vines and traversed by thick hedges and bushes, and for- tified himself with palisades and ditches. It was impos- sible to reach the top of this declivity on horseback save by a path which scarcely afforded room for three horsemen abreast. The prince placed archers in the hedges which bordered this path : upon the height, dismounting his men- at-arms, he ranged them in order of battle, while before them he scattered the remainder of his archers in the vine- yards. King John had under his command one of the most bril- liant armies ever raised in Prance. Without counting his four sons, he had with him twenty-six dukes and counts, one hundred and forty bannerets, and about fifty thousand soldiers, of whom a large number were mailed knights. He had only to avoid fighting, and the English would have been starved into submission. He wished, however, to efface the shame of Cr^cy ; but in fact, he doubled it (September 19, 1356). The two marshals of Prance, at the head of three hundred 196 JOHN THE GOOL. picked knights, rode forward into the narrow way which led to the heights ; but the English footmen suddenly attacked them from the hedges with showers of arrows, then ad- vanced from their ambush and slew the dismounted knights. In a little while this whole body was defeated; and the fugitives, hurled back against the body which the dauphin commanded, threw it into disorder and panic. The Prince of Wales took advantage of this moment to charge with six hundred men-at-arms upon the flank of this shattered column, cut it in two, and dispersed it. The dauphin and his brothers fled with their escorts; the second division, commanded by the Duke of Orleans, followed their example. Two-thirds of the French army were already routed with- out having fought ; but the third division, commanded by the king, was still twice as numerous as the whole English army. But John's unskilful management and the impetu- ous charge of the Black Prince neutralized these advantages. The king and his youngest son Philip fought desperately, but finally surrendered. The French left eleven thousand dead upon the field of battle. The English had lost but twenty-five hundred, and held as captives thirteen counts, an archbishop, seventy barons, and two thousand men-at^ arms, without counting prisoners of less importance. As foi the principal captive, the Prince of Wales treated him with distinguished respect. Impatient to put his immense booty and his captives in a place of security, he repaired to Bor- deaux and soon to London. States-General of 1356 and 1357; Etienne Marcel; the Dauphin Charles, t— The news of this disaster threw the whole country into consternation and rage ; for after having undergone the shame of such a defeat, there were also the ransoms to be raised. The excitement was already great when the dauphin Charles arrived at Paris, ten days after the battle. He took the title of lieutenant of the king of France, and assembled the States-General. The assembly was composed of about eight hundred persons: of these, the Third Estate numbered more than four hundred, among whom the most active and the ablest was J^tienne Marcel, provost of the merchants of Paris. The deputies, angered at the mismanagement of the royal government, assumed its place and demanded the institution of a council of prelates, knights, and burgesses, drawn from the number of the States, who should henceforward assist the dauphin in JOHN THE GOOD. 197 the administration of the kingdom. The dauphin, terrified, adjourned the assembly. But the treasury was empty, and it was necessary to convoke it again. The provost, ^fitienne Marcel, and the bishop of Laon then made statement of griev- ances. In March, 1357, at a general assembly, the bishop of Laon demanded of the prince that he should remove from his person twenty-two of his counsellors and servants ac- cused of malversation, and give security against the revival of abuses. The most important demand was that the States- General should be given the power to assemble twice a year without other summons, to see to it that the laws were ob- served, and that they should have the right to name thirty- six commissioners, twelve from each order, who in the absence of the States should assist the dauphin in the de- fence of the kingdom. Other elus should be sent into the provinces to raise the taxes, pay the royal officers, assem- ble the provincial estates, etc. On these conditions, they offered a subsidy adequate for the raising and maintenance of thirty thousand men, reserving, nevertheless, to their own officers the keeping and disbursement of the money. The accord of the three estates in these commands made all resistance impossible, and the great ordinance of March, 1357, in sixty-one articles, met the demands of the estates, at the same time improving the administration of justice and forbidding purveyance. In this series of measures many were excellent ; but the ordinance of reform, prepared by some few intelligent depu- ties, represented neither the work nor the thought nor even the desire of France. Murder of the Dauphin's Ministers (1358) ; Civil War. — Moreover, one could not hope that royalty, but lately abso- lute, should consent to abdicate. In April the dauphin, by order of his father, forbade all subjects of the realm to pay the aid decreed by the estates. He then revoked the ordinance, and declared that he would henceforth govern alone and have no more guardians. Finally, in February, 1358, he published an ordinance, altering the value of the coinage. Exasperation was immediately manifested in Paris. The provost of the merchants assembled all the trades in arms. He marched with them toward the dauphin's hotel and demanded of him that he should at least devote him- self to the defence of the kingdom and protect his people, abandoned to the rapacity of the soldiers. Sharp words 198 JOHN THE GOOD. were interchanged. Finally Marcel gave the word to his followers, and they rushed upon the marshals of Champagne and Normandy, the principal counsellors of the dauphin, and slew them so near him that his robe was spattered with their blood. Charles, terrified, besought Marcel to spare him. The provost assured him that he was in no danger ; but he placed upon his head his own parti-colored cap of red and blue, the colors of Paris, and then immediately went to report, from the H6tel de Ville, to the assembled people, what had been done. The bourgeoisie of Paris was about to enter into a contest against all the rest of the state. The nobility showed lively indignation against these bur- gesses who wished to rule all and whose plebeian hands had just shed illustrious blood. When the dauphin went to hold the provincial estates, the nobility offered him its services against the rebels of Paris, and he accepted them. Civil war began; The dauphin assembled seven thousand lances, and with them lived upon the country. Marcel had seized the castle of the Louvre ; he had the fortifications of Paris repaired and completed, a ditch dug, ballistse and cannon placed upon the ramparts, chains placed in all the streets, and mercenaries hired. The Jacquerie (1358). — While nobles and burgesses attacked each other, the peasants rose in revolt. Upon them pressed almost the entire weight of the misfortunes of the country. The villages were the prey of the most insignificant partisan chiefs. After the enemy had passed through in pursuit of booty came the friendly troops, who pillaged for maintenance ; and the lords took the rest. They seized the furniture, harvests, cattle, and implements. After the vexations of the lords came those of the soldiers, released from service by the cessation of hostilities, but unwilling to renounce so lucrative a trade. The peasant, hitherto indifferent to the general affairs of the state, began to understand that the great battles were engaged in and lost at his expense. So when the peasants learned that the burgesses had begun war against the nobles, they believed it a good oppor- tunity to take vengeance for their long sufferings. They armed, joined, and attacked the castles. Then the most frightful scenes occurred; there was no mercy shown to age or sex : they tortured their prisoners, outraged the most noble women, even bixrned up little children, and left only JOHlir THE GOOD. 199 asfies and blood where tliey liad passed. Tlie nobles, sur- prised at first, gathered together, and an atrocious war began. Marcel joined hands with the Jacques; and when they narched against the nobles at Meaux, he sent them two companies of citizen soldiery : the people of the town also made common) cauise with them. Thus began the union of the people of the towns with those of the country. But Meaux had a fortress which held out stontly. The Jacques were defeated, then followed up into all localities, and ex- terminated in frightful massacres. Marcel and Charles the Bad. — Marcel had released from prison Charles the Bad, king of Navarre, and induced the city of Paris to confer upon him the title of Captain. But Charles, who had all the barons' disdain of commoners and peasants, was a dangerous ally. In July, 1358, the dauphin threatening the Porte St. Antoine, the prorost of the mer- chants begged the king of Navarre to repulse the enemy. Charles the Bad rode out from Paris ; but instead of attack- ing the dauphin, he held a long conference with him : he was promised full satisfaction for all his grievances and four hundred thousand florins if he would deliver up the city and Marcel. Word came to Paris of these negotiations. The cry of treason was raised. Charles the Bad was de- prived of his title of captain, and left the city with his troops. Death of Marcel (1358). — The situation of Etienne Marcel became critical. Provisions began to fail. A band of the citizens was attacked outside the walls by the king of Navarre, and seven hxmdred of them slain. They laid the blame of it upon their chief, who had entered before them, and accused him of having an understanding with the enemy. The bold and a,ble provost was pushed to more des- perate courses from day to day. He promised Charles the Bad to deliver up to him the gate and bastion of St. Denis, in order that the prince might make himself master of Paris and massacre those opposed to him and, probably, have himself proclaimed king. The execution of the plot was fixed for midnight of the 31st of July. But one of the magistrates had discovered these designs and countermined them by another plot. He negotiated with two leaders of the dauphin's party, and the three, with their men, went a little before midnight to the Porte St. Denis, where they 200 JOHN THE GOOh. found the provost of the merchants with the keys of the gate in his hands, and after a brief altercation slew him upon the spot. The Dauphin enters Paris again. — Two days after, the dauphin was readmitted into Paris. The victory of the royal party was complete : the king of Navarre himself made his peace, and Paris, after many executions, seemed to become again the loyal and submissive city that it had been before. But the remembrance of the time when the bur- gesses had dared to speak face to face with their master of justice and of good administration, was not lost. The crown had received a lesson: John and Charles V. gave up the practice of tampering with the coinage, and the latter at- tempted to make the States-General needless by instituting reforms. State of the Kingdom. — The situation of the kingdom seemed desperate. English and French freebooters traversed the country. The country people were reduced to turning the towers of their churches into fortresses. At night they withdrew to boats moored in the midst of the streams or into subterranean hiding-places. Labor was paralyzed ; , the harvest felt the effects, and famine threatened the country. Meanwhile there was talk of peace. John had made a treaty with the king of England by which he abandoned to him the coast of the Channel, including Normandy; all Aquitaine, Touraine, and Anjou; also he promised four million gold crowns for the personal ransom of the king. It was the best half of France with the mouths of all her rivers. When this treaty was brought to Paris, the dauphin refused to carry it into effect, and convoked a sort of as- sembly of the three estates, which rejected the shameful agreement. The Invasion of 1359; New Mode of Defence. — In Octo- ber, 1359, Edward disembarked at Calais with his four sons, the principal lords of his kingdom, and six thousand mailed men-at-arms, with supplies and appointments of the most complete description. The weather was unpropitious to the expedition ; it rained incessantly. Arriving before E-heims, where Edward had long before announced that he would be anointed king, they passed seven weeks before its walls, unable to take it, but hoping each day that they would be attacked and would gain a great victory, as at Cr6cy and Poitiers. Finally, no one coming, they resumed their march, JOHN THE GOOD. 201 going across country toward Burgundy. Thence Edward turned directly toward Paris, and lodged two leagues from the city, at Bourg-la-Eeine. The English heralds offered battle to the dauphin, but he refused it. He wished no more of such warfare as the nobles had hitherto conducted. So the burgesses, secure behind the walls of their townSj the nobles in their castles, let the storm pass by. The whole brunt fell upon the peasants, who hardly dared to defend themselves. Yet their misery finally gave them courage, and despair lent them strength. They at last ventured to face these men in mail, before whom they had been accus- tomed to tremble ; and at several places the foreign aggres- sor began to encounter local popular resistance, more dan- gerous to him than great battles. Edward himself grew weary of a war in which no glory was to be had, because there were no battles ; no booty, because all had been either captured already or concealed in the fortresses. Treaty of Bretigny (1360). — The dauphin was still more desirous of sending the English home. Negotiations were opened at Bretigny,' near Chartres, in May, 1360. The En- lish negotiators at first claimed the crown of Erance ; but fin- ally Edward contented himself with the duchy of Aquitaine and all its dependencies, given as an independent sovei.-- eignty, and Calais with the counties of Ponthieu and Guinea and the viscounty of Montreuil. The king's ransom was fixed at the enormous sum of three million gold crowns. As guarantee of this sum John was to allow Edward to choose a certain number of hostages taken from among the noblest lords and richest burgesses of the kingdom. The provinces promised to the king of England were delivered up to him, in spite of the protests made by the majority of their inhabitants against this pretended restitution. It remained to find the money for the first instalment of the ransom. It was procured by a shameful expedient. "The king of France," says the historian Matteo Villani, "sold his own flesh and blood." For six hundred thousand florins he gave his young daughter Isabella to the son of the most ferocioufi tyrant of Italy, Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Last Acts of King John. — Immediately upon his return, John decreed the levy of a new tax upon all merchandisi^ sold or exported, of a tax on salt, and a tax on wine : in. return for these he promised henceforth to give good justice, to put none but good money in circulation, to abolish pur- 202 JOHN THE GOOD. veyance and other abuses which bore hard upon the poor. These promises deceived no one; nor did the tax suffice. It became necessary to have recourse to other expedients, — to borrow, to revoke all the grants made by preceding kings since Philip the Fair, and to give the Jews considerable privileges in return for payments. With the money thus obtained, the king, instead of suppressing brigandage, jour- neyed at great expense from town to town, to take posses- sion of the rich inheritance of the Capetian house of Bur- gundy, which the death of Philippe de Eouvre had just put in his possession. Thence he went down to Avignon, where he spent six months in festivities. But learning that one of his sons, the Duke of Anjou, had escaped from the English, with whom he had been left as a hostage, John, in obedience to chivalrous sentiments of honor, resolved to go and deliver himself up in place of his son. He returned to London, and died there in 1364, at the age of forty-four. One of his last acts, more fatal to France than the battle of Poitiers, was to cede to his son, Philip the Bold, the duchy of Burgundy, which in the next century nearly caused the ruin of the kingdom. CHARLES V. THE WISE. 203 CHAPTER XXX. CHARLES V. THE WISE. (1364-1380 A.D.) The Re-establishment of Order. — John's son, Charles V., rightly surnamed the Wise, was then twenty-seven years old. His previous conduct had not been of a sort to inspire great hopes. At Poitiers he had been among the first to flee : as a politician he had not played a more honorable part at Paris during the revolution. The weakness of his constitution, his studious tastes, even his moral qualities, did not give evidence of an ability to repair the misfortunes of the pre- vious reign. But around the king was gathered a group of captains, two illustrious Bretons, Bertrand Duguesclin and Oliver De Clisson, Boucicaut, and others. They were not such knights as the paladins of the preceding age: they knew how to strike vigorously with the sword, but they knew also other things. They were the first for many gen- erations in Prance who perceived that war is an art : they studied its stratagems, cared little for the scruples of honor which caused the defeats of Cr^cy and Poitiers, and set in their place skilfulness, shrewdness, even deception some- times, but also victory and the benefits of victory. And King Charles V. knew how to make use of such captains, ably directing them from his cabinet, in a war of a quite new sort, little glorious in outward appearance, but very profitable in reality, and which was to result in the terri- torial reconstruction of the kingdom. The treaty of Bretigny had not settled all difficulties. Charles the Bad maintained his claims and his animosities. Brittany had not ended its war of succession ; and the king- dom was terribly plagued with the grandes compagnies. Charles V. attacked separately each of these three impor- tant matters. Transactions with the King of Navarre ; Duguesclin. — The Norman fiefs of Charles the Bad aroused in the king the most serious uneasiness. With his two towns of Mantes 204 CHARLES r. THE WISE. and Meulan lie barred tlie Seine and might thus bring the English into the very heart of France. Charles resolved to take them away from him ; and this first war was managed as all other wars were to be managed during this reign. His officers took possession of Mantes and Meulan by treacherous stratagem. Charles of Navarre, to avenge himself, sent into Normandy an army of Navarrese, English, and Gas- cons, under the orders of the Captal de Buch. Duguesclin also appeared with a thousand men-at-arms and a body of archers, outwitted the Captal, defeated him in battle, and took him prisoner. Charles the Bad hastened to make terms, and accepted the essential condition which the king of France offered him ; namely, the exchange of his Norman fiefs for the barony of Montpellier, where at any rate he would be remote from the English. End of the War in Brittany (1365). — The war in Brittany dragged on until the battle of Auray in 1364. The kings of France and England had reserved a right to aid, without infringing the treaty, the two claimants who disputed the possession of the duchy. In virtue of this singular stipula- tion, the king of France put a thousand lances and his good captain Bertrand Duguesclin at the service of Charles of Blois, and John of Montfort received from the Prince of Wales two hundred lances, two hundred archers, and a con- siderable number of knights, under the brave and wary Chandos. The battle took place near Auray. The English and Montfort won the day. Duguesclin, in spite. of all his valor and skill, was taken prisoner, and could escape only by paying a ransom of a hundred thousand livres (six million francs of present money). Charles of Blois was killed, with most of the great lords who accompanied him^ This defeat of the French party in Brittany was not, however, attended with fatal consequences. The king entered into negotia- tions. By the treaty of Guerande (1365) John of Montfort was recognized as Duke of Brittany : the widow of Charles of Blois received only the county of Penthifevre and the viscounty of Limoges. Duke John, restored by the Eng- lish, nevertheless came to Paris in 1366, and did homage to Charles V., it being left undetermined whether this homage was liege homage or not ; that is, whether the duke did or did not owe the king service against all persons. The Grandes Compagnies; the French in Castile (1366). — With the cessation of hostilities in Normandy and in CHARLES r. THE WISE. 205 Brittany, another scourge made itself felt still more keenly ; namely, the grandes compagnies of freebooters, whose num- bers were increased by all the discharged soldiers. To rid the country of them, an attempt was made to send them off upon a crusade. Another enterprise suited them better. Castile was then groaning under the tyranny of Pedro the Cruel, who had poisoned his wife, Blanche of Bourbon, sister-in-law of the king of France. So, when a natural brother of Pedro, Henry of Trastamare, claimed the pro- tection of Prance, Charles V. eagerly offered him for his assistance in overthrowing his brother the grandes compa^ gnies, which were put under the command of Bertrand Dugues- clin, ransomed from captivity for this purpose. Ko battle occurred. Abandoned by all, Pedro fled to the Moors of Granada, thence to Portugal, thence to Bordeaux, where he urged the English to restore him : he promised to deliver to the Black Prince the whole province of Biscay and six hundred thousand florins, which he had concealed in secret repositories. The English prince recalled to his army the English and Gascon adventurers who were with Duguesclin, crossed the Pyrenees at the head of a large army, and reached the Ebro without trouble : but the difficulty was, to obtain subsistence in these impoverished provinces. If Henry had had the wisdom not to fight, the English army would have been destroyed by famine. In spite of the prayers of Duguesclin he engaged in battle near Najara (1367), where the Black Prince and his ally gained a decided victory. Duguesclin was again a prisoner, Henry of Tras- tamare driven out, Pedro restored, and the Prince of Wales found himself master of a large part of Spain. The Black Prince in Guienne. — But after the victory, difficulties began anew. Subsistence had to be obtained, and everything was lacking. The treasures, deceitfully promised by Pedro, nowhere appeared. The English and their prince began to suffer in health. He decided to cross the mountains again into Guienne. The Gascons loudly demanded their pay. Ear from being able to give them money, the prince was obliged to ask them for it. He assembled the estates of Gascony and announced to them that he was about to impose a considerable tax upon their lands. The estates replied that they would not pay it. The counts of Armagnac and of P^rigord and several other barons of the province repaired to Paris and appealed to 206 CHARLES V. THE WISE. King Charles against the conduct of the Prince of "Wales. The appeal was received, and early in the year 1369 a criminal judge and a knight appeared at Bordeaux, and summoned the Black Prince to appear at Paris before the Court of Peers to answer to these complaints. " We will willingly appear at Paris," replied the prince, " since so the king of France commands us ; but it shall be with bassinet on head and with sixty thousand men at our back." Prudent Conduct of Charles V. — What had given the pru- dent Charles the boldness to take this decisive step was, that he was ready, and his enemies were not. A wise econ- omy had enabled him to make great reductions of taxation, on condition that the towns should fortify themselves. He had organized in many places citizen companies of cross- bowmen. Finally, in 1369, he had brought enough money into his treasury, enough order into the administration of the country, enough discipline into his armies, to venture to renew the war. Edward III., on the other hand, had thought only of enjoying his glory, or had engaged in enter- prises which scattered his forces and increased the number of his enemies. He treated Scotland with insulting arro- gance ; he laid claim to the county of Flanders in behalf of one of his sons ; he supported in Castile an odious tyrant, and threatened the independence of Spain. Charles V. carefully cemented anew the old and valuable alliance be- tween Scotland and France ; he wedded his brother Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, to the heiress of the Flemish provinces ; he drew over to his side the king of Navarre, hitherto undecided, and in Castile overthrew Pedro the Cruel, the prot^g^ of England. Duguesclin defeated Pedro at the battle of Montiel (March, 1369), and replaced upon the throne of Castile, Henry of Trastamare, who in grati- tude put the navy of Castile at the disposal of France. This series of alliances having been formed, the moment had come for France at last to repudiate the shameful treaty of Bretigny. In order to put the appearance of right on his side, Charles V., in May, 1369, summoned the States-General to Paris and laid before them the dispute between him and the king of England. The states gave him cordial support ; the court of peers, consulted in its turn, declared that King Edward and his son not having ap- peared before them, the duchy of Aquitaine and his other lands in France ought to be and were confiscated CHARLES V. THE WISE. 207 English Invasion. — Immediately the English landed at Cpiais, while the Black Prince prepared to make another attack in the South. A French army advanced against them, but refused battle, and retired as they advanced. The cities Avere well defended, none were taken, and the expedi- tion was forced to confine itself to useless ravages of the country districts. They returned in 1370 : the same system was inexorably maintained. "Never was there king of France who fought less," said Edward III., " and yet never was there king who gave me so much trouble." Charles V., in fact, feeble and in ill health, never took the lance ; he preferred books. He had the finest library of the time, nine hundred and ten volumes, carefully guarded in a tower of the Louvre. Every year he read through the entire Bible. He maintained a correspondence with the Pope, and sent him presents. So pious a king of course had as his allies all the bishops of the kingdom ; and indeed most of them opened to him the gates of their episcopal cities. Even those upon whom the English had most entirely relied, such as the bishop of Limoges, the friend of the Prince of Wales, turned French, as the phrase then ran. This last defection exasperated the English. The Black Prince swore to have vengeance on Limoges. Taking the town by assault, he put the inhabitants to the sword; more than three thousand persons, men, women and children, were slaugh- tered that day. This dreadful exploit was the last achieve- ment of the Black Prince (1370) . He languished for some years and died in England (1376). Decisive Successes of Charles V. — The English had an excellent body of infantry, archers whose arrows pierced the best armor, and men-at-arms who were almost as good as a regular cavalry, such was their spirit of discipline and their habit of concerted movement. Charles had to oppose them only a great throng of nobles, who, though brave, were quite undisciplined. It was the part of wisdom, there- fore, to avoid fighting with large armies : but in the interval between great expeditions he willingly allowed his knights, especially his brave Duguesclin, whom he had made consta- ble, to engage in some military exploits. The French, therefore, were not always retreating. Moreover, the king' had his own kind of warfare, drawing over town after town by promise of commercial and other privileges. In the case of cities whose gates could not be opened by royal conces- 208 CHARLES V. THE WISE. sions, his captains applied their stratagems, fighting and negotiating. In 1372 Poitiers was recovered by the secret negotiations of Dngiiesclin, and Eochelle by means of a stratagem on the part of its mayor. Some weeks before, the Castilian fleet had defeated an English fleet before Kochelle. But the obstinate enemy reappeared in 1373. Disem- barking at Calais with thirty thousand men, the Duke of Lancaster expected to conquer France ; but could only traverse it. His march was successful as long as he re- mained in the rich provinces of the North ; but in the poor and desolated central provinces sufferings and diseases be- gan, and when he arrived at Bordeaux he had but six thou- sand men. Disgusted with such warfare, the English did not return the next year ; the year after, they asked for a truce, which was prolonged until the death of Edward III. in 1377. Charles then broke the truce and struck direct blows. He put five armies in the field, and conquered all Gruienne, while a Castilian fleet, carrying French soldiers, ravaged the coast of Kent and Sussex. In 1380 there remained to the English only Bayonne, ■ Bordeaux, Brest. Cherbourg, and Calais. Attempt upon Brittany (1378); Cession of French Flanders. — The king of France attempted in Brittany that which had succeeded so well in Guienne. In 1378 he summoned Duke John IV. to appear before the court of peers, and, as the duke did not appear, his fief was declared forfeited to the king. But the Gascons had given themselves up to France, while the Bretons had no notion of being subjected. Barons, knights, and squires signed at Rennes, in 1379, an act of confederation to which even the burgesses subscribed. John IV., at first driven out of the country, was recalled. All the Bretons engaged in the service of the king of France — and they were a large number — abandoned him. Old Duguesclin himself returned the constable's sword to him, and in March, 1380, a treaty of alliance was signed between England and Brittany. An English army landed at Calais, and again marched through the whole North of France unmolested. It had not reached Brittany when Charles V. died at Vincennes, in September, 1380. In 1369, to facilitate the marriage of the Duke of Bur- gundy, his brother, with the heiress of the count}^ of Flan- ders, Charles had given up French Flanders to him. He CHARLES V. THE WISE. 209 had indeed demanded of his brother an agreement, by •which the duke engaged to restore this grant after the death of his father-in-law. But the Count of Flanders survived the king, and Philip the Bold easily obtained from Charles VI. a release from his promise. Thus Lille was lost to France for three centuries. Government of Charles V. — The unwearied patience which won Charles his conquests, his rigid economy, a probity hitherto unknown in the management of finances, and useful regulations for the administration of the kingdom, have obtained for him the surname of The Wise. He made Parliament permanent, and gave up to it the old palace of St. Louis, which became the Palais de Justice. An ordi- nance of Charles V. fixed at the age of thirteen years the attainment of majority by the kings of France; another separated the regency from the guardianship of a king, in order that the regent might not have at once both the young king and the kingdom in his power ; another, to pre- vent the dismemberment of the domaine royale, gave the king's sons pensions instead of appanages. The corporations began to be an oppressive element in industrial society, as the communes had been in political society. Charles attempted to establish the freedom of industry; but habits were stronger than the law, and the project was abandoned. In 1370 he published an ordinance authorizing the citizens of Paris to wear gold spurs and the other insignia of chivalry ; another, in 1377, granted nobil- ity to the provosts and councillors of the city. Attacking feudal prerogatives on another side, he ordered the demoli- tion of many castles, on the pretext that they might serve as strongholds for the English, and permitted forcible re- sistance against those who should exercise the right of pur- veyance in a manner contrary to the ordinances ; that is, without paying for the forage which they took and the carts of which they made use. An ordinance of 1372 re- served to the crown the exclusive right to issue charters for communes, other municipal franchises, and patents of nobility. , . ■ Finance. — There are shadows in the pictures of this reign, in general so restorative. Charles crushed out the spirit of liberty. For his wars, his constructions, and his negotiations, he needed much money, and he made the bur- dens of taxation still more heavy : if the permanence of the 210 CHARLES V. THE WISE. land tax (the taille) is due to his grandson, that of the in? direct taxes (the aides) was established by him. It is only- fair to add that the aides, levied upon articles of consump- tion, bore indirectly upon all alike, the noble and the ecclesiastic as well as the commoner. But he was the first to compel each family to buy at the royal storehouses the quantity of salt which it was supposed to require. Instead of paying a salary to the members of Parliament, he gave them for their pay the fines which they might impose. The States-General of 1356-57 had instituted commissaries- general, and under them 4lus, for the assessment and levy of the taxes. Charles V. maintained these officers as royal functionaries. The 4lus watched over the assessment as well as the levy of the taxes, and judged in the first in- stance contentious cases in financial affairs : the commis- saries-general for finance had general supervision of the receipts, and the commissaries-general for justice judged in the last resort cases concerning taxes. These last formed the Cour des Aides, which received its final form from Charles VII. Public Works ; Literature. — In spite of his economy, Charles V. was a great builder. He began the Bastile, re- paired and enlarged the wall of Paris and the Louvre of Philip Augustus ; he erected the H6tel St. Pol, etc. He planned a union of the Loire and the Seine by canal, a pro- ject which was carried out two centuries later by Henry IV. He encouraged letters, caused the Bible, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Livy to be translated, and had several im- portant treatises composed. His collection of nine hundred and ten volumes was the germ of the royal library, and he established at Paris a college of astronomy and medicine. Chief among the writers of the time was Froissart, a Flem- ing (1337-1410), who spent his life at the courts of the princes and nobles of England as well as of France, taking down from their lips the picturesque tales which he has pre- served to us. His book is one of the most precious monu- ments of the French language and of French history. But we must not expect of him either very high morality or very strong patriotism. The historian of Charles V. was Christine de Pisan, daughter of the king's astrologer. Her book, far inferior to those of Froissart or Comines, yet marks the transition from the one to the other. In spite of Froissart and the king's patronage of letters, CHARLES V. THE WISE. 211 the age is none tlie less an age of decadence, a time of stop- page in the progress of the world : there were no more high thoughts, no more great teachers ; intellectual force and moral force were both lessened. The Middle Ages were already in their decline. The Great Schism. — The double election of Urban VI. and Clement VII. in 1378 began the Western schism, which lasted seventy-eight years, divided Christianity into two great factions, and prepared the way for the Reformation. France, especially the University of Paris, made the most laudable efforts to restore unity and peace in the Church. Maritime Discoveries. — In this reign, and consequently long before the Portuguese, the men of Dieppe, who then had an extensive commerce, discovered Guinea, from which they brought back pepper, gold dust and ivory. In 1400 the Norman Jean de B^thencourt formed a settlement in the Canaries. 212 CHARLES VL CHAPTER XXXI. CHARLES VI. (1380-1433.) The Royal Family. —The death of Charles V. at the early age of forty-three was a calamity to the country ; for his eldest son was not yet twelve years old, and this child was entirely in the power of his uncles, the dukes of Anjou, of Burgundy, and of Berry, selfish princes, — the first, noto- rious for his cruelty as governor of Languedoc, interested only in securing the kingdom of Naples ; the second, in Flanders, of which he was the heir ; the third, in his amusements and his treasures. Charles VI. had, on his mother's side, a fourth uncle, the Duke of Bourbon, an excellent prince, who had, however, no influence : also a brother, the duke of Orleans. Rapacity of the King's Uncles ; Revolts. — Scarcely had Charles died when the Duke of Anjou seized his treasures. His brothers also seized what they could : the Duke of Bur- gundy assumed the government of Normandy and Picardy ; the Duke of Berry took Languedoc and Aquitaine. He already had Berry, Auvergne, and Poitou as appanages. Thus the third part of the kingdom was delivered up to his rapacity. The beginning of a new reign was always a moment of hope. The abolition of certain taxes was demanded, and the duke promised to suppress all those which had been established since the time of Philip the Pair. One might as well have promised to abandon the task of governing Prance. The regent had no notion of keeping his word. A tax on all merchandise sold was, in fact, proclaimed. The tax-gatherers appeared in the market. A furious tumult arose. The insurgents rushed to the H6tel de Ville, to the Arsenal, and seized for weapons some new mallets which had been stored there in view of an attack by the English. The maillotins were for a moment masters of the town. But soon the prince gained the upper hand, caused the CHARLES VI. 213 most seditious to be secretly executed, and inflicted upon the others ruinous fines, with the proceeds of which the Duke of Anjou set out from Italy. But the new tax was withdrawn. The Parisian outbreak spread rapidly to other towns. The Duke of Berry had scarcely appeared in his province of Languedoc when a revolt broke out there. He put it down with much cr\ielty, and the peasants began anew a sort of jacquerie. They fled to the Cevennes, and thence made raids upon the nobles and the rich, showing no quarter to those who had not callous hands. They were called the tuchins. War in Flanders; Battle of Roosebeke (1382). — The Flemings had risen at the end of the preceding reign against their French count, who had violated the municipal liber- ties of the country. Pierre Dubois and Philip Arteveld, the son of the famous James, had with success directed the insurrection of the White Hoods, and the battle of Bruges in May, 1382, had overthrown the last hopes of Count Louis. Deputies entrusted with full powers by the cities of Ghent, Ypres, and Bruges had gone to King Richard II. of England, and had offered to recognize him as king of France if he would give them assistance. It seemed as though, for a quarter of a century, the spirit of revolt was everywhere arising in Europe among the citizen class. There was the rising of Rienzi at Eome, that of Wat Tyler in England, and Etienne Marcel, and the Jacques, the maiUotins, the tuchins, the White Hoods. The king of France set out for Flanders with a large army. At his approach all the Flemish cities made their submission, and the men of Ghent had no resource but to make a desperate attack, which they did at Boosebeke in November, 1382. Tied one to another, in order to make sure of not retreating, they advanced in a single phalanx. This manoeuvre had succeeded at Bruges in the fight against a less numerous host. But now the wings of the great French army swung around and attacked the phalanx upon its flanks. The lances of the knights were longer than the Flemish spears, and the Flemings were unable to reach their enemies. Disorder soon became general in their ranks. At the end there were twenty-six thousand dead upon the field, including the entire phalanx of Ghent, and Arteveld among them. Flanders was not overcome, for the men of 214 CHARLES YI. Grlient still held out for two years longer. But the nobility- had at last avenged the shame of its defeat at Courtray. Executions at Paris and at Rouen. — The Parisian insur- rection, as well as the revolt of Ghent, had been defeated at Roosebeke. The Parisians perceived that they could expect little tenderness. Yet they hoped that, if they showed their strength, nothing serious would be attempted against them. They came out to meet the king, to the number of twenty thousand armed men, and ranged them- selves in battle array at the foot of Montmartre. But, informed by the constable that the king wished them to return to their homes, they obeyed (1383). Next day the king arrived. Executions began at once : first, the de- struction of the liberties of the city, for it was deprived of its franchises and its elective magistrates, its corporations and guilds were suppressed, the chains which secured its streets and its arms were taken away. Then followed the exe- cution of persons ; arrests, summary judgments, immediate hanging. Three hundred of the richest citizens were drowned, hanged, and beheaded, almost without form of trial. Then the citizens were assembled : a long list of their misdeeds was read to them : the punishments which they had deserved were enumerated. When their terror had been raised to its height, the king's uncles cast themselves at his feet and besought him for mercy. He yielded to the appeal, and caused announcement to be made by his chan- cellor that he would commute the punishments to fines. Paris did not escape without paying four hundred thousand francs (perhaps as much as twenty millions would be now). In other places there were similar executions, and espe- cially enormous fines, "and all," says Eroissart, ''went to the profit of the Duke of Berry and the Duke of Burgundy, for the young king was under their control." The upper bourgeoisie was decimated and ruined, and when, thirty years after, the public misfortunes catised a new revolution to be attempted, they were not in condition to take the lead in it, and were obliged to leave its control to violent men who would deluge Paris with blood. Union of Flanders and Burgundy (1384) . — In 1384 the Count of Flanders died, and the Duke of Burgundy, his son-in-law, inherited his vast domains. Henceforward the house of Burgundy turned all its attention toward these CHARLES ri. 216 rich provinces and little by little forgot both the blood from which it sprang, and France, which had originated its great- ness. The next year was spent in vast preparations for a descent upon England. Fourteen hundred vessels were gathered together. But the favorable moment for the passage was allowed to go by : it became necessary to give up the project, after enormous expenditures. The King assumes the Government (1388). — On returning from a fortunate expedition against the Duke of Gelderland, the king assembled a great council at Eheims, and asked those present to give him their advice touching the conduct of public affairs. The cardinal of Laon urged him to take into his own hands the management of all that concerned the ministry of war and the affairs of his household. Others supported the cardinal's advice. Charles VI. declared his determination to follow it, and thanked his uncles for the good services they had rendered him. Scarcely had the king left Eheims, when the cardinal of Laon died of poison. The former counsellors of Charles V., the lesser men, the marmousets, as the great lords disdainfully called them, Olivier de Clisson and others, undertook, as ministers of State, the direction of affairs. The new administration was wise, economical, promoting order within and peace without : but the king was none the less extravagant. Fetes were incessant. The most serious enterprises became occasions of festivity. The ministers attempted to combat these disorders or to diminish their disastrous effects : they econ- omized in the expenses of the State to support the extrava- gances of the king, yet the State was a gainer by the arrangement. They restored to Paris its provost, gave the burgesses of the city the right of acquiring fiefs, as if they had been nobles, and deprived the Duke of Berry of his government of Languedoc, from which four hundred thou- sand inhabitants had fled into Aragon. For four years these " lesser men " governed the kingdom, while the king's uncles and the greatest lords of France were removed from the management of affairs. These lords naturally desired strongly to make an end of such a regime. An Angevin lord, Pierre de Craon, a mortal enemy of the constable Olivier de Clisson, placed his personal hatred at the service of the political resentments of the aristocracy. Murder of Clisson (1392). — One evening in June, 1392, 216 CHARLES VI. on departing from a fete given at the Hdtel St. Pol, the constable, at a very late hour, took leave of the king and the Duke of Orleans, and with eight footmen, of whom two carried torches, proceeded toward the Rue Ste. Catherine. There Pierre de Craon was waiting for him, with forty ruf- fians on horseback. When Clisson appeared, Pierre de Craon's men attacked his footmen, extinguished their torches, and attacked the constable. The latter tried to defend himself, but was soon wounded and thrown from his horse. He fell against the half-open door of a baker, which yielded. This saved him. The assassins supposed him to be dead, and hastily fled with Craon. Hearing the news of the assassination, the king repaired to the baker's house, where Clisson was beginning to recover consciousness, and vehemently declared that he should be avenged. Insanity of the King (1392). — Pierre de Craon fled to the Duke of Brittany, who, summoned by the king to deliver up the traitor, concealed Craon and pretended to know noth- ing of the affair. Charles immediately assembled an army, swearing that he would take no rest until he had punished all these rebellions. The dukes of Burgundy and Berry tried, however, to delay this war, because of their hatred of Clisson. But the king paid no heed to his uncles' attempts at delay and their manifest reluctance, nor to the fears which his physicians expressed as to his health ; he conducted his army as far as Le Mans. As he was passing through the forest, a man clothed in white rushed out, and seizing the horse's bridle, cried, " Stop, noble king, go no further ; thou art betrayed." This sudden apparition startled the king ; a little later the page who was carrying the king's lance fell asleep upon his horse : the lance fell and struck a hel- met with a loud noise. At this sound of arms the king drew his sword and cried, " Down, down with the traitors ! " He rushed with his drawn sword against his brother, the Duke of Orleans, who with difiiculty escaped him. Finally, one of his knights coming up from behind succeeded in seizing him, and he was disarmed. He recognized no one. Re-establishment of the Government of the Princes. — Some days afterward, Olivier de Clisson, having claimed payment from the Duke of Burgundy for the knights who had fol- lowed the king upon his last expedition, the duke made violent threats against him: Clisson hastily repaired to his castle in Brittany, while Parliament declared him guilty ol CHARLES VI. 217 extortion, banished him from the kingdom, and imposed upon him a fine of a hundred marks of silver. The other ministers fled or were imprisoned in the Bastile. The king's uncles were thus restored to full possession of the govern- ment. They interested themselves in efforts to end the great schism, but with no success. They signed a truce of twenty-eight years with England in 1395, and gave a daugh- ter of Charles VI. in marriage to King Richard II. ; but in 1399 the English deposed their king, and this weU-conceived alliance was rendered useless. Crusade of Nicopolis (1396) . — Forty years before, the Ottoman Turks had crossed the Bosporus, conquered Adrian- ople, and a part of the valley of the Danube ; and already they were threatening Hungary. A crusade was resolved upon : it was put under the command of the young Count of Nevers, afterward known as John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy. They gayly descended the valley of the Danube : when they arrived near the Turks at Nicopolis, neglecting the advice of King Sigismund of Hungary, they rushed for- ward in disorder and were received by the formidable jani- zaries whom the sultan Amurath had lately organized, and who made short work of troops breathless and disordered. Ten thousand captives were slain in the presence of sultan Bajazet. Isabella of Bavaria. — Isabella of Bavaria was but fifteen years old when she came from Germany to marry Charles VI. Without relatives, and without guidance in the midst of a corrupt court, she quickly acquired its manners, and learned to care only for luxury and pleasure. From the pursuit of pleasure she descended to debauchery. Charged with the care of the king's person during his imbecility, she used the authority which her husband's unhappy situation gave lier, to satisfy her passions, her vicious inclinations, her vengeance. Murder of the Duke of Orleans (1407).— Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, retained supreme power until his death in 1404. His son, John the Fearless, attempted to succeed to his influence in the government ; but the king's brother, the Duke of Orleans, who enjoyed a complete ascendency over the mind of the queen, and through her was master of the king and the dauphin, and was himself the head of the nobility and a brilliant knight, would not yield his authority to any one. Soon there arose between him and John the 218 CHARLES VI. Fearless a rivalry which threatened to become civil war in the very midst of Paris. Each assembled his men-at-arms and fortified his hotel. Fighting was about to begin, when the old Duke of Berry interposed, brought the Duke of Bur- gundy into the sick-room of the Duke of Orleans, caused them to embrace, to take the communion together, and to eat together. Three days after (November, 1407) Louis of Orleans died, assassinated by John the Fearless. For four months the duke had been meditating this mur- der. He had bought a house in the city, to be used, he said, for storage. In this he concealed seventeen assassins. It was upon the route which the Duke of Orleans was accus- tomed to take in returning from the king's house to his own. On a dark night in November, as the duke was returning home with few attendants, the assassins rushed out upon him and murdered him. A woman at her win- dow saw, by the light of the torches, a tall man come out of the house bought by the Duke of Burgundy, and satisfy himself that the duke was dead. Next day John the Fearless came, with the other princes, to view the dead body. '' Never," he declared on seeing the corpse, "never was a fouler murder committed in this realm." Some days later, however, when the provost of Paris declared to the council that he had no doubt of being able to discover the culprits, if he were given permission to search the hotels of the princes, John the Fearless turned pale, and, taking aside the Duke of Berry and the king of Sicily, said, " It is I who did it ; the devil tempted me." This first faintheartedness soon passed away, and the Duke of Burgundy resolved to avow and justify his crime. Next day, in fact, he boldly appeared, in order to take his seat in the council of the princes. Being refused admission, he hastened to his territories in Flanders, whence he caused it to be declared in discourse, sermon, and writing, that he had only anticipated the designs of the Duke of Orleans. A Franciscan friar. Dr. Jean Petit, was, next year, charged to demonstrate the rightfulness of the deed. After a bloody victory over the Li^geois, at Hasbain (1408), the duke re- turned to Paris, and obtained from the king letters of pardon by which Charles VI. declared that he entertained no dis- pleasure against him for having removed from the world his brother, the Duke of Orleans (March, 1409). Arma^nacs and Burgundians (1410) , — The administra- CHARLES VI. 219 tion of the Duke of Orleans had been as deplorable as his morals. The Duke of Burgundy, on the other hand, stoutly opposed the creation of any new taxes ; he restored to the Parisians their ancient free constitution, the right to elect their provost and to organize in military companies under elected captains, and even that of possessing noble fiefs, with the privileges attached thereto. Thus he became ex- tremely popular. It was the common people who made up, at Paris, the strength of the Burgundian party. A consider- able portion of the nobility turned against him ; the aveng- ers of the Duke of Orleans ranged themselves under the banner of the Count of Armagnac, father-in-law of one of his young sons ; and from him the party received its name (1410). So, with the king demented, the queen de- spised and incapable, the dauphin likely, by reason of his excesses, to end as his father had done, the first prince of the blood stained with an infamous murder, no government, partisan faction in arms against each other, war without and within, — such was the unhappy state of France. Be- tween 1410 to 1412 the two factions met twice in arms, and twice made treaties of peace. Each had made advances to the English, in order to win over to its side the enemy of the country. Intervention of the Bourgeoisie of Paris (1410) ; the Cabo- chiens. — The bourgeoisie now came forward, as in 1356, and attempted to bring peace to the state. They persuaded King Charles, in one of his lucid intervals, to send all the princes away, each to his province, forbidding him to re- turn. But a few months afterwards, war was renewed. At. the demand of the city, the defence of Paris was con- fided by the king's council to the Count of St. Pol, a friend of the Duke of Burgundy, and he, distrusting the upper ranks of the bourgeoisie, attempted to curb them by means of the populace. He sought the support of the numerous and wealthy guild of the butchers, and authorized them to raise five hundred men for the defence of the city. They armed their servants, slaughterers, and skinners. The violent horde, accustomed to the shedding of blood, was headed by the slaughterer Caboche. Then Paris presented a strange and alarming spectacle. The populace made their remonstrances known to the prince ; he must remove from him his evil advisers and the companions of his debauch- eries ; he must lead a more regular life, and have a care of 220 CHARLES VL his health and his soul. The butchers took it upon them- selves to watch over this reformation of manners. They had compassion on the dauphin, but broke out into violence against those who were corrupting him ; they dragged them away from his hotel, led them away to the Parliament to be judged, and, on the way, executed justice themselves upon those with whom they were most displeased. The Ordinance of the Cabochiens (1413) ; Reaction. — Meanwhile the abler members of the party, its doctors and legists, were preparing, for the suppression of abuses, the great ordinance of 1413, called the ordinance of the Cabo- chiens, the execution of which would have been one of the best administrative reforms ever effected in old France. But though men were found to plan it, there were none to execute and maintain it. Its administration fell into the hands of men who, by their intolerable excesses, hastened a reaction which caused their own fall and the abandonment of the measures of reform. The populace attacked not only vice and immorality, but wealth ; they mingled pillage and murder with reform ; they finally disgusted even those who had at first employed them. The Armagnacs, summoned by all moderate men, stopped the excesses of the populace, but also repealed the reform- atory measures carried out by the bourgeoisie (September, 1413). John the Fearless was driven out, and forced to promise that he would not return to Paris (1414). Battle of Agincourt (1415), — While Armagnacs and Burgundians were thus fighting each other. King Henry V. of England judged that the moment had arrived for inter- vening in the contest. Since the extensive pillagings of the preceding century, war with France had always been popular in England. When Henry proposed an expedition on a large scale, he readily obtained from Parliament six thousand men-at-arms and twenty-four thousand archers, with whom he landed near Harfleur in August, 1415. Har- fleur was forced to surrender. But Henry had lost before it fifteen thousand men, half his army. Too weak now to attempt anything of consequence, he resolved to march across country to Calais. The English set out from Harfleur on the 8th of October, 1415. Unable to cross the Somme at Blanchetaque, they were obliged to ascend the river as far as Amiens. Near Nesle, a peasant showed them a ford, difficult and danger- CHARLES VL 221 ous, "by which nevertheless they crossed in safety. The Trench now began to fear that their enemy would escape them. The princes took up their position near the village of Agincourt, which the English would necessarily pass, in a narrow plain, newly ploughed, and rendered soft by the rain, and in which it was impossible for their fifty thousand men, of whom forty thousand were horsemen, to manoeuvre. The constable D'Albret had arranged the army in three lines ; but all desired to be in the first. There were, .indeed, several thousand archers to oppose to the English archers, and some cannon; but all the space was occupied. by the knights, and so no use could be made of them. When the English archers sent forth their arrows, there was no reply on the part of the French army. The Erench men-at-arms were on ground so yielding, were so heavily weighted with armor, and so closely packed together, that few were able to make any attack upon the English ; and these few, driven back, threw their own line of battle into disorder, and were followed up by the English archers, who, armed with axes, swords, and clubs, slew men and horses. The Erench rear- guard fled without having struck a blow. The English left 1600 men upon the field of battle ; the Erench, 10,000, among whom were seven princes, the constable, and 120 lords ; 1500 prisoners, among whom were the dukes of Orleans and of Bourbon, remained in the hands of the victors. With these numerous captives, Henry V. marched to Calais, and re-embarked for England; his army, reduced to 10,000 men, could not think of under- taking any further enterprise after this extraordinary victory. Massacre of the Armagnacs at Paris (1418). — On hearing the news of the battle, the Count of Armagnac took posses- sion of the capital, the king, the dauphin, and the entire government. But lack of money soon drove him to altera- tions of the coinage and forced loans, Paris murmured. John the Fearless fomented the general discontent. He carried off Queen Isabella from Tours, and had her declared regent of the kingdom. In her name he forbade the towns to pay the taxes imposed by Armagnac, and entered into negotiations with Henry V., who had now returned and captured Caen (1417). Meanwhile a plot was laid against Armagnac. A Bur- gundian leader was admitted into the city with a force of 222 CHARLES Vt. eiglit hundred men ; the former partisans of the faction, the butchers, the skinners, and all the men of the markets flocked to his standard. Some Armagnacs made their escape, tak- ing the dauphin with them ; the greater number, and the constable among others, were cast into prison. Their lives were soon in danger. On a Sunday in June, 1418, the populace, maddened by hunger and by rumors of Armagnac plots, broke out in riot and rushed to the prisons, to ■ massa- cre without distinction all who were there. By Monday morning sixteen hundred persons had perished ; men were slain in the prisons, they were slain in the streets; their corpses lay in the streets, "and children dragged them about in sport." These terrible scenes had just taken place, when Duke John the Fearless, with the queen, re-entered Paris, amid the enthusiastic acclamations of the multitude. But soon an epidemic broke out, which carried off fifty thou- sand persons in Paris and the environs. The populace again became furious, and, rushing to the prisons, mas- sacred all those remaining or newly incarcerated in them. Some days after, the duke sent this ferocious band out to besiege the Armagnacs established, as he assured them, at Montlh^ry : when they had sallied forth, he shut the gates of Paris behind them. Rouen captured by the English (1419). — Thus John the Fearless found himself again master of the capital and of the government, but burdened also with the overwhelming responsibilities of the position, — to restrain the populace, to resist the Armagnacs, to make head against the English. After having taken possession of much of Normandy, the latter had now formed the siege of Eouen. The good town resisted bravely for seven months. But the government did nothing for its assistance, and finally Eouen surren- dered. On learning of its fall, all the towns and strong- holds of the province opened their gates. Henry showed himself placable, and gave good terms to all who would take oath of fidelity to him. The pride of the English was raised to its utmost height by the conquest of this large and rich province. To the proposals of peace which the Duke of Burgundy made him, Henry replied by imperious demands, — a daughter of Charles VI. in marriage, and with her Guienne, Normandy, Brittany, Maine, Anjou and Touraine. CHARLES VI. 223 Murder of John the Fearless (1419) ; Treaty of Troyes (1420). — Repulsed in this direction, John the Fearless reverted to negotiations with the Armagnacs. But his suspicion and hatred of them again prevailing, he turned again to the English. Then the resolute men who sur- rounded the dauphin (afterward Charles VII.) determined to make an end, after their own manner, of a prince who might at any moment deliver up the kingdom to the foreign- ers. In September, 1419, the Duke of Burgundy, invited to an interview with the dauphin upon the bridge of Mon- tereau, was slain by Tanneguy-Duch^tel and the servants of the prince. The Englishmen reaped the benefits of the crime. The murder at the bridge of Montereau gave the crown of France to a king of England. In May, 1420, the disgraceful treaty of Troyes was concluded between Henry V., the young Duke of Burgundy, and Queen Isabella of France, who dis- inherited her son in order to give a crown to her daughter Catherine, whom she bestowed on the English king. It was agreed that Henry should administer the kingdom during the lifetime of Charles VI., and should succeed him at his death, and that neither of the two kings nor Duke Philip of Burgundy should make peace with the dauphin Charles save by the consent of all three of the negotiators and of the three estates in each kingdom. Death of Henry V. and Charles VI. (1422). —But the long- continued and vigorous resistance which the English ex- perienced at Sens, at Montereau, at Melun, and at Meaux, the defeat and death of his brother, the Duke of Clarence, at Baug6 (1421), showed Henry V. that he was far from possessing the whole of France. He was sensible of the difficulties of his situation ; and when it was announced to him that his young queen had given birth to a son, he foretold, already in mortal illness, the fate of conquests so laboriously obtained. Though still a young man, Henry V. died on August 14, 1422. Seven weeks later, on October 21st, Charles VI. died, mourned and regretted by his people. Council of Constance. — Important events in the history of the Church had occurred during his reign. Two national councils, the first that had been held during the Capetian period, had assembled at Paris, to take counsel concerning the best means of bringing to an end the schism. France .demanded and obtained the convocation of a general coun- 224 CHARLES VI. cil. It was in sessiq^i from 1414 to 1418 at Constance, deposed Popes John XXIII. and Benedict XIII., and set Martin V. in their places ; declared, to prevent any future schism, that general councils were of superior authority to the Pope ; and at the same time showed its abhorrence of heresy by condemning John Hus and Jerome of Prague, who were burned at the stake. CHARLES VIL, TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. 225 CHAPTER XXXII. CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. (1432-1436.) Henry VI. and Charles VII. — After the funeral of Charles VI. at St. Denis, the French king-at-arms pro- claimed "Henry, king of France." At the same time, at Mehun-sur-Y6vre in Berry, afew French knights proclaimed Charles the Seventh. The king proclaimed at St. Denis was a child ten months old, grandson, through his mother, of Charles VI. His uncles would necessarily administer the kingdom in his name, — the Duke of Bedford, France ; the Duke of Gloucester, England. The child had been recog- nized as sovereign of the kingdom of France by the Par- liament, by the University, by the first prince of the blood, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and by Queen Isabella. Paris, almost all the countries north of the Loire, and Guienne, to the south of that river, obeyed him. The king proclaimed in Berry, sole surviving son of Charles VI., was a young man of nineteen, of engaging manners, but weak in body, pale in countenance, and deficient in courage. For the moment and for long years after he showed an eager interest in pleasures only, and a certain dulness in the presence of business and of dangers. His authority was rec- ognized only in the southern provinces, excepting Guienne. Two defeats, at Crevant and at Verneuil, began the reign of Charles VII. and completed the ruin of all his hopes in the North of France. He seemed indifferent to this, readily submitted to hearing himself derisively called the king of Bourges, and wandered about from castle to castle with his little court. Despite his weakness, the king of Bourges had one great advantage : he was the French prince, while the other was the king of the foreigners. The longer one lived with the English, the more one suffered from the harshness of their rule, the more one felt the shame of the ignominious treason which had delivered up France to them. The mar- riage of Charles VII. with Marie of Anjou won over to 226 CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. his cause that powerful family, and through it, the powerful house of Lorraine, whose brave princes were always French at heart. The Count of Foix, governor of Languedoc, after having scrupulously inquired of the jurisconsults and con- sulted the probable course of events, declared that his conscience obliged him to recognize Charles VII. as law- ful king. The constable's sword, given to Count Arthur de Eichemont, gained over his brother the Duke of Brittany to the side of France, and placed at the service of the king that warlike province, the nursery of good soldiers and skilful captains. Castile .lent ships, and five or six thousand soldiers arrived as auxiliaries from Scotland. So even in the hands of the indolent Charles VII. the royal power con- stituted itself anew and again attached to itself whatever was French in the country, and whatever was hostile to England abroad. By removing from his person, at the de- mand of Eichemont, Tanneguy-Duch4tel and those Armag- nacs who had compromised him in the affair of the bridge of Montereau, Charles prepared a later reconciliation with those whom the death of John the Fearless had sent into the English party. Difficulties of the English. — It was the alliance of the English with the Duke of Burgundy which had brought them Paris and the treaty of Troyes. Accordingly it was absolutely necessary to keep on good terms with him. Bedford readily perceived this necessity and acted accord' ingly. But Grloucester refused to observe it. He had just married Jacqueline of Hainault, and this union was sure to bring about a private war between Gloucester and the Duke of Burgundy. Meanwhile the towns resisted the sway of the foreigner. La Fert^-Bernard (dep. Sarthe) sustained, in 1422, a siege of four months, and only when reduced to the last extremity submitted to Salisbury. In 1427 the English, in order to approach the Loire, besieged Montargis on the Loing with three thousand men-at-arms. The town had but a small garrison, but the inhabitants assisted efficiently. They defended themselves for three months. At the end of that time they sent word to the king that they had no more pro- visions nor ammunition. Dunois and La Hire (the same whose prayer was " God, I pray thee to do to-day for La Hire what thou wouldst wish that La Hire should do for thee, if he were God and thou wert La Hire ") set out with CHARLES VIL, TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. 227 sixteen hundred men and forced the Ensrlish to raise the Siege of Orleans (1428-1429) : Battle of the Herrings (1429). — Next year Bedford resolved to push military oper- ations with vigor. In June, the Earl of Salisbury landed at Calais with six thousand good English troops. Bedford added to them four thousand soldiers gathered from the garrisons of Normandy, and this army, after taking several strong places, appeared before Orleans. Orleans was the gate of Berry, of the Bourbonnais, and of Poitou. If it were taken, the king of Bourges became king only of Languedoc and Dauphiny. In October, 1428, the English appeared be- fore its walls and immediately began to raise around the place bastions, the guard of which was intrusted to the bravest captains in their army, — the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Talbot, William Gledsdale, and others. Salisbury was commander-in-chief. The people of Orleans, expecting this siege, had fortified their town, burning the suburbs with their own hands. The garrison numbered only five hundred men, but all old sol- diers. Moreover, the citizens were determined not to spare themselves. They formed thirty-four companies, and each undertook to defend one of the thirty-four towers of the wall. Artillery was beginning to play an important r6le in battles and sieges. That of the besiegers of Orleans was ill served, that of the city was managed with great skill. Salisbury was killed by a chance cannon-shot, and the next day the bastard of Orleans, the handsome and brave Dunois, entered the place with the best knights of the time and six or seven hundred soldiers : others followed, until gradually there came to be seven thousand in Orleans. But the enemy, with British tenacity, continued strength- ening their circumvallations : they proposed to reduce the town by famine.' Four months had already passed, and pro- visions began to be scarce in the town. It was known that the Duke of Bedford was sending from Paris, under command of Sir John Fastolf, twenty-five hundred soldiers, and three hundred wagons of ammunition and provisions, especially of herrings for the Lenten fast. The Count of Clermont, eldest son of the Duke of Bourbon, assembled a body of five thou- sand men, including the flower of the nobility, and met the English convoy near Eouvray (February, 1429). On the approach of the French, Fastolf made a stockade of his 228 CHARLES riL, TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. wagons. The French opened the attack with their artillery, and all was going prosperously ; but, as so often before, the impetuosity of the knights lost them the battle (battle of the Herrings). Meanwhile the situation of the town became daily more serious, and Charles VII. did not arouse from his indolence. Some of the nobility disgracefully abandoned the cit3^ The besieged began to despair. They attempted negotiations, but with no success. Revival of National Feeling. — What the great nobles did not do, the lesser people did. The humiliation of France and of its sovereign began to weigh upon the hearts of the people. In presence of the foreigner the sentiment of nationality awoke in them. Hitherto a man was a citizen of his town, and nothing more. In the face of the English he felt himself a Frenchman. A century before, no one had disturbed himself about Calais, when besieged by Edward III. All France now interested itself in the fate of Orleans. A sentiment unknown to the Middle Ages, that of patriotism, was coming into existence. The terrible miseries through which the nation was passing, instead of destroying this sentiment, had made it more active. These miseries arose from various causes, but the people recognized only one, — the English. All the sufferings which they had endured they attributed to the English. All the resentments which they had accummulated were directed against the English. To drive out the English became their familiar thought, and since men gave no aid, they reckoned upon the aid of God. The opinion gradually became established from one end of France to the other, that the kingdom was to be saved by a virgin, a daughter of the people : this daughter of the people was Jeanne d'Arc. Jeanne d'Arc (1429-1431). — Jeanne d'Arc, third daughter of the peasant Jacques d'Arc, was born in 1409 in the vil- lage of Domr^my, on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine. Life upon this frontier was frequently disturbed. War was perpetual there — now the English, now the Burgundians, now the grandes comjKignies : it was necessary to be ready at any moment to light, to flee into the neighboring forest if too weak to fight, and to return when the enemy had disappeared, to repair his ravages. The men of Domr^my, determined Armagnacs, had, two leagues from their village, the Burgundian village of Marey; men, children even, of the two villages never met without fighting. CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. 229 War, combats, wounds, devastation, were the first sighi that struck the eyes of Jeanne. By the hearth-fire she heard stories of war, and then holy traditions, pious legends of St. Michael the archangel of battles, St. Margaret and St. Catherine, for whom the young peasant girl devoutly wove wreaths and garlands, whom she was wont to regard as her especial saints, and of whom she was wont to dream in the neighboring oak forest. In all these day-dreams was mingled the image of Charles VII., the poor young king, denied by his mother, and driven out of his inheritance by the English. Jeanne grew up in the midst of all these excitements, with firm, good health, a good girl, simple, amiable, and timid, so her companions say, delighting in the church and in holy places, confessing often, and increasing by bodily austerities her imaginative exaltation of soul. One day in 1423, at noonday, the young girl, being in the garden near the church, suddenly saw a great light, and from the midst of that light came forth a voice, bidding her be a good child and go often to church. Another time she saw in this light beautiful figures, of whom one, which had wings, said to her, "Jeanne, go and deliver the king of France and restore to him his kingdom." She trembled greatly, and replied, "My lord, I am only a poor girl ; I should not know how to lead men-at- arms." The voice replied, " St. Catherine and St. Margaret will aid you." She saw again the archangel and the two saints, heard her voices, as she called them : she heard them at times during four years, and felt forced to obey them. But how should she obey them ? Her father declared that sooner than see her go off with soldiers, he would drown her with his own hands. At Vaucouleurs, her uncle, believ- ing in her mission, took her to the Sieur de Baudricourt, captain of the garrison. E-udely rebuffed by him, Jeanne did not waver, " for," said she, " before mid-Lent I must be with the king, even though to get there I must wear off my legs to the knees." At last she succeeded. The people made up a purse to equip her and to buy her a horse. She cut off her long hair, put on male garments, and set out from Vaucouleurs, under escort of six men-at-arms, in February, 1429. It was a terrible journey at such a time. Jeanne was in danger both from the coarse protectors who had been given her, from robbers, and from the enemy. But nothing fright- ened her. The enthusiasm which she felt and which she 230 CHARLES TIL, TO HIS nSfURN TO PARIS. inspired triumplied over all difficulties and all dangers, ancJ, at length, she arrived at Chinon, where Charles VII. was. The council discussed for two days whether the king ought' to see her; but at length it was resolved on. In nowise disconcerted by her ceremonious reception, she recognized the king at once among all the courtiers, went straight to him, and said, " Gentle dauphin, why do you not believe in me ? I tell you that God has pity on you, upon your king- dom, and upon your people : for St. Louis and St. Charle- magne are on their knees before him, making prayer for us. If you will give me men, I will raise the siege of Orleans, and I will conduct you to Rheims to be consecrated, for it is the pleasure of God that his enemies the English shall go back to their country, and that the kingdom shall remain to you." The cynical court of Charles VII. was not easily to be con- vinced of a miraculous mission. But the people were already convinced. Public opinion urged on the hesitating govern- ment. Jeanne was equipped, armed, and sent to Orleans. Deliverance of Orleans (May, 1429). — Orleans was in very great danger ; but it must also be said that the Eng- lish besiegers were not in a much better situation. Losses and desertion had reduced their army to four or five thou- sand men, and these somewhat dispersed. To reduce ene- mies so weak, only discipline and union on the part of those who attacked them were necessary. Now nothing was more disorderly than these partisan bands and captains who had thrown themselves into the town to defend it, and who in war sought only the gains and the pleasures which might be obtained from it. To give morale and discipline to these rude and savage natures was an undertaking far be- yond the scope of the royal authority at this time. But what royalty could not have done, the general enthusiasm effected. At a sign from Jeanne d' Arc, they ' renounced their debaucheries, confessed, and took communion. Thus metamorphosed, the army became invincible. At the end of April, 1429, Jeanne d'Arc entered Orleans with a convoy of provisions and a small escort : a few days later she led in the army, passing and repassing before the lines of the enemy, while the English refused to stir, partly because they believed that all the powers of hell were now conspiring against them. Jeanne, who was a saint within the walls of Orleans, was in the English bastions a sorceress. CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. 231 The English assailed her with coarse insults, yet had an extreme fear of her. These redoubtable soldiers evacuated of their own accord their bastions on the south of the Loire, except two, on which they concentrated all their strength. On the sixth of May Jeanne crossed the Loire, advanced against one of these bastions, rallied her troops from the panic which had at first caused them to flee, planted her standard, embroidered with fleurs-de-lis, upon the bank of the ditch, and the bastion was taken and' razed to the ground. Next day all the army and the people attacked the other bastion. Jeanne with her own hands placed a ladder against its wall, mounted it, and received a serious wound, which only raised the enthusiasm of her soldiers. The English, attacked on all sides, vainly attempted to flee ; five hundred of them were put to the sword. Kot a single Englishman now remained on the south of the Loire. The next day Suffolk and Talbot evacuated the northern bas- tions, abandoning munitions, artillery, baggage, prisoners, and the sick. Jeanne then set out for Tours, where, kneel- ing before the king, she besought him to go and be crowned at Rheims. Charles VII. crowned at Rheims (1429). — To be conse- crated at Rheims was for Charles VII. to gain a signal ad- vantage over his young rival Henry VI. , and to become in reality king of France. But the politicians again believed themselves the wisest, and it was decided first to clear the banks of the Loire of Englishmen. But after a decisive victory won near Patay, the advice of Jeanne could no longer be resisted. The people believed in her only, and even the nobles took her side. The army set out from Gien at the end of June, 1429. It was received with joy by the peasants and in the villages ; but the large towns hesitated. Auxerre did not open its gates, but furnished provisions. Troyes, which had a strong garrison of Burgundians and English, and walls in good repair, refused to receive the royal army. Jeanne ran to the ramparts with her standard in her hand, caused the ditch to be filled up, and began attacking the wall, when the English, disturbed by the news of what had happened at Orleans, offered of their own accord to go away. Charles did not stop at Troyes, nor at Chalons, which willingly opened its gates, and on the 13th of July arrived before Rheims. Two Burgundian lords commanded the town, but had no soldiers. They could not induce the 232 CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. citizens to fight : the city was surrendered, and on the 17th Charles was finally consecrated with the usual ceremonies. Continuation of the War against the English. — Jeanne had done the two great things which her voices had bade her do ; she had delivered Orleans and caused the king to be crowned ; she would have wished now to return to her vil- lage. As they entered Rheims, she said to Dunois, " I have accomplished that which my Lord commanded me ; I would now that he would let me go back to my father and mother and tend their sheep and cattle." But her work was not yet finished, for the English still held a considerable part of the kingdom. Jeanne demanded that the army should march upon Paris, but the king's counsellors decided first to take the small towns lying on the way to Paris. This was easily done ; but when they arrived before Paris the oppor- tunity had passed. Paris was t9o large a city to be carried by a sudden stroke, and the Parisians were too largely com- promised in recent revolutions to submit to Charles VII. save under absolute necessity. Time had been given them to prepare themselves. They made a courageous defence. Jeanne bore herself with her usual intrepidity, crossed the ditch of the city alone, was wounded, and yet received all the blame of the failure. She saw Charles VII., returning to his listlessness, go back to Chinon, leaving orders to evacuate St. Denis. She saw the Duke of Burgundy, taking courage, re-enter Soissons and besiege Compi^gne. Touched with the fate of these poor citizens, who had given them- selves up to Charles VII., she threw herself into the town in order to defend it. Captivity and Death of Jeanne d'Arc (1430-1431). — The very day of her arrival, in May, 1430, she made a sortie ; but the besiegers repulsed it, and when she came back to the gate she found it closed. Abandoned in the midst of the enemy, she was captured by the bastard of Venddme, who sold her to John of Luxemburg. John of Luxemburg sold her to the Duke of Burgundy, and the Duke of Burgundy to the English at Rouen. To the French, Jeanne was a messenger of God ; to the English, an emissary of the devil. Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, undertook to prove it by a witchcraft trial in due form. He drew up an accusation on the four following points : transgression of the laws of the Church, in having employed practices of magic, in having taken arms contrary CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. 233 to the desire of her parents, in having assumed the attire of the opposite sex, and in having asserted revelations which the ecclesiastical authority had not sanctioned. Thus a poor girl of nineteen found herself alone, without help, in the face of judges sold to her enemies, who arbitrarily suppressed all the proofs of her innocence, who prevented her appeal- ing to Pope or council, who tried to embarrass her by absurd, captious, or subtle questions, yet found themselves often disconcerted by her straightforward replies. " Jeanne," said they, " do you believe that you are in a state of grace ? " " If I am not, may God put me in it ; if I am, may God maintain me in it." " Do you believe that you did right to set out without the permission of your father and mother ? ought not one to honor his father and his mother ? " " They have pardoned me." " Do you think, then, that you did not sin in doing so ? " '' God commanded it ; if I had a hundred fathers and mothers, I would never- theless have set out." " Do you believe that your king did right to kill, or cause to be killed, my lord of Burgundy ? " " It was a great injury to the kingdom of France : but how- ever it may have been between them, God sent me to the aid of the king of France." ''Do St. Catherine and St. Mar- garet hate the English ? " " They love what our Lord loves and hate what he hates." ''Does God hate the English?" " Of the love or hate which God has for the English I know nothing ; but I know well that they shall be driven put of France, save those who shall perish therein," Her condemnation was resolved upon in advance. Under threats and promises, especially that of being withdrawn from the hands of her English jailers and restored to the custody of the Church, she yielded, and signed a recanta- tion presented to her, without at all knowing what was con- tained in it : then, as an act of grace and moderation, she was condemned simply to pass the rest of her days in prison, upon bread and water. At this the English began to complain. Their affairs were going from bad to worse, and they were so much the more enraged against their captive. In fact, they seized her again. On the morning of Trinity Sunday (May 31, 1431) one of the Englishmen who guarded her took away her woman's clothes and left her only her male attire. " You know," said she, " that I am forbidden to wear it." They would not give her any other, and she was forced to put 234 CHARLES riL, TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. it on. The judges, at once informed, were all ready to de- clare her crime. They condemned her to be barned alive, as relapsed. The execution was to take place immediately. At first, Jeanne wept bitterly ; yet still expected that some deliverance would come. But at nine o'clock, clothed again in woman's garments, she was placed in a cart, and rode through the trembling crowd, guarded by eight hundred Englishmen armed with lances and swords. "The end of the sad journey was the Old Market or Fish Market. Three scaffolds had been raised there. Upon one was the episcopal and royal throne of the cardinal of Eng- land (Beaufort) among the seats of his prelates ; upon the other were to appear the preacher, the judges and the bailli; on the third, the condemned. Near them was a great platform of plaster, heaped high with wood. It was desired that, placed upon the top of this mountain of wood, and rising above the circle of lances and swords, she might be seen from ali parts of the square. The terrible ceremony began with a sermon; then the ecclesiastical judge, the bishop of Beauvais, benignly exhorted her to think of her soul, and to recall all her sins, in order to move herself to repentance. But already she had fallen upon her knees, invoking God, the Virgin, St. Michael, and St. Catherine, pardoning all and asking pardon, begging those around to pray for her. She especially requested the priests to say each one a mass for her soul. All this was done in a man- ner so devout, so humble, and so touching, that no one could control his emotion. The' bishop of Beauvais began to weep, the bishop of Boulogne sobbed, and even the English wept also, Winchester among the rest. " But the judges, though disconcerted for a moment, re- gained their composure. The bishop of Beauvais, wiping his eyes, began to read her condemnation : he reminded the condemned of all her crimes, schism, idolatry, the invoca- tion of devils, how she had been admitted to penitence, and how, ' seduced by the Prince of Lies, she had fallen b^ck, grief! as the dog returns to his vomit. . . . Therefore we pronounce that you are a rotten member, and as such, cut off from the Church. We deliver you over to the secular power, praying it, nevertheless, to be merciful.' " Thus abandoned by the Church, she turned in all con- fidence to God. She asked for a cross. An Englishman banded lier a cross of wood, which he made from the pieces CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. 235 of a stick. She received it none the less devoutly, kissed the rude cross, and placed it upon her breast, beneath her garments. But she wished for the cross of the Church, that it might be held before her eyes until her death. The good bailiff Massieu and Brother Isambart caused one to be brought for her from the parish church of St. Sauveur. As she was embracing this cross, and Isambart was encouraging her, the English began to find this tedious ; it was already noon ; the soldiers grumbled ; the captains said, ' How now, priests, must we dine here ? ' Then losing patience, they sent forward two sergeants to take her from the hands of the priests. At the very foot of the tribunal she was seized by the soldiers, who dragged her to the executioner, saying, *Do thine office.' This brutality of the soldiers excited general horror. A number of those present, and even of the judges, fled in order to see no more. "Even in this moment of terror and of trouble she accused neither her king nor her saints. But arrived at the top of the pyre, seeing the great town and the motion- . less and silent crowd, she could not help exclaiming, ' Ah, Eouen, Eouen, I have great fear that thou shalt suffer for my death.' She was bovind to the stake, crowned with a mitre bearing the inscription, 'Heretic, relapsed, apostate, idolater.' Then the executioner lighted the fire. She saw it from above and uttered a cry. Then, as the friar who was exhorting her paid no heed to the flames, she feared for him, forgetting herself, and bade him descend from the pile. To the bishop she said, gently, as she had said before, * Bishop, I die by your means ; if you had put me in the prisons of the Church, this would not have happened.' It had been expected that, seeing herself abandoned by her king, she would at length have accused him and spoken against him. But she still defended him : ' Whether I have done well or done ill, my king had no share in it ; it is not he who advised me.' " Meanwhile the flame was mounting high. At the moment when it touched her, the unhappy girl shuddered and asked for holy water : Water ! it was apparently a a cry of fear. But, recovering at once, thenceforward she spoke only the name of God, his angels and his saints. She bore witness to them : '■ Yes, my voices were from God ; my voices did not deceive me.' These weighty words are attested by the Dominican who mounted the pile of fagots 236 CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. with her, whom she persuaded to descend, but who, from below, spoke to her and listened, holding before her eyes the cross ; and also by another witness, a saintly man whose name history ought to preserve, the Augustine friar, Isam- bart de la Pierre. ' We heard her,' say they, ' in the fire, calling upon her saints and her archangel : she repeated the name of the Saviour. Finally dropping her head upon her breast, she uttered one loud cry : Jesus ! ' "Ten thousand men Avere weeping. Some Englishmen alone laughed or tried to laugh. One of the most vehement had sworn to put a fagot upon the pile : she died at the moment when he placed it there. He fell ill ; his comrades led him to a tavern to make him drink and recover his spirits: but he could not rally. 'I saw,' he said, in his delirium, ' I saw a dove fly forth from her lips with her last breath.' Others had read in the flames the word which she had repeated : ' Jesus ! ' The executioner came in the evening to find Brother Isambart. He was filled with terror ; he con- fessed, but he could not believe that God would ever pardon him. A secretary of the king of England said aloiid as he , went away : ' We are lost ; we have burned a saint ! ' " (Michelet). Defeat of the English ; Consecration of the English King at Paris (1431). — The sorceress was burned, and nothing prevented the English from soon conquering the kingdom of France ; but first they judged it wise to put the law on their side by causing the young Henry VI. to be consecra- ted, the consecration of Charles VII. having been declared null and void. The, ceremony took place in December, 1431, at Paris. An English prelate, the cardinal of Winchester, ofiiciated, to the great discontent of the bishop of Paris : the attendants were English lords, and not a single French prince : there was no liberation of prisoners, no reduction of taxes, no largess to the people. "A citizen marrying his children wotdd do things better," said the townspeople. General discontent was the result of this ceremony intended to render Henry VI. popular. It remained to be seen whether the English would at least recover their old good fortune in war. First they failed to take Compi^gne. Eouen was nearly captured by the French (1432). Dunois obtained Chartres by an intrigue with the French within the town. The English could not even take a fortified village. CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. 237 Eupture of the Alliance between England and Burgundy. — The English, unfortunate everywhere, had so much the more need of the alliance with the Duke of Burgundy. But suspicions arose between the duke and the English princes. Bedford's wife, sister of the Duke Philip, died in November, 1432. Every mistake committed by the English was imme- diately and very shrewdly turned to account by the Breton who then directed all affairs at the court of France, the constable de Eichemont, whose skilful policy consisted in bringing the king of France and the Duke of Burgundy nearer together. But though Philip the Good had no lack of grievances, yet, in a sort of chivalrous fidelity toward his allies, he would not engage in any negotiations save general negotiations for the re-establishment of peace ; and a veritable European congress was assembled at Arras in the year 1435. Treaty of Arras (1435). Eepresentatives of all the Chris- tian states assembled there : deputies of the good towns of the kingdom, deputies of the University ; the constable de Eichemont, with eighteen great lords, in behalf of the king of France ; the cardinal of Winchester, with several lords, in behalf of England ; and finally the Duke of Burgundy. The conference opened upon the 5th of August, 1435. The English at first demanded the execution of the treaty of Troyes pure and simple, next that each should retain what he possessed ; and when only Aquitaine and Normandy in full sovereignty were offered to them, they left Arras on the 6th of September. Then every one begged the Duke of Burgundy to restore peace to France. He had many scruples. In the first place he had sworn to avenge the death of his father — the cardinal-legates who presided over the assembly offered to release him immediately from this evil oath. Secondly, he had signed the treaty of Troyes — the jurisconsults assured him that that treaty was absolutely null, since the Eoman law forbids the making of agreements concerning the inheritance of a living person. At this point Bedford died. The duke now considered him- self free from every engagement, and signed the treaty of Arras. It was agreed that the king should give assurances, or cause assurances to be given, to the Duke of Burgundy, that the killing of Duke John was an ill deed and always deplored by him; but that he was then very young, and knew not how to deal with the affair ; that for the soul of 238 CHARLES VII., TO HIS RETURN TO PARIS. Duke Jolm certain endowments should be made and certain buildings erected by the king. Then came more tangible satisfactions to the Duke of Burgundy, — the cession in per- petuity of the counties of Auxerre and Mdcon and three chdtellenies ; cession, with permission to ransom, of the towns of the Somme, St. Quentin, Amiens, Abbeville, and others; cession of the feudal revenues of the county of Artois ; and exemption of the duke during his lifetime and that of the king from every sort of dependence upon the latter. Charles VII. at Paris (1436) . — These humiliating con- cessions had an immediate compensation : the treaty of Arras gave the king of France Paris. The citizens invited the constable de Eichemont, and in May, 1436, opened their gates to him. The English garrison of fifteen hundred men shut themselves up in the Bastile. Eichemont was totally unprepared to undertake a siege. The English offered to surrender the Bastile on condition of being allowed to withdraw with their baggage and those persons who should desire to accompany them; and this form of capitulation was accepted. EIGHTH PERIOD. Final Victory of the Crown over the Feu- DAL Aristocracy (1436-1491). CHAPTER XXXIII. THE ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM PRANCE. — GOVERNMENT OP CHARLES VII. (1436-1461 A.D.) Situation of the Kingdom. — Some time after the surren- der of Paris, Charles VII. paid a visit to his capital. The pestilence still prevailed in the city. The streets were so deserted that wolves came into the town : forty persons were devoured by them in a single week of September, 1438. The people, accustomed to arms and to the management of affairs, were henceforth to count for much more than hitherto. ' Above the citizen class were the remnants of old feudalism, singularly altered by a century of civil and for- eign war. In such wars the government furnished neither pay, nor provisions, nor ammunition : the men-at-arms were forced to live by the profits of war, at the expense of the enemy if they could, most often at the expense of the country, and were quite without restraint or discipline. The chieftains were the most cruel and ferocious of men, harsh toward the enemy, but equally harsh toward the peasants or citizens, despoiling the one as well as the other. Wars thus conducted corrupted an entire class of men, those who were called gentlemen and wore the SAvord. The manners of camps made their way into the castles. Murders and bloody deeds were common among the nobility. The in- 240 THE ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. famous Gilles de Eetz continued for forty years to kidnap children in the fields and in the towns, in order to kill them at his leisure and conduct magical operations. Above this feudal aristocracy was the aristocracy of the princes, which the crown had created with its own hands, by bestowing vast appanages upon the sons, brothers, and relatives of the king. Such was the origin of the powerful houses of Bur- gundy, Orleans, Anjou, and Bourbon, who joined to the independent spirit of the antique feudalism the pride and ambitious claims of royal blood. In the midst of a French society thus composed, the king of Bourges, who had become king of Paris without much improvement in his situation, now found himself. But just as in the twelfth century Louis VI. was aided by the soldiers of the communes, so in the fifteenth century the people in their misery, the king in his weakness, drew nearer to each other and aided each other in maintaining ideas of order and of justice, and in common efforts to strike down that aristocratic supremacy which stood in the way of the unification and prosperity of the kingdom. The king thus again became the great revolutionary of his time. Charles VII., in fact, in the latter part of his reign, showed himself a quite different man, always very careless in mat- ters of morality but, so far as public affairs were concerned, matured by age and experience. The change was not due, as legend relates, to the influence of his mistress, Agnes Sorel, but to that of the wise counsellors in whom he en- tirely trusted: Jean Bureau, the master of the artillery; Jacques Coeur, the treasurer ; Etienne Chevalier, the king's secretary ; Guillaume Cousinot, the master of requests ; and others. All these were commoners ; Agnes, also, was only the daughter of a simple squire. If we find some noble names among the counsellors of Charles VII., they belong to that lesser nobility, which was nothing without the king's support. Richemont and Dunois are the only exceptions, but the constable was less the minister of the king than that of France. He made war as vigorously upon the favorites of Charles VII. as upon the English. Ordinance of Orleans (1439). — Measures of reform ap- peared so urgent, that the government did not even wait for the end of the war before undertaking them. In Octo- ber, 1439, Charles convoked, at Orleans, the States-General of the northern provinces, and by their advice issued an GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES VII. 241 ordinance, reserving to himself the right of appointing all the captains of France, and fixing the number of the soldiers. He forbade any one to assume the name of captain or to command soldiers if he had not been nominated to the ofiice. The captain remained responsible for the conduct of his men : he was under severe penalties to prevent them from pillaging or maltreating churchmen, merchants, or laborers. The soldiers were to be amenable to the jurisdiction of the baillis and the provosts. Finally, each captain was to be sent to garrison a designated frontier fortress, and was forbidden to leave it without orders. Barons who had men- at-arms in their castles were to maintain them at their own expense, and to be responsible for any excesses which they might commit. This ordinance of 1439 was a complete revolution, for it put the military forces of the kingdom in the king's hands. Many intrigues forthwith resulted. The lords and the Skinners (marauders) declared that this was the overthrow of all order, that such a king ought at once to be replaced by the dauphin Louis, his son, a young man of seventeen, who showed, they said, precocious talents. They little sus- pected what talents he was eventually to disclose. The Praguerie (1440). — Impatient to reign, the dauphin lent himself readily to these schemes. The dukes of Bour- bon and Alen^on, the counts of Venddme and Dunois, the principal chiefs of the Skinners, put themselves at the head of the rebellion. It was an insurrection of the whole no- bility against the crown. Charles VII. was at Poitiers. Throughout Poitou the citizens declared for the king, and the strongholds fell one after another into his hands. This caused reflection among the rebels ; and the wisest, like Dunois, hastened to make a separate peace, and to put themselves at the king's service against their recent asso- ciates. In the Bourbonnais and in Auvergne, as in Poitou, the bourgeoisie was for the king and against the lords. The states of Auvergne declared that they were body and goods on the side of the king, who protected the poor people against the vexations of the soldiers ; and they furnished him with money. The dukes of BourlDon and Alen9on and the dauphin saw plainly that they must not only submit, but sue for pardon. They appeared before the king, fell on their knees at his feet, and begged to be pardoned. This prompt submission of the insurgents, this concert 242 THE ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. of the bourgeoisie and the crown, were a warning to the entire aristocracy. The Duke of Burgundy, though he had refused to give aid to the insurgents, considered himself warned like the rest. He felt it necessary to strengthen himself against an authority so threatening, to acquire allies. He therefore arranged for the deliverance, and in part paid the ransom, of Duke Charles of Orleans, a prisoner of the English since Agincourt, and the most graceful poet of the fifteenth century, gave him his niece in marriage, conferred upon him the order of the Golden Fleece, and sent the collar of the same order to the dukes of Brittany and Alen9on. Meanwhile the king continued to make the royal justice felt. He took and delivered over to the provost the boldest of the Skinners, the basl;ard of Bourbon, who, in spite of his birth, was sewn up in a sack, and thrown into the river. He forced the Count of St. Pol to submit his quarrels to the Parliament of Paris. And all this without relaxing for a moment the war against the English ; wresting from them Meaux, Pontoise, and Dieppe ; seducing their allies in the south of France, compelling them finally to ask for a truce (1444) and the hand of a French princess, Margaret of Anjou, for their young king, Henry VI. ; and raising up at their gates a new enemy by the marriage of the dauphin Louis with Margaret of Scotland, daughter of James I. The Skinners in Switzerland; Charles VII. in Lorraine (1444). — Charles had granted this truce to the English only in order to finish the work of internal reform begun in 1439. He resolved to rid himself of the companies of Skinners by sending them off to perish in foreign lands. Two requests for assistance arrived at the same time, — one from the Emperor Frederick III. for aid against the Swiss, the other from Duke Een6 of Lorraine for aid against Metz. Charles acceded to both. Switzerland had founded and assured its independence over against Austria and the Empire by three battles, — Morgarten, Sempach, and Nafels, in which a handful of peasants had heroically defeated large feudal armies. In- vited by Frederick HI. to give assistance against them, Charles hastened to send forth, in as orderly a fashion as possible, that army with which he did not know what to do, fourteen thousand Frenchmen, eight thousaud Englishmen, Scotchmen, Brabanters, Spaniards, and Italians, and with GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES VII. 243 them, as generalissimo, the dauphin Louis. The terrible bands reached the Jura, and entered Switzerland. The Swiss, who were then besieging Zurich, sent only two thou- sand of their troops to reconnoitre the enemy. These, rashly ignoring the strength of the opposing force, threw them- selves upon them, and were slain to a man (1444). The dauphin conceived so high an esteem for men who fought so wejl that he advanced no further, and made a treaty of alliance with the Swiss. The king himself took the lead of the second expedition. Many of the nobility flocked to his side, and already there was talk of reviving the ancient rights of the crown of France over the countries beyond the Rhine ; but the expe- dition did not succeed, the inhabitants of Metz making a heroic resistance. Yet the king received the homage of Epinal, and had shown the standard of France in the valley of the iVloselle. Creation of a Permanent Army (1445-1448). — These two expeditions had rid the king of the most insubordinate of the military adventurers, and had accustomed the others to some beginning of discipline. At length it was possible to carry out the ordinance of Orleans. In 1445 the army was reduced to fifteen companies of a hundred lances each. For each lance were reckoned six men, the man-at-arms and his page, three archers, and a soldier armed with a dagger, all on horseback. They were distributed in small bodies, as garrisons of the towns. All other soldiers were ordered to disperse to their homes within fifteen days under penalty of being delivered over to justice as vagrants. They obeyed. Those enrolled submitted to rigid discipline. Charles VII. then had at his disposal a well-trained body of nine thousand horsemen. By another ordinance, in 1448, the king gave France what it had never had before, — a regular and permanent infantry. Each of the sixteen thousand parishes of the kingdom was obliged to furnish the king with a foot-soldier ; he was to be armed and equipped at their expense with light defensive armor, a casque, a dagger, a sword, a bow and quiver, or cross-bow. He was, moreover, to drill on every feast day and to be ready to serve the king whenever he was summoned. The franc archer was not at first a model soldier, for mili- tary qualities do not come into immediate existence in a nation so long disarmed ; but the initial steps had been taken toward the formation of an excellent national infantry. 244 THE ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. Einancial Reforms (1443). — A still more important re form in financial administration was effected by Jacques Coeur in 1443. To establish a system of mutual checks among financial officers, to compel the individual receivers to account to the receiver-general, and him to the Chamber of Accounts, to force the great officers of the king, the treasurer, the equerry, the war treasurer, and the master of the artillery, to account every month to the king himself, would doubtless be to-day regarded as elementary principles in finance : at that time these were excellent and admirable measures of reform. It was these financial reforms which enabled Charles VII. to create in France a military force dependent on the king alone. Since the time of Charles V. the ordinary indirect taxes had been permanent ; from the time of Charles VII. on, the land tax for the pay of the soldiers became perpetual, that is, continued to be levied without being voted by the States-General. But at the same time the king guaranteed good administration of jus- tice in financial matters, by declaring the Cour des Aides, which judged financial cases in the last resort, to be a sov- ereign court. Creation of the Parliaments of Toulouse (1443) and Greno- ble (1453) ; Legal Reforms. — After an expedition in Gascony and Languedoc in 1442, the king established a Parliament at Toulouse for Languedoc and Guienne (1443). This was the first dismemberment of the Parliament of Paris. Suitors in the South gained by not having to go so far for justice, and the new Parliament kept constant watch in the king's behalf over these remote and turbulent provinces. The dauphin erected in his appanage, in 1453, the Par- liament of Grenoble. ,_ If in the fifteenth century there could be no thought of subjecting all Frenchmen to a uniform law, it was at least possible to make partial escape from the chaos of the coutames and the arbitrary character of customary juris- prudence. Charles VII. designed and began the work of preparing an authoritative written text of each of these COUtltTYlSS Pragmatic Sanction (1438) ; End of the Schism (1449). — In 1432 Charles, accusing Popes Martin V. and Eugenius VI. of favoring the English and of giving prelacies to foreign- ers, had ordained that no one should be admitted to eccle- siastical benefices, who was not a subject of the realm and GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES VII. ,245 ■well affected towards the king. Six years later lie went further. He assembled the clergy of France at Bourges and presented for its acceptance an ordinance or pragmatic sanction, which recognized the authority of general councils as superior to that of the Pope, restored to churches and abbeys the right of electing their heads, forbade the pay- ment of annates, reservations, and provisions, and permitted the reception and publication of papal bulls in France only after approbation by the king. The great schism of the West ended in this reign by the declaration of obedience which the fathers of the Council of Basel made to Nicholas V. Renewal of Hostilities with Eng^land ; Conquest of Nor- mandy (1449-50). — With all these reforms accomplished, Charles felt himself strong enough to bring matters to a conclusion with the English. An Aragonese adventurer in the service of England, failing to receive money from the government of Henry VI., attacked in time of peace a rich town of Brittany, and gave it to his men to plunder in com- pensation for their arrears of pay. Immediately the king of France and the Duke of Brittany demanded reparation and indemnity from the English governor of Normandy. As the indemnity was not forthcoming, the French pro- ceeded to take it themselves. Dunois entered the province with a strong army. Lisieux, Mantes, Vernon, j^vreux, Louviers, and Coutances were taken, or delivered up by the citizens without striking a blow. England was then upon the verge of the War of the Eoses, and troubled herself little about Normandy. The governor, Somerset, instead of concentrating his forces, scattered them in twenty garrisons : in negotiation he showed equal want of skill. Good order and ability were now on the side of the French, and victory passed over to them. In October, 1449, they appeared before the walls of Eouen. In a moment all the bourgeoisie of ]^ouen was in arms ; but against the English, who withdrew into the castle, and were compelled to surrender, delivering to the king of France, ■with Eouen, the whole lower course of the Seine. England, pushed to extremities, sent Thomas Kyriel.with six thousand men into Normandy. It was her last effort. In April, 1450, near the village of Fourmigny, the constable de Eichemont and the Count of Clermont attacked the English vigorously. Kyriel was defeated and left four thousand men upon the field. Vire, Bayeux, Avranches, 246 THE ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. Caen, Domfront, and Falaise fell at once into the power of Charles. Finally, Cherbourg surrendered, and all Normandy had been acquired in a single year. What was more, the French army had become disciplined and obedient. Conquest of Guienne; End of the Hundred Years' War (1451-1453). — A month afterward, Dunois with twenty thousand soldiers marched against Guienne. The suburbs of Bordeaux were carried without difficulty. The burgesses of the town, well affected to England, who bought their wines, attempted defence, but soon opened the gates to the French (1451). Soon, however, the great city began to regret the English rule. It was now obliged to pay taxes and to furnish soldiers. The harbor was deserted, the warehouses were filled with unsold goods. The government of Henry VI. or, to speak more exactly, the government of Margaret of Anjou, needed a great success abroad in order to recover their prestige at home. The octogenarian Talbot was charged to bring back Guienne to the English rule. The first steps were easy. The inhabitants of Bordeaux themselves ad- mitted the English into their town, in September, 1452; almost all the province followed this example, and the king of France had to begin its conquest anew. In the spring of 1451 his troops began their march toward Guienne ; in July they began the siege of Castillon. Talbot hastened to attack them ; but their artillery, skil- fully managed by the brothers Bureau, mowed down the English ranks, and Talbot himself was slain. Then the French advanced from their fortifications and fell upon the disconcerted English, of whom they killed four thousand men. Two days after, Castillon surrendered, and other strong places soon after. The royal army closed around Bordeaux, francs archers overran the country ; the vessels lent the king by La Eochelle and Brittany blockaded the mouth of the Gironde. Bordeaux, threatened with famine, was obliged at this time to accept such conditions as the king was willing to grant. He deprived the town of its privileges, exacted an indemnity of a hundred thousand crowns, and ordered the banishment of twenty ringleaders, with confiscation of their goods, and also the construction of three citadels commanding the town. In October, 1453, Charles VII. made his triumphant entry into Bordeaux : the Hundred Years' War was finished. The English no longer GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES VII. 247 possessed anything in France but Calais and two small towns near it. Capture of Constantinople (1453) ; the Vow of the Pheasant. — A. great event was at this moment occurring at the other extremity of Europe. Constantinople, the last fragment of the Roman Empire, had fallen, and Mahomet II. sent for- ward his light cavalry, even into Hungary and Eriuli. He had sworn to feed his horse its oats in Rome itself, upon the altar of St. Peter. The trembling Italians and panic- stricken Germany begged for a crusade, and all eyes, all hopes, were turned toward France, which three centuries and a half before had taken the lead. But the times had greatly changed. France, still exhausted, could think only of heal- ing its own wounds. One prince, however, might have replied to the pressing appeal of the Pontiff ; he who had so care- fully kept war away from his own provinces ; who had grown rich and powerful amid the disasters of others, — the Duke of Burgundy. To his court all that remained of chivalry in Europe had repaired. There men talked of tournaments and feats of arms, so that one might suppose himself returned to the times of Amadis and Roland ; and Philip the G-ood had founded the order of the Golden Fleece in the midst of the most magnificent festivities. The cru- sade offered to these new knights a fine opportunity, a peculiarly knightly war. In the Middle Ages men would have put on sackcloth and ashes, would have fasted and prayed, and then would have set out, full of enthusiasm, for Constantinople or Nicsea, for Antioch or Jerusalem. At the court of Bur- gundy, in the year 1454, quite another course was followed ; instead of a public fast, there was a colossal banquet, which Avould have absorbed a whole year's revenue of the king of France. At its conclusion, among other pageants, appeared a female representing Holy Church, come to implore the aid of Burgundian chivalry. Then the king-at-arms entered, holding in his hand a pheasant richly adorned with a collar of gold, pearls, and precious stones, and Duke Philip the Good took a vow, first in the name of God and the Virgin, and afterward by the ladies and the pheasant, to go and fight against the Turk. All those present imitated him, and vied with each other in the extravagance of their vows. But in the height of their ardor these knights of the fifteenth century preserved their self-possession : each of 248 THE ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. them, the duke included, had hedged his vow with prudent conditions. By virtue of these prudent conditions the duke did not set out ; no one set out ; no one had ever seriously thought of setting out. New Feudal Intrigues; the Duke of Burgundy and the Dauphin. — This fictitious feudalism took a far more genuine interest in the progress of French royalty, which, instead of tournaments and festivities, was making laws, organizing its finances, reforming its armies, driving out the English, and putting itself in a position to make itself feared, and there- fore obeyed. Without breaking with the king of France, the Duke of Burgundy constituted himself the supporter of all the discontented : he sought to attach to himself the heads of all the great families in the kingdom. One of them, the Duke of Alen^on, plotting with the English, was arrested (1456) and condemned, prince of the blood as he was, to perpetual imprisonment. Another, John of Armagnac, attempted the same : a royal army seized his county, and the Parliament condemned him to banishment (1455). A more dangerous enemy was the very heir to the throne, the dauphin Louis. Charles, in order to occupy this restless spirit, sent him to his appanage of Dauphiny. There he turned the province upside down, doubtless effecting many improvements, but often also making changes for the sake of change ; and intrigued with every one, with the king's ministers and with his enemies, with the Duke of Alen9on and the Duke of Burgundy, and gathered around him all those who were odious to Charles VII. In other words, he was as dangerous in Dauphiny as he had been in France. Finally, Charles sent a military force into Dauphiny. Louis fled into Franche-Comte, whence he went to take refuge with the Duke of Burgundy. His hosts lavished honors and money upon him ; they put themselves entirely at his dis- posal ; they refused him only one thing : namely, the loan of an army with which to make war upon his father. The duke, already old, wished to end his life in peace. A war against France would have disturbed everything. It would have become necessary to increase the taxes, which perhaps would have provoked rebellion in those terrible communes of Flanders : he would have had virtually to abdicate, by en- trusting the command of the armies to his son, the young Count of Charolais. And who could tell what would become, in a prolonged contest, of these heterogeneous Burgundian GOVERNMENT OF CHARLES VII. 249 territories ? For all these reasons the Duke of Burgundy, naturally a peaceable man, was disinclined to make war. Death of Charles VII. (1461). —But at the court of France there was uneasiness. Louis, from his retreat at Gennep, was spreading intrigues throughout the kingdom. Charles VII. for a moment thought of transferring the crown to his second son. He believed the dauphin capable of anything, and feared removal by poison. His constitution was weak- ened by excesses. Finally an incurable abscess formed in his mouth, and he died in July, 1461. Jacques Cceiir. — Two great acts of ingratitude and iniquity rest upon the memory of this prince : the cowardly abandon- ment of Jeanne d'Arc to the English, and the condemnation of Jacques Coeur. This great citizen had at first been a mercer. He had travelled in Italy and the Levant. He had sought in Syria and in Egypt the merchandise of the East, and numerous vessels sailed the Mediterranean on his account. Called from Bourges by Charles VII. to take the office of argentier royal, that is to say, administrator of the revenues of the domain, he was associated for twelve years with the most important affairs of the government, and brought to the councils of the king and the management of his revenue, his clear intelligence and rigid honesty. He always knew how to provide in season the necessary re- sources for war, drawing upon his own treasury when there was no money in that of the king. " Sire, what I have is yours," he used to say to the king. The courtiers took him at his word : after a most unjust trial, they divided his spoils and caused him to be imprisoned in a convent. But his former agents, uniting, took him from it by force, and con- ducted him to Eome, where he was received by the Pope with great honor (1455). He died the next year at Chios. Jacques Coeur had not only opened a new route to French commerce, but established relations between France and the Mohammedan princes. In 1447 the sultan of Egypt sent an embassy to the king. The receiver-general of the kingdom was also condemned, and perhaps with equal injustice. The feudal aristocracy loved to take revenge for the superior abilities of the men of business and the fortunes which they acquired so rapidly, but not always scrupulously. For a long time yet, finan- ciers, merchants, and manufacturers had to submit to the haughtiness of the nobility, before taking its place. 250 THE ENGLISH EXPELLED FROM FRANCE. Alain Chartier. — The battle of Agincourt had cost France a graceful poet, Duke Charles of Orleans, who whiled away his long exile in England by the cultivation of poetry. But, strange to say, in these melodious verses of the exiled prince there is no remembrance of France, not a word for her mis- fortunes. The miseries of the country, which penetrated so deeply into the soul of Jeanne d'Ai'c, touched the patri- otic heart of a young Norman poet, Alain Chartier, not unjustly called the father of French eloquence. End of the Middle Ages. — The reign of Charles VII. ended the Middle Ages so far as France is concerned, and began modern times. In the centuries preceding, France had been the first to give shape to the feudal system, to begin the crusades, to originate chivalry, scholasticism, and Gothic arch- itecture, and to organize the bourgeoisie. With Charles VII. it had returned to the Koman system of standing armies and permanent taxes ; under Louis XL it was to complete the destruction of the aristocracy. It was therefore the Roman idea of absolute monarchy which France took up anew and proceeded to realize. The other states of Europe were to follow France in this new path ; but, as it preceded them and guided them in it, it was to be the first to reap the profits, and even as it held the preponderance in Europe during the feudal epoch, it was also to hold it during the monarchical epoch. LOUIS XL 251 CHAPTER XXXIV. LOUIS XI. (1461-1483) : HIS REIGN TO THE DEATH OP HIS BROTHER. (1461-147S A.D.) Louis XL — Feudalism supposed that it was saved by the accession of the dauphin. The Duke of Burgundy and an enormous train of great lords and retainers accompanied him to his consecration at Rheims. Philip the Good appeared almost to be the real king. He was at any rate the king's protector, who had given him shelter in time of persecu- tion. So Louis refused him nothing : he allowed him as a mark of honor to nominate twenty-four counsellors to the Parliament, none of whom, it is true, was ever allowed to take his seat ; he granted him free passage of merchandise from one frontier to the other, on condition that the Parlia- ment should register the concession, and took good care that the Parliament should never register it ; he, at his request, pardoned the Duke of Alengon, and kept the duke's children and strongholds. The Duke of Burgundy returned, loaded Avith honors and fine speeches, but ruined. Then Louis Xl. set to work and began in reality that reign which, however we may judge the king himself, must be reckoned among the most important in French history. Forces still at the Disposal of Feudalism. — The, reign opened in the midst of the most favorable circumstances, so far as foreign affairs were concerned. None of the states which touched France were in a position to disturb Louis XI. in the enterprises which he proposed. But the internal condition of France offered many obstacles. Feudalism still had considerable forces at its disposal. It had at its head an aristocracy of appanaged princes, relatives of the kings, powerful families, rich because of their vast domains, proud of their origin, formidable by reason of their claims to royal independence. They were like so many lesser states placed upon the flanks and in the centre of the kingdom : the house of Brittany, with its old traditions of independence and its 252 Loms XL too friendly relations with. England ; the house of Bourbon, mistress of five or six great provinces in tlie heart of France ; the house of Anjou (Anjou, Maine, Provence), fortunately weakened by the dispersion of its estates and by its foreign ambitions ; the house of Orleans blockading Paris with its possessions, so to speak ; the houses of Alen^on and of Artois ; and finally the house of Burgundy, with its terri- tories and dependencies in the east, in the JSTetherla-nds, and on the Somme, and the exemption from all royal control granted by the treaty of Arras. Then there were in the south the houses of Penthi^vre, Foix, Armagnac, Albret, and La Tr^mouille ; of St. Pol in Picardy, of Montmorency, Laval, La Tour, Clermont-Tonnerre, and Ch^lon. Precipitate Reforms ; Discontent of the People, University, Parliament, Clergy, and Nobility. — At the beginning of his reign, Louis XL made many enemies by precipitate reforms. He removed most of the olficers appointed by his father, and restored those whom the latter had condemned. The people expected a diminution of taxes ; but the perpetual taille was raised from 1,800,000 livres to 3,000,000, and a riot breaking out at Rheims, he hanged a large number of citizens and cropped the ears of others. He notified the University of Paris of a papal prohibition of their mixing in the affairs of the king and the city and of closing their classes at unseasonable times ; that is, pouring out twenty- five thousand students into the streets all ready for a riot. The judges of the Parliament were no better treated : the king restrained the singularly extended jurisdictions of the Parliaments of Paris and Toulouse by erecting at their ex- pense, in 1462, the Parliament of Bordeaux. He had already while dauphin organized, in 1453, that of Grenoble. In 1479 he founded that of Dijon. The Church was not better satis- fied ; the pragmatic sanction of Bourges seemed to Louis to give too much independence to the clergy and too much power to the nobility. He revoked it in spite of the re- monstrances of the Parliament, and demanded of the Church and the churchmen an exact list of all their property, in order that he might check their encroachments. The aristocracy was still more seriously threatened. It saw the king bestowing titles of nobility with a lavish hand and putting restrictions upon their rights of hunting, in order to defend agriculture against the injuries of aristo- cratic amusements. At the same time lie availed himself LOUIS XL 253 of feudal principles so far as to reclaim obsolete feudal dues and arrears, and demanded immediate • payment of them. The highest ranks of nobility, even, found themselves at- tacked. He deprived the house of Bourbon of the govern- ment of Guienne and gave it to a member of the house of Anjou, in order to embroil these two families. He deprived his brother Charles of his government of Berry. With the house of Brittany he had many disagreements. Foreign Policy of Louis XI. — This activity, more ardent than wise, appears from the beginning even in foreign politics. In his first year he began negotiations with the Duke of Milan and the Florentines, in order to recover Genoa and to restore Naples to the house of Anjou, which would have made him the arbiter of Italy. But finally, instead of dominating it by his armies, he resigned himself to the policy of holding it by alliances. In 1463 he ceded Genoa to Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, but he arranged that Galeazzo, the duke's son, should marry Bonne of Savoy, his sister-in-law. Sure thus of Piedmont, in which his father-in-law ruled ; of Milan, in which his nephew was to rule; of Florence, which regarded him as its protector, he exercised a strong influence throughout the peninsula. When Francesco Sforza died suddenly in 1466, he declared that he would spare neither men nor money in order to guarantee to Galeazzo his inheritance ; the Florentines, in- stigated by him, spoke with equal decision, and peace was maintained. Lending two hundred thousand crowns to the king of Aragon, then in great straits, Louis received Roussillon and Cerdana in pledge (1462). He made it still more his object to regain possession of the towns which his father had surrendered in 1435 in order to obtain the Burgundian alliance. The old duke, vigorously importuned, and always short of money because of his magnificent expenditure, promised to accept the ransom of these towns, hoping, how- ever, that the king would not be able to get together the necessary four hundred thousand crowns. In a few days Louis had them : he would have exhausted the exchanges of a,U his good towns rather than not pay them; and the important line of the Somme came again into his power. The Count of Charolais, the violent-tempered son of the Duke of Burgundy, would not pardon this acquisition, wrung from the old age of his father. He had, moreover, other grievances. 254 LOUIS XL League of the Public Weal (1465). — Louis had not reigned four years before every one was against him. The people, forced to meet by taxation governmental necessities which they did not yet understand ; the bourgeoisie, injured in their class interests ; the clergy, threatened in respect to their property; the lesser nobility, threatened in respect to their dearest rights and habits ; the upper aristocracy, threatened in their claims of sovereignty, — all these classes, so profoundly different, so often hostile to each other, found themselves temporarily united in one point : their common desire to circumscribe the royal authority. The king tried to calm this general animosity by a new means, by address- ing himself to public opinion. He assembled at Rouen the deputies of the northern towns, and in the presence of these simple burgesses he, the king, condescended to justify all that he had done. After the burgesses, he assembled the princes ; he addressed them with that prodigious eloquence of which he was master. He recounted to them the whole story of his life, his exile and misfortunes, the embarrass- ments which had surrounded him at his accession, and all the good that he had already accomplished : the assuring of order, the re-establishment of security, the aggrandizement of French territory. The royal harangue made an impres- sion upon all the lords ; yet scarcely had the assembly dis- solved when they were concerting measures for attacking him." They drew over to their side the Duke of Berry, his brother, a young man of eighteen, and made him their head. This rising of feudal society against the royal authority was called by the princes the League of the Public Weal : they were acting only out of pity for the misfortunes of the king- dom "under the discord and piteous government of Louis XL" Louis counted upon the aid of the old Duke of Burgundy. But in March, 1465, Philip the Good fell into a state of dotage, and the Count of Charolais, Charles the Rash or the Bold, took the direction of affairs. At once the dukes of Bourbon, Berry, and Brittany issued their manifestoes. Then came the hostile declarations of the other nobility. Every one seemed eager to join the League of the Public Weal. Louis judged that so many princes, lords, and armies would not easily be got into motion, and that he might win the day by superior activity. His plan was soon formed ; to check in the north the advance of Charles the Bash on Paris, in the west that of Duke Francis II. ; to use the LOUIS XI. 255 respite thus gained to crush the Duke of Bourbon and the allies of the south between his own army, the Italian troops which Erancesco Sf orza was sending him, and the auxiliaries which his good friends the lords of Armagnac and Nemours would bring him ; then to return and defeat separately the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy before they could unite. Battle of Montlhery (1465). — The king took the field with that disciplined army and excellent artillery which his father had bequeathed to him. But his difficulties con- stantly increased. The Count of Armagnac and the Duke of Nemours came indeed, but it was to join the king's enemies. There were similar treasons in the west and in the north. The Bretons and the Burgundians were allowed to enter the kingdom. In July Charles the Bold appeared in the outskirts of Paris without having encountered any obstacle. The possession of Paris was a matter of life and death to Louis XI., who, leaving the Duke of Bourbon and the southern confederates, thought now of nothing else than how to get back into his capital. He sent flattering letters to it. But Paris seemed insensible to the royal cajoleries. Its most influential body, the University, declined to arm its students. The burgesses and the people showed similar coolness. Louis XI. had therefore strong' reasons for has- tening. Moreover, the dukes of Brittany and Berry were advancing, and it was important to arrive before they did. On the morning of the 16th of July the king found him- self at Montlhery. The Burgundians barred his path ; the king eluded them. It was done at the expense of his left wing, but he had attained his end; leaving the count to sound his trumpets over the field of battle to show that he had gained the victory, he hastened to enter Paris. He armed the burgesses ; he accepted the assistance of a coun- cil of six burgesses, six members of the Parliament, and six clerks of the University, endeavoring by all means to gain Paris, and believing that if he had Paris he would have France, whatever should happen. Meanwhile among the confederates nothing was done in concert or in season. The young dukes of Berry and of Brittany advanced slowly ; but jealousies between them revived. The Duke of Berry, as future king, already excited distrust, especially on the part of the Count of Charolais. Treaties of Conflans and St. Maur (1465). — Though Louis XL was a man of much personal bravery, his favoiite com- 256 LOUIS XL bats were those of intelligence, finesse, and deception. So he negotiated incessantly ; sought to sow divisions between these lords, who were already so little in agreement ; and spared neither money nor promises. As it became evident that the league would result in nothing, some found it already a safer plan to sell themselves to the king. Armag- nac, Nemours, and the Count of St. Pol were among the number, the first demanding money, the second -domains, the third the constable's sword. Nothing was refused, and the king saw the league already dissolved by his address, the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy isolated and perhaps mutually hostile. Unfortunately the king could not be everywhere present at once, and wherever he was not pres- ent he was betrayed." Pontoise, Eouen, Evreux, Caen, Beauvais, P^ronne, went over to the princes. This move- ment might gain them Paris. Louis perceived that it was necessary to bring negotiations rapidly to a conclusion. Peace was concluded in October (treaties of Conflans with Charolais, and of St. Maur with the princes). His brother was given Normandy, the suzerainty of the county of Eu, and the duchy of Alen^on, with the nomination to offices in them. The Duke of Burgundy exacted Boulogne, Guines, P6ronne, and the towns of the Somme ; the Duke of Brit- tany, ^fitampes and exemption from appeals to Parliament, the direct nomination of bishops, dispensation from feudal dues, the right of coining money, and in a word, a little kingdom ; the Duke of Lorraine, the dukes of Bourbon and Nemours, the counts of Armagnac and Dunois, and many others, domains and enormous pensions, without counting promises for the future. All this was not exactly evidence of regard for the public weal. Still it was necessary to have an appearance of doing something for it. It was accordingly agreed that a com- mission of thirty-six notables should be charged to make inquiry into abuses and disorders, with full power to remedy them by an ordinance which the king should, without fail, sanction within a fortnight. Intrigues to embarrass the Duke of Burgundy ; Normandy retaken by the King (1466). — Such a treaty, strictly exe- cuted, would have ruined the monarchy and France. But one might be sure that Louis XL would not execute it if there were any chance to do otherwise, and already the Parliament, thoroughly under his control, was refusing to LOUIS XL 257 register it. "Warned by severe experience, Louis resolved to be henceforth more prudent; but his prudence would make use of all resources, stratagem, perfidy, cruelty. The cession of Normandy was especially dangerous ; for by this province, the domains of the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy touched each other, and all the coast from Nantes to Dunkirk was open to the English. Louis from the first day of the treaty began devising means to get back the gift. The Duke of Brittany and the new Duke of Normandy were soon embroiled. Aided by circumstances, Louis kept Charles of Charolais employed elsewhere. The free city of Li^ge had risen in revolt against its bishop, and, encouraged by the king of France, had driven him out and vigorously attacked the Burgundian territory of Limburg. Dinant and Ghent foUoAved the example of Li^ge. Having thus occu- pied Count Charles, and having bought the Duke of Brittany's acquiescence, Louis entered Normandy. In a few weeks the whole province was in his hands. The Duke of Bur- gundy had been unable to do more than write mildly to the king, who replied that he had been compelled against his will to act thus, that his brother and the Normans could not agree, that, moreover, an ordinance of Charles V. forbade the cession of that province as an appanage. Charles could not make reply or act, and the heads of the other princely houses also refrained from interference, the king having won them over one after another, or purchased their neutrality. The house of Bourbon had been won by giving to Duke John almost a kingdom to rule in the centre and the south of France, and to the duke's brother, Pierre de Beaujeu, the hand of the king's daughter Anne in marriage ; the house of Anjou by other presents ; the house of Orleans by attaching old Dunois to his cause ; finally, the friend and confidant of Charles the Bold, the Count of St. Pol, by mak- ing him constable of the realm, captain of Bouen, and gov- ernor of Normandy. The king won over the burgesses, and especially those of Paris, with as much care as the princes. He granted them permanent possession of all ofiices and exemption from all taxation ; he armed them, he carefully fortified their city, he made himself a citizen of Paris as far as he could. New Coalition against the King (1467). — No one hence- forth thought of disputing the king's possession of Nor- mandy. Charles the E,ash, who this year became the Duke 258 LOUIS XL of Burgundy, unable to do anything alone, allied himself with Edward IV. of England. Duke Francis II. of Brit- tany, also, alarmed by the rapid successes of the king, turned anew against him, occupied Caen and Alenyon, sum- moned the English to his aid, and offered them their choice of twelve fortresses. States-General of Tours (1468) . — In the presence of this new danger Louis assembled at Tours the States-General of the kingdom, and asked them simply if they desired that Normandy should cease to be part of the domains of the crown. The States replied with a decided negative, and de- clared that the king's brother ought to content himself with the sixty thousand livres a year offered him. As for the Duke of Brittany, he should be summoned to evacuate the towns which he had seized, and if he did not do so, should be driven out by force ; and the Duke of Burgundy should be invited to assist in carrying out these measures. Then Louis rapidly reduced the Duke of Brittany to submission. Interview of Peronne (1468). — Thus relieved of danger from the Bretons, and having under his orders an excellent army and a fine body of artillery, the king might, it would seem, have accepted the' conflict with the Duke of Bur- gundy. But Louis XL was not fond of battles, in which there was so great scope for chance, for cowardice, or for treason. He remembered the great defeats of the preceding century and of this one. He knew himself to be surrounded by traitors. He knew, moreover, his intellectual superiority over his rival, and counted on obtaining by negotiation all the substantial results of victory. But for this it was necessary to go himself. Some thought that there might be danger in putting himself thus into the hands of Charles the Bash, but the king did not fear. How could the chief of knights be guilty of public treason ? Moreover, the king obtained an explicit safe-conduct from the duke. Con- fiding in this, he repaired almost alone to P6ronne, where Charles the Bold received him with respect (Oct. 8) ; but he saw his most violent enemies surrounding the duke. He demanded for safety to be lodged in the castle, a castle of dismal memory, for it was in it that Herbert of Ver- mandois had held captive the king of France, Charles the Simple. Meanwhile they were discussing, amicably enough, the conditions of the treaty, when, on the 10th, word came to LOUIS XL 259 the duke that Li^ge had risen in revolt ; that its bishop, Louis of Bourbon, had been killed, and with him the Bur- gundian envoy, Humbercourt ; and that at the head of the insurgents had been seen two emissaries of the king of France. In reality, neither the bishop nor Humbercourt had been killed, and to excite such an outbreak was really quite contrary to the interest of the king. But the duke became furiously enraged, uttered frightful threats, and had the gates of the castle closed. Louis was a prisoner. " When so great a lord is taken," says Comines, " he is not delivered." We may add that, in those times, neither could he be kept ; the only course was to put him to death. But then his brother Charles would ascend the throne, and his brother was at once the ally and the guest of the Duke of Brittany. Was it worth while to incur the guilt of such a crime in order to place the crown on the head of a prince devoted to the Breton influence ? It seemed better to ob- tain from the king important concessions, to humiliate him, and by this humiliation to ruin him in the face of public opinion : a calculation as ill-conceived as the act was dis- loyal. "This night, which was the third, the said duke never took off his clothes. Only he lay down two or three times upon his bed, and then he walked up and down ; for such was his fashion when he was troubled. In the morning he was in greater anger than ever, using threats, and ready to do violent deeds. Finally, however, he became pacified to this extent, that if the king would swear peace, and would go with him to Li^ge, and aid him in avenging himself and my lord of Li^ge, his near relative, he would be content ; and suddenly he set out to go to the king's chamber, and bear to him this proposition." The king prudently con- sented to both conditions. It was also agreed that his brother, in exchange for Normandy, should receive Cham- pagne and Brie. To give Champagne to his brother was to give it to Charles the Bold, who would have in it a direct means of communication between his estates of Flanders and his estates of Burgundy; to march against Li^ge, which dis- played his standard, was an act of baseness ; but the princes of that age put success first and honor last. Loiiis, there- fore, followed Charles to the siege and fought there bravely. The city taken, and the cup oi humiliation drained to the 260 LOUIS XL dregs, he departed for Paris, first skilfully surprising the duke into consenting that the king's brother, if not content with Champagne, should have something else instead. The King's Efforts toward Retrieval ; Cardinal Balue. — Thus the wily king, taken in a snare, had given his ene- mies only the trouble of shutting the gate, and of dictating to him humiliating conditions if he wished to escape. Louis had henceforth but one thought, — to efface this recollection by undoing the disadvantageous treaty. Instead of the poor and dismal district of Champagne, he gave his brother the fair and fertile province of Guienne. Charles gladly ac- cepted the exchange, which, however, at the same time removed him from the Duke of Burgundy and embroiled him with the English. One of the king's counsellors, Balue, a man of humble origin whom he had made bishop of Angers and cardinal, had been foremost in urging him toward the interview of P^ronne. Louis discovered that he was secretly in corre- spondence with the Duke of Burgundy. He seized him and his accomplice, the bishop of Verdun, and shut them up in two iron cages, in which they remained for ten years. He sent an army against the Duke of Nemours, who made his sub- mission, and against the Count of Arniagnac, who escaped, but suffered forfeiture of goods. At the same time the Duke of Brittany swore to renounce all foreign alliances, and the king provided the Earl of Warwick with the means for overthrowing in England Edward the Pourth, brother- in-law of Charles the Bold. Having now again isolated the Duke of Burgundy, he ventured to attack him directly : he convoked at Tours an assembly of notables, mostly magistrates, before whom he stated his grievances against Charles, whom he accused of having attacked the ports of Normandy in time of peace, of having demanded from his vassals, though subjects of the crown, an oath to serve him against all persons "without excepting my lord the king," of having seized the goods of Prenchmen at the Antwerp fair, etc. Hereupon the nota- bles declared that the duke had violated the treaty of P6ronne ; and the king, in consequence, immediately seized the places which were within his reach, — St. Quentin, Amiens, and others. He set a numerous army in the field, and the duke was taken iinav/ares. New Coalition against the King (1471) ; Death of the N O ftj p^o ,r ^^S ' r/ Aame?(i LOUIS XL 261 King's Brother (1472).— But the Duke of Brittany, the new Duke of Guienne, and even the head of the army, the constable of St. Pol, alarmed at the rapid progress of the king, were already betraying him. A dauphin had been born in the preceding year, and the Duke of Guienne, being no longer heir to the crown, foimd it his interest to form anew the league of the princes. Louis, perceiving the existence of plots, thought it wise to stop and arrange a truce with the Duke of Burgundy. So Louis XL found it once more necessary to break through the thousand bands in which the aristocracy sought to entangle the crown. The court of his brother was the centre of all these intrigues. Through him a new and great feudal house was in process of formation. The Duke of Burgundy was offering him his only daughter in marriage ; that is to say, was offering the hope of some day joining to his Aquitanian possessions estates more extended, more populous, and more wealthy than those of the king himself. The king was alarmed at the very idea of such a union. His brother now became the chief obstacle in his path. Eegardless of the king's offers, Charles of Guienne made preparations for war, convoked the ban and arriere-ban of his duchy, named an enemy of the king, the Count of Ar- magnac, as commander of his troops, and requested the Pope to release him from his oath of allegiance. Suddenly he died, poisoned, it was rumored, by his almoner, the abbot of St. Jean d'Ang^ly. The documents of the abbot's trial were suppressed by Louis XL, and whether the death was from poison, and if so, whether the poisoning was the deed of Louis, are questions which history cannot solve. But if the king's guilt remains doubtful, there is no doubt of the joy which the illness and death of his brother caused him. War with the Duke of Burgundy (1472). — This event destroyed all the Duke of Burgundy's plans. In his resent- ment he published a manifesto in which he accused the king of lese-majesty, treason, and parricide. To avenge the prince, he crossed the Somme and entered the kingdom, swearing to. put everything to fire and sword. The war was indeed conducted as the duke announced. On captur- ing the little town of Nesle he ordered that every one in it should be put to death. Men, women, and children were massacred in the great church, in which they had taken refuge. 262 LOUIS XL Such slaughter was a warning to the other towns to de- fend themselves well ; so when the Burgundian army arrived before Beauvais, the burgesses stoutly resisted its assault ; even the women took part in the defence, one of them, famous under the name of Jeanne Hachette, esj)ecially dis- tinguishing herself. Charles was not prepared to under- take a siege, and after a new assault, which cost him fifteen hundred men, he broke up his camp and turned toward Nor- mandy, burning all small towns that lay in his path, but followed close at hand by the French, who cut off his sup- plies. Kepulsed before Dieppe, he returned to Rouen, where he waited for the Duke of Brittany ; then, accusing Francis II. of failing to keep his promise, he retreated to his estates. Duke Francis, meanwhile, had been repeatedly defeated by the king, and in October signed an advantageous peace. Soon after Charles the Rash also accepted a truce. The treaty of P^ronne, by which it was supposed that the king of France would be reduced so low, was brought to naught. And since the king had extricated himself so skilfully from so bad a situation, all prudent men began to think that if one must chose a master it was best to take Louis XI. Philippe Comines, the counsellor of the Duke of Burgundy, and Odet d'Ayclie, lord of Lescun, the coun- sellor of the Duke of Brittany, the two men most capable of comprehending and practising the politics of stratagem and of success, both passed over at this time into the service of the king of France. THE EEIGN OF LOUIS XI. 263 CHAPTER XXXV. THE REIGN OF LOUIS XI. (1473-1483 A.D.) The Duke of Burgundy and his Territories. — Comines and Lescun were right in judging that success was henceforth to be on the side of the king of France. Duke Charles was pre- paring his own destruction by attempting a task beyond his powers. His possessions were composed of the duchy and county of Burgundy and of the Netherlands ; in other words,' of a French part and a Flemish part, a feudal part and a communal part, and with no communication between them. Such a state, without natural boundaries, without centre, without national language, could not, at an epoch when great nationalities were forming, be otherwise than frail and ephemeral. Ancient Lotharingia had included, in the south, all the lands between the Cevennes and the Alps, in the north all those between the Ehine and the Scheldt. To expand to these limits was the design which the duke entertained. The difficulties of such a task are manifest. Its accomplish- ment would require successful contest against France, Ger- many, Switzerland, Lorraine, and Provence, all of which would feel themselves threatened by such a revival of Caro- lingian arrangements. Next, it would be necessary to fuse together all these peoples, to induce the men of Marseilles and the men of Nymwegen to live together under one rule, to find a real centre to this long strip of territory, to subdue the unconquerable communes of Flanders, the stout soldiers of Dauphiny, the Swiss mountaineers, to substitute uni- formity for all this utter diversity, — a task in reality impossible. Acquisitions (1466-1473).— In 1468 and 1473 we see some steps taken toward governmental centralization ; the institution of a paymaster-general for all the Burgundian dominions, a common supreme court, and a uniform military organization. But Charles cared much more for acquisi- 264 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL tions than for institutions. In 1469 the old Duke of Gelder- land sold him his duchy. On the death of the Duke of Lorraine, Charles compelled his heir to give up to him four strong places on the frontiers, with a right of free passage across the country. In the same year (1473) the elector of Cologne designated him as protector of that electorate. Shortly before, a needy Austrian prince, the Archduke Sig- ismund, had, for a small sum of money, pledged to him the landgraviate of upper Alsace and the county of Ferrette. This give the duke a passage between Franche-Comt^ and Luxemburg, and a basis of operations against the free cities of the Rhine and of Switzerland (1469). Charles desires to be crowned King. — The duke now desired public recognition of the complete practical inde- pendence which he enjoyed, and the exchange of his ducal coronet for a kingly crown. He applied to the traditional bestower of crowns, the emperor of Germany, offering to Frederick III. the hand of his daughter Mary for Frederick's son Maximilian, and with her the richest inheritance in Christendom, if Frederick would erect his Burgundian pos- sessions into a kingdom. The proposition was accepted, and an interview arranged at Trier, at which the last details were to be fixed. But neither of the two sovereigns was willing to "be the first to execute his agreement. Charles had no desire to adopt a needy and possibly troublesome son-in-law ; Frederick feared to arouse opposition in the empire if he aggrandized the power of the Burgundian duke, already so menacing. The conference broke up with- out accomplishing its purpose. League against the Duke of Burgundy (1474-1475) . — At the same time word came to the duke that a coalition was being formed against him by the Archduke Sigismund, the towns of the Rhine, the Swiss, and the king of France. The archduke at once redeemed Alsace. The Swiss entered Franche-Comt6 and defeated the Burgundians in a bloody battle. Meanwhile Charles was engaged, in behalf of the elector of Cologne, in besieging the little town of Neuss, near that city : the arrival of an enormous German army compelled him to raise the siege. The Duke of Lorraine sent him a message of defiance. The king of France was seizing his towns in Picardy and advancing into Artois, and his strongest ally was making peace with King Louis. Edward's IV.'s Invasion of France (1475). — Urged by THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL 265 Charles, and needing at home the prestige of military suc- cess, Edward IV., king of England, agreed to invade France. He landed at Calais with a magnificent army, expecting to find the duke there with all his forces. Charles sent word that he could not come, but that the constable St. Pol would open all the fortresses to the English. On this assur- ance, Edward pushed forward to the Somme ; but when he approached St. Quentin, the constable's men opened fire upon him. Edward was by this time greatly irritated toward allies who, after having summoned him to their assistance, treated him thus ; the king's skill accomplished the rest. First Louis bought the king's herald, then some of the English lords, then the king himself. The latter's terms were high ; he received seventy-five thousand crowns for the costs of the war, an annual pension of fifty thousand, and the marriage of his daughter with the dauphin (August, 1475). There was nothing heroic about such negotiations ; but Louis had an eye to results alone, and was quite content that the treaty should be called la tr§ve marchande. Charles conquers Lorraine (1475) and invades Switzer- land (1476). — Charles also made peace with Louis XL, in order to be free to bring matters to a conclusion with Lor- raine and the Swiss. Louis prudently refrained from inter- fering to save Lorraine, and in November Charles entered Kancy. Soon after, in midwinter, and with an exhausted ~ army, he crossed the Jura, intending to subdue the Swiss, who had just been ravaging all Franche-Comte. These free peasants were the best soldiers in the world, but Charles utterly despised them. Attacking the little town of Gran- son, he, in order to induce the garrison to surrender, promised them their lives ; then, when thejs had surrendered, he had them hanged. All Switzerland was aroused at the news of this perfidy. The confederated army of Schwyz, Bern, Solothurn, and Freiburg marched to Granson and fell upon the Burgundian troops in a narrow plain where their cavalry and artillery could not readily be used, and where the Swiss infantry, with their long spears, easily had the advantage. The unexpected arrival of the forces of Uri, Unterwalden, and Luzern completed their discomfiture, and they fled in panic. The duke's losses were small, but his prestige was destroyed. His sword, his tent, his diamonds, his ducal seal, even his collar of the Golden Fleece, remained in the hands of the Swiss. 266 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL The duke gave himself up wholly to thoughts of revenge. He gathered together soldiers from all sides in order to form a new army. With thirty-six thousand men he set out for Lausanne, expecting rapid successes. But while he was delayed for three weeks before Morat, the cantons gathered together their forces and received assistance from abroad. Then the Swiss army set out from Bern. Charles the Rash, though warned, took no precautions. Even when the Swiss were already at his intrenchments he still refused to believe that they would dare to attack him. But they rushed upon him with their usual impetuous valor, seized his batteries, shut in the Burgundians between their main body, their rear- guard, the garrison of Morat, and the lake, and slaughtered eight or ten thousand men, in addition to those who were drowned. Battle of Nancy (1477) ; Death of the Duke of Burgundy. — The great Duke of Burgundy, defeated and forced to flee, soon found himself obliged to make head against the Swiss, Louis XL, and the young Duke of Lorraine, whom he had dispossessed. This last attack was the most dangerous, for Lorraine was the connecting link between his provinces, the natural centre of the Burgundian empire. Charles hastened to relieve Nancy. He was too late ; the city had been taken three days before. But Charles immediately set himself to recover it. ' His enemies pushed their preparations rapidly. Louis XL and the Duke of Lorraine hired German and Swiss mercenaries ; the duke appeared before Nancy with twenty thousand men in January, 1477. Charles had only four thousand soldiers ; but no remonstrance could move him to avoid battle. The very next day he moved upon the enemy through deep snow, expecting rather to perish than to win. In a few minutes the little Burgundian army was scattered, captured, or slain. The duke himself per- ished by the hand of an unknown enemy. Louis XL was filled with delight at the news. Ruin of the House of Alencon (1473-1474). — As soon as Louis had seen Charles the Bash begin to engage in these hostilities, he perceived that the duke would have occupa- tion enough for a time, and that he himself would have opportunity to settle matters with those who had so many times turned against him. At his accession he had released the Duke of Alengon from the imprisonment to which Charles VII. had condemned him, in commutation of his THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL 267 death-sentence. Alengon, on being set free, proceeded to assassinate those who had borne witness against him ; he counterfeited money, and entered into the League of the Public Weal and all the conspiracies formed against the king ; he even offered to sell his duchy of Alen^on and his county of Perche to the Duke of Burgundy. In 1473 Louis had him arrested and delivered over to the Par- liament, taking the precaution to distribute his ]oroperty among his judges in advance. The court for the second time condemned him to capital punishment. The king granted him his life, but kept him in prison until he died, two years later. His innocent son, by the arts of those to whom the father's property had been granted, was en- trapped into writing to the Duke of Brittany, to ask for an asylum in his dominions, and was then condemned to per- petual imprisonment for having done it. Kuin of the House of Armagnac (1475) . — John V., the wicked Count of Armagnac, tried before the Parliament in Charles VII.'s time on charges of incest, murder, and for- gery, had been condemned, but had escaped. One of the first acts of Louis XI., on his accession, was to restore to him his domains, and grant him complete immunity for all his crimes. The count's gratitude was of the sort that might have been expected. He was constantly found among the enemies of the king, an ally of the Duke of Bur- gundy, of the Duke of Guienne, of the king of England. Louis seized the first moment of tranquillity which the ambitious projects of Charles the Bold afforded him, to punish Armagnac. In 1473 he sent the cardinal of Alby to besiege Lectoure. During negotiations the cardinal seized a gate of the town. John of Armagnac was slain before the eyes of his wife ; she, then in pregnancy, was poisoned ; and the soldiers committed such slaughter that only seven of the inhabitants remained alive. Ruin of the House of Nemours (1477). — The house of Nemours was a younger branch of the house of Armagnac. At the beginning of his reign, Louis had unwisely given to Jacques d' Armagnac, under the name of the duchy of ISTe- mours, immense possessions in the regions of Meaux, Cha- lons, Langres, Sens, etc. The League of the Public Weal came, and Nemours went over to the king's enemies. At the time of the treaty of Conflans he returned to Louis, swore fidelity to him, and received from him the govern- 268 . THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL ment of Paris and lle-de-France ; less than a year afterward lie was again found among the enemies of the crown. Frightened by the measures taken against his kinsman of Armagnac, he made a new submission, and took a new oath of the most solemn character. Two years later, at the height of the king's difficulties, the duke refused him all aid, and, watching events, stood ready to seize Languedoc. When delivered from danger of the English, Louis besieged Nemours in his castle of Carlat, took him prisoner, and had him conducted to the Bastile, loaded with chains, and placed in an iron cage, with orders that he should never be taken out of it except in order to be tortured, and that he should be tortured thoroughly " and made to talk." Judges among whom the king had, according to his custom, divided in advance the property of the accused, took down his con- fession and drew up the indictment, on which he was then brought before the Parliament. Nemours confessed all and wrote a most touching letter to the king. Three members of the Parliament voted in his favor. Louis forthwith sus- pended them from their office, regardless of the remon- strances of their colleagues. Condemnation was pronounced, and the duke beheaded (1477). A brother of John of Armagnac and a member of the powerful house of Albret, detected in plots, were impris- oned and beheaded respectively. These executions taught the nobles of the South, so often rebellious, to respect the law and the king. The king of Aragon, who had pledged Eoussillon to Louis, stirred up rebellion in the province, hoping thus to recover it without having to restore the money. Louis sent a good army, which took Perpignan, and closed access to Prance on that side (1474). Enin of the House of St. Pol (1475). — There remained still another lord to be punished, one upon whom Louis had bestowed money, estates, the captaincy of Eouen, the government of Normandy, and, with the office of constable, the defence of the kingdom. This man, the Count of St. Pol, who had both French and Flemish fiefs, determined to create for himself an independent sovereignty between England, France, and Burgundy. He had worked at this scheme for ten years, deceiving in turn the English, the Burgundians, and even Louis XL Louis was therefore the more implacable in his resentment when, by the exchange of the count's letters, the three powers saw how they had THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL 269 been duped by him. On the approach of the French troops, the constable, thinking that in spite of all he would still have an asylum with his old friend, the Duke of Burgundy, fled to Mons. But a bargain was arranged between the Duke of Burgundy and the king ; Louis abandoned the Duke of Lorraine to Charles, and the Burgundian prince delivered up the constable, who was transported to the Bastile, closely questioned, and promptly beheaded. Extension of the Royal Power. — The existence of France depended upon the realization of two things, — territorial unity and governmental unity. This twofold unity, vaguely appreciated, was the end of all the acts of Louis XI. ; securely to establish the royal government by reducing the aristoc- racy was the main effort of his whole reign. For this he used every means, striking down some of the great families, as has been narrated, seeking to attach others to his side : the house of Bourbon, by giving his daughter in marriage to the old duke's brother and heir, Pierre de Beaujeu; the house of Orleans, by giving his second daughter, Jeanne, to Duke Louis ; the house of Anjou, by extorting from old Count Ren6 and his nephew a will which made the king heir of Maine, Anjou, and Provence ; the house of Brittany, last and most endowed with vitality of all the great fiefs, by extend- ing his possessions as far as possible toward it, and by draw- ing to his court all the serviceable Bretons who would accept his offers. Burgundian Succession ; the Austrian House in the Nether- lands. — The death of Charles the Rash had opened a ques- tion which was of the gravest consequence to France. As Charles left only a daughter, what was to become of the Burgundian possessions ? Louis' first project was to acquire the whole of it by a marriage ; but several others conceived the same design. Five candidates for the hand of Mary of Burgundy appeared, among whom were the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, son of the Emperor Frederick III., and the dauphin Charles, afterward Charles VIII. This last marriage was an impossibility ; it Avould have involved the union of a child of eight years with a princess of twenty ; moreover, the Flemings would never have consented to have a count who would at the same time be king of France, and therefore far too powerful for them. Louis perceived this, and tried to take possession outright in advance. In Picardy he put forward the right of reversion to the crown, stipu- 270 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL lated in the treaty of Arras ; in Artois, lie made use of the feudal right of forfeiture in punishment for misdeeds of Charles toward him; in Burgundy, he made claims of feudal guardianship ; and everywhere he made his plans to retain what he took. After resuming possession of the French provinces, he sent his troops into the imperial and Flemish provinces, into Franche-Comt^, Hainault, and Brabant. To cover his aggressions, Louis studiously fomented trou- bles in Flanders. The Flemings, who had been exceedingly ill used by Charles the Bold, had regarded his death as a signal deliverance. They proposed to bestow the young princess as they chose, and, as a first step, made her promise that she would be exclusively guided as ruler by the advice of the states of Flanders. She promised, but at the same time wrote to Louis XI. that her two chief councillors would be two Burgundians, former ministers of her father. Louis showed this letter to the envoys of Ghent ; and the populace, enraged against the two councillors, demanded their death. The young countess begged the people, with tears in her eyes, to spare her two servants ; but it was in vain. She would not forgive Louis the humiliation to which he had thus subjected her, and, in spite of the king of France, in spite of her own subjects, she bestowed her hand and her rich inheritance on Maximilian of Austria (1477). Royal marriages are now mere family events, most of which have little influence on the politics of nations. It was otherwise at the end of the fifteenth century, when states Avere made and unmade without other reason than the unions of their masters. Among princely marriages which deserve the attention of history on account of their momentous con- sequences, that of Maximilian of Austria and Mary of l)urgundy takes a leading place. Their son, Philip the Handsome, was to marry the heiress of Castile and Aragon; the possessions of Castile, Aragon, Burgundy, and Austria were to be united in a single hand ; and the overshadowing power of Charles V., the struggle of France and of Europe against the house of Austria, were to result. Battle of Guinegate (1479). — The Flemings meanwhile began to become indignant at the encroachments of Louis in Hainault, and decided to attack Th^rouanne. Cr^ve- coeur, the general of Louis XL, on his way to relieve the town, met Maximilian advancing with a large body of Flem- ish troops. Cr^vecoeur had only half as much infantry, THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL 271 ,but twice as many men-at-arms. With this mass of cavalry he drove Maximilian's men-at-arms from the field ; but in the meanwhile his own infantry was totally defeated, and the battle lost. Yet Maximilian gained nothing substantial. He could not even take Th^rouanne, and retired to Flanders, where a thousand difficulties awaited him, — revolts, insur- rections, and factious opposition. He exhausted his last re- sources in order to extricate himself from these difficulties, pawned his wife's jewels, and fell ill of chagrin. Treaty of Arras (1482) ; the King obtains Half the Bur- gundian Possessions. — For the king of France, on the other hand, these last years were very fruitful. Good news and inheritances came to him one upon another. In 1480 King Een^died; in 1481, his nephew Charles ; and thus, by virtue of their wills, Maine, Anjou, and Provence devolved on Louis XI. In March, 1482, Mary of Burgundy died. She left two children, Philip and INf argaret ; but the Flemings formed a council of regency, and allowed Maximilian only a shadow of authority. He attempted to seize and hang some insubordinate citizens. Thereupon the Flemings turned to the king of France, and offered him, for hivS young dauphin, their little princess Margaret, who would bring to him as dower the French provinces of the Burgundian inheritance. They liberally added the counties of Burgundy and Artois, which were not theirs ; on such a basis the treaty of Arras was easily concluded (December, 1482). The envoys of Flanders repaired to the kmg at his castle of Plessis-lez-Tours : not a castle, but a fortress ; a prison with iron portcullises, iron gates, drawbridges, towers, and soldiers. After traversing drawbridges and bastions they found themselves in a little chamber dimly lighted, and in a corner of the chamber they perceived a man almost en- tirely concealed in rich furs. It was Louis XI., struck with paralysis two years before, feeling himself dying, yet still filling Europe with his activity, redoubling his suspicions and his harshness as he grew weaker, and clinging to life and power with all his might. He caused the Gospel to be brought, upon which he was to take the oath. " If I swear with my left hand," said he, " you will excuse it ; my right is a little weak ; " but then, reflecting that a treaty sworn with the left -hand might some time be annulled on that ground, he made an effort, and touched the Gospe) with his right elbow. 272- THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL Acquisitions made in this Reign. — Thus this dying king received four important provinces, — Picardy, Artois with the county of Boulogne, the duchy and the county of Burgundy, with Charolais and Auxerre. Three others, Anjou, Maine, and Provence, had come to him by will ; a state trial had brought him the duchy of Alengon and Perche ; the death of his brother, Guienne ; his intervention in the affairs of Spain, Roussillon and Cerdana. Thus eleven provinces were added to the domains of the crown within a single reign, without reckoning the profits gained by the execution of St. Pol, Nemours, and Armagnac. It was an immense stride toward unity of territory, and a decisive blow had been struck at the power of the great nobles. Foreign Affairs. — France was on the way to regain that position of pre-eminence in Europe which it had so often occupied. Her alliance was sought for on all sides. Six thousand Swiss served in the king's army; Scotchmen formed his guard ; he was the protector of Lorenzo de' Medici at Florence, of Galeazzo Sforza at Milan, of the young king of Navarre, the young Duke of Savoy, and the young Duke of Gelderland. He had the wisdom to obtain from these alliances only what was useful to himself. But if he avoided compromising foreign expeditions, he pur- sued eagerly those which were necessary. Mention has already been made of his capture of Perpignan from the king of Aragon, which secured to France its natural boun- daries. Germany, under Frederick III., caused the king of France no uneasiness, nor did he fear England, as was shown by his revoking, by the treaty of Arras, the promise of marriage made in the treaty of Pecquigny. Last Hours of Louis XL (1483). — But the king of France, at the age of sixty, was dying, in spite of a thou- sand efforts made to hold on to life. He had pursuaded the king of Naples to send him St. Francis de Paul; before whom he cast himself upon his knees, that the saint might prolong his life. Sultan Bajazet, for favors received, sent him relics from Constantinople. The king had caused the sacred ampulla to be brought from Rheims, and proposed, it was said, to have his entire body anointed with its oil. But remedies, prayers, and eagerness to live were unavail- ing. "All accomplished nothing," said Comines, "and it needs must be that he should go where others have gone." Those about him, whom he had always enjoined to announce THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL 273 to him gently the approach of the end, told him bluntly that he must die. Then at length he resigned himself to it, sum- moned the dauphin to his bedside, gave him excellent ad- vice, and died on the 30th of August, 1483. ''Would one say," says Comines, "that this king did not suffer as well as others, who thus shut himself up and caused himself to be guarded, who was thus in fear of his children and of all his near relatives, who changed from day to day his attendants and nurses, and dared not trust in any of them, and chained himself with so strange a chain and imprison- ment ? " New Parliaments ; Posts ; Favors to the Bourgeoisie. — Louis granted permanent tenure to the magistrates in 1467. He extended the action of the government over the remote provinces by the establishment of posts (1464), at first used only for the king's affairs and those of the Pope ; by erect- ing the Parliaments of Grenoble, Bordeaux, and Dijon; and finally, by extending appeals to the king's court from sen- tences in seignorial courts. To attach the new provinces and keep the affections of the old, he preserved or granted to them proviticial estates, and lent ear to their complaints. In order to gain over the burgesses and to find in their devotion an assistance against the nobles, he frequently authorized their assemblies and gave them free elections of magistrates. Encouragement of Commerce and Letters. — Yet when the burgesses, excited by increase of taxes, rose in revolt, they were cruelly treated ; many were hanged on trees along the roadsides, or cast into the river, sewn up in sacks, upon which was written, " Let the king's justice pass." All bent before his sovereign will, and the royal power came from his hands blood-stained, but feared by the nobles because of his strength, and respected by the people because it guaranteed public peace and security of roads, and because it already occupied itself with the great interests of modern socie- ties, commerce and industry. The king built great works of fortification. He improved the highways, and summoned to court the ablest merchants to advise concerning means to further the prosperity of industries and commerce ; he multiplied fairs and markets and attracted to them the merchants of the Netherlands, Savoy, and other neighboring countries by special privileges, and wrote to the sultan of Egypt to recommend to him the French who traded with 274 THE REIGN OF LOUIS XL that country. Workmen from Venice, Genoa, and. Florence establislied at Tours the first manufactures of silks. He encouraged mining industries. For the benefit of commerce he tried to bring about unity of laws and of weights and measures. What he proposed was not a simple compilation of the coutumes, but a labor of legislation ; for he caused the laws of foreign countries, especially those of Venice and Florence, to be brought together and studied for helpful comparison. We ought also to set down to the credit of the king, him- self a man of letters, his encouragement of learning (the foundation or reorganization of the universities of Valence, Bourges, and Besangon, and of several schools of law and medicine, etc.) and the favor with which he supported the recent invention of printing. The famous poet Villon was of his time ; Comines, his counsellor, still remains one of the great historians of France, an observant, acute, and thoughtful historian of subtle political intrigues. Character of Louis XI. — Louis XI. contributed more than any one else to establish the French monarchy, and is in certain respects the representative of the new spirit in politics. For by giving no recognition to birth and all to merit, he secured to intellect the place which it occupies in modern governments. Unfortunately, in his schemes intellect only too often took the form of stratagem and perfidy. Louis undertook to secure the preponderance of general interests over individual interests ; but he gave an appearance of personal vengeance to measures of severity which the good of France demanded. His task was to destroy feudal society, a society which had outlived its time though still tenacious, and which must either give place or perish if it persisted in efforts to maintain itself. It per- sisted, fought, and perished ; but the battle was conducted in such a manner that pity was felt for the conquered, and men forgot the duties of the victor ; that is, the obligation under which royalty lay, at length to give unity, peace and order to the country. This duty Louis XI. fulfilled, but too often through violations of moral law. France certainly owes much to him, but he cannot be absolved from the charge of having treated all means as good which served his turn. THE REIGN OF CHARLES VIII. 275 CHAPTER XXXVI. THE REIGN OP CHARLES VIII. (1483-1491 A.D.) The Royal Family. — Charles VIII., then thirteen years and two months old, was the youngest of the children of the deceased king. He was weak in physique and of a character hardly more robust. His father, caring little for a child who was sickly and of slight intelligence, kept him remote from the court, at Amboise. This feeble prince was king of France in full possession of authority ; for the law fixed the majority of kings at the attainment of thirteen years. But this legal fiction deceived no one. It was well known that authority was entirely in the hands of his sister Anne, a princess of twenty-two years, who had married Pierre de Beaujeu, a younger son of the great house of Bourbon. Anne had in her favor neither the will of her father, nor the affection of her brother, nor the laws of the kingdom, nor the benefits of experience ; but simply the advantage of possessing many of the qualities of Louis XL Louis, who had said of her, " She is the least a fool of all women, for wise one there is none," had confided to her the young king's education and health. Jeanne, the younger daughter of Louis XL, was small, thin, ill-favored, hunch- backed, and so ugly that her father could not endure to see her. Married in 1476 to Louis of Orleans, she had not found in that union, which was simply a pledge of mutual reconciliation, more happiness than in her own family. Her husband, Louis of Orleans, first prince of the blood, twenty-one years old, was entirely engrossed with gallantry, festivals, and tournaments. A man of pleasure more than of politics, he would have contented himself with being regarded as the model of knights but for his two young cousins, the counts of Angouleme and Dunois, who urged him forward. The old Duke of Bourbon, elder brother of the Sire de Beaujeu, also had his designs. The princely aris- tocracy was, it was thought, to take the upper hand; the 276 THE REIGN OF CHARLES Vllt. time of kings had passed, the time of princes and great nobles had returned. Aristocratic Reaction. — Princes and nobles began their work without delay. Offices, enormous estates, and pen- sions were assigned to the Duke of Orleans, the Count of Dunois, the Count of Angouleme, the Duke of Lorraine, and the Duke of Bourbon ; and the king was disarmed by the dismissal of the six thousand Swiss whom Louis had had in his service. Vengeance was satisfied, as well as avarice. An ordinance revoked all' alienations of the do- main eifected by Louis XL One by one his "evil coun- sellors " were taken and punished. His former enemies, on the other hand, were restored and rewarded. Those whom he had punished, John of Armagnac, traitor and murderer, Jacques of Nemours, ten times a traitor and per- jurer toward State and king, were transformed into innocent victims. The brother of the one, the children of the other, laid claim to rehabilitation, and especially to restitution. That the counter-revolution might be complete, it would have been necessary that government should have passed entirely into the hands of princes ; but the aristocracy had lost the courage to maintain its former high pretensions. It referred the question of sovereignty to the States-Gen- eral, convoked in January, 1484. The Duke of Orleans did not doubt that they would aid him to supplant his sister-in- law, and Anne counted confidently on using them to check all these budding ambitions. States-General of 1484. — These States-General were in reality the first of French national assemblies. All the provinces of France sent deputies. Each order sent its own representatives, elected in local assemblies, in which even the peasants took part; so that the States of 1484 marked the entrance of the rural population upon public life, as those of 1302 had brought in the urban population ; they marked the final union of burgesses and peasants. The formation of the Third Estate was now being effected. It is noteworthy that in the Assembly the deputies did not divide themselves, or vote in separate orders, but in six sec- tions, corresponding to six great territorial regions. Finally no assembly, unless that which was directed by Marcel, asserted more vigorously the rights of the nation at large. On the 15th of January the royal session took place in the great hall of the archbishop's palace. The young king sat THE REIGN OF CHARLES VIII. 277 upon the throne. At his right, at some distance, sat the constable ; at his left, the chancellor. Between them and the throne stood four great lords ; while behind were seated two cardinals, six ecclesiastical peers, and six princes of the blood or lay peers, behind whom stood some twenty lords. Facing the king, on a little lower level, the deputies of the nation were ranged upon two semi-circular benches, the bishops, barons, and knights upon the first, the other depu- ties upon the second. The chancellor, in a long harangue, expressed the young king's desire to know his subjects and be known by them, announced the economy in expenses which he had prescribed, the reforms begun and proposed, his intention to provide for his personal expenses by means of the revenues of his own domain, and his need to resort to the estates for the expenses which the security of the kingdom required. Next day the estates formed their six sections or nations of France, Burgundy, Normandy, Aqui- taine, Languedoc, and Provence. They chose as their presi- dent the abbot of St. Denis, first deputy of Paris, and set to work to prepare their cahiers, or lists of grievances. At the beginning of February this work was finished, and dis- cussion began. A grave question first arose : that of the guardianship and education of the king. Some deputies advanced the view that the national assembly had no right to discuss the guardianship or regency ; that by the very nature of a mo- narchical government, power devolved upon the royal fam- ily ; that if the king was unable to exercise it himself the princes of the blood of right took his place. This opinion found an eloquent opponent in Philippe Pot, Lord of La Roche, deputy for the noblesse of Burgundy, who made a speech of singular boldness, in which he urged the exces- sive numbers and discordant ambitions of the princes of the blood, and declared that there was a superior and sovereign authority in whom resided the power, and which alone could delegate it ; namely, — the authority of the people, or the States-General composed of its deputies. He reminded them also that, in the beginning, the sovereign people had set up kings by its elective vote, and that the nation as a whole had the deepest interest in the question who should govern it. The states were therefore, according to the orator, the depositories of supreme power ; nothing ought to be done without their advice or consent: and he reminded them 278 THE REIGN OF CHARLES VIII. that this authority had already been fully exercised under Philip IV. and his sons, at the accession of Philip of Valois, and during the regency of Charies V. This discus- sion was interrupted by a royal session in which Jean de Rely, canon and deputy of Paris, after a long harangue to the king, began to read the cahiers of grievances. Organization of the New Government. — Next the dep- uties attempted the nomination of the members of the council; but finally they referred all to the king, merely recommending him to listen to the advice of his council, in which twelve deputies of the estates should have seats. In the absence of the king, the Duke of Orleans was to preside over this council ; in his absence, the Duke of Bourbon, then the Sire de Beaujeu. The Duke of Orleans remained nom- inally at the head of the government, but the Dame de Beaujeu, who had accustomed her brother to obey and fear her, by causing him to preside over the council pushed aside the Duke of Orleans, and by causing it to be presided over by her husband, a simple baron of Beaujeu, she' ex- cluded from it the Duke of Alen9on and the other princes of the blood, who, more highly qualified by rank, would not sit below him. So, without any one's having foreseen it, was constituted the government of Madame, so called, which was to continue the firm and energetic administra- tion of Louis XI. Situation of the Kingdom according to the Cahiers. — The cahiers of the estates show us what was at that time the situation of the kingdom. The cahier of the Church demanded that the king should be crowned at once, and that he should re-establish the liberties of the Church as defined by the councils of Constance and Basel, and secured by the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. That of the nobility claimed indemnities for privileges which had been taken away by Louis XL The cahier of the Third Estate de- clared the extreme misery to which the people had been reduced by the intolerable weight of the taxes, by the exactions of the court of Rome, and by those of the soldiers, who, ceaselessly marching from province to prov- ince and quartered upon the laborer, subjected him to every sort of exaction. The deputies of Anjou, Maine, and the district of Chartres declared that in their provinces more than five hundred persons had been put to death within the last few years on pretext of having engaged THE BEIQN OF CHARLES VIII. 279 in contraband dealings in salt. To remedy these evils, the States desired that the pensions granted to the lords should be suppressed or greatly reduced; that the king should reduce his military forces to the number kept up by Charles VII., and should oblige them to observe the ordinances ; that taxes should not be imposed or exacted without first assembling the States and declaring the causes and the necessities of the king and kingdom. The States also demanded the abolition of the practice of selling judi- cial ofiices, the fixing of judicial costs on a moderate scale ; and finally, to accomplish all these useful reforms and to maintain good order, that the States of the kingdom should be convoked every two years. Dissolution of the Assembly. — Unable to obtain any but falsified financial accounts, they finally granted to the king, for two years, the same taille which the kingdom had paid Charles VII. From that time their deliberations de- generated into disputes, often shameful disputes, between the provinces, each eager to escape its part of the common burdens. The discussions respecting the pay due to the deputies, contributed still more to discredit them. The assembly having been dissolved on the 15th of March, 1484, favorable replies to its cahiers were made in the king's name. But no ordinance of reform was published, and so nothing was changed in the government. First Revolt of the Duke of Orleans (1485-1486). — The Duke of Orleans, by his fine presence, his chivalrous manners, and his taste for pleasure and dissipation, gained an influence over the young king, his brother-in-law, which soon caused Anne of Beaujeu much uneasiness. Hearing of secret plots of the princes against her authority, she at once sent troops to Paris to arrest the Duke of Orleans. The duke narrowly escaped capture. Declared a rebel, he drew over to his cause Duke Francis II. of Brittany, made an alliance with Maximilian, chagrined at the concessions of the treaty of Arras, and even requested the assistance of King Richard III. of England. Anne of Beaujeu defeated all these plans. She kept Rich- ard III. in his kingdom by aiding his rival, Henry of Rich- mond, who soon became King Henry VII. of England. She intrigued with the estates of Flanders against Maximilian ; and made alliance with the nobles of Brittany against Fran- cis II. The Duke of Orleans was captured, and compelled 280 THE REIGN OF CHARLES VIIL to return to the court and to promise to occupy himself henceforward with his pleasures only. The "Foolish War"; Battle of St. Aubin du Cormier (1486-1488). — But Maximilian, who some months before had been chosen king of the Romans, that is, heir of the imperial crown, broke the treaty of Arras. The league of the princes was formed anew ; a League of the Public Weal, like that of twenty years before. Anne had not committed the faults of Louis XI. ; she had more resources remaining, and used them with ability. Maximilian was checked in Artois (1487). The young king, set at the head of a de- voted army, marched against the confederates of the south- ern provinces. Everywhere the burgesses took arms against the lords and the garrisons. In a few days all troubles in the south were (Quieted ; Anne then turned toward Brittany. La Tr^mouille entered it with French troops in April, 1488. In July, near St. Aubin du Cormier, he totally de- feated the Breton army. Three or four thousand were slain in the battle, and the number of prisoners was equally great. The Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Orange were cap- tured, and the ruin of their cause was complete. The two princes were conducted into Prance under guard and impris- oned. The duke, heir presumptive of the crown though he was, remained for three years in the great tower of Bourges. Operations in the north went on with equal success. The Flemings, incited against Maximilian, drove his German troops from their country and compelled him to yield. So the Dame de Beaujeu defeated all coalitions and kept the' conquests of her father : she was to add to them one great province more. After a little fighting in Brittany, negotia- tions were entered into. A treaty was signed at Sabl6 in August, 1488. The Duke of Brittany engaged to banish all the king's enemies from his estates and to give them no more aid. He also promised not to marry his daughters without the advice and consent of the king. The estates of the province signed a bond of 200,000 gold crowns to guarantee these promises, and the French kept as a pledge four strong places. Marriag-e of Charles VIII. with Anne of Brittany ; Acqui- sition of Brittany (1491). — Three weeks after the treaty of SabM Duke Francis 11. died. The marriage of his daughter Anne (the other died soon) became a question of European politics : should Brittany, the last of the great liefs, be THE REIGN OF CUARLEIS VIII. 281 united to the domains of the king of France, or should it not ? The sovereigns of Europe took the liveliest interest in the independence of the province. Henry VII. promised troops and money ; Ferdinand of Aragon sent both. The suitors for the hand of the young princess were numerous, and among them was the Emperor Maximilian. Had he suc- ceeded, he would have menaced the independence of France on three frontiers. Fortunately, while his ambassador was contracting the marriage by proxy for him in Brittany, the king of France, under the able guidance of his sister, was more active and so more fortunate. French troops already occupied a large part of the province ; in August, 1491, they undertook the siege of Eennes. At the begin- ning of October the king himself approached. When the secret negotiations had arrived at the proper point, the king made pretext of a pilgrimage to Our Lady near Eennes, and his devotions accomplished, entered the town and held a long conference with the duchess. Three days later he was betrothed to her. The marriage took place at Langeais in Touraine, in December, 1491. The king, then twenty- one years of age, and the duchess, then forty, made mutual cession of all their titles and claims to the duchy of Brit- tany ; under this reservation, however, that if the duchess should survive the king and should have no children by him, she should not enter into any other marriage save with the future king, if it were possible, or with the heir pre- sumptive of the crown. This marriage was the last act of Madame de Beaujeu. After having governed the kingdom for eight years with masculine ability, she returned, simply and without effort, to her duties as a wife, and confined her- self to them until she died in 1522. The marriage of Charles VIII. to the Duchess Anne brought under the royal authority the last refuge of princely independence. The province which had longest and most obstinately maintained its individuality became fused like the rest into the one great whole, the kingdom of France. Princes would never again be able to raise their standards against the king. Yet though the aristocracy was con- quered, and in part despoiled, its spirit, its tastes, and its tendencies remained, and indeed exerted a strong influence upon royalty itself. The crown abandoned the bourgeois and popular fashions which it had more than once assumed, and which had stood it in so good stead under Philip the 282 THE REIGN OF CHARLES VIII. Fair and Charles the Wise, Charles the Well-Served and Louis XI. Seduced by the glorious bubble of Italian con- quest, it was to assume the sword and lance of chivalry, to enter upon the path of war and conquest in imitation of the paladins of Charlemagne and the preux chevaliers, and, under Charles VIII., to go forth itself for the con- quest of the kingdom of Naples, and to dream of that of Constantinople and of Jerusalem. NINTH PERIOD. Italian Wars (1494-1515). CHAPTER XXXVII. FIRST ITALIAN WAR. (1494-1498 A.I>.) Italy in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century. — At the time when the French monarchy was absorbing the last of the great fiefs, the Italian peninsula still presented all varieties of government, — monarchy in the south, theocracy in the centre, republics and principalities in the north. In that country, with its rich but corrupt civilization, the mar- vellous developments of the arts but imperfectly concealed a premature decline, and the brilliancy of literature did not keep from view the degeneracy of character. Wars were carried on only by means of mercenary condottieri. The loss of the military virtues is a fatal sign in any nation. Stratagems, perfidy, and falsehood were held in honor. Political difficulties were resolved by poison or the dagger. Italian diplomacy was a school of crime. The Holy See and the States of the Church were in the hands of the infamous Pope Alexander VI. (Borgia). At Naples, King Ferdinand was universally detested. At Flor- ence, Piero de' Medici made his despotism felt more than that of his illustrious, predecessors, Cosmo and Lorenzo, had been. At Milan, Ludovico Sforza (il Moro) was plotting to displace his young nephew Galeazzo. Venice seemed at the height of her power, but Genoa was in a perpetual state of revolution. The glorious democracies of the fourteenth century had become changed into narrow oligarchies. Des- 284 FIRST ITALIAN WAR. potism had taken the place of the ancient liberty. Italy, filled with wealth, but delivered over to anarchy, was a prey reserved for the first who should dare to seize it. Charles VIII. resolved to make the attempt. Imprudence of Charles VIII. — Louis XI. had been care- ful not to assert those claims to the kingdom of Naples which he derived from the house of Anjou. Charles VIII. revived them, in order to set forth and achieve great things with the sword beyond the mountains. Anne of Beaujeu vainly attempted to make him listen to the counsels of wis- dom. All the old politicians gave the same advice ; but the king refused to listen. He was eager for novelty, for a brilliant and glorious expedition after the fashion of the paladins of Charlemagne. The impulsive ardor of the nobility carried all before it. Moreover, Italy herself ap- pealed to France. Ludovico, threatened by the king of Naples, invoked the aid of Charles VIII. ; others, too, in- voked him, — the Marquis of Saluzzo, the Neapolitan barons exasperated against their king, Savonarola, and the cardi- nals who were the enemies of Alexander VI. Yet, taking into consideration the situation of France, the moment was ill chosen for a remote expedition ; the neighboring powers, disturbed by the acquisition of Brit- tany, were forming a new league. Henry VII. was landing an English army at Calais ; Maximilian was attacking Artois ; Ferdinand of Aragon was undertaking to cross the Pyrenees. Charles entered into negotiations with the avaricious Henry VII., who, on promise of 745,000 crowns of gold, payable in fifteeii years, returned to England ; with Ferdinand the Catholic, to whom Cerdaiia and Eoussillon were restored ; with Maximilian, who recovered for his son Artois, Franche-Comt6, and Charolais, conquests of Louis XL All these were frontiers essential to the defence of the kingdom. But what mattered it to Charles VIII. ? The submission of Italy was certain, and this conquest was only the beginning of a still more glorious fortune. From Naples he hoped to cross over into Greece, to drive the Turks from Constantinople, and to recover the Holy Sep- ulchre. Thus began those hazardous expeditions which diverted France from internal improvement and from acqui- sitions more certainly within its reach. Conquest and Loss of the Kingdom of Naples ; Battle of Fornovo. — A fine army assembled with eager promptness. FIRST ITALIAN WAR. 285 in August, 1494, at the foot of the Alps. It consisted of 3600 lances, 6000 Breton archers, a similar number of cross- bowmen, 8000 Gascon arquebusiers, 8000 Swiss pikemen ; in all 50,000 men, with 140 large cannon, and a multitude of small pieces ; " a gallant company, but little inclined to obedience." Many things necessary for so great an enter- prise were lacking; neither provisions nor wagons nor ready money had been accumulated. The king of Naples had sent his brother with a fleet along the coast by Genoa, and his son with an army toward the Apennines, to guard the approaches by sea and land. The Duke of Orleans gathered together a few vessels at Marseilles and defeated the former at Eapallo ; the latter thereupon retreated. Fear seized upon the entire penin- sula. The memory of the barbarian invasions was renewed ; it was already too late to send back the foreigner whom they had summoned. Charles VIII. had crossed Mont Gen^vre on the 2d of September. He found himself short of money at the very beginning of the campaign. At Genoa he borrowed one hundred thousand francs, at a rate which, counting every- thing, amounted to 42 per cent. At Asti he was joined by Ludovico il Moro. Ludovico was in great fear of the Nea- politans ; he conducted the conqueror across the duchy of Milan to the frontiers of Tuscany. His nephew died a little while afterward ; it was believed that by assisting the king he had purchased the right to poison his nephew, and to take his place. Piero de' Medici opened his frontier fortresses to Charles, in the hope of being supported in Florence, wnicn a Dominican monk, Savonarola, was incit- ing to insurrection against him ; but he was quickly driven out by the people on his return. The monk-tribune, who regarded Charles VIII. as an envoy of God to scourge Italy, went out to meet the young king, and brought him into the city, which Charles entered as a conqueror. At Rome the cardinals and nobles opened the gates to the French as to liberators, and urged the king to depose the Pope. Charles VIII. took the Pope's son, Caesar Borgia, as hostage of the Pope's fidelity, but Caesar escaped a few days later. Naples fell without a blow. Ferdinand I. had just died : his son Alfonzo II. had abdicated in terror. The new sovereign, Ferdinand II., attempting to fight at San Germano, found himself involved in the midst of treasons 286 FIRST ITALIAN WAR. and fled to Sicily. Charles VIII. and his troops entered Naples (February, 1495), the inhabitants strewing flowers before him. The noise of this rapid conquest crossed the sea, and already the Greeks were preparing for war, expect- ing their liberator, " the great king of the Franks." Meanwhile the conquerors were thinking of nothing but of enjoying their easy victory. Charles VIII. had himself crowned king of Naples, emperor of the East, and king of Jerusalem. He showed himself to the Neapolitans in im- perial garb, and "celebrated many fine tourneys and pas- times." Suddenly he learned that a formidable league of the sovereigns of Europe had been concluded against him, with the intention of cutting off his retreat from Italy and reducing France to its former limits. Ferdinand the Cath- olic, Maximilian, and Henry VII. were the instigators of it. The Italians themselves, who had summoned the French or promised them fidelity, Ludovico il Moro, Alexander VI., Venice, etc., joined it. Promptness was necessary. Charles left four thousand men at Naples and marched with the rest to the Apennines. After crossing that chain with great difiiculty, the French discovered the army of the allies, thirty-five thousand strong, barring their road. They them- selves numbered fewer than ten thousand. Nevertheless, Charles resolved to make his way through. He faced his assailants. In an hour thirty-five hundred of them lay upon the field, and the rest had dispersed. This victory of For- novo secured the retreat of the French (July, 1496) . On returning to France Charles appeared to forget Italy. Ferdinand II. set out from Sicily with a few Spanish troops, surprised Naples, and expelled the French. The French domi- nation in the kingdom of Naples had fallen as quickly as it had risen, and amid the same demonstrations of joy on the part of the inhabitants. Death of Charles VIII. (1498). — Warned by experience and the complaints of his people, the young king, says Com- ines, " set his imagination to desire to live according to the commandments of God ; to put justice and the Church in good order, and also to arrange his finances, so that he did not raise from his people more than 1,200,000 francs by way of taxation, in addition to his domain, from the proceeds of which he desired to live, as in ancient times the kings did." In April, 1498, passing through a dark FIRST ITALIAN WAR. 287 gallery in the chateau of Amboise, he struck his head against the top of a doorway so violently that he died a few honrs afterward, at the age of twenty-eight. The di- rect line of the Valois became extinct with him, and was replaced by that of the Valois-Orleans. 288 LOUIS xu. CHAPTER XXXVIII. LOUIS XII. (1498-1515 A.D.) Louis Xn. — Charles VIII. leaving no children, the crown reverted by right to Duke Louis of Orleans, then thirty-six years old, grandson of a brother of Charles VI. Louis' grandfather had been a brilliant knight, his father a grace- ful poet, his uncle Dunois the bravest of the captains of Charles VII. Louis, though without superior qualities, was a man of much kindly geniality. He began his reign by the reduction of taxation, and refused the dues customary on the accession of a monarch. Though formerly the leader of the nobility against the royal authority, he retained no ill feeling toward those who had faithfully served Anne of Beaujeu against him, saying that it did not become the king of France to take revenge for the injuries of the Duke of Orleans. A serious matter first occupied his attention. The widow of Charles VIIL, Queen Anne, had retired to Brittany, and might by a second marriage carry that province to a foreign house. Louis, who had been for twenty-two years married to a daughter of Louis XL, whom he did not love, asked for a divorce. Pope Alexander granted it, and Louis immedi- ately married the widow of his predecessor. Brittany was thus again united to France (1499), this time permanently. The easy success of the first Italian expedition then revived the taste for distant adventures. Louis XII. not only in- herited the claims of Charles VIIL to Naples, but had also received from his grandmother, Valentina Visconti, claims to the Milanese, which had been usurped by the Sforzas. Conquests of the Milanese (1499-1500). — Before attempt- ing this conquest, Louis renewed the treaties made by Charles VIIL with his neighbors, and sought allies in Italy. The Duke of Savoy gave him passage across the Alps and en- gaged to follow him with his troops. Venice, Florence, and the Pope were won over. Ludovico was isolated. Trivul- LOUIS XII. 289 zio, the general of Louis XII., needed only to present him- self in the Milanese at the head of nine thousand horsemen and thirteen thousand foot-soldiers. Ludovico fled into the Tyrol, and the French entered Milan (October, 1499). The maladministration of Trivulzio revived the chances of Ludovico. He returned with a body of Swiss or German adventurers, and surprised Milan (FelDruary). But a new French army descended from the Alps, and encountered the troops of Ludovico, near Novara (April, 1500). The Swiss, who formed the principal strength of both armies, preferred to give up Ludovico rather than to fight against each other. The duke was captured, sent to France, and imprisoned during the rest of his life. Two of his sons succeeded in reaching Germany. The lesson which Louis XII. received was not lost. Cardinal George of Amboise, whom he en- trusted with the reorganization of his conquest, treated the people of Milan kindly, set up in their capital a sort of Parliament which gave the country impartial justice, and provided a prudent and firm administration. Partition of the Kingdom of Naples (1500-1501). — The Milanese conquered, Louis turned his thoughts to Naples. Instead of repeating the adventurous expedition of his predecessor, he entered rather upon a diplomatic campaign. He first assured himself of the neutrality or assistance of Central Italy by alliance with the Florentines and Csesar Borgia. France thus obtained a preponderant influence in the north and centre of Italy. Louis next, in order to obtain the kingdom of Naples without striking a blow, plotted to share it in advance with Ferdinand the Catholic. All began well. The unfortunate king of Naples, at that time Frederick III., a popular prince, had confidingly opened his fortresses to the general of the king of Spain, Gonsalvo de Cordova. When he asked Spain for assistance against the French, who were already upon the frontier (June, 1501), he perceived that he was betrayed. He delivered Naples and Castelnovo into the hands of the French, retired first to the island of Ischia, then placed himself in the hands of Louis XII., who gave him a pension of thirty thou- sand livres and the county of Maine, where he died in 1504. Hostilities at Naples between the Spaniards and the French (1502). — The conquest completed, the partition was not effected so amicably. The Spaniards and the French fell to blows. The French viceroy, the Duke of 290 LOUIS XII. Nemours, "wlio had a considerable force present, promptly shut up his adversary, Gonsalvo, in the town of Barletta (1502). The crafty Ferdinand, by treacherous pretence of truce, succeeded in reinforcing Gonsalvo. Nemours failed to press operations. Gonsalvo was relieved ; and the best lieutenant of the viceroy was defeated at Seminara (April, 1503). Nemours himself, imprudently attacking his enemy near Cerignola (April), was defeated and killed. Venusia and Gaeta alone remained in the hands of the French. Loss of the Kingdom of Naples (1503). — Louis XII. made great preparations to avenge this treason. He sent over the Pyrenees two armies, which failed of success, and over the Alps a third, which had no better fortune. Gon- salvo de Cordova had time to put himself in a state of de- fence. Posted upon the Garigliano, he stopped the French, and inflicted upon them a disastrous defeat, redeemed only by the devotion of the celebrated Chevalier Bayard, who alone defended a bridge of the Garigliano. Treaty of Blois (1504) . — There was danger that the loss of the Milanese should follow that of the kingdom of Naples. Maximilian was already preparing to assert his imperial rights beyond the Alps, and Gonsalvo de Cordova was marching toward the northern part of the peninsula. Louis XII. divided and disarmed his enemies by three trea- ties, signed at Blois on the same day (1504). By the first Louis and Maximilian agreed to attack Venice, and to divide the spoil; by the second Louis promised the king of the Romans two hundred thousand francs in return for the investiture of the Milanese; by the third he renounced the kingdom of Naples in favor of Maximilian's grandson Charles, who was to marry Claude, daughter of Louis XIL, and receive as her dowry three French provinces, — Bur- gundy, Brittany, and Blois. A more disastrous agreement could not have been made. Charles was to obtain by inheritance from his father, Philip the Handsome, the Netherlands ; from his mother, Castile ; from his paternal grandfather, Austria; from his maternal grandfather, Ara- gon. And now he was assured of Italy, and France was to be dismembered for him. This was virtually giving him the empire of Europe. France protested, and Louis XIL seized the first occasion to respond to her wishes. Rupture of the Treaties of Blois. — He found it in 1505, when Ferdinand the Catholic married Germaine de Foix, LOUIS XII. 291 niece of Louis XII. Louis by treaty made a second cession of his rights over the kingdom of Naples to his niece, thus breaking one of the principal conditions of his treaty with Maximilian. He convoked the States-General at Tours in order openly to break the others (1506). The Assembly declared that the fundamental law of the state did not per- mit alienations of the domains of the crown, and besought the king to give his daughter in marriage to his heir pre- sumptive, Francis, Duke of Angouleme, in order to insure the integrity of the territory and the independence of France. Louis XII. found little difficulty in acceding to their request. Maximilian and Ferdinand were at the time unable to pro- test. Louis was even able the next year, without opposi- tion, to reduce to obedience the revolted city of Genoa. Genoa was taken, its charter of liberties was burned by the hangman; and the city, with the islands of Corsica and Chios, was united to the royal domain (1507) . League of Cambrai (1508). — The republic of Venice had alone gained amid the misfortunes of the peninsula, but now all the powers turned against her. Not only did they envy Venice her wealth, her one thousand vessels, her thirty thousand sailors ; but each one of her neighbors had some complaint to make against her. Louis, Ferdinand, Pope Julius II., Maximilian, all claimed portions of her Italian possessions. All these formed at Cambrai (1508) a coali- tion against the republic. The soul of the league was Pope Julius II., a fiery old man, who proposed to himself two aims, — to reconstitute the temporal power of the Papacy and to drive the " barbarians " out of Italy. In 1509 he pro- claimed an interdict against Venice, her magistrates, her citizens, and her defenders. Victory of AgnadeUo (1509). — Louis XII. was the first to be ready. He crossed the Adda at the head of more than twenty thousand foot-soldiers and two thousand three hundred lances, and attacked the Venetian forces at Agnar dello in May. After a severe struggle the French were vic- torious. Their victory opened the whole land to them up to the lagoons. No place resisted them. The republic saved itself by a wise policy. It withdrew its troops from all its towns on the mainland, and, unapproachable in the midst of the sea, waited until discord should break out among the allies, which soon happened. The Holy League (1511). — Pope Julius II. had achieved 292 LOUIS XII. his first end. The towns of the Romagna were restored to his possession. He now set about the second, — the expul- sion of the barbarians, — and, without scruples respecting his last alliance, proposed to begin with the French. In 1501 he granted absolution to the republic of Venice. He had little difficulty in detaching from the league of Cambrai King Ferdinand, who had already derived from it all the advan- tages which he had expected. He brought over Maximilian and the Swiss. The allies of France were attacked. Louis XII. hesitated to attack the head of Christendom. The clergy of France, assembled at Tours, far from sharing the king's hesitation, granted him a large subsidy, and declared void all papal excommunications of him and his kingdom, contending that the war was not made against the pontiff, but against the sovereign of the Roman states. Attacked as a prince, Julius II. defended himself like a soldier ; but a revolt of Bologna and a defeat compelled him to retire to Rome. Louis XII. convoked a general council at Pisa, to examine the conduct of the Pope and have him deposed. This was a serious misstep, for behind the defeated tem- poral prince was found the all-powerful spiritual prince. Julius II. laid the town of Pisa under an interdict, excom- municated the dissident cardinals, assembled another coun- cil at the Lateran, and invoked the aid of the Catholic powers of Europe. All responded. Ferdinand of Spain, King Henry VIII. of England, Maximilian, the republic of Venice, and the Swiss formed a Holy League (October, 1511), with the avowed object of preserving the Church from a schism, but in reality to drive the French back be- yond the Alps (1511-1512). Gaston de Foix. — The Spanish general, Ramon de Car- dona, joined the papal troops with twelve thousand men. The Venetians gradually regained their lost towns. Ten thousand Swiss descended from their mountains. Treason was used upon the German troops and garrisons still in the service of Louis XIL in Italy, while the frontiers of France itself were threatened on the north, the east, and the south. A young and heroic general, a nephew of the king, for a moment dissipated all these dangers. Gaston de Foix, at the age of twenty-two, took command of the army of Italy. He hurled back the Swiss into their mountains, relieved Bologna, hard pressed by the Spanish and papal troops, took Brescia from the Venetians, and in April, 1512, ap LOUIS XII. 293 peared before Eavenna, and boldly encamped between the town and the camp of Cardona. After some vain attempts upon the town, Gaston turned against the camp of the en- emy and routed the papal troops ; but in driving back the Spanish infantry he was mortally wounded. Loss of Italy. — With the young and valiant general fell all the vigor of the French army. La Palice succeeded him. Julius II. regained courage, and pronounced a sentence of excommunication against Louis XII. The French army retreated before Cardona, allowed Bologna to be recaptured, and found in its rear twenty thousand Swiss, who had just reinstated Maximilian Sforza, son of Ludovico il Moro, in the duchy of Milan. La Palice retired into Piedmont. At this point Julius II. died (February, 1513). He had suc- ceeded in driving the French from Italy, but he was secur- ing it to the Spaniards : this was but changing masters, and passing from bad to worse. His successor Leo X., of the house of Medici, continued his policy. He cemented anew the Holy League, and a direct invasion of French territory was resolved upon. Novara ; Battle of the Spurs ; Invasion of France (1513) . — Ferdinand, already master of Spanish Navarre, on the south of the Pyrenees, was only waiting for a favorable op- portunity to seize upon French Navarre, on the north slope of these mountains, and an English army stood ready to land at Calais. Though threatened in his own kingdom, Louis XII. did not abandon Italy. La Tremouille and Trivulzio descended into it with a line army, and shut up the Swiss and Maximilian Sforza in Novara. But the Swiss, attack- ing the French artillery with the utmost valor, routed the besieging army. Genoa took advantage of this disaster to regain its freedom. ' Louis had no longer a single possession beyond the Alps. For a long series of years the French provinces had seen no hostile armies : two now entered it, — on the east, the Swiss ; on the north, the English, accompanied by the Em- peror Maximilian. Near Guinegate a panic seized upon the French armies ; their rapid flight gave the affair the name of the Battle of the Spurs. The Swiss penetrated as far as Dijon, and were stopped only by much payment of money and still larger promises. The sole ally of France, James IV. of Scotland, shared her ill fortunes ; he was defeated and killed at Flodden by the English. 294 LOUIS XIL Sea-Fights. — From the beginning of the Italian wars important services had been rendered to France by the sail- ors of Provence and the galleys of Marseilles, and espe- cially by the brave and skilful Pr^gent de Bidoulx. In 1513 Pr^gent, summoned from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic to oppose the English, attacked and defeated their fleet, under Sir Edward Howard, and then appeared upon the English coast and ravaged Sussex. Some months afterward the fleet which had landed at Calais the army of Henry VIII., cruising along the coasts of Brittany, met the French, who had only some twenty Breton and Norman ships under the command of Herv6 Primoguet. The English had two or three times as many ships, but their adversaries attacked them resolutely. At the first shock several English ships were sunk. Primoguet's ship took fire, but he refused to leave it. He made straight for the ship of the English admiral, fastened his own ship to it, thus setting it on fire, and went down with it. Treaties of Peace. — But the triple invasion to which France was subjected forced Louis XII. to make peace. The treaty of Dijon had rid France of the Swiss. Louis disavowed the council of Pisa in order to win over the Pope, and concluded a truce with the Emperor and the king of Aragon (1514). Henry VIII. for some time refused to cease from hostilities; the treaty of London, which gave him Tournai and one hundred thousand crowns per annum for ten years, restored peace on this side also. It was sealed by the marriage of Louis XII. with Mary, sister of the king of England. Thus, after fifteen years of war, France was no further advanced beyond the Alps than at the end of the reign of Charles VIII. New Political Tendencies. — Since the crusades the French had done little outside of France; and now we have here a reign whose history goes on mainly beyond the mountains, in Italy. Louis XL had brought the in- ternal wars to a conclusion. Eoyalty, finding nothing more to conquer within, sought conquests without. The same revolution had also occurred in England, in Spain, and in Austria. Their princes now had an almost absolute authority, and were free to undertake enterprises beyond their own frontiers, or unite to restrain France. The medi- seval isolation of states comes to an end. Henceforth there are general leagues and general wars which more and more LOUIS xiL 295 intermingle the European nations and their histories. Henceforth the kings have two interests to manage, — to defend and aggrandize their kingdoms ; to give their coun- tries good administration. Louis XII. succeeded ill in the first of these tasks, but in respect to the second there is almost nothing but praise to be said of him. Beneficent Administration; the Cardinal of Amboise. — The accession of Louis XIL to the throne had added to the royal domain the duchy of Orleans and the counties of Valois and Blois, his appanages. He made strenuous efforts to meet all his personal and household expenses with the product of his domains ; this permitted him to reduce the taxes by nearly one-third : namely, to 2,600,000 livres, or about 68,000,000 francs. The revenue of the State was scrupulously employed in the payment of sol- diers, in the encouragement of industry and agriculture, in the construction of useful public works, or in embel- lishment of the royal chateaux, promoting taste and art. Pensions and extravagant festivities were abolished. The strictest economy regulated the royal expenses. " I would rather," said he, " see the courtiers laughing at my avarice than the people weeping at my extravagance." He deliv- ered the peasants from the depredations of soldiers. Thus agriculture flourished and commerce expanded to a degree hitherto unknown in France. " The third part of the king- dom," says a contemporary, "was cleared in twelve years, and for one great merchant at Paris, Lyons, or Rouen in former times, there were fifty under Louis XIL, and they made less of going to Eome, Naples, or London, than in for- mer times to Lyons or Geneva." He assembled the States- General only once, in 1506. It was these states which, by the mouth of the representatives of Paris, justly bestowed upon him the best name that a king can earn, that of Pather of his People. History has always united with his name that of his worthy counsellor, George of Amboise, who for twenty- seven years was not so much his minister as his friend. Born in 1460 of an illustrious family, Amboise was at the age of fourteen made bishop of Montauban. Early attached to the young Duke of Orleans, he became successively arch- bishop of Narbonne and, in 1493, of Rouen. The 'duke him- self was at that time governor of Xormandy ; he gave the principal authority over the province to the archbishop, 296 LOUIS XIL who there began those useful reforms -which after the death of Charles VIII. he extended throughout the whole kingdom. He loved the people as the king loved him, and was equally beloved by them. Created cardinal, governor of the Milanese, and legate of the Holy See in France, he exercised the greatest influence upon the affairs of France and Italy, and if, like his master, he committed mistakes in foreign policy, his administration had a character of upright- ness and leniency which were not seen again till long after his time, though indeed he accumulated immense wealth. New Parliaments ; Revision of the Customs. — The parlia- ments, exercising royal justice in their provinces, were the most powerful instruments which royalty could use for its aggrandizement. On this account Louis XI. had multiplied them. Louis XIL, for the promotion of justice, increased their number still further. He established two new parlia- ments, — one in Provence (1501), and the other in Normandy (1499). Charles VIII. had designed to cause the editing and pub- lication of the customary law of each province, in order to release suitors from the danger of arbitrary decisions on the part of the judges. He published seven of them. Under King Louis, between 1505 and 1514, twenty other customs were reduced to writing by experts, after mature deliberar tion, and printed. This publication was the most important legislative work of the old monarchy, down to the time of Louis XIV., for it was not so miich an editing as a reforma- tion of the customary law, effected in accordance with the anti-feudal spirit which prevailed among the legists and in the Parliament. Judicial Administration ; Offices. — An ordinance of 1510 substituted French for Latin in criminal procedure, in order that witnesses might hear their own depositions read, and the accused might hear the charges which were preferred against them. French was already employed for the acts of the civil authorities. Louis attempted to diminish the extortions practised by the courts. The baillis, who were all noblemen and soldiers, were obliged to be graduated at universities, or to leave the administration of justice to lieutenants chosen from among the lawyers. Similar regu- lations were made for the manorial courts of lords. Louis XII. sold certain public offices in order to procure money ; but they were mostly financial offices, and it was LOUIS XII. 297 at any rate a very ancient practice. An ordinance of 1506 authorized private individuals to use the relays of post- horses established by Louis XI. Beginning of the French Renaissance. — The Italian wars had been in many ways a grave mistake. But through them French civilization gained by entering more actively into the Eenaissance. Since the thirteenth century so much misery had fallen upon France that culture had declined. Art had no longer the beautiful but severe grandeur of the Gothic architecture of St. Louis' time. The language had shown itself na'ive and already elegant ; but sustained force was still lacking to the French writers, Comines excepted, because the great models of antiquity remained almost wholly unknown to them. But Italy had just rediscovered this rich antiquity. Aretino and Poggio in letters, Leo- nardo da Vinci and Brunelleschi in art, had brought in a renaissance which was all antique and pagan. There was, it is true, more of translation and imitation than of imagi- nation ; poetic inspiration was cast in the mould of Horace and Virgil, and the most eloquent aspired only to speak like Cicero. The French arrived when this movement was put- ting forth its greatest energies, and brought back with them over the mountains a taste for these new achievements. Antiquity had also in France its ardent devotees, — Gaguin, Vatable, Bud6, and Dan^s. The memory of the handsome cities, of the rich palaces, and of all the elegance of Milan, Eome, and Florence in- spired the idea of improving the French cities and the con- struction of manor-houses, especially now that the king's artillery had made thick walls useless. A less massive architecture was sought for, which should give entrance to air and light. Italian architects crossed the mountains and helped on this movement of renovation. Notable among them was Fra Giocondo, royal architect to Louis XII. The cardinal of Amboise shared all the tastes of his master. He caused Roger Ango to begin the Palais de Justice at Eouen, which presents a graceful mixture of the new and the old art, of the Gothic transformed by the Re- naissance ; he also erected the beautiful chateau of Gaillon, Death of Louis XII. — The peace would doubtless have rendered the reign of Louis XII. more fruitful in benefi- cent reforms and in artistic achievements if he had lived longer. Anne of Brittany had died in January, 1514. Louis, 298 LOUIS XII. who had greatly loved her, contracted in August a political marriage : he married Mary, sister of Henry VIII., a prin- cess of sixteen, who compelled him to change his simple and regular life. Festivities and tournaments were for sev- eral months continual. Louis had been in delicate health ever since 1504 ; this new mode of life killed him. He died on the first of January, 1515, at the age of fifty-three, sin- cerely mourned by his people. TENTH PERIOD. FiKST Stkuggle of Fkance against the House OF Austria. — Increase of the Royal Power. — The Renaissance. (1515-1559.) CHAPTER XXXIX. FRANCIS I. (1515-1547 A.D.) France at the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century. — With the sixteenth century a new era in the history of France begins. After the long struggles for national unity the royal domain now at most points touched the natural fron- tiers of France. Excepting Calais, there was no foreign terri- tory which interrupted that of the king along all the coasts of the Channel and the Atlantic. In the south the sole excep- tion was Roussillon. But on the north and the northeast its frontier was ill arranged. The restitution of Franche- Comt6 had lost France the frontier of the Jura, that of Artois had exposed Paris. On that side much still remained to be done toward removing the enemy's frontier from the neigh- borhood of the capital, since the ill-conceived policy of Charles VIII. had uselessly diverted to Italy the strength of France, which ought to have been employed on the north and the east. Yet great results had been achieved. There was now one single France extending from the Channel to the Mediterranean, and from the Pyrenees to the Meuse, a vast country placed between Spain, England, Germany, and Italy, to hold the balance between them, to receive their vari- ous influences and to impart her own, to the great profit of general civilization. 300 FRANCIS I. In internal affairs the French kings had already greatly advanced their work of levelling and unitication ; the com- munes had renounced their privileges, and the lords had lost their independence, but the serfs had been enfranchised in great numbers, so that all found themselves brought nearer together and formed one great people, in the midst of which there still remained many diversities, but which had never- theless, ever since the time of Jeanne d' Arc, shown its unity. To complete the evolution of French society out of the civil institutions of the Middle Ages was the work which, in internal affairs, was to be accomplished by modern French royalty. Abroad, France, after having checked the house of Austria in the exaggerated extension of its power, was to regain gradually the limits of ancient Gaul and to impose upon Europe its supremacy. The sign of this growing nationality was the French language, which was becoming purified and was spreading throughout Europe. French literature was to reign far and wide over the minds of men, and even in days of reverse and abasement France was to be consoled by the influence of her genius, her arts, her letters, and her sciences. Francis I. (1515-1547) ; Battle of Marignano (1515). — The successor of Louis XII., Francis I., was descended from a third son of that Duke of Orleans who had been assas- sinated in 1407. After the Father of his People came '''the King of Gentlemen." Handsome and strong, brave and intelligent, prodigal of his person in battles and of the money of his subjects in coiirt festivities, imperious in com- mand, yet easily led, a friend of arts and letters, himself a scholar, Francis I. pushed his defects as well as his good qualities to an extreme. But with the pride of power, Francis had also a strong feeling for the greatness of France. He conquered nothing, but he kept France intact in perilous times and in the face of the greatest adversary that she ever had. He increased taxation and spent lav- ishly, but he reformed justice and gave a vigorous impulse to letters and arts. Finally, he covered his vices and his .faults with a certain brilliancy of knightly generosity and kingly greatness. Francis had promised himself to give the administration a more energetic tone as soon as he was master. Duprat, an able but unscrupulous man, whom he made chancellor, was charged with the duty of applying the new maxims of B T cr-t c*''- '. \. r .. ,„ ■YeuSft ■^ i.< fa GiroAde Fl. w '^., Renvois D« Duchd I C'.« Comtd Vic'.'Vicomte «— — LimUede Frmitiere . Limtte de Oouvernem! Militaire -Limits de Possession Feodale Nota U<« norm eorif en Cnracten monatre ^ if. inUu/umt lu grand* Oouvememen,ti '^ Echelle 5 10 15 Mjriame'tre* FRANCIS I. 301 government. Declining to renew the existing truce, Fran- cis prepared to cross the Alps, after having given the con- stable's sword to the Duke of Bourbon, an impetuous man, capable of great things, but little adapted to the r6le of a subject; and the regency to his mother, Louise of Savoy, a vain, greedy, and passionate woman, who, however, had great love for her son. A formidable army was gathered around Lyons and in Dau- phiny : it included eighteen thousand foot-soldiers, mostly Gascons, twenty thousand German lanzknechts, seventy large cannon, and three hundred smaller pieces. Among the commanders were the constable of Bourbon, marshals La Palice, Lautrec, d'Aubigny, and Trivulzio, six dukes, a great engineer, Pedro Navarro, and, more illustrious than all, "the knight without fear and without reproach," the brave Bayard. Venice and Genoa summoned Francis into Italy. The young sovereign of the Netherlands, Charles of Austria, had made a treaty with him in spite of his two grandfathers, the emperor Maximilian and the king of Ara- gon. But these two princes, Pope Leo X., and the Duke of Milan had cemented anew their alliance, and twenty thou- sand Swiss in their pay guarded the passages of Mont Cenis and Mont Genfevre, the only two routes by which it was thought possible for a French army to enter Piedmont. Francis I. began with a masterly stroke. Discovering that the Col de I'Argenti^re was practicable, he led his army •over the Alps by that pass, and on the fifth day descended into the plains of Saluzzo. A body of cavalry crossed at a higher point, by the Col d'Agnello, and surprised at table in -the Villa Franca the general of the papal troops, Prosper Colonna, who was captured with seven hundred of his horsemen. The enemy found themselves outflanked. The Swiss, astonished, retreated on Milan, to effect a junction with the Spanish army which was watching the Venetians. The French followed them to Marignano. The Swiss en- tered into negotiations with the king, who offered them seven hundred thousand crowns ; but, large reinforcements arriving, they decided to fight. On the 13th of September the Swiss, marching out from Milan, advanced with lowered pikes upon the French artil- lery, thinking to capture it ; but the flower of the French gendarmerie was there, all mailed in iron, men and horses. Thirty successive charges failed to arrest the advance of the 302 FRANCIS L Swiss. Witli their pikes eighteen feet long, tliey resembled the Macedonian phalanx, so long invincible. The French artillery, well directed, mowed down entire files of them. The steady column continued to advance ; three times it seized the first, batteries, around which raged "a battle of giants." The constable, the princes, and the lords did not spare them- selves. The king himself charged at the head of his house- hold troops, and received several blows upon his armor. The sun setting, the fight continued by moonlight until the night was dark. The French and Swiss forces were inter- mingled, and remained so, waiting for daylight. The battle was renewed at daybreak ; but between nine and ten o'clock in the morning the Swiss heard behind them the cry of " Marco ! Marco ! " uttered by the advance guard of the Vene- tians, who were hastening to take part in the battle. Then they retired in good order and recrossed their mountains without stopping. This was a brilliant beginning of the new reign. The French army was intoxicated with joy ; the young king re- ceived knighthood on the field of battle from the hands of Bayard. Perpetual Peace with the Swiss ; Concordat with Leo X. (1516). — Francis used his victory with moderation. He did not think of conquering Naples, but simply of securing strong positions in the north of the peninsula. The Doge of Genoa gave up his city to him ; Maximilian Sforza was induced to abandon his duchy ; Verona was secured to the Venetians ; Parma and Piacenza to the Milanese. The king of England allowed Tournai to be redeemed. Finally a well-conceived treaty excluded the Swiss from Italy, and the confederation, as in Louis XL's time, engaged to permit the king to levy in their territory the troops which he needed. Francis I. paid the Swiss the seven hundred thousand crowns which he had offered them before the victory. This peace, concluded with the thirteen cantons at Geneva and Freiburg (1515 and 1516), was rightly called the Perpetual Peace, for it lasted as long as the old French monarchy itself. Francis guaranteed the Medici the possession of Florence, but replaced the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII. by a concordat, which put the French clergy under his control. Leo X. preserved appeals to the court of Rome in the more important cases, but renounced reservations and provisions. He conceded to the king the right of disposing absolutely of FRANCIS I. 303 ecclesiastical dignities, preserving only the right of refusing spiritual investiture to the nominees in case of canonical un- fitness. Francis renounced the doctrine of the Fathers of Basel respecting the superiority of councils to the Pope, and re-established the annates or year's revenue which every clerk promoted to an important benefice was obliged to pay to the sovereign pontiff. Thus each gave up that which, according to the public law of the kingdom, did not belong to him. The clergy, the universities, and the judicial courts protested against the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction, which affected various prerogatives of corporations and per- sons, and the Parliament of Paris refused to register the concordat. But after two years of resistance they were forced to yield. The concordat embodied a considerable increase of the royal authority, for it made the clergy de- pendent upon the king, as the nobility had been since Louis XI., as the bourgeoisie had always been. Cburt of Francis I. — Francis, struck by the marvels of the Italian renaissance, induced several of the great Italian artists to follow him beyond the mountains, and bought from the others some of their most noted works. What was better than the money he gave the artists, was the regard which the young conqueror showed for the leaders of intellectual life. He loved all intellectual things, and the savant, the poet, and the artist found their place in the brilliant court with which he surrounded himself. This French court, which exercised so long-continued and often so pernicious an influence upon public manners, upon letters, upon the spirit of the nation, and even upon foreign nations, dates from the time of Francis I. Before him it had not existed. Louis XII. was surrounded only by grave counsellors, and the chaste Anne of Brittany allowed in her circle only quiet and infrequent pleasures. Francis I. de- sired always to be followed by a troop numbering thousands. He also attracted to his court, by the splendor of his festiv- ities, the noble ladies, hitherto forgotten in the depths of their feudal manor-houses. At first this had excellent effects ; but morals soon became corrupted, and the influence of women upon the government proved pernicious. Three women, especially, exercised a disastrous influence over this court during the reign of Francis I., — his mother, Louise of Savoy, the Countess of Chdteaubriant, and the Duchess of !lStampes. 304 FRANCIS I. Treaty of Noyon (1516). — Until 1519 France and Europe remained at peace. In 1516 Ferdinand the Catholic died. This death gave Aragon, Navarre, Naples, Sicily, and Sar- dinia to Charles of Austria, already sovereign of the Nether- lands and king of Castile. Francis did not attempt to pre- vent his obtaining this magnificent heritage. He concluded with him the treaty of Noyon (1516), which arranged an offensive and defensive alliance between the two princes. But the occurrence of another death, that of Maximilian (1519), changed everything. Rivalry of Francis and Charles ; Charles V. elected Em- peror. — Francis I. hoped to obtain the imperial crown. Germany needed a prince capable of defending it against the Turks. But the German princes thought of the condi- tion into which the kings of France had reduced the great lords of their country, and feared a similar fate. It seemed unlikely that anything of the sort was to be feared from the new king of Spain, a young man without glory, whose states were numerous but scattered, and who, being master of Austria, would necessarily receive the first blows of the Turks if they fell upon Germany. Henry VIII. of England also entered the lists, but his candidacy was not of serious importance. All the contestants lavished money upon the electors ; but though Francis had given the most, Charles of Austria was elected and became Charles V. Two centuries of war arose from this election. Francis clearly perceived the dangers to France and to Europe arising from the union of so many crowns upon one head. From that day the policy of France changed. The liberty of the continent was menaced. Master of Spain and Naples, of the Netherlands and of Austria, Charles V., so to speak, heLd Europe by the four corners. He was now also emperor of Germany, with vague rights of suzerainty over Italy ; he was soon to bring the Pope and Henry VIII. into his alliance ; and Cortes and Pizarro were conquering Mex- ico and Peru for him. France was menaced on three sides, — on the side of the Pyrenees, of Franche-Comt6, and of Flanders. It is the glory of Francis I. that he accepted what seemed an unequal contest with the house of Austria. He believed that a compact kingdom, a population military, rich, and devoted, had as much strength as this imposing list of states discordant and dispersed, this empire ' ' upon which the sun never set." FRANCIS I. 305 Negotiations with England (1520 y. — The two rirals con< tended for alliance Avith Henry VIII. Francis I. offered him splendid festivities in the Field of the Cloth of Gold, near Giiines, in June, 1520, but, by his magnificent display, only offended Henry instead of winning him. Charles V., more shrewd, went to meet Henry VIII. at Gravelines in ordinary attire like a dependent, pensioned his favorite minister. Cardinal Wolsey, to whom he promised the papal tiara, and thus secured the English alliance. The French in Navarre; the Imperialists in Champagne (1521). — Beaten in diplomacy, Francis hoped for better success in war. He sent into Navarre, which Charles V. had not restored to Henry d'Albret, an army which was alleged to be in the pay of that prince. At the same time, the Duke of Bouillon, secretly instigated and paid by France, declared war upon the emperor and attacked Lux- emburg. But the French were easily driven out of Navarre. In the north the general of Charles V. seized the duchy of Bouillon and invaded Champagne. But Bayard, by a brave defence of M^zi^res, saved France from an invasion which there was no army ready to resist. Defeat of Bicocca (1522) ; Loss of the Milanese. — There was now open war between France and the emperor. The first serious blow was struck in Italy. Lautrec, with forces inferior to the Spanish troops of Pescara, abandoned Parma, Piacenza, and even Milan (1521). Attacking the emperor's forces at Bicocca with his Swiss troops he was defeated, and the Swiss returned to their mountains (1522). Treason of Bourbon; Triple Invasion of France (1523). — Francis I. believed that all could be restored by his personal presence. He sent twenty-five thousand men towards the Alps ; but at the moment when he was about to go and take command of them, a plot was discovered, the success of which would have ruined France. Charles V., assured of the new Pope, Adrian VI., his former tutor, and of the king of Eng- gland, had gained a powerful ally in the very midst of the court of France. Master of La Marche, of Bourbonnais, of Auvergne, of Forez, and of Beaujolais, the constable of Bour- bon maintained the state of a prince. An able soldier, proud and ambitious, he listened to the overtures of Charles v., who promised him, in addition to his present possessions, Dauphiny, Provence, and Lyonnais, to be erected into a kingdom, as the price of his defection. Henry VIII. was 306 FRANCIS L to obtain the western provinces ; the emperor was to recover Burgundy and the towns of the Somme ; there was thus a complete plan for the dismemberment of France. The last representative of the mediaeval feudalism, Bourbon believed that he could do as the old dukes of Brittany and Burgundy had done ; he forgot that there was now a French nation, determined to remain united, and that a treason towards the king was treason to it. The projected triple invasion occurred. Francis sent Lautrec into Guienne to confront the twenty-five thousand Spaniards who were vainly attacking Bayonne, Count Claude of Guise against twelve thousand German lanz- knechts, who had come in through Franche-Comte and Cham- pagne, but were now driven back behind the Meuse ; finally, old La Tremouille was sent against the thirty-five thousand English and Flemings Avho had advanced to within eleven leagues of Paris, but whom he, by skilful manoeuvres, with a handful of men, first stopped, then drove back. Death of Bayard ; Invasion of Provence (1524). — But in Italy Admiral Bonnivet, brave but incapable, was forced to retreat. Bayard, conducting the rear-guard, was mortally wounded. As the French were fleeing toward the Alps, Bourbon, overtaking them, found the good knight lying at the foot of a tree, with his face to the enemy, and expressed his grief at seeing him in that state. " It is not I who am to be pitied," said he, " for I die like an honest man ; but I pity you, Avho are serving against your prince, your country, and your oath." Bourbon now crossed the frontier of France. Provence lay open to him, except Marseilles, which was well forti- fied, and received him with stout resistance. Bourbon per- sisted forty days in this siege. But on the approach of Francis I., with eight thousand horsemen, thirty-four thou- sand foot-soldiers, and a strong body of artillery, the impe- rial army, demoralized, retreated to the Alps. Battle of Pavia (1525). — The king of France, advancing into Italy, the theatre of his former exploits, seized Milan without striking a blow, and imprudently detached a body of ten thousand men to conquer the kingdom of Naples, while he himself was pressing the siege of Pavia. But Bourbon, Pescara, and Lannoy, gathering troops from all quarters, advanced upon him there, and enclosed him between them and the town, garrisoned by six thousand men. The posi- FRANCIS I. 307 tion was dangerous ; the old generals advised him to raise the siege, but Francis determined on battle (Feb. 25, 1525). But he began the attack with the men-at-arms too soon. The Spanish infantry took advantage of his mistake. His Swiss retreated. La Tr^mouille, La Palice, and his best generals fell around the king. The king himself, wounded, surrounded by corpses, continued fighting for a long time, but finally was forced to surrender. His letter to his mother, announcing the result, has been condensed into the phrase, " All is lost save honor." Regency of Louise of Savoy ; Captivity of the King ; Treaty of Madrid (1526) . — But France was not lost. Her frontiers were not even attacked. The regent showed a laudable and intelligent activity. She ransomed the cap- tives, gathered a new army, repressed internal disorders, negotiated secretly with Venice, with the Pope, even with the Turkish sultan, Solynian, instigating him to attack Austria, and purchased the alliance of Henry VIII. Meanwhile Francis I., at Madrid, was not finding Charles V. as magnanimous as he had expected. The emperor kept him in captivity, and for a long time refused to see him. Sick with chagrin, Francis consented to sign a dis- astrous treaty (January, 1526), though secretly protesting its nullity as made under duress. He ceded Burgundy to Charles, renounced all claims to Naples, Milan, Genoa, Flanders, and Artois, restored Bourbon to his possessions, and promised to marry the emperor's sister, the queen dow- ager of Portugal. Exchanged for his two sons at the frontier, he spurred his horse on to French soil, exultingly exclaiming, " I am again a king." An assembly of notables decided that the king was incompetent to give up the first peerage of the kingdom. The states of Burgundy appealed to the coronation oath, and declared that they would remain French in spite of king and emperor. Charles loudly accused Francis of disloyalty. The Holy League (1526) ; Sack of Rome (1527). — After much negotiation, Francis signed, with Pope Clement VII., the king of England, Venice, Florence, and the Swiss, a Holy League for the deliverance of Italy. That unfortu- nate country, for thirty-two years the theatre of war, was at this moment a prey to bands of mercenaries. The con- stable of Bourbon descended from the Alps at the head of 308 FRANCIS I. a new army of ten or fifteen thousand fanatical and pillag- ing Lutherans. The constable could not control his men. After having devoured the Milanese, the lanzknechts wished for another prey, Florence or Eome, — especially Eome, the sacrilegious Babylon. Bourbon led them thither, meditat- ing great designs, perhaps the kingship of Italy. But at the assault of the walls he was the first to fall. His sol- diers avenged him cruelly. For nine months Rome under- went tortures and outrages such as the Goths and Vandals had not inflicted upon her. Second War with Charles V. (1527-1529) ; Treaty of Cam- brai (1529). — Francis now sent Lautrec to conquer the kingdom of Naples, the possession of which was so useless to France. Lautrec at first had brilliant success, but a pes- tilence carried off the general and discouraged the soldiers, and the expedition was ruined. This was the fourth French army which Italy had swallowed up since the battle of Bicocca. The peninsula remained in the hands of Charles V. It was to remain for more than three centuries in the power or under the influence of the house of Austria. Charles seemed likely now to attack France. But a religious war was on the point of breaking out in Ger- many ; Solyman, the secret ally of Francis I., sent his redoubtable janizaries forward even to the walls of Vienna; and the king of England threatened to abandon the Aus- trian alliance by repudiating his wife, Catherine of Aragon, the aunt of Charles. The emperor, therefore, desired to secure peace in the west. Louise of Savoy and Margaret of Austria, the aunt of Charles V., met at Cambrai, and con- cluded the Ladies' Peace. Charles, who kept Naples and was soon to be crowned king of Lombardy, renounced his claims upon Burgundy, but maintained all the other con- ditions of the treaty of Madrid. Six Years' Peace (1529-1535) . — This suspension of hos- tilities lasted till the end of the year 1535. Charles and Francis employed it to advantage, but in different ways. The emperor took the offensive against the Turks. With a large fleet he attacked Tunis, a nest of pirates. The fort of La Goletta was captured, twenty thousand Christians delivered, and Tunis brought under the suzerainty of Charles V. (1535). Francis meanwhile devoted himself to the works of peace. At' the same time, he organized a national infantry of FRANCIS I. 309 forty-two thousand men, restored his alliance with Henry VIII., won over the Pope by asking for his son the hand of the Pope's niece, Catherine de' Medici, renewed the ancient friendship with the Scotch by causing their king to marry first his eldest daughter, then Mary of Guise, signed the first French treaties with Denmark and Sweden, and openly sent an embassy to Sultan Solyman, which virtually con- cluded a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with him. The German Protestants, confederated against the emperor at Schmalkald, also received overtures from Francis I. (1532). These two alliances put him in a delicate position, but he did not hesitate to subordinate religious to political interests. The Reformation. — This schism in the Church was pro- duced by that irresistible movement, which in the sixteenth century was carrying men's minds beyond the traditional horizon. The rediscovery of antiquity had opened to thought paths hitherto unknown. While Columbus and Vasco da Gama were discovering new worlds, Copernicus was discovering the true laws of the universe. The age, stirred with wonder at these new ideas, began to doubt many ancient beliefs. The spirit of curiosity and examina- tion extended everywhere, transformed arts, letters, sciences, and society, and desired also to transform religious institu- tions. The councils of Basel and Constance, in the fifteenth century, had in vain proposed to reform ecclesiastical dis- cipline and morals. The Church would not reform herself, and before eighty years had passed a revolution deprived her of half Europe. In 1517 Luther had commenced his struggle against Rome ; in 1520 the rupture was complete ; and in a few years large parts of Germany went over to the new cause. The Reformation in France. — The new doctrines early obtained entrance into France. Their first conquests were among the scholars ; all the great French jurisconsults of this century either secretly or openly accepted the doc- trines of the Reformation. Even a part of the court inclined to them. Lefebvre d' Staples and Louis Berquin, scholars known and esteemed by Francis, supported them : the former had begun six years before Luther. The favor- ite poet of the court, Clement Marot, became a Protestant. Francis at first showed no disfavor to the Reformers ; but the peasant revolts in Germany gave him the feeling that 310 FRANCIS I. the revolt against the Pope would easily lead to a revolt against the king; and though he remained the interested friend of the German Protestants, he would not permit the spread of their doctrines in his own states. During the king's captivity two Lutherans had been burned in Paris. Later Berquin, refusing to recant, was burned ; at Vienne, at S6ez, at Toulouse, other executions took place. The necessity of placating the Protestants of Germany relaxed the persecution. But in 1536 six unfor- tunate victims were executed in different open spaces in Paris, in the presence of the court. Third War with Charles V. (1536-1538). — The peace was broken by a misdeed of the Emperor. Francis had a secret agent at Milan : at the instance of Charles this agent was seized and put to death in 1533, by Duke Francesco Sforza. The duke dying soon after without heirs, Francis at once laid claim to the Milanese. At the beginning of 1536 he seized Savoy and Piedmont. The emperor was at this moment returning from his glorious expedition against Tunis. At the news of this aggression he swore vengeance, and sent against Marseilles the fleet which had just reduced Tunis. His second invasion of Provence was not more for- tunate than the first. The constable, Montmorency, destroyed villages and open towns, farms, mills, and provisions, made the country a desert in front of the imperial army, and intrenched himself in a strong position near Avignon. The enemy penetrated to within sight of Aix and Marseilles ; but found himself in a devastated country, in the midst of an irritated population, which intercepted convoys and cut off stragglers. Decimated by hunger and dysentery, the Im- perialists retreated. It was for a second time proved that France is invulnerable on this side. At the same time the Picards bravely defended the north- eastern frontier, and the Norman corsairs took prizes to the value of two hundred thousand crowns of gold from the Spaniards. Charles had failed in France. But Francis succeeded neither in the Netherlands nor in Italy. The Pope interposed, and by his mediation the truce of Nice, to last ten years, was signed in 1538. Francis kept Savoy and Piedmont. Charles V. in France (1539). — From irreconcilable ene- mies the two sovereigns seemed to become devoted friends. Some time later the city of Ghent, overburdened with taxa- FRANCIS L 311 tion, revolted against Charles V., and offered itself to his rival. Francis not only refused the offer, but invited the emperor to cross his kingdom in order to be able the sooner to crush the rebels. The emperor accepted. He was mag- nificently received and feted. Francis hoped to overcome his politic friend by generosity, and to obtain as a gift the Milanese. Hints and importunities were not spared. But the emperor reached Flanders without his voyage having cost him anything but vague promises. The king, who had counted on the investiture of the Milanese for one of his sons, was deeply vexed at having been thus duped by the emperor. The assassination of two French agents in Tur- key caused war to break out. Fourth War with Charles V. (1543-1544). — This time the efforts of Francis and Solyman were better combined. The Turkish janizaries conquered almost all Hungary, while Francis covered Luxemburg and Piedmont with his armies. A Turkish and French squadron captured Nice, the only town which remained in the possession of the Duke of Savoy. Charles V. exclaimed loudly at this treason to the Chris- tian cause. He concluded peace with the Protestants of Germany and renewed his alliance with the king of Eng- land. A new invasion of France at three points at once was resolved upon. The governor of the Milanese, at the head of a Spanish force, was to make his way through the French army in Piedmont and enter France. In the north the emperor and Henry VIII. were to meet beneath the walls of Paris : the one was to proceed thither through Champagne, the other through Picardy. But the Duke of Enghien se- verely defeated the Spaniards at Cerisola in Piedmont, and remained master of that country, yet was unable to advance further, because a part of his troops was recalled to defend the North of France from invasion (1544). Peace of Crespy (1544). — Charles V. had entered Cham- pagne without resistance, taken St. Dizier, and advanced to within twenty-four leagues of Paris. Fortunately for France, the king of England, unfaithful to the plan agreed upon, persisted in the siege of Boulogne, and left his ally isolated, without money or provisions, in the midst of the French provinces. Charles, at the moment when he believed his enemy reduced to the last extremity, was obliged to sign che Peace of Crespy (1544). The two sovereigns mutually 312 -FRANCIS I. restored their recent conquests : Francis remained master of Savoy and Piedmont, and obtained the Milanese for his younger son. But the young prince died, and the emperor hastened to give his son Philip Lombardy, which the house of Austria kept from that day to that of Solferino. Henry VIII. made peace in 1546. Massacre of the Vaudois (1545). — Prancis, ruined before his time by his excesses, was at fifty-one a morose old man. As long as the war with Charles V. continued he had spared the heretics. But after the conclusion of peace, harsh and evil counsellors obtained the ascendancy. They attributed the king's reverses, and even his physical sufferings, to the relaxation of persecution. The king was persuaded, to order new severities. At Meaux fourteen heretics were burned in a single day ; but the most odious execution was that of an entire population of inoffensive persons, the Yaudois of the Alpine valleys, whose beliefs were more than three centuries old. They had been condemned in 1540 as heretics. Execution had been stayed in favor of these peaceable peasants, who paid their taxes regularly and maintained pure and simple manners. But in April, 1545, precise and rigorous orders came from the court to the Parliament of Aix. Three thou- sand of the Vaudois were massacred or burned in their dwell- ings ; six hundred and sixty were sent to the galleys ; the rest were dispersed into the woods and mountains, where most of them died of hunger and misery. Not a house or a tree remained standing for fifteen leagues around. Death of the King (1547). — Charles V., released from war with Prance and assured of peace with the Turks, turned his forces against the German Protestants, and, under pretext of crushing heresy, began to crush the liber- ties of Germany. Prancis I. meanwhile died at the chateau of Rambouillet, at the age of fifty-two (March, 1547). Prancis had the faults of brilliancy, for which Prance has always had too great a weakness. His gallantry was car- ried to the extent of debauchery, his magnificence to pro- fusion, his courage to rashness. He was violent and capri- cious, and given over to unworthy favorites : he could even be unjust, perfidious, and cruel, and was always a man of arbitrary will. But he sometimes showed real greatness, loved letters, and had a taste for art. Foundation of Havre de Grace (1517). — Havre dates from FRANCIS 1. 313 the time of Francis I. France had at the mouth of the Seine only two small harbors, — Honfleur on the left, Harfleur on the right. The latter was beginning to be choked with sand. Francis I., who desired to have a great maritime establishment upon the Channel, had search made in the neighborhood for a better site. A few miles from there a fishing village was found, placed in, the midst of a marsh, with a little chapel of Our Lady of Grace. But it opened directly upon the sea, outside the mouth of the Seine, remote from shifting sand-banks, and with favorable con- ditions as to tide. In 1517 Chillon, vice-admiral of France, laid the first stone of the new city, whose site was so well chosen that it has become the greatest port of France for oceanic commerce. It was at first named Franciscopolis, but the word was too learned for the poor fishermen, who, faithful to their patroness, continued to call their town Havre de Grace. 314 HENRY II. CHAPTER XL. HENRY II. / (1547-1549 A.D.) Henry II. ; Montmorency and the Guises. — Henry II. car- ried to excess his father's defects and had none of his high qualities, neither intelligence nor grace, caring for nothing but bodily exercises. In spite of her forty-eight years, Diana of Poitiers by her wit and beauty exercised immense influence over him. He created her Duchess of Valentinois and allowed her to govern the court, in which the queen remained without influence. The chief administration of government was confided to the constable Montmorency, to Marshal St. Andr6, the king's favorite, and to the family of the Guises, a younger branch of the house of Lortaine, poor in goods but rich in hopes. There was a great scramble for offices, honors, and pensions. In a few weeks the king squandered four hundred thousand croAvns which he found gathered in his father's coffers for the German war. Mont- morency and the Guises secured the largest share of gifts and offices, and almost monopolized the favor of the king. In 1548 a bloody revolt against the salt-tax broke out in Guienne. Montmorency marched thither with ten thousand men and suppressed it with great severity. Alliance with Scotland and the German Protestants. — Duke Francis of Guise and his brother Charles, archbishop of Rheims, wisely directing the foreign policy of France, turned the king's attention toward Germany, and sent assistance to the queen dowager of Scotland, their sister. Montmorency renewed hostilities with England. Boulogne was actively besieged, and the English surrendered it for a fifth of the sum stipulated in the treaty. In Germany, Charles V., having vanquished the Protestants at Miihlberg, found himself more powerful than any emperor had been for five centuries. He regulated religious questions at will without consulting the Pope, political questions without con- HENRY 11. 315 suiting the Diet ; he was as absolute in the Empire as in Italy or in Spain. Henry II. did not give him time to assure his triumph nor .to become threatening to France. He made a secret alliance with Maurice of Saxony, one of the emperor's generals, who was now betraying him, and published a manifesto in which he declared himself the defender of German liberties. But he gave the blood of his Protestant subjects as a compensation for this policy, which made him almost everywhere the enemy of the orthodox, the friend of heretics or unbelievers. The Edict of ChAteaubriant ordered that the Protestants should not have the privileges of appeal, closed the schools and courts to them, and secured to informers the third part of the prop- erty of their victims. Conquest of Metz, Toul, and Verdun (1552). — Surprised by Maurice of Saxony, Charles V. was nearly captured at Innsbruck in May, 1552. Henry II. marched into Lorraine with thirty-eight thousand men. Toul and Metz opened their gates. An attempt to achieve the same result was made at Strassburg, another great free city, but in vain. On his return he entered Verdun, and thus completed the acquisition of the Trois-lSvech^s. Siege of Metz (1552-1553). — The emperor, irritated at these successes, hastily made peace with the Lutherans at Passau, and entered Lorra ' ne at the head of sixty thousand men. Erancis of Guise thiew himself into Metz with the most distinguished nobles of the realm, and hastily fortified it. Charles persisted in the siege for two months, and fired forty thousand cannon-shots at the town, but could not take it, for behind every wall that was broken down the assail- ants found a new one. Winter came on. The imperial army had lost a third of its numbers when Charles decided to raise the siege. He broke camp on the first of January, complaining of Eortune. "I see plainly that she is a woman," he said ; " she favors a young king more than an old emperor." But in reality he had only himself to blame for undertaking such an operation in a most unfavorable season. Further Operations; Abdication of Charles V. (1556). — Next year the emperor besieged Th^rouanne in Artois. The garrison, though small, capitulated only after a brave defence ; he razed the place to the ground, and Hesdin also. He avenged his humiliated pride by making war with much 316 HENRY II. atrocity. In 1554 Henry II. gave him ravages for ravages in Hainault and Brabant, but was finally compelled to retire. Meanwhile Brissac, with a small army, had maintained him- self in Northern Italy against the Duke of Alva ; Strozzi and Montluc defended Sienna against the Florentines and the Imperialists ; the Turks threatened Naples ; the Baron de la Garde ravaged Elba and set foot in Corsica. The check received at Metz was therefore not reversed ; France seemed' to grow young again with her new king ; Charles V. grew weary of this struggle which he had been sustaining for thirty-five years. He gave up the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain to his son Philip II. and retired to the monastery of Yuste, to seek the repose which ambitious monarchs never find (1556). Charles had not been able to leave all his crowns to his son: Austria and the title of emperor went to his brother Ferdinand. The house of Austria was divided. But at the moment when Philip II. lost Germany he seemed to gain England by a marriage with the queen of that country, Mary Tudor. The present and future of France were seri- ously menanced by the dominion thus formed, which closed her in on three sides. Pope Paul IV. was alarmed at seeing the Spaniards both above him and below him, at Milan and at Naples. The king and the pontiff united. One army, under Montmorency, was sent to the Netherlands ; another, under the Duke of Guise, into Italy. St. ftuentin (1557). — Philip II. sent against Montmor- ency Duke Philibert Emmanuel of Savoy, who, despoiled of his estates by France, had everything to expect from Spain ; and against Francis of Guise, the Duke of Alva, a true Spaniard, entirely devoted to the Church, still more to his king. Guise penetrated into the Abruzzi, but failed before the skilful tactics of his adversary. Philibert Emmanuel marched suddenly upon St. Quentin, where seven thousand English troops joined him. The place was without walls, ammunition, or provisions. Admiral Coligny threw himself into it with seven hundred men. Montmorency approached with an inferior army which he managed unskilfully in the attempt to reprovision the town. Philibert Emmanuel attacked him in the front and in the rear, and inflicted upon him an overwhelming defeat. Many great nobles were cap- tured, together with four thovisand men, the artillery, and the baggage. More than ten thousand men were killed or wounded. HENRY II. 317 " Is my son at Paris ? " cried Charles V., on learning in his retreat at Yuste of this great disaster to France. But Philip II., a cold and methodical man, obstinate but with- out dash, had not believed it prudent to push his victory. Before taking another step forward, he wished to secure St. Quentin; and Coligny, knowing that the safety of Prance was at stake, made heroic efforts to prolong its de- fence. Time was thus obtained for assembling the French forces, and Philip II. returned to the Netherlands with small results from a victory which had seeined likely to prove as disastrous to France as Poitiers or Agincourt. Capture of Calais (1558). — The Duke of Guise was recalled from Italy in all haste and given the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, with unlimited powers. Guise answered the general expectations by suddenly appearing before Calais, in which the English had left but a meagre garrison : in seven days it was compelled to capitulate. The last reminder of the Hundred Years' War was thus removed ; the English no longer had a foot of ground in France. The blow was fatal to Queen Mary. " If ye open my heart," said she on her death-bed, " ye will find written on it the name of Calais." The same blow de- stroyed the alliance of England and Spain. Elizabeth, who succeeded her sister Mary upon the English throne, brought about the triumph of Protestantism in the island, and be- came the irreconcilable enemy of the king of Spain. Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (1559). — Philip II., indeed, a man of sombre and fanatical mind, desired to arrive at the dominion over Europe by other means than those employed by his father. Half of Germany, and all the Scandinavian states, had separated from Rome; and the Beformation, though stifled in Italy and Spain, was fer- menting in France, spreading in the Netherlands, triumph- ant in Scotland and England. Philip II. proposed to crush Protestantism. He wished to be the armed leader of Cathol- icism throughout Europe, the secular arm of the Holy See, the executor of the sentences of the Church. His faith and his ambition were in accord ; he strove to crush heresy not only for the benefit of Christian orthodoxy, but also for the benefit of his own power. With this view, he de- sired to make peace with the king of France, in order to attach him to his designs, and in April, 1559, peace was at last signed. 318 HENRY II. By this treaty, France kept the Trois-!]Svech6s, Boulogne, and Calais. The kings of France and Spain made mutual restoration of their conquests on the frontier of the Nether- lands and in Italy. The acquisitions made by France were valuable, protecting her against England and Germany. Yet what she restored to Spain was of much more extent than what she regained from that power. Fortresses in Italy were neither necessary nor advantageous to her, but she abandoned lands which were really French, — Bugey, Bresse, and Savoy, — which she ought to have preserved at any price, especially since the Spaniards did not restore to Jeanne d'Albret the portion of her kingdom of Navarre which they had for half a century been occupying. Accidental Death of the King (1559). — A double marriage was to cement the peace. Philip 11., already twice a wid- ower, was to marry a daughter of the king of France; Philibert Emmanuel, a sister. Brilliant festivities were celebrated before the departure of the princesses. In a tournament which completed them, Henry was struck in the eye by the broken lance of his captain of the guard, the Count of Montgomery. He fell mortally wounded, and expired eleven days later, at the age of forty-one. It was a great misfortune, less for any personal qualities of Henry II. than because by his death he left the royal authority in the hands of children. Three kings, minors or deficient in capacity, were to give up France for thirty years to the horrors of a religious and political war. GOVERNMENT OF FRANCIS I. AND HENRY 11. 319 CHAPTER XLI. GOVERNMENT OF FRANCIS I. AND HENRY II. f Results of the Wars of Francis I. and Henry II. — Diverted ' by Charles VIII. from the paths in which she would have found her true greatness, France for sixty-five years had expended her force in remote expeditions. Four times the French had been at Naples ; French cannon-balls had shot across the lagoons of Venice, and the standard of France had floated over Sienna, Milan, and Genoa; now, driven back, it covered only some few places in Piedmont. Yet if France had lost much she had also gained much. Her victories had been brilliant. The honor of having struggled after all victoriously against Charles V. had increased her prestige. Since 1494 she had gained only Calais, Metz, Toul, Verdun, and some small towns in Italy, but she had saved Europe from the supremacy of Charles v., and Germany from the despotism of the house of Aus- tria. For the great danger to France and to Europe in the sixteenth century was, in fact, the omnipotence of the house of Austria, which ruled supreme upon the Rhine and the Danube, in Italy and in Spain, and which beyond the seas had still another immense empire. In Italy, French intervention had only made permanent the subjection of the peninsula to foreign masters, but beyond the Rhine her policy was triumphant. The imperial authority had for a moment been increased by Charles V. to the point of exciting a fear lest he should stifle with one blow both the political and the religious liberties of the states of the Empire. France aided the German princes to defend themselves, and the Peace of Augsburg guaranteed at once their independence and the triumph of Protestantism (1555). To Germany this was a misfortune, perpetuating her dis- union. But from the point of view of France it was an advantage. The acquisition of Italy was no adequate com- pensation to the house of Austria. Poor but vigorous, Germany would have aided its master to secure the dominion 320 GOVERNMENT OF FRANCIS L AND HENRY IL of Europe ; but exhausted Italy only impoverished its for- eign master. Internal Political Results ; Increase of the Royal Power. — The sixteenth century presents a singular contrast. The spirit of revolt was everywhere abroad, in the arts, in litera- ture, in philosophy, and in religion. In everything but politics there was a desire for complete innovation. The royal power alone continued its upward progress, and the Italian wars consolidated the absolute power of kings by making all the great states military monarchies. In France the nation, in the face of danger, had rallied around its king, the symbol of its national unity and independence, and the training of the nobility to subordination, begun by Louis XI. upon the scaffold, was completed by his successors in the camp. Francis I. entered fully upon absolute power. " The king's good pleasure" could no longer be resisted, now that he had at his disposal a permanent army and the entire fortune of the country. " France," said a Venetian ambassador, " is the most united country in the world." And he added, " There the king's will is everything, even in the administra- tion of justice ; for there is no one who dares to obey his own conscience by gainsaying the monarch." With Francis I. begins the ancien regime; that is to say, a government in which the subjects had no guarantee against even the most iniquitous oppression, and the prince no obstacle to his will, even when most capricious. Transformation of Feudalism. — In the middle of the six- teenth century there remained only one great feudal house, — that of Bourbon-Navarre, whose head, Antoine de Bourbon, was personally insignificant. At a lower grade there were still great lords, — the Montmorency s, the Guises, the La Tr^mouilles, the Chdtillons, etc., — but no more great vassals. Where the lords had retained their fiefs, they were watched with a jealous eye by the baillis and seneschals of the king, who repressed violence while the parliaments prosecuted crime. If any remote province escaped from this double surveil- lance, royal commissioners went to it and held assizes, at which every complaint was received, and rigorous justice immediately executed. The lords still had many privileges of justice, and rights of vassalage highly burdensome to the people; but they no longer administered the government, GOVERNMENT OF FRANCIS I. AND HENRY II. 321 they did not coin money, they did not make laws, they did not make war : in a word, they had no longer any political power, except by entering into the service of the king. Reduced to revenues and titles, they were no longer the feudal body ; they were the French noblesse. The Clergy. — The concordat of 1516 had made the clergy dependent upon the king. The ordinance of Villers-Cot- terets, in 1539, checked the encroachments of the episcopal courts upon the royal courts by restricting their sphere to spiritual or ecclesiastical causes. At the same time Francis raised from the clergy large contributions which were only in name voluntary. The Third Estate. — The Third Estate had for a long time been reduced to complete obedience. Content to grow rich through the good order which absolutism secured, they no longer desired the old communal liberties, and did not yet seek liberty of the modern type. But the " gentlemen of the robe" had in their possession four important official charges, — that of chancellor, that of the secretaries of state, that of the presidents, counsellors, judges, and other officers of justice, and that of the treasurers, tax-gatherers, and other financial officers. The Parliaments ; the States-General. — By their learning, their permanent tenure, and the consideration in which they were held, the magistracy had acquired an importance which easily suggested to them the idea of playing a greater part in the state. Entrenched in the nine parliaments of Aix, Bordeaux, Dijon, Grenoble, Paris, Bennes, Rouen, Toulouse, and Dombes, not subject to removal, having almost a hered- itary tenure by reason of the purchase of offices, the gentle- men of the robe had already two essentially political rights, — that of remonstrance against royal ordinances, and that of registration, without which no act of the royal will had the force of law. Francis I. destroyed this last guarantee in 1527, forbidding the Parliament of Paris "to meddle in affairs of state or in any other matters save those of justice." The magistracy submitted. They did more ; the president of the Parliament of Paris openly declared that the king ivas above the law ; he contented himself with adding that the king's will ought to be regulated by equity and reason. Though subdued separately, the three estates might re- gain their strength by union. Francis I. was careful not to convoke the States-General. Henry II. also avoided 322 GOVERNMENT OF FRANCIS I. AND HENRY 11. bringing the deputies of the nation face to face with an extravagant court. After the battle of St. Quentin it became necessary to gather together at least an assembly of notables, in which the clergy and Third Estate made the most patriotic sacrifices. General Administration. — Descending from the feudal times, the great officers of the court, such as the constable, still retained a share in the administration. But in the sixteenth century began what was soon to be the omnipo- tence of ministers. The secretaries of state were charged with the king's correspondence in all public affairs. An ordinance of Henry II., in 1547, fixed their number at four ; each of them corresponded with one-fourth of the provinces of the kingdom, and with one-fourth of the foreign coun- tries. Specialization of their functions is of a later date. Thus all the affairs of the king's household, and at a later time ecclesiastical affairs, were assigned to one of them, and in the seventeenth century the three others successively received charge of war, of foreign affairs, and of the navy. The chancellor was head of the department of justice ; the superintendent, of that of finance. The organization of the police began. Army, Navy, and Colonies. ■■ — Only the gendarmerie was French ; the infantry was composed mainly of foreigners, Germans or Swiss. In 1534 Francis I., resuming the idea of Charles VII., attempted to create a national infantry, organizing seven legions of six thousand men each. Henry II. resumed and improved his father's plan ; but the civil wars disorganized everything. Richelieu and Louis XIV. reconstituted this national infantry. Francis made the office of grand master of the artillery one of the first offices of state, placed ten frontier provinces under military gov- ernors, began a double line of frontier fortifications, and imported from Italy the use of earthworks. Francis also maintained a genuine navy. He equipped galleys upon the Mediterranean, on which the French flag was supreme, and larger vessels, propelled by both sails and oars, upon the ocean. The colonial movement which was to change the face of the world was then beginning. The Basques, Bretons, and Normans had established fisheries at Newfoundland as early as 1502. The navigator Verrazano explored in 1524, by order of Francis I., the coasts of North America ; in 1535 Jacques Cartier entered the St. Lawrence GOVERNMENT OF FRANCIS L AND HENRY II. 323 and discovered Canada. The mercliant marine was con- stantly increasing. Finance. — A more complicated administration, more numerous armies, the new navy, and the luxury of the court required enormous sums. Francis I. united his pri- vate treasury with that of the nation. He accustomed the clergy of France to furnish him with a regular subsidy. He increased the tailles from 7,000,000 to 16,000,000, and added to the gabelle or salt-tax. In 1522 he borrowed 200,000 livres (to-day, a million dollars), at eight and one- half per cent., thus originating the public debt of France. The same year he added a fourth chamber to the Parliament of Paris, in order to obtain 1,200,000 livres, and afterward renewed several times these sales of judicial, financial, and administrative offices — a disastrous measure, which need- lessly increased the number of the king's servants, dimin- ished the number of persons subject to taxation, and made the administration of justice more expensive to the people. A still more unfortunate measure, borrowed from Italy, was the establishment of the royal lottery (1539). The princi- pal author of the most severely criticised measures of the reign of Francis I. was Chancellor Duprat. The financial administration of Henry II. was disastrous ; he negotiated so many of those loans at ruinous rates of interest which his father had inaugurated, that he left a debt of 17,000,000, equal to 136,000,000 of the present time. Francis I. increased the duties on imports; under Henry II. all imported goods without distinction were, on entrance into the kingdom, subjected to a duty of two crowns per quintal, and of four per cent, ad valorem: such were the modest beginnings of the protective system. General Prosperity. — Yet the general wealth increased faster than the public expenses. The agriculturists bor- rowed from Italy the cultivation of maize. Two Genoese in 1536 established the first manufactories of silk at Lyons, and the same city founded a commercial bank. Thus, over against the landed wealth of the lords, was gradually form- ing the personal wealth of the bourgeois. Capital, the great power of modern times, was beginning to be amassed in the hands of the merchants. 324 i"2£ RENAISSANCE CHAPTER XLIL THE RENAISSANCE UNDER FRANCIS I. AND HENRY H. The Keuaissance. — The Middle Ages were dying. The minds of men, still held by the thousand bonds of old ideas, were struggling to be free. To this revolt against the old systems has been given the appropriate name of the Re- naissance. It was the radiant awakening of human reason, the springtime of the mind. After a long and severe winter the earth was reviving under the sun of renovation. All was renewed, — arts, sciences, and philosophy, — and the world began to march forward, to mount into purer light and air. " Oh, age ! " cried Ulrich von Hutten, " letters flourish, the minds of men are reawakened ; it is a joy to be alive ! " The distinguishing characteristic of this revolution was that the men of that age looked back into the past more than into the future. If they abandoned the masters whom they had hitherto been following, it was to set themselves under the instruction of older masters. But to go back to antiquity was to return to human nature, to the beautiful, to the true, to the independence of the mind and the rule of rationality. The Renaissance of Art. — When the French crossed over the mountains, Italy was giving birth to a new art. In architecture, the right angle, the arch, the dome, strong and full columns, restrained ornamentation of Greek and Roman origin, tastefully mingled with others, were replacing the acute angle, the pointed arch, the light columns, and the lavish ornamentation of the last age of Gothic architecture. The sculptor worked in the open air, attempted all subjects, studied the nude, and especially studied antiquity, master- pieces of which were every day being discovered. The painter obtained a new beauty of coloring, a new variety of tones. Michael Angelo was finishing the dome of St. Peter, chiselling his great statue of Moses, or painting his Last Judgment; Raphael was producing his School of Athens, Ills Dispute of the Holy Sacrament, and his divine Ma- donnas. UNDER FRANCIS I. AND HENRY II. 325 France was far behind in painting. But in architecture and in sculpture she had, of herself, entered into these new paths. Eoger Ango had already begun the Palais de Jus- tice at Eouen ; others were building at Paris the chapel of the Hdtel de Cluny, the H6tel de la Tr^mouille, and many other town houses there and in the provincial capitals. Sculpture did not linger behind her elder sister : as witness, the tomb of George of Amboise at Eouen, and that of Fran- cis II. of Brittany at ISTantes, the work of Michel Colombe. Thus a genuinely French art was being formed, which in order to develop into the fulness of the Eenaissance needed only a little more lightness, grace, and richness, a little more of anatomical and architectural science ; and especially the restrained caprice, the regulated fancy, which was one of the signs of those times, in which man was recovering the freedom of his mind. France, therefore, does not owe everything to Francis I. ; but artistic talents received from him a liberal and powerful protection. From the Italy of Eaphael and Michael Angelo, Francis I. borrowed both masters and models. He bought in Italy, or received as gifts, more than a hundred statues ; he acquired paint- ings of Leonardo and Eaphael. By his regard and by his friendship, quite as much as by his favors, he attracted the most distinguished masters from Italy, among them old Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, and Benvenuto Cel- lini, to build chateaux for him or decorate his palaces, to inspire the French artists or excite their emulation. Fontainebleau ; St. Germain ; Chambord ; Chenonceaux. — The sight of the sumptuous palaces and elegant villas of Italy had revealed to the French the coldness and barren- ness of the gloomy manor-houses which their fathers had inhabited. A new society was forming. The brilliant court of great lords and young ladies, of poets and artists, required new dwellings. Francis I. provided them. He built in the pleasant valley of the Loire, the favorite region of the Valois, the chateau of Chambord and that of Azay-le-Eideau, com- menced Chenonceaux, and finished Amboise. Fontainebleau rose in the midst of the most beautiful forest in France. It bears traces of the influence of the Italian artists, but is an agglomeration of constructions of all sorts and periods. Chambord has more unity, and is entirely French in its origin. It was an architect of Blois, Pierre Nepveu, who built that marvellous edifice, so elegant yet so majestic. 326 THE RENAISSANCE After Chambord may be mentioned Chenonceaux, the vast chateau of Uss6, St. Germain, Madrid, in the Bois de Bou- logne, Folembray near Laon, Villers- Cotter ets, and the nu- merous chateaux which the great nobles, following the examples of the kings, erected in place of their old castles. Pierre Lescot and the Louvre. — These chateaux were only summer residences ; grander and more severe buildings, des- tined to be the official residence of royalty, were erected in the capital by French artists. Pierre Lescot (1510-1571) produced the plan of the Louvre. On the ruins of the old Louvre rose gradually that palace which, in spite of all trans- formations, is still the completest expression of the French Renaissance. Pierre Lescot constructed only a part of the facade. On the exterior, the basement with its Corinthian columns, the first story with a composite order, the sec- ond with an Ionic order, are bound one to the other by the beautiful and graceful sculptures of Jean Goujon and Paul Ponce, surmounted by a bold central pavilion. Such is the theme that other artists and other centuries have developed ; and the decadence of monumental art in France may be fol- lowed by studying the parts of this palace. PMlihert Delorme. — The second of the great French architects, Philibert Delorme, had crossed the Alps in 1534 to study on the spot the monuments of antiquity and the palaces of the Renaissance. On his return to his native city of Lyons, Cardinal du Bellay attracted him to Paris and introduced him to Henry II. He continued Fontaine- bleau, planned various chateaux, and obtained from Cathe- rine de' Medici the office of superintendent of buildings. The daughter of the Medici had brought from Tuscany a taste for letters and art. Philibert Delorme, in one of his writings, commends her " for the extreme pleasure which she takes in architecture, drawing and designing plans and profiles of the buildings which she causes to be erected." It was by her orders that he commenced in 1564 the chateau of the Tuileries, of which the commiuiists of 1871 made a heap of ruins. The middle pavilion, the two adjoining gal- leries with their arcaded porticos rising into two square pavilions of an Ionic and a Corinthian, order, one above the other, were the work of Philibert Delorme. Subsequent architects altered his plans for the worse. Louis XIV. undertook to unite the work of Pierre Lescot with that of Philibert Delorme by continuing the gallery of the Louvre till it reached the Tuileries. UNDER FRANCIS I. AND HENRY II. 327 Goujon; Pilon; Cousin; Palissy. — Jean Gouj on, who has been called the Correggio of sculpture, united knowledge of anatomy with delicacy of chiselling, force with grace. His most remarkable works are the caryatids of the hall of the guards at the Louvre, the delightful figures of the foun- tain of the Innocents, and a group of Diana the Huntress. Of the works of Germain Pilon the most famous are the sculptures of the mausoleum of Henry II. at St. Denis, and the group of the Three Graces, carved from a single block of marble. Jean Cousin, born in 1501, was also a great sculptor ; but he was unrivalled in France in the sixteenth century for stained glass windows and oil paintings. The windows which he made for Sens, Metz, and Vincennes are placed in the first rank. His canvas of the Last Judgment, now in the museum of the Louvre, is a composition full of fire and originality. Beside these great names a place should be found for the heroic Bernard Palissy, the potter, born in Ag^nois about 1500, who, after sixteen years of efforts and ruinous ex- penses, discovered (1555) the secret of the enamel which was used in Italy, made potteries which are still admired, and was in geology the precursor of Buffon and Cuvier. The Revival of Letters. — In the fifteenth century literary studies were mostly confined to the subtleties of scholasti- cism, taught in barbarous Latin. The sciences, without true method, went on at haphazard, delivered over to super- stitious practices. The French language was simple and vivid, but lacked amplitude, elevation, and clearness. Gallic imagination, good sense, and gayety made themselves felt in writings both of verse and of prose ; but triviality, diffusive- ness, and bad taste disfigured the best books. Fortunately the artists were not the only ones to rediscover antiquity. The writers also drew from that abundant source. The College of France and the Royal Printers. — In letters, also, Francis I. did not create the movement, but he aided it. The old University of Paris with its faculty of theology, the Sorbonne, could not change its spirit and its methods. After the model of the Italian academies, the king founded in 1530 a lay establishment, the College of the Three Lan- guages, or College of France. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, medi- cine, mathematics, philosophy, all that was new or that opened new paths was there taught gratuitously by the greatest scholars of France. 328 THE RENAISSANCE Francis I. did not create the Royal Printing-Office, which dates only from the time of Louis XIII. (1640) ; but he caused to be cast, after the beautiful forms of the Venetian types of Aldus Manutius, the fonts of Garaniond, who, at his orders, entrusted them to the most distinguished print- ers, the so-called royal printers, to serve for the handsome editions published by these private establishments. He bought manuscripts of ancient authors in Italy, Greece, and Asia, to increase the riches of the royal library, and caused a great number to be edited. The family of the Estiennes acquired a just celebrity by the beauty and correctness of the works emanating from their presses. Erudition. — Danes, Postel, Dolet, the great Ciceronian, Bude, the greatest Hellenist of Europe, Lefebvre d'Etaples, and twenty others edited with notes and commentaries a large number of works of sacred and profane antiquity. Erudite publications, though so foreign, it might seem, to the life of every day, in reality put into circulation ideas, results of learning, and forms of stjde which were to renew the entire literature of France. Already some even went further and looked beyond Greece and Eome. Postel visited Asia, and learned Hebrew, Arabic, and Armenian. Glimpses of the ancient East were obtained. This contact with an- tiquity animated and strengthened the French mind. It now had models and guides, which it had lacked before, and could commence its first great literary age. Jurisprudence. — The study which in the sixteenth cen- tury advanced beyond all others was that of law. The Italian Alciati, called to Bourges in 1529 by Francis I., applied philology to the study of law ; his disciples went further. The erudite Cujas restored the text of the Roman jurisconsults and founded the fruitful science of the history of law. Pierre Pithou, Denis Godefroy, who published his Corpus Juris in 1596, the profound Doneau, Fran9ois Hot- man, rendered still other services ; and he whom his contem- poraries called the prince of jurisconsults, Dumoulin, advo- cate of the Parliament of Paris, brought light out of the dark chaos of the customs. Thanks to the efforts of these learned scholars, men like Ollivier, Michel de I'Hdpital, Har- lay, and De Thou, profound jurisconsults or austere magis- trates, were able, in the midst of the most frightful religious discords, to improve the civil law and prepare the way for the rational unification of French law. UNDER FRANCIS I. AND HENRY 11. 329 Philosophy ; Medicine ; Science. — The Middle Ages had no knowledge of Plato ; Aristotle reigned alone. Ramus, a deep student of Plato, was the first in France to shake off the yoke of this superstitious admiration. To combat Aris- totle with Plato was to substitute one authority in the place of another ; but between the two masters, the mind could go on and seek truth for itself, instead of receiving it ready made from their hands. The reading of the works of Hippocrates and Galen brought back medicine to experience and observation. Ambroise Par6 became the father of French surgery, aban- doning the false treatment of gunshot woimds by boiling oil, and replacing the cauterization of arteries by the use of ligatures. In the sciences, France has in this century one great name, that of Vi6te, the predecessor of Descartes and Newton in mathematical analysis. Vi^te was the real in- ventor of the applications of algebra to geometry. Prose Literature. — Literature could not remain uninflu- enced by this renaissance which was so brilliantly develop- ing in the domains of art and science. But, with the exception of the Essays of Montaigne, the substance was of more excellence than the form. The century did much thinking, but literary skill was in general wanting. The Life of the Chevalier Bayard, by the Loyal Serviteur, seems like the last echo of the naive chronicles of the Middle Ages. The Memoirs of the brothers Du Bellay are instruc- tive. Those of Blaise de Montluc were called by Henry IV. the soldiers' Bible. Many others relate what they have done or seen, and France was to have, in their memoirs, one of the most interesting branches of historical lit- erature. President de Thou (d. 1617) takes a higher flight in his vast and conscientious Universal History ; Brantdme descends lower, to anecdote. Brant6me con- ducts us to the Novels of the Queen of Navarre (d. 1549), imitations of the Decameron of Boccaccio. A young man of eighteen, Etienne de la Boetie, found energetic and burning words in which to denounce tyranny. A little later, Jean Bodin (b. 1530), in his book on the Republic, that is, on the organization of the state, made an important study of political science. Michel Eyquem, born in 1533, at the chateau of Montaigne, in Southwestern France, was for five years the mayor of Bordeaux, But he cared little 330 THE RENAISSANCE for affairs, and returned to his chateau. Montaigne's Es- says are, through the charm of their style and the delicacy of their thought, the most instructive and the most attrac- tive moral study of man ; but they have not the well-rounded design, the firm drawing, and the relentless logic of minds attached to a strong political or religious creed. He is un- certain respecting many things. But if the opinions of men inspire him with doubts, he has no doubts respecting virtue ; but his virtue is pleasant, and not austere. Montaigne goes on, across " fertile and flourishing plains," and on the road he imitates the " bees which pillage the flowers on this side and on that ; but they afterwards make of it honey which is all their own: it is no longer either thyme or marjoram." Thus he utters thoughts and images which he encounters in ancient .authors : he seeks his plunder everywhere, but makes what he takes his own. The Essays of Montaigne had been preceded by a translation of the historical and moral works of Plutarch, by Amyot (1513-1593) ; a translation full of genius, and which infused into French literature all the ancient knowledge which the philosopher of Chaeroneia had gathered into his books. The Middle Ages could not give place to the Renaissance without a struggle. The old spirit changed reluctantly into the new. In the works of FrauQois Rabelais (1483- 1553) we may see this strange and picturesque conflict in progress. Born at Chinon, at first a cordelier, then a phy- sician, and finally cur6 of Meudon, Rabelais, in his Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel, as in his own life, presents a chaos of the most discordant elements, not yet harmo- niously fused. His book, in which reason speaks the lan- guage of folly, in which the most boisterous laughter is but a terrible satire, unites in a strange beauty the boldest thought of the Renaissance with the most grotesque forms which the Middle Ages could ever have imagined. Drama and Poetry. — By an edict of 1548 Parliament had destroyed the old Mysteries. The popular satirical drama had just reached its culmination. For some time men were amused by the transparent allusions through which it was easy to recognize the people, the Church, and, sometimes, types less general and known personages. The Parliament made an end of this pleasure also, by for- bidding all persons "to exhibit any spectacle noting any person whatsoever." The popular drama was not perfected UNDER FRAN Gits I. AND HENRY 11. 331 by the Renaissance, but set aside. Certain erudite poets had already translated Greek and Latin pieces into French verse. Jodelle composed the first regular French tragedy, his Cleopatra, which was played in the presence of Henry II. in 1552. The modern theatre then received its birth before an audience of courtiers. Ancient history drove the Bible from the stage : the human drama took the place of the religious drama. But the French theatre long retained, from antiquity and the court in which it originated, certain traces of the traditional and the conventional, which prevented it from acquiring the original popularity of the Mysteries. The poets did not abdicate so quickly. CMment Marot (d. 1544) brought poetry to the court. The court gave it more delicacy and elegance, without taking from it its vigor or its maliciousness. A page of Francis I., Marot fought with him at Pavia, and was taken prisoner. A translator of the Psalms of David, he was accused of shar- ing the new opinions, was several times persecuted, and died at Turin in misery. His verses are all wit and grace, but have little strength. The strength which French poetry lacked, Eonsard attempted to impart to it, by making it Latin and Greek, and he wasted in this useless effort his true sensibility of soul and the real power of his genius. He borrowed from the ancients not only the form of the ode and the epic, their ideas and their metaphors, but the very construction of the phrase and the composition of the words. In his Franciade he aspired to equal Homer and Virgil, and his age, infatuated with antiquities, almost agreed with him. The most illustrious scholars, the most judicious minds, Scaliger and De Thou, had displayed a sort of adoration for him. But little of Eonsard has re- mained current, except some few well-turned verses. Yet his language has more of elevation and of nobility, or, to speak more truly, of solemnity, than that of his prede- cessors. He was the originator of the sublime style. Ronsard had gathered around him a society of poets, which he called, in reminiscence of the Alexandrine poets, the Pleiad. They were six in number : Du Bellay, Baif, Belleau, Jodelle, Jamyn, and Pontus de Thiard. Another of his disciples, Du Bartas, showed by his very exaggera- tion, in his Semame de la Criation, the folly of these inno- vators who were constantly looking backward. Finally Malherbe came to open the great age of French literature, the seventeenth century. ELEVENTH PERIOD. Religious Wars. — Feudal and Communal Anarchy renewed. CHAPTER XLHI. FRANCIS II. (1559-1560 A.D.) The Children of Henry II. — Henry II., at his death, left four sons of tender age, the children of Catherine de' Medici. Born sickly and early exhausted by excesses, three of them quickly succeeded one another on the throne without leav- ing issue, so that during a quarter of a century the burden of absolute poAver, so dif&cult to bear, fell into the hands of children or of inexperienced young men. They lived long enough to exhibit good qualities of mind and great faults of heart. They were eloquent speakers, poets to some extent, and always patrons of letters and arts, but they had vices which are fatal to states. The eldest, Francis II., reigned less than a year and a half. Catherine de' Medici. — The king's majority began at thirteen years of age ; but at sixteen, Francis II. Avas still under tutelage. The queen-mother was called upon to exer- cise great influence. She was intelligent but superstitious, full of taste for the fine arts and for delicate pleasures, but without much strictness of morality. She had hitherto given proof only of patience and address. Transported suddenly from court circles into political factions and wars, she was not equal to her new position. She carried the finesse of the drawing-room into the affairs of the State. She had a taste for underhand dealings. She wished to FRANCIS 11. 333 rule men through their evil passions, to oppose parties one to another. All distinction between good and evil was effaced from her mind ; she had left in her heart only one good feeling, her affection for her children. In order to secure power for her sons she was willing to use every means. So abandoned a policy was sure to receive its punishment. Mary Stuart. — Mary Stuart, daughter of James V., and wife of Francis 11.^ for a time kept power from Catherine's hands. In that brilliant court of France, in the midst of the scholars, poets, and artists, who always gathered about her, Mary was enjoying without misgiving the pleasure of exercising the charms of her wit and beauty. Her influence over the king was great ; she left all affairs of business to her two uncles, the Cardinal of Lorraine and Duke Francis of Guise. The Aspirants for Power. — The house of Guise, the younger' branch of the ducal house of Lorraine, had risen rapidly of late. Claude, its head, became Duke of Guise ; his brother Jean was made a cardinal. Of his sons, the eldest, Francis, had defended Metz and reconquered Calais; another, Charles, had succeeded his uncle as cardinal. The young king confided military affairs to the former, civil affairs to the latter. Catherine de' Medici had, however, the titular office of " general superintendent of the govern- ment." The house of Bourbon then had, as its heads, Antoine, who had married Jeanne d'Albret, now queen of Navarre; and his two brothers, Charles, cardinal of Bour- bon, and Louis, prince of Cond6. They were the nearest relatives of the Valois ; and Antoine, in case of a minority, could have laid claim to the regency ; but at present the Bourbons asked for nothing. Montmorency was relieved of the burden of office. Calvin ; Progress of the Reformation. — Only forty years had elapsed since Luther began his preaching against the Church, and already Europe was divided into two com- munions. England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, half of Germany and Switzerland had separated from Rome ; the South, Italy and Spain, were still obedient. The Reforma- tion would be triumphant if France went over to it. Under Francis I. and Henry II., the Sorbonne had con- demned the new opinions. Parliament had forbidden preach- ing in the country districts and threatened the heretics with 334 FRANCIS II. death. Though the government relied on the Protestants in other countries, it made no concession to those at home. Hitherto the reformers of France had been without a guide; Calvin had placed himself at their head. He was born in 1509, at Noyon. Having become acquainted with the Lutheran opinions at the university of Bourges, he adopted them with some modifications, and expounded and defended them in a clear and methodical work which he called The Christian Institution, In it he attacked the primacy of the Holy See, the real presence, etc. After much wandering he established himself at Geneva, where he gained unbounded influence. From 1541 to 1565, he ruled there as an absolute master, regulating doctrines and severely reforming manners. Under the hands of this stern lawgiver the Reformation in France took definite shape ; it went farther than that of Luther, for it denied absolutely the real presence, and proscribed as abominations all the splendors of the Catholic worship. The French Reforma- tion identified itself with Calvinism, and Geneva became the Eome of Protestantism. The Calvinists or Huguenots increased in the midst of persecution. The council of Trent (1545), the new religious order of the Company of Jesus, created expressly to combat heresy, were powerless to ar- rest its progress. This is the explanation of the unlooked- for treaty of Cateau-Cambr^sis. The two kings felt them- selves impelled to make peace in order to arrest the prog- ress of the reformers. By a secret convention, or at least by formal promises, Philip II. and Henry II. agreed to extirpate heresy. Punishment of Anne Dubourg. — Henry immediately pub- lished the edict of Ecouen, which pronounced sentence of death against the Protestants and their abettors. Two members of the Parliament, Dufaur and Anne Dubourg, did not conceal their sympathy with the persecuted. The king considered himself insulted and defied ; he had them arrested at once, and commanded that they should be brought to trial. His death did not stop the trial. The ministers of the Reformed Church held their first national synod at Paris to draw up a petition in favor of the prisoners. But Dubourg was burned in the Place de Gr^ve. Power of the Reformed Party ; Political Discontent. — Nevertheless, the reformers proceeded to organize. They formed a union of their churches, and established relations FRANCIS It. 335 witli the German Protestants. The party grew large by the addition, not only of religious, but of political opponents, — the princes of the blood, Antoine de Bourbon and Cond6, the great nobles, disgusted at the rule of foreigners. The lesser nobles of the provinces, resenting the loss of their privileges, abolished by royalty, inclined, through political discontent, to the new theological views. The austere and independent doctrines of Calvinism suited them ; and some of them could not help thinking of the rich domains of the Church which the German and English lords had secular- ized, of the possible recovery of their lost privileges, and united to break down the new constitutional arrangements. Conspiracy of Amboise (1560). — The two Guises exer- cised power with arrogance and partiality. They disbanded the old military organizations in which a number of poor gentlemen had served unpaid, and replaced them by Ger- mans and Italians. This summary fashion of settling ac- counts roused the indignation of many men, who, unable to excite civil war, engaged in a plot. They believed they could count on the two Bourbons ; they were at least sure of Cond6, and they thought that it would be easy to draw on the three Ch^tillons, nephews of Montmorency : one of them, cardinal-bishop of Beauvais ; another, Coligny, admiral of France, and long an enemy of Duke Francis ; the third, Dandelot, colonel-general of the infantry. They proposed to take the king away from the Guises. Cond^ was secretly the chief; but the enterprise was conducted by La Renaudie, a gentleman of Limousin. A number of Huguenots were to proceed to the court at Blois, and de- mand religious liberty; La Renaudie should follow with live hundred gentlemen and a thousand soldiers. But a lawyer, who had at first approved the design, was led by his fears to reveal it. Francis of Guise removed the court to the castle of Amboise, which was more easily defended, summoned thither Cond6 and the Ch^tillons, and suspended the prosecutions of the reformers, so as to divide his adversaries. La E-enaudie advanced upon Amboise, but was surprised and killed. The Duke of Guise, appointed lieutenant-general of the kingdom with unlimited powers, showed himself merci- less ; and for a month there was continual beheading, hang- ing, and drowning. Cond6 was compromised by the confessions of several of 336 FBANCIS 11. the prisoners. No one doubted that he was the author of the movement. But he haughtily demanded a solemn assembly of the princes, and defied to single combat who- ever should dare to accuse him. The Duke of Guise had not sufiicient proofs ; unable to put him to death, he as- sumed the part of a protector ; he offered to be his second ; seeing this, no one ventured to take up the challenge. The Chancellor de I'Hopital ; the Edict of Romorantin (1560). — The Guises had gained a Pyrrhic victory. So many executions for so unsubstantial a conspiracy excited general horror. It caused the death of the chancellor Olivier. Mary Stuart had not interfered. But the young king had wept, and had called men to witness that the blame lay upon his uncles, and not upon himself. The queen-mother had perceived "that there had been in the whole matter more of discontent than of Huguenotism." She gave the seals to Michel de I'Hdpital, "one of those noble souls of the antique type, another Cato the Censor.-'-" The Guises, elated by success, demanded the introduction of the Inquisition pure and simple. L'Hdpital refused. He caused ^^May, 1560) the edict of Romorantin to be issued, which gave cognizance of the crime of heresy to the bishops' courts ; but this was far preferable to the establishment of the terrible Inquisition. Preparations for Civil War. — L'H6pital convoked an assembly of notables at Fontainebleau. Coligny repaired thither, and presented to the king the petition of the Huguenots of Normandy, who prayed for liberty of con- science. But it was decided to await the meeting of the States-General in December (1560). There was urgent need that the voice of the nation should be heard above the tumult of rival ambitions and opposing creeds. The Guises, allying themselves with the merciless king of Spain, assembled an army. The Bourbons and the Chdtillons raised companies of gentlemen, and organized resistance in the South. The Arrest of Conde; Death of Francis II. (1560). — The States-General met at Orleans. The king of Navarre and the prince of Cond6 attended. The Guises caused Cond6 to be arrested as soon as he entered the city, and sought to have his brother killed in the king's antechamber. But the young prince dared not give the signal. A standing com- mittee was nominated to try Conde ; his fate was predeter- FRANCIS II. 337 mined ; lie was condemned to death, and would have perished but for L'Hdpital, who refused to sign the sen- tence, and thus gained time, for the young king was dying. He expired December 5th, after a reign of seventeen months. France would soon have forgotten this unfortunate young man but for two memories associated with his reign : one that of the power of the Guises and the beginning of the wars of religion ; the other that of the young Mary Stuart, who was obliged after the death of her husband to renounce the land of her adoption and return to wild Scotland. She re- turned to find a crown indeed, but also chains, — a captivity of eighteen years, and instead of a throne at last the scaffold. 338 CHARLES IX. CHAPTER XLIV. CHARLES IX. (1560-1574 A.D.) Regency of Catherine de' Medici; the States-General of Orleans (1560) . — Power fell into the hands of the queen- mother, her second son, Charles IX., being only ten years and a half old. She renounced the policy of extreme meas- ures, confirmed the Guises in their offices, but appointed Antoine de Bourbon lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and freed Cond6. Her principal counsellor was L'H6pital. The latter purposed civil reforms. Catherine hoped to oppose parties one to another. The States-General did not render the assistance that L'H6pital expected from them. The debt amounted to 42,480,000 livres, which would be equivalent to 350,000,000 francs to-day ; the net revenues did not amount to 12,260,- 000 francs. The nobility made no grant ; the clergy, since the time of Francis I., almost annually made a grant of tenths ; it consented further to furnish a free gift of 1,600,- 000 livres for six years, and in ten years to redeem a con- siderable amount of the debt. As for the Third Estate, which bore all the weight of taxation, it demanded a reduc- tion, the abolition of the venality of offices and internal customs, the convocation of the states every five years. On the religious question the three orders were divided. The clergy desired the extermination of heresy ; the Third Estate was for religious freedom ; the nobility was divided. Measures of L'Hopital; Ordinance of Orleans (1561). — The chancellor acted resolutely. He re-established equilib- rium between the expenditures and the receipts. Koyal letters enjoined it upon Parliament to suspend all the pros- ecutions in matters of religion. The celebrated ordinance of Orleans re-established canonical elections, forbade the clergy to exact fees for administering the sacraments, com- pelled them to reside in their benefices, and transferred the administration of justice from baillis and seneschals, gen- CHARLES IX. 339 erally soldiers and ignorant of the law, to deputies who should be either lawyers or magistrates. The Edict of July; States of Fontoise; Conference of Foissy (1561). — L'Hdpital continued his conciliatory pol- icy. While declaring the meetings for preaching unlawful by the edict of July, he granted a general amnesty and sus- pended the execution of all sentences in matters of religion until the decision of the council. It had been agreed at the States of Orleans, that commissioners should assemble with full powers to decide upon the question of subsidies. The chancellor assembled them at Pontoise, in August ; at the same time he convoked, at Poissy, a conference of theolo- gians of the two religions, who were to find, if possible, a compromise which should put an end to all disputes. The former body, in which several Calvinists had seats, demanded their assembly every two years, religious tolera- tion, reform in offices of magistracy and finance, and finally, in order to pay the debts of the State, the sale of the prop- erty of the Church, which was estimated at one hundred and twenty millions. Here was already the idea which, later, was adopted by the Eevolution. The clergy warded off the blow by making liberal promises ; but soon it became necessary to adjourn the assembly. Edict of January; Farty Animosities (•1562). — The queen, however, sustained the chancellor; on this occasion she went even farther than he did. Her letters to the Pope demanded serious reforms in discipline and rites. Also she allowed L'Hdpital to issue the edict of January (1562), which authorized Calvinistic worship in the country dis- tricts while prohibiting it in the walled towns ; suspended all punishment of heretics, but forbade their interfering with the old worship. This was the first real act of toleration. This virtue, unhappily, was at that time but little under- stood. The more tolerant the government became, the more intense became the hatred of the Catholics for the Protes- tants. The monks, and especially the Jesuits, who had for two years past been legalized in Prance, incited the faithful to defend the religion abandoned by the queen. The cardinal of Lorraine, the doctors of the Sorbonne,' secretly implored the assistance of Philip II., who threaten- ingly remonstrated with the queen-mother. The Protestants, on the other hand, were not content with what had been granted them. Riots and quarrels broke out on all sides. ,, 340 CHARLES IX. Massacre of Vassy (1562). — "The clergy, part of the nobility, and almost all the people," says Castelnau, "im- agined that the cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise were appointed by God to preserve the Catholic relig- ion." They were recalled to Paris, contrary to the wishes of L'H6pital, by Marshal St. Andr6 and by the king of Navarre, who had abandoned the Protestant party, in the hope of obtaining from Philip II. the restitution of his small kingdom. On the 1st of March, 1562, the Duke of Guise waS'iDassing through Vassy in Champagne. It was Sunday, and he stopped there to attend mass. The singing of six or seven hundred Protestants who were assembled in a barn near by attracted his attention. Some of his fol- lowers determined to put a stop to what they considered an insult to their duke, and, the Protestants refusing to be silent, drew their swords upon them. The Protestants defended themselves by throwing stones. The Duke of Guise, hastening to the aid of his followers, was wounded on the cheek ; then all his retainers fell upon the unfortu- nate Protestants, who were unarmed, killed sixty of them and wounded more than two hundred without distinction of age or sex. A few days afterwards at Sens others were massacred while returning from church. First Civil War (1562). — This was the signal for a war which, seven times suspended by short-lived treaties, broke out again seven times, and for thirty-two years covered France with blood and ruins. At the news of the massacre of Vassy, the Huguenots everywhere took up arms ; the Duke of Guise carried off the king and his mother by main force from Pontainebleau and took him to Paris, where the Protestants were few in number. But outside of Paris they amounted to at least one-tenth of the population, and they included the best part of the provincial nobility. They proclaimed Cond^ defender of the king and pro- tector of the kingdom ; in the course of a few weeks they had taken possession of more than two hundred towns, among them Eouen, Lyons, Tours, Montpellier, Poitiers, Grenoble, Orleans, and Blois. The Guises were ill pre- pared, but they had possession of the king; they caused the Calvinists to be declared rebels, and Cond6 guilty of high treason ; Philip II., the champion of Catholicism throughout Europe, gave them a corps of three thousand steady and brave men from his old Spanish troops. Cond6, CHARLES IX. 341 on his part, sougM aid from the Protestant Elizabeth, who sent him three thousand soldiers to defend Rouen on condi- tion that Havre should be surrendered to her in pledge for the money she advanced. In the Sonth the war broke out everywhere at once, with- out order and without plan, according to the impulses of hatred and revenge, and with all the cruelty which usually characterizes civil wars. Two party chieftains were dis- tinguished above all others for their cruelties, — the Cath- olic Blaise de Montluc, the royalist hutclier, in Languedoc and Guienne ; the Protestant Des Adrets, in Provence and Dauphiny. The first was always accompanied by two exe- cutioners whom he called his lackeys ; in one city he had seventy Protestant ministers hung on the posts of the market. " It could be known where I had passed, for on the trees by the roadside the signs could be seen." The Siege of Rouen (1562). — In the North, where the chief leaders were, there was more concert of action, and the fate of the war was decided there. The Duke of Guise set out for Eouen at the head of the Catholic army, re- enforced by Antoine de Bourbon. Though that city was incapable of standing a siege, it still made some resistance. Antoine de Bourbon received a wound there, from the effects of which he died ; but after a few days the place was taken. " This great city," says Castelnau, " full of all sorts of treas- ure, was plundered for the space of eight days without re- spect to either religion, notwithstanding that on the next day after the capture an order had been given to the effect that all troops, without respect to nationality, should leave the city on pain of death." After the pillage came the legal executions. Battle of Dreuz (1562). — Cond6, re-enforced by seven thou- sand men from Germany, attempted to make amends for this loss, and attacked the faubourgs of Paris. Repulsed by the Spaniards, he turned towards Havre for the purpose of adding to his army the English who were there ; but he was forced, by the Duke of Guise, to halt near Dreux (De- cember 19th). There were about fifteen or sixteen thousand men on each side. Cond6 broke the Catholic centre, wounded and captured the constable ; but the Swiss restored the fight, and the Duke of Guise completed the victory by a flank movement ; the Prince of Cond6 was made prisoner. Death of the Duke of Guise (February, 1563). — This was a 342 CHARLES IX. great success for Guise. Of Ms two rivals for power, Mar- shal St. Andre was killed, Montmorency was a captive, and he had possession also of the chief of the Huguenot army. Catherine de' Medici was much alarmed, in spite of the joy which she affected ; she spoke of negotiating, but Guise did not wait for those whom he had overthrown to rally ; he actively followed up his victory and laid siege to Orleans so as to cut off communication between the Protestants of the north and those of the south. The city could not have resisted much longer when a fanatical Protestant, Poltrot de M6r6, entered his camp as a refugee and wounded him mortally by a shot from a pistol. Francis of Giiise was a great captain ; France owes Calais to him, and he saved Metz for her ; but she owes to him also the religious wars which for thirty years deluged her in blood aud covered her with ruins. The slaughter con- tinued because it had been begun; but it was he who began it. The Peace and Edict of Amboise (March, 1563). — Guise being dead, Conde and Montmorency prisoners, the queen- mother was mistress of the government. She knew full well that these ambitious men desired the triumph of their faith doubtless, but still more their personal supremacy. Civil war unsettled respect for royal authority. The peas- ants refused to pay the ancient feudal dues to the nobility. Catherine, to put an end to these agitations, offered peace to Cond6 ; he signed a treaty at Amboise in return for an edict which authorized the Reformed worship in the houses of the nobility, throughout all the domains of the justiciary nobles, and in one city of each bailiwick. As an evidence of their real union, Catholics and Protestants undertook in common an expedition to take Havre from the English. The city opened its gates after a few days. Philip II. and Catherine; Conferences of Bayonne (1565). — The council of Trent having failed to bestow peace upon Christendom, each sovereign began to seek that his faith should triumph.' The king of Spain, Philip II., pledged all the forces of his vast moriarchy to the cause. He sup- pressed heresy in Italy and in Spain, and proposed to sup- press it in the Netherlands, in England, and in France. The Guises joined with him in this design; he now en- deavored to induce Catherine to do so. Catherine had at first faithfully executed the peace of CHARLES IX. 343 Amboise ; but the extremists of the two parties were not content with this truce. Parliament long refused to regis- ter the edict of pacification. Personal animosities broke out ; assassination took the place of civil war. The queen, more- over, found the Bourbons too powerful. As formerly, when confronting the great Guise, she inclined to the reformers, so now. face to face with Cond6, she leaned toward the Catholics. Little by little she restricted the privileges granted to the Protestants by the edict of Amboise. Dur- ing a progress through the South she changed all the gov- ernors suspected of Calvinism. This progress terminated at Bayonne by a conference with the Duke of Alva, the terrible minister of Philip II. It does not appear that the massacre of the Protestants was proposed by the Duke of Alva. But the reformers were easily persuaded that an alliance conchided under the influence of such a man could have no other aim than the extermination of heresy. The stern Pope, Pius V., continued, as pontiff, the war which, as grand inquisitor, he had waged against the new doctrines. The Jesuits throughout Europe were fighting enthusiasti- cally and intelligently for the Catholic cause. Ordinance of Moulins (1566). — Meanwhile the illustrious chancellor continued his reforms. In 1566 he issued the ordinance of Moulins for the reformation of justice. He declared the royal domain inalienable and imprescriptible, fixed the manner of nomination and examination of judges so as to diminish the inconveniences of the venality of offices, tried to establish uniformity and regularity of pro- cedure, restricted the privileges- of the officers of the crown ; deprived the cities of jurisdiction over local police, and sub- jected the inferior courts to the inspection of the superior ; in short, he directed the state toward unity of power, of jurisdiction, and of procedure. His efforts were wasted upon his contemporaries ; but succeeding generations profited by them. Second Civil War (1567-1568). — The Protestants, threat- ened by the court, resumed their assemblies, and collected money and arms. Catherine, on her part, reorganized the royal army, and enlisted six thousand men in Switzerland. The Duke of Alva was in the Netherlands with consider- able forces which could on occasion be used in France. The reformers planned a new conspiracy, but it failed. Then Cond6 blockaded Paris. The inhabitants forced old 344 CHARLES IX. Montmorency to go out to meet him. The valiant old eon- stable, who was after all a very poor general, made an unfor- tunate disposition of his troops and was killed: he was seventy-five years old. The battle (of St. Denis, 1567) was indecisive, though the Catholics retained possession of the field. Marshal Vieilleville was right when he said to the king: " Your majesty has not gained the battle, still less the prince of Cond6 ; the king of Spain is the victor ; for on both sides together, enough valiant captains and brave French soldiers to conquer Flanders and all the Netherlands have been killed." Some time after Cond6 received nine thou- sand German lanzknechts, or horsemen. The queen-mother had no troops to oppose them. L'Hdpital seized the oppor- tunity and proposed a peace ; it was signed at Longjumeau (1568), on condition that the Protestants should restore the places they occupied, but that the edict of Amborse should he re-established without restrictions. Disgrace of L'Hdpital (1568). — This was but an insecure peace. How could men lay down their arms at that time in France ? Already, in Champagne, a holy league had been formed. Religious war was waging everywhere; in Great Britain, between Elizabeth and Mary Stuart ; in the Nether- lands, between the Duke of Alva and the Beggars ; even, in one sense, in Spain. Catherine wished to put an end to this war, which was continually breaking out anew, by some stroke after the manner of the Italians. L'Hdpital was not the man to suit such a policy ; he was accordingly displaced (May, 1568). A plot was laid to carry off on the same day Conde and Coligny from Bur- gundy, and Jeanne d'Albret, the widow of Antoine de Bour- bon, from Beam ; but all three of them escaped : Cond6 and Coligny went to Rochelle, which city had in the last war taken sides with them. The intrepid Jeanne d'Albret joined them there with her son Henry of Beam. She offered *' her life, her possessions, her children for the defence of the cause." Third Civil War (1568-1570). — Catherine now believed herself ready for war. She declared it by issuing an edict which forbade the exercise of the so-called reformed relig- ion under pain of death, and ordered that all Protestant ministers should leave the kingdom within a fortnight. All the members of the parliaments and of the universities were compelled to take an oath of Catholicism. The court had CHARLES IX. 345 only an army of eighteen thousand infantry and four thou- sand cavalry with which to enforce such edicts. It was placed under the command of the young Diike of Anjou ; Tavannes and Biron were to direct it. All the southwest was at that time in possession of the Calvinists. Battle of Jarnac ; Death of Conde (1569) . — In the follow- ing spring Marshal Tavannes surprised the admiral with only the rear-guard, near Jarnac (March 13, 1569). Cond6 hearing of it hastened to his assistance with three hundred horse. He had been wounded in the arm the night before, and just as he was about to charge he received in addition a kick from a horse which broke his leg. In spite of all he dashed forward upon the enemy ; but his horse was killed, and he was thrown down. He was in the act of surrender- ing to a gentleman, when the captain of the guards of the Duke of Anjou shot him in the head. The loss of this brave and active prince was a serious one. The Protestants spoke of abandoning the open country, and shutting themselves up in Eochelle ; but Jeanne d'Albret presented herself to the discouraged army at Saintes with her son Henry of B6arn and the young prince of Cond6. " My friends," said she, " here are two new chiefs whom God gives you, and two orphans whom I confide to your care." Henry, prince of Beam, then fifteen years old, was born at Pau, and had been reared with severe simplicity as a country gentleman. Brave and intelligent, he pleased every one. He was appointed general-in-chief , with Coligny as counsellor and lieutenant. Coligny; Battle of Moncontour (1569). — Coligny, the defender of St. Quentin, had many qualities necessary to a party chieftain in such a war. A staunch and intelligent Protestant, he was loved and respected by ministers as well as soldiers. He was not perhaps a very great general, and Catherine did not consider him a profound politician ; but he never allowed himself to be cast down ; he saw clearly, and he knew how to turn everything to advantage. He wished to lead his Huguenots to the conquest of the Span- ish Low Countries, that he might win for France, by one stroke, fair provinces and internal peace. He conceived the Protestant colonization of America ; if he had succeeded, French blood and the French language would now have been predominant in the new world. Re-enforced by thirteen thousand Germans, Coligny took 346 CHARLES IX. the offensive, and defeated the Catholic army; but Ta. vannes repaired the loss. German Catholics, Spaniards sent by the Duke of Alva, Italians sent by Pius V., swelled the forces of the Duke of Anjou. Having been driven to the- Loire, he turned back and succeeded in surprising the Protestant army near Moncontour : six hundred Huguenot soldiers were left on the field of battle. But the victory of Moncontour was as futile as that of Jarnac. Coligny trav- ersed the whole South, recruiting his army as he went. Peace of Saint-Germain (1570). — Catherine de' Medici triumphed in the council. Nothing was gained by fighting a party which, though continaally defeated, continually renewed the attack; some other method must be tried. In order to disarm the Protestants, she granted them the free exercise of their worship in two cities in each province, and in all those in which it was already established ; the admission of Calvinists to all employments, and the posses- sion of four cities, — Rochelle, Cognac, Montauban, and La Charity. St. Bartholomew (1572). — At the news of this peace there was one great cry of indignation from the Catholics. Catherine follov/ed up her new policy. She hastened the marriage of the young prince of B^arn and Margaret, sister of Charles IX., and accepted the proposition of Coligny to lead his coreligionists against the Duke of Alva in the Low Countries, where the Dutch Beggars had just formed the Batavian Eepublic. Such an enterprise was pleasing to the Huguenots, and seemed like a return to the old foreign policy, laid aside since the death of Henry II. Coligny saw in a war with Spain the means of preserving gloriously and securely the peace of Prance. Charles IX. was then twenty-one years old; mentally bright, but of a weak and violent character. He had more than once thought that the Huguenot chiefs carried their heads too high, but, impatient of his mother's rule and envi- ous of his brother, he eagerly entered into the new projects ; wrote to Coligny, to Jeanne d'Albret, and pushed forward the marriage of Henry of B6arn and his sister. The queen of Navarre decided to come to Paris, and the admiral followed her thither, as did also a number of Huguenot gentlemen. Catherine had succeeded too well. The king now saw things only through Coligny's eyes. The Protestants, en- couraged, drew up in synod at Kochelle the very confession CHARLES IX. 347 of faith whicli they hold at the present day. Catherine remonstrated with her son, but he paid no heed to her ; the Duke of Anjou, the Guises, Tavannes, and all the Catholic nobles who had fought against the Reformation were indig- nant at seeing the power pass into the hands of their ene- mies. Philip II., threatened in the Low Countries, distributed money among the people for the purpose of inciting them to riots ; Paris grumbled. Jeanne d' Albret died suddenly ; it was thought from the effects of poison, but this has never been proved. When the marriage was celebrated, August 18th, before the porch of Notre Dame there was great diffi- culty in preventing a riot. Catherine fomented these dis- cords. On the 12th of August Coligny was shot by an assassin in the pay of the Duke of Guise. Charles went immediately to the admiral and swore to avenge him. The next day the queen came with the Duke of Anjou, the Duke of Angouleme, Tavannes, and others, to assail the king. She represented that the two parties were ready to come to blows, that each of them would elect a chief, and that the king would have nothing left but his title. After much incite- ment and threatening on her part, Charles cried out suddenly that since they were determined to kill the admiral, he wished they would kill all the Huguenots in France, " so that not one would be left to reproach him." The municipality of Paris was ready. The provost of the merchants, being summoned to the Louvre, received an order from the king to shut the gates and to place on guard cap- tains, lieutenants, and citizens whom he could trust. The bell of Saint-Germain I'Auxerrois was to give the signal at three o'clock on the night of the 24th of August, the feast of St. Bartholomew. At two o'clock the bell began to ring ; soon the bells of all the churches responded. Henry of Guise, Aumale, and the bastard of Angouleme hastened to the hdtel of Coligny. A German, named Besme, was the first to enter his chamber, and plunged his sword into the admiral's breast. He and the others then threw him into the courtyard, where Guise insultingly kicked his dead body. A white mark had been made upon the houses of the Huguenots, T^ligny, the son-in-law of the admiral, Roche- foucauld, a friend of the king, and others were killed after the admiral, most of them being surprised while in bed. The king of Navarre and the prince of Cond^ were taken before 348 CHARLES IX. the king, who threatened them with death unless they ab- jured Protestantism. Accounts differ as to the number of the slain : some estimate it at ten thousand, others at four thousand, and still others at two thousand. The last state- ment is the most probable. The next morning the king is said to have stood at one of the windows of the Louvre, firing with a musket upon the flying Protestants ; but during the day he became horrified at what he had done, and sent de- spatches into all the provinces to stop the contagion of the example set by Paris. But the crowd, with the ferocious animal instincts found among the lower classes, and especially among the dregs of those in large cities, continued the slaughter. They killed not only Huguenots, but their own creditors, rivals, and enemies. Thieves with white crosses on their hats and white handkerchiefs on their arms mur- dered, under pretext of Huguenotism, those whom they wished to plunder. ^. Meanwhile the king, taking the advice of his mother, went, on the twenty-sixth, to assume before the Parliament the responsibility of that dreadful night, and sent new orders to the governors of the provinces, which extended the massacre to Meaux, La Charity, Orleans, Saumur, Lyons, Bourges, Toulouse, Bordeaux, etc. ; fifteen or twenty thou- sand victims perished. Some of the governors refused to obey the court : among them, Montmorency, in the Isle of France ; Longueville in Picardy ; and those of Lower Nor- mandy, Burgundy, Dauphiny, Languedoc, and Auvergne. The executioner of Troyes refused to take part in the murders, saying tha,t it was not his duty to execute until sentence had been passed. The executioner of Lyons re- turned the same answer. L'H6pital may be counted among the victims of this fearful stroke of fanaticism. When the assassins were about to enter his castle, where he was living in retirement, some horsemen came up and stopped them. Their chief then told the old man that their object was not to kill him, . but to brin^ him pardon. " I did not know," he answered, "that I deserved either death or pardon." He died six months after, broken down by grief and mortification : his last words were, " Let the memory of that accursed day be blotted out forever." Fonrtli Civil War; Peace of Rochelle (1573).— This great crime was as useless as crimes always are. The CHARLES IX. 340 Protestants had lost their chiefs, but as soon as the stunning effect of this was over, they took up arms again in desperate rage. The Duke of Anjou besieged Eochelle, but could not take it, although he had with him all the jjrinces, most of the great nobles, and almost all of the court nobility. The king of Navarre and the prince of Cond6 had been forced to follow him thither. Nimes, Montauban, a hundred other cities in which the Protestants were in a majority, had shut their gates. At the same time the queen saw among the Catholics a number of persons who, while they were not favorable to the Calvinists, were certainly enemies to the Guises on account of their furious intolerance. Montmo- rency and his brothers were not with the royal army ; they formed a third party which would soon come to the front. After four assaults, the besiegers were no further advanced than at the beginning; the Duke of Anjou, anxious to go and take the crown of Poland, entered into a negotiation, and Charles IX. was obliged to grant liberty of conscience to the Protestants, by the peace of Eochelle, at the very moment when he was receiving fervent and enthusiastic congratulations for the massacre of St. Bartholomew from the courts of Eome and Spain. Death of Charles IX. (1574). — Mortification on account of this reverse, remorse, the excesses resulting from an impetuous temperament, and the violent exercises of hunt- ing, in which he frantically engaged, undermined the con- stitution of the young king. A frightful disease was wearing him away ; he became subject to convulsions and furious attacks of delirium, during which the blood would burst from the pores of his skin, his nose, and his ears. Visions of bleeding victims terrified him, and he fancied he constantly heard cries of lamentation. He died on May 30, 1574, at twenty-four years of age, abandoned by every one except his old Huguenot nurse. 350 HENRY III. CHAPTER XLV. HENRY III. (1574-1589 A.D.) Henry HI. — Tlie Duke of Anjou, heir presumptive of Charles IX., was in Poland at the time of his brother's death. Catherine de' Medici had obtained from the Polish nobility a crown for her favorite son. Henry was at once disgusted with this land of the Sarmatians, with its rude but manly nobles. At the news of his brother's death, he fled from his capital during the night. Pursued by his sub- jects, he did not stop till he reached the Austrian territories. The pleasures of Vienna, as well as those of Venice, detained him a long time ; he did not reach his new kingdom until two months after he had stealthily left the old. Henry was a king totally unfit for the situation be- queathed him by his brother. The victories gained in his name by Tavannes had given him an exaggerated reputa- tion ; the abuse of pleasures had killed out the fiery blood which at first had made him seem as brave as his ancestors ; when he was not engaged in monstrous debaucheries, he seemed only to enjoy childish and feminine pastimes, and all his religion consisted in certain external practices. He was wholly given over to puerile occupations. His first acts showed what was to be expected of him. He gave the Duke of Savoy Pinerolo, Perosa, and Savigli- ano, the last remnant of the conquests of Prancis I. beyond the mountains, and had scarcely entered France when he ordered all Protestants to become Catholics or to leave the kingdom. He made a formal entrance into Paris by which he disgusted all sensible people, "being surrounded by a great number of monkeys, parrots, and small dogs." At Eheims, "when the crown was placed on his head," says L'Estoile, " he said aloud that it hurt him, and it slipped off twice, as if it wished to fall." The people saw in this an evil omen, and they were right. The Politiques. — Meanwhile France was suffering for HENRY III. . 351 want of an honest, brave, and skilful chief, to take firm hold of the reins of government. Castelnau estimates that " during the civil wars more than a million of people had been killed, under pretext of religion or the public good." Besides the extreme Catholics and the fanatical Protestants, a third party was formed, the party of the poUtiques, com- posed of moderate Catholics who were desirous of re-estab- lishing public tranquillity by means of religious toleration and stern repression of factions. The three Montmorencys, Camville, Thor6 and Meru, were the most prominent men of this party, which comprised a great many magistrates and wealthy citizens. The king's brother, the Duke of Alenfon, had undertaken the direction of it, more from motives of ambition than of patriotism. The Guises were at the head of the Catholics, the Bourbons at the head of the Protestants ; he therefore thought it advisable to form a third party which should be devoted to his own schemes. Two things are at any rate to be set down to his credit : "he desired," he said, " to be a Frenchman in word and in deed, an enemy of Spain ; " and he never stained his hands with the blood of the Huguenots. The Alliance of the Politiques and the Huguenots ; Fifth War ; Le Balafre (1575-1576). — The Calvinists now had for their leaders only men like the king of Navarre, who put interest before religion ; it was easy to come to terms with men whose ambition and patriotism dominated their relig- ious fervor. Conde and Damville, the Protestants and the poUtiques, concluded an armed alliance for the purpose of obtaining the deliverance of the princes, liberty of con- science, and the assembly of the States-General. The new king was greatly annoyed by the intrigues of his brother, and was anxious to get rid of him. Several times the Duke of Alengon was in danger of being killed ; but he managed to escape and hastened to the South, where he cemented the alliance of the Protestants and the poli- tiques. Damville collected fifteen thousand soldiers in Languedoc, and Cond6 sent from Germany an advance guard of five thousand men. The house of Lorraine pushed warlike preparations energetically, but Catherine distrusted them and negotiated in every direction. The Duke of Guise left her to her intrigues and went against the Ger- mans, whom he defeated at Dormans. The risks he ran during this engagement, in Avhich he was wounded in the 352 HENRT III. face, increased his popularity. Among the Catholics the talk was all of Le Balaf re (*•' the scarred "), the worthy heir of the great Guise. But Conde, with eighteen thousand men and sixteen cannon, passed without hindrance through Cham- pagne and Burgundy, and rejoined the Duke of Alen9on at Moulins. The escape of the king of Navarre increased the hopes of the party. "They have killed the queen, my mother, at Paris," said he ; " they have killed the admiral there also, and all my best friends ; I will never go back there unless I am dragged back." The Peace of Monsieur (May, 1576). —The Duke of Alen- 9on offered himself as a mediator, and drew up at Beaulieu the peace which bears his name, the peace of Monsieur, a title formerly given to the j^ounger brother of the king. The negotiator had Anjou ceded to him, and took its name ; also Touraine and Berry, with all regal rights, on the sole condition of his doing homage. The king of Navarre ob- tained the government of Guienne ; Conde, that of Picardy. The free exercise of their religion was granted to all Prot- estants throughout the kingdom except in Paris and at court, until the next convocation, of the States-General, and of a/ree and holy general council. A number of places of refuge were ceded, and tribunals, half Protestant and half Catholic, were established. The Holy League. — This peace seemed a betrayal of the Catholic cause. "What," they said, "has the king come to this after two years of rule ? " He had, indeed, levied millions enough from the cities, had exacted loans enough from the clergy, and created a sufl&cient number of offices burdensome and injurious to the country. But everything had been consumed in festivities and in satisfying the greedi- ness of favorites and minions. Since the court abandoned the Catholics, it became the more important that they should stand by each other. The seigneur d'Humi^res, governor of Peronne, refused to yield the town to Cond6, who had been appointed gov- ernor of the province, and caused the prelates, lords, and burgesses to sign " a very Christian compact, setting forth that their lives and their fortunes should be devoted to the task of keeping the city and the province in obedience to the king and in the observance of the Catholic faith." The example of D'Humi^res was contagious. The clergy, es- pecially the Jesuits, influenced the masses in this direction, and soon each province had its league. HENRY III. 353 Henry of Guise was not so great a soldier as his father and was less magnanimous, but he had higher and more fixed purposes and greater skill in making use of religion as a means to his political ends. He it was who drew up and disseminated throughout all France the constitution of the Holy League ; the members signing it swore " to main- tain the service of God according to the forms of the Holy Catholic Church ; to maintain King Henry III. in the state, splendor, authority and power which were due to him from his subjects ; to restore to the provinces the rights, immuni- ties, and liberties which they had enjoyed in the time of Clovis ; to proceed against those who should persecute the League, without respect of persons; and finally, to render prompt obedience and faithful service, until death, to the chief who should be appointed." Pretensions of Guise. — This chief was of course fixed upon in advance ; but Henry of Guise looked beyond that position. Henry III., in public opinion, was already set aside. The new Duke of Anjou was decried as an accom- plice of the Huguenots. Next after these there were no heirs but the heretical Bourbons. These set aside, the road la}^ open to the faithful allies of Philip 11. and the Holy See. New genealogies even connected the house of Guise with the dynasty of Charlemagne. The First States-General of Blois (1576). — The States- General which assembled at Blois in December, 1576, showed Henry III. the extent of the danger. By fraud and violence the League had excluded the poUtiques and the Calvinists from the elections ; in the whole body of the deputies there was but one Protestant. Chosen under the influence of the Guises, the States threatened not only the liberty of the Protestants, but the authority of the king. They requested that resolutions which they should pass unanimously should have the force of laws, and that thirty- six members chosen by them should assist the royal council. The mass of the people, however, had not yet joined the League. Henry III. refused the insidious request of the States-General, but rushed with all his might into violent Catholicism. He signed the League and declared himself its chief, thinking thus to make a master-stroke and sup- plant the Guises. The States, at the king's request, had decided upon the suppression of the reformed religion. To vote was easy, 354 HENRY III. but the vote led to war; and to make war, money was needed. The king received neither subsidies nor even the right to alienate portions of the royal domains in order to provide for expenses. Sixth War (1577); Ordinance of Blois (1579).— The peace promised to the Huguenots had not been kept ; a petty warfare had been carried on. Henry III. would not employ the Duke of Guise, for fear of increasing it. He took advantage of some small victories to conclude the peace of Bergerac with the Huguenots. This peace granted to the Protestants a liberty of conscience more extended and less specific than that allowed by former edicts, special judges in the eight Parliaments, eight places of refuge, and decreed the dissolution of all leagues. The king hoped thus to get the advantage of the League, while seeming to be merely securing himself against the Huguenots. Strange as it may seem, important legislative reforms were carried out in these wretched times. The ordinance of Blois comprises in its three hundred and sixty-three arti- cles some excellent and liberal provisions for civil reform, but they give evidence of the power which Catholicism, strengthened by danger, had acquired within the last few years. The king reserved the power to make direct appoint- ments to all prelacies and benefices, observing certain con- ditions of age, good behavior, and intelligence. Plurality of archbishoprics or parochial curacies was forbidden. Res- idence became obligatory ; simony was to be put down. Marriage, which could be legalized only by a priest, was sur- rounded by more rigid precautions ; and some good measures were taken against the usurpation of titles of nobility, ve- nality and excessive multiplication of offices, and dishonesty in judicial matters. The Court of Henry III. — But the conduct of the king was such as to spoil the best of measures. Unsparing pamphlets disclosed the baseness of the licentious and ruf- fianly court of the last of the Valois, in which murders alternated with pleasures. In the evening there were balls and festivals ; in the morning murderous encounters, when the duel had not been forestalled by secret assassination. Each prince had his hired assassins who killed secretly, and his favorites who murdered openly. In order to defray increasing expenses, the taxation was increased each year ; edicts were constantly sent to Parliament directing extra HENRY III. 355 taxes, wliich were registered only after a long resistance. The discontent became general. The states of Normandy, Brittany, Burgundy, and Auvergne protested. A short war, (the seventh), which broke out without cause and ended without reason, showed the progress of disorganization. The peace of Bergerac was re-established at Fleix (1580). Expedition of the Duke of Anjou into the Netherlands (1581-1583). — It had become necessary to launch these turbulent spirits upon some serious undertaking; in fact, to revive the project of Coligny, and make foreign war in order to escape civil war. France could choose between two battle-fields. Philip was invading Portugal; the Low Countries were being continually overrun by the Spaniards, and several provinces were calling for a liberator. Henry sent a fleet to assist Portugal, and an army to aid his brother, the Duke of Anjou, whom the Flemings had called to their aid ; but both fleet and re-enforcements were insufii- cient, and officially he disowned the enterprises. The fleet was entirely destroyed; the Duke of Anjou, after having been proclaimed Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders, was left without money, and forced to evacuate the country, and died a few months after his return to France (1584). The Netherlands at the same time lost William of Orange, assassinated by an emissary of Spain. They then offered themselves to Henry III., on condition that he should de- liver them from the Inquisition and from Philip II. But it was too late. Revival of the League. — The death of the Duke of Anjou, the brother and heir of Henry III., raised a question cer- tain to rekindle all the religious and political passions of the French. The danger that a Bourbon, a relapsed heretic, should become the heir of the Valois, was now real ; for Henry III., the last surviving son of Henry II., had no issue, and it was thought that he had only a few years to live. The League had for some time been in a state of con- fusion; suddenly it revived, and spread itself among the masses ; instead of a secret society there now arose a great revolutionary party. The authors of this movement were mostly the preachers in the churches of Paris. The League spread from thence to the provinces, and established, espe- cially where it was strongest, a reign of terror. Treaty of Joinville, between the Duke of Guise and Spain (1684). — Henry of Guise saw clearly that the moment had 356 HENRY III. come to strike a great blow, and without hesitating he con- cluded with Philip II. the treaty of Joinville (December, 1584), by which the contracting parties engaged to extirpate sects and heresies ; to exclude from the throne of France all princes who were themselves heretical or promised public impunity to heretics ; and to assure the succession of the Valois to Charles, cardinal of- Bourbon, who was brought forward to hide, for the time, the pretensions of the Guises. The Guises received from Pope Gregory XIII. complete lib- erty of action in the matter. The manifesto of the League appeared in March, 1585. The signers swore not to lay down their arms until "the church of God was re-estab- lished in the true Catholic faith, the nobility reinstated in their rights, and the people relieved from the new taxations." It was soon put into execution. Guise, Mayenne, Elboeuf, Mercoeur, and Aumale raised revolt in the provinces. The cities of Lyons, Bourges, Orleans, Rouen, Angers, Eheims, and Chalons declared in favor of the League. Treaty of Nemours, between the King and the Duke of Guise (1585). — The position of Henry III. became very difficult. He was disposed to declare against the Guises, whom he detested ; but he demanded that " the B^arnais " should become a Catholic, promising on this condition to make him his heir. Henry refused. He replied to the manifesto of the League by appearing against the conspira- tors in the role of champion of the king and the laws of the state ; this was a good move : he thus regained the alliance of the politiques. Montmorency, " the king of Languedoc," joined forces with him. Henry III. found himself between two enemies whom he had long wished to see destroying each other, — Guise and Bourbon, the Catholics and the Protestants. Not all the great cities were in the League, and there was a remnant of prestige attaching to the name of king. But Paris was beginning to arouse ; Guise was coming with twelve thou- sand men ; a defeat would ruin everything. Henry turned to the Lorraines, hoping to deceive them again. At the treaty of Nemours (July 7th) he sanctioned all that had been done for religion, delivered to the chief of the League nine places of refuge, and, on returning to Paris, published an edict which forbade the reformed worship under pain of confiscation, and gave ministers and other Protestants a fortnight in which to leave the kingdom. War against tht HENRY III. 357 Huguenots was urgently desired. The Pope used all his' power to instigate it. There was no longer any place for men of the moderate party. Henry of Navarre. — Meanwhile the prince who was to become their chief, the king of Xavarre, was learning to face dangers of every sort. Henry of Navarre was a man of the most brilliant courage. Reared among the mountaineers of the Pyrenees, he equalled them in agility and was inured to physical fatigue. The vicissitudes through which he had passed had greatly unsettled him in matters of religion; consequently he cherished no ill-feeling against those who professed a different faith. His nature made fanaticism odious to him, and his position demanded that he should be tolerant. He was a genial companion, wearing the same face in good or ill fortune, hopeful even under the most desperate circumstances ; fond of pleasure ; humane, both from natural kindliness and from experience of life ; and had friends, who gained from his friendship more kind words than valuable gifts, to be sure, but to whom his heart was open if his hand was, of necessity, closed. His enforced residence at the court of the Valois had been fatal to his morals. Por several years he ceased to think of his career and his fortune. After the death of the Duke of Anjou, Duplessis-Mornay wrote to him : " Pastimes are out of season. It is time that you should make love to Prance." Henry realized the fact : he cast pleasure aside and put on his armor. Every one attacked him, and to each and' all he made the same reply. Duplessis-Mornay, the Pope of the Huguenots, as he was called, drew up a declaration by which the king of Navarre and his allies Avere to "undertake the cause of the king against the chiefs of the League, the authors of all the ills of Prance." Conde, Damville, Lesdigui^res, and himself held all the South. The queen of England and the German princes, being earnestly solicited, also promised prompt assistance. Anarchy of the Kingdom. — The king would willingly have continued his see-saw policy between the two parties. But the horizon was darkening all around ; the Prince of Orange had been assassinated, Mary Stuart beheaded. At Paris the chiefs of the sixteen sections formed themselves into a council in the heart of the League for the purpose of giving it greater energy. 358 HENRY ni. In the provinces anarchy prevailed; under pretext of re-establisliing unity of religion both Leaguers and Hugue- nots were sacrificing the unity of the State. Each gov- ernor entrenched himself in his province ; feudalism arose from the tomb in which ten kings had buried it. The cities on their part demanded again their old privileges; the municipal magistrates seized upon the military authority which they had lost during the fifteenth century, and the civil jurisdiction which L'H6pital had just taken from them. They no longer recognized any limit to their criminal juris- diction, nor any superior control of their financial manage- ment. Thus efforts to revive the mediaeval communes fol- lowed upon efforts to revive feudalism. Francis I. had almost believed that royalty was everything ; it now seemed likely to be reduced to nothing. Eighth War, or War of the Three Henrys (1586-1589) ; Battle of Coutras (1587). — In 1587 the aid promised by the allies of the two parties arrived. Henry III. placed himself at the head of a fine army which was to hold the Loire, sent Joyeuse, well equipped, against the king of Navarre in Guienne, and gave a few men to the Duke of Guise to hold back the Germans. He sincerely hoped that Navarre would be beaten by Joyeuse, Guise by the Germans ; this done, he himself, from his central position, would crush out all that remained of these three armies of foreigners, Calvinists and Catholics. Henry of Navarre, unable to join his German auxiliaries, drew Joyeuse south, into the midst of the Huguenot country. The two armies met at Coutras. When the Huguenots came in sight of the enemy, the ministers raised the one hundred and forty-seventh Psalm, and at the same time all the army fell upon their knees. '•' Cousins," cried the king of Navarre to Cond6 and to Soissons, " I have only to remind you that you are of the blood of the Bourbons, and as God lives I will show you that I am your elder." In one hour every man of the royal army was either slain or flying. Joyeuse was about to surrender his sword to two Huguenots, when a third shot him through the head with a pistol (October, 1587). The victory had only a moral effect. Henry lost time by going to lay at the feet of the Countess of Grammont the flags taken from the enemy. Meantime the Duke of Guise, north of the Loire, triumphed over the Germans under the Baron of Dohna at Vimory, near Mortargis, and again near HENRY III. 359 Auneau (1587). Henry III. was unskilful enough to leave to his rival the glory of driving them out of the country. The Day of Barricades. — Henry III. re-entered Paris. As he passed along, the populace cried out, " Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands " ; and a few days after, the Sorbonne decided that "the government could be taken out of the hands of princes who were found incapable." Henry III., alarmed, forbade the Duke of Guise to come to Paris, and quartered in the faubourgs four thousand Swiss and several companies of the guards. The Sixteen feared that all was over ; they summoned the Balafri and he came (May 9th). Cries of "Hosannah to the Son of David!" resounded throughout Paris, and followed him to the Louvre. The king was pale with anger when he received him, and said, " I sent you word not to come here " ; and in spite of the duke's ex- cuses he would perhaps have had him assassinated if his mother and his counsellors had not turned him from his purpose. The king and the chief of the League fortified themselves, one in the Louvre, the other in the H6tel Guise. Negotiations were carried on for two days. On the morn- ing of the eleventh the duke, well attended, returned to the Louvre, and in loud tones demanded of the king that he should send away his counsellors, establish the Inquisition, and push to the utmost the war against the heretics. That evening the king ordered the companies of the city guards to hold several positions, and the next morning he intro- duced into the city the Swiss and two thousand men of the French guards. But the city guards failed him. In two hours all Paris was under arms, all the streets were ren- dered impassable, and the advancing barricades soon reached the positions occupied by the troops. At this juncture Guise came out of his h6tel, dressed in a white doublet, with a small cane in his hand; saved the Swiss, who were on the point of being massacred, sent them back to the king with insulting scorn, and quieted every- thing as if by magic. He demanded the office of lieuten- ant-general of the kingdom for himself, the convocation of the States at Paris, the forfeiture of the Bourbons, and, for his friends, provincial governments and all the other offices. The queen-mother debated these conditions for three hours. During this time the attack was suspended, and Henry III. was thus enabled to leave the Louvre and make his escape. 360 HENRY III. Second States of Blois (1588). — The Duke of Guise had made a mistake ; but if he did not have the king, he had Paris. There was now a king of Paris and a king of Prance; negotiations were carried on, and to the aston- ishment of all, Henry III. at length granted what two months before he had refused in front of the barricades. He swore that he wo\ild not lay down his arms until the heretics were entirely exterminated ; declared that any non- Catholic prince forfeited his rights to the throne, appointed the Duke of Guise lieutenant-general, and convoked the States at Blois. The States of Blois were composed entirely of Leaguers. The most violent enemies of the king were appointed presi- dents of the three orders. The king, in an able and elegant address, complained of " the inordinate ambition of some of his subjects." This was somewhat bold ; the clergy insisted that the phrase should be suppressed in the printed copy. Then for some time there was a discussion as to whether the States should proceed "by resolution or by petitions addressed to the king, the latter being only the president of the States, in which all power was vested." This question being settled, it was demanded that the failles should be lowered, and that the courtiers should be compelled to dis- gorge. The most enthusiastic of the Leaguers spoke of making Guise constable, and shutting the king up in a con- vent if he opposed it. The Duchess of Montpensier showed, hanging at her girdle, a pair of golden scissors with which she proposed " to bestow on Henry the monastic crown." Assassination of the Duke of Guise (1588). — The Invinci- ble Armada having been destroyed, the ally of Philip II. could be safely attacked. Some wished to defy the Duke of Guise. " They would not dare to do it," said he. But ' the king dared. " I have been a long time under the tute- lage of the lords of Guise," said he, •' and I am determined to be rid of them entirely ; he who has a partner, has a mas- ter." He decided that if no one could be found who would slay the duke, he would do the deed himself ; the day fixed for the assassination was the 23d of December. On the 22d the Duke of Guise was urged to withdraw from Blois. He replied, " My affairs are in such a position that if I should see death entering by the window, I would not go out of the door to escape him." The king had informed him that he would hold a privy council at six HENRY III. • 361 o'clock in the morning. At four o'clock the king called the Forty-five (his body-guard), reminded them of their obliga- tions to him, exposed the designs of Guise, and called on them to avenge him. They all declared their readiness to kill the rebel. The king himself distributed daggers among them, and stationed them in his cabinet, in his chamber, and on the stairway. He caused a mass to be celebrated by one of his chaplains, "to the end that God might grant him grace to execute his undertaking." On his way to the council the duke received another note warning him of his fate. " It is the ninth," said he. Passing from the council-chamber to that of the prince, he saluted the gentlemen present, and advanced to the door of the cabinet in which he supposed Henry to be. Just as the duke drew aside the portiere, one of the Forty-five seized him by the arm and plunged a dagger into his breast, crying out, "Traitor, thou shalt die!" Though attacked on all sides, the duke dragged his murderers, who held him by the arms, from one end of the room to the other, even to the foot of the king's bed, and there fell dead. Hearing the noise, the cardinal of Guise exclaimed, "They are killing my brother." " The king has business to settle with you, my lord," replied the Marshal d' Aumont, " do not stir ; " and the cardinal was carried off to prison. The next day he was killed, and the two bodies were burned, in order that their bones should not be made up into relics. The murder accomplished, the king came out of his cabinet to see if his enemy was really dead, and looked at him for a long time ; then he hastened to Catherine de' Medici, who was dying, and said, " I am once more king of France, madam, having killed the king of Paris." " Cutting is not everything, my son," she replied ; " there's sewing yet to be done." Assassination of Henry III. (1589). — Killing the Duke of Guise was not killing the League. At the news of his death Paris was stunned for a moment ; then its fury broke out. All the churches resounded with imprecations against the king, and lamentations over the " two martyred broth- ers." Night and day processions filed through the capital. The Sixteen forced the city council to give the command of Paris to the Duke of Aumale while awaiting ,the arrival of Mayenne. The Sorbonne decreed " that the French people were set free from the oath of allegiance taken to Henry III." Parliament remaining firm in its fidelity to the mon- 362 * HENRY III. archy, fifty of its members, including President de Harlay, were arrested. Henry III. had gained nothing by the murder ; a few- thousand nobles gathered round him could not give him strength to act, and the excommunication issued against him for the murder of a cardinal was embarrassing even to his friends. He had effected nothing for his own cause by the deed done at Blois, but he had helped the fortunes of the king of Navarre, into whose arms he was forced to cast himself. Before the time of this last tragedy, the king of Navarre had been greatly embarrassed. " The devil is let loose," he wrote, " and it is marvellous that I am not over- come by his power. I cannot fail to be soon either a fool or a wise man. This year will be my turning-point." And it was so. That time of trial made him the man who knew so well how to conduct his own fortunes and those of France through all dangers. Henry III. received "the B^arnais" at Plessis-les-Tours ; he cast himself at the feet of the king, who raised him, and called him his brother. The junction of the Protestant and the royal armies under the same standard completely changed the nature of the war. It was no longer feudal Protestantism, but the demo- cratic League, Avhich threatened royalty ; monarchy entered into a struggle with the Catholic masses in revolt against it. Henry III. called together, at Tours, his useless Parliament, and issued a manifesto against Mayenne and the chiefs of the League. Henry of Navarre carried on the war energetically. In two months he was master of the territory betw^een the Loire and the Seine, and fifteen thousand Swiss and lanz- knechts joined him. On the evening of July 30th, 1589, the two kings, with forty thousand men, appeared before Paris. The Parisians could see the long line of the enemies' fires gleaming in a vast semicircle on the left bank of the Seine. The king of Navarre established his headquarters at Meudon ; Henry III., at Saint-Cloud. The great city was astounded ; the people had lost energy ; but the fury was concentrated in the hearts of the chiefs and in the depths of the cloisters. The Duchess of Montpensier neglected nothing that would increase the frenzy of the preachers. The arm of a fanatic became the instrument of the general fury, and put into practice the doctrine of t3a'annicide more than once asserted in the schools and the pulpit. The assault was to be made on August 2d. On the mom- HENRY III. 363 ing of the previous day a young friar from the convent of the Dominicans, Jacques Clement, came out from Paris and took the road to Saint-Cloud. He had prepared himself by fasting and the sacraments, and was furnished with a coun- terfeit letter for Henry III., and full directions. Conducted into the king's presence, he declared that he had "secret matters of great importance to communicate." The guards withdrew ; as the king approached him, the assassin drew a knife from his sleeve and plunged it into the king's abdo- men. " The wicked monk ! " cried the king ; " he has killed me ! " He drew the knife from the wound with his own hands and struck his murderer in the face. The guards, hearing the noise, hastened in and killed the assassin on the spot. Henry of Navarre hastened to the king, who urged vipon him the expediency of his becoming a Catholic, and caused those present to swear allegiance to him as his successor. He died the same night, and with him the race of Valois became extinct. The aged Catherine de' Medici had died six months before, filled with despair, not even having the consolation of know- ing that her wicked life had served to advance her own children. After thirty years of toil and intrigues and crimes in the vain effort to secure power to her sons, she saw the last scion of her race thre'atened with destruction, the kingdom torn to pieces, the crown dishonored, and either the League or the Huguenots certain to triumph. 364 GENEALOGICAL TABLE. Genealogical Table of the Capetian House OF Valois. (The date which follows each name is the date of death.) Charles, Connt of Valois, son of Philip HI. Philip VI., king of France, 1350 I John the Good, 1364 Charles V. the Wise, 1380 Charles VI., 1422 Louis, Duke of Orleans, I ancestor of Charles VII., 1461 the houses of Valois-Orleans I and liOuis XI., 1483 Valois- Angoul^me Charles VIII., 1498 Philip the Bold, ancestor of the second Capetian house of Burgundy, 1404 John the Fearless, 1419 Philip the Good, 1467 Charles the Bold, 1477 I Mary, m. Archduke Maximilian Philip the Handsome Charles V. Charles, Duke of Orleans, 1465 I.cmis XII., king, 1515 Claude of France, wife of Francis I. John, Count of Angouleme Charles, Count of Angouleme, 1495 I Francis I., king, 1547 I Henry II., 1559 Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., 1560 1574 1589 Elizabeth, Margaret, wife of wife of Philip II., of Spain Henry IV.» 1 Beatrice of Bourbon married, in 1272, Robert, Count of Clermont, sixth son of Saint Louis. Their descendants founded the ducal branch of Bourbon, which became extinct in 1503 ; and the junior branches of La Marche, extinguished in 1438 ; of Mont- pensier, in 1527; and of Venddme, which continued till Henry IV., and was then divided into two branches, — that oi Bourbon-Vendome, which acquired the kingdom of Navarre by the marriage of Antoine, and that of the princes of La Roche-sur-Ton, dukes of Moutpensier, extinct in 1608; and finally, that of Bourbon- Condi, founded by Louis, uncle of Henry IV., and chief of the Calvinist party. The great Cond^ was his great-grandson. REIGN OF HENRY IV. 366 CHAPTER XL VI. REIGN OF HENRY IV. (1589-1598 A.D.) Henry rV. ; his First Difficulties. — The assassination of the Valois brought grief and trouble into the camp of Saint- Cloud, and joy and confidence into Paris, where bonfires were lighted and the '^ martyrdom of the blessed Jacques Clement " was eulogized from the pulpits : he was even invoked as a saint. " You are the king of the brave," said one of the Catholic lords to Henry, " and will be abandoned only by cowards." But in spite of this loyal speech, many Catholics withdrew ; in order to secure others, Henry solemnly promised, in an assembly Of the principal lords, to sustain the Catholic religion in his kingdom until the meeting of a national or general council which should regulate the religious ques- tion, to insure to every one his rights and ofiices, and to guarantee to the Calvinists liberty of worship in one town in each bailliage. The assembly then acknowledged him as king of France, under the title of Henry IV. The Leaguers hesitated between the young Duke of Guise and his uncle, the Duke of Mayenne. The former was a prisoner in the hands of the royalists ; the latter, though a shrewd politician, was wanting in all those characteristics which go to make a popular chief, — daring, brilliancy, in- defatigable activity, and prompt decision. There were other claimants of the throne, — the Duke of Lorraine, the Duke of Savoy, and the king of Spain. Mayenne might have taken fortune by the horns, but he dared not do it, and so caused the cardinal of Bourbon to be proclaimed' king under the title of Charles X., contenting himself with the office of lieutenant-general; thus unwisely recognizing the right of the house of Bourbon. But Henry IV.'s declaration had not satisfied every one in the royal army. D'^pernon and several Catholic lords retired ; La Tr^mouille, with nine Protestant battalions, set 366 REIGN OF HENRY IV, out for the South, unwilling "to serve under the banner of a sovereign who undertook to protect idolatry." The be- sieging army was reduced by one-half. Several of his friends counselled the king to return to the South ; but . Henry decided to remain in the North, and this resolution saved his crown. Division of France. — France, and indeed almost every province of France, was divided, — one city being for the League and another for the king. One sixth part of France was on the side of the king ; the rest was not entirely on the side of the League. Several cities and provinces re- mained neutral ; a few governors or powerful nobles awaited the course of events. Campaign of Henry IV. in Normandy; Battle of Arques (1589). — The true king would be made known by his deeds. Henry IV. sent Longueville into Picardy, D'Aumont into Champagne, to raise troops and money, . and went himself into Normandy. An attack upon Rouen was a failure ; but Henry, turning suddenly to Dieppe, was received there with open arms. This was a precious acquisition, for it gave him communication with England. The great Queen Elizabeth saw plainly that the king of Navarre was fighting for her as well as for himself. At Paris the people were beginning to complain of the slowness of Mayenne. He finally decided to leave the city with twenty-five thousand men, recruited eight thousand on the way, and marched towards Dieppe, promising to bring " the B^arnais " back a captive or throw him into the sea. Henry, who had less than ten thousand men, entrenched himself strongly around Dieppe, having his camp on the heights of Arques. For three whole weeks the great army of Mayenne made constant attacks upon these well-chosen positions ; but Henry and his valiant troops repulsed them everywhere. Mayenne then turned the royal camp and appeared upon the west side of Dieppe. But Henry suspected his inten- tions and forestalled him. He had received from England twelve thousand men, provisions, and the promise of an additional re-enforcement of four thousand men. Longue- ville, La None, and D'Aumont came to his assistance with another army. Mayenne retired to the Somme, calling to his aid the Spaniards in the Netherlands. Attempt to surprise Paris ; Successes of the Kingp (1589)' REIGN OF HENRY 17. 367 — Henry, in turn, now found himself at the head of twenty- five thousand men. He gained three days' march upon Mayenne and moved rapidly upon Paris. Under cover of a thick fog all the outskirts on the left bank were taken, the royalists entering with the cry of " Saint-Bartholomew." The movement nearly succeeded ;^ but hearing of the arrival of Mayenne, Henry contented himself with pillaging the out- skirts, thinking to satisfy the soldiers with this in place of the pay which he had not been able to give them, and then took the road to Tours, the capital of the royalist party. On the way he captured various towns, and induced others to recognize him. In a few weeks the whole of Normandy was subjugated. The news of his success attracted the neu- trals. Among foreign states the republic of Venice recog- nized him as the legitimate king ; even Sixtus V. began to waver. Dissensions in the Party of the League. — The rival ambi- tions of the enemies of Henry IV. helped his cause. The dukes of Lorraine and Savoy endeavored to dismember the kingdom. The dukes of Mercosur, Nevers, and Nemours sought to obtain independent principalities. Philip II. de- manded the title of protector of the kingdom in the name of his daughter. The Sixteen dreamed of a state without king and without nobles, a sort of theocratic republic. May- enne also had his secret hopes. Battle of Ivry (1590). — The king besieged Dreux. May- enne, in order to save the city, gave battle in the plain of Saint-Andr^, near Ivry (March 14th). The Leaguers had fifteen or sixteen thousand men, of whom four thousand were cavalry ; the royalists had eight thousand infantry and three thousand horsemen armed only with swords and pistols. "My friends," cried Henry, "keep your ranks in good order; if you lose your ensigns, cornets, or guides, the white plume that you see on my helmet will lead you always on the road to honor and glory." The king charged the French and Walloon lancers ; he passed with his men under their long, heavy lances, fought them furiously hand to hand, cut and thrust, and put them to flight. At the end of two hours the whole army of the League was flying. The victory won, Henry remembered that he was king; "Quarter for the French," he cried; "death to the foreigners." The road to Paris was now open to them, and Henry led them thither. 368 REIGN OF HENRT 17. Siege of Paris (1590). — There was but little ammunition in the city and great scarcity of provisions, and the walls were in bad condition. The Parisians made up for these deficiencies by their religious enthusiasm. The papal leg- ate, Cajetano, issued, through the Sorbonne, a decree declar- ing any one who should speak of treating with the Bourbon guilty of deadly sin, and promising to his enemies the mar- tyr's palm. Thirty thousand men enlisted ; the bells were melted down to make cannon ; a brother of Mayenne, the young Duke of Nemours, directed the defence. Henry IV. scarcely hoped to carry by assault a city thus defended, but he counted upon famine, and cut off all means of communi- cation, expecting thus to reduce the Parisians. They en- dured the sufferings of famine with the same courage with which they had encountered the war. The death of the old cardinal of Bourbon simplified the question (May, 1590), but increased the hatred of the Leaguers. The king made an assault July 24th ; at the end of two hours the faubourgs were taken. The distress was now at its height. All the horses, asses, and mules that still survived were killed. Everything that had life, even unclean animals, were hunted down and de- voured. Some powdered the bones of the dead and made of them a sort of paste, but died from eating this dreadful food. The soldiers began to steal children, and one mother devoured her own infant. Intervention of the Duke of Parma and the Spaniards (1590) ; of the English and Germans (1591). — Fearing lest he should lose the Netherlands, then greatly disturbed by the exploits of Maurice of Nassau, Philip II. had deferred till the last moment sending his best general to aid the Paris- ians. But now the Duke of Parma advanced, and reached Meaux in August, at a most opportune moment, for the siege had lasted four months. The king went out to meet the Spaniards. Parma, the skilful tactician, skirmished with the French, thus occupying them for four days, and on the fifth, under cover of a thick fog, he surprised Lagny, which commanded the arrival of supplies to Paris by way of the Marne, and from that town he sent a large flotilla of boats to reprovision the city. All the efforts of a laborious siege had now been wasted. During the winter the Viscount of Turenne, one of the wisest of the king's party, obtained seven hundred Englishmen from Elizabeth, two thousand REIGN OF HENRY IV. 369 Hollanders from Maurice, and raised in Germany four thou- sand horse, and eight thousand infantry, whom he brought away with him. Henry IV. had just captured Chartres, the granary of Paris. As nineteen of the bishops of France had acknowledged him, Henry held in this city a national council which declared null and void the excommunications recently issued against him by Pope Gregory XIV. It was useless to dream of taking Paris, now garrisoned by four thousand Spaniards ; but Henry, in order to lay siege to the capital from a distance, and cut off its communications with Normandy, appeared suddenly before Eouen (November, 1591). Siege of Rouen (1591-1592). — The League here was very strong, and the defence was under the command of Villars-Brancas, governor of Normandy, a man of much energy and enterprise. The Duke of Parma came again from the Netherlands to save the city (March, 1592). Henry left Biron with his infantry to continue the siege, and at the head of his cavalry, composed of seven thousand brave and active men, went to meet the enemy, whom he engaged successfully at Aumale, Meanwhile Biron was forced to raise the siege of Eouen (April). The Duke of Parma entered the town and secured the passage of the Seine, but received a wound which, from the bad condition of his health, proved fatal. While he was disabled, Henry IV. attacked his army at Yvetot, killed three thousand of his men, and shut him up in a position which seemed des- perate, between the Seine and the sea. Parma, however, extricated himself from the trap, and regained the Nether- lands without molestation, but died at Arras in December. Twice had this great warrior snatched victory from the king's hands ; but happily the League was itself working for Henry IV. Mayenne and the Sixteen. — A secret struggle had been going on for some time between Mayenne and the Sixteen ; that is, between the aristocratic faction and the democratic faction of the League ; between the Prench party and the Spanish party. Mayenne's reverses and the first successes of the Duke of Parma placed power in the hands of the Sixteen. The young Duke of Guise escaped from Tours and hastened to Paris, full of enthusiasm and hatred against the king. The Sixteen believed they had found in him the chief who would suit them. 370 REIGN OF HENRY /F. During the last operations around Rouen the preaching at Paris took a very savage turn. Some said openly that assassination should be resorted to ; others demanded a new massacre, this time of the poUtiques. President Brisson and two counsellors of the Parliament were seized and executed; their death was the signal for the murder of a number of suspected persons. The aim of the conspiracy was to assure to themselves the control of thfe States, which were about to assemble, then to cause them to elect a Catholic king, pledged to establish the Inquisition. in France, to respect the restored rights of the clergy and the com- munes, and to submit to the resolutions passed by the States, henceforth to be assembled every five years. Their purpose was, in a word, as far as religion was concerned, to introduce into Prance the system which had been so fatal in Italy and Spain ; and with regard to politics, to destroy the great work of national unity, which had been going on for nearly three centuries. On his return to Paris, Mayenne caused four of the Six- teen to be seized and beheaded, broke up their council, and conferred the municipal functions upon declared poU- tiques (Pebruary, 1592). The Leaguers were filled with consternation. Mayenne had thus rendered a conspicuous service to France though not to himself. States-General of the League (1593) ; Philip II. ; the Satire Menippee. — It was evident to all that war was affording no solution of the question. France might be engulfed in it, but one party would not destroy the other. The idea of a compromise now suggested itself to many minds. Each faction had, till now, repulsed the idea of convoking the States-General, counting on its own strength and fearing to stake its fortunes upon the votes of an assembly. But now their name was on many lips, and a great number demanded that the nation should be allowed to speak for itself. The States finally assembled at Paris, January 15th, 1593. Only about a hundred and thirty deputies appeared, mostly of the Third Estate. The king of Spain spared no expense. If the Spanish historians have computed correctly, his designs upon France cost him 30,000,000 ducats (about $100,000,000). Henry had expended only heroism, — enough, indeed, to have gained a kingdom, — but the faith he professed was an insurmountable obstacle ; the chief of the Protestants could not be, king of the Catholics. The REIGN OF HENRY IV. 371 ties which, bound Henry to Calvinism had never been very- strong, and he now determined to break them in order to put an end to this atrocious and otherAvise interminable war. Mayenne had but little to offer ; he did not despair of suc- ceeding, however, by playing off the foreigner and the heretic against each other. The king assembled at Mantes, May 18th, several prelates and doctors, both from the royal party and from that of the League, for the purpose of " dis- cussing the differences, on account of which the schism had arisen in the Church." The Spanish ambassador was de- sirous of bringing matters to a head before the assembly of Mantes could make any compromise. On the 28th of May he made a formal proposition to the States to elect as their queen Isabella-Clara-Eugenia, daughter of Philip IL, and granddaughter, on her mother's side, of King Henry II. of France. " To set aside the Salic law," cried a Leaguer, " is to destroy the kingdom." Mayenne demanded two days for deliberation. When the time had expired, they were no nearer a conclusion than before. During the first general session the ambassador was asked whom the king had chosen as a husband for his daughter. " The archduke Ernest of Austria," he replied. There was a general burst of dissatis- faction. It appeared that France must be given to a foreign prince and a foreign princess ; and it was that very house of Austria against which the kings of France had fought for fifty years that the League noAv proposed to install in the Louvre. A remarkable pamphlet, the Satire Menippee (1594), the the work of some Parisian citizen, finally overwhelmed the League with ridicule. The Catholicon cVEspagne, the first part of the satire, exposed the ambition which Philip con- cealed iinder the mask of championship of Catholicism ; in the Abreg6 des etats de la Ligue, each of the prominent per- sons who had played a part in the League was made to dis- play his pitiful ambitions and shameful avarice. And finally, a deputy of the Third Estate pointed out to each one the moral of the pamphlet, — the degradation of Paris and of France under foreign domination. Reason began at last to rise above these waves of half- appeased passions. While the States continued the long debates which ill concealed their indecision, some of the magistrates of the Parliament took courage. On the propo- sition of one of them Parliament rendered a decree by which 372 REIGN OF HENRY IV. it ordered tliat " remonstrances should be made to the lieu- tenant-general to the effect that no treaty should be made for the purpose of transferring the crown to any foreign prince" (June 28). This was the first act of good sense and patriotism which had been done for a long time : Henry IV. did the second. Conversion of the King (1593) ; Entrance of Henry 17. into Paris (1594). — Though it cost the son of Jeanne d'Albret, the pupil of Coligny, a struggle to break with the Huguenots, he followed the advice of his wisest coun- sellors, and after a discussion of some hours with the Catholic doctors assembled at Mantes, he declared himself convinced. And it was true : not that he had thoroughly discussed dogmas, — that was not the point with him, — but he had pondered well the ills of France. The next day he bade a tearful farewell to the ministers of the religion which he abandoned, and with a large escort took the road to the church of Saint-Denis. Having arrived at the door of the basilica, he knelt and made his confession of faith. " I swear," said he, " before Almighty God, to live and die in the faith of the Catholic religion ; to protect and defend it against all persons, at the peril of my life, renouncing all heresies contrary thereto." A few preachers of the League vainly attempted to pre- sent this as an act of hypocrisy. The greater part regarded the conversion as the pledge of a patriotic reconciliation. The States declared that they had no power to regulate the succession to the throne, and broke up in the midst of gen- eral indifference. In the provinces the reaction was more pronounced. The coronation, which took place in the cathe- dral of Chartres (February 27th, 1594), increased this feeling, Henry helped on the result by wise negotiations. Thus he bought Paris from Brissac, repaying him with a marshal's baton, the governments of Mantes and Corbeil, and two hun- dred thousand crowns. Brissac carried out his bargain. On the morning of March 21st four thousand picked men presented themselves at the gates. Unopposed and in good order they passed on to the centre of Paris and quietly occupied the principal positions. At first the people seemed stunned ; but when the king appeared, escorted by Brissac and the provost of the merchants, cries of " Hurrah for peace ! long live the king ! " saluted him. When the Spanish garrison of three REIGN OF HENRY TV. 373 thousand men realized that the king was in the Louvre, and the whole city quiet and contented, they submitted to march out with the honors of war. "Gentlemen," said Henry, with his habitual irony, " commend me to your master, and never come back." Submission of the Leaguers. — The king had possession of the capital, where the Sorbonne, reconstructed, acknowl- edged him as the true and lawful king : but he did not have the whole of France; the Spaniards were still within its borders, and the chief Leaguers reckoned on coming out of this long contest with well-filled hands. Henry marched first against the Spaniards and the Lor- rainers, strongly entrenched in a few positions on the north- ern frontier, particularly at Laon. One of his most devoted followers, whose importance was increasing daily, Maximilian de B6thune, Baron of Eosny, afterwards Duke of Sully, was entrusted with the drawing up of the treaties. Biron, the son of the late marshal, captured Laon. The constant be- sieging of the Leaguers through the promises and money of Sully had still more prompt results. Villars-Brancas, Guise, and the Duke of Lorraine surrendered in considera- tion of important offices and enormous pensions. War with Spain ; Battle of Fontaine-Francaise (1595). — Spain alone kept up the resistance of the remaining Lea- guers, and delayed the grant of papal absolution which was still necessary to Henry IV. A Jesuit, named Jean Chatel, having tried to assassinate the king, the Jesuits were ban- ished from the kingdom, January, 1595. In the same month Henry solemnly declared war against Philip II. Philip ordered the governor of the Milanese to march into Pranche- Comt^, and Puentes, governor of the Netherlands, to enter Picardy. Henry IV. hastened to meet the former and re- newed in Burgundy his deeds of rash heroism. Surprised with Marshal Biron near Pontaine-Prangaise by the enemy's army, he ten times risked his o.wn life, but succeeded in frus- trating the attempts of the Spaniards. Meantime Puentes arrived upon the Somme and captured several towns The Ahsolntion of the King (September, 1595). — The abso- lution so long demanded of the Pope by Henry IV. happily made amends for these reverses. Philip threatened in vain. The king's two ambassadors having abjured heresy in the name of Henry, and promised the publication of the decrees of the Council of Trent, with the exception of those which 374 REIGN OF HENRY IV. might excite trouble, the Pope pronounced formal absolu- tion, amid the acclamations of the people. The king, more- over, henceforth fulfilled entirely and minutely the duties of a good Catholic. , Submission of Mayenne, Epernon and Joyeuse (1596). — Mayenne regarded this event as the signal for his surrender. He gave up his remaining strongholds and received in ex- change the govermnent of Burgundy, three cities as guar- antees, and three hundred and thirty -five thousand crowns. Thenceforth he served the king faithfull}^, as did also his nephew, the Diike of Guise ; Epernon and Joyeiise also made terms. The king refused nothing, being sure of regaining all some day, when he should have reduced to order the chaos bequeathed him by the League. Assembly of Notables at Rouen (1596) . — The first neces- sity was to raise money. Henry, for this purpose, called an assembly of notables at Eouen, and said to them with that unceremonioiis good-nature which concealed great tact, and which won for him all hearts : " If I wished to gain the title of orator, I should have learned some long and grace- ful speech, and delivered it to you with great gravity ; but, gentlemen, I desire a more glorious title, that of liberator and restorer of the State. ... I have not called you to- gether, as my predecessors have done, to force you to ap- prove my wishes ; I have assembled you that I may receive your counsels, trust in them, and hQ guided by them ; in short, with the desire to place myself under your tutelage, a desire which seldom comes to kings, greybeards, and vic- torious warriors. But the great love I bear my siibjects, and the desire I have to add these two great titles to that of king, make all this seem easy and honorable for me." Henry had no desire to be taken at his word. He placed as high an estimate upon his kingly power as any king of his time. Under the accumulated ruins of so many wars Henry IV. found and resumed, without fresh effort, the absolute authority of Prancis I. ; for neither the sacerdotal democracy of the League nor the selfish feudalism of the nobility had done anything to establish true and perma- nent liberties. The assembly of Eouen was useless ; impracti- cable plans were proposed, and Henry was consequently the more at liberty to execute his own. He had something better than the good counsel that the notables gave him, and this was Sully, the personified genius of order. REIQN OF HENRY IV. 375 Surprise of Amiens (1597) ; Surrender of Mercceur. — But the time for reforms had not yet fully come, for the time of trials had not yet passed. In 1596 the Spaniards had taken Calais; the following year they entered Amiens by an ingenious stratagem. Henry was at his capital in the midst of festivities, when he learned that the Spaniards were in Amiens, thirty leagues from Paris. "Enough of being king of France," said he ; " now I must be the king of Navarre ! " And he put on his armor. He hastened to Amiens with Biron and his splendid artillery, all his north- ern nobles, and twenty thousand men. Rosny supplied the ammunition and provisions. An army came from the Neth- erlands to raise the siege, but returned without having effected anything. Amiens surrendered. The rapidity of this operatioii increased the reputation of the king among foreigners and exhibited the strength of France. Mereoeur, the last of the great chieftains of the League, made his submission. Edict of Nantes (April 13, 1598). — A few days after, Henry also brought the religious war to an end by the treaty of peace which bears the name of the Edict of Nantes. Since his conversion the Calvinists had maintained a sullen attitude towards him. Several nobles of the reformed party had followed his example, but the mass of the people, and especially the ministers, resisted. In vain the king flattered them with that graceful good-nature which won all hearts ; he had to contend against serious convictions and characters which never bent under the pressure of interested motives. Happily the leaders had had enough of war ; besides, Henry offered them good and just conditions, such as L^H6pital had promised them thirty-six years before : liberty of con- science first of all, liberty of worship within their own castles, in all towns where their worship had already been established, or at least in one city or town in each bailliage. The schools and public offices were thrown open to them. Certain towns were given them in. guarantee, and chambers composed equally of Protestants and Catholics were to give, judgment in the parliaments of Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble, and Bordeaux, in cases in which Protestants were concerned. Finally, they were given the right to assemble every three years by representatives, to present their complaints to the government. This edict thus proclaimed at last the modern principle of tolerance in matters of religion, and moreover 376 REIGN OF HENRY IV. that other principle, that the State should rise above relig- ious partisanship, and compel all to respect the public peace. Treaty of Vervins (1598). — Nineteen days after (May 2d), the deputies of the king signed at Vervins a treaty of peace with Spain. Philip II., defeated by England, by the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and by him whom he called the Prince of B^arn, saw, after so many efforts, his am- bitious designs frustrated, his monarchy, like himself, ex- hausted and dying. He Avished at least to end his days in peace. The treaty of Vervins (1598) established between the two states the boundaries laid out forty years before by the treaty of Cateau-Cambr^sis. Prance and Spain, it seemed, came back to the same starting-point. But one reached it exhausted in strength and almost lifeless, while the other was full of youth and enthusiasm. The gloomy despotism of Philip II. had thrown Spain into a decline from which two centuries have not been able to arouse her; the reign of Henry IV. inaugurated by conciliatory measures one of the greatest periods in the history of France. During these forty years frightful calamities had passed over the country ; but a great question had been settled ; France remained Catho- lic without the Inquisition, retained the strong royal power which was still necessary to her, and did not go back five centuries to return to feudal and municipal anarchy. The Acquisition of Bresse and Bugey (1601). — Savoy had taken advantage of the embarrassments of France to seize upon the marquisate of Saluzzo. Henry declared war (1600), and compelled her to give up to him in exchange Bresse and Bugey ; that is to say, the whole country from Lyons to Geneva. These were only small acquisitions, but they were of serious importance to France, inasmuch as they covered Lyons on the side toward Switzerland and cut off communication between Franche-Comt^, a Spanish pos- session, and Savoy, whose duke was under the influence of the Spanish governor of the Milanese. TWELFTH PERIOD. The Re-establishment of Inteenal Okder by Royalty, and the Second Struggle of France against the house of austria (1598-1659). CHAPTER XLVII. REORGANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENRY IV. (1698-1610 A.D.) State of France. — In 1598 Henry IV. had driven out the foreigners, reconciled Catholics and Protestants, and es- tablished peace in the interior and on the frontiers. It was now necessary to heal all the wounds that France had received. A contemporary estimated that since 1580 eight hundred thousand persons had perished by war and massa- cre ; that nine cities had been levelled with the ground, two hundred and fifty villages burned, and one hundred and twenty-eight thousand houses destroyed. And since that period, which preceded the formation of the League, how numerous were the ruins of another sort ! Workmen with- out work, commerce interrupted, agriculture desolated, rob- bery everywhere ; and from the midst of all this desolation Henry IV. must endeavor to resuscitate France. The nobility had proposed one way out of the difficulty ; they offered him all the money necessary for the government and for the maintenance of the army, on condition of a virtual restoration of feudalism. This was far from according with Henry's designs. Sully. — Henry had already fixed upon the man who should aid him in this work, more difficult than that of battle-fields : a man of strong good sense, a brave heart, and 378 BEORGANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENRY IV. above all a well-balanced mind, the Protestant Maximilian of B^thune, afterwards Duke of Sully. He was born in the castle of Rosny, near Mantes, in 1560. At the time of the massacre of St. Bartholomew he was studying in Paris, but escaped by presence of mind. He attached himself to the king of Navarre, followed him through all his adven- tures and battles, showing himself as brave as the bravest. He was not a knight after the fashion of the paladins of romance ; for while he attended thoroughly to his master's business, he had an eye to his own affairs, married a wealthy heiress, and did not scorn the emoluments of war. But in his devotion to the prince and the State, this prudent man- ager cut down his forests of Eosny, and gave the money thus procured to Henry in his need ; and the zealous Prot- estant counselled the king to end the war by avowing him- self a Catholic. In 1596 Henry appointed him a member of the financial council, and after the peace of Vervins he held the position of superintendent of finances and grand overseer of the roads of France (1598), then that of grand master of the artillery (1601). He preserved his honesty and his recti- tude of character as well as his religion, and was the friend as well as the minister of the king. Financial Reforms. — The disorder of the finances was extreme. The public debt was estimated at 345,000,000. France paid annually more than 170,000,000 in taxes. The net revenue scarcely amounted to 30,000,000, of which 19,000,000 had to be deducted to meet the engagements of the State. Almost all the royal domain was mortgaged. From one end to the other of the financial administration there was theft. Sully undertook to have reports made on every point, to have accurate accounts kept, to establish a balance between receipts and expenditures, to take invento- ries of all the resources of the country, province by province, and of all branches of service, and to fix the annual budget of expenses. The proceeds of the principal taxes were thus almost doubled without any additional expense to the coun- try. A court of justice prosecuted dishonest agents, and the tax-collectors were forced to keep strict accounts. The governors had been in the habit of levying arbitrary taxes in their provinces ; the lords, upon their vassals. He put an end to the profits thus derived by these pilferers, and the taxes imposed by the king were consequently more produc- REORGANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENRY IT. 379 tive. He revised all claims against the state, annulled many, and reduced the interest from 8^ per cent to 6|: per cent. He took an account of all the leases on which the public taxes were farmed, and raised the price of them. A number of useless offices, fraudulent annuities, and illegal exemptions were suppressed, and others diminished in magnitude. Many persons who had taken upon themselves the title of noble were restored to the clasS of taxables. Hereditary tenure of of&ce, officially constituted in 1504, by the annual payment of the paulette, was a less honorable device, but that also helped the treasury. The great strict- ness in matter of receipts was balanced by a wise economy in matters of expenditure. Consequently at the end of the reign of Henry IV. his government had paid 147,000,000 of debts, bought back 80,000,000 of domains, cut off 8,000,000 of annuities, reduced the taxation from 30,000,000 to 26,000,- 000, of which the treasury realized 20,000,000, spent 40,- 000,000 in fortifications or on public works, made provision for the service for the current year, and amassed a reserve of 20,000,000 livres. Agriculture. — Henry IV. took an equal interest in the three sources of public wealth, — agriculture, commerce, and industry ; Sully was more exclusively in favor of agricul- ture. He went twice through all the provinces (1596 and 1598), so as to study for himself the needs of the country, and in 1600 remitted to the people their arrears of the tallies, amounting to 20,000,000, and reduced the land-tax 1,800,000 livres. Finally, in 1601-, he permitted the expor- tation of grain — a bold measure for this period, but a very wise one, which would enrich the country instead of impov- erishing it. He also favored the draining of marshes. A Protestant gentleman of Languedoc, Olivier de Serres, deserves to be called the father of French agriculture, on ac- count of the rules he laid down in his Thedtre de V Agri- culture and his Menage des Champs, and which he put into practice himself on his model farm. When Henry IV. received his book he ordered a certain number of pages to be read to him every day after his dinner. Many others read it and followed the advice which it gave. Thus farming made rapid progress, and until the wars of Louis XIV. French agriculturists took the lead in Europe. There was not a single year of scarcity from 1598 to 1626. Industry and Commerce, — Sully thought that field labor 380 BEOBGANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENBY IV. made men good soldiers. The worthy geatleman feared that manufacturing industry would weaken the French. He was entirely opposed to the importation of foreign industries and modes of cultivation. Henry IV. was of a different opinion. He endeavored to establish in France the raising of the silkworm. A similar purpose is evinced in the foundation of manufactories of the fine crape of Bologna, of gold thread of the kind made at Milan, of high-warp tapestries, of gilt leather, glass, crystal, mirrors, and linen of the Dutch style, etc. This was a more successful plan for keeping money in the kingdom than Sully's prohibitions of its export had been. In 1604 the king convoked an assembly of commerce. Among other things proposed by it was a general reformation of the guilds and trade corpora- tions. Maritime Affairs ; Colonies. — The military marine devel- oped by Francis I. had fallen very low. Sully had no aversion to the navy ; but he did not desire colonies for France, and would willingly have left to the people of Spain, the Netherlands, and England the care of conquering and peopling distant countries. Henry IV. was more far-sighted than his minister ; in order to encovirage trade with North America, he sent Champlain to Canada to found Port Royal (now Annapolis) in 1604, and Quebec in 1608. Henry even planned the establishment of an East India Company which should rival those established by England and Holland. He did not live to realize this project, but he signed an advantageous commercial treaty with Turkey. Public Works ; the Canal of Briare. — Many roads were laid out by Sully. The plan of the great canals which have since been cut throughout France was then conceived. One only was finished, — that of Briare. This was the first, except in Italy, which had locks uniting two levels ; its length is fifty-five kilometers, and it connects the Loire and the Seine. The Army. — In 1595 there were only four regular regi- ments ; Henry increased them to eleven. But the custom of hiring foreign troops continued. The cavalry continued to form much the larger part of the army, the nobility being unwilling to serve as infantry. The artillery under Sully's management assumed great importance. Since 1572 no lord had been allowed to have cannon in his castle with- out express permission from the king. Sully caused a BEORQANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENRY IV. 381 number of fortresses to be repaired/ and stocked the arsenals which had been left empty by the civil war. Arts and Letters under Henry IV. — Though not lov- ing the arts as Francis I., Henry II., and Charles IX. had done, Henry IV. appreciated the fact that they shed lustre upon the reign of a king. He therefore accepted the heri- tage of the Eenaissance, which had unhappily now come almost to its decay. He had much work done upon the chateau of Fontainebleau ; at Saint-Germain he constructed the new chateau. He began two new pavilions at the Tuileries, and intended extending the great gallery of the Louvre so far as to join that palace. He finished also the front of the H6tel de Ville and the Pont ISTeuf, com- menced under Henry III. In 1604 was laid the corner-stone of the Palais Eoyal at Paris, in which appears the mixed structure of brick, stone, and slate, — a style revived from ancient Italian architecture. The Renaissance abandons its capricious liberty ; method, regularity, and law everywhere replace the bold and often irregular but powerful and original independence of the sixteenth century. In politics, the royal authority was advancing toward that irresistible power which was estab- lished by Richelieu and Louis XIV. In literature, also, a king arose ; a tyrant of words and syllables, — Malherbe, a refined and tasteful scholar, rather than a great poet. A regulator of expressions and ideas, Malherbe produced but little besides odes and stanzas ; but in most of his works he attained perfection of form, and a few of his pieces are, even in thought and feeling, perfect models. He firmly established among the French the poetic language and style which were used by Corneille, Racine, and Boileau. The satirist, Mathurin R6gnier, with his fantastic energy, revolted against Malherbe ; but in vain. Discipline would have its way in letters as well as in the State. R^gnier wrote satires in verse ; the heir of Marot, with more malice, and a style which was often perfect, he dealt only with the ridiculous side of character, and did not go beneath the sur- face of things. The verse and prose writings of D'Aubign^, in spite of their real merits, are rather political efforts than literary works. The fiery Protestant continues with his pen the battle which he had so valiantly siistained with his sword. One ought also to mention, in connection with Henry IV., the Satire M4nipp4e. 382 REORGANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENRY IV. Popularity of the Kingt Conspiracies. — The solicitude of Henry IV. for the prosperity of France had acquired for him a well-deserved popularity. The brilliant qualities of his mind and heart concealed weaknesses which, indeed, were easily forgiven by the people ; they saw in him only the king who promised the disabled soldiers an asylum, and the peasant a chicken in the pot every Sunday. But if the people blessed him, it was not so with certain parties and certain men, who were more dissatisfied with his strong policies than with all his faults. They forgave him his mistresses and his bastards : that sort of thing had been seen in every reign. Nevertheless, the favor shown to Gabrielle d'Estr^es and Henriette d'Entraigues, forgotten promises, services rendered the king of iSTavarre which the king of France was unable to repay, caused some to mur- mur ; and his intense desire to be king in everything drove others into conspiracies. The most celebrated of the conspiracies was that of Mar- shal Biron, in which foreigners also had a hand. The Duke of Savoy and the king of Spain endeavored to incite the French nobles to revolt. The proud Biron, who had been created marshal, duke, a peer of France, and governor of Burgundy, considered these rewards still insiifficient for his services, and so allowed himself to be seduced into treason. Once before, in 1601, Henry had pardoned him, and he would have pardoned him a second time if Biron would have agreed to the conditions that he demanded. Irritated by his ob- stinacy, and wishing to make him an example to the nobil- ity, he allowed his sentence to be executed : Biron was beheaded (1602). Plan for the Reorganization of Europe. — Spain had rea- son to be alarmed, for the power of the house of Austria was the continual subject of Henry's meditations. Sully suggested to him a plan for the reorganization of Europe, which was doubtless talked of, but the realization of which Henry was too clear-sighted to expect. The king, says Sully, desired to drive the house of Austria from the Neth- erlands, Italy, and Germany ; to make of Hungary, with the addition of the Austrian provinces, a powerful kingdom ; to give Lombardy to Savoy, Sicily to Venice ; to form of the peninsula of Italy one great state having the Pope for its chief; to make Genoa and Florence, with the small neighboring lordships, into a republic. Europe, then, with REORGANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENRY IV. 383 six hereditary kingdoms, — France, Spain, England, Sweden, Denmark, and Lombardy ; witli five elective governments, — Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, the Empire, and the Papacy ; with four republics, — Venice, Genoa and Florence, Switzer- land, and the Netherlands, — would have formed one great republic, having a supreme council of deputies from all the states, whose duty should be to prevent encroachments and collisions. Henry would have asked nothing for France, excepting French-speaking districts, Savoy, Lorraine, Bel- gium, and Franche-Comt6. His designs upon the last two were capable of present ex- ecution. In order to accomplish them he counted on the alliance of England, on the Protestants of the Netherlands, and on those of Germany, the Evangelical Union. The Duke of Cleves and Jiilich had just died. Protestants and Cath- olics were already disputing for that rich possession ; this afforded an opportunity to interfere and to begin a war which the increasing hatred of the two religious parties in the Em- pire was making inevitable. The most extensive prepara- tions were made ; forty thousand men advanced towards the frontiers of Champagne. Assassination of Henry IV. (1610). — The alliance of Henry with the Protestants and the Turks alarmed the extreme Catholics. In vain he endeavored to preserve the friend- ship of the Pope, of whom he had obtained a divorce from Margaret of Valois, in order to marry, in 1600, the Pope's own niece, Mary de' Medici. In vain he had, in 1603, allowed the Jesuits to return to France, and granted their order the right to teach. In spite of all this, he was, in the eyes of many, the enemy of religion, and of this Frangois Eavaillac, a fanatic, was fully persuaded. Henry was anxious and sad; reports of plots reached him constantly ; already nineteen attempts to assassinate him had been frustrated ; he had cause to fear a twentieth. Before setting out for the war he yielded to the entreaties of his wife, who was anxious to be crowned. Ideas of im- pending assassination never left him. On the 14th of May, being urged to go to ride in order to shake off these gloomy feelings, he took an open carriage. He took with him the dukes of Epernon and Montbazon, a.nd five other lords, with no escort ; only a few gentlemen on horseback and a few footmen followed him. He drove towards the Arsenal, where he intended to visit Sully, who was ill. A blockade 384 REORGANIZATION OF FRANCE BY HENRY IV. of vehicles on the way stopped the coach. Ravaillac, who had followed him on foot from the Louvre, jumped up upon a post and struck the king. "I am wounded," he cried, and threw up his arms. This movement exposed his left side, and the assassin dealt a second blow which pierced his heart. The king fell back without uttering a cry : he was dead. Ravaillac made no attempt to fly, and it was with difficulty that the people were prevented from tearing him in pieces. Two weeks after he was put to death with horrible tortures. LOUIS XIIL 386 CHAPTER XLVIII. LOUIS XIII. (1610-1643 A.D.) Regency of Mary de' Medici. — Sully was expecting the king at tlie Arsenal, when a gentleman of his household came rushing in and said, " The king is fatally wounded." " My God ! " exclaimed Sully, " have pity on him, on us, and on the State. If he dies, France will fall into strange hands ! " Louis XIII. was not nine years old ; custom assigned the regency to the mothers of kings. Mary de' Medici, who was a foreigner and felt that she was not beloved by the French people, thought it necessary that a sort of legal sanction should be given to her authority. She addressed herself to the Parliament of Paris, as if these magistrates were repre- sentatives of the country. Ordered by Epernon to declare her regent, the magistrates obeyed ; later they remembered how a queen had recognized their right to dispose of royal authority. At first nothing appeared changed in the political system of France. Mary de' Medici retained the ministers of the preceding reign, including Sully, The projects of Henry IV. were apparently carried out under his administration : a royal declaration confirmed the edict of Nantes, and an army of ten thousand men went to take possession of JiQich for the Protestant princes, the allies of France. Abandonment of the Policy of Henry IV. ; Concini. — But it happened, as it generally does when queens are kings, that affairs were subordinated to persons, which is a course of things directly opposed to true statesmanship. The gov- ernment became feeble and capricious. With a minor king, an incapable regent, a divided court, and turbulent princes, the action of France in foreign affairs was of course neutral- ized for a long time. Finding it necessary to make peace, Mary de' Medici turned towards the Spaniards ; she opened negotiations for the double marriage of her son with the 386 . LOUIS XIII. infanta and the prince of Spain with, her daughter. Sully, opposing this new policy, was removed by the queen (1611). He died in 1641. The queen had for a long time confided in the Florentine Concini, who had great influence over her through his wife, Leonora Galigai. This woman, the daughter of a carpenter, was the queen's foster-sister, and had acquired an extraor- dinary influence over her. The authority of the queen- regent was shaken when an incapable foreigner took the place of the superior statesman who for twenty years had been associated with the good and evil fortunes of the house of Bourbon. The great nobles were allowed to plunder ; Concini filled his pockets from the treasury, bought the marquisate of Ancre and the ofiices of first gentleman of the chamber, lieutenant-general of P^ronne, Amiens, and Dieppe, and put a finishing touch to his insolent success by taking the title of marshal, though he had never been present on a field of battle. Leonora, on her part, worked for the general good by selling pardons. First Revolt of the Nobles (1614). — The pretensions of the nobles increased with the weakness of the government. What they really wanted was provincial governorships for •themselves and their families, cautionary towns, and the dismemberment of France. Many of the lords, on learning of the assassination, had shut themselves up in the most convenient cities, and some of them would not come out again. " The day of the kings has passed," they said, " this is the day of the lords." The first refusal by the queen- regent led to civil war. Cond^ took up arms and published a manifesto in which he accused the court of having lowered the nobility, ruined the finances, and oppressed the poor people. He ended, as was usual, by demanding the convo- cation of the States-General for the purpose of reforming the abuses. A great number of the lords ranged themselves under his flag, and at their head were the dukes of Venddme, Longueville, Luxemburg, and Mayenne. Since the time of the States of the League there had been a great lull in the popular passions. The party of the politiques, which was born under L'Hdpital, and came into power under Henry IV., comprised almost all the professional men and the lower classes. The experience so cruelly bought by the civil war had not been without effect. The nation compared the thirty-eight years of massacre and pillage with the twelve LOUIS XIII. 387 years of prosperity which they had enjoyed while rallying around the throne, and left the great lords to work out among themselves their fruitless ambitions. Some of the old ministers of Henry IV. counselled the queen to take vigorous measures, but she preferred to treat at Sainte-Menehould (May, 1614). The Prince of Cond^ received 450,000 livres in money; the Duke of Mayenne, 300,000, "that he might marry " ; Monsieur de Longueville, 100,000 livres, as a pen- sion, etc. Nothing was done for " the poor people." The States-General (1614). — The assembly of the States- General convened at Paris, Oct. 14, 1614. It was their last meeting until 1789. Among the deputies was a prelate of twenty-nine years of age, Armand Duplessis de Richelieu, bishop of Lugon, who had already won such a reputation in his profession as to be appointed orator by the clergy, on the day of the presentation of memorials (cahiers). The three orders were not in accord. The orator of the bourgeoisie having dared to say that the French people formed one large family of which the lords were the elder branch, and the Third Estate the younger, the nobility con- sidered the speech an affront and complained to the king. The clergy refused to take up any part of the public bur- dens, saying that it would be detracting from the glory of God. There was no greater harmony in the desires of the as- sembly. The clergy demanded the introduction into France of all the decrees of the council of Trent, which Parliament had thus far repudiated. The nobility insisted on the sup- pression of the paulette which, in establishing heredity of offices, had inaugurated the noblesse de robe. The Third Es- tate desired that the pensions paid to the great lords, which exceeded five millions and a half in amount, should be reduced, and that the ultramontane doctrines taught by some of the bishops should be condemned. It was not diffi- cult for the ministers to profit by these divisions; they caused the building in which the States held their assembly to be closed. The assembly of 1614 does not deserve the discredit into which it has fallen ; it accomplished nothing, but it showed the progress of political education among the upper bour- geoisie. The speeches of their orators revealed a practical business intelligence and a desire for wise innovations which is astonishing. They demanded the summoning of 388 LOUIS XIII. a general assembly of the kingdom at least every ten years, freedom of city elections, security for, and extension of, municipal privileges. In matters of finance, the Third Estate desired a just division of the public burdens among the citizens, and the suppression of useless offices ; ^ with regard to justice, the equality of all in the eyes of the law, the enfranchisement of serfs, the abolition of exceptional tribu- nals, a mode of trial less slow and costly ; in respect to com- merce and industry, the suppression of internal customs duties, wardenships and masterships, freedom of trade throughout the kingdom, and the establishment of protec- tive duties on imported foreign merchandise ; in respect to the nobility, the reduction of the number of military offices, the abolition of new titles, the suppression of fort- resses in the interior of the kingdom, of useless or excessive pensions, and the strict repression of duels ; in respect to the Church, a more impartial distribution of its income, at the ex- pense of the excessively opulent benefices, and for the benefit of the very poor curacies, obligatory residence imposed on the bishops, and their appointment by the king from among three nominees. Such were the principal projects of re- form proposed by the Third Estate. No attention was paid to them at that time. It is the work of ages to force into the mind of the masses what wise men have long dreamed of. But without speaking of the revolutionary assembly of 1356, one can trace a continuous progress of the national tradition through all the various vicissitudes from 1484 to 1614. Richelieu, Colbert, Turgot, would not treat it with scorn, but would seek to satisfy some of its repeated de- mands ; the rest were to await the day when the nation should take up, of her own accord, all these desires of past generations, in order to do justice to them and to many others. Fresh Revolt of the Nohles ; Treaty of Loudun (1615- 1616). — The malcontents, after having exhausted the money extorted by their first revolt, began a second, under the pre- text that the demands of the States had not been complied with. This time Cond6 induced the Protestants to join in. The Duke of Rohan aroused the people of the C^vennes. 1 The people then paid thirty-five millions of taxes, of which only 16,200,000 ever reached the treasury ; and the minister estimated that the king needed nineteen millions for maintenance of his dignity and his household. Of this, one-half was spent for the court and the nobility. LOUIS xiu. 389 The court was then occupied with the preparations for a jour- ney to Bordeaux, where the king was to receive his betrothed bride, the infanta Anne of Austria, and to which he was to escort his sister, who was to espouse at the same time the prince of Spain. During the whole journey the court had been followed and often harassed by the soldiers of Cond6 and Eohan ; it purchased a new peace at Loudun (May, 1616). Louis acknowledged the prince and his friends to be good and loyal subjects, and paid the troops which had been levied against him. Cond6 alone received 1,500,000 livres. Each revolt was more profitable to him. This one had cost the State more than twenty millions. First Administration of Richelieu; Arrest of Conde (1616). — The queen reorganized the administration ; the bishop of Lu9on, whom the States of 1614 had brought into promi- nence, became grand almoner of the household, then a mem- ber of the council, where he attracted great attention. Con- cini found that the young prelate "knew more than all the graybeards." He bestowed upon him one of the " four ofl&ces of the house and crown of France," with the charge of foreign affairs. Eigorous measures were immediately- adopted ; the Prince of Cond6 was arrested in the Louvre itself, and thrown into the Bastile ; his followers, who en- deavored to arouse Paris and the neighboring provinces, " heard themselves addressed in a tone which sounded more like His Royal Majesty than recent doings." Richelieu loved to address himself to public opinion. In a sort of manifesto he showed how the great nobles had been " seeking to estab- lish a separate tyranny in each province." The princes and their followers were declared guilty of lese-majesty, and deprived of their dignities : three armies were sent into Picardy, Champagne, and Berry to crush the revolt. The royal cause would have triumphed this time if the king had not joined the malcontents in order to overthrow the minis- try and escape from tutelage. Death of Concini (1617). — Concini had only a vulgar ambition. He loved money; the possession of power frightened him. He knew he was hated and threatened; but it was from an unsuspected source that the danger came. Louis XIII. was then sixteen years old. This prince, whose character was gloomy and morose, lived in seclusion, kept away from affairs of state by his mother and Concini, and surrounded only by a few pages to whom he was attached 390 LOUIS XIII. He formed a great friendship for his falconer, a young son of a provincial family, named Albert de Luynes. The king's favorite conceived the hope of displacing the queen's. A secret conspiracy was entered into by Louis XIII., his falconer, and his gardener ; Vitry, the captain of the guards, received an order to arrest Concini and to kill him if he resisted. Accompanied by twenty gentlemen, Vitry met Marshal d'Ancre as the latter Avas going into the Louvre. He told him that he arrested him by the king's command, and at the same moment they shot him dead. The king appeared at the window, and the Louvre resounded with cries of " Long live the king ! " Leonora Galigai was accused of peculation, of plotting against the State, and above all of sorcery. She was be- headed in the Place de Gr^ve, and her body was thrown into the flames. Mary de' Medici was ordered to leave the court and retire to Blois ; Richelieu was exiled to his bish- opric (1617). Government of Albert de Luynes (1617-1621). — The great lords had approved the death of Concini, hoping to profit by it> But when they saAv De Luynes appropriate the spoils of the marshal, become duke and peer of the realm, and governor of Picardy, marry a Rohan, and make his brothers dukes, they revolted again, nominally in favor of the queen-mother, so recently their enemy. De Liiynes was not more success- ful in resisting them than Marshal d'Ancre had been ; the peace of Angouleme, brought about by Richelieu, granted Mary de' Medici the government of Anjou and three cau- tionary towns (1619). Subsequent attempts on her part proved unsuccessful, and she was glad to ask, through Riche- lieu, for the confirmation of the first treaty (1620). Republican Organization of the Protestants. — A more for- midable rebellion broke out in the South : this was a religious war. Mary de' Medici and Louis XIII. had carried out the policy of Henry IV. with regard to the Protestants. But the Reformers had themselves gone far beyond the edict of Nantes. Seeing the queen-mother ally herself with Spain, they became defiant. In 1611 they had reorganized their eight hundred and six churches into sixteen provinces divided into districts. A consistory Avhich met every week governed the church; a conference assembled every three months governed the district ; an annual synod took charge of the affairs of the province; national synods were to assemble LOUIS XIII. 391 every three years under an elected president ; and finally, two commissioners were to reside at tlie court, and act as intermediaries between the ]3arty and the king. It was a thoroughly democratic and representative republic in the heart of an absolute monarchy. The general assemblies would willingly have played the part of the States-General of the Netherlands. These pretensions alarmed the court, and some Catholics took offence at them. In certain cities the old hatred was again aroused. War with the Protestants; Death of Albert de Luynes (1621). — In 1617 an edict had re-established the Catholic religion in B6arn, The edict being ill carried OTit, the king entered B6arn with an army. Immediately the whole Protestant party was in a tumult ; a general assembly con- vened at Eochelle, published a declaration of independence, levied troops, and offered the command of them to the Duke of Eohan (1621). De Luynes, whom Louis XIII. hastily made constable, marched against Montauban with fifteen thousand men. The city, having a naturally strong position, defended itself heroically. The siege, which began in August, had scarcely progressed at all in November. The constable was seized with a fever which carried him off (December, 1621). Louis XIII. continued the war alone, and conducted during the following year a very active cam- paign. The Duke of Rohan took advantage of a moment of weariness to obtain a treaty of peace which renewed the edict of Kantes, but forbade political meetings, and left to the Reformers only the fortresses of Montauban and Rochelle (October, 1622). Universal Disorder in the State. — De Luynes left the king- dom in a state of extreme weakness and disorder ; the royal authority humiliated by continual revolts, the nobility dic- tating laws to the sovereign, and mistress of the provinces through the offices which were at their disposal; the Calvinists ready to separate themselves from the rest of the nation ; the old foreign policy of ¥rancis I. and Henry IV. abandoned ; the kingdom without alliances and without con- sideration in Europe; and finally, the house of Austria inaugurating the Thirty Years' War by a succession of victories, and preparing for the subjugation of Europe by the ruin of German Protestantism. It was time for Riche- lieu to take the control of affairs. Administration of Richelieu (1624-1642) ; Ms Designs. — 392 LOUIS XIII. Mary de' Medici, having become reconciled to her son, ob- tained the cardinal's hat for her constant counsellor, the bishop of Lugon. At the beginning of the year 1624 she appointed him a member of the council. At the end of a few months Richelieu had overruled or renewed the minis- try, turned out a new favorite, conquered Louis XIII. by the ascendency of a superior genius, and mapped out the policy which was to render illustrious a reign so gloomily begun. He has himself explained the whole plan of this policy : "When your Majesty," said he to Louis XIII., "determined to give me at the same time membership in your councils and a large share of your confidence, I can truly say that the Huguenots divided the state with you, that the nobles acted as though they were not your subjects, and the more power- ful governors of the provinces as though they were sovereigns of their charges. I may say, moreover, that foreign alliances were scorned. ... I promised your Majesty to employ all my ability, and all the authority it should please you to delegate to me, in ruining the Huguenot party, in lower- ing the pride of the nobles, and in restoring your name to the position it should occupy among foreign nations." He put at the service of this policy a mind both capacious and keen, which embraced the whole, yet saw details clearly, an untiring activity, and an iron will. First Operations of Richelieu ; Renewed War against the Protestants (1625-1626). — Eichelieu had scarcely entered the council, when, cardinal though he was, he concluded the marriage of one of the sisters of Louis XIII., Henrietta Maria, with the king of England, Charles I. ; he signed a new treaty of alliance with the Netherlands, secretly fur- nished money to Mansfeld in Germany, and sent ten thou- sand men to drive the soldiers of the Pope from the Valtellina. All these alliances were Protestant. Spain instigated the Huguenots to revolt. Rohan rallied those of Languedoc and the C^vennes, Soubise armed those of Rochelle. Rochelle was then a true republic, the centre and capital of Calvinism ; its navy was larger than that of the king of France. Richelieu was compelled to obtain ships from two Protestant states, England and the ISTetherlands. His admiral was fairly successful and Soubise took refuge in England. Richelieu then offered peace to the rebels, so that he might, at his leisure, prepare the means for their future destruction. LOUIS XIII. 393 Humiliation of the Protestants (1627) ; Capture of Ro- chelle (1628); Edict of Alaio (1629).— Meanwhile he im- proved the condition of the finances, organized the army, constructed or bought vessels, and signed a treaty with Spain. When all was in readiness, he induced the king and nobles to undertake the siege of Eochelle. The enterprise seemed difficult ; for the king of England sent to the French Calvinists a fleet of ninety ships, commanded by the hand- some and incompetent Duke of Buckingham, and the gener- als and courtiers showed little eagerness to crush the revolt. But Richelieu provided for all emergencies ; he was at the same time general, engineer, and admiral. He drove the English from the Isle of E.6, and in order to preventv their sending supplies to Rochelle, he cut oif all entrance to the harbor, by an embankment eight hundred fathoms long. Two forts guarded its extremities and two hundred ships defended it. The English made vain attempts to storm this tremendous construction; Eochelle was isolated from the ocean. On the land side, a circumvallation surrounded the city. It resisted, however, sustained by the superhuman courage of the Duchess of Eohan, and by the energy of its mayor, Guiton, who threatened to stab any one who should speak of surrendering. But after a siege of fifteen months, the town was forced to yield (1628). To effect this had cost the king forty millions ; but it was not too much to pay for the political unity of France. Eochelle was treated as a conquered city ; its municipal franchises were suppressed, its mayoralty abolished, its for- tifications torn down. Finally, the peace of Alais termi- nated the last religious war. The Calvinists ceased to be a political party and to form a state within a state; but Eichelieu allowed them liberty of worship and the enjoy- ment of civil equality. During the whole of his ministry he employed them equally with other citizens, in the army, the magistracy, and the offices of finance. He protected them always in their rights and in their persons — a remark- able example of enlightened moderation in that intolerant age. One of the consequences of this war was the acquisi- tion of Acadia and Cape Breton from the English (1632). Humiliation of the Nobles ; Day of Dupes (1630) ; Execu- tion of Montmorency (1632) ; the Count of Soissons (1641) ; Cinq-Mars (1642). — Eichelieu desired that the king should be, in internal affairs, supreme magistrate of public order. 394 LOUIS XIIL having, as he said of himself on his death-bed, neither affection nor hatred for any one, but justice for all. The struggle with the nobility, which began in the first days of his ministry, continued till his death. Intrigues, conspira- cies, and revolts constantly imperilled his life, his author- ity, that of the king, and the peace of France. He repressed them with unsparing severity. The first conspirators were some young noblemen, coun- sellors of friends of Gaston of Orleans, the king's brother. It served Richelieu's purpose to treat these follies as crimes ; but it is possible that he did not misjudge his adversaries when he attributed to them the intention of assassinating him, deposing Louis XIII., and putting in his place the Duke' of Orleans, who should marry Anne of Austria. They were all executed or severely punished. Gaston, a prince of feeble character, sued for pardon from Richelieu (1626). The next year a terrible lesson was learned by those nobles who believed that laws were not made for them. The counts of Bouteville and Les Chapelles v/ere executed for fighting a duel (1627). This time at least the encounter had been in good faith ; but it was not always so, and many pretended duels were only assassinations. It was estimated, in 1609, that in the previous eighteen years, four thousand gentlemen had perished in single combat, and as soon as Richelieu was dead, duelling was again engaged in to such an excess that nine hundred and forty gentlemen were killed between 1643 and 1654. In 1630 the queen-mother had her turn. Mary de' Medici had obtpined for the cardinal a position in the council in order that he might serve as her instrument. When she saw that the minister thought only of the interests of the State, and did not yield either to her caprices or those of her second son Gaston, she extorted from the king a prom- ise to degrade him. Richelieu left court. Already the members of the court were crowding the antechambers of the queen-mother. Saint-Simon, the father of the celebrated historian, remonstrated with the king and sent for Richelieu. The king then said to him, " Continue to serve me as you have done, and I will sustain you against all those who have sworn to destroy you." This day was known as the Day of Dupes (October, 1630). It, too, had its victims. The two brothers Marillac, one the keeper of the seals, the other, marshal of France, had been too hasty in triumph- LOUIS xiiL 395 ing with the queen-mother : the first was deprived of his oflB.ce and died in prison ; the other was accused of bribery, tried by an extraordinary commission in Richelieu's OAvn house, and condemned to death and executed in 1632. Bas- sompierre, his friend, was shut up in the Bastile, where he remained until the death of the cardinal. Mary de' Medici herself was banished to Compiegne, whence she fled to Brussels. The frivolous and incompetent Duke of Orleans had also quitted France and joined his mother in the Netherlands, where, with the Duke of Lorraine, he concocted another conspiracy which resulted in open revolt. The governor of Languedoc, Montmorency, was deluded by promises from Gaston. Joining forces, they gave battle to the royal army at Castelnaudary (September, 1632), The Duke of Orleans fled at the first attack ; the Duke of Montmorency, left alone, was taken, condemned by the Parliament of Toulouse, and executed in spite of the supplications of all the nobility. " Several," says Richelieu, " murmured against this action and condemned it as harsh ; but others, more wise, praised the justice of the king, who preferred the good of his state to the empty reputation of injudicious clemency, and they appreciated the courage of the cardinal, who risked his own personal safety and the hatred of all the nobles in order to be faithful to his duty to his king." The Duke of Lorraine paid the expenses of the war ; for Louis XIIL (1634) occu- pied the duchy by military force, and it remained in the hands of the French until the end of the century. Gaston was spared, but was ordered to retire to Blois. In 1638 the heir apparent was born. The Count of Soissons made one more attempt to over- throw the terrible cardinal. Having taken refuge in Sedan with the Duke of Bouillon, he collected about him all the malcontents, in order to rekindle the civil war in France, but he was killed in battle. With him the war ended : the Duke of Bouillon hastened to make his submission. The last conspiracy was that of Cinq-Mars. A son of the Mar- quis of EflB.at, he had been placed by Richelieu near Louis XIIL, to amuse, entertain, and watch over him. Having become a necessary favorite, he was raised to the position of grand equerry, and aspired to succeed to the position held by the constable De Luynes. He flattered himself that he might be able, with the support of the nobility, to over- 396 LOUIS XIIL throw Eichelieu. If the king was not an accomplice in this scheme, the queen at least was, and also Monsieur and the Duke of Bouillon. Cinq-Mars ruined himself by signing a treaty of alliance with the Spaniards. Eichelieu, then ill and almost dying, procured, by bribery, a copy of the l^eaty and sent it to Louis XIII. Cinq-Mars was condemned, and afterwards beheaded at Lyons (1642). With him perished De Thou, son of the historian. The Duke of Bouillon lost his principality, and Sedan was reunited to France forever. Suhmission of Parliament ; Assembly of Notables ; Strength- ening of the Royal Authority. — The magistracy never con- spired; but sometimes it grumbled. Eichelieu punished with imprisonment, removal from office, or exile, the faint- est evidence of opposition. Parliament was expressly forbidden to make any remonstrances against edicts con- cerning the government and administration of the state, Eichelieu had, however, no scorn of public opinion. As is the case with all strong characters, he frequently ap- pealed to it, and gained by doing so. Accordingly many manifestos, explanations of his conduct, even what we call at the present day " articles," were written by him for the Mercure de France, the oldest of the French journals ; but he would have no States-General, and merely occa- sional assemblies of notables, which, chosen by the king, had less of the spirit of independence than the former, and might have quite as much intelligence. To them he ex- posed his various plans for creating a navy, for instituting a permanent army, for encouraging commerce and indus- try, and for the reformation of internal administration. In the year 1626 Eichelieu ordered the demolition of the feudal fortresses, which were useless for the defence of the frontiers, and which were to royalty a continual menace, to the towns and surrounding country an object of terror, to the nobles a reminder of their former power and an encour- agement to revolt. The same year he abolished the offices of high admiral and constable, which bestowed upon their incumbents an almost royal authority over the navy and army. He established for Lorraine the Parliament of Metz. Institution of Intendants. — Finally, he made a complete revolution in the provincial administration by the institu- tion of intendants. Under the last Valois kings the gov- ernors, who were all of the higher nobility, had made them- LOUIS XIII. 397 selves almost independent in their provinces; and they regarded their ofB.ces as a patrimony which should descend to their children. Henry IV. had been obliged to purchase their obedience. Richelieu, who in everything carried out the \york of the first Bourbon, going even farther than he, instituted superior officers of justice, of police, and of finance, called by the modest name of intendants, who, chosen by the king from the non-noble classes, without personal influence, were at the disposal of the minister (1635). These officers, docile agents of the central power, exercised a jealous control over the nobles, parliaments, cities, and provincial states ; little by little they concen- trated in their own hands all the civil power, and ended by leaving to the governors only the military authority, which indeed amounted to nothing in the interior provinces. Roy- alty gained by this institution, and national unity was strengthened by it. Since the creation of a permanent army under Charles VII. no measure had struck a heavier blow at the new feudalism. Beginning of an Organization of the Navy (1641). — One of the consequences of the siege of Rochelle was a first attempt to organize a navy. In 1629 Richelieu employed D'lnfre- ville to choose the situations for three arsenals. He decided upon Havre, Brest, and Brouage. Magazines were imme- diately built there. Numerous vessels were armed, and in the Thirty Years' War the fleets of France controlled the ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Richelieu did not forget the infant colonies of France. In Canada, Champlain had founded Quebec in 1608, and France had a few ports in Acadia, the island of Cape Breton, and Florida. These possessions were called New France. In 1627 the cardinal caused the formation of a company which should have the perpetual monopoly of the fur trade, the nomination of its own officers, and the jurisdiction over all its employees. Such a monopoly was then necessary. He organized, after the example of the English and Dutch, the company of the American Isles (1635), which flourished as long as he could watch over it ; he supported the East India company, which had a station at Madagascar, and the African company. Disorder of the Finances. — With regard to finances, Riche- lieu returned to the unfortunate methods which Sully had discarded. He increased the taxation, which was inevitable 398 LOUIS XIII. in consideration of tlie great schemes he undertook, but he managed them badly. The difference between the net and gross income became enormous, as did also the annual deficit. The treasury was in great straits, and the people everywhere were terribly oppressed. Disturbances broke out in Paris and in the provinces ; but the troops harshly repressed these revolts, and the people were only too well accustomed to financial disorder and great poverty in the country districts. Commerce and Industry. — The great minister proposed to neglect nothing that could increase the power and wealth of France. By his system of great commercial companies he desired to contend with the seamen of England and the Netherlands for the markets of the world. A noble had hith- erto forfeited his title by sailing in command of a merchant ship. E-ichelieu declared that commerce should no longer be derogatory to the nobility, and from that time the ships of the companies were commanded by adventurous gentlemen. At home Richelieu encouraged the growing manufactures of glass and carpets, and imported engineers from the Nether- lands to drain the marshes, thus carrying out the work of Henry IV. and paving the way for Colbert. Foreign Policy. — Since the treaty of Vervins, France had' taken part in no great war ; and as but few of the people and none of the nobility were engaged in either manufactures or commerce, the rising generation felt an impatience of repose and a need for action. Richelieu proceeded to show them an aim worthy of their great courage. The Spaniards, masters of the Southern Netherlands, Franche-Comt6, and Roussillon, surrounded France on three sides, and held Italy by means of Naples and Milan. He began with them, and renewed the old treaties with Venice, Savoy, and the Netherlands. War of the Valtellina (1624). — He followed up his trea- ties by actions, and drove the Spaniards from the Valtellina, a valley which secured communication between the Spanish Milanese and the Austrian Tyrol. The inhabitants, Catholic subjects of the Protestant republic of the Grisons, had revolted at the instigation of Spain. The Grisons had pro- tested; the Pope, being chosen as mediator, was on the point of deciding in favor of the Spaniards, when Richelieu took the control of alfairs. He at once sent an army of ten thousand men, and restored the Valtellina to the Grisons (1624). The court of Madrid yielded (1626). LOUIS XIII. 399 War of the Mantuan Succession (1629). — Some years later the cardinal intervened beyond the Alps in f aror of a French prince, Charles de Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, who was the heir of Mantua and Montferrat. The Spaniards set up the Duke of G-uastalla as claimant against him in Mantua, and the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus, in Montferrat, where they besieged Casale, the capital. Richelieu himself marched to the Alps with an army of thirty-six thousand men, and Louis XIII. forced the pass of Susa (1629). The Duke of Savoy signed the treaty of Susa ; the Spaniards raised the siege of Casale and returned to the Milanese. Scarcely a year had passed before the victorious Imperialists in G-er- many had again entered the territory of the Grisons, the Spaniards were in Montferrat, and the Duke of Savoy was negotiating in every direction. Richelieu again crossed the Alps with forty thousand men; Savoy was conquered, Piedmont traversed, Pinerolo taken (1630) . The peace of Cherasco, in which Mazarin was the negotiator, strengthened the French influence in Italy. The Duke of Mantua was re-established in his estates, and Victor Amadeus granted to Louis XIIL, with Pinerolo, the free passage of the Alps (1631). Thus, in 1631, Richelieu had separated in Italy the domains of the two branches of the house of Austria which were making an effort to reunite, and opened the peninsula to Prance. The Thirty Years' War ; Gustavus Adolphus in Germany. — The Thirty Years' War, a struggle at once political and re- ligious, had commenced in Bohemia (1618), and had spread gradually throughout the empire. The elector palatine, the king of Denmark, had, one after the other, been con- quered and humbled. The imperial army, created and commanded by Wallenstein, had penetrated to the Baltic, trampling under foot Germany and her liberties. The ques- tion of its partition among independent princes, or of its consolidation under the despotism of the house of Austria, seemed about to be decided in favor of the latter. Richelieu, cardinal though he was, espoused the cause of the German princes, regardless of their religion. His emissary, P6re Joseph, gained such an influence over the electors at the diet of Ratisbon in 1630, that they extorted from the emperor the dismissal of Wallenstein and the disbanding of his army ; and then refused to give the emperor's son the title of King of the Romans. Gustavus Adolphus, king of 400 LOUIS XIII. Sweden, had already made himself famous for remarkable military successes. Richelieu brought about a truce be- tween the young king and the Poles, then granted him an annual subsidy of 1,200,000 francs, and urged him on against Germany, Gustavus Adolphus entered Germany like a thunderbolt of war, defeated Tilly near Leipzig, killed him at the passage of the Lech, and died himself at Liitzen, in the arms of victory. Eichelieu, now relieved of his weight- iest cares at home, boldly substituted France, full of youth and enthusiasm, in Sweden's place in the struggle against the house of Austria. First Part of the French Period (1635-1643).— Against Austria and Spain thus closely united he formed a solid group of alliances. He promised twelve thousand men to the German confederates, bought Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, the best pupil of Gustavus Adolphus, and his army, made a treaty of alliance with the chancellor of . Sweden, Oxen- stjerna, with the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, with the Dutch, with the Swiss, and the dukes of Mantua, Parma, and Savoy. He even tried to win over the king of England. These numerous treaties announced the proportions which the war would assume. Richelieu carried it to all the French frontiers; to the southern Low-Countries, that he might divide them with Holland ; to the Rhine, in order to cover Champagne and Lorraine, and take possession of Alsace ; into Germany, that he might join hands with Sweden and break down the power of Austria; into Italy, in order to maintain the authority of the Grisons in the Valtellina and the influence of France in Piedmont ; towards the Pyrenees, to conquer Roussillon; to the ocean and the Mediterranean, to destroy the Spanish fleets, to sustain the revolts of Port- ugal and Catalonia, and to menace the shores of Italy. He forced the nation to make prodigious efforts for seven years. Victories of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Harcourt, Gudbri- and, and Lonrdes. — The war began successfully in the Netherlands (1635). But the Dutch were startled at seeing the French so near them, and poorly seconded their opera- tions. The Spaniards penetrated into Picardy, crossed the Somme, and seized upon Corbie (1636). For a moment Paris trembled ; but the great city soon took courage again. Louis XIII. at the head of forty thousand men hastened to drive the Spaniards beyond the frontiers and recapture Corbie, where the cardinal escaped the greatest danger that LOUIS XIII. 401 had ever threatened his life, for just at the moment when the king's brother was to give the signal for his assassina- tion, his courage failed (1636). Another invasion, at- tempted in Burgundy, was also repulsed. The following year (1637) Cardinal de la Valette took the cities of the upper Sambre, — Cateau-Cambr^sis, Landrecies, and Maubeuge. Richelieu loved to entrust commands to priests, since they were trained to obedience. His chief ad- miral was Lourdis, archbishop of Bordeaux, who destroyed a Spanish fleet in 1638, and ravaged, more than once, the kingdoms of Naples and Spain. But in this year (1638) the greatest successes were on the Rhine : Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar gained a victory over the Imperialists at Rheinfeld, captured their general, Johann von Werth, and carried Alt-Breisach by assault after three victories (1639). When Bernhard died (1639), France fell heir to his con- quests and his army. Artois, which belonged to the Spaniards, was invaded during the next campaign. Three marshals besieged Arras. The Spaniards were beaten and the city was captured (1640). A second province was thus taken away from the house of Austria. France was fighting at the same time in the North of Italy. After the death of Victor Amadeus (1640) his brothers had disputed the regency with his widow, the daughter of Henry IV., and had obtained the support of a Spanish army. Richelieu sent into Piedmont the Count of Harcourt, who gained there three brilliant victories, re-established the authority of the regent, and by a wise treaty caused the princes of Savoy to enter the French alliance (1640-1642). Spain made no further attacks ; she had enough to do to defend herself against revolts of the Catalans and the Portu- guese (1640). The cardinal lent assistance to the new king of Portugal, John of Braganza, and to the Catalans. A French army, which the king personally conducted, perma- nently added Roussillon to France (1641). Spain being occu- pied at home, it was easier to conquer Austria in Germany. The defeat of Nordlingen and the defection of the elector of Saxony, in 1635, had forced the Swedes to fall back into Pomerania. But in 1636 Ban^r resumed the offensive and overcame the Imperialists at Wittstock ; he defeated them again at Chemnitz (1639), forced his way into Bohemia, and, aided by the Count of Gu^briant, one of the most skilful tacticians of the age, nearly succeeded in capturing at 402 LOUIS XIII. Ratisbon, in 1641, the diet of the Empire and the emperor himself. While the successor of Baner, the paralytic Tor- stenson, was astonishing Europe by the rapidity of his oper- ations and a succession of glorious victories in Silesia and Saxony (1641), Gu^briant boldly advanced with the Duke of Weimar's army into the western part of the Empire, and was victorious at Wolfenbiittel (1641) and at Kempen (1642). Death of Richelieu (December, 1642). — It was in the midst of all these victories that Richelieu died, at the age of fifty- seven. When they presented the Host to him, he said, " Be- hold the Judge before whom I shall soon appear ; I pray Him to condemn me if I have had any other desire than the good of religion and the State." " Do you forgive your enemies ? " said the confessor. "I have never had any others but those of the State," he replied. He left France victorious everywhere ; the house of Austria conquered ; four provinces, Lorraine, Alsace, Artois, and Roussillon, added to the king- dom ; Catalonia and Portugal in revolt against Spain ; the Swedish and French soldiers almost at the gates of Vienna. He had indeed fulfilled the promise made to Louis XIII. upon entering on his ministry; he had raised the king's name to the position it ought to hold among foreign nations ; at home he had made everything submit to his authority. But the nation passed from one danger to another ; from aristocratic license to arbitrary royal despotism which some- times set justice aside, and disposed at will of the fortunes, liberty, and lives of its citizens. Richelieu was not in reality a systematic enemy of the nobility. He thought it a necessity, and had a horror of the mixture of classes. He was indignant at the position which the bourgeoisie already occupied in the State, on account of the offices it held. Merchants and soldiers were all he asked the Third Estate to furnish. We reproached him a moment ago for having badly managed the finances. But he regarded taxation from a double point of view, — as furnishing resources to the State, and also as a means of keeping the people in submission. "All politicians," said he, " agree that if the people are too much at their ease, it will be impossible to make them conform with the rules of duty. If they are free from taxation, they will dream of being free from obedience." The French Academy; the Sorbonne ; the Palais-Royal; the Jardin des Flantes. — The terrible minister had a taste for LOUIS XIII. 403 letters and the arts. He instituted the French Academy in 1635, designing it to control the language and regulate literary taste ; he reconstructed the Sorbonne ; he built the college of Plessis, the Palais-Cardinal (Palais-Eoyal), and founded the royal printing-house ; he established the Jardin des Plantes for the instruction of medical students. He treated authors with a deference to which they had not been accustomed, pensioned learned men and poets, Corneille among others, and encouraged painters. He was himself a remarkable writer. Death of Louis XIII. — Louis XIII. made no alteration in the policy of the cardinal, and called to the council Jules Mazarin (Giulio Mazarini) ; the friend and confidant of the great minister. The king survived Richelieu only six months (died May 14, 1643). This prince does not deserve the contempt that is often expressed for him. He retained for eighteen years a min- ister for whom he had little liking ; he made him less his counsellor than the depository of his omnipotence and the dictator of France. This willingness to accept a minister whose demands were often painful and sometimes cruel, should be placed to the credit of the prince who possessed such rare devotion to public interest. Besides, Louis XIII. had courage, and sometimes decision of character, and he exhibited on the throne a virtue which is rarely seen there, the chastity of Saint Louis. 404 MINORITt OF LOUIS XIV. CHAPTER XLIX. MINORITY OF LOUIS XIV. AND ADMINISTRATION OP MAZARIN. (1643-1661 A.D.) Regency of Anne of Austria. — The eldest son oL Louis XIII. was not yet five years old. His father, who distrusted the queen, had left the regency to her only on condition of having a council which should decide all questions by plu- rality of votes. Anne of Austria did not propose to accept tutors after having had masters so long ; she flattered the Parliament; "she would be always very glad," she said, " to make use of the counsels of so august a body " ; at the same time she demanded that they should annul the last Avishes of her husband. Parliament, delighted to be able to return to political life by means of this tempting opportunity, at once set aside the will of the king. Anne of Austria was proclaimed regent " with power to choose such persons as she might approve, to deliberate on the affairs which should be presented to her." To the astonishment of the court, her first choice was Cardinal Mazarin, the friend and successor of Richelieu. Mazarin. — Mazarin was born in 1602, and belonged to an old Sicilian family which had settled in Rome. Being sent as' nuncio to France (1634), he had attracted the notice of Richelieu, who attached him to himself and obtained for him the cardinal's hat (1641). The queen reposed implicit con- fidence in him. " He had a strong, foreseeing, inventive mind, plain good sense, a character more supple than weak, and less strong' than persevering. He was guided not by likes or dislikes, but by his calculations. Ambition had raised him above vanity. He had a rare insight into the characters of men, but he allowed his own judgment to be influenced by the estimation which life had already won for them. Before granting his confidence to any one he de- manded that he should have shown the wit which plans good fortune, and the strength of character which masters ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN. 406 it. He was incapable of despondency, and was remark- ably constant in spite of his apparent changeableness " (Mignet). Cabal of the Importauts. — Meanwhile all those who had suffered with the c[ueen had come together and, believing themselves already masters of the State, affected airs of superiority which caused the name Importants to be given to their party. Prominent among them were the Duke of Vend6me, legitimized son of Henry IV. and Gabrielle d'Estrees ; his two sons, the dukes of Mercoeur and Beaufort, and the young and brilliant Duke of La Rochefoucauld. The question now was how to undo the work of Richelieu ; the Importants made no attempt to conceal this ; they declared openly that it was necessary to restore to the nobles all that Louis XIII. had taken from them: but the queen had be- come avaricious of power since she had had it in her own hands. If she had not desired to share it with wise coun- sellors, still less was she willing to give it into the hands of blunderers who had begun plotting again and would soon stir up a civil war. The discovery of an attempt to assas- sinate Mazarin decided her to banish them all from the court. The Importants had ruled but three months. Thirty Years' War continued; Victories of Conde and Turenne. — The death of Richelieu had emboldened the Spaniards ; they resumed the offensive, and besieged Rocroi, hoping to reach Paris without other obstacle, for they had before them only an army inferior in numtjers and a general twenty-one years old, Louis of Bourbon, then Duke of Enghien, afterwards the great Cond^. The armies met May 19th, 1643. Cond6, at the head of his right wing, routed the cavalry which was placed opposite him, passed boldly behind the Spanish line, so as to surprise the victo- rious right of the enemy, and routed them. He turned then upon the Spanish infantry, surrounded them, attacked them three times, and broke their line. The Duke of Enghien followed up this victory with im- petuosity and daring. Each year was marked by a victory. The Spaniards being driven out of Prance, he turned against Austria and her German allies. The army first led by Bernhard of Weimar had just lost its skilful general, Guebriant, and, ill following several generals at once, had been surprised by the Imperialists at Tuttlingen, in can- tonments too widely separated. Turenne, being appointed 406 . MINORITY OF LOUIS XIY. ■ marshal, gathered together the shattered force and reor- ganized it. Cond6 joined him with ten thousand. They attacked the Bavarian general, Mercy, under the walls of Freiburg-im-Breisgau. This was rather a frightful massacre than a victory ; but it permitted the two generals to seize Philippsburg, Worms, and Mainz, and thus to clear the snemy from the banks of the Ehine. While Cond6 was returning to Paris, Turenne was de- feated at Marienthal by Mercy (1645). The Duke of Enghien hastened up with re-enforcements, drove back the enemy, penetrated into Bavaria, and put to rout the entire imperial army in the bloody battle of Nordlingen, where Mercy was killed (1645). In 1646 he besieged Dunkirk, and was the first to win that place for France. The follow- ing year he went to Catalonia and besieged L^rida, but was repulsed (1647). This was his first defeat; he repaired his fortunes in another field. In the north the archduke Leopold, the brother of the emperor, had advanced as far as Sens, in Artois ; Cond6 attacked them with his usual vigor, and in two houi:s the battle was won (1648). Turenne, in Ger- many, in conjunction with the Swedes, won the battles of Lauingen and Zusmarshausen (1648) ; drove the aged elector of Bavaria from his states, and but for a tremendous rain which suddenly swelled the waters of the Inn, would have marched on Vienna. Treaties of Westphalia (1648). — Negotiations had for some time been going on. Proposed in 1641, the conference began in 1643, at two cities of Westphalia, Miinster and Osnabriick. The problem to be solved was, to rearrange the map of Europe after a war which had lasted thirty years, to give a new constitution to the Empire, and to regulate the public and religious rights of several Christian nations. At the last moment Spain withdrew. The other states signed the peace, October, 1648. In the Thirty Years' War Austria had endeavored to crush out the religious and political liberties of Germany ; Austria being conquered, the Protestants received full lib- erty of conscience, and the imperial autliority, but lately so threatening, was annulled ; the princes and the German states were confirmed in the entire and complete exercise of sovereignty within their own states, including the right to make foreign alliances. Sweden received the island of Kiigen, Wismar, Hither Pomerania with Stettin, the arch- ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN. 407 bishopric of Bremen, and tlie bishopric of Verden, that is to say, the montlis of the three great German rivers, the Oder, tlie Elbe, and the Weser, with five millions of crowns, and three votes in the diet. France continued to occupy Lorraine. She obtained from the Empire a renunciation of all rights to the three bishop- rics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which she had been holding for a century ; to the city of Pinerolo, to Alsace with the exception of Strassburg, thus carrying her frontier to the Ehine. She also received Alt-Breisach on the right bank, and the right to garrison Philippsburg. These were great advantages, for Alsace covered Lorraine and Franche-Comt6, so that their restoration to France would be only a question of time. By causing the right of the German states to con- tract alliances with foreign powers to be recognized, France secured for herself a permanent opportunity to buy up these indigent princes, while by guaranteeing the execution of the treaty she secured the right to interfere on all occasions in the affairs of Germany. The Empire was henceforth only a sort of confederation of three hundred and sixty states, Lutheran and Catholic, monarchical and repu.blican, lay and ecclesiastical. The treaties of Westphalia put an end to the supremacy of the house of Austria. But the Bourbons inherited the ambition of the Hapsburgs, and roused against themselves similar coalitions. Internal Government from 1643 to 1661. — While Mazarin was thus gloriously carrying out the policy of Eichelieu, his power in France Avas shaken by factions. The last reign had bequeathed great financial embarrassments to Cardinal Mazarin, who increased them by his bad management ; he needed a great deal of money to carry on the foreign war, to bribe the nobles by pensioning them, and also to satisfy his own scandalous avarice. The superintendent, Emeri, was also an Italian, and unpopular, as were all ministers of finance in those times. He resorted to burdensome and vexatious expedients : he borrowed money at twenty -five per cent ; he created offices which he sold, reduced the pay- ments to the state annuitants, kept back a portion of the salaries of public officers, revived obsolete ordinances in order to enforce heavier fines, and insisted upon extreme rigor in the collection of taxes. The end was universal bankruptcy. The Fronde was evolved from this financial crisis and extreme distress. 408 MINORITY OF LOUIS XIV. Opposition of Parliament to the Eoyal Authority. — By the establishment of the paulette, judicial oflB.ces had become a hereditary property, perfectly safe, and attended with high and deserved esteem. The magistrates had acquired by this security and consideration a spirit of proud independence which made Parliament a centre of opposition, where, if necessary, national traditions and monarchical principles were earnestly defended. The financial exactions of the superintendent gave it an excellent pretext for speaking out while appearing to speak in the interest of the people. New edicts led to the beginning of a revolt. Beside themselves with the popularity they had won by their persistent oppo- sition to the ministry, the magistrates imagined themselves to occupy the position of the States-General, and emulated the Parliament of England, which at that time was conduct- ing a revolution; and in May, 1648, the members of the four sovereign courts, the Parliament, the chamber of ac- counts, the cour des aides, and the great council, came to- gether in the hall of St. Louis in the palace of justice, " to serve the interest of the public and of individuals, and to reform the abuses of the State." The prime minister decided at first to annvil the decree of their union; then, changing his mind, — for the situation appeared dangerous, — he authorized the deliberations of the joint assembly, which undertook to give a new con- stitution to France. The assembly actually offered twenty- seven articles for the royal sanction, so as to make them the fundamental law of the monarchy. Some of their demands were excellent, others less useful, and most of them imprac- ticable. The most important provided that in the future the taxes could not be legally collected unless they had been discussed and registered, " with liberty of suffrage," by the Parliament of Paris. This was giving a part of the legisla- tive authority to an aristocracy of two hundred magistrates Avho bought their offices. Another of their reforms would have been a direct attack upon the administrative centrali- zation instituted by Richelieu, by abolishing the office of the intendants of provinces. The " companies " were better inspired when they demanded substantial securities for the liberty of the subject, the suppression of lettres de cachet, of extraordinary tribunals, and the institution of something resembling habeas corpus. Day of Barricades (Aug. 26, 1648) ; Mathieu Mole ; the ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN. 409 Coadjutor De Retz. — At this time, encouraged, by the vic- tory of Sens, the cardinal resolved to seize three of the most obstinate magistrates, — Blancmenil, Charton, and BrouBsel. He mistakenly believed that he should make a great im- pression upon the people by causing them to be arrested at midday, just as the Te Deum was being sung in Notre-Dame for the victory of Sens, and the Swiss guards were bringing into the church sixty-three flags- taken from the enemy. Charton escaped, Blancmenil was taken without any diffi- culty, but an old servant of Broussel aroused the people ; the shops were closed, the heavy iron chains which were at the entrance to the principal streets were stretched across, and four hundred thousand voices cried at once, " Liberty and Broussel ! " (Aug. 26, 1648). Two hundred barricades were thrown up in a moment ; they were extended up to within a hundred paces of the Palais-Koyal. Next day the Parliament in a body went on foot over the barricades, which they were permitted to pass, to demand of the queen their imprisoned members, but could not obtain them. On their return they were stopped by the infu- riated populace. The intrepid first president, Mathieu MoM, calmed the crowd by the dignity of his demeanor and returned once more to the palace. The disturbance increased. The magistrates attempted to make another application to Anne of Austria ; and Queen Henrietta Maria of England persuaded her at last to grant it. Quiet was at once restored. In October the edict of St. Germain sanc- tioned all the demands of the " chamber of St. Louis." The coadjutor of Paris, Paul de Gondi, who had taken a prominent part in the victorious insurrection, was descended from a Florentine family. When young he had formed a plot against Erichelieu, and had made a special study of con- spiracies. It was with such a turn of mind that he entered the Church. In 1643 he was appointed coadjutor of his uncle, the archbishop of Paris ; but he aspired to a much higher position. He aimed to play the part of Richelieu, and made use of his office only to gain popularity in Paris. He believed he had in him the elements of a great man; time proved him to be only a blunderer. War of the Fronde ; Parliament and the Nobles (January- April, 1649). — The prime minister had yielded only to gain time ; he resolved to settle with these factions when he had got rid of the foreign war. In February, 1649, Anne of 410 MINORITY OF LOUIS XIV. Austria left Paris with her children and assembled some troops about her. Parliament, unable to struggle alone against the court, demanded or accepted the services of some princes and young lords, who could afford to amuse themselves with civil war. These were the prince of Conti, brother of the great Cond^, the Duke of Longueville, who had married their sister, the Duke of Bouillon, the Duke of La Rochefoucauld, and even the wise Turenne. The coadjutor was the ruling spirit of the plot ; as figure-head he used a grandson of Henry IV., the Duke of Beaufort, a prince pos- sessing little wit, but much courage. Gondi also endeav- ored to enlist Conde, but he proudly refused. The struggle which then began deserves the name which history has bestowed upon it, that of a child's plaything, the Fronde (sling). " The queen, with tears in her eyes, implored the prince of Cond6 to act as protector to the king, and the victor of Rocroi, Preiburg, Nordlingen, and Sens could not turn his back upon so many past services. Parliament, nevertheless, dared to sustain the war. Each member taxed himself in order to raise troops. The great chamber, the chamber of inquests, the chamber of requests, the chamber of accounts, the cour des aides, which had so often cried out against slight and necessary taxation, raised a sum of almost ten millions for the ruin of the country. Twelve thousand men were levied by decree of Parliament. Every owner of a porte- cocMre had to furnish a man and a horse ; the cavalry was called the cavalry of the porte-cocMres. . . , No one knew why he was in arms. . . . Everything was turned into jest. ... Parisian troops who went out from Paris, and always returned whipped, were received with hisses and shouts of laughter. AH their small losses were repaired by couplets and epigrams. The public-houses were the tents where they held councils of war in the midst of jests, songs, and the most dissolute merry-making" (Voltaire). It is not necessary, however, to represent the Fronde as more insignificant than it really was. It was well known why the people took up arms. A universal bankruptcy had lately crushed all hearts and fortunes ; they wished to arise from this fallen condition. In order to accomplish a revo- lution, it is not only necessary that there should be reasons for change ; there should also be men capable of making the change ; and in 1648 no one took any interest in the public ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN. 4H welfare. The princes regretted their places in the council ; the nobles their lost power ; the Parliament wished to play the same game which was being played by the Parliament of England on the other side of the Channel, and the people, who saw in all this only a means for a decrease of taxation, followed in the wake of the princes, the magistrates, and their archbishop. The latter expected that the reaction against the system of Eichelieu would surely bear him into power. Men were not going at haphazard; therefore the ridiculousness of the Fronde does not consist in the yanity of its proposals, but in the disorder of its antagonistic ambitions, and also in the impossibility of its success. The magistrates were the first to desire to withdraw from the squabble. The "gentlemen of the robe" had more love for the country than the soldiers. The news of a treaty with Spain signed by the nobles, brought Parlia- ment to a decision; the first president was appointed to treat with Mazarin. The convention of Eueil lowered some of the taxes, authorized the assemblies of the chambers, and brought the court back to Paris (April, 1649). The Petits-Maitres, or Young Fronde; Arrest of Conde (January, 1650). — The peace, though dearly bought, was of short duration. Cond6 desired to rule the government which he had protected. He wearied the regent and the prime minister by his continual demands, and humiliated them by his insolence. Meantime he caused the old Fron- deurs to become discontented; he spoke constantly with scorn of those bourgeois who presumed to govern the state ; he surrounded himself with vain and presumptuous young lords, who reproduced in an extreme degree the defects of their chief and were called in consequence the petit maitres (little masters). Mazarin had little difficulty in uniting all the people against him; and had him arrested in the Louvre, with his brother Conti and his brother-in-law Lon- gueville (January, 1650). The populace rejoiced; the old democratic leaven of the great city began to ferment. " Let us recognize the fact," said a pamphlet of the time, " that the great are great only because we carry them on our shoulders." Union of the Two Frondes; Exile of Mazarin (January, 1651). — Insurrections broke out in some of the provinces, but were quickly repressed. But Mazarin had promised the cardinal's hat to the coadjutor, in order to attach him to the 412 MINORITY OF LOUIS XIV. interests of the queen ; after the affair was over he forgot his promise. The coadjutor entered into alliance with the party of Cond6, revived the dissatisfactions of Parlia- ment, and stirred up the people ; and the two Frondes, for the time united under his influence, obliged Anne of Austria to deliver up the princes and to send her prime minister out of the kingdom. Mazarin retired to Cologne, and in his exile continued to govern the queen of France (Februarj'', 1651). De Retz had finally obtained the hat ; but the union of the two Frondes was of short duration. Revolt of Conde; Battle of B16neau (April, 1652).— Conde was dissatisfied with everything ; with the Par- liament, with Paris, and with the court. He had fancied that the queen would grant him the entire control of affairs as a compensation for his thirteen months of captivity, and yet Mazarin was governing from his place of exile. Irritated by the isolation to which he was abandoned, he undertook more criminal designs. He set out for the south, resolved to acquire supreme power by force of arms. While he was urging Guienne to insurrection and treating with Spain, his friends were preparing for war in the heart of France. Mazarin at once returned to France (December, 1651), and gave the command of the troops to the viscount of Turenne, reattached to the royal cause. The marshal advanced to the Loire. Conde most unexpectedly appeared and attacked him ; but Turenne, with only four thousand men against twelve thousand, prevented the enemy from following up their advantage. Battle of the Faubourg Saint Antoine (July, 1652). — Which side would Paris take ? The armies advanced to demand an answer from the Parisians themselves ; they refused to allow either of the parties then facing each other in the Faubourg Saint Antoine to enter Paris. The battle was bloody and for a long time undecided. The Duke of Orleans, the cardinal De Retz, the Parliament, the queen,' were awaiting the result. Cond6 fought like a soldier. But the army of the Fronde, threatened on its flanks, was about to be surrounded and destroyed, when Mademoiselle, the daughter of Gaston of Orleans, caused the gates to be opened to Cond6, and turned the cannon of the Bastile upon the royal troops. Turenne withdrew in astonishment. Cond6 soon left the city and retired to the Spaniards in Flanders. A large number of nobles followed him thither, taking with them almost an army. ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN. 413 Return of Mazarin (February, 1653). — This emigration was fatal to those that took part in it. It accelerated the movement of public opinion, which had turned in the direction of the king ; Mazarin, in order to present no ob- stacle to it, withdrew a second time. Then the Parliament and the citizens implored the queen-mother to return to the now peaceful capital. Ten magistrates were deprived of their offices or imprisoned; the cardinal De Retz was shut up in Vincennes, the prince of Conde condemned to death in default of appearance, and Gaston exiled to Blois. Three months after, Mazarin returned in full power (Feb- ruary, 1653). This was the end of the Fronde. But these events left an ineffaceable impression on the mind of Louis XIV. The remembrance of them contributed to develop in him the most absolute ideas of govern- ment. Upon returning to Paris, he authorized the regis- tration (October, 1652) of a declaration "very expressly forbidding the members of Parliament thenceforth to take any part in the general affairs of State, and in the direction of finances." Two more very heavy blows were dealt against Parliament : a statute providing that the decrees of the council of State should be obligatory upon the " sov- ereign courts," and the re-establishment (1655) of intend- ants in the provinces. And thus the revolution attempted by the parliamentary aristocracy miscarried. Victories of Turenne at Arras and at the Dunes ; Alliance of France with Cromwell. — The war of the Fronde was ended. It remained to finish the war with Spain, which during these disturbances had recaptured Dvxnkirk, and Casale in Italy. Cond^ put at the service of the same enemy the sword which had once been so fatal to them ; but he seemed to have lost his strength on leaving France. He went first with the Archduke Leopold to besiege Arras. Turenne attacked them in their camp and forced their lines. Cond6 could do nothing but retreat in good order. The years 1655 and 1656 were occupied in besieging places on the frontier, and in skilful manoeuvres on the part of Turenne and Cond6 ; but with the small army they had under their control they could strike no decisive blows. Mazarin had no more royalist scruples than Richelieu had had of religious scruples. His predecessor had formed an alliance with the Protestants against Austria; he formed an alliance with Cromwell (1657) against Spain. Hence- 414 MINOBITY OF LOUIS XIV. f ortli Spain experienced only reverses. While the English were seizing upon Jamaica, and burning the galleys of. Cadiz, Dunkirk, the key of Flanders, was besieged by land and sea. The Spaniards advanced along the dunes which bordered the sea, in order to assist them. Turenne gained a complete victory over them (June, 1658) : Dunkirk, which he acquired by it, was restored to the English. Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) ; League of the Rhine (1658). — The cabinet of Madrid had no more armies ; it asked for peace. Negotiations were conducted by the two ministers, Mazarin and Don Luis de Haro, who met on an island in the Bidassoa, at the frontier of the two countries. The result was the treaty of the Pyrenees (1659). France re- tained Artois, Cerdaiia, Eoussillon, and Lorraine ; the prince of Cond6 was re-established in his principal offices; and finally Louis XIV. married the infanta Maria Theresa, who was to bring him a dowry of three hundred thousand gold crowns, in consideration of which the princess renounced all pretension to the throne of her father. Mazarin arranged it so that the renunciation should be legally null ; he ex- pressly made it dependent upon the exact payment of the dowry, which he knew the Spaniards would never be able to pay. Thus he paved the way for the future claims of the house of Bourbon. By this same treaty Mazarin abandoned Portugal, which, having no longer the support of France, sought that of England. In 1658 Mazarin concluded the league of the Rhine, by which the three ecclesiastical electors, the Duke of Bavaria, the princes of Brunswick and Hesse, the kings of Sweden and Denmark, formed an alliance with France for the maintenance of the treaties of Westphalia, and placed themselves after a fashion under his protection. Internal Administration of Mazarin. — However great as a diplomatist, Mazarin did not show himself a great minis- ter. His internal administration was deplorable. He neg- lected commerce and agriculture ; he allowed the navy to dwindle away, and managed the finances in such a way that at his death the public treasury owed 430,000,000, while his private fortune amounted to 100,000,000, which would be equivalent to three or four times as much at the present time. Mazarin was a very kind relative ; he prevented the marriage of one of his nieces to Louis XIV., but he placed them all in advantageous positions. His oldest sister lived ADMINISTRATION OF MAZARIN. 415 to see one of her daughters Princess of Conti ; the other, Duchess of Modena. The five daughters of his other sister were married to the Duke of Mercoeur, the Count of Soissons, the Roman constable Colonna, the Duke of Bouillon, and the Duke of La Meilleraye. France paid all of these dowries. His nephew was made Duke of Nivernais, and his brother, a poor monk buried in the seclusion of an Italian convent, was made archbishop of Aix and a cardinal. A few pensions to men of letters cannot be regarded as an offset to all this plunder, nor the expenses borne in es- tablishing a magnificent library (the Mazarin) which at a late time was opened to the public, nor the foundation of the college of the Four Nations. Mazarin had a very great love of the arts, though perhaps not the best taste in re- spect to them ; he brought from Italy a number of pictures, statues, and curiosities, even actors and machinists, who introduced the opera into France ; he formed, in 1655, the academy of painting and sculpture. He died at Vincennes, March 9th, 1661, at the age of fifty-nine, in despair at leav- ing his beautiful paintings, his statues, his books, affairs, and life ; and for all that " facing death becomingly." THIRTEENTH PERIOD. Teiumph of Absolute Monaechy (1661-1715). CHAPTER L. LOUIS XIV.— INTERNAL ORGANIZATIO N. — COLBERT ; LOUVOIS; VAUBAN. (1661-1683 A.D.) Division of the Reign of Louis XTV. — Charles V. used to say that fortune was no friend to old men. The greatest king of the Bourbon race had the same experience. Long reigns, indeed, often present two contradictory aspects ; one season of splendor and prosperity, another of downfall and misery, because few princes are sufficiently masters of them- selves to be able to modify their own ideas according to the changes in the needs of the people. The brilliant period of the reign of Louis XIV. extends from 1661 to 1683, from the death of Mazarin to the death of Colbert, and is filled with those stormy characters which the preceding years had produced : for example, in internal administration, Colbert ; in war, Turenne, Conde, Duquesne, and Louvois ; in letters, Moli^re, La Fontaine, Boileau, Racine,. Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Madame Sevigne ; in art, Lebrun, Claude Lorraine, Puget, Hardouin-Mansard, and Perrault. Then the king was successful in everything; permanent conquests were made, great works were accom- plished, splendid monuments erected. After 1683 Louis XIV., Avho was then advanced in life, became delicate : Louvois, who had no longer the useful coun- terpoise of Colbert, and Madame de Maintenon, ruled the monarch. Joy and happiness departed with his young LOUIS XIV. 417 years. The great men passed away and were replaced by a weaker race. Louis remained alone, the last of his genera- tion, and went to his grave, sad and conquered, leaving France without industry, without commerce, exhausted, and cursing the great reign which she had for twenty-five years greeted with enthusiastic acclamations. Louis XrV. assumes Sole Charg^e of the Government. — In 1661 Louis XIV. was twenty-three years old, and had reigned eighteen years without becoming known. Mazarin alone had understood him. He said, " There is stuff enough in him to make four kings and an honest man." Mazarin's correspondence attests the constant efforts made by the cardinal to prepare his pupil to take the direction of affairs. When the ministers came, after his death, to ask the king to whom they should report in the future, " To me," was his answer. He accepted all the cares of royalty ; he was, said La Bruy^re, his own prime minister, and demanded that the principal functionaries should correspond directly with him. For thirty years he worked regularly eight hours a day. He recommended his son, in truly eloquent words, not to forget " that it is necessary to reign by work- ing ; that it is ingratitude and insolence to God, and injus- tice and tyranny to men, to wish to do one without the other." Ideas of Louis XIV. on Government. — The young prince had already conceived the whole plan of his policy. Louis XIV. was the first to establish in France the theory of absolute monarchy. In his eyes royalty was a divine in- stitution ; sovereigns were the representatives of God upon earth, and on this account participated in his power and infallibility. Louis not only believed himself to be the master of his subjects ; he regarded himself, according to feudal ideas, as the proprietor of their estates — a monstrous doctrine which carries us back to the midst of the Oriental monarchies. Yet it seemed to him that this authority, to ' which he recognized no limits but those imposed by religion and his own conscience, ought never to remain inactive. He believed that kings had imperious duties to fulfil. " "We ought," said he, "to consider the welfare of our subjects rather than our own; we should make laws with a view solely to their advantage ; and the power we have over them should only make us work the more effectually for their happiness." 418 LOUIS XIV. » It was tlius that Louis XIV. conceived of tlie profession of king : let us see how he reigned. The Councils. — The upper council, into which the king called the secretaries of State and sometimes the princes of the blood, corresponded to the present council of ministers ; it had the general direction of policy and of important affairs ; it also decided appeals from the council of State. The council of State, or king's council, was the great administrative body of the kingdom. It met four times a week, under the presidency of the chancellor, each time to attend to affairs of a different nature. Por instance, the Monday council read and discussed reports addressed to ministers by the governors of provinces ; this was the council of despatches. On Wednesday the council of finances was held ; it deliberated upon new levies of taxes, made up the schedule of the taille, or real estate and personal tax. Friday was the day for the examination of complaints of private individuals or royal officers against the tax-farmers and the collectors, and for the adjudication of leases of taxa- tion. On Saturday the council of parties decided conflicts of jurisdiction between tribunals, and interpreted the royal ordi- nances. The councillors of State were eighteen in number. The Grand Council had control of all proceedings concern- ing bishoprics and benefices in the gift of the king ; it decided cases evoked from the sovereign courts, and contra- dictory decrees passed by different parliaments. Ministers. — The king's clerks became, in 1547, secretaries of State ; they were four in number ; each of them adminis- trated, not a certain class of affairs, but all the affairs of certain provinces : they divided France among themselves geographically. It was an impracticable form of organiza- tion. In 1619 one among them was put in charge of war matters ; in 1626 another received charge of foreign affairs ; and finally, under Louis XIV., the ministry of the king's household and of ecclesiastical affairs and that of marine affairs were instituted. The offices of chancellor, or keeper of the seals, the head of the magistracy, and that of comp- troller of the finances composed virtually two other minis- tries. The Ministers of Louis XIV. — The ministers that Mazarin had left him were Pierre Seguier, keeper of the seals and chancellor ; Michel le Tellier, secretary of war ; Hugues de Lionne, in charge of marine affairs until 1669, and of foreign LOUIS XIV. 419 affairs ; Nicolas Foucquet, superintendent of finances. The first two were distinguished men; the third was a man above the average ; the fourth, Foucquet, was a noble patron of letters, but he had brought, or rather continued, the finances in a condition of extreme disorder, and he helped himself without scruple from the treasury. He increased the inventories of expenses which were shown to the king, and diminished the lists of receipts ; and finally, what was more reprehensible, he seemed to be always trying to fortify his position to provide against the case of disgrace. But the king had a private minister who informed him every day of the superintendent's deceptions ; this was Jeah-Baptiste Colbert, born at Rheims in 1619, of an old family of mer- chants and magistrates, an intendant under Mazarin, who had recommended him to the king. At a magnificent festi- val which Foucquet gave in honor of the king, Louis was offended by the ostentatious device which he read in every thing, " Quo non ascendam ? " and by all the appointments of the entertainment, which were truly regal. A few weeks after, Foucquet was in the Bastile. He was accused of wasteful management, which was very just, and of a plot against the State which was never proved. At the en^ of three years nine judges pronounced him deserving of death, and thirteen of banishment. The king changed the sentence to perpetual imprisonment, and Foucquet was shut up in the fortress of Pinerolo, where he died after nineteen years of captivity. Colbert succeeded Foucquet, with the title of comptroller-general. In 1666 Michel le Tellier gave his office to his son, the celebrated Louvois : the principal min- istries of Louis XIV. were then filled up. Colbert. — Colbert did the work of about five of the pres- ent ministries ; that of the king's household, with the fine arts, that of finances, that of agriculture, including com- merce, that of public works, and after 1669, that of marine ; an overwhelming task, which, however, did not crush him. " Jean-Baptiste Colbert," says a contemporary, " had a stern countenance, but upon acquaintance he proved easy of access, expeditious, and perfectly reliable. He was of the opinion that good faith is the most solid foundation of affairs. Possessing a strong though heavy mind, adapted mainly for calculation, he cleared up all the confusion in which the superintendents and clerks of the treasury had involved affairs in order that they might fish in troubled waters." 420 LOUIS XIV. Reorganization of the Finances. — The finances had now fallen back into the chaos from which Sully had extricated them. The public debt was 430,000,000, the revenues were consumed two years in advance, and of the 84,000,000 of annual taxes, scarcely 35,000,000 went into the treasury. Colbert began by punishing the malversations committed for twenty-five years by the officers of finance. The farmers of the revenues, who had taken advantage of the needs of the State to lend to it at usurious rates, were made to dis- gorge : the fines amounted to 110,000,000. These measures suited the spirit of the times, but were not in accordance with wise policy ; the surest plan by which a state can secure itself against having to make disadvantageous terms in days of adversity is always to abide by its plighted word in days of prosperity. Colbert was the institutor of the budget. Until then money had been paid out indiscriminately, without having regard to the receipts of the treasury. He was the first to draw up each year a statement in which the probable revenues and expenses were estimated in advance. When a secretary of State had to make an expenditure of money, he signed a special order for the payment; the receiving party presented it to the comptroller-general, who assigned the payment of the sum to a special fund, and presented the assignment to the king for his signature. Colbert modified the form and assessment of taxes. The taille, or land-tax, was personal; that is, paid by all common- ers. He desired to make it real; that is, payable by the landed property, no matter who might be the owners. It amounted, in 1661, to 53,000,000 ; he reduced it to 32,000,000. In the midst of the troubles of the Fronde many persons had assumed titles of nobility or bought them. A royal ordinance revoked all patents of nobility granted during the past thirty years, and forty thousand wealthy families thus became again subject to taxation, which, of course, lightened the burdens of their neighbors. The comptroller-general very reasonably preferred the aides, or indirect taxes, to the taille, but he increased or created taxes on coifee, tobacco, wines, cards, lotteries, etc., and from 1,500,000 francs, in- creased them to 21,000,000. He did not approve of loans ; not that he did not appreci- ate the advantage of borrowing at a low rate in order to discharge burdensome debts, but he doubted the expediency LOUIS xir. 421 of giving Louis XIV. the opportunity to burden the future for the benefit of the present. The following is a summary of the financial administra- tion of Colbert : in 1661, out of 84,000,000 livres of taxes the treasurer had to pay 52,000,000 for annuities and salaries ; only 32,000,000 remained, and 60,000,000 were paid out; deficit, 28,000,000. In 1683, the year in which Colbert died, the taxes amounted to 112,000,000, in spite of a re- duction of 22,000,000 on the taille; salaries and annuities now required only 28,000,000 ; the net revenue of the treas- ury was 89,000,000. Thus, on the one hand, Colbert had in- creased the receipts by 28,000,000, diminished the annuities and salaries 29,000,000, which constituted an annual net saving to the State of 57,000,000 ; while on the other, he had relieved the common people of 22,000,000, by reducing the taille in the same proportion. The figures speak for themselves. Agriculture. — Sully had sacrificed industry to agricul- ture; Colbert did not sacrifice agriculture to industry, as has often been said. He relieved it of taxes which op- pressed it; he forbade again the seizure of animals and implements of labor in the collection of taxes due the State ; he encouraged the improvement of live-stock, and ordered the draining of marshes. But he made a mistake in being influenced by that popular prejudice which regarded free trade in grain as a promoter of scarcity. Colbert succeeded in reducing the price of wheat for manufacturers and sol- diers ; but the farmers, not finding it profitable, ceased in many districts to raise it at all. Industry. — Industry was still in its infancy ; the French imported almost everything. Colbert, coming as he did from the shop of a merchant of Eheims, determined that France should be able to furnish her own supplies. He organized the protective system, injurious to a matured industry, but indispensable to a growing one. This was, in his eyes, only a temporary measure, which would suffice to make it unnecessary for the kingdom to obtain any neces- sities from foreigners. Thanks to the fact that Colbert spared no expense in buy- ing or obtaining, by means fair or foul, the industrial secrets of neighboring nations, and attracting the most skilful work- men to France, the number of manufactures increased rap- idly. He sustained them by subsidies wisely distributed. 422 LOUIS XIV. He obtained from the Churcli the suppression of seventeen holidays. In order to increase the number of workers, he endeavored to reduce the number of monks, and to postpone tlie age wlien they should be permitted to take religious vows. The result was that in a short time the French cloths had no rivals in Europe ; tin, steel, porcelain, morocco leather, which had always been imported, were manufactured in France ; the linens and serges of Holland, the laces and velvets of Genoa, the carpets of Persia and Turkey, were not only imitated, but equalled ; the rich stufEs in which gold and silver were mingled with silk were fabricated at Tours and at Lyons ; finer glass was made at Tour-la- Ville and at Paris than at Venice ; the tapestries of Flanders were sur- passed by those of the Gobelins. It is worthy of remark that Colbert imprinted upon French industry the stamp which it has borne ever since. He seemed to have foreseen the position which France should occupy in the industrial world by employing keen intelli- gence and delicate taste in the manufacture of the most im- portant articles. It was under the influence of this foresight that the manufacture of the Gobelin tapestries was organ- ized, that it might be a model school where art and industry should join hands. Internal Commerce ; Public Works. — Colbert desired to have only one line of custom-houses, on the frontier, but each province was surrounded by them. He reduced their num- ber, however, and suppressed them in the case of twelve provinces. He encouraged the exportation of wines and brandies, and declared Dunkirk, Bayonne, and Marseilles free ports. He established bonded warehouses in the French ports, where, in case of re-exportation, duties already paid should be refunded, granted a free passage for foreign mer- chandise through all the provinces, repaired the high roads, which had become impassable, and constructed new ones. Finally, he projected the canal of Burgundy, ordered the construction of that of Orleans, and dug that of Languedoc, which united the Mediterranean Sea and the ocean. The port of Cette was built at one of its extremities ; Toulouse was at the other, and from Toulouse the Garonne formed an open road to Bordeaux and the ocean. This work, gigan- tic for that period, was commenced in 1664, and continued without interruption until 1681. Commerce, thus assisted, developed rapidly. In order to LOUIS XIV. A2'6 regulate and enligMen this new activity, Colbert re-estab- lished, in 1665, the council of commerce, instituted by Henry IV. Louis XIV. presided over it regularly every fortnight. Similar councils, established in the provinces, were "to assemble every year, and choose deputies who should present their requests to the minister." Maritime Commerce and Colonies. — Foreigners had en- grossed all the maritime commerce, even the coasting trade. Of twenty-five thousand ships in Europe, the Dutch had fifteen or sixteen thousand, and the French, at most, only five or six hundred. Foucquet had established anchorage- dues of fifty sous (six or seven francs) a ton on foreign ships, payable on entering and leaving French ports. Col- bert retained this duty, which was for the French marine almost what the navigation act has been for the English. He granted to national ships bounties on exportations and importations ; and encouraged the builders of ships intended for oceanic navigation, by other bounties, so that the merchant marine, stimulated and protected, developed rapidly. But the English and Dutch had still the advantage of the French in having a larger experience, assured markets for sales, markets of purchase which they had frequented for a century, and immense capital which enabled them to dare and risk more. Colbert, in order to compete with them, substituted privileged associations for the efforts of isolated individuals. He established five great companies on the model of the Dutch and English companies, — those of the East and West Indies, the oSTorth, the Levant, and Senegal, He granted them the exclusive monopoly of trade with these distant coasts, and also bounties, and made them consider- able advances. He tried to restore life to the colonial system, which had been much neglected since Richelieu's time. France pos- sessed only Canada with Acadia, Cayenne, the island of Bourbon, a few factories in Madagascar and the Indies. Colbert bought, for less than a million, Martinique, Guade- loupe, St. Lucia, and several other of the Lesser Antilles (1664) ; he placed the French buccaneers, who had seized upon the eastern part of St. Domingo, under the protection of France, sent new colonies to Cayenne, took Newfound- land, and commenced the occupation of the magnificent valley of the Mississippi, or Louisiana. In Africa, he took 424 LOUIS XIV. Goree from the Dutch, and took possession of the east shores of Madagascar. In Asia, the India Company estab- lished itself at Surat, at Chandernagore, and later at Pondi- cherry. And finally, in order to keep all the commerce of the colonies under the national flag, Colbert closed their ports to all foreign ships, while for the purpose of develop- ing agriculture he prohibited (in 1669) the importation into France of tobaccos and sugars from Brazil — an unfor- tunate measure, which had the effect of alienating Portugal and throwing her into the arms of England. Military Marine. — Colbert first repaired the few vessels that Mazarin had left in the ports of France ; then he bought some from Sweden and Holland, employed builders and rope- makers from Hamburg, Riga, and Danzig, and established dockyards at Dunkirk, Havre, and Eochefort. Henry IV. had discovered Toulon, and Richelieu Brest. Vauban sur- rounded the latter with formidable defences. He also con- structed, after the peace of Nymwegen, immense works at Toulon, which made this city one of the finest ports in the world. In order to increase the navy, Colbert instituted the maritime registration, which obliged the maritime popula- tion of the coasts to furnish, in return for certain privileges, the crews necessary for manning the vessels. This institu- tion was completed by the establishment of a system of pensions for sailors. In 1661 the fleet was composed of only thirty vessels ; in 1678 it numbered one hundred and twenty, and five years later ome hundred and seventy-six. In 1692 the king had one hundred and thirty -one ships, one hundred and thirty-three frigates, and one hundred and one other vessels. The administration of naval affairs was separated from the military command, with advantage to both services. The corps of marine guards, composed of a thousand gentlemen, was instituted for the purpose of training officers ; also a school for cannoneers, a school of hydrography, an upper naval council, and a council for naval constructions. The Fine Arts. — Colbert, it is true, had reformed the finances, commerce, and navigation, but he surrounded them with such minute regulations that the initiative of individu- als was too often supplanted by that of the government ; he endeavored also to regulate thought, and place the moral life of France as he had placed its material life, and as LOUIS XIV. 425 Riclielieu had placed its political life, — in the hands of the king. He instituted, in 1663, the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres ; in 1666, the Academy of Sciences. The Academy of Music was organized in 1669, and that of Archi- tecture in 1671. A school of Fine Arts, established at Eome (1667), received the pupils who had taken the prizes at the Academy of Painting in Paris. More than ten thousand volumes and a large number of precious manu- scripts were added to the Royal library ; the Mazarin library was opened to the public ; the Jardin des Plantes enlarged ; the foundation of provincial academies encouraged. Corneille, Eacine, Boileau, Moli^re, and twenty others received pensions ; even foreigners shared the king's gener- osity. It must be said, however, that the literary budget was never very burdensome. In the year when pensions reached the highest figure the total expenditure did not exceed one hundred thousand livres. Louvois ; Reform of the Army. — The attempt of Francis I. to create a French infantry in the form of provincial legions had not succeeded. In 1558 Henry II. had reorganized these legions, which he divided into regiments and com- panies. The four oldest regiments, those of Picardy, Cham- pagne, Kavarre, and Piedmont, had the first rank in the army. Under Louis XIII. regiments were divided into battalions. They were recruited by voluntary enlistment, which often brought in the dregs of the people, and com- missions were sold. The cavalry had been organized by Charles VII. ; it was composed of nobles. Louis XII. added to this heavy cavalry a lighter cavalry, which foreigners joined, and in 1558 the dragoons were organized. The light- horse date from Henry IV. ; the musketry and riflemen, from Louis XIII. The cavalry also was divided into regiments, squadrons, and companies. The artillery was numerous, but had no especial corps to manage and defend it ; the same was the case with the engineers. All these arms awaited the advent of the great administrator to whom Louis XIV. confided the portfolio of war in 1666. Colbert had organized peace ; Louvois, " the greatest and most brutal of clerks," organized war. Francois-Michel le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois, born in 1641, entered the office of his father, the secretary of State, and was initiated by a long apprenticeship into the science of military administra- tion, to which he brought an activity equal to that of Col- 426 LOUIS XIV. bert. When Louis XIV. decided to govern alone, Louvois became really minister of war, although he did not succeed le Tellier till 1666. He reformed the army, and his reforms lasted as long as the old monarchy. He preserved the system of voluntary enlistment ; he diminished the abuses and the danger of it. He established the use of iiniforms, instituted magazines of provisions and supplies, barracks, military hospitals, and the Hdtel des Invalides ; also the corps of engineers, the schools of artillery, the companies of grena- diers, the regiments of hussars, and companies of cadets. The army still felt the influence of feudal times. The soldier belonged less to the king than to his colonel ; the cavalry had too much prominence, and the nobility would serve nowhere else. With the reign of Louis XIV. the French infantry became, and it long remained, the best in the world. Louvois substituted the musket and bayonet for the pike as its characteristic arm. He revolutionized the army by establishing a fixed order of promotion and by organizing inspection. He did not abolish the sale of com- missions, which was operated for the sole benefit of the nobles ; biit a certain amount of service became a prerequi- site to advancement, and promotions, beginning with the rank of colonel, became dependent upon seniority. The nobility attacked Avith bitter hatred the minister who hum- bled " men born to command others." Louvois exacted, with inflexible firmness, that each man should do his duty ; to be sure of this, he instituted inspectors-general, who continu- ally upheld the king's authority and his own, and stern reproval was the lot of the negligent ofiicers. With such care, France was enabled to arm 125,000 men for the war in Flanders ; for the Avar Avith the Netherlands, 180,000 ; be- fore the treaty of Ryswyk, 300,000 ; during the wars of the Spanish succession, 450,000. Fortification of the Frontiers ; Vauban. — There Avas one subject, the only one perhaps, upon Avhich the minister of Avar and the minister of marine acted in concert : this was the fortification of the kingdom. For the accomplishment of this great Avork they engaged the man Avho, next to Colbert, is the greatest of this reign. Le Prestre de Vauban Avas a gentleman of A^ery small fortune, born near Saulieu, in Burgundy (1633). His father had died in the service. A prior of the neighborhood took him in and brought him up. He was just seA''enteen years old Avhen the disturbances LOUIS XIV. 427 of the Fronde were at their height. One morning Vauban ran off and joined the great Cond6; he fought well and studied better. The good prior had taught him some little geometry ; he continued the study, and those early lessons influenced his career. After joining the royal army he served under the most celebrated French engineer of his time. As early as 1663 he had gained such a reputation that Louis XIV. placed him in charge of the fortifications of Dunkirk. This first work of the young engineer was a masterpiece. From that time Vauban was the one man indispensably necessary to all generals when laying siege to cities. In time of war he captured cities, in time of peace he fortified them. It has been estimated that he worked upon three hundred existing fortresses, constructed thirty-three new ones, conducted fifty-three sieges, and took part in one hundred and forty active engagements. France was not deficient in natural frontiers save on the northeast, from the Ehine to Dunkirk. The barrier which nature had denied, was given to France by Vauban. Beside Dunkirk, he armed Lille, Metz, and Strassljurg Avith their then formidable fortresses. He constructed Mau- beuge, repaired Charlemont, and connected these two places with Philippeville, in order to cover Picardy. He closed the outlet of the Ardennes between the Meuse and the Moselle by Longwy. In the valley of the Moselle, the special route of invasion from Germany, he doubled the strength of Metz by constructing Thionville. He built Saarlouis between the Moselle and the Vosges, to cover Lorraine. Bitsch and Pfalzburg became the principal de- fences of the Vosges, Landau the bulwark of Alsace ; and this province, recently conquered, was firmly secured to France by several strong fortresses, and especially Strass- burg. Between the Vosges and the Jura he fortified Bel- fort. He added new works at Besangon and at Brian9on, and built Mont-Dauphin almost on the ridge of the Alps. The Pyrenees offered only two passes practicable to armies ; Vauban built Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and Mont-Louis to cover them. He visited the coasts several times and left everywhere traces of his presence. He erected fortifica- tions at Antibes and transformed Toulon. He reconstructed the walls of Eochelle on a new plan, built the fortress of the Isle of R^ and fortified Brest. His plans for Cherbourg and Havre were not carried out. Boulogne received some new works ; he constructed important ones at Calais. 42S LOUIS XIV. Vauban, who fortified, places, knew still better bow to capture tbem. He advanced slowly but surely ; be marched under cover of his lines, so that the troops were sufficiently within reach of each other for mutual support, never made outright attacks when they could, be dispensed, with, was sparing of the common soldiers, who had. formerly been sacrificed, with prodigality, and attained his end incompar- ably sooner. Ko fortress proved impregnable to him. The invention of the socket, which enables infantry to fire with the bayonet on the end of the gun, is also due to him. In his many journeys around the frontiers by land and sea Vauban had an eye to commercial as well as to mili- tary situations ; he multiplied military plans, but was not neglectful of those which would encourage agriculture and peaceful industry. He marked out havens, canals to be dug, piers and dams to be constructed; he pointed out methods of improving the navigation of the streams and rivers. Colbert himself possessed no higher degree of love for the public welfare than did this great citizen. Legislative Reforms. — In 1665 Colbert proposed to re- construct the whole legislation of Prance ; he demanded at the outset that justice should be free, that the sale of offices should be abolished, that the number of monks should be diminished, and the useful professions encouraged. A commission was appointed, composed of councillors of State and '.' masters of requests." When the Avork was completed they discussed it with prominent members of Parliament, in the presence of ministers, and under the presidency of" Chancellor Seguier, and sometimes under that of the king. Six codes were the result of these deliberations ; in 1667 the civil ordinance, or Code Louis, which abolished some unjust forms of judicial procedure which had come down from the Middle Ages, and abridged others ; in 1669, that of waters and forests, the principal provisions of which are still in force ; in 1670, the ordinance of criminal instruction, which limited the application of torture and various cases of provisory imprisonment, dictated uniform rules for all courts, but permitted neither counsel nor defence for the accused in capital cases, and retained the atrocious severity of penalties ; in 1673, the ordinance of commerce, a really glorious achievement of Colbert ; in 1681, that of the marine and colonies ; in 1685, the hlack code, which regulated the condition of ' the negroes in the French colonies. These or- LOUIS XIV. 429 dinances are the greatest work of codification which was executed from Justinian's time to Napoleon's. A portion of them are still in force ; the ordinance of the marine com- poses almost all the second book of the present French code of commerce. De Lionne ; Foreign and Diplomatic Affairs. — If Colbert and Louvois assisted Louis XIV. to make successful warfare by the re-establishment of finances, the creation of a marine, and the reformation of the army, Lionne, secretary of State, also paved the way to success by his negotiations. Moreover, the king paid close attention to this department ; he himself wrote the first despatches to the ambassadors, frequently made rough draughts of the most important letters, and always read the instructions sent out in his name. When Lionne died, in 1671, the king appointed, as his successor, the Marquis of Pomponne, who had managed successfully several embassies. Pomponne directed all the negotiations which brought about the peace of Nymwegen ; but Louis found him far inferior to Lionne. Centralization. — Some of the ministers of Louis XIV., and particularly Colbert and Louvois, were certainly great administrators, but they were not and never could be great statesmen. Colbert himself only endeavored to make France richer, in order to make the king more powerful. All of them labored to build up that excessive centralization which enveloped the whole country, its industry, its commerce, its body and soul, with a thousand bonds of minute regulations, so that the initiative of the ministers constantly took the place of the free action of individuals and communities. The result of this system was that France lived less by her own life than by that of the government. When age and sickness should weaken the hand which was felt every- where, everything would decline. But for the present, at any rate, and for twenty years yet, this government, which constituted itself the universal guardian, was to give the people security, glory, and prosperity, in compensation for the liberty of which it deprived them. 430 LOUIS XIV. CHAPTER LI. LOUIS XIV. — EXTERNAL HISTORY AND CONQUESTS FROM 1661-1679. State of Europe in 1661. — Louis XIV. had skilful minis- ters, the most united and best situated kingdom in Europe, an authority which never experienced any opposition, finan- ces which Colbert had put in good order, an army which Louvois had organized under the best generals, and behind this army a brave nation of twenty millions of souls. Meanwhile Spain was approaching that utter decay towards which the inordinate ambition of Philip II. had hastened her: Philip IV. (1621-1665) had lost Catalonia and the kingdom of Naples for several years ; Artois, Cerdana, Roussillon, and Portugal, forever. Germany was chaos itself. Austria, governed by a prince of inferior ability, Leopold I. (1657-1705), was without influence in the Em- pire, and had enough to do to defend herself against the Turks. Italy no longer counted for anything. Sweden was exhausted by her heroic eiforts under the great Gustavus. The English had just re-established the dynasty of the Stuarts (1660), which by its opposition to the national sentiment was for a quarter of a century to neutralize their influence and hinder their prosperity. Finally, though the Netherlands were rich and their navy powerful, they Avere without territory, and consequently without lasting strength. Louis XIV., as he contemplated Europe when he determined to take the government into his own hands, saw there neither king nor people who could equal him and France ; and the first acts of his foreign policy revealed a sense of his own dignity, even a haughtiness which is aston- ishing, but which was justified by success. First Acts of the Foreign Policy of Louis XIV. — His am- bassador at London was insulted by the followers of the Spanish ambassador in a question of precedence. Hearing of this, the king recalled his envoy at Madrid, sent home the Spanish envoy, and threatened his father-in-law with war LOUIS XIV. 431 if he did not make most satisfactory amends. PMlip IV. agreed (1662), and the Count of Fuentes declared in his name, at Fontaineblean, in the presence of the court and the foreign ambassadors, " that the Spanish ministers should not henceforth contend for precedence with those of France." Pope Alexander VII. was forced to undergo a similar humiliation. Portugal was feebly defending her independ- ence against the Spaniards ; Louis helped to seat the house of Braganza upon the throne (1665). The Barbary pirates infested the Mediterranean; the king constituted himself protector of all the nations bordering on the sea or navi- gating it. His admiral, the Duke of Beaufort, gave chase to the pirates with fifteen ships, set fire to their dens in Algiers and Tunis, and forced these barbarians to respect the name of France and the commerce of Christian nations (1665). The new king of England, Charles II., sold Dun- kirk to Louis for five millions (1662) : it was immediately surrounded by strong fortifications, and became an object of regret and terror to the English. At the same time he concluded an alliance with the States-General in order to secure in advance their neutrality toward his projects against Spain. War having broken out, in 1665, between the Dutch and the English, Louis joined the former, but was careful not to engage many of his ships. By the treaty of Breda he restored three West India islands to the Eng- lish in exchange for Acadia (1667). Louis aided the emperor against the Turks, and the Venetians in the defence of Candia. This assistance lent to the enemies of the Turks was a deviation from the an- cient policy of France. Louis would soon also renounce the other parts of its policy, the alliance with the Prot- estant States. He was to undertake to play the part of Charles V. and Philip II., — that of armed chief of Cathol- icism and absolute monarch. He was to aim, as they did, at preponderance in Europe, and this ambition was to be the misfortune of France as it had already been of Spain. "War in Flanders (1667) ; Right of Devolution. — The death of the king of Spain in 1665 was the occasion of the first war of Louis XIV. Philip IV. left only one son, four years old, the child of his second wife. The infanta Maria Theresa, who had been for six years queen of France, was born of a former marriage. It was the custom in the Netherlands that the paternal heritage should devolve upon the children 432 LOUIS XIV. of the first marriage, to the exclusion of the second. Louis XIV. accordingly claimed these provinces in the name of his wife. The court of Spain maintained that this right of devolution was a civil custom which could not be applied to the transmission of states ; and that moreover the infanta, on marrying, had renounced all right to the monarchy of her father. The French ministry replied that the renunciations were null because Maria Theresa was a minor at the time, and because her dower had not been paid. But the king of France counted much more on his arms than on his reasons. The Southern Netherlands, the natural continuation of the French territory and the French idiom, had no aversion to a union with France. ■ " Spain lacked a navy, an army, and money. She had no longer any commerce ; her manufactures of Seville and Segovia had greatly declined; agriculture was destroyed; the population which had amounted to twenty millions under Arab rule, was now reduced to six millions " (Mignet). In order to deprive her of all help from outside, Louis XIV. made sure of the neutrality of England and the United Provinces, obtained from the German princes of the League of the Rhine a promise to furnish him troops, and even won over the emperor. It was a military promenade rather than an invasion. The king entered Flanders with fifty thousand men and Turenne (1667). Town after town fell, only Lille making any serious resistance. In three months the entire province was sub- jugated. At the approach of winter a truce was proposed to the Spaniards : the governor of the Netherlands, Castel- Rodrigo, haughtily refused it. This fit of pride was pun- ished by additional loss of territory. Preparations having been made with the utmost secrecy, suddenly ten thousand men collected by twenty different routes assembled the same day in Franche-Comt6, a few leagues from Besan9on, and the great Cond6 appeared at their head. In three weeks Franche-Comt6 was subjugated. These rapid successes disturbed the neighboring states, especially the Netherlands ; they concluded with England and Sweden the Triple Alliance, which offered its media- tion to France, and imposed it upon Spain. Turenne and Cond^ desired that no attention should be paid to it, and promised the conquest of the Netherlands before the end of the campaign. They were right, for none of the three medi- LOUIS XIV. 433 atorial powers were ready for the war. But this time Louis XIV. was not bold enough. The king of Spain seemed about to die, and had no heir. Louis thought it was useless to fight for a few cities when he was going to obtain an empire, and signed the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), which took from him Franche-Comt6 and left him only his conquests in Flanders. Causes of War with Holland. — Louis XIV. did not for- give the Dutch for this interference in his affairs. He had been shocked by the republican liberty of their ambassador. Van Beuningen, schepen of Amsterdam, in the conferences of Aix-la-Chapelle. He complained also of the insolence of their journalists, and particularly of the insulting medals which had been struck off after the peace. But however absolute a king may be, he does not set Europe on fire for such trifles. What historians have called a war of medals, that is, of personal resentment, was also a war of tariffs. Louis XIV. doubtless was not fond of those proud republicans ; but Colbert detested them as commer- cial rivals of the French. The Dutch, attacked by tariffs, defended themselves by additional duties on French wines, brandies, and manufactures (1668). Louvois, for his part, considered that "the true method of succeeding in the con- quest of the Spanish Netherlands was to humiliate the Dutch." Thus it happened that the minister of finance was not opposed to the plans of the minister of war, and the king himself was influenced by his resentments to accept them. Yet it was an impolitic war, which overthrew the whole system of alliances with the Protestant states estab- lished by Henry IV. and Eichelieu. But Louis XIV. was much more the successor of Philip II. than the heir of the B^arnais. Alliances formed against Holland. — Louis first under- took to dissolve the Triple Alliance. It was not difficult to detach Sweden, the ancient ally of France, by an annual subsidy. England would have hesitated longer if she had been consulted, but Louis XIV. made his application to the king. Charles II., entertaining ideas of absolutism, wished to govern without the assistance of Parliament, and in order to obtain the money he needed, allowed himself to be pen- sioned by France. Henrietta, sister of Charles II. and wife of Philip of Orleans, went to Dover, under pretext of visiting her brother, and induced him to unite with Louis 434 LOUIS XIV. XIV. against the United Provinces (1670). At the same time De Lionne renewed tlie treaties with the emperor and the princes of the League of the Rhine, who promised their neutrality or their co-operation. This diplomatic campaign was terminated in 1671. In the following spring hostilities broke out. Thirty ships joined the English fleet of sixty. Ninety thousand men Avere assembled along the line from Sedan to Charleroi ; the German princes furnished about twenty thousand more. The king led this magnificent army in person; Cond^, Tureune, and Luxembourg, commanded under him ; Vauban was to take the cities. What could the Netherlands oppose to such an enemy ? They had a formidable navy ; admirals who had been, up to that time, regarded as the greatest of the age, — Van Tromp and De Ruyter ; rich colonies ; an immense commerce ; but they could count upon scarcely twenty-five thousand militiamen, badly equipped and with- out discipline, and upon the men promised them by the elector of Brandenburg. They were, moreover, weakened by internal divisions ; there were two parties : one, directed by John de Witt, grand pensioner of Holland, was entirely devoted to the cause of aristocratic liberty ; the other de- sired to reinstate the young Prince of Orange in the official position held by his ancestors, and, taking advantage of the present danger, caused him to be appointed captain-general at the age of twenty-two years. Invasion of the Netherlands (1672). — Meantime Louis XIV. was advancing along the Meuse, in the territories of the bishop of Li^ge, his ally, then along the right bank of the Rhine from Wesel to ToU-Huj^s. There some of the country people informed the Prince of Cond^ that the drought of the season had rendered the river fordable. The approach was easy, and only four or five hundred cavalry and two small regiments of infantry without cannon were to be seen on the other shore. The king and his great army therefore crossed almost unopposed and without the slightest difficulty. Such was King Louis's passage of the Rhine, celebrated as if it had been one of the greatest events that had occurred within the memory of man. The Rhine crossed, the Netherlands were open to inva- sion. The provinces of Overyssel, Gelderland, and Utrecht submitted without attempting to defend themselves ; there was scarcely an hour in the day that the king did not receive LOUIS XIY. 435 news of some conquest. The generals proposed to march, without delay upon Amsterdam. Louis preferred first to garrison the towns ; the army was consequently weakened and its operations retarded. Then the Dutch took courage, and placing all power in the hands of one man, elevated William of Orange to the stadtholderate. At the same time the infuriated populace tore into pieces the illus- trious leaders of the republican party, John and Cornelius de Witt. First Coalition against France (1673) . — The Prince of Orange at once gave a new turn to affairs ; he cut the dykes around Amsterdam and forced the French to retire before the flood. He sent ambassadors to all the courts of Europe to stir them up against France ; he treated with Spain, with the Duke of Lorraine, and with the emperor. Several princes of the League of the Rhine deserted. The result was the Grand Alliance of the Hague, the first of the great coalitions against France. Campaign of 1673; Capture of Maastricht. — But while the alliance was making its preparations Louis invested Maastricht, and Vauban took it for him. Marshal Luxem- bourg held the Dutch in check ; Turenne, who the preceding winter had driven the elector of Brandenburg as far as the Elbe, stopped the imperial forces, and the navy, aided by England, fought four battles against De Ruyter. In the last months of the year the imperial forces gathered in greater numbers, effected a junction with the Prince of Orange, captured Bonn, and quartered themselves in the electorate of Cologne. Conquest of Franche-Comte (1674). — The war was becom- ing European. Louis XIV. changed its plan. He aban- doned the Netherlands, turned all his forces against Spain, and advanced upon Franche-Comte. This second conquest was almost as rapid as the first ; Besangon was taken in nine days, and the whole province in six weeks : it has remained ever since in the possession of France. Turenne saves Alsace (1674-1675). — The allies medi- tated, for this year, a formidable double invasion of France, by way of Lorraine and th'e Netherlands. Turenne was to prevent the one attack ; Conde, the other. Turenne took the offensive ; he passed the Rhine at Philippsbvirg, with twenty thousand men, burned the Palatinate, gained a number of small battles (July, 1674), in which he exhibited tactical 436 LOUIS XIV. resources hitherto unknown. But his military science could not always compensate for the want of numbers. Strass- burg, violating its neutrality, allowed seventy thousand Germans to pass into Alsace. It was believed at court that the province was lost, and Louvois ordered the marshal to retire into Lorraine. But Turenne appealed to the king for liberty of action. He remained in Alsace as long as he thought proper, annoyed the enemy incessantly, and, winter coming on, repassed the Vosges as if to take up his quarters in Lorraine. Suddenly, at the beginning of December, he broke up camp, traversed the whole length of the Vosges, and, after a march of twenty days over frightful roads, fell upon the imperial forces, who supposed that he was fifty leagues away : he defeated them at Miilhausen, at Colmar, at Tiirkheim, and drove them beyond the Rhine with great loss. This campaign, prepared with so much secrecy, exe- cuted with such far-seeing skill, and terminated in six weeks, excited enthusiasm throughout all France. Battle of Senef (1674). — While Turenne was victoriously driving back the invaders in the east, Cond^'was preventing ninety thousand Spaniards and Dutch from entering Cham- pagne. He had entrenched himself in a position which the Prince of Orange dared not attack. Then, following the lat- ter, he attacked his rear-guard at Senef, where a very obstinate and bloody battle was fought. The next day the two armies separated with a loss of seven or eight thousand men on each side. Cond^ forced the Prince of Orange to raise the siege of Oudenarde ; but Grave, the last remnant of the Prench conquests in the Netherlands, soon after opened its gates. Last Campaign of Turenne and Conde (1675). — In the spring Turenne again began operations in the Palatinate. The emperor sent Montecuccoli, who was considered a con- summate tactician, to oppose him. They occupied six weeks in following and watching each other. Finally they were about to give battle near Salzbach, when the marshal, while examining the position of a battery, was killed by a stray shot. His death was a public calamity. Louis XIV. had him interred at St. Denis, in the burial-place of kings. By Turenne's death all the fruits of a well-conducted cam- paign were lost ; the French, discouraged, fled towards the Rhine : Montecuccoli penetrated into Alsace. At the same time the Duke of Lorraine hastened to besiege Trier with LOUIS XIV. 437 twenty thousand men ; Cr^qui endeavored to aid him, but was beaten at Consarbriick, and forced to capitulate. After the death of Turenne, the Prince of Cond6 was sent into Alsace to stop the progress of Montecuccoli and reani- mate the courage of the troops. He compelled the imperial forces to raise the siege of Zabern and Hagenau, and to recross the Ehine. This was his last achievement ; he ceased to appear at the head of armies, and retired to Chan- tilly, where he lived among men of letters, philosophers even, till 1686. Campaign of 1676 ; Naval Victories ; Duquesne and D'Es- tr^es. — The following year the warfare of sieges, which Louis XIV. preferred, was renewed. Cond^ and Bouchain were captured; Maastricht, besieged by the Prince of Orange, was delivered; but the Germans recaptured Philippsburg. An unexpected triumph consoled France for these reverses and trifling victories. The inhabitants of Messina, being in revolt against Spain, had placed themselves under the pro- tection of Louis XIV. (1675) : he sent them a fleet with Duquesne as second in command. This great sailor, born at Dieppe in 1610, had first been owner and captain of a privateer; in the royal navy he passed through all the grades and became lieutenant-general, but could go no higher because of being a Protestant. On the coasts of Sicily he had, as opponents, De Euyter and the Spaniards. A first battle, near the island of Stromboli, was indecisive (1676) ; a second, off Syracuse, resulted in a complete victory, and De Ruyter was killed. After crushing the enemy's fleet in a final encounter at Palermo, Prance had for some time the empire of the Mediterranean (1676). In that same year D'Estr^es recaptured Cayenne and destroyed in the port of Tobago a squadron of ten of the enemy's vessels. In 1678 he captured the island itself and all the Dutch factories in Senegal. The Prench flag was supreme on the Atlantic as well as on the Mediterranean. Campaign of 1677; Cr6qui and Luxembourg; Battle of Cassel. — Crequi had succeeded to Turenne in Germany and Luxembourg to Cond6 in the Netherlands. The first con- ducted a campaign worthy of Turenne. By a succession of skilful marches he protected Lorraine and Alsace against an adversary superior in numbers, and took Freiburg, thus transferring the war to the right bank of the Ehine. The second, with the king's assistance, took Valenciennes, then 438 LOUIS XIV. Cambrai, and, with Monsieur, gained the victory of Cassel over the Prince of Orange. Ghent opened her gates the following year. Defection of England (1678). — An unforeseen event decided Louis to make peace. The English viewed with anxiety the progress of his influence on the continent, and particularly the development of his navy ; they were mur- muring against their own king, bound by alliance to this formidable neighbor ; the national opposition became every day more active in Parliament. After 1674 Charles II. had ceased to act against the Dutch ; in 1678 he was forced to unite with them, to consent to the marriage of his niece Mary with the stadtholder, and to declare himself against France. .Treaty of Nymwegen (1678) ; General Pacification (1679). — Thereupon Louis XIV. made proposals of peace to the United. Provinces. The Prince of Orange tried to break up the negotiations by surprising, at St. Denis, Marshal Lux- embourg, who was confiding in an armistice ; but he was re- pulsed after i desperate engagement of six hours. The Netherlands, England, Spain, and the emperor negotiated with Louis at Nymwegen, the elector of Branden- burg at Saint-Germain, the king of Denmark at Fontaine- bleau (August, 1678-September, 1679). Again it was Spain which paid the costs of the war ; she abandoned Franche- Comt^, and, in the Netherlands, gave up the last two cities of Artois, with twelve other places, — Valenciennes, Cambrai, etc., — which Vauban immediately covered with fortifications so as to make them a barrier for France. But deviating from the commercial policy of Colbert, France conceded to the Dutch the abolition of the tariff of 1667, much to the injury of the merchant marine, as well as of French industries. The treaty of Nymwegen marks the zenith of the reign of Louis XIV. ; only a short time after, the magistrates of Paris conferred upon him the title of the Great. But suc- cessful as this war had been, it was nevertheless the origin of the misfortunes of the latter part of the reign ; for it had accustomed Europe to league together against France, and had pointed out the man whom she should take for chief of her councils, and the country which should be the mainstay of resistance. The war with the Netherlands prepared the future greatness of William III. and England. If Louis LOUIS XIV. i;^^ XIV, had continued the ally ot tlie Dutch, a great navy- would have been united to that of France, to contend with the English for the control of the ocean. When, on the contrary, the United Provinces had joined forces with Great Britain, France had, instead of an adversary within reach, an enemy with whom she could never quite grapple. 440 LOUIS XIV. CHAPTER LII. THE LAST PART OF THE REIGN OP LOUIS XIV. (1679-1715 A.D.) Conquests of Louis XIV. in Time of Peace; Reunion of Strassburg to France. — After the treaty of ISTymwegen the nations disbanded their troops. Louis retained his, and made the peace a time of conquest. The last treaties had delivered over to him a certain number of cities and can- tons, witJi their dependencies. In order to find out what these dependencies were, he established at Tournai, Metz, Breisach, and Besangon commissions called chambers of re- union, because appointed for the purpose of reuniting to Prance lands claimed as having been cut off from the cities of Flanders, from the Trois-Eveches, Alsace, and Franche- Comt^. Decisions sustained by force gave Louis XIV. twenty important cities, Saarbrticken, Zweibriicken, Luxem- burg, and Strassburg, which Vauban made the bulwark of the kingdom on the Khine (1681). In Italy, Louis bought Casale from the Duke of Mantua, in order to control the northern part of the Peninsula. Bombardment of Algiers and Genoa. — The Barbary pi- rates had recommenced their attacks. Old Duquesne was sent against them. Algiers was bombarded twice (1681- 1683), destroyed in part, and obliged to give up her prison- ers. Tunis and Tripoli experienced the same fate; the Mediterranean was for a time freed from privateers. The Genoese had sold arms and ammunition to the Algerines, and were building four ships of war for Spain. Louis for- bade their arming these galleys ; on their refusing, Duquesne and Seignelay bombarded the city (1684). The doge was obliged to come to Versailles to ask pardon of the king, in spite of an ancient law which ordered that the chief magis- trate should never leave the city. The Pope, even, was again humiliated. The Catholic am- bassadors at Rome had extended the right of asylum, claimed for their hdtels, to the whole quarter in which they lived. 1 Haguel Cl"^*" LA FRANCE A LA MORT DE LOUIS XIV 1715 ^1 Renvois Di Duche I M....Marquisat C." Comte I V'.».....Vicomte B'."...Baionnie %w ®C'apItale lie Uuuvcraniot i Archeveche- , ,'^^4^''"'''\'?/^> '^^ Llmite de Front iere ^- ■■^~t^>;Meri^^ '< /> limite de Gouvernemi Militaire - i T.^^'^^y^gi .Limitt de Domaine Feodal tVlielle 5 10 Mjrlametres LOUIS XIV. 441 innocent XI. endeavored to put an end to this abuse, which made one-half of the city a refuge for criminals ; but Louis XIV. sent troops to maintain his ambassador in the posses- sion of an unjust privilege ; the Pope excommunicated the ambassador; the king seized Avignon (1687). This affair was not without its influence on the war of 1688; The French candidate for the archiepiscopal chair at Cologne, the cardinal of Fiirstenberg, had been elected by the major- ity of the chapter. Innocent XI. nevertheless gave the in- vestiture to his competitor, Clement of Bavaria. Louis protested against this nomination and sent troops to occupy Bonn, ISTeuss, and Kaiserswerth (October, 1688). At the same time he claimed a part of the Palatinate in the name of his sister-in-law, the second wife of the Duke of Orleans. League of Augsburg (1686). — These conquests, made in time of peace, these outrages, and the overbearing conduct of Louis aroused the fears of Europe. In 1681 the empire, the emperor Leopold, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Sweden, had concluded, under the influence of William of Orange, a secret alliance for the maintenance of the peace of Nymwegen. Seeing that the ambition of Louis XIV. knew no bounds, they allied themselves more closely, and signed the League of Augsburg (1688) : Savoy acceded to it in the following year ; England, in 1689. Internal Condition of France; Death of Colbert (1683). — What was the situation of Erance at this critical moment ? A sort of fatigue began to be felt in that society, still so brilliant and apparently so prosperous. The enormous expenses of the late war, the great cost of the maintenance of an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men in time of peace, the constructions, whether for luxury or for utility, had destroyed the equilibrium of the finances, forced an increase of taxation, and dealt a great blow at agriculture and commerce. The frightful miseries of 1662 reappeared. In vain Colbert preached economy ; the abyss of the deficit continued to enlarge. Colbert exhausted his ingenuity in finding means to fill it up. He groaned at having to put back the finances into the condition in which he had found them, and to see foreign competition once more crush out Erench commerce and industry. He was overcome by these troubles, and died in 1683, at the age of sixty years, worn out by excessive labors, and killed, perhaps, by the unjust reproaches of the king. Colbert, like some other great 442 LOUIS XIV. French ministers, was unpopular. The people cursed the man who wrote out edicts for extraordinary taxation, not the man who dictated them. It was found necessary to bury at night, under guard, one of the benefactors of France, in order to prevent his funeral procession from being in- sulted by the populace. After his death, his ministry was divided : the Marquis of Seignelay, his son, had the depart- ment of marine ; the fuiances were assigned to Le Pelletier, and afterwards to Pontchartrain. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). — It was two years after the death of Colbert that Louis XIV. committed the greatest mistake of his reign, by revoking the edict of Nantes. The Protestants had not stirred during the dis- turbances of the Fronde. Yet vexatious measures against them were multiplied. Louis hated them for their heresy, and because he suspected that they had little liking for absolute monarchy. Religious unity seemed to him as necessary as political unity. For a long time he refrained from persecuting them, but took care to construe their rights with the most narrow strictness. Colbert did better ; he protected the Protestants as useful and industrious sub- jects. He employed many of them in the arts, in manu- factures, and in the naval service. Duquesne, the great admiral, and Van Robais, the great manufacturer of Abbe- ville, were Protestants. After the treaty of Nymwegen the different influences which were brought to beur upon Louis XIV., then growing old, drove the government to harsh measures. The king had, at that time, sharp contests with the Holy See, on the subject of the regale, and had induced the clergy of France to take his part by the celebrated declaration of 1682, which Bossuet drew up. But he did not wish that his religious zeal should be doubted, and in order to give a strong proof of it, which should, at the same time, be of use to himself, he yielded to the earnest persuasions of the Church with regard to the Protestants. The securities which the edict of Kantes had assured to them were taken away by the suppression of the naif-Protestant chambers in the parlia- ments of Toulouse, Grenoble, and Bordeaux, as were, also, all the liberties granted them by Richelieu and Mazarin: they were forbidden, successively, to act as notaries, solic- itors, advocates, experts, printers, booksellers, physicians, surgeons, or even apothecaries. Thus they were compelled. LOUIS XIV. 443 driyen as they were from all the public offices and liberal professions, to devote themselves to commerce and industry, which they monopolized almost entirely. Catholics were forbidden to embrace Calvinism, while the children of Prot- estants were allowed to renounce their religion at the age of seven years. Missions were multiplied in the provinces ; consciences were bought by payments of money. Louvois resorted to still more persuasive means. He quartered soldiers in the houses of the Calvinists. These missionarits in jackboots committed the greatest excesses. As the dra- goons were especially noted for acts of violence, these meas- ures were called the dragonnades. Finally, the last blow was struck ; on October 22, 1685, an edict revoked that of Nantes. It suppressed all the privileges granted by Henry IV. and Louis XIII. ; deprived Protestants of the public exercise of their worship, except in Alsace; ordered the ministers to leave the kingdom within a fortnight, and forbade the others to follow them, under pain of the galleys and confiscation of their property. Terrible consequences ensued ; the Protestants had no longer any civil rights, their marriages were regarded as null, their children as bastards. The property of all those who were proved heretics was confiscated, and a great number of ministers were executed. This disastrous and criminal measure was hailed with gratitude by a great part of the nation. Vauban, Saint Simon, Catinat, and a few superior minds alone compre- hended the evil which had been done to the country. Mad- ame de S6vign6 wrote in a letter : " Nothing could be finer ; no king ever did, or ever will do, anything so memorable." The old chancellor Le Tellier, then dying, rallied suffi- ciently upon signing the edict to cry out : Nunc dimitte ser- viim, Domine, quia viderunt ocidi mei sahdare tuum ! He did not see that he was sanctioning one of the greatest misfor- tunes of France. Two hundred and fifty or three hundred thousand Protestants crossed the frontier in the last years of the seventeenth century, in spite of the king's police, and carried to foreign lands the French arts, the secrets of French manufactures, and hatred of their king. Entire regiments of Calvinists were formed in the Netherlands, in England, and in Germany ; those who remained in the king- dom only awaited an opportunity to throw off the yoke. Marshal Schomberg left the country ; the aged Duquesne, 444 LOUIS XIV. vainly pressed by Louis XIV. to abjure, was permitted to die in Erance. There were, in 1685, a million Calvinists in France ; there are at the present day, fifteen or eighteen hundred thousand. And who can estimate the effect which this great persecu- tion had upon the sceptical philosophy of the eighteenth century ! At the moment, it caused the outburst of a ter- rible war against France, which inaugurated the period of reverses. The Revolution in England (1688). — The response of the Protestant powers to the revocation of the Edict was the English revolution, which, in 1688, drove James II. from the throne, and placed the Calvinist, William III., in his place. Twice did Louis XIV. make the fortune of his most formid- able adversary: in 1672, when by an unjust war he rendered William of Orange necessary to the Netherlands ; in 1688, when, by his close alliance with a king odious to his sub- jects, he secured popularity in England for this rough and ungracious prince, who spoke English with difficulty and cared much more for the affairs of the continent than those of Great Britain. The revolution which gave him the throne of James II. effected more than simply a change of royal personages. It substituted royalty by consent for royalty by divine right, and established constitutional or parlia- mentary government. A new right, that of the people^ arose in modern society, in opposition to the absolute right of kings, which for two centuries had ruled over it, and which had just realized its most glorious impersonation in France. The desperate struggle which broke out between France and England is, therefore, not to be wondered at. There were not only two contrary interests, but two differ- ent political rights struggling for the mastery. England became the centre of all the coalitions against the house ol Bourbon, as France had been the centre of resistance to the house of Austria. This political change reversed all the conditions of the war. England having joined the enemies of France, it was necessary to maintain not only armies on the Scheldt, the Rhine, and the Alps, but also fleets on the ocean and in the most distant seas. It was this twofold effort which exhausted France. War of the League of Augshurg (1688-1697). — Thft coalition declared war February 5, 1689. Louis had, ready to oppose it, 350,000 soldiers and 264 vessels oi LOUIS XIV. 445 frigates. He adopted a plan both simple and courageous. The soul of the coalition was William of Orange ; Louis XIV. gave James II. a fleet to assist him regaining his throne. Spain and Savoy were the weakest states of the League; he turned against them the greater jjart of his forces, while maintaining the defensive on the Ehine. Louis had, moreover, skilful captains, Luxembourg, Catinat, Boufflers, and Tourville. Attempts to Re-establish James II. ; Tourville. — The war in behalf of James II. was at first successful. A squadron conveyed the prince to Ireland (May, 1689). Convoys of troops, arms, and ammunition also set out. England and the Dutch endeavored to stop their passage ; Tourville with seventy-eight ships attacked their fleet off Beachy Head, and gained a brilliant victory (July, 1690) which gave Louis XIV., for a time, the empire of the ocean. But James lost precious time at the siege of Londonderry. William attacked him at the Boyne (July, 1690). The Irish fled with their king at the first attack, and the French alone offered any resistance. James was obliged to return to France. Louis XIV. then prepared for a descent upon England herself. Twenty thousand men were assembled between Cherbourg and La Hogue ; three hundred transports were held in readiness at Brest. The king ordered Tourville with forty-six ships to encounter the enemy's fleet of ninety- nine sails. The result was the battle of La Hogue (1692). Tourville stood his ground manfully for ten hours against the Anglo-Dutch, and would have made at least a glorious retreat if he had had a port behind him : seven of his ves- sels reached Brest ; twenty-two passed through the Race of Alderney and entered Saint-Malo ; three stopped at Cher- bourg, where they were burned ; and twelve took refuge in the harbor of La Hogue. Tourville removed the cannons, ammunition, and rigging from them, and at the approach of the English, the hulls of his ships were set on fire. This was the first blow given to the military marine of France ; the re-establishment of the Stuarts in England became impossible. Defensive War on the Rhine ; Burning of the Palatinate (1689). — In 1688 the dauphin entered Germany with eighty thousand men, and Marshal Duras as adviser. Philipps- burg, Mannheim, Worms, Oberwesel, were taken in a few weeks. It was not the desiarn of the French minister to 446 LOUIS XIV. retain them; the Palatinate was burned again, this time Avith great cruelty (1689) . Speyer was completely destroyed. The French sacked the magnificent castle of Heidelberg; one hundred thousand inhabitants, driven from their country by the flames, went about through G-ermany demanding ven- geance. The king himself regretted these horrible execu- tions, and his dissatisfaction might have been the prelude of a disgrace, had not Louvois died (1691). He was succeeded by his son Barbezieux, who had none of his qualities. The Duke of Lorges, the successor of Duras, contented himself with protecting Alsace from the imperial forces, who could not subsist in the Palatinate. The war then remained defensive on the Rhine ; the great blows were struck else- where. War in Savoy and Piedmont ; Catinat. — The commander in Italy was Catinat, a man of humble birth, who had risen to his position by his own merit. In order to bring the Duke of Savoy to a decisive engagement before the arrival of the German troops, he devastated the country districts of Piedmont. Victor Amadeus fought the battle of StafEarda (1690), and lost four thousand men ; while the French had only five hundred killed and won Savoy, Nice, and the greater part of Piedmont. But a relative of the duke. Prince Eugene, whose services Louis XIV. had refused, and who had then offered them to Austria, arrived with powerful re-enforcements, and invaded France. Dauphiny suffered cruel retaliation for the burning of the Palatinate and the ravaging of Piedmont (1692). Catinat, however, re- crossed the Alps ; a second battle took place near Marsaglia (1693), and was as disastrous for Victor Amadeus as the previous one ; little was now left him but Turin, and Catinat would have taken that if the war minister had not reduced his forces. War in the Netherlands ; Luxembourg. — Luxembourg had served, at first, under the great Conde, whom he greatly resembled in bravery and quickness of insight. In 1690 he encountered the Prince of Waldeck near Fleurus, killed six thousand of his men, and carried off a hundred stan- dards, his cannon, baggage, and eight thousand prisoners. Master of the open county, he invested Mons ; Louis XIV. was present at the siege. William, having got rid of James II., hastened over with eighty thousand men, but could not prevent the surrender of the city (April, 1691). The fol- LOUIS XIV. 447 lowing year Luxembourg besieged Namur, the strongest position in the Netherlands, at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse, and took it again, under the eyes of Louis XIV. and the enemy's army (June, 1692). This was one of the great sieges of the century. Vauban conducted it, and the operation is regarded as a model. Vauban's rival, Coehorn, defended the place. But William, though always defeated, never grew weary. In August, 1692, he surprised Luxembourg at Steenkerk, in Hainault. Luxembourg was ill ; the danger restored his strength ; it was necessary that he should work wonders to save himself from defeat, and he did. A famous event of the battle was the charge made by four young princes of the blood, Philip of Orleans, Louis of Bourbon (grandson of Cond^), the Prince of Conti, and the Duke of Venddme, "at the head of the king's household troops, for the purpose of driving off a body of English, who were holding an impor- tant post upon which the success of the battle depended. The carnage was terrible; the French finally carried the day. The regiment of Champagne defeated King William's guards ; and when the English were overcome, the rest were obliged to give up. . . . " William, having lost about seven thousand men, retired, in as good order as when he led the attack. The victory, due to the valor of all these young princes and the flower of the nobility, created, at the court, at Paris, and in the provinces, an effect produced by no battle which had ever before been won" (Voltaire). The next year William of Orange ventured near Louvain with only fifty thousand men. Louis was in the vicinity with more than one hundred thousand; the whole army expected that a great blow was to be struck, but in spite of the supplications of Luxembourg, who, it is said, threw himself on his knees before him, the king declared the campaign finished, and returned to Versailles. From that day forth he never appeared with the army. His reputa- tion abroad suffered much in consequence ; yet, in fact, he did not lack personal courage. The victories of Fleurus and Steenkerk had given Luxem- bourg Hainault and the province of Namur ; he forced his way into Southern Brabant; but he found William III. again in front of him, strongly entrenched, at Neerwinden (July, 1693). Few battles have been more murderous; 448 LOUIS xir. Neerwinden was twice carried by the infantry, which, for the first time, resolutely made a bayonet charge. About twenty thousand were killed, of whom twelve thousand were on the side of the allies. After this success, the French might, perhaps, have marched on Brussels and dic- tated peace, but they contented themselves with besieging and taking Charleroi. The victory of Neerwinden was the last of Luxembourg's triumphs. The following campaign was marked by no unusual occurrence, and he died in Jan- uary, 1695. His successor, the Duke of Villeroi, was inca- pable of doing anything remarkable, even with an army of eighty thousand men ; he did not even prevent the Prince of Orange from taking Kamur (August, 1695). But in Spain, Vendome entered Barcelona (August, 1695), after a memorable siege. On the sea, Tourville had, in 1693, avenged the disaster of La Hogue by a victory in the bay of Lagos, near Cape St. Vincent. In the following years extensive armaments were suspended, but privateers preyed upon the commerce of the English and Dutch, who, in revenge, made several attempts to land on the French coast. In America, Count Frontenac bravely defended Canada, taking the offensive on all sides, although the province had only eleven or twelve thousand inhabitants, and the English colonies had ten times as many. Treaty of Ryswyk (1697). — But the war was now lan- guishing; every one was exhausted, Louis proposed peace ; Charles II. of Spain was almost dying ; he would leave no child, and the question of the Spanish succession was at last about to be thrown open. It was important that the king should dissolve the European coalition before this great event occurred. He evinced unusual moderation. His first act was to detach the Duke of Savoy from the League (1696.) The defection of Victor Amadeus decided the others, and peace was signed at Ryswyk, near the Hague (October, 1697). Louis XIV. recognized William III. as lawful sovereign of England and Ireland. He restored his recent conquests in the Netherlands, in the Empire, and in Spain, with the exception of Strassburg, Landau, Longwy, and Saarlouis. He permitted the Dutch to garrison the most important places in Flanders, which the Spaniards seemed to be incapable of defending against him. He restored Lorraine, and abolished the tonnage duty of fifty LOUIS XIV. 449 sous per ton, tlius completely abandoning the commercial policy of Colbert. These concessions, which were extremely wounding to the king's pride, were greatly censured; but Louis hoped to repair the loss of a few cities by the acqui- sition of an empire. Accession of a French Prince to the Throne of Spain (1700). — Charles II. lingered three years more. To whom should his immense inheritance revert ? The two houses of France and Austria, allied by marriage to that of Spain, each laid claim to it.^ For Louis XIV. or Leopold to reign at Madrid would be the destruction of the balance of power in Europe. William III. proposed to Louis that they should divide the succession in advance, and two Partition Treaties were signed at the Hague. The first (1698) assigned the Spanish mon- archy to the Prince of Bavaria, the Milanese to the Archduke Charles, second son of the emperor, the Two Sicilies, a few Tuscan ports, and Guipuzcoa, gifts useless or dangerous, to the dauphin. A second treaty, after the death of the electoral prince of Bavaria, gave Spain to the archduke, and increased the French portion by the addition of Lorraine, a province which would fall into the hands of France at the first can- non shot (1700). This was no compensation for the danger of seeing an Austrian reigning in Brussels and Madrid. These treaties had in the end no effect. The dying king was deeply indignant that proposals for the dismemberment of his monarchy should be made during his lifetime and without cons\ilting him. In order to maintain the integrity of his states, he must bequeath them all either to Austria or to France. Austria was ill served by her ambassador at Madrid ; France, on the contrary, had a skilful servant there. Charles II., by his last will and testament, called to the throne Philip, Duke of Anjou, second son of the dauphin (November 2, 1700). Twenty-eight days after he died. 1 Louis XIV. and the Emperor Leopold, each the son of an infanta of Spain, had each also married an infanta. But Anne of Austria and Maria Theresa, who married into the house of France, were elder sisters of Maria Anna and Margaret Theresa, who married into the house of Austria. The son and grandson of Louis XIV. had therefore superior claims to those of Leopold, son of Maria Anna, and to those of the electoral prince of Bavaria, Ferdinand Joseph, grandson of Margaret Theresa. Leopold held up, as an objection, the renunciation of Maria Theresa, but the Spanish cortes had not been summoned in order to sanction it, and it was invalid from another point of view, the dowry of the infanta not having been paid. 450 LOUIS XIV. Should Louis XIV. accept the testament or abide by the last treaty of the Hague ? An extraordinary council was assembled ; it was composed of only four persons besides the king, — the dauphin, the Duke of Beauvilliers, governor of the children of the house of France, Chancellor Pontchart- rain, and the Marquis of Torcy, minister of foreign affairs. The latter was a nephew of the great Colbert, an exceedingly able and honest man. Various opinions were expressed, but Torcy justly remarked that war would ensue, no matter what decision was made. " It is better to fight for the whole," said he, " than for a part." Louis XIV. was silent, and for three days his determination was not known. He finally announced his consent to the Duke of Anjou, and presented him to the court with these words, " Gentlemen, the king of Spain." A few weeks later Philip V. set out for Madrid. Third Coalition against France (1701-1713) ; Grand Alli- ance of the Hague. — Neither England nor the United Prov- inces wished to see the French in possession of the Spanish ISTetherlands. Great prudence and good management were requisite. The king, unfortunately, revealed his designs too quickly, and defied Europe with surprising levity. In spite of the formal clauses of the will of Charles II. he did not require Philip V. to make renunciation of the throne of France ; thus alarming Europe with the thought of seeing France and Spain governed some day by the same king. A little later he drove the Dutch from the fortresses which they occupied in the Netherlands by virtue of the treaty of Ryswyk, and replaced them by French garrisons. Finally, upon the death of James II., he recognized his son, the Prince of Wales, as king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, against the advice of all his ministers. This insult offered to the English people and to William III. rendered war inevitable. A third coalition was formed, known as the Grand Alli- ance of the Hague (September, 1701), entered into by Eng- land, the Netherlands, Austria, the Empire, and a little later by Portugal. Louis XIV. had now no allies in all Europe, except the Elector of Bavaria and the dukes of Modena and Savoy. Spain took the part of the French, but had neither soldiers nor money nor vessels. William III. died in the month of March, 1702, but his policy survived him because it was national. Under his sister-in-law, Queen Anne, England continued to defend her threatened political and religious liberties and her commercial prosperity. LOUIS XIV. . 451 Marlborough ; Prince Eugene ; Heinsius. — Three cele- brated men, Heinsius, Marlborougli, and Prince Eugene, acting in the strictest unity, replaced the chief whom the league had just lost. Heinsius was grand pensioner of Holland, and directed the republic with the authority of a monarch. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, governed Queen Anne through his wife, the Parliament through his friends, the ministry through his son-in-law Sunderland, secretary of State, and the lord treasurer Godolphin, father- in-law of one of his daughters. Prince Eugene, born in France in 1663, son of a niece of Mazarin, belonged to the house of Savoy. He was destined for the ecclesiastical profession, but preferred that of arms, and at nineteen years of age asked Louis XIV. for a regiment. Louis re- fused to make a colonel of the " Savoyard abb6." Austria received him more favorably, and sent him into Italy to light against Catinat. After the peace of Eyswyk he fought victoriously against the Turks and was then appointed pres- ident of the council of war. By the good understanding which he maintained with Marlborough he gave to the European coalition the union it had always needed. Situation of France. — In order to triumph over so for- midable adversaries France needed the great men of the preceding generation, but they were gone ; she was begin- ning to be exhausted ; the soldiers were lacking as well as the generals and ministers. The incompetent Chamillard succumbed under the double burden of finances and the war. The king undertook to direct him, and never, in fact, did he show more activity, devising plans and regulating the execution from his cabinet. But in truth he carried supervision too far. First Campaigns in Germany, in Italy, and in the Nether- lands (1701-1704). — It was the opinion of Louis XIV. that the war should be defensive on all sides except that toward Germany. Boufflers was sent to the Netherlands to oppose Marlborough, who commanded the English and Dutch army ; Catinat to Italy, to keep Prince Eugene and the imperials out of the Milanese; Villars to Germany, to join the elector and march upon Vienna. For three years (1701-1704) the success of the two parties was equal. But in 1702 Marlborough forced his way into the Southern Netherlands in spite of the opposition of Boufflers. In 1701 Prince Eugene descended into Lombardy, in spite of 452 ^ LOUIS XIV. Catinat. The court displaced the latter and gave his army to Villeroi. Villeroi ; Defeat of Chiari (1701) ; Surprise of Cremona (1702). — This prot^g^ of Madame de Maintenon was a good courtier, but an execrable general. From the moment of his arrival he took the offensive, scorning the advice of Catinat, who had consented to serve under him. He crossed the Oglio, hoping to surprise Eugene at Chiari, but was himself surprised and defeated. Villeroi then took up his quarters at Cremona. Eugene, in the dead of winter, attempted a surprise upon Cremona, and nearly succeeded. The enemy, after reaching the very heart of the city, was driven out of the gates, but carried off the marshal. Ven- d6me took his place. Victories of Vendome at Luzzara, of Villars at Friedlingen and at Hbchstadt, of Tallard at Speyer (1702-1703). —This grandson of Henry IV. was a strange general ; his morals were more than doubtful, and he never rose till four o'clock in the afternoon ; but on the field of battle he showed quick- ness, cheerfulness, and fiery courage; often surprised, but never overcome, he carried on a successful war for two years against the Imperialists. He delivered Mantua, captured their magazines at Luzzara (1702), and was then able to approach the Tyrol. At this moment he was forced to re- treat by the open defection of the Duke of Savoy. He seized upon the greater part of Piedmont and threatened Turin, but he made no more demonstrations against Austria. There was the same success in Germany. Catinat, called to the Rhine, had not re-established there the reputation which he had compromised in Italy ; but one of his lieuten- ants, Villars, attacked the Prince of Baden in the Black Forest, near Priedlingen, and won his marshal's baton on the field of battle (1702). The following year he drove back the Prince of Baden upon the lines of Stollhofen, and affected a junction with the Elector of Bavaria, who had also just beaten the Austrians (May, 1703). The road to Vienna was now open. Villars desired to hasten thither ; but another plan was adopted, and failed to succeed. The French and Bavarians entered Innsbruck, while Venddme was bombarding Trent. The defection of the Duke of Savoy recalled Vend6me from the Tyrol, and the elector and Vil- lars had to abandon Innsbruck. They took their revenge upon the Count of Styrum, who was completely beaten in LOUIS XIV. 453 the plains of Hochstadt (1703). Two months later the Imperialists experienced near Speyer a bloody defeat at the hands o^ Tallard. The Caiuisards. — This victory was the end of the tri- umphs of France. Villars, unable to agree with the elector, demanded his recall. Louis XIV. sent him against the Prot- estant rebels in the Cevennes, the Camisards. These unfortu- nate people, severely persecuted, accepted the aid of England and the Duke of Savoy, eager to keep up a civil war in the heart of France, and in their turn avenged themselves by cruel deeds. Villars was deeply interested in saving this province and bringing back these exasperated men, and soon re-established peace in the region. But a hundred thousand people had perished in this terrible war, and meantime Marsin was losing Germany. Battle of Hochstadt or Blenheim; Loss of Germany (1704). — Marlborough and Prince Eugene had conceived a bold and clever plan to save Austria, which had become exposed to attack by the taking of Passau in January, 1704. They united their forces in Bavaria. Tallard and Marsin had rejoined the elector. They met the enemy near Hoch- stadt. Their positions were badly chosen ; Marlborough easily broke their lines and took prisoner Tallard and an entire corps which had not been in the fight. In less than a month Bavaria was subjugated ; the elector fled to Brus- sels, and the Imperialists reappeared on the Rhine. It was necessary to recall Villars in order to save Alsace. Battles of Ramillies and Turin (1706) ; Loss of Italy and the Netherlands. — The Empire was saved. Eugene and Marlborough separated ; one went to Italy, the other to the Netherlands. The plans of the European coalition were ably developed under the direction of these two great gen- erals. They intended to conquer all the outside provinces of the Spanish monarchy before attacking France herself. Marlborough found conquest easy. He again had as his opponent the incompetent Villeroi. He penetrated to the very heart of Brabant, and found Villeroi at Ramillies. Villeroi chose the most unfortunate positions. Marlborough quickly recognized his mistakes, and inflicted on him an overwhelming defeat (May, 1706). When Villeroi reap- peared at court, the king contented himself with saying to him, "Monsieur le mar^chal, at our age one is no longer fortunate." The loss of the greater part of Brabant was 454 LOUIS XIV. tjie result of this defeat, which cost France five thousand killed and wounded and fifteen thousand prisoners. Marl- borou^gh entered Antwerp, Brussels, and Ostend • and Louis XIV. was obliged, in order to arrest his progress, to recall the Duke of Vend6me from Italy, where he was covering the siege of Turin. While Venddme was hastening to Flanders, Eugene con- ceived the bold project of going to assist Turin by ascend- ing to the right bank of the Po. He had to cross fifteen rivers, to fight or avoid the army of observation, to conquer the besieging army, and all this with weary troops inferior in numbers. But the incapable Marsin, who had been placed in command of the army of Italy, failed to stop him. The French lines before Turin, being spread out too extensively, were broken through (September, 1706), the marshal mor- tally wounded. Piedmont delivered, the Milanese lost, and, as a result, in the following year, the kingdom of Naples. Prince Eugene and the Duke of Savoy, astonished at the consequences of a victory which brought them to the con- fines of France, could not resist the temptation to enter. They invaded Provence, and besieged Toulon, sustained by an English fleet. The city was bravely defended. Eugene lost ten thousand men in the attack and retreat (1707). Attacks upon this frontier have always been, and must con- tinue to be, on account of the nature of the country, fatal to those who make them. Reverses in Spain (1704-1708). — In 1703 the English had brought Portugal into the coalition. In 1704 they surprised and took the impregnable fortress of Gibraltar, >.he key of the Mediterranean. The Archduke Charles, the competitor of Philip V., had, in the mean time, landed in Catalonia with nine thousand soldiers. In 1705 he took Barcelona. Aragon and the neighboring provinces submitted to him. The following year he entered Madrid. The English took Cartagena, the Portuguese Ciudad-Rodrigo ; and an Anglo-Portuguese army occupied Estremadura. It was immediately proposed in the councils of Louis XIV. to renounce Spain, and send Philip V. to reign in America. Success of Villars on the Rhine (1705-1707). — Mean- while Villars had kept his word. In 1705 he had arrested the progress of Marlborough, and covered Lorraine. In the following year and in 1707 he gained other successes in South Germany. Thus the coalition, though victorious at LOUIS XIV. 455 the two extremities of the immense line of operations in Spain, in Italy, and in the Netherlands, was beaten in the centre, on the Ehine. At the same time Charles XII. of Sweden appeared in Saxony at the head of an army until then invincible. Villars proposed to march across the Empire to join him, and Louis XIV. begged him to attack the coalition in the rear. But instead he burst upon Russia, and was ruined there. Defeat of Oudenarde (1708) ; France itself entered. — Prince Eugene rejoined MarllDorough in Flanders. The allies had eighty thousand men; France, whom Europe believed to be exhausted, furnished a hundred thousand. Louis XIV. entrusted them to his grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, under whom Venddme served as lieutenant. The division of the command led to a fresh disaster : the army was put to rout at Oudenarde (July, 1708). This was but an extensive picket fight ; and when evening came, nothing had been lost. Vend6me proposed to begin the fight again the next day, but the Duke of Burgundy and his counsellors refused. The retreat was disastrous ; the enemy killed or captured more than ten thousand men. Ghent, Bruges, and even Lille, capitulated; and France lay exposed to the allies. A party of Dutch went as far as the neighborhood of Versailles. France • and Spain begin to recover ; Battles of Malpla- quet (1709) and Villaviciosa (1710). — The winter of 1709 added to the misfortunes of the French. The cold was in- tense, and famine resulted. Louis XIV. humbled himself and asked for peace. But the triumvirs did not consider him sufficiently humiliated. They required that he should restore Strassburg and renounce the sovereignty of Alsace, and should himself drive his grandson out of Spain. " Since I must make war," he replied, " I prefer to fight my enemies rather than my children," and he wrote a letter to the governors, bishops, and communes, calling upon them to be judges between him and his enemies. This noble appeal to patriotism moved all France ; again an army was raised, as large as that of the coalition. Villars was put in command of it. It was clearly shown at the battle of Malplaquet, near Mons (September, 1709), that the struggle had become a national one. The allies had almost one hundred and twenty thousand men ; the marshal, ninety thousand. When the action began, the soldiers, who had 456 LOUIS xir. had nothing to eat for a whole day, had just received their rations ; they threw them away in order to run more lightly to the fight. They were forced to retreat ; but the French had only eight thousand men disabled, and the allies twenty- one thousand. This glorious defeat announced the end of the French reverses. Louis XIV. sent into Spain the Duke of Ven- idme, who had been in disfavor since Oudenarde. His name alone was worth a whole army. The Spanish nation, like the French, awoke at the voice of Louis XIV. The people of the country districts began that guerilla warfare which, in the mountainous surface of Spain, has always been fatal to foreigners ; finally, the archduke's general, Count Stahremberg, was completely overthrown at Villavi- ciosa (December, 1710). This victory saved the crown of Philip V. Withdrawal of England (1711) ; Battle of Denain (1712). — This unexpected energy on the part of two nations, who were thought to be ready to give up, astonished the allies ; they were growing weary too, especially England, whose subsidies fed the coalition, and who had increased her pub- lic debt by £60,000,000. A court intrigue precipitated the change which public opinion, paramount in a free country, was already preparing, and which the queen herself desired. The Duchess of Marlborough, falling into disgrace with Queen Anne, brought down with her her husband's friends and, after a while, the duke himself. Bolingbroke and Ox- ford formed a new ministry, and the majority which they obtained in a newly elected House of Commons proved that the nation itself accepted the change which was about to take place in the foreign policy of England. Marlborough and his friends the Whigs owed their influ- ence to the war ; the Tories, the new advisers of the crown, sought to found their credit on the making of peace. Secret negotiations were entered into ; an unforeseen event soon made public negotiations possible. The emperor Joseph I., who had succeeded Leopold in 1705, died in 1711, leaving no heir but his brother, the Archduke Charles. England, who had fought to separate Spain and France, had no desire to continue the war for the purpose of uniting Spain to Austria. The preliminaries of peace were signed at Lon- don in October, 1711. The allies followed the example; a congress assemlaled at Utrecht in January, 1712. The em- LOUIS XIV. 457 peror and the empire refused to take part in it; but the combat had now become wholly unequal, and a single cam- paign sufi&ced to prove it. Prince Eugene was besieging Landrecies. He rightly called his lines " the road to Paris " ; for if Landrecies should fall, there was no fortress between Paris and his army. But the lines of the Imperialists were too extensive. Villars, making a feint on Landrecies, marched in all haste upon Denain. The camp was taken and seventeen battalions destroyed (July, 1712). Eugene hastened to re-enforce, but was repulsed; Landrecies was delivered, and the frontiers of France were placed in security. Maritime' Expeditions ; Duguay-Trouin. — The necessity for keeping all the French forces on land in order to resist the armies of the continent had caused the navy to be neg- lected. England profited by this, and easily gained the empire of the seas, which France abandoned and which the Dutch could no longer retain. Henceforward there were only some encounters of squadrons, and soon the fighting was reduced to privateering. The French colonies, left without defence, were either devastated or conquered, Nevertheless, some of the French privateers and captains won for themselves great reputations. Duguay-Trouin, the son of a shipowner of St. Malo, gained great celebrity as a privateer ; he was made captain in the royal navy in 1706, and commanded an expedition against Eio Janeiro in which the vigor of the execution corresponded with the boldness of the plan (1711). This place, which seemed impregnable, was carried after eleven days' siege. Many vessels and an immense quantity of merchandise were either taken or burned. Unhappily the exploits of these brave sailors had no influ- ence upon the war. Treaties of TJtreclit, Rastadt, and Baden (1713-1714).— The victory of Denain hastened the conclusion of peace. There were three treaties : that of Utrecht (April 11, 1713) , between France, Spain, England, the Netherlands, Savoy, and Portugal ; that of Eastadt (March 7, 1714), between France and the emperor; that of Baden (June 7, 1714), between France and the Empire. The treaty of Eastadt was retarded a year by the obstinacy of Charles VI., until the successes gained by Villars on the Ehine forced him to yield. By these treaties, Louis XIV. retained the earliest acqui- 458 LOUIS XIV. sitions of his reign : Alsace, Artois, and Eoussillon, which France owed to Kichelieu and Mazarin ; Flanders, Franche- Comte, Strassburg, Saarlouis, Landau, and of the colonies, the Antilles, Cayenne, Bourbon, and Senegal ; he acquired the valley of Barcelonette, but ceded to the Duke of Savoy Exilles, Fenestrelle, and Chdteau-Dauphin ; to England, Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, and Acadia ; he caused the port of Dunkirk to be dismantled and filled up ; he recog- nized the Protestant Elector of Brunswick, George I., as heir presumptive of Queen Anne, agreed to send the Pretender, James III., out of France, to release from prison all of his subjects who were confined for religious reasons, and not to receive from Spain any exclusive commercial privilege, while he granted to England important commercial advantages, and ceded to her the monopoly of the slave trade from the coast of Africa to the Spanish colonies. Philip V. retained Spain and her immense colonial posses- sions, but he renounced for himself and his children all pretensions to the throne of France ; he ceded to the Eng- lish Gibraltar and Minorca ; Sicily to the Duke of Savoy, and to the emperor the Southern Netherlands, the Milanese, the kingdom of Naples, and Sardinia. The Duke of Bavaria, the unfortunate ally of Louis XIV., was re-established in his states. The title of King was bestowed upon the head of the house of Savoy. Finally, the Dutch obtained the right to garrison all the most important places in the Austrian Neth- erlands, in order to use them as a barrier against France. These conditions were honorable, if compared to the humiliating propositions of the triumvirs. France was saved by her perseverance, her united strength, and the energy of her king ; she came forth from this terrible trial weakened, but not humiliated, and with the honors of war. Two powers had gained especially by this war : Austria had won magnificent domains in Italy and the Netherlands ; England had seized upon the empire of the seas. Besides, the one had recovered Hungary, which was more necessary to her than Italy ; the other remained at Port Mahon, whence she could hold Toulon in check, and at Gibraltar, whence she threatened Spain and guarded the entrance to the Med- iterranean. But France gained the alliance of Spain. Numerous Deaths in the Royal Family (1712-1714).— The last years of the reign of Louis XIV. were as dark as the first had been brilliant. In addition to the national LOUIS XIV, 459 misfortunes, the king had to bear terrible domestic afflic- tions : he lost his only son, the dauphin (April, 1711) ; the Duke of Burgundy and his wife (February, 1712) ; their oldest son, the Duke of Brittany (March) ; the Duke of Berry, son of the dauphin, in 1714. Thus Louis XIV. had left only his grandson, Philip V., king of Spain, and his great-grandson, the Duke of Anjou, then only five years old, who was afterwards Louis XV. So many deaths happening in quick succession deter- mined the king to take an extraordinary measure : his legitimated sons, the Duke of Maine and the Count of Tou- louse, children of the Marchioness of Montespan, were declared heirs of the crown in default of princes of the blood. He appointed them, in his will, members of a coun- cil of regency, composed principally of their friends, and of which the Duke of Orleans, his nephew, was to be merely the president; the Duke of Maine obtained, besides, the guardianship of the young king. This will was an unfor- tunate act. It fixed a slight on the Duke of Orleans, and organized war in the heart of the government itself. Death of the King (1715). — Louis XIV. died on Sep- tember 1st, 1715, at the age of seventy-seven years, after having reigned seventy-two. He left France excessively ex- hausted. The State was ruined, and seemed to have no resource but bankruptcy. This trouble seemed especially imminent in 1715, after the war, during which the govern- ment had been obliged to borrow at four hundred per cent, to create new taxes, to spend in advance the revenue of two years, and to increase the public debt to 2400 millions. The acquisition of two provinces (Flanders, Franche- Comt6) and a few cities (Strassburg, Landau, and Dunkirk) was no compensation for such terrible poverty. Succeeding generations have remembered only the numerous victories, Europe defied, France for twenty years preponderant, and the incomparable splendor of the court of Versailles, with its marvels of letters and arts, which have given to the seventeenth century the name of the age of Louis XIV. It is for history to show the price which France has paid for her king's vain attempts abroad to rule over Europe, and at home to enslave the wills and consciences of men. 460 GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. CHAPTER LIII. GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. Consolidation of the Absolute Monarchy. — If the admin- istration of the kingdom was the work of the ministers of Louis XIV., as well as his own, one thing certainly belonged to him alone; namely, the general supervision which he gave to the government and to society, the energetic and skilful manner in which he dominated all powers, annulled them, or made them subservient to his grandeur. We have already seen his ideas as to the rights of sovereigns; he had summarized them in the speech which he is said to have made, young as he was, at the termination of the Pronde : " I am the State." He believed it, all the world believed it also, and the Church taught it ; Bossuet founded the divine right of monarchy upon maxims drawn from the Holy Scriptures. While Louis XIV. lived, there was, in France, but one will without limitation or control, and that was his own. Suppression of States-General ; Provincial States and Elec- tive Mayoralties. — The States-General would have recalled the memory of other rights ; he never convened them ; he punished those who spoke of tnem. The greater part of the provinces had States of their own ; he suppressed many of them. Those which were retained were assembled only to execute the orders of the ministers. What remained of municipal liberties disappeared, as provincial liberties had done. An edict of 1683 placed the financial management of the cities in the hands of the intendants. Municipal life was then suspended, as had long been the case with politi- cal life ; an unfortunate condition of things, for practical education in public affairs was unknown in France, and when the day should come that she should be obliged to take the government from the failing hands of absolute royalty, she would find bold and powerful logicians to guide her, but no practical men of experience, who would under- stand how, by wise measures, to join the future to the past. GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. 4G1 Political liberty, to be lasting, must be built upon tbe strong basis of local liberties. It is thus that it has grown up in England, and thus it is maintained. Submission of Parliament. — In the sixteenth century the parliaments were called " the strong and powerful columns upon which monarchy rested." But in the seventeenth the new royalty desired no support but its own absolute right. But, thanks to the venality of offices, to the dignity of the lives of the magistrates, to the part they had sometimes played in politics, to their esprit de corps, there arose along- side of the feudal noblesse a noblesse de robe which was not always easily handled. Without openly breaking with the royal power, they resisted it by the aid of long proceedings and venerable forms. They turned aside attacks by that force of inertia which belongs to an assembly of old men, and which was hard to break down at a period when tra- dition made right. The spirit of opposition, driven out everywhere else, took refuge among them; faint political opposition in the Parliament of Paris, provincial opposition in the others, and in all religious opposition under the form of Jansenism. Louis XIV. saw this clearly, and dili- gently strove to transform the parliaments into simple courts of appeal, and make them subject to his Council of State. By an edict of 1667 he ordered the Parliament of Paris to register his ordinances within a week, and would allow no remonstrances. He caused the records of all delib- erations which dated from the civil war to be torn from their register, so as to efface even the remembrance of their ancient pretensions. He changed their title of sovereign court to that of superior court. Submission of the Nobility. — It seemed more difficult to reduce the nobles. Richelieu had demolished their for- tresses and struck oif the heads of the most troublesome among them ; Mazarin had bought them or conquered them by intrigue. Louis XIV. made himself master of them by attracting them to him by festivals, and by drawing them away from their own estates, where they thought too much of their ancestors and felt themselves still free, filling his antechambers and private offices with the descendants of those who had made his forefathers tremble, and thus gath- ering about royalty that brilliant cortege by which the representative of God on earth wished to be always sur- rounded. The governors of provinces, despoiled of all 462 GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. authority for the benefit of the intendants, "could no longer play the king." They had no longer the handling of the public moneys, not even the command of the troops, and they were appointed for only three years. Those of the nobles who persisted in remaining in their own domains were closely watched, and kept from every exercise of op- pressiveness or violence. But to the nobles who lived at his court, even to those for whom he had little esteem, he always exhibited tokens of outward respect, in order that he, the chief among them, might appear greater in the eyes of the crowd. But though they received titles and honors, they were allowed no political influence in the State. Louis XIV. employed the princes of the blood, even his own brother, as little as possible, fearing they might find opportunities to distinguish themselves. His brother might have been a prince equal to many others ; his nephew possessed the qualities which make a superior man; and the Prince of Conti was certainly very brave and very capable. They were all obliged to extinguish, in idleness or debaucheries, talents which might have been made profitable to the coun- try. After the death of Mazarin he admitted to his councils only one man of the old nobility, the Duke of Beauvilliers, governor of the children of the royal house, and chose all his ministers from among men of station by no means ex- alted. He reserved for the nobles only the more restricted field of the military profession, having first taken care to discipline them by the stern hand of Louvois and the inflex- ible order of promotion, and to deprive them of or abolish the high offices that Eichelieu had allowed to remain : those of colonel-general of the infantry, colonel-general of the cavalry, admiral of France, and captain-general of the gal- leys. The nobility of France had not succeeded in making itself a political class, like that of England ; it was only a military caste. The Third Estate. — Louis XIV., following out the old traditions of the monarchy, preferred to make use of the middle classes, who were better instructed and at the same time more devoted, because they had not yet perceived the inconveniences of absolute power, while they had felt for centuries those of feudal rule. Louis XIV. delivered into their hands all financial, political, and judicial functions ; he quietly established them in the administration of the GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XI V. 463 Kingdom ; lie energetically advanced them in industry and commerce and favored them {e.g., Boileau, Eacine, Moli^re) in literature. Louis XIV. thus unconsciously prepared the way for democratic France and the Revolution. But he was nowise a bourgeois king. His policy, his intense self- esteem, the vigorous ceremonial which made of him a dreaded and inaccessible divinity, his carousals, his splen- did feasts, all banish from the mind any suggestion of con- stitutional monarchy. The Clergy ; Declaration of 1682. — Louis maintained the same policy towards the clergy as towards the nobility ; while he conferred honors upon them, he was careful not to give them any power. The great nobles were withdrawn from the Church as well as from the administration. The clergy were consequently, under Louis XIV., another prop of royalty. In the affair of the regale the bishops sustained the king even against the Pope. The name regale was given to the right of kings to collect the revenues of certain bene- fices, bishoprics, and archbishoprics during periods of va- cancy. In 1673 an edict declared all the sees of France subject to the regale. Two bishops refused to obey and were supported by the Pojpe. Louis XIV., in order to put an end to the controversy, called an assembly of the French clergy, who adopted, in 1682, under the inspiration of Bossuet, four propositions, in substance as follows : — 1. God has not given to Saint Peter and his successors any power, either direct or indirect, over temporal matters. 2. The Gallican Church approves the decrees adopted by the council of Constance, which declare ecumenical councils superior to the Pope in spiritual affairs. 3. The rules and usages received in the kingdom and in the Gallican Church shall remain unchangeable. 4. Decisions of the Pope in matters of doctrine are not absolute until accepted by the Church. Innocent XL refused to grant bulls of investiture to the bishops appointed by the government who had been members of the assembly. The affair was settled in 1693 by a compromise. Innocent XII. granted the bulls of in- vestiture, and the king ceased to impose upon faculties of theology the obligation to teach the four propositions of 1682. Protestants, Jansenists, ftuietists. — These discussions with the court of Eome were of no profit to dissenters. At the height of the quarrel the king revoked the edict of Nantes, 464 GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. Nor did he temporize with the Jansenists. These latter derived their doctrines from a bishop of Ypres, named Jansenius, who died in 1638, and from the Abb^ de Saint- Cyran ; they held some old opinions, which seemed new, on the subjects of grace and predestination. The most illus- trious among them^ Arnauld and others, retired to Port- Royal des Champs, near Versailles, where Pascal joined them, and there, living as hermits, these Puritans of Catho- licism gave to the world an example of industrious labor of hands and brain, of the most earnest piety, and of austerity of life which amounted almost to asceticism. They wrote excellent books, and were distinguished scholars ; almost the entire magistracy adopted their doctrines in part, and, without any one's being able to assign any reason for it, the spirit of political opposition concealed itself behind this religious opposition. Louis XIV. referred their opinions to the court of Rome ; and as the sect would not submit to the decisions of the spiritual authority, he used against them temporal force with a severity which was considered excessive even at that day. He caused Port-Royal des Champs to be destroyed in 1709. The bodies of the inoffensive recluses were dis- interred. A book of P^re Quesnel, a priest of the Oratory, reanimated the disturbances. One hundred and one of its propositions were condemned at Rome by the bull Unigeni- tus, to which the king in 1712 imposed obedience upon all the clergy of Prance. The Jansenists were punished with disgrace, imprisonment, or exile. Quietism had the same fate. This was an old doctrine, brought up and dissemi- nated by a woman. Madam Guyon. Fenelon, archbishop of Cambrai, the former preceptor of the Duke of Burgundy, having defended this opinion in a book, Bossuet denounced the work (1699), and the Pope condemned it. F6nelon sub- mitted with the most Christian self-abnegation. Creation of the Police ; Large Standing Army. — Two insti- tutions aided the king to accomplish the work of monarchi- cal omnipotence, — the police and the army. The first was of his own creation. He was the first to appoint lieutenants of police for Paris. Then began the system of public light- ing ; from the first of November to the first of March, a lantern in which was a burning candle was placed at the ends and in the middle of each street. The watch was increased, or rather instituted. Bodies of firemen replaced GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. 465 the Capuchins in the fire service (1699). The narrow- streets were cleaned, widened, and paved, public carriages and cabs were established ; the habit of riding on horseback was still indulged in Paris by none but a few stubborn repre- sentatives of the past centuries. The police served another purpose : it inspected written matter; it stopped at the post-office, and read, suspected correspondence ; and, to relieve the government of slow forms of justice, it multiplied the lettres de cachets, which deprived subjects of all guarantee of individual liberty. The army also served a double end: it faced the enemy abroad, and at home it crushed all resistance to the will of the sovereign. Erom this reign date the great standing armies, schools of discipline, of loyalty, and of honor, but also a heavy burden upon the finances of the country. The troops were sent into the provinces to protect the progres- sive extension of the authority of the intendants ; they has- tened by fear the collection of taxes ; they were even charged with the extraordinary duty of leading back the consciences of dissenters to the unity of the faith. The Court. — Thus all orders of the State, all authorities which existed in France, all classes, parliaments, nobility, middle classes, clergy, and dissenters were reduced and dominated. Under the pressure of authority, characters de- generated. Only a few — Vauban, Catinat, F^nelon, Turenne — resisted the contagion. The general enslavement showed nowhere more plainly than at the court, where Louis im- posed on the high nobility a gilded captivity. Versailles was built with this in view, and all France was collected there, under the eye and hand of the king. The favor of the king depended upon three conditions, — to ask and obtain a lodging at Versailles, to follow the court everywhere, even though ill, even though dying, and to approve of everything. Henceforth no more seigniorial independence, no more family life, no more connection or communion with the country districts ; but an artificial existence, in which certain qualities of mind were developed, but true dignity and all the virtues that belong to it were lost. At these splendid f^tes of Versailles one sees, indeed, among all the marvels of the arts, a society incomparable for wit, elegance, and fine manners ; but one sees also the too numerous errors of the prince himself but lightly veiled. The most eminent persons: of the State, grave magistrates, 466 GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XTV. illustrious prelates, dared not make the slightest protest against the scandal of intrigues doubly adulterous. The Duchess de la Valli^re has secured pardon by hei deep repentance. The haughty Montespan reigned longer over the court, but she was in turn supplanted by the Mar- chioness of Maintenon, to whom she had confided the educa- tion of her children, and the widow of the cripple Scarron became the wife of Louis the Great (1685). The trouble was not confined to the royal house; it threatened to extend to the State itself ; for Louis, violating all civil and religious laws, placed the legitimated princes beside the princes of the blood. He forced the court to show as much respect to them as to the others ; and public morality received a blow from which it has been slow to recover. The dukes of Orleans and Venddme. given over fco wholesale debauchery, the Duke of Antin, caught in the very act of theft, noblemen who knew how to repair at cards the losses of fortune, a court which according to Saint-Simon "sweated hypocrisy," a king who became a devotee when he could no longer be anything else, — all this shows that morals, conscience, and human dignity are never violated with impunity. Memorials from the Intendants. — We have an indispu- table body of evidence respecting the misery of the period, — the reports which the king required of the intendants, re- garding the condition of their provinces, for the instruction of the Duke of Burgundy, his grandson. Upon each page occur these despairing words, " War, mortality, the contin- ual quartering and movement of soldiery, service, heavy duties, the emigration of the Huguenots, have ruined this province." The bridges and roads are in a deplorable con- dition, and trade reduced to nothing. The frontier provin- ces are, still further, overwhelmed by requisitions, and by the marauding of the soldiery, who, receiving neither pay nor rations, undertook to find their own wages. In the district of Rouen 650,000 of the 700,000 inhabitants have only piles of straw for beds. The peasants in certain prov- inces have lapsed into a savage state, living frequently on herbs and roots like the beasts, and, wild as savages, flee when approached. Signs of a New Spirit. — Meanwhile, however, a few men, not perhaps of singularly great minds, but who at any rate had honest hearts and elevated characters, — F^nelon, the GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS XIV. 467 Duke of Beauvilliers, Saint-Simon, and Catinat, — saw tiie clouds appearing on the horizon, and some of them ven- tured to offer respectful counsel. Vauban, who grieved over all the troubles of the country, made plans to alleviate them; he asked for the re-establishment of the edict of Nantes, and the restoration of religious toleration ; he pro- posed to substitute for all other forms of taxation a single tax, the royal tithe, which should be paid by nobles and priests as well as common people. When he presented his book to the king in 1707, Louis, forgetting the great ser- vices of the marshal, had the work condemned to the pillory. Six weeks after, Vauban died. Colbert had already died of despair ; and it was less on account of his religious opinions than his political ideas, that F^nelon was sent into the exile from which he never returned. In that ancient Greece that he loved so well F^nelon rediscovered the idea which he transmitted to the eighteenth century, — that gov- ernments are made for the governed. In 1690 there was printed in Holland a collection of fifteen memoirs under the title of " The Groans of Enslaved France," in which were claimed, as among the ancient liberties of the country, the privileges of the three orders, and the convocation of the States-General. These were signs announcing the new spirit which was to agitate French society in the eighteenth cen- tury after its experience of the short-lived benefits and dangers attending absolute royalty, of which Louis XIV. had just given the most striking example. 468 THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. CHAPTER LIV. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. Literary Character of the Seventeenth Century in France. — The sixteenth century had seen religious reformation ; the eighteenth century was to see political reformation. Placed between the two revolutionary ages, the seventeenth century maintained so perfect an equilibrium between the powers of the mind, a capacity for writing so completely equal to the capacity for thinking, that it has remained in an especial degree the literary age of France. The Age of Louis XIV. before Louis XIV. — At the time when Louis XIV. took the government into his own hands, France had already acquired a portion of the literary glory that the seventeenth century had in reserve for her. Cor- neille, Descartes, and Pascal had written their masterpieces ; Madame de Sevign6, La Rochefoucauld, Moli^re, La Fontaine, Bossuet, were at the height of their powers ; the two great painters of the age, Lesueur and Poussin, were dying or about to die. French society had then, in 1661, all the necessary capacities. One thing only was wanting, — per- fection of taste ; but the Lettres provinciales (1657) struck the first blow, the Precieuses ridicules (1659) the second, and the third was to be struck by Boileau, who had just written his first satire. All that genius asks of power is, not to oppose it. But gov- ernments can also sustain it and stimulate it by favors, or, better still, by consideration, and Louis XIV. perceived this and did it admirably. The grateful muses bestowed on him more than they received; they consecrated his name. We ourselves will preserve the consecrated phrase of the " age of Louis XIV." in order to designate that period of our litera- ture which extends from the early writings of Corneille to those of Voltaire, because the king had a taste for arts and letters, and bestowed favors which, while they did not create great writers, surely paved the way for their supremacy. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 469 Academies and Pensions. — Louis XIV. not only considered literature a power, but regarded it as a necessary ornament, as a luxury worthy of a great king. Consequently he favored letters, and gave literature an organized govern- ment, of which Colbert was the minister. The members of the academies had, in a sense, public duties, and pensions and rewards for attendance were their salary. The French Academy continued to prepare the dictionary of the lan- guage, and the Academy of Inscriptions wrote devices for medals and escutcheons and inscriptions for monuments, Avhose decorations were designed by the Academy of Paint- ing and Sculpture. The academies formed corporations of literature, sciences, and arts. Their most distinguished members had, besides, official duties and a rank at court. Jules Mansard was the king's chief architect and superintendent of buildings ; Lebrun was his chief painter ; LuUi, his chief musician. Louis XIV. did not grant poetry a court office ; but he bestowed one upon history, as if to secure in advance the favorable judgment of posterity. Racine and Boileau were his historiographers. Even his valet Moli^re had, as assail- ant of the nobility, his part in the great drama which went on so gravely around the king at Versailles. Prose Writers. — " In eloquence," says Voltaire, " in poetry, in literature, in books both of morals and of amusement, the French were the lawgivers of Europe." A genuine elo- quence in the use of the French language had hitherto been but seldom attained. Jean de Lingendes, bishop of MAcon, was the first orator who spoke in the grand style. Balzac (1594-1654), at this time was giving rhythm and harmony to prose, and Voiture (1598-1648) was giving some idea of the light graces of epistolary style. " One of the works which contributed most towards form- ing the taste of the nation," says Voltaire (Steele de Louis XIV.), "was the small collection of the Maxims of Francis, Duke of La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) . Although there was scarcely more than one thought in this book, which was that self-love is the motive in everything, nevertheless this thought was presented in so many different aspects, that it was almost always attractive. The little collection was read with avidity ; it accustomed men to think and to give their thoughts a lively, concise, and delicate style. " But the first book of genius which appeared in prose, 470 THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. was the collection of the Lettres provinciales in 1657.-' All the varieties of eloquence are exhibited in it. There is not a single word which in the space of a hundred years has undergone the change which so often takes place in living tongues. This book marks the period of permanent estab- lishment in the language. . . . " One of the first who sent forth from the pulpit truly eloquent reasoning was Bourdaloue (1632-1704), about the year 1668. He was a new luminary. After him came other pulpit orators, Massillon, bishop of Clermont (1662-1742), for example, whose discourses contain more ornament, finer and more impressive representations of the manners of the age ; but not one of them has caused him to be forgotten. In his style, nervous rather than ornate, devoid of imagina- tive expressions, he appears to wish rather to convince than to touch, and he never seems to think of pleasing. "■ He had been preceded by Bossuet (1627-1704), after- wards bishop of Meaux. Bossuet, who became so distin- guished a man, had preached when very young before the king and queen in 1661, long before Bourdaloue was known. His sermons, sustained by a noble and affecting manner, were the first that had been heard at court which approached the sublime, and had such success that the king caused a letter to be written in his name to Bossuet's father to con- gratulate him upon having such a son. But when Bourda- loue appeared, Bossuet no longer passed for the leading preacher. He had already given himself to the composition of funeral orations, a species of eloquence which requires imagination and a majestic grandeur approaching poetry. . . . The funeral eulogy of Madame, who had been taken away in the flower of her age, and had died in his arms, achieved the most signal and most unusual of successes, that of drawing tears from the eyes of the courtiers. ... " The French were the only people who succeeded in this department of eloquence. Later, Bossuet invented another, which would have little success save in his own hands. He applied the art of oratory to history itself, from which it seems naturally excluded. " His Discourse upon Universal History, composed for the education of the dauphin, had no model and has had no imi- tators. One is astonished at the majestic strength with 1 Voltaire forgets Descartes' Discourse concerning Method (1637). THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 471 which he describes manners, governments, the growth and downfall of great empires, and at those rapid and yet vigo- rously true strokes with which he painted and pronounced judgment upon all nations. ... " Almost all the works which distinguished this century were in a style unknown to antiquity. Telemaque is one of them. F^nelon (1651-1715), the disciple and friend of Bossuet, and who afterwards became, in spite of himself, his rival and his enemy, composed this singular book, which is at once a romance and a poem, and which substitutes rhythmic prose for: versification. He seems to have desired to treat romance as Bossuet had treated history, by giving it a dignity and charm till then unknown, and especially by drawing from his fictions morals useful to mankind. He had composed this book to be used for the instruction of the Duke of Burgundy, whose tutor he was. Full of the literature of the ancients, and born with a vivid and deli- cate imagination, he created a style which was all his own, and which flowed from a never-failing source. . . . " Among productions of a unique kind may be mentioned the CaracUres of La Bruy^re (1644-1696). This style of writing was as rare among the ancients as that of Telemaque. A rapid, concise, nervous style, picturesque expressions, a way of using words which was entirely original, but disre- garded no rules, attracted attention, and the allusions which were constantly to be found in the book completed its suc- cess." Voltaire says only a word or two of Madame de Sevign6 (1636-1696). She deserves more ; for in her conversations with her daughter she transports Versailles and Paris to Grignan, and teaches us more of the real history of the .times than can be learned from many large volumes. So long as wit of excellent quality and a frank, clear style are enjoyed, the world will never weary of reading her fine and often eloquent letters, in which are seen reflected the splen- dors and miseries of a unique society. France is of all countries the richest in memoirs. This curious branch of historical literature began there at an early period, with Villehardouin and Joinville. The seven- teenth century abounds in memoirs, generally by acute and discriminating writers, who reveal to us the secret causes of many events and movements. Those of Richelieu are a precious mine for the political history of the time ; those of 472 THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. Madame de Motteville (1621-1689), the confidante of Anne of Austria, introduce us to the private life of that princess. Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Eetz (1614-1679), has left a book which is one of the monuments of the French lan- guage, and which will always be read with pleasure, even though one cannot always believe the author. In this kind of literature the great nobles Avillingly engaged. We have the Duke of La Rochefoucauld's memoirs bearing on the regency of Anne of Austria, and, for the last part of the reign of Louis XIV. and the beginning of that of Louis XV., the twenty volumes of the duke and peer, Rouvroy de Saint- Simon, a writer of the greatest talent. Poets. — R^gnier and Malherbe belong to the preceding century, though one died in 1613, and the other in 1628. With Corneille (1606-1684) masterpieces at last appear, and in quick succession are put upon the stage, which he has ele- vated to the level of the Greek theatre. " Pierre Corneille," says Voltaire, " is so much the more admirable because he was surrounded only by bad models when he first began to produce tragedies. Moreover, these bad models were held in good estimation, and, worst of all, encouraged by Richelieu, the patron of men of letters, but not of good taste. Corneille consequently was obliged to combat his age, his rivals, and the cardinal, who decried the Cid and disapproved of Poly- eucte. Corneille formed his style unassisted ; but Louis XIV., Colbert, Sophocles, and Euripides contributed to the forma- tion of Racine (1639-1699). An ode which he composed at the age of twenty years, on the occasion of the king's mar- riage, procured him an unexpected donation from the king, and determined him to adopt poetry as a career. His reputation increased from day to day, and that of the works of Corneille somewhat diminished. The reason is that Racine, in all his works after his Alexandre, is always elegant, always correct, and Corneille too frequently fails in these respects. . . . " It was a singular destiny that made Moli^re (1622- 1673) the contemporary of Corneille and Racine. It is not true that Moli^re, when he appeared, found the theatre absolutely deficient in good comedies. Corneille himself had given Le Mentexir, and Moli^re had still only produced two of his masterpieces, when La J/^re coquette of Quinault, a play of both character and intrigue, was already before the public. It was published in 1664, and was the first comedy THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 473 in which were presented those characters which have since been called the marquises. Most of the great nobles of the court of Louis XIV. tried to imitate that air of grandeur, distinction, and dignity which characterized their master. Those of inferior rank copied the haughty bearing of their superiors ; and of course there were those, and a great number of them, who carried this haughty manner and this intensity of self-assertion to a ridiculous extent. This affectation lasted a long time. Moli^re attacked it fre- quently ; he helped to laugh down these aspiring subalterns, the affectation of the preciexises, the pedantry of learned women, the quackery of doctors. Moli^re was, so to speak, a lawgiver of social good sense. I refer here only to this service rendered to his own age ; his other merits are suffi- ciently well known. . . . " This was a period worthy the attention of posterity, when the heroes of Corneille and E-acine, the personages of Moli^re, the symphonies of Lulli, all new to the nation, and the voices of Bossuet and of Bourdaloue, were heard by Louis XIV. and Madame, so noted for her good taste, a Cond6, a Turenne, a Colbert, and by that throng of superior men of all sorts who flourished at that time. The day will never return when a La Eochefoucauld will pass from a con- versation with a Pascal and an Arnauld to attend a play of Corneille. And La Fontaine (1621-1695), much less chaste in style, much less correct in language, but original in his artlessness and in the grace peculiar to him, rises by the very force of his simplicity almost to a level with these great men." Philosophy. — Philosophy had just been transformed by Descartes (1596-1650), less by what he built up than by what he destroyed. His system has fallen ; his method still exists. Since Socrates there has not been so important a philosophical reform. Descartes accepted as true, in the department of moral and physical sciences, only what seemed evident to the reason, and this evidence he placed, so far as concerns philosophical matters, in the irresistible authority of the manifestations of consciousness. Thus in his Discotirse concerning Method (1637), and in his Medi- tations (1641), he tried to prove, simply by processes of reasoning, the existence of God, the spirituality and immor- tality of the soul, the liberty and consequently the respon- sibility of the human will. His principles were adopted by 474 THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. the most religious minds of the seventeenth century ; they inspired Malebranche (1638-1715), who has been called the Plato of France, Bossuet, and F^nelon. Thus France in the seventeenth century was laying the foundations of speculative philosophy in contradistinction to the triumphant empiricism of Bacon and Locke in England, as in the eighteenth century she defended experience against the nebulous metaphysics of G*ermany ; going on, step by step, guided by her native gift of lucidity, in the two highways opened to the world by Plato and Aristotle, and always aiming to re-establish equilibrium by leaning toward that side which contemporaneous exaggerations were endangering. Pascal (1623-1662), another great philosophical thinker, takes rank also as a great writer by his Lettres provinciales (1657), against the loose system of morals, upheld by the Jesuits, and in his Pensees, fragments of a work which he intended to compose upon the truth of Christianity. With Pascal should be mentioned his friends, the pious recluses of Port-Eoyal, intensely earnest, but somewhat narrow minds, who founded, in the heart of Catholicism and of the Galilean Church, an energetic and active sect, which was persecuted by Louis XIV., and which revived theological discussions in the middle of the seventeenth century. The principal doctors of Jansenism were Le Maistre de Sacy, Antoine Arnauld (whose life was a perpetual theological discussion with the Jesuits, with the Protestants, and with Malebranche), Nicole, and Lancelot. Erudition. — A few laborious spirits continued in en- deavors to elucidate classical antiquity, and to clear up the chaos of the nation's early history. They had little or no influence upon the language, since usually they were not stylists, and many of their books were in Latin, but they had a powerful influence upon thought. The greatest of these learned men were Casaubon, Scaliger, Salmasius, Du- cange, and Baluze, several Benedictines of Saint-Maur, Mabillon, Montfaucon, etc., and the Protestant Bayle. M^zeray (1610-1683) wrote a history of France to Louis XIIL, which is more valuable for its style than for its matter; Abb6 Fleury (1640-1723) wrote an ecclesiastical history of considerable repute; Le Nain de Tillemont, a learned history of the Roman emperors. Literary Influence of France. — No other nation of Europe THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 475 could exhibit such a magnificent collection of literary pro- ductions. Italy and Germany were in complete moral degeneration, Spain still possessed eminent painters and too prolific writers. England had had Shakespeare in the beginning of the century, Milton in the middle, and Dry den at the end; but its literature had not gained influence be- yond its own island. France, on the contrary, by the recog- nized superiority of her wit and her taste, forced all Europe to accept the sway of her artists and her authors. Sciences. — In the sciences she kept abreast of the move- ment, but was not at its head ; for though she had Descartes and Pascal, other countries possessed Kepler, Galileo, New- ton, and Leibnitz. Alchemy, magic, astrology, all the follies of the Middle Age, became sciences from the moment that man ceased to concern himself with the impenetrable essence of things, and instead of stopping before isolated phenomena proceeded to investigate the laws which produce them. This period began with Copernicus, in the sixteenth cen- tury ; but it was not until the seventeenth century that the revolution was accomplished, and triumphed under Kepler, Bacon, and Descartes. Descartes greatly advanced algebra by inventing the notation of powers by numerical exponents ; also the geom- etry of curves, which enabled him to solve problems hith- erto considered insoluble. He discovered the true law of refraction ; he believed, with Galileo, in the theory of the earth's motion round the sun, and his system of vortices, though in itself chimerical, was the germ of the celebrated Newtonian hypothesis of attraction. To the mind of Des- cartes, as to that of Newton, the problem of the physical universe is a problem of mechanics, and Descartes was the first to show, if not the solution, at any rate the true nature of the problem. Pascal composed his treatise on conic sections, at the age of sixteen. A little later he invented the calculus of probabilities, demonstrated the weight of the air by his famous experiment on the Puy de D6me, and invented the dray, and perhaps the hydraulic press. After these two great men come a numerous crowd of others, — Pierre Eermat, perhaps the most powerful mathe- matical mind of this period; Abb6 Mariotte and Denis Papin, who first thought of employing compressed steam as a motive force, and made in Germany, on the Eulda, some experiments with a steamboat which ran against the current. 476 THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. Geography was reformed by Nicolas Sanson and GuiL lauine Delisle ; Tournefort revived the study of botany. The royal press equalled the Dutch publications in correct- ness and elegance ; and surgery continued the traditions of Ambroise Par6. Three foreigners whom Colbert attracted to France justified by their works the favors bestowed by the king, — the Dane Roemer, the Dutchman Huyghens, and the Italian Domenico Cassini. Arts ; Paintings. — Except in painting, the great age of French art is the sixteenth, and not the seventeenth, century. There is nothing among the monuments of Louis XIV. which equals the central pavilion of the Tuileries, the old Louvre, a part of Fontainebl6au, or the chateaux of Francis I. and Henry II. But there were four painters of the first rank ; Poussin, Lesueur, Claude Lorraine, and Lebrun ; one admirable sculptor, Puget; architects of talent. Mansard and Perrault ; and a skilful musician, Lulli. Poussin (1594-1665) lived a long time at Rome and was considered the greatest painter of his time ; in spite of his too sombre coloring he remains at the head of the French school on account of the moral elevation, the dramatic inter- est, the richness and poetic quality of his compositions, his pursuit of the ideal, and the dignity of his life. Lesueur and Lebrun may be regarded as his pupils. Lesueur was born at Paris, lived poor and obscure, and died at the age of thirty-eight in 1655. He was a frank and gentle spirit ; his paintings, always graceful, even in the sternest subjects, by softness of tone and delicacy of touch express admirably the sentiments and even the deepest affections of the per- sonages whom he represented. Of another sort was his rival, Lebrun, born at Paris two years later (1619), whose talent, often theatrical, better suited the taste of Louis XIV. The king appointed him his chief jjainter, and commissioned him to decorate the great gallery of Versailles. He was at work on it fourteen years. He was, until the death of Colbert, the arbiter and even the dictator of the arts in France ; his influence and sometimes his touch may be recog- nized in all the works of the time. His drawing was weak and heavy, the expression of his faces somewhat exaggerated ; he had neither the bright coloring of Titian nor the natural grace of Lesueur, nor the spirit of Eubens, nor Poussin's depth of thought. Yet he holds the chief place among painters of the second rank. The establishment of the THE AGE OF LOUIS XI V. 477 French school at Rome is due to him ; thither the young artists who have taken what is called the grand prix de Home are sent at the expense of the government to finish their studies among the masterpieces of antiquity and the great Italian masters. A place must be kept beside these four master-painters for Philippe de Champagne, who left some admirable portraits. Claude GeMe, called Claude le Lorrain (born in Lorraine in 1600, died at Rome in 1682), is the best of the French landscape painters, and one of the best in Europe : he is distinguished for the richness of his style and the beauty of his coloring. Others to be noted are Rigaud, the most eminent of French portrait painters, and Watteau, of Valenciennes (1684-1722), who inaugurated the genre style with mannerism, but with brilliant coloring. Sculpture and Engraving. — Puget, like Michael Angelo, whose pride and energy he equalled, was at the same time painter, architect, and sculptor. He was born at Marseilles in 1622, and died in 1694. He was for a long time engaged in carving wooden figures for the sterns and galleries of the ships of Toulon, built several splendid hotels on the Cane- bi^re, and filled Genoa with his masterpieces. Louis XIV. ordered of him the group of Perseus and that of Milo of Croton, remarkable for energy of expression and truthful- ness of design. But Puget was a man of too independent a character to succeed at Versailles. He left no pupils. Coysevox, the two Coustous, and Girardon are the product of another system ; they are rather sculptors of the graceful school, masters of a brilliant and easy style without ele- vation. Girardon filled Versailles with his works; the mausoleum of Cardinal Richelieu at the Sorbonne is his masterpiece. Architecture. — Francois Mansard forsook the elegance and grace of the Renaissance for a style which he thought majestic, but which was in reality heavy. He invented the mansard roof. His nephew, Jules Hardouin Mansard, was a cold and regular genius, who almost attained grandeur of design, because Louis XIV. gave him unlimited space and money ; but who seems wanting in inspiration and elegance, except in his beautiful cupola of the Invalides. Claude Per- rault (1628-1688) was at once a surgeon, a physician, and a great architect. Music. — The Florentine, Lulli, came to Paris at thirty years of age, and was, with Quinault, the real founder of 478 THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. the opera in France. His music now seems cold and char- acterless, even in the case of sacred music, in which he excelled. His contemporaries held another opinion : " I do not believe," wrote. Madame de S6vign6, upon hearing the service sung for the Chancellor Seguier, "that there will be any other music than his in heaven." Monuments and Endowments. — The principal monuments of the reign of Louis XIV. are : the Val-de-Grace, the Obser- vatoire, built after the designs of the astronomer Picard and of Claude Perrault (1666) ; the Porte St, Denis, and the Porte St. Martin; the Invalides, with its church; the Place du Carrousel, between the Louvre and the Tuileries ; the Place des Victoires, and the Place Vend6me, built or rather en- larged to receive the statues which Marshal de la Feuillade and the municipality of Paris had erected to Louis XIV. at the time of the treaty of Nymwegen. . Work upon the Tuileries had been carried on from the beginning of the reign ; the west fa9ade was completed, the garden was reunited to the chateau and laid out upon a new plan. There was more to be done to the Louvre. Under Louis XIII., Lemercier had finished the western interior facade. The masterpiece of Pierre Lescot was now to be completed. Colbert submitted the matter to competition ; the plans of the physician Claude Perrault were preferred. Between the years 1666 and 1674 the celebrated colonnade of the Louvre was built. At the same time the outer south- ern fagade overlooking the Seine, and also the northern, were commenced. These great works were at first carried for- ward with great activity ; by degrees the work progressed more slowly, and finally it was suspended entirely in spite of the remonstrances of Colbert. The king then built Ver- sailles. Louis XIV. disliked Paris, which had given birth to the Fronde, and whose monuments told of so many other princes. Versailles seemed to him a safer place, which he could fill with his own majesty, and where the court, hitherto lost in the immense capital city, would assume all the distinction of royal domesticity as the palace of the monarch became surrounded by a princely town. The works undertaken from the year 1661 were entrusted to Jules Mansard, and were continued without interruption till the end of t,he reign. Le N6tre, Lebrun, and Girardon embellished this royal dwelling-place, which cost two hundred and fifty or THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. 479 three hundred millions of the nation's money, and where nothing is commemorative of France but everything sug- gests the king. Versailles was poorly supplied with water ; the machine of Marly was built at great expense. Still other waterworks, of gigantic extent, were projected; but after enormous expense had been incurred, the king was forced to abandon them. The king also built at this time the great Trianon and Marly (1679), which, according to Saint-Simon, cost as much as Versailles. Last of all, the chateaux of St. Germain, Fontainebleau, Chambord, St. Cloud, and Sceaux were en- larged and restored. It is estimated that 160,000,000 livres, which would amount at the present time to two or three times as much, were spent on these constructions. There was certainly an excessive disproportion between the ex- penses incurred for the fancies of the king and those which had for their object the interest of the country. This was the inevitable consequence of a political system which placed at the discretion of the prince, without discussion and without control, the whole public welfare. Beginning of a New Literature. — Louis XIV. established the absolute authority of kings, but at the same time he encouraged industry and literature. Thus he fostered the two forces destined to overturn absolutism itself. The one would give the Third Estate wealth, which would cause it to demand political safeguards ; the other, intelligence, which would cause it to demand rights. The spirit of criticism which, during the minority of Louis XIV., had advanced so powerfully in the sphere of philosophical and religious subjects, had recoiled before the splendors of his reign, and had either become silent or taken refuge in the cells of a few recluses. It reappeared when sincere or offi- cial enthusiasm fell exhausted beneath the repeated strokes of public misfortune. The study of letters leads us then to the same result as that of politics, and we shall end this chapter, like the preceding one, by announcing the approach of threatening changes. FOURTEENTH PERIOD. The Eighteenth Centuey. — Development of THE Abuses of Absolute Monarchy. — Prog- ress OF Public Opinion. (1715-1789.) CHAPTER LV. MINORITY OP LOUIS XV. AND REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS. (1715-1733 A.D.) Regency of the Duke of Orleans (1715-1723). — The weight of the authority of Louis XIV. had been crushing during his last years. When the nation felt it lifted, it breathed more freely ; the court and the city burst into dis- respectful demonstrations of joy ; the very coffin of the great king was insulted. The new king was five years old. Who was to govern ? Louis XIV. had indeed left a will, but he had not deceived himself with regard to the value of it. " As soon as I am dead, it will be disregarded ; I know too well what became of the will of the king, my father ! " As after the death of Henry IV. and Louis XIIL, there was a moment of feudal reaction; but the decline of the nobility may be measured by the successive weakening of its efforts in each case. Under Mary de' Medici it was still able to make a civil war; under Anne of Austria it produced the Fronde ; after Louis XIV. it only produced memorials. The Duke of Saint-Simon desired that the first prince of the blood, Philip of Orleans, to whom the will left only a shadow of power, should demand the regency from the dukes and peers, as heirs and representatives of the ancient grand vassals. But the Duke of Orleans convoked the REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS. 481 Parliament in order to break down tlie posthumous despotism of the old king, feigning that the king had committed the government to his hands. The regency, with the right to appoint the council of regency as he would, was conferred upon him, and the command of the royal household was taken from the Duke of Maine, who yielded this important prerogative only after a violent altercation. As a reward for the services of his two allies, the Duke of Orleans called the high nobility into affairs, by substitut- ing for the ministries six councils, in which they occupied almost all the places, and accorded to Parliament the right of remonstrance. But two years had hardly passed when the ministries were re-established, and the Parliament again condemned to silence. It was plain that neither nobility nor Parliament were to be the heirs of the. absolute mon- archy. State of France. — The regent had possession of the gov- ernment ; but the heritage left by Louis XIV. was a terrible thing : more than 2,400,000,000 of public debt, with a cash balance of 800,000 livres ; an excessive scarcity of specie ; commerce paralyzed ; the nobility overwhelmed with debt ; the magistrates and the annuitants long deprived of the revenues due them from the State ; the peasants in need of everything ; many portions of the country uncultivated and deserted. Peace, at any price, was necessary to enable the country to recover and the regent to maintain his position. Alliance with England (1717). — In England, the Whigs again asked for war ; but Europe was for the moment tired of fighting, and the house of Hanover felt the necessity of strengthening its position before attempting anything out- side. As for Spain, Philip V. again claimed the regency, and proposed, if the young king died, to claim the crown himself. To form an alliance against Spain with England, the jealous guardian of Philip V.'s renunciations of the throne of Prance, and thus to fortify himself against personal dan- ger, was the policy of the regent — a policy which was useful to himself, and might be made useful also to France ; but that was conditional on the way in which it was carried out. By the Triple Alliance concluded January 4, 1717, between France, England, and Holland, the regent consented to send away the Stuart Pretender, to demolish the works at Mardyk, and fill up the port of Dunkirk. Commerce and even navigation in the South Sea was forbidden to the French. 482 MINORITY OF LOUIS XV. The Protestant succession in England was recognized, and in return tlie English, government recognized the succession to the throne of France established by the treaty of Utrecht ; that is to say, the exclusion of Philip V. ; finally, a defensive alliance betAveen the two countries was concluded. War with Spain (1719-1720). — Cardinal Alberoni, the bold minister of Philip V., had undertaken to restore the finances, agriculture, and marine of Spain, and to win back the domains which had been taken away by the treaty of Utrecht. The emperor had enough to occupy him with the Turks ; to give England something to do, Alberoni intended sending against her the king of Sweden, Charles XII. A plot was organized in France, among all the enemies of the regent, by the Spanish ambassador Cellamare and the Duch- ess of Maine. But the plot was discovered, and the Duke of Cellamare arrested together with the Duke and Duchess of Maine. The regent declared for reprisals. A new treaty, in 1718, reunited France, England, Hol- land, and Austria. The English attacked the Spanish fleet, without declaration of war, on the coast of Sicily and de- feated it (1718). Another fleet, which was to convey the Pretender to Scotland, was destroyed by a tempest, and the English took Vigo, while Berwick entered Spain with the French army (1719). Alberoni succumbed to such an accumulation of reverses, and Spain subscribed to the con- ditions of the quadruple alliance. The Duke of Savoy was forced to accept Sardinia in exchange for Sicily, which, with the Milanese, remained in the possession of the emperor. But the eldest child of the second queen of Spain was given the reversion of the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Tuscany (1720). This war had thus established more firmly the domination of Austria over Italy, and that of England upon the ocean. France had spent millions and had won no glory. Dubois. — Who, then, served the enemies of France so faithfully ? A councillor to whom the regent confided everything, the abbe Dubois. " All vice," says Saint-Simon, " perfidy, avarice, debauchery, ambition, the basest flattery, struggled in him for the mastery." Added to these he pos- sessed a supple and active mind, extreme maliciousness, and a tremendous capacity for work. Such was the former preceptor of the Duke of Orleans, who had communicated to his pupil as many of his vices as the generous nature of BEGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS. 483 the latter would absorb. Dubois had negotiated the treaty of the Triple Alliance very skilfully. The regent rewarded him for it by giving him, at the request of Great Britain, the ministry of foreign affairs. England, we are assured, paid him enough to insure his good offices,. — fifty thousand crowns a year. He did even better after; he persuaded the regent to make him archbishop of Cambrai, received all the orders in one day, and profaned by his presence the seat so recently consecrated by the virtues of F^nelon. Finally, a little later, he became cardinal by spending eight millions. Disorder of the Finances. — A debt of 2,400,000,000 livres, of which almost a third had already matured ; a gross revenue in 1715 of 165,000,000, a net revenue of 69,000,000, for an expenditure of 147,000,000, and consequently a deficit of 78,000,000; the greater part of the receipts for the follow- ing year already expended : such was the condition of the finances at the death of Louis XIV. Some advised bank- ruptcy. The Duke de Noailles, president of the covmcil of finances, obtained at first some resources by recoining specie ; then he undertook to diminish the debt by a reduc- tion of the annuities and a strict examination into frauds, and to reduce the expenses. Several persons were ruined by the investigation, but the greater number escaped by bribery. 220,000,000 had been counted upon from this operation ; it produced only 70,000,000, of which only 15,000,000 in cash ever reached the treasury. In spite of these performances, and several useful measures, the deficit of the year 1716 was still 97,000,000. The remedy, there- fore, had not been found. Then a man came forward who claimed to suggest the proper one. Law's Financial Revolution (1715-1720). — The Scotch- man, John Law, initiated at an early age in the operations of banking, later accustomed to the combinations of gam- bling, by which he had made his fortune, and gifted with great powers of intelligence and speech, conceived the idea of creating a new power, — that of credit, basing his deduc- tions on this half-truth, that abundance of specie gives prosperity to commerce and industry, from which he drew the entirely false conclusion that it is advantageous to substitute paper liioney, which is susceptible of indefinite multiplication, for specie. The Duke de Noailles was opposed to making the first experiment upon the finances of the State, and Law was 484 MINORITY OF LOUIS XV. obliged to limit his operations to tlie founding of a private bank with a capital of 6,000,000, the stock payable, one- fourth in specie and three-fourths in state notes. The bank discounted at six per cent per annum, and soon even at four, and issued notes which it paid at sight, in specie. Then every one rushed to it, and contended for its paper, which singularly facilitated commercial transactions. Business revived, and the State established the bank's reputation for solvency, by ordering the royal treasury officials to receive its paper as money in payment of dues and taxes (1717). In 1718 it was made a royal bank. But Law had added to the bank a company which ob- tained exclusive privileges of trade in the valley of the Mississippi. Marvelloiis results were expected from the exploration of Louisiana. Eeports were spread of mines of gold and silver discovered there. Soon the Compagnie d'Occident, absorbing the Senegal Company and the West India Company, took the general title of Compagnie des Indes, and prospectively opened all portions of the globe to speculators. Such were the extravagant hopes formed upon this enterprise, that shares of five hundred livres were sold at ten, twenty, thirty, and forty times their value. The treasury notes, which had fallen to about seventy or eighty per cent, went up in value on account of the need of them for buying shares, and the State paid its debts with a paper Avhich it could multiply at will without alarming credit. This was the most brilliant moment of the system. The shares went up, in October, 1719, to twenty thousand francs. The Hue Quincampoix, in which the royal bank stood, was constantly crowded to suffocation. All classes were given up to frenzied stock-jobbing. Enormous profits were made in a moment. A tanner of Montelimart retired with 70,000,- 000, a banker's servant with 50,000,000, a Savoyard with 40,000,000. The Duke of Bourbon and his mother won 60,- 000,000. The regent won also, and as much as he wanted ; but all for his courtiers, for he did not know how to keep anything. Public morality fell very low under the effects of these sudden changes of fortune and unlawful gains. But the bank was serving its purpose ; it loaned to the State 1,600,000,000 of paper money, with which the_ latter reimbursed its creditors, and which returned to the bank in exchange for the shares of the company. In vain Law en- deavored to moderate the issue of paper ; he could no longer REGENCY OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS. 485 control it. The issues exceeded 3,000,000,000, while the entire specie of France did not amount to more than 700,- 000,000. This disproportion made a catastrophe certain. The whole system was kept up only by the confidence of the public. About the end of 1719 a few persons lost enthu- siasm ; the more prudent ones drew specie from the bank, or sold their shares for gold, silver, diamonds, or lands. The shares ceased to go up, wavered, then fell rapidly. Every one foresaw the disaster and demanded specie. Law, who had become comptroller-general, struggled desperately ; spe- cie payment was suspended; no one was allowed to have gold or silver in his house; there were prosecutions, domi- ciliary visits, and denunciations. Law barely escaped being torn in pieces. Then by a sudden revulsion, the State, Avhich a little while before had proscribed coin, declared that it would receive no more payments in paper: this was the death-warrant of the system. Law escaped from France wholly impoverished (1720). It now remained to liquidate accounts. The public debt was fovmd to be increased by nearly 13,000,000 of interest per annum. But the extinc- tion of a great number of offices, and the redemption of several alienated revenues, compensated for this increase. The State was left in about the same condition as that in which Law found it. Change in Manners and Ideas. — Such is the history of this famous system. It showed the power of credit; it gave industry and commerce an energetic impulse ; it de- livered agriculture from the tithes on landed property, and from the arrears due on the taille. And, though it made sad ruin, it ameliorated the public fortune by a reduction of 20,000,000 on taxation, and by a redistribution more favor- able to the lower classes. But while reversing the condi- tions and fortunes of men, it also accelerated the change already begun in manners and ideas. That court which sur- rounded Louis XIV., with its grave and solemn aspect, had been dispersed. It could not be brought together again under a minor king, with a regent whose first thought was of pleasure and who cared little for etiquette or regal dig- nity. Debauchery had, until then, kept within certain limits ; cynicism of manners as well as of thought was now adopted openly. The regent set the example. There had never been seen such frivolity of conduct nor such licentious wit 486 MINORITY OF LOUIS XV. as that exhibited in the wild meetings of the roxies of the Duke of Orleans. There had been formerly but one salon in France, that of the king; a thousand were now open to a society which, no longer occupied with religious questions, or with war, or the grave futilities of etiquette, felt that pleasure and change were necessities. The CEdiije of Vol- taire and the Lettres persanes of Montesquieu opened the fire upon the old regime. Pestilence in Marseilles (1720). — During these Saturna- lia of the court a terrible scourge had desolated Provence, where the plague carried off 85,000 persons, and a famine succeeded the epidemic. Death of Dubois and the Duke of Orleans (1723). —Louis XV. attained his majority February 13, 1723, being then thir- teen years old. This terminated the regency of the Duke of Orleans. But the king was still to remain a long time under tutelage ; the duke, in order to retain the power after resigning the regency, had in advance given Dubois the title of prime minister. At the death of the wretched Dubois he took the office himself, but held it only tour months, dying of apoplexy in December, 1723. France had been eight years in his hands ; the time had arrived for the outburst of the moral revolution prepared by the last years of Louis XIV. REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 487 CHAPTER LVI. REIGN OP LOUIS XV. (1733-1774 A.D.) Ministry of the Duke of Bourbon (1723-1726).— The Duke of Bourbon, who became prime minister on the death of the regent, had scarcely better morals than those of his predecessor. But he manifested great harshness towards the Protestants and Jansenists. He renewed, he even aggra- vated, the severities of Louis XIV. Emigration recom- menced, as at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes ; and the government was constrained by the public outcry to mitigate some of its cruelties. The English ministry had continued to Madame de Prie, mistress of the Duke of Bourbon, the pension which it had, it is believed, granted to Dubois, and therefore the duke kept Prance in alliance with England. The regent had recently drawn closer to the cabinet of Madrid, and had asked for Louis XV. the hand of an infanta. The young princess, only four years old, was taken to Paris to be brought up. Such a marriage was advantageous for the house of Orleans ; for since it could not be solemnized for a long time, it would leave the throne long without an heir, and conse- quently open to the first prince of the blood. But the new minister wished the king to take a wife who should owe everything to the minister, and should show her gratitude for his favor. Stanislas Leszczynski, the exiled king of Poland, was then living at Weissenburg, on an income granted him by France. The prime minister chose for queen of France the daughter of Stanislas, the amiable and pious Marie Leszczynski, although she was seven years older than the king, very poor, without beauty, and already old in appear- ance. The infanta of Spain was sent home to her father : this was the second repudiation of the policy of Louis XIV. within ten years. Philip v., indignant at the insult, hastened to conclude with Austria the treaty of Vienna (1725). The king of 488 REIGN OF LOUIS XV. Spain, granted to the Austrian merchants of the Ostend Company privileges which extended to all the ports of his domains, and guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction by which Charles assured the succession to his daughter, contrary to the custom of the Austrian dominions. In return, the em- peror engaged to assist Spain to recapture Gibraltar and Port Mahon ; he renewed the promises made in 1720 re- specting the duchies of Parma and Tuscany, and promised two archduchesses to the two infantes. Meanwhile Pleury took the place of the Duke of Bourbon. This ambitious, prudent man was bishop of Pr^jus when Louis XIV. appointed him preceptor to his grandson. The amiable and witty old man gained the entire confidence of his pupil, and could have been prime minister at once upon the death of the regent ; but he did not wish to take the posi- tion immediately. Yet he neglected nothing which could render him dear and indispensable to the king. The duke, on the contrary, brought himself into discredit. The re-es- tablishment of antiquated taxes, long unused, was disap- proved of. There was dissatisfaction also at others of his measures, and especially at an attempt toward uniform taxation of land. This time it was not the people only, but the privileged classes who were threatened. There was such an outcry that the ministry went down before it. One day the king, on setting out for Rambouillet, said to the duke, in a gracious tone, " Cousin, do not keep me waiting at supper." The same evening a lieutenant of the body- guards conducted the duke to Chantilly (1726). Ministry of Fleury (1726-1743); Internal Affairs; the Convulsionnaires. — Thus the septuagenarian bishop of Pr^jus, who shortly after became cardinal, rose to power. He refused the title of prime minister, took only that of minister of State, and roused the king to declare that he would himself take charge of the government. But in fact, Louis contented himself with showing to the council board his handsome and perfectly impassive face. Beyond that, when he was neither gambling nor hunting, he made tapes- try, turned snuff-boxes out of wood, or read with equal interest the secret correspondence which he maintained with his ambassadors, unknown to his ministers, or the scanda- lous anecdotes which the lieutenant of police sent him regularly each day. Pleury did the work of the govern- ment alone, but he did it modestly and quietly. He let REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 489 France repair her losses undisturbed, and enricli herself by an immense commerce, treating the State as a powerful and robust body which could take care of itself. The people were so tired of political and financial breaknecks, that this senile minister, this government which governed as little as possi- ble, was almost popular, and lasted seventeen years. Fleury set up for his aim, peace and economy. He won the blessings of the people by certain reductions of taxation. He restored the public credit, re-established for the time the balance between receipts and expenditures, and constructed roads. Still, to leave industry and commerce to themselves, was a good policy only in case they were free ; and besides, he allowed the French marine to go to ruin. Nor was Fleury tolerant. He set again in operation the bull Unigenitus ; he imprisoned several ecclesiastics who refused to sign it, removed the Jansenist professors of the Sorbonne, and cancelled a protest of the Parliament. Later, he exiled forty of its members, and soon after recalled them for fear of some disturbance (1730), so that Parliament, em- boldened, allowed the spirit of opposition again to enter the sanctuary of the laws. In 1727 an ascetic Jansenist deacon died in the odor of sanctity. It was soon reported that he had worked miracles ; persons who stretched themselves on the tomb of the deacon felt convulsions, or nervous trem- blings, sometimes injurious, sometimes beneficial. There were scenes both extravagant and scandalous ; but the gov- ernment had the wisdom not to interfere. Foreign Affairs ; Reconciliation with Spain (1726-1731). — The Duke of Bourbon had bequeathed to his successor a quarrel with Spain, then allied to Austria, which obliged France to continue in alliance with England. Sir Robert Walpole, the principal counsellor of George II., agreed with Fleury in desiring peace. The war between the two leagues had had no other effect than a fruitless attack of the Spaniards upon Gibraltar in 1727. Fleury stopped it the same year. In 1731, at the death of the last Duke of Parma and Piacenza, the infante Don Carlos was put in possession of those states. The emperor withdrew his opposition only after the powers had accepted his Pragmatic Sanction. A good understanding was now re-established between the courts of Madrid and Vienna. • War of the Polish Succession (1733-1735). — The death of Augustus II.; king of Poland, disturbed this peace. The 490 REIGN OF LOUIS XT. succession to him was claimed by Stanislas Leszczynski, and by the Elector of Saxony, whom the Russians and Austrians supported as candidate. Fleury would willingly have taken no part in this quarrel, but public opinion obliged him to sustain the fatlier of the queen. He, however, was so slow in making his decision, that Augustus III., crowned at Cracow, forced Stanislas to take refuge in Danzig, where the Russians besieged him. Fleury sent fifteen hundred men to aid the candidate of France. They made brave ef- forts to raise the siege, but were finally forced to capitulate. Public opinion forced Fleury to attempt retaliation for the treaties of Utrecht. He concluded with Spain and Savoy a treaty which promised to the king of Sardinia the Milanese, and to the Bourbons of Spain the kingdom of Xaples for the infante Don Carlos. Securing the neutrality of England and Holland, he sent two armies, one to the Rhine, the other to Italy, commanded by the old marshals Berwick and Villars (1733). The first took Kehl, in spite of Prince Eugene, laid siege to Philippsburg, and was killed m battle. Villars, after two brilliant campaigns, died at Turin. His successors gained victories Avhich delivered the Milanese into the hands of the French, and installed the infante on the throne of Naples and Sicily. This was a glorious revival for France ; but the timidity of the cardinal iiindered her from reaping the fruits of her victories. A complete renunciation of Ital}^ could have been reqxiired of the emperor, and the independence of the peninsula could have been restored : but he was only compelled to give up the Two Sicilies, and compensated by the cession of Parma and Piacenza for himself and by having Tuscany given to his son-in-law in exchange for Lorraine. A supplementary clause assigned to Stanislas, as compensation for the throne of Poland, Lorraiiie and Bar, which, at his death, were to revert to France. These conditions formed the treaty of Vienna (1735- 1738). This was the most briUiant period of the ministry of Fleury. " After the peace of Vienna," says Frederick the G-reat, " France was the arbiter of Europe. Her armies had triumphed in Italy as well as in Germany. Her min- ister at Constantinople, the Count of Villeneuve, had con- cluded the peace of Belgrade, the last glorious treaty that Turkey ever signed, and which gave to her Servia, a part of Wallachia, and Beli^rade."' REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 491 War of the Austrian Succession (1741-1748). — In 1740 the emperor Charles VI. died. In order to assure his hereditary possessions to his daughter, Maria Theresa, he had obtained from all the European states, at great sacri- fices, a solemn recognition of his Pragmatic Sanction, and he left to Maria Theresa an ample collection of parchments. " An army of two hundred thousand men," says Frederick II., " would have been more valuable." He had scarcely ex- pired when live claimants came forward. The Elector of Bavaria, the king of Spain, the Elector of Saxony, claimed the entire heritage by right of blood ; the king of Sardinia claimed the duchy of Milan, and the king of Prussia, Fred- erick II., four duchies in Silesia. Frederick II. had not a large kingdom, but his father had left him a rich treasury and a fine army, and nature had given him the rarest talents. He began by laying hold upon what he claimed. The battle of Mollwitz put him in possession of three- fourths of Silesia (1741). Alliance with Frederic II. — The Count of Belle-Isle pro- posed in the French council an alliance with Prussia, and a plan which restricted Maria Theresa to Hungary, Lower Austria, and Belgium, and divided the rest among the claimants ; the Elector of Bavaria was to be emperor. France took nothing for herself. It was thought that the abasement of Austria would be the elevation of France, and that by dividing Eastern Germany, France would be relieved of all anxiety on the Rhine. This plan was adopted in opposition to the opinion of Fleury, and the treaty of Nymphenburg was concluded upon this basis (1741). Bohemian Campaign ; Defection of Frederick II. ; Death of Fleury (1741-1743). — France put into the field an army of only forty thousand men, and sent it into the heart of Bavaria. Capturing Linz, the j^rincipal barrier of Austria on the upper Danube, the Elector of Bavaria might have seized Vienna ; but preferred to conquer Bohemia. Maria Theresa had time to arouse her faithful Hungarians ; while the elector was being crowned emperor at Frankfort, the Austrians entered Munich (January, 1742). Frederick threatened Moravia, and defeated the Austrians at Chotusitz in Bohemia (May); but Maria Theresa was wise enough to make sacrifices in season : she gave up Silesia to him. Upon this condition, Frederick set aside the promise he had made to France. 492 EEIGN OF LOUIS XV. This defection influenced others. The Elector of Saxony withdrew from the war ; the king of Sardinia joined in it on the side of Austria. England, which had just overturned the pacific ministry of Walpole (February, 1742), and exacted a war against Spain because the latter refused to open her colonies to English trade, now loiidly demanded war against France, whose commerce .was increasing enor- mously. She promised Maria Theresa a subsidy of eight million francs, and fell upon the French ships everywhere. France had taken up arms for the benefit of others, and now the whole weight of the contest was about to fall upon her alone. The French army in Bohemia had already been cut off by the Austrians ; they even besieged it in Prague. Fleury spoiled everything by his timidity. Maillebois was operating in Franconia, but he could do nothing for the deliverance of Prague except to seize upon Eger. Along the line of retreat thus afforded, Belle-Isle, leaving Prague with fourteen thou- sand men, made, through the ice, the snow, and the enemy, a glorious but painful retreat. Soon after, Fleury died at the age of eighty-nine. Two new ministers — in the Avar depart- ment, the Count of Argenson (1743) ; in the department of finance, De Machault (1745) — conducted with Avisdom the affairs committed to their charge. Dettingen (1743); Defection of Bavaria (1745). — England had joined the contest ; fifty thousand English and Ger- mans arrived in the valley of the Main ; Marshal Noailles hemmed them in at Dettingen, but the foolish impetuosity of the Duke of Gramont frustrated these skilful combina- tions, and there was only a bloody defeat instead of a victory. De Broglie, who commanded the army of the Danube, was forced to fall back before the Austrians as far as the Rhine, and Noailles was compelled also to retreat (1743). In order to retrieve their fortunes, it was considered necessary to put the king at the head of the armies. A new favorite, the Duchess of Ch^teauroux, an energetic and ambitious woman, endeavored to arouse him from his torpor. A serious illness detained him at Metz. At the news of his recovery the churches rendered thanks to God for having restored " Louis the Well-beloved" (1744). How easy was the task for a royalty which was still so popular ! Meanwhile the king of Prussia, alarmed at the progress of Austria and her alliance with Russia, again took up REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 493 arms, and penetrated into Bohemia as far as Prague. This diversion disengaged the line of the Ehine. The emperor Charles VII. returned to his electorate, but only to die. His son made a treaty with Maria Theresa, and renounced all pretension to the Austrian succession (1745). Marshal Saxe ; Fontenoy (1745) . — France had no longer any object in the war ; but it was necessary to conquer peace. She sought it in the Netherlands. Marshal Saxe, a natural son of the king of Poland, invested Tournai ; fifty-five thou- sand English and Dutch, under the command of the Duke of Cumberland, approached the town. The marshal decided to offer a defensive battle. He took up a strong position at Fontenoy. At the beginning of the battle (May 11, 1745) the English and Dutch attacks were repulsed; then the Duke of Cumberland massed his infantry in single column so as to pierce the centre of the French line. The English advanced slowly, as if upon parade. They outflanked Fon- tenoy. Ten regiments successively charged against this long column, immovable on account of its mass and its bravery, but were repulsed. The battle seemed endangered ; the marshal prepared to retreat, but seeing the English column halt for a moment, he ordered a general attack on its flank. The column, surrounded, bent under the shock, opened, shivered ; from that moment its strength was broken. The severed battalions fled hastily to the reserve. The allies had lost twelve thousand or fourteen thousand men ; the French, more than seven thousand. This was a great victory, and had important results. Tournai, Ghent, the general depot of the enemy, Oudenarde, Brussels, Dendermonde, and Ostend capitulated. At the beginning of the following year the French entered Brussels. Second Defection of Prussia; Reverses in Italy (1745- 1746) . — The victories of Hohenf riedberg and Kesseldorf having thrown Saxony and Dresden open to the king of Prussia, he signed at Dresden a new treaty with Maria The- resa, which confirmed the cession of Silesia. This defection left the French without an ally in Germany ; the defeat of the Pretender, Charles Stuart, at Culloden (1746), prevented a revolution in England. Maria Theresa and George II., freed from all anxiety, the one with regard to Prussia, the other on account of the Jacobites, infused renewed vigor into the hostilities. Maria Theresa sought to indemnify herself in Italy. The French and Spanish army had been 494 REIGN OF LOUIS XV. gaining some successes there, but now the victory of Pia- cenza (1746) and the defection of Spain gave to the Im- perialists all the northern part of the peninsula. The English, Austrians, and Sardinians attempted an invasion of Provence, but were compelled by Belle-Isle to retreat. Raucoux and Lawfeld (1746-1747). — In the south, accord- ingly, France did nothing but defend her frontier ; but in the north she had brilliant success. The battle of Raucoux, Avon by Marshal Saxe, marked the year 1746. Louis, after each victory, demanded nothing but peace, "not wishing," he said, ''to negotiate like a merchant, but like a king." This unusual disinterestedness was suspected, and Holland, alarmed at seeing the French at her gates, re-established the stadtholderate as in 1672. The czarina Elizabeth (1747) placed at the disposal of the enemies of France fifty Eus- sian ships and thirty-seven thousand men, who set out for the Rhine. France alone, facing all obstacles, was still advancing in the Netherlands, peace in one hand, and the sword in the other. Marshal Saxe won the battle of Law- feld (1747), and the "impregnable" Bergen-op-Zoom was taken. Holland was invaded. In 1748 Saxe invested Maastricht. Naval Operations ; La Bourdonnais and Dupleix. — The naval war between England and France had begun in 1744, with an indecisive action at Toulon. Brest and Toulon were blockaded by the English, and Antibes bombarded. France could not, with thirty-five ships-of-the-line, cope with one hundred and ten. Her chiefs of squadrons at least made defeat honorable by their heroic courage. " In this war," says an English historian, "England owed her vic- tories only to the number of her vessels." In America, the English captured Louisburg and Cape Breton (1745). In the Indies, France had two distinguished leaders, — La Bourdonnais and Dupleix ; if they could have acted in con- cert, and if they had been properly supported, they would have won Hindustan for France. The first had established everything in Bourbon (Beunion) and the Isle de France (Mauritius), of which he was governor for the India Com- pany, — cultivation, arsenals, fortifications. An engineer, a general, and a sailor, he stopped at nothing ; and from Mau- ritius, which, with its excellent harbor, had become the key to the Indian Ocean, he sailed about over that sea and drove the English from it. Dupleix endeavored to drive them REIGN OF LOUIS XT. 495 from the mainland of Asia ; but the two quarrelled, and La Bourdonnais, recalled to France, was, on his arrival, shut up in the Bastile. Dupleix made a gallant defence of Pondi- cherry and gave the English a blow which was felt even in Europe. Peace was then for France as inopportune in India as in the Netherlands ; but her navy was reduced to two vessels, and her debt had increased by 1,200,000,000 livres. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). — The peace signed at Aix-la-Chapelle in April, 1748, stipulated for mutual resti- tution of conquests. England recovered for four years the asiento (the right to import negroes into the Spanish colo- nies), and limited rights of trade with them; Austria ceded Parma and Piacenza to the infante Don Philip, Silesia to the king of Prussia, and several places in the Milanese to the king of Sardinia. France gave up Madras, and recovered possession of Cape Breton ; but she kept nothing in the Netherlands, almost all of which she had occupied, and agreed to expel the Pretender from France. Marshal Saxe survived this treaty only a short time. Commercial Prosperity. — The eight years which followed this peace formed the most prosperous period of French commerce in the eighteenth century. Lorient, which in 1726 was only a small market-town, had, in 1733, had imports to the value of eighteen millions. Bourbon became a great agricultural colony. Dupleix sought to establish in India a vast colonial empire. Guadeloupe,- Martiniqiie, and espe- cially San Domingo, reached a degree of prosperity which was reflected upon all the merchant towns of the mother country, upon Nantes, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, which had in addition all the trade of the Levant. The sugar and coffee of the French Antilles drove out from the European market the similar products of the English colonies, and Louisiana began to flourish. The last maritime war had only suspended this movement ; as soon as the war was over it resumed its course with an energy which was seconded by the government itself ; for in spite of the inactivity of Louis XV., and the wretched influence of Madame de Pompadour, the increasing strength of public opinion forced upon the government certain men and certain tendencies. The Marquis of Argenson had been called, in 1744, to the ministry of foreign affairs, and that of marine was given to EouilM and De Machault, who made praiseworthy efforts to re-establish a navy. England, though 496 REIGN OF LOUIS XV. her navy was much, larger, was nevertheless alarmed at this revival of French naval power, and especially at the prog- ress of French commerce ; and easily found cause for a quarrel. Causes of the Renewal of War. — France had two magnifi- cent possessions in America, — Canada and Louisiana; that is to say, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, the two greatest rivers of eastern j^orth America, which she thus held at both ends. But the boundaries of Acadia had not been determined, neither had it been determined whether Ohio belonged to Louisiana (France) or to Virginia (Eng- land). Also, both countries claimed Tobago. Commission- ers were appointed to decide the question. They could come to no conclusion, and the colonies, drawing the Indians into their quarrels, began hostilities. Washington, then very young, surprised and killed, with part of his escort, a French officer named Jumonville, who was carrying to the English an order to evacuate the valley of the Ohio. This was the first blood shed in this war (May, 1754). Then, without a declaration of war, the English seized more than three hundred merchant vessels loaded with a cargo of 30,000,000 livres, and having on board 10,000 sailors, the greater part of whom they enlisted in their crews. War had begun. Reversal of Alliances. — The English ministry, thanks to its gold, again let loose continental war. Prussia joined England ; Maria Theresa, who had an implacable resentment against Prussia, proposed an alliance to the cabinet of Ver- sailles in order to recover Silesia. The treaty of Versailles (1756), entirely advantageous to Austria, reunited the two powers. The czarina Elizabeth, Sweden, and Saxony ac- ceded to it. Thus Austria became the friend of France, the enemy of England, her old ally, and France was about to attack Prussia. The whole system of European alliances was changed. The Seven Years' "War (1756-1763) ; Conquest of Minorca (1756). — France, forced to fight with both hands, dealt at once a vigorous blow. She sent first against Minorca, then in the possession of the English, a squadron which defeated the fleet of Admiral Byng, and an army commanded by Richelieu, which captured the fortress of Port Mahon, hitherto considered impregnable. Difficult Position of the King of Prussia. — The king of REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 497 Prussia, as usual, anticipated the action of his enemies. He surrounded the Saxons in their camp of Pirna, repulsed the Austrians at Lobositz, then absorbed the whole Saxon army. France sent two armies into the field during this campaign ; one under Marshal d'Estr^es into Westphalia, the other under Soubise towards the Main. Frederick would not have been able to defend himself against this formidable coalition if his allies had acted at all in concert. He had in his fa^or also the \inskilfulness and carelessness of the French generals, Soubise and Richelieu, and the slowness of Daun, the Austrian commander-in-chief. He re-entered Bohemia, and won the bloody battle of Prague (1757). Defeated in turn at Kollin by Daun (1757), he was forced to retreat. In the east, the Russians took Memel from him, and beat one of his lieutenants at Gross-Jagerndorf ; in the west, D'Estr^es conquered Hanover, and another French army marched rapidly upon Magdeburg and Saxony. Thus the circle of enemies by whom Frederick was surrounded pressed upon him more closely each day (1757). He asked for peace. Believing him to be in extremity, they refused it. He took refuge in his indomitable energy. Capitulation of Kloster-Zeven (1757). — Richelieu, who succeeded D'Estr^es in the command of the army of Han- over, entirely surrounded the Duke of Cumberland in a cul- de-sac ; but, instead of taking him prisoner, agreed to the capitulation of Kloster-Zeven, which the English govern- ment afterwards disavowed. Rossbach (1757); Krefeld (1758). — Soubise, the favorite of Madame de Pompadour, had joined the forces which had been raised by the Empire to sustain Maria Theresa, and was marching upon Saxony. Frederick hastened from Silesia to the Saale : he had only twenty thousand men with which to oppose fifty thousand. He established himself at the village of Rossbach, concealing his cavalry and artillery. The allies advanced rashly and in disorder. Suddenly the Prussian artillery was unmasked and opened fire ; their cavalry dashed upon the right flank of the army of Sou- bise ; the infantry followed ; the French and Germans were scattered in a few moments. The Prussians killed three thousand men, took seven thousand prisoners, captured sixty-three pieces of cannon, and lost only four hundred soldiers, Frederick, leaving Soubise to run away, turned against the 498 REIGN OF LOUIS XV. Austrians, drove them from Saxony, to which they had returned, and followed them into " Silesia, which he again took from them (1757). Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, just at this time became prime minister of England, and decided that country to make gi'eater efforts in behalf of her ally. The king, in exchange for the numerous subsidies which Pitt caused to be voted him, sent one of his lieuten- ants, Ferdinand of Brunswick, to take command of the Hanoverian army, which, violating its parole, again took the held. The French retreated before this skilful general, recrossing the Weser, the Ems, and the Rhine, and were again defeated at Krefeld (1758). Disorder in the French Armies and in the Administration. — All the generals whom Madame de Pompadour placed at the head of armies were perfectly incompetent. Moreover, the quarrels of the court were continued in the camps, and several were accused of causing plans to fail and losing- battles in order to ruin a rival. The armies, badly organ- ized, were still more badly managed. Since women ruled the government, the higher part of the administration was given over to the most disorderly caprices. From 1755 to 1763 twenty-five ministers were appointed and displaced, " tumbling one after the other," writes Voltaire, " like the figures of a magic lantern." Plans were changed as fast as men. Energy of the King of Prussia (1758-1762). —After Eoss- bach and Krefeld the French generals were given forces superior to those of the enemy and so gained occasional successes in Western Germany (1758-1760). But in gen- eral, in the western part of Germany, the only result of the war was the devastation of the country. In the south and east Frederick himself confronted the Russians, who took Konigsberg from him, but whom he conquered at Zorndorf (1758), and the Austrians, who, at Hochkirch in Lusatia, killed ten thousand of his men. The Russians revenged themselves the following year at Kunersdorf, where twenty thousand men on each side were left upon the field of battle, and Frederick would have found himself in a critical posi- tion if his adversaries had known how to take advantage of their victory. The brilliant success of Prince Ferdinand at Minden (August, 1759) raised his hopes. He defeated Laudon at Liegnitz, delivered his capital, surprised by the Russians and Austrians, forced Daun into a dangerous REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 499 position near Torgau, and remained master of two-thirds of Saxony, while his lieutenants foiled the plans of the Swedes and French in the iiorth and west. Bvit these " Herculean labors " had exhausted the strength of the king and his people. He held himself on the defen- sive during the whole of the campaign of 1761. Happily for him the czarina Elizabeth died at the beginning of 1762, and Peter III. at once declared the neutrality of Russia : Sweden withdrew from the struggle. Freed from danger on the east and north, Frederick recovered Silesia and made gains in Saxony. French Reverses on the Sea and in the Colonies. — France had maintained the war on the continent not too unsuccess- fully and without sacrificing the national territory, but also Av'ithout much honor. On the sea she was contending with an enemy whose overwhelming superiority allowed her sailors the hope of but fcAV victories. While England lavished all her care upon the navy, the French government left its colonies without ships, soldiers, or money, and unfortunate divisions weakened discipline. The English blockaded the French ports, and not a ship went out which did not fall into their hands ; thirty-seven ships of the line and fifty-six frigates also were taken, or burned, or perished on the reefs. The descents made by the English on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany showed that the terri- tory of France could be violated with impunity, since her fleet no longer protected her shores. The whole Atlantic coast of France, from Dunkirk to Bayonne, was as it were besieged. Dupleix had been recalled in 1754 ; if France had sent him money and good soldiers, India would perhaps now be French and not English. Lally, his brave successor, could not hinder the English, commanded by the able Lord Clive, from getting the upper hand. In his turn he was besieged in Pondicherry, where, with seven hundred men, he defended himself nine months against twenty-two thousand. The English, finally masters of the city, drove out the inhabi- tants and razed it to the grovind : this was the death-blow to the French power in India. In Canada the Marquis of Montcalm captured Forts On- tario and William Henry, bulwarks of the English posses- sions (1756, 1757). But in 1759 he had only five thousand soldiers with which to oppose forty thousand, and the colo- 500 REIGN OF LOUIS XV. nies were in want of provisions, powder, and shot. The enemy besieged Quebec ; Montcalm gave battle in order to save the city, and was mortally wounded, as was also the victorious English general Wolfe. Montcalm's successor, Vaudreuil, struggled for some time, but Canada was lost, and Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, and Tobago were also lost. Choiseul; the Family Compact (1761). — An able minister at this time acquired the greatest influence in the affairs of France, the Duke of Choiseul. Madame de Pompadour had recalled him from the embassy at Vienna to give him, in 1758, the portfolio of foreign affairs, which he exchanged in 1761 for that of war. Two years later he received in addi- tion that of the navy, and had that of foreign affairs bestowed upon his cousin, the Duke of Praslin. Choiseul preserved the Austrian alliance, but he also formed another. He wished to gather together, as in a sheaf, all the branches of the house of Bourbon established in France, in Spain, in the Two Sicilies, and in Parma and Piacenza, securing to Prance the useful support of the Spanish navy. This treaty, famous under the name of the Family Compact, was signed in Au- gust, 1761. England immediately declared war against Spain, and wrested from her Manilla, the Philippines, Havana, twelve ships of the line, and prizes valued at 100,000,000 francs. Treaties of Paris and Hubertusburg (1763), — The Euro- pean powers were now weary of war. France had for her part of it spent 1,350,000,000. England had attained her end, the destruction of the French . merchant and military marine ; and her public debt was increasing enormously. Prussia was only kept on her feet by the energy of her king. Austria despaired of recovering Silesia. France and England signed preliminaries which resulted, in February, 1763, in the treaty of Paris. England acquired Canada, Acadia, Cape Breton, Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, Tobago, Senegal, and Minorca. France retained the right of fishing on the coasts of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon ; she recovered Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, D^sirade, and Martinique, and obtained St. Lucia. In the East Indies, Pondicherry and a few other settlements were retained, on condition that she should send no troops there. As Spain, while recovering Cuba and Manilla, gave up REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 501 Florida to England, France compensated her for it by the cession of Louisiana. " The war/' said Frederick II., " had begun on account of two or three wretched huts ; the Eng- lish gained by it two thousand leagues of territory, and humanity lost a million of men." The treaty of Hubertiis- burg, between Maria Theresa and Frederick II., confirmed the latter in the possession of Silesia. Political and Military Decline of France. — The Seven •Years' War had been undertaken for the ruin of the king of Prussia ; he came out of it victorious, and a new state took its place among the powers of Europe. As for France, the war had shown the incapacity of her generals, the lack of discipline among her soldiers, and with a few happy excep- tions, the weakening of the military qualities of the nation. On the sea it was more than a decline ; her ruin was com- plete. Efforts of Choiseul; Acquisition of Corsica (1768) and Lorraine (1766). — Choiseul, a patriotic but not a great minister, earnestly desired to raise France from the degra- dation into which she had fallen. He tried to reorganize the army. He resumed, with energy, the excellent work of Machault for the creation of a fleet. Corsica, now in revolt against the Genoese, its former masters, was occupied, con- quered, and united to the French territory (1768) ; it was in 1769 that Napoleon was born there, just in time to be born a Frenchman. Three years before, the death of Stan- islas had led to the union of Lorraine with France. These were not glorious, but useful acquisitions. Choiseul also prepared that union of the navies of second-rate powers which was destined, a few years later, to become the league of the armed neutrality against the English. He restrained Austria from encroachment in Italy, tried to fortify the Swedish government against the intrigues of Russia, and extended a friendly hand to Poland. Suppression of the Order of the Jesuits (1762-1764). — An important act of the administration of Choiseul, although it did not originate entirely with him, Avas the suppression of the Jesuits. This powerful society had spread in every direction. After having struggled energetically in the six- teenth century against Protestantism, and directed and ruled the Catholic world in the seventeenth, it had allowed to grow up within it those abuses which are developed by prosperity too long continued. Pascal, under Louis XIV., 602 REIGN OF LOUIS XV. had attacked, in the Lettres lorovinciales, the lax morality of the Jesuit casuists, and bequeathed to the Jansenists, who filled the magistracy, the care of continuing the con- test. The Parliaments had long been suspicious of spiritual soldiery whose attachments were not to Prance, and the philosophers rejoiced at every blow struck against them. Great hatred had sprung up against them throughout Europe. In 1717 they had been driven from Russia, and they had just been banished from Portugal (1759). The failure (for three millions) of P^re Lavalette, prefect of the mission to the Antilles, who had mixed the affairs of com- merce with those of religion, made a still greater stir, and had important results. The interested parties brought action against the company before the Parliament. When the examination was over, the Parliament passed two decrees : one condemning to the flames many books written by the Jesuits ; and the other, receiving the appeal of the procureur-g^n^ral against the constitutions of the society. The queen, the dauphin, a part of the court, and almost all the episcopate were for the Jesuits ; but Madame de Pom- padour, Choiseul, and the public were for the Parliament : they were triumphant. In August, 1761, the Parliament of Paris declared the institution, by its very nature, inad- missible in any well-governed state, "as being a political body which tends to an absolute independence and a usur- pation of all authority." The Jesuits were forced to quit their colleges and houses within a week. A royal declara- tion of November, 1764, suppressed the society. Spain and Naples followed this example (1766) ; Parma did the same in 1768. Finally, even the Holy See was forced to yield to the persistent demands of the Catholic powers, and Clement XIV. solemnly proclaimed, in 1773, the suppression of the Company of Jesus throughout Christendom. They num- bered then twenty thousand, of whom four thousand were in Prance. Disgrace of Choiseul (1770). — Choiseul had many ene- mies. The Jesuits had left behind them a powerful part3^ The dauphin; their pupil, was very hostile to the minister. The Duke of Aiguillon, the chancellor, Maup^ou, the abbe Terray, comptroller of the finances, formed against him a triumvirate which would have been powerless without the shameful auxiliary whom they selected. Madame de Pom- padour died in 1765, and had been succeeded by the Countess REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 503 du Barry, -whose very presence was a stain upon Versailles. The Duke of Choiseul refused to yield to her disreputable influence. She swore his ruin and beset the king to pro- cure it. The triumvirate urged her on and furnished her with arguments. Choiseul, the king was told, was the chief of the philosophers, the friend of Parliaments ; he thought only of war, and the king thought only of peace. The cabal finally triumphed, and in 1770 Choiseul was banished to his estates. Destruction of the Parliaments (1771). — During the whole century the parliaments had manifested a spirit of opposi- tion to the court, to ultramontane pretensions, and to the increased taxation, which had not always been creditable nor well considered, especially in matters of religion, as in the case of the bull Unigenitus, for instance. The govern- ment had accepted this bull as a law of the State, but the Jansenists rejected it; they were sustained by the members .of the parliaments. The archbishop of Paris, Christophe de Beaumont, forbade the priests of his diocese to admin- ister the communion to any one who was not furnished with a certificate of confession attesting that he had recognized the bull, and the sacraments were accordingly, in certain instances, refused. The Parliament was roused ; it caused the bishop's excommunication to be burned ; it ordered the seizure of the temporalities of the archbishop of Paris, and i-t took measures to force the priests to administer the com- munion to the sick (1752). The magistrates, though once banished (1753), showed equal boldness on their return. The Parliament tried to form, with the other parliaments of the kingdom, a great body sufficiently strong on account of its union to play the part of permanent States-Greneral, in defiance of the royal power. The king ordered the magistrates to confine them- selves to their ordinary duties : a hundred and eighty handed in their resignations. The turmoil in Paris was ex- treme. A wicked wretch named Francois Damiens became excited to the point of attempting the life of the king (1757). He wounded him only slightly, and was quartered for it. The trial of the Jesuits, in 1762, revived the quarrel ; an- other, in 1770, caused the struggle to break out. The Parlia- ment had rendered a decision against the Duke of Aiguillon. The king stopped the procedure. The magistrates protested against such interference. It was just at this juncture that 504 REIGN OF LOUIS XV. Choiseul was dismissed and his place given to Aiguillon. Severe measures against Parliament at once followed. In the night of January 19th-20th, 1771, one hundred and sixty-nine magistrates were awakened by the arrival of two musketeers who enjoined upon them to sign, yes or no, a paper which informed them of an order to resume their duties. Thirty-eight signed yes, and retracted it the next day. The following night an officer signified to each of them the confiscation of their ofiices, and musketeers pre- sented them lettres de cachet, which banished them to differ- ent places. At the end of the year there were more than seven hundred magistrates in exile. Maup^ou then formed a new Parliament. The gravest element in the situation was that public opinion was at last deeply interested ; that the opposition made itself heard even about the throne ; that all the princes of the blood, with one single exception, and thir- teen peers, protested " against the overthrow of the laws of the State " ; and, finally, that the formidable name of the States-General was pronounced by the Parliaments of Tou- louse, Besangon, Eouen, and even at Paris, by the court of aids. Soon, indeed, it would be necessary for the nation to assemble, but it would be for reconstruction ; for everything was shaking and trembling. Eichelieu and Louis XIV. had destroyed the political importance of the nobility. Louis XV. having destroyed the great body of the magistracy, what remained to support the old edifice and protect the monarch ? Famine Compact ; Lettres de Cachet ; Bankruptcy. — And each day the shame of this monarch increased. In 1773 Austria, Prussia, and Russia divided Poland among them- selves, and Prance was powerless to prevent this execution of a whole people. In 1768 the association wittily called the Famine Compact renewed its lease for the monopoly of grain, and thus created the artificial famines of 1768 and 1769; the lettres de cachet were multiplied to a frightful extent, and thus the liberty of the citizens was placed in the hands of the rich and powerful who had a passion to satiate or a revenge to gratify. The abb^ Terray, forget- ting that an excessive taxation was ruinous to the treasury itself, changed the whole system of contribution in such a manner as to render the taxation overwhelming. Poverty increased, but the revenue did not, and bankruptcy was the REIGN OF LOUIS XV. 605 only expedient he devised for reducing the debt of tne State. In spite of all this, Terray allowed an annual deficit of 41,000,000 livres to remain. Meanwhile, since 1715, the taxes had more than doubled, having increased from 165,000,000 to 365,000,000. Louis XV. clearly foresaw that some terrible expiation was com- ing ; but in his selfishness, he consoled himself by thinking that the catastrophe would fall on some other head ; " Mat- ters will go on as they are as long as I live," said he ; " my successor may get out of the difiiculty as well as he can." And Madame de Pompadour repeated with him, " After us, the deluge." SG6 CONDITION OF FRANCE CHAPTER LVII. CONDITION OP PRANCE AT THE END OP THE REIGN OP LOUIS XV. Spirit of Inquiry. ■ — There had never been so earnest a desire for information of all sorts, or such boldness in ven- turing beyond the beaten tracks, as was exhibited in this cen- tury. Men had long consoled themselves for abuses by an epigram, and for crimes by a song. But now the public mind was becoming more serious, and consequently more formi- dable. In the presence of a royalty which took pleasure in degrading itself, of nobles " who seemed to be only the ghosts of their ancestors," and were unable any longer to produce generals, of a clergy among whom were no longer found either Bossuets or F^nelons, privileges were questioned, the titles of those powers formerly respected Avere investigated. The principal Avork of royalty in modern society had been to establish territorial unity and governmental unity by the overthrow of feudalism. But conquered feudalism had left the land covered with ruins. Everywhere, in respect to both persons and things, there existed the most shocking inequalities and the strangest confusion. Powers of the Government Ill-Defined. — The constitution not being a written one, everything depended upon customs. Royalty was, in theory, an absolute power; it was not always so in fact, for numerous interests, powers, tradi- tions, and precedents formed an obstacle to it. No one's rights were defined. The ministers set violent hands upon justice when they would, as the parliaments did upon the law. A royal edict was valid only after having been regis- tered by the parliaments, but the Council of State rendered governmental decrees, which dispensed with this formality. The clergy and the nobles had special tribunals ; the Third Estate had public functions which it had bought, and, so far as the greater number of offices were concerned, the king Avas deprived of the right of calling the best and most capa- ble men into the service of the State. AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XV, 507 Bad Administrative Organization. — There were six minis- ters : the chancellor, head of the department of justice, but who had little more than a title when he was not also keeper of the seals ; the comptroller-general of the finances, and the four secretaries of State, for the king's household, for war, for the navy, and for foreign affairs. These minis- ters presented a most singular confusion of functions. For instance, the governors an^ lieutenant-generals of prov- inces were not amenable to the minister of war, but the posts were amenable to him, and also Dauphiny and all the countries conquered since 1552. The minister of marine was at the same time minister of maritime commerce ; he had under him the consulates, and the chamber of com- merce at Marseilles, which of itself constituted a small min- istry for the commerce of the Levant. The minister of foreign affairs regulated pensions, and administered the provinces of Guienne, Normandy, Champagne, Berry, etc. The minister of the king's household had charge of ecclesi- astical affairs and lettres de cachet, of Languedoc, Paris, Pro- vence, Brittany, Navarre, etc. ; among the functions of the comptroller-general was the charge of bridges, hospitals, prisons, epidemics, domestic trade, and agriculture. Never- theless unity appeared for a moment every fortnight in the council of despatches, at which the king and all the ministers were present, and in which important decisions were made. As for the administrative divisions, there were as many of them as there were difficult administrations. Their circum- scriptions never agreed. One of the most deplorable prin- ciples of the administration was that of raising money by creating the most useless offices, which were of course per- manently burdensome to the public. Judicial Organization. — Thirteen parliaments and four provincial councils pronounced sovereign judgment in civil and criminal affairs ; more than three hundred baillis' or seneschals' courts pronounced judgment in the first instance. The public prosecutor, unknown to the ancients, existed, but there was no justice of the peace, such as the Rev- olution instituted. The parliaments had very unequal jurisdictions. That of the Parliament of Paris covered two-fifths of France. Besides, there were military and com- mercial courts, and also seignorial, ecclesiastical, and muni- cipal courts, and other courts of special jurisdiction. The chambers of accounts, the court of aids, and the court of BOS CONDITION OF FRANCE currencies judged all cases relative to taxes, currencies, and articles of gold and silver. Rigor of the Penal Code. — The civil law confirmed mucli injustice, but the penal law commanded tortures before trial, and lavished with frightfvil indifference mutilations, death, and the most atrocious punishments, without allow- ing the accused an advocate to plead for him, without per- mitting contentious pleadings, without even requiring of the judge that he should give any reason for his decision. The slow and complicated proceedings, carried on in dark- ness and silence, sought less for truth than for a victim, and, regarding the prisoner as a criminal in advance, sometimes punished the innocent. For the same crime the peasant was punished much more severely than the noble. In vain had Voltaire made his eloquent protest against these de- plorable judicial errors resound throughout France and throughout Europe ; in vain had Beccaria's book expounded the true principles of criminal legislation ; Parliament re- fused every reform. The magistracy, honest and enlight- ened, was much better than the law; but the law was such that it exposed to error the most conscientious judge, and caused the accused, however innocent, to tremble. Relics of medisevalism survived ; the right of asylum existed even in Paris, in the enclosure of the Temple, and as late as 1718 the Parliament of Bordeaux had condemned a man to death for sorcery. The king still frequently pronounced sentence of imprisonment or exile without trial, and often without limit, and many trials were stopped or called up by the grand council. Expensiveness of Justice ; Diversity of Laws. — The magis- trates, registrars, and officers of justice were not paid by the king, or else were poorly paid; consequently they secured their pay from the litigants at prices set by them- selves. The proceedings were innumerable and endless, and the litigants were delivered over to the "robbery of justice." These exactions cost those suitors 40,000,000, or even 60,000,000 annually. The jurisdiction of the Parlia- ment of Paris extended in certain directions as far as one hundred and fifty leagues from the capital — another cause of ruin to litigants constrained to attend. Instead of a single law there were three hundred and four different customs, so that it happened that what was justice in one province was injustice in another ; and each parlia- ment had special regulations. AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XV. 509 Absence of Public Credit ; Maladministration of Finances. — France had no credit system, and still less with regard to the government than with regard to individuals. The most solemn promises having been violated a hundred times, the treasury obtained advances only by giving a pledge, and even with this disgraceful condition, it furthermore paid a usurious interest of twenty per cent, upon the advances of the farmers-general. The accounts were not made up until ten, twelve, and even fifteen years after the years to which they belonged, and were so unintelligible that no one, not even the minister, knew exactly what the State owed or what it ought to receive. Besides, since the time of Fran- cis I., the public treasury had been confounded with the pri- vate treasury of the prince, so that the king helped himself freely from the common fund. Louis XIV. took in this way, in one year, 180,000,000, which were expended mostly in payment for his pleasures or to his courtiers. In 1769, after six years of peace, the expenses exceeded the revenue by 100,000,000, and cerl3ain revenues were used up ten years in advance. Injurious Collection of the Public Taxes. — The taxes pre- sented the strangest confusion. The government did not realize all its receipts. The indirect taxes were rented to companies of farmers of the revenue and to sixty farmers- general, who, on the one hand, made the treasury pay them a usurious interest, and on the other understood how to increase their own receipts from the people. A certain tax levied under Louis XV. was given up to them for 23,000,000 ; they obtained from it 40,000,000. Scandalous fortunes were made by the farmers ; however, they were obliged to divide with the courtiers, assuring them of pensions or portions proportionate to their good offices. Great lords and great ladies received these degrading presents ; Louis XIV. him- self held out his hand for them. These farmers of the revenue had at their service a code so complicated that the tax-payers could not understand it, and so rigorous that, for the single offence of frauds in regard to salt, there were constantly seventeen hundred or eighteen hundred persons in the prisons, and more than thjee hundred in the galleys. The treasury was not more indulgent. Defects of the Military Organization. — The requirements for the effective force in times of peace called for 170,000 men, of whom 131,000 wer^ infantry, 31,000 cavalry, and 510 CONDITION OF FRANCE 8000 for the king's household ; but the real effective force did not amount to 140,000 men. There were not less than 60,000 officers in the active service or on the retired list. Commissions were sold even in the special services, and the » purchasers could, without having seen any service, become general officers. The Duke of Bouillon was colonel at eleven years of age, the Duke of Fronsac at seven. In spite of the reforms of Choiseul there was much waste in the army, and a bad system of enlistment spoiled its composition. The regular army was recruited by voluntary enlistments, the militia by lot which designated ten thousand men each year who were compelled to serve six years. But the drawing of lots for the militia was marked by the most scandalous abuses ; and if the volunteers made good soldiers, the recruit- ing-officers often sent to the regiments the dregs of the great cities ; consequently there were annually four thou- sand desertions to foreign countries. Ecclesiastical Administration. — The dioceses Avere very unequal : that of Rouen contained thirteen hundred and eighty -eight parishes ; those of Toulon and Orange, twenty. The revenues were like the dioceses. The bishop of Strass- burg had an income of five hundred thousand livres ; the bishop of Gap, eight thousand. A large number of abb^s had scarcely one thousand livres of revenue ; that of Fecamp could expend one hundred and twenty thousand; that of St. Germain nearly three times as much. Many curacies were very rich; many vicars died of hunger. The king made appointments to all positions of any importance in the Church; the bishops, the chapters, and the lay lords ap- pointed to the others. In a word, twelve thousand bishops, abbots, priors, and canons divided among them nearly a third of the revenues of the Church, more than 40,000,000 (present value 66,000,000) : the remaining two-thirds suf- ficed for eight times as many priests and monks. Differences of Condition between Persons and between Provinces. — The three orders of the State — clergy, nobility and plebeians — were distinguished by privileges or burdens which made of the French people three different nations, each having its hierarchy and its distinct classes. Thus, there was the greater and the lesser nobility, — the one living at court and upon the national budget, the other in the provinces and on its own meagre revenues ; the upper and AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XV. 511 lower clergy, — the former ricli, the latter poor. Among the non-noble classes, fifty thousand families possessing heredi- tary offices of judicature formed a real aristocracy which did not mix with the financiers ; the middle class scorned the artisan, and the peasant at the bottom of the ladder, in poverty and ignorance, bore angrily all the weight of a society which was crushing him. In the family itself there was inequality : the right of primogeniture left to the younger sons of noble houses only their swords or the Church, and to many daughters only the convent. Besides these three orders there were the serfs, the Protestants, who had no civil rights, and the Jews. Some provinces, the pays d'Etat, such as Languedoc, Bur- gundy, Brittany, and Artois, still possessed a shadow of lib- erty in the management of their affairs ; the others, pays d'election, were under the absolute direction of the court; and the latter paid taxes that the former did not pay, or paid in a lesser proportion. Lorraine, the Trois-ifivechls and Alsace had no custom-houses between them and foreign lands. Others were surrounded by them on all sides. In 1789 there were still in existence in the South of France twelve hundred leagues of lines of internal custom-houses, and the same measure of salt could be bought in one place for six livres, and in another for sixty -two. The tax of the twentieth was less burdensome in Lorraine, Alsace, and Franche-Conit6 than in other provinces ; Lorraine was not even subject to capitation tax ; so that old France was bur- dened more heavily than the new France that she had con- quered. And all this, without speaking of the privileges of localities, corporations, and persons. Inequality with Regard to Public Functions, — Two classes of nobility divided between them all government positions. The "nobility of the sword" held all ranks of the army, the highest positions in the Church, and the chief offices of the court and of representation ; the " nobility of the robe " held the offices of judicature and the offices of the higher administration. There remained for the plebeians only industry, commerce, and finance, by means of which, it is true, they could buy patents of nobility and become mar- quises, but they had to incur the taunts of those who had not thus risen to that rank, and the lasting scorn of those who had always possessed it. 512 CONDITION OF FRANCE Inequality of Taxation. — The nation paid at that time almost 900,000,000 livres.^ The taxes were most unequally distributed. The clergy, who, besides the revenues of their immense property, received tithes of the productions of the land, paid little or nothing, but made "gratuitous donations.'^ The nobility and the royal officers, except in some generali- ties, were not subject to the taille, or land tax; they were subject to the other direct taxes, caxntation and the twentieth of the income, but a great number found means to gain en- tire or partial exemption. The common people, who pos- sessed only a small portion of the soil of France, paid the whole taille, 91,000,000 ; the tithe, which was in one place the fortieth, and in another the fourth part of the gross product, and cost the agricultural portion of the inhabitants the sum of 133,000,000 ; the seigniorial dues, valued at 35,000,000 (without making any account of the many vexa- tious restrictions to which the peasants were subjected for the benefit of their lords), and the corvees, at 20,000,000. For the great roads, for example, of which many were con- structed under Louis XV., the State undertook only the ex- pense of laying them out and of the constructive designs ; the materials and the labor were furnished by means of the corv4e, or enforced services ; so that these works, so profitable to the whole country, were executed at the expense and amidst the hatred of the people who lived along the route. Servitude of Industry and Hindrances to Commerce. — Cor- porations, wardenships, and masterships hindered the prog- ress of industry by limiting the number of patrons, and by allowing only those to work at a trade who had paid for the apprenticeship. Not he who desired to do so became a master, but he who could buy a mastership at a cost of three, •four, and sometimes five thousand livres. And after having paid all that, he had not yet purchased the right to improve upon his industry, for an improvement was an infringement upon the rights of the corporation. The manufacturer of stuffs could not dye them, the dyer of thread had not the right to dye silk or wool, nor the hatter to sell hosiery. Bound by minute regulations, the manufacturers were liable 1 France paid, in 1786, according to M. Bailly, inspector-general of finances, for the benefit of the king, 558,172,000 livres; for the benefit of the provinces, 41,448,000 livres ; for the benefit of individuals, corpo- rations, and communities, 280,395,000 livres : total, 880,015,000 livres. AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XV. 513 to see their products destroyed by the police on account of an inadvertence or a modification in the work which would cause no injury to the buyer. There was now only one coinage, — that of the king; and since 1726 commerce was not hindered by changes of specie; but it was injured by the diversity of weights and measures, which differed in each city. The India Company had until 1770, by its commer- cial privileges, impeded the efforts of private merchants. It had just been abolished ; but in domestic trade the mer- chant still had to fight against restrictions and injurious monopolies. Por instance, at Eouen one company was appointed to provide the city with grain ; another had the privilege of transporting wheat ; a third, that of grinding them in the mills : the people were forbidden to supply themselves elsewhere. Grain was not even sold from one province to another ; so that jobbers could at will create famine or plenty at certain places. Added to this, the internal custom-houses rendered commercial relations be- tween the provinces as difficult as with foreign countries. In order to pass down the Sa6ne and the Ehone from Gray to Aries, one had to stop and pay thirty times, so that on this route trade left in the hands of the toll-gatherers from twenty-five to thirty per cent of the value of the products transported. Nevertheless, the French colonies were so flourishing, and European industry so backward, that in spite of all this French commerce was prosperous. Decline of Agriculture. — Nearly one-fifth of the land, having come permanently into the possession of the clergy, produced but little, because it was not subject to the action of personal interest ; almost all the rest, cultivated by 7neta- yers, produced but little more. Lands in the possession of the peasants themselves were heavily burdened with rents. The number of heads of live-stock was small, four times less than at the present day; consequently the lands were impoverished for want of sufficient manuring. Few great proprietors farmed for themselves. " One could not count," said a writer of those times, " three hundred lords living upon their own estates." Vauban and Bois-Guilbert com- plained of the discredit attached to the position of a farmer. This contempt arose from the great poverty in which the peasants lived, ruined by taxation, the corv4es, the restric- tions put upon the trade in grain ; and even more seriously by the seigniorial rights of maintaining warrens, dove-cots, 514 CONDITION OF FRANCE and of hunting, which were so many scourges for the fields of the poor. The fine roads constructed by Louis XIV. ran only between the great cities. The greater part of the present roadways in France do not go back more than eighty years, and in many provinces the roads under the royal care were impassable for eight months in the year. Individual Liberty and Property Ill-Secured. — Lettres de cachet placed the one at the disposal of the ministers and their friends ; the other was threatened by confiscation, by the arbitrary power with which the court was armed for the creation of fresh taxation, by a justice which was not always impartial, and by those "decrees of suspension" which exempted the great from paying their debts. Malesherbes, president of the Court of Aids, said to the king, in those remonstrances still so celebrated : " So long as lettres de cachet are in force, Sire, no citizen can be sure that his liberty may not be sacrificed to revenge, for no one is great enough to be securely sheltered from the hatred of a minister, nor so small as to be beneath the notice of a clerk of the farmers-general." Liberty of Conscience refused ; Censorship of the Press. — The most severe regulations still remained in force against dissenters. In 1746 two hundred Protestants were con- demned to the galleys or to confinement on account of their religious worship, by the Parliament of Grenoble alone ; in 1762 the Parliament of Toulouse caused a pastor who had ministered in Languedoc to be hanged. The same mag- istrates broke on the wheel the Protestant Galas, accused of having killed his son, who, it was said, had desired to become a Catholic, and who in reality had committed suicide. Censorship was still in existence. There were in fact several censorships, that of the king, that of the Parliament, and that of the Sorbonne. The condemned book was sold at a higher price, and was circulated none the less ; sometimes even under the protection of the ministers themselves. The law declared the penalties of branding, the galley, and death, against the authors or pedlers of writings hostile to religion or the State ; some silly persons allowed themselves to be taken up ; more frequently the administration shut its eyes : and this mixture of excessive severity and blind tolerance only increased public curiosity. Men took pains to inform themselves of the suppressions, in order to know what books they ought to read, This age was indeed the period in AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XV. 515 which Abb6 Galiani defined eloquence to be ''the art of saying everything without going to the Bastile." Fr^ret was sent there for a dissertation on the Franks ; Lepr^vost de Beaunaont, secretary of the clergy, remained there twenty- one years, until 1789, for having denounced the "famine compact " to the Parliament. General Misery. — Everything gives evidence of the fright- ful misery of the people. The peasants of Normandy lived in great part upon oats, and dressed in skins ; in Beauce, the granary of Paris, the farmers begged during a part of the year ; they were often obliged to make bread of ferns. In a large number of the provinces the use of meat was unknown. "For three-fourths of the population of France," says a writer about 1760, "the consumption of meat does not amount to more than a monthly average of a pound per head." Vauban estimated that there were in France not more than ten thousand families in comfortable circum- stances. The amount of articles of food was two or three times less then than now. " One sees," said La Bruy^re, " certain ferocious animals, male and female, scattered over the country, black, livid, and burned by the sun, attached to the land which they dig and work upon with incomprehensible obstinacy. Tlie}^ have an articulate voice, and when they rise on their feet they exhibit a human face ; and in fact they are men. At night they retire to their dens, where they live upon black bread, water, and roots. They spare other men the trouble of sowing, cultivating, and gathering articles of food." The moralist is here a faithful historian. Insufficiency of Schools, Charities, Hospitals, etc. — The rich could give their sons an excellent education ; some of the children of the lower classes succeeded also, thanks to their characters and to circumstances, in being admitted among the chosen ones. But the instruction of the poor in the small schools was insufficient, and the general ignorance was a strong contrast to the refined education of the nobil- ity. Hospitals were not lacking; Christian charity had multiplied them; but poor-relief was very limited, and bands of beggars Avere constantly seen going through the country districts and frightening the people of the towns. France had then about eight hundred civil hospitals, whose inmates numbered one hundred and ten thousand individuals, but the mortality among them was frightful. In the Hdtel 516 CONDITION OF FRANC J^ Dieu of Paris, the ricliest hospital in France, those sick of all kinds of diseases, not excepting contagious ones, were placed promiscuously in the same rooms, sometimes as many as five and six in the same bed. Morals.' — Never, since the period of the Roman Empire, had morality fallen so low ; and this corruption was general. The scandals at the Trianon were repeated at Windsor, at Potsdam, and at the palace of the Hermitage. The nobility and a portion of the rich middle class rivalled the court. To show the entire overthrow of moral ideas a single instance will sufiice. One of the most estimable men of his time, the Marquis of Argenson, was not afraid to write, "mar- riage, that monstrous obligation, which will surely go out of fashion." He wished that this obligation should become " like a lease-contract which could be entered into in Octo- ber and given up in January, free unions being much more favorable to the race." Marshal Saxe, the Duke of Riche- lieu, a thousand others, indeed every one among the higher classes, held the same opinion, or acted upon it. Disparity between Ideas and Institutions. — The Middle Age, dead in the political world, was still alive in the social world. Hence an intense discord between the constituent elements of society. The ideas, the general manners of the day, were indeed those of the eighteenth century ; but the customs and many of the institutions were still those of the thirteenth. From the moment when this difference was felt a revolution was near at hand, for new ideas necessarily call for new institutions. Vauban, Bois-Guillebert, Fenelon, D' Argenson, Machault, Choiseul. — These ruinous abuses, these injurious inequali- ties, this great disorder and poverty, provoked criticism. Vauban and Bois-Guillebert had demanded reforms from an economic point of view ; Fenelon, from a political one. Dur- ing the Regency the liberty and even license of the mind corresponded to that of morals. A little later a future min- ister, the Marquis of Argenson, in his Considerations sur le Gouvernement de la i^rance, written before 1739, demanded local decentralization, municipal and cantonal councils, free- dom of trade at home and abroad, and the election of the royal officers by ballot, and boldly declared that " two things were chiefly to be desired for the good of the State ; one, that all citizens should be equal, the other that each should be the son of his own works." This was one of the articles AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XV. 517 of faith, of the Eevolution, uttered in advance. Another minister, Machault, proposed to replace the taille, which was paid by the common people alone, by a land tax, to which the privileged classes, nobles and priests, should be subjected. Choiseul also spoke of reforms ; convents seemed to him, as well as to Colbert, too numerous, and he consid- ered, as did the States of Pontoise in 1561, that the suppres- sion of the immunity from taxes granted to the Church for its immense domains would assist in a remarkable degree to re-establish the shattered finances of the State. Increasing Agitation of Ideas. — The noblest powers of the French mind seemed turned towards investigations of fche public welfare. The caprices of society were no longer held up tc view in a spirit of ridicule, but for the purpose of reforming society itself. Literature became a weapon which all, the imprudent as well as the wise, tried to wield, and which, striking without intermission, was the cause of terrible and irremediable wounds. A strange consequence of this was, that those who had most to suffer from this invasion of politics by men of letters were those who ap- plauded it most. This frivolous, sensual, egoistic society of the eighteenth century carried on, even amid its vices, the cult of ideas. Never were the salons so animated, courtesy so exquisite, conversation so brilliant. Talent there took the place of birth, and the nobility chivalrously invited the fire of that burning polemic which the sons of the bourgeois directed against them. Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. — Three men are at the head of the movement, — Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. The first, whose real name was Arouet, was born at Paris in 1694, the son of a notary. He saw only the unhappy years of the Great King ; and was one of the most enthusiastic of those who took part in the reaction against the religious habits of the last reign. At the age of twenty- one he was sent to the Bastile for a satire upon Louis XIV. which he had not written. His tragedy of CEclipe, full of threatening verses (1718), and his Henriade, an apology for religious toleration (1723), gave him immediate celebrity. A Chevalier de Rohan-Chabot revenged himself by the hands of his lackeys for some sarcastic words of Voltaire. Voltaire demanded reparation. The nobleman, by a second cowardly act, obtained from the minister an order to confine in the Bastile the impertinent plebeian who dared to call out a 518 CONDITION OF FRANCE great lord. Released soon after, but on condition that lie should go to some foreign country, Voltaire went to Eng- land "to learn to think." He remained there three years, and studied Locke, Newton, Shakespeare, with an ardent devotion to liberty of thought and speech, even more than to political liberty. His next writings showed what he had brought thence. Voltaire attacked the Church with stubborn animosity, and his most constant efforts were directed against the spir- itual power which hindered thought, much more than against the civil power which only hindered action. With a view to this war, he made alliance with sovereigns and placed himself u.nder their protection. He was in correspondence with the great Catherine of Russia ; he sojourned at the court of Frederick II. His countr}^ seemed to him to be wherever he could think freely. He ended by establishing himself on the frontier of France, at Ferney, near Geneva. Thence were sent abroad, on every wind, light poems, epis- tles, tragedies, romances, Avorks of history, science, and philosophy, which in a few days were known all over Europe. In good and in evil, Voltaire represented the society of his time. The disorder of morals was to him a matter of indifference. But, growing old with the age, he took up as it did a more serious method of thought. Social evils became his personal enemy, and the love of justice his most ardent passion. He aided and defended the victims of deplorable judicial errors ; he denounced incessantly the numerous defects of legislation, jurisprudence, and public administration. He held for fifty years the intellectual government of Europe, and he has justly merited the hatred of those who believe that the world ought to remain sta- tionary, and the admiration of those who regard society as under an obligation to work unceasingly for its moral and material amelioration. President Montesquieu (1689-1755), a calmer and graver spirit, though he wrote the Lettres Persanes, an apparentlj'^ light but really profound and terrible satire (1721), spent twenty years in composing a single book, L' Esprit des Lois; but it was an immortal monument which he reared. Mon- tesquieu seeks for and gives the reason for civil and politi- cal laws ; he expounds the nature of governments ; and if he does not condemn any of them^ if changes of them dis- AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XT. 519 turb him but little, on tlie whole it is English liberty which he upholds for the admiration of France. Rousseau, the son of a clockmaker of Geneva (1712-1778), when well advanced in a life full of faults, miseries, and inconsistencies, composed his first Discours contre les sciences et les arts. It was a declaration of war against civilization; his second book on L'Origine de V inegalite parmi les liommes, was another against the entire social order. In Emile, he laid out a chimerical plan of education ; in the Contrat Social, he asserted the principle of national sovereignty and uni- versal suffrage, proclaiming great truths and great errors with singular eloquence. Eousseau gave the frivolous society of his age a vigorous shock which brought it back to natural feeling ; in his Nouvelle Heloise he opened its eyes to real nature and true passion ; he created the poetry upon which the nineteenth century has subsisted. The political influence of these three men can be traced in the three great epochs of the Revolution; that of Vol- taire in the universal enthusiasm of 1789, that of Montes- quieu in the efforts of the constitutionalists of the National Assembly, that of Rousseau in. the thought, if not in the acts, of the savage dreamers of the Convention. Near to these great writers stood Buffon, the great natur- alist ; and Diderot and D'Alembert, who founded the Ency- clopedie, that immense survey of human attainments, set forth in a manner often threatening to social order, always hostile to religion. Helv^tius, Baron Holbach, Lamettrie, and the abb^ Raynal went still further. But a separate place is needed for the Chancellor D'Agues- seau, for the moralist Yauvenargues, for the abb6 de Con- dillac, the powerful analyst ; for his brother, the abbe Mably, the bold publicist ; and for the Marquis of Condor- cet, who, afterwards condemned with the Girondists, com- posed, while awaiting death, his Esquisse des progr^s de Vesprit humain. The Economists. — In the seventeenth century a nation was considered the richer the less she bought and the more she sold. Quesnay showed that the precious metals are the sign of wealth, not wealth itself, which he considered originated in agriculture. Gournay claimed industry as its source ; Adam Smith, who lived a long time in France, labor. Thus the mind of man attempted to solve the most diffi- cult problems which relate to human society. And all of 520 CONDITION OF FBANCE them, philosophers as well as economists, sought for the solution on the side of liberty. From the school of Quesnay emanated the celebrated axiom, "Laissez faire, laissez pas- ser," or, as D'Argenson put it, " Don't govern too much." Arts. — Art had degenerated into prettiness. Charming works were produced ; the hdtels of the rich were decorated with spirit and coquettish elegance ; but neither a great statue nor a great picture was produced. And as Versailles was deserted for boudoirs, the architects reduced their plans to the modest proportions of a society which no longer assumed the grand air of the preceding age. Nevertheless, Ange Gabriel reared the two charming col- onnades of the Place de la Concorde, the £cole Militaire, the opera-hall of Versailles, and the chateau of Compifegne ; SoufB.ot erected the Pantheon. The sculptors left few works. The painters have greater reputation, particularly Watteau (1721), although he represented only a conven- tional art, with his shepherdesses of the opera ; Carle Van- loo, whose ''JSneas carrying Anchises" is much praised; J. Vernet, celebrated for his marine paintings ; Boucher, whom his contemporaries dared to call the French Raphael. Sciences. — The more austere sciences were paving the way for their accession and empire by commencing the great works of investigation. But great discoveries and great men, with the exception of Buffon, do not belong to the reign of Louis XV. There were Reaumur, who con- structed the thermometer called by his name ; Clairaut and D'Alembert, who developed mathematical analysis ; the bot- anists Adanson and Bernard de Jussieu; the astronomer Lacaille ; the geometers Bouguer, La Condamine, and Man- pertuis. Increasing Power of Public Opinion. — All this mental work had succeeded in creating in France a new power, — public opinion, to whose influence the government began to be subjected. It was desired that the administration should no longer be a frightful labyrinth in which the wisest were bewildered; that the public finances should cease to be given over to plunder ; that each person should have some security for his personal liberty and fortune ; that the criminal code should be less bloody and the civil code more equitable. Religious toleration was demanded; and law founded on principles of natural and rational right; and the unity of weights and measures ; and taxation payable AT THE DEATH OF LOUIS XV. 521 by all ; and emancipation from labor and free admissibility to public offices ; the most active solicitude for all popular interests ; in a word, equality in tbe presence of the law, and liberty regulated by right. These demands were so earnest, so general, that the necessity of acceding to them was plain to all intelligent minds. Never did a terrible movement have more prophets to sound the alarm. At home and abroad the same opinion was expressed ; by Lord Chesterfield on the one hand, and by Kant on the other. " All the signs I have ever encoun- tered in history as forerunners of great revolutions," said the former, " at present exist in France, and are every day increasing." As the century advanced and the shame of the government increased, as after Rossbach came the Parc-aux-Cerfs and the "famine compact," the voice of protest, at first merely satirical, became stern and formida- ble. The reign which had begun with the Lettres Persanes, ended with the Contrat Social. In the second half of the eighteenth century all the governments of Europe, aroused and excited by French ideas, recognized the necessity of making many reforms. Kings and ministers set to work, — Pombal in Portugal; Ferdinand VI., Charles III., and Aranda in Spain ; Tanucci at Naples; the grand duke Leopold in Tuscany; Joseph II. in Austria; Frederick II. in Prussia: they reformed the laws, destroyed privileges and abuses, and exacted im- portant sacrifices from the nobility and clergy, while at the same time increasing their own power. They dug canals, multiplied highways, encouraged industry, commerce, and agriculture ; they tried to increase the national wealth and the prosperity of the people, and some of them succeeded in doing so, though it was for the purpose of increasing their own revenues. Everywhere justice and toleration were talked of, and philanthropy became a fashion ; but all this did not hinder diplomacy from recurring at need to the most Maohiavellic proceedings. The governments, indeed, made reforms, but never thought of reforming themselves. In France, also, during the first part of the reign of Louis XVI., reforms were attempted, and it was only after they had proved abortive that the Revolution broke out. 522 REIGN OF LOUIS XVL CHAPTER LVIII. REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. TO THE REVOLUTION. (1774-1789 A.D.) Louis XVI. — The new king, the grandson of Louis XV., was only twenty years old. He was a prince of pure morals, a somewhat narrow mind, and extreme timidity of charac- ter and speech ; loving the right, and desiring it, but unfor- tunately too weak to be able to force those about him to carry out his wishes. The first thing he did was to remit succession dues ; he reformed the law which rendered the taillables conjointly responsible for the payment of the taxes, and recalled the Parliament. If he manifested his weakness by reappointing to the ministry the old and use- less Maurepas, he showed his love of right by removing from it Maupeou and Terray, whom he replaced by Males- herbes and Turgot. Later, he gave the ministry of war to another honest man, the Count of St. Germain, who desired , to reorganize the finances and the administration, but exe- cuted his reforms ill. The Count of Vergennes, who was given the portfolio of foreign affairs, had filled several embassies with distinction. He was a laborious man, and very conversant with the affairs of his department, but lacked firmness of character. Malesherbes and Turgot (1774-1776). — Lamoignon de Malesherbes, one of the most admirable men of the eigh- teenth century, had long been president of the Court of Aids and supervisor of publications. He had always urgently advocated economical administration and favored the spirit of reform. This line of conduct had gained him great pop- ularity among men of letters, when the king appointed him to the position of minister of his household. Turgot, a man of the greatest talent, was possessed of as much virtue as learning. As intendant of Limoges since 1761 he had suppressed the corvies, opened roads, and made popular the use of potatoes ; and by wise and generous measures he had saved this poor province from actual REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. 523 famine. From the moment of his entrance upon his minis- try (1774) he urged upon the king, "No bankruptcy, no increase of taxation, no borrowing." Without recurring to these now familiar expedients, he found means within twenty months to pay off more than 100,000,000 of debts. He proposed great reforms : the gradual introduction of a complete system of local self-government, the abolition of the corvee, the imposition of a land tax upon the nobility and clergy ; the amelioration of the condition of cur^s and vicars, and the suppression of the greater part of the monas- teries ; the equalization of the tax by means of a land survey, liberty of conscience, and the recall of the Protestants ; re- demption of feudal revenues ; a single code ; a uniform system of Aveights and measures for the whole kingdom ; the suppression of wardenships and masterships, which impeded industry ; freedom of thought as well as of commerce and industry ; finally, he interested himself in moral as well as in material needs, forming a vast plan of public instruction which should shed light in every direction. Reforms of Turgot ; Opposition of the Privileged Classes. — These reforms would have been neither more nor less than a revolution ; the threatened interests made a sort of Avar upon the minister ; he could only proceed slowly and partially. He made a beginning by authorizing the free circulation of grain and flour throughout the kingdom. His enemies hastened to say that exjDortation would soon be allowed ; that it was already, in fact. The people were excited : they were made to fear a famine. Insurrections broke out in the country districts. It became necessary to use force (1775). There was a more violent outburst against Turgot when he induced the king to adopt the idea of replacing the corvee by a tax which should be paid by the landowners. . Even the Parliament, its interests being affected, entered into the struggle, for the defence of an obnoxious abuse, against the reforming minister. It registered the edict only under compulsion (1776). The abolition of warden- ships and masterships, that is to say, such freeing of indus- try as he had desired to effect in the case of commerce, increased the number of his enemies. Weakness of the King. — The principal minister, Maure- pas, secretly undermined Turgot's influence with the king ; the queen attacked a comptroller-general who talked con- 524 REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. stantly of economy : Louis XVI., in spite of his good inten- tions, began to be weary of the mental strain which Turgot caused him by holding uj> to his view vast designs which were beyond his capacity. The king worked at the lock- smith's trade, designed maps, or passed whole days in hunt- ing. When the Emperor Joseph II. came to France in 1777, he learned with astonishment that his brother-in-law, far from having visited his cities and provinces, had not even seen the Invalides or the Ecole Militaire. Royalty had little by little retired from the centre of national life, and become isolated in the solemn idleness of Versailles. Discharge of Turgot (1776) ; Suppression of his Eeforms. — Malesherbes was the first to give way ; he sent in his resignation. Turgot, a stronger character, awaited his dis- missal ; he would not abandon a position in which he could do good, until he was driven from it. In May, 1776, he re- ceived orders to resign the ministry, and wrote to the king, " My only desire is that you shall always be able to believe that I have been mistaken, and that I have warned you of fancied dangers. I hope that time will not justify my fears, and that your reign may be as happy and as peaceful as your people have expected from your principles of justice and benevolence." Four months had scarcely passed before the king had yielded to the privileged classes the re-establishment of the corv&e and of mastership in trades. Turgot and Males- herbes were succeeded by incompetent men. Maurepas, a silly old man, feared the men who troubled his peace of mind by showing him the danger and by trying to over- come it. Necker (1776-1781). — Meantime the American war was about to begin. In order to face the additional expenses, with a budget in arrears, there was need of a capable man. In this emergency a Genevese banker named ISTecker, who had a great reputation as a financier, was called upon. As he was a Protestant and a foreigner, he received only the title of director of the finances (October, 1776). His mind had not the breadth and force of Turgot' s ; he believed that the disease of which France was dying could be cured by partial expedients and reforms. Still, he was influenced by the most generous feelings : he earnestly desired the public good. For five years he acquitted himself with honor in a position which was rendered difficult by the petty and REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. 525 jealous character of Maurepas, the indolence of the king, and the greed of the courtiers. He was obliged to dimin- ish the deficit, and to provide for the costs of the Ameri- can war and the enormous expenses of an over-numerous court. He succeeded in this without increasing taxation, withoiit greatly economizing in the court expenses, but by a reduction in the costs of collection, by a thousand little use- ful reforms, and by borrowing 490,000,000. This was defer- ring the difficulty, not solving it, and the chasm continued to widen. He relied upon peace, upon the future, to fill it. Keeker fell two years before the conclusion of the peace. The occasion of his fall was his famous Compte rencht, or report on the state of the finances, published in 17S1, which made so great a noise, and yet was very far from complete. There was no mention made in it of the loans, nor of the expenses of the war. In it the receipts appeared to be 10,000,000 more than the expenditures. The public received this publication with immense applause. The capitalists lent the minister 236,000,000 livres. But the court was vexed at this appeal to public opinion. If daylight was let in upon the financial administration, what would become of the pensions and the customary robbery ? Maurepas gave the signal for the attack, and the war which had been so successful against Turgot recommenced against his suc- cessor. Parliament rose against the edict for the re-estab- lisliment of the provincial assemblies ; the courtiers with one voice decried the minister, who was ruining thean by introducing order into the finances. Louis XVI. again yielded to this clamor of the court ; and when Necker, his patience exhausted, tendered him his resignation, he ac- cepted it (May, 1781). For the real public this was a calamity, and was so regarded. Besides his financial re- forms, some honorable acts had marked his administration ; he had caused the serfs of the royal domain to be set free ; destroyed the right of pursuit, which gave the lord all the property acquired in a foreign country by his fugitive serf ; and abolished the " preliminary question " by torture. The American War (1778-1783) ; La Fayette. — The Seven Years' War, so favorable politically to England, had raised her debt to £133,000,000, which demanded an annual interest of £5,000,000. The mother country thought of unloading upon her colonies a portion of this heavy burden. But the colon- ists, invoking the great principle of the English constitution 526 REIGN OF LOUIS XVL that no one is bound to submit to taxes which have not been voted by his representatives, offered armed resistance, and war broke out (1775). The insurrection extended to all the provinces ; the following year their deputies, assembled in general congress at Philadelphia, published their Declaration of Independence. France hailed with enthusiasm a revolution in which she recognized the principles of French philosophy. The three American envoys to Paris, Arthur Lee, Silas Deane, and particularly the aged Franklin, were the objects of a per- petual ovation. The young nobility, carried away by the philosophical ideas of the time, and filled with a desire to wipe out the disgrace of the Seven Years' War, asked per- mission, in great numbers, to set out for America. The Marquis de la Fayette, scarcely twenty years old, himself fitted out a vessel which he loaded with arms. The govern- ment, however, feared a rupture with England. Vergennes contented himself at first with sending indirect assistance in the shape of arms, money, and ammunition, which Beau- marchais undertook to deliver. Louis XVI. did not like war, above all he did not wish to seem to be the aggressor, and perhaps feared the consequences of embarking France in a contest of liberty against monarchy. Yet he allowed himself to be led on, and in February, 1778, he signed a commercial treaty with the United States, to which was to be added an alliance offensive and defensive if England should declare war against France. The English ambassa- dor was immediately recalled. D'Orvilliers, D'Estaing, and De Guichen. — Happily France had passed through the hands of Choiseul, who had restored her navy. A fleet set sail for America (1778), under Count d'Estaing; another was formed at Brest, to fight in the European seas ; and an army was prepared to make a de- scent upon England. Count d'Orvilliers left Brest with thirty-two ships, and fought an indecisive battle off Ouessant against Admiral Keppel (July). Count d'Estaing would have gained a brilliant victory over Admiral Howe, but his fleet was scattered by a storm. Bouille, however, took Dominica. The policy of Choiseul, who had renewed the alliance of France with Spain, now bore fruit. She declared war against England, and united her navy to that of France (1779). Count d'Orvilliers, with sixty-six ships of the line, REIGN OF LOUIS XVL 527 sailed for Plymouth; but a storm scattered liis fleet. D'Es- taing captured Grenada. The English admiral Rodney, on the other hand, defeated a Spanish fleet, reprovisioned Gi- braltar, which had been besieged by a French and Spanish army, and fought in the Antilles three indecisive battles with Count de Guichen. Guichen, in his turn, in Europe, carried off an English convoy of sixty ships, with booty amounting to 50,000,000 francs. The Armed Neutrality. — A repulse of Count d'Estaing before Savannah compromised for a moment the American cause: But a vast coalition was forming against the mari- time despotism of England. In order to prevent Spain from receiving naval supplies from the northern countries, the English stopped and examined neutral vessels. After much damage to neutral commerce, Catharine II. proclaimed (1780) the freedom of vessels sailing under neutral flags, provided articles contraband of war were not protected by them; to sustain this principle, she proposed a plan of armed neutrality which was successively adopted by Sweden and Denmark, Prussia and Austria, Portugal, the Two Sic- ilies, and Holland, England, greatly irritated, immediately declared war against Holland, the weakest and most vulner- able of the neutral powers ; and Eodney attacked St. Eus- tatius, one of its colonies. Naval AcMevements. — The year 1781 was, for France, the most successful year of the war. Count de Grasse won a series of brilliant victories. In October, 1781, Washing- ton and Rochambeau forced General Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown, with seven thousand men, six ships of war, and fifty merchant vessels. This victory decided American independence. At the same time the Marquis de BouilM took St. Eustatius from the English ; the Duke of Crillon took Minorca, and Suffren, one of the greatest of French seamen, sent to the East Indies to save the Dutch colonies, won in those regions four naval victories (1782). He was already concerting with Hyder-Ali, sultan of Mysore, great plans for the destruction of the English rule in the Eastern Continent, when the conclusion of peace interrupted him. In the Antilles the English retained but one island of any importance, that of Jamaica ; De Grasse tried to take it from them in 1782, but, attacked by superior forces under the command of Eodney, he was defeated and captured: 528 REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. there were only three men on board his ship who were not wounded. Siege of Gibraltar. — The skilful defence of Gibraltar by Sir G. Elliot against the combined forces of France and Spain was another check. Twenty thousand men and forty ships blockaded the place, two hundred cannons on the land side and ten floating batteries kept up an incessant fire upon it. The place, attacked as no other had ever been before, was soon reduced to extremity. In vain it had thrown six hundred red-hot balls at the floating batteries ; when at last one of them succeeded, and started a confla- gration which resulted in the dispersion of the batteries. Twelve thousand men perished in this siege, and Gibraltar remained an English possession. Treaty of Versailles (1783). — Meanwhile England had lost her reputation for being invincible upon the seas, suf- fered prodigiously in her commerce, and added 2,500,000,000 francs (£116,000,000) to her debt. The Whigs, coming into office, caused proposals of peace to be conveyed to the cabinet of Versailles. France had spent 1,400,000,000 ; but she had at least obtained a great and noble result, — the independence of the United States. The peace, signed in September, 1783, was honorable to France, which caused Minorca to be restored to Spain, and obtained for itself the restitution of Chandernagore, Pondicherry, etc., in the Indies, Tobago and St. Lucia in the Antilles ; the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, with the right of fishing on Newfoundland ; and Goree and Senegal in Africa. A treaty of commerce between France and England was signed in 1786 which substituted, in place of the existing prohibitions, an ad valorem duty upon merchandise common to the two countries. This treaty was the first step taken by England towards free trade. A treaty of commerce with Russia in 1787 opened that country to France. France also supported Sweden and Bavaria against the ambition of the great powers. Her diplomacy was as successful as her arms. Progress of the Sciences. — Meantime the movement which ruled the age continued its course, and influenced even the arts. Remarkable public works were begun. New sciences were established; all sciences were striving for develop- ment and being popularized. Lavoisier decomposed water, thus transforming chemistry (1775) . The abb^ de L'Ep6e REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. 529 founded his institution for deaf-mutes (1778) ; Valentin Hatiy, the institution for the blind (1784) ; while Pinel showed that the insane were not dangerous creatures whom it was necessary to chain, but patients who could be cured. Turgot established a chair of hydrodynamics. In 1778 a chair of mineralogy was established, and the Royal Society of Medicine was founded ; in 1780 the veterinary school at Alfort was established ; in 1788 the School of Mines ; in 1787, in the Academy of Sciences, sections of natural his- tory, agriculture, mineralogy, and physics were instituted. Parmentier increased the alimentary resources of the people by iDopularizing the use of potatoes (1779), and Daubenton introduced into France the Spanish breed of merino sheep. It was in these years that Galvani of Bologna exhibited (1791) the singular phenomena of electricity to which his name has been given, and Volta of Como invented (1794) the pile, which has opened a new career to chemistry. Finally, in 1789, Laurent de Jussieu proclaimed, for botani- cal classification, the principle of the subordination of char- acters, which, generalized by Cuvier, gave a new life to natural sciences. At the same time, bold and scientific navigators, the Englishmen Wallis and Cook, the French- men Bougainville and La P^rouse, finishing the work of Columbus and Vasco da Gama, completed the exploration of the globe, and at the price of a thousand dangers opened safe routes to commerce. Thus the sciences, properly speaking, were tending to use and practice, while the moral sciences were tending to reforms. This involuntary agree- ment announced the approach of a new era. Death of Voltaire and Rousseau (1778). — The press be- came more active and more audacious. Voltaire, then eighty-four years old, returned to Paris and stopped at the h6tel of the Marquis de Villette, at the corner of the quay which ever since has been known as the Quai Voltaire. An immense crowd gathered under the windows and in the halls. He went to the French Academy, which came forward to meet him, a thing it never did even for sovereigns. Then he went to the Com^die-Frangaise, where, at the first repre- sentation of his Ir^ne, he received the most enthusiastic homage. He survived this triumph only two months ; and died in May, 1778 : his body was transferred to the Pan- theon in 1791. Kousseau, his rival in glory and influence, soon followed 530 REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. him (July), and died, as he had lived, alone, in the retreat provided for him at Ermenonville by the Marquis of G-irar- din. Montesquieu had died in 1755. Of the four great writers of the century, Buffon alone survived ; he did not pass away until 1788, at the age of eighty-one. ^He had just written (1778) another magnificent work, his Epoques de la Nature, one of the books which took strongest hold upon the imagination of the men of that time. Very far from Voltaire and Rousseau, yet inheriting the spirit of both, Beaumarchais, the author of the Mariage de Figaro (1784), continued the war against the prejudices of birth, and Ber- nardin de Saint-Pierre, in his Etudes (1784), but especially his Paul and Virginia, tried to revive the taste for nature, simple manners, and true sentiment. Invention of the Air-Balloon (1784). — The desire to be- come acquainted with and cut new paths was so great that it seemed as though the horizon of human knowledge had no longer any limits. Franklin had just ''brought down the thunder from the clouds," and Giroud de Villette, Pildtre de Rozier, and D'Arlande made (1783) the first ascension in a fire-balloon, while two years after, Blanchard passed, in a balloon, from Dover to Calais. Animal Magnetism ; Illuminism ; Freemasonry. — • Side by side with the aerostats, the mysteries and the falsehoods of magnetism : Cagliostro and Mesmer ; the one, an Italian adventurer, claimed to possess the true secrets of chemis- try, as discovered by the priests of Egypt and India ; the other, a German adventurer, came to Paris to give his famous seances (1779). In a rich apartment, dimly lighted, and so furnished as to act upon the imagination and the senses, the sick or the curious assembled around the mag- netic trough : some soon fell into convulsions ; the con- tagion seized the rest. It was vaunted as a remedy for everything. Certain minds became in a measure unbalanced. St. Mar- tin published the incomprehensible reveries of the PJiilosopJie inconnu ; the extraordinary book of Swedenborg was intro- duced and eagerly devoured. Beneath politics and science, in shade and in silence, the freemasons worked ; a vast and ancient society of men of all ranks and all countries, which counted princes among its initiated, and, under its strange and somewhat childish rites, concealed and propagated lib- eral ideas. REIGN OF LOUIS XYL 531 Queen Marie Antoinette. — Amid the ferment of thought public opinion gained in power. The court no longer gave the tone and direction to French society. Louis XVI. could not keep up the tradition of Louis XIV., and the beautiful and gracious Marie Antoinette had made many enemies at court by her too exclusive friendships, and among the pub- lic by too great a disregard of rules of etiquette and royal conventionalities. She neglected Versailles for Trianon, and thought that a queen of France could then live to please herself. Such were the habits of the house of Austria, but it had not been so with the house of Bourbon. Consequently those scandals began which later turned to hatred, and finally burst out in such a terrible manner against her. An unfortunate event, as early as the year 1784, showed the feeling of the public in regard to her. The cardinal of Rohan was then the scandal of the Church. When ambas- sador at Vienna he had compromised his character of priest and representative of France by frivolous conduct and frightful expenditures. Scorned by the king, and par- ticularly by the queen, he was in complete disgrace. An intriguing woman, the Countess of Lamotte, made him be- lieve that she was the confidante of Marie Antoinette, and that that princess was disposed to be favorable to him. By means of forged letters and a pretended secret interview she completely duped the cardiiial. Then she persuaded him that the queen charged him to purchase secretly for her a certain necklace of great price. He went to see the merchants, showed them the letters, and obtained possession of the jewel, from which the countess at once realized the desired profit. Some time after, the jewellers, uneasy at not being paid, wrote to the queen. Everything was at once disclosed. The cardinal was sent to the Bastile. Parlia- ment set him at liberty, regarding him as only a dupe, and condemned the countess. The affair made the greatest commotion, and though the queen had had nothing to do with it, her reputation suffered greatly from having her name connected with such a scandal. After the retirement of Necker, Marie Antoinette began to take an active interest in the affairs of the government, and acquired a great ascen- dancy over the king. But not having the administrative genius of her mother, Maria Theresa, though she desired influence, she did not wish for the cares of business ; and as she gave the latter only a partial attention, she could not 632 REIGN OF LOUIS XVL give her influence an enlightened direction. It was she who caused Calonne to be appointed comptroller-general m 1783. Calonne (1783-1787). — Calonne had some administrative ability and despatched business with great ease ; but he was a spendthrift. His financial principles were thus stated by himself: "A man who wishes to borrow must appear to be rich, and in order to appear rich it is necessary to make a display by expenditure. Economy is doubly fatal : it M^arns the capitalists not to lend to a treasury involved in debt ; it causes the arts to languish, while prodigality invigorates them." The courtiers and the women were delighted with this amiable minister. The king, in his indolence, found comfort in a minister whom nothing embarrassed. This pleasant exterior covered 500,000,000 fr. borrowed in three years, and that in time of peace. The time came, however, to disclose everything to the king. Then the spendthrift became a reformer. Calonne conceived a plan in which all the ideaJS of all his predecessors were combined : he proposed to subject the privileged classes to a tax and the payment of a subsidy based on land, to diminish the taille ; to decree the freedom of the grain trade, etc. The Notables (1787). — Thus the fatal words, ^rm%es, abuses, were continually repeated. The government, in order to effect these reforms, would need to have recourse to the nation. But the name of the States-General excited alarm ; the court did not venture to do more than call an assembly of the Notables. The Notables assembled on Feb- ruary 12, 1787. They numbered one hundred and forty- four members, of whom twenty-seven were regarded as representatives of the Third Estate ; in reality there were only six or seven plebeians. Calonne set before them his plans, which were received with general approbation. But the Notables were less interested in looking into the finances than in avoiding the land-tax. The discussion became very earnest. Calonne grew angry ; the king also ; the Notables were ordered to deliberate upon the form and not the prin- ciple of the tax. But the enemies of Calonne finally carried the day, and Louis exiled him to Lorraine. Ministry of Brienne (1787-1788). — One of those most active against Calonne had been Brienne, archbishop of Tou- louse ; brilliant, ambitious, but a prelate without morality and perhaps without faith, whom the pious Louis XVL had REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. 533 long kept out of the ministry. He finally appointed him prime minister ; Brienne gained credit among the Notables by his plans of economy. This assembly, however, ad- journed in a very short time (May 25). The Notables had accomplished nothing ; but in their midst the words " States- General," and even " National Assembly," had been uttered. Brienne, having got rid of the Notables, now found himself face to face with the Parliament. The edict with regard to the provincial assemblies was registered without difficulty ; but an animated discussion arose on the subjects of the stamp-tax and the land-tax. The king held a lit de justice {i.e., appeared in the Parliament), and had the last two edicts registered. The Parliament protested. The king banished it to Troyes. Few men were now more unpopular than Bri- enne ; in the first place he was known to be on good terms with the queen, who was already boldly attacked by pam- phlets. Brienne was not even supported by his order. The a,ssembly of the clergy refused him a miserable subsidy of 1,800,000 livres. Abroad, the ministry was not more fortu- nate. It left the intrigues of England and the arms of the king of Prussia to overturn the republican government of the Netherlands. But now a reconciliation was accomplished between the government and Parliament. Brienne had won over a ma- jority of the members of Parliament. He brought in an edict for a loan of 420,000,000, to be realized in five years. In exchange, he promised the convocation of the States- General before the end of that period, having resolved in advance not to keep his promise. There were violent pro- tests, but Louis XVI. ordered the edict registered. Two members who opposed were arrested. The Parliament was thrown into commotion by this attack upon individual lib- erty in the person of two of its members. D'Esprem^nil drew up, in the name of the Parliament, an act in which was summed up what were called the fundamental laws of the monarchy ; another councillor proposed still further protest. By the king's order, the two were arrested in full session of Parliament, and sent to prison. The government profited by this stroke : the Parliament, summoned to Versailles, was obliged to verify several edicts which deprived it of the power of registration, and trans- ferred the same to a plenary court, which was a sort of coun- cil of State composed of those who were devoted to the king. 534 REIGN OF LOUIS XVI. and which, abridged the jurisdiction of the Parliament. Ee- sistance was everywhere organized, and disturbances took place in Brittany, in B^arn, and in ten other provinces, and an insurrection in Grenoble. To raise money, Brienne seized the invalid pension fund and the proceeds of several benev- olent lotteries; but in August, 1788, he was obliged to de- clare that the payments of the State should be made partly in specie, partly in treasury notes. This was a fatal blow to Brienne. He was obliged to give up his place to Necker (August 23). Second Ministry of Necker (1788-1789) .— The return of Necker called forth acclamations of joy ; the departure of Brienne caused scenes of disorder and unhappily of blood- shed. This first bloodshed in Paris made a deep impres- sion. However, confidence revived, thanks to Necker. In one day the public securities rose thirty per cent. But there were in the treasury only five hundred thousand livres, while the needs of the State were urgent and consid- erable. It was too late to save the country by minor expe- dients. An appeal to the nation became indispensable. Brienne had promised to convoke the States-General in 1789 ; Necker confirmed the engagement. Convocation of the States-General. — The meeting of the States became the one thought of France. Under what form should they assemble ? The Third Estate had become a con- siderable order, on account of its wealth, its intelligence, its activity, and the conspicuous positions held by its chief men in the government and in the administration of the country. Respect for the nobility was greatly diminished. Now in order that the Third Estate should occupy the position it deserved, it was necessary at least to double the number of its members, and establish individual vote, in place of vote by orders. This view was sustained by ISTecker and by all liberal men. But the nobility resisted. Necker wished to decide the question in an assembly of Notables, but they re- fused to make any change in the ancient form. Then he resolved to settle one part of the difficulty himself. A de- cree of the council, establishing double representation, with- out deciding anything as to individual vote, convoked the States at Versailles for the first of May, 1789. FIFTEENTH PERIOD. Constitutional Fkance, since 1789. CHAPTER LIX. THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLYc (1789-17^91 A.D.) Necessity of a Constitution. — It had been long said that the Third Estate paid in money, the nobility in blood, and the clergy in prayers. Now, the clergy of the court and the salon prayed but little, and the nobility no longer composed the entire army ; but the Third Estate had remained faithful to its functions in the State : it was always paying, and more each year. It was inevitable that the day should come when, weary of paying, it would demand a reckoning. That day is called the Eevolution of 1789. The abbe Sieyfes, in a celebrated pamphlet, discussing questions which every one was then asking, said, " What is the Third Estate? The nation. What is it now ? Nothing. What ought it to be ? Everything." He estimated the num- ber of the nobility of all ages and both sexes to be less than one hundred and ten thousand, and the clergy was not more numerous. The court, especially the queen, the Count of Artois, the princes of Conde and Conti, were desirous that the States- General should have charge of financial matters only, and that when the deficit was made up and the debts paid, the deputies should be sent home. But political reforms were the best precaution to be taken against the recurrence of the deficit. France suffered, in fact, from two evils, of which one was the result of the other, — a bad financial system and a bad 536 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. political system, tlie deficit and the governmental abuses. In order to remedy tlie first, three things were necessary, — economy, a less expensive system of collection, a more equi- table distribution of taxation ; to remedy the second, a reor- ganization of the government Avas needed. Royalty, which had already been transformed so many times, must submit to another change ; for, under its latest form, that of abso- lute royalty by divine right, it had produced all that the country could expect from it, unity of territory and govern- mental unity. With the immense development of industry, commerce, science, public spirit, and personal wealth, France now had interests too complex, needs too numerous, to be t>,ble to place the control of them all in the hands of a single man. The nation was sufficiently mature to take charge of its own affairs. Unfortunately a people separates itself from its past only at the cost of cruel lacerations. The Elections; Mirabeau.. — The excitement increased. Clubs were organized everywhere ; among them the Breton Club, out of Avhich was to grow the sinister society of the Jacobins. Divisions existed in the very midst of the privi- leged orders. The clerg}^ had its democracy, the country curates ; a portion of the great lords, La Fayette, La Eoche- foucauld-Liancourt, the counts of Montmorency and Lally- ToUendal, the Viscount de Noailles, etc., were favorable to reforms. In Provence the nobles protested against the decision of the king's council. An illustrious deserter of their cause, the Count of Mirabeau, made a violent attack upon this protest. Eepelled by the nobles, who would not allow him to take his seat among them, he went through the province, among the populace, who were dazzled by the first brilliancy of his eloquence, and calmed by his influence the distur- bances which had burst out at Aix and Marseilles. His youth had been passed in dissipation ; but he had suffered much from the harsh injustice of his father and also of the government, which had issued against him seventeen lettres de cachet. He had been imprisoned and condemned to death. His was a stained name, but he possessed a supe- rior mind. His voice was to become the voice of the Eevo- lution itself. Demands of the Cahiers. — The following are the demands which, being found in almost all the cahiers, or instructions of the deputies, were not subject to any discussion. CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 537 1. Political : that sovereignty, emanating from the people, should be exercised only by the agreement of the national representatives with the hereditary chief of the State ; the ■urgency of establishing a constitution for France ; the ex- clusive right of the States-General to make the laws, which, before being promulgated, should obtain the royal sanction, to control public expenses, and to vote taxes; the aboli- tion of financial immunities and personal privileges of the clergy and the nobility ; the suppression of the last rem- nants of serfdom ; the admissibility of all citizens to public employment; the responsibility of the agents of executive power. 2. Moral : liberty of worship and of the press ; education of poor and abandoned children by the State. 3. Judicial: uniformity of legislation and of jurispru- dence ; the suppression of exceptional jurisdictions ; the publicity of debates ; the amelioration of penal laws ; the reform of procedure. 4. Administrative : the creation of provincial assemblies ; unity of weights and measures ; a re-division of the kingdom according to population and revenue. 5. Economic: liberty of industries; the suppression of internal customs-duties ; the replacing of the various taxes by a real estate and personal tax which would reach the products, but never the capital. Such were " the principles of '89." Opening of the States-General (Majr 5, 1789). — On the 2d of May all the deputies assembled at Versailles, and were presented to the king. On the 4th they repaired in solemn procession to the church of St. Louis. May 5th, the States convened in the Salle des Menus. The king was on the throne, surrounded by the princes of the blood : the court stood on the steps. The rest of the hall was occupied by the three orders ; on the right of the throne sat the clergy, who numbered 291 members, of whom 48 were archbishops or bishops, 35 abb^s or canons, 204 curates, and three monks ; on the left the nobility, compris- ing 270 members, as follows : one prince of the blood, the Duke of Orleans, 240 gentlemen, and 28 magistrates of the superior courts ; last of all, at the lower end, on lower seats, the Third Estate, composed of 584 members, of whom 12 were gentlemen, two priests, 18 mayors or consuls of large cities, 1G2 magistrates of bailUages or s4n4chauss4S} 212 538 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. lawyers, 16 physicians, 162 merchants or landowners and farmers. The king expressed in a few noble words his wishes for the prosperity of the nation, and urged the States to work for it without allowing themselves to be carried away by the exaggerated desire for innovations. He was followed by the keeper of the seals, Barentin, and by the director-general of finances, Necker, who wearied the deputies with his long speech. Two passages of his discourse excited deep interest ; the one in which he made the acknowledgment of an annual deficit of 56,000,000, and 260,000,000 of anticipated receipts, and the other in which he declared that the king demanded that the States should aid him in establishing the prosperity of the kingdom upon solid foundations. The Deputies of the Third Estate declare themselves a National Constituent Assembly (June 17, 1789). — In the discussion which took place on the subject of the first ques- tion at issue, the verification of the powers of the deputies, the Third Estate declared that this verification should be made in common with the nobility and clergy, while the latter contended that each order should verify separately the credentials of its members. Upon the manner in which this question should be discussed depended the mode of delib- eration which should be adopted for others, and the question between vote by orders and vote by members. Now if the vote was to be taken by orders, the majority would be assured to the clergy and nobility ; if by members, it would be se- cured to the deputies of the Third Estate. For five weeks the deputies of the Third Estate, masters of the common hall of session, employed all their energies in trying to induce the two higher orders to unite with them. At length a large number of curi,s joined them. Finally, on June 17, on motion of Abb6 Si^y^s, the commons resolved themselves into a national assembly, "inasmuch as this assembly is already composed of representatives sent directly by at least ninety-six hundredths of the nation." Later it added to its title the word " constituent." The Tennis Court Oath (June 20). — This declaration, which opened the Revolution, brought terror to the court and to the two higher orders. The clergy, by a small majority, decided to join the Assembly (June 19). The court urged the king to take violent measures ; announcing a royal sitting for June 22, he had the hall of the sessions CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 539 guarded by soldiers, under pretext of making preparations. On June 20 Bailly, the president of the Third Estate, find- ing the door closed, convoked them in a tennis court. There the deputies took a solemn oath not to separate until they had established a constitution for France. The next day, the majority of the clergy having joined the Third Estate, the church of St. Louis was opened, and the Assembly began its deliberations. Fusion of the Three Orders (June 27) . — The royal session was- then held, after a double check received by the government. Louis XVI. uttered threatening words; he warned the deputies not to touch the ancient and constitu- tional rights of the three orders. "If you abandon me," he added, " I will work out the welfare of my people alone." He went out, commanding the orders to retire to their re- spective halls. The first two obeyed, with the exception of a few members of the clergy ; the third remained. The Marquis of Br^ze, grand master of ceremonies, came back into the hall and said, " Gentlemen, you have heard the orders of the king." Mirabeau rebuked him for his pre- sumption, and replied: "Go and tell your master that we are here by the wiU of the people, and that we will be sent away only at the point of the bayonet." The Assembly immediately proclaimed the inviolability of its members (June 23). The next day the majority of the clergy, and the day after forty-seven members of the nobility, with the Duke of Orleans at their head, united with the Third Estate. Necker advised the king himself to persuade the two higher orders to join the third. They obeyed, June 27, and were received as though their coming was the lasting pledge of a fraternal union. The Assembly then organized in thirty committees ; the deputies of the Third Estate chose all the presidents from among the ecclesiastics and nobles. The Taking of the Bastile (July 14) . — But the court was considering violent measures. Thirty thousand troops, un- der Marshal Broglie, were concentrated around Paris and Versailles, to protect the Assembly, it was said, and to main- tain order. There were some foreign regiments among them ; the Swiss and the Eoyal German, who were in great favor because their fidelity was not doubtful. The French regi- ments had been influenced by the ideas which were then ia circulation, and so much the more as the army itself was burdened by numerous abuses. Paris was disturbed at these 540 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. military measures. The focus of the discussion was the gar- den of the Palais-Royal. A table served as a rostrum. Here all the acts of the Assembly and the court were discussed. The Assembly demanded the removal of the troops, whose presence irritated the people. But instead they were sud- denly informed of the dismissal and exile of Necker (July 11). The next day Paris burst forth like a volcano; the Palais-Royal resounded with exclamations of passionate anger ; a young man, Camille Desmoulins, boiling with indig- nation, jumped upon a table, pistol in hand, and harangued the citizens. The leaves of the chestnut trees in the garden were taken for cockades ; the crowd seized the busts of Necker and the Duke of Orleans, and bore them about in triumph. At several points it came into collision with the royal troops, and some bloodshed resulted. During these tumultuous disturbances the Assembly made some efforts for the recall of Necker, which Louis XVI. repelled. At the same time they sent a petition to the king, asking for a withdrawal of the troops. In Paris mat- ters were pushed more rapidly and farther. There was a sort of new municipality formed by the electors, which took the place of the old one in the confidence of the people. The electors were citizens, who, when the election for the deputation of Paris was terminated, had continued to assem- ble in order to finish the drawing up of their cahiers, and had even obtained a hall in the H6tel de Ville. Then, with- out commission, without warrant, and therefore illegally, but with an authority which was obeyed by the whole city, they constituted themselves, July 13, an administrative body. The people cried out for arms, so as to be able to defend themselves against the probable attack of the troops. The electors decreed that a guard should be formed from the middle class, four hundred men from each of the sixty dis- tricts. Fifty thousand;"pikes were made in thirty -six hours ; thirty thousand guns, with sabres and cannons, were taken from the Il6tel des Invalides. On the 13th the troops who occupied the Champs-!filys6es were withdrawn, and the Parisians were masters of the city. " To the Bastile ! " became the general cry. The people rushed thither from all quarters. The governor, De Launay, had only two hundred Swiss or pensioners as a garrison ; however, the castle was so strong that the assailants had a struggle of several hours before they were able to take it. They gained an entrance CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 541 after having lost nearly a third of their number, one hun- dred and seventy-one killed and wounded. De Launay was murdered by the populace. Messelles, the provost of the merchants, and several soldiers, shared the same fate. Their heads were set on pikes and carried through the city. The populace had had a taste of blood, and the Eevolution had its first jo?trwee. The National Guard ; the Tricolor Cockade. — When the Duke of Liancourt informed the king of the storming of the Bastile, "Is this then a revolt ?" said he. "Ko, Sire," replied the duke ; " it is a revolution." The king went to the Assembly. When he appeared without guards and de- clared that he and the nation were one, that he confided himself to the National Assembly, that he would consent to the withdrawal of the German troops, and that he would recall Necker to the ministry, he was greeted with great applause, and an immense crowd followed him on his way to Paris. He entered the city in the midst of this crowd armed with guns, pikes, axes, and scythes, and dragging a few pieces of artillery. Bailly, who had just been appointed mayor of Paris, received the king at the gates and delivered to him the keys of the city. " They are the same," said he, "which were presented to Henry IV. He had reconquered his people, Sire ; now it is the people who have reconquered their king." Louis could even then have regained the hearts of his people, but he was not the man for such an emer- gency. The revolution continued in his very presence. La Fayette, being appointed general of the citizen-militia, has- tened to organize it under the name of National Guard, and gave it for its cockade the two old colors of Paris, red and blue, between which he placed white, the color of the mon- archy of France. Abolition of Privileges (night of the 4th of August). — The excitement had spread through the whole country. In many places the peasants burned the convents and castles so as to destroy the old titles and feudal charters. It became urgently necessary to prevent a second Jacquerie by great reforms. The nobility set the example : the Duke of Aiguillon, the Viscount of Noailles, Mathieu de Mont- morency, proposed the purchase of their privileges ; soon the emulation increased, all privileges were abolished ; seignorial rights, rights of jurisdiction, ecclesiastical tithes, personal, provincial, and municipal privileges. The feudal regime was destroyed, and the reign of equality began. 542 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. Opposition of the Court; Events of October 5 and 6, 1789. — One of the first acts of the Assembly was to draw up a declaration of the rights of man and of the citizen, in which were set forth the principles upon which the constitution should be established. Soon those who wished to divide the legislative power between two chambers, as in England, and give the king an unlimited veto, were vanquished. Influence was passing into the hands of men who had determined to go to the extreme of attack, as well as of resistance. Among those about the king, and in spite of him, the plan of resorting to force was resumed. The Flanders regiment was recalled to Versailles. A banquet given to its officers was turned into a royalist demonstra- tion ; the ladies distributed white cockades, and the tricolor cockades, it is said, were trodden under foot (October 1). Meantime Paris was dying of hunger. The winter had been severe, and there had been famine in several provinces. For three months Paris lived one day at a time, receiving to-day the flour for the bread of to-morrow. When the news of the festival at Versailles reached the ears of the famished populace, the slight provocation was sufficient to cause an insurrection. An army of women cried out, " Give us bread," and marched in a body to Versailles, thinking that they would have plenty if they could bring the king to Paris. The men followed; La Fayette, vainly opposing, was himself dragged along by the Parisian army. The multitude reached the courtyard of the chateau ; a struggle with the body-guard took place. The queen was saved only by the devotion of a few of her guards. During an absence of La Fayette the chateau was forced. The king was obliged to show himself and promise to go to Paris. The queen determined to accompany him. The journey was not with- out danger for her. La Fayette led her out upon a balcony, and respectfully kissed her hand as a sign of reconciliation between royalty and the revolution ; the crowd applauded. A few moments after, the royal family set out in the midst of this tumultuous crowd, which conducted them- back as prisoners to the capital (October 5 and 6). The Assem- bly most unwisely followed, and installed itself first in the archbishop's chapel, and afterwards in the riding-school near the Tuileries. From that moment the Assembly found itself, as well as the king, in the hands of the populace, to whom the success of the expedition to Versailles had been CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 543 a fatal revelation that it was possible to substitute force for discussion. Popular Excesses ; the Emigration. — Already culpable ex- cesses had occurred. Those men of blood and destruction had appeared who are always to be found in popular dis- turbances. After the taking of the Bastile, De Launay and Messelles had been killed, afterward the minister Foulon and the intendant Bertier ; then the king's guards. In the provinces the peasants were not always content with tear- ing up feudal title deeds, and pulling down towers and drawbridges ; they sometimes struck down the lords them- selves. Terror filled the court and the chateau. The most unwise counsellors of the king, the Count of Artois his brother, the princes of Cond6 and Conti, the dukes of Bour- bon and Enghien, etc., were the first to fly on the day after the storming of the JBastile : many others followed their example. They left the king alone in the midst of the populace, whose anger they had just aroused by bringing against the country the arms of foreigners. Double Movement which hastened the Revolution. — From October 6, 1789, to September 30, 1791, the day upon which the National Assembly dissolved, France was seized by two contrary movements. On the one hand, the Revolu- tion, begun by almost the whole nation, then guided for a time by the pupils of Montesquieu, who demanded for France only a constitution modelled upon that of England, tended to pass into the hands of popular tribunes, and was becom- ing each day more democratic. On the other, the court concealed its regrets under cover of a feigned docility, and by the suspicions and fears which its conduct inspired, hastened the advance of the Revolution, which was becom- ing implacable. Labors of the Assembly; Political and Civil Reforms. — The National Assembly pursued the course of its labors, pulling down with one hand, building with the other, with an enthusiasm sometimes rash, more often wisely inspired. After having despoiled the absolute monarchy of the right of making laws, establishing taxation, and making peace and war, it reduced the monarch to being only the chief functionary of the State. The dissenting faiths, the press, industry, and commerce were freed from all hindrances. Rights of primogeniture and entails were suppressed ; equal division of property among all the children of the deceased 544 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. was rendered obligatory ; confiscation abolished ; civil mar- riage provided for. Protestants and Jews were admitted to the enjoyment of all civil rights ; and the former re- covered such portions of their estates as had been incorpo- rated in the domains of the State; the mulattoes of the colonies obtained civil rights. Finally, the Assembly abol- ished all titles, destroyed the orders of the nobility and clergy, reduced the nobles to the rank of citizens, the priests to that of public functionaries ; it established equality of penalties, and diminished the number of cases calling for the penalty of death : it declared all Frenchmen admissible to public employments and to military grades, all subject to taxation in proportion to their ability ; and it replaced the old provincial demarcations by the division into depart- ments (January, 1790). There were at first eighty-three of them, about equal in extent, the boundaries and names of which were not derived from any of the old traditions, but from natural features, the rivers and mountains. Each department was divided into districts, the districts into cantons, the cantons into communes or municipalities num- bering 44,828. The National Property; the Assignats. — Mirabeau, by showing that fearful bankruptcy was at the door, caused all citizens to vote unanimously, on the proposition of Necker, for a patriotic sacrifice of one-fourth of their revenues. This was not sufiicient. The Assembly, considering the property of the clergy simply in the light of a deposit, decided that such property should revert to the nation. Then the clergy claimed to be proprietors by right of pre- scription, and in the interest of worship, of the hospitals and the poor. But the clergy having ceased to be a corpo- ration, had lost its quality of proprietor ; and the State took possession of the property by right of escheat (November 2, 1789) ; the domains of the Church were placed at the dis- posal of the nation, and the minister was authorized to sell them at auction to the amount of 400,000,000, on condition that the State should provide in a suitable manner for the expenses of worship, the maintenance of its ministers, and the support of the poor, which was done. The lands of the crown, the property of the 6migr^s, confiscated later (July, 1792), were also declared to be national property. To sell all this property, to distribute it among the na- tion, was a powerful means of attaching the country people CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 545 strongly to the Revolution. The State issued paper money having a forced currency which should receive preference in payment for national property. This was the origin of the assignats. Judicial Reforms. — The Assembly had destroyed the parliaments, the seignorial jurisdictions, and those of the royal provosts, baillis, and seneschals, and the court of accounts. But it laid down the fruitful principle of the separation of administrative and judicial powers, and it instituted for the Avhole kingdom a court of cassation, deciding appeals in the last resort ; for each department, a criminal court which was assisted by a jury ; for each dis- trict, a civil court ; for each canton, a judge of the peace and a bureau of conciliation ; in the principal cities consular courts ; and, for the offences of great public functionaries and for crimes against the welfare of the State, a high court of jus- tice (May, 1791). It provided for the framing of a uniform civil code. The magistrates were to be elected for ten years. Financial Reforms. — The Assembly had abolished the systems of taxation of the old regime, which were so multi- plied and so vexatious. But it declared that each citizen should contribute to the public expenses in proportion to his ability, and it decreed a tax. upon patents, a personal tax, and a land-tax. It preserved, while simplifying them, the duties on registrations and mortgages, and the stamp- tax. It abolished internal custom-houses, but preserved those on the frontier ; and it allowed free importation of all raw materials and articles of food. It established a uni- form system of weights and measures. The Federation (July 14, 1790). — Thus were the desires for the political and social renovation of France realized. Unfortunately, the timidity of some, the impatience of others, and the crimes of a few caused them to fall short of their aim, and the beautiful edifice, prepared by the labors of a whole century, fell to the ground, to rise again, muti- lated, only after horrible convulsions. In the middle of the year 1790 many clouds, and some of them bloody ones, had already appeared on the horizon ; but the people still believed in tlie political success of this great undertaking, and there was a moment of universal confidence and boundless hope at the Feast of the Federa- tion given by the Parisians in the Champs de Mars to the , deputies of the army and the departments. The local fed- 546 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. erations, or patriotic unions of citizens and soldiers, sent one tiundred thousand representatives to Paris on the 14th of July-j 1790. In the midst of the Champs de Mars was erected the altar of the Fatherland; an immense crowd surged over the vast plain; La Fayette, who had been appointed commander of the national guards of the king- dom, was the first to take the oath of fidelity to the consti- tution, which was repeated by thousands of voices. The king repeated it in his turn in a loud voice. Sincere and unanimous acclamations rent the air. It was the happiest day of the Eevolution ; the spirit of concord and fraternal devotion filled all hearts. The Clubs : Jacobins, Cordeliers, etc. — Everywhere debat- ing clubs were formed, all of which tried to influence public opinion ; and some of them began to manifest much violence against the clergy, the court, and even the Assembly. The most active of these societies was the Breton Club, estab- lished at the convent of the Jacobins, whose name it took later. It was still under the influence of enthusiastic but moderate men; later, Eobespierre reigned supreme in it. But there was also formed, at the convent of the Cordeliers, the terrible club directed by Danton. The press spread the flames : Camille Desmoulins, in his journal, Les Revolutions de Brabant et de Flandre; the hideous Marat, in L'Ami du Peuple. The provinces were as much agitated as Paris ; there were disturbances, particularly in the south. The insurrection reached even the army. Necker, seeing his powerlessness, handed in his resignation (September, 1790). Death of Mirabeau (April 2, 1791).— The National Assembly felt itself morally obliged to interpose its author- ity in order to put a stop to anarchy. Mirabeau, who was daily acquiring a greater influence in it, began also boldly to demand the repression of the factions. He even approached the court and consulted with the king and queen, for the purpose not of destroying, but of arresting and consolidat- ing the Eevolution. He believed himself strong enough, should he be called to the ministry, to restrain both the torrent of popular passions and that of aristocratic passions. Death deprived him of this test of his power. Worn out before he was old by all sorts of excesses, he was still speaking, writing, and working actively when suddenly his strength failed him. As soon as it was known that a serious malady threatened his life, the street of Chauss6e- CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 547 d'Antin, in whicli he lived, was crowded with an anxious multitude, who seemed crushed as by a public calamity. He expired the 2d of April, 1791, when not quite forty-two years old. The whole National Assembly, all Paris, indeed, escorted his remains to the Pantheon, where he was buried. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy. — After Mirabeau's death, Louis XVI. no longer heard moderate counsels, nor advice in favor of constitutional rule, which, moreover, was repugnant to all his habits, and of which the queen had a horror. The measures taken by the Assembly relative to the clergy were especially abhorrent to him. Already the clergy had ceased to be proprietors and to form a separate order in the State ; the number of convents had been restricted ; the taking of monastic vows had been suspended, and the legal sanction refused to vows previously taken. The Assembly went still further; it reduced the number of archbishoprics and bishoprics from one hundred and thirty-five to eighty-three, one for each department, and decreed that the electors who chose the administra- tors of the departments and the deputies of the National Assembly should also choose the bishops and cur^s (July 12, 1791). This Civil Constitution of the Clergy, to which all the priests were obliged to take oath, disturbed the established ecclesiastical hierarchy. There was to be a Catholicism in France different from that in Eome, at least in respect to discipline, canonical institution, and spiritual jurisdiction. The measure was also politically unwise, as giving oppor- tunity to the adversaries of the new social order " to oppose religious enthusiasm to the enthusiasm for liberty." A part of the provinces, indeed, turned against the Revo- lution when the Pope forbade the taking of the oath (1791). A very large majority of the bishops refused to take it; those who took it formed, under the title of the sworn or constitutional priests, the clergy recognized by the State. There were thus two worships : one public, in churches de- serted by the faithful ; the other, clandestine, in secret places, which had consequently much the greater spiritual influence. The nobles were already enemies of the Eevolu- tion; the priests were now entering into the fight against it. Opposition of the King. — The king, too, opposed his veto ; he did not withdraw it until the expiration of five months. In his own eyes, as well as in those of the court and of 548 CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. Europe, lie was no longer free, and all his strength was gone. The court, however, still counted upon the fidelity of the army, and upon the foreign sovereigns, who were frightened at the sight of this tremendous revolution, which gave to the world such passionate speeches and such fearful exam- ples. Hence came the suggestion of flight and of appeal to the other sovereigns of Europe. FUght of the King (June 20, 1791). — The Count of Ar- tois and the Prince of Cond^, chiefs of the 6migr6s, were occupied abroad with finding means to deliver Louis XVI. ; the former, with the king's consent, undertook negotiations with the emperor Leopold, which resulted in a secret con- vention. The sovereigns of Austria, Prussia, Piedmont, Spain, and even Switzerland, engaged to station along the frontiers of the kingdom different bodies of soldiery, amount- ing to one hundred thousand men (conference of Mantua, May, 1791). Thus Louis XVI. authorized the blockade and invasion of Prance ; but first he wished to be free. He left the Tuil- eries in the night of the 20th of June with the queen, the dauphin, the princess royal his daughter, and his sister Madame Elizabeth, and the governess of the children, Madame de Tourzel, and proceeded rapidly on the road to Montm^dy, along which Bouille had been ordered to place detachments of troops. But at Sainte-Menehould the king was recognized by the postmaster, Drouet ; at Varennes he was stopped by the procurevir of the commune and sent back under guard of commissioners sent from Paris. He re-entered the capital in the midst of an immense and silent crowd. Affair of the Champ de Mars (July 17, 1791). — The king was at first suspended from the exercise of his powers and placed under guard ; the constitutionalists of the Feuil- lant Club, who still ruled the Assembly, declared that if he retracted his oath of allegiance to the constitution, and placed himself at the head of an army to make war against the nation, he should be considered as having abdicated. But already republican ideas had been openly uttered. A petition drawn up in strong language by the Cordeliers and the Jacobins, summoning the Assembly to pronounce the deposition of Louis, was placed upon the altar of the Father- land in the Champ de Mars to receive signatures. On the 17th of July a considerable crowd assembled and riotous CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY. 549 demonstrations were made. The Assembly ordered the commanding general of the National Guards and the mayor of Paris to disperse the crowd. La Fayette and Bailly marched their troops into the Champ de Mars. Attacked by the mob, Bailly ordered his troops to fire upon them, and several were killed. The King re-established in his Functions (September 14). — The Assembly, fatigued by its long-continued labors, hastened to finish the constitution. On the 14th of Sep- tember the king accepted it, and solemnly swore to ob- serve it. The Assembly restored him to his former powers ; but could it give back to him the moral power which he had lost, or could he infuse into those about him his desire to live loyally under the new laws ? Constitution of 1791. — This constitution- bestowed the legislative power upon a single and permanent assembly, which the king had not the right to dissolve, and which was renewed by general election every two years. This assem- bly alone had the initiative of laws and the right to make war ; it allowed the monarchy, together with the executive power, a suspensory veto. The deputies to the National Assembly, the administrators of the departments, those of the districts, and the judges of the courts, were chosen by secondary elections. Suffrage was given to citizens twenty- five years of age, entered upon the rolls of the National Guard, who had lived one year in the canton, and paid a direct tax equal to the local value of three days' work. The constitution of 1791, with its two millions of voters, was odious to the court and to Europe generally, as being too revolutionary; by those holding republican opinions it was considered too aristocratic. Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly (September 30, 1791). — The Constituent Assembly concluded its career by proclaiming a general amnesty, and making efforts to recall the Emigres to their country. It has a right, in spite of its errors, to the gratitude of the nation ; for if its political re- forms have perished, almost all its civil reforms have sur- vived. The Constituent Assembly had, upon motion of Robes- pierre, forbidden the re-election of its members ; a disinter- ested but unwise measure, which would deprive the new assembly of the experience which the members of the Con- stituent had so dearly bought. 550 THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. CHAPTER LX. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. (1791-1793 A.D.) The Legislative Assembly. — The Legislative Assembly- began its sessions on October 1, 1791, and ended them on September 21, 1792. It formed a stage of transition from the limited monarchy of the Constitutionalists to the dic- tatorship of the Montagnards. Its leaders, the Girondists,^ Brissot, Potion, Vergniaud, Guadet, Gensonn^, labored, in- deed, for the overthrow of royalty, but left to the extreme parties the initiation of the republic. ^ The Non-juring Priests and the Emigres. — Three great dangers threatened the Revolution, — the non-juring priests ; the Emigres, who had made Brussels, Worms, and Coblenz centres of intrigues against the country; and the foreign powers, who openly expressed their intention to re-establish Louis XVI. in his rights, by the famous declaration of Pil- nitz, signed by the king of Prussia and the emperor Leopold (August 27, 1791). The Legislative Assembly ordered that every non-juring priest should be deprived of his salary, and that the 6migr6s who did not return within a fixed time should be declared conspirators, and the revenues from their property should be collected for the benefit of the nation, "but without detriment to the claims of their wives, their children, or their lawful creditors." Laws of proscription had begun. Declaration to the Foreign Powers. — To the foreign powers the Assembly, while professing its preference for peace, declared " that if the princes of Germany continued to favor preparations directed against France, the French would carry into their lands not fire and sword, but liberty. ^ The Girondists were so named because among them, and distin- guished for their great eloquence, were the deputies from the depart- ment of the Gironde, Vergniaud, Guadet, and Gensonne. The fanatical republicans were called Montagnards because they were seated in the Assembly on the upper benches on the left side. The Feuillants, or constitutional royalists, were seated on the (presiding officer's) tight. THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 551 It was for them to estimate what would be the consequences of this awakening of the nations" (November 29, 1791). The king transmitted to the foreign powers requests to withdraw their troops from the French frontiers, but they persisted. Thus the kings formed a coalition against France, and began a frightful war of twenty-three years. The Girondist Ministry (March, 1792). — At the approach of the war, Louis XVI. was obliged to call the Girondists to the ministry ; Servan was made minister of war ; Dumou- riez, a very able but not wholly trustworthy man, minister of foreign affairs. The portfolio of the interior was bestowed upon the honest Eoland, whose wife has won a place among famous names of the Revolution. First Reverses ; Events of June 20, 1792. — War was sol- emnly declared on April 20, 1792, by Louis XVI. against the emperor. Dumouriez wished to take the offensive. He counted upon an easy conquest of the Southern Netherlands, which had recently been in revolt against the house of Aus- tria. But the beginning was unfortunate ; for there was no confidence between the soldiers and the officers, the former continually suspecting the latter of treason. There was great consternation in Paris ; the Assembly, declaring that the country was in danger, voted the establishment of a camp of twenty thousand men near the capital, and pro- nounced the penalty of transportation against the non-jur- ing priests. The king refused to sanction this last measure, and dismissed the Girondist ministers. This moment was the last at which Louis could still have saved his crown by resolutely placing himself at the head of the Revolution. Far from doing this, he sent a secret agent in all haste to the coalitionists. This mission was not known, but the most violent attacks upon royalty were spread among the people by the thousand voices of the press, particularly by Marat's journal. The populace did not long resist this appeal. On the 20th of June, the populace, armed with pikes, advanced upon the Assembly, which made the mistake of opening its doors to them and allowing them to file before it, singing the famous fa ira, with cries of Vive la nation ! Thence this mob marched to the Tuileries, burst into the palace, and summoned Louis XVI. to sanction its decrees. The king allowed the bonnet rouge to be put upon his head. The populace, satisfied at this, retired. This fatal day 552 THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. inaugurated the Eeign of Terror. Soon after, La Fayette, who had commanded one of the armies on the frontier, was proscribed and forced to leave France. His flight announced the triumph of the republicans. Manifesto of the Duke of Brunswick; Events of August 10, 1792. — Meanwhile all France was in commotion; the federates of the departments were hastening up to form the camp near Paris. The leaders of the Cordeliers and the Jacobins, Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, took advan- tage of their presence to make a final attack on royalty. Another imprudence on the part of the allies was of service to these leaders at this juncture. On the 26th of July, 1792, the Duke of Brunswick, general of the Prussian army, had published a manifesto aiinoancmg that he was coming, in the name of the kings, to restore Louis XVI. to power, and violently threatened all who opposed him. The challenge was accepted ; the mob (August 9) demanded the deposition of the king, and the next morning, well armed, with several sections of the National Guard, surrounded the Tuileries. The king, protected by his Swiss, and by some of the nobles and National G-uards, could have defended himself ; but the National Guards passed over to the side of the people, and the king decided to take refuge in the midst of the Assem- bly. He succeeded in reaching it with his whole family, but not without great peril : refuge was given him in the report- ers' gallery. Meanwhile contradictory orders paralyzed the enthusiasm of the Swiss and of the nobles, who remained in the chateau, which after a short and bloody fight was entered and sacked. Its defenders were murdered in the apartments, in the gardens, in the neighboring streets ; two thousand persons perished. The victors marched in triumph into the hall of the Assembly, dictating to it two orders, — the deposition of the king, and the convocation of a national convention. It obeyed the second ; as for the first, it con- tented itself with suspending the executive power. The mob had scored another victory. Louis XVL left the Assembly only to be led to prison in the Temple. An unscrupulous faction, that of the Com- mune of Paris, became master, with Danton, then minister of justice, at its head. Massacres of September, 1792. — The Prussians had just taken Longwy ; the report spread that they were in Verdun. Consternation was general. But Danton believed that before THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 553 going forth to conquer foreign enemies it was necessary to exterminate those at home, at least to " strike terror to the royalists." He ordered, or allowed the committee of sur- veillance to order, the frightful massacres of September 2-6. A band of four or five hundred assassins, hired by the Commune, took possession of the prisons. Some of them constituted themselves a tribunal, others served as execu- tioners. The prisoners were called, and after a few ques- tions they were set at liberty or led into the courtyard of the prison and despatched with sabres, pikes, axes, and clubs. After having killed the political prisoners, they murdered prisoners of all classes. The number of killed amounted to nine hundred and sixty-six. The Assembly, terrified and powerless, had made no opposition. Victory of Valmy (September 20, 1792). — One hundred and sixty thousand Prussians and Imperialists had set out from Coblenz in July. To oppose them, France had only ninety-six thousand men, without discipline, without confidence in themselves or in their commanders, and who would not have been able to prevent the enemy from reach- ing Paris itself, if the enemy had been skilful and the march prompt. On the 22d of August the allies had only reached Longwy, which was taken ; Verdun opened its gates. Bruns- wick slowly extended his line behind the Meuse ; Dumouriez had time to come up, occupied the defiles of the Argonne, and formed in the rear three intrenched camps, into which he received the soldiers who came from every direction. In spite of the Prussian advance, Dumouriez persisted in remaining in the Argonne, intending to establish himself in the rear of the Prussians. The latter made a halt, in order to attack him. The principal struggle was for the posses- sion of the hill of Valmy, where Kellermann had posted himself with his raw conscripts, who stood the. fire with a steadiness which surprised the enemy. The action was little but a cannonade of several hours, ending with a spirited repulse of the Prussian charge, by Kellermann's conscripts (September 20). The day after the battle of Valmy, the Convention assem- bled and proclaimed the republic. Its first reply to the negotiations proposed by Brunswick was worthy of the old Roman Senate: "The French Republic can listen to no proposition until the Prussian troops have entirely evacu ated the French territory." The Prussians, decimated by oo4 THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, hunger and sickness, began their evacuation of France on October 1. Defence of Lille ; Victory of Jemmapes. — While Dumou- riez arrested at Valmy the invading army, and slowly fol- lowed up its retreat, Custine had taken the offensive on the Rhine, captured Speyer, Worms, and even Mainz. In the Alps, Montesquiou conquered Savoy, and Anselme the county of Nice. In the Netherlands the Austrians had attacked Lille with savage barbarity, but could not overcome the stanch bravery of that patriotic city. Dumouriez arrived with the army of Valmy. On the 6th of November he won the battle of Jemmapes, which gave France the Austrian Netherlands. On the 13th he entered Brussels. Thus, in the first campaign, the new France, training her young soldiers under fire, repulsed the attack of kings, and laid her hand upon those half -French countries which Louis XIV. himself had not been able to secure. Goethe, who was present with the Prussian army at Valmy, as a spectator, declared that evening that then and there a new epoch in the history of the world began. THE CONVENTION. 555 CHAPTER LXI. THE CONVENTION. (1793-1795 A.D.) National Convention. — Eoyalty had succumbed. The Convention's first act was to proclaim the republic. But the conquerors were divided; two great parties contended for the direction of the Assembly, — the Girondists, who had had the predominance in the Legislative Assembly, and who retained it some months longer in the Convention ; and the Montagnards, who were later to rule over it. The first was superior in eloquence and learning, the second had more passion and boldness. Nourished Upon the ideas of Jean Jacques Eousseau, they dreamed of a millennium of public virtue for France ; even though society perished under the experiment, they wished to apply their theories. Between the Girondists and the Montagnards was the Plain, com- posed of moderate and feeble men, who were powerless against the momentum of the majority. Death of Louis XVI. (January 21, 1793).— After the affair of the 10th of August, the royal family had been shut up in the Temple. All communication with those outside had been forbidden. They lived thus for five months in the Temple under a surveillance always strict and often insulting. Louis XVI., formed rather for private life than for the throne, showed during his captivity a calm dignity and virtue which often touched the most brutal jailers. The constitution declared the king inviolable and author- ized no penalty against him but deposition, which had been already pronounced. But the situation was extreme, a coalition of all Europe was imminent, and the Convention, constituting itself both accuser and judge, ordered the king to appear before it (December 3). The venerable Male- sherbes, crowning a beautiful life by a noble act, demanded and obtained the honor of defending his old master. Saint- Just and Robespierre did not trouble themselves as to whether the accusations against the king were true or false ; 556 THE CONVENTION. they loudly demanded his death as a measure for the public safety. The Girondists made only timid efforts to save him. Four questions were successively submitted to the vote : 1. Is Louis guilty of conspiracy against the public liberty and an attempt against the general safety ? A unanimous affirmative. 2. Shall he have an appeal to the people ? 276 affirmatives out of 745 voting. 3. What penalty shall be inflicted ? 387 votes for death unconditionally, 338 for detention or death conditionally, 28 absent or not voting. 4. Shall his execution be delayed? 310 yeas against 380 nays. The Convention ordered the execution to take place within twenty-four hours ; and on the 21st of January, 1793, Louis XVI., with a courage and Christian resignation which posterity admires, mounted the scaffold. He tried to speak a few words to the crowd, but a roll of the drums drowned his voice. Thus a prince who had sincerely desired the welfare of his people died by the hand of the people, a victim of hatred the more implacable because it was believed to be legitimate. The fatal doctrine of the supremacy of the public safety was responsible for one more crime, for it was again forgotten that the real safety of nations comes from courage and magnanimity and not from the executioner. Executions could only lead to still further executions. First Coalition (1793-1797). — The death of Louis XVI. armed against France the states which were still hesitating. All sovereigns felt themselves threatened by the doctrines of revolutionary propagandism which the Convention prac- tised. Upon the proposition of Danton it had decreed that France should grant aid and fraternity to all peoples who should wish to recover their liberty (ISTovember 19, 1792). Pitt carried England into the coalition with her fleets and subsidies. France, threatened on all her frontiers, did not recoil. In February and March, 1793, she sent her declara- tion of war to England, the Netherlands, and Spain, and received that of the Empire. It was a new crusade, so to speak, of all European royalties and aristocracies, not to revenge Louis XVI., but to crush the principles of the new social order upheld by the Revolution. Extreme Dangers; the Terror. — In the western part of France agitation against the Revolutionary government had commenced early. In October, 1791; it became necessary to THE CONVENTION. 657 Send troops against the Chouans, as the insurgents were called. But the Vendean peasants did not begin civil war for the cause of the throne and the altar till after the death of the king. At the same time that this danger appeared in the interior, reverses began abroad. The English at- tacked the colonies; Dumouriez, defeated at Neerwinden, evacuated Belgium and declared against the Convention. His soldiers refused to follow him, but the republic had none the less lost in him its best general. The army- was again disorganized and the northern frontier was en- dangered. The Convention, however, made progress everywhere. Against enemies within, a committee of general security was created, which was to search for not only criminals, but suspected persons ; and a revolutionary tribunal to pun- ish them. A committee of public safety, a sort of dictator- ship of nine persons, controlled all public authority, so as to infuse into the national defence the most energetic activity (April 6). There was suspicion everywhere ; Robespierre firmly believed that the G-irondists were trying to dismember France and throw it open to the foreigners ; the Girondists suspected Marat, Eobespierre, and Danton. An extraordinary state of distrust arose, from which fol- lowed the Reign of Terror. Proscription of the Girondists (June 2, 1793) ; Revolt in the Provinces. — Since the trial of the king, the Girondists and Montagnards had been keeping up a desperate struggle in the Convention; the one party wishing to arrest the Revolution, the other to hasten its progress. The most atrocious of the radicals was the hideous Marat, The Girondists, whom he accused of the crime of moderatism, attacked him. They obtained his indictment and had him summoned before the Revolutionary Tribunal. That terrible tribunal acquitted Marat, and the only result was to show the weakness of the Girondists. An attack against Robes- pierre was not more successful, and alienated Danton, who at once fought against them. The party of the Mountain, controlling the sections of Paris through the Commune and the Jacobins, armed them against the Convention, which, under the pressure of the riot, voted for the arrest of thirty- one of the Girondists. Some of them, as Vergniaud and Gensonn^, awaited their sentence ; others escaped from their persecutors and attempted to raise the departments. The 568 THE CONVENTION. greater part of tlie cities in tlie south declared against the Convention ; Toulon was delivered over to the English with the whole Mediterranean squadron (August) ; PaoLi tried to deliver up Corsica to them ; Cond6, Valenciennes, and Mainz were lost (July), and the Spaniards invaded JRoAs- sillon. At the same time a terrible scarcity of food was causing internal disorganization. Energy of the Measures for Defence. — But the Convention displayed a desperate energy. It attempted to regulate prices (September), and established the most severe laws against monopolizers and speculators. Commercial liberty, political liberty, civil liberty, were all suppressed. The entire country submitted to the dictatorship of the Com- mittee of Public Safety. The law against suspects threw three hundred thousand people into the prisons, and Barr^re declared, in the name of the Committee of Public Safety, that Prance must become one vast camp. Twelve hundred thousand men were levied. In a few months Carnot organ- ized fourteen armies. Powder and steel were hastily pre- pared. Bells were melted to make cannon. Bordeaux and Lyons were reduced to submission, the latter city after a resistance of sixty-three days. Bonaparte, then a captain of artillery, recaptured Toulon (December) ; the Vendeans were driven out of Xantes (June), and Jourdan, at- the head of the principal army, held the allies in check. The Guillotine. — Meanwhile nobles and priests, proscribed as "suspects," perished in great numbers on the scaffolds erected in all the cities : Carrier, Collot-d'Herbois, Couthon, Fouch^, Barras, and others, exceeded in the provinces the most horrible proscriptions ever recorded in history. The murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday rendered the Terror more implacable. Queen Marie Antoinette (October 16), Madame Elizabeth, Bailly, the Girondists (October 31), the Duke of Orleans, General Custine, the great chemist Lavoisier, Malesherbes, and a thousand others were guillo- tined. Cartloads of victims, without regard to age or station, were daily dragged to execution. Execution of the H6bertists and Dantonists (March and April, 1794) . — Disputes began to arise among the Monta- gnards themselves. The most violent of them, the H^bert- ists, all-powerful in the Commune, attempted to make the Terror the regular goyernment of France, professed Atheism, and caused the Goddess of Eeason to be placed on the altar THE CONVENTION. 559 of Notre-Dame. The Dantonists attacked both the anar- chists of Hubert's party, and the Committee of Public Safety, whose tyranny they eloquently denounced. Robespierre, who with Couthon and Saint-Just had the upper hand in the Committee, first denounced the H^bertists, whom he accused of corrupting the nation by propagating atheism, and of conspiring with foreigners. They were executed (March 24, 1794) ; twelve days after, Danton, Desmoulins, and those who were now called the Moderates, suffered the same fate on pretext of Orleanism (April 8, 1794). The 9th Thermidor. — Meantime Robespierre, in his turn, began to think of checking the Revolution, so as to con- struct upon the bloody ruins of the past a society arranged according to his own ideas. At this, CoUot-d'Herbois, Bil- laud-Varennes, and others, were roused to fierce opposition. Robespierre proposed a reorganization of the Revolutionary Tribunal, rendering easier the process of judicial murder by effacing the last vestiges of legal forms, and placing the Convention at his mercy (22 Prairial). Then he withdrew from the government and retired to the Jacobin Club, await- ing the opportunity to strike a decisive blow. Meantime the Terror redoubled. In forty-seven days, fourteen hun- dred persons perished. Such a horrible state of affairs could not last. The out- cry of public pity arose against the authors of these abom- inations, and especially against Robespierre. His enemies made the most of this movement of public opinion ; they accused him of aspiring to the dictatorship. On the 8th Thermidor the struggle took place in the Convention. Robespierre wearied the Assembly by an interminable defence, and irritated it by threats. The debate was stormy, and for a long time indecisive, but finally the Plain went over to the enemies of Robespierre. Next day the struggle in the Convention was renewed. Robespierre was arraigned with Couthon and Saint-Just, his brother and Lebas. But the Commune rose in insurrection, delivered" the prisoners, and conducted them in triumph to the H6tel de Ville. Open war now broke out between the rival pow- ers, the representatives of Paris and those of France. The Convention acted with energy and determination, outlawed Robespierre and his friends, and marched powerful forces upon the Hdtel de Ville, who seized the condemned men. Robespierre was severely wounded, perhaps by his own 560 THE CONVENTION. hand. All were led to the scaffold amid the insults of the mob, who beheld in their punishment the end of the Reign of Terror (9-10 Thermidor, 27-28 July, 1794). In the four hundred and twenty days during which the Terror had lasted, 2669 sentences of condemnation had been pronounced by the Eevolutionary Tribunal and carried out, not counting the victims put to death in the provinces. Abolition of the Revolutionary Laws. — The fall of Eobes- pierre became the signal for a reaction, which, in spite of its excesses, allowed France time to breathe. The guillo- tine ceased to be the chief means of government. The importance of the Committees of Public Safety and Gen- eral Security was considerably diminished; the law of Prairial was repealed ; the prisons were opened ; at Paris alone ten thousand captives were set free. The Convention assumed the powers of the Commune of Paris, and the Jacobin Club was closed. Carrier and other leaders in the massacres were sent to punishment. CoUot-d'Herbois, Barr^re, and Billaud-Varennes were transported to Cayenne, after a final effort on the part of the Jacobin party on the 1st Prairial .(May 20, 1795). Glorious Campaign of 1793. — The great success of her arms had happily consoled France in her grief. Carnot, as a member of the Committee of Public Safety, had organized victory. The strategists of the coalition were slow and methodical. Carnot, instead of scientific manoeuvres which the new French generals had not yet learned, and which the French conscripts could not comprehend, demanded that the army should strike rapid blows, marching right on with bayonets fixed, without considering the numbers of the enemy. This system of tactics, well suited to the inex- perience and enthusiasm of the raw French troops, was also the best for cutting the long and slender cordon with which the coalition had surrounded France ; it was success- ful. At the end of August, 1793, France was invaded on all sides, and her situation seemed desperate ; at the end of December she was almost everywhere victorious. Loss of Cond^, Valenciennes, and Mainz (May-August). — After the defection of Dumouriez, the allies, instead of marching together upon Paris, were thinking only of their own individual interests. Conde and Valenciennes were invested. Custine had allowed the Prussians to surround Mainz. After three months' sieges the allies took the three THE CONVENTION. 561 towns ; but meanwhile all Prance had risen, and the prepa- rations for defence were carried on with an energy propor- tioned to the danger. The allies lost another month in preparing for new opera- tions. The English then marched on Dunkirk, and the Atistrians laid siege to Quesnay. Houchard defeated the English at Hondschoote (September 8). Five days after he defeated the Dutch, but a panic drove his army back in disorder to Lille. He was removed, and he, as well as Custine, was sent to the scaffold. The allies, now masters of the Scheldt and of the country between the Scheldt and the Sambre, endeavored to take Maubeuge, so as to assure themselves of the possession of the upper Sambre. France seemed in great peril ; but Carnot promoted Jourdan, a simple chief of battalion at the beginning of the campaign, to the command of the army of the North, and Jourdan defeated the Prince of Coburg at Watignies, and blockaded Maubeuge. In the Vosges the French armies at first lost some battles. But the youthful Hoche was placed at the head of the army of the Moselle, Pichegru at the head of the army of the Rhine, and Saint-Just and Lebas, coming to the seat of operations, inspired the troops and people with fresh energy. Hoche and Pichegru defeated the Austrians and compelled them to recross the Ehine, while the Prussians, thus exposed on their left, fell back to Mainz. Hoche wintered in the enemy's country, in the Palatinate. In Italy the French and Piedmontese contended for the chain of tlie Alps. On the side of the Pyrenees the republican army fell back before the Spaniards (December). Successes and Defeat of the Vendeans (1793). — But at this moment the civil war was drawing to an end. The republicans had recaptured Lyons (October) and Toulon (December) . La Vendue resisted longer. The revolt of the peasants of that province began at Saint-Florent on the Loire. In March, 1793, the young men of the canton were summoned thither to be drafted into the army. They muti- nied, drove off the gendarmes, and pillaged the H6tel de Ville. A peasant named Cathelineau represented to them that the Convention would take svimmary vengeance upon them. He persuaded them to follow him, hastened from village to village, collected volunteers, and at the head of this force captured some posts, arms, and cannon. A game- keeper, Stof&et, joined him with a similar following. From 562 THS CONVENriON. a band of insurgent peasants, the force grew into an anuy. Led by the noblemen of the province and the two popular chiefs, the Vendeans took Saumur (June), and in order to make their way to the sea, — that is, to join hands with the emigres and the English, — they captured Nantes. Catheli- neau was killed in this last attack, but the Vendeans re- mained masters of their country and drove the republicans out of it by two victories in July and one in September. A considerable republican force was then sent into La Vendue, and with them Kl^ber, who was a host in himself; but divided commands resulted in the defeat of all four divisions of this army. The Convention ordered its gen- erals to end the war before the 20th of October. In eleven days the Vendeans sustained four defeats. KMber finally routed them before Chollet (October 17). Eighty thou- sand Vendeans, men, women, children, and old men, whom this disaster had driven to the Loire, crossed the river and endeavored to raise Anjou, Maine, and Brittany ; they even went as far as Granville, where they hoped to obtain assis- tance from the English. But Granville repulsed them, and they then turned towards Angers (December), to return to La Vendue. This time the Loire was well guarded ; they were thrown back upon Le Mans, defeated in that city, and entirely overcome in Savenay (December 28). This was the end, so far as field operations were concerned. Campaign of the Summer of 1794; Fleurus. — Pichegru, displacing Hoche by intrigue and then transferred to the North, lost two months in fruitless and bloody struggles on the Scheldt and the Sambre. Fortunately, Carnot renounced in season the idea of attacking the enemy in front, and determined to threaten their communications and line of retreat by bringing up Jourdan with forty-five thousand men from the Moselle to the Sambre. Four times the republican columns crossed the Sambre ; four times they were repulsed. But it was necessary, at whatever cost, to obtain possession of Charleroi. A fifth passage was successful. Charleroi capitulated, and the Prince of Coburg lost the battle of Fleurus (June 28), which reopened the Low-Countries to the French. Pichegru drove the English towards Holland ; Jourdan drove the Austrians back behind the Meuse. Du- gommier won a decided success in the Pyrenees, and Dumer- bion captured the camp of the Piedmontese. The way into Italy and Spain was now open as well as the Low-Countries. THE contention: 563 Winter Campaign of 1794-1795 ; Conquest of the Low- Countries ; Invasion of Spain. — Winter put a stop neither to the operations nor to the success of the armies. Jourdan drove the Austrians again beyond the Rhine (October), whither the Prussians were compelled to follow them. Then the four French armies of the North, of the Sambre and Meuse, of the Moselle, and of the Rhine, were stretched along the great river. Winter had set in and was very severe. The temperature fell to twenty-seven degrees be- low zero (Cent.). The soldiers, ragged and unpaid, but supported against all miseries by their moral energy, marched onward, crossing the canals and rivers, and driv- ing before them the English and Dutch. On the twentieth of January, 1795, they entered Amsterdam. Squadrons of hussars hastened to the Texel to take the Dutch fleet, fas- tened in by the ice. Pichegru established in Holland the Batavian Republic. Thence he could turn the Prussian, defences on the Rhine ; Northern Germany lay open to attack. Dugommier forced the passage of the Eastern Pyrenees (November), but perished at the moment of victory. As a consequence of this victory, one of the strongest places in Europe, Figueras, opened its gates. Moncey, at the other extremity of the Pyrenees, at the same time effected the conquest of Guipuzcoa ; Spain was invaded on two sides. Peace with Prussia and Spain (1795) ; ftuiberon. — Prussia and Spain were alarmed at their defeats ; Prussia, besides, was at this moment much occupied witli the final partition of Poland. Both powers asked for peace (treaty of Basel, April and July) ; Prussia ceded her provinces on the left bank of the Rhine ; Spain, the Spanish portion of San Domingo. This peace was the recognition of the republic and the Revolution by two of the great states of Europe. England, Austria, Sardinia, and the Empire remained in line. The first, in order to arouse again in the French prov- inces of the West the forces of the royalist party, landed in the peninsula of Quiberon two divisions of Emigres. Hoche, called from the army of the Rhine to pacify La Yend6e, destroyed them (July, 1795). Reverses on the Sea ; the Vengeur. — If the genius of war on land is born of inspiration, maritime warfare demands science and long practice. Now the brilliant naval staff which had conquered England in the American war had 564 THE CONVENTION. emigrated; the fleet was left without commanders; hence its inferiority in great naval battles. On the 1st of June, 1794, Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse attacked, with twenty-five ships, manned by peasants, an English fleet of thirty-two sails, in order to protect an immense convoy of grain. The convoy passed, but the fleet was defeated and lost six ves- sels. As one of them, the Vengeur, sank in the waves, the crew went down singing the Marseillaise. Martinique, Gua- deloupe, and even Corsica were taken by the English. There were, however, some successes gained in privateering. Constitution of the Year III. (1795). — Meanwhile the Convention, having triumphantly survived the disturbances which followed the 9th Thermidor, abolished the democratic constitution of 1793, which had never yet been put in opera- tion, and vested the legislative power in two councils : the Council of Five Hundred, whose duty was to propose laws, and the Council of Ancients, whose office was to examine and accept them. The executive power was given to a directory of five members, renewed by fifths each year, nominated by the legislature, and responsible. All power was divided. It was hoped by this means to escape a dicta- torship and form a moderate republic ; yet the result of the constitution of the year III. was only a feeble and anarchical republic. The 13th Vendemiaire (October 5, 1795). — The 9th Thermidor had been followed by such a reaction that the royalists hoped for an early restoration. They believed that the approaching elections would give them a majority. But the Convention decided that two-thirds of the members of the new legislative body should be taken among the members of the Convention, so that the royalists could be only a very small minority in it. The royalists incited the sections of the National Guard to outbreak, and marched upon the Tuileries, where the Convention was sitting. Bar- ras, who was appointed to defend it, chose as his lieutenant a young general who had performed important services before Toulon, Napoleon Bonaparte. They had only six thousand or seven thousand soldiers. Bonaparte rapidly fortified the Tuileries ; the trooj)S of the sections, received with a furious fire of grape-shot, were routed at once and put to flight. In October, 1795, the Convention declared its mission ended. Principal Achievements of the Convention. — In the midst THE CONVENTION. 565 of its intestine commotions and its victories, the Convention had prepared a uniform code for all France, had decreed a system of national instruction, and the establishment of the Normal School, the Polytechnic School, the Lycees, the Schools of Medicine, the Conservatory of Arts and Trades, chairs of Modern Languages, the Bureau of Longitudes, the Conservatory of Music, the Institute, the Museum of Natural History, and had established the unity of weights and measures (metric system).^ By the disorderly issues of assignats (44 billions) it had broken down all fortunes, and by the law fixing a maximum of prices, it had ruined commerce; but by the sale of the "national property," which formed a third of the territory, it had laid open to the fruitful labor of the new proprietors immense domains until then unproductive ; and by the systematic consolida- tion of the public debt, it had prepared, for better days, public confidence in the credit of the State. ^ The Convention had replaced the Gregorian calendar by the repub- lican calendar. The new era began on the 22d of September, 1792. 566 TEE DIRECTORY. CHAPTER LXll. THE DIRECTORY. (October, 1795-November, 1799.) Situation of the Republic at the End of 1795. — The Coun- cil of Ancients and that of the Five Hundred organized on the 27th of October, and elected as directors five regicides, La E.6veill6re-Lepeaux, Rewbel, Letourneur, Carnot, andBar- ras ; the -first three honest and laborious men, but thoroughly incapable of their duties ; the fourth a superior man. The new government established itself in the palace of the Luxembourg. The situation was difficult. Local govern- ment was paralyzed. The treasury was empty, the assignats fallen into the most complete discredit. Commerce and industry no longer existed ; the armies were in need of food, clothing, and even ammunition. But three years of such a war had made soldiers and generals; Moreau commanded the army of the Rhine ; Jourdan, that of the Sambre and Meuse ; Hoche, that in the West, and Bonaparte, who was to eclipse them all, had just been put in command of the army of the Interior, which he soon after exchanged for that of the army of Italy. Napoleon Bonaparte. — Napoleon Bonaparte, born at Ajaccio on the 15th of August, 1769, was a son of Charles Bonaparte, of an Italian family, and Letizia E,amolino. His father died in 1785 ; his mother died in Rome in 1839. They had eight children ; Napoleon was the second. Ad- mitted to the military school of Brienne in 1779, he passed, five years after, to the military school of Paris. The follow- ing year he obtained the rank of lieutenant in a regiment of artillery. He was at first an earnest partisan of the Revolution. When the army of the Convention attacked Toulon, the representatives of the people made him a chief of battalion and gave him the direction of the artillery during the siege. He seized a point on the shore of the roadstead whence the English fleet could be fired upon. Their retreat thus cut off, the English hastened to abandor THE DIRECTORY. 667 Toulon. Bonaparte, promoted to be brigadier-general as a reward for this service, went to command the artillery of the army of Italy. After the 9th Thermidor he was placed on the unattached list ; the 13th Vend6miaire brought him prominently into public notice, and Carnot gave him the command of the army of the Alps. He was not yet twenty- seven years old. Campaign of Bonaparte in Italy (1796-1797). — Carnot's plan for the campaign of 1796 was bold and wise. Jourdan and Moreau, having each from seventy thousand to eighty thousand men, were to enter Germany, the first by the val- ley of the Main, the second by that of the ISTeckar, to reach ■the basin of the Danube and descend thence upon Austria, which was to be threatened by Bonaparte from Italy. Thus, Moreau in the centre, Jourdan and Bonaparte on the two wings, were to effect a combined forward movement and converge if possible on the road to Vienna. But the three armies were separated from each other by mountains. When Bonaparte reached the army of the Alps, the generals, Mass6na, Augereau, and the rest, already dis- tinguished by important services, received the new-comer coldly. He called them together, explained his plans to them, and convinced them at once. To the soldiers Bona- parte issued one of his magnificent proclamations, which electrified all hearts. Bonaparte had thirty-eight thousand men against sixty thousand Sardinian and Austrian troops. But he resolved to take the offensive, and did so boldly. Instead of wearing out his forces among sterile rocks where no important blows could be struck, he turned the flank of the Alps and crossed them at the lowest point of the range, the Col de Monte- notte, while Beaulieu, the Austrian general, awaited him on the seashore ; by this skilful movement he placed himself in front of the weakest point of the Austrians and Piedmon- tese. He pierced their centre at Montenotte (April 11 and 12), established himself between them, and in order to separate them more completely, defeated them successively. He was then master of the road to Turin, upon which the Piedmontese had retreated, and of that to Milan, by which the Austrians were falling back. But he did not pause ; he crushed the Sardinian army and compelled them to lay down their arms by the armistice of Cherasco, which he signed ten leagues from Turin (April 28), and which, followed 568 THE DIRECTORY. by a treaty of peace, gave France Savoy, Nice, and Tenda, and afforded liim a secure base for the offensive march which he meditated. Having got rid of one enemy, he turned towards the other. He crossed the Po behind the Austrians at Pia- cenza (May 9), defeated one of their divisions there, and, ascending the Adda, found the Austrians in a strong posi- tion at Lodi. The loridge of Lodi was carried by a brilliant charge (May 11). Beaulieu tried still to preserve the line of the Mincio. Bonaparte deceived him as to the real point of attack, forced the passage at Borghetto (May 30), and finally drove back into the Tyrol that army which but a little while before was threatening the French frontiers. At the same time he extorted from the dukes of Parma and Modena 2,000,000 f r. apiece, ammunitions, and pictures. The Pope promised 21,000,000, 100 pictures, and 500 manuscripts. He levied a war contribution from Lombardy of 20,000,000, and sent 10,000,000 of it to the Directory. He stopped at the Adige, an excellent line of defence, covering Lombardy, and besieged Mantua (June 3) . Meantime Wurmser, the best of the Austrian generals, suc- ceeded Beaulieu. Wurmser had 60,000 men against 30,000, but he divided his forces. Eaising the siege of Mantua in order to have all his forces united, Bonaparte, by succes- sively moving all his forces from his right to his left, and from his left to his right, crushed both divisions of the Aus- trian army, at Lonato and at Castiglione. Wurmser, threat- ened with being cut off from the Tyrol, had only time to fall back ; then he received reinforcements, which increased his army again to 50,000 men ; he then commenced a second cam- paign. While he was descending the valley of the Brenta, Bonaparte hastened to meet him in the valley, attacked him there, surrounded him between the Prench army and the river, nearly captured him, and finally blocked him up in Mautua (September). After the defeat of Jourdan and the retreat of Moreau,. Austria sent a fourth army, of 60,000 men, under Alvinzi, into Italy. Alvinzi recruited 60,000 more men. The army of Italy seemed lost; the whole peninsula behind it was in revolt, and this time the enemy advanced cautiously. Forty thousand men arrived in front of Verona and occupied a strong position, from which Bona- parte was unable to dislodge them. Apparently retreating from the town, he descended the Adige, and crossed it at THE DIRECTORY. 669 a lower point, in order to turn the flank of the Austrians. Here, in the marshes of Arcole, after three days' furious fighting (November 15-17), in which he was in great per- sonal danger, he compelled Alvinzi to retreat. Six weeks later (January, 1797) Alvinzi, again reinforced, reappeared with 60,000 men. Selecting the sole point in the mountains at which the two chief divisions of the Aus- trian army could effect a junction, Bonaparte, though he had only 16,000 men against 40,000, established himself at the point of junction, and inflicted upon both divisions the overwhelming defeat of Eivoli. Suddenly he learned that Provera, with 20,000 men, had passed the Adige, and was seeking to release Wurmser. He left Joubert to pursue Alvinzi, and hastened against Provera with Massena's divis- ion, which had fought on the 13th before Verona, had marched that night to the assistance of Joubert, had just fought all day long on the 14th at Eivoli, and now marched all night and all day on the 15th to fight again on the 16th before Mantua. The most celebrated soldiers had never before accomplished anything like this. Provera was com- pelled to lay down his arms. Wurmser, reduced to the last extremity, surrendered Mantua (February 2). Thus in ten months 55,000 Prenchmen had conquered more than 200,000 Austrians, had taken prisoners more than 80,000, killed and wounded more than 20,000 ; they had fought twelve pitched battles, more than sixty skirmishes, and crossed several rivers. War, thus conducted, and for a glorious cause, is a magnificent spectacle. The regency of Modena and the Pope having shown sympathy for the Austrians, Bonaparte deposed the duke, erected his states into the Cispadane Eepublic, and marched upon Eome. Pius VI., trembling, signed the peace of Tolen- tino ; it cost him 30,000,000, the Eomagna, which, with the legations of Perrara and Bologna, was united to the Cispa- dane Eepublic, and Ancona, which was occupied by the French (February 10, 1797). Retreat of Moreau (October, 1796). — The armies of Ger- many had not been either so skilfully or so fortunately con- ducted. Jourdan and Moreau at first drove the Austrians before them ; but Carnot caused them to act separately, and the Archduke Charles, boldly leaving Moreau with a part of his forces, and joining Wartensleben in the valley of the Main, defeated Jourdan, and drove him back behind the 570 THE DIRECTORY. Lahn. This was the same manoeuvre which had proved so advantageous to Bonaparte in the opening of the cam- paign in Italy. It was equally successful, but had not the same result, for Moreau was not Beaulieu, and the archduke was not Bonaparte. He lost a precious opportunity by not attacking Moreau at once in the midst of Bavaria ; Moreau slowly fell back through the Black Forest, and without having left behind him a single caisson or a single man, in that glorious retreat of twenty-six days, he re-entered Alsace unmolested on the 18th of October. Last Victories of Bonaparte in Italy; Preliminaries of Leoben (1797). — Fortunately the marvellous victories of the army of Italy compensated for this reverse. The Archduke Charles, having defeated Jourdan, arrived with a fourth army which stretched along the Carinthian and Julian Alps from the upper Adige to the mouth of the Tagliamento. Bonaparte, with Joubert and Mass^na, cut this half-circle at three points. Then, while Joubert and Mass^na effected a junction in the Puttersthal, Bonaparte pushed on to Klagenfurt and finally to Leoben; his advance guard, on the summit of the Sommering, could perceive, twenty-five miles to the north, the hills of Vienna. At this moment Hoche and Moreau began operations. The first, at the head of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, crossed the Rhine in face of the enemy ; in four days he marched thirty-five leagues, won three battles, and fought five minor engagements, and was about to surround the Austrian army. Desaix, one of Moreau's lieutenants, crossed the river with equal success, and drove the enemy back into the Black Forest. If Bonaparte had known of these victo- ries, he would have refused all negotiations ; but the court of Vienna, in alarm, hastened to sign the preliminaries of Leoben (April 18), agreeing that France should have Bel- gium, and Austria the provinces of Venice on the mainland as compensation for the Milanese. Venice having broken out in insurrection in Bonaparte's absence, four thousand men entered the city and established there a provisory re- public. The senate of Genoa was also overthrown, but remained an independent Ligurian Republic. England now offered of her own accord to negotiate, and conferences for peace were opened at Lille. Internal Anarchy. — While the republic was victorious abroad, at home the situation was growing worse under a THE DIRECTORY. 571 divided and incapable government. In the beginning it had been strong enough to overthrow two attempts of the two extreme parties ; the first in La Vendue, suppressed by Hoche (February and March, 1796), the second that of the communist Baboeuf (May). A conspiracy of the Jacobins in September proved fruitless. But the Directory was growing weak, and the disorder was extreme. The territorial mandats which had replaced the assignats (March, 1796), had fallen into equal deprecia- tion. The financial crisis became frightful ; dishonest acts were imputed to the whole Directory. The country, like the government, was going at random. So lately escaped from the Terror, it rushed into pleasure; dissipation and speculation were unbridled; bands of robbers increased. It seemed that the State would be utterly destroyed. Progress of the Royalists. — The royalists believed that it would be an easy matter to overthrow this tottering gov- ernment. The 6migr6s returned in great numbers, and openly labored for a counter-revolution. Emboldened by their success in the elections for the renewal of the Coun- cils, they made two of their partisans presidents of them, and another, a member of the Directory. A monarchical restoration in favor of the Bourbons seemed imminent. Louis XVIII., brother of Louis XVI. (the latter's son, called Louis XVII., had died in prison in 1795), believed himself on the point of being recalled. But the country was not so ready to restore what it had so lately struck down. The armies especially were republican, and from the banks of the Adige, Bonaparte promised his aid against the royalists. The 18th Fructidor, Year V (September, 1797).— In the night of the 18th Fructidor, Augereau led into Paris twelve thousand men, who surrounded the place where the Coun- cils were sitting. The minority in each, on invitation from the Directory, expelled their colleagues and condemned fifty-three of them to transportation, together with two directors, — Carnot, who did not wish to resort to violence against the royalists ; and Barth^lemy, who favored them. Moreau, falling under suspicion, was displaced ; the two armies of the Rhine were confided to Hoche, in whom the republicans trusted, but who died at twenty-nine, a few ilays after having received this important command. treaty of Campo-Formio (1797).— The Directory pro- 572 THE DIRECTORY. posed to continue the war. But Bonaparte desired peace. In spite of the government, which justly refused to abandon the Venetians to Austria, he signed the treaty of Campo- Formio, the most glorious that France ever concluded (October 17, 1797) . The emperor ceded Belgium, the pos- session of the left bank of the Rhine, and the Ionian Isles ; he accepted the establishment of the Cisalpine Republic (Milan, Modena, and Bologna) ; as compensation, Venice, Istria, Friuli, and Dalmatia were given to him. Bonaparte had calculated wisely ; his fame was increased by this peace more than by fresh victories. After having regulated the affairs of Italy, he returned to Paris, where the government and the people gave him a triumphal reception. The army of Italy shared in the honors which were showered upon their general. Expedition to Egypt (1798-1799). — The war against the English continued. Hoche had wished to wage war directly against England ; this was the true policy. But Bonaparte caused the Directory to renounce this enterprise. He had, however, firmly resolved to keep himself prominently before the people. He proposed an expedition which he had thought of while in Italy, the conquest of Egypt. From the borders of the Nile he hoped to attack England in India, and strike her in the heart by destroying her com- merce and her empire. In order to risk forty thousand of the best soldiers of France at so great a distance, one ought to be master of the sea, and the English covered it with their fleets. It was consequently running a great risk, but it is often thus that the public mind is fascinated and mas- tered. The expedition was prepared in the greatest secrecy. The fleet, composed of fourteen ships of the'line and a great number of transports, left Toulon the 10th of May, carrying thirty-six thousand men, almost all old soldiers of Arcole and Rivoli, together with savants, artists, and engineers. At flrst the expedition was entirely successful. On the voj^age it captured Malta ; the knights did not even de- fend themselves. The fleet successfully eluded the Eng- lish admiral, Nelson, and a landing was effected without hindrance on the 1st of July, four miles from Alexandria ; that city was, in a few hours, carried by assault. Bona- parte marched immediately upon Cairo, where the formi- dable army of the Mamelukes, the real masters of the country, had concentrated its principal strength. Repulsed ENaRAV.EO BY BOflHAY & CO., N..V. lHi»A1.U) «Y BOilMAr » CO., M..». THE DIRECTORY. 673 in a first engagement, the Mamelukes fell back upon Cairo and prepared for a general battle. The French army fol- lowed them thither and paused, seized with admiration, in front of the Pyramids which rose in the vicinity of that city. "Soldiers," cried Bonaparte, "from the height of those Pyramids, forty centuries look down upon you ! " In order to fight against this innumerable and valiant cavalry of the Mamelukes, he formed his divisions into squares and so placed them as to support each other. In vain the Mamelukes made the most brilliant and daring charges ; they could not break those lines of iron and fire. The occupation of Cairo and the submission of Lower Egypt were the result of this victory (July 21). Bonaparte hastened to organize the country ; he respected the faith and the customs of the inhabitants, but he also assured the well-being of his soldiers, and established the Institute of Egypt, the members of which began the scien- tific conquest of that mysterious country. The news of a disaster to his fleet surprised Bonaparte in the very midst of these enterprises. He had ordered Admiral Brueys to leave the roadstead of Aboukir. A fatal delay allowed the English time to come up. The French line had not been formed neaf enough to the shore ; half the English fleet could pass between it and the land, while the other half passed between it and the offing. This bold manoeuvre was attempted by Nelson. It was successful. All the French vessels, except four, motionless at anchor, were obliged to sustain on both sides the fire of the whole fleet of the enemy, which advanced slowly, destroying the French ships one by one. The French fleet, with the exception of four vessels which escaped to Malta, was entirely destroyed (August 1). The Egyptian expedition, which was to have given the French the control of the Mediterranean, was, after this, only an adventure, instead of being the beginning of great achievements. The French army was imprisoned in its conquest, and the Porte declared against it. Bonaparte first completed the occupation of the whole country, and suppressed a revolt in Cairo. Then, sure of his conquest, he advanced towards Syria, whence he could cover Egypt, and threaten Constan- tinople or India at will (February, 1799). He at first suc- ceeded, and dispersed, at the battle of Mount Tabor, a-large Turkish army. But at the siege of Acre all his genius 574 THE DIRECTORY. failed, for want of material means, against the courage of the Turks and the tenacity of the English commodore, Sidney Smith. He led his exhausted and diminished army back into Egypt. There he again signally defeated his enemies. The army of Egypt had nothing more to fear, but it also had nothing more to do, and this inaction annoyed Bonaparte. When he learned that a second coalition had been formed, that Italy was lost, that Erance was about to be invaded, he gave the command to KMber, and embarking in a frigate, boldly crossed the whole Mediterranean through the midst of the English cruisers, and in October landed at Fr^jus. Maladministration of the Directory. — The Directory, by turns weak and violent, on the 22d Flor^al (May 11, 1798), annulled the election of a number of deputies. A few months before, it had gone into actual bankruptcy. The interest of the debt was 258,000,000 ; the Directors repaid two-thirds of it with bonds on the national property, which lost five-sixths of their nominal value ; the other third was consolidated and inscribed in the " great book of the public debt." They increased the excitement to the highest degree by a forced loan of 100,000,000, and by the law of hostages against relatives of emigres and of former nobles, a law which destroyed the security of one hundred and fifty thousand families. Abroad they provoked Europe by im- prudent acts. They overturned the temporal power of the Pope and the aristocracy of Bern ; they created discontent in the Batavian, Cisalpine, and Ligurian republics ; and were unable to secure the olDedience of their generals. Second Coalition (March, 1799-March, 1802). — The sight of this internal disorganization, the withdrawal of Bona- parte and the best army, decided the powers of the continent to listen to the words of Pitt. England, Austria, Eussia, a part of Germany, Naples, Piedmont, Turkey, and even the Barbary States, united against France. The country was exposed to the most serious dangers. The Councils decreed the law of conscription, which forced into military service all citizens of between twenty and twenty-five years, and ordered a levy of two hundred thousand men. The king of I^aples, by an imprudent attack, brought upon himself a crushing defeat. The Parthenopean Republic was immedi- ately" proclaimed (January, 1799). Joubert had, at the same time, driven the king of Sardinia from Piedmont (December, 1798). THE DIRECTORY. 575 Reverses in Italy and in Germany (1799). — But the coalition had set on foot 360,000 men; the Directory had only 170,000, divided into five armies ; Macdonald and Brune were at the two extremities, at Naples and in Hol- land ; Jourdan and Sch^rer on the wings, in Germany and in Italy ; Mass6na in the centre, in Switzerland. Since the last war a democratic revolution had been going on in that country, and Switzerland had signed with France a treaty of alliance, which permitted the French to ocxjupy the coun- try with military forces ; Massena therefore advanced as far as the Ehine, while Scherer approached the Adige. Jourdan crossed the Rhine, and advanced between the Danube and Lake Constance in order to keep abreast of Massena, while the latter, crossing the Rhine, sent his light horse into the upper valley of the Inn to support Scherer through the Tyrol. But the Archduke Charles stopped Jourdan at Stockach, and compelled him to fall back to the Rhine. In Italy, Scherer, after wearying his troops by a succes- sion of ill-conceived movements, and being defeated near Verona, lost his head and retreated behind the Adda. Massena was forced to follow this retrograde movement; he retired behind the line formed by the Linth, Lake Zurich, and the Limmat. Meanwhile thirty thousand Russians had joined the sixty thousand Austrians in Italy, and Suwarof commanded the combined army. Moreau, replacing Scherer, was defeated at Cassano, but made a masterly retreat upon Turin, then upon Genoa. Macdonald returned from Naples in all haste, but was severely defeated in attempting to effect a junction with Moreau. Victories of Brune at Bergen (September 19), and of Mass6na at Zurich (September 25, 26, 1799). — Meanwhile, however, Brune defeated at Bergen (September 19), an army of forty thousand English and Russians which had landed in Holland, and forced them to seek refuge on their vessels ; Massena won the immortal victory of Zurich. For political reasons, the Aulic Council at Vienna resolved to send Suwarof and his army into Switzerland, the archduke to the Rhine. Massena surprised the allies in the midst of their manoeuvre, when the archduke had already quitted Switzer- land, and Suwarof had not yet entered it. Throwing him- self upon Zurich, he there crushed a Russian corps, and put to route another corps which was guarding the Linth ; when Suwarof arrived from the Saint-Gothard, after much fatigue 576 THE DIRECTORY. and great losses, lie found himself confronted by victorious troops who threw him back into the frightful gorges, whence he only escaped with the loss of half of his men. This glo- rious succession of manoeuvres, called the battle of Zurich (September 25 and 26), cost the allies thirty thousand men and the defection of the Russians, who withdrew from the coalition. Bonaparte never gained a more glorious battle. The 30th Prairial (June 18, 1799). — France, indeed, was saved ; but the country nevertheless blamed its government for having exposed it to such great perils, and forced three of the directors to resign (30th Prairial, June 18, 1799). But it was of little use to change men, for the cause of the evil was in the institutions themselves. Anarchy continued. It was no longer as before the 18th Fructidor the royalists who tried to profit by it, but the remnant of the Jacobins. The government triumphed over this party without diffi- culty, yet the Directory continued to be despised. It was at this juncture that Bonaparte landed at Fr^jus. The 18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799). — His return was greeted with transports of joy, which showed him that he was master of the situation. He appeared reserved and impenetrable. He shut himself up in his small house in the Rue Chantereine, and seemed to live only for his sister, for his wife, Josephine de Beauharnais, and for his colleagues of the Institute. Meantime he was observing and calculating. The country repelled the royalists because it did not wish to return to the old regime; it repelled the Jacobins, because it did not wish to return to '93. It was determined to pre- serve the Revolution. But the Revolution was twofold, social and political; it had been undertaken in order to secure equality and liberty. Anarchy was endangering both ; to save the one France postponed the other ; she cast her- self into the arms of Bonaparte ; she asked him to guarantee the social conquests of the Revolution by establishing order ; liberty would return to her later. And Bonaparte accepted. " To save France," said Siey^s, " a head and a sword are needed." For Bonaparte he complacently reserved the r6le of the sword. On the 18th Brumaire the majority of the Council of the Ancients ordered the removal of the two Councils to Saint-Cloud, and confided the execution of the decree to Bonaparte, who received the command of all the troops. Three members of the Directory, Si6y6s, Roger- THE DIRECTORY. 577 Ducos and Barras, handed in their resignations ; the other two were put under guard in the Luxembourg. At the same time Paris was filled with troops. The next day Bonaparte went to Saint-Cloud. He went first to the Ancients, then to the Five Hundred. At the hall of the Five Hundred, he was greeted with furious cries. '' Down with the dictator ! Down with the bayonets ! " was heard from all parts of the hall as he entered, followed by a few grenadiers. He was surrounded, threatened ; his grenadiers were obliged to de- fend him. His brother Lucien, who presided over the Council, went out of the hall, and, in the name of the peo- ple, summoned the soldiers to expel these agitators. Then, at the order of Bonaparte, General Leclerc entered the As- sembly; the drum drowned the voices of the protesting deputies, and the hall was emptied without bloodshed. The Council of the Ancients resigned the executive authority into the hands of three provisional consuls, Bonaparte, Si^y^s, and Roger-Ducos ; and ordered two commissioners to revise the constitution (November 9 and 10, 1799). The Revolution was abdicating in favor of the military power, and was about to enter with it upon a new phase of existence. At home it was to take root permanently in the country ; abroad, its principles were to spread over Europe with the victories of the French armies. But afterwards was to come disaster, and France was to escape, mutilated and bleeding, from the terrible hands of the powerful genius who had now just seized upon her. The 18th Brumaire was the beginning of that long chain of prosperity, glory, and unexampled power, but also of lamentable errors and re- verses, which form the history of the Consulate and the Empire. Besides, it was still another act of violence. How were law-abiding citizens, interested in wise modification of their institutions, to be formed, when for ten years no change had been effected except by violent overturnings ? End of the Eighteenth Century. — Not long after this mili- tary revolution, Avas ended the eighteenth century, an age at once both sceptical and credulous, gentle and terrible, light in morals and frivolous in wit, but which produced the great thought that society, as well as man individually, should grow contimially better. Whatever may have been its faults, much may be forgiven this century "which, in material affairs, created the sciences by the help of which man has acquired an unlooked-for domination over nature, 578 THE DIRECTORY. and singularly increased his prosperity ; which in moral affairs secured tolerance, sought for justice, proclaimed rights, demanded civil equality, recommended human fra- ternity, abolished cruelty in penal institutions, did away with the arbitrary administration of public affairs, endeav- ored to make reason the guide of the intellect, liberty the guide of governments, progress the ambition of peoples, and law the sovereign of the whole world " (Mignet). THE CONSULATE. 579 CHAPTER LXIII. THE CONSULATE. (NoTember, 1799-May, 1804.) Constitution of the Year VIII. — Siey^s had ready a skilfully constructed constitution. But his too complicated machinery suited neither the time nor General Bonaparte, who had the genius and the strength to rescue France from her chaos. The plan of Siey^s was therefore abandoned, and on December 15, 1799, the constitution of the year VIII. was promulgated. Roman forms were still in fashion. The executive was to consist of three consuls, elected for ten years and re-eligible ; but the first alone possessed all the prerogatives of power, the other two had only a consultative voice. These three consuls were Bonaparte, Cambac^r^s, and Lebrun. The executive power was to be no longer subordinate to the legislative. The laws, prepared, by order of the consuls, by a council of State appointed by them, were discussed by the Tribunate, composed of one hundred members, and passed or rejected by the Corps L^gislatif, which numbered three hundred deputies. The Tribunate merely made suggestions which the government might or might not take iuto consid- eration. When a law was brought before the Corps L6gis- latif, three councillors of State, as orators of the govern- ment, and three orators of the Tribunate, discussed it before them. They then voted in silence. Thus, while the Con- vention, distrusting the executive power, had divided it by creating five directors, the constitution of the year VIII., distrusting the legislative, divided it, giving the initiative of laws to the government, their discussion to the tribunes, and the voting of them to the legislators. The Conservative Senate, composed of eighty members, appointed for life, watched over the maintenance of the constitution, judged all acts contrary to the organic laws, and chose the members of the Tribunate and of the Corps L^gislatif. The electoral power continued in existence, but was trans- 680 THE CONSULATE. formed. All Erenclimeii of twenty-one years of age were electors ; the electors of each arrondissement chose one in ten of their number to draw up a list of communal notables; from this list the First Consul selected the public function- aries of the arrondissement. The citizens named upon the communal list chose one in ten of their number to form a departmental list, from which the First Consul chose the functionaries of the department. Those named upon the departmental list formed, from one-tenth of their number, the national list. All those who composed this list were eligible to national public functions. It was from this third list of notables that the Senate was to choose the members of the Tribunate and of the Corps L^gislatif. The assem- blies which discussed and voted upon the laws were thus the product of an election of four degrees. There was only an appearance of representative government, and even the least discerning could perceive dictatorship behind this transparent shadow of liberty. Being submitted for the approval of the people, the constitution of the year VIII. was accepted by 3,011,107 votes against 1567. Administrative Eeorganization. — The First Consul has- tened to propose numerous organic laws to the Tribunate and to the Corps L^gislatif. One of the most important was that concerning the government of the department ; he called the intendants again into existence, under the Roman name of prefects, and concentrated in the hands of these functionaries, who depended directly upon the minister of the interior, the whole executive authority. The prefect was aided by an execiitive council, and by the conseil gene- ral, a sort of legislature which expressed the wishes of the department. The sous-prefet had also a conseil cV arrondisse- ment ; the mayor of each commune, a miinicipal council. Each arrondissement, or sous-prefecture, had a civil court and a local receiver ; each department, a criminal court and a receiver-general ; twenty-seven courts of appeal were scat- tered over the country, and a Court of Cassation maintained uniformity of jurisprudence. This administrative organiza- tion of France was the completion of the work of Louis XIV., effected by carrying centralization to its utmost limits ; it has in its general characteristics survived all subsequent revolutions ; local liberties have been always stifled or kept weak. This excessive centralization resulted at first from the need of establishing national unity; it was of immense THE CONSULATE. 581 advantage in time of conflict against all Europe. Ypt a great many misfortunes have arisen from it, because Paris has been able to impose her will, her caprices, and her revo- lutions upon the whole country. Efforts to reconcile and extinguish Parties. — Upon leav- ing the first council held after the 18th Brumaire, Si6y6s said, " Gentlemen, we have a master." But excepting the small number of those who, like him, perceived the dictator under the robe of the consul, and excepting the royalists and the Jacobins who dreamed of two impossible things, all France greeted the new coup d'etat with satisfaction. The consuls showed a very conciliatory spirit. Many political exiles and prisoners were recalled or set free. The proscrip- tion of nobles ceased ; the churches were reopened. To the astonishment of the incredulous, this powerful soldier showed himself a consummate administrator. In a few days he had touched everything, and everything had received new life. Trade revived. The country districts were freed from robbers, and the revolutionary disturbances of the South were appeased. A royalist insurrection was crushed by energetic measures. But the press was kept \inder rigid restrictions. The armies contained many republicans ; but they had had so much to complain of from the mis government of the Directory that its forcible overthrow was well received by them. Bonaparte, besides, occupied himself actively in reorganizing them and relieving the frightful suffering which was thinning their ranks. Moreau received the command of the united armies of the Khine and Switzer- land ; Mass^na, the army of Italy, the destitution of which was beyond conception. Marengo (June 14, 1800). — The next day after the constitution of the year VIII. had gone into effect, tho First Consul, setting aside all the usages of diplomacy, so as to make a greater impression upon public opinion, had written to the king of England a dignified and able letter, making overtures of peace in the interest of both nations. He wrote a similar one to the emperor of Germany ; but Austria, which had the control of the whole of Italy, and England, which did not propose at any price to leave Malta and Egypt to France, rejected these overtures. War, therefore, was unavoidable. Bonaparte prepared to make it glorious and decisive, content with having won 582 THE CONSULATE. public opinion to his side by his moderation. In Italy, Mass^na had only thirty-six thousand men against one hun- dred thousand Austrians under Baron Melas ; he retired to Genoa, and there sustained a memorable siege. While he kept the Austrian army there nearly two months, great events, rendered possible by this heroic defence, were being accomplished behind him. The Austrian line of operations extended from Strassburg to Nice ; bu.t Switzerland, still in the hands of the French, projected like a bastion into this line, and laid it open to attack. By deceiving the enemy with regard to their movements, the French could pass out from Switzerland by the upper Rhine behind Marshal Kray, or by way of the Alps behind Baron Melas. Bonaparte con- ceived this double design ; Moreau only imperfectly executed his part of it, but he forced the Austrians into their en- trenched camp at Ulm. While they were held there, Bona- parte, by one of the greatest military combinations which had ev'^er been executed, himself crossed the Alps. Deceiving his enemies as to his plans, he secretly put troops in motion from all parts ; they received ammunition, horses, guns, and clothing on the road, and marched slowly and quietly towards Geneva and Lausanne. By the beginning of May all these corps were in Switzerland, and Bonaparte, follow- ing from the Tuileries the movements of Melas, predicted to his secretary in advance the remainder of the campaign. He quitted Paris the 6th of May and hastened to Geneva. The pass of the Great St. Bernard, though very diihcult, was resolved on. The cannon were dismounted and placed on sledges ; the pieces of the gun-carriages and the ammu- nition were made up into loads, to be carried on the backs of mules. The passage began in the night of the 14th and loth of May. On the following days divisions, gun-car- riages, and ammunition passed forward continually. The guns and howitzers presented much difficulty. They were placed in the hollowed trunks of pine trees ; a hundred men drew each of these ; the bands played in the difficult passes, or sounded the charge ; and all passed over. But an unforeseen obstacle stopped the movements of the army. The impregnable fort of Bard blocked the way. The First Consul flanked it by means of a goat-path which the infan- try and cavalry followed. As for the artiller.y, the road below the fort was covered at night with straw and rubbish, the pieces wrapped v^^ith tow, the cannoniers dragged them, THE CONSULATE: 583 and the dangerous defile was crossed during the night under the enemy's guns. Forty thousand men were thus brought into Italy; twenty thousand more, who were arriving by other passes, were soon to join them. Bonaparte had, by this manoeuvre, established himself behind Melas ; he had cut him off from Austria; he had frightened him by his boldness ; he had conquered him before he had even met him. When Melas learned that Bonaparte had entered Milan, in the midst of transports of admiration and enthusiasm, he rapidly concentrated all his forces in order to escape before being surrounded. Shut up between the Po, the Apen- nines, and the French army, he decided to offer a pitched battle. It took place not far from Alessandria, as Bona- parte had predicted at the Tuileries, near Marengo, the name of which it has rendered immortal. The battle was terrible, desperate. Bonaparte did not have all his forces at command ; for, in order to prevent Melas from escaping him, he had spread his troops around him like a vast net. There were three battles fought that day. The first, early in the morning, was lost. The second also seemed likely to prove unsuccessful. Melas, believing he had gained the victory, left his chief of staff to despatch the enemy, and sent cou- riers to carry the good news to all the cabinets of Europe. It was three o'clock in the afternoon, and the second bat- tle was still lost. But Desaix, near Novi, had heard the terrible cannonading ; he returned, and appeared on the field of battle with his division at the moment when the Aus- trians, formed in close column, were endeavoring to gain the road to Piacenza, their only path to safety. Bonaparte then commenced a third action. He threw Desaix with six thou- sand fresh troops on the front of the Austrian column, while all the rest of the army fell upon the flanks. Desaix fell. But his soldiers rushed furiously upon the Austrians to avenge him. The Austrian column, its head shattered, was cut in two. One portion was taken, the other routed. Panic seized the Austrian cavalry. Soon all fled, and Melas was obliged to capitulate. Italy was reconquered (June 14, 1800). Hohenlinden (December 3, 1800). — In Germany, Moreau still acted on the offensive, forced the Austrians to quit Ulm, and penetrated as far as Munich. Austria concluded to negotiate; but England unexpectedly sent new subsidies. 584 THE CONSULATE. Bonaparte cletermed to conquer peace by a winter campaign. Moreau was ordered to recommence hostilities, and to cross the Inn and march upon Vienna, while Macdonald was to march from the Grisons into the Tyrol, and Brune was to force the Mincio and the Adige. Macdonald and Brune succeeded ; at the same time the Austrian ruler was driven out of Tuscany, and the Neapolitans from the Papal States. Moreau, with a magnificent army of one hundred thousand men, perfectly organized, was at Munich, holding the line of the Isar, while the Austrians were holding that of the Inn. Between the two rivers extended a great forest, with the village of Hohenlinden in the centre. The two generals took the offensive at the same time. But the archduke was obliged to change his line of march, and Moreau, falling upon him at Hohenlinden, inflicted a terrible defeat. Eight thousand men killed and wounded, twelve thousand prison- ers, eighty-seven pieces of cannon captured, were the result of this brilliant victory. Six days later, Moreau crossed the Inn and marched on to Lintz and Steyer. He was at the gates of Vienna. Austria arrested his progress by promis- ing to accept all the conditions of France. Peace of Lun^ville (February, 1801). — Two months after the battle of Hohenlinden, peace was signed at Lun^ville. The emperor accepted as a basis the conditions of the treaty of Campo Formio, which gave the left bank of the B,hine to France, and pushed the Austrian frontier beyond the Adige. He recognized the Batavian, Helvetian, Ligurian, and Cisal- pine republics, the last possessing the whole valley of the Po, and the new kingdom of Etruria, created for the Span- ish house of Parma, at the expense of the Grand-duke of Tuscany, the emperor's brother. The court of Naples also submitted, and Italy was entirely at the disposal of the French. Spain undertook to force Portugal to desert the English alliance. The Czar, filled with admiration for the First Consul, offered him his friendship. Thus in fifteen months France, reorganized internally, had broken up the second coalition and imposed peace upon the continent. Unfortunately the new Italian States were without strength in themselves ; France was forced to interfere continually in their affairs, and these encroachments were destined to bring on a new war. Continuation of Hostilities with England. — England per- sisted in her hatred. But the ideas, which twenty years THE CONSULATE. 585 before had armed all the states of the North against her, reappeared in the councils of the kings. The Czar, Paul I., won over by the adroit flatteries of the First Consul, with the king of Prussia, and the kings of Sweden and Denmark, had renewed the league of Armed Neutrality (December, 1800). England responded to it by laying an embargo upon all vessels of the allied powers which were found in her ports, and in March, 1801, admirals Nelson and Parker destroyed the Danish navy before Copenhagen. This bold stroke, and the assassination of the Czar, Paul I., put an end to the league of the Neutrals. Alexander, son and successor of Paul I., abandoned his policy, and Prance found herself left alone to defend the liberty of the seas. But the English had so superior forces upon the sea, that Prance could not even send aid to Malta, which they were blockading, nor to the army of Egypt, which they were threatening. Loss of Egypt. — Kleber, to whom Bonaparte had left Egypt, was an excellent general ; but, discouraged by the arrival of a Turkish army of eighty thousand men, he signed with Commodore Sidney Smith the Convention of El-Arish, by which the troops were to be taken back to France on English vessels. The British cabinet disavowed its representative and exacted that the army should surren- der unconditionally. KMber then recovered all his energy ; he overwhelmed the Turks at Heliopolis, recaptured Cairo, and re-established the French domination in Egypt, but was assassinated on the day of Marengo. His successor, Menou, was entirely defeated, and forced to evacuate the country (September, 1801). . Peace of Amiens (March, 1802). — Malta was also cap- tured by the English. But England was groaning under the weight of a debt of 12,000,000,000 francs, and with con- sternation saw the navy of France reviving under the powerful efforts of the First Consul. Bonaparte prepared at Boulogne an immense number of armed sloops for a descent upon England. Fear silenced for a time the resent- ment of the English aristocracy, and in March, 1802, the peace of Amiens Avas signed. All the continental acquisi- tions of France, all the republics established by her arms, were recognized. England restored the French colonies, gave Malta back to the Knights of St. John, and the Cape to the Dutch ; she kept for herself only the Spanish island of Trinidad, and Ceylon. 586 THE CONSULATE. The news of the treaty of Amiens was received in France and in England with unmixed joy. Peace seemed to be firmly established. The First Consul himself thought so, and declared his intention of devoting himself wholly to the administration of France. Glorious Administration of Bonaparte ; the Concordat (1801). — Bpnaparte was now at the summit of glory. For the second time he had succeeded in bestowing upon France a glorious peace. Party spirit was appeased, and order reigned everywhere. In the interest of industry, he renewed the powerful impetus given by Colbert. The partition of the great domains which had been sold as national prop- erty had put small portions of land into a great many hands which had never before possessed any, and agricul- ture doubled its products. Commerce was encouraged, in spite of a high protective tariff ; the finances were reorgan- ized, the Bank of France established, the budget, for the first time in a century, was balanced, roads and bridges repaired, the arsenals filled. The Civil Code was discussed in his presence, and he elaborated the project of a powerful organization of public instruction, the University, that of a great institution of national rewards, the Legion of Honor. A marvellous activity, an unparalleled capacity for work, made him see everything, comprehend everything, do every- thing. The arts and letters received from him the most earnest encouragement. A stranger to the resentments of the past ten years, he recalled the Emigres ; he also recalled the priests, and signed with Pius VII. (July, 1801) the Concordat, by which he hoped to establish religious peace. By the provisions of this celebrated act, France was to be divided into ten archbishoprics and fifty bishoprics ; a salary paid by the State was substituted for the former landed endowments of the clergy. The government had the regu- lation of public worship, the nomination of the bishops and archbishops ; but to the Pope alone pertained the right of giving them canonical institution in their offices. Thus the First Consul endeavored to efface political resentments and to unite all parties in a common feeling for the greatness of France. Moreover, while chaining the Revolution to his chariot, he nevertheless preserved its principles in his Code Civil. Unhappily, he showed more and more the temper of a master, and was every day more and more impatient of contradiction. He broke the oppo- THE CONSULATE. 587 sition of the Corps L^gislatif and the Tribunate, by elimi- nating those members o± either bo'dy who showed themselves opposed to his government. He showed himself equally despotic in judicial proceedings. Despising such ideologues as Si^y^s, he reserved favors and honors for those who were content to serve him well without discussion. But the despotism of the First Consul, his prompt decisions, his powerful initiative, were welcome to most, wounded few people, and men repeated with him that " France was saved from the slavery of anarchy," and congratulated her that she had found a superior genius to conduct her affairs. These sentiments of gratitude and confidence burst forth when the irreconcilables of the extreme parties attempted his assassination, especially in the case of the attempt made by the infernal machine. The Consulate for Life (August 2, 1802). — Every one declared that France should prolong the administration of the pacifier of the continent whom these parties threatened. A short time after the peace of Amiens the people bestowed upon him the consulate for life, with the right of choosing a successor. The Constitution of the year VIII. was at the same time greatly altered. Popular rights were narrowed. The Senate obtained the right to regulate by senatus-con- sulta all that had not been already provided for by the organic laws, and to dissolve the Corps L6gislatif and the Tribunate. A privy council was instituted with important powers. The two other consuls remained insignificant. The organic senatus-consultum of the Constitution of the year X. was adopted by 3,577,259 votes out of 4,568,885. Foreign Policy of the First Consul (1802).— The Cisal- pines had already given the presidency of their government to Bonaparte; the Ligurian Eepublic asked him to choose its doge. The union of Piedmont to France, forming seven new departments, the occupation of the duchy of Parma and the island of Elba, were effected without opposition, but not without exciting bitter resentments. It was the inaugura- tion of a policy which was to prove fatal to France. Swit- zerland was a prey to deplorable agitations. Bonaparte, called upon to act as mediator, re-established material order, and gave her a constitution, the wisdom of which was admired by all Europe (February, 1803). The French alliance with the cantons was renewed, and sixteen thousand Swiss entered the service of France. His intervention in the affairs of Germany 588 THE CONSULATE. was equally vigorous, but in the end unfortunate for France. German diplomacy was compelled to renounce its proverbi- ally slow processes in order to keep pace with the young conqueror. The indemnities promised the German princes who had lost their domains on the left of the Ehine Avere paid by secularizing the three ecclesiastical electorates. Certain imperial cities were also deprived of their ancient privileges and placed under the authority of a prince. The chaos of Germany was simplified, but a long step was taken toward the attainment of German national unity, the cause of all the misfortunes of France. Expedition to San Domingo. — The First Consul had re- solved to restore the navy and commerce of France ; he was thus naturally led to the idea of restoring also her colonial empire. He first made a prudent sacrifice, selling Louis- iana to the Americans for 60,000,000 francs. San Domingo had been lost to France. Excited by the events of 1789, the blacks had massacred the whites, and had lapsed into barbarism. The First Consul desired to recover the richest jewel of the old French colonial empire. He sent consider- able forces, under the command of General Leclerc, his brother-in-law, against the negro general, Toussaint Louver- ture. The capture of this remarkable man was the only successful event of the inopportune expedition, which deeply irritated England, and which was decimated by yellow fever. The successors of Toussaint drove the French from the island, and founded the republic of Hayti (1804). Rupture of the Peace of Amiens (1803). — England had made peace in order to put a stop to the aggrandizement of France, and France increased more during peace than in time of war. Her commerce and industry took an immense leap forward; her flag reappeared on all the seas. More- over, she intervened with authority in the affairs of neigh- boring countries. England took exception to each of these acts of foreign policy ; she made them a pretext for refusing to restore Malta, the key of the. Mediterranean. Bonaparte demanded this restitution, a principal condition of the treaty. The English ministry replied by seizing, on the different seas, without declaration of war, twelve hundred French and Batavian ships (May, 1803). Thus hostilities recom- menced. A fatal rupture, which forced Bonaparte to aban- don peace for war, and which led him, and with him France, through so much glory into miseries so profound ! R c ^ Uu 2 TUE CONSULATE. 589 Conspiracies ; Death of the Duke of Enghien. — Bonaparte caused all Englishmen travelling in France to be arrested, forbade the admission of English merchandise into the French ports, garrisoned the maritime fortresses in the kingdom of Naples, and took possession of Hanover ; then he returned to the project of crossing the Straits of Dover, and conquering peace in London itself. England stirred up the whole continent to find enemies for France. She created trouble with Russia, Austria, and SAveden, sought to gain Prussia, and is said to have been a party to the conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal and Pichegru, in which Moreau was implicated. Pichegru strangled himself in prison ; Moreau was condemned to imprisonment for two years ; Cadoudal and nineteen others were condemned to death; tAVO only were executed with him. Moreau's sentence was remitted; he exiled himself to the United States, and did not return till 1813. Another tragedy preceded this. The Duke of Enghien, the last of the Cond^s, was carried off from the castle of Ettenheim in the grand-duchy of Baden, conducted to Vin- cennes, delivered over to a military commission, and the same night condemned and shot in the moat of the fortress. The duke denied that he had any knowledge of the designs cf Georges, but the law touching Emigres who had borne arms against France was applied to his case (March, 1804). He was protected by the laAV of nations, for he had not been taken in act of war, nor upon French territory. His death was a miserable act of revenge, intended to send terror to the hearts of the Bourbons in London itself. But it had consequences greatly to be deplored. The violation of law in the end subtracts more strength than it at first appears to add. Prussia, ready to make an alliance with France, turned towards Russia, and from that day the coalition, which had been twice broken up, was renewed. 590 REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. CHAPTER LXIV. REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. TO THE PEACE OP TILSIT. (1804-1807 A.D.) Proclamation of the Empire (May 18, 1804). — The glo- rious soldier .of Arcole and of Rivoli had become the first general of the Republic, then its First Consul for ten years, then First Consul for life. He desired that his power should be made hereditary. France was not disposed to haggle over one more title with him who . had bestowed upon her sxxch glory and security. The Tribunate moved that Bonaparte be appointed hereditary emperor. The Senate proclaimed him under the name of Napoleon I., and the people ratified, by 3,572,329 votes against 2569, the establishment of a new dynasty, which, born of the Revolu- tion, should preserve its principles. Organic Senatus-Consultum of the Year XII. — A senatus- consultum modified the consular constitution. Heredity was established in favor of the descendants of Napoleon, in the male line, or of his adopted sons. If he had no descendants, natural or adopted, the crown was to pass to the descendants of Joseph, and failing this, to those of Louis, two brothers of the new Emperor. Absolute author- ity over the imperial family was bestowed upon the Emperor. His brothers and sisters became princes and princesses. The new throne was surrounded by a new aristocracy, richly endowed and bearing imposing titles. First there were the great dignitaries of the Empire, who were : the grand elector (Joseph Bonaparte), charged with formal duties; the arch-chancellor of the Empire (Cambac^r^s), with a general supervision of the judiciary; the arch-chancellor of State for diplomacy ; the arch-treasurer (Lebrun) ; the constable (Louis Bonaparte) ; and the high admiral. Below these six great dignitaries were, first, sixteen marshals of the Empire, of whom fourteen were immedi- ately appointed: Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, Brune, Ber- thier, Lannes, Ney, Murat, Bessifere, Moncey, Mortier, Soult, REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. 591 Da,vout, and Bernadotte. There were besides four honor- ary marshals, who, being senators, were not to be in active service : of these, Kellermann was one. The inspectors- general of artillery, of engineers, and of the navy, the colonels-general of the cuirassiers, hussars, chasseurs, and dragoons, close the list of the great military officials. That of the great civil officers comprised Cardinal Fesch, uncle of Napoleon, grand almoner ; Talleyrand, grand chamberlain ; Berthier, grand huntsman; Caulaincourt, grand equerry; Duroc, grand marshal of the palace. A grand master of ceremonies, the Count of S^gur, was charged with teaching the new court the customs of the old. The Senate, com- posed of eighty co-optative members, the six great digni- taries, the French princes, and citizens appointed by the Emperor, preserved the prerogatives which the Constitution of the year X. had bestowed upon it. The Corps L^gislatif voted upon the laws without discussing them. The Tribu- nate became useless and was suppressed in 1807. The new constitution was, in its external forms, still representative : in reality it was absolute : for it is not the wheel-work which gives force to a machine ; it is the power which the human will expends upon it. Now, in 1804, the will of France was with Napoleon : she abdicated in favor of an extraordinary genius, who, until then, had used his power only to render her service, and who could render still further service by defending tlae Revolution against the resentments of England and the old monarchies of the con- tinent. But the abdication was too complete. Napoleon, in the days of his prosperity, found no one to contradict him in the Senate, in the Corps L^gislatif, in the aristocracy with which he surrounded himself : would he find among them all any to support him in the days of his misfortune ? The Coronation (December 2, 1804) ; Legion of Honor. — Napoleon had resolved to astonish France and the world by an imposing ceremony. He obtained from the Pope what neither king nor emperor had hitherto done, — that he should himself come to Paris to crown the new Charlemagne (De- cember 2, 1804). Pius VII. anointed the Emperor; but when he was about to take up the crown and place it on the Emperor's head. Napoleon seized it and crowned himself, and afterwards the Empress. The creating of a new aristocracy was deferred for a time. But Napoleon had already instituted the Legion of Honor, 592 REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. a system of national rewards, for the scholar, the industrial leader, and the soldier who should deserve well of his country by his work, his activity, and his courage. On the 14th of July, 1804, the anniversary of the taking of the Bas- tile. Napoleon distributed the grand decorations of the order to the principal personages of his Empire. On the 16th of August he distributed the cross of the Legion of Honor among the soldiers of the camp of Boulogne. This was a great military festival, such as the world had never before seen. A hundred thousand men, the heroes of twenty battles, ranged themselves at the foot of the imperial throne, which was erected upon ^ natural elevation which sloped gradually to the seashore. Thence could be seen the ocean, the English fleet barring the Channel, and, in the distance, veiled by the fog, that England upon which all were panting to descend, and to which a fair wind and six hours of good fortune would conduct them. Napoleon King of Italy. — The Italian Republic, consti- tuted upon the model of the French Republic, underwent the very same vicissitudes. Italy, left to herself, was not able either to defend herself or to become united. Each great city insisting upon having its own independent life, the result was that there was no common or national life. That unity which Italy now enjoys was prepared for her under the friendly and intelligent tutelage of France. Many Italians comprehended this, and when the Empire was proclaimed at Paris, royalty was also proclaimed at Milan (March, 1805). Napoleon offered the crown of Italy to his brother Joseph, who refused it. He then took it himself. Eugene Beauharnais, the son of the Empress Josephine, was sent to Milan as viceroy. Thus Napoleon was Emperor and king of Italy : as medi- ator of the Helvetian Confederation, he had the Swiss already under his influence, and Swiss regiments in his army. Austerlitz was to make him protector of the Con- federation of the Rhine. He would then have very nearly reconstructed the empire of Charlemagne ; a greatness which brought about his ruin and nearly caused the ruin of France.. The Camp of Boulogne. — The continent kept silence in the face of the revolution which had jnst placed two crowns on the head of a soldier. England alone braved his anger, behind her Channel ; but Napoleon, having no other enemy, was able to apply all the immense resources of his genius REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. 593 to the project of the invasion of England. Gunboats and transports had been constructed in every available place, equipped, armed, and brought to the Straits of Dover. Twelve or thirteen hundred of them were to be concentrated at Boulogne and in the neighboring ports ; one hundred and fifty thousand men were stationed in the vicinity. Numer- ous batteries of the heaviest ordnance protected them. From the beginning of the winter of 1803 the preparations were sufficiently advanced, the sailors and soldiers sufficiently drilled, for Napoleon to be able to fix upon a time for the descent ; but the conspiracy of Cadoudal interposed a brief delay. There were many ways of crossing the Strait, of which the best was through a combination which should bring into the Channel, were it only for a few hours, a superior French fleet. Napoleon, with great secrecy and marvellous skill, planned such a combination. Admiral Villeneuve, leaying Toulon with all the forces of that port, was to combine with his own fleet, as he passed along, the Spanish squadron at Cadiz, to sail to the Antilles and draw Nelson thither ; then suddenly turning towards Europe, and, combining with his own the squadron of Ferrol and that of Brest, to enter the Channel with a fleet of fifty vessels, which would remain master of the Strait long enough to enable the flotilla to cross with one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers, and change the destinies of the world. At first all succeeded as had been hoped ; Nelson was de- ceived. Villeneuve returned to Europe; but he allowed himself to be stopped off Cape Einist^re by a battle with an English admiral, and then returned to repair his damages at Cadiz, where he was soon blockaded. At the moment of the failure of this magnificent plan Napoleon learned that English gold had formed a new coalition. Raging with dis- appointment, he commenced the immortal campaign of 1805. Campaign of 1805; Capitulation of Ulm. — Four attacks upon the Empire had been prepared : the Swedes and Eus- sians were to advance by way of Hanover ; the Russians and Austrians by the valley of the Danube ; the Austrians alone through Lombardy ; the Russians, the English, and the Neapolitans through Southern Italy. Of these four armies. Napoleon neglected two ; he neutralized a third by charging Mass^na to stop the Archduke Charles on the. 594 REIGN OF NAPOLEON- I. Adige, and reserved all his blows for the fourth, an army of eighty thousand men, whom General Mack was conduct- ing through Bavaria and Swabia, towards the defiles of the Black Forest and the banks of the Rhine, through which he expected that the French would pass. But Napoleon turned the Black Forest, and, repeating the marvel of Marengo, fell upon Mack's rear, cut him off from Vienna, surrounded him and besieged him in Ulm. The great army had entered Germany on September 25; on the 19th of October the Austrians capitulated. In three weeks an army of eighty thousand men had disappeared. Fifty thousand had been taken or killed ; two hundred cannons, eighty flags, cap- tured. And these magnificent results had been achieved simply by combinations inspired by genius, and almost without loss. Trafalgar (October 21). — At this point the news of a great maritime defeat arrived to dismay the Emperor. Admiral Villeneuve, fighting against Nelson, lost the bloody battle of Trafalgar, which cost the combined fleet of France and Spain eighteen ships and seven thousand men. The English lost three thousand killed, of whom Nelson alone was more to be regretted than a whole army. This defeat was the irrevocable condemnation of the imperial navy, and Napoleon, despairing of fighting hand to hand with England, resolved more firmly to ruin his inaccessible enemy by clos- ing the continent against him. Battle of Austerlitz (December 2, 1805). — Meantime Napoleon hastened his march upon Vienna, now exposed. He entered it on November 13, and found himself still between two armies ; that of the Tyrol and Italy, driven back by Ney and Mass^na, and the great Russian and Aus- trian army, with the two emperors, which occupied Moravia. He hastened to meet the latter, crossed the Danube with sixty-five thousand men, and found ninety thousand Rus- sians and Austrians drawn up on the heights of Austerlitz. Their commanders had conceived a magnificent plan, — to turn the right wing of the French, to cut them off from Vienna and their reserves, and afterwards crush them. But Napoleon, penetrating their designs, allured them into an attack on his right wing, and then, when they were thus fully engaged at one side, and, masters of the villages, believed that they had decided the fate of the day, threw twenty- five thousand men forward, upon a plateau in the centre, REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. 596 which was the key of the whole position, destroying the Russian imperial guard which was defending it, cut the enemy's army in two, and turning upon the three divisions sent to turn the French right, cut them to pieces with grape- shot, drove them upon the ice of the ponds which sur- rounded the plain, and broke the ice with cannon-balls under the feet of thousands of Russians, who were thus swallowed up and perished. Lannes, at the same time, on the left, had completely repulsed the enemy's cavalry and thrown it into confusion. The enemy lost fifteen thousand killed, ten thousand prisoners, two hundred and eighty can- nons. The two emperors fled; the emperor of Austria asked an interview with Napoleon at the outposts; an armistice was agreed upon. Prussia, which had been on the point of aiding the emperors, now, alarmed, hastened to deny her intentions and treated with Napoleon. In order to estrange her permanently from England, he offered her Hanover, in exchange for Cleves, Wesel, and Neuch^tel. Treaty of Pressburg ; Confederation of the Rhine. — Aus- tria concluded peace, December 26, at Pressburg. She gave up the Venetian States, Istria, and Dalmatia, which Napoleon united to the kingdom of Italy, the Tyrol and Austrian Swabia, which he gave to the dukes of Bavaria and Wiirttemberg, who took the title of King ; Austria lost 4,000,000 subjects out of 24,000,000, all control over Italy, and all influence over Switzerland. The treaty of Press- burg gave France the most magnificent position. Prussia had withdrawn from the Rhine ; Austria had been driven out of Italy. The old German Empire, created by Charle- magne, was dissolved after ten centuries of existence. Francis II. abdicated the title of Emperor of Germany, and took that of Emperor of Austria. Many of the little Ger- man states were suppressed. The most powerful princes of Western and Central Germany united, under the pro- tection of France, in a new federal state called the Confed- eration of the Rhine. It was a benefit to Germany and to Europe to establish, between three great military states, this Confederation which prevented their frontiers from touching. The Vassals of Napoleon; New Nobility. — But already Napoleon had thoughts of still wider aggrandizement. He drove the Bourbons from Naples, and completed the system of the Empire by surrounding it with vassal monarchies and 596 REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. feudal principalities. Joseph Bonaparte was made king of Naples and Sicily ; Louis, king of Holland ; Eliza, sister of Napoleon, became Duchess of Lucca ; the beautiful Pailline Borghese, another of his sisters, was made Duchess of Guas- talla; Murat, the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, Grand- duke of Berg; Berthier, Prince of Neuch^tel; Talleyrand, of Benevento; Bernadotte, the brother-in-law of Joseph, of Ponte-Corvo. He reserved for himself in the various Italian states nineteen duchies, and distributed them among his companions in arms and his most devoted followers. In these duchies, all constituted outside of France so as not to wound the national feeling of equality, a portion of the public revenue was bestowed upon the titular duke, but without any political power. Pinally, in order to have rewards for all ranks, he retained large portions of the national property in the different states of Italy, and later in Poland, Hanover, and Westphalia. He thus had means with which to distribute rich donations among his generals, ministers, and soldiers. Every general or colonel had some- thing to look forward to. A new nobility, of an entirely plebeian origin, but which had found its patents of nobility on the field of battle, was formed around the crowned sol- dier. This was a deviation from the principle of equality ; but Napoleon granted to this new nobility no privilege, no advantage over other citizens save its titles and its honors. Prussian Campaign (1806). — The battle of Austerlitz had killed William Pitt, and Fox had succeeded him as minister. Napoleon, on learning of this, hoped to bring England to terms of peace. Unhappily, Fox died, and the power again fell into the hands of the partisans of uncom- promising war. Meanwhile rumors of a restitution to Eng- land of Hanover, which Napoleon had recently promised to Prussia, threw the court of Berlin into a state of anxiety which led to the most senseless resolutions. Napoleon really desired the alliance of Prussia, but the Prussian court inspired him with neither esteem nor confidence. The Emperor had thoroughly penetrated its hostile designs at the time of Austerlitz. Later, Prussia, thinking that peace with England would be made only at her expense, rushed heedlessly into the most extreme peril. At Berlin the Austrian army was spoken of only with scorn ; it was said that the Prussian army was still made up of the soldiers of Eossbach, and that the victories which Napoleon had won ^EIGN OF NAPOLEON I. 597 oyer incapable generals would come to an end when he had to confront the old Duke of Brunswick, the pupil of the great Frederick. The beautiful and romantic Queen Louise fostered the delusion. A new coalition was formed. Prussia promised two armies Avhich Avere a three-month's march distant, England promised supplies, Sweden her feeble sup- port. Napoleon set out from Paris on September 26. The grand army, one hundred and thirty thousand incomparable soldiers, was still cantoned in Germany. In a few days he concentrated it at Bamberg, and on the 8th of October it was in motion. Two Prussian armies had crossed the Elbe and were manoeuvring behind the Thuringian forest. Napoleon again repeated the manoeuvre of Marengo and Ulm ; he turned their left flank and placed himself between their armies and the Elbe, which was their line of retreat. Jena and Auerstadt (October 14, 1806). — Already the greatest confusion reigned in the Prussian army. The remembrance of the capitulation of Ulm excited much anx- iety. The old Duke of Brunswick was dismayed at the idea of ending his military career as Mack had done. When Napoleon threatened to cross the Saale, the duke resolved to retreat toward Magdeburg and the lower Elbe, but it was too late ; none ever escaped, who came so near Napoleon. Prince Hohenlohe, surprised at Jena, lost in a few hours twelve thousand killed and wounded, fifteen thou- sand prisoners, and twelve hundred pieces of cannon. While Napoleon was gaining this overwhelming victory, a memorable battle was fought, four miles off, at Auerstadt, by Marshal Davout. With twenty-six thousand men, Davout was guarding the Saale, under orders to hold this post to the last extremity, when the Duke of Brunswick arrived with sixty thousand Prussians, to cross. Davout refused to retreat. Fifteen thousand Prussian cavalry, reputed to be the best in Europe, twenty times charged the French squares, but not one was broken : then the squares, in their turn deploying in columns of attack, broke through the enemy's infantry, threw them into disorder, and forced them to retreat. The Duke of Brunswick was mortally wounded ; ten thousand men were killed and wounded ; one hundred and fifteen pieces of cannon were left in the hands of Davout, who had himself only forty-fovir pieces. The two Prussian armies fled in terrible disorder. The French corps, particularly Murat's cavalry, dashed forward 598 REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. in pursuit, crossed the Elbe, and hastened to the Oder, in order to arrive there before the Prussians. Prince Hohen- lohe was forced to surrender at Prenzlau, Bliicher at Liibeck. Of the one hundred and sixty thousand men who went into the campaign, twenty-five thousand were either killed or wounded, one hundred thousand taken prisoners, and thirty- five thousand scattered ; not a man of them recrossed the Oder. All the fortresses on the Elbe and the Oder were occupied by the French. In a month (October S-Novem- ber 8) the Prussian monarchy had ceased to exist. ISTapo- leon entered Potsdam and Berlin. The Continental Blockade (1806). — Austerlitz had put Napoleon in possession of the whole of Italy and the Adri- atic; that is, of half of the European coast of the Mediter- ranean; alliance with Spain and Turkey gave him the rest. Jena assured him of the coasts of the North Sea and a part of those of the Baltic ; by advancing one step more he could close the whole continent against English commerce, and thus reduce to terms the inaccessible insular power. He resolved to march from the Oder to the Vistula, and occupy the mouths of all the great European rivers. And as Eng- land had proclaimed the blockade of all the coast from Brest to Hamburg, interdicting the approach of neutral ships, he issued, on the 21st of November, the famous Berlin Decree, which declared the British Isles themselves in a state of blockade. Consequently all commerce with the isles was interdicted, and English merchandise, wherever found, was confiscated. In this battle of the giants the in- terests of the smaller states disappeared, and the law of nations was trodden under foot by both parties. But in order that this system should succeed, it was necessary that not one port of the continent should remain open. After having closed those of Prussia it was necessary to close those of Russia also ; that is, to make one's self master everywhere. The continental blockade was a gigantic en- gine of warfare which would surely bring death to one of the two adversaries : it in fact killed Napoleon. Eylan (February 3, 1807). — On the 28th of November Murat entered Warsaw ; Napoleon arrived there in Decem- ber, but did not, as he had had some intention of doing, re-establish the kingdom of Poland. Already one hundred and twenty thousand Eussians were on the Narew, an east- ern branch of the Vistula. Napoleon attacked them in a REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. 599 series of engagements, which cost them twenty thousand men and eighty pieces of cannon. But from the nature of the country he could not follow up his advantages. He was obliged to halt and go into winter quarters, admirably arranged in front of the Vistula. The Russian generalis- simo, Bennigsen, deceived by the Emperor's arrangements, attempted to surprise the French cantonments. But Ney arrested his advance, and, as he retreated, followed him and obliged him to halt at Eylau and fight a great battle. The Russians had seventy-two thousand men engaged, the Em- peror had only fifty-four thousand, worn out by fatigue and suffering from hunger. It was the 8th of February ; a thick snow covered the ground, gusts of wind and whirls of snow drove into the faces of the soldiers. The battle began with a terrible cannonade. Then Augereau's corps attacked the enemy's centre. But the Russians unmasked a battery of seventy-two pieces which in a few moments cut down four thousand Frenchmen. This corps fell back upon Eylau; the enemy followed, but was finally driven back by Murat's cavalry and the imperial guard, after a desperate struggle. Meanwhile Davout and ISTey were coming up on the wings ; Bennigsen, reduced to forty thousand men, determined to retreat. He had lost thirty thousand men, killed, severely wounded, or captured; the French, ten thousand. This frightful butchery was not such a victory as Napoleon was in the habit of gaining ; it was considered almost a defeat. Friedland (June 14, 1807). — The grand army then re- turned to its cantonments. Danzig was forced to capitulate in May, and Silesia was conquered. The summer campaign was short and decisive. The army left its cantonments on the 1st of June. On the 5th, the Russian generalissimo attacked the extreme right under Ney, but was out-gen- eralled by Napoleon, driven backward and overtaken at Friedland on the road to Konigsberg, which he was trying to cover. Lannes, with twenty-six thousand men against eighty-two thousand, held him in check until the Emperor arrived with the rest of the army. It was the anniversary of Marengo. The Emperor, appearing to give battle all along the line, but in reality only fighting on the right, threw Ney upon Friedland, which he captured after a bril- ' liant engagement. Then the centre and left wing engaged, forced the Russians to fall back upon the river Alle, and drove them into it. Eighty cannons were left in the hands 600 REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. of the French, twenty-five thousand Eussians were killed, wounded, or drowned ; the rest fled in the greatest disorder. Konigsberg, the last city left to the king of Prussia, sur- rendered; immense quantities of provisions were found there, and one hundred thousand muskets sent by England. Peace of Tilsit (July 8, 1807). — Disgusted with .i war in which Austria, Prussia, and Russia lost their provinces, their arms, and their honor, while England alone gained, the emperor Alexander consented to hold an interview with Napoleon upon a raft anchored in the ISTiemen at Tilsit. After long and intimate conferences between the two sover- eigns, the treaty of Tilsit was signed on July 8, 1807. The Emperor restored to the king of Prussia, Pomerania, Brandenburg, old Prussia, and Silesia, with the exception of Danzig, which was declared a free city, and Magdeburg, which was left in the hands of the French. Of Hesse-Cassel and the Prussian possessions west of the Elbe, he formed the kingdom of Westphalia for his brother Jerome ; of the Polish provinces of Prussia, he formed the grand-duchy of Warsaw, which he gave to the king of Saxony. The two new states entered into the Confederation of the Rhine. These were only half-way measures. Prussia was either too much weakened, or not sufficiently so. She could no longer be a useful ally for France. She remained at heart an implacable enemy. Saxony, united to the grand-duchy of Warsaw, would not form a state capable of maintaining its existence. The new kingdom of Westphalia was bet- ter planned, but would have little importance. Ruins can never be used as props, and from the Rhine to the Niemen Napoleon strewed only the ruins of states. The statesman was not the equal of the general. The intoxication of suc- cess was beginning to dazzle this strong mind. Austria and Prussia had refused him their alliance, and he had overcome them ; he tried to gain the alliance of Russia, by offering to divide the world with Alexander. He abandoned Finland to him, and suggested a hope of his being permitted to ac- quire the Danubian provinces of Turkey. In return he obtained the Bocche di Cattaro and the Ionian Isles ; he received the promise of a rigorous application of the conti- nental blockade on the part of Prussia and Russia, and carte blanche for all changes that he might choose to make in the West. Thus the year 1807 marked the apogee of the greatness of Napoleon. REIGN OF NAPOLEON I. 601 The Code Civil; the University. — On his return from Marengo, the First Consul had charged a commission, of four jurisconsults to prepare a draft of a code, for which the preceding assemblies had prepared the material. This great work was finished in four months. After revision by all the judicial courts, by the section of legislation in the Council of State, and by the Tribunate, it came back to the Council, where, under the presidency of the First Consul, it was subjected to rigid scrutiny. He animated all by his enthusiasm ; he astonished the old jurisconsults by the pro- fundity of his views, and especially by his perfect good sense, which for making good laws is worth more than all the science of the legists. Thus was elaborated that codifi- cation of the law of the family and of property which the Corps Legislatif adopted in its session of 1804, and which deservedly received, three years later, the name of Code JSfajyoleon. This Code was completed successively, by the adoption, in 1806, of the Code of Civil Procedure ; in 1807, of the Code of Commerce ; in 1810, of the Code of Criminal Procedure and of the Penal Code. Napoleon also endeavored to introduce order and State control into education. He created twenty-nine lycees, in which the instruction should be at once literary, scientific, and moral. Sixty-four hundred scholarships, representing an annual expenditure of 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 fr., were pro- vided. The private schools were compelled besides to send their pupils to the lectures at these lyc6es. Thus the State resumed the direction of secondary instruction. For primary instruction, unfortunately, little was done. For higher and special instruction, Napoleon created ten schools of law and six of medicine. The Ecole Polytechnique was already in existence; the First Consul added the Ecole des Ponts et Chauss^es for the education of engineers, and that of Fon- tainebleau for the training of officers. In 1804 he organized the University of France. Pu'blic Works. — At the same time a strict and skilful management of the public finances enabled him to under- take immense public works in all parts of the country. Water was supplied to quarters of Paris where there had been none. The canal from Nantes to Brest and that from the Rhine to the Rhone were dug. At Cherbourg he threw a mountain in the sea, in order to have a spacious and safe harbor in the Channel. At Antwerp, he constructed quays, 602 REIGN OF NAPOLEON 1. an arsenal, and basins which could hold a whole fleet of war. He cut roads through La Vendue, which opened it to com- merce and modern ideas. The fine roads of the Simplon, Mont Cenis, and Mt. Gen^vre, and that from Metz to Mainz were finished. Imposing and useful monuments decorated the great cities : at Paris, the Madeleine, the colossal Arc de I'lStoile, the graceful Arc de Triomphe in the Carrousel, the column of the Place Vend6me ; and other constructions at Lyons, Bordeaux, and Milan. He finished the Pantheon, or Sainte-Genevi^ve, the palace of the Corps L6gislatif, and the Louvre ; he repaired St. Denis, projected the Bourse, constructed the abattoirs, the granary, etc. Industry and Commerce. — Industry received the most active encouragements : he promised magnificent rewards to inventors ; he offered a million to him who would invent a machine for spinning flax. He promised another to the scientist who should make it possible to substitute beet roots for cane in the manufacture of sugar ; he pensioned Jacquart, the inventor of the Jacquart loom for silk weav- ing ; he with his own hand decorated Richard Lenoir for his cotton-spinning machines ; he established a school of arts and trades at Compi^gne. There had only been 310 ex- hibitors at the exposition of 1798 ; there were 1422 in 1806. Commerce by sea was reduced to nothing ; but the inland trade of France was immense. The unrivalled silk manu- factures of France, and other manufactures, now that Eng- lish competition was restricted, found markets over the whole continent. Letters and Arts. — The glory of letters was not wanting during this reign ; but the principal writers were in the op- position : Chateaubriand, Madame de Stael, Cabanis, Maine de Biran, Ch^nier, Ducis, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, and de Maistre. The arts were in a state of brilliant development. David, in order to rescue them from the enervating insipidity of the eighteenth century, had led the French school back to the fruitful study of antiquity. If his pupils, by exag- gerating the defects of their master, painted as though they were sculpturing, and gave their figures and their draperies the stiffness of military costumes, a few of them, Gros at their head, began a reaction against that cold and academic style, by adding the study of nature to that of rules. The sciences, with Laplace, Lagrange, Monge, Haiiy, Cuvier, REIGN or NAPOLEON I. 603 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire; and ^ray-Lussac, made a marvellous advance, Napoleon, who retained upon the throne the title of member of the Institute, treated the savants better than Louis XIV. treated the poets. He was on terms of real friendship with some of them. o04 THE EMPliih CHAPTER LXV. THE EMPIRE, PROM 1807 TO 1812. Feudatory Kingdoms. — It has already been seen that the Emperor tried to obtain external support by surrounding the Empire with feudatory kingdoms. The kingdom of Naples, under Joseph, and that of Italy, under Eugene de Beau- harnais as viceroy, the Helvetian Confederation, of which Napoleon was mediator, the Confederation of the Ehine, of which he was protector, the kingdom of Holland, under Louis Bonaparte, and that of Westphalia, under Jerome, covered the whole frontier of his Empire on the northeast, east, and southeast. To the south Napoleon had nothing upon which he could depend. A degenerate branch of the house of Bourbon reigned at Madrid under the protection of a favorite, Godoy, who piirsued a double policy toward France. Napoleon, on his return from Tilsit, determined by some means or other to bind the peninsula to his policy. Conquest of Portugal (November, 1807) ; Naval Arma- ments. — He resolved first to drive the English out of Por- tugal, and oifered to divide that kingdom with the court of Madrid. An army, commanded by Junot, crossed Spain and entered Lisbon without striking a blow. At the same time the Russians conquered Finland, and England bom- barded Copenhagen for the purpose of capturing the Danish fleet and destroying the Danish arsenal. This odious act caused Denmark to join in the continental blockade, as did Austria also; Portugal had already joined it. From the extremity of the Baltic to the Straits of Gibraltar all the ports of the continent were closed against the English. At the same time, in all the ports, immense marine armaments were being prepared ; the flotilla of Boulogne was reorgan- ized. This time the whole continent sided with France. England was saved only by a mistake of Napoleon, — his intervention in Spain. Rupture with the Pope (April, 1808). — Contentions be- gan with Pius VII. on the subject of the continental block- » S "i^ ■< ■§ SO II Oh © 3S ^ 04 THE EMPIRE. 605 ade. The Pope tried to escape from the measures imposed upon all the states of the continent, refused to recognize Joseph as king of Kaples, and constantly opposed the policy of France in Italy. Finally, Napoleon occupied Eome in April, 1808. Later he abolished the temporal dominion of the Pope, organized Eome and the surrounding country into two French departments, and held the pontiif in an honorable captivity at Savona. But he was only weak- ened by these measures, for a formidable opposition was at once organized against him among the clergy and the French Catholics. The great services he had rendered the Church were forgotten ; the author of the Concordat was looked upon only in the light of a persecutor of the sovereign pontiff. ' Livasion of Spain (1808). — The intervention of the Em- peror in Spain had still graver consequences. The court of Madrid was greatly divided. Godoy ruled the king and queen, but was odious to the Prince of the Asturias and to the whole nation. An illness of Charles IV. determined the queen and Godoy to seek for an opportunity to deprive the heir presumptive of the throne ; the latter defended himself by counter-plots. Both parties invoked the aid of Napoleon. His first plan was to persuade them to fly to Spanish Amer- ica, as the house of Braganza had fled to Brazil. But at this point a revolt forced Charles IV. to abdicate in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. Murat was already with an army near Madrid; he entered the city and persuaded the old king to go and have an interview with Napoleon at Bayonne. Ferdinand also went thither. Completely in the power of Napoleon, they were intimidated or seduced into abdicating in favor of the Emperor. Joseph Bonaparte gave up his crown of Naples to Murat and was made king of Spain, and a new constitution for the kingdom was promulgated. In all this affair Napoleon had played a part which was advantageous neither to his character, his power, nor his glory. He desired to cause it to be forgotten by reason of the great services which he hoped to render. to Spain by regenerating her. But while official Spain hastened into the presence of the new king, the people rebelled. The insurrection burst forth everywhere at once, with patriotic fury. Religious pa.ssion united with political passion to stir up the fire. The monks preached the war as a crusade. The movement soon became formidable ; all the provinces rose in revolt. French couriers, and even the sick and 606 THE EMPIRE. wounded, were slain. Joseph with difficulty reached Madrid. At Saragossa and Valencia the French troops were repulsed, and in Andalusia Dupont was surrounded at Baylen and forced to capitulate (July 20th) . This was the first reverse which Napoleon had sustained. The English immediately hastened to appear, and General Wellesley gained over Junot the battle of Vimeiro, which lost Portugal to the French. By September, 1808, they possessed in the whole peninsula only the provinces north of the Ebro. After an interview with Alexander at Erfurt, at which, by giving Russia Moldavia and Wallachia, he apparently secured the tranquillity of Central Europe, Napoleon was free to hasten to Spain. He already had one hundred thousand men there ; he took from the grand army one hundred and fifty thousand of his valiant soldiers, and with them crossed the mountains. Nothing could with- stand him ; the enemy's centre was broken up, and the army entered Madrid, where Napoleon decreed the suppression of the Inquisition, of two-thirds of the convents, of feudal rights, and of internal custom-houses. On the left wing. Saint Cyr carried on a brilliant campaign in Catalonia. On the right, Soult drove thirty thousand English as far as Co- ruiia, and compelled them to take refuge on board their ships. Abensberg and Eckmiihl (April, 1809). — But Napoleon was now called elsewhere, and the danger of this new enter- prise became apparent. Austria, seeing him occupied in a terrible war in the Iberian peninsula, thought that the mo- ment had come to avenge her disasters. England offered her 100,000,000 f r. ; the Czar Alexander's enthusiasm for Napoleon seemed to grow cold; Germany, heavily taxed and stirred up by secret societies, became hostile, and the grand army, diminished by one hundred and fifty thousand men, was scattered from Hamburg to Naples. A bold offensive promised success, and success promised a general revolt. One hundred and seventy-five thousand Austrians, under the Archduke Charles, advanced slowly upon Bavaria. Napo- leon, warned in forty-eight hours by means of the sema- phore, left Paris on the 13th of April, and arrived on the 17th upon the scene of action. Already the archduke was manoeuvring to throw his forces into the open space be- tween Mass^na and Davout. Napoleon promptly seized the central position himself, and summoned the two marshals to join him at once. Then, with his forces concentrated, he THE EMPIRE. 607 charged the enemy's centre, cut it in two by the battle of Abensberg on the 20th, and by the capture of Landshut on the 21st ; on the following day he fell upon the right of the Austrians, overcame them at Eckm^iihl, drove them back upon the Danube, and nearly captured their whole body. In five days of fighting Napoleon had taken sixty thousand men, one hundred pieces of cannon, cut the Austrian army in two, thrown the right wing into Bohemia, the left on the Inn, and conquered the route to Vienna. On the 10th of May, one month after the commencement of hostilities, he was before that capital, which, after a brief bombardment, opened its gates to him. Aspern, or Essling (May 21 and 22, 1809). —Austria had still two armies : that of Italy, under the Archduke John, which had, upon learning of the victories of Napoleon, fallen back into Hungary ; and that of the Archduke Charles, who found himself still at the head of one hundred thousand men in front of Vienna, but on the other side of the Danube. Napoleon turned against the latter. The passage of a great river in the face of a powerful army is a difficult operation. In this case the difficulties were increased by a sudden rise in the river, which carried away the French bridges when only a part of the army had crossed. For thirty hours the archduke made vain efforts to throw the French into the Danube : the gardens and houses of Aspern were captured and recaptured fourteen times. The archduke stopped first, and the French soldiers retired to the island of Lobau in the river. There were neither conquerors nor conquered. But more than forty thousand men, of whom twenty-seven thou- sand were Austrians, had been killed or wounded. Napo- leon's battles were becoming more and more sanguinary. Wag^am (July 6, 1809). — The Emperor fortified him- self in the island of Lobau. There was danger that the Archduke John might rejoin the Archduke Charles, and that the two might then surround him. The whole of the Tyrol was in revolt ; the German nationality, which had been long trampled upon, began to arise. Only one reverse was nec- essary to cause an explosion. But Napoleon, on the 5th of July, crossed over successfully from the island of Lobau, with one hundred and fifty thousand men and five hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. At the break of day the French army found itself established on the enemy's left. The Austrians fell back upon the heights of Wagram. Next day 608 ' THE EMPIRE. the archduke tried to turn the left wing of the French line, but was repulsed by Massena. After a tremendous cannon- ade upon the enemy's centre, Macdonald was hurled upon it, attacked it, and forced it to fall back. At the same time Davout and Oudinot, on the right, carried the heights of Wagram. The Archduke Charles sounded a retreat. He had lost twenty-four thousand killed and wounded, twelve thousand prisoners, and twenty pieces of cannon. The French had seven thousand killed and eleven thousand wounded. This was not an overwhelming victory like those of Ulm, Austerlitz, and Jena; but Napoleon had no longer the same troops. A great many young soldiers and many foreigners had filled up the vacancies left in the grand army by the corps which had been sent into Spain, and with these inexperienced troops bold strokes would have involved too great risks. The Austrian army never- theless fled, conquered and unable to rally or hold its ground. An armistice was signed first, at Znaim, on the 11th of July ; the treaty of Vienna, on the 14th of October. Austria lost, by this treaty, 3,400,000 souls, whom Napoleon and his allies divided among themselves, France acquiring in lUyria the largest share. Events in Spain; Flushing (1809). — Meanwhile the war had continued in Spain, spreading itself through all the provinces. There were three hundred thousand Frenchmen in Spain ; but Napoleon was not there : the jealousies of his marshals hindered all concert of action. The most cele- brated affair was the memorable and desperate defence of Saragossa. Yet little advantage was taken of this victory. An expedition of Soult into Portugal failed completely, Ney evacuated Galicia ; and though Wellesley was defeated at Talavera, the campaign was still a failure. The English seized upon Flushing in August, 1809, and threatened the great arsenal of Antwerp. The national guards of the neighboring departments threw themselves into the town; fever decimated the forty-five thousand Englishmen who had landed in the island of Walcheren. Flushing had to be abandoned, and the greatest maritime armament of the century resulted in utter failure. Effect of these Last Events. — Up to the treaty of Tilsit Napoleon had constantly advanced in glory and power. But a desire had then Ijegun to be felt that the glorious flight of the imperial eagles should be arrested. The spolia- THE EMPIRE. 609 tion of the Bourbons of Spain, the captivity of the Holy Father, caused the first disquietudes ; the war with Spain and that with Austria increased them. Behind the regular armies and old governments which France had hitherto fought the people now arose. In Spain insurrection had paralyzed the efforts of immense forces ; in Germany it had broken out in twenty different places ; and at Schonbrunn, in the midst of his army, Napoleon had narrowly escaped being assassinated by a member of the Tugendbund. The battle of Essling caused alarm to many. These symptoms doubtless did not escape the penetrating eye of Napoleon. But, accustomed to success, he no longer took account of diffi- culties, and believed that nothing could withstand his power. Marriage of Napoleon with Maria Louisa (April 1, 1810). — The marriage of Napoleon with Josephine had been with- out issue. The Emperor earnestly desired to have an heir of his own blood. He therefore resolved to contract another marriage. The glorious parvenu of the Revolution, the elected chief of a great people, demanded entrance into the family of kings. He believed that he could bind Aus- tria to his cause by a marriage, and asked of the proud Hapsburgs the hand of one of their daughters, the Arch- duchess Maria Louisa. An unfortunate union ; for in France the new empress was never popular, while among her own people she was regarded as a victim sacrificed for the house of Austria. In the eyes of many persons the divorce of Napoleon from Josephine Beauharnais, the gra- cious and devoted companion of his earlier years, was a divorce from good fortune. Birth of the King of Eome. — The year 1810 passed with- out any war except that with Spain. On the 20th of March, 1811, a son was born to the Emperor, and was immediately proclaimed king of Eome. Many now believed that the powers would no longer oppose the Empire, since a descend- ant of the house of Hapsburg would be heir to it. It was said that Napoleon, having reached mature age and having to watch over the heritage of his son, would now occupy himself with smoothing the way for him, and would govern as a father instead of governing by strokes of genius. But there was no lack of people who in the midst of this gran- deur saw the causes of ruin ferment and increase. Among them was Wellington (Wellesley). The year 1811, indeed, had not passed, before Napoleon began preparations for the rashest of his enterprises, — the expedition into Eussia. 610 THE EMPIRE. CHAPTER LXVI. THE EMPIRE FROM 1812 TO 1814. Condition of Europe in 1810. — No other generation of men had ever seen what those men saw who lived from 1789 to 1811 : new ideas profoundly moving the world ; miseries and unparalleled grandeur ; a nation of soldiers ; armies more successful than the Koman legions ; war marked by incomparable combinations and results ; and finally, to apply these ideas, to direct these formidable forces, a man gifted Avith the most powerful genius that nature had ever formed. Moreover, within twenty years old Europe had been over- turned, even to its foundations. The dynasty of Bourbon, but lately seated upon four thrones, now retained only one, and that tottering and menaced, in Sicily ; that of Braganza was exiled to Brazil; that of Savoy banished to Sardinia; those of Orange, Hesse, Brunswick, and twenty others de- spoiled. The duchies of Parma, Modena, and Tuscany ; the republics of Venice, Genoa, and Holland ; the States of the Church, the German Empire, no longer existed. The mon- archy of Frederick the Great had been broken up ; only a fragment still existed; that of Maria Theresa, humiliated by twenty defeats, was cut off from Italy and the sea. New states had come into existence. There were kings of Italy and Holland, of Westphalia, Wurttemberg, and Saxony ; a Confederation of the Rhine to balance Prussia and Austria ; a Swiss Confederation established on a better basis than the old ; a grand-duchy of Warsaw. In these new states social regeneration was carried on as well as political regeneration ; Naples, Milan, Warsaw, Hol- land, Westphalia, and Bavaria had French constitutions, codes, and systems of administration. Sweden asked for a French king. Spain, even, adopted the principles of 1789 in her constitution of 1812. Austria granted her people local franchises, abolished serfdom, admitted civil equality, and no longer confined the rank of ofiicer to the nobility. Eng- land herself caught the moral contagion. THE EMPIRE. 611 Thus the French Ee volution — that is to say, a new social order, founded upon justice, and not upon privilege — began " to make the tour of the world." But such changes could not take place without causing great convulsions. The powers of the past, trodden under foot by the victorious Revolution, did not resign themselves to their defeat. So long as France seemed to conquer only to bestow upon the conquered countries juster laws and better administration, the people were on her side. But soon the struggle as- sumed such proportions that all was sacrificed, liberty as well as justice, to the one thought of victory. The English suppressed the freedom of the ocean ; Napoleon suppressed the independence of the continent, and by the continental blockade, by the interruption of commerce, by the depriva- tion of colonial commodities, he imposed upon the people of Europe sacrifices which were felt even in every cottage. In vain he lavished benefits upon them, releasing Germany from its anarchical divisions, and Italy from its municipal jealousies ; in vain did he endeavor to rouse Spain from the torpor in which she had for centuries been sunk : the peoples felt that national feelings and national interests had been trampled on. The present ills caused the germs of prosperity and greatness, which the conqueror had sown everywhere, to be despised. And if the peoples withdrew from him, the kings did not draw near. In the eyes of the old courts, Napoleon was always only a parvenu, and his empire only a plebeian empire. France was isolated in the midst of the nations ; Napoleon isolated in the midst of sovereigns. Condition of France. — France had now had enough of military glory and enough of conquests ; peace would have been welcome to her also : victorious though she was, she suffered cruelly from this ceaseless war, which was so inju- rious to industry and agriculture, which developed military instincts to the detriment of peaceful habits, and tended to introduce the ways of camps into civil society. Perfect order reigned. The Corps L^gislatif and the Senate never interposed a protest, and the journals, strictly watched by the censors, had lost all political character. Yet in the midst of this profound stillness the people began to demand that the government should pay more attention to the rising wave of public opinion. Ten years before, France had forgotten, or rather did not yet know, that political liberty was the safeguard of civil 612 THE EMPIRE. liberty. But such thoughts sprang up at this time in many minds. It was to save her national interests, endangered by too feeble a government, that France had applauded the coup d'etat of the 18th Brumaire ; it was to save them a second time, to restore maritime commerce, to put an end to the mourning of families bereaved by the war, and to the fears of the citizens, who felt themselves no longer under the protection of the law, that an opposition, feeble at the time, but destined to increase in strength, was formed against this government which had made itself absolute. Even in Paris the crowd began to show less enthusiasm. Rupture between France and Russia (1812). — At Tilsit Napoleon had believed that he would find in Russia the ally he needed on the continent ; but Alexander, in the war of 1809, had not given him the promised aid, had greatly resented his Austrian marriage and the enlargement of the grand-duchy of Warsaw, and tried to obtain from France the declaration that the kingdom of Poland should never be re-established. The friendship of the two monarchs had been already greatly strained ; the extension given to the French Empire, and the measures taken for the more certain execution of the continental blockade, gave it the final blows. In reply to the Berlin Decree, England had threatened to confiscate all ships which should go to France or to any of the countries allied to France (January, 1807) ; ^STapoleon, in his turn, declared all ships subject to confiscation, which should enter port in England or in her colonies (Milan Decree, December, 1807), and ordered all English merchan- dise found in France or in the allied states to be burned. These decrees destroyed regular commerce, but could not crush the contraband trade, which was carried on upon a great scale, particularly on the coast extending from Antwerp to Hamburg. Holland thus became an emporium for England. King Louis Bonaparte, between his subjects, who desired one thing, and the Emperor, who desired another, soon found his position intolerable, and abdicated, July, 1810. Holland was immediately united to the Empire. The Scheldt, the Meuse, the Rhine, and the Ems were thus closed to the English contraband trade ; but the Weser and the Elbe remained open. In December a decree announced the annexation of the Hanseatic cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Liibeck. At the same time the Duke of Oldenburg, the THE EMPIRE. 613 Czar's uncle, was dispossessed. Thus France, having been extended along the whole coast of the North Sea, was now touching the Baltic, and presented the strange spectacle of an empire embracing at once the Tiber and the Elbe. But it was necessary to go still farther and close the ports of Danzig, Konigsberg, and St. Petersburg. Napoleon required that Alexander should confiscate all neutral ships in his ports, as suspected of having violated the Berlin and Milan Decrees. It amounted to demanding the final ruin of Russian commerce, at the moment when, by a system of licenses, Napoleon himself was authorizing certain exchanges between France and England. Moreover, to submit to such orders was to place Eussia in a position of dependence. Besides, the French Empire was becoming territorially dangerous to Russia by its gradual approaches. Yet the Czar hesitated, appalled by such a contest : Berna- dotte, the new French crown-prince of Sweden, decided him ; and in April, 1812, Alexander demanded the evacuation of old Prussia, the duchy of Warsaw, and of Swedish Pom- erania, an equivalent for Oldenburg, and somfe relaxation of the measures taken against neutral commerce. But it was to the interest of Napoleon not to precipitate matters. England seemed about to succumb from inability to export her products. A rupture between her and America was imminent. Should France be patient, the victory would be hers, for victory would surely rest with whichever of the two rivals should longest endure this terrible state of things. Moreover, the war in Spain Avas not ended ; Mass^na, Soult, Ney, the most skilful of the French generals, were succumb- ing to Wellington and the universal insurrection. Napoleon, with an imprudence of which formerly he would not have been guilty, left behind him, unfinished, this contest which occupied his best soldiers, and rejoined the grand army. In his gigantic projects, Moscow was to be only a halting-place : he wished to resume, in colossal proportions, his expedition to the Indies, which had failed after Aboukir. The vanquished Czar was to furnish auxiliaries, and a French and Russian army should set out from Tiflis, gathering on its way the no- madic tribes of Western Asia, for an attack on British India. Turkey and Sweden, natural allies of France, had been alienated. Bernadotte mediated between the Porte and the Czar the peace of Bucharest (May, 1812). Russia, thus secured on her right and left, could employ all her forces in 614 THE EMPIRE. the centre, toward whicli Napoleon was advancing. The French army numbered, with its auxiliaries, which com- prised a third of the forces, six hundred and forty thousand men, more than sixty thousand horses, and twelve hundred cannons. The Russians were less numerous, but they were fighting in their own country for a national cause, and they were resolved to " make a Spanish war." Russian Campaign (1812). — The commander of the prin- cipal Russian army, Barclay de Tolly, proposed, resting on the Diina, to cover with one hundred and thirty thousand men the road to St. Petersburg; while Prince Bagration, taking up a position in front of the Dnieper, should cover that to Mos- cow. Napoleon proposed to pass over the watershed between the sources of the two streams. He crossed the Niemen on the 24th of June, six days after the Congress at Washington had declared war against England, drove the Russians before him, and entered Wilna, where he refused to re-establish the ancient kingdom of Poland. He halted at Wilna seven- teen days, desiring to make it the centre of his commis- sariat. Then he took the road to Moscow, driving back detachments of the enemy, and capturing Smolensk after a bloody battle. The Russians then fell back continually, devastating the country, burning towns and villages, destroy- ing grain and fruit-trees. Napoleon had need of a great victory, but could not obtain it. Fortunately the Czar now replaced Barclay by the old Kutusof, who determined to give battle in order to save Moscow. The action took place near Moskowa, at Borodino ; two hundred and seventy thousand men, resolved on both sides to conquer, rushed into desper- ate combat ; one thousand pieces of cannon exchanged their fire. The Russians, after a furious struggle, finally yielded. In order to make the defeat a complete rout, it would have been necessary to charge with the guard, but Napoleon would not risk his reserve : the battle was gained, but the Russian army was not destroyed. Nearly sixty thousand men had fallen in its ranks (September 7). The French also had lost severely ; ten thousand had been killed and twenty thousand wounded ; forty-seven generals had been wounded, two mortally. The French army entered Moscow; but almost all the population had evacuated the city^ and the Russian army had exhausted the resources of the public magazines. Fire did the rest. The flames, bursting forth from different THE EMPIRE. 615 points, spread rapidly through a city built of wood. The conflagration lasted five days. Only the churches, the Krem- lin, and a fifth part of the houses were saved. Fifteen thou- sand wounded, left by the Russians in Moscow, perished in the flames. The French found another Spain under the Polar sky. Napoleon waited in vain for propositions from the Czar; his own were scornfully rejected. Meanwhile the Russians were reorganizing their armies, and winter set in. On the 13th of October, the first frost gave warning that it was time to think of the retreat, which the enemy, already on the French flank, was threatening to cut off. Leaving Mortier with ten thousand men in the Kremlin, the army quitted Moscow on the 19th of October, thirty- five days after it had entered the city. It still numbered eighty thousand fighting men and six hundred cannons, but was encumbered with camp-followers and vehicles. At Malo-Jaroslavetz a violent struggle took place on the 24th. The town was captured and recaptured seven times. It was finally left in the hands of the French. Here, however, the route changed. The road became increasingly difficult, the cold grew intense, the ground was covered with snow, and the confusion in the quartermaster's department was terrible. When the army reached Smolensk, there were only fifty thousand men in the ranks (November 9). Napo- leon had taken minute precautions to provide supplies and reinforcements all along his line of retreat; but the heedlessness of his subalterns, and the difficulty of being obeyed at such distances and in such a country, rendered his foresight useless. At Smolensk, where he hoped to find provisions and supplies, everything had been squandered. Meanwhile there was not a moment to lose ; Wittgenstein, with the army of the North, was coming up on the French right. Tchitchagof was occupying Minsk behind the Bere- sina, with the army which had just come from the banks of the Danube. Kutusof was near at hand. The three Rus- sian armies proposed to unite and bar the Beresina, which the French were obliged to cross. The Frencli began their march, but the cold became suddenly intense ; all verdure had disappeared, and there being no food for the horses, they died by the thousand. The cavalry was forced to dismount ; it became necessary to destroy or abandon a large portion of the cannon and ammunition. The enemy surrounded the French Columns with a cloud of Cossacks, who captured all 016 THt: EMPIRE. stragglers. On the following days the temperature mod- erated. Then arose another obstacle, — the mud, which pre- vented the advance ; and the famine was constant. Moreover, the retreat was one continuous battle. Ney, " the bravest of the brave," accomplished prodigies of valor. At Krasnoi the Emperor himself was obliged to charge at the head of his guard. When the Beresina was reached, the army was reduced to forty thousand fighting men, of whom one-third were Poles. The Eussians had burned the bridge of Borisof, and Tchitchagof, on the other shore, barred the passage. Fortunately a ford was found. The river was filled with enormous blocks of ice ; General Ebl6 and his pontoniers, plunged in the water up to their shoulders^ built and rebuilt bridges across it. Almost all the ponto- niers perished of cold or were drowned. Then, while on the right of the river Ney and Oudinot held back the army of Tchitchagof, and Victor on the left that of Wittgenstein, the guard, with Napoleon, passed over. Victor, after hav- ing killed or wounded ten thousand of Wittgenstein's Eus- sians, passed over during the night. When, in the morning, the rear-guard began to cross the bridges, a crowd of fugi- tives rushed upon them. They were soon filled with a confused mass of cavalry, infantry, caissons, and fugitives. The Eussians came up and poured a shower of shells upon the helpless crowd. This frightful scene has ever since been famous as the passage of the Beresina. The governor of Minsk had twenty-four thousand dead bodies picked up and burned. Napoleon conducted the retreat towards Wilna, where the French had large magazines. At Smorgoni he left the army, to repair in all haste to Paris, in order to prevent the dis- astrous effects of the last events, and to form another army. The army which he had left struggled on under Murat. The cold grew still more intense, and twenty thousand men perished in three days. Ney held the enemy a long time in check with desperate valor ; he was the last to recross the Niemen (December 20). There the retreat ended, and with it this fatal campaign. Beyond that river the French left three hundred thousand soldiers, either dead or in captivity. And yet they had never once been defeated : it was the winter and hunger, not the enemy, which had destroyed the grand army. The Eussians themselves, ha bituated as they were to their terrible climatf, suffered THE EMriRE. 617 horribly ; in three weeks Kutusof had lost three-quarters of his effective force. The French armies were not more successful in Spain. The campaign of 1810 was marked by a failure of Mass6na before the impregnable lines of Torres Vedras ; that of 1811 by the indecisive battle of Fuentes d'Onoro, between him and Wellington. In 1812 Wellington took Ciudad-Kodrigo and Badajoz, and defeated Marmont near Salamanca. German Campaign (1813). — The retreat from JVIoscoav struck a mortal blow at the power of Napoleon. The king of Prussia joined the Czar, and the unfortunate French army was compelled to fall back from the ISTiemen to the Vistula, from the Vistula to the Oder, from the Oder to the Elbe. A sixth coalition was formed, composed of England, Eussia, Prussia, Sweden, and Spain. ^Austria prepared secretly to join them. The allied sovereigns appealed to the strongest of popular passions, — national feeling. And Germany, for six years trodden under foot by French soldiers, listened with a terrible determination to the voices of her princes and her poets. The verses of Uhland, Arndt, and Korner were sung in castles and in cottages. Thus that great patriotic movement which, in 1792, had saved France, was now turned against her. Meanwhile Napoleon displayed his accustomed activity ; and though there was not a family that did not mourn a victim to these long wars, France, silent and mourning, still delivered up to him her children. He fitted out another army of two hundred thousand men, and was ready before the allies. He drove them back beyond the Elbe by the brilliant victory of Liitzen. The enemy was again de- feated at Baxitzen, Saxony set free, and Silesia half con- quered. At this moment Napoleon halted and unwisel}^ granted an armistice to the allies. The coalition breathed more freely and took courage. In Spain Wellington de- feated Joseph at Vittoria, which led to the loss of Spain. Suchet was obliged to abandon the South. Soult took up a position behind the Nive, but the English were on the Bidassoa, and were on the point of invading the soil of France. This event created a profound sensation. Napo- leon was not disturbed by it. Austria demanded of him the abandonment of the grand-duchy of Warsaw, Illyria, the Hanse towns, and the protectorate of the Confederation of the Rhine. These concessions would have detracted 618 THE EMPIRE. nothing from the grandeur of France, as she would still retain the line of the Rhine and the Alps, and Holland and Italy. Unfortunately, Napoleon refused these demands. Austria then joined the allies with three hundred thousand men, and on the 16th of August hostilities commenced. The coalition had, in front of Kapoleon, five hundred thousand soldiers, fifteen hundred cannons, and a reserve of two hundred and fifty thousand men. Two Frenchmen Avere among them : Bernadotte, now crown-prince of Sweden ; and Moreau, the conqueror of Hohenlinden, who, at the re- quest of Alexander, had returned from America to strike a mortal blow against his country. In spite of their numbers, the allies had adopted the plan of refusing battle to their vinconquerable adversary, and of accepting it from his lieu- tenants. The Emperor had on the Elbe and under his command only three hundred thousand men ; in spite of the inequality of numbers he endeavored to threaten Ber- lin, Breslau, and Prague at once, which weakened him in the centre, at Dresden, where he nevertheless dealt on the 26th and 27th of August a terrible blow at the allies.. In this battle Moreau Avas mortally Avounded. But mean- time severe defeats of Napoleon's lieutenants had rendered the victory useless, had lost Silesia, and had permitted Bliicher to advance into Saxony, Bernadotte to occupy Wittenberg. Then, from Wittenberg to Toplitz, the allies formed an arc of three hundred thousand sabres and bay- onets in front of the French, the extremities of which attempted to unite behind them and cut them off from the route to France ; and Germany Avas rising, Bavaria entered the coalition, and Baden and Wurttemberg were about to folloAV its example. Napoleon tried again to cut this circle ; he concentrated his forces at Leipzig, and there fought a general battle. That fight, which the Germans call the hatth of the nations, Avas the most sanguinary contest of modern history : one hundred and ninety thousand French- men sustained, for three Avhole days, the furious attack of three hundred thousand men. The French lost none of their positions, but the reserves of the artillery Avere exhausted ; at the end of the third day there remained only enough ammunition for about tAvo hours' fighting, and the number of the enemy was constantly increasing. The army was- forced to fall back Avithout having been conquered ; but this voluntary retreat became disastrous ; a miner blew up the THE EMPIRE. 610 bridge over tile Elster before the last part of the army, with two marshals and the commanders of the corps, had crossed it. One hundred and twenty thousand men, of whom fifty thousand were French, were left lying on the fatal field (October 16-19.) - Only one-fifth part of the French troops returned to France, and one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers were left useless in the fortresses of the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula, in which they were besieged and made heroic defences. Campaign in France (1814). — To save France a unani- mous awakening of the national spirit was needed ; but the impulse was gone ; the stream of recruitment was dry- ing up at its source. The bourgeoisie, who had saluted Napoleon's dictatorship when that dictatorship was saving the country from disorder, repulsed it now that it was lead- ing the country into fearful dangers ; at the moment when it was necessary that the whole nation should rally around Napoleon, the liberals gave the signal for an ill-timed and unfortunate opposition. The enemies of France wisely profited by these first symptoms of weariness and approach- ing defection. They published the famous declaration of Frankfort, in which they declared "that they were not making war upon France, but upon the preponderance that Napoleon had too long exercised outside of the limits of his Empire." And they offered peace on condition that France should return to her natural limits. By these propositions the allies sought to separate the Emperor from the nation. They succeeded in doing so ; the Corps Legislatif, from whom Napoleon demanded an active co-operation, responded by complaining of his despotism and the war. It was at once adjourned sine die; and Napoleon prepared for a des- perate struggle. He had now only sixty thousand soldiers against the three hundred thousand who were advancing, divided into two great armies : that of Silesia, under Bliicher ; that of Bohe- mia, under Schwartzenberg. The first crossed the Ehine, the Moselle, and the Meuse without resistance ; the second, violating Swiss neutrality, passed through the pass of Bel- fort and the Jura. The two intended to maintain communi- cation across the plateau of Langres. On the south, one hundred and sixty thousand English «and Spaniards under Wellington were crossing the Pyrenees ; on the southeast, C30 Till:: EMPIRE. eighty thousand Austrians were approaching from tho Alps ; on the northeast, eighty thousand Swedes, Prussians, and Russians, under Bernadotte, were threatening Belgium ; and as though this immense force was not enough, four hundred thousand soldiers were raised in the rear of the active armies. Thus more than a million of armed men were about to rush upon France. On the 26th of January Napoleon hastened to Vitry-le- Frangois. He failed to prevent the junction of the armies of Silesia and Bohemia. A few days after, he received the ultimatum of the allies ; this time they no" longer conceded the natural limits of the Khine and the Alps, but demanded that Francs should return to her boundaries of 1789. The Emperor indignantly refused. The allies now separated to march simultaneously upon Paris by way of the valley of the Seine and that of the Marne. Napoleon cut the long column of the Russians in two at Champaubert, and routed both divisions separately, winning four victories in live days. While he was on the Marne, Schwartzenberg ad- vanced down the valley of the Seine; his vanguard had already passed Melun ; the French army marched thirty leagues in thirty-six hours, came up with the Austrians, and drove them before them. In eight days the Austrians lost ground to the extent of fifty leagues. Unfortunately, this pursuit of the Austrians on the upper Seine left the ap- proaches to Paris open on the northeast ; Bliicher, who had reinforced his army, marched thither a second time by way of the Marne. Napoleon hastened to meet him, and hurled him back in disorder. The Prussians concentrated near Laon, numbering one hundred thousand, and maintained that strong position in spite of the efforts of the Emperor to dislodge them. Napoleon then turned against the Russians and drove them out of Rheims (March 13). Schwartzen- berg, who during the absence of the little French army had advanced to within two days' march of Paris, was alarmed at seeing it return upon his flank : he halted and fell back. Thus in a month Napoleon had fought fourteen battles, gained twelve victories, and defended the approaches to his capital against the three great hostile armies. But the struggle became more and more unequal. The defection of Murat gave Italy to the Aiistrians. Augereau opened to them the gates of Lyons ; Maison evacuated Belgium ; the English, under Wellington, entered Bordeaux, where THE EMPIRE. 621 Louis XYIII. was proclaimed king (March 12) ; and the royalists were beginning agitation in the interior. The Czar resolved to bring to an end this astonishing struggle. He ordered Bliicher and Schwartzenberg to unite their forces and march together upon Paris. Napoleon vainly endeavored at Arcis-sur-Aube to hinder this junc- tion (March 20 and 21). Then he boldly resolved to leave open the route to Paris, and move with fifty thousand men upon the rear of the allies, cut off their communications, arouse once more the courage of the patriotic provinces, increase his army by a part of the garrisons of the for- tresses of the Moselle and by irregular levies, and then return upon the enemy and strike a terrible blow. If only Paris would defend herself, not a foreigner should recross the Rhine. But Paris did not defend herself. By utilizing all the resources which it afforded, seventy thousand fighting men could be collected and armed. Only twenty-two thousand men took part in the battle before Paris, against the eighty thousand Austrians of Schwartzenberg, the one hundred thousand Prussians of Bliicher (March 30). The resis- tance was heroic, but useless. The allies lost eighteen thou- sand men, almost as many as the French had in line : Marshal Marmont signed a suspension of arms and a capitulation, in order to spare the city the horrors of a capture by assault (March 31). . Abdication of the Emperor (April 6, 1814). — The for- eigners, on entering the city, showed the greatest modera- tion. The Czar protested that the nation had only to manifest its wishes, and he would be ready to sustain them. •The people evinced a gloomy resignation; but the Senate, convoked and directed by Talleyrand, appointed a provisional government, pronounced the deposition of Napoleon, adopted a new constitution, and called to the throne Louis XVIII. , a brother of Louis XVI. Napoleon still had powerful forces at Fontainebleau ; with the armies of Eugfene, Suchet, and Soult, who had just fought with Wellington the heroic bat- tle of Toulouse, he could collect one hundred and forty thou- sand experienced soldiers beyond the Loire. He thought for a moment of giving battle, biit his generals were tired of war ; Ney, and even Berthier, left him. Then he abdi catecl ' Nine days after, he bade farewell to his old guard in words since celebrated, and departed for the island of 622 THE EMPIRE. Elba. An island of a few square miles was now the whole empire of the man who for fifteen years had reigned over half of Europe. A few ofi&cers followed him into his exile, together with about four hundred men of the old guard. Thus the deadly duel which England had fought against France was over ; England had conquered. Napoleon had taken the empire of the land to fight against the masters of the ocean. For ten years he had gone on from victory to victory ; and always the inaccessible enemy had escaped him. He had conceived the mad project of marching even to Moscow, when his best soldiers were in the heart of Spain, and the soil of Germany, secretly undermined, was trembling under his feet. On his return, winter killed the grand army ; the nations arose ; the colossus fell ; in his fall he seemed to drag down the country itself. She has pardoned him, however, for she owes him glory incompara- ble. Victories gained by the superiority of genius, and not by that of numbers, immense works accomplished, industry awakened, agriculture encouraged, an enlightened, vigilant, and active administration, the unity of the country consoli- dated, and. her greatness surpassing anything ever dreamed of, will always plead for him with posterity and with the heart of France. Moreover, in spite of his court of kings, his nobility, and in certain respects in spite of himself. Napoleon re- mains for the French the representative, and for Europe the armed soldier, of the Eevolution. He preserved its civil institutions. He carried its spirit everywhere. By crown- ing parvenus, by forcing kings of the old stock and em- perors to bow before him, he destroyed the old prestige of the divine right of royalty. Spain, Italy, and Germany, passed with ominous tremblings from under his control ; and in order to overthrow him, the kings were compelled to proclaim the rights of the people. He himself always rec- ognized his real origin even in the most glorious moments of his career. Thus, led by their instincts, the people were never deceived ; they who had paid for the Emperor's victo- ries with their blood, loved and regretted Napoleon. Nevertheless this powerful man of war and administra- tion, who will continue to be the greatest figure in military history, left France smaller by eighteen departments than he had found her, and drained of blood and gold. The mis- takes of the politician had brought ruin upon the invincible THE EMPIRE. 62;;^ general. And perhaps in this marvellous and terrible epic history will find one of the most memorable examples of the expiation which always follows after great errors. Disasters fell upon two victims ; but there were also two culprits : the Emperor and France ; of whom the one, after ten years of revolution, re-established the old regime under new forms, and ruined himself utterly, because he would place no restraint upon either his ambition or his genius ; while the other had deserved her misfortunes by throwing herself like a lost child into the arms of a young and glorious general, and to escape the burden of governing herself, had restored what she had just overthrown. 624 THE FIRST RESTORATION AND CHAPTER LXVII. THF. FIRST RESTORATION AND THE HUNDRED DAYS. (1814-1815 A.D.) Ihe First Restoration (April 6, 1814-March 26, 1815). — While the great exile was journeying through France, Talleyrand, the real head of the provisional government, signed, on the 23d of April, a disastrous convention which reduced France to her frontiers of January 1, 1792. Louis XVIII. left England, and on the 24th of April landed at Calais. It was essential, at any price, to attract popularity to the Bourbon princes who had, for twenty-four years, been strangers to the country, who owed their for- tunes to its disasters, and derived their power frcm its ene- mies. But the new monarch, who entitled himself "king by the grace of God," replaced the tricolor by the white flag, and dated his accession from the death of his nephew Louis XVII. , was little disposed to make concessions. The emperor Alexander, perceiving the necessity of liberal in- stitutions, sustained the constitutional propositions drawn up by Talleyrand and a committee of senators and deputies. The king was obliged to issue the Charte constilutionelle on the 4th of June. The following were its principles : — Hereditary royalty ; two chambers, one elective, the other, the Chamber of Peers, composed by the king, both having the right to vote upon taxation and to discuss the laws ; public and individual liberty, liberty of the press and of worship ; the inviolability of landed estates, even those acquired after confiscation ; the responsibility of ministers ; the immova- bility of judges ; the security of the public debt ; the free ■ admissibility of all Frenchmen to all civil and military em- ployments ; the maintenance of the great institutions of the Empire : the Council of State, the Court of Cassation, the Court of Accounts, and the University. The treaty of peace was then signed, and the evacuation of France by the ene- mies' troops commenced. The charter satisfied the middle class. It was consoled THE HUNDRED DATS. 625 for the loss of glory and power by the hope of having at least found, repose and liberty ; but with the Bourbons came the emigres, who threatened the new interests created by the Revolution. They disturbed the possessors of confis- cated property, they respected neither liberty of worship nor tolerance in religion. Eanks and honors were lavished upon the ^migr^s, while fourteen thousand ofiicers who had won their epaulets in front of the enemy were retired on half-pay. Soldiers of the army of Cond6 became generals. Naval ofiicers received the rank next superior to that which they had held previous to their emigration ; those who had served on the British fleet retained the rank bestowed upon them by the English admiralty. In ten months the govern- ment of Louis XVIII. had lost all credit. Return from Elba (March 20, 1815). — Meanwhile, from the island of Elba, Napoleon saw the mistakes of the Bour- bons accumulate and their unpopularity increase, and re- solved once more to try his fortune. He embarked with a few hundred men and landed near Cannes (March 1), and issued a stirring proclamation. From Cannes to Grenoble the little troop met with no obstacle. The Emperor frankly confessed that he had been mistaken in desiring to be- stow upon France the empire of the world, spoke only of peace and liberty, promised a constitution and constitutional guarantees. Near Grenoble he met the first troops sent against him. He advanced alone to meet them and said, " Is there one among you who wishes to kill his Emperor ? " The arms fell from the hands of the soldiers, and they answered by one great shout of ^' Vive I'Empereur ! " La- b^doy^re brought over to him the 7th regiment of the line ; each soldier had resumed his tricolor cockade, which each had religiously preserved for ten months in the bottom of his knapsack. After that, the journey was a complete triumph. Ney, who had left Paris a devoted servant of the king, saw his regiments yield to the universal enchant- ment, and came himself to rejoin his old chief at Auxerre. On the 20th of March Napoleon re-entered the Tuileries, which Louis XVIII. had quitted the day before. Not a gun was fired in defence of the Bourbons, not a drop of blood had been shed for the re-establishment of the Empire ; an evidence that this revolution was not the result of a con- spiracy, but of a universal impulse. The Hundred Days (Marqh 20- June 22). — The events 626 THE FIRST RESTORATION AND which had taken place during the year which had just passed had taught Napoleon that he had left out of his government one of the active forces of France, — the spirit of liberty. This force he now endeavored to win, and took measures intended to placate the liberal element. A new constitution {Acte additionnel) , containing the principal provisions of the charter, was promulgated. Submitted to the people, it was passed by 1,500,000 yeas against 4206 nays. Nevertheless he had all Europe to fight against, and, in addition, civil war in La Vendue. The allied sovereigns, then assembled in congress at Vienna to divide the nations among them, declared that Napoleon had placed himself outside of the pale of public law : they resolved to inflict the severest chastisement upon France. Such declarations excited the patriotic ardor of the French. Citizens, artisans, peasants, offered their aid, and all Avho were willing to join the regiments and place themselves under military law were accepted. But there was in a part of the country an extreme weariness, and in the official regions much distrust. The Emperor himself was conscious of a loss of spirit ; he no longer believed in his good fortune ; *' I had," said he after- wards, "a presentiment of misfortune." Nevertheless he employed all his energies ; he worked sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. In fifty days an army of one hundred and eighty- Uvo thousand regular troops was organized. Another, of two hundred thousand national guards, was prepared for the defence of fortresses, and as a reserve of the active army. The troops of the allies were all ready to enter upon the campaign. Austria sent towards the Rhine and the Alps three hundred thousand Germans ; one hundred and ::;eventy thousand Russians would reach Mainz on the 1st of July. Already there were ninety-five thousand English and Dutch in Belgium under Wellington, and one hundred and twenty- four thousand Prussians under Bliicher. The arrival of the Russians was waited for, in order to commence opera- tions. Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815).— The Emperor de- termined to anticipate the enemy's attack. A great vic- tory in Belgium might effect great changes. He crossed the Sambre with one hundred and twenty-four thousand men and three hundred and fifty pieces of cannon (June 15) . He expected to surprise the Prussians ; but Bliicher, warned of the danger, had timQ to concentrate his forces at ma.. THE HUNDRED DAYS. 627 Ligny. The French advanced divided into three corps ; the right wing under Grouchy, the centre under the direct com- mand of Napoleon, the left under Ney. The right and the centre were to confront the Prussians, the left was to seize upon Quatre-Bras and arrest the progress of the English, then to fall upon the Prussians and complete their rout. This plan was only half executed ; the English had time to establish themselves in force at Quatre-Bras ; and though jSIey with his indomitable energy succeeded in holding them back, he could not co-operate in the attack upon the Prus- sians. The Emperor had a terrible engagement with them at Ligny ; at length they fled, after' having suffered consid- erable loss, but without having been destroyed as they might have been (June 16). The Prussians seemed for the moment to be thrown back upon Namur ; it was time to turn his attention to the Eng- lish. Napoleon marched upon them on the 17th. Welling- ton had gathered together seventy thousand men in front of the village of Waterloo on the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean. He had long studied this position, and was determined to defend himself there to the last extremity. Napoleon left Grouchy thirty-four thousand men, with orders to follow the Prussians toward Namur. He himself with the rest of his forces joined Ney in order to attack the English. The French army numbered only seventy-two thousand men, but was full of enthusiasm. Wellington, having only one road upon which to retreat, would be destroyed unless he con- quered. He sent word to Bliicher to send him two of his corps ; Bliicher replied that he would come with all. Well- ington counted therefore on the Prussians, but Napoleon counted on Grouchy to hold them back. The rain which had fallen in torrents on the 17th and during the ensuing night had made the ground an expanse of mire. On the 18th, about eleven o'clock, the sun ap- peared, and the battle iDCgan. Napoleon first attacked the chateau of Hougoumont, on which Wellington's right rested, intending to draw off troops from the English centre ; then he Avould pierce the centre at the plateau Mont-Saint-Jean, cut the English off from Brussels, and throw their defeated right wing back into Flanders. Wellington, in fact, brought the best of his troops to the defence of Hougoumont, and a desperate struggle raged there for four hours ; the English held the position. During this feigned attack Napoleon 628 THE FIRST RESTORATION AND collected a powerful battery of seventy-eight pieces and directed a tremendous fire upon Mont-Saint-Jean, then threw Ney upon La Haie-Sainte, a hamlet which was situated at the foot of the hill. The heavy artillery of the marshal made frightful ravages in the English ranks. For a mo- ment they seemed disconcerted ; at this moment, when Ney attempted to bring forward his artillery, the twelve-pound- ers stuck, and were vigorously attacked by the English. They were in turn charged and cut to pieces by the sabres of the French cavalry; but a grievous disorder had been produced. But Ney, continually advancing, finally reached La Haie-Sainte, and took possession of it. The English army was a second time thrown into confusion. In order to turn this confusion into a rout, Napoleon was about to charge with his guard. Suddenly cannons were heard thundering behind the French lines. " Is it Grouchy ? " Avas heard on all sides. It was Billow, who was debouching on the right of the French army with thirty thousand Prussians, brought up by a forced march. The Emperor was obliged to send against him Lobau's corps and the guard with which he had intended to sustain Ney. Wellington recognized the prom- ised aid, and took the offensive on the side toward La Haie- Sainte. On seeing this, all the French cavalry, even the reserves, rushed confusedly upon the fatal plateau, to cut down the enemy's cavalry. The latter, opening to right and left, unmasked twenty pieces of cannon which vomited death, and the whole of Wellington's infantry formed into squares. The French horsemen charged the English lines ; eleven times they charged and sabred them ; several were broken, but they formed anew. At seven o'clock the French cavalry were driven from the plateau ; they had occupied it two hours. Finally Napoleon formed a column of four bat- talions of the guard ; but he was too late ; the English army had reappeared at the crest of the plateau. Three volleys of artillery broke successively upon the guard as it ad- vanced ; two battalions were entirely destroyed by the vol- leys. Napoleon then called to him the troops which were occupying Hougoumont, joined them to those of Ney, in- spirited them by a few words, and ordered a general attack. It was eight o'clock in the evening. The French soldiers charged the enemy with admirable enthusiasm ; several of the English squares were broken through and cut to pieces. eand A Com S son: ilebl&atv^' (ore tm li^lMMiaiMiiliUIMHMHlHMM Mil THE HUNDRED DATS. 629 Suddenly a tremendous cannonading was heard on the extreme right of the French army. " It is Grouchy," again cried all the soldiers. But it was Bliicher, who, at the head of thirty-six thousand Prussians, was coming up after Biilow, upon the right flank of the French. Then the last army of France, pressed in front by all that remained of Wellington's ninety thousand men, on the right by the sixty-six thousand Prussians of Bliicher and Biilow, was dashed together, with ranks all in disorder, and soon there was nothing but a dread- ful confusion. Napoleon, in desperation, drew his sword and was about to rush into the midst of the enemy : his generals surrounded him and led him away on the road toward G^nappe. It was after nine o'clock ; night had fallen on the terrible field of battle, and still the struggle continued. The old guard formed six squares ; five were successively destroyed by an enemy thirty times as numerous : one only still re- mained, that of Cambronne. They bravely refused to sur- render, and alone, against the whole army of the enemy, they charged with their bayonets in order to give their be- loved chief time to escape. Other battalions of the guard, with Lobau, checked half of the Prussian army for an houc and a half, until the immense crowd, protected by their sacri- fice, had passed on upon the route to Charleroi. The battle of Waterloo had lasted ten hours; "a battle of giants," which cost France thirty thousand men killed, wounded, or captured, and the victors twenty-two thousand. Seventy-two thousand Frenchmen had fought against one hundred and fifteen thousand of the enemy, and had twice seen victory escape from their hands. So ended this four days' campaign. Second Abdication of the Emperor (June 22, 1815). — The retreat was as disastrous as those from Leipzig and from Moscow. From Laon Napoleon set out for Paris. He entered the capital at midnight and established himself in the Elys6e. He counted on the patriotism of the Cham- bers. " Let them stand by me," said he, " and nothing is lost." But the Chamber of Eepresentatives failed him. A message was sent to him demanding his abdication. Napo- leon resigned himself to fate and abdicated in favor of his son, proclaiming him Napoleon II., Emperor of the French. The Assembly accepted this abdication, but without at all mentioning the name of Napoleon II. A provisional gov- 630 THE FIRST RESTORATION AND ernment was appointed, and a special committee was charged with, negotiating with tlie allies. But the latter refused all offers of peace. Wellington and Bliicher marched directly upon Paris — an imprudent step ; but the president of the provisional government, Fonchi'^, managed everything in their favor. St. Helena. — Threatened with being delivered up to the enemy, Xapoleon departed for llochefort, thinking of seek- ing an asylum in the United States. But all ways of escape were guarded : after long uncertainty, he went on board an English vessel, the Bellerophon, and gave himself up, and wrote to the regent of England an admirable letter, declar- ing that he had come, like Themistocles, to seat himself at the hearth of the British nation, and to claim the protection of "the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my enemies." The English government treated him as a prisoner of war. The Emperor was taken to St. Helena, an island in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, under a burning sun, five hundred leagues from any land. Not considering the deadly climate and the weariness of solitude and inaction sufficient suffering for the ardent genius who for fifteen years had astonished the world, the English min- istry allowed the immortal captive to be annoyed by petty insults. Xapoleon endured his tortures with calm dignity, and occupied the mournful leisure of his captivity in dic- tating the history of his campaigns. After six years, which were six years of moral suffering and material privation, he died at LongAvood on the 5th of May, 1821, at four o'clock in the morning, wrapped in his military cloak, while a tropical hurricane was sweeping over the island and tearing up by the roots many of the largest trees, "as though the spirit of storms, borne on the wings of the wind, was hasten- ing to inform the world that a mighty spirit had just de- scended into the sombre abysses of nature." Treaties of 1815. — In the shipwreck of the Empire, France barely escaped total destruction. Neither the Cham- ber nor the government knew how to defend Paris. Davout, minister of war, came to an understanding with Fouch^, and signed a convention by Avhich the French army was to retire beyond the Loire, without firing a gun. The allies took possession of Paris as of a conquered city. Bliicher proposed to blow up the bridge of Jena and overturn the column of the Grand Army. The museum of the Louvre THE HUNDRED DAYS. 631 was despoiled of the masterpieces which had been trans- ported thither : the allies closed the hall of the Chamber of Deputies, and re-established Louis XA^III. on the throne. This second restoration cost France dear. First of all, it was compelled to pay the allies another war indemnity oi 800,000,000 fr. and 370,000,000 more of special claims. One hundred and fifty thousand foreign soldiers remained for three years on French soil, maintained and fed at French expense. Finally, the treaty of Paris (November 20) took from France Philippeville, Marienburg, the duchy of Bouillon, Saarlouis and the course of the Saar, Landau, several communes of the country of Gex and Savoy, all of which the treaty of 1814 had left her ; in all five hundred and thirty-four thousand inhabitants. After twenty-five years of victories, the national territory found itself less extensive in certain directions than it had been a century before, at the end of the reign of Louis XIV. ; and during that century the other powers had all vastly increased their strength. Moreover, the treaties of 1815 had perfidiously exposed the frontiers of France. Important strategic points were wrested from her. Bavaria was placed at her gates in the Palatinate, Prussia established in the valley of the Moselle, the kingdom of the Netherlands erected so as to keep from her the mouths of the Meuse and the Scheldt, while the gift of the kingdom of Lombardy to Austria re-established the Austrian influence in the Italian peninsula at the ex- pense of the French. Finally, by the treatj^ of the Holy Alliance, all Europe, Avhich Napoleon had tried to unite under his power, united against France. APPENDIX. Summary of Events from 1815 to 1870. I. THE RESTORATION. Royalist Reaction. — The Eoyalists revenged themselves cruelly for their second exile. Marshal Ney, Lab6doy6re, and four other generals were put to death; others were condemned to death by default ; three were assassinated, and a bloody reaction in the South caused men to be killed who were suspected of regretting the imperial regime. Religious hatred was added to political hatred, and many Protestants perished. Finally, a law in December, 1815, instituted for three years provosts' courts, which soon ob- tained an evil celebrity. Thus the restored monarchy had its massacres and its Terror, commonly called the White Terror. The Chamber of Deputies undertook to suppress the Charter and to undo the social work of the Eevolution by restoring to the clergy and the aristocracy the political r6le which they had played under the old regime. Louis X'VTII. was obliged to dismiss these too devoted servants (Novem- ber, 1816), and a new and more moderate Chamber began the era of representative government in France. This Chamber adopted an electoral law which fixed the qualifi- cation of the electors at three hundred francs, that of those eligible at one thousand francs. Thanks to the Duke of Richelieu and the generosity of the Czar Alexander, the occupation of the French territory by the foreign armies ceased two years before the time fixed by the treaties. Assassination of the Duke of Berry. — The progress of the Liberals was slow but continuous, and they were beginning to acquire a preponderance in the Chamber, as well as in THE RESTORATION. 633 the country. The assassination of the Duke of Berry, the king's nephew, inclined the balance again to the side of the Eoyalists. On the 13th of February, 1820, the duke was at the opera ; as he was escorting the duchess to her carriage, a miscreant named Louvel stabbed him. The Liberal cause was held responsible for this crime, and a reactionary min- istry was formed which started the government on the fatal path which led it to its fall in 1830. Alliance of the Altar and the Throne. — Individual liberty was suspended, the censorship of journals re-established, and the political powers of the great landed proprietors in- creased. The birth of the Duke of Bordeaux, a posthumous son of the Duke of Berry (September, 1820), the death of Napoleon (May, 1821), increased the joy and hopes of the ultra-Royalists, who brought M. de Vill^le into the ministry. Then the restoration of its ancient prerogatives to royalty, and especially to the Church, was spoken of openly. The Jesuits returned to France ; they at once attacked their most formidable adversary, the University, by causing the lectures of Cousin and Guizot to be stopped (1822). The Liberals protested, as oppressed parties always do, by conspiracies. To the Congregation formed by the ultra- Royalists, which numbered iifty thousand members, they opposed the society of the Carbonari, which was recruited principally from the schools, the bar, and the army. Car- bonarism spread its roots all through France, into Germany, Italy, and Spain, and undertook several armed insurrections. Expedition into Spain. — The conquerors of 1814 and 1815, Austria, Russia, and Prussia, had formed a Holy Alliance in order to stifle the liberal ideas which the Revo- lution had sown abroad in the world, and which were fer- menting everywhere. They were violently suppressed in Germany, in Naples, and in Piedmont, and the French government received from the Congress of Verona (1822) a commission to take the field against them in Spain. The army which entered Spain in April, 1823, had little occasion to fight and met with no serious resistance except at Cadiz, which it successfully besieged. This expedition, quite with- out glory, was also without profit. Re-established in his absolute power, the king of Spain would not listen to the coun- sels of moderation. The Liberals of France held their govern- ment responsible for the acts of violence committed by Ferdi- nand VII., and had the majority in the country on their side. G34 THE EESTORATION. Charles X. ; Villele. — The death of Louis XVIII., a pru- dent and moderate king, seemed to assure the triumph of the ultra-Eoyalists by causing the power to pass into the hands of the Count of Artois (September, 1824). In 1789 this prince had given the signal for emigration: he had learned nothing, forgotten nothing, and would not listen to his brother's advice. He believed himself called to restore the ancient monarchy, regardless of the Charter. In the earliest days of his reign he demanded of the Chamber, through M. de VilMe, an indemnity of 1,000,000,000 fr. for the Emigres, the re-establishment of nunneries, and of the right of primogeniture, and a law of extreme severity against sacrilege. The deputies granted all. In May, 1825, the new king had himself crowned after the ancient ceremonial. Meantime the Liberal party was gaining in the country every day. In letters and in the arts a great movement was noticed in favor of liberty. In the Parliament men of talent or authority, Chateaubriand, Royer-Collard, De Brog- lie, etc., served the cause of public liberty ; the leading journals, Avhich were then establishing a new power in the State, that of the press, defended that cause openly ; teachers popularized it in the higher educational institutions. The great cities were in the opposition ; Paris was wholly devoted to it. At a royal review of the national guard in April, 1827, the cry, " Down with the ministers," resounded through the ranks. The same evening the national gaiard was dis- banded, which caused the complete withdrawal of the sup- port of the bourgeoisie from the court. The general elections sent to the Chambers a Liberal majority before which the Yill^le ministry fell (December, 1827). All parties manifested their sympathy for the Greeks, who were trying by force of heroism to recover their inde- pendence. They seemed likely to succumb in their unequal struggle with the Turks, when England, France, and Russia united to save them. The three allied fleets annihilated the Turkish navy at Navarino (September, 1827). Prance also sent into the Morea troops, who recaptured, in a short time, air the cities occupied by the Ottomans: Greece was delivered. Ministries of Martignac and Polignac. — In January, 1828, a new cabinet was formed under M. de Martignac. His intentions were honest and liberal, and his acts generally approved. He abolished the censorship of journals, sought THE JULY MONARCHY. 636 to prevent electoral frauds, and gradually reconciled France with the Bourbons. Unfortunately Charles X. supported his ministry without liking it, and in August, 1829, profiting by a slight check imprudently inflicted by the Chambers upon his ministers, he replaced them by M. de Polignac, M. de Labourdonnaie, and M. de Bourmont. The choice of these men was a declaration of war on the part of royalty against the country ; a crisis became inevitable. The depu- ties declared in their reply to the king's speech, that the ministry had not their confidence. The Chamber was dis- solved, but the two hundred and twenty-one signers of the address were all re-elected, and royalty, defeated in the elections, determined to make a revolution itself. It was encouraged to do so by a military success, the expedition to Algiers, undertaken to avenge an affront to the French con- sul. Thirty-seven thousand men landed in June,- 1830, upon the African coast, defeated the Algerians, and obtained possession of the city. Revolution of 1830. — On the 26th of the same month appeared a series of ordinances which suppressed the liberty of the press, annulled the last elections, and created a new electoral system. It was a coup d'etat against the public liberties and the Charter, and Paris responded to this vio- lation of the constitution by the three days' outbreak of July 27, 28, and 29, 1830. In spite of the bravery of the royal guard and the Swiss, Charles X. was conquered. He abdicated in favor of his grandson, the Duke of Bordeaux, and went again into exile. Six thousand victims had fallen either killed or wounded. On the 9th of August the Cham- ber of Deputies raised to the throne the head of the younger branch of the house of Bourbon, the Duke of Orleans, who took the name of Louis Philippe I., and the title of King of the French. 11. THE JULY MONARCHY. (1830-1848 A.D.) King Louis Philippe. — The private virtues of the Duke of Orleans, his handsome family, his former connections with the head of the Liberal party, his bourgeois habits, the popu- 636 THE JULY MONARCHY. lar education given to his sons in the public schools, all encouraged the hopes of the people. The duke was pro- claimed king on the 9th of August, after having sworn to observe the revised charter. The changes made in the con- stitutional compact were not extensive : the abolition of heredity in the peerage and of the censorship of the journals ; the establishment of the qualification for eligibility at five hundred francs, and the electoral qualification at two hun- dred francs ; and the suppression of the article which recog- nized the Catholic religion as the religion of the State. But in 1814 Louis XVIII. had appeared to grayit a charter as an act of grace ; in 1830 Louis Philippe accepted one which was imposed upon him by the deputies. This fact consti- tuted the whole revolution. General La Fayette was ap- pointed commander of the national guard of France, and M. Laffitte was called to the ministry. On the news of the revolution at Paris, revolutionary movements broke out elsewhere, throughout Europe. In Switzerland, the aristocratic governments fell ; in Germany, liberal innovations were introduced. Italy was agitated; Spain prepared for a revolution; Belgium separated from Holland ; England even, agitated and in commotion, forced the Tories to grant the Reform Bill. But should France make herself the champion of Euro- pean insurrections, at the risk of stirring up a general war ? The new king thought not. Belgium offered to join France ; the offer was repulsed, in order not to excite the jealousy of England. The Spanish refugees wished to attempt a revolu- tion in their country ; they were stopped upon the frontier, in order not to violate international law. Poland received no substantial aid. Italy, bound by Austria, was laboring to break her fetters ; M. Laffitte desired to aid her in the struggle. The king refused to sanction his course, and called Casimir Perier to the presidency of the council. Ministry of Casimir Perier (1831-1832). — Casimir Perier declared that he would maintain order within the country, and that he would not involve France in a general war, but would piake for universal peace any sacrifice compatible with the honor of the country. Reparation was exacted from Dom Miguel, in Portugal, for outrages on French subjects. The Dutch were forced to give up their attempts to reconquer Belgium. By the occupation of Ancona the Austrians were obliged to abandon their intervention in the Papal States. THE JULY MONARCHY. ' 637 In the interior, the president of the council pursued, with the same energy, the line of conduct which he had traced out for himself. A revolt of the legitimists in the west, insurrections of the workmen at Lyons and Grenoble, and plots in Paris were suppressed. Such was the ministry of Casimir P^rier ; an energetic struggle for the cause of order, in which his strong will never succumbed to any obstacle. Ministry of Broglie, Guizot, and Thiers. — Socialistic agita- tion prevailed. In June the Republicans of Paris threw up barricades, but they were overcome by the national guard. In July, the death of the son of Napoleon, the Duke of Reichstadt, relieved the Orleans dynasty of a formidable competitor. Another pretender also lost his cause. The Duchess of Berry had appeared in the west, attempting to stir up a civil war, in the name of her son, Henry V. But there were no longer either Vendeans or Chouans. The new ideas had penetrated there as well as elsewhere. A few gentlemen, some irreconcilables, a few peasants, responded to the appeal. The country was promptly pacified, and the duchess, after having wandered about a long time, was cap- tured and imprisoned ; and a little later, permanently discred- ited by the necessity of avowing a secret marriage. Foreign Affairs ; the Quadruple Alliance. — In 1832 the citadel of Antwerp was taken by French forces, and the permanent occupation of Algeria assured. In the East, French diplomacy intervened between the Sultan and his victorious vassal, the Pasha of Egypt, and strengthened the latter as guardian, for France and Europe, of the two great commercial routes of the Bed Sea and the Gulf of Persia. In Portugal, Dom Miguel, an absolutist prince, had been driven from the throne in favor of Donha Maria da Gloria, who gave her people a constitutional charter. In Spain, Ferdinand VII., dying, excluded from the crown his brother Don Carlos, who sustained the reactionary party. The treaty of the Quadruple Alliance, signed in April, 1834, between the courts of Paris, London, Lisbon, and Madrid, promised the new Spanish and Portuguese governments the efiicient aid of the two great constitutional countries against the ill will of the northern courts. Internal Affairs. — The Chambers adopted a law which finally organized primary instruction (1833). On important questions the majority went with the ministry. An attempt upon the life of the king gave royalty an opportunity to 638 THE JULY MONARCHY. profit by the horror which such crimes always inspire. The insurrections of April, 1834, at Lyons and Paris, and the trial of one hundred and sixty-four Republicans before the Court of Peers, brought about the immediate ruin of this party as a militant faction. The violent members of the party again had recourse to assassination. At a review in July, 1835, one Eieschi directed against the king an infernal machine, which strxick dead at the king's side Marshal Mortier and several others ; in all, eighteen were killed and wounded, among whom were five generals. The ministry profited by the universal indignation, to present more stringent laws upon criminal procedure and the press. External Policy. — The cause of order had been energeti- cally sustained in the interior ; now that it was triumphant, M. Thiers, who in February, 1836, had become president of the Council of Ministers, desired to assume abroad the rdle of Casimir P^rier. He proposed to intervene in Spain for the repression of the Carlists, and to inaugurate a more vigorous prosecution of war in Algeria. He ordered Marshal Clause! to attack Constantine, the strongest fortress in all Africa. Thus the government having suppressed internal troubles, would provide abroad an outlet for the activity of France. He wished to add to order a little glory. The king willingly agreed to the expedition against Constantine, but he refused his consent to the intervention in Spain. M. Thiers left the ministry, in which he was succeeded by M. Mole (Septem- ber, 1836), as president of the Council. At first the ministry of M. Mole was unfortunate. Mar- shal Clausel, left without sufficient means, failed in the expedition against Constantine. Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon, attempted to excite to revolt the garrison of Strassburg (October, 1836). He was arrested and sent out of the kingdom ; his accomplices were arraigned before the jury, but acquitted. But these failures were compensated for in the following years by some suc- cesses. The province of Gran was pacified; the army finally planted its banner upon the walls of Constantine (1837) ; in order to terminate long-standing quarrels with Mexico, an expedition was sent out which took possession of San Juan d'Ulloa, the capture of which gave the French the control of Vera Cruz and the principal custom-house of the country. Mexico paid a war indemnity. In all these affairs the king's sons distinguished themselves. Finally, THE JULY MONARCHY. 639 the birth of a son to the Duke of Orleans (1838) seemed to consolidate the j^ower of the dynasty. The old king gave the child the title of Count of Paris. Parliamentary Coalition. — Meantime in the Parliament a severe attack upon the ministry was being inaugurated. The recall of the French troops from Ancona, the cession of certain Belgian districts to the king of Holland, the refusal of the Powers to leave the province of Luxemburg in hands friendly to France, excited displeasure. With more care for the national honor, it was said, with more confidence in the strength of the country, these useless concessions to the system of peace at any price might have been avoided. But the real pretext for these attacks was the alleged insufficiency of the ministry. M. Gruizot, the leader of the doctrinaires, a small party, but one full of talent and ambi- tion, M. Thiers, the leader of a group of the left centre, and M. Odilon Barrot, formed a coalition against it. The ministry wished to retire (January, 1839). The king refused to accept their resignations and appealed to the country, proclaiming the dissolution of the Chamber. The ministry was defeated and overthrown. Eivalries broke out in the coalition over the formation of a new min- istry. After a prolonged ministerial crisis, accompanied by an outbreak in Paris, a cabinet was constituted under the presidency of Marshal Soult. None of the heads of the coalition took part in it. It lasted less than a year. Its principal achievement was the suppression of a revolt in Algeria under Abd-el-Kader. The Eastern Question. — The most important affair of this cabinet was the Eastern Question. The Sultan had desired to recapture Syria from the Pasha of Egypt, but the son of Mehemet Ali, Ibrahim Pasha,. had defeated the Ottomans. This victory opened to him the route to Constantinople. Should he march upon that city, the Russians would take possession of it under pretext of defending it; and once within its walls, they would perhaps never leave it. France, by her intervention, arrested the victorious Ibrahim. Eng- land then, in order at once to strengthen Turkey and weaken Egypt, planned to despoil Mehemet Ali of Syria. France had, in Constantinople, interests identical with those of Great Britain ; but in Egypt the interests of the two seemed op- posed. But in covering Constantinople the ministry made no stipulation in favor of Mehemet Ali, and accepted as regu- 640 THE JULY MONARCHY. lator in the affair a European Congress, in which it could, in advance, count upon four out of five votes against it. Ministry of Thiers. — On the 1st of March, 1840, M. Thiers succeeded Marshal Soult as prime minister. After ten years of peace and material security the country was prosperous ; but it was in a state of agitation. The minister tried to gain popularity by issuing an ordinance of amnesty. This was equivalent to restoring tlieir chiefs to the Repub- licans. At the same time he increased the strength of the new party which was forming around the representative of the Napoleonic dynasty, by obtaining from England the restoration of the remains of the Emperor Napoleon, which were brought from St. Helena with great honor, by a fleet under the command of one of the king's sons. Treaty of London. — But important events were taking place in the East. France and Mehemet Ali were warm allies. Europe, and particularly England, resolved to break up this alliance which placed under the same control Toulon, Algiers, Alexandria, Beirut, and the fleets of France and Egypt, and assured France the preponderance in the Med- iterranean. In July England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia signed, without the participation of France, the treaty of London, which was to wrest Syria from the Pasha of Egypt. At this news a quiver of anger passed over the whole country; the government appeared to take part in this legitimate explosion of national feeling, yet was unwilling to engage in war under circumstances so disadvantageous. Desiring, however, to enable France to adopt a firm and dig- nified attitude, it began the fortification of Paris, and in- creased the army. Yet the isolated condition of France had its perils. Tlie king Avas alarmed. He abandoned his min- istry; M. Thiers gave place to M. Guizot (October, 1840). Ministry of M. Guizot. — M. Guizot did not make enough of public opinion or national sentiment. He hastened to hold out his hand to England and the Powers, and caused France to return into what was called the European concert. This was equivalent to a treaty of peace. Disarmament im- mediately ensued, the army was reduced, and France was thrown back into the peaceful paths of commerce and industry. The activity of commercial transactions mani- fested the confidence which the upper middle class placed in the continuance of the ministry, wliich was, to their minds, the personification of peace. THE JULY MONARCHY. 641 In July, 1842, the Duke of Orleans, an amiable and deserv- edly beloved prince, was thrown from his carriage and killed, and a child of four years became the heir to the most iDurdensome of crowns. The hopes of the Legitimists revived ; and the Liberals and Kepublicans expected their ideas to triumph, through the inevitable weakness of a regency. The Duke of Nemours, the least distinguished of the king's sons, was named regent. The national feeling had been deeply wounded by the events of 1840. M. Guizot sought to compensate for this by various acquisitions in the Pacific. But little success re- sulted. In the Society Islands, at Tahiti, an English mis- sionary had excited the natives against the French. He was driven from the island (1844) ; but his reports made a stir in the English Parliament, and the French cabinet com- mitted the blunder of asking the Chambers to vote an in- demnity for a man who had caused the blood of French soldiers to be shed. Other similar concessions increased the public irritation ; they were considered fresh proofs of French weakness in the face of England. The recognition of a right of visitation on the part of England, in 1841, for the repression of the slave-trade, excited so intense an oppo- sition, that the Chamber forced the minister to cancel the treaty. Defeat and Capture of Abd-el-Kader. — For operations in Algeria, the minister had the good sense to choose an able and energetic man. General Bugeaud, who was capable of inspiring the Arabs with both fear and respect. Abd-el- Kader had violated his treaty, preached the Hol}^ War, and, by the rapidity of his movements, spread terror through the province of Oran, and anxiety even to the gates of Algiers. The general pursued him without pausing as far as the western mountains, pacified that difficult region, and drove the enemy back into the desert. Having taken refuge in Morocco, Abd-el-Kader induced its emperor to take up arms in his cause. France replied to these provocations by the bombardment of Tangier and Mogadore, and by the victory of Isly, which General Bugeaud gained against much su- perior numbers. The Emperor made peace, and after a time, expelled Abd-el-Kader from his dominions. He was at once captured (November, 1847). The Spanish Marriage. — Good relations with England were unwisely disturbed by the marriage of the Duke of 642 THE JUL Y MONARCHY. Montpensier with the sister of the queen of Spain. The younger branch of the house of Bourbon was eager to in- herit the fortune of the elder branch in the Peninsula, and to deprive an English candidate of the reversion of Spain, as though time had not divested princely unions of almost all importance. England manifested great discontent at being outwitted. The ministry then, alarmed at the isolation in which France was about to be placed, made advances to Austria, and to win her, sacrificed to her Switzerland and Italy. Switzerland was then trying to reform her constitu- tion so as to give more authority to the central power. But M. Guizot combated the Liberal party and favored the Son- derbund (the Separatists, 1847). The Austrians had occu- pied Ferrara and committed odious deeds of violence at Milan (February, 1848). M. Guizot contented himself with negotiating in favor of the victims. Thus France became the ally of an empire whose policy was then entirely one of oppression. Internal Policy. — For several years the country enjoyed remarkable prosperity. Popular instruction was developed,, the penal code was ameliorated, and the lottery suppressed. Industry took a forward leap, by the introduction of ma- chines, and commerce increased. The coasts were provided with lighthouses, parish roads were improved, and the exe- cution of a vast system of railroads projected. But these enterprises, as too often happens, gave rise to unlimited stock-jobbing. Political Banquets. — The elections of 1846, carefully pre- pared and conducted by the administration, gave it a ma- jority. But it was becoming evident that in the pays legal, that is, in the small body of electors (220,000), the political sense was being lost, and- calculation was taking the place of patriotism ; the electors sold their votes to the deputies ; the elected, their suffrage to the ministers ; and the repre- sentative institutions were vitiated at their source. The president of the Council, upheld by a factitious majority, assumed a haughty tone toward the opposition in Parlia- ment. He had, at the time of the elections, made many promises of reforms. The deputies of the left centre and of the dynastic left, directed by M. Thiers and M. Odilon Barrot, challenged him to fulfil his promises. They de- manded the revision of certain taxes, the electoral and par- liamentary reforms vainly proposed at each session since THE JULY MONARCHY. 643 1842. The minister rejected these inoffensive claims ; the opposition replied by seventy banquets held in the most important cities, at which the grievances of the country were set forth. Paris belonged entirely to the opposition. A journal estab- lished by the Conservatives could not support itself. Even in that party itself disaffection showed itself. Several influential members of the majority went over to the op- position, and among the ministry itself several members objected to this extreme policy. But the presiding minister at the opening of the session of 1848 persisted in his irri- tating course. Exciting debates kept public opinion in a tumult for six weeks. External events, the victory of the Liberals in Switzerland, the movement in Italy, which was striving to escape from the oppression of Austria, reacted upon France. The opposition attempted a final demonstra- tion, — the banquet of the twelfth arrondissement of Paris. Revolution of the 24th of February, 1848. — The ministry prevented the meeting : immense crowds immediately gath- ered, and here and there disturbances broke out. On the evening of the 23d of February a Liberal ministry was appointed under the presidency of M. Thiers. But those who had commenced the movement found themselves unable to control it. The direction of the outbreak passed from their hands into those of experienced conspirators and veterans of the barricades, fighting men, who rushed into the crowd of the boulevards. To a shot fired upon the guard of the Foreign Office, the troops answered by a volley which cut down fifty inoffensive bystanders. At the sight of their dead bodies borne through the streets, amid cries of vengeance, the people of the faubourgs flew to arms. Marshal Bugeaud, commanding the army, had already taken proper steps to repress the riot, when, in the night of the 23d and 24:th, he received from the new ministry the order to withdraw his troops to the Tuileries. Rather than obey this senseless order, he resigned his command, and the re- sistance was paralyzed. The national guard did nothing; the Revolution followed. Abandoned by the Parisian bour- geoisie, Louis Philippe believed himself to be also abandoned by all France. At noon he abdicated and departed, pro- tected by a few regiments, without being followed or molested. The Duke of Orleans was dead, the Prince of Joinville and the Duke of Aumale absent. There were left, with the 644 THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. Duke of Nemours, not a popular prince, and the young Duke of Montpensier, a woman and a child, the Duchess of Orleans and the Count of Paris. The duchess presented herself before the Chamber with the Count of Paris, but the insurgents followed her there and caused a provisional government to be proclaimed, composed of M. Dupont (de I'Eure), Arago, Lamartine, Cr^mieux, Ledru-Rollin and Gar- nier-Pag^s. Thus through the incapacity of the government and the audacity of a party, Prance had, instead of a reform regularly carried out by the public authorities, a new insur- rection which was to arrest work, destroy millions, shed blood, and interrupt the peaceful progress of the country. III. THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. The Provisional Government. — On the evening of the 24th the provisional government proclaimed the Republic. The provinces, resigning themselves as usual to the measures taken at the capital, appeared to accept the Republic. M. Ledru-RoUin everywhere replaced the prefects by commis- sioners charged with administering public affairs in the spirit of the new government; and to reassure Europe, Lamartine declared in a manifesto that the Republic threat- ened no one, but that she would everywhere prevent inter- vention for the repression of the legitimate claims of the peoples. Arago issued a decree emancipating the blacks in the colonies. Meanwhile industry and commerce were interrupted, the revenues of the State diminished, and the abolition of the salt-tax and a few other unpopular taxes diminished them still more. The minister of finances was therefore obliged to levy an extraordinary tax. Many manufactories had been closed, and thousands of workmen were left without food, and in a fit state to become the dupes of the prevalent communistic doctrines. The provisional government com- mitted the imprudence of guaranteeing them work, when it had neither work to be done nor money to pay for it, and it authorized one of its members, M. Louis Blanc, to discuss the relations of labor and capital with delegations of labor ing men. Finally, to occupy the working class, it establislici THE REPUBLJC OF 1848. 645 national workshops, Id. which dangerous idleness and dis- couraged honesty were thrown together. These excitements brought about a fresh contest. The national guard made an imposing demonstration in behalf of the bourgeoisie, the artisans a rival manifestation in favor of the proletariat. The provisional government was obliged every day to issue discourses and proclamations, to bring again into Paris a few battalions of the army, and to form an additional militia called the garde 'mobile. Opening of the National Assembly ; the Executive Com- mittee. — After another socialistic manifestation, which was suppressed by the national guard (April), the electoral col- leges assembled on Sunday, April 22. The elections took place for the first time by universal suifrage. The electors were thus increased in number from 220,000 to 9,000,000 ; an expansion for which nothing was prepared and which was certain to cause disturbances. On the 4th of JNIay the Constituent Assembly met, solemnly proclaimed the Eepub- lic, and unwisely confided authority to an executive com- mittee composed of five members, MM. Arago, Garnier-Pag^s, Marie, Lamartine, and Ledru-Rollin. It seemed that there was now nothing to be done but to draw up the constitution. But widely different views prevailed as to the nature of the revolution and the extent to which it should be carried. Outbreaks of May and June. — On the loth of May, under pretext of carrying to the deputies a petition in favor of Poland, a movement took place against the Chamber. Lam- artine tried in vain to keep back the rioters by his eloquence ; as many as two thousand of them crowded into the hall of the Deputies. Blanqui summoned tlie Assembly to declare immediate war upon Europe for the deliverance of Poland. Barb6s demanded a tax of a thousand millions upon the rich. The president was driven from his seat, and the Assembly declared dissolved. Fortunately a few battalions of militia came up and dispersed the insurgents ; the Assem- bly returned to its session. It soon after determined to abolish the national workshops, which formed an army of one hundred thousand pi'oletarians, .having arms, leaders, and discipline. This news excited the anger of the agitators and the despair of the working class, deceived by false hopes. On the 22d barricades were thrown up with astonishing rapidity in the faubourgs and soon occupied half of Paris. The Executive Committee had at its disposal only twenty 646 THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. thousand soldiers of the line, the garde mobile, and a part of the national guard. With these troops, General Cavai- gnac occupied all the principal avenues. A frightful bat- tle began in which legions of the national guard fought against other legions, in which the garde mobile, composed of men of the people, struggled with the workmen. The Assembly forced the Executive Committee to send in their resignations and appointed Cavaignac chief of the executive department. The struggle continued. The archbishop of Paris, Mgr. Affre, while attempting mediation, fell a martyr to his patriotic zeal. Finally, the insurrection was driven back into the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and the insurgents surrendered. This battle of four days had cost the two parties five thousand killed, among whom were seven gen- erals and two representatives : four other generals and three representatives were wounded. Twelve thousand prisoners or persons arrested afterward were transported to Africa. The Republic was greatly weakened by this frightful struggle. The Assembly hastened to lay the basis of a new government with a single legislative assembly and an elective president. There were two prominent candidates for the presidency of the Republic, — General Cavaignac, chief, since June 24, of the executive department; and Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of the Emperor. General Cavaignac, a man of noble character, received 1,448,- 107 votes against 5,434,226 given for the prince (Decem- ber 10). Presidency of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. — Louis Napo- leon, born in 1808, the third son of Hortense de Beauhar- nais and Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland, had twice, in 1836 and in 1840, attempted without success, at Strassburg and at Boulogne, to reawaken sympathy for the name of Napoleon and the glory of the Empire. After the second attempt he was condemned by the Court of Peers and shut up in the chateau of Ham, from which he escaped in 1846. The revolution of February revived his hopes. An active propaganda obtained for him many suffrages, and the mis- takes of the Republicans and the magic of his name did the rest. His election to the presidency was a protest against the government which Paris had imposed on France on the 24th of February. The new constitution was ill-suited to the times and the THE REPUBLIC OF 1848. 647 circumstances under wMch it was produced. The execu- tive and the legislative had the same origin, because they both proceeded from universal suffrage, and because they were renewed, the one after three, the other after four years of exercise. But the President had this advantage, that, elected by millions of votes, he seemed to represent the en- tire nation. Antagonism between the two was inevitable. Moreover, the President had been given either too much power or too little ; and with the temptation to assume the usual prerogatives of public authority, he had been also given the means of success. The President and the Assem- bly, however, agreed upon the questions of establishing order and repressing the extreme parties. The European revolutions, born of the revolution of Feb- ruary, had been promptly suppressed by the kings. Aus- tria, victorious in Hungary, thanks to the Russians, had defeated Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, at Novara, and Lombardy had again fallen into her power. The republic proclaimed at Eome, after the flight of the Pope, vainly tried to defend itself. In order to prevent the establish- ment of Austrian domination throughout the peninsula, it was thought necessary for Prance, in intervening, to bring to an end the Roman Republic. The Prince-President and the Assembly sent a French army into Italy under the com- mand of General Oudinot. The Parisian Republicans tried, by an insurrection, to save the Roman Republic. But the outbreak was at once suppressed. General Oudinot entered Eome, after a brief siege, and restored the Pope. The Leg- islative Assembly, which succeeded the Constituent As- sembly, approved the conduct of the President, and the French troops remained at Rome for the protection of the Holy Father. The Legislative Assembly (1849-1851). — The new Assem- bly (May 28, 1849) numbered fewer Republicans and social- ists, and a much larger number of its members united under the general denomination of friends of order ; but many of these latter were in correspondence with the Bourbon or the Orleans princes. The session of 1850 was marked by a law which struck off three million electors, by requiring, for the obtaining of a ballot, the proof of an actual residence of three years in the electoral district. In that of 1851, irri- tating discussions took the place of the transaction of busi- ness. The powers of the President and those of the Assem- 048 THE BEPUBLIC OF 1848. l)ly were both, to terminate in the following year, 1852, with an interval of three months, and universal suffrage, which had now become restricted suffrage, was to be called upon almost at the same time to renew the two chief authorities of the Republic. In the state of anxiety into which this doubtful future plunged the country, petitions which bore signatures numbering 1,500,000 were addressed to the As- sembly, praying for the revision of the constitution. But the Assembly was greatly divided. Many demanded that nothing fundamental should be changed ; some would con- sent to a revision of the article which forbade the re-elec- tion of the President; others desired a complete revision which might open the way for the restoration of one or other of the three fallen monarchies. The necessary three- fourths vote could not be obtained. On the 4th of November, 1851, the President demanded the re-establishment of universal suffrage. The Assembly, persisting in excluding from the ballot the nomadic or float- ing population, rejected the presidential proposition. On the following days irritating debates rendered the situation still more difficult ; a few spoke of imprisoning the Prince at Vincennfes. But an assembly is always feeble in action. The Prince, on the other hand, had on his side the army, a part of the Parisian population, almost all Prance, tired of these disorders, and unity of command : he could therefore await an attack, but he preferred to forestall it. The Coup d'Etat. — On the morning of December 2 the leaders of the different parties in the Assembly were ar- rested at their homes, and the palace of the Assembly was occupied by an armed force. At the same time a decree from the President declared the Assembly dissolved and universal suffrage re-established, and proposed to the people the outlines of a new constitution with a responsible head elected for ten years. Resistance was attempted in the centre of Paris and on the boulevards, but after a short struggle was suppressed. Vigorous measures promptly re- stored tranquillity. The people, by 7,437,216 affirmative votes against 640,737 negative, accepted the constitution proposed by the President, and gave him power for ten years. Thus frightened Prance gave herself to Louis Napo- leon, and the great current of 1789 was once more turned aside. During these sixty years, instead of advancing slowly and surely by regular progress, France had moved THE SECOND EMPIRE. 649 by leaps and bounds, running in a few months from one ex- tremity of the political world to the other. The decennial presidency was only a jourjiey towards the Empire. The new constitution, published in January, 1852, had borrowed its principles from the institutions of the Con- sulate and the Empire, and under the semblance of liberal- ity, concealed the omnipotence of the Prince. The head of the State was responsible, and governed by the aid of min- isters who depended on himself alone. Two assemblies were . instituted : the Corps L^gislatif, an outgrowth of universal suffrage, had the power to vote laws and taxes ; a Senate, com- posed of the distinguished men of the country, was to watch over the preservation and development of the constitution. Councillors of State, appointed as were the Senators, by the "Prince, prepared laws, defended them before the Corps L^gislatif, and examined the amendments. Before putting the constitution into effect, the President, clothed with the Dictatorship, remodelled the whole administration. The national guard was reorganized and placed at the disposal of the executive, the press again put under the jurisdiction of the correctionary tribunals, the government of the depart- ments concentrated in the hands of the prefects, the nomi- nation of the mayors restored to the government. Order being restored, labor resumed its activity. Carried away by the movement which had taken possession of it after the first vote in favor of Louis Kapoleon in 1848, the nation hoped to find repose and order in the bosom of a hereditary monarchy. IV. THE SECOND EMPIRE. (1853-1870 A.I>.) Re-establishment of the Empire (1852). — A senatus-con- sultiim proposed to the people the re-establishment of the- imperial dignity in the person of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, with heredity in his direct descent, legitimate or adoptive ; the people adopted this proposition on the 21st and 22d of November, by 7,839,552 affirmative votes against 254,501 negatives, and the Empire was solemnly proclaimed on the 2d of December, 1852. Thus the nation ratified the coup 650 THS SECOND EMPinX. d'etat of the 2d of December, 1851, as she had ratified that of the 18th Brumaire, and voluntarily linked her destiny to that of the Napoleons. The new Emperor took the title of Napoleon III. From his marriage with Eugenie de Guzman, a Spanish countess, was born, in 1856, the Prince Imperial. The Empire was extremely popular ; the Emperor was not a roi faineant. He had two special aims : at home, to give satisfaction to the general needs of the country as well as to popular interests ; abroad, to improve the political situ- ation of France, which was still suffering from the great reverses of 1815. Benevolent Institutions. — The savings-bank system was extended, as were also the operations of mutual benefit socie- ties. Arrangements were made for bringing justice and medical relief more easily within the reach of the poor. Attention was given to the sanitary improvement of work- ingmen's dwellings. Three establishments were founded for convalescents discharged from the hospitals. Working- men's pensions were proposed. Public Works ; Encouragements to Agriculture, Industry, and the Arts. — The government gave to public works an activity which, in ten years, almost renewed the great cities, but also overexcited speculation and led to disasters. Paris was almost rebuilt, on a magnificent plan, and well provided with sewers. Other cities followed the example. The' Louvre was finished ; boulevards were cut through, old quar- ters made healthy, new ones called into existence, schools, mairies, and churches built in each arrondissement ; in the centre, the Halles constrxicted in an original style ; every- where gardens and promenades laid out ; and at the two extremities of the city, the magnificent Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes. E-ailroads, the construction of which had until then been carried on slowly, in a few years reached from the centre to the extremities, beside the new network of cross-lines. Immense works were also carried on in the construction of canals, roads, and ports, and the restoration of the churches. The organization of boards of agriculture, the establish- ment of agricultural prizes, contributed to spread the best methods among farmers and breeders. Special institutions for their benefit were founded. The renewal of forests on the mountains, the division and sale of common lands, were facilitated. A.subvention of 100,000,000 was appropriated THE SECOND EMPIRE. 651 to facilitate, by advances of money, the employment of sys- tems of draining, and portions of lands hitherto considered unfit for culture were reclaimed by this method. A law was prepared for the completion of parish roads, and elementary instruction in agriculture was required in the schools. Institutions of Credit; Freedom of Trade. — The Cridit Fonder allowed the landed proprietors to raise their mort- gages more easily and to improve their property ; the Cridit Mobilier caused credit to circulate more rapidly, too rapidly indeed, since failures resulted ; and the State in contracting loans instead of addressing itself solely to the bankers, invited all the citizens to take part in the operation by direct subscription. After the example of England, free trade was established : beginning in 1860, commercial trea- ties on the basis of free trade were signed with England, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, etc. Imprisonment for debt was abolished. In 1855, and again in 1867, universal exhibitions were held in Paris which stimulated industrial activity. To foster foreign commerce, new lines of steamships from the Atlantic ports to America, and from the Mediterranean ports to Asia, were established with government aid. In 1862, as a result of these measures, the annual amount of importations and exportations had tripled in twelve years. The right of workmen to combine for the securing of higher wages was recognized by a law of 1864. Co-operative socie- ties were encouraged by one of 1867. Pauperism and crime were diminished. Education. — In fifteen years the number of children who received primary instruction was increased by a million; school-houses were multiplied and the condition of the masters improved. Thirteen thousand school libraries were established. The education of girls was organized, and evening schools for adults established on a large scale. Technical schools were founded, and the !^cole des Hautes !^tudes instituted for advanced scientific researches. Foreign Policy; Crimean War (1854-1856). — There were, during this reign, wars which the nation accepted as necessities of its old traditions of national policy and military honor. There were also, unfortunately, some of which she disapproved ; and the Second Empire fell on account of having undertaken one which was inevitable, but for which it was not prepared. Since the treaties of 1815 Russia had exercised a menao« 652 THE SECOND EMPIRE. ing preponderance in Europe. The Czar Nicholas had become the personification of a formidable system of repression and conquest. He thought that the presence of a Napoleon on the throne of Erance would guarantee to Russia the alliance of the English, and believed that the moment had arrived to seize the eternal object of Muscovite covetousness, — Constantinople. He assumed a protectorate over the Christian subjects of the Turkish Empire ; he ended by trying to have a secret understanding vv^ith England for the division of the spoils of the Sultan. In 1853 he sent forces to occupy the Danubian Princijmlities and armed at Sebastopol a fleet which seemed formidable. The Emperor gave the first signal for resistance, drew England, Avhich at first hesitated, into his alliance, and assured himself of the neutrality of Austria and Prussia. The destruction by the Russians of a Turkish flotilla was the signal for the com- mencement of hostilities. The English and French fleet entered the Black Sea while an army forwarded from Great Britain and France assembled under the walls of Constanti- nople. In September, 1854, the allies, seventy thousand strong, landed on the shores of the Crimea, and the victory of the Alma enabled them to begin the siege of Sebastopol. That siege, the most terrible known in the annals of modern history, lasted almost a year. Continual battles were sus- tained, two victories, those of Inkerman and Traktir, won, and a struggle bravely maintained against a terrible climate and an enemy continually reinforced. Finally, in September, 1855, French dash and English firmness received their reward. The city was taken, and some months after, the Emperor Nicholas died, foreseeing the ruin of his vast designs. The English and French fleet in the Baltic had destroyed Bomarsund, and in the Black Sea the French armored gun- boats, employed for the first time, had laid Southern Russia open ; ail allied squadron had even taken Petropaulovsk on the Pacific Ocean. The Czar Alexander II. , the successor of Nicholas, asked for peace : it was concluded at Paris. This peace (March, 1856) neutralized the Black Sea, and conse- quently prevented Russia from having a fleet of war upon it; took from her some parts of Bessarabia, opened the navi- gation of the Danube to its mouth, and gave security to the rights of neutrals during maritime wars. France recovered the plenitude of her influence in Europe. The visits of various sovereigns to the Emperor Napoleon III. were a THE SECOND EMPIRE. 653 brilliant manifestation of the greatness which she had regained. But this glory was the sole advantage that she derived from the war. When her misfortunes came, the Russians remembered Sebastopol, and England forgot it. The Italian War ; Peace of Villafranca (1859). — During the Crimean AVar the king of Sardinia had not feared to join his new army to the English and French troops. This circumstance had made France the protector of Piedmont, and consequently of Italy, of which this little kingdom was the last citadel. Accordingly when the Emperor of Austria, Francis Joseph, in 1859 crossed the Ticino to attack Sar- dinia, the. French Emperor hastened to assist the latter. The war lasted scarcely two months. After the brilliant affair of Montebello, the French and Piedmontese army con- centrated around Alessandria; then by a bold and skilful movement turned the right of the Austrians, and compelled them to recross the Ticino. Hemmed in between the army of General MacMahon and the guard at Magenta, the Aus- trians lost seven thousand killed and wounded, and eight thousand prisoners (Jiine 4). Two days after, the French regiments entered Milan. The enemy then abandoned their first line of defence, and fell back upon the Quadrilateral. Here they had one hundred and sixty thousand men, strongly placed, on ground carefully studied, near the village of Sol- ferino, Napoleon III. attacked them with one hundred and forty thousand and gained a complete victory (June 24). Italy was delivered, except that Venetia remained in the possession of Austria. The Emperor signed the peace of Villafranca, by which Austria abandoned Lombardy, which France ceded to Piedmont, and accepted the Mincio for her boundary in the peninsula, the different states of which were to form a confederation under the presidency of the Pope. But all the parties interested rejected this plan, and the revolutionary movement continued. All those govern- ments crumbled which, since 1814, had been only lieuten- ancies of Austria, and Italy was henceforth to form one kingdom, with the exception of Venice and Rome. As the price of the assistance he had rendered, the Emperor had Savoy and Nice ceded to him, which added three depart- ments to France, and extended her southern frontier to the ridge of the Alps. Expeditions and Wars outside of Europe. — In 1860 the massacre of the Christian Maronites by the Druses of Syria 654 THE SECOND EMPIRE. again demonstrated the utter incapacity of the Ottoman Empire to protect its subjects. France had the honor to be commissioned by the great powers to send and maintain a body of troops in Syria to aid the Turkish government in punishing the criminals. M. de Lesseps, under the auspices of the French government, began at the Isthmus of Suez a canal which was to unite the Mediterranean and Eed Seas, and open direct communication between Europe and the extreme East. In 1860, also, France and England had been obliged to send an expedition against China, which had violated a treaty previously made with it. In less than six months the allied fleets transported fifteen thousand men and an immense supply of ammunition six thousand leagues from the French coast, to the banks of the Pei-ho. The mouths of the river were forced, the forts which de- fended them were captured after a vigorous and brilliant assault, and the Chinese defeated in the battle of Palikao. The allied armies entered Pekin to receive the ratification of the treaty, in virtue of which the Chinese government agreed to admit the English and French ambassadors into the capital, paid an indemnity of 120,000,000, opened the port of Tien-tsin, guaranteed advantageous commercial con- ditions to the conquerors, and restored to France the churches and cemeteries belonging to the Christians. The Celestial Empire was thrown open and, as a consequence, the Empire of Japan also. The French government profited by the presence of its forces in these regions to carry out an expedition against the empire of Annam, begun two years before, when France had taken possession of Saigon, and made it the capital of an establishment at the mouth of the great river Cambodia. Troops returning from China defeated the Annamites and imposed upon their emperor a peace which stipulated for consideration for the missionaries, an advantageous com- mercial treaty, and the possession of three provinces around the mouths of the Cambodia, in an extremely fertile coun- try, between the Indies and China, within reach of the Philippines and the Moluccas. France, England, and Spain had long had injuries to avenge and complaints to make against the anarchical gov- ernment of Mexico. At the beginning of the year 1862 the three powers agreed to act in unison, but soon the cabinets of London and Madrid renounced the enterprise. France THE SECOND EMPIttE. Q^^ persisted. It became necessary to send, instead of the six thousand men who had first set out, as many as thirty-five thousand soldiers. Puebla, the key of Mexico, was captured after a heroic resistance, in May, 1863. A few days after (June 10), the French army entered Mexico, and the peo- ple, at the suggestion of France, proclaimed an Austrian prince, the Archduke Maximilian, Emperor. After the de- parture of the French troops, in 1867, the unfortunate prince was taken and shot by the Eepublicans. This imprudent and ill-conceived expedition was a great injury to French politics and French finances. Transformation of the Authoritative Empire into the Lib- eral Empire. — Great internal prosperity made the nation in general content. In the cities, it is true, the working class was continually agitated by social questions, and by remem- brances of the Eepublic; but the agricultural population asked only a continuation of order. The bourgeois class, enriched by an industry the extent of which was due to freedom of labor and trade, began to claim those liberties and securities which they had in 1852 sacrificed for the moment to the fear of civil disturbances. They wished for the suppression of official candidacies in order to release the country from tutelage ; and to secure a voluntary and honest expression of the national will, they demanded that, con- formably to the ideas of 1789, the State should be con- ducted like a great industrial society, with economy and prudence, and for the benefit, and by the action, only of those interested. In the present age a dictatorship can only be temporary. Napoleon III. knew it and had early declared that liberty should one day crown the new political edifice. In 1860 he associated the Corps L6gislatif more directly with the policy of the government. In 1861 he renounced the right to de- cree extraordinary credits in the interval between the ses- sions. In 1867 he gave the ministers entrance to the Cham- bers, so that they could at any time give an account of their acts to the country. In 1868 he caused more liberal laws to be enacted respecting the press and the rights of public meeting. But the unfortunate issue of the expedition to Mexico, and the threatening position assumed in Germany by Prussia after her victory at Sadowa over the Austrians, and the advance of public spirit, favored by the general prosperity, brought about more earnest longings for liberty, &o6 THE SECOND EMPIRE. as was shown by the elections of 1869. Therefore the Emperor renounced his personal authority, and in April, 1870, proposed to the French people the transformation of the authoritative Empire into a liberal Empire. On the 8th of May, 7,300,000 citizens answered yes to his proposition, against 1,500,000 who answered no. In order to make the organization of the country con- form to the new constitution, great reforms were necessary. Erance had long been excessively centralized. It was neces- sary to rest the institutions of the State upon broad com- munal and dej^artmental institutions, and in some instances even provincial institutions. It was necessary furthermore to simplify and rejuvenate the central administration, to instruct and arm the people, to make citizens by the prac- tice of an austere liberty, and to make patriots by the national and moral education of the whole French people. But for all this, time and men were Avanting. Approach of War with Prussia. — A great mistake had been made before Sadowa. Thinking that the unity of Germany was possible with and by the aid of Austria, the Emperor allowed that power to be crushed. In reality, the peril for France was not at Vienna, but at Berlin. Prussia, which since Frederick the Great had dreamed of recon- structing the Germanic Empire, knew well that she could attain that good fortune, so menacing to Europe, only after a military humiliation of France, and made preparations for the accomplishment of this end, with indefatigable persever- ance. German patriotism was excited against "the here- ditary eneiny." She armed all her people from the age of twenty to sixty ; she required of her officers the most com- plete instruction, of her troops the strictest discipline, and by an organization which left no portion of her national forces inactive, by a foresight Avhich utilized all the resources of industry and science, she constituted, in the centre of Europe, the most formidable machine of war that the world had ever seen, — 1,500,000 trained and armed men ; every man a soldier. And this formidable machine she confided to men held back by no scruj)le where Prussian aggrandize- ment was concerned. France saw nothing, or wished to see nothing, of these immense preparations which were achieved even on her own territory by the minute and secret study of all her means of action or resistance. Ideas of economy dominated the THE GERMAN WAR. 657 Corps L^gislatif ; a blind confidence in her military supe- riority hindered her from proportioning her forces to the greatness of the approaching struggle, and through the in- capacity of men, and the insufficiency of the administrative system, those at hand were ill-employed. CONTINUATION. THE GERMAN WAR AND THE THIRD REPUBLIC. (1870-1896 A.D.) Origin of the War with Germany. — Ever since Sadowa, the relations between France and the North German Con- federation then formed had been strained. In 1867 the at- tempt of the French Emperor to obtain possession of Lux- emburg by purchase from its grand-duke, the king of the Netherlands, was foiled by the opposition of Prussia; but war was for the time averted. But Napoleon was surrounded by influences hostile to the maintenance of peace with Prussia, and was also urged towards war by considerations of the internal politics of France. Towards the end of May, 1870, the Duke of Gramont, a bitter opponent of Prussia, was made minister of foreign affairs. The actual occasion of the outbreak of war between the two rival pow- ers was a proposition respecting the throne of Spain, which had now been vacant since 1868. In the beginning of July the Spanish ministers announced their intention to recom- mend to the throne Prince Leopold of HohenzoUern-Sigma- ringen, a Catholic German prince remotely related to the HohenzoUerns of the royal family of Prussia. Gramont protested to King William, through the French ambassador, Benedetti. The king disclaimed all responsibility. At the same time Prince Leopold declined the proffered crown. Benedetti was instructed to demand from the Prussian king an assurance that the candidacy should not be renewed. The king refused, declined to hold further intercourse with Benedetti, and recalled his own ambassador from Paris. On July 19 the French government declared war. Beginning of the War ; Weissenburg to Sedan. — Both governments began pushing forward troops into the narrow space of eighty miles between Luxemburg and the Rhine. 658 TBS GERMAN WAR AND It was the Emperor's plan to gather one hundred thousand men at Strassburg, his main army of one hundred and fifty- thousand at Metz, retaining a reserve of fifty thousand at Chdlons, and, with the two hundred and fifty thousand men thus concentrated on the frontier, to cross the Rhine op- posite Carlsruhe. Then he proposed to push in between North Germany and the South German states, expecting the latter to join him against Prussia. But his preparations for war were most incomplete, especially in comparison with those of the Germans. By August 2 the latter had four hundred and fifty thousand men gathered in the space be- tween Trier and Landau; the South Germans enthusias- tically joined in the war. On the 4th and 6th the left wing of the German army, under the crown prince of Prussia, attacked and defeated portions of Marshal MacMahon's army at Weissenburg and Worth, and forced him. to retreat. At the same time the French left was driven back at Spicheren. The German armies now made a general advance into Fraiice, The main army of the French, under Bazaine, retreated to Metz, and attempted to cross the Moselle at that point in order to retire upon ChAlons. But the German forces overtook them and, by the terrible battles at Mars- la-Tour, Vionville, and Gravelotte, fought before Metz on August 16 and 18, cut off their retreat westward from that city. At Gravelotte the Germans lost twenty thousand killed and wounded ; the French lost twelve thousand, and were shut up in Metz. Three days later Marshal MacMahon, accompanied by the Emperor, set out from Chdlons with one hundred and fifty thousand men, and marched northeast- ward toward the Meuse. His plan was to cross that river at Stenay, and then, approaching Metz from the north, to release Bazaine. But the Germans, learning of his design, sent two armies down the Meuse, which anticipated him, secured Stenay, prevented his advance to Metz, cut off his retreat to Paris, and hemmed him in at Sedan, near the Belgian frontier. Here, on the first of September, a great and memorable battle occurred, in which the French were entirely defeated, failing in all efforts to break through the German lines. On the 2d the Emperor surrendered, with all his army. Three thousand had be'fen killed and fourteen thousand wounded in the battle ; one hundred and four thousand prisoners fell into the hands of the Germans as the result of the battle and the capitulation. Napoleon was THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 659 given the palace of Wilhelmshohe, near Cassel, as a residence during his captivity. Establishment of the Eepablic ; Sieges of Strassbnrg, Metz, and Paris. — When the news of the disaster of Sedan reached Paris, the lower house, in a tumultuary assembly, deposed the Emperor and proclaimed France a republic, September 4. A provisional government was set up called the Gov- ernment of National Defence, and consisting of eleven members, of whom the most noted were MM, Favre, Gam- betta, Simon, Ferry, and Rochefort. General Trochu was made president and governor-general of Paris. MM. Favre and Thiers vainly attempted to negotiate with the Germans, who on the 19th arrived before Paris with one hundred and fifty thousand men. A month later the forces amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand. The wide circuit of the fortifications of the city was defended by four hundred thousand men, of whom only a small part were regular or highly disciplined troops. Sorties were made, but repulsed. Gambetta, escaping from Paris, actively organized armies for the relief of the city. One of these advanced from the Loire in October and November, but was repulsed. Mean- rtrhile Strassbnrg had been forced to surrender at the end of September, with its garrison of nearly eighteen thousand, and at the end of October Bazaine surrendered Metz, with his great army of one hundred and seventy-nine thousand. This released two hundred thousand Germans troops, its besiegers, who thereupon marched toward Paris. Defeat of the Armies of Eelief . — The organization of forces for the relief of the capital was pushed with such energy that by the end of the year there were probably a million Frenchmen in arms. But most of these were im- perfectly trained. The repulse of the army of the Loire, already mentioned, led to the occupation of Orleans by the Germans on December 5. In the north, Rouen was occu- pied on the same day. Communication between the city and the relieving armies was kept up by various ingenious means, and the advances of the latter were accompanied by sorties on the part of the former. The army of the North, under General Faidherbe, was destroyed after much obstinate fighting. The army of the Loire, compelled to retreat after a four days' battle at Beaugency under General Chanzy, was di- vided. A part was joined with the army of the West, under 660 THE GERMAN WAR AND Chanzy's command. This army was routed at Le Mans on January 11 and 12, 1871, by Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia, and having also suffered intensely from hunger and. cold, for the winter was a very severe one, was unable to engage in further operations of any importance. The re- mainder of the army of the Loire had been joined to the army of the East, under Bourbaki, who was ordered by Gambetta to march eastward and relieve Belfort, and then, turning northward, to free Alsace and Lorraine from the Germans, cut off the communications between the besiegers of Paris and their own country, cross the Ehine, and invade South Germany. Werder, strongly intrenched behind the Lisaine, sustained a three days' attack from Bourbaki (Jan- uary 15-18), who was then driven southward by Manteuffel. The retreat of this army was cut off, and it was compelled, to the number of ninety thousand men, to pass over the frontier into Switzerland, where it was disarmed (February 1). Another force in the southeast, under the Italian lib- erator Garibaldi, was compelled to remain inactive. Capitulation of Paris ; Conclusion of Peace. — Meanwhile the army besieging Paris, under the command of King Wil- liam, with Count von Moltke as his chief military adviser, had, on December 27, begun the bombardment of Paris. A desperate attempt to break through the besieging army on January 19 was defeated. The city had now been under siege for four months ; it had endured great sufferings and privations, and its stores of provisions were almost exhausted. Negotiations were entered into, and on Janu- ary 28 an armistice for three weeks was signed, during which a National Assembly was to meet to decide whether peace should be signed on the terms offered by the Germans. Bourbaki's army, then near its destruction, was not included in the armistice. Paris was to pay a war contribution of 200,000,000 fr. within a fortnight. The elections to the National Assembly resulted in the choice of a body mostly belonging to the conservative par- ties. It met at Bordeaux on February 13. The Govern- ment of National Defence resigned its powers to the Assembly, which elected M. Thiers head of the executive department. On the 26th, to which date the armistice had been prolonged, he and two of his ministers signed prelim- inaries of peace with the Germans, which were ratified by the National Assembly on March 1. These preliminaries THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 661 provided that France should cede to Germany Alsace, excepting Belfort, and that portion of Lorraine in which German is spoken, Metz and Thionville being included, — a cession of 5500 square miles of territory, with a population of 1,500,000 ; that she should pay the sum of five milliards (billions) of francs, one milliard in 1871, and the rest within three years ; and that German troops should occupy parts of her soil until the whole was paid. The definitive treaty, signed at Frankfort on May 10 by M. Favre and Prince Bismarck, did not greatly differ from these preliminaries. During the war the South German states had joined them- selves to the North German Confederation, and on January 18 the German Empire had been formally proclaimed at Versailles with the king of Prussia as Emperor. The Commune. — The National Assembly removed from Bordeaux to Versailles. Already, however, a dangerous internal enemy had appeared in Paris. The extreme or Eed Republicans had twice during the siege broken out in insurrection. They now, in wild excitement, seized posses- sion of a large number of cannon, fortified the heights of Montmartre and Chaumont on the north and northeast parts of Paris, and then occupied the Hdtel de Ville and obtained control of the city. These movements were under- taken under the authority of a Central Committee of the national guard. The ideas lying at the basis of this insur- rection were not simply the old revolutionary ideas of political equality, but also those more modern ideas of social equality which fanatical socialists, aiming at the abolition of religion, marriage, inheritance, and individual property in land, had propagated through the "International Work- ingmen's Association." With these were joined certain extreme notions of local self-government or the independ- ence of communes. The Central Committee ordered the election of a Commune of Paris on March 26 ; a body of Radicals was chosen and installed as the government of Paris. It organized in committees, each presiding over one of t\\v departments of government, passed much revolutionary legislation, and prepared to hold the city against tlie National Assembly and the Versailles government. M. Thiers' government delayed decisive measures until, by return of prisoners from Germany, a sufficient force of regular troops was at hand. Hostilities between the Ver- sailles troops and the insurgents began on the 2d of April. 662 THE GERMAN WAR AND On tHe next day a sortie from Paris toward Versailles was repulsed. Marshal MacMalion was . given the command ol the Assembly's troops, the investment was made complete, and by the middle of May the southwestern forts were in possession of the besiegers. Within the city, meantime, all was in a state of rapid disorganization. Jealousy and dis- trust prevailed within the Commune and the Central Com- mittee. Frequent changes of commanders resulted, each in turn being removed or resigning on finding it impossible to maintain his authority. Confiscation within and the pres- sure from without increased the disaffection of the inhabi- tants toward the insurrectionary government. Finally, on May 21, the government troops entered the capital. The insurgents, driven back, shot a large number of prisoners held as hostages, conspicuous among whom was Mgr. Darboy, archbishop of Paris, drenched the chief public buildings with petroleum and set fire to them. The greater part of the Tuileries, the Library of the Louvre, a portion of the Palais E-oyal, the Hdtel de Ville, a part of the Lux- embourg, and many other public buildings were destroyed. After an obstinate and savage conflict the insurrection was completely stifled. Severe military executions accompanied the suppression of the revolt, members of the Commune in particular being shot whenever captured. During the week's fighting ten thousand insurgents were killed. The Assembly and M. Thiers. — A majority of the National Assembly belonged to one or another of the Conservative groups. Of these one, called the Legitimist party, desired that the direct line of the Bourbons should be called to the throne of France in the person of the Count of Chambord, the grandson of Charles ' X., called by his party Henry V. Another, the party of the Orleanists, desired the restoration of the limited or July monarchy in the person of the Count of Paris, grandson of Louis Philippe, or of the latter's son, the Duke of Aumale. There was also a group of Bonapart- ists, whose candidate was the young Prince Imperial. M. Thiers, personally inclined to constitutional monarchy, considered himself bound to uphold the Eepublic. The Count of Chambord returned to France, but issued a mani- festo so uncompromisingly royalist as to make difficult his candidacy. The Orleanist princes were also allowed to return to France and eventually were permitted to take theii seats in the Assembly to which they had been elected. THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 663 The Assembly frequently found itself in conflict with M. Thiers. Yet in the present divided state of parties he was felt to be indispensable, as the only possible executive. At the end of August he was accorded the title of President of the Republic for as long a time as the present Assembly should last. Although the framing of an entire new constitution was deferred, an important measure dealing with the govern- ment of departments was passed : it provided for the elec- tion, in each department, of a conseil general or local legisla- ture, and was thus a measure of decentralization, abridging the powers of the prefects appointed from Paris. In the ensuing spring the council of state was again called into existence. The Milliards; Reorganization of the Army. — Both M. Thiers and the Assembly united in desiring to pay to Ger- many as soon as possible the stipulated indemnity, and rid the French soil of the demoralizing presence of the army of occupation. When, in 1876, subscriptions were invited for a loan of two and a half milliards for this purpose, seven and a half milliards were subscribed ; while toward the loan of three and a half milliards in 1872, subscriptions to the amount of forty-three milliards were received. This not only demonstrated the confidence which Prench and foreign capi- talists, in spite of the recent disasters, had in the future of Prance, but enabled the German evacuation to take place before the appointed term : the last German soldier crossed the frontier in September, 1873. While thus paying for its military reverses. Prance was determined that they should not occur again. After ani- mated debates, a bill for the reorganization of the army was passed in July, 1872. It provided for universal military service during a period of five years as the maximum, but of a considerably less extent in many cases. Trials of com- munists went on during 1872, and at the end of 1873, a court-martial condemned Marshal Bazaine to death for the surrender of Metz ; but the sentence was commuted to imprisonment. Constitutional Questions ; Fall of M. Thiers. — The death of Napoleon III., at Chiselhurst, in England, in January, 1873, seriously weakened the Bonapartist cause. Mean- while, however, movements towards a more definitive settle- ment of the constitution, which had occupied a great por- tion of the year 1872, were continued. Though the less 664 THE GERMAN WAR AND conservative E.epublican members, under the leadership of Gambetta, maintained that the Assembly had no authority to frame a constitution, not having been elected for that purpose, the principal struggles were between M. Thiers and the majority of the Assembly, consisting of the three sections of the Right, or monarchical party. The aged president endeavored with much skill to maintain the power of the executive and, with that end in view, to se- cure the establishment of a second Chamber. The Right strove to limit the president's right of participation in debate, which, in the hands of so eloquent a speaker and so skilful a parliamentarian as M. Thiers, was a formidable power, which they opposed the more strenuously as they saw him gradually inclining to advocate the Republic as the defin- itive form of government for France. Finally, on May 24, 1873, after prolonged conflict, the Assembly passed a vote adverse to M. Thiers and his ministry. He resigned his office, and on the same day Marshal MacMahon was chosen by the Assembly to succeed him as president. Marshal MacMahon and the Septennate. — Marshal Mac- Mahon was an elderly soldier, who had given little attention to politics, but was regarded as an honest and trustworthy man. A conservative ministry was formed under the Duke of Broglie, and many reactionary steps were taken. The Count of Chambord was visited at his residence at Frohs- dorf, in Austria, by the Count of Paris, and by some leading members of the Orleanist Right, and hopes were for some time entertained that he would so far accommodate himself to ideas of constitutional monarchy as to enable the two Royalist parties to unite, and perhaps to unite successfully, in support of his candidacy for the throne. But at length the count, by declaring that if he accepted the monarchy it would be his duty to take it without compromises or condi- tions, with devotion to the Papacy, and under the white flag of the old Bourbon monarchy, frustrated these attempts at union. Marshal MacMahon now demanding an exten- sion of powers, in the interests of good order and stability of government, the majority voted him possession of the presidency for a term of seven years (November, 1873). The control of the central government over the mayors of communes was made more complete. The Broglie ministry set about the preparation of a constitution for France, but in May, 1874, succumbed to the difficulties of the political sit- THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 665 nation. These difficulties arose mainly from the continued postponement of the fundamental question, whether the ultimate form of government in France was to be that of a republic or that of a monarchy. This gave a provisional character to the government of the Marshal-President, in the face of mutually hostile parties which were constantly manoeuvring for partisan advantage. The Constitution of 1875. — After prolonged struggles and exciting discussions, a vote favorable to the definitive estab- lishment of the Republic was passed by one majority on the 30th of January. This principle once established, a perma- nent constitution for France was framed, not in one docu- ment, as in the United States, but in the form of a series of laws passed at intervals during the year 1875. The out- lines of the constitution thus constructed, were as follows. Legislative power was to be exercised by two assemblies, the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Senate was to consist of three hundred members, each forty years old. Of these, two hundred and twenty-five were to be elected by the departments, the electoral body in each department consisting of its deputies, its conseil general, its conseils d' arrondissement, and delegates elected by each commune. These senators were to have a term of nine years, one-third retiring by rotation every three years. The remaining seventy-five were to be chosen for life by the existing National Assembly ; future vacancies in their number were to be filled by the Senate itself. The Chamber of Deputies was to consist of members chosen by universal suffrage, under the arrangement called the scrutin d'arrondissement, as opposed to the scrutin de liste. The latter plan was one" in accordance with which, each department having a num- ber of deputies proportioned to its population, each voter in the department was to vote for the whole number, on a general ticket. By the plan adopted, each arrondissement was entitled to one deputy, and if its population exceeded one hundred thousand, to two or more, but with division into single-member districts. Each voter thus voted for but one candidate. The executive government was to be in the hands of a President, chosen for seven years by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies united in a single body called the National Assembly, He was to be re-eligible, to have the initiative of legislation concurrently with the two chambers, to execute the laws, to dispose of the armed forces, and to 666 THE GERMAN WAR AND appoint to all civil and military offices. With tlie assent of the Senate, he might dissolve the Chamber of Deputies before the conclusion of its four years' term. He was to have a responsible ministry. In general, his position resembled that of a constitutional monarch, with other resemblances to that of the President of the United States. Amendments of the constitutional laws could, under certain forms, be effected by the two chambers united in National Assembly. The seventy-five senators chosen by the existing assembly were mostly eminent members of the Left. The last day of the year 1875 saw a final prorogation of this monarchist assembly which had established the Republic. It had been in existence nearly five years. The elections to the Senate gave a small majority to the Eepublicans. Those to the Chamber of Deputies (February, 1876) gave about two-thirds of its five hundred and thirty-two seats to Republicans, mostly moderate Republicans. Ministry of M. Dufaure. — The ministry to which the leadership of this assembly was soon confided, was therefore naturally a ministry of moderate Republicans. M. Dufaure was prime minister, and M. L6on Say minister of finance. The latter, a distinguished economist and financier, ad- dressed himself to the task of promoting order and economy in the national finances. The general spirit in which they have since been managed has not been marked by the same degree of sobriety and caution. The long period which elapses before the publication of the definitive accounts of a given year, the frequency of the introduction of supple- mentary estimates after the passage of the annual budget, and the facility with which additional loans have been re- solved upon, have not tended toward either economy or sys- tem. The result is that deficits occur each year, and that in the middle of the year 1889 the debt of France is much the largest in Europe, probably amounting, all things in- cluded, to not less than 40,000,000,000 francs, or about $8,000,000,000, which is more than twice as great as that of the United Kingdom, the next largest of the public debts of the world. The Dufaure ministry was not long-lived, being succeeded before the year 1876 closed, by a ministry led by M. Jules Simon, a distinguished orator and writer. The tenure of French cabinets in general has been so little permanent under the Third Republic, that in the nineteen years which THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 667 have elapsed since the fall of the Empire, twenty-five cabi- nets have had charge of the executive government. The chambers have not been divided, as has been usual during the period of cabinet government in England, between two clearly defined political parties, so that changes of cabinet consist in the substitution of an executive committee drawn from one party, for an executive committee made up of its opponents. In the French chambers, on the contrary, although Monarchists and Republicans have stood opposed in most matters, the most significant divisions have been into groups or factions, representing successive shades of opinion from the extreme Right to the extreme Left ; and successive cabinets have differed from each other by shades, cabinet crises often bringing about a modification of the composition of the ministry rather than a complete change. Nearly all cabinets have been Republican, now approaching the Right Centre, now shifting further to the Left. It will not be necessary to take up the history of each of these cabinets. That of M. Dufaure was much occupied with the question of amnesty for persons engaged in the insurrection of the Coramune, with questions respecting the privileges of Catholic universities, etc. The President's Appeal to the Country. — Eew events had marked the history of the Simon ministry when, suddenly, in May, 1877, the President of the Republic demanded its resignation. Much influenced of late by Monarchist ad- visers, he had concluded that the moderate Republican cab- inets did not possess the confidence of the chambers, and, feeling that the responsibility of maintaining the repose and security of Erance rested upon him, had resolved, rather than allow the management of the affairs of the country to fall into the hands of M. Gambetta and the Radicals, to ap- point a ministry of conservatives, trusting that the country would ratify the step. A ministry was organized under the Duke of Broglie, and the Chamber of Deputies was first prorogued, and then, with the consent of the Senate, dissolved. The death of M. Thiers in September caused a great national demonstration in honor of that patriotic statesman, "'the liberator of the territory." The result of the ensuing elections was a com^ plete victory for the Republicans, who secured nearly three- fourths of the seats in the new Chamber. The Marshal, appointing a ministry composed of adherents of his policy 668 THE GERMAN WAE AND who were not members of the Assembly, attempted to make head against the majority, but was forced in December to yield to the will of the people and of their representatives, and to recall M. Dufaure and the moderate Republicans to ofl&ce. The year 1878 therefore passed off quietly, being especially distinguished by the great success of the universal exhibition held at Paris under the auspices of the govern- ment, and by the successful participation of the latter in the negotiations of the Congress of Berlin. France was able to pursue on that occasion a policy of disinterestedness and mediation ; M. Waddington, its representative, exercising an esjjecial care for the interests of Greece. Resignation of Marshal MacMahon. — At the beginning of 1879 elections were held in pursuance of the provisions of the constitution, for the renewal of a portion of the Sen- ate. That body being considerably more conservative than the Chamber of Deputies, Republicans had looked forward to these elections with much anticipation, meanwhile waiting with patience, under the counsels of M. G-ambetta, who had grown increasingly moderate in policy. Elections were held for the filling of eighty-two seats. Of these the Republi- cans won sixty-six, the Monarchist groups sixteen. This was a loss of forty-two seats on the part of the latter, and assured to the Republicans a full control of the Senate. It had also the effect of definitively establishing the Republic as the permanent government of France. The Republican leaders therefore resolved to insist upon extensive changes in the personnel of the Council of State and the judiciary body, both of which, in spite of all the changes of recent years, still remained principally composed of members of the reactionary parties. When they also proposed to make extensive changes in other departments. Marshal MacMahon, who foresaw the impossibility of maintaining harmonious relations with the cabinets which the Republican majority would now demand, took these new measures as a pretext, and, on January 30, 1879, resigned the ofiice of President of the Republic. On the same day the Senate and Chamber, united in National Assembly, elected as his successor, for the constitutional term of seven years, M. Jules Gr^vy, pres- ident of the Chamber of Deputies, a moderate Republican who enjoyed general respect. M. Grevy was seventy-one years old. M. Gambetta was chosen to succeed him as pres- ident of the Chamber. The cabinet was remodelled, M. THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 669 Dufaure resigning liis office and being succeeded by M. Waddington. M. Ferry's Education Bill. — In the reorganized ministry- one of the most prominent of the new members was M. Jules Ferry, its minister of education. He soon brought forward two measures which excited violent discussion : the one deal- ing with the regulation of superior education, the other with the constitution of the Supreme Council of Public Instruc- tion. The object of the latter was to exclude from the Council the ecclesiastical element. The former, also in- tended to put education beyond ecclesiastical control, con- tined academic degrees to candidates from State universities, and prohibited the use of the title university or faculty by any but State institutions ; its famous Clause 7 also pro- vided that no person should be allowed to direct a public or private educational establishment of any kind, or to teach therein, if he belonged to a non-authorized religious commu- nity. This provision was directed especially against the Jesuits and their twenty-seven colleges; but twenty-six other communities would be affected, and an aggregate of nearly two thousand teachers. The former of these bills passed through both houses, as did a measure for the reform of the Council of State. But Clause 7 of the bill respecting universities excited vigorous and extensive opposition. The bill passed the Chamber, but was delayed in the Senate until the new session, when (iSTovember 27, 1879) the chambers reassembled, not at Versailles, but at Paris. Another change in the aspect of affairs resulted from the death in Zululand of the young Prince Louis, son and heir of Napoleon III. This event weakened the hopes of the Bouapartists, and later divided their suffrages between two candidates, — Prince Xapoleon, son of Jerome Bonaparte, and Prince Victor, son of Prince Napoleon. In March, 1880, the Senate rejected the bill respecting universities. The ministry, now composed of members of the ''pure Left" (instead of a mixture of these and the Left Centre) under M. de Freycinet, resolved to enforce the existing laws against non-authorized congre- gations. The Jesuits were warned to close their establish- ments ; the others, to apply for authorization. Failing to carry out these decrees, M. de Freycinet was forced to re- sign, and was succeeded as prime minister by M. Ferry, under whose orders the decrees were executed in October 670 THJE GERMAN WAR AND and November, establisliinents of the Jesuits and others, to the number of nearly three hundred, being forcibly closed and their inmates dispersed. Laws were also passed in the same year and in 1881 for the extension of public education, and a general amnesty proclaimed for persons engaged in the insurrection of the commune. Tunisian Expedition; Elections of 1881. — In April and May, 1881, on pretext of chastising tribes on the Tunisian frontier of Algeria, who had committed depredations on the French territories in ISTorthern Africa, a military force from Algeria entered Tunis, occupied the capital, and forced the Bey to sign a treaty by which he put himself and his country under the protectorate of France. The French were given the right to maintain a military occupation of the country, to manage its foreign relations and its finances, and virtually to govern it for the Bey, at the same time agreeing to maintain existing treaties with foreign powers. These results of the expedition were received without pro- test by most of the powers ; the Porte, however, asserted suzerainty over the province, and Italy was profoundly incensed, and perhaps permanently alienated from the Eepublic. It was ardently desired by M. Gambetta, now the recog- nized leader of the Eepublicans, that the impending elec- tions for the Chamber of Deputies, whose fours years' term was now expiring, should take place, not by the scrutin d'arrondissement, but by the scrutin de liste, i.e. on a gen- eral ticket for each department ; but this proposition was rejected by the Senate. The elections, in August, resulted in a Chamber composed of 467 Eepublicans, 47 Bonapartists, and 43 Eoyalists, whereas its predecessor had consisted of 387 Eepublicans, 81 Bonapartists, and 61 Eoyalists. In response to a general demand, M. Gambetta became prime _minister on the meeting of the new Assembly in the autumn, with a cabinet composed mostly of men somewhat obscure, among whom the most conspicuous was M. Paul Bert, ap- pointed minister of education and worship, whose appoint- ment to that position scandalized a large portion of the nation, because of his well-known anti-religious sentiments. To the disappointment occasioned by the composition of M. Gambetta's cabinet was soon added a disappointment at its failure to achieve the great things which had been expected of that statesman. He put forward an elaborate THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 671 programme of constitutional revision, including the introduc- tion of election to the Chamber by scrutin de liste, of elec- tion of all senators for nine years, none for life, and of a representation of communes proportional to their popula- tion, in the bodies choosing senators. But his measures failed to receive the support of the Chamber, and he was forced to resign after having held the office of prime minis- ter but two months and a half (January, 1882). On the last day of that year M. Gambetta, still the most eminent French statesman of the time, died at Paris, aged forty-four. Egyptian Affairs; the Princes. — The Khedive of Egypt had in 1879 entrusted the supervision of the financial admin- istration of his country to two controllers, appointed by Eng- land and France respectively, in the interests of the citizens of those countries who were holders of Egyptian bonds. Difficulties arising in 1882 between the Khedive and his council, led by Arabi Pasha, England and France deter- mined to intervene in behalf of the threatened interests of their subjects in that country. But after many negotiations among the powers of Europe, the military intervention was carried out by England alone, and France was obliged not only to remain aloof, but to submit to the abolition of the Dual Control. The death of Gambetta aroused the Monarchists to re- newed activity. Prince Napoleon issued a violent mani- festo, and was arrested. Bills were brought in which were designed to exclude from the soil of France and of French possessions all members of houses formerly reigning in France. Finally, however, after a prolonged contest, a decree suspending the dukes of . Aumale, Chartres, and Alen^on from their functions in the army was signed by the President. Some months later, August, 1883, the Count of Chambord ("Henry V.") died at Frohsdorf; by this event the elder branch of the house of Bourbon became extinct, and the claims urged by both Legitimists and Or- leanists were united in the person of the Count of Paris. Madagascar and Tonquin. — During the year 1882 alleged encroachments upon French privileges and interests in the northwestern portion of Madagascar had embroiled France in conflict with the Hovas, the leading tribe of that island. The French admiral commanding the squadron in the In- dian Ocean demanded in 1883 the placing of the north- western part of the island under a French protectorate, and 672 THE GERMAN WAR AND the payment of a large indemnity. These terms being re- fused by the queen of the Hovas, Tamatave was bombarded and occupied, and desultory operations continued until the summer of 1883, when an expedition of the Ho^as resulted in a signal defeat of the French. A treaty was then nego- tiated, in accordance with which the foreign relations of the island were put under the control of France, while the queen of Madagascar retained the control of internal affairs and paid certain claims. A treaty executed in 1874 between the emperor of An- nam and the French had conceded to the latter a protecto- rate over that country. His failure completely to carry out his agreement, and the presence of Chinese troops in Ton- quin, were regarded as threatening the security of the French colony of Cochin China. A small expedition sent out under Commander Riviere to enforce the provision of the treaty was destroyed at Hanoi. Reinforcements were sent out. But the situation was complicated by the pres- ence of bands of " Black Flags," brigands said to be un- authorized by the Annam government, and by claims on the part of China to a suzerainty over Tonquin. A treaty was made with Annam in August, 1883, providing for the cession of a province to France, and the establishment of a French protectorate over Annam and Tonquin. This, how- ever, did not by any means wholly conclude hostilities in that province. Sontay was taken from the Black Flags in December, and Bacninh occupied in March, 1884. War with China. — The advance of the French into re- gions over which China claimed suzerainty, and which were occupied by Chinese troops, brought on hostilities with that empire. In August, 1884, Admiral Courbet destroyed the Chinese fleet and arsenal at Foo-chow ; in October he seized points on the northern end of the island of Formosa, and proclaimed a blockade of that portion of the island. On the frontier between Tonquin and China the French gained some successes, particularly in the capture of Lang-Son ; yet the climate, and the numbers and determination of the Chinese troops, rendered it impossible for them to secure substantial results from victories. Finally, after a desultory and destructive war, a treaty was signed in June, 1885, which arranged that Formosa should be evacuated^ that Annam should in future have no diplomatic relations except through France, and that France should have virtually com- THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 673 plete control over both it and Tonquin, though the question of Chinese suzerainty was left unsettled. The French then had the difficult task of pacifying Annani and Tonquin, and keeping order within them. Altogether it was not felt that the expeditions against Madagascar, Annam, and China had achieved brilliant success. They had, moreover, been a source of much expense to France; at first popular, they finally caused the downfall of the ministry which ordered them. Revision of the Constitution. — That ministry, the minis- try of M. Jules Ferry, which had come into office in Febru- ary, 1883, had signalized its advent to power by the passage of a law suspending for three months the irremovability of judges. That measure had been resolved upon in order that the judicial body, still composed, in far the greater proportion, of Monarchists, might be brought into harmony with the Republican government. The strength of the Royalists, it should be added, seemed to be increasing in 1884, by reason of important efforts expended upon the organization of the party. The Ferry ministry remained in power an unusual length of time, — a little more than two years. Its principal achievement in domestic affairs consisted in bringing about the revision of the constitution, which, framed by the Ver- sailles Assembly in 1875, was felt by many to contain an excessive number of Monarchical elements. According to the provisions of the constitution, revision or amendment of it could only be carried out by the National Assembly or Congress, a joint assembly of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, convened for the purpose. Such a congress, restricted in advance to a partial, revision, was assemlied in August, 1884, at Versailles, but accomplished only a few changes : a restriction of the Senate's right to vote the budget or to interfere with its appropriation, and a provision forbidding any future revision to be carried to the extent of abrogating the republican form of government. Soon after, however, the two houses passed an important law altering the composition of the Senate. It was arranged' that here- after no senators should be chosen for life ; if a vacancy should occur by the death of one of the seventy -five mem- bers who had been so chosen, his successor should be chosen to serve nine years, like other senators. Moreover, whereas in the departmental electing bodies every commune in France, whether large or small, had by the law of 1875 been given 674 THE GEE MAN WAR AND but one vote, a representation more nearly proportioned to population was now accorded. In 1885, after the fall of the Ferry cabinet, a law was passed providing for scrutin de liste; each department being entitled to a number of depu- ties proportioned to the number of its citizens, the deputies for each were to be chosen on a general or departmental ticket. In the same year a law was passed declaring in- eligible to the office of President of the Republic, senator or deputy, any prince of families formerly reigning in France. — The session of 1885 was marked also by the imposition of protective duties on cereal and meat products imported into France ; the financial policy of France is now completely one of protection. The Elections of 1885. — The partial elections to the Senate at the beginning of this year resulted in a Repub- lican gain of twenty-two in that body. But when, in the middle of the year, the time approached for the election of a new Chamber of Deputies, it was found that the dissen- sions between the different groups of the Republican party, and especially the wide divergence between the Opportunists or Moderates and the Radicals, threatened to bring about a large increase in the number of the reactionary deputies. At the first elections in October, this in fact resulted. But the number of the second elections necessary being large, the Republicans united their forces, and, carrying most of these elections, maintained their majority. The new Chamber consisted of about three hundred and eighty Republicans and about two hundred Monarchists ; a much larger part of the Republican body than hitherto consisted of Radicals and Socialists. In December the National Assembly re-elected M. Gr6vy President of the Republic. -- Party Contests ; Expulsion of the Princes. — In the minis- try led by M. de Freycinet which held office during the year 1886, great prominence was attained by the minister of war, General Boulanger, whose management of his depart- ment and political conduct won him great popularity. The ministry contained an unusual number of Radicals, and was involved in frequent conflicts with both the followers of M. Ferry and the Monarchists. These latter have in recent years often joined with the extreme Radicals in attacks upon Republican ministers. The political situation was still further disturbed by the prevalence of strikes and socialistic agitations. THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 675 The increasing activ^ity of the agents of the Monarchist party, the strength which that party had shown in the elec- tions of the preceding year, and the demonstrations which attended the marriage of the daughter of the Count of Paris to the crown prince of Portugal, incited the Republican leaders to more stringent measures against the princes of houses formerly reigning in France. The government was intrusted by law with discretionary power to expel them all from France, and definitely charged to expel actual claimants of the throne and their direct heirs. The Count of Paris and his son the Duke of Orleans, Prince Napoleon and his son Prince Victor, were accordingly banished by presidential decree in June, 1886. General Boulanger struck off from the army-roll the names of all princes of the Bonaparte and Bourbon families. The Duke of Aumale, indignantly pro- testing, was also banished; in the spring of 1889 he was permitted to return. Meanwhile, within the Republican ranks, dissensions in- creased. The popularity of General Boulanger became more and more threatening to the cabinets of which he was a member. An agitation in his favor, conducted with much skill, caused fear lest he were aspiring to a military dicta- torship of France. The illegal arrest of a French commis- sary of police on the German side of the Alsatian frontier produced strained relations with Germany, which at one time seemed likely, so warlike was the attitude of General Boulanger, to provoke a hostile collision. Soon, however, pacific counsels prevailed; General Boulanger was forced to resign, and, in order to check the constant agitations and demonstrations in his favor, was removed to a military com- mand in the South. A law equalizing military service by making a three years' term compulsory upon all was passed. Fall of M. Gr6vy ; Election of M. Carnot. — The Repub- lican party and the parliamentary regime in France were becoming constantly more and more discredited, by reason of constant dissensions, of frequent cabinet changes, and of consequent instability of policy and executive inefficiency. To these evils of factiousness and weakness was now added a series of damaging scandals. The use of public office as a reward for partisan services lay at the bottom of many of these ; in others, there were evidences of more direct and flagrant corruption. Finally, in the autumn of 1887, an in- quiry into the conduct of General Caffarel, deputy to the 676 THE GERMAN WAR AND commander-in-chief, accused of selling decorations, impli- cated M. Daniel Wilson, son-in-law of M. Gr^vy, who was allsgea to have undertaken to obtain appointments to office ana lucrative contracts in return for money. M. Gravy's unwise attempts to shield his son-in-law brought about his own fall. The chambers, determined to force his resigna- tion, refused to accept any ministry proposed by him. After much resistance and irritating delays he submitted, and resigned the presidency of the Republic on December 2, 1887. On the next day the houses met in National Assembly at Versailles to choose the successor of M. Gr^vy. The mem- bers of the Right voted for Generals Saussure and Appert. The most prominent candidates for the Republicans were M. Ferry and M. de Freycinet ; the former, however, was unpopular with the country. The followers of both, finding their election impossible, resolved to cast their votes for M. Sadi Carnot, a Republican of the highest integrity and universally respected. M. Carnot, a distinguished engineer, grandson of the Carnot who had, as minister of war, organ- ized the victories of the armies of the Revolution, was accordingly elected President of the French Republic. The elections for the partial renewal of the Senate in January, 1888, resulted in slight Republican losses. A Radical cabinet under M. Floquet soon took office. General Boulanger. — The chief difficulties encountered by the cabinet arose out of the active propagandism exercised in behalf of General Boulanger. The extraordinary popu- larity of this military hero who had never held an important command in war, seemed not to be reduced by his removal to the retired list for insubordination. Thus made eligible to the Chamber of Deputies, General Boulanger began* actively to contest vacant seats. Returned first for the department of Dordogne, and then by an enormous majority for the important department of Nord, he seemed to have entered on the direct path leading to military dictatorship. A duel in which he was wounded by M. Floquet did not injure his cause. Having resigned his seat, he was trium- phantly elected on one and the same day by the three depart- ments of Nord, Charente-Inf^rieure, and Somme. Finally, in January, 1889, after a most exciting contest in Paris itself, between the upholders of the parliamentary system and the Boulangists, with whom the Royalists and many of the Radicals made common cause, he was by an enormous THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 67T majority elected as a representative of the department of the Seine. The only programme which he put forward was a demand of revision of the constitution and dissolution of the Chamber ; his name therefore became the rallying-point of those who were hostile to the parliamentary system, or to the Republican government in its present form. Alarmed both by his singular popularity and by his political intrigues, the government instituted a prosecution of him before the High Court of Justice ; upon this he fled from the country, and the dangers of the agitation in his favor were, for the time at least, quieted. 1889. — On May 5, 1889, the one-hundredth anniversary of the assembly of the States-General was celebrated at Versailles. On the next day, President Carnot formally opened the Universal Exhibition at Paris, the greatest of the world's fairs which have been held in that city. The speeches which were made on these occasions congratulated the nation on the material progress of the past hundred years, expressed the national gratitude for the beneficent results of the Revolution, and in spite of the difficulties of the political situation, gave utterance to high hopes and patriotic confidence in the future of France. Constitutional Changes. — Early in the year the Eloquet ministry proposed the abolition of scrutin cle liste, as giving too great an advantage to the Boulangists, and a return to scrutin cfarrondissemeut, which had been abandoned in the revision of 1885. The bill was passed by a vote in the Chamber of the entire Left against the combined Eight, and by a very large majority in the Senate. The ministry, having pledged itself to a revision of the constitution, next brought forward a comprehensive Revision Bill ; but the Chamber refused to take the bill into consideration, and the ministry resigned. M. Tirard, senator from the department of the Seine, formed a new ministry, which gave its attention to industrial matters. Both the ministry and the President of the Republic devoted themselves to making the Exhibition a means of restoring confidence in the Republic. During the existence of this ministry, the Army Bill, which had long been under discussion, was finally passed. Its chief provi- sion Avas the substitution of three years' service in the army instead of five. Students of the liberal professions and priests were to serve one year. A law against multiple candidatures was also passed, forbidding a citizen to present 678 THE GERMAN WAB AND himself for more than one seat in the Chamber of Deputies. The reason for this enactment was the dangerous use of multiple candidature made by General Boulanger. Trial of Boulanger. — The trial of Boulanger before the High Court of Justice, begun April 8, dragged slowly through the summer. In June, an enormous quantity of papers be- longing to the general was found in a draper's shop. These papers not only revealed the plots of General Boulanger, but also implicated a number of government officials. Finally (August 12, 14) General Boulanger was found guilty of con- spiracy against the State, and of misappropriation of public money, and was condemned, in his absence, to imprison- ment for life. With him were condemned as accomplices Count Dillon and M. Henri de Eochefort. Elections of 1889. — It was felt that upon the elections of 1889 largely depended the fate of the Eepublic. In the midsummer elections for the renewal of one-half the Conseils- Generaux the Republicans held their own, despite the activ- ity of the Boulangists. The fugitive general offered himself in as many as 120 cantons, but was elected in only 12. The elections for the Chamber of Deputies were set for Septem- ber 22. All parties were unusually active in the canvass. The first ballot showed the strength of the Republicans, and the second or supplementary elections announced a Repub- lican triumph, giving 365 seats to the Republicans as against 211 to all shades of opposition. Among the losses, however, which the Republican party had to deplore was that arising from the defeat of M. Jules Ferry. As many as 282 depu- ties were elected for the first time. On the reassembling of the Chamber (November 16), M. Floquet was elected its president on the first ballot. The Tariff Question. — The most important question which came before the Chambers in 1890 was the settle- ment of the tariff. In 1892 all the commercial treaties between France and other nations would expire, and it became necessary to determine what the future policy of France should be. A customs committee, fifty-five in num- ber, was constituted to examine the .question. The protec- tionists secured a two-thirds majority of this committee. Shortly afterward the cabinet was reorganized under the leadership of M. de Freycinet, and a ministerial programme of economical and social reforms was laid before the Cham- bers. The discussions upon the tariff and other economic THE THIRD HEPUBLW. 679 measures continued during the sessions of 1890 and 1891. Finally at the beginning of 1892 a bill was passed placing high duties upon nearly all imports. A special tariff with much lower rates was constructed to offer to nations which would accord to France reciprocal advantages. In view of the increase of revenue expected from the tariff, railroad fares were reduced twenty-five per cent, and reductions in certain taxes were also made. Labor Agitation. — Elections for the renewal of one-third of the Senate occurred in January, 1891, and resulted in giving 72 out of 82 seats to the Republicans. Among the number elected was M. Ferry, returned for the Depart- ment of the Vosges. About the same time a call for a national loan of 869|- million^ of francs resulted in subscrip- tions of sixteen and one-half times that amount. Whilst the Government thus perceived that it no longer need have any serious fear of Boulangism, it found a cause for no little apprehension in the disorders accompanying the regularly recurring May-day labor demonstrations. They were a means by which the anarchists and other enemies of the government could too easily affect public opinion. In 1890 an effort was made in most European cities to organize a grand international strike for May 1. In Paris the energetic precautions of M. Constans, Minister of the Interior, had prevented any serious trouble, but in the north of France the strikes and disturbances had assumed considerable pro- portions. In 1891 strikes occurred on a still larger scale. In many places conflicts between the authorities and the crowd took place. At Fourmies there was a fight between the soldiery and the mob, and several were killed. Large numbers were arrested. "Whilst the government showed a determination to preserve order, it recognized the import- ance of the movement, and created (January, 1891) a Labor Bureau to collect and distribute trustworthy information on labor questions. Bills were passed regulating the conditions under which women and children should lal)or in factories. The Parties. — The death of Prince Napoleon at Rome (March 17, 1891) brought about the collapse of the Imperi- alists. Refusing to the last to be reconciled to his son, Prince Victor, he named his second son, Prince Louis, as his successor ; but the refusal of this prince to antagonize his brother's rights left the fatal division unhealed. The Roy- alists seized this opportunity to reorganize, hoping to attract 680 THE GERMAN WAR AND to their standard all the anti-Eepublicans. The Count of Paris chose Count d'Haussonville as leader of the party, and an active propagandism was begun It was only too suc- cessful, and the government put a stop to it. A few months later (September 30) General Boulanger, dishonored and forsaken, committed suicide near Brussels. Church and State ; Fall of the Freycinet Cahinet. — Another change in the aspect of aifairs was produced by the attitude of the Catholics. Cardinal Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, had urged all Catholics to rally to the Republic. The re- sult was the formation in 1891 of a Catholic and Conserva- tive party, professing, however, complete freedom on the part of the Catholics. On the other hand, the French car- dinals and bishops issued a severe criticism of the Republic, making complaints against the education and military laws, and accusing the Republic of a persistent antagonism to the Church. The Pope, nevertheless, came out boldly against the cardinals, and counselled adhesion to the Republic. At the beginning of 1892 a bill was brought forward by the ministry to abolish the licenses necessary for associations, and to require only that a copy of the regulations be deliv- ered to the magistrates. On the ground that it was a step toward the separation of Church and State, the bill was defeated, and M. Freycinet and his colleagues resigned. The ministry which followed under M. Loubet, a moderate Republican, declared itself not commissioned to prepare a separation of the Churches and the State. The Minister of Public Instruction, M. Bourgeois, brought forward a propo- sal to make university faculties independent organic bodies instead of mere administrative officers subject to the minis- try. But the proposal met with obstructions in the Senate, chiefly from an* unwillingness to leave to the government the selection of the towns which should be made seats of learning, and was withdrawn. The Panama Canal Scandal. — In 1880 M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, the promoter of the Suez Canal, organized the Panama Canal Company, for the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Shares were largely sub- scribed for by people of all classes in France, and in addi- tion large loans were asked for from time to time from the government. Notwithstanding these enormous loans the company came to bankruptcy. It transpired that in obtain- ing these loans deception and corruption had been practised THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 681 on a huge scale. Baron E-einach, the chief agent of this corruption, died in November, 1892, under suspicious cir- cumstances. A large number of public officers were also implicated. Charles Baihaut, Minister of Public Works in 1886, had demanded 1,000,000 francs for his support of a lottery loan, and had received 375,000 francs. Charges were preferred against the directors of the company for misappro- priating its funds and violating the laws governing public companies, and against a number of other persons for giving or receiving bribes. MM. Ferdinand and Charles de Lesseps were condemned to five years' imprisonment and a fine of 3000 francs. Charles Baihaut was condemned to five years' imprisonment, with civil degradation, and a fine of 750,000 francs. Others received lesser sentences. The sentence against the aged engineer was never carried out, for he lay paralyzed and died a few months later. During the Panama investigation the cabinet had twice been remodelled. The Loubet ministry had given way to one under M. Eibot, which in its turn meekly succumbed. A ministry formed by M. Dupuy, which took office in April, 1893, concerned itself chiefiy with laws restricting foreign immigration. Dahomey. — During 1890 and 1891 frequent raids were made by the Dahomeyans upon Porto Novo, a town on the west coast of Africa, which has been under French protection since 1884. The native villages were destroyed, and hun- dreds of people carried off to slavery or for sacrifice. The government at last determined to put a stop to these raids. In May, 1892, an expedition was sent out under Colonel Dodds, which, starting from Porto Novo in August, gradually drove the Dahomey warriors back. After several severe con- flicts in November, Abomey, the capital, was taken. During the following year desultory operations were carried on, and in January, 1894, Behanzin, the king of Dahomey, surren- dered. The people had for the most part already submitted. Elections of 1893; the ''Russian Truce." — During 1892 a law was passed extending the term of the next Chamber to 1898, in such manner that the elections might occur in the spring instead of in the autumn as hitherto. No national questions were prominent in the elections of 1893, though personal and local contests were sharp enough. All mem- bers of the Cabinet were elected at the first ballot (August 20), and the final elections gave the Republicans a large majority. A noticeable feature of the new body was the 682 THE GERMAN WAR AND large number of Socialists. The Right had almost dis- appeared. Owing to increase in population the number of deputies was increased from 576 to 581. For two or three years an alliance of France with Eussia had been talked of. In the summer of 1891 the northern squadron, under Admiral Gervais, had visited Cronstadt, and the Czar had visited the admiral's ship, and had listened with uncovered head to the French hymn of liberty. The French had responded by playing the Russian national air. In October, 1893, the Russian squadron came to Toulon, and received the honors of the nation. President Carnot visited the fleet at Toulon, and on the same day the Czar paid a visit to two French ships at Copenhagen. The press of the time spoke at length of the influence which the friendship or league of the two nations would have in giving France a larger voice in the affairs of Europe and in promoting peace. During the stay of the Russian ofiicers in Paris, Marshal MacMahon died, and was buried with state honors. Ministry of Casimir-Perier. — The new Chamber met on November 14, and re-elected as President M. Casimir-Perier, who had succeeded M. Floquet in the spring session. The Radical candidate was M. Henri Brisson. The Dupuy min- istry laid before the Chambers an anti-socialistic programme, but failed to receive a vote of confidence. After repeated failures a ministry was formed by M. Casimir-Perier ; M. Du- puy succeeded to the presidency of the Chamber. Only one member of this ministry had served in the preceding, — a thing unusual in France. In 1892 several attempts were made by anarchists against various magistrates by exploding bombs at or near their residences. In these explosions several persons were killed. An anarchist called Ravachol was convicted of some of these outrages and guillotined. In May, 1893, repetitions of these outrages occurred. On December 9 an anarchist named Auguste Vaillant entered the gallery of the Chamber of Dep- iities and attempted to hurl a bomb at the President. The bomb struck the cornice and exploded, wounding a great many people and among them Vaillant himself. With ad- mirable presence of mind M. Dupuy called the house to order, and the members proceeded with business almost with- out interruption. A month later Vaillant was convicted of attempted murder and executed. The ministry seized the opportunity to secure the passage of bills giving to the gov THE THIRD REPUBLIC. 683 eminent the power of imprisonment for the propagation of anarchistic doctrines, and applying to anarchists the same penalties as to ordinary criminals. Notwithstanding legis- lation and precautions there was an epidemic of bombs in Paris in the spring of 1894. The senatorial elections which occurred in January re- sulted in returning most of the senators whose terms had expired. The Royalists lost eight seats. The most impor- tant financial measure which the ministry secured was the plan of M. Burdeau, Minister of Finance, for converting the \\ per cent, government stock into 3|- per cents., by which the next budget would be lightened by 68,000,000 francs. To this ministry is due also the erection of the colonial administration into a separate ministry. It had been first an under-secretaryship of the Ministry of Marine, then of Commerce, and again of Marine. Shortly afterward the min- istry was defeated by Radical influences, and once more M. Dupuy became prime minister and M. Casimir-Perier President of the Chamber. Assassination of President Carnot ; Election of M. Casimir- Perier. — On June 24, as President Carnot was driving through Lyons, to which city he was paying a formal visit, an Italian anarchist named Santo Caserio rushed out of the crowd and stabbed him. With a cry of " Vive I'anarchie," the assassin attempted to escape, but was captured, and was with difficulty saved from the vengeance of the populace. That night President Carnot died. The whole world was horrified at the outrage. Since his election to the presi- dency. President Carnot, by his firmness in matters of gov- ernment and his statesmanlike attitude on public questions, had won universal respect. Three days after the assassina- tion the Senate and Chamber met in National Assembly at Versailles to choose a President, Carnot's successor. The moderate Republicans desired M. Casimir-Perier, whose pop- ularity and strong qualities as a leader made him a desirable candidate. The Radical candidate was M. Henri Brisson. On the first ballot M. Casimir-Perier received an overwhelm- ing majority over all his opponents. In his message to the Chamber on July 3, the President-Elect spoke of the regular- ity with which the transmission of power had been made as a testimony to the value of republican institutions. Retirement of M. Casimir-Perier. — The new President and his premier soon found themselves violently opposed 684 THE GERMAN WAR AND THE THIRD REPUBLIC. by Eadicals and Socialists, especially the latter, who poured forth a torrent of accusation against them. Finally, the exposure of corruption connected with certain railroad fran- chises in which some of the President's friends were impli- cated brought about the downfall of the ministry. The difficulty of forming a new ministry, and the coolness of the nation toward him, so different from its attitude toward President Carnot, decided President Casimir-Perier to retire. Accordingly his resignation was placed before the Chamber and Senate, and on January 17 the National Assembly met to elect his successor. The principal candidates were M. Henri Brisson, President of the Chamber, M. Felix Faure, and M. Waldeck-Rousseau. At second ballot M. Waldeck- Rousseau retired in favor of M. Faure, who was accordingly elected by 460 votes as against 361 for M. Brisson. An attempt was made to form a Radical ministry under M. Bour- geois, but this having failed, a ministry of Moderates was formed by M. E,ibot. That which especially marked the entrance to office of President Faure and the Ribot ministry was a bill giving amnesty for political offences of members of the press and clergy. M. Henri Rochefort, condemned for his connection with Boulangism, at once returned to France. Madagascar. — Infractions by the Hovas of the treaty of 1883 led to the despatch in October, 1894, of a demand for complete control of affairs in Madagascar by the French government. This ultimatum being rejected, an expedition was sent out in April, under General Duchesne, to bring the Hova government to terms. Tamatave had already been occupied (December 10, 1894) by French forces in the island. The French slowly made their way toward the capital, meet- ing with little resistance, though their numbers were re- duced one-half by disease. On September 30, 1895, General Duchesne entered Antananarivo, and the queen at once made peace. A French protectorate of the island was definitely established. APPENDIX (Continued). By MABELL S. C. SMITH, A.B., A.M. (author of "the spirit op FRENCH IiETTERS," "TWENTY CENTURIES OF PARIS," "THE MAID OF ORLEANS," ETC.). THE DREYFUS CASE. (1894-1906.) On January 5, 1895, the courtyard of the Military School at Paris was the setting for a dramatic scene destined to attract the attention of the whole world to an affair ap- parently of importance only to France. Less than three weeks before, Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew of Alsatian birth, a Captain on the General Staff, had been convicted by court martial of selling military secrets to Germany, and sentenced to public degradation and life exile. At nine o'clock on the appointed morning, he was marched to the centre of the square. The General in command said to him : " Dreyfus, you are unworthy of carrying arms. In the name of the French people we degrade you." Dreyfus protested vehemently. " I am innocent ! I swear that I am innocent ! Vive la France! " he cried, adding, " On the heads of my wife and children I swear that I am innocent ! I swear it ! Vive la France!" Addressing himself to the troops he reiterated, "Soldiers, they are degrading an innocent man ! Soldiers, they are dishonoring an innocent man ! Vive la France! Vive I'armee!" A Sergeant of the Republican Guard tore from the pris- oner's uniform the buttons and trousers-stripes, and the signs of rank from sleeves and cap. As the pieces of his broken sword clattered to the ground, Dreyfus straightened himself and with head erect " shouted," as he himself records, "again and again to the soldiers and the assembled crowd the cry of my soul, 'I am innocent I'" 685 686 THE DREYFUS CASE In his disordered dress he was paraded around the square that the spectators might look well upon the traitor. As he passed the press table he implored the reporters, "You will tell all France that I am innocent !" This soul-stabbing scene over, he was started on his journey to Devil's Island, a sun-smitten rock off the coast of French Guiana. Except by the members of his family, the wretched man was almost forgotten, and public interest was now centred on the visit to France of the Czar and Czarina and the return visit to Russia of President Faure, when, about two years later. Colonel Picquart, newly appointed head of the Intelligence Bureau, came upon the bordereau on which Dreyfus's conviction had rested. This paper had no date, address, or signature, but experts had declared it to be in the handwriting of the accused man. Colonel Picquart, on the contrary, though previously a believer in the guilt of Dreyfus, became convinced that the paper had been written by Major Esterhazy, an officer of indifferent reputation. Believing that Dreyfus was the unfortunate victim of a mistake which his superiors would be only too glad to rectify, he called the matter to the attention of the Chief of the General Staff and the Minister of War. To his surprise, their response to his appeal for a reopening of the court martial was the information that the testimony of the bor- dereau had been supported by that of another document, a dossier, whose contents or even existence was not revealed either to the prisoner or his counsel. Further, they gave him to understand that for the sake of army prestige, they had no wish to reopen the case. To his infinite credit, Picquart placed the life and happi- ness of a wronged man above the politics of a department, however important, and he insisted that the most ordinary justice demanded a retrial. His insistence was rewarded by his removal from office and transfer to Tunis. Colonel Henry became Chief of the Intelligence Department in his stead. But the publicity which Picquart had started could not be stopped by sending him to Africa. All Paris began to talk about Vaffaire Dreyfus, and what Paris talks about France talks about. By way of self-defence, the War Department THE DREYFUS CASE 687 permitted a discreet leakage of the evidence that had con- victed Dreyfus, even allowing a reproduction of the bor- dereau to be sold on the boulevards. It was discovered that there were unthought-of angles to the case and every one began to have an opinion. During the first twenty years of its existence, the Third Republic had been attacked by many enemies within its own walls. In the taking of sides that followed Colonel Picquart's announcement, there lined up in the open all the parties that had been brought into being by political, religious, racial, and ethical antagonisms. Ostensibly, they ranged themselves according to their belief in the guilt or innocence of the young Jewish staff officer. In actuality, not only the anti-Semites, whose racial antipathy was in- creased by the participation in governmental affairs and in the Panama scandal of Jewish financiers, but the Boulangists, the clericals, the upholders of the reorganized army who saw in it a weapon for the revanche upon Germany, the royalists, who hoped that the affaire would weaken the existing govern- ment — all who had reason to dislike or distrust the Republic or to hope for advantage from its overthrow, announced themselves as anti-Drej^fusards. Their attitude was strength- ened by the incongruous comradeship of President Faure, Premier Meline, and the entire membership of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, with the single exception of the President of the Senate, Scheurer-Kestner, who, like the condemned man, was an Alsatian. Favoring Dreyfus were the anti-militarists who were left cold by the appeal "for the honor of the army" when it meant the sacrifice of the individual, the ardent republicans who saw in the enlargement of the army by the new con- scription law the emergence of a force ready for royalist leadership, and the Socialists, always opposed to the arbi- trary methods of the organization that had sent Dreyfus to wear out his life on Devil's Island. Writers were divided. Clemenceau, then editing V Aurore, at first used the force of his pen and his journal against the degraded officer, but later became one of his most ardent supporters, suppressing his own daily editorial to give space to the novelist Zola's terrific indictment, " J' accuse." Powerful newspapers in the anti-Dreyfus 688 THE DREYFUS CASE ranks were the Auforite, the Gaulois, the Libre Parole, the Figaro, the Eclair, the Croix pubHshed by the Assump- tionists, a church order, and the Echo de Paris, the mouth- piece of the General Staff. Shoulder to shoulder with Zola was Anatole France; in opposition were the distin- guished critics, Lemaitre, Brunetiere, and Bourget, with the poet and dramatist, Coppee. Because the wretched convict, consumed by hunger and thirst and the torturing heat, always alone in spirit, never for an instant unwatched, was allowed to receive only copies of sections of his wife's letters, he was ignorant of the in- creasing fury that raged over his case. Esterhazy, accused by Picquart, was tried and triumphantly acquitted. Pic- quart, revengefully arrested, was reluctantly set free. Zola's open letter to President Faure attacked the War Department as being in conspiracy with forgers and per- jurers, and declared the Dreyfus verdict on the strength of secret documents to be an infamous example of injustice. Infuriated by these charges from a man of international importance, the War Department caused the arrest and trial of Zola and of Clemenceau, representing I'Aurore. If anything had been needed to center the attention of the entire world on the Dreyfus case, this dramatic touch sup- plied it. The political and intellectual positions of the de- fendants, the lurking danger to the Republic, the ever- present threat of German espionage, all added poignancy to the human tragedy of Dreyfus, a tragedy whether he were innocent or guilty. Zola was convicted of libelling the War Department and was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, but escaped to England. The passions roused by the affaire raged on and on. A new Minister of War, Cavaignac, announced that Dreyfus had been condemned on the strength of three documents in addition to the bordereau. While citizens were still standing before the billboards of France dis- cussing this announcement, the unquenchable Colonel Picquart produced evidence to prove that two of the docu- ments cited were entirely irrelevant, while the third was a forgery. Confirming the last assertion, Colonel Henry, Picquart's successor in the Intelligence Department, con- fessed himself the forger and committed suicide. It was a THE DREYFUS CASE CS9 time of furious excitement. Cavaignac resigned. Ester- hazy confessed, as he escaped to England, that he had forged the bordereau. An attempt was made to poison Picquart; another to assassinate Maitre Labori, the lawyer who had defended Zola. Dreyfus, informed in June, 1899, that the sentence of the court martial that had convicted him was annulled, was brought back to France believing that only a few for- malities remained to clear his name and let him go free. Instead of the cordial reception that he expected, he found himself in the military prison at Rennes listening to his former counsel's recital of the extraordinary developments of the affaire. Amazed at the number and variety of com- plications, he was still more astounded to learn that he must face a second trial. President Faure had died suddenly (1899) and his suc- cessor, Loubet (1899-1906), with the Premier, Waldeck- Rousseau, seemed to lean toward a belief in the innocence of the accused. The officers of the court martial, however, proved themselves as implacable as at first, and the unhappy Dreyfus was again pronounced guilty, though with the grotesque addition, "with extenuating circumstances." As the victim himself wrote in comment, " Since when have there been extenuating circumstances for the crime of treason?" The new sentence was for ten years, less the five years already served on Devil's Island. Dreyfus demanded a re- vision. President Loubet offered to pardon him if he would withdraw this demand. Yielding to the urgency of his family, Dreyfus withdrew the appeal, though "pardon " implied a guilt which he steadily maintained was not his. "On the very day of my liberation," he wrote, "I pub- lished the following, expressing my thought and my un- alterable purpose : " ' The Government of the Republic gives me back my liberty. It is nothing to me without honor. Beginning with to-day, I shall unremittingly strive for the reparation of the frightful judicial error of which I am still the victim. " ' I want all France to know by a final judgment that I am innocent. My heart will never be satisfied while there is a single Frenchman who imputes to me the abominable crime which another committed.' " 600 THE BLOC The repetition of the original conviction and the suc- ceeding turn of events was so far from satisfying the public that for a year the pro- and anti-Dreyfusards argued, quar- relled, and even clashed physically over the bitter question. In a final effort to calm the perennial emotions over the sub- ject, an amnesty was granted in 1900 to every one con- cerned in the case. This resulted in a cessation of strife, but Dreyfus and his friends never for an instant desisted in their efforts to clear his name. In 1906 the Court of Cassation revised the entire case, and vindicated Dreyfus. Once more the courtyard of the Military School was the setting for a poignant scene — this time the decoration with the cross of the Legion of Honor of the former captain, now promoted to a majority. His defender. Colonel Picquart, was made a General and later became Minister of War. THE BLOC While the Dreyfus case spread before the world a sorry unfoldment of bigotry, partisanship, and crime, it also clarified the political situation. It was greatly to the ad- vantage of those responsible for the government to have the cards of their opponents laid on the table. As Presi- dent Loubet and Premier Waldeck-Rousseau read them, the royalists were hereditary foes of the Republic; they were almost all Catholics. Conversely, the traditional trend of the Church was toward the monarchical form of government. Catholics shared with many Protestants a dislike of the Jews, but Jews and Protestants were united in a belief that the Church took advantage of the Dreyfus case to stir iip anti-Semitic feeling and anti-Protestant feeling to the end that Jews and Protestants alike might be deprived of civil rights, leaving the sufl'rage in the hands of members of the Church — most of whom were royalists, to complete the circle of argument ! That these citizens called themselves Nationalists and proclaimed themselves the supporters of the army did not convince the government of their loyalty to the Republic. The army had been hitherto suspected and was now proven to be saturated with royalist doctrine, its rolls thickly sown with the names of royalist officers. Ardent republicans came to the conclusion that behind THE ASSOCIATIONS LAW 691 all opposition to the republican form of government were the forces of the Church, and that consolidation of the republic must be founded in suppression of the political ac- tivities of the Church. United in this opinion were republi- cans of all degrees, including the Radicals and the Social- ists, and this bloc was prepared to work in entire accord with the Cabinet formed in 1899 by Waldeck-Rousseau and called the Cabinet of Republican Defence. THE ASSOCIATIONS LAW The Concordat entered into by Napoleon and Pius VII in 1801 was still alive. This agreement re-established the Roman Church in France after the clerical catastrophe of the Revolution. The government appointed arch- bishops and bishops, subject to confirmation by the Pope, gave the Church an annual sum of money, and maintained a certain jurisdiction over it through the agency of the Minister of Public Worship. For the information of the government, religious as- sociations were classed with political and social organiza- tions and required to render an account of their member- ship and finances. The "Congregations" of monks and nuns were by no means eager to submit this knowledge to an influential hostile power, and many of them took their chances and made no report. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the orders were known to number about two hundred thousand and to own property amount- ing to over a billion francs. The work of the orders was chiefly either charitable, such as the management of asylums for orphans and found- lings and of hospitals, or educational. The government saw in the Church schools an agency unfriendly to republican institutions and determined to suppress them. A be- ginning was made by the Associations Law passed in 1901, which required that all associations of whatever nature, including, of course, religious, be authorized by the gov- ernment and that no member of an unauthorized associa- tion be permitted to teach. Waldeck-Rousseau had gathered about him a group of rising Socialist politicians, most of whom are now recog- nized as statesmen — Clemenceau, Viviani, Briand, Mille- 692 SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE rand, Jaures. But it was Combes, a violent anti-clerical, who was chosen by Waldeck-Rousseau in 1902 as his suc- cessor, the main duty of the Premier being, at the moment, the carrying out of the Associations Law. Combes carried it out with enthusiasm. Very few Con- gregations were left after he made the ruling that those who did not apply for authorization should be suppressed at once, and that those who did should be suppressed unless they could prove themselves necessary to the social up- building of the Republic. Under his standards, such proof was practically an impossibility. In 1904 the Congrega- tions were ordered to give up teaching entirely, their schools to be secularized within a given period. The dispersal of the monks and nuns caused great hard- ship. Most of them had spent the greater part of their lives in seclusion, and knew no way of earning a living except by the profession they were forbidden to exercise. Many left France, a cruel punishment for the French-born, to make new friends and to begin a new life in foreign coun- tries. As the law of primogeniture in England has strength- ened British power throughout the world by sending forth as unconscious missionaries the younger sons of her best blood, so it is possible that this scattering of French taste and refinement may have unexpected results. It is too soon yet to know. THE SEPARATION OP CHURCH AND STATE Premier Combes' position was aided by the elections of 1902, which returned a strong anti-clerical majority to Parliament. He felt that the time had come to effect that separation between Church and State which has been the political slogan of more than one country in more than one century. Ten years before (in 1892), Pope Leo XIII had tried to effect a closer tie between French Catholics and their government by urging them in an encyclical to sup- port the Republic. Now, in 1904, Pope Pius X, by de- nouncing President Loubet's visit to Victor Emmanuel III, irritated governmental France to the point of giving the Papal Nuncio his " papers " and withdrawing the French ambassador to the Vatican. Combes followed up this action by offering to Parlia- LABOR AGITATION AND SOCIAL BETTERMENT 693 ment a separation law so severe that it failed of passage. Under his successor, Premier Rouvier, Deputy Briand framed a law which not only passed but which proved its author's right to the title of pragmatist — it was entirely workable. The law not only abrogated the Concordat, it placed all religions in the same class. No further stipend was paid to any ecclesiastical body by the government, though the older clergy — Jewish, Roman, Protestant — were pensioned. All property, including church buildings, held by religious bodies was inventoried by the State and placed in the hands of Associations Cultuelles, which administered it according to the respective views of the former owners. The dwellings of the clergy and the theological schools were to be turned over to the government after a stated period. This arrangement was approved by the French Catholic Church, but the Pope disapproved and the Church thereby lost much valuable property. Its taking over by the State caused many painful and, indeed, violent scenes, but on the whole, the law, which went into effect on December 9, 1905, worked with unexpected smoothness, largely due to the deft handling of Briand. That a change so vital could be made without civil war speaks volumes for the adaptability of the French. Prob- ably most Frenchmen would agree now that it was the common sense and practicality of the nation that brought about the overturn of the historic inter-dependence, and not, as has been persistently reiterated, the growth of atheism and agnosticism which desired to overthrow every expres- sion of religious thought. Anti-religious writers have been so brilliant that their work became an instant part of the body of French literature; but that it uttered the feeling of the mass of the French people could be disproved by a step taken at any time within the last twenty years within the portals of any consecrated edifice — the churches have not been empty. The change has been political, not social. LABOR AGITATION AND SOCIAL BETTERMENT Because the French Revolution was primarily a struggle between the aristocracy and the masses, its social sequels have cropped up in the political activities of France at not 694 LABOR AGITATION infrequent intervals during the succeeding century and a quarter. Louis Philippe and Aristide Briand have been witnesses to the fact that thrones might fall and cabinets crumble under the impact of contests involving social rights and industrial demands. The rise of the rich members of the bourgeoisie and the Ijeneficial changes in the condition of the peasants left with grievances only the shouldered-out aristocracy and the laboring class. The former were not vocal; the latter became more and more insistent upon a public hearing of their wrongs. The Socialist party, with a platform calling for justice for the workingman and for social equality, de- ^'eloped during the nineteenth century and entered the political field. Its growth synchronized approximately with the increasing industrialization of the country, for it draws its membership almost exclusively from wage earners. The fact that France is an agricultural country with practi- cally every peasant a land owner must automatically limit the growth of Socialism, which is city-bred. The ferocities of the Commune after the Franco-Prus- sian War terrified the middle class, by nature conservative and prudent. As a result, the laborer's hard-won though not legalized right to strike was blotted out by suppres- sion of the trade-unions. It was not until 1884 that Wal- deck-Rousseau managed to secure the passage of legislation superseding the 1791 Law of Coalitions, which had abol- ished the then-existing guilds. Legally sanctioned trade-unions began to flourish after 1884, and were speedily urged into the political game by the Socialist party, now split into cliques of varying shades of opinion and named after their several leaders, Guesde, AUemane, Brousse. The differences of these factions found a common ground, however, in the hloc, which house-cleaned the Republic after the Dreyfus case, and the Socialist dep- uties, who had taken office through the elections of 1893 and 1898, led by Jaures and Millerand, played no unim- portant part in the new dispensation. The efforts of Combes against the clericals met with the entire approval of the Socialists and when the Radical, Clemenceau, became Prime Minister in 1906, and made a Socialist, Viviani, Minister of Labor, they supposed that SOCIAL BETTERMENT 695 the government would be wholly in sympathy with the hopes and desires of the workingman and especially of organized labor. But Clemenceau found himself faced with the problem that many an administrator has had to decide — as head of the government he was in duty bound to protect all citi- zens, not merely those of a single group or class. Although he had personallj^ denounced the "scab" and the non-striker as traitors to their order, he was obliged as a government officer to call out the militia to defend scabs and non-strikers against attack by the strikers of the Courrieres mines. He set military engineers to work on dynamos and pumps when the strike of the Paris electricians left the city in dark- ness and threatened the inundation of the underground railway. " Should I have permitted the laborers of Pari ; working in other departments to drown in the Metro as they returned from their toil, with the State standing by wringing its hands helplessly while the electricians disputed with their employers about wages?" Clemenceau demanded of Jaures during a spirited debate in the Chamber of Dep- uties. " Here was a practical question demanding immediate decision. I decided in favor of the non-participating Pa- risians and against the striking engineers." Tired of being politically exploited, the trade-unions had banded together in 1895 in the General Confederation of Labor, whose aim was the promotion of class solidarity. This constantly increasing group declared its belief in " syn- dicalism," a creed whose tenets included the ignoring of law and law-making organizations and the obtaining of desires through "direct action." The employer — the "capi- talist" — best understands economic pressure; therefore the employee will keep up a constant economic warfare against him by means of the strike and "sabotage," or destruction of machinery and material and the doing of inefficient work. Further, the strike, instead of being confined to a single union or group of unions with like interests, is extended to unions with allied interests. For instance, in a printers' strike, not only will compositors be "called out," but all associated occupations, as proofreaders, copyholders, pressmen, feeders, gatherers, binders, and so on. The latest development of this idea is the extension 696 LABOR AGITATION of the allied group strike to the " general strike," in which a great many organizations combined in "one big union" will strike, not because they are in sympathy with the initial striking union or group of unions, but because they are in sympathy with all strikers as against all employers. By a process of wearing down, the syndicalists expect that in cburse of time all employers will be ousted and all busi- nesses will be managed by committees of the laborers and financed internally, profits being divided among the work- ingmen. United with the General Confederation of Labor since 1902 has been the federation of Labor Exchanges. Orig- inating in Paris in 1887 as workingmen's forums, the bourses rapidly extended through France, and almost as quickly fell into bad odor with the authorities because they became centers of disturbance. Their organization in 1892 made them a unified body useful in the General Confederation. Another extreme group among the Socialists was that headed by Herve, who urged a strike of soldiers if war should demand their defence of their country. If the Socialists were annoyed at the position taken by Clemenceau when Premier, they were even more incensed at that of his successor, Briand. The new Minister had tamed from advocacy of the general strike to willingness to take advantage of "Possibilist" opportunities. Now, faced in 1910 with a railway strike, he not only followed the principles laid down by Clemenceau, but adopted an in- genious method of breaking the strike. In the army the railway workers were classed as reservists. When, there- fore, they struck as transportation employees, Briand called them to the colors, putting them on strike duty and thereby making them their own strike-breakers. Viviani and Millerand supported Briand in this move, but declined to stand behind him when he advocated the forbidding of all future railway strikes, and left the Cabinet. During the interval between this rupture and the break- ing out of the World War the Socialists were not active participants in the government. Upon the sounding of the alarm, however, all but the extremists forgot previous dif- ferences and jumped into the field, military and administra- tive, with the ardor of convinced patriots. SOCIAL BETTERMENT 697 Because France is not so highly industriaUzed as Great Britain, America, or Germany, social legislation, which has heretofore been applied chiefly toward factory and mine workers, has not been so highly developed as in those coun- tries. Unemployment and sickness insurance still rests practically in the class with charities under contribution from the government. Old Age Pensions sailed a stormy sea before reaching port in the twentieth century. Time and again a promising programme split on the rock of " com- pulsory" or "voluntary," Clemenceau charged the So- cialists with holding back the measure, at the same time intimating that by so doing they were acting from political reasons. "Take Old Age Pensions," he said. "These need money. The Socialists refuse the required funds. Yet Socialists are for the Republic. So far we cordially agree. So far, I, of necessity, work with them. But if they at the same time denounce Republicans as the enemies of the workers and secure a majority of votes on that ground, then that is to vote for the defeat of the Republic." The existing law, passed in 1910, establishes compul- sory insurance for those earning less than five hundred eighty dollars annually. At the age of sixty the candidate for a pension may draw a yearly pension of eighty-five dollars, a sum to which he himself, his employer, and the State have each contributed. The Workmen's Compensation Law, passed in 1898, provides for compensation according to the gravity of the injuries received. Chiefly through the efforts of Millerand, who has been looked on askance by lifelong Socialists because he was a convert from the bourgeois class, the length of the work- ing day has been shortened from an indefinite nimiber of hours to (in 1906) ten. There must be one rest day in seven. Women and children may be employed in factories but may not work in mines. In the year that has elapsed since the proclamation of the Armistice, there has been increasing social and in- dustrial unrest. This has been due not only to the difficul*. problems of readjustment imposed by the return to civilian life of soldiers and of government employees, but also to the penetration of Bolshevist propaganda. However, the 69b INDUSTRY "Red" excesses that have convulsed other European coun- tries are not expected in France, owing to the general con- servatism of the middle classes and the peasants. INDUSTRY During the World War the manufacture of commodities for which France is famous — porcelains, perfumes, gloves, jewellery, and the like — practically ceased, for every factory was turned over to the production of something that would help in the attainment of victory. Automobile plants replaced high-powered cars with camions ; silk factories no longer spun delicate webs of chiffon for gay frocks but wove the wing coverings that bore airmen to victory ; every set of machinery that could be rebuilt for the making of munitions did its part in its new occupation. The steel mills, the excellence of whose products has set France in a high place among the metal-producing countries, were de- voted only to war uses. The insufficiency of the country's output of coal, de- creased by the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, has always limited manufacture by forcing the importation of this necessary commodity. The normal production has now been further lessened by the damage done to the mines in the invaded territory. Broken machinery and flooding have rendered useless for a long time to come the coal and iron mines that stood behind the busy industrial life of the northeastern territory. A German commission which recently examined the mines for the purpose of calculating the force of men that will be required to make repairs under the reparation terms of the Peace Treaty, reported that all the unemployed labor in Germany might be utilized here and that this supply of work would make unnecessary the proposed enforced emigration of from ten to fifteen millions of Germans. Even before the war, the silk industry, seriously affected by a disease that destroyed the silkworms, had yielded first place to Italy, but on the artistic side of that and similar manufactures — the designing of beautiful weaves, the fabrication of resplendent tapestries — France has no equal. The neighborhood of Bordeaux and the regions farther south have long been devoted to the growing of grapes and TBANSPOR TA TION 699 the making of wine. Owing to the destruction wrought by the phylloxera from 1875 on, hundreds of acres of vine- yards in the Gironde were made unproductive and the un- fortunate growers not only were faced by the loss of their property but with the ruin of their business through the competition of adulterated wines from the south. For several years no remedy was found, though scientists were constantly searching for a means of exterminating the pest, and the government offered a prize — still unawarded — for some successful treatment. The once wealthy Borde- lais had to cope with poverty and also with increasing dis- turbances among the peasant workers in the vineyards. The grafting of French vines upon American roots and the application of chemically prepared injections and sprays brought the vines into better condition, but the distress had lasted so long that in 1907 the peasants, laying the blame upon the government, attempted to start a new republic of their own. Again it was Clemenceau's firm handling of this economically induced political situation that brought peace. TRANSPORTATION France has made thrifty use of her natural means of trans- portation. Rivers have been dredged and walled and con- nected with one another by artificial waterways, so that the interior of the country has been well opened to the sea. About 4000 miles of rivers are navigable, and over 3000 miles of canals. Of the 800 miles of canals made useless during the hostilities 600 miles were repaired within a twelvemonth. The method of transportation over these inland waterways by barges drawn by men or horses, or, since the Armistice, by "tanks," along tow-paths, is as slow as it is picturesque, but its use for freight about which there is no need for haste is a measure of relief for the railways. European railways must be laid out with reference to their strategic as well as their commercial importance. At the opening of the war about thirty-two thousand miles of rails netted France. In spite of the damage to lines, stations, freight depots, bridges, and viaducts, the end of the war saw no diminution in the mileage. This is because of the constant replacement of injured property, 1250 miles 700 THE MERCHANT MARINE out of 1400 destroyed having been rebuilt during the year following the Armistice, and of the laying down during the war of new lines by the British and Americans for the service of their troops. The American equipment, rails, cars, and engines, was taken across prepared to go into immediate action. The locomotives were entirely assembled, ready to get up steam as soon as huge electric cranes had lifted them from the steamers' holds and set them on the docks. All this American material was much heavier than either the French or British, but the government has bought it and will continue the lines which ran across France from St. Nazaire, Brest, and Bordeaux to the American supply stations in the centre of the country and then on to the American sectors of the Western Front. Before the war the State was developing a general plan of government ownership of railways to be completed about midway the century. The acquisition of the Chemin de Fer de I'Ouest in 1909 placed an additional 3500 miles in the control of the State, but the practical management of the road did not entirely satisfy a large part of the citizenry opposed to the socialization of public utilities. Dur- ing the hostilities, the control of all transportation was taken over by the State. THE MERCHANT MARINE While the daring of French fishermen has made picturesque their long coast line, and while the French navy stood fourth among the navies of the world at the beginning of the war, yet the commercial sailor has comparatively small place in French life. Passenger steamship lines have been de- veloped to North and South America and the French col- onies, but freight-carrying tonnage was comparatively small even before the submarine attacks. This probably is due to the fact that France has not needed much shipping since she imports chiefly raw materials and exports manu- factures which are chiefly luxuries. The principal reason for her small export trade is that she is primarily an agri- cultural country and so herself consumes the greater part of her industrial products. Further, she is not naturally a maritime nation, like England and Norway, letting out her bottoms to other nations for general trade. Perhaps THE PEASANTRY 701 it is because, since the days of the Revolution, at any rate, she has lacked the spirit of adventure that would carry her sails to unknown seas; lacked even an interest in foreign affairs, so absorbing have been her affairs at home. THE PEASANTRY If the sailor plays but a small part in the cast of the French drama, the peasant's role is far more important than that of his brother in any other country. He is not gen- erously educated nor is he progressive in the choice of farm- ing implements; his crops are small and not varied; but he is permanent, he is reliable, he is thrifty, he is intelli- gent. To the land he is profoundly attached — to the little patch that is his share of his father's farm. During the Revolution a law was passed decreeing that all land should be equally divided among the heirs. The law has served its purpose of democratizing the land by the prevention of large estates, but at no very distant future there must be a law establishing minimum partitions. Countless "farms" are now too small to be worthy the name, far too small to provide a living for their owners. The result has been that while heirs often defeat the purpose of the law by exchanging their shares of realty for the personalty of the decedent, others are urged from the country into the cities, where they join the already crowded masses of wage earners. In spite of, or perhaps because of, his limitations, the French peasant farmer has developed a thrift that gives him the comfortable feeling of independence engendered by having francs stored away. The State has long issued government bonds of small denominations and they have been eagerly invested in by the peasants. It was because of the sous hoarded in the peasants' "stockings" that Bis- marck was thwarted in his intention of crushing France through the imposition of an overwhelming indemnity after the Prussian War. "Nobody can know the peasantry of France better than my family and I know them," Clemenceau once said. "We have ever lived with and among the peasantry. We have been doctors from generation to generation. I have seen them very close in birth and death, in sickness and health, in poverty and well-being, and all the time their one idea 702 FINANCES is property. Always 'property, ownership, possession, work, thrift, acquisition, individual gain." France shows the "defects of her qualities" in her hatred of the income tax. "Why save if we must pay a tax upon the outcome of our self-denial?" say not only peasants but those of more fortunate estate. Other taxes — yes ; one gets something for one's money. But a tax on thrift goes hard. Even during the war, when Great Britain's income tax was raised one hundred sixty per cent and that of the United States two hundred per cent, the representa- tives of the French people dared impose a raise of only six per cent. FINANCES Just as the French individual always has something to fall back on when the traditional "rainy day" arrives, so the nation always has had money to lend to all the other nations of the earth. Because of the great profits to be gained, French capital has been invested in mines and pub- lic improvements all over the world. Indeed, the habit of sending money to work away from home has been so con- fu'med that France herself has suffered. Natural resources have been developed by foreign capital when they should have been opened as a patriotic service, if for no other reason. The prosperity of France has come to pass during the existence of moderate protective tariff regulations and in connection with a conservative system of banking. COLONIES In the scramble for the acquisition of colonies during the latter years of the nineteenth century, it is impossible to tell where the demarcation comes between their obtain- ment for the aggrandizement of the "mother" country, expansion because of the need of a wider economic field, and increase of territory in order to surpass a rival country. All Europe seemed mad to add to its holdings among the weaker peoples of the earth. Africa was an especially happy hunting ground between 1890 and 1900, and France, England and Germany used not only military skill but every art of diplomacy and "peaceful penetration" to gain COLONIES 703 their ends. In the, final partitioning France gained the most in point of square miles, but much of her land is desert sand and therefore valueless from the economic point of view. Germany's possessions on this continent have been lessened under the terms of the Armistice of November 11, 1918, which demanded the cession of German East Africa. The present colonies of France are : In America, certain small islands off Newfoundland, and in the West Indies, Martinique, Guadeloupe; in South America, French Guiana; in x\sia, Tonkin, Cambodia, Laos, Cochin China, Annam, French India, and Kwang-Chow-Wan ; in Aus- tralasia, New Caledonia and ■ the Society Islands ; in Africa, Tunis, Morocco, French West Africa (which in- cludes Senegal, the Ivory Coast, French Guinea, the Al- gerian Sahara, Dahomey, the French Congo), French East Africa (which includes Madagascar and Somaliland), Ker- guelen, St. Paul, Reunion, Amsterdam, and, most important of all, Algeria. The colonies, whose population before the war was about fifty millions, are represented by ten deputies in the Chamber and by four Senators in the upper house, and their busi- ness centre is at the Colonial Office in Paris. Though the acquisition of these colonies has given the Republic the 'prestige of standing second only to England in the extent of her territorial possessions, it has not proved financially profitable to France. Her nationals are not colonists by nature, chiefly because there has always been a plot of ground or a position open at home for each son of the small families for which the country is noted. The result in the colonies is that the number of white men is not sufficient to raise productivity to any great extent either by their own toil or as leaders. Almost every white colo- nial is a government official. Especially in Africa have there been plans for the build- ing of railroads and the development of trade routes, but accomplishment has not been great. Even Algeria, which is nearest to France, has the largest white population, and is the most advanced in every way, is a source of deficit to the French treasury. What the attitude of the colonials would be toward France 704 THE FASHODA INCIDENT during the war was a question about which utter lack of knowledge threw a harrowing uncertainty at the beginning. They proved completely loyal. The Senegalese with their black faces and whirling white draperies and huge knives made a picturesque and terrifying addition to the grim panorama of battle ; less warlike peoples were invaluable in the service of support as road menders, and from them were drawn many of the labor battalions which did valuable work in the less spectacular efforts to win the war. THE FASHODA INCIDENT The interests of France, England, and Germany in Africa have often been productive of friction, but it is chiejQIy through these conflicts that France and England renewed a cordiality that had been in abeyance through several centuries. A wartime play showed a statue of Jeanne d'Arc coming to life, beholding with amazement and horror a poilu and a "Tommy" sleeping in comradeship at the foot of her pedestal, and understanding slowly but with final joy that friendship had come to the long-severed peoples. The understanding came less abruptly to Germany but far more rudely. If England had no especial kindliness toward France, she had less toward Germany, and, therefore, after the Franco- Prussian War, her usual inclination, in spite of the opposi- tion to England of Hanotaujc, the French Foreign Minister, and the leaning toward Germany of Lord Salisbury when Prime Minister, was to support her nearer neighbor. More than once they had met not inharmoniously in Africa, but in 1898 there occurred what has been called "the Fashoda Incident," which threatened to result in war. The English and the French had been cooperating am- icably in activities against the Khedive of Egypt — activi- ties of no especial importance to the French, who were al- most equally interested in making explorations. General Marchand, pushing his way along the upper reaches of the Nile, came upon a group of insignificant hovels, Fashoda by name. The general was accompanied by only five white men and a handful of Senegalese, so that General Kitchener, who was then Sirdar of Egypt, could by no means have been deceived as to the non-military nature of the expedition. THE ENTENTE CORDIALS 705 but the hoisting of the "blue, white, and red" so near the domain over which the Enghsh claimed the right of protec- tion was something he could not brook. He demanded the instant withdrawal of the French forces. France felt that England was exceeding her agreement, resented the inter- ference, and was inclined to insist on the integrity of her position. War clouds darkened the sky. A British force marched against the French, and the jingoes of both coun- tries talked war. But wiser plans prevailed and a com- promise was effected. The French abandoned Fashoda and took, instead, a bit of territory which was of value to them as connecting their possessions in the north with those in the west. The name of Fashoda was changed that there might not be even that stimulus to the recollection of an unpleasant occurrence. THE ENTENTE CORDIALS As sometimes happens after personal quarrels, the par- ticipants were drawn together in friendship after the trouble was over. To Theophile Delcasse must go the honors of the peacemaker. It was at the time of the Fashoda In- cident that he became Minister of Foreign Aifairs, and he at once tried to make it as clear to his associates as it was to himself that the future stability of the Republic depended in great measure upon an alliance with the power across the Channel. With no necessity for providing defence on the west and with the patrolling of the Channel against at- tack from the north turned over to the British navy, France would be free to mass her strength in the Mediterranean, where it would be most needed and most useful. Since an excuse is needed for the making as well as for the breaking of ties, Delcasse at once undertook negotiations with England for what was practically an exchange of her rights in Morocco for those which France still claimed in Egypt and Newfoundland. King Edward VII. had long been popular in France, where he was well known, both officially and privately. His charm of manner was a direct diplomatic asset to England, which had more than once profited by it. Following the example of the interchange of visits by the Czar and the President of France in 1896 and 1897, which had resulted in an alliance between the empire and 706 THE AGADIR INCIDENT the republic, King Edward made a formal visit to Paris in 1903, President Loubet, accompanied by M. Delcasse and certain French senators and deputies, returning the visit two months later. The result was the Treaty of Lon- don, which arranged for the arbitration of any questions that might arise in those parts of the world where English and French had common interests, as in South Africa, Mada- gascar, Morocco, and Egypt. Further exchanges of international civilities took place in 1905 and 1906, when the Conseil Municipal of Paris and the London County Council exchanged visits to their mutual enlightenment and the benefit of their respective lands. Out of the Treaty of London grew the Entente Cordiale (1904), a "gentleman's agreement," by which it was under- stood that the two countries would stand by one another if either were menaced. Time proved that such an agree- ment was vital enough to meet the demand made upon it both by THE AGADIR INCIDENT in 1911 and by the sterner one of the World War in 1914. The removal of English influence from Morocco necessi- tated the making of several new treaties between France and other countries. Morocco was nominally governed by a Sultan, but Spain had "interests" there in the form of settlements facing Gibraltar, and Italy had "interests" which she agreed not to press in return for a free hand in Tripoli. Germany had no "interests" since only a handful of her nationals dwelt in the country. The Chancellor himself admitted that Germany had no interests in Mo- rocco. But the opportunity was not one to be allowed to pass, and the Kaiser made a move that may have been in- tended as a "gesture" but was interpreted as a threat. Wilham II. in person went to Morocco to pay a visit to the Sultan, greeting him pointedly in a formal speech as an independent ruler whose country was neither monopolized nor annexed by another. "My visit is in recognition of this independence," de- clared the Kaiser, and France saw in the declaration a veiled threat to support the Sultan if his independence should be ignored. THE AGADIR INCIDENT 707 At that time, France's ally, Russia, was absorbed in wai- with Japan, and the French army had not yet recovered from the disorganization caused by the revelations of the Dreyfus affair. Furthermore, the doctrines of interna- tionalism had been spread throughout the country so that the national belief in the possibility of war had been so shaken that when a war cloud appeared terror reigned. Whether or not these doctrines had been taught then, as ten years later, by definite German propaganda, the result was a complete lack of both mental and material preparation for a war against an enemy always prepared, both mentally and physically, for any warlike opportunity. In the light of recent events, it looks as if France's interpretation of the Kaiser's visit was correct and Germany was both ready and waiting — waiting impatiently — to make Morocco the excuse for declaring war in 1905. France's position was further jeopardized by the knowl- edge in Germany of a despatch passed from the English to the French Foreign Office, which assured the French Govern- ment that the English Government was prepared to con- sider " the basis of an agreement likely to protect the mutual interests of England and France in case they should be endangered." A despatch of this wording bore such convincing testi- mony to the strength of the Entente that Germany's " mailed fist" was clenched in immediate rage, while she openly threatened to invade France if the British fleet steamed toward the Baltic. Pushing France still further, Germany, in spite of hav- ing no "interests" in Morocco, demanded "compensation" like Spain and Italy, and also called for the immediate res- ignation of Delcasse, since it was by the treaties of his ma- nipulation that she felt herself affronted and since he had favored mobilization in answer to the German threats. The Government was frankly frightened and did not support Delcasse. He was forced out of office in June and Premier Rouvier in person represented France at the Al- geciras Conference which met in Spain in 1906 to arrange the details of international cooperation in Morocco. The conference agreed that Morocco should be open to all nations ^. for trade, that an international bank should be established, 708 THE AGADIR INCIDENT and that the Sultan's independence should be recognized, France, however, having the responsibility of maintaining order in the turbulent realm. France and Spain were to share the duty of patrolling the waters along the Moroccan coast. The fact that the Sultan's subjects were far from obedient to him and that in putting down their not infrequent rebel- lions he called for assistance upon the country delegated to maintain order, gave France the opportunity of keeping troops in the country and of gradually approaching the goal she had in view — the establishing of a French pro- tectorate over Morocco. One step toward it was taken when French colonials in the coast town of Casablanca were attacked by Moroccans in 1907 and defended by a French warship which shelled the city. The Kaiser de- manded an apology for this action. Clemenceau, who was then Premier, replied tartly, " There will be no apology." His sturdy refusal secured for his country a definite diplo- matic gain, the recognition by Germany that France's was the dominant interest in Morocco. In 1909 she signed an acknowledgment of this recognition. Two years later, however, Germany took advantage of a local disturbance again to assail France, hoping either to crush her or to draw her into the war which she had hoped to declare in 1905 and which she finally thrust upon her in 1914. Picturesque Fez, home of . French officialdom, was at- tacked in the early part of 1911 during a rising of the native tribes. The siege demanded a concentration of French troops which were brought from other parts of the country and which succeeded in taking the city in May. Although Germany understood perfectly that the responsibility of the patrol rested on France and Spain, she pretended that the safety of her nationals was at stake, and sent a gun- boat. Panther, into the harbor of Agadir " to protect the per- sons and property of German subjects." This although there were no German subjects in Agadir ! Germany's meaning was unmistakable, but she emphasized it by re- placing the Panther by a much larger vessel, the armored cruiser, Berlin. War seemed imminent, especially as Germany turned a PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD WAR 709 deaf ear to all suggestions of reconciliation that did not admit her interests in Morocco to be equal to those of the French. Russia and England proved true to their treaty obligations. Mr. Asquith declared before the House of Com- mons England's loyalty to her ally, and said that if no settle- ment could be made between France and Germany, " Great Britain must become an active party to the situation." Mr. Balfour made it clear that the Opposition was patriotic before it was partisan. Germany saw a united Britain and did not like the sight. There was much diplomatic discus- sion whose outcome was the agreement of Germany, in November, 1911, to a French open-door protectorate over Morocco, Germany's "compensation" was given to her in the form of territory in the French Congo. The menacing bulk of the Berlin left Agadir at the end of the month, and in 1912 France announced to the world her protectorate over the disputed country of the Sultan. PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD WAR If the Kaiser's 1905 visit to the Sultan of Morocco was a "gesture," it was one of such threatening import that instant foreboding settled over France. Politicians understood at once all its implications; intellectuals began to search into causes ; financiers studied possibilities ; the peasants, intel- ligent, thrifty, conservative, replete with common sense, began to reconcile themselves to the thought of service in the army whose file they are. The French are analytical and logical. Conscious of their inherent soundness, they set themselves to discover why the impression had gone abroad that France was in a state of decadence. Leaving German propaganda on one side, they found certain defects and admitted them with their usual cold honesty. A disunited nation lacks strength. The '70's, the '80's, the '90's, even the opening years of the twentieth century, had seen the Republic attacked and reattacked. Whole- hearted support of the government had been infrequent and not lasting. Socialism had instilled theoretically admirable theories of brotherly love and pacifism which supplanted patriotism by internationalism, leaving the country without the inspira- 710 PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD .WAR tion of a consolidated national feeling when faced by a condition of external hostility' . Labor agitators had set one Social class against another to such an extent that the most disturbed laborers declared themselves men without a country. "We are perpetually exploited," they declared: "why should we care whether our exploiters are French or German?" Among these men were to be found the most fervent anti- militarists, and their vehement protests contributed to the general disorganization of the army due to the Dreyfus exposures, its exploitation by parties, its penetration by German propaganda, and the increasing belief of the people that the days of war had passed and that armies were obso- lescent institutions. If imperialism is justified, it is because it adds to the power and strength of the mother country ; French impe- rialists demanded territorial extension for commercial reasons. Optimism and religious faith were laughed at by the ever- vocal materialists as narrow-mindedness, yet this very laughter closed their eyes to real breadth of view, and without vision the people die. Every one of these points was emphasized and reiterated in much of the literature of the day — that literature so searching in psychological analysis and in descriptive power and so magnificently outfitted technically that it cannot be denied the name, yet so defective in any ability or even any attempt to present a healthy mental attitude toward life or to set in action the spiritual impulses. The Kaiser's "gesture" startled France into immediate regeneration. As aristocracy was the parent of feudalism, so democracy is the parent of nationalism. When a man feels that his country is his own to work for and to celebrate, then his duty and his love go out to it and the elemental instinct of protection springs to life upon threat of attack. The altruism of internationalism goes down before it. Would you defend your neighbor's wife before you defend your own ? NO ! And so this teaching of Socialism began to meet opposition even though the party itself, through accessions in the cities, increased from eight hundred seventy- eight thousand in 1906 to one million five hundred thousand in 1914, and the seats in Parliament from fifty-four to one PREPARATION FOR THE WORLD WAR 711 hundred two. This representation has been reversed ahnost exactly by the election of 1919, which returned only fifty- five Socialists. With war definitely threatening, the anti-military spirit began to encounter opposition. Nobody wanted war ; many persisted in believing that it would never come even so late as 1913, when, in January, the Municipal Council of Paris decided to destroy the outer fortifications, even though the Saverne (Zabern) incident in the same year showed that the German treatment of the one-time French in the conquered provinces was premeditated. When a crippled cobbler in Saverne was attacked by a German officer who went practi- cally unrebuked for the offence, it might have seemed a com- mon enough brutality except for its agreement with what looked like a settled policy toward the French sympathizers of the district. "French sympathizers" — for Germany was colonizing here, a fact which explains her recent eagerness to leave the fate of Alsace and Lorraine to a referendum. Later in the year, not only Socialists but numbers of other parties fought desperately against the bill raising the term of military service from two years to three. But the far- sighted, even though they saw Bellona as in the small end of the telescope, were determined to be not entirely without preparation to receive her. The proposed measure was introduced as a means of increasing the size of the army, there being no hope of doing so through the natural growth of population. The natural growth of population in France, before the war's terrible depletions, was extremely small. Enlargement came rather from immigration — chiefly of Belgians and Italians — than from a constantly increasing birthrate. The size of families decreases w4th advance of prosperity and the French, before the war, were prosperous. Even the peasants object to large families because of the law of inheritance which would compel an undesirable sub- division of the land. Measures to encourage larger families are under discussion now, but before 1914 it was asserted that Germany's birthrate in two months equalled that of France in five years. The Three Years' Service bill was passed, but only after the most strenuous contest. The reorganization of the army went on with thoroughness following upon its purging after the Dreyfus affair. 712 PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION Except for some advance in social and labor legislation, not much was done or could be done to change the attitude of the workingman whose hatred of the government was rooted in his belief that it favored the capitalists. The anti- militarists worked in opposition to the country whose rela- tionship to themselves they ignored even after it was plunged in the horrors of war, but laborers in general did their part in speeding up production necessary for the carrying on of defence, and, incidentally, prospered financially as their brothers in the trenches most assuredly did not. The more subtle manifestations of national disability — commercialism, materialism — began to be combated through a conscious literary propaganda which preached the substitution of service for country rather than for self, of patriotism rather than partisanship, of a generous outlook upon life for the parching processes of materialism and pure intellectualism. From the naturalism of the last decade of the nineteenth century, which claimed to be scientific and was in reality vulgar, there has come a reaction incident upon the realization that the outer world was believing that the French were actually as cynical, as loose in thought and action as they said they were in their dramas and their novels. When the Frenchman, with whom the family is almost a cult, discovered that he had only himself to thank for the general foreign belief that married life is endurable for him only as it is made piquant by adulterj^ he began to realize that "art for art's sake" was a poor slogan and to change the tone of his output. PBOPOBTIONAIi REPRESENTATION Anti-clericalism having secured a certain increasing unity, there began with the presidency of Fallieres (1906-1913) a struggle to gain proportional representation. In the opinion of its adherents, this system was calculated to increase national feeling in the electorate. Aristide Briand was pledged to it when he became Premier, and a large number of deputies won their seats in the election of 1910 because they favored it. The Senate, however, in 1912, killed a bill em- bodying it that had been passed by the House of Deputies. Fallieres was succeeded by Raymond Poincare (1914-1920) and the world struggle that began soon after his indue- 191^ 713 tion into office absorbed every energy of the country. Yet proportional representation never was forgotten, and in 1919, the days of fighting being merged in the days of the Armis- tice, a bill was passed that introduced a modified form of proportional representation and brought back the scrutin de liste which had not been employed since 1885. This law went into effect first in the election of November, 1919. 1914 If Germany believed that she had let slip opportunities favorable to her when she did not declare war in 1905 and 1911, she was wide awake to the internal conditions of her neighbors in 1914, although time has shown that her inter- pretations of those conditions and their effects were hope- lessly lacking in penetration. Germany was right, however, in recognizing that the other nations of Europe were not eager for war. She herself had participated in the Hague Peace Conferences, surprisingly called into being by the Czar of Russia in 1898 and meeting in 1899 and 1907, and had seen that it was only a matter of time before the representatives there gathered would pro- ceed from the making of a code regulating the laws of war- fare to the offering of some practical solution of the limita- tion of armaments. It was not unnatural that she should conclude that most of her rivals would do a great deal to avoid war, especially as she knew by experience that the Socialists, ever increasing in other countries as in her own, were busily preaching a pacifism which even her stern mili- taristic rule found it hard to counterbalance. England she saw embroiled with Ireland with more than the usual fervor injected into that perennial struggle, while the militant suffragettes made the conservative Briton hesitate to open his morning paper. Social insurance was being discussed, and a movement to break up large estates and bring about a more general distribution of land was under way. Russia, too, was struggling with questions concerning the land, and the discontent of her social and political revolu- tionaries was more than simmering. Italy, which had just witnessed an extraordinary electoral reform which greatly increased the number of her voters, 714 19U was finding that political advance had not satisfied her people, and that she must inaugurate taxation and housing reforms by way of conciliation of the labor element. France was known by Germany to have a small but con- sistently anti-Republican element in the clericals and roy- alists, an element of socially increasing though politically lessening power in the pacifist Socialists, and questions of absorbing importance on which the country was strongly divided in proportional representation and Three Years' Service. Furthermore, the trial of Madame Caillaux, wife of a former Premier, for the murder of Gaston Calmette, editor of Le Figaro, caused such a taking of sides throughout the length and breadth of France that to the outside world it looked as if civil war were imminent. As this case, on the surface an act of a drame passionel, dear to the Parisian journalist, was presented at the trial it appeared that Cal- mette, in a campaign against Caillaux, who was then Min- ister of the Treasury, published letters exchanged between the Caillaux before their marriage. Madame Caillaux, wishing to put a stop to such publication, went to M. Cal- mette's office and demanded that he return the letters to her. Upon his refusal, she shot him. Evidently the jury seemed to think that a woman had a right to resort to extreme measures in defence of her reputation, and they acquitted the defendant. Many ardent Frenchmen agreed with them. But now, in 1919, these same Frenchmen are faced by dis- closures that the letters that Madame Caillaux tried to re- trieve were not love letters but communications between her husband and Germany at the time of the Agadir incident — correspondence whose existence constituted a part of the treason for which Caillaux is now awaiting trial. Naturally, the prosecution did not want this fact to become known, since it would have been the cue for Germany to fly to arms. Madame Caillaux trusted to this reticence, and won her freedom thereby. Her husband's day of reckoning was postponed. But the "case" played its part in the bringing on of the war. Germany also believed the French to be a decadent people, France a moribund state. She had influential allies, it was true, but Russia was a clumsy giant for whose military power THE EXCUSE FOR WAR 715 the "efficient" Teutons had a hearty contempt. Germany proposed sooner or later to attack and finish Russia in record time, thereby frightening France into a poHcy of "hands off," though she intended to make assurance doubly sure by taking over the chief frontier fortresses, Verdun and Toul, by way of hostage. As for England — after all, the Entente was only a gentleman's agreement, and what is that in time of pressure! Of course "perfidious Albion" might be counted upon not to risk the lives of her " contemptible little army." What Germany did not know was that France was a nation reborn, awaiting only the summons that was to make her understand her strength ; that in Poincare she had a president whose threat to dissolve the Chamber if its members touched the Three Years' Bill was no mere shake of the fist but the expression of a man of real power ; that the common danger would rouse the patriotism in every heart, even those of the outspoken anti-militarists, anti-Republicans, and the Oppo- sition. THE EXCUSE FOB WAR Knowing herself to be ready to the last shoe-string and believing that her prospective opponents were unready both in spirit and material, Germany awaited only an excuse, an "incident," to press the button for the call to mobilization. Such an incident came on June 28, 1914, in the assassina- tion at Sarajevo, Bosnia, of the Austrian Archduke, Francis Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and of his wife. The assassins were two Bosnians who wished to register their objection to Austria's treatment of the Jugo- slavs. The Austro-Hungarian Government was not so inured to trouble in the conglomerate membership of the nation that it was not sensitive to this almost continual effervescence of the Slavic population. The cause of dis- turbance was in Serbia, it believed, and it asserted that the assassination was the outcome of a Serbian plot. On the 23d of July the Austrian Foreign Minister sent an ultimatum to Serbia insisting that the Serbian Government take a high hand with anti-Austrian propaganda ; that it suppress all organizations engaged in such propaganda, together with their "literature"; that the schools be purged of all anti- 716 THE LAST WEEK OF JULY, 1914 Austrian teachers and text-books ; that any anti-Austrians in' government employ be discharged ; that two Serbian officers, mentioned by name, be immediately put under arrest ; that Serbia accept Austrian collaboration in the handling of the propaganda situation, and that Serbia accept Austrian help in dealing with the assassination of the Archduke and Arch- duchess. Only forty-eight hours were allowed for an answer to be made to these domineering demands. In spite of the brevity of this period, Serbia made ready reply, conceding all the points except the last two, which, she declared, she could not yield without resigning her sovereignty. She offered to submit the question to the Hague Tribunal or to lay it before a conference of the Great Powers. In reply, Austria demanded the acceptance of her ulti- matum without reservation. Russia, interpreting the ulti- matum as a threat from Teuton to Slav, insisted that the matter be taken to the Hague, and declared that if this method of settlement should not be conceded and Austria should invade Serbia, she would at once mobilize her army. Germany, supporting Austria, announced that against such action by Russia she would retaliate by mobilizing not only against Russia but against Russia's ally, France. THE LAST WEEK OF JULY, 1914 All this happened within three days. On July 26th, the English Government, speaking through Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, urged a conference of the Great Powers, England, France, Italy, and Germany, to try to find some solution for the difficulty. Germany refused. Two days later, on July 28th, Austria declared war on Serbia, the first of the long series of such declarations due to involve practically the entire earth in the horrors of a world conflagration. Russia did not hesitate to come at once to the help of her small neighbor. On July 29th, she ordered mobilization against Austria. Germany made good her threat to mo- bilize against Russia and France. Once more England tried to mediate. Russia agreed to put a stop to her mobilization, provided Austria would not insist upon the last two articles of her ultimatum to Serbia. WAR 717 Germany, answering for Austria, refused to listen. Sazonov, the Russian Foreign Minister, then offered not to speed Rus- sia's mobilization, provided Austria advance no farther upon Serbian soil and lay the whole matter before a conference of the Great Powers. Again Germany refused. Germany's plan was to force Russia into a situation in which she would be obliged to declare mobilization against Germany, and then to pretend that, as the Kaiser asserted, speaking to the people of Berlin from the palace balcony, "the weapons have been thrust into our hands." England pierced the German pretence of desiring peace by announcing that she would not uphold her allies if they were unwilling to discuss "possible" peace proposals. Instead of offering such proposals, Germany demanded from Russia the can- cellation of her mobilization against both Austria and Ger- many. This was on July 31st. As Russia let the demand go unanswered, Germany declared war on Russia on the next day, August 1st, 1914. WAR Being entirely blind to the spiritual regeneration that had taken place in France, Germany thought that she could again bully her as she had bullied her at the time of the Moroccan affair. If she were insane enough to accept war, it would be a matter of only a few days before she would be put out of the running, leaving her opponent free to use her forces in Russia unhampered by the thought of a foe behind her. If she should think discretion the better part of valor and declare her neutrality, Germany would cripple her by demanding as a pledge of her good faith the custody of her two strongest fortresses, Verdun and Toul. With no doubt of the ultimate outcome, then, Germany demanded to know of France what her action would be. When her answer indicated that she considered it her duty to uphold her ally, Russia, Germany declared war against France, on August 3d, 1914, and set into motion plans for immediate invasion. Of vital interest to Great Britain was war between Ger- many, her long-time trade rival, and France, her nearest neighbor. Germany, equipped with the largest land fighting force in the world, was eager to try her strength against any 718 THE VIOLATION OF BELGIUM other nation or group of nations on the European Continent, but she preferred not to clash with the immense sea force of England if she could conciliate her into a state of neutrality. So when the Foreign Office demanded of Germany what her intentions were with regard to France, if she should be again victorious. Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, realizing that England would seriously object to having the western frontier of Germany moved nearer to the Channel, replied that Germany had no intention of increasing her Continental territory at France's expense. England was left to infer that there would be no backwardness in the handling of the French colonies. THE VIOLATION OF BELGIUM While the wires were hot with this interchange, Germany was betaking herself, in the person of an interminable train of gray-green soldiers, toward France by the shortest route — that which would pass through Belgium. Now Belgium was a neutralized state — so declared in 1839 by a treaty signed by Belgium, Russia, France, Great Britain, Austria, ^nd Prussia. By this treaty Belgium agreed to maintain her neutral status by never making any treaty of alliance herself and by never permitting her neu- trality to be violated. Because of this agreement, Sir Edward Grey, on July 31st, inquired of both France and Germany their intentions toward Belgium. France replied promptly that she intended to respect its neutrahty. Ger- many, although Prussia, the parent state of the German Empire, had been a signatory to this treaty of guardianship, made an evasive answer, and followed it on August 2d by notifying Belgium that as France intended to invade Bel- gium, Germany must, in self-defence, anticipate her action by passing through Belgium to enter France. She tried to bribe the little country to inaction by offering indemnity if her progress were not interrupted, and threatened her with war if she refused. To the infinite surprise of Germany and the admiration of all the world which held in respect fidelity to a given word, Albert, King of the Belgians, replied that his country could not in honor fail to resist any attempted violation of her neutrality. On August 4th, German troops crossed the THE PARTICIPANTS 719 frontier, and on the same day Great Britain declared war against Germany. In spite of her preparedness and her efficiency, Germany was not incapable of making mistakes. One had been her erroneous opinion about France's condition of degeneracy. Another was her idea that no one, England least of all, would really object to German violation of the neutrality of helpless little Luxembourg, whose young Grand Duchess, on August 1st, drew her motor car across the road to repulse the invader by a futile gesture ; and of Belgium, whose border forts Germany considered to be an equally futile gesture. But the violation of Belgium lost Germany not only the neutrality of England but of many other countries that might have been neutrals if not friends, and, in a sense, it lost her the war on the very first day. The Chancellor's callous admission that his country had violated international law and his scorn of England for making war over a "scrap of paper" — the treaty of 1839 — brought on his head and that of his country the contempt, disgust, and opposition of a large portion of the civilized world who might have been content to remain on the sidelines during a war carried on with a decent obedience to traditions of honor and humanity. Germany has not been without a defence for her action. She has said that she suspected an Anglo-Belgian under- standing against Germany and that papers discovered in Brussels after the Germans took possession proved it. But King Albert has returned that Germany was told of this arrangement at the time it was made ; and that England, as one of the signers of the 1839 treaty, was under obligation to support Belgium against any opponent, no matter who it might be. THE PARTICIPANTS During the succeeding weeks declarations of war followed one another rapidly — Austria and Russia, Montenegro and Austria, Montenegro and Germany, Serbia and German}, France and Austria on August 10th, Great Britain and Austria, Japan and Germany, Austria and Japan, Austria and Belgium, Russia and Turkey, France and Turkey on November 5th, Great Britain and Turkey. On May 23d, 1915, Italy broke with Austria and Germany with Italy. Later 720 MOBILIZATION IN FRANCE adhesions to the cause of the AlUes came from the Balkans, South, Central, and North America until the number of nations opposed to the Central Powers reached more than a score. MOBILIZATION IN FRANCE While Liege was enduring the terrific bombardment that crumbled her supposedly impregnable fortresses and allowed the entrance of the enemy on August 7th, France was showing the world, and perhaps surprising herself in doing so, that she had changed vitally from the France that so little appre- ciated its condition in 1870 that it airily cried, " On to Berlin ! " with no thought of meeting opposition. If mobilization did not proceed with the clockwork regularity of mobilization in Germany, where every man had been sleeping for a long time within arm's reach of his uniform, it did proceed swiftly and according to plan. Paris, in 1870 the background of countless scenes of hysterical excitement, was orderly and even calm. It was as if the people drew a long breath of relief now that the long-awaited blow had at last fallen, and steeled themselves to endure what must follow. If some of the younger element made demonstrations before shops known to belong to Germans, most of the small business men donned their uniforms, shuttered their boutiques, affixed signs stating simply, "Closed because of the mobilization," and departed straightway for the point of i-endezwu^. Fathers of families made arrangements to send their wives and chil- dren into the country or to the coast, old men and young women took up the occupations laid down by the departing soldiers, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were driven within the city limits and gathered in the parks by way of food supply for those who must remain within the precincts during the siege that seemed imminent. The town changed overnight from a Ville Lumiere to a sombre city whose dark- ness was lighted only by the flashing of lights searching the sky for airplanes. ENTRANCE OF ENGLAND In spite of the superbly heroic stand made by the Belgians, the German army moved irresistibly on. Stories of atroc- ities committed against the civilian population of Belgium ENTRANCE OF ENGLAND 721 were swiftly transmitted to the French and steeled them to defend their country and themselves to the utmost. Their soldiers reinforced the Belgians and awaited with anxious hope the arrival of the British expeditionary force. This small army, under General Sir John French, landed in France on August 16th, and went into action under the inspiration of the thankful greetings given them by their grateful former enemies. August 20th marked the day it entered Brussels, which saved its population by making no resistance. On August 22d and 23d it overcame its foes at Namur and Mons and Charleroi, and on August 25th it destroyed Louvain with its priceless library. Pushed back as they were, not slowly, but miles and miles every day, it seemed to the onlooking world as if the morale of the French must succumb before the apparently inevitable loss of their proud city with its two thousand years of mag- nificent tradition. Yet at just this time, with their govern- ment removed to Bordeaux (September 3d), with General von Kluck pressing them back to within fifteen miles of Paris (on September 7th), at the moment when they might have saved themselves by renouncing their allies, the French, on September 5th, signed a treaty with the English and the Russians, agreeing not to make a separate peace. Within a year there was begun a monument to mark the exact spot of the nearest approach — a cross-roads between Barcy and Chambry. On the same day, like an ironic comment upon this treaty, the Germans captured Rheims, whose cathedral, now ruined, once the handsomest in France, had seen the sacring of all her kings but three from PhiKp Augustus down through the centuries. Yet France was far from giving up hope. When she gives her faith she gives it wholeheartedly. She had made General Joffre Commander-in-Chief and she believed in him, although what he had to do was to work a miracle. THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE And he worked the miracle. During the heart-breaking days of the retreat there was gathering in Paris in urgent haste an army destined to overthrow the German plans for a swift attack and conquest. The days when the roads of France were to be covered by endless trains of motor trucks 722 BATTLE OF THE MARNE — camions — were still in the future, but General Gallieni, in charge of the defence of the city, and General Manoury, at the head of this new army, were not without resource. Paris boasted a sizable fleet of taxicabs. Into each were loaded four soldiers and forth they drove to the battle of the Marne, using their vehicles as barracks and mess halls when they reached the field. General von Kluck was forced to turn about to meet them ; General Foch kept the attention of the centre of the German line, and in the Battle of the Marne, which took place during the ensuing four days (September 6th to 10th), the Germans were forced to retrace their steps, pursued now instead of pin-suing. Further, General Joffre's delay had given Russia time to engage the German atten- tion on the Eastern Front, so that a considerable force had to be diverted from the West. This victory at the Marne assured France that she never would be conquered. There were dark days afterwards — many of them — but the poilus, weary with four days of fighting, were nevertheless so heartened, so filled with con- fidence, that their faith electrified the entire country. REMOVAL OF THE GOVERNMENT The removal of the government to Bordeaux was a repetition of what had happened during the Franco-Prussian War and was a measure taken to deprive the possible capture of Paris of any political significance. The ministry, ap- pointed on August 26th, was selected as a Cabinet of National Defence, and included strong men of varying political be- liefs, now unified on the conduct of the war. The outstand- ing names are Premier, Viviani; Foreign Affairs, Delcasse; Justice, Briand ; Interior, Malvy ; War, Millerand ; and "without portfolio," Guesde. Bordeaux continued to figure as the seat of government only for three months, the over- past danger permitting the officials to return on December 9th, 1914. Not so fortunate was the experience of Belgium, On October 13th the Belgian government took up its abode in Le Havre, France, where it remained until after the end of the war. THE RACE FOR THE COAST 723 THE RACE FOR THE COAST Belgium was still the chief scene of struggle, and after the Battle of the Marne, both victors and defeated hurried to take possession of the country between Arras and the sea. The Germans captured Antwerp on October 9th, but they were unable to take Calais, Dunkirk, and Nieuport, impor- tant towns on the coast, nor were they ever able to capture them. This was a great hindrance to them and a great advantage for the Allies. In no previous war had there been so long a battle line or battles of such long duration. When the Germans retreated from the Marne they went back to the Aisne and there they did not depend on the conformation of the country for pro- tection, as the generals of Napoleon's day would have done, but on trenches. WAR METHODS If there are any who still think that France and England were prepared for the war in material matters, they have only to compare the equipment and early methods of the op- posing armies to be undeceived. The French were to learn by stern experience their need to be independent even of "strategic" railroads through the substitution of motor trucks. While camions were being made in quantities, Paris motor-buses, inappropriately marked Madeleine-Bastille or Clichy-Odeon, transported the poilus to the front, where the vehicles were parked, so to speak, until needed. The British even sent London omnibuses across the Channel, and one of the bits of that humor that will crop out even in such days of horror is of a Tommy on the march forward who recognized the number of a 'bus beside the road and waved his hand at it, explaining to his comrades, "That's the old girl I used to drive to 'Ammersmith." The French were to learn to be independent of the food of the country or of the stationary camp through the use of rolling kitchens, ever ready to give front line men hot food. They were to gain "low visibility" by the banishment of the beloved " pantalon rouge," and the removal of every button and bit of bright braid whose glint might make an officer a shining mark to the foe. They were to substitute silence for the ruffle of 724 WAR METHODS drums, inconspicuousness for the flutter of banners, and open formation for the advance of masses. In the early days of the war the newspapers reported the appearance of German Uhlans, mounted troops, and ia gallant charge by the Scots in the good old style with one man in the saddle and a gillie hanging at each stirrup strap. But the cavalry soon went into the discard, the cavalrymen becoming machine gunners and the aviators taking their places as the "eyes of the army." Bandsmen became stretcher bearers, though they had an occasional chance to practise their art in the towns of the SOS (Service of Support). Many of these changes were necessary because of new artillery development. When machine guns can spray an advancing force with a thousand shots a minute, it is madness to offer them a solid target of mass formation or of horsemen. When nests of machine guns are dominating the landscape, a man's ability to dig himself in swiftly with his entrenching tool is what saves his life until the time comes to charge and silence the nests. W^hen an apparently unoccupied plain is in reality alive with burrowing men observing positions and telephoning instructions to artillery situated invisibly so far in the rear that the gunners never see the results of their shots, it is folly to attract the eye or the ear of an attentive enemy. One of the German surprises was an immense gun, nick- named by the French "Big Bertha," which shelled Paris from a distance estimated to be from sixty to seventy miles. The French standby was the seventy-five centimetre gun, a small, easily handled cannon which did invaluable service. TRENCHES The greatest innovation of all was the institution of trench warfare. Every German soldier was practised in the digging of trenches. The elaborate German trenches, tim- bered, if need be, sometimes made of concrete, often ex- tending many feet beneath the surface, occasionally with good-sized rooms furnished with easy-chairs, rugs, and musical instrument for luxurious officers, and equipped with telephones and electric lights put to the blush the ill-made because theretofore unconsidered allied trenches wherein the men stood up to their knees in water or crouched in stiffening WAR METHODS 725 positions because a quick digging of long trenches was more necessary at the moment than the preparation of satisfac- torily protecting ones. Even the trenches on the Aisne, to which the Germans retreated after their defeat at the Marne, were ready to receive the weary, gray-green men and give them some measure of shelter and repose. It was then that the Allies learned the need of them and how to make them. As the war went on the trenches on the Western Front extended from the English Channel to Switzerland, a dis- tance of some three hundred miles. Their lay-out became more and more intricate. Their course was never in one direction for more than a few feet, so that they might not be enfiladed; they were reached by communication trenches, and often an elaborate "system" permitted approach to the front line trenches under complete protection for many miles. Food and ammunition were brought forward through them, and the wounded were carried away through the same channels. On the side toward the enemy the tops were edged with sand bags, and before them for sometimes a hundred feet or more barbed wire entanglements, sometimes electrified, made passage difficult for either friend or foe. Every trench fighter was furnished with a wire cutter. Before an attack- ing party went " over the top," it was necessary for ways to be cut through the home wire by wire-cutting parties who effected this preparation during the hours of darkness, and for the enemy's wire to be battered down by effective artil- lery fire. THE BARRAGE This artillery fire often took the form of a " barrage " or curtain of fire which rolled slowly forward, protecting the men advancing across No Man's Land and driving the foe into the safety of their trenches and dug-outs. THE INTERMEDIATE SPACE No Man's Land was of varying widths, sometimes being only thirty feet wide. When the distance was greater, trenches ran forward like spurs, at their ends "listening posts" where guards waited alertly and in silence for any movement that they might telephone back to the infor- mation dug-out. 726 WAR METHODS On the first Christmas Day of the war, hostilities ceased for several hours on some parts of the line while men tossed cigarettes and chocolate across to each other and sang Christmas hymns — only to take up their weapons again as fiercely as ever after this tribute to the Prince of Peace. HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING Trench warfare brought back into favor an old weapon, the hand grenade. The rifle was of little service during the time when days sometimes went by without the sight of an enemy, but the grenade might be thrown from trench to trench when the distance was not great, and it was a most destructive supplement of the barrage. When the curtain passed beyond the forward trench the refugees emerged to meet the enemy they knew was coming, and the threat of the grenade proved an incentive to a prompt appearance. The use of the grenade was but one of several forms of hand-to-hand fighting which the use of the rifle had made infrequent in recent wars. The bayonet and the knife once more resumed an important place in the soldier's armament. ARMOR To meet hand-to-hand attacks body armor appeared once again in breastplates and leg shields, while all soldiers within the range of shell fixe wore steel helmets as a defence against the shrapnel — bullets and bits of metal — with which the explosive shells were filled. APPLICATIONS OP THE GASOLINE ENGINE The development of the gasoline engine as a military adjunct was one of the marked features of the war. It was useful in countless machines from the motorcycles of the despatch riders to the camions of the supply and transpor- tation trains, the ambulances, the Headquarters' and Quar- termasters' cars, the armored cars that did guerilla work on their own account, the "tanks," heavy and light, which moved awkwardly but irresistibly across country, and their opposites in speed and grace, the airplanes that darted grace- fully about overhead, investigating the enemy's terrain, equipment, and movements, and bringing back, perhaps WAR METHODS 1^ after a fight with an enemy airman, information and photo- graphs. Larger planes were used for bombing, and the Germans used for that purpose dirigible balloons, called 'after their inventor, Zeppelins. CAMOUFLAGE As in the days of the Franco-Prussian War, the stationary balloon had its place for observation purposes. To deceive its observers as well as the many other sharp eyes glued to field glasses, the art of camouflage was evolved to a be- wildering extent. A sniper became a male-dryad, a cottage was converted into a haystack, hedges made of boughs fastened to netting concealed roads or railway lines, a death- dealing cannon could not be distinguished from the most harmless clump of bushes. POISON GAS The Germans used their intelligence and their scientific knowledge to the utmost in devising new methods of attack. One of these, contrary to all the Hague conventions con- cerning the infliction of unnecessary suffering, was the use of poison gas. When the wind was in the right direction, there were turned upon the enemy waves of gas which burned out his lungs, or made him weep so that he could do no effective work. The continued use of this weapon forced the Allies to employ it also, and both sides invented masks supplied with chemicals which neutralized the gas. THE NAVIES On sea the Germans made increasing use of the submarine, their main fleet emerging but once from the Kiel Canal dur- ing the entire war, then to fight with the British and lose the Battle of Jutland. The British took care of the waters around the British Isles, and the French of the Mediter- ranean. THE NUMBERS ENGAGED In numbers the German army stood easily at the head of all the combatants, her war footing over five million men. To this number Austria-Hungary added over two million, Turkey about one million, and 13ulgaria about two 728 ON THE EASTERN FRONT hundred thousand, the total of the effectives of the Central Powers being well over eight million. The Entente Powers listed — France, about three million men; Great Britain, the "contemptible" army of two hun- dred fifty thousand ; Russia, one million five hundred thou- sand. Japan's army of a million was not available for Europe ; Italy's entrance into the war was delayed but added one million five hundred thousand when she did join the Allies ; and the United States had but ninety thousand when she declared war, but like England, increased her force to four million. The South American and Central American countries did not send their armies to Europe, their declara- tions of war being more for the purpose of showing their sympathies, though they were all prepared to offer assist- ance if needed. In naval strength England led the rest, with Germany second, the United States third, and France, Japan, Russia, Italy, and Austria-Hungary following in order. ON THE EASTERN FRONT While the French, the British, and the Belgians were fighting in Belgium and northern France, there was much movement of importance on the Eastern Front. Russia pushed into East Prussia, and after several victories sur- prising and discomforting to the Germans, was pushed back again before the month of August, 1914, was out. She had better fortune in Galicia, where she had completely con- quered the Austrians by March of 1915. But General von Hindenburg drove the Russians out of Poland, Warsaw fall- ing on, August 4th, 1915, and as far back as Riga. During May and June, General von Mackensen expelled the Russians from Galicia. The high adventure of the Dardanelles occupied from February to December, 1915, resulting in the loss of many ships and men to the French and British, and in the enforced relinquishment of a plan that was to win the Balkan States to the Allies as well as to give them command of the ap- proaches to the Near East. Italy was .bound by the agreement of the Triple Alliance to aid Germany and Austria in case of a defensive war. Deciding that this war was offensive on the part of her allies, THE FIRST YEAR 729 she abandoned them and gave her allegiance to the Entente, declaring war on her old-time enemy, Austria, on May 23d, 1915. THE FIRST YEAR With the coming of the winter of 1914-1915, the enemies opposed each other in the immovable trench warfare that hardly deserved the name of fighting, so lacking was it in the dash that has always been associated with that occupation. The refugees from the little villages along the Marne, ham- lets too small to be on any map, had returned to find out the extent of their losses. Paris had grown accustomed to the sight of women guards on the busses and the underground, women cab drivers, women street cleaners and letter carriers and telegram deliverers. The servant problem was acute, for thirty thousand women were making ammunition, thirty thousand more were mending the soldiers' shoes. Another thirty thousand were repairing uniforms, for the cloth fac- tories were doing other work and there was need to make the old clothes last as long as possible before the new hori- zon blue could be ready. Many women who fled to the country as the Germans came near the city remained to work on the farms. The "Metro" stopped running early in the evening, so the theatres were closed, and when, after many months they opened, it was for matinees, with only an occasional evening performance. Because of the scant lighting of the streets and bridges, due to a desire to escape the observation of German airplanes and also to the necessity for saving coal, the "circulation" of vehicles and pedestrians was negligible. Restaurants closed at ten. Hotels shut their doors to visitors, most of them transformed into hospitals for the wounded sent back from the front for medical or surgical care. The manufacture and sale of absinthe was forbidden. In October, 1914, a "Taube," flying over Paris, let fall bombs, one of which did some damage, fortunately insig- nificant, to Notre Dame Cathedral, and another, intended for the Bourse, fell into the street beside the building. In March of the following year a Zeppelin paid a visit to the town. Altogether, counting the soldiers who left the city for the 730 UNIFICATION army as well as the refugees, Paris was reduced by about thirty-five per cent of the population — approximately a million people. About half of that number had filtered back a year later. With a battle line extending southward to the Vosges, not a section of France was untouched by the fate that had befallen it. If those in the North lost their all in the destruction of the villages, if those in the occupied portions lost their freedom, if the country lost the use of the coal and iron and manu- factures of which it never had stood in greater need, the country to the south was also making its sacrifices. In the Vosges the French captured Hartmannsweilerkopf at the end of March, 1915, but lost it a month later by seeming ex- change for Les Eparges. All over France were training camps, hospitals, cantines, factories, shelters for refugees. Even in the corners the most remote from the fighting every one was working to win the war. The milkman gave his horse, the grandmothers and tiny girls knitted, strong women worked in the fields. No one stayed at home but those incapacitated from going. Even the priests donned uniforms, let their beards grow, and read the office at burials, distinguished from their comrades only by the stole over the horizon blue. With the return of the wounded came the cruel story of what had passed — of the new attacks by gas that found defenceless its first victims (in the second battle of Ypres, April 22d-May 13th, 1915) and killed them by a lingering torture ; of the attacks by flame jetting from con- tainers worn on soldiers' backs. UNIFICATION Out of the horror was coming an increased feeling of national unity. France was not fighting from national hatred or for revenge because of the war of 1870. No more eloquent words than those of Premier Viviani, speaking to the Chamber of Deputies at the end of December, 1914, can be found to express the invincible purpose that was animating the people : — If this contest is the most gigantic ever recorded in history, it is not because the people are hurling themselves into warfare to conquer territory, to win enlargement of material life, and economic 1915 731 and political advantages, but because they are struggling to deter- mine the fate of the world. Nothing greater has ever appeared before the vision of man. That is the stake. It is greater than our lives. Let us continue then to have but one united spirit, and to- morrow, in the peace of victory, we will recall with pride these days of tragedy, for they will have made us more valorous and better men, 1915 On the 7th of May, 1915, came the torpedoing, without warning, of the Atlantic Uner, Lusitania, and this uncalled- for murder of non-combatants steeled the hearts of such — if indeed there were any outside the Central Powers — as had been left untouched by the fate of Belgium. It added another testimony to those previously given concerning the new military attitude already displayed in Belgium and the occupied portions of northern France. Certain French vic- tories in Artois, notably, near Arras, had been encouraging for the moment, but were of no lasting importance. In Alsace the French, after their first gains, advanced only by nibbles. In the Argonne they were obliged to withdraw. News from Russia was increasingly discouraging. England, after her first eager response, seemed a long time getting under way. SOURCE OF THE FRENCH STRENGTH Yet the French soul was undaunted. The French are an intuitional people with a sensitiveness that is united with common sense, not with dreaminess. Their common sense told them that although preparedness and every power of science was against them, a spirit such as theirs cannot be beaten. Spirit dominates matter. Verdun proved it. This is what Germany never has been able to understand. On Bastile Day of 1915, when the ashes of Rouget de Lisle, author of the "Marseillaise," were carried under the Arc de Triomphe to a final resting place in the Invalides, President Poincare said : " There is not one of our soldiers, there is not a single citizen, there is not a woman in France who does not understand clearly that the whole future of our race and not only its honor but its very existence hang on the weighty moments of this inexorable war." And, in conclusion, he summed up the feeling of the entire country : " Final peace will be the reward of moral force and perseverance." 732 SOURCE OF THE FRENCH STRENGTH The attitude of the French soldier toward his duty is one of the reasons for his efficiency. He is not "smart" in ap- pearance ! French uniforms are made for comfort, not for looks ! and he is called a poilu because of his disinclination for the razor. But he has something better than a smart appearance. In the first place, his is a democratic army. A vicomte of the old regime may be a corporal and the hus- band of his children's nursemaid may be a captain. An officer will not hesitate to give a cigarette to a poilu nor a poilu to ask a light from mon capitaine. This real comrade- ship makes for mutual respect, and the respect paid the poilu is not confined to homage for his physical courage. His intelligence is both appreciated and utilized. Every French soldier knows not only the principles for which he is fighting, and his immediate objective ; he is taken more into the confidence of his superiors ; he knows what his company is going to try for, and the purpose of his regiment's move, even, perhaps, the divisional plan. The result is that he is able to coordinate his work and in addition he feels the influx of interest that follows upon playing an intelligent and not a machine part. IN CHAMPAGNE It was an example of this feeling of personal responsi- bility that occurred during the French September-October offensive of 1915 in Champagne. General Marchand, hero of the Fashoda incident, was in command of a division. To General de Langle de Gary he said in the presence of the troops, "Mon general, on the day of the attack we shall reach Navarin Farm within an hour." This meant that his men must cover two miles of German trenches and forti- fications of various sorts in a possible but not at all a prob- able time. Yet the poilv^ felt that they must make good their leader's promise, and within the sixty minutes they attained their objective. Besides honoring their general's word they honored him as a man. He was seriously wounded in this charge as he led, stick in hand and pipe in mouth. The Champagne offensive, as had been true in Artois not long before, consisted of a number of small victories. The struggle covered a front of twenty-five kilometres. It netted 1916 733 a goodly number of prisoners and a rich store of military material, but it failed to pierce the German lines, and so was not of lasting value. THE NEAR EAST Italy had declared war against Austria in May, 1915. She was a valuable assistant to the Allies, especially as the Balkan situation was tense and the sending of any large force to the Near East would have been a serious loss to the Western Front. Italy became at once engaged with Austria, but stood ready to help farther to the East. In October, 1915, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and at once invaded Serbia. The little country was also attacked by a German and Austrian army, and was soon blotted from the map. The northern part of Albania was also conquered. King Nicholas of Montenegro, an aged but vigorous figure of Homeric lines, fighting in his sheepskin coat and then composing a song about the battle, was ousted from his tiny kingdom. A small Anglo-French army marched north from Greece to Serbia's assistance, but was repulsed and retreated to Saloniki. The failure of this campaign overthrew Viviani, who was succeeded as Premier on October 29, 1915, by Aristide Briand. By King Constantine, brother-in-law of the Kaiser, the arrival of this Allied force was considered a violation of the neutrality of Greece, but the Premier, Venizelos, and a majority of the people, were in sympathy with the Allies. DIVISIONS OF THE WESTERN FRONT The far-flung battle line of the Western Front was divided into three sections — one from Pfetterhausen on the Swiss frontier, north to Verdun ; the second from Verdun to the Oise River ; the third from the Oise to the once-gay Belgian seashore resort, Nieuport, of which only the skeleton was left after the Allied-German race which had followed the Battle of the Marne. 1916 Food scarcity marked the spring of 1916. With impor- tations cut down by the German submarine warfare it was necessary both for England and France to increase supplies 734 VERDUN by extending acreage. Every tillable spot was planted. It was not until harvest time that the fear of famine was les- sened. The good feeling of the entire Allied world was outraged, in April, 1916, by the deportations, conducted with unneces- sary brutality, of the citizens of Lille. Inclusion of women and girls marked afresh the German renewal of ancient methods of warfare against non-combatants. VERDUN The British under General Sir John French, replaced in December, 1915, by General Sir Douglas Haig, held the north — Flanders and a part of northern France ; the French the remainder. At Verdun was the immense fortress of which Germany had intended to deprive France if she had stayed neutral when Germany declared war on Russia. It was a vast fortification, the strongest in France, and in the most important position strategically of any of the guardians of the Franco-German frontier. Its especial duty was to overlook that part of Lorraine whence Germany drew her chief supply of iron. Naturally the taking of this formidable bulwark, which would reopen the road to Paris and add to the material reinforcement of the Central Powers, was ar- dently desired by the Germans and its loss was not to be contemplated by the French. General Nivelle was in com- mand at Verdun, opposing the Crown Prince, who had gathered about him the pick of the Teuton armies in the hope of establishing his reputation as a general by one great coup. The battle, for the struggle was more than a siege, began on February 21st, 1916, lasted ten months, and was the epic of the war. The city, commanding the A^alley of the Meuse, was protected not only by its great fortress but by rings of outer fortresses situated on the surrounding hills. Against these defences the Germans hurled high explosives of incredi- ble power, an unceasing storm of such violence as never had been known before. Over and over they sent forward waves of shock troops, their hardiest soldiers, to be met in hand-to- hand fighting with bayonet and hand grenade by the ex- hausted victims of the terrific preparatory fire. The loss of life was unequalled. At the very beginning it presaged the terrific loss of half a million lives incurred in the six-months' VERDUN 735 attack and defence of this position. Almost every regiment of the French army was baptized in the fire of Verdun before the final withdrawal of the enemy. On February 24th the French were reassured by the arrival of General Castelnau, who, during the Battle of the Marne, was in command near Nancy and prevented the Germans there from reinforcing their brethren farther north. The refreshment of his spirit was needed by the worn poilus, for on the following day the Germans took Douaumont, one of the encircling fortresses. On the next day reinforcements arrived and also the new commander of the Verdun army. General Petain, with his clarion call to renewed effort. " The eyes of France are upon us," he cried. "She expects each one of us to do his duty." The new commander made no delay. On the 27th he ordered counter-attacks against Douaumont, and three days later the stronghold again passed into French hands. The fortress of Vaux was lost by the French after a defence complimented even by their foes ; and that, too, was regained. Whatever was lost w^as always sooner or later regained, for the indomitable French were stubborn in resistance. " Gen- eral," said Petain to Nivelle, "at the beginning of the battle my word of command was, ' lis ne passer ont pas,' — ' They shall not pass.' I hand it on to you." " Good ! They shall not pass!" returned General Nivelle, and the phrase rang through the world. The English people won their freedom at Runnymede. It was more than five hundred years later that the long-endur- ing French won theirs. The qualities of sacrifice, of stoical patience are deeply rooted in the French character, nowhere more apparent than in the French peasant. And, since the workmen, the artisans, were in the factories, it was chiefly of peasants that the French army was composed. Never were their basic qualities more apparent than at Verdun. The men had no thought of self but only of the France they loved when they made valiant attacks and equally valiant retreats ; when they performed prodigies of personal valor, like the sergeant sharpshooter who stood fully exposed upon the parapet, firing rifle after rifle which his companions handed up to him ; when, cut off from supplies, they went without food uncomplainingly with never a thought of surrender; 736 THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME when, suffering from thirst, they poured the last drops from the water bottles upon the seventy-fives to cool them so that they might fire on. Truly spirit dominates matter. Look at Verdun ! The interminable siege was ended in December, 1916, and on the 11th General Nivelle succeeded General Joffre as Commander-in-Chief of the French armies. Lloyd George, recently made Prime Minister, speaking within the fortress, expressed himself as profoundly stirred at touching the sacred soil to which the entire British Em- pire paid honor. A few weeks later President Poincare paid a superb tribute to the defenders of Verdun, and bestowed upon the city the military decorations of the members of the Entente. "Never have I seen such troops even in the old guard," cried General Nivelle, and a German officer admitted, "I have never seen such fine troops !" THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME By way of engaging the attention of the Germans and preventing them from throwing their entire weight against Verdun, the French and English in the north began in July, 1916, an offensive which has been called the Battle of the Somme. It was another of the long battles that show that war now is an utterly new thing ; it lasted over four months. While it went on, Rumania, encouraged by the Allied suc- cesses, entered the war, on August 27th, with the Allies and was promptly overrun and crushed by her enemies. And the Battle of the Somme continued. The weakest points in the lines of armies not under a single command are those where two come together. It argues well for the harmony between the French and British generals, FayoUe and Haig, that the place where they de- termined to start the summer drive of 1916 was at the junction of their armies on the Somme River. Their object was to push back the Germans across the territory they had seized when first they entered France two years before. This meant that villages once stormed and captured by the enemy were now exposed to the shellfire of friends. The peasants so long held captive were, however, informed of their prospective deliverance, the heralds being airmen who flew over the hamlets dropping proclamations announcing THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME 737 that rescue was coming. On June 25th, the civilians were ordered by the Germans out of the territory to be covered by the battle. The preparatory fire by the Allies was heavy and lasted several days. On July 1st, the offensive began. In the Champagne offensive the Allies had gone over the top in waves and had lost many men because the enemy soon caught the rhythm of their advance. In the Somme offensive they went out in single file, presenting no breadth of front to the enemy, widening into open skirmish formation as they reached No Man's Land beyond the barbed wire. The Somme advance was accompanied by scouting airplanes fly- ing only five or six hundred feet high, taking note of the exact positions of the progressing troops and signalling it to the artillery in the rear. After a few days of this sort of work the artillery went forward in the open for the first time since the Champagne offensive. By means of photographs taken from airplanes the exact positions of the enemy were made known, and the daily destruction, so that the Allied course was taken intelligently. But the Germans, Hindenburg their general, held tenaciously and often made fierce counter-attacks, and the Allied advance was slow. It was not until September 26th that they took the not-inconsiderable town of Combles, only about six miles from their starting point. The nature of the terrain added to the difficulties. The valley of the Sompie is marshy and often flooded, and the soil is of such quality that it rapidly turns into mud seemingly undriable. With the coming of the rainy season the Allies realized that it would be impossible for them to break through the German lines, and in November they desisted from the long-drawn-out battle. The success of the Somme for the Allies lay in its demonstration that the armies, even of different nations, could get better results when coordinated than when working independently. Briand had already said that the Allies should have but "a single cause served by a single army fighting on a single front against a single enemy under one single control." More and more the Allies were to realize that their salva- tion lav in the attainment of unity. 738 1917 GERMANY'S PEACE PROPOSALS On December 12th, 1916, the day after the promotion of General Nivelle, Germany made proposals of peace. The war map suited her very well — at any rate she was shrewd enough to see that it was not likely to be bettered for her — and she trusted in the French fatigue after Verdun and the Somme to make the idea seem desirable to the Allies. The opinion of the Allies was that this offer was "empty and insincere," and they so told the German government on the 30th of December. Responding to a request by President Wilson that all the belligerents state their peace terms, the Allies succinctly demanded, "Restorations, Reparation, Indemnities." 1917 The great length of line held by the French was a serious drain on their forces, and early in March, 1917, the British took over the entire Somme front of one hundred miles. This allowed the French to concentrate on a front by no means short, of one hundred seventy -five miles. The Belgians were responsible for twenty-five miles. This new arrangement was followed less than a fortnight later by the withdrawal of the Germans along a hundred- mile front from Arras to Soissons, the reason they gave being that they wanted to straighten their line and so make it easier to defend. They retired to the elaborately pre- pared trench system called the " Hindenburg Line." About thirteen hundred square miles of territory Was thereby evacuated, and every means that ingenuity could devise to devastate the country was used to make it uninhabitable. Villages were razed, water supplies fouled or poisoned, all wood destroyed, even fruit trees, the soil was rendered as infertile as possible. The year 1917 brought both loss and new strength to the Allies. In the middle of March came the Russian Revo- lution, whose final result was the withdrawal of Russia from the Entente. On April 6th, the Congress of the United States of America declared war against Germany, and Paris was decorated for the first time since the Battle of the Marne. The first American troops landed in France on June 26th. ON THE WESTERN FRONT 739 On the same day King Constantine of Greece was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Alexander, who made Venizelos his Prime Minister and three days later joined the Allies. GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES Ribot succeeded Briand as Premier in March, 1917, and won popularity for himself by his determined attitude toward the recovery of Alsace. His time of usefulness was short, however, for Painleve followed him in September. He showed no ability to cope with the defeatist "peace at any price " German propaganda which had been festering in France for three years, and he was succeeded in November by Clemenceau, the "Tiger," afraid of nothing except a "German peace." THE FRENCH OUTSIDE OF FRANCE With all her need to keep her troops on the Western Front, France maintained bodies of men in other parts of the world. She had united with Britain in 1914 and 1915 in seizing Togo and Kamerun, German colonies in West Africa. With the Italians she was at work in Albania in February, 1917, raising a barrier between King Constantine and his relatives-by- marriage in Germany. On the 1st of November French troops reached Italy, bearing aid to the victims of the German- Austrian drive. ON THE WESTERN FRONT With the invaders firmly entrenched in the stronghold of the Hindenburg Line, the French attempted to drive them out of the villages along the Aisne River, chiefly in the region of Soissons and Rheims. From April 16th to May 6th, 1917, the Battle of the Aisne raged, the general result being in favor of the French. Beginning in April, the British instituted an offensive that had for its purpose the recapture of Lens, which the Germans were intent upon holding because of its value to them as a coal centre. St. Quentin on the Hinden- burg Line was another objective, but both places were so stoutly defended that in June it became necessary to cease from the attacks. 740 INTER- ALU ED GROUPS A NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF General Petain, hero of Verdun, succeeded General Nivelle as Commander-in-Chief of the French armies on May 15th, 1917. August was marked by peace proposals emanating from Pope Benedict, and followed by suggestions made by Austria (where Emperor Charles had succeeded Franz Josef on November 21, 1916) and supported by Germany for the holding of an informal conference. The Allies rejected both propositions, and went on fighting with the same stoicism that had long settled upon them, a little enlivened, perhaps, by the occasional open work which again permitted the use of cavalry. The British gained in Flanders and in the neighborhood of Lens, and the French regained more territory about Verdun, and, in late October and early November, made a drive north of the Aisne which captured Malmaison Fort and made the foe think it advisable to retreat from the Chemin des Dames. FIRST USE OF TANKS Farther north there were spirited interchanges between the British and Germans around Cambrai, victory perching on one banner and then another, and the chief interest centering in the first use, on November 22d, 1917, of the huge armored "tanks." These war chariots were invented by the British and at once copied by other countries, including Germany. The French have been especially successful with a small, two-man tank, which is heavy enough to destroy wire entanglements, yet light enough to move almost briskly across a fairly rough terrain. INTER-ALLIED GROUPS The first meeting of the Inter-allied Conference met in Paris on the 29th of November, 1917, with General Foch presiding and a representation of sixteen nations. The purposes of this Conference w^ere military. A fortnight later the Inter-allied Economic Council, France, Great Britain, Italy, and the United States represented, convened in London. As its name suggests, the Council worked upon DEFEATIST PROPAGANDA 741 questions of cooperation concerning the disposal of food and the like. The new year (1918) opened with but small prospect of sunshine for the Allies. The British in December, 1917, had captured Jerusalem, it is true, but the losses by sub- marine attack were by no means negligible, Italy was suffer- ing severely, Rumania was powerless, and the detachment of Russia from the cause had released a great body of Ger- mans, both active soldiers and prisoners of war, who could be used on the Western Front. DEFEATIST PROPAGANDA France had her especial internal problem in the defeatist activities of her own people — activities which Clemenceau was prompt to bring into the open. "I intend to purge France of traitors," he had said, and he began to do so when, on January 13th, 1918, he caused the arrest of former Premier Caillaux on the charge of "plotting against the external security of the State " — treason, in other words. He is ac- cused of working for Germany in Africa in 1911, his reward being an arrangement by which he was enabled to make a fortune on the Bourse. Letters concerning this episode, though they were supposed to be love letters, were in the pos- session of Calmette of the Figaro, who was shot by Madame Caillaux in an effort to secure them, according to the present belief. The code necessary to decipher them was acquired by France during the war, and the disclosure pointed the other information known to be true about Caillaux. Madame Caillaux was found "not guilty" just before the outbreak of the war. Her husband, who had been Minister of the Treasury, resigned during the trial, and, upon her exoneration, became Paymaster General of the army, a colonel in rank. But the Caillaux were not popular in Paris, and after being mobbed one day they determined upon a trip to South America. There Caillaux made the acquaintance of Count Minotto, an employee of an American bank, who helped him with some clerical work on a report to the French government and then told the contents of the report to Count Luxboiu"g, the German charge d'affaires in Argentina, who passed them on to Count Bernstorff in Washington, who, in turn, sent the information to Berlin. 742 INTERNAL REGULATIONS Baron von Lancken, Chief of the German Political Depart- ment in Belgium in 1916, tried through various intermediaries to reach Caillaux with proposals for the stopping of the war, clearly believing that Caillaux would work in the interests of Germany. During a trip to Italy Caillaux stayed for a time in Florence, and there left a strong box in which were found, later on, when his trail was being followed, documents that showed negotiations with German financial agents. So open was Caillaux in his conversations while in Italy that various allied representatives sent home warnings against him. The Alsatians have contributed their bit to the web that has been woven about the ex-Premier. During a secret session of the Budget Commission of the Reichstag, Alsatian members being present, Caillaux was mentioned as a friend of Germany. During 1915 and 1916 there was broached throughout France, but especially in Paris, propaganda for a peace that would serve well Germany's purposes, but which could not fail to be dishonorable for France. The Paris Journal and the Bonnet Rouge were especially involved in the un- derhand campaign. Investigation proved that a senator, Humbert by name, owner of the Journal, had sold it for a handsome sum whose source was traced across the Rhine. The financial intermediary, who made a good commission for himself, was Lenoir, executed in October, 1919. He was the third to be executed, his predecessors having been Bolo Pasha, an adventurer, and one Duval, both directors of the Bonnet Rouge. Malvy, who held the Interior Portfolio in 1914, was yet another non-patriot, but the master-spirit was Caillaux. INTERNAL REGULATIONS With the advance of the war it became more and more necessary for even the democratic Republic to centralize its work and to make sumptuary laws. Examples were the taking over, in January, 1918, of the postal and telegraph services by the Minister of War. Lights had long been regulated. Later the Deputies decreed a bread ration of three hundred grams per diem per person and three meatless days a week, as earlier, at the beginning of 1915, they had forbidden the manufacture and sale of absinthe. Intensive THE BIG PUSH OF 1918 743 planting was a definite help to the food supply; even the park around the palace at Versailles substituted vegetables for flowers in its grass-centred borders. Everywhere warning placards read, " Be silent ! Be careful ! Hostile ears are listening to you!" AIR RAIDS Aerial fighting increased enormously at this time. To allied raids upon points of military significance in occupied Belgium and France and even in Germany the enemy re- torted by bombing open cities, London, Paris, Venice. In February, 1918, huge bombing planes called "Gothas" made frequent attacks upon Paris. The signal for their approach was given by sirens manipulated by the firemen. At the sound every one was supposed to go to the cellar of his house, or, if he were out of doors, to one of the abris or shelters, always open, marked as to the number of refugees it would hold. The "All clear" signal was given by buglers. Monuments were protected by sandbags. Sandbags and netting covered the roof of the Louvre, while some of its priceless treasures were removed to less conspicuous places. THE BIG PUSH OP 1918 The Allies had every reason to expect a German push in . the spring of 1918. The Germans had a great number of fresh troops that had been sent across from the Eastern Front, after Russia's defection from the Allies, and, although they were scornful of the ability and the fighting temper of the United States, yet they were not so mad as to ignore the possibility that the Allies' new associate might give them a taste of the same sort of surprise as did the "contempt- ible little army" of the British. Their evident deter- mination was to advance by successive swift attacks which would make a series of pockets in the invaded territory, and then to join the pockets until their line was straight once more at a considerable distance to the West. They hoped to crush both English and French opposing armies, to capture the coast towns and then Paris — after which they could dictate terms. The Germans concentrated on the northern part of the Western Front the most enormous amount of artillery ever 744 THE BIG PUSH OF 1918 gathered together. In one sector the guns were mounted only thirty-six feet apart. The preparation consisted of a short but extremely violent artillery attack of high explosives and gas shells. On March 21st, the German advance extended from Arras to La Fere, and drove the British back across the twice-fought-over country. The important towns of Ham, Bapaume, Peronne, and Albert fell again into enemy hands. Amiens was seriously threatened, and as it was a railway junction of the highest importance, the safety of not only Paris but the Channel towns depended on its not being taken by the enemy. Not since the Battle of the Marne had Paris been in such danger, a danger emphasized by the bombardment of the city by the gun called "Big Bertha" from a distance esti- mated at from sixty to seventy-five miles. French troops, taking over a British sector, were unable to hold Noyon, and at one point were obliged to cross to the south of the Oise. It was at this time of stress that General Foch, on March 26tb, 1918, was made Commander-in-Chief of the Allied armies in France. The next day General Pershing offered the American troops to be used wherever they might be needed, though he refused to permit them to be employed individually as replacement men. His offer was no mere gesture, for the news of the "Spring Drive" was sending the United States soldiers across at a rate which rapidly mounted to from fifty thousand to seventy thousand a week. The days of the end of March were filled with attacks and counter-attacks both on land and by air, which left the British with serious losses, but which resulted in a temporary check to the forces of the Central Powers. The pause in the fighting was only long enough for the drawing of a long breath. It was renewed by no fewer than ten attacks upon the points of union of the British and French along the Somme. At- tacks were made with such especial violence upon the British in Flanders that at the end of April General Haig told his men frankly that they were fighting with their backs against the wall. The phrase was the British counterpart of "lis ne passer ont pas," for the Allies were determined that the enemy should not reach the coast. French reinforcements brought a stay. While the chief drive of the month was in THE ALLIED OPPENSlVE 745 Flanders, hostilities farther south were of increasing severity. The Germans attacked along the entire line south of the Somme. The Americans had their baptism of fire in the Toul sector, and were daily better prepared both in numbers and training to participate in heavy fighting. THE RHEIMS-SOISSONS SALIENT Their opportunity came in May when (on the 27th) the Germans began a thrust to the southwest, capturing the Chemin des Dames and Soissons, advancing within two miles of Rheims and as far south as Chateau-Thierry, only forty-two miles from Paris. This salient included over nine hundred square miles, but it was rashly made, for two long sides of the triangle were open to Allied attack, and the ensuing war map showed a daily tightening of the string from Soissons to Rheims that drew together the neck of the bag. Another drive began on June 4th for possession of the ground between Noyon and Montdidier, but the foe was stoutly met and the affair was of short duration. THE ALLIED OFFENSIVE The heaviest fighting of latter July and early August, 1918, occurred in the Rheims-Soissons salient. Defeat of the Allies here would open the road to Verdun, a circumstance greatly to be desired by the Teutons, not to be considered by the Allies. The Germans did not seem to have the ability to consolidate their victories. Probably this was because they used their best troops in their swift advances and when these men were exhausted they were replaced by poorer material. This weakness permitted the Allies to hold ground' that otherwise they would have lost, and to gather reserves. Once more the English combed their resources of men, and sent forward many soldiers. The Americans were increas- ingly available. By July 15th, when the Germans began a drive from Chateau-Thierry to Rheims, General Foch was ready, together with his assistants, Generals Gouraud and Berthelot, Mangin and Degoutte ; on the 18th he launched a counter-offensive ; on the 20th occurred the Second Battle of the Marne, a victory for the Allies ; on the 21st Chateau- Thierry fell to them, and on August 3d, Soissons. 746 FOCH'S METHODS On the 4th of August the Americans entered Fismes. The Germans retreated to the Vesle. The turning point was reached. By his masterly handUng of this movement, General Foch won for himself the rank of Marshal of France. Follows Premier Clemenceau's letter to President Poincare announc- ing the government's proposal : Monsieur le President, The rank of Marshal of France was revived for the first time by the decree of the 24th of December, 1916. I have the honor to submit for your signature, in the name of the government, and, I venture to say, in the name of aU France, a decree conferring on General Foch this lofty national reward. When the enemy, by a formidable offensive on a front of one hun- dred kilometres, felt sure of winning the decision and imposing on us that German peace that would mean the subservience of the world. General Foch and his admirable soldiers conquered. Paris made safe, Soissons and Chateau-Thierry regained by hard fighting, more than two hundred villages delivered, thirty-five thou- sand prisoners and seven hundred cannon taken, the hopes, loudly proclaimed by the enemy before the attack, crushed, the glorious allied armies thrown by a single victorious movement from the banks of the Marne to the banks of the Aisne, such are the results of a manoeuvre as admirably conceived by the High Command as it was superbly executed by incomparable chiefs. The confidence placed by the Republic and by all the Allies in the conqueror of the marshes of Saint-Gond, in the illustrious chief of the Yser and the Somme, has been fully justified. The rank of Marshal of France conferred on General Foch will not, fiuthermore, be a reward for past services ; better still, it will, in the future, consecrate the authority of the great man of the war sum- moned to lead the armies of the Entente to final victory. FOCH'S METHODS In his previous military teaching, Marshal Foch always had laid stress on the offensive as especially suited to the French temperament, and on speed as a desideratum to keep the enemy so occupied that he would have no time to bring up reserves or supplies of food or material or to refresh him- self or to select his ground. Incessant and rapid thrusts in unexpected places gave the desirable element of fatiguing surprise. These principles of warfare the Marshal put into practice during the last three months of the war. The English were still holding the wide front in Picardy, facing Amiens. On THE FINAL BLOWS 747 August 8th, their Fourth Army under General Rawlinson, co- operating with the French First Army, commanded by General Debeney, attacked from Amiens to Montdidier. The Germans were taken by surprise and lost heavily in men and material. Rapidly the enemy's lines were pushed back and back until within a month almost all the territory lost in the German offensive of the preceding March had been regained — Albert, Bapaume, Peronne, Ham, Noyon, and many villages. THE FINAL BLOWS While the Germans were not allowed to pass in the siege that has made Verdun's name famous, they were able to push forward salients on the north and south of the city. The southern triangle was tipped by the town of St. Mihiel, and the duty of clearing this territory was intrusted to the Americans under General Pershing. Attacking on Septem- ber 12th, they put into their task the speed and energy that is their tradition, and in twenty-seven hours had crushed the salient. Their next heavy work was in driving the enemy from the Argonne Forest, a difficult undertaking because of the nature of the terrain. They also cooperated with the French and British on several other sectors of the Western Front. The British in Flanders, Artois, and Picardy, and the French in Picardy and farther south were now fighting to break the Hindenburg Line. In early October the French took St. Quentin. Lens, Armentiferes, and, after a prolonged struggle, Cambrai, fell to the British. General Ludendorff withdrew the Germans from Laon, the Chemin des Dames, La Fere, and other positions of value to him if he expected to hold the line. As the month advanced, Lille and some of the other manufacturing towns of northern France which had been in the Teutons' grasp since the early days of the invasion of 1914 were taken by the British. They cooperated with the Belgians in winning back the towns on the coast of Belgium. The French had unnumbered successes along the Meuse and the Aisne. With the taking of Valenciennes by the British, of Mezi^res by the French, and of Sedan by the United States troops, the 748 IN THE EAST railway from Metz to Lille was rendered useless to the Ger- mans. The iron mines of Briey and the city of Metz with its vast fortress lay but a step forward. The famous Hindenburg Line had crumbled from north to south under the impact of the Allied blows. IN THE BAST On the Eastern Front the Central Powers received serious setbacks. The Turks were defeated in Palestine in Septem- ber. The Bulgarians were defeated in October, made a separate peace with the Allies, King Ferdinand abdicated, his successor. King Boris, abdicated, and on November 2d a peasant government was established. On the last day of October Turkey laid down her arms. Serbia came to life almost from the dead, and swept the Austrians bej'^ond her boundaries. Italy drove the Austrians out of x^lbania and defeated them on the Piave in a battle in which she is said to have captured from three hundred thousand to five hun- dred thousand prisoners. Uprisings of some of the many nationalities that made up the Austro-Hungarian Empire assailed the State from within. On November 1st the National Assembly, consisting chiefly of Socialists, accepted a new Constitution without the crown. On November 4th, Austria signed a separate armistice. Eight days later the abdication of Emperor Charles was announced in Vienna. On November 7th, the sailors of the German fleet at Kiel rose in a revolt which, in two days, was supported by soldiers and workingmen all over the Empire. On the 8th, Bavaria became a republic, soon to be followed by a similar political change in other states. On the same day Emperor William refused to gratify the Socialists by abdicating, but on the next day, when the Socialists took over the government, the announcement was made that he had decided to renounce the throne. On November 29th the formal document reached Berlin from Holland, to which he had fled on Novem- ber 10th. On December 1st, the Crown Prince renounced his right to the throne. THE ARMISTICE Harassed by inner dissensions, deserted by her allies and pushed back on the Western Front almost to her own THE ARMISTICE 749 frontiers, Germany asked for peace. On November 8th the delegates sent to receive the terms of the armistice ap- peared before Marshal Foch in the railway car which served, for the moment, as his headquarters in the Forest of Com- piegne. The armistice was signed at five o'clock in the morning of November 11th, 1918, and hostilities stopped at eleven o'clock. The world rejoiced at the ending of the war that had affected, in one way or another, even its most remote corners. Celebrations were extraordinary. In Paris the streets were filled from wall to wall with shouting crowds. ^^^^ t Standing on the balcony of the Opera House, Mile. Chenal, I ^' ^ a popular singer, sang the " Marseillaise" to a wildly applaud- ' ing multitude gathered below. TERMS OP THE ARMISTICE The main terms of the armistice were : immediate evacu- ation by Germany of invaded territories, France, Belgium, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg ; repatriation of all inhabitants of the above countries ; surrender of war material ; evacu- ation of the countries on the left bank of the Rhine, the territory to be held by Allied and United States armies of occupation supported by Germany; the formation of a neutral zone on the right bank of the river; the surrender of a large number of locomotives, railway cars and motor trucks ; the immediate repatriation of prisoners of war held by Germany ; withdrawal of all German troops in territory which before the war belonged to Russia, Rumania, or Turkey within the boundaries of Germany as they existed on August 1st, 1914 ; abandonment of the treaty of Brest- Litovsk (with the Bolshevik government, in 1917) ; uncon- ditional capitulation of all German forces operating in East Africa ; reparation for damage done and restitution of money taken from Belgium, Rumania, and Russia ; Surrender of all submarines and of designated numbers of battleships, battle cruisers, and destroyers. AFTER THE ARMISTICE With the retirement of the German troops from France and the advance of the French, British, and American armies of occupation, there was great rejoicing throughout the 750 RECONSTRUCTION invaded country. On November 17th, Alsace-Lorraine Day was celebrated in Paris with a great parade. On the 20th, while French troops were being joyously acclaimed in Buda- pest, General Petain was accorded a hearty welcome in the former French city of Metz, where, on December 8, he was made a Marshal of France. On the 25th, Marshal Petain entered Strasburg, where he was joined two days later by Marshal Foch, who had established his headquarters in Luxembourg. The German fleet, unhurt by active service, surrendered to the British on the 21st. On December 11th the thirty-day armistice ended and has been renewed several times since. In the year that has elapsed since the signing of the armis- tice there have been countless parades and reviews of re- turned troops in all the Allied countries. None was more touching than that in which the crippled soldiers led the way beneath the Arc de I'Etoile in Paris. RECONSTRUCTION The work of reconstruction has moved slowly, but the French mind so clings to the soil that refugees prefer to live among the ruins of their houses than to wait until new ones are built. German prisoners are being utilized to clear away the havoc they made. In Rheims Cathedral they have been useful in sorting and piling the stones which their shells tore down from the walls of the sacred edifice. During the summer they worked on the farms and in the autumn gathered the harvests. Industrial unrest has aflfected France as it has practically all parts of the earth. The trouble originated among the workingmen who remained in the factories during the war, doing very necessary work for the country and being far better paid for it than were their brethren in the trenches. The war over, they seem to have wished to effect a change of the form of government as was done in Russia and Ger- many. The election of November, 1919, was considered of im- portance as indicating the trend of public opinion with regard to the post-bellum unrest which the Socialists were accused of fostering. To combat the Organized Socialists, the In- THE TREATY AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 751 dependent Socialists, and the Independents, there was organ- ized a few weeks before election day a combination called the Bloc National, consisting of the Democratic Left, the Or- ganized Radicals, the Alliance Democratique, the Progressiv- ists, and the Federated Republicans. The Right and the Action Liberale — Clericals and Royalists — allied them- selves with neither group. With anti-Bolshevism as the watchword, the election registered a major sentiment for law and order. Viviani and Briand, former Socialists but firm supporters of the Republic and the government during the war, won through handsomely. THE TREATY AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS The sittings of the Peace Conference, at which met repre- sentatives of the Allied and Associated Powers, were held in Paris at the Foreign Office on the Quai d'Orsay. The first meeting, on January 18th, 1919, was opened by President Poincare. President Wilson nominated Premier Clemen- ceau for the chairmanship, Lloyd George and Vittorio Orlando, the Italian premier, seconding. Marquis Saionji and Baron Makino were Japan's .representatives. In addition to M. Clemenceau, France was represented by Stephen Pichon, Foreign Minister, Andre Tardieu, diplo- matist, journalist and Chief Censor, Leon Bourgeois, head of a Foreign Office Committee on the League of Nations, Louis Lucien Klotz, holder of the Finance portfolio, and Jules Cambon, General Secretary to the Foreign Office. The work of the Conference was facilitated by the turning of important questions over to committees, where they were sifted and prepared for presentation to the main body. Some of the matters discussed and embodied in the Treaty were war reparation to be made by the Germans, the disposition of the German warships, economic and financial problems, commercial treaties and tariffs, many territorial questions, the claims of Armenia, the independence of small national- ities, the rectifying of frontiers, the framing of an inter- national labor code, the determination of Belgium's sovereignty, the demilitarizing of the Rhine territory, and, among the military terms, the forbidding of Germany's use of airplanes, dirigibles, and submarines, the dismantling of 752 THREE DECADES OF FRENCH LITERATURE Heligoland and Kiel, and the regulation of her manufacture of war material. Throughout the Treaty was woven the League of Nations, a bond of union for the arbitration and adjustment of inter-racial and international difficulties. Because the treaty which closed the Franco-Prussian War had been signed at Versailles, the same place, even the same room in the palace, was chosen for the signing of the new treaty which made compensation to France for almost half a century of humihation. The Allied and Associated dele- gates and the German envoys signed the Treaty on June 28th. The French Senate ratified it on October 11th, and President Poincare affixed his signature on October 13th, 1919. THREE DECADES OP FRENCH LITERATURE In curious contrast, the last ten years of the nineteenth century is marked in fiction and in drama by the intensifying of realism to naturalism, and, in poetry, by the allusiveness of the Symbolists, imagination-piquing. The naturalists believed that any theme, however gross, was fit for treat- ment provided the treatment was artistic. "Art for art's sake," they cried. Technique became their idol. The result was that Zola's brutalities were magnificent psychological studies; that Guy de Maupassant and Alphonse Daudet, both in the short story and in longer fiction forms, showed a masterly workmanship which sometimes blended with delicacy of subject but often made more prominent its coarseness. As naturalism fell away from fiction because of its own weight, psychological treatment developed. Paul Boufget and Edouard Rod analyzed details until their work is like one of Meissonier's minutely painted battle scenes. Pierre Loti (whose real name is Julian Viaud) uses settings of exotic charm and is a master of pathos. Anatole France (Anatole Thibault), ranging over a wide field, frequently allows an uncalled-for cynicism to mar his brilliant work. The drama could not become an exact match for the novel of this period. Even the naturalists balked at the visual- ization of what they did not object to putting into words. But Alexander Dumas the younger and Victorien Sardou produced realistic portrayals of the sins of society, always models on the technical side. Jules Lemaitre achieved THME DECADES OP PRElSlCH LITERATURE 753 popularity with comedies touched by a genial satire, while the satire of Mirbeau was biting. Hervieu and Lavedan have been greatly liked, and Brieux has won an audience for his pathological plays. The group of poets who called themselves Parnassians because of their love of classical forms, Leconte de Lislp, SuUy-Prudhomme, Theodore de Banville, Catulle Mendes, and a few others touched the realistic group in their love of detail, but their preciseness had little in common with the Symbolists. These revolutionaries hated to call things by their names and demanded the independence of free verse. Gustave Kahn, Ephraim Mikael, Henri de Regnier, Francis Jammes are among the names of this by no means unim- portant group. Leaning to the conservative in form but realists in content were Fran9ois Coppee and Paul Verlaine. The latter made a strange connecting link between the Parnassians of his early love and the Decadents who were followers of Baudelaire and wallowed in morbidness in whatever literary form they used. It was the good fortune of Rostand to produce dramatic poetry at a time when the world was not averse to turning again to the romantic, though he did not institute a school. The Goncourt Brothers did that with their poetic prose upon whose art they were so insistent that they founded an Academy which should judge by the canons of artistic form and not of moral content. No country has brought forth a more agreeable group of critics — writers of literature about literature — than France, and none are better than Taine, Brunetiere, Faguet, Lintilhac, and Doumic, and, for animation, Gaston Deschamps. With the coming of the new century there have appeared no new writers of impressive effect, though the change from naturalism back to an idealism that is realistic is a sufficient achievement. Rene Bazin made use of nature in a manner not common in French literature ; Marcel Prevost continued his support of feminism ; a woman, Marcelle Tinayre, did some fiction work ; after the Moroccan incident, Maurice Barres was born again into a world of patriotic endeavor; Leon Daudet, a son of Alphonse, has supported Barres in his task of political education. Among the poets were Barbusse, Rene Ghil, and Gregh. 754 - MUSIC The name of Bernstein connotes drama of novel plot and forceful handling. With the change in tone of almost the entire literary out- put of the country since the threat of German invasion in 1905, there has fallen upon the shoulders of historians the especial duty of presenting to the world a true picture of the meaning of French history. There have been ex- cellent studies of definite periods — that of Jeanne d' Arc, for example — none so great as were the stupendous efforts of •the older men, Thierry, Thiers, Duruy, Michelet, but equally good in analysis and better adapted to their educative task of the moment. As a result of the contest between the clericals and anti- clericals, interest in theology has brought out an abundance of material, written both from the Catholic, the Protestant, and the Jewish point of view. But no theologian or mystic has had the influence on France that Bergson has had. His philosophy, a philosophy that works and hence is grateful to the logical French mind, has impregnated all the thinking minds of the country, and has been no mean item among the factors that have helped in France's regeneration. MUSIC During the nineties and continuing on into the twentieth century, the decadence that showed itself in literature was not exhibited in musical composition. Chabrier was im- pressionistic, but Massenet and Bruneau in opera, Godard and Saint-Saens in several forms were more conservative, while at the same time original. Debussy, basing his work on a new scale, has started a distinct school, so numerous are his followers. Among performers, Guilmant, an organist, and Pugno, a pianist, have international reputations. PAINTING AND SCULPTURE The French painters of the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth were of surpassing im- portance in the general history of the art. The successors of the Barbizon School were still working and were being in their turn succeeded by men who established themselves rapidly as of the first rank : Bouguereau, Breton, Duran — the list is long. PAINTING AND SCULPTURE 755 Their extreme attention to detail was replaced by a breadth of treatment which was the forerunner, in Puvis de Chavannes and Bastien-Lepage, of the impressionistic school, of which Monet and Manet were exponents with Degas and Renoir. Latterly a brutal, unbeautiful style has been developed by the Cubists and Vorticists, who base their drawing on geometry and their color on vision unknown to laymen. Rodin's imaginative and original symbolism, Fremiet's accurate and beautiful portraiture, and Barye's splendidly modelled animals have kept French sculpture in the high place it long ago attained. During the war art has languished though it has not been entirely extinguished. There was courage enough to open a Salon, though in the Petit Palais and not the Grand Palais. As the war advanced the war theme was more and more in evidence. It could not be otherwise. But the treatment was so entirely different from the handling of similar material after the Franco-Prussian War that it deserves a glance. In the first place the landscape of the modern battlefield is hideous — broken trees, shell-scarfed ground, barbed wire, all in a confusion distressing to the eye, and calling for a return to the meticulous brushwork of Meissonier if the effect is to be adequate. The weapons of war are not picturesque. The tank is to the world of war engines what the hippopotamus is in nature. Great guns are not graceful. Gas is not always visible, and gas masks are only too evident. Modern body armor is utilitarian, not aesthetic. Then the color is necessarily dull. The day of the pantalon rouge has gone; horizon blue and khaki mean a low visi- bility that blots the soldier into the background. A truth- ful picture will show no mass action. The day of the cavalry charge, of the massed advance at double quick, has passed. Action can be found only in the record of small groups. But groups of almost infinite variety. Never was there such an opportunity for the artist who was at the same time an ethnic student to make notes of all the races of the earth. Black Senegalese fighting, little yellow Annamites repairing roads, brown Mohammedans, with turban entwined about helmet, swarthy Portuguese, fair English, red-haired Scots, 756 SCIENCE AND INVENTION gray-eyed Irish, tall Australians, straight. Serbs — here was a chance for every brush. Leroux, Montague, Meheut, Bruyer are some of the names of painters who have seized the opportunity. A lasting opportunity, alas, lies in the ruins of cathedrals — lonely, majestic — a bitter record of savagery. Beautiful canvases have already recorded them. Art of a sort was a part of the work of the army — camou- flage with its ingenious deceptions, and photography for informational purposes. No better history of any war can be written than that inscribed in cartoons. The field at home, with its bread rationing, the SOS and the Quartermaster's Department, the field of action with the grim humors of the poilu, politics at Paris, economics in a dug-out, the man, the plan, and the method — all are at the mercy of the cartoonist's pencil. SCIENCE AND INVENTION The discovery of radium by Mme. Curie has opened the way for an enormous advance in the scientific world. The properties of radium are' still under study though its appli- cations to the utilities have been many. The discovery of radium has caused the evolution of a new theory of matter in which electrons supersede atoms as the basis. Moissan has made distinguished additions to the knowl- edge of physics. Pasteur opened the way for the discovery of numerous serums and vaccines as cures for disease when he worked out his treatment for hydrophobia. Guignard and de Vries are botanists of repute. Henri Poincare has made bold progress in mathematical astronomy. Bertholet and Sabatier are distinguished for chemical re- search. In inventions, the development of the aeroplane and the automobile surpassed that of any other country ; machines for the taking and projection of motion pictures have been multiplied in proportion to their popularity ; the gasoline engine has had many applications ; the wireless telegraph and telephone are among the utilities to which the war has given a great impetus. Indeed, the war has brought about advance of many sorts. In surgery, countless operations have been simplified and others devised ; the ambrine treat- EDUCATION 757 ment for burns has made astonishingly swift cures ; all sorts of attachments to aid in the reconstruction of cripples have been invented; the cure and care of the blind have been furthered; general knowledge of sanitation and hygiene saved thousands of lives. Knowledge of how to fly in- creased with the necessity for flying ; the laboratory became an important arm of the service. EDUCATION The French schoolboy in his black coverall apron is a familiar figure in French art as in life. If he is very small when you see him on the street he is probably on his way to one of the "dame schools" — ecoles maternelles — where chil- dren as young as two years are received, and where they stay until they are six. From six to thirteen the young student spends in the primary elementary school, or, if he wants technical instruction, in the higher primary. The lycees, the lowest of the secondary schools, are followed by the colleges and universities. France is divided into sixteen educational districts, each comprising two or three "departments," and each headed by a university. The districts, called academies, are : Aix, Besan9on, Bordeaux, Caen, Chambery, Clermont-Ferrand, Dijon, Grenoble, Lille, Lyons, Montpellier, Nancy, Paris, Poitiers, Rennes, and Toulouse. The University of France has colleges — of law, medi- cine, theology, letters, and science — in different parts of the country. The Sorbonne in Paris has an enormous list of students, encouraging, as it does, students from foreign countries. There are also advanced schools for special work in engineering, fine arts, astronomy, natural history, music and acting, political science, et cetera. WOMEN As in every country in any way connected with the war the status of women was changed by the duties that fell to them to perform. In order to release men for the front, women did the work of men. They were street cleaners and subway guards, cab drivers and locomotive cleaners. They tilled the ground and toiled in munition factories. The argument that women should not be allowed to vote because 758 THE FUTURE they were useless in war has been discarded from necessity. Yet France has not yet given her women the vote. They have been lawyers for a long time, professors, newspaper women, and, always, business women — the vote must come. Education for girls has been changing for the broader, and their home life has been less sequestered since the closing of the church schools which fostered the secluded life and the horizon limited exclusively to feminine interests. Divorce, with its attendant evils, has also brought its advantages. THE FUTURE That the whole world must be remade because of the war is a truism. No one can return to his former activities after the experiences of the last five years and take up the thread of his affairs where he left it. No one can view life as he viewed it five years ago. In the one year that has elapsed since the Armistice society has been upheaved as it had not been for fifty years before 1914. New values are being put on man and on everything with which man has connection. Yet in spite of apparent wretchedness and class quarrels, there are hints of better things. There is a clearness of vision and understanding, an increase of democratic feeling, a restirring of moral and spiritual emotions. Political honesty is appreciated at its worth, patriotism is resurgent, and at the same time there has come about through acquaint- ance, an international brotherhood never before known. INDEX Aachen, 79. See Aix-la-Chapelle. Abbeville, 189, 238. Abbots. 116. Abd-el-Kader, 639, 641. Abelard, 143. Abensberg, battle of, 607. Abomey, 681. Aboukir, battle of, 573. Absinthe, jirohibition of, 742. Academy, French, 403, 469, 529 ; other academies, 425, 469, 529, 757. Acadia, 393, 397, 423, 431, 458, 500. Accounts, Chamber of, 181, 1S4, 244, 4(18; Court of, 624. Acre, 149, 573, 574. Acte additione}, 626. Action Liberal f, 751. Adalberon, bishof), xxii. Adanson, 520. Administration, Merovingian, 58 ; Ca- rolingian, 78—83 ; in eleventh cen- tury, 124, 125; under Louis IX., etc., 3 63, 184; in the sixteenth cen- tury, 322, 323; under Louis XIV., 416-429. 460-467; under Louis XV., 498, 506-512; Napoleonic, 580. 581, 586, 587, 601, 602. Adrian I., pope, 74. Adrian IV., pope, 125. Adrian VI., pope, 305. Advocate, 116. ^dui, 14, 19, 20, 26. .(Egidius, 35. Aetius, 34, 35. Affre, Mgr., 646. Africa, colonies in, 703. African Company, 397. Agadir incident, 706-709. Agde, 72. A?incourt, 177, 221. Agnadello, 291. Agnes of Meran, 155. Agriculture, 379. 421, 513, 514, 650, 651, 698-699, 700, 701. Aguesseau, chancellor d', 519. Aids, 114, 162, 210, 420; Court of, 210, 244, 408, 410, 514. Aigues-Mortes, 160. Aiguillon, duke of, 502, 504, 541. Air-balloon, invented, 530. Airplanes, 726-727, 737, 756. Air raids in World War, 743. Aisne river, 723, 739, 747. Aix, in Provence, 19, 20; parliament of, 312. Aix-la-Chapelle, 79, 83, 84; treaty of, 433; (another), 495. Alais, peace of, 393. 759 Alan, duke, 109. Alans, 33. Alaric, 33. Albania, 739, 748. Alberoni, cardinal, 482. Albert, king of Belgium, 718. 719. Albert, city, 747. Aibertus Magnus, 166, 171, 174. Albigenses, 107, 152 ; crusade against, 153, 154. Albret, 268; constable d', 221; counts of, 252. See Henry, Jeanne. Alby, cardinal of, J67. Alchemy, 171. Alciati, 328. Alcuin, 83, 84. Alemanni, 30, 32, 36, 62, 68, 69; de- feated by Clovis, 39, 43 ; code of. 56. Alemannia, 88. Alengon, 256, 258, 272; duke of, xxiv, 241, 242, 248, 251, 252, 266, 267, 278; (brother of Henry III.), 351, 352 (see Anjou), 671. Alesia, 23, 24. Alessandria, 653. Alexander the (Jreat, 17. Alexander VI. Borgia, pope, 283, 284, 286, 288. Alexander VII., pope, 431. Alexander I., czar, 585, 600. 606. 612- 615, 617, 618, 621, 632. Aexander II., czar, 652. Alexander, king of Greece. 739. Alexis, emperor, 129, 130. Alexis Angelos, 152. Alfonzo II., k. of Naples, 285. Alfort, veterinary school of, 529. Algeciras Conference, 707. Algeria, Algiers, 431, 440, 703; con- quest of, 635. 637-639. Allia, river, 15. Alliance, Grand, 435, 450, 451 ; Holy, 631, 033; Triple, 432; 433, 728. (an- other), 481, 483; Quadruple, 637. AUiance Democratique, 751. Allobroges, 10. Allodial lands, 55, 111. Alma, battle of the, 652. Alost, 142. Alps, 7; crossed by Pippin, 72; cam- paign in, 561 ; crossed by Bona- parte, 582, 583. Alsace, 4, 264. 400, 402, 407. 436, 440. 455, 458, 511, 731, 739, 749. 750; ceded, 661. Alva, duke of. 316, 343, 344, 346. Alvinzi (Alvinczy), marshal, 568. 569. Amalfi, 168. 760 INDEX. Ambiani, 21. Ambiorix, 21, 22. Amboise, Cardinal George of, 289, 295, 296, 297, 325, 344. Amboise, chateau of, 325 ; conspiracy of, 335, 336; pence of, 342, 343. Ambrine treatment, 757. America, colonies in, 703. American Isles, Company of the, 397. American War, 524—528. Amienois, 155, 156. Amiens, 137, 238, 260, 746; count of, 139; county of, 149; captured, 375; peace of, 585, 588. Amsterdam, 435, 563. Amurath, sultan, 217. Amyot, 330. Anagni, 179. Anarchists, 682. Anastasius, emperor, 41. Ancona, 5G9, 639. Ancre, marquis d', 386, 389, 390. Andalusia, 128. Andelot, treaty of, 51. Angers, 94, 356; University of, 167, 170. Ango, Roger, 297, 325. Angouleme, count of, 275, 276: coun- ty of, 94 ; duke of, 347 ; bastard of, 347; peace of, 390. Angoumois, 175, 181, 194. Anjou, 278; counts of, 108, 109, 139, 163, 164; acquisition of, 150, 155, 272; dukes of, 202, 212, 213, 252, 253; (Henry III.) 34.5-347. 340; (his brother) 352, 353, 355, 357. See Philip V., k. of Spain, and Louis XV. Annam, wars in, 654, 672, 673. Anne of Austria, queen, 389, 394, 404, 405, 409, 410, 412, 413, 449. Anne, q. of England, 450, 451. Anne of Beau.ieu. See Beaujeu. Anne of Brittany, queen, 280, 281, 288, 297, 303. Anne of Muscovy, queen, 108. Ansegis, 104. Anselm, St., 119, 120, 171. Anselme, general, 554. Antantanarivo, 084. Antibes, 7, 427, 494. Antin, duke of, 466. Antioch, 130-132. AntrusHons, 58. Antwerp, 454, 601, 608, 637, 723. Apollinaris, Sidonius, 28. Appert, general, 676. Apulia, duchy of, 127. Aquae Sextiae, 19. Aquitaine, duchv of, 94, 139; under the English, 201; duke of, 142. Aquitania, conquered by Ceesar, 21 ; extended by Augustus, 26; under the Visigoths, 34; the Franks, 43, 48, 49, 51 ; independent, 62 ; Sara- cens in, 68; conquered by Pippin and Charlemagne, 72, 73 ; under the Carolingians, 86, 88, 91, 94, 100, 101. Aquitanians, 10, 68, 69, 91, 97; under the Capetians, 106, 107. Arabi Pasha, 671. Arabs, 68, 73, 87, 128. Arago, 644, 645. Aragon, 270, 454; king of, 153, 160, 253, 268. Aranda, count of, 521. Arbogast, 31, 33. Arc. See Jeanne d'Arc. Arc de I'Etoile, 602, 750; de Triomphe, 602. Architecture, 297, 324-326; ecclesias- tical, 120, 121. Archives, royal, 158. Arcis-sur-Aube, battle of, 621. Arcole, battle of, 569. Ardennes, 3. Aretino, 297. Argenson, marquis of, 492, 495, 516, 520. Argonne, 3, 553. Argonne Forest, 747. Arians, 37, 40, 42. Ariovistus, 20. Aristocracy, 81 (see Nobility) ; aboli- tion of privileges of, 541. Aristotle, 171. Aries, 26. Armada, the Invincible, 360. Armagnac, 272; counts of, xxiv, 205, 219, 221; (John) 248, 252, ,255, 256, 260, 261 ; 267, 268, 276. See Nemours. Armagnacs, 218-223, 228. Armentieres, 747. Armistice, signing of, 748—749. Armor, in World War, 726. Armorica, 21, 24, 35, 36, 40, 78. Arms, 10, n, 116, 133. Army, Carolingian, 80 ; under Philip Augustus, 157; under Charles V., 205, 207; under Charles VII., 241, 243 ; in the sixteenth century, 322, 380, 425; under Louis XIII., and XIV., 425, 426, 464, 465; under Louis XV., 509, 510; Revolutionary, 580; recent, 663. Arnauld, Antoine. 464, 473, 474. Arndt, 617. Arnulf, St., 61, 62, 66, 104. Arnulf, king of Germany, 100, 101. Arques, battle of, 366. Arras, 401, 413, 723, 731, 738, 744; treaty of, 237, 238; (another), 271, 272, 279. Arriere-vassals, 98. Arrondissements, 580. Art, 297, 324-327, 381, 424, 425, 520, 602. Arteveld, James van, 188, 189. Arteveld, Philip van, 213. Arthur, d. of Brittany, 150. Artillerv, 191, 193, 240, 246, 322, 380, Artois, 3, 149, 155, 194, 238, 272, 284, INDEX, 761 299, 401, 402, 414, 430, 438, 458, 611, 731; count of, 161, 252. See Charles X. Arverni, 14, 19, 23, 26. Ascalon, 131. Asia, colonies in, 703. Asiento, 458, 495. Aspern, battle of, 607. Asquith, Herbert, 709. Ass, Feast of the, 122. Assembly, National or Constituent, 519, 533, 538-549; Legislative, 550- 554; Constituent, of 1848, 645, 646; Legislative, 647, 648; N.Ttional, of 1871, 660-665; under constitution of 1875, 665, 666, 668, 673, 676. Asxeuiement, 156, 162. Assifjnats, 545, 565, 566, 571. Assizes of Jerusalem, xix. Associations Law, 691-692. Astolf, 72. Astrology, 171. Atabeks, 145. Ataulf, 33. Athanagild, 49. Attigny, 74, 87. Attiila, 34, 35. Aubigne, Agrip7ia d', 381. Aubigny, marshal d', 301. Auch, 26. Audowere, 50. Auerstadt, battle of, 597. Augereau, marshal, 567, 571, 590, 599, 620. Augsburg, league of, 441, 444 ; peace of, 319. Augusta, 26. Augustodunum, 26. Augustoritum, 26. Augustus, emperor, 26, 27. Augustus II., k. of Poland, 489. Augustus III., k. of Poland, 490. Aulerci. 21. Aulic Council, 575. Aumale, duke of. 347, 356, 361 ; (son of Louis Philippe), 643, 662, 071, 675. Aumont, marshal d', 361, 366. Auneau, battle of, 359. Aunis, 155. Auray, 204. Aurelian, 26, 30, 33. Ausci, 62. Ausonius, 28. Austerlitz, battle of, 594-596. Australasia, colonies in, 703. Austrasia, 44, 48, 51, 66, 69. Austrasians, 52, 61, 64, 68, 73, 89. Austria, 242, 270, 290, 430, 527, 556; house of. 319, 382. 391, 39".)-402, 406; vi-ars with. 556-584, 59.3-595, 606-608, 617-621, 626; empire of, 595, 610, 631, 642; Italian war with. 653; and the World War, 715-748; final defeat of, 748. Austrian Succession, War of the, 491-495. Automobiles, 756. Autun, 26, 28, 44; Saracens at, 68. Auvergne, 2, 43, 44, 155, 195; count of, 142; county of, 94, 98; states of, 241, 355. Auxerre, 231, 238, 272. Avaricum, 23. Avars, 48, 49, 73, 74, 75, 87. Avignon, 155, 168, 175, 202 441; popes at, 179, 180, 185, 187. Avranches, 245. Aydie, Odet d', 262, 263. Azay-le-Rideau, chateau, 325. Baboeuf, 571. Bacninh, 672. Bacon, Roger, 166, 171, 174, 193. Badajoz, 617. Baden, 618; prince of, 452; treaty of, 457, 458. Baderic, 43, 44. Bagaudse, 30. Bagration, prince, 614. Baif, J. A. de, 331. Baihaut, Charles, 681. Baillis, 156, 206. Baillv, 539, 541, 549, 558. Bajazet, sultan, 217, 272. Bahifre, Le. See Guise, Henry, duke of. Baldwin, count of Flanders, emperor, 153. Balearic Isles, 75, 78. Balfour, Arthur, 709. Balue, cardinal, 260. Baluze, 474. Balzac, 469. Baner, Johan, 401, 402. Bank of France, 586. Banquets, political, 642, 643. Banville, T. de, 753. Bapaume, 747. Barbarians, invasion of, 32—35. See also. Franks, Burgundians, Visi- goths, Huns. Barbary States, 431, 574. Barbes, 645. Barbezieux, 446. Barbusse, 753. Barcel;)na, 75, 448, 454; count of, 126, 139, 153; county of, 160. Barcelonette, 458. Barclay de Tolly, 614. Barcy, 721. Bard, fort of, 582, 583. Bards, Gallic, 12. Barentin, 538. Barletta, 290. Barrage, 725. Barras, 558, 566, 577. Barrere, 558, 560. Barras, Maurice, 753. Barry, countess du, 602, 503. Barthelrmv, 571 . Basel, Council of, 245, 278, 309. Basina, 35. 762 INDEX. Basques, 9, 10, 62, 75, 87. See Vascones. Bassomiiierre, marshal, 395. Bastien-Lepage, 755. Bastile, 210, 217, 238, 268, 269, 389, 395, 412, 419, 517, 531; destruction of, 540, 541. Batavia, 30. Batavian Republic, 563, 574, 584. Bathilda, 63. Baudelaire, 753. Baudricourt, sieur de, 229. Bauge, 223. Bautzen, 617. Bavaria, 17, 49, 88, 89; electors of, 406, 414, 450, 452, 458, 491; elec- toral prince of, 449; king of, 610, 618, 631. Bavarians, 39, 56, 62, 68, 69, 74, 75. Bayard, Chevalier, 290, 301, 302, 305, 306, 329. Bayeux, 245. Bayle, 474. Baylen, capitulation of, 606. Bayonne, 7, 168. 208, 306, 422; con- ferences of, 343 ; interview of, 605. Bazaine, marshal, 65S, 659, OOJ. Bazin, Rene, 753. Beachy Head, battle of, 445. Beam, 391, 534. Beam, Henry of. See Henry IV. Beaufort, cardinal, 234, 236, 237. Beaufort, duke of, 405, 410, 431. Beaugency, battle of, 659. Beauharnais, Eugene de, 592, 604 ; Hortense de, 646; .Josephine, see Josephine de Beauharnais. Beau.ieu, Anne de, 257, 269, 275, 276, 278-281. 284, 288. Beau.ieu, Pierre de, 257. 269, 275, 278, Beaulieu, 352. Beaulieu, baron, 567, 568, 570. Beaumarchais, 526. Beaumont, Christophe de, archbishop, 503. Beailvais, 137, 256, 262; bishop of, 151 (see Cauchon) ; cardinal-bishop of (Chatillon), 335. Beauvaisis, count of, 139. Beauvilliers, duke of, 450, 462, 467. Bee, 119. Becket, Thomas, 146. Bedford, duke of. 225-227, 237. Begga, 104. Begijars, 344, 346. Beguins, 180. Behanzin, k. of Dahomey, 681. Belfort, 427, 660, 661. Belgse, 9, 10, 21. Belgium, 89. 383, 570, 572, 626-629, 636, 718-710. Belgrade, treaty of, 490. Bellay, Cardinal du, 326, 329. Beliay, Joachim du, 331. Bellay, Martin du, 329. Beileau, Remv, 331. Belle-Isle, count of, 491, 492, 494. Bellerophon, the, 630. Bellovaci. 21, 24. Benddetti, count, 657. Benedict, St., 54, 87, 118, 173. Benedict, St., of Aniane, 83. Benedict XI., pope, 179, 1S5. Benedict XIII.. pope, 224. Benedictines, 118. 173. 474. Benefices, 59, 60, 80, 81, 82, 98, 111, 112. Benevento, 127; dukes of, 74, 75, 78. Bennigsen, count, 599. Berengar of Tours, 120. Beresina, passage of the, 615, 616. Bergen, 575. Bergen-op-Zoom, 494. Bergerac, peace of, 354. 355. Bcrgson. Henri, 754. Berlin, 598; Decree, 598, 612, 613; Congress of, 668. Bern, 265, 266, 574. Bernadotte, marshal, 591, 596; crown- prince of Sweden, 610, 613, 618, 620. Bernard, St., xx, 142, 143. 145, 178. Bernard, grandson of Charlemagne, 86, 87. Bernard, d. of Aquitaine, 91. Bernhard, d. of Saxe-Weimar, 400— 402, 405. Bernstein, dramatist, 754. Bernstorff, count, 741. Berquin, Louis, 309, 310. Berry, 195, 352, 389; county of, 98; dukes of. 212-216, 218, 254-256, 459, 633; duchess of. 637. Berserker, 92. Bert. M. Paul, 670. Bertha, queen, 107. Berthar, 43, 46. Berthelot, general, 745. Berthier, intendant. 543. Berthier, grand huntsman, 591. Berthier, marshal, 590, 596, 621. Berthold, of Bruges, 141. Bertrand de Goth (Clement V.), 179. Berwick, marshal, 482, 490. BesanQon, 427, 435, 440; university of, 274. Besme, 347. Bessarabia, 652. Eessicre, marshal, 590. Bcthencourt, Jean de, 211. Betlimann-HoUweg, chancellor, 718. Beziers, 72. 154. Biarritz. 168. Bibracte, 20. Bicocca, 305, 308. "Big Bertha," 724, 744. Billaud-Varennes, 559, 560. Biron, marshal (elder). 345; (young- er), 369, 373, 375, 382. Biscay, bay of, 7. Bishops, in sixth century, 53, 54, 59, 60; seventh, 61, 64; under Carolin- gians, 79, 80, 81, 97, 99; in eleventh century, 116, 117; under Louis XIV., 463 ; Louis XV., 510. INDEX. 763 Bismarck, prince, 661. Bithynia, 18. Bitsch, 427. Bituriges, 14, 23, 24, 26. Black Death, 192. Black Flags, 072. Black Forest, 570, 594. Black Sea, 652. Blanc, Louis, 644. Blanchard, 530. Blanche of Castile, queen, 159—161. Blanche of Bourbon, q. of Castile, 205. Blanchetaque, 189, 220. Blancmenil, 409. Blanqui, 645. Bleneau, battle of, 412. Blenheim, 4^3. Bloc, the, 690-691. Bloc National, 751. Blockade, Continental, 598, 604, 611- 613. Blois, 340; counts of, 108, 109, 130; county of, 159, 295; treaty of, 290; states-general of, 353, 360 ; ordi- nance of, 354. Blucher, marshal, 598, 618-621, 626, 627, 629, 630. Bodin, Jean, 329. Boetie, fitienne de la, 329. Bohemia, 17, 62, 74, 78, 399, 401, 491-493. Bohemond of Tarento, 130. Boii, 15, 16, 17. Boileau, Etienne, 163, 164. Boileau, Nicole, 381, 416, 425, 463, 468, 469. Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes, 650. Bois-Guilbert, 513, 516. Bolingbroke, 456. Bologna, 167, 292, 293, 569. Bolo Pasha, traitor, 742. Bolshevism, 697. Bomarsund, 652. Bonaparte, Caroline, 596. Bonaparte, Charles, 564. Bonaparte, Eliza, 590. Bonaparte, Jerome, 600, 604, 669. Bonaparte, Joseph, 590, 592, 596, 604-606, 617. Bonaparte, Louis, 590, 596, 604, 612, 646. Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon, 638, 646— 649. See Napoleon III., IV. Bonaparte, Lucien, 577. Bonaparte, Napoleon. See Napoleon I., Napoleon, Prince. Bonaparte, Pauline, 596. Bonaparte, Victor, 609. Bonajjartists, 669, 670. Boniface, St., 69, 70. Boniface VIII., pope, 176, 178, 179, 185. Bonn, 435, 441. Bonne of Savoy, 253. Bonnivet, admiral, 306. Bordeaux, 4, 5, 7, 28, iO, 43, 168 348, 495; Saracens at, 68; North men, 91, 93; archbishop of, 179 English at, 194, 196, 205, 20o' 208; recovered, 246; parliament of 252, 273, 375, 442; in the Revolu tion, 558; since, 620, 660, 722. Bordeaux, duke of, 633. See Cham- bord. Borel, duke, 107. Borghetto, battle of, 568. Borgia, Csesar, 285, 289. Boris, king; of Bulgaria, 748. Borisof, bridge of, 016. Borodino, battle of, 014. Bossuet, 410, 442, 403, 404, 468, 470, 471, 473, 474. Bouchain, 437. Boucher, 520. Boucicaut, marshal, 203. Boufflers, marshal, 445, 451.- Bougainville, 529. Bouguer, 520. Bouille, marquis of, 526, 527, 548. Bouillon, 031 ; dukes of, 305, 395, 390, 410, 415, 510. Boulanger, general, 674-077, 078, 680. Boulogne, n, 250, 27;i. 31», 4^7; count of, 150, 151; sieges of, 311, 314; flotilla and camp of, 585, 592, 593, 004. Boulonnais, 3. Bourbaki, Gen., 660. Bourbon, Antoine de, 320, 333, 335, 336, 338, 340, 341, 364. Bourbon, Charles, cardinal, 333, 356, 365, 368. Bourbon, bastard of, xxiv, 242; sire of, 139; duke of, 212, 221, 227, 241, 252-257, 275, 276, 278; con- stable, duke of, 301, 302, 305-30S; house of, 351, 364, 414, 63 0; duke of (prime minister), 484, 487, 488; (another), 513. Bourbon, island of, 423, 458, 494, 495. See Reunion. Bourbonnais, 142. Bourdaloue, 416, 470, 473. Bourgeois, Leon, 680, 084, 751. Bourget, Paul, 752. Bourg-la-Reine, ISO, 201. Bouteville, count of, 304. Bouvines, battle of, 150. 151. Boyne, battle of the, 445. Brabant, 103, 270. Braganza, house of, 605, 610. Brandenburg, elector of, 434, 435, 438. Brantome, 329. Brazil, 424, 610. Breda, treaty of, 431. Breisach, Alt-, 401, 407, 440. Bremen, 407, 012. Bre.Tneville. 123, 141. Brescia, 292. Bresse, 318, 370. Brest, 208, 397, 424, 427, 494, 593, 601. 764 tNDEl, Brest-Litovsk, treaty of, 749. Bretigny, treaty of, 201, 206. Bretons, 46, 62, 76, 7S, 87, 91, 93, 94, 97, 101, 109; king of, lOU; re- volt of, 136. Breze, marquis of, 539. Briangon, 427. Briand, Aristide, 691, 693, 694, 696, 712, 722, 733, 737, 751. Briare, canal of, 380. Brie, 259. Brienne, Lomenie de, 532—534. Briey, 748. Brissac, marshal, 816, 372. Brisson, Henri, 370, 682, 683, 684. Brissot, 550. Britain, 21. Britons, 35, 36. Brittany, 3, 46, 146, 208, 534; count of, 98, 161; dukes of, 139, 210, 226, 242, 245, 251, 253-262, 267, 269, 459; war of succession in, 188, 189, 203, 204; joined to France, 281, 288; states of, 355: Broglie, duke of, 492 ; marshal, 539 ; dukes of, 634, 637, 664, 667. Brouage, 397. Broussel, 409. Bructeri, 32. Brueys, admiral, 573. Brueys, Peter de, 153. Bruges, 141, 142, 168, 213, 455. Brumaire, 18th, 576, 577, 612. Brune, marshal, 575, 584, 590. Brunehilde, 48-52, 61, 63. Brunelleschi, 297. Brunetto Latini, xx, 172. Brunswick, duke of, 414, 610. See Ferdinand. Brussels, 454, 493, 550, 554, 721. Buch, Captal de, 204. Bucharest, peace of, 613. Buckingham, duke of, 393. Bude, 297, 328. Buffon, 519, 520, 530. Bugeaud. marshal, 641, 643. Bugey, 318, 376. Bulgaria, 733. Bulow, general, 628, 629. Burdeau, M., 683. Bureau, Jean, 240, 246. Burgundians, invasion of, 33, 34; their kingdom, 36, 37; subdued by Clovis, 40, 43; by his sons, 44; under the Merovingians, 52, 62 ; code of, 56 ; under the Carolingians, 68. 89. Burgundy, 8, 88 ; Merovingian king- dom of, 48, 51, 69; Carolingian duchy of, 94, 98, 107; kingdoms of Cisjurane and Transjurane, 96, 100, 101 ; duchy of, first Capetian, 108, 139; second Capetian duchv of, 202, 248, 252, 263-266, 272 ; county of, see Franche-Comte ; states of, 307, 355; canal of, 422; dukes of. see their names, Philip, John, Charles, Louis. Byng, admiral, 496. Byzantine Empire, 41, 62, 72, 84. Cabanis, 602. Cabinets, 666, 667. Caboche, 219. Cabochiens, 219, 220. Cadiz, 593, 633. Cadoudal, Georges, 589, 593. Cadurci, 24. Caen, 7, 189, 221, 246, 256, 258. Ctesar, Julius, conquest of Gaul, 20-25. CiBsarodunum, 26. Qaffarel. general, 675. Cagliostro, 530. Cahiers, 277, 278, 387, 388, 536, 537. Cahors, 43. Caillaux, M., 741-742. Caillaux, Mme., 714, 741. Cairo, 152. 572. 573, 585. Cajetano, cardinal, 368. Calais, taken bv Edward III., 190- 192, 194, 228"; under the English, 201, 207, 208, 227, 265, 284, 293, 299; recovered, 317, 318, 333, 342; 375, 427. Calas, 514. Calendar, repuVjlican, 565. Calixtus II., jioiie, 142. Calmette, Gaston, 714, 741. Calonne, xxix, 532. Calvin, 333, 334. Camargue, 5. Cambaceres, 579, 590. Cambodia, 654. Cambon, Jules, 751. Cambrai, 34, 36, 38, 41, 438, 740, 747; battle at, 68; bishop of, 126; com- mune of, 137; league of, 291, 292; treaty of, 308. Cambronne, general, 629. Camillus, 16. Camisards, 453. Camouflage, 727, 756. Campo-Formio, treaty of, 572. Campus Martins, 67, 73, 80. Camulogenus, 2,3. Canada, 323, 380, 397, 423, 448, 496, 499, 500. Canals, 699. Canaries, 211. Cannge, 16. Cannes, landing at, 625. Cape Breton, 393, 397, 494, 495, 500. Cape Colony, 585. Capptians^ 93, 100, 105, 106 et seq. Capitularies, 79, 82, 83. Captal de Buch, see Buch. Carbonari, 633. Carcassonne, 68, 72, 154. Cardona, Ramon de, 292, 293. Carl, see Cliarles Martel and Charle- magne. Carlat, 268. INDEX. 765 Oarloman, son of Charles Martel, 69, 70, 78, 104. Carloman, son of Pippin, 73, 104. Carloman, king, 95, 104. Carlos, Don, 637, 638. Carnac, monuments of, 12. Carnot, Count, 558, 560, 562, 566, 567, 569, 571. Carnot, M. Sadi, President, 676, C77, 682, 683. Carnutes, 12, 22, 24, 26. Carolingians, 63, 66-104. Carrier, 558, 560. Cartagena, 454. Cartier, Jacques, 322. Cary, Langley de, general, 732. Casablanca affair, 70S. Casale, 399, 413, 440. Casaubon, 474. Caserio, Santo, assassin, 683. Casimir-Perier, M., 682, 683, 684. Cassano, battle of, 575. Cassation, court of, 580, 624. Cassel, 187, 438. Cassini, Domenico, 476. Castelnau, 340, 341, 351, 735. Castelnaudary, 154, 395. Castelnovo, 289. Castel-Rodrigo, 432. Castiglione, battle of, 568. Castile, 128, 226, 270, 290. Castillon, 246. Castles, 97, 115. Catalaunian plains, 34, 35. Catalonia, invasions of, 175, 454, 606; revolts of, 400-402, 406, 430. Cateau-Cambresis, 401 ; treaty of, 317, 318, 334, 376. Cathedrals, 120, 121, 173. Cathelineau, 561, 562. Catherine, dau. of Charles VI., 223. Catherine II., of Russia, 518, 527. Catherine of Aragon, 308. Catherine de' Medici, 309, 326, 332, 333, 338-340, 342-350, 361, 363. Catholics, 37, 40, 42, 680, 690. See Religion, wars of. Catinat, marshal, 443, 445, 446, 451, 452, 465, 467. Cattaro, Bocche di, 600. Cauchon, Pierre, bp., 232, 234, 235. Caulaincourt, 591. Caux, Pays de, 3. ' Cavaignac, general, 646, 688. Ca.venne, 423, 437, 458. Cellamare, duke of, 482. C^ellini, Benvenuto, 325. Celtiberians, 15, 19. Celts, 9. See Gauls. Cenomani, 15. Censorship of the Press, 514, 611. Centenarius, 80, 81, 112. Cerdana, 253, 272, 284, 414, 430. Cerignola, 290. Cerisola, 311. Cette, 422. Cevennes, 2, 3, 5, 6, 22; insurgents in the, 213, 338, 392, 453. Ceylon, 585. Chalons, 87, 231, 356, 658." Chamber of Deputies, 629, 631, 6T4, 635, 637, 639; in Third Republic, 665-668, 670, 671, 673, 676. Chambord, chateau, 325, 479. Chambord, count of (Henry V.), 633, 635. 662, 664, 671. Chamillard, 451. Champagne, count of, 139, 144, 159; county of, 175, 181, 194, 259, 200, 383, 389, 732, 733; marshal of, 198. Champagne, Philippe de, 477. Champaubert, battle of, 620. Champ de Mars, see Campus Martius ; affair of the (1791), 548, 549. Champlain, 380, 397. Chandernagore, 424, 528. Chanson de geste, 172. Chanzy, general, 659, 660. Chapelle, Sainte, 165, 173. Chapters, 117. Chararic, 41. Charibert, k. of Paris, 48, 71. Charibert, brother of Dagobert I., 62, 71. Charities in eighteenth century, 515, 516. Charlemagne (Carl), xix., 67, 93, 104, 115, 230; king, 7.3; reign and eon- quests, 73—77 ; emperor, 76 ; gov- ernment, 78— 85. Charlemont, 427. Charleroi, 448, 562, 721. Charles, see Charlemagne. Charles II. the Bald, 88-95, 104, 118. Charles III., the Fat, emperor, 95, 96, 100, 104. Charles III. the Simple, king, 95, 100, 101, 102, 104. Charles, d. of Lorraine, 104, 105. Charles IV. the Fair, 183-186. Charles V. (dauphin), 196-201; (king), 203-212, 278, 282, 364. Charles VI., 209, 212-224, 304. Charles VII., (dauphin), 223; (king), 225-250, 266, 279, 282, 322, 3(^4. Charles VIII., 201, 269, .275-237, 299, 319, 364. Charles IX., 338-349, 364, 381. Charles X. (ct. of Artois), 535, 543, 548; (king). 634, 635. Charles V. (archduke), 270, 290, 301, 304; (emperor), 304, 305, 307, 308, 310-312, 314-316, 319, 364, 416. Charles VI. (archduke), 449, 454, 456; (emperor), 457, 482, 4S8-491. Charles VII. (elector), 491; (em- peror), 493. Charles, son of Charlemagne, 86. Charles, the Bad, k. of Navarre, 194, 195, 199, 200, 203, 204, 20(i. Charles the Bold or Rash, ct. of 766 INDEX. Charolais, 248, 253-257; d. of Bur- gundy, 258-270, 364. Charles, brother of Louis XI., 253- 261, 267. Charles, ct. of Angouleme, 864. Charles I., k. of England, 392, 393. Charles II., k. of England, 431, 433, 438. Charles II., k. of Spain, 431, 433, 435, 448, 449, 450. Charles III., k. of Spain, 521. Charles IV., k. of Spain, 605. Charles XII., k. of Sweden, 455, 482. Charles Albert, k. of Sardinia, 647. Charles the Good, et. of Flanders, 141. Charles of Anjou, ct. of Provence, 161, 175, 186; (another), 271. Charles of Blois, 188, 189, 204. Charles, ct. of Valois, 186, 364. Charles, archduke, 569, 570, 575, 584, 593, 606-608; emperor, 740, 748. Charles Martel, 68, 69, 104. Charles Stuart (Young Pretender), 493. Charolais, 272, 284; ct. of, see Charles the Bold. Ckarte Constitutionelle, 624, 632, 635, 636. Chartier, Alain, 250. Ciarton, 409. Chartres, 236, 369, 372; county of, 94, 95, 159, 278; duke of, 671. Chateaubriand, 602, 634. Chateaubriant, countess of, 303 ; edict of, 315. Chateau-Dauphin, 458. Chateau-Thierry, 745. Chateauroux, duchess of, 492. Chatel, Jean, 373. Chatillon, house of, 320, 335. Chatillon, Jacques de, 177. Chatti, 32. Chaumont, 661. Chavannes, Puvis de, 755. Chelles, 50. Chemin des Dames, 740, 747. Chemnitz. 401. Chenal, Mile., 749. Chenier, Andre, 602. Chenonceaux, chateau, 325, 326. Cherasco, peace of, 399; armistice of, 567. Cherbourg, 208, 246, 427, 445, 601. Cherusci, 32. Chesterfield, Lord, 521. Chevalier, fitienne, 240. Chiari, battle of, 452. Childebert I., 43-46, 71. Childebert II., 50, 51, 71. Childebert III., 71. Childeric I., 35, 71. Childeric II., 64, 71. Childeric III., 69, 70, 71. Chillon, vice-admiral, 313. Chilperic I., 48-51, 71. Chilperic II., 71. China, war with (1860), 654; (1884, 1885), 672, 673. Chinon, 230, 232. Chios, 249, 291. Chivalry, 133, 134. Chloderic, 41. Chlodomir, 43, 44, 45, 71. Chlodwald (St. Cloud), 45. Chlothar I., 43-48, 54, 71 ; his sons and grandsons, 48-52. Chlothar II., 51, 52, 54, 61, 62, 63, 71. Chlothar III., 63, 64, 71. (Jlioiseul, duke of, 500-504, 510, 517, 526. Chollet, 562. Chotusitz, battle of, 491. Chouans, 557. Chrestien de Troyes, 172. Christianity, in Gaul, 28; under the Merovingians, 47 ; under Carolin- gians, 99. Church, relations of Franks with, 40, 42, 46; in the sixth century, 53-55, 57 ; relations with Carolingians, 69, 70, 81, 99; with the Capetians, 106; in the eleventh century, 116—121, 124-126; and serfdom, 139; under Philip Augustus and St. Louis, 157, 164; and Francis I., 302, 303; un- der Louis XIV., 463, 464; under Louis XV., 510; property nation- alized, 544, 545 ; under Napoleon, 580 ; separated from State, 692-693. Cicero, Quintus, 22. Cimbri, 19, 20. Cinq-Mars, marquis of, 395, 396. Cisalpine Republic, 572, 574, 584, 587. Cispadane Republic, 569. Ciudad-Ro'drigo, 454, 617. Civilis, 29, 30. Civitates, 58. Clairaut, 520. Clair-sur-Epte, 101. Clarence, d. of, 223. Claude, dau. of Louis XII., 290, 291, 364. Claude Lorraine, 416, 476, 477. Claudius, 29. Clausel, marshal, 638. Clemenceau, 687, 688, 691, 694, 695, 696, 697, 699, 701, 708, 746, 751; made jjremier, 739. Clement V., pope, 179, 180. Clement VI., pope, 192. Clement VII., anti-pope, 211. Clement VII., pope, 307. Clement VIII., pope, 383. Clement XIV, pope, 502. Clement of Bavaria, 441. Clement, Jacques, 363, 365. Clergy, in sixth century, 53—55 ; in eleventh, 116-120; in sixteenth, 321; under Louis XIV., 463, 464; Civil Constitution of the, 547 ; non-juring, 550. INDEX. 767 Clermont (-Ferrand), 94; council of, 129, 132, 136; counts of, 139, 227, 245; bishop of, 142. Cleves, 383, 595. Clisson, Olivier de, 189, 203, 215, 216. Clive, Lord, 499. Clodion, 34, 71. Clotilda, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45. Cloud, St. (Chlodwald), 45. Clevis, king, xviii, 36, 71 ; his reign, conversion and conquests, 38—42 ; reigns of his sons, 43-47. Clovis, son of Chii'peric I., 50. Clovis II., 63, 71. Clovis, son of Chlothar III., 71. Clovis III., 71. Clubs, revolutionary, 546. Clusium, 15. Coal industry, 698. Coalition, First, 551; Second, 574; Third, 593; Sixth, 617. Coalitions, Law of, 694. Coblenz, 550, 553. Coburg, prince of. 561, 562. Cochin China, 672. Codes, of the barbarians, 56, 57. Codes, Colbert's, Code Louis, etc., 428; code of Convention, 565; Na- poleon's, 586, 601. Coehorn, 447. CoBur, Jacques, 240, 244, 249. Cognac, 346. . Colbert, 388, 398, 416, 419-426, 428- 430, 433, 438, 441, 442, 449, 467, 469, 517. Coligny, admiral, 316, 317, 335, 336, 344-347, 355. College of France, 327. College of the Four Nations, 415. Colleges, 757. Collot-d'Herbois, 558-560. Colmar, 88, 436. Cologne, 36, 41, 435; elector of, 264, 441. Colombe, Michel, 325. Coloni, 55, 56, 57. Colonies, under Francis I., 322 ; un- der Charles IX., 345; under Henry IV., 380; under Richelieu, 397; under Louis XIV. and XV., 4j7, 513; under Napoleon, 5S5, 588. Colonna, constable, 415. Colonna, Prosper, 301. Colonna, Sciarra, 179. Columban, St., 52, 69. Combes, M., 692, 694. Combles, town, 737. Comedie Francaise, 529. Comes, 27. See Count. Comines, Philippe de, 259, 262, 272, 273, 274, 386. 297. Commendation, 59, 60. Commerce, 14, 28, 133, 168-170, 380, 398, 422-424, 433, 513, 586, 602, 651. Committees of public safety and of general security, 557—560. Commune of Paris, 552, 553, 557-560, 661, 662, 667. Communes, xxii, xxiii, 135-137, 164, 166, 167, 209. Compagnie d'Ocoident, 484; des Indes, 484, 485, 513. Compagnies, grandes, 203, 205, 228. Compiegne, 46, 232, 236, 602. Compostella, 126. Concini, 386, 389, 390. Concordat, of Francis I., 302, 303; of Napoleon, 586, 605. Conde, 437, 558, 560. Conde, Louis (I.), prince of, 333, 335-338, 340-345, 364. Conde, Henry (I.), prince of, 345, 347-349, 351, 352, 357, 358. Conde, Henry (II.), prince of, 386— 389. Conde, Louis (II.), prince of, 405, 406, 410-414, 416, 432, 434-437, 473. Conde, other princes, 447, 535, 543, 548. Condillac, abbe de, 519. Condorcet, marquis of, 519. Conflans, 256. Congregation, the, 633. Conrad III., emperor, 145. Consarbriick, battle of, 437. Constance, queen, 107, 108. Constance, Council of, 223, 224, 278, 309, 463. Constans, M., 679. Constantine, emperor, 29, 30. Constantine, captured, 638. Constantine, king of (jreece, 733 ; ab- dication of, 739. Constantinople, 129, 130, 145; capture of, 152, 153, by the Turks, 247. Constantius Chlorus, 30. Constitution, of 1791, 549; of the year III., 564 ; of the year VIII., 579, 580 ; of the year X., 587 ; of the year XII., 590; of 1814, 624, 632; of 1830, 636; of 1848, 646-648; of 1852, 649, 650; of 1867-70, 655, 656; of 1875, 663-666, 673, 674. Constitutionalists, 550. (!/'onsul, title of, 41, 579. Consulate, 579-589; for life, 587. Conti, princes of, 410, 411, 415, 447, 462, 535, 543. Convents, dissolution of, 691—692. Convention, the, 519, 553, 555-565. Convulsionnaires, the, 489. Cook, Capt., 529. Copenhagen, 585, 604. Coppee, Francois, 753. Corbie, 400. Corday, Charlotte, 558. Cordeliers, 546, 548, 552. Cordova, 75. 168. Corneille, 381, 403, 425, 468, 472, 473. Cornelius Gallus, 28. Cornwallis, Lord, 527. Corporations, 168, 209. 768 INDEX. Corps Legislatif, 579, 580, 587, 591, 601, 611, 619, 649, 655. Corsica, 75, 78, 291, 316, 501, 558, 564. Cortes, 304. Coruna, 606. Corvees, 122, 513, 513, 523, 524. Cote d'Or, 2. " Cotentin, 3, 7. Cotereaux, 149. Council, royal or grand, 79, 80, 181, 182, 418; of State, 184, 418, 461, 506, 507; of Five Hundred, 564, 571, 574, 576, 577; of Ancients, 564, 571, 574, 576, 577; of State (since 1799), 579, 601, 624, 649, 669. Councils, ecclesiastical, in France, 54, 99, 102, 117, 136, 142, 143, 160, ISO, 223, 369, 463. Counts, tinder the Merovingians, 58, 60 ; under the Carolingians, 79, 80, 81, 97, 98; under the Capetians, 112, 113. Coup d'etat, of 1851, 648, 649. Courbet, admiral, 672. Court, Merovingian, 58 ; Oarolingian, 79, 80; of Philip Augustus, 156; of Francis I., 303, 325 ; of Henry III., 354; of Louis XIV., 465, 466. Courtrai, battle of, 1 77. Courts, civil, 156, 162, 163, 296, 321, 343, 507, 508, 545, 580, (see Par- ,liament) ; ecclesiastical, 157, 321. Cousin, Jean, 327. Cousin, Victor, 633. Cousinot, Guillaume, 240. Coustou, 477. Coutanees, 245. Couthon, 558-560. Coutras, battle of, 358. Coutumes, 244, 274, 296, 508. Coyscvox, 477. Craon, Pierre de, 215, 216. Crassus, 21. Crecy, 177, 189, 190. (Credit Foncier, Credit Mobilier, 651. Cremieux, 644. (jremona, 452. Crespy, peace of, 311. Cr6qui, marshal, 437. Crevant, 225. Crevecceur, 270, 271. Crillon, duke of, 527. Crimean M'^ar, 651-653. Critics, literary, 753. Cromlechs, 12. Cromvs^ell, Oliver, 413. Cronstadt, 682. Crusades, xx, 110, 129-132, 144-146, 149, 152-154, 160, 161, 217, 247. Cuba, 500. Cubists, 755. Cujas, 328. Culloden, 493. Cumberland, duke of, 493, 497. Curie, Mme., 756. Custine, general, 554, 558, 560, 561. Cuvier, 529, 602. Cyprus, 160. Dagobert I., 59, 61-63, 66, 71. Dagobert II., 64, 71. Dagobert III., 71. Dahomey, 703. Dahomev expedition, 681. D'Alembert, 519, 520. Dalmatia, 572, 595. Damascus, 145. Damiens, Frangois, 603. Damietta, 160. Damville, 351, 357. Dandelot, Sieur, 335. Danes, 43, 74. Danes, 297, 338. Dante, 166. Danton, 546, 553, 556, 557, 559. Danube, 652; Gauls on, 17, 18. Danubian Principalities, 652. Danzig, 490, 599, 600, 613. Darboy, Mgr., 662. Dardanelles, 728. D'Arlande, 530. Daubenton, 529. Daudet, Alphonse, 753. Daudet, Leon, 753. Daun, marshal, 497. Dauphin, title, 193. Dauiihiny, 89, 248, 263; acquired by Crown, 193 ; ravaged, 446. David, 602. Davout, marshal, 590, 597, 599, 606, 608, 630. "Day of Dupes," 393, 394. Deane, Silas, 526. Debeney, general, 747. Decadents, 753. Decretals, False, 117. Defensor civitafis, 27, 39, 116. Degoutte, general, 745. De Launay, 540, 541, 543. Delcassee, Th^ophile, 705-706, 707, 722. Delisle, Guillaume, 476. Delorme, Philibert, 326. Delphi, 17. Denain, battle of, 457. Denis, St., 29. Denmark, 309, 399, 414, 438, 537, 585, 604. Deols, prince of, 139. Departments, 544, 580, 663. Deportations in World War, 734. De Ruyter, admiral, 434, 435, 437. Des Adrets, 341. Desaix, 570, 583. Descartes, 468, 470, 473, 475. Deschamps, Gaston, 753. Desiderius, bishop, 53. Desiderius, king of the Lombards, 73, 74. Desirade, 500. Desmoulins, Camille, 540, 546, 559. Dettingen, battle of, 492. Devolution, law of, 431, 432. INDEX. 769 Diana of Poitiers, 314. Diderot, 519. Dieppe, 211, 242, 262, 366. Dijon, 40, 293; parliament of, 252, 273. Dillon, count, 678. Dinant, 257. D'lnfveville, 397. Diocletian, 30. Diodorus Siculus, 10. Dionysius, 29. Direct action, 695. Directory, the, 566-578. Dodds, colonel, 681. Dohna, baron of, 358. Dolabella, 16. Dolet, Etienne, 328. Dolmens, 12. Domesfici, 58. Domfront, 246. Dominic, St., 173. Dominica, 500, 526. Dominicans, 173, 174. Domitius Afer, 28. Domremy, 228. Doneau, 328. Dormans, battle of, 351. Dorylseum, 130. Douaumont, 735. Dover, conference of, 433. Drayonnades, 443. Drama, 330, 331. Dresden, treaty of, 493 ; battle of, 618. Dreux, 101, 367; battle of, 341. Dreyfus case, 685—690. Drouet, 548. Druidical monuments, 12; Druids, 11-13, 28, 29. Druses, 653. Du Bartas, 331. Dubois, abbe, 482, 483, 486. Dubois, Pierre, 213. Dubourg, Anne, 334. Ducange, 474. Duchesne, general, 684. Ducis, J. F., 602. Duel, judicial, 56, 114, 162; private, 394. Dufaur, 334. Dufaure, M., 666-669. Dugommier, general, 562, 563. Duguay-Trouin, 457. Duguesclin, Bertrand, 203-208. Dukes, under Merovingians, 58, 59, 64; under Carolingians, 79, 81, 98; under Capetians, 112, 113. Dumas, Alexander (the younger), 752. Dumerbion, .general, 562. Dumoulin, 328. Dumouriez, 551, 553, 554, 557, 560. Dunes, battle of the, 414. Dunkirk, 7, 406, 413, 414, 422, 424, 427, 431, 458, 459, 481, 561, 723. Dunois, ct. of, 226, 227, 232, 236, 240, 241, 245, 246, 256, 257, 288; (an- other). 275, 276. Duns Scotus, 171, 174. Dupanloup, Mgr., and M. Duruy, xv. Dupleix, Fr. J., 494, 495, 499. Duplessis-Mornay, 357. Dupont, general, 606. Dupont de I'Eure, 644. Duprat, Chancellor, 300, 323. Dupuy, M., 681, 682, 683. Duquesne, Abr., 416, 437, 440, 443, 444. Duras, marshal, 445, 446. Duroc, grand marshal, 591. Duruy, Victor, his career and works, xi— xvi. Duval, traitor, 742. Dux, 27. See Dukes. Eastern Question, 639, 640, 651, 652. East India Company, 380, 397, 423, 424. Eble, general, 616. Bbroin, 48, 63, 64. Eburones, 22. Eburovices, 21. Eckmuhl, battle of, 607. tf.coles Maternelles, 757. Economists, the, 519, 520. Ecouen, edict of, 334. Edessa, 132, 145. Education, under Charlemagne, 83, 84; see Schools; Perry's bill respect- ing, 669, 670; in 1919, 757. Edward I., k. of England, 176. Edward II., 184. Edward III., 187-192, 194, 200, 201, 206-208. Edward ly., 258, 260, 264, 265. Edward VII., 705-706. Edward the Confessor, 127, 128. Edward the Black Prince, 194-196, 204-207. Eginhard, 73, 76, 84. Egj'pt, St. Louis in, 160, 161; sultan of, 249, 273 ; Bonaparte in, 572- 574, 5S1, 585; relations with pasha (khedive), 637, 639, 640, 671. Eighteenth Century, Mignet on, 577, 578. El-Arish, convention of, 585. Elba, 316, 587; Napoleon at, 622, 625. ElboBuf, duke of, 356. Eleanor of Guienne, queen, 141, 144, 146. Elections, 536, 580, 634, 635, 642, 645, 647, 660, 666, 670, 674, 677, 678, 681. Eligius (St. Eloi), 62. Elizabeth, queen, 317, 341, 344, 357. 366, 368. Elizabetly dau. of Henry II.. 364. Elizabeth, ciarina, 494, 496, 499. Elizabeth, Madame, 548, 558. Elliot, Sir O.. 528. Elster, bridge of the, 619. Elus, 197. Emeri, superintendent, 407. 770 INDEX. Emigres, 543. 548, 550, 562, 563, 571, 574, 586, 589, 625, 634. Empire, Eastern, 41, 62, 72, 84; Latin, 152, 153 ; French, First, 590- 630 ; Holy Roman, ends, 595 ; Sec- ond French, 649, 650-659, trans- formed, 655. Enghien, dukes of, 311, 543, 589. See Conde. England, war with, see Hundred Years' War; in 1661, 430; Revolu- tion in, 444 ; alliance with, 481-483 ; Seven Years' War with, 496—501 ; American war with, 525—528 ; war with. Revolutionary and Napoleonic, 556, 563, 564, 585, 588, 592, 593; in 1830, 636; in the Crimea, 652; in Mexico, 654; the Entente Cor- diale, 705-706; in the World War, 716-750. Entente Cordiale, 705—706; Germany's view of, 715. Entraigues, Henrietta d', 382. fipee, abbe de 1', 528. Epernon, duke of, 365, 374, 383, 385. Epinal, 243. Eponina, 30. Eresburg, 74. Erfurt, conference at, 606. Erkenwald, 63. Ermenonville, 530. Ernest, archduke, 371. Espreraenil, D', 533. Essling, battle of, 607. Estaing, count d', 526, 527. Esterhazy, major, 686, 688. Estiennes, 328. Estrees, count d', 437; duke d', 497. Estrees, Gabrielle d', 382, 405. Estremadura, 454. Etampes, 256; council of, 142; duchess of, 303. Etruria, kingdom of, 584. Eu, 256. Eudes, count of Paris, 95, 96 ; duke, king, 100, 101, 186. Eudes, count of Blois, 109. Eudo, d. of Aquitaine, 68. Eugene, Prince, 446, 451-455, 490. Eugene de Beauharnais, 592, 604. Eugenie de Guzman, empress, 650. Eugenius, emperor, 31, 33. Eugenius VI., pope, 244. Europe, Henry IV. 's plan for reor- ganization of, 382, 383 ; state of, , in 1661, 430; in 1810, 610, 611. fivreux, 245, 256; count of, 136. Exarchate, 72. Exilles, 458. Export trade, 700. Eylau, battle of, 599. Fabliaux, 172. Faidherbe, general, 659. Falaise, 246. Fallieres, president, 712. Family Compact, 500, 526. Famine Compact, 504, 515. Farming, 69S-699, 700, 701. Fashoda incident, 704-705, 733. Fastolf, Sir John, 227. Faubourg St. Antoine, battle of, 412 ; insurrections in, 646. Faure, Felix, 684, 686, 687; death of, 689. Favorinus, 28. Favre, Jules, 659, 661. FayoUe, general, 736. Federated Republicans, 751. Federation, Feast of the, 545, 546. Fenelon, 464-467, 471, 474, 483, 516. Fenestrelle, 458. Ferdinand I., emperor, 316. Ferdinand, k. of Aragon, 253, 268, 272, 281, 284, 286, 289-294, 301, 304. Ferdinand, k. of Bulgaria, 748. Ferdinand VI., k. of Spain, 521. Ferdinand VII., k. of Spain, 605, 633, 637. Ferdinand I., k. of Naples, 283-285. Ferdinand II., k. of Naples, 285, 286. Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, 498, 552, 553, 597 Fermat, Pierre, 475. Ferney, 518. Ferrara, 569, 642. Ferrette, 264. Ferrol, 593. Ferry, Jules, 659, 669, 673, 674, 676, 678, 679. Fesch, cardinal, 591. Feudalism, xx ; beginning of, 96—98 description of, 111-115, 121-134; decline of, 163, 251, 252, 266-270 320, 321; revival of, 358. 386-393 405. Feuillade, marshal de la, 478. Feuillants, 548. Fiefs, 97, 98, 111-114. Field of the Cloth of Gold, 305. Fieschi's plot, 638. Figueras, 563. Finance, Carolingian, 80 ; under Louis IX., 164; under Philip IV., 183; under the Valois, 201, 202, 209, 210, 244 (see also Money) ; under the Valois-Orleans, 295, 323 ; under Henry IV., 378, 379; under Riche- lieu, 397, 398; under Mazarin, 407, 414; under Louis XIV., 419-421, 459; under Louis XV., 481, 483- 485, 500, 504, 505, 509, 511, 512; under Louis XVI., 523-525, 533, 535, 536, 538; during the Revolu- tion, 544, 545, 571, 574; under Na- poleon, 586 ; under the Third Re- public, 663, 666. Finistere, battle off, 593. Finland, 600, 604. Fismes, 746. Flanders, county of, 94, 98, 161, 176; count of, 105, 106, 126, 130, 139, 150, 151, 161, 209; insurrections in, INDEX. Ill 141, 177, 178, 183, 187, 188, 213, 280; united with Burgundy, 214, 215, 263, 270, 271; Louis XIV. claims, 431, 432, 458, 459; in World War, 740. Fleix, peace of, 355. Flesselles, 541, 543. Fleurus, battles of, 446, 562. Fleury, abbe, 474. Fleury, cardinal, 488-492. Flodden, 293. Floquet, M., 676, 677, 678. Floreal, 22d, 574. Florence, 253, 288, 289, 302. Florida, 397. 501. Flushing, 608. Foch, general, 740, 745, 746, 749, 750. Foix, counts of, 175, 226, 252. Foix, Gaston de, 292, 293. Foix, Germaine de, 290. Folembray, chateau, 326. Fontainebleau, 325, 326, 336, 340, 381, 438, 479. Fontaine-Frangaise, battle of, 373. F'ontanetum, 89, 99. Fontenoy, battle of, 493. Foo-Chow, 672. "Foolish War," 280. Forez, 2 ; county of, 98. Formosa, 672. Fornovo, 286. Fortunatus, 47. " Forty-five, The," 361. Fouche, 558, 630. Foucquet, Nicolas, 419, 422. Foulon, 543. Fourmigny, 245. Fox, Ch. J., 596. Franc archer, 243. France, formed, 91 ; duchy of, 94, 98 ; kingdom of, 105; national feeling in, 228; condition in 1515, 299, 300; in 1589, 377; in 1683, 441; in 1715, 481; in 1774, 506-521; in 1812, 611, 612; in 1814, 619; from 1889 to 1894, 677-684; from 1894 to 1906, 685-690; in period of World War, 709-752; the future, 758. France, Anatole, 688, 752. France, New, 397. Franche-Comte, 175, 181, 264, 265, 270, 284, 299, 383; invaded by Spain, 373, 398 ; conquered by France, 432, 433, 435, 438, 440, 458, 459. Francis, St., 173, 180. Francis de Paul, St., 272. Francis I., (d. of Angouleme), 291; (king), 299-313, 319, 323, 333, 350, 358, 364, 374, 381. Francis II., king, 332-337, 364. Francis II., emp. of Austria, 595. Francis II., d. of Brittany, 253-262, 267, 269, 279, 280, 325. Franciscans, 173, 174, 180. Francis Ferdinand, archduke, 715. Francis Joseph, emperor of Austria, 653, 74U. Franconia, 49. Frankfort, declaration of, 619 ; treaty of, 661. Franklin, Benjamin, 526, 530. Franks, 30, 32, 91 ; established in Gaul, 83—35, 36; manners and re- ligion, 37 ; political institutions, 38 ; in the sixth century, 55—60 ; name, in Orient, 132. Praticelli, 180. Fraxinetum, 101. Fredcgunde, 48-52. Frederick I. Barbarossa, emperor, 149. Frederick II., emperor, 160, 166. Frederick III., emperor, 242, 264, 269, 272. Frederick II., k. of Prussia, 491-493, 496-501, 518, 521, 527. Frederick III., k. of Naples, 289. Frederick William II., k. of Prussia, 550. Frederick William III., 585, 595-597, 617. Frederick Charles, prince, 660. Freemasonry, 530. Free verse, 753. Freiburg-in-Breisgau, 406, 437. Freiburg (Swiss), 265, 302. Frejus, 26, 574. French, Sir John, general, 721, 734. French language, 89. Freret, 515. Freycinet, M. de, 669, 674, 676, 678, cso. Friars, 173. Friediand, battle of, 599, 600. Friedlingen, battle of, 452. Frisia, 69, 95. Prisons, 62, 67, 68, 69. Friuli, 75, 572. Froissart, 191, 210, 214. Fronde, the, 409-413. Frontenac, count, 448. Pruetidor, 18th, 571, 576. Fuentes, 373 ; count of, 431. Fuentes d'Onoro, 617. Fulk, Nerra, 109, 126. Fulk of Nenilly, 152. Furnes, 142, 176. Fiirstenberg, cardinal, 441. Gabetle, 192. Gabriel, Ange, 520. Gaeta, 78. Gaguin, 297. Gaillon, 297. Galatia, Galatians, 18. Galeswintha, 49. Galiani, abbe, 515. Galicia, 728. Galigai, Leonora, 386, 390. Gall, St., 69. Gallia Belgica, 21, 24, 26, 30. Gallia Celtica, 26. Gallia Lugduuensis, 26. 772 INDEX. Gallia Narbonensis, 92, 23, GalliSni, general, 733. Gallo-Romans, 40, 42, 53, 55, 56, 57, 91. Galvani, 529. Gambetta, Leon, 659, 660, 667, 668, 670, 671. Garamond, 328. Garde mobile, 645. Garibaldi, 660. Garnier-Pages, 644, 645. Garonne, 4, 7. Gascons, 62. Gascony, 75; duchy of, 94, 98, 139; estates of, 205, 206. Gatinais, 110. Gatian, 29. Gaul, primitive populations of, 9 ; state of, in early times, 10—13; in B.C. 58, 13, 14; beginning of Ro- man conquest of, 19; Caesar's con- quest of, 24; a province, 25; under the Romans, 26-33 ; prefecture, 37 ; civilization, 27, 28; Christianity in, 28, 29; in 481, 36; in the sixth century, 53—60. Gauls, their origin, 9 ; characteristics, religion, government, etc., 10—14; capture Rome, 15; fight Rome, 16; invade Greece, 17; Galatia, 18; conquered by the Romans, 19—25; under the empire, 26—33. Gay-Lussac, 603. Gelasius II., pope, 142. Gelderland, 434; duke of, 215, 264, 272. Genabum, 22, 23. General Confederation of Labor, 695. General strike, 696. Geneva, 302, 334. Genevieve, Ste., 39, 42. Gennep, 249. Genoa, 168, 283, 285, 301, 440, 570; conquered, 291 ; freed, 293 ; again acquired, 302, 319; siege of, 582, 610. Genoese, 190, 501. Gensonne, 550, 557. Geoffrey Martel, 109. Geoffrey Plantagenet, ct. of Anjou, 141. Geoffrey St. Hilaire, 603. George I., k. of England, 458. George II., 489, 493. George, David Lloyd, 736, 751. Gergovia, 22, 23. Germans, 20, 30, 32, 38, 58; Charle- magne and, 76. Gern;iany, kingdom of, 90, 102, 105; under Hapsburgs, 319 ; after Thirty Years' War, 407, 430; and Na- poleon, 587, 588, 606, 609, 611, 617- 619; war with, 657-661; empire of, 661; and Agadir incident, 706-709; and World War, 71.3-715; loss of colonies, 739 ; armistice signed by, 748-749. Gervais, admiral, 682. Gex, 631. Ghent, 77, 142, 213, 257, 370, 271, 310, 438, 455, 493. Ghil, Rene, 753. Gibraltar, 454, 458, 488, 489, 537, 528. Giocondo, Fra, 297. Girardin, marquis de, 530. Girardon, 477, 478. Girondists, 550, 5.51, 555-557. Giroud de Villette, 530. Gledsdale, Wm., 237. Gloucester, d. of, 325, 236. Gobelins, tapestry of, 433. Godefroy, Denis, 328. Godegisel, 40. Godfrey of Bouillon, xix, 130-132. Godoliihin, Lord, 451. Godoy, 604, 605. Goethe, 554. (' Goletta, La, 308. Goncourt Brothers, 753. Gonsalvo de Cordova, 289, 390. Goree, 424, 528. Goths, 34, 72 ; East Goths, West Goths, see Ostrogoths, Visigoths. Gottschalk, 119. Goujon, Jean, 326, 327. Gouraud, general, 745. Gournay, 519. Government ownership, 700. Gozlin, bishop, 95. Gramont, duke of, 492, 657. Graramont, countess of, 358. Granson, 265. Granville, 562. Grasse, count de, 527. Gratiau, 30. Grave, 436. Gravelines, 305. Gravelotte, batKe of, 658. Greece, Gallic invasions of, 17; revo- lution in, 634; in World War, 739. Greeks, in Gaul, 10, 14, 91. Gregh, poet, 753. Gregory of Tours, 40, 42, 50. Gregory the Great, pope, 69. Gregory VII., pope, 125, 126, 127, 128, 142. Gregory XIII., pope, 356. Gregory XIV., pope, 369. Grenada, 500, 527. Grenadines, the, 500. Grenoble, 8, 340, 534, 635, 637; parlia- ment of, 344, 252, 273, 375, 442, 514. Grevy, Jules, President, 668, 674- 676. Grey, Sir Edward, 716, 718. Grimwald, 63, 66, 69, 104. Grisons, the, 398-400. "Groans of Enslaved France," 467. Gros, 603. Grouchy, marshal, 627-629. Guadeloupe, 423, 495, 500, 564. Guadet, 550. Guastalla, duke of, 399; duchess of, 596. INDEX. 773 Guebriant, ct. of, 401, 402, 405. Guerande, treaty of, 204. Guesde, Jules, 722. Guichen, count de, 527. Guinne, duchy of, 160, 162, 175, 176, 260, 272, 314, 352; acquired by France, 246; duke of, 261, 267. Guinea, 211. Guinegate, 270, 293. Guines, 201, 256, 305. Guise, house of, 320, 333, 349, 351 353; Claude, ct. and d. of, 306 333; Francis, duke of, 314-317, 333 335, 336, 338, 340-343; Jean, cardi nal, 333 ; Charles of, abp. and car dinal, 314, 333, 335, 340, 361 Henry, d. of, 347, 351-356, 358 361; Henry, d. of, 365, 369, 373, 374. Guiton, 393. Guizot, M., 633, 637, 639-642. Gundebald, 39, 40, 44. Gundeniar, 44. Gunpowder, 193. Guntram, 48, 49, 51, 71. Gustavus Adolphus, k. of Sweden, 399, 400. Guyon, Madame, 464. Hachette, Jeanne, 262. Hadrian, see Adrian. Haganon, 102. Hagenau, 437. Hague Peace Conferences, 713. Haig, Sir Douglas, general, 734, 736, 744. Hainault,. 270. Ham, chateau of, 646, 747. Hamburg, 612. Hannibal, 16. Hanoi, 672. Hanotaux, M., 704. Hanover, 497, 589, 595, 596. Banse, 168. Hapsburgs, see Austria, house of. Harcourtt ct. of, 195; (another), 401. Hardouin-Mansard, see Mansard. Harfleur, 220, 313. Harlay, President de, 328, 362. Haro, Don Luis de, 414. Harold, k. of England, 127, 128. Haroun-al-Raschid, 84. Hasbain, 218. Hasting, 92, 93^ 94, 95. Hastings, battle of, 128. Haussonville, count d', 680. Haiiy, Rene Just, 602. Hatty, Valentin, 529. Havana, 500. Havre, 5. 7, 312, 313, 341, 342, 397, 424, 427, 722. Hayti, 588. Hebert, Hebertists, 558, 559. Heidelberg, 446. Heinsius, 451. Heligoland, 752. Heliopolis, battle of, 585. Heloise, 143. Helvetia, 69. Helvetian RepuJ)lic, 584, 592, 604. Helvt'tii, 20. Helvetius, 519. Henrietta Maria, q. of England, 392, 409. Henry I., king, 107, 108, 109, 186. Henry II., 314-323, 332, 333, 334, 346, 304, 381. Henry III. (d. of Anjou), 345-347, 349; (king), 350-364. Henry IV. (k. of Navarre), 344-349, 351 352, 355-358, 362-304; (k. of France), 3^5-385, 397. 433. Henry V., see Chambord, count of. Henry I., k. of England, 140, 141. Henry II., of England, 141, 146. Henry III., of England, 155, 161. Henry V., of England, 220-223. Henry VI., of England, 225, 230, 242, 246. Henry VII., of England, 279, 281, Henry VIII., of England, 292, 294, 304, 305, 307-309, 311, 312. Henry V., emperor, 141. Henry d'Albret, k. of Navarre, 305. Henry, colonel, 686, 688. Henry, duke, 96. Henry of Burgundy, xix, 128. Henry of Trastamare, 205, 206. Henry the Deacon, 153. Herbert, count of Vermandois, 102. Heretics, 108, 149, 310, 312. v__— - Hermanfried, 43, 44. Herrings, Battle of the, 227, 228. Herve, Socialist, 696. Hesdin. 34, 315. Hesse-Cassel, 600; landgrave of, 400, 414, 610. Hesus, 11. Hildebrand, see Gregory VII. Hincmar, 79, 118, 119. Hindenburg, von, general, 728, 737. Hindenburg Line, 738, 739, 747, 748. Hoche, general, 561-563, 560, 570-572. Hochkirch, battle of, 498. Hochstiidt, battles of, 453. Hohenfriedberg, 493. Hohenlinden, battle of, 584. Hohenlohe, prince, 597, 598. Hoibach, baron, 519. Holland, see Netherlands ; kingdom of, 596, 604, 610, 612. Holy League, 292, 293, 307. See League. Homage, 113. Hondschoote, battle of, 561. Honfleur, 313. Honorius, 30, 31, 33. Hospitallers, 133, 585. Hotel de Ville, 381, 540, 559, 662. Hotman, Francois, 328. Houchard, general, 561. Hougoamont, 6^7, 628. Hovas, 671, 672. 774 INDEX. Howard, Sir Edward, 294. Howe, admiral lord, 526. Hubertusburg, treaty of, 501. Hudson's Bay territory, 458. Hugh Capet, 105, 107, 186. Hugh the Great, duke, 102, 103, 105, 186. Hugh, son of k. Robert, 107. Huguenots, 309, 310, 334, 336, 339; civil wars of, 340—363 (see Nantes, Edict of) ; under Louis XIII., 390- 393; under Louis XIV., 442-444, 463, 466; subsequently, 487, 511, 514, 544. Humbercourt, sieur d', 259. Humbert II., dauphin of Vienna, 193. Humbert, traitor, 742. Humieres, seigneur d', 352. Hunald, 73. Hundred Days, the, 625-630. Hundred Years' War, the, 148, 187- 246. Hungarians, 91, 102. Hungary, 129, 217, 458, 647, Huns, 34, 35. Hus, John, 224. Huyghens, 478. Hyder-Ali, 527. Iberians, 9, 10. Ibrahim Pasha, 639. Iconium, sultan of, 130. Ile-de-Prance, 106, 109. Illyria, 608. lUuminism, 530. Immunities, 60, 82. Imperialists, in Germany, 399, 401, 405, 553. Importants, the, 405. Impressionistic school, 755. Income tax, 702. India, French in, 423, 424, 494, 495, 499, 613. Industry, 14, 28, 133, 164, 168, 323, 380, 398, 421, 422, 443, 512, 513, 602, 642, 644, 650, 698-699. . Indutiomarus, 22. Ingeborg, queen, 155. Ingelheim, 83. Inkerman, battle of, 652. Innocent II., pope, 142. Innocent III., pope, 149, 152-155, 159, 166. Innocent IV., pope, 160, 166. Innocent XI., pope, 440-442, 463. Innocent XII., pope, 463. Innsbriick, 315, 452. Inquisition, 174, 336, 355, 359, 370, 376, 606. Institute of France, 565. Insubres, 15, 16. Intendants, 396, 397, 413, 466. Inter-allied Economic Council, 740— 741. "International," The, 661. Invalides, Hotel des, 426, 540. Invention, 756-757. Investiture, 113, 117, 143. Ionian Isles, 572, 600. Ireland, French invasion of, 445 ; in 1914, 713. Irenjeus, St., 29. Irene, empress, 84. Irminsul, 74. Isaac Angelos, 152. Isabella of Bavaria, queen, 217, 219, 221-223, 225. Isabella of Hainault, queen, 149. Isabella, queen of England, 187. Isabella, daughter of k. Jolin, 201. Isabella, infanta, 371'. Isambart de la Pierre, Brother, 235, 236. Isle de France, see Mauritius. Istria, 572, 595. Italy, 45, 73, 74, 342, 430; kingdom of, 86, 96; French wars in, 283- 307, 399; Bonaparte's, 567-571; Napoleon, king of, 592, 604, 610; unification of, 653 ; labor legislation in, 713—714; break of, with Austria and Germany, 719; naval strength, 728; defeat of Austria by, 748. Ivry, battle of, 367. Jacca, count of, 91. Jacobins, 536, 546, 548, 552, 559, 560, 571, 570, 581. Jacquart, 602. Jacqueline of Hainault, 226. Jacquerie, 198, 199, 213. Jacques de Chatillon, 177. Jaffa, 132. Jagerndorf, Gross-, battle of, .497. Jamaica, 4J4, 527. James II., k. of England, 444, 446, 450. James (Old Pretender), 450, 458; 481. 482. 495. James IV.. k. of Scots. 293. James V., 333. Jammes, Francis, 753. Jamyn, 331. Jansenists, xxviii, 461, 463, 464. 487, 4S9, 502, 503. Jansenius, 404. January, Edict of, 339. Japan, 654; in World War, 719; na- val strength, 728. Jardin des Plantes, 403, 425. Jarnac, battle of, 345. Jaures, Socialist, 692, 694. Jeanne, dau. of Louis XI., 269. 275, 287. Jeanne d'Albret, q. of Navarre. 318, 333, 344, 345-347. Jeanne d'Arc, 228-236, 300. Jeanne of Montfort, 189. Jeanne of Penthievre, 188, 204. Jemmapes, 554. Jena, battle of, 597. Jerome, St., 18. Jeiome of Prague. 224. Jerusalem, Assizes of, xix, 132. INDEX. 775 Jerusalem, patriarch of, 76 ; pilgrim- ages to, 126 ; captured by Turks, 129; by crusaders, 131; kingdom of, 132, 145; lost, 159; captured by British, 741. Jesuits, xxviii, 334, 339, 343, 352, 383 ; suppressed, 501-503 ; return, 633; schools, 669, 670.. , Jews, 108, 129, 149, 159, 170, 177, 183, 192, 202, 511, 544, 690. Jodelle, E., 331. Joffre, general, 721, 722, 736. John, infant king, 183. John, king, xxiv, 194-802, 364. John XXIII., pope, 224. John, k. of Bohemia, 190. John, k. of England, 149, 150, 154, 155. John of Braganza, k. of Portugal, 401. John, archduke, 627. John of Montfort, 188, 189, 204. John v., ct. of Armagnac, 248, 252, 255, 256, 260, 261, 267. John IV., d. of Brittany, 208. John, ct. of Angouleme, 364. John the Fearless, d. of Burgundy, 217-223, 226, 237, 238, 364. John of liuxemburg, 232. Joinville, sire de, xxi, 160, 163, 172, 173; prince of, 643; treaty of, 356. Joseph I., emperor, 456. Joseph II., emperor, 521, 524. Joseph, Pere, 399. Josephine de Beauharnais, 576; em- press, 591, 592, 609. Joubert, general, 569, 570, 574. Jourdan, general, 558, 561-563, 566- 570, 575, 590. Joyeuse, duke of, 358, 374. Judiciary, see Courts. Judith, empress, 88, 89, 91. Julian, 30, 33. Julich, 383, 385. Julius II., pope, 291-293. July, Edict of, 339; Revolution of, 635; Monarchy, 635-643. Jumonville, 496. Junot, general, 604, 606. Jura, 5, 6, 7. Jussieu, Bernard de, 520. Jussieu, Laurent de, 529. Jutland, battle of, 727. Kahn, Gustave, 753. Kaiserswerth, 441. Kamerun, 739. Kant, 521. Karl, see Charles Martel and Charle- magne. Kehl, 490. Kellermann, 553, 591. Kempen, 402. Keppel, admiral, 526. Kesseldorf, 493. Kharesmians, 159. Kiel, 748, 752. Kiel Canal, 727. Kiersy-sur-Oise, capitulary of, 94, 95, 111. Kingship, see Royalty. Kitchener, general, 704-705. Klagenfurt, 570. K16ber, general, 562, 574, 585. Kloster-Zeven, capitulation of, 497. Klotz, L. L., 751. Kluck, von, general, 721, 722. Knighthood, 133, 134. Kollin, battle of, 497. Konigsberg, 498, 599, 600, 613. Kcirner, 617. Krasnoi, 616. Kray, marshal, 583. Krefeld, battle of, 498. Kremlin, 615. Kunersdorf, battle of, 498. Kutusof, marshal, 614, 615, 617. Kyriel, Thomas, 245. Labedoyere, general, 625, 632. Labienus, 22, 23. Labor agitation, 679, 693-698, 710. La Bourdonnaie, M. de, 635. La Bourdonnais, 494, 495. La Bruyere, 417, 471, 615. Lacaille, 520. La Charite, 346, 348. La Condamine, 520. "Ladies' Peace," 308. La Fayette, 526, 536, 541, 542, 546, 549. 552, 636. La Fere, 744, 747. La Ferte-Bernard, 226. Laffitte, M., 636. La Fontaine, 416, 468, 473, La Garde, baron de, 316. Lagny, 368. Lagos, battle off, 448. Lagrange, 602. La Haie-Sainte, 628. La Hire, 226. La Hogue, Cape, 445. Lally, count, 499. Lally-Tollendal, marquis of, 536. La Marche, 175, 181; house of, 364. Lamartine, 644, 645. La Meilleraye, duke of, 415. Lamettrie, 519. Lamotte, countess of, 531. Lancaster, duke of (John of Gaunt), 208. Lancelot, 474. Lancken, von, baron, 742. Land, tenure of, in Merovingian times, 55, 56, 59, 60. Landau, 427, 448, 458, 459, 631. Landrecies, 401, 457. Landshut, 607. Lanfranc, 119, 120. Langeais, 281. Langres, 28. Lang-son, 672. Languedo.', 194, 392. Languedoc canal, 4, 6, 7, 422. 776 INDEX. Lannes, marshal, 590, 594, 599. Lannoy, 306. La Noue, 366. Laon, 102, 137, 373, 620; bishop of, 106, 197, 215, 747. La Palice, 293, 301, 307. La Perouse, 529. Laplace, 602. La Renaudie, 335. La Reveilliere-Lepcaux, 566. La Rochefoucauld, 347; duke of, 405, 410, 468, 469, 472, 473. La RochefoucauldLiancourt, duke of, 536, 541. La Roche-sur-Yon, 364. Lateran Council, 154; (another), 292. Latin Empire, 153. La Tremouille, 252, 280, 293, 306, 307, 320, 365. Laudon, baron, 498. Lauingen, battle of, 406. Lautrec, marshal, 301, 305, 306, 308. Lavalette, Pere, 502. Lavigerie, cardinal, 680. Lavoi.sier, 528, 558. Law, .Tohn, 483-4S5. Law, barbarian, 56, 57; Carolingian, 82, 83; Roman, 167, K.lS; French, 244, 274. 296, 328, 428, 507, 508; reforms of, bv National Assembly, 543-545; bv Napoleon, 601. Lawfield. battle of, 4 94. ■League, Holy, in religious wars, 344, 352-363. 36.5-375, 377. League of Nations, 751, 753. Lebas, 559, 561. Lebrun, consul, 579, 590. Lebrun, painter, 416, 469, 476-478. Leclerc, general, 577, 588. Lectoui-e, ISl, 267. LedruRollin, 644, 645. Leo, Arthur, 526. Lefebvre d'Etaples, 309, 328. Leger, St., 64. Legion of Honor, 586, 591, 592. Legists, 167, 168. Legitimists, 062. 671. Leipzig, 400; battle of, 618, 619. Lemaitre, Jules. 752. Le Mans, 42, 94, 95, 137, 216, 562, 660. Lemercier, 478. Lemovices, 26. Lenoir, Richard, 602. Lenoir, traitor, 742. le Notre, 478'. Lens, 739, 740. 747. Leo III., pope, 76. Leo IX., pope, 127. Leo X., pope, 293, 294, 301, 302. Leo XIII., pope, 692. Leoben, preliminaries of, 570. Leopold I., emperor, 430, 435, 441, 449. 450, 456. Leopold II. (grand duke), 521; (em- peror), 548, 550. Leopold, archduke, 406, 413. Leopold, prince of Hohenzollern-Sig- maringen, 657. Le Pelletier, 442. Leprevost de Beaumont, 515. Lerida, 406. Les Chapelles, count of, 394. Lescot, Pierre, 326, 478. Lescun, sire de, 262, 263. Lesdigtiieres, marshal, 357. Lesseps, C, de, 681. Lesseps, F. de, 654, 680-681. L'Estoile, 350. Lesueur, 468, 476. Le Tellier, Michel, 418, 419, 425, 426, 443. Letourneur, 566. Letters, Revival of, 327-331. Lcttres de Cachet, 408, 465, 504, 514. Leudes, 43, 50, 51, 56, 60, 61, 64, 67. Levant Company, 423. Ijexovii, 21. L'Hopital, Michel de, 328, 336-340, 343, 344, 348, 358, 375. Library, Royal, 210, 425; Mazarin, 425. Liege, Liegeois, 218, 257, 259, 434. Liegnitz, battle of, 498. Ligny. battle of, 627. Ligiige, 54, 118. Ligurian Republic, 570, 574. Ligurians, 19. Lille, 142, 427, 432, 455, 561, 570, 734, 747; defence of, 554. Limburg, 257. Limoges, 26, 43, 155; sack of, 207. Limousin, 2, 195. Lingrndes, Jean de, 469. Linz, .491. Lionne, Hugues de, 418, 429, 434. Lisaine, battle at the, 660. Lisbon, 604. Lisieux, 245'. Lisle, Leconte de, 753. Lisle, Rouget de, 731. Lit de justice, 533. Literature, 172, 173, 210, 297, 468- 475, 479, 752, 754. Litus, 56. Lobau, count, 628, 629. Lobau, island, 607. Lobositz, 497. Lodi, battle of, 568. Loire, valley of, 3, 7. Lombards, 48, 49, 69 ; Pippin and the, 72 ; Charlemagne conquers, 74, 76 ; bankers, 177, 184. Lonato, battle of, 568. London, treaty of (1514), 294; (1840), 640; (1903), 706. Londonderry, 445. Longjumeau, peace of, 344. Longueville, dukes of, 348, 366, 386, 387, 410, 411. Longwood, 630. Longwy, 427, 448, 552, 553. Lorges, duke of, 446. Lorient, 495. inde:s:. Ill LorrainS, 89, 94, 95; 96, 101, 103, 107, 265, 383, 402, 734; occupied bv France, 407, 414; restored, 448; house of, 226; dukes of, 256, 264, 266, 269, 270, 365, 367, 373, 395, 435, 436; cardinal of, 333, 335, 339, 340, 361 ; given to Stanislas, 490; falls to France, 501, 511; ceded, 661 ; evacuated by Germany, 749. Lorris, Guillaume de, 172. Lothnir I., emperor, 87-90, 94, 104. Lothair, k. of France. 103, 104. Lotharingia, 89, 94, 101, 109. Loti, Pierre, 753. Loubet, M., 680, 689, 690, 706. Loudun, treaty of, 389. Louis I., the Pious, 86-89, 92, 104. Louis the German, 87-90, 94, 104. Louis II., emperor, 94, 104. Louis II., the Stammerer, king, 95, 104. Louis III., 95, 104. Louis, k. of Burgundy, 100. Louis IV., d'Outremei-, king, 102, 103, 104. Louis v., 103, 104. Louis VI., the Fat, 136, 137, 139-143, 146, 186. Louis VII., the Young, 144-147, 186. Louis VIII., 150, ISO. Louis IX. (St. Louis), 159-165, 186, 230. Louis X.. 183-186. Louis XI., (dauphin), 241-344, 24S', 249; (king), 251-275, 283, 284, 294, 296, 364. Louis XII. (duke of Orleans), 269, 275, 276, 278-280, 285; (king), 287-298, 303, 364. Louis XIII., 385-403. Louis XIV., XXV, xxvi, 322 ; minority of, 404-415; internal administration of, 416-429; foreign affairs and wars, to 1079, 430-439; reign, to 1715, 440-459; government of, 460- 467; a?e of, 408-479, 4S0. Louis, dauphin, 445, 449, 459. Louis, d. of Burgundy, 455, 459, 40C, 471. Louis XV., 459; minority of, 480-480; reign of, 487-505 ; France at end of reign of, 506-521. Louis, dauphin, 502. Louis XVI., reign, to 1789, 532-534; and the Revolution, 537-543, 546- 553, 555, 556. Louis (XVII.), dauphin, 548, 571. Louis XVIII., 571, 021, 624, 025, 031- 633. Louis Philippe, king, 635-643, 694. Louis, count of Flanders, 213, 214. Louis, d. of Orleans, see Orleans, and Louis XII. Louis of Bourbon, bp. of Liege, 259. Louis Napoleon, prince imperial, 662, 069. Louisbourg, 494. Louise of Savoy, regent, 301, 303, 307, 308. Louise, q. of Prussia, 597. Louisiana, 423, 484, 495, 496, 501, 588. Lourdis, archbishop, 401. Lou vain, 721. Louvcl, 633. Louviers, 245. Louvois, marquis of, 416, 419, 425, 430, 429, 436, 443, 446, 462. Louvre, 157, 19S, 207, 210, 326, 381, 478, 003, 630, 063. Low Countries, see Netherlands. Liibeck, 598, 612. Lucca, Eliza, duchess of, 596. Ludendorff, general, 747. Lugdunum, 36. Liigenfeld, 88. Lulli, 409, 473, 476-478. Luna, 93. Luneville, peace of, 584. Lupus, duke, 75. Lusitania crime, 731. Lutetia, 33, 28, 30. Luther, 309, 333. Liitzen, 400, 017. Luxbourg, count, 741. Luxembourg, marshal, 434, 435, 437, 438, 445-448. Luxembourg, palace, 577, 662. Luxemburg, 305, 311, 440, 639; duke of, 386; question of, 657; during World War, 719, 749. Luynes, Albert de, 390, 391. Luzern, 205. Luzzara, 452. Lycees, 757. Lyons, 5, 6, 8, 26, 28, 168; capital of Gaul, 26; schools of, church in, 28, 29; council of, 160; passes to crown, 181; industry of, 323, 433; in reli- gious wars, 340, 348, 356; in the Revolution, 558, 501 ; since, 620, 637, 638. Maastricht, 435, 436, 494. Mabillon, 474. Mably, abbe, 519. Macdonald, marshal, 575, 584, 608. Macedonia, Gallic invasion of, 17. Machault, 493, 495, 501, 517. Mack, general, 504. Mackoiisen, generiil, 728. MacMahon, grneral, 653; marshal, 658, 603; president, C04-UGS; death of, 683. Macon, 238. Madagascar, 423, 424, 671, 673, 084. "Madame," 278, 470. Miideleine, 002. Mademoiselle (of Orleans), 412. Madras, 495. Madrid, 454, 606; treaty of, 307, 308; cliateau, 330. Maeander. battle of, 145.- Magdeburg, 600. Magenta, battle of, 053. 778 INDEX. Magna Charta, 154. Magnesia, 18. Magnetism, animal, 530. Mahomet II., 247. Maillotins, 212, 213. Maine, 109, 155, 272, 278, 289; duke of, 459, 481, 482; duchess of, 482. Maine de Biran, 602. Mainmortables, 121. Maintenon, Madame de, 416, 452, 466. Mainz, 28, 83, 406, 554, 558, 560, 561. Maison, general, 620. Maison Carree, 27. Maistre, J. and X. de, 602. Majorca, k. of, 187, 193. Major domus, 58, 63. Makino, baron, 751. Malebranche, 474. Malesherbes, Lamoignon de, 514, 522, 524 555 558, Malherbe, F. de[ 331,- 381, 472. Malmaison Fort, 740. Malo-Jaroslavetz, battle of, 615. Malplaquet, battle of, 455, 456. Malta, 572, 581, 585, 588. Malvy, M., 722, 742. Mamelukes, 160, 572, 573. Mandats, 571. Manfred, king, 161. Mangin, general, 745. Manilla, 500. Manlius, 16, 18. Mannheim, 445. Manoury, general, 722. Mans, Le, see Le Mans. Mansard, Francois, 476, 477. Mansard, Jules Hardouin, 416, 469, 476-478. Mansfeld, count, 392. Mansourah, battle of, 160. Mantes, 110, 203, 204, 245, 371, 372. Manteuffel, general, 660. Mantua, 452, 568, 569; duke of, 400, 440; conference of, 548. Mantuan Succession, War of, 399. Manuel I., emperor, 145. Manufactures, 698. Marat, 54C, 551, 552, 557, 558. Marcel, fitienne, 196-200, 213. Marchand, general, 704, 732. Marches, 75, 81. Mardyk, 481. Marengo, battle of, 583, 585. Marey, 228. Margaret of Anjou, q. of England, 242, 246. Margaret of Scotland, queen, 242. Margaret of Austria, dau. of Maximil- ian, 271, 308. Margaret of Valois, q. of Henry IV., 329, 346, 364, 383. Margaret Theresa, empress, 449. Maria Anna, empress, 449. Maria Louisa, empress, 609. Maria Theresa, empress, 488, 491-493, 496, 497, 531. Maria Theresa, infanta and queen, 414, 431, 432. Maria da Gloria, Donha, 637. Marie Antoinette, queen, 531, 532, 535, 542, 548, 558. ; Marie of Anjou, queen, 225. Marie Leszczynski, queen, 487, 502. Marie M., 645. Marie Galante, island, 500. Marienburg, 631. Marienthal, battle of, 406. Marignano, 301, 302. Marillac, brothers, 394, 395. Mariotte, abbe, 475. Marius, 19, 20. Marlborough, duke of, 451, 453—456; duchess of, 451, 456. Marly, 479. Marmonti marshal, 617, 621. Marmousets, 215. Marmoutiers, 54. Marne, first battle of, 721-722 ; second battle of, 745. Maronites, 653. Marot, Clement, .309, 331, 381. Marsaglia, battle of, 446. Marseilles, 5, 7, 28, 263; founded. 10; trade of, 14, 168, 422, 495; aided by Rome, 19; sieges of, 306, 310; pestilence in, 486. Marsin, marshal, 453, 454. Mars-la-Tour, battle of, 658. Martial, bishop, 29. Martignac, M. de, 634. Martin, St., 29, 54, 118, 126. Martin V., pope, 224, 244. Martin, maj'or 64. Martinique, 423, 495, 500, 564. Mary of Burgundy, 264, 269, 270, 271, 364. Mary of England, q. of Louis XII., 294, 298. Mary of Guise, q. of Scotland, 309, 314. Mary de' Medici, q. of Prance, 383. 385-387, 390, 392, 394. Mary (II.), q. of England, 438. Mary Stuart, q. of France, 333, 336; q. of Scotland, 337, 344, 357. Mary Tudor, q. of England, 316, 317. Massena, marshal, 567, 569, 570, 575, 581, 582, 590, 593, 594, 606, 608, 613, 617. Massieu, bailiff, 235. Massillon, 470. Matilda, empress, 141. Maubeuge, 401, 427, 561. Maupassant, Guy de, 752. Maupeou, chancellor, 502—504, 522. Maupertius, 520. Maurepas, count of, 522-525. Maurice of Nassau, pr. of Orange, 368, 369. Maurice of Saxony, 315. Mauritius, island, 494. Maximian, 30. Maximilian (archduke), 264, 269-271, INDEX. 779 279-281; (emperor), 284, 286, 290- 293, 301, 304, 364. Maximilian, em^). of Mexico, 655. Mayence, see Mainz. Mayenne, duke of, 356, 361, 362, 365- 371, 374, 386, 387. Mayor of the palace, 58, 61, 62, 63. Mazarin, Cardinal, 399, 403-405, 407- 409, 411-415, 417. Meaux, 101, 199, 223, 242, 312, 348. Medard, 46. Medici, Catherine de', see Catherine. Medici, Cosmo de', 283. Medici, Lorenzo de', 272, 283. Medici, Mary de', see Mary. Medici, Piero de', 283, 285. Medicine, Royal Society of, 529 ; schools of, 565. Mehemet Ali, 639, 640. Mehnn-sur-Yevre, 225. Melas, baron, 582, 583. Meline, Premier, 687. Melun, 223. Mendes, Catulle, 753. Menhirs, 12. Menou, general, 585. Merchant marine, 700—701. Mercosur, dukes of, 356, 367, 375, 405, 415. Mercure de France, 396. Mercy, 406. Meroveus, 34, 35, 38, 71; son of Chil- peric, 50. Merovingian period, 36—71 ; govern- ment, 57, 58 ; kings, genealogical table of, 71. Mersen, edict of, 92, 93, 111. Meru, 351. Mer>'-sur-Seine, 34, 35. Mesmer, 530. Messina. 437. Metric System, 565. Metz, 242, 243, 407, 427, 440; kings of, 43, 48 ; bishops of, 66 ; sieges of, 315, 333, 342; parliament of, 396; in German War, 658, 659, 661. Meudon, 362. Meulan, 204. Meung, Jehan de, 172. Meuse, 3, 747. Mexico, expeditions to, 638, 654, 655. Mezeraj', 474. Mezieres, 305, 747. Michael Angelo, 324, 325. Middle Ages, end of, 250. Miguel, Dom, 637. Mikael, Eiihraim, 753. Milan, Milanese, 305, 310-312, 458, 570, 642; French wars for, 288- 290, 319; duke of, 253 (see Sforza) ; Napoleon at, 583; Decree of, 612, 613. Millerand, 691, 694, 696, 722. Minden, battle of, 498. Ministers of state, 418, 419, 507. Minorca, 458, 496, 500, 527, 528. Minotto, count, 741. Minsk, 615, 616. Miquelon, island, 500, 528. Mirabeau, count, 536, 539, 544, 546, 547. Mirbeau, 733. MUsi dominici. 79, 81, 97, 116. Mississippi Scheme, 484, 485. Modena, duchess of, 415; duke of, 450, 568, 610; regency of, 569. Mogadore, 641. Mohammedans, 68. Molay, Jacques du, 181. Mole, President Mathieu, 409. Mole, M., 638. Moliere, 416, 425, 463, 468, 469, 472, 473. Mollwitz, battle of, 491. Moltke, Count von, 660. Monasteries, in sixth centurj', '54, 55, 87; in the eleventh, 118, 119; dis- solution of, 091-692. Moneey, marshal, 563, 590. Moncontour, 346. Money, 164, 193, 194. Monge, 002. Mons, 446, 721. Mons-en-Puelle, 178. "Monsieur," 352, 396, 438; the peace of, 352. Montagnards, 550, 555, 557, 558. Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, 329, 330. Montargis, 226. Montauban, 346, 349, 391. Montbazon, duke of, 383. Montcalm, marquis of, 499, 500. Mont-Dauphin, 427. Montdidier, 745. Montebello, battle of, 653. Monte Cassino, 54, 69, 126. Montecuccoli, 436, 437. Montenotte, battle of, 567. Montereau, 223. Montesi^an, marchioness of, 459, 466. Montesquieu, president, 486, 518, 519, 530. Montesquiou, 554. Montfaucon, 474. Montferrat, 399. Montfort, Amaury and Simon de, 154. Montgomery, ct. of, 318. Montiel, 206. Montlhery, 222, 255. Mont-Louis, 427. Montluc, Blaise de, 316, -329, 341. MontDiartre, 96, 214, 661. Montmorency, house of, 252, 320, 348, 351; constable of, 310, 314, 310, 333, 342, 344; counts of, 349, 356, 530; duke of, 395. Montmorency, Mathieu de, 541. Montpellier, 8, 154, 340; acquired, 181, 193; given to Navarre, 204; University of, 167, 170. Montpensier, 364; duke of, 641, 642, 644; duchess of, 360, 362. Montreuil, 201. 780 INDEX. Mont-Saint-Jean, 627, 628. Morat, 266. Moravia, 62. Moreau, 566-571, 575, 581-584, 589, 618. Morgarten, 242. Morocco, 641, 706-709. Mortemer, 109. Mortier, marshal, 590, 615, 638. Mortuarium, 138. Morvan, 2. Moscow, 613-615, 617. Moselle, 3, 6. Mo.slems, 68. Motteville, Madame de, 472. Moulins, 353 ; ordinance of, 343. Moiirzoufle, 152. Miihlberg, 314. MUlhausen, battle of, 436. Municipalities, 135-138. See Com- munes. Miinster, treaty of, 406. Murat, marshal, 590, 590-599, 605; king of Naples, 605, 616, 620. Muret, 154. Music, 754. Nablous, 132 NUfels, 242. Najara, 205. Namur, 447, 448, 721. Nancy, 265, 266, 735. Nantes, 5, 91, 189, 495, 558, 562, 601; edict of, 375, 385, 390, 391 ; revoked, 442-444, 463, 467, 487. Naples, Normans in, 110; king of, 272, 283; e.xpeditions to, 282, 284- 286, 289-291, 319; kingdom of, 430, 458, 490, 502 ; during Revolution and Empire, 575, 584, 589, 593, 596, 604, 610; since, 633. Napoleon I., Bonaparte, 501, 564, 566; Italian and Egyptian campaigns, 507-574; ISth Brumaire, 576, 577; consulate, 579—589; empire, to 1807, 590-603; to 1812, 604-009; to 1814, 610— 623; position in history, 622, 623; the Hundred Days, 025-630; captivity and death, 631, 633; re- mains removed, 640. Napoleon II., 609, 629, 637, Napoleon III., 630; and M. Duruy, xiii— xvi; president, 640-649; em- peror, 649-659; death of, 603. Napoleon (IV.), prince imijerial, 002, 609. Napoleon, Prince, 669, 671, 075, 679. Narbo Martius, 35. Narbonne, 19, 28, 35, 68, 72. National Defence, Government of, 659, 660. National Guard, 541, 549, 552, 564. Naturalists, school of, 752. Navarino, battle of, 634. Navarre, 75, 78, 318; kingdom of, 91, 96, 100, 101, 175, 187; king of, 272 (see Bourbon and Henry IV.) ; war in, 293, 305. Navarro, Pedro. 301. Navies in World War, 727. Navy, under Francis I., 322 ; under Henry IV., 380; under Richelieu, 397; under Louis XIV., 424, 457; under Louis XV., 494, 495, 499; under Louis XVI., 526, 527; during the Revolution and Empire, 563, 564. Near East in World War, 733. Necker, xxix, 524, 525, 531, 534, 538- 541, 544, 546. Necklace, Diamond, 531. Neerwindcn, battle of, 447, 448; (an- other), 5.j7. Nelson, admiral, 572, 573, 585, 593, 594. Nemours, 272 ; dukes of, 255, 256, 260, 207, 208, 276, 290, 367, 368^ 640, 644; treaty of, 356. Ne])veu, Pierre, 325. Nero, 29. Nervii, 2). Nesle, 220, 261. Netherlands, under Burgundy, 263 ; revolt of, 342; 34,3-347, 355, 368, 370; the United. 383, 392, 398, 400; and Louis XIV., 430, 431-439, 441, 4.30, 451, 453 ; and Louis XV., 481, 482, 494; and Louis XVI., 527, 533; Austrian, 458; invasion of, 551, 556, 557, 561-563 (see Batavian Republic, Holland) ; kingdom of the, 631, 636, 639. Neuchatel, 595. Neuss, 264, 441. Neustria, 48, 50, 64, 65, 69. Neustrians. 52, 67, OS, 89. Neutrality, Armed, 527, 585. Nevers, count of, 217; duke of, 367. Newfoundland, 322, 423, 458, 500, 528. Ney, Marshal, 590, 594, 599. 608,»613, 616, 621, 025, 627, 628, 032. Nicaea, 129, 130. Nice, 310, 311, 440, 554; acquired by France, 508, 653. Nicholas I., pope, 117. Nicholas V., pope, 245. Nicholas, czar, 652. Nichola.s, k. of Montenegro, 733. Nicole, 474. Nicopolis, battle of, 217. Nieuport, 723, 733. Nimes, 27, 28, 68, 72, 168, 349. Nivelle, general, 734, 735, 736, 738, 74 0. Nivernais, 2; duke of, 415. Noailles, duke of, 483, 492. Noailles, viscount of, 530, 541. Nobility, under Louis XL, 252, 254- 258, 266-269; under Louis XIII., 386-392; under Louis XIV., 401, 402, 465, 400; under Louis XV., 510-512; abolished, 544; Napoleon's, 596. INDEX. 781 Noblesse de robe, 387, 411, 461, 511. No Man's Land, 725. Nomenoe, 91, 94. Nominalists, 120, 143. Non-j)artisan League, IOC. Nordlingen, 401, 406. Normandy, constituted, 101, 102; in- surrections in, 108, 136; dukes of, 108, 109, 110, 128, 130, 139, 256- 258; conquered, 150, 155; the mar- shal of. 198; recovered. 245, 246; parliament of, 296; states of, 355; campaign in, 366. Normans, in Italy and Sicily, 127 ; in England, 127, 128. North Company, 423. North German Confederation, 657, 661. Northmen, 76, 77, 87, 100; attack France, 91-95, 97 ; besiege Paris, 95, 96. Notables, Assembly of, 532, 533. ' Notre Dame, 157, 729. Noureddin, sultan, 145. Novara, 289, 293, 647. Noyon, 46, 105, 3 37, 744, 745; treaty of, 304. Nymphenburg, treaty of. 491. ' Nymwegen, 83, 88, 263 ; treaty of, 429, 438-442. Oberwesel, 445. Obotriti. 78. Odilon Barrot, M., 639, 642. Odin, 92. Odoacer, 35. Ogmius, 11. Ohio, 496. Oi.se river, 733, 744. Old age pensions, 697. Oldenburg, duke of, 612, 613. Ollivier, 328, 336. "One big union," 696. Ontario, fort, 499. Opportunists, 674. Orange, 27; house of, 610; prince of, 280. See William of Orauge, Maurice, Wiiliam III. Ordeal, 56, 57. Orders in Council, 612. Ordinances, 182 ; of Louis XIV., 428, 429. Orlando, Vittorio, 751. Orleanists, 662, 664, 671. Orleans, 5, 7, 34, 252; king of, 43; Northmen at, 92 ; privileges of, 138; University of, 167, 17ii; sieges of, 227-231, 342; bastard of, see Dunois; ordinance of. 240, 241; duchy of, 205; ordinance of (1561), 338, 339; in the religious vi'ars, 340, 348, 356; in the German War, 659. Orleans, duke of (1356), 196; Louis, br. of Charles VI., 212, 216-218, 288, 300, 364; Charles, 221, 242, 250, 288, 864 ; Louis, see Louis XII.; Gaston, 394-396, 400, 412, 413; Philip, 433, 438, 462; Henri- etta, duchess of, 433, 470, 473; Elizabeth Charlotte, duchess of, 441 ; Philip, duke of (regent), 447, 459, 462, 460; regency of, 480-486; Phi- lippe (Egalite), duke of, 537, 539, 540, 558; Louis Philippe, duke of, see Louis Philippe, king; Ferdi- nand, duke of, 639, 641 ; duchess of, 644 ; present duke, 675. Orvilliers, count d', 526. Osnabriick, treaty of, 406. Ostend, 454, 593. Ostend Company, 488. Ostrogoths, 40, 41, 44. Otto the Great, emperor, 102, 103, 117. Otto IV., emperor, 150, 151. Oudenarde, 436, 493 ; battle of, 455. Oudinot, marshal, 608, 616, 647. Ouessant, battle off, 526. Overyssel, 434. Oxenst.joi'na, chancellor, 400. Oxford, enrl of, 456. Oxfordj Provisions of, 161. Painleve, 739. Painting, 754-756. Palais Royal, 381, 403, 409, 450, 662. Palatinate, 435, 430, 441, 446, 561. Palatine, elector, 399. Palermo, battle, off, 437. Palikao, battle of, 654. Palissy, Bernard, 327. Pampeluna, 45, 75. Panama Canal scandal, 680-681. -Pannonia, 49, 75. Pantheon, 520, 529, 547, 602. Paoli, general, 558. Papacy, xviii, xx. See Pope. Papin, Denis, 475. Parc-aux-Cerfs, 521. Par6, Ambroise, 329, 476. Paris, 4, 5, 7, 23, 28, 30, 39, 52, 151; Clovis at, 41, 42; Merovingian kings of, 43, 48, 50 ; Northmen besiege, 92, 95, 96; its privileges, 138, 163, 168, 209, 215, 219; University of, 158, 170; insurrection of Marcel, 198-200; of the maillolins, 212, 213, 214; of the cabochxens, 219-222; besieged by Charles VI., 232 ; and Louis XI., 255, 257; in the religious wars, 343, 347, 348, 356, 357, 359- 363, 366-373; in the Fronde, 410, 412; industries of, 422; under Louis XIV., 464, 465; treaty of (1763), 500; during the Revolution, 540— 543, 551-553; Empire, 001, 602; treaty of, 631 ; insurrections in, 635, 637, 638, 645, 646, 647; treaty of. 652; siege of, 659, 660; commune, 661, 662; during World War, 742, 743. Paris, count of, 639, 644, 662, 664, 671, 675, 680. Parish, the, 135. 782 INDEX. Parisii, 23. Parker, admiral, 585. Parliament, 181, 209, 216, 225; (pro- vincial), 244, 252^ 273, 312, 321, 396, 504, 507, 508; (of Paris), 248, 251, 252, 255, 256, 267, 268; (six- teenth century), 303, 321, 323, 330, 333, 361, 371, 375; (seventeenth* century), 385, 387, 396; during the regency of Anne of Austria, 404, 4-08-413; under Louis XIV., 461; under Louis XV., 481, 489, 502- 504, 514; under Louis XVI., 522, 523, 525, 533. 534. Parma, 302, 305, 482, 488, 490, 495, 500, 502, 587; duke of, 400, 489, 568, 610. Parma, Alexander Farnese, prince of, 368, 369. Parmentier, 529. Parnassians, 753. Parthenopean Republic, 574. Partition Treaties, 449. Pascal, 468, 470, 4 73, 474, 475, 501. Passau, 453; peace of,- 315. Pasteur, Louis, 756. Pastoreaux, 161. Patav, 231. Patrician, title of, 41, 72, 74. Paul, bishop, 29. Paul IV., pope, 316. Paul I., czar, 584, 585. Paulette, 379, 387, 408. Pavia, 72, 74; battle of, 306, 307. Pays iJ'election, 511. PauK d'Etat, 511. Peasantry, 701-702. Peasants' revolt, see Jacquerie. Pecquigny, sire de, xxvi ; treaty of (see freve marchande), 272. Peculhirn, 138. Pedro II., k. of Aragon, 154. Pedro III., of Aragon, 175. Pedro the Cruel, k. of Castile, 205, 206. Peers (pares), 114; House of, 624. Pei-ho forts, 654. Peninsular War, 605, 606, 608-610, 613, 617. Penthievre, 252. Pepin, see Pippin. Perche, 267, 272. Perier, Casimir, 636, 637. Perigord, 2 ; count of, 205 ; county of, 98. Perigueux, 43, 155. Peronne, 256, 352, 747; Charles the Simple at, 102, 258; Louis XI. at, 258-260, 262. Perosa, 350. "Per])etual Peace," 303. Perpignan, 268, 273. Perrault, 416, 476-478. Pershing, general, 744, 747. Pescara, marquis of, 305, 306. Petain, general, 735, 740, 750. Peter III., czar, 499. Peter 'the Hermit, 129. Peter de Brueys, 153. Peter Waldo, 153. IJeter of Castelnau, 153, 154. Petion, 550. Petit, Dr. Jean, 218. Petits-Maitres, the, 411. Petropaulovsk, 652. Pcvensey, 128. Pfalzburg, 427. Pfetterhausen, 733. Philibcrt Emmanuel, d. of Savoy, 316, 318. Philip I., king, 108, 139, 140, 186. Philip II., Augustus, 148-152, 155, 186. Philip IIL, the Bold, 175, 186. Philip IV., the Pair, xxiv, 175-182, 186, 278, 281. Philip v., the Long, 183-186. Philip VI., xxiv, 184, 186, 187-193, 278, 364. Philip the Bold, son of k. John, 196; duke of Burgundy, 202, 206, 208, 209, 212. 214. 216, 217, 364. Philip the Good, d. of Burgundy, 223, 225, 226, 232, 237, 238, 242, 247, 248, 251, 253, 254, 364. Philip II., k. of Spain, 312, 316-318. 334, 336, 339, 340, 342-344, 353, 355, 356, 360, 364, 365, 367, 370, 371, 373, 376, 430, 433. Philip III., k. of Spain, 382. Philip IV., k. of Spain, 430, 431. Philip v., k. of Spain, 449, 450, 454, 458, 481, 482, 487-489. Philip the Handsome, archduke, 270, 271, 290, 364. Philippa of Hainault, q. of England, 191, 192. Philippe de Rouvre, d. of Burgundy, 202. Philippeville, 427, 631. Philippines, 500. Philippsburg, 406, 407, 435, 437, 445, 490. Phoenicians, 10, 14. Piacenza, 302, 305, 482, 489, 490, 494, 495, 500, 568. Piave river, 748. Picardy, 3, 272, 352, 389; invaded, 310. 373, 400. Pichegru, general, 561-563, 589. Pichon, Stephen, 751. Picquart, colonel, 686, 687, 688, 689, 690. Piedmont, 548, 653; invaded, 310-312, 399, 446, 452, 494. Pilatre de Rozier, 530. Pilgrimages, 126. Pilnitz, declaration of, 550. Pilon, Germain, 327. Pinel, 529. Pinerolo, 350, 399, 407, 419. Pippin of Heristal, 62, 64, 65, 66-68, 104. INDEX. 783 Pippin of Landen, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 104. Pippin th& Short, mayor, 69 ; king, 70, 72, 73, 78, 104. Pippin, son of Charlemagne, 86. Pippin, son of Louis the Pious, 87, 88, 104. Pirna, 497. Pisa, council at, 292, 294. Pisan, Christine de, 210. Pistes, 94. Pithou, Pierre, 328. Pitt, William (Lord Chatham), 498. Pitt, William (the younger), 556, 574, 596. Pius v., pope, 343, 346. Pius VI., pope, 568, 569, 574. Pius VIT., pope, 586, 591, 604, 605. Pius X., pope, 692. Pizarro, 304. Place du Carrousel, 478; des Vic- toires. 478 ; Vendome, 478. Plain, the, 555, 559. Plectrude, 67, 68. Plessis-les-Tours, 271, 362. Poggio, 297. Poincare, Raymond, 712-713, 731, 736^ 746, 751, 752, 756. Poison gas, 727. Poissy, conference of, 339. Poitiers, 40, 43, 144, 340; Saracens at, 68 ; county of, 94, 98 ; counts of, 106; battle of, 177, 195, 196; re- covery of, 208. Poitou, county of, 98, 150, 155, 175. Poland, 349, 350, 400, 501, 504, 563, 596, 598, 612, 614, 636, 645, 728. See Warsaw. Polish Succession, War of the, 489, 490. Police, under Louis XIV., 464. Polignac, M. de, 635. Politiques, the, 350, 351, 353, 356, 370, 386. Poltrot de Mere, 342. Polycarp, St., 28. Pombal, marquis of, 521. ''^' Pompadour, marchioness of, 495, 497, 498, 500, 502, 505. Pomponne, marquis of, 429. Ponce, Paul, 326. Pondicherry, 424, 495, 499, 500, 528. Ponchartrain, chancellor, 442, 450. Pont du Gard, 27. Ponthieu, 201 ; count of, 139. Pont Neuf, 381. Pontoise, 95, 242, 256; states of, 339, 517. Pope, and Carolingians, 69, 76, 88 ; Pippin's donation to, 72, 74; and Capetians, 107, 117, 142, 144; and St. Louis, 160, 164; and Philip IV., 78, 179; and Louis XIV., 440-442; and Napoleon, 568, 586, 604, 605, 610; and Napoleon III., 647. Porte St. Antoine, 199. Porte St. Denis, 199, 478. Porte St. Martin, 478. Port Mahon, 458, 488, 496. Porto Novo, 681. Port-Royal, 380. Port-Royal des Champs, 464, 474. Portugal, 355; Normans in, 110, 128; revolt of, 400-402, 430; relations ■•Hth, 424, 431, 450, 454, 527; do., under the Empire, 584, 604; sub- sequently, 637, 675. Postel, 328. Posts, 273, 297. Pot, Philippe, sire de la Roche, xxvi, 277, 278. Pothinus, 28, 29. Poussin, 468, 476. Pragmatic Sanction, of Bourges, 244, 245, 252, 278, 302, 303; of Km- peror Charles VI., 488, 489, 491. Prague, 492, 493, 497. Prairial, 22d, 559, 560; 1st, 560; 30th, 576. Praslin, duke of, 500. Precaria, 60, 80. Prefect, praetorian, 27; departmental, 580. Pregent de Bidoulx, 294. Prenzlau, 598. President, of province, 27. Pressburg, treaty of, 595. Prevost, Marcel, 753., ' Prie, Madame de, 487. , Primoguet, Herve, 294. Printing-office, Royal, 328, 476. Privileges, abolition of, 541. Probus, 30, 33. Progressivists, 751. Protective system, 674. Protestants, in France, 309, 310, 334 (see Huguenots) ; in Germany, 310 312, 314, 315, 319, 335, 383, 391 399-402, 406. Provence, 44, 88, 89, 90, 168, 536 Charles Martel in, 68 ; kingdom of, 94, 95, 100, 102; county of, 153 159, 193; acquired, 271, 272; par- liament of, 296; invaded, 306, 310, 454. Provera, 569. Provincia (Narbonensis), 19. Provins, 138. Provosts, 156. Prussia (see Frederick II.), 527; wars with, 551-563, 596-598, 600, 610; aggrandizement of, 631, 655, 656 ; war with, 657-661. Public Weal, League of the, 254-256, 267, 280. Public works of Napoleon I., 601, 602; of Napoleon III., 650. Puebla, captured, 655. Puget, 416, 476, 477. Pugny, 138. Pyramids, battle of the, 573. Pyrenees, 1, 2. 4; treaty of the, 414; campaigns in, 561-563. Pyrrhus, 18. 784 INDEX. Quarantaine le roi, 136, 162. Quatre-Bras, battle of, 627. Quebec, 380, 397, 500. Quercy, 2, 94, 181. Quesnay, 501. Quesnay, Francois, 519, 520. Quesnel, Pere, 464. Quiberon, 563. Quietism, 464. Quinault, 472, 477. Quinze-Vingts, 165. Rabelais, 330. Racine, 381, 416, 425, 463, 469, 472, 473. Radegund, St., 46. Radicals, 674-676. Raginfred, 68. Ragnachar, 38, 41. Railways, 699-700. Rambouillet, 312. Ramillies, battle of, 453. Ramla, 132. Ramus, 329. Rapallo, 285. Raphael, 324, 325. Rastadt, treaty of, 457, 458. Ratisbou, diet of, 399. Raucoux, battle of, 494. Ravacliol, anarchist, 682. Ravaillac, Francois. 383, 384. Ravenna, 72, 293. Rawlinson, general, 747. Raymond IV., ct. of Toulouse, 128, 130. Raymond VI., ct. of Toulouse, 153, 154. Raymond VII., 154. Raymond LuUi, 171, 174. Raynal., abbe, 519. Re, Isle of, 393, 427. Realists, 120, 143. Reason, goddess of, 558, 559. Reaumur, 520. Reformation, 309, 310, 317, 333-335. Reforms, by National Assembly, 543- 545. Regale, 442, 463. Regnier, Henri de, 753. Regnier, Mathurin, 381, 472. Reign of Terror, 552, 557-560. Reinacli, baron, 681. Reliefs, 114. Religion, of the Gauls, 11, 12 ; in Merovingian times, 47 ; wars of, 332-376. Rely, Jean de, 278. Remi, 26. Remi, St. (Remigius), 39. Renaissance, precursors of, 83, 84, 124; arrival of, 297, 303; under Francis I. and Henry II., 324-331 ; later, 381. Rene, d. of Lorraine, 242. Rene, ct. of Anjou, 269, 271. Rennes, 189, 208, 281. Republic of 1848, 644-649; third, 659- 677. Retz, cardinal de, 409-413, 473. Retz, Gilles de, 240. Retz, marshal de, xxiv. Reunion, Chambers of, 440. Reunion, Isle de, 494. Revolution, French, 543-565, 611; of 1830, 635, 636; of 1848, 643, 644. Rewbel, 566. Beynard the Fox, 115, 172. Rheims, 28, 200, 215, 252, 356, 620, 721, 739, 750; archbishop, 101; council of, 142; coronation of Charles VII. at, 231, 232; of Henry III., 350. Rheims-Soissons salient, 745. Rheinfeld, 401. Rhine, 1, 2, 7; its valley, 0; League of the, 414, 432, 434; Confedera- tion of the, 592, 595, 600, 604, 610. Rhodians, 10. Rhone, 1, 2; its vallev, 5, 6. Ribot, M., 681, 684, 739. Richard I., Coeur de Lion, k. of Eng- land, 149, 150. Richard II. of England, 213, 217. Richard III. of England, 279. Richelieu, cardinal, xxv, 322, 387-403. 433, 471. Richelieu, duke of, 496, 497, 516, 632. Richemont, Arthur de, 226, 237, 238, 240, 245. Richer, 119. Rienzi, 213. Riga, 728. Ri-^aud, 477. Rio Janeiro, 457. Ripuarians, 56, 66. Riviere, commandant, 672. RivoH, battle of, 589. Roads, Napoleon's, 602. Robert, d. of France, 101, 102, 186. Robert, k. of France, 106-108, 136, 186. Robert, son of k. Robert, 108. Robert, ct. of Artois, 177. Robert, ct. of Artois, 188. Robert, d. of Burgundy, 186. Robert, ct. of Clermont, 186, 364. Robert Guiscard, xix, 127. Robert the Magnificent, duke, 108, 109, 126. Robert, son of William the Conqueror, no, 130. Robert the Strong, 93, 04, 95, 100, 186. Robespierre, 546, 549, 552, 555, 557, 559, 560. Rochambeau, count, 527. Roche, sire de ia, xxvi, 277, 278. Rochefort, 424. Rochefort, H., 659, 678, 684. Rochelle, 155, 208, 246, 427; under Huguenots, 344-346, 349, 391-393. Rocroi, battle of, 405. Rod, Edouard, 752. Rodin, sculptor, 755, . . INDEX. 785 Rodney, admiral, lord, 527. Rodolph, k. of Burgundy, 100; of France, 102, 186. Roemer, 476. Roger, count of Sicily, 127. Ro.?er-Ducos, 576, 577. Rohan, cardinal, 531 ; duke of, 388- 392; duchess of, 393. Rohan-Chabot, chevalier de, 517. Rois faineants, 59, 60, 67, 69. Roland, 75, 115. Roland de la Platiere, 551. Rollo, 95, 101, 102. Romagna, 292, 569; Romance language, 89. Roman de la Rose, 172. Roman Empire, influence of, 41, 57, 58, 76, 167, 168. Romanus II., emperor, 108. Rome, 441; captured by Gauls, 15, 16; attacks the Cisalpine Gauls, 16, 17; sacked by Germans, 308 ; {/rand prix de, 477; occupied, 605, 647. Romorantin, 3.36. Romulus Augustulus, 35. Roncesvalles, 75. Ronsard, Pierre, 331, Roosebeke, 213. Roscellinus, 120. Rosny, see Sully. Rossbach, battW of, 497, 596. Rostand, E., 753. Roturier, 121. Rouen, 5, 150, 189, 256, 262, 297; a bishop of, 50 ; Northmen at, 91, 95 ; council of, 136; English at, 222, 232, 236; death of Jeanne D'Arc at, 232-236; recovered, 245; in re- ligious wars, 340, 341. 356, 366, 369 ; assembly of notables at, 374 ; in 1870, 659. Rouergue, 94, 195. Rouille, 495. Rousseau, 519. 529, 580, 555. Roussillon. 153, 253, 268, 272, 284, 299, 398; acquired, 400-402, 414, 430. 458. 558. Rouvier, M., 693, 707. Rouvray, 227. Royalists, 571, 632-634, 664, 667, 668 670, 671, 673, 675, 676, 683. Royalty, aggrandizement of, xx, xxi xxiv-xxix ; Merovingian, 57-60, 70 (see Rois faineants) ; Carolingian 78-80, 97, 100; Capetian, 106; un der Louis VI., 139, 140; under Philip Augustus, 148, 149, 155-158 in the thirteenth century, 162-164 166, 170; under Charles VII. and Louis XI., 240, 250, 266-273; dur ing Renaissance period, 281, 28 294, 295, 320, 374 ; and Richelieu 392, 396, 397; under Louis XIV 417, 418, 429, 460-467; under Louis XV., 506. 507. Royer-CoUard, 634. Rueil, convention of, 411. Rumania, in World War, 736, 741. Russia, grand duke of, 108, 455, 497- 499, 501, 528; wars with, 575, 589, 593-595, 598-600, 612-617, 651-653; alliance with, 682 ; and the World. AVar. 716; naval strength, 728; revolution of 1917, 738. Russo-Japanese war, 707. Rutebfeuf, 172. Ryswyk, treaty of, 448-450* Saarbriiclien, 440. Saarlouis, 427, 448, 458, 631. Sabinus (Roman), 21; (Gaul), 29, 30. Sable, 280. Sabotage, 695. Sacy, Le Maistre de, 474. Sadowa, 655, 656. Saigon, 654. St. .indre, marshal, 314, 340, 342. St. Aubin du Cormier, 280. St. Bartholomev/, massacre of, 347, 348. St. Bernird, Great, 582, 583. St. Cloud, 45, ISO, 362, 363, 479, 576, 577. St. Cyr, marshal, 606. St. Cvran, abbe de, 464. St. Denis, 62, 225, 232, 372, 438, 603; abbot of, 113, 277; battle of, 344. St. Dizier, 311. Sainte-Menehould, 387, 548. Saintes, 28, 40, 43, 91, 93, 345; battle of, 160. St. Eustatius. 527. St. Florent, 561. St. Germain, count of, 523^ St. Germain, chateau, 325, 326, 381, 438, 479; peace of, 346; edict of, 409. St. Germain I'Auxerrois, 347. St. Helena, 63(i, 640. St. Jean d'Angely, abbot of, 261. St. Jean-Pied-de-Port, 427. St. John, Knights of, 133, 585. St. Just, 555, 559, 561. St. Lo, 101. St. Louis, see Louis IX. ; chamber of, 409. St. Lucia, 423, 500, 528. St. Malo, 445. St. Martin, marquis of, 530. St. Maur, 256, 474. St. Mihiel, 747. St. Petersburg, 613, 614. St. Pierre, island, 500, 528. • St. Pierre, Bernardin de, 530, 602. St. Pierre, Eustache de, 191, 192. St. Pol, cts. of, 219, 242, 252, 256, 257, 201, 265, 268, 269, 272. St. Quentin, 26, 137, 238, 260, 265, 739, 747; battle of, 316, 317, 322. St. Simon d>ike of (elder), 394; (vounger), 443, 466, 467, 472, 479, 480. 482. St. Vincent (island), 500. 786 INDEX. Saionji, marquis, 751. Saladin, 149. Salamanca, battle of, 617. Salerno, 127. Salians, 30, 32, 34, 35, 38; code of, 56. Salic law, 57, 183, 184, 194, 371. Salisbury, earl of, 226, 227. Salisbury, Lord, 704. Salle des Menus, 537. Salmasius, 474. Saloniki, .733. Saluzzo, 376; marquis of, 284. Salyes, 19. Salzbach. battle of, 436. Sancerre, county of, 159. San Domingo, 423, 495, 563, 588. San Germano, 285. San Juan d'UUoa, 638. Sanson, Nicolas, 476. Santones, 26. Saone, 6, 8. Saracens, 68, 75, 87, 91, 101, 102, 107, 127, 128. Saragossa, 75, 606, 608. Sarajevo, 715. Sardinia, 75, 78, 458, 482; king of, 491, 492, 495, 574, 610; war in be- half of, 653. Sardou, Victorien, 752. Sarto, Andrea del, 325. Satalieh, 145. Satire Menippee, 371, 381. Saturninus, 29. Saumur, 348, 562. Saussure, general, 676. Savannah, 527. Savenay, battle of, 562. Saverne incident, 711. Savigliano, 350. Savona, 605. Savonarola, 284, 285. Savoy, 310, 312, 318, 383, 398, 554, 631 ; acquired by France, 568, 653 ; dukes of, 272, 288, 316, 350, 365, 367, 376, 382, 399-401, 441, 445, 446, 448, 450, 452-454, 458, 482. See Sardinia, king of. Saxe, marshal, 493-495, 516. Saxons, 45, 62, 69; attacked by Pippin, 72 ; conquered by Charle- magne, 73, 74. Saxony, 455, 493, 498; elector of, 401, 491, 492, 497; king of, 600, 610. Say, Leon, 666. Sazonov, Russian foreign minister, 717. ScaVini, 81. Scaliger, 331, 474. Scarron, 466. Sceaux, chateau of, 479. Scheldt, 3. Scherer, general, 575. Scheurer-Kestner, M., 687. Schism, the, 211. Schmalkald, league of, 309. Scholasticism, 170, 171. Schomberg, marshal, 443. Schonbrunn, 609. Schools, of Charlemagne, 83, 84, 118; eighteenth century, 515, 529; estab- lished by Convention, 565 ; by Na- poleon, I., 601; by Napoleon III., 651; in 1920, 757. Schwartzenberg, prince, 619-621. Schwyz, 265. Science, 520, 528, 602, 603, 756-757. Scordisci, 17. Scotists, 171. Scotland, ally of France, 187, 188, 206, 226, 272, 293, 309. Scotus Erigena, 119. Scrutin d'arrondissemant, 665, 670, 677; de liste, 665, 670, 671, 674, 677, 713. Sculpture, 755-756. Sebastopol, 652. Secretaries of state, 418, 419. Sedan, 395, 396, 747; battle of, 658, 659. Seez, 310. Seguier, Pierre, chancellor, 418, 428. Segur, count of, 591. Seignelay, marquis of, 440, 442. Seine, valley of, 4, 7. Seminara, 290. Sempach, 242. Senate, 579, 580, 587, 590, 591, 611, 621; in Third Republic, 665- 070, 673, 674, 676. Senef, battle of, 436. Senegal, 437, 458, 500, 528. Senegal Company, 423, 484. Senlis, 105, 180. Senones, 15, 16, 23. Sens, 223, 340; archbishop of, 105; battle of, 406, 409; council of, 143. September massacres, 552, 553. Septimania, 41, 44, 68, 87, 88, 91; Pippin conquers, 72 ; marquisate of, 94. Sequani, 14, 20. Serbia, 715-716, 733, 748. Serfdom, xxii— xxiv; in sixth century, 57; in eleventh, 121; twelfth, 135- 139; thirteenth, 167; fourteenth, 183. Serfs, insurrection of, 108, 136. Serres, Olivier de, 379. Servan, 551. "Serviteur, Le loyal," 329. Seven Years' War, 496-501. Sevigne, Madame de, 416, 443, 468, 471, 478. Sforza, Francesco, 253, 255; (an- other), 310. Sforza, Galeazzo, 253, 272, 283. Sforza, Ludovico (il Moro), 283-286, 288, 289. Sforza, Maximilian, 293, 301, 302. Shipping, 700-701. Sicambri, 32. Sicily, Normans in, 110, 127; French in, 161, 175; king of, 218; kingdom of, 458, 482, 490, 500, 527. INDEX. 787 Sickness insurance, 697. Sidonius Apollinaris, 28. Sienna, 316, 319. Sieyes, abbe, 535, 538, 576, 577, 579, 581, 587. Sigebert, k. at Cologne, 41. Sigebert I., k. of Austrasia, 48-50, 71. Sigebert II., 63, 71. Sigismund, k. of the Burgundians, 44. Sigismund, k. of Hungary, 217. Sigismund, archduke, 264. Silesia, 491, 493, 495, 496-501, 599, 617, 618. Silk industry, 698. Simon, Jules, 659, 666, 667. Sixteen, The, 359, 36l, 367, 369, 370. Sixtus v., pope, 367. "Skinners," 241, 242. Slavery, in sixth century, 57. Slave-trade, 641. Slavs, 87. Sluys, 188. Smith, Sir Sidney, 574, 585. Smolensk, 614, 615. Smorgoni, 616. Socialists, 682, 694, 695, 696, 697, 709, 710, 711, 748, 750-751. Social legislation, 697, 710. Soissons, 26, 70, 232, 738, 739; bat- tles at, 38, 39, 42, 68 ; kings of, 43, 48; commune of, 137; counts of, 139, 358, 395, 415; council of, 143. Solferino, battle of, 653. Solothurn, 265. Solyman II., sultan, 307-309, 311. Somerset, duke of, 245. Somme, 3; battle of the, 736-737. Sonderbund, 642. Sontav, 672. Sorbonne, 165, 327, 333, 339, 359, 362, 368, 373, 403, 489, 514, 757. Sorel, Agnes, 240. Soubise, duke of, 392 ; prince of, 497. Soufflot, 520. Soult, marshal, 590, 606, 608, 613, 617, 621, 639, 640. South America, colonies in, 703. Spain, Celts in, 15; Goths in, 49; Saracens in. 68 (see Philip II.), 385, 386, 392, 396; Richelieu and, 398—401 ; conclusion of war with, 405, 406, 413, 414; Louis XIV. and, 430-433, 438, 441, 445, 448; Span- ish Succession, War of, 449-458; relations with, under Louis XV., 481, 482, 491-494, 500; under Louis XVI., 526-528, 548; war with, 556, 561-563 ; Napoleon and, 584, 605, 606, 608-610, 613, 617; Louis XVIII. and, 633 ; subsequent rela- tions, 637, 641, 642, 654, 657. Spanish March, 75, 107. Speyer, 446, 453, 554. Spicheren, battle of, 658. Spurs, battle of the. 293. Stael, Mme. de, 602. Staflfarda, battle of, 446. Stahremberg, count, 456. Stanislas Leszczyhski, k. of Poland, 487, 490, 501. State, separation of Church and, 692— 693. States-General, xxiv ; early, 179, 180, 182-185, 192; in John's reign, 194- 196; under Charles V.-VII., 206, 210, 240, 241, 244; under Louis XI., 258; under Charles VIII., 276-279; under Louis XII. and his succes- sors, 291, 321, 322 ; during the reli- gious wars, 336, 338, 351-353, 370- 372, 386; under Louis XIII,, 386- 388; (Louis XIV.), 460, 467; (Louis XV.), 503, 504; of 1789, 533-538. See Assembly, National. Steenkerk, 447. StenayT 658. Stephen II., pope, 72. Stockach, battle of, 575. Stofflet, 561. Stollhofen, 452. Strabo, xvii, 10. Strassburg, 7, 30, 315, 427, 436, 638; acquired, 440, 448, 458, 459; siege of (1870), 658, 659. Strassburg Oaths, 89. Stremonius, 29. Strikes, 679, 695. Stromboli, battle off, 437. Strozzi, 316. Styrum, count of, 452. Submarines, 727, 741. Suchet, marshal, 617, 621 Suessiones, 21, 26. Suevi, 20, 32, 33. Suez Canal, 654. Suffragettes, English, 713. Suffren, bailli de, 527. Suger, abbot, 139, 140, 145-147. Suffolk, earl of, 227, 231. Sully, duke of, 373-375, 377-380, 383, 385, 386, 397. SuUy-Prudhomme, 753. Sulpicius, 16. Sunderland, duke of, 451. Surat, 424. Surgery, improvements in, 756. Susa, treaty of, 399. Suwarof, 575. Suzerain, 112-114. Swabia, 595. Sweden, 309, 400-402, 406. 414, 430, 432, 433, 441, 501, 528; (joins Armed Neutrality, 527, 585) ; 589, 593, 610, 613. Swedenborg, 530. Swiss, 289, 292-294, 301; in French service, 272, 276, X'84, 305, 307, 322, 341, 343, 359, 362, 409, 552, 635 ; alliance with, 302, 400. Switzerland, converted, 69 ; French wars in, 242, 243 ; Burgundian wars against, 264—266 ; during the Revolution and Empire, 548, 575, 788 INDEX. 576, 582, 587, 592, 610; since, 642, 643. Syagrius, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41. Sylvester II., pope, 119. Symbolists, 752. Syndicalism, 695. Syracuse, battle off, 437. Syria, 573, 639, 640, 053, 654. Tabor, mount, 573. Tacitus, 32, 38. Tahiti, 641. Taille, 122, 209, 279, 323, 420, 421, 512 532 Tail'ebourg, 160. Talavera, battle of, 608. Talbot, lord, 227, 231, 246. Tallard, marshal, 453. Talleyrand, prince, 590, 596, 621, 624. Tamatave, 672, 684. Tancred, 130, 131. Tangier, 641. Tanks, 726; first use of, 740. Tanneguy-Duchatel, 223, 226. Tanucci, 521. Tarbes, 93. Tfirdieu, Andre, 751. Tariff, 678. Tassilo, 74, 75. Tavannes, marshal, 345—347, 350. Taxationj Carolingian, 80; under Philip IV., 181, 182; Philip VI., 192, 193; under John, 195, 197, 201, 202; under Charles V.-VII., 209, 210, 212, 244; under Louis XI., 252; under Charles VIII., 279, 286; under the Valois-Orleans, 323 ; un- der Henry IV., 378; iinder Louis XIV., 420, 421 ; under Louis XV., 509, 511, 512; under Louis XVI., 532; during the Revolution, 515. Tchitchagof, admiral, 615, 616. Telamon, cape, 16. Taligny, 347. Templars, 133, 177, ISO, 181,. 185. Temple, the, 552, 555. Tencteri, 21. Tenda, 568. Tennis Court, Oath of the, 538, 539. Terray, abbe du, 502, 504, 505, 522. Terror, White, 632.. Testrv, battle of, 64, 65. Teutates, 11. Teutones, 19, 20. Te,xel, the, 563. Theodebald, 45, 71. Theodebert I., 44, 45, 71.- Theodebert II., 51, 52, 71. Theoderic I., 43, 44, 45, 71. Theoderic II.. 51, 52, 61, 71. Theoderic III., 64, 71. Theoderic IV., 69 71. Theodoric, k. of Ostrogoths, 40, 44. Theodosius, 31. Thermidor, 9th, 559, 560. Thermopylffl, 17. • Therouanne, 3,6,. 41, 270, 271, 315. Thiard, Pontus de, 331. Thierry, A., 37. Thiers, L. Adolphe, 637-640, 642, 643, 659-664, 667. Thionville, 427, 661. ' ' Third Estate, xxiii, xxvii, 164, 163, 167, 273, 276, 278, 321, 322, 338, 387; under Louis XIV. and XV., 462, 463, 479, 510-512; and States- General, 53.5-539. ■ Thirty Years' War, 391, 397, 399-402, 405-407. Thomas Aquinas, 166, 171, 174. Thomists, 171. Thore, 351. Thou, president de, 328, 329, 331 ; (his son), 396. Three Years' Service bill, 711. Thuringia, 35, 43, 44, 597. Thuringians, 39, 62, 68. Tiberias, 132, 149. Tiberius, 29. Ticinus, 16. Tien-tsin, 654. Tillemont, Le Nain de, 474. Tilley, count, 400. Tilsit, treaty of, 600, 612. Tinayre, Marcelle, . 753. Tirard, M., 677. Tobago. 437i 496, 500, 528. Togo, 739. Tclcdo, 108. Toll-Iiuys, 434. Tonquin, y»'ar in, 672, 673. Tciplitz, 618. Torcy, marquis of, 450. Torgau, 499. Torres Vcdras, 617. Torstenf?on, Lennart, 402. Toul, 101, 315, 407. Toulon, 424, 427, 454, 494; in the Revolution, 558, 561, 566, 567, 572. Toulouse, 4, 5, 28, 34,. 37, 40, 310, 422 ; besieged by Saracens, 68 ; count of, 459; county of, 94, 98, 139, 159, 175; University of, 170; parliament of, 244, 375, 395, 442, 514; in the religious vrars, 348; battle of, 621. Touraine, 150, 155, 352. Tour-la-Ville, 422. Tournai, 34, 36, 38, 50,. 294, 302, 440, 493. Tournaments, 115. Tours, 26, 260, 274, 291, 422; battle of, 68; in religious wars, 340, 362. Tourville, count of, 445, 448. . Tourzel, duchess of, 548. Toussaint Louverture, 588. Trade-unions, 694, 695. Trafalgar, battle of, 594. Traktir, battle of, 652. Transportation, 699-700. Trasimenus, 16. Trebia, 16. Trent, 452; Council of, 334, 342, 373, 387. INDEX. 789 Treve marchwnde, 265. See Pec- quigny, treaty of. Treveri, 22, 20. TreveSr see Trier. Trianon, 479, 51C, 531. Tribunal, Revolutionary, 557-559. Tribunate, 579, 580, 587, 590, 591. Trieasses, 26. Tricolor, 541. Trier, 26, 28, 436. Trinidad, 585. Triple Alliance, 432, 433, 728. Tripoli (Palestine), 132; (Africa), 440. Trivulzio, marshal, 288, 289, 293, 301, Trochu, general, 659. Trogus Pompeius, 28. Trois-fiveches, 315, 318, 407, 440, 511. Tropliimus, 29. Troubadours, 115. Trouvferes, 115, 172. Troyes, 26, 101, 231, 348; count of, 105, 137, 138; treaty of, 223, 226, 237. Truce of God, 123, 136. Tuchins, 213. Tudesque language, 89. Tugendbund, the, 609^ Tuileries, 326, 381. 478, 542; attacked, 551, 552, 564; burned, 662. Tunis, 161, 308, 431, 440; occupied, 670. Turenne, viscount of, 368; (the great), 405, 406, 410, 412-414, 416, 432, 434-437. 465, 473. Turgot, xxix, 388, 522-525, 529. Turin, 452, 454. Turkey, relations with, 307-309, 311; 380, 383, 431, 490, 574, 585, 600; 613, 634, 639, 640, 652 ; in World War, 719, 748. Tiirkheim, battle of, 436. Turks, 482; capture Jerusalem, 129; at Nicopolis, 217. Turones, 26. Tuscany, 482, 488, 490, 584, 610. Tuttlingen, bftttie of, 405; Tyler, Wat, 213. Tyre, 132. Tyrol, 595, 607. Uhland, 617. Ulm, 582, 583, 593, 594. Unelli, 21. Unemployment insurance, 697. Unigenitus, bull, 464, 489. Union, Evangelical, 383. United States, relations with, 526, 528, 613, 614; entrance into World War, 738. Universities, 158, 170, 211, 225, 237, 252, 255, 327. 757. University of France, 586, 601, 024, 633, 757. Unterwalden, 265. Urban II., pope, 129, 132. Urban VI., pope, 211. Uri, 265. Usipetes, 21. Usse, chateau, 326. Utrecht, 434; treaty of, 456-458, 482. Uxellodunum, 24. Vaiilant, Auguste, anarchist, 682. Valais, 44. Val des Dunes, 109. ' Valence, university of, 274. Valencia, 606. Valenciennes, 437, 438, 558, 747. Valentinian I., 27, 30. Valentinian II., 31. Valentinois, 314. Valerius Cato, 28. Valette, cardinal de la, 401. Valliere, duchess de la, 466. Valmy, battle of, 553, 554. Valois, count of, 139; county of, 149, 175, 295; house of, 184-287. Valois-Orleans, house of, 287. Valtellina, the, 392, 398, 400. Van Beuningen, schepen, 433. Vandals, 33, 34. Vanloo, Carlo, 520. Vannes, 189. Van Robais, 442. Van Tromp, admiral, 434. Varennes, 548. Vascones, 62, 73. Vassals, 82, 98, 112-114, 139. Vassy, massacre of, 340. Vatable, 297. Vauban, 424, 426-428, 434, 435, 438, 440, 443, 447, 465, 467, 513, 515; 516. Vaucouleurs, 229. Vaudois, 312. Vaudreuil, marquis de, 500. Vauvenargues, 519. Vaux, fortress of, 735. Velay, 2. Venaissin, 175. Vendee, war in, 557, 558, 561, 562; 571, 62G. Vendemiaire, 13th, 564. Vendome, 364 ; bastard of, 232 ; count of, 241; dukes of, 386, 405, 447, 448, 452, 454-450, 466. Veneti, of Italy, 16; of Gaul, 21. Venetia, 595, 663. Yengeur, the, 564. Venice, 78, 152, 153, 168, 28'3, 286, 288, 366, 570, 610; war against, 291, 292, 319; France aids, 301, 302, 398, 431. Venizelos, Greek premier, 733. Vera Cruz, 638. Vercingetorix, 22—24. Verden, 74 ; bishopric of, 407. Verdun, 101, 315, 407, 552, 553, 747; bishop of, 200; count of, 120; treaty of, 89; battle of, 734-736. Vergennes, count of, 522, 526. 790 INDEX. Vergniaud, 550, 557. Verlaine, Paul, 753. Vermandois, counts of, 102, 105, 106, 130, 139; county of, 149, 155. Vernet, J., 520. Verneuil, 225. Vernon, 245. Veromandui, 26. Verona, 74, 302, 568, 569; Congress of, 633. Versailles,' 459, '465, 466, 476-479, 520, 531, 534; treaty of (1656), 496; States-General at, 537, 539, 541 ; at- tacked, 542 ; National Assembly at, 661-669. Vervins, treaty of, 376. Vesle river, 746. Vespasian, 29. Vespers, Sicilian, 175. Vexin, 108, 110. Yicar, 27. Victor, marshal, 616. Victor, prince, 669, 675, 679. Victor Amadeus, d. of Savoy, 399—401, 446, 448, 450, 452-454. Victor Emmanuel, k. of Italy, 653. Vieilleville, marshal, 344. Vienna, treaty of, 490 ; occupied, 594, 607; treaty of, 608; Congress of, 630, 631. Vienne, 27, 28, 180, 310. Viete, 329. Vigo, 482. Villafranca, peace of, 653. Villani, Matteo, 201. Villaret-Joyeuse, admiral, 564. Villars, marshal, 451-455, 457, 490. Villars-Brancas, 369, 373. Villaviciosa, battle of, 456. Villehardouin, xxi, 172, 173. Villeins, 121. Villele, M. de, 633, 634. Viileneuve, 137. Villeneuve, admiral, 593, 594. Viileneuve, count of, 490. Villeroi, duke of, 448, 452, 453. Villers-Cotterets, 321, 326. Yilles de bourgeoisie, xxiii, 137, 138. Villette, marquis de, 527. Villon, Francois, 274. Vilmeiro, battle of, 606. Vimory, 358. Vincennes, 165, 589. Vincent of Beauvais, 171. Vinci, Leonardo da, 277, 325. Vindex 29. Vionvil'le, battle of, 658. Vire, 245. Visconti, Gian Galeazzo, 201. Visconti, Valentina, 288. Viscounts, 112, 113. Visigoths, kingdom of, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 72; subdued by aovis, 40, 43; attacked by his sons, 44; code of, 56. Vitiges, 44. Vitry, 144; sieur de, 390. Vitry-le-Francois, 620. Vittoria, battle of, 617. Viviani, 691, 694, 696, 722, 730-731, 751. Voiture, 469. Volcae, 19. Volta, 529. Voltaire, 468-473, 486, 498, 508, 517- 519, 529, 530. Vorticists, 755. Vosges, 2, 3, 6, 730; Turenne's cam- paign in the, 436. Vouille, 40. Wace, Robert, 172. Waddington, M., 668, 669. Wagram, battle of, 607, 608. Waifer, duke, 72, 73. Walcheren, 92, 608. Waldeck, prince of, 446. Waldeck-Rousseau, M., 684, 689, 690, 691, 692, 694. Waldo, Peter, 153. Walhalla, 92. Wallenstein, 399. Wallia, 33. Wallis, 529. Walpole, Sir Robert, 489, 492. Walter the Penniless, 129. Wardship, 114. Warsaw, 598, 728; grand duchy of, 600, 610, 612. Wartensleben, 569. Warwick, earl of, 260. Washington, George, 496, 527. Waterloo, 627-629. Watignies, battle of, 561. Watteau, 477, 520. Weissenburg, battle of, 658. Wellesley, see Wellington. Wellington, 606, 608, 609, 613, 617, 619-621, 626-630. Wends, 62. Werder, general, 660. Wergeld, 56. Werth, Johann von, 401. Wesel, 434, 595. • West India Company, 423, 484. Westphalia, treaties of, 406, 414; king- dom of, 596, 600, 604, 610. White Hoods, 213. White Ship, the, 141. William the Conqueror, xix, 109, 110, 127 128 William II., Rufus, 110. William Clito, 141. William III. (Prince of Orange), 434-438, 441; (k. of England), 444-450. William I., k. of Prussia, 657, 660; German emperor, 661. William II., German emperor, 709, 710, 748. William of Champeaux, 143. William of .Tumieges, 119. William of Nogaret, 179. INDEX. 791 William of Orange, 355, S57. William of Tvre, archbishop, 123. William Henry, fort, 499. Willibrod, 69. Wilna, 614. 616. Wilson, M. Daniel, 676. Wilson, Woodrow, 738, 751. Wiltzi, 74, 78. Winchester, see Beaufort. Wine industry, 699. Winifred, 69. Witikind, 74. Witt, John and Cornelius de, 434, 435. Wittenberg, 618. Wittgenstein, prince, 615, 616. Wittstock, 401. Wolfe, general, 500. Wolfenbuttel, 402. Wolsey, cardinal, 305. Women, 757-758. Workmen's Compensation Law, 697. World War, preparation for, 709— 712 ; Germany's excuse for, 715- 717; violation of Belgium, 718-719; participants in, 719—720; methods used in, 723—724; trench warfare in, 724-725; the barrage, 725; No Man's Land, 725—726; new weapons of offence and defence, 726—727 ; numbers engaged, 727—728 ; the Eastern Front, 728-729; the first year, 729-730; events of 1915, 731; divisions of Western Front, 733 ; Champagne offensive, 733-734 ; bat- tle of Verdun, 734-736; battle of the Somme, 736-737; Germany's peace proposals in 1916, 738; events of 1917, 738-741; defeatist propa- ganda. 741—742 ; internal regula- tions, 742-743; air raids, 743; Ger- man offensive of 1918, 743-744; Allied offensive of 1918, 745-746; Foch's methods, 746-747; final blows to German forces, 747—748 ; events on Eastern Front, 748; sign- ing of armistice, 748—749 ; work of reconstruction, 750—751 ; treaty of peace, 751-752. Worms, 406, 445, 554 ; concordat of, 142. Worth, battle of, 658. Wurmser, marshal, 568, 569. Wiirttemberg, duke of (king), 595, 610, 618. Yorktown, 527. Ypres, 213; second battle of, 730, Yvetot, battle of, 369. Zabern, 437. Zabern incident, 711. Zacharias, pope, 70. Zama, 16. Zara, 152. Zeppelins, 727. Zierickzee, 178. Znai'm, armistice of, 608. Zola, Emil, 687, 688, 752. Zorndorf, battle of, 498. Ziirich, 243, 575. Zusmarshausen, 406. Zweibriicken, 440. 'I QM,