Qass 
 
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 Book 
 
^GENERAL 
 
 HISTORY OF EUROPE, 
 
 BEGINNING OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 ♦ PEACE OF PARIS, IN 1815, 
 
 ^f copYn;: 
 ADDENDA, ' 
 
 BRINGING THE HISTORY DOWN TO 1840. 
 
 Hcbiseti. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 EDWARD DUNiaAN AND BROTHER, 
 
 151 FULTON STREET, NEAR BROADWAY. 
 FOR SALE BY BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852 
 
 By Edward Ddnigan & Brother, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
 
 District of New York. 
 
 
h 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The American publisher sends forth the present ma- 
 nual, with a hope that it may prove both an acceptable 
 and useful addition to that number of historical works, 
 which may be safely placed on the shelves of the fa- 
 mily library, and in the hands of our youth. The work 
 does not pretend to be an elaborate history of the mo- 
 mentous period of which it treats. To give the reader 
 a general idea of what has occurred, chiefly in Europe, 
 within the last three centuries, in a succinct style and an 
 impartial spirit, appears to have been the governing 
 idea in the production of this manual ; and as far as 
 other occupations permitted us to examine its pages, we 
 think the inquisitive student will not be disappointed. 
 The epochs here briefly gone over, every one knows, 
 are probably the most interesting, the most soul-stirring, 
 in the whole history of the human race. To gain even 
 a general idea of the events, the discoveries in literature, 
 science, and art ; the revolutions in social and religious 
 life, which distinguish the last three hundred years, 
 would more than compensate for the time and attention 
 which the perusal of a score of volumes such as the 
 present might require. The writer who has been able 
 
 ni 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to condense the eventful history of these latter ages into 
 a single, convenient, and entertaining volume, deserves 
 the thanks of all those engaged in the education of 
 youth. 
 
 In the present state of historical research and know- 
 ledge, few, we believe, would be willing to dispute the 
 truth of the following observations, (prefixed to the Lon- 
 don edition,) as far as they relate to the state of Europe 
 during the middle ages, and the part the Popes took in 
 the political measures of that memorable portion of mo- 
 dern history, hitherto so imperfectly understood and still 
 less appreciated, but upon which much light has been 
 thrown by the more zealous and impartial researches 
 of several late and justly eminent writers. The con- 
 cluding portion is intended to convey a general notion 
 of the state of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 " The period of time to which our attention is limited 
 in this volume, is, incontestably, one of the most import- 
 ant and eventful in the annals of mankind. In the 
 centuries immediately preceding, we find the principal 
 European nations distinguished by national peculiarities, 
 diversity of language, and difficulty of intercourse, yet 
 closely united by the bond of Catholic unity, as mem- 
 bers of one vast Christian community, over which the 
 Sovereign Pontiff exercised a pacific influence, as the 
 common father of all. Deeds of individual violence 
 and oppression were indeed of frequent occurrence, for, 
 then, as in other ages, the ungoverned passions of men 
 
INTRODUCTION. V; 
 
 produced disastrous effects ; but the wars of that period, 
 if compared with those of a later date, were Uttle more 
 than baronial feuds on a larger scale; the struggle, in 
 most instances, of rival claimants for a crown, which a 
 single important battle seldom failed to decide. On such 
 occasions, however, in lieu of an appeal to the sword, it 
 was not unusual to refer the cause to the arbitration of 
 the Sovereign Pontiff, whom distance from the parties, 
 an advanced age, and zeal for the common welfare of 
 Christendom, rendered an impartial and consequently a 
 satisfactory judge. Hence might possibly be derived 
 the power, occasionally exercised by the Popes, who 
 governed the Church during ages, when her faith was 
 that of the whole of civilized Europe, of determining, 
 by their authority, affairs which seemed beyond the 
 cognisance of ordinary tribunals ; and of combating, 
 with the weapons of their spiritual jurisdiction, tyrants, 
 on whose minds neither justice, nor reason, nor the cry 
 of an oppressed people, could make any impression. 
 Wherever there were wrongs to be redressed, rightful 
 claims to be supported, or disputed points to be adjusted, 
 the Popes were expected to define the law and enforce 
 its execution. All this was in harmony with the spirit 
 of those times, when learning and the arts of civilization 
 were almost exclusively the apanage of the Church ; 
 and when the successor of St. Peter was regarded with 
 a degree of reverence which no other mediator could 
 have claimed. These remarks will not appear irrele- 
 vant to those for whom this volume is principally de 
 
 2* 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 signed. The distorted facts and false conclusions, too 
 frequently to be met with in works of this nature, fix 
 deeply-rooted prejudices in the youthful mind, which 
 are with difficulty eradicated, even when an enlarged 
 sphere of information has proved their fallacy. Many 
 who, from their infancy, have learned to declaim against 
 the usurpations of the See of Rome, are little aware 
 how deeply their forefathers were indebted to it. " Eu- 
 rope," says the distinguished historian Lingard, "would 
 have been plunged in perpetual wars, had not Pope 
 after Pope laboured incessantly for the preservation or 
 restoration of peace : their legates spared neither journey 
 nor fatigue to reconcile the jarring interests of courts, 
 and to interpose the olive branch between the swords 
 of contending armies." To the encouragement held out 
 by them to talent in all its branches, is principally to be 
 attributed the gradual but steady progress made in 
 learning and the arts, from the commencement of the 
 13th century, within the first fifty years of which, uni- 
 versities were founded in five of the principal Italian 
 cities, whither students of all ranks resorted in great 
 numbers from every part of Europe. Hospitals and 
 other charitable foundations were then erected and en- 
 dowed, and those magnificent churches, the architectu- 
 ral beauty of which has been an object of admiration 
 to all succeeding ages, raised their pointed spires towards 
 heaven. But about the close of the 15th century, a 
 remarkable alteration took place in the social and poli- 
 tical relations of the principal European states, whose 
 

 INTRODUCTION. Vli 
 
 interests, hitherto individual and distinct, became from 
 that time forward so completely interwoven, as to render 
 the history of each one inclusive, in great measure, of the 
 history of all. For this alteration various causes may be 
 assigned : the revival of letters, to which the invention of 
 paper in the 14th, and that of printing in the 15th cen- 
 tury, powerfully contributed ; the improvement in the 
 art of navigation, and the subsequent discoveries made 
 by the Portuguese, particularly of the passage to India 
 round the Cape of Good Hope ; the immediate exten- 
 sion of commerce which followed these discoveries, and 
 the consequent enlargement of the sphere of human 
 activity and inquiry, by the facility offered to the intro- 
 duction of foreign articles of luxury or convenience, all 
 concurred to awaken a spirit of enterprise, of speculation, 
 and intrigue, and to create a new system of policy, of 
 which the basis was to be a nicely-adjusted balance of 
 power, among the leading princes of Europe. 
 
 1500. — England, at this epoch, was governed by 
 Henry VII., who, by his marriage with Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Edward IV., united the conflicting claims 
 of the houses of York and Lancaster, and brought to a 
 happy conclusion those destructive wars of the rival 
 Roses, which, for so long a period, had laid England . 
 desolate, and sent the flower of her nobility to perish 
 in the field or on the scaff*old. To prevent the recur- 
 rence of similar scenes of bloodshed, he used every en- 
 deavour to establish the vaUdity of his claim, in virtue 
 of his descent from the ancient British princes of the 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 island, and applied at an early period after his accession 
 to Pope Innocent VIII. to confirm his title. If this 
 monarch's prudence degenerated into avarice, and led 
 him to the commission of many acts of injustice and 
 extortion, it must be allowed that he possessed some esti- 
 mable qualities, and that his wise policy laid the founda- 
 tion of England's future greatness. Of his two daughters, 
 the elder, Margaret, was married to the King of Scots ; 
 Mary, the younger, to Lewis XII., who then occupied 
 the throne of France. Desirous also to cement a closer 
 friendship with Ferdinand, King of Arragon and Castile, 
 he afiianced his eldest son, Arthur, to Catharine, the 
 fourth daughter of that monarch ; and the young Prince, 
 on attaining the age of twelve years, was married to 
 her in St. Paul's church with great solemnity. Being a 
 sickly youth, he died a few months after, and Henry, 
 unwilling to forfeit the unpaid moiety of her large dowry, 
 proposed to unite her to his second son: the affair, how- 
 ever, was not brought to a conclusion during his life- 
 time. Henry VIIL, at the period of his father's death, 
 in 1509, was eighteen years of age, handsome in person, 
 accomplished, and exceedingly popular. His accession 
 to the throne was hailed by the nation as the commence- 
 ment of a new era, during which, it was hoped, this off- 
 spring of the blended roses would reign in peace, over 
 an united and happy people. 
 
 The attention of Europe, at the early part of the 
 century, was chiefly engrossed by the affairs of Italy. 
 Lewis XII., pursuing the ambitious projects of his pre- 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 decessor, crossed the Alps at the head of an army of 
 20,000 men, to assert his claim to the duchy of Milan, 
 in right of his grandmother, Valentina, heiress of the 
 house of Visconti. The reigning duke at this period 
 was Ludovico Sforza ; though the descendant of a 
 usurper, he had been confirmed in that dignity by the 
 emperor, who had married his daughter Blanche, and 
 from whom he might naturally have expected protection. 
 But Maximilian was then in no condition to assist him, 
 being engaged in opposing the Swiss who had recently 
 revolted from Austria, and, therefore, prudently con- 
 cealed his real weakness under an affected indifference. 
 Within the space of twenty days, the French king made 
 himself master of the whole territory of Milan, and 
 subdued the republic of Genoa ; while the Venetians, 
 his allies, occupied Cremona. Not satisfied with these 
 important acquisitions, he entered into a league with 
 Ferdinand of Arragon, against Frederic, King of Na- 
 ples, who, unable to resist the united forces of the com- 
 bined sovereigns, resigned his crown. But dissensions 
 arose between the conquerers : from allies they became 
 enemies, and Lewis was eventually constrained by the 
 arms of the celebrated Gonsalvo de Cordova, to abandon 
 all the possessions he had acquired in the territory of 
 Naples. Finding himself baffled in various attempts to 
 recover them, and being extremely desirous to secure the 
 duchy of Milan, he signed, in 1505, a treaty at Blois, 
 with the emperor, who, in consideration of a large sum 
 of money, granted him the investiture of that duchy. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To the Emperor Maximilian, the house of Austria is 
 principally indebted for its subsequent aggrandizement. 
 By his marriage with the heiress of Burgundy, he ac- 
 quired for his posterity a claim to that wealthy province ; 
 while the union of his son, the Archduke Philip, with 
 Jane, the daughter and sole heiress of Ferdinand and 
 Isabella, secured to his descendants the crown of Spain. 
 The archduke died in 1506, leaving his son Charles, to 
 the astonishment of all Europe, under the guardianship 
 of the King of France. 
 
 Julius IL, who, in 1503, succeeded Pius III. in the 
 pontifical throne, could not with indifference see so large 
 a portion of the Italian territory fall under the dominion 
 of foreign princes. The encroachments of the Vene- 
 tians, who had unjustly seized the northern part of the 
 province of Romagna, demanded his immediate atten- 
 tion, and we shall soon find him departing from the mild 
 policy of his predecessors, to act the part of a statesman 
 and a warrior. 
 
 The descendants of Othman, founder of the Turkish 
 empire, have ranked among the sovereigns of Europe, 
 since the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet II., in 
 1453. At the opening of the 16th century, his son and 
 successor, Bajazet II., was seated on that throne, who, 
 after several victorious engagements with the Venetians, 
 and other Christian powers, was forced to resign the 
 crown to his second son, Selim, surnamed the Ferocious, 
 by whom he was poisoned in 1512. 
 
 While the Portuguese, under the peaceful rule of 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 Emanuel, were employed in making acquisitions in the 
 East, and appropriating to themselves the most lucrative 
 commerce in the known world, the Spaniards discovered 
 a new continent towards the West, of which Columbus, 
 a Genoese navigator, who resided in Lisbon, conceived 
 the first idea. His countrymen, whom he proposed to 
 put into possession of another hemisphere, treated him 
 as a visionary ; he unfolded his project, in 1484, to the 
 King of Portugal, without success; he next applied to 
 the court of Spain, but Ferdinand and Isabella were 
 then engaged in the conquest of Granada, and the 
 Spanish treasury was exhausted. Some authors relate, 
 that Columbus, who united the stout heart of a hero 
 with the enlightened mind and persevering spirit of a 
 philosopher, even made offers to Henry VH. of England ; 
 but that prince was unwilling, by embarking in an adven- 
 turous enterprise, to draw money out of his exchequer, 
 which it was the chief business of his reign to enrich. 
 At length, Ferdinand having completely subjugated the 
 Moorish empire in Spain, by the conquest of Granada, 
 its stately capital, the enterprising spirit of Isabella be- 
 gan to sympathize with the genius of Columbus. By 
 her assistance he was furnished with a fleet, and set sail 
 from the port of Palos, in Andalusia, on the 3d of Au- 
 gust, 1492, in quest of a western continent, with the 
 title of admiral and viceroy of the isles and lands 
 which he should discover. He prosecuted his hazardous 
 enterprise in four different voyages, but did not meet 
 with the grateful return, justly due to the perils and 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 difficulties which he had happily surmounted in the ar- 
 duous undertaking. In 1499, Americus Vespucius, a 
 Florentine, following in the track of the Genoese, sailed 
 to the west. He raised his fame on the superior merit 
 of Columbus, and, having powerful friends, had the ad- 
 dress, or the pride, to impose his name on the fourth 
 part of the terraqueous globe, as if he had been the first 
 who descried it." 
 
GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPE, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY TO THE DEATH OF THE EMPEROR MAXI- 
 MILIAN IN 1519. 
 
 The treaty of Blois had restored peace to Europe, but the 
 interval of tranquillity was of short duration. The enterpris- 
 ing spirit of Julius II. led him to form the project of driving 
 all foreigners out of Italy, and he determined in the first place 
 to oblige the Venetians to restore the towns they had seized 
 upon at the demise of Alexander VI. 
 
 The celebrated republic of Venice took its rise during the 
 inroads of the barbarians in the fifth century. The little is- 
 lands of the Adriatic gulf afforded an asylum to the neigh- 
 bouring inhabitants, who originally lived by fishing, and after- 
 wards grew rich by commerce. All the nations in Europe 
 depended on the Venetians not only for the precious commo- 
 dities of the East, which they imported by way of Egypt, 
 but for various manufactures fabricated by them alone, or 
 finished with a dexterity unknown in other countries. At the 
 epoch of which we treat, Venice extended her dominion from 
 the lake of Como to the middle of Dalmatia, and her wealth 
 was viewed with envy by the greatest monarch?, who could 
 scarcely vie with her private citizens in splendour and ele- 
 gance. 
 
 The refusal of the Venetians to restore the places whicli 
 they had dismembered from the territory of the church, gave 
 occasion to the League of Cambray, formed to humble this 
 proud republic, in 1508. The emperor, the Kings of France 
 and Spain, and the Pope, were principals in the league, which, 
 questionless, was one of the most extensive confederacies that 
 Europe had ever beheld. 
 
 Julius II employed the censures of the cliurch against the 
 8 I 
 
2 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE [ciIAP. 
 
 Venetians, while the impetuous valour of the French render- 
 ed ineffectual all their precautions for the safety of the repub- 
 lic ; and the battle of Aignadel, fought near the river Adda, 
 entirely ruined the army on which they relied for defence. 
 Finding their affairs desperate, the Venetians concluded an 
 alliance with the Holy See against France, and were absolved 
 from the anathema pronounced against them. Pope Julius 
 declared war against the Duke of Ferrara, the confederate of 
 Lewis, and solicited the favour of Henry VHL, who had late- 
 ly, in 1509, ascended the throne of England. Julius detached 
 Ferdinand from the league, by granting him the full investi- 
 ture of the kingdom of Naples, and in 1510 he formed a 
 treaty with the Swiss, whom Lewis had offended. The con- 
 federacy of Cambray being thus dissolved, the face of affairs 
 soon changed in Italy. The Venetians, recovering from the 
 consternation into which they had been thrown, were able to 
 make head against tlie emperor, and to regain part of the ter- 
 ritory which they had lost. Lewis, in the mean time, Avas 
 doubtful how to act, and Ferdinand, taking advantage of his 
 irresolution, seized upon the kingdom of Navarre in 1511. 
 The method which he took to effect this conquest was singu- 
 lar. Henry VHL, his son-in-law, naturally sanguine in 
 temper, was moved with a desire of protecting the Pope 
 from that oppression to which he believed him exposed from 
 the French monarch. Lnpatient also of acquiring that dis- 
 tinction in Europe to which his power and opulence entitled 
 him, he could not long remain neuter amid the conflicting 
 powers. Ferdinand saw his intemperate ardour, and made 
 him the instrument of his own ambition. He engaged him not 
 to invade France by the way of Calais, but to send his troops 
 to Fontarabia, that they might act in concert with his army ; 
 and Henry found, to his disappointment, that his forces re- 
 turned diminished by want and sickness, after having, by 
 their presence at sea, shielded the Spanish troops from their 
 enemies in the reduction of Navarre. 
 
 1512. — Though the war which England waged against 
 France brought no advantage to the former kingdom, it was of 
 much prejudice to the latter ; and by obliging Lewis to with- 
 draw his forces from Italy, lost him that superiority which 
 his arms, in the beginning of the campaign, had acquired in 
 that country. The Swiss, who had now rendered themselves 
 formidable by their bands of disciplined infantry, invaded the 
 duchy of Milan with a numerous army, and excited its incon- 
 stant inhabitants to a revolt against the dominion of France. 
 
I.J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 3 
 
 Genoa followed the example of that duchy, and Lewis, in the 
 course of a few weeks, totally lost his Italian conquest. The 
 expulsion of the French gave much pleasure to Julius II., but, 
 worn out with age and worldly solicitude, he died very soon 
 after, on the 20th of February, 1513. Julius was succeeded 
 in the pontificate by John of Medicis, son of the celebrated 
 Laurence, who had governed Florence with so much reputa- 
 tion, and obtained the appellation of Father of the Muses. 
 John took the name of Leo X. In him the literati found a 
 warm friend and steady patron, the arts and sciences a mu- 
 nificent encourager and protector. From his pontificate the 
 republic of letters dates a new era. Humane, generous, 
 aflable, the patron of every art, and the friend of every virtue, 
 he had a soul no less capable of forming great designs than 
 his predecessor, but he was more delicate in the choice of 
 means for the execution of them. Yet Leo X. had the afflic- 
 tion to witness the origin of those heresies which have detach- 
 ed a great part of Europe from the see of Rome. 
 
 By the negotiations of this Pope, who adhered to the politi- 
 cal system of Julius, the Emperor Maximilian was gained 
 over from the French interest, and Henry VIII., notwith- 
 standing his disappointment in the former campaign, was still 
 encouraged to prosecute his warlike measures against Lewis. 
 
 1513. — This projected invasion ofFrance roused the jealousy 
 of the Scottish nation. The ancient league which subsisted 
 between France and Scotland, was esteemed the most sacred 
 bond of connection, and universally believed by the Scots 
 essential to the preservation of their independence against a 
 people so much superior in strength and number as the English. 
 Therefore, though James IV. made professions of maintain- 
 ing a neutrality, Henry sent the Earl of Surrey to put the bor- 
 ders into a posture of defence, while he invaded France by the 
 way of Calais. But of all the allies on whose assistance he 
 relied, the Swiss alone fully performed their engagements. 
 Maximilian, among others, failed to perform his, although 
 he had received in advance a subsidy of 120,000 crowns. 
 That he might make some atonement, however, for his breach 
 of faith, he appeared in person in the Low Countries, and 
 joined the English army, with a small body of German and 
 Flemish troops. He even carried his condescension so far as 
 to enlist himself in the service of the English monarch, and 
 received a hundred ducats per day for the use of his table. 
 The first enterprise which the English undertook, was the 
 siege of Terouane on the borders of Picardy. During the 
 
4 Gl-XERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 attack of this place, was fought the famous battle of Guine- 
 gate, when the cavalry of France fled at the first onset. This 
 action, or rather rout, is called the Battle of Spurs, because 
 in it the French made more use of them than of their military 
 weapons. The Swiss, at the same time, had entered Burgun- 
 dy with a formidable army, and the Catholic king, though he 
 had made a truce with Lewis, seemed disposed to seize every 
 advantage which fortune should present to him. Lewis, 
 though fruitful in expedients, was now at a loss what course 
 to follow ; his troops were dismayed, his people intimidated, 
 and he had no ally to assist him. But France was saved by 
 the blunders of her enemies. The Swiss allowed themselves 
 to be wheedled into a negotiation by Tremouille, Governor of 
 Burgundy, without inquiring whether he had any powers to 
 treat. Henry discovered no less ignorance in the conduct of 
 war than the Swiss in negotiation. By the interested counsel 
 of Maximilian he laid siege to Tournay. Soon after the reduc- 
 tion of this place, he was informed of the retreat of the Swiss, 
 and as the season was now far advanced, he thought proper to 
 return to England, and to carry with him the greatest part of 
 his army. Such was the issue of a campaign, much boasted 
 of by the English monarch, but which, all circumstances con- 
 sidered, was unprofitable, if not inglorious. 
 
 The success which during this season attended the English 
 arms in North Britain, was more decisive. James IV. of 
 Scotland had assembled the whole force of his dominions and 
 crossed the Tweed, at the head of a brave though tumultuous 
 army of 50,000 men. But his troops became dissatisfied ; 
 and the Earl of Surrey having collected an army of 26,000 
 men, drew the Scots from their station near the Cheviot Hills, 
 and an obstinate batde was fought in the field of Flodden, 
 September 9th, 1513, in which the King of Scotland and the 
 flower of his nobility were slain. Though an inviting oppor- 
 tunity was now offered to Henry of extending his dominion 
 over the whole island, compassion for the helpless condition 
 of his sister Margaret and her infant son prevailed with him 
 to grant peace to Scodand as soon as it was applied for. 
 
 1514. — A general pacification took place shortly after be- 
 tween the contending powers ; and Lewis XH., rescued from 
 his numerous difficulties, had the happiness of beholding once 
 more his affairs in good order, and all Europe in tranquillity. 
 But he enjoyed his happiness only a short while ; dying about 
 three months after his marriage with the Princess Mary of 
 England, sister of Henry VHL This event happened in 1515, 
 
I.] GENERAL HISTORY OF PUROPE. 5 
 
 when he was meditating anew the conquest of Milan, which 
 was left to immortalize the name and swell the misfortunes of 
 his successor. Few princes seem to have been more beloved 
 by their subjects than Lewis : he obtained the surname of 
 Father of his People, a title with which he was particularly 
 delighted, and which he always studied to deserve. His very 
 misfortunes endeared him to his subjects, because it was well 
 known that he might have maintained his conquests in Italy, 
 if he would have levied more taxes on his people, whose bur- 
 dens he had diminished above one-half. 
 
 Lewis XIL was succeeded on the throne of France by his 
 son-in-law, Francis, Count of Angouleme, first prince of the 
 blood. Young, brave, ambitious, and enterprising, he im- 
 mediately turned his eyes towards Italy, as the scene of glory 
 and conquest. But before he set out on that expedition, he 
 renewed the treaty which his predecessor had made with 
 England, and having nothing to fear from Spain, where 
 Ferdinand was on the verge of the grave, he marched his army 
 owards the Alps, under pretence of defending his kingdom 
 against the incursions of the Swiss. Informed of his hostile 
 intentions, that warlike people had taken up arms, in order to 
 protect Maximilian Sforza, Duke of Milan, whom they had 
 restored to his dominions, and thought themselves bound in 
 honour to support. These hardy mountaineers took posses- 
 sion of all those passes in the Alps, through which they thought 
 the French must enter Italy, and when informed that Francis 
 had made his way into Piedmont, by a secret route, they de- 
 scended undismayed into the plain, and gallantly opposed 
 themselves on foot to the heavy armed cavalry of France. 
 The two armies met at Marignan, near Milan, where, Sept. 
 13th, 1515, was fought one of the most furious and obstinate 
 battles mentioned in the history of modern times. The ad- 
 vantage was on the side of the French, but their loss was very 
 considerable : the Marechal Trevulzio, who had been present 
 at eighteen pitched battles, used to declare, that in comparison 
 of the battle of Marignan, every other engagement he had seen 
 was but the contention of children; this, a combat of heroes. 
 The surrender of the city of Milan, and the conquest of the 
 whole duchy, were the consequences of this victory. Maxi- 
 milian Sforza resigned his claim, and accepted of a pension ; 
 and Francis, having concluded a treaty with the Pope and with 
 the Swiss, returned into France, leaving to Charles, Duke of 
 Bourbon, the government of his Italian dominions. 
 
 The success of the French monarch began to excite jea- 
 3* 
 
6 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 lousy in the breast of the old Emperor Maximilian, nor was it 
 regarded with indifference by the King of England. Maximi- 
 lian invaded Italy witli a considerable army, but being repulsed 
 by the French, he returned to Germany, made peace with 
 France and Venice, ceded Verona to that republic, for a sum 
 of money, and thus excluded himself, in some measure, from 
 all future access into Italy. This peace was preceded by the 
 death of Ferdinand, the Catholic king, and the succession of 
 his grandson Charles to his extensive dominions ; an event 
 which had been long looked for, and from which the most im- 
 portant consequences were expected. Charles, who had hith- 
 erto resided in the Low Countries, which he inherited as heir 
 of the house of Burgundy, was received by the Spaniards with 
 universal acclamations of joy. Cardinal Ximenes, Archbishop 
 of Toledo, a person of equal virtue and sagacity, had been ap- 
 pointed, by the will of Ferdinand, sole Regent of Castile till the 
 arrival of the young king, and succeeded in maintaining his au- 
 thority, notwithstanding the discontents of a turbulent nobility. 
 
 1517. — While Charles was taking possession of the throne 
 of Spain, in consequence of the death of one grandfather, 
 another was endeavouring to obtain for him the imperial 
 crown. With this view Maximilian assembled a diet at 
 Augsburg, where he strove to gain the favour of the Electors, 
 to engage them to choose that young prince as his successor. 
 
 1519. — The diet of Augsburg was soon followed by the 
 death of the Emperor Maximilian, an event in itself of little 
 moment, as that prince had for some years ceased to exercise 
 any influence in the afiairs of Europe ; but as it left vacant the 
 first station among Christian princes, of which two great 
 monarchs were equally ambitious, it became memorable by its 
 effects; for it awakened a jealousy which threw all Europe 
 into agitation, and enkindled wars more general and lasting 
 than any which had hitherto desolated Christendom. It is 
 proper to remark, that during the reign of Maximilian, Ger- 
 many was divided into Circles, in each of which a provincial 
 and particidar jurisdiction was established, to supply the place 
 of a public and common tribunal. In this reign also was insti- 
 tuted the Imperial Chambers, composed of judges, nominated 
 pardy by the emperor, pardy by the several states, and vested 
 Avith authority to decide finally, concerning all differences 
 among tlie members of the Germanic body. The Aulic Council, 
 too, which takes cognisance of all feudal causes, and such as 
 belong to the emperor's immediate jurisdiction, received a 
 new form. 
 
II.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF THE AFFAIRS OF EUROPE, FROM THE 
 ELECTION OF CHARLES V., IN 1519, TO THE PEACE OF 
 CAMBRAY IN 1529. 
 
 1519. — Though Maximilian could not prevail upon the 
 German electors to choose his grandson Charles King of the 
 Romans, he had disposed their minds in favour of that prince ; 
 and other circumstances, on the death of the emperor, con- 
 curred to the exaltation of Charles. The imperial crown had 
 so long continued in the Austrian line, that it began to be con- 
 sidered as hereditary in that family ; and Germany, torn by 
 religious disputes, stood in need of a powerful emperor, not 
 only to preserve its own internal tranquillity, but also to pro- 
 tect it against the victorious arms of the Turks, who under 
 Selim I. threatened the liberties of Europe. This fierce and 
 rapid conqueror had already subdued the Mamelukes, a bar- 
 barous militia that had dismembered the empire of the Arabs, 
 and made themselves masters of Egypt and Syria. The power 
 of Charles appeared necessary to oppose that of Selim. The 
 extensive dominions of the house of Austria, which gave him 
 an interest in the preservation of Germany ; the rich sove- 
 reignty of the Netherlands and Franche Comte, the entire pos- 
 session of the great and warlike kingdom of Spain, together 
 with that of Naples and Sicily, all united to qualify him for 
 the first dignity among Christian princes ; and the new world 
 seemed only to be called into existence that its treasures might 
 enable him to defend Christendom against the infidels.* 
 
 Francis I., however, no sooner heard of the death of Maxi- 
 milian, than he declared himself a candidate for the empire, 
 and with no less confidence of success than Charles. He 
 trusted to his riper years and superior experience, with his 
 great reputation in arms, acquired by the victory at Marignan 
 and the conquest of Milan; but Charles, whose youth and 
 inexperience gave less cause of apprehension than the enter- 
 prising genius of his adversary, was preferred by the electors. 
 Francis could not suppress his indignation at being defeated in 
 his favourite project, and rejected in the face of all Europe for a 
 youth yet unknown to fame ; and hence arose that rivalship 
 
 * The conquest of Mexico was this year effected by the Spaniards, under 
 Ferdinand Cortes. Peru was subdued in 1532, by the arms of Pizarro. 
 
8 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 between those two great monarchs, which involved them in 
 almost perpetual hostilities, and kept their whole age in agitation. 
 
 Charles and Francis had many interfering claims in Italy: 
 the latter likewise thought himself bound to restore the King 
 of Navarre to his dominions, which had been seized by the 
 crown of Spain. They immediately began to negotiate ; and 
 as Henry VIII. of England was the third prince of the age in 
 power and in dignity, his friendship was courted by each of 
 the rivals. 
 
 1520. — Francis I. solicited an interview -with the King of 
 England near Calais, in hopes of attaching him to his friend- 
 ship and interest. Politic, though young, Charles dreaded 
 the effects of this projected interview between two gallant 
 princes ; finding it, however, impossible to prevent it, he en- 
 deavoured to defeat its purpose and to preoccupy the favour 
 of the English monarch. Relying wholly on Henry's gene- 
 rosity for his safety, he landed at Dover in his way from Spain 
 to the Low Countries. The King of England, charmed with 
 such an instance of confidence, hastened to receive his royal 
 guest, and Charles had the address, not only to give Henry 
 favourable impressions of his character and intentions, but en- 
 tirely to detach Wolsey, the favourite and prime minister of 
 the English king, from the interest of Francis. On the day 
 of Charles's departure, Henry went over to Calais with his 
 whole court, in order to meet Francis. Their interview took 
 place in an open plain between Guisnes and Ardres, where 
 the two kings and tlieir attendants displayed their magnifi- 
 cence with such emulation and profuse expense, as to procure 
 it the name of the "Field of cloth of gold." Charles again 
 met Henry at Gravelines, attended him to Calais, and offered 
 to submit to his sole arbitration any difl'erence that might arise 
 between himself and Francis. This important point being 
 secured, Charles repaired to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he was 
 solemnly invested with the crown and sceptre of Charlemagne, 
 in presence of a more splendid assembly than had appeared at 
 any former inauguration. 
 
 About the same time Solyman II., surnamed the Magnifi- 
 cent, one of the most accomplished, enterprising, and warlike 
 of the Turkish princes, ascended the Ottoman throne, in con- 
 sequence of the death of Selim. 
 
 The first act of Charles's administration was the appoint- 
 ing of a diet to be held at Worms, in order to concert, with the 
 princes of the empire, proper measures for checking the pro- 
 gress of Lutheranisni. 
 
11.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 9 
 
 Martin Luther was an Aiigustinian friar, doctor, and profes- 
 sor of divinity in the new university of Wittenberg : his voca- 
 tion to a cenobitical state of life seems to have arisen from 
 mere fright. During the course of his studies, as he was one 
 day walking abroad with a fellow-student, a tremendous 
 thunder-storm came on, and a vivid flash of lightning struck 
 his companion dead at his feet. Trembling with fear, he that 
 instant vowed to dedicate himself to God in some monastic 
 order. His proficiency in learning, after a few years, ac- 
 quired him the reputation of an able divine, and a strong, ner- 
 vous kind of expression made him pass for a good preacher. 
 He was in the thirty-fourth year of his age, when the publi- 
 cation of the indulgences granted by Leo X. to such as should 
 undertake a crusade against the Turks, or contribute to the 
 rebuilding of the Basilic of St. Peter at Kome, afforded him 
 the opportunity of openly avowing his erroneous opinions. 
 On similar occasions, when a crusade was set on foot, the 
 Augustins had been usually appointed to announce it from the 
 pulpit, but they had the mortification this time to see the Do- 
 minicans pitched upon in preference to themselves. These 
 preachers were accused of many irregularities in the execution, 
 which, whether true or false, Luther failed not to make the 
 subject of the most bitter and virulent declamations. The 
 university of Wittenberg, and Frederic, Elector of Saxony, 
 openly espoused his interest. Emboldened by their support, 
 and encouraged by the admiration which his discourses ex- 
 cited, he began to inveigh not only against occasional abuses, 
 but against the very nature of indulgences, the doctrine upon 
 original sin, the seven sacraments, and many practices of the 
 Catholic religion. 
 
 Lutheranism in 1517 was but a spark, but not being im- 
 mediately extinguished, in the following year it kindled into 
 a mighty conflagration. Among the many publications that 
 appeared, a treatise upon the seven sacraments attracted uni- 
 versal notice, on account of its reputed author. It was attri- 
 buted to Henry VUL, though Dr. Fisher, the renowned Bishop 
 of Rochester, is thought to have had the chief liand in its com- 
 position. Pope Leo X., to whom the work was dedicated, 
 bestowed upon the reputed author, in 1521, the honourable 
 tide of " Defender of the Faith,''^ a tide retained by the Kings 
 of England to the present day. 
 
 In the diet held at Worms, Luther and his errors were con- 
 demned. The heresiarch found a secure retreat in the court 
 
10 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 of his old friend the Elector of Saxony, and Charles, for a 
 time, had other matters to engage his attention. 
 
 1521. — The Spaniards, incensed at the avarice of the 
 FlemingvS, to whom the direction of public affairs had been 
 committed since the death of Cardinal Ximenes, broke out 
 into open rebellion. This seemed to Francis a favourable 
 juncture for reinstating the family of John d'Albret in the king- 
 dom of Navarre. He immediately sent thither a French array 
 under Andrew de Foix, and Navarre was speedily conquered ; 
 but the French commander, who was young and inexperienced, 
 dazzled with his success, ventured to enter Castile. The 
 Spaniards, though divided among themselves, united against 
 a foreign enemy, routed his forces, took him prisoner, and re- 
 covered Navarre in a shorter time than Andrew de Foix had 
 spent in subduing it. 
 
 Hostilities, thus begun in one quarter between the rival 
 monarchs, rapidly spread to another. The King of France 
 encouraged the Duke of Bouillon to make war upon the em- 
 peror and invade Luxembourg. Charles, after humbling the 
 duke, attempted to enter France, but was repelled and worst- 
 ed before Mezieres by the famous Chevalier de Bayard, 
 distinguished among his contemporaries by the appellation of 
 " The knight without fear and without reproach." 
 
 In the mean time Francis broke into the Low Countries, 
 where he disgusted the Constable Bourbon by giving the com- 
 mand of the van to the Duke of Alencon. 
 
 During these operations in the field, an unsuccessful con- 
 gress was held at Calais, under the mediation of Henry YHL, 
 and a league was soon after concluded at Bruges, through the 
 intrigues of Wolsey, between the Pope, Henry, and Charles, 
 against France. 
 
 The exactions of Lautrec, Governor of Milan, had alienated 
 the affections of the Mibaiese from Francis. They put them- 
 selves under the government of Francis Sforza, brother of 
 Maximilian, their late duke, and gave up their capital to the 
 confederates. Parma and Placentia were united to the ecclesias- 
 tical state, and of their conquests in Lombardy, the French had 
 now only the town of Cremona and a few inconsiderable forts. 
 
 The death of Pope LeoX. suspended awhile the operations 
 of the war in Italy. Cardinal Adrian, of Utrecht, Charles's 
 preceptor, who at that time governed Spain in the character 
 of viceroy, was raised to the Papacy — he is known by the 
 name of Adrian VI. 
 
 1522. — The war was renewed, to the still greater disadvan- 
 
II.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 11 
 
 tage of Francis than before ; and while the Christian princes 
 were thus wasting each other's strength, Solyman the Magni- 
 ficent entered Hungary and made himself master of Belgrade, 
 reckoned the chief barrier of that kingdom against the Turkish 
 power. Encouraged by this success, he turned his victorious 
 arms against the Isle of Rhodes, then the seat of the Knights 
 of St. John of Jerusalem, and although every prince in that 
 warlike age acknowledged Rhodes to be the principal bulwark 
 of Christendom in the Levant, so violent was tlieir animosity 
 against each other, that they suffered Solyman to carry on his 
 operations against that city and island, which yielded to his 
 arms after a most gallant defence in a siege of six months. 
 Charles and Francis were equally ashamed of having occasioned 
 through their contests such a loss to the Christian world ; and 
 the emperor, by way of reparation, granted to the Knights of 
 St. John the small island of Malta, where they fixed their 
 residence. 
 
 Adrian VI., though devoted to the emperor, endeavoured to 
 assume the impartiality which became the common father of 
 Christendom, and laboured, in vain, to reconcile the contending 
 princes, that they might unite in a league against Solyman. 
 
 1523. — The confederacy against France became more for- 
 midable than ever. The Venetians, who had hitherto adhered 
 to the French interest, formed engagements with the emperor ; 
 and the Pope acceded to the same alliance. The Florentines, 
 the Dukes of Ferrara and Mantua, with all the other Italian 
 powers, followed this example. Francis was left without a 
 single ally to resist the efforts of a multitude of enemies, 
 whose armies everywhere threatened, and whose territories 
 encompassed, his dominions. The emperor, in person, at 
 the head of a Spanish army, menaced France on the side of 
 Guienne, the forces of England and the Netherlands hovered 
 over Picardy, and a numerous body of Germans was pre- 
 paring to ravage Burgundy. Before his enemies were able to 
 strike a blow, Francis assembled a powerful army, which he 
 resolved to lead into Italy ; but the discovery of a domestic 
 conspiracy obliged him to stop short at Lyons. Charles, 
 Duke of Bourbon, High Constable of France, being driven 
 to the last extremity by repeated affronts and injuries, entered 
 into a secret correspondence with the emperor and the King 
 of England. Francis received information of Bourbon's trea- 
 chery, yet suffered him to escape ; and Bourbon, entering the 
 emperor's service, employed all his genius and skill to the 
 prejudice of his sovereign and his native country. Francis, 
 
12 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 upon this discovery, gave the command of his forces, consist- 
 ing of 30,000 men, to Admiral Bonnivet, who, not daring to 
 engage the imperial army, commanded by the two greatest 
 generals of this age, (the Duke of Bourbon and the Marquis 
 Pescara,) after losing much time in frivolous enterprises, at- 
 tempted to retreat into France. He was pursued by the Impe- 
 rial generals and routed at Biagrassa. Here fell the Cheva- 
 lier Bayard, after sustaining at the head of the cavalry the 
 whole shock of the Imperial army, and thus gaining time for 
 the body of his countrymen to make good their retreat. Hav- 
 ing received a mortal wound, he ordered his attendants to 
 place him under a tree, where lie waited the approach of death. 
 In this situation he was found by the Duke of Bourbon, who 
 led the van of the Imperialists, and who expressed much sor- 
 row for his fate. " Pity not me," cried the highminded Che- 
 valier ; " I die as a man of honour ought, in the discharge of 
 my duty, but pity those who fight against their king, their 
 country, and their oath." 
 
 Francis still aimed at the conquest of Milan, and he now 
 resolved to march into Italy. No sooner had the French 
 army appeared in Piedmont, than the whole duchy of Milan 
 was thrown into consternation — the capital opened its gates — 
 the forces of the emperor and Sforza retired to Lodi ; but 
 Francis, instead of pursuing them, laid siege to Pavia, a town of 
 considerable strength, Avell garrisoned and defended by Antonio 
 de Leyva, one of the bravest officers in the Spanish service. 
 
 1525. — The siege of Pavia had lasted three months, when 
 the Imperial army, greatly strengthened by new levies, came 
 to relieve the place. A desperate battle was fought on the 
 24th of February, in which Francis, after performing prodi- 
 gies of valour, was obliged to surrender himself prisoner. 
 Yet he obstinately refused to deliver up his sword to Bourbon. 
 Lannoy received it. This victory and the captivity of Fran- 
 cis filled all Europe with alarm. Almost the whole French 
 army was cut off; Milan was immediately abandoned, and in 
 a few weeks not a Frenchman was left in Italy. The power 
 of the emperor became the object of universal terror, and re- 
 solutions were everywhere taken to set bounds to it. Henry 
 VIII. had always retained some imperfect idea of the balance 
 of power necessary to be maintained between Charles and 
 Francis, the preservation of which, he boasted, was his pecu- 
 liar office. He now became sensible of the danger all Europe 
 was in, from the loss of a proper counterpoise to the power 
 of Charles. Instead of taking advantage, therefore, of the 
 
11.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 13 
 
 distressed condition of France, the English monarch deter- 
 mined to assist her in her present calamities. Another cause 
 conspired to enforce this resolution. Wolsey was disappoint- 
 ed in his hopes of the papacy by the elevation of Cardinal 
 Medicis, under the name of Clement VII. ; and the English 
 minister, attributing the cause of his disappointment to the 
 emperor, resolved on revenge.* 
 
 Meanwhile Francis, who was rigorously confined, desired 
 to be removed to Spain, where the emperor then resided. 
 The following year, 1526, a treaty was concluded by which 
 Francis obtained his liberty. The chief articles in this treaty 
 were, that Burgundy should be restored to Charles, as the 
 rightful inheritance of his ancestors ; and that the two eldest 
 sons of Francis should be immediately given up as hostages 
 for the performance of the conditions stipulated. The ex- 
 change of the captive monarch for his children was made on 
 the frontiers of France and Spain : but Francis never meant 
 to execute the treaty of Madrid, and when the imperial am- 
 bassadors urged their claims, he answered that he would per- 
 form the articles relative to himself, but in those affecting the 
 French monarchy, he must be guided by the sense of the na- 
 tion; and that the States of Burgundy protested against the 
 article relating to their province. The emperor saw himself 
 overreached, while the Italian States observed with pleasure 
 that Francis was resolved to evade the execution of a treatv 
 which they considered dangerous to the liberties of Europe. 
 Clement VII., the Kings of France and England, the Swiss, 
 the Venetians, the Florentines, and the Milanese, entered into 
 an alliance to which they gave the name of the Holy League, 
 because his Holiness was at the head of it, in order to oblige 
 tiie emperor to deliver up the sons of Francis on the payment 
 of a reasonable ransom, and to re-establish Sforza in the posses- 
 sion of Milan. 
 
 In consequence of this league the confederate army took thr^ 
 field, and Italy became once more the scene of war. The 
 Duke of Bourbon, who commanded the Imperialists, overran 
 the whole duchy of Milan, and his troops beginning to mutin v 
 
 *With a view of transmitting his name to posterity, Wolsey, about this 
 time, began to erect two new colleges, one in Oxford, where he was edu- 
 cated, and another at Ipswich, the place of his birth. For the completion 
 of this noble and expensive object, without diminishing his own treasure, 
 he obtained a grant from Rome in 1524, to suppress forty religious houses, 
 and to convert their property to his own uses. This fatal precedent opened 
 the door to a train of unforeseen conset^uences. 
 
 4 
 
14 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 for want ol" pay, he boldly led them to Rome, m spite of every 
 obstacle, by offering to their avidity the spoils of that ancient 
 capital. Nor did he deceive them ; for though he himself was 
 slain in the assault, his followers, chiefly Lutherans, more 
 enraged than discouraged by that misfortune, entered the city 
 sword in hand, and pillaged it for many days. Never did 
 Rome experience in any age so many calamities, not even 
 from the barbarians by whom she had been successively sub- 
 dued, — from the followers of Alaric, Genseric, or Odoacer, as 
 now from the subjects of a Christian monarch. Whatever was 
 respectable or sacred in religion, seemed only to heighten the 
 rage of the soldiery. Clement himself, who had taken refuge 
 in the castle of St. Angelo, was obliged to surrender at discre- 
 tion, and found that his sacred character could neither procure 
 him liberty or respect. He was doomed to close confinement, 
 until he should pay an enormous ransom, imposed by the vic- 
 torious army, and surrender to the emperor all the places of 
 strength belonging to the apostolic see. 
 
 The emperor was seized with horror at the news of the 
 outrages committed in the taking of Rome, stopped the rejoic- 
 ings for the birth of his son Philip, and ordered that the Pope 
 should be immediately released from confinement. 
 
 1527. — The war continued in Italy, chiefly to the disadvan- 
 tage of Francis. His army was utterly ruined before Naples, 
 and his misfortunes forced him at last to sue for peace. At 
 the same time, Charles, notwithstanding the advantages he had 
 gained, had many reasons to wish for an accommodation. 
 Solyman the Magnificent, having overrun Hungary, was ready 
 to break in upon the Austrian territory with the whole force of 
 the Ottoman empire, and the progress of Luther's reformation 
 in Germany threatened the tranquillity of that country. In 
 consequence of this situation of affairs, Margaret of Austria, 
 aunt to Charles, and Louisa, the mother of Francis, met at 
 Cambray, and settled the terms of a pacification between the 
 French king and the emperor. (1529.) 
 
 Francis agreed to pay two millions of crowns, as a ransom 
 for his two sons, to resign the sovereignty of Artois and Flan- 
 ders, and forego all his Italian claims ; and Charles ceased to 
 demand the restitution of Burgundy. The Florentines alone, 
 now reduced under the dominion of the family of Medicis, had 
 reason to complain of the emperor ; Sforza obtained the 
 investiture of the duchy of Milan, and every other power 
 experienced the lenity of the victor. 
 
 1530. — Charles, who had received the Imperial crown from 
 
III. J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 15 
 
 the hands of the Pope, now prepared to revisit Germany, 
 where his presence was become necessary : for although the 
 conduct and valour of his brother Ferdinand, on whom he had 
 conferred the hereditary dominions of the house of Austria, 
 and who had been elected King of Hungary, had obliged 
 Solyman to withdraw his forces, his return was to be feared ; 
 and the disorders of religion were daily increasing. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 CHANGE OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 While the continent was thus disturbed with the innovations 
 of Luther and his followers in religious matters, an unfortunate 
 circumstance occurred, which occasioned a similar change in 
 England. Henry, who, by a particular dispensation from the 
 Pope, had married his brother's widow, Catherine of Arragon, 
 after having lived seventeen years with her in the closest union, 
 now pretended a scruple of conscience, and separated from 
 her. He had, unhappily, fixed his affections on Anna Bullen, 
 one of the queen's maids of honour, and as nothing but a 
 divorce with Catherine could leave him at liberty to contract 
 a second marriage, he was resolved to obtain one. To this 
 effect, he urged the nullity of a marriage with a brother's 
 widow ; and the whole year of 1527 was employed in prepar- 
 ing the nation for this important event. The bishops of the 
 realm were consulted upon the subject; they met and delibe- 
 rated, but came to no decision. It is said that when the king 
 first mentioned to Cardinal AVolsey his intention of suing for 
 a divorce in the court of Rome, the cardinal flung himself 
 upon his knees and earnestly entreated his majesty not to think 
 of it ; but when he perceived that the king was positive and 
 expected his concurrence, he undertook to negotiate the whole 
 business. 
 
 The Pope Avas at that time a prisoner in the castle of St. 
 Angelo, and the application from England afforded him a fair 
 opportunity of revenging himself upon the emperor, by grant- 
 ing a sentence of divorce against Catherine, who was aunt to 
 Charles. But Clement would not allow the base suggestions 
 of interest and revenge to prevail over justice and religion ; 
 in proof of his friendly disposition towards Henry, as far as 
 equity would admit, he consented that the cause should be 
 
13 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 tried in England by a legatine court, in which he commissioned 
 the two cardinals, Wolsey and Campegio, both English sub- 
 jects,* to sit as judges. But as the queen appealed to Rome, 
 his Holiness sent positive orders to the two cardinals to close 
 their sessions in England, and adjourn to the consistorial court 
 of Rome. Campegio quitted England, and Wolsey fell into 
 disgrace. 
 
 While the nation was held in suspense how this interesting 
 cause would end, a new personage appeared, who took. upon 
 himself to pronounce decidedly upon its merits. This was 
 Thomas Cranmer, doctor of divinity and fellow of Jesus Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, who, on declaring for the king's divorce, 
 was introduced at court. He was immediately commissioned 
 to despatch agents to the continent, in order to procure a 
 favourable decision from the foreign universities. Some sig- 
 natures were indeed obtained, but it was by the help of "bribe- 
 ry and sinister working," as the declaration of Parliament 
 expressed it in Queen Mary's reign. Cranmer, though a 
 married man, and a Lutheran in his heart, being deeply skilled 
 in the art of dissimulation, had no difficulty in concealing 
 both ; and being nominated by the king to fill the vacant see 
 of Canterbury, obtained his bulls of consecration, and was 
 consecrated in March, 1533. 
 
 The king, before this, had taken a step which proves that 
 his resolution was fixed, whatever might be the result of the 
 proceedings at Rome, by privately marrying Anna BuUen. 
 In the month of May, Cranmer, in virtue of the king's author- 
 ity alone, pronounced the former marriage null, and ratified 
 liis subsequent connexion, which had been contracted the 
 November before. His sentence was confirmed by an obse- 
 quious Parliament in January, 1534.t 
 
 Pope Clement had delayed pronouncing definitively upon 
 the subject of the divorce, because it was not in his power to 
 decide in the king's favour, and he wished to avoid exasperat- 
 ing him by a sentence in opposition to his wishes. Time, 
 he hoped, might work a change, and in the interim, he endea- 
 voured, by expostulations and threats, to inspire his majesty with 
 more Christian sentiments. But when he was officially inform- 
 ed of what had passed in England, he judged it incompatible 
 with his pastoral duty to remain any longer silent : and in 
 
 * Cardinal Campegio, an Italian by birth, had recently been nominat»i 
 by Henry VIII. to the see of Salisbury. 
 
 j- Reeve's History of the Christian Church, vol. 3. 
 
III.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 17 
 
 May, 1534, he signed a bull which declared the marriage be- 
 tween Henry and Catherine valid, and the sentence of Cran- 
 mer, pronouncing the divorce, null and void. Clement died 
 the September following, without having proceeded to farther 
 censures ; nor was it till the year 1538, that Paul III., success- 
 or to Clement, being compelled by King Henry's impieties, 
 as Echard expresses it,* pronounced sentence of excommu- 
 nication against him and the whole English nation. The 
 Parhament met again in November, according to appointment, 
 and conferred upon the king the tide of the only supreme 
 head of the Church of England ; they consequently granted 
 to him and his successors, or rather acknowledged in them, 
 an inherent power to exercise every act of spiritual authority 
 or jurisdiction. Thus, by that memorable act of the legisla- 
 ture, the English schism was formally established, and the 
 whole plenitude of spiritual supremacy was declared solely 
 to belong to the imperial crown of these realms. 
 
 Uncommon pains had been taken to prepare the nation for 
 this innovation in religion. All appeals to Rome had been 
 forbidden by law from the year 1532. The clergy were re- 
 strained under severe penalties from meeting in convocation 
 without the king's leave : the temporizing bishops surrendered 
 their sacred trust, and solemnly promised never from that time 
 to meet in convocation, but by the king's command, nor to 
 decide in any matter, but as he should direct. Dr. Fisher, 
 Bishop of Rochester, was the only one who opposed his ma- 
 jesty's will-, and was therefore attainted of high treason, and 
 beheaded on the 22d of June, 1535 ; and in the ensuing month. 
 Sir Thomas More, late Lord Chancellor of England, met with 
 a similar fate for the same cause. Some laws against heretics 
 made in the reigns of Richard II. and Henry IV. were repealed, 
 but those persons who relapsed into errors or refused to abjure 
 them, were condemned, on conviction, to be burned alive, 
 which law the king caused to be executed with great se- 
 verity. 
 
 Queen Catherine died on the 8th of January, 1536. She 
 had had many children by Henry, of whom only one, the 
 Princess Mary, survived her. Her sufferings never betrayed 
 her into any concessions contrary to her dignity, or prejudi- 
 cial to her daughter's rights, though every method was em- 
 ployed to make her derogate from both. The king did not 
 refuse the tribute of a tear to the news of her death, and though 
 
 * Echard's History of England. 
 
 4* 
 
18 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 he subsequently persecuted the memory of her rival with 
 contempt and execration, he was not so totally lost to all sense 
 of humanity and worth, as to deny his esteem to that of Cathe- 
 rine of Arragon. 
 
 This year the Parliament, by the king's order, passed an 
 act for the suppression of religious houses, by which about 
 400 of the lesser monasteries, which maintained 10,000 reli- 
 gious persons, were suppressed, and their revenues bestowed 
 upon the king. Immoralities which had been reported, but 
 never proved against them, are stated in the preamble of the 
 act as the cause of their suppression. But the seizure of the 
 lesser houses was only the beginning of more extensive sacri- 
 lege. There were at this time about 700 monasteries remain- 
 ing in England and Wales, of which twenty-eight gave their 
 abbots a seat in the House of Peers. Their revenues, though 
 very large, did not exceed one-twentieth of the national in- 
 come, a sum much below what a design to destroy them first 
 gave out, and credulity has since retained. It was judged 
 expedient that the seizure of these monasteries should pass for 
 a surrender and voluntary cession on the part of those who 
 were despoiled of their possessions. Various compulsive 
 measures v.'ere therefore made use of to oblige the superiors 
 of these houses to comply with the king's will, and large 
 pensions olTered to those who submitted. By such sur- 
 renders and by violent expulsion, all the monasteries were 
 extirpated within two years, and their revenues appropri- 
 ated by the king. " England sat weeping," says Camden, 
 *' to see her wealth exhausted, her coin embased, and her 
 abbeys, which were the monuments of her ancient piety, 
 demolished." For, by the advice of Cromwell,* whom he 
 had appointed his vicar-general, Henry caused the very build- 
 ings to be destroyed, lest the former possessors might attempt 
 to re-enter them.f The poor had hitherto been supplied with 
 food from the monasteries ; when these were suppressed, the 
 number and distress of indigent families began to multiply, 
 
 * Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith in Putney, had been employed by 
 Wolsey, after whose death he came into favour, and was loaded with ho- 
 nours. Cardinal Pole, in his Apolog. Reg. says, that Cromwell imbibed his 
 opinions on kingly power in a book, entitled "On the Art of Government," 
 (II principe,) which he earnestly recommended to the cardinal's perusal. 
 On reading it, he says, that he found in it every stratagem by which reli- 
 gion, justice, and good faith are to be defeated, and every human and di- 
 vine virtue become a prey to selfishness, dissimulation and falsehood. It 
 was written by Machiavel, a native of Florence, who died in 1527. 
 
 ■f See the Life of Cardinal Pole, vol. 1st, p. 57. 
 
III.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 19 
 
 and assessments upon the parishes, which were before un- 
 known, became necessary for their support. The increased 
 amount of the poor's rates at this distant period, proves that 
 the nation is now paying dearly for the rapine committed in the 
 days of Henry VIII. But the king, with all his plunder, was 
 neither rich nor happy : what he acquired by injustice, he as 
 quickly wasted by extravagance, and even his late marriage 
 with Anna Bullen was now become the source of trouble. She 
 who had supplanted the virtuous Catherine, was now supplant- 
 ed in her turn by one of her own attendants. Lady Jane Sey- 
 mour. The lightness of her carriage raised suspicions of guilt, 
 and upon these suspicions she was beheaded. May 19th, 1536, 
 having been previously degraded from her dignity, and her 
 marriage annulled by Archbishop Cranmer. She left one 
 daughter, the Princess Elizabeth. The day after the execu- 
 tion of Anna Bullen, the king married Lady Jane Seymour, 
 who died the following year, a few days after she had given 
 birth to a son, who was named Edward. 
 
 After her death, Henry remained a widower two years ; then, 
 to mortify the emperor and the Pope, he resolved to take for 
 his fourth wife a daughter of some German prince, who was 
 engaged in the Lutheran confederacy against the house of 
 Austria. The choice of his future consort he left to his mi- 
 nister, Cromwell, who presented to him Anna, the daughter of 
 the Duke of Cleves. But the king conceiving a dislike to 
 her, as soon as the marriage was solemnized, the compliant 
 Parliament granted a divorce between them, and Cromwell fell 
 into disgrace. He was soon after arrested by the Duke of 
 Norfolk^ condemned for heresy, and beheaded. The duke's 
 niece. Lady Catherine Howard, became the king's next wife ; 
 she proved unfaithful, and suffered death in February, 1542. 
 Henry's sixth wife was Catherine Parr, widow of Lord Lati- 
 mer. This lady was infected with Lutheranism, and on that 
 account Henry had secretly resolved on her death, but she 
 had the art to elude the king's inquiries, and induce him to 
 alter his resolution. 
 
30 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE AFFAIRS OF EUROPE (wiTH THE PRO- 
 GRESS OF LUTHERANISM) CONTINUED, FROM THE PEACE OF 
 CAMBRAY TO THAT OF CRESPY, IN 1544. 
 
 The Reformation had gained much ground in Germany, 
 during that long interval of tranquillity, which the absence of 
 the emperor, and his attention to the war with France, afford- 
 ed its promoters. Almost one-half of the Germanic body had 
 revolted from the see of Rome, and the remaining states were 
 considerably weakened by the example of their neighbours, or 
 by the secret progress of Lutheranism among them. The 
 rapidity with which heresy overran these countries was 
 boasted of by Luther as a proof of his divine legation ; but 
 there is nothing wonderful in the eagerness of ignorant and 
 carnal men to embrace a doctrine which, by rejecting the 
 necessity of good works for salvation, promised them heaven 
 without requiring any great endeavours on their side to gain 
 it. Luther was soon joined in his revolt against the church 
 by a band of auxiliaries ; among whom, Calvin, Melancthon, 
 Zuinglius, and Beza, are particularly distinguished. They 
 were all united in their hostility towards the church of Rome, 
 while they equally differed in their opinions respecting faith, 
 and by their disagreements and warm disputes among them- 
 selves, gave Luther no less trouble than his Catholic oppo- 
 nents. 
 
 1529. — The emperor saw that these religious divisions 
 tended equally to the ruin of religion and of the imperial 
 authority ; he accordingly appointed a diet of the empire to be 
 held at Spire ; in it Luther and his innovations in religious mat- 
 ters were again condemned. Against this decree, the Elector of 
 Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Duke of Lunenburg, the 
 Prince of Anhalt, together with the deputies of fourteen imperial, 
 or free cities, entered a solemn protest. On that account the 
 name of Protestant was given to them. Such was the state of 
 religion when Charles returned to Germany in 1530. He as- 
 sisted in person at the Diet of Augsburg, where the Protestants 
 presented their system of opinions, known by the name of the 
 Confession of Augsburg. The Protestant princes, finding them 
 selves again condemned, assembled at Smalkalde, and con- 
 
IV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 21 
 
 eluded a league of mutual defence. Meanwhile many circum- 
 stances convinced Charles that this was not the proper season 
 to attempt the extirpation of heresy by the sword. He saw 
 Solyman ready to enter Hungary with the whole force of the 
 Turkish empire ; the peace with France was precarious ; the 
 emperor, therefore, by a treaty concluded at Nuremburg, and 
 solemnly ratified in a diet at Ratisbon, granted the Protestants 
 liberty of conscience until the meeting of a general council, 
 and they agreed on their part to assist him powerfully 
 against the Turks. 
 
 This treaty was no sooner signed, in 1532, than Charles 
 received information that Solyman had entered Hungary at 
 the head of 300,000 men. The imperial army, consisting of 
 90,000 disciplined foot and 30,000 horse, besides a prodi- 
 gious swarm of irregulars, immediately assembled in the 
 neighbourhood of Vienna. Of this vast body, the emperor, for 
 the first time, took the command in person ; and Europe waited 
 in anxious suspense the issue of a decisive battle between the 
 two greatest potentates in the universe. But each, dreading the 
 other's power and good fortune, conducted his operations with so 
 much caution, that a campaign from which the most important 
 consequences had been expected, closed without any memora- 
 ble event. Solyman, finding it impossible to take advantage of 
 an enemy always on his guard, marched back to Constanti- 
 nople, and Charles, freed from so dangerous an invader, set out 
 for Spain. During his absence new disturbances arose in 
 Germany from the Anabaptists. 
 
 In 1535 Charles undertook his first expedition against the 
 piratical states of Africa. Barbary, or that part of the Afri- 
 can continent which lies along the coast of the Mediterranean 
 sea, was then nearly, with the exception of the recent French 
 conquests, in the same condition it is at present. Morocco, 
 Algiers, and Tunis were its principal governments, and the 
 two last were nests of pirates. Barbarossa, a famous corsair, 
 had succeeded his brother in the kingdom of Algiers. He 
 carried on his piracies with great vigour, and extended his 
 conquests on the continent of Africa; but perceiving .that the 
 natives submitted to his government with impatience, and fear- 
 ing that his continual depredations might draw upon him a 
 general combination of the Christian powers, he put his do- 
 minions under the protection of the Turkish emperor. Soly- 
 man, flattered by such an act of submission, and charmed with 
 the boldness of the man, oflfered him the command of the Ot- 
 toman fleet. Proud of this distinction, Barbarossa repaired to 
 
22 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. QcHAP. 
 
 Constantinople, and made use of his influence with the Sul- 
 tan, to extend his own dominion. Partly by force, partly by 
 treachery, he usurped the kingdom of Tunis ; and being now 
 possessed of greater power, he carried on his depredations 
 against the Christian states with more destructive violence than 
 ever. Daily complaints of the piracies and ravages committed 
 by Barbarossa were brought to the emperor from Spain and 
 Italy, and all Christendom seemed to look up to Charles, as 
 its greatest and most fortunate prince, for relief from this new 
 aud odious species of oppression. 
 
 At the same time, Muley Hassen, the exiled King of Tunis, 
 applied to him for assistance against the usurper. Equally 
 desirous of delivering his dominions from the dangerous 
 neighbourhood of Barbarossa, of protecting an unfortunate 
 prince, and of acquiring the glory annexed to an expedition 
 against the Mohammedans, the emperor readily concluded a 
 treaty with Muley Hassen, and set sail for Tunis with a formi- 
 dable armament. , 
 
 The Goletta, a strong fortress on an island in the bay of 
 Tunis, and the key of the capital, planted with 300 pieces of 
 cannon, was taken by storm, together with the entire fleet of 
 Barbarossa. He himself was defeated in a pitched battle : 
 and 10,000 Christian slaves having knocked off" their fetters, 
 and made themselves masters of the citadel, Tunis surren- 
 dered to the victor. But while Charles was deliberating on 
 the means of preserving the lives of the inhabitants, his troops 
 broke suddenly into the town, and pillaged and massacred 
 without distinction. 30,000 perished by the sword, and 
 10,000 were made prisoners. The sceptre, drenched in blood, 
 was restored to Muley Hassen, on condition he should ac- 
 knowledge himself a vassal of the crown of Spain, put into 
 the emperor's hands all the fortified seaports in the kingdom 
 of Tunis, and pay annually 12,000 crowns for the subsistence 
 of a Spanish garrison in the Goletta. These points being 
 setfled, and 20,000 Christian slaves freed from bondage, 
 Charles returned to Europe ; while Barbarossa, who had re- 
 tired to Bona, recovered new strength, and again became the 
 tyrant of the ocean. 
 
 This same year (1535) Francis I., though unsupported by 
 any ally, commanded his army to advance towards the fron- 
 tiers of Italy, under pretence of chastising the Duke of Milan, 
 for a breach of the law of nations, in putting to death his 
 ambassador. The operations of the war, however, soon took 
 a new turn. Instead of marching to Milan, Francis com- 
 
IV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 23 
 
 raenced hostilities against the Duke of Savoy, on whom he 
 had some claims ; and before the end of the campaign, that 
 feeble prince saw himself stripped of all his dominions, except 
 the province of Piedmont. To complete his misfortunes, the 
 city of Geneva, the sovereignty of which he claimed, threw 
 off his yoke, and its revolt drew along with it the loss of the 
 adjacent territory. Geneva was then an imperial city, and 
 now became the nest of heresy, and the capital of an inde- 
 pendent republic. 
 
 The Duke of Savoy sought the emperor's protection, but 
 Charles, just returned from his African expedition, was not 
 able to afford him the necessary support. His treasury was 
 drained, and he was obliged to disband his army until he 
 could raise new supplies. 
 
 Meanwhile the death of Sforza, Duke of Milan, totally 
 changed the nature of the war. The French monarch's pre- 
 text for taking up arms was at once cut off: but as the duke 
 had died without issue, all Francis's rights to the duchy of 
 Milan, which he had yielded only to Sforza and his descend- 
 ants, returned to him in full force. He accordingly renewed 
 his claim ; but while he wasted his time in fruitless negotia- 
 tions, his more politic rival took possession of the long dis- 
 puted territory, as a vacant fief of the empire. 
 
 1536. — While Charles was recruiting his finances and his 
 army, Francis continued his negotiations, as if it had still 
 been possible to terminate their differences amicably. The 
 emperor having now collected an army of 50,000 men, pre- 
 sumed on nothing less than the overthrow of the French mo- 
 narchy. Having driven the forces of his rival out of Piedmont 
 and Savoy, he pushed forward, contrary to the advice of his 
 generals, to invade the southern provinces of France, while 
 two other armies were ordered to enter that kingdom ; the one 
 on the side of Picardy, the other on that of Champagne. 
 The French monarch wisely determined to remain altogether 
 upon the defensive, and to deprive the enemy of subsistence, 
 by laying waste the country before him. The execution of 
 this plan was committed to the Marechal de Montmorenci, its 
 author. He made choice of a strong camp under the walls of 
 Avignon, at the confluence of the Rhone and Durance, where 
 he assembled a considerable army: while the king encamped 
 at Valence, higher up the Rhone. Marseilles and Aries were 
 the only towns he thought it necessary to defend ; the inhabit- 
 ants of the other towns were compelled to abandon their habi- 
 tations : the fortifications thrown down : corn, forage, and all 
 
24 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 provisions carried off or destroyed. This devastation extend- 
 ed from the Alps to Marseilles, and from the sea to the con- 
 fines of Dauphine : so that the emperor, when he arrived with 
 the van of his army on the confines of Provence, beheld no- 
 thing but one vast and desert solitude. After unsuccessfully 
 investing Marseilles and Aries ; after attempting in vain to 
 draw Montmorenci from his camp at Avignon, Charles was 
 under the necessity of retreating as fast as possible, having 
 spent two inglorious months in Provence, and lost half his 
 troops by famine or disease. 
 
 The invasion of Picardy was not more efi'ectual, and 
 Charles, having conducted the remains of his army back to 
 Milan, set out for Genoa, and embarked immediately for 
 Spain. 
 
 1537. — Francis now gave himself up to vain resentment. 
 The dauphin dying suddenly, his death was imputed to poison. 
 Montecuculli, his cup-bearer, was put to the rack, and that 
 unhappy nobleman, in the agonies of torture, accused the 
 emperor's generals, Gonzaga and De Leyva, of instigating 
 him to the detestable act. The emperor himself was suspect- 
 ed, though it was evident to all mankind that neither Charles 
 nor his generals could have any inducement to perpetrate such 
 a crime, as Francis was still in the vigour of life himself, and 
 had two sons besides the dauphin. In the height of his re- 
 sentment, Francis accused Charles of violating the treaty of 
 Cambray, and marched an army into the Low Countries ; but 
 a suspension of arms took place through the interposition of 
 the Queens of France and Hungary ; and this cessation of 
 hostilities was followed by a truce, concluded at Nice in 1538, 
 through the mediation of the reigning Pontiff", Paul III., of the 
 family of Farnese, a man of a venerable character and pacific 
 disposition. 
 
 Each of these rival princes had strong reasons to desire 
 peace. The finances of both were exhausted, and the emperor 
 was deeply impressed with the dread of the Turkish arms, 
 which Francis had drawn upon him by a league with Solyman. 
 In consequence of this league, Barbarossa, with a great fleet, 
 appeared on the coast of Naples, filled that kingdom with 
 consternation, landed near Tarento, obliged Castro, a place of 
 some strength, to surrender, and plundered the adjacent coun- 
 try ; but the unexpected arrival of Doria, the famous Genoese 
 admiral, together with the Pope's galleys and a squadron of 
 the Venetian fleet, made it prudent for him to retire. The 
 Sultan's forces also invaded Hungary, where the Turkish 
 
IV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 25 
 
 general, after gaining several inferior advantages, defeated the 
 Germans, in a great battle at Essek on the Drave. Francis, on 
 the other hand, feared to draw on his head the indignation of 
 all Christendom by the league he had made with the infidels ; 
 still the Pope found it impossible to bring about a final ac- 
 commodation between them, nor could he prevail on them to 
 see one another, though both came to the place of rendezvous. 
 Yet, a few days after signing the truce, the emperor, in his 
 passage to Barcelona, being driven on the coast of Provence, 
 Francis invited him to come on shore, and he was received 
 and entertained with the warmest demonstrations of esteem 
 and affection. The next day the emperor paid the king a 
 visit at Aigues-Mortes, where these two hostile rivals, who 
 had accused each other of every kind of baseness, conversed 
 together with all the cordiality of brothers. Such sudden 
 transitions from enmity to affection, can only be accounted for 
 by that spirit of chivalry, with which the manners of both 
 princes were strongly tinctured. 
 
 In the following year (1539) the citizens of Ghent revolted 
 from the emperor, and offered the King of France to put him 
 in possession of their city. Francis had lived in friendship 
 Avith the emperor ever since their enterview at Aigues-Mortes ; 
 forgetting therefore all that had passed, the credulous, but 
 generous Francis, not only rejected the advantageous offer of 
 the rebels, but communicated the whole affair to the emperor, 
 and allowed him a free passage through France to go and quell 
 the rebellion. The emperor was met by the dauphin and 
 Duke of Orleans, who attended him all the way, and was 
 entertained at Paris with the utmost magnificence. 
 
 1540. — The citizens of Ghent, alarmed at the approach of 
 the emperor, who was joined in the Netherlands by three 
 armies, submitted at discretion, but were punished by him 
 with exemplary severity. 
 
 1541. — The emperor this year was obliged to turn his atten- 
 tion towards the affairs of Germany. A diet was assembled 
 at Ratisbon; here the emperor decreed, that till a general 
 council could be held, all parlies should be left at liberty ; that 
 no innovations should be made, nor any means employed to 
 gain proselytes. This edict equally dissatisfied all parties ; 
 and the emperor thought the posture of his affairs required he 
 should make greater concessions in favour of the Protestants. 
 
 In 1541, Solyman (whose protection had been implored for 
 the infant King of Hungary, against Ferdinand, King of the 
 Romans) entered Hungary, sent the queen and her son into 
 
 5 
 
26 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 Transylvania, which province he allotted them, and added 
 Hungary to the Ottoman empire. In consequence of the 
 concessions made to the Protestants, Charles obtained such 
 liberal supplies of men and money, as left him little anxiety 
 about Germany. He therefore hastened to join his fleet and 
 army in Italy, in order to execute his grand design against 
 Algiers. Algiers, since the taking of Tunis, was become the 
 common receptacle of all the Barbary corsairs. The com- 
 merce of the Mediterranean was greatly interrupted by their 
 galleys, and such frequent alarms were given to the coast of 
 Spain, that there was a necessity of erecting watch-towers, to 
 descry the approach of the enemy's squadrons, and to protect 
 the inhabitants from the depredations of the rapacious ruffians 
 with which they were manned. 
 
 But this enterprise, on which the emperor had built the 
 highest hopes, proved the most imfortunate of his reign. His 
 fleet was dispersed by a storm, as soon as he had landed in 
 Barbary, and Charles was glad to re-embark, after having lost 
 the greater part of his army by the inclemency of the weather, 
 famine, or the sword of the enemy. But if he failed to acquire 
 that glory which attends success, he secured that which is 
 more essentially connected with merit. He never appeared 
 greater than amidst his misfortunes. His firmness and con- 
 stancy of spirit, his magnanimity, fortitude, humanity, and 
 compassion, were eminently conspicuous. He endured as 
 severe hardships as the meanest soldier ; he visited the sick 
 and wounded, and animated all by his words and example. 
 He paid dearly for his rash enterprise, but he made mankind 
 sensible that he possessed many valuable qualities, which an 
 almost uninterrupted flow of prosperity had hitherto afl'orded 
 him little opportunity of displaying. 
 
 1542. — Two ambassadors of Francis I., the one to the 
 Ottoman Porte, the other to the republic of Venice, having 
 been murdered as they were sailing down the Po, Francis 
 demanded reparation of the emperor, who returned him only 
 an evasive answer. Francis then appealed to all the courts 
 of Europe, and renewed his treaty with Solyman : this step 
 drew upon him the indignation of Christendom. But his ac- 
 tivity supplied all the defects in his negotiation. Five armies 
 were soon ready to take the field, and with difl*erent destina- 
 tions : nor was Charles wanting in his preparations. The 
 battle of Cerisoles ensued, gained by Count d'Eno-hien over 
 the imperialists, and in which 10,000 of the emperor's best 
 troops fell. In fine, after France, Spain, Piedmont, and the 
 
v.] CEXERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 27 
 
 Low Countries, had been alternately, or at once, the scene of 
 war ; after the Turkish fleet, under Barbarossa, had ravaged 
 the coasts of Italy, and the lilies of France and the crescent 
 of Mahomet had appeared in conjunction before Nice, where 
 the cross of Savoy was displayed — Francis and Charles, 
 mutually tired of harassing each other, concluded, at Crespy, 
 a treaty of peace, in 1544. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, FROM 1542 TO 1556. 
 
 Henry VHI. declared war against his nephew, James V. 
 of Scotland, in 1542, because that prince had refused to 
 tlirow off the jurisdiction of the Pope. James being unsuc- 
 cessful, was so afflicted, both for his losses and the miseries 
 he saw hanging over his kingdom, that he died the same year, 
 soon after the birth of his daughter, M-ary Stuart. 
 
 Henry VIII. continued till his death the tyrannic persecutor 
 of his subjects. Catholics and Lutherans he burned in the 
 same pile, Avithout distinction and without mercy ; those for 
 not acknowledging his spiritual supremacy, these for denying 
 the doctrine of transubstantiation. Among the Catholic suf- 
 ferers, Avere Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury and 
 mother of Cardinal Pole, thirteen abbots and priors, about 
 seventy-seven religious, and many of the laity, who were all 
 put to death for denying the king's supremacy. The Duke 
 of Norfolk, who had recently quelled a rebellion in the north, 
 and his son, the Earl of Surrey, were the last victims marked 
 out for destruction. The earl was executed January 19th, 
 1547, but the duke escaped by the king's death, which hap- 
 pened the same month, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and 
 the thirty-eighth of his reign. He had made his will a few 
 weeks before his demise, in which he left his crown, first to 
 Prince Edward, then to the Princess Mary, and lastly to 
 Princess Elizabeth, his daughter by Anna Bullen. 
 
 1547. — EdAvard VI. being only nine years old at the time 
 of his father's death, the government was committed to sixteen 
 executors, among whom were Cranmer, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, and all the great officers of state. They chose one 
 of their number, namely, the Earl of Hertford, maternal uncle 
 of the king, instantly created Duke of Somerset, to represent 
 
28 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. fCHAP. 
 
 the royal majesty under the title of Protector. This noble- 
 man soon rendered himself independent of his colleag-ues. 
 He had been long a secret friend to the reformation, and was 
 a Zuinglian in his heart. Being now invested with sovereign 
 power, and having but litde opposition to fear from the nation 
 at large, he openly avowed his principles, and resolved to act 
 up to them. Till then no public change in the forms of divine 
 worship, or in the articles of religious belief had been enacted. 
 But during the protectorship of Somerset, a new liturgy was 
 framed, the ecclesiastical hierarchy was overtlirown, and the 
 penal statutes which had been enacted against heretics during 
 the last reign, were repealed. 
 
 In the mean time, the democratic principles of Calvin, 
 which had found their way into Scotland, roused the people 
 to revolt against the established government both of church 
 and state. One of their party having suffered at the stake for 
 heresy, some of his disciples formed a conspiracy against the 
 primate. Cardinal Beaton, whom they cruelly murdered in his 
 own palace. 
 
 Somerset had not lost sight of the projected marriage be- 
 tween Edward and the young Queen of Scodand. To oblige 
 the nation to accede to this measure, he appeared on the fron- 
 tiers at the head of 18,000 men; but his proposals being re- 
 jected, and an army sent to oppose him, they came to an 
 engagement near the village of Pinkey, (four miles distant 
 from Edinburgh,) in which the Scots were routed with great 
 slaughter. This victory, however, was of no real utility to 
 England, as it induced the Scots, alarmed for the safety of 
 their young queen, to send her to France, where she was 
 soon after affianced to the dauphin. 
 
 Several disturbances arose in England at this time, excited 
 by the discontent, which the oppressions and rapacious acts 
 of the ministry had occasioned. The rebels, however, were 
 soon dispersed and their leader hanged ; but the majority of 
 the people beheld with grief their churches plundered, and 
 their ancient religion abolished. The Scots, taking advantage 
 of the internal troubles of the kingdom, obliged the English 
 to evacuate Haddington ; and the King of France seized the 
 opportunity of recovering, with the exception of Boulogne, 
 all the conquests which Henry had made on the continent. 
 Somerset, embarrassed on every side, was inclined to con- 
 clude a peace with France and Scotland, but he found that he 
 no longer possessed his wonted influence in the council. A 
 powerful faction was formed against him, at the head of which 
 
v.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 29 
 
 was the Earl of Warwick ; and the protector was compelled 
 to resign his office in 1549. Warwick succeeded to his pow- 
 er, though not to his title, and immediately negotiated a peace 
 with France ; and as Henry II. refused to pay to England 
 the arrears which were due to her by former stipulations, but 
 offered a large sum for the immediate restitution of Boulogne, 
 a treaty was concluded on these terms, in 1550, in which 
 Scotland was comprehended. Warwick, lately created Duke 
 of Northumberland, though now raised to the summit of his 
 ambition, still found in the degraded Somerset the disturber 
 of his repose ; by various provocations he excited him to 
 imprudent schemes, and afterwards accused him of high trea- 
 son for seeming to acquiesce in them. Somerset was, in 
 consequence, tried, condemned, and executed in 1552. Some 
 time after, Northumberland persuaded the king, who was now 
 in a deep decline, to alter the succession in favour of his 
 cousin, Lady Jane Grey, who had lately been married to Lord 
 Guilford Dudley, the duke's fourth son. After this measure 
 Edward's health visibly declined, and he died on the 6th of 
 July, 1553, in the sixteenth year of his age and the seventh 
 of his reign. The traitorous Northumberland immediately 
 sent to secure the two princesses, Mary and Elizabeth, but 
 failed in his attempt. Mary was within half a day's journey 
 of London, when she received private intelligence from the 
 Earl of Arundel of her brother's death, and of the conspiracy 
 formed against her. She retreated into Norfolk, while the 
 duke caused Lady Jane to be proclaimed queen. But the 
 dissatisfaction with which this proclamation was received, soon 
 convinced him that military force was necessary to carry his 
 point ; he therefore resolved on civil war, and marched an 
 army into Suffolk. Mary, in the mean time, had been very ac- 
 tive in rousing the loyalty of her subjects.into action. The fol- 
 lowers of her standard amounted to twice the number of the 
 rebel forces. The duke, who had advanced as far as Ed- 
 mondsbury, finding his cause hopeless, laid down his arms, 
 proclaimed Mary Queen of England, and resigned himself to 
 her royal clemency. But his guilt was of too deep a dye to 
 be effaced by any submissions, and his character made it un- 
 safe for any government to pardon such an offender. Before 
 he was executed, he openly confessed his belief of the Catho- 
 lic faith, to which he exhorted all present to return, as well 
 as to their obedience to their lawful sovereign. Two others 
 suffered death with him, and eight more were condemned. 
 Among these were Lady Jane and Lord Guilford Dudley, 
 
 5* 
 
30 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 whose execution was put off and probably never would have 
 ensued, had not a subsequent rebelUon made it seem neces- 
 sary for the queen's safety and the tranquillity of tlie state. 
 A general pardon followed these acts of justice : the queen 
 remitted the subsidy, which had been granted to her brother, 
 and no sovereign seems to have ascended the throne with more 
 universal satisfaction. She was solemnly crowned at West- 
 minster on the 1st of October, and shortly after the Parlia- 
 ment met by summons. They began the session by some 
 popular, acts ; they next proceeded to declare the validity of 
 King Henry's marriage with Catherine of Arragon, stigmatized 
 Cranmer's conduct for pronouncing the sentence of divorce, 
 and annulled every public act that had been passed in conse- 
 quence of it. All statutes made in the last reign against the 
 Catholic religion were repealed, and the form of divine wor- 
 ship was restored to the state in which Henry left it. Bishop 
 Bonner was reinstated in the see of London, and orders were 
 issued to use the Roman ritual throughout the whole king- 
 dom. One of the objects the queen had in view was to 
 strengthen her authority by a suitable marriage, and several 
 persons were proposed to her by her ministers. She had 
 already consulted the Emperor Charles V. on the subject, 
 who recommended his son Philip. The proposition was ac- 
 cepted, and tlie articles of the marriage which were agreed 
 upon, seemed so evidently to favour the interests of England, 
 that both houses of Parliament approved tliem, by every ex- 
 pression that could denote a sense of the advantages which 
 accrued to the queen and the realm. 
 
 The re-establishing of the ancient worship, though enacted 
 by the whole legislative authority, united to the nation's pre- 
 judices against the queen's marriage with a foreigner, gave 
 occasion to a rebellion, which, failing of success, only 
 strengthened that government it was designed to over- 
 throw. An insurrection in Devon was attempted by Sir Pe- 
 ter Carew, in 1554, but he was arrested at Exeter, whence he 
 escaped to France. Sir Thomas Wyatt collected a body of 
 6,000 men in Kent, with which he marched to London ; but 
 finding the citizens firm in their allegiance to the queen, he 
 took up a position in front of the royal army which lay 
 entrenched near St. James's. Eager to engage, Wyatt rashly 
 attempted to force their entrenchments ; but he was repulsed, 
 his forces routed, and himself taken prisoner. The Duke of 
 Suffolk, who commanded another party of rebels in the inte- 
 rior of the kingdom, was defeated about the same time, and 
 
v.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 31 
 
 conveyed to the Tower. In levying war against their lawful 
 sovereign, the views of these two rebels were different, their 
 crime the same. The duke's ambition was to raise his 
 daughter. Lady Jane Grey, to the throne ; and his guilt caused 
 her to experience a severity, which all the personal merit that 
 pleaded in her favour could not avert. She and her husband 
 were beheaded on the 12th of February, 1554. 
 
 Wyatt wrote a letter to the queen from the Tower, in which 
 he revealed the whole plot of the conspirators, and frankly 
 owned their intentions of placing the Princess Elizabeth upon 
 the throne. He also accused Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, 
 as being as deeply concerned in the plot as himself. The 
 princess was not ignorant of their plan: for the security 
 of the public tranquillity she was therefore conveyed to 
 Woodstock, where she was kept in custody for some months, 
 while Courtenay was sent to Fotheringay Castle. Though 
 no overt act of treason had been committed by them, sufficient 
 was proved against them to justify their commitment. 
 
 The emperor, thinking it beneath the dignity of Mary to 
 marry one below the rank of king, resigned to his son the 
 crown of Naples, with the duchy of Milan. Philip arrived in 
 England on the 19th of July, and was married to the queen 
 on the 25th. 
 
 The object which Mary had most at heart since her acces- 
 sion to tlie throne, was the reunion of her subjects with the 
 see of Rome : Pope Julius III. had, at her request, nominated 
 Cardinal Pole his apostolic legate for that purpose. The 
 cardinal arrived in England, November 20th : eight days after, 
 by the unanimous consent of both houses of Parliament, the 
 nation, in the person of its representatives, was solemnly ab- 
 solved from spiritual censures by the legate, in the House of 
 Lords, and reconciled to the church. The clergy received a 
 more special absolution on the following Thursday. 
 
 To prevent the opposition which was expected from the 
 occupiers of church lands, the legate, by virtue of the power 
 he had received for this purpose from the sovereign Pontiff, 
 confirmed them to the lay possessors, with the consent of 
 those who had been dispossessed. The legislature confirmed 
 the same. But the queen had the generosity to give up all that 
 share of the spoils which had been annexed to the crown, 
 including the tenths and first-fruits, amounting to £63,000, 
 altogether about a million and a half of our present money. 
 These last were restored to the clergy of the English church, 
 and not to the Pope, to whom they were originally paid. On 
 
32 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. LcHAP. 
 
 the authority of Fra Paolo,* some of our historians assert that 
 Paul IV., the successor of Julius, expressed his displeasure to 
 the queen at the church lands not having been restored ; but the 
 journal of the House of Commons, Cardinal Pole's letters, 
 and the testimony of Dr. Heylin, Camden, (fee, supply authen- 
 tic information to the contrary. 
 
 The several rebellions we have mentioned, and many sub- 
 sequent outrages the queen endured from her Protestant sub- 
 jects, out of hatred to her religion, were deemed by her coun- 
 cil a sufficient motive for reviving the penal statutes which 
 had been enacted against heretics during the reign of Richard 
 II. and the two succeeding Henrys. In consequence of the 
 revival of these statutes, many persons were taken up, some 
 for treason, and others for heresy. They had a fair trial ; 
 many were legally convicted and executed, as the law direct- 
 ed, but not m such numberst nor with such aggravating cir- 
 cumstances of cruelty as Mr. Hume represents upon the au- 
 thority of John Fox, the Protestant martyrologist.:}: 
 
 Most of these unhappy persons suffered in the diocese of 
 London, of which Bonner was bishop, who is represented 
 as the chief actor in that deplorable transaction ; and London, 
 being the capital, was likewise the theatre where the delin- 
 quents were chiefly to make their appearance. The most 
 noted among the sufferers were the five Protestant bishops, 
 Cranmer, Hooper, Ridley, Farrar, and Latimer. Archbishop 
 Cranmer had been confined in the Tower since the suppres- 
 sion of the rebellion in favour of Lady Jane Grey, in which 
 he had taken an active part. He was then attainted of high 
 treason, and his revenues sequestered. Two years after- 
 
 * Fra Paolo was an apostate monk of Venice, in which town he was 
 born, in 1552. His disobedience to the Pope drew upon him a sentence 
 of excommunication in 1606. After many endeavours to introduce into 
 his country the errors of the Genevans, he died out of the communion of 
 the church in 1623. 
 
 ■f- Heylin, Hist. Reformation, p. 226. 
 
 i J. Fox relates that 227 persons suffered death by fire during this 
 reign ; but the account having been very accurately examined by the learn- 
 ed F. Parsons, who lived very near that time, was shown to be much ex- 
 aggerated, with respect to the number and cause of the sufferers, which 
 made an eminent divine of the church of England observe, (x\lh. Oxon. v. 
 1, page 231,) that " where he produces records, he may be credited, but as 
 to other relations he is of very slender authority." After minute inquiry, 
 not more than thirteen are found to have suffered throughout England, 
 besides those who were executed in Smithfield. See Phil. Life of Cardi- 
 nal Pole, vol. 2, p. 216. 
 
VI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 33 
 
 wards, lie was tried by a spiritual court of delegates nomi- 
 nated by the Pope, and being convicted of obstinate heresy 
 was degraded and delivered over to the civil power, which 
 condemned him to death by fire. In the hope of having his 
 life spared, he retracted his errors ; but finding his death inevi- 
 table, he repeated his former profession of faith at the place 
 of execution. He suffered on the first of March, 1556. The 
 queen nominated Cardinal Pole to succeed him in the see of 
 Canterbury, and the Pope approved of her majesty's choice. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE FIRST MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT, 
 IN 1546, TO THE PEACE OF CHATEAU CAMBRESIS, IN 1559. 
 
 1546. — In consequence of the resolution of the Emperor 
 Charles V. to humble the Protestant princes, which had been 
 his principal motive in concluding a disadvantageous peace 
 with Francis I., at Crespy, he sent ambassadors to Constanti- 
 nople and concluded a dishonourable truce with Solyman. He 
 stipulated that his brother Ferdinand should pay an annual 
 tribute to the Porte for that part of Hungary which still ac- 
 knowledged his sway, and that the sultan should retain the 
 undisputed possession of the other. Charles, at the same 
 time, entered into an alliance with Paul HI., the reigning 
 Pontiff, for the extirpation of heresy. Meanwhile a general 
 council had been assembled at Trent, by the authority of the 
 Pope, in order to regulate the aflJ'airs of religion; but the 
 Protestants, though they had appealed to a general council, 
 refused to acknowledge the legality of this, or to submit to 
 its decrees. 
 
 In the mean time the death of Luther threw the German 
 Protestants into much consternation, but did not suspend their 
 preparations for war. In a few weeks they assembled an 
 army of 70,000 foot and 1500 horse ; though several of the 
 Protestant princes, overawed by the emperor's power, had 
 remained neutral ; while others, allured by the prospect of ad- 
 vantage, had voluntarily engaged in his service. Among the 
 latter, Maurice, Marquis of Thuringia and Misnia, of the 
 house of Saxony, entered one part of the territories of Fre- 
 derick, Elector of Saxony, at the head of 12,000 men, while 
 Ferdinand, with an army of Bohemians and Hungarians, 
 
34 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 overran the other. The elector, upon receiving the news that 
 Maurice had made himself master of all the electoral domi- 
 nions, except Wittenberg, Gotha, and Eisenack, returned home 
 with his troops, and thus divided the army of the confede- 
 rates. Ulm, at the same time, submitted to the emperor, and 
 the other cities and princes followed this example. Thus this 
 confederacy, lately so powerful, fell to pieces, scarcely any of 
 the associates now remaining in arms, except the Elector of 
 Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse. 
 
 1547. — The death of Francis I., while he was forming new 
 schemes against the emperor, encouraged this prince to act 
 with vigour in Germany, more especially as he thought he 
 had nothing to fear for some time from the negotiations or 
 personal efforts of the young monarch, Henry H. Charles 
 marched into Saxony, at the head of 16,000 veterans, attack- 
 ed the main body of the elector's forces at Mulhausen, near 
 Mulberg, defeated them, and took the elector prisoner. He 
 then marched towards Wittenberg, the capital in that age of 
 the electoral branch of the Saxon family. Sybilla of Cleves, 
 the elector's wife, animated the citizens to a vigorous defence ; 
 but understanding that her husband was made prisoner, and 
 that his life might probably pay for her resistance, she sub- 
 mitted to the conqueror's terms. The elector agreed to resign 
 his electoral dignity and put the imperial troops in possession 
 of his capital : in return, the emperor promised not only to 
 spare his life, but to settle on him and his posterity the city 
 of Gotha and its territories, with a revenue of 50,000 florins. 
 The Saxon electorate was instantly bestowed upon Maurice. 
 The emperor, having humbled the Germans, summoned a diet 
 to meet him at Augsljurg, in order to compose finally the con- 
 troversies with regard to religion, which had so long disturbed 
 the empire. 
 
 1548. — Here he published his (simous Interim, which pleased 
 neither party: the Protestants thought it granted too little 
 indulgence; the Catholics, too much. The emperor, how- 
 ever, fond of his plan, adhered to his resolution of carry- 
 ing it into execution, and stripped Ulm and Augsburg of their 
 privileges on account of their opposition. This example 
 made many other cities feign compliance. In 1549 died Paul 
 HI., and in 1550 he was succeeded in the papacy by the 
 Cardinal de Monte, who took the name of Julius HI. 
 
 1550. — Charles continued to carry all before him in Ger- 
 many, till he attempted to transmit the empire, as well as the 
 kingdom of Spain and his dominions in the Low Countries, 
 
VI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 35 
 
 to his son Philip. He had formerly assisted his brother Ferdi- 
 nand in obtaining the dignity of King of the Romans : he now 
 hoped to prevail on the electors to cancel that choice, or, at 
 least, to elect Philip a second King of the Romans, substitut- 
 ing him as next in succession to his uncle ; but all the elect- 
 ors concurred in expressing such strong disapprobation of the 
 measure, that Charles was obliged to relinquish the design. 
 The war of Parma, where the French took the field as allies 
 of Octavio Farnese, Duke of Parma, and the Imperialists, as 
 the protectors of the Holy See, was distinguished by no me- 
 morable event ; but tlie alarm which it occasioned in Italy 
 prevented most of the Italian prelates from repairing to Trent, 
 at the time appointed for the reassembling of the council. 
 The war continued in Germany till the middle of the follow- 
 ing year : the Protestants being headed by Maurice, whom 
 Charles had made Elector of Saxony, and receiving great suc- 
 cours from Henry II. of France. In July, 1552, the elector, 
 after great success, repaired to Passau, and concluded a peace 
 on these conditions : that the confederates should lay down 
 their arms ; that the Landgrave of Hesse should be set at 
 liberty ; that a diet should be held within six months to settle 
 the affairs of religion ; that, in the mean time, no injury or 
 impediment should be offered to either party ; that the impe- 
 rial chamber should administer justice impartially to both par- 
 ties ; and Protestants be admitted indiscriminately with Catho- 
 lics, to sit as judges in that court. Thus, by the peace of 
 Passau, was Protestantism established in Germany. Henry 
 II. experienced, in this treaty, what every prince, who lends 
 his aid to the authors of a civil war, may expect. His ser- 
 vices were forgotten, and his associates made a merit with 
 their sovereign, of the ingratitude with which they had aban- 
 doned their protector. 
 
 The peace of Passau was no sooner signed, than Maurice, 
 who was considered by the Protestants as the deliverer of 
 Germany, marched into Hungary against the Turks, at the head 
 of 20,000 men, in consequence of his engagements with Fer- 
 dinand, whom the hopes of such assistance had made an ad- 
 vocate of the confederates. But the vast superiority of the 
 Turkish armies, together with the dissensions between Mau- 
 rice and Castaldo, the Austrian general, who was piqued at 
 being superseded in the command, prevented tlie elector from 
 doing any thing of consequence. In the mean time, Charles V., 
 concerned at the loss of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, of which 
 Henry II. had made himself master, and which, till then, had 
 
36 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 formed the barrier of the emph-e on the side of France, deter- 
 mined to recover the three bishoprics. Henry, on his side, 
 resolved to defend his conquests with vigour. Charles first laid 
 siege to Metz, which was defended by Francis of Lorraine, 
 Duke of Guise. But after losing 30,000 men before the place, 
 he was obliged to abandon the enterprise. This was not the 
 only contradiction the emperor received : the inhabitants of Si- 
 enna revolted from him and put themselves under the protec- 
 tion of the French ; after which a Turkish fleet appeared in 
 the Mediterranean, and after plundering and burning several 
 places on the coast of Calabria, filled Naples itself with con- 
 sternation. 
 
 1553. — An obstinate battle was fought at Siverhausen, in 
 the duchy of Lunenburg, between Albert of Brandenburg, and 
 Maurice^ Elector of Saxony. After a long and desperate fight, 
 Albert's army fled, but Maurice received a wound, of which 
 he died two days after. As he left only one daughter, after- 
 wards married to the famous William, Prince of Orange, 
 Frederic, the degraded elector, claimed the electoral dignity, 
 but the states declared in favour of Augustus, Maurice's brother, 
 whose descendants still possess the electoral dominions. 
 
 During these transactions in Germany, the war was prose- 
 cuted in the Low Countries with considerable vigour. Charles 
 laid siege to Terouane, and that important place was carried 
 by assault. Hesden was also invested, and carried in the same 
 manner. The imperial arms were less successful in Italy. 
 The Viceroy of Naples failed in an attempt to recover Sienna, 
 and the French not only established themselves firmly in' 
 Tuscany, but conquered part of Corsica; wliile Castaldo, the 
 imperial general, was obliged to abandon Transylvania to tlie 
 Turks. 
 
 In the following year, (1554,) the war continued between 
 Charles and Henry, with various success in the Low Coun- 
 tries, and in Italy to the disadvantage of the French, who 
 were defeated in the batde of Marciano, and lost Sienna, after 
 a siege of ten months. In the mean time, Germany was occu- 
 pied with the famous recess of Augsburg, which established 
 Protestantism on the footing it has ever since held : though 
 Cardinal Carafl^a, who was now raised to the papal throne 
 under the name of Paul IV., protested loudly against the 
 indulgence given to the Protestants. 
 
 1555. — An event happened this year which astonished all 
 Europe. The Emperor Charles, though no more than fifty- 
 six years of age, an age when objects of ambition operate 
 
VI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 37 
 
 with full force on the mind, and are generally pursued with 
 the greatest ardour, resolved to resign all his hereditary do- 
 minions to his son Philip. Sated with the vanity of human 
 greatness, he determined to seek, in the tranquillity of retire- 
 ment, that happiness which he had in vain pursued amid the 
 tumults of war and the intrigues of state. In consequence of 
 this resolution, Charles assembled the states of the Low Coun- 
 tries at Brussels, and seating himself, for the last time, in the 
 chair of state, he explained to his subjects the motives of his 
 resignation, and solemnly devolved his authority upon Philip, 
 He recounted with dignity, but without ostentation, all the 
 great things which he had undertaken and performed since 
 the commencement of his administration ; and that enumera- 
 tion gives us the highest idea of his activity and industry. 
 "I have dedicated," said he, "from the seventeenth year of 
 my age, all my thoughts and attention to public objects, re- 
 serving no portion of my time for the indulgence of ease: 
 and very little for the enjoyment of private pleasurCo Either 
 in a pacific or hostile manner, I have visited Germany nine 
 times, Spain six times, France four times, Italy seven times, 
 the Low Countries ten times, England twice, Africa as often : 
 and while my health permitted me to discharge the duties of 
 a sovereign, and the vigour of my constitution was equal, in 
 any degree, to the arduous task of governing such extensive 
 dominions, I never shunned labour, nor repined under fatigue ; 
 but now, when my health is broken, and my vigour exhausted 
 by the rage of an incurable distemper, my growing infirmi- 
 ties admonish me to retire ; nor am I so fond of reigning as to 
 retain the sceptre in an impotent hand, which is no longer able 
 to protect my subjects. Instead of a sovereign worn out with 
 disease, I give you one in the prime of life, already accustomed 
 to govern, and who adds, to the vigour of youth, all the atten- 
 tion and sagacity of maturer years." 
 
 Then turning towards Philip, who fell on his knees and 
 kissed his father's hand, " It is in your power," said Charles. 
 " by a wise and virtuous administration, to justify the extra- 
 ordinary proof which I give this day of my paternal affection, 
 and to demonstrate that you are ^vorthy of the confidence 
 which I repose in you. Preserve," added he, "an invio- 
 lable regard for reUgion ; maintain the Catholic faith in its 
 purity ; let the laws of your country be sacred in your eyes ; 
 encroach not on the rights of your j^cople ; and if the time 
 should ever come, when you should wish to enjoy the 
 tranquillity of private life, may you have a son to whom you 
 
 6 
 
38 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAF. 
 
 can resign your sceptre, with as much satisfaction as I give 
 up mine to you." A few weeks after, the emperor resigned 
 to Philip the Spanish crown, with all the dominions depend- 
 ing upon it, both in the old and new world ; reserving nothing 
 to himself but an annual pension, and retired into Spain. 
 
 15.56. — This year was chiefly occupied in negotiations be- 
 tween King Philip IL, Henry II., and Pope Paul IV. In 
 the following year. Philip determined to act with such vigour, 
 as should convince all Europe, that his father had not erred 
 in resigning to him the reins of government. Finding that 
 Henry had violated the truce, he assembled in the Low Coun- 
 tries a body of 50,000 men; he obtained 10,000 from Eng- 
 land, and gave the command of this army to Emanuel Phili- 
 bert, Duke of Savoy, one of the greatest generals of his age. 
 The duke advanced by rapid marches into Picardy, and laid 
 siege to St. Quintin, then deemed a place of considerable 
 strength. The Constable Montmorenci hastened to its relief; 
 but his army was cut to pieces, himself made prisoner, and the 
 town, after being long and gallantly defended by Coligny, was 
 taken by storm. Philip next reduced Horn and Catelet, which, 
 Avith St. Quintin, were the sole fruits of one of the most de- 
 cisive victories gained in the sixteenth century. The Catho- 
 lic king vowed to build a church, a monastery, and a palace, 
 in honour of St. Lawrence, on whose feast the battle of St. 
 Quintin had been fought. The same principle that dictated 
 the vow, directed the construction of the fabric. It v/as so 
 formed as to resemble a gridiron, on which the saint had suf- 
 fered martyrdom. Such is the origin of the famous Escurial, 
 near Madrid, the royal residence of the Kings of Spain. In 
 1558, the Duke of Guise, taking advantage of the defenceless 
 state of Calais, the garrison of which amounted only to 500 
 men, made himself master of it, an offer from Philip to rein- 
 force it having been rejected by the Queen of England's mi- 
 nisters. This town and its adjacent territory had been in the 
 possession of the English upwards of 200 years, and as it 
 opened to them an easy and secure entry into the heart of 
 France, was regarded as the most valuable foreign possession 
 belonging to the crown. The English were highly enraged 
 at this loss; they murmured loudly against the queen and her 
 council, who, after engaging the nation in a ruinous war, had 
 exposed it, by their negligence, to so severe a disgrace. This 
 event, with her subjects' ill conduct towards her, and the con- 
 cerns of religion, so affected Mary, that she fell into a slow 
 fever, which put an end to her short and turbulent reign of 
 
Vi."] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 39 
 
 five years, •" When I am dead," said she to her attendants, 
 *'you will find the word Calais engraven on my heart." 
 Cardinal Pole died the next morning, aged 58. 
 
 The Princess Elizabeth was in Hertfordshire, when news 
 was brought to her of her sister's death. She hastened im- 
 mediately to London, where she met with a very flattering 
 reception. At her accession she found the kingdom divided 
 into two parties ; one for the old, the other for the new reli- 
 gion. Her first steps were calculated to inspire the Catholics 
 with a hope that she would remain in the communion of 
 that church, the rights and liberties of w^hich she solemnly 
 promised to maintain in her coronation oath, which she took, 
 according to the ancient form, on the 14th of January, 1559. 
 But the friends of the reformation, who had endeavoured by 
 force to place her upon her sister's throne, w^ere well acquaint- 
 ed with the real sentiments of her heart ; and with some of these 
 she devised measures for re-establishing the Protestant reli- 
 gion. A Parliament devoted to her will assembled on the 
 25th of January. 
 
 Their first session declared Queen Elizabeth true and law- 
 ful heir to the crown of England, though it passed no act for 
 the validity of her mother's marriage, on which her title prin- 
 cipally depended. A bill was brought in for suppressing the 
 monasteries, which Mary had re-established. It passed with 
 litde opposition, and was foUow^ed by another for annexing 
 supremacy to the crown. This act was vigorously opposed- 
 in both houses of Parliament, yet it was carried "by a decided 
 majority, and Elizabeth was declared supreme head on earth 
 of the church of England. 
 
 The primary cause of the queen's quarrel with the Holy 
 See, has by some been attributed to the cool reception her 
 ambassador met with at Rome, and the rude reproach she re- 
 ceived from Paul IV., for having assumed the <crown under a 
 doubtful title. This Pope, though possessed of many good 
 qualities, was unfortunately of a very .austere and haughty 
 disposition, and old age, and his late quarrel with Spain had 
 rather increased than mollified the asperity of his temper. 
 Elizabeth was far from entertaining in private any aversion to 
 the Catholic religion. It was chiefly owing to her partiality 
 for the hierarchy, and for many points of the ancient faith and 
 discipline, that the church of England has departed less from 
 the ancient church, than any other sect of Protestants. She 
 was known, in private conversation, to ridicule her own spi- 
 ritual supremacy and to acknowledge that of the Pope; she 
 
40 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 even intimated a wish,* if circumstances would permit it, to 
 follow the original faith ; but as ambition was, among all her 
 strong passions, the most violent, and as the counsellors to 
 whom she referred the question of religion convinced her that 
 it was for her temporal interest to cast off the Pope's jurisdic- 
 tion and to suppress the ancient religion, she took her mea- 
 sures accordingly, and became in the end one of the most 
 violent persecutors of Catholics upon record. Her dissimula- 
 tion, cruelty, and profligacy of manners were only inferior to 
 her ambition; and as it was not to be expected that the court 
 would be more virtuous than the queen, it is described by an 
 eyewitness and member of it as a scene of all enormities, 
 where wickedness reigned in the highest degree.! This is 
 particularly applicable to the three most distinguished mem- 
 bers of her ministry, namely, Dudley, Earl of Leicester, Sii 
 AVilliam Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, the chief promoter 
 of the civil wars among the subjects of foreign princes and of 
 the persecutions raised at home; and, lastly, Sir Francis Wal- 
 singham, the more immediate agent in those murderous acts 
 of assassination and horrid forgeries which Elizabeth's minis- 
 ters employed to shorten the life of the Queen of Scots, and 
 also of her son, James L± 
 
 After passing the Supremacy Act, Parliament proceeded to 
 abolish the mass, and to revive the form of divine worship 
 which had been framed in Edward's reign. The aversion 
 which the bishops and many of the clergy evinced for this 
 change, made the government resolve to put them to the test, 
 by tendering to them the oath of supremacy. Out of fifteen 
 bishops who remained in the kingdom, only one consented to 
 take it; the others were deprived of their sees, and put under 
 an arrest. Great numbers of the more eminent clergy went 
 abroad; the major part of the parochial clergy conformed 
 against the conviction of conscience, as Echard writes. Li 
 order to extirpate the Catholic religion, a variety of penal 
 statutes were enacted, by which the exercise of that religion 
 \vas forbidden, under pain of forfeitures, imprisonments, and 
 death. This system of persecution was kept up with unre- 
 lenting severity during the wdiole reign of Elizabeth. It is 
 difTicult to ascertain the precise number of those who suffered 
 
 * Sec all the authorities quoted by Dr. Mihier in his " Letters to a Pre- 
 bendary," L. 6, p. 194. 
 
 j- Viz., Sir Nicholas Taunt, under secretary to Walsingham. Birch's 
 Mem. Eliz., vol 1. History of England, by Bevil Higgons, p. 234. 
 
 i See Whittaker's Vindication of Mary, Queen of Scots. 
 
VI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 41 
 
 loss of estates, banishment, imprisonment, tortm-es, and death 
 during this period.* These punishments were arbitrarily inflict- 
 ed by a Court of Commission, consisting of forty-four mem- 
 bers, Avhose jurisdiction extended over the whole kingdom, 
 and whose power was unlimited. 
 
 The Protestant religion was hardly established in England, 
 when a schism was formed in its bosom, which seemed to 
 threaten its destruction. The emigrants, whom the queen had 
 recalled in the beginning of her reign, had returned, strongly 
 imbued with the puritanical principles of Zuinglius and Cal- 
 vin. To compromise, if possible, the jarring tenets which 
 set the Protestant sects at variance, a convocation met in 
 1562. The famous thirty-nine articles were then agreed 
 upon, approved by the queen, published, and afterwards con- 
 firmed by Parliament. From this digression we must return 
 to the affairs of the continent, at the date of Elizabeth's 
 accession. 
 
 1558. — After the reduction of Calais, the Duke of Guise 
 invested Thionville, in the Duchy of Luxembourg, one of 
 the strongest towns on the frontiers of the Netherlands, and 
 forced it to capitulate : but the French meeting with less suc- 
 cess in other parts, the Duke of Guise was compelled to re- 
 linquish his schemes and hasten to the frontiers of Picardy. 
 The Spanish and Flemish army, under the Duke of Savoy, 
 and the French under the Duke of Guise, both 40,000 strong, 
 were now encamped within a few leagues of each other : peace 
 began to be mentioned in each camp. Henry and Philip were 
 equally desirous of it, and the Abbey of Cercamp was fixed 
 upon as the place of congress. 
 
 While Henry and Philip were 'making these advances to- 
 wards a treaty, which restored tranquillity to Europe, Charles 
 V. ended his days in the monastery of St. Justus, in Estra- 
 madura, having lived in his solitude on a plan that would have 
 suited a gentleman of moderate fortune. He sometimes ad- 
 mitted a few gentlemen to visit him and entertained them as 
 equals, or he employed himself in study and in framing curi- 
 ous works of mechanism : but he always set apart a consider- 
 able portion of his time for religious exercises, and regularly 
 attended divine service in the church of the monastery. To pre- 
 pare himself more immediately for death, he formed the singular 
 resolution of celebrating his own obsequies. His tomb was ac- 
 
 * See the " Memoirs of Missionary Priests," by the Right Rev. Richard 
 Challoner. 
 
 6* 
 
42 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 cordingly erected in the chapel of the monastery ; his attendants 
 walked thither in funeral procession, Charles followed them in 
 his shroud ; beinglaid in his coffin, the burial service was chanted 
 over him, he himself joining in the prayers that were offered 
 for the repose of his soul, and mingling his tears with those 
 which his attendants shed. The fatiguing length of the cere- 
 mony, or the awful sentiments which it inspired, threw him 
 into a fever, of which he died, in the fifty-ninth year of his 
 age. His enterprises speak his most eloquent panegyric, and 
 his history forms his highest character. His abilities as a 
 statesman and as a general were of the first class, but his ambi- 
 tion frustrated the chief end of government— the happiness 
 of the nations committed to his care. 
 
 Philip H., unwilling to lose his connexion with England, 
 warmly espoused the interests of Elizabeth in the conference 
 of Cercamp, and afterwards at Chateau Cambresis, whither 
 they were removed ; and insisted that the treaty of peace be- 
 tween Henry and Elizabeth should be concluded in form before 
 that between France and Spain. By this treaty it was stipu- 
 lated that the King of France should retain possession of Ca- 
 lais during eight years, at the end of which term he should 
 restore it to England or pay 500,000 crowns ; but as the force 
 of this stipulation was made to depend on Elizabeth's pre- 
 serving inviolate, during that period, the peace with France 
 and Scotland, all men of discernment saw it was but a decent 
 pretext for abandoning Calais, and palliating what could not 
 be prevented. The principal articles of peace between France 
 and Spain were, that all conquests on this side, the Alps since 
 1551 should be mutually restored; that the duchy of Savoy, 
 the principality of Piedmoiit, the county of Bresse, and other 
 territories, formerly subject to the Dukes of Savoy, should be 
 restored to Emanuel Philibert upon his marriage with Margaret 
 of France ; that the French king should evacuate the places 
 he held in Tuscany and Sienna, receive the Genoese into 
 favour, and give up to them the towns he had taken in Corsi- 
 ca ; but he was allow^ed to keep Metz, Toul, and Verdun. All 
 past transactions either of princes or subjects were to be buried 
 in oblivion. Thus was peace again established in Europe, almost 
 every prince and state in Christendom being comprehended 
 in the treaty of Chateau Cambresis, as allies either of Henry 
 or Philip. Among these contracting powers were included 
 the Kings of Sweden, Denmark, and Poland. 
 
 1559. — Meantime, Henry H. having been killed in a tourna- 
 ment, while celebrating the espousals of his sister with the 
 
VI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 43 
 
 Duke of Savoy, his son, Francis II., a weak prince and under 
 age, already married to tiie Queen of Scots, succeeded to the 
 crown of France. A few weeks after, Paul IV. ended his 
 pontificate, and thus the personages who had so long sustained 
 the principal characters on the great theatre of Europe disap- 
 peared at the same time. 
 
 As this period forms an era in history, it is a proper place 
 to mention some of the persons most eminent for learning 
 who flourished during the sixteenth century, and the religious 
 institutions which were then established. The celebrated Eras- 
 mus was born at Rotterdam, in 1467. If we consider him as 
 a genius and a scholar, envy itself must own he holds a rank 
 to which very few have ever attained. His industry could 
 only be surpassed by the ease with which the most various 
 and difficult attainments became familiar to him. But as a 
 Christian, he was a disgrace to the clergy to which he belonged ; 
 there having been scarcely any error advanced against the 
 Catholic religion, which he professed, that he has not revived, 
 or any tenet of belief or practice which he has not oppugned, 
 either by profane sneers or sophistry. He resided a long 
 time in England during the reign of Henry VIII. He died a 
 Catholic, in 1536. 
 
 St. Ignatius Loyola founded the celebrated order of the 
 Society of Jesus, about the same time that Martin Luther was 
 disseminating his doctrine in Germany. The first fathers of 
 this religious order were remarkably learned ; and two of 
 them assisted at the council of Trent as the Pope's divines. 
 The order was confirmed by Paul HI., in 1540, and ils found- 
 er lived to see it spread almost over the whole world, and 
 divided into twelve provinces, which contained at least a hun- 
 dred colleges. A few years before his death, St. Francis Xa- 
 vier, the most celebrated of his disciples, terminated a life, 
 which had been an object of admiration, not only to the Catho- 
 lic church, but to those who are estranged from her tenets. 
 After having enlightened the empire of Japan, and several 
 other kingdoms of the East, with the gospel, he died in the 
 Island of Sanciano, as he was preparing to communicate that 
 blessing to China, in 1552. 
 
 In the reign of Elizabeth, when Catholic parents were de- 
 barred from bestowing any education on their children at home, 
 Dr. William Allen, afterwards cardinal, formed the design of 
 establishing English colleges on the continent for the educa- 
 tion of youth. By the help of charitable contributions, an 
 establishment for that purpose was opened at Douay, wliich 
 
44 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 then formed a part of the Spanish Netherlands. During the 
 troubles in that country, it removed to Rheims, in 1578, but 
 returned to Douay in 1593, and continued to be a flourishing 
 colleore till the revolution in France, at the close of the eidu- 
 eenth century. St. Francis of Sales, Bishop of Geneva, 
 was born in 1567, and seemed destined by Providence to 
 repair the ravages which heresy had made in Savoy. His zeal 
 in the conversion of Zuinglians and Calvinists was attended by 
 the most surprising success, and he had the happiness to bring 
 back seventy-two thousand to the bosom of the Catholic 
 church. Having instructed the faithful by his writings, edi- 
 fied them by the admirable example of his virtues, and insti- 
 tuted the holy order of the visitation of the blessed Virgin 
 Mary, he died, December 28th, 1622. St. Vincent of Paula, 
 the illustrious apostle of France, in these later ages, was 
 born at Poy, in that kingdom, in the year 1567. His life, 
 from the foundation of his first congregation of Missionary 
 Priests, (called Lazarites, from the priory of St. Lazarus, ceded 
 to them in 1633,) was a continued series of works of charity. 
 His pious foundations for missions in all parts of the kingdom, 
 as well as distant provinces and states, for spiritual retreats, 
 for foundlings, and for the sisters of charity, have proved the 
 resource of France, in these latter days, against the deluge of 
 impiety and infidelity, which had overturned nearly all her 
 ancient religious establishments. St. Vincent exerted his zeal 
 in opposing the partisans of Jansenius, and. worn out with 
 labour and austerities, died, September 27th, 1660, in the 85th 
 year of his age. St. Philip Nery, founder of the congrega- 
 tion of Oratorians at Rome, who died in 1595, and St. Tere- 
 sa, the celebrated reformer of the Carmelites, deceased at 
 Avila in Spain, in 1582, deserve by their labours and writings 
 to be mentioned in history, if the narrow limits of this abridg- 
 ment did not oblige us to omit any particulars of their lives. St. 
 Charles Borromaeo, Cardinals Bellarmin andBerulle, are names 
 that will ever be mentioned with sentiments of admiration. 
 
VII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 45 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOMS 
 OF EUROPE. 
 
 Norway, a part of the ancient Scandinavia, had kings of its 
 own till the year 1375. Of Sweden, we have no certain ac- 
 count till the year 714, when it was converted to Christianity 
 by St. Anscharius, about which time Denmark, the ancient 
 seat of the Cimbri, is said to have been governed by a king 
 called Gormo. 
 
 Margaret, daughter of Waldemar III., King of Denmark, 
 married Hacquin, King of Norway, son of Magnus III., King 
 of Sweden. On the death of her son Olaus, the last male 
 heir of these three crowns, which were more elective than 
 hereditary, she succeeded by consent of tlie states to the 
 Danish throne in 1387. She was elected Queen of Norway, 
 which she had governed as regent, and the Swedes, being op- 
 pressed by Albert of Mecklenburg, whom they had chosen 
 king, offered their crown to Margaret. 
 
 The three northern crowns were no sooner fixed on her 
 head, than she laboured to render their union perpetual. She 
 convoked the states of the three kingdoms to meet at Calmar, 
 in Sweden, where it was established as a fundamental law 
 that Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, should thenceforth have 
 but one and the same sovereign, who should be chosen suc- 
 cessively by each kingdom, and then approved by the other 
 two. But this union proved the source of much discontent 
 and of many barbarous wars. The national antipathy be- 
 tween the Danes and Swedes was now heightened by national 
 jealousy. Margaret's partiality to the former is said to have 
 been evident; and under her successor, Eric, the Swedes 
 openly revolted, choosing their Grand Marshal Canutson, first 
 regent, and afterwards king. The Swedes, however, return- 
 ed to their allegiance imcicr Christian I. of Denmark, in 1442, 
 but again revolted from tlie same prince; they renevved the 
 treaty of Calmar, under .John, his successor; revolted a third 
 time, and were reduced by Christian II. to the state of a con- 
 quered people. The Swedes, on revolting from Christian I., 
 had conferred the administration of the kingdom on Steen 
 Sture, whose son succeeded to the regency. The authority 
 of young Sture was acknowledged by the body of the nation, 
 
46 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 but disputed by Gustavas Trolle, Archbishop of Upsal and 
 Primate of Sweden, whose father had been a competitor for 
 the administration, and v/hom Christian II. had brought over 
 to iiis interest. Besieged in his casde of Stecka, and obhged 
 to surrender, notwithstanding the interposition of the Danish 
 monarch, the archbishop was deprived of all his benefices. 
 In his distress he applied to Pope Leo X., who excommuni- 
 cated the regent and his adherents, committing the execution 
 of the decree to the King of Denmark. Pursuant to this 
 decree, the Nero of the North, as Christian II. is deservedly 
 styled, invaded Sweden with a powerful army; but being 
 worsted in a great batde, he pretended to treat, and offered to 
 go in person to Stockholm to confer with the regent, provided 
 six hostages were sent as a pledge of his safety. The pro- 
 posal was accepted, and six of the first nobility, among whom 
 was Gustavus Vasa, grand-nephew of King Canutson, were 
 put on board the Danish fleet, whom the perfidious Christian 
 carried prisoners to Denmark. Next year he returned with 
 a more formidable armament, invaded West Gothland, v/here 
 Steen Sture, advancing to give him battle, fell into an ambus- 
 cade, and received a mortal wound. The Swedish army, left 
 without a head, was soon dispersed; and the conqueror left the 
 senate no time to deliberate upon the choice of a new regent. 
 He immediately marched to the capital, wasting every thing 
 before him with fire and sword. Stockholm surrendered, and 
 Gustavus Trolle, resuming his archiepiscopal functions, crown- 
 ed Christian King of Sweden. This coronation was followed 
 by one of the most tragical scenes recorded in history. Chris- 
 tian, knowing how much he was hated by the Swedes, affected 
 clemency, and swore he would govern Sweden, not as a con- 
 queror, but as a father; after which he invited the senators 
 and grandees to a sumptuous entertainment, which lasted three 
 days. Meanwhile, a plot was formed for extirpating the 
 Swedish nobility. On the last day of the feast, as had been 
 preconcerted, Archbishop Trolle reminded the king, that 
 though his majesty had graciously pardoned all past offences, no 
 satisfaction had been made to the Pope, in whose name he 
 demanded justice. The hall was instandy filled with armed 
 men, who secured the guests ; the primate proceeded against 
 them as excommunicated persons ; a scaffold was erected be- 
 fore the palace gate; and ninety-four persons of distinction, 
 among whom was Eric Vasa, father of the famous Gustavus, 
 were publicly executed. The rage of the soldiery was then 
 let loose against the citizens, who were butchered without 
 
VII. J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 47 
 
 mercy. The body of the late regent was dug from the grave 
 and exposed on a gibbet. But Sweden soon jfound a deliverer 
 from the tyranny of the Danes in Gustavus Vasa, who had 
 escaped from his prison in Denmark, and concealed himself 
 in the habit of a peasant among the mountains of Dalecarlia. 
 There, deserted by his sole companion and guide, who car- 
 ried off his little treasure, bewildered, destitute of every ne- 
 cessary, and ready to perish with hunger, he entered himself 
 among the miners, and worked under ground for bread, with- 
 out relinquishing the hope of one day ascending the throne of 
 Sweden. Again emerging to light, and distinguislied among 
 the Dalecarlians by his lofty mien, and by his strength and 
 agility, he had acquired a considerable degree of ascendency 
 over them before they were acquainted with his rank. He 
 made himself known to them at their annual feast, and exhorted 
 them to assist him in recovering the liberties of their country. 
 They listened with admiration, and begged to be led against 
 the enemy. Gustavus did not suffer their ardour to cool. 
 He immediately attacked the governor of the province in his 
 castle, took it by assault, and sacriticed the Danish garrison 
 to the vengeance of the Dalecarlians. Like animals that have 
 tasted the blood of their prey, they were now furious, and fit 
 for any desperate enterprise. Gustavus everywhere saw him- 
 self victorious, and gained partisans in all parts of the kingdom. 
 Every thing yielded to his valour; lie was first chosen regent, 
 and, in 1523, King of Sweden. Meanwhile, Christian II., 
 become obnoxious by his tyranny even to his Danish subjects, 
 was degraded from the throne ; and not daring to trust any one, 
 lie retired into the Low Countries, the hereditary dominions of 
 his brother-in-law, Charles V. Frederic, Duke of Holstein, 
 Christian's uncle, was elected King of Denmark and Norway. 
 He aspired also to the sovereignty of Sweden; but finding 
 Gustavus firmly seated on that throne, he laid aside his claim, 
 and afterwards entered into an alliance with Gustavus and tlie 
 Hanse towns against the deposed monarch. Christian II., 
 who, after several unsuccessful attempts to recover his crown, 
 died in prison. Frederic was succeeded on the Danish throne 
 by his son. Christian III., in 1533. This prince introduced 
 Lutlieranism into Denmark and Norway in 1537, in imitation 
 of Gustavus, who had already established it in Sweden. 
 Christian III. died in 1558, and Gustavus in 1560. 
 
 While Denmark and Sweden were thus rising to distinction, 
 Russia remained buried in that barbarism and obscurity, from 
 which it was called by the creative genius of Peter the 
 
48 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 Great, who made his country known, and rendered it formi- 
 dable to the rest of Europe. John Basilowitz, Grand Duke 
 of Muscovy, threw off tlie yoke of the Tartars, to whom 
 Russia had been long tributary ; invaded their territories, 
 made himself master of Novogorod and also of Cassan, where 
 he was crowned with the diadem of that country, and 
 assumed the title of czar, which, in the Sclavonian language, 
 signifies king or emperor. To these acquisitions, his grand- 
 son, John Basilowitz II., added, in 1554, Astracan and also 
 Siberia, hitherto as litde known to the Russians, as Mexico 
 was to the Spaniards before the expedition of Cortez, and as 
 easily conquered. This prince sent ambassadors to the court 
 of England, and concluded a treaty of commerce with Queen 
 Elizabeth in 1589: Richard Chancellor, an English navigator, 
 having discovered, some years before, (by doubling the North 
 Cape,) the port of Archangel, on the river Dwina. Poland 
 began to be of some consideration in the north after the race 
 of the Jagellons came to the throne, and united Lithuania to 
 that kingdom. The crown, though elective, continued unin- 
 terrupted in the same family nearly two hundred years ; and 
 Sigismund I., contemporary with Charles V., was esteemed 
 a great prince. 
 
 Prussia, which has since made so great a figure in the af- 
 fairs of Europe, was only erected into a kingdom in the year 
 1700. It was originally conquered from the pagans of the 
 north, by the knights of the Teutonic order, who held it up- 
 wards of 300 years. At last Albert, Margrave of Branden- 
 burg, grand master of the order, embracing Lutheranism, 
 and willing to aggrandize himself at the expense of the 
 knights, agreed to share Prussia with his uncle, Sigismund I., 
 King of Poland, on condition of paying homage for the pro- 
 tection of that crown. The proposal was accepted ; Albert, 
 in 1582, took the title of duke in his new territory; hence 
 part of the present kingdom is called Ducal Prussia, and that 
 part ceded to Poland on the western side of the Vistula, 
 Regal Prussia. 
 
VIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 49 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 GERMANY, FROM THE RESIGNATION OF CHARLES V., IN 1556, 
 TO THE DEATH OF MAXIMILIAN II., IN 1576. 
 
 1556. — Charles V. was succeeded on the imperial throne 
 by his brother, Ferdinand I., the beginning of whose reign was 
 distinguished by the diet of Ratisbon, which reconciled the 
 house of Hesse to that of Nassau. Pius IV., who was raised 
 to the papacy in 1559, confirmed the imperial dignity to Fer- 
 dinand, and issued a bull for reassembling the Council of Trent. 
 On the publication of that bull, 1561, the Protestants assem- 
 bled at Naumberg in Saxony, and came to a resolution of ad- 
 hering to the Confession of Augsburg, whatever should be 
 determined in the Council of Trent. Meanwhile, Ferdinand 
 issued orders for convoking a diet at Frankfort, where he con- 
 ducted matters with so much address, that his son Maximilian, 
 already promoted to the throne of Bohemia, was elected King of 
 tlie Romans, with the unanimous consentof the Germanic body. 
 
 1563. — The famous Council of Trent, which had been so 
 often suspended and renewed during eighteen years, was 
 finally concluded in the December of this year. In the last 
 session, (December 5,) all the decrees of the former sessions 
 under Paul HI., Julius III., and Pius IV., were confirmed and 
 subscribed by two hundred and fifty-five fathers, viz. : four 
 legates of the holy see, two cardinals, three patriarchs, twenty- 
 five archbishops, one hundred and sixty-eight bishops, thirty- 
 nine deputies of absent prelates, seven abbots, and seven 
 generals of religious orders. Among these, many were 
 eminent for their learning, and many for their extraordinary 
 virtue. Matters were discussed in particular congregations, 
 and lastly defined in the sessions. It was agreed that points 
 of failli and matters of discipline should be joindy considered, 
 and the condemnation of errors and the decrees for the refor- 
 mation of manners carried on together; there being abuses in 
 practice relative to many points of doctrine. Besides the 
 prelates, above one hundred and fifty theologians, some of th& 
 ablest from all CaUiolic nations, attended the council, and dis- 
 cussed every point in the conferences. Innumerable difficulties 
 had been thrown in the way, first by one prince and then by an- 
 other ; and it was chiefly owing to the unwearied zeal of St. 
 Charles Borromaeo, Archbishop of Milan, that they were at 
 lengdi happily removed. The council was confirmed by Pope 
 
 7 
 
50 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP 
 
 Pius IV., January 26th, 1564.* Soon after died the Emperor 
 Ferdinand I. He was succeeded by his grandson, Maximilian 
 II., who, in the beginning of his reign, was obliged to engage in 
 a war against the Turks. Solyman II., whose valour and am- 
 bition had been so long terrible to Christendom, though now 
 no longer fit for the field, continued to make war by his gene- 
 rals. He even projected, it was said, the conquest of the 
 German empire. The affairs of Transylvania furnished him 
 with a pretext for taking up arms. John Sigismund, prince 
 of that country, had assumed the title of King of Hungary, 
 (which his mother had resigned for some possessions in Silesia,) 
 and put himself under the protection of the Grand Seignior. 
 Maximilian immediately sent an army against Sigismund, 
 under the command of Lazarus Schuendi. The imperial 
 general took Tokay, and would soon have reduced all Tran- 
 sylvania, had not Solyman despatched an ambassador to the 
 imperial court to negotiate in behalf of liis vassal. By this 
 envoy, matters were seemingly accommodated; however, the 
 sultan did not lay aside his projects, nor, happily, the emperor 
 his suspicions. While Maximilian convoked a diet at Augs- 
 burg for regulating the domestic affairs of the empire and 
 securing it against the Turks, Solyman sent a fleet and army 
 to reduce the Isle of Malta, whence he hoped to drive the 
 Knights of St. John, whom he had formerly expelled from 
 Rhodes, and who still continued to annoy the infidels. But 
 the rock of Malta proved fatal to Solyraan's glory. His gene- 
 ral, Mustapha, after a siege of almost five months and the loss 
 ot 24,000 men, was obliged to abandon the enterprise. La 
 Valette, Grand Master of Malta, and the whole body of knights, 
 signalized themselves wonderfully on that occasion ; but, as 
 the Turks were continually reinforced, the island must at last 
 have surrendered, if Don Garcia, Governor of Sicily, had not 
 come to its relief with 12,000 men. Solyman, in revenge of 
 this disappointment and disgrace, the greatest he had ever 
 endured, sent a fleet to reduce the Isle of Scio, and ravaged the 
 coast of Italy ; and having invaded Hungary with a povv'erful 
 
 * In vain have the advocates for religious innovations tried to invalidate 
 the authority of this last oecumenical council : its doctrinal decisions are 
 those of truth : they are received by the whole Catholic church, and will 
 stand inviolable to the end of time. All kingdoms and states in communion 
 with the see of Rome were witnesses of the surprising change which the 
 regulations ordered hy the council effected both in the clergy and the people. 
 An exact account of this council is to be found in the esteemed history of 
 Cardinal Palavicini, who has charged Fra Paolo's compilation, so often 
 cited by Protestant authors, with no fewer than 360 errors. 
 
VIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 51 
 
 army, he laid siege to Sigeth. This city is strongly situated 
 in a marsh, about fifteen miles to the north of the Drave, on the 
 frontiers of Sclavonia, and was then the bulwark of Stiria 
 against the Turks. The brave Count Zerini long defended it 
 with incredible valour, against ihe whole force of the sultan. 
 Meanwhile, the Emperor Maximilian lay in the neighbourhood, 
 with an army not inferior to that of the besiegers, without 
 daring to attempt its relief. At length, all the works being 
 destroyed, and the magazine set on fire by the enemy, Zerini 
 sallied forth, at the head of 300 chosen men, and died gallantly, 
 sword in hand. Daring the siege of Sigeth, before which the 
 Turks lost above 3000 men, Solyman expired, in the 76th year 
 c.( his age ; but the emperor, being unacquainted with this 
 circumstance, which was kept secret till after the reduction 
 of the place, had retired towards the frontiers of Austria, as 
 soon as informed of the death of Zerini. Solyman was suc- 
 ceeded on the Ottoman throne by his son, Selim 11. , who 
 immediately concluded a truce of twelve years with Maxim.i- 
 lian. In consequence of this suspension of arms, and the 
 pacific disposition of the emperor, Germany enjoyed some 
 repose. Selim, in the mean time, was not idle. After 
 attempting, but without success, to subdue the kingdom of 
 Persia, he turned his arms against the Island of Cyprus, then 
 belonging to the republic of Venice. Pope Pius V. and the 
 King of Spain, on the first rumour of this invasion, had entered 
 into a league with the Venetians for the defence of Cyprus. 
 But Nicosia, the capital, was taken by storm before the arrival 
 of the allied fleet, and the Turks, being daily reinforced with 
 fresh troops, liad reduced all the towns in the island except 
 Famagosta. That city, after a most gallant and obstinate 
 defence, was obliged to capitulate ; and Mustapha, the Turkish 
 general, neither respecting courage in an enemy, nor the faith 
 of treaties, ordered Bratfadino, the governor, to be flayed alive, 
 and the companions of his heroism, either to be butchered, or 
 chained to the oar. This conquest is said to have cost the 
 Turks 100,000 men. 
 
 1571. — The fate of Cyprus alarmed the Christian powers ; 
 Charles IX., however, excused himself, on account of the dis- 
 tressed state of his kingdom, from entering into the league 
 against the Turks ; the emperor pleaded his truce ; and the 
 German princes were in general too much interested in the 
 issue of the religious wars in France and the Low Countries, 
 to enlist themselves under the banner of the cross. But 
 Philip II. entered warmly into the cause, and engaged to bear 
 
52 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 half the expense of the armament. The Venetians fortified 
 their city, and augmented their fleet. The Pope, who was the 
 soul of the enterprise, sent twelve galleys under Mark Antony 
 Calonna. Venieri commanded the Venetian galleys, Doria 
 those of Philip. The chief command was given to Don Jolin 
 of Austria,* who had lately distinguished himself in Spain, by 
 subduing the Morescoes, or descendants of the Moors. 
 
 After the reduction of Cyprus, the Turks not only ravaged 
 with impunity the coasts of Dalmatia and Istria, but also those 
 of Italy. Their fleet, consisting of 230 galleys, was met by 
 the confederates, on the 5th of October, in the gulf of Lepanto, 
 near Corinth, where was fought the greatest naval engagement 
 that modern times had beheld. The force on both sides was 
 nearly equal, and the contest was long, fierce, and bloody. 
 Assisted by a brisk gale of wind, which promised them the 
 greatest possible advantage, the Turks bore down with rapidity 
 on the Christians ; but just as the fight began, a calm ensued, 
 which was succeeded by a high wind entirely favourable to 
 the latter. The hostile combatants fought hand to hand in 
 most of the galleys, and grappled together as on a field of 
 battle. Hali, the Turkish admiral, surrounded by 400 Janiza- 
 ries, and Don John of Austria, with an equal number of chosen 
 men, maintained such a straggle for three hours. At last Hali 
 was slain and his galley taken : the banner of the cross was 
 displayed from the mainmast, and the Ottoman admiral's head 
 fixed on the stern. All now was carnage and confusion. 
 The cry of "victory" resounded through the Christian fleet, 
 and the Turkish army everywhere gave way. They lost 
 30,000 men in the conflict, 10,000 more were taken prisoners, 
 and 15,000 Christian slaves set at liberty. This victory, 
 which filled Constantinople with the deepest melancholy, was 
 celebrated at Venice with the most splendid festivals. The 
 battle of Lepanto was followed by a peace between the Vene- 
 tians and Turks, in which treaty Cyprus was ceded to the 
 Ottoman empire. The Pope was displeased at this treaty, 
 v/hich was certainly dishonourable to Christendom. Don 
 John was equally dissatisfied with the Venetians, and after 
 separating himself from the confederates, took Tunis ; but in 
 spring, 1574, the Turks attacked it ; and, though gallanfly de- 
 fended, it was taken by storm, and the garrison put to the sv^^ord. 
 
 In 1576, Maximilian II. died, while preparing to support 
 his election to the throne of Poland ; and was succeeded in 
 the empire by his son, Rodolph II. 
 
 * He was natural son to Charles Y. 
 
:.] GENERAL HISTORY 07 EUROPE. 53 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND FRANCE, DURING THE SAME 
 
 PERIOD, i. e. FROM 1559, TO 1574. ' 
 
 The treaty of Chateau Cambresis by no means restored 
 tranquillity to Europe. The Protestant opinions had already 
 made considerable progress, both in France and the Lov/ 
 Countries, and Philip 11. and Henry H. were equally resolved 
 to extirpate heresy from their dominions. 
 
 1559. — A new source of discord also arose between Franco 
 and England. The family of Guise, who had negotiated the 
 marriage between the dauphin, now Francis H., and their 
 niece, Mary, Queen of Scots, governed both king and kingdom, 
 Catherine of Medicis, the queen-mother, the two princes of 
 the blood, Anthony de Bourbon, King of Navarre, and his 
 brother Lewis, Prince of Conde, besides the Constable Mont- 
 morenci and his powerful family, became envious of their 
 power. A civil war ensued, not unlike that which was going 
 on at the same time in Scodand ; \vhile Elizabeth, whose 
 title was disputed in both these countries, openly favoured the 
 Protestants in Scodand and the Huguenots* in France. To- 
 wards the close of the year 1580, the King of Navarre and 
 the Prince of Conde were seized and thrown into prison; the 
 latter was condemned to death, but the sudden demise of the 
 young king arrested the uplifted blow. Catherine of Medi- 
 cis was appointed guardian to her son, Charles IX., only eleven 
 years of age at his accession, and invested with the adminis- 
 tration of the realm, though not with the title of regent. In 
 consequence of her maxim, " Divide and govern," the Kiu;!; 
 of Navarre was named lieutenant-general of the kingdom ; 
 the sentence against Conde was annulled ; the Constable de 
 Montmorenci was recalled to court, and the Guises, thou<rii 
 still in power, found a counterpoise to the weight of their infli> 
 ence. The death of Francis II. without issue, freed tlie 
 Queen of England from the perils attending a union of Scot- 
 land with France, and the still greater apprehensions of Eng- 
 land's becoming eventually a province dependent on the latter 
 crown ; but she still regarded the Queen of Scots as a danger- 
 ous rival, and again insisted on a renunciation of her claim to 
 the English crown. Mary, though now slighted by the queen- 
 
 * The Protestants in France were called Huguenots, 
 
 7* 
 
54 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 mother, forsaken by the swarm of courtiers, who appear only 
 in the sunshine of prosperity, and overwhehned v/ith the sor- 
 row which so sad a reverse of fortune could occasion, refused 
 to make any solemn renunciation of the English throne. In 
 the mean time, the states of Scotland invited Mary to return 
 to her native kingdom and assume the reins of government. 
 Accustomed to the elegance and gayety of a splendid court, 
 and to the conversation of a polished people, among whom she 
 had been educated from her infancy, she contemplated with 
 horror the barbarism of her own country, and the turbulence 
 of her native subjects, who had so violently spurned all civil 
 and religious authority. By the advice of her uncles, how- 
 ever, she determined at last to set out for Scotland, and de- 
 manded of Elizabeth a safe conduct during her voyage. That 
 request Elizabeth rejected in such a manner as gave rise to no 
 slight suspicion of a design, either to obstruct the passage, or 
 intercept the person of the Queen of Scots. This ungenerous 
 behaviour of Elizabeth did not retard Mary's departure from 
 France. She embarked on board a galley at Calais, and pass- 
 ing the English fleet under cover of a thick fog, arrived safely 
 at Leith. The first appearance of affairs in Scotland was 
 more favourable than Mary had reason to expect. Her youth 
 and beauty, with the gracefulness of her person, attracted uni- 
 versal admiration ; while her elegant manners and enlightened 
 understanding commanded general respect. She was skilled 
 in many languages, ancient as well as modern. The progress 
 she had made in all the arts and sciences esteemed useful or 
 ornamental, was far beyond what is commonly attained by 
 those who are born and educated as the immediate heirs of 
 the crown ; and a courteous affability, which, without lessen- 
 ing the dignity of a sovereign, gains the hearts of her subjects, 
 rendered all her other qualities more engaging. 
 
 The first measures of Mary's administration confirmed the 
 prepossessions entertained in her favour ; but these promising 
 appearances soon vanished. Mary professed the Catholic 
 religion, and this circumstance alone rendered her odious to 
 her subjects, and formed the ground of all the calumnies and 
 insults that were afterwards heaped upon her. It was with 
 nuich difficulty she could even obtain permission to have mass 
 celebrated in her own chapel. The pulpits soon became mere 
 stages for railing against her, and exciting the people to re- 
 bellion. The Calvinistical preacher, John Knox, who had 
 recently arrived from Geneva, styled her the Jezebel of the na- 
 tion. She applied for relief to Elizabeth, who immediately 
 
IX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 53 
 
 put on all the appearance of cordial reconciliation and friend- 
 ship, while she secretly encouraged the factious party. 
 
 Meanwhile, Catherine of Medicis, the queen-mother of 
 France, in consequence of her maxim of dividing to govern, 
 only increased the troubles of the state. By balancing the 
 Catholics against the Protestants, the Duke of Guise against 
 the Prince of Conde, she endeavoured to render herself ne- 
 cessary to both, and to establish her own dominion on their 
 constrained obedience. Moved by zeal for the ancient religion, 
 the Constable Montmorenci united with the Duke of Guise, 
 and the King of Navarre joined the same party. Fourteen 
 armies were levied and put in motion in different parts of 
 France. Each province, each city, each family, was distract- 
 ed with internal rage and animosity. Wherever the Hugue- 
 nots prevailed, the altars were overthrown and churches de- 
 molished. 
 
 1562. — They had already made themselves master of Or- 
 leans, Bourges, Lyons, Poitiers, Tours, Angers, Angouleme, 
 Rouen, Dieppe, Havre-de-Grace, and several places of less 
 note, when Philip H. sent 6,000 men to reinforce the Catho- 
 lics ; and the Prince of Conde craved the assistance of the 
 Queen of England, offering to put her in possession of Havre- 
 de-Grace. Elizabeth immediately sent 3,000 men to take 
 possession of that town, and 3,000 more to defend Dieppe 
 and Rouen, but the Catholics carried Havre by assault, and 
 put the garrison and inhabitants to the sword. 
 
 1563. — The Duke of Guise, animated by this conquest, 
 laid siege to Orleans : he had the prospect of speedy success 
 in this undertaking, when he was assassinated by an enthusi- 
 astic Huguenot in the pay of Coligni. Conde and Montmo- 
 renci, the heads of the two opposite parties, had both been 
 taken prisoners ; tired of captivity, they became desirous of an 
 accommodation, and soon came to an agreement. A general 
 amnesty was published, and both sides laid down their arms. 
 
 1564. — In the subsequent treaty between England and 
 France, Elizabeth, who had unjustifiably broken the terms ot 
 the peace of Chateau Cambresis, was content to receive one- 
 fourth part of the sum originally stipulated in lieu of the resti- 
 tution of Calais, which town remained united with the French 
 territory. 
 
 The negotiation for the marriage of the Queen of Scots 
 awakened anew the jealousy of Elizabeth, and roused the zeal 
 of the Scottish reformers. The young queen's hand was so- 
 licited by the Archduke Charles, the emperor's third son, by 
 
58 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 Don Carlos, heir apparent to the Spanisli monarchy, and by 
 the Duke of Anjon, afterwards Henry III. Either of these 
 foreign alliances would liave been alarming- to Elizabeth and 
 to Mary's Protestant subjects ; she therefore resolved to make 
 Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, eldest son of the Earl of Lenox, 
 and her cousiii-german, by Margaret Douglas, niece of Hen- 
 ry VHL, the partner of .her sway. In the following year, 
 (1565) the malcontents appeared in arms ; but, by the vigour 
 and activity of Mary, they were compelled to take refuge in 
 England. The deceitful Elizabeth, upon whose promises of 
 protection they had revolted, refused to see them except in the 
 presence of the French and Spanish ambassadors ; and the 
 Scottish exiles, finding themselves so harshly treated by her, 
 had recourse to the clemency of their offended sovereign for 
 pardon. 
 
 1566. — The associated lords having plotted the ruin of 
 their queen, whose religion they hated, determined upon the 
 murder of her husband, as a preparatory step to it. Darnley, 
 a weak and profligate character, was supposed to have lost 
 the queen's affections, and it is certain that the indifference 
 he showed her, ill requited the fondness and generosity she 
 liad testified for him. The murder of her faithful secretary, 
 Rizzio, before her face, by Darnley' s order, and in his pre- 
 sence, was an action no less shocking to humanity, than in- 
 sulting to the dignity of Mary, who not long after gave birth 
 to a son, named James, afterwards King of England. The 
 next year, (1567,) her husband being taken ill at Glasgovi^, she 
 followed him thither, and as soon as he could be moved, ac- 
 companied him to Edinburgh, in order that she might be able 
 to attend him herself, without being absent from her son. 
 There, in a house called " Kirk of Field," situated without 
 the town walls, to which she removed the king for the benefit 
 of the air, she continued her assiduous care of him, sleeping 
 several nights in an adjoining room. On the 9th of February, 
 about eleven o'clock at night, she left the house in order to be 
 present at a masked ball in the palace, given in honour of the 
 marriage of one of her domestics ; and at two o'clock the 
 next morning, the house in which the king lay was blown up 
 with gunpowder, and his dead body was found in a neighbouring 
 enclosure. Suspicion instandy fell on the Earl of Bothwell.* 
 
 * A bond had been entered into, signed by the Earls Huntley, Argyle, 
 Bothvvel!, Maitland, and Sir James Balfour, to murder the king. Both- 
 well undertook to perpetrate the deed. 
 
IX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 57 
 
 Among the profligate characters in which Scotland then ahound- 
 ed, he held a conspicuous rank. He aspired to a partnership 
 in the throne, and the rebel lords, who judged him a proper 
 instrument for the accomplishment of their dark design, had 
 encouraged him in his ambitious views ; after the assassina- 
 tion of Darnley, they entered into a new league, to promote a 
 marriage between him and the queen, and to assist him against 
 all mortals whomsoever. Meanwhile, Mary summoned a par 
 iiament, at the request of her father-in-law, the Earl of Len- 
 nox ; and a day was appointed for the trial of Bothwell and 
 some others, whom the earl accused of the murder of his son ; 
 but, intimidated by the superior power of his adversary, Len- 
 nox, on the eve of the trial, wrote from Stirling, to request an 
 adjournment of forty days. This petition was rejected; and 
 as no prosecutor appeared, the jury returned a verdict in fa- 
 vour of the accused, (April 12.) But as Mary resolutely 
 refused the Earl of Bothwell's suit, convinced that force alone 
 could extort her consent, he watched the opportunity, when 
 the queen was returning from a visit to lier infant son, at Stir- 
 ling, (April 24,) seized her person, and conducted her to the 
 castle of Dunbar, where she remained a prisoner ten days, 
 nor was she released from confinement till she had consented! 
 to become the wife of Bothwell. The marriage ceremony 
 was performed at Holyrood House, by a reformed minister, 
 on the 15th of May. Soon after the rebel lords, wlio had so 
 recently bound themselves to assist Bothwell, entered into a 
 new association, and, under pretence of revenging the late 
 king's death, made their queen, with the infamous Bothwell, 
 prisoners. Him they suffered to escape, lest he might betray 
 their secrets. He fled to the Orkney Islands, and thence to 
 Norway, Avhere he lost his senses, and died in confinement. 
 The captive queen they conveyed to the Casfle of Lochleven, 
 where they compelled her to resign her crown to her infant 
 son, and to appoint Earl Murray, her natural brother and pro- 
 fessed enemy, regent. Forged letters, supposed to have pass- 
 ed between her and Bothwell, during the late king's life, were 
 handed about, to make the world believe that she was accessa- 
 ry to the murder of her husband. To palliate their conduct, 
 the associated lords alleged that they had off'ered to obey Ma- 
 ry as their sovereign, provided she would give up Bothwell, 
 to sufi"er as the murderer of Darnley. The queen, on her 
 side, who, in the first instance, had been made to believe him 
 innocent by these same men, said she had proposed to con- 
 vene the three estates of the kingdom, and to submit to their 
 
58 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 determination the validity of her marriage, and the punisli- 
 ment of the murderers. 
 
 The conduct of Elizabeth during all this period, was extreme- 
 ly equivocal. On the first intelligence of Darnley's murder, 
 she had despatched Throckmorton, with an excellent letter of 
 advice to Mary, but on his arrival he could not procure ad- 
 mittance to the queen, and it is believed she did not receive 
 the letter before the acquittal of Bothwell. Elizabeth, though 
 she continued openly to profess herself the friend of Mary, 
 and demanded her liberation in strong terms, was deceived by 
 her secretary, Cecil ; her ministers were closely leagued with 
 the enemies of the Scottish queen, and through their medium 
 alone could Elizabeth act and receive information. After a 
 year's confinement, when a loyal party effected Mary's escap3, 
 (in 1568,) she fled to England; where Elizabeth, aff'ecting to 
 believe all the calumnies which had been circulated concerning 
 this unfortunate queen, not only refused her a personal intei-- 
 view, though granted to the rebel Murray, but gave orders for 
 her to be put under arrest, and confined her in different castles 
 during nineteen years. The regent (Murray) was assassi- 
 nated in revenge for a private injury, in 1570, and was suc- 
 ceeded in his office by Morton. 
 
 The civil war broke out again in France in 1567. Pre- 
 tending to believe, though without any satisfactory evidence, 
 that at a late meeting between the French and Spanish 
 courts, at Bayonne, a resolution had been formed to extirpate 
 the Protestants, Conde again unsheathed the sword, and at- 
 tempted to surprise the young king at Monceaux, whence ho 
 with difliculty escaped to Paris. The English ambassador, 
 Norris, had been instrumental in arranging this unjustifiable 
 outrage, and Elizabeth, through the persuasion of her minis- 
 ters, continued to assist the insurgents, though she professed 
 to be at peace with their sovereign. The same year, (Nov. 
 10,) a battle was fought in the plains of St. Denis, in which 
 the rebels were defeated, but the old Constable Montmorenci, 
 general of the Catholics, was slain; and in 1569, the Duke 
 of Anjou, brother of the king, gained the famous battle of 
 Jarnac, in which Conde was killed. Coligni, whose re- 
 sources never failed, assembled a new and formidable army 
 of Huguenots, having with him the young King of Navarre, 
 afterwards Henry IV. Coligni was defeated in 1571, at the 
 memorable battle of Montoncour, with the loss of 10,000 
 men. Soon after, the king entered into a negotiation with 
 the Huguenots, granted them a pardon for all past offences, 
 
IX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 59 
 
 and ceded to them for two years, as places of refuge, Ro- 
 chelle, Moritauban, and some other places ; and,m fine, offered 
 his sister Margaret in marriage to the young King of Navarre, 
 (1572.) The Admiral de Coligni, the Prince of Conde, and 
 all the cliiefs of tlie Protestant party, went to Paris to assist 
 at the celebration of the marriage; Coligni, in passing 
 through the streets, received two wounds from the hands of 
 an assassin, which, though not dangerous, roused the chief- 
 tains of his party to threats of vengeance against the queen- 
 mother, to whom they were attributed by Coligni. These 
 threats elicited an order from the king in council, to anticipate 
 the expected attack; the Duke of Guise and his followers, on 
 the following morning, (the eve of St. Bartholomew,) forced 
 the hotel where the admiral resided, and murdered him, as 
 well as every Huguenot that fell in their way. The bar- 
 barous measure was imitated in several of the provinces; and 
 though the governors were ordered to prevent similar ex- 
 cesses, many fell victims to the revenge of an infuriated mob, 
 cliiefly in those towns where the remembrance of the late 
 cruelties exercised by the Huguenots were fresh in their 
 minds. The numbers of those who perished on this occasion 
 have been greatly exaggerated by Voltaire and by Protestant 
 writers, who at first made them amount to 100,000. The 
 lists collected from the ministers of the different towns gave 
 the names of 786.-^ Conde and the King of Navarre were 
 exempted from the general doom, and they afterwards abjured 
 their heresy. 
 
 The miseries of France increased every day. Charles 
 grew jealous of his brothers; and many of the Catholics, 
 displeased with all the measures of the court, favoured the 
 progress of the Huguenots. In the midst of tiiese disorders 
 died Charles IX., at the age of twenty-four years, in 1574; 
 he was succeeded by his brother, Henry, Duke of Anjou, 
 lately elected King of Poland. 
 
 * See Lingard's Hist, of England, vol. viii. pp. 74 — 76, and note T ; 
 and Vindication, &c., in reply to the Edinburgh Review. 
 
60 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [OHAP. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLES IX., TO THE ACCESSION 
 OF HENRY IV., IN 1589. 
 
 1574. — Henry HI., on his accession to the throne of 
 France, found the kingdom in the greatest disorder. The 
 people were divided into two factions, mutually enraged from 
 the injuries they had committed or suffered. Henry, desirous 
 of preserving a balance between the factions, granted peace to 
 the Protestants on the most advantageous conditions. This 
 treaty of pacification was so displeasing to the Catholics, that 
 the Duke of Guise immediately laid the foundation of the 
 League ; an association, which, without any regard to the 
 royal authority, aimed at the entire suppression of the new 
 doctrines. In order to divert the force of the League, Henry 
 declared himself at the head of it; but his dilatory and feeble 
 measures discovered his reluctance to the undertaking. His 
 moderation appeared criminal to one party, and suspicious to 
 both ; while the plain, direct, and avowed conduct of the 
 Duke of Guise, on one side, and of the King of Navarre on 
 the other, engaged by degrees the bulk of the nation to enlist 
 themselves under one or other of those great leaders. (1576.) 
 
 While such was the position of affairs in France, the Low 
 Countries were struggling to throw off the Spanish yoke, and 
 met with great encouragement and assistance from Elizabeth. 
 After a variety of events, much bloodshed, cruel enmity, jealou- 
 sies, 'and desperate battles, William, Prince of Orange, (1579,) 
 formed the scheme of closely uniting the provinces of Hol- 
 land and Zealand, and cementing them with such others as lay 
 most contiguous; Utrecht, Friesland, Groningen, Overyssel, 
 and Guelderland, in which the Protestant interest was predo- 
 minant. The deputies accordingly met at Utrecht, and signed 
 that famous union of seven provinces, independent of each 
 other, yet as closely connected as a bundle of arrows, the 
 arms and emblem of their republic. 
 
 1580. — While Philip was losing the seven United Pro- 
 vinces, fortune threw in his way a new sovereignty. Don Se- 
 bastian, King of Portugal, great-grandson of Emanuel, and 
 grandson of .John HI., determined to signalize himself by an 
 expedition against the Moors in Africa. He espoused the 
 cause of Muley Mahomet, (who had been dispossessed of the 
 
X.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 61 
 
 kingdoms of Fez and Morocco by his uncle, Muley-Moliick,) 
 and, contrary to the opinion of his wisest counsellors, embark- 
 ed for Africa, in 1578, at the head of 20,000 men. The army 
 of Muley-Moluck was superior, but this only roused the cou- 
 rage of Don Sebastian. The two armies engaged near Alca- 
 zarquivir, and after a desperate conflict, the Christians were 
 totally routed, or rather destroyed, being either killed or taken 
 prisoners. Among the slain was Don Sebastian ; and the two 
 Moorish kings, uncle and nephew, were also left dead on the 
 field. The Kmg of Portugal, having left no issue, was suc- 
 ceeded by his uncle. Cardinal Henry, who also dying without 
 children, (1580,) a number of competitors arose for the crown. 
 Among them was the King of Spain, nephew to Henry by the 
 mother's side; the Duke of Braganza, married to the grand- 
 daughter of the great Emanuel, the Duke of Savoy, the Duke 
 of Parma, and Catherine of Medicis. Philip's claim was 
 perhaps the best, and he had most power to support it. The 
 old Duke of Alva, who had been for some time in disgrace 
 for ill success in the Netherlands, was recalled to court, like 
 a mastiff unchained for fighting, and placed at the head of an 
 army. His victories decided tlie contest. Philip was crown- 
 ed at Lisbon, and proclaimed in India in 1581. 
 
 1583. — The King of Spain, though not yet come to an 
 open rupture with Elizabeth, sent a body of 700 Spaniards 
 into Ireland, to retaliate for the assistance she had given to his 
 rebellious subjects in Holland; but they were cut off to a 
 man. When the English ambassador at the court of Madrid 
 complained of this invasion, he was answered by like com- 
 plaints of Francis Drake, a bold navigator, who had passed 
 into the South Sea by the straits of Magellan, taken many 
 rich prizes from the Spaniards, and returned home safely by 
 the Cape of Good Hope in 1580. As he was the first Eng- 
 lishman who had circumnavigated the globe, his name became 
 celebrated, and the queen, who loved valour, and hoped to 
 share in the spoil, conferred on him the honour of knighthood, 
 and accepted of a banquet on board his ship. She, however, 
 caused part of the booty to be restored, in order to appease 
 the Catholic king. 
 
 1584. — The Prince of Orange was this year assassinated 
 at Delf ; his death deprived the IJnited Provinces of their chief 
 support. Out of gratitude to his memory, they elected his 
 son Maurice, though only eighteen years old, their stadtholder 
 and captain-general by sea and land. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Duke of Parma having reduced Ghent and 
 8 
 
62 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Brussels, made preparations for the siege of Antwerp, the 
 richest and most populous city of the Netherlands. On his 
 iirst approach, the citizens opened the sluices, cut down the 
 dykes, and overflowed the neighbouring country with an inun- 
 dation which swept away all his magazines. iS^ot discouraged 
 by this loss, he cut, at prodigious labour and expense, but with 
 incredible expedition, a canal fromStekin to Caloo, to carry off 
 the waters. He next erected that stupendous monument of his 
 genius, a fortified bridge across the deep and rapid river Scheld, 
 to prevent all communication with the town by sea. The 
 besieged attempted to burn it or blow it up, by sending against 
 it two fire-ships full of powder and other combustible materials. 
 But this scheme failing, and the besiegers daily making pro- 
 gress, in spite of every effort to oppose them, Antwerp sent 
 deputies to the duke, and agreed to acknowledge the sovereignty 
 of Philip. Domestic jealousy, no less than the valour of the 
 Spaniards or the conduct of their general, contributed to the 
 fall of this flourishing city. The Hollanders, and particularly 
 the citizens of Amsterdam, obstructed every measure for the 
 relief of Antwerp, hoping to profit by its reduction. The 
 Protestants, it was concluded, would forsake it, as soon as it 
 fell into the hands of Philip. The conjecture proved just. 
 Antwerp went hourly to decay, and Amsterdam, enriched by 
 the emigration of her inhabitants, became the greatest com- 
 mercial city in the Netherlands. 
 
 1585. — The loss of Antwerp was a mortal blow to the cause 
 of the republicans : they tendered the sovereignty of their 
 country to the King of France ; but the distracted state of that 
 monarchy obliged Henry HI. to reject so advantageous an 
 ofl^er. The Duke of Anjou's death, which he expected would 
 bring him relief by freeing him from the intrigues of that prince, 
 only plunged him into deeper distress. The King of Navarre, 
 a professed Protestant, being now next heir to the crown, the 
 Duke of Guise took thence occasion to revive the League, and 
 to urge the king to exclude the King of Navarre, and to ex- 
 tinguish the heresy he abetted. 
 
 The United Provinces had again recourse to Elizabeth, 
 who immediately concluded a treaty with them, and sent the 
 Earl of Leicester over to Holland, at the head of the English 
 auxiliaries ; while Sir Francis Drake, with a fleet of twenty 
 sail, attacked the Spaniards in the West Indies. This gallant 
 seaman made himself master of St. Jago de Cuba; of St. Do- 
 mingo, the capital of Hispaniola ; of Carthagena, and several 
 other places ; and returned to England in 1586, with such 
 
X.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 63 
 
 riches as served to stimulate the nation to future enterprises. 
 The English arms were less successful in the Low Countries. 
 Leicester was recalled, and Lord Willoughby appointed com- 
 mander of the English forces. The scene that now opened 
 was H^w and extraordinary. Elizabeth and her ministers 
 resolved to bring Mary, Queen of Scots, to a public trial, on 
 pretence of her having formed a conspiracy against the life of 
 the English queen. As Camden* endeavours to connect the 
 several partial disturbances which happened at different pe- 
 riods of this reign, during the nineteen years Mary remained a 
 captive in England, apparently with a view of making them 
 appear like a continued chain of conspiracies against the Bri- 
 tish queen, we must return to the beginning of Mary's cap- 
 tivity, in order to notice the first of these really separate 
 events, which the thread of the narrative prevented our men- 
 tioning before. The Duke of Norfolk, though a professed 
 Protestant, was supposed secretly to favour the Catholic inte- 
 rest. This circumstance, ill addition to his high rank and 
 popularity, rendered him the object of ministerial jealousy. 
 He aspired to a marriage with the captive Queen of Scots. 
 The English ministry maliciously contrived to have the pro- 
 posal made to him, widi a design of effecting his ruin. His 
 consent to marry Mary was construed into a formal conspiracy 
 against Queen Elizabeth and the Protestant religion, and on 
 that ground the duke was condemned and beheaded, June 2d, 
 1572. — The supposed correspondence between Pope Pius Y. 
 and the Duke of Norfolk, is solemnly contradicted by Mary 
 and by the duke himself. When the queen was interrogated 
 on the subject, she acknowledged her own correspondence 
 with tlie Pope, but said it was on spiritual matters only. She 
 likewise owned her pecuniary transactions through the agency 
 of Rudolphi, an Italian merchant in London, wlio had con- 
 veyed to her considerable sums, sent by the charity of foreign 
 princes to relieve her wants ; but she denied them to have 
 been remitted for any seditious purposes. The conduct of the 
 Pope might indeed lead us to suppose that there was som( 
 foundation for the conspiracy laid to his charge. Hoping to 
 effect by severity, what his prudent predecessor (Pius IV.) 
 could not do by moderation, Pius V. had published, in 1569, 
 a bull of excommunication and deposition! against Elizabeth, 
 
 * Camden, a learned Protestant antiquary, was the author of the " An- 
 nals of Queen Elizabeth," which he pubHshed in Latin, 1615. 
 
 j- The opinion which attributes to the Pope a power over the temporal 
 rights of kings, was a scholastic doctrine, much in vogue among the the- 
 
64 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 and declared her subjects absolved, by his autliority, from their 
 oath of allegiance to her. In the following- year, the bull was 
 smuggled into England, and a Mr. Felton had the rashness to 
 iix it on the bishop's gate in London, for which act, equally 
 condemned both by Catholics and Protestants, he was exe- 
 cuted. The English Catholics were now furnislied with a pre- 
 text for renouncing their allegiance to her, had they been so 
 inclined. But that they did not receive it, and that they re- 
 mained unshaken in their fidelity to their sovereign, is evident 
 from their behaviour when a rebellion was actually raised in 
 the north by the Earls of Northumberland and AVestmoreland, 
 in 1569, for which the restoration of the Catholic religion was 
 one of the pretexts: though a personal injury, sustained by 
 the Earl of Northumberland, was the real cause. Far from 
 joining the insurgents, as they were solicited by letters to do, 
 the Catholics freely offered the queen their lives and fortunes 
 in her defence ; and their subsequent vigorous exertions in de- 
 fending their country when it w'as threatened with a Spanish 
 invasion, displayed their loyalty in the strongest light. In 
 short, among the 200 who were executed for their faith under 
 Elizabeth, only one is to be found who refused to acknowledge 
 her title to the throne. 
 
 In the mean time, the death of the Queen of Scots being 
 resolved upon by the English ministry, it only remained to 
 engage some young men of the Scottish, or the Catholic 
 party, in a conspiracy to set Mary at liberty, with some cir- 
 cumstances of intended violence against the person of Eliza- 
 beth, or the peace of the realm, and then to procure evidence, 
 real or forged, of Mary's being implicated in it; and this 
 work, Walsingham, with the help of his band of spies and 
 forgers, was not long in finding the means to accomplish. 
 About fourteen English gentlemen united in an association to 
 rescue the unhappy Mary from the hands of her enemies. 
 (1586.) Walsingham, who had notice of the plot, and appears 
 to have been the contriver of it, deputed two of his spies to 
 associate with Babington and his companions, and to urge 
 thnm on to greater excesses than they would otherwise have 
 
 ologians of that age, especially beyond the Alps, though never adopted by 
 the church, and now universally rejected. St. Pius V. carried that opinion 
 with hun to the pontifical throne. But it should be observed, 1st, That 
 Elizabeth's title to the throne was never acknowledged on the continent; 
 2dly, That he did not require the English Catholics to receive his bull. 
 
 See also the remarkable works of Voight, " Hildebrand and his Times," 
 and of Hurter, History of Innocent III. The temporal power and influ- 
 ence of the Popes in the middle ages are there admirably set forth. 
 
X.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 65 
 
 thought of. When the plot was ripe for discovery, they were 
 taken up, indicted for treason, condemned and executed. 
 Walsingham then had a fair opportunity of giving to Babing- 
 ton's conspiracy any extent of criminality he pleased, for the 
 sake of rendering the Catholic name as odious as possible to 
 the nation ; and the Queen of Scots was to be tried as a part- 
 ner in the conspiracy.* An idea so repugnant to majesty, as 
 being arraigned for treason, had not entered the mind of Mary, 
 though she had long lived in dread of private assassination, 
 when forty commissioners, with five judges, arrived at Fothe- 
 ringay castle, where she was now confined. She received the 
 intelligence, however, without astonishment or emotion, but, 
 protesting in the most solemn manner that she had never counte- 
 nanced any attempt against the life of Elizabeth, she refused to 
 acknowledge the jurisdiction of her commissioners. "I came 
 into England," said she, " an independent sovereigLv, to im- 
 plore the queen's assistance, not to subject myself to her au- 
 thority ; nor is my spirit so broken by past misfortune, or so 
 intimidated by present dangers, as to stoop to any thing unbe- 
 coming the majesty of a crowned head, that will disgrace the 
 ancestors from whom I am descended, or the son to whom I 
 shall leave my crown. If I am to be tried, princes alone can be 
 my peers. The Queen of England's subjects, how noble so- 
 ever their birth may be, are of a rank inferior to mine. Ever 
 since my arrival in this kingdom, I have been confined as a pri- 
 soner. Its laws never afforded me protection. Let them not 
 now be perverted to take away my life." The commissioners 
 were perplexed ; but one of them (Hatton) having observed that 
 conscious guilt made her refuse to plead, she consented next 
 morning to appear before them, after first protesting against 
 the authority of the court. The lawyers of the crown opened 
 the charge against her, and, though unprovided with papers, 
 witnesses, or counsel, she had for two days defended herself 
 with spirit, and had the advantage over her enemies, till, on 
 the third, the proceedings were unexpectedly suspended, and 
 adjourned to Westminster, where sentence of death was pro- 
 nounced against her, Oct. 25th, 1586. The only evidence 
 against the Queen of Scots, arose from the declaration of her 
 secretaries, that she was engaged in Babington's conspiracy. 
 They were threatened with the torture, if they refused the 
 
 * Mary, who had been many years under the care of the Earl of 
 Shrewsbury, at Sheffield, then in the old, ruinous castle of Tutbury, in 
 Staffordshire, was then in Fotheringay, in Northamptonshire, under Sir 
 Amyas Pawlet. 
 
 8* 
 
66 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 evidence required of them. As her secretaries, they were 
 sworn to keep her secrets, and their perjury in one instance 
 rendered them unworthy of credit in another. They were 
 never confronted with her, though she desired that they might 
 be, and affirmed that they wouhl never to her face persist in 
 their evidence ; nor were the original copies of the letters pro- 
 duced against her ever brought forward. But the condemna- 
 tion of the Queen of Scots, not justice, was the object of this 
 unprecedented trial : the sentence of the commissioners was 
 received in London with transports of joy, and both Houses of 
 Parliament united in a petition to the queen to have it speedily 
 carried into execution. Elizabeth hesitated ; she dreaded the 
 infamy that such an action would attach to her name, and she 
 wished to avoid it by the private assassination of her victim. 
 She made the proposal to Sir Amyas Pawlet, February 2d, 
 1587; but though he hated Mary, he refused to shed her 
 blood without law or warrant.* At last Elizabeth signed the 
 fatal warrant; and the arrival of the Earl of Shrewsbury, 
 Earl Marshal of England, with his attendants, at Fotheringay, 
 announced the following morning as fixed upon for its execu- 
 tion. Never did Mary appear so great as in this last scene 
 of her life ; she was not only tranquil, but intrepid and mag- 
 nanimous. When Sir Andrew Melville, the master of her 
 household, was permitted to take his last farewell, he burst 
 into tears. "Weep not, good Melville," said she, "there is 
 at present greater cause for rejoicing. Thou shalt this day 
 see Mary Stuart delivered from all her cares, and such an 
 end put to her tedious sufferings as she has long expected. 
 But witness that I die constant in my religion, firm in my fide- 
 lity towards Scotland, and unchanged in my affection to France. 
 Commend me to my son. Tell him I have done nothing 
 injurious to his kingdom, to his honour, or to his rights: and 
 God forgive all those who have thirsted without reason for my 
 blood." After long and fervent prayer, she ascended the 
 scaffold at half-past eight o'clock, February 8th, with a firm 
 and intrepid step, and after publicly declaring her innocence 
 of the crime laid to her charge, and professing her religion 
 and pardon of her enemies, she began with the aid of her wo- 
 men to take off her veil ; the executioner rudely endeavouring 
 to assist them, she gently checked him, and smiling said, "I 
 have not been accustomed to undress before so many specta- 
 
 * See Elizabeth's letter to Sir A. Pawlet, extant in Robertson and in 
 Dr. Milner's *' Letters to a Prebendary.'* 
 
X.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 67 
 
 tors, nor served by such valets;" and soon after laid her 
 head on the block with calm but undaunted fortitude. Such 
 was the fate of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland and Dowager 
 Queen of France, who, in the forty-fifth year of her age, and 
 the twentieth of her captivity in England, fell a victim to the 
 jealousy of an offended rival.* Elizabeth, when informed of 
 Mary's execution, affected the utmost surprise and concern ; 
 sighs, tears, lamentations, and weeds of mourning, were 
 all employed to display the greatness of her sorrow. She 
 even undertook to make the world believe that the Queen of 
 Scots, her dear sister and kinswoman, had been put to death 
 without her knowledge, and contrary to her inclination ; and 
 to complete the farce, she commanded Davison, her secretary, 
 to be thrown into prison, under pretence that he had exceeded 
 his commission in despatching the fatal warrant, which, 
 though she had signed, she never meant to carry into execu- 
 tion. This hypocritical disguise was assumed chiefly to 
 appease the young King of Scotland, who seemed determined 
 to employ the whole force of his dominions in order to 
 revenge his mother's death. He recalled his ambas- 
 sador from England, and every thing bore the appearance 
 of war. Elizabeth saw the danger; and after allowing 
 James an interval to vent his grief and anger, she employed 
 her emissaries to set before him every motive of hope or fear, 
 which might induce him to live in amity with her; and these, 
 joined to the queen's dissimulation and the pacific disposition 
 of James, prevailed over his resentment. He fell gradually 
 into a good understanding with the court of England. 
 
 While Elizabeth was thus insuring the tranquillity of her 
 kingdom from the attempts of her neighbours, she was not 
 inattentive to more distant dangers. Hearing that Philip was 
 secretly preparing a prodigious armament, she sent Sir Fran- 
 cis Drake with a fleet, to intercept his supplies and pillage 
 his coasts. Drake, besides other successes, burned, in the 
 harbour of Cadiz, a hundred vessels laden with ammunition and 
 naval stores. The sailing of the armada was thus retarded 
 for twelve months, which afforded Elizabeth leisure to take 
 more effectual measures against that formidable fleet and army, 
 intended for the invasion of her kingdom. Philip was now 
 no longer desirous of keeping his project secret. Every part 
 of his European dominions resounded with the noise of arma- 
 
 • Her body was embalmed, and, after six months, interred by order of 
 Elizabeth with royal pomp in the Abbey Church of Peterborough, where 
 it reposed till James I. had it removed to Westminster, in 1612. 
 
68 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 ments, and the treasures of both Indies were exhausted in 
 vast preparations for war. In all the ports of Sicily, Naples, 
 Spain, and Portugal, artizans were employed in building 
 vessels of uncommon size and force ; naval stores and pro- 
 visions were amassed at great expense; armies levied and 
 quartered in the maritime provinces ; and plans laid for such 
 an embarkation, as had never before appeared on the ocean. 
 The military preparations in Flanders were no less formi- 
 dable. Troops from all quarters joined the Duke of Parma, 
 who assembled in the Netherlands 35,000 men, whom he was 
 to transport into England. Elizabeth was apprised of all 
 these preparations. Lord Howard of Effingham was ap- 
 pointed admiral: Drake, Hawkins, and Forbisher, the most 
 renowned seamen in Europe, served under him. The prin- 
 cipal fleet was stationed at Plymouth, and a smaller squadron, 
 under Lord Seymour, lay off Dunkirk, in order to intercept 
 the Duke of Parma. An army of 20,000 men was disposed 
 in different bodies along the south coast; 22,000 foot were 
 stationed at Tilbury, to defend the capital ; and another army 
 of 36,000 men were ready to march on any side. The 
 queen appeared on horseback at Tilbury, and, riding through 
 the lines, exhorted the soldiers to do their duty ; professing 
 her intention rather to perish with them in battle, than to 
 survive the ruin of her people. "I know," said she, "I 
 have only the feeble arm of a woman, but I have the heart 
 of a king, and of a King of England too." 
 
 1588. — The Spanish Armada, after various obstructions, at 
 length appeared in the channel. It consisted of 130 vessels, 
 and carried about 20,000 land forces. Effingham saw it as he 
 was just getting out of Plymouth Sound, coming full sail 
 towards him, disposed in the form of a crescent, and stretch- 
 ing the distance of seven miles, from the extremity of one 
 division to that of the other. The lofty masts, the swelling 
 •sails, and the towering prows of the Spanish galleons seemed 
 impossible to be justly described by the historians of that age, 
 without assuming the language of poetry. Not satisfied with 
 representing the armada as a spectacle infusing equal terror 
 and admiration into the minds of all beholders, and as the 
 most magnificent that had ever appeared on the main; they 
 assert, that although the ships bore every sail, it yet advanced 
 with a slow motion, as if the ocean had groaned with support- 
 ing, and the winds been tired with impelling so enormous a 
 weight. The English admiral at first gave orders not to come 
 to close fight with the Spaniards, on account of the size of 
 
X.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 69 
 
 their ships, and the number of soldiers on board ; but a few 
 trials convinced him that the size of the Spanish ships was 
 no advantage to them ; their bulk exposed them to the fire ; 
 while their cannon, placed too high, shot over the heads of 
 the English vessels. Every thing conspired to the ruin of 
 this vast armament. Sir Francis Drake took the great galleon 
 of Andalusia, and a large ship of Biscay, which had fallen 
 behind the rest; while the nobility and gentry hastened out 
 with their vessels from every harbour to reinforce Effingham, 
 who filled eight of his smaller ships with combustiljles, and 
 sent them into the midst of the enemy. The Spaniards fled 
 with disorder, (July 29,) and the English, besides doing great 
 damage to their whole fleet, took twelve large ships. The 
 Duke of Parma, whose vessels were calculated only for trans- 
 porting soldiers, refused to leave the harbour, while the Eng- 
 lish were masters of the sea. The Spanish admiral, (the 
 Duke of Medina Sidonia,) therefore, after many unsuccessful 
 encounters and dangers in unknown seas, with contrary winds, 
 prepared to make his way, but not daring to re-enter the chan- 
 nel, resolved to take the circuit of the island. The English 
 fleet followed him for some time ; and, had not their ammunition 
 failed, they had obliged the armada to surrender at discretion. 
 This vast armament, which had been styled the Invincible, 
 was attacked by a violent storm in passing the Orkneys ; 
 some of the ships were driven on the Western Isles, some on 
 the coast of Ireland; not one-half of the fleet returned to Spain. 
 Philip, whose command of temper and fortitude were supe- 
 rior to adverse fortune, received with an air of tranquillity the 
 news of such a disastrous event. " I thank God," he coolly 
 replied, " who has given me so many resources, that I can bear 
 without inconvenience so heavy a loss. One branch has been 
 lopped off; but the tree is still flourishing, and able to supply 
 its place." 
 
 In England, the defeat of the armada was celebrated by the 
 people with the most lively demonstrations of joy : the queen 
 marked it o«?it as an epoch for increasing the sufferings of her 
 Catholic subjects. The Earl of Arundel* had been a prisoner 
 on suspicion of treason, which could not be proved against 
 him, since the year 1583 ; he was now arraigned again on a 
 charge of high treason contained in a formula of prayer he 
 
 * Philip Howard was the eldest son of the late Duke of Norfolk, and 
 became Earl of Arundel in right of his mother, Mary Filzallan, daughter 
 of the late earl, and heiress of the castle and earldom of Arundel. 
 
70 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 had made use of with some other Catholic prisoners in the 
 Tower, during the Spanish invasion. Though the charge was 
 unfounded, his peers declared him guilty, and he was con- 
 demned. The queen was prevailed upon to spare his life, yet 
 she concealed her intentions from the prisoner, whose sudden 
 illness and death in 1595 provoked a suspicion of poison. 
 From this date, till the close of Elizabeth's reign, the persecu- 
 tion of the Catholics was unremitting. Sixty-one priests, 
 forty-seven laymen, and two gentlewomen, suffered capital 
 punishment, which, in nearly all these instances, consisted iti 
 the butchery of the victim, while still alive and in his perfect 
 senses. 
 
 The Puritans next experienced the severity of the queen's 
 government. Several of them were executed ; but, by degrees, 
 the persecution against them subsided, and before the death 
 of Elizabeth, they enjoyed a state of comparative peace. 
 
 While the naval power of Spain was receiving so signal a 
 defeat on the British shores, great revolutions \vere taking 
 place in France. Henry III., jealous of the popularity of the 
 Duke of Guise, basely contrived to have him and his brother, 
 the cardinal, murdered. The partisans of the League were 
 enraged, and flew to arms. In this extremity, the king entered 
 into a confederacy with the Huguenots and the King of 
 Navarre, who advanced with him to the gales of Paris. They 
 laid siege to the capital, when Henry III. was assassinated 
 by one Clement, an ignorant enthusiast. This assassination 
 left the succession open to the King of Navarre,* who, as next 
 heir to the crown, assumed the government, under the name 
 of Henry IV. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY IV., TO THE PEACE 
 OF VERVINS, IN 1598. 
 
 The reign of Henry IV., justly styled the Great, forms one 
 of the most memorable eras in the history of France. The 
 eyes of all Europe were fixed upon this prince, as the hero 
 of its military theatre and the centre of its political system ; 
 Philip and Elizabeth were now but secondary actors. Upon 
 
 * Henry, King of Navarre, vi^as a descendant of St. Lewis, by Robert, 
 Count of Clermont, youngest son of that monarch. He inherited Navarre 
 in right of his mother, Jane, who introduced the tenets of Luther into her 
 dominions, and cruelly persecuted her Catholic subjects. 
 
XI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 71 
 
 the assassination of Henry III., one-half of the royal army 
 forsook the King of Navarre on account of his religion. This 
 desertion obliged him to abandon the siege of Paris, and retire 
 into Normandy. Thither he was followed by the forces of 
 the League, commanded by the Duke of Mayenne,* who had 
 proclaimed the Cardinal of Bourbon king, under the name of 
 Charles X. ; though that old man, who had been thrown into 
 prison on the assassination of the Guises, was still confined 
 in the castle of Fontenai-le-Comte, in Poitou. Conscious of 
 Henry's distress, Elizabeth immediately sent him a present 
 of £22,000, in order to prevent the desertion of his Swiss and 
 German auxiliaries, and a reinforcement of 4,000 men. Mean- 
 while Henry had been so fortunate as to secure Dieppe and 
 Caen, and to repulse the Duke of Mayenne, who had attacked 
 him at Arquos. On the arrival of the English forces, Henry 
 marched towards Paris, but was again obliged to retire. His 
 forces were still inferior to those of the League, but what was 
 wanting in numbers was supplied by valour. He attacked the 
 Duke of Mayenne at Ivri, (1590,) and gained a complete vic- 
 tory over ]iim. Henry, in this battle, rushed into the thickest 
 of the enemy ; but when he perceived their ranks broken, and 
 great havoc committed in the pursuit, his natural humanity 
 and attachment to his countrymen returned, and he cried out, 
 " Spare my enemies; they are Frenchmen." Soon after this 
 victory, died the Cardinal of Bourbon; and the king invested 
 Paris, which he certainly might have reduced by famine, had 
 not his paternal tenderness for his people made him forget the 
 duty of the soldier, and relax the rigour of war. He left a 
 free passage to the old men, women, and children. He per- 
 mitted the peasants, and even his own men, to carry provisions 
 secretly to the besieged. Meantime, the Duke of Parma, by 
 order of the King of Spain, left the Low Countries, where he 
 was hard pressed by Prince Maurice, and hastened to the 
 relief of Paris. On his approach, Henry raised the siege and 
 offered him battle; but that consummate general, having per- 
 formed the service for which he was detached, prudently 
 declined the combat, and retired with honour. 
 
 1.591. — Elizabeth, who had withdrawn her troops on tlie 
 first prosperous appearance of Henry's affairs, again inter- 
 posed, and sent him 3,000 men, and afterwards 4,000 more, 
 under the command of her favourite, the Earl of Essex. 
 These, joined to an army of 35,000 men, enabled Henry to 
 lay siege to Rouen, and to prosecute the war, though with 
 * He was brother to the late Duke of Guise. 
 
72 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 various success, till in 1593, after the taking of Dreux, he 
 solemnly made his abjuration at St. Denis, and received abso- 
 lution from the Archbishop of Bourges. On his accession to 
 the throne, he had promised to study the doctrines of the reli- 
 gion of his ancestors ; and this step was the result of several 
 conferences on the subject, at which he had been present. 
 Queen Elizabeth was not a little mortified and irritated at this 
 change in her ally ; but her remonstrances on the occasion 
 were unsuccessful. The different provinces and towns of 
 France submitted by degrees to Henry ; in 1596 the Duke of 
 Mayenne was reconciled to him ; and, charmed with the gene- 
 rous reception which he met with on his submission, he con- 
 tinued ever after firmly attached to the king's person and 
 government. 
 
 During these transactions in France, the confederates were 
 not idle in the Low Countries. Prince Maurice and Sir Francis 
 Vere gained at Tournhout, (1597,) a complete victory over 
 the Spaniards, in consequence of which that place immediately 
 surrendered, and many others were reduced before the close 
 of the campaign. 
 
 1598. — The confederates were equally successful in other 
 parts. Besides the naval armaments which Elizabeth was 
 continually sending to annoy the Spaniards, in the West Indies, 
 and to obstruct their trade at home, a strong force was sent 
 to Cadiz, where Philip was making preparations against Eng- 
 land. The combined English and Dutch fleet attacked the 
 Spanish ships and galleys in the bay, and obliged them all to 
 surrender or run ashore. The Earl of Essex then disem- 
 barked his troops, and carried the city by assault. The plun- 
 der was considerable, and the loss of the Spaniards was com- 
 puted at twenty millions of ducats ; but the queen was dissatis- 
 fied with the commander on his return, because she did not 
 receive a share of the booty.* 
 
 Age and infirmities, added to many disappointments, had 
 now broken the spirit of Philip, and he offered peace to the 
 confederates on equitable terms ; but as he refused to acknow- 
 ledge the independence of the United Provinces, they would 
 not negotiate with him. Henry's situation did not allow him 
 to behave with the same rigour. France, torn by civil dissen- 
 sions, stood in need of peace. Philip knew it, and offered 
 
 * Lord Burleigh and his son, Sir Robert Cecil, were the earl's enemies 
 at court : and during his absence the former had the address to get his son 
 appointed to the office of secretary, vacant since the death of Walsingham, 
 in 1590. 
 
XII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 73 
 
 advantageous condiiions lo Henry. The French monarch, 
 however, first sent ambassadors to Elizabeth and the States^^to 
 faciUtate a general agreement : they remonstrated against such 
 a measure, unless the independence of the States were made 
 its basis. Henry pleaded his necessity of negotiating, and 
 they were made sensible of the justness of his arguments. 
 A separate peace was accordingly concluded at Vervins (in 
 Aisne) between France and Spain, (in 1598,) by which Henry 
 recovered possession of all the places seized by Philip during 
 the civil wars, and procured to himself, what he had long 
 ardendy desired, leisure to settle the domestic affairs of his 
 kingdom, to cultivate the arts of peace, and to contribute to 
 the happiness of his people. 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 SPAIN AND THE LOW COUNTRIES, FROM 1598 TO 1609. 
 
 1598. — Soon after the peace concluded between France 
 and Spain, at Vervins, a new treaty was negotiated between 
 England and the United Provinces, that the war might be 
 prosecuted with vigour against Philip. Scarcely was this ne- 
 gotiation finished, when Philip II., its first object, breathed 
 his last at Madrid. No European prince ever possessed such 
 vast resources as this monarch. Besides his Spanish and Ita- 
 lian possessions, the kingdom of Portugal and the Netherlands, 
 he enjoyed the whole East India commerce, and reaped the 
 richest harvest from the American mines. But his prodigious 
 armaments, his quarrels with France and England, and his 
 long and expensive wars in the Low Countries, exhausted his 
 treasures, and enriched those whom he sought to subdue ; 
 while the Spaniards, dazzled with the sight of the precious 
 metals, and elated with an idea of imaginary wealth, neglected 
 agriculture and manufactures, and were obliged to depend on 
 their more industrious neighbours for the luxuries, as well as 
 the necessaries of life. Spain, once a rich and fertile king- 
 dom, became only the mint of Europe. Its wedges and ingots 
 were no sooner coined, than called for ; and often mortgaged 
 before their arrival, as the price of labour and ingenuity. The 
 state was enfeebled, the country rendered sterile, and the peo- 
 ple poor and miserable. The condition of the United Pro- 
 vinces was, in all respects, the reverse of Spain. Thev owed 
 
 9 
 
74 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 every thing to their industry; manufactures were carried on 
 with vigour, and commerce was extended to all the quarters of 
 the globe. The republic was become powerful and the peo- 
 ple rich. Conscious of this, the court of Madrid had changed 
 its measures before the death of Philip. Despairing of being 
 able to reduce the revolted provinces by force, and desirous 
 of an accommodation, that he might end his days in peace, 
 Philip transferred to his daughter Isabella, contracted to the 
 Archduke Albert of Austria, the sovereignty of the Low Coun- 
 tries. Philip died before the celebration of the marriage, but 
 his son and successor, Philip III., executed his will. 
 
 1599.— The first material step taken by Albert and Isabella 
 for reducing the Hollanders to obedience, was the precluding 
 the United Provinces from all intercourse by trade with the 
 Spanish dominions ; which an idea of general advantage had 
 induced Philip II. to allow them. Meanwhile, war was carried 
 on with vigour in the Low Countries, and after several towns 
 had been taken, many gallantly assaulted, and no less gallantly 
 defended on both sides, the two armies came to a general en- 
 gagement at Newport, near Ostend, where Albert was totally 
 defeated. Overtures of peace were again renewed, but rejected 
 by the States. In 1601, the Archduke Albert laid siege to 
 Ostend. The brave resistance which he met with, astonished, 
 but did not discourage him. All the resources of war were 
 exhausted, rivers of blood were spilled ; but neither side was 
 dispirited, because both received constant supplies ; the one 
 by sea, the other from the neighbouring country. Spinola, 
 w- ho commanded for Albert, showed at last, that no fortification, 
 however strong, is impregnable to an able engineer, furnished 
 with the necessary force. Ostend was reduced to a heap of 
 ruins, and the besiegers were preparing for the grand assault, 
 when the governor offered to capitulate, in 1604. Spinola 
 granted the garrison honourable terms. During this memora- 
 ble siege, which lasted upwards of three years, and cost the 
 King of Spain and the Archduke the lives of 80,000 brave 
 soldiers. Prince Maurice made himself master of Rimback, 
 Grave, and Sluys, acquisitions which more than balanced the 
 loss of Ostend ; and Albert, by employing all his strength 
 against that place, was prevented during three campaigns from 
 entering the United Provinces. The Dutch profited of that 
 interval of security, to push their trade and manufactures. 
 Every nerve was strained in labour, and every talent in inge- 
 nuity. Commerce, both foreign and domestic, flourished. 
 Ternate, one of the Moluccas, had been gained, and the East 
 
Xii.l GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 75 
 
 India Company, that grand pillar of the republic, was estab- 
 lished. But, as a counterpoise to these advantages, the States 
 had lost the alliance of England, in consequence of the deatli 
 of EHzabeth. .Tames I., her successor, showed no inclination 
 to engage in hostilities with Spain ; and concluded, soon after 
 his accession, a treaty with that court. 
 
 1605. — Philip III. now resolved to carry on the war against 
 the revolted provinces, with the whole forceof his dominions. 
 Spinola was declared commander-in-chief of the Spanish and 
 Italian forces. On the other hand, the States empowered 
 Prince Maurice to augment his army ; they recruited their 
 garrisons, and repaired their fortifications. Spinola's success 
 was rapid during two campaigns, in spite of all the efforts of 
 Maurice. But although he had made himself master of many 
 important places, he had yet made no impression on the body 
 of the republic ; and 300,000 doubloons a month, the com- 
 mon expense of the army, was a sum too large for the Spanish 
 treasury long to disburse, and a drain which not even the 
 mines of Mexico and Peru could supply. His troops muti- 
 nied for want of pay. He became sensible of the impractica- 
 bility of his undertaking; and delivered it as his opinion, that 
 it was more advisable to enjoy the ten provinces in peace and 
 security, than to risk the loss of the whole Netlierlands, in 
 pursuit of the other seven. It was accordingly agreed (1607) 
 to negotiate with the Belgian powers as an independent state. 
 A suspension of arms took place ; and, in 1609, a truce of 
 twelve years was concluded at the Hague, through the media- 
 tion of France and England. This treaty secured to the United 
 Provinces the acquis^itions they had made, and the liberty 
 for which they had so long struggled. Scarcely had the court 
 of Spain terminated one civil war, than it commenced another. 
 PhiUp III., by the advice of his minister, the Duke of Lerma, 
 issued an edict ordering all the Morescoes, or descendants of 
 the Moors, to leave the kingdom within the space of thirty 
 days, under penalty of death. Their attachment to Mohamme- 
 danism, though many of them had received baptism, induced 
 the king to take this step for the preservation of religion 
 among his subjects. He has been severely censured for it 
 by Protestant writers, who tell us, that by this violent and 
 impolitic measure, Spain lost nearly a million of industrious 
 inhabitants ; and as that kingdom was already depopulated by 
 long and bloody foreign wars, by repeated emigrations to the 
 New World, and enervated by luxury, it now sunk into a 
 6tate of languor, from which it has never recovered. 
 
76 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ENGLAND, FROM THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA, TO 
 THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH, IN 1603. 
 
 The leading characteristics of Elizabeth's administration 
 were economy and vigour. The execution of the Queen of 
 Scots and the defeat of the Spanish Armada having freed her 
 from all apprehension in regard to the safety of her crown, she 
 now turned her attention to the affairs of Ireland, where the Eng- 
 lish sovereignty had hitherto been little more than nominal. 
 Elizabeth saw the importance of that island, and took several 
 measures for reducing it to greater submission. She furnished 
 her deputies with a greater force, and founded a university in 
 Dublin. But in 1585, Sir John Perrot, then lord deputy, put 
 arms into the hands of the inhabitants of Ulster, to enable 
 them to repress the incursions of the Scottish islanders ; and 
 Philip II. having about the same time engaged many of the 
 Irish gentry to serve in his armies in the Low Countries, Ire- 
 land, thus provided with officers and soldiers, was able to 
 maintain a more regular war, and became more formidable to 
 England. Hugh O'Neal, the head of a potent clan, who had 
 been created Earl of Tyrone, framed the project of rendering 
 himself independent. His success surpassed even his hopes. 
 After spinning out the war for some years, he defeated the 
 English army under Sir Henry Bagnal, who was left dead on 
 the field with 1500 men. This victory made Elizabeth re- 
 solve to push the war by more vigorous measures ; and she 
 appointed, at his own request, her reigning favourite, the Earl 
 of Essex, Governor of Ireland, under the tide of lord lieu- 
 tenant; vested him with almost unlimited power, and gave him 
 the command of a considerable army. (1599.) But Essex, 
 unacquainted with the country, and misled by interested coun- 
 sels, disappointed the expectations of the queen and the nation, 
 and fearing the artifices of his enemies at home, suddenly re- 
 turned, expressly contrary to the queen's orders. He was 
 confined a prisoner in his own house by her command, and, 
 i)y a decree of the privy council, was deprived of all his em- 
 plo3niients except that of master of the horse. 
 
 1601. — Essex, finding the queen inexorable, threw off all 
 appearance of duty and respect. Already high in the public 
 favour, he practised anew every art of popularity, and, sallying 
 
XIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 77 
 
 forth at the head of 200 followers, attempted to raise the city ; 
 but, meeting with little encouragement, he was obliged to sur- 
 render at discretion. Orders were immediately given for his 
 trial. He was condemned, and privately beheaded in the Tower, 
 to prevent the danger of an insurrection. 
 
 1602. — Meanwhile, Lord Mountjoy, who had succeeded 
 Essex in Ireland, restored the queen's authority in that king- 
 dom. He defeated the rebels near Kinsale, though supported 
 by 6,000 Spaniards, whom he expelled the island ; and many 
 of the chieftains submitted to mercy, and received such terms 
 as the deputy was pleased to prescribe. Even Tyrone peti- 
 tioned for terms, which being denied him, he was obliged to 
 throw himself on the queen's clemency. He renounced for- 
 ever the name of O'Neal, and all pretensions to sovereignty ; 
 on these conditions his life was spared, and most of his estates 
 were restored to him. 
 
 But Elizabeth was now incapable of receiving any pleasure 
 from the fortunate conclusion of a war, which had long 
 occupied her councils, exhausted her treasury, and disturbed 
 her domestic peace. Though in her seventieth year, she had 
 hitherto enjoyed good health ; but the infirmities of old age 
 stole upon her, and with them great depression of spirits. 
 She had no offspring to inherit her dominions ; she saw they 
 must descend to the son of her hated rival; and hence a deep 
 melancholy setded on her mind. The enemies of Essex, 
 through fear and envy, had hastened his destruction ; but no 
 sooner was the blow given, than his merits were universally 
 extolled. Elizabeth became sensible she had been deceived. 
 Her courtiers having no longer the superior influence of Essex 
 to dread, grew less respectful and assiduous in their attendance, 
 and all men desirous of preferment, seemed to look forward to 
 her successor. The people caught the temper of the court; 
 the queen went abroad without the usual acclamations. Her 
 existence itself now seemed a burden. She threw herself on 
 a carpet, where she remained pensive and silent during ten 
 days and nights, leaning on cushions, and holding her finger 
 in her mouth, with her eyes open and fixed on the ground. 
 Her sighs and groans were all expressive of some inward grief, 
 which preyed upon her life. At last, her death visibly approach- 
 ing, the privy council sent to know her will in regard to her 
 successor. She gave them to understand the King of Scots 
 was the person, and soon after expired. 
 
 1603. — Few sovereigns ever swayed the sceptre with more 
 dignity than Elizabeth ; few have enjoyed more uniform pros- 
 
 9* 
 
78 GENERAL HISTOr.V OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 perity ; yet, after all her glory and popularity, she lived to fall 
 into neglect ; and sank into the grave beneath the pressure of 
 a private grief, accompanied by circumstances of distress, 
 which the wretch on the rack might pity, and which the slave 
 who expires at the oar does not feel.* 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FRANCE, FROM 1598, TO THE DEATH OF HENRY IV., IN 1610. 
 
 No kingdom exempt from the horrors of war, could be 
 more wretched than France at the peace of Vervins. The 
 crown was loaded with debts, the people poor and miserable. 
 To form a regular plan of administration, and to pursue it 
 with success, Henry stood in need of an able and upright 
 minister. He found one in the Marquis de Rosni, whom he 
 created Duke of Sully. Sully seemed formed to be the 
 minister of Henry the IV. By his prudent measures he paid, 
 in the space of five years, all the debts of the crown, augment- 
 ed the revenue four millions of livres, had four millions in the 
 treasury, and had considerably reduced the taxes. Henry 
 introduced the culture and manufacture of silk into his king- 
 dom ; and in 1607, at great expense, but with greater profit, 
 manufactures of linen and tapestry. He built the Pont-neuf, 
 and cut the canal of Briare, which joins the Seine and the 
 Loire ; and he had projected the union of the two seas, when 
 a period was put to his life. 
 
 1608. — The Duke of Savoy was encouraged by Spain to 
 declare war against Henry, but his estates were overrun, and 
 he was soon obliged to make peace : the Duke of Biron was 
 then engaged in a conspiracy which cost him his head. Many 
 other attempts being made against him, Henry resolved to 
 carry into execution a design, which he had long meditated, 
 of humbling the house of Austria, which he considered as the 
 jealous rival of his glory, and of circumscribing its power in 
 Italy and Germany. While he was maturing that great project, 
 a dispute, concerning the succession to the duchies of Cleves 
 and Juliers, afTorded him a pretext for taking up arms. Ro- 
 dolph II., son and successor of Maximilian II., had succeeded 
 to the imperial throne, in 1576. The equity of his adminis- 
 tration compensated for its weakness. The chief disturbances 
 * Russel, vol. 3d, p. 85. 
 
XIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 79 
 
 which he met with proceeded from his brother Matthias. The 
 Turks, as usual, had invaded Hungary; Matthias had been 
 successful in opposing them, and a peace being concluded, in 
 1606, with Sultan Achmet, successor of Mahomet II., the 
 Hungarians conferred their crown upon Matthias, who after- 
 wards made himself master of Moravia and Bohemia. Ro- 
 dolph, ambitious only of extending the empire of science, 
 contirmed to his brother those usurpations, with the succession 
 to the kingdom of Bohemia, where the new opinions had 
 taken deep root. In proportion as Lutheranism gained ground 
 in Hungary and Bohemia, the Protestant princes of the empire 
 became desirous of extending their privileges, and entered 
 into a new confederacy, called the Evangelical Union. This 
 association was opposed by another, formed (in 1609) to 
 protect the ancient faith, under the name of the Catholic 
 League. 
 
 The succession to the duchies of Cleves and Juliers roused 
 to arms the heads of the two parties, who may be said to have 
 slumbered since the peace of Passau. John William, Duke 
 of Cleves and Juliers, dying without issue, several competitors 
 arose for the succession, and prepared to support their title by 
 the sword. Rodolph ordered the claimants to appear before 
 him to explain their pretensions, and in the mean time sent his 
 cousin, Leopold, to rule the disputed fiefs in his name, till the 
 right of inheritance should be settled. John Sigismund 
 Elector of Brandenburg, and the Duke of Newburg, alarmei 
 at this step, united against the emperor, and were assisted by 
 the Elector Palatine and the other princes of the evangelical 
 union. In order to be a match for the emperor, who was 
 assisted by the Elector of Saxony, the Pope, and the King of 
 Spain, they applied to the King of France. Henry had only 
 wanted an apology for breaking with the house of Austria. 
 His preparations were vigorous and his negotiations successful. 
 The Duke of Savoy, the Swiss, and the Venetians entered 
 warmly into his views. He assembled an army of 40,000 
 men, (1610,) and resolved to command it in person; but the 
 queen, Mary of JMedicis, appointed regent during his absence, 
 insisted on being solemnly crowned before his departure. 
 Henry consented with an inward dread, arising, no doubt, from 
 the many barbarous attempts which had been made upon his 
 person, the rumours of new conspiracies, and the opportunities 
 which a crowd afforded of putting them into execution. He 
 escaped, however, on that occasion ; but the next day, his 
 coach being obstructed in a narrow street, Ravaillac, a despe- 
 
80 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 rate fanatic, mounted the wheel of his carriage, and stabbed 
 him to the heart, with a knife, over the Duke d'Epernon's 
 shoulder, and amidst six of his courtiers. 
 
 France seems only to have been fully sensible of the worth 
 of this monarch, justly styled the " Great," when she had lost 
 him; but in estimating his character, we consider him only in his 
 regal capacity; the libertinism of his private life had a pernicious 
 effect upon the morals of the nation, and tarnished his great 
 qualities ; but he always preserved a due respect for religion, 
 and appears to have embraced the Catholic faith from conviction. 
 He received the Jesuits into France, and obliged the Parlia- 
 ment to sanction their establishment in his kingdom by law. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ENGLAND, FROM 1603 TO 1628. 
 
 The English throne being left vacant by the death of Eliza- 
 beth, James VI. of Scotland was immediately proclaimed 
 King of England, by the lords of the privy council. This 
 prince was great-grandson of Margaret, eldest daughter of 
 Henry VII., so that, on the failure of the male line, his here- 
 ditary title remained unquestionable. The crown of England, 
 therefore, passed from the family of Tudor to that of Stuart, 
 with as much tranquillity as ever it was transmitted from father 
 to son. People of all ranks, forgetting their former hostility 
 towards Scotland, testified their satisfaction with louder accla- 
 mations than were usual at the accession even of their native 
 princes. They foresaw greater advantages resulting from a 
 perpetual alliance with Scotland, and the addition of power 
 and consequence which England would derive from it, than 
 inconveniences from submitting to the dominion of a stranger. 
 
 James retained most of Elizabeth's ministers in office, 
 among whom Robert Cecil, son to the late lord Burleigh, was 
 regarded as his prime minister and chief counsellor. He created 
 him Earl of Salisbury, and loaded him with honours. Cecil 
 began his ministry by getting rid of several persons peculiarly 
 obnoxious to him, under pretence of their being engaged in a 
 conspiracy to place the king's cousin-german, Arabella Stuart, 
 on the throne of England. Sir Walter Raleigh was one of 
 the principals in this conspiracy, and, though not convicted, 
 was detained prisoner several years in the Tower. 
 
XV.J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 81 
 
 Soon after surmounting this danger, the king was engaged 
 in a scene of business much more suitable to his temper, and 
 in which he was particularly ambitious to make a figure. Of 
 all the qualities that mark his character, he was by none so 
 much distinguished, as by the vanity of being thought to excel 
 in school-learning. In effect, his learning and eloquence were 
 not contemptible ; but the one was tinctured with pedantry, 
 and the other with affectation. To decide upon the differ- 
 ences which existed between the Puritans and Protestants, he 
 appointed a conference to be held ; but as he was well aware 
 of the hostile dispositions of the former, he always declared 
 himself on the side of the established church, and frequently 
 repeated his favourite maxim, " No bishop, no king." A 
 union of the two kingdoms was also an object which James 
 had much at heart ; but the animosity that existed between 
 them could only be allayed by time ; and all that he could ob- 
 tain of Parliament at the present moment, was an appointment 
 of commissioners on both sides, to deliberate on the subject. 
 To procure money from the Commons was still more difficult; 
 but as he soon after concluded a peace with Spain, supplies 
 were less necessary. 
 
 Though educated by Puritans,* James entertained favoura- 
 ble ideas of the Catholic religion; and considering his new 
 Catholic subjects as a loyal body, who had been oppressed 
 and heavily aggrieved, he made no secret of his friendly dispo- 
 sitions towards them. The regard which he expressed for 
 them at the opening of the Parliament, raised their expecta- 
 tions of seeing the penal statutes repealed, at the same time 
 that it gave great umbrage to the Puritans. They beset the 
 throne with declaimers against popery; ministers supported 
 the popular clamour, and spoke loudly of public dangers, aris- 
 ing from the machinations of Jesuits and popish priests. 
 James, unwilling to offend his Protestant subjects, published 
 an order for all priests to quit the kingdom ; and, by another 
 proclamation, he affirmed the ecclesiastical government, and 
 book of common prayer. This put an end to the flattering 
 hopes the Catholics had entertained since the beginning of the 
 reign. They were disappointed ; but their disappointment 
 neither lessened the loyalty of that body at large, nor stimulated 
 revenge. Some few individuals, indeed, being actuated with 
 
 * After the imprisonment of his mother, James was placed in the hands 
 of the reformists, and had the celebrated Scotch historian Buchanan for his 
 preceptor. This violent Puritan and bitter enemy of the unfortunate Mary 
 died in 1582. Hume and Robertson have inherited his prejudices. 
 
83 GEXERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 a diabolical desire of revenge upon that occasion, entered into 
 one of the most execrable plots that history has recorded ; it 
 is commonly called tlie Gunpowder Plot, the design of which 
 was, to blow up the royal family and both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, at the very time that the king addressed them from 
 the throne. The atrocity of the treason, and the manner in 
 which it was carried on to the time of its disclosure, leaves 
 little room to doubt that the whole was a political contrivance 
 of Cecil, who had been profoundly lettered in that kind of 
 mischief by his intriguing father, in order to furnish govern- 
 ment with a pretext for persecuting the Catholics. Tresham, 
 one of the conspirators, was well acquainted with Cecil, and 
 is known to have had some communication with him concern- 
 ing the affairs of the Catholics : at the disclosure of the plot, 
 he never attempted to escape, presuming, no doubt, that he 
 was sufficiently protected at court, but, on the contrary, offered 
 his services to apprehend the conspirators. Being, however, 
 seized upon and committed to the Tower, he met with a sud- 
 den death in the course of a few days, before any examination 
 of him had taken place. The physician who attended him 
 pronounced that he died of poison. But whether the treason 
 originated with those wretched men who visibly laboured for 
 its execution, or was suggested to them by Tresham as an 
 emissary of the minister,* the guilt of a few deluded, rash 
 men could not stigmatize the loyalty of the Catholic body at 
 large. The number of the conspirators was only nine ;t five 
 more were executed as having been privy to the plot and not 
 revealing it; among these were two Jesuits, F. F. Garnet, and 
 Tesmond or Greenway, the first of whom was only made ac- 
 quainted with it under the seal of confession, and did all in 
 his power to prevent it ; the second suffered for harbouring 
 him ; a third, by name F. Gerard, who was suspected, on ac- 
 count of his personal knowledge of some of those who were 
 let into the secret, made his escape. No proofs of his guilt 
 could be produced ; and in a letter written to the Right Rev. 
 Dr. Smith, he solemnly protests his entire ignorance of the 
 plot till its detection. J But that Cecil aimed at involving per- 
 
 * See Dodd, vol. 2, p. 395, and his authorities : also Mem. Miss. Priests, 
 vol. 2, p. 476. 
 
 ■j- Among these, seven only appear to have been acquainted with the worst 
 part of it, viz. Catesby, Piercy, Fawkes, Winter, Keyes, Bates, and Tres- 
 ham. See the presumptive proofs of the supposition of Cecil's knowledge 
 of the conspiracy, in Reeve's Christ. Church, vol. 2, century 17th, chap, 2, 
 3, and 4. 
 
 ^ This letter is inserted in Bartoli, Inghilterra, p. 513, in Roma, 1667. 
 
XV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 83 
 
 sons of greater respectability than the rash youths that were 
 engaged in the plot, is evident from the letter written to Lord 
 Monteagle, a young Catholic peer, and which led to its disco- 
 very. Had Monteagle concealed this anonymous letter, which 
 warned him not to attend Parliament on the fatal day, there 
 is no doubt that all the other twenty Catholic peers, who then 
 sat in Parliament, would have received similar advertisements. 
 But he immediately carried it to the secretary himself, who 
 was thereupon obliged to dissolve his plot prematurely. Still, 
 however, he waited till the very day (November 5, 1605) 
 before the sessions, to examine the vault beneath the Parlia- 
 ment-house. The king having by supposed inspiration been 
 enlightened as to the nature of the plot, every thing was then 
 found as Cecil expected ; the conspirators were arrested, and 
 soon destroyed, either fighting or on the scaffold. 
 
 The Earl of Salisbury and the Puritans had now succeeded 
 in their malicious schemes against the Catholics. So sensible 
 was James of the advantages which his minister reaped from 
 the plot, that he ever afterwards called the 5th November, 
 CeciVs Holiday. 
 
 The boasted masterpiece of James was the civilization of 
 Ireland. In order to compass this important business, it was 
 necessary to abolish many of the ancient customs which sup- 
 plied the place of laws, and which were calculated to keep 
 the people forever in a state of barbarism and disorder. By 
 the Brehon custom, every crime, however enormous, might 
 be atoned for by the payment of a fine, levied upon the crimi- 
 nal, and this rate was termed eric. Even murder was com- 
 pensated for in this manner ; and each man, according to his 
 rank, had a certain rate or value affixed to him, which if any 
 one was willing to pay, he need not fear assassinating the object 
 of his dislike. Accordingly, when Sir William Fitzwilliam, 
 while lord deputy, told the chieftain Maguire, that he was to 
 send a sheriff into Fermanagh, which had been subject to the 
 English laws; "Your sheriff," replied Maguire, "shall be 
 welcome to me ; but let me know beforehand his eric, or the 
 price of his head, that if my people should cut it off, I may 
 levy the money upon the county." In this horrible state of 
 affairs, the efforts of James to produce amelioration were un- 
 doubtedly praiseworthy. Abolishing these savage institutions, 
 he substituted the English laws in their stead, declared the 
 natives free citizens, established circuits, and by means of a 
 small army, severely disciplined, kept the country in a state 
 of quiet, hitherto unknown. While the king was thus lauda- 
 
84 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 bly employed, the death of Henry, Prince of Wales, in the 
 eighteenth year of his age, cast a general gloom over the 
 prospects of the nation. This prince seems to have possessed 
 great and real merit. Neither his high birth nor his youth 
 had seduced him into any irregular pleasures : business and 
 ambition were his sole delight ; his disposition was strongly 
 turned to war. The French ambassador, taking leave of him, 
 and asking his commands for France, found him employed in 
 the exercise of the pike. " Tell your king," said Henry, " in 
 what occupation you left me engaged." 
 
 The marriage of the Princess Elizabeth with Frederic, 
 Elector Palatine, which soon after took place, served to dissi- 
 pate the grief which the death of the prince had occasioned 
 throughout the whole kingdom. The court of James, at this 
 period, produced various incidents, which had a considerable 
 effect on public opinion, if not on public happiness. James, 
 amongst many other weaknesses, had one in particular, which 
 drew upon him the odium of the nation; namely, an infatu- 
 ated attachment to young and undeserving favourites. About 
 the end of 1609, Robert Carr, a youth of a good family in 
 Scotland, first appeared in the English court. The charms 
 of his person and the elegance of his manners soon won the 
 heart of James, and, in a short time, he was successively 
 knighted, created Viscount Rochester, and honoured with the 
 garter. Intoxicated, however, by good fortune, he soon gave 
 himself up to the indulgence of every criminal passion, and 
 in a short time he was freed from all restraint by the death of 
 his former friend and counsellor. Sir Thomas Overbury, who 
 is supposed to have fallen by poison, administered at the insti- 
 gation of the earl and his lady. 
 
 1614. — Every effort having been made to raise money by 
 virtue of the prerogative, and always without success, a Parlia- 
 ment was again called ; but that assembly, instead of granting 
 a supply, began with disputing the king's power to levy cus- 
 toms and taxes. His majesty was so provoked, that he dis- 
 solved them without obtaining the object of their convocation. 
 About this period Sir Walter Raleigh, whose enterprising 
 spirit had not been broken by an imprisonment of thirteen 
 years, taking advantage of the abated resentment of his ene- 
 mies, and of the favourable impression of the public, spread 
 a report that he knew of a rich gold mine in Guiana, hoping 
 by this means to recover his liberty ; Raleigh was accordingly 
 released from prison, but without pardon, and obtained per- 
 mission to embark in the hazardous enterprise. No sooner 
 
XV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 85 
 
 was lie arrived, than he sent a detachment under the command 
 of his son and of Captain Kemys, who were fired upon at their 
 landing. The Spaniards had formed a small settlement on the 
 river Oronoko, and built a town called St. Thomas. Raleigh 
 was either not aware of this circumstance before his setting out, 
 or he aflected total ignorance of it. The young Raleigh, irri- 
 tated by his reception, pursued the enemy into the town, which 
 vv as reduced to ashes ; but a shot carried him off in the midst 
 of his career, and Kemys could not be prevailed upon to pro- 
 ceed. Returning to his vessel, he retired to his cabin, and 
 put an end to his life in despair. The other adventurers, 
 thinking themselves duped by Raleigh, hastened back to Eng- 
 land, carrying their leader with them. Raleigh was tried, 
 declared guilty, and the warrant for his execution signed upon 
 the former sentence. He met the blow with resolution ; his 
 address to the people was calm and eloquent; and with the 
 utmost indifference he laid his head on the block, and received 
 the fatal stroke. 
 
 In order to hasten the match between the Princess of 
 Spain and his heir-apparent, James despatched the Earl of 
 Bristol to Philip IV., and matters were, apparently, in a fair 
 train of settlement, when every flattering prospect was blasted 
 by the temerity of Buckingham. The young and ardent mind 
 of Prince Charles eagerly embraced the scheme proposed by 
 Buckingham, of proceeding to Madrid in disguise; and the 
 king having unguardedly given his consent, they set out on 
 this romantic expedition. The Spanish monarch treated 
 Charles with the most flatterinof attentions; but accordino- to 
 the established etiquette, the infanta was only shown to him 
 in public until a dispensation should arrive from Rome. In 
 the mean time Gregory XV. died, and the refusal of the nuncio 
 to deliver the dispensation until it should be renewed by his 
 successor. Urban VIII., caused various delays. The King 
 of England, as well as the prince, became impatient, and the 
 latter, taking his leave, embarked on board the English fleet 
 at St. Andrew, and returned to England. Buckingham, during 
 his residence in Spain, had incurred die hatred of the Spaniards, 
 and he, probably, feeling reciprocal animosity for them, con- 
 curred with the prince in putting an end to the long-protracted 
 negotiation. James having relnctandy entered into the views 
 of the favourite, all thoughts of a union with the infanta were 
 forever laid aside. Soon after this, a treaty of marriage be- 
 tween the Prince of Wales and Henrietta of France being 
 proposed, James entered into the negotiation with so much 
 
 10 
 
86 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 ardour, that it was soon brought to a favourable conclusion. 
 James did not long survive the commencement of hostilities 
 for the recovery of the Palatinate. He met death with calm- 
 ness and fortitude, in the 59th year of his age, and the 22d of 
 his reign over England, March 27th, 1625. The character 
 of James has been variously represented. As a man, he is 
 allowed to have possessed some good qualities; he had a con- 
 siderable share of learning and abilities, but wanting sincerity, 
 as well as that vigour of mind and dignity of manner so 
 essential to the character of a sovereign : as a monarch, he was 
 certainly contemptible. His disposition, naturally lenient, 
 inclined him to alleviate the sufferings of his Catholic subjects, 
 and moderate the fanatical zeal of the puritanical party. 
 Though the prisons were crowded with priests, yet, during 
 the lapse of eleven years, from 1607 to 1618, only sixteen 
 suffered as traitors for the exercise of their functions : but the 
 statute enacted in 1606* had severely aggravated the sufferings 
 of the lay Catholics. The proposal of an ambiguous oath of 
 allegiance, which was received in general by the secular clergy, 
 and by their superior, the Arch-priest Blackwall, rejected 
 mostly by the regulars, and finally censured by the Pope, 
 (Paul V.,) increased the difBculty of their situation. The 
 fines of recusancy continued to be levied with rigour; they 
 were continually summoned to take the disputed oath, and 
 non-attendance was visited with excommunication, and the 
 civil consequences of that ecclesiastical sentence ; while the 
 refusal of the oath subjected them to perpetual imprisonment, 
 and the penalties of a praemunire. 
 
 During the latter part of the reign of James, the great seal 
 was in the hands of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, a man 
 universally admired for the sublimity of his genius, but who 
 had made himself obnoxious to censure by the easiness of his 
 disposition, and the irregular means he had used to obtain 
 money, less indeed on his own account, than to gratify his 
 dependents, whose importunities he could not resist. Being 
 impeached by the Commons, the Peers sentenced him to pay 
 a fine of forty thousand pounds, to be imprisoned in the Tower, 
 and to be forever incapable of holding any office, place, or 
 employment. Bacon, however, was soon released from prison, 
 his fine was remitted, and, in consideration of his intrinsic 
 worth, received a pension of eighteen hundred pounds a year. 
 The short remainder of his life was spent in literary avoca- 
 
 * See the severe penalties enacted by this statute, in Lingard's History 
 of England, reign of James I. 
 
XVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 87 
 
 tions ; and in the greatness of his talents, posterity have al- 
 most forgotten that he had the weaknesses and the failings of 
 a man. 
 
 Charles I., son of James, moimted the throne in the flower 
 of his age. He immediately hastened to call a Parliament, to 
 whom he frankly explained the nature of the engagements he 
 had made with his father, and the sums that would be neces- 
 sary to discharge them, particularly with regard to the opera- 
 tions of the war. But all his efforts were vain; no supplies 
 were to be obtained, and Charles, in order to supply the want 
 of parliamentary aid, was obliged to have recourse to the des- 
 perate and unconstitutional method of issuing privy seals, for 
 borrowing money of his subjects, and of reviving the taxes 
 on tonnage and poundage ; a loan was also required both from 
 the nobility and the city; and the counties, as well as the 
 capital, were compelled to equip a certain number of ships.. 
 This mode of taxation was afterwards productive of very 
 violent discontents. The people complained loudly of the 
 loans which were extorted from them under various forms ; 
 the Commons enumerated the encroachments that had been 
 made on their constitutional liberties, under the name of a 
 " Petition of Rights;" they recurred to the duties of tonnage 
 and poundage, which could only be relinquished for an equi- 
 valent which w^as never offered ; and when the question wa? 
 about to be put on this subject, the speaker rose and declared, 
 " that he had it in command from the king to adjourn." A 
 few days after, the Parliament was dissolved; and it was evi- 
 dent that the king now intended to emancipate himself forever 
 from the control of Parliaments, and to reign without them. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE DEATH OF HENRY IV., TO THE TREATY 
 OF PRAGUE, IN 1635. 
 
 The two great confederacies, called the Catholic League 
 and the Evangelical Union, appeared to be dissolved with the 
 death of Henry IV. ; but the Elector of Brandenburg and his 
 adherents expelled Leopold, and took possession of Cleves and 
 Juliers by force of arms. In this petty quarrel, Spain and 
 the United Provinces interested themselves, and the two great- 
 est generals in Europe were once more opposed to each other; 
 
88 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 Spinola on the part of the Duke of Newburg, who had 
 renounced liUtheranism, and iVIaurice on the side of iim Elector 
 of Brandenburg, who introduced Calvinism into his dominions, 
 to attach the Dutch to his cause. 
 
 1612. — This year died Rodolph II.; he was succeeded by 
 his brother Matthias. The Turks now entered Transylvania: 
 but the extent of the Ottoman dominions, which had so 
 alarmed Christendom, proved its safety. The young and 
 ambitious Achmet, who hoped to signalize the beginning of his 
 reign by the conquest of Hungary, was obliged to recall his 
 forces from that quarter, in order to protect the eastern frontier 
 of his empire; and Matthias obtained, without striking a blow, 
 a peace as advantageous as he could have expected after the 
 most successful war. 
 
 He stipulated for the restitution of Agi'ia, Pest, Buda, and 
 every other place held by the Turks in Hungary. 
 
 1617. — Matthias procured his cousin, Ferdinand de Gratz, 
 Duke of Stiria, to be elected King of Bohemia and acknov/ledged 
 in Hungary, and he engaged the Spanish brancli of the house 
 of Austria to renounce all pretensions to those crowns. This 
 family compact alarmed the Evangelical Union, and occasioned 
 the revolt of the Hungarians and Bohemians. Thus was 
 kindled a furious ci\dl war, which was not extinguished till 
 the peace of Westphalia. Amid these disorders died the 
 Emperor Matthias, (in 1619,) and Ferdinand de Gratz was 
 raised to the vacant throne. The Bohemians chose Frederic 
 V. Elector Palatine. Frederic, seduced by his flatterers, 
 unwisely accepted of the crown, notwithstanding the remon- 
 strances of James I. of England, his father-in-law. Frederic 
 was seconded by most of the Protestant princes ; but Ferdi- 
 nand, assisted by the Catholic princes of the empire, by the 
 King of Spain and the Archduke Albert, was more than a 
 match for his enemies. Frederic was totally routed near 
 Prague, (1620,) and degraded from his electoral dignity, which 
 was conferred on the Duke of Bavaria. 
 
 While the house of Austria was thus extending its authority 
 in Germany, the Spanish branch of that family was endeavour- 
 ing to render itself absolute in Italy. In the midst of these 
 ambitious schemes, to which he was himself little inclined, 
 died Philip HI., 1621. Philip IV., his son and successor, was 
 more enterprising, and the abilities of Olivarez, the new minis- 
 ter, were far superior to those of the Duke of Lerma, who had 
 directed all in the last reign. The ambition of Olivarez was 
 yet greater than his capacity. He made his master assume 
 
XVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 89 
 
 the surname of Great, and thought himself bound to justify 
 this appellation. He hoped to raise the house of Austria to 
 that absolute dominion in Europe, for which it had been so 
 long struggling. In prosecution of this bold plan, he resolved 
 to maintain the closest alliance with the emperor; to make 
 him despotic in Germany, to keep possession of the Vallelline, 
 to humble the Italian powers, and reduce the United Provinces 
 to subjection, the truce being now expired. 
 
 The minority of Lewis XIII. had been a constant scene of 
 faction and domestic broils. In 1620, Lewis having, by a 
 solemn edict, united the principality of Beam, the hereditary 
 estate of his family, to the crown of France, attempted to re- 
 establish the Catholic religion in that province. The Hugue- 
 nots, alarmed, assembled atRochelle and determined to erect a 
 republic after the example of the Protestants in the Low 
 Countries : but upon a confirmation of the edict of Nantes, 
 peace was again concluded, in 1622. The French councils 
 now began to assume more vigour. Cardinal Richelieu no 
 sooner got a share in the administration, than, turning his eyes 
 on the state of Europe, he formed three mighty projects; to 
 subdue the turbulent spirit of the French nobility, to reduce^ 
 the rebellious Huguenots, and to curb the power of the house 
 of Austria. Hence it was necessary to keep peace with Eng- 
 land, and Richelieu accordingly negotiated a treaty of marriage 
 between Charles, Prince of Wales, and Henrietta Maria, sister 
 of Lewis XIII. : he also negotiated with England and Holland 
 that alliance which brought on hostilities with Spain. (1624.) 
 In consequence of these negotiations, preparations were made 
 for the restoration of the Palatine, and Christian IV. of Den- 
 mark was declared head of the confederation. About the same 
 time, a French army, with the Venetians and the Duke of 
 Savoy, recovered the Valtelline, which had been sequestered 
 to the Pope, and restored it to the Grisons. 
 
 Meanwhile, the house of Austria was neither inactive nor 
 unfortunate. Spinola reduced Breda, one of the strongest 
 towns in the Netherlands, in spite of all the efforts of Prince 
 Maurice, who died of chagrin before the place surrendered. 
 The English failed in their attempt upon Cadiz, the embarka- 
 tion of their troops at Dover proved abortive, and the King of 
 Denmark was defeated by the Imperialists near Northeira. 
 This ill success of the English cooled their ardour for foreign 
 enterprises, and Richelieu found for a time enough to occupy 
 his genius at home. He had not only to quiet the Huguenots, 
 who again rebelled, but a powerful faction at court to oppose. 
 
 10* 
 
90 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 Not one prince of the blood was licartily his friend. Gaston, 
 Duke of Orleans, the kinj^^'s brotiier, was his declared enemy; 
 the queen-mother liersclf was jealous of him, and Lewis was 
 attached to him rather from motives of interest than of afleclion. 
 But the bold and ambitious spirit of Jtichelieu triumphed over 
 every obstacle; it discovered and dissipated the cabals formed 
 against him, and at length made him absolute master of the 
 king and kingdom. 
 
 1027. — During these cabals in the French court, tlie Hugue- 
 nots showed once more a disposition to render themselves 
 independent, and in that spirit th(;y were encouraged by t!ie 
 court of England. As Lewis XIIL was wholly governed hy 
 Richelieu, and Philip IV. by Olivarez, Charles L was in like 
 manner governed by the Duke of Buckingham, who now 
 engaged his master to declare war against France. The 
 Huguenots had been deprived of many of tbeir cautionary 
 towns, and forts were erecting in order to bridle Rochelle, 
 their most consideral)lo bulwark. Buckingham appeared 
 before that place with an army of 7,000 men, and a fleet of a 
 liundred sail; but so ill contrived were his measures, that the 
 inhabitants of that city shut their gates against him, and refused 
 to admit allies of whose coming they were not previously 
 informed. This blunder was followed by another. Instead 
 of attacking Oleron, a fertile island and defenceless, he made 
 a descent on the Isle of Rhe, well garrisoned and fortified. 
 He allowed the governor to amuse him with a negotiation, till 
 the principal fort was provided for a siege; and guarded the 
 sea so negligently, that a French army stole over in small 
 divisions and" obliged him to retreat to his ships. He was tlie 
 last man that eml)arked, and having lost two-thirds of his 
 forces, returned to England, bringing home with him no r(!pu- 
 tation but that of personal courage. This ill-concerted enter- 
 prise proved fatal to the power of the French Protestants. 
 The siege of Rochelle was now regularly formed, and conducted 
 with vigour by Lewis and the cardinal in person. The latter, 
 finding it impossible to reduce the place, while the communi- 
 cation remained open by sea, attempted to shut up the harbour 
 by stakes and by a boom. These methods proving ineflectual, 
 he recollected what Alexander had performed at the siege of 
 Tyre, and finished a mole of a mile's length across a gulf, into 
 wliich the sea rolled with an impetuosity that seemed to bid 
 defiance to all the works of man. The place being now 
 blockaded on all sides, the inhabitants were obliged to surren- 
 der, after suflering all the miseries of famine and war during a 
 
XVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 9l 
 
 siege of almost twelve months. Cardinal Richelieu then 
 marched against the Protestants in the other provinces of 
 France; destroyed all their fortifications, and took from them 
 their cautionary towns, but confirmed to them the possession 
 of their estates and other privileges. From this era we may 
 date the aggrandisement of the French monarchy in latter 
 times, and the absolute power of its princes. Richelieu's 
 system, however, was not yet complete. No sooner had he 
 subdued tlie Protestants in France, than he resolved to support 
 them in Germany, that he might be enabled by their means 
 to set bounds to the power of the house of Austria. 
 
 Ferdinand II., whom we have seen triumphant over the 
 Palatine and the Evangelical Union, continued to carry every 
 thing before him in the empire. The King of Denmark and 
 the League in Lower Saxony were unable to withstand his 
 armies under Tilly and Wallenstein. The Danish monarch, 
 after repeated defeats, was obliged to sue for peace, and the 
 emperor found himself possessed of absolute authority. But 
 Ferdinand attempting to revive the imperial jurisdiction in 
 Italy, Richelieu passed the Alps at the head of 20,000 men, 
 gained several advantages over the Spaniards and Imperialists, 
 and obliged the emperor to grant the investiture of Mantua and 
 Montserrat to the Duke of Nevers. (1G30.) The Duke of 
 Savoy and Spinola died during these transactions, and an 
 accommodation between France and the empire was partly 
 negotiated by Julio Mazarin, who now first appeared on the 
 theatre of the world as an ecclesiastic and a politician. The 
 Protestants, in the mean time, secredy formed an alliance with 
 Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden. Eric Vasa, the son 
 and successor of Gustavus, proving a dissolute and cruel 
 prince, had been dethroned and imprisoned by the states of 
 Sweden in 1568. He was succeeded by his brother John, 
 who, after attempting in vain to re-establish the Catholic 
 religion, died in 1592, and left the crown to his son Sigismond, 
 already elected King of Poland. Sigismond, like his father, 
 being a zealous Catholic, the Swedes deposed him, and raised 
 to the sovereignty his uncle, Charles IX. The Poles attempted, 
 in vain, to restore Sigismond to the throne of Sweden : Charles 
 swayed the sceptre till his death, and was succeeded in 1611 
 by his son, the celebrated Gustavus Adolphus. 
 
 Russia, during that period, was a prey to civil wars. John 
 Basilowitz II. dying, left two sons, Theodore and Demetrius. 
 Theodore succeeded his father on the throne, and, at the insti- 
 gation of Boris, his prime minister, ordered his brother Deme- 
 
92 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 trius to be murdered. He himself died soon after, and Boris 
 was proclaimed sovereign. Meanwhile a young man appeared 
 in Lithuania, under the name and character of Prince Deme- 
 trius, pretending that he had escaped out of the hands of the 
 assassin. Assisted by a Polish army, he entered Moscow in 
 1605, and was proclaimed Czar without opposition, Boris 
 being now dead. This Demetrius was, on the day of his 
 marriage, slain, with most of his Polish attendants, who had 
 rendered him obnoxious to the Russians ; and Zuski, a noble- 
 man who had fomented the insurrection, was declared his 
 successor. But scarcely was Zuski seated on the throne, when 
 a second Demetrius made his appearance, and after his death 
 a third. Poland and Sweden took part in the quarrel, Zuski 
 was delivered up to the Poles, and Demetrius was massacred 
 by the Tartars. But a fourth and even a fifth Demetrius ap- 
 peared, and Russia, during these struggles, was repeatedly 
 ravaged by opposite factions and foreign troops. At length, 
 Michael Theodorowitz, son of Romanow, Bishop of Roston, 
 afterwards patriarch, related, in the female line, to the Czar 
 John Basilowitz, was raised to the throne ; and this prince 
 having concluded a peace with Sweden and Poland in 1618, 
 restored tranquillity to Russia, and transmitted the crown to his 
 descendants. 
 
 Denmark affords nothing that merits our attention during the 
 reign of Frederic XL, who succeeded his father. Christian III., 
 in 1558 ; nor during the reign of his son and successor, Chris- 
 tian IV., before he was chosen General of the League in Lower 
 Saxony. Sweden alone, during those times, of all the northern 
 kingdoms, yields a spectacle worthy of observation. No 
 sooner was Gustavus seated on the throne, though only eighteen 
 years of age at his accession, than he signalized himself by his 
 exploits against the Danes, the ancient enemies of his crown. 
 In a war against Russia, he subdued almost all Finland, and 
 secured to himself the possession of his conquests by a treaty. 
 His cousin, Sigismond, King of Poland, refusing peace when 
 offered by Gustavus, the latter overran Livonia, Prussia, and 
 Pomerania. An advantageous truce of six years, concluded 
 with Poland, in 1629, gave him leisure to make war against 
 the emperor, for which his chief motives were his love of glory 
 and his zeal for Lutheranism. He laid his design before the 
 states of Sweden, and negotiated with France, England, and 
 Holland. (1630.) Charles I. sent him supplies of men, and 
 Richelieu promised an annual subsidy of 1,200,000 livres. 
 Gustavus entered Pomerania, and made himself master of 
 
XVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 93 
 
 Frankfort-on-tlie-Oder, Colberg, and several other places. To 
 put an end to the irresolution of the Protestant Princes, who 
 were afraid to join him, he summoned the Elector of Branden- 
 burg- to declare himself openly in three days, but receiving an 
 evasive answer, he marched directly to Berlin. This conduct 
 had the desired effect. The gates -svere thrown open, and he 
 was received as a friend. He was soon after joined by the 
 Landgrave of Hesse and the Elector of Saxony. In 1631 he 
 inarched towards Leipsic, where Tilly lay encamped. That 
 experienced general advanced into the plains of Breitenfield, 
 where Gustavus, by his conduct and the superior valour of the 
 Swedes, gained a complete victory. The conqueror was now 
 joined by all the members of the Evangelical Union, and made 
 himself master of the whole country from the Elb to the 
 ■Rhine, comprehending near 100 leagues, full of fortified towns. 
 In the mean time, the Elector of Saxony entered Bohemia and 
 took Prague, and Tilly was killed in disputing with the 
 Swedes the passage of the Lech. The next year, 1632, 
 Gustavus reduced Augsburg, and there re-established Luther- 
 anism. He then marched into Bavaria and took Munich. 
 During these transactions, the renowned imperial general, 
 Wallenstein, who had been for some time in disgrace, but was 
 now restored to the chief command, recovered Prague and the 
 greatest part of Bohemia. Gustavus offered him battle, near 
 Nuremberg, but he declined it; the king was repulsed in 
 attempting to force his entrenchments, and a masterly retreat 
 alone could save him from a total overthrow. That service 
 was chiefly performed by an old Scotch colonel, named Hep- 
 burn, who had resigned his commission in disgust, but was 
 present at this assault. To him Gustavus applied in his dis- 
 tress, and trusting to the colonel's natural generosity, he was 
 not deceived. Hepburn's pride overcame his resentment : he 
 rushed into the thickest of the battle, delivered the orders of 
 Gustavus to his army, and conducted the retreat with so much 
 order and ability, that the Imperialists durst not give him the 
 smallest disturbance. Gustavus afterwards attacked Wallen- 
 stein in the wide plain of Lutzen, near Leipsic, where a great 
 batde was fought, and the Swedish monarch lost his life in the 
 height of a complete victory, which was improved by Bernard 
 of Saxe AVeymar, his lieutenant-general. The Swedes, though 
 victorious, were overwhelmed with sorrow for the loss of their 
 heroic prince, whose daughter and successor was only six 
 years of age. A council of regency, however, being appointed, 
 and the management of the war committed to the Chancellor 
 
94 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Oxenstiern, the Protestant confederacy still wore a formidable 
 aspect; hostilities were continued during the following year 
 with vigour and success, by the Generals Banner and Horn. 
 
 1634. — The emperor now became jealous of the vast pow- 
 er he had granted to Wallenstein, and resolved to deprive him 
 of the command; and Wallenstein, perhaps, to prevent his 
 disgrace, is said to have concerted the means of a revolt. It 
 is at least certain that he was assassinated, and was succeeded 
 in the command of the Imperial army by the emperor's eldest 
 son, the King of Hungary. Both armies were reinforced 
 from every quarter, and met again, after various success, near 
 Nordlingen, in Swabia ; where was fought one of the most 
 obstinate and bloody battles recorded in history, and where 
 the Swedes were totally routed, in spite of their most vigorous 
 efforts. This defeat threw the members of the Evangelical 
 Union into the utmost consternation and despair, and brought 
 on a treaty which was signed at Prague, (1635,) by all the 
 Protestant princes, except the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel. 
 By this treaty, the exercise of the Protestant religion was 
 freely permitted in all the dominions of the empire, except 
 the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the provinces belonging to the 
 house of Austria; and a mutual restitution.was to take place of 
 all that had been conquered since the irruption of Gustavus 
 into the empire. 
 
 CHAPTER XVH. 
 
 ENGLAND, FROM 1628, TO THE DEATH OF CHARLES I., IN 1649. 
 
 The ill success of the enterprise against Rochelle helped 
 to increase the discontents of the English ; their commerce, 
 which had been injured by the Spanish, was ruined by the 
 French war, while the glory of the nation was tarnished, and 
 its safety threatened, by the forces of two powerful monarch- 
 ies. At such a season, Charles and Buckingham must have 
 dreaded, above all things, the calling of a Parliament ; yet the 
 necessity of supply, and the danger of forcing another loan, 
 obliged them to have recourse to that expedient. It was soon 
 found that the new members were equally independent with 
 the old, and that the resentment of past injuries was neither 
 weakened nor forgotten ; yet they entered upon business with 
 no less temper and decorum, than vigour and ability. A vote 
 was unanimously passed against arbitrary imprisonments, and 
 
XVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 95 
 
 forced loans. In return for this concession, a supply of five 
 subsidies was voted with apparent good will, but though voted, 
 was not immediately passed into a law, and the Commons 
 were resolved to employ the interval in providing some barriers 
 to their liberties so lately violated. An immunity from such 
 invasion they alleged to be the inherent right of the subject; 
 therefore, the demand was denominated a ^''Petition of rights 
 As this seemed to infringe the prerogative, it was not without 
 much difficulty and many evasions, that the royal assent could 
 be obtained. The Commons continued their scrutiny into 
 every department of government, and made so many demands, 
 that Charles, finding that one concession only led to others, 
 suddenly prorogued the Parliament. 
 
 An armament having been prepared for the relief of Rochelle, 
 Buckingham repaired to Portsmouth, resolved once more to 
 display his prowess on the coast of France ; but this enter- 
 prise was obstructed by an enthusiast, named Thomas Felton, 
 who having met with some disappointment in his hopes of 
 promotion, inflamed with resentment, and taught by the public 
 voice to consider Buckingham as the cause of all the national 
 grievances, assassinated him while he was conversing with 
 some officers. 
 
 1629. — The Parliament assembled again, in January, when 
 they proceeded to question the legality of levying tonnage 
 and poundage, without the consent of the representatives of 
 the people, a right which they had not granted to the king, 
 though it had been given to each of his predecessors, since 
 Henry V., and had usually been voted by the first Parliament 
 of each reign. But, determined to reduce Charles to a state 
 of dependence, instead of conferring it on him for life, they 
 had only voted it for one year. He did not, however, imme- 
 diately break with them on their delay of granting him the 
 contested duties ; but when, instead of listening to his earnest 
 solicitations for supply, they proceeded to carry their scrutiny 
 into his management of religion, his indignation was roused, 
 and he dissolved the Parliament with a determined resolution 
 never to call another, unless he could see indications of a more 
 compliant disposition in the nation. He ordered those popular 
 leaders who had been most active in the late tumult in the 
 House of Commons, to be taken into custody. Some of them 
 were fined, and condemned to find sureties for their good 
 behaviour. In the midst of so many domestic difficulties, and 
 utterly destitute of money, Charles submitted to necessity, 
 and concluded a peace with France and Spain. (1630.) Sir 
 
96 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Thomas Went worth, created Earl of Stafford, whom he had 
 detached from the republican party, became now his prime 
 minister. The eminent abilities and unshaken fidelity of this 
 nobleman, merited all the confidence which his royal master 
 reposed in him ; but in proportion as he became honoured at 
 court, he was detested by the opposite party. The alliance 
 of Charles with a Catholic princess, had procured the Catho- 
 lics a temporary relief from the penal laws. Some of the 
 Protestant bishops, particularly Laud, when he was advanced 
 to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury in 1633, seemed to 
 favour Catholic principles. The king's preachers openly 
 commended them from the pulpit. This show of moderation 
 in the Protestant clergy, furnished the dissenters with ample 
 matter of declamation against the Catholic as well as the esta- 
 blished church. They represented both as the enemies of 
 liberty, and the obstinate supporters of the high prerogatives 
 of the crown. Popery, the watchword of popular commotions, 
 never failed of its effect. In this the puritanic faction had a 
 double view ; the one to draw the attention of government 
 from the dissenters, the other to stigmatize the Catholics, by 
 charging them with the very traitorous design, wliich they 
 themselves were preparing to execute. 
 
 In the mean time, it appeared that Charles was resolved to 
 reign without a Parliament. He continued his unconstitutional 
 expedient of raising money ; compositions were made with 
 nonconformists ; the Star Chamber and high commission court 
 exercised their arbitrary severities upon several offenders, 
 who only gloried in their sufferings, and contributed to render 
 government odious and contemptible. Among the other taxes, 
 that of ship-money had been revived, and levied upon the 
 whole kingdom. (1637.) It was refused by a private gentle- 
 man named John Hampden, though the sum at which he was 
 rated did not exceed twenty shillings. His cause was argued 
 in the Exchequer Chamber before all the judges in England ; 
 he lost it, but the applauses of the people more than recom- 
 pensed his conduct. Hampden died fighting against his king 
 in 1643. 
 
 While the minds of men underwent this fermentation in 
 England, a more dangerous spirit made its appearance in Scot- 
 land. Charles pursued his father's system of introducing 
 episcopacy into that kingdom, and with that view visited his 
 native country in 1633, and made a violent attempt t(J»get his 
 authority acknowledged there in ecclesiastical matters. His 
 proclamation to order the use of the liturgy, (1637,) occasioned 
 
XVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 97 
 
 the formation of the famous association known by the name 
 of tlie Cjvenanf, in which were comprehended all orders of 
 men in the state. It required an engagement upon oath to 
 defend the Presbyterian worship against Popery, and to reject 
 all innovations whatever. To enable him to oppose the 
 Scotch rebels, Charles was obliged to call an English Parlia- 
 ment, after an interval of eleven years. (1640.) The Commons, 
 as might have been expected, insisted that the redress of 
 grievances should be taken first into consideration ; and Charles, 
 finding his friends in the House outnumbered by his enemies, 
 came to the hasty resolution of dissolving this Parliament, as 
 he had done the preceding ones. Frustrated in the hope of 
 a legitimate supply, he was obliged to have recourse to other 
 measures to oppose the Covenanters, who, having taken a de- 
 tachment of the king's troops, had made themselves masters 
 of Newcastle. The Earl of Strafford opposed all conciliatory 
 measures, and advised the king to hazard a battle, but his 
 advice was not followed. A conference was entered upon by 
 commissioners of both parties, and a treaty agreed upon. In 
 compliance with the general wish of his subjects, Charles 
 again assembled a Parliament. Its first measure was to im- 
 peach his minister, Strafford. Twenty-eight articles were 
 exhibited against this unfortunate nobleman, and a committee 
 appointed to scrutinize his conduct in every particular. Straf- 
 ford was at that time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,* which he 
 governed as a conquered kingdom. During his administration 
 as deputy, when Lord Went worth, complaints of his harsh, 
 imperious, and unjust conduct, had reached the ear of the 
 English monarch ; but his influence over the mind of his royal 
 master was proof against all the efforts of his enemies. On 
 the present occasion, the Irish committee were directed to ad- 
 dress themselves to the king; but they seem to have been 
 privately instructed to apply to the English House of Com- 
 mons. Contrary to his own sentiments, and relying on the 
 protection and promises of the king, by whose authority he 
 seems to have acted, Strafford attended Parliament and was 
 immediately arrested. Though no distinct charge of high 
 
 * At the beginning of Charles's reign, while Lord Falkland was deputy, 
 the Irish Catholics met with some indulgence. But it was of short duration. 
 The Puritans beset the English cabinet with complaints of his administra- 
 tion, and the king sacrificed a faithful servant to the intrigues of enemies. 
 Falkland was recalled. Under his successors, Viscount Ely and the Earl 
 of Cork, two lord justices, the penal statutes were rigorously enforced and 
 a system of terrorism again adopted. 
 
 11 
 
98 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 treason could be proved against him, he was declared guilty, and 
 his death was demanded with the loudest clamours by an in- 
 censed populace. The king at last reluctantly signified his 
 consent by a bill of commission, and the earl was beheaded at 
 Tower-hill. (1641.) Charles soon after sanctioned a bill still 
 more fatal to his interests, by which Parliament could neither 
 be adjourned nor dissolved without their own consent. The 
 right of granting tonnage and poundage v/as forever vested in 
 the Commons ; the Star-Chamber and high commission courts 
 were abolished ; the demolition of crucifixes, altars, and 
 images, enacted; all religious ceremonies rejected as savouring 
 of Popery ; triennial Parliaments established, and, in short, the 
 kingly power reduced almost to a shadow. Charles soon 
 after visited Scotland, where he sanctioned all the decrees of 
 the Covenanters ; but while he was thus conciliating the affec- 
 tions of his Scottish subjects, he received intelligence that a 
 rebellion had broken out in Ireland. Goaded by the persecu- 
 tions of the Puritans, who were headed by the Lords Chief 
 Justices Parsons and Borlase, and threatened the extinction 
 of loyalty as well as of the Catholic religion, the Irish broke 
 out into open rebellion, and retaliated upon their oppressors 
 the cruelties which they themselves had so dreadfully ex- 
 perienced. Instead of assisting the loyal Catholics to suppress 
 the northern insurgents, the lords justices employed all their 
 power to drive the rest of the kingdom into a similar insurrec- 
 tion, for the base purpose of sequestrating the estates of those 
 who should engage in it. Charles, unable to put a stop to 
 these disorders, once more applied to the Commons ; who, in- 
 stead of aflbrding assistance, insinuated that he had himself 
 fomented the rebellion. Every measure pursued by them 
 from this time evinced their determined resolution to subvert 
 the whole civil and religious government. Their first attack 
 vvas against episcopacy, which they knew to be one of the 
 strongest bulwarks of the regal power ; they impeached thirteen 
 bishops for high treason, which measure induced their lord- 
 ships all to leave the House, having entered a protest against 
 every thing that should be transacted in their absence. A 
 precipitate impeachment of five of the most turbulent members 
 by the king in person, completed his unpopularity, and his 
 subsequent submission to his Commons rendered him con- 
 temptible. Taking with him his two sons, he retired to York : 
 the queen had already taken refuge in Holland. There she 
 resided with her daughter Mary, who had been given in mar- 
 riage to the Prince of Orange. 
 
XVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 99 
 
 On the appearance of civil commotion in England, the 
 Princes Rupert and Maurice, sons to the unfortunate Palatine, 
 and nephews to Charles, offered him their services. The for- 
 mer was made general of the horse. The king erected his 
 royal standard in 1641, and invited all his faithful subjects to 
 come forward in defence of his crown. The Catholics, though 
 fettered with penal laws for their religion, and branded with 
 the repute of disaffection towards a Protestant sovereign, 
 hastened among the foremost to testify their loyalty. They 
 levied troops at their own expense, they sacrificed their 
 property and lives for the king and constitution, and this at a 
 time when many of their clergy were iniquitously dragged to 
 prison, and from prison to the gallows, merely for their reli- 
 gion. 
 
 1642. — Edge Hill, in Warwickshire, was the first place 
 where the two armies were drawn out in array : the Earl of 
 Essex commanded the parliamentary forces. After an en- 
 gagement of some hours, they separated Avith nearly equal loss. 
 The first campaign was favourable to the king, but the Parlia- 
 ment was not discouraged. They united in a league of mutual 
 defence with the Scotch Covenanters, while Charles received 
 a reinforcement of Irish troops. In order to preserve the ap- 
 pearance of a Parliament, the king had summoned to Oxford 
 (1644) the members who adhered to his interest. A great 
 majority of peers attended him, but the Commons were scarcely 
 half so numerous as those who sat at Westminster. An ac- 
 count of the different battles and skirmishes that took place 
 between the two armies, during the space of eight years, would 
 far exceed our narrow limits. The battle of Marston Moor 
 was the beginning of the king's misfortunes. The Scottish 
 and parliamentarian army had united, and were besieging 
 York, when Prince Rupert determined to give them battle. 
 The Royalists were opposed by Oliver Cromwell, who now 
 came into notice, and succeeded in breaking their right wing. 
 They returned to a second engagement, no less furious than 
 the first. The king's artillery was taken, and his army pushed 
 off the field. Prince Rupert retired to Lancashire, and Lord 
 Fairfax (a parliamentarian general) fixed his residence in York, 
 while the Scottish army, marching north, laid siege to New- 
 castle, and carried it by assault. Archbishop Laud, who had 
 long been confined in the Tower, was this year (1645) sacri- 
 ficed to the vengeance of his enemies. 
 
 In the mean time a new sect began to discover itself 
 among the Presbyterians, called the Independents ; their aim 
 
100 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 was a total abolition of the monarchical, and even of the aristo- 
 cratical branch of the English constitution. Of conrse, they 
 were declared enemies to all proposals for peace, which had 
 been so often made by the king. The obstinate battle which 
 decided the fate of Charles, was fought at Naseby, a village 
 in Yorkshire, on the 14th of June. The king himself com- 
 manded the main body of the royal army, and displayed in the 
 action all the conduct of an experienced general, and all the 
 courage of a gallant soldier. Victory, however, declared for 
 Cromwell ; near 5,000 of the royalists were taken prisoners, 
 and all their baggage, artillery, and ammunition, fell into the 
 hands of the enemy. After the batde of Naseby, the king's 
 affairs went to ruin so fast in all quarters, that he sent the 
 Prince of Wales abroad to join the queen his mother at Paris, 
 while he himself retreated into Wales, in hopes of raising a body 
 of troops in that loyal but exhausted country. In the mean 
 time, the parliamentary generals and the Scots made them- 
 selves masters of almost every place of importance in the 
 kingdom. Prince Rupert, who had thrown himself into 
 Bristol, had promised to hold out four months, yet he surren- 
 dered at the first summons. Charles, astonished at this unex- 
 pected event, recalled the prince's commissions, and ordered 
 him to quit the kingdom. To crown the king's misfortunes, 
 the gallant Marquis of Montrose, who, with a body of High- 
 landers, had for some time supported the royal cause in Scot- 
 land, was this year defeated. The civil war continued in 
 Ireland, long after the king had commanded a cessation of 
 arms, and appointed his deputy, the Marquis of Ormond, to 
 negotiate with the confederated Irish. Though thoroughly 
 convinced of their loyalty, this nobleman, unwilling to concede 
 in full the demands of the Irish Catholics, who stipulated for 
 the free exercise of their religion, delayed the peace till it was 
 rendered unavailing, by the imprisonment of his majesty. It 
 was not concluded till 1G48. 
 
 Afraid of falling into the hands of his insolent enemies, and 
 of being led in triumph by them, Charles (in 1646) resolved 
 to throw himself on the generosity of the Scots : without 
 sufficiently reflecting, that he must by such a step disgust his 
 English subjects of all denominations, and that the Scottish 
 covenanters were not only his declared enemies, but were now 
 acting as auxiliaries to the English Parliament. The Scottish 
 generals affected great surprise at the appearance of Charles, 
 though previously acquainted with his design; and while they 
 treated him with the exterior respect due to his dignity, the}'- 
 
XVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 101 
 
 made him in reality a prisoner, and soon after (1647) delivered 
 him up to the English Parliament, on condition of bemg paid 
 their arrears, which were compounded at i^400,000 sterling. 
 
 The civil war was now over. The Scots returned to their 
 own country, and every one submitted to the authority of the 
 ruling powers. But the dominion of the Parliament was of 
 short^Iuration. The power of the Independents became daily 
 greater; and having obtained the command^of the army, tumbled 
 the Parliament from its slippery throne. This was the crisis 
 for Cromwell to lay the foundation of his future greatness ; 
 and he did not fail to take advantage of it. Heavy taxes ex- 
 cited discontents among the people, and the army, though 
 commanded by Parliament, was unwilling to disband. , In 
 opposition, that of Westminster, a kind of military parliament 
 was formed, consisting of a council of the principal officers 
 and of two private men from each troop or company, under 
 the tide of Agitators. Still more to strengthen their party, 
 they sent a party of horse to Holmby Casde in Northumber- 
 land, where the king was confined, who conducted the 
 monarch to the rendezvous of the army near Cambridge. 
 Charles was more inclined to negotiate with the council of 
 officers than with the Parliament, whose rigour he had severely 
 felt, because the former neither insisted on the abolition oi 
 episcopacy, nor on the punishment of the royalists ; the very 
 points he was unwilling to yield, ana had refused to the Long Par- 
 liament. He was soon after conducted to Hampton Court, when^ 
 he lived for a time with an appearance of dignity and freedom. 
 But Cromwell's ambitious views were not consistent with the 
 restoration of the monarchy ; by doubling the king's guards 
 and rendering his situation uneasy to him, they induced him 
 to take the imprudent resolution of withdrawing himself from 
 Hampton Court. He retired to the Isle of Wight, where he 
 was made a prisoner by the governor, and confined in Caris- 
 brooke Casde. Cromwell, in the mean time, had led his troops 
 to London; reduced the Parliament to submission by force; 
 quelled an insurrection in the army, by punishing the ring- 
 leaders with exemplary severity, and routed the Scots, who, 
 being alarmed at the subjection of Parliament to the military, 
 had marched a considerable army southward, under the com- 
 mand of the Marquis of Hamilton. But the Parliament, though 
 deprived of all hopes of succeeding, were still determined to 
 resist, and attempted to proceed in the setdement of the kingdom. 
 (1648.) This was the time for the generals to interpose, and 
 they knew it. Next morning, when the Commons were to 
 
 11* 
 
102 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 meet, Colonel Pride, formerly a drayman, entered the house 
 with a party of soldiers, seized in the passage forty-one mem- 
 bers of the Presbyterian party, and excluded a hundred and 
 fifty more.* The furious Independents remained, who passed 
 a vote declaring it high treason in a king to levy war against 
 his Parliament, and appointing a high court of justice, to try 
 Charles Stuart for that crime. The bill was thrown out by 
 the Peers, but the Commons nevertheless proceeded; and 
 Colonel Harrison, who was the son of a butcher, and the most 
 furious demagogue in England, received orders to conduct his 
 sovereign to London. 
 
 1649. — The court assembled at Westminster. Cromwell 
 and Ireton were among the judges ; Cook was the accuser in 
 the name of the nation, and Bradshaw was president of the 
 tribunal. Charles appeared amidst his enemies with his hair 
 grown gray through misfortune, and with a serene tranquillity. 
 Having been accustomed during eighteen months to ruminate 
 on the deceptions of life in the gloom of a solitary prison, he 
 no longer hoped for any thing from mankind ; being con- 
 ducted to a chair within the bar, he took his seat with his hat 
 on, and surveyed his judges with an air of dignified disdain. 
 It would be difficult to imagine a conduct more noble and in- 
 trepid than he displayed. Three times was Charles produced 
 before the court, and as often declined its jurisdiction. On 
 the fourth, the judges having examined some witnesses, ad- 
 judged him to suffer death, as a traitor, assassin, tyrant, and 
 enemy of the republic. Firm and composed in all his appear- 
 ances before his judges, the unfortunate monarch never forgot 
 himself either as a prince or as a man ; nor did he discover 
 any emotion at this extraordinary sentence, but seemed to look 
 down with a mixture of pity and contempt on all the efforts 
 of human malice and iniquity. Three days were allowed him 
 to prepare for his fate. These he passed in great tranquillity, 
 and every night slept as sound as usual amidst the noise of 
 workmen employed in framing the scaffold. Charles, tliough 
 thus oppressed by a rebellious faction and insulted by the sol- 
 diers, who even spit in his face, was not suffered to die with- 
 out the tear of compassion, or the interposition of friendly 
 powers. The people now avowed him for their monarch by 
 their generous sorrow ; nor could they forbear pouring forth 
 their prayers for his preservation, notwithstanding the rod of 
 tyranny that hung over them. The French and Dutch am- 
 
 * This invasion of parliamentary privilege passed by the name of Piide\ 
 Purge, and the remaining members were called the Rump. 
 
XVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUT^n^F 103 
 
 bassadors interposed in his behalf; the Scots exclaimed and 
 protested against the intended violence ; the queen and the 
 Prince of Wales wrote pathetic letters to the Parliament. But 
 all their solicitations were in vain. Charles obtained permis- 
 sion to take his last leave of the Princess Elizabeth and the 
 Duke of Gloucester, who alone of his family remained in Eng- 
 land. On the 30th January he was conducted to the scaffold, 
 erected in the sight of his palace ; care was taken to surround 
 the place of sacrifice with a large body of soldiers, for fear that 
 the victim's voice might reach the people, who were ranged 
 at a distance in mournful silence. Charles, perceiving that he 
 could not make himself heard, wished at least when he died to 
 leave posterity an awful lesson. He addressed himself to the 
 few pprsons around him, and vindicated himself from the accu- 
 sation of having commenced war against his Parliament. But, 
 although innocent towards his people, he acknowledged the 
 equity of his sentence in the eye of Heaven, and observed that 
 an unjust sentence which he had suffered to take effect upon 
 the Earl of Strafford was now punished by an unjust sentence 
 upon himself.-^ Having made this avowal, he resolutely laid 
 his head upon the block, and the executioner severed it from 
 his body at a single blow. At this sight, grief, terror, and 
 indignation took possession of the astonished spectators ; each 
 one seemed to accuse himself either of active disloyalty to his 
 murdered sovereign, or of tamely witnessing so horrid a 
 catastrophe, which had fixed an indelible stain upon the charac- 
 ter of the nation, and must expose it to the vengeance of an 
 offended Deity. The sufferings, piety, patience, and magna- 
 nimity of Charles, made all his errors be forgotten ; and 
 nothing was now to be heard but lamentations and self-reproach. 
 He was a sincere admirer of the fine arts, and a liberal en- 
 courager of those who pursued them. As a man, his character 
 was unexceptionable ; and he was allowed to be an excellent 
 father, husband, master, and friend. He suffered in the 48th 
 year of his age, and was buried at Windsor. 
 
 * It being remarked tliat the king, the moment before the execution, had 
 emphatically pronounced the word remember, the generals insisted upon 
 Bishop Juxton's informing them of its latent meaning. The bishop told them 
 that the king had frequently charged him to inculcate on his son the for- 
 giveness of his murderers, and had taken this opportunity to reiterate that 
 desire. This disposition also appeared in a work that was published in the 
 king's name a few days after his execution, called the Icon Basilike, which 
 many persons believe to have been the genuine production of Charles. 
 Chateaubriand observes that the Icon of Charles and the testament of Louis 
 XVI. have made more royalists than the edicts of these princes would have 
 made in all their prosperity. 
 
104 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE TREATY OF PRAGUE, IN 1635, TO THE PEACE 
 OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648. 
 
 While Germany was a scene of war and desolation, Cardi- 
 nal Richelieu ruled France with a rod of iron. Though uni- 
 versally hated, he continued to hold the reins of government. 
 Several conspiracies were formed against him at the instigation 
 of the Duke of Orleans and of the queen-mother ; but they 
 were all defeated by his vigilance and vigour, and terminated 
 in the ruin of their contrivers. The widow of Henry IV. 
 was banished the kingdom ; her son Gaston was obliged to 
 beg his life; the Marshals Marillac and Montmorenci, the 
 young Marquis de Cinq Mars, and his unfortunate friend De 
 Thou were brought to the block ; and the gibbets were every 
 day loaded with inferior criminals, condemned by a court 
 erected for the trial of the cardinal's enemies. 
 
 Richelieu's jealousy of Gustavus had prevented him during 
 the life of that monarch from joining the arms of France 
 to those of Sweden ; and Oxenstiern, before the unfortu- 
 nate battle of Nordlingen, was unwilling to give the French 
 any footing in Germany. But after that overthrow, he offered 
 to put Lewis XIII. in immediate possession of Philipsburg 
 and Alsace, on condition that France should take an active 
 part in the war against the emperor. Richelieu readily em- 
 braced a proposal that corresponded so entirely with his vie\vs, 
 and five considerable armies soon appeared in the field. All 
 Germany became again a scene of war. The Swedes under 
 Bannier, and the Imperialists under the Elector of Saxony, 
 met in the plain of Wislock, (1636,) where a desperate battle 
 was fought, in which the Imperialists were defeated. This 
 batde, which restored the lustre of the Swedish arms, raised 
 Bannier to the highest degree of military reputation, and gave 
 a signal blow to the imperial power, was follow^ed by the de- 
 mise of Ferdinand II. He died at Vienna, and was succeeded 
 by his son, Ferdinand III. (1637.) The accession of this 
 prince made litde alteration in the state of the war. In the 
 following year, (1638,) the imperial army was again defeated. 
 The Duke of Saxe Weymar, after this victory, besieged and 
 took Rhinfield, to which he granted an honourable capitulation. 
 Newburg, Rottelen, and Friburg, the capital of Brisgau, were 
 
XVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 105 
 
 also rediiced, and the siege of Brisac undertaken. Here the 
 Duke of Lorraine and Goewtz, the Imperial general, attempt- 
 ed to interrupt Weymar's successful career by attacking his 
 entrenchments, but without effect; and Brisac was forced at 
 last to surrender, after it had been reduced to such extremity 
 by famine, that the governor was obliged to set a guard upon 
 the burying-places, to prevent the inhabitants from digging 
 up and devouring the dead. While the Duke of Saxe Wey- 
 mar thus triumphed over the Imperialists in Alsace, the Swe- 
 dish general, Bannier, prosecuted his conquests in Pomerania. 
 The two victorious commanders, in 1639, concerted measures 
 for penetrating into the heart of the Austrian dominions. 
 Bannier crossed the Elbe, entered Saxony, advanced as far as 
 the suburbs of Dresden, and after having in his progress cut 
 in pieces seven imperial regiments and two Saxon, he attacked 
 the Saxon army and obtained a complete victory. He then 
 entered Bohemia, defeated again the Imperialists, pursued 
 them to the walls of Prague, and took the imperial generals, 
 Hofskirk and Montecuculli, prisoners. But the Protestant 
 cause sustained this year a great loss by the immature death 
 of the Duke of Saxe Weymar, who expired at Newburg, in 
 the 35th year of his age. He is supposed to have fallen a 
 sacrifice to the jealousy and ambition of Richelieu, to whom 
 he would not resign Brisac. 
 
 1640. — At this time the house of Austria suffered in another 
 quarter. Catalonia revolted, and Portugal threw off the 
 Spanish yoke. A plot had been forming for upwards of three 
 years in favour of the Duke of Braganza, which was now 
 carried into execution. Olivarez had recalled the Spanish 
 garrison from Lisbon, and ordered the Portuguese to take up 
 arms for the subjection of Catalonia: very few troops were 
 left in the whole realm of Portugal ; the oppressed people 
 were ripe for an insurrection ; and the Spanish minister, to 
 amuse the Duke of Braganza, whose ruin he meditated, had 
 given him the command of the arsenal. The Duchess of 
 Mantua, who had been honoured with the title of Vice-Queen, 
 was driven out of the kingdom. All the towns in Portugal 
 followed the example of the capital, and almost on the same 
 day. The Duke of Braganza was unanimously proclaimed 
 king, under the name of John IV. Ships were immediately 
 despatched from Lisbon to all the Portuguese settlements, and 
 (hey all, with one accord, expelled their Spanish governors. 
 Portugal became again an independent kingdom ; and by the 
 recovery of Brazil, which, during the Spanish administration, 
 
i06 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 had been conquered by the Dutch, its former lustre was in 
 some measure restored. While all Europe rung with the 
 news of this singular revolution, Philip IV., shut up in the 
 inmost recesses of the Escurial, was utterly ignorant of it. 
 The manner in which Olivarez made him acquainted with his 
 misfortune is memorable: — "I come," said that artful minis- 
 ter, " to communicate good news to your majesty: the Duke 
 of Braganza's whole fortune is become yours. He has been 
 so presumptuous as to get himself declared King of Portugal ; 
 and in consequence of this folly, your majesty is entided to 
 the forfeiture of all his estates." " Let the sequestration be or- 
 dered," replied Philip, and he continued his dissipation. 
 
 1641. — In Germany, Bannier, after repeated success, fell 
 ill at Zickau, in consequence of the fatigues of that campaign, 
 and died at Halberstadt, to the great loss and inexpressible 
 regret of his country and its allies. The war continued equally 
 fierce and bloody in all parts of the empire, to the detriment 
 of the emperor, till, in 1643, conferences were opened for a 
 general peace. This year was signalized by the death of the 
 Cardinal Richelieu, and his master, Lewis XIII. Mazarin, 
 who succeeded the former in the ministry, adhered with vi- 
 gour to his plans, and a young hero sprung up to do honour to 
 France, during the minority of Louis XIV. This was the 
 celebrated Duke d'Enghien, afterwards honoured with the tide 
 of the Great Conde. In the year following, Turenne retrieved 
 the affairs of France upon the Rhine, and routed the Imperial- 
 ists near the source of the Danube. (1644.) Forstenson, the 
 Swedish general, passed the Moldaw, and attacked the Impe- 
 rialists in the neighbourhood of Thabor : the Austrian general 
 and 3,000 men were left dead on the field, and the rest put to 
 flight. The campaigns of the two following years were sig- 
 nalized by bloody battles and dear-bought victories. 
 
 Charles Gustavus, Count Palatine of Deux Ponts, who 
 arrived from Sweden, in 1648, with a reinforcement of 8,000 
 men, undertook the siege of Old Prague, and carried on his 
 approaches with such vigour, that the place must have been 
 taken, had not the emperor, dreading the loss of that capital, 
 resolved in earnest to conclude the so long demanded peace ; 
 for hitherto the negotiations at Munster and Osnaburg had 
 varied according to the vicissitudes of the war. The memo- 
 rable peace of Westphalia, which put an end to what is called 
 the thirty years' war, was signed at Munster, in the month 
 of October, 1648. It was here stipulated that France should 
 possess the sovereignty of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, Upper 
 
XIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 107 
 
 and Lower Alsace, &:c. ; to Sweden was granted the arch- 
 l)ishopric of Bremen, Upper Pomerania, Stettin, the isle of 
 Rugen, and the city of Wismar, in tlie duchy of Mecklen- 
 burg. The republic of Switzerland was declared to be a 
 sovereign state, exempt from the jurisdiction of the empire; 
 and many particular provisions were enacted, relative to the 
 episcopal sees and chapters in Germany, highly detrimental 
 to the interests of the Catholic church. War between France 
 and Spain was continued with various success, until the treaty 
 of the Pyrenees, in 1659. 
 
 CHAPTER- XIX. 
 
 ENGLAND, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE COMMONWEALTH, TO 
 THE DEATH OF CROMWELL, IN 1658. 
 
 The death of the king was followed by the dissolution of 
 the monarchy. The Commons declared it high treason to 
 acknowledge Charles Stuart, commonly called Prince of 
 JVales, as sovereign of England, and soon after set a price 
 upon his head. They abolished the House of Peers, as use- 
 less and dangerous, and caused a great seal to be struck with 
 this inscription — "The First year of Freedom, by God's 
 blessing restored." Cromwell, who secretly pursued his 
 schemes of ambition, had the address to get himself appointed 
 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Ormond, a short time before, 
 had been disgracefully defeated by Colonel Jones, the rebel 
 governor of Dublin ; and on the arrival of the new lieutenant, the 
 royal party lost ground on all quarters. Drogheda was taken 
 by storm, and a cruel massacre made of the garrison. The 
 same severe execution took place at Wexford, though it 
 had made but a slight resistance. Henceforth every town 
 before which the savage conqueror presented himself, opened 
 its gates on the first summons : he had no farther any thing 
 to fear, but what arose from fatigue and sickness, which swept 
 off great numbers of his men. Ormond, seeing affairs so 
 desperate as to admit of no remedy, left the island, and Crom- 
 M'ell freed himself from all farther opposition, by permitting 
 the Irish officers and soldiers to engage in foreign service. 
 Above 40,000 Catholics embraced this voluntary banishment. 
 Commissioners were now sent over by the English regicides 
 for the final settlement of the administration of Ireland, and 
 Fleetwood, the son-in-law of Cromwell, was named command- 
 
108 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 er-in-chief, a title which Lambert, the successor of Ireton, had 
 rejected. His first act was to collect all the native Irish who 
 had survived the general desolation, and transplant them into 
 the province of Connaught, which had been depopulated in the 
 course of the rebellion. They were ordered to retire thither 
 by a certain day, and forbidden to repass the Shannon, on 
 pain of death : and this sentence of deportation, as well as 
 the penal statute of the 27th of Elizabeth, was rigorously 
 enforced until the restoration. Their ancient possessions 
 were seized and given up to the conquerors ; the rest of the 
 kingdom was parcelled out among the soldiers, and a colony 
 composed of all the sects that then infested England, who 
 came over in numbers. Such were the blessings of republi- 
 can liberty dealt out by Cromwell. Soon after he was made 
 protector, he sent his second son, Henry, into Ireland, in 
 1655. The equitable and mild administration of the envoy 
 conciliated the affections of the Irish, and lightened their griev- 
 ances. Cromwell, in tlie mean time, had left Ireland, to reduce 
 Scotland to obedience. Prince Charles, finding his liopes 
 blasted in the former kingdom, was induced to listen to the 
 offers of the Scottish Covenanters, and appointed a meeting 
 with their commissioners, at Breda. (1650.) He there con- 
 sented to accede to the dishonourable conditions proposed by 
 these fanatics, but not before he had received intelligence of 
 the utter failure of his hopes from the Scottish royalists, in 
 consequence of the total defeat and capture of the Marquis of 
 Montrose. That gallant nobleman, having laid down his arms 
 at the command of the late king, had retired to France ; but 
 no sooner did he hear of the tragical death of his sovereign, 
 than his ardent spirit was inflamed with the thirst of revenge ; 
 and having obtained of young Charles a renev/al of his com- 
 mission, he set sail for Scotland, with 500 foreign adventurers. 
 He was in hopes of rousing the royalists to arms ; but a de- 
 tachment of the Covenanters' army attacked and routed his 
 followers, and made the marquis himself prisoner. The 
 Covenanters carried their noble captive in triumph to Edin- 
 burgh, where he was exposed to the most atrocious insults, 
 and condemned to suffer the ignominious death allotted to the 
 basest felon. Along with him were sacrificed all the persons 
 of any eminence who had repaired to his standard. 
 
 Charles, in consequence of his agreement to take the cove- 
 nant, and submit to other hard conditions, was proclaimed king, 
 and arrived under convoy of seven Dutch ships of war in the 
 Frith of Cromarty. Before his coronation, it was proposed 
 
XIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 109 
 
 he should pass through a public humiliation ; but he was saved 
 from this disgrace by the advance of an English army under 
 Cromwell, who, leaving Ireton in Ireland, had been invested 
 with the principal command in Scotland, which Fairfax had 
 declined from motives of conscience. The Scots were defeated 
 at Dunbar ; Charles, finding the way open, boldly marched into 
 England in 1651. Cromwell, on this, leaving Monk to com- 
 plete the reduction of Scotland, followed the king with all 
 possible expedition. The prince had reason to expect that his 
 presence would produce a general insurrection in England, 
 but he found himself disappointed. The English Presbyterians, 
 having no notice of his design, were not prepared to join him ; 
 and when the king arrived at Worcester, he found that his 
 forces were litde more numerous than when he left the bor- 
 ders of Scodand. Cromwell, with an army of 30,000 men, 
 attacked Worcester on all sides ; and Charles, after beholding 
 the ruin of his cause, and giving many proofs of personal 
 valour, was obliged to have recourse to flight. The Duke of 
 Hamilton, who made a desperate resistance, was mortally 
 wounded, and the Scots were almost all either killed or taken. 
 The prisoners, to the number of 8,000 men, were sold as 
 slaves to the American planters. 
 
 After the battle of Worcester, the king withdrew in the night 
 from Lesley, the Scottish general, and a party of horse who 
 still attended him, that he might the better effect his escape 
 in the disguise of a peasant. By the direction of the Earl of 
 Derby, he went to Boscobel, a lone house on the borders of 
 Staffordshire, inhabited by one Pendrel, an obscure but honest 
 farmer. There he remained for some time, employed in cut- 
 ting wood with the farmer and his three brothers. One day, 
 for better concealment, he mounted a spreading oak : among 
 the thick branches of which he sheltered himself, while 
 several persons passed below in search of their unhappy 
 sovereign, and expressed in his hearing their earnest desire of 
 seizing him, that they might deliver him into the hands of his 
 father's murderers. The Catholics were neither daunted by 
 the fate of their late master, nor depressed by their own suffer- 
 ings, but continued to prove the same unshaken fidelity to 
 Charles II., which they had shown to his royal father. A 
 great many of them had shed their blood at the battle of Wor- 
 cester, and during the six following days, the king's life was 
 entirely in their hands. The names of fifty-two persons of 
 their communion, among the rest, of three priests, are upon 
 record, who, during that interval, were acquainted with the 
 
 12 
 
110 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 dignity of the royal fugitive then in their power; not one of 
 whom was tempted to betray him, either by the immense re 
 wards or the terrible punishments held out to all persons in- 
 discriminately for this purpose. After many surprising and 
 romantic adventures, Charles arrived at Shoreham, in Sussex, 
 where he embarked, and landed safely at Fiescham, in Nor- 
 mandy, after one-and-forty days' concealment. During this 
 time, Cromwell, crowned with success, (1651,) returned to 
 London, where he was received in triumph. An act was soon 
 after passed for annexing Scotland, as a conquered province, 
 to the English commonwealth ! Every place now submitted 
 to the arms of the English ; not only in Ireland and the con- 
 tiguous islands, but also on the continent of America, and in 
 the East and West Indies ; so that the Parliament had soon 
 leisure to look abroad, and to exert its vigour against foreign 
 nations. The Dutch first felt the weight of its vengeance. 
 After the death of William II., who was carried off by the 
 small-pox when he was on the point of enslaving the people 
 whom his ancestors had restored to freedom, a perpetual edict 
 was issued against the dignity of stadtholder. The English 
 Parliament thought this a favourable opportunity of forming 
 such a coalition between the two republics as would have ren- 
 dered their interests inseparable ; but the proposal being re- 
 jected by their high mightinesses, war was declared against 
 Holland in 1651. Through the influence of Cromwell was 
 framed and passed the famous Act of Navigation, which pro- 
 hibited foreign goods being imported into England, except in 
 such vessels as belong to the country of which the goods are 
 the growth or manufacture. 
 
 Van Tromp, an admiral of great renown, with a fleet of 
 forty sail, entered the road of Dover, where he met with the 
 celebrated Blake, who commanded an English fleet of only 
 fifteen ships. The latter, however, maintained a desperate 
 battle for five hours, took one of the enemy's ships, and sunk 
 another. Night parted the two fleets. Several other engage- 
 ments ensued, without any decided advantage ; till Van Tromp 
 was victorious over Blake near Goodwin's sands. But he was 
 not suflfered long to enjoy his triumph. A fleet of eighty sail 
 was speedily fitted out in England ; Blake was again invested 
 with the chief command ; and with this he gained a decisive 
 victory, after the most furious battle that had yet been fought 
 by the hostile powers. Two days was the contest maintained 
 with the utmost rage and obstinacy ; on the third the Dutch 
 gave way, and once more yielded the sovereignty of the ocean 
 
XIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. Ill 
 
 to its natural lords. (1G53.) Overtures of peace were made to 
 the English Parliament, but they were treated wdth disdain. 
 It was not, therefore, without pleasure, that the States heard 
 of the dissolution of that haughty assembly, which Cromwell 
 dissolved by military force the same year. He next sent 
 summonses to 128 persons of different counties of England, to 
 five of Scodand, and six of Ireland. On these illiterate en- 
 thusiasts, chosen by himself, he pretended to devolve the 
 \vhole authority of the state, under the denomination of the 
 Parliament ; and as one of the most active and illuminated 
 among them, a leather-seller in London, bore the name of 
 Praise-God Barebone, this contemptible assembly was ludi- 
 crously called Barebone's Parliament. After five months, 
 this pretended Parliament was forced to dissolve itself and 
 resign its powers to the council of officers, who proceeded, by 
 their own authority, to declare Oliver Cromwell protector, or 
 supreme magistrate of the Commonwealth. He was accord- 
 ingly conducted to Whitehall with great solemnity, and having 
 taken the oath required of him, he was proclaimed over all the 
 three kingdoms, without the smallest opposition. While 
 Cromwell was thus completing his usurpation over his fellow- 
 subjects, he did not neglect the honour or the interests of the 
 nation. Never did England appear more formidable than dur- 
 ing his administration. Another naval victory gained over the 
 Dutch in 1653 excited all the endeavour of the States to re- 
 trieve the honour of their flag ; and never on any occasion did 
 their vigour appear more conspicuous. Tromp issued forth 
 in a few weeks, with a fresh fleet, determined again to fight 
 the victors, and to die rather then yield the contest. He soon 
 met with the English fleet, commanded by Monk, and a des- 
 perate batde ensued. Next day, the action was continued, 
 and the setting sun beheld the contest undecided. The third 
 morning the struggle was renewed, and victory seemed still 
 doubtful ; when Tromp, while gallantly animating his men, 
 Avith his sword drawn, was shot through the heart with a 
 musket-ball. That event decided the contest ; and the Dutch 
 were now glad to purchase peace, by yielding to the English 
 the honour of the flag, and making such other concessions as 
 were required of them. 
 
 1655. — Cromwell soon after assembled a new Parliament; 
 but not finding it sufficienfly submissive, dissolved it, after it 
 had sat five months. But though his authority met with a 
 good deal of opposition at home, and he lived in continual fear 
 of assassination, yet his alliance w^as courted by the diflerent 
 
113 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE [cHAP. 
 
 powers of Europe, and England held a rank among them, 
 which she had not enjoyed since the days of Elizabeth. 
 Cromwell preserved his authority till his death, which hap- 
 pened on the 23d September, 1658, about a year after he had 
 refused the regal dignity, which his friends in Parliament had 
 ojfFered him. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648, TO THE 
 PYRENEAN TREATY, IN 1659. 
 
 1648. — Lewis XIV. was yet in his minority, and Anne of 
 Austria, the queen regent, reposed her whole confidence in 
 Cardinal Mazarin. The princes of the blood took offence at 
 the uncontrollable power placed in the hands of a foreigner, 
 and the Parliament of Paris declared Mazarin a disturber of 
 the public peace and an enemy of the kingdom. The insur- 
 rection became general; a civil war ensued. (1651.) The 
 Duke of Bouillon and his brother Turenne were detached from 
 the malcontents, still headed by the Great Conde, who now 
 threw himself upon the protection of Spain, and after pursuing 
 the king and the court from province to province, entered Paris 
 with a body of Spanish troops. (1653.) A popular tumult, 
 in which several citizens were killed, obliged Conde, who 
 was supposed to be the author of it, to quit Paris ; and the 
 king, in order to appease his subjects, being now of age, dis- 
 missed Mazarin, who retired to Sedan. That measure had 
 the desired effect ; the people everywhere returned to their 
 allegiance, and Lewis entered the capital amid the acclamations 
 of his people. Conde being condemned to lose his head, 
 continued his unhappy engagements with Spain. The Parlia- 
 ment was humbled, and Mazarin recalled and more firmly 
 established than ever. During these ludicrous but pernicious 
 tvars, which for several years disturbed France, the Spaniards, 
 though feeble, were not inactive : they had reduced Gravelines 
 and Dunkirk. Conde and the Archduke Leopold besieged 
 Arras. Turenne resolved to force the Spanish lines, and per- 
 formed it with success, making himself master of the baggage, 
 artillery, and ammunition of the enemy. Conde, however, 
 by his admirable retreat, gained no less honour than his rival. 
 It was the talent of at once inspiring confidence into his troops 
 and intimidating his enemies by the boldness of his enterprises, 
 
XX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 113 
 
 that made Turemie superior to any general of his age. Con- 
 scious that his forces woukl be estimated by the greatness of 
 his undertakings, after he had acquired the reputation of pru- 
 dence, he conquered no less by his knowledge of human 
 nature, than of the art of war. Thus for a time the balance 
 was held even between France and Spain ; but when Mazariu 
 (in 1058) drew England to the assistance of France, Spain 
 was no longer able to maintain the contest. Dunkirk surren- 
 dered to the English. Furnes, Dixmude, Oudenard, Menin, 
 Ypres, and Gravelines, submitted to the arms of France, and 
 Spain saw the necessity of suing for peace. One great object 
 of Mazarin's policy was to obtain for the house of Bourbon 
 the eventual succession to the Spanish monarchy : with this 
 view he proffered peace to Philip IV., by proposing a marriage 
 between the Infanta Maria Teresa and Lewis XIV. This was 
 agreed to ; and the better to settle the preliminaries of a treaty, 
 Mazarin and Don Lewis met on the frontiers of both kingdoms, 
 in the Isle of Pheasants, in the Pyrenees. All things were ad- 
 justed by the two ministers. Philip agreed to pardon the 
 rebellious Catalans, and Lewis to receive Conde into favour. 
 Spain renounced all pretensions to Alsace, and the long-dis- 
 puted succession of Juliers was granted to the Duke of New- 
 burg. 
 
 About a year after the signing of the Pyrenean treaty, 
 (1661,) died Cardinal Mazarin, and left the reins of govern- 
 ment to Lewis XIV., who had become impatient of a yoke 
 which he was afraid to shake off. Historians have seldom 
 done justice to this statesman, whose political caution 
 restrained the vigour of his spirit, and the lustre of whose 
 genius was concealed beneath his profound dissimulation. 
 His leading maxim was, "That force ought never to be em- 
 ployed but in default of other means." 
 
 That tranquillity which the peace of Westphalia had 
 restored to Germany, continued unmolested till the death of 
 Ferdinand III., in 1657, when an interregnum of five months 
 ensued, and the diet was violently agitated in regard to the 
 choice of a successor. At last Leopold, son of the late em- 
 peror, was elected ; for, though jealousies prevailed on 
 account of the great power of the house of Austria, yet, as the 
 Turks remained masters of Buda, the French in possession 
 of Alsace, and the Swedes of Pomerania, a powerful emperor 
 seemed necessary. 
 
 Sweden had been raised to the highest pitch of glory by 
 the victories of Gustavus Adolphus; and his daughter Chris- 
 12* 
 
114 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 tina immortalized her snort reign by declaring herself the 
 patroness of learning and the fine arts. She drew to her 
 court Grotius, Vossius, Descartes, and other eminent men. 
 She acceded to the peace of Westphalia, chiefly from a desire 
 of indulging her passion for study. That peace lightened the 
 cares of government, but they were still too weighty for 
 Christina. In 1650 she prevailed upon the States to declare 
 her cousin, Charles Gustavus, her successor; and, in 1654, 
 finally resigned to him her crown, and, leaving her capital and 
 kingdom, travelled into Germany; embraced the Catholic 
 religion at Brussels, and solemnly renounced Lutheranism at 
 Inspruch. The Catholics considered this conversion as a 
 triumph, and the Protestants were not a litde mortified at the 
 defection of so celebrated a woman, but both without reason; 
 as her subsequent conduct did little honour to religion, though 
 we may hope the eccentricity of her character extenuated 
 many of her faults. She visited Paris, and then repaired to 
 Rome, where she spent the remainder of her days. In the 
 mean time her successor, Charles X., conquered Poland, and 
 obliged King Casimir to take refuge in Silesia. But the 
 Poles revolted from him, and, by the assistance of Russia, 
 Denmark, and Austria, expelled their invaders. Charles, 
 however, suddenly entered Denmark, and laid siege to Copen- 
 hagen. (1658.) But while he seemed to be carrying all 
 before him, he was seized with an epidemical fever, which 
 terminated his life. (1659.) The son of this warlike and 
 ambitious monarch being yet a minor, peace became neces- 
 sary to Sweden, and was concluded at Oliva, near Dantzic, in 
 1660, by which Polish Prussia was restored to Casimir, who 
 ceded Estonia and N. Livonia to Sweden. The Danish 
 monarch also made considerable sacrifices. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM 1658 TO 1668. 
 
 It was generally believed that Cromwell's arts of policy 
 were exhausted with his life, and that when the potent hand 
 which had hitherto conducted the government of the com- 
 monwealth was removed, the unwieldy and ill-constructed 
 machine would fall to pieces. All Europe, therefore, beheld 
 with astonishment his son, Richard, an inexperienced and 
 
XXI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 115 
 
 unambitious man, quietly succeed to the protectorship. But 
 it soon appeared that the consent which all the different 
 authorities gave to his elevation, was only a temporary acqui- 
 escence, until each party could concert measures, and act 
 effectually for its own interest. The most considerable 
 officers entered into a cabal against Richard, and demanded 
 of him the dissolution of the Parliament. Unable to resist, 
 and wanting resolution to deny, the protector granted their 
 request. With the Parliament his authority was supposed to 
 expire, and he soon after signed his resignation in form. His 
 brother Henry, though endowed with more abilities, also 
 quietly resigned the government of Ireland. Thus fell from 
 an enormous height, but, by a rare fortune, without bloodshed, 
 the family of the Cromwells, to that humble station from 
 which they had risen. 
 
 The council of officers being now possessed of supreme 
 authority, agreed to revive the remnant of the Long Parlia- 
 ment^ which had been expelled by Cromwell. The bulk of 
 the nation at this date consisted of royalists and Presbyterians. 
 To both these parties the dominion of the pretended Parlia- 
 ment, and of the army, was become equally obnoxious ; a 
 secret reconciliation therefore took place between them, and 
 it was agreed, that, burying former animosities in oblivion, 
 they should make every possible effort for the overthrow of 
 the Rump Parliament, and the restoration of the royal family. 
 But this combination was disconcerted by the treachery of 
 Sir Richard Willis : many of the conspirators were thrown 
 into prison, and the only party that had taken arms was dis- 
 persed by a body of troops, under Lambert. This artful and 
 able general, advancing with his hardy veterans to London, 
 and intercepting the members as they were coming to the 
 House, sent them home under a military escort. By this 
 decisive measure, the officers were once more in possession 
 of supreme authority, the substance of which they intended 
 to retain ; though, in order to bestow on others the shadow, 
 they elected a committee of twenty-three persons, of whom 
 seven were of their own body. The most melancholy appre- 
 hensions prevailed among the nobility and gentry of the three 
 kingdoms, of a general massacre, and among the people, of a 
 perpetual and cruel servitude under those tyrannical oppress- 
 ors, who had already expelled all public law and justice from 
 the British dominions. At this very" time, however, when 
 Charles, a neglected fugitive on the continent, seemed 
 abandoned by all the world, Providence was paving the way 
 
116 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 for him, by a surprising revolution, to mount the throne of 
 his ancestors, in peace and triumph. It was to General 
 Monk, commander-in-chief in Scotland, that the king was to 
 owe his restoration, and the three kingdoms the termination 
 of their bloody dissensions. Hearing that Lambert was 
 advancing northward. Monk affected to treat with the com- 
 mittee of safety ; but his object seems to have been to gain 
 time. In the mean while, the Parliament was restored ; the 
 troops under Lambert were ordered to repair to their quar- 
 ters, and their general, being thus deserted by the greater part, 
 was taken prisoner and sent to the Tower. As General Monk 
 advanced towards London, all parties eagerly sought his 
 countenance, but he kept his designs an impenetrable secret. 
 Being introduced into the House of Commons, he observed 
 that nothing but the summoning of a new and free Parlia- 
 ment could give content to the nation. His speech diffused 
 universal joy among the people. The hope of peace and 
 concord broke, like the morning sun, through the darkness in 
 which the nation was involved, and the memory of past 
 calamities disappeared. The Parliament assembled on the 
 first of May, 1660. Monk, after sounding their inclinations, 
 acquainted them that Sir John Granville had been sent over 
 by his majesty, and was now at the door with a letter for the 
 Commons. He was immediately called in and the letter 
 eagerly read. A moment's pause was scarce allowed : all at 
 once the House burst into a universal assent to the king's 
 proposals. The letter was published ; the peers hastened to 
 reinstate themselves in their ancient rights, and take their 
 share in the settlement of the government. His majesty was 
 solemnly proclaimed on the 8th of May, and entered London 
 on the 29th, amidst the acclamations of an immense concourse 
 of people. 
 
 No prince seems to have had it more in his power to render 
 himself the favourite of his people, than Charles II., of Eng- 
 land, at the date of his restoration. The affectionate expres- 
 sions of loyalty and attachment which everywhere saluted his 
 ears, demanded his warmest acknowledgments. With loyalty, 
 mirth and gayety returned, and that gloom which had so long 
 overspread the island, gradually disappeared with the fanatical 
 opinions that had produced it. All juridical decrees passed 
 during the commonwealth or protectorship, were affirmed, and 
 an act of indemnity was passed, conformable to the king's 
 declaration from Breda. The regicides were excluded from 
 this act by Parliament, to which Charles had wisely referred 
 
XXI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 117 
 
 all exceptions, but only six of them, together with four others 
 who had been abettors of their treason, were executed. Ad- 
 miral Montague, who had carried a fleet to receive his majesty, 
 was created Earl of Sandwich, and General Monk, Duke of 
 Albemarle. 
 
 But certain political measures soon destroyed that popularity 
 which the king had enjoyed at his restoration. His marriage 
 with Catherine of Portugal was by no means agreeable to the 
 Protestants.* The sale of Dunkirk to France, occasioned 
 universal disgust ; and the Dutch war contributed to increase 
 the general dissatisfaction. The reasons assigned for com- 
 mencing hostilities against the United Provinces were the 
 depredations committed by the Dutch upon the English traders 
 in different parts of the world.t In 1664, Sir Robert Holmes 
 was secretly despatched with a squadron to the coast of Africa, 
 where he not only expelled the Dutch from Cape Corse, to 
 which the English had some pretensions, but seized their 
 settlements of Cape Verd and the Isle of Goree, w^ith many 
 trading vessels. Another squadron sailed soon after to North 
 America, and took possession of the Dutch settlement of Nova 
 Belgia, afterwards called New York, in honour of the duke, 
 who had obtained a grant of it from his brother. 
 
 Since the death of AVilliam II., of Orange, the Dutch had 
 elected no stadtholder. The government had continued in the 
 hands of the Louvestein or republican party, enemies to the 
 house of Orange. This state of the aff'airs of the United 
 Provinces was not very agreeable to the King of England, who 
 wished to see his nephew, William III., in possession of the 
 authority which his ancestors had enjoyed. John de Wit, 
 pensionary of Holland, the soul of the republican party, and 
 vested with almost dictatorial powers, informed of the hostilities 
 of England, did not hesitate how to act. He entered into an 
 alliance with France, and sent orders to De Ruyter, who was 
 cruising with a fleet in the Mediterranean, to sail towards the 
 coast of Guinea, and put the Hollanders again in possession 
 of those settlements from which they had been expelled ; the 
 Dutch succeeded in this enterprise, and then, sailing for 
 America, insulted Barbadoes, committed hostilities on Long 
 Island, and took a considerable number of ships. A declara- 
 
 * The king's chief inducement in the marriage seems to have been the 
 dower of the infanta, who brought him, besides £350,000 sterling, the ports 
 of Tangier in Africa, and Bombay in India. His conduct towards her was 
 equally destitute of good feeling, as of the respect due to her station. 
 
 f In 1658, the Dutch took possession of the Isle of Ceylon. 
 
118 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 tion of war, in 1665, Avas the consequence of these mutual 
 hostilities. James, Duke of York, Lord High Admiral of 
 England, put to sea with a fleet of one hundred sail, besides 
 fire-ships, and stood for the coast of Holland. Prince Rupert 
 and the Earl of Sandwich commanded under him. The Dutch 
 fleet was commanded by Admiral Opdam, in conjunction with 
 Evertson and young Tromp, son to the famous admiral of that 
 name, killed in the former war. The Duke of York, in the 
 Royal Charles, bore down upon Opdam, and a furious battle 
 began. The contest was continued for four hours with great 
 obstinacy. At length Opdam's ship blew up, and the Dutch, 
 after losing near thirty ships, fled towards the Texel. The 
 joy arising from the Duke of York's naval victory was much 
 diminished by the breaking out of the Plague in London, which 
 carried off near 100,000 persons in one year. Lewis XIV. 
 and the King of Denmark joined the Dutch. In order to 
 balance so formidable a combination, Charles attempted, but 
 without success, to negotiate an alliance with Spain : he was 
 not alarmed at the number of his enemies, though every shore 
 was hostile to the English seamen, from the extremity of 
 Norway, to the coast of Bayonne. A formidable fleet of 
 seventy-eight sail of the line, commanded by the Duke of 
 Albemarle and Prince Rupert, seemed to justify the confidence 
 of the king. The Dutch fleet, to the number of ninety sail, 
 commanded by De Ruyter and Tromp, put to sea in 1666. 
 The batde that ensued is one of the most memorable in the 
 annals of history. Four days did the combat rage, without 
 any appearance of valour slackening on either side. The 
 Dutch had the advantage in the action of the first day ; yet 
 Albemarle, in engaging De Ruyter, had shown himself worthy 
 of his former renown. Darkness parted the combatants. Next 
 morning the batde was renewed with redoubled fierceness, and 
 the Dutch were ready to give way, when they were reinforced 
 by sixteen capital ships. The English were now almost over- 
 powered by numbers, yet Albemarle would yield to nothing 
 but the interposition of night ; then, finding his forces much 
 weakened, he resolved to retire. But the Dutch following, 
 being determined to perish sooner than to strike, he prepared 
 to renew the action ; declaring to those about him his intention 
 to blow up his ship, rather than fall into the hands of the 
 enemy. The English, to their unspeakable joy, descried 
 Prince Rupert's squadron coming to their assistance before tlie 
 renewal of the combat, and the next morning the batde raged 
 with more intenseness than ever. Throusrh the whole fourth 
 
XXI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 119 
 
 day the contest remained doubtful ; and towards evening both 
 fleets, as if weary of carnage, retired under a thick fog to their 
 respective harbours. But the English admirals could not be 
 satisfied with less than victory. While they sent the disabled 
 ships to diflerent docks to l)e refitted, they remained on board 
 their own. The whole fleet was soon ready to put to sea, 
 and a new engagement was eagerly sought. Nor was it long 
 denied. Ruyter and Tromp, with the Dutch fleet, appeared 
 in the Channel, and a terrible conflict ensued. Ruyter, who 
 occupied the centre, maintained with equal conduct and 
 courage the combat against the centre of the Englioh, com- 
 manded by Rupert and Albemarle, till, overpowered by 
 numbers, his high spirit was at last obliged to submit to a 
 retreat, which he conducted with the greatest ability. Yet he 
 could not help exclaiming, in the agony of his heart, " What a 
 wretch am I, to be compelled to submit to this disgrace ! 
 Among so many thousand bullets, is there not one to put an 
 end to my miserable life?" Tromp, too, after great success, 
 was obliged to yield ; and the English, now absolute masters 
 of the sea, rode in triumph along the coasts ; insulted the 
 Hollanders in their harbours, and burned many of their ships, 
 chiefly merchantmen. The Dutch merchants, uniting them- 
 selves with the Orange faction, now violenfly exclaimed 
 against the administration of De Wit, which, as they pretended, 
 had brought disgrace and ruin on their country. The firm 
 and intrepid mind of De Wit supported him in all difliculties : 
 the fleet of the republic was refitted in an incredibly short 
 time, and again put to sea under De Ruyter ; but a violent 
 storm obliged him to take shelter in the road of Boulogne, 
 whence he returned home with his troops in a sickly condition. 
 The same storm, which by sea prevented Prince Rupert from 
 annoying the French and Dutch fleets, promoted a dreadful 
 calamity on land. A fire broke out in London, and raged 
 three days and nights, without intermission. Of twenty-six 
 wards, into which the city was divided, fifteen were burned 
 down : four hundred streets and lanes, and thirteen thousand 
 houses, chiefly built of wood, were consumed. Popular pre- 
 judice ascribed this calamity to the Catholics, though without 
 the shadow of a proof, and a monument was erected to per- 
 petuate the calumny. 
 
 1667. — The expense of the naval armaments of England 
 had been so great, that Charles had not hitherto been able to 
 convert to his own use any of the money granted him by 
 Parliament. He therefore resolved to save the last supply for 
 
120 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 the payment of his debts, as a prospect of a peace freed him 
 from all apprehensions from his enemies. But De Wit, who 
 was apprized of Charles's supine security, hastened the naval 
 preparations of Holland. The Dutch fleet, under De Ruyler, 
 took possession of the mouth of tlie Thames, while a squadron, 
 commanded by Van Ghent, after reducing Sheerness, broke a 
 chain which had been drawn across the Medway, destroyed 
 the ships stationed to guard il, advanced as far as Chatham, 
 burned three first-rate ships, and carried off the hull of a fourth. 
 This news threw the city of London into the utmost consterna- 
 tion ; and such vigorous steps were immediately taken, as in- 
 duced De Ruyter to steer his course to the westward. He 
 made fruitless attempts upon Portsmouth and Plymouth, but he 
 rode triumphant in the Channel for several weeks, and spread 
 universal alarm along the coast. These fears, however, were 
 soon dispelled, by the signing of the treaty at Breda, by which 
 England retained possession of New York ; and the English 
 settlement of Surinam, which had been seized by the Dutch, 
 was ceded to them. 
 
 The next step taken by diaries was to engage in the Triple 
 Alliance. Lewis XIV., who assumed the reins of government 
 nearly at the same time that Charles H. was restored to the 
 throne of his ancestors, possessed every quality that could 
 flatter the pride, or conciliate the affections of his people. 
 Dazzled with the lustre of his shining qualities, and proud of 
 participating in the glory of their young sovereign, the French 
 nation submitted without murmuring to the most violent 
 stretches of his arbitrary power. Colbert, an active and able 
 minister, had put the finances into excellent order; enormous 
 sums were raised for the public service ; a navy was created, 
 and a great standing army supported, almost without being felt 
 by that populous and extensive kingdom. Conscious of his 
 power and resources, the French monarch had early given 
 symptoms of that lofty spirit and insatiable thirst of glory, 
 which so long disturbed the peace of Europe. The first 
 measure that gave general alarm, was the invasion of the Spa- 
 nish Netherlands. Though Lewis had renounced, by the trea- 
 ty of the Pyrenees, all tide to the succession of Spain, which 
 might occur from his marriage with the Infanta Maria Teresa, 
 he still kept in view the eventual succession. Philip IV. 
 had left a son, Charles II. of Spain, a sickly infant ; but as the 
 Queen of France was the offspring of a prior marriage, she 
 laid claim to the Spanish Low Countries, to the exclusion even 
 of her brother. This claim was founded on a custom esta- 
 
XXI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 121 
 
 blished in some parts of Brabant ; and was more likely to be 
 adjusted by military force than by argument. Lewis entered 
 Flanders at the head of forty thousand men. Turenne com- 
 manded under him, and Louvois placed large magazines in all 
 the frontier towns. Chai'leroi, Tournay, Furnes, Armentiers, 
 Courtray, and Douay immediately surrendered : Lisle capitu- 
 lated after a nine days' siege. Garrisons were left in these 
 towns, and the celebrated Vauban was employed to fortify 
 them. A progress so rapid, filled Europe with consternation : 
 another campaign, it was supposed, might put Lewis in posses- 
 sion of all the Low Countries. The Dutch were alarmed at 
 the prospect of having so ambitious a neighbour; and the 
 English monarch resolved to take the first step towards a con- 
 federacy, the ostensible object of which should be, the restrain- 
 ing of the power and pretensions of France. In 1668, Sir 
 AVilliam Temple, the English resident at Brussels, received 
 orders to go secretly to the Hague for this purpose. Matters 
 were soon adjusted between these two patriotic statesmen. 
 Lewis, dreading a general combination, had offered to relinquish 
 all his queen's rights to Brabant, on condition either of keep- 
 ing the conquests he had made last campaign, or of receiving 
 instead of them Franche Comte, Aire, and St. Omers. De Wit 
 and Temple, founding their treaty upon that proposal, con- 
 cluded a defensive alliance between England and Holland, and 
 engaged Sweden to join them. This treaty, which has always 
 been considered as the wisest measure in the reign of Charles 
 H., restored England to her proper station in the scale of 
 Europe, and highly exalted the consequence of Holland. 
 France and Spain were equally displeased at the Triple Alliance. 
 Lewis found himself stopped in his career, and Spain was not 
 less dissatisfied at being obliged to give up so many important 
 places, on account of unjust claims and unprovoked hostilities. 
 At length, however, both agreed to treat, and the plenipoten- 
 tiaries of all parties met at Aix-la-Chapelle ; where Spain, 
 from a consciousness of her own weakness, accepted of the 
 alternative offered by France. Lewis had already entered 
 Franche Comte, and reduced the whole province in a few 
 weeks. Spain chose to recover this province and to abandon all 
 the towns conquered in Flanders during the last campaign. 
 Other circumstances seemed to combine to insure the balance 
 of Europe. After a ruinous war of almost thirty years, carried 
 on by Spain in order to recover the sovereignty of Portugal, an 
 equitable treaty had at last been concluded between the two 
 crowns, and the independence of Portugal acknowledged. 
 
 13 
 
122 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP 
 
 While Charles II. of England, by an unexpected turn of 
 fortune, was ascending the throne of his ancestors, a revolu- 
 tion took place in Denmark, which rendered that crown here- 
 ditary in the family of Oldenburg. On the death of Chris- 
 tiern IV., in 1648, his son, Frederick III., was elected King 
 of Denmark, and displayed equal abilities with his father, in 
 w^ar and in civil administration. The valour with which he 
 defended his capital against Charles X. of Sweden, and com- 
 pelled him to retreat, gained him the admiration of his sub- 
 jects, and disposed them for a change in the government. By 
 the spoliations of the clergy, when Lutheranism was introduced 
 into the kingdom, the nobles gradually acquired an undue in- 
 fluence and power, while the oppressed people sustained alone 
 the whole burden of taxation. The Bishop of Copenhagen 
 united himself with one of the principal commoners and other 
 associates, in order to compel the nobles to pay their just pro- 
 portion of the public expenses. To effect this, they proposed 
 to weaken the senate by extending the royal prerogative. A 
 diet being assembled, soon after the peace with Sweden was 
 concluded in 1660, the members of it, who were all warmly 
 devoted to the king and queen, whose kindness and benevo- 
 lence they had experienced during the siege, drew up a memo- 
 rial of their grievances and inability to raise the necessary 
 supplies. During these transactions, Frederick, who was 
 apprized of, and had consented to, the projected revolution of 
 the two orders, quiedy waited in his palace the turn of events. 
 The nobles, unprepared for so sudden and decisive a change, 
 reluctantly acquiesced in the determination of the other two 
 orders ; and thus, without any bloodshed, the crown was de- 
 clared hereditary in the family of Frederick, his power abso- 
 lute, and all the acts which restricted his authority were an- 
 nulled. After which the king, by his own power, regulated 
 the several parts of government, and issued what is denomi- 
 nated the Royal Law^ which, since the epoch of the revolution, 
 has been considered as the national code. Many wise ordi- 
 nances were afterwards added to it by Frederick, w^ho, by his 
 moral virtues, moderation, and political talents, laboured to 
 promote the happiness of his subjects, and became the father 
 of his people. 
 
XXII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 123 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DOMESTIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND, DURING THE REIGN OF 
 CHARLES II. 
 
 On the accession of Charles, Sir Edward Hyde, created 
 Earl of Clarendon, father-in-law to the Duke of York, was 
 made chancellor and prime minister, to the general satisfaction 
 of the nation, but some subsequent disappointments had ren- 
 dered him unpopular; he was impeached by the Commons; 
 and Clarendon, finding that past services were not sufficient 
 to protect him, retired to the continent, where he employed 
 his leisure in writing the history of the civil war. The king, 
 indeed, w^ho had always revered, rather than loved him, was 
 glad to be freed from a minister, who did not permit his mas- 
 ter's licentious conduct to pass without reprehension. 
 
 In Scotland, the king, from his aversion to business, had 
 intrusted his affairs to his ministers, who, in order to establish 
 episcopacy, passed several severe laws against conventicles. 
 These rigours, instead of breaking the spirit of the fanatics, 
 served only to render them more obstinate, and to inflame them 
 against the established religion. To reduce them to obedience, 
 an army of barbarians, unaccustomed to discipline, was let 
 loose among them and committed the most dreadful havoc. 
 While Scotland ^vas thus suffering for nonconformity to the 
 Protestant church, (which professes toleration,) the English 
 Presbyterians were no less active in raising apprehensions of 
 the subversion of their religion by popish machinations. We 
 have observed before that Charles was indebted to his Catho- 
 lic subjects for his crown and life ; but their loyalty was not 
 requited in the manner they had reason to expect. The act 
 of indemnity and oblivion passed at the beginning of his reign, 
 was construed, and in many cases too justly, as an act of 
 indemnity to the king's enemies, and oblivion of his friends. 
 On some few individuals, Charles conferred distinguished 
 titles, and then consented to deprive them of the most pre- 
 cious advantages to which their rank entitled them. Against 
 the whole Catholic body, which he knew and had experienced to 
 be true and steady in their allegiance by principle, he listened 
 to the most atrocious calumnies, and gave his sanction to penal 
 statutes more degrading than even the sanguinary laws of 
 Elizabeth. He connived at the groundless fictions of popish 
 
12 4 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 plots, maliciously fabricated by a disaffected party, and so 
 entirely void of foundation, that even Hume and other writers, 
 who in hardly any other instance do justice to Catholics, 
 acknowledge their innocence on the present occasion. In a 
 fit of political resentment, the unprincipled Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury* proposed an act for the creation of new oaths and tests, 
 witii the view of excluding some of the most able and trusty 
 men from the king's service. Besides the oaths of allegiance, 
 iBupremacy, and receiving the sacrament according to the rite 
 of the Church of England, the test moreover required a so 
 lemn declaration against transubstantiation and the invocation 
 of saints, as idolatrous. By this act, which received the 
 royal assent, all Catholics were incapacitated from holding 
 any office under government ; even the Duke of York was 
 obliged to resign the command of the navy, in which station 
 he had several times signalized his valour ; and it was only 
 by a majority of two, that he preserved his seat in Parliament, 
 from which all the other Catholics were excluded. Jam.es 
 professed himself a Catholic in 1671, after the death of his first 
 wife. Lady Anne Hyde, who herself died a Catholic. As the 
 duke was heir apparent to the crown, his conversion gave 
 general umbrage to the nation, which dreaded nothing more 
 than a popish successor ; this discontent was considerably 
 augmented by his second marriage, in 1673, with Maria 
 D'Este, a Catholic princess of the house of Modena. In this 
 state of the public mind, nothing was wanting but the contriv- 
 ance of a Walsingham or a Cecil to invent a new popish 
 plot, and thereby furnish a pretext for exterminating the whole 
 race of English Catholics, and for involving the royal family 
 in their ruin. Their place was supplied by the traitor Shaftes- 
 bury, who found associates worthy of himself in two infa- 
 mous clergymen of the established church, named Titus Gates 
 and Doctor Tongue. Gates, who was the chief actor in this 
 horrid imposture, was one of the most profligate of mankind. 
 By the advice of Tongue, a lover of mischief, and wliose 
 chief amusement was to spread scandal and propagate plots, 
 he went abroad, agreed to reconcile himself to the Catholic 
 church, and to enter the society of Jesuits, whence he was 
 dismissed for his bad behaviour. Gates, however, setting his 
 
 * It was Ashley Cowper who, in 1671, advised Charles to shut the exche- 
 quer, and to seize all the payments that should be made by the officers of the 
 revenue for the public service. In violation of every rule of right or justice, 
 this plan was adopted, and Ashley gained the office of chancellor and a 
 peerage, for what ought to have brought him to the gallows. 
 
XXII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 125 
 
 wicked imagination to work, in order to supply the want of 
 materials, returned to England burning with resentment against 
 the Jesuits, with a full resolution of forming the story of a 
 popish plot. The information he gave the king was treated 
 with due disregard, and the plot would have sunk into oblivion, 
 had not the Duke of York, on learning that his confessor's 
 name was implicated in the business, insisted on a thorough 
 inquiry into the conspiracy before the council. The substance 
 of Oates's evidence was, that the pope, having assumed the 
 sovereignty of England and Ireland, on account of the heresy 
 of the prince and people, had delegated his authority to the 
 Jesuits, whose general had supplied by commission all the 
 chief offices, both civil and military. These impostures were 
 delivered by Oates in a mamier that would have discredited 
 the most consistent story, and the most respectable evidence. 
 But certain collateral circumstances which took place about 
 the same time, worked up the public ferment to a degree of 
 frenzy. The murder of Sir Edmonsbury Godfrey, an 
 active justice of the peace, who had examined Oates, which 
 remained veiled in mystery, completed the general illusion. 
 The Earl of Danby, an enemy of the Catholics, laid open the 
 matter before the House of Peers, who impeached five Catho- 
 lic peers for high treason, and passed the degrading law we 
 have before mentioned. It would be useless to enter into de- 
 tails of this pretended plot, or of another, called the meal-tub 
 ;j/o^, invented later by one Dangerfield, a wretch more infamous, 
 if possible, than Oates and Bedloe ; let it suffice to say that 
 the nation was nearly two years under this fatal delirium; that 
 the reality of Oates's plot was voted by two different Parlia- 
 ments ; and that one peer. Viscount Stafford, was beheaded, 
 and seventeen other Cadiolic laymen or priests were hanged, 
 drawn, and quartered, as being guilty of it, besides a great 
 many others* who were tried and imprisoned on the same ac- 
 count, without mentioning seven more priests, who were exe- 
 cuted about this time for the mere exercise of their spiritual 
 
 * Lord Stafford was executed in 1 680. The populace, who had exulted 
 over his conviction, were softened into tears, at his execution, by the vene- 
 rable simplicity of his appearance. When the real enemies of the king 
 and government became manifest, in 1684, by the discovery of the assas- 
 sination or Rye-house plot, the other four Catholic peers who had remained 
 in the Tower, were then discharged upon their bail : Lord Peter had died 
 the month before. Oates, styled 'Hhe saviour of the nation,'^ was rewarded 
 by the Commons with a pension of £1200 a year. On the accession of 
 James II., being convicted of perjury, he was brought to condign punish- 
 ment, but again received a pension of £400 a year under King William. 
 
 13* 
 
126 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 functions, the king not daring to reprieve them at such a junc- 
 ture. Equally void of principle and of conduct, Charles little 
 cared to what difficulties he exposed his friends, as long as 
 he could free himself from the importunities of his malignant 
 ministers. Composed at his ease in the lap of indolence and 
 voluptuousness, he has suffered his name to be transmitted to 
 posterity as a passive persecutor of the religion in which he 
 chose to die.* In order to do something grateful to the nation, 
 Charles, in 1677, encouraged proposals of marriage from the 
 Prince of Orange to the Princess Mary, his brother's eldest 
 daughter, and at that time presumptive heiress to the crown, 
 by which he afforded the prospect of a Protestant succession, 
 and hoped to tranquillize the minds of his subjects. Two 
 years after, he desired the Duke of York to withdraw beyond 
 the sea, that no further suspicion of popish counsels might 
 remain. Parliament, however, was still jealous and dissatis- 
 fied, and passed a bill of absolute exclusion against the duke ; 
 but it was thrown out in the House of Peers, after a long and 
 violent debate. About the same time, the standing army and 
 the king's guards were voted by the Commons to be illegal ; 
 and that bulwark of personal and national liberty, the Habeas 
 Corpus Act,t which provided against arbitrary imprisonment, 
 passed the same session. The violence of the Commons in- 
 creased the number of the king's friends among the people, 
 and from tliis time he acted with more firmness and resolution. 
 Finding that no concession on his part, except the absolute 
 exclusion of his brother from the succession, could satisfy the 
 Commons, and that they refused him the necessary supplies, 
 while they impeached his minister, the Earl of Danby, and 
 revived the bill of exclusion, Charles took the opportunity of 
 dissolving the Parliament, and resolved to depend on economy 
 and retrenchments. He soon after proceeded to some very 
 arbitrary measures for repressing the independent spirit of the 
 citizens of London. A writ of quo luarranto was issued 
 
 * Charles was reconciled to the Catholic church the day before he died, 
 by Mr. Huddlestone, the Benedictine, who had been so instrumental in his 
 preservation after the battle of Worcester. 
 
 •j- The Habeas Corpus Act obliges every judge to give his prisoner a writ, 
 by which the jailer is directed to produce in court the body of the prisoner, 
 (whence the writ had its name,) and to certify the cause of the detainer 
 and imprisonment within a specified time, proportionate to the distance of 
 the jail. It requires that he be indicted the first term after his confinement, 
 and brought to trial in the subsequent term ; and no man after being en- 
 larged by order of the Court, can be recommitted for the same offence. It 
 also pr/ihibits the sending any English subject to prison beyond sea. 
 
XXII.^ GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 127 
 
 against the city; that is, an inquiry into the validity of its 
 corporation, which proving defective, the king deprived them 
 of it, nor did he restore it till he had subjected the election 
 of their magistrates to his immediate authority. Alarmed 
 by this precedent, most of the other corporations in Eng- 
 land surrendered their charters into the king's hands, and 
 paid large sums for such new ones as he was pleased to 
 frame. (1683.) 
 
 A few years before this period, (in 1679,) Dr. Sharp, arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, fell a victim to the fury of the Cove- 
 nanters, to whom his severity had rendered him obnoxious. 
 An insurrection broke out, which, though apparently formida- 
 ble, was soon quelled by the Duke of Monmouth,* at the head 
 of some English troops. The Duke of York, having procured 
 the banishment of Monmouth, whose projects were known 
 and avowed, obtained leave to retire into Scotland, and took 
 upon himself the administration of affairs in that country. 
 By his prudence and well-timed severity towards some of the 
 restless fanatics, he soon restored tranquillity, and acquired 
 great popularity. 
 
 In Ireland, the Duke of Ormond had recovered all his for- 
 mer authority, and preserved the nation in peace ; but, though 
 conscious of his sovereign's secret wish to favour the Catho- 
 lics, they alone were excluded from the general indemnity, to 
 the astonishment of all impartial men, while the regicides 
 were confirmed in the wages of their sanguinary rebellion. 
 During the remainder of the reign of Charles II., many mali- 
 cious attempts were made to stigmatize the Irish with fresh 
 insurrections, as a pretext for enforcing the penal laws against 
 the Catholics. Meanwhile, a plan of insurrection had long 
 been concerted in England, though various causes had hitherto 
 prevented it from being brought to maturity, particularly the 
 impeachment of the Earl of Shaftesbury, the framer of the 
 plot, and his unexpected departure for Holland, where he 
 soon after died. A council of six was established, the mem- 
 bers of which were Monmouth, Lord Russell, the Earl of 
 Essex, Lord Howard, Algernon Sidney, and Jolni Hampden, 
 grandson of the republican of that name. These, together 
 with the party of the Duke of Argyle in Scotland, were the 
 leaders of the conspiracy, while another scheme, called the 
 Rye-house plot, was projected by a number of conspirators, 
 
 * James, Duke of Monmouth, natural son of the king, was extremely 
 popular, and aspired to the throne, in prejudice to the rights of the Duke 
 of York. 
 
128 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 who aimed at nothing less than the assassination of the king 
 and the Duke of York. This atrocity was happily prevented 
 by one of the criminals, who turned informer. The conspira- 
 cy being traced to its source, several of the principal leaders 
 were immediately apprehended. Monmouth and Grey es- 
 caped; Russell and Sidney, with some inferior conspirators, 
 being convicted, paid the forfeit of their lives. 
 
 The Duke of York was soon after recalled from Scotland, 
 and restored to the office of high admiral, without taking the 
 test. A few months before the death of Charles, he married 
 his niece, the Princess Anne, to Prince George, brother to the 
 King of Denmark. Amidst the thick cloud of fanaticism 
 which overspread the nation during the Commonwealth, the 
 celebrated Boyle (son to the Earl of Cork) pursued his philo- 
 sophical researches. He was one of the first members of the 
 Royal Society in London, established by a patent granted by 
 Charles II., in 1662. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIH. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE TREATY OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, IN 1688, TO 
 THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN, IN 1678. 
 
 The Turks, after a long interval of inaction, were again 
 become formidable to Europe. The Grand Vizier Kupruli 
 entered Hungary, at the head of 100,000 men, in 1664; and 
 although he was defeated in a great battle near St. Godard, 
 upon the Raab, by the imperial troops, under Montecuculi, 
 the Turks obtained an advantageous peace from Leopold, who 
 was threatened with a revolt of the Hungarians. The Hun- 
 garian nobles, whose privileges had been invaded by the empe- 
 ror, flew to arms, and even craved the assistance of the Turks, 
 their old and irreconcilable enemies. The rebels were quick- 
 ly subdued by the vigour of Leopold ; but those brave men 
 who had so often repelled the infidels, and tilled, with the 
 sword in their hand, a country watered with the blood of their 
 ancestors, were still dissatisfied ; and Germany, deprived of 
 so strong a barrier as Hungary, was soon threatened by the 
 Turks. In the mean time, Kupruli turned the arms of the 
 Porte against the Venetians, and an army of 60,000 Janizaries 
 had now besieged Candia for upwards of two years. But the 
 time of the crusades was long past, and the ardour which had 
 inspired them, extinguished. Though this island was reputed 
 
XXIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 129 
 
 one of the chief bulwarks of Christendom agains the infidels, 
 no general confederacy had been formed for its defence. The 
 pope and the knights of Malta, were the only alHes of the 
 Venetians, against the whole naval and military force of the 
 Ottoman empire* At length, however, Lewis XIV., in 1669, 
 sent a fleet from Toulon, to the relief of Candia, but these 
 succours only retarded for a short time the conquest of the 
 isle, which surrendered to the Turks before the close of the 
 year. 
 
 These distant operations did not divert the attention of 
 Lewis from his favourite project, the conquest of the Low 
 Countries and the invasion of Holland, for he was highly 
 incensed against the Dutch, for pretending to set limits to his 
 authority. But to render his schemes successful, it seemed 
 necessary to detach England from the Triple Alliance. This 
 was no difficult matter. Since the exile of Clarendon, which 
 had been preceded by the death of Southampton, and was 
 soon followed by that of Albemarle, Charles IL had given 
 himself up to a council of five persons, commonly denomi- 
 nated the Cabal, in allusion to the initialletters of their names:* 
 they had encouraged Charles to hope he might obtain a more 
 absolute power by a close connection with France; and a 
 secret treaty to this effect was concluded at Paris, in 1672. 
 Never had Europe beheld such a naval and military force, or 
 so extensive a confederacy, since the league of Cambray, as 
 was formed for the destruction of Holland. Sweden, as well 
 as England, was detached from the Triple League. The 
 combined fleet of France and England, amounting to upwards 
 of one hundred sail, was ready to ravage the coast of Holland, 
 and a French army of 120,000 choice troops, commanded by 
 the ablest generals of the age, was preparing to enter the 
 frontiers. De Wit attempted to raise a respectable military 
 force for the defence of his country, in this dangerous crisis : 
 but his proposals were opposed by the Orange faction, whose 
 power had become formidable by the popularity of the young 
 prince, William HL The whole tenor of William's behaviour 
 was suitable to the genius of the Hollanders. Grave and 
 silent even in youth, destitute of brilliant talents, but of a 
 sound and steady understanding; greatly intent on business, 
 and little inclined to pleasure, he won the hearts of his coun- 
 trymen ; and the people, remembering what they owed to his 
 family, which had protected them against Spain, were desi- 
 rous of raising him to the authority of his ancestors. 
 
 * ClifTord, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lauderdale 
 
13^0 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 In consequence of this general predilection, William was 
 appointed commander-in-chief of the forces of the republic, 
 and the whole military power was put into his hands ; while 
 De Wit hastened the equipment of the fleet, and De Ruyter, 
 the greatest naval officer of his age, put to sea with ninety-one 
 men-of-war, l^esides frigates and fire-ships. The English ileet, 
 under the Duke of York and the Earl of Sandwich, had 
 already joined the French fleet, commanded by Count d'Estrees. 
 A terrible conflict ensued. The Duke of York bore down upon 
 De Ruyter, and fought him with such fury for two hours, that, 
 of thirty-two actions in which that hoary veteran had been en- 
 gaged, he declared this to have been the most vigorously dis- 
 puted. Night put a stop to the doubtful contest. The next 
 day the Dutch were chased to their own coast. 
 
 The King of France, having divided his numerous army into 
 three bodies, headed the first in person, and, to the universal 
 consternation of the Hollanders, advanced to the banks of the 
 Rhine. Having passed the river, he took possession of Arn- 
 heim, Schench, Nimeguen, and several other towns ; and the 
 Prince of Orange, unable to make head against the victorious 
 enemy, retired into the province of Holland, with his small and 
 discouraged army. The progress of Lewis, like the course 
 of an inundation, levelled every thing before it. The town 
 and province of Utrecht sent deputies to implore his clemency. 
 Lewis entered Utrecht in triumph. In the course of a few 
 weeks the three provinces of Guelders, Utrecht, and Overyssel 
 had submitted to his arm ; Friesland and Groningen were 
 invaded by his ally, the Bishop of Munster; the reduction of 
 Holland and Zealand was alone wanting to crown his triumph, 
 and these provinces were a prey to faction, and become un- 
 governable from their fears. Amsterdam alone seemed to 
 retain any degree of courage or conduct. Ships were stationed 
 to guard the city by sea, and as a last resource, the sluices 
 were opened, and the neighbouring country was laid under 
 w^ater, without regard to the fertile fields, the numerous villas, 
 and flourishing villages which were overwhelmed by the 
 inundation. All the provinces soon followed the example of 
 the capital. Enragecl to find their country enfeebled by party 
 jealousy, M'hen its very political existence was threatened, 
 the people rose at Dort, and forced their magistrates to sign 
 the repeal of the perpetual edict; other cities followed the 
 example, and the Prince of Orange was declared stadtholder. 
 This revolution was followed by the barbarous massacre of 
 De Wit and his brother, who fell a sacrifice to the vengeance 
 
XXIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 131 
 
 of the Orange party, now triumphant. The Dutch had hoped 
 that the elevation of the Prince of Orange to the dignity of 
 stadtholder would influence the measures of his uncle, the 
 King of England ; but Charles persisted in his alliance with 
 France ; and Lewis, finding that his enemies gathered courage 
 behind their inundations, and that no further progress could be 
 attempted by his arms during that campaign, returned to Ver- 
 sailles. 
 
 1673. — The other states of Europe, however, soon began 
 to discover a jealousy of the power of France. The emperor 
 put himself in motion ; the Elector of Brandenburg showed a 
 disposition to support the states ; the King of Spain sent some 
 forces to their assistance, and a different aspect of affairs soon 
 became visible. The combined fleet of France and England 
 again appeared off the coast of Holland, and three indecisive 
 batdes were fought. In the mean time the French monarch 
 took ]\Iaestricht, while Naerden Avas retaken by the Prince of 
 Orange, and the Imperialists under Montecuculi besieged and 
 took Bonn. The greater part of the electorate of Cologne 
 was subdued by the Dutch and Germans ; and the communi- 
 cations between France and the United Provinces being by 
 that means cut off, Lewis was obliged to recall his forces and 
 abandon his conquests with precipitation. The house of 
 Austria in both branches, being alarmed at the steps taken by 
 the King of France, the emperor, and the Catholic king, pub- 
 licly signed a treaty with the United Provinces, before the 
 close of the year. Forgetting her ancient animosities against 
 the republic, in the recent injuries received from the Fronch 
 monarch, Spain immediately issued a declaration of war ; and, 
 by a strange reverse in her policy, defended the Dutch against 
 France and England, by whose aid they had become independ- 
 ent of her power. 
 
 When the English Parliament met, in the beginning of 
 1674, the Commons discovered such strong symptoms of dis- 
 content at the late measures of government, that Charles judged 
 it necessary to make peace with Holland ; apologizing to 
 Lewis for the step he had taken by representing the state of 
 his affairs. Lewis astonished all Europe by the vigour of his 
 exertions in the campaign of this year. He had three great 
 armies in the field ; one on the side of Germany, another in 
 Flanders, a third on the frontiers of Roussillon, and he him- 
 self, at the head of a fourth, entered Franche Comte, and sub- 
 dued the whole of that province in six weeks. The taking of 
 Besancon was a matter of triumph to Lewis. He loved sieges, 
 
132 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 and is said to have understood them well : but he never be- 
 sieged a town without being morally certain of taking it. 
 Louvois prepared all things so effectually, the troops were 
 so well appointed, and Vauban, who conducted most of the 
 sieges, was so great a master in the art of taking towns, that 
 the king's glory was perfectly safe. Vauban directed the 
 attacks at Besancon, which was reduced in nine days, and be- 
 came the capital of the province ; the university and seat of 
 government being transferred to it from Dole. In Flanders, 
 the Prince of Conde attacked the rear of the confederates near 
 Seneffe, a village between Marimont and Nivelle, and took 
 great part of their cannon and baggage. The Prince of Orange, 
 however, rallied his disordered forces and led them back to the 
 charge, pushed the veteran troops of France, and obliged the 
 great Conde, though now advanced in age, to exert more des- 
 perate efforts, and hazard his person more than he had done 
 in any action during his life, though he had been peculiarly 
 distinguished in his youth, by the impetuosity of his courage. 
 William did not expose his person less. The engagement 
 was renewed three several times ; and after sunset it was 
 continued for two hours by moonlight. Darkness at length 
 put an end to the contest, and left tlie victory undecided. 
 Twelve thousand men lay dead on the field, and the loss on 
 both sides was nearly equal. Before the close of the campaign, 
 the Prince of Orange took Grave, the last tov/n which the 
 French held in any of the seven provinces. Turenne, on the 
 side of Germany, completed that high reputation which he had 
 already acquired, of being the greatest general of his age and 
 nation. He possessed himself of the whole Palatinate. In 
 the following year (1675) he was less successful. Montecu- 
 culi, who commanded the forces of the empire, attempted to 
 pass the Rhine. The most consummate skill was displayed 
 on both sides. These two generals had reduced war to a 
 science, and each was enabled to discover the designs of the 
 other, by judging what he himself would have done in like 
 circumstances. Turenne was preparing to seize a favourable 
 opportunity of bringing the Germans to a decisive action, and his 
 own generalship and that of Montecuculi to a final trial, when a 
 period was put to his life by a cannon-ball, as he was viewing the 
 position of the enemy, and taking measures for erecting a 
 battery. The consternation of the French at the loss of their 
 general was inexpressible ; they retreated, and by the aid of 
 the English auxiliaries were enabled to repass the Rhine with- 
 out much loss. The Prince of Conde came with a reinforce- 
 
XXIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 133 
 
 ment to supply the place of Turenne; but before his arrival 
 the Mareiihal de Crequi was routed by the Germans, who took 
 Treves. The King of Sweden, who had been induced to 
 take part with France, was very unfortunate in this campaign. 
 He was defeated by the Elector of Brandenburg, whose terri- 
 tories he had invaded, and lost all Pomerania. 
 
 In 1676, France was equally successful by sea and land. 
 Messina in Sicily had revolted from Spain, and a French fleet, 
 under the Duke of Vivonne, was sent to support the citizens 
 in their rebellion. A Dutch and Spanish squadron sailed to 
 oppose Vivonne, but after an obstinate combat Messina was 
 relieved by the French. Another engagement ensued near 
 Augusta, rendered famous by the death of the gallant De 
 Ruyter, in which the French had also the advantage. A third 
 battle, more decisive than either of the former, was fought off 
 Palermo ; this left the French undisputed masters of the 
 Mediterranean, and endangered the total revolt of Naples and 
 Sicily. In 1677, Lewis took several important places iii 
 Flanders, and defeated the Prince of Orange in an obstinate 
 battle, while the Marechal de Crequi, who commanded on the 
 Rhine, obliged the Duke of Lorraine to retire from Mentz, 
 and closed the campaign by taking Fribourgin Swabia. The 
 King of Sweden was still unfortunate. His fleet was twice 
 defeated by the Danes, and the Elector of Brandenburg took 
 from him the important fortress of Stettin. During the rapid 
 progress of the French arms in Flanders, serious negotiations 
 had been begun between Lewis and the States General. Both 
 sides had reason to wish for peace. Holland had suffered in 
 her commerce and was overpowered with taxes, and France, 
 though victorious in the field, was exhausted at home. And 
 as the emperor and Spain, though least able to continue the 
 war, seemed resolved to stand it out, the Dutch ambassador 
 signed a separate treaty with France, (1678,) which occasioned 
 much clamour among the confederates, but was ratified by the 
 States ; and all the other powers were at last obliged to accept 
 the terms dictated by the French monarch. The principal of 
 these were, that Lewis, besides Franche Comte, which he had 
 twice conquered, should retain possession of Cambray, Aire, 
 St. Omers, Valenciennes, Tournay, Ypres, Bouchaine, Cassel, 
 Cliarlemont, and other places : that he should restore Maes- 
 tricht to the States : that Spain should be again put in posses- 
 sion of Charleroy, Oudenard, Ath, Ghent, and Limbourg. 
 Tiiat the emperor should give up Fribourg to France, and re- 
 tain Philipsbourg : that the Elector of Brandenburg shoula 
 
 U 
 
134 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. L^HAP. 
 
 restore to Sweden his conquests in Pomerania, and that the 
 treaty of Westphalia should remain in full force over Germany 
 and the north. The Duke of Lorraine was the only prince 
 who refused to be included in the peace of Nimeguen: he 
 chose rather to be a soldier of fortune, and to command the 
 imperial armies, than to accept his dominions on the condi- 
 tions proposed by Lewis. The Prince of Orange was so en- 
 raged at this peace, that he took a most unwarrantable step to 
 break it. He attacked the quarters of the Duke of Luxem- 
 bourg, near Mons, in. hopes of cutting oft' the French army, 
 after the treaty was signed, and when the duke reposed on the 
 faith of it; but this bold violation of the law of nations was 
 attended with no other consequence than the loss of many 
 lives on both sides. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF NIMEGUEN, IN 1678, TO THE 
 LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG, IN 1687. 
 
 The peace of Nimeguen, instead of setting bounds to the 
 power of Lewis XIV., left him more at leisure to extend it. 
 While the empire, Spain, and Holland, disbanded their 
 supernumerary troops, Lewis still kept up all his, and in the 
 midst of profound peace maintained a formidable army. No 
 European prince since the time of Charlemagne had acted so 
 much like a master and a judge. In 1680, the Elector Palatine 
 and the Elector of Treves were divested of several places by 
 his imperious tribunals. The following year he laid claim to 
 the ancient and free city of Strasburg, as capital of Alsace. 
 Louvois, at the head of 20,000, took possession of the place, 
 and Vauban, who had fortified so many towns, here exhausted 
 his art, and rendered Strasburg the strongest barrier of France. 
 In 1683 he blockaded Luxemburg. Alarmed at these pre- 
 tensions, the empire, Spain, and Holland, began to take 
 measures for restraining the encroachments of France ; but 
 Spain was yet too feeble to enter upon a new war, and the 
 imperial armies were called upon to oppose a more pressing 
 danger. The Hungarians, who thought their privileges had 
 not been sufficiently respected by Leopold, again broke out 
 into rebellion ; and Tekeli, the head of the insurgents, called 
 in the Turks to the support of his countrymen. By the as- 
 sistance of the Bashaw of Buda, he ravaged Silesia, and 
 
XXIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 135 
 
 reduced many important places in Hungary; while Moham- 
 med IV., the reigning sultan, was preparing the most formi- 
 dable force that the Ottoman empire had ever sent against 
 Christendom. Leopold, foreseeing that the gathering storm 
 would finally break upon Germany, besides demanding the 
 assistance of the princes of the empire, concluded an offen- 
 sive and defensive alliance with John Sobieski, King of 
 Poland. Meanwhile, the Grand Vizier, Kara Mustapha, 
 passing through Hungary, at the head of 50,000 Janizaries, 
 30,000 Spahis, and 200,000 common men, advanced towards 
 V^ienna. The Duke of Lorraine, who commanded the impe- 
 rial forces, attempted in vain to oppose the progress of the 
 invader. The Turks under the grand vizier took the right 
 of the Danube, and Tekeli with the Hungarians the left. See- 
 ing his capital threatened on all sides, the emperor retired first 
 to Lintz, and then to Passau. The Turks invested Vienna in 
 July, and had not only destroyed the suburbs, but made a 
 breach in tlie body of the place before September. The 
 Duke of Lorraine had prevented the Hungarians from joining 
 the Turks, but was unable to relieve the garrison ; an assault 
 was every moment expected, when John Sobieski, having 
 joined his troops to those of Saxony and Bavaria, made a 
 signal to the besieged from the top of the mountain of Calem- 
 berg, and inspired them with new hopes. Kara Mustapha, 
 who, out of contempt for the Christians, had neglected to push 
 the assault, and who, amidst the progress of ruin, had wanton- 
 ed in luxury, was made sensible of his mistake when it was 
 too late to repair it. The Christians descended the mountains, 
 under the command of the King of Poland and the Duke of 
 Lorraine. The Turks were seized with a panic, and routed 
 almost without resistance. Only 500 of the victors fell; and 
 so great was the terror, and so precipitate the flight of the infi- 
 dels, that they abandoned not only their tents, artillery, and 
 baggage, but left behind them the famous standard of Mo- 
 hammed, which Sobieski sent to the pope with the follow- 
 ing letter: — " I came, I saw, God conquered." The Turks 
 received another defeat on the plain of Barcan, and all Hun- 
 gary on both sides of the Danube was recovered by the impe- 
 rial arms. The King of France had raised the blockade of 
 Luxemburg, when the Turks approached Vienna, " I will 
 never," said he, "attack a Christian prince, while Christen- 
 dom is in danger from the infidels :" but the apprehensions 
 of Christendom being removed by the relief of Vienna, and 
 the expulsion of the Turks, Lewis returned to the siege of 
 
136 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 Luxemburg, and reduced, in a short time, not only that place, 
 but also Courtray and Dixmude. (1684.) The glory and 
 greatness of the French monarch were still farther extended 
 by means of his naval power: he had upwards of a hundred 
 ships of the line, and 60,000 seamen ; the magnificent port 
 of Toulon was constructed at an immense expense ; and that 
 of Brest, upon the ocean, was formed upon as extensive a 
 plan. Dunkirk and Havre-de-Grace were filled with ships, 
 and Rochefort, in spite of nature, was converted into a con- 
 venient harbour. Nor did Lewis allow his ships to lie inac- 
 tive in these ports. He sent out squadrons to clear the seas 
 of the Barbary pirates; he ordered Algiers twice to be bom- 
 barded, and not only humbled that haughty predatory city, 
 and obliged the Algerines to release all their Christian slaves, 
 but subjected Tunis and Tripoli to the same conditions. The 
 Genoese being accused of having sold bombs and gunpowder 
 to the Algerines, and built galleys for the Spaniards, Lewis 
 ordered Duquene to sail from Toulon with fourteen ships of 
 the line, twenty galleys, and fourteen frigates ; these appeared 
 before Genoa, and suddenly reduced to a heap of ruins many 
 of those magnificent buildings, which have obtained for that 
 city the appellation of PtgucI. Four thousand men were 
 landed, and the suburb of St. Peter D'Arena was burned. It 
 now became necessary for the Genoese to make submissions, 
 in order to prevent the total destruction of their capital. 
 Lewis demanded that the doge and four of the principal sena- 
 tors should come and implore his clemency at Versailles. 
 These humiliating conditions were complied with ; the doge, 
 in his ceremonial habit, appeared before Lewis, in a suppli- 
 cating posture. This doge, who was a man of wit and 
 vivacity, being asked by the French courtiers what seemed to 
 him most extraordinary at Versailles, very pointedly replied, 
 "To see myself there." 
 
 In 1685, Lewis revoked the edict of Nantes, which had 
 been granted by Henry IV., in favour of the Calvinists. 
 This strong and decisive measure seems to have been dictated 
 by cautious policy, not by tyrannical persecution, as it is 
 lepresented by various historians.* Forty years of Lewis's 
 reign had passed, and no molestation had been given to the 
 Huguenots, until provoked by themselves. The danger of 
 seeing France once more involved in civil war, through the 
 
 * See this article treated at large in a memoir, written by Lewis Dau- 
 phin, father of Lewis XVI., quoted by Feller. Dictionnaire Historique, 
 vol. 4, page 192. 
 
 I 
 
XXV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 137 
 
 intrigues rf democratical innovators, (Jansenists and Hugue- 
 nots, both by principle equally hostile to regal and episcopal 
 government,) was visible on the one hand, and on the other, 
 no less visible was the loss of so many industrious mechanics. 
 The politic monarch of France judged that public tranquillity 
 could not be secured at too dear a rate ; and, therefore, ordered 
 all the body of French Huguenots either to abjure the doc- 
 trines of Geneva and return to the Catholic Church, or quit 
 the kingdom. The generality of them conformed ; but some 
 preferred banishment, and sevi ral of these exiles fled to Eng- 
 land, where they experienced great kindness from James H. 
 Thus protected, many among them rose to opulence and con- 
 sequence, which their posterity still enjoy. 
 
 During the last-mentioned transactions in France, the em- 
 peror had taken Buda from the Turks, after an obstinate 
 siege. He had defeated them with great slaughter at Mohatz, 
 1689: he had entirely subdued the Hungarian malcontents, 
 he had even got the crown of Hungary declared hereditary in 
 the house of Austria, and his son, Joseph, proclaimed king of 
 that country. He had now leisure to turn his eyes towards 
 France, nor could he do it with indifference. A league had 
 been concluded by the whole empire in 1686 to restrain the 
 encroachments of that power; and an attempt of Lewis to get 
 the Cardinal of Furstersburg made Elector of Cologne, in 
 opposition to the emperor, kindled anew the flames of war in 
 Germany and the Low Countries. Spain and Holland became 
 principals in the league ; Denmark, Sweden, and Savoy were 
 afterwards gained over, and the accession of England was at 
 length acquired. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 1685. THE REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. 
 
 On the demise of King Charles, in 1685, his brother James, 
 Duke of York, mounted the British throne, with every mark 
 of public approbation and attachment to his person, notwith- 
 standing his open professions of the Catholic religion ; and 
 he miglit probably have reigned in tranquillity, and died in 
 peace on the throne of his ancestors, had he been less zealous 
 in the cause of religion, or had he placed less confidence in 
 those who, by false advice, led him into a snare. The spring 
 of James's subsequent misfortunes may be traced to the choice 
 
 14* 
 
138 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 he made of Cecil, Earl of Sunderland, for his prime minister 
 and secretary of state. This perfidious and artful minister 
 professed himself a convert to the Catholic religion, that he 
 might ruin him the more elTectually, while he seemed to exert 
 his best endeavours to serve him. James saw not through 
 the dark designs of the hypocrite, but blindly gave in to every 
 unpopular measure suggested by him. The first public dis- 
 turbance arose from the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth, 
 who had long cast his eyes on the crown; and, being flattered 
 with hopes of success, by the assurances he received from 
 Sunderland, em.barked from Holland, where he then was, and 
 landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, June 9th, 1685. His stand- 
 ard was joined by a raw multitude, amounting to five thousand 
 men ; but the royal army being encamped within three miles 
 of Bridgewater, he was defeated with great slaughter, taken 
 prisoner, and beheaded. Before his execution, he let the king 
 know that Sunderland, and others in his confidence, were part- 
 ners with him in treason. But the king was too prepossessed 
 in favour of his confidential minister to believe him guilty. 
 A special commission of Oyer and Terminer was issued to 
 •Tefferies, the lord chief justice, for the trial of the rebel 
 prisoners. JefTeries, in the execution of his commission, is 
 represented to have been bloody, arbitrary, and savage ; and 
 the odium of his severities was unjustly cast upon the king, 
 though it does not appear that he approved of them.* In the 
 mean time, the Duke of Argyle, one of Monmouth's partisans, 
 had made a similar attempt upon Scotland; but the king's 
 authority was too well established there, to be shaken by the 
 duke's forces, which amounted to two thousand men. His 
 arms and ammunition were seized, and his followers, after suf- 
 fering all the hardships of famine and fatigue, gradually de- 
 serted ; and he himself, being made prisoner, was conveyed to 
 Edinburgh and immediately executed. (1686.) Monmouth's 
 rebelUon was scarcely suppressed, when the good understand- 
 ing which had hitherto subsisted between the king and the Parlia- 
 ment began to be interrupted. His majesty informed the Com- 
 mons that a disposition in the people to revolt, rendered the in- 
 crease of a military force necessary to preserve the tranquillity 
 of the realm ; and that having in the time of danger employed offi- 
 cers in the army who had not taken the qualifying tests, they 
 could not now be dismissed without disgrace. The king con- 
 sidered the right of dispensing with penal statutes as an inhe- 
 
 * Vide Lingard. 
 
 ij 
 
XXV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 139 
 
 rent prerogative of his crown, which he was resolved not to 
 relinquish. The judges of the law were consulted upon the 
 question, and eleven of them declared the claim to be legal. 
 The same dispensation had been frequently granted by Eliza- 
 beth, James I., Charles L, and Charles II., who had all em- 
 ployed Catholics in their armies and navies ; and Parliament 
 itself had more than once acknowledged this prerogative of 
 the crown ; but as the exertion of it seemed now to favour 
 the re-establishment of the Catholic religion, it met with viru- 
 lent opposition. The treacherous Earl of Sunderland was, 
 all this while, furnishing the nation with subjects of discontent, 
 by urging the king from one unpopular step to another. At 
 his suggestion, the king formed a secret council of Roman 
 Catholics, to consult upon affairs of religion. An English 
 ambassador was sent to reside at Rome, and a pope's nuncio 
 was publicly received in England. The management of affairs 
 relative to the national church was consigned to an ecclesias- 
 tical Court of Commission, composed of seven Protestants, 
 who were vested with the same exorbitant powers as those 
 formerly given by Elizabeth to the like court. A royal procla- 
 mation was issued, which granted to every British subject an 
 entire freedom to follow that mode of worship which con- 
 science should dictate. This indulgent grant was joyfully 
 received by the Catholics and by the Dissenters of every deno- 
 mination, but loudly censured by others. The king, believing 
 that his edict gave general satisfaction, published a new decla- 
 ration for liberty of conscience, in April, 1688, to which an 
 order was subjoined, that it should be read in every church 
 and chapel in the kingdom, after divine service. This order 
 was considered by the clergy as an insult upon the national 
 church. Six of \\e bishops resisted the mandate ; they were 
 indicted, for disobedience, and committed to the Tower. Their 
 case was tried in the Court of King's Bench, and the jury de- 
 clared them not guilty. This contest with the bishops com- 
 pleted the king's unpopularity ; \ .liile the measures he had taken 
 relative to the government of Ireland, were calculated to in- 
 crease the jealousy a»d suspicions of the Protestant party. 
 No wonder that the Jatholics of that long oppressed and 
 much injured country should hail tlie accession of a Catholic 
 prince to the throne, with an enthusiastic and even intempe- 
 rate joy. The turn of tke scale of politics was rapid and 
 complete. The Earl of Clarendon had succeeded Ormond as 
 ord deputy; but he wa^ probably too firmly attached to the 
 Protestant interest, to gi\c in as largely to the king's measures 
 
140 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 as was agreeable to the court. In obedience to the instructions 
 he received, the CathoUcs were advanced to many civil and 
 military offices, and the Earl of Tyrconnell appointed com- 
 mander of the army. (1686.) This last was soon after pre- 
 vailed on to go over to England, in order to engage the king 
 to come into their favourite measure, of abolishing the obnox- 
 ious act of setdement. His endeavours were successful, and 
 he returned to Ireland as lord deputy. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Prince of Orange, who was minutely in- 
 formed by Sunderland of every thing that passed in England, 
 was active in forming schemes for mounting the throne of his 
 father-in-law. Ever since his marriage with the Princess 
 Mary of England, he had always kept his eye upon the crown ; 
 though he had a complicated scheme of policy to conduct, 
 and many interfering interests to reconcile on the continent. 
 The league of Augsburg, formed to break the power of France, 
 could not accomplish its object without the accession of Eng- 
 land ; and as James refused to take part in the league,' the 
 House of Austria, in both its branches, countenanced his pro- 
 jected expulsion, as the only means of humbling their common 
 enemy. All the German princes were in the same interest ; 
 and it was agreed they should protect the United Provinces 
 during the. absence of William. 
 
 While one-half of Europe thus combined against the King 
 of England, while many of his own subjects were determined 
 to oppose his power, and more to divest him of his authority, 
 James, as if blinded by fate, reposed in the most supine secu- 
 rity, and disregarded the repeated accounts of the preparations 
 made against him. Deceived by his ambassador in Holland, 
 and betrayed by his minister, the Earl of Sunderland, James 
 believed the rumour of an invasion was only raised by his 
 enemies, in order to frighten him into a closer connexion with 
 France, and to complete, by that means, the disaffection of 
 his subjects. The prince, at length, after several disappoint- 
 ments, put to sea, on the 1st of November, 1688, with a large 
 fleet, having on board land forces to the amount of 15,000 
 men. Lord Dartmouth, who commanded the English fleet, 
 let them pass unmolested ; they sailed down the Channel, and 
 on the 4th of November anchored safely in Torbay. As soon 
 as the king was apprized of the invader's landing, he hastened 
 to put himself at the head of his army, and ordered all his 
 forces to rendezvous on Salisbury plain, under the command 
 ol the Earl of Fcversham ; but on reviewing them, he disco- 
 vered su: : symptoms of disaff'ection, that he was at a loss how 
 
XXV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. HI 
 
 to act. Even among those whom he had most favoured, he 
 saw but few on whom he could rely. In a council ot war, 
 A retreat towards the capital was resolved on. The enemy 
 advanced ; James left the remains of his army in quarters, 
 and retreated to London on the 26th of the same month. 
 Successive misfortunes were now, daily heaped upon the un- 
 fortunate monarch; his nearest friends and relatives were 
 among the first to desert him, and the spirit of revolt spread 
 from county to county, as if the whole nation had at once 
 combined against its lawful sovereign. His son-in-law, the 
 Prince of Denmark, joined the Prince of Orange, and even 
 his darling daughter, iVnne, secretly withdrew, under the con- 
 duct of the Bishop of London, to join the rebels. This de- 
 fection of a favourite child wrung his heart with inexpressible 
 grief, and subdued the usual constancy of his mind. The 
 terrors of the queen for her own, and her infant son's safety, 
 idded to his distress : he therefore sent them off privately to 
 France, under the care of the Count de Lauzun, a generous 
 French nobleman. All hopes of an accommodation with the 
 invader being now past, and not knowing on whom to rely 
 for advice or support, James resolved to quit a country which 
 nad brought his father to the scaffold, and to retire to France. 
 With this design, he privately left his palace, at midnight, on 
 the 10th of December, crossed the river in disguise, and was 
 met at Vauxhall by Sir Edward Hales, and another friend. 
 To complete his imprudence, he commanded the Earl of Fe- 
 versham to disband the army, recalled the writs for the meet- 
 ing of Parliament, and threw the great seal into the Thames ! 
 At Feversham he was discovered, and forced to return to 
 Whitehall, amidst the insults of a militia guard, who had 
 orders to take care of his person. On the 17th, at night, his 
 English soldiers were replaced by Dutch troops, and the king 
 received a message from the prince, to quit his palace before 
 ten the next morning. A hundred Dutch soldiers were ordered 
 to escort him to Rochester, and guard him as their prisoner. 
 Several noblemen, the gallant Lord Dundee, and other officers 
 of distinction, who had assembled at Rochester, strenuously 
 opposed the king's determination of retiring to France. They 
 represented to him that the opinion of mankind began already 
 to change ; and Dundee, witli his generous ardour, only entreat- 
 ed his majesty to give him his commission, and he would 
 carry his standard through England, and drive before him the 
 Dutch and their prince. James replied, that he believed ii 
 might be done^ but that it would occasion a civil war, and he 
 
142 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 would not do so much mischief to a people who would soon 
 return to their senses. The animated remonstrances of his 
 friends could not inspire with new firmness a mind broken by 
 apprehension and terror. James still continued to meditate 
 his escape ; and the back door of the house in which he lodged 
 being left unguarded, his majesty seized the opportunity, 
 after three days' confinement; went on board a sloop that lay 
 waiting for him ; got safe to the opposite shore on the 25th 
 of December,* and immediately taking post, soon joined his 
 queen, at St. Germains, where he was received by Lewis 
 XIV., with every mark of cordial affection. The two Houses 
 of Parliament met in January, 1689, and declared the flight 
 and expatriation of James equivalent to a desertion of his 
 subjects, and an abdication of his crown. In the mean time, 
 the Presbyterians in Scodand, who formed the bulk of the 
 nation, entered warmly into the interests of the Prince of 
 Orange, who was of their persuasion, and deputed thirty noble- 
 men, and about eighty gentlemen, to request him to assume 
 the administration of Scotland. The English Convention, 
 after many disputes between the whigs and tories,t at last 
 agreed, that the Prince of Orange should reign jointly with 
 his wife, the sole administration to be in the prince. The 
 act of setdement, moreover, provided, that in default of heirs 
 in the direct line, the Princess Anne was to succeed, and her 
 posterity after that of her sister. To this regulation was an- 
 nexed a declaration, which fixed the bounds of the royal pre- 
 rogative. Thus was terminated the great struggle between 
 the crown and the people, which commenced with the acces- 
 sion of the fauidy of Stuart to the throne of England, and 
 continued till their exclusion, when almost a century had 
 elapsed. This event, called the Revolution, forms a remark- 
 able epoch in the English history. 
 
 Long before James left England, the Protestants in the 
 North of Ireland were up in arms ; they had appointed coun- 
 cils and committees to carry on their business, and all this 
 was done without the authority of James, at that time King of 
 England. Tyrconnel, under these embarrassments, summoned 
 
 * He was accompanied by the Duke of Berwick, his natural son. 
 
 I Various etymologies have been given to these noted terms. They 
 were used as epithets of mutual reproach during the reign of Charles II. 
 The Whigs were strongly attached to the liberties of the people, while the 
 Tories were equally zealous for the prerogative of the crown. After the 
 abdication of James II., the latter vs^as supposed to favour the Stuart suc- 
 cession, and the reproachful appellation of Jacobite was bestowed on those 
 who were attached to the person or family of the dethroned monarch. 
 
XXV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 143 
 
 all the loyal part of the nation to arm in defence of the rights 
 of their lawful sovereign ; and an army of about 30,000 men 
 was at length formed by him, and officered chiefly with 
 Catholics. James gave constant assurances, that he would 
 come over to lead them in person ; he was then at the court 
 of Lewis XIV., who, commiserating Ijis fallen state, and envy- 
 ing the rising power of William, his inveterate enemy, offered 
 yiim a French arm)- to regain his rights, which he declined, 
 saying, " that he would recover his dominions by the assistance 
 of his ow^n subjects, or perish in the attempt." James sailed 
 from Brest with a strong armament, having on board 1200 of 
 his own subjects, who were then in the pay of France, and a 
 hundred French officers. He landed at Kinsale, in March, 
 1689, whence he proceeded to Dublin, and was received as 
 king with great pomp and solemnity. The Protestant revolu- 
 tionists defended themselves in Derry and Enniskillen, till the 
 atrival of an English army of 40,000 men, under Schomberg, 
 in August, the same year. William afterwards landed to head 
 his army in person, and the battle of the Boyne was fought on 
 the 1st of July, 1690. In this action William distinguished 
 himself by his intrepidity and vigilance ; while James, on the 
 contrary, stood at a secure distance, and when he saw his Irish 
 troops repulsing those of the enemy, exclaimed, " O spare my 
 English subjects." His chief concern before the battle was 
 to provide for his personal safety. Resolved to insure it, 
 when matters took an unfavourable turn, he fled precipitately 
 to Dublin, and thence to Waterford, where he took ship- 
 )ing for France. The route of William and his victorious 
 army was marked with cruelty and devastation. They met 
 wdth a Vigorous resistance from the army under Tyrconnel, till 
 October, 1691, when the Irish surrendered their last hold, the 
 city of Limerick, on honourable conditions. By the treaty, 
 concluded on this occasion, all who wished to quit the country 
 were permitted to retire with their families and effects. The 
 number of voluntary exiles, who chose rather to forfeit all 
 natural advantages than fail in the allegiance they conceived 
 due to their lawful prince, amounted to upwards of 19,000 
 men. The treaty of Limerick secured to William the undis- 
 puted possession of Ireland ; in return, he promised liberty of 
 conscience. The stipulation was observed just two months ; 
 during that period the flower of the Irish army followed James 
 to Fiance, and the rest disbanded. 
 
'x44 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM 1689, TO THE PEACE OF CARLOWITZ, IN 1699. 
 
 The League of Augsburg was completed by the adhesion 
 of England, in 1689. The French monarch, trusting to his 
 great resources, prepared himself to repel the storm, with a 
 vigour proportioned to the occasion. He assembled two armies 
 in Flanders; he opposed a third to the Spaniards in Catalonia ; 
 and to form a barrier on the side of Germany, he laid waste 
 the Palatinate with fire and sword. The Germanic body, 
 united under the emperor, assembled three formidable armies, 
 besides that opposed to the Turks ; namely, one under the 
 Elector of Bavaria, on the Upper Rhine ; the main army, under 
 the Duke of Lorraine, on the Middle Rhine; and a third, con- 
 ducted by the Elector of Brandenburg, appeared on the Lov/er 
 Rhine. The Duke of Lorraine laid siege to Mentz, while the 
 Elector of Brandenburg invested Bonn. Both places were 
 taken ; and the French were worsted in an engagement in 
 Flanders. Nor was Lewis more successful in Catalonia ; his 
 troops were driven back to their own frontiers. 
 
 The same year the Prince of Baden, who commanded for the 
 emperor on the side of Hungary, defeated the Turks in three 
 successive engagements. About the same time an alarming 
 attempt was made in Scotland to assert the rights of James. 
 But Lord Dundee, who headed the Highlanders, having been 
 killed by a random shot, the rest submitted. In the mean while, 
 the English Parliament, though divided on every other point, 
 was unanimous in seconding the inimical designs of AVilliam 
 against France, and, accordingly, war was declared this same 
 year. (1689.) 
 
 In 1690, the Duke of Savoy having joined the allies, it be- 
 came necessary for Lewis to send an army into Italy. This 
 army was committed to Catinat, who united the fire of a hero 
 to the coolness of a philosopher. He completely defeated 
 Victor Amadeus, at Staffarada ; and all Savoy, except Mont- 
 melian, was soon after reduced. Equal success attended the 
 arms of France in this campaign on the frontiers of Spain and 
 in Flanders, where Luxemburg gained a complete, but bloody 
 victory, over the Dutch and Spaniards at Fleurus, near Char- 
 leroy. Nothing memorable happened on the side of Germany, 
 owing, perhaps, to the death of the Dnke of Lorraine. This 
 
XXVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 145 
 
 gallant prince, whose high spirit induced him to abandon his 
 dominions, and become a soldier of fortune, rather than sub- 
 mit to the conditions offered by Lewis at the peace of Nime- 
 guen, was become a consummate general. His injuries seem 
 always to have been uppermost in his mind, except while en- 
 gaged against the infidels, when religion was predominant. 
 He threatened to enter Lorraine at the head of 40,000 men 
 before the end of the summer, but died before that date. His 
 letter to the Emperor Leopold, his brother-in-law, strongly 
 marks his character. " I am going," says he, " to give an 
 account to a more powerful master of a life which I have de- 
 voted chiefly to your service. Remember that I leave behind 
 me a wife who is nearly related to you ; children who have 
 no inheritance but my sword, and subjects who lie under op 
 pression." 
 
 1690. — The Turks this year took Nissa Widin, and even 
 Belgrade, which was carried by assault after a bloody siege. 
 All Upper Hungary, beyond the Tibiscus, fell into their hands, 
 and they took up winter-quarters in that country. To add to 
 the misfortune of the allies during this campaign, the combinea 
 fleet of England and Holland was defeated by the French 
 under Tourville. 
 
 169L — The progress of the French during the next cam- 
 paign, was not equal to what might have been expected from 
 their late victories. Though Lewis in person took Mons, in 
 defiance of King William, who had placed himself at the head 
 of the confederate army, yet the summer passed without any 
 memorable event. Meanwhile the Turks lost all they had 
 gained the former year, and were totally routed by the Prince 
 of Baden, with the loss of 20,000 men. 
 
 A cruel massacre of the inhabitants of the vale of Glenco, 
 in Argyleshire, contrary to the faith of a royal proclamation, 
 roused once more the resentment of the Jacobites, and was 
 made use of by the dissatisfied whigs to render the government 
 of William odious. An insurrection, in favour of the dethroned 
 monarch, was projected both in England and Scotland ; and 
 Lewis, encouraged by favourable accounts from Britain, began 
 to prepare for an invasion. A considerable body of French 
 forces, joined by many fugitive L'ish and Scots, assembled for 
 the purpose, between Cherbourg and La Hogue, commanded 
 by James, while sixty- three ships of the line were appointed 
 to favour the descent. To oppose this formidable armament, 
 a fleet of 99 ships was fitted out, under the gallant Admiral 
 Russel. On the 19th of Mav, 1^92, the hostile fleets met off* 
 15 
 
l4Q GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAf 
 
 La Hogue. A bloody contest ensued ; victory declared in 
 favour of the English, and all the expectations of James 
 vanished. During the conflict, the exiled monarch repeatedly 
 exclaimed, with a mixture of admiration and regret, " See my 
 brave English," conscious, nevertheless, that he was viewing 
 1the extinction of his hopes. The projected invasion thus 
 proving unsuccessful, James returned to St. Germain's iu 
 1694, where he spent the few remaining years of his life, ir 
 the unostentatious practice of the most exemplary piety. In 
 awarding to this well-meaning but misguided monarch the 
 praise due to his many good qualities, and, above all, his un- 
 shaken fidehty to the religion he had conscientiously embraced, 
 we are free to admit that the rash zeal, or secret treachery of 
 his advisers, often betrayed him into unconstitutional measures, 
 the extreme unpopularity of which led to his expulsion from 
 the throne. His subsequent life in exile was marked by every 
 virtue, and he closed his career, still honoured by all as a 
 sovereign, and reverenced by many as a saint. 
 
 In the spring of 1692, William and Lewis set out on the 
 same day to join their respective armies. Lewis sat down 
 before Namur with an army of 30,000 men, while Luxem- 
 bourg, with another army, covered the siege of that important 
 place, which is situated at the conflux of the Sambre and 
 Maese. William advanced to the relief of the place with an 
 army of 80,000 men, but failed in his attempt, and the town 
 was obliged to surrender. To wipe off this disgrace, Wil- 
 liam endeavoured to surprise the French army, under Luxem- 
 bourg, at Steinkerk. The attack was chiefly made by the 
 British troops. William and his Dutch generals failed to 
 second the efforts of those brave battalions. The English, 
 thus neglected, and left to sustain the whole shock, were 
 obliged to give ground, and were almost all cut to pieces. 
 Above 10,000 men fell on both sides in the space of two 
 hours. William's military character suffered greatly by this 
 battle, and the hatred of the English against the Dutch became 
 violent in the highest degree. " Let us see what sport these 
 English bull-dogs will make," was the cool, sarcastical reply 
 of Count Solmes, when ordered to advance to the support of 
 the British troops. 
 
 In the mean while, the Duke of Savoy entered Dauphine ; 
 ravaged the country, and reduced the fortified towns. No- 
 thing of any consequence happened on the Rhine. Hanovei 
 was this year made an electorate by the emperor. In 1693, 
 Lewis opened the campaigo with great pomp, in Flanders, a 
 
XXVI. 3 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 147 
 
 the head of an army of 120,000 men. He sent part of his 
 troops into Germany, under the dauphin, and, leaving to 
 Luxembourg the conduct of the military operations in Flan- 
 ders, returned to Versailles. Luxembourg, finding the allies 
 unwilling to come to an engagement, resolved to attack them 
 in their camp. A desperate >)attle was fought at Neerwinden, 
 (1694,) in which the French obtained a signal but bloody 
 victory. They were again victorious on the side of Savoy, 
 and on the ocean. The glory and greatness of Lewis XIV. 
 were now not only at their height, but verging towards a de- 
 cline. His resources were exhausted ; his minister, Louvois, 
 who knew so well how to employ them, was dead ; and 
 Luxembourg, who had made France the terror of Europe, 
 died before the opening of the next campaign. Lewis 
 tlierefore determined to act merely on the defensive in 
 Flanders. 
 
 This year was signalized in England by the act for trien- 
 nial Parliaments^ which passed both Houses, and received 
 the royal assent in November,* also by the death of the 
 queen, after a short illness, in the thirty-third year of her 
 age, and the sixth year of her reign. She was possessed 
 of a good understanding, and of conciliating, amiable manners. 
 Her attachment to the Protestant religion, and to the princi- 
 ples of liberty, gained her the good-will of the whigs, who, 
 on those considerations, were ready to overlook the ingratitude 
 and breach of filial duty with which her character is stained. 
 
 The military reputation of AVilliam, which had suff'ered 
 greatly during the three foregoing campaigns, was much 
 raised by the retaking of Namur. But the allies had little 
 success in other quarters. On the side of Hungary the acces- 
 sion of Mustapha II. to the Ottoman throne gave a new turn 
 to affairs. He passed the Danube, stormed Lippa, seized Itul, 
 attacked and killed Veterani, and dispersed his forces. The 
 next campaign produced no signal event. France was ex- 
 hausted by her great exertions, and most of the other powers 
 seemed heartily tired of the war. A congress for a general 
 peace, under the mediation of Charles XI. of Sweden, was at 
 last opened at the Castle of Ryswick, between Delft and the 
 Hague. The taking of Barcelona by the Duke of Vendome, 
 induced the King of Spain to listen to the proposals of 
 France; and the emperor, after reproaching his allies with 
 deserting him, found it necessary to accede to the treaty. 
 
 * A similar bill had been extorted from Charles I., but repealed soon after 
 the restoration, in compliment to CHqrlri? TT 
 
148 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 (1697.) The concessions made by Lewis XIV. were very 
 considerable, but the pretensions of the house of Bourbon to 
 the Spanish succession were left in full force. It was stipu- 
 lated that the French monarch should acknowledge William 
 to be lawful sovereign of England, and make no further at- 
 tempt to disturb him in the possession of his kingdoms ; 
 that the duchy of Luxembourg, Charleroy, Mons, &c., as 
 well as the places taken in Catalonia during the war, should 
 be restored to Spain ; that Fribourg, Brisgau, and Philipsbourg 
 should be given up to the emperor, and the duchies of Lor- 
 raine and Bar be restored to their native prince. 
 
 Scarcely had the emperor acceded to the treaty of Rys- 
 wick, when he received intelligence of the total defeat of the 
 Turks, by his arms, at Zenta, a small village on the banks of 
 the Theisse, in Hungary. The celebrated Prince Eugene, of 
 Savoy, had succeeded the Elector of Saxony in the command 
 of the Imperialists, and to his consummate abilities they were 
 indebted for their extraordinary success. Mustapha II. com- 
 manded his army in person. The battle was of short dura- 
 tion, but uncommonly bloody. About 20,000 Turks were 
 left dead on the field, and 10,000 were drowned in the river, 
 in endeavouring to avoid the fury of the sword. This victory 
 broke the spirit of the Turks ; and the haughty Mustapha, 
 after attempting, during another campaign, to recover the 
 laurels he had lost at Zenta, agreed to listen to proposals of 
 peace. The plenipotentiaries of the belligerent powers ac- 
 jordingly met at Carlowitz, (1699,) and signed a treaty, in 
 which it was stipulated that all Hungary on this side the Save, 
 with Transylvania and Sclavonia, should be ceded to the 
 house of Austria. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 THE AFFAIRS OF EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF RYSWICK, TO 
 THE GRAND ALLIANCE, 1701. 
 
 1697. — The first object which engaged the general atten- 
 tion of Europe, after the peace of Ryswick, was the settlement 
 3f the Spanish succession. The declining health of Charles 
 II. gave new spirit to the competitors for his crown. These 
 were Lewis XIV., the Emperor Leopold, and the Elector of 
 Bavaria. Lewis and the emperor were in the same degree of 
 consanguinity to Charles II., being both grandsons of Philip 
 
XXVII. J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 149 
 
 III. The dauphin and the emperor's eldest son, Joseph, 
 King of the Romans, had moreover a double claim, their 
 mothers being two daughters of Philip IV. Priority of birth 
 was claimed by the house of Bourbon, Lewis and his son be- 
 ing descended from the eldest daughters of Spain ; the impe- 
 rial family, on the other hand, alleged the solemn renunciation 
 made by Lewis and his father to the Spanish succession, and 
 tlieir descent from Maximilian, the common parent of both 
 branches of the house of Austria. The Elector of Bavaria 
 claimed as the husband of an archduchess, the only surviving 
 child of the Emperor Leopold, by the Infanta Margaret, 
 second daughter of Philip IV., who had declared /ier descend- 
 ants heirs of his crown, in preference to those of his eldest 
 daughter, Maria Teresa. The general interests of Europe 
 seemed to require that the Prince of Bavaria should succeed 
 to the Spanish monarchy, but his two competitors were obsti- 
 nate in their claims. The body of the Spanish nation favour- 
 ed the lineal succession of the house of Bourbon ; but the 
 queen, who was a German princess, supported the preten- 
 sions of the emperor. Lewis XIV., sensible that any attempt 
 to treat with the emperor would be ineffectual, proposed to 
 the King of England a partition of the Spanish dominions. 
 To carry this design into effect, a treaty of partition was 
 signed, in 1698, by England, Holland, and France. Intelli- 
 gence of the secret convention was privately conveyed from 
 Holland to Madrid. The Spanish ministers were filled with 
 indignation, at finding a division of their monarchy made 
 by f^oreigners, during the life of their sovereign. Charles II. 
 immediately, by will, constituted the electoral Prince of Ba- 
 varia his sole heir, agreeably to the testament of Philip IV.; 
 but the sudden death of this prince, the following year, re- 
 vived all the former contentions. 
 
 While these disputes agitated the south and west, two 
 extraordinary men were rising into notice in the north of 
 Europe, — Peter I., of Russia, and Charles XII., of Sweden. 
 Peter had already rendered himself formidable by the defeat 
 of the Turks, in 1696, and the taking of Asoph, which 
 opened to him the dominion of the Black Sea. This acqui- 
 sition led to more extensive views. He resolved to make 
 Russia the centre of trade between Europe and Asia ; he 
 projected a junction of the Dwina, the Wolga, and the Don 
 or Tanais, by means of canals, thus to open a passage from 
 the Baltic to the Euxine and Caspian seas, and from these 
 seas to the Northern Ocean. He resolved to build a city on 
 
 15* 
 
150 GENERAL HISTORV OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 the Baltic, which should become the magazine of the North, 
 and the capital of his extensive empire. Animated by the 
 noble ambition of introducing among his people the improve- 
 ments of other nations, he quitted his dominions in 1697, 
 laboured as a journeyman in the dockyards at Amsterdam, 
 studied navigation, fortification, and all the sciences necessary 
 for the sovereign of a barbarous people. From Holland he 
 passed over to England, where he was honourably received 
 and assisted in his literary pursuits by King William. The 
 peace of Carlowitz, concluded soon after the return of the 
 czar, afforded him leisure to prosecute his plans. As he 
 wanted a port on the Baltic, he resolved to make himself 
 master of the province of Ingria, N. E. of Livonia, which 
 had formerly been in the possession of his ancestors. With 
 this view he entered into a league against Sweden, with Fre- 
 deric Augustus, Elector of Saxony, who had succeeded 
 the famous Sobieski on the throne of Poland. The war 
 was begun by the King of Denmark, who, contrary to 
 the faith of treaties, invaded the territories of the Duke of 
 Holstein Gottorp, brother-in-law to Charles XII., and after 
 taking some inconsiderable places, invested Tonningen, in 
 1705, while the Russians, Poles, and Saxons entered Livonia 
 and Ingria. The moment Charles was informed of the inva- 
 sion of Holstein, he resolved to carry the war into Denmark. 
 He accordingly left his capital, never to return thither, and 
 embarked with his troops at Carlscroon, having appointed a 
 council from among the senate, to regulate his affairs during 
 his absence. The Swedish fleet was joined, at the mouth 
 of the sound, by a squadron of English and Dutch men-of 
 war. The Danish fleet, unable to face the enemy, retired 
 under the guns of Copenhagen, which was bombarded, and 
 the King of Denmark, who had failed in his attempt upon 
 Tonningen, was cooped up in Holstein by the Swedish fri- 
 gates. In this critical season, the enterprising spirit of the 
 young King of Sweden suggested to him the means of finish- 
 ing the war at a blow. He proposed to besiege Copenhagen by 
 land, while the combined fleet blocked it up by sea. Impatient 
 to reach the shore, he leaped into the sea, sword in hand, and 
 being followed by all his officers and soldiers, quickly put to 
 flight the Danish troops who attempted to oppose their land- 
 ing. Charles, who had never before been present at a general 
 discharge of muskets loaded with ball, asked Major Stuart 
 what occasioned the whistling which he heard: "It is the 
 tsound of the bullets," said the major, "which they fire 
 
XXVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 151 
 
 against your majesty." " 'Tis well," said the king; "this 
 shall henceforth be my music." The citizens of Copenhagen, 
 filled with consternation, sent a deputation to Charles, be- 
 seeching him not to bombard the town. In the mean time 
 the King of Denmark was in the most perilous situation ; 
 pressed by land on one side, and confined by sea on the 
 other. The Swedes were in the heart of his dominions, and 
 his capital and fleet were both ready to fall into their hands. 
 He could deriv^e no hopes but from submission. The King 
 of England offered his mediation, and a treaty highly honour- 
 able to Charles was concluded at Travendal, between Den- 
 mark, Sweden, and Holstein, to the exclusion of Russia and 
 Poland. 
 
 In 1700 died Charles II. of Spain, the last king of the eldest 
 Austrian branch, after having, by a second will, appointed the 
 Duke of Anjou, second son of the dauphin, his successor in 
 all his dominions. Lewis XIV. accepted the will, and the 
 Duke of Anjou, with the universal consent of the Spanish na- 
 tion, was crowned at Madrid, under the name of Philip V. 
 War was now become inevitable. The securing of commerce 
 and of barriers, the preventing a union of tlie two powerful 
 monarchies of France and Spain in any future period, and the 
 preserving in some degree an equilibrium of power, were mat- 
 ters of too much importance to Europe in general, to be rested on 
 the moderation of the French. The vigorous steps, however, 
 taken in the Spanish Netherlands, induced William to come 
 to an accommodation with Lewis, but the emperor continued 
 to dispute the tide of Philip V. He sent an army of 30,000 
 men into Italy under Prince Eugene, to take possession of the 
 Duchy of Milan as a fief of the empire : the Duke of Savoy 
 favoured the Imperialists, and the French were repulsed with 
 great loss. Leopold had already secured the concurrence of 
 the Elector of Brandenburg, by dignifying him with the tide 
 of King of Prussia. Such was the posture of affairs when the 
 famous treaty called the Grand AUiance was signed by the 
 plenipotentiaries of the emperor, the King of England, and 
 the States-General of the United Provinces. The avowed 
 objects of the treaty were, to procure satisfaction to the 
 emperor ; to obtain security to the English and Dutch, for their 
 dominions and commerce ; to prevent the union of France and 
 Spain, and to hinder the French from possessing the Spanish 
 dominions in America. AVhile this confederacy was forming, 
 the north-east quarter of Europe was deeply involved in blood. 
 Charles XII. no sooner raised the siege of Copenhagen, than 
 
152 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 he turned liis arms against the Russians, who had undertaken 
 the siege of Narva with 80,000 men. Charles advanced to 
 its relief, forced the entrenchments of the Russians with only 
 8000 men, and entered Narva in triumph. The following 
 spring, 1701, he entered Livonia, and appeared in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Riga, which the King of Poland had in vain be- 
 sieged the preceding campaign. The Poles and Saxons were 
 posted along the Dwina, which is very broad in that place, 
 and Charles was under the necessity of forcing a passage. 
 This he effected, though with much difficulty, the Swedes be- 
 ing driven back into the river after they had formed themselves 
 upon the land: their young king rallied them in the water, 
 and led them into the plain, where a general engagement en- 
 sued, and the Swedes obtained a complete, but bloody victory. 
 He next advanced to Mittau, the capital of Courland, which, 
 with all the towns of that duchy, submitted at discretion. 
 From Courland he passed into Lithuania, conquering every 
 thing in his progress. He is said to have expressed a particu- 
 lar satisfaction, when he entered in triumph the town of Birzen, 
 where Augustus, King of Poland, and the Czar Peter had 
 planned his destruction but a few months before. It was here 
 that, under the stimulating influence of resentment, he formed 
 the great project of dethroning Augustus, by means of his own 
 subjects. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVm. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GENERAL WAR, IN 1701, 
 TO THE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, IN 1706. 
 
 1701. — Soon after the signing of the Grand Alliance, James 
 H. died at St. Germain, and Lewis XIV., in violation of the 
 treaty of Ryswick, acknowledged the son of that unfortunate 
 monarch King of Great Britain and Ireland, under the tide of 
 James III. The Marquis de Torcy attempted to apologize to 
 the King of England for this step of his master, but William 
 thought the affront too great to be borne. He recalled his am- 
 bassador from France, and ordered the French envoy to quit 
 his dominions. The English Parliament entered warmly into 
 his views, and voted forty thousand men for land service, 
 agreeably to the terms of the Grand Alliance. William was 
 making vast preparations for opening the ensuing campaign, 
 when a fall from his horse threw him into a fever, which put 
 
XXVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 153 
 
 a period to his life. (1702.) His reign, though lenient in 
 many respects, was nevertheless distinguished by several very 
 severe acts passed against the Catholics. Banishment was 
 inflicted upon all priests and schoolmasters, and perpetual im- 
 prisonment in case of a return. No Catholic born after March, 
 1700, could inherit either title or estate, purchase lands, &c.''- 
 
 The quiet accession of Anne, only surviving daughter of 
 James II., and the early declaration of her resolution to pur- 
 sue the objects of the Grand Alliance, revived the spirits 
 of the confederates. Lord Godolphin was placed at the 
 head of the treasury ; the Earl of Marlborough was appoint- 
 ed commander-in-chief of the English forces in Flanders, 
 and immediately despatched to Holland. All the allies en- 
 gaged with alacrity to furnish their several quotas, and war 
 against France was declared on the same day at London, the 
 Hague, and Vienna. The first campaign, however, was not 
 distinguished by any great event. In the beginning of 1703, 
 the Duke of Savoy and Peter II. of Portugal, united themselves 
 to the confederates. To the defection of these two princes 
 the French ascribed their subsequent misfortunes in the war. 
 Lewis XIV., however, made great preparations for opening the 
 next campaign, and was by no means wanting in success. 
 Marshal Villars gained a complete victory over the Imperialists 
 in the plains of Hockstedt. The victorious army put the 
 Elector of Bavaria in possession of Augsburg, and the road to 
 Vienna being thus laid open, the emperor trembled in his 
 capital. In Italy, where Staremburg commanded for the em- 
 peror, the Duke of Vendome reduced Barsillio and took 
 possession of the duchy of Modena. The allies were more 
 successful in the Netherlands, but their acquisitions by no 
 means balanced the advantages of the enemy in other quarters. 
 The emperor, however, emboldened by the alliance of Portu- 
 gal, from which a passage might be opened into the disputed 
 kingdom, made his second son, Charles, assume the title of 
 King of Spain, and the archduke immediately set out for the 
 Hague ; from thence he passed into England, and was con- 
 ducted to Lisbon by a powerful fleet, having on board a con- 
 siderable body of land forces. 
 
 While the Queen of England was exerting herself with so 
 much vigour in a foreign quarrel, in which her subjects were 
 little interested, the greatest disorders prevailed in her own 
 dominions. The ferment in Scotland, occasioned by the mis- 
 
 " The first act of indulgence showed to Catholics in the reign of George 
 III. was the repeal of this act. (1778.) 
 
154 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 carriage of the settlement at Darien,* had never yet fully sub- 
 sided ; and although that kingdom readily acknowledged the 
 queen's authority, the hottest jealousies there prevailed, among 
 all ranks of men, respecting the independency of their crown, 
 and the freedom of their commerce. Nor was the Englisli 
 nation free from discontents. The queen had roused the re- 
 sentment of the whigs by throwing herself into the hands of the 
 tories, who, conjecturing that she must naturally be disposed 
 to favour the succession of her brother, held a secret corres- 
 pondence with the court of St. Germain, where hopes were 
 even entertained of a repeal of the act of setdement. 
 
 1704. — As the success of the two foregoing campaigns, by 
 making the allies masters of the Maese and Spanish Guelder 
 land, had provided a strong barrier for the United Provinces, 
 Marlborought proposed to march into the heart of Germany, 
 in order to protect the emperor, now almost besieged in his 
 capital by the Hungarian malcontents on one side, and by the 
 French and Bavarians on the other. He ordered the Confe- 
 derates to advance towards Coblentz, where he joined them. 
 Crossing the Rhine at that place, and successively the Maine 
 and Necker, he was met by Prince Eugene, at Mondelsheim. 
 After the junction of the two armies, they proceeded towards 
 
 * The Scots, agreeably to powers granted by William III. to his com- 
 missioner, and confirmed by letters patent, had planted, in 1689, a colony 
 on the Isthmus of Darien, and founded a settlement, to which they gave 
 the name of New Edinburgh. Its vicinity to Porto Bello and Carlhagena, 
 alarmed the court of Madrid, who made warm remonstrances to the English 
 government on the subject. William, therefore, ordered the governors of 
 the English settlements to hold no communication with them ; and, thus de- 
 prived of provisions, and all support in America, the Scottish settlers were 
 obliged to surrender to the Spanish, 
 
 ■j- General Churchill was raised to the peerage by James II., and created 
 Earl of Marlborough by William, but was afterwards confined to the Tower 
 on a suspicion of Jacobitism. Under Anne, he may be said to have go- 
 verned the kingdom, through the influence of his countess, a woman of a 
 bold, intriguing spirit; she was afterwards supplanted in the queen's affec- 
 tions by Mrs. Masham, a relative, who had been raised by her from a state 
 of dependence. Marlborough was created a duke, by Queen Anne, and 
 after gaining the battle of Blenheim, was presented by her majesty with 
 the manor of Woodstock, in which she ordered Blenheim castle to be built 
 for him. He received the thanks of Parliament, during ten victorious cam- 
 paigns, yet lived to become the object of jealousy and parliamentary cen- 
 sure; and on the change of ministry was dismissed from all his employments. 
 After his disgrace he retired to the Low Countries, where he was received 
 with the greatest honours. He returned to England some months before 
 the queen's death, and again enjoyed royal favour on the accession of 
 George I. He died in 1722, aged 73. 
 
XXVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 155 
 
 Ingolstadt. The opposing forces were now nearly equal, 
 each consisting of about 80,000 men. The French and Bava- 
 rians were advantageously posted near the village of Blenheim. 
 A desperate battle ensued, in which the French and Bavarians 
 lost near 40,000 men, including killed and taken. Every 
 trophy that can distinguish a complete triumph, fell into the 
 hands of the conquerors. No modern victory, between disci- 
 plined armies, was ever more decisive than that of Blenheim : 
 none could be followed by more important consequences. 
 The emperor was relieved from his fears, the Hungarian mal- 
 contents were overawed, and the conquests and dominions of 
 the Elector of Bavaria fell at once into the hands of Leopold. 
 Broken, ruined, and dispersed, the forces of Lewis XIV. left 
 an uninterrupted march to the confederates from the Danube 
 to the Rhine ; and the remnant of that army, which at the 
 beginning of the season had spread terror to the gates of Vi- 
 enna, was obliged to take shelter within the frontiers of France. 
 The victors crossed the Rhine, they entered Alsace ; and the 
 important fortresses of Landau and Trierbach surrendered to 
 them before the close of the campaign. On the side of Portu- 
 gal, the archduke, who had assumed the title of Charles IIL, 
 was unable to make any progress ; but Philip V. carried the 
 war into Portugal, and took several places. The operations 
 at sea, this memorable year, were of great importance. The 
 combined fleet of England and Holland, which carried the 
 archduke to Lisbon, having failed in an attempt upon Barcelo- 
 na, appeared before Gibraltar; and that strong fortress, hi- 
 therto deemed impregnable, was taken at the first assault. 
 Astonished at the intrepidity of the English sailors, who 
 ascended the mole sword in hand, the governor immediately 
 surrendered the place. 
 
 1705. — Lewis XIV. possessed in an eminent degree that 
 Christian fortitude which enables the soul to bear misfortunes 
 Avith composure and resignation. Though accustomed to 
 victory, he received the intelligence of the ruin of his army 
 at Blenheim without any marks of confusion, and took the 
 most vigorous steps for repairing his loss, as well as for check- 
 ing the progress of the victorious enemy. Understanding 
 that the Duke of Marlborough intended next campaign to 
 carry the war by the Moselle, into the heart of his dominions, 
 he assembled on that side an army of 70,000 men, under 
 Villars, whose conduct was so masterly, that he prevented 
 Marlborough from effecting any enterprise of consequence 
 during the whole campaign. The death of the Emperor Leo- 
 
156 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 pold made no change in the operations of the war, though 
 his son and successor, Joseph, was considered as a prince of 
 greater vigour and abilities. In Italy the French maintained 
 their superiority. The Duke of Vendome took Villa Franca and 
 Veru ; he repulsed the Imperialists under Prince Eugene, and 
 Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy, was obliged to shut himself 
 up in Turin. The Confederates were more successful in Spain. 
 The fortresses of Lerida and Tortosa were yielded without a 
 blow ; Barcelona was obliged to surrender, with almost the 
 whole kingdom of Valencia, as well as the province of Catalo' 
 nia. In 1706, the allied army, under the command of the 
 Duke of Marlborough, gained the celebrated battle of Rami- 
 lies. The total conquest of Brabant, and almost all Spanish 
 Flanders, was the immediate consequence of this victory. 
 Louvain, Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Oudenarde, and other 
 places, surrendered at discretion. Ostend, so famous for its 
 long siege in tlie last century, put the first stop to the progress 
 of the Confederates. It was, however, forced to capitulate, after 
 a siege of ten days. To repair these losses, Lewis ordered the 
 Duke of Feuillade to besiege Turin ; but Eugene advanced to its 
 relief, routed and dispersed the whole army, and the house of 
 Bourbon lost, at one blow, the duchies of Milan and Mantua, 
 the principality of Piedmont, and eventually the kingdom of 
 Naples. In Spain, the English and Portuguese armies pene- 
 trated even to Madrid ; and Philip V. was obliged to remove 
 with his court to Burgos. 
 
 During these transactions in the south and west of Europe, 
 the affairs of the north and east had undergone a considerable 
 change. Charles XII. of Sweden, burning with revenge, 
 obstinately refused to listen to any accommodation, and an- 
 swered the Polish deputies that he would confer with them 
 at Warsaw. He accordingly marched towards that capital, 
 and declared he would never grant peace to the Poles till they 
 had elected a new king. Augustus, on receiving this intelli- 
 gence, saw he must either relinquish his crown, or preserve 
 it by force of arms. The contending kings met in a spacious 
 plain near Glissaw, between Warsaw and Cracow. Charles; 
 gained a complete victory, with all the honours that could at- 
 tend it. He halted not a moment on the field of batde, but 
 marched direct to Cracow, which surrendered without firing a 
 gun. Having received a strong reinforcement from Pomera 
 nia, he marched against the remains of the Saxon army, came 
 up with them near Pultaush, and soon routed and dispersed 
 them. Augustus retired to Thorn, an ancient city on the 
 
XXVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 157 
 
 Vistula. Charles followed him and besieged the place ; it 
 surrendered within a month, but Augustus had found means 
 lo escape into Saxony. It was the intention of the King of 
 Sweden, and the wish of the diet, to raise to the throne James 
 Sobieski, eldest son of the late king; but that prince lieing 
 taken prisoner, together with his second brother, Constantine, 
 by a party of Saxon dragoons, the crown of Poland was of- 
 fered to a younger brother, named Alexander, who generously 
 rejected it. Nothing, he said, should ever induce him to 
 take advantage of the misfortune of his elder brothers ; and he 
 entreated Charles to employ his victorious arms in restoring 
 liberty to the unhappy captives. This circumstance having 
 disconcerted the measures of the Swedish monarch, his mi- 
 nister. Count Piper, advised Charles to take the crown of Po- 
 land to himself; but that romantic hero answered, that he had 
 more pleasure in giving away, than in conquering kingdoms. 
 He accordingly recommended to the Polish diet Stanislaus 
 Leczinski, Palatine of Bavaria, who was immediately raised 
 to the throne. 
 
 While Charles XII. was thus imposing a king on the van- 
 quished Poles, and the Danish monarch durst not presume to 
 create any disturbance ; while the new King of Prussia court- 
 ed his friendship, and his antagonist, Augustus, was forced to 
 take refuge in his hereditary dominions, the Czar Peter was 
 growing every day more formidable. He had made a power- 
 ful diversion in favour of Augustus. He took Norva by as- 
 sault, in 1704, after a regular siege. He was at the same 
 time carrying on the building of his future capital, Petersburg. 
 That city is situated between Finland and Ingria, in a marshy 
 island around which the Neva divides itself into several 
 branches before it falls into tlie Gulf of Finland. In 1703, 
 Peter had drawn thither 300,000 men to labour in this great 
 work. While the czar was employed in creating as it were 
 a new people, he still held out a helping hand to the fugitive 
 Augustus, who had again found his way into Poland, had 
 retaken Warsaw, and been obliged a second time to aban- 
 don it. 
 
 IiT 1705, Peter sent 60,000 Russians to his assistance : but 
 the King of Sweden was attended by his usual good fortune, 
 the effect of his active and enterprising spirit. The Russian 
 armies were attacked and defeated so fast, that the last was 
 routed before it had heard of the defeat of the first. Nothing 
 could stop the progress of the Swedes, or equal their celerity. 
 If a river interposed, they swam across it; and Charles, at the 
 
 16 
 
158 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CKAP. 
 
 liead of his cavalry, marched thirty leagues in twenty-four 
 hours. Struck with terror, the Russians retired beyond the 
 Boristhenes, leaving Augustus to his fate. In the mean time, 
 SchuUemburg, having repassed the Oder, offered battle to Ma- 
 reschal Renchild, who was reckoned the King of Sweden's 
 best general, and called the Parmenio of the Alexander of the 
 North. The Russians, though double the number of the 
 Swedes, were defeated with great slaughter. To relieve Po- 
 land, Charles now desired to remove the scene of war into 
 the hereditary dominions of Augustus, and accordingly direct- 
 ed his march towards Silesia, passed the Oder, entered Saxony, 
 and pitched his camp at Alt Ramstadt, near the plains of Lut- 
 zen. Augustus, unable any longer to contend with such an 
 adversary, sued for peace, but could only obtain it on promis- 
 ing to renounce forever all pretensions to"the crown of Poland, 
 and acknowledging Stanislaus lawful sovereign of that king- 
 dom. 
 
 In 1706, Lewis XIV. made very advantageous offers of peace, 
 but they were rejected ; and it was resolved to conclude no treaty 
 with the house of Bourbon while a prince of that family sat 
 on the throne of Spain. This year was signalized by the 
 union of England and Scotland under one legislature ; a union 
 which had been often attempted in vain, and was at last ac- 
 complished after long and warm debates between the commis- 
 sioners of the two kingdoms. In consequence of this famous 
 treaty, both kingdoms were to form but one, by the name of 
 Great Britain, and the succession to the United Kingdom was 
 fixed to the person and successors of the Princess Sophia, 
 Duchess-dowager of Hanover, to the exclusion of all the 
 Catholic descendants of the house of Stuart. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPE, FROM 1706, TO THE CONFER- 
 ENCES HELD AT GERTRUYDENBERG, IN 1710. 
 
 1707. — The French troops, to the number of 15,000, being 
 obliged to evacuate Lombardy, by a capitulation signed in the 
 beginning of March, were despatched to the assistance of 
 Philip V. Modena and Milan surrendered successively to the 
 allies ; the whole kingdom of Naples was reduced, and the few 
 places still held by the French or Spanish garrisons, fell one 
 
 I, 
 
XXIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 159 
 
 by one before the close of the campaign. In Spain, tlie 
 fortune of the war was very different : the allies received a 
 dreadful overthrow at Almanza, from the united armies of 
 France and Spain, under the Duke of Berwick, who, follow- 
 ing up the advantage thus obtained, soon recovered the whole 
 kingdom of Valencia, and, marching into Arragon, took the 
 cities of Saragossa and Lerida. Nor did the affairs of the 
 confederates wear a more favourable aspect in Germany. 
 Marshal Villars laid the duchy of Wirtemberg under contri- 
 bution, and penetrated as far as the Danube : nor was the 
 superiority of the French the only thing the empire had to 
 fear. Charles XII., who had remained in Saxony during the 
 winter, found some pretence for quarrelling with the court of 
 Vienna. From complaints he proceeded to demands, which 
 he continued to urge with an obstinacy suitable to his charac- 
 ter. The Queen of England, afraid that the pride of Joseph 
 might overcome his attention to the interests of the allies, 
 ordered the Duke of Marlborough to repair to Saxony, and 
 attempt to soothe the King of Sweden. Marlborough, who 
 was no less a statesman and courtier than a general, and who 
 had acquired by a long course of experience the art of diving 
 into the character of men, soon discovered the inclinations and 
 views of the King of Sweden. In the pleasure with which he 
 talked of the views of the allies, Marlborough perceived his 
 aversion to France; while the kindling of his eye at the name 
 of the czar, and a map of Russia lying on the table, made this 
 politician acquainted with the designs of Charles. He there- 
 fore took leave without making him any proposals, sensible that 
 his disputes with the emperor could be easily accommodated, 
 as all his demands would be granted. England and Holland 
 accordingly guarantied the promises of the court of Vienna, 
 and the czar having entered Poland, the King of Sweden re- 
 passed the Oder in quest of new victories. 
 
 In 1708, the allies gained the battle of Ondenarde ; took 
 Lisle, after an obstinate siege; as also Ghent and Bruges, be- 
 fore the end of the campaign. A variety of circumstances, a 
 famine in France, discontent and disunion among the servants 
 of the crown, induced Lewis to offer terms of peace, at once 
 adequate to the success of his enemies, and suitable to the 
 melancholy situation of his own affairs. He agreed to yield 
 the whole Spanish monarchy to the house of Austria ; to give 
 a barrier to Holland; to acknowledge the Elector of Branden- 
 burg as King of Prussia, the Duke of Hanover as ninth elector 
 of the empire ; to own the right of Queen Anne to the British 
 
160 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 throne, and to restore every thing taken in the war. But these 
 terms, though so advantageous, were rejected by Marlborough, 
 Eugene, and the pensionary Heinsius. Lewis then threw 
 himself upon his people, and explained his ov/n ample con- 
 cessions, and the haughty terms proposed by the allies. The 
 pride of the French nation was roused. They resolved to 
 make new efforts in support of their humbled monarch. In 
 the following campaign, 1709, the allies took Tournay and 
 Mons, and boasted of the victory of Malplaquet, although m 
 effect they gained little beside the field of battle, and that they 
 purchased with the lives of 20,000 men. The French did not 
 lose above half the number. Though the misfortunes of 
 France during this campaign were by no means so depressing 
 as she had reason to apprehend, Lewis XIV. renewed his ap- 
 plications for peace, and conferences were appointed at Ger- 
 truydenburg, to adjust the terms. But before we enter into 
 the particulars of that negotiation, it will be proper to carry 
 forward the story of Charles XII. and his antagonist, Peter 
 the Great. 
 
 The King of Sweden having quitted Saxony, in 1707, and 
 returned at the head of 43,000 men, to Poland, forced the czar 
 to retire, on his approach, towards the Boristhenes or Nieper. 
 Charles being determined to come to an engagement, followed 
 him by forced marches to the borders of his own dominions. 
 Peter then sent serious proposals of peace to Charles. " I 
 will treat at Moscow," said the Swedish monarch. "My 
 brodier Charles," replied the czar, when informed of this 
 haughty answer, "always affects to play the Alexander; but 
 lie Avill not, I hope, find in me a Darius." The czar imme- 
 diately destroyed all the roads, and desolated the country lead- 
 ing to Moscow. Charles, thus thwarted in his favourite 
 project of proceeding thither straight, resolved to make himself 
 a passage through the Ukraine. In this mad march, he had 
 the misfortune to see 2,000 of his men perish of cold and hun- 
 ger ; yet he still pressed forward, and, after a variety of 
 obstructions and delays, occasioned by the hovering parties 
 of the enemy, and the most intense frost ever known in those 
 northern regions, he arrived, in 1709, in the neighbourhood of 
 Pultowa, a small Russian town, at the eastern extremity of 
 the Ukraine, on the river Worshlau. Pultowa was strongly 
 garrisoned, and the czar lay at no great distance, with an army 
 of 70,000 men; yet Charles obsUnately persisted in his design, 
 of investing the town with his half-famished army, now reduced 
 to 27,000 men. The garrison bravely repelled the assault, and 
 
XXX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 161 
 
 the King of Sweden was wounded as he was viewing the 
 works. Meanwhile, the czar advanced to the relief of Pultowa ; 
 Charles could not bear the thought of waiting for his enemy ; he 
 rashly advanced to meet him, and ordered his army to attack the 
 Russian camp. The Swedes charged with incredible fury, but 
 after a desperate combat of two hours, they were utterly routed 
 and dispersed : 9000 of the vanquished were left dead in tne field, 
 6000 were taken, together with tlie king's military chest, contain- 
 ing the spoils of Poland and Saxony. The remaining 12,000 
 men were obliged to surrender on the banks of the BorTsthenes, 
 for want of boats to carry them over the river. Charles him- 
 self, accompanied by 300 of his guards, with difficulty escaped 
 to Bender, a Turkish town in Moldavia. No victory could 
 be attended with more important consequences than that 
 gained by Peter the Great, at Pultowa. The King of Sweden 
 lost in one day the fruits of nine years' success in war, and 
 that veteran army, which had spread terror over Europe, was 
 totally annihilated. The czar was not only relieved of his 
 apprehensions, but enabled to forward his plans of improve- 
 ment, by means of the industry and ingenuity of his Swedish 
 prisoners, whom necessity obliged to exert their talents in thr^ 
 most remote parts of Siberia. The Elector of Saxony, hear- 
 ing of the defeat of his conqueror, protested against the treaty 
 of Alt Ranstadt, as having been extorted from him by force, 
 and re-entered Poland. Peter revived the ancient pretensions 
 of the czars to Livonia, Ingria, Carelia, and part of Finland ; 
 Denmark laid claim to Scania ; the King of Prussia to Pomera- 
 nia ; and had not the emperor and the maritime powers inter- 
 posed, the Swedish monarchy would have been rent to pieces. 
 During these transactions Charles XII. remained at Bender, 
 where he endeavoured to engage the Turks in a war with 
 Russia. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 THE AFFAIRS OF EUROPE, FROM 1710, TO THE DEATH OF QUEEN 
 ANNE, 1714. 
 
 T ^T^^'T"'^"^ confederates rising in their demands upon 
 Lewis XIV., he judged it impossible to submit to their insolent 
 terms, and yet was unwilling to break off the treaty. The 
 conferences at Gertruydenberg were therefore idly protracted 
 while the armies on both sides took the field. The campaio-i 
 
 16* ^ " 
 
162 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 of 1710 was distinguished only by the capture of some towns 
 in Flanders by the allies, and by a battle in Spain, in which 
 both sides claimed the advantage. 
 
 In 1711, died the Emperor Joseph; and his brother, the 
 archduke, who had so long contended for the crown of Spain, 
 and even assumed the title of Charles III., was unanimously 
 raised to the imperial dignity, by the name of Charles VI. 
 This event, which entirely changed the face of affairs, together 
 with the success of Marshal Villars, in Flanders, where he 
 completely routed a detachment of 14,000 English, under the 
 command of the Earl of Albemarle, inspired the house of 
 Bourbon with the most sanguine hopes of peace. General 
 conferences were accordingly held at Utrecht, in the beginning 
 cf 1712, for restoring tranquillity to Europe. The Dauphin 
 of France, surnan^d the Great, having died the preceding 
 year, was succeeded in his title by his eldest son, the Duke 
 of Burgundy ; that amiable and virtuous prince died in 1712, 
 to the inexpressible grief of the nation, and three weeks after 
 was followed to the grave by his son, the Duke of Brittany ; 
 so that there now stood only the Duke of Anjou, a sickly 
 infant, between the King of Spain and the throne of France. 
 The first care of the confederates, therefore, was that Philip 
 V. should transfer to his younger brother, the Duke of Berry, 
 all right to the crown of France ; that the isle of Sicily should 
 be ceded to the Duke of Savoy, with the tide of king; that 
 Spanish Guelderland should be given to the King of Prussia, 
 in exchange for the principality of Orange, and that his regal 
 title should be acknowledged ; that the Rhine should form 
 the boundary of the German empire on the side of France ; 
 that the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of Milan, &c., should 
 be ceded to the house of Austria, as also the Spanish Nether- 
 lands ; that the Elector of Bavaria should be put in possession 
 of the island of Sardinia, with the tide of king ; that certain 
 places in North America and the West Indies should be ceded 
 or restored by France to Great Britain, and that the island of 
 Minorca and fortress of Gibraltar, conquered from Spain, 
 should remain in the possession of the English. Charles VI. 
 was obstinate in refusing to sign the general pacification ; but 
 finding himself unable to bear alone the weight of a disastrous 
 war, his array under Prince Eugene not having been in a con- 
 dition during the whole campaign to face the French under 
 Marshal Villars, who took, successively, Worms, Spire, and 
 the fortress of Landau, he came to an agreement in spring, 
 1714, to which the King of Spain also assented. The terms 
 
XXX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 163 
 
 of this treaty signed at Radstadt, were less favourable to the 
 emperor than those he had refused at Utrecht. 
 
 Philip v., though now freed from the arms of the con- 
 federates, was by no means in quiet possession of his king- 
 dom. The Catalans were still in arms. Vast preparations 
 were made for the reduction of Barcelona, and the Duke of 
 Berwick besieged it by land and by sea. After- a vigorous 
 and desperate resistance, the town was taken, and all Catalonia 
 submitted : thus was extinguished the last spark of that great 
 fire, kindled by the will of Charles 11. of Spain, which had 
 so long laid waste the finest countries of Europe. 
 
 In 1714 died Queen Anne of England, in the fiftieth year 
 of her age. The character of this princess is neither striking 
 nor complicated ; her capacity was extremely limited, nor were 
 her manners or person prepossessing. Her conduct towards 
 her father was a stain upon her private character, which, in 
 other respects, was blameless. She was continually governed 
 by favourites, but her popularity concealed the weakness of 
 her personal authority, and the great abilities of her principal 
 servants, to whom she was indebted for it, threw a veil over 
 her own feeble qualities. According to the act of settlement, 
 on the demise of Queen Anne, the Elector of Hanover was 
 proclaimed king, by the tide of George I. He was then in 
 the fifty-fourth year of his age. It has been observed of him, 
 that in contradistinction to the impolitic maxim too frequently 
 embraced by the princes of the house of Stuart, of trusting 
 to the attachment of their friends, without rewarding them, 
 and attempting by favours to make friends of their enemies, 
 he made it a rule not to forget his friends, and to set his ene- 
 mies at defiance. He soon found that, of all the parties in 
 the kingdom, the Whigs alone were attached to his cause. 
 The Tories in general were inclined to Jacobitism ; and a 
 small body of foreign troops was only wanting to have made 
 the contest doubtful between the house of Hanover and that 
 of Stuart. Such a body of troops the Duke of Ormond and 
 other zealous Jacobites in England, eagerly solicited from 
 Prince James, then known in France by the name of Cheva- 
 lier de St. George. The Duke of Berwick used all his influ- 
 ence to procure a few regiments from Versailles; but Lewis 
 XIV., now broken by years and infirmities, and standing on 
 the verge of the grave, was unwillinof to ena-age in a new war, 
 or hazard any measure that might disturb the minority of his 
 great-grandson. He therefore declined taking openly any 
 part in favour of the excluded family ; and the vigilance of 
 
164 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 the Earl of Stair, the British ambassador in France, effectually 
 prevented any secret aids from operating to the disadvantage 
 of his master. 
 
 The death of Lewis XIV., which happened soon after, was 
 a fresh blow to the Jacobites. He died September 1st, 1715, 
 aged seventy-seven years, after a vigorous and splendid reign 
 of seventy-two years. No prince, says the Duke of Berwick, 
 was ever so litde known as Lewis XIV. He was born v/ith 
 an air of majesty, which struck every one so much, that nobody 
 could approach him without being seized with awe and respect. 
 He was the most polite man in his kingdom ; and his answers 
 were accompanied with so many obliging expressions, that if 
 he granted a request, the obligation was doubled by the man- 
 ner of conferring it; and if he refused, it was difficult to com- 
 plain. It was that air of majesty, mentioned by the Duke of 
 Berwick, which so disconcerted an old officer who came to 
 ask a favour of Lewis XIV., that he could only say, in a fal- 
 tering voice, " I hope your majesty will believe I do not thus 
 tremble before your enemies." The character of this prince 
 is variously represented ; all agree that he held the reins of 
 government with a degree of firmness bordering on despotism ; 
 but this the necessity of the times seemed to require. A 
 misunderstanding between this king and Pope Innocent XL, 
 was productive of unhappy consequences to religion during a 
 part of his reign. The contest arose on the subject of privi- 
 leges, respecting the nomination to ecclesiastical benefices, 
 claimed by Lewis and refused by Innocent. As both parties 
 refused to abandon their respective claims, many bishoprics 
 in France remained without pastors for a considerable space 
 of time. In order to mortify the pope, Lewis assembled a 
 council of the French clergy in 16S2, at which the celebrated 
 and learned Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, presided. The famous 
 declaration, made in this assembly, in the name of the Gal- 
 ilean church, (though only thirty-two bishops were present,) 
 was derogatory to the authority of the pope, scandalized the 
 faithful, and afforded a subject of joy to the Jansenists.* The 
 
 * Jansenism, though it takes its name from Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres, 
 owes its existence to five other innovators vpho were linked with him to 
 overthrow religion, while they professed themselves its most devoted friends. 
 The two most noted members, besides Jansenius, were the Abbe St. Cyrran 
 and the Sieur Antoine Arnaud. Their errors were founded on erroneous 
 conclusions from the writings of St. Augustine ; each chief had his task 
 assigned him ; an excessive severity of morals was the lesson he had to 
 teach, and its obvious effect was to deter men from the practice, and, by de- 
 grees, from the belief of a religion which, according to these new teachers, 
 
 1 
 
 ly |l 
 
XXX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 165 
 
 four propositions it contained were condemned by tlie Pope, 
 and peace was not restored during the life of Innocent, or that 
 of his successor, Alexander VIII., till, in 1692, under Innocent 
 XII., Lewis solemnly relinquished the Gallican propositions, 
 and the Pope, on his side, granted canonical institution to those 
 whom the king had nominated to fill the vacant sees. But, 
 though Lewis, by the unhappy bent of human nature, occa- 
 sionally swerved from his duty, and disgraced his private 
 character by licentiousness and immorality, yet he loved and 
 respected religion. Infidelity, which since, like an impetuous 
 torrent, has swept away in its course the altar and the throne, 
 dared not then appear. Had he been less zealous for the pre- 
 servation of the true faith, he would have found admirers 
 among those who decry him, and panegyrists among his cen- 
 sors. Having lost his queen, Maria Theresa, in 1683, he 
 soon after married the celebrated Madame de Maintcnon, 
 whose exalted qualities have been the theme of many eloquent 
 pens. To her influence over the king is ascribed, in great 
 measure, the Avonderful change that took place in his senti- 
 ments and conduct, during the latter years of his life. The 
 death of Lewis was that of a Christian and a hero. But what 
 particularly immortalizes the name of Lewis XIV., is the 
 protection he granted to the sciences and the fine arts, which 
 caused his reign to be styled the ^8.ugustan Jige, and to form 
 an era in the annals of France. To name the great men, 
 whose talents he knew how to appreciate, as well as to stimu- 
 late into action, would alone fill a volume. The chief gene- 
 rals who commanded his armies, were the great Conde, the 
 Marshals de Turenne, Luxembourg, Crequi, Catinat, and 
 Villars ; his chief ministers were Colbert and Louvois. Among 
 the literati who adorned this period, we discover the names 
 of Racine and Corneille, tragic poets, who attained a high 
 reputation ; Moliere excelled in comedy, Boileau in works of 
 satire and criticism ; Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Flechier, and Mas- 
 sillon, carried pulpit eloquence to the highest degree of per- 
 fection ; De Tillemont, Pere Daniel, and RoUin, were eminent 
 
 exacted duties above their strength. The principles of the sect were com- 
 piled by Jansenius, and compose a large folio volume, entitled Avgustinus. 
 This book the author, on his death-bed, submitted to the judgment of the 
 See of Rome. It was accordingly examined and condemned by Urban 
 VIII., 1641. Five propositions, extracted from it, were afterwards juridi- 
 cally denounced by Pope Innocent X., the successor of Urban, in a formal 
 instrument, signed by eighty-five bishops of France, and solemnly proscribed 
 and condemned by him as heretical, in a dogmatical bull, May 31st, 1653. 
 
166 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 historians.* Montesquieu has acquired a fatal celebrity as 
 the legislator of nations, by the publication of "Considera- 
 tions on the causes of the grandeur and decline of the Roman 
 empire," and " The Spirit of the Laws." Pascal abused his 
 splendid talents, by employing them in the support of the 
 errors of Jansenism ; but the incomparable Fenelon claims all 
 the admiration that is due to great abilities and eloquence, 
 when united with the most exalted virtue. He rendered essen- 
 tial service to the Duke de Bourgogne, who became a model 
 of learning and piety, and his labours were rewarded, in 1659, 
 with the archbishopric of Cambray. He died in the exercise 
 of his pastoral functions, 1716. England, at the same time, 
 produced many eminent men. Dryden, celebrated for his 
 translation of Virgil, died in 1701. Addison, who wrote the 
 most admired papers in the Spectator, Tatler, and Guardian, 
 was noted for the elegance of his diction ; he died 1715. Sir 
 Isaac Newton, the prince of philosophers, died 1727, and 
 Dr. Halley, a famous astronomer, 1742. Prior, Congreve, 
 Blackmore, Philips, Garth, and Rowe, are names which 
 should not be omitted. In Ireland, Dr. Parnell, a poet and 
 divine, was the friend and correspondent of Pope, Swift, Gay, 
 Arbuthnot, and other eminent wits of this period, who flou- 
 rished later than those we have already named, as included in 
 the biography of the seventeenth century. The Rev. John 
 Gother was the most noted Catholic writer, and Dr. Burnet, 
 and Dr. Cave, were eminent Protestant divines and historians. 
 The Duke of Orleans, who was appointed Regent of 
 France during the minority of Lewis XV., in contradiction 
 to the will of the deceased monarch, affected privately to 
 espouse the interests of the house of Stuart; but the exhaust- 
 ed state of France, and the difficulty of maintaining his own 
 authority against the other princes of the blood, induced him 
 publicly to cultivate a good understanding with the English 
 government; and even to adopt, though with seeming reluct- 
 ance, such measures as it suggested for defeating the designs 
 of the house of Stuart. Nevertheless, the partisans of the 
 
 * De Thou, first president of the Parliament of Paris, may more proper- 
 ly be reckoned an historical writer of the sixteenth century. He died in 
 1617, and stands foremost among the modern corrupters of history, in which 
 he has been too successfully followed by Hume, Voltaire, and many other 
 inferior imitators in France and England. Among this crowd of writers, 
 whose works are only proper to mislead youth, and render religion odious, 
 may be particulariy named the Abbes Raynal and Millet, both historians 
 of the last century. 
 
XXX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 167 
 
 fallen dynasty, who were still very numerous, thought this a 
 favourable opportunity to raise the standard of insurrection. 
 The Earl of Marr, assembling 300 of his vassals, proclaimed 
 the accession of James VIII., and being joined by several 
 Highland chiefs and their clans, attacked the Duke of Argyle 
 in the neighbourhood of Dunblane, in September, 1715. 
 After an engagement of several hours, the armies separated, 
 both sides claiming the victory. This battle, though so little 
 decisive, proved fatal in its consequences to the Jacobite 
 cause. Lord Lovat, the chief of the Erasers, who seemed dis- 
 posed to join in the insurrection, now declared in favour of 
 the established government ; while the Marquis of Tullibar- 
 dine withdrew from the army, and the clans, disgusted at their 
 want of success, dispersed on the approach of winter. In 
 England the insurrection wore for a time a more formidable 
 aspect. The Earl of Derwentwater, and other Jacobite 
 leaders took up arms in considerable numbers ; but dissen- 
 sion arising in their councils, they separated in various 
 directions ; and the main body, being surrounded by the 
 king's troops, surrendered at discretion. The officers were 
 shot as deserters, the noblemen and gentlemen were com- 
 mitted to the Tower, and the others imprisoned at Carlisle. 
 In this unfavourable position of his affairs, James landed in 
 Scotland, was again proclaimed king, made his public entry 
 into Dundee, in January, 1716, and fixed on the 23d of the 
 same month for the day of his coronation. But, receiving in- 
 telligence of the near approach of the Duke of Argyle, who 
 had been reinforced by 6000 Dutch auxiliaries, and seeing 
 no prospect of fortune proving favourable to his arms, he 
 withdrew with the Earl of Marr to Montrose, and shortly 
 after took ship for France. The main body of the insur- 
 gents moved northward so rapidly as to elude pursuit. 
 All who thought they could not hope for pardon, embarked 
 at Aberdeen ; the clans dispersed among their native hills, and 
 the whole country submitted to Argyle. Such was the issue 
 of an insurrection which proved fatal to so many noble fami- 
 lies, and cost the lives of so many brave men. The Earls of 
 Derwentwater and Nairn, with several other noblemen, suffer- 
 ed the death of traitors. Lord Nithisdale, who had been 
 sentenced to a similar fate, owed his safety to the affectionate 
 ingenuity of his countess, who contrived his escape from the 
 Tower in female attire, which she had carried thither for the 
 purpose, when admitted to pay him a farewell visit. Many 
 of the lower classes fell a sacrifice to the cause they had 
 
168 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 embraced, and about a thousand were transported to Nortli 
 America. The danger of the state was made a plea for 
 lengthening the period of Parliament, which was extended to 
 seven years, by the exertions of Walpole, now first lord of 
 the treasury, and chancellor of the exchequer. Some years 
 afterwards, (1722,) when a new plot was set on foot for the 
 restoration of the Stuart family, (but discovered in its birth,) 
 the celebrated Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, was banished 
 on suspicion of guilt; the habeas corpus act was suspended 
 for a whole year, and vigorous measures taken for preventing 
 a rebellion. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND THE NORTH, FROM THE BATTLE OF PUL- 
 TOWA, IN 1709, TO THE DEATH OF PETER THE GREAT, IN 
 1725. 
 
 The King of Denmark, having declared war against 
 Sweden, soon after the defeat of the Swedish monarch at 
 Pultowa, invaded Scania, or Schonen ; but his army was de- 
 feated with great slaughter, near Elsenberg, by General Steen- 
 bock. Charles XII. was so much delighted with the news of 
 this victory, that he exclaimed, " My brave Swedes, should 
 I once more join you, we Avill beat them all." The King of 
 Sweden was honourably received at Bender, and, though des- 
 titute of resources, still his mind was occupied with the thought 
 of dethroning the czar. With this view, his envoy at Con- 
 stantinople delivered memorials to the grand vizier, and his 
 friend, Poniatowsky, supported these solicitations by his in- 
 trigues. Achmet III., the reigning sultan, presented Poniatow- 
 sky with a purse of 1000 ducats, and the grand vizier promised 
 him to take his king in one hand and a sword in the other, and 
 conduct him to Moscow at the head of 200,000 men. But the 
 czar's money soon changed the sentiments of the Turkish 
 minister. The military chest, which Peter had taken at 
 Pultowa, furnished him with new arms to wound the van- 
 quished Charles, whose blood-earned treasures were turned 
 against himself. While the obstinacy of the King of Sweden, 
 in refusing to return to his own dominions in any other cha- 
 racter than that of a conqueror, made his fate depend upon the 
 caprice of viziers; while he was alternately receiving favours 
 and affronts from the great enemy of Christianity ; the Russian 
 
XXXI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 169 
 
 monarch was exhibiting to his people a spectacle not un- 
 worthy of ancient Rome. To inspire his subjects with a 
 taste for magnificence, and to impress them with an awful 
 respect for his power, he made his public entry into Moscow, 
 under seven triumphal arches, adorned with every thing tlial 
 the climate could produce or a thriving commerce furnish. 
 First marched the guards, followed by the artillery taken 
 from the Swedes, the colours and standards won from the 
 same enemy, carried by those who had captured them ; the 
 litter, in which Charles XII. was carried at the battle of Pul- 
 towa, all shattered with cannon-shot, appeared in a chariot 
 made on purpose to display it. Behind the litter marched all 
 the Swedish prisoners, two and two ; among whom were 
 Count Piper, the prime minister, the famous Marshal Ren- 
 child, the Count de Lenenhaupt, and several officers and 
 generals, who were afterwards dispersed through Great Rus- 
 sia. Last in procession came the triumphant conqueror, 
 mounted on the same horse he rode at the battle of Pultowa, 
 and followed by his generals who had shared in the victory. 
 
 This magnificent spectacle furnished Charles with new 
 arguments for awakening the jealousy of the Porte; and 
 Achmet gave orders to the grand vizier to attack the domi- 
 nions of the czar with 200,000 men. The first step of the 
 Ottoman court was to arrest the Russian ambassador, and 
 commit him to the castle of the seven towers. The czar, as 
 soon as informed of this insult, ordered his army in Poland to 
 march towards Moldavia, and made every preparation for war. 
 He mustered his forces on the frontiers of Poland, and planned 
 his route through Moldavia and Wallachia, the country of the 
 ancient Dacii, but now inhabited by Greek Christians, who are 
 tributary to the grand signior. Having concluded a secret 
 treaty with their prince, Cantemir, Peter passed the Niester, 
 and reached at length the northern banks of the Pruth, near 
 Jassi, the capital of Moldavia. Meanwhile, the grand vizier 
 advanced on the other side of the Pruth, at the head of 250,000 
 men. The Russians were destitute of forage and provisions, 
 and the grand vizier was determined to reduce the czar and his 
 exhausted army by famine. In this extremity, the Czarina 
 Catherine* obtained of Peter leave to negotiate with the grand 
 vizier; she sent to him the vice-chancellor, and a negotiation 
 took place. The vizier at first demanded that Peter and his 
 whole army should surrender prisoners of war; the chancellor 
 replied, that the Russians would all perish to a man, sooner 
 * Catherine was a I.ivonian captive whom he had raised to the throne. 
 17 
 
170 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 than submit to such conditions ; tliat his masters icsolutioi\ 
 was ah-eady taken, to open a passage with the point of the 
 bayonet. The vizier was sensible of the danger of driving to 
 despair a body of 35,000 brave and disciplined troops, headed 
 by a gallant prince ; and an agreement ensued, that the czar 
 should restore the city of Asoph ; destroy the harbour of 
 Tangaroh, and demolish the forts built on tiie Palus Maeotis, 
 or sea of Zeback ; withdraw his troops from Poland ; give no 
 further disturbance to the Cossacks, and permit the Swedish 
 monarch to return to his own kingdom. On these conditions 
 Peter was allowed to retire with his army, and was supplied 
 with provisions. 
 
 Charles arrived at the tent of the grand vizier, just as Peter 
 was marching ofl', happy in the thought of having his enemy 
 in his power ; enraged to find a treaty concluded, he burst 
 into the keenest reproaches. "I have aright," said the vizier, 
 " to make eitlier peace or war. Our laws command us to 
 grant peace to our enemies, when they implore our clemency." 
 " Did not fortune," replied Charles, " afford you an opportunity 
 of leading the czar in chains to Constantinople?" "And who," 
 said the vizier, " would have governed his empire during his 
 absence? It is not proper that all crowned heads should leave 
 their dominions." Charles, swelling with indignation, threw 
 himself on a sofa, and, stretching out his leg, entangled his 
 spur in the vizier's robe, and purposely tore it. Baltagi took 
 no notice of this splenetic insult, and the King of Sweden, 
 further mortified by that neglect, sprung up, mounted his horse, 
 and returned with a sorrowful heart to Bender. All his 
 attempts to kindle anew a war between Russia and Turkey 
 proved ineffectual ; and the divan, weary of his importunities, 
 resolved to send him home, attended by a sufficient guard. 
 The sultan presented him with P200 purses of money to pay 
 his debts, and the Bashaw of Bender informed him of the orders 
 of the court; but Charles, in spite of the earnest entreaties 
 of his friends and servants, resolved to defend himself against 
 an army of Turks and Tartars. After fighting like a desperado, 
 he was seized and carried to the bashaw's quarters. The 
 bashaw gave him his own apartment, and ordered him to be 
 served as a king, though a prisoner. Next day he was con- 
 ducted towards Adrianople. On his way he was informed by _ 
 Baron Fabricius, ambassador from the Duke of Holstein, thatf 
 Stanislaus, having come to share his fortunes, had been taken ■ 
 into custody, and was going to Bender under a guard of soldiers. 
 *♦ Run to him, my dear Fabricius," cried Charles : " desire him 
 
XXXI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 171 
 
 never to make peace v;ith Augustus, and assure him that our 
 affairs will soon take a more flattering turn." This idea con- 
 tinued to occupy him during the whole time of his confinement. 
 He was at first committed to the castle of Demirtash, in the 
 neighbourhood of Adrianople, but afterwards allowed to reside 
 at Demotica, a little town about six leagues distant from that 
 city, near the famous river Hebrus, now called Merizza. 
 There he renewed his intrigues; and, lest the Turks should 
 not pay him the respect due to his royal person, he resolved 
 to keep his bed during his captivity, under pretence of sick- 
 ness. 
 
 1713. — While the naturally active and indefatigable Charles, 
 who had set even the elements themselves at defiance, was 
 wasting his time and health in bed, the northern princes, who 
 had formerly trembled at his name, were dismembering his 
 dominions. General Steenbock defended his master's posses- 
 sions in Germany as long as possible. He defeated an army 
 of Danes and Saxons with great slaughter, at a place called 
 Gatesbush, in Mecklenburg; but, though victorious, he could 
 not prevent the junction of the Russians, Danes, and Saxons, 
 who obliged him and his army to seek an asylum inTonningen, 
 a fortress in the duchy of Holstein. In the mean time, the 
 czar was pushing his conquests in Finland. Having made a 
 descent at Elsingford, the most southern part of that cold and 
 barren region, he took possession of the town. He afterwards 
 made himself master of Abo, Borg^o, and the whole coast; de- 
 feated the Swedes near Tavestius, a post which commanded 
 the Gulf of Bothnia; penetrated as far as Vasa, and reduced 
 every fortress in the country. In 1714, he gained a complete 
 victory by sea, and made himself master of the isle of Oeland. 
 These successes furnished him with a new occasion of tri- 
 umph: he entered Petersburgh, as he formerly had Moscow, 
 in procession, under a magnificent arch, decorated with the 
 insignia of his conquests. Meanwhile, the regency of Stock- 
 holm, driven to despair by the desperate situation of their af- 
 fairs, and the absence of their sovereign, came to a resolution 
 no longer to consult him in regard to their proceedings ; and 
 the senate entreated Ulrica Eleanora, the king's sister, to take 
 the government into her own hands, till the return of her bro- 
 ther. She agreed to the proposal ; but, finding their purpose 
 was to force her to make peace wdth Russia and Denmark, she 
 resigned the regency, and wrote a full account of the matter 
 to the king. Roused from his aflected sickness, by what he 
 considered a treasonable attempt upon his authority, Charles 
 
173 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 signified his desire to the grand vizier of returning through 
 Germany to his own dominions. The Turkish minister 
 neglected nothing which might facilitate that event ; and, all 
 things being prepared for his departure, he set out with a con- 
 voy of sixty loaded wagons and three hundred horse. The 
 emperor gave orders that he should be received in every part 
 of the imperial dominions with the respect due to his rank ; 
 but Charles had no inclination to bear the fatigue of pomp and 
 ceremony. He therefore took leave of his Turkish convoy, 
 as soon as he arrived at Targowitz, on the confines of Tran- 
 sylvania; and, assembling his attendants, desired them to give 
 themselves no further concern about him, but to proceed with 
 all expedition to Stralsund, in Pomerania. The king himself, 
 in disguise, attended only by two officers, arrived at that 
 place in November, 1714, and employed the winter in recruit- 
 ing his armies. In order to strengthen his interest, he gave 
 his only surviving sister, Ulrica Eleonora, in marriage to 
 Frederic, Prince of Hesse Cassel, who was esteemed a good 
 general. 
 
 1715. — Charles, on the opening of the campaign, found 
 himself environed with so many enemies, that valour and 
 conduct alone were of very litUe service. The German troops 
 of the Elector of Hanover, now King of Great Britain, invested 
 the strong town of Wismar; while the combined armj^ of 
 Prussians, Danes, and Saxons, marched towards Stralsund to 
 besiege it. The czar was in the Baltic with a numerous fleet 
 and army, and Sweden was in daily expectation of an invasion. 
 Stralsund, the strongest place in Pomerania, is situated be- 
 tween the Baltic sea and the Lake of Franken, near the Straits 
 of Gella. To deprive the King of Sweden and his little army 
 of all succours, the allies chased the Swedish fleet from the 
 coast, and took possession of the isle of Usedom, and then 
 attacked Rugen, which serves as a bulwark to Stralsund. 
 Charles hastened to its relief with 4000 chosen men ; but the 
 Prince of Anhalt, who had effected a landing with 20,000, 
 had ordered a deep fosse to be sunk as soon as he landed, and 
 fortified it with chevaux-de-frize. The King of Sweden, who 
 marched on foot, sword in hand, was not a little surprised, 
 when, plucking up some of the chevaux-de-frize, he discovered 
 a ditch. He was not, however, disconcerted ; he leaped into 
 the fosse, accompanied by the boldest of his men, and at- 
 tempted to force the enemy's camp. The impetuosity of the 
 attack threw the Danes and Prussians into some confusion, 
 but the contest was unequal; the Swedes were repulsed, and 
 
XXXI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 173 
 
 obli2:ed to repass the fosse. The Prince of Anhalt pursued 
 them ; the battle was renewed ; the greatest part of the Swedes 
 were cut to pieces : Charles saw his secretary and two gene- 
 rals fall dead at his feet, and, being himself wounded, he was 
 put on horseback by Poniatowsky, who had saved his life at 
 Pultowa, and shared his misfortunes in Turkey ; he was nov/ 
 constrained to make the best of his way to the sea-coast, and 
 abandon Rugen to its fate. Stralsund was now reduced to the 
 last extremity. 'I'he bombs fell as thick as hail upon the 
 houses, and half the town was reduced to ashes. Charles, 
 however, still preserved his firmness. It happened, as he was 
 dictating a letter, that a bomb burst in the neighbourhood of 
 his apartment; his secretary dropped his pen. "What is the 
 matter?" said the king. "The bomb," sighed the intimidated 
 scribe. " Write on," cried Charles, "what has the bomb to 
 do with the letter I am dictating ?" The grand assault was 
 now every minute expected, when his friends forced him on 
 board a small vessel, which landed him in Sweden, and Stral- 
 sund surrendered next day. The king, not choosing to visit 
 his capital in his present unfortunate circumstances, passed 
 the winter at Carlscroon, from whence he had set out fifteen 
 years before. 
 
 In 1716, when all Europe expected Sweden to be invaded, 
 and even overrun by her numberless enemies, Charles passed 
 over into Norway, and made himself master of Christiania. 
 Meanwhile, Wismar, the only town that remained to him on 
 the frontiers of Germany, had surrendered to the Danes and 
 Prussians; who, jealous of the Russians, would not allow 
 them to be present at the siege. This jealousy alienated the 
 czar's mind from the confederates ; and Goertz, taking advan- 
 tage of it, obtained leave from Charles to negotiate for peace. 
 Peter proceeded cautiously ; but conferences were at last 
 appointed to be held in the isle of Oeland. In October, 1718, 
 Charles, having undertaken a second expedition into Norway, 
 sat down before Fredericshall in December, when the ground 
 was as hard as iron, and the cold so intense that the soldiers 
 on duty frequently dropped down dead. To animate them, 
 he exposed himself to all the rigour of the climate, as well 
 as to the danger of the siege, sleeping even in the open air, 
 covered only with a cloak. One night, as he was viewing 
 them carrying on their approaches by starlight, he was killed 
 by a cannon-ball. Though he expired without a groan, the 
 moment he received the blow, he instinctively grasped the hilt 
 of his sword, and was found in that position so truly charac- 
 
 17* 
 
174 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 teristic of his mind. The death of Charles was considered 
 as a signal for a general cessation of arms. The Prince of 
 Hesse, who commanded under the king, immediately raised 
 the siege of Fredericshall, and led the Swedes back into their 
 own country ; nor did the Danes attempt to molest them on 
 their march. 
 
 1719. — By a free and voluntary choice, the states of the 
 kingdom elected Ulrica Eleonora, sister of Charles XII., for 
 their queen, and she soon after relinquished the crown to her 
 Imsband, the Prince of Hesse. The Swedes now turned their 
 views to peace, which was procured by different treaties. 
 That with the czar was not concluded till 1721. He was left 
 in possession of Livonia, Estonia, and Ingria, with part of Care- 
 lia and part of Finland. Peter henceforth took the title of empe- 
 ror, which was soon acknowledged by all the European powers. 
 In 1722, Persia being distracted by civil wars, he marched to 
 the assistance of ShaThamas, and in return for his seasonable 
 protection, the new sophi put him in possession of three pro- 
 vinces bordering on the Caspian Sea, which composed the 
 greater part of the ancient kingdom of the Medes. His son, 
 Alexis, having discovered an inclination to obstruct his favour- 
 ite plans of civilization, was made to sign, in 1718, a solemn 
 renunciation of the crown ; and soon after condemned to die. 
 The death of the czarowitz was soon followed by that of 
 Peter's infant son. (1724.) As a prelude to the eventual 
 succession of the czarina, Peter, after his return from his 
 Persian expedition, assisted in person at her solemn coronation ; 
 and upon the death of the emperor, in 1725, she quietly suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE DEATH OF LEWIS XIV., IN 1715, TO THE 
 DEATH OF THE EMPEROR CHARLES VI., 1740. 
 
 The Turks had happily remained quiet, while the Christian 
 princes were most deeply embroiled among themselves ; but 
 no sooner was the general peace of Utrecht concluded, than 
 Achmet HI. commenced hostilities against the Venetians, and 
 made himself master of the Morea, or ancient Peloponnesus. 
 The Emperor Charles VI., as guarantee of the treaty of 
 Carlowitz, by which this territory had been assigned to the 
 republic of Venice, was bound in honour to declare war against 
 
XXXII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 175 
 
 the Turks for infringing it : and the Pope, alarmed at the pro- 
 gress of the infidels, urged his imperial majesty to stand forth 
 in defence of Christendom. (1716.) Charles accordingly 
 assembled a powerful army, under the celebrated Prince 
 Eugene, who passed the Danube, and defeated the Grand 
 Vizier Ali, at Peterwaradin. (1717.) The year following, the 
 same general undertook the siege of Belgrade. The Turks 
 besieged him in his camp. His danger was imminent ; but 
 military skill and disciplined valour triumphed over numbers 
 and savage ferocity. He sallied out of his entrenchments, fell 
 upon the enemy, entirely routed them, with great slaughter, 
 and Belgrade surrendered immediately after. The consequence 
 of these two victories was the peace of Passarowitz, (1718,) 
 by which the Porte ceded to the emperor Belgrade and all tho 
 Bannet of Temeswar ; but the Venetians never recovered their 
 possessions in Greece. 
 
 Meanwhile, Philip V. of Spain, having lost his first queen, 
 Maria Louisa of Savoy, had married, in 1714, Elizabeth 
 Farnese, presumptive heiress to the duchies of Parma, Pla- 
 centia, and Tuscany. The jealousy occasioned by this alli- 
 ance, and the great projects of the Spanish minister. Cardinal 
 Alberoni, induced the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France for 
 Lewis XV., to enter into a league with England and Holland, 
 in 1716; and in 1718, these three powers, in conjunction 
 with the emperor, formed the famous Quadruple Alliance. 
 After the articles which provided for the maintaining of the 
 peace of Utrecht, the principal stipulations of this treaty 
 were, that the Duke of Savoy, in consideration of certain 
 places in Italy, should exchange with the emperor the island 
 of Sicily for that of Sardinia, of which he should take the 
 regal title, and that the emperor should confer on Don Carlos, 
 eldest son of the young Queen of Spain, the investiture of 
 the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Tuscany, on the death 
 of the present possessors without issue. The Spanish court 
 rejected these proposals with scorn ; they had already taken 
 possession of Sardinia, and great part of Sicily, and the 
 consequence of these hostilities, was a declaration of war 
 against Spain, by France and England. George I, sent a 
 powerful fleet into the Mediterranean, under Sir George 
 Byng, who engaged the Spanish fleet near the coast of Sicily, 
 and took or destroyed twenty-one ships out of twenty-seven. 
 He next recovered the town and citadel of Messina, and the 
 Spaniards made overtures for evacuating the island. 
 
 1719. — The recovery of Sicily was followed by the sur- 
 
176 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 render of Sardinia, In the mean time, the Duke of Berwick 
 conducted a French army towards the frontiers of Spain, and 
 made himself master of St. Sebastian and Fontarabia ; and 
 having prepared to open the next campaign by the siege of 
 Roses and Pampehma, Philip V. acceded to the terms 
 prescribed by the Quadruple Alliance, and Alberoni was 
 disgraced. 
 
 During these political transactions, great changes were 
 effected in the commercial world, the finances of nations, 
 and fortunes of thousands of individuals, by a Scottish 
 adventurer, named John Law. He undertook to repair the 
 finances of France, which were then in a deplorable condition. 
 Law's scheme was, by speedily paying off the national debt,* 
 to clear the public revenue of the enormous interest that 
 absorbed it: the introduction of paper credit could alone effect 
 this revolution, and the exigencies of the state seemed to 
 require such an expedient. But the delusion soon vanished : 
 even Law himself, deceived by his own calculations, and 
 intoxicated with the public folly, had fabricated so many notes, 
 that, in 1719, the chimerical value of the funds exceeded four- 
 score times the real value of the current coin of the kingdom, 
 which was nearly all in the hands of government. Public 
 credit sunk at once. Upwards of 500,000 heads of families 
 presented their whole fortune in paper, and government was 
 under the necessity of contributing to their relief. The 
 effects of this famous scheme were not confined to France ; 
 the contagion of stock-jobbing infected other nations. Hol- 
 land received a slight shock, but its violence was peculiarly 
 reserved for England, where it exhausted its fury. 
 
 In 1723 died Philip, Duke of Orleans, Regent of France; 
 
 * The National Debt is the residue of those immense sums, which 
 government has, in times of exigency, been obliged to raise by way of 
 voluntary loan for the public service, beyond what the annual revenue of 
 the crown could supply, and which the state has not yet paid off. The 
 Public Funds consist of certain masses of the money thus deposited in 
 the hands of government, together with the general produce of the taxes 
 appropriated by Parliament to pay the interest of that money ; and the 
 surplus of the taxes, which have always been more than sufficient to 
 answer the charge upon them, composes what was called the Shiking 
 Fufid, because it was originally intended to be applied towards the reduc- 
 tion, or sinking of the national debt. The Stocks are the whole of this 
 public and funded debt, which being divided into many shares, bearing a 
 known interest, but difterent in the different funds, may be easily transferred 
 from one person to another, and which rise or fall in value, according to 
 the plenty or scarcity of money in the nation, or the opinion the proprie- 
 tors have of the security of public credit. 
 
XXXII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 177 
 
 under the auspices of this prince, Jansenism acquired new 
 strength, vice and irreligion increased to an alarming extent: 
 yet the politic duke, though himself a monster of libertinism, 
 feeling the necessity of religion to the state, would not suffer 
 it to be publicly impugned. This audacity commenced after 
 his death, when deism, under the delusive name of reason and 
 enlightened philosophy, threw off all disguise, both in practice 
 and profession, and attacked the whole substance of revealed 
 religion. At the head of these free-thinkers was Voltaire, a 
 vain, aspiring youth, who sought to raise to himself an ever- 
 lasting monument on the ruins of Christianity. " I am tired," 
 he used to say, "of hearing it repeated, that twelve men were 
 able to establish Christianity. I will show the world that one 
 man will be enough to effect its ruin." Proud was his boast 
 and impotent his endeavour; deplorable, however, was the 
 change that his writings wrought in the principles of his 
 numerous readers. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans was succeeded in the administration 
 (but not in the regency, the king being now of age) by the 
 Duke of Bourbon. This minister vv^as soon supplanted by 
 Cardinal Fleury, who had been preceptor to Lewis XV., and, 
 at the advanced age of seventy-three, took upon him the cares 
 of government. About the same time. Sir Robert Walpole, 
 whose disposition was no less pacific than Fleury's, became 
 prime minister of Great Britain. A treaty, signed at Vienna 
 this year, (1725,) between the emperor and the King of Spain,* 
 excited the jealousy of George I., who was under apprehen- 
 sions for his German dominions, as well as of some secret 
 article in favour of the Stuart family. It also gave umbrage 
 to the French and Dutch. In order to counteract the treaty 
 of Vienna, another was concluded at Hanover, between the 
 three offended powers, and the Kings of Prussia, Denmark, 
 and Sweden. (1726.) The King of England fitted out three 
 squadrons, one of which he sent to the West Indies, to block 
 up the Spanish galleons, in the harbour of Porto Bello. The 
 Spaniards, in resentment of this insult, laid siege to Gibraltar, 
 but without success ; and a reconciliation was soon after 
 effected, through the mediation of France. During these 
 negotiations died George I., being suddenly seized with a 
 paralytic disorder, on the road from Holland to Hanover ; he 
 was conveyed to Osnaburgh, where he expired, on the 11th 
 
 * Philip V. had abdicated the crown the preceding year, in favour of his 
 son, Don Lewis ; but this prince dying about six months after, Philip again 
 resumed the sceptre. 
 
178 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 of June, 1727, in the sixly-eighth year of his age, and 
 thirteenth of his reign. By his consort, Sophia Dorothea, 
 heiress of Zell, he left a son, George, who succeeded to the 
 throne, and a daughter, married to Frederic William, King of 
 Prussia. George I. has had the good fortune to have the 
 merits of his reign attributed to himself, while its defects 
 were throv/n upon the corruption and false principles of his 
 ministers. The accession of George II. made no alteration 
 in the system of British policy. 
 
 1731. — In consequence of the treaty of Seville, confirmed 
 by another at Vienna, Don Charles took quiet possession of 
 the duchies of Parma and Placentia, when the succession 
 devolved upon him ; by the treaty of Vienna, the emperor 
 also agreed that the Ostend Company, which had given so 
 much umbrage to France, England, and Holland, should be 
 totally dissolved, on condition that the contracting powers in 
 the treaty of Seville should guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 or domestic law, by which the succession to the hereditary 
 dominions of the house of Austria was secured to the heirs 
 female of the Emperor Charles VI., in case he should die 
 without male issue. The proposal was acceded to, and the 
 peace of Europe continued undisturbed till the death of 
 Augustus II., King of Poland, in 1733. On this event, 
 Stanislaus Leczinski, whom Charles XII. had invested with 
 the sovereignty of Poland, in 1704, and whom Peter the Great 
 had dethroned, now become father-in-law to Lewis XV., was 
 a second time chosen king. But the emperor, assisted by the 
 Russians, obliged the Poles to proceed to a new election: the 
 Elector of Saxony, son of the late King of Poland, who had 
 married the emperor's niece, was raised to the throne, under 
 the name of Augustus III., and Stanislaus, as formerly, was 
 forced to abandon his crown. Lewis XV. thought himself 
 injured in the person of that prince, and determined to be 
 revenged on the emperor : he entered into an alliance with 
 the Kings of Spain and Sardinia, and war was begun in Italy 
 and on the frontiers of Germany : the imperial courts of Vienna 
 and Petersburgh warmly espoused the pretensions of Augustus. 
 Philipsburg was invested by the French, under the Duke of 
 Berwick; and though this experienced commander was killed 
 by a cannon-ball, in visiting the trenches, the place was taken 
 by the Marquis d'Asfeld, who succeeded Berwick, in spite 
 of the efforts of Prince Eugene to prevent its surrender. 
 
 The French were not less successful in Italy, while the 
 Spaniards, in two campaigns, became masters of Naples and 
 
XXXII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 179 
 
 Sicily. Discouraged by so many losses, the emperor signified 
 a desire of peace, which was finally adjusted, in 1735. By 
 this treaty it was stipulated, that Stanislaus should renounce 
 his pretensions to Poland, in consideration of the cession of 
 the duchy of Lorraine, which he should enjoy during his life, 
 and which, after his death, should be reunited to the crown 
 of France ; that the Duke of Lorraine should have Tuscany, 
 in exchange for his hereditary dominions ; and that Lewis XV. 
 should insure to him an annual revenue of 3,500,000 livres 
 till the death of the grand duke ;* that the emperor should 
 acknowledge Don Carlos king of the two Sicilies, and accept 
 the duchies of Parma and Placentia as an indemnification for 
 those kingdoms ; that he should cede to the King of Sardinia 
 the Novarese, Tortonese, and the fiefs of Langes ; in consi- 
 deration of these cessions, the King of France agreed to 
 restore all his conquests in Germany, and to guarantee the 
 Pragmatical Sanction. Scarcely was this peace negotiated, 
 when a new war broke out on the confines of Europe and 
 xisia, in which the emperor found himself involved. Pro- 
 voked at the ravages of the Crim Tartars, as well as at the 
 neglect of the Ottoman Porte to her repeated remonstrances, 
 Anne, Empress of Russia, resolved to do herself justice. She 
 accordingly ordered Lasci, one of her generals, to attack 
 Asoph, which he reduced ; while the Count de Munich, 
 entering the Crimea with another army, forced the lines of 
 Precop, made himself master of the place itself, took Banie- 
 sary, and laid all Tartary waste with fire and sword. Next 
 campaign, Munich entered the Ukraine and invested Oeza- 
 kow, which was carried by assault, though defended by 
 a garrison of 3000 Janizaries, and 7000 Bosniacs. The 
 powder-magazine having taken fire, the Russian general took 
 that opportunity to storm the town, and the Turks soon sur- 
 rendered. 
 
 The emperor, who was bound by treaty to assist the court 
 of Petersburg against the Porte, resolved to attack the Turks 
 on the side of Hungary, while the Russians continued to 
 press them on the borders of the Black Sea; but the imperial 
 generals were repeatedly defeated, several important places 
 were lost, and, in 1739, Belgrade was besieged. Discou- 
 raged by his misfortunes, Charles VI. had recourse to the me- 
 diation of France ; and the Empress of Russia, though 
 recendy victorious at Choczim, afraid of being deserted by 
 
 • John Gaston, the last prince of the house of Mcdicis, who died in 1737 
 
180 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 her ally, had also recourse to negotiation. The Turks 
 obtained an advantageous peace. By that treaty, the empe- 
 ror ceded to the grand seignior Belgrade, Sabatz, the isle and 
 fortress of Orsova, with Servia and Austrian Walachia ; and 
 the contracting powers agreed that the Danube and the Save 
 should in future be the boundaries of the two empires. 
 
 The Empress of Russia was left in possession of Asoph, on 
 condition that its fortifications should be demolished ; and the 
 ancient limits between the Russian and Turkish empires were 
 re-established. 
 
 Soon after this peace was signed, died, in 1740, the Em- 
 peror Charles VI., the last prince of the ancient and illustrious 
 house of Austria ; the disputed succession to whose hereditary 
 dominions, kindled anew the flames of war in Europe. The 
 same year, the English took Porto Bello from the Spaniards, 
 and Commodore Anson began the circumnavigation of the 
 globe. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 A GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPE, FROM THE DEATH OF CHARLES 
 VI., IN 1740, TO THE TREATY OF DRESDEN, IN 1745. 
 
 1740. — The death of the Emperor Charles VI., without 
 male issue, awakened the ambition of many potentates, the ad- 
 justing of whose pretensions threw all Europe into a ferment. 
 By virtue of the Pragmatic Sanction, as well as tlie rights 
 of blood, the succession to the whole Austrian dominions 
 belonged to the Arch-duchess Maria Teresa, the emperor's 
 eldest daughter, married to Francis of Lorraine, Grand Duke 
 of Tuscany. The kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, the 
 provinces of Silesia, Austrian Swabia, Upper and Lower 
 Austria, Stiria, Carinthia, Carniola ; the four forest towns, 
 Burgaw, Brisgaw, the Low Countries, Friuli, Tyrol, the 
 duchies of Milan, Parma, and Placentia, formed that immense 
 inheritance. 
 
 Almost all the European powers had guarantied the Prag- 
 matic Sanction; but, as Prince Eugene remarked very judi- 
 ciously, "a hundred thousand men would have guarantied it 
 better than a hundred thousand treaties." Charles Albert, 
 Elector of Bavaria, laid claim to the kingdom of Bohemia, on 
 the strength of an article in the will of the Emperor Ferdi- 
 nand I., brother to Charles V. : Augustus HI., King of Poland 
 
XXXIIl.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 181 
 
 and Elector of Saxony, exhibited pretensions to the whole 
 Austrian succession, in virtue of the rights of his wife, daugh- 
 ter of the Emperor Joseph, elder brother of Charles VI. 
 The Catholic king deduced similar pretensions from the 
 rights of the daughter of Maximilian II., wife to Philip II., 
 from whom he was descended by females ; and the King of Sar- 
 dinia revived an obsolete claim to the duchy of Milan. The King 
 of France had also his pretensions, as being descended in a right 
 line from the eldest branch of the house of Austria, by two prin- 
 cesses married to his ancestors, Lewis XIII. and Lewis XIV. 
 In the mean time, Maria Teresa took quiet possession of that 
 vast inheritance, which was secured to her by the Pragmatic 
 Sanction. She received the homage of the states of Austria 
 at Vienna ; and the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia swore 
 allegiance to her by their deputies, as did the Italian posses- 
 sions. By a popular affability, which her predecessors had 
 seldom displayed, she gained the hearts of her subjects, with- 
 out diminishing her dignity. But, above all, she ingratiated 
 herself with the Hungarians, in voluntarily accepting the an- 
 cient oath of their sovereigns, by which the subjects, should 
 their privileges be invaded, are allowed to defend themselves 
 without benig treated as rebels. 
 
 The first alarm given by Maria Teresa's enemies was by a 
 formidable but unexpected pretender. Frederic II., King of 
 Prussia, had lately succeeded his father, Frederic William. 
 This enterprising monarch revived certain antiquated claims 
 of his family to four duchies in Silesia, and began his march 
 at the head of 30,000 choice troops to establish his right. 
 AVhen he found himself in the heart of that rich province, and 
 in possession of Breslaw, its capital, he showed a disposition 
 to negotiate. He offered to supply the Queen of Hungary (as 
 Maria Teresa was then generally called) with money and 
 troops ; to protect to the utmost of his power the rest of her 
 dominions in Germany, and to use all his interest to place her 
 husband on the imperial throne, provided she would cede to 
 him the Lower Silesia. But the queen was sensible that by yield- 
 ing to the claims of one pretender, she should only encourage 
 those of others ; she therefore rejected the offers of the King 
 of Prussia, and sent Count Newperg, with a strong body of 
 troops, into Silesia, to expel the invaders. The two armies 
 met at Mohvitz, a village in the neighbourhood of Neiss, and 
 within a league of the river of the same name. There a des- 
 perate battle was fought. The Austrians lost 4,000 men, and 
 were obliged to retreat. This victory of the Prussians was 
 
 18 
 
182 GENERAL HISTORY OF ELROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 followed, though not immediately, by the reduction of Glatz 
 and Neiss, and the submission of the whole province of Silesia. 
 The success of the King of Prussia astonished' all Europe, 
 and the refusal of Maria Teresa to comply with his demands, 
 which had so lately been dignified with the name of greatness 
 of soul, was now branded with the appellation of imprudent 
 obstinacy and hereditary haughtiness. The Queen of Hun- 
 gary might perhaps have found an ally in Russia, if Sweden 
 had not prevented it by declaring war against that empire in 
 1741. The campaign of the following year proving disastrous 
 to the Swedes, peace was concluded between these two powers, 
 at Abo, in 1743. The crown of Sweden, on the death of 
 Ulrica Eleanora, (in 1741.) had devolved on her husband, 
 Frederic, Landgrave of Hesse Cassel ; when peace with 
 Russia was treated of, the states of Sweden chose Prince 
 Adolphus Frederick, of Holstein Gottorp, Bishop of Lubeck, 
 hereditary prince ; and on the death of his predecessor, in 1751, 
 he succeeded to the throne of Sweden. A revolution also took 
 place in Russia in 1741. The Empress Anne, dying in 1740, 
 named for her successor John or Iwan, the son of her niece 
 Anne, married to the Duke of Brunswick Bevern. The fol- 
 lowing year the Princess Anne was appointed regent for her 
 infant son, and her husband named generalissimo of the 
 Russian forces ; but discontents arising on account of the 
 share which foreigners had in the government, the Princess 
 Elizabeth, only surviving child of Peter the Great, was, con 
 formably to the will of her father, called to the throne in 1741, 
 and the regent, with her son and husband, was imprisoned. 
 France had guarantied the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI., 
 and Cardinal Fleury, whose love of peace increased with his 
 declining years, was desirous of fulfilling his master's engage- 
 ment; but no sooner was it known at Versailles that the King 
 of Prussia had invaded Silesia, than the French nation became 
 desirous of breaking the power of the house of Austria, and 
 of exalting that of Bourbon on its ruins, by dismembering the 
 dominions of Maria Teresa, and placing on the imperial 
 throne Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, a stipendiary of his 
 most Christian Majesty. A treaty was therefore concluded 
 between France and Spain with Bavaria, against Maria Teresa; 
 the Kings of Poland, Prussia, Sardinia, and Naples, afterwards 
 acceded to this alliance, and Lewis appointed the Elector of 
 Bavaria his lieutenant-general, with the Mareschals Belleisle 
 and Broglio to act under him. In 1741, the combined forces 
 of France and Prussia overrun Upper Austria, took possession 
 
 II 
 
XXXIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 183 
 
 of Lintz, and approached Vienna, which was thrown into 
 great consternation. In this extremity of her fortune, Maria 
 Teresa, committing her desperate affairs to the care of her 
 husband and her brave generals, left Vienna and retired to 
 Presburg in Hungary ; where having assembled the states of 
 that kingdom, she appeared before them with her eldest son, 
 yet an infant, in her arms, and addressed them in a speech to 
 the following purport. " Abandoned by my friends, perse- 
 cuted by my enemies, and attacked by my nearest relations, I 
 have no resource left, but in your fidelity and valour. On you 
 alone I depend for relief; and into your hands I commit, with 
 confidence, the son of your sovereign, and my just cause." At 
 once filled with rage and compassion at these affecting expres- 
 sions of confidence, by so flattering an appeal to their loyalty, 
 and by the appearance of a young, heroic princess in distress, 
 the Palatines drew their sabres, and exclaimed, in a tone of 
 enthusiasm, " We will die for our king,* Maria Teresa." 
 The Hungarian nobility were instantly in arms, and old Count 
 Palfy, whom the queen honoured with the name of father, 
 marched to the relief of Vienna, with 30,000 men. Keven- 
 huller had a garrison of 12,000, Count Newperg was in 
 Bohemia at the head of 20,000 : the grand duke and his 
 brother. Prince Charles of Lorraine, who was the delight of 
 the Austrian armies, commanded another large body ; and the 
 other generals were exerting themselves to the utmost in rais- 
 ing troops for their sovereign. These circumstances, added 
 to the declining season, induced the Elector of Bavaria to 
 alter his plans ; instead of investing Vienna, he marched into 
 Bohemia, and, being joined by 20,000 Saxons, laid siege to 
 Prague. The place was stormed and taken by the gallantry 
 of the famous Count Saxe, natural son of Augustus II., of 
 Poland, who had already entered the French service : and the 
 Elector of Bavaria, havinor been crowned Kingr of Bohemia at 
 Prague, proceeded to Frankfort, where he was elected emperor, 
 under the name of Charles VII., and invested with the imperial 
 ensigns in January, 1742. 
 
 The intimate connexion between England and the house of 
 Austria, since the revolution in 1688, cemented by the blood 
 spilled during two long and desolating wars against Lewis 
 XIV., made the people consider this connexion as essential to 
 the liberties of Europe, against the power of the house of 
 Bourbon. The English nation therefore warmly espoused 
 
 * The Hungarians call their sovereign, king, of whatever sex. 
 
184 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. []ciiAP 
 
 the cause of the Queen of Hungary : the cry for war was loud, 
 and for fulfilling to the utmost, the treaty with the late emperor. 
 George II., who seemed only to value the British crown as it 
 augmented his consequence in Germany, was sufficiently dis- 
 posed to enter into these views: 1600 British troops were 
 transported into the Low Countries, to make a diversion in 
 favour of Maria Teresa; they were joined hy 6,000 Hessians 
 and 16,000 Hanoverians in British pay. 
 
 The good fortune of the Elector of Bavaria terminated with 
 his elevation to the imperial throne. The very day that he was 
 elected emperor, he received an account of the loss of Lintz, 
 the capital of Upper Austria, though defended by a garrison 
 of 10,000 French troops. Kevenhuller, the Austrian general, 
 who had performed this insportant service, liaving dislodged 
 the French from all the strongholds of that country, entered 
 the emperor's hereditary dominions, defeated Marshal Thoring 
 at Memberg, and took Munich, capital of Bavaria. In the 
 mean time Prince Lobkowitz, with 11,000 foot and 5,000 
 horse, was appointed to observe the motions of the French in 
 Bohemia, while Prince Charles of Lorraine, at the head of 
 48,000 men, advanced against the Prussians and Saxons who 
 had invaded Moravia. They retired with precipitation on his 
 approach, and abandoned Olmutz, which they had taken. 
 This retreat was considered as an event of much importance 
 by the Austrians ; but the active and enterprising King of 
 Prussia, having received a reinforcement of 30,000 men, under 
 the Prince of Anhalt, Dessau, marched to the assistance of his 
 allies in Bohemia, and gave batde to Prince Charles, at 
 Czaslaw. The disciplined troops on both sides were nearly 
 equal, but the Austrians had besides a large body of barbarous 
 irregulars, Croats, Pandors, &c., who engaged with incredible 
 fury.* The Prussians were broken ; the king left the field, 
 and a total defeat must have ensued, had not the thirst of 
 plunder seized the Austrian irregulars, at the sight of the 
 Prussian baggage. Their example infected the regulars, who 
 gave over the pursuit. The Prussian infantry seized the op- 
 portunity to rally ; they returned to the charge, and after an 
 obstinate afTray, broke the main body of the Austrian army, 
 and obliged Prince Charles to retire, with the loss of 5,000 
 men. The King of Prussia, whose loss was little inferior to 
 that of the Austrians, sick of such bloody victories, and suspect- 
 ing the sincerity of the court of France, began to turn his 
 
 * The Croats are the militia of Croatia ; the Pandors are Sclavonians. 
 
XXXIII. J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 185 
 
 thoughts towards peace, and conckided at Breslaw, without 
 consulting his allies, an advantageous treaty with the Queen 
 of Hungary. By this treaty, Maria Teresa ceded to Frederic 
 II. Upper and Lower Silesia, with the county of Glatz ; and 
 he engaged to observe a strict neutrality during the war, and 
 to withdraw his forces from her dominions, within sixteen 
 days after the signing of the treaty. A peace was also con- 
 cluded, nearly at the same time, between the Queen of Hun- 
 gary and Augustus III., King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, 
 by which she yielded to him certain places in Bohemia, and 
 he guarantied to her the possession of the rest of that king- 
 dom. The intelligence of the treaty of Breslaw came like a 
 clap of thunder upon the court of France. The Mares(;hals 
 Belleisle and Broglio no sooner found themselves deserted by 
 the Prussians, than they abandoned their magazines and heavy 
 baggage, and retired with precipitation under the cannon of 
 Prague. There they entrenched themselves in a kind of 
 peninsular meadow, formed by the windings of the river 
 Muldaw, while the Prince of Lorraine, having joined Lobko- 
 witz, encamped in sight of them on the hills of Grisnitz. 
 
 Maillebois, who commanded on the Rhine, marched to the 
 relief of Prague, at the head of 72,000 men ; but he was neces- 
 sitated to return to the Palatinate ; all prospect of relief lor 
 the besieged was now cut off: still the intrepid spirit of Belle- 
 isle supported him, and seemed to communicate itself to the 
 whole army. Finding no terms would be accepted, but that 
 he and all his garrison should surrender themselves prisoners, 
 he formed the design of a retreat; and by making in one quar- 
 ter of the town a feint for a general forage, he marched out at 
 another with 14,000 men, and got a day's march of Prince 
 Lobkowitz. The great extent of the Avails of Prague rendered 
 this the more practicable ; and the better to amuse the enemy, 
 he left a small garrison in the city. He had ten leagues to 
 march before he could reach the defiles ; the ground was co- 
 vered with snow ; all the inhabitants of the country were his 
 enemies, and Prince Lobkowitz, with 20,000 men, hung on 
 his rear. Under all these disadvantages, however, he reached 
 the defiles, with his army unbroken. After a fatiguing march 
 of twelve days, he arrived at Egra, which was still in the 
 hands of the French, and entered Alsace, without the loss of 
 a single man by the hands of the enemy, but of a thousand 
 in consequence of the rigour of the season. 
 
 The war raged during this campaign with no less violence 
 in Italy, thun in Germany. On the death of the emperor 
 
 18* 
 
186 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 Charles VI., the King of Spain put in a claim to the whole 
 Austrian succession, and the King of Sardinia revived one to 
 the duchy of Milan. Both afterwards thought proper to mode- 
 rate their pretensions. The Spanish monarch seemed dis- 
 posed to be satisfied with the Austrian dominions in Italy, which 
 he intended to erect into a kingdom for Don Philip, his young- 
 est son by the Princess of Parma : and his Sardinian majesty, 
 alarmed at the encroachments of the house of Bourbon, en- 
 tered into an alliance with the Queen of Hungary and the 
 King of Great Britain, in consideration of an annual subsidy, 
 and the cession of certain places contiguous to his dominions. 
 All the other Italian states affected to remain neutral during 
 the war. An English fleet had cruised in the Mediterranean 
 ever since the declaration of war with Spain, without per- 
 forming any thing of consequence. Admiral Matthews, being , 
 appointed chief commander, was vested with full powers to 
 treat with the Italian states, as his Britannic Majesty's minis- 
 ter In this double capacity, he watched the motions of the 
 Spaniards both by sea and land; and understandmg that the 
 Kino- of the two Sicilies had, notwithstanding his pretended 
 neutmlity, sent a body of troops to join the Spamsh army, 
 he sent an English squadron into the bay of Naples, with 
 orders to bombard that city, unless the king consented to with- 
 draw his troops, and sign a promise that they should not act 
 in conjunction with Spain during the continuance of the war. 
 These conditions were immediately acceded to. Meanwhile, 
 Don Philip, third son of his Catholic majesty, for whose ag- 
 grandizement the war had been undertaken, invaded Savoy 
 with another Spanish army, which he had led through France, 
 and soon made himself master of that duchy. Alarmed at 
 this irruption, the King of Sardinia returned with his troops 
 to the defence of Piedmont, which the Spaniards attempted in 
 vain to enter. The Queen of Hungary, now victorious, was 
 in possession of the territories of Charles VII., so that the 
 French, tired of supporting that prince, in whose cause they 
 had lost above 100,000 men, made at last proposals of peace, j I 
 which were, however, rejected. *1 
 
 The Queen of Hungary's good fortune continued to attend 
 her. Prince Charles of Lorraine having assumed the com- 
 mand of the Austrian army in Bavaria, defeated the Imperi- 
 alists with o-reat slaughter, near Branaw, and took possession 
 of their camp ; while Prince Lobkowitz, marching from Bo- 
 hemia, drove the French from all their posts in the Upper 
 Palatinate ; and the emperor, finding himself abandoned by his 
 
XXXIII. 3 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 187 
 
 allies, and stripped of his hereditary dominions, took refuge 
 in Frankfort, where he lived in indig-ence and obscurity. 
 
 The operations on the side of Flanders, during the cam- 
 paign of 1743, were important, though not decisive. The 
 British and Hanoverian troops, commanded by the Earl of 
 Stair ; and the Austrians under the Duke d'Aremberg, began 
 their march from the Low Countries towards Germany ; the 
 King of France sent an army under the Duke of Noailles, to 
 prevent these allies from joining Prince Charles ; while he 
 despatched another army into Alsace, to oppose that prince, 
 should he attempt to pass the Rhine. Having secured Spire, 
 Worms, and Oppenheim, Noailles passed the Rhine, and 
 posted himself above Frankfort ; the Earl of Stair advanced 
 to AschafTenburg, with a view of securing the navigation of 
 the Upper Maine, but Noailles had prevented him and cut ofT 
 all supplies. The King of Great Britain, attended by his 
 second son, the Duke of Cumberland, arrived in June, at the 
 camp of the allies, and found his army, amounting to 40,000 
 men, eager for battle, but in great want of supplies. The 
 French general, in fact, had taken his measures so wisely, 
 that it was thought the allies must be forced to surrender pris- 
 oners of war, or to be cut to pieces if they attempted to with- 
 draw. A retreat, however, was resolved upon. Their danger- 
 ous route lay between a mountain and the river Maine ; they 
 were annoyed in their march by the enemy's cannon, and the 
 French general, leading 60,000 of his men over the bridges 
 he had erected across the river, took possession of the village 
 of Dettingen, in front of the allies ; while another detachment 
 occupied Aschaftenburg, v/hich they had abandoned. Having 
 made these dispositions, Noailles repassed the Maine, the bet- 
 ter to observe the motions of the enemy. Meanwhile, the 
 Duke de Grammont, (his nephew and lieutenant-general,) who 
 was stationed at Dettingen, with 80,000 choice troops, eager 
 to engage, passed the defiles behind which they were posted, 
 and advanced into a plain, called the Cock Field, where the 
 allies had formed themselves in order of battle. Noailles 
 beheld this movement with grief and astonishment ; but could 
 not arrive in time to prevent it. The French charged with 
 great impetuosity, and put the Austrian cavalry into disorder: 
 the British and Hanoverian infantry, animated by the presence 
 of their sovereign, who rode between the lines with his sword 
 drawn, stood firm as a rock, and poured forth an incessant 
 fire, which nothing could resist. By a masterly n-ianoeuvre, 
 on the approach of the French cavalry, who rushed on despe- 
 
188 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 rately, these impenetrable battalions opened their lines, and 
 afterwards closing again, made great havoc in that gallant bo^y. 
 Terror now seized the whole French army, every one crying 
 "Sauve qui pent," so that the Duke de Noailles found him- 
 self under tlie necessity of precipitately retreating over the 
 Maine, with the loss of 5,000 men. The allied army, though 
 reinforced with 20,000 Dutch auxiliaries, did nothing of any 
 consequence after the victory of Dettingen ; and the Earl of 
 Stair was so dissatisfied with this inaction, that he resigned 
 in disgust. 
 
 The season was so far on the decline before the Spanish 
 army, under Don Philip, entered upon action, that the cam- 
 paign, on the side of Piedmont, was distinguished by no im- 
 portant event. The inaction of this prince was occasioned 
 by secret negotiations, and ended in the famous treaty of 
 Worms, by which his Sardinian majesty renounced his pre- 
 tensions to the duchy of Milan, and guarantied anew the 
 Pragmatic Sanction : the Queen of Hungary relinquishing, in 
 his favour, all title to the town and marquisate of Final, and 
 some other places. This private treaty dissipated all hopes 
 of a general peace ; the Queen of Hungary not only rejected 
 any terms of accommodation with the emperor, but avowed 
 her purpose of keeping possession of Bavaria, and the Upper 
 Palatinate, as an indemnification for the loss of Silesia; this 
 produced a change in the sentiments of the principal German 
 powers. Their jealousy of the ambition of the house of Aus- 
 tria was revived, and their pride was wounded by the degra- 
 dation of the imperial dignity, in the person of Charles VH., 
 now no better than an illustrious beggar, depending on the 
 bounty of France for a precarious subsistence. They resolved 
 to interpose in his favour. A secret negotiation began be- 
 tween France, the emperor, the Elector Palatine, the King of 
 Sweden, as Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, and the King of Prus- 
 sia, as Elector of Brandenburg, who feared the growing power 
 of Maria Teresa might strip him of his late conquests. Great 
 preparations were made for carrying on the war with vigour ; 
 20,000 French troops, under the Prince of Conti, were or- 
 dered to join Don Philip in Savoy ; and the French and Spa- 
 nish squadron at Toulon were commanded to act in concert, 
 and attempt to recover the sovereignty of the Mediterranean. 
 If successful, to join the Brest fleet, and having estabUshed a 
 superiority in the channel, to assist in the projected invasion 
 of England. 
 
 That enterprise, which had for its more remote object the 
 
XXXIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 189 
 
 re-establishmcnt of the house of Stuart, was planned with a 
 view of obligmg George II. to recall his troops from the Con- 
 tinent in defence of his own dominions. A correspondence 
 was entered into with the Jacobites in Scotland and England, 
 where the public discontent was very great ; the people being 
 enraged at the mysterious inaction of the last campaign, which 
 they ascribed to the influence of German counsels, and to the 
 political situation of George II. as Elector of Hanover. Car- 
 dinal de Tencin, who on the death of Cardinal Fleury had 
 taken the lead in the French administration, was warmly 
 attached to the Stuart family, and the chief promoter of this 
 enterprise: 15,000 men were assembled in Picardy under 
 Count Saxe ; a number of transports were collected at Calais, 
 Dunkirk, and Boulogne, and Charles Edward, eldest son of 
 the Chevalier de St. George, whom his father, in a procla- 
 mation dated from his court at Rome, had nominated regent 
 of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 arrived in the French camp to join the expedition.* 
 
 The transports put to sea; but, a sudden storm arising, they 
 were driven back with great damage and loss of men ; so that 
 the young prince, after being within sight of the English 
 coast, found himself necessitated to wait for another opportu- 
 nity to attempt the recovery of the kingdom of his ances- 
 tors. Mutual declarations of war were now issued by the 
 Kings of France and England. Lewis XV. accused George 
 II. of having violated the neutrality of Hanover; of dissuading 
 the Queen of Hungary from coming to an accommodation 
 with the emperor ; of blocking up the ports and disturbing the 
 
 * The son and only surviving child of James II., was known on the 
 Continent by the name of the Chevalier de St. George ; in England, by 
 that of the Pretender. Shortly after his abortive attempt at invasion, in 
 1715, he withdrew from France into Italy. His friends having advised 
 him to marry, a suitable consort was found in the Princess Clementina 
 Sobieski, granddaughter of the famous John Sobieski of Poland. It was 
 agreed that she should set out for Italy with all possible expedition ; but the 
 plan being made known to the English ministers, they found means to 
 gain over the Emperor of Germany, by whose orders the princess was 
 stopped at Inspruck. After a detention of two months, she effected her 
 escape from prison, and, accompanied by her mother, reached Bologna in 
 safety. The marriage was there celebrated by proxy, and the princess 
 continued her journey to Rome, where she was joined by her consort, May, 
 1719, In the following year she gave birth to a son, who was named 
 Charles Edward, and, in 1725, to a second, called Henry Benedict. Dis- 
 sensions unhappily arising between Prince James and his consort, the 
 latter withdrew into a convent in Rome, where she usually resided till her 
 death. Prince James survived her some years, and died in 1766. 
 
190 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 commerce of France. His Brilamiic majesty recriminated, 
 by accusing the French king of violating the Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion ; of attempting to destroy the balance of power in Eu- 
 rope, by dismembering the Austrian succession; of assisting 
 the Spaniards, in contempt of the faith of treaties ; of harbour- 
 ing the Pretender, and furnishing him with a fleet and army to 
 invade Great Britain. 
 
 The campaign in Italy began on the side of Piedmont. 
 Don Philip, being joined by the Prince of Conti, passed the 
 Var, which descends from the Alps and falls into the sea of 
 Genoa below Nice. The whole county of Nice submitted. 
 The French and Spanish army then defiled off towards Pied- 
 mont, and invested the strong town of Coni ; the King of 
 Sardinia, being reinforced by 10,000 Austrians under Palavi- 
 cini, advanced to its relief, and attacked the French and 
 Spaniards in their entrenchments, but was obliged to retire 
 with considerable loss ; he, however, found means to reinforce 
 the garrison of Coni, and to convey into the town a supply 
 of provisions ; this obliged Don Philip and the Prince of 
 Conti to raise a siege which had almost ruined their army ; 
 repassing the mountains, they took up their winter quarters 
 in Dauphine ; but the Spaniards still continued in possession 
 of Savoy, which they fleeced without mercy. Meanwhile a 
 treaty was concluded at Frankfort, through the influence of 
 France, between the Emperor Charles VII., the King of 
 Prussia, the King of Sweden, as Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, 
 and the Elector Palatine. The declared object of this treaty 
 was to restore the imperial dignity and the tranquillity of 
 Germany ; the contracting powers engaging either to persuade 
 or oblige the Queen of Hungary to acknowledge the title of 
 Charles VII., to give up the archives of the empire still in 
 her possession, and evacuate Bavaria ; the emperor's claims 
 on the Austrian succession to be settled by a friendly compro- 
 mise or juridicial decision. So far the confederacy seemed 
 reasonable ; but by a separate article of a difl'erent nature, the 
 King of Prussia engaged to put the emperor in possession of 
 Bohemia, and to guarantee to him Upper Austria, as soon as 
 conquered, on condition he should give up to his Prussian 
 Majesty the town and circle of Koningsgratz in its whole 
 extent, with the country between the frontiers and the Elbe, 
 and from Koningsgratz to the confines of Saxony. Lewis 
 XV. put himself at the head of 120,000 men, in spring, and 
 invested Menin. Count Saxe, now Marshal of France, com- 
 manded under him. Menin surrendered in seven days j 
 
XXXIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 191 
 
 Ypres, Fort Knocke, and Furnes were reduced with equal 
 facility, and Lewis entered Dunkirk in triumph ; while the 
 allied army, unable to obstruct his passage, continued posted 
 behind the Scheldt. Meanwhile Prince Charles of Lorraine 
 entered Alsace at the head of 60,000 Austrians, took Weisen- 
 burg, and laid all Lower Alsace under contribution. Leaving 
 Marshal Saxe in Flanders, Lewis advanced to oppose Prince 
 Charles, but at Metz was seized with a fever which threaten- 
 ed his life, and spread consternation throughout France. 
 
 His recovery was celebrated with such transports of joy, as 
 naturally sprung from the awakened sensibility of a nation, 
 then remarkable for its attachment to its sovereigns ; and it was 
 on this occasion that he received the flattering appellation of 
 Bien-amie. In the interim. Prince Charles, hearing that the 
 King of Prussia had entered Bohemia, repassed the Rhine, 
 and nastened to the relief of that kingdom : and Lewis on his 
 recovery besieged and took Friburg. Before the arrival of 
 Prince Charles, the Prussian monarch had made himself 
 master of Prague, Tabor, and all Bohemia east of the Mul- 
 daw. But Augustus III., King of Poland, sent 16,000 men 
 to join Prince Charles, who was also reinforced by a large 
 body of Hungarians, zealous in the cause of their sovereign, 
 Maria Teresa ; so that the King of Prussia, unable to with- 
 stand such a force, was obliged to quit Bohemia and retire 
 with precipitation into Silesia. He was pursued by Prince 
 Charles, but the rigour of the season prevented the recovery 
 of that valuable province. The Prussians, in their retreat, 
 lost above 30,000 men, with all their heavy baggage, artillery, 
 provisions, and plunder. 
 
 1745. — While the high-minded Frederick II. experienced 
 this sudden reverse of fortune, the dejected fugitive, Charles 
 VII. once more got possession of his capital, SeckendorfT, the 
 imperial general, having driven the Austrians out of Bavaria. 
 But the rapid progress of the Prince of Lorraine filled him 
 with new apprehensions, and he was in danger of being a 
 third time chased from his dominions, w^hen death freed him 
 from a complication of bodily ills, aggravated by the anguish of 
 a wounded spirit. His son Maximilian Joseph, being only se- 
 venteen years of age, could not become a candidate for the im- 
 perial throne. He therefore concluded a treaty of peace with 
 the Queen of Hungary. By this treaty, Maria Teresa agreed 
 to recognise the imperial dignity, as having been vested in the 
 person of Charles VII.; to put his son in possession of all 
 his electoral dominions, which she had again invaded ; and the 
 
192 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 young elector renounced all claim to any part of the Austrian 
 succession ; consented to guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction ; 
 agreed to give his vote for the grand duke at the ensuing 
 election of an emperor, and to dismiss the auxiliary troops 
 in his service. This treaty, it was confidently expected, 
 would prove a prelude to a general pacification, but the French 
 ministry persisted in their resolution of opposing the election 
 of the grand duke, and of continuing the war in Germany and 
 the Low Countries, to facilitate the operations of the house 
 of Bourbon in Italy, where Elizabeth Farnese, who still di- 
 rected all the measures of the court of Madrid, was determined 
 to establish a sovereignty for her second son, Don Philip, at 
 the expense of Maria Teresa. 
 
 Don Philip closed a brilliant campaign in Italy by a triumph 
 ant entry into Milan. Lewis XV. was equally successful in 
 1745, on the side of Flanders : he first invested Tornay, one 
 of the strongest towns in the Austrian Netherlands, and the 
 most important in the Dutch barrier. The Hanoverian and 
 the British troops, commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, 
 advanced to its relief, with the Austrians conducted by old 
 Count Konigseg, and the Dutch, by Prince Waldeck, as young 
 and inexperienced as the Duke of Cumberland. 
 
 The French army, under Marshal Saxe, was posted on a 
 rising ground in front of the village of Fontenoy. A despe- 
 rate battle ensued : it began at break of day, and lasted till 
 three in the afternoon. Though the fire from the French bat- 
 teries was so heavy, that it swept off whole ranks at a single 
 discharge, the British infantry continued to advance as if they 
 had been invulnerable, and drove the French beyond their 
 lines. Marshal Saxe, concluding all was lost, sent advice to 
 the king to provide for his safety, by repassing the bridge of 
 Colonne ; but Lewis XV. refused to quit his post, and his 
 firmness saved his army from disgrace and ruin. Ashamed to 
 desert their sovereign, the French infantry returned to the 
 charge, and finally compelled the English and Hanoverians to 
 retire with the loss of 7,000 men, after having successively 
 routed almost every regiment in the French army. The 
 French lost near 10,000 men, yet their joy was extravagantly 
 high at their dear-bought victory ; and their exultation in the 
 hour of triumph seemed to bear a proportion to the danger 
 they had been in of a defeat. After this battle, the allies lay 
 intrenched between Antwerp and Brussels, while Marshal Saxe 
 and Count Lowendahl reduced by stratagem or force. Tour- 
 nay, Oudenarde, Ath, Dendermonde, Ghent, Ostend, New- 
 
XXXIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 19-3 
 
 port, and every other fortified place in Austrian Flanders. Yet 
 the Queen of Hungary obtained the great object of her wishes, 
 in the elevation of her husband to the imperial throne ; the 
 electors assembled at Frankfort, and raised to the head of tin; 
 empire the Grand Duke of Tuscany, under the name of 
 Francis I. 
 
 Meanwhile the King of Prussia gained two victories over 
 the Austrians under Prince Charles of Lorraine ; he then 
 invaded Saxony, and made himself master of Dresden. The 
 King of Poland now found himself under the necessity of 
 suing for peace, and the King of Prussia was heartily tired 
 of the war. A treaty was accordingly concluded at Dresden 
 in 1745, between Augustus, as Elector of Saxony, and Fred- 
 eric II., by which Augustus agreed to pay Frederic for the 
 evacuation of his hereditary dominions one million of German 
 crowns at the next fair of Leipsic. 
 
 Another treaty, confirming that of Breslaw, was at the same 
 time concluded between the King of Prussia and the Queen 
 of Hungary. This treaty secured to Frederic the possession 
 of Silesia, on condition of acknowledging the new emperor's 
 election. The Elector Palatine was included in this treaty on 
 the same condition. These treaties restored tranquillity to 
 Germany, but the war still continued for some years between 
 the houses of Austria and Bourbon. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs on the continent, when 
 Charles Edward, the grandson of James II., arrived in Scot- 
 land to assert his right to the kingdom of his ancestors. With 
 a few tried adherents and a small supply of money and arms, 
 he had sailed from France, and having made the circuit of 
 Ireland, landed at Lochaber on the western coast. He was 
 immediately joined by several Highland chiefs with their 
 clans, and on reviewing his troops found them amount to 3,000 
 men. Having crossed the Forth in the neighbourhood of Stir- 
 ling, he entered Edinburgh without opposition, caused his 
 father to be proclaimed king, as he had previously done at 
 Perth, and fixed his head-quarters at Holyrood-house. Mean- 
 while, Sir John Cope, commander-in-chief of the army in 
 Scotland, who, by marching northward towards Inverness, 
 had left the whole of the Low Country open to the insurgents, 
 advancing to oppose them, was met by Charles Edward and 
 his adherents near the village of Preston Pans, and completely 
 defeated. By this victory, the whole of Scodand, a few forti- 
 fied castles excepted, was reduced to the obedience of the 
 Stuarts : and Prince Charles, who now held the style and title 
 
 19 
 
194 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 of regent, being joined by many of the Scottish nobility with 
 their wives and daughters, indulged in the parade of royalty 
 at Holyrood-house, the ancient palace of his ancestors. He 
 was at this time twenty-iive years of age ; a considerable 
 share of manly beauty, heightened by elegant manners and 
 an affable deportment, rendered his general appearance strik- 
 ingly attractive and prepossessing. After much useless delay, 
 finding himself unable to reduce the castle of Edinburgh for 
 want of artillery, he left that city, and, entering England, took 
 the road of Carlisle, which surrendered at the end of three 
 days ; many other towns opened their gates without resist- 
 ance. In Lancashire he was received with some demonstra- 
 tions of joy, and joined by Colonel Townely, at the head of 
 200 men, but though he advanced within a hundred miles of 
 London, no signs of any general movement in his favour ap- 
 peared. The Highland chiefs were under no subordination, 
 and unanimous only in discontent ; and, in a council of war 
 held at Derby, it was resolved, contrary to the wishes of 
 Prince Charles, who was for attempting to gain possession of 
 the capital, to return to Scodand. A masterly retreat was 
 planned and executed with trifling loss. In passing Carlisle, 
 the garrison was augmented by throwing in the Lancashire 
 volunteers ; it was, however, almost immediately besieged by 
 the Duke of Cumberland, (who had been recalled from Flan- 
 ders to head an army against the insurgents,) and compelled 
 to surrender at discretion ; the men, to the number of 400, 
 were immediately imprisoned ; their subsequent fate was exile 
 or death. In Scotland, the friends of the young adventurer 
 were still numerous and formidable ; and a brilliant victory 
 gained at Falkirk over the regulars under General Hawley, 
 added vigour to their hopes. But the Highlanders became 
 dispirited by fruitless efforts to take Stirling castle by storm, 
 and their chiefs seemed willing to decide at one blow a 
 struggle of which they had grown weary. In April, 1746, 
 the Duke of Cumberland crossed the Spey without opposition, 
 and coming up with the insurgents on the plains of CuUoden, 
 gained a victory so decisive as at once to quell the insurrec- 
 tion, and annihilate the hopes of Prince Charles and his ad- 
 herents. The conquerors disgraced their triumph by the 
 most atrocious cruelty, refusing quarter to the wounded, and 
 carrying fire and sword into the huts of a simple people, 
 whose only crime was too implicit an obedience to their 
 chiefs. The men were hunted down upon the mountains, the 
 women and children left to perish with cold and hunger. 
 
XXXIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 195 
 
 The Earl of Kilmarnock, the Lords Balmerino and Lovat, 
 and a great number of officers and prisoners of distinction, 
 suffered death. Many of the Highland chiefs escaped beyond 
 sea, and Prince Charles himself, after a series of romantic ad- 
 ventures and hair-breadth escapes, was received on board a 
 French frigate, and safely landed in France. It is worthy of 
 remark, that though a price of £30,000 was set upon his head, 
 and more than fifty persons must have been at different times 
 acquainted with the place of his retreat, not one was found 
 base enough to purchase affluence by betraying him. The 
 Duke of Cumberland returned triumphantly to London, and 
 shortly after set out to resume the command of the army in 
 Flanders. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THE AFFAIRS OF EUROPE, FROM THE TREATY OF DRESDEN IN 
 1745, TO THE PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE IN 1748. 
 
 The treaty of Dresden and the confirmation of that of 
 Breslaw, by detaching the King of Prussia from the house 
 of Bourbon, made a change in the state of the contending 
 parties, but did not dispose them to peace. Of all the ho'stile 
 powers, the King of France was the first in readiness to put 
 his designs into execution. Marshal Saxe, to the astonish- 
 ment of Europe and the terror of the confederates, took 
 Brussels, the capital of Brabant, and the residence of the 
 governor of the Austrian Netherlands. Lewis XV. joined 
 his victorious army of 120,000 men in April, 1746, reduced 
 Antwerp, and forced the allies to retire to Breda. Mons, 
 reckoned one of the strongest towns in the world, held out 
 only a few weeks, and, by the middle of July, Lewis saw 
 himself absolute master of Flanders, Brabant, and Hainault. 
 
 The enterprising Marshal Saxe, after the reduction of 
 Namur, passed the Jaar at the head of the whole French 
 army, attacked the allies, and forced them to retreat to Maes- 
 tricht. In Italy, Don Philip and Maillebois, who had carried 
 every thing before them the preceding year, were still at the 
 head of a powerful army, notwithstanding which, the King 
 of Sardinia made himself master of Asti, one of the strongest 
 places in Italy. The Austrian forces under Prince Lichen- 
 stein now amounted to 40,000 men ; with these he recovered 
 all the Piedmontese fortresses, and entering the duchy of Milan, 
 
196 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 took Lodi, Guastalla, Parma, and other places. Don Philip 
 and Maillebois attempting to force the Austrian camp at St. 
 Lazaro, a battle ensued, in which, so masterly was the con- 
 duct of Prince Lichenstein, that they were obliged to retire, 
 after a bloody contest of nine hours, leaving 6000 men dead 
 on the field, and as many wounded. Soon after this disaster, 
 Don Philip received intelligence of the death of his father, 
 Philip v., and finding himself hard pressed by the allies, 
 retired toward Savoy, while Maillebois entered Provence. 
 The retreat of the French and Spaniards was immediately 
 followed by the surrender of Genoa. 
 
 Struck with consternation at the progress of the French 
 arms, the inhabitants of the United Provinces clamoured loud- 
 ly against the ministry of the republic. They rose in many 
 places, and compelled their magistrates to declare the Prince 
 of Orange stadtholder, a dignity which had been laid aside 
 since the death of William III. The beneficial effects of this 
 revolution to the common cause of the confederates soon 
 appeared in several vigorous measures. 
 
 In June, 1747, a partial, but obstinate and bloody battle, 
 was fought near the village of Val or Laffeldt, in which the 
 British troops distinguished themselves greatly ; and, if pro- 
 perly supported, might have gained a glorious victory. Hence 
 the bon mot of Lewis XV., that " the English not only paid 
 all, but /o?io'/i/ all." The Duke of Cumberland, however,, 
 was on the point of being made prisoner, when Sir John Li- 
 gonier rushed at the head of three regiments of dragoons upon 
 the victorious enemy, thus giving the duke time to collect 
 his scattered forces, and to retire without molestation to Maes- 
 tricht. The loss of the victors on this occasion was double 
 that of the vanquished. After this battle. Marshal Saxe sud- 
 denly detached Count Lowendahl, with 30,000 men, to invest 
 Bergen-op-Zoom,the strongest fortification of Dutch Brabant, 
 and the favourite work of the famous Coehorn. This place 
 had never been taken, and was generally deemed impregnable. 
 It was defended by a garrison of 3000 men under the Prince 
 of Hesse Philipstal, when Lowendahl sat down befDre it. He | j 
 conducted his operations with great judgment and spirit;*] 
 mines were sprung on both sides, and every instrument of 
 destruction employed for many weeks. Nothing was to be 
 seen but fire and smoke, nothing heard but the perpetual roar 
 of bombs and cannon : the town was laid in ashes, the 
 trenches were filled with carnage ; and the fate of Bergen-op- 
 Zoom, on which the eyes of all Europe were fixed, was still 
 
XXXV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 197 
 
 doubtful, when Lowendahl boldly carried it by assault. All the 
 forts in the neighbourhood surrendered, and the French be- 
 came masters of the whole navigation of the Scheldt. Lewis 
 XV. immediately promoted Lowendahl to the rank of Mar- 
 shal of France ; and having appointed Count Saxe governor 
 of the conquered Netherlands, returned in triumph to Ver- 
 sailles. Fortunately for the confederates, the French were 
 not equally successful in Italy during this campaign. 
 
 The maritime transactions of this year were to Great 
 Britain more advantageous than glorious, as she had a mani- 
 fest superiority of force in every engagement : the ruin of the 
 French navy was however completed. 
 
 Lewis XV. now seriously turned his views to peace ; he 
 was discouraged by these losses, he saw his designs frustrated 
 in Germany by the elevation of the Grand Duke to the impe- 
 rial throne, and the subsequent treaties between the houses of 
 Austria, Bavaria, and Brandenburg. He made advances 
 towards a pacification both at London and the Hague, and a 
 new Congress was opened at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748. 
 This treaty had for its immediate object, a mutual restitution 
 of all conquests made since the beginning of the war, with a 
 release of prisoners without ransom. The principal stipula- 
 tions provided that the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and 
 Guastalla should be ceded as a sovereignty, to the Infant Don 
 Philip and his heirs male ; that all the contracting powers 
 should guarantee to his Prussian majesty the duchy of Silesia 
 and the county of Glatz ; and that such of the same powers 
 as had guarantied the Pragmatic Sanction of the Emperor 
 Charles VI., for securing to his daughter the Empress Queen 
 of Hungary and Bohemia the undivided succession of the 
 house of Austria, should renew their engagements, with the 
 exception of the cessions made by this and former treaties. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 FRANCE, SPAIN, AND GREAT BRITAIN, FROM 1748, TO 1759. 
 
 In March, 1751, died, universally lamented, Frederic Prince 
 of Wales. He had been a considerable time at variance with 
 his father, which had thrown him into the opposition, but 
 after Walpole's resignation, in 1742, was reconciled to the 
 king. 
 
 19* 
 
198 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 An act was passed this year for introducing the New or 
 Gregorian Style into England ; which was effected by pass- 
 ing over eleven days in the calendar, in the beginning of 1752. 
 
 Europe continued in peace from the treaty of Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle, till 1754, when the disputes between France and 
 England, concerning*the limits of Nova Scotia, began to be 
 hotly agitated by the commissioners of the two crowns, and 
 another subject of contention arose relative to the boundaries 
 of the British provinces to the southward. The French had 
 formed a plan to unite, by a chain of forts, Canada and Loui- 
 siana, and to circumscribe the English colonies within that 
 tract of country which lies between the sea and the Alleghany 
 or Appalachian mountains. This scheme was ardendy em- 
 braced by De la Jonquiere, commander-in-chief of the French 
 forces in North America, and by La Galissoniere, Governor 
 of New France. By their joint efforts, forts were erected 
 along the great lakes which communicate with the river St. 
 Lawrence, and also on the Ohio and the Mississippi : the ■ 
 vast chain was nearly completed from Quebec to New Or- 
 leans, when the court of England, roused by repeated inju- 
 ries, broke off the conferences relative to the limits of Nova 
 Scotia. 
 
 In 1755, the English government equipped a fleet, under 
 the command of Boscawen, who directed his course to the 
 banks of Newfoundland ; a few days afterwards, a French^ 
 fleet from Brest, under M. de la Mothe, came to the same 
 latitude, in its passage to Quebec. The summer was spent in 
 various skirmishes and partial engagements, and the campaign 
 was estimated to the disadvantage of Great Britain, though the 
 French were driven from their encroachments on Nova Sco- 
 tia, and 300 trading vessels belonging to France, laden with 
 West India produce, were brought as prizes into the ports of 
 England. Unable, from their inferiority at sea, to make any 
 reprisals, the French resolved to make George II. tremble for 
 his German dominions, which they had for some time threat- 
 ened ; and an army of 200,000 men, with their vicinity to the 
 country to be invaded, seemed to promise success. 
 
 AVhile the flames of war were thus breaking out anew be- 
 tween France and England, the southern parts of Europe 
 were visited by a dreadful calamity. On the 1st of Novem- 
 ber, 1755, a violent earthquake shook all Spain and Portu- 
 gal, and laid the city of Lisbon in ruins. About 10,000 
 persons lost their lives, and the survivors, for the greater 
 part, were obliged to take up their abode in the open fields. 
 
XXXV."] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 199 
 
 The British Parliament generously voted .-6100,000 for the 
 relief of the sufferers in Portugal, and ships, laden with pro- 
 visions and clothing, were immediately despatched to liisbon, 
 where they arrived so opportunely as to preserve thousands 
 from dying of hunger and cold. The throne of Portugal was 
 then filled by Joseph, who succeeded his father, John V., in 
 1750. King John had been complimented by Pope Benedict 
 XIV., in 1749, with the title of Most Faithful Maje^jty, 
 vfr'hich his successors have since retained. To preserve the 
 sceptre of Portugal, in the house of Braganza, the Princess 
 Mary Isabella, who, by the accession of her father, Don Jo- 
 seph, had become sole heiress to the crown, was, by virtue of 
 a special dispensation, married to her uncle, Don Pedro. A 
 similar alliance afterwards took place between her eldest son, 
 Joseph, Prince of Brazil, and her sister. Donna Maria Frances. 
 Carvalho, Marquis of Pombal, minister to Joseph, a monster 
 of cruelty and ambition, abused the confidence of his sove- 
 reign to oppress the people, and gratify his insatiable avarice 
 and revenge. In 1752, he began to persecute the Jesuits, a 
 measure which is thought by some to have originated in a 
 spirit of revenge, for their having discovered to the king the 
 notorious injustices committed by a brother of Carvalho's, in 
 Brazil ; while others suppose it connected with the antichris- 
 tian conspiracy, then carrying on by the ministers of Por- 
 tugal, France, and Spain. 
 
 To attain his diabolical ends, he procured the king's sig- 
 natures to sheets of blank paper, which were afterwards filled 
 with any thing he pleased to dictate. By this means and by 
 the abuse of the inquisition, he murdered the exemplary 
 missioner. Father Malagrida, shipped off the greater part of 
 the Jesuits, in insult to the Pope, and buried the remainder 
 alive, in subterranean dungeons, constructed for the horrid 
 purpose. On the death of the king, in 1777, Carvalho was 
 disgraced ; but not till he had stained the scaffold with the 
 innocent blood of several ecclesiastics and the first nobility 
 of Portugal, for conspiracies fabricated by himself. 
 
 1756. — An English fleet under Admiral Byng was sent to 
 the Mediterranean off Minorca, but the French effected a 
 landing, and got possession of the whole island ; Byng not 
 daring to advance to the relief of the Governor-general 
 Blakeney. Tlie voice of public indignation was loud against 
 the admiral, who was superseded by Sir Edward Hawke 
 in the command of the fleet, and brought home under arrest, 
 to be tried for his life. He was found guilty and executed. 
 
w 
 
 200 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Mr. Fox was, at this time, (1757,) at the head of affairs, 
 but soon afterwards made room for the popular minister, Mr. 
 Pitt. In North America, the Earl of London was appointed 
 commander-in-chief, and General Abercrombie second in 
 command. Albany was agreed upon as the place of rendez- 
 vous ; but this campaign was lost to Great Britain, through 
 neglect and procrastination. Nor did her affairs wear a more 
 favourable aspect in the East Indies. As early as the year 
 1600, a company had been chartered to traffic in those parts, 
 but the first traders were often grievously harassed by the 
 Dutch, and, at a later period, by the French; who, under 
 Colbert's administration, had made a settlement at Pondi- 
 cherry. The successors of Tamerlane, the illustrious con- 
 queror of Indostan, especially since the invasion of Kouli 
 Khan, in 1738, had sunk into such a state of indolence and 
 apathy, that the suhahs, or Mohammedan viceroys of pro- 
 vinces, the nabobs, or governors of districts, and even the 
 rajahs, or tributary Indian princes, began to consider them- 
 selves independent sovereigns, and to make war upon each 
 other at pleasure. Yet the three European powers who had 
 settlements in Bengal, were not permitted to maintain an 
 army, or to fortify the factories they had erected, till, taking 
 advantage of a rebellion raised by the rajahs against the 
 nabob, the English obtained permission to erect Fort 
 William, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, then a small 
 town, where they had established their chief magazines. 
 From this time forward the trade of the company flourished 
 exceedingly, and the town increased in population, notwith- 
 standing the jealousy of the native powers and Europeans of 
 other nations. Though the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle had re- 
 established peace between France and England, hostilities 
 were still carried on in the East Indies, with various success, 
 till, in 1751, an individual appeared, who, by his genius and 
 bravery, asserted the superiority of the latter. This was Mr. 
 Clive, a writer in the East India Company's service. At the 
 head of 150 men he took Arcot, restored it to the deposed 
 nabob, withstood a siege against an overwhelming force of 
 French and Indians, and obliged them to relinquish it at the 
 end of fifty days. Being reinforced shortly after, he pursued 
 them ; and, by a complete victory, effectually humbled the 
 pride of the French and their allies. On the death of the 
 nabob, or, more properly, subah, Alaverdy, who had governed 
 with the greatest ability, for many years, the provinces of 
 
XXXV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 201 
 
 Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa; the superiority devolved upon his 
 grandson, Surajah Dowlah, a weak and tyrannical prince. 
 Equally timid, suspicious, and cruel, the new viceroy de- 
 termined to take vengeance on all whom he feared, and to 
 owe his security to the inability of any power within his 
 jurisdiction to hurt him. The English had particularly 
 awakened his apprehensions, by the taking of Gheria, a fort- 
 ress in India deemed impregnable ; by their increasing 
 strength in the Carnatic, and by the growth of their settle- 
 ment at Calcutta. The governor and council of Calcutta 
 had moreover refused to deliver up to him a noble refugee 
 who had taken shelter, with all his treasures, within their 
 presidency. Enraged at this refusal, Surajah Dowlah 
 ordered 50,000 men, whom he had assembled, to march 
 directly towards Calcutta, where the English, he was told, 
 were building new fortifications. He, himself, headed his 
 troops, and advanced with such rapidity, that many of them 
 died of fatigue. After attempting in vain to oppose the 
 enemy in the streets and avenues, the English inhabitants 
 took refuge in Fort AVilliam, a place in itself by no means 
 strong, and defended only by a small garrison. Panic-struck 
 at the thouglit of falling alive into the hands of Surajah Dow- 
 lah, the governor made his escape to one of the ships, and 
 was followed by several persons of distinction. By a despe- 
 rate assault, the besiegers soon made themselves masters of 
 the fort, which had then only 190 men in it, of whom 146 
 survived the siege, and were made prisoners. Surajah Dow- 
 lah, enraged at the resistance they had made, and disappointed 
 at finding but a small sum in the treasury, ordered Mr. Hol- 
 well, the commander, and his companions to be confined in the 
 common dungeon of the fort, usually called the black hole ; 
 and, in that dungeon, only eighteen feet square, were they con- 
 demned to pass the night in one of the hottest climates of the 
 earth, and in the hottest season of that climate. They could 
 receive no air but through two small grated windows, almost 
 totally blocked up by a neighbouring building. Their distress 
 was inexpressible ; they attempted to force the door without ef- 
 fect. Rage succeeded disappointment. The keenest invectives 
 were uttered to provoke the guard to put an end to their mise- 
 rable lives, by firing into the dungeon; and while some, in the 
 agonies of torment and despair, were uttering frantic execra- 
 tions, others were imploring relief from Heaven, by wild and 
 incoherent prayers. When morning appeared, of the hundred 
 and forty-six, only twenty-three survived ; these were sent 
 
202 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 prisoners to Mnxadavad, the capital of the province. Cal- 
 cutta was pillaged, and Fort William secured by a garrison of 
 
 3,000 men. , ,_ ^^ • vxr 
 
 An attempt was made this year upon the life of Lewi. XV. 
 bv one Dainiens, who having attached himself to the service 
 of some Parliament-men, was enraged at the disgrace into 
 which that body had fallen.* He was torn to pieces by 
 young horses, after having suffered every torture that human 
 invention could suggest. . v^7 ...^i^^^i 
 
 The latter years of the reign of Lewis XV. were marked 
 by continual disagreements with his Parliaments. Jansenism 
 infected many of the members of that body, and the con- 
 demnation of their errors by the celebrated huW Urn gemtus in- 
 stead of silencing, increased their clamour. On their refusa 
 to enregister the bull, the Parliament of Pans was suspended 
 by Lewis, in 1756 ; and did not resume its functions, till the 
 September of the following year. . . 
 
 The Abbey of Port Royal, in Pans, had long been the lesi- 
 dence of solitaries, who have immortalized their names by 
 their writings. Pascal had there composed his " Provincia 
 Letters," a work which, though victoriously refuted in pom 
 of doctrine, will ever be admired for its enchanting style and 
 poignant raillery. It was there that Arnaud forged the sharp 
 lances with which he had attacked the Jesmts in his "Morale 
 Pratique," and it was still the asylum of Nicole of Dagnet, 
 of Racine and his son, when Le Telliert obtained the demo- 
 lition of this famous solitude, in 1709 ; an act of arbitrary 
 power condemned by the majority of his colleagues. The 
 rapid progress of vice under the ministry of the Duke de 
 Choiseuil ; the extreme prodigality of this minister, and his 
 secret machinations for the destruction of the Society ot 
 Jesus, were not unknown to the virtuous dauphin, son to 
 Lewis XV. Having prepared a memoir, drawn up by the 
 
 * Damiens, in his interrogatories, said " that if he had never gone into 
 the chambers ;f the Parliament, this would never have happened to him 
 that he had formed his plan after the affair of the Parliament ; that if he 
 had not been i, the service of one of these Parliamentary me,^ it wou d 
 never have entered into his head; that he should not have so often I eard 
 S'e refusal of the Sacraments spoken of, which heated his ^"-g-f J"' 
 4c. See the Memoirs to serve for the Ecclesiastical History of the 18th 
 
 century, vol. 2, anno 1757. , ^ . r ■ ytv <^pp " M-. 
 
 + Le Tellierwas a Jesuit, and confessor to Lewis XIV. See M. 
 r«n r- of \bbe Gcorc^el " vol. 1st. See also the " New Disqmsition, faith- 
 Turt-^'te^^^^^^^^^^ Considerations," &c., printed at Versailles, 
 
 1817. By a Sulpician. 
 
XXXV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 203 
 
 elegant pen of Pere de Neuville, the dauphin liimself present- 
 ed it to his father. The indignation which it excited in the 
 mind of the king against his unworthy minister, maybe easily 
 conjectured ; but his weakness in showing it to the duke him- 
 self, in discovering the authors of it, and in consigning the 
 contents to oblivion, would be hardly credible, if it were not 
 related on good authority.* From this time the dauphin lost 
 all his influence at court, and a slow malady, the cause of 
 which was not unknown to him, insensibly conducted him to 
 the tomb, in 1765, to the great grief of the French nation. 
 
 In vain did Rome, and the virtuous Beaumont, Archbishop 
 of Paris, excommunicate the Parliaments for having employed 
 fraud and calumny to destroy an order approved by the Coun- 
 cil of Trent ; in vain did the French bishops assembled pre- 
 sent a public memorial to attest the sanctity of the institute 
 and doctrines of the Jesuits, the utility of their labours for the 
 instruction of youth and the reformation of morals ; its 
 destruction was resolved upon by Choiseuil, who was the 
 soul of the league between philosophy, Jansenism, and the 
 Parliaments ; he directed their movements to bring about this 
 event, in spite of the king himself, who loved and esteemed 
 the society. But at last the natural indolence of his disposi- 
 tion yielded to the intrigues and solicitations of his unworthy 
 favourites, and Lewis suppressed the Society of Jesus in his 
 dominions, in 1764, by an edict, which was, however, 
 favourable to individuals, as it left them at liberty to pursue 
 their evangelical labours in the ministry, under the habit of 
 secular priests. Their goods were sold, their valuable libra- 
 ries dispersed, and their colleges seized. But their enemies 
 were not yet satisfied. In order to deprive the cluirch of 
 France of their services, the Parliament of Paris devised a 
 qualifying oath, which required them to abjure their institute, 
 and to approve of the odious stigma which the Parliament had 
 maliciously endeavoured to fix upon it. The greater part of 
 the Jesuits preferred the loss of the small pension that had 
 been assigned them, and voluntary exile, to the infamy of this 
 deorrading test. 
 
 The death of the queen, Mary Leczinski, who did not long 
 survive her only and beloved son, deprived the Jesuits of a 
 generous protectress. Her father. King Stanislaus, had met 
 
 * See " Memoirs of Abbe Georgel, vol. 1st. See also the " New Dis- 
 quisition," faithfully translated from " Nouvelles Considerations," &c., 
 printed at Versailles, 1817. By a Sulpician. 
 
204 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 with an untimely death, the preceding year, (1767,) on whose 
 demise, the duchy of Lorraine was united to the kingdom of 
 France. 
 
 The King of Prussia, who had concluded an offensive and 
 defensive league with his uncle, George II., in 1756, finding 
 Maria Teresa unwilling to leave him in quiet possession of 
 Silesia, resolved to annoy her and oblige her to withdraw her 
 forces from that quarter; he, therefore, overran Saxony, and 
 took possession of Dresden. No sooner had he entered Sax- 
 ony, than a process was commenced against him in the Aulic 
 Council, and also in the diet of the empire ; he was put under 
 the ban of the empire, and adjudged fallen from all the dig- 
 nities and possessions which he held in it. A French army, 
 under the Prince of Soubise, was sent to the aid of the em- 
 press-queen. Soubise, before he passed the Rhine, made 
 himself master of Cleves, Meurs, Gueldres, Emden, and what- 
 ever belonged to his Prussian majesty in East Friesland. 
 
 Alarmed at the danger which threatened his electoral domi- 
 nions, George II. seemed disposed to enter into the continental 
 war, and even to send over a body of troops for the protection 
 of Hanover. In these views he was thwarted by his new 
 ministers, Pitt and Legge, who considered Hanover as a use- 
 less and expensive appendage to the crown of Great Britain, 
 and all continental connexions as inconsistent with our insular 
 situation. These popular ministers were deprived of their 
 employments for opposing the will of their sovereign in coun- 
 cil ; and the Duke of Cumberland was sent over to command 
 an army of observation for the defence of Hanover. This 
 army, which consisted of 40,000 Hessians and Hanoverians, 
 including a few regiments of Prussians, attempted in vain to 
 obstruct the progress of the Mareschal d'Estrees. The Duke 
 of Cumberland was obliged to retire behind the Weser, and 
 the French passed that river without opposition. His Prussian 
 majesty, advancing towards Prague, gave battle to the Aus- 
 trians, and broke their centre. After an obstinate and bloody 
 contest, in which the valour and military skill of both armies 
 were fully tried, the main body of the Austrians, to tlie number 
 of 50,000, were driven into Prague. Another desperate battle 
 followed soon after, in which the Prussians returned seven 
 times to the charge, but were finally forced to relinquish the 
 contest. About 20,000 men were left dead in the field. After 
 this battle, the King of Prussia was forced to evacuate Bohemia. 
 Meanwhile, a Russian army advanced towards the Pregel, 
 passed that river, repulsed the Prussians, and ravaged the King 
 
XXXV.]] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 205 
 
 of Prussia's dominions on one side of Germany, while the 
 French were stripping him of his possessions on the other, 
 and layincr the electorate of Hanover under contribution ; the 
 Duke of Richelieu, the celebrated conqueror of Minorca, made 
 himself master of Bremen and Verden, and obliged the Duke 
 of Cumberland to take refuge under the cannon of Stade, 
 where, encamped between the Aller and the Elbe, and all 
 communication being cut off, he was under the necessity of 
 signing the singular convention of Closter-seven, by which an 
 army of 38,000 Hanoverians and Hessians, in the pay of 
 his Britannic Majesty, was dissolved and distributed into 
 different quarters, without being disarmed, or considered as 
 prisoners of war. The French were left, till a definitive treaty 
 should be arranged, in possession of the countries they had 
 conquered ; and hostilities were to cease on both sides. The 
 face of affairs was now less gloomy (for England) in the East 
 Indies. Admiral Watson, on his return from taking the fortress 
 of Gheria, was informed of the loss of Calcutta, with all the 
 horrid circumstances attending it, and resolved upon revenge. 
 By a zealous co-operation of the sea and land-forces, the forts 
 of Buzbuzia and Tannah were speedily reduced ; Calcutta was 
 recovered, and the English colours were again hoisted on Fort 
 William : the British commanders next made themselves 
 masters of the large town of Hughley, where the nabob had 
 established his principal magazines. Enraged at so many 
 losses, and dreading more, Surajah Dowlah assembled a large 
 army, and marched towards Calcutta; but he met -with so 
 warm a salute as induced him to sue for peace, and agree to 
 such terms as the English commanders thought proper to 
 dictate. 
 
 Informed of the new war between France and Great Britai^j 
 the English now turned their arms against the French factories 
 in Bengal. They reduced Chandernagore, the principal 
 French setdement in the province, and a place of great strength, 
 situated a litde higher on the river Hughley than Calcutta. 
 Colonel Clive next resolved still further to humble the Nabob 
 of Bengal : finding him slow in fulfilling the treaty, and mak- 
 ing secret preparations for war, he offered him battle ; totally 
 routed his numerous army, which fled in all directions ; 
 Surajah Dowlah was taken, brought back to his capital, and 
 put to death by orders of Meerum, son of Meer Jaffier, who 
 had betrayed him, and who succeeded him in the vice-royalty 
 or subahship of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa. 
 
 In Europe, the King of Prussia gained the batdes of Rosback 
 20 
 
206 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 and Lissa, over the combined army of French and Austrians : 
 and George II., enraged at the violation of the treaty of 
 Closter-seven by the French, invested Prince Ferdinand of 
 Brunswick with the chief command of his electoral forces ; 
 these, reinforced by a body of Prussian horse, pushed the 
 French from post to post, and obliged them to evacuate suc- 
 cessively Otterberg and Bremen. The town and casde of 
 Hoya, on the Weser, were reduced by the hereditary Prince 
 of Brunswick ; and while his uncle Ferdinand recovered 
 Minden on the same river, making prisoners a garrison of 4,000 
 men, an English squadron compelled the French to abandon 
 Embden, capital of East Friesland ; and the wretched remnant 
 of that lately victorious army found the utmost difficulty in 
 repassing the Rhine, without being entirely cut off. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 STATE OF EUROPE FROM 1758 TO 1760. 
 
 1758. — A SECOND treaty of convention was signed at Lon- 
 don between the King of Prussia and his Britannic majesty; 
 by which they engaged to conclude no treaty with the hostile 
 powers, but in concert and by mutual agreement. Germany 
 continued one scene of bloodshed, sieges, marches, and coun- 
 ter-marches ; and the close of the year left the war as unde 
 cided as it was in the beginning. 
 
 In North America, the affairs of Great Britain took a' 
 more favourable turn. Louisburg was taken, and the whole 
 isle of Cape Breton submitted to the English, with that of 
 St. John, and whatever inferior stations the French had 
 established for carrying on the cod-fishery in the gulf of St 
 Lawrence. Fort Frontenac was then conquered, and next 
 the British standard was erected on Fort Du Quesne, to 
 which was given the name of Fort Pitt, in honour of the mi- 
 nister under whom the expedition had been undertaken. In 
 Africa, the English entered the river Senegal, and obliged^ 
 Fort Lewis, which commands the navigation of that river, to 
 surrender, with all the French settlements on it, and the isle 
 of Goree. 
 
 In 1759, the British and Hanoverian army gained the 
 battle of Minden ; which, though not complete, threw the 
 court of Versailles into the utmost confusion. It not only 
 
 
XXXVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 207 
 
 enabled Prince Ferdinand effectually to defend the electorate 
 of Hanover, but to recover Munster and force the French to 
 evacuate great part of Westphalia. The Prussian general, 
 Weden, attacked the Russian army with great vigour, but 
 without effect, at Kay, near ZuUichan in Silesia. The Prus- 
 sians were repulsed with much loss, and the Russians made 
 themselves masters of Frankfort on the Oder. A more despe- 
 rate battle was fought in the month following, when 12,000 Aus- 
 trian horse having joined the Russians, they gave batde to the 
 King of Prussia at Cunnersdorf, opposite to Frankfort. After 
 every effort of bravery and desperate courage, the Prussians, 
 overwhelmed by superior force and numbers, were totally de- 
 feated. Night alone prevented them from being entirely cut off. 
 Thirty thousand men lay dead on the field, and 16,000 of 
 these were Prussians. The day after this battle, the King of 
 Prussia repassed the Oder, and posted himself so advantage- 
 ously, that the Russians did not dare to make any attempt 
 upon Berlin. Before the close of the campaign, the Prus- 
 sian general, Finck, was surrounded by the Austrian army in 
 Bohemia, and forced to surrender at discretion ; himself, with 
 eight other generals and nearly 20,000 men, being made pri- 
 soners of war. This mortifying blow taught the King of 
 Prussia a lesson of moderation ; he put his army into winter- 
 quarters at Freyburg, without attempting any new enterprise ; 
 so that, after the loss of so many thousands of men, the affairs 
 of Germany remained nearly in the same situation as at the 
 opening of the campaign. The country had been desolated, 
 and much blood spilled ; but Dresden, which was retaken by 
 the imperial army, was the only place of importance that had 
 changed masters. 
 
 In America, the English took Guadaloupe, Marigalante, 
 and some other small islands ; they also reduced Niagara, and 
 thus effectually cut off the communication between Canada 
 and Louisiana. The taking of Quebec was the great aim they 
 had next in view. The British troops were landed in the 
 night under the heights of Abraham, in hopes of conquering 
 the rugged ascent before morning. The stream was rapid, the 
 shore shelving, the intended landing-place so narrow, as to be 
 easily missed in the dark ; and the steep so difficult, as hard- 
 ly to be ascended in the day-time, even without opposition. 
 General Wolfe was one of the first who leaped on shore. 
 Colonel Howe, with the Highlanders and light infantry, led 
 the way up the dangerous precipice ; all the troops vied with 
 each other in emulating the gallant example, and the whole 
 
208 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 British army had reached the summit, and was ranged in 
 order by break of day. Montcahn, the French general, could 
 not credit the alarming intelligence, that the invaders had 
 gained the heights of Abraham, which in a manner command 
 Quebec ; but when convinced of the truth, he put his troops 
 in motion for a batde, which could not prudently be avoided. 
 The disposition of the two armies was masterly, and the bat- 
 tle obstinate and bloody. The British fire was supported 
 with such constancy, that the enemy everywhere yielded to 
 it; but just when the fortune of the field began to declare it- 
 self, General Wolfe, who was pressing on at the head of the 
 grenadiers, received a bullet in his breast, and fell in the mo- 
 ment of victory. The brave Montcalm and his second in 
 command were both mortally wounded. About a thousand of 
 the enemy were made prisoners, and as many fell in the battle. 
 The remainder of this army, unable to keep the field, 
 retired first to Point au Tremble, and afterwards to Trois 
 Rivieres and Montreal. The loss of the English did not 
 amount to 500 men, but the death of General Wolfe was a 
 national misfortune. Under all the agonies of approaching 
 dissolution, his sole anxiety seemed for the fortune of the day; 
 and when told that the French army was totally routed and 
 lied on all sides — "Then," said he, "I am happy," — and 
 expired. Montcalm, the French general, was not inferior to 
 his antagonist in military talents ; nor was his death less re- 
 markable. When told that his wound was mortal, and the 
 hour of his death at hand, "I am glad of it," he replied ; " I 
 shall not then live to see the surrender of Quebec." Five 
 days after the victory gained in its neighbourhood, the city of 
 Quebec surrendered to the English. 
 
 In 1760, the Austrians made themselves masters of Berlin, 
 levied a contribution upon the inhabitants, destroyed the ma- 
 gazines, arsenals, and foundations, and pillaged the royal pa- 
 laces. Leipsic, Torgaw, and Wirtemberg, successively surren 
 dered to the imperialists, while a detachment from the French 
 army in Westphalia, laid Halberstadt under contribution. 
 One part of Pomerania was ravaged by the Swedes, and an- 
 other by the Russians; the situation of the King of Prussia 
 seemed very perilous, and he resolved to strike a desperate 
 blow. He rushed into Saxony, met the Austrian army under 
 Marshal Daun, in the neighbourhood of Torgaw ; a battle 
 ensued ; both sides claimed the advantage ; but it seems to 
 have been on the side of the Prussians, who immediately 
 entered Torgaw, and recovered all Saxony, except Dresden. 
 
 Ji 
 
XXXVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 209 
 
 The French, this year, made a spirited attempt to recover 
 Quebec, but they were obliged to retire from before the place ; 
 and the English, uniting their forces from different quarters, 
 besieged and took Montreal, and every other place within the 
 government of Canada. The Cherokces made the most 
 humble submission, as well as the other savage tribes. The 
 town of New Orleans, and a few plantations higher on the 
 Mississippi, alone remained to France, of all her setdements in 
 North America, and these were too distant and feeble to mo- 
 lest the English colonies. This same year, the English 
 besieged and took Pondicherry, the only settlement of any 
 consequence remaining to the French on the Coromandel 
 coast. By the reduction of this place and of the small 
 settlement of Manie, on the coast of Malabar, the French 
 power in the east was utterly subverted ; and the English 
 became in a manner masters of the whole commerce of the 
 vast peninsula of India, from the point of the Carnatic, to the 
 mouths of the Indus and Ganges, besides the almost exclusive 
 dominion of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orixa. This 
 was the state of affairs, when George II. died, in the seven- 
 ty-seventh year of his age, and thirty-fourth of his reign. 
 The attachment of this prince to German politics made the 
 early part of his reign unpopular ; but the spirit with which 
 he resisted the insults offered to his crown, and the brilliant 
 conquests that adorned the latter years of his reign, have 
 endeared his name to the nation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE STATE OF EUROPE, AND PROGRESS OF THE WAR, FROM 
 THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE III. TO THE PEACE OF PARIS, IN 
 
 . 1763. 
 
 1760. — George III., eldest son of the late Prince Frede- 
 rick of Wales, succeeded to the crown of Great Britain, in the 
 twenty-third year of his age ; he was universally allowed to 
 be the arbiter of peace and war, and the most powerful mo- 
 narch in Europe. His first care, after his accession, was to 
 assemble the Parliament, which met in November, and settled 
 the annual sum of ^6800, 000 upon the king, to maintain the 
 civil list.* His majesty soon after married the Princess 
 
 * This sum being found insufficient, £100,000 per annum was added to 
 it in 1776. 
 
 20* 
 
210 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and the ceremony of their 
 coronation was performed with great pomp in Westminster 
 Abbey, on the 22d September, 1761. 
 
 The liberal supplies granted by the British Parliament for 
 supporting the war during the ensuing campaign, amounted 
 nearly to ^620,000,000 sterling. These immense resources 
 astonished all Europe, and made the courts of Vienna and 
 Versailles sensible of the necessity of proposing terms of 
 peace. Negotiations commenced, but failed of any effect, and 
 the cause of failure may be thus explained. The pacific Fer- 
 dinand VI. having breathed his last in 1759, was succeeded 
 on the throne of Spain by his brother, Don Carlos, King of 
 Naples and Sicily. On this event, by an article in the treaty 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle, Don Philip should have ascended the 
 throne of the two Sicilies, and Parma, Placentia, and Guas- 
 talla have reverted to the house of Austria ; saving certain 
 provisions made by the same treaty, in favour of the King of 
 Sardinia. But, as Don Carlos, now Charles III. of Spain, 
 had never acceded to that treaty, he left the crown of the two 
 Sicilies, by will, to his third son, Don Ferdinand, the second 
 being judged unfit for government, and the eldest designed for 
 the Spanish succession. Don Philip acquiesced in this dis- 
 position ; and the court of Vienna, through the mediation of 
 France, permitted him to remain in possession of the duchies 
 of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, without putting in any 
 claim to those territories. The King of Sardinia was quieted 
 with money. Charles III. foresaw that, if the French empire 
 in America were destroyed by the English, that of Spain must 
 also lie at their mercy ; this apprehension, which the 
 court of Versailles endeavoured to increase, brought about 
 the Family Compact between France and Spain, which the 
 former had so long and so ardently desired. The English 
 minister, Mr. Pitt, considered a war with Spain as the un- 
 avoidable consequence of this measure. Being opposed by 
 Lord Grenville and the other members of the council, he 
 resolved to resign the seals.* The Earl of Bute, who had 
 been governor to the young king, was placed at the head of 
 the new ministry, and Lord Egremont received the seals. 
 But it was soon found necessary to adopt the measures of the 
 ex-minister, and, in the beginning of 1762, mutual declarations 
 of war were issued by the courts of London and Madrid, and 
 
 * Mr. Pitt was created Earl of Chatham in 1776, and a pension of 
 £3,000 per annum settled on him for three lives. He died in 1778, and 
 was buried in Westminster Abbey, at the public expense. 
 
XXXVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 211 
 
 the greatest preparations were made by both for commencing 
 hostilities with vigour and effect. Great Britain was now 
 engaged as a principal in a war with the whole house of 
 Bourbon ; and as an ally, she had the declining cause of the 
 King of Prussia to support ag-ainst the house of Austria, the 
 Empress of Russia, the King of Sweden, and the Germanic 
 body. Nor was this all : France suggested to Spain the in- 
 vasion of the neutral kingdom of Portugal, as the most effect- 
 ual mean of distressing England, her ally. The conquest of 
 Portugal, indeed, seemed no distant or doubtful event. Sunk 
 in ignorance and indolence, reposing on the protection of 
 England, and fed and adorned with the rich productions of 
 Brazil, the Portuguese, under a worthless king, and an im- 
 pious ministry, laid aside all attention to their internal defence. 
 
 A declaration of war against Portugal, by the Kings of 
 France and Spain, soon followed; and a Spanish army was 
 ready to enter that country. His Britannic majesty could not 
 view with indifference the danger of his ally; he sent over to 
 Portugal arms, ammunition, provisions, and near 10,000 land 
 forces. By these means the Spaniards, who had passed the 
 mountains and taken several places, found themselves neces- 
 sitated to abandon their conquests and evacuate Portugal 
 before the close of the campaign. 
 
 Meanwhile, a revolution in the state of Russia changed the 
 face of politics in Europe. Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, 
 second daughter of Peter the Great, died in the beginning of 
 the year 1662, and was succeeded by her nephew, the Duke 
 of Holstein, under the name of Peter III. Peter, besides an 
 extravagant admiration of the character of the King of Prussia, 
 was ambitious of recovering from Denmark the duchy of 
 Sleswick, to which he had pretensions as Duke of Holstein. 
 He therefore ordered a cessation of arms, and soon after 
 entered into an alliance with Frederic, without stipulating any 
 thing in favour of his former confederates. He even joined 
 part of his forces to those of his new ally, in order to drive 
 the Austrians out of Silesia ; while he commanded another 
 army to march towards Holstein. Sweden followed the 
 example of Russia, in concluding a peace with the court of 
 Berlin. A body of Russian irregulars made an irruption into 
 Bohemia, and retaliated on the Austrians those cruel ravages 
 which the same barbarous enemy had, in alliance with Austria, 
 before committed on the Prussian dominions. 
 
 In the mean while, the dissatisfied part of the nobility, 
 clergy, and chief officers of the army, taking advantage of the 
 
212 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 dissensions between Peter III. and his consort, Catherine of 
 Anhalt-Zerbst, assembled in the absence of the czar, deposed 
 him formally, and invested Catherine with the imperial 
 ensigns. Peter attempted to escape into Holstein, but was 
 seized and thrown into prison, where he expired a few days 
 after. The odium of his death has generally been cast on his 
 empress ; and by reason of the steps which had preceded it, 
 was an event universally expected. The new empress or- 
 dered back to Russia all her troops in Silesia, Prussia, and 
 Pomerania. Notwithstanding this defection, the King of 
 Prussia made himself master of Schweidnitz, and eventually 
 of all Silesia ; and then turned his eyes towards Saxony and 
 prepared to besiege Dresden. These preparations, and the 
 decisive victory gained by his brother. Prince Henry, near 
 Freyberg, induced the court of Vienna to conclude a cessation 
 of hostilities with Frederic for Saxony and Silesia. The 
 Prussian array then broke into Bohemia, laid the greater part 
 of the town of Egra in ashes, penetrated into the heart of 
 Franconia, and even as far as Swabia, ravaging the country, 
 exacting heavy contributions, and spreading ruin and dismay 
 on every side. 
 
 During these transactions in Germany, the English made 
 themselves masters of Martinique, Granada, St. Lucia, St. 
 Vincent, and every other place belonging to France, though 
 reputed neutral, in the extensive chain of the Carribbee 
 Islands ; but an advantage still more decisive and glorious, 
 was the taking of the famous city of Havana, the principal 
 seaport in the isle of Cuba, the key of the Gulf of Mexico, and 
 the centre of the Spanish trade and navigation in the new 
 world ; while, in the East Indies, the whole range of Philip- 
 pines fell, with the city of Manilla, under their power. But, 
 before the event of this successful expedition in the east was 
 known, preliminaries of a treaty of peace were signed at 
 Fontainebleau, wliich has generally been considered as inade- 
 quate to the advantages obtained by the British arms during 
 the war. By the articles of this treaty, the whole of Canada, 
 with the islands of St. John and Cape Breton, and the greater 
 part of Louisiana, were ceded to Great Britain. France regain- 
 ed possession of Martinico, Guadaloupe, Goree, and Belleisle, 
 as well as of her East India setdements. She agreed, however, 
 not to erect any fortifications in Bengal, and to destroy those 
 of the city of Dunkirk. The Havana was restored to Spain 
 in exchanofe for the Floridas and Minorca, which were ceded 
 
XXXVIIl.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 213 
 
 to England. These preliminaries were approved, and the 
 definitive treaty was signed at Paris, February, 1763. 
 
 About the same time was signed at Hubertsburg, a treaty 
 of peace between the empress-queen and the King of Prus- 
 sia, by which it was provided that a mutual restitution of 
 conquests and an oblivion of injuries should take place, and 
 both parties be put in the same situation as at the commence- 
 ment of hostilities.* 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 PRUSSIA, POLAND, TURKEY, AND RUSSIA, FROM 1763 TO 1772. 
 
 The treaty of Hubertsburg, in 1763, having put an end to 
 what is sometimes called the seven years' war, the King of 
 Prussia returned to his capital, from which he had been absent 
 upwards of six years. The contest in which he had been 
 engaged, was one of the most sanguinary upon record ; and 
 the exertions of Frederic, against enemies so numerous and 
 formidable, had been a subject of universal admiration. But 
 the laurels with wliich his brow was encircled, were a trifling 
 compensation to his subjects for the calamities they had endured, 
 and the blood that had been shed to satiate his thirst for mili- 
 tary glory. The throne of Poland becoming vacant the follow- 
 ing year, (1764,) by the demise of Augustus III., he concurred 
 with the Empress of Russia to procure the election of Stanis- 
 laus Poniatowski, a Polish nobleman of ancient lineage, and 
 high in the favour of Catherine II. This foreign nomination 
 was opposed by a numerous party of dissentient members, 
 who quitted the Diet, and took up arms, but were defeated 
 by the Russians. The Empress Catherine, conceiving her- 
 self entitled to the submission of a monarch of her own crea- 
 tion, soon put forward the most exorbitant pretensions ; and, 
 tracing on a map a line of demarcation, by which a great part 
 of the Polish territory was made over to Russia, insisted on 
 the recognition of her claim. The kingdom, meanwhile, was 
 torn with internal divisions ; the Dissidents, under which 
 name were comprised Greeks, Socinians, and sectaries of 
 every denomination, claiming equal rights with the Catholics, 
 which the prelates and nobles perseveringly refused to con- 
 cede. These troubles were artfully fomented by Catherine, 
 
 * The National Debt at this period amounted to £148,000,000, and the 
 interest of it to nearly £5,000,000. 
 
I 
 
 214; GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 who found in them a pretext for introducing an aimy into 
 Poland. Gradually advancing, the Russian troops at length 
 invested Warsaw, and several of those who had been most 
 active against the Dissidents, being seized and bound, were 
 sent into Siberia. After many tumultuous meetings, the Diet 
 yielded and made the concessions required. Various confe- 
 deracies were now formed by the Poles to support the inde- 
 pendence of their country, and Turkey was induced to lend 
 them her aid by declaring war against Russia, in 1768. Two 
 squadrons of Russian men-of-war sailed round the Straits of 
 Gibraltar, and, entering the Archipelago, carried terror and 
 desolation through the islands and coasts of the Ottoman em- 
 pire. The arrival of the Russians was a signal of revolt to 
 the Greeks, who flew to arms, but were defeated and forced 
 to take refuge in the mountains. The Turkish fleet was at 
 anchor near the island of Scio, when the Russian armament 
 coming up with it, a desperate conflict ensued ; the admiral's 
 vessel, and that of the capitan pacha were closely engaged, 
 when both took fire and were blown up. The remaining 
 Turkish vessels ran into a small bay, where, on the following 
 night, fire-ships being introduced among them, they were all 
 destroyed. The partial diversion caused by this M^ar, ani 
 mated the confederate Poles to new exertion. The kingdom^ 
 desolated by anarchy, laid waste by civil war, and depopa^ 
 lated by the plague, which had spread from the Turkish fron 
 tier through many of the provinces, was reduced to the mosi 
 deplorable condition. Stanislaus, a mere puppet in the hands 
 of Russia, scarcely deemed himself safe within the walls of 
 his capital. On the night of the 3d of September, 1771, 
 party of the confederates entered Warsaw in disguise, stopped 
 the Idng on his way to the palace, whither he was returninj 
 without guards, dragged him forcibly out of his carriage, an 
 conveyed him on horseback out of the city. The night being 
 extremely dark, the conspirators were unable to find theii 
 way ; and, perceiving the difficulty of carrying off the king, 
 repeatedly proposed to kill him, but were prevented by 
 their leader, Kosinski, who was at length left alone with 
 the royal captive, to whom he promised protection an 
 liberty, on the conditions of pardon and reward. After wan^ 
 dering about for some time, they reached a mill, whenc 
 Stanislaus sent a note to the captain of Iiis guards, at Warsaw, 
 who conducted him back with an escort, amidst the rejoicing 
 of the court and people. Of all the conspirators, Kosinski 
 alone escaped punishment. 
 
 en 
 
 i 
 
XXXIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 215 
 
 Poland was now completely surrounded by hostile armies ; 
 and in an interview between the Prussian monarch and the 
 Emperor Joseph II.'- in 1772, a partition of her territory was 
 finally resolved on. Manifestoes were prepared, in which 
 Russia, Austria, and Prussia set forth their several preten- 
 sions ; while the royal conspirators introduced each, on his 
 side, an army to support them. Thus was Poland unjustly 
 dismembered of several large and fertile provinces, comprising 
 above seven thousand square leagues of territory, with five 
 millions of inhabitants, and despoiled of one-half of her annual 
 income. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 SPAIN, FRANCE, AND ENGLAND, FROM 1767, TO THE TREATY 
 OF PEACE IN 1784. 
 
 The Jesuits had been calumniated, despoiled, and expelled 
 from Portugal and France ; but they were still a numerous 
 and powerful body in the foreign and domestic dominions of 
 the crown of Spain. Among the partisans of heresy and infi- 
 delity, who had nothing more at heart than the destruction of 
 an order formidable by its learning, its deep penetration, and 
 its virtues, men were to be found who could unblushingly 
 invent and circulate the most atrocious calumnies.t By 
 forged documents and terrors of insurrection, it was no diffi- 
 cult task to work upon the weak mind of Charles III., and 
 win his consent to the execution of a plan as novel as it was 
 unjust and treacherous. Despatches were forwarded to the 
 governors and civil magistrates in every part of the Spanish 
 dominions, with strict orders to open them only at the hour 
 of sunset, on the 2d of April, 1767. According to the direc- 
 tions therein contained, on a given day and hour, and without 
 the slightest previous intimation, all the Jesuits in Spain, in 
 Africa, in Asia, America, and the isles, were seized ; forced 
 on board transports in readiness for the purpose, and cast on 
 the shores of the ecclesiastical state. The flourishing mis- 
 
 * Joseph, who had been elected King of the Romans, succeeded to the 
 imperial dignity on the demise of his father, in 1765, and the empress- 
 queen made him co-regent in her hereditary dominions. Leopold, her se- 
 cond son, was at the same time, agreeably to the wish of the late emperor, 
 made Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
 
 f One of the maxims of the party was this : Calomniez hardiment ; il 
 en restera toujours quelque chose. 
 
^\0 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 sions in Paraguay and California thus disappeared, and the 
 poor Indians were deprived of those to whom they were 
 indebted for the advantages of civilized life and the blessings 
 of Christianity. In vain did Pope Clement XIII., in an auto- 
 graph letter, inquire into the cause of so unheard-of a proceed- 
 ing ; it was a secret which Charles thought fit, as he said, to 
 seal up in his own royal heart, and though the Pope, by a 
 brief, declared the institute pious and holy in its spirit, its 
 laws and its morality, the king's resolution to condemn those 
 whom he would not, because he could not, accuse, remained 
 immutable : Clement ceased not to protect and console the " 
 proscribed members of the society till his death, in 1769. 
 
 The Jesuits had now disappeared from all the countries 
 where the intriguing ministers, Choiseuil, Pombal, and Aranda 
 could extend their influence ; the young King of Naples, 
 guided by his father Charles III., had published an edict for 
 their perpetual expulsion from his kingdom of the two Sici- 
 lies ; and the Duke of Parma, grandson of Louis XIV., had 
 adopted a similar measure. On the elevation of Cardinal 
 Ganganelli to the pontificate, under the name of Clement 
 XIV., the three crowns redoubled their exertions to obtain 
 from the head of the church the entire suppression of the 
 order. During the reign of his predecessor this would have 
 been a hopeless effort ; but the love of peace, the dread of 
 exciting schism, some say, a previous simoniacal promise, 
 induced the Pope to yield assent to their wishes. In 1773, 
 he published a brief, suppressing the Society of Jesus through- 
 out the Christian world, effacing it from the number of reli- 
 gious orders, and placing its disbanded members in the ranks 
 of secular clergymen. 
 
 The venerable chief of the order, the aged Ricci, was 
 imprisoned in the casde of St. Angelo, and detained there till 
 his death. In his last moments, he made a solemn declara- 
 tion, that among all his subjects, he knew not one who had 
 been guilty of a crime deserving that name, or the treatment 
 they had experienced. The brief of suppression was re- 
 ceived by the bishops, and by all uninfected with Jansenism 
 or infidelity, with grief and consternation ; by those whom it 
 concerned, with edifying submission. The empress-queen, 
 who loved and esteemed the Jesuits, yielded a reluctant 
 acquiescence ; the Kings of Prussia and Poland maintained 
 them, under the habit of seculars, in possession of their 
 houses and colleges ; but no entreaties could induce the high- 
 minded Catherine of Russia to connive at the destruction of 
 
XXXIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 217 
 
 an order she had foimd so eminently serviceable. She even 
 threatened to withdraw her protection from the Catholics in 
 general, ^ the Jesuits were molested in her dominions. 
 Clemen XIV. died the year after the publication of the brief; 
 /o ' .^T ^^'^i'' ^^as elected in his stead, and took the name 
 ot l^nis VI. Irom him the empress obtained an authoriza- 
 tion empowering the Jesuits in Russia to live as formerly ac- 
 cording to tlie institute of St. Ignatius. Thus was one branch 
 upheld by Providence till the restoration of the parent tree 
 
 The year in which Clement XIV. signed the brief of sup- 
 pression, was the last of the Duke de Choiseuil's administra- 
 tion. Supplanted by the intrigues of the reigning favourite 
 and the party of the Dake d'Aiguillon, his successor in the 
 ministry he quitted Paris to live an exile on his estates, 
 ■ leaving the affairs of the kingdom in a deplorable condition 
 Ihe people groaned under the weight of taxes, heavier by far 
 than those of any preceding reign; while the increasino- defi- 
 ciencies of the revenue did not prevent the court from dis- 
 playing the most profuse expenditure. Thus was France 
 situated when Lewis XV. was seized with the small-pox, to 
 which disease he fell a victim in 1774. The title of Bien 
 .flime he had long ceased to deserve, and his memory will be 
 ever tarnished by his unbounded prodigalities, weak conde- 
 scension, and depraved conduct. He was succeeded by his 
 grandson, Lewis XVI., a prince of unblemished morals and 
 excellent disposition, whose accession was hailed with exces- 
 I sive joy by the people, and who began his reign by several 
 I very popular acts. "^ 
 
 I The year 1772 was distinguished by a revolution of a sin- 
 I gular nature in Sweden. A year had elapsed since the acces- 
 j sion of Gustavus III.; he had been crowned, and the Diet was 
 I still sitting when, having secured the adherence of the army, 
 ; and made himself master of the senate and the admiralty he 
 , entered the senate-hall, in his regalia, carrying the silver 
 ; hammer of Gustavus Adolphus in his hand. After many 
 j complaints against the Diet, he ordered a new form of govern- 
 j ment to be read, giving almost absolute power to the crown 
 ; All were required to swear they would observe it, and, in 
 I snch circumstances, it is no wonder that there was not one 
 dissentient voice. The king then rose, took a psalter from 
 .his pocket and entoned Te Deum, in which all the audience 
 joined Ihus an important revolution was effected without 
 bloodshed. Gustavus displayed on this occasion great 
 I -alents, firm resolution, and profound dissimulation. 
 
 21 
 
218 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 The court of Denmark was at this epoch (1772) divided 
 into two parties ; at the head of one was the Queen Caroline 
 Matilda, sister of George III., and Counts Brandt and Stru- 
 ensee ; the other party was headed by the queen-dowager, 
 Avidow of the late King Frederic V. Christian III., now re- 
 duced to a state of mental imbecility, was prevailed upon to 
 order the arrest of his queen and her accomplices, who, he 
 was assured, had resolved on compelling him to abdicate his 
 crown. Struensee from being the most powerful man in 
 Denmark, saw himself chained in a dungeon ; he was tried 
 with Brandt on a charge of high treason, found guilty, and 
 executed. The queen was conveyed to Zell, where she was 
 maintained in affluence by her brother, and died, at the age 
 of twenty-four, in 1775. 
 
 The disputes which had for some years been carried on, 
 between Great Britain and her colonies in America, now be- 
 gan to assume a very serious aspect. The chief subject 
 of contest was the right claimed by Parliament of levying 
 taxes on the colonists ; which they denied, maintaining that] 
 they could not lawfully be taxed without their own consent. 
 In order to raise a revenue from the transatlantic possessions; 
 of Great Britain, Mr. Grenville, when minister, proposed a 
 stamp act, which, though afterwards repealed, was unfortu- 
 nately revived in 1766, and a duty laid upon tea, and various 
 other articles imported into the colonies. A combination was 
 immediately formed in America not to receive any of the com- 
 modities thus taxed ; and three ships arriving at the port of Bos- 
 ton, laden with tea, were boarded by a number of men disguised 
 like Indians, who threw the whole cargo of each into the sea. 
 In consequence of this opposition, an act was passed for shut- 
 ting up that port, and for changing the constitution of Massa- 
 chusetts Bay, and Quebec. The Americans, on their side, 
 agreed to suspend all commercial intercourse with Great 
 Britain, till the obnoxious acts should be repealed ; at the 
 same time they sent over deputies to profess their loyalty, and 
 to supplicate a change of measures in their regard. But their 
 remonstrances were disregarded : coercion in its utmost 
 rigour seemed to be resolved upon, and every attempt at con- 
 ciliation was negatived in Parliament by large majorities. 
 In the same proportion was a spirit of determined resist- 
 ance diffus-ed through the colonies, which became more 
 animated on the receipt of every new act or declaration from 
 England. In April, 1775, the first blood was shed in this 
 unfortunate contest. General Gage had sent a body of 
 
XXXIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 219 
 
 troops to destroy a military depot at Concord : they succeed- 
 ed in their design, but on their return were dreadfully harassed 
 by the Americans, and the loss of life on both sides was consi- 
 derable. All the colonies now began to act in open hostility to 
 the British government, and appointed a congress to manage 
 their affairs. This body of representatives instantly passed 
 resolutions for raising an army and issuing a paper currency, 
 on the security of the United States of America, (a tide now 
 lirst assumed,) and for stopping all importations to those 
 places, which still remained faithful in their allegiance to 
 Great Britain. However, the arrival of Generals Howe, 
 Burgoyne, and Clinton, with reinforcements from England, 
 kept up the spirits of the royalists, and they were victorious 
 at an engagement near Bunker's Hill. In compliance with 
 the general wish, Congress appointed George Washington, 
 a gentleman of fortune in Virginia, commander-in-chief of the 
 American forces ; and his conduct and military skill justified 
 the partiality of his countrymen. The main body of the 
 British army being blockaded in Boston, an invasion of 
 Canada was attempted, but proved unsuccessful ; the Ameri- 
 cans, in their retreat, burned St. John's and abandoned 
 Montreal. 
 
 The spring of 1776 was signalized by the bombardment of 
 the town of Boston, which the British general at length de- 
 termined to evacuate by sea; as the rear embarked, Washing- 
 ton entered the town triumphantly on the other side. All 
 hope of an accommodation being now at an end, the 
 thirteen colonies declared themselves free and independent ; 
 abjured their allegiance to the crown of Great Britain, and 
 renounced all political connection with that country. In 
 1777, Howe gained two victories over Washington, and Phi- 
 ladelphia surrendered to the king's troops ; on the other hand, 
 General Burgoyne was surrounded at Saratoga, and obliged 
 to lay down his arms. Overtures for peace were at this time 
 held out by General Howe and his brother, the admiral ; but 
 concessions, which formerly v/ould have been received with 
 gratitude, were now rejected with contempt. 
 
 1778. — The French, who, from national jealousy, had long 
 viewed the revolted colonies with a favourable eye, now 
 entered into open alliance with them as independent states, 
 and war between France and England became inevitable. On 
 this occasion, as on many otliers, Lewis XVI. suffered his 
 own judgment to be overruled by evil counsellors, for such an 
 alliance was in every respect impolitic. The Marquis de la 
 
220 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 Fayette arrived in America towards the close of the campaign 
 of 1777, and there laid the foundation of that reputation 
 which afterwards proved fatal to his own happiness, as well i 
 as to the real interests of his country. The certainty of a 1 1 
 war with France induced General Clinton, who now held the 
 principal command, to quit Philadelphia, and retire to New 
 York. Pondicherry in the East, and St. Lucia in the West 
 Indies, surrendered to the English, but Dominica, St. Vincent, 
 and Grenada fell into the hands of the French, who assisted 
 the Americans with a fleet commanded by Count d'Estaing. 
 Spain soon united her arms to those of France and America ; 
 took New Orleans and closely invested Gibraltar; while the 
 combined fleets of the two neighbouring powers rode for some 
 time triumphantly in the British channel, but withdrew with- 
 out attempting any thing of importance. The Dutch had long 
 been suspected of assisting the Americans ; and as the States- 
 general declined giving any satisfactory answer to the decla- 
 mations which were made on the subject, war was declared 
 against Holland towards the close of the year 1780. In the I 
 month of June, the same year, the city of London exhibited 
 one of the most disgraceful scenes that religious bigotry ever 
 produced. It arose from the fanaticism of an association of 
 Protestant sectaries, who took offence at some recent relaxa- 
 tion of the penal statutes in favour of the Catholics by the 
 legislature. Several chapels, belonging to persons of that 
 religion, were destroyed ; and on the commitment of some of 
 the rioters, the mob rose in a mass and pulled down the 
 prison of Newgate, liberating the prisoners, who readily join- ,1 
 ed them in the work of destruction. In short, the King's 
 Bench, the Fleet Prison, the houses of Catholics, and of 
 those who were suspected of favouring them, were seen at 
 once in a conflagration. Among others. Sir George Saville 
 and the Earl of Mansfield, whose liberality of sentiment had 
 marked them out to the vengeance of the fanatics, were very 
 great sufferers. During these disgraceful scenes, the ministry 
 seemed appalled, and the magistrates of London, in general, 
 except Mr. Wilkes, shrunk from the exercise of their author- 
 ity. At length, by the king's command, who retained his pre- 
 sence of mind, troops poured into London, and order was 
 restored by military force. Many of the rioters lost their 
 lives by the fire of the soldiers, or by the sentence of the 
 law ; and Lord George Gordon with difficulty escaped, for 
 the weak, rather than wicked part he had taken in this 
 affair. 
 
XXXIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 221 
 
 Some relief had also been conceded by the Irish Parliament 
 to the Catholics of that kingdom in 1778, especially an act 
 which enabled them to take leases for any term of years not 
 exceeding 999. A violent contest had long been maintained 
 respecting the legislative independence of Ireland. An address 
 to his majesty, stating the grievances of the nation and the 
 declaration of right, was powerfully supported by the eloquence 
 and patriotic exertions of Mr. Grattan, and passed unanimously. 
 The measure of conciliation was at length adopted by England, 
 during the administration of Earl Shelburne, afterwards Mar- 
 quis of Lansdowne, in May, 1782, by a repeal of the 6th of 
 George I. The motion was proposed in the House of Com- 
 mons by Mr. Secretary Fox, in a speech of uncommon 
 eloquence and perspicuity, and carried without a dissenting 
 voice. By this act of the British Parliament was the inde- 
 pendence of Ireland in legislating for herself established, to the 
 great joy of the whole nation. The Irish Parliament rewarded 
 the services of Mr. Grattan by voting him £50,000, enacted 
 the Habeas Corpus Act, abolished the Sacramental Test, 
 rendered the judges independent, and established the Bank of 
 Ireland. The iflustrious order of St. Patrick was instituted 
 the following year, of which the king and his heirs were ap- 
 pointed sovereigns. 
 
 In Sept. 1780, the Resolution and Discovery returned from 
 a voyage round the world, but, to the grief of every person 
 who respected worth and talents, without their captains, Cook 
 and Clarke. The former, whose life had been devoted to use- 
 ful and important pursuits, was unfortunately killed by the 
 natives of Owhyhee, an island he had discovered in the South 
 Sea ; the latter died soon after of a decline. 
 
 The M'ar with Holland was vigorously pursued, and St. 
 Eustatia, St. Martin, and St. Bartholomew, the colonies of 
 Demerara and Essequibo, with a great number of trading and 
 some armed vessels, fell into the hands of the British. 
 
 In America, alternate successes and reverses attended the 
 arms of England ; but victory itself was of small advantage to 
 the mother country, while defeats only served to teach the 
 colonists the art of conquering in their turn. On the whole, 
 however, the cause of Great Britain became every day more 
 desperate. Earl Cornwallis, after distinguishing himself on 
 various occasions, was, at length, surrounded by General 
 Washington, assisted by the Marquis de la Fayette, and obliged 
 to surrender Yorktown, as well as himself and all his forces, 
 amounting to 7000 men. (1781.) The untimely fate of Major 
 
 21* 
 
222 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Andre, an able and estimable young officer in the British 
 service, excited universal sympathy. While concerting- mea- 
 sures with General Arnold, who offered to betray West Point, 
 an important post, into the hands of the English, he was taken 
 by the Americans and shot, in pursuance of a sentence passed 
 by a council of ofHcers. He met his death with the fortitude 
 of a soldier, and was honoured with a monument in West- 
 minster Abbey. The cause of American independence was, 
 in the mean time, warmly advocated by Fox and Burke in the 
 House of Commons ; in fact, after tlie surrender of Lord 
 Cornwallis, a change of measures became absolutely necessary ; 
 and as a change of ministry was a requisite preliminary, an 
 entire alteration took place in the cabinet, on the 27th of March, 
 1782, under the auspices of the Marquis of Rockingham, who 
 was appointed first lord of the treasury. In order to confirm 
 the favourable opinion which had attended their coming into 
 power, the new ministry consented that the independence of 
 America should be acknowledged, and entered with ardour 
 into measures for promoting a general pacification. For this 
 purpose, Mr. Grenville was invested with full powers to treat 
 at Paris with the plenipotentiaries of all the belligerent na- 
 tions ; and orders were despatched to the commanders-in-chief 
 in America, to acquaint them with the pacific intentions of the 
 British cabinet, and with their offer of independence to the 
 United States. Peace was now most ardendy desired by all 
 ranks of people in this country ; a signal naval victory, gained 
 over the French fleet under Count de Grasse, by Admiral Rod- 
 ney, in April, rendered essential service to the interests of the 
 country, and facilitated the pending negotiations. 
 
 The Bahama Isles, however, soon after surrendered to 
 Spain, which had previously conquered Minorca; but, to coun- 
 terbalance this loss, the British reaped immortal laurels at 
 Gibraltar, under the brave General Elliott, and converted one 
 of the most formidable attacks which had ever been made, 
 to the destruction of their assailants. 
 
 The Marquis of Rockingham dying, was succeeded in of- 
 fice by Lord Shelburne, under whose auspices the preliminary 
 articles of peace were finally adjusted, (1783,) by which 
 America gained all she had been contending for, and was ac' 
 knowledged an independent nation. 
 
 The address of thanks for peace being lost in the House of 
 Commons, Lord Shelburne resigned, and was succeeded by 
 the former unpopulax minister. Lord North, who had recently 
 formed a coalition with Mr. Fox, though they had hitherto 
 
XL.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 223 
 
 differed so widely in their political sentiments. Peace was 
 proclaimed in July, 1784; and the same year the coalition was 
 dissolved, the ministry again changed, and Mr. Fox made 
 place for his popular rival, the Honourable William Pitt, second 
 son of the celebrated Earl of Chatham, then only twenty-four 
 years of age. 
 
 Though peace was thus restored in the west, the East Indies 
 still continued the scene of warfare. The ambition of Hydef 
 Ally, Sultan of Mysore, who, from a private soldier, had 
 raised himself to the rank of a poAverful prince, obliged the 
 company to take up arms against him. Being defeated by an 
 army from Madras, he withdrew into a mountainous district, 
 whence, by the superiority of his cavalry, he harassed the 
 English and intercepted their supplies. In 1780, he formed 
 a confederacy with the Nizam of the Deccan and other native 
 princes to expel them from India ; and, passing the Ghauts, 
 burst, like a torrent, into the Carnatic. Victory was for some 
 time in his favour; but General Sir Eyre Coote, arriving to 
 take the command, defeated him in three different actions, and 
 effected a great improvement in the affairs of the company. 
 Hyder Ally died in 1782, leaving a kingdom of his own ac- 
 quisition to his son,Tippoo Saib, who became one of the most 
 powerful princes in the east, and an inveterate enemy of the 
 English. 
 
 In 1786, an attempt was made on the king's life, by a wo- 
 man called Margaret Nicholson, who, as he was alighting from 
 his carriage, aimed a blow with a knife at his breast. The 
 stroke was happily avoided, and the woman's insanity appear- 
 ing evident, she was committed to custody as a lunatic. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 i 
 
 GERMANY, PRUSSIA, AND RUSSIA, FROM 1778 TO 1791. 
 
 1778. — The death of Maximilian Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, 
 gave rise to a new contest between the Prussian monarch and 
 the court of Vienna. In him was extinguished the Ludovician 
 line of Bavaria, which had possessed the duchy nearly 500 
 years. He was succeeded, both in the electoral dignity and in 
 his dominions, by Charles Theodore, the Elector Palatine of 
 the Rhine. This prince was in the forty-fourth year of his age ; 
 
I 
 
 le 
 
 224 . GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP.": 
 
 and having no issue, the large possessions of the double elec- 
 torate were held in expectation by the Duke of Deux Fonts, 
 who was the nearest relative on the male side. Scarcely had 
 Charles Theodore arrived in his capital, Munich, before the 
 Austrian troops, who had only waited for an account of the late 
 elector's death, poured on all sides into Bavaria. Unable to 
 contend with an army of 60,000 men, the new elector concluded 
 a treaty with Vienna, by wliich, in order to preserve a part of ^ 
 his possessions in Bavaria, he gave up more than half of them* 
 The Duke of Deux Fonts protested against this arrangement 
 and the King of Frussia undertook to support his rights. Th( 
 Emperor .Joseph, then very young, commanded the Austrian* 
 army; and when Frederic quitted Berlin to oppose him, he 
 sent the following note to one of his ministers : — "You will finr 
 money enough in the treasury for the public supplies. I trust 
 in God that I shall soon return, as I am only going on a short 
 excursion to teach a young gentleman his military exercise." 
 
 The campaign, however, was rather long; but no action of 
 consequence took place; and a treaty of peace was, at length, 
 concluded at Teschen, 1779, by which Austria renounced all 
 pretensions to Bavaria, excepting only the district of Burg- 
 liausen, and agreed to make satisfaction to the Duke of Deux 
 Fonts. 
 
 During the American war, when England, Holland, France, 
 and Spain tinged with blood the seas of the two hemispheres, 
 the pride of Catherine II. was hurt by the English, who paid 
 no respect to the vessels freighted in her ports ; and as she was 
 determined to protect the navigation of the north, she proposed 
 to the courts of Copenhagen and Stockholm to equip each a 
 squadron, which, combined with hers, should defend* the 
 neutrality. Russia had experienced from her conquests on the 
 frontiers of Turkey, a rapid increase of commerce ; her vessels 
 passed the Dardanelles, proceeded to Smyrna and Alexandria, 
 and traded in the ports of Italy. On the shores of the Nieper, 
 Catherine had laid the foundation of the city of Cherson, 
 which already counted within its walls 40,000 inhabitants, and 
 from the yards of which were launched vessels of commerce, 
 and ships of war, destined to strike terror into the Ottoman 
 Empire. Desirous of conquering a country so long the object 
 jf her ambitious projects, the empress resolved to commence 
 operations, by detaching the Crimea from Turkey. Having, 
 jherefore, excited an insurrection there, the Russian troops, 
 ander pretence of assisting the khan, found means to possess 
 themselves of the country. 
 
XL.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 225 
 
 1783. — Intimidated by the immense preparations of Cathe- 
 rine, the Porte concUided a treaty with Russia, by which the 
 empress retained the sovereignty of the Crimea, of the isle of 
 Taman, and a great part of the Kuban, while her right was 
 acknowledged to the dominion of the Euxine and to the pas- 
 sage of the Dardanelles. Thus did she acquire, without the 
 necessity of a batde, an immense territory and 1,500,000 
 subjects. To the Crimea and to the Kuban, she restored 
 their ancient names of Taurida and Caucasus. In the Caspian 
 Sea, Catherine maintained a fleet which cruised along the 
 Persian coasts and burned all the vessels it met in those parts. 
 She revived the commerce with China, and sent thither seve- 
 ral young Russians to learn the language. The spirit of 
 toleration was a striking feature in her government; not satis- 
 fied with having appointed a Catholic bishop, she established 
 at Mohilef a seminary of Jesuits ; and, on the day of the 
 benediction of the waters, her confessor, by her orders, gave 
 an annual grand entertainment to ecclesiastics of every deno- 
 mination, called the dinner of toleration., at which have been 
 seen the clergy of eight different forms of worship. 
 
 After this short view of the increasing power of Russia, 
 we must return to the affairs of Germany. The year 1780 
 was marked by the death of the empress-queen, Maria Teresa, 
 a princess who appears to have inherited all the spirit, firm- 
 ness, and magnanimity of her most renowned ancestors, 
 united with a clear understanding, a happy temper, and a 
 captivating condescension. In the course of her life she expe- 
 rienced many vicissitudes of fortune; but her unfailing cou- 
 rage enabled her to surmount all difficulties, and to elevate the 
 house of Austria to a degree of power which it had not en- 
 joyed since the time of Charles V. Exclusive of her engage- 
 ments against Poland, she was entided to universal respect 
 for the justice of her administration; and in the characters of 
 a wife and parent she is deservedly proposed as a model 
 to posterity.* Her son, Joseph II., succeeded to her exten- 
 sive possessions, but his unfortunate reign presents us with a 
 very different prospect. To this prince's early acquaintance 
 with the infidel King of Prussia, and with the deistical pro- 
 ductions of his literary friends, may be traced the subsequent 
 sacrileges and tyrannical acts which have rendered his reign 
 ever memorable in the annals of the church. The dissolution 
 
 * The Prince of Kaunitz, long the Nestor of the European ministers, 
 enjoyed to the last the confidence of his sovereign, and died at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-four. 
 
226 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 of the Society of Jesus contributed also not a little to overturn 
 the sentiments of religion he had imbibed from his mother. 
 Early impressed with an esteem for the Jesuits, it was ob- 
 served, that when he visited the different provinces of his 
 empire, he gave particular attention to their establishments. 
 In Transylvania, 7000 families were pointed out to him, 
 whom they had recently reconciled to the Catholic church. 
 On his return to Vienna, Joseph made this circumstance 
 the subject of a congratulatory letter to Pope Clement XIV., 
 and received from him in reply, the brief suppressing an 
 order, whose apostolical labours he had so much admired. 
 This was the moment made use of, by the lovers of innova- 
 tion, to confirm his prepossessions against the power of the 
 Holy See and church hierarchy ; and no sooner had the em- 
 press expired, than he began to circumscribe the Pope's 
 authority, and to destroy monastic orders in his dominions. 
 Pius VI., who undertook a journey to Vienna to expostulate 
 with the emperor, could not engage him to put a stop to the 
 innovations by which he afflicted the church. Jansenism 
 triumphed in Germany ; the principles of Luther were taught 
 in the universities, and the lyceums of the Freemasons suc- 
 ceeded the Jesuits' schools for the instruction of youth. But, 
 of all the subjects of the emperor, the Catholics of the Aus- 
 trian Netherlands suffered most from the new edicts. Faith- 
 ful, however, to their religion, tliey repulsed the troops that 
 would have compelled them to conform to the imperial inno- 
 vations ; and, after sustaining many sieges, and gaining several 
 battles, Belgium, in a few months, proclaimed its independ- 
 ence, not like the Jacobins, of the altar and the throne, but of 
 philosophical impiety. Joseph protected the Protestants and 
 Jews in his dominions ; he also granted liberty to the press, 
 as far as regarded the productions of profane literature and 
 modern philosophy, but he established a severe censorship, 
 over Catholic writings. By an edict which does honour to 
 his memory, he abolished the slavery of the peasants in 
 Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia ; and similar measures were 
 soon after taken to meliorate their condition in Austrian 
 Poland. 
 
 In 1786 died Frederic II. of Prussia,* surnamed the Greats 
 at the age of seventy-four: till the day that preceded his death, 
 he retained all those uncommon powers of understanding for 
 which he had been remarkable, and, although afflicted with 
 
 * The night he died, he went to bed in his regimentals, with his hat 
 and boots on. 
 
XL.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 227 
 
 the gout, applied to business with the same indefatigable at- 
 tention. In estimating his character, we must remember that 
 he was heir to a despotic monarchy, trained up from his in- 
 fancy in military and arbitrary ideas, and that his education 
 had been a good deal neglected. But it is probable, that with 
 his taste for literature, and his distinguished talents, he would 
 have made a better king, if he had not early imbibed the 
 pernicious skepticism of Voltaire.* His vanity, which blind- 
 ed him to his own interest, in this particular, was ridiculed 
 even by Voltaire himself; while the protection he afforded the 
 enemies of Christianity, made religion consider him as one of 
 her principal adversaries. He desired to unite in his own 
 person the reputation of a great king, a wise legislator, an 
 illustrious hero, an accomplished general, a fine poet, and an 
 enlightened philosopher. Active, enterprising, indefatigable, 
 and intrepid, he continually alarmed his ne-ighbours ; and 
 their apprehensions were increased by his appearing not to 
 scruple at any means which might efiect his purpose. As a 
 general, his talents were of the first order; and few kings de- 
 voted so much time and attention to promote the happiness of 
 
 * Voltaire, the chief of the antichristian conspirators, was born at Pans, 
 in 1694, and gave early proofs of the fertility of his genius, and the activity 
 of his imagination ; deep researches and solid reasoning will in vain be 
 sought for in his compositions. Inordinate vanity appears to have been his 
 characteristic, and to establish his reputation by the overthrow of the 
 Christian religion, the grand aim of all his numerous writings, in prose and 
 verse. To succeed in his impious undertaking, he soon found that associates 
 would be necessary, and he selected for the purpose Diderot and d'Alembert ; 
 who were, like himself, atheists, deists, and skeptics, by turns. In order to 
 propagate their opinions, these infidels undertook to compile a universal 
 dictionary of the arts and sciences. The Encyclopedia was announced to 
 the public as the masterly performance of the most scientific men in 
 France, and the articles regarding religion were professed to be treated of 
 by men of known learning and orthodoxy. But, under the specious 
 appearance of reverence and respect for religion, the most pernicious doc- 
 trines are inculcated; and the unsuspecting reader imbibes, before he is 
 aware, the spirit of infidelity and materialism in full force. The impious 
 and satirical writings of Voltaire obliged him to abscond, in order to 
 escape imprisonment. He retired to Ferney, near Geneva, where he 
 resided till 1778, when the young Lewis XVI., yielding to the solicitations 
 of his friends, permitted him to return from exile. The infidel sect 
 triumphed, and celebrated the event in the most pompous manner. In the 
 midst of these enthusiastic honours, Voltaire was seized with a mortal dis- 
 temper, which terminated his life, in such transports of rage and despair, 
 that his physician, the celebrated Tronchin, considered his death the most 
 salutary lesson that could be impressed upon those whom his writings had 
 corrupted. 
 
228 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 their subjects, as did Frederic II., during the last twenty- 
 years of his life. In short, he was certainly one of the most 
 distinguished and extraordinary princes of whom the records 
 of history have preserved any memorial. He was succeeded 
 by his nephew, Frederick William 11. , whose reign it was 
 believed would be as glorious as had been that of his prede- 
 cessor, and more mild and peaceable ; but these good begin- 
 nings were soon followed by weakness, carelessness, prodi- 
 gality, and vanity. Prussia took an active part in the affairs 
 of Holland, and, resenting the treatment which the Princess 
 of Orange, sister to the King of Prussia, experienced, overran 
 Holland with her armies, and obliged the Dutch to reinstate 
 the stadtholder in the authority of which he had been 
 deprived. 
 
 Catherine II. again calls our attention to the events of her 
 reign. A magnificent procession was this year (1786) to be 
 made to Cherson, where she was to be declared Queen of 
 Taurida and protectress of all the Tartar tribes. It was ex- 
 pected that the adjoining nations would flock from all parts 
 to do homage to the new sovereign of the east, who would 
 thus be enabled to conduct her grandson, Constantine, to the 
 gates of Constantinople, to the sovereignty of which she had 
 destined him since his birth. The prince, however, sickening 
 of the measles, was obliged to be left behind, and the empress 
 took only a kind of formal possession of Cherson and the 
 Crimea. Her ambition had excited the jealousy and fears of 
 the Turkish empire ; the insults and injuries of which the 
 Porte complained were neither few nor imaginary, and war 
 was accordingly declared against Russia in 1787. A formi- 
 dable Turkish army advanced to the shores of the Danube, 
 and the standard of Mohammed was prepared to be unfurled. 
 Catherine, who impatiently expected the declaration of war, 
 was ready with her fleets and armies, and Joseph II. sent 
 30,000 Austrians to her assistance. Surrounding nations be- 
 held with jealousy the intentions of the empress, who threat- 
 ened to destroy the equilibrium of Europe ; and the King of 
 Sweden declared war against Russia and laid siege to Frede- 
 ricksham. But Gustavus III., who hoped to carry terror to 
 the gates of Petersburg, had the mortification to discover that 
 no confidence could be placed in his soldiers, and was finally 
 obliged, by the superior force of Russia, to evacuate Finland. 
 Having restored discipline in his army, he did not cease to 
 annoy the enemy ; and he gained a victory over the Prince 
 of Nassau, who had, with superior numbers, given battle to 
 
XL.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 229 
 
 tlie Swedes. In this engagement the Russians lost half their 
 fleet and more than 10,000 men. This defeat accelerated a 
 peace, and Gustavus, sensible of his imprudence, accepted the 
 proposals of the empress. In the mean time the Russian 
 forces, estimated at 150,000 men, under the command of Po- 
 temkin and Count Romanzof, assisted by Suwarrow and other 
 officers, took Oczakov, by an assault that cost the Russians 
 12,000 men, while 25,000 Turks perished in the town. Su- 
 warrow routed the Turkish army with a horrible carnage near 
 the river Rimnik, and having captured Tutukay, in Bulgaria, 
 wrote to the empress four lines of Russian poetry, which sig- 
 nified, "Glory to God ! Praise to Catherine ! Tutukay is 
 taken ! Suwarrow is in it !" Town after town submitted to 
 the conquerors. Ismail, however, still held out ; Potemkin, 
 therefore, sent orders to Suwarrow to take that city within 
 three days. Accordingly the assault was commenced. Fif- 
 teen thousand Russians purchased with their lives the bloody 
 laurels of their general, who wrote to the empress with his 
 usual brevity, "The haughty Ismail is at your feet!" 
 Elated with the news of these successive victories, Catherine 
 thus accosted Sir Charles Whitworth, the British ambassador, 
 when he next appeared at court. "I hope," said she, with 
 an ironical smile, " that since the king, your master, is deter- 
 mined to drive me out of Petersburg, he will allow me to re- 
 tire to Constantinople." The war, during this period, was 
 extremely unsuccessful on the side of Austria : and, in addi- 
 tion to the vexations resulting from his ill success, the empe- 
 ror had the mortification to witness the rapid destruction of 
 his army by a dreadful mortality. Prince Lichtenstein being 
 obliged by illness to resign the command of the army in 
 Croatia, Marshal Laudohn was persuaded to succeed him, 
 and the great name of that veteran officer seemed to reanimate 
 the troops with vigour and confidence. Under his auspices, 
 fortune began to smile on the Austrian arms, which had been 
 long attended with such ill success, and Belgrade was taken. 
 (1789.) Torrents of blood were shed on both sides, but Jo- 
 seph determined to prosecute the war till his tarnished glory 
 should be restored to its former lustre. The campaign of 
 1789 was successful ; but a spirit of discontent prevailed in 
 the Austrian dominions. The war raged in Transylvania, 
 and the Hungarians sent a haughty memorial to Vienna, de- 
 manding the restoration of their privileges and their crown, 
 &;c., on which condition they promised to defend the king- 
 I dom : the emperor, worn out with bodily disease, complied 
 t 22 
 
230 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 with most of their demands, and promised to visit Presburg in 
 order to be crowned, if he should be alive the following May. 
 Death, however, defeated his intention. He died penitent of 
 the trouble and scandals he had created in the church, and 
 ordered the same to be signified to Pius VI. On the accession 
 of his brother Leopold, a separate peace was concluded with 
 the Porte by Austria. The preliminaries of peace between 
 Turkey and Russia were signed in 1791, and thus a war was 
 terminated, which had cost the latter 200,000 men, and the 
 Turks 330,000. Brussels surrendered to the imperial arms- 
 the same year ; and Leopold put an end to the troubles which 
 had agitated the Low Countries, since the innovations in reli 
 gion set on foot by his predecessor, by granting a general am 
 nesty, and promising to respect the privileges of the Belgians- 
 
 CHAPTER XLL 
 
 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 
 
 The ministers to whom Lewis XVL gave his confidence, 
 after the dismissal of the Duke d'Aiguillon, were persons of 
 limited abilities ; and the difficulties in which the nation was 
 involved assumed daily a more alarming aspect. The disor- 
 dered state of the finances has already been alluded to ; and 
 although some attempts had been made to introduce economy 
 into the administration of affairs, they had been injudiciously 
 applied, and had tended to divest the regal dignity of its 
 splendour, without producing any adequate result, or prevent- 
 ing the deficit* from accumulating to a frightful extent. The 
 plans of the banker Necker, who had been intrusted with the 
 administration of the finances, being considered extravagant 
 and chimerical, he was dismissed ; and his successor, M. de 
 Calonne, suggested the expedient of calling together an 
 Assembly of Notables, or persons of note from various parts 
 of the kingdom, selected chiefly from among the higher orders, 
 and nominated by the court. Before this assembly, which 
 
 * The deficit is the amount by which the revenue of the state fell short 
 of the expenditure. In the assembly of Notables, it was stated at 50,000,000 
 of livres ; under the administration of Necker it exceeded four times that 
 sum. Necker was a foreigner and a Protestant, and as such excluded by 
 the laws of the kingdom from the ministry to which he had the hardihood 
 to aepire. 
 
XLl.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 231 
 
 met at Versailles, and was opened by the king with great 
 solemnity, in February, 1787, the minister brought forward his 
 plan. He proposed, by a general land-tax, to equalize the 
 public burdens, of which the whole weight had hitherto fallen 
 on the industrious classes; the clergy, nobles, and magis- 
 trates being exempt. Notwithstanding the equity of this 
 measure, it was rejected ; and so great was the clamour raised 
 by the privileged classes and the Parliaments against the 
 minister, that he resigned and withdrew into England ; the 
 Assembly was dissolved, and separated without effecting anv 
 thing of importance. The Archbishop of Toulouse succeeded 
 M. de Calonne, and, in his turn, devised some expedients to 
 meet the exigencies of the state ; among which was a loan, 
 which the Parliament declared illegal, and perseveringly 
 refused to enregister. This body, so long noted for its spirit 
 of resistance to the will of the sovereign, was now influenced 
 by a faction devoted to the Duke of Orleans, whose determined 
 hostility to the king was notorious, and founded, it is asserted, 
 on that monarch's refusal to appoint him to the office of Lord 
 High Admiral of France. He now openly avowed himself 
 the head of the discontented party, and admitted the counsel- 
 lors of the Parliament to hold in his palace nocturnal meetings, 
 in which their projects of opposition were discussed and 
 arranged. The king, being informed of these proceedings, 
 sent an order to the duke to withdraw to his country-seat, 
 banished the refractory Parliament to Troyes, and issued 
 lettres de cachet for the arrest of two of the members. The 
 queen was suspected of being the adviser of these measures : 
 the dissatisfaction they excited was so marked, that they were 
 shortly after revoked, and the duke, at the solicitation of his 
 virtuous duchess, allowed to return to Paris. 
 
 At this juncture, France was a prey to famine ; the incle- 
 mency of the weather had, in some measure, destroyed the 
 promise of the last harvest, and an edict, permitting the free 
 circulation of corn, had enabled a few monopolists to possess 
 themselves of what remained. At the head of these mis- 
 creants was the Duke of Orleans, who thus became the arbiter 
 of the life and death of the multitude. The granaries which 
 his immense resources had enabled him to fill, were opened or 
 shut according to his pleasure or policy; while the gold 
 which his emissaries scattered among the populace with pro- 
 fusion, gained him a vast number of partisans, by whose 
 means he sought to transfer to his own head the crown worn 
 by the elder branch of his family. Writers in his pay worked 
 
233 "^ GENERAL HISTORY OF EtlROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 up the soil, which vice and incredulity had prepared, and 
 sowed there the seeds of rebellion and apostasy. The mani- 
 festations of public discontent growing day by day more fre- 
 quent and violent, it appeared necessary to convoke the 
 states-general of the kingdom, to prevent a civil war. They 
 accordingly assembled at Versailles, on the 5th of May, 
 1789. The speech of the king to the deputies, expressive of 
 his wish to make every sacrifice to the public good, was 
 received with great applause. In it, he declared himself (he 
 first friend of his people, and thanked the clergy and nobility 
 for having renounced their pecuniary privileges to clear the 
 public debt. Disputes, hoAvever, soon arose as to the method 
 of voting. The deputies of the people, called of the third 
 estate, being equal in number to the clergy and nobles united, 
 the latter proposed that each of the three should have its sepa- 
 rate hall of meeting, and that the votes should be given by 
 order, which would render the numbers of the third estate 
 less available. This arrangement was warmly opposed by 
 the deputies of the people, who insisted on voting by head, 
 and forming one general assembly, to which they summoned 
 the other two orders to unite themselves. The mandate was 
 obeyed by a few of the nobles and several among the inferior 
 clergy, and a meeting was held, in defiance of the royal au- 
 thority, in the tennis-court of Versailles, on the 17th of 
 June, 1789, by the united members, wlio formed themselves 
 into a National Assembly, and took an oath not to separate till 
 they had given a new constitution to France. The king, 
 being supported by the great majority of the nobles, declared 
 these proceedings null, but was afterwards prevailed on to 
 sanction them, and the union of the three orders took place. 
 
 In the mean while, an army, under the command of the 
 Due de Broglie, advanced into the vicinity of Paris, and 
 Necker, to whom the finances had a second time been intrust- 
 ed, was again suddenly dismissed. Tremendous commotions 
 ensued in the capital : the citizens, being joined by the 
 French guard, took up arms ; and the court found that little 
 reliance could be placed on the troops of the Due de Broglie, 
 who soon became infected with the popular spirit of license 
 and insubordination. Nor was this to be wondered at ; the 
 most inflammatory harangues were echoed from the tribune 
 of the National Assembly, among which, those of the Duke 
 of Orleans, (recently returned from England,) of the Abbe 
 Sieyes, and of Mirabeau, a creature of the Orleans faction, 
 were conspicuous. The latter vehemently demanded that the 
 
XLI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 233 
 
 troops should be withdrawn from the neighbourhood of Paris, 
 and that a decree should be issued, declaring that the minis- 
 ters who had been dismissed merited the confidence of the 
 people. The busts of Neckcr and the Duke of Orleans were 
 carried in triumph through the streets of Paris, the populace 
 loudly demanding the recall of the former ; a concession 
 which the king was constrained to make. At length, the 
 storm which had been so long gathering, burst forth in all its 
 fury. On the 14th of July, 1789, an enraged multitude, 
 aided by some among the military, carried the Bastile by 
 storm, and levelled it with the ground. The governor, M. 
 de Launay, an upright and humane man, fell a victim on this 
 occasion to the popular indignation. He had ordered a flag 
 of truce to be hung out, and, as it was alleged, had taken ad- 
 vantage of the confidence it inspired, to intimidate the assail- 
 ants, by pouring on them a heavy fire of cannon and 
 musketry. Whether this were the result of accident or 
 treachery, it had no other effect than to increase their rage 
 almost to frenzy : the governor was massacred, and his head 
 carried through the streets on a pole. This crime unavenged, 
 was only a prelude to scenes of far greater atrocity. The 
 National Assembly, meanwhile, continued to sit ; and on the 
 20th of August issued a declaration of rights, to serve as a 
 basis to the new constitution, by which the form of govern- 
 ment was declared a limited hereditary monarchy, and the 
 person of the king inviolable : it was promulgated the follow- 
 ing month, and received the royal sanction. But the insti- 
 gators of rebellion were not yet satisfied ; early in October, 
 the royal guards gave, as was customary, a banquet to the 
 newly-arrived regiment from Flanders, and the queen, 
 with the dauphin in her arms, appeared in the assembly. 
 The enthusiasm of these brave men in the cause of their in- 
 sulted sovereigns was manifested by repeated acclamations ; 
 and a sonorous voice having entoned the well known couplet 
 from the opera of Richard Cceiir de Lion, beginning, " O 
 Richard ! O mon roi ! I'univers t'abandonne!" the chorus was . 
 taken up, and sung with all the feeling which existing circum- 
 stances were likely to inspire. This natural and affecting 
 scene was made the subject of the grossest misrepresentation. 
 The plan of a counter-revolution, it was falsely said, had been 
 laid open in a moment of excitement, and the national colours 
 trodden under foot. The French guards, who had been 
 refused the exclusive custody of the royal person, which they 
 had demanded, became discontented and mutinous, and even 
 22* 
 
234 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP, 
 
 the regiment of Flanders, on whose fidelity so much reliance 
 had been placed, soon passed over to the standard of revolt. 
 That the scenes of the 5th and 6th of October were the results 
 of a deep-laid conspiracy, of which the Duke of Orleans was 
 the chief promoter, there can be no doubt : it seems less cer- 
 tain whether Bailly, the Mayor of Paris, and La Fayette, who 
 commanded the National Guard, were privy to it. Paid by 
 the agents of sedition, and worked up to fury by the high 
 price of bread, a troop of demagogues, the dregs of the fau- 
 bourgs, accompanied by women of the lowest class, Avent in 
 crowds to Versailles. The National Guard assembled on 
 the Place de Greve under arms, and imperiously demanded 
 to be led thither also, to call out the king, and conduct him to 
 Paris, where his presence was necessary to restore tranquillity. 
 To this mutinous demand the council of the commune acceded, 
 and signed an order to La Fayette to lead his troops to Ver- 
 sailles. The National Assembly was still sitting, when a 
 horde of ferocious women demanded entrance ; fifteen were 
 admitted, and boldly stated their determination to conduct 
 the king to Paris. Several members of the assembly, who 
 wished to preserve the dignity of the crown, proposed that 
 they should go in a body to protect the king; this project 
 was insolently overruled by Mirabeau. However, the Presi- 
 dent, Mounier, departed at the head of a deputation, to which 
 the heroines of the popular faction joined themselves. La 
 Fayette, on arriving at Versailles, had ranged his troops 
 around the castle, where the greatest tranquillity appeared to 
 prevail. The women had presented their request and depart- 
 ed ; the captains of the Guards had retired to rest, for La 
 Fayette had made himself responsible for the royal safety. 
 Fortunately, the ladies in attendance on the queen were still 
 watching in her antechamber, when, before daybreak, a 
 band of ruffians forced open the doors of the castle and at- 
 tempted to make their way to the royal apartments. The 
 garde-du-corps on duty had scarcely time to exclaim, " Save 
 the queen," when he fell, covered with wounds : his place 
 v/as instantly supplied by another, who met with a similar fate. 
 The ladies meanwhile were not inactive. They roused the 
 queen, who, breathless with terror, quitted her bed, ran along 
 the corridor which led to the king's chamber, and took refuge 
 in his arms. The assassins, having by this time overpowered 
 the guard, forced open the doors of the queen's room, and, 
 rushing to the bed she had just quitted, plunged a dagger into 
 it in several places. They soon, however, ascertained that their 
 
XLI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 235 
 
 design had failed, and were proceeding full of rage to the 
 apartments of the king, when t!ie arrival of the Marquis de la 
 Fayette, with a gallant troop of 300 men, obliged them to with- 
 draw. Their retreat was favoured by the presence of the 
 Duke of Orleans and other conspirators, who had arrived to 
 witness, as they hoped, the success of the plot. At an early 
 hour the royal family appeared on the balcony, and were 
 received by the troops below with repeated shouts of joy. 
 The grenadiers of the French guard, recalling their ancient 
 loyalty, swore to die for their king ; and, embracing the Swiss 
 gardes-du-corps, promised them friendship and fraternity. 
 The courts of the castle were filled with multitudes waiting 
 the moment of departure, which La Fayette entreated the 
 king to hasten. At length the cortege set out, preceded by 
 the mob, carrying on pikes the heads of the slain, and rending 
 the air with appalling shouts of mingled joy and ferocity : 
 the royal family, wearied and depressed, were conducted in a 
 sort of mock triumph to the Tuileries. An inquiry was 
 entered into as to the authors of these outrages ; yet the Duke 
 of Orleans, whose participation was notorious, met with no 
 other chastisement than an order to withdraw into England. 
 Application being made to the queen for her testimony, she 
 replied, with great magnanimity : " I saw all, heard all, and 
 have forgotten all." 
 
 On the 2d of November, the revenues of the church were 
 placed, by a decree of the National Assembly, at the disposal 
 of the nation ; the clergy having in vain offered to relieve the 
 public burdens and pay the debt of the state, by a gratuitous 
 gift of four hundred millions of livres. On the 11th, the geo- 
 graphical distribution of the kingdom was altered, and France 
 was divided into departments, (chiefly borrowing their names 
 from the nearest mountains or rivers,) districts, cantons, and 
 municipalities. 
 
 It was the misfortune of Lewis XVL to be governed by 
 timid counsels, and to sanction, on the plea of necessity, many 
 decrees which his own sound judgment and virtuous feelings 
 would have urged him to reject. The tears and expostulations 
 of the queen were often made use of, to extort from him con- 
 cessions of this nature. Still it was evident, that in signing 
 the acts of the new legislature, his heart did not guide his 
 hand, and a feeling of distrust was excited, which Lewis 
 deemed it prudent to avert. On the 4th of February, 1790, 
 he repaired to the hall of the National Assembly, where a chair 
 was placed for him at the right hand of the President, who did 
 
236 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 not rise at his entrance. Lewis, though a little disconcerted, 
 made a conciliatory speech, expressive of his adhesion to the 
 will of the national representatives, and his desire to defend 
 constitutional liberty. This declaration was a triumph to the 
 Jacobins,* who caused it to be notified to all foreign courts; a 
 solemn Te Deum was sung in thanksgiving, and the city was 
 brilliantly illuminated at night. On the 14th of June, a grand 
 federal meeting was held in the Champ de Mars, where 
 200,000 men were assembled under arms, and Lewis, at the 
 head of the National Representatives, took the civic oath. In 
 the following September, Necker, whose popularity had for. 
 some time been on. the decline, gave in his resignation, and 
 retired to Copet, near Geneva, his native place. Decrees 
 subversive of the altar and of the throne, now followed each 
 other in rapid succession ; cloisters were thrown open and 
 suppressed, marriage was declared to be only a civil act ; the 
 clergy were called upon to swear fidelity to the unfinished and 
 already schismatical constitution, and on their refusal deprived 
 of their benefices, into which others, elected by the different 
 administrations, were immediately intruded. From this time 
 commenced a series of persecutions, which compelled the most 
 estimable members of the French clergy and nobility to seek 
 an asylum in foreign lands. The Comte d' Artois and his family, 
 who were particularly obnoxious to the Orleans faction, had 
 already quitted France ; their example was followed, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1791, by Mesdames Victoire and Adelaide, the king's 
 aunts, who, notwithstanding the difficulties thrown in their way 
 by the Jacobins, reached Rome in safety. The whole king- 
 dom was now on the verge of anarchy; paid emissaries of the 
 dominant faction traversed it in all directions, pillaging the 
 castles of the nobility, and exciting everywhere tumult and 
 sedition. The royal family were held captives in the midst 
 of Paris, by La Fayette and his satellites ; while the regal 
 dignity itself, shorn of its honours, and divested even of the 
 privilege of doing good, became a daily-increasing source of 
 aflfliction and disquiet to the peace-loving and virtuous monarch, 
 who bore the empty title of constitutional king. Though 
 Lewis had rejected the offers of six hundred devoted nobles, 
 who had formed a confederation, to rescue him from thraldom, 
 and were afterwards distinguished as Knights of the Dagger, 
 from having gained access to the Tuileries with arms concealed 
 beneath their clothes, he was induced to listen to the overtures 
 
 * The Jacobins were so called, because they held their meetings in the 
 convent whence the Jacobin friars had been expelled. 
 
XLI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 237 
 
 of the Marquis de Bouille, then military governor of Metz, 
 who recommended that the royal captives should privately quit 
 Paris, promising that different detachments of the troops, under 
 his command, should meet and escort them to the frontiers. 
 Accordingly, on the 20th of June, 1791, the king, with all the 
 members of his family who were still in France, departed 
 privately from the Tuileries, and arrived between twelve and 
 one at the village of St. Menehould, four leagues distant from 
 Varennes. Here the king was recognised by the postmaster, 
 DroLiet, a furious republican, who caused the tocsin to be 
 sounded in the neighbouring villages, and the National Guard 
 to be put under arms. The royal fugitives were arrested and 
 detained at Varennes, while an express was sent off to ascer- 
 tain the intentions of the national representatives. Meanwhile, 
 La Fayette, who had been gained over to connive at the king's 
 evasion, carried the news of it with well-dissembled astonish- 
 ment to the National Assembly, who immediately declared 
 Lewis suspended from his functions, and ordered the govern- 
 ment to be carried on by a council of ministers. A paper was 
 produced, signed by the king on the eve of his departure, in 
 which, annulling all the decrees he had sanctioned while under 
 restraint, he laid open the motives of his evasion, and his in- 
 tention of repairing to Montmedy, there to take such steps as 
 might seem conducive to the happiness of his people. Not- 
 withstanding this pacific declaration, the Jacobins asserted that 
 the king had quitted France only to return at the head of 
 a foreign army, to punish Paris, to dissolve the National 
 Assembly, and re-establish despotism on the ruins of liberty. 
 While these reports were urging the Parisian populace almost 
 to madness, news arrived that the king's flight had been 
 arrested at Varennes, and that the royal fugitives were on their 
 return to the capital. This unfortunate attempt destroyed all 
 confidence between the court and the people, whom it was 
 now easy to persuade that Lewis favoured the hostile designs 
 of the emigrants, a large body of whom were assembled under 
 the orders of the Prince of Conde, and another still more 
 numerous surrounded the children of Henry IV. at Coblentz ; 
 whither the Marquis de Bouille and Monsieur and Madame, 
 who, by taking a different route, reached Brussels in safety, 
 had also repaired. 
 
 In August, 1791, an interview took place at Pilnitz between 
 the emperor and the King of Prussia, which was attended by 
 many of these illustrious exiles, and in which the two sove- 
 
238 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 reigns agreed to take up arms in support of the royal authority 
 in France. | 
 
 The new constitution was completed in September ; and I 
 Lewis, having signified his acceptation of it, was permitted to ^ 
 resume a shadow of authority. The National Assembly was |l 
 replaced on the 1st of October, by the second legislature, con- 
 sisting chiefly of literary men, votaries of the new order of 
 things, both as to religion and politics. Among their earliest 
 measures was a decree, condemning to death all emigrants, 
 without exception, who should not return to France before the 
 first day of the ensuing year ; and to deportation, every priest 
 or bishop who should refuse to swear adhesion to the civil con- 
 stitution of the clergy. Indignation now inspired Lewis with 
 courage and energy ; making use of the privilege granted him 
 by the constitution, he peremptorily refused to sanction this 
 decree. To prove, however, that he did not invoke the aid 
 of a foreign army to avenge his personal wrongs, he consented, 
 at the instigation of his ministers, to declare war against Aus- 
 tria and Sardinia. The Jacobins had, in this measure, a 
 secondary object; that of employing on the frontier those 
 troops of the line who might have proved an obstacle to the 
 change of government they now sought to effect. On the 
 20th of June, 20,000 men, headed by the execrable Santerre, 
 presented themselves at the palace of the Tuileries. They 
 were in the act of forcing the door of the royal apartment, 
 when Lewis ordered it to be opened. The furious assassins 
 instantly rushed in, demanding with vehemence the death of 
 the queen, the expulsion of the priests and aristocrats. The 
 calm intrepidity of the king checked their fury ; several drew 
 back in astonishment, and for some time a profound silence 
 ensued. The tumult then recommenced, and several different 
 attempts were made to stab the king, but the blows were 
 warded off by some faithful attendants. After horrible outrages, 
 which were closed by putting a red bonnet on his majesty's 
 head, and obliging him to drink to the health of the nation, the 
 mayor, Petion, entered the palace, and, addressing the king, 
 told him he had nothing to fear. Lewis took tlie hand of a 
 grenadier, who was standing by, and, placing it on his heart, 
 asked him if he found that it beat quicker than ordinary. 
 
 The brevity of this account will not admit of a detail of the 
 horrid massacres which were perpetrated on the memorable 
 10th of August. The king was obliged to seek refuge with 
 his family in the Legislative Assembly, after his faithful 
 Swiss guards, and all the servants who were in the palace had 
 
XLI.] GExVERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 239 
 
 been cut to pieces. Some of the members observing that the 
 constitution forbade the legislative body all deliberation in 
 presence of the king, the royal family were conducted to a 
 box, ten feet square, situated behind the president's chair, 
 where they remained fourteen hours, during the burning heat 
 of a summer day. On the 13th, they were conveyed as 
 state prisoners to the Temple ; the civil list was suspended, 
 royalty was abolished, and all the statues of tiie kings over- 
 turned. It had been foreseen that the altar and the throne 
 would be overthrown at the same time. In effect, the princi- 
 pal cause of the recent outrages committed against Lewis 
 XVI., was his refusal to sanction the resolutions adopted in 
 the Legislative Assembly respecting the emigrants, and 
 those among the clergy who rejected an oath incompatible 
 with their sacred obligations.* All these were marked out 
 for destruction ; and orders were given to drag as many as 
 could be found to several convents of the city, now converted 
 into prisons ; principally that of the Carmes, the seminary of 
 St. Firmin, and La Force. On the 2d of September, the 
 dreadful butchery commenced. On that and the two follow- 
 ing days, 1085 state prisoners, among whom were 300 priests, 
 the Princess de Lamballe, and many other persons of high 
 rank, were sacrificed in a manner shocking to humanity. 
 Those who had emigrated were received in Italy, England, 
 and other places, with the greatest charity and benevolence. 
 
 We must now return to the situation of Great Britain at 
 the date of 1788 ; which we were induced to defer in order 
 not to interrupt the narrative of the French Revolution. 
 
 England was enjoying peace and recovering from her 
 losses, under the ministry of Mr. Pitt, when the king's illness 
 spread a gloom over the nation. The regency-bill was about 
 to pass, but his majesty's sudden recovery rendered it unne- 
 cessary. The principal measures proposed by Mr. Pitt, 
 after his accession to power, were, first, his East India Bill, 
 in 1784; secondly, his motion, in 1785, for a parliamentary 
 reform, which was negatived by a majority of seventy-two 
 members ; thirdly, his plan for the liquidation of the National 
 Debt, by the establishment of a Sinking Fund, in 1786; and, 
 fourthly, the act on the treatment of negroes, and the amelio- 
 ration of their condition, in May, 1788. In 1791, the penal 
 
 * Talleyrand de Perigord, Bishop of Autun, v^^as the first prelate in 
 France who, by the civic oath, withdrew himself from the jurisdiction and 
 communion of the see of Rome. His example was followed by three 
 bishops only, out of one hundred and thirty-eight. 
 
240 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Statutes were softened down, and several pains, penalties, and 
 disqualifications were done away with. The constitution of 
 Canada was fixed by dividing that province into two govern- 
 ments, and giving a Council and House of Assembly to each. 
 The same year, the Duke of York was married to the Prin- 
 cess Frederica Charlotte, sister to the King of Prussia. 
 
 With equal conduct and good fortune, Earl Cornwallis, 
 who had accepted the office of governor-general of Bengal, 
 carried on the war with Tippoo Saib, in which he had been 
 involved through the intrigues of France. Overcoming all 
 impediments, he formed the siege of Seringapatam, the capital 
 of Mysore, and concluded, on his own terms, a peace with 
 Tippoo, in 1791. In connection with the affairs of India, 
 may be noticed the celebrated trial of Warren Hastings, the 
 late Governor-general of Bengal, who was arraigned at the bar 
 of the House of Lords, on a charge of high crimes and misde- 
 meanours. Burke and Sheridan supported the accusation, 
 with their usual eloquence ; but he defended himself in a 
 speech of great ability, and obtained a verdict of honourable 
 acquittal, after a trial which had lasted for seven years. In 
 addition to a handsome donation conferred upon the accused, 
 the expenses of the suit, amounting to £70,000, were defray- 
 ed by the East India Company. 
 
 In the mean time, the French revolutionists found many 
 admirers in England ; while the discriminating and thinking 
 part of the nation apprehended equal danger from the associa- 
 tions formed in this country, and from the intemperate and 
 ungovernable licentiousness of its natural enemies. A great 
 riot took place at Birmingham, in which the library of the ] 
 philosopher, Dr. Priestley, was consumed. The militia was 
 imbodied, and proper methods taken for securing the internal 
 peace of the kingdom; yet it has been since known, that, far 
 from assisting Lewis to quell the disturbances in France, 
 Mr. Pitt secretly encouraged the disaffected there, by way of 
 reprisal* for the assistance the French had given the Ameri- 
 cans in the late war. Difference of opinion respecting the ) 
 revolution occasioned a disagreement between the principal 
 members of the opposition, Mr. Burke, Mr. Fox, and Mr 
 Sheridan. Mr. Burke severely censured the leaders of affairs 
 in France, and demonstrated, in a celebrated work, that their 
 object was the destruction of the monarchy ; he was answered 
 by his colleagues in office ; and in reply to Mr. Sheridan, 
 Burke declared that from that hour their political connexion 
 * See Memoirs of Abbe Georgel, vol. ii., page 419. 
 
XLI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 241 
 
 was at an end. The publication of his " Reflections," in 
 1791, involved the nation in a war of principles. Ministers 
 were inclined to favour his sentiments, as the numerous sedi- 
 tious writings that had appeared since the French Revolution 
 gave them considerable uneasiness. This year, Mr. Wilber- 
 force again introduced the question of the Slave Trade, and, 
 after a long discussion, the gradual abolition of it was at last 
 resolved upon. 
 
 1792. — The armies of the allied sovereigns were on the 
 point of entering France, when the Emperor Leopold was 
 seized with a pleuritic fever, which brought him to the grave, 
 in the second year of his reign. Francis II. succeeded his 
 father in the Idngdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, and was 
 soon after raised to the imperial throne. The King of Prus- 
 sia induced him to declare war against France, and the Duke 
 of Brunswick soon arrived at Coblentz with the first division 
 of the Prussian army ; but the haughty terms in which his 
 manifesto was conveyed injured the cause of loyalty, as it 
 engaged many young Frenchmen to enlist without bounty in 
 the service of their country. The French princes, who had 
 quitted France, published a declaration in the month of Au- 
 gust. In the mean time, the French twice successfully in- 
 vaded the Austrian Netherlands. On their side, the grand 
 army of the allies entered France, and took possession of 
 Longwi, August the 22d ; about which time the Marquis de 
 la Fayette came over to the allies, with a part of the staff of 
 his army. The French general, Dumouriez, who, with all the 
 other generals, had given in his adhesion to the provisional 
 government, was at this time strongly encamped at Grandpre. 
 where he had the mortification to learn that Verdun had been 
 delivered up to the allies. His out-posts were repeatedly, but 
 unsuccessfully, attacked. The post, Croix-au-bois, wa? 
 however forced; and as his army was reduced to 15,000 
 men, who had to contend against 60,000 Prussians and Aus- 
 trians, together with a body of emigrants, he was forced to 
 retreat. It required all his skill to prevent the complete rout 
 of his troops, who were seized with a panic terror. He now 
 proceeded to occupy the camp of St. Menehould. Towards 
 I the latter end of September, the important fortress of Thion- 
 ' ville was besieged by the allies. It was gallantly defended 
 I by General Wimpfen, who, in a successful sortie, seized on 
 •the magazines and military wagons of the besiegers. Dumou- 
 riez, having been joined by Generals Kellermann and Beur- 
 lonville, the combined army advanced in pursuit of him; 
 
 23 
 
242 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 repeated skirmishes ensued, but nothing- decisive was effected 
 on either side. The allied troops, encamped in the sterile 
 parts of the province of Champagne, suffered so much from 
 famine and disease, that their camp became the scene of deso- 
 lation and death. The Prussian monarch, after having twice 
 sent his adjutant-general with propositions to General Du- 
 mouriez, retreated with his troops. 
 
 The French, under General Custine, having made an 
 irruption into Germany, in a few weeks made themselves 
 masters of Spire, Worms, Mentz, and Frankfort. The Duke 
 of Saxe Teschen, governor-general of the Austrian Nether- 
 lands, having joined the army of General Clairfayt, and the 
 Austrian forces being strongly intrenched on the heights of 
 Jemappe, Dumouriez came to a resolution of attacking them, 
 on the 6th of November, and succeeded in forcing the Aus- 
 trians to retreat, after a very vigorous defence. The conquest 
 of Belgium followed this very important victory. General 
 Clairfayt, who had now assumed the command in chief of the 
 Austrian forces, after having spent nearly two months in 
 retreating, took up his position on the right bank of th 
 Rhine. 
 
 About the middle of September, Lewis and his family were 
 immured in a tower of the Temple, which had been carefully 
 insulated from the rest of the building, by a strong wall and 
 deep ditch. The windows were closed, and no light admit- 
 ted but through a narrow aperture at the top ; eight iron doors 
 forbade access to the stairs which led to the king's apartment. 
 In this prison, he was deprived of pens, ink, and paper, but 
 was allowed to retain his books. Before his captivity, Lewis 
 had sometimes appeared irresolute and weak ; but in his pri- 
 son he was a model of serenity, fortitude, and courage, in the 
 midst of every kind of outrage. 
 
 On the 21st of September, the Legislative Assembly made 
 place for the National Convention; the first on the list of the 
 members who composed it was Robespierre, to whom France 
 was indebted for the formation of the too celebrated Com' 
 mune^ which organized the murders and proscriptions in the 
 capital. Marat, the echo of Robespierre, the ferocious 
 Dan ton, and Egalite, late Duke of Orleans, were among the 
 members, of whom Petion was president. On the 11th of 
 December, the king was cited to the bar of the Convention, 
 and appeared there with the dignity and firmness which suited 
 his rank and innocence. Among the crimes alleged against 
 him, he was accused of having sent money to the enemies of 
 
 1 
 
XLI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 243 
 
 France,* of being the author of the war waged against the 
 French territory, of having conspired against the liberty of the 
 nation, &c. ; to all wliich he replied with equal firmness, pre- 
 cision, and dignity. Counsel was allowed him, and Target 
 having refused his services, the king chose M. de Male- 
 sherbest and M. Tronchet, to whom was afterwards joined 
 M. de Seze. On Christmas-day, Lewis finished his will, and 
 disposed himself for his last hour, with a full persuasion of its 
 near approach. His eloquent defence was read on the follow- 
 ing day by M. de Seze, and he was again reconducted to the 
 Temple, amidst the insulting cries of the populace. The 
 death of Lewis was decided in the. Convention by a majority 
 of five voices ; his appeal to the people was rejected through 
 the persuasion of the Duke of Orleans, and of all his 
 demands, two only were granted ; namely, that he should 
 have a private interview with a priest of his own choice, and 
 another with his family, from whom he had been entirely se- 
 parated since the commencement of his trial. The clergyman 
 he fixed upon to assist him on this melancholy occasion was 
 the Abbe Edge worth, from whose hands he received the sa- 
 craments of the church, on the last fatal morning. Lewis met 
 death with the constancy and piety of a martyr, at a quarter 
 past ten on the 21st January, 1793, in the thirty-eighth year 
 of his age and the nineteenth of his reign. 
 
 * Twelve millions of livres had indeed been sent to Vienna from Ver- 
 sailles, in 1785, on the following occasion. The Emperor Joseph II., find- 
 ing his unreasonable demands as to the opening of the Scheldt and the 
 cession of Maestricht, rejected by the Dutch, declared war against them in 
 1784. A compromise was effected, through the mediation of France, by 
 which Joseph consented to withdraw his claim, if indemnified to the 
 amount of 10,000,000 of florins. As the Dutch were unable to pay more 
 than half that sum, Lewis, who had imprudently promised his concurrence 
 to his brother-in-law, was constrained to make good the remainder. 
 
 f This venerable magistrate had been united with some of the most 
 famous philosophers of the day ; but two or three visits to Lewis in the 
 Temple effected an entire change in his sentiments. At the sight of the 
 patience and the serenity of the prince, no doubt remained in his mind 
 of the force and truth of religion. From that time he gave himself 
 up to the practice of an exemplary piety. (See Abbe Caron, " Vie des 
 Justes," vol. iv. p. 148.) He died by the guillotine during the reign of 
 terror. 
 
244 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 SWEDEN, SPAIN, WITH A CONTINUATION OF THE WAR FROM 
 
 1793 TO 1796. 
 
 1792. — The spirit of insubordination and liberty which had 
 spread into Sweden, proved fatal this year to Gustavus III. 
 He had given cause of discontent to his senate, by engaging in 
 a war against Russia, without the consent of the States : and 
 though he had endeavoured to suppress the dissatisfaction 
 of his nobles, the evil was not eradicated. The king had 
 resolved to put himself at the head of the French emigrants, 
 whose hopes and enthusiasm he had cherished and inflamed, 
 and to attack the dominions of France. To this measure, not 
 only the nobles, but the people were extremely averse. He 
 was assassinated at a masked ball, on the 16th of March, 
 1792, by Ankerstroem, a captain in the guards, who was no 
 sooner apprehended, (having been traced by a pistol that he 
 had dropped near the king,) than he confessed and gloried 
 in the deed. He was sentenced to have his right hand cut 
 off and his body impaled. The king's wound proved mortal, 
 but he lived several days, and displayed in his misfortunes a 
 constant courage and an heroic firmness. Immediately on 
 his death, his son, Gustavus IV., was proclaimed king of 
 Sweden, and his uncle, the Duke of Sudermania, was 
 appointed sole regent, till the prince should have attained the 
 eighteenth year of his age. The mild and equal conduct ofj 
 the regent preserved the country from the horrors of internal; 
 war, and he dedicated his whole attention to repair the losses 
 which it had sustained. At the conclusion of the year 1793,j 
 a conspiracy was discovered and quelled, at the head of* 
 which was Baron Armfeldt and others of the nobility. 
 
 Charles IV. ascended the throne of Spain on the demise of 
 his father, in 1789, and was crowned in September, with the 
 utmost pomp and solemnity. The Spanish government testi- 
 fied great uneasiness at the French Revolution, and carefully 
 guarded against the propagation of the principles of those who 
 attempted to defend it, by prohibiting the circulation of news- 
 papers and French publications. In consequence of a dispute 
 relative to the sovereignty of Nootka Sound, his Catholic 
 Majesty prepared to take up arms against England, in 1790 ; 
 but the naval force of the latter being vastly superior, he 
 
XLII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 245 
 
 altered his intentions, and consented to give the satisfaction 
 demanded by Great Britain. 
 
 The mediation of the Spanish court between Lewis XVI. 
 and his rebellious subjects having been disdainfully rejected, 
 and this refusal being soon after followed by the execution of 
 that unfortunate monarch, Spain declared war against France, in 
 1793; and the first actions which took place between the 
 Spanish and republican forces were decidedly in favour of the 
 former power. In England, Parliament being sitting when 
 news was received of the execution of the King of France, 
 advantage was taken of the melancholy sensations it produced 
 to enforce the necessity of war, (which was, however, strongly 
 opposed,) preparations for which had been made. The re- 
 publicans were beforehand with us, and in 1793 declared 
 hostilities against England : the Stadtholder of the United 
 Provinces and Russia soon after joined in the alliance against 
 France. 
 
 Meantime Dumoiirier, having conquered all the Austrian 
 Netherlands except Luxemburg, was ordered to invade Hol- 
 land, and confided to General Miranda the siege of Maestricht. 
 He himself took Breda and several other places ; but while he 
 was employed in the blockade of Bergen-op-Zoom, the Bri- 
 tish army, commanded by the Duke of York, landed in Hol- 
 land and recovered Williamstadt from the hands of the French. 
 The Prince of Coburg surprised the French army before 
 Maestricht, and obliged Miranda to raise the siege of that 
 place, having defeated the republicans at Aix-la-Chapelle with 
 prodigious slaughter. About this time news was received at 
 Paris of the unfavourable posture of affairs in St. Domingo, 
 and of the surrender of Corsica to the British. The Spaniards 
 had invaded a part of Roussillon, with an ardour and vigilance 
 that were not expected from such a foe ; and in La Vendee 
 an insurrection had been kindled by the royalists. The forces 
 there collected assumed the title of the Catholic army, and 
 rallied in the name of God and the king. It was headed by the 
 nobility, who had not emigrated thence so much as from the . 
 other parts of France. Alarmed at these disasters, Dumou- 
 rier returned into the Netherlands, and compelled the Austrian 
 advanced posts to retire from Tirlemont. On the 27th of 
 March, 1793, a general engagement took place at Neerwin- 
 den, v^here the French were defeated with the loss of 4,000 
 men and several pieces of cannon. They are said to have 
 displayed singular courage and address upon this occasion, 
 but they were overpowered by the superior numbers and more 
 
 23* 
 
246 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 regular discipline of their enemies. Shortly after this event, 
 Dumourier incurred the displeasure of the Convention, and 
 four commissioners were actually empowered to arrest him ; 
 but on his discovering their intentions, he caused them to be 
 immediately conveyed to Clairfayt's quarters at Tournay, as 
 hostages for the safety of the royal family. He then ventured 
 to sound his army respecting the restoration of monarchy in 
 the person of the dauphin ; but the mere proposal excited 
 such general indignation, that he was instantly obliged to flee 
 to the allies for protection, after narrowly escaping a tremen- 
 dous discharge of musketry, which his exasperated troops 
 poured upon him and his faithful attendants. The latter end 
 of June was only distinguished by some petty skirmishes be- 
 tween the two grand armies ; but in the ensuing month, the 
 Austrians gained some advantages of greater importance. The 
 garrison of Conde, after sustaining a blockade of three months, 
 was obliged to capitulate to the Prince of Wirtemberg, and 
 Valenciennes surrendered to the Duke of York, who took 
 possession of it in the name of the emperor. About the same 
 time Mentz was reduced, after a most tedious siege, by the 
 King of Prussia. 
 
 A glorious naval victory was gained by Lord Howe over 
 the French fleet of twenty-seven of the line, off" Brest, in June, 
 1794. 
 
 The Committee of Public Safety continued to desolate 
 France by the most liorrid butcheries and persecutions. Dan- 
 ton withdrew from the Convention, and left all the power in 
 the hands of Robespierre, CoUotD'Herbois, Billaud Varennes, 
 Couthon, and St. Just. Their first act of authority was to 
 apprehend all suspected persons, and to try them by revolu- 
 tionary committees, the powers of which were so unlimited 
 that they could readily seize on the four-fifths of the popula- 
 tion of France.* One of their earliest victims was General 
 Custine, whose murder was followed by that of Marie Antoi- 
 nette of France, the unfortunate widow of Lewis XVLt She' 
 
 * On the 6th of October, (15 Vendemiaire,) the Convention ordered the 
 Gregorian calendar to be suppressed, and substituted in its place a new era 
 and republican calendar, which began from the 22d of September, 1793. 
 The Sundays were struck out, and the months divided into decades. 
 
 •\ The queen's imputed partiality to her native land, whither, it was 
 falsely asserted, she had sent large sums of money, had made her very 
 unpopular in France. The unfortunate affair of the diamond necklace, in 
 which the names of the sovereigns, and of a prince of the church, appeared 
 in connection with that of a vile impostor and her associates, tended to 
 augment the public dislike. The cardinal whose credulity had been so 
 
XLII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 247 
 
 had suffered, during three months, all the horrors of a close 
 captivity in the prison of the Conciergerie, from whence she 
 was led before the revolutionary tribunal. She perished on 
 the 16th of October, 1793, having survived her husband nearly 
 nine months.* The numberless cruelties and massacres per- 
 petrated in many parts of France at this time, exceed all that 
 imagination can picture to itself. The cities of Lyons, Mar- 
 seilles, and Toulon entered into a confederation against the 
 Conventional Government; Marseilles soon submitted, Lyons 
 was closely besieged ; but the people of Toulon entered into 
 a negotiation with the English Admiral Hood, who was then 
 cruising in the Mediterranean, and he took possession of the 
 town and shipping, in the name of Lewis XVIL The city 
 of Lyons surrendered in October, after a long and desperate 
 siege, during which the greatest horrors were committed by 
 the satellites of the Convention. It is impossible to follow 
 Collot D'Herbois in the hellish devices to which he resorted 
 to torture his victims. The guillotine having been employed 
 till the executioner was fatigued, another method was resorted 
 to, and the rest of the destined sufferers were driven by crowds 
 into the Rhone, or shot in the public squares. Soon after the 
 queen had been brought to the scaffold, the Convention en- 
 tered upon the trial of Brissot, who was executed with one- 
 and-twenty others belonging to the Convention. The wretched 
 and intriguing Egalite was soon after brought to the block. 
 He was accused of having aspired to the sovereignty, from 
 the commencement of the Revolution ; though with what 
 truth it is not easy to determine. He was conveyed in a cart 
 to the place of execution, and suffered amidst the insults and 
 reproaches of the populace, whose contemptible idol he had 
 been.t The Committee of Public Safety sent a new army 
 
 basely imposed upon, was sent into exile, as soon as the tribunal had pro- 
 nounced him innocent; this harsh measure, the odium of which fell on 
 the queen, added greatly to the number of her enemies. 
 
 * Through the charitable exertions of some pious ladies, a nonjuring 
 priest found access to her prison, from whose hands she had the happiness 
 to receive the last consolations of religion. The constitutional priost, Gi- 
 rard, who was appointed to accompany the queen to execution, said to her ; 
 " 'Voici, Madame, I'instant de vous armer de courage.' ' De courage I' 
 r6pondit fierement la fille des Cesars, ' il-y-a si long tems que le malheur 
 m'en a fait faire I'apprentissage, que ce n'est pas quand le Ciel va finir 
 
 ^ mes maux que je commencerai a en manquer.' " — Tableau, Synoptique. 
 
 \ ■\ L'Abbe Carron, in his " Vie des Justes," observes, that there are 
 crimes, which, though they will never be pardoned at the tribunal of men, 
 may yet find forgiveness at the tribunal of the God of mercy ; and there- 
 
248 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 into La Vendee, with instructions to deliver up that unfortu- 
 nate, but loyal country, to fire and pillage. Carrier, one of 
 the most atrocious monsters of the Revolution, was sent to 
 Nantes. He there spared neither age nor sex. On pretext 
 of removing his prisoners from one place of confinement to 
 another, he caused them to be bound together, and embarked 
 in boats so contrived, by means of a valve at the bottom, as to 
 become filled with water on reaching the middle of the Loire. 
 A great number of these victims were priests, who had se- 
 cretly remained in the kingdom, in order privately to assist 
 those Christians who still continued firm in their attachment 
 to the faith of their forefathers. These were hunted like wild 
 beasts from the subterraneous dwellings in which they cele- 
 brated the holy mysteries, like the apostolical men of the pri- 
 mitive church; and which they often left at the hazard of their 
 lives, to attend the sick and dying. Those who were taken 
 and not destroyed at Nantes, in the manner already related, 
 were conveyed to Rochefort, to be embarked for Cayenne. 
 Their number amounted to seven hundred and sixty, who 
 were stowed in two frigates ; five hundred and thirty-seven 
 perished during the voyage, which lasted ten months. A law 
 permitting priests to marry, and a law of divorce, were passedj 
 by the Convention; but after having endeavoured to eff"ac€ 
 every religious institution, and after establishing temples de- 
 dicated to reason, the necessity of a belief in God was stilll 
 recognised ; Robespierre then proposed to have a solemn 
 public festival in honour of the Sujjreme Being, to be cele-j 
 brated in the Champ-de-Mars, June the 8th, 1794. The cru- 
 elties of Carrier* drew over many partisans to Charette, the 
 royalist general ; and it has been calculated that the war of Ls 
 Vendee cost the French more men than had been sacrificec 
 in hostilities with the different continental powers. In th( 
 south of France, neither the exertions of the allies, nor the' 
 surrender of the Toulonese, were suflEicient to establish a mo- 
 narchical government. The garrison of Toulon having made • 
 a vigorous sortie, (1793,) in order to destroy some batteries^ 
 which the French were erecting, and succeeded in the attempt, 
 unfortunately pursued the French, till they unexpectedly en- 
 fore cites with satisfaction an authentic and edifying account of the lively 
 repentance, resignation, and desire of atoning to divine justice for his sins, 
 expressed by the Duke of Orleans, in his last moments, to the priest (M. 
 Lothringer) who assisted him on that solemn occasion. 
 
 * Carrier and other accomplices in the affair of Nantes, paid the forfeit 
 of their crimes on the 16th of December, 1794. 
 
XLII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 249 
 
 countered a considerable force. At this moment General 
 O'Hara, who was commander-in-chief at Toulon, came up, 
 and while he was endeavouring to bring off his troops with 
 regularity, received a wound in his arm, and was made pri- 
 soner. Soon after his capture, the town was evacuated by 
 the allies. It was attacked by the republicans on the 19th of 
 December, at five in the morning, and at six the republican 
 flag was flying on one of the strongest posts. The town was 
 then bombarded ; and the allies and part of the inhabitants 
 having set fire to the town and shipping, precipitated their 
 departure, which was attended with the most melancholy con- 
 sequences. Numbers who were left behind, crowded to the 
 shores, demanding the protection they had been promised on 
 the faith of the British crown. Some plunged into the sea, 
 others shot themselves, in order to escape the tortures they 
 might expect from the republicans. During this time, the 
 flames were spreading in all directions ; and the ships that had 
 been set on fire were every moment expected to explode, and 
 blow up all around them. Nothing could equal the horror of 
 the sight, except the still more appalling cries of distraction 
 and agony that filled the ear, for husbands, fathers, and child- 
 ren, left on shore. In vain did these beg their lives on their 
 knees : they were massacred without mercy, or distinction of 
 age or sex. The most moderate calculation makes the num- 
 ber of these sufl'erers amount to 2,000. Many more owed 
 their safety to the generosity of the Spanish Admiral, Lan- 
 garra, who, equipping a considerable number of transports, 
 hastened to their assistance. 
 
 The siege of Toulon was the first occasion on which the 
 celebrated Bonaparte signalized his military abilities. He 
 was then lieutenant of artillery in the conventional forces sent 
 against that town, and in consequence of the intrepidity dis- 
 played by him in the reduction of a fort, Barras, one of the 
 representatives of the people, who was deputed to superintend 
 the siege, procured him the rank of general of the artillery.* 
 
 * Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of Charles Bonaparte and Letitia 
 Ramolyno, was born in Ajaccio, a town of Corsica, August 15th, 1769. 
 His father, whose ancestors were from Italy, was also a native of Corsica. 
 Some years after the conquest of the island by the French, (1769,) he was 
 sent in the deputation to the King of France, and continued, notwithstand- 
 ing his impoverished condition, to live on terms of intimacy with the Go- 
 vernor of Corsica, who placed his second son, Napoleon, at the military 
 academy of Brienne, in Champagne, where he was instructed in the usual 
 branches of education, became versed in history and geography, and at- 
 tained to great proficiency in the mathematics. Thence he removed to the 
 
250 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 In the latter end of March, Danton and several of the princi- 
 pal revolutionists were arrested and executed as conspirators 
 against the republic. The government of France now became 
 almost entirely vested in one man, the usurper Robespierre, 
 a name which will be transmitted with infamy to the latest 
 posterity.* Under his sanguinary administration, the prisons 
 of Paris contained at one time between 7,000 and 8,000 per- 
 sons, some of whom were almost daily led to execution. In 
 one of these barbarous slaughters, the admirable and virtuous 
 Princess Elizabeth, sister to Lewis XVI., was included : she 
 suffered the last of twenty-six persons, whom she aniuiated, 
 by her words and example, to meet death with constancy and 
 resignation. But the fall of the tyrannical demagogue rapidly 
 approached. A strong party was secretly formed against him 
 in the Convention, headed by Tallien, Legendre, and some 
 others. Robespierre and his brother were arrested, and having 
 found means to escape, gained some partisans in order to form 
 a new Convention ; but being deserted by the people and the 
 national guard, they were attacked ; and finding all efforts to 
 resist useless, they endeavoured to turn their arms against 
 themselves. They Avere, however, conducted before the re- 
 volutionary tribunal, and the two Robespierres and nineteen 
 others executed, the 28th of July, 1794. 
 
 In the campaign of this year, the arms of the new republic 
 were successful on every side against the allies. In Flanders, 
 General Jourdan gained the battle of Fleures ; and Charleroi, 
 Ipres, Bruges, and Courtray surrendered to the French. Ostend 
 was evacuated, Mons was taken, and the Prince of Coburg 
 
 military academy at Paris, in 1785, and in his nineteenth year entered asl, 
 a cadet officer in the royal artillery. Bourrienne relates of him at this 
 time the following characteristic anecdote: On the fatal 20th of June, he 
 followed from curiosity the crowds who were hastening to the attack of the: 
 Tuileries, and stood opposite to the palace, when the unfortunate monarch 
 appeared at the window, with the red cap of liberty on his head. Nothing; 
 could exceed Bonaparte's indignation at this sight. " What madness !" 
 said he to Bourrienne, who accompanied him ; " how could they allow these 
 scoundrels to enter 1 they ought to have blown four or five hundred into the' 
 air with cannon, the rest would then have taken to their heels." Shortly 
 after ho withdrew into Corsica, and did not till the following year return to 
 Paris, where he remained unemployed in any thing of consequence, till his 
 services on the important day, called " of the sections," laid the foundation 
 of his future greatness. 
 
 * Robespierre was formerly a singing-boy in the cathedral of Arras, and 
 owed his promotion to a post in the law, to the Bishop of Arras, whom he 
 repaid with the blackest ingratitude. He was related to Damiens, the as- 
 sassin of Lewis XV. 
 
XLII.1 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 251 
 
 obliged to fibandon the whole of the Netherlands, while the 
 victors, without opposition, entered Brussels and Antwerp. 
 Landrecy, Quesnoi, Valenciennes, and Conde were successive- 
 ly retaken ; and the French armies, pursuing their course, took 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, defeated Clairfayt near Juliers, and made 
 themselves masters of Cologne and Bonn. Maestricht and 
 Nimeguen were likewise conquered. The United Provinces 
 began now to be seriously alarmed, and the states of Friesland 
 determined to acknowledge the French republic, to break their 
 alliance with England, and to enter into a treaty of peace with 
 France. In December, the French made a feeble attempt to 
 cross the Waal, and were repulsed with loss ; but the frost 
 soon after setting in with unusual rigour, the river was frozen 
 over ; having crossed it, they attacked the allies, and, according 
 to the report of General Pichegru, " were, as usual, victorious 
 in every quarter." The general attack was made upon Wal- 
 moden's position, between Nimeguen and Arnheim ; and the 
 allies, alike unprepared for resistance or for flight, suffered 
 equally from the elements and from the enemy. It was in 
 vain that the stadtholder issued manifestoes, proclamations, 
 and exhortations to the Dutch peasantry, conjuring them to 
 rise in a mass for the defence of the country. The French 
 continued to advance, and the allies to flee before them, till 
 Utrecht surrendered to them, on the 10th of January, 1795, 
 and Rotterdam and Dort a few days after. The utmost con- 
 sternation now prevailed among the partisans of the stadtholder. 
 The Princess of Orange, with the female and younger part 
 of the family, escaped on the 15th, carrying with them all 
 their plate, jewels, &c. The stadtholder and the hereditary 
 prince embarked at Scheveling on the 19th, in an open boat, 
 and arrived safe at Harwich. In England, the palace of 
 Hampton Court was assigned him for his residence. The 
 very day after, Pichegru entered Amsterdam in triumph, and 
 was received by the inhabitants with the loudest acclamations. 
 The whole of the United Provinces either submitted to, or was 
 reduced by the French in a few weeks ; and shortly after the 
 government was changed and modelled nearly after the French 
 plan. In the mean time, the King of Prussia, finding he could 
 derive no advantage from the war, began to relax his efforts. 
 The Prussian and Austrian forces, which, as well as their 
 leaders, were on bad terms with each other, began to retreat 
 towards the Rhine, which they soon after passed. A negotia- 
 . tion between Prussia and France followed, which ended in a 
 treaty of peace signed at Basle, in April, 1795, by which his 
 
252 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 Prussian majesty entirely abandoned the coalition. The French 
 arms had been equally successful in Spain: after having made 
 themselves masters of the greatest part of the rich provinces 
 of Biscay and Catalonia, the troops were in full march for 
 the capital of the kingdom, when orders were despatched to 
 conclude a treaty with France, which was also signed at Basle, 
 in July, in virtue of which his Catholic majesty ceded all his 
 part of Hispaniola to France, and the Convention restored the 
 recent conquests in Spain. 
 
 About the middle of this year, (1795,) died the son of the 
 unfortunate Lewis XVI. He expired in the prison of the 
 Temple, where he had been confined since the fatal autumn 
 of 1794. Moved, perhaps, by this event, the Committee of 
 Public Safety proposed the exchange of the princess, his sister, 
 (who was likewise a prisoner in the Temple,) for the deputies 
 delivered up to Austria by Dumouriez, and for two ambassa- 
 dors, who had been seized by an Austrian corps. The emperor 
 acceded to the proposal, and the exchange was effected. The 
 convention at length set forth the new constitution, called of 
 the year III., by which the government was confided to a le- 
 gislative body, divided into two elective chambers, and an 
 executive of five persons, to be called the Directory. To 
 insure, at least in part, their own re-election, the members of 
 the Convention declared that two-thirds of the new legislators 
 should be taken from among them. This was violently op- 
 posed by the Parisian sections, and a conflict took place on 
 the 5th of October, 1795, between the citizens and the regular 
 troops, in which more than a thousand lives were sacrificed. 
 General Bonaparte sided with the Convention, and, by his 
 skill in the disposal of the artillery, greatly contributed to the J 
 discomfiture of the sections. On the motion of Barras, he 
 was named second in command of the army of the interior, 
 as a recompense for his services on this occasion. A few days 
 after, the National Convention resigned its authority to the new 
 legislature, and the directors assumed the reins of the execu- 
 tive government. General Barras being one of the five, the 
 chief command devolved upon Bonaparte, who removed to 
 a magnificent hotel and gave sumptuous entertainments, to 
 which ladies of the first rank were often invited. Among 
 these was the amiable Josephine, widow of Vicomte Beau- 
 harnais, vAio, after having twice presided in the National 
 Convention, perished on the revolutionary scaffold. She had 
 come to Paris to sue for the restoration of his property, which 
 had been confiscated, and Bonaparte often met her at the 
 
XLin.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 253 
 
 house of Bjirras. To this lady he was united by a civil 
 ceremony before the Paris municipality, in March, 1796. He 
 only remained in Paris twelve days after the nuptials, being 
 appointed commander-in-chief of the army of Italy. 
 
 In the course of the preceding year, an expedition had been 
 planned by the English ministry to invade the coast of France, 
 in that part where the royalists (known by the name of Chou- 
 ans) were in arms against the republic. The force employed, 
 consisted chiefly of emigrants. They landed in the Bay of 
 Quiberon, and took the fort of the same name : but they were 
 soon defeated, and about 10,000 killed or made prisoners. 
 Many of the emigrants were tried and executed ; and before 
 April, 1796, the force of the insurgents in this part of France 
 was entirely broken, and their chiefs, Charette and Stofflet, 
 taken prisoners, and put to death. In Germany the French 
 army had crossed the Rhine and blockaded Mentz, but unsuc- 
 cessfully; and after suffering a defeat from the Austrians, were 
 obliged to repass the river. A suspension of arms for three 
 months, was soon after agreed to by the generals of the con- 
 tending armies, which was ratified by their respective powers. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIH. 
 
 PRUSSIA, RUSSIA, SWEDEN, AND ENGLAND, FROM 179-3 TO 1798, 
 
 Catherine II. had never forgiven Poland the Diet of 1788, 
 in which the constitution dictated by force in 1775, was abro- 
 gated ; the moment of vengeance had now arrived. Her mi- 
 nister at Warsaw had orders to declare war against the Poles, 
 who received the declaration, not merely with firmness, but 
 with a generous enthusiasm. The Russian minister published 
 a manifesto, making known the intention of the empress, to 
 incorporate with her domains all the territory of Poland which 
 her arms had conquered, and her troops, strengthened by the 
 Prussians, poured into that unfortunate country. Frederic 
 William, at the head of his forces, fought against the patriotic 
 General Kosciusko, whose talents and courage were unavailing 
 against multiplied and increasing numbers. The inhuman 
 Suvvarrow immediately marched to Warsaw, and, after an ob- 
 stinate resistance, captured the suburb of Praga, put all the 
 inhabitants to the sword, and entered the city in triumph. It 
 is computed that not fewer than 20,000 persons perished in 
 
 24 
 
254 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 this massacre. The courts of Petersburg and Berlin divided 
 the remains of this unhappy country, and the courtiers of 
 Catherine shared among them the possessions of the pro- 
 scribed, and wished to annihilate even the name of Poland. 
 The Vistula divided Prussia from Austria, and the Bog sepa- 
 rated Austria from Russia. Warsaw fell under the dominion 
 of the Prussian monarch, and the Niemen marked the limits 
 between the Russian and Prussian territories. Stanislaus 
 Augustus had a pension allowed him, and was sent to live at 
 Grodno; and the friends of the brave and generous Kosciusko 
 were, with their general, conveyed to Pertersburg, and immured 
 in dungeons. They were afterwards liberated on the accession 
 of Paul I., who invited Stanislaus to Petersburg, where he 
 died of an apoplexy, in 1798. From this period (1796) Po- 
 land ceased to exist as a kingdom, till, by the Congress of 
 Vienna, in 1815, it recovered its rank, and the tide of King 
 of Poland was conferred on the Emperor Alexander. Cathe- 
 rine met with a humiliating disappointment this year, (1796,) 
 in the failure of one of her favourite plans, the marriage of 
 her granddaughter, Alexandra Paulina, with the young King 
 of Sweden, contrary to the established law of that kingdom, 
 which ordained that the queen should conform to the Protest- 
 ant Church. Gustavus IV. was at Petersburg; everything 
 was prepared for the ceremony, and only waited his coming, 
 when, discovering that the empress did not intend her daughter 
 to embrace the Lutheran tenets, he broke off the business, and 
 soon after quitted Russia. Catherine sickened at the mortifi- 
 cation, her speech faltered, and she had a slight fit. Thirsting 
 for conquest, and inured to the din of war, she turned her arms 
 against Persia. Her army penetrated into Daghestan and laic 
 siege to Derbent, the keys of which were delivered to the ge- 
 neral by an old man, who had surrendered that city to Peter I., 
 at the commencement of the century. Having concluded also' 
 a new treaty with Austria and Great Britain, the period seemed 
 to her approaching, when she should reign in Constantinople;, i 
 but having risen on the 10th of November, and transacted! 1 
 business with her secretaries, she was found soon after pros-' ^ 
 trate on the floor, without sense or motion, and died, after 
 continuing thirty-seven hours in that state, in the sixty-seventh 
 year of her age. The reign of this extraordinary woman ap- 
 pears to have been, for her subjects, rather brilliant than happy. 
 Within the circle of her influence, her government was mode- 
 rate and benign, but at a distance, terrible and despotic. 
 Justice, order, and law, were sometimes violated under the 
 
 as 
 
 11 
 
XLIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 255 
 
 protection of her favourites, who exercised, with impunity, 
 the most odious tyranny. She aspired to the character of an 
 author, to which her celebrated " Instructions for a Code of 
 Laws," and various other productions, written in the philo- 
 sophical spirit of the eighteenth century, seem to entide her. 
 The generosity of Catiierine, the splendour of her court, her 
 institutions, her monuments, and her victories, were to Russia 
 what the age of Lewis XIV. was to France ; but the French 
 constituted the giory of Lewis, Catherine that of the Russians. 
 No excuses can be offered for her vices as a woman; but as a 
 sovereign J posterity will probably allow her the title of Great, 
 
 1796. — On the death of Catherine, her son, Paul Petrowitz, 
 ascended the throne. The commencement of his reign gave 
 hopes of a happy continuance, but these beginnings were of 
 no long duration, and he spent most of his time in trifles and 
 ridiculous ceremonials. He ordered the corpse of his father 
 to be taken up, and two of the murderers of the unfortunate 
 czar were fixed upon to ofHciate as chief mourners, at the 
 funeral service for him and his empress. 
 
 In order to oppose France, and re-establish the balance of 
 Europe, he concluded a treaty with the King of England. In 
 the spring of 1799, the Russian army, under Suwarrow, ef- 
 fected a junction with the Austrians, in Italy; and the emperor 
 also declared war against Spain and Holland. 
 
 In 1797, died Frederic William II., regretted only by his 
 family and a few friends. He left his finances much deranged, 
 by his profusions and the expenses of the war ; and though 
 he had been the first to form a coalition against France, he 
 was the first to abandon it. He was succeeded by his son, 
 Frederic William HI. 
 
 Among other projects of hostility which the French had 
 meditated against Britain, was the invasion of Ireland ; a pro- 
 ject which the prevailing civil dissensions seemed likely to 
 favour. During the session of 1793, several laws had passed, 
 in the Irish Parliament, favourable to the Catholics, par- 
 ticularly that by which freeholders were admitted to vote at 
 elections. In 1795 they had been led to expect an entire 
 emancipation ; but the bill being brought in by Mr. Grattan, 
 was rejected, and Lord Fitzwilliam recalled to England. As 
 a mark of the national regret, his coach at his departure was 
 drawn by gentlemen dressed in black, from the College Green 
 to the water-side, and the day was observed as one of general 
 mourning. The disaffected party, called the " United Irish- 
 men," had opened a communication with the French Directory, 
 
256 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 and a plan of invasion was concerted. The attempt, though 
 it proved abortive, excited a considerable degree of alarm. 
 The French fleet, which had been blocked up in Brest, took 
 the opportunity of a thick fog, to elude the vigilance of the 
 English admiral, and set sail for Ireland ; but was dispersed 
 by violent storms. A part of it, however, anchored in Bantry 
 Bay ; but the violence of the weather preventing the French 
 from attempting to land, they quitted the coast after a i'ew 
 days ; and the inhabitants, who were a good deal alarmed at 
 the appearance of the armament, evinced the most determined 
 loyalty, and manifested tlie greatest readiness to meet and resist 
 the enemy, wherever he might attempt a descent. 
 
 The Prince of Wales was, in April, 1795, married to his 
 cousin, the Princess Caroline of Brunswick. Parliament, 
 on this occasion, settled on the prince an annual revenue of 
 ^125,000, together with that of the duchy of Cornwall, es- 
 timated at ,£13,000 ; out of this income £73,000 were appro- 
 priated to the payment of the prince's debts. 
 
 In consequence of the reverses which had attended the arms 
 of the allied powers, warm debates took place in the British 
 cabinet, and peace was earnestly recommended by the leaders 
 of the opposition ; but another victory at sea, gained by Lord 
 Bridport, off L' Orient, in 1795, tended to secure the naval 
 superiority of the English. The Cape of Good Hope and 
 Ceylon were also taken by them ; and in the following year, 
 Amboyna, Banda, and Demerara fell into their hands. The 
 Spanish and Dutch were grievous sufferers this year, (1797,) 
 in two great naval engagements, which were both equally glo- 
 rious to the British arms. The first of these memorable ac- 
 tions took place off Cape St. Vincent. It was gained by Sh 
 John Jervis, (afterwards created Earl St. Vincent,) with fifteei 
 sail of the line, over the Spanish fleet of twenty-seven, witl 
 the loss of only three hundred men on the side of the British,' 
 in killed and wounded. The victory gained by Admiral (after- 
 wards Lord) Duncan, over the Dutch fleet, at Camperdown,. ■ 
 was equally complete on the side of the British, but less in-j I 
 glorious to the Dutch. When Admiral Winter's ship struck ^ 
 to the Venerable, he was the only man on the quarter-deck, 
 who was not either killed or wounded. The importance of 
 this victory was not then fully known, but it afterwards ap- 
 peared, that the fleet was designed to assist the French, in their 
 intended invasion of England, for which vast preparations were 
 making in all the ports of France. 
 
 The difficulties under which Great Britain laboured, were 
 
 c- 
 
 i 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 257 
 
 further increased in 1797, by the Bank of England suspend- 
 ing payment. The immense sums it had been called upon 
 to advance in cash, for the foreign subsidies, rendered it una- 
 ble to supply all demands. Mr. Pitt, therefore, obtained an 
 order from the Privy Council, to prohibit the issue of specie 
 from the bank ; and a bill soon after passed both Houses of 
 Parliament, to continue and confirm this restriction for a 
 limited time. Two years later, an income tax was imposed, 
 which was fixed at ten per cent., to begin with incomes 
 exceeding sixty pounds per annum. This same year, (1799,) 
 died the celebrated Edmund Burke, admired in the British 
 senate as an accomplished orator and an enlightened statesman. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 CONTINUATION OF THE WAR FROM 1796, TILL THE PEACE 
 OF AMIENS, 1802. 
 
 In the course of the year 1796, another attempt had been 
 made by the British cabinet, to negotiate a treaty of peace 
 with France ; but, as it proved unsuccessful, vigorous prepa- 
 rations were again made for continuing the war. Never did 
 the energy of the British nation display itself more than on 
 this occasion. The campaign opened in the south by the 
 republican troops, under the command of General Bonaparte, 
 and was the commencement of his career of military glory. 
 When he arrived to take the command of the army, he found 
 it almost destitute of common necessaries, and acting entirely 
 on the defensive, on the rocky bank of the river Genoa. The 
 French army amounted to only 60,000 men, while that of 
 Austria consisted of 80,000 veterans, besides auxiliaries. Bo- 
 naparte harangued his troops, and pointed out their desperate 
 situation, from which nothing but a valorous effort could extri- 
 cate them. Under this impression he led them against the ■ 
 enemy, and on the 11th of April, at the battle of Montenotte, 
 obtained a complete victory over the Austrians, under General 
 Beaulieu, which was followed within five days by two others 
 of equal importance. The Piedmontese, harassed by repeated 
 defeats, withdrew into the vicinity of Turin, and the King of 
 Sardinia was compelled to purchase peace, by the cession of 
 Savoy and part of Piedmont to France. Bonaparte, at the 
 head of his victorious army, now pursued the retreating Aus- 
 
 24* 
 
258 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 trians, and advanced by rapid marches towards Milan. The 
 Duke of Parma, like the King of Sardinia, was compelled to 
 sue for peace, which Bonaparte agreed to, on condition of his 
 paying 750,000 livres in specie, besides supplying the French 
 troops with clothing and provisions, and allowing twenty pic- 
 tures to be chosen out of the gallery of the state, to be sent 
 to Paris. On the 11th of May was fought the memorable 
 battle of Lodi. The French advanced guard attacked and 
 drove in the Austrian outposts, and pursued them full gallop 
 through the town. The Austrian general, Beaulieu, was 
 posted on the other side of the bridge, where, with thirty 
 pieces of cannon, and the whole of his army drawn up in line 
 of battle behind the artillery, he kept up a tremendous fire of 
 round and grape-shot to stop the progress of the French. Bo- 
 naparte, seeing there was not a moment to lose, ordered the 
 grenadiers to force the passage of the bridge with the bayonet. 
 This was instantly executed ; the Austrians gave way, nor 
 could Beaulieu prevent their fleeing from the field and leaving 
 in the hands of the French all their artillery. Bonaparte now 
 pushed forward with his usual rapidity, giving his enemy no 
 time to rest. On the 12th of May, Pizzghitone surrendered 
 to the French ; Cremona yielded without fighting ; Pavia also 
 opened her gates ; and on the 15th, the French entered the 
 city of Milan. Here they found every thing they stood in- 
 need of, and halted a few days to refresh themselves. The 
 castle of Milan, however, still held out for the Emperor of Ger- 
 many; but Bonaparte, desirous to pursue his conquests, marched 
 from that city, leaving troops enough to form the blockade. On 
 his arrival at Lodi, he was informed that Milan and Pavia had 
 revolted three hours after his departure, and that the tocsin or. 
 alarm-bell had been rung throughout Lombardy, to raise the; 
 people against him. He immediately proceeded to Pavia, 
 with three hundred cavalry and a battalion of his grenadiers, 
 broke down the gates of the town, instantly ordered the whole 
 of the municipality to be shot, and carried off two hundred'I 
 of the principal inhabitants as hostages. On the 1st of June,* 
 General Massena's division took Verona, and Bonaparte, on 
 the 3d, established his head-quarters there. Meanwhile, the 
 armistice, which had been concluded on the Rhine, was at 
 length declared to be at an end, and the army of the Sambre 
 and the Maese, under General Jourdan, after gaining consi- 
 derable advantages over the Austrians, advanced into the heart 
 of the empire ; while another army, under General Moreau, 
 passed the Rhine at Strasburg, took the fort of Kehl, and 
 
.tLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 259 
 
 penetrating through Bavaria, nearly to Ratisbon, endeavoured 
 to form a junction with the army of Jourdan. This attempt, 
 however, did not succeed ; both armies experienced a reverse 
 of fortune, and were obliged to retreat till they re-crossed the 
 Rhine. The situation of General Moreau was highly critical, 
 and his retreat is acknowledged, on all sides, to have been 
 conducted with great military skill. The Archduke Charles, 
 who commanded the Austrian army, followed Moreau in his 
 retreat, and laid siege to the fort of Kehl, which he took, 
 after a most obstinate resistance on the part of the French. 
 To restore the affairs of Italy, the emperor assembled a new 
 army, composed of the flower of the German troops serving 
 on the Rhine ; and gave the command of it to General 
 Wurmser, one of the oldest and ablest of the imperial generals. 
 This force, on its first arrival, was successful ; the French 
 were repulsed, defeated, and compelled to raise the siege of 
 Mantua. Bonaparte, however, soon returned to the charge ; 
 and after a series of hotly-contested actions, the army of 
 Wurmser was so reduced and harassed, that he was obliged 
 to shut himself up in Mantua, where he was closely besieged 
 by the victors, who, after gaining the batde of Roverido, and 
 taking possession of Trent, became masters of the passes that 
 led to Vienna. The Austrians, at the same time, made a 
 great effort to rescue the gallant Wurmser and his besieged 
 army; but the battle of Arcole, on the 15th of November, 
 completely defeated their design, and Mantua was at length 
 obliged to surrender, after a siege of six months. The gar- 
 rison, which consisted of the remains of the Austrian army, 
 under General Wurmser, amounted to 15,000 men, who were 
 made prisoners of war. Bonaparte treated the unfortunate 
 general with great respect, and ordered him to be conducted 
 to Germany, with an escort of Austrian cavalry. The victo- 
 ries of Bonaparte compelled the Pope, the King of Naples, 
 and the inferior princes of Italy, to conclude such treaties as 
 the French thought proper to dictate. By the treaty of To- 
 lentino, signed on the 19th of February, 1797, Pius VI. re- 
 nounced all claim to Avignon and the country Venaissin, 
 relinquished the legations of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna, 
 and also surrendered many of the statues and pictures which 
 had acquired so high a celebrity to Rome. 
 
 In the mean time, after the taking of Mantua, Bonaparte 
 penetrated into the Tyrol, and directed his course towards the 
 imperial capital. The Archduke Charles opposed him, but 
 was unable to check his progress. The republican armies 
 
260 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 had at length advanced so near to Vienna, that the utmost 
 alarm and confusion prevailed in tliatcity : the bank suspended 
 its payments, and the emperor was preparing to forsake his 
 capital and remove to Olmutz. In this critical situation of 
 affairs, his imperial majesty opened a negotiation with Bona- 
 parte ; a short armistice was agreed to, and the preliminaries 
 of peace between the emperor and the French were signed at 
 Leoben, in April, 1797, by which the emperor renounced his 
 right to the Austrian Netherlands, and acknowledged the 
 French Republic. Bonaparte had, previously to his quitting 
 Italy, established the Cisalpine Republic, to which he united 
 Modena, Reggio, Massa, and Carrara. Its independence was 
 acknowledged and proclaimed on the 2d of July. A revolu- 
 tion was effected at Genoa, in the month of May, the same 
 year : the people, after taking possession of the arsenal, set 
 up a democratical form of government, under the name of the 
 Ligurian republic. The ancient republic of Venice, about the 
 same time, fell under the dominion of France. A tumult 
 having suddenly taken place, in which a number of the French 
 soldiers were murdered in the hospitals of that city, the French 
 armies, on their return, abolished the ancient ducal govern- 
 ment, planted the tree of liberty in St. Mark's place, esta- 
 blished a municipality, and proposed to annex the city and 
 territory to the new Cisalpine Republic. The definitive treaty 
 between France and the emperor was signed at Campo Formio, 
 on the 17th of October, 1797. By it the emperor ceded to^ 
 France the whole of the Netherlands and all his former terri- 
 tory in Italy. He received, in return, the city of Venice, 
 Istria, Dalmatia, and the Venetian islands in the Adriatic : the 
 French were to possess the other Venetian islands. 
 
 While the negotiation which terminated in this treaty was.' 
 carrying on, the disputes between the majority of the Direc 
 tory and the Legislative Chambers were producing new, 
 scenes of violence in France. The deputies composing the.; 
 council of five hundred, who had acquired this year a consi-^; 
 derable increase in power, censured and opposed several of| 
 the measures pursued by the Directory, and the laws against 
 priests and emigrants were relaxed. But unfortunately the 
 army of Italy took part with the Directory ; and while the 
 conduct of the opposite party was slow and irresolute, Barras 
 resolved on a prompt and violent measure, which effectually 
 decided the contest. Having secured the co-operation of a 
 sufficient body of troops, under the command of Augereau, 
 whom Bonaparte had sent to Paris for that purpose, he caused 
 
 I 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 261 
 
 the acts in favour of nonjuring priests and emigrants to be 
 rescinded ; while fiftj^-four members of the two councils were 
 arrested and condemned to imprisonment or exile. Among 
 the proscribed were included the Director Barthelemy and 
 General Pichegru, who, with many others, were transported 
 to Cayenne, whence they afterwards found means to return 
 to Europe.* 
 
 The power of the Directory being now absolute, (1798,) 
 they projected new schemes of ambition and conquest, in order 
 to give employment to the armies, and afford them an oppor- 
 tunity of enriching themselves by plunder. They found a 
 pretext to invade and conquer Switzerland ; levied heavy con- 
 tributions on the inhabitants ; changed the form, and even the 
 name of the republic into that of the Helvetic Republic, after 
 dismembering from it the bishopric of Basle, which France 
 retained for herself. 
 
 Our attention must now again be directed to the unfortunate 
 situation of Ireland, where, irritated by injustice and oppres- 
 sion, the malcontents resolved to try the fortune of war. A 
 general insurrection was concerted ; the castle of Dublin, the 
 camp in the neighbourhood, and the artillery, were to be 
 simultaneously seized by night, but the plans of the conspira- 
 tors were defeated. Government having received precise in- 
 formation, caused fourteen of the delegates to be seized in 
 Dublin. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who was one of the num- 
 ber, made an obstinate resistance, and shot one of the officers 
 appointed to arrest him ; the wounds he himself received 
 were so severe as to cause his death. No resource now re- 
 maining to the rebels but open force, they assembled to the 
 number of 15,000, and succeeded in taking Enniscorthy and 
 Wexford. Several actions ensued with various success, till 
 at length General Lake, having assembled a large body of 
 forces, attaclced the main body of the insurgents on Vinegar 
 Hill, and after an obstinate contest, totally defeated them, in 
 June, 1798. 
 
 It was fortunate for the British empire that, during this 
 alarming crisis, the French government neglected to pursue 
 the plan laid out for them by Lord Edward Fitzgerald and 
 others of the rebels, and delayed sending any succour to the 
 insurgents till the month of August, when a small force, under 
 
 * That there existed at this time a strong party in the Chambers favour- 
 able to the restoration, is proved by the fact of Louis XVIII. sending, in 
 1824, letters of nobility to all the then surviving members who were 
 arrested on this occasion. 
 
1 
 
 lAP. 1 
 
 262 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 General Humbert, landed at Killala. The general entered the 
 bay under English colours, and at the head of about 300 men 
 advanced, hi the evening, towards the town. Intelligence was 
 immediately sent off to Ballina, and the yeomanry drew up to 
 meet the French advanced guard, but, overpowered by num- 
 bers, were compelled to yield. Leaving Killala in the posses- 
 sion of 200 men, Humbert pushed forward and took possession 
 of Ballina; he was there joined by several hundreds of in- 
 surgents, to whom he distributed arms and uniforms. The 
 king's forces retreated in disorder to Tuam, about forty miles 
 ■ from the scene of action. The Marquis Cornwallis, who had 
 succeeded Lord Camden as viceroy, determined to march in 
 person against the invader. He proceeded on the road to 
 Castlebar, but before he arrived there, he received intelligence 
 that the enemy had abandoned that post, had marched to Fox- 
 ford, and was joined by multitudes of the Irish peasantry. 
 The advanced guard of the French was opposed on the 5th 
 of September by Col. Vereker, who had hastened from Sligo 
 with a small detachment of infantry ; but who, after a smart 
 action of an hour's continuance, was forced to retreat with his 
 little army to Ballyshannon, 'whither he was closely followed 
 by the troops of Col. Crawford and General Lake ; while 
 Lord Cornwallis, with the grand army, marched into the 
 county of Longford, in order to intercept the enemy in his 
 way to Granard. Thus surrounded, Humbert was compelled 
 to surrender ; the rebel auxiliaries, who had accompanied the 
 French into the field, were excluded from quarter ; and about 
 five hundred of them were slain. The town of Killala was 
 recovered by a larger body of troops, under the command of 
 Major-General French. With the conquest and retreat of 
 this French army, ended the rebellion of 1798. No certain 
 estimate can be made of the number of those who lost their 
 lives in this unfortunate contest ; but the accounts received in 
 the war-ofiice make the number of the military who perished 
 in it amount to 19,700 ; and it is believed that the loss of the 
 rebels exceeded 50,000 men. 
 
 The Congress of Radstadt assembled in January, 1798, to 
 settle the disputes between France and the Germanic Empire. 
 While the discussions were spun out to an immoderate length, 
 an event occurred in Italy, which endangered the temporal 
 sovereignty of the See of Rome. Joseph Bonaparte, the 
 French ambassador in the papal capital, had long fomented 
 disturbances among the populace, who, at length, became so 
 mutinous that a small detachment of the papal troops was one 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 263 
 
 day called out to suppress a sedition, and, in a contest which 
 ensued, an individual who had used the most inflammatory- 
 language, and who proved to be the French General Duphot, 
 was slain. On pretence of revenging this insult to the national 
 honour of the republic. General Berthier invaded the Roman 
 territory, which he entered with a formidable army. The 
 Castle of St. Angelo, in which the Pope and the majority of 
 the Cardinals had sought shelter, surrendered on the first 
 summons, and the tree of liberty was planted by the populace 
 in front of the capitol. The Roman republic having been 
 proclaimed. General Berthier made his public entry into the 
 city. On that day, the cardinal ministers resigned the govern- 
 ment of the Roman state, several having previously fled, 
 among whom were the Cardinals Albani and York ; and 
 solemn thanks were ofli'ered in the principal churches on ac- 
 count of this revolution. The Pope submitted to this change 
 in his fortune, with uncommon resignation. When informed, 
 that the people having assumed the sovereignty, his reign was 
 at an end, he appeared solely anxious about his spiritual 
 dignity; and being told that this remained inviolate, together 
 with his person, he expressed himself contented. He was 
 soon after forced to retire to Sienna, as his presence was 
 thought dangerous at Rome, and was received there by the 
 Grand Duke of Tuscany, with all the respect due to his 
 dignity and his misfortunes. But for fear of irritating the 
 French, he was ordered to remain incognito in the environs 
 of that city, and the clergy were forbidden to give any demon- 
 stration of the interest which they took in his altered fortune. 
 The extortions and depredations of the French officers, and 
 the insurrections of the adherents to the Popedom, now ren- 
 dered Rome a scene of wretchedness and desolation. Pius 
 was still dreaded and persecuted by the French ; he was de- 
 serted even by the principal Catholic princes ; and grief 
 brought on a dangerous illness. The suff'erings of a sovereign, 
 dignified by his rank among the princes of Christendom, vene- 
 rable by his great age, and by the patience with which he bore 
 his misfortunes, rendered him an object of respectful attention 
 to Europe. Both Catholics and Protestants united in com- 
 miserating his condition, and in reprobating the unfeeling 
 severity of an unpitying conqueror. 
 
 The Egyptian expedition, having been planned by Bona- 
 parte, with the consent of the French Directory, the armament 
 sailed from Toulon, on the 20th of May, 1798. The first 
 enterprise was an attack upon the Island of Malta, which sur- 
 
264 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 rendered after a feeble opposition ; it was suspected to have 
 been won rather by treachery than by force. However that 
 may be, the standard of the order was taken, and the town 
 given up to the French. To preserve this celebrated order, 
 Avhich had subsisted seven hundred years, and defended many 
 of the European thrones against the Ottomans and pirates, 
 the tide of Grand-master was conferred on Paul L, Emperor 
 of Russia, who became the protector of the order and assumed 
 the decoration of its sovereign. 
 
 Scarcely had Malta capitulated, than Admiral Nelson en- 
 tered the Mediterranean with seventeen ships of the line to 
 pursue the French fleet. It however escaped; and the troops 
 having been landed at Alexandria, took that city by assault, 
 with but a trifling loss on the part of the French. After 
 several actions, in which the Mamelukes and their followers 
 were constandy defeated, the battle of the Pyramids rendered 
 the French masters of the country, and Bonaparte made his 
 entry into Grand Cairo, which opened to him its gates. To 
 attach the inhabitants to his interest, it has been asserted that 
 he professed himself a convert to the doctrines of Mahomet, 
 and with the officers of his stafi', assisted at the religious wor- 
 ship of the Mussulmans. The conquest of Egypt now 
 seemed complete, when the expedition received a terrible 
 blow, in the destruction of the fleet, which lay at anchor oflf 
 Aboukir, and consisted of thirteen ships of the line and four 
 frigates. Admiral Nelson, who was in active pursuit of them, 
 arrived in the road of Abonkir on the 1st of August. Though 
 the French fleet was anchored as near the coast as possible, 
 Nelson, by a bold manoeuvre, brought his ships, with the ex- 
 ception of one, between the enemy's vessels and the land. 
 The action commenced at sun-set, and continued with una- 
 bating fury till nine o'clock, when the Orient, commanded by 
 the French Admiral Bruix, caught fire and blew up. The. 
 combat was not suspended until noon of the succeeding dayJ 
 when the victory was decisive in favour of the British, who| 
 captured nine ships and burned another.* This triumph was* 
 followed by a new confederation against France, on which, 
 and the subsequent operations, it had a marked influence : it 
 also rendered the British masters of the Mediterranean. The 
 intention of the French in their expedition to Egypt, was to 
 open a communication, by which they might co-operate with 
 the enemies of Great Britain in India. About the time, how- 
 ever, that they eff"ected their landing in Egypt, Tippoo Saib 
 * This action is called the Battle of the Nile. 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 265 
 
 lost his life and dominions, in a war of short duration, but 
 higlily advantageous to the English. . The active operations 
 of the army were conducted by General Harris, who besieged 
 and took Seringapatam, the capital of Tippoo's dominions ; 
 which, with the fortress and island, and part of the late sul- 
 tan's territories, was united to the British possessions. His 
 body was found amoug the slain, and interred with suitable 
 honour. 
 
 Bonaparte, in the mean time, retained possession of Egypt, 
 and in order to secure his conquests, advanced into Syria, 
 February 9th, 1799. The expedition commenced with the 
 siege of El-Arych, one of the keys of the Egyptian frontiers ; 
 it was protected by a camp of Mamelukes, who were defeated 
 by General Kleber, and the city surrendered, after a siege of 
 eleven days. The victorious army then advanced towards 
 Jaffa. Gaza submitted to them on their route, but Jaffa was 
 strongly garrisoned, and when summoned to surrender, some 
 of the soldiers struck off the head of the officer who carried 
 the flag of truce, and fixed it on a pole, in sight of the French 
 army. The town was then carried by storm, after a dreadful 
 carnage. Among the prisoners were found many of the inha- 
 i bitants of the mountains and of Nazareth, who had been re- 
 leased after the siege of El-Arych, on condition of returning 
 to their respective homes. These men were, by Bonaparte's 
 order, on the following morning, drawn out to the number of 
 five hundred, on a rising ground near Jaff'a, and fired upon by 
 a division of Fiench infantry.* These successes achieved,, 
 the French army formed the siege of St. John D'Acre ; but 
 after succeeding in dispersing the Mussulmans assembled on 
 Mount Thabor, and spending sixty days before the place, they 
 were obliged to raise the siege by an English squadron, under 
 Sir Sydney Smith, who, acting in concert with the Turks, 
 compelled Bonaparte to retreat, with the remains of his army, 
 into Egypt. From thence he took an opportunity to escape 
 to France, where he became the author of a new revolution in 
 the government. 
 
 The Turks declared war against France, in September, 
 
 • This account of the murder near Jaffa, was given by Napoleon himself,^ 
 to Mr. Warden, Surgeon, on board the Northumberland, during Bona- 
 parte's voyage to St. Helena. Mr. O'Meara, who states the same fact, 
 i makes the number of the?e unfortunate victims, thus wantonly murdered 
 in cold blood, amount to 12,000. The charge of his having poisoned his 
 sick soldiers at Jafla, Bonaparte absolutely denied. Bourrienne asserts it 
 to be true, with some extenuating circumstances. 
 
 25 
 
1 
 
 [lAP.M 
 
 266 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. ["cHAP. 
 
 1798, and the Emperor of Russia, with the same view, made 
 formidable preparations by sea and land. The Neapolitan 
 troops entered the papal territory to attack the French, but 
 were defeated at Civita Castellana by the republican General 
 Championet, who forced them to evacuate Rome, of which 
 they had taken possession. After various successes gained 
 by the Generals Duchesne, Macdonald, Rey, and Lemoine, 
 the French established their head-quarters at Santo Germano, 
 but were soon after repulsed near Capim. The Neapolitans 
 quickly rallied, and made themselves masters of the positions 
 near Teano, while San Germano revolted from the French. 
 At this critical period, Prince Pignatelli was despatched. by 
 General Mack, the viceroy, with powers to conclude an ar- 
 mistice with Champioaet, on any terms, provided Naples 
 remained subject to its king. The offer was accepted; but 
 the conditions, though highly advantageous to France, were 
 disapproved of by the French Directory. The suspension of 
 arms occasioned equal dissatisfaction at Naples : the Lazza- 
 roni took possession of the arsenal and fort, and chose Prince 
 Militerni for their chief. General Mack, in order to save him- 
 self from the fury of the populace, surrendered himself a pri- 
 soner to the French. 
 
 In January, 1799, the Lazzaioni attacked the French army, 
 but were defeated and driven back into the town. Exposedi 
 to any invasion by sea, without fortifications on the side off 
 the land, and abandoned by its sovereign, Naples was defended' 
 for three days by 30,000 Lazzaroni, who performed prodigies 
 of valour, fighting in the streets, amidst the spreading flamesi 
 which consumed the edifices. At last, after torrents of bloo(W 
 had been spilt on both sides, the French colours were hoistectt 
 on the new castle and on fort St. Elme. Championet, for the! 
 humanity he displayed on this occasion, would have been re- 
 warded with a civic crown by ancient Rome, but the Directory 
 of Paris denounced him before a council of war : fortunatelyi i 
 for this general, a change in the government taking place during I 
 his trial, he was not only saved, but the command of the army| I 
 @f the Alps and of that of Italy was conferred upon him.' 1 
 Meantime the King of Sardinia was reduced to the humili- 
 ating necessity of abdicating the government of Piedmont, to 
 avoid being taken prisoner. In December, 1798, he concluded 
 an armistice with the French General Joubert, and retired into 
 Sardinia; the tri-coloured flag was displayed at Turin, and 
 Piedmont fell under the dominion of France. Shortly after, 
 the French entered Lucca, which abolished the aristocratical, 
 
XLIV. 
 
 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 267 
 
 and assumed a popular form of government. On the other 
 side, Minorca was taken by the British, commanded by Gene- 
 ral Stuart. In Germany, (1798,) the campaign was opened 
 by the defeat of the French General Jourdan. A treaty having 
 been entered into}3etween Great Britain and Russia, the troops 
 of the latter nation took the field. The dissolution of the con- 
 gress of Rastadt was marked by the assassination of two of 
 the French ministers. A strange mystery still hangs over 
 ^ that event. In their progress through Italy, the French made 
 themselves masters of Tuscany, but were checked in their 
 career by the Imperialists, who obtained an advantage over 
 them in two actions at Verona. The Russian General Su- 
 warrow was so successful in his operations, that the allies 
 were enabled to enter Milan. The French now evacuated 
 the Roman and Neapolitan territories ; the disasters which 
 had befallen their Generals Moreau and Macdonald, brought 
 about a counter-revolution in Tuscany, which abolished its 
 democrative form of government. Modena was captured by 
 the French, who were attacked and defeated by the allies in 
 three actions on the banks of the Trebbia. In consequence 
 of these defeats, the cities of Turin and Bologna fell into their 
 hands, and the surrender of tlie French garrisons of Alexan- 
 dria and Mantua followed. In the month of August, Holland 
 was invaded by an Anglo-Russian army. The first expedi- 
 tion sent thither, was commanded by the gallant Abercrombie, 
 who was no sooner landed, than the Dutch evacuated the 
 Helder. The British and Russian troops, who had penetrated 
 into the country, were attacked a few days after, by the com- 
 bined forces of France and Holland, which they repulsed. 
 The second expedition, commanded by the Duke of York, 
 reached Holland about the middle of September. After seve- 
 ral actions, which were fought with doubtful success, the 
 country being found to be no longer tenable, and the invading 
 army having been disappointed in its expectations of being 
 joined by the majority of the Dutch ; a negotiation was 
 entered into with the French General Brune, in consequence 
 of which, the combined English and Russian army evacuated 
 the Batavian territory. In the following year, (1799,) the 
 aged father of the Catholic Church was torn from his retire- 
 ment by the French, M'ho now yielded to the triumphant arms 
 of Suwarrow, and was carried by them into Valence : as he- 
 passed thither, through Dauphine, he was everywhere re- 
 ceived by multitudes of people, with sentiments of sympathy, 
 respect, and veneration. After an indisposition of several 
 
268 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. fcHAP. 
 
 days, he expired at Valence, August 19th, in the eighty-se- 
 cond year of his age. By order of the French government, 
 unslacked lime was thrown into the grave to consume his 
 body.* 
 
 In the view of our domestic concerns, every other conside- 
 ration was, for the present, absorbed in the question of a legis- 
 lative union with Ireland. Some preliminary discussion was 
 introduced in a debate in the English House of Commons on 
 the 23d of January, 1799, and the question Avas more formally 
 and amply discussed in the Irish Parliament, which was opened 
 on the 22d with a speech from the lord lieutenant, indirectly 
 announcing the measure. The union bill was carried in the 
 House of Lords without a division; and in the House of 
 Commons by a majority of sixty — the ayes being one hun- 
 dred and sixty, and the noes one hundred. The summary 
 of its enactments was, that on the 1st of January, 1801, the 
 kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland should be united in 
 one ; that the succession to the imperial crown of these realms 
 should continue limited and settled according to existing lav»'s ; 
 that Ireland should be represented in the Imperial Parliament 
 by twenty-eight lords temporal elected for life, four lords spi- 
 ritual taking their places by rotation, and one hundred com- 
 moners ; that in trade, navigation, and commerce in general, 
 the people of England and of Ireland should possess equal 
 rights and advantages ; that the public debt incurred by either 
 kingdom previous to the union, and the sinking fund for its 
 reduction, should continue to be separately defrayed by each 
 kingdom respectively, in the proportion of fifteen parts for 
 Great Britain and two for Ireland, &c. Disunion and dissen- 
 sion, in the mean time, distracted the British councils. The 
 subject of Catholic emancipation, w^hich occasioned a division" 
 in her cabinet, was said, by the party wdio resigned, to be ne- 
 cessary to complete and give effect to the measures of the Irish , 
 union ; which, without extending the benefit of full freedom J j 
 to the Catholics, would be a lifeless measure. Finding it im- ' 
 possible at present to attain this object, to which they attached 
 so much importance, they did not think it consistent with the 
 duty they owed their country, any longer to maintain respon- 
 sible situations in his majesty's councils. Mr. Pitt, therefore, 
 and his colleagues, determined to give in their resignations, 
 as soon as the state of the public business would allow. The 
 
 * Dr. Mavor. 
 
 The illustrious General Washington died this year, (1799,) at Mount 
 Vernon, aged sixty-seven. 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 269 
 
 expenses of England this year amounted to £41,000,000: 
 and a scarcity of corn greatly augmented the general distress. 
 The conduct of the directorial government of France had 
 been marked from its earliest establishment by a system of 
 rapine and fraud, which had brought France to the eve of a 
 civil war. The forced loan, and the iniquitous law which 
 seized on the persons and confiscated the property of the rela- 
 tions of emigrants, had completed the wretchedness of the 
 subjugated French ;- when a sudden revolution, effected by 
 Bonaparte, the 9th of November, 1799, overturned the Direc- 
 tory, and setup the Consular government, at the head of which 
 he placed himself. Cambaceres was second consul, and Le- 
 brun the third. A senate was composed of eighty members, 
 a tribunal of one hundred, and a legislative body, which was 
 not permanent, of three hundred. Bonaparte's first measure 
 was an ineffectual attempt to treat with Great Britain. In the 
 pacification of La Vendee he was more successful. Rela- 
 tively to Egypt, the treaty of El-Arych, by which the French 
 consented to evacuate that country, was not acceded to by the 
 British ministry. Meantime, General Suwarrow, who in five 
 months had gained as many pitched battles, made himself 
 master of the strongest places in the north of Italy ; but the 
 battle of Novi, fought on the 16th of August, was the greatest 
 triumph of this celebrated general. In it, the French com- 
 mander. General Joubert, was slain ; and of all the conquests 
 the French had made in Italy, Genoa alone remained to them, 
 Avhich was now blockaded by Lord Nelson, and ready to yield 
 to the horrors of famine. But Suwarrow, having with diffi- 
 culty passed Mount St. Gothard, in order to join General 
 Korsakoff in Switzerland, was defeated by Massena, and re- 
 tired into the Tyrol. His defeat was followed by that of 
 Korsakoff, and by the death of the Austrian General Holzs, 
 which obliged him to seek safety by flight. The events we 
 have related in Italy, afforded an opportunity to the cardinals 
 to meet for the election of a Pope. The conclave was held 
 under the auspices of the Emperor of Germany, at Venice, in 
 March, 1800. The ecclesiastic honoured with the pontificate, 
 was Cardinal di Chiaramonti, a man of good sense, exemplary 
 virtue, and unassuming manners. As it is customary for the 
 new pontiff to assume the name of the Pope who had promoted 
 him to the dignity of cardinal, Chiaramonti took that of Pius 
 VII. The emperor, on his election, presented him with a 
 sum of money, and soon after delivered up to him the greater 
 part of the ecclesiastical state. Pius VII. took possession of 
 
 25* 
 
270 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ci 
 
 the see of Rome in July, and began to exercise the sovereignty 
 with great dignity and moderation: he was soon after acknow- 
 ledged by the French. They appointed as minister plenipo- 
 tentiary, M. Cacault, whose conciliating disposition smoothed 
 many of the difficulties that occurred in the negotiations 
 between the republic and the holy see. The Austrian Ge- 
 neral Melas, having entered Italy in April, possessed him- 
 self of Savona and Vada, which separated Genoa from the 
 French army; and the latter, under Massena, sustained a con- 
 siderable loss at Fontana Buona, while the imperialists took 
 possession of Mount Cenis, and repulsed Massena on his at- 
 tempting to leave Genoa: famine at length compelled him to 
 surrender the town on honourable terms. The first consul 
 soon after left Paris, to take the command of the army of re- 
 serve intended to retrieve the affairs of the French in Italy. 
 He passed Mount St. Bernard on the 7th of May, and on the 
 same day, three divisions of the French army, under Moreau, 
 penetrated Italy by Switzerland. Bonaparte entered Milan 
 on the 4th of June ; and this step was followed by the battle 
 of Montebello, gained on the 9 th, and by that of Marengo, 
 which on the 14th decided the fate of Italy. General Melas 
 had disputed the field against the French with obstinate cou- 
 rage, and had thrice forced them to fall back and retreat, when 
 General Dessaix came up, and decided the victory in favour 
 of the republicans. The army rallied and returned to the 
 charge with such uncommon bravery and resolution, that the 
 Austrians were all routed : the slaughter was dreadful, nor did 
 
 it cease till nigrht had veiled the scene of carnag'e. It was ten 
 
 . . . 
 
 o'clock when Bonaparte quitted the field victorious ; but the 
 
 French lost one of their best generals, Dessaix, who fell at 
 the moment of victory. The Austrians next day requested 
 an armistice, which was granted : eight fortified towns were 
 successively given up by them to the French, and they re- 
 tired to Mantua. Bonaparte having ordered the demolition 
 of all the fortresses in the Milanese and Piedmontese, departed 
 with General Berthier and his staflf for Milan, where he es- 
 tablished the Cisalpine Republic, and assisted at a solemn Te 
 Deiim in the cathedral church. He also re-organized the 
 celebrated university of Pavia, which had been closed since 
 the invasion of the combined powers in 1799, leaving to Ge- 
 neral Massena the command of the army. On the 2d of July, 
 he re-entered Paris, having in fifty-eight days completed a 
 second time the conquest of Italy. Besides the disasters 
 which had attended the arms of Austria in Italy, other losses 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 271 
 
 compelled her to sue for peace. The preceding campaign had 
 been attended with very ill success ; and the memorable bat- 
 tle of Hohenlinden, gained by General Moreau over the Arch- 
 duke John, in December, 1800, covered that commander with 
 laurels, while General Augereau defeated the imperialists at 
 Nuremberg. These victories brought on the definitive treaty 
 of peace between France and Austria, which was signed at 
 Luneville in February, 1801. By this treaty, the cession of 
 the Belgic provinces, which had been made to France at the 
 treaty of Campo-Formio, was renewed, and Austria relin- 
 quished all that she possessed on the left bank of the Rhine. 
 
 The fort and island of Goree surrendered this year to a 
 small British squadron; in the month of September the 
 island of Malta passed under the domination of Great Britain, 
 after having been blockaded during two years ; and the Dutch 
 setdement of Cura^oa was taken in the same month from 
 the French, who had conquered it. Two expeditions to the 
 coast of Spain, one against Ferrol, the other against Cadiz, 
 terminated unsuccessfully. A convention for an armed neu- 
 trality, directed against Great Britain, was entered into by 
 Russia and Sweden, and afterwards acceded to by Prussia and 
 Denmark. In return, an embargo was laid at the close of the 
 month of January, 1801, on all Russian, Danish, and Swe- 
 dish ships, in the ports of Great Britain, l^o exclude the 
 British vessels from the navigation of the Elbe, the Danes 
 resorted to the measure of the temporary possession of Ham- 
 burgh, at the same time that the Prussians seized on Hanover. 
 These hostile proceedings gave rise to the batde of Copenha- 
 gen ; Lord Nelson, with twelve ships of the line, attacked the 
 Danish fleet, (April 2d,) which was defended by formidable 
 batteries. The action was continued with unabating severity 
 for four hours, until, at length, the British admiral, to spare 
 the further effusion of blood, proposed an armistice, which 
 was acceded to by the Danes, only v/hen all their ships, con- 
 sisting of seventeen sail of the line, were sunk or captured. 
 The Emperor Paul died before he could execute the vast and 
 angry projects he had conceived against England ; he was 
 found dead in his bed on the 22d of March, having been 
 carried off by an apoplectic fit, as it was expressed in the 
 proclamation made on the following day, which announced 
 the accession of his son Alexander to the throne.^- The 
 Swedes next seceded from the northern alliance, and shortly 
 
 • The violent temper of Paul created him many enemies, and he is 
 supposed to have been strangled. 
 
272 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 after a convention was signed between Great Britain and 
 Russia. 
 
 War was proclaimed by Spain against Portugal, in the 
 month of February, 1801 ; and in the following April, a Spa- 
 nish army, headed by the Prince of Peace, invaded the Portu- 
 guese territory, and reduced all the fortified places in the pro- 
 vince of Altentejo. By the treaty of peace which followed 
 between the two powers in June, Spain obtained the province 
 of Olivenza; the Guadiana was made the boundary between 
 the two kingdoms, and the ports of Portugal were closed 
 against England. By a convention concluded between France 
 and Spain in the month of March, the states of the Infant 
 Don Lewis, Duke of Parma, were placed at the disposition 
 of France, and Tuscany was ceded to the infanto, with the 
 title of King of Etruria. In the month of August following, 
 the king and queen made their entrance into Florence. Na- 
 ples shordy after made peace with France. The treaty of 
 friendship between the French republic and the Elector of 
 Bavaria was concluded in August: the latter renounced by it 
 all claim to his ancient possessions on the left bank of the 
 Rhine. Russia soon adopted the same measure; and on the 
 9th of October, the preliminaries of peace between France and 
 Turkey were signed, by which Russia and France guarantied 
 to the Ottoman Porte the republic of the Seven Islands, and 
 the navigation of the Black Sea was secured to the French flag. 
 
 The British expedition against Egypt reached its destina- 
 tion at the commencement of March, and a part of the army 
 of reserve, commanded by Major-general Moore, landed on 
 the 8th of that month. The whole of the troops having been 
 afterwards landed, moved forward on the 12th; and, on the 
 following day, the French were brought to action, and forced 
 to retreat. The castle of Aboukir surrendered to the English 
 on the 18th, and on the 21st was fought the ever-memorable 
 contest, which gave a new lustre to the British arms, but iu 
 which the gallant veteran and commander-in-chief. Sir Ralph^ 
 Abercrombie, fell. The loss of the French in the battle of' 
 Aboukir has been calculated at 3,000 men, with many of 
 their principal officers. That of the victors amounted to 
 about thirteen hundred in killed, wounded, and missing. 
 The capture of several inferior posts was followed by the 
 surrender of the cities of Cairo and Alexandria to the British, 
 and these successes led to the evacuation of Egypt by the 
 French. This event and the brilliant victories gained by 
 Great Britain in the naval campaign of 1801, led to negotia- 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 273 
 
 tions for peace between that power and France. By the defi- 
 nitive treaty of Amiens, which was signed on the 27th of 
 March, 1802, Great Britain ceded all the possessions and 
 colonies she had acquired during the war, with the exception 
 of the Spanish Island of Trinidad, and the Dutch possessions 
 in Ceylon. 
 
 The authors who debased their talents by promoting the 
 progress of irreligion and impiety in France, during the mid- 
 dle of the last century, have been already noticed. The two 
 Daciers were celebrated for their translations from the Greek 
 and Latin authors, and for their commentaries upon them. 
 M. Dacier belongs properly to the preceding century : 
 Madame Dacier died in 1720. The learned Benedictine 
 monk, Calmet, who is noted for his commentaries on the 
 Holy Scriptures and other works, died in 17G7. In England, 
 Doctor Samuel Johnson, whose efforts to arrest the revolu- 
 tionary principles of the age, in his Bambler and Idler, 
 recommended him to the personal notice and patronage of his 
 sovereign, and who is noted for his philological learning, died 
 in 1785. Oliver Goldsmith, a poet, and the compiler of many 
 different works for youth : Young and Cowper, both moral 
 poets, deserve remembrance. Hume, Robertson, and Gib- 
 bons, historians ; whose talents, however, did not raise them 
 above the prejudices of their nation and age, and whose 
 writings cannot, therefore, be recommended to those who seek 
 for truth, the first quality of an historian. Italy during this 
 century gave birth to Metastasio, who was poet laureat to the 
 Emperor Charles VI., and died in 1782. Germany boasts of 
 Klopstock, the author of the " Messiah." In music, too, the 
 I first composers and performers were all of that nation. Handel, 
 patronised by George III., may be almost said to belong to 
 England, where he composed his celebrated oratorios ; Hamal 
 died in 1778, Mozart in 1792. Haydn' and Beethoven were 
 still living at this period. Painting is indebted to the same 
 sovereign for the rapid progress it made in this island during 
 his reign. George III. founded the Royal Academy in Lon- 
 don, for the advancement of this art, as well as of engraving, 
 sculpture, and architecture ; and the names of Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence, portrait-painters, and of 
 Benjamin AVest, historical painter, stand pre-eminent. His 
 majesty also erected the Royal Institution in 1800, the grand 
 object of which is, to render modern improvements applicable 
 to the conveniences of mankind. Its reputation was at that 
 time enhanced by the discoveries of Sir Humphry Davy in 
 chyraistry. 
 
274 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 STATE OF EUROPE IN GENERAL, AND THAT OF ENGLAND IN PAR- 
 TICULAR, FROM THE PEACE OF AMIENS TO THE RENEWAL OF 
 WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 
 
 1802. — A SHORT interval of nominal peace, but not of ge- 
 neral tranquillity, followed the ratification of the treaty of 
 Amiens. On the continent of Europe, in the British dominions, 
 and in the West Indies, such events took place during this in- 
 terval, as oblige the historian still to tell of war, and treason, 
 and their attendant miseries. 
 
 Bonaparte tried to consolidate, during peace, the glory which 
 he had acquired in war, and his efforts were not unsuccessful. 
 The office of first consul for life, with permission to appoint 
 his successor, was conferred upon him. He was empowered 
 to nominate the senate, to interpret all the articles of the con- 
 stitution, to suspend the functions of juries, and to appoint the 
 consuls. The members of the grand council of the Legion of 
 Honour* were named members of the senate. The presidency 
 of the tribunal of ultimate appeal, and a power of censure 
 over all the other tribunals, were given to a grand judge of 
 Bonaparte's nomination. The unlimited confidence reposed 
 by the French nation in their new ruler, seemed in a great 
 measure justified by the anxiety with which, after the con- 
 clusion of the treaty of Amiens, he consulted and gratified 
 their interests and wishes. 
 
 The revival of the arts, the improvement of commerce, 
 manufactures, and agriculture, plans of education, the remo- 
 delling and repairing of bridges, canals, and highways, alternate- 
 ly occupied his attention. Finding that the re-establishmen^ 
 of religion was desired by the nation at large, he concluded 
 Convention, usually called the Concordat, with the Pope, bj 
 which the Catholic religion was declared to be that of the 
 great majority of Frenchmen; it stipulated that a new cir- 
 cumscription should be made of the French bishoprics, and 
 for this end demanded from the ancient bishops of France the 
 resignation of their sees, a sacrifice which his holiness firmly 
 
 * The Legion of Honour was a military order of nobility. It consisted 
 of fifteen cohorts and a council of administration. The first consul was 
 chief of the legion and of the council, and Joseph Bonaparte was grand- 
 master of the order. 
 
XLV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 275 
 
 expected they would make for the sake of peace and unity.* 
 The Concordat also provided that the right of nomination to 
 ecclesiastical sees should be exercised by the first consul, and 
 tliat of canonical institution by the Pope ; that the intruded 
 constitutional bishops should not be selected, unless they first 
 made their submission, according to the form prescribed by 
 the Pope to his legate, Cardinal Caprara;t that the bishops 
 should swear allegiance to the government, which should pay 
 them and the inferior clergy an annual stipend ; that none but 
 native Frenchmen should officiate as ministers of religion in 
 France : that these ministers should have no connection with 
 foreign powers ; and that tlie professors, in all seminaries, 
 should be chosen by the chief consul. The final ratification 
 of the Concordat was announced by proclamation, on the 17th 
 of April, and the event solemnly celebrated in the church of 
 Notre Dame. J In the same month was published a decree 
 of amnesty, by which the emigrants, with several exceptions, 
 were permitted to return to France, and such part of their 
 
 * In reply to this demand, thirty bishops sent in their resignation ; thirty- 
 eight refused it. 
 
 j- Several constitutional bishops evaded this command, and with the Con- 
 cordat were published organic laws, which had not been approved of by 
 the legate. 
 
 ± Bonaparte is said to have conceived the first idea of a Concordat, on 
 the battle-field of Marengo ; though he had long before been heard to 
 exclaim, alluding to the Pope and cardinals — " Why do they not treat with 
 me ? I am the best friend of Rome." He complained much, however, of 
 what he called the zisekss delays of the Court of Rome, and wished to in- 
 troduce into ecclesiastical affairs that celerity which distinguished his mili- 
 tary operations. Finding the Pope's legate in Paris slow in bringing the 
 affair to a conclusion, he wrote to the minister, Cacault, desiring him to 
 demand imperatively a Concordat, within three days, and enjoining him to 
 quit Rome in case of noncompliance. Cacault, who knew more about ec- 
 clesiastical affairs than the first consul, persuaded Cardinal Consalvi to 
 undertake a journey to Paris, and make arrangements with Bonaparte in 
 person : while, according to his instructions, he himself withdrew to Florence, 
 leaving, however, his secretary in Rome, so that the official relations re- 
 mained uninterrupted. The genius and conciliating manners of the car- 
 dinal disarmed the rising indignation of the first consul, who approved of 
 what had been done, and the Concordat was promulgated in April. About 
 this time, Talleyrand, at his own request, received from Rome a brief, dis- 
 pensing with the performance of his ecclesiastical functions, and allowing 
 him to reassume the secular habit. It was not signed by the Pope, though 
 his holiness was aware of its being expedited ; nor did it empower the 
 ex-Bishop of Autun to marry ; and when the Pope, at a later period, visited 
 Paris, he particularly stipulated that Madame de Talleyrand should not be 
 presented to him. 
 
276 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 goods and possessions as still remained unsold was restored 
 to them. 
 
 One of the first objects that fixed the attention of the French 
 government, after it had signed the definite treaty with England, 
 was the recovery of the revolted colony of St. Domingo. As 
 early as the month of December, 1801, a large force put to 
 sea for this service. The French troops were commanded 
 by Le Clerc, Latouche, and Rochambeau ; the insurgents, by 
 Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe. After many rencoun- 
 ters and massacres, marked, on the part of the French, by a 
 degree of cruelty which reflects disgrace on civilized society, 
 Christophe, Dessalines, and Toussaint, hopeless of gaining 
 any permanent advantage over the superior forces of their op- 
 ponents, acknowledged the sovereignty of France. Toussaint 
 retired, with the permission of the French generals, to his 
 estate at Gonaive, where he purposed to spend the remainder 
 of his days, and to forget the horrors of warfare, in the seclu- 
 sion of domestic life. But this happiness was denied him by 
 his conquerors. Le Clerc surrounded his house in the dead 
 of the night, took him and his family prisoners, and had them 
 conveyed to France. There Toussaint, whose character, at 
 once humane and warlike, had won the admiration even of 
 his enemies, was immured and terminated his career in a loath- 
 some dungeon. The act of treachery was, in itself, a sufRcienti 
 incentive to rouse the Haitians to a renewal of war. They.f 
 were farther exasperated by a decree of the French legislative 
 body, abrogating an enactment of the national assembly, which 
 had declared slavery in the colonies abolished. Dessalines 
 and Christophe again assembled the insurgent bands, and re- 
 solved to exterminate their oppressors or die in the attempt. 
 The French, unawed by the new insurrection, abated none of 
 their accustomed cruelty. But Providence visited back upon 
 the perpetrators of these wanton acts, part of the miseries they . 
 created. A pestilential disease, caused by the putrefaction of j 
 their victims, raged violently in the French camp ; Le Clerc j 
 himself fell a victim to it. Before his death, which took place) 
 in October, Port-au-Paix, Fort Dauphin, and many other 
 places, were lost to the French. 
 
 Rochambeau, who succeeded Le Clerc in the chief com- 
 mand, imitated him in cruelty, and inherited his ill-fortune. 
 In the first engagement of importance, after his appointment, 
 the French were defeated; and though General Clausel par- 
 tially retrieved the glory of the French arms, yet success still 
 preponderated on the side of the insurgents, and their per- 
 
XLV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 277 
 
 severing bravery awakened the apprehensions of the mother- 
 country, for the total loss of her colony. 
 
 1802. — It was not in the West Indies alone that the horrors 
 of war were felt; Switzerland had again become the theatre 
 of contending armies. Its inhabitants, still dissatisfied with 
 their new form of government, took up arms to effect a counter- 
 revolution, and appointed Aloys Reding their chief. The con- 
 test between the patriots, or friends of the old order of things, 
 and the supporters of the government, was maintained for some 
 time with various success. Zurich was taken by Andermatt, 
 the French general ; Friburg, Berne, and Soleure, by the in- 
 
 I surgents. Both parties, with equal urgency, solicited the inter- 
 ference of France in their behalf. The capture of Berne was 
 followed by a suspension of arms. On the renewal of hos- 
 
 • tiiities, success still attended the exertions of the patriots. 
 Their main attack was directed against Lausanne, the seat of 
 the Helvetic government. Apprehending the reduction of the 
 
 j city, the government was preparing to remove to Geneva, 
 
 ' when their fears were calmed and their flight prevented, by 
 the opportune arrival of citizen Rapp, with an offer, in form 
 of a proclamation, from the first consul, to mediate between 
 the contending parties. The diet, convinced by the entry of 
 General Ney with 30,000 men into the Swiss territory that 
 
 ' resistance to the will of Bonaparte would prove unavailing, 
 accepted his proferred mediation, and dissolved itself. The 
 Swiss troops were disbanded, and the subjection of Switzer- 
 land to the influence of France completed, by the appoint- 
 ment of deputies from tlie cantons to meet at Paris and arrange, 
 by negotiation, the diff"erences of their constituents. When 
 
 II these deputies assembled, a letter from the first consul told 
 them, that to tranquillize Switzerland, the enforcement of three 
 preliminary points was necessary: a general equality of rights 
 among all her cantons, a federative organization for each, and 
 a renunciation of all aristocratic privileges. Thus a new con- 
 
 ; stitntion was given to Switzerland ; it was divided into eigliteen 
 cantons, and the Helvetic troops passed into the service of 
 France. 
 
 The daily extension of Bonaparte's power, and particular- 
 ly his liaving, within the year, added Piedmont and Parma to 
 France, caused much uneasiness to the Emperor Francis, and 
 rendered him unwilling to submit to the German indemnities, 
 and the secularization of the ecclesiastical sovereignties, gua- 
 rantied by the treaty of Luneville. The first consul, however, 
 little regarding the objections urged by him, opened negotia- 
 
 26 
 
278 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 tions at Paris, for the arrangement of the indemnities, and, 
 assisted by the Emperor of Russia, drew up a plan, which, not- 
 withstanding strong remonstrances from the Emperor Francis, 
 met the approval of the Diet of Ratisbon. To the Elector of ^ 
 Mentz were given the cities of Ratisbon and Wetzlar : to the 
 King of Great Britain, the bishopric of Osnaberg, in compen- 
 sation for Hildesheim, Corvey, and Iloexter, and for the re-j 
 nunciation of his rights over Bremen and Hamburgh : to the 
 Prince of Orange, the bishoprics of Fulda and Corvey, and 
 the city of Dortmund, for his surrender of the stadtholderate, 
 and of other claims in Holland and Belgium. The Princes 
 of Baden, Wirtemburg, and Hesse Cassel, were made electors. 
 The Emperor Francis, finding the influence of France to 
 predominate in the diet, gave a reluctant consent to these ar- 
 rangements. 
 
 B. Maria Clotilda, Queen of Sardinia, died at Naples, March 
 7th, 1802. Three months after her death, Charles-Emmanuel 
 IV. abdicated in favour of his brother, the Duke of Aoste, who 
 took the name of Victor Emmanuel V. Benevento and Ponto 
 Corvo were, the same year, restored to the Holy See. 
 
 In England, a conspiracy, having for its object the assassi- 
 nation of the king, was planned by a Colonel Despard, and 
 twenty-nine associates ; it was discovered, and the author, 
 with six of his accomplices, expiated his guilt on the scaflf'old. 
 
 The continuance of peace was as short as its effect had 
 been unsatisfactory. Angry discussions had arisen, almost as 
 early as its date, between the contracting parties ; and now, 
 assuming a more serious form, threatened to involve Europe 
 again in war. The protracted stay of the English troops in 
 Malta and Alexandria ; the protection given in England to 
 French emigrants ; and the abuse poured upon Bonaparte by 
 the English press, formed the chief grounds of complaint, on 
 the part of France. Great Britain insisted on the necessity 
 of an explanation relative to a report, made by Colonel Sebas- 
 tian! to the French government, in which much abuse was 
 levelled at the English army and its commander while in 
 Egypt; on the temporary possession of Malta by English 
 troops, as an equivalent for the great increase of territory 
 acquired by France, subsequent to the treaty of Amiens ; and 
 on the evacuation of Holland by the French troops. After 
 many conferences between Colonel Andreossy on the part of 
 France, and Lord Hawkesbury on that of England ; and be- 
 tween Lord Whitworth, the English ambassador, and the 
 French consul, in which each party failed to satisfy the other, 
 
XLVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 279 
 
 the King of England formally issued a declaration of war 
 against France. 
 
 1803. — In the British Parliament, contradictory opinions 
 were entertained on the subject of the intended war. Pitt and 
 his adherents pronounced it necessary : Fox thought that no 
 sufficient grounds existed for involving the nation in the dif- 
 ficulties which would result from it. The address, however, 
 in reply to the king's speech, which announced the failure ol' 
 this negotiation, and the purposed renewal of hostilities, was 
 carried in both Houses by a large majority. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 FROM THE RENEWAL OF HOSTILITIES BETWEEN FRANCE AND 
 ENGLAND, IN 1803, TO THE PEACE OF PRESBURG, IN 1805. 
 
 War having been thus resolved upon, the attention of the 
 English government was given to the devising of such means 
 as seemed necessary to guard against the possibility of a French 
 invasion ; and to the equipment of such armaments as would 
 support the established character of the British navy. Bills 
 to increase the militia and render it efficient, and to arm and 
 train the whole effective population of Great Britain, to act in 
 defence of the country in case of emergency, passed both 
 Houses with unusual rapidity, and received the royal assent. 
 Supplies, to the amount of £41,000,000 sterling, to be raised 
 by the imposition of various new taxes, and, among others, by 
 one upon property, nearly resembling that formerly imposed 
 upon incomes, were voted for the service of the year. Expe- 
 ditions were fitted out against Demerara and Essequibo, St. 
 Lucie, Tobago, and St. Domingo, which were crowned with 
 success. Holland had joined France, and the other powers of 
 Europe were, for the present, content to be but spectators of 
 this new struggle. 
 
 News of the renewal of war between France and England 
 reached St. Domingo, at a time when the French, hemmed in 
 by the negro army, were confined to the immediate vicinity 
 of Cape Francois, where, dispirited by sickness and want of 
 provisions, they conceived their case nearly desperate. On 
 the arrival of the English naval force, the French general con- 
 cluded a capitulation with its commander. It was agreed that 
 the French troops should be sent to Jamaica, as prisoners of 
 
280 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 war, and tlieir sick to France and America. The independence 
 of the French part of the island was proclaimed by the negroes, 
 and Dessalines was declared its chief. 
 
 In the mean time, the government of France was not slow, 
 either in its announcement of war or in its preparations to 
 carry it on with vigour. A decree was soon after issued, 
 which, contrary to the usages of civilized nations, ordered the 
 detention of all English subjects resident in France. A strong 
 detachment of the army of Italy was sent upon Tarentum and 
 other ports in the Adriatic ; and a large naval force, under the 
 command of Admiral Linois, was despatched to the East 
 Indies, to secure the dominions of France in that quarter. 
 Scarcely was the King of England's declaration of war pro- 
 mulgated, when the electorate of Hanover was invaded and 
 summoned to surrender to the French government, by Gene- 
 ral Mortier, with an assurance that Bonaparte only meant to 
 occupy it till Malta should be evacuated by England. 
 
 In June, 1803, the French took quiet possession of the city 
 of Hanover, on condition that the Hanoverian army should 
 retire behind the Elbe, and not serve against France or her 
 allies, during the war or till regularly exchanged, and that all 
 the electoral fortresses, arms, ammunition, and artillery, should 
 be surrendered to the French. The spiritless resistance op- 
 posed by the Hanoverians to their invaders, caused the con- 
 quest of their territory to reflect but little additional glory upon 
 the arms of France ; Ijut the advantages derived from it by the 
 victors were not inconsiderable. France was now enabled to 
 injure the commerce of Great Britain, by prohibiting British 
 merchant-ships from navigating the Elbe and the Weser ; and 
 an order to this eflect was issued by the French government. 
 Great Britain, on her part, took measures to prevent the navi- 
 gation of those rivers, while her vessels should be excluded 
 from them. These efforts of the contending powers at mutual 
 annoyance, proved a heavy affliction to the Hanse towns ; for 
 the blockade of their harbours was ruin to their trade. They 
 invoked the interference of the King of Prussia, but he refused 
 to mediate in their behalf. 
 
 While the King of Great Britain's German dominions were 
 thus wrested by the French, the existence of disaflfection among 
 his subjects at home showed itself in an insurrection of the 
 Irish. Robert Emmett, a man of talent and influence, and 
 brother to the Irish director of 1798, was the chief promoter 
 of this new disturbance. Assisted by some agents of inferior 
 birth and ability, he plotted the establishment of a republican 
 
XL VI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 281 
 
 form of government in Ireland, and the entire separation of 
 that country from the sister kingdom. His plans were, ori- 
 ginally, deeply laid ; but their too hasty development, caused 
 by a fear of detection on the part of the conspirators, occa- 
 sioned their total failure. On the night of the 23d of July, 
 1803, those of the party who were stationed in Dublin rose, 
 with the intention of seizing the seat arid ministers of the Irish 
 government. A want of arrangement, the consequence of too 
 great precipitation, was observable in all their movements. 
 Emmett sallied forth, brandishing his sword, and was fol- 
 lowed by an undisciplined mob, whom he tried, and not in- 
 effectually, to incite to acts of violence. Among the victims 
 to the fury of the rebel column, were Lord Chief Justice Kil- 
 warden, who, since the rebellion of 1798, had been an object 
 of popular aversion, and his nephew, the Rev. Richard Wolfe. 
 The insurgents were, however, soon dispersed, and tranquil- 
 lity restored to the city, by the exertions of the government 
 troops ; and the rebellion was shortly after entirely suppressed 
 by the execution of its promoters. From the domestic dis- 
 turbances of Great Britain, we must make a transition to her 
 distant foreign possessions — her settlements in the East Indies. 
 There, too, attempts to subvert her dominion were made and 
 defeated, and the ensuing two months are memorable for the 
 splendid triumphs achieved during their course, by the British 
 arms in the Peninsula of Indostan. This war the English 
 undertook in alliance with the Peishwa, or Mahratta sovereign 
 of Poonah, against the Mahratta chiefs, Scindia, Holkar, and 
 the Rajah of Berar, assisted by a French force under General 
 Perron. The English forces destined for this expedition were 
 estimated at 55,000, of which two divisions were made ; one, 
 under General Wellesley, was to oppose the forces of Scindia 
 and the Rajah of Berar; the other, under General Lake, com- 
 mander-in-chief of the English army in India, was to act on 
 the frontier of Oude. General Wellesley, after taking the 
 fortress of Admenugger, attacked the united forces of the con- 
 federate chiefs at Assye, where, on the 23d of September, he , 
 gained a complete victory over an army six times more nume- 
 rous than his own. General Lake was not less successful on 
 the north-west of Oude. He took the fort of Allyghur, the 
 residence of M. Perron, and the grand depot of all his military 
 stores, and defeated, near Delhi, the army of Scindia, com- 
 manded by a French officer ; in consequence of which victory, 
 the Mogul Emperor, Sha Allum, who had been expelled from 
 his dominions by Holkar, and detained in captivity by his 
 26* 
 
282 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 enemies, was restored to the throne, and placed himself under 
 the protection of the English. Agra surrendered to General 
 Lake, on the 19th of October, and on the last day of the same 
 month, he gained a furiously-contested batde, over the army 
 of Scindia, at die village of Laswaree. These victories were 
 followed by a peace, which expelled the French from the 
 Deccan, and made important additions to the power and terri- 
 torial possessions of the East India Company. 
 
 Party spirit ran high in the British Parliament, towards the 
 close of this and the commencement of the following year. 
 The ministry formed by Mr. Addington, was opposed by the 
 adherents of Mr. Pitt, by Lord Grenville in the Upper, and 
 Mr. Windham in the Lower House, and by the whig, or old 
 opposition, who were incensed against the advisers of a new 
 war. Mr. Addington, hopeless of successfully contending 
 against an opposition, which acquired, from day to day, in- 
 creased strength and consistency, resigned the office of prime 
 minister. (1804.) Mr. Pitt was appointed to succeed him; 
 but with an express stipulation, that the leader of the old op- 
 position should till no place in die new ministry, and that the 
 Catholic question should not be revived. 
 
 The extensive preparations carried on in the ports of Calais 
 and Boulogne, led to the belief that the invasion of England 
 would be attempted by Bonaparte, and all necessary measures 
 of precaution were adopted in consequence ; one of which 
 was a system of blockade, confining to their own shores the 
 vessels of France. Bills to suspend the Habeas Corpus 
 Act, and re-enact martial law in Ireland ; to provide for the 
 maintenance of tlie volunteer corps, and the army of reserve ; 
 to remove the depreciation which had taken place, within the 
 year, in the price of corn, and prevent its recurrence, were 
 discussed with much animation, and took the form of law. 
 Neither did the English Parliament limit its views to the 
 attainment of internal tranquillity; an effort to abolish the slave- 
 trade, showed this assembly anxious to promote the general 
 well-being of mankind ; the ejETort, however, proved unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 While these legislative enactments were in agitation in 
 England, die measures pursued by the French government to 
 insure its stability, were of an extraordinary and daring nature. 
 Early in February, a plot against the government was disco- 
 vered, and announced to the public, through the medium of 
 a report from the minister of justice to the first consul. The 
 scheme was said to have originated with Georges Cadoudal, 
 
XLVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 283 
 
 chief of the Chouans ; it was added that Moreau and Pichegru 
 were among his accomplices, and that the conspirators had 
 been landed on the French coast, by Captain Wright, the com- 
 panion and friend of Sir Sydney Smith. The intentions 
 ascribed to the conspirators were, the assassination of the first 
 consul, and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty. This 
 report was followed by the arrest of the suspected associates ; 
 but an act of undisguised atrocity, on the part of the French 
 government, so preoccupied general interest at this time, as to 
 render the fate of these popular personages a matter of minor 
 consideration. A report having reached the first consul, that 
 the Duke d'Enghien, the heir presumptive to the rights and 
 titles of the house of Conde, him taken part in the conspiracy 
 of Cadoudal, orders were issued for his arrest. This unfortu- 
 nate prince resided in the neutral territory of the Elector of 
 Baden. On the 14th of March, he and fourteen others at- 
 tached to his person were seized at Effenheim, and conveyed 
 to Paris, by a detachment of soldiers under the command of 
 General Caulaincourt. From Paris, the duke was hurried to 
 the Castle of Vincennes, where he arrived at five in the after- 
 noon. Being oppressed with fatigue, he retired to rest, and 
 instantly fell into a profound sleep. He was suddenly 
 awakened about eleven o'clock, and led into an adjoining 
 apartment, where he found eight officers, who had formed 
 themselves into a military committee, of which Hulin was 
 president. The deportment of the unfortunate prince during 
 the trial, which was carried pn with the greatest precipitation, 
 was calm, manly, and dignified. Sentence of death was pro- 
 nounced the same night, and immediately executed, by torch- 
 light, in the fosse of the castle. The body was thrown into 
 a trench which had been dug for the purpose, before the com- 
 mencement of the trial. This flagrant violation of the law of 
 nations and of humanity excited the general indignation of the 
 powers of Europe. Spirited remonstrances from Sweden, 
 Russia, and Hanover, on the violation of the neutrality of the 
 German territory, in the illegal seizure of the duke, were pre- 
 sented to the Diet of Ratisbon, and addressed to the French 
 minister for foreign affairs. 
 
 Josephine had, in vain, exerted all her influence with Bona- 
 parte, to induce him to alter his design. Throwing herself at 
 his feet, she entreated and conjured — he flung her from him, 
 with a violence bordering on frenzy. His council, too, had 
 vigorously opposed the intended arrest; and the unusual silence 
 that prevailed among them, during three days subsequent to 
 
284 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 the fatal deed, must have conveyed to Bonaparte a forcible 
 impression of the horror it excited. The motives which in- 
 fluenced him on this occasion have not been clearly ascer- 
 tained : aiming at sovereign power, he perhaps thought to 
 intimidate the royalists, who desired, and to soothe the appre- 
 liensions of tlie republicans, who feared the restoration of the 
 Bourbon dynasty. One public functionary had, alone, the 
 courage to express liis just indignation. M. de Chateaubri- 
 and had become known to Bonaparte by his literary produc- 
 tions, and his name had been in consequence erased from the 
 list of emigrants, in 1800. When Cardinal Fesch succeeded 
 M. Cacault, as ambassador at Rome, Chateaubriand was ap- 
 pointed principal secretary, but shordy after recalled by the 
 flrst consul, who named him minister plenipotentiary to the 
 Valais, with a promise of the next vacant embassy.* Being 
 on the point of departure for his new destination, he presented 
 himself in the tirst consul's cabinet, to take leave ; but receiv- 
 ing intelhgence of the seizure and death of the Duke d'Eng- 
 hien, he sent in an immediate resignation of his office. The 
 sensation produced by this event was deep and universal ; 
 Caulaincourt fainted at its announcement; the aide-de-camp 
 who liad accompanied the duke to Ettenheim, lost his reason; 
 the officer who gave the word to fire, as he was told, on a 
 brigand of La Vendee, quitted the service : in a word, by this 
 act, Bonaparte did himself more injury than his greatest ene- 
 mies could ever have inflicted. 
 
 In the early part of this year, (1804,) Goree and Surinam 
 were taken by the British, and an action between Admiral 
 Linois and the English East India fleet, commanded by Cap- 
 tain Dante, reflected much additional glory on the naval power 
 of Great Britain. The French hostde flotilla, stationed at 
 Boulogne, waited an opportunity of putting to sea, which the 
 vigilance of the English guard-ships never afforded it. 
 
 The King of Spain, on the renewal of hostilities between 
 France and England, had declared liis intention to preserve a 
 strict neutrality. Intimation, however, having been given to 
 the English government that ships were arming in the Spanish 
 ports, and that Spain only waited the arrival of four frigates 
 laden with specie from South America, to co-operate with 
 France, orders were given to Captain Moore to intercept and 
 detain these vessels. Moore came up with, and attacked 
 them, on the 5th of October. One of the frigates h\cw up ; 
 
 * During this period, he dedicated to Bonaparte the second edition of his 
 " Genie du Christianisnie.*' 
 
XLVI,J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 285 
 
 the other three surrendered and were brought to England. A 
 declaration of war by Spain against England, was the imme- 
 diate consequence of this engagement. 
 
 The tone of defiance adopted by France, her refusal to re- 
 spect the neutrality of the Germanic body, to indemnify the 
 King of Sardinia (as was stipulated by the treaty of Lune- 
 ville) for the losses he had sustained, to evacuate Naples, and 
 to adopt some measures in union with the Emperor of Ger- 
 many, by which the affairs of Italy should be adjusted, occa- 
 sioned an alliance between those powers and England ; and 
 active negotiations, which terminated in a league against 
 France, were, towards the close of this year, opened between 
 the courts of St. James and Petersburg. 
 
 The aspiring views of the first consul were not checked, 
 nor their accomplishment retarded, either by the conspiracies 
 of his own subjects, or by the threatened hostile alliances of 
 foreign powers. He aimed at the possession of undivided 
 power, and the senate and tribunals acquiescing in his wish, 
 voted him the title of emperor, and decreed that the imperial 
 dignity should be hereditary in his family. These measures 
 were carried by acclamation, Carnot alone dissenting; and on 
 the 18th of May, a deputation from the senate, with Camba- 
 ceres, the president, at its head, waited upon Bonaparte to beg 
 his acceptance of the honours voted him.* To the congratu- 
 latory speech of the president, he replied, "Every thing that 
 can contribute to the good of my country is essentially con- 
 nected with my happiness. I accept the title which you think 
 necessary to the glory of the nation. I submit to the sanction 
 of the people the law of hereditary succession. I hope France 
 will never repent having surrounded my family with honours. 
 At all events, my spirit shall cease to be present with my pos- 
 terity, the day on which it shall cease to deserve the love and 
 confidence of the French nation." 
 
 This elevation of Bonaparte was accompanied by many 
 alterations in the existing constitutional code, indirectly tend- 
 ing to increase his power. All his brothers were named 
 princes. Joseph Bonaparte was created grand elector; Lewis, 
 grand constable; Cambaceres, arch-chancellor; Lebrun, 
 arch-treasurer of the empire ; and General Duroc, governor 
 of the imperial palace. Generals Murat, Jourdan, Berthier, 
 Moncey, Bernadotte, Augereau, Soult, Massena, Brune, Ney, 
 Davoust, Bessicres, and Mortier, were named marshals of the 
 
 * He assumed the imperial dignity under the title of Napoleon the Greats 
 as the proclamation of the senate styled him. 
 
286 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 empire, as were the senators Kellermanii, Perignon, Lefevre, 
 and Serrurier. A few days after this event, began the trial of 
 the conspirators, implicated in the alleged design of overturn- 
 ing the consular government. Those who, at first, had found 
 means to elude pursuit, were taken shortly after the execution 
 of the Duke d'Enghien, and there were now more than one 
 hundred captives in the Temple, where all, excepting Moreau, 
 were treated with extreme severity. The separate interroga- 
 tories that had taken place had drawn from them no disclo- 
 sures ; Pichegru had undergone ten, but had professed his 
 intention of speaking openly, if brought before a legal tribunal, 
 when, on the morning of the 6th of April, he was found dead 
 in the cell which he occupied in the Temple. The government 
 announced that he died by his own hand, but it is generally 
 believed he fell a victim to private assassination. The death 
 of Captain Wright, who ended his life in the same prison, is 
 involved in equal uncertainty and suspicion. Georges Cadou- 
 dal, whose conduct was marked by the most stoical firmness, 
 might, however, have saved his life. OlTers of pardon and of 
 employment under the imperial government were made to 
 him in prison, which he rejected, saying, "My companions 
 followed me into France; I will follow them to death." The 
 regicide, Hemart, was named president of the special tribunal, 
 before which the trials of forty-nine prisoners commenced, on 
 the 28th of May. Bourrienne, who was a witness, describss 
 the anxiety which prevailed, and especially the admiration 
 with which the victor of Hohenlinden was regarded. In the 
 midst of the proceedings, General Lecourbe unexpectedly en- 
 tered the court, holding an infant in his arms, and exclaimad 
 in a strong voice, which yet trembled with emotion, " Soldiers, 
 behold the son of your general." All the military in the im- 
 mense hall, as if by a spontaneous sympathy, presented arras 
 to the child ; Moreau remained apparently the only uncon- 
 cerned spectator. Nothing in the evidence proved that he 
 was implicated in the conspiracy ; both his principles and 
 position rendered it moreover improbable he could have been 
 connected with the partisans of the Bourbons. Many of these 
 excited a lively interest, particularly the two princes, Jules 
 and Arnaud de Polignac, who each, in turn, implored the 
 judges to let the vengeance of the law fall upon him, but to 
 spare his brother. Arnaud, the Marquis de Riviere, Charles 
 d'Hozier, Georges and Jean Cadoudal, with sixteen others, 
 received sentence of death ; Jules de Polignac, Moreau, and 
 three more, were condemned to two years' imprisonment, 
 
XLIV.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 287 
 
 which, in the case of the general, was commuted to exile ; he 
 retired to America. Napoleon pardoned Arnaud de Polignac 
 at the instance of his lady, who was introduced to the empe- 
 ror by Josephine : the same clemency was extended to De 
 Riviere, and five others ; the rest underwent the sentence of 
 the law, on the 25th of June, with the same fortitude and 
 resignation they had displayed during their trial. Fouche had 
 long been at the head of the police, when, in 1802, Bonaparte 
 resolved to unite his department with that of pubhc justice, 
 of which he created a supreme judge. The secret agents of 
 Fouche had matured the conspiracy we have related, then de- 
 tected the rebels ; and, almost immediately after their execu- 
 tion, the minister was restored to his former functions. A 
 decree issued by Joseph Bonaparte, announced that the cere- 
 monies of the coronation were to be performed on the 9th of 
 October, in the Champ de Mars. The event was notified to 
 the bishops of France, with orders that the Feni Creator and 
 Te Deinn should be sung in the churches. An invitation was 
 despatched to the Pope to officiate at the ceremony of conse- 
 cration, and accepted by the aged pontiff, though labouring 
 under the united pressure of years and infirmity. He thought 
 that gratitude to Napoleon for the restoration of Catholicity in 
 France required this concession, and hoped, too, that an inter- 
 view between him and that sovereign might be productive of 
 consequences favourable to the advancement of religion. The 
 coronation was therefore deferred till his arrival. Pius VII. 
 reached Fontainebleau on the 25th of November. Napoleon 
 received him with respect, and three days later, they entered 
 Paris in the same carriage. Josephine had often demanded 
 that her union with the emperor might be sanctioned by the 
 blessing of the church. Before the coronation she reiterated 
 her request more forcibly ; and Napoleon, dreading the effect 
 of her absence on the following morning, gave his consent 
 that the ceremony should be privately performed. Cardinal 
 Fesch obtained a verbal dispensation from the Pope, in virtue 
 of which he married the royal pair, without witnesses, on the 
 1st of December. He made no difficulty the next day, of 
 delivering to Josephine, at her request, an attestation of the 
 deed, at which Napoleon expressed much displeasure, saying 
 to the cardinal, "Do you suppose, if I had really meant to be 
 married, I should have gone that way to work ? I am well 
 aware that all you have done is invalid." Hence the marriage 
 was not registered, and no notice of it appeared in the Moni- 
 ieiir. The Pope solemnized the ceremony of the coronation 
 
288 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [|CHAP. 
 
 on the following day, at the church of Notre Dame ; he 
 blessed the crown, but Napoleon himself placed it on his own 
 head, and then crowned his empress, who remained kneeling. 
 The constitutional bishops were not permitted to be present, 
 and, in this respect, Napoleon was conquered by the unbend- 
 ing firmness of the Pope. Pius re-entered his capital on the 
 18th of May, and was received at the door of St. Peter's, by 
 the Cardinal of York, dean of the sacred college. This esti- 
 mable prelate was the last of the descendants of James II., 
 and in him became extinct the unfortunate house of Stuart. 
 The sums of money exacted by Bonaparte at the treaty of 
 Tolentino were so exorbitant, that, to enable the Pope to pay 
 them, the Cardinal of York sold the valuable jewels he had 
 received from his maternal ancestors. He had remained in 
 Paris during the adventurous career of his brother in Scotland, 
 but immediately after its termination returned to Rome. 
 Charles Edward still lingered at the court of Versailles, 
 caressed and flattered for a time, then treated with neglect. 
 On his refusal to quit France, after the treaty of Aix-la-Cha- 
 pelle, he was seized, ignominiously pinioned, and conveyed 
 to the frontier. Before he returned to Rome, in 1750, he 
 paid a visit to London, and remained there a fortnight unmo- 
 lested. On the death of his father, in 1766, he assumed the 
 name of Count Albany, and married, in 1771, the youthful 
 Princess Stolberg. This union was by no means happy, they 
 had no children, and were often separated. In 1774, they 
 changed their residence from Rome to Florence, where the 
 count died in 1788. His estates in Poland, with much valu- 
 able property, devolved upon his brother, the cardinal, who, 
 notwithstanding, at the age of seventy-five, was reduced to 
 extreme poverty, by the revolutionary wars which distracted 
 Italy. This being made known in England, government 
 generously settled on him an annual pension of £4,000. It 
 does not appear that he ever took the title of king, though at 
 his brother's death a medal was struck, on which he is de- 
 scribed as, " Henry IX., by the grace of God, hut not by the 
 ivill of rnany He returned to Rome in 1801, and died, uni- 
 versally beloved and lamented, in July, 1807. Cardinal 
 York, named, by will, Monsignor Cesarini, as his testament- 
 ary executor, committing to him the care of several trunks 
 containing valuable papers, correspondence, &c. These, at 
 the change of government, in 1809, were intrusted to a do- 
 mestic, who concealed them carefully and died, carrying his 
 secret with him to the grave. They were found, however, in 
 
XLVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 289 
 
 1810, and purchased by an Englishman for the trifling sum 
 of 170 Roman crowns. The circumstance becoming known, 
 and the value of the documents ascertained, the pontifical go- 
 vernment caused the trunks to be seized, and declared the 
 purchase illegal, the vendor having no right to sell. Many 
 curious historical records were thus brought to light ; and a 
 careful examination having taken place, lest any should be 
 found that might compromise honourable individuals, the col- 
 lection was given up to the English government, and is still 
 preserved under the name of the Stuart Paj^ers. 
 
 One of Napoleon's first imperial measures was a pacific 
 one. He addressed a letter to the King of England, lamentino- 
 the continuance, and proposing the cessation of hostilities. 
 Lord Mulgrave, in reply, assured the French government, 
 that the King of England much wished that a peace, which 
 should provide for the future safety and tranquillity of Europe, 
 could be effected ; but added that, as his Britannic majesty 
 had entered into confidential connexions with the Emperor of 
 Russia and other continental powers, he could not, until he 
 should have ascertained the opinions of those powers on the 
 overture of the Emperor Napoleon, accept his proposal. 
 Some changes took place in the ministry in the beginning of 
 the year 1805, Mr. Addington being made lord president of 
 the council, in the room of the Duke of Portland, after having 
 been called to the Upper House, by the tide of Viscount 
 Sidmouth. In April, an accusation against Lord Melville, 
 first lord of the admiralty, respecting the disposal of the 
 public money, arrested the public attention. An inquiry 
 into abuses in the naval department had been instituted by the 
 Addington ministry, and not interrupted by their resignation 
 of office. Mr. Pitt, the warm advocate of the accused, taking 
 a diff*erent view of the subject. Lord Sidmouth resigned. On 
 the report of the commissioners appointed to institute an in- 
 quiry into his conduct. Lord Melville gave up his office, and 
 his name was erased from the list of privy-councillors. A 
 motion for his lordship's impeachment was proposed by Mr. 
 Whitbread and carried ; the trial began in the following April, 
 before the lords, the members of the House of Commons 
 being present in a committee of the whole House ; the result 
 was an honourable acquittal of the accused. 
 
 New schemes of ambition, successfully pursued by the 
 French emperor, irritated the allied powers, and gave strength 
 and energy to their confederation. In compliance with the 
 wish of the Italian republic, as expressed by its president, 
 
 27 
 
290 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAF. » 
 
 Melzi, Napoleon repaired to Milan, and was there crowned ^ 
 King of Italy, by the Pope's legate, with the requisite * 
 solemnities. Upon this occasion, the iron crown was taken 
 out of the case, in which it had reposed for ages ; Napoleon, 
 receiving it from the hands of the archbishop, placed it on his 
 own head, exclaiming aloud, " Die mi Vha data ; gua a chi 
 la toccaJ''^ which remarkable expression became the motto 
 of the order of the Iron Crown, founded by the emperor in 
 commemoration of this event. Eugene Beauharnais, the 
 son of Josephine, was now adopted by Napoleon and declared 
 his successor, in default of heirs male, on the throne of Italy, 
 of which kingdom he was appointed viceroy. A request from 
 the senate of Genoa presented to Napoleon, during his stay 
 at Milan, that their territory might be incorporated with . 
 France, was quickly granted ; and the annexation of Genoa I 
 to France was the immediate result of this compliance. The ' 
 Emperor Alexander had deputed Mr. Novolodowitz to Paris, 
 to act upon the overtures made by Napoleon to the court of 
 London. Irritated by the union of the Ligurian republic 
 with the French empire, and alarmed by the daily-increasing 
 power of Napoleon, he now recalled his ambassador and 
 signed a treaty of alUance with England. Austria, too, 
 roused by the same reasons from her temporizing system of 
 policy, made common cause with Russia and England, and 
 engaged to assist in effecting the expulsion of the French 
 from Italy, Hanover, and the north of Germany ; in securing 
 the independence of Holland and Switzerland; in replacing 
 the King of Sardinia in Piedmont ; in providing for the future 
 security of the kingdom of Naples ; and in establishing 
 such an order of things in Europe, as would effectually insure 
 the safety and independence of its several states. For the ac- 
 complishment of these purposes, the confederate powers of 
 the continent were to furnish 500,000 effective troops, and 
 Great Britain was to allow them a subsidy, at the rate of 12s. 
 Qd. per man. Sweden had, on the 3d of December, 1804, 
 entered into a secret convention with England, by which she 
 agreed that a depot of Hanoverian troops should be stationed 
 in Swedish Pomerania, and England engaged to advance 
 ^60,000, to be employed by Sweden in the defence of Stral- 
 sund. Great preparations were now made by France on the 
 one hand, and by Russia, Austria, England, and Sweden on 
 the other, for the approaching contest. The flotilla at Bou- 
 logne was dismantled, and the army so long intended for the 
 invasion of England, was ordered to the Rhine. Marmont, 
 
XL VI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 291 
 
 with the troops in Holland, and Bernadotte, with those in 
 Hanover, were ordered to the same destination. The French 
 forces were estimated at 651,000, of whom 500,000 were to 
 serve in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. 
 
 Austria sent large reinforcements to Italy, and ordered that 
 extensive military works should be constructed in the Vene- 
 tian territory. Her force was estimated at 250,000 men, of 
 whom three divisions were made — one to serve under the 
 Archduke Charles, in Italy ; one under General Mack, in 
 Germany, and one under the Archduke John, in the Tyrol. 
 
 A powerful Russian army was despatched towards the 
 Danube, to join the Austrians : reinforcements were sent, by 
 way of Constantinople and the Black Sea, to act jointly with 
 the English troops in the Mediterranean against the French 
 in Italy, and to augment the Russian force in the Seven 
 Islands ; and a peremptory order, from Russia to Bavaria, 
 commanded that the troops of that electorate should be incor- 
 porated with those of Austria. England prepared to de- 
 spatch a formidable force to co-operate with the Swedish and 
 Russian troops sent to Pomerania, in the recovery of Hano- 
 ver, and in gaining possession of Holland. 
 
 The Elector of Bavaria had hoped to preserve a neutrality, 
 during the continuance of the approaching conflict. He did 
 not therefore obey the Russian mandate. The Austrians, to 
 extort his compliance, crossed the Inn, September 8th, 1805 ; 
 the Bavarian troops, flying at their approach, took refuge in 
 Franconia ; and the elector himself retired to Wurtzburg. 
 
 The invasion of Bavaria hastened the departure of Napo- 
 leon from Paris. Having issued a decree for raising 400,000 
 conscripts, and for embodying the national guard ; and 
 appointed his brother Joseph to superintend the government 
 of the French empire, he set out for the frontiers on the 24th, 
 and on the 26th reached Strasburg. His troops, to the amount 
 of 140,000, passed the Rhine in six grand divisions. 
 
 The Austro-German army arrived towards the end oi 
 September, on the banks of the Lech. Bernadotte was de- 
 spatched by Napoleon with 40,000 towards the Inn, to op- 
 pose them, while he proceeded to attack General Mack in his 
 positions. Some battalions of the Austro-Italian army, sent 
 by the Archduke Charles to reinforce that general, were 
 attacked, and most of them made prisoners by the French, 
 Memmingen, with its large garrison, surrendered, on the 13th 
 of October, to Marshal Soult. The Austrian army was con- 
 centrated in the vicinity of Ulm, and thither the French has- 
 
292 ' GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 tened, they obliged the Austrians to take refuge within the 
 walls of the city, and then, surrounding it, summoned 
 General Mack to capitulate. The Austrian commander, : 
 reduced to the alternative of boldly marching out, and * 
 forcing a passage through the posts of the enemy, or of ' 
 surrendering his army, which was 30,000 strong, chose 
 the latter alternative, and on the 17th of October terms 
 of capitulation were settled. The Austrian officers were 
 permitted to return home on their parole, but the soldiers 1 
 were sent prisoners to France. Napoleon then advanced 1 
 to meet the remaining forces of the confederates. While I 
 he marched with the main army to Vienna, Mortier was | 
 directed to proceed along the left bank of the Danube, and | 
 to secure his left ; and Ney and Augereau his right. On 
 the 5th of November the French entered Lintz. Their rapid 
 advance excited the fears of the Emperor Francis for the 
 safety of his capital, and he despatched Count Ginlay to Lintz, 
 to propose an armistice. The terms on which it was conceded 
 by Napoleon, were rejected by Francis, and the French con- 
 tinued their march. Davoust's advanced guard defeated the 
 corps of Austrians under General Meerfield. The Russians, 
 Vv'ho had effected a junction with a part of the Austrian army, 
 now passed the Danube at Crems, and thus abandoned Vienna. 
 Francis had left that city for Moravia, on the 7th, after having 
 implored the lenity of the conqueror for its inhabitants ; and 
 on the 16th Napoleon entered it. His troops, arriving in 
 several divisions, passed through the city in pursuit of the 
 retreating army. After having appointed General Clarke 
 Governor-General of Upper and Lower Austria, he set out 
 from Vienna to join his army in Moravia. 
 
 The Emperors Francis and Alexander had now united 
 their armies, which, both together, consisted of about 100,000. 
 Their head-quarters were at Austerlitz, a town rendered memo- 
 rable by the murderous rencounter of the hostile armies on the 
 2d of December, at which three emperors vvere present. For 
 seven hours was victory contended for, with obstinate bravery, 
 by each army. The French were eventually successful, and 
 the confederates driven off the field with incalculable loss. 
 On the 4th of December an interview took place at the French 
 advanced posts, between the Emperors Francis and Napoleon ; 
 and an armistice, as a prelude to a general peace, was agreed 
 upon. 
 
 The French were equally successful in the Tyrol and in 
 Italy, as in Germany. The Austrian cabinet had purposed to 
 
XLVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 293 
 
 render Italy the chief theatre of war, and had hoped to drive 
 the French from that country, and restore it to its former state. 
 By the disaster of Mack's army, however, that of Italy lost 
 its chief support, and was obliged to limit itself to defensive, 
 in place of offensive operations. The same circumstance 
 which dispirited the Austrians, emboldened the French com- 
 mander, and he prepared to expel the Imperialists from the 
 Venetian territory. Marshal Massena's first operation ^vas to 
 force the passage of the Adige, which the Austrians vigorously 
 but ineffectually disputed. On the 2 1 st of October he defeated 
 them with great slaughter at Caldiero, and having received a 
 large reinforcement from Naples, under St. Cyr, compelled 
 the archduke to retreat towards Vienna. The combined 
 Frenck armies marched in pursuit of the retreating Austri- 
 ans ; and having accomplished their object in driving them 
 out of the Venetian territory, desisted from further pursuit, 
 and determined to hold their position in Italy, till the whole 
 of the Tyrol should be evacuated by the Austrians. The 
 Archduke John had bravely maintained himself in the Tyrol, 
 till Marshal Ney having entered Inspruck, he retreated towards 
 Carniola, to form a junction with the Archduke Charles, who 
 was at the same moment retreating before Massena. The 
 brothers having united their forces, fell back into Hungary. 
 The English and Russian troops, instead of arriving, as had 
 been projected, early in the campaign in the Venetian territory, 
 were debarked, during November, in the neutral territory oT 
 Naples. The allies suffered a disappointment, in addition to 
 the general failure of their plans, by the vacillating politics 
 of the King of Prussia. That monarch, offended by the pas- 
 sage of the French troops though the territory of Anspach, at 
 the onset of the German campaign, prepared to resent the 
 insult offered him, by joining the coalition against France. 
 But the defeat of Mack and the general success of the French 
 arms, effected a quick revolution in his purpose, and he sent 
 Count Haugwits to the French head-quarters to negotiate with 
 Napoleon. 
 
 But, great as were the achievements, and deep as were the 
 designs of France, all her plans were not attended with suc- 
 cess. Bonaparte had taken much pains during the preceding 
 year to strengthen his maritime forces. His exertions had 
 been seconded by Spain and Holland, and the united efforts 
 of these powers had rendered their ships sufficiently numerous 
 to dispute with confidence the dominion of the sea. The con- 
 
 27* 
 
294 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 federate fleet was stationed in several divisions round the 
 French and Spanish coast. 
 
 On the 3d of May, 1805, the Toulon fleet, commanded by- 
 Admiral Villeneuve, put to sea, and steered for Carthagena, 
 thence for Cadiz, and ultimately for the West Indies ; when 
 leaving the harbour of Cadiz, it consisted of eighteen ships 
 of the line, carrying, besides their full complement of sailors, 
 10,000 land-troops. Nelson left the Mediterranean in pursuit ■ 
 of tlie hostile fleet, with ten sail of the line, and reached Bar- 1 1 
 badoes on the 4th of June. The news of his arrival, though 
 with an inferior force, alarmed the French admiral, and he 
 sailed for Europe, without having made any conquest but that 
 of the Diamond Rock. The hostile fleet fell in with Sir 
 Robert Calder's squadron six leagues west of Cape Finisterre. 
 Sir Robert's force was fifteen sail of the line, two frigates, and 
 a cutter: that of Villeneuve, which had been augmented in its 
 cruise by the junction of some vessels, was twenty sail of 
 the line, fifty gun-ships, five frigates, and two brigs. Sir 
 Robert attacked the enemy, and after an engagement of four 
 hours, took two ships of the line. Satisfied with his capture, 
 he ordered the action to cease, and suff'ered the remaining 
 French armament to make the ports of Vigo and Ferrol. For 
 not having made greater exertions to annihilate the enemy's 
 force, he was tried and reprimanded by an English court 
 martial. 
 
 • Lord Nelson, on his arrival in London after liis fruitless 
 pursuit of the PVench fleet, was off'ered, and accepted the 
 command of an additional armament. He sailed, on the 16th 
 of September, for Cadiz, and on the 19th reached that port. 
 To deceive the enemy into a belief that his force was small, 
 and to entice them out to sea, he stationed but a few ships 
 before Cadiz, and remained himself with the rest of his forces 
 ofl" Cape St. Mary. Finding this stratagem inefl'ectual, and 
 knowing that a strong reinforcement had sailed from England 
 to join him, he openly detached General Louis for stores and 
 ammunition to Tetuan. Admiral Villeneuve, supposing the 
 English fleet much enfeebled by this separation, resolved to 
 put to sea during the absence of Louis, and accordingly, on 
 the 19th of October, sailed from Cadiz. On the 21st, at day- 
 break, the fleets came within sight of each other off* Cape 
 Trafalgar. Admiral Villeneuve formed the ships under his 
 command into a close line of battle. The enemy's fleet con- 
 sisted of thirty-three sail of the line, and seven frigates, some 
 
XLVI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 295 
 
 of which were Spanish vessels, commanded by Admiral Gra- 
 vina. Lord Nelson's force was twenty-seven sail of the line, 
 and forty-four frigates. Admiral Collingvvood was his second 
 in command. The action began about twelve, and was main- 
 tained till four. During its continuance innumerable feats of 
 gallantry were displayed, and great losses sustained on both 
 sides. The capture of nineteen sail of the line and three 
 frigates by the British, showed them victorious. But their 
 loss counterbalanced their victory, and the resuk of the action 
 of Trafalgar, like that of the battles of Quebec and of Aboukir, 
 was to England a sorrowful triumph. Lord Nelson was mor- 
 tally wounded in the heat of the action, and expired soon after 
 its close. The ardour of his patriotism was not abated by 
 the approach of death. Though his wound was of such a 
 nature as to render his surviving hours intensely agonizing, 
 his mind still dwelt upon the event of the battle, and he made 
 no allusion to its attending catastrophe, till Captain Hardy had 
 assured him that all the English ships retained their colours. 
 His accustomed self-indifference and care of his soldiers were, 
 on this trying occasion, eminently conspicuous ; he would re- 
 ceive no medical assistance, till it had been administered to 
 such of them as were wounded. " Go," said he to the sur- 
 geon, who, conceiving him the first object of solicitude, hung 
 over him with officious tenderness, " attend to those to whom 
 you maybe useful; for me you can do nothing." When 
 Captain Hardy apprized him that fifteen at least of the enemy's 
 ships were captured, he replied, " That's well, but I bargained 
 for twenty," He repeatedly added, " Thank God, I have done 
 my duty." These were his last words. He survived the 
 enemy's fatal aim three hours and a quarter. Of the fourteen 
 remaining enemy's ships, ten made for Cadiz under Admiral 
 Gravina, and four took a more southerly direction under Ad- 
 miral Dumanoir. The latter fell in with, and were forced to 
 strike to Sir Richard Strachan, off Ferrol, after an action of 
 four hours' continuance. 
 
 Peace between France and Austria was ultimately concluded 
 on the 25th of December, at Presburg. Napoleon was ac- 
 knowledged King of Italy, to which Venice was united ; his 
 allies, the Electors of Bavaria and Wirtemberg, were raised to 
 the regal dignity, and received an increase of territory taken 
 from Austria ; Tuscany, Parma, and Placentia, were added to 
 the French empire ; Lucca and the principality of Piombina 
 were given to Elise Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister. Prussia 
 was included in this treaty ; besides renouncing to her rights 
 
296 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 in favour of Bavaria, over the margravate of Anspach, she 
 ceded the grand-duchy of Berg to the French emperor, who 
 presented it to his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat. By the 
 treaty of Presburg, it was estimated that Austria lost 2,700,000 
 subjects, and a revenue of 16,000,000 of florins, while the ces- 
 sion of the Tyrol and her exclusion from Italy greatly dimi- 
 nished her political consequence. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 FROM THE TREATY OF PRESBURG, IN 1805, TO THAT OF TILSIT, 
 IN 1807. 
 
 The year 1806 opened upon England with melancholy 
 prospects. The disasters of the Austro-Russian campaign, 
 and the dissolution of the confederacy, which it had been the 
 masterpiece of Mr. Pitt's policy to eflfect, were trials which 
 the enfeebled frame of that celebrated statesman was ill able 
 to support. A fever, followed by a general debility, compelled 
 him, at the close of the year 1805, to withdraw entirely from 
 public aff'airs, and he died on the ensuing 23d of January, 
 leaving the country involved in difficulties of no common 
 magnitude. Whatever diversity of opinion may exist as to 
 his political plans, it must at least be admitted, that his bril- 
 liant talents were exclusively devoted to the public good ; and 
 if the means he made choice of were unsuccessful, their adop- 
 tion was rather an error than a crime. Parliament attested its 
 sense of his services, by the erection of a monument to his 
 memory in Westminster Abbey ; and as he had never attended 
 to his own emolument, a sum of 5640,000 was unanimously 
 voted for the payment of his debts. The death of Mr. Pitt 
 produced an almost total change in the ministry: the talents 
 of all the various parties were combined, and the leading men 
 of each selected, to form the new cabinet, of which Lord 
 Grenville and Mr. Fox were the principal members. Public 
 confidence thus began to revive, and Parliament resumed its 
 labours with increased vigour. The abolition of the slave- 
 trade, which had been long desired by the friends of humanity 
 in this country, and supported by the eloquence of Mr. Pitt, 
 whenever it was brought before Parliament, was now pursued 
 with so much ardour and sincerity, as to give security for the 
 final result. Two bills, one prohibiting the exportation of 
 
XLVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 297 
 
 slaves from the colonies, the other preventing the increase of 
 British slave-trade in all its branches, passed both Houses and 
 received the royal assent. An address was moreover present- 
 ed by Parliament to the king, praying his interference with 
 foreign powers for the total abolition of that inhuman traffic. 
 Another important measure, introduced by the new ministry, 
 limited military service to a fixed term of years ; at the expi- 
 ration of which, the soldier was to have a right to claim his 
 discharge. But no part of our domestic policy during this 
 year excited more lively interest, than an inquiry into the 
 conduct of one of the members of the royal family. Repre- 
 sentations to the disadvantage of the Princess of Wales having 
 been made to the prince, her husband, and communicated by 
 him to the king. Lords Erskine, Spencer, Grenville, and El- 
 lenborough were appointed commissioners for the purpose of 
 investigation : their labours terminated in a full acquittal of 
 the accused. 
 
 A plan for the assassination of Bonaparte was about this 
 time submitted to the British minister by a foreigner, who 
 seemed to expect his concurrence ; but Mr. Fox, with his 
 characteristic generosity, hesitated not to send an immediate 
 warning to Talleyrand, indicating the assassin's name and resi- 
 dence. Several communications between the two ministers 
 were the result of this proceeding ; and negotiations for peace 
 were entered into and carried on during the whole year, but 
 led, in the end, to no satisfactory result. An attempt at paci- 
 fication between France and Russia was equally unsuccessful. 
 While such was the state of affairs in England, new plans of 
 conquest and dominion were framed, and pardy executed by 
 the French emperor. The tacit permission given by the King 
 of Naples to the debarkation of the English and Russian troops 
 upon his territory during the preceding year, was a violation 
 of a treaty between him and Napoleon, which stipulated that 
 Naples should remain neutral during the contest between the 
 French emperor and the confederates. 
 
 Scarcely was the treaty of Presburg signed, when Napoleon 
 vowed vengeance against what he termed " the perfidy of the 
 King of Naples," announcing by proclamation that the Nea- 
 politan dynasty had ceased to reign, and, shortly after, that 
 Joseph Bonaparte should fill the throne thus vacated, under 
 whose command a French army was quickly despatched to 
 effect this purpose. On the 12th of February, Capua was 
 invested by the French troops. Next day a deputation from 
 the city waited upon Joseph, and signed a capitulation, by 
 
298 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 which Peischieri, Gaieta, Naples, and other fortresses were 
 surrendered. But the Prince of Hesse Phihppstal, commander 
 of the garrison of Gaieta, refused to accede to the capitulation, I 
 and announced his intention of defending the fortress to the ' 1 
 last extremity. Joseph Bonaparte made his entry into Naples 
 on the 15th, the royal family having previously departed for 
 Palermo. The English and Russian troops, whose landing I j 
 upon the Neapolitan shore had caused the rupture between ^ ■ 
 Napoleon and Ferdinand, retreated upon the first demonstra- 
 tion of Bonaparte's anger; the Russians to their own country, 
 the English to Sicily. Sir Sidney Smith, who had taken the 
 command of the fleet destined for the defence of that island, 
 early in April, and had introduced into Gaieta stores and pro- 
 visions, tried ineflectually to rouse the Calabrians against the 
 French. At length, at the earnest request of the court of 
 Palermo, Sir John Stuart, who commanded a body of British 
 troops in Sicily, embarked 4800 men, and on the 1st of July 
 effected a landing in the bay of Euphemia, and invited the in- 
 habitants to join his standard. Reignier, the French general, 
 advanced from Reggio to meet the English army, and on the 
 morning of the 3d reached the plains of Maida. After a battle 
 of some hours' continuance in this place, Reignier's troops, 
 consisting of 7000 men, were completely routed : 4000 men 
 fell on their side ; 282 on that of the conquerors. But this 
 success of the English served no object. It did not prevent, I 
 it hardly even retarded, the subjugation of the Neapolitan 
 territory. The Calabrians were indeed roused by it to a 
 temporary insurrection ; but Sir J. Stuart, disgusted with the 
 barbarous system of warfare pursued by those insurgents, and 
 conscious that the force under him was insuflicient to effect 
 the liberation of Naples, returned to Messina. The garrison 
 of Gaieta, after a resistance that fixed the admiration of Europe 
 upon its commander, was forced to capitulate. The Cala- 
 brians, despairing of success when deserted by the English, 
 followed the general example, and bowed to the yoke of the 
 foreigner. 
 
 It was not alone in Naples that the French emperor's thirst 
 for glory, and for the aggrandizement of his family, showed 
 itself. On the 31st of March, various decrees were presented 
 for acceptance to the senate. By these, Joseph Bonaparte 
 was declared King of Naples ; Murat, Grand Duke of Berg 
 and Cleves, and the Princess Pauline, Princess of Guastalla: 
 the principality of Neufchatel was given to Berthier; and 
 many other states in Italy were created duchies and bestowed 
 
XLVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 299 
 
 upon the emperor's favourites.* On the 5th of June, Lewis 
 Bonaparte was created King of Holland, with a stipulation, 
 however, that that kingdom should be still considered part of 
 France, and subject to the control of the French emperor. 
 
 Anxious to secure the allegiance of all his subjects, Napo- 
 leon convoked the Jews from all the cities of the empire, to 
 meet at Paris on the 26th of July; agreed to bestow stipends 
 on their priests, and gave such a form to their church esta- 
 blishment, as placed the Jewish rabbi under the influence and 
 control of government. These arrangements made, Napo- 
 leon resolved to create an association in Germany, over which 
 he should preside. The princes destined to compose the 
 new confederacy, were the Emperor of France, the Kings of 
 Bavaria and Wirtemburg, the Archbishop of Ratisbon, the 
 Elector of Baden, the Duke of Berg, the Landgrave of Hesse 
 Darmstadt, and several of the minor German princes. The 
 ostensible object of the confederates, as stated in their deed 
 of union, signed at Paris on the 12th of July, was, to secure 
 the peace of Southern Germany. They agreed to separate 
 from the Germanic body, to remain permanently united under 
 the designation of the "Confederation of the Rhine," and to 
 submit their public concerns to a congress, which should sit 
 
 * List of the principal titles conferred at different times by Bonaparte. 
 
 Prince of Essling Marshal Massena. 
 
 Prince of Benevento Talleyrand. 
 
 Prince of Echmiihl Marshal Davoust. 
 
 Duke of Abrantes Marshal Junot. 
 
 Duke of Albufera Count Sachet. 
 
 Duke of Bassano Maret, Secretary of State. 
 
 Duke of Belluno Marshal Victor. 
 
 Duke of Cadore Champagny, Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Duke of Castiglione Marshal Augereau. 
 
 Duke of Dalmatia Marshal Soult. 
 
 Duke of Dantzic Marshal Lefebre. 
 
 Duke of Elchingen Marshal Ney. 
 
 Grand Duke of Florence. . . .General Bacchioche. 
 
 Duke of Montebello Marshal Lasnes. 
 
 Duke of Freltre General Clarke. 
 
 Duke of Gaeta General Gaudin. 
 
 Duke of Otranto General Fouche. 
 
 Duke of Parma General Cambaceres. 
 
 Duke of Placenza Marshal Le Brun. 
 
 Duke of Ragusa Marshal Marmont. 
 
 Duke of Reggio Marshal Oudinot. 
 
 Duke of Rovigo General Savary. 
 
 Duke of Tarento Marshal Macdonald. 
 
 Duke of Treviso Marshal Mortier. 
 
300 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP, 
 
 at Frankfort. They mutually promised to enter into no ser- 
 vice but that of the confederation; and that if one member of 
 their union should be involved in war, all the others should 
 arm in his defence. Bonaparte was named head of the con- 
 federation, and his command was to be the signal for taking- 
 the field. 
 
 The formation of this confederacy was followed by a requi- 
 sition from Napoleon to Francis II. to renounce the title of 
 Emperor of Germany, with whicli humiliating mandate the 
 Austrian monarch unhesitatingly complied. To induce the 
 King of Prussia to acquiesce in the new arrangements, he was 
 led to believe that a similar union, under his own auspices, 
 might be formed in the north of Germany. But the hopes of 
 the Prussian monarch were soon proved delusive, by a decla- 
 ration of Napoleon that he meant to take the Hanse towns 
 under his own protection. Nor was this the only instance in 
 which tlie political plans of Prussia brought disappointment 
 to their contriver. The subserviency of Frederic William to 
 Bonaparte served but to alienate from his cause the powers of 
 Europe in general, and England and Sweden in particular. 
 He had negotiated with France after the violation of the ter- 
 ritory of Anspach ; he had attacked the troops of the King 
 of Sweden in taking possession of Hanover, which he had 
 accepted in contempt of the rights of England, and had ag- 
 gravated his offence by prohibiting the navigation of the Elbe, 
 Weser, and Ems to British trading or merchant-vessels. Re- 
 taliatory measures had been taken by England and Sweden. 
 By the latter, an embargo was laid on all Prussian vessels in 
 the Baltic ; by the former, on all such vessels in the ports of 
 the United Kingdom, and the English mission had be&n re- 
 called from Berlin. The Prussian monarch was ill repaid for 
 the forfeited goodwill of England and Sweden, by him in 
 compliance with whose wishes he had acted. In the partition . 
 of territories among Bonaparte's dependants, the duchy of » 
 Berg and Cleves was given to Murat. The deceit practised 
 by Napoleon to effect the Rhenish confederation, roused the 
 long dormant spirit of Frederic William, and he announced 
 his intention to revenge the insults offered him by an appeal 
 to the sword. 
 
 While the hostile armies prepared to take the field, Eng- 
 land suffered a severe affliction, in the death of one of her 
 most enlightened statesmen. Mr. Fox, whose health had 
 been declining for some years previous to his accession to 
 the ministry, sunk under the fatigues of office, and on the 
 
XLVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 301 
 
 13th of September closed his mortal career. His system of 
 policy, like that of Mr. Pitt, is variously commented upon, 
 and alternately censured and approved. The pacific politics 
 of Mr. Fox indicated at least a humane mind ; and the period 
 of his ministry, however short, will be ever conspicuous in 
 the annals of his country, as having contributed to the gene- 
 ral civilization of Europe by the abolition of the African slave- 
 trade. 
 
 Bonaparte was not slow in accepting the challenge of the 
 Prussian monarch. He left Paris on the 24th of September 
 to join his armies, which had already assembled in Franconia, 
 and now marched in three divisions for Saxony. The Prus- 
 sian army was stationed north of Frankfort on the Maine ; its 
 right wing was commanded by Blucher, its centre by the Duke 
 of Brunswick, and its left by Prince Hohenlohe. 
 
 The hostile armies, each consisting of about 150,000 men, 
 met on the 24th of October, between Jena, Weimar, and Au- 
 erstadt. An obstinate battle ensued, in which the Prussians 
 were completely defeated : the Duke of Brunswick, their ge- 
 neral, received a mortal wound during the action ; and upwards 
 of 20,000 men were left dead or wounded upon the field. 
 From 20 to 30,000 prisoners, with 300 pieces of artillery, fell 
 also into the hands of the French.* Prince Hohenlohe, with 
 
 * Napoleon entered Weimar the same day, exceedingly irritated against 
 the duke, who commanded one of the divisions of the Prussian army. 
 Apartments had been prepared at the palace for his reception, and the 
 duchess stood at the top of the staircase when he entered. Napoleon 
 started when he beheld her. " Who are you 1" said he, with his charac- 
 teristic abruptness. " I am the Duchess of Weimar." " I pity you," ha 
 replied harslily, " I shall crush your husband : let me have dinner at my 
 own apartment." The following morning, however, he seemed desirous 
 to atone for the violence of the eve, and when the duchess sent to solicit 
 an audience, he proposed to breakfast in her company. During the repast. 
 Napoleon said, *' How could your husband, madam, be so foolish as to 
 make war against me?" "Your majesty," replied the duchess, " would 
 have despised him had he not done so. He has been upwards of thirty 
 years in the service of the King of Prussia, and it was not when that mo- 
 narch had so powerful an enemy to contend with, that the duke could 
 abandon him." This prudent and complimentary reply was irresistible : 
 Bonaparte was at once soothed and flattered, and continued his interroga- 
 tories. " How came the duke to attach himself to the King of Prussia !" 
 " Your majesty will on inquiry find that the Dukes of Saxony, as younger 
 branches of the family, have always followed the example of the electoral 
 house; and your majesty knows what motives of prudence and policy have 
 led the court of Dresden to attach itself to Prussia rather than Austria." 
 This was followed by further inquiries, and answers so impressive, that 
 Napoleon exclaimed with warmth, " Madam, you are the most estimable 
 
 28 . 
 
302 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 the wreck of the Prussian army, retreated towards Stettin, but 
 was overtaken at Prentzlow by Murat ; and foreseeing that a 
 renewal of defeat would be the result of battle, he surrendered 
 his forces, amounting to 17,000 men. 15,000 Prussians, 
 under the command of Blucher, with the corps of the Duke 
 of Weimar, effected a retreat through Lubeck towards Danish 
 Holstein. At Savorten, finding the enemy at hand, and know- 
 ing his forces to be unequal to a contest, Blucher also was 
 compelled to surrender. 
 
 The other divisions of the Prussian retreating army were 
 severally defeated. All the principal Prussian fortresses opened 
 their gates to the French ; and Napoleon, after having passed 
 through Potsdam, where he visited the tomb, and seized the 
 sword, scarf, and riband of the great Frederic, entered Berlin 
 on the 27th. There he was waited on by deputations from 
 the Lutheran and Reformed churches, and by ambassadors 
 from the powers with whom he was at peace ; and from 
 thence he issued a decree declaring the British Islands in a 
 state of blockade, prohibiting all commerce with England, 
 and the entry of all ships into British ports, under penalty of 
 exclusion from the harbours under the control of France ; and 
 ordering the stoppage of all letters addressed to Englishmen 
 or written in England. The decree stated that these regula- 
 tions were but retaliatory upon England, for her having vi 
 lated the law of nations, in considering every individual 
 longing to a hostile state as an enemy, and in having extendei 
 her right of blockade " beyond all reasonable limits, to places! 
 before which she had no ship of war, and even to whole coasts 
 and kingdoms." Nearly contemporary with this decree, was 
 an imperial act, which conferred upon the Elector of Saxony 
 the title of King, as a recompense for his having been reluc- 
 tant to join Prussia against France. For contrary conduct, 
 the Elector of Hesse and the Duke of Brunswick were de- 
 prived of their respective territories. Detachments of French 
 troops were sent to take possession of Hanover, Mecklenburg, 
 Fulda, Cassel, and Hamburg. At the latter city all British 
 property was put under sequestration. Napoleon intrusted 
 the government of Berlin to the Prince of Hatzfeld, who, 
 thinking no doubt that the right of conquest did not disengage 
 him from the fidelity he owed to his former master and sove- 
 
 woman I ever knew : you have saved your husband." After the emperor's 
 departure from Weimar for Berlin, he often repeated this eulogium. The 
 territory of Weimar was afterwards declared to form part of the Rhenish 
 confederation, and its independence thus nominally secured. 
 
 a- 
 
 esTi 
 
XLVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 303 
 
 reign, profited of the facilities his position afforded him of 
 conveying intelligence to the King of Prussia. His despatches 
 were opened at the frontier post and sent to Napoleon, by 
 whose orders the prince was on the point of being given over 
 to a military commission to be judged as a traitor, when his 
 wife came to throw herself at the feet of the emperor, conjur- 
 ing him not to believe what she felt assured must be a false 
 imputation. Napoleon, putting the letter into her hands, 
 mildly replied, " You must know your own husband's writing, 
 madam, be you his judge." While the princess, pale and 
 trembling, perused the fatal document, the emperor appeared 
 touched with compassion. " Well, madam," he said, " you 
 have the letter in your hand, and there is a fire in the apart- 
 ment ; if that single piece were annihilated, I should have no 
 other proof against your husband." It may easily be imagined 
 with what joy and promptitude the princess availed herself 
 of the significant hint. 
 
 The King of Prussia tried, after the batde of Jena, to 
 negotiate with his conqueror : but the terms laid down by 
 Napoleon as an unalterable basis were so extravagant, that 
 Frederic determined to continue the war, whatever might be 
 its result, and he waited at Konigsberg, after the failure of his 
 negotiation, for the arrival of reinforcements and of the Russian 
 auxiliaries he had been led to expect. The war, which partly 
 withdrew the attention of Russia from the general theatre of 
 action, was undertaken against Turkey. Alexander, offended 
 by a treaty which engaged the exclusion of Russian ships from 
 the Dardanelles, ordered General Micholson to invade Walla- 
 chia. The Turks, in retaliation, declared war in form against 
 Russia. An English frigate, under Sir John Duckworth, 
 advancing to mediate between the two powers, served but to 
 heighten the indignation of the Porte. All British property 
 at Smyrna and Salonica was put under sequestration. This 
 war was, however, on the whole, unfavourable to Turkey ; 
 her fleet, in an action which took place between it and that of 
 Russia, was almost annihilated. 
 
 The French now crossed the Oder in two divisions ; one 
 of which, commanded by Jerome Bonaparte, reduced Silesia ;- 
 the other, under Marshal Davoust, advanced to the Vistula, 
 and in November entered Warsaw, which the Russians had 
 abandoned. An important action was fought in the neighbour- 
 hood of Pultush on the 26th of December. In this engagement 
 the loss was great on both sides, but the French were victo- 
 rious. The Russians now retreated towards Ostrolenka, and 
 
304 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAF. 
 
 the French made dispositions for winter-quarters. In the 
 mean time the fortresses of Dantzic, Colburg, and Stralsuud 
 were closely besieged by the French, who under Jerome de- 
 feated the Silesian troops, and reduced the fortresses of Bres- 
 lau, Brieg, and Schweidnitz. 
 
 The superiority of the British navy was maintained this 
 year, by the close blockade of the enemy's ports, and the de- 
 feat of such ships as ventured out to sea. A squadron under 
 Admiral Villanaux, escaping from Brest, made for the West 
 Indies in two divisions, one of which was shattered by a storm, 
 and the other attacked and defeated by Sir John Duckworth. 
 An expedition which had sailed from England in the August 
 of 1805, for the conquest of the Cape of Good Hope, equally 
 attained its object. Sir Home Popham and Sir David Baird 
 commanded the forces sent upon this service. The English 
 troops effected a landing at Saldanha Bay, early in January, 
 and defeated the troops of General Jansens, who had assembled 
 to oppose their progress. The surrender of Cape Town was 
 the immediate result of this victory ; and General Jansens, 
 who had retired to Hottentot Hollands Kloof, was prevailed 
 upon to surrender, on condition that he and his troops should 
 be sent to Holland, and not considered prisoners of war. The 
 English government had been chiefly instigated to this expedi- 
 tion, by the representations of Sir Home Popham. His advice 
 had been also asked, upon the policy of making an attack upon 
 Buenos Ayres; but before his departure for the Cape, the in- 
 tention of gaining a position for the British troops in South 
 America had been relinquished. No sooner, however, was 
 the conquest of the Cape effected, than the English commander, 
 elated by success, determined to employ the fleet, which had 
 sailed with him for this service, in an attack upon Buenos Ayres. 
 Having persuaded Sir David Baird into an approval of his plan, , 
 and obtained from him a small body of land-forces, he madei 
 for Rio Plata, about the middle of April, and reached that des-l 
 tination early in June. The arrival of the English was unex- 
 pected, and their landing therefore unopposed by the Spaniards, 
 who fled at their approach. Buenos Ayres was taken without 
 resistance, but the British forces, 16,000 men, were insufficient 
 to retain the conquest. The Spaniards, soon recovering from 
 the panic into which they had been thrown, surrounded the 
 city, attacked its invaders, and, after a desperate conflict, 
 obliged them to surrender. During the recapture of Buenos 
 Ayres, Sir Home Popham was riding in safety off the coast. 
 In October, he made dispositions for the conquest of Monte 
 
XLVII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 305 
 
 Video. Satisfied, however, with having effected the debarka- 
 tion of a body of troops upon the coast, and gained a safe 
 anchorage for his ships, he remained inactive during the 
 remainder of the year. His having undertaken the South 
 American expedition without authority, was pronounced rash 
 and censurable, by a court martial. 
 
 Differences between the United States of America and Eng- 
 land had long existed, and assumed, this year, such a character 
 as rendered negotiation necessary to avert serious conse- 
 quences. The United States complained of the impressment 
 by the British navy of British seamen, found on board Ameri- 
 can vessels on the high seas ; of the violation of their rights, 
 as neutrals, by the seizure of their merchantmen, though en- 
 gaged in what they conceived lawful commerce ; and of an 
 infringement of their maritime jurisdiction on their own coasts. 
 Conferences were appointed to be held in London for the adjust- 
 ment of these differences. They terminated in a treaty, from 
 which the American President withheld his ratification. 
 
 During this year, the Haitians rose again ; not, as formerly, 
 to emancipate themselves from the yoke of the foreigner, but 
 to depose their chosen chief, Dessalines, who had assumed the 
 title of emperor, and was become an object of popular odium. 
 He was assassinated, and Christophe appointed to succeed 
 him. The new chief, whose election was unsuccessfully 
 opposed by the mulattoes, with Petion at their head, exercised 
 the authority conferred upon him, in promoting objects of 
 national utility. He opened to neutral nations the commerce 
 of his dominions, on liberal terms. 
 
 The Parliament of Great Britain having been dissolved after 
 the completion of the ministerial arrangements, which were 
 the result of Mr. Fox's demise, met again on the 16th of De- 
 cember. A new system of finance, suggested by Lord Henry 
 Petty, was favourably received by the nation ; and, in pursu- 
 ance of the two resolutions adopted by the preceding Parlia- 
 ment, relative to the slave-trade, a law was now enacted to 
 effect its entire abolition. (1807.) A bill brought in by Lord 
 Ho wick for the relief of Roman Catholics and Dissenters, 
 caused the dissolution of the existing ministry. The measure 
 was conceived in a wise and enlightened spirit of legislation ; 
 it proposed the attainment of national unanimity, at a period 
 when the daily-increasing power of England's inveterate 
 enemy required all her united energies for its suppression. 
 Such, however, was not the view in which it was contemplated 
 from a quarter whence rejection would be annihilation to the 
 
 28* 
 
306 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 bill. The king conceived that acquiescence on his part in the 
 proposed enactment, would be a violation of his coronation 
 oath. Ministers, therefore, withdrew their measure ; but, 
 rather than pledge themselves, as was his majesty's wish, 
 never again to propose the emancipation of their Catholic 
 fellow-subjects, they resigned their appointments. A new 
 ministry was quickly formed, in which the Duke of Portland 
 was first lord of the treasury ; Lord Eldon, chancellor ; Mr. 
 Percival, chancellor of the exchequer; Lord Casdereagh, 
 secretary for the war department; Lord Liverpool, for the 
 home department; Mr. Canning, for foreign affairs, and Lord 
 Mulgrave, first lord of the admiralty. 
 
 From the day of the battle of Pultush, till the end of Janu- 
 ary, no action of importance took place between the armies 
 of France and Russia. Napoleon left Warsaw towards the 
 close of the month. On the 7th of February, the hostile 
 armies, endeavouring to gain an eminence behind Eylau, which 
 commands the entrance into the town, came to a general en- 
 gagement. The Russians, after contending for victory with 
 a firmness and perseverance which rendered the issue of the 
 battle long doubtful, were obliged to quit the field. After this 
 battle, the French returned to winter-quarters, and the Russians, j 
 retired to Konigsberg. Bonaparte covered the line of the! 
 Vistula, and concentrated his army in cantonments to thej 
 westward of that river. Great exertions, in the mean time,! 
 were made by the French for the reduction of Graudentz,] 
 Colberg, and Dantzic ; and by both the grand armies for the' 
 recruiting of their shattered forces. Reinforcements were 
 daily arriving at the Russian head-quarters. Bonaparte called 
 out the conscripts for 1808, ordered a new levy of troops to 
 be made in Switzerland, and those under Mortier, in the north 
 of Germany and in various other stations, to join his standard, 
 on the Vistula. The Russians, resolving to allow the French 
 no respite,, often attacked them in their cantonments, and the 
 skirmishes which ensued were attended with serious loss to 
 both parties. 
 
 On the 17th of April, the Emperor of Russia and the King 
 of Prussia arrived at Bartenstein, and proceeded to Heilsburg, 
 the head-quarters of the allied army. Dantzic was still besieged, 
 and still defended with undiminished obstinacy. At length, 
 however, all hope of relief failing, the governor proposed a 
 conditional surrender. His proposal was accepted, and the 
 garrison marched out with the honours of war. 
 
 The partial actions which took place between the 5th and 
 
XL VII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 307 
 
 12th of June, terminated in favour of the French, notwithstand- 
 ing the numerous instances of valour on the part of the Rus- 
 sians. On the 14th was fought one of the most memorable 
 battles that even this age of almost ceaseless warfare has be- 
 queathed to the record of the historian. The field of action 
 lay to the south of Friedland. The contest was maintained 
 from a little after five in the morning till seven in the evening, 
 with doubtful success ; but terminated in the total defeat of the 
 allied forces. They retreated after the battle through Tilsit to 
 the Niemen, with Murat in pursuit. An armistice was now 
 proposed by General Beningsen, which was accepted by the 
 conquerors and concluded at Tilsit. It was agreed that one 
 of a similar nature should be concluded with Prussia, within 
 the course of five days, and that plenipotentiaries should be 
 appointed by the three powers to adjust terms of peace. 
 
 On the 25th, the two emperors, so lately in arms against 
 each other, had an interview on the banks of the Niemen, and 
 embraced with all the apparent cordiality of long-established 
 friendship. Napoleon began the conference by some polite 
 phrases with regard to the mutability of warlike success. At 
 this moment the King of Prussia w^as announced. His emo- 
 tion, which was perfectly visible, may be easily conceived; 
 his dominions were overrun, and he had no hope but in the 
 moderation of the victor. The French emperor seemed 
 touched with compassion, and invited him and his queen to 
 dinner. While they were seating themselves at table. Napo- 
 leon seized the opportunity of telling his fair guest that he 
 restored to her Silesia, a province which she was very desir- 
 ous should be allotted to Prussia in the now-pending negotia- 
 tions. The emperors fixed upon Tilsit as their place of 
 residence, during the arrangement of preliminaries. Each 
 occupied his quarter, separated by the Niemen, while the 
 King and Queen of Prussia had for a time no other habitation 
 than a windmill beyond the city. 
 
 While Russia and Prussia w^ere engaged in the contest 
 which ended in their desertion of England, the latter abated 
 none of her accustomed efforts to promote the object for 
 which she allied with the continental monarchs. But victory 
 w^as not always faithful to her standard. The fleet sent 
 to the Dardanelles, under Sir J. Duckworth, forced the pas- 
 sage of these straits, (Feb. 19, 1807,) in compliance with 
 instructions from the English government, which likewise or- 
 dered that the British admiral should demand the surrender 
 of all the Turkish ships and vessels of war, and that the re- 
 
308 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 fusal of the Porte should be followed by the immediate bom- 
 bardment of Constantinople. The English fleet, in its passage 
 between Sestos and Abydos, sustained a heavy fire from the 
 castles. Overcoming this difliculty, it reached the island of 
 Princes, within eight miles of Constantinople, and thence 
 despatched a flag of truce to the Seraglio, with assurances of 
 friendship, should the Porte accept the proposals of the Bri- 
 tish government, and of determined hostility should she reject 
 them. Pacific overtures, and a consequent suspension of 
 hostilities, continued till the 27th. This interval was em- 
 ployed by the Turks in strengthening their fortifications ; so 
 that when a decided negative was given to the proposed sur- 
 render, the whole Turkish coast was lined with batteries. 
 Sir J. Duckworth, conceiving his situation perilous, hastened 
 to repass the Dardanelles ; not, however, without receiving 
 much damage by the firing from the castles. This enterprise 
 was followed by an expedition to Egypt, which also proved 
 unsuccessful. Alexandria surrendered without resistance to 
 5,000 men under General Eraser ; but an attempt upon Ro- 
 setta was repulsed with loss to the English, and the assailants 
 hearing that the inhabitants of Cairo were preparing to expel 
 them from the captured city, proposed to evacuate Egypt, if 
 the Turks would consent to restore the prisoners taken by 
 them at Rosetta. These conditions being accepted, they re- 
 embarked on the 22d of September. 
 
 Though the unauthorized attack of Sir H. Popham upon 
 the Spanish possessions in South America was censured by 
 a court martial, it was deemed advisable to follow up his suc- 
 cesses. On the 5th of January, the English troops arrived 
 at Maldonado. They moved (Jan. 19, 1807) upon Monte 
 Video, with the intention of taking that town, and attained 
 their object, though the Spaniards, to the amount of 6,000 
 men, advanced to oppose their progress, and poured an inces- 
 sant fire upon them. In the month of June, a British force 
 under General Crawford, consisting of 5,000 men, arrived at 
 the river Plata, and was joined by all the English troops in 
 that part of South America. The command of this force (June 
 29) was given to General Whitelock. Being arrived before Bue- 
 nos Ayres, he divided his army into several brigades, each pro- 
 vided with cannon and unloaded musketry. The columns were 
 directed to march thus, without firing, till they should reach 
 the last square of the town, where they were to form and 
 wait for further orders. A heavy fire of musketry, stones, 
 and missile weapons, from the tops of the houses, which 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 309 
 
 were covered by the inhabitants, dealt destruction to the Eng- 
 lish troops as they marched through the town. They, how- 
 ever, took the Residentia, and the Plaza-des-Toros. This 
 advantage gained, General Whitelock consented to relinquish 
 all further attack upon the town, and to evacuate Monte Video, 
 on condition that General Liniers should liberate all the Eng- 
 lish, who had been captured since the arrival of Sir Home 
 Popham. For subscribing to these conditions, and for gene- 
 ral misconduct in the plan of attack upon Buenos Ayres, 
 General Whitelock was tried and cashiered by a court mar- 
 tial, and pronounced unfit to serve his majesty in any military 
 capacity. 
 
 The terms of peace were not definitively arranged by the 
 Tilsit negotiations, till the 9th of July. The treaty between 
 France and Russia contained little more than a mutual guarantee 
 of possessions, and an acknowledgment of the new kingdoms 
 created by Bonaparte. That between France and Prussia 
 was of a different nature : it considerably lessened the pos- 
 sessions of his Prussian majesty. The provinces on the left 
 of the Elbe were entitled " The kingdom of Westphalia," 
 and given to Jerome Bonaparte. The Polish provinces, ex- 
 cept that part of them situated north of the Bog, which was 
 to be incorporated with Russia, were given to the King of 
 Saxony, with the additional title of Duke of Warsaw, and 
 free access through Prussia to his new dominions. The titles 
 of the Kings of Holland, Naples, and Westphalia, and of all 
 the members of the confederation of the Rhine, were acknow- 
 ledged by Prussia, and she consented to close her ports against 
 England, till a definitive treaty should be signed between that 
 power and France. Alexander accepted the mediation of 
 France, for the conclusion of a treaty between him and the Porte. 
 By a secret treaty Avith France he became a party to the mari- 
 time war against England, and ceded Corfu and the Seven 
 Islands to France. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVm. 
 
 FROM THE PEACE OF TILSIT, IN 1807, TO THE PEACE OF 
 VIENNA, IN 1809. 
 
 1807. — Sweden was the only ally of Great Britain that 
 was not estranged from her cause by the peace of Tilsit : 
 Gustavus IV. refused his assent to its stipulations. The de- 
 
310 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 fection of his confederates, however, obliged him to relinquish 
 the defence of Pomerania, upon which he had determined; 
 and he withdrew the troops, stationed there, to Sweden. Eng- 
 land, thus unassisted and friendless, had recourse to a strange 
 expedient, and one, for the adoption of which, even the exi- 
 gency of her situation seems not a sufficient excuse. 
 
 Denmark had, in the late wars, observed a strict neutrality. 
 The daily fall of nations, however, rendering the crown-prince 
 apprehensive that his country also might swell the number of 
 the French emperor's conquests, he resolved to be prepared 
 against contingencies, and stand ready for defensive measures. 
 For this end, he assembled an army and took much pains to 
 augment the Danish navy. These precautions were viewed 
 by the English ministry with a jealous eye, because they had 
 been assured that Denmark was a party to the secret treaty 
 of Tilsit, and that the Danish fleet would be at the disposal 
 of the French emperor. They therefore requested, on ami- 
 cable terms, the temporary deposit of the Danish ships of 
 war in some of the British ports, under a solemn promise of 
 restitution on the conclusion of peace. In order to give weight 
 to the negotiation, an armament of twenty-seven sail of the line, 
 under Admiral Gambler, with a large body of land-forces under 
 Lord Cathcart, was sent to the Baltic, to protect Denmark 
 against France, in case of an amicable result, or to enforce 
 compliance, sliould she reject the proposal. Mr. Jackson, 
 who accompanied the expedition in the capacity of negotia- 
 tor, failed, as might be expected, to accomplish the object of 
 his mission. On the 17th of August, Copenhagen was in- 
 vested, and on the 3d of September, set fire to, in several 
 places. The destruction of the city seemed at hand, when 
 a flag of truce, demanding an armistice, was despatched to 
 the English admiral. The basis of the capitulation was the 
 surrender of the Danish fleet, which accompanied Admiral 
 Gambler to England. 
 
 This expedition excited the animosity not only of Denmark, 
 but of Russia; and was severely commented upon as uncalled 
 for and dishonourable, by Europe in general, and by a large 
 majority of the English nation. A declaration of war by 
 Russia, against England, was issued on the 31st of October, 
 which stated as its causes, the insult offered to Denmark, and 
 the refusal of England to accept the mediation of Russia, for 
 effecting a general peace, after that of Tilsit. 
 
 In the mean time, the system of commercial annoyance 
 adopted by France against England, caused as much injury 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 311 
 
 to neutral nations, as to the country against which it was 
 meant to operate. The retaliatory orders, now issued by 
 Great Britain, proved still more injurious. America had been 
 liitherto permitted to be the medium of commerce between 
 France and her colonies. The English government, on the 
 7th of January, issued an order in council, prohibiting neu- 
 tral nations from trading with any port in the possession of, 
 or under the control of France ; and on the 11th of Novem- 
 ber, an additional order declared every port, in every country, 
 from which Great Britain was excluded, in a state of block- 
 ade. America, in the exigency formed by this novel system 
 of warfare, adopted the expedient of laying an embargo upon 
 all her own vessels, and commanded all foreign ships to quit 
 the American harbours. Her complaints were chiefly levelled 
 against England ; perhaps because other causes of animosity 
 towards that country pre-existed in the United States. The 
 practice of impressing American seamen on board English 
 vessels was still exercised by England, and still loudly and 
 indignantly complained of. 
 
 Neither the British orders in council, nor the American 
 embargo, induced Napoleon to revoke his commercial restric- 
 tions. On the 23d of November he issued a decree, dated 
 Milan, ordering that any vessel entering a French port, after 
 having touched at an English harbour, should be seized and 
 confiscated. In the following month he further decreed, that 
 every neutral ship that should submit to be searched by an 
 English ship, or pay duty to the English government, should 
 be considered as denalionalized, and be seized by French 
 ships of war. Not satisfied with this, he extended his pro- 
 hibitory mandate to Portugal, and required that no Jiostile 
 vessel should be admitted into a Portuguese harbour, and that 
 all English subjects, residing in Portugal, should be detained, 
 and their property confiscated. The prince-regent, w^illing to 
 avert the threatened storm, closed his ports against England. 
 He, however, refused compliance with the other terms of 
 imperial requisition, and advised the English residents to sell 
 their property and leave his dominions. These half-mea- 
 sures failed to satisfy the French emperor; he insisted on the 
 imprisonment of Englishmen, and the confiscation of their 
 property. The Portuguese regent prepared therefore to leave 
 a country, where, should such restrictions be enforced in op- 
 position to his will, he could no longer act as a sovereign, 
 and to retire to his transatlantic dominions. Hoping, how- 
 ever, to render this expatriation unnecessary, by conciliating 
 
312 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 Napoleon, he at length ordered the seizure of British property, 
 believing, when he did so, that it had all been previously re- 
 moved. But this concession, while it irritated England, and 
 led her to form the blockade of the Tagus, came too late. 
 The French official journals had already proclaimed, that the 
 house of Braganza had ceased to reign, and a French army 
 was now marching to Lisbon to verify this denunciation. 
 The court of Lisbon renewed its preparations for flight, which 
 the English blockading squadron engaged to protect. A re- 
 gency, consisting of seven nobles, was appointed to adminis- 
 ter the government during the absence of the prince-regent ; 
 and on the 29th of November the Portuguese fleet, with the 
 royal family, sailed for Brazil. Before it cleared the Tagus, 
 it recognised the French troops under Junot, with their Spa- 
 nish auxiliaries, on the heights of Lisbon. Next day, the 
 latter entered that city without opposition. 
 
 Spain too was on the eve of being numbered among con- 
 quered nations. An alliance between her and France had 
 long subsisted, and had been lately, in appearance, more 
 strongly cemented by a treaty, concluded between the two 
 powers at Fontainebleau, which provided, that the north part 
 of the kingdom of Portugal should be given to the King of 
 Etruria, in exchange for the cession of his Italian posses- 
 sions to France ; the province of Alentejo and the Algarves to 
 the Prince of Peace, with the title of Prince of the Algarves ; 
 the remaining provinces were to be held in sequestration till 
 the conclusion of a general peace. The treaty farther pro- 
 vided, that a stipulated number of French troops should march 
 through Spain to eflfect this partition of Portugal ; that they 
 should be joined in their march by a certain number of Spa- 
 niards ; that 40,000 French troops should be assembled at 
 Bayonne by the 20th of Nov. to be ready to march for Por- 
 tugal, should England attempt to invade that country ; and that 
 the fortresses of Pampeluna, St. Sebastian, Figueras, and 
 Barcelona, should be allowed, as places of security, to the 
 army of Napoleon. It was in conformity with the stipulations 
 of this treaty, that Junot and the Spanish auxiliary force en- 
 tered Portugal. 
 
 While the negotiations for the partition of Portugal were 
 pending, occurrences of a singular nature were taking place 
 at Madrid. Emanuel Godoy, whose influence with the king 
 and queen was unbounded, had rendered himself exceedingly 
 odious to the Spanish nation at large. The Prince of Asturias 
 sharing the general sentiment, declared himself openly the 
 
 I 
 
XL VIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 313 
 
 enemy of Godoy, and a plan was devised to get rid of the 
 obnoxious minister. But such was the infatuation of the 
 king, that he considered as levelled against himself every 
 attack upon the favourite. Finding that his son had written 
 to solicit the hand of a French princess, and taken other mea- 
 sures to strengthen the anti-ministerial party, he published in 
 November a manifesto, accusing Ferdinand of conspiring 
 to dethrone him. This the prince denied, but signed, at 
 the suggestion of Godoy, a paper expressing contrition in 
 general terms, and a reconciliation took place between him 
 and his royal parents. These events were but a prelude to 
 the misfortunes which befell, during the ensuing year, the 
 Bourbon dynasty in Spain. 
 
 The close of the year 1807 is memorable for the entire 
 destruction of the Dutch power in the East Indies by Sir E. 
 Pellew. After having defeated the Dutch fleet off Madeira, 
 he obliged the batteries of Sambalargan to be dismantled. 
 
 The English Parliament opened in 1808 under gloomy aus- 
 pices. Austria had tried to mediate between France and 
 England, but her proposals not being deemed satisfactory to 
 the interests of the allies of Great Britain, had been rejected ; 
 and a declaration of war from the Emperor Francis was 
 hourly expected by the British ministry. That of Russia 
 had already been received, and all Europe, Sweden excepted, 
 seemed in alliance against England. The internal state of 
 the country was not more cheering. Considerable distress, 
 caused by the exclusion of British goods from the ports of 
 Europe, existed in the manufacturing districts; and peace, 
 the only remedy, as the people conceived, for their sufferings. 
 was loudly called for, at a period when the attainment of it 
 seemed impracticable. 
 
 The expected declaration of war by Austria was issued on 
 the 8th of February. The King of England, on his side, re- 
 solving efficiently to assist his only ally, engaged, by conven- 
 tion, to pay to Sweden ^61,200,000 in twelve monthly pay- 
 ments, to enable that power to support a respectable naval 
 and military establishment. He also engaged to send auxi- 
 liary forces to the Baltic, whenever war might take place be- 
 tween Sweden and any of the northern powers. The invasion 
 of Finland by 40,000 Russian troops, under Buxhovden, 
 quickly followed the signing of the convention between Swe- 
 den and England. Denmark, too, declared war, stating as 
 her reason for hostility, the silence observed by Gustavus on 
 the capture of the Danish fleet, and his close alliance with 
 
 29 
 
314 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAF. 
 
 England. Gustavus sent Count Klingspor to oppose the 
 Russians in Finland, and Baron Armfeldt to effect the con- 
 quest of Norway. The former finding his troops not suffi- 
 ciently numerous to arrest the march of Buxhovden, avoided 
 a general engagement, and, retreating towards East Bothnia, 
 formed a junction with Count Cronstadt. The Russians, 
 after having ineffectually endeavoured to cut off the retreat of 
 Klingspor, retired towards the south of Finland. In the 
 mean time Abo and Biorneburg, and shortly after Uleaburg, 
 surrendered to the Russians. Buxhovden, after the capture of 
 the latter city, returned to the north of Finland. The Swe- 
 dish commander, conscious that an engagement with the Rus- 
 sians, who, during their stay in the south, had received con- 
 siderable reinforcements, would bring destruction to his army, 
 concluded an armistice with them, (Nov. 20th,) and engaged 
 to evacuate Finland and retire beyond the river Reims. The 
 attempt upon Norway was productive of equal disappoint- 
 ment to Gustavus. The Norwegian peasantry, uniting with 
 the regular troops, expelled the Swedish force, and, seizing 
 the passes of the mountains, secured them against future in- 
 cursions. Neither did the troops which the English govern- 
 ment sent to the Baltic, in conformity with the convention 
 between England and Sweden, attain their object, though 
 amounting to 10,000 men, and commanded by an able and 
 experienced general. They were rendered inoperative by 
 the imprudence of the Swedish monarch himself. When 
 they reached Gottenburg, (May 18th,) Gustavus proposed to 
 their commander, Sir John Moore, that they should remain 
 on ship-board till some Swedish regiments could be embarked 
 with them, and that, when thus reinforced, they should land 
 upon and endeavour to conquer Zealand. A force far supe- 
 rior in number to that under Sir John Moore, or to any that 
 Gustavus could assemble, preoccupied Zealand, and the fort- 
 resses in the island were strongly garrisoned. Sir John, 
 therefore, declined making an attempt, which he saw would 
 be attended with defeat and dishonour to himself and his 
 army. Gustavus then proposed that the English should make 
 a descent upon Russian Finland. As the chief Russian force 
 was concentrated in Finland, a descent there could serve no 
 propose but that of insuring a triumph to the enemy. Sir 
 John as firmly declined compliance with this, as with the 
 former proposal of the Swedish monarch : upon which Gus- 
 tavus put him under arrest, and thus lost the support of the 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 315 
 
 British army ; for its commander, having with some difficulty 
 effected his escape, returned with it to England. 
 
 The King of Denmark, who had long laboured under a 
 mental malady, died this year, and his title devolved upon his 
 son, the crown-prince, whom we must henceforth designate 
 Ferdinand VI. 
 
 A more important change, and one which excited a greater 
 sensation in Europe, took place in Italy. In order to under- 
 stand the subject of dispute between Bonaparte and the 
 Pope, we must retrace in a few words the altercations which 
 had previously occurred since the autumn of 1805. In the 
 month of September of that year, the Neapolitan minister at 
 Paris had concluded a treaty, by which France agreed to 
 withdraw the forces she had maintained in the kingdom of 
 Naples since the year 1801. These troops, on their return 
 through the ecclesiastical state, established themselves at 
 Ancona, where tliey amassed provisions, increased the forti- 
 fications, and made such arrangements as indicated their in- 
 tention of retaining their situation. The court of Rome 
 complained of so unexpected an invasion, and addressed 
 itself on the occasion to Cardinal Fesch, who declared himself 
 unable to give any information on the subject. The Pope 
 then addressed a brief to Bonaparte himself, in which he 
 complained, with moderation but with firmness, of an invasion 
 so contrary to the neutrality he professed. Napoleon was 
 then in Germany, and did not answer the Pope's letter till 
 after the peace of Presburg. In his reply of the 6th of January, 
 1806, he accused the Pope of listening to bad counsellors, and 
 after complaining that his Holiness refused all his demands, 
 even those " the most interesting to religion,* as the depression 
 of the Protestants in France," he informed him that it was to 
 protect the church that he had occupied Ancona.t At the 
 same time he wrote a letter to Cardinal Fesch, in which he 
 openly avowed his pretensions, and declared that, unless 
 Rome submitted to his will, he would send a governor thither 
 and deprive the Pope of all but his spiritual authority. This 
 intention was communicated to his Holiness, who again (Jan. 
 
 * Napoleon had written to the Pope in 1805, begging him to declare the 
 marriage which his brother Jerome had contracted with Miss Patterson, 
 in America, null, on the plea that the prince was a minor and the lady a 
 Protestant. The Pope, after mature examination, wrote him a long letter, 
 in which he proves the impossibility of acceding to his demand. 
 
 f Precis des contestations entre le saint Siege et Buonaparte.— Par M. 
 Schoell. 
 
316 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 29th) addressed the French emperor ; and, after representing 
 to him the litde foundation of his pretended grievances, recom- 
 mended to him the interests of religion in that part of the 
 Venetian states, which had recently been united to the king- 
 dom of Italy, and entreated him not to introduce any innova- 
 tions in the clergy. In reply Bonaparte said, that he was 
 Emperor of Rome, and that God had appointed him to watch 
 over the maintenance of religion, &;c. To join effects to 
 words, he ordered his ambassador to demand that all natives 
 of nations at war with him should be sent from Rome, and 
 their vessels refused entrance into the ports of the papal go- 
 vernment. During this correspondence, the French troops 
 entered on all sides, and occupied, on the Adriatic Sea, Pesaro, 
 Sinigaglia, Fano, and other places. 
 
 The answer of the cardinal legate to the demands of Bo- 
 naparte, developed the conscientious motives which prevented 
 the Pope from engaging in hostility Avith other states, and 
 contained a strong remonstrance upon the different laws and 
 ordinances which, to the prejudice of religion and of its mi- 
 nisters, had been promulgated in the French empire, and in 
 the other states depending upon his majesty. " The lois or- 
 ganiques published (without the knowledge of the Pope) 
 with the concordat, deprived religion, in great measure, of 
 the fruits which were expected, in France, from the finest 
 monument of his majesty's love for the Catholic religion. 
 After them came the multiplied orders given by the Qninistre 
 du culte, and the publication of the civil code, which were 
 all so many blows, levelled in France against the doctrine 
 and general practice of the church." These remonstrances 
 effected no alteration in the purpose of the emperor. He had 
 already incorporated Urbino, Ancona, Macerata, and Came- 
 rino, with the kingdom of Italy ; and his Ultimatum, which 
 was proposed on the 9th of January, 1808, informed the 
 legate that if, within five days, the Pope did not declare to 
 the French ambassador an entire adherence to his demands,* 
 
 * The demands made by Napoleon in 1807, and refused by the Pope, 
 were the following : 
 
 1st. He required that the Pope should acknowledge a Patriarch in 
 France, whom he, Napoleon, had named. 
 
 2d. That the Napoleon code should be enforced throughout the eccle- 
 siastical state. 
 
 3d. That all religions should be publicly exercised. 
 
 4th. He demanded a reform in the bishoprics, and that the bishops 
 should be independent of the Holy See, 
 
XL VIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 317 
 
 the papal government should definitively lose, not only An- 
 cona, but also Perugiano, to be incorporated with Tuscany ; 
 half of the Campagna di Roma, to be united to the kingdom of 
 Naples ; and that he would take possession of the rest of the 
 ecclesiastical state, and place a garrison in Rome. The Pope, 
 in his declaration of January 28th, promised his adherence 
 to such articles of the Ultimatum as were not inconsistent 
 with his conscientious obligations, and the rights of his see ; 
 and protested against the occupation of his dominions by the 
 French ; but his answer was not judged satisfactory, and their 
 troops entered Rome on the 2d of February, took possession 
 of the castle of St. Angelo, garrisoned the posts, and sur- 
 rounded the entrance of the Quirinal Palace, the residence of 
 a pacific sovereign, who was at peace with all the world. 
 
 But the spoliation of the papal territory, and the nortliern 
 war, were but secondary objects with Napoleon. The treaty 
 of Fontainebleau was a remote preparation for an attack upon 
 the Spanish monarchy ; and no less a visitation than the loss 
 of his crown and kingdom, was the consequence of the trea- 
 cherous imbecility, with which Charles consented to the pas- 
 sage of French troops through his territory, for the partition 
 of Portugal. No sooner were the chief fortresses in the 
 hands of the French troops, than an angry letter from Napo- 
 leon complained of seeming unwillingness of Charles to con- 
 clude a marriage, which had been for some time in agitation, 
 between a Princess of France and the Prince of Asturias. The 
 Spanish monarch, arguing from this letter that his throne was 
 insecure, proposed to emigrate. A violent ferment in the capi- 
 tal and at Aranjuez Avas the result of this meditated removal. 
 The house of the Prince of Peace, who, it was supposed, had 
 advised the obnoxious measure, was forced, and that minister 
 seized and imprisoned. The king, finding that the popular 
 fury would not be quieted, and rendered unequal by the pres- 
 sure of infirmity to sustain the weight of government in so 
 trying an emergency, resigned the cares of royalty to his son, 
 Ferdinand. 
 
 Ferdinand reappointed his father's secretary, Cevallos, to 
 
 .5th. The abolition of the pontifical bulls, which regard the collation of 
 bishoprics and parishes. 
 
 6th. The abolition of religious orders of both sexes. 
 
 7th. Permission for priests to marry in future. 
 
 8th. He demanded lastly that the Pope should crown Joseph Bona- 
 parte as King of Naples. 
 
 See the Tableau Synoptique de I'Hist. de France, vol. ii., p. 241. 
 29* 
 
318 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 office, confiscated the property of Godoy, nominated the 
 Duke del Infantado, a popular nobleman, commander of the 
 Spanish guards, and succeeded by conciliatory measures in 
 gaining the confidence of his people. He notified to the 
 French emperor his accession to the Spanish throne, and 
 accompanied his message with assurances of his wish, that 
 the recent changes in Spain might cause no interruption to 
 the confidential alliance which had so long subsisted between 
 that country and France. Charles, who, in the interim, had 
 been led to regret the title he had resigned, wrote on the other 
 hand to Napoleon, that the abdication of the Spanish crown was 
 an involuntary act, which circumstances had rendered neces- 
 sary, to save both his own life and that of the queen, from 
 the threatened violence of Ferdinand's partisans. The French 
 troops were, in the mean time, concentrating in the heart of 
 Spain ; and their emperor, whom Murat publicly affirmed 
 to be marching for the Spanish frontier, declined making any 
 reply to repeated kind messages delivered to him on the part of 
 Ferdinand.* It was, however, intimated to the latter, that 
 his advancing towards the frontier to meet his guest, would 
 be a sure means of winning his friendship. Cevallos strongly 
 advised his royal master against making this journey, till Bo- 
 naparte should have at least passed the Pyrenees. But the 
 faithful minister's remonstrances were overruled by the per- 
 suasions of Murat and Savary ; and Ferdinand, expecting at 
 the end of each day's journey to meet Napoleon, was allured 
 from Madrid to Burgos, thence to Vittoria, and lastly to Bay- 
 onne. There the royal interview took place, and under such 
 an exterior of friendship, as seemed to promise Ferdinand the 
 immediate recognition of his title. Savary, however, was 
 soon deputed to say that Napoleon required him to resign in 
 his own name, and in that of his family, the crown of Spain 
 and of the Indies. The Spanish monarch expostulated against 
 
 * Napoleon, as it is said, sought at first to effect the subjugation of Spain, 
 by the marriage of his niece, Charlotte, the daughter of Lucien, with the 
 heir to that monarchy. Had he succeeded in this design, Ferdinand would 
 probably have retained his crown, for which the emperor had some diffi- 
 culty in finding a candidate. But the young lady resolutely declined the 
 projected union. " C'est un nigaud," said she, " je n'en veux pas." Both 
 Louis and Lucien had refused the Spanish sceptre before it was offered to 
 Joseph, to whom the transition could scarcely have been agreeable, from a 
 throne, of which he was in peaceable possession, to one which he would 
 have to win by force of arms. It has been asserted that he came to Bay- 
 onne to decline with proper courtesy the proposed transfer ; but this Na- 
 poleon prevented by saluting him as King of Spain. 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 319 
 
 the treacliery, and refused compliance with the requisition ot 
 his ally. But neither his representations, nor those of Ce 
 vallos, could shake the purpose of Napoleon. The abdicated 
 monarch, with his queen and the Infantos Don Carlos and 
 Don Antonio, who had been by similar means decoyed to 
 seek an interview with the French emperor, now arrived at 
 Bayonne. The two kings being thus in his power, Napoleon 
 easily won over Charles to make a formal resignation of his 
 crown ; while Ferdinand, who was kept in ignorance of this 
 previous arrangement, was induced to abdicate in favour of 
 his father. By a second declaration, in which the young 
 king and his brothers adhered to the cession made by Charles 
 of the monarchy of Spain and the Indies, the object of the 
 French emperor in this unprincipled transaction was fully 
 accomplished. 
 
 Charles, to reconcile the Spaniards to this transfer, issued 
 a proclamation to the supreme council of Castile, to the in- 
 quisition, and to the junta of government, informing them that 
 he had abdicated in favour of " his friend,'^ the Emperor Na- 
 poleon ; appointing Murat lieutenant-governor of the kingdom, 
 and advising his subjects calmly to acquiesce in the new ar- 
 rangements. Ferdinand, and the Infantos Don Carlos and 
 Don Antonio, addressed proclamations of a similar nature to 
 the Spanish nation. As a reward for the compliance of 
 Charles and Ferdinand, to the former was given the palace of 
 Compiegne and a civil list of 800,000 livres ; to the latter, the 
 demesne of Navarre, with a yearly grant of 400,000 livres 
 of appanage-rent, to descend to his heirs, and a grant of 
 60,000 livres for life. Ferdinand's uncle and brothers were 
 also allowed a yearly revenue. When these terms were 
 finally adjusted, the royal family of Spain were sent into the 
 interior of France. 
 
 While the surrender of the Spanish monarchy was in agita- 
 tion at Bayonne, popular commotions, caused by the indigna- 
 tion of the Spaniards at the violence offered to their rulers, 
 prevailed in Madrid. On the 2d of May, the Queen of 
 Etruria and the Infanto Don Francisco de Paula, who had 
 not accompanied Charles or Ferdinand to the frontiers, pre- 
 pared to join their royal relatives at Bayonne. A report hav- 
 ing gained circulation that Antonio, president of the provi- 
 sional government, was, by Murat's order, likewise to leave the 
 capital, the citizens, assembling tumultuously in the principal 
 streets, resolved to prevent his departure. The Spanish 
 troops, confined by order of Murat in their barracks, could 
 
320 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 give no support to the populace, who, notwithstanding, boldly 
 attacked the French soldiery. The result may be easily con- 
 jectured. Six thousand armed and skilful troops triumphed 
 over the exertions of an undisciplined rabble. Numbers were 
 massacred, and those who had been so fortunate as to escape 
 the carnage in the streets, were pursued into their houses, and 
 shot or put to the sword. On the following day the surviv- 
 ing insurgents were arraigned before a tribunal, of which 
 Grouchy was president, and sentenced to execution. The 
 council of Madrid, anxious to prevent a repetition of similar 
 horrors, appointed Murat their president. Petitions, in the 
 name of the Spanish grandees, dictated, as it is said, by him, 
 and praying the elevation of Joseph Bonaparte to the throne 
 of Spain, were presented to Napoleon ; and the emperor's 
 brother was in consequence declared successor of Ferdinand. 
 But neither the addresses of Charles and Ferdinand, nor the 
 advice of the council of the inquisition, nor yet a conciliatory 
 proclamation from Napoleon himself, could reconcile the 
 Spaniards to the recent events. The Governor-general of An- 
 dalusia,- suspected of attachment to the French cause, was 
 put to death, and Don Morla, a staunch patriot, appointed 
 to fill his place. The Governor-general of Arragon was, for a 
 similar reason, supplanted by General Palafox. The juntas 
 assembled ; the assistance of England to expel the French 
 from Spain was applied for, and a general insurrection in all 
 the provinces not occupied by French troops, quickly took 
 place. As Madrid was in the hands of the enemy, the chief 
 direction of the resources of Spain devolved upon the junta 
 of Seville. A declaration of war against France and of peace 
 with England, as also directions relative to the system of war- 
 fare to be observed in the approaching contest, were issued ; 
 all persons from the age of sixteen to forty-five, who had no 
 children, were ordered to enrol themselves under the banners 
 of Ferdinand, and the patriots were advised rather to harass 
 the French, than to engage them in general actions. Early 
 successes animated the Spaniards to vigorous and persevering 
 exertions in the cause of independence. A French squadron 
 of five ships of the line and two frigates, under the command 
 of Admiral Rossilly, in the harbour of Cadiz, was obliged, 
 (June 14th,) after having sustained a heavy cannonade for 
 three days, to surrender to General Morla. To prevent 
 the capture of this squadron, and to reduce the cities 
 of Seville and Cadiz, General Dupont had been despatched 
 by Murat, with a considerable force, to Andalusia. Dupont 
 
XL VIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 321 
 
 passed the Sierra Morena without opposition, and entered 
 Cordova, where he was but feebly resisted. When apprized, 
 however, of the surrender of the fleet, and that the Spanish 
 general, Castanos, with the forces of Andalusia and a body of 
 troops from Ceuta, was advancing to oppose him, he retreated 
 upon Andujar. In an endeavour to surprise one of the divi- 
 sions of Castanos' army, he was defeated and compelled to 
 surrender. By the terms of the capitulation it was agreed, 
 that the French should be embarked at Cadiz, and sent to 
 Roohefort. With this condition, however, the junta of Seville 
 refused to comply, alleging that Castanos had exceeded his 
 powers in treating with the enemy. 
 
 While the French were thus unsuccessful in the south of 
 Spain, the emperor remained at Bayonne, where he had called 
 an assembly of Spanish notables, to deliberate on the forma- 
 tion of a new constitutional code. Joseph Bonaparte arrived 
 in that city on the 6th of June, and was waited upon by depu- 
 tations from the council of Castile, and from the grandees of 
 Spain. When the constitution had received the approbation 
 of the notables, Joseph set out for Madrid, after having abdi- 
 cated the crown of Naples in favour of Murat, and chosen 
 ministers to assist him in the discharge of the duties of his 
 new sovereignty. He made his triumphant entry on the 10th 
 of July, and was crowned, amidst the plaudits of the grandees 
 and the undisguised murmurs of the populace, on the 19th, 
 which was the very day of Dupont's surrender. The news 
 of this disaster induced him to retreat to Burgos ; not, how- 
 ever, till he had secured the plate and regalia belonging to the 
 Spanish crown. 
 
 Palafox was as successful against the enemy in Arragon, 
 as Castanos in Andalusia. General Le Febre invaded that 
 province early in June, and, repelling the opposition of the 
 Spanish peasantry, pushed on to Saragossa, and, on the 
 14th, stationed a detachment of his troops under its walls. 
 These were repulsed Avith loss, and General Palafox prepared 
 the city to sustain a siege. On the 27th, the French advanced 
 to attack it, but their battering engines were defied by the 
 Arragonese, who, during a siege of six weeks' continuance, 
 displayed such unexampled bravery as ultimately to dis- 
 courage the assailants, and compel them to withdraw their 
 troops. In Valencia, too, victory declared itself for the 
 patriot standard. General Moncey, sent by Bonaparte into 
 that province, succeeded in forcing his way to the capital, 
 which he prepared to attack. For seven hours the French 
 
322 GENFRAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 cannonade was directed against it ; but the besiegers, being 
 repulsed in two attempts upon the gates, relinquished their 
 purpose, and retreated out of the province. 
 
 Great importance was attached, both by the French and 
 Spanish commanders, to the possession of the road between 
 Bayonne and Madrid. Cuesta was the Spanish, Lassolles 
 the French general, deputed to secure this communication. 
 On the 14th of July these commanders met and fought, at 
 Rio Seco. The patriots were, at the first onset, victorious ; 
 but were eventually forced to retreat to Benavento. The loss 
 sustained by the French, however, in this action, was so 
 great, as to render their victory but a trifling advantage. 
 
 Upon the departure of Joseph Bonaparte from Madrid, the 
 council of Castile resumed the administration of government, 
 and professed attachment to the cause of Ferdinand ; but the 
 junta of Seville continued to direct the movements and to 
 possess the confidence of the patriots. By its order, a su- 
 preme government, composed of members selected from all 
 the juntas of the kingdom, was formed and installed (Septem- 
 ber 24th) at Aranjues ; and a military junta, consisting of five 
 generals, among whom were Castanos and Morla, was formed 
 at Madrid. The defeat sustained by the French on all sides, 
 obliged them to retreat northward. They repassed the Ebro, 
 concentrated their forces in Navarre and Biscay, and awaited 
 the arrival of reinforcements. The chief command of the 
 French troops was vested in Marshal Bessieres. The Spa- 
 nish forces under Castanos, Blake, and Palafox approached 
 the same direction, with the intention of occupying the line of 
 the Ebro. 
 
 The application of the Spanish patriots to England was 
 not fruitless. Large supplies of arms, ammunition, and cloth- 
 ing were sent to the juntas of Galicia and Asturias, and 
 9,000 men, commanded by Sir Arthur Wellesley, sailed from 
 Cork on the 12th of July for the Spanish coast. They ar- 
 rived at Corunna on the 20th. Sir Arthur proposed that they 
 should be employed against tlie French in Spain ; but the 
 junta of Galicia declined the offer, and requested Sir Arthur 
 to employ his force in expelling the French from Lisbon. 
 He therefore left Galicia for Oporto. The resistance made 
 by the Spaniards to the yoke of France, roused a correspond- 
 ing spirit throughout the whole north of Portugal. Provin- 
 cial juntas were assembled as in Spain. That of Oporto was 
 the most efficient : by its orders the resources of the kingdom 
 were directed. The Portuguese governor of that city show- 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 323 
 
 ing disafTeclion to the patriot cause, was superseded by the 
 bishop ; and 20,000 men were sent to oppose a body of French 
 troops, which had advanced under General Loison to Ama- 
 rante. A le^fgue, offensive and defensive, with Spain, was 
 signed on the 14th of July, at Oporto, in the names of the 
 prince-regent and King Ferdinand. The spirit of patriotism 
 in the south of Portugal was checked by Junot, who defeated 
 its rising efforts at Villa Vicosa, Beja, and Evora. 
 
 The junta of Portugal having also applied to England for 
 support, the army of Sir Arthur Wellesley ultimately disem- 
 barked in Mondego Bay. It was to be reinforced by troops 
 from the south of Spain under General Spencer, by 5,000 
 men from England under Generals Auckland and Anstruther, 
 and by 10,000 men from the Baltic under Sir John Moore. The 
 command of this united force was vested in Sir Hew Dal- 
 rymple. The patriots were further encouraged by the pre- 
 sence of an English fleet, under Sir Charles Cotton, upon 
 their coast. 
 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley being apprized that Junot had de- 
 tached Loison Avith 6,000 men to quell an insurrection in 
 Alentejo, disembarked his troops without waiting the arrival 
 of the expected reinforcements. He was joined by General 
 Spencer on the 9th of August, and marched from Mondego 
 towards Lisbon. As Marshal Bessieres was advancing to 
 support Junot, Sir Arthur determined to attack the latter 
 before the projected junction could be accomplished. But 
 this plan of operations was disconcerted by a coolness, which 
 arose between the English and Portuguese commanders ; the 
 latter demanding supplies from the English stores, and the 
 former refusing to grant them, on the plea that their being 
 shared in the way proposed, would render the support of the 
 British troops scanty and precarious. On the 15th the ad- 
 vanced guard of the British army came up with and defeated 
 a party of French troops at Oviedo, and, two days later. Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley gained a signal victory over General La- 
 borde, at Roleia. The victorious army then moved to Lou- 
 rinha, to cover the debarkations of Generals Anstruther and 
 Auckland ; and on the 21st resumed their march towards Lis- 
 bon. Junot, resolving to attack the English army, before it 
 could be reinforced by Sir John Moore, advanced to meet it, 
 and came up with Sir Arthur in the vicinity of Vimeira. The 
 contest that ensued was protracted and desperate, and its 
 result a decisive defeat to the French, with comparatively 
 slight loss to their opponents. Sir H. Burrard, superior in 
 
324 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. fCHAP. 
 
 command to Sir A. Wellesley, had arrived after the disposi- 
 tions for battle had been made. Foreseeing that they were 
 such as would insure victory to the English, he declined tak- 
 ing the command, till Sir Arthur Wellesley should have gained 
 all the advantages which seemed to await his masterly arrange- 
 ments. The English army rem.oved to C intra after the battle 
 of Vimeira, and, on the following day. Sir Hew Dalrymple, 
 commander-in-chief of the united divisions, arrived at the 
 British camp. A flag of truce was despatched by Junot, with 
 a proposal for an armistice, preparatory to the arrangement of 
 a convention, by which the French would engage to evacuate 
 Portugal. The proposal was accepted, and a convention 
 signed ; the chief articles stipulated were, that all such ports 
 in Portugal as were then in the hands of the French, should 
 be surrendered to the English army ; that Junot's troops 
 should be conveyed to France, at the expense of the British 
 government, and that no native of Portugal should be account- 
 able for his political conduct, during the time that the French had 
 occupied that country. By a separate convention, the Russian 
 ships in the Tagus were to be sent to England, under Sir C. 
 Cotton, and there detained, till peace should be concluded be- 
 tween the two nations. The terms of the convention excited 
 loud murmurs of disapprobation. .General Freire, the Portu- 
 guese commander, reprobated its stipulations : and in Eng- 
 land the call for inquiry into the motives which had influenced 
 its framers, was so general, as to induce the government to 
 institute a board for that purpose. Sir H. Dalrymple, Sir H. 
 Burrard, and Sir A. Wellesley were summoned to attend the 
 investigation. The board of inquiry partly approved, and 
 partly condemned the terms of the convention, so that no 
 further proceedings were instituted against the generals. 
 
 The command of the British troops in Portugal was now 
 given to Sir John Moore, who had arrived at his destination, 
 while the negotiations for the convention of Cintra were pend- 
 ing. His orders were to advance into Leon and Galicia, 
 where 12,000 men, who had embarked under Sir David Baird 
 at Plymouth, for the Spanish service, were to join him ; and 
 it was proposed that these united armies should co-operate 
 with the patriots, in expelling the French from Spain. A 
 corps of 10,000 Spanish veterans, under the command of the 
 Marquis de Romana, landed in the north of Spain about this 
 time, and proved a valuable acquisition to the patriot cause. 
 They had been drawn out of the country as auxiliaries, early 
 in the year, by Bonaparte, and were stationed in Denmark at 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 325 
 
 the epoch of the French invasion. By the assistance of the 
 English Admiral Keats, their gallant commander was enabled 
 to liberate his corps, which was conveyed by a British squad- 
 ron to the coast of Spain. Napoleon left Bayonne in Sep- 
 tember for Paris ; and thence, after having called out an 
 additional force to act in Spain, proceeded to Erfurth, to meet 
 the confederate German princes and the Emperor Alexander. 
 Overtures of a conciliatory nature from France and Russia, 
 to England, were the immediate result of this conference ; but 
 as the King of England would enter into no specific discus- 
 sion, in which the plenipotentiaries of the Spanish patriots 
 were not allowed to participate, the prosecution of war was 
 determined upon by all parties. Bonaparte, therefore, re- 
 turned to Spain in November with a reinforcement of 12,000 
 men, and fixed his head-quarters at Vittoria. The whole 
 French force in Spain now amounted to 200,000 men. The 
 left wing, commanded by Moncey, was posted along the rivers 
 Ebro and Arragon ; the division of Ney was at Guardia ; 
 Bessieres was at Miranda ; and Merlin on the heights of Du- 
 rango. 
 
 The united force of Castanos and Palafox, which formed 
 the left wing of the Spanish army, was 20,000 men ; it was 
 posted on the left bank of the Arragon. The army of Estra- 
 madura and Murcia, under General Cuesta, formed the centre 
 and opposed the French on the Ebro ; its amount was 30,000. 
 Blake's force, 25,000 strong, was stationed on the right of 
 the French army. But the real strength of the patriots lay 
 in the armed population, continually carrying on an irregular, 
 but extremely harassing warfare against the invaders. The 
 trained forces of Spain were wholly unable to contend in the 
 field with disciplined troops, commanded by the ablest gene- 
 rals of the age, and fighting under the eye of the emperor. 
 Hence the campaign which followed Napoleon's arrival, was 
 marked by a series of victories on the part of the French ; and 
 the Spanish forces were rendered ineffective, before the Eng- 
 lish could arrive to afford them succour. Sir J. Moore had, 
 in effect, marched from Lisbon in October to push into Leon, 
 as he had been ordered, intending to unite his army with that 
 of Sir D. Baird, either at Valladolid or at Salamanca. The 
 latter, however, upon his arrival at Corunna, was refused per- 
 mission to disembark by the junta of Galicia ; and when, after 
 much expostulation, the permission was granted, he could 
 hardly procure necessaries for the march or sustenance of his 
 troops. The Spanish armies, which for the most part pre- 
 
 30 
 
326 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 sented a mass of wretched, undisciplined peasantry, instead 
 of trying to form a junction with the British auxiliaries, 
 marched from them, except 12,000 men of the army of Estra- 
 madura, who were but newly levied, and commanded by 
 Count Belvidere, a young, inexperienced officer. These 
 advanced upon Sir J. Moore's line of march as far as Burgos. 
 
 The French were not slow in taking advantage of these 
 errors. They resolved to defeat the Spaniards, before the 
 English could arrive to reinforce them, and began by attack- 
 ing, on the 31st of October, the division commanded by Blake. 
 After skilfully contending, during eight hours, with his assail- 
 ants, that general was forced to retreat upon Valmaseda. 
 Thither he was pursued by Le Febre, and, in the course of a 
 few days, sustained such heavy losses, as compelled him to 
 withdraw into Asturias, and rendered him unable to take any 
 efficient part in the subsequent operations of the campaign. 
 Against Belvidere and Castanos the French were equally suc- 
 cessful. The city of Saragossa, into which the heroic Palafox 
 had retired, sustained a second siege, as memorable as that al- 
 ready mentioned ; and it was not till 30,000 citizens had fallen in 
 its defence, nor till the mortality caused by pestilence amounted 
 daily to 400 persons, that the inhabitants consented to surren- 
 der. While Sir John Moore awaited at Salamanca the ex- 
 pected arrival of Sir D. Baird and General Hope, he received 
 intelligence of the defeat of the Spanish armies. His first 
 impulse was to retreat upon Portugal ; but this resolution was 
 counteracted by letters from Mr. Frere, the British ambassa- 
 dor at Madrid, and from Castel Franca and General Morla,* 
 all of whom advised his advance upon that city, and assured 
 him of the co-operation of the Spaniards in and about the 
 capital. Similar representations from Morla, induced Casta- 
 nos to march from Catalaya upon Madrid, over roads almost 
 impassable. His troops had to contend, during their progress, 
 with cold, hunger, and nakedness, and, being pursued by 
 Bessieres and Victor, were overtaken by them at Tudela and 
 entirely defeated. Castanos was shortly after recalled by the 
 supreme junta and superseded by Lapena. 
 
 On the 2d of December, Bonaparte arrived before Madrid. 
 The citizens resolved upon making a desperate defence, and 
 submitting to every privation rather than capitulate. The 
 enemy's cannon, which for two days played upon, and threat- 
 ened destruction to their city, effected no alteration in their 
 
 * Castel Franca and Morla were the Governors of Madrid, and traitors 
 to the patriot cause. 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 327 
 
 purpose ; but the governors consented to a surrender, and on 
 tlie 5 til the French took possession of Madrid. 
 
 Sir John Moore, yielding to the wishes of the city authori- 
 ties, had advanced, after having been joined by General Hope, 
 towards Valladolid. While on his march, he learned that 
 Soult was at Saldanha, Junot at Burgos, and Bessieres pursu- 
 ing the retreating army of Castanos to Valenya. Fearing 
 that the near approach of the French might prevent his junc- 
 tion with Sir David Baird, he made for Majorca, where this 
 long-projected union was at length accomplished. The Bri- 
 tish army, now consisting of 25,000 men, advanced with the 
 intention of giving batde to Marshal Soult, when Sir John 
 received intelligence that Napoleon had issued orders to his 
 generals, enjoining them to advance from their respective po- 
 sitions, so as to enclose the British army, and that Soult had 
 received considerable reinforcements. 
 
 Upon the receipt of this information, he conceived retreat 
 indispensable, and fell back upon Galicia. On the 26th, Na- 
 poleon's cavalry, and part of his artillery, came up with the 
 rear of the British army, commanded by Lord Paget, and 
 two skirmishes ensued, in which the English were victorious. 
 When Napoleon reached Astorga, news that Austria proposed 
 to take advantage of his absence, to recover the territories of 
 which she had been deprived by the treaty of Presburg, re- 
 called him to Paris, and obliged him to leave the pursuit of 
 the English armies to his generals. 
 
 Sir J. Moore, though rapidly retreating, purposed, if pos- 
 sible, not to withdraw his troops from the Spanish territory. 
 He hoped to maintain himself in the mountains of Galicia, 
 and, by avoiding a general engagement, to gain time ; during 
 which, reinforcements might arrive from England, the Spanish 
 armies in the south be assembled, and the troops under Ro- 
 mana, who, upon Blake's defeat, had been appointed com- 
 mander-in-chief, be equipped and reinforced. But accumulated 
 and unexpected difficulties frustrated the hopes, and marred 
 the projects of the British general in every stage of the cam- 
 paign. He had expected much assistance from the Spanish 
 peasantry, whose enthusiasm in the cause of independence 
 had become proverbial; he found such mismanagement in the 
 Spanish councils as to render it unavailing : he had hoped for 
 the co-operation of the Spanish armies; not one of them 
 formed a junction with him: the central junta had misled and 
 deceived him ; the provisions of the English army were 
 ficanty ; relief of any kind was reluctantly^ yielded, and in 
 
328 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 most instances carried off by the peasantry ; the severity of 
 the season so increased these difficulties, as to make them 
 almost insurmountable ; the troops, rendered desperate by want 
 of necessaries, were disorderly and unmanageable ; and, in 
 fine, the French army, far superior to his in number, was in 
 close pursuit. At Lugo, however, where Sir John arrived on 
 the 9th of January, 1809, he determined to offer battle, and 
 chose a judicious position for that purpose. But as Soult 
 declined the combat, he resumed his march for the coast, 
 where he had ordered transports to be in readiness to receive 
 his troops. He reached Corunna on the 11th : the transports, 
 detained by contrary winds, had not yet arrived, and, on the 
 morning of the 12th, the French were seen approaching the 
 city ; upon which Sir John took possession of a ridge of 
 heights, which seemed the most favourable situation for con- 
 tending with the enemy. Next day, the transports became 
 discernible from the shore, the French advanced opposite to 
 the British position, and on the following morning began the 
 attack. Almost at the onset, Sir D. Baird's arm was shat- 
 tered, and he was obliged to leave the field. Not long after, 
 a cannon-ball from the enemy's batteries carried off* the left 
 shoulder and part of the collar-bone of Sir John Moore, but 
 caused no alteration in his countenance or manner. His offi- 
 cers, deceived by his heroic endurance of sufl^ering, supposed 
 him for some time merely stunned by the shot. When the 
 severity of his wound became apparent, they removed him 
 from the field, and the command of the army devolved upon 
 Colonel Hope. The troops, who, from the commencement 
 of the action, had fought with determined bravery, were not 
 dismayed by the absence of their generals, and maintained 
 the contest with undiminished ardour. The total defeat of 
 the enemy was the reward of their exertions. On the night 
 of the 16th, they marched into Corunna, and the next day 
 embarked for England. In the mean time, the general, to 
 whom they were indebted for having made as memorable a 
 retreat as any on historic record, was numbered among the 
 dead. His officers, recollecting, after his decease, that he had 
 not only desired to die in battle, but that the spot marked by 
 his fall should be that of his interment, wrapped him, for 
 want of a coffin, in a military coat and blankets, and buried 
 him by night on the ramparts of the citadel of Corunna. 
 
 While the contest for the possession of Spain and Portugal 
 was so vigorously maintained in the Peninsula, the foreign 
 territories of the aggrieved powers made common cause with 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 329 
 
 their parent states. The Spanish West India islands and 
 many ports of the Spanish main, proclaimed war against the 
 French emperor. At Buenos Ayres, too, the spirit of patriot- 
 ism showed itself, and the ports of the Brazilian coast were 
 opened to English and Portuguese ships. 
 
 A sanguinary revolution took place this year in Turkey. 
 Selim III. had been dethroned and imprisoned in 1807, by 
 the Janizaries, who raised his nephew, Mustapha, to the throne. 
 The new sultan was deposed, through the agency of Musta- 
 pha Bairacter, who caused Selim to be again proclaimed empe- 
 ror. Mustapha prevented his uncle's restoration, by ordering 
 him to be strangled ; he could not, however, hinder his own 
 deposition, and the elevation of his younger brother, Mahmoud, 
 to the throne. This prince made Bairacter grand vizier ; he 
 distinguished the short period of his ministry by new-model- 
 ling the army and navy, and introducing various improve- 
 ments. But, like the late Sultan Selim, who had first 
 attempted these useful changes, he too fell a sacrifice to the 
 fury of the Janizaries. On the 15th of November, 1809, an 
 insurrection broke out among these turbulent troops, who 
 scaled the walls of the seraglio ; when Bairacter, having first 
 strangled Mustapha, blew himself up in his own palace, with 
 gunpowder which he had previously provided for such an 
 occurrence. Mahmoud continued to occupy the throne. 
 
 1809. — The British Parliament assembled on the 19th of 
 January, and passed a vote of thanks to the officers and sol- 
 diers, who had served in the Peninsula under Generals Sir J. 
 Moore, Sir A. Wellesley, and Sir D. Baird. At an early pe- 
 riod of the session, an inquiry was instituted which excited 
 considerable interest. Mr. Wardle, a colonel of militia, 
 charged the commander-in-chief of the army, the Duke of 
 York, with having permitted a lady named Clarke to sell 
 commissions at reduced prices, and to appropriate the money 
 thus raised to the maintenance of the duke's establishment. 
 During the proceedings on the case, it appeared that the traffic 
 had indeed been carried on, but unknown to his royal high- 
 ness ; and the House came to the decision that the charges of 
 " personal corruption and connivance at corruption," were 
 wholly unfounded. The duke, however, thought fit to re- 
 sign his office, which Sir David Dundas was appointed to fill. 
 
 England had lo lament, in the early part of this year, the 
 
 deposition of Gustavus IV. of Sweden, her old and faithful 
 
 ally. Secret discontent had long existed among the subjects 
 
 of that monarch, and it began to manifest itself openly, when 
 
 30* 
 
330 GENERAL HrSTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP 
 
 the proposals of peace, made by France, were rejected by the 
 king. The public dissatisfaction was augmented by the loss 
 of Pomerania and Finland, and by several unpopular mea- 
 sures. Civil war was on the point of breaking out : the king 
 had fixed the 10th of March for the day of his departure to 
 oppose the rebels ; his soldiers had set out, and the officers 
 had received orders to join them immediately. In that crisis, 
 after all the council had in vain entreated the king to conclude 
 a peace, the Field-marshal Klinsport and General Adler- 
 creutz waited on his majesty and told him, " that an end must 
 be put to all the horrors he had commanded ; that their duty 
 as Swedes was to save their country, which was dearer to 
 them than any other object, and that he must either cede to 
 their entreaties or cease to reign." The king answered that 
 he would never yield, and drew his sword to pierce General 
 Adlercreutz ; but at the same instant eight or ten other persons 
 entered, having at their head the marshal of the court, Siff- 
 versparre, who said, " Sire, your sword was given you to 
 draw against the enemies of the nation, not against loyal 
 Swedes, who only seek their country's happiness and yours," 
 and at the same time he seized the sword. The king attempted 
 to escape by flight, but was overtaken and conducted the same 
 evening to the castle of Drottningholm, where he was closely 
 guarded. On the 29th of March, he signed an act of abdi- 
 cation, addressed to the senate. His uncle, the Duke of Su- 
 dermania, was proclaimed regent, and shortly after sovereign 
 of Sweden, by the name of Charles XIII. The Prince of 
 Augustenburg was elected crown-prince, and a new constitu- 
 tion was formed for the Swedish monarchy. By a decree of 
 the diet of Sweden in the following year, the ex-King Gusta- 
 vus and his posterity were forever banished the Swedish terri- 
 tory, and forbidden to re-enter it under pain of death. Gustavus 
 afterwards came into England, where he travelled under the 
 title of Count Gottorp. 
 
 Shordy after the accession of Charles XIII., a treaty was 
 concluded between him and the Emperor Alexander, by 
 which Finland was ceded to the latter. Peace was also 
 proclaimed between Denmark and Sweden, and between 
 France and Sweden. By the treaty with France, Swedish 
 l*omerania and the principality of Rugen were restored to 
 Sweden, and Charles agreed to close his ports against British 
 commerce. A treaty of peace and alliance, between the King 
 of England and the Spanish authorities acting in the name 
 of Ferdinand, was concluded in February, his British majesty 
 
 n 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 331 
 
 engaging to assist in expelling the French from Spain ; and 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley was despatched to take the command 
 of the British army in the Peninsula, which by reinforce- 
 ments had been increased to 34,000 men. 
 
 The French, meanwhile, had not been inactive: Corunna, 
 Bilboa, and all the most important places on the northern 
 coast of Spain had fallen into their hands. Saragossa had 
 been subdued, (Feb. 21,) and, after a defence unparalleled in 
 modern history, compelled to surrender at discretion. Mar- 
 shal Soult had left Galicia, and having entered Portugal, had 
 made himself master of Oporto. To dislodge him from that 
 city was Sir Arthur's first object on reaching Lisbon ; where- 
 fore, having stationed a sufficient force in the neighbourhood 
 to guard against any attack, he marched in April for Oporto, 
 drove the enemy thence, and then returned to join Cuesta 
 and advance with him against Victor. While Sir Arthur was 
 engaged in the north, that general had taken Alcantara, 
 whence he drove 600 of Sir Robert Wilson's legion and a 
 troop of Portuguese infantry. Upon the approach of Sir 
 Arthur, the French general, who, in taking Alcantara, had 
 only proposed to make a diversion in favour of Soult, aban- 
 doned his conquest, and stationed his army in the neighbour- 
 hood of Ca^ares. The patriot armies were at the same time 
 equally successful against the French commanders in the 
 north. After his return from Oporto, Sir A. Wellesley 
 remained for some weeks at Lisbon, trying to strike out a 
 plan of co-operation with the Spanish generals. During this 
 period, Victor's army was joined by that of Sebastiana, and 
 by 45,000 men, under Joseph Bonaparte; thus reinforced, 
 they took post on the banks of the Aberche, in the vicinity of 
 Talavera de la Reyna. 
 
 The result of the conferences at Lisbon was, that the 
 united forces of Sir Arthur and Cuesta should march to 
 attack the central French forces, and to take possession of 
 Madrid. On Saturday, the 22d of July, the armies of Victor 
 and of the confederates were within sight of each other. 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley made dispositions to give battle on the 
 following day ; but Cuesta protesting against this intended 
 violation of the day of rest, the English commander deferred 
 the execution of his purpose ; and Victor retreated on the 
 evening of the 23d, to form a closer junction with the other 
 divisions of the French central army. Cuesta pursued him, 
 but the British troops, wanting means of transport, were 
 obliged to remain stationary. The advanced guard of Cuesta 
 
332 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 was attacked on the 25th at Torrijas, and the Spanish general, 
 finding his force much inferior to that of the enemy, fell back 
 on the Aberche. Several partial engagements, fought during 
 the course of that day and night, terminated in favour of the 
 British troops. At three o'clock next morning, July 26th, 
 an eminence held by General Hill was ineffectually attacked 
 by the enemy. About noon, the action became general, and 
 before the close of day, the French were repulsed, with the 
 loss of 10,000 men. They retreated across the Aberche, 
 leaving twenty pieces of cannon in the hands of the com- 
 bined army. 
 
 The news of this victory excited great joy in England : 
 its achiever was raised to the peerage, and entitled Baron 
 Douro of Wellesley, and Viscount Wellington of Talavera, 
 and of Wellington, in the county of Somerset. But the 
 Spanish central junta, still careless and improvident, neglected 
 to supply his army with necessaries ; and the brave soldiers 
 who had conquered at Talavera, suffered such extreme 
 want, as led to sickness and consequent dejection. While 
 in this state of languid helplessness, they were apprized 
 that Soult, Ney, and Mortier, with an army of 30,000, 
 were advancing through Estramadura, with the intention 
 of falling on the rear of the British army ; it was therefore 
 deemed necessary to commence a retreat. Cuesta was left 
 at Talavera with the sick and wounded, to the number of 
 15,000 ; the greater part of whom, on being driven from 
 that position, he was obliged to leave in the hands of the 
 French. His own ill health and infirmities affording a 
 plea for retirement, he resigned, and was replaced by General 
 Eguia. Lord Wellington continued his retrograde movement 
 till he reached Badajoz. The remainder of the campaign 
 was most disastrous to the patriots ; their armies were de- 
 feated in every direction. The increasing success of the 
 French awakening the fears of the junta, they issued a 
 proclamation for assembling the National Cortes on the 1st 
 of January, 1810. 
 
 The alienation which had for some time existed between 
 England and America, was increased by a mis-statement of 
 Mr. Erskine, the English ambassador to the United States. 
 He assured the American government, that if it issued a 
 proclamation for the renewal of intercourse with England, 
 the orders in council would be repealed. Mr. Madison, who 
 had succeeded Mr. Jefferson in the office of president, con- 
 sented to the proposed measure : but the English ministry 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 333 
 
 refused to repeal the orders, asserting that they had, indeed, 
 permitted Mr. Erskine to treat with the American govern- 
 ment, but on a basis different from that which he had laid 
 down The American government, in turn, renewed the 
 non-importation act,* and much mutual recrimination en- 
 
 ''' Bonaparte, in the mean while, had reached Paris, and found 
 the intelligence, which had been conveyed to him in Spain, as 
 to the hostile preparations of Austria, to be correct. Her land- 
 wehr, or militia, had been called out for the first time ; inde- 
 pendently of which, the regular troops of the empire, divided 
 into nine corps, consisted of at least 200,000 men, commanded 
 by the Archduke Charles in person. Bonaparte, on his side, 
 assembled troops to an immense amount, by new levies Irom 
 the interior of France, and by ordering his generals to advance, 
 at the head of their respective divisions, towards the Danube. 
 The Kings of Bavaria and Saxony, and the Princes of the 
 Rhenish confederation were called upon for their contingents, 
 and even the Emperor of Russia was induced to assume a hos- 
 tile attitude towards his late ally. The expected declaration 
 of war was issued by Austria on the 8th of Aprd, and on the 
 following day the Archduke Charles crossed the Inn and en- 
 tered Bavaria: The French emperor left Paris to take the com- 
 mand of the grand army on the 12th of Aprd, and, with his 
 usual rapidit/of movements, arrived on the 17th at Donau- 
 werth. On the 20th, he routed a division of 60 000 men com- 
 manded by the Archduke Lewis, and General Hiller, at Abens- 
 burg; and the next day gained a ^^^^re important victory 
 Eckmuhl over four corps, under the orders of the Archduke 
 Charles, who, himself, narrowly escaped capture Resolving 
 to follow up these early successes, Napo eon advanced with 
 such extreme rapidity upon Vienna as to defy t^^^ ^^^^^^^^ uk^ ^ 
 efforts to outmarch him : the Austrians, therefore, limited their 
 hopes to gaining the bridges ^^^o^^/^^^ ^amibe and^^^^^ 
 ini the city by a battle under its walls On the 10th of Ma> , 
 Bonaparte appeared before Vienna. The citizens, stmudated 
 to resistance by the Archduke Maximilian, sustained a bom- 
 bardment for twenty-four hours ; but at the expiration of tha 
 time surrendered. The Emperor Francis had previously fled 
 to Znaym. News of the surrender of Vienna obliged the 
 * Previous to the negotiation with Mr. Erskine, the American govern- 
 menthad adopted a system of non-intercourse and "^f-^'^P^!^*^" ^^^ ^,7,^^^^^^ 
 France and England, and removed the embargo, with respect to all other 
 
 nations. 
 
334 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. - [cHAP. 
 
 Archduke Charles to alter his plans : he, therefore, moved 
 with a force of 75,000 men along the north side of the Danube, 
 to prevent the French from crossing the river. Napoleon, at 
 the same time, marched on the south bank to a place six miles 
 below the city, where the stream is broken by two islands, 
 resolving to cross the river at that point. He passed by means 
 of pontoons from island to island, almost without interruption, 
 and secured a position on the north side ; posting his right 
 wing at the village of Essling, and his left at that of Aspern. 
 The Archduke Charles now resolved to make a general attack, 
 and ordered his troops to dislodge the French from the two 
 villages. After a most sanguinary conflict, the Austrians suc- 
 ceeded in gaining Aspern ; they also defeated the main body 
 of the French army ; but their efforts against Essling were in- 
 effectual, and the day closed without their having gained that 
 village. During the engagement, the bridges which the 
 French had constructed across the Danube were destroyed, as 
 the Austrians say, by fire-ships sent down the river by the 
 archduke for that purpose ; or, as the French assert, by tim- 
 ber which floated down from Vienna. In the morning, the 
 battle was renewed; it continued, with various success, during 
 the day ; but at night the French retreated to the isle of Lobau, 
 abandoning all their positions on the north bank of the Danube, 
 and leaving 30,000 men dead on the field of batde. This was 
 the severest check Napoleon had hitherto met with, in his vic- 
 torious career; he had been exposed several times to the 
 greatest personal danger. The risk was once so imminent, 
 from the heavy discharge of artillery around him, that General 
 Walter was compelled to exclaim, " Sire, withdraw, or I will 
 have you carried hence by my grenadiers." The emperor 
 was much affected on hearing of the fate of Marshal Lannes, 
 who had received a mortal wound ; and during the fortnight 
 that general survived, was constant in paying him a daily visit. 
 While these events were passing on the Danube, and Dresden 
 and Leiz were taken by the Archduke Ferdinand, Padua and 
 Vicenza submitted to the Archduke John, who commanded in 
 Italy. The last named cities, however, were soon retaken by 
 the viceroy, Eugene Beauharnais, who forced the Austrians 
 to recross the Adige : the archduke retreated into Hungary, 
 and the viceroy hastened to reinforce the army of Napoleon, 
 which was considerably weakened by his late defeat. Several 
 weeks were spent in preparing, on both sides, to renew the 
 conflict. The Isle of Lobau was strongly fortified by the 
 French ; and bridges, one of which was of sixty arches, ^vere 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 335 
 
 constructed to connect it with the northern bank of the Da- 
 nube, where the archduke was raising works to prevent the 
 enemy from passing the river. Napoleon, to deceive the 
 archduke, made his chief preparations to effect a passage op- 
 posite the Austrian redoubts ; but on the night of the 4th of 
 July, he crossed the Danube in another direction, and ranged 
 his army next morning in order of battle, at the extremity of 
 the archduke's left, thus rendering the Austrian redoubts use- 
 less. On the 6th was fought the decisive battle of Wagram, 
 the success of which was principally owing to the skill of Na- 
 poleon, who, by directing his chief force against the arch- 
 duke's centre, drove back that part, and separated it from the 
 right wing, which, being thus isolated, was forced to surren- 
 der. The Archduke John came up at the close of the action, 
 but too late to turn the scale of victory, which evidently leaned 
 to the standard of Napoleon ; he therefore retreated, without 
 having taken any part in the contest, towards Presburg. The 
 field was covered with innumerable dead, and the French took 
 20,000 prisoners. The Archduke Charles, in retreating to- 
 wards Bohemia, was pursued by them, and again defeated at 
 Znaym. These multiplied reverses induced the Emperor 
 Francis to sue for peace ; an armistice was signed on the 12th 
 of July, Vienna and several other cities remaining in posses- 
 sion of the French, till the conclusion of a definitive treaty. 
 
 News of the defeat of his generals by Wellington at Tala- 
 vera, reached Napoleon at Vienna, towards the end of July. 
 Shortly afterwards, a German, named Stapps, made several 
 attempts to gain access to the emperor ; but the singularity of 
 his demeanour excited suspicions which led to his arrest. A 
 large knife was found upon his person, and he confessed it had 
 been his intention to kill the emperor, whom he looked upon 
 as the scourge of his country. The dread of assassination in- 
 duced Napoleon to hasten the negotiations for peace, which 
 were brought to a conclusion on the 14th of October ; France, 
 as usual on such occasions, acquired a considerable increase 
 of territory, and the Princes of the Rhenish confederation 
 shared in the spoils of the vanquished ; even Russia was re- 
 warded with an additional province for having sent an army 
 of 30,000 men towards her frontiers. Besides these several 
 dismemberments of her territory, Austria agreed to pay a con- 
 siderable indemnity towards defraying the expenses of the 
 war, acceded to all the alterations already made, or to be here- 
 after made in Italy and the Peninsula, and concurred in the 
 prohibitory system, by which Napoleon sought to ruin the 
 
336 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 commerce of Great Britain. The Emperor Francis consented, 
 moreover, (though without making a stipulation to that effect 
 in the treaty,) to give up the Tyrol to Bavaria. The inhabit- 
 ants of that district had tried, during the war, to assert their 
 national independence in connexion with Austria, under the 
 banners of their celebrated chief, Hofer. They still refused to 
 bend to the yoke of Bavaria, and maintained, for some time, 
 an arduous and often successful struggle, but were finally sub- 
 dued, and their patriotic chief was seized and executed. 
 
 England, meanwhile, ever ready to extend the hand of friend- 
 ship to any nation that declared itself the enemy of France, 
 had sought to effect a diversion in favour of Austria in two 
 different quarters. A division of British troops in Sicily was 
 ordered to embark for Naples and to reduce Calabria ; but no 
 permanent advantage was gained by the attempt. An enter- 
 prise of far greater moment occupied the attention of the na- 
 tion during the summer. Extensive preparations were made 
 for fitting out a formidable armament, consisting of thirty-nine 
 ships of the line, and thirty-six frigates, besides a great num- 
 ber of gun-boats and bomb-vessels, with other small craft, and 
 near 40,000 land-forces, destined for the purpose of gaining 
 possession of the islands in the Scheld, and destroying the 
 French ships in that river, as well as the arsenals of Antwerp 
 and Flushing. The fleet sailed on the 28th of July, under the 
 orders of Sir Richard Strachan. The command of the land- 
 forces was confided to Lord Chatham. On the 1st of August, 
 Flushing was invested, and after sustaining a heavy cannonade 
 and bombardment, surrendered on the 15th, the garrison, con- 
 sisting of 6,000 men, remaining prisoners. The islands of 
 Schowen and Beveland were taken, and the Zealanders seemed 
 disposed to favour the British cause. But the English com- 
 mander neglected to follow up these successes. Most of the 
 troops were left on board the transports, instead of being em- 
 ployed against the forts on the Scheld, till the sickness, which 
 usually prevails in those parts during the autumnal season, 
 seized and disabled them ; and till the French had collected a 
 large army for the defence of Antwerp, and moved their ship- 
 ping far up the river. Early in September, the British troops 
 evacuated every part of Zealand except the island of Walche- 
 ren, the fortifications of which were repaired with much labour 
 and expense. A malignant fever, however, made dreadful 
 ravages among the troops, and it became necessary, in order 
 to prevent the entire destruction of the armament, to abandon 
 Walcheren also. Such was the issue of this expensive and 
 
XLVIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 337 
 
 unfortunate expedition. But these disasters and disappoint- 
 ments were not without alleviation: in other quarters the 
 British navy maintained its wonted superiority. Early in 
 April, a gallant and successful attack was made by Lords 
 Gambler and Cochrane on a French squadron, of which four 
 ships of the line were destroyed. In October, Captain Hal- 
 lowell captured the whole of a French convoy in the bay of 
 Rosas. The island of Martinico, and the city of St. Domingo, 
 in the West Indies, the isles of Bourbon, Zante, Cephalonia, 
 Cerigo, and St. Maura, fell under the dominion of Great Bri- 
 tain, and the septinsular republic was restored. The colonv 
 of Cayenne was taken by a combined force of English and 
 Portuguese. 
 
 During his residence in Vienna, Bonaparte issued a decree, 
 announcing that, from the 1st of June, the papal territories 
 should form a part of the French empire, and Rome be a free 
 imperial city. The states of the Church, Napoleon averred, 
 were fiefs granted by his predecessor, Charlemagne, to the 
 Bishops of Rome ; it was now his pleasure to resume them, 
 this measure being necessary for the security of his army and 
 the prosperity of his empire. It was in vain that Pius VII. 
 protested against this decree, and published a bull, by which, 
 without naming the emperor individually, he excommuni- 
 cated the promoters and abettors of so unjust a spoliation ; 
 this measure made no alteration in the designs of Napoleon. 
 On the 6th of July, before two o'clock in the morning, 
 a troop of French soldiers, under the command of General 
 Radet, beset the palace of the Sovereign Pontiff; and, being 
 assisted by the gendarmerie and some Romans of the lowest 
 class, disarmed the papal guard, who had been forbidden to 
 make any resistance, and got possession of the principal en- 
 trance. Having broken down the door which led to the apart- 
 ments of the Pope and of Cardinal Pacca, they advanced into 
 the presence of his Holiness, who, being awakened by the 
 tumult of the assault, had dressed himself, and with perfect 
 composure awaited the issue of this new aggression. Around 
 him were assembled Cardinals Despuiget and Pacca, toge- 
 ther with several prelates and ecclesiastics. The general, on 
 entering, turned pale, and stood for some moments silent, near 
 the door, in front of his troops : he then advanced, and with 
 a trembling voice informed the Pope that a very disagreeable 
 and painful commission had devolved upon him ; but having 
 taken an oath of fidelity to the emperor, he felt bound to exe- 
 cute it ; that he was charged to demand from his Holiness, 
 
 31 
 
338 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 in the name of his imperial majesty, the renunciation of his 
 temporal sovereignty ; that, in case of refusal, he had orders 
 to conduct the Pope to the quarters of the general-in-chief, 
 Miollis,* who would acquaint him with his ulterior destina- 
 tion. To this address his Holiness calmly replied; "If you 
 think yourself obliged on account of your oath to execute 
 such orders from your emperor, do you think we can aban- 
 don the rights of the Holy See, which by so many oaths we 
 are bound to obtain ? We cannot renounce what does not be- 
 long to us. The emperor may take our life, but he will never 
 oblige us to retract what we have done." Then, rising from 
 his seat, and putting his breviary under his arm, he advanced 
 towards the door, where General Radet's carriage stood in 
 readiness; his Holiness entered it, accompanied by Cardinal 
 Pacca ; it was then about three o'clock in the morning. After 
 following for some time a circuitous route, they drove out of 
 Rome by the Porta del Popolo. As they stopped to change 
 horses, the Pope mildly reproached Radet with having deceived 
 him. Why, he asked, instead of conducting him to the Pa- 
 lais Doria, where Miollis resided, had the general thus com- 
 pelled him to quit Rome, without attendants, and even with- 
 out other garments than those in which he was actually 
 attired. Radet attempted a few words of excuse, and replied, 
 that his Holiness would speedily be rejoined by his suite, 
 who would carefully provide every thing that was necessary. 
 On resuming the journey, the Pope asked Cardinal Pacca, if, 
 in the hurry of departure, he had thought of bringing away 
 any money. Both drew out their purses ; in that of his 
 Holiness they found one papetto,\ in the cardinal's three 
 grossi.X Showing his solitary papetto to General Radet, 
 the Pope said, smiling, "Of all our principality, see what you 
 have left us!" He replied with modest dignity to the affect- 
 ing demonstrations of grief and veneration which he met 
 with from all classes of his subjects ; and often repeated this 
 simple but sublime recommendation, " Courage and prayer !" 
 On arriving at the Chartreuse of Florence, he was conducted 
 
 * In removing the Pope from Rome, Miollis seems to have acted on his 
 own responsibility, without having received precise orders to that effect 
 from Napoleon, who had only charged him to maintain tranquillity in 
 Rome. As Radet refused to act without a written order, Miollis gave him 
 one, but so covered with erasures and alterations as to be almost illegible. 
 In it, Radet was commanded to arrest Cardinal Pacca, the Pope's principal 
 minister; in case of opposition, his Holiness also, and conduct them both 
 to Florence. 
 
 ■\ About eleven pence. t Nearly eight penc*. 
 
XLVni.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 33<J 
 
 to the apartment occupied, ten years before, by his venerable 
 predecessor. His Holiness was then in a state of great suf- 
 fering ; the burning heat of a midday sun, in the month of 
 July^and in a closed carriage,had brouglit on the first attack 
 of a serious indisposition. A short period of repose seemed 
 indispensably necessary ; but Colonel Boisard arriving the 
 same evening, with orders from Elisa Baciocche Bonaparte, 
 who then governed in Tuscany, for his immediate removal, the 
 august captive was compelled on the following day to resume 
 his' journey, unaccompanied by Cardinal Pacca. At a short 
 distance from Florence, the heat being intense, the Pope re- 
 quested a glass of water. The multitude who surrounded 
 the carriage at every halting-place, vied with each other who 
 should be so fortunate as to supply this demand. " From 
 me, from me. Holy Father!" was heard on all sides. " From 
 all, my children, from all," replied the venerable old man, 
 with tears in his eyes. On many occasions a word, a look 
 would have insured his deliverance : the small troop of sol- 
 diers composing his escort would quickly have been over- 
 powered by a numerous and resolute peasantry. A chival- 
 rous youth who had forced his way through the crowd to 
 present some choice fruit to his Holiness, made the offer in 
 two energetic words, " Vuole ? Dica !" But the Pope would 
 not run the risk of bloodshed, and, affectionately entreating 
 the multitude to disperse, continued his route towards Alex- 
 andria, where he arrived on the 1 5th. On the 21st he reached 
 Grenoble, where he was to make a short stay. The heroes 
 who had so nobly defended Saragossa, and were there detain- 
 ed prisoners of war, demanded permission to go in a body to 
 meet him ; their example was followed by the entire popula- 
 tion of the city and suburbs. At the beginning of August, 
 Colonel Boisard had orders to conduct the Pope to Valence, 
 and thence to Avignon. His entry into the latter city, which 
 had been so long under the dominion of the Holy See, 
 resembled a triumph; the inhabitants crowded round the 
 carriage, which had stopped in the middle of the chief square ; 
 and so great was the concourse from the neighbouring 
 villages, that the mayor found it necessary, by closing the 
 city gates, to prevent their entrance. At Nice, arrangements 
 were made to give his Holiuess a suitable reception. On 
 approaching the Pont du Var, he alighted from his carriage 
 to cross the bridge on foot : he advanced alone, his attendants 
 following him at a short distance. The scene was singularly 
 impressive ; ten thousand persons were on their knees in 
 
340 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 profound silence on the opposite side, each occupying his 
 destined station, the nobles wearing their decorations, the 
 ecclesiastics the dress peculiar to their order. The pious 
 Queen of Etruria, between her two children, implored 
 his blessing with tears. " How altered are the times !" she 
 exclaimed. "True," replied Pius, "but all is not bitter- 
 ness : we are no longer, O my daughter, at Rome nor at Flo- 
 rence, yet see these people, listen to their acclamations 1" 
 The streets of the city were strewed with flowers at his en- 
 trance every night during his stay, the houses were splendidly 
 illuminated, and sacred hymns were sung in music beneath his 
 windows. On setting out for Savona, as it was thought ex- 
 pedient to choose an unfrequented road through the mountains, 
 and the Sovereign Pontifl' travelled by night, a lady of distinc- 
 tion conceived the ingenious idea of sending out servants to 
 illuminate his path, by hanging lamps on the trees ; this ex- 
 ample was followed by others, and finally by order of the 
 municipal authorities. On arriving at Savona, the Pope was 
 at first lodged in the mansion of a family of the name of 
 Santon ; but five days later, the episcopal palace, from which 
 the bishop removed, was assigned for his residence. He had 
 but two small rooms for his own private use ; his table, how- 
 ever, to which he was at liberty to invite whom he pleased, 
 was handsomely served, and Count Salmatoris waited on 
 him daily to take his orders. Such was his position during 
 the rest of this, and the whole of the two following years. 
 
 Though Napoleon appeared to despise the excommunica- 
 tion issued against the authors and abettors of the recent 
 spoliations, the indifference he affected was not sincere. He 
 ordered a list to be drawn up for his inspection, of all the 
 princes who had been under a similar sentence. A project 
 of a very important nature, however, now occupied his 
 thoughts. The birth of an heir to the widely-extended 
 empire over which he ruled, seemed alone necessary to give 
 stability to the dynasty he had founded, and, for this pur- 
 pose, the dissolution of his marriage with Josephine was 
 indispensable as a preliminary step. The empress, though 
 reluctant, was induced to yield her consent ; and all the 
 princes and princesses of the imperial family being assembled, 
 with the Arch-chancellor Cambaceres, in the emperor's 
 cabinet, a decree dissolving the marriage was signed by all 
 present. The senate passed a law authorizing the act, in 
 December: Josephine was to retain the title of empress, and 
 to receive an annual revenue of 2,000,000 francs. 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 341 
 
 In September, some changes took place in the English 
 ministry, from which the Duke of Portland withdrew on 
 the plea of age and infirmity. Lord Casdereagh and Mr. 
 Canning also resigned, and were succeeded, in their respect- 
 ive posts, by the Earl of Liverpool and the Marquis of 
 Wellesley. Mr. Percival, who was at the head of the new 
 administration, united the office of first lord of the treasury 
 with that of chancellor of the exchequer. The 25th of Octo- 
 ber being the fiftieth anniversary of his majesty's accession, 
 the day was celebrated throughout the kingdom as a jubilee, 
 with marked demonstrations of loyalty and affection. To 
 occasional attacks of his mental malady, was added an al- 
 most total privation of sight : afflictions which rendered the 
 king an object equally worthy of commiseration and re- 
 spect. 
 
 CHAPTER XLLX. 
 
 EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF VIENNA, IN 1809, TO THE WAR 
 WITH RUSSIA, IN 1812. 
 
 The Parliament of Great Britain resumed its sittings in 
 January, 1810. The king's speech having been read by com- 
 mission, a warm debate ensued, relative to the peninsular war 
 and the expedition to the Scheld ; the usual addresses were, 
 however, carried, as well as a vote of thanks to Lord AVelling- 
 ton and his army, for the bravery displayed by them at Tala- 
 vera. The questions of Catholic emancipation and of Parlia- 
 mentary reform were again agitated, during this session ; but 
 the advocates for concession were far outnumbered by their 
 opponents, and both of these important measures were nega- 
 tived by large majorities. An incident occurred, not long after 
 the meeting of Parliament, which attracted for a time the 
 attention of the public. Sir Francis Burdett published an 
 address to his constituents, denying the right of the House 
 of Commons to imprison the people of England. This publi- 
 cation was voted a scandalous and seditious libel, and orders 
 were issued to the sergeant-at-arms to take the author into 
 custody. Sir Francis, however, disputed the legality of the 
 speaker's warrant, and avowed his intention not to submit, 
 unless compelled by force. On the 9th of April, the sergeant- 
 at-arms, with a party of police and a detachment of military, 
 forced an entrance into the baronet's house, and conveyed 
 
 31* 
 
342 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 hitn to the Tower. The escort, on its return, was attacked 
 by the populace ; several shots were fired, and two or three 
 persons lost their lives. At the prorogation of Parliament, 
 Sir Francis was liberated, and a triumphal procession from 
 the Tower to his house in Piccadilly was planned by his 
 friends ; but he disappointed their expectations, returning 
 privately by water, in order to avoid any occasion of further 
 mischief. 
 
 The affairs of Spain, at the close of 1809, seemed almost 
 desperate. The defeat of the central army, under General 
 Areizaga, was followed by that of the left, commanded by the 
 Duke Del Parque, and of the right, under the orders of Blake. 
 The French main army, under Joseph Bonaparte, Soult, and 
 Victor, forced the passes of the Sierra Morena in January, and 
 took Andujar and Cordova, while a division commanded by 
 Sebastiani entered Granada. Malaga was reduced shortly 
 after, and completed aline of posts in possession of the French. 
 The approach of the enemy induced the Supreme Junta to 
 remove to Cadiz. The members of that body were suspected 
 of a willingness to compromise with Joseph Bonaparte ; and 
 on the day of their departure, the people of Seville rose 
 tumultuously, demanding their deposition, and calling upon 
 General Romana to defend the city. Instead of complying 
 with the requisition, he proceeded to Badajoz, and Seville, 
 unprepared for resistance, surrendered in February to Victor. 
 Large stores of ammunition and 200 pieces of ordnance fell, 
 on this occasion, into the hands of the French, who now 
 began to make formidable preparations for the siege of Cadiz. 
 The junta refused to admit 7,000 British troops for the 
 defence of that city : two regiments only were allowed to enter, 
 on condition that they should not be employed in the fortress. 
 The Duke of Albuquerque, at the head of a Spanish army, 
 arrived in the Isle of Leon, before the French could reach it, 
 and made every preparation for a vigorous defence. The 
 suspicions against the junta induced that body to transfer its 
 authority to a regency, composed of five persons, who, how- 
 ever, were only to act till the Cortes should assemble, and 
 who, from the outset, were placed in a very embarrassing 
 position. They issued their orders in the name of a captive 
 prince, and had not the power to enforce their execution, in a 
 country occupied or traversed on all sides by hostile armies. 
 [n the mean while, the French took possession of a fortress 
 about two miles from Cadiz, where they erected works ; and 
 before the close of the year, they were enabled to throw'shells 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 343 
 
 into the city ; the distance, however, rendered their effect 
 inconsiderable. 
 
 In the other parts of Spain the war was carried on with 
 great activity ; the French were constantly harassed by the 
 desultory operations of the guerillas; often vanquished, but 
 never subdued, the hardy mountaineers of the Alpuj arras in 
 Granada, were ever on the alert against the invaders. In 
 Navarre, Biscay, and Asturias, patriotic insurrections were 
 organized, and leaders sprang up to train the peasantry. 
 Under the assumed names of El Pastor, El 3Ianco, El 
 Empecinado, several signalized themselves by turns in this 
 desultory warfare. A Spanish force captured Ronda, but an 
 expedition undertaken by the English against Malaga entirely 
 failed ; and the commander. Lord Blaney, was made prisoner. 
 On the other hand, Marshal Suchet, after gaining great advan- 
 tages in Catalonia and Arragon, was defeated with considerable 
 loss by General Caro. 
 
 The disasters of the Spanish commanders in the early part 
 of the year, had obliged liOrd Wellington to remove his army 
 from Badajoz to the north of the Tagus, and to confine his 
 views for a time to the defence of Portugal. He chose a 
 strong position at Torres Vedras, which having fortified, and 
 thus provided for retreat and embarkation, should they be- 
 come necessary, he advanced to watch the movements of 
 Ney, Soult, and Regnier, who were stationed in Leon. His 
 army consisted of 30,000 British, and 60,000 native troops. 
 Ciudad Rodrigo was invested by Ney on the 11th of June. 
 About that time Marshal Massena arrived with 80,000 men 
 from Paris, to take the command of the army destined for 
 the conquest of Portugal. The advanced guard of the 
 British forces was repulsed, and Ciudad Rodrigo surrendered 
 to the enemy in July. Almeida, with a garrison of 5,000 
 men, English and Portuguese, was next invested, and com- 
 pelled to open its gates to the invaders in August. Massena 
 now advanced" into Portugal ; Lord Wellington retreated 
 before him towards Coimbra, purposing to concentrate his 
 forces in that neighbonrhood, and there oppose the march of 
 the French. He passed to the right of the Mondego, and 
 occupied, with his centre and right, the Sierra Busaco, a 
 ridge of hills, extending to that river. Massena arriving in 
 front of his position on the 26th of August, resolved on an 
 attack, which he carried into effect the following day. The 
 French pushed up the hill with great resolution, and one 
 division reached the summit of the ridge ; but they were 
 
344 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 repulsed at the point of the bayonet. The Portuguese troops, 
 under Marshal Beresford, rendered efficient aid on this occa- 
 sion. After this action, Lord Wellington, finding that 
 Massena had gained the road from Oporto to Coimbra, con- 
 tinued to retreat till he reached the lines of Torres Vedras, 
 about thirty miles from Lisbon, carrying with him almost the 
 whole population of the intervening country, including 
 that of Coimbra. Much individual distress was caused by 
 this measure, but it was relieved by liberal contributions in 
 Lisbon and in England. Massena having reconnoitred the 
 lines of Torres Vedras, and ascertained the impracticability 
 of forcing them, withdrew to a fortified position at Santarem, 
 where he remained during the winter. His army sufTered 
 many privations and inconveniences, from which the British, 
 with the capital and an open sea behind them, were exempt. 
 Such were the respective positions of the invaders and 
 defenders of Portugal at the end of the year. 
 
 The National Cortes of Spain assembled in September, in 
 the isle of Leon ; the regency was dissolved in the following 
 month, and the government intrusted to an executive council 
 of three members. Among other enactments, the Cortes 
 passed a decree in favour of the liberty of the press, and 
 conferred upon the inhabitants of Spanish America, the privi- 
 lege of sending members to the national representation. But 
 this concession did not suffice to secure tlieir allegiance : and 
 this year witnessed the first outbreak of that revolt which has 
 since caused so much disorder and bloodshed. The spirit of 
 discontent first manifested itself in the colony of Caraccas. 
 Other provinces joined in asserting their independence, and, 
 in April, a union was formed, under the name of the 
 American Confederation of Venezuela. The city and great 
 part of the province of Buenos Ayres took part in the revolt, 
 while Monte Video continued faithful to Spain ; this circum- 
 stance gave rise to a sanguinary war between the two states. 
 
 The conquests achieved by the British navy, in 1810, 
 were of considerable importance. Guadaloupe, the only 
 island still remaining to the French in the West Indies, was 
 taken in February by Sir J. Beckwith. During the same 
 month, Amboyna was taken from the Dutch, by a British 
 force from Madras ; and in August, the isle of Banda, though 
 protected by 700 regular troops and .300 miUtia, surrendered 
 to an English frigate, the Carolina, affording a rich booty to 
 the captors. To this acquisition was added that of the isles 
 of Bourbon and Mauritius : the French batteries at Madagas- 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 345 
 
 car were destroyed ; and at the close of the year, France 
 possessed not a single foot of land in the East or West 
 Indies, nor a ship in the Indian seas. But these advantages 
 to England were counterbalanced, in a great measure, by the 
 daily-increasing power of Bonaparte on the continent. His 
 grand aim at this epoch was to form an alliance conducive to 
 the stability of his dynasty ; and his marriage with Maria 
 Louisa, the eldest daughter of the Emperor of Austria, to the 
 astonishment of all Europe, was accomplished without difH- 
 culty. The espousals were celebrated at Vienna, on the 11th 
 of March, the Archduke Charles receiving the hand of his 
 niece as proxy for his late antagonist. The empress-elect 
 immediately set out for France, and was met by Napoleon at 
 Compeigne. The civil contract was signed at St. Cloud on 
 the 1st of April, and on the following day the religious 
 ceremony took place in the chapel of the Louvre. In order to 
 proceed to a second marriage, it had been necessary to 
 declare the first invalid ; for which purpose, the archiepisco- 
 pal see being vacant, two new ecclesiastical courts v/ere called 
 into existence, by the sole authority of the emperor, who 
 positively declined having recourse to the Pope. The 
 union of Napoleon with Josephine had not been sanctioned 
 by the church, until the eve of their joint coronation, and 
 then so privately as to exclude even the presence of wit- 
 nesses. On this circumstance, and on the absence of the 
 proper pastor, the first of these courts grounded a decision 
 favourable to the divorce. All the necessary dispensations 
 had, it is true, been granted by the Pope, at the solicitation 
 of Cardinal Fesch on that occasion ; but the court might justly 
 consider as not proved^ a fact which rested on the assertion 
 of one individual, unsupported either by documentary evi- 
 dence or by living witnesses. The second court came to 
 a similar conclusion, on the plea that the emperor's interior 
 consent, as he alleged, had been wanting, and that, considering 
 the marriage-ceremony performed in his cabinet null, he had 
 gone through it merely to gratify Josephine. There were, 
 however, many among the cardinals* whom the reasons of the 
 two courts failed to saiisfy ; and though all, to the number of 
 twenty-six, assisted at the civil contract, thirteen absented 
 themselves from the religious ceremony, alleging, as their 
 only motive, that the dissolution of the first marriage had not 
 been sanctioned by the Pope. The wrath of the emperor on 
 
 * All the cardinals who were not disabled by age or infirmity had been 
 compelled to quit Italy and reside in Paris. 
 
346 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 this occasion was extreme ; he not only forbade them to 
 appear at court, but obliged them to lay aside the purple, and 
 assume the black dress worn by ordinary clergymen.* A 
 few days later they were banished into various towns of 
 France, and deprived of the revenue that had been assigned 
 them for their maintenance : their slender wants, vv^ere, how- 
 ever, abundantly supplied by voluntary contributions. 
 
 A remarkable incident took place this year in Sweden. 
 The Prince of Augustenburg, who, upon the deposition of 
 Gustavus IV., had been declared heir to that throne, died sud- 
 denly, and a suspicion was excited, that he had been carried 
 off by poison. As the deceased prince was very popular, 
 Count Person, who had been his enemy, was dragged from 
 his carriage on the day of the funeral, and torn to pieces by 
 the mob. Government, to appease tlie people, instituted an 
 inquiry, the result of which was, that the Prince of Augus- 
 tenburg had died of apoplexy. In August the diet assembled, 
 to elect another successor to the throne. The candidates 
 were four in number ; the son of the deposed monarch, the 
 King of Denmark, the brother of the late crown-prince, and 
 Bernadotte. The reasons which induced the States to give 
 the preference to the French marshal, are involved in mys- 
 tery ; it seems probable that the emperor favoured the elec- 
 tion, as he generously allowed Bernadotte a sum of 2,000,000 
 francs to meet the expenses of his installation. Some mis- 
 understanding had, however, occurred between them, relative 
 to the battle of Ratisbon during the Austrian campaign, and 
 Bernadotte was not unwilling to transfer his services where 
 they were likely to be better appreciated. In his domestic, 
 as well as in his foreign policy, the views of Bonaparte were 
 singularly despotic. Pursuing his system of annexations, he 
 compelled his brother Louis, by a series of insults and en- 
 croachments, to abdicate the crown of Holland; and the Seven 
 Provinces were forthwith added to the empire of France. 
 Louis, during his short reign, had studied the interests and 
 gained the affection of his people, and his departure from 
 
 * Hence arose the designation of black and red cardinals, which for 
 some time distinguished the firm from the more temporizing. The black car- 
 dinals were Mattei, Pignatelli, La Somaglia, Scotti, Saluzzo, Galeffi, Bran- 
 cadoro, Consalvi, Louis Ruffo, Litta, Di Pietro, Opizzoni, and Gabrielli. 
 Cardinal Pacca was still a prisoner at Fenestrelles, whither he had been 
 conveyed when separated from the Pope at Florence : he remained in 
 captivity three years and a half; it was during his ministry that the bull 
 of excommunication had been published. 
 
XLIX.J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 347 
 
 among them was a subject of regret to all. The Hanse 
 towns, with the wliole of the coast, from the Elbe to the 
 Ems, were likewise incorporated with France. The Elector- 
 ate of Hanover was annexed to the kingdom of Westphalia, 
 and the conscription laws were extended, as well to that as to 
 all the other kingdoms of recent creation. While these 
 arbitrary measures were enforced by the French emperor, 
 the King of England experienced a return of the malady un- 
 der which he had suffered in 1789, and of which he had in 
 1801 and in 1804 transient attacks. The death of his young- 
 est and favourite daughter, Amelia, caused him such poignant 
 affliction, as to occasion a relapse into that state of mental aber- 
 ration which clouded the latter years of his reign and life. 
 Parliament had been three times prorogued in the hope of his 
 recovery, when the continuation of his indisposition suggested 
 to ministers the necessity of vesting the royal powers, with cer- 
 tain restrictions, in the Prince of Wales. Notwithstanding the 
 objections raised by the opposition, who wished to invest the 
 regent with the full exercise of the royal prerogative, resolu- 
 tio°ns for a restricted regency were carried, and a deputation 
 from both Houses informed the prince of the decision. He 
 accepted the proffered trust, though not without objecting to 
 the restrictions with which it was accompanied. The care 
 of the king's person and the management of his household 
 were committed to the queen. 
 
 1811. — The domestic affairs of Great Britain, during this 
 first year of the regency, wore a gloomy and unpromising 
 aspect. The extent of commercial distress, caused by the ex- 
 traordinary rigour with which the continental system was en- 
 forced, in all the countries where the influence of France 
 extended, was so great as to induce Parliament to appoint a 
 committee to concert measures of relief. On its recommenda- 
 tion, the sum of £6,000,000 was allotted, to be advanced to 
 such merchants as should apply for it, and give security for 
 its repayment. In Ireland, the system of domestic policy 
 adopted by the res^ent was a source of keen disappointment. 
 The Catholics of Great Britain in general, and of Ireland in 
 particular, had hoped that the accession of the Prince of 
 Wales to power would have brought them a redress of griev- 
 ances ; yet they found him retaining a ministry, avowedly 
 hostile to the concession of their claims. They resolved, 
 therefore, to address Parliament and the regent, on the con- 
 tinued existence of the disqualifying statutes, and purposed 
 forming a general committee, to prepare their petitions. The 
 
348 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Irish government, however, issued a proclamation, prohibit- 
 ing the election of Catholic delegates, and ordering the arrest 
 and prosecution of electors. The Catholics, notwithstanding, 
 assembled on the 3 1st of July; upon which five persons who 
 had assisted at the meeting were arrested, and bound over to 
 stand their trial for the violation of the Convention Act. On 
 that of Dr. Sheridan, who was one of the prisoners, the chief 
 justice and judges varied with the jury as to the verdict to be 
 given. The former conceived that he had, the latter that he 
 had not violated the Convention Act. He was pronounced 
 "Not guilty," and the Catholics continued to meet; but go- 
 vernment, judging that Sheridan's acquittal was owing to a 
 defect of evidence, instituted proceedings against Mr. Kirwin, 
 another of the arrested delegates, who was declared guilty; 
 whereupon the Catholic committee ceased to exist as a dele- 
 gated body. 
 
 To these scenes of domestic dissension, the ascendency 
 acquired by Englishmen in foreign countries presents a strik- 
 ing contrast. In August a splendid acquisition was made to 
 the British empire in Asia, by the reduction of Batavia, the 
 capital of the Dutch setdements in the East Indies, with the 
 island of Java, in which it is situated. Tlie Governor-ge- 
 neral of India, Lord Minto, planned and accompanied the ex- 
 pedition. The British troops landed unopposed, and having 
 lodged themselves in the suburbs, the burghers surrendered 
 the city, which had been previously evacuated by the garri- 
 son. The Dutch army, amounting to 10,000 men, was great- 
 ly superior in numbers to the English, and lay entrenched in 
 a strong position, between the river Jacatra and an artificial 
 canal, neither of which was fordable ; seven redoubts and 
 many batteries mounted with heavy cannon, occupied the 
 most elevated grounds within the lines. The Dutch com- 
 mander-in-chief. General Jansen, was in one of them, when 
 the assault was made by the British: the seven redoubts were 
 carried at the point of the bayonet, and the assailants rushing 
 in at every point, the whole of the Dutch army was killed, 
 taken, or dispersed ; die loss of the English scarcely amount- 
 ing to 900 men. General Jansen, with about 50 b>rse, the 
 remnant of his 10,000 men, made a feeble attempt at resist- 
 ance, which terminated in the surrender of himself and his 
 troops, with the island of Java and all its dependencies. This 
 important conquest being completed, not a vestige remained 
 of the Gallo-Batavian dominion in the East. 
 
 In the Peninsula, the war was carried on with great activity 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 349 
 
 and with various success. Early in the year, Soult reduced 
 the strongly-fortified town of Olivenza, and defeated a Spa- 
 nish army under the orders of Mendozabel, who, the Marquis 
 de Komana being dead, had succeeded to the command. The 
 French general then laid siege to Badajoz, which surrendered 
 in March with its garrison of 7,000 men, not however with- 
 out having for some time braved the efforts of the besieging 
 army. Massena, meanwhile, maintained his position at San- 
 tarem, till the difficulty of procuring provisions obliged him 
 to retreat towards the Spanish frontier. In the night of the 
 5th of March, he broke up his fortified camp; and by the 
 skill with which he directed the movements of his army, 
 preserved it, though closely pursued by Lord Wellington, 
 from any material disaster. But the French marshal and his 
 soldiers tarnished their military fame, by the cruelties they 
 exercised on their march. On the 4th of April they passed 
 the Portuguese frontier, and, entering Spain, continued their 
 retreat across the Agueda. 
 
 After Massena's retreat. Lord Wellington, leaving the com- 
 mand of his army to Sir Brent Spencer, with orders to block- 
 ade Almeida, went to visit Marshal Beresford, who commanded 
 a united force of Eno^lish and Portuguese in Estremadura. 
 He then took a position from whence he could invest Olivenza 
 and Badajoz, which he was extremely desirous to recover 
 from the French. Olivenza surrendered to Marshal Beresford 
 in April, and Lord Wellington, having concerted measures 
 with him for the blockade of Badajoz, returned to his own 
 head-quarters. That city was accordingly invested on the 
 12th of May; but the news that Soult was advancing to its 
 relief, induced Beresford to withdraw his army from its walls, 
 and march towards the Albuera to meet the enemy. Having 
 been joined by the Spanish corps of Blake and Castanos, he 
 posted his troops on a ridge of ground which overlooks that 
 river. Here he was attacked on the morning of the 16th; 
 the battle was maintained for five hours with such coolness 
 and bravery as to exalt either army in the estimation of the 
 other ; but the French were eventually defeated, and Soult 
 retired toward Andalusia. The allies being inferior in cavalry, 
 did not think it prudent to hazard a pursuit. The renewal 
 of the siege of Badajoz was the immediate result of this 
 brilliant, thougli hard-earned victory. Lord Wellington, who 
 nad not been able to reach that city in time for the engage- 
 ment, arrived before it on the 19th. The siege was now 
 vigorously pushed ; the trenches were opened and a breac^ 
 
 32 
 
350 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAF- 
 
 was made in fort St. Christoval. On the 6th of June the 
 assault was begun : but the efforts of the assailants were ren- 
 dered unavailing by the bravery of the besieged. A second 
 assault on the night of the 9lh having also failed, and intelli- 
 gence arriving that Soult and Marmont (to whom Massena, 
 being recalled to Paris, had resigned the command) were 
 advancing with their united forces, Lord Wellington judged 
 it expedient to raise the siege, and withdraw the allied army 
 across the Guadiana. In August he made an unsuccessful 
 attack on Ciudad Rodrigo, and shortly after cantoned his 
 army, which was sulTering greatly from sickness, within the 
 Portuguese frontier : the French, under Soult, fell back upon 
 Salamanca, where they remained during the winter months. 
 The vicinity of Cadiz was the theatre of an engagement 
 highly honourable to the British arms. General Graham, 
 commander of the English forces in that city, finding that 
 part of the besieging army had quitted its environs for Bada- 
 joz, which Soult was then blockading, fitted out an exped» 
 tion in February, consisting of 4,000 British and 7,000 Spanish 
 troops ; the command of which was given to Don Manuel 
 Lapena, under whom General Graham consented to serve. 
 The troops embarked on the 18th, and landed on the 23d, al 
 Algesiras. On the 4th of March, General Lapena having, 
 by a well-directed attack on the enemy's position at Santi Petri, 
 succeeded in forming a communication with the isle of Leon, 
 ordered General Graham, whom he had left on the heights 
 of Barossa, to descend, and commit the defence of that post 
 to some Spanish regiments. When the British troops had 
 proceeded halfway down the hill, they were apprized that 
 the French under Victor were making for the heights. The 
 British general, considering that position as the key to Santi 
 Petri, immediately ordered a countermarch, in order to sup- 
 port the troops posted for its defence. Some of his men 
 became entangled in a wood, and before he could extricate 
 them, he saw the Spaniards retiring, and the left wing of the 
 French ascending the heights. Their right still stood upon 
 the plain, and General Graham, to prevent their gaining any 
 further advantages, resolved on making an immediate attack, 
 with the troops under his command. A general battle was 
 the result of this determination ; the number of the French 
 engaged in it was 8,000, all well appointed and ably com- 
 manded ; that of the English was only 3,000 ; yet in less 
 than an hour and a half Marshal Victor was compelled to 
 retreat, after having sustained considerable loss. But the 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 351 
 
 English and Spaniards reaped more glory than advantage 
 from their victory ; the blockade of Badajoz, which it had 
 been the chief object of the expedition to interrupt, was not 
 impeded by it. The disappointment which resulted from the 
 failure of this enterprise, was aggravated by the death of the 
 Duke d'Albuquerque. 
 
 While so large a part of the French armies was thus em- 
 ployed in watching and preventing the designs of the allied 
 troops in the south and west of Spain, another, and not an 
 inconsiderable force, endeavoured to gain the Spanish fort^ 
 resses in the east. In April, however, that of Figueres, occu- 
 pied by them, was surprised by a body of Catalonians, and 
 taken without firing a shot, the garrison remaining prisoners. 
 Tarragona was invested by Siichet on the 4th of May ; an 
 obstinate defence only protracted its fall. On the 28th of 
 June it was taken by storm, and its brave defenders were 
 massacred by their victors. Every species of outrage and 
 cruelty was suiTered on this occasion by the unfortunate Tar- 
 ragon ians. The city was set on fire, and numbers of the 
 inhabitants thrown into the flames. Suchet himself relates, 
 in his official account of this transaction, that 4,000 persons 
 were killed within the walls, and of those who endeavoured 
 to escape, 1,000 were either sabred or drowned, and 10,000 
 made prisoners. Figucras was, about the same time, retaJien 
 by the French under Macdonald. From Tarragona, Suchet 
 entered the province of Valencia and laid siege to Murviedro. 
 General Blake, who had advanced to its relief, was defeated, 
 and the city compelled to surrender. Following up his suc- 
 cess, Suchet next besieged Valencia, into which Blake had 
 retreated ; after a bombardment of three days, the Spanish 
 general agreed (January 9th, 1812) to a capitulation, by which, 
 though defended by 18,000 troops of the line, that city was 
 surrendered to the French, a great number of officers of rank, 
 with Blake himself, remaining prisoners. Pensacola, a fort- 
 ress of great strength, a Gibraltar in miniature, was shortly 
 after taken by the French, through the treachery of the go- 
 vernor. 
 
 These triumphs of Napoleon's generals failed to bring sta- 
 bility to the throne, or happiness to the mind of him in whose 
 name they were effected. Joseph Bonaparte, wanting the 
 affections of his subjects, and destitute of such pecuniary 
 succours as were necessary to support his regal dignity, fled 
 from Madrid to Paris in a fit of sudden despondency, and, 
 failing to obtain from his imperial brother means to recruit 
 
352 GExNERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAF. 
 
 the Spanish treasury, solicited permission to retire to a private 
 station. A fresh supply of troops and orders to retain his 
 sovereignty were given him by Napoleon. The Cortes con- 
 tinued to sit in the isle of Leon, and to make important 
 changes in the ancient and fundamental laws of the Spanish 
 monarchy. Their South American colonies, in the mean 
 while, persevered in asserting their independence, and boldly 
 contended with the royalists, though they failed, during this 
 year, to gain any signal advantage over them. In Mexico, 
 a series of sanguinary engagements terminated in the discom- 
 fiture of the rebels. 
 
 Amidst the variety of affairs which occupied the attention 
 of the Emperor Napoleon, those of the church were by far 
 the most important and intricate. He had triumphed over the 
 chief continental princes, but the invincible constancy of the 
 feeble and aged Pontiff, whom he still held captive at Savona, 
 placed a barrier to his projects of universal dominion, which 
 he could not remove at the point of the sword. Threats, 
 spoliation, privations of every kind, solitude, and a total sepa- 
 ration from all who could advise or console, had been resorted 
 to by the emperor to enforce compliance with his wishes, yet 
 Pius remained firm in his refusal t® compromise his conscience 
 and the rights of the Holy See, or to enter into any negotiations 
 with the spoliator, till allowed to take the advice of his spiritual 
 councillors, and restored to the independent exercise of his au- 
 thority in the city of Rome. The rigours of his captivity 
 were therefore redoubled. On the 11th of January, while 
 taking the air in the garden adjoining the episcopal palace, 
 his apartments were entered by the emperor's emissaries, and 
 searched with the most minute exactness. The seals were 
 set upon every object that bore the slightest trace of hand- 
 writing ; the Pope's despatches, public as well as private, 
 even his breviaries, were seized, carried away, and sent off to 
 Paris. Count Berthier, who had hitherto filled the office of 
 master of his palace, suddenly disappeared : his place was 
 supplied by a steward, who announced that each Italian com- 
 posing the household, the Pope included, was in future to 
 receive from the imperial treasury no more than five paoli 
 (about twenty pence) a day. This absurd regulation was 
 enforced for seventeen days, during which the inhabitants of 
 Savona enjoyed the advantage of testifying their attachment 
 and veneration for the illustrious captive, by an abundant sup- 
 ply of every thing needful. As these testimonials of respect 
 did not meet theemperor's views, things were re-established 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF FA'ROPE. 353 
 
 on their former footing ; a splendid dinner was daily provided, 
 at Avhich the Pope never appeared, and other necessary ex- 
 penses duly defrayed from a sort of civil list assigned for the 
 purpose, over which he declined exercising any control. 
 Among the papers seized in January, were found a brief con- 
 ferring extraordinary powers on the Cardinal di Pieto, and 
 another addressed to Cardinal Maury. From that moment 
 the use of pens and paper was denied to his holiness, and all 
 communications with persons from abroad expressly prohi- 
 bited ; Cardinal Doria, his confessor, and his Maestro di Ca- 
 mera, Moiraghi, to whom he was singularly attached, were 
 removed and sent to a distant prison. The Pope endured all 
 these outrages with heroic firmness, and Avithout the slightest 
 mark of pusillanimity or discouragement. 
 
 Napoleon, meanwhile, continued to nominate to the vacant 
 sees in Germany, in Italy, and in France. Cardinal Maury 
 was named to the archbishopric of Paris, on the refusal of 
 that dignity by Cardinal Fesch, to whom it had first been 
 offered. The Bishops of Faenza and Nancy, whose subservi- 
 ency to the will of the emperor earned them this distinction, 
 were respectively appointed to the patriarchal and archiepisco- 
 pal sees of Venice and Florence. But as the Pope refused 
 to give canonical institution to any of these nominees, the 
 cliapters in most instances refused to acknowledge them, and 
 thus drew down on themselves the vengeance of Napoleon, 
 which was seldom braved with impunity. Eight fortresses, 
 converted by him into state prisons, were crowded with per- 
 sons of every rank, chiefly ecclesiastics, who were immured 
 there on the slightest suspicion, and detained for weeks, 
 months, or years, at the pleasure of the despot. In this state 
 of affairs. Napoleon inquired of the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
 sion, which he convoked anew in March, from whom his 
 bishops were to obtain canonical institution, in case all com- 
 munication should be interrupted between the Holy See and 
 the subjects of the empire. To discuss this question with 
 greater solemnity, he called together unexpectedly the members 
 of the commission, with the principal theologians, the coun- 
 cillors of state, and the grand dignitaries of the empire. The 
 emperor opened the sitting by declaiming violently against 
 what he termed the obstinacy of the Pope : on a sudden, by 
 one of those abrupt transitions, so familiar to him, he turned 
 to M. Emery, the superior of the Oratorians, then nearly 
 eighty years of age, and said, " What is your opinion of the 
 authority of the Pope?" "Sire," replied that venerable 
 32* 
 
354 GENERAL HISTORY OF EU5.OPE. [cHAP. 
 
 ecclesiastic, "I can have no other opinion than that which is 
 contained in the catechism taught by your orders in all the 
 churches of France. In answer to the question, 'What is 
 meant by the Pope V I find this reply, 'The head of the 
 Church, the Vicar of Christ on earth, to whom all Christians 
 owe obedience.'" Napoleon appeared surprised ; and, after 
 muttering the word Catechism, continued, " I do not contest 
 the spiritual power of the Pope ; but his temporal power 
 was conferred on him by Charlemagne, and I, who am the 
 successor of Charlemagne, am resolved to deprive him of it." 
 The Abbe Emery cited Bossuet, who asserts the independ- 
 ence and full liberty of the head of the Church to be essen- 
 tial to the exercise of his spiritual power. To this Napoleon 
 replied,"! do not reject the authority of Bossuet : all that 
 was very true in his time, when Europe was subject to many 
 rulers ; but what inconvenience can there be in the Pope's 
 submission to me, now that the continent acknowledges no 
 other master ?"* This question was of too personal a nature 
 not to excite a momentary embarrassment ; yet the Abbe 
 Emery had the noble courage to reply, that affairs might not 
 always continue in their actual position, and that the incon- 
 veniences foreseen by Bossuet might at some future day occur, 
 wherefore it was better not to change an order of things so 
 wisely established. The emperor appeared convinced, and, 
 on rising to withdraw, noticed no one else, but saluted the 
 Abbe Emery with visible marks of esteem and veneration. 
 The counsels of the courageous Abbe were however soon 
 disregarded for the more agreeable dictates of flattery. The 
 idea of appealing to an assembly of prelates, incorrectly 
 termed a national council, charmed the vanity of Napoleon, 
 who, with this view, in his newly-assumed' character of em- 
 peror of the west, called to Paris the greater part of the bi- 
 shops of France and Italy. This assembly, which consisted 
 of six cardinals, nine archbishops, and eighty bishops, held 
 its first and only session on the 17th of June. After the usual 
 preliminary ceremonies. Cardinal Fesch, who presided, took 
 
 * The celebrated sculptor, Canova, was called to Paris this year to model 
 a statue of the Empress Maria Louisa. Napoleon frequently assisted at 
 the sittings, conversing familiarly with the artist, and was not displeased 
 when that faithful subject of his holiness expostulated with him on the 
 detention of his sovereign. " How !" said Napoleon, " he would not 
 expel the English from his states ! he resisted my will, who am the sove- 
 reign of sixty millions of subjects !" The statue was no sooner com- 
 pleted than Canova set out for Rome, refusing the dignity of senator, offered 
 him by the emperor. 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 355 
 
 the oath of fidelity and true obedience to the Holy See : his 
 example was followed by all the other members. This com- 
 mencement of proceedings was so displeasing to the emperor, 
 that he substituted to the council a commission of twelve bi- 
 shops ; eight of that number continuing to oppose his views, 
 he dissolved the commission and imprisoned the Bishops of 
 Troyes, Ghent, and Tournay, who had most strenuously sup- 
 ported the authority of the Pope. Cardinal Fesch also fell 
 into disgrace with his imperial nephew, and was advised to 
 withdraw to Lyons, of which city he was archbishop. The 
 object of Napoleon, in convoking the council, liad been to 
 dissolve the Concordat of 1801, and to take from the Pope 
 the right of confirming, or of refusing to confirm, the nomi- 
 nation of bishops, thus preventing the intrusion of unworthy 
 persons into the government of the Church. The emperor 
 also hoped to intimidate, by the eclat of the proceedings and 
 the numbers whom his fiat had assembled, the meek and 
 peaceable Pontiff, on whom personal motives could make no 
 impression. But, in all these projects, he was singularly 
 unsuccessful: the convocation of the council only served to 
 render the authority of the Holy See more resplendent ; and 
 though a verbal acceptation of a decree presented to his holi- 
 ness, by a deputation of six prelates, was, by dint of earnest 
 entreaties and exaggerated statements of the danger of a 
 schism, extorted from him ; a few hours' reflection sufficed to 
 show him the error into which he had been inadvertently be- 
 trayed, and he sent to recall the prelates, but they had already 
 set out for Paris. The concessions thus obtained, were, how- 
 ever, to the inexpressible joy of the good Pope and of all 
 sincere lovers of religion, rejected by Napoleon as insuffi- 
 cient. Pius was left tranquil in his solitude at Savona during 
 the winter months, and the affairs of the Church, after so 
 many plans and so much agitation, remained unaltered. 
 
 Besides the occupation thus afforded him, the emperor was 
 intent on raising a navy, which might in time dispute with 
 England the empire of the sea. For this end, tlie military 
 conscription was changed, in the thirty maritime departments, 
 into a naval one, and seamen from Denmark and various 
 parts of the French empire were sent to man the fleet fitting 
 out at Antwerp. During the summer months, Napoleon 
 made a tour of inspection, and visited the shipping and fortifi- 
 cations of the principal sea-ports. The large and commercial 
 city of Hamburg now formed part of tiie French empire, to 
 which it had been annexed at the beginning of the year. 
 
356 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 Another of Napoleon's favourite plans tended to lessen the 
 number of private seminaries, which were subject to the 
 bishops, and to augment that of the universities, where 
 much pains were taken to give the youth of France a military 
 cliaractcr. " These priests," said he, in one of his moments 
 of skepticism, " only think of fitting men for the other world: 
 I want soldiers for this." On the 2d of April, his empress 
 gave birth to a son, who was named Napoleon, and entitled 
 King of Rome. 
 
 1812. — The Parliament of the United Kingdom assembled 
 on the 7th of January ; the regent's speech was delivered by 
 commission. The king being still unable to resume the 
 cares of royalty, and the period allotted for the continuance 
 of restrictions upon the regent's power having expired, the 
 full exercise of the royal prerogative, though not the tide of 
 sovereign, devolved upon the latter, and the civil list was 
 transferred to him. A new establishment was set up for the 
 king, to support which, £170,000, including iD50,000 re- 
 signed by the regent, were allotted; £100,000 were granted 
 to the prince, and £9000 a year to each of the royal prin- 
 cesses, exclusive of the £4000 per annum allowed from the 
 civil list. The regent, after some efforts to form a ministry, 
 in which Lords Grey and Grenville might be included, 
 retained Mr. Percival and his colleagues in office. The seals 
 of the foreign department were resigned by Marquis 
 Wellesley, and shortly after committed to Lord Castlereagh. 
 
 Distress and consequent riots continued to prevail in the 
 manufacturing districts of England ; and so organized a 
 system was adopted by the malecontents, as led to a belief, 
 that their views were not confined to the attainment of imme- 
 diate relief, but partook of a revolutionary nature. Govern- 
 ment endeavoured, by rigorous measures, to suppress these 
 disturbances ; but the manufacturers, and the country in 
 general, attributed their origin and continuance to the opera- 
 tion of the orders in council. So general a dissatisfaction at 
 last engaged the legislature to institute an inquiry into the 
 state of commerce and manufactures ; but the labours of the 
 committee appointed in April for that purpose, were sus- 
 pended, and the administration deprived of its leader, by the 
 assassination of Mr. Percival, who was shot, in the lobby of the 
 House of Commons, by a person named Bellingham. To 
 protract the life, and soothe the anguish of the dying minister, 
 was the first impulse of the by-standers : their efforts were 
 however unavailing; Mr. Percival expired after a short perioJ 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 357 
 
 of intense suflcriiig. Bcllingliam, fifter having taken his 
 deadly aim, fearlessly remained among the spectators of its 
 fatal efficacy, and hesitated not, when called for, to ac- 
 knowledge himself the perpetrator of an act, to which, he 
 judged, no inOimy or punishment could be attached. When 
 brought to trial, he alleged in his justification, that having 
 been wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, and reduced from 
 comparatively allluent circumstances, to extreme indigence, 
 he had often ineffectually applied for redress to the English 
 ambassador there ; and that having, on his return to England, 
 found the ministry equally deaf to his complaints, he had ta- 
 ken revenge for their neglect in the assassination of their 
 leader, wiliiout being influenced by personal feelings of ani- 
 mosity towards his victim. He was sentenced to death, 
 and suffered the awarded penalty on the 18th of May. 
 
 After a protracted discussion between the members of the 
 old cabinet, and the whig party, relative to the formation of 
 a new ministry, a conciliation of parties being found im- 
 practicable, Lord Liverpool was appointed prime minister ; 
 Lord Sidmouth, secretary for the home department; Lord 
 Harrowby, president of the council ; and Mr. Vansittart, 
 chancellor of the exchequer. 
 
 Catholic affairs, and the orders in council, continued to 
 occupy Parliamentary and general attention. Mr. Canning 
 proposed, and carried, that the Commons should, during the 
 next session of Parliament, take into consideration, the laws 
 affecting the Roman Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 A similar motion, made by Marquis Wellesley, in the House 
 of Lords, was lost by one voice ; but the Catliolics found con- 
 solation for present disappointment, in the conviction that 
 their course was at least progressive, and in the hope that its 
 triumph was but deferred. The result of the inquiry into 
 the state of commerce and manufactures, was a repeal of the 
 orders in council, as far as they regarded American vessels. 
 But this concession came too late to avert war between 
 England and America. Angry feelings had long existed in the 
 latter country against the British, and had been aggravated dur- 
 ing the preceding year by an unfortunate collision which took 
 place l)etween an English sloop of war, and an American fri- 
 gate. The former had 32 men killed or wounded in the affray ; 
 the loss of the Americans, who were greatly superior in force, 
 was inconsiderable. The governments of the two countries dis- 
 avowing any hostile orders given to the two commanders, this 
 affair produced only a temporary exasperation : other events 
 
358 GEi\ERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 now widened the breach, and the Americans issued a declara- 
 tion of war against England, on the 17th of June, five days 
 previous to the repeal of the orders in council. 
 
 At an early period of the year, liOrd Wellington, finding 
 his troops sufficiently recovered from sickness and fatigue, 
 again laid siege to Ciudad Rodrigo, and, in the evening of the 
 19th of January, carried that important fortress by storm. 
 The garrison was considerably reduced in numbers, and the 
 loss of the besiegers Avas also great, especially in officers, 
 among whom was General Crawford, who fell, mortally 
 wounded, as he was mounting the breach at the head of his 
 troops. This brilliant affair obtained for Lord Wellington a vote 
 of thanks from the Cortes, with the rank of a grandee of Spain 
 of the first class, and the tide of Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo. The 
 Prince Regent of England created him an earl, and Parliament 
 voted him a grant of £20,000 per annum. The British com- 
 mander now prepared to invest Badajoz ; a fire from twenty- 
 six pieces of cannon was opened on the place, March 31st, 
 and, notwithstanding the skill and perseverance with which 
 it was defended by General Philopon, it was carried, April 
 6th, pardy by assault and partly by escalade. An immense 
 quantity of ammunition and implements of war, with 133 brass 
 cannon, fell into the hands of the victors. The reduction of 
 Badajoz shed an additional lustre on the arms of the allies; 
 but the triumph was purchased with the loss of 5,000 British 
 and Portuguese, killed or wounded in the siege and assault. 
 Soult, who was advancing to relieve the fortress, on hearing 
 of its surrender, retreated into Andalusia ; upon which. Lord 
 Welling'ton detached General Sir R. Hill to destroy the bridjre 
 of Almarez, which ofl^ered the only good communication across 
 the Tagus. The enterprise was, in every respect, successful. 
 The reduction of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz enabled Lord 
 Wellington to advance into the interior of Spain, Having pro- 
 ceeded, almost without opposition, to Salamanca, he entered 
 that city amidst the joyous acclamations of the inhabitants; 
 while Marmont, retreating before him, took up a position on 
 the eastern bank of the Tormes. After much time spent by 
 both armies in a variety of evolutions, a general battle took 
 place, July 22d, which was maintained till nightfall, and ended 
 in the total defeat of the French. Although the darkness of 
 the night was favourable to the retreating enemy, the number 
 of prisoners taken amounted to 7,000, among whom a large 
 proportion were officers. Two eagles, six standards, eleven 
 pieces of cannon, and several ammunition-wagons, formed 
 
XLIX.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 359 
 
 part of the spoils on this occasion. After the battle of Sala- 
 manca, Joseph Bonaparte retired from Madrid, which was en- 
 tered by the allies on the 17th of August. Early in Septem- 
 ber, Lord Wellington, marched upon Burgos, through which 
 city the French had retired, leaving a strong garrison in the 
 castle ; having failed in an attempt to carry this strong fortress 
 by storm, and receiving intelligence that the united forces of 
 Soult and Victor were advancing towards the Tagus, he broke 
 up the siege, and, in the night of the 20th, commenced a re- 
 trograde march to the Douro. The allied troops were, conse- 
 quendy, recalled from Madrid, and, on the 2d of November, 
 the French re-entered that city. Lord Wellington displayed 
 consummate abilities in conducting his retreat before an ene- 
 my greatly superior in numbers, and, November 24, again 
 established his head-quarters at Freynada, on the Portuguese 
 frontier. The effects of the battle of Salamanca had, in the 
 meanwhile, been felt in the south of Spain ; the French raised, 
 in August, the siege of Cadiz, and withdrew, after blowing 
 up their forts and batteries, leaving behind them a numerous 
 artillery, mostly rendered unserviceable. They also evacu- 
 ated Seville and their other possessions in that part of Spain. 
 The Cortes testified their gratitude for the distinguished ser- 
 vices of Lord Wellington by appointing him Commander-in- 
 chief of the Spanish armies ; a measure which led to that 
 union of efforts, the want of which had been so often felt 
 during this memorable contest. The victory of Salamanca 
 was celebrated in England with illuminations and public re- 
 joicings. Lord Wellington was created a Marquis of the 
 United Kingdom, and Parliament voted a sum of 30100,000 
 to be laid out in the purchase of estates for him and his heirs. 
 At the beginning of this year (1812) a change was made in 
 the Spanish regency, General O'Donnel being named presi- 
 dent, and the Duke del Infantado vice-president. The Cortes 
 put forth a new constitution, which, as well as the former one 
 of 1810, had a revolutionary and irreligious tendency, though 
 published in the name of the king. The Pope's nuncio and 
 the Bishop of Orense were banished, and many other Spa- 
 niards were sufferers on account of their attachment to the altar 
 and the throne. The regency and Cortes were acknowledged 
 by several foreign powers : England, Russia, and others, con- 
 tinued to treat with this assembly, which acted in the name 
 of Ferdinand. 
 
360 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 
 
 The aspect of foreign affairs was altered this year by the 
 defection of the Emperor Alexander from the maritime system 
 of Napoleon, and by the war which ensued between these 
 monarchs. Alexander had issued an ukase* at the close of 
 1810, by which English produce, in neutral ships, might be 
 imported into the Russian dominions ; and though Napoleon 
 proclaimed that he would turn his arms against every nation 
 whose ports should be opened to British merchandise, or de- 
 nationalized vessels, Alexander did not revoke the permis- 
 sion. In reply to the remonstrance made by the French mi- 
 nister, early in 1812, the Russian ambassador required, as the 
 conditions upon which Alexander would forego a direct trade 
 with England, and adopt the French system of license, that 
 Prussia and Swedish Pomerania should be evacuated by the 
 French troops. The seizure of the duchy of Oldenburg, in 
 violation of the treaty of Tilsit, was an additional subject of 
 complaint on the part of Russia; she was, however, willing 
 to conclude a treaty of exchange for that duchy, should France 
 accede to her other proposals ; but to these Bonaparte returned 
 no reply. Remote preparations for war had been made by 
 both parties, during the preceding year ; and no sooner was 
 the inefficacy of negotiation apparent to Napoleon, than he 
 left Paris for the Russian frontier. Previous to his departure, he 
 concluded a treaty with Austria, which bound each of its con- 
 tracting parties to assist the other, if attacked, and guarantied 
 the integrity of the Ottoman Porte, in Europe. Overtures of 
 peace were also made by the French emperor to Great Bri- 
 tain ; but as one of the articles proposed " that the present 
 dynasty in Spain should be recognised and the nation 
 governed according to the constitution of the Cortes," Lord 
 Castlereagh replied that the proposal was inadmissible. 
 Alexander, on his side, concluded a treaty of amity and mu- 
 tual defence with Great Britain and Sweden, and having thus 
 acquired two powerful allies, he set out from St. Petersburg, 
 and joined the general-in-chief, Barclay de Tolly, at Wilna. 
 80,000 men, divided into seven corps, and forming the centre 
 of the Russian forces, were there assembled under his orders. 
 To the south of Grodno, Bagration, with 65,000 men, was 
 posted, and at Krowno, Wittgenstien, with 26,000. 
 * An imperial order. 
 
L.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 361 
 
 Napoleon quitted Paris on the 9th of May ; from that city 
 to Dresden, whither he was followed by the empress and a 
 numerous court, his route was one continued triumph. The 
 different divisions of the invading army were stationed along 
 the shores of the Vistula, and Napoleon had no sooner passed 
 that river, than lie was hailed by the Poles as the restorer of 
 their national independence. A deputation from the diet of 
 Warsaw craved his protection for " the cradle of reviving 
 Poland," and the majority of the nation warmly espoused 
 his cause. The forces which were called together for the 
 invasion of Russia, surpassed in numbers, in equipment, and 
 in discipline, any that had been brought into the field since 
 the ages of barbarism. They amounted to 600,000 men, 
 among whom were Germans, French, Italians, Prussians, 
 and Poles, and were divided into ten corps ; the Austrian auxi- 
 liaries being commanded by Prince Schwartzenburg; the ca- 
 valry by Murat; the old guards were led by La Febre, the 
 new by Mortier, and the advanced guard by Jerome Bonaparte. 
 These different divisions entered the Russian territory by vari- 
 ous routes. Macdonald, who commanded the left wing, and 
 was opposed to Prince Wittgenstein, rested his invasion on 
 the Baltic, and threatened Revel, then Riga, and, lastly, St. 
 Petersburg itself. Though thrice defeated by the Russian gen- 
 eral, he carried on the war wi^h judgment and valour under 
 the walls of Riga, which city was ably and successfully de- 
 fended by General Essen, and held out till Macdonald, at 
 Napoleon's command, withdrew his army. With regard to 
 his right wing, the French emperor relied on the support of 
 Turkey, and in this he was disappointed. He had concluded 
 that the Russian army of Volhynia, under Tormasof, would 
 follow the movements of Alexander, whereas it advanced in a 
 contrary direction. Tormasof was defeated ; but the peace of 
 Buchares, which was then concluded between Russia and the 
 Porte, left the army under Tschigakoff at liberty to join in 
 the contest against the invaders of the empire, and to march 
 from the Danube against Prince Schwartzenburg. 
 
 Between these two wangs, the grand army marched towards 
 the Niemen, in three separate masses ; Jerome Bonaparte, 
 with 80,000 men, took the direction of Grodno; Prince 
 Eugene, with 75,000, that of Piloni ; Napoleon, with 
 200,000, that of Kowno. On the 23d of June, the imperial 
 columns reached the Niemen; on the following night, bridges 
 were thrown across the river, and three successive days were 
 employed in effecting the passage of the troops. They were 
 
 33 
 
362 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 provided with provisions for twenty days, in which time Na- 
 poleon hoped to reach Wiina, and to have gained at least one 
 decisive victory. The object of the Russians was to effect 
 the destruction of the invader, not by attempting his defeat 
 in the early stage of the campaign, but by laying waste the 
 country before him, and by opposing his progress only in 
 such positions as might insure his defeat with trifling loss 
 on their side. By these means it was foreseen that his 
 strength would be insensibly diminished ; and, should he ad- 
 vance into the heart of the country and winter overtake him 
 there, his entire ruin would be accomplished. It was in con- 
 formity with this plan, that the Russians, with their emperor, 
 retreated from the Niemen to the Dwina. A considerable 
 disadvantage, however, resulted from this plan. Prince 
 Bagration was separated from the army of the centre, 
 and Poland was abandoned to the enemy. Alexander had 
 given orders that the different divisions of the Russian forces 
 should assemble at Drissa. The whole main body reached 
 the place of concentration without loss ; and a corps under the 
 orders of Doctorof, which had been left at Grodno, found 
 means, though with difficulty, to force its way thither. 
 Prince Bagration, for the same end, marched first upon Wilna, 
 and afterwards upon Minsk ; but finding both these places 
 preoccupied by the French, ^e advanced towards Sloutsk, 
 with the intention of proceeding from thence to Witepsk. 
 To effect the junction of the tv/o armies, Barclay de Tolly 
 quitted Drissa, and, arriving before Witepsk, took up a posi- 
 tion with a view of giving battle to the French, who were 
 advancing towards it ; but, on receiving intelligence that 
 Prince Bagration had been compelled to fall back upon the 
 road to Smolensk, he altered his intention, and resolved to 
 retire in the same direction. His troops effected their retreat 
 on the night of the 27th of July, in such order as to leave 
 the enemy no indication of the road they had taken. Prince 
 Bagration, who had been joined by Hetman PlatofF, at the 
 head of a large body of Cossacks, crossed the Beresina, at 
 Bobreush ; and, cutting his way through the divisions of 
 Davoust and Mortier, which were stationed on the Dnieper to 
 intercept his progress, reached Smolensk on the 7th of 
 August ; the united force of Barclay and Bagration amounted 
 to 130,000 men. When Napoleon had sufficiently refreshed 
 his troops, and had been apprized that reinforcements were 
 advancing from Tilsit to his assistance, he ordered Murat and 
 Beauharnais to force the passage of the Dnieper. News of 
 
L.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 363 
 
 this movement caused General Barclay de Tolly to retire to 
 the heights above Smolensk, which was strongly garrisoned. 
 Prince Bagration was stationed on the Moscow road, and 
 every necessary precaution taken to arrest the progress of the 
 enemy. 
 
 Bonaparte arrived before Smolensk on the 16th of August, 
 and ordered the assault of the suburbs, and the destruction of 
 the bridges, by which a communication was maintained be- 
 tween the garrison and the army on the heights. Ney com- 
 manded the French left, Davoust the centre, and Prince Po- 
 niatowsky the right; the cavalry, under Beauharnais and 
 Murat, and the guards, commanded by Napoleon in person, 
 formed the rear. In the efforts of the French to gain their 
 object, and of the Russians to prevent its attainment, thou- 
 sands fell on both sides. The Russians, having disputed every 
 point, were driven into the city, and the French advanced io 
 its walls. A destructive fire from the outworks retarded for 
 a while the farther progress of the besiegers ; but breaching 
 batteries were quickly raised, and the Russian left was forced 
 to retire within the ramparts. The contest raged with undi- 
 minished fury till long after sunset; at length, the Russians, 
 finding the works no longer tenable, set fire to the city in 
 several places and retreated. At two o'clock on the follow- 
 ing morning, the French mounted a breach, which they had 
 made on the evening of the 16th: their progress was unre- 
 sisted, except by widely-extended flames. The defenders of 
 Smolensk had retired, and to its conquerors, who had hoped 
 tliat it would afford them remuneration for the fatigue which 
 they had sustained previous to its capture, wrecks of lift' 
 and greatness, flaming palaces and blackened skeletons were 
 alone discernible. Napoleon, as he viewed the vast scene 
 of desolation before him, exclaimed, <' Never was a war prose- 
 cuted with such ferocity; never did defence put on so hostile 
 a shape against the common feelings of self-preservation. 
 These people treat their own country as if they were its ene- 
 mies." He ordered the immediate pursuit of the retreating 
 army, which, however, made good its march through Viasma. 
 This city, like Smolensk, was destroyed, and presented to 
 its invaders ruin and desolation. 
 
 On the 28th of August, General Barclay de Tolly resigned 
 liis command to Prince Kutusoff. The new commander-in- 
 chief took up a position, with the intention of giving battle 
 at Borodino, four wersts in advance of Mojaish, on the 3Io3- 
 cow road. On the 4th of September the French arrived, in 
 
364 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP 
 
 great force, in the vicinity. On the morning of the 7th, Da- 
 voust and Poniatowsky attacked the Russian left ; Ney op- 
 posed their centre, and Beaiiharnais their right. The battle 
 soon became general; it raged till night rendered the contend- 
 ing parties no longer visible to each other. Victory was 
 claimed by both parties; and Bonaparte and Kutusoff, in their' 
 several bulletins, announced it as gained by their respective 
 armies. The Russians retained possession of the field of Bo- 
 rodino, but their loss was immense, and the French were not 
 arrested in their progress. 
 
 Kutusoff, finding that the enemy was advancing upon tlie 
 capital, and judging that his army, until the arrival of expect- 
 ed reinforcements, would fight under disadvantageous circum- 
 stances, passed through Moscow, which he determined to 
 abandon, and took a position on the Kaluga road. He or- 
 dered that the arsenal and all the public and private treasures 
 of Moscow should be secured, and the city left an empty 
 waste, incapable of affording spoil or refreshment to the in- 
 vading army. " The sacrifice of Moscow," he said, *' was 
 necessary for the preservation of Russia: it was an immola- 
 tion of a part for the whole."* He added that, had he per- 
 sisted in retaining this city, he should have abandoned the 
 rich provinces of Toula and Kaluga, the store-houses of the 
 Russian empire ; that, by relinquishing it, he Avas enabled to 
 cover these provinces ; to maintain a communication with 
 the corps of Tormazof and Tschigakoff ; to intercept the 
 enemy's line of operations, and to cut off supplies from their 
 rear. General Winzingerode was ordered to occupy Twer, 
 and to place a regiment of Cossacks on the road to Yarraw- 
 sloff. Rostopchin, Governor of Moscow, after having se- 
 cured its treasure, given orders for its total evacuation, and set 
 fire to it, advanced at the head of 40,000 of the inhabitants, to 
 join the army of Kutusoff. 
 
 The French marched upon the capital in three cohimns ; 
 Napoleon by the route from Smolensk, Poniatowsky by 
 Kaluga, and Beauharnais by Zwenighorod. Privations and 
 desolation awaited them in every stage of their progress ; the 
 Russian peasantry fled at their approach, and burned the 
 houses, grain, and forage, along their whole line of march ; 
 and when at length they reached Moscow, for the possession 
 of which they had cheerfully undergone want and peril, it 
 presented to their view a vast and awful conflagration, and 
 furnished no materials wherewith the intention of its destroy^ 
 * Kutusoff 's letter to Alexander, dated September 16th. 
 
L.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 365 
 
 ers could be counteracted, for all fire-engines had been 
 removed by Rostopchin's order. The French, however, 
 made their way to the Kremlin, which a body of Russian 
 soldiers, who had refused to abandon the city, tried inefiect- 
 iially to defend ; and there Napoleon fixed his head-quarters. 
 On the 16th a violent wind caused the flames to spread on all 
 sides ; they extended to the emperor's residence, and obliged 
 him to retire to Peterskoe. After a lapse of four days, during- 
 which the city appeared enveloped in smoke and flame, the 
 fire subsided, and Napoleon returned to the Kremlin. Not- 
 withstanding the orders of Kutusoff, Moscow aflbrded con- 
 siderable spoil to the enemy. But this spoil was of such a 
 nature as, by enervating tlie French soldiery, rather to impede 
 than to promote the purposes of their emperor. Silver and 
 china wares, wines of the most delicious flavour, silken stuffs 
 and cosdy furs, were the hourly prey of the invaders, 
 who, during their stay in Moscow, at once wanted necessa- 
 ries and rioted in luxuries. Neither had the city been quite 
 abandoned by its inhabitants. Many of them had refused to 
 adopt the Russian commander's plan, and these, during the 
 enemy's stay, suffered the extreme of human misery, Bona- 
 parte, seeing himself cut off from all means of supply, and 
 his troops sinking under famine and disease, tried to neg-o- 
 tiate with Alexander. He sent General Lauristan to the 
 Russian head-quarters, to propose preliminaries of peace. 
 But his overtures, which were renewed three several 
 times, were as often contemptuously rejected by Prince 
 Kutusoff. To the earnest solicitations of the French 
 envoy, the Russian general replied; "The French have, 
 indeed, proclaimed the campaign terminated at Moscow ; bin: 
 on our part we are only beginning." Retreat, therefore, 
 became imperative, and Napoleon prepared to abandon his 
 enterprise. Previously to leaving the city, he ordered the 
 destruction of such of its buildings as had escaped the confla- 
 gration, and the trial of twenty-six Russians, who had been 
 taken in the act of spreading the flames. Ten of these were 
 sentenced to death, and sixteen to imprisonment. Napoleon 
 then told his troops, that he was about to lead them to winter- 
 quarters, and ordered Murat to drive back the Russians who 
 guarded the Kaluga road, by which he intended to retreat ; 
 that of Witepsk and Smolensk having been rendered, by the 
 former march of the French and Russians over it, nearly im- 
 passable. Murat, however, was defeated by Kutusoff; and 
 General Winzingerode having repulsed Delson, who had been 
 
 33* 
 
366 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 ordered to take the way of Dimitrof, marched upon Moscow, 
 which he entered on the 22d and drove the French under the 
 walls of the citadel. Anxious to prevent bloodshed, he and 
 his aid-de-camp rode up to the enemy's lines with a flag of 
 truce, and proposed a capitulation. The French, disregarding 
 the signal, seized and imprisoned them in the Kremlin. The 
 Russian General Illouviasky, to save this quarter of the city, 
 which the enemy had resolved to level, forced its gates, and 
 seized the incendiaries before they had sprung the second 
 mine. On the following day the French left Moscow. 
 
 In the mean time, the Russian generals stationed in the 
 neighbourhood of Riga, continued to repel the attacks of the 
 enemy in that quarter. General Essen took Mittaii ; and 
 Wittgenstein, having succeeded in preventing Macdonald 
 from marching upon Petersburg, advanced to meet the armies 
 of Tormazof and Tschigakoff, which had formed a junction, 
 on the 17th of September, at Sloutsk, and had so overawed 
 Schwartzenburg and Regnier, as to induce them to retreat 
 precipitately to Blastoff. The united forces were ordered to 
 Minsk, to co-operate with the movements of Kutusoff, and 
 arrived there on the 1st of November. The Russian com- 
 mander-in-chief posted divisions of troops on every road, 
 over which he supposed the enemy might seek a passage ; 
 and he ordered the Cossacks to be dispersed in all directions, 
 where there might be a possibility of intercepting the ene- 
 my's march. The Russian corps of Doctarof coming up with 
 three divisions of the retreating army, (November 22d,) an ob- 
 stinately-contested battle was fought : the French proclaimed 
 its result a victory to their arms, but they were compelled 
 by the Russians to make towards the wasted Mojaisk road, 
 now become their only line of retreat. Deep, broken ways, 
 the want of every necessary, and the harassing and close pur- 
 suit of the Cossacks, rendered the French retreat a scene of 
 extreme and daily-increasing wretchedness. Their sufferings, 
 however, were not yet hopeless ; they still looked forward 
 to their arrival at Smolensk as the term of their miseries. 
 The grand Russian force marched in a parallel direction with 
 the retreating army. General Milloradovitch, commander of 
 Kutusoff 's advanced guard, pressed upon their left, and a 
 corps was stationed at Dorogobouche to prevent their 
 passing the Dnieper. As they drew near to Viasma, the 
 hostile forces came in contact, and an engagement ensued 
 between the Russian general and the corps of Beauharnais, 
 Ney, and Davoust, in which the French were defeated. 
 
L.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 367 
 
 When the fugitives were within a few days' journey from 
 Smolensk, such tempestuous weather arose, accompanied by 
 snow and piercing cold, as benumbed their limbs, and pre- 
 vented their distinguishing the roads. Hundreds perished of 
 cold, or were lost in the deep, impassable snow. Insubordi- 
 nation resulted from these additional hardships : the regiments 
 marched in disorder, and spread desolation on their path, set- 
 ting fire to the towns, as they passed, and ill-treating the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 When Bonaparte reached Smolensk, (November 9th,) he 
 found there none of the comforts anticipated by his army : the 
 supplies were hardly sufficient to satisfy the immecWate wants 
 of the advanced guard ; and when Beauharnais's corps arrived, 
 tlieir astonishment and rage were excited by ihe news, that 
 the provisions were already exhausted. On the 15th of No- 
 vember, the grand army was again in motion, and Bona- 
 parte expressly commanded that each corps should be 
 attended by its train of artillery. Kutusoff, foreseeing that 
 the French would advance upon Krasnoi, hastened to inter- 
 cept their progress, and attacked and defeated the corps of 
 Davoust. A body of 12,000 men, disabled by cold and 
 hunger, advancing in the same direction, was compelled to 
 surrender ; Ney, himself, having with difficulty escaped, fled 
 under cover of night across the Dnieper. Another division 
 of the retreating army surrendered to Milloradovitch. The 
 Russians waited some days at Krasnoi, for the arrival of 
 their stores : Bonaparte, taking advantage of this circum- 
 stance, hastened to the Beresina, which he hoped to pass 
 without molestation. With the remnant of Victor and Ou- 
 dinot's corps, (which had formed a junction with the retreat- 
 ing army,) and some other regiments, he advanced on the 
 right of the Beresina, towards Minsk. TschigakofT was in 
 his front, Kutusoff on his left and rear, and Wittgenstein on 
 his right. On the 25th, he threw two bridges across the river 
 at Strudzianca, over which, he, with Oudinot's corps, effected 
 u passage. The greater part of the French army, enfeebled 
 and dispirited by their sufferings, were yet on the eastern 
 bank when Prince Wittgenstein reached it, November 28. 
 A scene of indescribable confusion and horror ensued. The 
 crowds that rushed together upon the bridges broke down 
 one, and rendered a passage over the other impracticable. 
 Many of the fugitives were drowned, others were suffocated, 
 and some perished by the hand of their comrades ; anxiety 
 for self-preservation, stifling the dictates of compassion in the 
 
368 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 minds of the stronger, suggested to them the inhuman expe- 
 dient of trampling on or drowning those whom weakness or 
 infirmity rendered unable to contend for a passage. After a 
 most sanguinary action, in which the Russians took 4000 
 prisoners, the Polonese corps, commanded by Girard, effected 
 the passage of the Beresina, and then, to prevent the farther 
 pursuit of the Russians, set fire to the bridge, regardless of 
 the fate of thousands who were yet on the left bank of the 
 river. These made their way, with cries of indignation 
 against the inhumanity of their countrymen, to the burning 
 bridge; a few succeed in passing it, but a far greater number 
 perished in the flames. After the passage of the Beresina, 
 Napoleon made for Wilna, with the intention of repairing, 
 without delay, to Paris, where a conspiracy, formed during 
 his absence, by three ex-generals of the republican party, had 
 been discovered and suppressed. Having appointed Murat 
 lieutenant-general, he pursued his journey, travelling incognito, 
 on a single sledge, to Warsaw, and, passing rapidly through 
 Dresden, Leipsig, and Mentz, arrived in Paris, at midnight, 
 on the 18th of December. 
 
 After the departure of Bonaparte, no trace of subordination 
 was observable among his followers. The chiefs abandoned 
 their regiments ; oflicers and soldiers alike limited their views 
 to the attainment of individual safety. This irregularity, 
 however, defeated its object, as it rendered the fugitives a 
 more easy prey to the Russians, who had reconstructed a 
 bridge across the Beresina, and now closely pursued and cap- 
 tured many of the imperial legions. The French passed 
 through Wilna on the 10th ; the Russians took that town on the 
 11th, and on the 14th advanced to Kowno. Macdonald, who 
 had hitherto maintained himself in Courland, hearing of the 
 discomfiture of the grand army, prepared to abandon Konigs- 
 berg, and the line of the Niemen ; but Wittgenstein, who 
 advanced into East Prussia, stationed detachments to prevent 
 his escape. General d'Yorck, finding himself unsupported, 
 signed a convention, by which it was agreed, that the Prussian 
 troops should retire into their own territory. On the 4th of 
 January, 1813, Memel capitulated to the Russians, and Konigs- 
 berg, in spite of Macdonald's vigorous eff'orts to defend it, sur- 
 rendered. To reach the cities still garrisoned by their country- 
 men, was the only object that now animated to exertion the 
 feeble wreck of Napoleon's army. Many of these fortresses 
 surrendered to the Russians, during the month of January, 
 1813. Marienwerder was taken by Tschigakoff"; Marienburgby 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 369 
 
 Platoff ; and Kutusoff fixed his head-quarters in the capital 
 of Russian Poland. All that tlie French had so proudly con- 
 quered in their advance to the Russian frontier was now lost. 
 The plunder of Moscow had been abandoned in their retreat, 
 and recovered by their pursuers. Of the mighty host that 
 had passed the Niemen, for the conquest of the Russian 
 territory, it is computed that only 50,000 men, including 
 Prussians and Austrians, repassed that river. 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR WITH AMERICA, IN 
 1812, TO THE INVASION OF FRANCE BY THE ALLIED POWERS, 
 IN 1814. 
 
 [The declaration of war by the United States against Eng- 
 land was soon followed by active hostilities. The American 
 General Hull crossed from Detroit into Canada, and after 
 several skirmishes, with various success, surrendered liis army 
 to the British. The battle of Queenstown followed, Oct. 13, 
 1812, in which the Americans were compelled to retreat. But 
 in April, 1813, Forts George, Erie, and York, Upper Canada, 
 were taken by the Americans ; and in the same month the Bri- 
 tish and Indians were repulsed by Gen. Harrison, at the cele- 
 brated sieo^e of Fort Mei^s. The battle of the Thames, 
 Oct. 5, again proved disastrous to the British and Indians. 
 The warlike Indian chief, Tecumseh, fell. During the sum- 
 mer and autumn of this year, and in 1814, the shores of the 
 Chesapeake Bay were ravaged by Admiral Cockburne ; but 
 an attack on Craney Island by the British, was gallantly 
 repulsed. The Creek war raged during part of 1813, but 
 was ended by the bloody battle of Horse Shoe Bend, gained 
 by Gen. Jackson, March 27th, 1814. Early in 1814, the 
 northern sea-coast was invaded by Commodore Hardy. 
 Aug. 24. The Americans were defeated at Bladensburg, and the 
 British marched to Washington, burnt the capitol and public 
 buildings. Sept. 11. The battles of Plattsburg and of Lake 
 Champlain both resulted, on the same day, in the triumph of 
 the American arms. Sept. 12. The British General Ross 
 fell in the battle at North Point, near Baltimore, and soon 
 after the fleet which had fiercely assailed Fort McHenry 
 retired. The next most important event on land, was the 
 
I 
 
 370 GENERAL HlSTOFy i^ EUROPE. [CHAP 
 
 battle of New Orleans, in which the Americans, under Gen. 
 Jackson, repulsed the British army under Gen. Packenham, 
 with immense slaughter. Before the battle of New Orleans 
 took place, peace had been concluded between England and 
 the United States, at Ghent, Dec. 24th, 1814. During this 
 war the American navy won imperishable laurels. Tlie vic- 
 tories gained both on the lakes and the ocean by Hull, Jones, 
 Decatur, Chauncey, Perry, Porter, Lawrence, Bainbridge, 
 Stewart, Biddle, &c., turned the eyes of all Europe on the 
 American flag, and taught Great Britain to respect and fear it.] 
 
 The levity of conduct imputed to the Princess of Wales in 
 1806, became again a topic of discussion in 1813 ; the sub- 
 ject being revived by a letter from the princess to the regent, 
 complaining that she was debarred from the society of her 
 daughter. This letter and the papers relative to the former 
 investigation were submitted to the members of the privy- 
 council, who were required to decide whether the intercourse 
 between the Princess of Wales and the Princess Charlotte 
 ought to be subject to restrictions. The privy-council having 
 decided in the affirmative, the princess appealed to the House 
 of Commons, by which assembly she prayed her cause might 
 be investigated. Mr. Stuart Wortley made a motion to that 
 eff'ect, but failed to carry it, and the business rested for the 
 present. 
 
 The charter of the East India Company, which had nearly 
 expired, was renewed, with some modifications, and Parlia- 
 ment was again called upon to discuss the policy of conceding 
 equal rights to a large class of British subjects. A bill was 
 introduced by Mr. Grattan, (April 30th,) enabling Catholics 
 to hold, with some few exceptions, any military or civil ap- 
 pointment, and to sit and vote in either House of Parliament, 
 after taking a specified oath, of which the chief provi- 
 sions were, allegiance to the king, support to the Protestant 
 succession and existing church establishment, a renunciation 
 of all belief in the temporal jurisdiction of the Pope within 
 the United Kingdom, or of any power possessed by him to 
 depose princes at pleasure. In the course of the discussion, 
 the bill was newly modelled, so as to give to the crown a 
 veto in the appointm.ent of the Catholic bishops, and the 
 inspection of all bulls and dispensations from Rome. On 
 the subject of the veto, much difference of opinion for some 
 time prevailed among the leading members of the Catholic 
 body. In England, apprehensions were not generally enter- 
 tained, that any inconvenience would result from the interfe- 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 371 
 
 rence of the state in ecclesiastical matters, till Dr. Milner,--' a 
 prelate equally distinguished for his zeal and erudition, 
 raised his voice in opposition, and the Irish hierarchy and 
 people joined in rejecting concessions if fettered by such a 
 clause. In order to insure its omission, or, should that be 
 found impracticable, to prevent the bill from passing into a 
 law, Mr. O'Conor, of Balenagare, with two other gentlemen, 
 was deputed from Ireland. The House was in committee on 
 the subject, when the speaker rose, (May 24,) and, after a 
 variety of observations, moved and carried by a majority of 
 four voices, that the words " to sit and vote in either House of 
 Parliament," be left out of the bill : upon which Mr. Pon- 
 sonby said, that as without that clause it was neither worth 
 the acceptance of the Catholics, nor the support of their 
 advocates, he should move " that the chairman do now leave- 
 the chair." This motion being carried, the bill was aban- 
 doned ; but the propriety of conceding or refusing the right 
 of veto to the crown, continued for some time longer to form 
 a topic of discussion between the advocates and opponents 
 of the measure. 
 
 While the Catholics of Great Britain were thus struggling 
 unsuccessfully for the recovery of their civil rights, their 
 chief earthly pastor had to contend with difficulties of a 
 nature unprecedented in the annals of the church. From the 
 date of the rejected brief already mentioned, Pius VII. 
 continued undisturbed in his solitude at Savona, till, in June, 
 1812, orders were issued for his immediate transfer to Fon- 
 tainebleau. The journey was to be performed with all possible 
 secrecy and expedition : a few hours only were allowed for 
 indispensable preparations, and the Pope was compelled to 
 lay aside the attire peculiar to his rank, that he might not be 
 recognised on the road, nor received with honours similar to 
 those which had formerly attended his progress. He travelled 
 alone, (his attendants quitted Savona several hours later;) and 
 on arriving at the monastery of Mount Cenis, fell dangerously 
 ill; yet the journey was continued, Pius remaining shut up 
 night and day in a close carriage, which he was never allowed 
 to quit. Thus, rapidly traversing France, he arrived (June 
 13th) at Fontainebleau, where apartments were assigned him 
 in the ancient palace of the Kings of France. From that time 
 forward, he was treated with greater deference and courtesy, 
 
 * Author of a " History of Winchester," " The End of Religious Con- 
 troversy," and many other works. He died in 1836. 
 
372 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 and allowed to receive occasional visits. But the cardinals, 
 in whose counsels and sympathy he might have found conso- 
 lation, were dispersed in their various places of exile ; and 
 the conversation of those who were now about his person, 
 served only to increase the irksomeness of his captivity. 
 They placed before his eyes in vivid colours the desolate 
 condition of the universal church, which they said might 
 be justly termed "Acefala," or without a head, since the 
 faithful were debarred from all communication with the chief 
 pastor ; they dwelt on the particular hardships of numerous 
 sees, so long vacant in Italy, Germany, and France ; on the 
 exile and imprisonment of so many cardinals, prelates, and 
 other ecclesiastics, dragged from city to city, from prison to 
 prison ; and pointed out, in conclusion, a reconciliation with 
 the emperor, or, in other words, a condescension to his unjust 
 demands, as the only remedy for so many evils. It may 
 readily be conceived how sorrowful an impression these 
 reiterated representations must have made on the mind of 
 Pius, worn out with afflictions, and now reduced, by illness, 
 to a state of extreme debility. Seven months had elapsed in 
 this manner, since the Pope's arrival at Fontainebleau, when 
 Napoleon, defeated, but not disheartened, returned from his 
 disastrous campaign in Russia, and vigorously applied him- 
 self to collect the last resources of his widely-extended em- 
 pire for a fresh contest. 
 
 At this important crisis of his affairs, a reconciliation, either 
 real or simulated, with the Sovereign Pontiff, appeared to him 
 a measure of sound policy, not to be neglected. The pro- 
 longed captivity of a venerable old man, revered by the ma- 
 jority of European nations as the head of their religion, and 
 reverenced by all for his personal virtues, had, he well knew, 
 alienated from his government the hearts of many, as well in 
 France, as in Poland and Germany, where the powers whom 
 he had crushed or humbled made use of this motive to inflame 
 the popular indignation against his person. To remove these 
 impressions. Napoleon took advantage of the new year, to 
 send his chamberlain to Fontainebleau, charged with compli- 
 mentary messages to the Pope, from himself and the empress. 
 This renewal of intercourse was followed by the unexpected 
 arrival, January 19th, of Napoleon himself, who, repairing 
 instantly to the Pope's apartment, saluted him with all the cor- 
 diality of long-established friendship. Strange as such con- 
 duct might appear from one who had despoiled, insulted, and 
 imprisoned him, Pius received these exterior demonstrations 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 373 
 
 of kindness with his usual sweetness : the goodness of his 
 heart had, indeed, always inclined him to attribute the ill- 
 treatment which he had so often experienced, rather to inferior 
 agents, than to the emperor whom he had so highly obliged. 
 But if the courtesy of this first meeting induced him to augur 
 favourably of Napoleon's dispositions, he was soon unde- 
 ceived. During the succeeding days, other interviews took 
 place ; the plan of a new concordat was again brought forward, 
 in which several provisions, injurious to the rights of the Holy 
 See, were intermingled with promises on the part of the em- 
 peror to restore to liberty the exiled and captive cardinals, and 
 to make other arrangements for the welfare of the church. 
 These latter motives had great weight with the Pope. Yield- 
 ing to the personal solicitations of Napoleon, and the earnest 
 entreaties of the prelates who seconded his views, he con- 
 sented, January 25, to affix his signature to a series of articles 
 which were to serve as a basis for a future concordat, with 
 the express stipulation that they should not be made public, 
 nor considered valid, until examined and approved, according 
 to the customary forms, by a consistory of cardinals. Napo- 
 leon promised all that was required, and, while a pen was hur- 
 riedly thrust into the Pope's hand, stood by to sign after him : 
 yet, without any regard for this express reserve, hastened to 
 publish the articles as a definitive treaty, and to declare, in 
 announcing the conclusion of a new concordat throughout the 
 whole French empire, that all the differences which had so 
 long subsisted between France and the Holy See were satis- 
 factorily settled. In proof of this, the disgraced cardinals were 
 recalled, and invited to appear at court. Cardinals Consalvi 
 and Pacca arrived at Fontainebleau before the end of the month, 
 and his Holiness, who now saw cause to regret the confidence 
 he had placed in the emperor's good faith, conferred with each 
 upon the subject of the premature publication of the articles, 
 in the crude and imperfect state in w^hich they were drawn 
 up.* After mature consideration, it was concluded, that, be- 
 ing simple preliminaries, they were open to future amend- 
 
 * The third article was chiefly objectionable, and was as follows : — " The 
 demesnes which his Holiness possessed, and which are not alienated, shall 
 be exempt from every species of tax ; they shall be administered by agents 
 or charges d'affaires. Those which are already alienated shall be made good 
 to the amount of 2,000,000 francs." Hence it might be inferred that, in 
 signing this article, the Pope consented to be indemnified for the sove- 
 reignty of the Ecclesiastical States, already seized and still retained by the 
 French emperor. 
 
 34 
 
374 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 meiit or rejection. His Holiness, tlierefore, addressed an au- 
 tograph letter to Napoleon, in which he declared the pre- 
 tended concordat null and of no value. Having despatched 
 this formal revocation to the emperor, by Colonel Lagorsse, 
 he communicated a copy of it to all the cardinals and prelates 
 at Fontainebleau, authorizing them to make it known, in every 
 way that circumstances would permit. This precaution was 
 not superfluous : the letter was suppressed by Napoleon,* 
 who, notwithstanding the Pope's energetic remonstrances, by 
 a second decree, issued on the following day, declared the con- 
 cordat, styled of 1813, binding on all archbishops, bishops, 
 and chapters, throughout the countries subject to France. 
 
 The publication of this decree excited fears that Napoleon 
 would enforce its execution by violent measures :t but the 
 moment was not favourable to excite a schism in the church, 
 or to redouble the murmurs of the people ; and he appeared 
 willing to defer his projects till his return from the important 
 campaign on which he was about to enter. He had now col- 
 lected a sufficient force to enable him, notwithstanding the 
 disasters of the preceding year, to take the field with undi- 
 minished confidence. By a decree, dated January 11th, the 
 senate placed 350,000 men at his disposal. To complete this 
 number, the conscription was enforced with unusual rigour ; 
 mere children were carried off from their homes, to swell the 
 ranks of the imperial legions, and to dye the soil of Germany 
 with their blood, as their elder brothers had perished amidst 
 the snows of Russia. Napoleon also published a flattering 
 account of the French finances, attributing his late reverses to 
 the rigour of an inhospitable climate, and assuring his people 
 that a continuation of the war would soon restore France to 
 her military attitude, and terminate in a glorious and advan- 
 
 * It is not positively known what effect the Pope's letter produced on 
 Napoleon. It was asserted at the time, that he exclaimed in great anger at 
 the council of state — " If I do not cut off the heads of some of these priests 
 at Fontainebleau, I shall never come to any arrangement." One of his irre- 
 ligious flatterers replied, that it was time for him to follow the example of 
 Henry VIII., and declare himself absolute head of the religion of the state. 
 "No," said, Napoleon, using a familiar comparison, "Ce serait casser les 
 vitres." 
 
 ■j- The French bishops were ordered to quit Fontainebleau, and no one 
 was admitted to see the Pope but the cardinals. During the night of the 
 5th of April, Cardinal di Pietro, then confessor to his Hohness, was seized 
 and carried off to Auxonne, under the custody of a gendarme. A great 
 number of ecclesiastics, for refusing obedience to the new concordat, were 
 banished to Corsica, and subjected to the most inhuman treatment. 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 375 
 
 tao;eoiis peace. Having thus endeavoured to revive the con- 
 fidence of his subjects, he appointed the Empress Maria 
 Louisa to act as regent during his absence, and quitted Paris, 
 to take the command of his army, on the 15th of April. Ar- 
 riving at Erfurth on the 25th, he issued orders for all his 
 forces in Germany to march towards Leipzig. They con- 
 sisted, independently of the imperial guard, of twelve corps, 
 formidable in numbers, though few veterans were to be found 
 among them, and commanded by marshals of long-standing 
 renown for miUtary skill : their right wing was led by Mar- 
 mont, the centre by Ney, the left by the Viceroy Eugene 
 Beauharnais, the old and new guard were under the immediate 
 command of the emperor, with Marshal Berthier as chief of 
 his staff. 
 
 Russia, in the mean time, prepared to add fresh wreaths to 
 the laurels she had gained, and to annihilate the force which 
 her armies had shown was not unconquerable. Not satisfied 
 with opposing to France her individual exertions, she tried to 
 rouse the long-dormant energy of the European powers, and 
 induce them to join with her in the approaching contest. The 
 Prussians earnestly besought their sovereign to accept the 
 proffered alliance of Alexander. Frederic William answered 
 the appeal of his subjects by an effort to mediate between 
 France and Russia; and with this view proposed, that the 
 French troops should retire beyond the Elbe, and the Russians 
 behind the Vistula. But Napoleon rejected the proffered me- 
 diation, and a treaty, offensive and defensive, was immediately 
 concluded between Alexander and Frederic William. A war- 
 like attitude v/as now assumed, and great military preparations 
 were made by Prussia ; the landwehr was ordered out, and 
 numerous volunteers enrolled themselves in their country's 
 service. The continental system was abolished in the Prus- 
 sian states, and the importation of French merchandise pro- 
 hibited. Sweden, too, made common cause with the coa- 
 lesced powers, and signed a treaty with England on the 3d 
 of March, by which she engaged to furnish the allies wdth 
 30,000 troops, to be commanded by the crown-prince ; Great 
 Britain engaging, on her side, not to oppose the annexation 
 of Norway to Sweden, to cede to the latter power the island 
 of Guadaloupe, and to pay her a million sterling for the ser- 
 vice of the campaign. 
 
 These arrangements being made, the Russians, under Witt- 
 genstein, crossed the Elbe for the purpose of driving the 
 French back upon the Maine ; a second army, under Tschi- 
 
376 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 gakoff, was formed into two divisions, one of wiiich, under 
 Platoff, laid siege to Dantzig, while the other remained on the 
 Vistula ; a third, under Winzingerode, moved on the Elbe ; 
 General Blucher, with 25,000 men, passed that river at Dres- 
 den ; General d'Yorck was at Berlin with the main Prussian 
 army, and a large Swedish force, under the crown-prince, 
 Bernadotte, was stationed at Stralsund. The Russians and 
 Prussians, headed by their respective sovereigns, having 
 united their forces, Avhich, together with those of Sweden, were 
 computed at 200,000 men, a sliarp conflict took place at 
 Weissenfels, (May 1st,) in which the French had the advan- 
 tage. On the following day. Napoleon advanced to Liitzen 
 on his way to Leipzig ; but, being met and attacked by the 
 allies, a general action began at noon, and was maintained 
 with various success during the rest of the day. Having in 
 vain attempted to dislodge the French by an attack during the 
 night, the allies, covered by their numerous and excellent 
 cavalry, retreated through Altenberg and Colditz to Bautzen ; 
 and thus Napoleon was enabled to march through Leipzig to 
 Dresden, where he was met by the King of Saxony, who 
 united his troops to those of France. The French continued 
 to advance, through a series of bloody and well-contested 
 actions, into Silesia, marking their progress with flames and 
 devastation; and on the 1st of June, one of their divisions, 
 under General Lauriston, entered Breslau. The Swedes, 
 meanv/hile, were not slow in fulfilling the engagements they 
 had contracted with the allies ; they threw a body of troops into 
 Hamburg, which the Russians, after having taken, had aban- 
 doned, and which was now threatened by Marshal Davoust. 
 The Swedish garrison was, however, soon recalled to act 
 against the Danes ; and that unfortunate city again fell into 
 the power of the French, and being shortly after besieged by 
 the allies, had to suffer alike from its enemies and its de- 
 fenders. 
 
 Notwithstanding the temporary success of his armies, Na- 
 poleon, through the medium of his father-in-law, transmitted 
 to the Emperor Alexander proposals for an armistice, prepa- 
 ritory to arrangements for a general pacification, which being 
 accepted, it was signed and ratified on the 4th of June. 
 Though negotiations for peace were immediately set on foot, 
 Germany still resounded with preparations for war. Napo- 
 leon ordered reinforcements, from every territory under his 
 control, to rally round his standard. Prussia and Russia 
 called all their resources into action ; and Austria, of whose 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 377 
 
 assistance each of the contending parties was equally ambi- 
 tious, made such mighty preparations, as seemed to promise 
 victory to whichsoever party should obtain her co-operation. 
 The armistice terminated on the 10th of August, without 
 having opened the way to peace. A declaration of war by 
 Austria against France, and a treaty of alliance with Russia 
 and Great Britain, were the immediate results of the failure 
 of her mediation. 
 
 Of the allied forces three divisions were now made : the 
 first, consisting of the whole Austrian force and some large 
 Prussian and Russian detachments, was stationed in Bohe- 
 mia ; the second, composed of Russian and Prussian regulars 
 and militia, under the command of Blucher, was posted in 
 Silesia; and the third, under the crown-prince of Sweden, 
 was stationed in Prussia and the north of Germany. Gene- 
 ral Moreau, who had recently returned from America to visit 
 his old friend and companion in arms, Bernadotte, was pre- 
 vailed upon by the Emperor Alexander to give the assistance 
 of his military talents to the cause of the allies. He arrived at 
 Stralsund on the 4th of August, and thence hastened to meet 
 the allied sovereigns. Notwithstanding the defection of Aus- 
 tria from his alliance. Napoleon, with whom Denmark, Hol- 
 land, Italy, Saxony, Bavaria, and all the other states of the 
 Rhenish confederacy were united, mustered a force superior 
 in numerical strength to that of his opponents ; the main body 
 of his army alone was estimated at 300,000 men. This 
 force occupied Bautzen : part of it retreated to defend Dres- 
 den, near which the allies encamped on the 26th. The French 
 had expended much time and labour in fortifying the city, 
 and the force within its walls amounted to 130,000 men, 
 headed by Napoleon in person. On the same day the con- 
 federates attacked the redoubts, silenced one of them, and ob- 
 liged the enemy to retire from the outworks. Next day the 
 French became the assailants. After a heavy cannonade had 
 been maintained for some hours by the hostile enemies, the 
 confederates were apprized that Napoleon had detached a large 
 force to attack their rear, and cut them off from Bohemia. 
 This intelligence, and a conviction that Dresden was impreg- 
 nable, caused the allies to retreat. The contest of the 27th 
 cost them their newly-arrived and much valued general, Mo- 
 reau, who having lost both his legs by a cannon-shot, expired 
 on the 3d of September. The allies were in full retreat, 
 closely followed by the enemy, when an unlooked-for event 
 gave a new turn to affairs, and rendered the victory of Dres- 
 
 34* 
 
378 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 den comparatively unavailing to the conqueror. General 
 Vandamme, at the head of 10,000 men, was in pursuit of the 
 Anstrians under Prince Schwartzenburg, when the Prussian 
 General Kliest, by taking a cross-road, fell upon his rear; 
 Vandamme, thus surrounded, was compelled to surrender. 
 When the allies retreated from Dresden, Bonaparte sent 
 Marshal Ney to act against Bernadotte, who was moving 
 towards the Elbe in the direction of Leipzig. The two ar- 
 mies met at Denevitz. The crown-prince, assisted by the 
 Prussians under Bulow, succeeded in routing the French and 
 oblifjins' them to retreat on Toro-au. 
 
 The prospects of the allies, thenceforth, wore every day a 
 more cheering, those of Napoleon a more gloomy aspect. 
 Reinforcements were unceasingly arriving to the former, while 
 the numerical strength of the latter was decreasing, and many, 
 on whose support he counted, were beginning to desert his 
 cause. Early in October, the allies, having been joined by 
 the Polo-Russian army, under General Benningsen, and by 
 Hetman PlatofT, resolved to execute a plan they had long 
 contemplated : to interpose their forces between Dresden and 
 the Rhine, attack the French army in the rear, and cut off its 
 retreat. Prince Schwartzenburg advanced for this purpose 
 from Bohemia towards Leipzig, and formed a junction with 
 Blucher and Bernadotte ; the position of the allies, in rear of 
 the enemy, extending from Dessau to the Bohemian frontier. 
 A seasonable support here awaited them. Bavaria having 
 formed a treaty of alliance with Austria, united her forces to 
 those of the allies. Napoleon, apprized of the defection of 
 Bavaria, recalled his troops from the direction of Berlin, and 
 moved upon Leipzig, w^iich city he reached on the 15th of 
 October. The confederates were posted round it, and on the 
 26th two great, and several less considerable engagements 
 simultaneously took place. Of the greater actions, the one 
 between Prince Schwartzenburg and part of the French force, 
 under the personal command of Napoleon, seemed at first 
 favourable to his standard ; but, towards the close of the day, 
 the allies retrieved their losses : the others were indecisive. 
 The 17th was spent by both armies in making dispositions 
 for a renewal of battle. On the 18th, the allies, in three 
 columns, marched at an early hour upon the positions chosen 
 by the French emperor. Battle was maintained with doubtful 
 success, till the Saxons, by deserting to the allies, turned the 
 scale against their old confederates. Night parted the com- 
 batants ; the allied army bivouacked on the field of battle, 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 379 
 
 and Napoleon returned to Leipzig. The French, althongh 
 not driven from the field, had lost 40,000 men in killed, 
 wounded, and prisoners ; their ammunition was exhausted, and 
 the means of supplying themselves with this necessary article 
 were at a distance. Under these circumstances, Napoleon 
 resolved to retreat, by a route which he had opened, on the 
 17th. On the night of the 18th, the heavy baggage and part 
 of the artillery, cavalry, and guards, moved for Weissenfels ; 
 next day orders were given for a general retreat. The allied 
 army advanced early, on the 19th, to take Leipzig, the defence 
 of which had been committed to Macdonald and Ponia- 
 towsky. A Saxon officer, deputed by the city magistrates, 
 requested from the sovereigns a suspension of hostilities, pre- 
 paratory to a capitulation. Alexander, in person, received 
 the officer, but denied his request ; the King of Saxony, with 
 as little success, sent flags of truce to the allied monarchs, to 
 avert a bombardment. Leipzig was carried by assault, and 
 the allies entered it two hours after the departure of Napo- 
 leon. The conquerors effected their entrance with as little 
 individual damage as possible ; but the sanguinary conflicts 
 of the 16th and 18th had left to the inhabitants comparatively 
 nothing worth preservation, in Leipzig or its environs. Their 
 superb buildings, their gardens, parks, and groves, all presented 
 a vast scene of ruin and pestilence ; putrid carcasses, fallen 
 or deserted mansions, and human suffering in countless forms, 
 met the view of the confederates on all sides. Many French 
 officers, who had remained behind, were taken prisoners ; 
 amongst them was Bertrand, commander of the city. The 
 number of those who perished, or were made prisoners, on 
 the 19th of October, may be computed at 29,000 or 30,000. 
 During the efforts of negotiation already noticed, extreme 
 confusion prevailed among the retreating troops ; baggage, 
 cannon, horse, foot-guards, and droves of cattle, all inter- 
 mingled, impeded each others' progress, and rendered it hardly 
 practicable. The Pleisse, the Elster, and some lesser rivers, 
 over which the fugitives had to pass, heightened the difficulty 
 of their retreat. Bonaparte ordered the grand bridge between 
 Leipzig and Lindenau to be blown up, as soon as the French 
 should have effected a passage over it ; the soldiers appointed 
 to execute this service, misunderstanding the orders given 
 them, blew up the bridge before the rear-guard, under Mac- 
 donald and Poniatowsky, had passed. Numbers, whose 
 retreat was thus cut off, were taken prisoners ; many perished 
 in the waters ; Macdonald sw'am across. Poniatowsky 
 
380 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [[CHA? 
 
 boldly plunged into the flood, where its banks were marshr 
 and lined by Russian and Saxon riflemen ; his horse sanl' 
 and with it its gallant rider, and neither rose again. Many of 
 ficers who followed, shared his fate. The Bavarians, under 
 Wrede, took post at Hanau, as did Blucher at Coblentz, to 
 intercept the retreating army. Wrede, after having obsti 
 nately disputed, was obliged to permit their passage. They 
 advanced to Frankfort, and, passing the Rhine at Mentz, ren 
 dered Blucher's precaution unavailing. On the 9th of No- 
 vember Napoleon entered Paris, and convened the senate 
 By a senatorial decree, 300,000 men were placed at the dispo- 
 sal of the war-minister, to retrieve the faded glory of the 
 French arms. 
 
 The Austrian, Bavarian, and part of the Russian and Prus- 
 sian armies, marched towards the Rhine, and fixed their head 
 quarters at Frankfort, (November 5th,) while Bernadotte, 
 with the army of the north, advanced into Hanover, restored 
 the former government, and took Lubeck and Gliickstadt. A 
 division of the French army, under Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr, 
 which Napoleon had left'in garrison at Dresden, being closely 
 blockaded by the Russians, and reduced to a state of great 
 misery by famine, consented to surrender in November, on 
 condition of being allowed to return to France. They had 
 already begun their march, when the terms of the capitulation 
 were annulled by the allies, and they were detained prisoners, 
 to the number of 40,000. The French garrison at Stettin 
 was compelled in like manner to capitulate. 
 
 From Frankfort the allies issued a proclamation explanatory 
 of their political views : they sought not to conquer France, 
 for they were v/illing to allow her a greater extent of territory 
 than she had ever possessed-under her kings, but to restore 
 to other powers that peace and independence of which Na- 
 poleon had deprived them : on these terms they offered peace. 
 Napoleon, by rejecting it, gave the death-blow to his power; 
 the allies prepared to cross the Rhine, and entered France. 
 Nor was it the eastern frontier of his empire alone that was 
 menaced by hostile legions : the French arms were as unsuc- 
 cessful in Spain as in Germany, and the Rhine and the Pyre- 
 nees were equally inefficient barriers against Europe, coalesced 
 to effect his downfall. 
 
 At the close of 1812, the French main army, considerably 
 weakened by the withdrawal of several divisions to reinforce 
 the army on the Elbe, was in cantonments in the vicinity of 
 Salamanca and Valladolid. Soult was at Toledo, and Joseph 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 381 
 
 Bonaparte at Madrid. In the March following they moved, 
 as if to concentrate themselves in the northern and north-east- 
 ern provinces, and in April advanced closer upon the Douro. 
 It was not till the month of May, that Lord Wellington, at 
 the head of considerable reinforcements, moved from his 
 head-quarters at Freynada, and, having chased the enemy from 
 Salamanca, re-entered that city on the 26th. The French, 
 under Joseph Bonaparte in person, evacuated Valladolid, aban- 
 doned the capital and their positions on the Douro, retreated 
 to Burgos, and thence across the Ebro to Vittoria, with the 
 English in close pursuit on their rear. The allied army 
 passed the Ebro (15th) and marched upon Vittoria, which 
 city they reached on the 20th, and on the following day gained 
 one of the most complete victories recorded in the annals of 
 war. Sir Rowland Hill, at an early hour, took the heights 
 of Puebla and the village of Subigena d'Alava. The Earl of 
 Dalhousie and Sir Thomas Picton, who held the centre of the 
 allied army, moved against the heights which command the 
 valley, while Sir R. Hill attacked the French left. The latter 
 abandoned the valley, and fled in the direction of Vittoria. 
 The left of the allied army, under Sir Thomas Graham, had 
 intercepted the retreat of the French army upon the high 
 road into France, and they were obliged to retire by that of 
 Pampeluna, upon which they could hold no position ; nor, 
 consequently, wait for the drawing off of their artillery and 
 baggage. Tiiey saved but one gun. The allies lost nearly 
 4,000 men in the battle of Vittoria ; the French double that 
 number. A large French force took up its position on the 
 road from Pampeluna to Bayonne, but was dislodged from 
 thence, and compelled to retreat to Tolosa ; Castanos defeated 
 the enemy on the Bidassoa, and Sir R. Hill conquered the 
 army of the centre, which had hitherto remained in the valley 
 of Rastan, and obliged it to cross the Spanish frontier. The 
 English legislature voted its thanks to Lord Wellington for 
 the splendid victory achieved at Vittoria ; the prince-regent 
 named him a field-marshal, and the Spanish government con- 
 ferred upon him the title of Duke of Vittoria, and a landed 
 property of great value. 
 
 Bonaparte, who had withdrawn Soult, one of his ablest 
 generals, from the Peninsula to the Elbe, now directed him to 
 return to Spain, with the tide of " Lieutenant de I'Empereur," 
 and sent him reinforcements to repair the losses which the 
 late reverses had caused in the Gallo-Spanish army. 
 
 The Anglo-Sicilian army, which had arrived on the eastern 
 
382 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 coast of Spain, in 1812, remained inactive in Alicant till the 
 April of the present year. After the taking of Fort St. Philippe, 
 Sir John Murray, by order of Lord Wellington, laid siege to 
 Tarragona. He acted in concert with a British squadron, 
 commanded by Captain Hallowell, and for some days main- 
 tained the siege with vigour and a prospect of success ; but 
 when apprized that Suchet was advancing with a large force 
 to relieve the town, he desisted from further operations, re- 
 embarked his troops, (June 17th,) and sailed to Alicant. 
 Lord William Bentinck took the command of the forces, and 
 prepared to renew the siege ; being compelled by Suchet to 
 retreat, he (in September) resigned the command to Lieutenant- 
 general Clin, and embarked to Sicily. But the chief efforts 
 of the allies were made on the side of the western Pyrenees, 
 of which they possessed the principal passes ; and the sieges 
 of Pampeluna and St. Sebastian were vigorously maintained. 
 On the 24th July, Soult ordered an attack upon the positions 
 occupied by Generals Hill and Byng, in which he succeeded. 
 Sir Laurie Cole and Sir Thomas Picton fell back to cover the 
 blockade of Pampeluna, before which Soult arrived on the 
 27th. Next day the hostile armies fought a general battle 
 along the heights, in which the allies were victorious. On 
 the 30th the French renewed the contest ; but they were 
 ultimately repulsed, and driven in confusion towards their own 
 territory. The efforts of Sir T. Graham to take St. Sebastian 
 were long unsuccessful ; its defence was protracted from the 
 beginning of July till the 18th of September, when it was 
 finally reduced. On the 7th of October, the allied English 
 and Spanish army entered France, by crossing the Bidassoa ; 
 attacked the enemy's entrenchments, and took eight pieces 
 of cannon. Next day the French positions were carried. 
 The surrender of Pampeluna to Don Carlos d'Espana, shortly 
 after, having placed an additional force at the disposal of Lord 
 Wellington, he attacked the entrenchments on the Nivelle, 
 drove the French from their central position, pursued tliem 
 across that river, and compelled them to retire (November 1 1th) 
 to their fortified camp near Bayonne. Although the bad state 
 of the roads prevented the immediate advance of the English, 
 they had at least secured a firm footing in France, from which 
 the French made many fruitless efforts to dislodge them. 
 Finding this impracticable, they abandoned their line of 
 defence, and withdrew into their own territory. Napoleon, 
 being now convinced that any further attempts to retain pos- 
 session of Spain would be ineffectual, concluded a treaty (De- 
 
LI.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 383 
 
 cember 6th) with Ferdinand, whom, on certain conditions, he 
 agreed to restore to liberty and the possession of the Spanish 
 crown. This treaty was invalidated by a decree of the Cortes, 
 which annulled all acts signed by the king during his captivity. 
 
 The reverses of Napoleon encouraged the Hollanders to 
 throw off the yoke which, in his days of conquest, he had 
 imposed upon them. Disaffection to the French government 
 had long subsisted amongst this people, and the malecontents 
 now organized a plan of counter-revolution, and compelled 
 the French authorities to leave Amsterdam, On the 15th of 
 November, the inhabitants of that city appointed a provisional 
 government for the administration of public affairs ; and, to 
 render the counter-revolution complete, two envoys were 
 deputed to the Prince of Orange, then in England, to inform 
 him of the recent occurrences, and to solicit his acceptance 
 of the sovereignty of Holland. With this request the prince 
 complied, arrived at Schoevingen on the 30th, and on the 3d 
 December, made his entry into Amsterdam, amidst the joyful 
 acclamations of the inhabitants. He was proclaimed William 
 1st, sovereign Prince of the Netherlands. 
 
 The war between Great Britain and America, though pro- 
 secuted with vigour, had, during this year, no decisive result. 
 An attack made, by order of Sir George Prevost, upon the 
 Americans in January, was attended with success. Their 
 position at Agdeburg was carried, which, as it had been to 
 them a convenient station whence to make incursions upon 
 the Canadian frontier, was no trifling conquest. But the Ame- 
 ricans were remunerated for this partial defeat, by the cap- 
 ture of York, the capital of Upper Canada, by General 
 Dearborne, in spite of the vigorous opposition of a large 
 British and Indian force, commanded by General O'Sheaffe. 
 The explosion of a large magazine, as the Americans ap- 
 proached the works, carried off many, both of the British 
 troops and of their assailants. O'Sheaffe retired to Kingston 
 and York surrendered to the Americans. Encouraged by thif 
 success, Dearborne attacked the forts of George and Erie 
 and they too surrendered. On the 11th of July, a detachment 
 from the central division of the Britisli army in Upper Cana- 
 da, embarked for the purpose of destroying the American 
 flotilla, stationed at Black Rock, on Lake Ontario. The 
 troops partly succeeded in this enterprise, but not without 
 sustaining considerable loss from the enemy's fire. The con- 
 test on the American continent had been, hitherto, chiefly 
 maintained by land. The hostile powers now tried their 
 
384 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 Strength on another element, and the result was at first favour- 
 able to the Americans. The honour of the British flag was, 
 however, retrieved, and before the end of the year both Up- 
 per and Lower Canada were freed from their invaders. 
 
 The British Parliament met in the month of November, 
 and a supplementary loan of £20,000,000, with several fo- 
 reign subsidies, was agreed to without a single dissentient 
 voice. It adjourned on the 20th of December, and did not 
 again assemble till the ensuing 21st of March. This interval 
 was one of intense anxiety ; the confederated armies entered 
 France in various directions, and the aff'airs of the continent 
 were evidently drawing to a crisis ; yet it still remained a 
 problem, if the warrior, who had carried his victorious eagles 
 through the several kingdoms of Europe, could be subdued, 
 even by the united efforts of all, in his own. 
 
 CHAPTER LII. 
 
 FROM THE INVASION OF FRANCE BY THE ALLIED POWERS, TO 
 THE TREATY OF GHENT, IN 1814. 
 
 The allied powers divided the forces, destined for the in- 
 vasion of the French territory, into seven grand armies. The 
 first Avas commanded by Prince Schwartzenburg ; it consisted 
 of seven troops of Austrians, the Russian divisions of Bar- 
 clay de Tolly and Wittgenstein, the Bavarians, under Count 
 Wrede, and the Wirtemburghers, under their prince-royal. 
 The second army was commanded by Blucher ; it was formed 
 by the united divisions of d'Yorck, Kliest, and Bulow, four 
 Russian corps, and the Saxons, under the Duke of Saxe Wei- 
 mar and Baron Theilman. The third army was command- 
 ed by Bernadotte ; it was composed of the Swedish and five 
 Russian corps, the Hanseatic troops, the contingents of the 
 states of the Rhenish confederation, and an Anglo-German 
 corps. The fourth was the Anglo-Batavian army, under Sir 
 Thomas Graham. The fifth, the Anglo-Spanish army, on 
 the Pyrenean frontier, commanded by Lord Wellington. The 
 sixth, the Austro-Italian army, commanded by Count Belle- 
 garde. The seventh was composed of deserters from the 
 French cause : it was that of Murat, who signed, January 
 11th, a treaty of alliance with the coalesced powers. At the 
 beginning of the year, this overwhelming force was already 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 385 
 
 in motion, and advancing, with rapid strides, into the terri- 
 tory of France. The army of Silesia had passed the Rhine, 
 towards the norfh; the English had forced the Pyrenees, to 
 the south; the Anstrians, by the capture of Geneva, had laid 
 open the road to Lyons, and were advancing on the east; the 
 Crown-prince of Sweden, having overrun Holstein, and com- 
 pelled the King of Denmark to sue for peace,* was penetrat- 
 ing through Holland and Belgium into France, when Napo- 
 leon, committing his empress and her son to the care and 
 fidelity of the Parisians, set out (January 26th) to take the 
 command of his army, which was posted between the Seine 
 and the Marne. Though his forces were far outnumbered by 
 those of the allies, he commenced a series of well-directed 
 attacks against the hostile corps by which he was surrounded, 
 and in these he was for the most part successful. On the 
 29th he defeated, atBrienne, 40,000 Prussians, under Blucher; 
 but that general being reinforced by the Austrians, the com- 
 bat was renewed on the 31st, at La Rothiere, when the 
 French, repulsed in their turn, were forced back upon Troyes 
 in disorder, and harassed by the Cossacks in their rear. Find- 
 ing his numbers unequal to oppose an effectual resistance to 
 the allies in so many different quarters, Napoleon resolved, 
 by concentrating his forces at particular points, to cut off their 
 communication and defeat them in detail. In pursuance of 
 this plan, Blucher, who was now marching upon Paris by 
 way of Chalons and Meaux, became his first object of attack. 
 On the 10th of February a corps of communication between 
 the grand army and that of Silesia, under the Russian Gen- 
 eral Alsufieff, was routed at Champ-Aubert, the general 
 himself being taken prisoner. Though Napoleon was so 
 much elated Avith this victory as to exclaim — '* Another such, 
 and I am upon the Vistula!" it was but the prelude to one of 
 far greater importance. The hostile armies met on the 13th 
 at Montmirail; the fortune of the day, though long undecided, 
 was at length favourable to the French ; and Blucher was 
 compelled to retreat upon Chateau-Thierry, with the loss of 
 10,000 in killed and wounded, and a complete interruption of 
 his communication with the grand army. Under other cir- 
 cumstances, the victories of Champ-Aubert and Montmirail 
 would have been decisive; but Napoleon was now so com- 
 
 * The King of Denmark, the last and most faithful of Napoleon's allies, 
 acceded to the continental confederation, and signed a treaty of peace 
 with Great Britain and Sweden, at Kiel, (January 14th,) by which Norway 
 was ceded to the latter, in exchange for Pomerania and the island of Rugen. 
 
 35 
 
386 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [ciIAP. 
 
 pletely surrounded by the forces of the coalition, that even 
 while the cannon of the Hotel des Invalides was thundering 
 forth the acclamations of victory, the roll of hostile artil- 
 lery announced that the enemy was approaching the very 
 gates of the capital. In effect, while Napoleon had been 
 employed against Blucher, Schwartzenburg had taken Sens, 
 Nogent, Bray, and Monterau ; Wittgenstein and Wrede had 
 moved towards Melun, and Bianchi (February 16) was in 
 possession of Fontainebleau. But the energies, the activity, 
 and the resources of the French emperor seemed inexhausti- 
 ble. By a variety of skilful manceuvres, and by successive 
 victories at Vauchamp, Nangis, and Monterau, he compelled 
 the allies to abandon these positions, and retreat once more 
 behind the Aube. 
 
 Amidst the brilliant success which attended his arms, where- 
 ever he commanded in person, Napoleon was not entirely 
 fearless of his impending ruin. Anxious to avert it, if pos- 
 sible, by negotiation, the allied armies had no sooner entered 
 France, than he despatched Caulaincourt to the sovereigns, 
 with proposals for an armistice, offering an immediate surren- 
 der of the German fortresses still occupied by his troops. 
 As this was evidendy a device to gain time and recruit his 
 army with the returning garrisons, the allies refused a suspen- 
 sion of arms, but agreed to name plenipotentiaries to treat 
 of conditions of peace. Negotiations had been accordingly 
 carried on for some time at Chatillon ; Lords Aberdeen, 
 Stewart, and Cathcart, assisting as representatives of his 
 Britannic majesty, and Counts Razoumowsky, Stadion, and 
 De Humboldt, as the respective envoys of Russia, Austria, 
 and Prussia. 
 
 A draught of the treaty, agreed upon by the plenipoten- 
 tiaries in congress, was presented to Napoleon on the 18th. 
 They proposed that France should be limited to the extent of 
 territory which she had held under her kings, and that Paris 
 should be occupied by the allied troops, till the conclusion of 
 the definitive treaty. Napoleon, whom recent victory had 
 elated, was not in a temper to submit to these conditions. 
 Exclaiming, in a tone at once ironical and angry — " Occupy 
 Paris ! I am at this moment nearer to Vienna than they are 
 to Paris," he tore the draught submitted to his approval. 
 But while Napoleon had been employed against the grand 
 army, Blucher had gained time to recruit his forces, and had 
 retaken Chalons, Vitry, and Chateau-Thierry. He now 
 marched to form a junction with Bulow and Winzingerode, 
 
Lll.] GEXERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 387 
 
 who had advanced through Belgium, and, having freed it 
 from the yoke of France, were in the neighbourhood of 
 Rheims and Soissons. Napoleon, called alternately to oppose 
 the progress of Schwartzenburg and that of Blucher, left 
 Troves (February 17) to meet the Prussians and impede the 
 projected junction ; which, however, was effected near Sois- 
 sons, in spite of the joint eff'orts of INIarmont and Mortier, who 
 commanded under the empeior. 
 
 The allied sovereigns, anxious to give renovated vigour to 
 their exertions, signed a quadruple alliance, on the 1st of 
 March, at Chuumont. They engaged, should Napoleon per- 
 severe in rejecting the proposals made to him by the congress 
 of Chatillon, to bring 150,000 men each into the field. Great 
 Britain furnishing a subsidy of five millions, to be equally 
 divided among the three continental powers, and to continue 
 their alliance for twenty years. 
 
 Schwartzenburg, induced by Blucher's success again to 
 advance, defeated Oudinot and Victor at Bar-sur-Aube, and 
 entered Troves ; while Platoff" seized Arcis-sur-Aube and 
 Sezanne, and, by means of detached columns of horse, main- 
 tained a communication between the two armies. Napoleon 
 arrived on the 6th of March at Laon, near which the united 
 forces of Blucher, Bulow, and Winzingerode were strongly 
 posted. On the 7th, he attacked and drove them from the 
 field. They retreated to Laon ; he pursued, and, on the 9th, 
 again attacked them; but the battle ended in the defeat of the 
 French, with the loss of 5,000 men and 48 pieces of cannon. 
 Napoleon renewed the contest on the following day, and was 
 again unsuccessful. Finding his troops cut down, without 
 gaining any advantage, he ordered a retreat, and his worsted 
 legions fell back upon Soissons. Threatened, however, in 
 that position, by the Count of St. Priest, who had taken 
 Rheims, Napoleon marched upon that city, recovered it, and 
 fixed there his head-quarters. Rendered confident by these 
 partial successes, he now demanded of the congress at Cha- 
 tillon, as the only conditions upon which he -would accede to 
 peace, that the French empire should extend to the Rhine and 
 the Alps, and that Antwerp, Nimeguen, and Flushing should 
 be incorporated with it ; that Italy and Venice should be 
 allowed to Eugene Beauharnais ; and that indemnities should 
 be given to Joseph Bonaparte for Spain, to Jerome for West- 
 phalia, and to Louis for Berg. His conditions were. rejected 
 by the allied powers, as subversive of the very principle for 
 which they had taken up arms, — the re-establishment of a 
 
388 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 just equilibrium among the states of Europe; upon which, 
 the congress, on the 18th of March, was finally dissolved. 
 
 Proclamations were now addressed to the French nation : 
 one, from the emperor, ordered a levy en masse, and pro- 
 nounced all Frenclimen traitors who should endeavour to 
 prevent the expulsion of the invaders ; while one, from the 
 Austrians and Prussians, threatened with certain destruction 
 all who should oppose their progress, or who, not being 
 soldiers, should be taken with arms in their hands. 
 
 While the Russian, Prus-sian, and Austrian armies were 
 contending with Napoleon on the Seine and Marne, the An- 
 glo-Spanish force, under Lord Wellington, was advancing in 
 an opposite direction. On the 24th February, General Sir J. 
 Hope and Admiral Penrose crossed the Adour below Bayonne. 
 Soult, to arrest their progress, took a strong position in front 
 of Orthes ; upon which Lord Wellington ordered an imme- 
 diate attack. The French, being turned on all sides, retreated 
 towards St. Sever, and thence towards Bordeaux, but fell 
 back upon Tarbes. An anxiety for the restoration of the 
 Bourbon dynasty, and a secret association to promote this ob- 
 ject, had long existed in the south of France, and particularly 
 at Bordeaux, whither Lord Wellinofton was now advancinsf. 
 The royalists in those parts deputed envoys, early in the 
 year, to Louis XVIIL, (who since 1800 had resided in 
 England, under the assumed name of Comte de Lille,) inviting 
 him to return to France. The Duke d'Angouleme, his 
 nephew, and husband to the daughter of Louis XVL, issued 
 a proclamation, empowering Lord Wellington to act for the 
 exiled monarch, till his arrival in the French territory. A 
 detachment of 15,000 men, under Marshal Beresford, entered 
 the large and populous city of Bordeaux, at the request of 
 the mayor, the Marquis de la Rochejaquelein, and the princi- 
 pal inhabitants, who, having hoisted the w^hite flag, went out 
 to meet the English troops and accompany them into the city. 
 The archbishop congratulated the Duke d'Angouleme in the 
 name of the citizens, and a solemn Te Deum was sung in the 
 cathedral. 
 
 In the mean time. Napoleon, ignorant of the dissolution of 
 the congress, and encouraged by his success at Rheims, 
 counted upon the expulsion of his enemies. His confidence 
 of ultimate success was further excited by the capture of 
 Chalons, which surrendered to Marshal Ney on the 13th of 
 March ; but the allied monarchs were preparing to make 
 a general attack upon the whole French line, and with this 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 389 
 
 intention repassed the Seine on that day. Bonaparte moved 
 to Epernay on the 16th, and thence to Fere Champenoise, 
 where he was apprized of the dissolution of the congress. 
 The aUies concentrated their forces in front of Arcis, to give 
 him battle. The attack was begun by Napoleon, but his 
 troops were repulsed at the first onset. To support their 
 drooping courage, he placed himself at their head, and, to the 
 anxious expostulations of his stafl', replied, " Fear not: the 
 ball which will be fatal to me is not yet in existence." The 
 battle was maintained till night. During its continuance, re- 
 inforcements arrived to both parties : at its close, neither 
 army was driven from the field. The allies, during the night, 
 concentrated themselves on the heights of Mesnil-la-Com- 
 tesse. Bonaparte, on the following day, reconnoitred their 
 position, and prepared to attack it ; but suddenly formed the 
 singular design of passing between the armies of the allies, 
 intending to cut off their communication with the Rhine, and, 
 at the same time, to liberate the garrison of iMetz, for which 
 purpose he retreated upon Vitry and St. Dizier. The corps of 
 Qudinot and Sebastiani formed the rear-guard of his army, and 
 to them he committed the defence of the bridge of Arcis ; but 
 they were dislodged, and the grand army hastened to post 
 itself between the emperor and his capital, and to form a 
 junction with the army of Silesia. This was effected at 
 Chalons, on the 24th ; and the united allied force, now 
 amounting to 200,000 men, began to move by rapid and con- 
 tinued marches upon Paris. The combat of Fere Champe- 
 noise took place on the 26th, in which Marmont and Morlier 
 were defeated, and driven back upon Paris ; the allies also 
 captured a convoy of ammunition and warlike stores, on its 
 way to the French head-quarters. On the 20th, the two 
 sovereigns crossed the Marne, at Tripot, and the next day at 
 Meaux ; the remainder of the 29th was employed in pre- 
 paring for an attack on Paris. 
 
 Reverses, in the mean time, attended the French arms, in 
 other quarters. The north of France was invaded, and many 
 of its towns taken, by the Duke of Saxe Weimar. Count 
 Bubna entered Lyons, (March 21st,) notwithstanding the ex- 
 ertions of Augereau ; and in Italy, Count Bellegarde, though 
 vigorously opposed by Beauharnais, established himself on 
 the Mincio. The Dutch, however, failed to give the allies 
 the warm support which their first insurrection seemed to 
 promise ; and an attack made by Sir T. Graham upon Ber- 
 gen-op-Zoom was unsuccessful. 
 
 35* 
 
390 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 When Napoleon was apprized that the allied sovereigns 
 were within five leagues of Paris, and that Marmont and 
 Mo r tier were preparing to defend it ; anxious to avert the 
 threatened ruin of his capital, he despatched Count Weissem- 
 burg (lately taken prisoner) to the Emperor Francis, to advo- 
 cate the cause of Maria Louisa and her son ; but neither the 
 representations of the count, nor those of M. Galbois, whom 
 Napoleon sent upon a similar errand, effected any alteration 
 in the purpose of the Austrian emperor. 
 
 The united armies continued their march by three different 
 roads, tliose of Meaux, Soissons, and Lagny ; while Mortier 
 and Marmont fell back to take a position on the heights which 
 cover Paris towards the east. Within that city, these events 
 excited fear, exultation, and defiance; but fear was the pre- 
 vailing sensation. The partisans of the Bourbons, few indeed 
 in number, but strong in zeal and in the goodness of their 
 cause, rejoiced at the approach of the allies, who, they hoped, 
 would restore the ancient dynasty ; yet calculated, with me- 
 lancholy forebodings, the numbers who might fall, before the 
 desired object could be accomplished. The adherents of Ngi- 
 poleon, on tlie other hand, while they affected to disbelieve the 
 near approach of the allies, tried to rouse the Parisians to 
 repel the threatened attack. Crowds of peasants, from the 
 neighbouring villages, rushing into the capital, increased the 
 general confusion, which was further augmented by the pre- 
 cipitate departure of the empress, with her son and the princi- 
 pal officers of state. 
 
 Early on the 30th of March, two officers, deputed by the 
 allied sovereigns, appeared at the advanced posts of Mortier 
 and Marmont, with a proclamation to the inhabitants of Pa- 
 ris, informing them, that the only object of the allies was 
 the establishment of such an authority in France, as should 
 "join in cementing the union of all nations and govern- 
 ments ;" and that, in the choice of a government of the 
 nature specified, the Parisians would be supported by the 
 confederates. The officers were denied admittance, and both 
 armies prepared for battle. Joseph Bonaparte, having under 
 his orders Marshals Marmont and Mortier, took a position on 
 the heights near the city ; his right wing rested on Belleville ; 
 liis left reached from Mousseaux to Neuilly; his centre was 
 protected by redoubts, and 150 pieces of cannon were placed 
 along the line. The arrival of Napoleon being hourly ex- 
 pected, the allies resolved on an immediate attack. At eight 
 o'clock the heights of Belleville and Romainville were attacked 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE 391 
 
 by General Rayesski. The combat was sanguine on the 
 heights between Romainville and Pantin, and victory seemed 
 to incline to the French standard, the artillery making dreadful 
 havoc among the allies ; but Barclay de Tolly, arriving with 
 the Russian and Baden guards, made the advantage preponde- 
 rate on the side of the allies. Joseph Bonaparte still hoped 
 to save the capital, when, not long after, the confederate ar- 
 mies were seen in full force on the plains of St. Denis, and 
 orders were issued for a general attack. Finding that the 
 French troops could not hold out more than an hour and a 
 half, Joseph empowered Marmont to capitulate, and fled from 
 the city ; yet it was not till they had been forced from all 
 their positions and driven to the barriers, that the marshal, 
 judging any further resistance would be but an unavailing ex- 
 penditure of the lives of his soldiers, solicited a truce, pre- 
 paratory to a capitulation. The proposal was accepted without 
 hesitation by the allied monarchs, and the capitulation was 
 concluded on the morning of the 31st. 
 
 Napoleon, in the mean time, was making hasty strides to 
 prevent the fall of his capital. When he was first apprized 
 of the march of the allies upon it, he ordered that it should 
 not be sacrificed by an obstinate defence. At a later hour, 
 however, he sent General Gerardin to the city authorities, 
 with a command that Paris should be defended to the utmost 
 extent of their power and ability, and with an assurance that 
 he and his army would follow in twelve hours the arrival of 
 his despatches. But this counter-order was received too late: 
 the capitulation was already signed, and Marmont, at the head 
 of his troops, had retired to Essonne. The passing events 
 operated variously on the minds of the Parisians ; many of 
 them having assembled on the 31st, at the Place de Louis 
 Quinze, M. de Vavineux read to them the proclamation of P. 
 Schwartzenburg ; after which white cockades were exhibited, 
 and cries of "Live the Bourbons," " Down with the tyrant," 
 were vociferated on all sides, except where a few faithful ad- 
 herents of Napoleon still ventured to name him with reve- 
 rence, and to expostulate with their fellow-citizens upon their 
 altered sentiments. 
 
 The two sovereigns made their triumphant entry into Paris 
 on the 31st, about noon, amidst cries of "Long live Alexan- 
 der and Frederic William, our deliverers ! Vive Louis XVIIL ! 
 les Bourbons !" "We come not as your conquerors, but as 
 your allies," was the reiterated reply of the sovereigns. About 
 a quarter past one they arrived at the hotel Talleyrand, where 
 
392 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 the Emperor of Russia was to reside, and immediately en- 
 tered upon those important political discussions, by which the 
 destinies of France were to be decided. Three projects were 
 successively brought under consideration. 1st. To make 
 peace with Napoleon, under all possible securities. 2dly. To 
 establish a regency. 3dly. To recall the Bourbons. Alex- 
 ander took, for some time, no decided part in the debate, in 
 which the Parisian statesmen were actively engaged, but con- 
 tinued walking up and down the saloon, with some appearance 
 of agitation. At length, on his intimating that the choice of 
 the nation might fall on Bernadotte or Eugene Beauharnais, 
 Talleyrand energetically replied, "Sire, there are but two 
 possible alternatives; Bonaparte or the Bourbons." On an- 
 other occasion, he added, "Bernadotte, Eugene, a regency, 
 each of these is an intrigue ; Louis XVIII. is a principle." 
 These words produced a great effect on the assembly, and 
 induced Alexander, as head of the coalition, to sign a decla- 
 ration, by which he announced that the allies would no longer 
 treat with Bonaparte, nor with any member of his family ; 
 " that they would acknowledge and guarantee the constitution 
 which the French nation should adopt for itself;" to which 
 end, they invited the senate to choose a provisional govern- 
 ment, " which might provide for the wants of the administra- 
 tion, and prepare a constitution suitable to the French nation." 
 Upon the issuing of this proclamation, which was printed 
 and placarded throughout Paris within an hour, the municipal 
 council abjured the authority of Napoleon; and many repre- 
 sentations of his tyranny, and of the horror in which he v/as 
 held by the people of France, were presented to the sove- 
 reigns. On the following day, (April 1st,) Tadeyrand, in his 
 quality of vice-grand elector, convoked the senate. That 
 assembly declared the throne forfeited by Napoleon, and the 
 French army and nation released from their oath of fidelity 
 to him. They next named, as members of the provisional 
 government. Prince Talleyrand, General Beurnonville, the 
 Comte de Jaucour, the Due de Dalberg, and M. de Montes- 
 quieu. The legislative body assented, on the 3d, to the decree 
 of the senate, as did the body of advocates and Court of Cas- 
 sation. The Duke of Ragusa (Marmont) signified to Prince 
 Schwartzenburg his readiness to acquiesce in the decree of 
 the senate, and quit the service of the emperor, on condition 
 that his troops should be permitted to pass into Normandy, 
 and that life and liberty should be guarantied to Napoleon, if 
 taken prisoner, in a territory fixed upon by the allied powers 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 393 
 
 and the French government. The marshal's proposals were 
 accepted ; but his pledge was afterwards restored to him, at 
 his own request, by Prince Schwartzenburg. 
 
 These adhesions frustrated the hope which Bonaparte had, 
 till then, cherished, of retrieving his losses. On the morning 
 of the 30th, while the battle raged most fiercely on the heights 
 near Paris, he quitted Troyes at an early hour, and hastened 
 in advance of his army, with a feeble escort of cavalry, towards 
 the capital. He arrived, about an hour after midnight, at a 
 village within twelve miles of Paris, where he received from 
 General Belliard the unwelcome news of its surrender, and im- 
 mediately despatched Caulaincourt^ to the Emperor of Russia, 
 with unlimited powers to treat and to conclude upon v/hatever 
 conditions should be demanded. But Alexander, in the name of 
 the allies, refused to enter into any negotiations, and Caulain- 
 court repaired toFontainebleau, where Napoleon had established 
 his head-quarters. Marshals Macdonald, Oudinot, and several 
 other general officers, arrived there on the 31st, and a council 
 was hekl to deliberate on the course to be pnrsued. Napoleon 
 talked of marching upon Paris, though the wrecks of his 
 army assembled at Fontainebleau, did not then exceed 25,000 
 men. To this the marshals would not consent, adding that, 
 should he persist in that determination, not a sword would 
 be drawn from its scabbard to assist him in the attempt. The 
 project of abdicating in favour of his son, suggested by Cau- 
 laincourt, was, after some hesitation, adopted by Napoleon, 
 who, having drawn up and signed the act, charged Ney, 
 Macdonald, and Caulaincourt to be the bearers of it to the 
 Emperor Alexander. The three envoys, on their way to 
 Paris, called upon Marmont, at Essonne, and invited him to 
 bear them company. He assented, and they went together 
 to Prince Schwartzenburg's, to withdraw Marmont's act of 
 adhesion, that he might unite his efforts to those of his com- 
 panions in arms, in behalf of their vanquished chief. They 
 arrived late in the evening at the hotel Talleyrand, where 
 several members attached to the provisional government, fear- 
 ful lest the arrival of Napoleon's commissioners should cause 
 any change in the decision of Alexander, had assembled; and 
 were admitted to an immediate audience. Macdonald spoke 
 with great warmth in favour of a regency, and was answered 
 
 * Caulaincourt seems to have acted a doubtful and ambiguous part. He 
 has been accused, perhaps unjustly, of having, in conjunction with Talley- 
 rand, urged Napoleon to his ruin, by flattering him with vain hopes, and 
 persuading him to reject the most reasonable proposals on the part of the 
 allies, while acting as his envoy at the Congress of Chatillon. 
 
894 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 with equal energy by General Dessolles, who had warmly 
 espoused the cause of the Bourbons. Alexander promised, 
 in conjunction with his allies, to give the subject his serious 
 consideration, and, in a few hours' time, to make known to 
 them his final determination. Taking leave of the Russian 
 emperor, the envoys passed into the saloon, where the mem- 
 bers of the provisional government were assembled ; and Tal- 
 leyrand remarked, that should they succeed in their object, 
 they would compromise all who had entered that room since 
 the 1st of April: "as for myself," he added, "think not of 
 me ; I wish to be compromised." On arriving at Ney's hotel, 
 there to await Alexander's decision, Marmont was apprized 
 that Napoleon, immediately after the departure of the envoys 
 from Fontainebleau, had sent to Essonne, commanding his 
 immediate attendance : a second and a third messenger had 
 reiterated the order. Marmont, as has been seen, was then 
 in Paris ; the generals who commanded under him, and had 
 with him given in their adhesion to the provisional government, 
 alarmed at this rapid succession of expresses, and dreading 
 Napoleon's vengeance, had resolved to march for Versailles, 
 where, on their arrival, the troops, not seeing the marshal 
 cit their head, had broken out into open insurrection. This 
 intelligence induced Marmont to set out with all speed for 
 Versailles. He w-as met by his generals, who vainly entreated 
 him not to expose his life in the midst of a rebellious soldiery. 
 The regiments being drawn up by his orders, he advanced 
 alone on horseback, "How," he exclaimed, "is there trea- 
 son here ? Do you disown me ? Am I no longer your com- 
 rade ? Have I not been twenty times wounded among you ? 
 Have I not shared in all your fatigues, your privations ? and 
 am I not ready to do so again ?" The soldiers interrupted 
 him with loud shouts of " Vive le Marechal !" and all returned 
 to their duty. 
 
 AVhile these events were passing at Versailles, Ney, Mac- 
 donald, and Caulaincourt hastened to obtain Alexander's 
 answer before the insurrectionary movements among Mar- 
 mont's corps could be known. The emperor had gone on 
 foot, at six in the morning of the 5th, to the King of Prussia's 
 residence, and the two sovereigns returned together to the 
 hotel Talleyrand. Alexander then informed the envoys that 
 a regency was impossible, and that the allies could be satis- 
 fied v/ith nothing less than a prompt and unconditional 
 abdication. " Three days ago," Alexander observed, " Paris 
 declared itself; since then adhesions have poured in from all 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 395 
 
 quarters. If the army is not satisfied, why were not its wishes 
 made known?" Macdonald replied, that the opportunity had 
 not offered, since none of the marshals were in Paris. Upon 
 his adding that Napoleon demanded nothing for himself per- 
 sonally, Alexander rejoined, "Assure him that he shall have 
 a provision suitable to the rank he has occupied ; that should 
 he wish to retire to my dominions, he shall be well received, 
 though he carried desolation into the midst of them ; that I 
 sliall ever remember the friendship that united us." An ar- 
 mistice of forty-eight hours being then agreed to, the commis- 
 sioners took leave of the sovereigns, and reached Fontaine- 
 bleau an hour after midnight. Napoleon, on the 5th, reviewed 
 his troops, and found the enthusiasm they manifested two 
 days before, exchanged for a degree of coldness which sensi- 
 bly affected him. The commissioners made their report; 
 Napoleon heard them calmly, though not without emotion, 
 and despatched them on a second embassy to Paris. On 
 arriving in that city, Ney gave in his adhesion to the provi- 
 sional government, so that Macdonald this time returned 
 alone, and presented to Napoleon a copy of the treaty agreed 
 to by the allies. The emperor signed it, without making 
 any remark. He then desired the sabre, given to him in 
 Egypt, by Mourad Bey, to be brought out, and presented it 
 to the marshal as a token of gratitude for these his last and 
 valuable services. The treaty was ratified on the 11th: by 
 its provisions an annual income of 2,000,000 francs, with the 
 sovereignty of the isle of Elba, was secured to him for life ; 
 400 volunteers were to accompany him thither ; the Polish 
 troops to return home retaining their pensions, titles, and de- 
 corations he had bestowed upon them ; the duchies of Parma, 
 Placentia, and Guastalla were settled on Maria Louisa, 
 reversible to her son ; all the members of the imperial family 
 were to retain their tides during life, and an ample pension 
 was secured to each. These conditions having been guaran- 
 tied by the allies, Napoleon signed, on the same day, the 
 act of formal abdication, for himself and his heirs, of the 
 tlirones of France and Italy. In this latter kingdom an army 
 of 30,000 men was still under the orders of Eugene Beauhar- 
 nais, who, on receiving intelligence of the events in Paris, 
 signed, (April 10th,) with Marshal Bellegarde, the Austrian 
 commander, a convention, which allowed the French troops to 
 retire unmolested into France. General Grenier conducted 
 them across tlie Alps ; the viceroy awaited in Italy tlie deci- 
 sion of the allies, hoping, perhaps, that the son-in-law of Ba- 
 
396 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP, 
 
 varia might obtain an independent sovereignty. But the 
 French troops were not three days' march from Milan when 
 that city broke out into open rebellion ; Prina, the French 
 minister of finance, was assassinated; and Eugene thought 
 himself fortunate in being able to reach, almost unattended, 
 the court of his father-in-law, at Munich.* 
 
 The empress and Napoleon's brothers, who on their de- 
 parture from Paris had established a regency at Blois, re- 
 moved on the 10th of April to Orleans. Thence Maria Louisa 
 proceeded to Germany : Joseph and Jerome also quitted 
 France. Napoleon left the country over which he had so 
 long presided, on the 20th of April, accompanied by Bertrand 
 and Drouet, by four commissoners, and an escort of 150 fo- 
 reign soldiers. In a farewell harangue to his guards, he exhort- 
 ed them to be faithful to their new sovereign ; and asserted 
 that, with their assistance, he could have protracted a civil war 
 for three years ; but that, consulting not his owni, but his peo- 
 ple's happiness, he had forborne to do so. On his route from 
 Fontainebleau to Avignon, the attachment of his late subjects, 
 expressed in enthusiastic cheers, seemed rather to have de- 
 rived increase than diminution from his altered fortune. But 
 from the day of his arrival at Avignon, (April 25th,) till he 
 reached the frontier, the coarsest invectives, wherever he was 
 recognised, assailed him. Alarmed by the increasing rudeness 
 of the populace, and a surmise that the new government had 
 ordered his assassination, he, from Orgon to La Calade, 
 travelled upon a post-horse, disguised as a courier; and from 
 J^a Calade to Frejus, personated an Austrian colonel, and sat 
 in General Roller's caleche. At Frejus, finding himself pro- 
 tected by an Austrian escort, he ventured to reoccupy his own 
 carriage. On the 28th, he embarked in the harbour of St. 
 Kaphor, on board an English brig, and, on the 3d of May, 
 arrived off the coast of Elba. 
 
 In the mean time an unnecessary effusion of blood took place 
 in the south of France, where the English and French com- 
 manders, ignorant of the surrender of Paris and the events 
 
 * He was not long after summoned to Paris by the illness and death of 
 his mother, the ex-empress Josephine. On this occasion, he was presented 
 to Louis XVIII. as Viscount Beauharnais. The king received him gra- 
 ciously, addressed him by the title of prince, and offered him a residence 
 in France, with his rank of prince and marshal. These favours were 
 respectfully declined. Josephine had been visited at Malmaison by the 
 allied sovereigns, during their occupation of Paris, in 1814, and died there 
 towards the close of that year. Her son was created Duke of Leuchten- 
 berg, and died in 1 824. 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 397 
 
 which followed it, fought a sanguinary and long-contested 
 batde. Soult, after his defeat at Orthes, fell back towards 
 Tarbes, and, being thence dislodged, was obliged to retreat to 
 Toulouse. In the contest which ensued, and which was of 
 twelve hours' continuance, the utmost skill and bravery were 
 displayed, and numbers fell on both sides. The English ul- 
 timately succeeded in compelling the enemy to retreat, first 
 into the city and thence to Castelnaudary. At Toulouse, as 
 at Bourdeaux, the conquerors were received with loud plaudits, 
 and with cries of " Vive Wellington ! Vivent les Bourbons !" 
 On the following day, both armies received intelligence of the 
 surrender of Paris ; Soult and Suchet for some time hesitated 
 to believe the account of the emperor's overthrow ; but when 
 convinced of its certainty, they entered into a convention 
 similar to that already concluded at Paris. 
 
 The last trophies of the war were won by Lord Williaiu 
 Bentinck, who captured Genoa by a combined operation of 
 the Anglo-Sicilian land troops under his command, and of the 
 sea-forces under SirJosiah Rowley. The two forts of Riche- 
 lieu and Teela were carried by storm, while the gun and 
 mortar-ships silenced the enemy's batteries, and, having forced 
 him to desert them, took possession of, and turned them 
 against the place. The French commander retreated into the 
 town, and, having vainly endeavoured to gain time by negotia- 
 tion, was compelled to capitulate. The allied troops entered 
 it on the 21st of April, and found there 292 pieces of cannon; 
 the British squadron sailing at the same time into the harbour, 
 where they captured two seventy-fours and four brigs of 
 war. These advantages were gained, with the comparatively 
 trifling loss to the allies, of 220 killed, wounded, or missing. 
 Genoa, by a decree of the Congress of Vienna, was annexed 
 to the kingdom of Sardinia, and thus that ancient and far- 
 famed republic ceased to exist. 
 
 One of the first acts of the provisional government, was a 
 decree, addressed to the civil and military authorities, ordain- 
 ing that no obstacle should be raised to the Pope's return to 
 his dominions, and that he should iSe everywhere received 
 with the honours due to his exalted rank. The adhesion of 
 jMurat to the continental alliance, in virtue of which he had 
 marched an army to Rome, and still occupied, in defiance of 
 the Viceroy Eugene, the western part of the ecclesiastical 
 state, had caused, in the early part of the year, a marked 
 change in the affairs of Italy. Napoleon, who chose rather 
 to see those provinces under the mild sway of Pius VII., than 
 
 36 
 
398 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 in the hands of the ambitious soldier who had deserted his 
 cause, tried to enter into fresh negotiations with the Pope, 
 and sent (January 18) to propose to him a treaty, by which 
 Rome, and the territory as far as Perugia, should be restored 
 to the Holy See. Pius replied with dignity, that the restitu- 
 tion of his states, being an act of justice, could not be made 
 the object of a particular treaty ; that, moreover, any arrange- 
 ments concluded out of Rome, would be looked upon as the 
 effect of violent proceedings : all that he demanded was to 
 return to his see ; no obstacle should then prevent him from 
 promoting general tranquillity by all the means in his power. 
 *'It is possible," he added, emphatically, "that in our own 
 person we may not be found worthy to revisit Rome, but 
 our successors shall assuredly recover the territories which 
 belong to them." Four days later. Napoleon, who was on 
 the point of leaving Paris to oppose the armies of the coali- 
 tion, which were even then at no very considerable distance 
 from Fontainebleau, sent for Colonel Lagorsse, and ordered 
 him to set out on the morrow, and conduct his Holiness, with 
 as little delay as possible, to Rome. On receiving intimation 
 of the emperor's will, Pius expressed his earnest desire to be 
 accompanied by at least one of the members of the sacred 
 college, but was respectfully informed by Colonel Lagorsse, 
 that the request was incompatible with his instructions. At 
 an early hour, therefore, on the following morning, having 
 assembled around him all the cardinals then at Fontainebleau, 
 the Pope took leave of them with an air of calm resignation, 
 stating that, as he was then about to quit them, to go he knew 
 not whither, nor whether he should ever again have the con- 
 solation of seeing them, it was his desire to make known to 
 them his intentions and will. He expressly enjoined them 
 (a form of speech very unusual with him) to refuse their 
 assent, individually and collectively, to every species of treaty 
 or stipulation ; adding, that he had left with the Cardinal 
 Dean a paper, written entirely with his own hand, contain- 
 ing instructions for their conduct, under any emergencies that 
 were likely to occur. Precautions had already been taken 
 for the election of his successor, in case of his demise. The 
 cardinals were deeply affected, and all promised fidelity 
 and obedience. Intelligence of the Pope's immediate depart- 
 ure having quickly spread througli the town, hundreds of 
 the inhabitants scaled the walls of the palace-court, and were 
 waiting in the snow to receive his last farewell and blessing. 
 His carriage took the direction of Orleans ; the road to 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 399 
 
 Lyons being occupied by the allies, and he reached Savona 
 early in February, where he received the first intimation of the 
 decree which restored to him the two departments of Rome 
 and Trasimene. By the respectful attentions of the Viceroy 
 Eugene, he was enabled (March 25th) to pursue his journey 
 to Parma, and thence to Cesena, his native city. Having 
 sent forv/ard a delegate to take possession in his name of the 
 city of Rome, he resolved to await the issue of events and 
 the return of the cardinals, who were now hastening to Italy 
 from various towns in the soutli of France, to which they had 
 been sent, under the custody of gendarmes, the day after his 
 departure from Fontainebleau. During his residence in the 
 city of Cesena, Joachim Murat requested an audience, and 
 was immediately admitted. After the first compliments, he 
 affected ignorance as to the intended term of the Pope's jour- 
 ney; and, on being informed, asked his Holiness how he 
 could think of returning to Rome against the will of the Ro- 
 mans. Producing at once a memorial addressed to the allied 
 sovereigns by some of the nobles of that city, praying that 
 they might in future be governed by a secular prince, he said, 
 " that he had sent a copy to Vienna, but had reserved the 
 original, that his Holiness might see the signatures." Pius 
 took the memorial from his hand, and, without opening, threw 
 it into a stove that stood near, wliere it was instantly con- 
 sumed ; he then added, " Is there any thing 7ioiv to prevent 
 us from re-entering Rome ?" After wdiich, he mildly dis- 
 missed the arrogant soldier, who, in 1809, had sent troops 
 from Naples to assist in the violent seizure of his person, 
 ancf who, if, as it was asserted, he had solicited the signatures, 
 was deeply implicated in the conspiracy which he denounced. 
 Difficulties soon arose as to the marches of Ancona, which 
 Murat, supported, as he alleged, by Austria, insisted on 
 retaining : to settle this matter by the intervention of the 
 allies, Cardinal Consalvi was sent to Paris by his Holiness. 
 The sovereigns, he learned, on his arrival there, had pro- 
 ceeded to London, whither he followed them, and obtained 
 an audience of each, as well as of the prince-regent, by 
 whom he was received with distinction. In the mean while, 
 the Sovereign Pontiff made his entry into the capital of his 
 states, (May 2itli,) having in his carriage the Cardinal Dean, 
 whom he had left at Fontainebleau, and Cardinal Pacca, who 
 had been arrested with him at Monte Cavallo. Charles IV., 
 of Spain, with his queen and the Infanto Don Francisco ; 
 the ex-King of Sardinia, the Queen of Etruria, and numerous 
 
400 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 Other distinguished personages, formed part of the cortege. 
 The incident at Cesena had transpired, and was then known 
 in ftdl detail at Rome, where all, including those who had 
 signed the memorial, were now unanimous in receiving their 
 sovereign with unfeigned demonstrations of joy and attach- 
 ment. An address of congratulation was presented by 
 General Lord Wm. Bentinck, in the name of the Prince- 
 regent of England, accompanied with a blank exchequer- 
 bill, signed by that sovereign, which he requested his Holi- 
 ness to accept and fill up, to any amount he might stand in 
 need of. The Pope was so overcome with surprise and 
 gratitude, as to be for some minutes unable to speak ; at 
 length, he expressed his thanks in the most lively terms, and 
 requested Lord W. Bentinck to be the bearer of them to his 
 royal highness.* By a bull dated the 7th of August, the 
 celebrated Society of the Jesuits, at the unanimous request 
 of the Catholic zvorld,^ was solemnly restored. Cardinal 
 Pacca, whohad imbibed early prejudices against the institute, 
 from the writings of Pascal, of which he had since learned 
 the fallacy, was among the first to advise the Pope to this 
 measure ; and he was seconded by the pressing solicitations 
 of numerous archbishops, bishops, and other persons of dis- 
 tinction. Various religious houses were reopened in Rome, 
 and such of their possessions as had not been alienated were 
 returned to them. 
 
 In the mean time, the restoration seemed consolidated in 
 France : in virtue of a new constitution, adopted by the senate, 
 on the 5th of April, Louis Stanislaus Xavier was, by that 
 name, called to fill the vacant throne. Indisposition prevetited 
 him from setting out immediately for France ; he therefore 
 appointed his brother, the Count d'Artois, to be lieutenant- 
 general of the kingdom till his arrival ; and that prince 
 entered Paris on the 12th, amidst the enthusiastic cheers of 
 the inhabitants. Three days later, the Emperor Francis 
 made his entry with great military pomp : Alexander and 
 Frederic William met him at the barrier, and the three 
 sovereigns traversed the city in company. Louis XVIII. 
 was able, on the 20th of April, to repair to London, where 
 lie was received by the regent with regal honours. The two 
 sovereigns interchanged, on this occasion, the orders of the 
 
 * A full-length portrait of George IV., in Lawrence's best style, still 
 adorns one of the galleries of the Vatican. It was ordered shortly after 
 this incident by Pius VII., as a token of his gratitude. 
 
 t Words of the bull. 
 
LII.J GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 401 
 
 Holy Ghost and of the Garter ; this being the first lime the 
 former decoration was ever conferred on a Protestant prince. 
 The king's arrival at Calais was announced by the discharge 
 of artillery, and followed by shouts and reiterated acclama- 
 tions. On the 2d of May, he arrived at St. Omer, where he 
 received the members of the provisional government, with 
 deputations from various bodies of the state, and issued a 
 proclamation, approving the basis of the proposed constitu- 
 tion ; but as it had been unavoidably drawn up in haste, he 
 convoked the members of the senate and the legislative body 
 to frame a charter, which should concede a representative 
 government, consisting of peers and deputies ; guaranty the 
 inviolability of national and individual liberty, the mainte- 
 nance of miUtary and civil honours, liberty of conscience and 
 of the press. 
 
 On the 3d of May, Louis entered Paris, preceded by the 
 marshals, the generals of the army and olficers of the court, 
 attended by the national and royal guards, and detachments 
 of regular troops. Countless multitudes thronged from the 
 city to meet the royal procession, and its entry into the 
 capital was hailed by such enthusiastic demonstrations of 
 joyful gratulation, as were calculated, could they silence the 
 recollection of irrecoverable losses, to compensate for past 
 neglect and exile. 
 
 The decline of Napoleon's power also enabled Ferdinand 
 of Spain to emerge from the obscurity in which he had been 
 so long detained in the chateau of Valencey. On the 24th 
 of March he arrived at Gerona, from whence he proceeded to 
 Saragossa and thence to Valencia, where he issued a decree 
 abolishing the Cortes, and annulling the constitution which 
 they had published. The royalists of the old stamp, who 
 wished the crown to be invested as formerly with absolute 
 power, were supported by the king ; and many of those who 
 had most distinguished themselves during the reign of the 
 Cortes, by writings or speeches in favour of liberty, were 
 placed under arrest. Ferdinand entered Madrid on the 14th 
 of May, and was received with marked demonstrations of 
 respect and loyalty ; the tribunal of the Inquisition, with 
 some alterations as to the form and method of its proceedings, 
 and all other ecclesiastical and civil establishments, resumed 
 their former position ; Ferdinand also recalled the Jesuits to 
 Spain, and restored to them their college of St. Isidore. 
 
 On the 23d, the allied powers signed a convention, which 
 stipulated that their armies should evacuate France in fourteen 
 
 36* 
 
402 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. |^CHAP. 
 
 days ; that the fleets should remahi in their present stations ; 
 but that all blockades should be raised, and all prisoners mu- 
 tually restored. A definitive treaty of peace between the 
 King- of England and his allies on the one part, and Louis 
 XVIII. on the other, was concluded on the 30th of May. Its 
 chief stipulations were, that France should retain her limits 
 as they were in January, 1791, with some small addition of 
 territory ; that the colonies wrested from her by England 
 since 1792, shoukl be restored, except Tobago and St. Lucia, 
 which, with the Isle of France and its dependencies, were 
 kept by England, and the port of St. Domingo ceded to 
 France by the treaty of Basle, which was to revert to Spain ; 
 that Guadaloupe should be restored by Sweden to France ; 
 that the States of Germany should be independent and united 
 by a confederative bond ; that the Swiss republic should be 
 restored; that Italy, beyond the limits to revert to Austria, 
 should be composed of sovereign states ; that Malta and its 
 dependencies should remain in the possession of England ; 
 that Holland should be subject to the house of Orange, 
 and its sovereignty not be held in any case by a prince wear- 
 ing, or destined to wear, a foreign crown ; that no individual, 
 in the countries restored or ceded by the treaty, should be 
 prosecuted or molested for his political opinions. By this 
 treaty the allies and the French monarch reciprocally re- 
 nounced all claims to sums advanced by either party to the 
 other, since 1792. All the powers engaged in the late war 
 were to send plenipotentiaries to Vienna, to conclude in con- 
 gress all necessary arrangements. 
 
 In this general treaty Norway was not included ; and Eng- 
 land, in conformity with a promise made by her to SAveden, 
 prepared to force the Norwegians to submit to the Swedish 
 yoke. This meditated transfer, for which their consent had 
 not been asked, was exceedingly displeasing to the Norwe- 
 gians, who, encouraged by their governor. Christian, the 
 hereditary Prince of Denmark, took up arms to assert their 
 national independence. The Crown-prince of Sweden en- 
 tered Norway in the beginning of August, at the head of an 
 army of veterans, to enforce submission ; after some skirmish- 
 ing, the Norwegians, being nearly surrounded, agreed to a 
 convention, by which the Prince of Denmark resigned his 
 authority, and the King of Sweden accepted a constitution to 
 be framed by the Norwegian diet. That assembly met on 
 the 20th of October, and the union of Norway with Sweden 
 was ratified by a large majority. A free constitution was 
 
LI[.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 403 
 
 also conceded to the Dutch ; and the ten Belgic Provinces 
 formerly subject to Austria, were united to Holland ; the 
 whole to form one kingdom, under the sovereignty of the 
 Prince of Orange and his descendants. The city of Ham- 
 burg, after its long and severe sufferings under the tyranny 
 of Davoust, was restored to its former privileges and inde- 
 pendence. Joachim Murat, having seasonably abandoned 
 the fortunes of his brother-in-law, and signed a convention 
 with the Anglo-Sicilians in February, was allowed by the al- 
 lies to reign in Naples, and continued to form schemes of 
 aggrandizement, proving a troublesome neighbour to the Holy 
 See. The King of Sardinia recovered his Italian territories, 
 and made his entry into Turin in May. 
 
 On the 3d of May, Mr. Wilberforce, the humane advocate 
 of the Africans, again represented their case to the legislature. 
 His exertions, seconded by the voice of both Houses, caused 
 representations to be made to the continental powers to induce 
 them to assist in the abolition of the slave-trade. Lord Wel- 
 lington, for the victories achieved by him against France, 
 was created Duke of Wellington and Marquis Douro ; and 
 ^400,000, in addition to former grants, were voted to him. 
 He took his seat in the House of Peers, and received its 
 thanks on the 28th of June. A deputation from the Com- 
 mons congratulated him upon his late arrival in England ; 
 and when he waited upon the House to return thanks for the 
 honours it had awarded him, he was loudly greeted by the 
 members, who rose upon his entry. Public sympathy was, 
 during this year, again excited by the case of the Princess of 
 Wales. The allied sovereigns proposed to visit the English 
 metropolis, and splendid preparations were made for their 
 reception. The queen notified to the public, that ahe intend- 
 ed holding two drawing-rooms during their stay in England. 
 From these assemblies, which it was anticipated would be 
 the most brilliant that had been witnessed in the British do- 
 minions, the prince-regent desired that his consort should be 
 excluded. The princess, " to avoid," as she stated, " adding 
 to the difficulty and uneasiness of the queen's situation," 
 consented to absent herself from the drawing-rooms ; she, 
 however, addressed an expostulatory letter to the prince, and 
 laid her case before Parliament, through the medium of a 
 letter to the speaker. The discussions on this subject termi- 
 nated by the passing of a grant for the increase of her annual 
 income to £50,000 per annum ; which sum was, however, 
 by her own desire, reduced to £35,000. The Princess Char- 
 
404 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP, 
 
 lotte took a lively interest in the afflictions of her royal mo- 
 ther ; she refused to accept the alliance of the Prince of 
 Orange, alleging her dislike to leave England, where she 
 thought her presence necessary to soothe the sufferings of 
 the Princess of Wales. The prince-regent, offended by her 
 determination, and ascribing it to the influence of her attend- 
 ants, dismissed them, and appointed others in their stead. 
 While he and the Bishop of Salisbury were employed in 
 charging the latter closely to observe her conduct, she made 
 her way into the street by a private staircase, hurried into a 
 hackney-coach, and drove to Connaught House, the resi- 
 dence of her mother. She was, however, prevailed upon to 
 return on the following day, and was removed to her father's 
 mansion, and, not long after, to Cranbourne Lodge. 
 
 A fraud practised upon the stock-exchange by Lord Coch- 
 rane and several associates, occupied, for a short time, public 
 attention. By the circulation of a report that Bonaparte was 
 dead, they caused a rise in the price of stocks, of which the 
 reporters profited. They were tried by the Court of King's 
 Bench, found guilty, and sentenced to a fine and imprisonment. 
 Lord Cochrane, who represented the city of Westminster, 
 was expelled his seat by a majority of the House of Com- 
 mons, but re-elected by his constituents. These events, as 
 well as every other object of interest, was soon forgotten in the 
 rejoicings caused by the arrival of the Emperor Alexander 
 and the King of Prussia, with their respective suites, in the 
 metropolis of England. The court, the universities, the cor- 
 poration of London, and the populace, all vied with each other 
 in showing them attention ; and the city, during their stay, 
 presented a scene of unexampled splendour and festivity. 
 They remained till the 27th of June, and on that day embark- 
 ed at Dover for the Continent. 
 
 At the suggestion of Mr. Peel, a bill was passed this ses- 
 sion of Parliament, empowering any two justices, in any 
 county of Ireland which should be disturbed, to call an ex- 
 traordinary session of the county, to report its state to the 
 lord-lieutenant, who might issue a proclamation, ordering the 
 residents of the disturbed county, under penalty of seven 
 years' transportation, to remain in their houses from sunset 
 to sunrise. He was further empowered to convoke a special 
 session of the peace in reported counties, for the trial of of- 
 fenders against this law ; and, if necessary, to dispense with 
 the trial by jury. These rigorous measures were the conse- 
 quence of outrages committed in some parts of Ireland, by 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 403 
 
 persons calling themselves Carders and Caravats ; for the 
 purpose, as was supposed, of lowering the price of land. 
 
 Tiie Congress of Vienna was installed on the 1st of No- 
 vember. The Emperors of Austria and Russia, the Kings 
 of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and Wirtemburg, and ambas- 
 sadors from all the states of Europe were assembled there.* 
 The annexation of a part of Saxony to Prussia, with a pro- 
 viso that the remainder should retain the title of kingdom of 
 Saxony, and the erection of Hanover into a kingdom, were 
 among the first subjects discussed by this assembly. The 
 Swiss cantons signed, on the 8th of September, a federal 
 compact, which stipulated that no class of citizens should 
 enjoy exclusive privileges ; that each canton, in case of danger, 
 should be assisted by the others ; and that no alliance between 
 particular cantons, to the prejudice of the common interest, 
 should be formed. The armed force of the confederates was 
 to be 30,000 men; the contribution for its support, £21,000. 
 
 The war between England and America was carried on and 
 happily brought to a conclusion this year. By the cessation 
 of hostilities on the European continent, Great Britain was 
 enabled to send such reinforcements to America as, it was 
 supposed, would decide the contest. On their arrival, Sir 
 George Prevost advanced from Lower Canada to the Ameri- 
 can frontier, and moved upon Plattsburg, which he purposed 
 to attack both by land and water. The action upon the lake 
 proved disastrous to the English : their vessels, which were 
 four in number, were forced, after a severe conflict, to strike 
 to the enemy, and their gun-boats escaped, only because the 
 American vessels were, at the close of the action, too much 
 injured to capture them. The British land-forces, while the 
 fleets were engaged, succeeded in passing the Saranac ; but 
 when Sir George heard that the American squadron was vic- 
 torious, he ordered his troops to retreat. The defeat of Platts- 
 burg created disappointment and mortification in England, 
 proportioned to the expectations of victory which had been 
 raised by the departure of the reinforcements. Another ex- 
 pedition was sent out in August, against the middle states of 
 
 * In this celebrated Congress, the chief diplomatists were — 
 
 For Austria Prince Metternich, 
 
 England Lord Castlereagh, 
 
 France Prince Talleyrand, 
 
 Russia Count Nesselrode, 
 
 Prussia Prince Hardenburg, 
 
 the Pope Cardinal Consalvi. 
 
■406 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 America. The British Admiral Cochrane entered the Pa- 
 taxunt on the 27th, to co-operate with Rear-admiral Cock- 
 burn, in an attack on the enemy's flotilla, commanded by 
 Commodore Barney ; intending, if it proved successful, to 
 proceed against Washington. The land-troops, under Ge- 
 neral Ross, were disembarked on the 19th at Benedict. On 
 the 22d, the expedition reached Pig Point, where the national 
 flotilla, consisting of seventeen ships, was stationed. The 
 Americans abandoned their vessels ; sixteen of which, before 
 the English could capture them, blew up. The British com- 
 manders now proceeded against the capital of the United 
 States. About five miles from the city, they found the enemy, 
 strongly posted on the opposite side of the eastern branch of 
 the Potomac. From this position the Americans were, after 
 a severe contest, dislodged. They moved upon Washington ; 
 but their generals, judging the defence of the city impracti- 
 cable, ordered them to Georgetown. The English troops 
 quickly advanced to the capital, and destroyed all the public 
 buildings. This object effected, they re-embarked, without 
 molestation, at Benedict. On the 2'7th of August, Captain 
 Gordon, who had sailed up the Potomac, while Admiral Coch- 
 rane was ascending the Pataxunt, took fort AVashington. The 
 capitulation of the commercial town of Alexandria, with all 
 its naval stores, its public and private shipping and merchan- 
 dise, was the consequence of this capture. The success of 
 the British arms were, however, still checkered by reverses. 
 An expedition, commanded by Sir P. Parker, against the town 
 of Bellair, (August 30th,) and one against Baltimore, com- 
 manded by General Ross and Admiral Cochrane, (September 
 11th,) completely failed, and General Ross was killed in the 
 engagement. The belligerent powers, though still earnest in 
 the prosecution of hostilities, were anxious for their termina- 
 tion ; and on the 24th of December, 1814, the commissioners, 
 who during the whole year had been negotiating at Ghent, 
 brought their discussions to a close. In the treaty then con- 
 cluded, the chief objects for which the war had originated, 
 the impressment of American seamen and the limits of block- 
 ade, were not mentioned. The principal stipulations were, 
 that commissioners should be appointed to fix a boundary- 
 line between Canada and the United States ; and that all the 
 possessions, rights, and privileges which the Indians had held 
 l3efore the 'war, should be restored to them. Both the contract- 
 ing parties agreed to contribute their efforts towards the abo- 
 lition of the slave-trade. 
 
LIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 407 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 FROM THE TREATY OF GHENT, IN 1814, TO THE TREATIES OF 
 VIENNA AND PARIS, IN 1815. 
 
 Subsequent measures, on the part of Louis XVIII., tended 
 to counteract the impression which the charter had at first 
 produced in favour of the restoration ; the establishment of 
 restrictions upon the press, and the circulation of a report that 
 the king would invalidate the purchase of national property, 
 alarmed the nation in general ; an order for the reduction to 
 half-pay of officers not in actual service ; the recall of the Swiss 
 guards to the capital, and the removal of the imperial guard, 
 incensed the army ; an order for the erection of a monument 
 to the memory of the emigrants who had fallen at Quiberon, 
 and for the removal of some public functionaries to make room 
 for known ultra-royalists, confirmed the nation in a belief, that 
 the abuses, as well as the principles of the ancient monarchy, 
 would be shortly restored. 
 
 Tlie formation of plans for the restoration of Bonaparte was 
 the result of the national dissatisfaction. A conspiracy for 
 that purpose was quickly organized, and the violet became the 
 secret symbol of recognition. A rumour that the allied sove- 
 reigns, still in congress at Vienna, purposed to remove Bona- 
 parte from Elba to a more secluded residence, precipitated the 
 development of the plans formed in his favour. To induce 
 him to attempt the resumption of sovereignty, required but 
 litde persuasion ; an assurance that the French army and na- 
 tion sighed after his return, was, to his daring mind, a suffi- 
 cient stimulus to undertake the hazardous enterprise. After 
 an exile of eleven months, during which, his time had been 
 chiefly given to the improvement of the isle of Elba, and to 
 mineralogical and agricultural studies, he embarked with his 
 army, consisting of 900 men, for the coast of France. His 
 fleet, which was composed of the Inconstant^ of 26 guns, 
 and six small vessels, put to sea on the night of the 26th of 
 February ; Sir Neil Campbell, the British commissioner to 
 Elba, being then in Italy, and no ships visible from the island. 
 On the morning of the 27th, the adventurers, having been be- 
 calmed, had advanced but six leagues. The captain and crew, 
 fearing detection, advised, but could not persuade the emperor 
 to put back to Elba. His determination, though hazardous, 
 
408 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. QcHAP, 
 
 was not unfortunate : his fleet escaped the observation of some 
 French cruisers which were in sight : it met and spoke the 
 Zephyr without exciting the suspicion of her captain, and 
 anchored on the 1st of March, at three o'clock, in the bay of 
 St. Juan. " Voila le Congres dissous," exultingly exclaimed 
 Napoleon, as he set his foot on the French shore. His little 
 troop bivouacked upon the coast, in a vineyard surrounded by 
 olive trees, and there remained till eleven o'clock on the night 
 of the 1st; they then moved to Cannes. On the 6th they 
 reached Gap, whence Napoleon issued two proclamations, cal- 
 culated to rouse the army and the people to support his enter- 
 prise. He had hitherto advanced without opposition, but was 
 here met by 6,000 men coming from Grenoble to arrest his 
 progress, who seemingly only waited orders to fire upon him. 
 Advancing fearlessly towards them, he exclaimed, " Soldiers, 
 you have been told that I fear death; if there be one among 
 you who would kill his emperor, let him plunge his bayonet 
 into this bosom." " Vive rEinj)ereuf was the instantaneous 
 reply of the detachment, as it rallied round the imperial stand- 
 ard. Colonel Labedoyere, with his regiment, joined the in- 
 vading army as it approached Grenoble. Colonel Marchand, 
 the commander of the city, not swayed by the prevalent 
 example, prepared to resist Napoleon's entry, but to little 
 purpose ; the garrison and inhabitants re-echoed the Vivas of 
 the imperial troops, and, pulling down the city gates, allowed 
 the emperor a ready entrance. The imperial army, swelled 
 by the Grenoble garrison, marched to Lyons, Napoleon pre- 
 ceding them in an open carriage, escorted only by a few hus- 
 sars, and sometimes quite unguarded. The peasantry, as he 
 passed, surrounded and cheered him, and in the towns upon 
 his route, congratulatory addresses were presented. 
 
 In the mean time, measures were taken by the French 
 authorities to arrest the invader's progress ; but as slowly as 
 if no pressing necessity required their execution. Intelligence 
 of Napoleon's return was not known at the Tuileries till the 
 5th, nor by the Parisians till the 7th. The Chambers were 
 then convened, and a royal ordinance pronounced Napoleon 
 and his adherents traitors, and authorized his apprehension 
 and trial before a council of war, which, on proof of his iden- 
 tity, was to award him the punishment of death. Addresses 
 from the inhabitants and municipality of Paris, and from the 
 Chambers, assured Louis of their aff'ection to his government. 
 Numerous volunteers enlisted in the royal cause, and the court 
 was lulled into a belief of the impotence of the invader's 
 
LIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 409 
 
 enterprise, till its triumphant termination was nearly on the 
 eve of accomplishment. Monsieur, the Duke of Orleans, and 
 Count Damas, were, however, despatched to Lyons, and the 
 Duke d'Angouleme proceeded to Nismes. The defence of the 
 city was intrusted to Marshal Macdonald. While this gene- 
 ral inspected the fortifications and barricaded the bridges of the 
 Rhone, Monsieur harangued the troops on the virtues of Louis 
 XVIIL and the tyranny of Napoleon, but without attaching 
 them to the royal standard ; for, though his personal guard 
 replied " Long live the king," the troops of the line remained 
 repulsively silent. On the 10th, Napoleon's advanced guard 
 reached the suburbs of La Guillotiere, and Macdonald pre- 
 pared to dispute its progress ; but his troops, meeting, in their 
 passage over one of the bridges, with a reconnoitring party 
 of the Grenoble soldiers, embraced and joined them with 
 reiterated cries, as greeting to the emperor as they were 
 appalling to the royal princes. The former triumphantly 
 entered, while the latter fled from Lyons. One only of his 
 attendants accompanied Monsieur. The other soldiers of the 
 royal guard of honour entreated the emperor's permission to 
 become his personal escort ; but he indignantly rejected their 
 proffered service, assigning, as the cause of his refusal, their 
 cowardly abandonment of their late master. To the dragoon 
 who remained faithful, he ordered that a cross of the legion 
 of honour should be presented. From Lyons, Napoleon 
 issued various decrees ; he left it on the 13th, and on the 17th 
 reached Auxerre. 
 
 His triumphant march was, through the treachery of the 
 government agents, unknown at the Tuileries. Marshal Ney, 
 however, was despatched to Lons-le-Saulnier, to direct an 
 attack by the army stationed there, against the rear of the 
 enemy ; and preparations were made to arrest his progress 
 between Fontainebleau and Paris. Ney pledged himself to 
 bring Napoleon to Paris " dead or alive," adding that he ought 
 to be brought "in an iron cage." Possibly the marshal's 
 expressions were sincere, but his loyalty was short-lived. 
 Upon his arrival at Lons-le-Saulnier, he harangued his staff' in 
 favour of the Bourbon cause; but, finding, by the gloomy 
 silence with which his warm eulogy of the existing govern- 
 ment was received, that he spoke to disaff'ected auditors, he 
 retired, seemingly labouring under a severe internal conflict. 
 The assurance of some emissaries of Napoleon, who arrived 
 there during the night, that the emperor's enterprise had been 
 undertaken with the concurrence of Austria and the connivance 
 
 37 
 
410 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP 
 
 of England, that the empress and her son had set out for Paris, 
 and that Murat was advancing to assist Napoleon on the side 
 of Italy, decided the French marshal's wavering purpose. 
 On the 13th, he addressed a proclamation to his army, an- 
 nouncing the cause of the Bourbons forever lost, and advising 
 them to rally round the standard of the nation's choice, that 
 of Napoleon. He joined the emperor on the 17th at Auxerre, 
 advanced witli him to Fontainebleau, and thence to Paris. 
 The national guard, under the Duke de Berry and Marshal 
 Macdonald, was placed at Melun to arrest the progress of the 
 imperial forces. The last hopes of Louis rested on its loyalty ; 
 after some hours spent by this chosen band in watchful expec- 
 tation of the advance of the hostile troops, an open carriage, 
 conveying the emperor, Bertrand, and Drouet, and escorted 
 by a few hussars and dragoons, drove rapidly up to their 
 advanced posts. ^^ Vive VEmpereur! Tlve Napoleon le 
 grand .'" exclaimed the royal army, and Napoleon passed 
 through their opening ranks, and drove to Paris without 
 molestation. Louis left the capital on the night of the 19th, 
 escorted by the household troops : the citizens wept for his 
 departure. Napoleon entered it on the niglit of the 20th, 
 with an escort of twenty men, and was received by the same 
 citizens with joyful enthusiasm. 
 
 Tlie king retired to Lisle, where he was joined by many 
 distinguished royalists and emigrants. The Duke and Duchess 
 d'Angouleme made strenuous exertions in favour of the royal 
 cause in the western and southern departments, but the efforts 
 of the duchess were counteracted by the arrival of General 
 Clausel, at Bourdeaux ; and the duke, after having held pos- 
 session for some days of Montpellier and Nismes, was sur- 
 rounded by the troops of General Gilly, and forced to capitulate. 
 The duke, by Napoleon's order, was conducted safely to the 
 place of his embarkation. The Duke of Bourbon, after having 
 roused the royalists of La Vendee, judging that their exertions 
 could not effectually support the royal cause, accepted a safe 
 conduct, for himself and forty of his followers, to Nantes, and 
 embarked for England. 
 
 The Congress at Vienna had drawn its deliberations to a 
 close, when the news arrived of Napoleon's enterprise. It 
 reassembled on the 13th of March, and published a declara- 
 tion, purporting that Bonaparte, by invading France, in viola- 
 tion of his compact with the allied powers, had forfeited the 
 protection of the law, and shown that no truce could be 
 made with him. They pledged themselves to make common 
 
LIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 411 
 
 cause in enforcing the observance of the treaty of Paris, and 
 in preventing every attempt which might be made to replunge 
 the world into the disorders and miseries of revolutions. 
 Preparations for war were made on so extensive a scale as 
 to ensure the co-operation of 1,100,0€0 men. Napoleon, on 
 his side, addressed a letter (dated April 4th) to the sovereigns 
 of Europe, announcing his re-establishment upon the throne 
 of France, by the affection of the French nation. " France," 
 he said, " would henceforth know no other rivalship than the 
 advantages of peace, no other strife than a sacred contest 
 for the happiness of mankind." This letter remained un- 
 answered. Napoleon, therefore, thought only of justifying 
 his conduct to the French people : of uniting all parties in his 
 favour ; and of kindling the enthusiasm of the soldiery. He 
 published a manifesto, representing the treaty of Fontaine- 
 bleau as violated, not by him, but by the sovereigns, since 
 they had refused passports for Elba to Maria Louisa and her 
 son. In the selection of his ministers, he tried to unite the 
 constitutional and republican parties : Cambaceres was made 
 arch-chancellor ; the Dukes of Gaieta, Decres, and Otranto, 
 Count Mollieii and Carnot, ministers; the Prince of Eckmiihl 
 (Davoust) had the war department ; the Dukes of Bassano 
 and Vicenza, secretaries ; he exerted himself to recruit his 
 army and to collect a formidable artillery ; to rouse the mili- 
 tary ardour and national pride of the soldiery ; and in order 
 to attach the people to his interests, he published an additional 
 act to the constitution of the empire, in which he promised to 
 combine the highest degree of liberty, with the vigour ne- 
 cessary to secure the national independence. This act ex- 
 cluded the Bourbons from the throne of France, even should 
 the imperial family become extinct. It was published on the 
 23d of April, but the meeting which was to sanction it was, 
 from various causes, deferred till the 1st of June. On that 
 day, a vast multitude, consisting of the deputies, citizens, 
 merchants, agriculturists, magistrates, and warriors of France, 
 assembled in wdiat was called the Champ de Mai. The 
 arrangements were of a most solemn and imposing nature. 
 The arch-chancellor, having calcidated the votes for and 
 against the additional act, proclaimed it accepted by the 
 French nation : Napoleon gave it his signature, and ha- 
 rangued the assembled multitude upon his attachment and 
 gratitude to his people, his solicitude for the welfare of 
 France, upon the unjust intentions of the allied sovereigns, 
 and the necessity of union, energy, and perseverance on the 
 
412 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 part of the French. Loud plaudits followed the conclusion 
 of his address. When these subsided, he swore to observe, 
 and cause to be observed, the constitutions of the empire. A 
 solemn Te Deimi announced the objects of the meeting ac- 
 complished. The imperial eagles were then presented by 
 the ministers of the interior, of war, and of the marine, to 
 Napoleon, and by Napoleon to the soldiery, with a charge to 
 rally round and defend them. " We swear it," exclaimed 
 the troops ; and the assembly dispersed. 
 
 On the 2d of June, the emperor named the peers, and on 
 the 7th installed the legislature : when the members of both 
 Chambers had taken an oath of obedience to the constitution 
 and of fidelity to their sovereign, he addressed them from the 
 throne. The replies of the Chambers to his speech, which 
 were four days in preparation, breathed a spirit of indepen- 
 dence at once novel and appalling to Napoleon ; he was not 
 unmindful that the retention of his crown depended upon the 
 event of battle, and his exertions were proportionate to the 
 greatness of the object which called them forth. Fifty 
 thousand men were equipped early in June, and marched for 
 ilie frontier, whither the emperor, at the close of his speech 
 to the deputies, announced that he purposed following them. 
 But liis forces did not amount to one-third of the number 
 which formerly he had at command, and the general aspect 
 of his affairs was gloomy and unpromising. During his 
 residence in Elba, an active correspondence had been carried 
 on between that island and Naples, where King Joachim, 
 though professing fidelity to his alliance with Austria, had 
 been levying troops and making other warlike preparations. 
 With a view to confirm his usurped dignity, he had made re- 
 peated ofTers to the Holy See of presenting the tribute as was 
 formerly the custom of the legitimate sovereigns of Naples, 
 in acknowledgment that the kingdom was held by them in 
 fief; but his proposals had been steadily rejected. Intelli- 
 gence of Napoleon's rapid and successful advance upon Paris 
 induced him to throw off the mask, and openly to avow that 
 lie considered the cause of his brothei--in-law inseparable from 
 his own. On the 19th of March, he demanded a free pas- 
 sage for his troops through the Roman states ; disregarding 
 the refusal of the papal government, he advanced to Ancona, 
 and, proceeding through the marches, attacked the imperial 
 forces under General Bianchi, and compelled them to retreat. 
 On the approach of the Neapolitans, the Pope withdrew to 
 Florence and afterwards to Genoa ; and, meeting there M. de 
 
LIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 413 
 
 Pressigiiy, the French ambassador, whom he admitted to an 
 audience, he said to him, in presence of several persons at- 
 tached to the embassy, " Signor ambasciatore, non dubbi- 
 tate di niente: questo e tin temporale che durera tre mesi.''^'^ 
 Murat, however, was still advancing ; he had made himself 
 master of Ferrara and Florence, and forced the Grand-duke 
 of Tuscany to quit his capital. The aim of King Joachim 
 was to revolutionize Italy, and unite it into one monarchy, 
 under his own sceptre. But his efforts to rouse the Italians 
 were unsuccessful ; the Austrians having collected their forces, 
 he was driven back in his turn by Generals Bianchi and Fri- 
 mont, and his army cut off, in a series of engagements near 
 Tolentino. Naples was invested by land, while an English 
 fleet entered the port and compelled the Neapolitans to sign a 
 convention, (May 20th,) of which the chief article was the 
 deposition of Murat. The city was occupied by the allies till 
 the 17th of June, when Ferdinand IV., returning from Sicily, 
 regained peaceable possession. The ex-king retired into 
 France.t All Napoleon's hopes of co-operation from abroad 
 were thus frustrated ; and in the interior of his empire, loyalty 
 to his person was not general: the Vendeans, too, were again 
 in arms for the support of the ancient dynasty. The allies 
 proposed to invade France in three divisions, named from 
 their respective situations previously to their entering the 
 French territory, the army of the Upper Rhine, commanded 
 by Prince Schwartzenburg; the army of the Lower Rhine, 
 by Marshal Blucher : and the army of the Netherlands, under 
 the Duke of Wellington. The Russian armies, under Bar- 
 clay de Tolly and Wittgenstein, were to form the reserve. 
 Upon the defeat of Murat, the Austro-Italian army advanced 
 towards the south of France : that under Blucher arrived in 
 the neighbourhood of Namur, in May ; the Duke of Wel- 
 lington's head-quarters were at Brussels. The force under 
 his command was 94,000 men, 38,000 of whom were 
 British: the remainder consisted of Hanoverians, Brunswick- 
 ers, Belgians, &c. Napoleon left Paris (June 12) and pro- 
 ceeded to Laon. At the head of a numerous and well- 
 appointed army, he entered Belgium, with the hope of sur- 
 prising the Prussians in their cantonments, and cutting off the 
 communication between Blucher and Wellington. After 
 
 * " Mr. Ambassador, fear not ; this is a storm that will last three 
 months." 
 
 fThe Sicilians had obtained a free constitution in 1812, through the in- 
 tervention of Lord William Bentinck. 
 
 37* 
 
414 ^ GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 forcing the passage of the Sambre, (June 15th,) he marched to 
 intercept the troops garrisoned at Charleroi, should they 
 attempt to retreat by that route. About noon Bonaparte 
 entered the town. The Prussians stationed there retreated to 
 Fleurus, where the main Prussian army was concentrating. 
 In this retreat they were harassed by the enemy, and several 
 of their number were taken prisoners. Lord Wellington was 
 apprized, early in the evening of the 15th, of that day's 
 conflict ; but judging it to have been but an affair of outposts, 
 he delayed ordering the advance of his troops till the receipt 
 of further intelligence. At midnight, he learned that Char- 
 leroi was taken, and that the French had marched upon 
 Fleurus. In a few hours after the arrival of this intelligence 
 at Brussels, the English troops were in full march for Quatre 
 Bras, a village so called from its being the point of intersec- 
 tion of the roads from Charleroi to Brussels, and from Nivelle 
 to Namur. The Prussians were now posted on the heights 
 between Bry and Sombref, and occupied the villages of St. 
 Amand and Ligni. While Napoleon marched with the 
 French right wing and centre upon Blucher, he ordered Ney 
 to dislodge the English from Quatre Bras, and, this effected, 
 to co-operate with him against the Prussians. Ney deferred 
 making a vigorous attack upon Quatre Bras till three o'clock 
 in the afternoon, by which time the British and Belgian troops, 
 in full force, had reached that village. The confederates 
 gallandy maintained their position, and many of their most 
 distinguished officers fell in its defence, among whom were 
 the Duke of Brunswick and Sir Thomas Picton. 
 
 While the British were thus attacked by Ney at Quatre 
 Bras, Grouchy's division acted against the Prussians in the 
 villages of Ligni and St. Amand. The whole of Blucher's 
 forces were not assembled, and the French, being greatly 
 superior in cavalry and artillery, succeeded in establishing 
 themselves in the village of St. Amand. In an effort to retain 
 possession of a hollow ditch near Ligni, Blucher's horse was 
 killed, and in its fall so entangled its rider as to prevent his 
 rising ; the enemy's cuirassiers and the Prussian general's 
 own troops passed over, without observing him, and some 
 minutes elapsed before he was extricated. The battle of 
 Ligni (June 16th) only terminated with the fall of night. The 
 French retained the field ; the Prussians retreated in good order, 
 but with the loss of 15,000 men in killed and wounded, and 
 of sixteen pieces of cannon, to the neighbourhood of Wavre. 
 The Duke of Wellington moved in a direction parallel with 
 
LIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 415 
 
 their line of retreat, and fell back by the road of Genappe, 
 upon the forest of Soignies. Napoleon now made two di- 
 visions of his forces, with one of which he marched in pur- 
 suit of Wellington. Bad roads and heavy rain prevented him 
 from much harassing the retreating army. The French lan- 
 cers, who pressed upon the British cavalry, were attacked, at 
 the pass of Genappe, by Lord Uxbridge, and repulsed. The 
 English retired thence, unmolested, on the 17th, to the en- 
 trance of the forest of Soignies, three miles in advance of 
 Waterloo, where their commander established his head-quar- 
 ters, and sent to apprize Blucher that he purposed to accept 
 battle on the following day. The morning of the 18th pre- 
 sented to the French the English army, posted with their 
 centre on tlie village of Mount St. John, supported on the 
 right by the farm of Hougoumont, and on the left by La 
 Haie Sainte : by a road which runs from Fer la Haie to Ohain, 
 and by the woody passes of St. Lambert, Lord Wellington 
 communicated with the Prussian army at Wavre. 
 
 Bonaparte, having sent orders to Grouchy to push the Prus- 
 sians vigorously, and to draw near the grand French army 
 and support its operations, prepared to attack the Anglo-Bel- 
 gian troops. He placed his first corps opposite the centre of 
 their position, with its left on the Brussels road ; his second 
 corps opposite the woods that surround Hougoumont; he 
 then took a station for observation on a small hill, in front of 
 the farm of La Belle Alliance, — the Duke of Wellington, 
 under a tree, near the top of Mount St. John. 
 
 About noon. Napoleon ordered the signal for battle to be 
 given. On the right, left, and centre, it was maintained till 
 five o'clock, \wth undiminished obstinacy, but with doubtful 
 success, when news arrived that the Prussians, under Blucher, 
 whose advance had been impeded by an attack from Marshal 
 Grouchy, were advancing in rear of the French army. Na- 
 poleon then called into action four regiments of the imperial 
 guard, which he liad hitherto kept in reserve on the heights 
 of La Belle Alliance. The charge made by this chosen band 
 was of so impetuous a nature, as to incline the victory to 
 their side, but even they were, eventually, repulsed. When 
 the main body of the Prussians arrived, Wellington ordered 
 his whole line to move forward : he led the centre in person, 
 and formed the fiank regiments into hollow squares, impene- 
 trable to the enemy's cavalry, and to this judicious arrange- 
 ment may be mainly attributed the success of the day. The 
 French lines were soon penetrated ; their right was broken 
 
416 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 in three places by the Prussians, who rushed forward to 
 complete their overthrow. A general panic now seized the 
 French soldiers, and the exclamation, " All is lost," echoed 
 through their ranks. Yet the battalion of guards, commanded 
 by Cambronne, refused to surrender. " La garde meurt et ne se 
 rend pas," was the reply of their gallant leader to the summons 
 of his opponents. Even this chosen corps was finally subdued, 
 and Wellington and Blucher remained masters of the field. 
 
 The French retreated in disorder by the Charleroi road, 
 closely pursued by the Prussians, who came up with them at 
 Genappe, where they had made a stand, but were soon routed. 
 Genappe was taken, and with it Napoleon's carriage, hat, 
 sworcl, casket, and travelling library. The Prussians, gallop- 
 ing through the streets, cut down without mercy their now 
 unresisting enemies. The retreat of the French, thenceforth, 
 resembled in its tragic scenes the memorable flights from 
 Moscow and from Leipzig. The seemingly dauntless war- 
 riors who had so recendy assembled to contend with the con- 
 federated legions of Europe, were now nerveless fugitives, 
 shrinking at the very rumour of their pursuers' approacli : 
 though these constituted but an inconsiderable portion of the 
 countless multitudes whom Napoleon had ventured to oppose. 
 So firmly, indeed, had he relied upon success, that he had 
 appointed no rallying-place for his troops, in case of retreat. 
 They now, therefore, separated into straggling parties, almost 
 all of which gradually dispersing, left their emperor, com- 
 paratively speaking, without an army. Grouchy, to whose 
 non-arrival at Waterloo Bonaparte attributed the defeat of 
 the French, was preparing to march thither on the 19th, when 
 an aid-de-camp brought him news of the disas4;er of the pre- 
 ceding day. On the morning of the 20th, his rear-guard was 
 assailed by the enemy, but he repelled the charge, and his 
 troops, without further molestation, retreated to Namur. 
 
 The loss of the British and Hanoverians in the batde 
 of Waterloo is estimated at 10,678 killed, wounded, and 
 missing:* among whom were 1500 ofiicers: that of the 
 Prussians, 6,000 : that of the French incalculable. Ney stated, 
 in the Chamber of Peers, that Soult, who had been appointed 
 by Napoleon to rally the French troops, had not been able to 
 collect more than 40,000, including Grouchy's corps. 
 
 In England, the victory achieved at Waterloo excited much 
 exultation. Thanks and rewards, commensurate with their 
 
 *All the Duke of Wellington's aides-de-camp were either killed or wound- 
 ed, except Major Percy, who carried to London the news of the victory. 
 
LII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 417 
 
 services, were voted by the British Parliament to the English 
 troops, who had been engaged in this action. Thanks were 
 also voted to the allies of Great Britain in general, and to the 
 Prussians in particular, for the part they had taken in the war. 
 
 Napoleon reached Paris on the evening of the 20th of 
 June, while the Parisians were yet rejoicing for the victory 
 of Ligni, and the general success attendant upon the imperial 
 armies.; for Suchet had taken Montmelion, and driven the 
 Piedmontese from the passes of the Alps and Mount Cenis; 
 Dessaix, on the side of Jura, had repelled the enemy's ad- 
 vanced posts, taken Carrogne and all the defiles ; and the 
 Vendean chieftains, after various successes and reverses, had 
 sustained so signal a defeat, as obliged them to sue for peace. 
 Napoleon, on his arrival, convoked a council at the Tuileries 
 to devise measures for rescuing France from its present peril- 
 ous situation. He was recommended by Count Regenault 
 and his brother Lucien to assume the office of dictator, and 
 dissolve the Chambers; but this advice was disapproved of by 
 Fouche, and declined by the emperor. 
 
 In the mean time, the Chambers assembled. The deputies, 
 at the instigation of La Fayette, declared the independence 
 of the nation threatened, and the sitting of the Chamber per- 
 manent. In compliance widi a second invitation of the depu- 
 ties. Napoleon's ministers, Carnot, Caulaincourt, Fouche, and 
 Davoust, repaired to the Chamber, with Lucien, whom the 
 emperor had vested with the power of extraordinary commis- 
 sioner, and charged with the delivery of an imperial message. 
 A member observed, in reply, that there was but one man 
 between the country and peace, and that one man was the 
 emperor. An animated debate ensued ; the result of which 
 was, that Napoleon, finding he no longer possessed the confi- 
 dence of the nation, declared that his political life was at an 
 end, and that he had come to a resolution of " offering him- 
 self up a sacrifice to the enemies of France, and of abdicating 
 in favour of his son." 
 
 On the 23d, the deputies appointed a provisional govern- 
 ment of five persons, declared them responsible to the nation, 
 and proclaimed Napoleon II. Emperor of France. In a few 
 days after, however, a proclamation, signed by the five, an- 
 nounced that the decrees and judgments of courts and tribu- 
 nals, &c., should be provisionally intituled In the name of the 
 people. The new government chose for president the Duke 
 of Otranto, and appointed deputies to treat with the allied 
 powers, who left Paris for that purpose, on the evening of 
 
418 GENERAL HISTORY OJ EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 the 24th. Davoust, mmister of war, was ordered to prepare 
 for the defence of Paris, and great pains were taken to reor- 
 ganize the army. The English and Prussians were, how- 
 ever, rapidly marching upon the capital ; and the Austrians 
 and Russians, though not sharers in the victory of Waterloo, 
 were advancing towards the same destination. The English 
 and Prussians moved in a parallel line ; but the conduct of 
 the armies was very dissimilar ; that of the Prussians indi- 
 cated a desire of revengeful retaliation upon the former invaders 
 and devastators of Prussia : that of the English, a wish to 
 fulfil the duties of friendly alliance. The Duke of Welling- 
 ton, who had spent the whole of the 19th in solacing his 
 wounded soldiers, moved on the 20th to Binche, and there 
 issued orders to his army, to prevent their extorting contri- 
 butions from the French, (who, he reminded them, were their 
 allies,) or seizing any thing without payment during their stay 
 in France. Louis XVII. left Ghent on the 22d, and, on the 
 27th, entered Cambray, which the English had taken by 
 escalade, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants, who 
 drew him in triumph to the mansion-house. 
 
 In the mean time. Napoleon, who had been so recently the 
 object of similar acclamations, after having lingered for some 
 days at the palace Elysee, and made a fruidess request to be 
 permitted to head the French army in the capacity of general, 
 was invited by the provisional government, first to retire to 
 Malmaison, and, shordy after, to embark for the United States 
 of America. On the 25th, he applied for two frigates and a 
 brig to convey him and his suite to America; on their being 
 allowed him, he left Malmaison on the 29th for Rochefort. 
 
 The commissioners deputed to treat with the allied powers, 
 reached the Prussian head-quarters on the 25th ; they de- 
 manded a suspension of arms, which Blucher refused to 
 grant. Two Prussian officers accompanied them back to 
 Paris, but led them by so circuitous a route, as prevented their 
 reaching the capital before the 5th of July. The allied sove- 
 reigns arrived, on the 29th of June, under the walls of Paris. 
 To prevent their further progress, the citizens, guards, sol- 
 diers, in a word, all Paris seemed in arms. Soult and Grou- 
 chy, with their armies, were within the city; Vandamme 
 arrived on the 30th. The fortifications begun by Napoleon 
 had been completed. That the French were actuated to resist 
 the entry of the allies into Paris, as much by aversion to the 
 restoraUon of the Bourbons, as by anxiety to prevent the dis- 
 grace which would result from a second capture of their city, 
 
LIII.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPi;. 419 
 
 was obvious. An address from the army to the people depre- 
 cated the return of this dynasty, which, they said, had been 
 rejected by the great majority of the French nation; no po- 
 pular cry dissented from the address, and in neither of the 
 Chambers was the restoration even proposed. Two procla- 
 mations issued by the king, (June 25th and 28th,) in which 
 he promised oblivion of the past, yet vowed vengeance against 
 the instigators and supporters of the plot which had reseated 
 Napoleon on the throne of France, had excited the alarm and 
 indignation of the French people, and rendered the prospect 
 of his return one of interminable proscription. Paris was 
 now invested on all sides. A desperate conflict took place at 
 Versailles, and terminated in favour of the allies, who esta- 
 blished themselves on the heights of Meudon and in the valley 
 of Issy. At three o'clock on the morning of the 3d, the 
 French attacked the Prussians, but they were repulsed and 
 driven back to the city gate ; and the provisional government, 
 judging that their further resistance could only delay, but not 
 prevent the surrender of the city, demanded a suspension of 
 arms, preparatory to a capitulation : commissioners from both 
 parties met in the palace of St. Cloud to arrange the terms. 
 They concluded a convention, the chief stipulations of which 
 were, that there should be a suspension of arms under the 
 walls of Paris ; that the French army should retire behind 
 the Loire : that the suburbs and barriers of the capital should be, 
 within three days, given up to the allied troops, and that the duty 
 of the city should be still performed by the national guard. By 
 the inhabitants of Paris, the news of the city's having surren- 
 dered, as it saved them from pillage, was joyfully received : 
 by the army with feelings of anger and despair, and com- 
 plaints of treachery. In defiance of the orders given them, 
 they rushed on the allied columns, and many skirmishes dur- 
 ing the 4th indicated their dissatisfaction. They were, how- 
 ever, by the persuasion of their commanders, induced to 
 submit to the terms of the convention, and to retire behind 
 the Loire. The Chambers still continued to sit and to de- 
 liberate upon the constitution. They issued a proclamation 
 addressed to the French people, in which were specified tlie 
 principles which ought to characterize the future government 
 of France ; but what this government would be, or who was 
 to be at its head, was still a mystery. The allies had pro- 
 mised the French nation to allow them a free choice of govern- 
 ment ; yet Louis XVIIL was advancing to the capital, and in 
 many places the invading army had proclaimed him sovereign 
 
420 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [CHAP. 
 
 On the 6th, the general suspense was terminated, by the 
 Duke of Wellington's apprizing the Duke of Otranto (Fou- 
 che) that the allies had determined upon the restoration of 
 Louis. In the afternoon of that day, the capital was surren- 
 dered to the British army. The following morning, the 
 members of the provisional government, finding that foreign 
 troops occupied the Tuileries, and that their deliberations 
 could be no longer free, resigned their post. The peers, fol- 
 lowing their example, separated without hesitation. The 
 deputies, on the contrary, affirmed that the bayonet alone 
 should compel them to abandon the office assigned them by 
 the nation ; and they continued to debate till six o'clock on the 
 articles of the constitution ; but on the following morning, 
 when they repaired to the hall of the legislative body, they 
 found its gates closed and guarded by soldiers, who refused 
 them admission : after having protested against this proceed- 
 ing, they, too, separated. On the same day that the national 
 representation was thus dissolved, Louis XVIIL re-entered 
 Paris. No murmurs announced to him that his return had 
 been deprecated by his subjects ; the barriers were thrown 
 open to him ; seemingly general acclamations greeted his 
 entry, and the municipal bodies addressed him in terms as 
 flattering, as if the nation's happiness had hung upon his resto- 
 ration. 
 
 In the mean time, he who had been so lately hailed the 
 chosen sovereign of France, prepared to leave forever the 
 scene of his long and brilliant career. Napoleon reached 
 Rochefort, v/here he purposed to embark for America, on the 
 3d of July. He delayed making any attempt to sail for some 
 days, and thus allowed time to the British cruisers to block- 
 ade the port, and render his escape impracticable. After an 
 interval of irresolution, during which he alternately purposed 
 escaping in a small French vessel, and in two half-decked 
 boats he had purchased at Rochelle, he proposed, through 
 two of his suite, to surrender to Captain Maitland, of the Eng- 
 lish ship Bellerophon, on condition that his person and pro- 
 perty should be held sacred, and that he should be permitted 
 to retire to some spot of his own selection. The captain re- 
 plied, that he was not authorized to enter into terms with the 
 ex-emperor, but that he would undertake to convey him to 
 England, to be there received and treated as the prince-regent 
 might deem expedient. On the 15th, Bonaparte and his suite 
 embarked in the Bellerophon. News of this event was quickly 
 forwarded to England. In the frigate which bore it, sailed 
 
LIII.^ GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 421 
 
 also General Gonrg-aud, with a letter from Bonaparte to the 
 prince-regent, announcing that he had terminated his political 
 career, and had thrown himself on the hospitality of the 
 British people. 
 
 The English government, in conjunction with its allies, 
 fixed upon the island of St. Helena for the future residence 
 of the ex-emperor. The Northumberland, commanded by- 
 Rear-admiral Sir George Cockburne, was the vessel destined 
 to convey him thither ; and orders were issued by the prince- 
 regent to the admiral and to the Governor of St. Helena, to 
 allow their prisoner every indulgence compatible with his safe 
 detention. A hope, as strongly as it was vainly cherished, 
 that he would be permitted to reside in England, had almost 
 reconciled Napoleon to his reverse of fortune. His anger, 
 when apprized of the decision of the allied powers, was com- 
 mensurate with the strength of the expectation which it sup- 
 planted. He expostulated at much length, and entered a 
 MH'itten protest against the " cruelty and injustice" of which 
 he was the victim, and for some time refused to go on board 
 the Northumberland. He, however, at length complied, and 
 embarked on the 5th of August. Few of his friends beino- 
 permitted to accompany him, he selected Count and Countess 
 Bertrand and their family, Count and Countess Montholon, 
 Count Las Casas, General Gourgaud, Lieutenant-general the 
 Duke of Rovigo, Lieutenant-general Lallemaud, &:c. Main- 
 gauld, Bonaparte's surgeon, refusing to make the voyage, his 
 place was voluntarily supplied by O'Meara, surgeon of the 
 Bellerophon. The Northumberland reached its destination 
 on the 17th of October. 
 
 Joachim Murat, ex-King of Naples, had resided at Toulon 
 from the period of his resignation of sovereignty, till the 
 battle of Waterloo. The defeat and abdication of Napoleon 
 seeming to render his departure from France a necessary pre- 
 caution, he retired to the island of Corsica. But a resdess- 
 ness or thirst of power similar to that which led Napoleon 
 from Elba, impelled Joachim to descend upon Naples, (Octo- 
 ber 8,) in the hope of recovering that kingdom. Addressing, 
 himself to the Neapolitan peasantry, he announced himself 
 their sovereign, and claimed their allegiance ; but being soon 
 convinced of the hopelessness of his cause, he took refuge 
 in the mountains, where he and his partisans* were surrounded 
 and made prisoners ; Murat M'^as tried by a military commis- 
 sion, and shot on the 15th of October. Such was the tragi- 
 * Some adventurers who had accompanied him from Corsica. 
 38 
 
422 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP, 
 
 cal end of him who had been surnamed " the bravest of the 
 brave." 
 
 The tranquillity of Italy being re-established, the Pope, for 
 the fourth time, returned to his capital : Cardinal Consalvi, 
 whom he sent to Vienna, supported the interests of the Holy 
 See with so much prudence and ability, that the marches 
 of Ancona, with Camerino and their dependencies ; Bene- 
 vento and Ponte Corvo, with the three legations of Bologna, 
 F^^ara, and Romagna, were restored ; the right of prece- 
 dence before all the ambassadors of temporal princes, even 
 those separated from its communion, was confirmed to its 
 nuncios, and the Pope, after so many tribulations, had the 
 consolation to see his states in a more secure and flourishing 
 position than they had ever been, since the days of Charle- 
 magne. 
 
 The beginning of Louis XVIII. 's second restoration is 
 memorable for the publication of a series of proscriptive ordi- 
 nances. One, dated July 13th, dissolved the Chamber of 
 Deputies and called a new one, to sit on the 14th of August, 
 with an increase of 133 members. That of the 24th of July, 
 pronounced that the peers who had accepted seats, or who 
 had retained them in the Chamber of Peers during the late 
 interregnum, had forfeited their right to the peerage of France. 
 Another, of the same date, prescribed that the generals and 
 officers who, before the 21st of March, had betrayed Louis, 
 or taken up arms against the French government, or obtained 
 power by violence, should be arrested and carried before the 
 councils of war in their respective divisions. By this ordi- 
 nance, several individuals were required to retire from Paris 
 within three days after its publication, and to remain in such 
 places as the minister of police might assign for their resi- 
 dence, till the alternative of their removal from France, or 
 their trial before the tribunals, should be decided by the Cham- 
 bers. A commission of censorship was appointed to take 
 cognisance of all periodical writings. Louis further ordered 
 that the army, which had passed over to Napoleon, should be 
 disbanded, and that a new military force should be organized ; 
 the command of the army of the Loire was given to Macdo- 
 nald, in place of Davoust. The Duke of Richelieu was ap- 
 pointed minister of foreign affairs, and the Duke of Feltre, 
 (General Clarke,) of war. Fouche and Talleyrand resigned. 
 
 The first victim of the proscription ordinances was Colonel 
 Labedoyere. He was tried before a military tribunal, pro- 
 nounced guilty of treason and rebellion, and sentenced to be 
 
Llir.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 423 
 
 degraded from his military rank, and to lose his life. The 
 sentence was contirmed by the council of revision ; and the 
 entreaties of Madame Labedoyere, who implored the exertion 
 of the royal clemency in his behalf, proving fruitless, he was 
 executed on the plain of Grenelle. He heard his sentence 
 read with calmness, and suffered with fortitude. 
 
 The trial of Marshal Ney was of three days' continuance, 
 and terminated in his condemnation to receive the fire of 
 sixty muskets, of which twelve took effect, and he died with- 
 out a struggle. General Count Lavalette, director of the 
 posts at the period of Bonaparte's return to France, was the 
 next person of note arraigned ; and he, too, was condemned 
 to execution, but was saved by the ingenuity of his wife. 
 Madame Lavalette, having in vain solicited the king's pardon 
 for her husband, repaired to his prison, weeping, as she went, 
 over the seeming hopelessness of his fate, and there habited 
 herself in his clothes, giving him hers. Thus disguised, he 
 passed out, not without some suspicion of connivance on 
 the part of his keepers, and she personated him till his recap- 
 ture became impossible. His escape from Paris was effected 
 by three Englishmen ; Sir Robert Wilson, Mr. Bruce, and 
 Capt. Hutchinson, who were arrested and sentenced to three 
 months' imprisonment. 
 
 The revival of all the English war-taxes was a necessary 
 consequence of the return of Napoleon, and the fixed deter- 
 mination of the allies to oppose his enterprise. The com- 
 mittee, to which the corn laws had been submitted during 
 the last session, had recommended that corn, meal, and 
 flour should be freely exported at all times ; but imported 
 and taken out of the warehouses for home consumption, only 
 when the average price of wheat was SOs. per quarter. The 
 bill which sanctioned the adoption of these measures, excited 
 much public dissatisfaction, and various riotous acts, during 
 its discussion, were the result of its unpopularity ; it, how- 
 ever, passed both Houses, and received the royal assent. 
 
 A revolution was effected this year (1815) in Ceylon, which 
 rendered the whole of that important island dependent on the 
 British crown. The tyranny and cruelties exercised by the 
 King of Candy, had rendered him so obnoxious to his sub- 
 jects, that at length Lieutenant-general Brownrigg resolved 
 to assist them, early in the year, in throwing off the yoke ; 
 the British troops advanced into the interior, where they were 
 joined by all the adegars or nobles ; and finding Candy, the 
 capital, deserted, entered it on the 11th of February. The 
 
424 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [cHAP. 
 
 king, with a small number of his adherents, had taken to flight; 
 but, a few days after, was surrounded and made prisoner by 
 his subjects, who testified the utmost detestation of the tyrant. 
 A solemn conference was held between the British governor 
 and the Candian chiefs ; and the king, being judged unworthy 
 of the crown, was deposed, and a treaty concluded, by which 
 the whole island submitted to the British government. The 
 king was kept a state-prisoner in his own palace for the re- 
 mainder of his life. The religion of the inhabitants was pre- 
 served to them by the treaty, as well as the authority enjoyed 
 by their chiefs. 
 
 Various arrangements, too voluminous to be more than 
 cursorily noted here, were the result of Napoleon's downfall. 
 By a general treaty, signed on the 9th of June, in congress, 
 at Vienna, the additional title of King of Poland was given 
 to the Emperor Alexander ; the duchy of Warsaw, except a 
 few of its provinces, was united to Russia ; and, to reconcile 
 the Poles to this union, representative constitutions were pro- 
 mised to the Polish subjects of Russia and Austria; Cracow 
 was declared a free, independent, and neutral city, under the 
 protection of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, and a complete 
 amnesty was granted to all individuals for participation in 
 past political, civil, or military events in Poland ; large ces- 
 sions of territory were made to Prussia by Austria, Saxony, 
 and Hanover ; the Tyrol and the northern part of Italy were 
 given to Austria ; the territory of Geneva and the principality 
 of Neufchatel were united to Switzerland ; the King of Great 
 Britain was confirmed as King of Hanover, and the Prince 
 of Orange, King of the Netherlands; to the Arch-Duke Fer- 
 dinand of Austria was restored the grand-duchy of Tuscany 
 and its dependencies ; the duchy of Lucca was given to the 
 Infanta of Spain, Maria Louisa (formerly Duchess of Parma, 
 and afterwards Queen of Etruria) and her descendants in the 
 male line ; and French Guinea was restored by Portugal to 
 France. Various other provisions were made by this treaty. 
 Upon the second restoration of Louis XVIII., a new treaty 
 was signed between the allies and France, by which the 
 limits allotted to her in 1814, were lessened, and the bounda- 
 ries of the kingdom reduced nearly to what they were in 
 1790. She was to retain Avignon, the Comte Venaissin, 
 and Mount Belliard. France, too, was compelled to restore 
 tx) the original proprietors, those masterpieces of art, of 
 which she had stripped foreign nations to adorn the Louvre. 
 She also engaged to pay to the allied powers an indemnity 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 425 
 
 of 700,000,000 francs, and to allow 150,000 of the allied 
 troops, commanded by a general appointed by the allied sove- 
 reigns, to occupy seventeen of her frontier towns for five 
 years. By a supplementary article, the coalesced parties 
 bound themselves to concert, without loss of time, the most 
 effectual means for the universal abolition of the African slave- 
 trade. The treaty was signed on the 20th of November. A 
 military convention, subsequently concluded, stipulated that 
 part of the sum to be paid by France, should be expended 
 in erecting fortresses on the frontiers of the states adjoining 
 that kingdom, and that the remainder of the sum should be 
 divided between England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria.* 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 FROM THE TREATY OF PEACE, IN 1815, TO THE ACCESSION 
 OF THE PRESENT SOVEREIGNS OF THE PRINCIPAL KING- 
 DOMS OF EUROPE. 
 
 A CONTINUATION of the history of Europe up to the present 
 year, would swell this work to a size far exceeding our 
 limits ; it will be better executed by the future historian, who, 
 placed at a greater distance from men and their actions, can 
 form a more impartial estimate of both ; but a rapid sketch of 
 the principal events which have occurred since the peace of 
 1815, will, it is believed, prove a useful addition to the pre- 
 sent volume. 
 
 1816. — The brilliant anticipations held out to the nation, 
 by the speech from the throne on the opening of the British 
 Parliament this year, exhibited a striking contrast with the 
 domestic condition of the people. Great Britain had fought 
 for the general interests of Europe, till she had reached the 
 summit of national glory; but she retired from the contest load- 
 ed with an enormous debt ; her foreign trade diminished, and 
 her agricultural interests proportionally depressed. Discon- • 
 
 * Increase of the national debt to the beginning of the year 1816. 
 
 DEBT. INTEREST. 
 
 1793 £233,733,609 £8,176,336. 
 
 1803 £601,411,080 £20,735,966 
 
 1816. £1,112,417,432 £42,149,850 
 
 Revenue, 1815 £75,324,084. 
 
 Expenditure 126,489,946. 
 
 38* 
 
426 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 tent generally prevailed, and public meetings were held, in 
 .which parliamentary reform began to be discussed. On the 
 28th of the following January, the glass of the prince- 
 ^regent's carriage was broken by a stone, or ball from an air 
 gun, as he was returning from opening the session of Parlia- 
 ment. Several acts of outrage and tumult occurred in different 
 places, and particularly in the northern and midland counties, 
 in w^hich the existence of a traitorous conspiracy was affirmed, 
 in the report of the committee appointed to examine into this 
 affair. The Habeas Corpus act was suspended, after consi- 
 derable opposition ; and several severe laws, relative to 
 tumultuous meetings and secret societies, were enacted. 
 These did not prevent the party, now first called " Radical 
 Reformers," from spreading rapidly among the lower orders; 
 at Birmingham they chose Sir Charles Wolseley for their 
 delegate, but he was soon after taken into custody. In spite 
 of a royal proclamation against numerous meetings, the 
 reformers assembled at St. Peter's field in Manchester, Au- 
 gust 16th, 1819, avowedly for the legal purpose of petitioning 
 for a reform in Parliament. Their numbers are variously 
 estimated, from 40,000 to 60,000 ; Mr. Hunt, a favourite 
 orator, was haranguing the multitude, when the appearance of 
 the Manchester yeomanry interrupted the proceedings. 
 Much confusion ensued ; a few persons were killed, and 
 about 400 are said to have been wounded by the sabres of the 
 military, or otherwise hurt. Mr. Hunt and some others were 
 arrested, and the magistrates received the thanks of the 
 government for the efficient means they had adopted to pre- 
 serve the public tranquillity. 
 
 During the first year of general peace, the British navy was 
 called upon to exert its valour, in a cause equally dear to 
 humanity and religion. The ferocious outrages of which 
 the piratical states of Barbary had been guilty, had long been 
 a disgrace to the southern nations of Europe. Great Britain 
 undertook to efface the stain, and procure the abolition of 
 Christian slavery. Tripoli and Tunis agreed to discontinue 
 it in their states ; but the Dey of Algiers not only refused his 
 assent to this treaty, but imprisoned the English consul ; 
 while about the same time some coral fishers, acting under 
 the supposed security of the British flag, were cruelly massa- 
 cred at Bona. Lord Exmouth was, therefore, sent out with a 
 fleet, to chastise these unprincipled barbarians. Being joined 
 at Gibraltar by a Dutch fleet, the united armament reached 
 the bay of Algiers, August 27th, 1816. A flag of truce was 
 
 1 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 427 
 
 immediately despatched, with the demands of the prince- 
 regent; but no answer being returned, a tremendous fire, 
 which continued without intermission for six hours, and, 
 partially, for two hours longer, was opened on the fort. The 
 batteries, though very strong, and gallantly defended, were 
 destroyed ; nearly all the Algerine navy, the arsenal and mi- 
 litary stores, were consumed by fire, and several thousands of 
 their men killed or wounded. On the day following, the dey 
 was obliged to accept the terms of peace imposed by the con- 
 queror. These were, the perpetual abolition of Christian 
 slavery, and the immediate delivery of all slaves detained in 
 bondage, with the sums which had been paid for their ransom, 
 since the beginning of the year : pardon was also to be asked 
 by the dey of the British consul, in the presence of his offi- 
 cers. The captives thus rescued were conveyed to their own 
 countries, and the sums recovered were transmitted, untouch- 
 ed by the captors, to the courts of Naples and Sardinia. The 
 conditions of this treaty were not observed ; the dey, not long 
 after, fell a sacrifice to the resentment of his soldiers, and Al- 
 giers recommenced her former piracies. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Exchequer had been obliged, by the 
 vote of a majority against its continuance, to relinquish the 
 property-tax in the session of 1810, and he soon after surprised 
 the House, by voluntarily surrendering the war-tax on malt. 
 The marriage of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, with his 
 serene highness, Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, took place 
 on the 2d of May. Parliament granted them £60,000 by way 
 of outfit, and the same sum was settled on them for their joint 
 lives, with this proviso, that if her royal highness should die 
 first, dG50,000 should be continued to the prince. The royal 
 pair had enjoyed their domestic felicity but eighteen months 
 in the agreeable retreat of Claremont Lodge, and an heir to 
 the British crown was anxiously looked for, when the prema- 
 ture death of the princess, after giving birth to a still-born male 
 child, November 5th, 1817, occasioned general disappointment 
 and regret. The Princess Mary had, in the preceding year, 
 been united to the Duke of Gloucester, nephew to the king. 
 In 1818, the Duke of Clarence married the Princess Adelaide 
 of Saxe Meiningen ; the Duke of Cambridge, the Princess 
 Augusta of Hesse-Cassel ; and the Duke of Kent was soon 
 after united to the Dowager-princess Leiningen, Victoria of 
 Saxe Coburg, sister to Prince Leopold. To each of these 
 royal dukes, as also to the Duke of Cumberland, married in 
 1815, Parliament granted for life an additional income of 
 
428 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 dE6,000 per annum ; to be continued as a jointure to each of 
 their respective duchesses. 
 
 From these domestic concerns, we return to some occur- 
 rences of a more general nature. Soon after the peace of Paris, 
 the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, dreading the 
 progress of revohitionary principles in their dominions, entered 
 into a treaty, which they called the Holy Jilliance. Lord 
 Castlereagh, in the House of Commons, admitted, that the 
 prince-regent having been urged, by a joint letter of the three 
 sovereigns, to accede to it, had, in reply, expressed his ap- 
 probation of the nature of the treaty, and had given an assur- 
 ance, that the British government was disposed to act upon its 
 principles. These were soon understood to be, the mainte- 
 nance of the authority of the allied sovereigns against the 
 revolutionary movements, which they apprehended in their 
 own states. 
 
 In Spain, a conspiracy, having for its object the establish- 
 ment of a free constitution, was speedily suppressed, and its 
 authors executed : but the party remaining dissatisfied, were 
 not long before they organized a fresh insurrection. Ferdi- 
 nand VII., on returning to his dominions, had resumed his 
 authority as absolute king ; he had refused to acknowledge the 
 legality of many of the acts of the Cortes, enacted during his 
 captivity ; in particular, of the foreign loans they had con- 
 tracted ; and hence the enmity to his government, excited by 
 strangers, whose interest it was to overturn it. He applied 
 himself to remedy the disorders of his kingdom, to encourage 
 trade and manufactures ; but found himself involved in a war 
 with the colonies in South America, which for many years 
 drained Spain of men and money, without being productive 
 of any result advantageous to the mother-country. Chili pro- 
 claimed its independence, March 3d, 1818; Mexico followed 
 the example : Columbia, freed by the victory of Bolivar, 
 styled the Liberado7\ at Carabobo, asserted its independence 
 in 1821, and Peru dates its freedom from the same year. 
 Spain at last silently relinquished the struggle, and abandoned 
 the provinces to a state of anarchy, in which they long re- 
 mained. England acknowledged the independence of the 
 different republics in 1824, appointed consuls to reside in their 
 ports, and assisted them with loans, the interest of which was 
 never regularly paid, and soon ceased altogether, to the ruin 
 of numberless individuals in this country. 
 
 In the parliamentary session of the year 1817, Mr. Grattan 
 again brought forward his motion on the claims of the Irish 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 429 
 
 Catholics, which was defeated by a majority of only twenty- 
 four. A treaty for the abolition of the slave-trade was con- 
 cluded with Spain the following year. In consideration of the 
 sum of £400,000 received from Britain, Spain agreed to relin- 
 quish that nefarious traflic on all the coasts to the north of the 
 equator. By subsequent treaties with other European states, 
 England endeavoured to effect the total abolition of this trade 
 among Christian nations, and finally emancipated the negro 
 population in her own colonies, at the sacrifice of a loan of 
 £20,000,000 sterling, paid to the proprietors. The Pope, in 
 the year 1818,* concluded concordats with the courts of Turin 
 and Naples, and, in the following year, with Russia for 
 Poland ; and, at length, after many obstacles, which the difR- 
 culty of the case presented, with Louis XVIII. for France. 
 In the preceding year, a concordat had been signed at Rome 
 by the ministers of their respective courts, the Comte de 
 Blacas and Cardinal Consalvi, by which that of 1801, as like- 
 wise the Lois organiques^ which had been, without the 
 knowledge of his Holiness, added to it, were abrogated, as far 
 as they might be contrary to the doctrine and laws of the church. 
 The other articles, respecting the archiepiscopal and episcopal 
 sees, were now in part modified ; most of the present incum- 
 bents were retained, but the limits of the sees were newly 
 defined, and the number of them raised from fifty to eighty. 
 Some partial insurrections arose, and were at different times 
 repressed, by the government of Louis XVIII. That which 
 broke out at Grenoble in 1816, and is called the "Didier Con- 
 spiracy," from the individual who ostensibly headed it, was 
 widely extended ; but being discovered by the premature 
 movements of some of the conspirators, was arrested by the 
 vigour of Col. Donnadieu, commander of the military station- 
 ed in that city, and the chiefs, with many others, paid the for- 
 feit of their lives. The object of the intended insurrection 
 appears to have been little understood at the time, and is still 
 a subject of doubt and suspicion. 
 
 At the congress held at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the autumn of 
 this year, the plenipotentiaries of Austria, Russia, England, 
 
 * As a means of evading the claims of the papal government, relative to 
 the investiture and tribute, the king, by the advice of his ministry, changed 
 his title of Ferdinand IV. of Naples, for that of Ferdinand I., King of the 
 two Sicilies, publishing, at the same time, a formal protest against any 
 rights possessed within the territory of Naples by the Sovereign Pontiff, 
 except those exercised by him as head of the church over all the Catholic 
 world. 
 
430 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [^ADD. 
 
 and Prussia, came to the resolution of withdrawing their troops 
 from all the fortresses they had occupied in the French terri- 
 tory, and signified their determination in a letter addressed to 
 the Duke de Richelieu, minister of foreign affairs to Lewis 
 XVIII. This declaration was received with lively joy by the 
 French nation. The king not only paid the instalments due 
 to the allied sovereigns for the expenses incurred by them 
 during the war, but also placed .£1,000,000 in the hands of 
 the prince-regent, to indemnify those among his subjects, 
 whose property in France had been sequestrated in the year 
 1793. The very short time which had been allowed for the 
 presentation of claims, prevented many of the creditors from 
 being able to substantiate them satisfactorily. In 1826, there 
 remained a balance of £.500,000, and the lords of the treasury 
 directed another examination to be made ; but no publicity 
 having been given to their instructions, few were able to avail 
 themselves of the indulgence. The residue, about £300,000, 
 Avas paid over to the commissioners of woods and forests ; 
 through the interference of Parliament it was, however, repaid, 
 but the money appropriated to the liquidation of the debts of 
 another class of claimants, who were not entitled to it; and, 
 with the exception of six or seven cases, the original creditors, 
 owing merely to a technical objection, viz: the neglect of 
 former presentation, have been refused their due. It is under- 
 stood that there still remains a surplus of from £50,000 to 
 £100,000; but the commission is closed. Among otiier 
 sufferers, the loss of the Catholic clergy, who possessed a 
 college at Douay, was very considerable, as it formed the only 
 fund for the education and maintenance of the English mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 Queen Charlotte died November 5th, 1818, in the 75th year 
 of her age. The custody of the king's person was then in- 
 trusted to the Duke of York, and £10,000 voted to him by 
 Parliament on that occasion. In the following month, the ex- 
 Queen of Spain, Maria Louisa, paid the debt of nature at 
 Rome ; and so poignant was the affliction of Charles IV. at 
 her loss, that he survived her only fourteen days : about the 
 same time died Isabella of Portugal, wife to Ferdinand VII., 
 leaving no issue. The king soon after married for his third 
 wife a princess of the house of Saxony. The death of Charles 
 XIII. of Sweden, in 1819, made room for the accession of a 
 new dynasty, in the person of the Crown-prince Bernadotte, 
 who ascended the throne without opposition, under the tide 
 of Charles John XIV. 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 431 
 
 The year 1820 is remarkable for the several revolutionary 
 attempts which disturbed the southern kingdoms of Europe. 
 Sicily first set the example, whence the spirit of insurrection 
 soon spread to Naples. Ferdinand I. yielded to the wishes 
 of his subjects, and promised them a free constitution, (in July ;) 
 but Austria having quelled a similar spirit in her Italian pos- 
 sessions, and concerted measures with the Emperor of Russia 
 and King of Prussia, at Troppau, soon determined to under- 
 take offensive operations against the Neapolitans. The Em- 
 peror Francis proposed to meet the King of Naples at Laybach, 
 and agree upon a plan for governing their respective states. 
 Ferdinand left the prince-royal to command in his absence, and 
 attended the congress at the time appointed. Entering there 
 into the views of his imperial majesty, he permitted the 
 entrance of the Austrian troops into his dominions. An army 
 of 77,000 men was concentrated between the Adige and the 
 Mincio, and demanded permission to occupy Rome. This 
 request was refused ; but, without entering the city, the army 
 passed through the Ecclesiastical States ; attacked the Neapo- 
 litan army, commanded by General Pepe, in the valley of 
 Riete ; forced it to a speedy retreat ; and, advancing upon 
 Naples, re-established Ferdinand I. in his former authority. 
 (1821.) Benevento and Ponte Corvo, the restitution of which 
 the Pope had in vain demanded on his return to his dominions, 
 were now restored to him ; and his Holiness, at the instance 
 of Austria, published a bull against the Carbonari, a secret 
 society formed in 1812, from which all these revolutionary 
 movements emanated. 
 
 Meantime, another column of the Austrian army appeased 
 an insurrection in Piedmont. Victor Emanuel of Savoy, un- 
 willing to yield to the demands of his subjects, had resigned 
 his crown to his brother, Charles-Felix, whose authority, un- 
 der the protection of the allied powers then assembled in con- 
 gress at Laybach, was maintained; the Milanese insurgents 
 were immured in the state-prisons of Austria, where many 
 of them remained during all the rest of the reign of Francis 
 II., and peace was finally restored in all the Peninsula. The 
 Emperors of Austria and Russia bound themselves by a fresh 
 treaty, to oppose every change of government effected in fo- 
 reign countries by the military ; but the court of the Tuileries, 
 dissatisfied with the conferences at Laybach, recalled its mi- 
 nister, the Counte de Blacas, to Paris. 
 
 Spain, in the mean while, was engaged in a similar struggle 
 with as little success: in most places the constitution was 
 
432 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 proclaimed without bloodshed, (January 1st, 1820;) but at 
 Cadiz, a horrible massacre took place, Ijy the military, who, 
 under the command (but it is believed Avithout the participa- 
 tion) of General Freyre, fired upon the unarmed inhabitants, 
 when assembled to the number of about 50,000, to witness 
 the ceremony of laying down the first stone of the consti- 
 tutional column, by the civil authorities. The inquisition 
 was abolished ; and many convents of religious suppressed. 
 The king took the oath required by the constitution ; the 
 royalist General Elio was executed ; still the party opposed 
 to the new order of things continued in arms, and a neigh- 
 bouring power, who viewed these revolutionary proceedings 
 with anxiety, was preparing a force to deliver Ferdinand from 
 the thraldom in which he was supposed to be held, and rein- 
 state him in his former authority. The Duke of Angouleme, 
 as yet unknown to arms, but having under him several able 
 generals, entered Spain, at the head of 70,000 men. It soon 
 appeared, that the constitution was not popular with the bulk 
 of the nation; no battles were fought to maintain it; the 
 duke traversed the whole of Spain without opposition ; Ma- 
 drid, Seville, &c., opened their gates on the approach of the 
 French; Morillo and other Spanish officers were induced to 
 abandon the patriotic cause; these, after reducing Corunna, 
 obliged General Ballasteros to submit; Riego was taken pri- 
 soner, and Mina driven into exile. The Isle of Leon, whi- 
 ther the king and the deputies of the Cortes had retired, alone 
 offered some opposition to the march of the French ; and the 
 storming of the fort Trocadero, an outwork of Cadiz, was 
 the only military exploit that marked the route of the duke. 
 Having restored the king to liberty, and re-established his 
 absolute power, he demanded from Ferdinand an amnesty for 
 past political offences. The promise was made, but not kept. 
 Riego was put to death, and many, as well on account of this, 
 as of the last insurrection, imprisoned. 
 
 Portugal had been emulating the revolutionary steps of 
 Naples and Spain, but met with less opposition on the part 
 of her well-meaning, mild sovereign, John VI. This prince, 
 having lost his mother, the late Queen Maria Francis Isabella, 
 in Brazil, (May 10, 1816,) had returned with his family to 
 Portugal, in 1821, and confirmed the usurpations made on his 
 authority in that kingdom during his absence. The ultra- 
 royalists were, however, dissatisfied M'ith the change ; and 
 the loss of Brazil, in the following year, increased their dis- 
 content. This country had been raised to the dignity of % 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 433 
 
 kingdom, by John VI. in 1815; and, determined no longer 
 to remain a province dependent on Portugal, the Brazilians 
 made a tender of their crown to Pedro, Prince of Brazil, 
 whom his father had left to govern them as viceroy. With- 
 out the king's permission, he accepted the offer, and as- 
 sumed the tide of Emperor of Brazil. (1822.) He afterwards 
 made his submission to his father, and, through the mediation 
 of Sir Charles Stuart, the British ambassador, was reinstated 
 by him in his former authority. The Portuguese constitution 
 was but a servile imitation of that of Spain ; and after the abro- 
 gation of the latter. King John quietly regained his authority. 
 
 A tragical event which occurred to an illustrious individual 
 in France, in the beginning of the year 1820, excited perliaps 
 a deeper interest than these revolutionary changes, which af- 
 fected the lives and fortunes of thousands. Louis XVIII. 
 had married, in 1818, his nephew, the Duke of Berry, young- 
 est son of Monsieur, to Caroline, eldest daughter of the 
 hereditary Prince of Naples. On the 10th of February, the 
 duke was conducting his young duchess from the Opera-house 
 to her carriage, when he was pierced to the heart by the two- 
 edged poignard of an assassin, named Louvel. Being con- 
 veyed to an adjoining saloon, to the great surprise of the 
 medical men in attendance, he survived above six hours, dur- 
 ing which he received the last rites of the church, forgave 
 his murderer, and, with his dying breath, entreated the king 
 to confirm his pardon, a request it was not thought proper to 
 grant. Louvel afterwards suffered the just punishment of his 
 crime. The duke left one daughter. Mademoiselle ; and his 
 afflicted widow, on the 29th of the following September, gave 
 birth to a son, named Henry Dieu-donne, Duke of Bordeaux. 
 Suspicions having on this occasion assailed the character of 
 the minister M. Decases, he resigned, and was succeeded by 
 the Duke de Richelieu, and some efforts were made to repress 
 the democratical party. But the royalists were dissatisfied, 
 and thought that the conduct of the Stuarts in England was 
 too closely imitated by the actual Sovereign of France. 
 
 This same year, (1820,) in England, January 23d, died the 
 Duke of Kent, fourth son of George HI., and father to her 
 present majesty, who was born the 24th of the preceding 
 May. Scarcely had the grave closed over his remains, than 
 the demise of the king was announced ; it occurred on the 
 29th of January, almost without suffering; his majesty hav- 
 ing attained the eighty-second year of his age, and the ' 
 tieth of his reign. However differently the political char 
 
 39 
 
434 GENERAL HISTORY OF EITROPE. PADD. 
 
 of this monarch may be viewed by opposite parties, all must 
 respect his private and domestic virtues; the simplicity of his 
 habits, and iirmness in what he believed to be his duty. The 
 Catholics will remember with gratitude that he first relaxed 
 the barbarous penal code with which they were oppressed, 
 and allowed them a participation in some few of the rights 
 enjoyed by other British subjects.* 
 
 On the accession of George IV., the Princess of AVales, 
 now become queen, returned to England. After the augmen- 
 tation of her income, granted by Parliament, in 1812, she, 
 with the prince-regent's permission, travelled into Greece ; 
 then visited Tripoli, Tunis, afterwards resided near Como, 
 and, on being obliged to leave her villa in that beautiful spot, 
 resided some time in Milan. The conduct of the princess, 
 watched by spies among her own domestics, was made the 
 subject of grave accusations against her, on her return to 
 England, whither she had hastened to claim her rights as 
 queen-consort; a trial in the House of Peers, at which she 
 was usually present, ensued, by the king's command ; the 
 minister, Lord Liverpool, brought in a bill of "pains and 
 penalties," which, when it had passed the third reading, lie 
 withdrew, the majority for it being only nine, and the pub- 
 lic voice decidedly adverse to its taking the form of law. In 
 fact, the queen's cause was made a party-question; addresses 
 poured in to her from all quarters, and her name became a 
 tool in the hands of the disaffected, to increase the unpopu- 
 larity of the government. But though the obnoxious bill was 
 withdrawn, the privileges of her station were denied her ; 
 and in the following year, when his majesty's coronation was 
 performed, with great splendour, (July 19th,) at Westminster, 
 Queen Caroline was not only denied any participation in the 
 ceremony, but repulsed from the door when she sought to 
 obtain an entrance into the abbey. A short illness, probably 
 induced by mental anguish, terminated her life, on the 7th of 
 the following month. She directed that her remains should 
 be conveyed to Brunswick, and the following words inscribed 
 on her tomb : " Here lies Caroline, the injured Queen of 
 England." George IV. was on his road to Ireland when the 
 news of her death reached him ; his arrival in that kingdom 
 
 * Ireland, this year, lost her talented and indefatigable defender, the 
 Right Honourable Henry Graltan, whose services in behalf of the Catho- 
 lics will cause his name to be ever gratefully recalled by all British sub- 
 jects, of that religion. He died in England, and his remains were depo- 
 sited in "V^'estminster Abbey. 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 435 
 
 was hailed with the most lively enthusiasm, as he was the 
 first sovereign of his race who had visited the sister isle. 
 The Hberality of those whom he had honoured with his 
 friendship, while Prince of Wales, made the Catholics believe 
 him inclined to favour their claims : they were mistaken, as 
 subsequent events showed; but nothing then occurred on the 
 part of the king, to mar their hopes and damp the general 
 festivity. A dreadful famine desolated Ireland soon after, and 
 a change in the currency, effected by a bill brought in by Sir 
 Robert Peel, (1821,) occasioned a great depression in prices 
 and consequent distress in England. The difficulties which 
 embarrassed the commercial world, owing to the numerous 
 failures that took place in the years 1825 and 1826, made 
 Parliament endeavour to establish the banking system on a 
 more solid foundation; and, with this view, it passed a bill for 
 the gradual withdrawing of small notes from circulation. 
 
 A plot was at this time discovered, in which Thistlewood 
 and several other notorious characters were engaged, having 
 for its object the assassination of his majesty's ministers. 
 The informant, one Edwards, is supposed to have urged the 
 conspirators to commit some treasonable act, which might 
 lead to their apprehension, as the peace of the city had 
 of late been often endangered by numerous meetings in 
 Spitalfields : be that as it may, nine of them were seized in 
 an upper room in Cato street, after a desperate resistance, in 
 which Smith, the police-officer who first entered, was 
 slain ; five of the number were afterwards executed for high 
 treason. 
 
 The king, after his return from Ireland, visited his Hano- 
 verian dominions, travelling through France under the title 
 of Count Munster. To Hanover he gave a more popular 
 form of government, and placed his Catholic subjects on a 
 level with their Protestant brethren. In the following year. 
 (18.32,) his majesty, after the parliamentary session, went to 
 Scotland.* The festivities which took place in Edinburgh 
 during his visit, were interrupted by the melancholy news of 
 the suicide committed by the Marquis of Londonderry ; ex- 
 cessive fatigue, during the preceding session, was supposed 
 to have occasioned an aberration of mind. After a short in- 
 
 * The first baronet made by George IV. was the celebrated Scotch 
 poet, Walter Scott. (1821.) In 1824, the forfeited titles of Marr, Ken 
 mure, Perth, and Nairn were restored by the king to their respective claim- 
 ants, and, four years later, the attainder on the barony of Lovat was re- 
 versed. 
 
436 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 terval, Mr. Canning was named secretary for foreign affairs, 
 just as he was on the point of setting out for the government 
 of India, to whicii Lord Amherst was appointed in his stead. 
 The Duke of WeUington had been sent to supply Lord Lon- 
 donderry's place at the congress of Verona, wheie the affairs 
 relative to Spain were discussed ; and in the same year, com- 
 missioners appointed by the two powers met at Ghent and 
 fixed the boundary line between Canada and the United 
 States. 
 
 Previous to the last occurrences we have thus cursorily 
 related, happened an event which, a few years before, would 
 have arrested the attention of all Europe — the death of Bona- 
 parte. We have not noticed the illustrious exile since we 
 left him on board a British man-of-war, under the command 
 of Admiral Sir George Cockburne, to whom the government 
 of St. Helena, and of the squadron, was confided, till the 
 arrival of the new governor. Sir Hudson Lowe. With Na- 
 poleon were conveyed commissaries from the allied pou-ers, 
 Austria, Russia, and France ; Count Montholon, General 
 Bertrand and his lady, with a few others, composed the suite 
 of the ex-emperor. English ships, stationed near the island, 
 guarded the access to it, though it is a kind of natural prison, 
 and, as viewed from the sea, looks like a square bastion of 
 solid rock. Napoleon landed on the 18th October, 1815, under 
 a salute from the batteries, and at the moment of debarkation, 
 the drums beat, and the troops presented arms. Till his 
 house at Longwood could be completed, he resided, by his 
 own request, in a small but pleasant villa, belonging to Mr. 
 Balcomb, called the Briars. At the end of two months, he 
 removed to the dwelling which had been prepared for him, in 
 a situation neither agreeable nor healthy. Beyond the inclo- 
 sure of Longwood, a strict watch was observed over him, to 
 prevent the possibility of escape ; at first, the liberty of riding 
 over the island, which is nearly thirty miles in circumference, 
 was granted to him ; but as it was required that he should be 
 accompanied by an English officer. Napoleon would never 
 submit to this condition, and retrenched his usual exercise. 
 Sentinels were posted at short intervals ; they demanded the 
 pass of every stranger who was permitted to land, and, on 
 arriving at the gate of the avenue which leads to Longwood 
 house, it was presented to the lieutenant on guard, who sum- 
 moned the officer in attendance on Napoleon, to show him 
 through the grounds. " Gardening," writes a traveller from 
 the information he collected on the island, " is the occupation 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 437 
 
 in which he appears to take peculiar delight. A square patch 
 of ground of about an acre in extent, enclosed with a mud wall, 
 is the principal theatre of his labours. Through this plot runs a 
 straight gravel walk ; at one end of which is fixed in the ground 
 a rustic wooden chair, painted green, and before it a stone 
 table ; at this he frequently dines alone upon the plainest food, 
 withdrawing afterwards to a bower at the other extremity, to 
 take his coffee. He keeps aloof from all but his own suite ; 
 and one-half of the garrison have never seen him."* Bona- 
 parte complained heavily of the subsequent reduction in his 
 salary ; but appeared sensible of the attention of the prince- 
 regent, in ordering a house to be so constructed for him in 
 England, that it might be taken in pieces for the voyage, and 
 put together again on its arrival. He, however, was not 
 benefited by the intended kindness : it was finished only a 
 short time after his death. Of Sir George Cockburne, he 
 spoke in honourable terms ; unfortunately, the same good intel- 
 ligence never subsisted between Napoleon and Sir H. Lowe. 
 It appears from Bourrienne's Memoirs, that even from the date 
 of his elevation to the imperial throne, the emperor had 
 sufl^'ered much from the hereditary malady which afterwards 
 terminated his life.t In the month of May, 1818, a sensible 
 change for the worse took place. He petitioned this year for 
 a Catholic clergyman of the Pope, through Cardinal Fesch, 
 and his Holiness immediately concerted measures with the 
 English government for acceding to his request. The Abbe 
 Bonavista quitted St. Helena, in March, 1821, leaving there 
 M. I'Abbe Vignali, who was treated with deference and re- 
 spect. This ecclesiastic had remarked the progress of reli- 
 gious sentiments in Napoleon, and had obtained the intimate 
 confidence of the Holy See.t On the 2d of April, a servant 
 announced that a comet had been discovered in the east. 
 "A comet," cried Napoleon, eagerly, " that was the forerun- 
 ner of the death of Cesar." The Gallic Cesar thought 
 himself warned, but he prepared to meet death difierendy 
 from a pagan ; sending for M. Vignali on the 24th, he said 
 to him ; " I was born in the Catholic religion ; I wish to fulfil 
 
 * Notes on the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena, (1820,) by Edward 
 Blount. 
 
 -j- This malady is also supposed to have occasioned the premature death 
 of Napoleon's son, who was created Duke of Reichstadt, by the Emperor 
 of Austria, and died in the 16th year of his age. 
 
 4: This account is taken from the " Histoire du Pape Pie 7," by M. le 
 Chevalier Artaud. 
 
 39* 
 
438 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD 
 
 the duties it imposes on me, and to receive the succours it 
 imparts." He received them in effect, with respect and 
 recollection ; on the 2d of May, his fever redoubled, and on 
 the 5th he expired ; testifying his respect for, and gratitude 
 to, the Sovereign Pontiff, whose name he often pronounced 
 during his illness.* His remains, habited in the cloak he had 
 worn at the batde of Marengo, were, by his generals, placed 
 on his camp-bed, an hour after his decease ; all the troops of 
 the garrison defiled in order before the corpse, each man 
 touching the ground with one knee. The naval force, with 
 the permission of their commander, subsequently paid the 
 same homage, in spite of the opposition of the governor. The 
 body, after being opened, was Ijuried in the spot chosen by 
 Napoleon, beneath a willow tree, enclosed in three coffins ; 
 the grave, which was fourteen feet deep, being firmly secured 
 by solid brickwork, closed with bars of iron.t 
 
 Pope Pius VII. closed a life full of years and merits, by a 
 holy death, August 20th, 1823. Cardinal Consalvi survived 
 him only five months : in his will he ordered the rich pre- 
 sents which, as minister, he had received, to be sold, and the 
 produce expended in finishing the facades of several churches 
 in Rome, and in erecting a monument to the late Pope. 
 Cardinal della Genga was raised to the pontifical chair, under 
 the title of liCO XII. He reigned till 1829, and was suc- 
 ceeded by Pius VIII., who dying the following year, made 
 room for the election of the present Pontiff, Gregory XVI. The 
 short pontificates of the last-mentioned Popes have been re- 
 markable only for their personal virtues and strenuous efforts to 
 revive the spirit and practice of religion ; and for the progress 
 which the Catholic faith has made in North America and in infidel 
 countries ; to which desirable object the excellent Institution 
 for the propagation of the Faith, established at Lyons in the 
 
 * Two of the stanzas of Manzoni's poem on this subject, copied from 
 the above, may be interesting to many of our readers : 
 
 " Bella, immortal, benefica Tu dalle stanche ceneri 
 
 Fede, ai trionfi avvezza, Sperdi ogni ria parola ; 
 
 Scrivi ancor questo : allegrati, II Dio che aiterra e suscita 
 
 Che pivi superba altezza Che affanna e che consola, 
 
 Aldisoner di Goigota, Sulla deserta cultrice 
 
 Giammai non si chino. Accanto a lui poso." 
 
 I The French Chambers have recently voted 1,000,000 f. to defray the 
 expenses of conveying Napoleon's remains to Paris, where they are to be 
 deposited under a mausoleum, surmounted by the arms which he wore at 
 the battle of Austerlitz, and which he bequeathed to his son. 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 439 
 
 year 1822, and now spread over nearly all Catholic Europe, 
 has very greatly contributed. 
 
 The Grecian states began their struggle for independence 
 in the early part of the year 1821 ; a war distinguished by 
 singular bravery on their part ; disgraced by horrible acts of 
 cruelty on both sides. At the same time, the provinces of 
 Walachia and Moldavia rose in arms, under the standard of 
 Prince Ypsilanti, a son of the hospodar, who was long a refugee 
 in Russia. The prince was afterwards arrested and impri- 
 soned by Austrian emissaries. The cruel massacre of the 
 unoffending population of the isle of Scio, in 1821, engaged 
 in the Grecian cause the sympathies of Europe ; among 
 those whom a chivalrous veneration for classic land enlisted 
 to aid it in person, was Lord Byron,* who, however, died at 
 Missolonghi, in 1824, before he was able to realize his in- 
 tentions. Mehemet Ali, formerly Pacha of Albania, and then 
 Viceroy of Egypt, came to a rupture with the Porte in 1820, 
 and his son Ibrahim carried the war into Turkey, in 1825, 
 where he committed dreadful ravages. The French espoused 
 the cause of the Greeks, and fitted out an expedition to assist 
 them, under the command of General Maison. The fort of 
 Modon surrendered to General Durieu on the 7th of October, 
 1828, and Coron, on the same day, when nearly reduced to a 
 heap of ruins, to General Sebastiani. A treaty for the paci- 
 fication of Greece was signed at London, July, 1827, by the 
 representatives of England, France, and Russia ; and the 
 combined fleets received orders to force the Turkish squadron 
 to retire from the port of Navarino, which it blockaded. 
 Their offers of peace on this condition having been rejected, 
 Sir Edward Codrington gave the signal of attack, October 
 6th. The French, under Admiral Rigny, received the first 
 fire ; but, before five o'clock in the evening, the enemy's fleet 
 was annihilated : a few abandoned frigates and brigs only re- 
 maining of this formidable Turkish armament. Ibrahim Pacha 
 was not present at this engagement, but was laying waste 
 Messenia as he traversed it, crucifying the priests and mur- 
 dering the population. A large Russian army advanced upon 
 the Turkish territory, and soon put to flight the undisciplined 
 hordes which opposed its progress, though, in some places, 
 the loss of the invaders was very considerable. Before Brai- 
 
 * The works of this too celebrated poet should be avoided by youth, as 
 the empoisoned source of infidelity and immoraUty. The remains of Lord 
 Byron were, on this account, refused the honour of burial in Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
440 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD 
 
 Ion it amounted to 5,000 men. Their advance was likewise 
 impeded by great natural obstacles, which were, however, sub- 
 dued ; the Danube was crossed ; the heights of the Balkan 
 were no protection to the capital ; Varna, Silistria, and Adri- 
 anople fell into their hands ; and the Ottoman empire seemed 
 threatened with final destruction, when a peace was signed at 
 the latter city, between Nicholas and Mahmoud, in 1829. 
 The independence of Greece was acknowledged, and her 
 boundaries fixed ; Ibrahim evacuated Turkey, and returned to 
 Egypt ; the provinces of Walachia and Moldavia were placed 
 under the protection of Russia, whose empire was enlarged ; 
 and the fortress of Silistria remained in her hands, till she 
 should receive the payment, by instalments, of a large sum 
 from Turkey. The grand seignior had, previously to this 
 epoch, provided for his own security by destroying the Jani- 
 zaries, who would probably have opposed his intended im- 
 provements. Mehemet Ali had, in like manner, massacred 
 the Mamelukes in 1811; and, having freed Egypt from the 
 Turkish yoke, appears to have rendered the exercise of the 
 most despotic tyranny greatly conducive to the general im- 
 provement of that country. He also conquered Syria by the 
 arms of his son, Ibrahim ; St. John d'Acre fell into his 
 power ; Natolia was invaded, and he continued to extend his 
 dominions, till the allied powers undertook to restore peace 
 between the sultan and his rebellious vassal. Mahmoud died 
 before this was effected, in 1839, leaving the succession to his 
 eldest son, Abdul-Sedjin, aged seventeen years, under a re- 
 gency. The reign of the late sovereign forms a remarkable 
 era in the Turkish history, on account of the many innova- 
 tions he introduced, and the vast diminution of his empire. 
 The crown of Greece having been refused by Prince Leo- 
 pold of Saxe Coburg, it was, with the consent of the allied 
 powers, offered to Prince Otho, second son of the King of 
 Bavaria; (1833;) a regency was appointed during his mi- 
 nority, and a loan guarantied to support the credit of his go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Louis XVIII. expired on the 16th of September, 1824, and 
 transmitted the sceptre of France to his brother, Charles X., 
 who was crowned at Rheims with the usual solemnity, and 
 took the oath to observe the charter granted by the late king. 
 He acknowledged the independence of the kingdom of Hayti, 
 on condition of the payment of a considerable sum, by instal- 
 ments, to indemnify those among his subjects who had lost 
 their property in the insurrection at St. Domingo. He also 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 441 
 
 obtained from the Chambers pensions for tlie sufferers by the 
 French Revolution, which were paid only as long as he 
 reigned. With more liberality than prudence, he removed the 
 censorship over the press, established by his late brother ; 
 stereotyped editions of the worst productions of Voltaire and 
 Jean J. Rousseau, which had never been permitted in the time 
 of Napoleon, immediately inundated the country, and pro- 
 duced the effect that might have been anticipated ; the news- 
 papers, and particularly the Constitutionnel, of which 15,000 
 copies were daily sold, became the constant vehicles of satire 
 against religion and the government, and the republican party 
 increased each year in strength. In 1829, the establishments 
 of the Jesuits in France were sacrificed, by tlie pusillanimity 
 of the French court, to clamours as extravagant and absurd 
 as they were groundless and void of all truth, raised by the 
 liberal party, with the view of furthering political purposes 
 of their own.. These establishments were twelve in number, 
 and devoted exclusively to the civil and religious education 
 of the youth of the higher classes. By a singular coincidence, 
 the returning twelvemonth beheld the monarch driven from his 
 tlirone and country by the same party. 
 
 Alexander, Emperor of Russia, died in 1825, without issue ; 
 and the crown, being rejected by the second brother, Constan- 
 tine, descended to Nicholas, the third, who was married to a 
 daughter of the King of Prussia. 
 
 The English soldier had to combat this year on a field 
 where victories are never won without severe suffering from 
 heat and fatigue. The campaign in India, of 1819, which we 
 have not noticed, ended in the destruction of the Pindarris, a 
 fierce banditti, who had ravaged the Madras dependencies 
 with circumstances of unexampled cruelty, and in the annexa- 
 tion of Poonah to the British empire. The war undertaken 
 in 1824 against the Burmese, was distinguished by similar 
 atrocides on the part of these barbarians. Their army was 
 destroyed by Sir Archibald Campbell ; and Rangoon, with 
 several other places, being taken, remained in the hands of the 
 victors by the treaty that restored peace. Our African settle- 
 ment on the Guinea coast was this year (1825) threatened by 
 the Ashantees, an inland tribe, who, after conquering the Fan- 
 tees, advanced towards Cape-coast. The governor. Sir Charles 
 Macarthy, having unwarily separated his army, suffered him- 
 self to be drawn into an ambuscade, and was slain ; but his 
 death was soon after avenged by Major Chisholm. 
 
 The demise of John VI. of Portugal, in 1826, gave rise to 
 
442 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 important events in that country. By will, he empowered 
 
 his eldest son to choose between the kingdom of Portugal and 
 
 the empire of Brazil. Don Pedro preferred the latter, where 
 
 he then was, and renounced his ricrht to Portugal in favour of 
 
 . ... 
 
 his eldest daughter, Donna Maria da Gloria, intending that 
 
 she should espouse her uncle, Don Miguel, to whom he 
 offered the regency, when he should come of age. With this 
 document he sent to Europe a constitution, which, it was said, 
 he had himself very hastily drawn up, for Portugal. Don 
 Miguel, who had been at Vienna since the discovery of a trea- 
 sonable conspiracy, in which he was implicated, during the 
 life of his father, accepted his brother's proposal. In the 
 mean time, his sister Isabella assumed the regency, and en- 
 deavoured to promulgate the new constitution ; being foreign 
 to the habits and feelings of the nation, it excited considerable 
 discontent. To maintain her authority, she demanded some 
 English troops, and 5,000 men were sent over by Mr. Can- 
 ning for that purpose. With these she supported the existing 
 state of things, till Don Miguel, having attained his majority, 
 returned to Portugal. He there took the oath to the constitu- 
 tion, and assumed the powers of regent ; but finding a strong 
 party desirous of making him absolute king, he accepted th.e 
 title, and abrogated the constitution. To extenuate this act, 
 his partisans assert, that, by a fundamental law of the mo- 
 narchy, if the elder brother inherit another kingdom, the 
 crown of Portugal devolves on the second. Miguel ruled 
 apparendy to the satisfaction of the majority of his subjects, 
 till Don Pedro, having lost the empire of Brazil, through a 
 revolution in that country, which raised his son to the throne, 
 came over to Europe, to conquer Portugal for his daughter. 
 This he had just effected, by the means of English and French 
 mercenaries, when he died, in 1834. Donna Maria was then 
 declared of age ; she married the brother of the ex-empress, 
 Augustus of Leuchtenberg ; and he soon dying, in 1836, 
 Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, by whom she has two sons. 
 To liquidate the debts of the state, much of the church-pro- 
 perty was seized and sold ; in consequence of which measure, 
 the Pope's legate was recalled, and the relations widi the Holy 
 See suspended. Don Pedro's charter, not being deemed 
 sufficiendy liberal by the ascendency party, the queen has 
 been obliged to change her ministry, and acquiese in the 
 alterations demanded. 
 
 Death, in the mean time, had been effecting great changes 
 in England. On the 5th of January, 1827, died the Duke of 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 443 
 
 York ; and, on the 7th February, tlie Earl of Liverpool was, 
 by a paralytic attack, incapacitated from conducting tlie govern- 
 ment. Mr. Canning was appointed his successor, but his 
 declining health soon gave way. The last eflbrt of his 
 eloquence was exerted in an unsuccessful support of the 
 Catholic claims ; he died at Chiswick, having iDeen premier 
 only five months. Lord Goderich was then empowered to 
 form a cabinet ; he soon made place for the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, who, with Sir R. Peel, and some members of the Liver- 
 pool administration, composed the new ministry. It was 
 remarkable for several important measures. The Catholic 
 disabilities had been almost annually brought before Parliament, 
 and had, in 1828, on the motion of Sir Francis Eurdett, passed 
 the House of Commons ; but had been, as usual, rejected by 
 a large majority of the Lords. Mr. Canning had not even 
 been able, when in the ministry, to carry a bill to permit the 
 few Catholic peers of England to take their seats in that 
 House ; yet the question progressed ; most of the talent of 
 tlie Lower House was exerted in its favour ; the Protestant 
 L'ish aristocracy presented a petition, numerously signed, in 
 behalf of their aggrieved countrymen, and the Catholic asso- 
 ciation, revived under a new name, whenever its death-blow 
 had been decreed, with the indefatigable O'ConncU at its head, 
 laboured strenuously to attain its object. To the exertions 
 of this distinguished individual was the speedy success of their 
 endeavours principally due. His election for the county of 
 Clare, in the place of a cabinet minister, Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, 
 embarrassed the government ; they saw the necessity of con- 
 ceding what could not be further withheld without danger to 
 the state. The abolition of the Test and Corporation Acts, 
 which had been effected by a bill brought in by Lord John 
 Russell, the preceding year, had opened the pale of the con- 
 stitution to all Christian dissenters : the Catholic Emancipa- 
 tion Bill was, after much difficulty on the part of the king, 
 introduced by a speech from the throne, carried by the two 
 leading ministers of each House, and received the royal assent, 
 April 13, 1829. By this act, Catholics, on their taking a 
 prescribed oath, were rendered eligible to all civil offices, 
 except those of Lord-lieutenant of L'eland and keeper of the 
 great seal. It, however, disfranchised the 405. freeholders 
 of that kingdom, and prohibited the Catholic bishops from 
 bearing tlie names of their respective sees. An ungenerous 
 clause, annexed to the bill, prevented Mr. O'Connell from 
 
444 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 taking his seat for Clare ; but he was re-elected without 
 opposition. 
 
 The king did not very long survive this important measure ; 
 his increasing indisposition was for some time concealed from 
 the public ; but at length it was ascertained that an ossification 
 of the heart baffled all medical skill, and finally brought on his 
 death, which occurred on the 26th of June, 1830, in the sixty- 
 eighth year of his age and eleventh of his reign. During the 
 last few years, George IV. led so secluded a life, as to be visible 
 only to his ministers, family, and private friends, by whom 
 alone he seems to have been regretted. He was succeeded by his 
 brother, the Duke of Clarence, under the title of William IV., 
 who having recently, when lord high admiral, been opposed 
 by the Duke of Wellington, was not expected to retain him 
 in the ministry ; the king, however, made no alteration in the 
 cabinet on his accession to the tlirone. 
 
 The situation of the French monarchy was becoming 
 every day more critical. His Christian majesty, with a view 
 to counteract the revolutionary tendency of the deputies 
 elected in 1827, had commissioned M. le Prince Polignac to 
 form a new ministry, of which he was to be the president. 
 Two hundred and twenty-one of the deputies presented an 
 energetical address, in which they expressed their opposition 
 to the new cabinet; their remonstrances were met by the dis- 
 solution of the chamber. Every eff'ort was made by the 
 court to prevent the re-election of men \yho had refused to 
 vote the budget before they separated ; but, in spite of these 
 efforts, they composed the majority of the new chamber. 
 The national guard having demonstrated an opposition to 
 the government, w^as suppressed. The French navy, in the 
 mean while, was rendering essential service to humanity in 
 general, by completing the conquest which Lord Exmouth 
 had left imperfect. The Dey of Algiers, having publicly 
 aff'ronted the French consul, and refused to make any repa- 
 ration, war was immediately declared against him. The 
 minister of war. General Comte de Bourmonte, left Paris 
 and joined the fleet at Toulon, consisting of 500 sail, under 
 the command of Admiral Duperre. On the 13th of June, it 
 anchored in the bay of Sidi Ferach. After driving the enemy 
 from their positions, the white flag was hoisted on the Turetta 
 Cliica, and Algiers capitulated. The fleet emulated the bra- 
 very of the land-forces, and powerfully contributed to the re- 
 duction of the place, by a manoeuvre which was considered 
 impracticable. The dey obtained permission to retire with 
 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 445 
 
 part of his troops, his arms, women, and private property ; 
 but the treasure found in his palace called the Cassaba, 
 amounting to 50,000,000 francs, was secured to pay the ex- 
 penses of the expedition. The fort of the emperor held out 
 to the last extremity, and then exploded. The opposition 
 papers in France had omitted no effort to mar the success of 
 the expedition ; and the general, on his return, could not even 
 carry his own election : affairs in that country were drawing 
 to a crisis. Relying on the fourteenth article of the charter, 
 which permitted the king to amend or modify, if necessary, 
 he published two ordinances, by the first of which he sus- 
 pended the liberty of the press, and established a censorship 
 over the public journals and periodical writings ; and, by the 
 second, altered the law of elections ; these ordinances were 
 countersigned by the ministers Polignac, Peyronet, Chante- 
 lauze, Guernon-Ranville, Montbel, and Capel. The editors 
 of the papers protested openly against the ordinances ; their 
 presses and types were ordered to be seized, (July 27th ;) but 
 when the police attempted to execute the mandate, they found 
 nearly 20,000 men prepared to defend them. No precau- 
 tions had been taken to insure success to this coup d'etat ; 
 Marshal Marmont was named commander of the first military 
 division ; he was left without orders, his men without a sup- 
 ply of cartridges or rations. 
 
 The deputies who were in Paris, to the number of about 
 fifty, then assembled, and sent a deputation, with M. Lafitte 
 at their head, to Marshal Marmont, entreating him to stop 
 the further effusion of blood, by obtaining the conditions 
 they demanded ; these were, the revocation of the ordinances 
 of the 26th of July, the dismissal of the ministers, and the 
 convocation of the Chambers for the 3d of August. The 
 marshal consented to request for them an audience of M. de 
 Polignac. He returned in a quarter of an hour, and told 
 the deputies the prince had replied that the nature of the 
 conditions rendered any conference useless. " Nous avons 
 done la guerre civile?" said M. de Lafitte; the marshal 
 bowed, and the deputies retired. The combat soon became 
 general, and after three days' sanguinary fighting in different 
 parts of Paris, in which the youths of the Polytechnic school 
 particularly distinguished themselves, the royal cause was 
 lost ; the tri-coloured flag floated on the public buildings of 
 the capital, and the fleurs-de-lis were everywhere effaced. 
 While Paris was in a state of siege, and blood flowed on all 
 sides, Charles X., with his family, at St. Cloud, remained in 
 
 40 
 
446 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. QaDD. 
 
 ignorance of the insurrection. He had been informed of the 
 disturbance on Monday morning, had ordered the arrest of 
 the revolutionary leaders, Casimir Perrier, Dupin, Lafitte, 
 and a few others, and he believed the measure had been ac- 
 complished, because his minister, supposing, as he afterwards 
 said, that it would be done before his despatch reached 
 the king, informed him that it was effected. The report of 
 the cannon and view of the tri-coloured flag, perceived by the 
 Duchesse de Gontault, who lodged in one of the highest 
 apartments of the casde, and whose terrors were awakened 
 for her royal charge, the young princess, could not rouse the 
 king to a sense of his danger : 15,000 men were near him at 
 St. Cloud, without receiving any orders to march upon Paris, 
 till, at length, the arrival of the ministers revealed the truth ; 
 they held a council, and announced to his majesty that all 
 was lost: that the mob were advancing towards St. Cloud, 
 and that he must save himself by immediate flight. In less 
 than half an hour the royal family were in their carriages on 
 the road to Rambouillet. 
 
 Meantime the Chamber met, and invited the Duke of Or- 
 leans to exercise the functions of lieutenant-general of the 
 kingdom. He consulted the king how he should act on this 
 emergency; his majesty empowered the duke to accept the 
 proffered title, with the regency for his grandson, the Duke 
 of Bordeaux, in favour of whom he renounced his right to 
 the throne, and the Duke d'Angouleme did the same. He 
 even proposed to leave the young prince with the Duke of 
 Orleans, on whose attachment and fidelity he fully relied ; 
 but the commissioners deputed by the Chambers to escort the 
 king into exile, and who were present at Rambouillet, refusing 
 to acknowledge him for their sovereign, the project dropped. 
 An offer of the crown was made to the Duke of Orleans, 
 when he met the Chambers, and he accepted it: the cere- 
 mony of his accession, by taking the oath of adherence to 
 the charter,^ took place on the 9th of August, when he as- 
 
 * The charter, when amended by the Chamber, decided that the Roman 
 Catholic religion was no longer the religion of the state. It also abolished 
 the hereditary peerage. 
 
 Talleyrand, on taking the oath of allegiance to the new sovereign, is 
 said to have remarked, that it was the thirteenth time he had sworn to ad- 
 here to a change in the government, and he hoped it would be the last. 
 The veteran diplomatist was appointed to the English embassy, and filled 
 this post till 1835. He died at the age of eighty -four, May 17th, 1838, 
 having on the morning of that day effected a reconciliation with the 
 Church. 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 447 
 
 sumed the title of Louis Philippe I., King of the French. 
 The national guard was reorganized, and La Fayette called to 
 the chief command of it.* The ex-king and royal family of 
 France, accompanied by the commissioners, the Duke of Ra- 
 gusa, with a numerous staff, and several companies of gardes- 
 du-corps, left Rambouillet on the 3d of xVugust, and reached 
 Cherbourg on the 16th, being everywhere received on the 
 route with respectful silence, without any manifestation of 
 triumph or regret. The many private virtues and acts of 
 public beneficence that adorned the characters of the royal 
 fugitives, and the state from which they were fallen, excited 
 apparently no commiseration; the recent popularity of the 
 Duchess of Berry seemed equally forgotten. They left 
 Cherbourg the same day they arrived there, and set sail for 
 England, on board the Great Britain, an American ship, in 
 company with two others, and the next day reached the har- 
 bour of Portsmouth. The court of St. James's had recog- 
 nised the government of Louis Philippe, and Charles X. 
 could not land till permission for that purpose arrived. The 
 princesses and their suite, however, disembarked at Cowes. 
 When the necessary leave came, the king, his son and grand- 
 son, through the generous attention of the proprietor, met 
 with a polite reception on their landing, and hospitable enter- 
 tainment at Lulworth Castle. In this noble mansion they 
 resided, till Holy rood House had been provided for their 
 reception; they arrived in Edinburgh, October 21st. There 
 the old king continued to indulge in his favourite sports of 
 shooting and coursing, and, by his liberality to the poor, 
 gained the good will of all around him. The royal family 
 afterwards removed to the dominions of the Emperor of Aus- 
 tria, residing chiefly at Goritz, near Prague, where, after a 
 very short illness, Charles X.f closed his checkered life, in 
 the same sentiments of resignation and charity that he had 
 uniformly displayed during his misfortunes, November 6th, 
 1837, in the 80th year of his age. His unfortunate minister, 
 
 * This celebrated man acted a prominent part in the present, no less 
 than in the first revolution ; being united with those who, opposed to a 
 republican form of government, wished to call the Orleans dynasty to the 
 throne. He died in 1834. 
 
 f Charles X. is rupposed to have fallen a victim to the cholera morbus. 
 This dreadful disease had, during the several preceding years, alternately 
 spread over all the countries of Europe, and it partially broke out again 
 this year, in some of the towns of Germany. 
 
448 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 Polignac, who appears to have deceived his master, because 
 he was himself blinded to the state of events, was, with 
 three of his late colleagues who had signed the fatal ordi- 
 nances, arrested soon after the exile of the king, tried and con- 
 demned to death. Their sentence was commuted to perpetual 
 imprisonment; after seven years' detention in the prison of 
 Ham, where the prince's health was much impaired, they 
 were released in 1837. 
 
 The southern provinces of the Nethedands, which had, 
 contrary to the will of the inhabitants, been united to Holland 
 by the Congress of Vienna, now followed the example of the 
 Parisians, and shook off the Dutch yoke. The grievances 
 they had to complain of, were neither few nor trivial, but 
 they were mostly such as might have been anticipated from 
 the ascendency of a Calvinistical church over a Catholic po- 
 pulation. The national guard seized the military posts in 
 Brussels, on the 25th and 26th of August, 1830 ; the Prince of 
 Orange, after vainly endeavouring to restore harmony, intro- 
 duced, on the 24th of the following month, 7,000 Dutch 
 troops into the park : a furious combat ensued, which termi- 
 nated in favour of the people. At the same time disturbances 
 occurred in several other tOAvns, particularly Antwerp and 
 Liege. The Dutch troops, under the command of General 
 Chasse, retired into the citadel of Antwerp, which town they 
 bombarded ; a provisional government was established ; the 
 separation of Belgium and Holland decreed ; and this arrange- 
 ment having been acceded to by France and England, the 
 crown of Belgium was, through the influence of the latter 
 power, offered to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, and ac- 
 cepted by him. 
 
 The King of Holland having rejected the terms offered by 
 the allied powers. General Gerard set out from Paris, at the 
 head of 40,000 French troops, to reduce the citadel of Ant- 
 werp. On the refusal of the commander to deliver it up, their 
 artillery bombarded it during twenty-four days ; at the end of 
 which term. General Chasse and the garrison surrendered at 
 discretion, October 23d, 1832. Peace between Holland and 
 Belgium was not signed till 1837. 
 
 Brunswick, about the same time, expelled its sovereign, 
 Duke Charles, for having infringed the articles of the consti- 
 tution granted by his uncle and guardian, George IV. of Eng- 
 land, during his minority, and, in many ways, trespassed on 
 the rights of his subjects. In this insurrection, the ducal 
 palace was burned down, except a part of the left wing. The 
 
ADD.^ GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 449 
 
 duchy was afterwards offered to Prince William, who still 
 retains the government, his elder brother having been judged 
 incapable of the charge. 
 
 Poland, it will be recollected, was placed under the domi- 
 nion of the Emperor Alexander, by the Congress of Vienna, 
 which guarantied to it a constitutional charter. This treaty 
 also promised to the ancient Polish provinces "« representa- 
 tion and national institutions, regulated according to the 
 mode of political existence, which each of the governments 
 to which they belong, should judge useful and fitting to grant 
 them." These conditions were never fulfilled with respect to 
 the Polish provinces dependent upon Russia, though promised 
 by the Emperor Alexander in the first diet held at Warsav/ 
 after the treaty : and the appearance of constitutional liberty 
 granted to the kingdom of Poland, was almost immediately 
 infringed upon, by arbitrary ordinances and acts, which soon 
 revealed the intention of reducing the nation to a state of ser- 
 vile dependence. To this end, the liberty of the press wag 
 abolished; public discussion prohibited; the budget never 
 voted ; heavy taxes imposed ; monopolies created to exhaust the 
 wealth of the country: and courts-martial, which inflicted the 
 most degrading and cruel punishments, erected, to assume the 
 functions of civil tribunals. The exasperated feelings of the 
 whole nation were ready to break out, when the death of 
 Alexander, and the oath to maintain the constitution, taken 
 by Nicholas on his accession to the throne, inspired a liope 
 that the liberties of the kingdom would be restored ; but an 
 insurrection which burst out at St. Petersburg, in which many 
 distinguished Poles were supposed to be implicated, served 
 to augment tenfold all the calamities which this unhappy 
 country had previously endured. The prisons of Warsaw were 
 thronged; at length, after the delay of a year and a half, and 
 after tortures and other means had been ineffectually applied 
 to draw from the prisoners a confession of guilt, they were 
 legally tried by the senate, and, almost unanimously, pro- 
 nounced innocent. Upon the publication of this sentence, th? 
 judges were imprisoned in Warsaw during the space of a year, 
 and the accused, conducted into Russian dungeons, have never 
 since been heard of. The sale of the national domains, which 
 was ordered after the coronation of Nicholas, (November 29th, 
 1829,) enabled the government to place the Polish army on 
 the war establishment, with the intention, as it was reported, 
 that it should advance against France, while Russian troops 
 would occupy its place : the youths of the military schools 
 
 40* 
 
450 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 and of the university, in conjunction with a large portion of 
 the garrison of AVarsaw, gave the signal of a general rising. 
 On the night of the 29th November, 1830, the insurrection 
 became general. It required but one day to deliver the capi- 
 tal: ill a few more, every division of the army united in the 
 same cause ; the nation was in arms, and the fortified towns 
 surrendered. The Grand-duke Constantine (commander-in- 
 chief of the army) withdrew ; General Clopicki was made 
 dictator, and the diet declared that the Russian czar had 
 ceased to reign in Poland. After bravely struggling during ten 
 months with the superior forces which Russia brought against 
 them, and gaining the victories of Denibewielkie and Wawr, 
 overpowered at last by numbers, at the battle of Ostrolenka, 
 the Poles were forced to retreat, leaving 10,000 dead upon 
 the field. Warsaw was soon invested ; battles were fought 
 under its walls on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of September, 1831 ; 
 and, on the following day, it fell again under the dominion of 
 Russia; the Polish army entered the Austrian and Prussian 
 territories, and laid down their arms. They afterwards re- 
 tired chiefly into France and England, where they still remain 
 in exile. Since that epoch, Poland no longer exists as a 
 nation;* her language is suppressed; many noble youths have 
 been torn from their parents- and transported into Siberia, and 
 every engine is put in action to extirpate the United Greek 
 Church, and completely subjugate the Catholic religion. 
 Their bishops are reduced from the number of eight to four ; 
 the Bishop of Cracow, being deprived of his see, has retired 
 into the dominions of the Emperor of Austria, whose troops 
 occupy that independent and neutral republic ; the Bishop of 
 Podlachia has, during the present year, by order of Nicholas, 
 been banished to Mochilew; whither a great number of the 
 clergy, after having been cruelly treated, were sent in 1833, 
 for refusing, without the approbation of their ecclesiastical 
 superiors, to read from the pulpits the ukases respecting re- 
 ligion, which had been sent to them by the government for 
 that purpose. The university and a great many schools 
 have been suppressed ; the order of the Piarists, with their 
 
 * One instance may suffice to show the state to which this country is 
 reduced. On the evening of the 17th of May, 1832, when the inhabitants 
 of Warsaw had sent their children out for recreation and exercise, 450 of 
 them were seized by Russian emissaries and hurried to a distant fort. Only 
 150 reached the spot, the remainder having died of fatigue and ill treat- 
 ment during the journey ; but the deficiency was supplied by the seizure 
 of others. 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 451 
 
 colleges, those of St. Alphonsus, under the title of JRedemp- 
 tionis Christi, totally abolished. Still more oppressed are 
 the Catholic inhabitants of the ancient provinces, as well 
 those dependent on the Emperor of Russia, as those which 
 are subject to his Prussian majesty. The imprisonment of 
 the Archbishop of Posen affords a notorious proof of the un- 
 just policy of the late King of Prussia. It is painful to con- 
 trast the prudence and moderation which characterized the 
 genera] government of this sovereign, with the conduct he 
 observed towards his Catholic subjects, whose religion, never- 
 theless, he was pledged to maintain in those provinces, which 
 the Congress of Vienna placed under his sway. We have 
 not room to particularize the systematic oppression to which 
 he subjected them; nor to describe the destitute state of the 
 Catholics in many of the towns of Prussia Proper. The 
 Prussian code, published in 1803, which miUtates against 
 the rights of the Church, was, in 1825, extended to the pro- 
 vinces of the Rhine and Westphalia. It formed the chief 
 ground of the accusations against the Archbishop of Cologne, 
 who, for obeying the brief concerning mixed marriages issued 
 by Pius VIII. at the request of the king and the bishops, in 
 1830, has been, during the last three years, confined in the 
 fortress of Minden. Frederic William III. died on the 7th 
 of June, 1840, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Fre- 
 derick William IV. 
 
 Lithuania contained 4,740,000 of the United Greek Church. 
 These Nicholas (by a law, confirmed July 5th, 1839) has 
 united to the Russian Church, and forced to receive the Greek 
 ritual. Their temporizing bishops, three in number, have 
 complied with the imperial mandate, having been first induced, 
 by worldly considerations, to abjure the authority of the 
 Pope. According to recent accounts from Wilna and Kiow, 
 upwards of 200 priests, who would not renounce the religion 
 of their forefathers, have been sent to Russian monasteries, 
 where, regarded as heretics, and sustained on bread and water, 
 they are employed in the menial offices of the house. A 
 number of Polish ladies have, in like manner, been conveyed 
 from Kiow and domiciliated with Russian nuns, to be simi- 
 larly treated ; and schools for the education of Catholic young 
 ladies have been established at Wilna, Kiow, &c., under the 
 direction of Russian governesses. 
 
 The death of Ferdinand VII. of Spain, (September 29th, 
 1833,) involved anew that unfortunate country in a civil war, 
 which is not yet terminated. He had married for his fourth 
 
452 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 wife, Christina, daughter to Francis I. of Naples ; and having 
 only two daughters, determined to abrogate the Salic law, 
 which had been in force since the succession of the house of 
 Bourbon to the Spanish throne, that his crown might descend 
 to the elder of these princesses, named Isabella. Having 
 drawn up an instrument for this purpose, he called an assem- 
 bly of the Cortes, and procured their adhesion to it : his brother, 
 Don Carlos, who had long been considered the presumptive 
 heir to the crown, refused to concur in the measure, and, 
 with his family, retired into Portugal. The will of Ferdi- 
 nand was accepted by the Madrid authorities and chief no- 
 bility, and Christina took upon herself the regency for. her 
 daughter, Isabella II. But the Basque provinces, strongly 
 attached to Don Carlos and to their ancient privileges, which 
 they knew it was not the intention of the existing government 
 to maintain, flew to arms. Don Carlos, who, out of respect 
 to his brother, had, during his life, adopted no means to 
 strengthen his party, was then a fugitive in Portugal : with 
 difficulty he, with his wife and children, escaped falling into 
 the hands of the ferocious Rodil, who was pursuing him, by 
 taking refuge on board an English ship, which conveyed them 
 to England : whence the prince, finding that Navarre and 
 Biscay were all up in arms for his cause, privately departed, 
 and, travelling through France incognito, joined the brave de- 
 fenders of his rights. The historic page will record the 
 many sanguinary rencounters that have taken place between 
 the hostile parties ; the campaigns of Zumalacarregui, of Ca- 
 brera, Espartero, and many others ; the inefficient assistance 
 rendered to one party by English and French auxiliaries, by 
 which means the struggle has been indefinitely protracted ; 
 the embarrassment of the Spanish treasury, and the subsequent 
 seizure of church-property to recruit its resources ; the de- 
 struction of religious foundations and massacre of many of 
 their inmates; frequent change of ministry; renewal of the 
 charter ; and, finally, the treaty of Bergara, which, without 
 terminating the war, has made the Prince Don Carlos a state 
 prisoner. 
 
 The Emperor Francis II. closed his eventful life, (1835,) 
 in the same religious sentiments which had ever supported 
 him during the many vicissitudes he had experienced ; he left 
 his dominions extended and tranquil, and Prince Metternich 
 still at the helm. His eldest son, the King of Hungary, 
 married to Anne, daughter of Victor-Emanuel of Sardinia, 
 succeeded, under the title of Ferdinand I. of Austria. He 
 
ADD.] GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. 453 
 
 was successively crowned emperor at Vienna, King of Bohe- 
 mia at Prague, and King of Lombardy at Milan, on which 
 latter occasion he granted a pardon, with some exceptions, to 
 all the political offenders, who were still detained in prison, 
 and he has this year (1840) extended it to all. 
 
 We revert to England, which, during the year 1831, was 
 not free from internal commotions ; the declaration of the 
 Duke of Wellington against reform disappointed the hopes 
 of the liberal party ; the discontent of the lower orders mani- 
 fested itself by nightly incendiarisms ; and so great became 
 the unpopularity of the government, that the king, in Novem- 
 ber this year, was obliged to relinquish his intention of din- 
 ing at the Guildhall, it not being considered safe for the duke 
 to accompany his majesty. The ministry resigned ; Earl 
 Grey was then made premier ; the seals with a peerage were 
 given to Mr. Brougham ; and Lord AUhorp, as Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer, was the leader of the House of Commons. 
 During this ministry the reform bill was passed in 1832 ; the 
 slave emancipation bill the following year ; the municipal corpo- 
 rations bill for England and Scodand in 1835 ; the Irish church 
 reform bill, by which ten bishoprics were curtailed, and the 
 value of small livings augmented ; the East India charter re- 
 newed, with several alterations, by which the commerce to 
 China was thrown open, (fee. A dissension in the cabinet 
 occasioned the resignation of Lord Grey; he was succeeded 
 by Lord Melbourne, who, with a very short interruption, has 
 continued at the head of government ever since ; the chief 
 acts passed during this period have been, the tithe commu- 
 tation bill for England, and another for Ireland ; the poor law 
 bill for the latter country; the new registry act for births and 
 marriages, the penny postage bill, &;c. 
 
 William IV. died June 20th, 1837, in the seventy-second 
 year of his age, and seventh of his reign, regretted by his 
 subjects, whose interest he seemed always to have at heart, 
 and respected for his integrity and moral virtues.* The 
 Princess Victoria Alexandrina, the object of the nation's fond- 
 est hopes, was proclaimed queen, and, having attained her 
 majority the preceding month, immediately assumed the reins 
 of government. Her coronation was performed with great 
 solemnity on the 28th of June, 1838; and on the 10th of 
 February, 1840, she was married to Prince Albert of Saxe 
 Coburg, in the Royal Chapel, at St. James's, amidst the joy- 
 
 * The Duke of Cumberland, at the same time, became King of Hano- 
 ver, the crown of that kingdom not descending to females. 
 
454 GENERAL HISTORY OF EUROPE. [aDD. 
 
 ful acclamations and heartfelt congratulations of every class 
 of her majesty's subjects. The principal events of her reign, 
 not already alluded to, are the insurrection in Canada, which 
 was fortunately soon subdued by the mihtary force, assisted 
 by the loyal inhabitants of that country ; the equally ill-con- 
 certed risings of the Chartists in England; the victories 
 achieved by the Anglo-Indian army, under Sir John, now 
 Lord Kean, in the conquest of Cabul, Ghuznee, and Kelat, 
 in Afghanistan. 
 
A TABLE 
 
 CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS 
 
 PRINCIPAL STATES OF EUROPE. 
 
 455 
 
456 
 
 TABLE OF CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS 
 
 Acces- 
 sion. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 FRANCE. 
 
 GERMANY. 
 
 NAPLES. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 1493 
 
 
 
 Maximilian 
 
 
 
 
 1495 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand n. 
 
 
 
 1496 
 
 
 
 
 Frederic II. 
 
 
 
 1498 
 
 
 Lewis XII. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1501 
 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand 
 the Catholic 
 
 
 DIED 
 
 1503 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pius III. 
 
 1503 
 
 1509 
 
 Henry VIII. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1513 
 
 
 
 
 
 Julius II. 
 
 1513 
 
 1515 
 
 
 Francis I. 
 
 
 Charles V. of 
 Austria. 
 
 
 
 1516 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1519 
 
 
 
 Charles V. 
 
 
 
 
 1521 
 
 
 
 
 
 LeoX. 
 
 1521 
 
 1523 
 
 
 
 
 
 Adrian VI. 
 
 1523 
 
 1533 
 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 Clement VII. 
 
 1534 
 
 1547 
 
 Edward VI. 
 
 Henry H. 
 
 
 . 
 
 Paul in. 
 
 1549 
 
 1553 
 
 Mary 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1556 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand 
 
 Philip II. 
 
 Julius III. 
 
 1555 
 
 1557 
 
 
 
 
 
 Marcellus II. 
 
 1555 
 
 1558 
 
 Elizabeth 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1559 
 
 
 Francis II. 
 
 
 
 Paul IV. 
 
 1559 
 
 1560 
 
 
 Charles IX. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1564 
 
 
 
 Maximil. II. 
 
 
 Pius IV. 
 
 1565 
 
 1574 
 
 
 Henry III. 
 
 
 
 St. Pius V. 
 
 1572 
 
 1576 
 
 
 
 Rodolph II. 
 
 
 
 
 1578 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1580 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gregory XIII. 
 
 1585 
 
 1589 
 
 
 Henry IV. 
 
 
 
 Sixtus V, 
 
 1590 
 
 1590 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 Urban VII. 
 
 1590 
 
 1591 
 
 
 
 
 
 Gregory XIV. 
 
 1591 
 
 1598 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 Philip III. 
 
 Innocent IX. 
 
 1591 
 
 1603 
 
 James I. 
 
 
 
 
 Clement VIII. 
 
 1605 
 
 1605 
 
 
 
 
 
 Leo XL 
 
 1605 
 
 1610 
 
 
 Lewis XIII. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1611 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1612 
 
 
 
 Mathias 
 
 
 
 
 1613 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1619 
 
 
 
 Ferdi.'ll. 
 
 
 
 
 1621 
 
 
 
 
 PhilipIV. 
 
 Paul V. 
 
 1621 
 
 1625 
 
 Charles I. 
 
 
 
 
 Gregory XV. 
 
 1623 
 
 1630 
 
 [beheaded 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1632 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1637 
 
 
 
 Ferdi. III. 
 
 
 
 
 1640 
 
 
 •• 
 
 
 •• 
 
 •• 
 
 
 1643 
 
 
 Lewis'XIV, 
 
 
 
 
 
 1645 
 
 
 
 
 
 Urban VIIL 
 
 1644 
 
 1648 
 
 Interreg- 
 num 
 
 •• 
 
 
 
 
 
 1654 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1656 
 
 
 
 
 
 Innocent X. 
 
 1655 
 
 1657 
 
 
 
 Leopold I. 
 
 
 
 
 1660 
 
 Charles 11. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1665 
 
 
 
 
 Charles II. 
 
 
 
 1668 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alexander VII 
 
 1667 
 
 1670 
 
 
 
 
 
 Clement TX. 
 
 1669 
 
 1675 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1676 
 
 
 
 
 
 Clement X. 
 
 1676 
 
 1682 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1685 
 
 James II. 
 deposed 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Wm.&Mary 
 
 
 
 
 Innocent XI. 
 
 1689 
 
 1696 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alexander Vin 
 
 .1691 
 
 1697 
 
 • 
 
 •• 
 
 
 
 •• 
 
 
OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES OF EUROPE. 
 
 457 
 
 Acces- 
 sion. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 Emanuel 
 
 John III. 
 
 Sebastian 
 
 Ffenry Card. 
 
 Philip II. ot 
 
 Spain. 
 
 Philip III. 
 
 Philip IV. 
 
 John IV. 
 Braganza 
 
 Alphonso VI 
 Peter II. 
 
 Ferdi. the C. 
 1472, and 
 Isab. 1479. 
 
 Emperor 
 Charles V. 
 
 DENMARK. | SWEDEN. 
 
 John, 1481. 
 
 Philip II. 
 
 Christ. II. 
 
 Frederic I. 
 Christ. III. 
 
 Philip III. 
 
 Philip IV. 
 
 Charles II. 
 
 John III. 
 
 Christian IV. Sigisinund 
 
 Gust. Vasa 
 
 Bajazet II. 
 Selim I. 
 
 Soliman II. 1520 
 
 Frederic III. 
 
 Christian V. 
 
 Charles IX 
 Gust.Adolph 
 
 Christina 
 
 Charles X. 
 
 Charles XI. 
 
 Amurath III. 1574 
 
 •Mahomet III. 1.59i 
 Selim II. lo^t- 
 
 tVchmet I. 
 
 Miistapha dep. 161/ 
 Osman I. 
 
 Miistapha restored 
 A.murath IV. 1G22 
 
 Ibrahim 
 
 Mahomet IV. 16!>J 
 deposed 16*7 
 
 iSoliman HI. 168T 
 
 CharUs XII. 
 
 Achmct II. 
 
 1691 
 
 41 
 
453 
 
 TABLE OF CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS 
 
 ENGLAND. FRANCE 
 
 George I. 
 
 George II. 
 
 George III. 
 
 George IV. 
 
 William IV. 
 
 Victoria 
 
 Lewis XV. 
 
 Lewis XVI 
 [guillotined. 
 
 France, Re- 
 public. 
 
 Napoleon 
 Emperor 
 
 Lewis XVIII 
 
 Charles X. 
 dethroned. 
 
 Lewis Philip 
 
 Joseph 
 
 Charles VI 
 
 Charle 
 
 s VII 
 
 Francis I 
 
 .Joseph II 
 
 Leopold II. 
 Francis II. 
 
 Ferdinand I. 
 of Austria 
 
 DIED 
 
 Philip V. of Innocent XII. 1700 
 Bourbon 
 
 Clement XI. IT'^l 
 Innocent XIII. 1724 
 
 Benedict XIII. 17.^0 
 Clement XII. 17-10 
 
 Charles III. 
 
 Ferdinand I 
 of the two 
 
 Sicilies. 
 
 Francis I. 
 Ferdi. II. 
 
 Benedict XIV. 175S 
 
 Clement XIII. 1769 
 Clement XIV. 1774 
 
 Pius VI. I79y 
 
 Pius VII. 
 
 LeoXIT. 
 
 1S23 
 
 Pius VIH. 1830 
 
 Gregory XVI. 
 
OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES OF EUROPE. 
 
 459 
 
 SPAIN. DENMARK. I SWEDEN. 
 
 Philip V. 
 
 John V. 
 
 1825 
 1S26 
 
 1830 
 1831 
 1833 
 1835 
 
 1837 
 1839 
 
 Joseph 
 
 Mary Fran- 
 ces. 
 
 Frederic IV. 
 
 Mustapiia 11. 
 
 DIED 
 
 Achmellll. 1703 
 
 Ferdi. VI. 
 Charles III. 
 
 Christian VL 
 
 Frederic V 
 
 Christi. Vll. 
 
 John VI. 
 
 Maria da 
 Gloria 
 
 Ulrica 
 Frederic 
 
 Mahomet V, 
 
 Adolphus Osman II. 1757 
 
 Frederic 
 
 JMustapha III. 
 
 Charles IV. 
 [abd 
 
 Ferdi. VII. 
 
 Frederic VI. 
 
 GustavusIII. 
 
 [assassin. 
 
 GustavusIV 
 [dep 
 
 Achmet IV 
 
 Selim III. 
 
 1759 
 
 Charles XIII Mahmoud II 
 
 Charles John 
 XIV. 
 
 Isabella II. 
 
 Christ. VIII. 
 
 Abdul -Sedjini 
 
460 
 
 TABLE OF COXTE>{PORARY SOVEREIGNS 
 
 Acces 
 
 . 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 
 ~ 
 
 sion. 
 
 RUSSIA, 
 
 POL.\ND. 
 
 PRUSSIA. 
 
 SARDINIA. 
 
 HOLLAND. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1613 
 
 Michael Foe- 
 dorovvitscli 
 
 
 
 
 
 1632 
 
 
 Ladislaus V 
 
 
 
 
 1645 
 
 Alexis Mich. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1648 
 
 
 John Casi- 
 mir. 
 
 
 
 
 1669 
 
 
 MichaelCori- 
 but. 
 
 
 
 •• 
 
 1673 
 
 
 John Sobi- 
 
 
 .. 
 
 . . 
 
 i 
 
 eski. 
 
 
 
 
 1676 1 Fsdor 
 
 
 
 
 
 1682 
 
 I wan 
 
 
 
 
 \ \ 
 
 16S5 
 
 Peter the 
 Great. 
 
 
 
 
 •• 
 
 1696 
 
 
 Frederic Au- 
 gustus II. 
 Elector of 
 Saxony 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 r,oo 
 
 
 
 Frederic I. 
 
 
 
 1705 
 
 
 Stanislaus 
 Leczinski 
 
 
 •• 
 
 ■• 
 
 1709 
 
 
 Augustus 
 restored 
 
 
 •• 
 
 " 
 
 1713 
 
 
 
 Frederic 
 William I. 
 
 Victor Ama- 
 deusll. 
 First King 
 
 '• 
 
 1725 
 
 Catherine 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1727 
 
 Peter II. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1730 
 
 Anne 
 
 
 
 
 
 1732 
 
 
 
 
 Chas. Eman- 
 uel III. 
 
 '• 
 
 1740 
 
 Iwan in. 
 murdered 
 
 
 Frederic II. 
 the Great 
 
 
 •• 
 
 1741 
 
 Elizibeth 
 
 
 
 
 
 1762 
 
 Peter III. 
 murdered 
 
 
 
 
 •• 
 
 1764 
 
 Catherine II. 
 
 Stanislaus 
 
 Poniatowski 
 
 dep. 1798. 
 
 
 
 " 
 
 1772 
 
 
 st Partition 
 
 
 
 
 1773 
 
 
 
 
 Victor Amad. 
 III. 
 
 •' 
 
 1786 
 
 
 
 Frederic 
 William 11. 
 
 
 " 
 
 1793 
 
 
 2d Partition 
 
 
 
 
 1795 
 
 
 3d Partition 
 
 
 
 
 1795 
 
 Paul murd. 
 
 
 
 Charles 
 
 Emanuel IV. 
 
 abdicated 
 
 
 1797 
 
 
 
 Frederic 
 William III. 
 
 
 
 ISOl 
 
 Alexander 
 
 
 
 VirtorEman. 
 V. abdicated 
 
 
 1802 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1S06 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lewis Napoleon 
 
 1S15 
 
 
 Alexander 
 
 
 
 William I. 
 
 1821 
 
 
 
 
 Charles 
 Felix. 
 
 
 1S25 
 
 Nicholas 
 
 Nicholas 
 
 
 
 NETHER- BELGIUM 
 LANDS. 
 
 1531 
 
 
 
 
 Charles 
 Albert 
 
 Will. I. Leopold 
 
 IS40 
 
 
 i 
 
 Frederic 
 William IV. 
 
 1 
 
 
OF THE PRINCIPAL STATES OF EUROPE. 
 
 461 
 
 Acces-j 
 sion. 
 
 A. I). 
 
 SAXONY. 
 
 BAVARIA, 
 
 WIRTEM- i 
 
 BURG. 1 
 
 HANOVER. 
 
 TUSCANY. 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 [Drnest, First 
 
 
 1679 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 Elector. 
 
 
 1698 
 
 Frederic Au- 
 gustus, 
 Elector of 
 
 
 
 
 
 1698 
 1727 
 
 Saxony 
 
 
 i 
 
 George I. 
 George 11, 
 
 
 1733 
 1760 
 
 Augustus II. 
 
 
 ! 
 
 George III. 
 
 "•• 
 
 fFrederic 
 
 •• 
 
 
 
 
 
 Christian 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Frederic 
 
 
 
 
 
 1763 
 
 Augus- 
 tus III. 
 
 King in 
 L lb06. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1767 
 
 
 Charles 
 Duke of 
 Deux 
 Fonts 
 
 
 
 Ferdinand of Aus- 
 
 1790 
 
 
 ■• 
 
 
 
 tria, Grand Duke 
 of Tuscany. 
 
 1795 
 
 
 Maximilian 
 Joseph, 
 King in 
 
 1805. 
 
 
 
 
 1797 
 
 
 
 Frederic 
 
 
 
 
 
 William I. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 King in 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1806. 
 
 
 
 1815 
 
 
 
 
 Erected into 
 a Kingdom. 
 
 
 1816 
 
 
 
 Frederic 
 William 11. 
 
 
 
 1820 
 
 1824 
 
 
 
 
 George IV. 
 
 Leopold IT. 
 
 1825 
 
 
 Lewis 
 Charles 
 
 
 
 
 1827 
 1830 
 
 Anthony 
 
 
 
 William IV. 
 
 
 1836 
 
 Frederic Au 
 
 
 
 
 
 1837 
 
 gustus II. 
 
 
 
 Ernest 
 
 •• 
 
 41 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A.D 
 
 PACK 
 
 1508. League of Cambray _-------! 
 
 Battle oi Aignadel 
 
 1511. 
 
 i^.». Ferdinand conquers Navarre """'"" o 
 
 1512. War between France and England --■""? 
 
 1513. Battle of Guinegate """"""""t 
 oi Floddenfidd -------- 4 
 
 1515. of .l/ario-Tiatt -- - - - " - ' % 
 
 Milan surrenders to Francis I. ------ 5 
 
 II.— 1519. Charles V. elected emperor ----■"*„ 
 
 1320. Diet of Worms— Luther condemned "-"'",„ 
 
 1521. League against France -------- |0 
 
 1522. Isle of Rhodes taken by the Turks --"''{} 
 
 1523. Conspiracy of the Constable Bourbon - - - - " 11 
 Battle of Bm^ra.'tsa— Death of Bayard ' ' ' ' \i 
 
 1525. Siege of Pavia— Francis taken prisoner- - - " ,« Tl 
 
 1527. Holy League. Siege of Rome - 13,14 
 
 III.— 1532. Henry VIll. divorces Queen Catharine - - - ' \i 
 
 1534. Assumes the title of Head of the Church ' ' ' " !I 
 1536. Religious houses suppressed "-"'""' Iq 
 
 Anna Bullen beheaded """'"""on 
 IV.— 1529. Diets held at Spire and at Augsburg - - - - - ^ 
 
 1535. Expedition against Tunis - ^1 
 
 1536. Invasion of France - - - - - - ' o'a ti 
 
 1538. Treaty of JVice. Battle of £sse& - - - - '^'^ 
 
 1541. Expedition against Algiers - - - - - ' or q2 
 
 1542. Battle of CerjsoZe5. Treaty of Cresj??/ - - - -^°'^!, 
 v.— 1547. Change of religion in England - - - " " ' ^' 
 
 Battle of Pinkey ---""■""" oq 
 
 1552. Duke of Somerset beheaded "-"'""",, 
 
 1553. England reunited with the see of Rome """",, 
 1556. Execution of Archbishop Cranmer - - - - " ^^ 
 
 -1516. Death of Luther. War in Saxony " ' ' ' ' 35 
 
 1552. Peace of Passau 
 
 1553. Battle at iiiverhausen 
 
 1555. 
 
 - 36 
 
 „„„. Abdication of Charles V. '''""'' 11 
 1556. Battle of St. Qftiniin. Loss of Calais ' ' ' ' 7, 
 
 1558. Death of Charles V. ~ '''''' '% 
 
 1559. Treaty of CAafeaitCamftresis ~ ' ' ~ ' ' lii 
 VII— Introduction to the history of Norway - - - " " ^^ 
 
 of Sweden and Denmark - 45 
 
 of Russia, Poland, and Prussia, 47, 48 
 
 VIII.— 1563. Council of Trent closed - - ^^ 
 
 1565. Malta besieged - - ' "^Y 
 
 1570. Cyprus taken by the Turks - ^' 
 
 1571. BalWe of Lepanto --------- »* 
 
 IX.— 1559. Civil war in France - ^^ 
 
 1563. Duke of Guise assassinated --"-"*"?? 
 
 1566. Insurrection in Scotland '"ra 
 
 1567. Murder of Darnley - --''''"' la 
 
 1568. Mary Stuart arrested in England " ' ' ' " =2 
 Btitlle of St. i^enis ---''-''' la 
 
 1569_ nf Jarnac—rtf Montcontour ' ' ' ' ' %n 
 
 Eve of St. Bartholomew ------- OJ 
 
 1572. 
 
 N. B. The date of the accession and death of each Sovereign may be found in 
 tlie preceding Table, and is not repeated here. ^2 
 
464 
 
 CHAPTERS 
 
 . A.D. 
 
 X.- 
 
 -1.576. 
 
 
 l.'iTQ. 
 
 
 1581. 
 
 
 1.584. 
 
 
 1.586. 
 
 
 1588. 
 
 
 1589. 
 
 XI.- 
 
 -1589. 
 
 
 1590. 
 
 
 1593. 
 
 
 1597. 
 
 
 1.59S. 
 
 XII.- 
 
 -1600. 
 
 
 1604. 
 
 
 1609. 
 
 XIII.- 
 
 -1594. 
 
 
 1599. 
 
 
 1601. 
 
 XIV.- 
 
 _ 
 
 
 1609. 
 
 
 1610. 
 
 XV.. 
 
 -160.S. 
 
 
 1605. 
 
 
 1618. 
 
 XVI.- 
 
 -1618. 
 
 1627. 
 
 1632. 
 1635. 
 XVII.— 1628. 
 1638. 
 1640. 
 1641. 
 1642. 
 1644. 
 1645. 
 1647. 
 1649. 
 XVIII.— 1636. 
 1638. 
 1640. 
 1643. 
 1645. 
 1648. 
 XIX.— 1649. 
 1650. 
 1651. 
 
 1653. 
 
 XX.-1651. 
 1659. 
 1650. 
 1660. 
 XXI.— 16b0. 
 1665. 
 
 1667. 
 1568. 
 
 XXII.— 
 
 XXIII.-1669. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Catholic League formed by the Duke of Guise - - - 60 
 Union of the Seven Provinces ------ 60 
 
 Portugal conquered by Philip II. - 61 
 
 Antwerp reduced by the Duke of Parma - - - - 62 
 
 Mary Stuart beheaded --------67 
 
 Defeat of the Spanish Armada - - - - _ - gg 
 
 Persecution of the English Catholics ----- 70 
 
 Assassination of Henry III. ---__- 70 
 Accession of the House of Bourbon ----- 71 
 
 Battle of /yri --------- 71 
 
 Dreux taken. Abjuration of Henry IV. - - - - 72 
 
 Battle of Tourvhout -------- 72 
 
 Treaty of Vervins _-_.--_- 73 
 
 Battle of JVeifiport -------- 74 
 
 Siege of Osteiid ---------74 
 
 Truce concluded at the Hague ------ 75 
 
 E.xpulsion of the Morescoes from Spain - - - - 75 
 
 War in Ireland --------- 76 
 
 Essex lord lieutenant --------76 
 
 returns— is executed ------ 77 
 
 Lord Mountjoy defeats Tyrone ------ 77 
 
 Association called The Evangelical Union - - - 79 
 Opposed by the Catholic League ------ 79 
 
 Assassination of Henry IV. .----- SO 
 
 Accession of the house of Stuart to the English throne - 80 
 Gunpowder Plot -------- 82 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh executed - - - - - - 85 
 
 Persecution of the English Catholics' - - - _ 86 
 War in Bohemia ---------88 
 
 The Elector Palatine defeated near Prague - - - 88 
 La Rochelle besieged by Lewis XIII. and Cardinal Richelieu 90 
 Situation of the northern kingdoms ----- 91 
 
 League in Saxony under Gustavus Adolphus - - - 93 
 Battle of i?i«zera -------- 93 
 
 Treaty of Prague ---------94 
 
 Petition of Right i)resented. Duke of Buckingham murdered 95 
 Covenant formed in Scotland ------ 97 
 
 Long Parliament. Irish Rebellion - - - - - 97, 98 
 
 Earl of Stafford beheaded -------98 
 
 Civil War. Yian\e of Edge- Hill 99 
 
 H^liXe o( Marston Moor --99 
 
 Archbishop Laud executed. Battle of JVaseS?/ - - -99,100 
 Charles I. imprisoned --------101 
 
 tried and executed ----- 102,103 
 
 Battle of Wislock - - - - 104 
 
 Siege of Rhinfeld— of Brisac 104,105 
 
 Revolution in Portugal -------- 105 
 
 Death of Richelieu and of Lewis XIII. - - - - 106 
 
 Battle of Thahor --------- 106 
 
 Peace of Westphalia -------- 106 
 
 Commonwealth in England. War in Ireland - - - 107 
 Death of Montrose. Battle at X)z<ntar - - - 108,109 
 Battle of Worcester -------- 109 
 
 War with the Dutch— Blake victorious - - - - 110 
 
 Barebones' Parliament - - - - - - - -111 
 
 Cromwell Protector of the Commonwealth - - - 111 
 Civil War in France - - - - - - - -112 
 
 Treaty of the Pj/renees ------- II3 
 
 Abdication of Christina of Sweden ----- 114 
 
 Peace of O/ii-a - - - 114 
 
 Restoration of Charles II. - - 116 
 
 Naval victories gained over the Dutch. Plague in Lon. 117, 118 
 
 Fire of London ---- 119 
 
 Peace of .Brerfa. Triple Mliavce ----- 120 
 Campaign in Flanders— Victories of Lewis XIV. - -121 
 
 VeacQ of Jiix-la-Chapelle ------- 121 
 
 Test Jict - - - - 124 
 
 Titus Gates - - - 124 
 
 Meal-tub Plot --------- 123 
 
 Rye-house Plot - - - 127^ 12s 
 
 Cundia taken by the Turks ------- 129 
 
INDEX. 165 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHATTERS. A^D. jj^^^^ ^j. york's iiaval victory over De Ruyter - - 130 
 Lewis XIV. invades the United Provinces - - - " |^" 
 
 1674. Franche Comte conquered by him |^^ 
 
 Battle of Seneffe \if. 
 
 1676. Naval battle of Augusta |*^ 
 
 1678. Peace of J^Timeguen "^ 
 
 ^XIV.— 1681. Sirasbur? taken by Lewis XIV. . - - " " " f" 
 
 1683. Sie2e of Vienna— relieved by Sobieski - - , ' , ' \^i 
 
 1684. Lu.xemburg surrenders to Lewis XIV. Genoa bombarded UO 
 
 1685. Edict of Nantes revoked ' ' 1^7 
 
 1687. Battle of Mohatz - - |^' 
 
 1686. League of Augsburg - " ." . " ' .. ' ' \},o 
 XXV —1685. Rebellion and execution of the Duke of Monmouth - - l^o 
 
 1687. Royal edict for liberty of conscience - ' ' ' An 
 1638. Invasion of England by the Prince of Orange - - - j^u 
 
 King James retires to France |^^ 
 
 1690. Battle of the Boyne ---'""'' {40 
 
 Surrender of Limerick t^l 
 
 XXVI.— 1690. Battles of Srajara^ia and of FZewrjts \Jl 
 
 Belgrade taken by the Turks - ^ - " 7 " ' ivi 
 English and Dutch fleet defeated by the French - - - i*^ 
 
 1692. Massacre in the vale of Glencoe |*" 
 
 Naval combat off La Hogue \j 
 
 1694. Battle of Jfeerwinden t^Q 
 
 1697. Treaty of Rysicick \l° 
 
 1699. Battle of Zenta. Peace of Carlowzlz . - - - 1^0 
 
 XXVII.— 1700. Tonningen besieged by the King of Denmark - - - lou 
 
 Copenhagen bombarded by Charles XII. of Sweden - 150 
 
 1701. Philip V. crowned at Madrid |^| 
 
 Grand Alliance signed - - - • - - - "155 
 
 XXVIII.— 1704. Battle of £/e?iAeJ/rt - - - '.',„"„.„" '\v, 
 
 Gibraltar taken by the English under Admiral RooKe - 155 
 
 1706. Battle of iiaz/uZies - - - - - - - - " |^° 
 
 Battles of Oiissaw, Pultaush, and JVar»a - - iw. j^' 
 
 Union of England and Scotland |^° 
 
 XXIX.— 1707. Battle of Almanza {^^ 
 
 1708. of Oadenarde "'"""'"' ifin 
 
 1709. of Maiplaquet ' ' Ifin 
 
 of Pultowa |g2 
 
 XXX.— 1713. Peace of C/<rec/it 162 163 
 
 1714 Treaty of Radstadt - - - ' , " ,: i, .. ^ ' \A 
 Accession of the house of Hanover to the English throne 156 
 1715. Character of Lewis XIV. Science and literature - 164-166 
 Jansenism - - - - ",%»," " ' iR-f 
 
 Insurrection in Scotland under the Earl of Marr - - lb7 
 
 Prince James landed in Scotland— his troops defeated - 167 
 
 XXXI.-1710. Triumph of Peter the Great - |o^ 
 
 1711. Peace between Russia and Turkey j'" 
 
 1713. Victories of the czar in Finland a'^ 
 
 1715. Wismar and Stralsund surrender - - - - - j'^ 
 1718. Siege of Freierics/iaZi and death of Charles AIL - - ' \ir. 
 1721. Peace between Russia and Sweden " ' " " 17I 
 
 1725. Accession of Catherine I. - " .. ■ ^ * ' co'y„,„AAi\ 
 XXXII.— 1717. Victory over the Turks at Pelerwaradin and siege of Belgrade 175 
 
 1718. Peace of Passarowitz \!^ 
 
 Quadruple Alliance f'^ 
 
 1719. Rise of the South Sea scheme |'" 
 
 1725. Treaty of Vienna f'' 
 
 1726. of Hanover - - " ' , %«,'-," ' Uo 
 
 Siege of Phillipsburg— Death of the Duke of Berwick - 1/8 
 
 1735. Peace between France and Germany |79 
 
 Oczakow taken by Russia - - ■„ ' .' " ,Ln 
 
 1739. Treaty between Germany and Turkey, at Belgrade - _ - I'iv 
 
 \XXIII.-1740. Death of Emperor Chas. VI. War for Austrian succession 80 
 
 1741. Battle of Jlf-»^rif:— Reduction of Silesia - - - ^°^' j°; 
 
 Revolution in Russia ' " 183 
 
 Siege of Prague -''"'"''' 104 
 
 1742. Battle of Czaslaw iS; 
 
 Treaty of Breslau --""'*'"' 107 
 
 1743. Battle of Deitingen Jog 
 
 Treaty of IVorms --100 
 
4G6 
 
 CHAPTERS. A.D. 
 
 1745. 
 
 1746. 
 XXXIV.— 1746. 
 
 1747. 
 1748. 
 XXXV.-1751. 
 1755. 
 1732. 
 
 1756. 
 
 1757. 
 
 XXXVI.— 1758. 
 
 1759. 
 
 XXXVII.- 
 
 1763. 
 XXXVIII.-1764. 
 
 1768. 
 
 1772. 
 
 XXXIX.— 1773. 
 
 1772. 
 
 1775. 
 1776. 
 
 1780. 
 1782. 
 
 I7S4, 
 XL.— 1779. 
 
 1783. 
 
 1787. 
 
 1791. 
 XLI.— 1789. 
 
 1790. 
 1791. 
 
 1792. 
 
 1793. 
 
 XLII.— 1792. 
 
 1793. 
 
 1794. 
 1795. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Treaty of Frankfort - - - - - - - -190 
 
 Battle of Fontenoy 192 
 
 of Preston Pans - - 193 
 
 of CuUoden 194 
 
 Campaign in the Netherlands - - - - - - 195 
 
 Battle of St. Lazaro 196 
 
 oi Val. Siege of Bergen-op-Zooin - - . . 1!'6 
 
 TrediXy of Jiix-la-Chapelle - - - - - - 197 
 
 New Style introduced into England - - - - - I9b 
 
 Earthquake at Lisbon ----... lyg 
 
 War ill India — Arcot taken by Mr. Olive - . _ . 200 
 Fort-William surrendered to Surajah Dowlah - - 201 
 Jansenism condemned -------- 202 
 
 The Jesuits expelled from France, (1764) ... 203 
 
 King of Prussia enters Dresden ------ 204 
 
 Convention of Closter-seven ------ 205 
 
 Calcutta and Chandernagore reduced ----- 205 
 
 Minden and Embden conquered . - - _ . 206 
 Louisburg, Fort Lewis, in America, and Goree, in Africa, 
 
 reduced -----.-.-.206 
 Battle of Minden --------- 206 
 
 of Cunnersdorf ------- 207 
 
 Conquest of Quebec, by General Wolfe - - - 207, 208 
 Berlin, Leipzig, Torgaw, &c., taken by the Imperialists - 208 
 Pondicherry taken by England -.---. 209 
 Family Compact- - - - - - - - -210 
 
 Silesia conquered by Prussia --._.- 212 
 
 Ba.\.\.\e of Freyhiirg 212 
 
 Havana and the Philippines taken by England - - - 212 
 TreaX'XQS of Paris ai\A Hubertsburg ----- 213 
 Warsaw invested by the army of Catherine II. - - - 214 
 War between Russia and Turkey ... - - 214 
 First partition of Poland --_._.- 215 
 Suppression of the Society of Jesus . _ - 215 — 217 
 Revolution in Sweden ---...-- 217 
 
 in Denmark -----__ 218 
 
 War with the American Colonies - _ . . _ 218 
 
 Boston bombarded — thirteen United States renounce their 
 
 allegiance to the British crown - - - _ _ 219 
 
 Riots in London -- 220 
 
 Naval victory gained by Edmund Rodney .... 222 
 The Spaniards defeated at Gibraltar - - . - 222 
 
 Peace proclaimed between England and America - - 223 
 
 Treaty of Teschen 224 
 
 The Crimea and part of the Kuban conquered by Russia - 224 
 Peace between Russia and Turkey ----- 225 
 
 Pius VI. visits Vienna 226 
 
 War against Russia, by Sweden and Turkey - . _ 228 
 Battle of Rimnik—Ocza.kov and Tutukay captured by Russia 229 
 Ismail taken by assault ------- 229 
 
 Belgrade taken by Marshal Laudohn .... - 229 
 
 Peace between Russia and Turkey ----- 230 
 
 Meeting of the States-General at Versailles - - -230 
 The National Assembly constituted, June 17 - - - 232 
 
 The Bastile carried by storm, July 14 233 
 
 Meeting of the Champ de Mars ... - - 236 
 
 Treaty of Pilnitz - 237 
 
 Constitution accepted — Legislative Assembly - - - 2.38 
 10th of August— 2d of September .... - 238, 239 
 
 Invasion of France— Retreat of the Prussians - - 241 
 
 Battle of Jcmappe --------- 242 
 
 National Convention succeeds the Legislative Assembly 242 
 
 Execution of Lewis XVI. 243 
 
 Gustavus III. of Sweden assassinated . . - . 244 
 France declared war against England . - _ - 245 
 
 Insurrection in La Vendee. Battle of JSTeerwinden - - 245 
 French fleet defeated by Earl Howe ----- 246 
 Execution of Marie Antoinette, of France . - _ 246 
 Toulon bombarded ---.--_. 247 
 Battle of Fleurus ----.---250 
 Prince of Orange quits Holland - - - _ - . 251 
 
INDEX. 467 
 
 CHAPTERS. A.T). PAGE 
 
 1795. Treaty of B«.«Ze. Directory established - - - 251, 25*2 
 Expedition of Quiberon -----._ 253 
 
 XLIII.— 1796. Second partition of Poland 253 
 
 ('onqiiests in Persia by Russia - _ _ _ _ 254 
 
 1797. Naval victory off Cape St. Vincent, by Sir J. Jervis - - 256 
 
 at Caw;)en/(j!07i, by Admiral Duncan - 256 
 
 XLIV. — 1796. Campaisn in Italy, under Bonaparte ; battle of Montenotte - 257 
 
 Battle of Lodi 25S 
 
 of Rovtrido and Creole . . . . . -259 
 
 1797. Treaty of Tolentino - - 259 
 
 of Campo Formio ---..__ 260 
 
 Switzerland revolutionized and called Helvetic Republic 261 
 
 1798. Insurrection in Ireland, battle of Fineo-ar /fJW - - -261 
 Congress of Radstadt ---__.- 262 
 French enter Rome, and take the Pope prisoner - - - 263 
 Bonaparte takes Malta and Alexandria - - - - 261 
 defeated by Admiral Nelson in the battle of the 
 
 mie 264 
 
 1T99. Seringapatam taken by storm, Tippoo slain - - -265 
 
 Naples and Sardinia subdued by the French - - - 266 
 
 Russians and Ausfrians victorious in Italy - - - - 267 
 
 ISOO. Union of England and Ireland 268 
 
 1799. Directory overturned — Battle of JVovJ - - - - -269 
 
 ISOO. Battles of Montebello and Marengo 270 
 
 1801. Treaty of Luneville 271 
 
 Battle of Copenhagen ____--- 271 
 of j^ftou/iir or Alexandria ----- -272 
 
 1S02. Treaty of ^/n Jens 273 
 
 XLV.— Concordat between France and the Pope - - - - 274 
 
 Counter-revolution in Switzerland ----- 277 
 
 Declaration of war against France by England - - -279 
 
 XLVL— 1803. rianover taken bv the French - - T - - - 280 
 
 Battle of ./^ssye 281 
 
 1S04. Duke d'Enghien executed ------ 283 
 
 Bonaparte crowned emperor ._.-.- 265 
 
 Memmingen and Ulm surrender to the French - - 291 
 
 1605. BA\.\.\eoi Jlusterlitz -292 
 
 of Trafalo-ar - - 294 
 
 1806. Treaty of Presburjr 295 
 
 XLVIl.— Death of Right Hon. William Pitt 296 
 
 nettle ofJMaida, in Calabria 298 
 
 Confederation of the Rhine ------ 299 
 
 Death of Right Hon. C. J. Fox - - - - - - 301 
 
 Battle of Jena 301 
 
 1805. Cape of Good Hope surrendered to the English - - - 304 
 
 1807. B:i\l]es of Ei/laii ami of Fricdland . . . . 306,307 
 Treaty of Tilsit - - - - - , - - - - 307 
 
 XLVTII. — Copenhagen bombarded and the Danish fleet surrendered 310 
 War between France and Portugal— The royal family emi- 
 grate to Brazil -311 
 
 1808. The French enter Rome 315 
 
 Ab. of Chas. IV. and Ferd. VII.— Massacre in Madrid 318—320 
 Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain — Dupont surrenders with 
 
 his army to Castanos, and the French fleet to Morla 3'20, 321 
 
 Murat, King of Naples 321 
 
 Battles of /fo/eia and Vinieini ------ 32.i 
 
 1309. of Cor«?irjft and death of Sir J.Moore - - -328 
 
 Insurrection in Turkey ------- 329 
 
 Revolution in Sweden -------- 330 
 
 Battle of Talaoera 331 
 
 of Jispern -AniX KsxUng 334 
 
 of fVairraiii and Zaaijm ------ 335 
 
 Peace of K/enna --------- 33a 
 
 British expedition to the island of Walcheren - - 336 
 
 The Lsles of Martinico, Bourbon, Zante, &c., and the colony 
 of Ciyenne, taken by Britain ----- 337 
 
 Rome annexed to the French empire ----- 3.37 
 
 Pope Pius VII. conducted to Savona . - - - 340 
 XLIX.— Successes of the French in Spain - - - - -342 
 
 of Mas^ena, in Portugal, till his retreat - - 343 
 
 1810. Conquests by the British, in the east 344 
 
468 
 
 CHAPTERS. A.D. 
 
 1810. 
 
 LI. 
 
 1813. 
 
 LII.-1814. 
 
 1III.-1815. 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Marriage of Napoleon with M. Louisa of Austria - - '345 
 Election of Gen. Bernadotte as Crown-prince of Sweden - 346 
 Prince of Wales declared regent - - - _ . 347 
 Bailie of ^Ibuera ------._. 343 
 
 of Barossa ------.. 350 
 
 Right Hon. Mr. Percival shot ----.. 356 
 Ciudad Rodrigo taken by Lord Wellington - - - 358 
 Lord Wellington takes Badajoz by storm - . . . 35^j 
 Battle of Salamanca -----... 35>3 
 
 ■ of Smolensk and Boroditio ---__. 363 
 
 The French enter Moscow --__.. .^(34 
 Battle of jBomoK -----.__. 3^6 
 
 of the Beresina ----._. 357 
 
 War between England and the United States - - - 263 
 Concordat of Fontainebleau --._.. 373 
 
 Battle of Lutzen 376 
 
 of Dresden -----.._ 377 
 
 of Leipzig ------.__ 379 
 
 Leipzig carried by assault ----._ 379 
 
 Battle of Vittoria, June 2Ist 3Si 
 
 PampeJuna surrendered to Don Carlos d'Espana - - 382 
 Counter-revolution in Holland ---_._ 333 
 
 Treaty of .ffieZ ---_ 395 
 
 Battles of Chainj)-Aubert and Montmirail - - - - 385 
 Congress of Chatillon ----... 385 
 Napoleon defeated before Laon ---... 357 
 Battle of Orlhes -----... 3^8 
 
 ofArcis -------.. sgg 
 
 The allies enter Paris, March 31st ----- 391 
 Napoleon abdicates the throne of France - - . . 395 
 
 Battle of Toulouse 397 
 
 Genoa capitulates to Lord W. Bentinck - . . . 397 
 Pius VII. returns to Rome ----._ 35? 
 
 Lewis XVIII. enters Paris, May 3d 401 
 
 Ferdinand VII. is restored to his dominions - . . 401 
 Definitive treaty of peace signed at Paris - - . . 402 
 Union of Norway and Sweden - _ _ . ^ 402 
 
 Congress of Vienna installed ----.. 40J 
 
 Attack upon the city of Washington - _ . _ 4o§ 
 Treaty of Ghent between England and the United States - 406 
 Napoleon returns to France ---._. 407 
 Lewis XVIII. retires to Lisle ------ 410 
 
 Champ de Jilai, June 1st - - - - - - - 411 
 
 Murat defeated near Tolentino, and deposed - - . 415 
 
 Battle of Qiiatre Bras - - 414 
 
 of Z,?ff7?2', June 16th ---.-. -414 
 
 of fVaterloo, June I8th ------ 415 
 
 Paris invested by the allies, capitulates, July 3d - - - 419 
 
 surrendered to the British army, July feih - - 420 
 
 Lewis XVIII. re-entered Paris on the 8th July - - - 420 
 Napoleon embarked for St. Helena, August 5th - - 420 
 Joachim Murat shot in the Neapolitan territory - - - 421 
 Colonel Labedoyere and Marshal Ney tried and executed 423 
 King of Candy, in Ceylon, subjected to the British crown - 424 
 Treaty of Vienna, signed November 20th, 1815 - - 424 
 
 Addenda 
 
 4-25 
 
 THE END 
 
7- '.