( \f* 1C m EUROPEAN HISTORY. Fyffe's (C. A.) Modern Europe. 3 vols. 8vo, $2.50 per volume. Volume I. From 1792 to 1814. With two maps. Second Amer- ican Edition, viii + 541 pp. 8vo. Volume II. From 1814 to 1848. xii -f- 513 pp. 8vo. Volume III. From 1848 to 1878. (With General Index.) viii-f 572 pp. 8vo. $2.50 per volume. Duruy's (Victor) Middle Ages. Translated from the twelfth edi- tion. With notes and revisions by GEOKGE B. ADAMS, Ph.D., Professor in Yale University. With 13 colored maps, xv + 588 pp. 12mo. $2. Duruy's (Victor) Modern Times (1453-1789). Translated from the French and annotated by EDWARD A. GROSVENOR, Professor of French in Amherst College, and Professor of History in Smith College. 540 pp. 12mo. With six colored maps. to $/i. Symonds' (J. A.) Renaissance in Italy. 7 vols. 8vo. Bound m red and gold. $2 per volume. Part I. Age of Despots. Part II. The Revival of Learning. Part III. The Fine Arts. Part IV. Italian Literature. With portrait of author. 2 vois. Part V. 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EDITOR'S PREFACE. MONSIEUR DURUY'S " Histoire des Temps Modernes " is unique. His skill and comprehensive grasp are equally manifest in what he has omitted and in the vivid promi- nence given to what is most essential. President C. K. Adams says of this book in his "Manual of Historical Literature": "It is doubtful whether any other single volume on the period of which it treats can be of so much value to the student." A work thus guaranteed needs no further credential. But it is of interest that its author is one of the foremost contemporary French writers ; that he was for years Minister of Public Instruction in France ; and that no foreigner has better appreciated or more admired those grand political ideas which underlie our national insti- tutions and dominate our national life. This work traces the gradual elaboration of principles which on this side the ocean have attained their fullest development. Moreover, it is well for us Americans to gaze sometimes upon the processional march of trans- atlantic events from a continental standpoint, and not, as we commonly do, through the medium of insular and British eyes. Thus only can our education become broad and cosmopolitan as it ought to be. By rendering this compendium more accessible one con- tributes to the pursuit of studies which are inspiring in themselves and most beneficent in their results. I espe- cially thank my colleagues Professors Frink, Genung, and Todd for suggestions and information which have been invaluable in the accomplishment of this task. EDWIN A. GROSVENOR, AMHERST, May j/, AUTHOR'S PREFACE. THIS volume contains the history in general of the European states from 1453 to 1789, that is to say, from the close of the Middle Ages to the commencement of contem- poraneous history. Upon the three and a half centuries which preceded 1789 we can now pronounce consummatum est. The French Revolution, which tends more and more to become a European revolution, separates the utterly dead old regime from the new regime inaugurated by the grand leaders of the Constitutional Assembly. The Middle Ages had been characterized by the prepon- derance of local powers, and by the most complete develop- ment of individual energies, at least among the lords of feudalism and the burgesses of the communes. The dis- tinguishing feature of Modern Times is found in the pre- ponderance of the central power, or the absolute authority of the kings, and in state action substituted for that of com- munities. But while the power and political life of the nations were concentrated in the hands of their chiefs, intelligence, by a contrary effort breaking its fetters, was diffused everywhere and upon all. The revolution was the struggle of these two opposing forces. So their reconciliation that of social order with liberty, or the development of individual activity and individual rights conjointly with the strength of the state is the problem of our age, and will be the dominant characteristic of future society. I do not claim to include in this volume all even of the prominent facts which have been produced from 1453 to 1789, but only to give a rapid sketch of European life in general, and of those momentous events which permit us to trace its progressive march. VI AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The word revolution occurs often in these pages. It is because I know no other to express those modifications which are continually operating in the life of nations. Science has demonstrated that there is not one of our organs whose elements are not in a brief space of time completely replaced. If the human body is thus the theater of an incessant renovation and transformation, what must that not be which is accomplished at the heart of that social order on which so many influences exert their powerful action ? There are persons whom the mere word revolution appalls. Let us have none of those childish terrors ; let us look everything in its face, and we shall behold the mena- cing phantom transform itself into a prudent and necessary counselor. Why should that word which serves to indicate eternal wisdom when describing celestial motion become a cause of terror when used to represent the general move- ments of the moral world ? The History of Modern Times, beheld I dare not say from above, but from a distance, is summed up in a small number of dominant facts. The rest is episodic. First, there is the political revolution which intrusts to the hand of kings the authority formerly wielded by the lords ; its inevitable consequence is found in great foreign wars. The kings in truth do not resist the temptation of employing for their personal ambition the national forces which they control. Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I. seek beyond the Alps crowns which others seize ; and the result of the first Italian wars is the predominance of Spain and of the house of Austria upon the peninsula. While the kings wrestle with each other along their frontiers, Christopher Columbus, Raphael, Copernicus, Rabelais, and the predecessors of Bacon and Descartes unveil new worlds. Maritime commerce is born among the western nations ; the precious metals by their sudden abundance produce effects analogous to those of which we ourselves are witnesses, and personal property is amassed in the hands of plebeians. The arts, letters, sciences, and philosophy are transformed : in a word there is the revolu- tion, or, as the men of the sixteenth century called it by an expressive and charming name, the Renaissance, which is wrought in ideas and interests as it is wrought in politics, and which is brought about even in creeds. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. Vll But the vanquished past is restive under its defeat ; feu- dalism seeks a new life in making use of Protestantism. Though it fails in France, where, under the bloody ruins piled up by religious wars, Henry IV. finds again the rights and the authority of Francis I., it succeeds in Germany, where the peace of Augsburg, prelude to the treaties of Westphalia, consecrates the independence of the princes and the ruin of imperial authority. At the same time by the Council of Trent and by the creation of the Jesuit order the Catholics determine at the heart of the Church a movement of concentration akin to that accomplished in social order. The absolute authority of the pontifical monarchy is founded ; protesting against the new spirit, Rome at last assumes the arms of austerity and discipline. At the service of the Catholic restoration Philip II. places the treasures of the New World and his veteran Spanish troops. The great battle of creeds is joined, but the victory is won by the ideas of toleration represented by Henry IV. Spain declines and France ascends. During the second half of the sixteenth century every- thing had taken on a religious form : the democratic aspira- tions of the great cities were called the Holy League ; the desires for independence of the provincial nobility, Calvin- ism ; the kings were by turns on one side or the other. In the seventeenth everything became again political. Richelieu, a state cardinal, as the Pope in disdain entitled that priest, who was the ally of the Protestant powers, was its highest expression, and thanks to him the preponderance exercised by the house of Austria passed to the house of Bourbon. But Louis XIV. commits the same fault as Charles V. and Philip II. in undertaking for his own account their ambitious projects. He abandons the traditional policy of France, that of Francis I., of Henry II., of Henry IV., and of Richelieu ; he repudiates the Protestant alliances ; he exhausts his kingdom to dominate Europe in the name of his dynasty, which he renders usurping, and in the name of Catholicism, which he renders persecuting ; and he descends to the tomb as sad as the mighty vanquished of the pre- ceding age, discrowned of his glory, with the grief of see- ing new stars climb the horizon which eclipse his own. To Louis XIV. is due the greatness of Prussia and England. Vlll AUTHOR'S PREFACE. In the eighteenth century France descends still lower. At Rossbach she seems to lose even her military qualities, and is as destitute of great generals as of great bishops and great ministers of state. Another power of former times, even Austria, has the same fate as France. In Germany she loses a vast and opulent province, in Italy a kingdom ; then by a strange overturning of political ideas those two irreconcilable enemies, who for two hundred years disputed the supremacy against each other, unite without being able to regain their military honor or restore their compromised fortune. In the presence of these venerable monarchies, which decline in consequence of their errors, young and valiant states grow strong through the skill of their leaders, the devotion of their peoples, or the virtue of their free institu- tions. Prussia under Frederick II. doubles her resources and becomes conscious of her strength ; under Peter the Great and Catherine II. Russia is born, and speedily casts her threatening shadow over the eastern half of Europe ; Eng- land at last grasps the scepter of the seas, while time solid- ifies her successful revolution of 1688, and she accomplishes the task of the coalition which was roused against France by the disastrous ambition of Louis XIV.; moreover, she banishes from almost all the two Indies the flag of the French. But, like the Hapsburgs and the Bourbons, she misuses her victory. She claims upon the seas the supremacy which Philip II. and Louis XIV. sought upon the Continent, and against her the coalition is renewed ; her colonies revolt ; under the thunderclap of 1789 which revolutionizes every- thing maritime despotism is compromised just as continental despotism had been broken. The triumph of the English colonie's on the other side of the Atlantic had a far other reach than the victors them- selves believed. It was not only American independence which the starry flag bore in its folds ; it was the harbinger of a commercial policy which was to produce a new revolution in the economical interests of the world. Resultant of the victory of Washington there was a future which is the pres- ent to-day, the abolition of monopolies, of the slave trade, and of the colonial system, whose vigorous formula had been drawn up by Colbert and the Long Parliament. Freedom AUTHOR'S PREFACE. IX of colonial commerce and of the seas found its germ in the liberty of the revolutionists in America. While beyond the ocean a new people arose, in the midst of our aged continent a people, ancient, heroic, necessary, was blotted from the roll of nations. Poland was invaded and dismembered ; Prussia, Russia, and Austria shared its bloody fragments. Herein was a political crime which caused torrents of blood and tears to flow, the fountains of which are not yet dry. England and France allowed the tragedy to be accom- plished, absorbed as were both by the American war, which was drawing nigh ; the latter by the intellectual agitation, which was become formidable. France in the eighteenth century had regained in letters the influence she had lost in war. Nations no longer dominated by her arms submitted to the influence of her mind. Her conquerors even spoke her language, read her books, and were subdued by her ideas. What mattered it to Voltaire that France lost Canada ; to Buffon, to Diderot, to d'Alembert, to the philosophers and literary men of the age, that the Russians marched to Constantinople and the Prussians to Warsaw ? They had another task than to be anxious for the fate of a province, even of an empire. They sought for man, believed they had found him, and meant to make of him a citizen. They studied society, be- lieved it ill built, and desired its reconstruction. There was a civilization to recast. For workmen so ardently em- ployed at such a task what mattered the sound of a stone which was detached from the old edifice and fell ! Those even whom they seemed to threaten listened to them with deference. The monarchs paid court to those men of mind. Everywhere the kings experimented with their ideas, and despite the wars an effort at reformation was made from one end to the other of Europe. It was felt that in the bosom of modern society there existed a profound disagreement ; that in political institutions they were still far in the past, while through ideas they lived in the future. The princes wished to re-establish harmony. For the economists they developed highways, canals, agri- culture ; for Beccaria and Montesquieu they tempered the penal laws and on many points ameliorated legislation ; for Voltaire they spoke of toleration, banished the Jesuits, diminished the number of monasteries, and sought the pub- X AUTHOR'S PREFACE. lie welfare. But they were still seeking, and already some, like Joseph II., had died in their labor ; others, like Charles IV. and Ferdinand IV., were falling back into the old repose, when the dike disastrously built up in France against legitimate desires, and behind which the great waters were heaped together, gave way and everything was swept headlong by the furious torrent. CONTENTS. PAGE EDITOR'S PREFACE, Hi AUTHOR'S PREFACE, * . . v Bool? first REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL 'ORDER, OR DEFINITIVE RUIN OF THE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES, AND A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. CHAPTER I. STATE OF EUROPE AT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. The Boundary between the Middle Ages and Modern Times. Western Europe. Northern, Eastern, and Central States, . I CHAPTER II. FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. Progress of the Royal Authority during the Last Years of Charles VII. Louis XI. (1461-83). League of Public Welfare (1465). Interview of Peronne (1468). Ambition and Death of the Duke of Burgundy (1477). Ruin of the Great Feudal Houses. Death of Louis XI. (1483). Reign of Charles VIII. until the Italian Expedition (1483-94), .... 8 CHAPTER III. ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509. State of England at the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. War of the Roses (1455-85). Henry VII., Tudor (1485-1509). Sup- pression of Public Liberties, . . . . . . .27 x 'l CONTEXTS. CHAPTER IV. SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521. PAGE State of Spain at the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. Navarre, Aragon, and Castile. Portugal, 39 CHAPTER V. GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. Divisions of Germany and Italy. The Emperors Frederick III. and Maximilian. Italy in the Second Part of the Fifteenth Cen- tury, 51 CHAPTER VI. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE FROM 1453 TO 1520. Mohammed II. (1451-81). Ba'iezid II. and Selim I. (1481-1520), 67 Boofe Seconfc. CONSEQUENCES OF THE POLITICAL REVO- LUTION. FIRST EUROPEAN WARS (1494-1559). CHAPTER VII. THE ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). the Preceding Period. Expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy (1494). Louis XII. (1498-1515). New Conquest of the Milanais by Francis I. (1515), 75 CHAPTER VIII. THE FIRST PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA (1519-29). Francis I. and Charles V. First War (1521-25). Second War (1526-29). Treaty of Cambrai, . . . . . . 91 CONTENTS. Xlll CHAPTER IX. THE SECOND PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. INTERVENTION OF TURKEY AND ENGLAND (1529-47). PAGE New System of French Alliances. Charles V. before Tunis and Algiers. Third War with France (1536-38). Fourth War (1542-44), 99 CHAPTER X. THE THIRD PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA (1547-59). Supremacy of Charles V. Fifth War against France (1547-56). Last Struggle for Italian Independence. Treaty of Cateau- Cambresis (1559), .... .... 109 3Boofe REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS, IDEAS, AND CREEDS. CHAPTER XI. THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, OR DISCOVERY OF AMERICA AND OF THE PASSAGE TO INDIA. First Maritime Discoveries. Vasco da Gama (1497) and the Colon- ial Empire of the Portuguese. Christopher Columbus (1492). Cortes (1519). Magellan (1520). Pizarro (1529). Colonial Empire of the Spaniards. Consequences of the New Discoveries. Introduction of Posts and of Canals with Locks, . . . 118 CHAPTER XII. REVOLUTION IN LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, OR THE RENAISSANCE. Invention of Printing. Renaissance of Letters. Renaissance of Arts. Renaissance of Sciences, 138 CHAPTER XIII. REVOLUTION IN CREEDS, OR THE REFORMATION. State of the Clergy in the Sixteenth Century. Luther : The Refor- mation in Germany and in the Scandinavian States (1517-55). xiv CONTENTS. PAGE Zwingli and Calvin : The Reformation in Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Scotland (1517-59). The Reformation in England (1531-62). Principal Differences among the Protestant Churches, 160 3Boofe jFourtb.. THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION AND THE RELIGIO US WA RS. PREPONDER- ANCE OF SPAIN. CHAPTER XIV. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. Reforms at the Pontifical Court and Attempts at Reconciliation with the Protestants. Defensive Measures : The Inquisition, the Index, the Jesuits. Council of Trent (1545-63), . . . 189 CHAPTER XV. THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98). The Catholic Chiefs and the Protestant Chiefs. Struggle of the two Religions in the Netherlands ; Formation of the Republic of the United Provinces (1566-1609). Struggle of the two Reli- gions in England ; Elizabeth and Mary Stuart ; the Great Armada (1559-1588). Religious Wars in France (1562-98), 201 CHAPTER XVI. CONSEQUENCES OF THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN FRANCE, SPAIN, ENGLAND, AND HOLLAND. Decline and Ruin of Spain. Prosperity of England and Holland. Reorganization of France by Henry IV. (1598-1610), . . 235 Boofe jfiftb. THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIII. AND LOUIS XIV. (1610-1715). CHAPTER XVII. Louis XIII. AND RICHELIEU INTERNAL PACIFICATION (1610-43). The Minority of Louis XIII. and the Regency of Marie de Medici (1610-17). Richelieu humbles the Protestants and the High Nobility (1624-42), ........ 255 CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XVIII. THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. PAGE The Northern Countries and Germany at the Time of the Thirty Years' War. The Thirty Years' War ; the Palatine and Danish Periods (1618-26) ; the Swedish and French Periods (1630-48), 267 CHAPTER XIX. ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS AND CROMWELL. The Stuarts : James I. (1603-25) ; Charles I. (1625-40). The Long Parliament (1640-1649). The Commonwealth of England (1649-60) 286 CHAPTER XX. FRANCE FROM 1643 TO 1661. CONDITION OF EUROPE IN 1661. Mazarin and the Fronde. War with Spain ; Treaty of the Pyre- nees (1659). Condition of Europe in 1661, .... 311 CHAPTER XXI. THE REIGN OF Louis XIV. TO THE WAR OF THE LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG. Administrative Centralization of France; Colbert and Louvois. War in Flanders (1667). First Coalition against France (1668). War with Holland (1672). Conquests by Louis XIV. in Time of Peace. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), . . 329 CHAPTER XXII. REVOLUTION OF 1688 IN ENGLAND. SECOND AND THIRD COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. PEACE OF RYSWICK (1697) AND OF UTRECHT (1713). Charles II. and James II. (1660-88). Wars of the League of Augsburg (1688-97) and of the Spanish Succession (1701- 13) 349 CHAPTER XXIII. LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Letters and Arts in France. Letters and Arts in Foreign Countries. The Sciences in the Seventeenth Century, .... 365 XVI CONTENTS. Booft Sijtb. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. GREATNESS OF ENGLAND, RUSSIA, AND PRUSSIA. CHAPTER XXIV. RISE OF RUSSIA AND RUIN OF SWEDEN. PAGE Peter the Great and Russia at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Cen- tury ; Power of Sweden ; Narva and Pultowa. Charles XII. at Bender; Treaties of the Pruth (1711) and Nystadt (1721) Second Journey of Peter to Europe (1716) ; St. Petersburg ; The Czar Chief of the Russian Church, .... 387 CHAPTER XXV. CREATION OF PRUSSIA. HUMILIATION OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. Regency of the Duke of Orleans ; Ministries of Dubois, of the Duke of Bourbon, and of Fleury (1715-43). Formation of Prussia, and Situation of Austria. War of the Austrian Succes- sion (1741-48). The Seven Years' War (1756-63), . . 401 CHAPTER XXVI. MARITIME AND COLONIAL POWER OF ENGLAND. England from 1688 to 1763. The English East India Company, . 434 CHAPTER XXVII. FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Origin and Constitution of the English Colonies in America. American War (1775-83), 446 CHAPTER XXVIII. DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. DECLINE OF THE OTTOMANS. GREATNESS OF RUSSIA. Russia from Peter the Great to Catherine II. Catherine II. (1762- 96). First Partition of Poland (1772). Treaties of KaTn- ardji (1774) and Jassy (1792). Second and Third Partitions of Poland (1793 and 1795), 457 CONTENTS. xvii 36oofe Seventb. PRELIMINARIES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAPTER XXIX. SCIENCES AND LETTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. PAGE Scientific and Geographical Discoveries. Letters and Arts, . 471 CHAPTER XXX. ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. Disagreement between Ideas and Institutions. Agitation of Mind and Demands for Reforms. Reforms Accomplished by the Governments. Last Years of Louis XV. (1763-74). Politi- cal and Military Decline of France. Attempt at, and then Abandonment of Reforms under Louis XVI. (1774-93), . 484 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST of the Popes, Emperors, and Princes who reigned in the Principal States between 1453 and 1789, . . 517 INDEX, 521 LIST OF MAPS. PAGE FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XL, 1461-1483 ... 26 THE BRITISH ISLANDS, 1066-1603 .... 38 ITALY IN THE XV. CENTURY 74 EUROPE IN 1648 284 EUROPEAN STATES IN 1789 482 HISTORY OF MODERN TIMES. (1453-1789.) BOOK I. REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER, OR DEFINITIVE RUIN OF THE POLITICAL INSTI- TUTIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES, AND A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. CHAPTER I. STATE OF EUROPE AT THE MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. The Boundary between the Middle Ages and Modern Times. Western Europe. Northern, Eastern, and Central States. IT is customary to take the year 1453 as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of Modern Times, because that date marks two important events : the beTweenthe ary capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans, Middle Ages and and the close of the Hundred Years' War ies ' between France and England. But it is in a higher sphere that we must seek reasons for tracing a boundary between these two periods of the world's life, and we should find them in times more recent : at the end of the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth, when was being accomplished the revolution that changed the interests, the ideas, and the creeds of Europe. In 1494 the Italian wars began, and with them the rival- ries and the battles of the great European nations. 2 RE VOL U 7 'ION IN THE POLI1 7CA L ORDER. [BOOK I . In 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America, and five years later Vasco da Gama reached the Indies com- mercial revolution. In 1508 Raphael and Michael Angelo were painting at Rome the loggie of the Vatican and the Sixtine Chapel revolution in the arts. At that period Copernicus was meditating his new sys- tem of the world revolution in science while printing, recently discovered, and classic antiquity, as it were, refound, were making ready a literary revolution. Finally, in 1517, burst forth the voice of Luther religious revolution. Modern civilization is still under the influence of these grand events, but it also remained three or four hundred years under that of another event which was brought about before the rest, namely, the advent of absolute royalty. In the second half of the fifteenth century the kings of France, England, Portugal, and Spain added to their power rights which the Middle Ages had denied them, and which the Roman emperors had formerly exercised. The date 1453, though not rigorously exact, is sufficiently reasonable for us to retain it. Of all the dominant facts which determine the new character of modern history the change in the govern- ments of the peoples is the first to manifest itself and to produce its consequences ; it will also be the first which we shall study, but it is appropriate to enumerate beforehand the different states which divided Europe among them in 1453- At that period the European peoples were not united as to-day by similarity of manners, tastes, habits, and by the thousand ties which frequent relations de- Europe? velop. Hardly did the northern nations know by name those of the south. However, all those peoples were Christian, and, save in the Greek Church, all recognized the spiritual authority of the Popes as successors of St. Peter and vicars of Jesus Christ. Apparently, therefore, Europe, which in the eleventh century had rushed with so much enthusiasm to the crusade when Constantinople was menaced, ought in the middle of the fifteenth to rise en masse against Islam, which now estab- lished its fixed habitation on European soil. Nothing of this was seen, however ; only by the attentive examination CHAP. I.] MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 3 of its political situation shall we discover the causes of its inaction and indifference. France, by the expulsion of the English, had just founded her nationality in an impregnable manner ; her political unity was far from being equally well constituted. The royal domain was hampered on all sides, as was the authority of the king, by the domains or the influence of the feudal nobility, due in great part to the baleful custom of appa- nages. But Charles VII., who had won the title of the Victorious, was about to merit that of the Well Served, thanks to the able ministers who surrounded him, and who, after having reconquered the kingdom, wished to reorganize it. England under an imbecile sovereign, the unhappy Henry VI., and a foreign queen, Margaret of Anjou, saw those catastrophes already being accomplished which foretold the terrible tragedies of the War of the Roses. The most popular prince, the Duke of Gloucester, had just perished in a mysterious manner and without doubt by order of the court (1447). Scotland was the theater of a desperate struggle between the kings and their barons. James I. had been assassinated in 1437 by the grandees. To break their league James II. in his turn poignarded with his own hand their chief, William Douglas, but he died in 1460 leaving as his heir a child seven years of age, James III., who was slain in cold blood after the battle of Sauchieburn (1488). Spain still consisted of five kingdoms. In Castile that very year (1453) the grandees had beheaded the favorite of John II.; and this tragedy shows that there existed neither a strong royalty nor a very tranquil country. So the crusade against the Moors had been abandoned, and the Mussulman king of Granada presumed to interfere in the troubles of the kingdom. But on every side Castile enveloped this last vestige of Arab domination, and was to overthrow it as soon as it regained union, and internal peace. In Navarre the father was fighting against the son. When Castile took possession of the kingdom of Murcia, Aragon was no longer in contact with the Moors, so its kings had turned their ambition toward the Mediterranean and Italy. But Alphonso V. the Magnanimous was him- self about to ruin the greatness of his house by dividing at his death Aragon, Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples between his brother and his son (1458). 4 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. Portugal, also separated from the Moors of Spain, after Cordova and Seville had been captured by the Castilians, and no longer able to aggrandize itself in the peninsula, was entirely given up to discoveries along the African shores. In this path it was going to find a century of pros- perity and power. Italy had freed itself almost completely from German supremacy ; but she had not been able to constitute her national unity, and found herself divided into a crowd of states. Alphonso V. of Aragon reigned at Naples from 1442, and endeavored to extend his influence in upper Italy, where he would gladly have destroyed the fortunes of Sforza. In perpetual revolutions Genoa forgot both Galata, that suburb of Constantinople which the Ottomans had just captured from her, and the dangers which menaced her commerce in the Levant. Embarrassed by her liberty, she yielded alternately to Milan and France. In 1453 for exception she belonged to nobody. Venice had given her- self up to ambition for continental conquests, and had created herself enemies in Italy even, when she ought to have employed all her resources to defend her colonies and her factories against the Ottomans. A condottiere, Francesco Sforza, had just deprived the Visconti of Milan, which he kept despite the emperor and the King of Naples (1447). Peace had just been re-established in the Church by the abdication of Felix V. and the declaration of obedience made by the fathers of the Council of Basel to the new Pope, Nicolas V. (1449). This lettered pontiff welcomed the learned fugitives of Constantinople ; but the papacy, barely escaped from the schism, had not as in the past a voice sufficiently powerful to rouse Christendom against the infidels ; returning to Rome after so long an exile, it found the pontifical states a prey to the most frightful disorder. In Tuscany, Cosmo, son of the banker Giovanni de Medici, lulled the Florentines to sleep by the charm of the arts and poetry. Florence played in Italy only a secondary part, and even shared Tuscany with many republics and seign- iories. Twenty other princes bore sway in the Romagna and in Lombardy ; and a brilliant but corrupt civilization covered all Italy. The eight Helvetic cantons had just concluded an alli- ance with France (1452). The victories over Austria at CHAP. I.] MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTUR Y. 5 Morgarten and Sempach, the recent but glorious defeat of St. Jacques, had carried afar the military renown of these mountaineers. In the north the union formed at Calmar in 1397 between Sweden and Denmark had just been broken. The Swedes had elected a prince of their blood. Charles Notnern, east- . ' em, and central VIII., Canutson (1448) : this election was to become for the two peoples the origin of a hundred years' war. The preponderance on this side be- longed to Denmark. Russia, interested more directly than any other nation in the woes of the Byzantine Greeks, was unable to act ; the Tartars of the Golden Horde held her under their yoke ; the republic of Novgorod isolated her from the Baltic ; Europe was closed to her by Poland. The Grand Duke of Moscow, Basil III., in 1445 had been made prisoner by the Khan of Kazan and compelled to pay ransom. A usurper, Demetrius, had profited by this disaster to overthrow the grand duke and put out his eyes. Basil was restored, but in 1451 the Tartars penetrated as far as the walls of Mos- cow, whence they were repulsed by cannon. Thus far nothing announced the greatness reserved to this empire. But already the Golden Horde was becoming dismem- bered and therefore weakened. The petty principalities and republics were to promptly disappear as soon as the grand duke had nothing more to fear from the Mongols : this soon took place under Ivan III. (1462-1504), that coarse outline of another barbarian of genius who will be called Peter the Great. Ivan is already about to take the title of brother of Qesar Augustus, to espouse a daughter of the Paleologi, as if he wished to proclaim himself heir of the emperors of Constantinople, and allow himself to be called " the star chosen of God to give light to the world." In Prussia and Livonia the Teutonic order, conquered by the Poles, who in 1435 ^ ac ^ stripped it of Pomerelia (Dantzic), was still enfeebled by the insurrection of the cities and country nobles who in 1440 had formed the League of Marienwerder. This league, in spite of a papal excommunication and an imperial command, refused obedience to the order, which, after having ruled in all the north of Europe, was now in full decline. To Poland, Casimir IV. in 1444 had reunited Lithuania. This reunion, precarious though it still was, bestowed 6 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. sufficient strength upon Poland to enable her to hold the foremost place among Slavic states. At the center of the continent Germany, so strong by the number and the warlike spirit of its inhabitants, was con- demned to powerlessness by the vices of its constitution. The feudal aristocracy had almost completely annulled the central power, and the Holy German Empire was only an agglomeration in anarchy of independent states, adjacent but not united, whose chief, without power, without arms, without revenue, possessed only the name of emperor ; so with difficulty did the electors find a man willing to accept the onerous title. One member of the house of Hapsburg- Austria, Frederick of Styria, elected in 1440 after the refusal of the Landgrave of Hesse, delayed three months to com- municate his acceptance, and reigned as Duke of Austria rather than as emperor. However, from Carniola and Car- inthia he could hear the threatening sound of Ottoman progress in the valley of the Danube. But instead of unit- ing energetically with John Huniadi, the heroic defender of Hungary, he retained the young king of that country, Ladis- laus VI., and only gave him up on compulsion in 1453. Master of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia, Ladislaus VI., son of the last Emperor of Germany, could have founded a power which would have become the bulwark of Europe against the Ottomans ; but Bohemia had not yet recovered from the horrid Hussite war. The utraquists there formed a powerful party who had imposed on the prince terms at which he was indignant ; and in Hungary this Austrian king in the midst of the Magyar nobility seemed like a foreign prince. Moreover, he was himself incompetent for the task he should have fulfilled. The Ottomans had been arrested in the valley of the Danube by six Christian states, three south of that river the kingdoms of Bulgaria, Servia, and Bosnia, and three to the north the principalities of Moldavia and Walachiaand the kingdom of Hungary. But in 1453 Bulgaria had been conquered more than half a century before, Servia was in great part subdued, and the Krai had been able to save Belgrade, the key of the valley of the Danube, only by remitting it to the Hungarians (1437) ; Bosnia was already tributary to Mohammed II., and the sultans had long in- scribed Walachia on the lengthy roll of their provinces. Up to that time the Moldavians had escaped the yoke, and the CHAP. I.] MIDDLE OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 7 Hungarians were making head against the storm under their brave chief John Huniadi, to whom his still more fa- mous son Mathias Corvinus was to succeed. Hungary in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries against the Ottomans will be what Poland had been in the thirteenth and four- teenth, the bulwark of Christianity. The Ottomans were then led by one of their most glorious sultans, Mohammed II., who had sworn to capture Constan- tinople, and who on May 29, 1453, kept his oath : Chris- tianity had allowed its last rampart to fall. At the sound of this overwhelming disaster terror spread in Italy. All the princes of the peninsula felt themselves menaced and were solemnly reconciled to each other at Lodi (May 9, 1454). They took up again the thought of the crusades ; this thought crossed the mountains, and at the court of the Grand Duke of the West all the Flemish and Burgundian nobility swore upon the pheasant* to take arms in order to hurl the Ottomans back into Asia. Empty words. The time of the crusades was past, no more to return. Venice treated that very year with Mohammed II., who now ruled from the middle of Asia Minor to the walls of Belgrade and the shores of the Adriatic. In fact Europe was no longer capable of uniting, as at the eleventh century, in one great religious thought, nor was she yet in condition to act in concert for a grand political idea. At the middle of the fifteenth century everyone lived apart in isolation as during the full Middle Ages : there was not a single general question which could rally all the governments ; there was not even any great force to rally the peoples about a principle. However, this force existed, and in France, always the vanguard of Europe, it was already acting. It was royalty which was to draw each state from feudal chaos, to secure internal order, to prepare equality, and through the encouragement given to com- merce, manufactures, letters, and arts to aid in the develop- ment of a new civilization. * The pheasant was served with great ceremony at mediaeval festivities, and in the name of this noble bird oaths were taken to join a crusade 01 to perform any special feat of chivalry. ED. CHAPTER II. FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. Progress of the Royal Authority during the Last Years of Charles VII. Louis XL (1461-83). League of Public Welfare (1465). Inter- view of Peronne (1468). Ambition and Death of the Duke of Bur- gundy (1477). Ruin of the Great Feudal Houses. Death of Louis XL (1483). Reign of Charles VIII. until the Italian Expedition (1483-94). THE French royalty had already passed through many vicissitudes. Clovis and his sons were only warlike chiefs ; progressofthe Hu S h Ca P et was a feudal lord, having one royal authority title more than his vassals, but no more power, year^ofchades Under his earlier successors even this shadow vn. of authority was lost. With Louis the Fat or the Vigilant royalty shook off this torpor, and the king became the chief policeman of the country. By intro- ducing security upon the highways and, above all, better order in society he gained a popularity which doubled his strength. Philip Augustus rendered the royalty con- quering, Louis IX. consecrated it; under Philip the Fair and Philip of Valois it became sufficiently strong to destroy a powerful feudalism, to make itself master of the adminis- tration of the country, to brave the successor of Gregory VII., and to progress toward absolute power. But then the Hundred Years' War began ; France was thrown back into chaos, a new feudalism was formed which was even aided by the enfeebled hands of the royalty : at the begin- ning of his reign Charles VII. was nothing but the King of Bourges. But under the pressure of their misfortunes the French drew nearer each other. At the touch of the foreigner the nation recognized itself, became conscious of its existence, and was saved by that outburst of patriotism which was personified in Joan of Arc. Once delivered from the abyss, it wished to fall back into it no more, rallied around FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. 9 its chief, and bestowed upon him strength in return for the order and security which he assured it. The indolent Charles VII. found himself thus restored to the power which Philip the Fair possessed, and the King of Bourges became Charles the Victorious. Skillful generals Riche- mond, Dunois, La Hire, Xaintrailles led his armies ; wise ministers Jacques Coeur, the Bureau brothers, Chevalier, Cousinot directed his councils ; reforms were accom- plished, victories gained, and France was delivered from the English. Of these reforms the most important was that of the army. In the Middle Ages all the military strength was in the hands of the grandees ; the king, to take it from them and control it, instituted fifteen military companies, which were the beginning of the standing army ; to pay them he introduced an annual impost. At the same time the artillery was put upon a formidable footing. Here- after no good armor could make the noble invulnerable ; there was no wall that could not be thrown down. The bullet traversed all, and the highest towers were the soonest overthrown. But this formidable weapon was very costly : few save the king could have cannon. Shortly he alone was to have them. Then he would possess the two mightiest material forces which exist, money and an army ; and in public opinion he would have still a third title, worth more than both the others. So no feudal ambition could arise without being humiliated, no revolt burst forth without being speedily punished. The nobles made the proof of all this tinder Charles himself. The plots which they formed were impotent, and they passed through a new experience, beholding the law operative in their ranks. A leader in extortions, the bastard brother of the Duke of Bourbon, was sewed up in a sack and cast into a river ; the Lord of Esparre, who intrigued for the English, was beheaded ; the Duke of Alencon, who promised to open his fortress to them, was condemned to death; and the Duke of Armagnac was banished and suf- fered confiscation of his goods. The dauphin himself, who began all the plots against his father, was first reduced to living in his appanage, and then obliged to flee to the Duke of Burgundy. However, the nobility did not accept its defeat. Under Louis XI. it was seen joining in a final battle, for its 10 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER, f BOOK I. dominions and resources were sufficiently vast to give it a legitimate hope of yet being the victor. The force that pressed forward the French royalty and which was going to likewise press forward all European royalties I mean the need of concentration of power acted also in the interior of the great fiefs. The Duke of Brittany, for example, in his western peninsula, so adapted to form a state apart, and the Duke of Burgundy in his vast and opulent provinces of the north and east, dreamed of and attained sovereign authority just like the king, whereby an additional means was placed in their hands to make royalty recoil. The Count of Dunois at the moment when Charles VII. was expiring had expressed the sentiment of all : " Gentlemen, let each one look out for himself." The new king had been during the preceding reign the leader of the malcontents. In 1440 he was the animating spirit of a plot against his father. Later his LouXI.(i46i- y. . . , 63). League of restless spirit and secret intrigues had caused 0465) W inter- ^' s ex i' e to his appanage. Thence he had so viewofPeronne continued his underhand dealings that Charles VII. had sent Dammartin with an army to arrest him. He had escaped, had sought an asylum from the Duke of Burgundy, and was still in the states of that prince when he learned of his father's death. Charles VII., undermined by sickness and fearing a worse disease an experience which happened sometimes, they say, to the enemies of his son let himself die of hunger, July 22, 1461. The grandees believed their reign had come when they saw the former chief of the Praguerie,* the prote'gt of the Duke of Burgundy, almost receive from the latter's hand the crown of France. He quickly undeceived them. He removed the majority of the officers appointed by his father and reinstated those whom he had condemned, as Alencon and Armagnac. The people expected a general abolition of taxes as sign of joyous advent : the permanent tax was raised from 1,800,000 livres to 3,000,000 ; and when riots broke out at Rheims and Rouen he repressed them sternly. * The Praguerie was an insurrection against the king which distracted France in 1440, and which was principally the work of the dauphin Louis. It derived its name from the Bohemian capital Prague, which at the same time was suffering from the atrocities of the Hussite War. ED. CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. II He intimated to the University of Paris the papal prohibition of interfering with the affairs of the king and the city. He curtailed the extraordinarily extended jurisdiction of the parliaments of Paris and Toulouse by creating at their expense in 1462 the parliament of Bordeaux. He had already organized in 1453 that of Grenoble, and later, in 1479, he founded that of Dijon. The ecclesiastical body had not greater reason for satis- faction. The king, less for the sake of pleasing Rome than for displeasing his nobility, revoked the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, despite the remonstrances of Parliament, which represented to him that through annates, anticipatory dona- tions, and the like, the Holy See derived each year from France 1,200,000 ducats ; but he demanded of the clergy an exact cadaster of their property with documents in confirma- tion, a demand which in every respect was menacing for the proprietors. Finally the nobility with fright and anger heard him forbid the chase, lay claim to all the ancient feudal rights, taxes on wines and liquors, the redemptions, wardships, and forfeitures, and draw up enormous lists of taxes in arrears and demand their immediate payment. He did not even treat the high aristocracy more gently. He deprived the house of Breze" of the seneschalship of Normandy ; the house of Bourbon of the government of Guyenne, which he gave to a member of the house of Anjou in order to set the two families at variance ; and he took away from his brother Charles his government of Berry. He obliged the Duke of Brittany to recognize appeals from his court to the parliament of Paris, to pay the dues of feudal vassalage, and to accept the bishops whom he sent him. He arraigned even the powerful house of Burgundy, ransomed from the aged Duke Philip the Good the cities of the Somme, which the Count of Charolais, his son, would not have been willing to restore at any price (1463) ; so, too, he caused the surrender to himself by the King of Aragon of Cerdagne and Roussillon as guarantee of 350,000 gold crowns which he lent him (1462). Louis had not reigned four years when everybody was against him. Five hundred princes or lords formed the League of Public Welfare, inasmuch as they acted, so they said, only through compassion for the miseries of the kingdom occasioned by " the pitiable government of Louis XI." 12 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. Louis judged that so many princes and lords would not speedily set themselves in motion, and that it would be pos- sible for him to win the game by activity and promptitude. He hastened first against the confederates of the south and against their chief, the Duke of Bourbon. With that dis- ciplined army and that excellent artillery which his father had bequeathed him, he in fact imposed upon the duke new oaths of fidelity. But while he thought he had finished with them, the Count of Maine, charged with arresting the Bretons, re- treated before them ; the Duke of Nevers, instead of defend- ing the barrier of the Somme against the Burgundians, delivered it to the Count of Charolais ; and July 5 this count, who was already called Charles the Bold, arrived before Paris without having encountered a single obstacle. Every- where he made proclamation that he came for the good of the country, that he abolished the villain tax and the salt tax. Would Paris declare for the princes or for the king ? This was a question of life and death to Louis XL, who, paying no more attention to the followers of Bourbon and to the conspirators of the south, thought only of re-entering his capital, believing himself lost if he did not re-enter it. He arrived at Monthery in the morning of July 16, and there found the Burgundians, who blocked his way. Forced to fight, the king made a vigorous attack. He charged and dismounted the Count of St. Pol, who was in front. The Bold with the bulk of his army in his turn charged one wing of the king's forces, put it to rout, and pursued it to within a half league of Monthery. Thus each party was half victorious, half defeated ; but the end of Louis was attained : he had entered Paris. There he was shut in by 50,000 men. Before this army had closed all the issues the king departed August 10 for Normandy, and returned August 28 with 12,000 men, 60 wagons of powder, 700 muids of flour,* and provisions of all sorts. Then he went to take the oriflamb from St. Denis and pretended that he wished to attack while in reality desirous only to keep on the defensive. Although Louis XI. was personally very brave on the field * The muid (Latin modius) was a measure introduced by Charlemagne of very varying quantity, but in 1465 equivalent to 41^ bushels. ED. CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. 13 of battle his favorite combats were those of the mind, of finesse and ruse. Humble in speech and attire, giving much, but promising far more, buying or buying back without bargaining those whom he needed, and holding none in resentment for the past, he was sure of attaching to him- self many of those princes and lords who had so much dif- ficulty in living together. So he negotiated and parleyed incessantly. Many of the conspirators had already offered to sell their allegiance : the Count of Armagnac for money, the Duke of Nemours for lands, the Count of St. Pol for the sword of Constable of France, others for pensions or com- mands. Nothing was refused. By his diplomacy the king saw the league already dissolved, and the dukes of Brit- tany and Burgundy isolated and perhaps enemies. Unhappily Louis XI. could not be everywhere at once. He was powerless against desertions and distant treasons, of which many were taking place. Pontoise was delivered up by its governor, Rouen likewise ; then Evreux, Caen, Beauvais, Peronne, declared for the princes. The king hastened to finish. He granted everything they wanted : to his brother the Duke of Berry, Normandy ; to the Duke of Burgundy, Bologne, Guines, Roye, Montdidier, Peronne, cities of the Somme ; to the Count of Charolais, Ponthieu ; to the Duke of Brittany, exemption from appeals to Parlia- ment, direct nomination of bishops, and exemption from feudal dues in a word a petty independent royalty ; to the Duke of Lorraine, the march of Champagne without obliga- tion of homage, Mouzon, St. Menehould, Neufchateau, 30,000 crowns in ready money ; to the dukes of Bourbon and Nemours, to the counts of Armagnac, of Dunois, of Dammartin, to the Sire d'Albret and to very many more, lands and enormous pensions, without counting promises for the future. As to the public welfare, nobody spoke of it ; no one had seriously thought about it. Such a treaty strictly executed would have been the ruin of the royalty and of France. But one could be sure that Louis XI. would not execute it if there were possibility of doing otherwise ; already Parliament, supple to his hand, refused its registration. The cession of Normandy was especially dangerous, inas- much as by means of this province the dominions of the dukes of Brittany and Burgundy touched each other, and all the coasts from Nantes to Dunkirk were open to the 14 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. English. From the first day Louis pondered the means of retaking it. To accomplish this it was necessary that the Bold, who became duke in 1467, but who reigned in fact from 1465, should be diverted from the affairs of France. Louis easily found means to occupy him at home : three insurrections burst out at once, at Liege, Dinant, and Ghent. While the Bold hastened thither the king sent 120,000 gold crowns to the Duke of Brittany, which decided him to keep quiet, and he himself entered Normandy. Evreux, Vernon, Louviers, Rouen, opened their gates. In a few weeks the entire province was in his hands, and Charolais could do noth- ing more than write to the king very humbly in favor of his former ally. Neither were the chiefs of the other houses more aggressive. One after the other they had been gained or made neutral by the king. He had attached to himself the house of Bourbon by giving to Duke John a whole kingdom to govern in the south of France (Berry, Orleans, Limousin, Perigord, Quercy, Rouergue, Languedoc) ; to the brother of the duke, Pierre de Beaujeu, his daughter Anne in marriage ; to the bastard of Bourbon, the title of Admiral of France, and the command of Honfleur. He had gained the house of Anjou by giving 120,000 livres to John of Calabria, the son of Rene ; the house of Orleans, by attaching to himself the aged Dunois, the hero of the Eng- lish wars ; and finally the Count of St. Pol, the companion and the friend from childhood of the Bold, by making him constable. Nobody, therefore, thought of disputing Normandy with the king. The Bold was solitary, and however great his power, could do nothing, being alone. But he formed an alliance with Edward IV., the King of England, and suc- ceeded in bringing to him the Duke of Brittany, who also called the English to his aid, and offered them as guarantee of his fidelity twelve strongholds in his duchy, whichever they wished. In face of this new peril Louis appealed to the opinion of France. April 6, 1468, he convoked at Tours the States General of the kingdom and simply asked them if they were willing that Normandy should cease to continue a part of the crown domains. The States replied " that according to the laws the brother of the king should have been con- tent with an appanage of 12,000 livres income, and that since the king was generous enough to give him 60,000 he CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. *5 ought to be grateful for it." Louis solemnly sent this decision to the Duke of Burgundy, who received the deputies in a harsh manner. Meanwhile he crushed the Duke of Brittany, and by the rapidity of his blows forced him to treat in Ancenis before the Duke of Burgundy, who was collecting his troops at Peronne, was able to aid him. Then the king, disembarrassed of the Bretons, and hav- ing at his orders an excellent army and superior artillery, could apparently have treated the Duke of Burgundy with little mercy ; but at Portsmouth there was an English fleet and army ready to cross. King Edward had publicly announced to his Parliament his approaching descent into France ; this, above all, Louis XI. desired to prevent. The best means of preventing it was by treating also with the Bold. Counting upon his adroitness, Louis wished to conduct the negotiations himself, and went to find the duke at Peronne. This was a great imprudence despite the safe conduct which he had obtained before putting himself in the hands of his enemy, for the princes of that age were not greatly in the habit of keeping their word, and he least of all. For a long time Louis had emissaries at Liege, a turbu- lent city situated outside the states of Burgundy, and depending only on its bishop ; but this bishop, Louis of Bourbon, having placed himself under the protection of the duke, every revolt against him seemed a revolt against the duke himself. Now at the time while Louis was proceed- ing toward Peronne an insurrection broke out at Liege, and he was already conferring with the Bold when the news arrived that the citizens of Liege had put their bishop in prison and had massacred many canons. Charles became infuriated in consequence, accused the king of treason, and shut him up in the castle of Peronne, where Charles the Simple had already died in captivity. Louis did not go free till after having signed a ruinous and humiliating treaty. He promised to yield Champagne to his brother, which brought the Burgundians without strik- ing a blow to the gates of Paris, and agreed to accompany the duke against Liege. That unhappy city, whose inhab- itants were fighting with " Long live the king " upon their lips, was sacked (1468). For Louis XI. and for Charles the Bold the treaty of Peronne marks the point of departure of new conduct. 1 6 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. For the first it was the last of his mistakes, for the sec- ond the commencement of dreams and of unattainable enterprises. While the King of France, trusting no one because he had been deceived by all, now 'refused every risk, even when he had two chances to one, the Duke of Burgundy by a contrary effect believed nothing above his strength, inasmuch as he saw nothing above his hopes. It was necessary for Louis to regain the lost ground. He made his brother Charles accept Guyenne instead of Ambition and ^ nani P a g n e, which would so well have suited death of the the Duke of Burgundy. The Duke of Brit- gumfy (M77) Bur tan y was compelled once more to renounce any foreign alliance ; to hold him more firmly Louis purchased his favorite Lescun, attached to himself the powerful Breton family of Rohan, and afterward caused those rights to be ceded to him which the house of Blois claimed to possess in Brittany. Two traitors, the Cardinal la Balue and the Bishop of Verdun, were confined in iron cages, where they remained ten years. Two others, the Duke of Nemours and the Count of Armagnac, were reduced the former to implore pardon, and the latter to flee from the kingdom, abandoning his property, which the king confis- cated. At the same time to the King-maker, Earl War- wick, whom he reconciled with Margaret of Anjou, Louis gave the means of overthrowing in England Edward IV., the brother-in-law of the Bold. Then, sure of having again isolated the duke, the king dared attack him openly. He convoked at Tours an assembly of notables, exposed his wrongs at length, and obtained a declaration from the assembly stating that Charles by his hostile acts had freed the king from the obligations contracted at Peronne. In virtue of this decla- ration the king seized those places upon the Somme which he so much desired and which were within his reach St. Quentin, Roye, Montdidier, and Amiens. He had put on foot 100,000 men, and the duke was unprepared. But the dukes of Brittany and of Guyenne and the Con- stable of St. Pol, the chief of the army, terrified by the rapid progress of the king, were already betraying him. A dauphin was born the preceding year ; the Duke of Guyenne, being no longer heir to the crown, was interested in reforming anew the league of the princes. Louis, seeing that his successes slackened, understood that new plots CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. I? were forming. He believed it prudent to stop, and con- cluded a truce with the Duke of Burgundy. This was nec- essary, inasmuch as Edward IV., the ally of Burgundy, was at that moment once more reascending the English throne. So Louis XI. again had to break the thousand fetters with which the aristocracy sought to bind the royalty. The question was of nothing less than the dismemberment of France. " I care more for the good of France than they think," said the Duke of Burgundy, " for instead of one king as now I would have six." The court of the Duke of Guyenne was the center of all these intrigues. Through him a new and powerful feudal house was again forming. The Duke of Burgundy offered him the hand of Mary, his only daughter ; that is to say, the hope of uniting his possessions of Aquitaine, states more extended, more populous, more rich, than those of the king himself. The young duke was therefore the greatest obstacle which inconvenienced the king. This obstacle disappeared : the prince died. Was he poisoned ? If so, was his being poisoned the work of the king ? These are questions which history cannot answer. But if the guilt of the king on this point remains in doubt, there is no question as to the atrocious joy which he felt at the sickness and then at the death of his brother. This event destroyed all the plans of the Bold. Never- theless, since he was ready, he crossed the Somme and invaded the kingdom, swearing to put everything to fire and sword, though the truce he had concluded with Louis XI. was not yet expired. This war was carried on with atrocious cruelty. At Nesle men, women, and children had fled to the large church : they were massacred there together. The inhabitants of Beauvais profited by such a warning, and when, June 27, 1472, the Burgundian army arrived under their walls they valiantly sustained an assault which lasted eleven hours ; the women themselves took part in the defense. One of them, Jeanne Hachette, tore away a Burgundian standard that a soldier had already planted upon the rampart. The duke, arrested by this heroism, was compelled to retire. He took his revenge by burning St. Valery, Eu, and Neufchateau ; he failed before Dieppe and encamped under the walls of Rouen, where he had appointed a rendezvous, it was said, with the Duke of Brittany. He 1 8 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. remained there four days. Then, accusing Francis II. of not keeping his promise, he returned to his states. If the duke Francis II. had failed at his rendezvous it was because Louis XI. had made against him furious war. He had captured from him la Guerche, Machecoul, Ancenis, and Chantoce ; and then, after having terrified him by his successes, he had offered him an advantageous peace. The duke signed it October 18, and October 23 Charles the Bold, a little before so untractable, himself accepted the truce of Senlis. Thus the treaty of Peronne, which was supposed to have laid the King of France so low, was rendered null. The shame of Liege was compensated in the eyes of Louis XI. by the shame of Beauvais. And if the king had emerged with so much good fortune and address from so evil a case, what would he not accomplish in future with larger re- sources and fewer embarrassments ? As to the resources, he was increasing them by an able and firm administration. As to the embarrassments, the Bold seemed to have given himself the task of diminishing them by attempting the realization of projects above his strength. Beginning with 1472 all the attention of the Duke of Burgundy was directed toward Germany, Lorraine, and Switzerland. The affairs of France had for him only sec- ondary importance. An Austrian prince, Sigismund, had just pledged to him the landgravate of Upper Alsace and the county of Ferrette ; he bought Guelderland and the county of Zutphen (1469). Seeing his domains thus in- creased in the valleys of the Meuse and Rhine, he dreamed of reuniting all the countries which had formerly composed the share of King Lothaire and of forming a new kingdom under the name of Belgian Gaul. His states formed two separate groups which could have been urwted by Cham- pagne, Lorraine, and Alsace. He had missed Champagne, but he held Alsace ; he expected without difficulty to take Lorraine; Switzerland would come afterward, then Provence; and Lotharingia would be reconstituted. He commenced where he ought to have finished. He sought from the emperor the title of king (1473). Louis prevented the success of his negotiations. On this side he failed ; on the other he saw a league forming between Rene II., the young Duke of Lorraine, the archduke Sigismund, the cities of the Rhine, which felt CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. 19 themselves menaced, the Swiss, whom Hagenbach, his agent in Alsace, had annoyed in their commerce by a thousand exactions, and finally the eternal enemy, the King of France, the instigator of this coalition which wove its meshes around the Burgundian states. Suddenly the archduke brought him the 100,000 florins agreed upon for the ransom of Alsace ; Hagenbach was seized and beheaded by the inhabitants of Brisach (1474). Together with this news the duke received the solemn defiance of the Swiss, who entered Franche Comte and gained over the Burgundians the bloody battle of Hericourt. And these events occurred at the very moment when he was himself engaged in another war to sustain the Archbishop of Cologne against the Pope, the emperor, and his subjects. In behalf of this prince he was besieging the little city of Neuss, which resisted eleven months. While he was here losing both his time and strength, his brother-in-law and ally, Edward IV., at last landed at Calais. Edward expected a short and glorious campaign. His hopes were dissipated after he had made a few marches in the interior of the country. The Burgundian cities did not open their gates to receive the ally of the Duke of Burgundy; the Burgundian soldiers did not appear in order to join the English troops, who found themselves without shelter or magazines. He counted at least on entering St. Quentin, which was commanded by St. Pol, the secret ally of Charles the Bold. He was received by cannon shot. Deceived and irritated, he hastened to accept the favorable conditions by which Louis offered to treat. By the peace of Pecquigny "the two kings promised to assist each other against their rebellious subjects ; furthermore, Edward obtained 75,000 crowns in ready money and a life annuity of 50,000 (August 2 9, 1475)- Then the Bold also found it very necessary to make peace. The following September he signed the treaty of Soleure with the King of France in order to terminate his affairs with Lorraine and Switzerland. In fact November 30 he entered Nancy. Lorraine, abandoned by the king, who had, however, been the first to instigate Rene" to take arms, was conquered. Forthwith Charles turned against the Swiss, who burned and plundered at their ease in Franche Comte". He attacked them in dead winter with an army of 18,000 men who had just made two exhausting campaigns. He 20 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK J. was completely beaten at Granson (March, 1476), and three months after at Moral. At this news Lorraine rose and recalled the young Rene de Vaudemont. This last affront made the Bold lose all prudence. He got together in haste 6000 mercenaries and rushed to Nancy. But Rene found soldiers with the money of Louis XL; the Swiss, on whose side he fought at Morat, came to his aid. The Bold was unwilling to retreat and accepted an unequal battle. In a few hours the Burgun- dians were routed and the " Grand Duke of the West " remained among the dead (1477). While Charles the Bold was dashing himself against the Germans, the people of Lorraine, and the Swiss, Louis XI. Ruin of the na d profited by the respite afforded to settle Great Feudal n j s accounts with those who had so many Houses. Death . ,... r\ e ^i of Louis xi. times turned against him. One of the first (I48a)> who had to render this difficult account was the Duke of Alencon. This duke, condemned to death under Charles VII., had been pardoned by Louis XL, but he assassinated those who gave testimony against him, coined false money, and entered into plots against the king. Arrested in 1473, ne was tne following year condemned for the second time to capital punishment. Louis XI. kept him in prison until his death. He left a son ; those who had appropriated the goods of his father implicated him in a plot of high treason, then had him condemned to give up all his castles to the king, to demand pardon, and to endure perpetual confinement (1481). There were complaints, very serious in another sense, to bring against the Count of Armagnac, that horrible John V. who had espoused his sister Isabella, and forced the chaplain to bless this incestuous marriage by threatening to throw him into the river if he made difficulty. His arrest having been decreed by Parliament, he had been condemned for incest, murder, and forgery under Charles VII., but had fled ; and one of the first acts of Louis XI. on his accession had been to restore him his domains. This frightful man cherished for the king the gratitude to be expected : he was constantly with his enemies. It was only in 1473 tnat tne king could concern himself with him. Cardinal d'Alby came with an army to besiege Lectoure. The city resisted. Negotiations followed ; and while they negotiated the cardinal seized one of the gates of the city. CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. 21 John V. of Armagnac was stabbed before the eyes of his wife. The latter was enceinte. They gave her poison. Of all the population of Lectoure three men and four women survived. In this house of Armagnac there was a younger branch, that of Nemours, whose chief, loaded with goods and honors by Louis XI., betrayed him ten times. Freed from the Burgundians and the English, Louis besieged and cap- tured the Duke of Nemours in his castle of Carlat and shut him up in the castle of Pierre-Encise, a prison so frightful that the hair of the prisoner became white in a few days. Then he had him carried to the Bastille, chained and placed in an iron cage ; he ordered that he should be allowed to go out from it only for torture, that the severest torture should be inflicted, and that he should be made to confess. Nemours, condemned to death, was beheaded in the market-place. A brother of John V. of Armagnac and a member of the powerful house of d'Albret, both also guilty of plots against the king, were the former imprisoned, the latter beheaded. These severe executions ended by teaching respect of law and the king to the so often rebellious lords of the south. The King of Aragon had given Roussillon in pledge to Louis XI. for 200,000 crowns. But he intended not to pay the money, but to regain the province, whose spirit of hostility to the French he fomented secretly. In 1474 Louis XI. cut these intrigues short by sending a good army which captured Perpignan after a siege of eight months, endured with admirable constancy. One woman, it was said, had nourished one of her children with the body of another who had died of famine. In the north there was a man to punish who, like Jacques of Nemours, was nobody save by Louis XL, to whom with the title of Constable* Louis XI. had intrusted the Sword * The title of constable originally indicated the commander of the cavalry, comes stabuli, whence the name is derived. From 1218 to 1627, when the office was suppressed, the Constable of France was com- mander-in-chief of the army in the absence of the king. The insignia of his office was a naked sword, called the Sword of France, which he received from the hands of the king. His emoluments, like his privileges and power, were enormous. After the execution of the traitor Louis of Luxemburg, Count of St. Pol, the office remained vacant forty years till the appointment in 1515 of Charles of Bourbon, ultimately a still greater 22 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. of France, the defense of the kingdom. This man, the Count of St. Pol, had resolved to create for himself an independent kingdom at the expense of England, France, and Burgundy. He had toiled at it during ten years, employing only one means to succeed, deceiving by turns the English, French, and Burgundians, but forgetting that the day might come when the King of France, the King of England, and the Duke of Burgundy would exchange the letters which he had written them. Louis was the most implacable. At the approach of the French troops the constable fled to Mons. The king wrote him to return without fear. "I am in great difficulties," he wrote him ; " I have much need of a head like yours " ; and he added before those who were present for fear they should mistake : " It is only the head which I wish ; the body can stay where it is." The Duke of Burgundy gave him up ; he was decapitated in the Place de Greve (1475). But of all these deaths the most fortunate for the king was that of the Bold. His was really the death of feudal- ism. " Never afterward did the King of France find," said Comines, " a man bold enough to raise his head against him or to contradict his will." The duke left only a daugh- ter. The king tried to take the heiress and the heritage. He put forward a project of marriage between Mary of Burgundy, who was twenty years old, and the dauphin, who was eight. But counting little upon so inappropriate a marriage, he made certain of a part of the dowry by seizing under various pretexts Burgundy, Picardy, and Artoi.s. Mary, despoiled and betrayed by the king, who, giving to the Flemings one of her letters, brought about the death of her two counselors, Hugonet and Humbercourt, threw her- self into the arms of Austria. She espoused the archduke Maximilian : a fatal marriage, whence issued the monstrous power of Charles V., and which became for the houses of France and Austria the first cause of a struggle lasting two centuries. This struggle at its origin under Louis XI. had not the gravity which it afterward acquired. It was marked by only one battle, that of Guinegate, which was lost by the French (1479). Louis none the less succeeded in and more injurious traitor, commonly called The Constable. The title was revived for a few years under the empire of Napoleon in favor of his brother Louis. ED. CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494. 23 definitely incorporating Burgundy and Picardy with the territory of Boulogne into the royal domain, and obtained, moreover, the cession of Artois and Franche Comte as dowry of the daughter of Maximilian, who was promised to the dauphin (treaty of Arras, 1482). He did not long survive this treaty, which was the coro- nation of his entire reign. Withdrawn to his inaccessible castle of Plessis-les-Tours, a prey to remorse and super- stitious terrors, he there long struggled against death. He had made the monk Francisco de Paolo come from Calabria, hoping that his prayers might prolong his life, and had caused the cultan Baiezid to send him all the relics found at Constantinople. Remedies, prayers to Heaven, desires of life, were useless. "It all accomplished nothing," said Comines ; " he was obliged to pass the way that the others had passed." Warned at last by his physician, Coittier, who had extorted from him 50,000 crowns in five months, that he must die, he resigned himself, sent for his son the dau- phin, who had been reared in isolation at the castle of Amboise, gave him excellent counsels such as always are given at such an hour and the famous maxim, " He who does not know how to dissimulate does not know how to reign." He expired August 30, 1483. That very year Luther and Rabelais were born, two other representatives of the new epoch that was commencing. Thus after twenty years of effort the king saw " the house of Burgundy feeble and powerless ; the Duke of Burgundy unable to undertake anything, and held in check by the great number of warlike peoples upon his frontier ; Spain in peace with Louis and fearful of his arms ; England weakened and herself in trouble ; Scotland absolutely his own ; many allies in Germany, and the Swiss as submissive as his own subjects." Bossuet says too much in regard to the Swiss, whose affection for the king was due simply to the gold which he sowed lavishly in their country ; but he does not say enough about the interior of France. To the four provinces gained from Burgundy (the duchy and the county, together with Charolais and Auxerre, Artois and Picardy with the territory of Boulogne) there must be added Maine, Provence, and Anjou, bequeathed him by will. A lawsuit had gained him the duchy of Alencon and Perche ; the death of his brother, Guyenne ; his interven- tion in the affairs of Spain, Roussillon and Cerdagne : 24 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. altogether eleven provinces united to the crown domain, not counting the profits of the executions of St. Pol, Ne- mours, and Armagnac. He -had instituted posts, multiplied fairs and markets, encouraged commerce and manufactures, and called to France the earliest printers. "Louis XL," says one of his historians, "was equally renowned for his vices and virtues, and everything reckoned in the scale, he was a king." France owes him much, but she has not been able to absolve him for believing that all means were good for attaining a useful end. The successor of Louis XL was a child of thirteen years and two months, of age by law, but feeble in body and mind, and destined long to remain under char?es reig vin f guardianship. He was under the protection until the Italian o f his elder sister, Anne of Beaujeu, "the expedition. . / i- i_ ^i U i least foolish woman in the world , her father Louis XL was wont to say. His good qualities she possessed without the bad ones. A violent reaction broke out against the policy of the dead king ; and the most com- promised of his ministers Olivier the Devil, Daniel and John Doyat were its victims. But the grandees wished still more, even the nullification of the principal acts of Louis XL In this hope they demanded the convocation of the States General. They obtained it, but the deputies, especially those of the third estate, did not wish to be used as instruments of feudal resentment. Very bold discourses were pronounced ; one still reads with astonishment that of a noble, Philip Pot, Lord of la Roche, upon the obligations of princes and the rights of the peoples. The States left to Anne of Beaujeu full power by leaving to her the guardianship of the king's person, upon whose mind she exercised great influence, and who, being of age, possessed, or rather left to her, full royal authority. They instituted a governmental council over which in the absence of the king the Duke of Orleans was to preside, and when he was not present the Duke of Bourbon or the Lord of Beaujeu. The Lady of Beaujeu was not even named in this act ; the Duke of Orleans, on the contrary, remained the ostensible chief of the government, and thought himself so in reality. However, the Lady of Beaujeu, who had accustomed her brother to obey and fear her, by making CHAP. II.] FRANCE FROM 1453 TO 1494 25 him preside at the council, thrust aside the Duke of Orleans, and by making her husband, the plain Lord of Beaujeu, pre- side over it, she crowded from it the Duke of Alengon, the Duke of Angouleme, and the other princes of the blood, who with higher qualifications were unwilling to sit below him. Thus without anyone foreseeing it, was constituted what was called the government of Madame, whereby was to be continued the firm and energetic policy of Louis XI. The Duke of Orleans was not slow to see that he had been outplayed. Then he had recourse to plots. To this Anne put an end like a worthy daughter of Louis XL She ordered the arrest of the prince. He escaped, saving himself by whip and spur at the very moment when he was about to be seized, and began a civil war. He drew to his side the Duke of Brittany, Francis II., made alliance with Maximilian, who reproached himself for the concessions of the treaty of Arras, and even solicited the aid of Richard III., King of England. Anne of Beaujeu counteracted all. She kept Richard III. in his kingdom by giving aid in men and money to his competitor, Henry of Richmond, who soon became King of England as Henry VII.; against Maximilian she treated with the States of Flanders, who acted in the name of their prince, still a child, Duke Philip of Austria ; against the Duke of Brittany she made alliance with the nobility of the country, who were irritated by the favor shown Landais the detested minister of Francis II. Landais was seized and hung. At once La Tremoille hastened to besiege the Duke of Orleans in Baugency, there took him prisoner, and obliged him to return to the court in order to promise that he would hereafter occupy himself only with his pleasures. But Maximilian, named some months later King of the Romans, that is to say, heir of the imperial crown, broke the treaty of Arras. The league of princes was formed anew, a league of public welfare as genuine as that of twenty years earlier ! Anne had not committed the faults of Louis XL More resources were in her hands and she used them wisely. While d'Esquerdes delayed Maximil- ian in Artois (1487), and there captured St. Omer and Terouanne, she put at the head of an army full of ardor the young king, who was all joyous at seeing himself on horseback in splendid armor, and they marched against the confederates of the south. Everywhere the citizens 26 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. armed against the lords, against their garrisons ; in a few days " the tasks of the south were regulated." Anne then returned against Brittany. La Tremoille entered the duchy with the French troops April, 1488 ; he took posses- sion of Chateaubriant, Ancenis, and Fougeres, and beat the Breton army (July 27) at St. Aubin du Cormier. The Duke of Orleans was captured. At the north affairs were no less prosperous. The Flemings, roused against Maxi- milian, drove from their country his German troops and obliged him to sign a new convention on the basis of the treaty of Arras of 1482. So the Lady of Beaujeu triumphed over all the coalitions and preserved the conquests of her father. To them she added a great province. Francis II., Duke of Brittany, had just died without other heir than his young daughter Anne. A province which rounded out the kingdom toward the west could not be allowed to fall into foreign hands. Anne of Beaujeu used every means, even force, to bring about the marriage of the king with the young duchess. Charles VIII. went, the helmet on his head, to conquer his bride and the duchy. Anne of Brittany, besieged in Rennes and abandoned by Maximilian, who had, however, betrothed her by procuration, consented to espouse Charles VIII. ^(1491). The last asylum of princely independence was opened to the royal authority, and the most obstinate of provincial individuali- ties had just merged itself like the rest in that great whole of the kingdom of France. The rebel princes no longer had a place of refuge where they could lift their banner against the king. Their contemporaries called the last war which they made the foolish war, and those which they undertook in the future were to be more foolish still. The royalty of France has therefore become its own master ; let us see how that of England reached the same state. FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XI. 1401-1483 Royal Possessions Acquisitions of Louis XI Feudal Possessions Spanisli Possessions ,- /f/'( ' gt^cJ^* ^~- i'J .,J>3fejSf^U** ,,l :ude 4 East IVotii 6 Greenwich K. F. Fisk.Eni'i-. N. \. CHAPTER III. ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509. State of England at the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. War of the Roses (1455-85). Henry VII. Tudor (1485-1509). Suppression of Public Liberties. IN England as in France a powerful aristocracy held the monarchy in check. But while in France the people was the ally of the king against the feudal State of Eng- .... .-'_, . ,. ,,-, , land at the mid- nobility, in England it was allied with the teenth century, nobility against the king, and the monarchy had been compelled, from the time of King John, in Magna Charta to recognize and proclaim national rights. During almost two centuries Parliament, com- posed of two chambers, the House of Lords or Upper House, and the House of Commons or Lower House, had been invested with the right of voting taxes, of regulating their nature, of fixing their amount, and of supervising their employment. The king meanwhile could not raise a penny without its consent. Parliament also decided questions of succession to the throne and of regency, and voted sub- sidies only after the king had satisfied its complaints. It is true that its sessions were not regularly fixed, that the court had a considerable influence over its individual members ; but this great body was none the less considered the stern guardian of English liberties and as one of the two essential elements of national sovereignty. By it new laws were to be approved. The life and liberty of individuals as well as their future were protected against the excess of power or the errors of governmental agents. It was a principle recognized and practiced in England that a man could not be arrested and detained without the order of a magistrate, and could be judged only by his peers the lords by the Upper House, the other citizens by a jury sitting in public session in the county where the crime had been committed, 28 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. and pronouncing a unanimous decision, which was without appeal. Without doubt there was more than one instance of arbitrary judgment, but there were no exceptional tribu- nals. There were transient abuses which could not formu- late themselves into fixed law. Finally, every royal officer could be prosecuted for abuse of power without having the right to invoke a royal order as his excuse. The ministers themselves could be impeached by Parliament. England was then already, if we consider only its institu- tions, in advance of all other states. But it had few manu- factures, and little commerce, so that material interests were not strong enough to dominate political questions. More- over, excessive violence characterized the habits of the people. In all classes aggressive and ferocious instincts had been developed to a high degree by the Hundred Years' War. The fury shown in the conflict against France was to manifest itself anew in civil struggles. This civil strife originated in the rivalry of the houses of York and Lancaster, the White and the Red Rose. The victories of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt had inspired in the English that patriotic and boundless pride which has made them accomplish so great W Roses thc achievements, and which has remained the distinctive trait of their national character. It was the misfortune of the house of Lancaster, then represented by Henry VI., that it was powerless to satisfy this pride, and that it had to answer for the cruel assaults it received daily through defeats in France after the appear- ance of Joan of Arc, and especially after the death of the Duke of Bedford. At each bad news arriving from the Continent universal clamors arose against the ministers. First was Mans, surrendered by order of Suffolk, then Rouen which opened its gates, then a great pitched battle that of Fourmigny lost by the English, then Bordeaux, which beheld Dunois penetrate its walls in triumph. Under the blow of so many disasters they remembered that the ruling dynasty after the deposition of Richard II. had usurped the throne, and that Richard, Duke of York, was the legitimate heir. He descended in direct line on his mother's side from the second son of Edward III. in England women inherit and transmit rights to the throne and on his father's side from the fourth son. Henry VI. descended only from the third son of Edward IV. The CHAP. III.] ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509. 29 house of Lancaster was strong in being the origina. choice of the nation, in its uncontested possession of the throne during sixty years, and it invoked the oath of fidelity of the Duke of York himself. But the mental feebleness which Henry VI. had inherited from his maternal grandfather, Charles VI., was degenerating into real imbecility : his wife, Margaret of Anjou, found herself alone to confront popular resentment. Already an object of suspicion to the English through her French origin, the queen was hated after the murder of the Duke of Gloucester, that brother of the glorious Henry V., who was commonly called the good duke, because he always wished war with France, and whom she had arrested in 1447, an d put to death two days later in his prison. According as the war went on dis- astrously upon the Continent so much the more did hate increase against her, whom they made responsible for all their misfortunes, and who at her marriage instead of bring- ing a dowry to her husband had obtained the evacuation of Anjou and Maine by the English troops. The Duke of York believed the occasion favorable. First, he incited the Commons to accuse the favorite minister, the Duke of Suffolk, and to refuse all subsidies until he had been judged. The king to save the accused from a death sentence con- demned him to five years' banishment. Two thousand per- sons endeavored to arrest Suffolk on his departure from prison. He was, however, able to gain the port of Ipswich, whence he speedily set sail. He thought himself safe, when he was overtaken by Nicholas of the Tower, one of the largest vessels of the royal navy. He was ordered to come on board, and when he reached the deck the captain saluted him with the words, "Welcome, traitor." The fol- lowing day the unhappy man underwent a mock trial before the sailors. A boat was alongside. It contained a block, a rusty sword, and an executioner. The duke was let down into it. The executioner struck off his head, but only at the sixth blow. The tragedy was hardly finished when another commenced. Mortimer of York had been beheaded in 1445. An Irishman, Jack Cade, pretended to be this prince, and to have escaped his executioners ; he speedily stirred up revolt in the county of Kent. He assembled as many as 60,000 men, and was during several days master of London. But the adventurer could not maintain discipline among his 3 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. followers. The citizens took arms to protect themselves from pillage. The promise of amnesty finally dispersed the insurgents. Cade, on whose head a price had been put, fell into a trap and was slain. Richard of York had been connected with this insurrec- tion, but no one dared touch him. Emboldened by im- punity and by the feebleness of the Lancastrians, which the easy success of Cade had shown, he raised a small army, presented himself at the gates of London, and demanded that the Duke of Somerset, who had replaced Suffolk, be committed to the Tower.* He was satisfied this time by thus proving his strength. But an heir to the throne being born in 1453, Richard did not conceal his designs ; during a mental alienation of the king he caused himself to be appointed protector. The king, regaining his health, deprived him of his functions. Then he openly took arms, being aided by the great nobles, and especially by Warwick, whose wealth and talent, and also his inconstancy, gave him the title of King-maker. This famous captain, son of the Earl of Salisbury, belonged to the Nevil family, one of the most illustrious houses of England. He furnished daily support on his lands to 30,000 persons. When he occupied his London house six oxen were provided at each repast for his vassals and friends. Victor (1455) at St. Albans in the county of Hertford, Richard again obtained from the lords the title of protector. He thus accustomed himself to place his hand upon the government while leav- ing Henry VI. his crown. In 1456 Henry, having regained his health, resumed the authority, and the Duke of York appeared content. He was only waiting for a better opportunity of action. He thought he had found it in 1460, and five years after the * This tower has been a fortress, a state prison, often a royal resi- dence, and is now a government storehouse. It is a gloomy, irregular pile, spreading over almost thirteen acres. According to tradition begun by Julius Caesar, the most ancient portion intact is at the center, the White Tower, erected in 1078. Few edifices have played a larger part in history or have been the scene of more numerous and more atro- cious cruelties. The last persons executed in its walls were Lords Kil- marnock, Balmerino, and Lovat, after the rebellion of 1745. The crown jewels and regalia of England are now kept in it ; also many headsman's axes, blocks, and instruments of torture in what might be called a chamber of horrors, all visible to morbid interest on the payment of a small fee, ED. CHAP. III.] ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509. 31 day of St. Albans the second battle of this war, that of Northampton, was fought. Before the action the Yorkists had given orders to spare the private soldiers, but to slay all the officers. Richard was again victorious, and Parlia- ment declared him the legitimate heir. They still left to Henry VI. his title of king. In the name of her son Margaret protested, took arms, was aided by succor from Scotland, which she purchased through the cession of the stronghold of Berwick, and assembled 20,000 men. Richard marched against her with 5000. This time he was beaten and slain at Wakefield in the county of York. On the walls of York Margaret exposed his head, which in derision she adorned with a paper crown. The youngest of his sons, the Count of Rut- land, scarcely eighteen years old, was butchered in cold blood after the victory. He was fleeing when stopped by Lord Clifford on Wakefield bridge. Clifford asked his name. The boy, terrified, fell on his knees. His tutor, thinking thus to save him, gave his name. " Thy father slew mine," cried Clifford ; " I wish likewise to slay thee and all thine." This murder, followed by many others, pro- voked bloody reprisals. The struggle assumed an atro- cious character. Massacre of prisoners, proscription of the conquered and confiscation of their property, became the rule on both sides. Always the executioner followed the soldiery. Richard of York had an avenger in his oldest son, whom the people and then the Parliament proclaimed king at London as Edward IV. First he experienced defeat at the second battle of St. Albans, which Warwick lost. But two months after Edward himself vanquished the Lancas- trians at the bloody fight of Towton, southwest of York. More than 36,000 men remained on the field of battle, of whom 28,000 wore the red rose. Margaret fled to Scot- land, and thence to France, where Louis XI. loaned her 2000 soldiers, while making her promise to restore Calais to France. But the battle of Hexham on Tyne in North- umberland anew overthrew her hopes (1463). She escaped with her son only after encountering a thousand dangers, and returned to France, while Henry VI., a third time prisoner, was shut up in the Tower of London, where he remained seven years. The crown of Edward IV. was firmly set upon his head. 32 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. But by his marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, the daughter of a private gentleman, he discontented his brother, the Duke of Clarence, whom the birth of a Prince of Wales quickly deprived of his rank as heir presumptive. The powerful and haughty house of Nevil was provoked by the rapid promotion of the relatives of Elizabeth ; especially Warwick was incensed, whom the king had sent as ambassador to France to demand the hand of a sister-in-law of Louis XI. Warwick and Clarence united their resentments, at first in vain, and they were obliged to take refuge in France. Queen Margaret and her most redoubtable adversary found them- selves together in the same asylum. Reconciled by mis- fortune and by the mediation of Louis XL, who delighted in embarrassing the ally of the Duke of Burgundy, they com- bined against their common enemy. Warwick promised to restore the house of Lancaster. Scarcely had he dis- embarked in England when his tenants, his former com- panions in arms, and the partisans of the Red Rose flocked to him in crowds. In a few days he had 60,000 men. Ed- ward, abandoned by his followers at Nottingham neat- Trent (1470), fled, without having been able to fight, to the Netherlands to his brother-in-law, Charles of Burgundy, while Parliament, docile to the wishes of the stronger party, restored Henry VI. The Lancastrian triumph was short. After a few months Edward reappeared with a small army which Burgundy had helped him to form. Warwick succumbed at Barnet, four leagues from London, on account of the defection of Clar- ence, who returned to his brother. The indomitable Mar- garet, arriving from France with a new army, was no happier at Tewksbury in the county of Gloucester (May, 1471). This last battle was decisive. The Prince of Wales being slaugh- tered before the eyes of the king, Henry dead or assassi- nated some days after in his prison, Margaret confined in the Tower, the partisans of the Red Rose slain or pro- scribed, Edward remained peaceful possessor of the throne. But this security he employed only to abandon himself to pleasure. However, he issued a moment from this voluptuous repose in 1475, at ^e solicitation of Charles the Bold, to commence against Louis XL an expedition which was terminated by the treaty of Pecquigny. His last years were darkened by the trial of his brother Clarence, whom he caused to be put CHAP. III.] ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509. 33 to death (1478). In 1483, still young only forty-two years old he died, victim of his debauches. Before expiring Edward IV. entreated his family and his principal partisans to remain united. Apparently he felt presentiment of the tragedies in store. In fact his son, Edward V., survived him only three months. For a long time Richard of York, Duke of Gloucester, a monster of hypocrisy and cruelty, the third brother of Edward IV., had coveted the crown. He profited by the youth of his nephew to deprive him of it. He commenced by putting to death all those who could defend him Lord Rivers, his uncle, Sir Richard Gray, Lord Hastings then he called in question the legitimacy of his birth, and caused him finally to be smothered in the Tower of London, together with his younger brother, by the infamous Tyrrel. The bodies of the two unhappy victims were hidden under the steps of the staircase of their prison, and Richard III. was proclaimed king. This usurpation troubled the Yorkists, and the Lancas- trians took courage. Buckingham, one of those who had done most to place the crown on the head of Richard, dis- contented, not by his crimes, but without doubt by some pressing demand which had been denied, rose against him and called the Welshman Henry Tudor, Count of Rich- mond, last scion on his mother's side of the family of Lan- caster. Henry levied 2000 men in Brittany and landed in Wales. He arrived too late to save Buckingham, who was overwhelmed and slain, but he conquered Richard at Bosworth between Leicester and Coventry. The usurper, despite prodigies of valor, perished in the fight (1485). This was the last of the ten great battles of the war. The Lan- castrians had been six times defeated, but the honor and the profit of the last day remained to them. Henry caused himself to be acknowledged as King of England, and united the two Roses by espousing Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., the heiress of York. With him began the Tudor dynasty, which reigned 118 years until the advent of the Stuarts in 1603. But by preserving, despite this politic marriage, a marked preference for the Lancastrians, Henry provoked the resent- ment of the Yorkists. They raised up against him two impostors. One, Lambert Simnel, a baker's son, passed as the young Earl of Warwick, son of the Duke of Clarence; 34 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. the other, Perkin Warbeck, the son of a converted Jew from Tournay, pretended to be the Duke of York, the second son of Edward IV., whom Richard had smothered in the Tower. Henry VII. conquered the first at Stoke near Nottingham (1487), and the second at Towton, north of Exeter (1498). He pardoned Simnel, who found employ- ment in the royal kitchens, but Warbeck was confined in the Tower of London. Having wished some months after to escape from this prison with the real Earl of Warwick, who was likewise detained there, he was hung at Tyburn, and the king, to end his fears, also beheaded Warwick. State prisoner from his childhood, this unhappy young man could be guilty only of cherishing regrets and hopes. But Ferdinand the Catholic had consented to bestow his daughter, Catherine of Aragon, upon the son of Henry VII. only on condition that the death of Warwick should free his future son-in-law from all disquietude. With this prince became extinct the race of the Plantagenets, who had governed England 331 years since 1154. Thenceforth Henry reigned without opposition. The bloody War of the Roses had decimated and ruined the English aristocracy. Eighty blood members of the royal family had perished in it, and how many of the nobility ! If we are to believe Sir John Fortescue, a contemporary, under Edward IV. alone one-fifth of the lands of the king- dom by confiscation had been added to the royal domain. So the English monarchy on issuing from this war no longer encountered a powerful and haughty aristocracy, the principal obstacle which had thus far opposed it. In the " History of the Middle Ages " we have seen how liberal the English constitution had already become by the middle of the fifteenth century. The monarchy, however, preserved an immense power. " The person of the king was inviolable. He alone had the right to convoke the states of the realm, which he could dissolve according to his good pleasure, and whose legislative enactments could not be legalized without his consent. He was the chief of execu- tive administration, the only organ of the nation in the presence of foreign powers, commander of the land and sea forces of the state, the fountain of justice, clemency, and honor. He possessed great powers for the regular- ization of commerce. Money was coined in his name. He fixed the weights and measures and determined the CHAP. III.] ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509. 35 places wherein markets and ports should be established. His ecclesiastical patronage was immense. His hereditary revenues, administered with economy, sufficed to defray the ordinary expenses of the government. His private possessions were vast. He was, moreover, Lord Suzerain of his realm, and in this capacity possessed an infinite number of lucrative and formidable rights, which enabled him to disquiet and crush those who opposed his designs and to enrich and promote without any cost to himself those who enjoyed his favor." These determinate powers gave him who was clothed with them the perpetual determination to go beyond them. The exhaustion of the aristocracy after the War of the Two Roses furnished the opportunity. Edward IV. had not always waited for the consent of the Houses to establish and raise taxes. Henry VII. Henr vii went f artner - This covetous and timorous Tudor^ss-isog)'. king was better obeyed than Edward III., pubHc e ii S bei n ties f the victor of Crecy ; better than Henry V., the hero of Agincourt. During his reign Parliament was rarely convoked ; when it was it showed no independence, and accepted without a word the propositions submitted to it by the king. Forced loans disguised under the name of benevolences, arbitrary confiscations, proscrip- tions, barbarous and unjust measures which the civil war alone had brought about, acquired a sort of legality through the adhesion or the silence of the Houses. Parliament recognized the Star Chamber, a new tribunal under an ancient name, whose members were entirely devoted to the king, and which became one of the most docile instruments and most redoubtable weapons of absolute power. The Star Chamber in effect multiplied the cases which were withdrawn from any connection with a jury, and which put at the discretion of the agents of the king the fortune and the life of all those whom the king wished to strike. The lords had preserved from the Middle Ages the right of having about them an army of servitors who aided them to disturb the country and defy justice. This was the right of maintenance. Henry VII. abolished it. More- over, he authorized the nobles to sell their entailed lands. Thereby he struck the feudal aristocracy in both present and future. By suppressing maintenances the king took away their soldiers from the nobles ; by suppressing entails 36 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. he prepared the division of great estates that is to say, the ruin of the great land owners if custom, stronger than law, had not continued to enforce the system of entail which still to-day exists in England. Henry VII. commenced the commercial and material greatness of his country. A treaty concluded with the Netherlands in 1496 established free exchange between the two countries ; another with Denmark opened the Baltic to the English and insured them the exclusive commerce of Iceland. Following the example of the kings of the Spanish peninsula, he endeavored to direct the activity of the English toward maritime discoveries, and the Venetian Sebastian Gabotto (Cabot) was the first to carry the Eng- lish flag into the island of Newfoundland, and to coast along the Floridas, where he was speedily followed by the merchants of Bristol. Henry VII. also encouraged national industry by attracting to England Flemish workmen and by forbidding the exportation of wool. Finally, he ren- dered justice less inaccessible to the poor, and by marrying his daughter Margaret to the Scotch king James IV. pre- pared the reunion of the two crowns which divided Great Britain. From this union dates the right of the Stuarts to the throne of England, which they ascended in 1603. Another marriage had graver consequences ; I mean the betrothal of Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdir-and the Catholic, to Arthur, the elder son of the king, and, after the premature death of this young prince, to his second son, who became Henry VIII. We shall see the schism of England from Rome issue from this marriage. Henry died in 1509, aged fifty-three years. Seized at his last moments with religious terror, he had given money necessary for the saying of two thousand masses. As he appears to us in history this prince remains far inferior to his two celebrated contemporaries, Louis XI. and Ferdinand the Catholic. As cruel as the first, as knavish as the second, he by no means possessed their political genius. Sordid avarice diminished or corrupted his most sagacious acts. Thus the law for the abolition of mainte- nances was in his eyes less a grand governmental measure than a pretext for police exactions and fines. One day he paid a visit to the Earl of Oxford at his castle of Hen- ninghaw. The earl was one of the most devoted partisans of the Lancastrian line, and one of those who had most CHAP. III.] ENGLAND FROM 1453 TO 1509. 37 suffered for it. In order to pay honor to his sovereign he drew up along the route of Henry his servants and vassals dressed in their finest clothes. Their number and the rich- ness of their attire made the king think that he could well strike a good blow in this opulent house. " My lord," said he to the earl, "your generosity has been vaunted to me, but I see it is far above what I have heard. Are all these people yours?" " Yes, sire, and they have come to enjoy the pleasure of seeing your Majesty." " I thank you for your good reception," replied the king, " but I cannot suffer violation of the laws in my presence." A suit was forthwith brought against the earl, and he was quit only by paying an enormous sum 15,000 marks. All things seemed good to this sordid prince for filling his treasury. From his subjects he extorted money to make war ; from foreigners he received it to make peace. Thus he descended into France in 1492, and by the treaty of Etaples sold to Louis XI. the retreat of the English army for 745,000 gold crowns. He caused places at court, even those in the Church, to be purchased. He gave bishoprics only for ready money, and sold his pardon to the guilty. With care he sought out what persons died without heirs and seized their property by right of escheat, a procedure which very often took place in presence of legitimate heirs. His favorite ministers, Empson, Dudley, and Cardinal Mor- ton, knew how to derive profit from everything, especially from justice. An expedient of Morton to obtain money from benevolence has become celebrated. " If thou spend- est much," said he, "the reason is thou art rich : thou must pay ; if thou spendest nothing thou art practicing economy, so keep on paying." This infernal dilemma was called the fork and hook of Morton. This reign inaugurated for England a despotism which lasted a century and a half, because on issuing from the War of the Roses the nation, worn out by the barren and bloody agitations of internal strife, cast itself with ardor into the pacific labors of commerce and manufacturing. Seeing the government of Henry VII. second this tendency by the commercial treaties which it concluded and by the voyages of discovery which it undertook, England asked of it nothing more, and for a time forgot its Parliament and its liberties. The question of the Reformation and the struggles against Spain once more turned the attention of the English 3& REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. people in another direction. But after the bloody tyranny of Henry VIII., after the glorious tyranny of Elizabeth, thanks to progress in national wealth and public opinion, these recollections were to awake with indomitable energy. England preserves a curious monument of the architec- ture of the age in the chapel wherein Henry VII. was interred at Westminster. This is a model of the flamboyant Gothic, last period of pointed architecture. CHAPTER IV. SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521. State of Spain at the Middle of the Fifteenth Century. Navarre, Aragon, and Castile. Portugal. THE Spanish people remained till then almost entirely foreign to the affairs of the other European nations. They r . had been obliged to conquer their soil step State of Spam , .. * . . at the middle by step from the Moors, and this task, the centu r e y fifteenth fi rst condition of their national existence, was not even yet accomplished. The southern extremity of the peninsula belonged to the Mussulmans and formed the kingdom of Granada, the last of the nine states into which the caliphate of Cordova had been dismembered. Spain had therefore lived a life apart during all the Middle Ages. She had, so to speak, only a single thought, to drive out the Moors, who were even more odious to her as Mus- sulmans than as foreigners. To this isolation she was indebted for a remarkable origi- nality. Nowhere has religion exercised a larger influence over the mind. There it was half of the fatherland. Spain was still in the full Middle Ages ; that is to say, anarchy was there at its height under the name of priv- ileges of class, province, city, and individual. The kings had only a shadow of power. In Castile the nobles had just obliged the feeble John II. to permit the condemnation and execution of his favorite, Alvarez de Luna. The formula which the lords were wont to employ at the coronation of the kings of Aragon is well known : " We, who each are worth as much as you, and who united are more powerful than you, we make you our king and lord on condition that you preserve our fueros and immunities ; if not, not." And these were by no means empty words, souvenir of departed days, but the pure and simple expres- 39 40 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. sion of real facts. In Aragon there was a magistrate called the justiza invested with the highest jurisdiction, who had filled more than once the role of supreme arbitrator between the king and his subjects. This magistrate, whose office somewhat resembled that of the ephori in ancient Sparta, exercised the functions of supervisor of the prince and pro- tector of the people. His person was sacred, his power and jurisdiction were almost without bounds. In doubtful cases the kings themselves were obliged to consult him. He received appeals from the sentences of the royal judges, could without appeal call up a case, and had the right of examining royal proclamations, of expelling the ministers, and of forcing them to give account, without himself having any account to render to the states. Even as a private man he could be arrested only by a decree of the cortes. But a tribunal was established to receive all the complaints brought against him. In Castile as in Aragon the defense of public liberties was confided especially to elected assemblies, which were called, and are still called, the cortes. The cortes of Aragon were composed of four orders: (i) the clergy, (2) the barons, or ricos hombres, (3) the lower nobles, or infanzones, (4) the deputies of the cities, or procuradores. The cortes of Ara- gon voted the taxes, decided peace and war, coined money, revised the decisions of the tribunals, watched over the administration of the country in order to reform abuses, and had every two years a forty days' session which the king could not dissolve. The cortes of Castile comprised only three orders the clergy, the nobility, and the deputies of the cities. They voted subsidies only after having attended to the business of the people. Often, as in case of a royal minority, the cortes were called to act as the government of the'country. In the council of the regency, established dur- ing the minority of John I., it became necessary to admit citizens equal in number, power, and insignia to the noble members of the council. Besides the cortes, charged with defending general liber- ties against the king, each province possessed special liber- ties or privileges, called fueros. The most famous were those of Aragon and of the Basque country. The Basque provinces possessed a real independence which they have preserved all through the duration of modern times. The Catalans have more than once asserted it : in 1462 they CHAP. IV.] SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521. 41 deposed John II.; in 1640 they constituted themselves a republic. As result of all these privileges in Spain, there was no genuine patriotism, and the spirit of locality was profoundly rooted. Not only the kingdoms, but the provinces, and in the provinces the cities, lived apart. Every noble was ready to believe himself sole master in his dominions ; and in recollection of their ancient immunities the grandees of Spain have preserved the privilege of remaining covered in presence of their sovereign. Finally, the three great mili- tary orders of Alcantara, Calatrava, and Compostella, or St. James, constituted by their wealth, their strongholds, and their military organization three states, as it were, in the state. But already the turbulence of the feudal aristocracy, pri- vate wars, and the brigandage which was their consequence had brought about also the creation of the St. Hermandad. As early as 1260 the cities of Aragon, and a little later those of Castile, had united to assure the maintenance of public peace. They had instituted tribunals and levied and orga- nized troops for repression of disorders committed upon the highways. The establishment of the St. Hermandad, or sacred brotherhood, a sort of civil guard, excited violent murmurs among the nobles. The archers of the brother- hood had more than one skirmish to sustain against the feudal bandits. But the institution withstood all the efforts made to destroy it, withstood even the vices inherent in its organization, and at the siege of Granada rendered impor- tant service. Let us now survey each of these states. John of Aragon, an active and able prince, but of un- scrupulous ambition, had espoused the Queen of Navarre, by whom he had one son, Don Carlos, Prince gon, a a v n a dc e aswe: o f Viana. The young prince on the death of his mother was to inherit her crown. His father retained it. The partisans of the son took arms and were beaten at the battle of Ai'bar (1452). The war, twice suspended, was twice renewed, and this sacreligious strife was terminated only by the death of the Prince of Viana, who was probably poisoned by his father (1461). He had two sisters one, Blanche, the repudiated wife of Henry IV. of Castile ; the other, Leonora, Countess of Foix. Don Carlos had bequeathed his rights to the former. She 42 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. inherited only his misfortunes, and died in the castle of Orthez of poison administered by her sister. A grand- daughter of Leonora in 1484 transferred the crown to the French house of Albret, but a second son of John of Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic, conquered Spanish Navarre (15 12) and in 1515 declared it forever united to his states. Lower Navarre north of the Pyrenees preserved its own kings until the time of Henry IV. This John of Aragon in 1458 became King of Aragon through the death of Alphonso V., his brother. His reign was troubled by continual rebellions. The Catalans, whose privileges he violated, espoused the quarrel of the Prince of Viana. After the death of the " holy martyr," rather than belong to John II. they preferred to submit to the King of Castile, who refused their allegiance but accepted the ces- sion of the city of Estella in Navarre ; then to Don Pedro of Portugal, finally to the house of Anjou. The untimely death of John of Calabria, son of King Rene", ruined their hopes. After eleven years of war they submitted (1472). To obtain means for resistance against this insurrection John II. had pledged to France Cerdagne and Roussillon in return for a loan of 350,000 gold crowns. Louis XI. was not the man to let go what he had once seized. John II. in 1473 failed in the attempt to recover Roussillon. He died in 1479 at tne a S e f eighty-two. His second son, Ferdinand the Catholic, succeeded him. In Castile the same spectacle or worse : Henry IV., who in 1454 succeeded his father, John II., rendered himself both odious and contemptible by his predilection for Bertrand de Cueva, a covetous and cowardly favorite who dishonored him. In 1459 the cortes demanded that the brother of the king, Don Alphonso, be recognized as his heir. In 1465 the nobles took arms and deposed the king in effigy. A platform was raised in the plain of' Avila ; thereon was put the image of Henry with scepter and crown covered by black crape. Then a herald advanced and read in a loud voice a long enumeration of the crimes of the monarch. At announcement of the first crime the Archbishop of Toledo removed the crown ; at the second the Count of Plasencia detached the sword of justice ; at the third the Count of Beneventum tore away the scepter. Finally, the royal effigy was cast from the throne to the ground. This strange ceremony was the signal of civil war, the principal CHAP. IV.] SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521. 43 actors of the scene having proclaimed as king the brother of Henry IV., Don Alphonso, who was only twelve years old. But the young king died after the indecisive battle of Medina del Campo in 1467, and Henry IV. consented to recognize his sister Isabella as Princess of the Asturias, or heiress, to the detriment of his own daughter (1468). It was one of the conditions of peace that Isabella could not marry without the consent of the king. Many princes, among them the King of Portugal, and Charles, Duke of Guyenne, brother of Louis XI., sought her hand. To them Isabella preferred Ferdinand, eldest son of the King of Aragon, and espoused him secretly at Valladolid without waiting for the consent of Henry IV. The contract of marriage stipulated that the government of Castile should belong to Isabella alone. This marriage rekindled civil war. The king no longer disavowing his daughter Jane, called Bertraneia, declared her his heiress, but was not able to assure her her inherit- ance. When he died in 1474 Alphonso V., King of Portugal, endeavored to support the cause of Jane, but was beaten at Toro despite the aid of the rich and powerful Archbishop of Toledo, Cavillo d'Acunha (1476). This prelate, whose turbulent humor had already troubled the reign of Henry IV., had declared against Isabella through hatred of her Aragonese husband. He was wont to say, " I placed the infanta Isabella on the throne of Castile ; I shall easily be able to make her descend from it. Though I put a scepter in her hand, I will now compel her to resume the distaff." He even resisted the menaces of the Pope, and only in 1478 became reconciled with his former prottgfe. Then the King of Portugal was obliged to yield ; Bertraneia retired to a nunnery, and the same year Ferdinand the Catholic became King of Aragon by the death of John II. (1479). The two crowns of Aragon and Castile were united. From that day Spain existed. Isabella, endowed with stable genius, and Ferdinand, an exceedingly able man, though perfidious and disloyal, which seemed in that age an additional excellence, toiled with a vigor and constancy that never flagged to found national unity to the profit of the monarchy. The Moors still occupied the south of the peninsula. In 1462 the loss of Gibraltar closed Africa to them. The troubles of Castile suspended the war. It recommenced in 1482. Thanks to their intestine disorders, 44 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. they lost the same year Alhama, the bulwark of their capital, Ronda three years after, Velez, Malaga, in 1487, Almeria in 1489 ; two years later Granada even was be- sieged. This powerful city was flanked by more than a thousand towers and still contained 200,000 inhabitants. The siege lasted nearly nine months. By accident one night the tents of Isabella caught fire. The queen desired the Spaniards to build a city on the site of the burned camp, and thus to show the Mussulmans that the siege would never be raised. Built in eighty days, this city still exists under the name of Santa Fe. Finally, pressed by famine, generally beaten in the petty combats which constantly took place under their walls, abandoned by Africa, which put forth no effort to save them, the Moors surrendered. This was the last of the " three thousand seven hundred battles " which they had waged with the Christians. Gonsalvo of Cordova drew up the articles of capitulation. These stipulated that the Mussulmans should be always governed according to their own laws, that they should keep their property and customs, and enjoy the free exercise of their faith, without being subjected to other taxes than those they paid their kings. When he reached Mount Padul, whence Granada is seen, Boabdil (Abdoul Abdallah), its last prince, cast a long look upon the city while tears bathed his face. " My son," said to him his mother, Aischa, " you do well to weep like a woman for the throne which you were unable to defend like a man." The domination of the Arabs in Spain had lasted 782 years. It left behind it architectural monuments of refined elegance, agriculture and manufactures carried to perfection, picturesque details in the customs, dress, and household furniture, more than one sonorous word in the language, and even in national thought a touch of delicate and flowery courtesy of which the rude Northern conquerors were utterly ignorant. Spain was freed, but she cherished against the infidels a horror and a hatred ripened, so to speak, by eight centuries of war. The population of the peninsula presented a strange mixture of Moors, Jews, and Christians. To make the whole homogeneous by imposing a single faith, to fortify the unity of the state by the unity of religion, Ferdinand created a new Inquisition.* This celebrated tribunal, which * The Inquisition, although early existing in the Western Church, was made to assume its peculiar sanguinary character at the beginning of the CHAP. IV.] SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521. 45 has left a terrible and an execrated name, at this its second appearance had a political rather than ecclesiastical design. Organized in Castile in 1480, the Holy Office was established four years later in Aragon, and there maintained itself despite an earnest opposition. It was then the only tri- bunal recognized in both countries. The king named its chief the Grand Inquisitor, and retained for his treasury the goods of the condemned. These were first Judaizing Christians and converted Moors who remained secretly faithful to Mohammed ; later, innovators in politics as well as in religion. From January to November, 1481, the inquisitors sent 298 newly professed Christians to the stake in Seville, and 2000 in the provinces of Seville and Cadiz. Placed under the control of the kings, and at times sus- pected by the court of Rome, it was first a means of gov- ernment and an instrument of despotism to defend the " two majesties " (ambas majestades), inasmuch as Ferdi- nand, who at the capture of Granada had acquired for him- self and his successors the surname of Catholic, so judi- ciously confounded religion and monarchy that the same name served to designate God and the king, and thus rebel- lion became sacrilege. " What still more alienated men's minds," said the Jesuit Mariana, " was seeing that this tribunal inflicted upon children the punishment of their parents ; that the accuser was not known and was not con- fronted with the accused ; that the witnesses were not known. Moreover, nothing seemed harder than those secret investigations, which disturbed commerce and society." The Dominican Thomas de Torquemada was the first Grand Inquisitor. In the eighteen years during which he directed this blood tribunal 8000 persons were burned, 6500 were burned in effigy or after death, 9000 underwent thirteenth century, when directed by St. Dominic and Pope Innocent III. against the Albigenses. Entirely reorganized in Spain in 1480, it was called the Holy Office, and was shortly after introduced into Italy. Its introduction into the Netherlands by Philip II. largely contributed to their insurrection. Napoleon suppressed it in Spain in 1808, and at Rome in 1809. After his fall it revived, but only for a brief time. The execution of heretics by burning at the stake was sacreligiously called attto-da-fd (act of faith), the last in America taking place in Mexico in 1815, and in Spain in 1826. The Catholic historian Llorente states that in Spain alone before 1809 it burned alive at the stake 31,912 persons, 1 7>659 persons in effigy, and condemned to imprisonment or various tor- tures 291, 450 more. ED. 46 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. the punishment of branding, of confiscation of goods, or of perpetual imprisonment. In 1492 the Inquisition was sufficiently strong to obtain the banishment of the Jews after having despoiled them of their goods. They were forbidden to carry away either gold or silver, but only articles of merchandise. Contemporary writers estimate at 800,000 the number of those who left Spain. The larger number of these perished or were made to endure atrocious sufferings. Thus fanaticism immolated an entire people, who had long been the principal, the only, representatives of arts, manufactures, and science. A decree deprived the Moors of the religious liberty which the treaty of Granada had left them, and thus many went into exile. Their definite expulsion was not pronounced till a century later (1609). So Spain gained its religious unity, but she lost her arts, manufactures, and commerce, of which the Jews and the Moors were the most active agents. Through the Inquisition the king controlled consciences ; through the right conferred on him by the Pope of appoint- ing to all the Church livings he gained a great ascendancy over the clergy ; by having himself elected grand master of the orders of Calatrava, Alcantara, and St. James he acquired military power and considerable revenues. This last order the most important of them all, it is true could equip 1000 lancers. The reunion of these dignities to the crown was at first only personal, but Ferdinand caused the Pope to declare it perpetual. Through the reorganization of the St. Hermandad, of which he declared himself the protector, and which he subordinated to the council of Cas- tile, the monarchy acquired the means of controlling the national police, and under pretext of punishing or repressing private wars among the barons, it razed their castles. In 1481 forty-six castles were demolished in the province of Galicia alone and the highest heads fell. Commissioners were sent into all the provinces to listen to the complaints of the people against the grandees and to supervise the judges, who in case of betrayal of trust were to restore sevenfold. Finally, by the famous bulk de la cruzada the king obtained a considerable share in the sale of indul- gences. United within, Spain abroad assumed an importance she had never possessed. For the crown of Castile Columbus discovered the new world. Ximenes gave it Oran on the CHAP. IV.] SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521. 47 coast of Africa (1509), and Pedro de Vera the Canaries, whose native population, the Guanches, was exterminated. A stopping place, important for the navigation of the Atlan- tic, was thus acquired for Spain. For the crown of Aragon Ferdinand conquered the kingdom of Naples (1504), and took away Navarre from Jean d'Albret (1512), thereby closing to the advantage of Spain one of the two gates of the Pyrenees. He already held the other through Rous- sillen, which Charles VIII. had restored to him in 1493. The death of Isabella came near separating the two kingdoms. The queen left only a daughter, Jane the Foolish, married to the archduke Philip the Fair, son of Mary of Burgundy and of Maximilian of Austria, conse- quently already sovereign of the Netherlands. Discontented with her son-in-law, the queen by will bequeathed the regency of Castile to her husband. The Castilians reluc- tantly submitted to the last wishes of their great sovereign, and Philip needed only to disembark in Spain to seize the power. But he died soon afterward, and Ferdinand, thanks to the support of the famous Cardinal Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo, was recognized by the cortes Regent of Castile during the minority of his grandson Charles, son of Philip the Fair. However, the unity of Spain was not yet made sure. Ferdinand through dislike of Philip the Fair had contracted a second marriage with Germaine de Foix, niece of Louis XII., in whose favor the French king renounced his claim to Naples. This union was childless. A project of be- queathing Aragon to his second grandson at the expense of the first, whom he did not love, came to nothing. Ferdi- nand, inspired on the bed of death (1516) with the grand thought of the unity of Spain, bequeathed all his crowns to Charles, who had already gathered the heritage of Isabella, and who was still to gather that of his grandfather, the emperor Maximilian. Philip II. was right in saying when speaking of King Ferdinand, " To him we owe all." Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Inquisitor, was Regent of Castile until the arrival of the young king, then in Flanders. An austere man, with a mind of rare vigor, he had anticipated the Reformation by making it himself ; at least he had brought back many monastic Spanish orders to rigid discipline ; to reanimate the religious spirit in the country, he had conducted at his own expense a crusade 48 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [ BOOK I. into Africa under the walls of Oran, of which he made himself master. On the death of Isabella he adminstered Castile, and kept it quiet after the death of Ferdinand. Stern to others as to himself, he remained a monk under the Roman purple and in the palace of kings ; but he no more tolerated resistance to the faith than to the prince. He burned the heretics and curbed the lords. One day the grandees asked him what were his credentials. " There they are," he replied, pointing to formidable artillery and to a body of troops drawn up under the windows of the palace. Charles, who in Spain was Charles I. and in the empire Charles V., at first committed only errors. He disgraced Ximenes and surrounded himself with Flemish favorites. When in 1519 Spain learned that he had obtained the im- perial crown and that he had accepted it, she feared, with reason, that she was to see her blood and money sacrificed to the ambition of the new emperor. Charles despised these murmurs and embarked for Germany, but his de- parture was the signal for an insurrection which spread from Toledo all through Castile. The insurrected cities united in a confederation which took the name of the Holy League (Junta Santa), and refused to lay down arms until the emperor had abolished the pecuniary privileges of the nobility. The aristocracy then separated its cause from that of the citizens and rallied around the sovereign. The army of the league was beaten at Villalar, and its chief, the noble Don Juan de Padilla, died upon the scaffold (1521). Charles V. then completed the work of Ferdinand and Isabella. He compelled the Moors of the province of Valencia to be baptized, and all those of Granada to re- nounce their costume and language. He cited before the tribunal of the Holy Office the bishops who had declared for the communeros. The clergy was obliged to bow the head beneath the weapon which it itself had furnished. Many others bowed it ; the privileges of the cities were abolished, and Charles deprived the cortes of their impor- tance by compelling them to vote the taxes before the con- sideration of complaints, and by forbidding the deputies any preliminary reunion. The nobles refusing to pay their share of the state expenses, he ceased to summon them to the cortes. They appeared no longer in the armies, now composed of mercenaries, nor at the court, crowded with Flemings. CHAP. IV.] SPAIN FROM 1453 TO 1521. 49 So the king triumphed both over the citizens and over the nobles an injurious victory, which was one of the principal causes of the decline of Spain. Thenceforward the activity of this great nation was repressed by a despotism which knew not, like that on the other side of the Pyrenees, how to give glory in exchange and to prepare the way for civil equality. At the southwest extremity of the peninsula the tiny kingdom of Portugal was then casting a brilliant light. _ . . The Capetian house of Burgundy, which had Portugal. .... , J founded this kingdom, was then perpetuated only by an illegitimate branch, that of Avis, which reigned since the glorious day of Aljubarota, when John I. the Bastard had beaten his competitor, the King of Castile The new dynasty, offspring of popular reaction and na- tional sentiment, at first respected public liberty. John I. had convoked the cortes twenty-five times. The minor- ity of Alphonso V., surnamed the African (1438-81), was favorable to the grandees ; a civil war broke out, then followed useless but glorious expeditions into Africa, with the capture of Arzila and Tangiers, and an unfortunate intervention in Spain, where Alphonso sustained the rights of Jane of Castile, daughter of Henry IV. Conquered at Toro (1476), he was forced to solicit the assistance of France. Louis XI. did not greatly love adventurous expe- ditions ; he gave him nothing, but he hindered him from shutting himself up in a monastery, preferring to see at Lisbon a prince friendly to France, hostile to Castile and Aragon, rather than to count one monk more, though a king, in his abbeys. John II. (1481-95), the successor of Alphonso V., was the Louis XI. of Portugal, and a Louis XL still more energetic than he of France. At the very commencement of his reign he revoked in the cortes of Evora all the concessions made to the nobility to the detriment of the royal domain ; he took away from the lords the right of life and death over their vassals, and subjected them them- selves to the jurisdiction of the crown officers (1482). This reform excited a revolt ; the Duke of Braganza put himself at the head of the malcontents. John II. had him seized and beheaded (1483). The nobles then betook themselves to attempts at assas- 5 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK. 1. sination. The king with his own hand stabbed their chief, his cousin, the Duke of Viseu. Appalled at such examples, the nobility bowed its head. The independence of the national assemblies was likewise broken ; the cortes reappeared only three times in fourteen years. Then the royal despotism found itself solidly established ; in return it gave a powerful impulse to commerce and the spirit of adventure, and the Renaissance was encouraged. Lisbon, declared a free port, received the Jews driven from Spain ; the islands of Cape Verd were discovered ; the Cape c Good Hope was passed and the nation launched itself into that adventurous career wherein, following the footsteps of Vasco da Gama and Albuquerque, it was destined to attain a grandeur ephemeral, but for a moment dazzling. Emanuel the Fortunate harvested what John II. had sown. During the course of his reign, as tranquil at home as it was glorious abroad, discoveries succeeded each other with marvelous rapidity, and in the midst of the riches of India Portugal forgot its ancient spirit of independence. Emanuel let the cortes fall into disuse ; during the last twenty years of his reign he did not convoke them once. So the momentous fact which we have already recognized in France, Aragon, and Castile was reproduced in Portugal : the monarchy became preponderant. " John taught all human kings the art of reigning," said Camoens. When, learning of his end, the great Isabella cried, " The man is dead," everybody understood that he who had just passed away was the energetic King of Portugal. CHAPTER V. GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. Divisions of Germany and Italy. The Emperors Frederick III. and Maximilian. Italy in the Second Part of the Fifteenth Century. WE have just seen vast monarchies and powerful royalties formed in France, England, and Spain. The three great nations of the West, reunited German^ nS and each under a national chief who introduced perors ^rederl order and obedience in the interior, were ick in. and therefore ready for action abroad, and in fact were going to act beyond their frontiers. At the center of the European continent two nations, on the contrary, persisted in continuing to live the life of anarchy as in the Middle Ages. Divided, consequently feeble, Germany and Italy were to tempt the ambition of every conqueror, and so one after the other to behold the armies of Europe march upon their soil to decide their quarrels. Italy became the first European battlefield ; when victory had given it to one of the assailants, Ger- many took her turn. By the woes of repeated invasions these two countries had to pay for the ambition and pride of their cities and princes. In Germany the house of Austria had just re-seized the imperial scepter, no more to lose it. But the indolent Frederick III. was incapable of attaching real power to the title of emperor. During a reign of fifty-three years (1440-93) he forgot the empire and was busied only in aggrandizing his Austrian domains, which he raised to an archduchy in 1453. The electors vainly menaced him with deposition ; he did not abandon his systematic in- difference. He permitted the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, to break the feudal bond which attached the 52 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. Netherlands to the empire ; and if he disappointed the ambition of the Bold by refusing him the title of king, he made few efforts to save Neuss and the Swiss, who rescued themselves all alone, the first by obstinate resistance, the second by three victories. In 1460 a civil war broke out in Germany itself. Frederick was satisfied with putting its author, the Elector Palatine, under the ban of the empire ; the elector replied to this impotent sentence by adding to his castle at Heidelberg a tower which he called Trutz- Kaiser (Plague on the Emperor), and which merited its name. Another bad civil war continued from 1449 to 1456 between many princes and seventy-two cities. More than two hun- dred villages were burned on one side or the other. Freder- ick remained simple spectator of the struggle, in which the Swiss, however, had taken part. In his own dominions Frederick when he drew the sword was less indolent without being more successful. His predecessor, Albert of Austria, had left to his son, Ladislaus the Posthumous, the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary, to- gether with the duchy of Austria. Frederick detained the young king, and when the energetic demands of the Bohemians and Hungarians obliged him to let him go free he, however, kept the crown of St. Stephen, to which in the eyes of the Hungarians seemed attached the independence of their country. Mohammed II. entered Constantinople, and in 1456 he conducted his victorious troops before Bel- grade, the last bulwark of Christianity. There was then a glorious role to play ; Frederick left it to John Huniadi, "the White Knight of Walachia." A Franciscan, Giovanni Capistrano, led to the Hungarian hero 46,000 Germans whom his preaching had inspired. Huniadi penetrated into the city, caused the siege to be raised, but died of his wounds, bequeathing to his son, MathiasCorvinus, his glory and his popularity. Two years after Ladislaus died. Frederick claimed to be his heir. Every where he failed. The Bohemians elected as king Podiebrad, the Hungarians MathiasCorvinus, and Frederick was obliged to share the archduchy of Austria with his cousin Sigismund and his brother Albert. He en- deavored to take their part by force, was beaten, and would have been captured at Vienna had it not been for the assist- ance brought him by Podiebrad. The death of Albert gave him naturally what he coveted, but after that of Podiebrad in CHAP. V.] GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. 53 1471 Bohemia escaped him still ; Vladislaus, the oldest son of Casimir IV., King of Poland, was elected. Frederick hoped that at least a long rivalry was going to exhaust Bohemia and Hungary, where Mathias, aided by the Vene- tians and Scanderbeg, sustained gloriously the contest against the Ottomans. But the two kings agreed ; Mathias found himself free to call the emperor to account for his intrigues, for his underhand dealing in Hungary, and for his cowardly abandonment of the cause of Christianity and civilization. The Austrian troops were beaten ; Vienna was captured in 1485, and remained in the hands of Mathias until his death in 1490. Yet this emperor " of very little heart," as says Comines, this archduke always defeated, founded the greatness of his dynasty. The marriage of his son Maximilian with Mary of Burgundy gave the Netherlands, and later still Spain, to Austria. We have already seen how this marriage was brought about, and what were the relations of Fred- erick III. with Charles the Bold. Maximilian was educated, eloquent, and brave. He loved letters, arts, and sciences, and cultivated them with success ; but his character was light and fickle. He never lingered long upon the same matter or in the same place, always upon the highways of Europe and engaged in every adventure, making, in a word, much noise and accomplishing little. He occupied himself, however, somewhat more with Germany than did his father. The anarchy had become such that certain states had taken the initiative of the most energetic measures. In 1488 the Swabian cities and princes formed a league at Esslingen ; the extent of the disorder can be judged by this fact, that in a few years the con- federation had razed no less than 144 fortresses whose masters were from time immemorial in the habit of plunder- ing travelers and of pillaging the country. But a partial and temporary effort was not enough ; a system of general and permanent repression was necessary if public peace was to be established. This was the end sought by the diet of Worms when promulgating the famous constitution of 1495, which for- bade under penalty of fine and forfeiture all war between the states. In order to punish violations of this funda- mental law, or to prevent them, a permanent tribunal was instituted whose members were chosen by the emperor from 54 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. a list of candidates presented by the states. This tribunal took the name of the Imperial Chamber. It remained now to put in execution the decrees of this supreme court. For this they provided by the division of Germany into ten districts a wise project, which the emperor Albert II. had already tried, and which was realized during the reign of Maximilian by the diets of Augsburg (1500) and of Treves (1512). All the German territory, all Bohemia and its dependencies, were divided into ten departments, which had each its director. Each district maintained at its expense a body of troops which were placed under the command of the prince director and charged with the maintenance of public peace. The posts, instituted by Maximilian after the example of those which Louis XI. had organized in France, were also a bond between the different parts of the territory. Unhappily for Germany these institutions of public police only half succeeded. The diet, which alone exer- cised legislative power, distrusted the Austrian emperors ; they on the other hand hindered the putting in operation of rules and laws established by the sovereign assembly. Thus the Aulic Council, created in 1501 by Maximilian for the administration of his hereditary estates and for the decision of cases reserved for the emperor, diminished the authority of the Imperial Chamber. Limited at first to the Austrian estates, the jurisdiction of the new tribunal, while dependent upon the court of Vienna, extended little by little beyond its bounds and made a powerful competition with the Imperial Chamber, whose members were badly paid and their decisions badly obeyed. The encroach- ments of the Aulic Council were to be one of the causes of the Thirty Years War. Upon the whole, at the end of this period the Holy Ger- man Empire, by whatsoever title the pride of its chief was flattered, was in reality an agglomeration, without stability, of princes and cities who had hardly other bonds than ancient recollections, similarity of customs, and identity of language bonds that were to prove themselves exceed- ingly fragile on the day when thundered the storm of religious passion. Even already the most powerful of the German princes were uneasy at this activity of Maximilian. Upon their lands they had seized the absolute power just as the kings CHAP. V.] GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. 55 had done in their kingdoms. " They do everything that they please," said an almost contemporary writer. The revolution remarked in France, England, and Spain had then also taken place in the empire, but to the profit of the princes, not to that of the emperor. In 1502 the seven electors concluded the electoral union, through which they bound themselves to meet annually in order to provide means for maintaining their independence and for arresting the encroachments of imperial authority. Their fears were groundless; two things were lacking to give Maximilian suc- cess, money and perseverance. Ail his life he rushed from one project to another, and all his life he was, as the Italians called him, Massimiliano pochi danari (Max the Penniless). The political history of the empire is as empty under Maximilian I. as under Frederick III. And it is less as emperor that he takes part in the chief affairs of Europe than as father of the ruler of the Netherlands or as Arch- duke of Austria. It is under this title that he signs with Charles VIII. the treaty of Senlis, which brings him Artois and Franche Comte (1493), that he carries on a disastrous war against the Swiss and concludes with them the peace of Basel (1499), tnat h' e joins the league against Charles VIII., later that of Cambrai against Venice (1508), that later still he joins the coalition against Louis XII., and that he gains the battle of Guinegate (1513). A quar- rel arising as to the Bavarian succession, in which he interfered, brought him many cities and much territory upon the Inn ; the death of a count of Goritz and Gra- disca endowed him with those two territories ; finally, that of the archduke Sigismund of the Tyrolese branch reunited in his hands all the possessions of Austria. His life was sufficiently prolonged to see the immense exten- sion given to the power of his house by the marriage of Philip the Fair with Joanna the Foolish, heiress of Spain, Naples, and the New World ; and he prepared the marriage of his grandson Ferdinand with the sister of Louis II., which assured him the succession to the crowns of Hun- gary and Bohemia. But he saw also the beginning of what was one of the principal obstacles to this power, the Refor- mation. He died in 1519, and Luther at that date had already broken with Rome. It is reported that to familiar- ize himself with death Maximilian carried his coffin with him during the last year of his life. 56 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK ]. At the moment of the invasion of the French, Italy was the center of all the Mediterranean commerce. There was then in Europe no country where agri- second haif^f culture was so wisely conducted, where busi- the fifteenth ne ss was so active. " The manufactures of silk, wool, flax, skins, the quarrying of Car- rara marble, the foundries of Maremma, the manufacture of alum, sulphur, and bitumen, were still in full activity. The system of cultivation by petty farmers, so superior at this epoch to whatever was carried on in the rest of Europe, assured Italy a fertility augmented in Lombardy by the hydraulic labors of Ludovico il Moro, in Tuscany by pre- cautions taken against inundations and stagnant waters, which even to-day render desolate countries formerly fertile. The villages, where the peasants intrenched themselves behind ramparts, bore witness to a comfort which corresponded to the splendor of the great cities ; and in them there were so many charms in the relations of life, so much courtesy and a courtesy so exquisite, so much intelligence, in a word, of that which renders life sweet and easy, that the Italian, the richest, the happiest, the most civilized of European nations, could treat other nations as barbarians who were always ready to admire its splendid cities and to sit in its learned schools" (Zeller). Despite all that, Italy was the most feeble of European nations. She had artists and merchants, but not a people. She had condottieri, but no soldiers. The Italians, so skillful in conspiracy, no longer knew how to fight : at the battle of Anghiari they contended four hours and nobody was killed save a horseman suffocated in the crowd. Such were the bitter fruits of despotism ; as there no longer existed liberty or fatherland there no longer existed citizens or courage. More divided than Germany, Italy had not even a name which was accepted by all, as that of the emperor, nor au- thority which was at least sometimes respected, as that of the diet. Her different states, completely independent, had no other bond among them than similarity of language and customs. In the middle of the fifteenth century a new situation was beginning for the peninsula. It was no longer Guelph or Ghibelline, pontifical or imperial ; above all, it was no longer republican, but princely. A condottiere, Sforza, had founded a ducal line at Milan, and many others had equally CHAP. V.] GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. 57 good fortune in Romagna and Emilia. A family of bankers, the Medici, ruled at Florence, the King of Aragon at Naples. It was important to know if these princes were going at least to act in concert to defend against the foreigner the independence of Italy which they had sub- jected. Without speaking of the pretensions and the cupid- ities which menaced from the side of France and Germany, great dangers were created for Italy b.y the capture of Con- stantinople by the Ottomans, and by the efforts, already suc- cessful, to find a sea route to India. Her existence was perhaps to be called in question, certainly her prosperity. In fact by the fall of the Eastern Empire she had lost the principal source of her commerce. If now the Portuguese closed to her the route to India via Alexandria by rendering this route useless, and if the Ottomans, her enemies upon the Greek peninsula, were to make themselves masters of Egypt, Italian commerce would be annihilated. Let us add that these Ottomans, who were soon to capture Egypt, launched their cavalry into Friuli and their fleets upon the Italian shores. The doge was no longer the sole spouse of the Adriatic. Apparently in the presence of such perils the Italians would have no other thought than union. This was in fact the first sentiment inspired in them by the terrible blow which had just smitten the Greek Empire. They forgot their ancient animosities and swore eternal concord at Lodi (1454), a precarious peace due to the wisdom of the great men who were then the arbiters of Italian destinies : Fran- cisco Sforza, Duke of Milan ; Cosmo de Medici, to whom Florence had decreed the beautiful surname Father of the Country ; Alphonso V. the Magnanimous ; Popes Calixtus III. and Pius II. (1455-64), who desired that every morn- ing the "bell of the Turks" should be rung throughout all Christendom. But Alphonso died (1458). The Angevine prince John of Calabria claimed his crown and Italy was thrown into inextricable confusion. The Pope diverted Scanderbeg from his heroic struggle to mix him up with those impious wars (1462). He sustained John of Calabria. Francisco Sforza, who also dreaded a French pretender, the Duke of Orleans, heir of the Viscontis, whom he had dispossessed, took sides for the Aragonese, and aided Ferdinand, King of Naples, to repulse his competitor (1463). 58 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. Peace, re-established in the peninsula by the defeat of John of Calabria at Troja, was anew compromised by the almost simultaneous death of Cosmo (1464), of Francisco Sforza (1466), and of Pius II., who expired at Ancona in sight of the fleet upon which he was to cross to Greece (1464). In 1478 coalition against Florence ; in 1482 coalition against Venice. The Ottomans took advantage of this con- dition of things. They surprised Otranto (1480), butchered or made slaves 12,000 Christians, and sawed the governor in two. Italy grew accustomed to the dread of the Otto- man as she had grown accustomed to her tyrants. The generation of superior men whom she possessed at the middle of the century left only unworthy successors. Let us look into the interior of each state and then we shall see under the splendor of a material and corrupt civiliza- tion all the signs of political and moral death. At Milan the Sforzas since 1450 had replaced the Vis- contis. The fortune of this family was remarkable. One day at the beginning of the fifteenth century the peasant Attendolo while he was working in the fields saw soldiers pass ; he threw down his spade and ran to enlist ; he pos- sessed courage and intelligence; he changed his name into that of Sforza (the brave), became a captain, chief of a com- pany of bandits, the most dreaded condottieri of Italy, and bequeathed his renown, his talents, his soldiers, and a num- ber of strongholds to his natural son, Francisco Sforza, who obtained from the Pope the march of Ancona, then, in the interests of Venice and Florence, defeated the Duke of Milan, who disarmed him by the gift of his daughter's hand. The duke dead, Milan became a republic and engaged Sforza to protect her against Venice. He defended her at first and conquered the Venetians, but then subdued the Milanese and obliged them to proclaim him duke (1450). He reigned sixteen years, respected by the sovereigns, who sought his alliance, as did Louis XL, to whom he sent suc- cor during the League of Public Welfare. His unworthy son, Galeazzo Maria, extended over all the duchy a rapacious and violent tyranny which no longer respected the honor or life of the citizens. In the midst of his guards he was assassi- nated by the grandees in the church of St. Stephen (1476). He left a child eight years old, Giovanni Galeazzo, who suc- ceeded him under the guardianship of his mother, Bonna of Savoy, and of the chancellor Simonetta. But the uncle of CHAP. V.] GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. 59 the young prince, Ludovico Sforza, surnamed il Moro, put the minister to death, drove away the regent, and governed in the name of his nephew, whom he declared of age (1480). Quickly throwing aside the mask, he shut up Giovanni Gale- azzo in the castle of Pavia with his young wife Isabella, granddaughter of the King of Naples, who menaced the usurper with war if he did not restore the power to the legitimate sovereign. It was then that Ludovico, fearing there would be formed a league of Italian states against him, invited Charles VIII. to cross the Alps. Nevertheless the Milanais was always one of the richest countries of the world, and the Lombards continued as in the Middle Ages to be bankers for a part of Europe, thanks to the abundance of capital which a perfected agriculture, flourishing manufactures, and extended commerce collected in their hands. They hurried in crowds to the fair of Beau- caire and to that of Lyons, which Louis XL had just estab- lished. At Bruges and Flanders they possessed a great entrepot of their merchandise, which from there spread into the north of France, into Germany and England ; the vessels of the Hanseatic League thence transported it even as far as the Scandinavian countries. They also culti- vated the arts. Ludovico il Moro retained at Milan the illustrious Leonardo da Vinci and continued the cathedral, that marble mountain covered by an entire population of statues which is eclipsed in grandeur only by St. Peter's at Rome. As to Genoa, ceded by Louis XL to Francisco Sforza in 1464, she recovered a few moments of liberty after the death of Galeazzo Maria in 1476, only to fall once more under the yoke of Ludovico il Moro, who obtained from Charles VIII. the investiture of Genoa as a fief of the French crown (1490). The first rank among Italian states belonged to Venice. During fifty years she had profited by every discord to increase her power. From 1423 to 1453 she acquired four provinces on the Italian peninsula, but these ruinous acqui- sitions had diminished her revenues 100,000 ducats. When the terrible news of the capture of Constantinople by Mohammed II. fell upon Italy, she rallied to the other princes and signed with them the peace of Lodi ; but the following year she forgot the crusade and treated with Mohammed II. When reproached with this hasty defection 60 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. the Venetians replied : " We are Venetians first, Christians second." However, their possessions in the Archipelago and in Greece rendered peace with the Ottomans impos- sible. War broke out in 1464 ; the Ottomans captured Negropont and Scutari, crossed the Piave, and ravaged everything as far as the lagoons. From Venice the)' saw the conflagration. She treated once more, and this time submitted to shameful conditions ; she paid tribute to the Mussulmans (1479). But four years earlier she had acquired Cyprus by maintaining in the island one of her patricians, Catherine Cornaro, " the daughter of St. Mark," who declared the republic her heir in 1489. Venice did not scruple to demand of the Sultan of Egypt investiture of this ancient kingdom of the Lusignans. Venice seemed then at the apogee of her power. With her 3000 ships, her 30,000 sailors, her numerous and veteran army, her famous factories of plate glass, silk stuffs, and gold and silver objects, her immense commerce, and her despotic but skillful government, she could have played a mighty role against the stranger ; but " she remained apart in her importunate and mad ambition, believing that the wind blew always on her stern, and never considering it a fault to gain at the expense of each ; thus was she hated by all." This hatred was first shown in 1482. The Duke of Ferrara had attempted to establish salt works at Com- niachio in order to escape buying salt, according to the treaties, in the warehouses of Venice. Venetian opposition to this attempt was the pretext for a league formed by all the princes against her. The true cause was the jealousy which Venice inspired. The King of Naples, Milan, Man- tua, Florence, and soon the Pope, sustained the Duke of Ferrara. But Venice braved the armies of the allies like the excommunications of the Pope, and at the peace gained Polesina from Rovigo. She had also a government fully able to bestow on her, if not liberty, at least power and wealth. As far as possible she had developed her aristocracy. The authority of the doge, already so sustained by the Grand Council, and then by the Council of the Ten, had become purely nominal after the creation in 1454 of the three state inquisitors, now the real masters of Venice. They could without giving account of their decision pronounce sentence of death and dispose of the public funds. Justly the ambition of these CHAP. V.] GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. 61 three men was feared, to whom all authority was com- mitted; hence two with the approval of the doge could con- demn the third. The three inquisitors of state had the right of making their own statutes, and of changing them as they pleased, so that the republic was ignorant even of the law which governed it. To this regime Venice owed an internal peace which contrasted with the ceaseless agita- tions of the other Italian cities. Everywhere was admired the wisdom of this government, which maintained its sub- jects in tranquillity, and knew how at the same time to pro- cure their welfare by assuring them labor. No city was vaunted like Venice for its pleasures, and for the luxurious life there led by the rich and ofttimes by the people. But there the spy and the informer reigned, being encouraged, paid, and organized, and terror hovered over every head, so that material prosperity was insufficient. The noble who spoke ill of the government was twice warned, the third time drowned; every workman who exported any commodity useful to the republic was stabbed. Judgment, execution, all was secret. The mouth of the lion of St. Mark received the anonymous denunciations, and the waves which passed under the Bridge of Sighs carried away the corpses. To preserve herself from the ascendancy of generals and the influence of armies Venice employed only condottieri and foreign chiefs, near whom she kept as supervisors two proveditors. Thus without peril she was unable to under- take offensive war and win conquests, for she floated always between the fear of too great success, which would render the general too powerful, and of treason, which would make him pass to the enemy. The trial of the condottiere Car- magnola had been carried on during eight months without the count having any intimation of the danger which he ran ; he was left at the head of his army and heaped with honor when he had been already condemned to perish On the other side of Italy in the valley of the Arno rose Florence the Beautiful. Long troubled by the quarrel of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, she had found peace again only in 1343, when all the classes of the population were confounded in political equality. The nobles, long held apart from government, were raised to the rank of citizens. The constitution of Florence was remarkable ; the execu- tive power belonged to a college of six priors which was 62 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. renewed every two months ; the legislative power to two assemblies, the council of the people and the council of the commune, whose members were nominated for four months. In order to avoid cabals they had recourse to lot, both for the nomination of the councilors and for that of the priors. Moreover, the general assembly of the people remained sole sovereign, and must be convoked every time that there was a question of modifying fundamental law. Just as the Athenian democracy excluded the metoikoi, or domiciliated strangers, from its bosom, the Florentine democracy did not admit to political power the non-privi- leged artisans, the Ciompi, or Wooden Shoes. The latter rose in 1378. But the citizens remained masters of authority. This victory profited only the great families of the city, first, that of the Albizzis ; second, that of the Medicis. This house, which was to become so powerful, had rendered itself popular by raising the citizens of the second class, or, as they said at Florence, the minor arts, to political rights. After Sylvestro, Cosmo de Medici acquired by commerce, and especially by banking, an immense fortune. He used it to assist the poor and to gain friends among the rich by lending them money. He found himself quickly the bene- factor or the creditor of the majority of the Florentine citizens. At this the Albizzis took umbrage and banished him. But this exile established his power ; at the end of a year Cosmo returned in triumph (1434). It depended only upon himself whether he would assume the supreme power. He cared little for a sounding title : his authority was only the more absolute and more durable. All public functions, all the offices, belonged to his friends. He was in appearance a simple banker ; in reality he was the master, and continued such all his life (1434-64). Those were glorious years for Florence. The shadow of republican government existed, and that sufficed for much. Peace and order reigned to the profit and satisfaction of all. Letters and arts flourished, thanks to the protection of Cosmo and to the increasing progress of industry and com- merce; thus grateful Florence decreed to her chief the name of Father of his Country. He expended 6,000,000 dollars in the construction of palaces, hospitals, and libraries, but he led himself the most simple life, and instead of seeking princely alliances for his children, he married them into CHAP. V.] GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. 63 Florentine families, so that his sons remembered they were the equals of their fellow-citizens before being their rulers. But after the first generation, heredity of power in a family of parvenus produced its too common results ; the Medicis forgot their citizen origin, considered themselves as princes, and Florence lost even the appearance of its ancient liberty. This liberty in 1465 w;is demanded back from Pietro I., by the nobles. He foiled their plots, but one of his sons fell their victim (1478). Pope Sixtus IV., blinded by his affection for one of his nephews, Girolamo Riario, wished to conquer for him a principality in the Romagna. This would have destroyed the Italian equilibrium and violated the treaty of Lodi. The Florentines protested. Irritated by this resistance, Riario took part in the conspiracy of the Pazzis. They were to assassinate Guiliano and Lorenzo de Medici during mass at the elevation of the Host (1478). Guiliano was slain, but Lorenzo escaped and punished the murderers. Among the accomplices was the Archbishop of Pisa, Salviati, who was hung in his pontifical robes at a window of his palace. Therefore an excommunication was launched against the Medici and war burst forth, in which all the Italian powers took part. During this war the Ottomans sacked Otranto. This apparition of the crescent on the very soil of Italy appalled the princes. Sixtus IV. opened his eyes and con- sented to treat. Peace was anew established by the pru- dence of Lorenzo de Medici, who betook himself to Naples in order to negotiate with Ferdinand. Lorenzo deserved his surname of Magnificent and Father of the Muses by his zeal for learned men and artists. He welcomed the Greeks driven from Constantinople, had Plato translated by Ficino, published an edition of Homer by Chalcocondylas, encouraged Angelo Politano, an eru- dite poet, le Poggio, a learned man of letters, and had cast by Ghiberti the doors of the baptistery of St. John, " worthy," said Michael Angelo, " to be the gates of para- dise." In 1490 Lorenzo, ruined by his magnificence, was almost bankrupt. Florence to save him from this disgrace became bankrupt herself. She reduced by one-half the interest on the public debt and by one-fifth the nominal value of the specie deposited in the treasury, whence it was issued at its former rate. A single voice dared to protest against this omnipotence of the Medici, that of the Domini- 64 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. can monk of Ferrara, Girolamo Savonarola. He wished to restore to the clergy purity of manners ; to the people, liberty ; to letters and the arts, religious sentiment. When Lorenzo was on his deathbed in 1492 he adjured him to give back liberty to Florence, demanding it as the price of abso- lution. Lorenzo refused. " Then," cried the monk, " the time has come. A man will arise who in a few weeks will invade Italy without drawing the sword. He will pass the mountains like Cyrus, and the rocks and fortresses will fall before him." The son of Lorenzo, Pietro II., showed only incapacity. He isolated himself from the plebeians, lived like a prince, and aroused violent hatred by his debaucheries. Two parties were then formed in the city that of the young nobles, the arrabiati, or madmen, and that of the people, the fratesc/ii, or friends of the monks. Savonarola was at the head of the latter. The disorders of Pietro only con- firmed the monk in the thought that a terrible punishment was reserved for Italy ; and he himself was one of those who made the highways easy for the foreign conqueror. " O Italy ! O Rome ! " said Savonarola. " The barbar- ians are coming famished like lions . . . and the mortal- ity shall be so great that the grave diggers will go through the streets crying, ' Who has any dead ?' and then one will bring out his father, another his son. . . O Rome ! I repeat it to thee, do penance ; do penance, O Venice ! O Milan ! " The Council of Basel had ended the schism of the Church, and after 1447 Christianity had but one chief, Nicholas V., a lettered man and protector of the learned. The conspir- acy of Stefano Porcaro (1453), who endeavored to establish at Rome the republican government, and the capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans, against whom he himself preached a crusade in 1455, had troubled his pontificate. His successor, the Spaniard Alphonso Borgia, Pope under the name of Calixtus III., had prepared the way for honors to his family, which was destined to a shameful celebrity. In 1458 the pontifical tiara had been given to the former secretary of the Council of Basel, ^Eneas Silvius Piccolomini, celebrated as Pius II. Pope Paul II. (1464-71) was still animated by the grand thought of the crusade. He sus- tained Scanderbeg, he armed the Persians against the Otto- mans : but after him commenced a deplorable period in the CHAP. V.] GERMANY AND ITALY FROM 1453 TO 1494. 65 history of the papacy. During more than half a century the pontiffs, many of whom were, however, remarkable for their genius, forgot the interests of Christianity to think only of their family or their temporal dominions. We have seen the efforts of Sixtus IV. (1471-84) to create a sovereignty for his nephew. The feeble Innocent VIII. (1484-92) did not make the pontificate enter upon better ways. After him the Church had the grief and shame of seeing in the chair of St. Peter Alexander VI., the second Pope of the Borgia family. His election was disgraced by the most flagrant simony, his pontificate by debauchery, cruelty, and perfidy. He was not deficient, however, in skill and penetration ; he excelled in council, and knew how to conduct important affairs with marvelous address and activity. It is true he always played with his word, but the Italy of that day held integrity and good faith in ex- ceedingly small esteem. The Roman state was then a prey to a crowd of petty tyrants and desolated by their bloody rivalries. There were wars, assassinations, and continual poisonings. At the very doors of Rome the Colonnas and Orsinis boasted that they were the handcuffs of the Pope. Alexander VI. succeeded by means of ruse and cruelty in destroying or subjugating all these lords. In this undertaking no one seconded him better than his son, Caesar Borgia, who had chosen as device, " Aut Caesar, aut nihil." Handsome, edu- cated, and brave, but corrupt and evil, this man, capable of striking off the head of a bull with a single blow of his saber, and of pursuading everything he wished by the enchant- ment of his speech, used hardly any weapons except lying, poison, and the dagger. He meditated his blows calmly, took his time, and acted in silence ; secretissimo, says Machiavelli, his secretary and panegyrist. "What has not been done by noon," he often repeated, " will be done in the evening." No crime was repugnant to him ; he contributed more than any other to merit for Italy the surname " the Poisonous " given her by the writers of the time. However, he could not reap the fruit of his efforts. Scarcely had he acquired the Romagna when his father died. Says Machi- avelli, " He had prepared everything, foreseen everything, save that he was to be at death's door at the moment when his father was dying." . The father and the son had drunk by inadvertence a poison which they destined for a cardinal. 66 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. As he had betrayed everyone so he was betrayed ; impris- oned some time by Ferdinand the Catholic, he lived after- ward as an adventurer, and was slain before a paltry town of Navarre. In the kingdom of Naples the victory of Troja in 1462 had placed the crown upon the head of Ferdinand I., but this prince apparently endeavored to rouse a new revolution by reviving hatred instead of effacing the marks of civil strife. The harshness of his government having excited his nobles against him, he deceived them by promises, invited them to a festival of reconciliation, and at his own table had them seized and then butchered. The people were not better treated than the grandees. Ferdinand monopolized for himself all the commerce of the kingdom ; he sold bishoprics and abbeys, made money out of everything, and knew not how to employ this money in defense of the state : thus he permitted the Ottomans to seize Otranto in 1480, to massacre its population, and to saw its governor in two. In 1484 the Venetians also captured Gallipoli and Policastro on the shores of his kingdom. Such an admin- istration rendered a catastrophe inevitable and imminent. At the end of the fifteenth century Italy was a country of rich and corrupt civilization ; the marvels of the arts and the splendor of letters poorly concealed its precocious decline. War was made only by the arms of the condottieri, who displayed scientific tactics in the skirmish, where blood flowed little, and who gained their pay as cheaply as pos- sible. Fatal sign for a people is the loss of military virtues : to live well one must be ready to die well ; and Italy trembled before a sword ; so she held in honor the ruse, the perfidy, and the lie. With poison or the poignard, questions were resolved which elsewhere or in other times would have been cut with the sword. Italian diplomacy was a school of crimes. Surfeited with riches and given up to anarchy, the peninsula was a prey reserved to him who should dare to seize it first. Charles VIII. wished to take it, but before leading him thither let us behold other conquerers who also were approaching its shores. CHAPTER VI. THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE FROM 1453 TO 1520. Mohammed II. (1451-81). Baiezid II. and Selim I. (1481-1520). FOR the Ottomans the capture of Constantinople had guaranteed their domination in Europe. Despite their conquests even to the banks of the Danube and the shores of the Adriatic, Constantinople while independent was for them a perpetual (ii8o mmedn ' menace. One disaster could deprive them of all, could hurl them back into Asia, whence the Greeks and the fleets of Christian powers, at last con- scious of the danger, would have prevented their coming forth. Constantinople having fallen, their establishment in Europe was no longer a camp which a hurricane could have swept away. The castle of the Seven Towers re- placed the desert tent. Mohammed II., the seventh Ottoman emperor, was then obeyed from the walls of Belgrade on the Danube to the center of Asia Minor. This empire, already formidable, had two enemies : on the west the great body of Christian nations who had easily remained indifferent to the fate of the schismatic Greeks, but who would not permit them- selves to be submerged by the invasion which now reached their frontiers ; on the east, at the center of Asia Minor, the Sekljoukian principality of Caramania (Koniah, Kai'sarieh), and behind this principality after its fall had come (1464) the Persians, animated against the Otto- mans by the hatred which nearness often excites between two peoples, and which religious differences envenom. We shall see Mohammed II. and his successors hurl themselves against these two barriers ; and the two enemies of the new empire which menaces both Europe and Asia assist each 68 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. other in arresting its progress. To a success upon the Danube often replied an attack along the Euphrates ; to a victory in Asia, a new war in Europe. Nor let us forget among the enemies of the Ottomans the intrepid troop of the knights of Rhodes, of that island which hung upon the flanks of Asia like a vigilant sentinel of Christianity. To them let us add the raias (flocks), that is to say, the subjects. For the moment they were docile and trembling, but more numerous than their masters, at least in Europe. Later they constituted a danger for the empire, inasmuch as Mohammed II. granted them privileges which made of them a national body, having their own laws, tribunals, and chiefs, as also their own language and religion.* The Ottoman government was a despotism like that of all Asiatic peoples. The sultan, or Padishah, exercised absolute power. His subjects were only his slaves, whom he exalted or reduced to nothingness according to the caprices of his will. This despotism was limited by the forces even upon which it rested. Thus the Koran was placed above the sultan. The law of the Prophet was the law of all of the master as well as of the subjects. Although the mouphti and oulema, charged with interpreting the Book, had no political office, the people often listened to their voice when they invoked the sacred name of God against an iniquitous or dangerous measure. But those whom the sultans had most to fear were those who served them best, the Janis- saries. This chosen soldiery had already revolted under Mourad II. If we except the nascent army of France, the Ottomans had at this period an incontestable superiority over the Europeans in military affairs. They had more discipline, a larger experience in the art of fortifying * With a spirit of toleration none other in Europe had thus far shown, Mohammed II. had allowed the Greeks the free exercise of their religion, a part of their churches, their civil laws, tribunals, and schools, and had recognized their patriarch as chief of the community or of the Greek nation (Roum Mileti), the latter being responsible to the government for the preservation of order in his nation, and for the payment of the kharadj, or poll tax, and the other imposts, and being for that purpose invested with much temporal authority. The Armenians and the Jews obtained the same privileges and the same organization, so that below the dominant nation there were three other regularly constituted nations. In our day this number has been doubled, immunities having been granted to the Catholic Armenians (1829), to the Protestant Armenians (1850), and to the Catholics (1854). CHAP. VI.] THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1453 TO 1520. 69 strongholds and of casting cannon, and in the skillful em- ployment of field or siege artillery. Moreover, no Christian power then had the capacity or the idea of maintaining a standing army so numerous as that of the sultan. Let us add to these material means the stimulating energy of fanaticism and of martial ardor, and we shall comprehend the rapidity of their progress. " Paradise is found in the shadow of the sword," had said the Prophet. All the Christian nations were still aristocratic societies; in the Ottoman nation the most perfect spirit of equality pre- vailed. The brave man could aspire to everything, for even in the densest crowd and among the slaves, the sultan sought the most courageous and most skillfur to make of him a pasha or vizier. In all these characteristics we recog- nize that the Ottomans possessed a great superiority over the Christians in means of action and instruments of con- quest. This explains their unbroken successes during a century which is filled by three great heroes sultans Mohammed II., Selim I., and Souleiman I. and the feeble Baiezid II. To the first is due the glory of having completed the con- quest of the Greek Empire. He ma.de himself master of the duchy of Athens, of Corinth, and of almost the whole Morea (1458). In 1461 he took Trebizond, the following year the island of Lesbos, and two years later the princi- pality of Caramania, whose chief, through his attacks upon the Ottoman rear in Asia Minor, had often arrested their progress in Europe. The Ottomans resembled then a for- midable advancing tide beating alternately its opposite shores ; an ocean, dried up to-day. Venice, which, as we have seen, openly avowed that she put her interests above those of Christianity, had obtained from Mohammed II. (1454) a treaty favorable to her com- merce. Thus she made small efforts to second Pope Pius II., who succeeded, however, in uniting the Italian powers against the Ottomans, but who died of fatigue at Ancona at the moment of embarkation (1464). At last Venice, alarmed by their progress, commenced the war on her own account, but with no result save ravaging the enemy's coasts. Against Italy a serious attack was difficult. But Hungary, situated on the very highway of invasion, had everything to fear; she accepted the struggle ; Huniadi, her regent, shut 70 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BOOK I. himself up in Belgrade at the confluence of the Save and the Danube ; all the forces of Mohammed II. broke them- selves against it (1456). This valiant man fell in the midst of his triumph. His son, Mathias Corvinus, replaced him worthily. Elected king in 1458, he defended the line of the Danube with success against all the attacks of the sultan. Hungary owes him her first standing army (the Black Guard), her cannon foundries, and her university at Buda. He was the greatest of her kings (1458-93). He would perhaps have inflicted signal disaster upon the Ottomans if he had not wasted his strength in an impolitic struggle against Bohemia and against Frederick III. of Austria, who refused to restore to Hungary the crown of St. Stephen, and whose capital, Vienna, Mathias occupied for five years. Arrested at the north by the Hungarians, who defended energetically the passage of their rivers, and by the Rou- manians, who intrenched themselves in their immense for- tress the Carpathians, Mohammed II. returned southward and attacked Albania. Its conquest became easy when Scanderbeg died (1467). This intrepid chieftain, who by his courage had made himself Prince of Albania (Epirus), had during twenty-three years repulsed all the Ottoman attacks and gained over them twenty-two victories. After his death the Ottomans divided his bones to wear them at their necks as amulets (1468). Croia, his principal fortress, did not surrender until ten years later. In 1470 an immense fleet disembarked an Ottoman army in the Vene- tian island of Negropont. After four terrible assaults the capital of the island, which bore the same name, was carried by storm ; not one of its defenders or of its inhabitants was spared. Happily Mohammed II. was then called to the other extremity of his empire by the Tartar Ouzoun Hassan, who had just founded in Persia the dynasty of the White Sheep, and whom Pope Paul II. stirred up to attack the Ottomans. Hassan was beaten (1473). This diversion had none the less its desired effect. The Moldavians, com- manded by Stephen IV., the " athlete of Christ," defeated an Ottoman army near Racovitz (1475) m Albania and Greece the Ottomans failed in two attacks against Scutari and Lepanto. Mohammed II. was not accustomed to defeat. His pride was roused. On the one side he launched his fleet against Caffa, a rich Genoese emporium on the Black Sea, which was ruined ; and on the other a countless CHAP. VI.] THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1453 TO 1520. 7 1 cavalry penetrated as far as the Piave and cast terror throughout all Italy (1477). Humbly Venice demanded peace, and obtained it by restoring Scutari, and by an annual tribute wherewith she purchased the liberty of carrying on commerce in the Black Sea (1479). 1 h e following year an Ottoman fleet seized Otranto, on the coast of the kingdom of Naples. But this city was recaptured, and the Grand Master of the Knights of St. John, Pierre d'Aubusson, defended Rhodes against the Grand Vizier, who after three months of ineffectual efforts raised the siege. Mohammed II. none the less formed the most redoubtable plans. He wished to march against the Mamelukes of Egypt, swore to feed barley to his horse upon the altar of St. Peter at Rome, and, when hearing of the ceremony whereby the Doge of Venice espoused the Adriatic, promised " to send him quickly to the bottom of that sea in order to consummate his marriage." Sickness arrested all these designs. He died at Nicomedia at the age of fifty-three (1481). Bai'ezid II., a savant rather than a soldier, had to struggle against his brother Zizim, or Djem, who disputed the power. BaVezid ii Thanks to the genius of his Grand Vizier, and seiim i'. . Achmet, Bai'ezid gained the day. Not long (1481-1520). after he strangled him to whom he owed the empire. The conquered Zizim fled to Rhodes. The knights gave him a brilliant reception. But to avoid a war with the sultan Pierre d'Aubusson consented, in return for an annual tribute of 40,000 sequins, to prevent Zizim from returning to Turkey. He was confined in a commandery of Poitou. From there he fell into the hands of Pope Alexander VI. Charles VIII. during his Italian expedition exacted that this brother of Bai'ezid should be given up to him. Zizim could aid him in the conquest of Constantinople. The unfortunate prince was delivered up, but had been already poisoned. The rumor spread that the sultan had promised 300,000 ducats to the sover- eign pontiff if he would rid him of his brother. Despite his pacific inclinations the sultan was obliged to occupy the Janissaries ; he conquered Bosnia, Croatia, and Moldavia. The Ottomans, already masters of Wal- lachia, then dominated the two banks of the Danube (1489). But Bai'ezid soon returned to his favorite tastes, the study of letters, and a short war against Venice alone troubled 72 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. [BoOK I. the repose of this indolent and voluptuous prince. He was deposed by his discontented soldiers. Selim, his fourth son, girded on the saber and commenced his reign by parricide; he poisoned his father, then murdered his brothers and their children, so there should be left no rivals for him to fear (1512). The movement of conquest, interrupted under Baiezid II., recommenced with Selim the Ferocious. To his warlike ardor Selim owed the affection of the Janissaries and conse- quently the power. He justified their hopes ; two Grand Viziers were successively put to death for having asked him in what direction his imperial tent should face ; that is to say, toward what country he was to direct his arms. A third arranged the tents toward the four corners of the world. " That is the way," said he, " I wish to be served." During the eight years of his reign without cessation he led his Janissaries to new enterprises. First he attacked Persia, where Ismail had just founded the Sophi dynasty. There was not only political rivalry between the two peo- ples, but also religious hate ; the Persians are Schiites ; that is to say, they acknowledge no legitimate successor of the Prophet save Ali, the fourth caliph, and his descendants ; the Ottomans recognize the legitimacy of Aboubekir, Omar, and Othman, and defer to their theological explana- tions ; they accept, in a word, the tradition, or Sunna, whence their name Sunnites. It is among them a popular saying that the death of a single Schiite is more agreeable to God than that of seventy Christians ; so before entering upon the campaign the sultan did not fail to make in his empire a rigorous search after heretics ; he found 40,000, who were all put to death. This horrible massacre inau- gurated the war. The two armies met near Tauris in Ader- bai'djan and engaged in a terrible battle. The Ottomans conquered, thanks to their artillery ; but they had lost 40,000 men, and this day is still for them a day of mourning (1514). The Janissaries compelled Selim to retire ; the only result of the bloody victory was the temporary possession of Tauris. The Mamelukes had ruled for more than two centuries in Egypt and Syria. This powerful military republic was an object of disquietude and jealousy to the Ottomans. Selim passed the Taurus at the head of 150,000 men and penetrated into Syria, which was opened to him by the trea- CHAP. VI.] THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1453 TO 1520. 73 son of the Governor of Damascus and Aleppo. A great battle was fought near the latter city ; the conquered Mamelukes lost their sultan, the heroic Kansou-Al-Gouri, who died of exhaustion and rage after having slain with his own hand forty enemies. Syria submitted to the sultan (1516). The victory of Gaza and another near Cairo gave him Egypt, where he was received as liberator by the native population. The Copts delivered to him more than 20,000 Mamelukes, whom he slaughtered in a single day and whose dead bodies were thrown into the Nile. Despite this massacre Selim was obliged to employ a part of the Mameluke beys in the new administrative organization which he gave Egypt ; and the Copts as well as the fellahs gained from the Ottoman con- quests only an aggravation of their misfortunes (1517). The submission of Egypt brought about that of the Arab tribes ; the Shereef of Mecca came to offer to the conqueror the keys of the Kaaba, and Selim found himself master of the three holy cities, Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem. In 1518 a successful expedition against the Persians acquired for him the Diarbekir, or the upper part of the Tigris and Euphrates basin. At Cairo Selim had found Motavakkel, last descendant of Abbas the Caliph, whom he brought to Constantinople, where he died in obscurity. But Motavakkel had before this intrusted to him the standard of Mohammed, and had resigned to his hands his spiritual authority. So the sultan became the Commander of the Faithful, the heir of the Prophet, and held at once, in the language of the Middle Ages, the two swords, that of temporal authority and that of spiritual power. The conquest of Egypt had another result. The capture of Alexandria by the Ottomans resulted in dealing a mortal blow to Venice ; her communications with the East were thenceforward interrupted. To these vast acquisitions the sultan added that of Algiers, which a pirate, Horouk, surnamed Barbaroussa, son of a potter of Mitylene, had in 1516 conquered from the Spaniards. On the death of Horouk his brother, Khaired- din, succeeded. But seeing himself too weak to resist the Arabs and the Christians, he addressed himself to the Porte, which in return for a formal act of submission granted him the title of bey, together with 2000 Janissaries, 74 REVOLUTION IN THE POLITICAL ORDER. artillery, and money. Thanks to this assistance Khaired- din drove the Spaniards from the fort which they occupied near the city, and by sagacious labors made the harbor of Algiers a redoubtable place of rendezvous for his pirates. So in a few years Selim had almost doubled the empire of the Ottomans. Its dominion extended from the Danube to the Euphrates, and from the Adriatic to the cataracts of the Nile. Masters of the eastern basin of the Mediter- ranean, where they possessed all the shores, the Ottomans had just acquired the important port of Algiers on the western basin of this European sea. The despotic form of their government assured secrecy to their policy and unity to their military operations. Finally, no army in Europe equaled the militia of the Janissaries. At that moment Selim died, and Souleiman the Magnificent girded on the saber in the mosque of Eyoub. He was to be the rival of his two great contem- poraries, Francis I. and Charles V., the friend of the one, the enemy of the other (1520). BOOK II. CONSEQUENCES OF THE POLITICAL REV- OLUTION. FIRST EUROPEAN WARS (1494-1559). CHAPTER VII. ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516).] R/sum/ of the Preceding Period. Expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy (1494). Louis XII. (1498-1515). New Conquest of the Milan- ais by Francis I. (1515). WHILE studying the history of the great European nations during the second half of the fifteenth century we have , , seen one general fact produced, and have be- Resume of the , .* ' preceding pe- held society resume a form of government which had been lost since the Roman Empire, namely, the absolute power of kings. This is the political side of the great revolution which was being accomplished, and which was going to change the arts, the sciences, the literatures, and even for half of Europe the beliefs, at the same time that it changed the institutions. The inevitable consequence of this first transformation which placed the peoples with their riches and strength at the disposition of the kings was to give the latter the temptation of enlarging their states. The great European wars were therefore about to succeed the feudal wars as the kings succeeded the lords. The second period of Modern Times is formed for us by these first European wars, called wars of Italy, because the possession of that country was their occasion and principal result. France was the first to come under the feudal regime, and 75 7^ CONSEQUENCES Of THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK It. with her kings so feeble and her barons so haughty, with her innumerable castles and her chivalrous literature, she had been its most brilliant exponent ; she was also the first to issue from it in order to put on a new and powerful form. Louis XI., entirely occupied with his great feudal battle, had said : " The Genoese give themselves to me and I give them to the devil." But the battle gained and everything well ordered within, it was essential to look without, were it only thus to direct the activity of the nobles and make them pliant to political obedience by accustoming them to military discipline. Charles VIII., it is well understood, saw nothing of all this. He had the instinct but not the comprehension of his role. The foreign policy of France adopted after Louis XI. was a necessity. His son had nothing in common with those men who resist circumstances and control them ; he went therefore where they pushed him. He was at least able to choose his direction, and to the woe of France, Italy, and Europe he chose the worst. Louis XI. had carefully abstained from putting forward the rights which he held from the house of Anjou to the , kingdom of Naples. Charles VIII. drew Expedition of ,. . " . . Charles vin. them from oblivion to give some mighty sword into Italy (1494). tnrusts beyond the mountains. Experienced politicians endeavored in vain to change his purpose. Italy, besides, had just thrown herself into the arms of France. Ludovico, menaced by the King of Naples, called Charles VIII.; many others called him also, as did the Marquis of Saluzzo and the Neapolitan barons and Savonarola and the cardinals hostile to Alexander VI. "Noble spirits! well- beloved Italy ! " cried the poet Sannazaro, " what madness presses you to throw away the Latin blood to odious nations ? " However, as far as the situation of France was concerned, the moment was badly chosen for a distant expedition. The neighboring powers, displeased at the reunion of Brittany to the crown, were forming a league. The founder of the Tudor dynasty, Henry VII., was disembarking an English army at Calais ; Maximilian, whom Charles VIII. had so vigorously supplanted, was attacking Artois ; the King of Spain, Ferdinand the Catholic, promised to cross the Pyre- nees. Splendid occasions for war were thus afforded. But Charles VIII., eager to depart, preferred to negotiate : CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 77 treaty of Etaples with Henry VII., who on the promise of a sum of 745,000 gold crowns, payable in fifteen years, re-em- barked ; treaty of Senlis with Maximilian, who recovered for his son Artois, Franche Comte", and Charolais, conquests of Louis XI.; treaty of Narbonne with Ferdinand the Cath- olic, to whom Cerdagne and Roussillon were restored, with- out even demanding back the sums expended, and against the protestations of Perpignan, which wished to remain French. All those were frontier provinces, essential to the defense of the kingdom since they closed the Pyrenees, the Jura, and the Somme. What mattered it to Charles VIII.? The submission of Italy was sure, and this conquest the commencement of a still higher fortune. From Naples he hoped to pass to Greece, drive out the Ottomans from Con- stantinople, and like a valiant knight of the Middle Ages replace the tomb of Jesus Christ under the protection of a Christian kingdom of Jerusalem. With such imprudence was France thrown into these hazardous expeditions which turned her aside from internal improvements and from aggrandizement within her reach. To find a successor to Louis XI. we must wait for Henry IV. and Richelieu. A splendid and well-equipped army assembled promptly in 1494 toward the end of summer at the foot of the Alps. The French exulted at entering into that land of mar- vels which was going to be their tomb. There were 3000 lancers, 6000 Breton archers, 6000 Gascon arquebusiers, 8000 Swiss, and 50,000 common soldiers, with 150 heavy cannon, " a merry company, but little discipline." Bayard served in it with the rank of squire. Many things neces- sary to so great an enterprise were wanting ; they had neither food nor campaign equipages, nor ready money. Heaven provided for these things. " The journey," said Comines, " was directed of God as much so as to the going as to the coming back, for the commander and the guides were worth little." The King of Naples had sent his brother with a fleet to Leghorn and Pisa, and his son with an army on the other side of the Apennines toward Ferrara ; one was to guard the approaches by sea, the other the land route. The Duke of Orleans got together a few vessels at Marseilles and defeated the former at Rapallo ; the latter did not dare even wait for the French advance guard of d'Aubigny. He knew that the Duke of Orleans had destroyed every- 7 8 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. thing at Rapallo : it was no longer a war of condottieri, of beautiful passages of arms, where at worst one was dis- mounted and made to pay ransom, but a cruel, merciless war without quarter. Dismay took possession of the entire peninsula. They remembered the barbarians ; it was too late to send away the foreigner whom they had summoned. Charles VIII. had crossed Mt. Genevra September 2. He found himself destitute of money at the very beginning of the campaign. After having danced and played the agreeable in Turin with the Duchess of Savoy and the Marchioness of Montferrat, he obtained the loan of their diamonds to continue his journey. At Genoa he borrowed 100,000 francs, on which, everything reckoned, he paid inter- est at the rate of forty-two per cent. Sick some time at Asti, he was there joined by Ludovico il Moro ; then he visited Galeazzo, who was confined in the castle of Pavia, but did not allow himself to be touched by the grief of the prisoner's young wife. Ludovico il Moro himself in person led the conqueror across his duchy to the frontiers of Tuscany ; his nephew died a few days after ; it was com- monly believed that thus he had purchased the right of poisoning him and taking his place. The two fortresses of Sarzana and of Pietra Santa might have arrested the French army ; Pietro de Medici brought their keys to the king in the hope of being maintained in Florence, which Savonarola was rousing against him. Pietro was nevertheless driven out by the people on his return to the cry of, " No more Medicis." But the tribune monk, who considered Charles VIII. as an envoy of God for the scourging of Italy, sought the young king, and introduced him into the city. He entered as a conqueror, his head erect, his lance upon the thigh, and wished to levy a war contribution. On a refusal he used menaces. " Beat your drums," said boldly the gonfalonier Capponi in order to terminate the exigencies of this bloodless conqueror, " and we will ring our bells " (November). At Rome the cardinals and the lords, maltreated by Alexander VI., opened their gates to the French as libera- tors, and urged the King of France to depose the incestu- ous and simonaical Pope, who had taken refuge in the castle of San Angelo. Charles VIII. pointed his cannon against this ancient fortress ; he obtained from the pontiff his son, Cresar Borgia, as guarantee of his fidelity, and an CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 79 Ottoman prince, Djem, or Zizim, the brother of Sultan Baiezid II., who was to serve the ulterior projects of the French in the East (December 31). Some days later the first escaped ; the second died, having been poisoned before his surrender. But the end of their expedition was reached on the frontiers of Naples. These fell of themselves. Ferdinand I. had just died. His son, Alphonso II., abdicated in terror. The new sovereign, Ferdinand II., had more courage and wished to fight ; at San Germano he found himself taken between two treasons, one in his army, one in his capital, and was forced to flee to the island of Ischia, whence he reached Sicily. Not a lance was broken. The valets of the army put chalk marks in Naples upon the houses which their masters were to inhabit. Charles VIII. and his followers entered this capital (February 22, 1495) in the midst of flowers thrown by the inhabitants. There was as in every popular caprice an enthusiasm mingled with delirium. " Never a people," said the French, " showed so much affection to a king or a nation." The report of this rapid conquest crossed the seas ; already the Greeks began to prepare weapons while waiting for their liberator, " the King of the Franks." Once there, however, the conquerors thought only of enjoying their easy victory. Charles VIII. had himself crowned King of Naples, Emperor of the East, and King of Jerusalem. He showed himself to the Neapolitans, the purple upon his shoulders and the golden globe in his hand, and " celebrated many a gorgeous tourney and pastime." His companions divided the fiefs and espoused the beauti- ful heiresses at the expense of the nobles of the country. But one evening two months after the would-be conqueror of Constantinople and Jerusalem received a letter from Philip de Comines, the historian, his ambassador to the republic of Venice. A formidable league of the sovereigns of Europe had been concluded against him for the purpose of closing to him his exit from Italy, and of making France re-enter its limits. Ferdinand II. the Catholic, Maximilian, Henry VII., were its instigators ; the Italians themselves who had called the French or who had promised them fidelity Ludovico il Moro, Alexander VI., and Venice had part in it. The Italian powers were to collect 40,000 men in the valley of the Po, while the other confederates 8o CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. attacked the French frontiers. Already the Duke of Orleans was hard pressed in Novara. The jealousy of Europe against France was revealed for the first time. There was need of haste. Charles left 11,000 men under Gilbert de Montpensier, whom he named Viceroy of Naples, and with the rest sought the route of the Apennines. Great difficulty was experienced in passing this chain through the narrow defile of Pontremoli north of Sarzana ; the Swiss harnessed themselves to the cannon, the nobles themselves carried the munitions. On the other side of the mountains in the valley of the Taro. the French discovered the army of the confederates, 25,000 strong, barring the route ; they themselves numbered only 10,000. Charles nevertheless resolved to pass. While he pushed his advance guard along the Taro he was attacked in the rear ; he faced about against his assailants ; in an hour 3500 of them were slain ; the others fled. The Italians attributed this prompt success to the " French fury " rather than to their own cowardice. However, the victory of Fornovo served only to open a road of retreat to the French (July 6, 1495). Once in France Charles appeared to forget Italy, and took no measure to preserve his easy conquest. Gilbert de Montpensier, a brave knight, but who " never rose before noon," was not a man to supply of himself the succors he did not receive. Ferdinand II., starting from Sicily with some Spanish troops, surprised Naples the morning after the battle of Fornovo, and shut up Montpensier in Atella, where he died of the pest ; d'Aubigny led back to France the remnants of the French garrisons. The French domina- tion in the kingdom of Naples had fallen as quickly as it had risen, and with the same expressions of joy on the part of the inhabitants. Italy, hardly delivered, returned to its divisions, and the civil war was not slow in bringing back the foreign war. Called by Ludovico, the emperor Maximilian passed the Alps as had done Charles VIII. His resources by no means corresponded with his pretensions. He wished to play the role of Otto, of Charlemagne, and could hardly play that of a condottiere. With a small army he attacked the Flor- entines, was repulsed before Leghorn, and returned to Germany. By this ridiculous proceeding he had gained only a surname, the Penniless. The civil war then continued : in the Romagna between CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 81 the Pope and the Roman barons ; in Tuscany between Pisa and Florence ; in Florence itself between the partisans and the enemies of Savonarola. The latter perished upon the funeral pile (1498), but his death did not restore concord. In France Charles VIII., warned by the complaints of his people, devoted "his imaginations," says Comines, "to wishing to live according to the commands of God, to put- ting justice in good order, and to well arranging the finances," when he died from an accident April 7, 1498, at the age of twenty-eight, at the castle of Amboise, which he was repairing. Comines has said of him, " He was so good that it would not be possible to see a better creature." With him the direct line of the Valois became extinct, and was replaced by the Valois of Orleans. Charles VIII. having left no child, the crown reverted by right to Louis, Duke of Orleans, then thirty-six years old, the grandson of a brother of Charles VI. Louis XII. T P , . . . (1498-1515). Louis XII. belonged to an amiable, active, and intelligent family, popular by its good qualities and even by its defects. His grandfather had been a brilliant knight ; his father, a poet who left some charming pieces ; his uncle, Dunois, the bravest of the captains of Charles VII., and one of the names of old France which has remained popular. Louis, destitute of superior qualities, was distinguished by immense good nature. He began his reign by diminishing the taxes, and he refused the gift of joyous advent, which amounted to 300,000 livres. To prevent the widow of Charles VIII. from carrying her duchy of Brittany into another house, he espoused her (1499). Unhappily after giving some care to the adminis- tration of the country he recommenced the fatal expedi- tion of his predecessor. Heir of the rights of Charles VIII. to Naples, he also inherited from his grandmother, Valentine Visconti, claims to the Milanais, usurped by Ludovico Sforza. He resolved to assert them : to the Venetians he promised Cremona and Ghiara on the Adda ; to Florence, the submission of revolted Pisa. Caesar Borgia had already received the French duchy of Valentinois. Trivulcio, an Italian in the service of Louis XII., needed only to show himself in the Milanais at the head of 8000 horse and 12,000 foot. Lu- dovico, repulsed by everybody, fled to the Tyrol (1499). 82 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. The bad administration of Trivulcio, an ancient Guelph who persecuted his adversaries, encouraged Ludovico in the hope of recovering what he had lost. He returned with a crowd of Swiss and German adventurers, surprised Milan, and drove out the French. But Louis XII. de- scended the Alps with a new army and met his competitor near Novara (1500). The Swiss of Ludovico refused to fight against their compatriots who were in the French army. Ludovico hoped at least to save his person ; he was sold by a Swiss at the moment when he endeavored to escape underthe disguise of a Franciscan friar or of a soldier. He was sent to France, shut up in a dungeon of the castle of Loches, and died of joy twelve years after when learn- ing of the end of his captivity. The Milanais being conquered, Louis thought of Naples. First he made certain of the neutrality or support of the states of central Italy. The Florentines received aid from him against Pisa, always in revolt. Alexander VI. wished to form a principality in the Romagna for his son, Caesar Borgia, at the expense of the thousand petty tyrants who were transforming that country into a resort of brigands. A few French troops enabled this man, consummate master of cruelty and treason, the hero of Machiavelli in his book ' The Prince," to sweep away the petty and sanguinary feudalism of the Romagna. Finally, in order to master the kingdom of Naples with- out striking a blow, Louis shared it beforehand with Ferdi< nand the Catholic (1500). He reserved to himself the title of king, with the capital, the Abruzzi, and Terra di Lavoro. Ferdinand asked only Apulia and Calabria, with the title of duke. Frederick, the unhappy King of Naples, a popular prince, confidingly had even opened his fortresses to Gonsalvo of Cordova, the general of the King of Spain, " who thought that the cloth of honor must be of contemp- tible texture." When he demanded assistance from him against the French, who were already on the frontier (June, 1501), he discovered that he was betrayed. More irritated against a traitor than against an enemy, he sur- rendered Naples and Castelnuovo to the French, and put himself in the hands of Louis XII., who offered him a peaceful retreat on the banks of the Loire (1501). After the conquest was concluded, the division was not made so amicably. The Spaniards and French disputed CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 83 about several districts, and about the tax paid upon the flocks which in autumn descended from the heights of the Abruzzi into the plains of the Capitanate. This tax furnished the most undisputed revenue of the kingdom. The viceroy, the Duke of Nemours, who had a superior force, shut up Gonsalvo in the city of Barletta (1502). But Ferdinand the Catholic allowed his son-in-law, Philip the Fair, to negotiate with Louis XII. a treaty which sus- pended hostilities and permitted him to send re-enforce- ments to Gonsalvo ; then, disavowing the negotiator, he continued the war. Nemours could make no resistance. His lieutenant d'Aubigny, beaten at Seminara, lost Cala- bria (April 21, 1503) ; he himself made a most impru- dent attack near Cerignola (April 28), was defeated and slain ; Venousa and Gaeta alone remained to the French. Louis XII. in order to take revenge for this treason sent to the Pyrenees two armies which accomplished nothing, and a third beyond the Alps under La Tremoille which had no better fate. Delayed some time in the environs of Rome by the intrigues which the election of a new Pope occa- sioned, La Tremoille allowed Gonsalvo time to put himself on the defensive, was conquered on the Garigliano despite the courage of Bayard, who alone defended a bridge against two hundred Spaniards (December 27), and was forced to surrender in Gaeta (January i, 1504). Louis d'Ars, who commanded at Venousa, sought with the remainder of the army the road to France. There was reason to fear that the loss of the Milanais would follow that of the kingdom of Naples. Louis XII. disarmed his enemies by the first treaty of Blois (1504). In return for the investiture of the Milanais, he renounced the kingdom of Naples, which was to belong to Prince Charles, the sovereign of the Netherlands, the heir of Austria and Spain, who was to espouse Mme. Claude, the eldest daughter of the king and of Anne of Brittany. Burgundy and Brittany were to be her dowry. No more disastrous treaty could have been signed. But France protested, and Louis XII. seized the first opportunity for gratifying its wishes. In 1505 Ferdinand the Catholic, irritated against his son-in-law, planned to disinherit him by contracting a second marriage. He espoused Germaine de Foix, niece of Louis XII. Louis by a treaty, also signed at Blois (October, 1505), ceded anew his rights to Naples to his niece, 84 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION [BOOK II. whereby he broke one of the principal conditions of the marriage of Mme. Claude. Brittany and Burgundy were still pledged by the preceding stipulations ; to break these stipulations openly Louis convoked the States General at Tours (May 15, 1506). They declared the two provinces inalienable as crown dominions, and entreated the king to marry his daughter Claude to his heir presumptive, Francis, Duke of Angouleme. Louis XII. had no difficulty in grant- ing what they desired of him. This time he had perhaps deceived the deceivers. Neither Maximilian, who was always equally ambitious and poor, nor Ferdinand, charged after the death of Philip the Fair with the guardianship of his grandson, Charles of Austria, made complaint. Louis XII. could even the following year, without being molested, make Genoa, which had revolted, return to its duty. " Now, merchants," cried Bayard, "defend yourselves with your yardsticks and abandon pikes and lances, to which you are not accustomed." The fortress of the Lantern was erected to hold them in submission (1507). The fall of Borgia after the death of Pope Alexander VI. had disastrous consequences for the pontifical states : anarchy reappeared, and in its train civil wars, pillage, and massacre. " Italy," said Machiavelli, "is to-day without a chief, without institutions, without laws. Conquered, torn, crushed, she displays only ruins to the eyes of her children. And yet, utterly humiliated as she is by the barbarians, we see her disposed to follow a common banner if a man arises to grasp such a banner and to display it." This man whom Italy demanded was Pope Julius II., an energetic old man who wished to be " the lord and master on the world's stage." He suffered when seeing the enemy in the peninsula, and proposed to drive from it those whom he called barbarians. But in this delivered Italy he desired the Holy See to occupy the highest place. For that it was necessary to restore the dominions which had been torn from the Church and which Venice retained. He com- menced with her. But this policy, which consisted in humili- ating the Venetians by the barbarians, and then in expelling the latter by others, reposed on a very uncertain basis. Julius II. could take Italy away from the French ; he gave it to the Spaniards. This was only changing masters. Venice had profited by all the disasters of Italy. Each of her neighbors believed it had ground of complaint against CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 85 her. Louis XII. regretted Cremona, which he had recently ceded her, and Crema, Brescia, and Bergamo, formerly lost by the duchy of Milan. The cession of a few cities on the eastern shore of the kingdom of Naples had paid too dearly in the mind of Ferdinand the Catholic for the finan- cial assistance which he had received from the republic against the French. Julius II. demanded back Ravenna, Cervia, Faenza, and Rimini, ancient possessions of the Holy See. Maximilian demanded Verona, Vicenza, and Padua in the name of the empire, and Friuli and Trieste in the name of the house of Austria. All these jealousies, all these passions, coalesced at Cambrai against the republic (December 10, 1508). Some months after the Pope launched an interdict against Venice, its magistrates, its citizens, and its defenders. Louis XII., who was ready first, crossed the Adda (May 8) at the head of more than 20,000 foot soldiers and 2300 lancers, and attacked L'Alviano, a condottiere in the service of Venice, at the causeway of Agnadel (May 14, 1509). The Venetians at first resisted bravely, but Bayard and some determined knights plunged into the marshes and arrived on the enemy's flank. This attack determined the rout of the Venetians. Eight to ten thousand men, with all the artillery and baggage, remained on the field of battle. This victory brought the French as far as the lagoons. The republic was saved by a shrewd act. She withdrew her troops from all the cities and absolved her subjects from their oath of fidelity. The latter felt in honor bound still to remain faithful, though obedience could be no longer enforced. Thrown back upon herself, and impregnable in the midst of the sea, Venice waited until discord broke out among the allies. This soon hap- pened. Pope Julius II. had attained his first end, since he had regained the cities of the Romagna ; now he thought of the second the expulsion of the barbarians from the penin- sula. He wished, regardless of his last alliance, to com- mence with the French, whom he more than all others had contributed to call into the peninsula in the time of Charles VIII. February 2, 1510, he accorded absolution to the republic of Venice ; then he had little difficulty in detach- ing from the league of Cambrai Ferdinand, who had already reaped the fruits which he expected from it ; he unsettled 86 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. the fidelity of Maximilian, and by Mathieu Schinner, Car- dinal of Sion, undermined the Swiss, whose subsidies Louis XII. had not been willing to augment. The Duke of Fer- rara, ally of France, and the city of Genoa were forthwith attacked, but without success. However, Louis XII. hesi- tated to combat the chief of Christianity. The clergy of France assembled at Tours declared that the war, not being made against the Pope, but against the sovereign of the Roman states, was legitimate, and that his excommunica- tion should be considered as null and void. In fact they fought savagely on both sides. Chaumont at the head of the French troops furiously surprised the pontifical army before Bologna, and the knight " without fear and without reproach " " missed laying his hand on the pontifical stole by less than the length of a pater noster." Attacked like a prince, Julius II. defended himself like a soldier; he entered Mirandola by the breach (1511), and would perhaps have pushed his successes farther had not the Bolognese revolted. They broke his statue, a work of Michael Angelo, to fragments. Obliged to retreat, he was beaten at Casalecchio, and returned sick to Rome. Louis XII. believed the moment come to attack the pontiff and to have him deposed. This was a fault, because this measure changed the nature of the fight. Above the enfeebled temporal prince existed the spiritual prince, all- powerful. Julius II. put the city of Pisa under interdict, excommunicated the dissenting cardinals, assembled another council at St. John Lateran, and invoked the support of the Catholic powers. All responded. Ferdinand of Spain, the King of England, Henry VIII., Maximilian, the republic of Venice, and the Swiss, flattered by the name of "de- fenders of the Holy See," formed the Holy League (Octo- ber 5, 1511) with the avowed purpose of preserving the Church from a schism, but in reality to drive the French beyond the Alps. The Spaniard Raymond de Cardona with 12,000 men joined the pontifical troops. The Venetians, thanks to this diversion, regained little by little their lost places ; 10,000 Swiss, led by Mathieu Schinner, descended from their mountains ; treason undermined both the troops and the German garrisons still in the service of Louis XII. in Italy, while even the frontiers of France were menaced on the north, east, and south. A young and heroic general for a CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 87 moment averted every danger. Gaston de Foix, Duke of Nemours, twenty-two years old, took command of the army of Italy. With iron and silver in his hand he first crowded back the Swiss into thqir mountains (December, 1511). Bologna was hard pressed by the troops of Spain and the Holy See ; he threw himself into the city (February 7, 1512) and raised the siege. The Germans had surrendered Brescia to the Venetians ; he arrived unexpectedly under its walls and carried it by assault (February 19). Finally, (April n), he defeated the Spanish army at Ravenna, but "this thunderbolt of war" fell and died in the midst of his triumph. He was succeeded, but not replaced, by La Palisse. The French army, badly conducted, recoiled before Raymond de Cardona, let Bologna be retaken, and found in its rear 20,000 Swiss, who fought to re-establish a son of Ludovico il Moro, Maximilian Sforza, in the duchy of Milan. La Palisse did not wait for them, and retired into Piedmont. Meanwhile Julius II. died (February 21, 1513). His last gaze had beheld the French fleeing. His successor, Leo X., continued his designs. At Malines he formed anew the Holy League, which, however, the Vene- tians abandoned through predisposition for Louis XII., and the invasion of French territory was resolved upon. Louis XII. made head against the storm. Attacked even in his kingdom, he did not abandon Italy. In spite of Ferdinand, who, already master of Spanish Navarre, menaced French Navarre, and of the English, who had disembarked at Calais, he sent La Tremoille and Trivulcio into Italy. First they crowded the Swiss and Maximilian Sforza into Novara, but powerful re-enforcements entered the city by night. In the morning the Swiss made a sortie with fixed pikes, marched straight against the French artillery, made themselves master of it despite the ravages it caused in their ranks, and after a desperate conflict put to rout the besieg- ing army (June 5). On the north near Guinegate a panic seized the French army when fighting with the English, whom Maximilian had come to join. Bayard, sacrificing him- self to arrest the enemy, was made prisoner ; the rest fought only with their spurs, hence the name of the day Battle of Spurs (August 16). Finally, 20,000 Swiss penetrated as far as Dijon, where La Tremoille arrested them by means of much money and more promises (September 13). The only ally of France, James IV., the King of Scotland, shared her 88 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. evil fortune ; he was conquered and slain at Floclden by the English (September 9). The triple invasion which France had just undergone forced Louis XII. to retreat. The Convention of Dijon had already disembarrassed France of the Swiss. Louis dis- avowed the Council of Pisa in order to regain the Pope, and formed the truce of Orleans with the emperor and the King of Aragon (March, 1514). Henry VIII. for some time refused to lay down arms ; but peace was established on his side also by the treaty of London, which left him Tournay and assured him an annual pension of 100,000 crowns for ten years. It was sealed by the marriage of Louis XII. with Mary, sister of the King of England ; but he did not long survive this peace and union : he died (January i, 1515), at the age of fifty-three. At the end of these twenty years of battle there remained therefore, as says Comines, no other reminder of the French New con uest * n Ita\y than the tombs they had left there. of the Miianias The impetuous pontiff, who had taken as his Osi5) FranCiS l ' dev i ce > " No more French this side the moun- tains," had died thinking his task accom- plished." But the Spaniards ruled at Naples, the Austrians in Friuliand Vicentino, the Swiss in the Milanais. France, and especially its new king, had no desire to accept the inferior situation wherein she was placed by the last treaties. While to Julius II. succeeded Leo X., amiable and brilliant, protector of letters and arts, in France Francis I. replaced Louis XII. Young, ardent, eager for glory, the new prince broke the truce of Orleans and undertook to recover the Milanais. The Venetians, his allies, held in check the Austro-Spanish troops of Ferdinand the Catholic and of the emperor Maximilian ; he had therefore to fight only the Swiss, sole support of the duke Maximilian Sforza. While deceived by false demonstrations the Swiss hastened to Mt. Cenis and to Mt. Genevra to guard the mountain passes, these defenses were turned by the French army, which passed by the Neck of Argentiere. It was necessary to throw bridges over chasms and to blast the crags to give a passage to the seventy-two pieces of cannon which the army dragged after it. Thanks to the engineer Navarro and the courage of the troops, every obstacle was surmounted. The general of the allies, CHAP. VII.] ITALIAN WARS (1494-1516). 89 Prosper Colonna, surprised at table in Villafranca, was captured with 700 horsemen, and the king entered the Milanais with 35,000 combatants. He took his position near the little village of Marignano. Excited by the Car- dinal of Sion, Mathieu Schinner, the Swiss, 30,000 strong, advanced along the causeway of Marignano in a solid column, and, according to their custom, marched straight against the artillery. The king threw himself in front with his nobility and his men of arms, but the space was narrow not more than 500 horse could engage at once and more than thirty successive charges were unable to break or to demoralize the enemy. In the morning at daybreak the combat recommenced, but the Duke of Bourbon had well employed the night. The Swiss, assailed on their flanks by the cavalry, and their van crushed by formidable artil- lery, were beginning to hesitate, when the appearance on their rear of the Venetian advance guard finally decided them to retreat upon Milan. They lost 12,000 men, the honor of the field of battle, and, more important still, their reputation as invincible. Trivulcio, who had taken part in seventeen pitched battles, called that of Marignano a combat of giants (September 13 and 14, 1515). This battle was not less important for its political results : the Duke of Milan ceded his rights for a pension ; the Pope restored Parma and Piacenza by the agreement of Viterbo, in which the Spaniards were included ; finally, an advantageous peace closed Italy to the Swiss. By the treaty of Freiburg the Helvetic Confederation agreed in return for an annual pension of 700,000 crowns to allow the king to levy in Switzerland whatever troops he might need. This peace, called perpetual, lasted as long as the old French monarchy. Another treaty, which concerned only France, was signed with Leo X. This was the concordat of 1516, which re- placed the pragmatic sanction of 1438. The concordat abolished appeals to the court of Rome, source of numer- ous abuses ; also " reservations and promises of survivor- ships," by which the Holy See exercised the nomination to a crowd of benefices, and conferred upon the king the right of nominating directly to all ecclesiastical positions, Rome reserving to itself only that of refusing investiture in case of canonical disability. Francis renounced only the periodical convocation of councils, and re-established the 90 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. impost of the annates, or one year's revenue, which every new beneficiary was to pay the Holy See. So the first period of the Italian wars terminated to the apparent advantage of France. She had gained the duchy of Milan, from which she was separated by the vast width of the Alps and the dominions of the house of Savoy. Her king could place one more crown upon his head, but in return she was to wage a terrible war for forty years. CHAPTER VIII. THE FIRST PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA (1519-29). Francis I. and Charles V. First War (1521-25). Second War (1526- 29). Treaty of Cambrai. THE very year when Francis I. reaped the fruits of his victory at Marignano and believed he had estab- , lished the pacification of Italy as well as the Francis I. and ' J Charles v. grandeur of r ranee by signing the " perpetual First war (1521- peace " and the concordat, the death of the King of Aragon, Ferdinand the Catholic, gave Naples and half of Spain to him who was shortly to become Charles V. (1516). This prince, great-grandson of the " Grand Duke of the West," a connection which made him sovereign of the Netherlands and Franche Comte with claims to Burgundy, was on his father's side grandson of the emperor Maximilian and heir of Austria, on his mother's side grandson of Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella with right of succession to the crowns of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and Naples. Francis I. did not seek to hinder him from gathering this magnificent herit- age. He even signed with him at Noyou a treaty of alliance without demanding anything more than the restitu- tion of Navarre to the d'Albret family. Charles promised, but with the firm resolution not to keep his word. Three years after the empire became vacant by the death of Maximilian (1519). Charles and Francis I. dis- puted this crown. The electors in the presence of two so powerful competitors wished neither the one nor the other, although they would have sold themselves at a high price to both, and chose Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony ; but he refused, and advised the princes to elect Charles of Austria, more interested than anybody else on account of his hereditary estates in defending Germany against the 9^ CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. Ottomans. Moreover, they feared the despotism of the King of France. Charles was proclaimed emperor. His representatives had promised that he would make neither peace nor war nor put any state under the ban of the empire without the consent of the diet ; that he would give all the offices to Germans, and would fix his residence in Germany. In addition to his resentment at this check Francis I. had more than one serious reason for combating the new Caesar. If it is doubtful in fact whether Charles V. ever aspired to universal monarchy, at least it is certain that one might fear it, and surely he put in peril the European equilibrium, he who had just united under his scepter the Netherlands, Austria, the kingdom of the two Sicilies, Spain, the New World, and finally the empire. What was wanting to the ambitious man who had taken as his device, " Always farther " (Plus oultre], to become a Charlemagne ? France. It was the destiny of France to resist this menacing ambition, and hers was the honor of defending against the house of Austria the independence of the European states, and in consequence the civilization of the world. In this struggle, which was to last two centuries, the inequality of forces was more apparent than real. The house of Austria had vaster domains ; but they were scattered, separated by seas, by hostile or foreign states. France was compact, nothing in her created an obstacle to the will of the sovereign ; the concordat had just placed the clergy under his hand ; the nobles and the third estate were in the same condition long before. Francis I. boasted of having freed the kings from tutelage, and, first of French kings, signed his ordinances with this formula : " For such is my good pleasure." Charles V. had to struggle against internal resistances and embarrassments of every sort. Nowhere were his movements free ; in Spain there was the opposition of the communeros and the privi- leges of the provinces ; in Flanders, the turbulence of the citizens ; in Germany, the Protestants ; in Austria, the Ottomans ; on the Mediterranean, the pirates of Barbary. America did not yet pour out for him its treasures, while Francis I. drew at will from the purse of his subjects. Thus is explained the victorious resistance of Francis I., notwithstanding the superiority in talents possessed by the emperor. CHAP. VIII. j RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 93 The two rivals first sought allies. There, as in pursuit of the imperial crown, Charles V. was victor. While Francis I. in the interview of the Field of the Cloth of Gold succeeded in wounding only the self-love of Henry VIII., eclipsing him by his elegant luxury and his chivalric graces, Charles addressed himself to Wolsey, the all-power- ful minister of the King of England, promised him the tiara, and made certain of the English alliance for him- self. Leo X. likewise declared for the emperor, being terrified by the progress of the Reformation which he had before too much despised. Beaten in diplomacy Francis hoped better results from war. First he made it indirectly. He gave to Henry d'Albret 6000 men to invade Navarre, which Charles V. retained contrary to the stipulations of the treaty of Noyon ; he furnished other troops to the Duke of Bouillon, who had suffered injuries from the emperor, and in his own name attacked Luxemburg. But the French were beaten in Castile, where they arrived too late to assist the revolted communeros and their heroic chief Don Juan de Paclilla. The Duke of Bouillon was equally unsuccessful, and the Imperialists laid siege to Mezieres. Fortunately Bayard threw himself into the place, defended it six weeks, and gave the king time to come up with his army. The enemy drew back in disorder and the French avenged themselves by invading the Neth- erlands (1521). But in Italy Lautrec, who had irritated the populace by a harsh and rapacious government, was obliged to abandon Parma, Piacenza, and even Milan. To provide for the expenses of this campaign there were in- troduced for the first time obligations upon the city hall, origin of the public debt in France. The king, making money out of everything, had also sold twenty counselors' seats in the parliament of Paris, and had melted a silver railing which Louis XI. had given to St. Martin of Tours. The following year (1522) the heavier part of the war took place in Italy. Lautrec had received re-enforcements, but no money ; Louise of Savoy, jealous of the Countess of Chateaubriand, sister of Lautrec, who was the king's favorite, had, according to a scarcely credible tradition, ompelled the superintendent Semblancay to give to her the money designed for the Swiss. The latter, being with- out pay, mutinied and demanded of Lautrec money, dis- 94 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. charge, or battle. He led them to the attack against the formidable intrenchments of Becocca, which he could have carried by famine, and he was beaten. This defeat brought about the loss of the Milanais, where a son of Ludovico il Moro was re-established, and the defection of Venice and Genoa (1522). The same year Charles V. had caused his former tutor, Adrian VI., to ascend the pontifical throne. Italy was at his discretion. Francis I. believed he could repair everything by his presence, and was making ready to cross the Alps with 25,000 men when even the existence of the kingdom was menaced by the treason of the Constable of Bourbon. He was the last of the great feudal lords, the most powerful prince of the kingdom, the best general of Francis I. A flagrant injustice, which the king through tenderness for his mother, Louise of Savoy, allowed her to commit, inspired in the constable the culpable design of revenging himself upon the king by betraying France. A secret agreement with Charles V. stipulated the dismemberment of the king- dom to the profit of the emperor, the King of England, and the constable ; the ancient kingdom of Aries was to be re-established in favor of the latter. Francis I., receiving a vague warning, sought the constable at Moulins, hoping to draw from him a confession, a mark of repentance, at least a word of affection and devotion. Bourbon remained impenetrable and cold, but believed himself discovered and fled. Instead of leading an army to Charles V. he brought him only the sword of a proscript. Henry VIII. had the preceding year declared war against France, and an English army had just landed at Calais ; the Spaniards were attack- ing Bayonne and 12,000 Imperialists were entering Cham- pagne. Francis did not dare go far away. He sent against the English in Picardy La Tremoille, who held them in check by skillful maneuvers, and then repulsed them despite the inferiority of his forces. Lautrec arrested the Spaniards ; Guise the Germans. Bonnivet was charged to recover Italy (1523). This last choice was unhappy. The incapa- ble Bonnivet, beaten and wounded at Biagrasso, left the command to Bayard, who received a mortal wound while covering the retreat. The constable continuing the pursuit, found him lying at the foot of a tree and expressed his grief at seeing him in this condition. "Sir," he replied, "it is not I who am to be pitied, for I die an honorable CHAP. VIII.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 95 man. But I pity you who are serving against your prince, your country, and your oath " (1524). After this sad success Bourbon invaded Provence, but Charles V., distrustful of the traitor, had given the chief command of the expedition to Pescara. None of the prom- ises of the constable were realized. He counted upon his former vassals ; not one stirred. He had believed that the citizens of Marseilles would come with ropes around their necks to bring the keys of their city ; they made a vigorous resistance. Francis I. arrived at the head of a formidable army. The Imperialists were worsted and fell back in dis- order (August), stopping neither behind the Alps nor under the walls of Milan ; Pescara could throw only 6000 men into Pavia and fortify himself behind the Adda, while Bourbon sought re-enforcements on every side. Francis followed, and captured Milan without striking a blow. Pavia resisted : he besieged it ; yet he believed himself strong enough to detach 10,000 men from the army against Naples. The enemy had time to take breath ; Bourbon, animated by hatred, found resources which they did not suspect. By every possible means he collected money, went to Germany, and after a few weeks brought back 12,000 lansquenets, or German foot soldiers. Then he rallied Pescara and Lannoy, the Viceroy of Naples, and the three returned toward Pavia, putting Francis I. between them and the city, where the veteran captain Antonio de Leyva, a resolute soldier, commanded. Francis was advised to choose a stronger position ; Bonnivet cried that a French king never retreated. They accepted battle. The enemy to form his line was compelled to endure a terrible fire from the French redoubts. The grand master of artillery Genouillac, " made successive breaches in the enemy's battalions, so that nothing could be seen but arms and heads flying about." The soldier king rendered this artillery useless by taking his stand in front of it that he might rush upon the Spaniards with his guards. Then the Spaniards reformed their lines ; the garrison made a sortie and everything was lost ; the Swiss gave way, the lans- quenets were annihilated ; Francis I. slew seven enemies with his own hand, but was forced to surrender. All the gentlemen who had charged with him were captured or slain (1525). "In order that you may know," wrote he that evening to his mother, "what is my misfortune, nothing 9 6 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. in the world is left me save my honor and my life." From this heroic saying has been derived, " All is lost save honor " (February 24, 1525). Europe was moved at the news of this great disaster and trembled for herself, believing France captured with her king. Italy saw clearly that the Spanish victory was her ruin. Wolsey, counting no longer upon the emperor, who had just seated a new Pope, Clement VII., upon the papal throne, avenged himself for having been his dupe by counseling his king to abandon the Austrian alliance. Louise of Savoy, the Regent of France, skillfully took advantage of these resentments. She even formed relations with Souleiman, the Sultan of the Ottomans. These negotiations had then no other effect than to free the French domiciled in Turkey from the tribute which every Christian paid who wished to enjoy the free exercise of his religion. But later will be derived from them im- portant consequences. However, Francis I. did not find Charles V. at Madrid as magnanimous as he had believed him. The emperor had him carefully watched and for a long time refused to see him. Sick with chagrin, Francis had for a moment the design of abdicating in favor of his son, so there should be left in the hands of his enemy only a brave knight instead of the King of France. This good resolution did not last. He consented to sign a disastrous treaty (1526), after having secretly protested against a moral violence which according to him rendered null all the acts of the captive. He ceded to Charles the province of Burgundy under the limitations of homage, renounced his claims to Naples, Genoa, to the suzerainty of Flanders and Artois, reinstated Bourbon in his possessions, and promised to espouse the sister of the emperor, the Queen Dowager of Portugal. Restored to liberty, Francis I. refused to execute the treaty of Madrid : the deputies of Burgundy declared in the assembly of Cognac that the king had no The second . . ,/ . , ,, ? . , war (1526-29). right to alienate a province of the kingdom brai aty fCam " whose integrity he had sworn at his corona- tion to maintain. The emperor accused Francis of not keeping his word; the king replied that he had " lied in his throat," and offered to settle their dispute in single fight. The war recommenced. The Italians, CHAP. VIII.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 9? horribly oppressed by the Imperialists, rushed to the war with enthusiasm. " This time," said Ghiberti, minister of Pope Clement VII., " the question is not about some small revenge ; this war is going to decide the deliverance or enslavement of Italy." " If Italy," said another, " makes alliance with Francis I. it is for her advantage and not be- cause she loves the French." Henry VIII. of England had taken the title of Protector of the League. The Pope, Venice, Florence, Milan, and the Swiss were members. But as in every coalition the league of Italian independ- ence was deficient in concert and energy. Its general, the Duke of Urbino, let Sforza succumb in Milan. Instead of supporting the pontifical fleet which menaced Genoa, he amused himself by capturing Cremona. He dissembled his terrors by comparing himself to Fabius Cunctator. During these fatal days Bourbon received re-enforcements. There came to him from Germany ten to fifteen thousand lansquenets, fanatic Lutherans, commanded by George Frondsberg. After having ravaged the Milanais they wished another prey, Florence or Rome Rome especially, the " sacrilegious Babylon." Frondsberg wore at his neck a gold chain with which he swore to strangle the Pope. It was not displeasing to Charles V. that Italy should receive a severe lesson ; he left Bourbon without money and with- out orders. Then those famished bands, henceforth listen- ing to nothing, slaying their officers and menacing the constable himself, crossed the Apennines ; the Italian army was contented with covering Tuscany. Bourbon marched upon Rome, dreaming perhaps of great designs, an Italian kingdom equally independent of Spain and France. Rome had closed its gates. He ordered the assault, and was one of the first to fall, but his soldiers avenged him cruelly. In less than an hour the city was captured (May 6); the pillage lasted nine months, and the brigands were stopped only by a frightful pestilence which decimated their numbers. In the time of the Goths and Vandals Rome had suffered nothing more terrible. The convents were forced, the altars stripped, the tombs profaned, the library of the Vatican sacked, the masterpieces of Michael Angelo torn down as monuments of idolatry. In all Christendom there was only one cry against these new barbarians. Francis I., slow, contrary to his habit, in acting, finally sent a powerful army into Italy. Lautrec, 98 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. who commanded it, reconquered the Milanais and besieged Naples by land while Doria blockaded it by sea. All was over with the Spanish power in Italy, had not the king committed a mistake. Distrustful of Genoa, he wished by making of Savona a great port to give her a rival whom he could easily control. Andrew Doria, Genoese above all, made remonstrances, and, as they were not listened to, he passed with his fleet to the side of the emperor. The sea becoming free, Naples was revictualed ; the army of Lautrec in its turn suffered from famine ; he himself yielded to the pest, and the remnants of his troops capitulated in Aversa (1528). Another French army, commanded by the Count of St. Pol, was destroyed the following year at Landriano, and the peninsula lost to the French. Since that day it has remained under the power or the influence of the house of Austria, which France has twice made recoil, at Rivoli and at Solferino, and which has now com- pletely departed from Italy. The emperor came himself to reap the fruits of his gen- erals' victories and of his rival's faults. He betook himself to Bologna, summoned thither Clement VII. and dictated his conditions. Venice restored what it had taken ; the dukes of Ferrara and Milan acknowledged themselves vassals of the empire, likewise did the Marquis of Mantua, who was created a duke ; Savoy and Montferrat renounced the French alliance. That done, Clement VII. placed the two crowns of Italy and of the empire upon the forehead of Charles V. (1530). Florence alone protested against this subjection of. Italy. Defended a whole year by Michael Angelo, she was obliged at last to open her gates to the Imperialists ; they re-established the Medici, who henceforth reigned there for the benefit of Spain. Charles V. was now apparently ready to attack France. But peace with Francis I. was necessary, since a religious war was on the point of breaking out in Germany ; Sou- lei'man was pressing his redoubtable Janissaries even to the walls of Vienna, and Henry VIII. threatened to break the Austrian alliance. The treaty of Cambrai was less harsh than that of Madrid, since the emperor renounced his claims to Burgundy, but it was just as humiliating, since the King of France betrayed his Italian allies, abandoned his pretensions to Naples, recognized Sforza as Duke of Milan, and ceded Tournay and Hesdin together with his suzerainty over Flanders and Artois (1529). CHAPTER IX. THE SECOND PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. INTERVEN- TION OF TURKEY AND ENGLAND (1529-47). New System of French Alliances. Charles V. before Tunis and Algiers. Third War with France (1536-38). Fourth War (1542-44). THE rivalry of the French and Burgundian houses, begun at the bridge of Montereau in 1419 by the assassination of John the Fearless, had under Charles VI., of N Freac]?*aiii > - Charles VII., and Louis XL, brought great ances - perils to the kingdom. These were ended by the death of Charles the Bold. But upon the broken trunk of the Burgundian house was grafted a new dynasty, the Austro-Spanish. So long as it was divided and represented by children, the French kings could ven- ture upon the brilliant but dangerous and useless career of foreign conquest ; this was the period of the first Italian expedition (1494-1516). When the dynasty was reunited in the hands of a prudent and sagacious man who wished to become a second Charlemagne a new conflict opened. The first had brought France Burgundy ; the second cost France the title of suzerain over Flanders and Artois, and shut against it Italy, dominated by the house of Austria. From that time the kingdom was inclosed throughout the whole length of its land frontier from the Adour to the Somme by a circle of hostile possessions, including Spain, Italy, Franche Comte, Germany, and the Netherlands, all united in the hands of the emperor. To break this men- acing circle the sword of France, which, moreover, had been shattered at Pavia, was not enough ; it was neces- sary to invoke the aid of all those whosoever they were whom this imperial ambition threatened. Defeat had rendered Francis I. the service of diminishing, 100 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. if not extinguishing, his fatal inclination to imitate the prowess of the ancient knights. He now comprehended that a soldier's bravery was not sufficient to bring political affairs to a good result ; he sought and welcomed allies without regarding the names they bore : the schismatic King of England, the Protestants of Germany, even what was then still more odious the Ottomans. From England Francis I. derived little assistance. Henry VIII. (1509-47) had assumed as device, "Whomsoever I defend is master," promising himself, indeed, to defend nobody to the finish. He could in fact hold the balance equal be- tween the two powerful rivals who disputed the supremacy of Europe. But this voluptuous and sanguinary prince was too much the slave of his passions to follow undevi- atingly a constant and uniform system. Under Louis XII. he had taken part in the great coalition against France. The victory at Marignano excited his envy. After the election of Charles V. he appeared to incline toward that one of the two adversaries who wore but a single crown, but at the interview of the Field of the Cloth of Gold Francis wounded his vanity and lost his alliance. In 1521 he signed a treaty with Charles V., and some months after declared war against France. Francis replied to this attack by an alliance with Scotland and the Irish rebels. In 1523 an English army came as far as the Oise. After Pavia, Charles having become too powerful, Henry VIII. negotiated with the regents of France and caused the in- sertion in the treaty of this peculiar clause, that Louise of Savoy should consent to no dismemberment of France in favor of Charles V. He understood that the integrity of this kingdom guaranteed the independence of Europe. Francis on escaping from captivity confirmed the treaty made by his mother ; but Henry, content with having, by alarming Charles V., drawn Francis I. from his hands, returned to neutrality, desiring the triumph of France no more than that of Austria. Another matter at that moment was occupying all his attention, the question of divorce from his first wife, the aunt of the emperor. In 1529 he consulted on this subject the French universities ; they were careful not to give an adverse opinion, and during several years Henry drew nearer France, but when the war broke forth anew he was already becoming alienated from it. CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 101 It was not so with the Ottoman alliance. The Ottomans had as their sultan the celebrated Souleiman I. As war- like as his father, Selim, but friendly to the arts, protector of letters, author of the code entitled the Khanounname", Souleiman I. deserved his triple surname of Conqueror, Magnificent, and Legislator. Before him the Ottomans were to the Christians nothing but barbarians who came to impose an execrated religion by the sword. During his reign they took a place among European peoples and filled a role important to European destinies. It was Francis I. who introduced the Ottomans to the politics of Europe. He has been reproached for his relations with the enemies of Christianity as fora crime and they seemed to cause him to blush. In reality the Ottoman empire was less danger- ous to Europe than the daily increasing power and ambi- tion of the house of Austria. Besides, although Francis I. obtained the Ottoman alliance, Charles V. had sought it. Finally, religion was the gainer inasmuch as the Eastern Christians, as well as all the merchants who sailed under the French flag, found a certain security in the protection of the French consuls. Religion lost nothing, for the great con- quests of Souleiman over the Christians are antecedent to the treaty concluded in 1534 with the King of France: it was in 1521 that after twelve assaults he captured Belgrade, the bulwark of Hungary ; in 1522 that at the head of 150,000 men and 400 ships he took Rhodes from the knights despite the heroic resistance of the grand master, Villiers de ITsle-Adam, who defended himself five months ; finally, in 1526 that he made himself master of Peterwardein and gained the great victory of Mohacz. He had passed the Danube with 200,000 men and destroyed the Hungarian army on that fatal day when perished Louis II., the last of the Jagellons of Hungary. The crown of Hungary reverted to Ferdinand of Austria, brother-in-law of Louis II. But against this brother of Charles V., Souleiman supported a pretender of the Magyar race, John Zapoli. All Hungary was ravaged by the Otto- mans. Buda even fell into their power (1529). Zapoli acknowledged himself vassal of the Porte, the Prince of Moldavia did the same, and Souleiman, finding nothing else to arrest him on the Danube, penetrated into Austria and laid siege to Vienna. It was on August 3 that the treaty of peace of Cambrai was signed when the Ottomans were 102 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. already marching upon Vienna, where they arrived Septem- ber 26. Comparison of these two dates shows why the " treaty of the ladies " was signed. Vienna was garri- soned by 20,000 soldiers who had made the Italian cam- paigns, and had as governor the valiant Count of Salm. Twenty assaults were successively repulsed. The sultan had to retrace his steps. He endeavored to forget this reverse by crowning with his own hands at Buda his vas- sal John Zapoli King of Hungary. Two years later he conquered Slavonia ; in 1532 he re- appeared in Hungary at the head of 300,000 men. Happily Guns, a little fortress of Styria, delayed him a month. During the siege of that city he received the first embassy of Francis I. with extraordinary magnificence. He in- tended to invade Germany, but Charles V. had had time to assemble 150,000 combatants. Never since the crusades had Christian Europe united so considerable forces. Lutherans and Catholics joined hands against the Crescent, and Francis I. did not dare to support his redoubtable ally by a diversion upon the Rhine or Italy. There took place, how- ever, no general action. At the end of six weeks the sultan learned that a Spanish fleet had just entered the Dardanelles and was menacing Constantinople ; he withdrew (1532). Not before 1543 did Francis I. cease to make a mystery of his relations with Soulei'man. That year was concluded with the Porte the first of those treaties, known as capitu- lations, by virtue of which France obtained the protectorate of the holy places, the right of establishing its factories in the harbors of the Levant, and freedom of commerce for its flag alone. Such were the public clauses of the alliance. But in secret the sultan promised to attack Naples, while the king should assail the Milanais. At the same time the king made overtures to the Lutheran princes who had just formed against the emperor the League of Smalkalde(i532). The Pope cherished no resentment against him for it ; at least his wrath did not hold against the offer which Francis made him of marrying the dauphin to the niece of the pontiff, Catherine de Medici. Clement VII. died almost immediately after ; the advantage hoped from this misalli- ance with the Florentine bankers' daughter was com- promised. But the pontifical policy inclined to the side of France after the house of Austria possessed Naples and coveted Milan. Even at Rome religious interest was sub- CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 103 ordinated to political interest. There, moreover, around the chair of St. Peter the two interests were identical. In France by alliance with the Ottomans the doctrine of interest was carried to the extreme, satisfied by the saying of Francis I. that " when the wolves rushed upon his flock it was surely his right to set the dogs upon them." It is a truer statement still that with the great modern societies great national interests were born, and that national ques- tions now took precedence of religious questions proof that the Middle Ages were really dead. Francis also strengthened his alliance with the Scots by marrying to their king his eldest daughter (1536), and on her death Mary of Lorraine ; later he signed the first French treaties with Denmark (1541), thus endeavoring to form around France a coalition of secondary states so as to make head against Charles, who aspired to universal supremacy. At the same time he organized a national infantry of 42,000 men (legions provinciates) in order to no longer be at the discretion of Swiss or German mercen- aries. While Francis I. allied himself to the Lutherans and infidels, Charles gloriously resisted the latter, and although Charles v ^ tnus c ' om S he served only his own ambi- before Tunis tion and interest, could represent himself as Thid wtr g with the defender of Christianity. The Ottoman France (1536- marine was making menacing progress under the direction of the celebrated Khaireddin, or Barbaroussa. This pirate, become admiral of the Ottoman fleets, incessantly traversed the Mediterranean ; and, while in Asia the sultan was taking from the Persians Tauris and Bagdad (1534), which they recaptured the following year, Barbaroussa was driving the Bey of Tunis, Mouley Hassan, from his kingdom. Algiers and Tunis became, as formerly Carthage under Genseric, and Biserta under the Aglabites, the resort of a multitude of corsairs. Security disappeared along all the coast of Spain and Italy. Against these nests of pirates Charles V. fitted out two celebrated expeditions. In the first with 400 ships commanded by Doria he captured La Gouletta at the entrance of the Gulf of Tunis and set free 20,000 captives (1535) ; but less happy six years after, at Algiers he saw his fleet dispersed by a tempest and could hardly save its remains (1541). The emperor better protected the commerce of Christian nations 104 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK It. by ceding the island of Malta to the knights of Rhodes ( I 53)- This intrepid militia, the Mite of all the nobility of Europe, with equal success and devotion acted as police of the Mediterranean. It undertook against the pirates a war of ruse and stratagem in which they did not always have the upper hand. However, it could not prevent a rival of Barbaroussa, the corsair Dragout, from making himself master of Tripoli in 1551. The Porte, already in control of Egypt and suzerain of the Barbary states, then found itself solidly established upon almost all the northern coast of Africa. An evil act of the emperor broke the peace of Cambrai. At the instigation of Charles V. the Duke of Milan, violat- ing international law, seized and executed in his dungeon Merveille, a French envoy. Francis was preparing to cross the Alps to avenge this outrage when the duke died (1535) ; at once he put forward his claims to the Milanais, and in order to facilitate its conquest seized the states of the Duke of Savoy. This house had remained constantly faithful to France from the time of Louis XI., and had favored all French operations beyond the mountains, which without the assistance of the " gatekeeper of the Alps " would have been difficult. But in 1521 the duke Charles III. had married a sister-in-law of Charles V., and from that moment had shown only an unstable friendship, which changed after Pavia and the treaty of Cambrai into senti- ments of hostility. Master of Savoy and Piedmont, which are the two keys of Italy, Francis from there held in check the Spanish domination in the peninsula. But he let himself be persuaded by the promises of Charles V., who being by no means ready for war, entered upon perfid- ious negotiations to gain time. When he had terminated these preparations he threw off the mask, and in the con- sistory of Rome, in the presence of all the ambassadors of the Christian states, uttered against his rival the most vio- lent menaces and insults (April 5). Through lack of money Francis I was obliged to hold himself on the defensive ; moreover, he imprudently in- trusted the defense of Piedmont to the incapable and treacherous Marquis of Saluzzo. All the strongholds were surrendered to the Imperialists, and Charles entered Prov- ence at the head of 60,000 combatants. This impassive man, ordinarily so self-controlled, was hardly recognizable. CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 105 He flattered himself that he should conquer France in one campaign, in advance distributed offices and dignities, and recommended his historiographer, Paolo Giovio, to provide himself with ink and pens, because he said he was going to " cut out work for him." Montmorency, whom Francis had charged with the defense, did not dare to risk a battle against the veteran Spanish troops. He made a desert of Provence. All the fortresses except Aries and Marseilles were dismantled. The wells were filled up, the mills and barns burned. The inhabitants fled to the forests or the mountains. The emperor wandered two months in the midst of this appalling desolation. Repulsed before Marseilles, he captured Aries and wished there to be crowned King of Provence : nobles, magistrates, priests, all had fled. He marched upon Avignon ; a victory alone could restore the temper of his troops. Montmorency remained immo- bile despite the ardor of the French. The Imperialists then retreated, harassed by the peasants and cut off by dysentery. Of this imposing army which was to conquer France Charles led back only the remains (September, 1536). He hastened to quit Italy and went to Spain to hide his humili- ation. The Provencals had acted admirably ; the Picards, menaced at the same time by another imperial army, did the same. At St. Riquier, at Peronne, the women fought upon the ramparts beside the men. The Normans saw no enemy at home, so they went to seek one. Their corsairs gained 200,000 gold crowns in prizes from the Spaniards. Francis I. opened the following campaign by a ridiculous ceremony ; Charles V. cited to appear before the parlia- ment of Paris, was declared by contumacy guilty of felony and deprived of his fiefs of Artois and Flanders. This pro- cedure ended only in an insignificant war marked by vari- ous sieges. The two parties, equally exhausted, concluded a ten months' truce as to the northern frontier. On the south Francis I. reconquered Piedmont. However, Soulei'- man, who had just subdued the princes of Georgia and Albania at the extremities of his empire, crushed the Aus- trians at Essek (1537), while his admiral, Barbaroussa, dev- astated the coasts of the kingdom of Naples. An immense cry of rage rose in Italy against the King of France, the ally of the Ottomans. The Pope made himself the mouthpiece of public opinion and forced the two rivals to accept him as 106 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. mediator : despite their resentments, at Nice they concluded a truce for ten years. Each of them kept his conquests. The Duke of Savoy was sacrificed (1538). Souleiman could not be sacrificed so easily. The two princes who disputed Hungary, Ferdinand of Austria and Zapoli, Prince of Transylvania, had divided this kingdom by the treaty of Wuitzen (1536). The sultan under the pre- tense of defending the rights of the son of Zapoli, menaced by the Germans, defeated the latter, and retook Buda and almost all Hungary (1541). Three years before he had conquered Yemen and equipped on the Red Sea a fleet to succor the Mussulmans of India against the Portuguese. Thus the standards of the sultan floated from the mouths of the Rhone to those of the Indus, and his power extended from the Caucasus to the African Atlas. After having signed the truce of Nice, Charles V. and Francis I. had an interview at Aigues-Mortes. Montmor- ency, a skillful courtier, who under a stern exterior con- cealed a boundless ambition and cupidity, had persuaded the king that the sole means of acquiring the Milanais was to contract a solid alliance with Charles V. Charles at no price was willing to cede this province. But the friendship of the king at this moment was for him a piece of good for- tune, for his troops were revolting in Italy and Sicily, and the cortes of Spain refused him money. Scarcely was he freed from these embarrassments when there arose a new peril. The powerful city of Ghent revolted and offered itself to France. The king thought only of the Milanais, which was useless to him ; he refused Flanders, which would have been a most precious acquisition. He did more : betraying those who had trusted him, he informed the emperor of their propositions, invited him to pass through France in order to more quickly chastise the rebels, and gave him a magnificent reception. He believed he would obtain the Milanais ; he gained neither Ghent nor Milan. After the Flemings submitted Charles V. ignored his promises. " Let them show me anything written," said he ; and he declared that he reserved the investiture of the Milanias for his son Philip. The king, ashamed of having been duped, resolved on a new war. Neither the oppor- tunity nor the pretexts were long wanting. Two secret agents whom he sent to Souleiman were assas- CHAP. IX.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 107 sinated by del Guasto, Governor of the Milanais (1540). Del Guasto believed he would find on them Fourth war ... ........... .. (1542-44). the formal proof of the king s alliance with the Ottomans. Happily the dispatches had remained in -Piedmont. A few months after Charles V. attacked the Algerian pirates. We have already seen that the expedition completely failed (1541). This attempt and this reverse made Francis I. hasten his preparations. Sure of James V. of Scotland, who had espoused his oldest daughter in 1536, and on her death a princess of the house of Lorraine, he contracted with the kings, of Sweden and Denmark the first alliance which united France and the Scandinavian states. Lastly he set on foot five armies at once to attack Roussillon, the Nether- lands, and Italy. Success did not correspond to so many efforts. The campaign of 1542 was without result, but Francis I. lost a useful ally. Henry VIII. had wished to draw the King of Scotland into the schism ; James V. refused, and menaced with war by his powerful neighbor, anticipated him by himself invading England. Many of the Scotch nobles who had adopted the reform of Calvin abandoned their king at the moment of action. James V. died a few days later ; he left by Mary of Lorraine a daugh- ter who had just been born, Mary Stuart. The following year Henry VIII. formed an offensive alliance with Charles V.; the two princes were to enter France at once and to divide the kingdom. The emperor obliged the Duke of Cleves, ally of Francis I., to submit, but he did not succeed in breaking through the northern frontier, and he besieged Landrecies in vain. Meanwhile Souleiman attacked the Austrian dominions on the east ; he mastered what had so far escaped him in Hungary; he penetrated into Austria, and his fleet, united to that of France, bombarded Nice. The city was taken, but not the citadel. The Ottomans wintered at Toulon (1543). The following campaign opened by abrilliant victory. The French had invested Carignano ; del Guasto approached to save the city. Officers and soldiers, and most of all d'Enghien, their young chieftain, were eager to answer the defiance of the Spaniards. But a precise order of the king forbade risking a general battle. The opportunity appeared so excellent that the Duke d'Enghien sent Montluc into France to beg permission to attack the enemy ; he promised lo8 CONSEQUENCES Of THE REVOLUTION. to beat him well. Meanwhile he kept close watch of the Spaniards at Cerisoles. Francis I. could not resist. Then was produced a burst of enthusiasm worthy of the glorious days of Marignano. All the gentlemen wished to set out for the army and the court found itself deserted. They brought their courage and they brought also money, which the Duke d'Enghien borrowed to pay his soldiers. The men-at-arms charged splendidly, but the battle would have been lost with- out the veteran bands of the French and Swiss foot. The routed Imperialists left on the field of battle 12,000 dead and their cannon and baggage ; the French did not lose 200 men (1544). But France had to combat half of Europe ; instead of in- vading the Milanais it was necessary after the glorious day of Cerisoles to detach from the army of Piedmont 1 2,000 chosen men to defend Picardy and Champagne ; Henry VIII. had just disembarked at Calais and was besieging Boulogne. Charles V. had entered Champagne and had captured St. Dizier. The Imperialists reached Chateau-Thierry and alarm spread in the capital. The Parisians commenced to emigrate with their goods to Orleans. " My God," cried Francis I., " thou art making me pay dearly for this crown which I believed I received from thy hand as a gift ! " But the hostile camp was distressed by want and sickness ; the English obstinately remained before Boulogne instead of joining their allies. Charles V., pressed to prevent the progress of the Lutherans in Germany, consented to treat. Peace was signed at Crespy. The emperor and the king mutually restored whatever they had conquered from each other ; Francis continued to hold Savoy and Piedmont ; Charles promised, moreover, the investiture of the Milanais to a younger son of the king, but this young prince died. Henry VIII., although left alone, refused to treat. Finally, he decided in June, 1546, to lay down his arms and restore Boulogne in consideration of 2,000,000 francs to be paid in eight years. Francis I. survived this last treaty only a few months. He died March 31, 1547. An odious act, the massacre of the Waldenses, had tarnished his last years. His son, Henry II., succeeded. CHAPTER X. THE THIRD PERIOD OF RIVALRY BETWEEN THE HOUSES OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA (1547-59). Supremacy of Charles V. Fifth War against France (1547-56). Last Struggle for Italian Independence. Treaty of Cateau-Cam- bresis (15 59)- CHARLES V. profited by the death of Francis I. and the embarrassments of his successor to overwhelm the German _ .. Protestants before the hand of France could Supremacy of . Charles v. Fifth be extended for their protection. Since the France ^ow- treat y signed at Cadan in Bohemia between 56). the Lutherans and Catholics (1534) the insurrection of the Anabaptists of Munster (1534) and the war of -Charles V. against Francis I. had hindered the struggle from bursting out in Germany. But since the treaty of Crespy in 1544 left Charles V. free from all con- cern on the side of France, and since a truce of five years, concluded with Souleiman in 1545, delivered him from all anxiety on the side of the Ottomans, he believed the moment come to arrest the progress of the Lutherans. Brandenburg, Misnia, Thuringia, and the Palatinate had gone over a little before to the side of the Reformation. In 1543 the Archbishop of Cologne in his turn abjured, and despite his abjuration intended to retain his electorate and his archbishopric. But Rome under Paul III. had developed an energy which now stimulated that of the emperor. The Council of Trent had opened (December 13, 1545). and at its first sessions had irrevocably broken with the Protes- tants. Condemned canonically, they saw the Pope accord the emperor 13,000 men to reduce them, a considerable subsidy, and half the revenues of the Spanish Church for a year. Luther died in 1546, and did not behold the com- mencement of the hostilities which he dreaded. The 109 HO CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. League of Smalkalde had great strength, but it lacked one chief because it had too many. The treason of Maurice of Saxony, who went over to the emperor's side, broke the league. The Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse alone remained in arms. They counted upon Francis I. The death of that prince determined the emperor to attack the elector at Mtihlberg on the Elbe ; he defeated him and made him prisoner (April 23, 1547). The landgrave alone could not resist; he tendered his submission. Charles V. abused his victory by perfidy and harshness. The elector, stripped of his electorate, which the emperor gave to Maurice, was condemned to perpetual imprison- ment. The landgrave was arrested in violation of promised faith, and these two illustrious captives were insolently dragged in the conqueror's train through the German cities in order that they might realize their humiliation and that of the German liberties. The latter in fact seemed lost. The cities were filled with foreign soldiery, and heavy taxes were laid upon the people. The emperor was not less happy in Italy against the Guelphs than in Germany against the Protestants. At Genoa the conspiracy of Fieschi against the Dorias failed by the unexpected death of their audacious chief (Janu- ary 2, 1547). Sienna received a Spanish garrison ; in Lombardy, finally, Pietro Luigi Farnese was assassinated ; his successor, Octavio, kept nothing but the city of Parma. The Imperialists occupied Piacenza, and Philip of Spain came to supervise the movements of the pontifical court. Intoxicated with his triumph, Charles V. believed that he was able alone to solve the religious question which divided the world ; he promulgated at Augsburg his famous "interim" (May 15, 1548). Everything bent before the new Charlemagne. Germany, endeavoring to find her constitution, has per- petually oscillated between two opposite points. Otto I., Henry II., Frederick Barbarossa, drew her in the direction of unity ; the great interregnum pressed her back toward division. Charles V. took up then the eternal problem, but he committed the fault which had caused the failure of his great predecessors : he complicated this enterprise with many others. The Italian republics in the Middle Ages had saved German feudalism ; France in Modern Times saved the German principalities. CHAP. X.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. in When Henry II. saw the disastrous consequences of the defeat of the German princes and the omnipotence of the emperor in the empire, he said to himself that such a mighty person must not be allowed the time to become settled, and he resolved upon war. The treaties with the Swiss and the Ottomans were renewed. He ransomed Boulogne from the English, whom he won to his side, though betrothing Mary Stuart, the Queen of Scotland, to the dauphin ; he recalled the French prelates from the Council of Trent, and sustained the house of Farnese in Parma and Piacenza against the Pope allied to the emperor. But while this policy made him almost everywhere the enemy of the orthodox, the friend of heretics or miscreants, he offered in expiation the blood of his Protestant subjects. The edict of Chateaubriand ordered the condemnation of the Protestants without appeal, closed the schools and the tribunals against whoever had not a certificate of orthodoxy, and. by a custom borrowed from the worst times of the Roman Empire, promised informers the third part of their victims' property (1551). In Germany especially was it important to act. The king secretly allied himself with the Protestant princes and with Maurice of Saxony, who betrayed the emperor now that he had nothing more to hope from him. He took the name of Protector of German Liberties, and considered him- self as vicar of the empire authorized in seizing the cities of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, three sovereign bishoprics in the midst of the duchy of Lorraine (1551). The occupation was made without obstacle. Toul opened its gates. Metz, a free and prosperous city, would allow none to enter save the chiefs of the army ; the soldiers followed, the gates were seized, and Metz belonged to France. The same sur- prise was attempted upon Strasburg, another great free city. The Strasburgers replied with cannon balls. Henry could only boast of having watered his horses at the Rhine. Still when returning he seized Montmedy, Ivoy, Bouillon, which he did not keep, and Verdun, which has remained to France (April, 1552). On his side Maurice of Saxony had barely missed cap- turing Charles V. in Innsbruck. The aged emperor had just time to flee across the snows and the mountains. The work of his entire life was overturned in a day; he under- stood it and submitted. The compromise of Passau abol- H2 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II ished the interim and granted liberty of conscience to the Lutherans (1552). It was the alliance of France with Maurice of Saxony which had caused Charles V. this bitter deception ; so he turned against her with fury. At the head of 60,000 men he laid siege to Metz. The Duke of Guise defended the place with so much heroism that the emperor was obliged to retire after having lost half his soldiers. " I well see," he said, " that fortune is a woman who loves better a youthful king than an aged emperor." He should have accused no one but himself for having undertaken such an operation in the most unfavorable season. He was more happy the following year against Terouanne, which he took and razed. The marriage of the Infante of Spain, Philip, with Mary Tudor, Queen of England, imperiled France. But Henry displayed great activity (1554); he invaded the Nether- lands and beat the Imperialists at Renty, about thirteen miles southwest of St. Omer. On the south he occupied Corsica, while Brissac defended Piedmont with rare ability. But in Tuscany Strozzi, a Florentine exile in the pay of France, was beaten at Marciano, and the Spaniards could commence the siege of Siena (1554). The chief of the Imperialists, Giovanni Jacobo de Medici, inaugurated this undertaking by horrible ravages. He made of this beauti- ful country, then covered with habitations and luxuriant gardens, the sad Maremma of to-day. Blaise de Montluc with a few French troops prolonged the resistance. It was only after having lost 20,000 inhabitants that Siena capit- ulated and underwent Spanish protection (1555). These isolated successes did not console Charles V. for his check before Metz and the defeat of Renty. After thirty-five years of efforts he saw all his projects overthrown. France was not humbled, Germany was not reduced to servitude, Protestantism was not crushed. Discourage- ment took possession of him : with the Protestants he signed the peace of Augsburg, with France the truce of Vau- celles (February 5, 1556) ; then he placed his crowns of Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands upon the head of his son, Philip II. (1556), and resigned the empire to his brother, the archduke Ferdinand, who was already King of the Romans. From that moment the house of Austria was separated into two branches, and the vast dominions of Charles V. were forever divided. The monarch, volun- CHAP. X.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 113 tarily fallen, went in quest of repose to the monastery of Yuste. The truce of Vaucelles had been concluded for five years ; it lasted scarcely five months. At the moment when Philip II. lost Germany he seemed to gain England by a second marriage, espousing the queen of that country, Mary Tudor. He had The last strug- J ' J . , . , gie for Italian already one son, Don Carlos ; for him he Tr d eaty nd of ce ca- reserved all the Spanish possessions and it teau-Cambresis. was agreed that the child who might be born from this new union should reign at once over the Nether- lands and over England ; that is to say, that London and Antwerp should be under the same master, the Thames and the Escaut under the same laws, and that the North Sea should become an English lake. Thus France was in her present and future seriously menaced by this domina- tion which hemmed her in on three sides, and which could bring upon her an English invasion against which she had no longer to hope the assistance of Germany. Henry II. had signed with Charles V. the truce of Vaucelles at the beginning of 1556; he broke it the same year (November) so as not to give Philip II. the time to become established. The Holy See was then occupied by an old man full of fire, Paul IV., who was appalled at seeing the Spaniards beside him and upon him at Naples and Milan. The king and the pontiff united. One army under the command of Montmorency was sent toward the Netherlands, another under the Duke of Guise into Italy. They wished to limit Philip II. to Spain. Henry II. should be strengthened on the north by provinces adjacent and easy of defense ; the duke Francis of Guise, descending on his mother's side from the house of Anjou, hoped to become King of Naples. The plan was well combined. The energetic Paul IV. placed his spiritual power at the service of France and the Italian cause. He sustained Siena and openly attacked the Viceroy of Naples, following the example of the Popes of the Middle Ages, arming and reviewing the population, and even preaching a crusade against the Span- iards, " that offspring of Jews and Moors, the real dregs of the earth." At the news that the Duke of Guise, invested with the realm of Naples by the Holy See, was approaching with 15,000 men, Philip II. made a few concessions to the H4 CONSEQUENCES OF THE REVOLUTION. [BOOK II. Italians in order to divide them ; he restored Piacenza to Farnese and gave up Siena to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. This was his salvation in Italy. The Duke of Guise traversed the Milanais without obstacle and entered Rome in triumph, but the Pope was unable to furnish him all the succor promised and he failed before Civitella, the first Neapolitan stronghold which he attacked. He endeavored in vain to bring the Duke of Alva to a battle. The Spaniard let malady decimate the French army, and then carried the war into the pontifical territory and marched upon Rome. Immovable until the last moment despite the departure of the French, Paul IV. yielded only when he saw the Romans themselves ready to open the gates of Rome to the Spaniards, and to spare the capital of the Christian world the horrors of another capture by storm and of another pillage (1557). To the disaster of St. Quentin was due the recall of the Duke of Guise, so fatal to the hopes of the Pope and of Italy. The Spaniards, 50,000 strong, under the orders of King Philip, and of the duke Philibert of Savoy, having entered Picardy, had invested St. Quentin. The place had neither solid fortifications, munitions,, nor food. The Admiral Coligny threw himself into the city with 700 men. Montmorency approached to provision it, but camped so near the enemy with an army very inferior in number, and took so few precautions, that he was obliged to fight with- out having assured his retreat ; the French army was destroyed and he himself remained a prisoner (August 10). The King of Spain was advised to march upon Paris ; he preferred to make himself master of St. Quentin, Ham, and Noyon. While the conquerors wore themselves out in this war of sieges, Henry II. had time to put imposing forces on foot, and the Duke of Guise returned from Italy. Named generalissimo, this daring captain struck a mighty blow. In the dead of winter suddenly he besieged Calais and captured it after eight days (January, 1558). The shame of St. Quentin was lost in the glory of this resound- ing success. The Duke of Guise was placed above all con- temporary generals ; the popularity of the house of Lor- raine dates from that day. Calais was recaptured, but the Spaniards remained always upon the Somme. The Marshal de Termes, having also been defeated at Gravelines (1559), Henry II. opened CHAP. X.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 115 negotiations for peace. After conferences lasting four months the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis was concluded (April 25, 1559) on the basis of mutual restitutions in the Netherlands and Italy. The Duke of Savoy recovered his states on the two sides of the Alps (Bresse, Bugey, Savoy, Piedmont) except Pignerol, Chieri, and Savigliano, which France retained until the rights of Louise of Savoy, grandmother of Henry II., had been decided. She kept also the marquisate of Saluzzo, but abandoned Siena to the Medici and Corsica to the Genoese. The three bishop- rics depending upon the empire, it did not belong to Spain to demand their restitution ; England left Calais to France in return for 500,000 crowns. Philip again possessed Charolais, a little country inclosed in the French provinces, and which the French would be able to sieze without striking a blow at the first rupture, but he did not restore to Jane d'Albret the portion of her kingdom of Navarre which Spain had retained during half a century. Thus what had been commenced in 1530 at Bologna, was accomplished in 1559 in a little city of Cambresis. The Austro-Spanish domination was firmly planted at the north and south of the Italian peninsula ; the Holy See as a temporal power found itself reduced to helplessness ; the dukes of Florence, Parma, and Ferrara were held in lead- ing strings, and even the frontier of Italy remained in the hands of foreigners. This was for Italy a great misfortune and for France a check, because the house of Austria despite its division into two branches remained as formidable at the end as at the beginning of the struggle. In very truth Philip II. was stronger than Charles V. But this check served also as a lesson. When losing on the side of Italy provinces remote, and which by no means brought in what it cost to defend them, France gained on the north Calais that is to say, the liberation of her territory, and the reconquest of her integrity and the three bishoprics which constituted a triple advance guard of strongholds on the frontier of Champagne ; conquests useful, necessary, truly national, while the more or less durable acquisition of Naples or of Milan interested only the dynasty of Valois. Furthermore, if the French policy was vanquished be- yond the Alps it triumphed beyond the Rhine. The imperial authority, null in the empire before Charles V., had n6 CONSEQUENCES OF THE RE I'OLU TION. [BOOK II. been for a moment elevated by that prince to the degree of making men fear that he would destroy at one blow both the political and the religious liberties of Germany. France aided the German princes to defend themselves, and the peace of Augsburg guaranteed their independence. This was perhaps an evil for real German interests, and for civilization in general, but it was surely a benefit for France, inasmuch as a monarchy faithfully obeyed from the Meuse to the Oder, and from the Alps to the North Sea, would have exposed her to terrible dangers. The acquisition of Italy was by no means a compensation to the house of Austria for what she lost upon the Rhine and the Danube. Poor and robust, Germany would have given her real chief a strength which enervated Italy could not furnish. Besides, so many wars did not remain entirely fruitless. They had two important results, the creation of the system of political equilibrium balance of power which long protected the minor states against the ambition of the great, and the development of the Renaissance. The peoples of Europe, mingled in the conflict, became better acquainted, and, brought into contact with a brilliant civili- zation, acquired a taste for the arts, letters, and sciences, which after having remained till then the almost exclusive possession of the Italians, now became the common posses- sion of Christian nations. France was the first to inherit from Italy. It was in her, as we shall shortly see, that the Renaissance shone with more effulgent splendor than it had cast outside the peninsula. Finally, these wars had in every state consequences at once political and military. The nobility, kept in a distant and hostile country under the harness, became supple in obedience to the king, and the discipline of camps conse- crated the revolution commenced by gunpowder and by standing armies. Although the attempt to create a national infantry by means of the free archers had not succeeded, bands were formed in France, Spain, and Germany which made a profession of military affairs, which had the draw- backs of mercenary soldiers, the qualities of veteran troops, and which assured an immense superiority to those who could pay for them that is to say, the kings. Likewise, if the feudal weapons, the lance and the sword, remained the principal weapons till Henry IV., others, as the pistol and CHAP. X.] RIVALRY OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. 1 1? the arquebuse, and especially the cannon, commenced to play a part in battle ; Louis XL with his instinct of power had given attention to a good organization of artillery, and in 1479 concentrated all the administration in the hands of a grand master. In 1494 his son took no less than a hundred and forty drawn cannon for the Italian expedi- tion. Every noble formerly could have a lance, a strong suit of armor, and a good war horse, by means of which he threw himself with impunity into the densest battalions of peas- ants. Powder equalized conditions upon the battlefield as the kings were going to equalize them in civil life. The villain was about to become the equal of the best armed knight at the same time that the inaccessible fortresses which had so long sheltered the violence and activity of the feudal lords ceased to be impregnable. The king alone could possess artillery, because this weapon was too costly for individuals, and because the law was to declare it an exclusively royal weapon. With cannon the royal will could be made to triumph everywhere. BOOK III. REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS, IDEAS, AND CREEDS. CHAPTER XI. THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, OR DISCOVERY OF AMERICA AND OF THE PASSAGE TO INDIA. First Maritime Discoveries. Vasco da Gama (1497) and the Colonial Empire of the Portuguese. Christopher Columbus (1492). Cortes (1519). Magellan (1520). Pizarro (1529). Colonial Empire of the Spaniards. Consequences of the New Discoveries. Introduction of Posts and of Canals with Locks. UP to the present we have considered the political revo- lution which gave the kings of the fifthteenth and sixteenth centuries the power of directing at the will of discoveries! 1 " e their personal ambition the national forces at that time brought together in their hands. We must now discuss the revolution which, in consequence of maritime discoveries, was taking place at the same time in material interests. All through the Middle Ages the commercial routes traced by the Greeks and Romans had been followed. However, civilization, on reaching the farthest lands of the West, had turned the eyes of the people toward the mysterious extent of that unknown sea. The Mediterranean could not be their center of activity ; they had become familiar with the billows of the ocean and had developed confidence in the compass. The Basques, pursuing the whales which sported in their gulf, had pressed their chase and their ships toward the north; the Scandinavians, then exuberant with life and force, had from Norway gained Iceland, then Greenland, 118 THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, 119 and had descended by Labrador as far as the lands where rise to-day the magnificent cities of the American Union. The Normans, on the contrary, turning toward the southeast, had coasted along the promontories of Spain, and arriving in front of the Strait of Gibraltar, instead of entering the Medi- terranean, the uncontested domain of Italians, Provengals, and Catalans, had not feared to venture toward the African shores. The people of Dieppe in 1364 reached Guinea, whence they brought back gold dust, ivory, pepper, and gray amber; and a gentleman from the environs of their city, John of Bethencourt, in 1402 made the conquest of the Canaries. Associated with the people of Rouen, they did not cease until 1410 from sending ships annually to the African coast. The misfortunes of France, which then com- menced, and the English invasions made this traffic cease. Through commercial jealousy they had so well guarded the secret of their discovery that they have lost the honor of it. There were, however, eyes which saw these vessels pass, and men who grew indignant at strangers coming from so dis- tant countries to reap the profits which nature seemed to have reserved for another people. After having conquered their soil from the Mussulmans the Portuguese found themselves arrested by the parallel progress of Spanish Christians. Africa was before them. There they would find conquests to make, riches to gain, souls to convert; the most learned and the most intrepid talked of turning the continent as formerly did the Phoenicians, of opening a route toward the countries where were produced the commodities which the Mussulmans hardly allowed to pass by Alexandria and which Venice sold so dear; finally, of making research after that kingdom of Prester John in Eastern Africa (Abyssinia) of whom many spoke, whom none had seen, and who appeared waiting for the Christian nations in order to lead them to the conquest of the East. From all these causes the Portuguese nation in the fif- teenth century was seized with an ardor as intense as at the epoch of the crusade. The Infante Don Henry, third son of King John I., controlled this movement. He established himself at the extremity of the continent near Cape St. Vin- cent, and there in face of those unknown seas, which his eye pierced without cessation, he continued during more than forty years to send upon them intrepid sailors whose death slackened but did not arrest those attempts. The clergy 120 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. united its influence to that of the prince. Each departure was blessed, each ship consecrated, each squadron carried its priests at the side of its mariners, just as in each colony rose a church between the citadel and the factory. The first to depart under the direction of the Infante in 1419 dis- covered an island which the Portuguese had probably known, and which they called Madeira (wood) because it was covered with forests. They set fire to these impenetrable woods; tradition makes the conflagration last seven years, and attrib- utes to the ashes that fertility which has won for Madeira the surname of "Queen of the Isles" ; the Infante had grape- vines carried there from Greece and sugar canes from Sicily and Cyprus; this last plant has deserted the island, the first still prospers there. Twelve years later the Azores were discovered. Encouraged by a bull of Pope Martin V., who in 1432 granted Don Henry the right of conquest over the lands which they should discover, together with plenary in- dulgence for those who should perish in these expeditions, the Portuguese doubled Cape Bojador, which, beaten by a stormy sea, had till then intimidated the most hardy navi- gators (1433). After this "labor of Hercules" they trem- blingly passed Cape Blanc (1444), the tropic (1446), beyond which it was told them the whites would become black, then Cape Verd and its islands (1446). The death of the Infante in 1464 did not retard the discoveries. The Portuguese eight years after arrived at St. Thomas and passed the line; in 1484 they touched Guinea, where they found the gold which the English coined and called guinea from the name of the country whence it was derived; at last, in 1486 Bartholomew Diaz recognized the cape which terminates Africa at the south; he called it the Cape of Storms; King John gave it its truer name which it still bears: he called it the Cape of Good Hope. Finally, there departed form Lisbon (July 8, 1497,) a squadron of four tiny ships of less than a hundred tons burden , with a crew of a hundred and sixty men com- VascodaGama , , , ;, (1497) and the manded by Vasco da Gama. 1 he evening of lo Th a e p?iu- before the departure Gama partook of the sac- guese. rament and a convent was founded at the spot where he had quitted the shore. This first expedition was only for reconnoitering. The fleet touched, not without peril, on the eastern shore of Africa at Mozambique and Monbaca, where the Portuguese were astonished at again CHAP. XI.] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 121 finding Moors. The Mussulman king of Melinda gave them a pilot to conduct them across the Indian Ocean. In twenty days they crossed the 700 leagues of sea which separated them from the coast of Malabar, and May 20, 1498 they dropped anchor before the great city of Calicut. The Arab merchants since the twelfth century monopolized the trade of India toward the west. By their intrigues they hindered the negotiations of Gama with the Zamorin or King of Cali- cut, and his ships on their return brought back little wealth, but immense hope (1499). Later in the Lusiad Camoens sang of the heroic expedition which had opened India to the Portuguese. Alvarez Cabral founded in India the first European factory, that of Calicut. On the way he had been assailed by a tempest, driven toward the west, and thrown upon an unknown shore; it was the coast of Brazil, so called from the name of a dyewood there found in abundance; Alvarez had first called it the Holy Cross. In India he introduced the policy, hardly honorable, but profitable, of interfering in the quarrels of the native kings in order that each might help in the subjection of the rest. D'Almeida was the first Viceroy of India, and legitimized this title by the great victory of Diu, which took away from the Mussulmans the domination of the Indian Ocean (1508). But the real creator of the colonial empire of the Portuguese was the great Albuquerque. By the capture of Socotora at the entrance of the Red Sea, and by that of Ormuz at the entrance of the Persian Gulf, which he siezed in 1507 as lieutenant of d'Almeida, he closed the ancient routes of Indian commerce to the Mussulmans and Venetians. The Shah of Persia demanded an annual indemnity for Ormuz; Albuquerque led the envoys before a heap of grenades and bullets, then he said to them: "That is the sort of money with which the King of Portugal pays his tribute." A Venetian fleet whose ships, taken apart at Cairo, had been transported on camels' backs by the Mamelukes across the desert, was destroyed by him (1508). He gave to Por- tuguese India its capital by taking possession of Goa, which a river envelops with its two arms so as to form one of the most beautiful harbors in the world (1510); then he con- quered Malacca (1511), secured the alliance of the kings of Siam and Pegu, and reconnoitered the Molucca Islands, an achievement whereby the Portuguese entered Oceanica, a 122 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. new world, one whose discovery has been completed only in our time. This mighty warrior, it is said, in order to secure to the Portuguese the uncontested monopoly of the commerce of India, dreamed of restoring Egypt to the desert by divert- ing the course of the Nile into the Red Sea; this was the counterpart of a project formed at Venice for uniting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean by a canal. To revenge upon Islam the occupation of Jerusalem and Constantinople he wished also to destroy Mecca and Medina. But nature was stronger than his genius. He died poor and almost in disgrace. When experiencing the injustice of the king he contented himself by saying, "To the tomb, worn-out old man to the tomb." He was seventy-two years old (1515). The Hindus cherished the recollection of his virtues, and often came to pray at his tomb for protection against the injustices of his successors. However, the progress continued. Scares (1515-18) completed the submission of Malabar and the conquest of Ceylon; Nuno d'Acunhamade that of Diu (1531), and frus- trated a formidable attack of the Ottomans of Souleiman, who, setting out from Egypt with an immense armament, en- deavored to drive from the Indian seas these newcomers who were diverting to Lisbon all the commerce by which formerly Alexandria grew rich (1538); finally, John de Castro baffled all the coalitions formed against the Portuguese domination, and defended Diu against the Ottomans of Sou- lei'man, who were led by Genoese engineers. To rebuild the ruined walls of the town money was lacking. He demanded some from the merchants of Goa, and sent them, it is said, his mustaches as guarantee of the loan. When he died in 1548 he left as heritage to his family only three reals, but to his country an immense empire and a consolidated government. From Lisbon to the Cape of Good Hope, from the Cape of Good Hope to Hindustan, from Hindustan to Malacca, and from Indo-China to Japan, there was not an important point that the Portuguese had not occupied. From Mozambique, Sofala, and Melinda on the coast of Africa they obtained gold dust and ivory; from Mascat and Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, the productions of central Asia. By Diu on the coast of Guzerat, by Goa on that of Malabar, by the island of Cey- lon, and by Negapatam on the coast of Coromandel, they enveloped all Hindustan. Malacca in the peninsula of the same name delivered to them the commerce of the countries CHAP. XI.] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 123 of Indo-China; they occupied the Spice Islands, Ternate and Timor in the Moluccas; they had an establishment at Macao near Canton, and carried on traffic with Japan, which yielded them an enormous quantity of metals. Their factories upon the western coast of Africa and on the Congo possessed im- portance only after the introduction of the slave trade; for a long time Brazil had no other colonists than criminals and deported Jews. Goa was the center of this vast colonial empire. It is difficult to conceive how in less than half a century a people so small could in spite of so furious and so numer- ous oppositions cover with its factories or dominate by its fortresses a coast line of 4000 leagues. But we must realize to what degree the love of lucre was excited by this commer- cial revolution, and what patriotic and religious heroism ani- mated the first colonists of India. Gama, Cabral, Albu- querque, John de Castro, believed themselves the armed apostles of civilization and faith; and in their train in fact came those men who have created a new sort of heroes, the missionaries. John de Castro died in the arms of St. Francis Xavier. This good fortune of Portugal was ruin for Venice. The aged queen of the Adriatic and Mediterranean struggled painfully against the necessity which was slaying her. She attempted force and united with Souleiman in dispatching a powerful armament from Egypt; the enterprise having failed, she made use of entreaties and begged of the Portuguese to associate her with their commerce: they refused; to buy of them at a fixed price the productions brought to Lisbon, a new refusal. Then she freed from all tax the merchandise arriving through Egypt, and taxed heavily that which came by way of the Cape. But the former daily grew more rare, the latter more abundant; Lisbon became the great entrepot of Eastern commodities. The Dutch came to buy them there and thence, in place of the Italian merchants, dis- tributed them through all Europe. To find the route to India by the east was the idea of all the Portuguese navigators; to find it by the west was the idea of Columbus. A mariner at fourteen, the Genoese Christopher Columbus early gave special attention to the sphericity of the earth and the possibility of passing around it. India was supposed to be very extended east- ward, through the necessity of counterbalancing the Euro- 124 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. pean continent. Waves had been known to bring from the west sculptured wood, uprooted trees, and even two dead bodies of men different from Euro- Columb t us P (i493); peans. The point at issue was therefore to Cortes (1519) ; reach the Indian continent without circum- Magellan (1520; ; . , . , . , .. Pizarro (1539). navigating Africa by crossing the thus far dl. ""explored Atlantic. Columbus presented his project to the senate of Genoa, who rejected it as the dream of a madman; to the King of Portugal, John II., who endeavored to rob him of it; to the King of England, Henry VII., whom his brother went to seek; finally, to the sovereigns of Spain, Ferdi- nand and Isabella, who, entirely occupied with the siege of Granada, refused to listen to him. The learned men of the epoch proposed terrible objections: "How will you hold yourself up with your head downward? How will you climb again the convex surface of the globe?" One man, the prior Juan Peres, alone understood Columbus, and made Isabella understand him. After the conquest of Granada this great queen called for the Genoese, who, immovable in his idea, had already started to carry his project elsewhere. Ferdinand and Isabella, "sovereigns of the ocean," named Columbus "grand admiral of all the seas and viceroy of the lands which he should discover." Castile made the sacrifice of 100,000 livres. Three poor vessels, the Santa Maria commanded by Columbus, the Pinta and the Nina by the Pinpon brothers, started August 3, 1492, from the port of Palos; they touched at the Canaries, and on quitting these islands they launched out into the unknown. Three weeks they sailed westward. Many times birds and large weeds made them believe they were approaching land ; but these hopes vanished like those of the traveler deceived by the mirage of the desert. Always they went on ; but according as they withdrew from the known world to plunge into im- mensity, anxiety and terror took possession of their minds. Soon the crew mutinied, wished to return, and Columbus dissuaded them only by means of firmness. Finally, during the night of October n a sailor of the Pinta, which was in the lead, cried out, "Land!" and at daybreak the Spaniards discovered a delicious island. Upon the shore Columbus fell upon his knees and gave thanks to Heaven. He was on the tiny island Guanahani, one of the Lucaye or Bahama Islands. By descending less toward CHAP. XI.] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 12$ the south he would have sooner discovered the American continent. It is the lot of inventors to discover sometimes more than they seek, but such good fortune happens only to creative geniuses. Columbus always believed that he had touched the Indian continent, and like him we still call this new land the West Indies. At his first voyage (1492) Columbus discovered only islands: the Bahamas, Cuba with its fine roadstead of Havana, the most beautiful there is in the world, and Hispaniola (Hayti or San Domingo). In the second (1493) he touched at many of the small Antilles. Only at the third (1498) did he see the mouth of the Orinoco and touch the continent without knowing it. Finally, in the fourth in 1502 he reconnoitered the coasts of Colombia from Cape Gracias-a-Dios as far as the harbor of Puerto Bello, and even the entrance of the Gulf of Darien. But already envy attacked the great man. On return from his first voyage enough honors could not be heaped upon him. Ferdinand and Isabella had him sit covered in their presence as a grandee of Spain ; on the second the enthu- siasm fell. They had counted on an ample cargo of gold; Columbus brought back only little. On the third persecu- tion commenced. Loaded with chains and under the impu- tation of treason, he returned to Europe. Isabella hastened to make reparation for this outrage. Nevertheless he was only able to again set out four years later; and when he arrived before Hispaniola he was forbidden to land. He remained a long time deprived of all succor on the coast of Jamaica, where he had run aground, and he wandered two years in the sea of the Antilles. On his return Ferdinand the Catholic received him coldly; Isabella, his protectress, was dying. Overwhelmed with disappointments, worn out with fatigue, he survived her only two years (1506). He wished to be buried with the chains he had worn. His body rests in the cathedral of Havana; only upon the mau- soleum of his son at Seville does one read these two verses: A Castilla y a Leon Nuevo mundo dio Colon. Posterity has consecrated another injustice, whereby has been given to America the name of the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, who in 1497 or 1499 touched the continent and 126 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. published the first description spread through Europe of the new lands. The route once found, discoveries succeeded rapidly. In 1513 Balboa traversed the isthmus of Panama, and was the first to look upon the vast ocean of which he took possession in the name of the crown of Spain, entering its waters sword in hand. In 1518 Grijalva discovered Mexico, and Ferdi- nand Cortes almost immediately began its conquest. Mexico had been for a hundred and thirty years the most powerful state in America through the number of its inhab- itants, their courage, and even their civilization. Cortes had only 700 soldiers, 18 horses, and 10 campaign pieces. But the victory of the Spaniards was rendered almost inevi- table by their superiority in arms and discipline, by the audacity and sang-froid of their chief, by his pitiless policy, and more than all by the almost superstitious astonishment of the natives at sight of white men who carried the thunder in their hands. Setting out from Cuba, Cortes landed (April, 1519) not far from Tabasco and coasted along the gulf as far as the place which was called St. Jean d'Ulloa, and which became the port of Vera Cruz, founded by Cortes. Then he burned his ships so as to leave his followers no hope save victory, and attacked first the aristocratic republic of Tlascala. He appalled the warriors with his cannon, and after having forced 6000 of them to follow him as auxiliaries, he ad- vanced upon Mexico, the capital of the empire. This city, situated upon a lake and defended by more than 300,000 inhabitants, was accessible only by a narrow causeway. He declared himself the friend of Montezuma, under this title entered the city, and one day, followed by only fifty Spaniards, penetrated the palace of the emperor, seized his person, and obliged him to acknowledge himself vassal and tributary of Charles V. (1519). The Governor of Cuba, Velasquez, jealous of his successes, sent against him an army of more than 1000 Spaniards. Cortes won them over and tripled his forces. At this moment broke out a patriotic revolt of the Mexicans: Montezuma was slain while wishing to appease his people, and the Spaniards were driven from Mexico; but the bloody victory of Otumba brought them back under the walls of this city, which they captured (August 13, 1521), and the new emperor, Guatemozin, was placed with his first minister upon burning coals that he might be compelled to declare where CHAP. XI.] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 127 he had hidden his treasures. Suffering extorted complaints from the minister. "And I," said Gautemozin, "am I on a bed of roses?" Cortes tarnished his glory by cruelties. In the province of Panuco alone 60 caciques, or chiefs, and 400 nobles were burned. Other incursions brought Cortes as far as California. He had the fate of Christopher Columbus; jealous calumnies called him back to Spain; he was stripped of his command ; to obtain an audience he was obliged to break through the press which surrounded the carriage of the emperor. Seeing him erect upon the step of the carriage door, Charles V. asked who that man was. "It is, " replied Cortes, "he who has given you more states than your father left you cities." This reply gave the finishing stroke to his disgrace; he died in destitution. While Ferdinand Cortes was subduing Mexico the Portu- guese Magellan, entering into the service of Charles V., undertook to make by sea the circuit of the globe, and attaining by the west the innumerable islands of the Pacific Ocean, which the Portuguese reached by the east, to dispute their conquest with the latter. He set out from Spain (September 20, 1519), discovered (October 21, 1520), the strait which bears his name between South America and Terra del Fuego, crossed the Pacific Ocean, and in March, 1521, approached the Philippines. He perished in a com- bat with the natives of these islands; but his lieutenant, del Cano, accomplished the enterprise. The squadron, con- tinuing to sail westward, reached the Molucca Islands to the great astonishment of the Portuguese, who could not under- stand that it had arrived at Tidor by the eastern sea, and, doubling the Cape of Good Hope, arrived in Spain 1124 days after it had set out.* In the time of Prince Henry the Portuguese had obtained from the Holy See the possession of everything which they should discover; Columbus having found America, the Spaniards applied to the Pope, who divided the globe between the two peoples by aline of demarcation drawn 270 leagues west of the Azores. But seeing that the world was round, * Of this expedition Dr. Draper well says in his work upon the intel- lectual development of Europe : "In the whole history of human under- takings there is nothing that exceeds, if indeed there is anything which equals, this voyage of Magellan. That of Columbus dwindles away in comparison." Later on he speaks of it as " the greatest achievement in the history of the human race." ED. 128 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. the two nations found themselves confronting each other in the other hemisphere. East of the Moluccas they traced a new line, which they also called the demarcation (1522). The conquest of Peru was much more easy than that of Mexico, the natives being less warlike. One day when the Spaniards of the isthmus of Panama were weighing parcels of gold an Indian overturned their balances, saying that after four suns' march southward they would find a country where gold was so common as to be employed in the meanest uses. Three adventurers hearing these words, Almagro, de Luque, and Pizarro, made themselves the chiefs of a new expedition. A foundling, a schoolmaster, and a soldier of fortune took upon themselves to subdue an empire 500 leagues in length, and did subdue it in six years (1529-35). At Peru reigned the dynasty of the Incas, who called them- selves children of the sun. Pizarro made himself master of Cuzco, and following the example of Cortes, seized the Indian prince in the midst of his court in order to oblige him for his ransom to fill with gold a chamber twenty-two feet high, then had him strangled. Meanwhile one of his officers captured Quito. Almagro penetrated into Chili, but divi- sion of the Incas' riches embroiled the associates. Other adventurers, among them three brothers of Pizarro, hastened over from Spain, and by multiplying the shares complicated the quarrels. Cuzco, the capital of the Incas, became the theater of a bloody strife, of which the Peruvians remained inactive spectators. Almagro, made prisoner, had his head cut off, but his partisans assassinated Pizarro in his palace at Lima, which he had founded (1541). Only after long and atrocious wars, during which most of the conquerors perished, did the country draw breath, pacified by Pedro de la Gasca (1546), and the authority of the crown was established firmly in Peru and Chili. In 1535 other Spaniards had founded Buenos Ayres at the mouth of the La Plata on the opposite coast of South America. The Venetian John Cabot, in the service of the English king, Henry VII., discovered Newfoundland (1497); his son Sebastian, who proposed the problem, solved only a few years ago, of the northwest passage, reconnoitered Hudson's Bay. In 1524 the Florentine Verozzani took possession of Newfoundland in the name of France, and in 1534 Jacques Cartier of St. Malo discovered Canada. Thus the two peoples who were to dispute North America with so much CHAP. XI.] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 129 desperation had arrived at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but had established themselves firmly only toward its end. The Portuguese and the Spaniards did not follow the same system in the organization of their colonies. The Portuguese Empire had been founded progressively by a succession of regular efforts ; besides, it was composed of strongholds and of factories from Annobon in Africa as far as Tidor in Oceanica. It had therefore been necessary to arm the governor or general with absolute authority. Thus the first viceroys, as Albuquerque and John de Castro, united in their hands civil power and command of the troops. This omnip- otence, arising from the very nature of things, early dis- quieted the kings of Portugal, who believed they found a remedy by every three years renewing their colonial adminis- tration from top to bottom. The governors henceforth had only one care, to make their fortunes rapidly to the great det- riment of the colonies. Thence arose an appalling demorali- zation which even invaded the capital. Everybody disputed the profits of Indian commerce: the king, through the monopolies which reserved to the government the exclusive control of certain products, and obliged the merchants to hire state vessels for the transport of merchandise; state functionaries, by bribery; private individuals, by smuggling. This explains the rapid decline, then the ruin, of these estab- lishments, where, besides, never more than a small number of Portuguese established themelves, and which were always factories rather than colonies. Moreover, the commodities of India being generally not bulky, such as spices, cotton and silk stuffs, pearls, gold dust, ivory and precious stones, did not necessitate the creation of a considerable marine; since Portugal received those commodities, but did not distribute them to Europe, others, and especially the Dutch, enjoyed the surest profits of this commerce. Now the world came to Lisbon after Indian commodities; in less than a century they will be sought in India itself, and then the fortunes of Portugal will fall. The chief object of the Spanish colonies was at first the working of mines; as this needed many arms, and as men be- lieved it was necessary to only shake the ground a little in the West Indies in order to pick up gold, Spain depopulated herself to populate the New World. She had therefore in America, instead of the long and brittle chain of Portuguese 130 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. factories, a dominion compact if not homogeneous, not difficult to preserve, because the populations there were in- offensive, because large cities permitted her to hold all the country with a few troops, and because Spain was strong enough in herself to cause her power to be long respected by states which could grow only slowly like all those which give themselves up to mining. Spain first took skillful meas- ures to prevent a separation. In virtue of the bull of Pope Alexander VI. the king was declared absolute master of the soil of the regions discovered. Every possession there was then only a concession on his part, and all authority there was a temporary and limited delegation of his own. The whole of the countries conquered were divided into two govern- ments, that of Mexico, or New Spain, and that of Lima, or Peru. Each government had a viceroy, commander of the military forces and chief of the civil administration, with a so-called audience, a tribunal independent of the viceroy in judicial affairs, although presided over by him, serving him as council in non-judicial affairs, and able to make remon- strances, which he, however, was not obliged to take into consideration. Later a third viceroy was established at Santa Fe de Bogota, a fourth in 1778 at Buenos Ayres, and the number of audiences was raised to eleven. These vari- ous colonial authorities depended upon the Council of the Indies, created in 1511 by Ferdinand, and organized in 1524 by Charles V. From this council emanated all laws relative to the government and to the police of the colonies; every person employed in America, from the viceroy to the low- est official, was subordinated to it. As the king was sup- posed always present at the council, the sessions took place only in the spot where the court remained. For commer- cial affairs and judicial cases, civil as well as criminal, which resulted from the traffic between Spain and the colonies, a special court had been established at Seville in 1501. The cities had their town councils, but every position in the government was forbidden to the Spaniards born in the country; thus the metropolis held the Creoles apart, just as they kept themselves aloof from the Indians. So the popu- lation presented, as it were, a superposition of castes: Span- iards from Europe, public functionaries or merchants, soldiers or adventurers, Creoles, half breeds of various degrees, Indians, and, still lower, mulattoes and negroes, all separated by antipathies, which reassured the home CHAP. XL] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 131 government against a coalition, but which, however, one day were effaced before the common desire for indepen- dence. Spain, considering that her colonies were to be only an immense workshop for the production of precious metals, forbade the colonists to cultivate European products, flax, hemp, the vine, to produce manufactures or to construct ships. She wished that they should be able to buy nothing except of her, so that the monopoly should give life to her industry and commerce. Foreigners received no license to establish themselves in the colonies. It was only later that America exported in large quantity its natural products: cochineal, indigo, logwood for dyeing, mahogany for cabi- net work, cocao, tobacco, quinine. All this commerce, cen- tered in the hands, not of companies, but of a few opulent houses, was carried on exclusively by Seville. Every year there set out from that city twelve great ships, or galleons, for Puerto Bello in New Granada, and fifteen for Vera Cruz in Mexico, which carried to the colonies the products of Spanish industry and brought back colonial commodities, and especially piastres coined from the silver of the mines. Portugal also reserved for herself the monopoly of Brazil- ian commerce. Every year the fleet departed in the month of March from Lisbon for Pernambuco, San Salvador, and Rio Janeiro. The result was the same. Industry and com- merce, fettered in the colonies by senseless prohibitions, could not develop, and smitten with torpor in the capital by the restriction which removed from them competition, soon began to decrease. Evil economic measures, combined with the disastrous policy of Charles V., pressed Spain to her ruin and the colonies to revolt. The war of Mexican independence in 1810 commenced at the village of Dolores, whose vines the government ordered should be pulled up. During the first days of conquest they had troubled them- selves little about the Indians; they had either employed them in the labor of the mines without consideration for their feebleness or divided them among the proprietors for culti- vation of the soil. Hence slavery in America commenced. Its effects were quickly seen. The island of Hispaniola had 1,000,000 inhabitants in 1492; nineteen years after there remained 14,000! A good man, Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa in Mexico, pro- tested against this atrocious abuse of force. During fifty 132 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. years he did not cease to plead the cause of the Indians. In his book, entitled "Miscellany Concerning the Destruction of the Indians," one may read of the atrocities committed by the Spaniards, of the murderous labors and tortures, and the chase after Indians with dogs nourished with human flesh that they might better discover the scent. His Christian complaints did not resound in vain. Charles V. promulgated numerous laws in the interest of the natives, whose personal liberty was guaranteed, and who had only to render the con- queror certain duties of feudal service and to pay certain tributes. But these advantages cost dear to another race. Las Casas himself advised the transportation into America of negroes bought on the African coast, as they were more robust and more capable of supporting the fatigues of colo- nial labor. In 1517 Charles V. gave the monopoly of annually transporting 4000 slaves to one of his favorites, who sold this right to the Genoese. The latter bought slaves from the Portuguese, masters of the factories of Africa; and the horrible traffic of which our century will see the end began. The natives of Brazil were treated by the Portuguese with no less cruelty. Even here all those who did not protect their liberty in the recesses of the woods were reduced to slavery, and cultivation, having been greatly developed, especially that of the sugar cane, which was brought from Madeira, the number of hands was increased by the pur- chase of negroes. The imposition of laws and the condemnation of one race to labor in place of another did not suffice to rescue from barbarism these innumerable hordes of wandering hunters. How attach them to the soil without civilizing them, and how civilize them without converting them? The power of Spain was therefore essentially linked with the success of its missions. The progress of the Cross was slower than that of the sword. The first missionaries belonging to the men- dicant orders shared, or did not dare openly to brave, the prejudices of the coarse and barbarous adventurers who had begun the discovery and colonization of the country. The Gospel must be for these poor natives a protection before it was a light. Could they see brothers in their executioners? "Let thyself be baptized," said a Franciscan to one of them, "and thou shalt go to heaven." "Do the Spaniards go there?" "Yes, but only those who are wise and good." CHAP. XL] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. . 133 "Then I do not wish to go to heaven." But the zeal of the missionaries increased with the difficulties of their task; by their courage, and especially by the superiority of their views, the Jesuits placed themselves in the first rank in these glorious enterprises. In the Portuguese colonies one of the three founders of the fraternity, St. Francis Xavier, the friend and compatriot of Ignatius Loyola, gave an example of devotion and success. In less than ten years he covered with churches, colleges, and seminaries all Portuguese India, and attacked Japan, where he made 3000 conversions. In his tireless ardor this pacific conqueror, who had gone farther than Alexander, wished to carry the Gospel into China, when he died in the island of Sancian (1552). Xavier was renowned without desiring it; the glory of his disciples and imitators was not less great, though it has been nameless. In 1556 the Society of Jesus counted all the Spanish and Portuguese colonies as in the number of its provinces. The Indians were converted in crowds, some touched by the beautiful stories or struck by the great truths of the Gospel; others yielding to the influence of pompous splendors in the Catholic Church. For many the spectacle of a superior civilization and of the material advantages which it brought was a motive of conversion ; for all the instinctive ascendancy of virtue, and principally the heroic sweetness of the missionaries. Thus there arose, creation of the Christian word, thousands of villages which, ordinarily built upon the banks of the principal streams, served as a bond between the cities and assured their necessary provisioning. The missionaries were the active militia of the Church ; they toiled in the desert. In ancient villages, in the boroughs and cities, they were the instructors, the cures; above there were the bishops with their chapters; at the summit of the hierarchy, the archbishops of Mexico and Lima; later, those of Caraccas, of Santa Fe de Bogota, and of Guatemala. All this clergy, in virtue of the privileges conceded by Alexander VI. and^Julius II. was entirely dependent, not upon the Pope, wKb had only the confirmation of the pastors chosen, but upon the king, who appointed to all the benefices. So the religious bond fortified the political bond which attached the colonies to the parent state. To recruit this rich and powerful Church of Spanish America a multitude of cloisters, of semi- naries and colleges, was founded, and public instruction had its center in the two great universities of Lima and Mexico. 134 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. It is thus that the Catholic Church consolidated in America the dominion of Spain at the same time that it mitigated the evils of conquest ; thus it consoled the conquered by per- paring them through a better civilization for their future enfranchisement. Unhappily it did not arm itself for this great labor with the spirit of charity alone. It accepted the succor of the Inquisition, which Philip II. established in the New World with its retinue of terrors and tortures as a curb against the passions of every sort that were seething there. It is especially in America that this horrible institution had an essentially political end, and served as auxiliary to the royal authority. There it could with a much greater energy than on the other side of the ocean exercise over men's minds its deadly power. During three centuries and a half what has come forth from Mexico and Peru in which the civiliza- tion of the world can glory? These discoveries had, however, important results. They opened to European activity the ancient Orient, asleep for centuries, and a new world. America, re- Consequences . , . ' _ . . j i j of the new dis- peopled by European colonists, and placed at coveries. equal distance between the opposite shores of the old continent, was to become the dwelling place of powerful societies who were to act their part in the work of universal civilization. They changed completely the march and the form of the world's commerce. For land commerce, which till then had been maintained as most conformed to the habits and needs of the peoples, was substituted maritime commerce. The cities in the interior of the continents declined, those on the coasts increased, and the commercial importance attributed to different countries by reason of their geographical posi- tion found itself distributed in a manner entirely new. It passed in Europe from the countries situated on the Mediter- ranean to the countries situated on the Atlantic, from the Italians to the Spaniards and the Portuguese, later from the latter to the Dutch, the English, and the French. The more commercial relations were multiplied the more the empire of the sea seemed to usurp the empire of the land; speedily an island, lost in the fogs of the West, became, thanks to its trade, one of the preponderant powers of Europe. They developed personal wealth, which is become the great power of modern society. While in fact the Portuguese were creating prodigious maritime commerce, the Spaniards were CHAP. XL] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 135 discovering the mines of Peru and Mexico, and were throw- ing an enormous mass of specie into European circulation ; 122,000,000 kilograms of silver and 3 ( ooo,ooo kilograms of gold between the years 1532 and 1848. "From 1515 to 1568, " says Bodin, "there was more gold in France than could have been brought together in the two preceding cen- turies." Thus the price of everything, and in particular of labor, increased. Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, enjoyed the capital which they need, in order to prosper, and Protestantism gave them in the countries, where it was established, more labor and more hands to produce through the diminution of holidays and the shutting up of monas- teries. "The third part of the kingdom," says a contem- porary, " was cleared for cultivation in twelve years; and for one great merchant, found at Paris, Lyons, or Rouen, were found fifty under Louis XII., who made less difficulty in going to Rome, Naples, or London than formerly to Lyons or Geneva." Therefore as in our day the facilities of com- munication were multiplying at the same time that produc- tion and general well-being increased. Then this economic phenomenon had also social conse- quences, and that which is completed to-day began. The Middle Ages had known only territorial wealth, placed entirely in the hands of the lords; manufactures and com- merce, facilitated by the abundance of capital, protected by the good order which the kings were introducing into the state, were about to create in modern Europe personal prop- erty which was to be in the hands of the citizens. The first was immovable and did not pass from the families that held it; the second was accessible to all and remained in the same houses only on condition that the factors which had brought it there should continue labor, good conduct, integrity, and intelligence. The insurmountable barrier which formerly penned up each one in his own condition was therefore fallen. That also was a sign of the new times. Finally, as the system of colonization of the moderns dif- fered greatly from that of the ancients, there was produced a peculiar colonial policy which has reigned three centuries and has not yet everywhere ceased. The Greek colony completely free formed a new people, who began by making the most of the soil and quickly en- deavored to make the most also of the sea, for it is the for- tune of well-situated agricultural colonies to grow sometimes 136 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BooK III. slowly, but always sturdily. Some of these Greek colonies are still reckoned among the great cities of the world. The Roman colony, at once agricultural and military, but estab- lished in a political end as a means of domination, was never emancipated, but remained the part of a whole, prospering or declining with all the rest. The Portuguese, who thought only of commerce, possessed clerks rather than colonists, factories instead of cities, a pros- perity rapid and brilliant which was of necessity ephemeral, because this greatness by no means reposed upon the broad and solid basis of soil firmly occupied by cultivation. No more did the Spaniards demand from their colonists an agricultural improvement of the land, but a peculiar labor which every day rendered necessary the assistance of the mother state, and in consequence their strict dependence. The English and the French were to develop another sort of colonial establishments, those of the planters, where a small number of proprietors worked the land by means of a multitude of slaves in the midst of perpetual dangers, obliging them also to rely upon the mother state. We see that the modern colonies were at their origin con- sidered as making the most of the countries discovered for the profit only of the mother state: their exclusive commerce was accorded either to a single city, like Lisbon and Seville, or to privileged companies, like those of France, England, and Holland, which most frequently did badly while at the same time hindering the colonies from doing well. If the sea was then furrowed by a larger number of vessels, over the land passed more numerous travelers and a greater amount of merchandise. The University of Introduction _ . . . . ' . j i j . i_ of posts and Pans, imitating a very ancient idea, had estab- o f ck s anals With lisned relays upon all the routes of the kingdom to facilitate the correspondence of its students with their families. Louis XI. understood how useful such an institution would be to the government, and in 1464 created posts for the service of the dispatches of the king and the Pope ; later they took charge of the letters of private persons. The institution appeared good, and it was imitated first in Germany, shortly after in other states. "The rivers," said Pascal, "are great highways which go on all alone." It is true, but sometimes they go on badly either over shallows or rapids and only in certain directions. The canals go everywhere. The ancients had constructed only CHAP. XL] THE ECONOMIC REVOLUTION. 137 canals on ground of the same level ; they were not at all ac- quainted with locks, by means of which the difference in the level of rivers is overcome and boats are made to pass above mountains. Locks with chambers and reservoirs of water which fed them were devised in the fifteenth century by two engineers of Viterbo whose names remain unknown. This invention led to the idea of uniting in vast basins at the sum- mit level of two mountain sides the waters of neighboring heights, so as to feed the two branches of the canal descend- ing in opposite directions. As early as 1481 Venice con- structed a canal with locks; thirty-five years later Francis I. invited to France Leonardo da Vinci, not less celebrated as an engineer than as a painter. But the wars excited by the ambition of the house of Austria and by the religious quarrels during a century delayed the improvement of this useful dis- covery. Henry IV. was the first to construct a summit level canal, that of Briare between the Seine and the Loire. By posts and by canals a more rapid means of communica- tion for business and of general transportation was afforded. By the aid of bills of exchange and banks of deposit and credit, capital circulated like commodities; and insurance, practiced first at Barcelona and Florence, and later at Bruges, commenced the great system of guarantees which to- day gives to commerce so much boldness and security. By all these means as the relations between citizens mul- tiplied the state became stronger; and as more bonds united the peoples Europe began to form one great body of nations, all conjointly responsible, which may perhaps later consti- tute one single family. CHAPTER XII. REVOLUTION IN LETTERS, ARTS, AND SCIENCES, OR THE RENAISSANCE. Invention of Printing. Renaissance of Letters. Renaissance of Arts. Renaissance of Sciences. THIS ardor on the part of men of action, which pressed them to issue from beaten paths in order to throw themselves into untrodden ways, was shared by men of printing*!*" 1 study. They also aspired after another world, and they sought it, not before but behind. Like Columbus they believed they were only going toward the ancient continent and upon their route they found a new one. Surfeited with the vain disputes of scholasticism and the quibbles of the schools, which a barbarous Latin still envel- oped with thick shadows, fatigued by moving in emptiness and darkness, they hurried toward the pure light of renascent antiquity. The discovery of a Latin manuscript or of a Greek statue caused the joy of a victory. Men did not yet create ; they were always imitating. The mind, too feeble to walk alone by its own strength, shook off the yoke of Aristotle and of the hieratic art of the Middle Ages only to place itself under the discipline of new masters; an empire more agreeable, because there was now a divided dominion, which permitted freer ways and prepared for the complete emancipation of the serfs of intelligence. However, only a few superior men would have profited by the new spirit without an admirable invention, thanks to which the treasures otherwise reserved to a limited number could become the possession of all. In 1436 John Gutenberg of Mentz, while residing at Stras- burg, perfected the processes of Lawrence Coster of Haar- lem, and created the typograhic art by inventing movable characters. Fourteen years later he formed associations with Faust, a banker of Mentz, and with Schoeffer, a skillful cal- 138 CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 139 ligraphist, who added other improvements to the casting of the characters, and probably invented the movable hand mold, which is very similar to that employed to-day. From that time printing was discovered; the Letters of Indulgence and the Bible of 1454 are its most ancient monuments. This marvelous art spread with rapidity in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, England, and quickly through all Christian Europe. The price of books suddenly fell in an enormous degree; the printers, who were at the same time learned men of the first rank the Aldi Manutii in Italy, the Estiennes in France, and the Frobens in Switzerland popu- larized by cheapness the literary masterpieces of antiquity, of which they gave editions as remarkable for purity of text as for typographical perfection. It is easy to appreciate the rapid progress of printing and the sudden influence which it exercised upon civilization by the fact that Josse Bade alone at Paris published no less than 400 works, the larger number in folio. In 1529, 24,000 copies of the ' 'Colloquia" of Eras- mus were struck off, so eager were the people to learn, "for they began to perceive," says the Catholic doctor Lingard, "that their ancestors had lived in mental slavery as well as in bodily servitude." As early as 650 at Samarcand and Bokhara paper was manu- factured from silk. In 706 Amrou at Mecca substituted cotton for silk. This cotton, or Damascus paper, as it was called, was known early in Europe. The Greeks imported it into Southern Italy, where the Norman kings of Naples used it frequently in their diplomas. The Arabs had intro- duced it into Spain; but Spain, having much flax and hemp, preferred linen paper, which at the thirteenth century was employed in Castile, and thence penetrated to France and through the rest of Europe. However, parchment for a long time kept its pre-eminence because of its solidity. Notaries were forbidden to use any other substance in their official documents. Only at the end of the fourteenth century was the triumph of paper decided when printing, beginning its career, needed a substance of moderate price to receive the impression of characters. Italy eagerly took possession of the new invention. In 1465 there were printers at Rome, in 1469 at of R ietters an Venice and Milan. Nowhere else was rever- ence for antiquity so ardent and the search after manuscripts so earnest. Italy seemed desirous of 14 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. escaping from the spectacle of her vices and her degrada- tion by living again in the ancient times whose remains she piously disinterred. In every city schools were restored and libraries founded. At Rome Pope Eugenius IV. re-estab- lished the Roman University, and Nicholas V. sent learned men everywhere for the discovery of manuscripts; he had translations made of the Greek historians and of many fathers of the Church, and he founded the library of the Vatican. At Naples Alphonso the Magnanimous protected Lorenzo Valla and Pontano, the restorers of the Neapolitan Academy, and he demanded nothing from Lorenzo de Medici as price of reconciliation save a manuscript of Titus Livius. At Florence and Pisa, Cosmo and Lorenzo the Magnificent commenced the Mediceo-Laurentian library, afterward so famous, and offered an honorable asylum to the learned men of all lands. Cosmo, the founder of the Academia della Crusca, charged Marcilo Ficino with translating and ex- plaining Plato, and with commencing against Aristotle, the philosophical oracle of the Middle Ages, a war which was to aid in the enfranchisement of the human mind. Genoa, called La Superba because of its marble palaces, remained under foreign domination and outside this grand movement, but Venice participated in it. Not far from the ancient Uni- versity of Padua, rose in 1470 that of Venice. The descendants of the turbulent barons were changing their fortresses into cabinets of study and forgetting their arms for their books. Rome saw the lord Pic de la Miradola, having become paladin of science, sustain against every comer theses in all languages and upon all subjects. The somber Ludovico il Moro himself at Milan protected artists and learned men. He restored the University of Pavia, he encouraged the first appearance of Bramante; the great Leonardo da Vinci, whom he had appointed director of the Academy of Painting and Architecture of Milan, sculptured for him an equestrian statue, which the soldiers of Louis XII. broke in pieces; he also painted in one of the convents of the city that " Holy Supper" which is, or rather was, his masterpiece. The secondary states obeyed the general im- pulse: the Gonzagas at Mantua, the Montefeltris at Urbino, and especially the illustrious house of Este at Ferrara. But among all these glorious names we must reserve a special place for those of Julius II. and of Leo X. The first in the midst of his negotiations and wars found time to attract CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 14! and retain at his court a host of men eminent by their eru- dition, their knowledge of the beautiful, and their genius. One thing suffices for his renown: he commenced St. Peter's at Rome, and charged Michael Angelo with the erection of the cupola. "Belles lettres," said he, "are silver to plebeians, gold to nobles, and diamonds to princes." The day when the Laocoon was found in the baths of Titus he had the bells rung in all the churches of Rome. The second, sprung from the family of the Medici, was much more prince of letters and artists than pontiff of Christians. "To favor the progress of letters," said he himself, "is an important part of pontifical duties." Raphael painted for him the frescoes of the Vatican, Michael Angelo those of the Sixtine Chapel, and he paid five hundred sequins for a manuscript copy of the first five books of Titus Livius, which he hastened to have printed. Sometimes his name is given to this century; it is a flattery, but not an injustice. This revival of taste for ancient erudition was among the Latins unhappily not the revival of masculine virtues and the strong thoughts of Rome and Athens. Thus Italian litera- ture, more learned in the sixteenth than in the fourteenth century, was less original and less virile. The authority of Aristotle was thrown off indeed, thanks to the perusal of his eternal rival Plato, whose works were edited in 1513 at Venice by the Aldi, but nothing whatsoever in philosophy was created. From ancient historians was borrowed the art of grouping facts and of interrupting the narrative by conven- tional discourses; but Italy formed neither a Herodotus nor a Tacitus. Geography was discovered in Ptolemy, botany in Dioscorides, medicine in Galen and Hippocrates, but no contribution was made to these sciences. In a word, the depths of Italian nationality and genius gave birth to noth- ing as in the century of Dante. Without speaking of Sannazzro and his "Piscatory Idyls," of Vida, who sung of chess and silkworms in so beautiful Latin before writing his Christiad, how could one find any personal inspiration, however small, in the Ciceronian Bembo, that favorite cardinal of Leo X. who did not listen to sermons because their language was so poor, and who swore per deos immortalis, who called the Virgin Dea Lauretana, and believed that, man being henceforth unable to create anything new in literature, there was hereafter only one thing to do : in Latin to imitate Cicero, in Italian to imitate I4 2 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. Petrarch. Sadoleto, at least to this reverence for Cicero, added that of virtue and a spirit of toleration which makes his memory more fragrant to us even than do his beautiful Latin letters. At this epoch Italy had only two great writers, Ariosto and Machiavelli, and a celebrated historian, Guicciardini ; a number of stylish artists and not a single work of powerful originality, because the imagination and the mind were never at the service of grand ideas or of elevated and pure senti- ments. The " Orlando Furioso " was published in 1515, the very year when, at the expense of Italy, Francis I. gained the battle of Marignano. Count Boiardo had recently written the "Orlando Inamorato," where the details of chivalrous poems were still gravely taken in a serious fashion. Ariosto gave the antithesis. His semi-heroic, semi-comic poem, contradictory of history and of moral truth, is a masterpiece of imagination and grace, but in truth when one thinks in the midst of what circumstances Ariosto imagined all his fairy scenes one is tempted to repeat the words of the Car- dinal of Este, "Ah! Master Ariosto, where have you found so much fiddle faddle?" An incident paints the spirit of the time: Bembo, the friend of Ariosto, wished him to write his poem in Latin verse. "I prefer," replied the poet, "to be the first among the Tuscan poets rather than hardly the second among the Latins." And he was right: this "riddle faddle" has survived by that which makes books survive by its style. It is to be noted as characteristic of morals rather than of literature that Boccaccio had had a numerous progeny of story-tellers more licentious than himself. This immorality gained possession of the theater and there increased, for the eyes saw what the ears alone heard. The first two modern comedies, the " Calandra" of Cardinal Bibbiena and the "Mandragola" of Machiavelli, which were represented at the pontifical court, are sullied by those obscenities which one still finds in the epic of Ariosto; and Aretino was by Julius II. made Knight of St. Peter while waiting to be appointed cardinal. The characters the most strongly tempered gave themselves up to indulgence. Thus Machiavelli first com- promised his vigorous mind by the most trivial productions, and when personal suffering had awakened in his soul the sentiment of the sorrows of his country he began his political works by " II Principe," a book which one would take as an CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 143 act of despair. He there reduces to a theory, in a style as cold and direct as the theory, that policy of egotism and of cruelty which made of perfidy an art, of assassination a means, and which immolated to the end proposed all ideas of integrity. Let us condemn this pernicious book "which taught to rifle the rich of their goods, the poor of their honor, all of their liberty," but let us recognize that it accuses the century for which it was composed as well as the hand which wrote it: century of Leo X., who gave a safe conduct to a cardinal and had him slain on his arrival; of Caesar Borgia, who deceived and poisoned the lords of the Romagna; of Ferdi- nand of Naples, who allured his nobles to a festival and there butchered them; of Ferdinand the Catholic, who counted it an honor to be perfidious ; of those, finally, who organized the abominable treachery of St. Bartholomew. Success was everything, morality nothing. Montaigne himself found vice necessary. "The public welfare," he dares to say, "re- quires treason, falsehood, and massacre." And he is not without esteem for "those citizens, more vigorous and less timid, who sacrifice their honor and their conscience as the ancients sacrificed their life for the salvation of their country." Behold the world as it was when issuing from the Middle Ages, and which we have had to purify! At this epoch only three countries thought and produced: Italy was the first, France the second, then came Germany. As to England, she was cicatrizing the wounds of the War of the Roses ; Spain had her eyes turned less upon antiquity than toward America and its mines, toward Italy and the Netherlands with their rich cities and their fertile fields where the bands of Charles V. so loved to war and pillage. The French language had simplicity and forcible expres- sions, but it lacked amplitude, elevation, clearness. If imagination, good sense, Gallic gayety, sparkled in its writ- ings of prose and verse, triviality, diffuseness, bad taste, disfigured its best books. But antiquity once refound, the writers drank at this fruitful source, and the genius of France, tempering itself better than that of any other mod- ern nation, acquired that high and national tone, that de- corum, that limpid transparency, which have won for it the pacific empire of Europe. Francis I., who has been called the Father of Letters, did not create the movement, which was produced of itself, but 144 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. it was aided by him. The venerable University of Paris with its faculty of theology, the Sorbonne, could not change its spirit and method. On the model of the Italian academies and by the advice of the learned Bude the king founded in 1530 an establishment entirely for the laity, the College of the Three Languages, or the College of France. Hebrew, Greek, Latin, medicine, mathematics, everything that was new or that carved out for itself new ways, was there taught gratuitously. The Hebraist Vatable, the Hellenist Danes, the mathematician and orientalist Postel, the learned Tur- nebe, and the fluent Lambin saw flocking to their able teach- ing those pupils to whom the university dealt out knowledge so parsimoniously. Francis I. did not create the royal print- ing house, which dates only from Louis XIII. in 1640, but he caused to be engraved and cast, according to the beautiful forms of the Venetian types of Aldus Manutius, the characters of Garamond, who by his order intrusted them to the most distinguished printers, called royal printers to the Estienne, for example, that they might serve in the beautiful editions published by these private establishments. He bought manuscripts of ancient authors in Italy, Greece, and Asia to increase the growing wealth of the royal library, and he had a great number edited. French erudition then began those great works which placed it during three centuries at the head of European science. With Cujas, Pithou, Denis Godefroy, Doneau, Dumoulin, jurisprudence shone with a splendor which was equaled nowhere else and which has not been eclipsed. In learned letters Danes, Postel, the great Ciceronian Dolet, burned alive at thirty-six, the first Hellenist of Europe, Bude, Lefebvre d'Etaples, the Estiennes, dynasty of printers, more able than the best scholars of the time, pub- lished a multitude of learned books which revealed the twin antiquities, sacred and profane, from which our civilization has sprung. In letters properly so called one can distinguish in this century, as it were, four groups of writers: at its commence- ment Marot and his elegant badinage, Rabelais with his wine-seasoned and audacious fancy ; at its close Mathurin Regnier, the satirist, all three heirs of the old Gallic genius; at the middle Ronsard and the pleiad of poets "whose muse in French spoke Greek and Latin"; beside these during the religious wars Amyot and Montaigne, fervent CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 145 worshipers of antiquity, but who, unlike the school of Ron- sard, did not sacrifice to it the national language; finally, be- tween the sixteenth century which was finishing and the seventeenth which began, Malherbe, the poet of Henry IV., who regulated like his master the unrestrained movement of the preceding age, and prepared the calm grandeur of that which was to follow. In all, two books which have remained and which the most delicate still read, the "Essais" and "Gar- gantua, " without reckoning many pages of Amyot, many pieces of Malherbe, many verses of Mathuriri Regnier, and the entire "Satire Menippee." Calvin and d'Aubigne have a place apart, the latter for his "Memoires" and his "Trag- iques," the former for his "Christian Institutes." Germany did not yet speak its own language. At least it is in Latin that its men of learning, even of intellect, like Ulrich von Hutten, wrote. The most illustrious was then Erasmus of Rotterdam (1467-1536). He had this pecul- iarity that, in the midst of the effervescence of the sixteenth century which so radically affected character, he was a cold and sarcastic man who a century later would have been a skeptic if he were not one already, and who sacrificed nothing to those ideas to which then others sacrificed all. A choir boy when nine years old; a canon at seventeen, after- ward canceling his vows; a student at the college of Mon- taigu at Paris, where to gain his livelihood he gave lessons to an English gentleman, who afterward attracted him to Eng- land; shortly after at Boulogne, where he received the cap of doctor in theology; at Venice with Aldus Manutius; then again in England at the house of Chancellor Thomas More; sought after by the sovereigns Henry VIII., Leo X., Adrian VI., Francis I., who in vain had him tendered by the learned Bude the direction of the recently founded College of France, and in the midst of this court of monarchs preserving an independence skillfully adjusted to alarm no one such was Erasmus. "Literary people, " said he, "resemble the great figured tapestries of Flanders, which produce effect only- when seen from a distance." From this sort of intellect and of wit he has been called the Voltaire of his time. No writer in fact exercised at this epoch a more extended empire. His epigrams against the ignorance, the libertinage, and the glut- tony of the monks and his attacks against indulgences, seemed to indicate him to the Reformers as one of them- selves. But he was too prudent to engage in so ardent a 1 46 RE VOL UTION IN IN TERES TS. [BOOK III. fight. "Luther," said he, "has given us a salutary doctrine and very excellent counsels; would that he had not destroyed their effect by unpardonable faults. But even if there were nothing to criticise in his writings I should never have felt disposed to die for the truth. All men have not received the courage necessary for martyrdom; had I been put to the test I exceedingly fear I should have done like St. Peter." He remained therefore outside the party of "sedi- tious truths," entirely devoted to his favorite authors, a lover of pure language and of beautiful Latin. ' 'Erasmus," cried Luther, "is Erasmus and by no means anything else." His principal works are the "Praise of Folly," his "Adages," and his "Colloquies, " satirical dialogues in the style of Lucian where the clergy and the monks have especially to suffer. But over the organization of studies he had a predominant influ- ence. It is he who caused to triumph the present system of pronunciation of ancient Greek, and who banished from instruction the clumsy and barbarous forms of scholasticism. He attacked the new pedants no less than the ancient; in his "Ciceronianus" he turns into derision those purists so scru- pulous for the expression and so careless of the thought. In 1516 he had published the first Greek edition of the New Testament. Another personage was claimed by the Netherlands, the Spaniard Vives, who was a professor at Louvain and Bruges, and who was almost peer of Bude and Erasmus. In Germany the literature of the Middle Ages continued in the Meistersanger schools which still abounded in Swa- bia and Franconia. At Nuremberg in 1558 there were no less than 250 mastersingers who met in the choir of the cathedral after divine service. The most celebrated was the cobbler Hans Sachs, who wrote 10,840 verses. The "Narrenschiff, " or "Bark of Fools," by the Strasburger Sebastian Brandt, and its continuation by one of his com- patriots, Thomas Murner, had an immense and somewhat lasting success, which, however, could not extend beyond the sixteenth century. Despite the fecundity of Hans Sachs this popular literature was dying. Reverence on the other hand for learned letters was rapidly extending, and the Renaissance counted a large number of German Ciceronians: Reuchlin, who introduced into France the study of Hebrew, and who was the master of Melancthon; Hegius, the mas- ter of Erasmus; Celtes; Beatus Rhenanus; Dalberg, who CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 14? founded at Heidelberg the first German academy, and a library which was the finest in Europe until the Thirty Years' War; Hutten, the author of'Litterge Obscurorum Virorum" and poet laureate of the Emperor Maximilian; and a crowd of others, in fine, who would have made Ger- many enter under full sail into the new current of modern civilization if one of them, Luther, had not let loose upon his country the theological tempests which suddenly arrested the intellectual outburst, and brought about what historians have called the iron age of German literature. Far inferior to the ancients in letters, the Italy of the six- teenth century equaled or surpassed them in the arts. The pointed architecture had no longer the severe of R a e rts' SSance grandeur characterizing that of the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth reigned the flam- boyant Gothic where architectural lines were wrested in countless windings. It was dazzling; it was neither simple nor grand. In France the effort was made to reject the ancient style; they distorted it, but introduced nothing else. Italy, where pointed architecture never reached the perfection which it attained beyond the mountains, early demanded architectural inspiration from antiquity; at the close of the fourteenth century Christian temples were erected for which they endeavored to borrow from the Greeks the exquisite purity of their lines and from the artists of the Middle Ages the religious expression which they had so well attained. The Florentine Brunelleschi was the real creator of this new architecture. He drew the ancient Greek orders from oblivion; for the pointed substituted the rounded arch, and for the tortured lines of the flowery Gothic the straight line of Greek temples or the elegant curve of the Roman dome. His cupola of the cathedral of Florence precedes by a cen- tury that of Michael Angelo at St. Peter's in Rome, and is fully as grand. In face of the elaborate ornamentation of the Venetian artists his pupils preserved in the new system the stern sobriety which Brunelleschi had given it. But it was reserved to Bramante, the uncle of Raphael, to carry the architecture of the Renaissance to the utmost degree of per- fection. The palace of the Chancery and the court of the Vatican are models. It was Bramante whom Pope Julius II. intrusted with designing the plan of St. Peter's at Rome. Arrested by death, he had as successor Michael I4 8 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. Angelo, who borrowed from him the idea of the celebrated cupola. In the thirteenth century Nicolas and Andrea of Pisa had thrown off the yoke of conventional art and of Byzantine tradition, and had created Italian sculpture. The pulpits of Pisa and Siena and the tomb of St. Dominic at Bologna are examples. Lorenzo Ghiberti in the fifteenth (1378- 1455) placed himself in the first rank by his two doors of the Baptistery of Florence, "worthy of being placed at the en- trance of paradise," said Michael Angelo. Beside this great artist, Donatello (1383-1466), less elevated in style, more energetic in expression, founded the Florentine school of sculpture, of which Andrea Verocchio (1432-88) and Alex- andro Leopardi were the illustrious representatives, and which has as its principal characteristic the exact and studied imitation of the model, or naturalism, as it has been called. The masterpiece of Donatello was a statue of St. Mark of such fidelity that after having long gazed upon it Michael Angelo exclaimed, "Mark, why dost thou not speak to me?" Their contemporary, Luca della Robbia, almost all of whose works are made of a varnished baked earth which resembles pottery, preserved the simplicity of the sculpture of the Middle Ages while giving it an almost antique purity of style. Ornamental sculpture, chained to tradition before the Renaissance, became with Lombardi and Benvenuto Cellini, the famous goldsmith, an admirable art at the same time as a flourishing industry. The superiority of the Italians over the Greeks in sculp- ture and architecture is easily contestable; not so in painting. In the thirteenth century Giotto (1276-1366), friend of Dante and of Cimabue, last painter of the Byzantine school, created a new system. More truth in expression and dra- pery, more correctness and exactness in the design, a begin- ning of form, passion, and grandeur united to grace in the composition such are the qualities which during a century made of Giotto the greatest painter of Italy. Giottesque painting was dominant until the early years of the fifteenth century. At this period two important modifications in material processes brought about a veritable revolution in the practice even of the art. On the one hand principles of linear perspective, taught by Ucello (died 1472), were applied; to this the mathematician Manetti contrib- uted; on the other hand the brothers Van Eyck of Bruges CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 149 (1370-1450) perfected the processes of painting in oil to such a degree that painting in distemper was abandoned, and fresco was employed only to decorate the walls of great monuments. Italy counted then three great schools: the naturalist school of Florence, founded by Masaccio (1402-43), who finally ceased to observe typical characters or Byzantine formalism, which Giotto still preserved; the Umbrian school, religious and spiritualistic, which had at its head Perugino; finally, the colorist school at Venice, whose chief was Giovanni Bellini. At this moment when study of nature and knowledge of design had already made great progress, but when it was still left to unite grace to the design, harmony to color, and especially the beau-ideal to the truth of forms, there ap- peared six men of extraordinary genius, the greatest painters of Italy and of all time Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Correggio, Giorgione, Titian, and the divine Raphael. If the creative power of the Renaissance and of the six- teenth century existed anywhere it was in Michael Angelo Buonarotti. He was born in 1474 near Arezzo of an illustri- ous patrician family, and showed from boyhood so strong an inclination for drawing that it triumphed over the aristocratic prejudices of his family. The men of that age embraced everything. He was an incomparable sculptor, a great archi- tect, though stormy and incorrect, a painter of the first rank, an eminent engineer; charged with fortifying besieged Flor- ence, he defended it twelve months. He was well versed in anatomy, and with his artist hand dissecting the dead, acquired that profound acquaintance with the internal struc- ture of the human body and with the play of the muscles which enabled him to give so much relief to his representa- tions of the human form and to join the beautiful to the true by the alliance of art and science. Nature, so forgotten by the artists of the Middle Ages, resumed her empire; the powerful originality of Michael Angelo was derived from the fact that he studied her face. He could when he wished so counterfeit the antique that others would mistake, but he did not let himself be dominated by it. He is the Corneille of sculpture through the exceeding character of strength and grandeur which he gave to the works wrought by his hands. He had as his master Domenico del Ghirlandajo, whose 150 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. cold, characterless, formal painting, if I may so speak, he soon surpassed. First protected by the Medici, he lost that support when a revolution drove them from Florence. Then he came to Rome, where Julius II. intrusted him with the construction of his mausoleum. He outlined a colossal plan of which only a few figures were executed; one of them is his ' 'Moses," seated and holding the table of the law. He was austere in morals, of extreme sobriety, stoical in char- acter, the most of the time alone in the presence of living or dead nature and of his mighty meditations. His pride made him quit Rome because one day the door of the pontiff was closed to him; for a long time he resisted prayers and men- aces. He returned, however, and made for Julius II., the conqueror of Bologna, the statue which seemed rather to chastise than to bless the city. The labor of decorating the vault of the Sixtine Chapel with frescoes was then intrusted to him; this was a snare of his enemies, especially of Bra- mante, who through jealousy endeavored to set up against him the already celebrated Raphael. Michael Angelo was ignorant of fresco; he called for fresco painters, made them work before him, then shut himself up in the Sixtine Chapel, of which he carried the keys with him, and there executed, all alone, in twenty months those prodigious figures of proph- ets and sibyls which were a revelation of the grandiose in art. Leo X., Clement VII., Paul III., protected him in turn. His principal works in this period were the mausoleum of Julius -II. as it exists to-day in the church of St. Peter in Vinculis; the tombs of Lorenzo and of Guiliano de' Medici at Florence, where "Night" was represented, so celebrated under the form of a sleeping woman; the grand fresco of the "Last Judgment," where lived again the genius of Dante, so worthy of inspiring Michael Angelo; finally, that immor- tal church of St. Peter which he completed, employing the plans of Bramante indeed, but so modifying them that it has remained one of his chief titles to glory. It was also one of his last works. He died at the age of ninety, in 1564, a pa- triarch of modern art. The French Museum of Sculpture possesses his "Two Captives," but his greatest painting, "Resurrection of Lazarus," is at London. Michael Angelo was also a poet, and a great poet, as if he had wished to leave no branch of art untouched by his genius. He composed many sonnets, some of them magnificent. Strozzi had written below his exquisite statue of "Night": CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 151 "Night, whom thou seest sleeping in so exquisite an atti- tude, has been sculptured by an angel in this stone. Al- though she sleeps, she lives. Dost thou doubt? Wake her: she will speak." This was after the great disaster of Italy; the patriotic soul of Michael Angelo was full of those painful recollections. He replied to Strozzi in the name of Night: "I am content to sleep; I prefer to continue stone as long as the days of misfortune and shame endure. Not to see, not to feel, is to me a great advantage. Therefore do not wake me. In pity speak low." Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 at the castle of Vinci near Florence. His special taste for painting, without caus- ing him to neglect other branches of knowledge, decided his family to place him in the studio of Andrea Verocchio. Protected by Ludovico Sforza, he was also protected later on by Louis XII., become master of Milan, by Leo X., and finally by Francis I., who invited him to France and lodged him in the castle of Clou near Amboise, where he died. In point of time, therefore, he precedes Michael Angelo ; the latter was making his first appearance when Leonardo was already illustrious. His influence assuredly did not have so grand a reach ; he did not, like the painter of the Sixtine Chapel, revolutionize the spirit of art; but like him he prac- ticed and recommended the study of nature. One day when he was to paint a joyous scene he invited his friends to a re- past and by humorous stories made them laugh immoderately, thus gathering unknown to them all the features of his paint- ing. The practice of painting owes him much. One day Leo X. found him occupied with inventing a new kind of varnish. He carried to a high degree the art of composi- tion, the science of light and shade and that of color, and wrote a treatise upon painting on which all the great painters have meditated. His masterpiece, the "Holy Supper" ("II Cenacolo"), at the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Milan, is unfortunately greatly damaged. The color of his "Joconde" (Madonna Lisa del Gioconde), at the Museum of the Louvre, has also been badly maltreated by time. We have of him a "Saint John the Baptist," a "Holy Family" which is not worth so much perhaps as that of the same painter now found at Madrid, and the portrait of the "Belle Ferroniere, " which is doubtful. His Virgins are far infe- rior to those of Raphael; but despite the meagerness of his design and the inaccuracy of certain leady tones he has the 15 2 REVOLUTION Iff INTERESTS. [BOOK III, glory of having preceded Raphael in beauty, Michael An- gelo in strength, and le Corregio in grace. Painting occupied only the smallest part of the time of Leonardo; he has left admirable horses in relief, a beautiful model of Jesus Christ in his youth, and undertook the colos- sal equestrian statue of Sforza which was never completed; as engineer he joined the canal of Marsetana to that of the Ticino by remarkable works, and fortified the strongholds of the Milanais; finally, he practiced mechanics with success. One day at Milan Louis XII. was astonished at seeing an automatic lion which approached him, rose upon his paws, and opened his breast to show the shield of France. It was the work of da Vinci. Antonio Allegri, called Correggio because he was born at Correggio near Modena in 1494, owed to Raphael the revela- tion of his genius. "And I also am a painter!" cried he before a painting of the divine Sanzio. He passed the greater part of his life of forty years at Parma, where he decorated the dome of the cathedral with magnificent frescoes. His paint- ings, the "Sleep of Antiope," in the Museum of the Louvre, and "St. Jerome of Prague," are perhaps superior by the gorgeousness of light and perfection of effect, but his suave and graceful style led to affectation those who walked in his steps but were destitute of his genius. The Museum of the Louvre possesses also from him a "Marriage of St. Cath- erine." Giorgione Barbarelli (1448-1511) and Tiziano Vecillo, called the Titian (1477-1576), both pupils of Giovanni Bellini (1426-1516), belong to the Venetian school. By turns austere, charming, heroic, and simple, they were always and in everything the princes of color, the former with perhaps more originality and more of the unexpected than the latter. Many of the frescoes of Giorgione have perished. The Louvre has of him a "Holy Family" and a "Rustic Con- cert." Titian, who continued his career till the age of ninety-nine with almost unabated vigor, was the painter of Charles V. His portraits occupy the first rank among his works, and perhaps have never been surpassed. The French possess eighteen of his paintings: among them "Christ Placed in the Tomb," the "Pilgrims of Emmaus," the "Coronation with Thorns," the "Venus del Pardo," a portrait of Francis I. and that of a woman, a painting of marvelous beauty. CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 153 Raffaelle Sanzio (Raphael) was born at Urbino in 1483 of a family of painters. He handled the brush from his child- hood and had Perugino as his master, whom at first he imi- tated with docility, whom he soon equaled and finally sur- passed. His artistic growth was not characterized by the fire and suddenness of Michael Angelo. Three epochs and three different styles are visibly remarked in his works. He came to Florence in 1503, lived alternately in that city and Perugia, and established himself at Rome in 1508 when invited by Bramante, his kinsman. His Virgin, the "Beau- tiful Gardener," with other works had already made him illustrious. Julius II. charged him with decorating the halls of the Vatican; he there executed those magnificent paintings of which we have many copies: the "Dispute of the Holy Sacrament, or Theology," the "School of Athens, or Philosophy," "Parnassus, or Poetry," "Jurisprudence and Justice, or Gregory IX. giving the Decretals and Jus- tinian the Pandects." A calmer and sweeter grandeur than that of Michael Angelo indicated a new period of painting. Everything one can imagine of linear beauty and harmoni- ous composition, of virgin innocence and chaste maternity, breathes in his Virgins and his Holy Families, which the eye cannot weary of contemplating. The Louvre possesses of him a "Holy Family" and a "St. Michael hurling down Lucifer." Rome admires, moreover, in the loggie of the Vatican what is called his Bible, fifty-two subjects from the Old Testament executed by his pupils after his designs ; in the stanze the four magnificent compositions mentioned above and the "Deliverance of St. Peter"; in the Pinaco- theke the "Transfiguration," which is perhaps his master- piece, and the "Madonna di Foligno"; in the Hall of Constantine the "Celestial Vision of the Emperor," his "Victory over Maxentius," his "Baptism," and the "Dona- tion of Rome to the Pope"; in the frescoes of the Palace Farnesina (Villa Chigi) the graceful poem of Psyche in twelve paintings; at San Agostino the "Prophet Isaiah," and at Santa Maria della Pace the "Sibyls." Raphael was also a great architect; in 1514 succeeding Bramante, he constructed the court of the Vatican, whose loggie he decorated. Intrusted for a short time with direct- ing the construction of St. Peter's, he proposed a nobler plan, we are told, than that which was followed. However, it is idle to discuss the superiority of Michael Angelo or 154 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. Raphael, yet the latter has neither in his works nor in his char- acter the grandeur, slightly fierce, but still so haughty, of the former. Raphael lived always in favor, rich, acting like a prince, aspiring even to a cardinal's hat, in fine, loaded with the gifts of Francis I., who bought from him at a high price his great "St. Michael." He possessed even the cour- tier's art of flattering in his historic paintings the powerful men of his time; by an anachronism he gave the features of Francis I. to Charlemagne as he gave those of Julius II. to the high priest Onias in the painting " Heliodorus driven from the Temple," a double allusion, for this Heliodorus was the image of the barbarians whom the fiery pontiff had desired to drive from Italy. He died young in 1520; he was barely thirty-seven years old. "Leonardo by execution and character, Michael Angelo by originality and knowledge of form, Correggio by magic of effect, Giorgione and Titian by power of color, had attained a degree of perfection which never was and never could be greatly surpassed; Raphael combined all these qualities, not in the same measure of perfection, but to a degree which has made of him the first of artists, the unique painter. He possessed the ineffable charm of grace as the Greeks under- stood it, and he impressed it upon all his works so that it was, so to speak, his autograph." But why have these great men left no successors? Why has this splendid efflorescence of Italian art so quickly faded? Is it, as a vain rhetoric declares, because everything here below is only fortune and misfortune, darkness after light, death after life? There are schools like that of France which, once constituted, have experienced intermissions but have always lived, while that of Italy remained three centu- ries in the tomb. It is because Italian art lacked the moral force which makes life; it loved the beautiful and that alone. That is by no means enough. Native country, liberty, sentiments and ideas which lift the head and the heart high these were known no longer. The noble Michael Angelo excepted, all said like Cellini, "I serve him who pays me." This evil became general: the writers held out their hands like the artists. Paolo Giovio had two pens one of gold for well-paid flatteries, one of silver for those less rewarded. In the arts Italy at the sixteenth century was the great teacher of the nations. France was entering of herself into the new path, and under Louis XII. was already erecting CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 155 graceful monuments: at Rouen, the court house; at Gaillon, the castle; at Paris, the Hotel de la Tremoille; still it is true that the Italy of Raphael and Michael Angelo had much to teach. Francis I. borrowed from her both masters and models. He purchased more than a hundred statues, and acquired from Leonardo da Vinci the "Joconde," from Raphael "St. Michael" and the "Holy Family." By his esteem as well as by his favors he attracted the most distin- guished artists of Italy the aged Leonardo da Vinci, Rosso, Primaticio, Andrea del Sarto, Benvenuto Cellini to build for him castles or to decorate his palaces of Fontainebleau, St. Germain, Madrid, Chambord, and Chenonceaux. Fol- lowing the example of the king the nobles replaced their somber feudal dwellings by elegant constructions. Thus Montmorency built Ecouen and Chantilly, Duprat his osten- tatious residence of Nantouillet, Samblangay the castle of the same name near Tours. Many of these edifices, notably Chambord, were con- structed by French artists. The genius of the French archi- tects and sculptors increased at the contact of Italian art, and this century counts no less than five men of the highest rank as sculptors, architects, or painters. Pierre Lescot of Paris in 1541 designed the plan of the Louvre and con- structed a part of the fagade where the pavilion of the Hor- loge is situated. Philibert Delorme, born at Lyons, com- menced the palace of the Tuileries at the order of Queen Catherine de Medici and designed the tomb of Francis I. at St. Denis. The bas-reliefs are the work of a Frenchman whose name remains unknown, but who had as a pupil Jean Goujon, the French Phidias, the Correggio of sculpture. Jean Goujon knew how to unite knowledge of anatomy with the firmness and finish of the chisel, force with grace. The most remarkable pieces which remain to us from him are the caryatides of the Hall of the Guards at the Louvre, the dainty figures of the Fountain of the Innocents, and a group of the huntress Diana. Germain Pilon of Mans was distinguished by extraordinary freedom from stiffness. We owe him the sculptures of the mausoleum of Henry II., the tombs of Chancellor Birague and Guillaume du Bellay, and especially the group of the Three Graces sculptured in a single block of marble. Jean Cousin, born at Soucy near Sens in 1501, was both sculptor and painter. His statue of Admiral Chabot places I5 6 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. him beside Germain Pilon; but he was at the sixteenth cen- tury unrivaled in France for stained windows and paintings in oil. Yet the French school of painting commenced only in the following century with Lesueur and Poussin. Germany, on the contrary, possessed painters and no sculp- tors. Albrecht Durer and Holbein are to-day still famous, but they had no successor. The Reformation was as fatal to the art of Germany as to its literature. Spain and England, still more poorly endowed, had in the sixteenth century neither artists nor monuments. The Dutch school did not exist; it dates from the following cen- tury. That of Flanders, founded long before and rendered illustrious by Van Eyck and Hemmelinck, was slumberously waiting for the coming of Rubens. Toward the middle of the fifteenth century the Florentine Finiguerra, well known already for his skill at inlaying with enamel work, succeeded in making beautiful copies of the drawings which he had engraved on copper. So that at the very moment when Gutenberg found the means of infinitely multiplying the works of learned men and of great writers, Finiguerra bestowed that of popularizing through all the civilized world the image at least of the masterpieces of im- mortal artists. Etching was invented shortly after, and two great artists, the German Albrecht Diirer (1471-1528) and the Bolognese Marc Antonio Raimondi (1488-1546), carried this art at once to a high degree of perfection. Their engrav- ings are still sought after. Albrecht Diirer, who was also a great painter, drew his own designs. Marc Antonio repro- duced the masterpieces of Raphael. The Middle Ages had only very imperfect instruments, the rebeck (three-stringed violin), the monochord, the clavi- chord, and the spinet, which offered scant resources for com- position. But in the sixteenth century the rebeck of min- strelsy by the addition of a fourth string and by a few changes in form became the violin, that is to say, the most important instrument of the orchestra. Apparently this in- novation took place in France. The harpsichord, which is for the composer an entire orchestra, toward the year 1500 assumed a great importance when a simple joiner of Ant- werp, Hans Buckers, carried the compass of the keyboard to four octaves, and doubled the chords of each note to obtain more varied effects and greater sonorousness. When instru- ments were no longer lacking composers appeared and CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 157 schools were founded. In 1527 another Fleming, Adrian Willaert, choir master at St. Mark's of Venice, founded the first real school of music. Instead of simple motets thence- forward were composed masses and psalms with choruses, each in four parts. Dramatic music was not born till the end of the century, the first regular opera or lyric drama, the "Death of Eurydice, " a tragedy with couplets and choruses, having been represented at Florence on the occasion of the marriage of Henry IV. with Maria de Medici (1599); but religious music was already attaining its greatest height with Palestrina (1524-94), who devoted himself to giving his melodies a character in keeping with the sense of the words which they accompanied. The Church still repeats his in- spired accents, his Stabat and his Miserere. From that time musical taste extended. Henry VIII., Elizabeth, Charles IX., aspired to the title of good musicians. Science was still hesitating between the reveries of the Middle Ages and the stern reason which guides it to-day. So the mathematician Cardano of Pavia of^c?*nces nce ( l S l -7) believed in astrology, and especially wished to make others believe in it; Paracelsus of Einsiedeln in Schwytz (1493-1541) was a physician and thaumaturgist; Cornelius Agrippa, engineer, general, and theologian, was fifteen or twenty times condemned to death as a disciple of the occult sciences. How many people clung to the Middle Ages! How many people even among the strongest minds, like Ambroise Pare and Jean Bodin, con- tinued to believe in the devil, demons, and witches! The latter swarmed since the Inquisition sent them to the funeral pile, and there was during a century and a hnlf one of those moral epidemics which in our day happily last only a few months. Thousands of madmen who should have been treated with hellebore, as Alciati says, perished in the flames. In a few years there were 6500 trials for witch- craft in the electorate of Treves, and 30,000 in England. One counselor of the Duke of Lorraine boasts of having executed 900 witches in fifteen years. In the single city of Wurtzburg 158 were burned in 1627 and 1628. Few wars have been so bloody as the legal butcheries of these wretches by the Inquisition. A German Jesuit, Father Spe, had the courage to lift his voice against these abominable proceedings. His name deserves to be drawn from oblivion and placed beside that of the French Male- 158 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. branche, who opposed the persecution of supposed witches. But if the vain imaginations of the Middle Ages guarded an empire that was scarcely shaken, cold and stern reason here and there pierced those heavy shades, as lofty moun- tains lift their crests in the full light above the clouds which roll cumbrously along their slopes and through the moist and darksome valleys. To Modern Times belong by their intellect and the char- acter of their labors Tartaglia, who died at Venice in 1557, who resolved the equation of the third degree by new for- mulas and applied mathematics to the art of war; Vesalius of Brussels, physician of Charles V. and of Philip II., who founded human anatomy and long taught in Italy; Ferrari of Bologna (1522-66), who devised an ingenious method for the solution of equations of the fourth degree; and a little later the French Viete (1540-1603), who discovered the applica- tion of algebra to geometry, and preceded Descartes and Newton in the path of mathematical analysis. Arts, letters even, can be developed only in certain cir- cumstances. Science is more independent of external con- ditions; there is no reason for surprise if the most learned man of the century was a Pole, Copernicus, born in 1473, a native of Thorn and a student of Cracow. His studies embraced all branches of knowledge; he devoted himself to philosophy, received the degree of doctor in medicine, and studied drawing and painting so as to derive greater profit from a journey which he made in Italy. Returning to his country in possession of a canonicate, he gave himself up to his great work upon the system of the world. He passed in review all the ideas of his contemporaries and of the ancients; he saw the Egyptians make Mercury and Venus revolve around the sun, but the sun itself, as likewise Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, around the earth ; he saw Apollonius of Perga consider the sun as center of all planetary movements, but make it also turnaround the earth. In all these systems the earth was the center of the universe. To depose it from this supreme rank, what audacity ! What an assault upon vulgar prejudices, upon the pride which makes man believe himself the universal center ! All this Copernicus dared ; to the earth, besides the rotary movement on its axis already imagined by a few ancient philosophers, he attributed a movement of gravitation, formerly seen obscurely by Philolaos, around CHAP. XII.] THE RENAISSANCE. 159 the sun, henceforth immovable in the center of the universe. As early as 1507 Copernicus was in possession of his new system; this he spent the remaining thirty-six years of his life in verifying by observation and calculation. So high was the genius of this illustrious man that many consequences which he had derived from his principles without himself being able to verify them were later recognized as true. Meanwhile he was a butt for the sarcasms and railleries of the crowd. He was ridiculed upon the theater as Socrates had been. "What do you care?" said he to his friends. "I do not know what pleases the common herd, and the common herd does not understand what I know." Moreover, his great work "De Revolutionibus Orbium Celestium," dedicated to Pope Paul III., did not appear till the year of his death; his glory began at the moment when his life ended (1543). Thus while the navigators were discovering and delivering new worlds to human activity science was discovering and delivering the true laws of the universe to human contempla- tion. What cause for astonishment, then, if the century which saw these great results of audacity and intelligence sur- rendered itself to the mighty dominion of thought? CHAPTER XIII. REVOLUTION IN CREEDS, OR THE REFORMATION. State of the Clergy in the Sixteenth Century. Luther : The Reformation in Germany and in the Scandinavian States (1517-55). Zwingli and Calvin : The Reformation in Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Scotland (1517-59). The Reformation in England (1531-62). Principal Differences among the Protestant Churches. ONE of the most distinguished statesmen of the sixteenth century, Cardinal Pole, wrote to Pope Leo X. that it was dangerous to render men too learned. In clergy 6 fn the f act the Renaissance of letters partly caused sixteenth cen- the religious Reformation. Study of the ancients opened new horizons to thought. The invention of printing, the discovery of America, the progress of manufactures, the immense extension of com- merce, awoke new ideas in the mind. Man felt his intelli- gence increase at the same time that he saw his dominions widen. Astonished by all these novelties, he began to doubt many ancient things. The spirit of curiosity and examination applied itself to all; it had transformed arts, letters, and the social state; it wished also to transform religious institu- tions. There then took place something analogous to that which our fathers saw. The literature of the eighteenth century by its habit of ascending in everything to principles pre- pared the political and social revolutions of 1789; that of the sixteenth through its veneration for the two antiquities, the sacred and classic, which had just been, as it were, refound, led to the religious Reformation, whose true character is a mixture of the rational spirit derived from the pagans and of theological ardor borrowed from the Bible, St. Paul, and St. Augustine. 160 REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 161 But the first author of this revolution was the clergy itself. The religious spirit was dying. What was there in common between the Church of the early days, poor, humble, ardent, and the Church opulent, sovereign, idle, of this Leo X. who lived like a gentleman of the Renaissance with huntsmen, artists, and poets much more than with theologians; or the Church of Cardinal Bembo, who wrote to Sadoleto: "Do not read the epistles of St. Paul for fear that such a barbarous style will corrupt your tastes. Leave those trifles, unworthy of a serious man." ("Omitte has nugas; non enim decent gravem virum tales ineptiae.") And the monks, what was not said of them? The ways of the world are not changed by satires; Erasmus, Hutten, and all the diatribes could have accomplished nothing in the thirteenth century. They had great influence in the sixteenth, because abuses which did not earlier exist or which were still very feeble had three centuries later reached a dangerous development in the discipline and manners of the clergy. Let us listen to the last of the Church fathers. "Centuries ago," said Bossuet, "the reformation of Church discipline was desired; 'Who will grant me before I die,' said St. Bernard, 'to see the Church of God as it was in the early days?' ' If this holy man experienced any regret in dying, it was that he had not beheld so happy a change. He groaned all his life at the evils of the Church. He did not cease to warn the peoples, the clergy, the bishops, the Popes even, concerning them; he did not fear to warn concerning them the recluses who in their solitude were afflicted with him, and who the more praised divine goodness for having brought them there, inasmuch as corruption was increasing in the world. The mother of churches, the Roman Church, which during nine entire centuries was foremost in observing ecclesiastical discipline with exemplary exactness, and which with all its strength maintained it through the world, was not exempt from the evil. From the time of the Council of Vienne, the great bishop charged by the Pope with preparation of the subjects which were to be treated there, put as the funda- mental task of that holy assembly the necessity of reforming the Church in its chief and in its members. The great schism which came a little after put this word reform more than ever upon the lips, not only of private doctors, of Gerson, of Pierre d'Aille, of the other leading men of the time, but also of the councils; each was full of it in the councils of 162 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. Pisa and Basel, where the Reformation was unhappily eluded and the Church plunged into new divisions. To Eugenius IV., Cardinal Julian represented the disorders of the clergy, especially that of Germany. "These disorders," said he to him," excite the hatred of the people against all ecclesiasti- cal order; if it is not corrected it is to be feared that the laity, following the example of the Hussites, will attack the clergy as they now openly menace us with doing." If the clergy of Germany was not promptly reformed he predicted that after the heresy of Bohemia was extinguished there would speedily arise another still more dangerous. "For they will say," continued he, "that the clergy is incorrigible, and is willing to apply no remedy to its disorders. They will attack us," continued this great cardinal, "when they have no longer any hope of our correction. Men's minds are waiting for what shall be done; it seems as if shortly something tragic will be brought forth. The venom which they have against us is becoming evident; soon they will believe they are mak- ing a sacrifice agreeable to God by maltreating or despoiling the ecclesiastics as people odious to God and man, and im- mersed to the utmost in evil. The little reverence still remaining for the sacred order will be destroyed. Responsi- bility for all these disorders will be charged upon the court of Rome, which will be regarded as the cause of all these evils because it has neglected to apply the necessary remedy. ' ' He resumed in a higher tone. "I see," said he, "that the ax is at the root, the tree inclines, and instead of sus- taining it while it might still be done we precipitate it to the earth." He saw a speedy desolation impending over the German clergy. The temporal possessions, of which they wished to deprive it, seemed to him the point whereat the evil would commence. "The bodies," said he, "will perish with the souls. God takes from us the sight of our perils, just as he is wont to do with those whom he wishes to punish: the fire is lighted before us and we rush forward." Thus in the fifteenth century this cardinal, the greatest man of his time, deplored the evils; he foresaw their fatal consequences: therefore he seems to have anticipated those which Luther was about to bring upon all Christianity, commencing with Germany; and he was not mistaken in believing that unwillingness to reform and increasing hatred against the clergy would beget a sect more formidable to the Church than that of the Hussites. CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 163 Thus Bossuet himself attests that in many parts of Chris- tendom, especially where the clergy possessed as in Germany almost a third, and as in England almost a fifth, Luther : The . . . . , . Reformation in of the lands, and in the midst of so much iri er the n scandi^ wealth forgot its discipline, men's minds were navian states prepared for revolution when Luther appeared. Born at Eisleben in 1483, this son of a poor Saxon miner became the doctor the most listened to of the University of Wittenberg. "He possessed strength with his genius, vehemence in his discourses, a living and impetuous eloquence which swept away and took entire possession of the peoples, an extraordinary boldness when he saw himself sus- tained and applauded, with an air of authority which made his disciples tremble before him, so that they did not dare to contradict him in things either great or small." The wars of Julius II. had exhausted the pontifical treas- ury. Then came the extravagances of Leo X. , who expended 100,000 ducats at his coronation and gave 500 for a sonnet. Thus in order to live he was obliged to pawn the jewels of St. Peter and to sell offices, which increased by 40,000 ducats the annual revenue of the government. St. Peter's in Rome, the splendid temple commenced by Julius II. upon a plan which was to make it the most grandiose sanctuary of Chris- tianity, was in danger of remaining unfinished. Leo X. accorded indulgences to all those who would contribute to its completion. The Archbishop of Maintz, charged with announcing these indulgences in Germany, had them sol- emnly proclaimed in Saxony by the Dominican Tetzel. There were great abuses committed, both in the exagger- ated promises made to the faithful who purchased these means of salvation and in the employment under their very eyes of a part of their money. The Augustines, till then charged with the sale of indulgences, were irritated when they saw this lucrative mission pass into the hands of the Dominicans. Displeasure revealed to them abuses, and these abuses were rudely attacked by their most eminent doctor, Martin Luther, whom his theological studies had caused to hold entirely different ideas. He was in fact already planted upon the principle which has remained the foundation of the Protestant churches, justification by faith alone, while the doctrine of indulgences supposes also justi- fication by works. Such was the commencement of the Reformation. 1 64 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. Luther at first cast the blame only on Tetzel. "He attacked primarily the abuses which many made of indul- gences and the excesses which they preached. But he was too ardent to confine himself within these limits; from abuses he passed quickly to the thing itself. He advanced by degrees, and still, while he was always depreciating the indulgences and reducing them almost to nothing by his manner of explanation, at bottom he appeared to be in accord with his adversaries, because when he put his propo- sitions in writing there was one couched in these terms: "If any one denies the verity of the papal indulgences let him be anathema' " (Bossuet). On All Saints' Day (1517) Luther affixed to the door of the great church of Wittenberg 95 propositions con- cerning indulgences. Tetzel replied with no counter prop- ositions. The battle was engaged. Forced to defend him- self, Luther directed his attention to formidable questions, and, carried away by the heat of the combat, soon left aside Tetzel and the indulgences to arraign the Pope himself and the Catholic dogmas. "Little by little he became excited against the Church and plunged into schism" (Bossuet). At the first news of these disputes, "It is a monkish quarrel," Leo X. replied to those who foresaw an innovator in the bold theologian ; he had forgotten Luther and Tetzel that he might return to hear the "Calandra"of Bibbiena or the "Mandragola" of Machiavelli. However, since the noise increased, in 1518 he sent Cardinal Cajetano to Augsburg, who sought by caresses and menaces to shake the Saxon monk, but Luther had become confirmed in his doctrines; he refused the cardinal as a judge, and appealed from the Pope badly informed to the Pope better informed. This was still recognizing the pontifical authority. The following year his protector, the Elector of Saxony, having become vicar of the empire by the death of the emperor Maximilian, he made an additional step: he appealed from the Pope to a general council. In forming this appeal Luther did not yet pass beyond the ideas of the fathers of Basel and Constance, who had proclaimed the authority of general councils superior to that of the sovereign pontiff; but after having rejected the Pope, he was led to reject the councils; after the coun- cils, the fathers that is to say, all human authority to place himself face to face with Scripture, to hereafter listen, as he said, only to the word of God, wishing between it and him CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 165 no intermediary. But Scripture is not always so clear, so accessible to all intelligences, that an interpreter is unnec- essary if one wishes to maintain unity of belief; this inter- preter the Catholic Church recognized in the Pope. Luther suppressing him, each one could interpret the Scriptures according to his fancy; the unity of the Church was de- stroyed; "The garment without seam was torn;" the sects multiplied, and some perverted spirits, reading in Scripture what their evil passions wished to find there, gave birth to monstrous doctrines which appalled all parties. As early as the year 1519 Luther had progressed far in his opinions. Already he attacked the authority of the Popes, the sacra- ments and monastic vows, and he touched upon the formi- dable questions of grace and free will. In 1520 he addressed to the Pope his book upon "Christian Liberty," which per- mitted Leo X. no longer to temporize. June 15, 1520, a bull was launched against him which condemned forty-one prop- ositions extracted from his book and menaced him with ex- communication if he did not retract in sixty days. But what could this worn-out weapon do since it served for so many things, even the smallest, as to strike at those who reprinted Tacitus or Ariosto in competition with the pontifical editor? Breaking forever with Rome, at Wittenberg Luther burned the bull of the Pope while an enthusiastic crowd applauded. What gave him so much audacity was the fact that the number of his partisans was increasing every day. The people were delighted that they were called themselves to read the Scriptures, translated into German by Luther, and that the riches of the clergy were denounced as a violation of the Gospel. The princes, to whom the resources of the Middle Ages no longer sufficed for the increasing expenses of the growing luxury, of the administration which was devel- oping, of the armies which must be paid, heard with pleas- ure protestations against these great domains of the Church protestations exceedingly convenient to them. Many, in fine, were flattered that those great and troublesome ques- tions were brought from the sanctuary into the public square; they yielded to the irresistible attraction of reli- gious liberty which Luther caused to glitter before their eyes, sure to use it against himself as he had used it against the Pope. However, when the interregnum ceased, Charles V., who needed the Pope against Francis I., and who was determined 1 66 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. to restore religious peace in the empire, convoked a grand diet at Worms (1521). Luther went thither with a safe con- duct, and refused solemnly to retract any of his opinions unless the error was proved to him by the Holy Scriptures. The diet placed the reformer under the ban of the empire; but such had been the attitude of the people and that of a great number of princes that they did not dare to violate the imperial safe conduct. Happier than had been John Huss, Luther was able to depart from Worms, and his protector kept him concealed almost a year in the castle of the Wart- burg in Thuringia. From this retreat, where he completed his translation of the Bible into the common language, Luther with impunity spread his doctrines through all Germany; printing gave his pamphlets unlimited publicity. They penetrated hovel and palace alike. Moreover, the reformer was cautious in conduct toward the princes, so powerful since the fall of the Hohenstaufens. The secularization of the property of the Church was a prize offered to their covetousness; in 1525 the grand master of the Teutonic order declared himself hereditary Duke of Prussia under the suzerainty of Poland. A great part of the ecclesiastical domains of lower Germany were invaded. As early as the year 1525 the Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, the dukes of Mecklenburg, Pomerania, and Zell, and a large number of imperial cities had embraced the Reformation and at the same time secularized the posses- sions of the Church situated in their territory. The grandees would have gladly taken charge of the direc- tion and profits of the Reformation; but when the people saw them lay their hands upon the goods of the clergy they wished in their fashion to have part in the spoil. Besides, there was deep resentment against the feudal oppression which the ecclesiastical no less than the secular lords had exercised over them for centuries. Extensive riots had already broken out in 1471 and 1492. In 1500 the associ- ation of the Shoe had been a menace against the nobles; insurrections had taken place in 1505 and in 1513. The principal centers of this demagogic excitement were the Netherlands and Swabia. When the sermons of Luther fell upon these irritated minds they inflamed them with savage ardor. Leaving aside theologic questions, they went straight to social questions; translating a spirit of charity in CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 167 the Gospel into a spirit of egotism, they demanded absolute equality, community of goods, and overthrow of all author- ity, religious or civil. These terrible sectaries, who drew after them all the peasants from Swabia to Thuringia, gave themselves the name of Anabaptists, because they were regenerated, they claimed, by a second baptism. Their chief was Thomas Munzer. Luther was not satis- fied with disavowing them; he preached against them a war of extermination. Dispersed at Frankenhausen, the peas- ants perished by thousands (1525). The peasants' war frightened everybody. The Catholic princes considered themselves authorized by the danger which social order had an instant undergone to form a con- federacy at Dessau (1525). The Reformed princes on the other hand signed the union of Torgau (1526). Germany found itself separated into two leagues, independent of the imperial power, and war seemed imminent. But Charles V., occupied alternately by Francis I. and Soulei'man, tem- porized so as not to create a new enemy in Germany. It was proposed to have the question settled by an assembly of doctors of the Church ; but both sides were afraid to unite in a council where the Reformers knew beforehand they would be in a minority, and where the court of Rome feared to find again the traditions of the councils of Basel and Con- stance. In 1529 the Ottomans were ravaging Hungary. To ob- tain the assistance of all the German princes, Charles V. at the diet of Spires had liberty of conscience proclaimed, but at the same time forbade the propagation of the new doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper (1529). The Reformers pro- tested against this exception. The name of Protestants has since been given them. The following year they presented at the diet of Augsburg an official confession of their beliefs, which since then has been the symbol and bond of union among all the partisans of Luther (1530). They drew their union closer at Smalkalde (1531), and the emperor, menaced by Soulei'man, granted them the peace or interim of Nuremberg (1532). Two years after they were strong enough to reinstate the Duke of Wurtemburg, Ulrich, and to impose on the Catholics the treaty of Cadan in Bohemia, which granted the Lutherans free exercise of their faith. However, the Anabaptists reappeared at Munster in West- phalia on the borders of Holland, but this time with a more i68 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. regular and hence a more disquieting organization. John Matthiesen, a baker of Haarlem, was their supreme prophet. They expelled from the city the bishop, all the wealthy, and all those who were unwilling to be rebaptized, and then com- menced the frightful saturnalia of mad demagogism. They pillaged the churches and monasteries, burned every book except the Bible, and had goods in common. From this biblical demagogism issued an unbridled despotism. A farrier having spoken ill of the prophets, Matthiesen assem- bled the commune in the market and shot the unfortunate man. Then he cried out that the Father ordered him to repulse the enemy, and halberd in hand, precipitated him- self alone out of the city; he had no sooner passed the gate than he was slain. John Bocold, a tailor's apprentice from Leyden, succeeded him as supreme prophet, and some time later as king, after one of the prophets had announced that it had been revealed to him that John of Leyden was to rule over all the earth and to occupy the throne of David until the time when God the Father would come to demand the government for him- self. The new king established the plurality of wives and sur- rounded himself with a sumptuous court while the people died of famine, as the Bishop of Munster held the city closely besieged. A contemporary story relates that one of the queens having said one day to her companions that she did not believe it conformed with the will of God that the poor people should be afflicted with so many miseries, the king conducted her to the market place with his other wives, ordered her to kneel in the midst of her companions, who were prostrate like herself, and struck off her head. The other queens sang "Glory to God in the highest!" and all the people began to dance around the dead body of the victim. However, there was nothing left to eat except bread and salt ! Toward the end of the siege the famine became so great that the flesh of the dead was distributed daily. The city was finally carried by storm on St. John's Day (1535). John of Leyden, taken alive, was torn in pieces by red-hot pincers. The new Zion, sustained by this intoxication of fanaticism and debauch, had defended itself for fifteen months against all the forces of Northern Germany. The Catholics considered the Reformation responsible for the scandals of Munster. The political schism of Germany CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 169 assumed every day a more definite character; the emperor waited, temporized, and endeavored to avoid a conflict for which he did not feel himself ready. All his activity was not too much in the midst of such a complication of affairs; he had to defend Austria against the incessant attacks of the sultan, and the kingdom of Naples against the corsairs of Barbary ; he was engaged in a desperate struggle with the King of France. Alone, confronted by Soulei'man I., Barbaroussa, and Francis I., he had to master his undisciplined army and the turbulent Flemish communes, organize the administration of the New World, extend his thought and action from one end of the globe to the other, from Buda to Mexico, from Ghent to Tunis. Thus is explained his long temporizing in regard to the Reformation. Besides, the hatred of the Catholics for the Protestants was not so extreme as to willingly sacrifice to the emperor the liberties of Germany; as the day still con- tinued when the citizens themselves carried arms, there was no standing army with which the emperor could be certain of breaking down all resistance. But after the peace with France was signed at Crespy (1544) he resolved to act. Abandoned by the confederates of Smalkalde, Francis I. abandoned them in turn. Soulei'- man had just turned his forces against Persia. Charles found himself then without enemies abroad. The ecumen- ical council, to the decision of which the two parties had so long appealed, had at last assembled at Trent (1545), and after the first sessions all hope of reconciliation between the opposing doctrines disappeared. War was thenceforward inevitable. Luther died happy in not seeing it (1546). As always happens in a confederacy, disorder began in the heart of the Protestant party. The allies of Smalkalde did not know how to concert their efforts and succumbed sepa- rately. Charles, on the contrary, showed firmness and de- cision, and despite the defection of the Pope terminated everything in two campaigns. Upper Germany was subdued as early as 1546 ; the death of Francis I. at the beginning of 1547 determined the em- peror to push hostilities more actively. At the battle of Muhlburg the Spanish infantry at the first shock overthrew the Saxon militia, and the two chiefs of the league fell into the hands of Charles V.; these were the Elector of Saxony, who was made prisoner on the field of battle, and the Landgrave 17 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. of Hesse, who came to give himself up (1547). The emperor applied to himself, but like a Christian, the words of Caesar. "I came," he said, "I saw, God conquered." Charles V. could then believe that the dream so many times pursued of German unity was about to be realized, that the imperial power had served its apprenticeship. But he was quickly undeceived. He wished to solve the religious question without the Pope ; his interim of Augsburg, a theo- logical formulary designed to bring the two religious parties together, discontented everybody (1548). He reserved for his son Spain, the Netherlands, Naples, and America; he wished to assure him besides the imperial crown : his brother, whom he had already caused to be chosen King of the Romans, and the diet refused to consent. He had filled the cities of Germany with soldiers; he haughtily dragged in his train the two captive chiefs of the Protestants, and he besieged Magdeburg, the only city which still resisted; it fell after a ten months' siege; but he who had just overthrown it had found even in this success the means of ruining the imperial fortunes. This was Maurice of Saxony. A Protestant, he had through hate and ambi- tion fought against the Elector of Saxony, his relative, and the emperor had bestowed upon him the electoral dignity as reward. His ambition satisfied, he commenced to dread the power of the emperor. He had betrayed his own co- religionists to make his fortune, he betrayed the emperor to consolidate it. In order to have a pretext for assembling troops he obtained charge of the attack on Magdeburg, designedly prolonged this siege, and while it lasted, negoti- ated with the Protestants and with Henry II., King of France, the treaty of Friedewald (1551). He conducted everything with so marvelous secrecy that Charles, the most subtile politician of his time, had not the least sus- picion when he learned that Maurice had already crossed Germany with powerful forces, that he was marching upon Innsbruck, and that he was about to attack him there. The sick emperor had only time to escape at midnight, and, carried in a litter through the rain and snow, passed over the mountains of the Tyrol (1552). He was obliged to set the elector and the landgrave at liberty and by the conven- tion of Passau to grant the Protestants entire freedom of conscience (1552). This.was giving a legal existence to the new faith. The CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 171 peace of Augsburg (1555) rendered its concessions definite. Moreover, it confirmed to the actual holders their possession of ecclesiastical property secularized before the convention of Passau. But the clause of ecclesiastical reservation which hindered secularization in future by obliging ecclesiastics to resign their benefices before going over to the new faith, the exclusion of Calvinists from the peace of Augsburg, finally, the prohibition of the Reformed faith outside the territories of the Reformed princes, was to be the source of discords, and thence was to arise the Thirty Years' War. In the north of Europe the establishment of the Reforma- tion was provoked by causes and decided by interests purely political. The union of Calmar had just been restored after the battle of Bogesund, where Sten Sture, the last of the Swedish administrators, had been mortally wounded (1520). Christian II., who reigned over Denmark and Norway from 1513, had himself proclaimed hereditary monarch of Sweden. He believed he would consolidate his power by getting rid of the principal citizens of the country. In a single day 94 senators, prelates or rich burgesses, were beheaded by the ax; then 600 persons were massacred with- out distinction of age or sex; gibbets were erected in every city, and pitiless extortions ruined the country. Sweden did not long wait for an avenger. In the follow- ing year Gustavus Vasa of the ancient race of the Folkungs escaped from the prison where Christian detained him, and after adventures which have remained famous roused the intrepid miners of Dalecarlia, cut in pieces the Danes near Upsal, and besieged Stockholm. The city resisted two years despite the assistance which Gustavus obtained from Lubeck. At last the Nero of the North was deposed by the Danish aristocracy, who were less irritated by his crimes than by his predilection for humble people and by his edicts in favor of the peasants (1523). In his place the nobles proclaimed his uncle Frederick, Duke of Holstein, while making him swear to observe a provision which ratified their privileges, restore to them the right of life and death over the peasants, and recognize that the crown was elective. On their side the States of Sweden offered the title of king to Gustavus Vasa, and Stockholm opened to him its gates (1523). The following year Frederick, sustained by the powerful marine of Lubeck, entered Copenhagen. Gustavus possessed hardly more than the name of king. 172 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. He found the soil in the hands of the nobility and the upper clergy, while the peasants, the burgesses, and the inferior priests were a prey to destitution and ignorance. Many in Nordland lived upon the bark of trees. For his own profit and in the interest of the people Gustavus resolved to over- throw the authority of the bishops. Their alliance with the Danes in the last war had rendered them odious ; but they were so formidable through their wealth that the king did not dare to attack them openly, and employed against them all the resources of his unscrupulous cleverness. First he tolerated the preaching of two Lutherans, Olaiis and Lau- rentius Petri; then he gave them his moral support by nam- ing one State Secretary and the other professor at the Univer- sity of Upsal. Finally, he authorized them to publish their translation of Scripture in the common language. That amounted to little : the people did not know how to read. Then Gustavus interested the lay aristocracy in his proj- ects. He permitted the nobles to demand back the domains usurped by the Church to the detriment of their ancestors, himself gave the example by seizing a rich abbey which had formerly belonged to his family, and pleading the poverty of the public treasury, assigned to the state two-thirds of the tithes and the plate and bells of the churches (1526). At the States General of Westeras (1524) the prestige of his victories, the ascendancy of his authority,and the seduction of his eloquence charmed and took captive the deputies. The States granted him the right of conferring the different ecclesiastical dignities, declared that the domains of the clergy belonged to the state, and finally demanded that religion be brought back to its primitive purity. Separation from the Roman Church, secularization of ecclesiastical property, adhesion to the doctrines of Luther everything which the Reformation taught or practiced in Germany, found itself sanctioned and consecrated in Sweden by the representatives of the nation. Gustavus did not lose an instant. His share in the product of the tithes had permitted him to organize a regular army. He traversed the kingdom with 14,000 men, every- where putting into execution the decrees of Westeras. Thirteen thousand farms were confiscated to the profit of the king and the nobility. The king could now throw off the mask ; he openly made confession of Lutheranism, ap- pointed Lauren tius Petri Archbishop of Upsal and had him- CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 173 self crowned by him (1528). The following year the Council of CErebro regulated the doctrines and liturgy. Through consideration for popular sentiments the hierarchy and most of the ceremonies of the Catholic Church were retained; but in all the rest the doctrines of the German Protestants were adopted. The Reformation in Sweden carried royalty to abso- lute power. Gustavus Vasa justified this revolution by his services. Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, the marine, were rapidly developed, and Sweden entered into the general system of European politics by an alliance with France (1542), which lasted almost without interruption till the French Revolution, and which in our time has been renewed. The preaching of Luther had early resounded in Denmark. In the year 1520 Christian II. had called a Reformed preacher to Copenhagen. His successor, Frederick I., won to the new ideas even before he mounted the throne, first proclaimed religious toleration so as to leave the field free to the innovators, and in 1525 unreservedly declared for the Reformation; two years later the diet of Odensee ratified liberty of conscience, authorized the rupture of monastic vows and the marriage of priests, and subjected the prelates to the authority of the king. At the diet of Copenhagen Frederick I. approved the con- fession of faith of the Danish Protestants (1530). His son, Christian III., went farther. Scarcely delivered from the terrible war which brought about the ruin of the Hanse, he overthrew the Catholic hierarchy. The bishops were de- clared deprived of their temporal and spiritual authority; their wealth was confiscated for the benefit of the treasury, and in their place seven superintendents were appointed over eccle- siastical affairs and as many grand bailiffs for temporal ad- ministration. But the Lutheran clergy preserved only a feeble share of the moral ascendancy and political influence which the Catholic pastors had possessed; and the Danish aristocracy, after having imposed on Christian III. the capitulation which his brother had sworn, found no further obstacles to its wishes. It suppressed the States General, arrogated to itself the right of controlling the nominations to all the offices, and held the royalty in tutelage and the people under the harshest slavery. This lasted 120 years until 1660, when with the assistance of the burgesses and 174 RE VOL UTION IN IN TERES TS. [BOOK 1 1 1 . Reformed clergy the Danish royalty rendered itself absolute and hereditary. The Reformation was first preached in Switzerland by a curate of Zurich, Ulrich Zwingli, the contemporary but not Zwin H and ^ disciple of Luther. As early as 1517 he Calvin : The had declared the Gospel the only rule of faith. KifcSSud, 1 " One da y when t. 116 sellers of indulgences France, the begged him not to impede their commerce, be- Netherlands, ... ., , and Scotland cause this money would serve to build the (1517-59)- most beautiful temple of the universe, he showed the people the snowy summit of the Alps, gilded by the rays of the setting sun. "Behold," he cried, "the throne of the Eternal ; contemplate his works, adore him in his magnificence; that is worth more than offerings to monks and pilgrimages to the bones of the dead." The Evangelical religion of Zwingli spread through the greater part of Ger- man Switzerland, in the commercial cantons of Zurich, Berne, Basel, Appenzell, Claris, and Schaffhausen. But the original cantons remained faithful to the Catholic faith. Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Zug, Freiburg, and Soleure formed in 1528 with Valais a league for the defense of the Catholic faith. The Reformers united in like manner at Berne the following year and civil war became inevitable. For a moment delayed by the efforts of a few well-meaning men who caused a religious peace to be signed (1529), reli- gious animosity finally brought about bloody collisions. Zwingli was slain soon after the commencement of hostili- ties. The Catholics, conquerors at Cappel and near Mt. Zug (1531) despite their inferiority of numbers, imposed peace upon their adversaries. Every canton maintained the right of regulating independently its own worship, but the Evangelical doctrines were excluded from the common bailiwicks. The Protestants found an ample compensation for this defeat. Geneva separated from the Roman Church. The Reformation had been indigenous at Zurich: it was brought to Geneva by strangers, by Frenchmen. Governed by its bishop under the protectorate of the dukes of Savoy, this city found itself toward the commencement of the sixteenth century divided into two camps. The Mamelukes, or slaves, sustained the rights of the duke Charles III., the Huguenots (jtidgcnosstn, sworn confederates) defended the liberties of the city. The Reformation gave new fuel to political ani- CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 175 mosities. The Mamelukes declared for the old Catholic faith, the Huguenots embraced the opposite doctrine. Thanks to the support of Berne, the Huguenot party carried the day. The city, protected by Francis I., maintained its independ- ence against Savoy, whose duke was deprived by Berne of the country of Vaud (1536). At this moment Calvin arrived. He was a Frenchman of Noyon who had just published his "Christian Institutes," a book more formidable than the works of Luther because it was more systematic and more audacious; for while the doctor of Wittenberg allowed everything to exist in the Church which according to him was not condemned by the word of God, Calvin wished to abolish everything which he did not find prescribed by the Gospel. Forced to quit France, then Italy, Calvin found an asylum at Geneva. Two influences there disputed the power that of the political re- formers, who were called libertines, and that of the religious reformers. Calvin secured the ascendancy of the latter. It was not, however, without combat. The political reformers succeeded in driving him from the city (1541), but he was recalled, and until his death exercised absolute power. He organized the government of Geneva to the almost exclusive profit of the ministers of the Reformed faith. By a strange inconsistency the sect which, by accepting the sad and harsh doctrines of predestination, annihilated all moral responsi- bility, imposed upon itself the law of a more rigid morality. The city changed in appearance; to easy morals succeeded an unnatural puritanism. No more festivals, no more social reunions, no more theaters or society; the rigid monotony of an austere rule weighed upon life. A poet was decapitated because of his verses; Calvin wished adultery to be pun- ished by death like heresy, and he had Michael Servetus burned who did not entertain the same opinions as himself upon the mystery of the Trinity. These men who had so much need of toleration understood it no better than their adversaries. The most fervent disciple of Calvin, Theodore Beza, also demanded death for heretics, and accused the par- liament of Paris of infidelity because it did not burn enough witches. To which a magistrate replied: "Better consult our registers." If the theocratic despotism of Calvin deprived the Gene- vese of even the most innocent enjoyments of liberty, it is right to recognize that under this vigorous impulse Geneva I? 6 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. acquired in Europe a considerable importance. It was throughout the duration of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the citadel and, as it were, the sanctuary of the Reformation. Calvin himself set the example of the most austere and active life. He preached every day, gave three doctrinal lessons weekly, translated the Bible into French, wrote theological treatises, and replied to all from all points of Europe who asked him questions. His correspondence would fill 30 folio volumes, and the library of Geneva preserves 2025 of his manuscript sermons. When he died in 1564 his work was continued by his disciples, Thodore Beza in France, and John Knox in Scot- land. In consequence of the marriage of Maximilian with the heiress of Charles the Bold the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands had passed from the house of Burgundy to that, of Austria. They formed a sort of federal state under the superintendence and direction of a governor general named by the sovereign; each of them had its constitution and its representative assembly. So the authority of the prince was limited in the Netherlands by free institutions, and especially by the independent spirit of the people. The Netherlands were too near Germany for the Reformation not to reach them early. A translation of the Bible into Flemish appeared there almost at the same time as the German translation of Luther, and in Holland the survivors of Anabaptism, con- quered at Munster, took refuge. But Charles V., although hampered by the privileges of these cities, was more free than in the empire, would he hinder propagation of the new doctrines. He issued the most severe edicts, especially that of 1550 after his victory at Muhlburg over the German Protestants. As early as 1522 he had set up a special inqvisition, and many condemnations to death were pronounced. But these rigors succeeded only in changing the nature of the heresy. Lutheranism disappeared from the Netherlands; Calvinism took its place, descending from Switzerland through Alsace or entering from Great Britain during the reign of Edward VI., thanks to the multiplicity of commercial relations which brought together the two countries; it was propagated espe- cially in the Batavian provinces. We shall see later on the terrible conflict which it had to wage against Philip II. Calvinism also gained the day in France. The doctrines CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 177 and writings of Luther had there little success. On the western side of the Rhine theological science had a center in the Sorbonne; the faith consequently found itself better defended, and the monarch had less need of the Reformation in order to lay his hand upon the domains of the clergy, because the concordat bestowed upon the king the disposi- tion of benefices. Finally, less abuses were found in the bosom of the Gallican clergy, because it had less wealth and power; and if many of the provincial nobles regretted the domains formerly ceded by their fathers to the Church, if the independent doctrines of the innovators pleased their feudal spirit, if desires after political enfranchisement mingled with their desires after religious liberty, the people of the great cities remained profoundly Catholic. The Reformation in France was for the greater number a question of conscience and conviction ; it was for many also, sometimes even unwit- tingly, an awakening of the aristocratic spirit, a feudal reac- tion against the ascendancy of royalty and the court. Before Calvin the Reformation made only insignificant progress. His "Christian Institutes," published by him in 1535, determined the uncertainties of the learned and gave a precise formula to their vague aspirations. Calvinism rapidly took possession of a considerable portion of the lower nobil- ity, of a few burgesses, and of many magistrates ; the majority of the great lawyers and men of learning adhered to it in public or in secret; but with the exception of the southern provinces, where the recollection of the doctrines and war of the Albigenses and more recently of the scandals of Avignon kept alive profound resentments against the Roman Church, the people, especially in the large cities, closed the ear to the new gospel. Francis I. was by no means favorable to it, but as against Charles V. he had to adroitly secure alliance with the German Protestants. With difficulty could he extend his hand to Reformers beyond the Rhine and at the same time have Reformers burned in France. Such is, however, the continual and sad alternative which his policy presents. Is he in war with the emperor? He closes his eyes to the efforts of Calvinist preachers and promulgates the edict of Coucy, which suspends all prosecution on religious grounds ( I 535)- Is peace signed, and has he no further need of the League of Smalkalde? He seeks by punishments to arrest the Protestant propaganda. I? 8 REVOLUTION IX INTERESTS. [BOOK III. At the close of his reign, persuaded by the entreaties of Montmorency and Cardinal de Tournon, he revoked the edict of toleration of Coucy and ordered the massacre of the Waldenses, whose creed was more than three centuries old. Peaceable and paying the imposts regularly, people of pure and simple customs, the Waldenses inhabited two small cities, Merindol and Cabrieres, and about thirty villages in the Alps of Provence, department of Vaucluse; they had already been condemned as heretics in 1540 on the demand of the president d'Oppede and of Guerin, advocate general, at the parliament of Aix; the execution of the condemnation was delayed. But in April, 1545, precise and rigorous orders from the court reached the parliament of Aix. The baron de la Garde, assisted by the president d'Oppede and the advocate general Guerin, entered unexpectedly with soldiers upon the territory of these unhappy people. The sentence ordered that the men and women should be burned alive, the servants and children driven away, the places rendered uninhabitable, the forests utterly cut down. It was too scrupulously executed: 3000 Waldenses were massacred or burned in their habitations; 550 condemned to the gallows; the others dispersed in the woods or mountains, where the majority died of hunger and misery ; there was not left a house or a tree within fifteen leagues (1545). Henry II. persecuted the new doctrines rigorously. The edict of Chateaubriant (1551) ordered that Protestants should be judged without appeal, closed the schools and tribunals to whoever had not a certificate of orthodoxy, and by a usage borrowed from the worst days of the Roman Em- pire assured to informers the third part of the goods of their victims. But persecution was powerless. In a few years the number of Protestant churches rose from 1000 to 2000. "Half the nobility, part of the clergy, and perhaps a tenth of the people," says, perhaps with exaggeration, a contemp- orary, "were attached to the Reformation. Despite edicts and punishments they were so obstinate in their religion that even when the government was most determined to put them to death they did not cease on that account to come together; and the more punishments were inflicted the more the Reformers multiplied" (Memoirs of Castelnau). The persecution would have certainly been violent with- out the premature death of Henry II. At that moment the struggle was taking place even in the heart of Parliament, CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 179 and the excitement was reaching its height. On the news that the Huguenots had found defenders in this great judicial body, the king caused himself to be carried into the midst of the magistrates a few days before the fatal tournament, and had ordered that they should in his presence continue their deliberations upon the edicts published against the heretics. T\vo members, Dufaur and Anne Dubourg, did not conceal their sympathy for the persecuted; the second acted almost as an accuser. "I know," said he, "that there are certain crimes which must be pitilessly punished, such as adultery, blasphemy, and perjury; but of what do they accuse them whom they surrender to the arm of the execu- tioner?" The king believing himself insulted and braved to his face, had them forthwith seized, and commanded that they should be tried. His death did not arrest the prose- cution, which went on though attended by the most terrible events. The ministers of the Reformed Church held at Paris their first national synod to draw up a petition in favor of the prisoners. On the evening of December 12, between five and six o'clock, President Minard, a violent enemy of Du- bourg, was killed by a pistol shot when coming from the court. This shot slew also Dubourg; he was condemned to the stake and burned in the Place de Greve. Persecution was certain, as in the Netherlands and everywhere, to bring about plots and the horrible war which we shall soon have to narrate. From France Calvinism had passed into Scotland, a coun- try with which France had intimate relations, and where its progress was facilitated by the natural disposition of the peo- ple and the feebleness of the government. After the premature death of James V. (1542) his widow, Mary of Guise, proclaimed regent in the name of her daughter, Mary Stuart, had left the direction of affairs to Cardinal Beaton, an able statesman, but of a character harsh even to cruelty. Numerous executions were ordered by him on the score of religion. None excited general indig- nation to a greater degree than that of George Wishart, burned alive under the eyes of the cardinal. The Reform party to avenge the death of their co-religionist assassinated Beaton, whose body they hung to the battlements of the castle of St. Andrews (1546). From that time the Reformation was propagated in Scot- land with rapidity, although combated by the regent, sister i8o REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. of the Guises. It was adopted by the most illustrious and powerful families of the country. John Knox put himself at the head of the movement. Many times condemned, burned even in effigy, he fled to England, where he became chaplain of Edward VI., and after the accession of Catholic Mary Tudor, to Switzerland, where he made the acquaint- ance of Calvin. When Elizabeth made Protestantism tri- umph in England Knox was recalled from Geneva. A disciple of Calvin, he organized the Scotch Church after the model of the Genevan Church. The hierarchy was abolished; in Presbyterianism, the name assumed by the Church of Scotland, all the ministers are equal. Knox would have desired to consecrate the domains of the Catholic clergy to the maintenance of the new faith; but these had been seized and were retained by the nobles. He was more happy in his efforts against Catholic monuments. Churches, libraries, record offices, tombs even, nothing whatsoever which seemed tainted with idolatry, found mercy with this furious icono- clast (1560). So the Scotch Reformation bore from the be- ginning a character of peculiar violence and fanaticism. England had always manifested a spirit of independence which often went as far as heresy. Thus in the fourteenth D . century Wycliffe and the Lollards his disci- ine Ketor- . J . J mation in Eng- pies, had encountered the most active sympa- land (1531-52). t hy ; an d distrust, if not hatred, against Rome was as prevalent among the clergy as among the people. It was, however, a vulgar and guilty incident, the love of Henry VIII. for Anne Boleyn, which brought about the schism of England. Henry VIII. had been married twenty-four years to Catherine of Aragon when one day, in 1527, he discovered he was a relative of his wife in a degree prohibited by the canons of the Church. He demanded of the Pope a decla- ration that the marriage was null. Clement was the prisoner of Charles V., and Charles V. was the uncle of Catherine. "I find myself," wrote the pontiff, "between the anvil and the hammer." He negotiated; but the king, impatient at his delays, had his Parliament proclaim him protector and supreme chief of the Church of England (1531); the follow- ing year he married Anne Boleyn. Clement VII. issued a sentence of excommunication against the king. The always docile Parliament decreed the suppression of the monastic orders, and the king confiscated the property of the monas- teries (1536). CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 181 Henry VIII. when separating from the Holy See pretended, however, to remain orthodox : he remembered having written against Luther; and in his charters and diplomatic protocols with equal pride employed his title of Defender of the Faith and King of France. Woe to the Catholic who denied the religious supremacy of the king: he was beheaded ! Woe to the Dissenter who denied the real presence: he was burned! As early as 1531 punishments commenced. Three Prot- estants were burned that none should doubt the orthodoxy of the king ; in 1535 he beheaded the cardinal bishop Fisher, who disapproved of the king's divorce, and the chancellor Thomas More, who refused to acknowledge his religious supremacy. The latter was a beautiful character, and one of the noblest spirits of the century. From that day the volup- tuous and sanguinary Henry VIII. put England in mind of the most frightful tyrants of Rome. He espoused six wives, repudiated two, Catherine of Aragon (1532) and Anne of Cleves (1540), and sent two to the scaffold, Anne Boleyn, the cause of the schism (1536), and Catherine Howard for irreg- ularities prior to her union with the king (1542); a third, Catherine Parr, came near ascending it on account of her religious beliefs. The sixth, Jane Seymour, whom he had espoused after Anne Boleyn, had died in giving birth to the prince who became Edward VI. (1537). When Parlia- ment, in order to teach the English what they should believe and what they should not believe, had adopted the Bill of Six Articles, which the Reformers called the Bill of Blood (1539), an inquisition more terrible than that of Spain covered England with funeral piles. Among the victims are counted 2 queens, 2 cardinals, 3 archbishops, 18 bishops, 13 abbots, 500 priors or monks, 14 archdeacons, 60 canons, more than 50 doctors, 12 dukes, marquises, or earls, 29 barons, 335 nobles, no women of rank; in all 72,000 capital condemnations. Never revolution had im- purer sources and was established by ways more bloody and more shameful. To murder was added spoliation. All the real and personal property of the monasteries had been seized by the king. It was not enough. He multiplied fines, confiscations, imposts, debased the currency, and despite all his extortions, loaded with debts, became bank- rupt to settle his accounts. This bankruptcy was, more- over, not made according to ordinary legal forms. Parlia- ment by a special act dispensed the king from restoring what 182 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. he had borrowed. This same Parliament had given the force of law to the royal ordinances. Thus the English, who thought they abandoned only their political liberty when, after the War of the Roses, they allowed Henry VII. to seize absolute power, now saw the money, the blood, the creed even, of the nation sacrificed to an abominable tyrant. But by publishing a translation of the Bible in the common tongue Henry VIII. became without wishing it a propagator of heresy. Besides the royal reform, which was limited to some insignificant modification of the liturgy and to the sup- pression of the authority of the Holy See, there sprang up a popular reform, which deviated widely from "the Catholic doctrines and discipline. Prosecuted implacably by the de- fenders of the official faith, the Dissenters wished to acquire religious liberty, and were to make common cause with the promoters of political liberty. The fall of the Stuarts and of despotism in England was to have no other cause. Schismatic but orthodox with Henry VIII., England under Edward VI. renounced the Catholic doctrine. The regent Somerset, very zealous for the Reformation, proscribed the mass, ordered the use of the Bible in the common tongue, abolished saints' days, and allowed the laity to partake of both elements in the communion (1548). Warwick, who over- turned Somerset (1549) and had him executed three years later, was Catholic at the bottom of his heart; but he needed the Protestants, and he leaned upon them to keep away from the throne the princess Mary, daughter of Catherine of Aragon. And in effect scarcely had Edward VI. expired, before attaining his seventeenth year, when Warwick proclaimed Jane Grey, a young woman interesting for her learning and her virtues, but who had only remote rights to the throne, being great-granddaughter of Henry VII. Such was the veneration of the English for the blood of their kings that they respected the principle of heredity even when it was opposed to their interests or passions. War- wick was abandoned even by the Protestants, and the unhappy Lady Jane Grey paid with her life for the ten days' reign which the ambition of another had imposed upon her (i553)- Mary openly declared herself Catholic, re-established bishops who had refused the oath of supremacy and punished those who had taken it. Then she espoused the son of CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 183 Charles V., her cousin Philip II., in spite of the entreaties of the Commons and against the wish of the nation. Then England was solemnly reconciled with the Holy See. The possessors of monastic property had declared themselves ready to re-enter the Catholic Church provided they were guaranteed the peaceful retention of what they had taken ( 1554)- But from this moment also punishments began; be- tween February, 1555, and September, 1558, 400 Reformers perished, 290 of them by fire. The Protestants stigmatized Queen Mary with the surname of "Bloody," a title which would fit just as well their great Queen Elizabeth. Besides, Mary was unhappy all her life. Persecuted during her youth, she saw herself upon the throne disdained by the ungrateful Philip II., to whom she had devoted all her affection. He drew her into a war against France : England lost Calais. Mary survived this disaster only a few months. She several times repeated before expiring that if her heart was opened, on it would be found written the word Calais (1558). The premature death of Mary Tudor caused her sister, Elizabeth, the Protestant daughter of Anne Boleyn, to ascend the throne. Till then she had concealed her religious sentiments, and at first she appeared to hesitate as to the religious question. She even had herself crowned according to the Catholic ritual, and she charged the English ambassador at the Papal See to notify Pope Paul IV. of her accession. Elizabeth would cer- tainly have declared for the Reformation, but the haughty and violent reply of the pontiff precipitated her decision. Febru- ary 18, 1559, the House of Lords declared the queen supreme ruler of the Church as well as of the state. All the religious laws of Mary were annulled. An oath implying the rebirth of the spiritual supremacy of the crown was imposed on whoever had the least connection with the government. All the bishops, with the exception of one alone, refused and were removed; but of 7386 ecclesiastics of the second class only 180 curates and 95 incumbents imitated this disinterested- ness. The organization of the English Church was not regu- lated till three years after by the Bill of the Thirty-nine Articles (1562). The new religion maintained the episcopal hierarchy, and its clergy is to-day by far the richest of all Christendom. Born at the call of temporal power, it has continued constantly devoted to it, and has carefully nour- ished hatred of the papacy among the English people. Since the year 1532 England,at least the official class of that 184 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. country, changed its religion four times according to the caprice of its princes a sad spectacle which was presented nowhere else, and which reveals the power acquired by the royalty under the Tudors. Up to that time these changes had only been an affair of internal administration; but the religious question was going to become national, and the Reformation to be profoundly rooted in English soil by the efforts even which foreigners might make for its extirpation. Beginning with the reign of Elizabeth, Protestantism became a part of English patriotism to a degree that those were not far from being considered as traitors who remained attached to the Roman Church, and who, in reality placing their con- science above their country, for a long time lived in perma- nent conspiracy against the new order. Thus in less than fifty years, Switzerland, Great Britain, Sweden, half of Germany, and a part of France had sepa- rated from Catholicism. Christianity, which in ferences P among the Middle Ages had been so strongly united, the Protestant f oun d itself divided. The Roman religion churches. ... prevailed in the south of Europe, Protestant- ism in the north. But since the Protestant principles in- culcated free interpretation of Scripture there was always produced in the bosom of the Reformation a quantity of sects whose number constantly increased. However, three great systems predominated Lutheran- ism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism. The first was generally adopted in the north of Germany and the Scandinavian states; the second in Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and Scotland; the third, as its name indicates, in England. They had a common dogma, which is the true basis of Protestantism, the doctrine of justification by grace. Luther defended it against Erasmus in his book "De Servo Arbitrio," where are found peculiar maxims touching the uselessness of good works for salvation, even the inoperativeness of bad works for damnation, faith alone sufficing for justification. Calvin carried this doctrine to its farthest and unnatural con- sequences by teaching the predestination of election and damnation. Of the three Reformed churches the farthest removed from Catholicism was Calvinism. The Calvinists in fact like the Sacramentarians utterly rejected the dogma of the real presence, and saw in the eucharist, not the effective sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but a simple commemoration of the Supper. CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 185 The Lutherans did not admit transubstantiation, that is to say, the change of the elemental bread and wine into the body and blood of the Saviour; they believed, however, that Jesus Christ was there present as is fire in a hot iron, to borrow the comparison of Luther himself. So instead of accepting the mystery like the Catholics, or of denying it like the Cal- vinists, they replaced it by another more complicated, to which they gave the eccentric names of impanation and invin- ation. As to the Anglicans, they were separated from the Catholics upon this fundamental dogma by ambiguous expressions, the confession of faith of the Anglican Church in 1562 having designedly avoided pronouncing upon this question, declaring at once that the Supper is the com- munion of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, but that the communicant receives Jesus Christ only spiritually. At basis the Anglicans are Calvin ists by dogma and Catholics by liturgy. Of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church the Calvinists recognize only two, baptism and the Lord's Supper the first considered as a simple undertaking to bring up the child in a Christian manner, the second stripped of every mystery, neither being essential to salvation; the Lutherans also accept two, baptism and the eucharist, but transforming the latter, which was received by the Anglicans in such terms as diminished the distance between their Church and that of the Catholics. Besides, the Protestant communions agreed in rejecting the five other sacraments, in- asmuch as confirmation and ordination of priests, retained by the Anglicans, were not regarded as sacraments, but simply as pious rites; and even if they advise confession on the bed of death they do not make of it an imperative requirement. It is especially in their discipline that the Reformed churches differed from each other. We must not be aston- ished at this, for the Reformation had as its occasion and principal cause the abuses which had been introduced among the clergy. In this connection the Protestant faiths adopted two principal methods of organization. Lutheranism admitted a certain hierarchy; the Calvinist system rested upon the principle of equality of the ministers among themselves. In Great Britain the two systems reached their most complete development. Thus the Anglican Church with its archbish- ops, its bishops, its different degrees in the priesthood, its liturgy, its immense revenues, its colleges, and its establish- ments of instruction and charity, differed almost in nothing 186 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. [BOOK III. from the exterior organization of Catholic churches, save in simplicity of costume, the cold austerity of its worship, the employment of the vulgar tongue, and the marriage of priests. Subjected to royal supremacy, its existence was intimately united with the maintenance of the monarchy, and the clergy was in England the surest support of royalty. Its neighbor, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, on the contrary had democratic tendencies. There no distinctions whatsoever of rank or wealth existed among the members of the clergy. Hardly are they separated from the people by the nature of their functions. The Puritan sects speedily suppressed all special delegation of priesthood. Every Christian who had talent or inspiration was considered fit for the divine ministry. In the Scandinavian states bishops were retained under the name of superintendents, but the Lutheran bishops kept nothing of the wealth and the politi- cal influence of their Catholic predecessors. The princes or the sovereigns had exercised great care in confining their new clergy within the strictest limits of comfort, and in excluding them entirely from temporal affairs. But if the confusion of these two powers had had deplorable results in the Middle Ages, the subordination of the Church to the state in Lutheran countries had the unhappy effect of depriv- ing the ministers of the independence and dignity necessary to their functions. The Calvinist churches were poorer still ; but as they owed their origin only to themselves they enjoyed great liberty and a considerable moral empire. At Geneva, in France and Scotland, magistrates and lords were more than once com- pelled to listen to the energetic voice of their pastors. To recapitulate, the religious unity of Europe was broken, and in the camp of the Reformers dissenting sects abounded. Born of the spirit of revolt, the Reformation was at first un- faithful to its character. The Anglicans and Lutherans intrusted to their princes the spiritual power which they had refused the Pope, so that those who held the sword with one hand were seen with the other to write articles of faith, and to impose them under penalty of death or exile. "Luther has placed upon our head," said the gentle Me- lancthon, "a yoke of iron instead of a yoke of wood." In these countries the religious revolution contributed its aid to the political revolution, since to the rights of princes it added one newer still, that of governing the conscience. This was CHAP. XIII.] REVOLUTION IN CREEDS. 187 also borrowed from the usages of imperial Rome, natural consequence of a Reformation which claimed to be only a return to apostolic times. The Calvinists after the hard domination of Calvin remembered what was their origin. They acknowledged spiritual power only in the assembly of the faithful, that is to say, in the Church itself. Besides, the political con- stitution of the majority of Calvinist countries Switzer- land, Holland, Scotland prepared this solution. In Switzerland especially the best employment had been made of Church property by founding hospitals and schools. In general, Protestantism, replacing almost all worship by reading and meditation upon the Bible, widely diffused pri- mary instruction among the people. We have just seen that in politics this rebellion against spiritual authority resulted in many places in a greater sub- jection to the temporal power; it likewise happened in general civilization that this insurrection of the spirit of examination at first in no way profited the progress of general intelligence. In Germany all intellects were turned toward theology. Ancient letters were left aside that, as in the good days of scholasticism, men should be occupied by questions puerile because they were insolvable. The Renaissance died from this cause; painters and poets disappeared before the icono- clastic fury of one party and the theological passions of another; but the Adiaphorists, the Synergists, the Accident- aries, the Substantialists, the Crypto-Calvinists, swarmed and presented the impious spectacle of men who claimed to regulate the affairs of heaven, to measure the power of God, to determine his action and to draw up his decrees: this did not prevent them from constantly having in their mouth words of hate and death when speaking of Him who has spread everywhere over the world life and love. We shall see shortly that the contrecoup of the Reforma- tion produced like consequences in Italy and Spain. Luther and Calvin the former who surrendered to princes the spiritual power, the latter who burned Michael Servetus are therefore in no point of view the fathers of modern liberty, as their partisans have wished to call them. But in the field where man plows and sows very often springs up a harvest which he does not expect. Denial of authority in the spiritual order inevitably conducted to denial of authority 1 88 REVOLUTION IN INTERESTS. in the philosophic and social order. Luther and Calvin, although without wishing it, led to Bacon and Descartes as Bacon and Descartes unwittingly led to Locke and Mira- beau; so one can say that the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, like the philosophical revolution of the seventeenth century, perished in its affirmations but tri- umphed in its methods. The enslaved will of Luther, the predestination of Calvin, have gone to seek the vortices of Descartes, but the spirit which animated them has survived like Cartesian doubt, and is the soul of our time. It is curious to see that the great work of modern civiliza- tion, arrested in the countries where the two opposing doc- trines reached their most complete expression, was continued by that land which, repudiating both Luther and the Inqui- sition, proclaimed as early as the sixteenth century through two of its great men, L'Hopitaland Henry IV., the necessity of religious toleration. The France of Jean Goujon and of Corneille, of Poussin and Moliere, grasped the scepter of arts and literature which had fallen from the failing hands of Italy, and holds it still. In one aspect the religious revolution is attached also to the economic revolution. In Protestant countries the dimi- nution of saints' days increased the hours of labor as the closing of the monasteries multiplied the number of laborers. Production became greater, and consequently products cheaper. Here is found one of the reasons for the commercial and industrial superiority of Protestant countries to those which have remained strictly Catholic, as Italy, Spain, Bavaria, and Austria. BOOK IV. THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION AND THE RE- LIGIOUS WARS. PREPONDERANCE OF SPAIN. CHAPTER XIV. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND THE CATHOLIC RES- TORATION. Reforms at the Pontifical Court and Attempts at Reconciliation with the Protestants. Defensive Measures : The Inquisition (1542), the Index, the Jesuits. Council of Trent (1545-63). THE papacy, unexpectedly attacked, had in a few years lost half of its empire. The necessity of reformation in _, , the morals and discipline of the Church had Reforms at the _ , 1111 pontifical court at first been the text developed by all the tt recon^mati^n enemies of the Holy See. It was necessary to with the Protes- deprive them of this weapon. This the suc- cessors of Clement VII. understood; there- upon commenced at the pontifical court and through all the Catholic Church an admirable undertaking. To reform ecclesiastical discipline, to impose purity of morals upon the clergy, to awaken the faith of the people this was the achievement attempted by Paul III., Paul IV., Pius IV., Pius V., and Sixtus V., the pontiffs who governed the Church during the latter half of the sixteenth century. Paul III., who in certain respects belonged to the preced- ing age, inaugurated this new policy by raising to the car- dinalate only men distinguished by their talents and virtues. The Protestants themselves could only applaud the promo- tion of such prelates as Contarini, Sadoleto, Caraffa, and 19 THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. [ BOOK IV. Ghiberti. The tribunal of the rota,* the penitentiary, the Roman chancery, received a better organization. The abuse of dispensations and simony was prosecuted, and there was a moment when this labor seemed leading to the desired end, to a reconciliation with the Protestants ; for the most revered counselors of the Pope, especially Contarini, admitted the fundamental dogma of the Protestants, justification by grace, and showed an ardent desire to introduce reforms into morals and discipline. At the Colloquy of Ratisbon in 1541, where the wise Con- tarini had come as papal legate, one might believe peace concluded. The emperor, who was making ready for a great war against France, earnestly desired to reach a compromise. Luther himself, worn out by his struggles against the Ana- baptists and Sacramentarians, disenchanted when he saw the princes take possession of the Reformation for their own profit, did not seem to have been very strongly averse. The Protestants sent to the conference their most pacific theologians, Bucer and Melancthon. But the Reformed princes were less docile than the doctors. They interfered in the discussion; they drew up articles "to please them- selves," said Luther. "Our excellent prince, "he added, "has allowed me to read the conditions which he wishes to propose in order to have peace with the emperor and our adversaries. I see that they look upon all this matter as a comedy which they are acting, while it is a tragedy between God and Satan where Satan triumphs and God is sacrificed. But the catastrophe will come." This is from his letter of April 5, 1541. The princes, in effect, who had seized the property of the Church, could not wish for a peace which would have condemned them to restitution, or which would at least have hindered their encroachments. There was also a secret opposition on the part of some Catholics. Francis I. was afraid of the influence which this pacification would give the emperor in the empire. A united Germany seemed to him an object of dread. Others, like the Archbishop of Cologne, feared the price at which peace would be bought. "We should be compelled," he wrote the Pope, "to make too many concessions." Contarini * So named because a large circular mosaic (rota, wheel), adorned the room where the members met. This tribunal was composed of eleven doctors of theology, chosen from France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and empowered to decide all matters having reference to ecclesiastical benefices. CHAP. XIV.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 191 was disavowed by the Pope as the Protestant doctors had been by their princes. The hope of reconciliation being lost, the Church armed herself for the combat. In 1542 a new Inquisition, of which the superior tribunal sat at Rome, was instituted. Six inquisitors general had Defensive the mission of seeking out and punishing on measures : The either side of the mountains every attack upon Inquisition (1542), , , . , XT . , , < ,, the index, the the faith. Neither rank nor dignity could deliver from their jurisdiction. They had the right to incarcerate suspected persons, to inflict capital punishment upon the guilty, and to sell their goods. It was enjoined upon them, in a word, to do everything to stifle and extirpate the heresies which had burst forth in the Christian community. The Inquisition commenced its task with so much energy that the highways leading from Italy into Switzerland and Germany were covered with fugitives. Ap- prehension reigned from one end of the peninsula to the other. Even the Duchess of Ferrara, daughter of France though she was, was endangered. "She mingled tears with her wine," said Marot. The academies were broken up at Modena and Naples. All examination in matters of faith was forbidden ; everything that breathed novelty was watched and proscribed. The Congregation of the Index was established and the lists of prohibited books were multiplied; no ancient or modern work could be printed without the permission of the inquisitors. In all Italy, Venice alone subordinated the inquisitor to civil authority. A cardinal and bishop were thrown into prison, individuals of less rank were drowned or burned. These means succeeded, and Catholic unity and orthodoxy were saved in the peninsula, but at what a price! The subjection of the Italians to the house of Austria had slain political life: the measures to extirpate or prevent heresy slew intellectual life. Men ceased to think; art de- clined like letters, and Italy became a land of the dead. Did morals gain? The cicisbeos and the bandits answer as to private and public morality. Where neither citizens nor soldiers nor artists nor poets nor writers were found, could one find men? The Inquisition was considered only a measure of defense: it was necessary to attack the Reforma- tion in its home. Catholicism had retreated long enough; the thing was to march forward. The Holy See multiplied the pious militia which combated for it. 192 THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. [BOOK IV. All the great epochs of the Church are marked by the creation of new monastic orders or by the reform of those already existing: hence the reform of the monasteries under the Carlovingians; that of the rule of St. Benedict in the tenth and eleventh centuries; the creation of the mendicant orders in the thirteenth. In 1522 was seen the reform of the Camaldules; in 1525 that of the Franciscans, which gave birth to the Capuchins; toward 1530, the creation of the Barnabite order, which had been preceded six years before by that of the Theatins by Caraffa, afterward Pope Paul IV. The members of this last order made a vow of chastity, obedience, and poverty; but they did not beg, and waited for alms, not going to seek them, something which had given rise to grave abuses; and they came in contact with active life and society by preaching, ministration of the sacrament, and visits to the sick and to prisoners. This new order quickly drew attention by the virtues of its members, and in its ranks were recruited the upper clergy of Italy. But most conspicuous of all was the order of the Jesuits. This great society has spread everywhere, and everywhere it has had enemies. The world has exhausted itself in saying of it good and bad. Its founder, Ignatius de Loyola, a Bis- cayan gentleman of romantic mind, passed through asceticism to reach one of the strongest political conceptions the world has known. He had the idea of adding to the three ordinary vows a fourth special vow of obedience to the Pope. Thus against Protestantism, which planted itself upon free exami- nation, and which disposed the mind toward revolt, Ignatius de Loyola appealed to absolute submission. The Reforma- tion, whether it wished it or not, when it was not taken pos- session of by the princes, established liberty. The Jesuits counterbalanced this tendency by throwing themselves toward the opposite extreme:"* they labored to restore authority. The other orders separated themselves from the world to live in silence and prayer, in the shade and solitude of the clois- ter; the Jesuits exempted themselves from the external acts of devotion which, performed at the choir in common in the monasteries of the other orders, consumed so large an amount of time; they were unwilling to bind themselves to the wearing of a monkish dress: they used only the ordinary ecclesiastical attire, and often they laid even this aside to as- sume that of merchants in India, and in China that of the mandarins; they made vows of poverty, but for the indi- CHAP. XIV.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 193 vidual only, not for the corporation, thus permitting acquisi- tions for the latter. Politics, science, literature, they neg- lected no means of influence, no source of power, giving up all to religion and to the authority of the sovereign pontiff. Confessors of princes in Europe and apostles of the faith in India and America, they had their learned men, diplomats, and martyrs; they possessed also able teachers, for one of their principal ends was to acquire the right of training youth, and of this mission they showed themselves worthy by their learning and virtues. We are speaking here of the early days of the Jesuit order, of its heroic age, when its members had only the ambition of a legitimate influence with the talents and virtues con- ducting to it. But when they had entered into uncontested possession and enjoyment, then the institution deviated in its conduct from the austere rules established by its founder. They labored less for the Church than for the corporation; they no longer confounded the interests of the Holy See and those of the order. To the austerity of a pure life, they substituted a suppleness of principles more fit for gaining partisans than for making genuine Christians. After having with reason fought against the Protestant doctrine of justifi- cation by grace, while making large account of free will, they ended by representing almost every act as excusable, and thereby rendered morality useless; after having sustained in politics the sovereignty of the people even to teaching that it is permitted to kill a tyrant, they threw themselves violently upon the other side. But we are discussing an epoch far from the time when the confessors became courtiers, and when a fesv of the successors of the heroic St. Francis Xavier transformed their missions into commercial enterprises. The organization of the Society of Jesus was admirably devised. First, its general was chosen for life that the same direction might always preside over the government of the society. Below him were the professed friars, who had made vows of chastity, poverty, and absolute obedience, and who had charge of missions wherever they were necessary, in the midst of heretics as well as in the midst of barbarians. Next came the spiritual coadjutors, clothed with priestly char- acter, but devoted especially to public instruction. While the friars ceaselessly traversed the world to preach, hear confessions, and make converts, the coadjutors, settled in localities with the schoolmen, who formed the third and last 194 THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. [BOOK IV. class, there gained influence and controlled the education of youth. Till then this education had remained in the hands of literary persons whose secular and pagan habits had become peculiarly suspicious since the Reformation. The Jesuits undertook the task of replacing them, and they suc- ceeded by a more accurate method of instruction, and by a better division of studies. Moreover, in their colleges tui- tion was gratuitous, as was the mass in their churches. Finally, that no case should arise to distract the coadjutors and the schoolmen from their labors, the colleges might possess revenues, whose administration was confided to lay coadjutors. Severe laws secured the discipline of the order and the maintenance of its hierarchy. Vows could only be pro- nounced at thirty years of age, so that the order should not be exposed to dangerous repentances and that the chiefs might have the time to become acquainted during a long novitiate with the peculiar qualities of each so as then to decide where one would serve best. No members, said their constitution, could receive or write letters without their being read by a superior. When entering the society the novice was to make a general confession and to state his good qual- ities as well as his defects. The superior appointed his con- fessor and reserved to himself absolution for those cases which it might be useful for him to know. No one was to desire a rank above his own, and all the members were for- bidden to seek any ecclesiastical dignity. If the lay co- adjutor did not know how to read and write he could learn only with the permission of his superiors. One should allow himself to be governed by his superiors with complete abnegation and blind submission, as the staff which serves according to the will of him who carries it. The most absolute obedience took the place of all other motives of human activity. The new order made the most rapid progress. In 1540 the Pope had conditionally approved its creation; in 1543 he had approved it fully. When Ignatius died in 1556 the society already counted 14 provinces, 100 colleges, 1000 members. Spain and Italy were conquered; Austria and Bavaria occupied; France and the Netherlands entered upon; and hardy missionaries were traversing the Levant, Brazil, the Indies, Japan, and Ethiopia. So the grateful Popes granted to this devoted militia all the privileges of CHAP. XIV.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 195 other orders, and, moreover, the authority to confer aca- demic degrees, to conduct religious services in all the churches, even during an interdict to bestow absolution in the cases reserved to the Holy See; in fine, to be free from all local jurisdiction. Thus in the bosom of the Catholic Church they were reforming abuses, were animated by ardent piety, and arming themselves with discipline and obedience for I he Council , 1*111 T i i of Trent (1545- the great doctrinal battle. In order to draw its unity closer the Church had its great ecu- menical council. Paul III. convoked it at Trent. It had been long demanded by all parties; but all parties feared it equally, because none of them was sure of there bringing about the triumph of its personal interests. When at last it met, in 1545, the rupture was definite and the Protestants were unrepresented. All the Catholic powers sent to Trent their ambassadors and prelates. The council was subscribed to by 4 legates, n cardinals, 25 archbishops, 168 bishops, 39 representatives of absent bishops, and 7 generals of reli- gious orders. Thus by the number as well as by the talents and renown of its members the Council of Trent was not inferior to the eighteen ecumenical councils which had preceded it. From the first sessions the pontifical influence had pre- dominated. The inquisitor Caraffa and the Jesuit Lainez directed the debates and controlled all the decisions. So there were no more conciliatory measures, always fruitless; no more concessions, henceforth dangerous. The Catholic doctrine was affirmed with inexorable frankness, and the- ology was delivered from the mists gathered about it by dia- lectics. The declaration was made that the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures belonged only to the Church. All the Protestant doctrines upon grace and justification were condemned, and the seven sacraments were pronounced in- dispensable. To more energetically establish unity by ren- dering dissent impossible it was decided that there should be made a catechism for instruction (the Roman Catechism), which St. Charles Borromeo was charged with drawing up, a breviary and missal for church service and for theological studies, and a new edition of the Vulgate, which Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. accomplished. Firm and united in everything which regarded only the faith, the fathers of the council were divided upon certain 196 THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. [BOOK IV. questions of ecclesiastical discipline. Thus the prelates who were not Italians, and as such especially attached to the Pope, persisted in wishing a formal declaration that their institution was divine. But since they received their bull of appointment from the Pope, how could they have been estab- lished simply by divine right? If the council formally stated this right the Pope was nothing more than a bishop like them. His chair was the first in the Latin Church, but not the origin of the other chairs; it lost its authority; and this question, which seemed at first purely theological, was linked with the most delicate politics. The council, transferred from Trent to Bologna in 1546 by Paul III. and restored to Trent in 1551 by Julius III., was obliged to disperse in 1552 on the approach of the Lutherans, commanded by Maurice of Saxony, and held no sessions for ten years. This long interruption must be specially attributed to the political embarrassments in which the Holy See was involved after the assassination of Pietro Ludovico Farnese in 1547 by an agent of the Spanish governor of Milan. Paul III. wished for a moment to break with the emperor and throw himself into the arms of France; his death in 1549 and the accession of the pacific Julius III. prevented this rupture. It burst out under Caraffa, who became Pope under the name of Paul IV. in 1555. This energetic Pope wished to restore liberty to Italy: "Whatever be the sentiment of others, I wish to save my country. If my voice is not heard I shall at least enjoy the consolation of having raised it to defend so grand a cause. I think one day it will be said that an Italian, an old man, bending over the tomb, and who one would have thought had nothing else to do save repose and weep over his faults, had his soul filled with this glorious design." He meant, however, in no way to relax his severity against the heretics nor his ardent zeal for Catholic reformation; but the struggle in which he dared to engage against Spain too profoundly divided the Catholic powers to permit the recall of the council. When the sword of the Duke of Alva had annihilated the last remains of Italian independence, the Holy See regained largely in the spiritual domain what it had lost in the tem- poral. In the last sessions of the Council of Trent, which was reopened in 1562, Pope Pius IV. by political conces- sions made to Philip II. averted the religious reforms which it seemed disposed to wrest from him. By ceasing to assert CHAP. XIV.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 197 his rights over crowns he prevented anything more being said of reforming the Church in its chief. The council instead of raising itself above him, after the example of the fathers of Constance and Basel, humbled itself before his authority. The spiritual power of the Holy See was con- firmed over all Catholicism. The Pope remained sole judge of changes to be introduced in Church discipline, infallible in matters of faith, supreme interpreter of canons, uncon- tested chief of bishops. Rome could console herself for the decisive loss of part of Europe when she saw her power developed in the Catholic nations of the south, who reli- giously pressed closer around her. The ecclesiastical reformation was accomplished under Pope Pius V. (1566-72). The inflexible old man made the majority of Italian states admit the Roman Inquisition, and watched severely over faith and morals. The bishops were compelled to reside in their dioceses, the monks in their monasteries; the laity were forced to observe the ceremo- nies of the faith; whoever violated Sunday had on the third offense his tongue pierced and was sent to the galleys; the physician could not visit three times a sick person who had not confessed. The German College founded by the Jesuits became a nursery of priests for Italy and Germany. Finally, to round out this return toward the times of great pontifical activity, Pius V. made himself the chief of a crusade which was terminated by the glorious victory of Lepanto. Gregory XIII. followed in the spiritual government the vigorous impulsion which had been given by Pius V. He deserved the thanks of all nations for his reform of the Julian calendar* (1582). But his charity knew no bounds and * The solar year consists of 3650!. sh. 48m. 465. (Le Verrier). The astronomers of Julius Caesar reckoned it 36sd. 6h., thus making it urn. 145. too long. They established a civil year of 36sd., but every fourth year added a supplementary day in order to compensate for the 6h. taken from each year. Till 1582 the Julian calendar was followed. By that time the um. 145. added to the civil year had formed an excess of iod., and the civil year was that much later than the solar year. To make the relation exact Gregory XIII. cut off those iod. and decided that October 5, 1582, should be reckoned October 15. In addition he decreed that in the space of 400 years 3 leap years should be omitted, and that this omission should take place on those years terminating the century the number of which was not divisible by 400. Thus 1600 was a leap year ; so 2000 would be ; but not 1700, 1800, or 1900. The Gre- gorian reform was at once adopted in Catholic countries, but later in those which are Protestant ; in England no earlier than 1752. Hence arises 198 THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. [BOOK IV. fell into extravagance. As a temporal sovereign he lacked order and energy; he allowed brigandage to organize itself on a large scale in the Roman states. Happily he had as successor Sixtus V. (1585-90). This former swineherd, supported by charity in a monastery, was sixty-four years old when he was raised to the papacy. This honor seemed to renew his youth : hence the legend that at the moment of his exaltation he threw away his crutches. First he attacked the brigands, put a price on the head of their leaders, and held their relatives responsi- ble. "As long as I live," said he on the very day of his coronation, "every criminal shall suffer capital punishment," and he kept his word. The governors and judges who showed a disposition to untimely clemency were replaced by others more severe; the cardinals charged with executing his edicts in the provinces punctually followed his vigorous intentions; and at Bologna a noble, Count Pepoli, lost his life for having given shelter to bandits. At the news of any assassination the good Gregory XIII. was satisfied by rais- ing his hands to Heaven and groaning; Sixtus V. said, "They can call me ferocious and sanguinary, but I have seen in Scripture that the best sacrifice one can make to God is the punishment of crime and the blasting of malefactors and disturbers of the public peace." "Yet," says Duclos, "I maintain that there were fewer executions in his reign than there had formerly been murders in a month." By this severity a race of assassins and robbers disappeared who were so strongly established that men treated with them for the assassination or mutilation of an enemy, or for the plunder of property, and who after having committed all possible horrors found a sure asylum in the palaces of car- dinals and princes from the prosecution of officers of justice. At the end of two years the ambassadors solemnly congratu- lated him upon the security of the highways in the pontifical dominions. The finances were in the greatest disorder. The reign preceding that of Sixtus V. had exhausted the revenues of three principalities. To re-establish them he had recourse to an economy as rigid as his justice and to the establish- the distinction of old and new style, difference between which was at first 10 days. The Russians and Christians of the Eastern churches still retain the Julian calendar ; hence the difference between them and us is now 12 days. The day we call January I they call December 20. CHAP. XIV.] THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 199 ment of new sumptuary taxes. He could thus form a re- serve of 4,500,000 scudi and defray the expenses of useful works. He enlarged Rome and adorned it. He brought to the Quirinal and the Capitoline from a distance of 22 miles the "aqua felice, " which supplies 27 fountains. The popu- lation rose to more than 100,000 souls, a figure which it had not attained for centuries. He had the architect Fontana erect the obelisk of Calig- ula, an enterprise in which Julius III. and Paul III. had failed. He built the Vatican library, and added to it a print- ing establishment designed to make in many different lan- guages correct and exact editions of Scripture, the Church fathers, and liturgic works which had been corrupted or altered by time, human negligence, or the bad faith of the publishers. As spiritual chief of Christianity he followed the austere traditions of his predecessors, and published an infinite number of bulls to reform the discipline of the religious orders. He also fixed the number of the cardinals at 70, and divided them into three classes, 6 bishops, 50 priests, and 14 deacons, each one having as his title the name of a church in Rome; there has been no deviation since from this arrangement. Because discipline was in fact confirmed, morals purified, and the scandal of immense riches and of the worldly life of the bishops restrained, the religious spirit was reanimated. Asceticism and religious enthusiasm reappeared. Again were seen wonders, saints and martyrs, the latter among the apostles sent by the Propaganda into the perilous missions of the two worlds. The reform of the religious orders con- tinued: new orders were founded, whence most commonly was excluded the formal devotion of the ancient monks, and where long psalmodies and brutal macerations were replaced by intellectual labors, by heart impulses, above all by charity. These three tendencies are admirably represented: the first by the Benedictines of St. Maure, by the priests of the Oratory, by the recluses of Port Royal; the second by St. Theresa and St. Francis de Sales; the third by St. Jean de Dieu and the French St. Vincent de Paul. But at Trent and Rome something more was hoped from this restoration of Catholicism. The image of Gregory VII. had passed before the eyes of his successors, and the regene- rated Church had of necessity resumed the ambition of her 200 THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. grand pontiffs. To her misfortune this reconstitution of pontifical monarchy took place at the moment when the other monarchies, having likewise attained absolute power, could not humble themselves under any authority whatsoever, nor admit that a foreign prince could exert direct action in their states. If then the decisions of the Council of Trent in mat- ters of faith were accepted by the Catholic powers, it was by no means the same with its decisions in matters of discipline. Poland and Portugal alone, at the two extremities of Catho- lic Europe, raised no objection against them. But the French parliaments rejected them as contrary to the liber- ties of the Gallican Church, so that the Council of Trent has never been formally accepted in France. The empire and Hungary followed this example, and the Germans like the French maintained the doctrine of Constance and Basel, asserting the superiority of councils to the Pope, which Bossuet and all the Gallican Church proclaimed in 1682. Philip II. himself accepted the acts of Trent only with certain restrictions: the government of Venice restricted di- rect communication of its clergy with the Holy See, and little by little the Catholic sovereigns appropriated a part of those prerogatives which the Protestant princes had seized by force. Against these rights of civil authority the Church has struggled during the last eighty years with increasing energy. Ultramontanism has reundertaken in the nineteenth century the work of the sixteenth: it is too late, for if the Church is more compact it is less forceful, and the spirit of the world has entered upon other paths. CHAPTER XV. THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98). The Catholic Chiefs and the Protestant Chiefs. Struggle of the Two Religions in the Netherlands ; Formation of the Republic of the United Provinces (1566-1609). Struggle of the Two Religions in England ; Elizabeth and Mary Stuart ; the Great Armada (1559- 88). Religious Wars in France (1562-98). THE restored Church could now combat with words; she needed an arm to combat also with the sword. Uc ^ a ^t' 6 distance from Madrid in a fright- chiefs and the ful solitude upon the slopes of the Guadarrama, chiefe stant swept by winds of extreme violence, rises an immense monument of granite; seventeen main buildings cut each other at right angles and form twenty-two courts: the whole represents an overturned gridiron in memory of the instrument of torture which served for capital punishment to St. Lawrence. The door of the grand entrance of this somber edifice, where, how- ever, the court came every year to spend the latter part of autumn, opens only twice for princes, at their birth and death. It is at once a monastery and a palace, the Versailles and St. Denis of Spain: they call it the Escurial. There in this sad dwelling lived a man who reigned forty-two years over the vastest empire of the world, and whom Protestant writers have named the "demon of the south." In Spain he wore four crowns: those of Castile, Navarre, Aragon, and later that of Portugal. He was master of Sicily and Sardi- nia; of Naples and Milan in Italy; of Roussillon, Franche Comte, Charolais, Artois, and Flanders in France; of the Netherlands at the mouths of the Scheldt, Meuse, and Rhine ; of Tunis and Oran on the northern coast of Africa; of Cape Verd, the Canaries, the islands of Fernando Po, Annobon, and St. Helena, that is to say, of the Atlantic ; of Mexico, 202 THE CATHOLIC RESTORATION. [ BOOK IV. Peru, and Chili, that is to say, of America; of Cuba, St. Domingo, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Jamaica, that is to say, of the Gulf of Mexico. Finally, in Oceanica he pos- sessed the Philippines, and he was to inherit the Portuguese colonies upon the coasts of Africa, India, and Oceanica. The sun did not set upon his states, and they were wont to say, "When Spain moves, the world trembles." To defend so many kingdoms he had the golden harvests of the New World, of which Charles V. had only the first fruits, the best disciplined troops, the most skillful generals of Europe Philibert Emmanuel, the conqueror of St. Quentin; the Duke of Alva, the conqueror of Muhlburg; his natural brother Don Juan of Austria, who was to gain the great victory of Lepanto; the Duke of Parma, the most skill- ful tactician of that century. In his ports of war were found one hundred ships of the line, in his ports of commerce a thousand merchantmen ; in all his states, finally, he had abso- lute power, and in Spain the devotion of a whole people. "The Spaniards do not love him," said Contarini "they adore him; and they would fear to offend God himself by transgressing his revered commands." To all these forces we must add that which Philip II. derived from himself. We have seen him after the abdication of his father, Charles V., pursue against France a first war, which the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis terminated (1559). He had then re- turned to Spain, no more to leave it. Henceforward it was from the recesses of his cabinet that he governed, by the eloquence of his diplomats that he negotiated, by the sword of his generals that he fought. But Philip had in the highest degree a passion for power, great persistency in labor, eyes always open upon the world from Mexico to the extremity of Sicily to inspect his ministers and his empire; finally, he knew how to preserve an impassive soul, a severe and unmoved bearing in the midst of the disappointments of politics and the excitement of passions. When he learned that his invincible fleet was annihilated, he simply said, "I did not send it to fight against the elements." But what was this man to do who already commanded so many nations? Charles V. had dreamed of preponderance, if not of universal dominion, and had died in the struggle; the son undertook the idea of the father with a political and religious exaltation that the conqueror of Pavia had not known. In the eyes of Philip II. the Protestants were ene- CHAP. XV.] THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98). 2O 3 mies not only of the altar but of the throne. Thus he made himself the champion of Catholicism as much by policy as by conviction; for he well understood that the Church with its unity and rigid discipline was the firmest support of absolute crowns, and he destroyed the Reformers not only in his states, where he stifled even the least germs of heresy, but through- out the earth. As he hated Protestantism as much as he feared it, he recoiled before no means of crushing this hos- tile principle. This was the thought of his entire life. To it he consecrated rare talents; for it he expended all his mili- tary forces, all his gold, which he threw away by handfuls to subsidize in Holland assassination, in England conspiracies, in France civil war. The world knows with what success and also with what results. When the two kings of France and Spain had signed so speedily the peace of Cateau-Cambresis, it was to carry into the government the new spirit which animated the Church and to wage against heresy a pitiless combat. The one took upon himself to smother it in France, the other to hinder its birth in Italy and Spain, then to crush it out in the Nether- lands and England. Henry II. dead, his sons, the last Valois, continued his design, and at first had need only of the counsels of Spain. The first, Francis II., reigned less then a year and a half (1559-60); the second, Charles IX., was twenty-four years old when he died (1574); the third, who alone reached mature age, remained always as to certain sides of his char- acter in a sort of minority or tutelage whence he issued only by furious transports of anger. This line of the Valois was therefore incapable of controlling the great battle of creeds in France; but at its side were found other minds powerful and keen, but unfortunately more ready for evil than for good. First was their mother, the Italian Catherine de Medici, of a mind without conviction, of a character without scruple, who wished to have under her sons a power she had not possessed under her husband, and who never endeavored to govern save by influencing men through their vices and bad passions. Two families disputed with her this power: the one foreign, that of the Guises ; the other most national, that of the Bourbons, whom their birth brought near the throne, but who were separated from it by the recollection of the Constable's treason. Younger members of the house of the Duke of Lorraine, 204 THE CA THOLIC RESTORA TION. [BOOK IV. the Guises had come into France very poor and had there risen rapidly by their services. They had early formed in- timate relations with Rome and were actuated by a high ambition. They declared themselves heirs of the house of Anjou, and had claimed the crown of Naples, which had drawn closer their connections with the Holy See. Their niece, Mary Stuart, was Queen of Scotland; they made her Queen of France by espousing her to Francis II. At the court they asserted their right to the title and honors of for- eign princes; they displeased the nobility by claiming preced- ence, and discontented the first prince of the blood, the chief of the house of Bourbon, by causing the king, now become their nephew, to intrust to them all the administration of the country. Men of ambition much more than of faith, they organized the Catholics into a party when they saw the Protestants form a faction around the Bourbons their rivals; so that the religious wars were in France, at least for the majority of leaders, a struggle of politics as much as of creeds, and in certain respects the last great battle of feudalism against triumphant royal authority. To sustain it the Guises naturally drew still nearer Rome, and after having for a long time taken the advice of Philip II. took his gold, his sol- diers, and were on the point of placing France at his feet. Confronting these defenders of Catholicism the Protes- tant chiefs were Conde, of the house of Bourbon, the Prince of Orange, or the Taciturn, and Elizabeth of England, who probably reached the same religious convictions only through political interest; finally, Coligny, a. man who from a moral point of view is superior to all the rest. As to Henry of Navarre, he was still only a child. These are the actors: let us gaze at the drama which is unfolding on three principal stages in France, England, and the Netherlands. The spectacle seems to lack unity through this diversity of theaters, which have each their independent action, and also through the diversity of the interests engaged. The seven provinces of the Netherlands wished to have their ancient liberties respected, and England its independence. In France the contest goes even farther, and at the crisis of the struggle ends by becoming a ques- tion of government and social order: it is that the Middle Ages seek to return with their privileges of cities, castles, and provinces. But every century prints its own peculiar character upon affairs, because there are moral epidemics CHAP. XV.] THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98). 205 just as there are physical, and quite as contagious. In the second half of the sixteenth century every question takes on a religious form, and looking upon Europe from the height of the Vatican or the Escurial we shall see a like end pur- sued: the triumph of the Church as it had just been consti- tuted by the Council of Trent, and the domination or pre- ponderance of Philip, its military chief. It would be interesting to follow this grand drama in its entirety: To the declaration of war made by the kings of France and Spain against heresy as early as 1559 answer the Acts of Parliament which establish Elizabeth as supreme chief of the Anglican Church (1559), the conspiracy of Amboise (1560), the secularization of all the bishoprics of Brandenburg, and the suppression of the religious and military order of Livonia. The death of Francis II. (1560) suspends the crisis in France; but it breaks out with the massacre of Vassy(i562). Elizabeth gives succor to the Reform party in France; the death of the Duke of Guise before Orleans arrests the war, which Philip II. and Catherine de Medici secretly continue. In 1564 the Pope confirms by a bull the decrees of the Council of Trent, and the following year the conferences of Bayonne mark the good understanding of the governments of France and Spain for the extirpation of heresy. Persecution redoubling, the fire bursts forth in the Nether- lands and reaches France: compromise of Breda (1564); second and third wars of religion (1567 and 1568). In 1568 Philip II. drives his son to suicide, his wife to death, and the Moors to revolt. He establishes the Inquisi- tion in the Spanish colonies, and has Egmont and Horn be- headed in the Netherlands. But in Scotland the errors and the fall of Mary Stuart assure the victory to the Reformers. As the forces of Spain are employed in Andalusia against the Moors, on the Mediterranean against the Ottomans, in the Netherlands against the "Beggars," she possesses for France and England only the resource of conspiracies. The victory of Lepanto (1571) encourages them, and Norfolk endeavors to overthrow Elizabeth for the profit of Mary Stuart; Catherine de Medici endeavors to end with the Cal- vinist party by the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Catholi- cism triumphs! But mutilated and bloody, Protestantism arises again stronger than before; the Belgians unite with the Batavians 206 THE CA THOLIC RESTORA TION. [BOOK IV. (1576) and Elizabeth takes them under her protection (1578). The Ottomans themselves drive out the Spaniards from Tunis (1574). The acquisition of Portugal is by no means an increase of force to Philip II., since he employs this advantage poorly (1580), and the assassination of the Silent exasperates the Dutch and all Protestant peoples instead of depressing them. The English ravage with impunity the Spanish colonies, the Dutch those of Portugal. In 1585 the Duke of Anjou dies, the King of Navarre becomes the heir of the French crown, and the following year Elizabeth begins the trial of Mary Stuart, whose head falls some months later upon the scaffold. Everywhere Protestantism becomes menacing. A supreme effort is needed: the Guises treat with Philip II. (1586), the league makes ready to open France to his armies, all the states of the Catholic king exhaust themselves in giving him the fleet and army which shall bring back the Netherlands and England, and then France, under the Catholic faith and the law of Spain. But the Invincible Armada is destroyed (1588), the Guises are assassinated (1589), the league conquered (1593). Elizabeth and Henry IV. triumph. The edict of Nantes and the peace of Vervins are signed three weeks apart, and Philip II. dies four months later (1598). The independence of Europe is saved, toleration has gained its first victory, and intellectual liberty begins. A new state, the United Provinces, seats itself among the nations ; an ancient state, England, has the revelation of its future power; and France is placed by a great prince at the head of Europe. But so powerful had been the opposing effort that Spain remained as if broken for more than 200 years. Such is the general outline of this great picture; to paint it there is needed a canvas larger than I can control here, and I am reduced to present successively these three his- tories which it would have been better to portray together. The Netherlands were in the sixteeenth century the richest country of Europe; in the single year 1566 they had received from Lisbon, Italy, and England 80,000,000 two'reWgtons^n francs' worth of commodities. Bruges alone the Netherlands: h ac j bought nearly io.ooo.ooo francs' worth formation of . , ' . . -jj-j the republic of of Spanish wool. Antwerp it was said did ir^S^-Sr more business in a month than Venice in two years. In 1566 she had a thousand commer- cial houses. Every day 300 ships entered her harbor, and CHAP. XV.J THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98). 207 every week 2000 wagons reached her from Germany, France, or Lorraine. Lille, Courtai, Valenciennes, Douai, Brussels, were almost equally active. "Flanders," says a Spanish writer, "seemed then to make only a single city, prosperous communities so pressed upon each other." ("Flandriam continuam urbem.") It is not surprising, if the taxes of the Netherlands brought in more than those of Castile, that Philip II. could derive from this country as much as 35,000,000 francs in 1588. Charles V., his father, had cruelly persecuted the Reform party in the Netherlands they speak of 50,000 victims; but Fleming in heart as well as by birth, his adminis- tration, save as concerned with heresy, had in general been benevolent and able. He had favored the commerce of the Flemings by opening outlets for it; he loved them as his compatriots, surrounded himself with them, and intrusted to them the principal offices of his empire. Everything changed under Philip II. The Flemish nobility lost its credit at court to the profit of Spanish grandeeship. Men accustomed to the splendor of great affairs, to the movement of war and politics, saw themselves condemned to inaction. The people were not better treated. They had lent their ears to the sermons of Reformers which re-echoed around them. Philip II. to arrest the progress of heresy created four new bishoprics in the Netherlands, which he endowed at the expense of the abbeys of the country ; he introduced the decrees of the Council of Trent, and to secure the execu- tion of these measures he garrisoned the principal cities with Spanish troops and conferred on foreigners the principal offices. It seemed like a Spanish invasion of the Nether- lands. This little country, which asked only freedom to manufacture and sell, saw itself chained to a monarchy which exhausted its resources in impossible projects, which each day demanded more, and which each day gave less repose and security. Attacked in their national self-love, menaced in their religious as well as in their political liberties, the Nether- landers, nobles and burgesses, great and small, Catholics and Reformers, made complaint. The opposition was especially keen against Cardinal Granvelle, who was intrusted with the establishment in the Netherlands of absolute power and religious unity. The governor, Margaret of Parma, endeav- ored to banish public discontent by concessions. The 208 THE CA THOLIC RESTORA TION. [BOOK IV. Spanish troops were recalled, Granvelle was removed, but the edicts which he had promulgated remained ; and the nobility, giving in 1566 the example of resistance, signed the compromise of Breda by which the majority of the Flemish gentlemen promised each other mutual assistance. They then demanded of the governor the redress of their griev- ances. Margaret replied that she would support their demands before the king. Philip II. himself had appeared disposed to modify his severity; he had at least given such assurance to the Count of Egmont. A compromise was still possible. But the people, less patient than the nobility, rushed to arms, everywhere broke the images of the saints, overturned the altars, burned the pulpits, and showed in their retaliation as much violence as their enemies had shown cruelty in perse- cution. The terrified nobles rallied around the governor; the insurrection, isolated by its very excesses, was every- where conquered. Clemency could have rendered this victory fruitful. But in these troubles Philip II. saw only the justification of his preceding measures. He wrote to the Pope "that he would lose the provinces or would maintain there the Catholic religion"; he sent into the Netherlands his best army and the Duke of Alva, his best general (1567). No one was more capable of understanding and executing the intentions of Philip II. Cruel by system and not by passion, thereby keeping his conscience quiet, he looked upon force as the only means of government. An exceptional tribunal, com- posed of foreigners, and which received the too well merited name of "blood tribunal," entered at once upon its functions. Eighteen thousand persons were executed, among them the counts of Horn and Egmont, 30,000 despoiled of their goods; 100,000 quitted the country. The Duke of Alva had himself represented upon the public square of Antwerp trampling upon the prostrate Flemings. To better hold them in dependence he proposed to ruin them by subjecting them to a disastrous tax of one-tenth upon the price of merchandise sold. This tax was levied in such fashion that it absorbed seven-tenths of the value of certain mer- chandises of cloth, for example. It was the destruction of Flemish manufactures. The burgesses of Brussels rose in insurrection. Seventeen were about to be hung when arrived the news of the capture of Briel by the "Beggars." CHAP. XV.] THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98). 209 When the 200 deputies had come to ask of Margaret of Parma redress of grievances, a lord to reassure the governor, who showed herself greatly terrified, had said to her, "They are only beggars." The rebels received this contemp- tuous name as an honor, and assumed it to indicate their party. The barbarous rigor of the Duke of Alvagave them numerous recruits. After having long carried on a piratical war, which accomplished nothing, they undertook war on land, which might effect something; they made themselves masters of Briel, and forthwith Holland and Zealand took arms (1572). This was the signal of a struggle lasting thirty-seven years, at the end of which the northern provinces established them- selves as a republic. At the beginning of the war the insur- gents asked only religious liberty. Without doubt, having to struggle against an enemy so formidable as the King of Spain, they would have succumbed despite their heroic courage if they had remained without support; but they were sustained by the Protestants of Germany, England, and France ; moreover, they were aided by the nature of their country, cut up with canals, and by the ambition even of Philip II., who pursued too many great affairs at once to be able to bring a single one to a satisfactory conclusion. Especially they had the good fortune to find as chief William of Nassau, Prince of Orange. Great in reverses like Coligny, whose daughter he espoused, none knew better how to profit by the least success. He concentrated in his hands all the operations of war and politics, and made a powerful state of a few small revolted cities. The saying of Granvelle is well known when it was announced to him that the Duke of Alva had destroyed the army of the Prince of Orange: "Was the Silent captured?" "No." "Well, the duke has done nothing." Violence having failed, Philip replaced Alva by Don Luis de Requesens (1573). This new governor was unable to cap- ture Leyden, which liberated Holland, nor to save Middle- burg, which made him lose Zealand. After his death the army, left three years without pay and food, took care of itself by sacking the principal cities, among others Maest- richt and Antwerp. As a result the Catholics united with the Protestants, the Walloon provinces with the Batavian prov- inces, and the Confederation of Ghent was concluded (1576). Philip II. then sent into the Netherlands the conqueror 210 THE C A 7^ HO LIC RESTORATION. [BOOK IV. of Lepanto, Don Juan of Austria, who endeavored to make them believe in his moderation and his desire for peace. He was foiled by the distrust of the Protestants. He suc- ceeded at least in introducing germs of discord between the Batavians and the Walloons. The latter, distrusting the Calvinist William of Orange, in 1577 invited to direct the war against Spain the Catholic Mathias, Archduke of Austria, then the Duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III. of France (1578). Don Juan died at the age of thirty-one; his suc- cessor, the Duke of Parma, Alexander Farnese, profited by these divisions: skillfully mingling diplomacy and war, he succeeded in breaking the Union of Ghent ; the ten Walloon provinces being manufacturing and Catholic, the seven Bata- vian provinces being commercial and Calvinist, the opposi- tion of interest and creed brought about opposition of political views. The Walloons recognized Philip II. as king by the treaty of Maestricht (1579). But already the seven northern provinces (Holland, Zealand, Guelderland, Utrecht, Friesland, Overyssel, and Groningen) had drawn their union closer at Utrecht and had constituted themselves a federal republic, each preserving its distinct administration, but all subjected to the assembly of the States General, and having a stallholder, or governor general, who was William of Orange (January 23, 1579). Two years later the States General of The Hague, the federal capital of the United Provinces, sepa- rated solemnly from the crown of Spain, broke the seal of Philip II., and declared him deprived of all authority in the Netherlands. This declaration was the fundamental title of the new republic (1581). The definitive result of the war was attained. With all his genius and despite the assassination of the Prince of Orange by an agent of Spain (1584) Farnese could not reduce the northern provinces. Those of the south (Brabant, Limburg, Luxemburg, Flanders, Artois, Hainault, Namur, Zutphen, Antwerp, and Malines) attempted for a moment to make themselves an independent state under the Duke of Anjou (1581); but this prince committed only faults and quitted the Netherlands in shame. Leicester, whom Eliza- beth sent to sustain them, had no better success (1585). The queen best succored the republic by destroying the In- vincible Armada (1588). Exhausted by this great effort, distracted by the affairs of France, where he several times sent Farnese and the successors of that skillful general, CHAP. XV.] THE RELIGIOUS WARS (1559-98). 211 Philip II. seemed to renounce the Netherlands by giving them as dowry to his daughter Isabella, who was to espouse an Austrian archduke (1598). In 1609 Philip II. consented to a twelve years' truce with the States General of The Hague. The independence of the republic of the Seven Provinces was not, however, officially recognized by Spain till the treaty of Westphalia in 1648. In Britain the struggle of Catholicism and the Reforma- tion was personified in two women Elizabeth and Mary Stuart. twoWgfonVto Possessed of an elevated mind, of impe- Engiand; Eliza- rious character, of extreme haughtiness, with beth and Mary , . ,,.' stuart; the much energy, astuteness, and intelligence, ?i55 was confirmed. The three religions, Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, obtained equal rights; as to the pos- session of ecclesiastical property and exercise of worship, 284 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. everything was restored to the condition of Germany in 1624, except in the Palatinate, for which 1618 was declared the normal year. Many bishoprics and abbeys were secu- larized to furnish indemnities to the Protestant princes. Thus the Elector of Brandenburg had the bishoprics of Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Camin, and Minden; the Duke of Mecklenburg, those of Schwerin and Ratzburg; the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, the abbey of Hirschfeld with 600,000 crowns; the Elector of Saxony, Lusatia with several ecclesiastical estates. An eighth electorate was created in favor of the Palatine house; but Bavaria kept the Upper Palatinate. The imperial authority, but just now threaten- ing, was annulled; in the diet the right of suffrage was assured to all the princes and the German states upon all questions of alliance, war, peace, and new laws; they were confirmed in the full and entire exercise of sovereignty in their own territory; and they had the privilege of allying themselves with foreign powers, provided that it was not, as a useless restriction read, "against the emperor or against the empire." For a long time Switzerland and Holland had been distinct from Germany; this separation in fact received the sanction of law. The two powers that had caused Austria's defeat had stipulated important indemnities for themselves. Sweden had the islands of Rugen, Wollin, and Usedom, Wismar, Western Pomerania with Stettin, the archbishopric of Bremen, and the bishopric of Verden, that is to say, the mouths of the three great German rivers the Oder, Elbe, and Weser, with 5,000,000 crowns and three votes in the diet. France continued to hold Lorraine, all the while promis- ing to restore it to its duke when he had accepted the French conditions. She caused the empire to waive all claim to the three bishoprics, Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which she had held for a century; to the town of Pignerol, ceded by the Duke of Savoy in 1631; to Alsace, which was given over to her, with the exception of Strasburg, whereby her frontier in front of the Vosges reached the Rhine. She still held upon the east bank of that river Vieux- Brisach, and her right was recognized to put a garrison in Philippsburg. Free navigation of the Rhine was guaran- teed. These were great advantages, for by conquering Alsace o io EUROPE IN 1648. (Treaty of Westphalia) HI Longitude CHAP. XVIII.] THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR. 285 France placed herself on one side between Lorraine and Germany, on the other at the north of Franche-Cornte, which since Henry IV. she enveloped on the south; so that these two provinces found themselves thenceforward at French discretion, and their union with France was here- after nothing but a question of time. Thus France traced her frontiers better for her own defense; she was even assuming an offensive position. Through Pignerol she had a hold beyond the Alps in Italy; through Vieux-Brisach and Philippsburg she obtained a footing beyond the Rhine in Germany. Be- sides, by causing recognition of the right of the German states to form alliance with foreign powers she held the means of always buying some one of those indigent princes; and by guaranteeing the execution of the treaty she gave herself the right to interfere on every occasion in the affairs of Germany. The empire, being hereafter only a sort of confederation of four or five hundred states, Lutheran and Catholic, monarchical and republican, laical and ecclesias- tical, would of necessity become the theater of every in- trigue, the battlefield of Europe, as Italy had been at the beginning of modern times and for the same reasons its divisions and anarchy. The treaties of Westphalia, which are the basis of all diplomatic agreements from the middle of the seventeenth century down to the French Revolution, terminated the supremacy of the house of Austria in Europe, and paved the way for the ascendancy of the house of Bourbon. CHAPTER XIX. ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS AND CROMWELL. The Stuarts: James I. (1603-25); Charles I. (1625-40). The Long Par- liament (1640-49). The Commonwealth of England (1649-60). IF the house of Bourbon reached such a degree of great- ness under Louis XIV. it was not only because the Thirty The Stuarts Years' War had humbled the house of Austria King James in its two branches, the German and the (1603-25). Spanish, before France; it was also because the incompetency of the Stuarts during the same time caused England to descend from the lofty position to which Elizabeth had raised her. After the death of Elizabeth, the King of Scotland, James VI., son of Mary Stuart and great-grandson through the female line of the English king Henry VII., was recog- nized without opposition in England and Ireland under the name of James I. The first of the Stuarts had an awk- ward and embarrassed air and a grotesque figure. He pos- sessed many vices, but not a single real and unmixed virtue. His liberality was only profusion, his learning pedantry, his love for peace faint-heartedness, his policy cunning, his friendship a frivolous caprice. Henry IV. called him "Master James," and Sully said of him that he was the wisest fool whom he had ever known. Abroad James I. abandoned the Protestant policy that had made the greatness of England under Elizabeth. He refused to co-operate in the great schemes of Henry IV.; he sought for the friendship, even the alliance, of Spain, and remained almost indifferent to the ruin of his son-in- law, Frederick V., the Elector Palatine. At home he attempted to render his power absolute, and desired to make supreme the doctrine of the divine right of ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 287 kings. This was the motive of his whole conduct, the fun- damental principle of his policy. The Catholics, so cruelly persecuted by Elizabeth, counted, if not upon revenge, at least upon an alleviation of their lot under the son of Mary Stuart. James I. maintained the penal laws. As early as 1603 they tried to avenge themselves by two plots, the Main and the Bye, which cost many persons of distinction their liberty, among others Walter Raleigh, one of the former favorites and ministers of Elizabeth, and two priests their lives. In 1605 some of the most fiery spirits among them formed the abominable Gunpowder Plot. A few hours before the opening of Parliament a Catholic peer received an anonymous letter, in which was written: "I advise you, if you value your life, to find some excuse for delaying your presence at Parliament; for God and men are preparing to punish the perversity of the century. The danger will be passed as soon as you have burned this letter." The note was carried to the ministers, who despised this anonymous advice. The king was wiser that time than his counselors, and divined that a sudden explo- sion was meant. A visit was made to the cellars beneath the House of Lords, and thirty-six barrels of powder were found there, designed to blow up at the same time the king, his family, and the lords and commons, assembled for the royal session. One of the conspirators stood near; he was seized, put on the rack, and named his accomplices. They were all Catholics. They were tortured to death. Among their number was a provincial Jesuit, Father Garnet, whose guilt some affirmed and others denied. To-day England still celebrates on November 5 the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. The detection of that infernal conspiracy brought on a real persecution of the Catholics. They could not appear at court or in Lon- don; their residence must be at least fifteen kilometers from the capital, and they were forbidden to go more than seven kilometers away without a special permit signed by four mag- istrates. They were interdicted from the liberal professions or public offices, as Louis XIV. had interdicted the Protes- tants in France. A Catholic could not be either a phy- sician, a surgeon, a lawyer, a judge, or a municipal officer. In case of a mixed marriage that one, whether husband or wife, who was of the ancient faith had no claim upon the property of the other. Permission to keep a Catholic 288 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. domestic cost ten pounds sterling a month; in case of entertaining a Catholic guest the host must pay the same amount. Their houses could be searched at any time, con- trary to English law, which protects the individual liberty of the citizens and the sanctuary of the domestic hearth. Finally, in 1605 they were forced to take the oath of alle- giance, whereby they pledged themselves to defend the king against every plot, and acknowledged as impious and dam- nable the doctrine that a prince excommunicated by the Pope could be deposed by his subjects. It is only in our own day that the Catholics in England have been formally delivered from a legislation which placed them outside the benefits of common law. The Nonconformists had reason to expect better treat- ment from a prince who had been nurtured in their doc- trines in Scotland; James persecuted them pitilessly. Puri- tanism was even more odious to him than the Roman religion; for the Puritans set aside ecclesiastical hierarchy, and James I. said with reason: "No bishops, no king. " The first of the Stuarts, therefore, continued all his life rigidly attached to the Church of England, persecuting the Catholics who denied his religious supremacy, persecuting the Nonconformists, whose republican tendencies he dreaded. He failed in his attempt to establish Anglicanism in Scot- land (1617). The Puritans in order to escape from his executioners in 1620 sought in America, near Cape Cod in Massachusetts, a land where they could pray to God in their own way. Others were to follow them there. The United States of America was the ultimate result. Thus persecution succeeds! The spirit of liberty, however, was springing up again under a weak and prodigal prince, who wasted like a par- venu the rich heritage that his birth had given him. Thanks to her economy, Elizabeth had needed to convene Parliament but rarely. James I. on account of his own extravagance found himself involved in debt from the time of his accession. He assembled Parliament three times; three times he prorogued it almost immediately. The Houses were not willing to grant subsidies unless the king gave up his prerogative; the king promised no guarantee of liberty unless the Houses first voted subsidies. Both sides were equally persistent; it was useless for James in 1614 to send five members to the Tower; he could not CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 289 overcome the resistance made by the Commons. He was no more fortunate in 1617, and was obliged to dissolve Parliament. Nothing could have served better to arouse and at the same time to confirm the opposition of Parliament than the peculiar mingling of haughtiness and weakness which char- acterized James I. He wrote that the All-powerful had placed kings above the law; yet he allowed himself to be governed by prevaricating ministers or abandoned his power to unworthy favorites. At first he had permitted Robert Cecil, son of Lord Burleigh, whom he had found minister at the death of Elizabeth, to continue in that capacity, and had made him Earl of Salisbury. Covetous and unscrupulous, Cecil was none the less able. In 1612 he was replaced by a young Scotchman, Robert Carr, whom James appointed successively Viscount of Rochester and Earl of Somerest, and who, convicted of having poisoned one of this former friends, was succeeded by another favorite twenty-two years of age; this was George Villiers, who possessed every physical and mental grace save common sense. In two years he was made knight, gentle- man of the king's chamber, baron, viscount, Marquis of Buckingham, high admiral, guardian of the Cinque Ports, finally, absolute dispenser of all the honors, offices, and revenues of the three realms (1615). Buckingham employed his power with scandalous avidity, and in a short time amassed immense wealth, which he squandered in foolish luxury. The king let him alone, for he did the same. Unable to obtain subsidies from Parlia- ment, he had recourse to the most disgraceful traffic. The court offices and the judgeships were put up at auc- tion; new titles were created which were sold for cash; unjust lawsuits were instituted to confiscate the property of the accused; this example became so contagious that the famous Bacon, then chancellor, allowed himself peculations which caused his condemnation by the court of Peers to imprisonment and to the enormous fine of ,40,000 sterling (1621). The king, on his side, in 1616 sold to the States General for 2,728,000 florins the towns of Briel, Flushing, and Rammekens, given to Elizabeth as security for certain sums of money advanced or ex- pended by her on account of the United Provinces. The larger part of this money quickly passed into the favorite's 290 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. house, and the nation became indignant because traffic had been made of its influence. In spite of these expedients the treasury remained empty. James profited by the dangers that Protestantism encoun- tered in Germany to summon a new Parliament. But the Commons granted subsidies only on condition that the griev- ances of the nation should be redressed. The king again dissolved the assembly (1622). Attracted by the bait of a rich dowry, he resolved to give his son in marriage to an infanta of Spain. But this scheme failed, thanks to the scandalous folly of Buckingham, and, on the contrary, brought on a war with Spain (1623). In order to obtain money, it was necessary to grant to the parliamentary com- missioners the right of collecting taxes and of superintend- ing their use, to abolish monopolies and solemnly recognize individual liberty. James died a short time afterward (April i, 1625). He had just decided upon the marriage of his son with Henrietta of France, the sister of Louis XIII. James I., or Master James, as Henry IV. called him, de- bated a great deal and wrote no less. His principal works were the "Basilicon Doron" and the "True Law of Free Monarchy. ' ' The Tudors had established absolute power in reality; the first of the Stuarts wished to establish it in law, and the second of the works that we have just mentioned is the dogmatic exposition of this theory. In it James de- clares that the king rules and that the -subject obeys; that kings rule in virtue of divine right, and that the All- powerful, whose image they are, has set them above the law; that consequently a prince can make statutes and punish without the intervention of a parliament, and that he is not bound to the strict observance of the laws of the state. What the king wrote the Anglican clergy elevated to a doctrine, and in its canons of 1606 expressly recom- mended absolute obedience to the monarch. This double affirmation was a double indiscretion. Des- potism can exist a long time in deeds, it cannot suffer itself to be long discussed. James I. wanted to be a despot, but he did not know how. He lacked three necessary things: money, of which Parliament was the jealous dispenser; an army, which in that island did not exist; public opinion, which he had alienated. While he wrote about the theory of passive obedience the nation, by the discussion, accus- CHAP. XIX. J ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 291 tomed itself to liberty, and was shortly to gain it through revolution. England expected much from her new king. He was a prince of sedate and pure morals, earnest, well educated, who in his household maintained order and ) S I ' propriety. His manners and his air overawed the courtiers and pleased the people. His virtues would have gained him the esteem of all good peo- ple if sincerity had been combined with them. His ac- cession excited unanimous feelings of joy and hope. But this joy diminished when the king was seen to confide wholly in Buckingham and the new queen to be sur- rounded only by Catholics. The defiant spirit of the Reformers suspected a serious danger in the noisy but power- less intrigues of an imprudent woman. Compromised by the persons around him, Charles I. was also out of sympathy with the nation upon fundamental questions of political right. His father had imbued him with the doctrines of absolutism. In the rest of Europe he saw communal liberties abolished, aristocratic prerogatives crushed, and the power of the kings raised above all con- tradiction and obstacle. Charles I. loved his subjects; but to assure their happiness he intended, like the Tudors, to guard their liberty under lock and key. He forgot what had caused, not the ruin, but the eclipse of public rights: the fatigue of thirty years of war during the War of the Roses; then the question of the Reformation, which for thirty years more had occupied all minds; finally, the war with Philip II., when even the life of England was at stake. In the face of such perils the country could very well allow her kings to assume absolute power; but now that Spain was dying, that France was no longer threatening, and that the religious question was settled once for all, England wished to enter again upon her former ways and resume her former representative government, suspended fora time. In fact the love of public liberty was arising in the hearts of the citizens, who, enriched under Elizabeth and James I. by commerce and industry, had profited by the prodigalities of the king and his courtiers to become creditors of the nobility and of the crown. They felt their importance in the state. They formed the majority in the House of Commons; they exercised all the liberal professions; they were the masters of capital, No wonder is it that now 292 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. they wished to have a share in the power and to control the actions of an illmanaged government. Another force was driving England into the same path. The king and the nobles had brought about, in the sixteenth century, their reform in religion, wholly aristocratic; the people had not accomplished theirs, and this reformation, popular, democratic, radical, began to dawn : it was that of the Puritans. Henry VIII. and Elizabeth had established an official Church, very richly endowed, and more docile toward the government than the Catholic Church had ever been. But this clergy, living in splendor, preaching abso- lute obedience toward the princes, declaring itself a divine institution, did not at all satisfy those in whose hands the Bible had been put, and who wished to read there only the devotion and poverty of the first Levites, the imprecations of the prophets against tyrants, the denunciation against the idolatrous practices of the established Church, against its hierarchy, its worship, its liturgy, and its consecrated forms. Those who demanded political liberty and those who de- manded religious freedom were shortly to come together, and, united, to bring on a revolution whose results they were afterward to dispute. The reign of Charles I. divides itself into three periods: In the first (1625-29) he attempts to rule with Parlia- ment. In the second (1629-40) he rules without Parliament. In the third (1640-48) he is forced to endure it; he re- sists it and is defeated. We have just seen that at the accession of Charles I. the government and the country did not agree, the king cling- ing to the absolutist theories of his father, and the nation wishing to return to its former liberties. The inevitable struggle broke out in the first days of his reign. It was the practice to vote the customs duties for the whole duration of the reign ; the Lower House voted them only for one year. By this act it declared its distrust, doubtless not of the king, but of his government. Charles, irritated, pronounced the dissolution of the assembly. The Parliament of 1626 went farther: to a demand for a subsidy it replied by a statement of grievances, and im- peached Buckingham. The king to save his favorite was again obliged to dismiss Parliament, counting upon forced loans to take the place of the taxes which the nation refused, CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 293 enrolling soldiers to intimidate the citizens, and in many places proclaiming martial law in order to suspend the ordi- nary course of justice. In the hope of acquiring a little popularity Buckingham persuaded Charles I., already engaged in a struggle with Spain, to enter upon war with France, and commanded a fleet for the relief of the Protestants of La Rochelle. But the expedition failed in the attack upon the island of Re through the incapacity of the general (1627), just as an attempt upon Cadiz in 1625 had failed. To avert an explosion of public discontent Charles summoned a third Parliament. But Buckingham's defeat had emboldened the Commons. They came with the resolution of overthrow- ing the favorite and of reforming the abuses. They ad- dressed two remonstrances to the king the one against the illegal collection of the customs duties, the other against Buckingham, whom they termed the author of the public misery. Charles lost patience and prorogued Parliament. Protestant fanaticism then found its Ravaillac. John Felton assassinated Buckingham (1628), and the following year Parliament drew up the Petition of Rights of the nation. It was like a second Magna Charta of England. The king accepted it; then he pledged himself never to levy a tax without the consent of the Houses, never to imprison any- one except according to the forms of law, never to estab- lish courts martial. But a few weeks had scarcely passed when he forgot his word, prorogued Parliament, and cast into prison its most earnest members. One of them, Sir John Eliot, died there after several years of suffering. Charles then took as ministers two resolute men, Arch- bishop Laud and Sir Thomas Wentworth, later Earl of Strafford, one of the opposition leaders in Parliament, and the author of the Petition of Rights, but who, devoured by ambition, did not shrink from an apostasy, and who pro- posed to play in England the part that Richelieu was at that moment playing in France. Charles remained eleven years without summoning Parlia- ment, a longer interval than had ever elapsed before (March, 1629, to April, 1640). By dispensing with the Houses he condemned himself to economy and inaction. The king hastened to make peace with both France and Spain, and held himself aloof from the great struggle waged upon the Continent between the two principal religions which were dis- 294 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. puting the empire of the world. England, which Elizabeth had placed at the head of Protestantism, under Charles I. remained apart from the Thirty Years' War! Despised abroad, the king was not much stronger at home. He had believed he would repose in the bosom of absolute power; but in his own palace two parties were already disputing for control in the nascent despotism: the queen, the center of many an intrigue; the ministers, who wanted neither the papacy nor the prodigality of Henri- etta. The unfortunate prince had ample occupation would he conciliate these domestic rivalries. This government so weak was none the less tyrannical. Taxes not voted by the Houses, as ship-money (1634), and consequently illegal, were established; the enemies of the court were imprisoned without trial and condemned by the Star Chamber or by the Council of York, over which Straf- ford presided. Laud and his High Commission, a real tri- bunal of the Holy Office, persecuted the Dissenters with incredible barbarity. Thus Dr. Leighton for a pamph- let was sentenced to the pillory, to the whipping post, to have his ears cut off, after which the hangman split his nose and branded his face with a red-hot iron. The same punishments were inflicted upon the barrister Prynne, upon Bastwick, upon the minister Burton; the same heroism also was shown by these new martyrs. Each day persecution doubled the number of their adherents. "Christians," said Prynne as he stood in the pillory, "if we had valued our liberty we should not be here; it is for the liberty of you all that we have forfeited ours; guard it well I beseech you; hold firm; be faithful to the cause of God and of the land; otherwise you and your children will fall into everlasting servitude." The Puritan sects increased in spite of the inquisitoral earnestness of the primate Laud, and intrepid soldiers were preparing for the impending struggle. Also about this time the emigration to America so in- creased that it is estimated that goods valued at more than 12,000,000 francs left the country. For many reasons the government became so odious that thousands of men quitted their native land. In 1627 Puritans departed to rejoin the emigrants of 1620 around Massachusetts Bay; three years later the colonies of New Hampshire and Maine were founded. The government grew alarmed at this expatriation of a disaffected population. An order of the CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 295 council forbade the Dissenters to emigrate. At that mo- ment eight vessels ready to start were at anchor in the Thames; upon one of them it is said Cromwell had already embarked. He obeyed the prohibition, but the others con- tinued on their way in search of a more hospitable soil. From 1635 to 1637 were formed the colonies of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Providence plantations. Hampden's trial, however, should have enlightened the king and his ministers (1636). The immense popularity which he immediately enjoyed because he had known how to oppose a calm refusal and legal resistance to the tax of ship-money made it sufficiently plain to the govern- ment that its policy was contrary to the sentiment of the nation. The ministers were obstinate in their blindness. Strafford, Viceroy of Ireland, had organized there a standing army, thanks to which he could boast of having rendered the king as absolute in the island as was any prince in the world. Laud on his part was ferreting out the Noncon- formists and was punishing them with such rigor that all England put on the mask of religious submission. On the very eve of the revolution the bishops reported to him that they could not find a single Dissenter in their dioceses, just as the ministers of Louis XIV. announced to him after the repeal of the edict of Nantes that there were no more Protestants in the kingdom. Laud wished to extend his victory over Presbyterian Scotland and to impose upon her a new liturgy which resembled the Catholic ritual. A re- bellion broke out in Edinburgh (1637). The king refused to yield. Then the Presbyterians, under the name of the Covenant, formed an association at once political and reli- gious, which soon counted the entire Scottish population as its adherents (1638). Charles marched against the Covenanters with 20,000 men; but he did not dare to offer battle and granted the abolition of Laud's liturgy to the rebels (1639). It was a serious defeat; Charles, at the end of his re- sources, summoned a fourth Parliament. That assembly refused to grant the least subsidy until redress had been made of the nation's grievances; it demanded that the king should be bound to convoke Parliament every three years, that independence in elections and debate should be assured, that political liberty should be firmly guaranteed. "It is necessary," Strafford remarked, whom Charles had 29 6 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. recalled from Ireland, "to restore these people to common sense by blows," and the Short Parliament was dissolved. But the English army, full of sympathy for its Scottish brethren, dispersed rather than fight, and Strafford was forced to fall back upon York (1640). Royalty was in- volved in inextricable difficulty. It had drawn the sword and it had not a crown to maintain the war. The system of confiscations, fines, and arbitrary taxes was exhausted. Charles, confessing himself worsted, had recourse to a fifth Parliament. This was that renowned assembly "which, in spite of many errors and disasters, is justly entitled to the reverence and gratitude of all who, in any part of the world, enjoy the blessings of constitutional government" (Lord Macaulay). After eleven years of despotism Charles I., by making an appeal to the country, furnished a striking contradiction to the system which he had followed up to The Long . J .... Parliament that time. The king recognized his own (1640-49). inability to rule England alone. It belonged to the Commons to act their legitimate part ; but liberty, too long oppressed, wanted to take revenge, and, as always happens, overshot the mark. Parliament took pos- session of the power. It encroached upon the collection and management of taxes, and loans, and even upon all the functions, all the rights of the executive power. It abol- ished exceptional tribunals, declared its own periodicity, and -finally issued a bill of indictment against the Earl of Strafford, in whom was personified the whole royal policy for eleven years. This trial excited immense interest. In reality it was the trial of royalty, prior to the trial of the king. Clever, eloquent, courageous, the accused in the face of danger showed a grandeur of soul that caused his faults to be for- gotten. "During seventeen days he discussed the crimes that were imputed to him, alone against thirteen accusers, who relieved each other in turn. A great number were proved, full of iniquity and tyranny; but others, exaggerated or made much of by hatred, were easy to refute; and none, to say the truth, came within the legal definition of high treason. Strafford strove carefully to strip them of this character, speaking nobly of his imperfections, of his weak- nesses, opposing a modest dignity to the violence of his adversaries, without invectives making evident the preju- CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 297 diced illegality of their proceedings. Odious restrictions hampered his defense. His counsel, obtained at great difficulty and in spite of the Commons, were not permitted to speak upon the facts nor to interrogate the witnesses; permission to summon witnesses in rebuttal was accorded to him only three days before the opening of the pleas, and the most of them were in Ireland. At every opportunity he claimed his rights, thanked his judges if they consented to recognize them, did not complain of their refusal, and to his enemies, who were exasperated by the delays caused by his able resistance, replied simply: 'I believe it belongs to me to defend my life as well as to any other to attack it ' (Guizot). The House of Lords was going to absolve him; the Commons by a bill of attainder placed him outside the law. Charles alone could save him by refusing to sanction the bill. Strafford in a sublime letter offered to sacrifice himself. The king had the weakness to accept the sacrifice and signed his minister's death warrant. Strafford as his only answer raised his hands to Heaven and murmured: "Nolite confidere principibus et filiis hominum, quia non est salus in illis." The governor of the Tower urged him to take a carriage in order to avoid the violence of the people; he refused, and set out on foot, preceding the guards, and turning his gaze in all directions as if he were marching at the head of his troops. Arrived at the scaffold, he said: "I pray for this kingdom every earthly prosperity; living, I have always prayed it; dying, it is my only prayer. But I beseech each one who hears me to con- sider earnestly, with his hand upon his heart, whether the beginning of a kingdom's reformation ought to be written in characters of blood ; think well upon this as you go to your homes." Then he placed his head upon the block, and gave the signal himself (May 27, 1641). Laud, imprisoned at the same time as Strafford, was not con- demned and executed until four years later. The punishment of the Earl of Strafford, the great apostate, as he was called, struck with terror all the agents of the government, and gave over the entire royal power into the hands of the two Houses. Meanwhile the Irish re- volted and massacred 40,000 English Protestants. The queen's Catholic intrigues caused the king to be suspected, and he himself, trying to deceive Argyle and Hamilton, the 298 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. leaders of the Covenanters in Scotland, warranted the belief that a vast scheme had been formed by the court against the popular leaders. When he demanded the means of reducing Ireland, Parliament replied by a bitter remon- strance, wherein were narrated in detail all the grievances of the nation since the beginning of the reign. At the same same time ^300,000 sterling were paid to the Scotch as indemnity and compensation, and the Militia Bill was carried, by which Parliament was to interfere in the organi- zation of the army and the appointment of its leaders. Charles attempted a coup d 'e'tat to regain the power; he went in person to Parliament to arrest the leaders of the opposition. But the House refused to give up the mem- bers, and before the threatening attitude of the people the king did not dare to use force. He quitted London to commence the civil war (1642). The parliamentary party was in possession of the capital, the large cities, the harbors, and the fleet. The king had the greater part of the nobility, better trained in arms than the parliamentary troops. In the northern and western counties the royalists, or Cavaliers, predominated; the par- liamentarians, or Roundheads, had those of the east, center, and southeast, the most thickly populated, the richest, and which, besides being adjacent, formed, as it were, a belt about London. At first the king had the advantage. From Nottingham, where he had raised his standard (August 23, 1642), he marched toward the western counties, more favorable to his cause, to recruit volunteers, met the parliamentary army at Worcester, but without engaging in a pitched battle, and took the road to London. Essex to arrest his march fought the bloody and indecisive battle of Edgehill (October 24, 1642). With no further hope of taking the capital by surprise Charles withdrew to Oxford, where he took up his winter quarters, waiting for the aid which the queen was to bring him from Holland. The campaign fol- lowing opened well for him ; everywhere the parliamentary troops were defeated, and a number of towns in the north and southwest were captured. But Parliament redoubled its energy ; several members of the Commons took up arms. Hampden levied among his own tenants, friends, and neigh- bors a regiment of infantry which soon became noted for its discipline and courage. Oliver Cromwell, who was CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER THE STUARTS. 299 then beginning to emerge from obscurity, with the sons of yeomen and small proprietors in the eastern counties formed a picked squadron who opposed their religious zeal to the feelings of honor which animated the Cavaliers. The king laid siege to Gloucester, the only city which still ham- pered his movements in the west. It made a noble resist- ance, which gave Parliament time to reassemble its forces. At the approach of Essex Charles retired, but maneuvered in such a way as to cut off the earl from the road to London, and stationed himself at Newbury; the parliamentary troops routed the royalist army after a desperate struggle in which Lord Falkland, the pride of the royalist party, perished. This victory influenced Parliament to join with the Scotch, and a solemn covenant was sworn between the two peoples. On his side the king attempted to raise the Highlanders, and treated with the Catholics of Ireland, who had been in arms ever since the great massacre. He recalled the troops charged with resisting them. Parliament was only a coalition of opposite parties. United against the king's claims to absolute power, they did not agree any farther upon the conditions of government. Presbyterians, who had abolished hierarchy in the Church, were willing to preserve it in the state; the Independents rejected the peerage as well as episcopacy, the political sovereignty of the king as well as his religious supremacy. Bolder and more consistent than their rivals, they appealed to the most active sentiments of the human heart, love of liberty and need of equality. Around them were grouped the thousand sects sprung from Puritanism: Levelers, Anabaptists, Millenarians. Finally, they had at their head men of consummate ability Ludlow, Vane, Haselrig, and above all Oliver Cromwell. All the qualities of the latter had pleased from the first his religious enthusiasm, his readiness to make himself the equal and companion of his coarsest friends, his mystical and familiar language, his manner, by turns commonplace and enthusiastic, which gave him the air sometimes of inspiration, sometimes of frankness, even that free and supple genius which seemed to place at the service of a holy cause all the resources of earthly skill. Thus he had soon acquired a powerful control. If discord prevailed among the Parliamentarians, it also existed in the royalist party. At Oxford, as at Whitehall, 300 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. the court was divided by miserable intrigues. A Parlia- ment that Charles formed with his faithful friends was use- less, and in spite of its docile compliance angered the king, who adjourned it to free himself from what he called cowardly and seditious motions, so vexatious to him was even the shadow of a free discussion. The campaign of 1644 was remarkable for the large dis- play of forces on both sides. The royal army in the north, commanded by Prince Rupert, was completely defeated at Marston Moor near York (July 2). This grand success was due to Cromwell's genius and to the invincible tenacity of his squadrons. They won the name of Ironsides upon the battlefield. In the south Essex and Waller, the Presby- terian generals, suffered defeat after defeat; the first was forced to capitulate. In Scotland the brave Marquis of Montrose had landed with an Irish contingent, roused the Highlanders to action, and won victories in quick succession. For the third time the king marched upon London ; the people were closing their shops, praying, and fasting, when they heard that Charles had just been defeated at Newbury by Cromwell and Manchester. The parliamentary troops had accomplished prodigies; at the sight of the cannon which they had lost just before in the county of Cornwall they rushed upon the royal batteries and recaptured their pieces, embracing them as they dragged them back. Cromwell's successes rendered the Independent party more daring. A minority in Parliament, they took control of the war by passing the celebrated Self-denying Ordi- nance, which excluded the members, that is to say, the first parliamentary generation, from public offices, an error which was revived by the first French Constitutional Assem- bly (1792). The Earl of Essex, a Presbyterian general, tendered his resignation; he was succeeded by Fairfax, an Independent, over whom Cromwell exercised absolute control. The Independents, masters of the army, took prompt measures ; at Naseby they crushed the last army of the king (1645). Among Charles' baggage they found proof that, in spite of his declarations to the contrary, he had summoned the aid of foreigners, and especially of the Irish. At the same time Montrose was surprised and defeated by the Scotch Covenanters. Prince Rupert surrendered Bristol CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER CROMWELL. 3<>1 without striking a blow. The king in despair, through weariness rather than by choice, retired to the Scotch camp, where the French minister had caused him to hope for a shelter, and where he soon learned that he was a prisoner (1646). The Scotch surrendered him to Parliament for ^400,000 sterling (1647). The Presbyterians and the Independents had with diffi- culty acted in concert during the struggle, in the face of danger; it was much worse after the victory. Since the Presbyterians predominated in Parliament and their adver- saries in the army, antagonism broke out between these two bodies. Parliament, under the pretext that the war was finished, wished to disband a portion of the army. Then a threatening agitation manifested itself among the soldiers. The army addressed petitions to the Commons, which might pass for orders. The House rejected them in an energetic manner. "These people," said Cromwell, "will have no rest until the army has turned them out by the ears." He took upon himself the accomplishment of this prediction. A little more and these dissensions would have caused Charles to regain all the territory which he had lost. The two parties contended for the king. A detachment of the army removed him from Holmby, where he was at the dis- cretion of Parliament. Cromwell and the Independent generals opened negotiations with him. But Charles was not sincere. "Do not be uneasy about the concessions that I shall make," he wrote to the queen. "I know well, when the time comes, how one must act with these knaves, and instead of a silk garter I will adjust a hempen one for them." Cromwell intercepted the letter and from that day resolved upon the king's ruin. Charles, to whom he sent some threatening advice, escaped and took refuge in the Isle of Wight, of which the governor was a tool of Crom- well. This flight of the king was the signal to the Cavaliers for a new seizure of arms and a second civil war. But Crom- well, who had just restored discipline among his soldiers by intimidating the Levelers, joyfully seized upon the oppor- tunity of re-establishing his influence by the war He con- quered the royalists in Wales, while Fairfax defeated them near London, and when the Scotch attempted an invasion of England he advanced to meet them and crushed them at Preston. 302 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. Meanwhile the Presbyterians, bolder in his absence, opened new negotiations with Charles I., and after a few conferences proclaimed through the House of Commons that the king's concessions afforded a sufficient basis for them to treat for peace. Immediately Cromwell caused the prince to be removed from the Isle of Wight and "purged" Parlia- ment. All the Presbyterians were expelled; the assembly was reduced to eighty members, and no voice was after- ward raised to disturb the Independent party in its victory. The king's trial began. Charles appeared before a high court of justice, presided over by John Bradshaw, Milton's cousin, and directed by Cromwell. He refused to recog- nize them as judges, but was nevertheless condemned, and, in spite of the interference of the Dutch ambassadors, exe- cuted. He displayed great composure upon the scaffold, regretting of all his acts only his weakness at the time of Strafford's trial. "Heaven forbid that I should complain," he said. "The unjust decision whose execution I permitted in the case of Strafford is requited now by another unjust decision" (February 9, 1649). "In no long time it became manifest that those political and religious zealots to whom this deed is to be ascribed had committed not only a crime but an error. They had given to a prince hitherto known to his people chiefly by his faults an opportunity of displaying, on a great theater, before the eyes of all nations and all ages, some qualities which irresistibly call forth the admiration and love of man- kind, the high spirit of a gallant gentleman, the patience and meekness of a penitent Christian; nay, they had so con- trived their revenge that the very man whose whole life had been a series of attacks on the liberties of England now seemed to die a martyr in the cause of those very liberties. No demagogue ever produced such an impression on the public mind as the captive king, who, retaining in this ex- tremity all his regal dignity, and confronting death with dauntless courage, gave utterance to the feelings of his oppressed people, manfully refused to plead before a court unknown to the law, appealed from military violence to the principles of the constitution, asked by what right the House of Commons had been purged of its most respectable members and the House of Lords deprived of its legisla- tive functions, and told his weeping hearers that he was defending not only his own cause but theirs. His long mis- CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER CROMWELL. 33 government, his innumerable perfidies, were forgotten. His memory was in the minds of the great majority of his subjects associated with those free institutions which he had, during many years, labored to destroy; for those free institutions had perished with him, and, amid the mournful silence of a community kept down by arms, had been defended by his voice alone. From that day began a reaction in favor of monarchy and of the exiled house, a reaction which never ceased till the throne had again been set up in all its old dignity" (Macaulay). The Independents had proclaimed the Commonwealth. But Scotland protested. She now remembered that the Stuarts were of Scottish race, and the national wealth of^Eng- feeling ran so high at the news of Charles' land (1649-60;). execution that the Duke of Argyle, governor in the name of Parliament, was carried away by it ; Charles II., the late king's eldest son, was declared King of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland on condition of recognizing the Covenant. Charles retired to The Hague in Holland, refused to sign the clauses they wished to impose upon him, and scorning the Scotch Presbyterians, went to his mother, Henrietta, in France, that from there he might join the Irish royalists. It was all over with the English government and the Prot- estant oppression of Ireland if the union of the pretender and the rebels was effected. The English Parliament hastened to appoint Cromwell Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was not willing to start out except with immense forces. Besides the standing army of 45,000 men, he obtained a body of 12,000 veterans, and nothing that he demanded was refused, either money, provisions, or stores. The royalists had already just been completely routed near Dub- lin, at the battle of Rathmines. Cromwell was able to reap the fruits of this great victory, and opened the cam- paign by the siege of Drogheda. The city was taken by storm; the whole garrison was massacred; more than a thousand inhabitants who had taken refuge in the cathe- dral suffered the same fate. These horrible scenes were re- peated a month later at Wexford. Inhabitants, soldiers, all were put to the edge of the sword. Even the women were killed (1649). Such barbarity drove the Irish to despair. Kilkenny and Clonmell defended themselves with such energy that the lord lieutenant was obliged to grant them an 304 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. honorable capitulation (1650). In the midst of his suc- cesses, whose glory was stained with blood, Cromwell was recalled to England by the threatening progress of the Scotch. The disaster at Rathmines had prevented Charles from landing in Ireland, and had forced him to renew negotia- tions with the Scotch Presbyterians. Before accepting the rigorous conditions at the price of which they offered him the crown he tried to conquer it by the sword of the val- iant Marquis of Montrose. This heroic man had landed in Scotland with 1200 men; but the Highlanders refused to ally themselves with him, and he was defeated by the Pres- byterians at Corbiesdale. He was sentenced to be hanged upon a gibbet thirty feet high. His head was to be exposed upon a pike in Edinburgh, his arms upon the gates of Perth and Stirling, his legs upon those of Glasgow and Aberdeen. He replied that he gloried in his fate, and only regretted that he had not limbs enough to furnish every city in the kingdom with a proof of his loyalty. .As a last disgrace the executioner had suspended around his neck his recent proc- lamation with the story of his early exploits. He smiled, saying that his enemies gave him a more brilliant decora- tion than the order of the Garter, with which his sovereign had honored him. Charles II. hastened to disavow Mont- rose, accepted without reserve all the demands of the Scotch ambassadors, swore never to allow the free exercise of the Catholic religion in Scotland, "or in any part of his domin- ions, and immediately left Holland to take possession of the throne which was offered to him. Thus the alliance of the king and the Presbyterians was finally concluded and signed over the corpse of the most heroic royalist leader. The Independents comprehended the gravity of the danger and recalled Cromwell. He crossed the Tweed with 16,000 veteran soldiers. The Scotch general, David Leslie, in spite of the superior number of his troops, carefully refrained from risking a battle, and lay obstinately in his lines for a month. He wanted to wear out the English army; but the mad eager- ness of the Presbyterian ministers carried the day. They forced Leslie to the attack. The engagement took place near Dunbar. At the first onset the Independents were overthrown; Cromwell with his troopers renewed the fight, put the Scotch completely to rout, slew 3000 men, captured CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER CROMWELL. 305 10,000 with their artillery, stores, and baggage. Edinburgh and Leith surrendered without resistance (1650). The defeat at Dunbar was-more advantageous to Charles II. than a victory. It diminished the blind austerity of the ministers, and made the king cautious. By pretending to love the Covenant he conciliated the Presbyterians; by giv- ing the Hamiltons the preference over the Campbells he won the royalists. Thus the two parties which had divided Scotland for a century united under the banner of Charles II. the Presbyterians because they believed in his sincerity, the royalists because they had no faith in it. He was solemnly crowned at Scone, January i, 1651. When he had really become King of Scotland and master of the army he undertook to carry the war into the very heart of England, in order to rally on the way the nu- merous partisans upon whom he counted. He deceived Cromwell, proceeded rapidly toward the south, and marched straight upon London. But the English royalists did not stir; scarcely a few thousand Cavaliers responded to the prince's call, and Cromwell gave chase with 40,000 men. Near Worcester the encounter took place. After a desper- ate struggle, in which Charles displayed unusual bravery, the royal army was dispersed and the town captured. This was on September 3, 1651, the anniversary of the victory at Dunbar. Charles II. escaped his enemies' active search only by miracle. The various events of his flight showed at the same time his coolness and the tardy devo- tion of the English royalists. Finally, Scotland was sub- dued like Ireland, and both for the first time. Thus the revolution triumphed at home; abroad it declared war against Holland. The Navigation Act was a direct attack against the commerce of the United Provinces (October 9, 1651). This celebrated act closed the English ports to any vessel loaded with merchandise which was not a product of the soil or of the national labor of the people under whose flag the ship was sailing, and also prohibited the importation of goods from Africa, Asia, or America upon any but English vessels. This law, which made the naval greatness of England, and which remained in force until January i, 1850, deprived the Dutch, "the teamsters of the seas," as they were called, of the monopoly of naviga- tion, for their commerce was almost exclusively a carrying trade. The tax imposed upon herring fishery, which the 306 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. Dutch carried on close to the British coast, finally em- broiled the two nations. The Dutch protested; they could not obtain even a simple delay,- and the decree of Parliament was immediately put into execution. They armed to pro- tect their commerce. The English straightway began hos- tilities, dreaming of nothing less than the annexation of the United Provinces. This castle in the air crumbled to pieces. But the Dutch fleets were unfortunate in spite of the genius of Tromp and Ruyter. The English admiral, Blake, raised himself to a level with these illustrious sea- men. He defeated Witt and Ruyter northeast of Dover, October 8, 1852; five months later Tromp, who had raised from the mainmast of his vessel an immense broom, as a sign that he was going to sweep the ocean, \vas worsted in a fight lasting three days through the whole length of the Channel. At the beginning of 1654 the two republics, fearing the influence of the house of Orange, which had just been united by marriage with the house of the Stuarts, concluded peace. These were the last victories won under the auspices of the Commonwealth; after dissolving Parliament Cromwell had caused himself to be named Protector. Parliament had prepared its downfall by decimating itself; it no longer represented the nation, but a party. The malcontents, and they included nearly everyone, desired a strong government, fewer intrigues, and more honesty. There was one man who had saved both liberty by his victories over the royalists and social order by crush- ing the Levelers; it was Oliver Cromwell. No one had dis- played more skill in following, without anticipating, the prevailing opinion. He was sure of the army, he won over the people by his piety and even counted upon the royalists, who preferred seeing sovereign authority usurped by one man rather than exercised by the nation. Parlia- ment was about to pass an act of prorogation ; Cromwell rushed to the assembly, and at the moment of taking the vote asked to be heard. According to his custom he opened with protestations of modesty and humility; then he became animated and bitterly attacked their acts. He was inter- rupted. Then, throwing off his mask, he cried. "You are no Parliament, the Lord has done with you." And as they murmured he turned to each one of the members in suc- cession: "You," he said, "you are a profligate; you, an CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER CROMWELL. 307 adulterer; you, a drunkard. Begone, begone, all of you!" And at each reproach he stamped his foot. This was the signal agreed upon; soldiers entered, forced the represen- tatives from their seats, and drove them out of doors. When the hall was empty Cromwell went out, closed the door, put the key into his pocket, and the same evening caused this notice to be posted: "House to let" (April 30, 1653)- Cromwell then formed a Parliament, which he declared summoned in the name of the Holy Spirit. The members, honest but narrow-minded men, took matters seriously and wished to rule. They were forced to dissolve. The Bare- bones Parliament was no more fortunate than the Rump Parliament. Since the army was not willing to endure civil authority, it belonged to it to reorganize the government. It was childish and perhaps dangerous to continue the hypoc- risy longer. Cromwell caused himself to be proclaimed Lord Protector (December 25, 1653). Sovereign power was given to him; he was king save in name, more a king than any legitimate prince had ever been, for he had an army of 50,000 veteran soldiers, well disciplined and devoted to their leader even to death. Cromwell continued the work of Parliament in Ireland. Ireton, his son-in-law and his successor in the command of the troops, had never encountered any serious resistance, thanks to his enemies' dissensions, and had made himself master of three-fourths of the island (1652). Clanricarde, the leader of the rebels, after the departure of the Duke of Ormond, proposed a general capitulation; but Ludlow, invested \vith the command on account of the premature death of Ireton, refused to negotiate. He began the war again with new energy and compelled the various leaders of the revolt to submit separately. By the middle of 1652 Ireland was entirely in the power of the English. It was treated with horrible cruelty. Many nobles, accused of taking part in the massacre of 1640, were condemned and executed; 40,000 soldiers or officers were exiled, and their wives and children transported to America. However, in spite of all these butcheries on the one side, and the con- tinual arrival of English and Scotch colonists on the other, it was found that the Catholic population exceeded the Protestant in the ratio of 8 to i. The great land pro- prietors were condemned to confiscation of all their prop- 308 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. erty; all those who had carried arms against Parliament to a confiscation of two-thirds, and those who had not borne arms for Parliament to a confiscation of one-third. As for those whose real estate and personal property did not ex- ceed ten pounds sterling in value, a full and entire amnesty was generously offered them. The Irish population received orders to migrate to Connaught before the ist of May, 1654, and the first comer had the privilege of killing any Irishman whom he might find upon the left bank of the Shannon. England still suffers for these acts of violence from the sad condition in which Ireland has existed during two centuries. In Scotland Monk was charged to execute the will both of Parliament and Cromwell; that country was less cruelly treated; she preserved her laws, her faith, and even her national existence. For Parliament was overthrown at the time when it was on the point of accomplishing the union of the two peoples of Great Britain; and Cromwell aban- doned the scheme. After a half century, during which England had had scarcely more weight in European politics than Venice or Saxony, she suddenly became a formidable power. Crom- well treated as an equal with all the sovereigns of Europe, saw his alliance implored by Spain and sought by France, which obtained it (1655). The Dutch when conquered had been compelled to recognize the supremacy of the English flag and to pay the expenses of the war. Blake penetrated into the Mediterranean with his fleet and chas- tised the Barbary states. Jamaica was captured from Spain ; so too was Dunkirk, after the victory of the Dunes (1658), gained by Turenne and his English auxiliaries; and this acquisition consoled the nation for the loss of Calais. Finally, he resumed the role of Elizabeth which the Stuarts had abandoned, that of protector of the Protestant party. "All the Reformed churches scattered over Roman Catho- lic kingdoms acknowledged Cromwell as their guardian. The Huguenots of Languedoc, the shepherds who, in the hamlets of the Alps, professed a Protestantism older than that of Augsburg, were secured from oppression by the mere terror of that great name. The Pope himself was forced to preach humanity and moderation to popish princes; for a voice which seldom threatened in vain had declared that, unless favor were shown to the people of God, the English CHAP. XIX.] ENGLAND UNDER CROMWELL. 39 guns should be heard in the castle of St. Angelo" (Ma- caulay). "However, this government, so active without rashness, so capable of flattering the national passions without enslav- ing itself to them, which abroad aggrandized its country without compromising it and maintained order at home with the soldiers of the revolution, was obeyed, feared, admired, but not firmly rooted. The ancient parties always existed, repressed but long-lived, renouncing neither hope nor action. In the course of the five years of Cromwell's rule fifteen conspiracies and insurrections, royalist or republican, alarmed his government or endangered his life. Nothing, it is true, succeeded against him; all the plots were baffled, all the appeals to arms suppressed. The country did not participate in them, and guarded its peacefulness. But it believed neither in the right nor in the duration of this power, always victorious. At the zenith of his greatness Cromwell was in public opinion only an irresistible but pro- visional master, without a rival but without a future" (Guizot). He died September 3, 1658, the anniversary of his victories at Dunbar and Worcester. He was fifty-five years old. His son Richard succeeded him; but he was as deficient in ability as in desire to rule. Parties again arose; Richard after a few months abdicated (1660). Then England fell into profound anarchy. Parliament and the army contended for power. Cromwell had left lieutenants behind him, but no successor. All, excellent in secondary roles, were in- capable of filling the highest place. The most skillful was he who terminated this conflict of subordinate ambitions by imposing upon all superiority of birth, since that of talent had died with the Protector. George Monk, colleague and rival of Blake in the war against the Dutch, a skillful ad- ministrator in Scotland, decided to put an end to partisan conflicts by restoring the monarchy. He did not openly put forward his enterprise; he made use of duplicity and deceived everybody, which is perhaps a shrewd but hardly a moral course of proceeding. He began by dissolv- ing the Rump, which after the death of Cromwell had re- constituted itself, and he replaced that worn-out Parliament by an assembly of new men, inexperienced but docile to his guidance. England was none the less undecided, doubtful if a genuine republic was possible, but not daring to abandon 310 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. the name. It was one of those crises in which the most patient wins. The republicans, anxious for the future, and besides, persecuted in the person of their leaders, were unable to wait and took up arms; they were easily crushed, so odious had civil war become. No safety could be dis- covered save in a return to the former system of government. Tories and Whigs rallied to the idea and re-established the hereditary monarchy by their first coalition. They were to form a second twenty-eight years later for the establishment of constitutional liberty. Charles Stuart was in fact called back without conditions (1660). This imprudence pre- vented the close of the revolution, because none of the questions which it had raised were decided, and because this return to the past was soon to render another revolu- tion inevitable. As to Monk, he obtained the title of Duke of Albemarle and a generous pension. CHAPTER XX. FRANCE FROM 1643 to 1661. CONDITION OF EUROPE IN 1661. Mazarin and the Fronde. War with Spain ; Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659). Condition of Europe in 1661. AFTER the death of Louis XIII., as after that of Henry IV., France had to endure the evils of a minority. Louis XIV. was only five years of age. th^ a p a ronde and His mother, Anne of Austria, caused the regency without restriction to be conferred upon herself by Parliament in spite of the will of Louis XIII., according to which her power was limited by a council. She gave over the authority to Cardinal Mazarin. The latter was an Italian, born in 1602, of an old Sicilian family settled at Rome. In 1634 sent as nuncio to France, he had attracted the notice of Richelieu, who had interested himself in his fortune, and had obtained for him the Roman purple. The queen intrusted herself to this guardian of the great cardinal's designs, to this foreigner who could have no other interest in France than that of the king, and she allowed him to gain complete mastery over her. Richelieu's administration had had too many enemies and had made too many victims to prevent a reaction from set- ting in after his death. It broke out in earnest. The prisoners were released, the exiles returned to the court, and Anne of Austria seemed disposed to abandon everything to them. Pensions, indemnities, privileges, honors, were had for the asking. "There seemed to be only these words in the French language," said the Cardinal of Retz: " 'The queen is so good!' ' Bethune, La Chatre, the Duke of .Beau- fort, made a show of high pretensions; also Potier, the Bishop of Beauvais, whose incapacity was well known. Their true name, "the consequential persons," was soon 312 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. found, and it has clung to them ever since. Mazarin expe- rienced little difficulty in overthrowing this cabal. The Duke of Beaufort was cast into the Bastille, the Bishop of Beauvais was sent to his diocese, the Duchess of Chevreuse to her domains, and the queen appointed Mazarin prime minister (1643). Thus the system of Richelieu was preserved; his ideas triumphed, and the absolute power that he had founded sur- vived him. Mazarin had only to continue the work already begun'. But were administrative despotism to exist, neces- sarily it must remain intelligent, enlightened, devoted to general interests, and always occupied with the public good. Mazarin was only an imperfect Richelieu. He showed superior genius in the conduct of affairs abroad, but managed the finances with indifference and above all with unpardonable dishonesty. He allowed peculation and was himself a peculator. The disorder became such that the state saw itself threatened with bankruptcy. The superin- tendent of the finances, d'Emery, did not shrink from any expedient; an edict of 1548 prohibited building in the suburbs of Paris outside of certain limits under pain of demolition, confiscation, and fine. Time had annulled this ordinance; d'Emery caused it to be revived, and thereby threatened the fortunes of a multitude of landowners. This edict affected only the burgesses; the edict of the tariff, by increasing the customs duties upon food and mer- chandise, affected everyone; but everyone also spoke of what the fisher Masaniello was doing at Naples, inasmuch as he had just aroused the city to revolt against the tax collectors, and "they were resolved to follow the example of the Neapolitans." The Parisian populace refused to pay the new taxes, and the parliament* of Paris became its * Between the English and French parliaments there was little in common save a misleading similarity of name. The parliaments of France were judicial rather than political bodies, and save in exceptional cases had nothing to do with legislation. Out of the thirteen parliaments which simultaneously exercised jurisdiction in France during the seven- teenth century that of Paris was by far the most important and its early name Royal Council or Royal Court was indicative of its functions. The other parliaments were those of Toulouse, founded 1303, Grenoble, 1453 ; Bordeaux, 1462 ; Dijon, 1476 ; Rouen, 1499 '< Aix, T 5 O1 '. Rennes, 1552 ; Pau, 1619 ; Metz, 1632 ; Dole, 1674 ; Tournay, and Dombes. All were suppressed by decree of the Constitutional Assembly, September 7, 1790. ED. CHAP. XX.] FRANCE FROM 1643 TO 1661. 313 mouthpiece. The registration of the edicts was at first opposed, and the court, after many struggles, obtained the levy of these duties for only two years. However, the needs of the state were continually growing: the expenses of the war against the house of Austria must be met. Mazarin demanded of the sovereign courts four years' salary as a loan. He was careful to except Parliament. But the counselors saw in this pretended favor only an insult, and declaring themselves conjointly responsible for the other courts, passed the famous decree of union. The Grand Council, the Court of Aids, the Court of Accounts, and Par- liament separately appointed a commission. The four com- missions assembled in the chamber of St. Louis, and organized themselves into a deliberative assembly. They stated their demands in twenty-seven articles, and presented them for the acceptance of the queen regent. The twenty- seven articles contained a complete revolution. Parliament assigned to itself the right of discussing and registering all edicts, of prosecuting unfaithful officers, and finally demanded that no subject of the king should he held in custody more than twenty four-hours without obtaining a hearing. This was substituting for the absolute monarchy a monarchy limited by an oligarchy of 200 magistrates who bought their offices. The parliament of Paris, deceived as to its true power by similarity of name, thought itself able to play the role of the English Parliament. "The star was then terrible against the kings" (Mme de Mottville). At that very moment the Duke of Enghien was gaining the victory of Lens. This great success emboldened Mazarin; while the Te Deum was being chanted at Notre- Dame he caused the arrest of three counselors, Broussel, Charton, and Blancmenil, who were very popular on account of their opposition to the court. At the rumor of this arrest the people flew to arms; in less than three hours 200 barricades were built, and 100,000 fighting men surrounded the Palais Royal, demanding the liberty of Broussel. In a body Parliament marched to the queen across the barri- cades, which fell before it, and demanded its imprisoned members, but could obtain nothing. Anne of Austria wished to resist to the last; the entreaties of Mazarin, who told her that she was as brave as a soldier who did not know the danger, and the counsels of the Queen of Eng- land influenced her to yield. Calm immediately was 314 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. restored, and "all the city seemed quieter than on Good Friday." But the queen, irritated at what she regarded as an act of weakness, quitted Paris with her son and Mazarin and retired to St. Germain. This departure had the appear- ance of flight. Anne of Austria was none the less con- strained to confirm all the decrees rendered by the chamber of St. Louis; it was the same day on which the peace of Westphalia had been signed (October 24, 1648). Parliament found itself invested, as it were, with legislative power, and compared itself to the members of the English Parliament, the choice and representatives of the nation. In yielding the prime minister had wanted only to gain time; when he was freed from foreign war he resolved to end that faction of "the king's subjects who assassinated royal authority." January 6, 1649, Anne of Austria again quitted Paris with her children, and called the troops around her. Parliament, incapable single-handed of strug- gling against the court, demanded or accepted the services of the princes and young lords, who could amuse themselves with a civil war under a minister who did not know how to make their heads fall. These were the Prince of Conti, a brother of the great Conde, the Duke of Longueville, who had married their sister, the Duke of Bouillon, who always regretted Sedan, the Duke of Rochefoucauld, and also the sage Turenne, influenced by his brother and by the Duchess of Longueville. The soul of the plot was Paul of Gondi, then coadjutor of his uncle, Archbishop of Paris, and later Cardinal Retz. He was a man of easy morals despite his robe, but of exhaustless wit, and aspired to succeed Riche- lieu. He thought he possessed capability of greatness, and he made others think so too; circumstances proved him to be only a blunderer. Gondi governed Paris with ser- mons, alms, and couplets. He won over the Duke of Beau- fort, grandson of Henry IV., and also tried to win Conde; but the prince proudly replied to his advances: "My name is Louis of Bourbon, and I do not wish to disturb the crown." The struggle which then began merited the name be- stowed on it by history, the Fronde, from a sort of child's game. Parliament appointed generals, and each one taxed himself to raise troops. Twenty counselors, appointed by Richelieu, each gave 15,000 francs to obtain toleration from CHAP. XX.] FRANCE FROM 1643 TO 1661. 315 their colleagues, and those who had found neither a coin nor a soldier for the government mustered 10,000,000 francs and 12,000 men. By a decree of Parliament every car- riage entrance furnished a man and a horse. This cavalry was called the cavalry of the carriage entrances. The coadjutor, the titular Archbishop of Corinth, had a regiment which was named the Corinthian regiment; this regiment being beaten, its defeat was called "the first to the Corin- thians." The twenty counselors who had furnished each 15,000 francs had no other honor than that of being called the "Fifteen-twenties."* The king's people were the first who desired to withdraw from this squabble. They had very quickly recognized the fact that the nobles were seeking to continue the disorder only to overturn the state. When Parliament learned that the nobles had signed a treaty with Spain, the most obstinate were influenced by this treason. Mathieu Mole was com- missioned to treat with Mazarin. The Convention of Ruel diminished certain taxes, authorized the convocation of the Chambers, and after some hesitation brought back the court to Paris (April, 1649). The peace did not last long. Conde wished to rule the government which he had protected. He wearied the queen regent and the prime minister by continual demands; he humiliated them by insolence and familiarity. He wrote to the cardinal: "All* illustrissimo Signer Faquino;" he said to him one day in taking leave of him: "Adieu, Mars!" At the same time that he alienated the court he discontented the former members of the Fronde; he spoke only scornfully of those citizens who pretended to govern the state; he gathered around him young lords, vain and pre- sumptuous, who carried their leader's failings to excess, and who were called the "little masters." It was not difficult for Mazarin to unite everyone against this prince "who knew better how to win battles than hearts"; and he had him arrested in the Louvre with his brother, the Prince of Conti, and his stepbrother, the Duke of Longueville (Jan- uary, 1650). An" uprising broke out in some of the provinces, but it was easily suppressed. Bordeaux surrendered; du Plessis- * A pun likening the twenty counselors to the beggar inmates of the Blind Asylum of Quinze-vingts, or the Fifteen-twenties. ED. 316 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. Praslin at Rethel defeated Marshal Turenne, who had just invaded Champagne with a Spanish army (December, 1650). But Mazarin thought himself victor too soon. He had promised the coadjutor a cardinal's cap in order to attach him to the queen's interests; afterward he forgot his promise, according to his custom. The coadjutor rejoined the party of Conde, revived the distrust of Parliament, and agitated the people; and the two Frondes, momentarily united by their needs, forced Anne of Austria to surrender the princes and banish her prime minister from the kingdom. Mazarin retired to Cologne, and in his exile continued to govern the queen and France (February, 1651). Retz at last received the cardinal's hat. Conde could not long agree with his new allies. He had imagined that the queen would make him all-powerful as amends for his thirteen months of captivity; and yet Mazarin governed from the depths of his exile. Irritated at the isolation in which he was placed, he rushed into more culpable adventures. He started for the south, resolved to conquer by force of arms the power and perhaps even the throne, if we believe the memoirs of one of his companions in revolt, the Count of Coligny. He excited Guyenne to insurrection, and opened negotiations with Spain, while his friends were fomenting war in the center of France. Maza- rin, who had immediately returned to France (December, 1651), intrusted the command of the troops to the Viscount Turenne, who had rejoined the royal side. The marshal directed his forces toward the Loire to surprise the prince's army. It was thought that Conde was a hundred leagues away; but he traveled over half of France on horseback, alone and in disguise. Immediately on his arrival he made an attack upon the troops of Marshal Hocquincourt at Bleneau, and dispersed them (April, 1652). The fugitives took refuge at Briare with Turenne. The latter rode at full speed to an eminence whence he could overlook the plain; by the light of the burning villages he observed the arrangement of the troops, and said: "The prince has arrived, and is in com- mand of his army." The court, in terror, meditated flight to Bourges; Turenne restored courage, and by dint of audacity and prudence with 4000 men against 12,000 prevented the enemy from following up their advantage. "Marshal," said the queen, weeping, "you have saved the state; without you every town would have closed its gates to the king." CHAP. XX.] FRANCE FROM 1643 TO 1661. 3*7 For whom would Paris declare? This the armies de- manded of the Parisians themselves ; they refused to allow either of the two parties, who had met at the suburb St. Antoine, to enter their city. The battle was bloody and for a long time indecisive. Finally, when the army of the Fronde, menaced upon its flanks, was on the point of being surrounded and destroyed, Mademoiselle, daughter of Gaston of Orleans, opened the gates to Conde, and the cannon in the Bastille were fired upon the royal troops. Turenne withdrew astounded. But Conde could not re- main long in Paris, where his glory was stained by a mas- sacre of the party of Mazarin, which took place with his permission if not by his order. He left the city October 10, and retired to Flanders, among the Spaniards. To hasten the return of the king's early popularity Mazarin withdrew a second time (August 9). Thereupon Parliament and the citizens entreated the queen mother to re-enter the town, now at peace (October 21), whence Conde" had departed three days before. Some of the magistrates were dismissed or imprisoned ; the Cardinal of Retz was con- fined at Vincennes, the Prince of Conde condemned in contumacy, and Gaston exiled to Blois. Three months later Mazarin returned all-powerful and in the gorgeous apparel of a sovereign (February, 1653). This was the end of the Fronde. But those times, in which the king and his mother fled in disorder before a few blunderheads, and slept almost upon straw at St. Germain, left an impression upon the mind of Louis XIV. which was never effaced; this recollec- tion contributed to drive him into the path of the most abso- lute government. On his return to Paris he caused a dec- laration of authority to be registered, containing a "very express prohibition against the assumption by Parliament hereafter of any cognizance of the general affairs of the state and of the direction of the finances." The war of the Fronde was ended. It remained to termi- nate the war with Spain, which during these troubles had captured Dunkirk, Barcelona, and Casale in War with T l . , . , , f j , i v Spain; Treaty Italy. Conde had offered to his enemies his (i659) e Pyrenees sword, which had been so fatal to them; but he seemed to lose his good fortune in quitting France. At first he joined the Archduke Leopold in the siege of Arras, not far from the plains of Lens, where he had won his most glorious victory. Turenne attacked him in his 3 1 8 THE A SCENDEXC Y OF FRA NCE. [ BOOK V. camp and forced his lines. An orderly retreat was all that Conde could effect (August 25, 1654). "I know," Philip IV., the King of Spain, wrote to him, "that everything was lost, and that you have saved everything." The years 1655 and 1656 saw only the sieges of frontier towns Valenciennes, Cambrai, and Rocroy, and the skillful maneuvers of Turenne and Conde; but these two generals, having only small armies available, could not strike decisive blows. Mazarin was as destitute of royalist scruples as Richelieu had been of religious scruples. His predecessor had allied himself with the Protestants against Austria: he allied himself against Spain with Cromwell, who had caused the son-in-law of Henry IV. to be beheaded (1657). Then Spain experienced only reverses. While the English were taking possession of Jamaica and burning the galleons of Cadiz, the town of Dunkirk, the key of Flanders, was besieged by land and by sea. The Spaniards advanced to its relief along the dunes which border the sea. "Have you ever seen a battle?" asked Conde of the young Duke of Gloucester, stationed near him. "No," replied the young prince. "Well, then, in half an hour you will see how one is lost." Turenne's victory was complete (June 14, 1658). Dunkirk was its prize, but the town was put into the hands of the English according to the conditions of the treaty. The cabinet of Madrid had no army; it sued for peace. The negotiations, commenced at Paris by ambassadors, were finished by the two ministers, Mazarin and Don Louis de Haro, in the island of conference, upon the Bidassoa, at the foot of the mountains which separate the two countries. This was the treaty of the Pyrenees, signed November 7, 1659. France retained Artois, Cerdagne, and Roussillon, which Richelieu had conquered; she surrendered Lorraine to the duke Charles IV. on condition that he would dis- mantle all his strongholds, and as he refused, France kept his duchy; the Prince of Conde was restored to favor and re-established in his principal offices; finally, Louis XIV. married the infanta Maria Theresa, who was to bring him a dowry of 500,000 gold crowns, in consideration of which she renounced all claim to her father's heritage. The conclusion of this marriage was the thought and hope of Mazarin during fifteen years. As early as 1645 ne wrote to his plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Westphalia: "If his Most Christian Majesty married the infanta, then we CHAP. XX.] FRANCE FROM 1643 TO 1661. 319 could aspire to the Spanish succession, no matter what re- nunciation the infanta makes; and this would not be a very distant expectation, since she is excluded only by the prince, her brother." In 1659 he arranged matters in such away that the renunciation was legally null : he subordinated with an express purpose its validity to the exact payment of the dowry, which he knew Spain could never pay. It was to prepare a pretext in future for the pretensions of the house of Bourbon. But by this same treaty Mazarin abandoned Portugal, which, deprived of the support of France, sought the support of England, an alliance to be twice fatal to the French, under Louis XIV. and under Napoleon. At the same time that the cardinal meditated the union of Spain and France he had for a moment thought of mak- ing Louis XIV. emperor at the death of Ferdinand III. (1657). Leopold I. had been chosen. However, he con- cluded the League of the Rhine (1658), by which the three ecclesiastical electors, the Duke of Bavaria, the princes of Brunswick and Hesse, the kings of Sweden and Denmark, united with France for the maintenance of the treaties of Westphalia, and were placed in some degree under its pro- tectorate. The League of the Rhine, which was afterward revived and extended by Napoleon under the name of the Confederation of the Rhine, assured to France ascendancy in the empire. After the achievement of these great undertakings the Cardinal Mazarin could say that "if his language was not French his heart was." His internal administration merits less praise. He neg- lected commerce and agriculture; he allowed the navy to decline; he managed the finances in such a way that at his death the public treasury owed 450,000,000 francs, while his own fortune amounted to almost half of that sum, so the superintendent, Nicolas Fouquet, said to the king: "Sire, there is no money in your Majesty's coffers, but his Highness the Cardinal will lend you some." However, a part of these immense riches was honorably employed. Mazarin pro- tected men of letters, and Menage was commissioned to furnish him with a list of those who merited reward or encouragement. Descartes, in retirement in Holland, re- ceived a pension; the historian Mezeray was also to receive 4000 francs. At great expense and by the labors of the scholar Gabriel Naude the cardinal founded a magnificent 320 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. library, the Mazarin Library, afterward opened to the public; and in his will he appropriated 800,000 crowns for the establishment of the College of the Four Nations, designed to receive the pupils of the university who belonged to the Spanish, Italian, German, and Flemish provinces newly reunited to the kingdom. Finally, he had a taste for art, intense if not the most refined; he had a number of pictures, statues, and curiosities brought from Italy, also engineers and actors who introduced the opera into France. In 1655 he founded the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He died March 9, 1661, at Vincennes, at the age of fifty- nine, in despair at leaving his beautiful paintings, his statues, books, business, life, and yet "facing death cheer- fully." While the treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees gave France the first place among the European nations, the internal opposition which had up to that time 'iWi!' hampered the exercise of the royal power and rendered useless the immense resources of the country found itself worsted. If obstacles are removed at home the way is open and plain abroad. Louis XIV. had only to continue the work of Richelieu and Mazarin. He had able ministers, a kingdom the most united, the best situated, and the most docile in Europe, finances that Col- bert was to put in order, an army which Louvois was to organize under the greatest generals of the world, and behind that army a valiant nation of 20,000,000 souls. His power was great; moreover, it was still farther augmented by the weakness of his neighbors. To convince ourselves of this let us make a rapid survey of Europe. The restoration of the Stuarts in 1660 had brought back quiet to England, but only for a few years. The absolutist tendencies of the king and the liberal aspirations of the English nation were in manifest opposition. In reality England was always divided into two parties, the one defending the public liberty, the other upholding the prin- ciples of divine right, or at least entirely willing to increase the prerogatives of the crown. For defense against the first Charles II. was led more than once to betray the honor and interests of England, as, for example, when he sold Dunkirk to France for 5,000,000 francs, and when he sold himself to Louis XIV. for a pension. The Navigation Act, promul- CHAP. XX.] CONDITION OF EUROPE IN 1661. 321 gated in 1652, had already excited the anger of the Dutch by showing them that England intended to control her own carrying trade, whereof up to that time they had had all the profit. Scotland, attached to England at the accession of James in 1603, formed with her and with Ireland the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. *- ^ The seven United Provinces had attained the zenith of / their greatness. In 1648 the house of Austria had recog- nized their independence, and had ceded to them several districts of Brabant, Luxemburg, and Flanders. The strength of the republic lay in its possession of the mouths of the Scheldt, Meuse, Rhine, and Ems, with the impor- tant town of Maestricht, which protected its frontier. In the Indies they had almost wholly supplanted the Portu- guese. Masters without rivals of those regions, they had divided their domains into five governments: Java, where about 1619 they had founded Batavia, the capital of all their settlements, Amboyna and Ternate in the Moluccas, Ceylon and Macassar in the Celebes Islands. Their colony on the Cape of Good Hope made them masters of the route from Europe to the Indies, and they also had colonies in the Antilles. Rulers of the seas, they explored their extent; Lemaire discovered the strait which bears his name, and doubled Cape Horn, a safer route than the Strait of Magellan (1615). Several nations, France included, disputed the priority of the discovery of Australia, but it is certain that the first positive knowledge is due to the Dutch. They between 1605 and 1642 sent along its coasts several exploring expe- ditions, of which the most important were those of Tasman in 1642 and 1644, who on his first voyage discovered Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, the Viti and Friendly Isl- ands, and in his second took the bearings of the northwest coast of Australia. As yet no power rivaled the Dutch in the art of naval construction. No people could carry freight at lower rates; for no other sailors were contented with so small wages. To the rich products of the commerce of the Indies must be added those of the herring fisheries, and above all we must reckon as principal elements of their prosperity the activity, the extraordinary spirit of order and economy, which is one of the distinctive traits of Dutch genius. But the basis of this sudden greatness was perhaps too narrow for it to be very solid. Holland had too limited 322 THE A SCENDENC Y OF FRA NCE. [ BOOK V. a territory and too small a population to control so vast an empire. Freed by the co-operation of France, she began to find that her ally had grown very strong, and inclined toward enfeebled and humiliated Spain, preferring her for a neighbor to victorious France. She was to make herself the principal antagonist of the great king, and subsidize coalitions against him. But the Spanish Netherlands were to prove an inse- cure rampart, which Louis XIV., when provoked, could break through or flank to convey his armies to the very heart of the United Provinces. England was to prove still more fatal to her by her alliance than France by war. The Long Parliament began her ruin by the Navigation Act, and Cromwell had already forced her to recognize the superiority of the British flag; but when the Stadtholder of Holland, William of Nassau, became King of England, Holland, according to the saying, was only a boat fastened alongside a ship of the line. Spain, ruined in the very sources of her wealth by the \ expulsion of 200,000 Moors in 1609, had been exhausted by i long and unsuccessful wars. She retained all her territories, I Franche-Comte, half the Netherlands, the Milanais, the king- dom of the Two Sicilies, the islands of Elba and Sardinia; but the possession of these countries was onerous rather than profitable, for they did not bring in what they cost. She had recently lost Roussillon, Artois, and also Portugal; her immense colonies in America remained to her and con- tinued to send her their galleons; but her agriculture was neglected, her industry and her commerce were dead, and the American piastres served only to buy what she no longer knew how to produce. Philip IV. still reigned. For twenty years he had been under the guardianship of Oliva- rez. At this time Spain had nothing to boast of save her poets and artists; Lope de Vega (1635) and Velasquez (1660) had just died. But Calderon and Murillo were already celebrated. France, who was beginning her great century of arts and letters with Corneille, Descartes, Pascal, and Poussin was to ravish this glory from her as she had already ravished her power. Spain had involved Portugal in her ruin. Despoiled by the Dutch of her colonies and commerce, abandoned by France in the treaty of the Pyrenees, she began to look toward England, into whose arms she was to cast herself after a Bourbon was seated upon the throne of Charles V. CHAP. XX.] CONDITION OF EUROPE IN 1661. 323 In Italy, which Spain held by two extremities, Naples and Milan, and by the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Elba, the same decline. The great movement of Catholic restora- tion which had animated the peninsula in the century pre- ceding had been arrested. The pontiffs had returned to temporal ambitions, but without obtaining a better guarantee for the tranquillity of the states of the Church, extending from Carigliano to the mouths of the Po, where since the death of Sixtus V. the bravi swarmed. Richelieu and Ma- zarin had tried in vain several times to form a league of the Italian princes against Spain, which held them in dependence. Philip IV. in spite of his weakness triumphed over the ill will of several princes, suppressed a revolt in Sicily under the gold beater Giuseppe d'Alesio (1647), and two more important movements which broke out the same year in Naples under Masaniello, the fisherman, and Gennaro An- nese, the armorer. All that Mazarin could do was to cause Vercelli to be given to the Duke of Savoy, to reconcile the Duke of Modena to Spain, the Duke of Parma to the Holy See, and to obtain an amnesty for political offenses in the kingdom of Naples. The Prince of Monaco had placed himself under the protection of France, and a French branch of the house of Gonzaga had obtained Montferrat, Mantua, and Guastalla. If, therefore, Mazarin had not been able to drive the Spaniards from the peninsula, nor to sign a league with the Italian princes similar to the one which opened Germany to him, he had at least interfered in all the affairs of Italy, and he foresaw that in case of need France would find in that country alliances and means of action against Spain. From the re-established peace two princes obtained differ- ent advantages. The military court of the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel II., was occupied with organizing a strong army and with making over the Alps that beautiful road of the Grotto which leads form Lyons to Turin by Les Echelles. The learned court of Ferdinand II. in Tus- cany, was occupied with experiments and researches which made Florence one of the centers of science in the seven- teenth century. Toricelli, the inventor of the barometer, the disciple of Galileo, had just died (1647); but the geometrician Viviani was to receive there the presents of Louis XIV., and the celebrated Academia del Cimento was founded. 324 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. Venice, in possession of the northeast of the peninsula as far as Cremona, of Friuli, of part of Istria, of the coast of Dalmatia, of Corfu and Candia, held herself aloof from the affairs of Italy. Her interests were elsewhere in the Archipelago, in the Adriatic. A war with the Ottomans, begun in 1644, of which the most remarkable event was the siege of Candia,* gave Venice an opportunity of showing what patriotism, courage, and perseverance she still pre- served. Genoa was no longer spoken of. As almost the whole commerce of the Levant was in the hands of the Venetians, Genoa attempted to monopolize that along the shores of Spain and Africa. Thus she was closely bound to Spain. She was soon to pay the price by a bombardment and humiliation. The Knights of St. John always held Malta as a fief of the kingdom of Naples. Since the fatal Thirty Years' War, which had covered her with still visible ruins, Germany was powerless. The greater number of the petty princes who had substituted their tyranny for imperial authority wanted to maintain a court and ambassadors; and the people were worn out in maintaining the exaggerated luxury of their masters. Poor in spite of their exactions, these needy sovereigns made traffic of their alliances and sold their armies. The treaty of Westphalia had assured their independence of the emperor; the League of the Rhine bound many of them to France. In 1663 the diet of Ratisbon was to become per- petual. This gave the finishing stroke to imperial authority. Austria, emerging exhausted from the war, regained her strength slowly and curbed her ambition. In 1658 Leopold I. had succeeded his father, Ferdinand III. His reign, last- ing until 1705, was without eclat, but on the whole profita- ble for his house, thanks to able generals and the assistance of Europe. This house then divided into three branches: that of Spain, ruling at Madrid ; those of Tyrol and Styria, reunited in 1673. * The siege of the city of Candia by the Ottomans continued over twenty-four years, being the longest siege recorded in history. The Ottomans made 65 great assaults and 45 underground attacks ; they also exploded more than 3000 mines and the besieged 1172 counter-mines. In these various encounters over 100,000 Ottomans and nearly 50,000 Venetians perished. Candia was the last Venetian possession in the Levant. ED, CHAP. XX.] CONDITION OF EUROPE IN 1661. 325 y Another house was growing up in Germany, the house of Brandenburg. In 1618 it had acquired Prussia, whereby it confronted the Russians at Koenigsberg, and in 1629 the duchy of Cleves and the counties of Mark and Ravensberg, which placed it at the gates of France upon the Rhine. Frederick William was already called the Great Elector; his son was to call himself King of Prussia. Switzerland comprised thirteen confederated cantons, several allied countries, as the abbey of St. Gall, the bishopric of Basel, the town of Muhlhausen in Alsace, Valais, the Grisons, and some conquered countries, as the seven Italian bailiwicks seized from the Milanais between 1500 and 1512. Berne was the most powerful of these countries, possessing Aargau and the country of the Vaud. The Swiss had prudently renounced the belligerent role which they had played in the sixteenth century, and con- tented themselves with furnishing several powers with recruits, whose pay brought a little gold into their poor mountain towns. By her acquisitions in the Thirty Years' War Sweden held the mouths of three large rivers of Germany, the Weser, Elbe, and Oder; she was mistress of Finland, and still occupied, upon the southern shore of the gulf of that name, Carelia and Ingria, surrendered by the Russians in 1647, and Esthonia and Livonia, abandoned by the Poles in 1635. Thus the Baltic was a Swedish sea, and the supremacy of the north of Europe for a long time seemed attached to the crown of Gustavus Adolphus. Christina, a daughter of the conqueror of Tilly and Wallenstein, knew how to preserve this brilliant position for her kingdom; but in 1654, either through disinclina- tion for business or caprice, she abdicated in favor of her cousin, Charles Gustavus, of the house of Deux-Ponts. This prince, who to a taste for letters peculiar to his family joined extraordinary courage and ambition, was at first occupied in defending himself against the pretensions of the King of Poland, John Casimir. The Swedes had every- where the advantage and captured Warsaw. John Casimir had fled to Silesia; but the Poles rose in arms and 55,000 advanced to recapture their capital. The action took place under the walls of the city (1656). After three days of stubborn effort, and in spite of the heroic courage of the Poles, Charles Gustavus, who had only 24,000 men, won 326 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. such a complete victory that to save Poland a coalition of all the neighboring powers was necessary. The emperor, the King of Denmark, and the Elector of Brandenburg united; the Swedes were forced to abandon their conquest. But Charles Gustavus revenged himself upon Denmark: he crossed the straits upon the ice, terrified Copenhagen, and by the treaty of Roskild obtained the provinces of Halland, Scania, Blekinge, and Bohus, exacted the free passage of the Sound for Swedish vessels, and the independence of Holstein-Gottorp (1658). The peace lasted hardly a few months; emboldened by his first successes, the King of Sweden aspired to the con- quest of Denmark, and again laid siege to Copenhagen. But the town resisted; the Dutch dispatched a fleet into the Sound; Austria, Poland, and Brandenburg sent an army into Denmark. The Swedes, menaced on every side, gave up the siege, and after the sudden death of Charles Gus- tavus, peace was re-established between Denmark and Sweden by the treaty of Copenhagen, which confirmed that of Roskild, between Poland and Sweden by the treaty of Oliva (1660), between Sweden and Russia by the treaty of Kardis (1661). Upon the whole, Sweden came out honor- ably from the unequal struggle she had just sustained. She regained her natural boundaries on the south by the acquisition of Blekinge, Halland, and Scania; her natural boundaries on the coast of Norway, which belonged to Den- mark, by the acquisition of Bohus, Jemtland, and Heridalia. She obtained Lithuanian Livonia from Poland, and pre- served Ingria with a large part of Carelia, captured from the Russian Empire, so that all the shores of the Gulf of Finland were her possession. But these continual wars weighed heavily upon a poor people, few in number, and upon a country almost entirely devoid of agriculture and industry, and Sweden was unable to keep the scepter of the North which she had seized. In the midst of these military events a revolution occurred of which the consequences have been modified only in our day. The aristocracy in Denmark was paramount; King Ferdinand III., supported by the clergy and the citizens, shattered its power in 1660 and proclaimed the heredity of the crown. The new law then promised was not pro- claimed until 1709, under the name of the royal law; but it existed in reality from 1660. It established the most com- CHAP. XX.] CONDITION OF EUROPE IN 1661. 327 plete absolutism, and it endured until 1834. Unfortunately the first of the hereditary kings was a German. He gave over the entire administration to his compatriots, so that German became the official language of the Danish terri- tory. Denmark is to-day struggling against this influence. Poland, which had formerly held the first rank in the North, had descended to the second, and was very near falling to the third. Her territory still extended from the Carpathian Mountains to the Baltic, and from the Oder to the sources of the Dnieper and Volga, but her anarchical constitution and her elective royalty were already exposing her with- out defense to foreign wars. What the Swedes had just effected under Charles Gustavus the Russians were speed- ily to accomplish. The latter, whom the Swedes, the Poles, and the Duke of Courland and Semigalle shut off from the Baltic, were separated from the Black Sea by the warlike republic of the Cossacks, intractable subjects of Poland, and by Tartar hordes. They had no possibility of free extension save toward the desert regions of Siberia; the fall of the powerful republic of Novgorod in 1476 under Ivan III. had opened the approaches of the Baltic and of the Arctic Ocean; finally, by the destruction of the Tartars of Astrakhan (1554) they had arrived a century before upon the Caspian. The treaty of Andrussow (1667), which deprived Poland of Smolensk, Tchernigow, and the Ukraine, was Russia's first step toward the west. The dynasty of the Romanoffs, founded by Michael Feodoro- vitch, reigned after 1613 and became extinct in 1762. Russia, however, already possessed formidable elements of power. In the latter half of the fifteenth century Ivan III. had abolished in his family the law of appanage; thereby he established the unity of government and of the state; but this same law he had, on the other hand, maintained for the nobles, whereby they were divided and weakened. A century afterward Ivan IV. had spent fifteen years in ren- dering his boyars supple to the yoke, and had shown that implacable cruelty which, even among that people accus- tomed to disregard life, won him the name of the Terrible. Finally, a ukase of 1592 had reduced all the peasants to the servitude of the soil, prohibiting them from a change of master or locality. The Ottomans had lost the religious and military enthu- siasm of the preceding age, but they still held the first rank 328 THE A SCENDENC Y OF FRA NCE. in oriental Europe. The Prince of Transylvania was their vassal; the ban at of Temeswar and a considerable part of Hungary were in their hands; the Dniester separated them from Poland, and all the coast of the Black Sea as far as Kouban belonged to them. In Asia their domains extended from Erivan to Bagdad. Venice struggled pain- fully against them. In 1660 they captured Mitylene and Lemnos, and the same year they defeated the Austrians in Hungary. In 1663 the latter saw Neuhoesel fall at the gates of Pressburg, and Vienna found herself once more unprotected and menaced. Louis XIV. preluded his con- quests by ostentatiously sending assistance to the Austrians for the battle of St. Gothard (1664), and to Venice for the siege of Candia (1667). CHAPTER XXI. THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. TO THE WAR OF THE LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG. Administrative Centralization of ranee ; Colbert and Louvois. War in Flanders (1667). First Coalition against France (1668). War with Holland (1672). Conquests by Louis XIV. in Time of Peace. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). AFTER the death of Mazarin Louis XIV. resolved to dispense with a prime minister. In this he persisted until . . . the end of his life, working eight hours a day Admimstra- , . ' . . > tive centraiiza- and allowing no important business to be 88*rt Prmi JSd decided without him. Few sovereigns have Louvois. better understood and practiced what he called the "trade of a king." "One reigns by work," he wrote in his instructions to his son, "one reigns for work; it is ingratitude and audacity toward God, injustice and tyranny toward men, to desire the one without the other." What is more remarkable still, this young prince, who grasped the reins so boldly, had already conceived the whole plan of his policy. Not only did Louis XIV. reign with unlimited power, but he was the first to establish in France the theory of absolute monarchy. In his estimation royalty was a divine institution; sovereigns were the repre- sentatives of God upon earth, his lieutenants, providen- tially inspired by him, and by virtue of this sharing in some degree his power and infallibility. Thus in the pres- ence of royalty he allowed no liberty to exist which could cause it umbrage. The greater part of the provinces had their own States or Chambers; these he suppressed. Those which were preserved, as in Languedoc, Burgundy, Prov- ence, and Brittany, met only to execute the orders which they received from the ministers. The remnant of munic- ipal and provincial liberties was destroyed; the king, coin- 330 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. ing money from the ancient rights dear to the towns, con- verted the mayoralties into hereditary offices and sold them to the highest bidder. Municipal life was therefore suspended in the country as political life had been long before a grievous situation, for France lacked a practical business education; when a cen- tury later she was forced to take the government of herself from the faltering hands of absolute royalty she found many bold and powerful logicians to guide her, but no experienced men who understood how to adjust the future to the past. To be stable political liberty must stand upon the broad basis of municipal liberties. . Thus it has grown and been maintained in England.* The parliaments were Only courts of justice ; the nobility only a military class destined to shed its blood upon all battlefields, or to follow in the festivals the triumphal car of majesty. The clergy itself became more monarchical, and never was an embarrassment to Louis. As for the third estate, it was easily held in check by the army, the police, the extreme severity of the laws ; by the respect also which, after so many centuries of feudal oppression, it accorded to a power which gave it internal peace and also called it into numerous departments of public administration. Thus the dominating trait of the government of Louis XIV. was an immense effort to bring back into the hands of the prince all the forces of the country, doubtless to dispose of them in the interest of the country, but more especially for the interest of the king. Hence that excessive central- ization which enveloped the commerce, the industry, the political life, even the moral life of France; and the thou- sand bonds of a minute regulation, so that the initiative of the ministers was almost universally substituted for individual and communal action. As the result of this system France lived less by her own life than by the life of her govern- ment. When age and disease caused that omnipresent hand of power to grow cold everything declined. A great people was subjected to the vicissitudes of one man's exist- ence, to the hazard of royal birth, or to the choice of * The free institutions and constitutional government of England have nowhere been more appreciated than in France. To enumerate all the writers who have expressed themselves in terms of admiration, often bordering upon envy, would be to give the almost complete list of French thinkers. ED. CHAP. XXL] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 331 incapable ministers. However, during happy years this administration, which made itself the universal guardian, restored to the people in- well-being and security an equiva- lent of what they lost in general and individual liberty. The king himself, as we have already seen, understood the obligations imposed upon him by this immense authority. "We should consider the welfare of our subjects rather than our own good," he said. "And this authority which we possess over them should serve us only to work more effect- ively for their happiness." If he loaded his ministers with honors, riches, and power, it was on condition that they consecrated every moment of their life to public affairs. From this long-sustained effort resulted the most active, the most vigilant, administration that France had yet pos- sessed. Its history is almost entirely summed up in the history of two great ministers, Colbert and Louvois. Colbert directed what would be five ministries to-day: the finances, intrusted to him at the fall of Fouquet, the king's household together with the fine arts, agriculture including commerce, public works, and from 1669 the marine, an overwhelming weight, under which he did not succumb. The finances had again fallen into the chaos from which Sully had rescued them. The public debt was about 430,000,000 francs, the revenues were devoured two years in advance, and the treasury out of annual taxes of 84,000,000 re- ceived scarcely 32,000,000. Colbert began by establishing a chamber of justice for the discovery of the malversations of the officers of finance. The farmers of the revenue who had profited by state necessities to lend upon usury were com- pelled to make restitution ; the fines amounted to 1 10,000,000. Colbert was the real creator of the budget. Before his time expenditures were made at random without consulting the treasury receipts. He was the first to draw up each year an estimate, divided under two heads, in which the revenues and the probable expenses were indicated in advance. The taille, or land tax, was paid only by the burgesses and the people; in 1661 it amounted to 52,500,000. Colbert lowered it by successive reductions to 32,500,000. In the midst of the troubles of the Fronde many people had ennobled themselves by their own authority, or had bought titles of nobility for a few crowns; thereby the privileged classes were doubled. A royal ordinance revoked all the patents of nobility granted during the last thirty years ; about 33 2 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. 40,000 families, the richest residents of the parishes, were again submitted to the impost, so the imposts of their neigh- bors were reduced. The comptroller general with good reason preferred the aides, or indirect taxes, to which all contributed, to the villain tax. He augmented or created taxes upon coffee, tobacco, wine, cards, lotteries, and the like; and from 1,500,000 francs raised them to 21,000,000. The summary of the financial adminstration of Colbert is as follows: In 1661 out of 85,000,000 in taxes the treasury had to pay 52,500,000 in pensions and salaries; there remained only 32,500,000, and the expenditure was 60,000,000 deficit 27,500,000. In 1^83, the year of Col- bert's death, the imposts brought in 112,500,000, notwith- standing a reduction of 22,500,000 upon the villain tax; of this salaries and pensions required only 22,500,000; the net revenue of the treasury was 90,000,000. Thus, on the one side, Colbert had augmented the receipts 27,500,000, and diminished the pensions and salaries 30,000,000, which constituted a net annual benefit to the state of 57,500,000; and, on the other hand, he had freed the lower classes from 22,500,000 by diminishing the villain tax. There is nothing to add to such figures. Colbert did not sacrifice agriculture to manufactures, as was often said. He exempted numerous families from the villain tax; he interdicted the seizure of tools and of cattle in payment of taxes due to the state ; he established, or rather re-established, studs, where French horses were crossed with those of Africa and Denmark; cattle were brought from Germany and Switzerland to improve those of France; he granted bounties to the best breeders; he prdered the drainage of the marshes; finally, he published a code of water and forest laws (1669) which is still for the most part in force to-day. But he committed the blunder of respecting the popular prejudice which saw in the free- dom of the corn trade a cause of scarcity. In spite of the efforts of Henry IV. manufactures were still in their infancy, and the French obtained almost every- thing from foreign countries. Colbert, born in the shop of a merchant at Rheims, under the sign of the Long Cloak, wanted France to produce for herself; he imposed heavy duties, on their entrance into the kingdom, upon products from foreign countries (tariff of 1667). CHAP. XXI.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 333 This was the inauguration of the protective system, a system useful to an infant industry, but injurious after it is developed. He spared no pains in purchasing or penetrat- ing the industrial secrets of neighboring nations, and in attracting the most skillful workmen to France; this was good policy both then and now. The number of manu- factures rapidly increased. He maintained them by sub- sidies intelligently awarded, advancing a certain sum to each trade in addition to considerable donations to masters and workmen. He obtained from the Church the abolition of seventeen holidays, and thereby diminished useless inter- ruptions of labor. Finally, he instituted councils of arbitra- tors to settle disputes in the working world. In 1669 for wool alone there were 44,200 looms and more than 60,000 workmen. The woolen factories of Sedan, Louviers, Elbeuf, and Abbeville had no rivals in Europe; tin, steel, crockery, morocco, which had always been brought from a distance, were worked in France; Persian and Turkish carpets were excelled at La Savonnerie; rich stuffs, in which silk is interwoven with gold and silver, were made at Lyons and Tours; finer mirrors were manufactured at Tourlaville near Cherburg and at Paris than in Venice; the tapestries of Flanders were surpassed by those of the Gobelins. Colbert could not remove the numerous tolls established upon the roads and rivers; he reduced them, however, and in twelve provinces suppressed the internal customs duties. By diminishing the export dues (1664) he encouraged the exportation of wines and brandies. He declared Dunkirk, Bayonne, and Marseilles free ports, and granted to the last of these towns in 1660 a marine insurance company; he created markets, favored the transport of foreign merchan- dise through France, caused the highways which had become impassable to be repaired, and constructed new ones. Finally he formed a plan for a canal in Burgundy, decreed the construction of one at Orleans, which was opened in 1692, and deepened the one at Languedoc, which was to connect the Mediterranean and the ocean. The port of Cette was constructed at one of its extremities, Toulouse was at the other; and from Toulouse the Garonne led easily to Bordeaux and the ocean. This work, gigantic for that period, was begun in 1664 and continued without interrup- tion until 1681. It was executed by the celebrated Riquet, descendant of an ancient Florentine family, upon the designs 334 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. of Andreossi, a French engineer; it cost about 7,000,000 francs, and employed annually 10,000 to 12,000 workmen. Commerce thus encouraged developed rapidly. For the regulation and advancement of this new activity a board of trade was instituted in 1665, and Louis XIV. presided over it nearly every fortnight. Similar boards were established in the provinces; t.iey were to choose from their number the three most experienced merchants to appear at court, "in order to inform the king and M. de Colbert what it would be expedient to do." An ordinance of 1671, which unfortunately was not executed, prescribed uniform weights and measures for all the ports and arsenals of France. Foreigners had made themselves masters of all French commerce by sea; each year 4000 Dutch vessels discharged upon the French shores the products of their industry with the merchandise of the two worlds, and carried away French silks, wines, and brandies for transportation to Europe and to distant countries. Colbert wished to raise France from this inferiority. Already in 1658 the superintendent Fou- quet had established an anchorage tax of 'fifty sous per ton upon foreign vessels, payable at entrance and departure from French ports; Colbert retained this duty; moreover, he granted to French vessels export and import bounties, and to builders of ships designed for distant commerce another bounty of from 7^ to 12^ francs per ton; he estab- lished five large companies after the model of the Dutch and English companies: those of the East and West Indies in 1664; those of the North and the Levant in 1666; that of the Senegal in 1673; granted them the exclusive monopoly of the commerce in these remote regions, made then con- siderable advances (6,000,000 francs for the East India Company alone), and obliged the princes of the blood, the lords, and the wealthy to take shares in them; finally, an edict of 1669 declared that to engage in sea commerce was not unbecoming to the nobility. France possessed only Canada with Acadia, or Nova Scotia, Cayenne in Guiana, the island of Bourbon, a few factories in Madagascar and the Indies. Colbert purchased for less than a million Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Grenada, and the Grenadilles, Marie Galante, St. Martin, St. Christopher, St. Bartholomew, St. Croix, and La Tortue in the Lesser Antilles (1664); he placed under French pro- tection the French freebooters of St. Domingo, who had CHAP. XXL] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 335 taken possession of the western part of the island (1664); he sent new colonists to Cayenne and Canada, seized New- foundland to command the entrance of the St. Lawrence, and commenced the occupation of the magnificent valley of the Mississippi, or Louisiana, which had just been explored by the celebrated traveler Robert de la Salle (1680). In Africa he captured Goree from the Dutch (1665), and took possession of the eastern shores of Madagascar. In Asia the India Company was established at Surat, at Chanderna- gor, and later at Pondicherry. Finally, to reserve all the commerce of French colonies for the national flag, Colbert closed their ports to foreign vessels. Mazarin had allowed the military marine created by Richelieu ;o decline. Colbert first caused the few vessels still in the French harbors to be repaired; he purchased others in Sweden and Holland ; shipyards were established at Dunkirk, Havre, and Rochefort, which was built upon the Charente commanding the Gulf of Gascony. Henry IV. had founded Toulon and Richelieu Brest; but they had not so much made them great harbors as shown what could be done there. After 1665 Duquesne remained seven years at Brest, and when Seignelay, the son of Colbert, went there in 1672 he saw a fleet of 50 vessels of the line. In 1683 Vauban surrounded it with formidable defenses. After the peace of Nimeguen he also executed immense works at Toulon, which made that town what nature intended it should be, one of the finest ports in the world. The new flrating dock that he constructed could itself contain 100 ships of the line. To recruit the fleet Colbert created the maritime registry, or system of classification, which the French still preserve, and which compels the maritime population of the coast, in return for certain privileges, to furnish the recruits neces- sary for the crews. These recruits according to their age and the position of their family are divided into different classes, which are successively summoned according to the needs of the service. This institution, to-day less beneficial than then, was completed by the founding of a pension fund, which assured on their retirement a pension to vet- eran seamen. The first census in 1670 registered 36,000 sailors, but in 1683 t ne number was 77,852. Armaments could then be multiplied. In 1661 the war fleet consisted of only 39 ships; in 1678 it comprised 120, and five years 33 6 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. later, 176. In 1692 the king had 131 ships, 133 frigates, and 101 other vessels. The corps of the marine guards, composed of 1000 noblemen, was instituted in 1672 to train good officers, as was also a school of gunners to form skillful artillerymen, and a school of hydrography to furnish ships with exact charts. In a memorandum submitted to the king May 15, 1665, Colbert had asked that legislation be remodeled so that there should be in France only one system of laws, and of weights and measures. He moreover asked that justice should be free, that the sale of offices should be abolished, the value of which was estimated at 800,000,000 francs, that the number of monks be diminished, and the useful profes- sions encouraged. A commission was in fact appointed. It was composed of counselors of state and masters of petitions,* such as Voisin, d'Aligre, Boucherat, and Pussort, who after the completion of the work discussed it with the eminent members of Parliament in the presence of the ministers and under the presidency of the chancellor, sometimes even under that of the king. Six codes were the result of these deliberations: in 1667 the Civil Ordi- nance, which abolished some of the iniquitous practices of the Middle Ages, diminished the delays of justice, and regulated the form of the registers of the civil status; in 1669 that of the Waters and Forests; in 1670 the Ordinance of Criminal Instruction, which restricted the use of the rack and various cases of provisory imprisonment, but which permitted neither counsel nor witness to one accused of a capital crime, maintained the atrocious old-time punish- ments, as the wheel and quartering, and always meted out a punishment disproportionate to the offense; in 1673 the Commercial Code, a true title of glory for Colbert; in 1681 the Marine and Colonial Code, which has formed the com- mon law of European nations and serves them even to-day as basis of maritime law; in 1685 the Black Code, which regu- * The French term " maitres des requetes," rendered "masters of petitions," like many others denoting feudal and mediaeval offices, has no exactly corresponding term in English. Especially difficult is it, save with long circumlocution, to indicate the judicial magistrates, their duties and even the names of the numerous courts. Moreover, function and juris- diction varied greatly during the centuries. Under Louis the maitres des requetes sat by alternating periods of three months in the state council and in the Royal Court of Judicature. In the former case they had no vote, but could plead or advise ; in the latter they pronounced decrees from which appeal might be made to Parliament. ED. CHAP. XXI.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 337 lated the condition of the negroes in the French colonies. These ordinances constitute the greatest work of codifica- tion which has been executed from Justinian to Napoleon. Portions of them are still in force; the ordinance concerning the marine composes almost all the second book of the present French commercial code. To superintend the care- ful execution of these laws masters of petitions were several times sent, like the inquisitors of St. Louis, through the provinces to the parliaments. This same minister who reformed the finances, commerce, and legislation also found time to encourage arts and letters; in 1663 he founded the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres; in 1666 that of Sciences, which gave to scientific researches a center and a home, which they had lacked previously. The Academy of Music was organized the same year, that of Architecture in 1671. A school of fine arts, established at Rome (1667), received scholars who had won prizes at the Academy of Painting in Paris. The Cabinet of Medals and the School of Languages for the study of Oriental tongues were founded, the Royal Library enriched by more than 10,000 volumes and by a large number of precious manuscripts, the Mazarin Library opened to the public, and the Zoological Garden enlarged. Louis sought talent even abroad: foreigners had a share in his liberalities. "Although the king is not your sover- eign," wrote Colbert, "he wishes to be your benefactor; he commands me to send you the accompanying bill of ex- change as a pledge of his esteem." Among them were the learned librarian of the Vatican, Allaci; Count Graziani at Modena, author of the best Italian tragedy prior to the "Me- rope" of Maffei; Vossius, historiographer of the United Provinces; the Danish astronomer Roemer, who was the first to calculate the velocity of solar light; the Dutch astronomer Huyghens, whom Colbert invited to Paris as he did Roemer, and who remained there fifteen years; Viviani, a celebrated Florentine mathematician, who had a house built with this inscription in letters of gold: "^Edes a Deo datse." The competitor and rival of Colbert, Francois Michel le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois, born in 1641, at the age of fif- teen had entered the offices of his father, Michel le Tellier, the Secretary of State, and he had been initiated by a long appren- ticeship into the science of military administration, where he displayed an activity equal to that of Colbert. When Louis XIV. decided to govern alone Louvois really became Min- 33 8 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BouK V. ister of War, although he succeeded le Tellier only in 1666. He reformed the army, and his reforms endured as long as the old monarchy. If he preserved the system of vol- untary enlistment, practiced through three centuries, he diminished its abuses and dangers by more exact discipline and severe regulations. He established the uniform by ordering that each regiment should be distinguished by the color of the coat and by different insignia (1670); he introduced the custom of marching in step; he substituted guns and bayonets for the pikes then in use; but it was only after him that Vauban succeeded in using the musket both as a firearm and fencing weapon. He introduced the use of copper pontoons for crossing rivers; he instituted store and provision magazines, barracks, military hospitals, the Hotel des Invalides, all those things almost unknown before his time. He created the corps of engineers, whence came the great Vauban 's best scholars; schools of artillery at Douai, Metz, and Strasburg; companies of grenadiers in the infantry; regiments of hussars; finally, companies of cadets, a sort of military school for gentlemen. He revolutionized the army by introducing a regular order of promotion and a service of inspection. He did not abolish the traffic in the offices, which was also introduced into the regiments and which was of profit only to the nobles; but to obtain ad- vancement it no longer sufficed the nobles to have ances- tors, they must have served; the grades beginning with that of colonel became the prize of seniority; a reform excel- lent then, but which would be less so to-day. It was only after his death that the order of St. Louis was instituted (1693), designed to reward military service with honor, this time without distinction of birth, but not without distinc- tion of religion, the Reformers being excluded. By such efforts France could put in the field in the war in Flanders 125,000 men; in that of Holland, 170,000; before Ryswick, 300,000; during the war of the succession, 450,000. We have seen that in 1651, when Louis XIV. began to govern alone, there was neither king nor people who could equal him or France. The first acts of his War in Flan- T- . . . , , ders (1667). First foreign policy revealed a desire for greatness, F?SS"fS8S! a consciousness of his dignity, a haughtiness war with Hoi- which astonished, but which success justified. land (1672). T f j i * In consequence of a dispute about precedence the court of Madrid was compelled to bid its ambassadors CHAP. XXI.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 339 take place after the French ambassadors (1662). The Duke of Crequi, envoy of the king to the Pope, was in- sulted by the Corsican guard; Louis exacted a remarkable reparation (1664). The corsairs of Algiers and Tunis dis- turbed the growing commerce of France; the Duke of Beaufort chastised them, and they set at liberty their Chris- tian captives (1665). Portugal implored the assistance of France against the Spaniards; 4000 veteran soldiers under Marshal Schomberg by the victory of Villaviciosa established the house of Braganza upon the throne (1665). Louis also sent to the Emperor Leopold, menaced by the Ottomans, a re-enforcement of 6000 men, and thus shared the victory of St. Gothard (1664). He participated equally in the defense of Candia by the Venetians. From 1645 *o 1669 more than 50,000 Frenchmen passed over into that island. Their last leader, the Duke of Beaufort, the ancient king of the markets, perished there. This assistance, lent to the enemies of the Ottomans, seemed glorious, but it was an abandonment of the tradi- tional policy of France. Louis renounced the alliance with the Ottomans, as shortly after he renounced alliance with the Protestants. Then he assumed the role of Charles V. and Philip II. as armed leader of Catholicism and as an absolute monarch, aspiring to ascendency in Europe. This ambition was to bring disaster upon France as it had brought ruin on Spain. The death of Philip IV. in 1665 was the occasion of the first war of Louis XIV. It was a custom in Brabant that at the father's death the children of either sex by the first marriage should enter into possession of the heritage to the detriment of the sons of the second marriage. Maria Theresa was the child of the first wife of Philip IV. ; the new king of Spain, Charles II., of the second. In the name of his wife Louis XIV. claimed the Netherlands. He wished to make the Rhine the boundary of France. Hugues de Lionne displayed much skill in isolating Spain from all support. He was able to persuade the Dutch that the king desired only the western part of the Netherlands; he obtained the support of Portugal and the neutrality of England, whose king, Charles II., witty but prodigal, reck- less and dissolute, had just sold Dunkirk and Mardick to France for 5,000,000 francs. As for the emperor, he at first controlled him by the princes of the Rhenish League, 34 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE, [BOOK V. who promised troops to France; he even induced him to sign with France a treaty providing for the eventual partition of the Spanish monarchy. Spain single-handed could not resist. In less than three months Charleroi, Binche, Berg-St.-Vinox, Fumes, Ath, Tournay, Douai, Fort Scarpe, Courtrai, Oudenard, and Lille were forced to capitulate (1667). The king continued hostilities during the winter; Dole, Salins, and Besancon surrendered the same week. At the end of seventeen days Franche-Comte was conquered. The Council of Spain, indignant at the slight resistance, wrote to the governor "that the King of France should have sent his lackeys to take possession of the country instead of going there in person" (1668). Seeing this rapid progress, the maritime powers became alarmed and united to save Spain. Holland, England, and Sweden signed a treaty at The Hague, celebrated under the name of the Triple Alliance, whereby they offered their mediation to Louis XIV. and imposed it upon the King of Spain. Louis XIV. lacked audacity; he desisted and signed the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. He surrendered Franche-Comte", but retained twelve strongholds that he had captured in the Netherlands (1668). Louis cherished profound ill will against the Dutch, and especially against the great pensioner John de Witt. He had been wounded by the republican pride of their ambas- sador, Van Beuningen, an alderman of Amsterdam, in the conferences of Aix-la-Chapelle. "Do you not trust the king's word?" de Lionne said to him one day. "I am ignorant of the king's wishes," he replied; "I consider his power." The existence of this merchant republic, free, powerful, and rich, grated upon his instincts of absolute king. He accused the Dutch of ingratitude, because so long aided by France they had dared to turn against her. Colbert himself detested these rivals of French commerce. We have seen his efforts to drive them from the French coast and to force French merchants to transport their own goods. The Dutch, attacked by tariffs, defended them- selves by increased charges upon French wines, brandies, and manufactured goods (1670). "It is a very bold step for the States," Colbert immediately wrote to the French ambassa- dor at The Hague; "you will soon see that they will have every cause to repent." CHAP. XXI.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 34* Louvois for his part thought that "the real means of achieving the conquest of the Spanish Netherlands was to humble and annihilate the Dutch.' 5 Thus for once the Minister of Finance was not opposed to the plans of the Minister of War, and the king, himself quite carried away by his resentments, was inclined to accept them. It was an impolitic war, however, which overturned the whole system of alliance founded by Henry IV. and Richelieu with the Protestant states^ which turned aside the French blows from the only adversary whom the French then had an interest in striking, and which inprudently led them far from their frontier, beyond the lower Rhine s into a country useless when conquered and impossible to retain so long as the Spaniards remained at Brussels. Louis XIV. had no difficulty in breaking the Triple Alliance In consideration of a small sum of money, Sweden was eager to return to her former friendship with France= Charles II., who aspired to absolute power, promised his compliance in consideration of a pension of 2,000,000 francs. Treaties were renewed with the princes of the League of the Rhine and with the emperor. Thus Louis isolated Holland, as he had isolated Spain in the war of devolution. The opening of hostilities was disastrous to the Dutch. The de Witts, leaders of the republican party, had neglected the army through fear of the house of Nassau; and Holland could only oppose 25,000 militia poorly equipped, without discipline or courage, to the 120,000 Frenchmen who invaded its territory under the command of Turenne and Conde (1672). It was rather a promenade than a war. Trie famous passage of the Rhine, Napoleon said, was "only a fourth-rate military operation, because at Toll-Huy the river was fordable, partly drained by the Woal, and moreover, was defended only by a handful of men." All the towns opened their gates. "Send me fifty horsemen," one of his officers wrote to Turenne; '"with them I can take two or three places." One day four soldiers, while marauding, lost their way and arrived at Muyden; the frightened magistrates hastened to give them the keys of the town; then seeing that they were not fol- lowed, intoxicated them and led them outside the walls. Now it was at Muyden that Amsterdam could be taken, for the locks were there which served to flood the suburbs of the city. 342 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. The French were only a few leagues from Amsterdam; the king, elated at such rapid success, rejected the propo- sitions of John de Witt. At least he should have listened to the sage advice of Turenne and dismantled the forts instead of scattering the army in garrisons. They were not strong enough to march upon the capital. This inactivity caused the loss of everything; the Dutch regained courage. A popular movement broke out against John de Witt. This great citizen was torn in pieces at The Hague together with his brother Cornelius: and William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, was proclaimed stadtholder. No man ever hated France more or did her more injury, or serve his country better. He suddenly gave a new energy to resistance. The dikes which defended Holland against the sea were destroyed, the floodgates opened, and Ruyter, who for three months had held in check the Anglo-French fleet, ranged his vessels about Amsterdam. Holland was saved. The French withdrew before the inundation, evacuated all the conquered forts successively, and retired to the Rhine (1672). At the same time William made negotiations and formed a formidable coalition against France. Charles II. opposed his Parliament and refused to enter it; he was, however, forced to grant peace to the United Provinces, and Louis XIV. had no effective ally save Sweden against coalesced Spain, Austria, Germany, and Holland. To all these menaces Louis replied by the capture of Maestricht (1673) and the following year by the conquest of Franche-Comte, of which he took possession in six weeks. The members of the coalition prepared a double invasion, by the Netherlands and by Alsace ; Conde headed the defense against the first, Turenne against the second. Turenne devastated the Palatinate, and with a handful of men defended the Rhenish frontier against Montecuculli. Overwhelmed, however, by numbers, he withdrew, and 60,000 Imperialists took up their winter quarters in Alsace. "France must not have a single soldier absent from the army while there is a German in Alsace," he wrote to the king; re-enforced by a few thousand men, he wheeled around the Vosges unexpectedly, fell upon the enemy, who were dispersed, defeated them, and pursued them beyond the Rhine after destroying half of their number (January, 1675). The death of this great general a few months later at Sasbach, CHAP. XXI.] THE KEIGM OF LOUIS XIV. 343 and Conde's retreat after his bloody victory at Seneffe (1674) and a glorious campaign in Alsace (1675), did not prevent Louis XIV. from maintaining almost everywhere the advantage. At sea Duquesne annihilated the Spanish fleet in three bloody engagements upon the Sicilian coast in spite of the assistance of a Dutch squadron under Ruyter, who was killed in the fight at Agosta; at the same time d'Estrees ravaged the Dutch colonies in the Antilles and at Senegal. By land Cre'qui obtained a glorious revenge at Kochersberg for a defeat experienced the year preceding at Consarbruck (1677), and Luxemburg gained for Monsieur, the king's brother, the victory of Cassel, captured Valenciennes in broad daylight with his musketeers (1667), and seized Ghent under the eyes of the king. These successes obliged the Dutch to sue for peace. The defection of Charles II. under compulsion of his Par- liament decided Louis XIV. to grant it. By the treaty of Nimeguen the Dutch obtained restitution of all that they had lost (1678). Thenceforth Louis XIV. could speak as master to the other powers and dictate to them his condi- tions. Once again Spain paid the expenses of the war. She ceded Franche-Comte, and in the Netherlands the two remaining towns of Artois, Aire and St. Omer, besides Valenciennes, Bouchain, Conde, Cambrai, Ypres, Mau- beuge, and several other places. As for the emperor, he ob- tained Philippsburg but lost Freiburg. The king compelled Denmark and Brandenburg to surrender all the conquests that they had made from Sweden (treaty of St. Germain- en-Laye, 1679). France, therefore, emerged glorious and stronger from her struggle against Europe; the Hotel de Ville at Paris conferred upon the king the name of Great. Thus the first period of the reign of Louis XIV. ended with profit and glory. Two extensive provinces were added to the territory, Flanders and Franche-Comte'. The possession of Flanders protected the northern French fron- tier, sheltered the capital by a triple band of strongholds which Vauban constructed, added to the French an indus- trious population, whose industry, long dormant under Spanish rule, awakened and became fruitful. The acquisi- tion of Franche-Comte completed the eastern frontier, and achieved in that direction what the treaties of Westphalia had begun. 344 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. After the treaty of Nimeguen France continued its aggrandizement. The other nations disbanded their troops; Con uests b Louis kept all his on a war footing and made Louis xiv. in of the peace a time of conquests. The last reocltio p n eac of treaties had transferred to him a certain the edict of number of towns and cantons "with their Nantes (1685). , j i T. i . dependencies. To investigate what were these dependencies he established at Metz, Brisach, and Besancon so-called chambers of reunion, because they were charged with reuniting to France the lands which he claimed had been dismembered from the three bishoprics, Alsace, and Franche-Comte. The Elector Palatine, other German princes, and the King of Spain were to prove their titles of possession before these tribunals; and decisions without appeal, sustained by force, gave Louis XIV. twenty important towns, among them Sarrebruck, Deux-Ponts, Luxemburg, Montbe"liard, and especially Strasburg, which had remained free although Alsace had become a French possession. It was suddenly invested by 20,000 men com- manded by Louvois, forced to capitulate, and Vauban there immediately began those immense works which made it, for the wars of that time, the strongest barrier of the kingdom upon the Rhine (1681). The colors of France were displayed in other places, and the cause was more legitimate. The Barbary states, formerly chastised by the Duke of Beaufort, had recom- menced their piracies. The aged Duquesne was sent against them; and bomb-boats,* a new invention due to the genius of an obscure sailor, Bernard Renaud, called by his comrades the little Renaud, gave the war a terrible im- petus. Algiers was twice bombarded ( 1 68 1 and 1683), partly destroyed, and obliged to surrender its prisoners. Tunis and Tripoli experienced the same fate, and for a short time the Mediterranean was cleared of corsairs. A Christian city was treated like these haunts of pirates. It was said that the Genoese had sold arms and powder to the Algerians, and were constructing in their dockyards four warships for Spain, which had none. Louis XIV. for- bade them to launch the vessels; upon their refusal a fleet, still commanded by Duquesne, departed from Toulon to * Vessels carrying a battery of mortars on a false deck and formidable in bombardment. ED. CHAP. XXL] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 345 enforce the demands of France. The new Minister of the Navy, the Marquis of Seignelay, son of the great Colbert, who had just died, was himself upon the fleet. Fourteen thousand bombs, thrown in a few days, destroyed many of the sumptuous palaces of Genoa the Superb; the doge was obliged to go to Versailles and beg pardon (1685). Even the Pope was once more humbled as a prince and wounded as a pontiff. The Catholic ambassadors at Rome had extended to their quarter in the city the right of asylum and immunity, always, and with reason, the prerogative of their residence. Innocent XI. wished to remove this abuse, 'which made half of the city an asylum for criminals. With- out difficulty he obtained the consent of the other sovereigns, but Louis XIV., already irritated against the pontiff because of the regale* haughtily replied "that he had never been guided by another's example, and that it was for him to set one." He sent the Marquis of Lavardin with 800 armed noblemen to maintain his possession of an unjust privilege. The Pope excommunicated the ambassador ; the king caused the seizure of Avignon (1687). This affair was settled under the successor of Innocent XI. ; but the consequent profound displeasure of that pontiff was not without influence upon the war which broke out in 1688. The occasion of this war was really the opposition made by the Pope to the French candidate for the archiepis- copal see at Cologne, the Cardinal of Furstemburg, who had already opened the gates of Strasburg. He had been elected by a majority of the chapter, fifteen votes against nine obtained by his competitor, Clement of Bavaria. In- nocent XI. nevertheless invested the latter. Louis XIV. protested in arms against this nomination, and Bonn, Neuss, and Kayserwerth were occupied by his troops (1688). On the side toward Germany he still claimed unjustly a part of the Palatinate in the name of his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Orleans, the second wife of Monsieur. In Italy he purchased Casale in Montferrat of the Duke of Mantua to command the north of the peninsula, and Piedmont, which he held by Pignerol (1681). * Right possessed by the king to the enjoyment of the revenues of vacant bishoprics and archbishoprics, and of appointing to the dependent offices. By the two edicts of 1673 and 1782 Louis XIV. definitely formu- lated these rights, and aided by Bossuet, established the independence of the Gallican Church. ED. 346 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. These conquests, made in time of peace, these violences, this pride, aroused the fears of Europe. France was accused of having destroyed the Austrian domination in order to establish her own in its place, and to weigh like it upon the Continent. Already in 1681 the empire, the Emperor Leopold, Spain, Holland, and even Sweden, had concluded, at the instigation of William of Orange, a secret alliance for the maintenance of the peace of Nimeguen; but no one dared to strike the first blow; the diet of Ratisbon (August, 1684) stipulated a truce of twenty years, allowing the King of France to retain Luxemburg, Landau, Stras- burg, Kehl, and the other towns reunited before August 12, 1681. His ambition increasing, they united more closely and signed the League of Augsburg (July 9, 1686), to which Savoy acceded the following year and England in 1689. At this critical moment what was the condition of France? A sort of fatigue, of internal uneasiness, began to make itself felt in that society still so brilliant. The excess- ive expenses of the preceding war, the costly maintenance of an army of 150,000 men in time of peace, and magnifi- cent constructions, as those of Versailles, Trianon, Marly, the Louvre, or useful ones, as those of harbors and the Hotel des Invalides, had hopelessly involved the finances. Colbert was exhausted in finding resources; he too was obliged to sell offices, create annuities at an onerous rate, and to augment the villain tax; he groaned at bringing back the finances into the state from which he had rescued them. He succumbed under the burden. He died* in 1683 at the age of sixty-four, exhausted by excess of work, and killed perhaps by the unjust reproaches of the king. " If I had done for God what I have done for this man," he said bitterly, "I should be sure of salvation ten times over, and now I do not know what is to become of me." His ministry was divided; the Marquis of Seignelay, his son, took the navy; the finances were intrusted to Le Pelletier (1683-89), and later to the Count of Pontchartrain (1689-99). These last two succeeded but did not replace him. Two years after Colbert's death Louis XIV. committed the greatest fault of his reign in the revocation of the edict * Despite his immense services Colbert died not only disliked by the thankless king but so detested by the people that his remains had to be interred secretly and at night for fear of outrage by the Parisians. ED. CHAP. XXI.] THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 347 of Nantes. As long as Colbert had lived he had protected the Protestants as useful and industrious subjects. But Louis saw in them only former rebels, who had dictated laws to his predecessors, and he hated them as heretics, and suspected them of little love for the absolute power of kings. Religious unity in the state seemed to him as necessary as political unity. After the treaty of Nimeguen the different interests which were disputing for control over Louis XIV., then becoming an old man, rendered the government more rigorous. The king was then having lively quarrels with the Holy See on the subject of the regale, but he did not, however, want his zeal for the Church to be disputed. Through the Protestants the proof of his Catholicism could be furnished. They were robbed successively of all the guarantees which the edict of Nantes had assured them ; missions were multiplied in the provinces, and consciences were bought for money. Louvois, who was determined to show his zeal in this matter, "thought to interfere in it by the army": he placed dragoons in the houses of the Calvin- ists. These booted missionaries committed the greatest excesses. As the dragoons distinguished themselves espe- cially by their violence, the performance was called the "dragonades." Finally, the last blow was struck, and October 22, 1685, an edict appeared which revoked that of Nantes. The Protestants were forbidden the public exercise of their religion except in Alsace ; their ministers were ordered to quit the kingdom in fifteen days, and the laity were for- bidden to follow them under pain of the galleys and con- fiscation of goods. Monstrous consequences ensued; the Reformers had no civil status; their marriages, if, by means of fraud and falsehood, they had not been sanc- tioned by the Catholic Church, were regarded as null, their children as illegitimate. The goods of every attested heretic were confiscated. A part was assured to the denouncer. In spite of the police of Louis XIV. from 250,000 to 300,000 Reformers crossed the frontier during the last years of the seventeenth century, and carried to foreign countries French arts and manufactures and hatred of France. Entire regiments of Calvinists were formed in Holland, in England, in Germany ; those who remained in the kingdom only 34^ THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. waited for an opportunity to break the iniquitous yoke which weighed upon them, even at the cost of a civil war. Did these violences succeed? Before the revocation of the the edict of Nantes there were a million Protestants in France; to-day there are from fifteen to eighteen hundred thousand. CHAPTER XXIL REVOLUTION OF 1688 IN ENGLAND. SECOND AND THIRD COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. PEACE OF RYSWICK (1697) AND OF UTRECHT (1713). Charles II. and James II. (1660-88). Wars of the League of Augsburg (1688-97) and of the Spanish Succession (1701-13). THE response of the Protestant powers to the revocation of the edict of Nantes was the English Revolution, which hurled the Catholic Tames II. from the throne Charles II. , J / -i ,-. i and james ii. and caused the accession of the Calvmist William III. Louis had understood that he would have nothing to fear from the enmity of Europe as long as he preserved alliance with England. Therein, in fact, lay the secret of his strength, which then he would not be obliged to divide by sending half upon the ocean and half upon the continent. Thus he had spared no pains to ally himself with Charles II., son of Charles I., beheaded in London in 1649, wno m 1660, after Cromwell's death, had been recalled to the throne without conditions. It was thought at first that this frivolous and profligate prince had gained some experience from his exile. In the first years, thanks to the counsels of Clarendon, his coun- selor, he appeared very willing to establish the predom- inance of the crown while allowing Parliament to enjoy its former privileges ; and he remained faithful to the Protes- tantism of the Anglican Church, deviating neither to right nor left, neither toward the Catholics nor toward the Presby- terians. If in 1662 he had sold to Louis XIV. Dunkirk and Mardick, Cromwell's precious conquests, he had re- paired this mistake in 1668 by uniting with Sweden and Holland to check the progress of France in the Nether- lands. But in the second part of his reign he allied liim- 349 35 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. self with the Catholics in order to obtain their aid in render- ing his power absolute; as Louis XIV. was endeavoring to secure the triumph of Catholicism and royalty upon the Continent, he sought his support, and did not hesitate to barter the honor and interests of England. Until his death he received from Louis a pension of 2,000,000 francs ; at the same time, that he might better be held in dependence, the French ambassadors encouraged by subsidies the opposition of Parliament against the Stuarts. It was indeed a Machia- vellian policy, but the king thought no means of neutralizing the ill will of the English Parliament too dear a purchase. Louis so influenced Charles II. in the war against Holland that his people followed for a time in the hope of inheriting the Dutch commerce. Finally, England grew indignant at such a bargain, which threatened both her religion and her liberty. The opposi- tion, weak at first, grew stronger, and the former pensioners of Louis went farther than he desired. In 1674 the Whigs, or those who defended the Anglican Church and parliamen- tary prerogatives against the Tories, became sufficiently powerful to force Charles II. to conclude peace with Hol- land, but were unable as yet to obtain a declaration of war against France. The preceding year they had obliged him to sanction the Test Bill, which compelled every officer to make oath that he did not believe in transubstantiation, and thus debarred Catholics from public offices. In 1678 the two Houses were closed to them, an exclusion lasting until 1829. That same year a vulgar intriguer, Titus Gates, conceived the famous Popish Plot. Terror was universal. It was even thought that the great fire of London in 1666 had been the work of the papists and that they were about to begin anew ; the people firmly believed that the Pope dreamed of the conquest of England. This credulity was equally cruel and ridiculous. Eight Jesuits were hanged, and the venerable Viscount Strafford, condemned to a traitor's death despite his seventy years, obtained a commu- tation of sentence only by the king's intervention. Instead of being hanged and quartered he was beheaded. The Duke of York, brother of Charles II. and heir presump- tive, had abjured Protestantism ; the Commons wished by a bill to deprive him of his rights. The king, defeated upon the religious question, was at the same time beaten in the political. England prepared to CHAP. XXII.] REVOLUTION OF 1688 IN ENGLAND. 351 side with Holland. To prevent this alliance Louis XIV. signed the peace of Nimeguen. Charles dissolved this Parliament, become so hostile; the elections furnished another still more hostile to the court. One of its first acts was to vote the Bill of Habeas Corpus (1679). This law, one of the greatest conquests won by the English over despotism, already existed in the Magna Charta; but it had been evaded through the cleverness of lawyers and the oppressive measures of the government. By virtue of the bill of 1679 no judge could refuse to any prisoner whatever, within the first twenty-four hours of his imprisonment, the writ of habeas corpus, which obliged the jailer to produce him before the court designated in the writ, and in which the cause of his imprisonment should be declared; if released by the court he could never again be imprisoned on the same charge. Moreover, in a large number of cases the judges were obliged to accept bail offered by the accused, and the practice of banishment from the kingdom in order to free offenders from the ordinary jurisdiction was abolished. England, therefore, in peace and by means of law was accomplishing her internal revolution, when a violent party compromised all by an assassination and civil war. The Puritans in Scotland revolted, and marked their seizure of arms by the murder of the primate Archbishop of St. Andrews (1680). They were crushed at Bothwell Bridge upon the Clyde by the Duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II., and atrocious executions followed the victory. Another criminal attempt, the Rye House Plot, occa- sioned other punishments which did not seem deserved and which agitated England deeply. Two men, the pride of the Whig party, the republican Algernon Sidney and William Russell, who belonged to one of the most illustrious English houses, perished upon the scaffold (1683). In consternation, the opposition kept silent, and at the death of Charles II. the Duke of York, fifty years of age, without opposition was proclaimed king, in spite of the bill of the Commons whereby he was excluded from the throne (1685). Educated like the whole Stuart family in ideas of absolute power, James II. drew still closer the bonds of alliance formed by his brother with Louis XIV. He wished to accomplish two things equally odious to England: the re- establishment of Catholicism, and the overthrow of public 35 2 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. liberty. This his brother had secretly attempted ; he undertook the task openly and without reserve, for he had more zeal and obstinacy than ability, and he was deceived by the apparent resignation of England after the death of Sidney and Russell, Immediately on his accession the nation saw him prorogue the Commons indefinitely, govern regardless of law, and defy the most intense sentiments of the people by attending mass with all the pomp which charac- terized Louis XIV. when about to worship in his palace at Versailles. The exiles believed the government of James II. was so detested as to fall at the first shock. Argyle landed in Scotland, and Monmouth in England. Both perished, the first without being able to strike a blow, the second after the bloody day at Sedgemoor near Bridge- water (1685). In celebration of his double victory James II. caused two medals to be struck, bearing on one side two heads separated from the body, on the other side two head- less trunks. Yet one of the victims was his nephew. Such a king easily found worthy ministers; two have remained notorious in the execration of England, Colonel Kirke and Chief Justice Jeffreys. The latter wrote to the minister Sunderland: "To-day I have begun my work with the rebels, of whom I have dispatched ninety-eight." Those whom he did not hang he sold to the colonies as slaves. To reward so ardent zeal James appointed this butcher High Chancellor of England. A part of the English aristocracy and the clergy would have pardoned the Stuarts for their despotism, for these two classes remembered their sufferings in the revolution of 1648; but they could not tolerate the openly Catholic tendencies of James II. For the English clergy, so richly endowed by the Reformation, the restoration of the Roman faith would be ruinous ; the aristocracy for its part feared the loss of the immense domains which it had acquired by the suppression of the monasteries ; besides, many of its members wished the sincere exercise of constitutional government, favorable to their influence, favorable also to the great in- terests of the country. For a successful struggle against such powerful interests an extremely able prince was needed. James II., who in his youth had won distinction as an admiral, seemed to have lost all his ability. Weak and "stubborn as a mule," as his brother used to say, he marched toward his designs so CHAP. XXII.] REVOLUTION OF 1688 IN ENGLAND. 353 blindly that according to a cardinal "he ought to be ex- communicated, because he was going to ruin the little Catholicism left in England." In a Protestant country he was seen to surround himself with monks, to give place in the council to the Jesuit Peters, to exempt Catholics from the Test Act, to have himself addressed with the absolutist formula, A Deo rex, a rege lex; finally, to send to Italy a solemn embassy in order to reconcile England with the Roman Church. The Anglican bishops protested; he threw them into prison. The primate of the kingdom, the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, was himself confined in the Tower with six of his suffragans. These violences rendered revolution inevitable. For a long time William of Orange had been allied with the leaders of the Whig party. Son-in-law of James II., he was his nearest heir; he could wait. But the king in a second marriage had espoused an Italian and Catholic princess; from this union in 1688 was born a son, who superseded all the claims of the wife of William of Orange. Then the prince hesitated no longer; he accepted the offers of the English aristocracy, and prepared to overthrow his father-in-law with the forces of Holland. In vain Louis XIV. warned James II. of the dangers which he incurred and offered him assist- ance, which was almost haughtily refused. Louis himself committed a grave error: the cause of James being his own, since it was that of the absolute power of kings, he should have dispatched aid in spite of James ; this he did, but not enough. He sent an army upon the Rhine, which aroused Germany, instead of sending it upon the Meuse, which would have intimidated the United Provinces and possibly kept William at home. At this news stocks rose from 10 to 100 in Holland, and William departed. His fleet carried 15,000 men, and his colors this device: "Pro religione et libertate." He was preceded by a mani- festo wherein he declared "that, summoned by the Lords and the Commons of England, he had acquiesced in their wishes, because, as heir to the crown, he was interested in the pres- ervation of the national laws and religion." He marched upon London without meeting resistance; everyone aban- doned James his prime minister, Sunderland, his favorite, Marlborough, even his second daughter, Anne of Denmark. He did not attempt to resist, and fled in disguise. Then a long procession traversed the streets of London, armed with 354 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. clubs, sabers, lances, at the extremity of which each had fixed an orange. Ribbons of the same color, already the color of the Protestant party, floated over every head. Soon resounded the terrible cry of "No popery! Down with popery!" All the Catholic chapels and even some houses were demolished. The -benches, chairs, confes- sionals, and breviaries were collected in one heap and burned; but not a Catholic lost his life, not even Jeffreys. Ho\vever, at the moment when the galiot on board of which James had fled was about to set sail it was boarded by fifty or sixty sailors in search of Catholic priests. The king, whom they took for a disguised Jesuit, was at first rudely treated, but a few Kentish noblemen who recognized him caused his release; of this he took advantage to return to London (December 16). The following day the Dutch soldiers arrived ; he was obliged to depart, this time forever. William had refused him any interview, and the Lords, convened in extraordinary assembly, had informed him that he must betake himself to Rochester. Thither William had him conducted by a Dutch guard, and took care to allow his escape. James sought refuge in France, where Louis XIV. extended him a magnificent hospitality (1688). Parliament declared the throne vacant and conferred the succession upon the Prince of Orange and his wife, Princess Mary ; after them upon Princess Anne ; forever excluding the other descendants of James II. The Stadtholder of Holland was king. But before ascending the throne William III. was forced to sign the famous Declaration of Rights (February, 1689). This new charter, which substituted royalty by common consent for royalty by divine right, contained almost all the liberties and guarantees which the English had claimed for centuries: the periodical convocation of Parliament, the control of taxation, the enactment of laws by the agree- ment of the king and the Houses, trial by jury, and the right of petition. It founded in England constitutional or parliamentary government, with all the safeguards and the practical wisdom which have assured its duration. Over against the absolute right of kings, which for 200 years had controlled modern society, and which had just found its most glorious personification in Louis XIV., there arose a new right, that of the people. In the desperate struggle which broke out between France and England CHAP. XXII.] COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 355 there was nothing surprising. It was more than two con- trary interests, it was two antagonistic political claims, which clashed. Moreover, in the sixteenth century France had assumed the defense of Protestantism and of the general Liberties of Europe; in the seventeenth' she menaced the conscience of the people and the independence of the states. The role which the French abandoned England was to seize; at the same time to satisfy her hatred, three or four cen- turies old, her envious jealousy, and her mercantile interests, and finally, to crush that greatness which gave her offense, she was to make herself the center of every coalition against the house of Bourbon, as France had been the center of resistance against the house of Austria. This political change overturned all the conditions of the war. While Louis had neutralized England by pensioning Wars of the ' ts kings France had no one to fear upon the League of Augs- Continent ; for protected by the Pyrenees, the burg ^'688-97) ^^ and th(J gea France cou j d face thg Spanish succes- Rhine and fight with both hands, with no need to look behind. When England united with the enemies of France, not only armies upon the Scheldt, Rhine, and Alps were necessary, but fleets upon the ocean and in the most distant seas. France could not long continue this double effort. William of Orange, "the valiant and able heretic," as he was called at Vienna, Madrid, and even at Rome, became the soul of the coalition; to overthrow him was to finish the war at a blow. Louis XIV. intrusted a fleet to James II., which carried him to Ireland in spite of the English and the Dutch, whom Chateau-Renaud defeated in the Bay of Bantry and Tourville on the coast of Sussex off Beachy Head. In the last engagement sixteen of the English vessels were sunk or burned on the shore; the rest took refuge at the mouth of the Thames or along the banks of Holland (July 10, 1690), and for a time Louis XIV. held the empire of the ocean. But James II. did not know how to give him aid: he lost the battle of the Boyne (July n, 1690). A regiment of fugitive Calvinists and Marshal Schomberg especially contributed to his defeat. James II. returned to France. Louis XIV. then prepared for an invasion even of Eng- land; 20,000 men were assembled between Cherburg and The Hague; 300 transport ships were held ready at 3 5 6 THE A SCENDENC Y OF FRA NCE. [BOOK V. Brest ; Tourville was to escort them with 44 vessels which he commanded and 30 others which d'Estrees was bring- ing from Toulon. But the wind changed; the fleet from the Mediterranean could not arrive in time. Louis XIV., accustomed to force the victory, and relying, moreover, upon the defection of a part of the enemies' captains, ordered his admiral to seek the Dutch, who had 99 ships. Among them there was no defection. Tourville fought ten hours without relaxation; but he could not repeat a like effort the following day; he withdrew. Unfortu- nately the neighboring coast was not sheltered; 15 vessels escaping to Cherburg and La Hogue were burned by their own captains, who were unwilling they should fall into the hands of the enemy (1692). This disaster did not ruin the French army, but the contemplated expedition was aban- doned. As early as 1688, at the time when William was preparing his expedition, the French had reached the Rhine, and had captured Philippsburg, Manheim, and Worms; the following year they had ravaged the Palatinate. One hundred thou- sand inhabitants, driven from their country by the flames, entreated Germany for revenge. The king himself re- gretted these horrible depredations; and according to report, his dissatisfaction, a prelude of disgrace, caused the death of Louvois (1691). The war then extended from the Alps to the North Sea. But upon the Rhine it was defensive, since Louis preferred to strike the heaviest blows upon his two weakest enemies, the Duke of Savoy and Spain. The Netherlands bore the brunt of the war. Luxemburg, a pupil of Conde, defeated the allies at Fleurus (1690), then at Steinkirk (1693), finally at Neer- winden (1693), and captured Mons and Namur before their eyes. The seizure of Charleroi was his last triumph ; he died in 1695. William was more fortunate with his succes- sor, Villeroi, who allowed him to re-enter Namur (1695). For his part Catinat, victor at Staffarde (1690), invaded Piedmont, the larger part of which he acquired by a new victory, that of Marsaglia. On the sea Tourville avenged the defeat of La Hogue by the victory of Lagos; Nes- mond, Pointis, Duguay-Trouin, Jean Bart, and a host of bold corsairs ruined the commerce of England and Holland. However, the war languished everywhere, and France was CHAP. XXII.] COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 357 exhausted in an unequal struggle. "Half the kingdom," Vauban wrote, "lived on the charity of the other half." Besides, Charles II. was dying; the Spanish succession was about to be opened. Europe needed a moment of repose to prepare herself for that great event which might cause a general war. Louis XIV. followed the same tactics as in 1677; he divided his enemies. The Duke of Savoy consented to negotiate; his states and even Pignerol were restored to him, and his daughter married the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of the French king (1696). The defection of Savoy determined the allies to accept the offers of France; after brief negotiations peace was signed in the Congress of Ryswick (1697). Louis XIV. recognized William III., sur- rendered to the empire all that the chambers of reunion had adjudged to France with the exception of Strasburg, Landau, Sarrelouis, and Longwy; the Duke of Lorraine again possessed his duchy; the Dutch had the right of maintaining garrisons in certain places of Flanders, and obtained the repeal of certain restrictions inflicted upon their commerce by Colbert. The elder branch of the house of Austria was soon to become extinct with Charles II. To whom would Spain and her vast possessions belong? Three powers, France, Austria, and Bavaria, disputed the heritage. Louis XIV. invoked the rights of his wife, Maria Theresa, the eldest of the children of Philip IV. ; Leopold I. had married the younger infanta, Marguerite; the Elector of Bavaria vested his claim in the rights of his younger son, grandson of this same Marguerite. Louis, not daring at first to risk a general war, made overtures to William III. ; they were to share the Spanish monarchy (1698). Charles II. was in- dignant that they should regulate his succession without regard to him, and bequeathed everything by will to the Prince Elector of Bavaria. But that child died; France and Austria remained sole competitors. Louis XIV. proposed a new division, which England and Holland accepted, and which assured France no great advantage. But Leopold refused to submit (1700). The king then changed his pol- icy; his ambassador at Madrid, the Duke of Harcourt, appealed to the patriotism of the Spaniards, wrote, spoke, and promised so well that public opinion declared in favor of France. The Council of Castile and the Pope induced 358 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. Charles II. to choose as heir the Duke of Anjou, grandson of the King of France (October 2, 1700). However, Louis hesitated. Acceptance meant war; re- fusal, the reconstitution of the house of Austria, no longer divided into two branches, but united, as under Charles V. To share the succession was dangerous. Besides, Leopold was unwilling to consent. Since war was attached to every alternative, better make it for the whole than for a part. Louis XIV. finally formed his resolution, solemnly as- sembled the court, and presenting his grandson, "Gentle- men," he said, "behold the King of Spain!" Some weeks later, at the moment of departure, he kissed him and uttered the famous words: "The Pyrenees exist no longer. " The accession of Philip V. was welcomed with joy by all the people of the monarchy. Europe even exhibited at first only a sort of stupefaction ; surprise seemed to paralyze anger. But war was inevitable; the house of Bourbon was then extending its dominion from the mouths of the Scheldt to the Strait of Gibraltar, from Otranto to Brest. The project of universal monarchy imputed to Louis XIV. no longer appeared a calumny; and a large party in England, the Whigs, demanded war "to save the liberty of Europe and of mankind." However, Leopold would have had much dif- ficulty in again forming the European coalition had it not been for the rash provocations of the king. First he dismissed the Dutch garrisons from the fortresses in the Netherlands and replaced them by French; not content with thus making Hol- land anxious, he set England at defiance by recognizing at the death of James II. his son, James III. This was in open violation of the treaty of Ryswick (1701). Finally, con- trary to his promises and to the interests of France, he reserved to the new King of Spain all rights and his rank as heir at Versailles. A new league was concluded at The Hague between England and the United Provinces. Prussia, the empire, Portugal, and even the Duke of Savoy, father-in-law of Philip V., adhered to it successively (1701- 03). The death of William III. (1702), who was succeeded by his sister-in-law, Anne, daughter of James II., seemed likely to destroy this coalition; but three men of genius replaced him: Heinsius, the great pensioner of Holland; Marlborough, leader of the Whig party in England, an able diplomat and commander; lastly, Eugene, prince of CHAP. XXII.] COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 359 the house of Savoy, born in France, but whom the disdain of Louis XIV. had forced into the service of Austria. United in interests, ideas, especially in hatred of the king, they agreed admirably in the conduct of military operations. On the other hand the decline of the great king had begun. Ruled by Mme. de Maintenon, he gave the govern- ment, not to the most capable, but to the most courtly. The mediocre Chamillart undertook the functions of Lou- vois and those of Colbert; the incapable Villeroi replaced Turenne. Agriculture and industry had not had time to recover from the deadly blow which the revocation of the edict of Nantes had inflicted. Finally, the poverty of the treasury was extreme after so many wars, so many build- ings, expenses of all kinds; Versailles alone had cost as much as ten campaigns. Austria commenced hostilities in Italy for the conquest of the Milanais. Prince Eugene defeated Catinat at Carpi (1701), almost seized Cremona by surprise, when he captured Villeroi, but was beaten at Luzzara by the Duke of Vendome (1702). The same year Villers gained his marshal's baton at Friedlingen, and by the victory of Hoch- stedt opened the road to Vienna, where the Elector of Bavaria, ally of the French, was not resolute enough to march (1703). But already Marlborough had landed in the Netherlands, the Archduke Charles in Portugal, the Duke of Savoy betrayed France, and the Camisards* revolted in the Cevennes. The defeat of Tallard and Marsin at Hoch- stedt,f or Blenheim, expelled the French from Germany (1704) ; the defeat of Villeroi at Ramillies (May, 1706) gave the Netherlands to the allies; that of Marsin at Turin (Sep- tember, 1706) enabled the Austrians to gain the Milanais, Piedmont, and the following year Naples at the other end of the peninsula. Even Toulon was menaced (1707). France, which Europe thought exhausted, in 1708 sent a * These were the Protestants of the Cevennes, who took arms in self- defense and in defense of their religion after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. When about to make a nocturnal attack, for mutual recognition each put his smock frock (caniisd) outside his armor, whence the name Camisard. ED. f This prodigious victory, won by Marlborough and Eugene, and called by the English battle of Blenheim, must be distinguished from the other battle of Hochstedt gained by the French and Bavarians the preceding year over the Imperialists. ED. 3 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. magnificent army of 100,000 men to the Netherlands under Vendome ; it was routed at Oudenarde, and Lille surrendered after the heroic resistance of Boufflers. France was open ; a band of Dutch penetrated even to Versailles. At the same time Spain seemed lost. The English surprised Gibraltar. The Archduke Charles entered Madrid, and in spite of the victory of Berwick at Almanza (1707) could believe himself master of the peninsula. To crown misfortune, the terrible winter of 1709 brought such a famine that the lackeys of the king begged at the gates of Versailles. Louis sued for peace. By yielding at every point he obtained the allies' disdainful consent to open negotiations. Then they demanded that he should take upon himself the expulsion of his grandson from Spain. "If fight I must," he replied, "I will fight my enemies rather than my own children." He wrote a simple and noble letter to all the municipalities, bishops, and intendants. After setting forth all that he had done to obtain peace he stated the propositions of the allies. The nation responded as it ought to this appeal. Notwithstanding the misery and famine, each stripped himself of the little left to send it to the public treasury. Rich and poor, all contributed, and Villars could open the campaign with an army of 100,000 men. This was the patriotic offering of France. The soldiers were without coats, without shoes. As provisions failed, the general had them fast by turns. Such heroism deserved a victory; the day of Malplaquet was a defeat (September n, 1709). Villars was grievously wounded. Eugene and Marlborough remained masters of the battle- field ; but the French had only 8000 dead, the allies 20,000, and they could undertake nothing during the whole cam- paign. The following year Vendome assured the throne of Spain to Philip V. by the victory of Villaviciosa (1710). Meanwhile the Archduke Charles, \heprotegJ of the allies, became Emperor of Germany and master of Austria by his brother's death (1711). England and Holland, who were struggling to prevent a French prince from reigning at Madrid, were no more desirous of fighting to enable another prince to rule at Madrid, Naples, Milan, Brussels, Vienna, and in the empire. The subsidies furnished to the allies by England had increased its public debt by ^60,000,000 sterling. A court intrigue, to which too mucli importance was attached, precipitated the event which public opinion, CHAP. XXII.] COALITIONS AGAhVST FRANCE. 361 sovereign in a free country, was already preparing and which the queen desired. The Duchess of Marlborough, favorite of Anne, was supplanted by one of her relatives whom she herself had introduced at court, Abigail Masham, as subservient, as shrewd in flattering the inclinations of her sovereign, as Lady Marlborough had shown herself to be brusque and disdainful. A pair of gloves which the haughty duchess neglected to pick up, a few drops from a glass of water spilled designedly upon Lady Masham's dress, brought on the explosion. Lady Marlborough received the order not to appear at the castle. When Lord Dartmouth announced the decision to her she threw upon the floor her gold key, the insignia of her office, telling him to do with it whatever seemed good. Lady Marlborough, herself fallen into disgrace, dragged with her her husband's friends and relatives, and shortly afterward the duke himself. The Tories accused him of having appropriated ^'500,000 from the pay of the army and of having received ^80,000 from the contractors. He replied that it was the custom, and moreover, that they exaggerated the matter. The Whig ministry was, nevertheless, replaced by a ministry composed of Tories, and Marlborough was recalled. Im- mediately negotiations opened with France. We have just seen England's real reason for making peace ; the prelimi- naries were signed between the two crowns October 8, 1711. This example influenced the allies, and a congress opened at Utrecht. But the emperor was bent upon war. Prince Eugene, who had captured Quesnoy, besieged Landrecies with 100,000 men. His lines, which he called the road to Paris, were too extended. Villars profited by this mistake to surprise Denain (July, 1712), and making the most of his victory, seized Marchiennes, the depot of the enemies' magazines. He entered Douai, Bouchain, and Quesnoy; Eugene was forced to retire from France. By sea the French had experienced only disasters. Their navy being abandoned, because all their forces were needed by land to oppose Europe, England could without difficulty take possession of the empire of the seas; the French colonies, defenseless, were devastated or conquered. How- ever, some of the French corsairs and captains had gained a glorious name. To Jean Bart, who in the last war had been the terror of English commerce, had succeeded Forbin, the former companion of his adventurous life; also 362 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. the Bearnese Ducasse, Governor of St. Domingo; Pointis, who took Carthagena in America and carried off immense booty; Cassart, who one day with a single vessel having fallen into the midst of fifteen ships of the enemy, fought twelve hours, sank an English vessel, disabled two, and then escaped; lastly, Duguay-Trouin, son of a shipowner of St. Malo, who at eighteen commanded a vessel of fourteen guns, and from that day signalized each year by bolder voyages, by more numerous captures. The time of the great war had passed when Duguay-Trouin was called to the war navy; he received his commission as captain in 1706. Then there were only individual combats to sustain, con- voys to capture, hostile coasts to ravage. Duguay-Trouin carried on this sort of war as Jean Bart had done ten years before. His most brilliant exploit was the seizure of Rio Janeiro, where he inflicted upon the enemy losses amounting to more than 25,000,000 francs (1711). But the isolated exploits of these hardy mariners could have no influence upon the fate of war. The victory of Denain fortunately hastened the conclu- sion of peace. England, Portugal, Savoy, Prussia, and Holland signed the treaties of Utrecht (May 4, 1713). France recognized the order of succession established in England by the revolution of 1688, ceded the island of Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, and Acadia, and pledged herself to demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk, the home of Jean Bart. Spain left the English in possession of Gibraltar and Minorca. Moreover, it was stipulated that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united. Let us add that Louis XIV. had to agree to the release from prison of such among his subjects as were confined there on account of religion. Holland obtained the right of placing garrisons in most of the strongholds in the Spanish Netherlands, to serve as a barrier against France. The Duke of Savoy received Sicily with the title of king; the King of Prussia, recognized under that title by France, obtained Guelders. The emperor, left alone, continued the war; but Villars seized Landau and Freiburg; then Charles VI. signed the treaty of Rastadt (1714), whereby he obtained what the treaty of Utrecht had reserved him, the Netherlands, Naples, Sardinia, the Milanais, and part of Tuscany. The Elector of Bavaria, the unhappy ally of France, was re-established in his states. CHAP. XXII.] COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 363 Two powers especially had gained in this war: Austria, magnificent dominions in Italy and the Netherlands; England, the empire of the ocean, which she had seized. Besides, the one had recovered Hungary, more necessary to her than Italy ; the other remained at Port Mahon, whence she could hold Toulon in check, and at Gibraltar, whence she menaced Spain and guarded the entrance of the Mediterranean. But when the Spaniards bade farewell to the Netherlands they had no permanent cause for war against the French, and after having been their enemies for two centuries could now become forever their allies. Louis XIV. scarcely survived the treaty of Rastadt. The last years of his reign had been as sad as the earlier had been brilliant. To national misfortunes cruel domestic afflictions were added ; he had lost his only son, the grand dauphin (April 14, 1711); his grandson, the dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy (February 18, 1712), and the Duchess of Burgundy (February 12, 1712); their elder son, the Duke of Brittany (March 8); the Duke of Bern', son of the grand dauphin (1714). Of his numerous family there remained to Louis only his grandson, Philip V., King of Spain, and his great-grandson, the Duke of Anjou, then five years old, who became Louis XV. So many losses in rapid succession decided the king to take a step whereby public morality was outraged; his sons, the Duke of Maine and the Count of Toulouse, children of the Marchioness of Montespan, already legitimatized, were declared heirs of the crown through default of princes of the blood. By his will he summoned them to take part in the council of the regency, of which the Duke of Orleans, his nephew, had only the presidency. Moreover, the Duke of Maine was appointed guardian of the young king as well as superintendent of his education. About the middle of August, 1715, on his return from Marly, Louis XIV. was attacked by the malady which ter- minated his life. His legs swelled; gangrene set in. Lord Stair, the English ambassador, wagered that the king would not live through September. The Duke of Orleans, who during the last excursion to Marly had been left absolutely alone, was then surrounded by the entire court. During the last days of the king's illness a quack gave him an elixir which revived his strength. He ate, and the quack assured him that he would recover. The crowd which sur- 364 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. rounded the Duke of Orleans diminished immediately. "If the king eats a second time," said the duke, "we shall have nobody." But the disease was mortal. "I had thought," said Louis to Mme. de Maintenon, "that it was more diffi- cult to die;" and to his domestics: "Why do you weep? Did you think me immortal?" He calmly gave his orders about many things, even about his funeral rites. He avowed a few of his mistakes, and urged the child who was to be king to care less than he had done for war and extravagant expenses. In fact he left France utterly exhausted. The state was ruined, and apparently had no other resource than bankruptcy. Before the war of the succession Vauban had already written: "Nearly one-tenth of the people are reduced to beggary; of the other nine, five cannot give alms to the tenth, from whose condition they do not differ; three are in very straitened circumstances; the remaining tenth does not comprise more than 100,000 families, of whom not 10,000 are in affluence." What was the condi- tion, therefore, in 1715 after that terrible war when it was necessary to borrow at the rate of 400 for 100, to create new taxes, to consume two years' revenues in advance, and to raise the public debt to the amount of 2,400,000,000 francs, in money of to-day three times as much? The acquisition of two provinces, Flanders and Franche- Comte, and of a few cities, as Strasburg, Landau, and Dunkirk, was a small compensation for such frightful misery. When we remember the state of Europe in 1661 we must realize that on the whole Louis XIV. did not reap all the advantages the situation offered France. But chil- dren speedily forget their fathers' sufferings; succeeding generations were content to recall only so many victories, Europe defied, France dominant during twenty years; finally, the incomparable eclat of the court of Versailles, and those artistic and literary marvels which have caused the seventeenth century to be called the age of Louis XIV. CHAPTER XXIII. ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. Letters and Arts in France. Letters and Arts in Foreign Countries. The Sciences in the Seventeenth Century. THE sixteenth century had accomplished the religious reformation; the eighteenth was to bring about political reforms. Placed between those two revolu- arts et in er France d tionary eras the seventeenth possessed in letters so complete an equilibrium of intellec- tual forces, a power of expression so equal to its power of thought, that it remains more than any other the literary century of France. Generations living in eventful days, in the midst of burning discussions, behold loftier heights and profounder depths, but do not attain that calm and serene beauty in the contemplation of which posterity never wearies. Louis XIV. did not consider that literature was a power, and in his time it had not yet become such ; he regarded it as at least a necessary ornament, as a luxury worthy of a great king. Therefore he favored letters, yet all the while subjecting them to discipline, and under him there existed a real government of literature. Colbert was its minister. We have already seen how he attempted its organization by founding its academies, noble asylums of intellect and knowledge, which were to outline its rules, to give its tone, and, if I may so speak, to mark its measure. But let us not forget that the age of Louis XIV. had begun long before the king could exert any influence upon letters. France before Louis took the government in his hands had already reached half the literary glory which the sixteenth century was reserving her. Corneille, Descartes, Pascal, had pro- duced their masterpieces ; Mme. de Sevigne, La Rochefou- 365 366 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BouK V. cauld, Moliere, La Fontaine, Bossuet, were in full possession of their talent; finally, the two greatest painters of the century, Le Sueur and Poussin, were dead or about to die, and Boileau had just written his first satire. This reser- vation granted, let the greatest writer of the eighteenth century judge his predecessors of the seventeenth. "In eloquence, in poetry, in literature, in books of ethics and diversion, the French were the legislators of Europe. Real eloquence was everywhere unknown, religion was ridiculously taught in the pulpit, and in the same manner causes were pleaded at the bar. The preachers cited Virgil and Ovid; the lawyers, St. Augustine and St. Jerome. Not yet had there been found a genius who could bestow upon the French language vein, number, propriety of style, and dignity. A few verses only of Malherbe made one feel of what grandeur and force it was capable; but that was all. Those very geniuses who had written admirably in Latin, as President de Thou and the Chancellor de 1'Hopital, were not the same men when dealing with their o\vn language, rebellious in their hands. The French so far were com- mendable only for a peculiar ingenuousness which had con- stituted the merit of Joinville, Amyot, Marot, Montaigne, Regnier, and of the 'Satire Menippee.'* John de Lin- gendes, Bishop of Macon, was the first orator who spoke in the grand style. The funeral discourse of Victor Amadeus, which he pronounced in 1637, was full of so masterly flights of eloqence that Flechier long after borrowed the entire exordium to ornament his famous funeral oration upon the Viscount de Turenne. "Balzac (1594-1654) meanwhile gave number and har- mony to prose. It is true that his letters were inflated harangues, but rhetoric has so much power over men that Balzac is admired for having discovered that small * So called from the satirist and cynic Menippus of Coele-Syria, who nourished in the first century B.C. The " Satire Menippee " was the joint production of seven peaceful but intelligent and patriotic burgesses. Its object was to satirize the party of the league, who were the irreconcilable enemies of Henry IV. and of order, and to restore peace and union to France by the triumph of the monarchy. Satirical almost to the end, it there varied its tune and concluded by a sublime address pronounced by the representative of the third estate, or the people. Few literary com- positions have ever been equally effective. It has been said that Henry IV. owed his final success no less to the " Satire Menippee " than to his victory of Ivry. ED. CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 367 artistic detail, ignored but necessary, which consists in the harmonious choice of words. He is praised even for having employed it often out of its place. "One of the works which most contributed to form national taste was the unpretending collection of maxims of Francis, Duke de la Rochefoucauld (1613-80). Although there is only one thought in the book, which is that "self- love is the mainspring of everything," yet this thought is presented under so many varied aspects that it is almost always pointed. It is not so much a book as material to ornament a book. One reads this little collection eagerly; it accustoms one to think and to clothe his thoughts in lively, precise, and delicate form. "But the first book of genius which appeared in prose was the collection of 'Provincial Letters' in 1657. All kinds of eloquence are contained in it. There is not a single word in it which after the lapse of a hundred years is affected by the change, so often modifying living language. By this work must be indicated the epoch when the language became fixed. The Bishop of Lucon, son of the celebrated Bussy, told me once that having asked the Bishop of Meaux of what work he would have preferred to be the author if he had not composed his own, Bossuet replied to him, 'The Provincial Letters.' "One of the first who displayed in the pulpit an al- ways eloquent logic was Father Bourdaloue (1632-1704), toward the year 1668. He was a new light. After him there were other pulpit orators, as Father Massillon (1662- 1742), Bishop of Clermont, who diffused through their dis- courses more numerous graces, more subtle and more pene- trating pictures of the manners of the time; but none caused him to be forgotten. "He had been preceded by Bossuet, then Bishop of Meaux. The latter, who became so illustrious a man, had preached in his youth before the king and the queen mother in 1661, years before Father Bourdaloue was known. His discourses, sustained by a noble and moving action, the first which the court had heard bordering upon the sublime, had so great a success that the king sent a letter in his own name to his father, congratulating him on the possession of such a son. However, when Bourdaloue appeared Bossuet was no longer considered the chief preacher. He had already devoted himself to funeral discourses, a sort of eloquence 368 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BooK V. which demands imagination and a majestic grandeur akin to poetry. His funeral discourse upon the queen mother, which he pronounced in 1667, though it procured him the bishopric of Condom was not worthy of him. The funeral eulogy of the Queen of England, widow of Charles I., which he delivered in 1669, was a masterpiece almost through- out. The funeral eulogy of Madame,* torn away in the flower of her age and dead in his arms, obtained the great- est and the rarest of successes, that of wringing tears from the eyes of the court. He was obliged to stop after those words 'Oh, disastrous night, appalling night, when suddenly resounded as a burst of thunder that overwhelming tidings, Madame is dying! Madame is dead!' The audience burst into sobs, and the voice of the orator was interrupted by their sighs and tears. "The French alone have succeeded in this kind of elo- quence. The same man some time after originated another in which small success was possible save in his hands. He applied the oratorical art even to history, from which it would seem excluded. His 'Discourse upon Universal History' has had neither models nor imitators. Mankind was astonished at that majestic force with which he described the manners, the government, the growth and the fall of empires, and at those rapid flights of energetic truth with which he painted and judged the nations. "Almost all the works which did honor to that century were in a style unknown to antiquity. ' Telemaque' is of the number. Fenelon (1651-1715), the disciple, the friend of Bossuet, who afterward became in spite of himself his rival and enemy, composed that peculiar book which partakes at once of the romance and the poem, and which substituted modulated prose for versification. It seems that he wished to treat romance as the Bishop of Meaux had treated history by giving it dignity and unknown charms, and especially by drawing from those fictions a moral useful to the human * " Madame " was the title given under the ancient monarchy to the wife of the French king's oldest brother. It was also sometimes applied to all the royal princesses. Here it denotes Henrietta Anne of England, daughter of Charles I. and of Henrietta Maria, and wife of the Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV. She died in 1670 at the age of twenty- six. In the same way " Monsieur" was the common title of the king's eldest brother. The most famous " Monsieur" was Philippe, Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV., husband of " Madame " and direct ancestor great-great-great-grandfather of King Louis Philippe. ED. CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 369 race. He had composed this book to serve as topics and instruction to the Duke of Burgundy, whose tutor he was. Full of the lore of the ancients and endowed with a lively and tender imagination, he had created a style which was all his own, and which flowed in natural abundance. It was believed that in 'Telemaque' an indirect criticism of the government of Louis XIV. was intended, and from that moment Fenelon was lost at the court. "Among productions of a unique order may be reckoned the 'Characters' of La Bruyere (1644-96). Such a work was as unexampled among the ancients as was Tele- maque.' A rapid, concise, and nervous style, picturesque expression, and an entirely new use of language, though one not violating the rules, impressed the public, while its count- less allusions made certain its success." There is one class of writers apart who narrate what they have done and what they have seen. Thanks perhaps to an eccentricity of the national French mind, to the desire of interesting in one's self not only contemporaries but even posterity, and of dictating opinions to the latter, France is the country possessing the most numerous memoirs. This curious branch of historical literature commenced at an early date among the French with Villehardouin and Joinville. The seventeenth century has a rich collection due to certain authors, most of whom possessed a keen and delicate intel- lect, and who have revealed to us many of the secrets and the causes of many things. Those of Richelieu are a precious mine for the great history of the age; those of Mme. de Motteville (1621-89), the confidante of Anne of Austria, make us live in intimacy with that princess. The Abbe de Choisy (1644-1724), whose life was adventurous and not always free from reproach, drew up "Memoirs to Serve in the History of Louis XIV." Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz (1614-79), teft a book which is one of the monuments of the French language, and which is always read with pleas- ure even when one does not fully credit the author. Gour- ville (1625-1703), receiver general of the villain taxes of Guyenne, whom immense riches rapidly acquired involved in the disgrace of Fouquet, wrote his "Souvenirs of the Years 1642-78"; Pierre Lenet, counselor at the parliament of Dijon, devoted his to the wars of the Fronde. In this kind of literature the great lords voluntarily became authors. We have upon the regency of Anne of Austria 37 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. the "Memoirs" of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, which on their appearance caused more than one scandal; and upon the last part of the reign of Louis XIV. and the commence- ment of that of Louis XV. the forty volumes of the duke and peer Rouvroy de St. Simon, whom it was foolish to compare with Tacitus, but who was none the less often a powerful writer. As to the poets, Regnier and' Malherbe belong to the preceding century, although the one died in 1613 and the other in 1628. Rotrou is entirely of the seventeenth cen- tury (1609-50), but hardly any one of his works is read expect his tragedy of "\Venceslas." With Corneille the masterpieces at length appeared and crowded against each other on the French stage, which was raised by him to the height of the Greek theater. "Pierre Corneille (1606-84) is still more to be admired, in- asmuch as he was surrounded by exceedingly poor models when he began to present his tragedies. The fact that these poor models were highly esteemed would naturally prevent his literary progress; that they were favored by Cardinal Richelieu, the protector of literary men but not of good taste, would complete his discouragement. Corneille had to contend against his century, his rivals, and the cardinal, who wished to depreciate 'The Cid,' and who disapproved of 'Polyeucte.' Corneille created himself ; but Louis XIV., Colbert, Sophocles, and Euripides all contributed to form Racine (1639-99). An ode which he composed at the age of twenty for the marriage of the king obtained for him a present which he did not expect and determined his after career. His reputation has daily increased, while that of Corneille has slightly diminished. The reason is that Racine in all his works subsequent to his 'Alexander' is always elegant, always correct, always true, that he always speaks to the heart, while Corneille is often deficient in all these qualities. Racine far surpassed both the Greeks and Corneille in comprehension of the passions, and he carried the sweet harmonies of poetry as well as the graces of speech to the highest point attainable. "A numerous party always plumed themselves on not doing him justice. Mine, de Sevigne (1626-96), the fore- most person of her century in epistolary style, and especially in narrating bagatelles with grace, always believed that 'Racine would not go far.' She judged him as she did CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 371 coffee, 'of which,' she said, 'they will soon become tired.' Time is necessary for reputations to mature. "The surprising destiny of that century vouchsafed Moliere (1622-73) as contemporary of Corneille and Racine. It is not true that Moliere when he appeared found the theater absolutely destitute of good comedies. Corneille himself had composed 'The Liar' ; and Moliere had not yet presented more than two of his masterpieces when the public were enjoying 'The Coquettish Mother' of Quinault, a piece so rich in character and plot as to be a model of intrigue. It dates from 1664: it is the first comedy wherein are depicted those people afterward dubbed 'the grand personages.' The most of the great lords in the court of Louis XIV. wished to imitate that air of grandeur, of pomp and dignity, which characterized their master. Those of an inferior class copied the haughtiness of their superiors; and there were some, in fine, who pushed this important manner and this dominant desire of proclaiming their worth to the most ridiculous excess. This fault lasted long. Moliere often attacked it ; and he contributed to rid the public of such ostentatious subalterns, as well as of the affectation of pretentious females, of the pedantry of learned women, and of the robe and the Latin of the physicians. Moliere was, if I may so speak, a legislator of the proprieties of society. I am referring here only to this one service rendered to his age. His other merits are sufficiently known. "That was a period deserving the attention of future times, when the heroes of Corneille and Racine, the charac- ters of Moliere, the symphonies of Lulli, all new to the nation, and since I am speaking here only of the artifi- cial the tones of Bossuet and Bourdaloue, commanded the attention of Louis XIV., of Madame, so celebrated for her taste, of Conde, of Turenne, of Colbert, and of that multi- tude of superior men who appeared in every department of genius. The age has not since been repeated when a Duke de la Rochefoucauld, author of the 'Maxims,' on concluding a conversation with a Pascal and an Arnauld went to the theater of a Corneille. "Despreaux (1636-1711) raised himself to the level of so many great men, not indeed by his early satires, for the gaze of posterity will not linger upon the 'Perplexities of Paris' and upon the names of Cassagne and Cotin, but he gave instruction to that same posterity by his beautiful 37 2 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. epistles, and especially by his 'Poetic Art,' in which Cor- neille would have found much to learn. "La Fontaine (1621-95), much less chastened in style and much less correct in language, but unique in his naivete" and in the graces which are peculiar to him, placed himself, by the simplest things, almost at the side of those sublime men. "There have arisen few great geniuses since the fair days of those illustrious writers; and almost at the time when Louis XIV. died exhausted nature seemed to rest." Philosophy had just been renewed by Descartes, less by what he had built up than by what he had destroyed. His system has fallen, as necessarily fall all philosophic sys- tems ; his method still endures, the most formidable weapon to overthrow error, the most powerful to discover truth. Descartes in moral and physical sciences accepted only what seemed evident to reason, and this evidence he located in the irresistible authority of the testimony of conscious- ness.* Thus in his "Discourse upon Method" (1637), written in that pure, transparent style which became one of the characteristics of French prose in the seventeenth century, and in his "Meditations" (1641), he wished to demon- strate by the aid of reason alone the existence of God, the spirituality and the immortality of the soul, the freedom and consequently the responsibility of man. His principles were adopted by the most religious minds of the seventeenth century. They inspired in Father Malebranche of the Ora- tory his admirable work "Search after Truth" ; in Bossuet, his "Treatise upon Knowledge of God and Self"; in Fenelon, the eloquent "Demonstration of the Existence of God." Gassendi, on the contrary, was the obstinate * In the " Studi Filosofici" (Milan, 1861) of Ansonia Franche, one of the most distinguished men of contemporaneous Italy, is the following pas- sage : " The doctrine of Descartes has been unable to escape the ordinary fate of metaphysical systems. His method, on the contrary, has become the essential condition of philosophical progress. It indicates three phases : preparatory doubt, which frees the mind from its prejudices and errors ; analysis of consciousness, to determine the object, the value, and the limits of the knowledge ; evidence of the thought, to serve as a supreme criterion of truth and certainty. In these simple principles of method was contained the vastest and the most profound philosophical reform which the world has witnessed since the death of Socrates." M. de Remusat in his biography of the chancellor says : "Bacon is at heart only a critic, Descartes is a creator." CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 373 adversary of Descartes, whose system of innate ideas he combated in order to substitute that of ideas deriving their origin from sensation. Pascal (1623-62), another powerful intellect, was also a great writer, in his "Provincial Letters" (1656), against the lax morality of the Jesuits, and in his "Thoughts," frag- ments of a work which he wished to compose upon the truth of Christianity. Farther on we shall see what he and Descartes did for the sciences. Despite his discoveries Pascal is not so much an inventive genius like Descartes as a critical genius of the most formidable power. Around Pascal cluster his friends, the pious solitaries of Port Royal, men of keen intellect although somewhat nar- row, who founded in the heart of Catholicism and of the Gallican Church an energetic and long-lived sect, which was persecuted by Louis XIV., and which in the broad seven- teenth century revived theological quarrels. The principal doctors of Jansenism were Le Maistre de Sacy (1612-94), who translated the Bible in the Bastille, where the Jesuits kept him confined three years; Antoine Arnauld (1612-94), called the great Arnauld, whose life was spent in ceaseless theological controversy with the Jesuits, with the Protes- tants and Malebranche; Nicole (1625-95), specially known for his "Moral Essays"; and Lancelot, by his educational works. Far from this current of ideas Bayle and La Mothe le Vayer continued the skeptical interpretation of Rabelais and Montaigne which Voltaire was to resume. We must pay a tribute to French erudition, to those labori- ous minds who continued to reveal antiquity or who endeavored to throw light upon the chaos of the national origin. Their impress upon their language was little or nothing, for ordinarily they were not writers, and many of their works are in Latin, but their influence was great upon ideas, inasmuch as the past better comprehended gives light to the present; finally, they sought one line of truths, those of history, and their labors guide us still. The greatest of these learned men were Casaubon, Scaliger, Saumaise, du Cange, Baluze, and many Benedictines of St. Maur. Everything is comprised in the intellectual development of a people ; when the time of the great writers has come that of the great artists is not far away. That sort of intel- lectual contagion which takes possession of all chosen spirits 374 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. and arouses superior talents was too active in the seven- teenth century for the artists to be absent from the gather- ing of learned men and poets. There were then four painters of the first rank, Poussin, Le Sueur, Claude Lorraine, and Le Brun; an admirable sculptor, Puget; talented architects, Mansart and Perrault ; finally, a skilled musician, Lulli. Poussin lived long at Rome and enjoyed the reputation of being the foremost painter of his time ; this reputation he has retained. Despite his too somber coloring he remains the chief of the French school in moral elevation, dramatic interest, richness and poetry of composition, and moreover, in that pursuit of the ideal which he himself called the "lofty delight of intelligence." Let us also add, for it is by no means foreign to art, he is chief in the dignity of his life. He despised fortune, honors, and intimacy with the great, shutting himself up with his noble thoughts and with his art; just as he placed his Diogenes in the midst of the most splendid scenes, and represented the philosopher rejecting disdainfully what he deemed really useless. Le Sueur, Le Brun, and Mignard can be considered his pupils, for they long received his lessons or his advice. Poussin was from Les Andelys in Normandy, and died at the age of seventy- two (1665). Le Sueur was born at Paris, lived poor in obscurity, and died in 1655 at the age of thirty-eight. He painted for the convent of the Carthusians a beautiful series of twenty-two pictures representing the life of St. Bruno. His was a gentle and candid soul; his paintings, always graceful even when representing the most austere subjects, by the sweetness of their tone and the delicacy of his touch admirably express the sentiments and even the most intimate affections of his characters. The very oppo- site was his rival Le Brun, born also at Paris two years later (1619), whose too theatrical talent better suited Louis XIV. The monarch appointed him his chief painter, and intrusted him with the decoration of the grand gallery at Versailles ; to it he devoted fourteen years. Till the death of Colbert he was the arbiter, the director of the arts in France ; nothing was done except in accordance with his designs and after his advice; his influence, and often his hand, is found in all the works of that age His drawing is nerveless and heavy; the expression of his figures is exaggerated rather than true; he did not possess the gorgeous coloring of Titian nor the CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 375 naturalness and grace of Le Sueur nor the dash of Rubens nor the profound thought of Poussin. However, he was truly a painter, and chief among those reckoned in the second class. The Museum of the Louvre owns his "Battles of Alexander." To him is due the foundation of the French school at Rome, where young artists who at the annual contest in Paris have gained what is called the Grand Prize of Rome are sent at the expense of the government to com- plete their studies face to face with the masterpieces of antiquity and of the great Italian painters. At the side of these four chiefs a place must be reserved for Philippe de Champagne, who has left admirable portraits and one masterpiece, the "Apparition of St. Gervais and of St. Protais"', and for Mignard (1610-95). The latter was for a time the rival of Le Brun, and is famous for his vast fresco in the Val-de-Grace, but is less esteemed in the eyes of posterity, which has applied the term mignardise to all affectation of delicacy and grace. Claude Gelee, called Claude Lorraine because born in Lor- raine in 1600, who died at Rome in 1682, is the best French landscape painter, and one of the best in Europe. He is the painter of light. In the Louvre the richness of his style and the beauty of his coloring are still admired in the ten landscapes or sea scenes which that museum possesses of him. Puget like Michael Angelo, whom he resembled by his high spirit and energy, was at once painter, architect, and sculptor. He was born at Marseilles in 1622 and died in 1694. For a long time he carved wooden figures for the sterns and galleries of the ships of Toulon; he filled Genoa with his masterpieces, and made for Louis XIV. the group of "Perseus" and that of "Milo of Crotona." This last statue, where the flesh lives, might rival by energy of expression and fidelity of design whatever antiquity has left us most magnificent if there were found in it that nobility of form which the artist never should forget even when desiring only to represent material strength. The mighty athlete, thir- teen times crowned by all Greece, ought to show upon his features contracted by suffering the recollection of so many victories. One too fully realizes that the great artist was playing with the marble, and, as he himself said, "nursed in great achievements, he soared when he was working, and the marble trembled before him however vast was the 37 6 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. block." The character of Puget was too independent for him to succeed at Versailles. He came thither, \vas well greeted, but received for his ' 'Milo" hardly the sum which he had expended in its execution. He left no pupils. Coyse- vox, the two Coustous, and Girardon are the product of another system ; they are graceful sculptors, masters of a style that is brilliant and facile, but destitute of elevation. The Tuileries possesses from the former the ' 'Winged Steeds" which adorn the entrance on the side of the Place de la Con- corde, the "Flute Player," the "Flora" and the Hama- dryad" in front of the palace; from Nicolas Coustou, the "Seine," the "Marne," the "Shepherd Huntsman," and "Julius Caesar"; from Guillaume Coustou, " Hippomenes and Atalanta" ; the "Untamed Horses" seen at the entrance of the Champs Elysees are by the same artist. Girardon has peopled Versailles with his works; the mau- soleum of Cardinal Richelieu at the Sorbonne is his best. The engravings of Callot Nanteuil and Audran enrich throughout Europe the cabinets of those who are unable to possess paintings. Franfois Mansart forgot the elegance and grace of the Renaissance for a style which he considered majestic and which was only heavy. He began the Val-de-Grace, and built the Chateau de Maisons near St. Germain-en-Laye. He invented the mansard roof, which sometimes produces a happy effect by breaking the too monotonous surface of the highest parts, but sometimes deprives them of their light- ness. His nephew, Jules Hardouin Mansart, constructed Versailles, Marly, the Grand-Trianon, St. Cyr, the Place Vendome, the Place des Victoires, and the dome of the Invalides. His is a cold, formal genius. He almost attained grandeur, inasmuch as Louis XIV. stinted him in neither opportunity nor money; but save in his beauti- ful dome of the Invalides he seems deficient in aspi- ration and elegance. Claude Perrault (1628-80) was a physician, physicist, and great architect, and, in spite of Boileau, deserved his reputation. His plans for the east front of the Louvre were preferred to those of Bernini; the colonnade is his work. Le Notre (1613-1700), another artist of genius, created landscape gardening; from it he was able to develop the finest decorations of the chateaux. With the agreeable the land surveyor La Quintinie com- bined the useful. Louis XIV. employed them both, and CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 377 their names deserve to be added to those of the illustrious men of that grand century. The Florentine Lulli at the age of thirteen came to Paris and was with Quinault, the real founder of the opera in France. His music, even the church music in which he excelled, appears to us cold and destitute of character. His contemporaries judged him differently. "I do not believe," wrote Mine, de Sevigne on coming out from the funeral service of Chancellor Seguier, "that there is any other music in heaven." The principal monuments of the reign of Louis XIV. are the Val-de-Grace, commenced by Fran9ois Mansart, the elegantly sloping dome of which was decorated on the inside by Mignard with a fresco* which distantly recalls the great wall paintings of Italy ; the College Mazarin, now the Insti- tute, built by the architect Louis Levau ; the Observatory, constructed in part from designs by the astronomer Picard (1666); the gates St. Denis and St. Martin, commenced in 1670 by Blondel and his pupil Bullet; the Invalides, a work of the architect Liberal Bruant (1674), with its church, narrow in proportion to the elegant and imposing dome which Jules Mansart surmounted by so bold a spire; the Place du Carrousel, or of the Tournament, between the Louvre and the Tuileries, so named from a magnificent tournament given there in 1662 ; the Place des Victoires and the Place Vendome, created or enlarged to receive the statues which Marshal de la Feuillade and the municipality of Paris had erected to Louis XIV. at the time of the treaty of Nimeguen. From the beginning of the reign work had continued on the Tuileries. Levau in 1664 raised the dome of the Hor- loge, which completed the west front, though giving it a heavy appearance; the following year the garden, laid out after a new design by Le Notre, was joined to the palace, from which one street had separated it. It was extended to the Champs Elysees, which were planted with trees in 1670, at the same time as the northern boulevards on the site of the former city moats. There was more to be done for the Louvre. Under * This is probably the largest single fresco in Europe, larger even than Correggio's "Assumption," which fills the whole cupola of the Duomo of Parma. ED. 378 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. Louis XIII. the architect Lemercier had terminated the interior western front by the construction of the dome of the Horloge, which was adorned by the eight colossal cary- atides of Sarrazin. The task then remained of completing the masterpiece of Pierre Lescot. For this purpose Colbert invited competition among all the artists of France and Italy. The plans of the physician Claude Perrault were adopted. As early as 1666 the eastern external front arose opposite the Church of St. Germain 1'Auxerrois; this was the famous colonnade of the Louvre. At the same time the outer southern front on the side of the present Rue de Rivoli was commenced. These great undertakings were at first pressed forward with activity ; little by little the work was slackened, and finally suspended, despite all the entreaties of Colbert. The king was then constructing Versailles. Versailles had been under Louis XIII. only a village and a rendezvous of hunting parties. Louis XIV. wished to make of it a great city and a palace. The works under- taken in 1661 were in 1670 intrusted to Jules Mansart and continued uninterruptedly till the close of the reign. Le Notre, Le Brun and his pupils, especially Girardon, con- tinued to embellish that too highly lauded royal dwelling, which cost more than 250,000,000 francs, and in which France nowhere appears, but everywhere the king. Water was lacking at Versailles: at immense expense Louis had the machine of Marly constructed, which was devised by the genius of Rennequin Sualem, an engineer from Liege, and completed in eight years (1675-83). This appeared insufficient, and the king thought of diverting the River Eure and bringing it to Versailles across valleys and hills. This was a gigantic undertaking which transports us to the days of the pompous and wasteful constructions of the Pharaohs. During several years 10,000 soldiers were occupied in these labors; but pestilential diseases, and especially the wars which ensued, forced their suspension, and nothing remained save prodigious and useless ruins. Close to Versailles the king was building at the same time the Grand-Trianon, twice reconstructed (1671-1703), and Marly (1679), which according to St. Simon must have cost as many millions as Versailles; his estimate, however, we must reduce to 40,000,000 francs, which is ample for a summer cottage! Finally, the chateaux of St. Germain, Fontainebleau, Chambord, St. Cloud, and Sceaux were CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 379 enlarged, renovated, and embellished, especially by the magnificent gardens of Le Notre. I have elsewhere spoken of the great works of public utility, the harbors, arsenals, strongholds, and the Canal of the South. There is, however, none the less, an excessive disproportion between the expenses incurred for the fancies of the king and those which had as their object the interests of the country. This was the inevitable consequence of a political regime which subjected all the wealth of the nation, without discussion, without control, absolutely to the dis- cretion of the monarch. In Italy there was a literary just as there was a political decline. Italian poetry showed its feebleness in the "Secchia T ., Rapita" (Rape of the Bucket) of Tassoni Letters and * / \ j i IIAI i > / arts in foreign (1565-1655) and in the Adonis of Marmi (1569-1625); the lyric poems of Guidi (1650-1712), of Filicaja (1642-1707), and of Manzo, one of the founders of the Academia degli Oziosi at Naples, did not elevate its rank. Portugal had had in the preceding century one great poet, Camoens (1517-79), the singer of the Lusiad. She developed no other. Spain had just lost Ercilla (1530-1600), who had himself chanted his exploits and those of his com- panions in Chili against the Araucanians, but she possessed Lope de Vega (1562-1635), who composed, it is said, eighteen hundred theatrical pieces; Calderon (1600-87), Canon of Toledo, to whom fifteen hundred were attributed ; and the immortal author of "Don Quixote," Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). England without fear presents herself with Shakspere, her Corneille and Moliere all in one; with Milton, the author of "Paradise Lost" ; with Dryden, the poet laureate of Charles II., who placed himself at the head of the classical writers of his country, but who dishonored his talents by his venality (1631-1701) ; with Addison (1672-1719), author of "Cato of Utica," one of the best English tragedies, Shaks- pere's excepted, and editor of the Spectator j with Pope (1688-1744), a writer of rare elegance, who translated Homer, and wrote the "Dunciad," a satirical poem, and the "Essay on Man," wherein is found the philosophy of Bolingbroke, but who belongs to the following century. Germany was in her iron age ; she presented only the mystic shoemaker Jakob Boehme (1575-1625) and Martin 380 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. Opitz (1597-1639), who practiced all literary styles and had a somewhat large influence on the German language and literature. History produced none of those great compositions which never grow old and which are always read. Italy had Pietro Sarpi, called Fra Paolo (15152-1623), the historian of the Council of Trent; Davila (1576-1631), who wrote a history of the civil wars of France from the death of Henry II. to the peace of Vervins; and Cardinal Bentivoglio of Ferrara (1579-1641), author of a history of the War of Flanders. England presents Earl Clarendon (1608-74), Lord Chancellor under Charles II., whose "History of the Rebellion" by its name indicates its spirit; Whitelocke (1608-76), author of interesting memoirs treating of the revolution; the diplomat Sir William Temple (1628-98), who brought about the triple alliance of 1668 and left curious memoirs upon Holland; and Burnet (1643-1715), the stormy Bishop of Salisbury, who wrote a history of the Reformation in England and a history of his own times, which are partisan works. In Spain the Jesuit. Mariana (1537-1624) wrote the "History of Spain"; Herrara (1559-1625), "History of the Indies"; Solis (1610-86), "History of the Conquest of Mexico." In political philosophy two great names are presented : the Dutch Hugo Grotius, or Van Groot (1583-1646), whose treatise "De Jure Pacis et Belli" created an epoch in international law, and the Swede Samuel Pufendorf (1632- 94), who is equally celebrated for his book "De Jure Naturae et Gentium," wherein he applies the principle of ethics and morals to human relations in society. In the field of speculative philosophy England would reign supreme if France did not possess Descartes, and Germany Leibnitz. Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who was a minister of state under James I., founded in the "Xovum Organum" the method of observation and experiment which leads to the discovery of facts, and the method of induction which leads to the discovery of natural laws. It is by advancing in this path that modern science has made as much progress. Another Englishman, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1680), wished to prove in his "Leviathan" that the natural state of mankind was war, and that a good despot was necessary to prevent men cutting each other's throats. Cudworth (1617-88), a metaphysician, explained the union CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 31 of the soul and body by the hypothesis of a plastic medium, thereby removing the difficulty farther, but not resolving it; Clarke, another metaphysician, a friend of Newton, for a long time argued against Leibnitz in his letters, and left a treatise "On the Being and Attributes of God and the Evi- dences of Natural and Revealed Religion." Three illustrious men have a- place apart: the Jew Spinoza of Amsterdam (1632-77), a pantheistic philosopher; the English Locke (1632-1704), who in his "Essay on the Understanding" assigns no other origin to our ideas than sensation and reflection; finally, the universal Leibnitz (1646-1716), born at Leipsic, who in order to account for the origin of ideas imagined the system of monads, simple substances capable of action and perception ; who explained by a pre-established harmony the union of soul and body, repelled in his "Theodicee" the attacks of Bayle against Providence, and conceived the project of a universal hand- writing. Art did not hold its place at the height to which the six- teenth century had raised it ; but if the artists were less gifted they were more numerous, and several schools disputed the pre-eminence. The first rank did not belong to France, but to the two Dutch and Flemish schools, represented by Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and the older and younger Teniers. The latter school followed the beaten track and dealt on a large scale with historical or sacred painting; but the former inaugurated a new genre, easel painting. Hence appeared those tiny pictures whose size the current prices seem to magnify. Whence comes this phenomenon? From the fact that Calvinism, iconoclastic in essence, forbade the representation of biblical scenes ; and that Protestant auster- ity forbade those which were fabulous; just as republican manners, moderate fortunes, and humble habitations rejected those ostentatious representations which are loved in the palaces of the great. The golden age of Dutch painting, the seventeenth century, bequeathed only seven large canvases, five of which are at the Museum of Amsterdam and two at the Museum of The Hague. A gloomy and misty sky, a life passed at the domestic hearth, held the imagination captive, as it were, upon the earth. The Dutch had no other desire or need than to paint their home and city festivals, that half-submerged soil which had saved their independence, and those extended prairies and splendid flocks which were their 382 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. wealth and joy. It was in Holland that for the first time Nature was painted as she is, and not for the sake of borrow- ing from her some means of decoration. The Italian school, inferior to the Dutch, Flemish, and French both in idea and style, and in the imitative faculty, reckoned with pride now that the three Caraccis of Bologna, Paul Veronese and Tintoretto of Venice were dead Guido, Albano, Domenichino, Guercino, the high-spirited Salvator Rosa, and Bernini. Germany, and England produced only a few painters. Spain, on the contrary, possessed several exalted names: Velasquez, Murillo, and Ribera. The French painters had indeed some rivals, at times successful; but the French sculptors had none. There was no celebrated statuary in Europe save Bernini, whose affected taste exercised an unhappy influence on the Italian artists. Letters have a fatherland, for they reflect the national genius and that of the writer; the sciences have none. _ . . There are French, Italian, English litera- Science in the seventeenth tures ; there is everywhere but one same century. science, only it receives here and there a different impulse according to the mental diversity of those who labor to press it forward. Distinction of nationality is no longer a matter of necessity, but of entirely secondary interest. If science differs little among countries of almost equal civilization, it differs greatly from one century to another. Antiquity and the Middle Ages had been able to culti- vate the rational sciences with success, but the study of the physical world was smitten with barrenness, inasmuch as true experimental methods had not been found. Nor could they be discovered until men had become assured that the universe is governed by the immutable laws of an eternal wisdom, and not by the arbitrary impulses of capricious forces. Then only could the human mind no longer be accused of sacrilegious rashness when it sought to penetrate the secrets of creation. "Gens humana ruit per- vetitum nefas." Alchemy, magic, astrology, all such follies of the Middle Ages, became sciences from the moment that man, lingering no longer upon isolated phenomena, endeavored to grasp the very laws which produced them. That day began with Copernicus in the sixteenth century, but only in the seven- teenth was the revolution accomplished and made trium- CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 383 phant with Bacon and Galileo: the former proclaimed its necessity; the latter by his discoveries demonstrated its beneficence. The new method did not at first dare apply itself to the entire field of human knowledge. It especially seconded and enlarged the sciences which were already cultivated, as mathematics and astronomy. Hence it afforded an admi- rable and vigorous education of the scientific spirit, which was to burst its bonds toward the close of the following century, and in the nineteenth to accomplish so many marvels. Four men were at the head of the scientific movement of the century : John Kepler of Wurtemburg (1571-1631), who demon- strated the truth of the Copernican system and discovered the three fundamental laws of planetary motion: (i) That the planetary orbits are ellipses in which the sun occupies one of the foci ; (2) that the radius vector of a planet passes over equal areas in equal times; (3) that the squares of the times of planetary revolutions about the sun are pro- portional to the cubes of their mean distances from that body. Galileo of Pisa (1546-1642), who in 1633 expiated in the prisons of the Inquisition his demonstration of terres- trial motion, discovered the laws of gravitation ; he invented the pendulum, the hydrostatic balance, the thermometer, the proportional compass, and outlined the telescope; while his disciple, Torricelli of Faenza (1608-47), recognized the weight of the air, constructed the first barometer, and per- fected spectacles. The English Newton (1642-1727), who discovered the infinitesimal calculus, decomposed light, and ascertained the principal laws of optics and of universal gravitation, that is to say, he explained the system of the world. Finally, Leibnitz, of whom we have already spoken, who disputed with Newton the honor of having discovered the differential calculus. France had Descartes and Pascal. The former, by invent- ing the notation of powers by numerical exponents, gave an immense impulse to algebra, and likewise to curved geom- etry, and was enabled to resolve as in child's play prob- lems till then esteemed insolvable. He discovered the true law of refraction ; he believed like Galileo in the revo- 3^4 THE ASCENDENCY OF FRANCE. [BOOK V. lution of the earth round the sun ; and as the errors of genius are fruitful, his chimerical system of tourbillions, according to which the sun and the fixed stars are the center of as many tourbillions of subtle matter which causes the planets to revolve around them, has been the germ of the celebrated Newtonian hypothesis of attraction. For Des- cartes as for Newton the problem of the physical universe was a problem of mechanics; and Descartes was the first to teach, if not the solution, at least the true nature, of the problem. Pascal when twelve years old had mastered alone and without books the elements of geometry ; at sixteen he composed his treatise "On Conic Sections." A little later he created the calculation of probabilities, demonstrated the weight of the air by his famous experiments upon the Puy de Dome, and devised a kind of dray and perhaps the hydraulic press. Below those great men crowded an already numerous multitude. Pierre Fermat (1601-65), counselor of the parliament of Toulouse, printed nothing, but was perhaps the most power- ful mathematical mind of the time. He shared with Des- cartes the honor of having applied algebra to geometry, con- ceived the method of maxima and minima, and at the same time as Pascal devised the calculation of probabilities. The Abbe Mariotte (1620-84) recognized that the volume of a gas at a constant temperature varies in inverse proportion to the pressure sustained. Denis Papin, born at Blois in 1647, invented or perfected several machines, and was the first to think of employing condensed steam as a motive power. In Germany on the Fulda he made experiments with a real steamboat which ascended the current. Stupid bargemen broke the engine of the great physicist, who died at London in misery (1710). Geography was reformed by Nicolas Samson (1600-67) and by Guillaume Delisle (1675-1726), whose maps are esteemed to-day. Tournefort (1656-1706) renewed the science of botany and enriched the Royal Garden by new plants to collect which he made a journey to the Levant. Three foreigners whom Colbert attracted to France through their, labors justified the good will of the king: The Danish Roemer determined the velocity of solar rays with almost entire accuracy; the Dutch Huyghens dis- covered the ring and one of the satellites of Saturn; the CHAP. XXIII.] ARTS, LETTERS, AND SCIENCES. 385 Italian Domenico Cassini, the four others. To Huyghens is due the invention of pendulum clocks. Cassini, together with Abbe J. Picard, professor of astronomy at the College of France, commenced the first investigations which were to serve in measuring the earth; and both in 1669 began the survey of an arc of the meridian, afterward prolonged to Roussillon. From the measure of the degree given by Picard, Newton was able to estimate the force which holds the moon in its orbit. Great Britain had the Scotch John Napier (1550-1617), the inventor of logarithms, and 'James Gregory (1633-75), the inventor of the reflecting telescope; Harvey (1578 1657), physician of James I. and Charles I., who demon- strated in 1628 the circulation of the blood; the astronomer Halley of London (1656-1742), who gave his name to a comet whose return he predicted; and the Irish chemist Robert Boyle (1626-91), who perfected the air pump and contributed to the foundation of the Royal Society of London. Holland produced Huyghens of The Hague (1629-95) and the physician Boerhaave (1668-1738), who was the first to decompose all animal fluids. Switzerland is represented by the two Bernouillis Jacques (1654-1705), who was one of the first to apply the differential and the integral calculus, and John, his brother (1667-1748), a profound geometrician and distinguished physicist. Thus in this century Italy, if Galileo is omitted, whom she persecuted, and Germany, if her two great men Kepler, who almost died of misery, and Leibnitz are excepted, were in complete intellectual decline. Spain, like a ruined Croesus who has retained from his lost fortune only a few precious jewels, points out her eminent painters and three prolific writers. But France and England, the countries to which strength and preponderance had passed, were then in the full tide of their grand literary century. The former pre-eminently placed herself at the head of modern civiliza- tion, and by the acknowledged superiority of her intellect and her taste made all Europe accept the peaceful sway of her artists and writers. BOOK VI. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. GREAT- NESS OF ENGLAND, RUSSIA, AND PRUSSIA. CHAPTER XXIV. RISE OF RUSSIA AND RUIN OF SWEDEN. Peter the Great and Russia at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century; Power of Sweden ; Narva and Pultowa. Charles XII. at Bender ; Treaties of the Pruth (1711) and Nystadt (1721). Second Journey of Peter to Europe (1716); St. Petersburg; the Czar Chief of the Russian Church. AT the very moment when the war of the Spanish succes- sion caused the predominance in western Europe to pass from the hands of France to those of Great and RUS- England, another war delivered eastern n^ng tth o e f beg th n e~ Europe to Russia and precipitated Sweden, eighteenth cen- the ancient ally of France, from the high posi- tury ; power of , , , u j -u j i_ /~> Sweden ; Narva tion to which she had been raised by Gus- and Puitowa. tavus Adolphus and Charles XI. This chapter might have as its title: How an Empire Crumbles and How an Empire Rises. The two names Charles XII. and Peter I. mark in fact the fall of Sweden and the advent of Russia among the great European powers. Toward the end of the seventeenth century Russia already included an immense territory, which stretched from the frozen ocean to the Caspian Sea. Its inhabitants, relegated to the confines of Europe and of civilization, seemed hardly human to the rare English or Dutch mer- chants who trafficked in their country. But the servile abjectness of the peasant before the nobles, and of the nobles before the Czar, put into the hands of the latter a 387 388 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. formidable instrument of despotism. In the time of Colbert the learned Huet, Bishop of Avranches, had said : "If one day there should arise among them a prince who could mold their ferocious spirit and their harsh and unsociable manners, and who could employ usefully their vast multitude, this nation would become formidable to its neighbors." When Feodor III., the eldest of the sons of Alexis, died in 1682, the title of Czar was shared by his two brothers, Ivan and Peter; but the authority remained in the hands of their sister, Sophia. In 1689 Peter, having reached the age of seventeen, succeeded in confining this ambitious princess in a convent, and decided his brother, whose mind was piti- fully weak, and who was almost blind and dumb, to lay down his power. Under the lead of the Genevese Lefort he had prepared and accomplished this revolution. With- out cessation Lefort vaunted to him the arts of Europe and the authority of its kings, the organization of their armies and fleets. Peter himself wished also to possess a navy and an army. Impatient to try his nascent forces and to approach the Black Sea, where he already dreamed of owning a powerful fleet, he declared war against Turkey in 1695. His success was by no means brilliant, although he captured Azof (1696). He felt that to succeed in his projects he must initiate himself into the secrets of European civilization; so he set out to visit the polished nations of the west. In 1697 he quitted Moscow, betook himself to Saardam in Holland, and there, under the name of Peter Michailoff, generally called by his companions Peterbaas, he worked during many months as a simple dockyard laborer. Thus he learned the art of constructing, launching, rigging, and managing a ship. He sent into his states a colony of artisans, sailors, engineers, and workmen of all sorts. He then went to study England with its manufactures, and Germany with its military organi- zation. At Vienna he learned of a revolt of the strelitzi, a formidable body which recalls the praetorians of Rome and the janissaries of Turkey. Peter had narrowly escaped being their victim in 1682. This time it was the Princess Sophia who from the recesses of her cloister stirred them up in order to again seize the power. Peter hastened home, caused 2000 of the mutineers to be hung or broken on the wheel, had 5000 beheaded, and, armed with an ax, him- CHAP. XXIV.] RISE OF RUSSIA. 389 self filled the office of executioner. During more than a month he thus daily slew some with his own hand, and each day a larger number (1698). Later during his orgies he still had strelitzi brought him from prison, and showed his address by striking off their heads. This seditious militia was abolished without resistance. A revolt of former strelitzi at Astrakhan in 1705 and another of Cossacks of the Don at Azof were quickly repressed. The Czar paid the Cossacks the same honor as the strelitzi ; eighty-four of their chiefs were sent to Moscow and perished by his hand. Lefort died in 1699, but the Czar continued his reforms. He organized regiments after the pattern of those which he had seen in Germany, with regular exercises, short jackets, and uniforms. He compelled the sons of the boyars to serve as soldiers or sailors before becoming offi- cers. He had foreign books translated which treated of engineering and artillery, and he founded schools one under the name of School of Naval Cadets, others for mathematics and astronomy. He endowed Moscow with a hospital, and from verst to verst (3500 feet) he set up painted posts to guide travelers and merchants; and he had a canal commenced to join the Don and Volga. But he forgot that commerce prospers only where there is nothing to fear from the caprices of suspicious or covetous power. He carried his taste for European goods almost to madness, but the people rejected them. Patterns of short coats were suspended at the gates of the cities, and the beard, and clothes were cut of whoever did not pay the tax inflicted upon the obstinate retainers of ancient costumes. In order to encourage merit by distinction he, following the example of other European nations, founded an order of chivalry, that of St. Andrew. In order to facilitate his connections with the peoples of the west he fixed by decree the ist of January as the beginning of the year, instead of the ist of September (1699). But this was only a partial reform: not having adopted the Gregorian calendar, the Russian year is twelve days behind ours. Peter was wholly occupied with these reforms. Pointing out to his ministers and generals the countries successively made illustrious by the arts and learning, he was constantly saying to them, "Our turn has come if you are willing to second my designs and unite study to obedience," when a new horizon opened before him. 39 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. A Livonian gentleman, Reynold Patkul, just then arrived at the court of Moscow. He had been condemned to death in 1692 for having demanded the re-establishment of the privileges of his country, which, in violation of treaties, had been destroyed by the King of Sweden. Having first taken refuge with Augustus II., King of Poland, he came to confide his cause and his revenge to the hands of the Czar. Peter did not hesitate to accept his proposals; reforms were to him only a means, the end was the grandeur of Russia, and this could be obtained only by the humiliation of Sweden. Since the peace of Westphalia Sweden had held the supremacy in northern Europe. She controlled the mouths of all the German rivers the VVeser, the Elbe, the Oder; and as she possessed Pomerania, Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, and Carelia with Finland, the Baltic Sea was a Swedish lake. But this brilliant position was menaced. All the neighboring peoples had either to fight their way out or to pay back ancient defeats. Russia could become a Euro- pean power only by occupying the Gulf of Finland, and the house of Brandenburg wished to expel from Germany the intruders who within its sight had possession of so goodly a share. Denmark had similar desires, and the Elector of Saxony, chosen King of Poland, welcomed a war in order to gain the right of keeping Saxon troops in that kingdom, which he wished to render a hereditary possession. Charles XI., the ablest King of Sweden since Gustavus Adolphus, died, leaving the throne to a young prince of eighteen. Forthwith a coalition was formed (1699): the Russians of Peter the Great entered Ingria; the Saxons of Augustus II., Livonia; the Danes of Frederick III., Hoi- stein, whose duke was the brother-in-law of Charles XII. The new King of Sweden was not a great prince, but a heroic soul who, had he possessed a little wisdom, might have done great things. He had carefully read Quintus Curtius and he desired nothing else so much as to resemble the Macedonian hero. "He was not Alexander, but he might have been the first soldier of Alexander." At the news of the coalition, far from being surprised and terrified, he armed quickly and set out to defend his prov- inces from the attack of the Muscovite Darius. He began with Denmark, landed in the island of Zealand, and marched straight to Copenhagen, which he threatened with bombardment. The Danes, overwhelmed with terror, im- CHAP. XXIV.] RISE OF RUSSIA. 391 plored peace and hastened to sign the treaty of Traventhal (August 18, 1700). In six months Denmark had been crushed. Already the Saxons, led by Patkul, had raised the siege of Riga in consequence of the representations of Holland. Charles XII. hastened against the Russians and arrived under the walls of Narva with 8000 men to confront an army ten times more numerous. But the Czar had quitted the camp; the generals did not agree and inspired no con- fidence in their soldiers. A few hours sufficed the Swedes to throw this mob of barbarians headlong (November 1300). Charles XII. dismissed his prisoners, whom he despised, and marched against the Saxons, whom he found intrenched behind the Dwina. They were likewise beaten and lost Mitau and Courland (July, 1701). Never had war been made with more lightning rapidity. Unhappily Charles XII. did not know how to profit by the opportunity and conclude a glorious peace, as the Chan- cellor Oxenstiern advised, nor how to recognize which of his two enemies was the more formidable. Deceived by the facile success of Narva, he conceived for the Russian empire, and even for Peter the Great, a contempt which was the cause of his disasters. He resolved to dethrone Augustus; and leaving a few thousand men to watch the Russians, he penetrated Poland (1702). He there lost five years in winning barren victories. To make an end he in- vaded Saxony. Augustus II. then yielded, and by the treaty of Altranstadt renounced formally the crown of Poland in favor of Stanislaus Leczinski, the prottg/ of the King of Sweden (1706). Charles XII. then found himself the arbiter of Europe. The moment was solemn: if he threw himself upon Ger- many, and assailed in the rear the allies who were attack- ing France, the consequences of such a diversion were incalculable; hence Marlborough himself came to Altran- stadt to negotiate with the King of Sweden. Charles de- manded of Joseph I. a multitude of concessions and reparations: the emperor accorded everything. The allies breathed again when Charles XII., quitting Saxony, turned toward the east, to there fight hand to hand with an adver- sary who began to cause him anxiety. While he warred in Poland for the empty honor of making a king, Peter the Great had reorganized his army and 39 2 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. beaten near Derpt 7000 Swedes (September, 1701). The following year Peter conquered Ingria, where in order to be master of Lake Ladoga and of the Neva he strengthened the fortifications of the Swedish strongholds of Noteborg, which he called Schusselberg, or the Fort of the Key, say- ing that by this key he would open hostile countries. His troops became accustomed to war, officers were devel- oped, and a succession of unpretentious but solid victories, such as the capture of Derpt, Narva, and Mitau, inspired all the necessary confidence for confronting the terrible soldiers 'of the Swedish hero. Decided at last, after all this time wasted in Poland and Saxony, to arrest the progress of an enemy whom he had too much despised, Charles rapidly traversed Saxony and Poland, driving before him the Russians who had ventured upon Polish territory; he crossed the Beresina upon the ice (1708), and entered Mohileff. He had no plan; first he seemed resolved to march upon Moscow, while one of his generals, Lubecker, attacked St. Petersburg, the infant capital of Russia. With a little prudence this march might have succeeded, and Peter in conquered Moscow would have been compelled to accept the peace which he had many times demanded. But arrived at Smolensk, Charles abandoned the road toward Moscow and directed his course southward. Before him he saw Scheremetoff retreating, the most skillful general of the Czar, and he gave pursuit. Scheremetoff laid waste everything in his march, destroyed the forage, burned the magazines, and desolated the fields to starve the enemy. Charles XII., lost in the midst of deserts, continued nevertheless to advance; he counted upon an insurrection of the Cossacks of the Ukraine in order to cut off the retreat of Scheremetoff. He had concluded an alliance with their hetman, Mazeppa. Unfortunately the army lost its way in the pathless marshes of Pinsk, and Charles reached the rendezvous too late. The Czar had had time to beat Mazeppa, and the hetman brought the king only a handful of troops (1708). Charles XII. counted at least on Lewenhaupt, who was approaching with 16,000 men and immense stores. The Czar threw himself between the king and his lieutenant. Lewenhaupt, attacked by 60,000 men near the Soja, an eastern affluent of the Dnieper, resisted heroically, and after five murderous engagements was com- CHAP. XXIV.] RISE OF RUSSIA. 393 pelled to set fire to the 7000 wagons he was escorting; he rejoined the' king with only 5000 men, leaving 44 standards in the hands of the Czar. "This victory," said Peter, "was the mother of Pultowa." At the same time Apraxin defeated a Swedish corps in Ingria. Then came the terrible winter of 1709: in a single march 2000 soldiers fell dead. The army lost half of its effective force. Peter the Great maneuvered, however, with equal ability and prudence to confine the Swedes in the Ukraine; Charles XII. endeavored vainly to break through by partial attacks; his detachments were beaten. He then determined to besiege Pultowa, where the Czar had his magazines ; the city possessed only walls of earth. Peter the Great arrived at the head of 70,000 men and intrenched himself in a formi- dable position. Charles, after having lost two months at the siege, had no resource left save to give battle. Not- withstanding all the valor of his soldiers, he was defeated and his army captured or destroyed. He himself fled to Turkey with 500 horsemen (1709). This victory overthrew the power of Sweden and trans- ferred to Russia the supremacy in northern Europe. The Charles xii. Czar, who at Pultowa had fought as a common at Bender: soldier, knew as a skillful general how to profit treaties of the , , . ' /-> v T Pruth (1711) and by his victory: he seized Carelia, Livonia, Nystadt (1721). and Esthonia, and called to arms all those whom Charles had conquered. The King of Denmark fell upon Scania, and Augustus II. re-entered Poland. The Divan was alarmed at seeing a power born yester- day increase so fast; it yielded to the entreaties of the King of Sweden, and declared war against Russia. The grand vizier, Mohammed Baltadji, crossed the Danube. The Czar, invited by the hospodars of Moldavia and Wallachia, marched against the Ottomans, but could not defend the passage of the Pruth, and found himself with his 40,000 men destitute of food and ammunition, surrounded by 150,000 enemies. The Czarina Catherine, a young Livo- nian, widow of a Dutch dragoon, made prisoner by the Russians in Marienburg (1702), whom the Czar captivated by her beauty and intelligence had espoused, delivered him by herself opening negotiations with the grand vizier, who allowed himself to be won over. The Czar restored Azof; by the destruction of the port of Taganrog he renounced the idea of opening up the Black Sea ; he also agreed to 394 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. have his troops evacuate Poland and to no longer interfere in the affairs of that republic. Charles by this treaty was a second time conquered. He persisted through three years in remaining in Turkey, putting in play a thousand springs in order to rouse the Sultan against the Czar. He could not succeed. Tired by his intrigues, the Divan wished to compel him to quit the Ottoman territory. Charles XII. defended himself at Bender with his domestics and officers against 15,000 men. When he decided to depart in 1714 it was too late. To no purpose he had wasted three years in those heroic freaks, and meanwhile Sweden had lost all its foreign prov- inces. In vain Steinach had in 1709 destroyed the Danish army near Helsingborg; he was, despite a second victory, compelled to capitulate in Tonningen at the mouth of the Eider (1713). Peter sent into Pomerania Mentschikoff, formerly a pastrycook's boy, whom he had made general and prince, and who deserved his honors. With the fleet which he had created he himself gained, near the Aland Islands, a naval battle over the Swedes, the ancient masters of the Baltic, which gave him Finland. The King of Den- mark sold to George I., King of England, Bremen and Verden, which he had seized. The King of Prussia caused Stettin and Pomerania to be surrendered to himself. The spoils of Sweden were at auction. At that moment Charles XII. finally decided to depart from Turkey: he crossed all Germany on horseback in dis- guise and stopped only at Stralsund, the last city which he possessed outside of Sweden. A combined army of Danes, Saxons, Prussians, and Russians at once besieged him there; he defended it a month and was compelled to aban- don the city so as not to be captured on its surrender. It capitulated that same day (December 13, 1715). Agriculture and manufactures ruined, commerce annihi- lated, 250,000 men, the flower of the nation, cut off by a fifteen years' war, the ancient ascendency lost such was the situation to which Charles XII. had reduced his kingdom, and in which he refound it. He, however, gave no sign that the past had at least served him as a lesson. He con- sented only, following the counsels of Baron de Goertz, to divide his enemies; a tacit truce was concluded between Sweden and the Czar; Goertz even had an understanding with Alberoni, and Charles XII. promised to lead 20,000 CHAP. XXIV.] RISE OF RUSSIA. 395 men into England to dethrone George I. First he attacked Denmark and invaded Norway, but he perished before Frederickshall, probably by assassination (December n, 1718). Three months later Baron de Goertz died upon the scaffold. Charles XII. had twice missed the oppor- tunity of filling a grand role: in 1707 that of a Gustavus Adolphus in the complications of western Europe; later that of a triumphant peacemaker in conquered Poland and Russia. He had believed himself a second Alexander, he had been only a brave adventurer; he had destroyed the prosperity of his people and ruined his country for a century. The sister of Charles XII., Ulrica Eleanora, was chosen by the States to succeed him (January 31, 1720), but upon the condition of signing a formal agreement which peculiarly restricted the royal authority. She made joint ruler with herself (April 4, 1720) her husband, Frederick of Hesse- Cassel, and by onerous treaties re-established peace among the northern states. Sweden recognized Augustus II. as King of Poland, retained Wismar in Mecklenburg, but kept of Pomerania only what is north of the Peene (Stralsund), ceded to Prussia, together with the islands of Usedom and Wollin, the part of that province comprised between the Peene and the Oder (Stettin), and confirmed Denmark in the possession of Schleswig. The treaty of Nystadt with Russia (1721) cost her all the countries bathed by the gulfs of Riga and Finland from the Duna as far as the Kymene, that is to say, Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, a part of Carelia, of the country of Viborg, and eastern Finland. When the ambas- sador of France entreated less harsh terms for Sweden Peter replied, "I do not wish to see from my windows the lands of my neighbor." Sweden declined, Russia ascended. In 1716 Peter had taken advantage of the negotiations opened by Baron Goertz to make a new journey to Europe. ne^ eC of n peter U to He already thought of obtaining a foothold Europe (1716); in Germany; this gave umbrage to the Elector St. Petersburg ;, T , v u j i V ft? the Czar chief of Hanover, who had become King of Eng- church. Russian land. In order to succeed in this design he needed the friendship of France, and he said with great justice to the French agents: "You have used Sweden to check Austria. The former power is ruined; I offer myself in her place if you guarantee me my 39 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. conquests and pay me the subsidies which you gave to Sweden; furthermore, I bring you the alliance of Poland and Prussia." Dubois, the confidant of the Regent of France and an ardent partisan of the English alliance, did all in his power to hinder this negotiation, which, however, resulted in the treaty of Amsterdam, whereby France, the Czar, and Prussia guaranteed the treaties of Utrecht and Baden, as well as those which should be concluded for the peace of the north by the Czar and Prussia. This agreement was the abandonment of Sweden, the ancient ally of France. The Czar devoted six months to visiting France and its marvels. He received the most magnificent hospitality; he was made to accept everything which he admired in matters of art. He visited the mint; one of the medals which had been struck in his presence fell to the ground; he picked it up and saw his portrait with this legend: "Vires acquirit eundo." Returning to his states, he completed his new capital to replace the ancient Moscow, which he considered too remote from Europe and too Asiatic. He had laid its foundation in 1703 on the ruined bastions of the city of Nieuschantz, captured that same year from the Swedes, and he called it St. Petersburg, after his own name. The situa- tion was well chosen, thirty versts distant from the mouth of the Neva, near the Gulf of Finland, and confronting Sweden. The place was unhealthy; more than 100,000 workmen perished; but the Czar did not reckon the dead. He took up his quarters in the midst of the laborers, had earth brought to fill the marshes and canals dug to carry away the stagnant waters. One of the most beautiful capitals of Europe rose by the invincible will of its founder in a spot where Nature would hardly have located a village. As early as the year 1704 the city was protected from sudden attack by sea by the construction of the fortress of Kron- slott on an island at the mouth of the Neva ; and the harbor of Kronstadt, excavated in 1710 from a bank of sand in the Gulf of Finland, received the infant navy of the Czar. St. Petersburg, hardly built, saw rise within it a glass factory, a carpet manufactory, and another of gold and silver thread. Peter had already caused shepherds and flocks to come from Saxony and Poland that he might have wools suitable for the making of good cloth and be no longer obliged to depend upon the manufactures of Berlin to clothe CHAP. XXIV.] JKISE OF RUSSIA. 397 his troops; he furthermore invited from abroad workmen in iron and brass, gunsmiths, and founders ; at his death Moscow and Yaroslav contained fourteen manufactories of linen and hempen cloth. To facilitate interchange he made weights and measures uniform, and established a chamber of commerce composed half of foreigners, half of Russians. At the same time the mines of Siberia were opened; the Baltic, Black, and Caspian seas were bound together by canals, the banks of Lake Peipus converted into dockyards; the plan of the canal and locks of the Ladoga was outlined by Peter himself in 1718. Forts, erected at equal distances, protected the frontier against the Tartars. Commercial relations were established with China; an attempt was made to open a new route to the products of India through Great Bokhara, and to those of Persia by the Caspian Sea, so as to put all this lucrative commerce into the hands of Russia. Forts were built as far as Kamtchatka, and Behring sur- veyed the coasts of eastern Siberia (1725), where he was shortly to discover the strait which bears his name (1728). The Russian clergy was famous for its ignorance ; its members knew hardly more than two things: that they were of the Greek religion, and that they must hate the Latins. Peter obliged them to recruit their ranks in three colleges which he established at Moscow. He took away from ecclesiastical jurisdiction the right of condemnation to capi- tal punishment or to severe penalties, and authorized monastic vows only after the age of fifty. He had allowed the patriarchal throne to remain vacant since 1703; he abolished it formally in 1721, and gave the supreme direc- tion of religious affairs to the Holy Synod, a council com- posed of twelve bishops or archimandrites whom he appointed and who swore fidelity to him. He thus became in reality supreme head of religion, which he subordinated entirely to the interests and actions of the temporal authority. In his laws he punished with the same penalties blasphemies against God and murmurs against himself. But Peter was not satisfied with fortifying the autocratic principle of the Russian government; he modified its nature. He in fact applied the system of military hierarchy to all the administration of the empire, declaring that offi- cers should possess personal nobility and superior officers hereditary nobility. The Russian people gradually became a regiment of mutes, and, as says a modern traveler, "the 39 8 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. discipline of the camp was substituted for the order of the city." His first wife, Eudoxia Lapoutchin, Peter had repudiated because of her opposition to his reforms. She had borne him a son, Alexis Petrovitch, chief of the discontented party, who, governed by the priests and embittered against his father and his stepmother Catherine, one day had said: "If I find an opportunity when my father is not present I shall say something to the archbishops, who will repeat it to the curates, and the curates will repeat it to their parishioners, and it may be they will make me reign in spite of myself." And he would have reigned, as all the world well under- stood, to annul his father's work, to permit the wearing of the long beard and the Asiatic robes, to re-establish the patri- arch and the three fasts, to banish the foreigners and the reforms. The intrigues of Alexis made the Czar anxious; he several times had him warned, then arrested, and then brought him before an exceptional tribunal of 121 commis- sioners, who, after having subjected him to the rack, unani- mously condemned him to death. At the news of the deci- sion the prince fell into convulsions, which according to the courtiers brought about an attack of apoplexy. The follow- ing day he died* (1718). The Englishman Henry Bruce, then present in Russia, wrote home that the Czar had administered a potion to his son which caused his death in convulsions. Very few people, he added, considered his death as natural, but it was dangerous to say what one thought. Many of his supposed accomplices perished; General Gleboff was impaled, the Archbishop of Rostoff was broken alive upon the wheel, the Empress Eudoxia was flogged. The man who did not pardon his son would not be greatly inclined to pardon his unfaithful agents. Extortion, that curse of the Russian administration, found the Czar pitiless. In 1721 the Governor of Archangel was shot; the Vice- * It was proved that the Czarevitch Alexis was the center of a vast plot not only against his father's reforms but against his throne and life. For this end he had solicited the armed assistance of the Austrian emperor and had sought help from Sweden. In the eyes of Peter he was not so much a rebellious son as a " traitor to his country, the chief of her domestic enemies and the ally of all her foreign foes." Still the manner of his death, whether it was natural or by violence, has remained to the present, and will probably always remain, an impenetrable mystery. ED. CHAP. XXIV.] RISE OF RUSSIA. 399 governor of St. Petersburg was beaten with the knout for having abused his power. Some time before a chamber of justice, instituted to re-establish order in the finances, had even caused the favorite of the Czar, Prince Mentschikoff, to tremble. By this merciless harshness Peter succeeded, as he himself said, in clothing his herd of wild beasts like men. The last years of the Czar were also marked by successes. He had then a regular army of 120,000 men and a fleet of 30 ships of the line. He had won by conquest predomi- nance in the north; the treaty of Nystadt ratified this supremacy. An expedition against Persia brought him Derbent south of the Caucasus (1722). Thus Peter I. had pointed out to his successors the double route they have so boldly followed toward the west and south of their empire. Under his despotic but powerful hand Russia was impelled toward progress with violence, but with rapidity. Three years later this civilizing genius of Russia, whom the senate and the synod had surnamed the Great and the Father of his Country, died from the consequences of his debauches* (February 8, 1725). Voltaire called him half hero, half tiger, and Frederick II. said of him and his Russians, ' 'Aqua fortis which eats into the iron." Few sovereigns after death have exerted equal influence over their people. This in the case of Peter has not been simply the result of work accomplished during his lifetime but in consequence of the reverence paid to his memory and hence to his supposed wishes and plans. Even peas- ants cherish his name in their ballads and common tradi- tions, and important action has more than once been determined by the argument that, in like circumstances, Peter would have done thus and so. Russia's tendency toward expansion on the east and south is sometimes re- * According to Russian history Peter's death was brought about in a very different way. Seeing a boat capsize in the floating ice, he plunged into the water to rescue a drowning woman. He caught a violent cold, which was aggravated by his obstinacy in attending the Orthodox cere- mony of the Baptism of the Waters (January 18), and which resulted in his death three weeks after at the age of fifty-three. His last words are reported to have been : "I trust God will pardon my sins in view of the good I have endeavored to do my people." A character of the wildest and most extravagant contradictions, he can be judged fairly only as the disadvantages of his youth and the dominant purpose of his life are taken into account. lie is one of the three foremost men, if not himself the foremost, of modern times. ED. 400 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. garded, even by Russians, as not only natural and inev- itable but as obedience to the designs of the Great Czar.* Europeans have believed that he formulated with his own hand the outline of a course of action for his successors, and that the impulse given almost two hundred years ago has de- termined the subsequent course of Russia's foreign history. * There is hardly a more interesting subject for historical curiosity than the genuineness and authenticity of this so-called "Testament of Peter the Great." The two most opposite theories have been, (i) that it is genuine, traced by Peter's own hand, and (2) that it was forged in 1811 by Lesur under the dictation of Napoleon, and first published in 1812, in Lesur's " Des Progres de la Puissance russe depuis son Origine jusqu'au Commencement du XlXme. Siecle." The first theory has been dis- proved; the second, while not disproved, has the balance of argument against it. The existence of a somewhat similar document as early as 1760 is, however, almost demonstrated. In many respects the policy advocated in the "testament" has generally been that of the Russian government. Such a policy would be the natural result of Russia's geographical position and of the spirit of her people. At the same time the internal evidence of the language employed, as notably in the ninth paragraph, would demonstrate that this document was not of Russian but of foreign origin. The following is the text of this remarkable paper : 1. To neglect no means of giving the Russian nation European forms and usages. 2. To maintain the state in constant war. 3. To extend by all possible means toward the north along the Baltic, toward the south along the Black Sea. 4. To fan the jealousy of England, Denmark, and Brandenburg against Sweden, which will finally be subjugated ; to interest the house of Austria in driving the Turks from Europe, and under this pretext to maintain a standing army, to establish dockyards on the Black Sea, and, always advancing, at last reach Constantinople. 5. To encourage the anarchy of Poland and finally subjugate that republic. 6. To maintain by a commercial treaty an intimate alliance with England, who for its part will favor every project for the enlargement and perfecting of the Russian navy, by means of which domination on the Black Sea and the Baltic will be obtained. 7. To realize this truth : that the commerce of the Indies is the com- merce of the world, and that whoever monopolizes it is the sovereign of Europe. 8. To mix up at whatever cost in the quarrels of Europe, and above all of Germany. 9. To employ the ascendency of religion among the separated or schis- matic Greeks scattered in Hungary, Turkey, and the southern parts of Poland. 10. To set against each other the courts of France and Austria as well as their allies, and to take advantage of their mutual feebleness to invade all. ED. CHAPTER XXV. CREATION OF PRUSSIA. HUMILIATION OF FRANCE AND AUSTRIA. Regency of the Duke of Orleans ; Ministries of Dubois, of the Duke of Bourbon, and of Fleury (1715-43). Formation of Prussia and Situ- ation of Austria. War of the Austrian Succession (1741-48). The Seven Years' War (1756-63). THE successor of Louis XIV. in France was only five years old, Parliament conferred the regency with all the of P ovver u P on the Duke of Orleans, nephew of the e fjuke y of Or- the dead king, an intelligent and brave prince, trfesfof D^bols" but good-natured even to weakness and of the Duke of shamefully dissolute. To gain Parliament he Bourbon, and of j .. i j.i j Fieury (1715-43.). promised it a share in the government, and some time after he sent it into exile at Pon- toise because the magistrates were opposed to the experi- ments of Law upon the national property. He appeared at first decided to re-establish harmony in religious affairs by practicing general toleration. But soon he declared himself in favor of the Jesuits and had the bull Unigeni- tus registered, which was directed against the Jansenists, his sole motive being that his principal agent, the Abbe Dubois, already made Archbishop of Cambrai in spite of his unfitness, might obtain a cardinal's hat. To remedy the bureaucratic despotism which the ministers had ex- ercised under Louis XIV. he replaced them by special councils composed of nobles; less than two years after he suppressed these councils. Two events fill this sad period: abroad, a war against Spain ; at home, the financiering of Law. If Louis XIV. had fought fourteen years against Europe it was not merely to bestow a kingdom upon his grandson ; it was in order to render Spain an ally of France. The Duke of Orleans sacrificed the ties of family, the honor and 42 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. the interests of the country, to the possibility of his becom- ing King of France in case the child king then reigning should die. For this purpose he formed an intimate union with George I., King of England. The latter, menaced by Jacobites and Tories, felt that his power was poorly estab- lished. Peace was indispensable would he give stability to his new and tottering throne. Happily for the Hanoverian dynasty foreign affairs in France were in the hands of Dubois. This man, whose scandalous promotion hardly astonished his contemporaries, openly received an annual pension from George I. Thanks to the corruption of "the droll," as the Abbe" Dubois was called by the regent, France received rather than imposed the conditions of the alliance. She promised to banish from her territory the pretender James Stuart, to demolish Mardeck, and to fill up the harbor of Dunkirk. The policy of the Spanish government drew still closer the bonds which united England and France. Alberoni, prime minister of Philip V., wished to restore to Spain the territories of which the treaty of Utrecht had deprived her; to succeed therein he did not hesitate to risk a general con- flagration. Austria, France, and England had united for the maintenance of the treaty of Utrecht. Alberoni under- took to keep Austria busy with the Ottomans, to overthrow the regent by a conspiracy, and to re-establish the Stuarts by the sword of Charles XII. But Prince Eugene defeated the Ottomans at Peterwardein and Belgrade (1710-17); the conspiracy of Cellamare and the Duchess of Maine was a failure (1718); Charles XII. perished in Norway (1718). Then the regent declared war against Spain. "This was a civil war," said Voltaire; it was above all an absurd war; for France fought against Spain, her natural ally, to the great joy of England, who at that time was still her natural enemy. Philip V. was careful to have the three lilies emblazoned on all the standards of his army. The same Marshal Berwick who had gained battles to establish Philip's throne commanded the French army. The Eng- lish destroyed a Spanish fleet near Messina and captured Vigo in Galicia; then all the schemes of Cardinal Alberoni having come to nought, this minister, who for six months had been considered the greatest of statesmen, was regarded only as a headstrong blunderer. He was obliged to quit the ministry, and Spain adhered to the quadruple alliance CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 43 which France, Great Britain, Holland, and Austria had concluded. The Duke of Savoy received Sardinia in exchange for Sicily, which was left to the emperor. The Queen of Spain obtained for the eldest of her children promise of survivorship to the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Tuscany (1720). The peace established had no solid basis and was pre- carious. Spain still cherished the hope of recovering her former possessions. She sought success by diplomacy; then commenced complicated negotiations, wherein the dif- ferent cabinets of Europe showed astonishing versatility. The treaties of Prado, Seville, and Vienna (1728, 1729, 1731) at last reconciled everybody. The duchies promised to Spain were guaranteed, and in 1731 the infante Don Carlos took possession of those of Parma and Piacenza; the pragmatic sanction of the emperor Charles VI. of which we shall speak later on was accepted ; finally, the Ostend Company, established by that prince to compete with the English and Dutch in the East Indies, was aban- doned to itself and fell to pieces. The saddest legacy bequeathed by the reign of Louis XIV. was the financial ruin. The State owed 2,400,000,000 francs, one-third of which was immediately due. The next two years' revenue had been spent. On imposts amounting to 165,000,000 francs the treasury received 69,000,000 while expending 147,000,000; deficit, 78,000,000. The regent at first endeavored to correct the evil by remedies in detail, such as suppression of offices, reduction of interest, a court of judicature for the revenue farmers; but these tyrannical or insufficient measures only ruined credit. St. Simon advised convening the States General that they might decree bankruptcy. The regent rejected this remedy, not as immoral, but as dangerous. He preferred to adopt the plans of the Scotchman Law. This daring financier, compelled to flee from Great Britain on account of a duel, had first proposed his project to the Duke of Savoy, who replied he was not strong enough to ruin himself. He had then offered it to the controller general, Desmarets ; but this was during a disastrous war when all confidence was lost, and the basis of Law's system was confidence. He was more successful with the regent. He wished to create a new power, credit, taking as his basis a principle which is only half true: that abundance of specie 44 THE EIGHTEENTH CE.\'TL'RY. [BOOK VI. causes the prosperity of commerce and manufactures; thence he drew the absolutely false consequence that it is advantageous to substitute for hard currency, which cannot be indefinitely created, paper currency or paper money, which can be multiplied indefinitely. Law at the beginning limited himself to founding a private bank. The bank at first, at an annual rate of 6 per cent., and soon at 4 per cent., discounted commercial bills which before that time found takers only by paying 2^ per cent, monthly; the bank itself also issued bills which it paid at sight in specie of invariable weight and value. Afterward everybody rushed thither and contended for its paper, whereby com- mercial transactions were facilitated in a marked degree. To his bank, which became in 1718 the Royal Bank, Law added a commercial company, which obtained the exclusive privilege of the working and commerce of Louisiana and of the entire Mississippi Valley, then of Senegal and the Indies. The first success of Law made men believe in the second. Such were the foolish hopes built upon this enterprise that shares emitted at 500 francs were bought at ten, twenty, thirty, and forty times their nominal value. The Rue Quincampoix, in which the Royal Bank was situated, overflowed with a crowd of people, pressing upon each other to suffocation. Paris, all France, and foreigners even hurried thither, thirsty for gain. All classes gave themselves up to frenzied speculation. Enormous profits were made in an instant. He who in the morning was a valet in the evening found himself a master. However, the bank attained its end; it lent the state 1,200,000,000 francs in paper money, with which it repaid its creditors, and which then returned to the bank in exchange for shares in the company. But there must be a loss somewhere ; it was the nation which sustained it. In vain Law wished to moderate the emission of paper; he was no longer able: to sustain the prodigious movement of commerce, and to satisfy so many rapacious appetites, it was necessary to create and keep on creating paper values; these exceeded 3,000,000,000 francs at a time when all the specie in France did not amount to more than 700,000,000. This disproportion hastened on the catastrophe. The sys- tem held together only by public confidence, and that confi- dence could not long be maintained. To save the company, that is to say, the venturous part of the system, Law united CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 45 it to the bank, that is to say, to the serious and useful part. It was the ruin of both. As early as the close of 1719 the enthusiasm of a few became cooled ; the more prudent began to realize and presented themselves at the bank for specie. This example caused alarm and became contagious; the realizers multiplied; they sold their shares at the highest current rate, and with their bills bought gold, silver, dia- monds, lands. The shares ceased to go up, fluctuated, then rapidly went down. Law, become controller general, struggled desperately against the realizers: specie payments were forbidden; it was prohibited to have at one's house gold or silver; then came prosecutions, domiciliary visits, denunciations; a son even denounced his father. But con- fidence in the bills went on diminishing. Then suddenly tacking, the state,, which had lately proscribed hard money, announced that it would receive no more payments in paper; this was giving the death blow to the system. Law escaped from France pursued by public curses (De- cember, 1720). He had come into the country with 1,600,- ooo francs; he carried away only a few louis. It remained to liquidate accounts. The brothers Paris-Duverney con- ducted the operations, by which the state acknowledged itself debtor to the creditors of the company to the amount of 1,700,000,000 francs. The public debt was increased by 40,000,000 in annuities. But the extinction of a large number of offices and the redemption of many branches of alienated revenues compensated for this increase. The state was in almost the same financial position as that in which Law had found it. Such is the history of this famous system. It showed the power of credit; it gave an energetic impulse to manu- factures and maritime commerce ; it delivered the country from amass of onerous immunities; finally, if it ruined indi- viduals, it ameliorated the general condition by a distribu- tion of property more favorable to the humbler classes; but also, by reversing previous conditions and fortunes, it increased the disturbance which had already begun in morals and ideas, and which afterward resulted in still greater disorder. This epoch has attained a sad celebrity for the depravity of its morals. At the beginning of 1723 Louis XV. was declared of age and the regency of the Duke of Orleans terminated. But the king was to remain much longer under guardianship; 406 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. the duke, in order to retain the power after laying down the regency, had formerly given Dubois the title of prime minister, which he assumed himself after the death of that sorry person, but which he kept only four months. He died December 2, 1723. France had been eight years in his hands; this period had sufficed for the outburst of the moral revolution made ready during the last days of Louis XIV. To avert its political and social consequences a great reign would have been necessary; but the prince who was about to rule was to set the example in every scandal, to develop every abuse, and to humble France before the foreigner. To the Duke of Orleans succeeded the Duke of Bourbon, who was controlled by a contemptible woman, the March- ioness of Prie. Sold to England, she was able to cause a rupture with Spain only by sending back the infanta, who had been brought up at the French court as the betrothed of the king, and by making Louis XV. marry the daughter of Stanislaus Leczinski (1725). She had reason for hoping that the new queen, Mary Leczinska, as her beneficiary, would support her through gratitude. But she had counted without Fleury, Bishop of Frejus. He was the tutor of the king, and perhaps the only man for whom Louis XV. had a sincere attachment. During the regency he had concealed his ambition, waiting patiently till some place was vacant that he might slip into it by stealth. The government of the Duke of Bourbon had become odious by his persecu- tions of the Protestants and by the vexatious imposts that he decreed. The last of the four brothers Paris-Duverney, who controlled the finances, had just irritated the privileged classes by an income tax of two per cent., which all were obliged to pay. Despite the opposition of the nobility and the clergy, Duverney forced its registration by means of a bed of justice.* The public hatred against the Duke of Bourbon was still further increased by a famine which was * A solemn and extraordinary session of Parliament, wherein the king sat in a pile of cushions surrounded by princes of the blood and high nobles, was called a bed of justice. Such sessions were held for the compulsory registration and enactment of decrees, which Parliament had refused to approve. The ceremonies were Oriental rather than European in their pomp and in the accompanying adulation paid the sovereign. Nothing created greater resentment than these despotic beds of justice, and noth- ing in old France showed more clearly that the government was that of an absolute, irresponsible monarchy. ED. CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 47 less attributed to the rainy season than to the carelessness of the government. The duke hastened his ruin by attack- ing the Bishop of Frejus. One day he succeeded in separat- ing him from the person of the king at the hour of the council, but in the evening Louis asked for his tutor. Fleury, who had retired to Issy, returned; the Duke of Bourbon was exiled to his lands, and Paris-Duverney sent to the Bastille (1726). Fleury assumed power at the age of seventy-three, and kept it till his death in 1743. With a modest exterior and without taking any other title than that of minister of state, he was in reality as absolute as Richelieu. His administra- tion, wise, though destitute of grandeur, brought the country out of the distress into which it had been plunged during the last years of Louis XIV. by so many disastrous wars, and during the regency by the empiricism of Law. Eco- nomical even to avarice, Fleury reintroduced order into the finances. He reduced and suppressed the two per cent., reduced the taxes by 10,000,000 francs, raised from 100,- 600,000 to 140,000,000 the annual lease of farms and the general receipts, and put an end to the abuses arising from the fluctuation of the coin by giving to specie an equitable and fixed value. The skillful financier Orry, whom he made controller general, employed loans with prudence and slightly reanimated public credit, which had been utterly crushed after the fall of Law. Agriculture, manufactures, and commerce received encouragement. But what the cardinal owed most to commerce, and what he did not give it, was a powerful navy. Fleury, like the regent, sacrificed French maritime interests to the English alliance. Pacific by nature and system, he endeavored in concert with his good friend Horace Walpole, brother of the celebrated Eng- lish minister, to maintain harmony among the European powers. The death of Augustus II., King of Poland, rendered a conflict inevitable. The immense majority of the Poles chose Stanislaus Leczinski; the Elector of Saxony was nominated under the protection of Russian bayonets (1733). The King of France could not without shame refuse to support his father-in-law. Fleury was carried along by the popular outcry. But instead of dispatching a fleet into the Baltic, he sent thither one vessel and 1500 men to release Stanislaus, who was besieged in Dantzig; the 408 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. Count of Ple"lo, French ambassador at Copenhagen, blushing for his country, put himself at the head of the detachment and was slain. La Peyrouse, commander of the troops, resisted a whole month with a handful of men. Stanislaus escaped from a thousand dangers and returned to France (1734). Something had to be done to wipe out this disgrace. Fleury concluded with Savoy a treaty which promised the Milanais to the King of Sardinia, and to the Bourbons of Spain the kingdom of Spain for the infante Don Carlos. By promising he would not attack the Netherlands he obtained the neutrality of England and Holland. Then he sent two armies, one upon the Rhine, which captured Kehl, and one into Italy, which gained the victories of Parma (June) and Guastalla (September). The Milanais was con- quered by the French, and Naples by the Spaniards at the victory of Bitonto. This was a beautiful awakening for France; but the timidity of the cardinal prevented his reaping all the fruits of these successes. England and Holland offered their mediation to Austria ; she accused them almost of treason in not having followed her upon the battlefield, and treated directly with France. It was possible, as was advised by Chauvelin, keeper of the seals, the strongest head in the council, to exact from the emperor an entire renunciation to Italy just as France for her part had denied herself any acquisition there ; he was simply made to renounce all claim to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies; moreover, he was thoughtfully indemnified by the cession of Parma and Piacenza for himself and of Tus- cany given to his son-in-law in exchange for Lorraine. The King of Sardinia had only two Milanese provinces, Novara and Tortona. By a supplementary clause, due to Chauve- lin, as compensation for the throne of Poland, which was left to Augustus, Lorraine and Barrois were assigned to Stanislaus, and after his death to revert to France. This acquisition was precious, though long since inevitable. These conditions constituted the treaty of Vienna (1735- 38). This was the fairest period of the ministry of Fleury; France in this war, which peculiarly resembles that of 1859, had acquired a little glory, and her government had appeared as the mediator of Europe. "After the peace of Vienna," said the great Frederick, "France was the arbiter of Europe." Her armies had triumphed in Italy and in Ger- CHAP. XXV.] 'CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 49 many. Her minister at Constantinople, the Count of Villeneuve, had concluded the peace of Belgrade, the last glorious treaty signed by Turkey, whereby she regained Servia with Belgrade and a part of Wallachia. At that moment Austria everywhere recoiled, in Italy as well as upon the Danube. She was going to recoil still further during the two Seven Years' wars, and at the same time to drag France with her toward her fall. In 1417 Frederick of Hohenzollern, Burggrave of Nurem- berg, bought of the Emperor Sigismund the margravate of r Brandenburg, to which was attached one of Formation of , , , , , , Prussia and the seven electoral votes ; such was the humble Austria 1 ' " f or ig m of that monarchy which in the eigh- teenth century counterbalanced the Austrian influence in Germany and succeeded to the Swedish influ- ence in the north, and in the nineteenth has become a menace to all the powers of Europe. Frederick II., the Iron Tooth (1440), acquired a part of Lusatia (Cottbus) and bought the New Marches (Custrin and Landsberg between the Oder and the Netze) from the Teutonic order. His brother Albert, "the Ulysses and the Achilles of the North" (1469), decreed that his younger sons should have Anspach and Bayreuth, original posses- sions of the family in Franconia, but that the other domin- ions, present and prospective, should be attached to the electorate, which was to form an indivisible mass, capable of increase, but incapable of diminution. This measure was a guarantee of power for the new house. Under Joachim I.,surnamed "Nestor" (1499-1535), Albert of Brandenburg, prince of the younger branch and grand master of the Teutonic order, embraced the Reformation (1525) and secularized ducal Prussia (Koenigsberg) ; under Joachim II. (1535) Lutheranism was introduced into the electorate, to which John Sigismund (1608-19) reunited ducal Prussia as son-in-law and heir of the last duke. This same prince asserted his right to the succession of Juliers, of which George William (1619-40) obtained half, that is to say, the duchy of Cleves with the counties of Mark near the Rhine and of Ravensberg in Westphalia. Thus the house of Hohenzollern had by the middle of the seventeenth century risen above the other princely houses of the empire. Its dominions, scattered from the Niemen to the Meuse, formed three distinct groups. To 410 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTU'RY. [BOOK VI. unite these groups in one was of prime necessity, for their master could not pass from one to the other without asking the permission of his neighbors. This was the constant endeavor of Frederick William, who is called the Great Elector. By the conventions of 1648 he gained Magde- burg on the Elbe, Halberstadt and Minden on the Weser, Cammin at the mouth of the Oder with all Farther Pomer- ania along the Baltic from the Oder toward the Gulf of Dantzig. He had a considerable army ; he employed it in a war between Sweden and Poland, seasonably betrayed both parties, and by the treaty of Weslau (1657) freed Prussia from Polish supremacy by obtaining the cession of Elbing east of the Vistula. Within his dominions the elector had emancipated himself from the control of the Provincial States, which were replaced by a simple consulta- tive committee ; following the example of Louis XIV. in France, he rendered his power absolute. His states were scantily peopled and poor; he attracted to them colonists from Holland and Friesland, had canals dug, founded a factory in Guinea, and dreamed of a company for African commerce. Ally of the house of Orange, and established on the Rhine by the possession of the duchy of Cleves, he played an active part in all the affairs which took place in that direction. Although a member of the League of the Rhine, he denounced to Germany the ambition of Louis XIV., defended Holland against him in 1672, and at the battle of Fehrbellin, which he gained over the Swedes, allies of France, founded the reputation of Prussian arms. He already inspired anxiety in Austria, who saw with regret a new King of the Vandals rise on the banks of the Oder; so she sacrificed him in 1678 at the treaty of Nimeguen, and he was obliged to restore his conquests. He profitably employed the peace: he welcomed many French Reformers, who peopled Berlin; he enlarged that capital, which in 1650 had only 6500 inhabitants; and he founded the library and chateau of Potsdam. Frederick III. continued the work of his father (1688). He maintained the integrity of the electorate against his brothers; then, excited by the example of his kinsman, William of Orange, who had become King of England, and by that of his neighbor, the Elector of Saxony, who was called to the throne of Poland, and of the Prince of Pied- mont, who also wished to become a king, he gave 6,000,000 CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 411 francs to the emperor so that Austria might permit him to assume the title of King of Prussia. In 1701 he crowned himself with his own hands at Koenigsburg. So a sovereign duchy, a little country foreign to Germany, became a king- dom, although the electorate of Brandenburg and his other German dominions continued to depend upon the empire. This title, accorded a poor and distant province, had seemed of no consequence to the Austrian ministers, who were embarrassed with a war against the Ottomans and about to enter upon that of the Spanish succession. Eugene alone comprehended that this new absolute royalty would seek to unite its sundered provinces and would become an obstacle to the power of Austria. Prussia in fact continued her aggrandizements upon the Rhine. In 1702 William III. of Nassau-Orange, King of England, having died childless, Frederick presented himself as heir of his patrimonial estates and took possession of the counties of Lingen and Moers in Guelderland and of Tecklenburg north of Mun- ster. Some time after he caused himself to be chosen by the States of Switzerland Prince of Neufchatel. Vain and ostentatious, Frederick wished to copy the court of Louis XIV.: much money was thus squandered, but letters and arts received their share; he founded the University of Halle, which became one of the most famous in Germany, and the Academy of Berlin, over which Leibnitz presided. Even the splendor of his court conferred a useful prestige on this rising monarchy. Frederick III., who as king was called Frederick I., died in 1713; at the treaty of Utrecht, signed six months later, the King of Prussia was recognized by all Europe except the Pope and the Teutonic knights ; he was confirmed sover- eign of Neufchatel and Valengin; in place of the French principality of Orange he received Guelderland. The new kingdom formed already a mass which was imposing, but which was still divided. Those elements of strength were regulated and increased by Frederick William I. The sergeant king, as George II. called him, was the enemy of ostentation. Instead of encouraging learned men he confiscated the funds of the library for the benefit of the army, had neither court nor ministers, and made of Berlin a manufactory and a barrack. He sought after men six feet tall to make them soldiers, paid for them as much as 2000 crowns apiece, and managed the 4 J 2 THE EIGHTEENTH CEXTl'RY. [BOOK VI. state like a regiment. His heroes were Peter the Great, Charles XII., and the old Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, who had created the Prussian infantry and had commanded it forty years. He made of his subjects submissive soldiers, bigoted Calvinists, tireless workers ; he himself was accus- tomed to beat lazy people in the street. "Under our father," said Frederick II., "nobody in the Prussian states had more than three ells of cloth in his clothes and less than two ells of sword at his side." With such ideas how could he approve of his son, who learned to play the flute and read French authors? Thus the royal prince passed a dreary youth. He wished to become his own master and formed a plot to escape, but he saw his friend Kat executed, was himself condemned to death, and remained some time in prison. From the commencement of his reign Frederick William had an army of 60,000 men. Charles XII. on his return from Turkey solicited his alliance, but as he attacked the island of Usedom, which was held by a Prussian garrison, the King of Prussia joined a league formed against the Swedes, contributed to the capture of Stralsund in 1715, and at the peace of Stockholm in 1720 acquired for 6,000,000 francs Stettin and almost all Hither Pomerania. He had made an advantageous trial of his strength; never- theless, through love of the common country, he always respected the house of Austria and remained its ally against England, and especially against France, whose influence in the empire he wished to destroy. Another thought preoccupied him: Poland by its prolon- gation to the Baltic, and its occupation of royal Prussia on both banks of the lower Vistula, separated ducal Prussia from the electorate of Brandenburg. As early as 1656 the Great Elector had thought much about that tongue of land: this was the first idea of the partition of Poland. Should the Elector of Saxony establish himself firmly in that coun- try and make of it a hereditary kingdom it would be dan- gerous for Prussia; she proposed its division to Augustus II., who was King of Poland till 1733: this was the revived idea of dismemberment. It was furthermore necessary that French influence should not prevail there with Stanislaus Leczinski; Frederick William allied himself in 1733 with Russia and Austria to exclude the candidate of France; he hoped to impose his conditions on the candidate of Austria CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 4M and Russia, or at least to again resume the idea of division. But this design was disappointed by the election of Augus- tus III. In the war which ensued Frederick William took part against France, and sent his son to the Rhine with 10,000 men. There the young Frederick saw at the head of an army the veteran Eugene of Savoy, who was then nothing more than the shadow of himself; he also divined the weakness of Austria. Prussia, on the contrary, was the best organized state of Europe. The army was on an excellent footing, the treasury well filled, agriculture and manufactures flourishing; the population was increasing by natural development and by the newcomers whom the king attracted under the pretense of protecting the Reformers, whom he wished to unite in one great religious body. Nobody dared support the Protestants of Salzburg, who made complaints to the diet against their archbishop. Frederick William offered them an asylum, which 18,000 of them accepted. So Prussia assumed the role which Sweden had acted under Gustavus Adolphus. In 1740 Frederick II., who well deserved the title of the Great, ascended the throne. He continued his relations with the principal writers of France, but without Showing himself disposed to follow their maxims. It was evident that in his retreat at Rheinsberg he had also studied the art of government. Under the Great Elector Prussia had risen to the first rank among the states of Germany ; under Frederick II. she took her place among the leading European powers. In the presence of this expanding state Austria declined. The treaty of Westphalia had deprived her of Alsace; in 1699, after the victory of Zenta over the Ottomans, she had at the treaty of Carlovitch offset this loss by the acquisition of Transylvania and Sclavonia; at the treaty of Rastadt her part in the heritage of Charles II. of Spain had been the Netherlands, the Milanais, Naples, and the island of Sar- dinia. This last possession was soon exchanged for Sicily. Leopold I. (1658-1705) had contended against Louis XIV., so did Joseph I. (1705-11), and finally his brother, Charles VI., whom Berwick and Vendome had driven from Spain. The new emperor, under whom was signed the peace of Rastadt, had two wars to carry on against the Ottomans. In the first, thanks to Eugene, he was a conqueror (victo- ries of Peterwardein, 1716, and of Belgrade, 1717; treaty of 414 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. Passarovitch, 1718), and Austria gained the banat of Temes- var, Belgrade, and the northwest of Servia. In the second the Ottomans retook what they had just ceded except the banat (treaty of Belgrade, 1739). We have already seen the struggle excited by Alberoni and the war for the suc- cession in Poland, which cost Austria the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and gave her Parma and Piacenza in compen- sation, whereby her position in the north of the peninsula was made stronger. The main concern of Charles VI. was the settlement of the succession. He had no son ; with him was to become extinct the male line of the Hapsburgs, which had given fifteen emperors to Germany. For the purpose of assuring the heritage to his daughter, Maria Theresa, he had shrunk from no sacrifice. He had suppressed the Ostend Com- pany in order to please the maritime powers ; had ceded Lorraine to. gain France, Naples and Sicily to gain Spain. He had obtained from all the states a solemn recognition of his pragmatic,* and when he died in 1740, the same year that Frederick II. ascended the Prussian throne, he left Maria Theresa an ample collection of parchments. Said Frederick II. : "An army of 200,000 men would have been worth more." Hardly had he expired when five pretenders appeared.! These were the Elector of Bavaria, who descended from a daughter of Ferdinand I., the King of Spain, who descended from Charles V. on the female side, and the Elector of Saxony, son-in-law of the emperor Joseph I. : each of these three demanded the entire inherit- * A pragmatic sanction or pragmatic is the technical name given to certain decrees which were issued as fundamental laws. That of the Austrian Charles VI. was announced in 1713 to the Secret Council in Vienna and contained three articles ; (i) That the Austrian states con- stitute an indivisible whole ; (2) that the male heirs of the Austrian house succeed according to seniority ; (3) that in default of male heir, daughters are to succeed in the following order : first, those of Charles VI.; second, those of Joseph ; third, those of Leopold I. This pragmatic, succes- sively accepted by the different states and diets of the Austrian mon- archy, was proclaimed as a fundamental law December 6, 1724. It was furthermore recognized by the European states in the following order: by Prussia and Russia in 1726; England and Holland, 1731 ; Germany, 1732 ; Poland, 1733 ; France, Spain, and Sardinia, 1735. ED. f History affords few more striking examples of the fact that very often the most solemn agreements are valueless when there is not sufficient power to enforce their provisions. ED. CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 4^5 ance by right of blood ; also the King of Sardinia laid claim to the duchy of Milan, and the King of Prussia to four duchies of Silesia, basing his demands upon ancient treaties of succession, which his predecessors had neglected to enforce. Frederick II. had not a large kingdom, but his father had left him a full treasury and a splendid army, and Nature had endowed him with the rarest talents. War of the , . 111 i Austrian succes- He forgot the doctrines he had extolled m his "Anti-Machiavelli" and yielded to the temptation of putting his hand upon Silesia, a rich province whose acquisition would double the population of his states. Without communicating his project to anyone he invaded it with 40,000 men, conquered it in a few weeks, then offered a sincere peace and his alliance as the price of its formal cession. Maria Theresa, a woman of energy and talent, acted like a king. She was unwilling to inaugurate her reign by a dismemberment without having at least sent the veterans of Eugene against this parvenu royalty and against its troops, who as yet had only fought on parade. The attempt was not successful; the Prussians gained the victory of Molvitz (1741). At the beginning of this campaign Frederick had said to the French ambassador: "I am going to play your game; if the aces fall to me we will share." The Count of Belle Isle, grandson of Fouquet, a bold and adventurous schemer, proposed in the council alliance with Prussia and a plan which would reduce Maria Theresa to Hungary, lower Aus- tria, and Belgium, and would divide the rest among the pretenders. The Elector of Bavaria was to be emperor; France asked nothing for herself. This was generosity on too large a scale, but grand sentiments* in foreign policy were exceedingly esteemed at the court of Louis XV. To play the magnanimous was his desire in order to be obliged to act as little as possible. Despite Fleury this plan was adopted and the treaty of Nymphenburg concluded on these bases (May 18, 1741). * It is difficult to discern the " grand sentiments" of a scheme which was a violation of French oaths, and which, without even pretext of advantage to France, was to rob Maria Theresa of her legitimate posses- sions. That this scheme can be called "grand" shows how low was the general sentiment under the reign of Louis XV. ED. 4i6 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. France, instead of acting resolutely with all her forces as one ought when he draws the sword, put in movement only 40,000 men; instead of striking a blow toward the Nether- lands, where her destinies were calling, she sent her army to the extremity of Bavaria, repeating in Germany the errors so many times committed in Italy. It is just to say that the maritime powers had placed the same condition upon their neutrality as during the preceding war, to wit, that France should not dispatch a soldier into Belgium. Master of Linz, the chief bulwark of Austria on the tipper Danube, the elector could have taken Vienna: he preferred to con- quer Bohemia. Maria Theresa, who a few days before had written, "Soon there will not be left me a single city for my lying-in," had time to rouse her faithful Hungarians. She presented herself in the midst of the Diet carrying her child in her arms. The magnates were touched by the spectacle and by the tears of the young sovereign ; in their chivalrous tenderness they drew their sabers, shouting: "Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa!" A few weeks after swarms of Hungarians, Croats, Pandours, and Talpaches inundated Bavaria; the convoys were seized, the communications intercepted, and while the Elector of Bavaria was being crowned emperor at Frankfort under the name of Charles VII., the Austrians entered Munich (January, 1742). Frederick indeed menaced Moravia and beat the Austrians at Czaslau in Bohemia (May 17) ; but Maria Theresa under- stood the right moment for a sacrifice: she abandoned to him Silesia, and in return Frederick forgot the promise he had given France (July). This defection brought on others. The Elector of Saxony withdrew from the war; the King of Sardinia en- tered it, but on the side of Austria; England, which had just overthrown the ministry of the pacific Walpole (February, 1742), and had declared war against Spain because her colonies were closed to English trade, furiously demanded war against France, whose commerce the English thought was being too rapidly developed. Besides, she was unwill- ing that the ruin of "Austria, her European police," should be consummated. The new minister promised Maria Theresa a subsidy of 12,000,000 francs. So all the weight of the war fell back upon France, which had taken arms only for the benefit of others. When the Austrians had retaken Linz aud Budweis the French army of Bohemia was cut off CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 4*7 from Bavaria; besieged in Prague, it at least defended itself well. Fleury, who lately was disarming, thinking the war finished, was troubled by these reverses, and wrote a confi- dential and most humble letter to the Count of Konigsegg, the Austrian general. This Konigsegg published. The old man complained in a second letter, and declared to the count that he would no more write him what he thought. This letter also was made public. Fleury, twice tricked in the sight of Europe, put the crown upon his discomfiture by disavowing his own letters. He spoiled everything by his timidity. Maillebois, who was maneuvering in Fran- conia, could do nothing more for the deliverance of Prague than make himself master of Eger. At least thus was opened a line of retreat to Belle Isle whereby to re-enter the valley of the Main. Belle Isle in fact with 14,000 men evacuated Prague, and made through the ice, the snow, and the enemy a glorious but painful retreat. The noble and unfortunate Vauvenargues there ruined his health. Chevert remained in the city with the wounded and the sick. He was sum- moned to surrender at discretion. "Say to your general that if he does not grant me the honors of war I will set fire to the four corners of Prague and will bury myself under its ruins." The conditions he exacted were accorded (January, 1743). A few days after Fleury died at the age of ninety: he had wished peace at any price, and he left France with a great war on its hands. England had entered into the conflict; 50,000 English and Germans arrived in the valley of the Main; Marshal Noailles shut them up at Dettingen, but the mad impetu- osity of the Duke of Gramont compromised his able com- binations, and it was only a bloody affair instead of a victory. De Broglie, who commanded on the Danube, drew back as far as the Rhine before the Austrians, and Noailles was compelled to follow this movement of retreat. To improve affairs it was deemed necessary to put the king at the head of the armies. A new favorite, the Duchess of Chateau- roux, an energetic and ambitious woman, wished to rouse him from his shameful lethargy. Therefore Louis XV. came in 1744 to show himself to his troops. The general plan of the war had been changed. Instead of fighting in the recesses of Germany it was decided to strike blows nearer France. The king entered the Netherlands and saw Marshal Saxe capture many cities. On the news that the 4*8 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. Austrians were menacing Alsace he hastened thither, taking with him Noailles and 50,000 men. A severe sickness arrested him at Metz. Approaching death inspired him with a noble resolution, which unhappily did not long continue, and with a noble remark. He sent away the Duchess of Chateauroux in order to reconcile himself with the queen, and wrote to Marshal Noailles: "Remember that while men were carrying Louis XIII. to the tomb the Prince of Conde gained a battle." France paid with her gratitude for this effort of her king. "If he dies," they said, "it is because he marched to our assist- ance. He dies at the moment when he was going to become a great king!" One evening the rumor reached Paris that he was no more: at once an afflicted crowd thronged the streets and the churches with tears and groans. After they learned that he still lived there was every day a crowd of people waiting for the couriers; and those who brought good news were carried on men's shoul- ders in triumph. When finally they learned of his conval- escence the churches resounded with thanksgivings, praises to God for having preserved the "Well Beloved." How easy was its task to this royalty still so popular! However, the King of Prussia, alarmed by the progress of the Austrians, resumed arms and marched into Bohemia. This diversion liberated the line of the Rhine. The elector returned to his electorate, but only to die. His son treated with Maria Theresa. The Queen of Hungary restored him what she still occupied in Bavaria, and Maximilian renounced all claim to the Austrian succession (treaty of Fuessen, 1745). France had no longer any object in pursuing the war; but as the enemy refused to treat, she was obliged to conquer a peace. France sought it in the Netherlands. Marshal Saxe, dying as he was, put himself at the head of the troops and invested Tournai. To prevent its capture 55,000 English and Dutch approached the city under the command of the Duke of Cumberland. The marshal gained over them the battle of Fontenoy. This victory had important results. Tournai, Ghent, the depot general of the enemy, Oudenarde, Bruges, Dendermonde, and Ostend capitulated. At the beginning of the following year the French entered Brussels. The King of Prussia, meanwhile, victorious at Friedberg CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 4*9 in Silesia, wrote to Louis XV.: "I have just honored the bill of exchange which your Majesty drew upon me at Fon- tenoy." The victory of Kesseldorf afterward opened to him Saxony and Dresden; he there signed with Maria Theresa a new treaty which confirmed to him the cession of Silesia. This defection did not leave France a single ally in Germany ; the defeat of the pretender Charles Stuart, who, after having marched to within thirty leagues of Lon- don, was conquered at Culloden (1746), prevented a revo- lution which would long have paralyzed England. Maria Theresa and George II., free from all disquietude, the one as to Prussia, the other as to the Jacobites, imparted a new activity to the hostilities. Maria Theresa endeavored to indemnify herself in Italy for what she had lost in Germany and for what she might still lose in the Netherlands. The Franco-Spanish army, after an ineffectual attempt upon Savoy, had secured the territory of Nice by the victory of Coni (1744), and the Piedmontese Apennines by alliance with the Duke of Modena and the Genoese. The battle of Bassigliano won for it the Milanais (1745). But the empress sent superior forces into Italy. Lichtenstein collected there 45,000 Austrians to whom Maillebois could oppose only 26,000 men. The day of Piacenza and the defection of Spain gave the Imperialists all the north of the peninsula. For her part, England, who in 1745 had bombarded all the coast of Liguria and Genoa itself, endeavored in 1746 to seize Lorient, and seconded an invasion of Austro-Sardinians in Provence. The allies penetrated the country till within sight of Toulon. But this invasion had the fate of all the others. The energetic measures of Marshal de Belle Isle and the insurrection of Genoa against the Austrians deter- mined a retreat. In the south, therefore, France only succeeded in defend- ing her frontier; and the fine plan, formed by the minister d'Argenson, for driving the foreigners from Italy and uniting all the states of the peninsula in an Italian confederation, had miscarried to the great disadvantage of Italy itself and of the peace of the world. But at the north France won magnificent successes. The battle of Rancoux, gained by Marshal Saxe, signalized the year 1746. After each victory Louis asked nothing but peace, '*not wishing, however," he said, "to treat as a merchant, but as a king. " Thisunac- customed disinterestedness was not credited, and Holland, 420 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. terrified at seeing the French at its gates, re-established the stadtholderate, as in 1672 sacrificing its liberty to save its independence. Persuaded by England, which sought everywhere enemies for France, the Czarina Elizabeth also concluded a subsidized treaty, and put at the disposition of the enemies of France 50 Russian ships and 37,000 men, who marched toward the Rhine. France, alone against all, still advanced in the Netherlands, peace in one hand and a sword in the other. Marshal Saxe gained the battle of Law- feld (1747) and the Count of Lowendal took the "impreg- nable" Berg-op-Zoom. Holland was invaded. Marshal Saxe by skillful maneuvers in 1748 completed the invest- ment of Maestricht. War was not declared by France against England until 1744, after the brilliant naval battle of Toulon, which was indecisive, like so many other actions at sea. But that splendid beginning was not kept up. Brest and Toulon were blockaded by the English, Antibes bombarded, and Lorient escaped them only by a panic which made them run toward their ships instead of entering the badly defended city. The French with 35 ships of the line could not con- tend against no. In their defeats the commanders of their squadrons at least deserved honor for their heroic courage. Off Cape Finisterre the Marquis de la Jonquiere, in order to save a convoy en route to Canada, with 6 ships made head against 17 (May 3, 1747). He was captured after the most glorious resistance. "I have never seen equal courage," wrote one of his conquerors. The French had 7 ships on the Atlantic: with them M. de 1'Estanduere was to convoy a merchant fleet of 250 sail. Near Belle Isle he met Admiral Hawke with 15 ships, and to save his convoy gave battle. It was desperate. Two ships, the Tonnant and the Intrfyide, passed through the entire victorious fleet and returned to Brest, floating heaps of bloody ruins. The English admiral was obliged to under- go a court-martial for having allowed them to escape. "In this war," said an English historian, "England owed her victories only to the number of her ships." In America the English took from the French Louisburg and the important island of Cape Breton, which might have been a substitute for Acadia, lost in 1713. In the Indies France had two men, La Bourdonnais and Dupleix, who if they had been able to agree, and if they had been supported, CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 421 could have acquired Hindustan for their country. The former had created everything at Bourbon and the Isle of France, of which he was governor for the India Company: farms, arsenals, fortifications, all were due to him. An engineer, soldier, and mariner, nothing arrested him. From the Isle of France, which with its excellent harbor was the key of the Indian Ocean, he scoured that sea and drove from it the English. Dupleix, another man of genius, pro- posed to expel them from the continent-like peninsula of Hindustan. He dreamed of splendid enterprises. He desired that the company whose factories in Hindustan he superintended should not only increase its commerce but its territory. For success these two men should have acted in concert. At the capture of Madras they had a mortal quar- rel, and La Bourdonnais, recalled to France, was on his return confined in the Bastille upon accusations received from India. Dupleix atoned for this foul deed by the mag- nificent defense which in 1748 he made of Pondicherry ; he saved the city and inflicted upon the English a check which echoed even to Europe. Peace was therefore as inoppor- tune for France in India as it was in the Netherlands ; but the French navy was reduced to two ships, the debt had in- creased 1,200,000,000 francs, and the king, incapable of any further self-control, asked only to be left to his pleasures. England, which dreaded seeing France established perma- nently at the mouth of the Scheldt, finally decided to treat. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (April, 1748) stipulated that conquests should be mutually restored. England regained for four years the asicnto, or right of importing negroes into the Spanish colonies, and right of search off those coasts. Austria ceded Parma and Piacenza to the infante Don Philip, Silesia to the King of Prussia, and many towns of the Milanais to the King of Sardinia. France restored Madras and re-entered into possession of Cape Breton; but she retained nothing in the Netherlands, almost all of which she held, and she submitted to the condition of fortifying Dunkirk only on the landward side. English commissioners, whose salary France was to pay, watched over the execution of this condition. When King George exacted the expulsion of the Pretender from France the latter was arrested at the opera, as if the French were specially desirous of showing that even in Paris the English ministers controlled the police. 422 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. The eight years following this peace were the most flour- ishing period of French commerce during the eighteenth century. Into Lorient, which in 1726 was yj&rl' War. 6 " on ^Y a small market town, were imported in 1736 18,000,000 francs' worth of merchan- dise. If La Bourdonnais was no longer at the Isle of France his memory and his teachings lived there still. Bourbon became a great agricultural colony. At the Antilles, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and above all St. Do- mingo attained a prosperity which reacted favorably upon the merchant cities of the parent state: upon Nantes and Bordeaux, which still recall with regret those palmy days ; upon Marseilles, which in addition enjoyed all the com- merce of the Levant in the Mediterranean, where she was without a rival. The sugar and coffee of the French Antilles drove similar products of the English colonies from the European market. Louisiana, so long time lan- guishing, found in the freedom of trade granted her in 1731 a prosperity such as the mother country had not been able to bestow. The last maritime war had only caused the suspension of this commercial movement. On cessation of that war it resumed its course with an energy which the government itself supported ; for despite the inertness of Louis XV. and the wretched influence of Mme. de Pompadour the increas- ing force of public opinion imposed upon the government certain men and a certain tendency. Thus the Marquis d'Argenson had been called in 1744 to the ministry of for- eign affairs, and that of the marine was given to Rouille and to de Machault, who put forth praiseworthy efforts to restore the navy. In 1754 were counted in the ports 60 ships, 31 frigates, and 21 other vessels. England with her 243 war vessels, of which 131 were ships of the line, could not have been jealous of this navy, which, though imposing in num- bers, was in want of everything. She was alarmed, how- ever, at this resurrection of French naval strength, specially at the progress of French commerce, which had received an energetic impulse from the doubling of the bounty, orig- inally decreed by Machault in 1740 at 2^ francs per ton; and she easily found a cause of rupture. Peace bought at any price is made badly. Mme. de Pompadour had said to the plenipotentiaries sent in 1748 to Aix-la-Chapelle: "Remember not to return without peace; CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 423 the king wishes it." As a natural result what might have been kept Avas given up, and care had not been taken to adjust all the differences. France had two magnificent possessions in America, Canada and Louisiana, that is to say, the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, the two vastest rivers of North America, which continent she thus con- trolled at the two ends. Commissioners were appointed to determine the frontier. They could not agree; the colo- nists, mixing the Indians up with their quarrels, commenced hostilities. Washington, then a youth, attained distinction in these troubles, but at first in an unfortunate manner. The detachment which he commanded surprised and slew Jumonville, a French officer, with all his escort, who was carrying to the English a summons to evacuate the valley of the Ohio and to retire to the other side of the Alleghanies. This was the first blood shed in the struggle (May 28, 1754). In 1755 without declaration of war the English admiral Boscawen captured two French ships of the line; the min- istry protested, but remained six months inactive without joining deeds to words; during those six months the English took from the French more than 300 merchant vessels whose cargoes were estimated to be worth 38,000,000 francs, and whose crews comprised 10,000 sailors. The majority of the latter were then forced to serve in the English ships. The French government was obliged to confess that war had begun and to resign itself to the fact. It was for the interest of France to preserve the exclusive- ly maritime character of this war, and to keep all her forces united for the duel with England. That country, however, had a far different design. The English ministry with its gold again let loose the continental war. This was readily accepted by Prussia, who felt herself somewhat imperiled by an unexpected intimacy on the part of France and Aus- tria. The years of peace which had elapsed had been better employed by no prince than by Frederick II. He had attached to himself Silesia by wise measures: he had undertaken a great reformatory work in justice and finance; and in 1744 had incorporated into his kingdom West Fries- land, of which his family had so long had the expectancy. But his wit sometimes marred his policy. By his too well merited epigrams he had wounded the Czarina Elizabeth and Mme. de Pompadour. Unfortunately those were still days when the personal resentments of princes and favorites 424 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUR Y. [BOOK VI. had more influence than the interests of the people. Maria Theresa beheld the growth of this alienation and nourished it carefully in the hope of turning it to the profit of her implacable resentment against Prussia. She could not see a Silesian without weeping. Peace was barely signed before she made ready for war, so regulating her army and her finances that with fewer provinces than her father she pos- sessed more soldiers and larger revenues. She replaced the intriguing ministers of Charles VI. by a skillful statesman, the celebrated Kaunitz; and as soon as she thought wise she proposed to the cabinet of Versailles an alliance on the following terms: restitution of Silesia to Austria, cession of the Netherlands to a Bourbon of the Spanish branch, and of Mons and Luxemburg to France. A friendly note from Maria Theresa to Mine, de Pompadour, in which the haughty empress called herself "the very good friend" of that parvenu, brought about the reversal of a policy pur- sued two centuries by France. The treaty of Versailles (1756), advantageous only to Austria, for the promise of the Netherlands was withdrawn, united the two powers whose rivalry had caused so much blood to flow. The Czarina Elizabeth, who did not pardon the biting tongue of Fred- erick II., Sweden, which regretted Pomerania, Saxony, which wished to expand, joined the alliance. Thus Austria became the friend of France and the enemy'of England, her former ally, and France was going to attack Prussia after fighting so recently on its side. The entire system of European alliances had changed. France, still compelled to fight with both hands, first struck a vigorous blow. To the attack of Admiral Bos- cawen she replied by dispatching against Minorca, then an English possession, a squadron and an army. The former, commanded by La Galissonniere, defeated the English fleet under Byng; the latter, under Marshal de Richelieu, carried the fortress, reputed impregnable, of Port Mahon. This was one of the finest feats of arms during the century. England avenged herself for this defeat as Carthage for- merly did: the unfortunate Byng was condemned to death and shot on board his ship. On the Continent the war commenced by an irruption into Saxony of the King of Prussia, who, as always, fore- stalled his enemies. He surrounded the Saxons in their camp at Pirna. The Austrians approaching to extricate CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 425 them, he hastened to encounter them in Bohemia, beat them at Lowositz, and then returned, to capture the entire Saxon army, which he incorporated with his troops. France next declared the treaties of Westphalia violated and sent two armies into the field, one under Marshal d'Estrees to Westphalia, and one under Marshal Soubise toward the Main. Attacked by all his neighbors and without other support than England, Frederick, notwithstanding his genius, would have been unable to defend himself against this formidable coalition if the allies had put some concert into their operations. He was aided moreover by the folly or thoughtlessness of the French generals, Soubise and Richelieu, and by the tardiness of Daun, the Austrian generalissimo. From Saxony, which he had occupied suddenly and boldly, he returned to Bohemia and gained the bloody battle of Prague. Beaten in his turn near that city at Kollin by Daun (1757), he was forced in his retreat to divide his forces, which exposed him to new reverses. Meanwhile on the east the Russians took from him Memel and defeated one of his lieutenants at Joegerndorf, but did not know how to make the most of their successes ; on the west d'Estrees gained over the English the battle of Has- tembeck, which gave Hanover to the French, while another French army marched rapidly upon Magdeburg and Saxony. Thus the circle of enemies by which Frederick was sur- rounded drew closer each day about him (1757). He begged for peace. They believed him to be at bay and peace was refused; then he decided, if die he must, "to die like a king," as he wrote Voltaire. The incapacity of his enemies relieved him from keeping his word. Richelieu, who succeeded d'Estrees in command of the army of Hanover, shut up the Duke of Cumberland in an inextricable position in the midst of a marshy country, but instead of taking him prisoner he granted him the capitula- tion of Closter-Sevin, which was speedily disavowed by the English government, then controlled by the famous William Pitt. Richelieu had made the blunder of not breaking up that army, which was to be found intact on its resumption of arms ; and the result of two successful campaigns was lost. He committed another error in setting before his officers and men an example of the most scandalous ava- rice. On his return to Paris he had built from the fruit of his depredations an elegant pavilion, which the public satir- 426 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [Book VI. ized as the pavilion of Hanover. The soldiers, whose pil- lages he authorized, called him "good papa marauder." Discipline was thus relaxed at the very moment when the French encountered the Prussian armies, the best disciplined in Europe, To Soubise, the favorite of Mme. de Pompadour, had fallen the difficult task of making head against them. He joined the "army of execution" which the empire had raised to support Maria Theresa and marched upon Saxony. Frederick II. made a rapid march from Silesia to the Saale. He had only 20,000 men against 50,000. He encamped not far from the famous villages of Jena and Auerstadt at the village of Rossbach upon the heights, concealing his cavalry in a hollow and hiding a formidable artillery behind the tents of his camp. The allies advanced rashly, in disorder, with flourish of trumpets, deceived by the apparent hesita- tion of the king and believing him ready to fly. Suddenly the Prussian artillery unmasked and thundered; the cavalry hurled itself on the left flank of Soubise, which that general did not suppose was menaced; the infantry followed, and the Franco- German army was dispersed in a few moments. The Prussians killed only 3000 men, for there was little fighting; but they made 7000 prisoners, captured 63 pieces of cannon, and lost only 400 soldiers. Frederick, letting Soubise escape, returned against the Austrian s, drove them from Saxony, whither they had come back, and followed them into Silesia, which he retook from them at the battle of Lissa, where he repeated the maneuver of Rossbach, menacing one wing, crushing the other (1757). Pitt, afterward Lord Chatham, now became at this moment prime minister, and inspired England to the greatest exer- tions in behalf of her ally. The king, in return for the numerous subsidies Pitt caused to be voted for him, sent one of his lieutenants, Ferdinand of Brunswick, to take command of the Hanoverian army, which, in violation of its parole, resumed operations. Before that skillful general the French retreated, recrossing the Weser, the Ems, and the Rhine, after which they \vere once more defeated at Cre- feld (1758). Napoleon said of these generals, whom a caprice of Mme. de Pompadour placed in command of the French armies, that all, generals-in-chief and simple generals, were of the most utter incapacity. To which we must add that the CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 427 court quarrels continued in the camp, and that many offi- cers could be accused with apparent truth of having, for the sake of ruining a rival, caused plans to miscarry and battles to be lost. They were not only most wretched tac- ticians but detestable administrators. The armies, exceed- ingly badly organized, were still worse equipped. When the Count de Clermont succeeded Richelieu he had to cashier eighty officers. At one time with the army of Soubise there were 12,000 wagons belonging to merchants and sutlers. This was not the only evil. Since women governed, the higher administration was submitted to the most unreasonable caprices. Between 1756 and 1763 twenty-five ministers were appointed or removed, "toppling down one after the other," wrote Voltaire, "like the figures of a magic lantern." Plans changed like men, or rather nothing was done and everything went by chance. However, after the shameful defeats of Rossbach and Crefeld, if the generals were not changed, forces were given so superior to those of the enemy that even Soubise, even the Count de Clermont, the Duke de Broglie, and Marshal Contades during the following years almost balanced suc- cess with the Prussians, Hessians, and Hanoverians. Soubise was on the Main during the retreat of the Count de Clermont; menacing Hesse, where at Sandershausen near Cassel de Broglie gained a slight advantage, he forced back Duke Ferdinand and defeated a part of his troops at Lutzelberg (1758). The following year de Broglie won another and more important success upon the Nidda; but, placed under the orders of Contades, he obeyed him badly, and the rivalry of the two generals brought about a new disaster at Minden (August, 1759). Contades bore the blame and was removed ; de Broglie took his command which consisted of more than 100,000 men. He did not know how to employ them, and contented himself with the occupation of a few cities, such as Cassel and Minden, and with a fortunate encounter which the Count of St. Germain had at Corbach with the Prussians (1760). A detachment which he sent upon the Rhine succeeded better still; 20,000 Prussians had just captured Cleves; de Castries beat them at Clostercamp. It was there that the Chevalier d'Assas, captain of a regiment from Auvergne, sacrificed himself. Falling into an ambuscade where the enemy counted on surprising the French army, he cried with all 428 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. his strength: "Help, Auvergne! There is the enemy!" He fell riddled by balls, as was the sergeant Dubois, but the army was saved. Thus in the west of Germany the war had no result save the devastation of the country, where the French armies usually went into winter quarters. Toward the south and east Frederick held his own against the Russians and Aus- trians. He said of the former: "They are easier to kill than to conquer." However, they took from him Koenigsberg, but he beat them at Zorndorff near Custrin (1758). A defeat which the Austrians inflicted on him at Hochkir- chen in Lusatia balanced this success. The Russians even had their revenge the following year (1759) at Zullichau and Kunnersdorff, where 20,000 men on each side were left upon the field of battle; and Frederick would have been in a critical position if his adversaries had known how to take advantage of their victory. The brilliant success of Prince Ferdinand at Minden (August 1759) over Marshal de Contades revived his hopes. He improved this return of fortune to beg for peace ; his enemies, seeing in this step only a sign of distress, refused it a second time (1760). He undeceived them, beat Laudon at Liegnitz, delivered his capital which had been surprised by the Russians and Austrians, forced the lines of Daun who held a formidable position near Torgau, and held two-thirds of Saxony, while his lieutenants baffled the plans of the Swedes and French at the north and west. But these "labors of Hercules" had exhausted the strength of the king and his people. During all the cam- paign of 1761 he held himself on the defensive. These tac- tics succeeded badly. Though de Broglie was beaten at Villinghausen because he depended on Soubise, who did not assist him, Frederick II. lost Schweidnitz and Dresden, and was deprived of subsidies from England. Happily for him the Czarina Elizabeth died at the beginning of 1762, and Peter III. forthwith declared the neutrality of Russia. Sweden at the same time withdrew from the conflict. Tran- quil at the east and north, Frederick acted with vigor in Silesia, which he recovered, and in Saxony, where Prince Henry won the battle of Freiberg. He not only gained battles; he gained also public opinion. If in the preceding war the virtues and courage of Maria Theresa had excited enthusiasm, now the heroic perseverance of Frederick II., CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 429 and the talents he displayed in extricating himself from the most hopeless situations, increased daily the number of his admirers. His mother tongue, which he despised, became animate to sing his victories, and all Europe recited the thrilling verses which he wrote to Voltaire. France had sustained the war upon the continent without too heavy loss, but also without much glory, because she was fighting three against one France, Austria, and Russia against Frederick II. alone. Upon the water she was con- tending with an enemy whose crushing superiority left the French sailors the hope of only a few isolated successes. The naval victory of La Galissonniere in 1756 was not repeated. However, the honor of the flag was brilliantly sus- tained in several indecisive encounters. Thus that same year in the vicinity of Rochefort two French frigates attacked an English frigate and an English ship and totally disabled them. Maureville, one of the French captains, having an arm carried away, cried from the lower deck to his sailors: "Courage, friends, heavy firing! I forbid you to strike!" There were many like exploits. But while England lavished all her solicitude upon her marine, the French government allowed its colonies to lack ships, soldiers, and money. Unhappily divisions relaxed discipline ; the gentlemen offi- cers, called red officers, full of disdain for the plebeian or blue officers, who in time of peace remained in the garri- sons, refused to obey them. Thence arose difficulties, dis- trust, and consequently a bad service. The English block- aded the French ports; not a boat went out that did not fall into their hands; thirty-seven vessels of the line and fifty- six frigates were thus captured, burned, or perished on the rocks. Descents effected by the English on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany, at Cherbourg and St. Malo, had no lasting consequences; still they showed that the French territory could be safely violated, since the fleet could no longer protect the shores. In one of these attempts upon St. Malo the enemy lost at St. Cast 5000 men, whom the Duke of Aiguillon and the nobility of Brittany, rising as one man, slew or captured (1758). But the following year Admiral La Clue, who had only seven vessels against four- teen, was beaten at Cape Ste. Marie; and the folly of Conflans brought about the destruction of the fleet of Brest. In 1763 the English made themselves masters of Belle Isle. They had therefore in the Bay of Biscay, in sight of Nantes, 430 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. between Brest and Rochefort, a position as advantageous as on the other side of Brittany was afforded by their posses- sion of St. Malo between Cherbourg and Brest. All the French seacoast from Dunkirk to Bayonne was, as it were, blockaded. Dupleix had been recalled in 1754. If France had sent him money and veteran soldiers instead of dispatching him, as he complained, only the vilest rabble, India might now perhaps be French instead of English territory. He died at Paris in misery in 1763. Lally, an Irishman in the service of France, without possessing his lofty views, had at least unconquerable courage. But compelled, in order to obtain money, to make war upon the Indian rajahs fifty leagues inland, he could not prevent the English under the com- mand of Lord Clive from gaining the advantage. How- ever, he barely missed recapturing Madras; the breach was opened, he ordered the assault, his soldiers refused to march because they Avere not paid. In his turn he was besieged in Pondicherry, where with 700 soldiers he defended him- self nine months against 22,000. The English, at last mas- ters of the city, drove out the inhabitants and razed it to the ground. That was the death blow to French domina- tion in India ; from that it has never recovered. Likewise in Canada the French flag was at first raised high, and then thrown down. The marquises of Vaudreuil and of Montcalm captured the forts of Oswego on Lake Ontario (1756) and William Henry on Lake St. George (1757), bulwarks of the English possessions. But in 1759 they had only 5000 soldiers with whom to oppose 40,000 men, and the colony was without provisions, lead, and powder. Mine, de Pompadour annually cost France three or four million francs; through lack of an equal sum the 4000 soldiers who offered to settle in Canada after the war, and who might have changed the issue of the struggle, could not be sent there. The enemy besieged Quebec; Montcalm gave battle to save the city; mortally wounded, he still shouted to his soldiers, whose idol he had become by his chivalrous courage: "Forward! let us keep the field of battle!" The English General Wolfe, having received three wounds, in the agony of death heard his soldiers shout: "They fly!" He raised himself a moment and said: "I die content." Vaudreuil struggled some time longer, but finally Canada was lost. So too were Guadeloupe, San CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 43* Domingo, Martinique, Granada, St. Vincent, Lucia, Ta- bago, St. Louis du Senegal, and the island of Goree. An able minister, the Duke de Choiseul, then assumed the chief control in French affairs. Mme. de Pompadour had recalled him from the embassy at Vienna to give him in 1758 the portfolio of foreign affairs, which in 1761 he exchanged for that of war. Two years later he assumed also that of marine, and gave the department of foreign affairs to his cousin, the Duke of Praslin. Choiseul main- tained the Austrian alliance, but he contracted another. He wished to unite as in a bundle all the branches of the house of Bourbon, then regnant in France, Spain, the Two Sicilies, Parma, and Piacenza. This was the realization of the prayer of Louis XIV. ; it was also the bestowal upon France of the Spanish navy. This treaty, famous under the name of the "family compact," was signed August 15, 1761. The contracting powers mutually guaranteed each other's states. England forthwith declared Avar against Spain and brought Portugal over to her side. The navy of France had fallen so low and that of Spain was so languish- ing that there was for the moment nothing to hope from their union. Spain, entering the lists too late, experienced only losses : she saw herself stripped of Manilla, the Philip- pines, Havana, twelve ships of the line, and prizes valued at 109,000,000 francs. An invasion of Portugal had no result. However, in 1762, victors or vanquished, the European powers were weary of a war which was ruining them all and had caused the death of a million men. For her part, France had expended 1,350,000,000 francs. England had attained her object, the destruction of the French merchant and military marine. But her very conquests were exhaust- ing her treasury, her public debt was increasing, and recruit- ments becoming difficult; for in order to preserve the empire of the ocean, which she had seized, constantly increasing armaments were necessary. Prussia, without commerce, without manufactures, devastated, depopulated, was kept erect only by the energy of her king. Austria, which had hoped to deprive her of Silesia, despaired of suc- cess. France and England signed preliminaries which resulted (February 10, 1763) in the treaty of Paris. England acquired Canada with its 60,000 French inhabit- ants, Acadia, the island of Cape Breton, Grenada and the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica, Tabago, Senegal, and 43 2 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. in Europe Minorca. France retained the right of fishing on the coasts of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St. Law- rence, together with the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, which, however, she could not fortify. She recovered Guadeloupe, Marie Galante, La Desirade, and Martinique, and obtained St. Lucia; the island of Goree was restored to her in Senegal, and Belle Isle on the coast of Brittany. But she was to demolish the fortifications of Dunkirk on the seaward side, and endured in that city the permanent and insulting presence of an English commissioner, who was to watch that not a single stone was turned on the quays where Jean Bart had embarked. In the East Indies Pon- dicherry, Mahe, and three small factories were left her on condition that she should not dispatch to them any troops. As Spain, though recovering Cuba and Manilla, gave up to England Florida and Pensacola Bay, France made amends to her shortly after by the cession of Louisiana. "The war had commenced for two or three -wretched dwellings; the English gained by it 2000 leagues of territory." The treaty of Hubertsburg between Maria Theresa and Frederick II. confirmed the latter in the possession of Silesia. Frederick II. had shown himself almost as great in coun- cil as in the field of battle. After having saved his country from dismemberment, after having gloriously constituted a new people in Europe, and having raised that people to the rank of a great nation, he rescued it from misery by an able and vigilant administration. He wrested an entire province from the water by draining the marshes which bordered the Oder below Custrin, and he gave it inhabitants by attract- ing foreigners. He planted many mulberry trees; he estab- lished manufactories of silk, cloth, and velvet, and a sugar refinery at Berlin, which furnished sugar to all the provinces. He excavated the great canal of Plauen between the Elbe and the Oder; that of Bromberg, by which the Elbe and the Vistula are connected; and finally that of the Swine. He also built Swinemunde, the port of Stettin, a Soldiers' Hospital at Berlin, and the castle of Sans-Souci, which was his favorite residence. The Seven Years' War decreased the population of Prussia 500,000 souls; 14,500 houses had been burned. In Silesia, Pomerania, and the New March, the peasants harnessed themselves to the plow 60,000 horses had been lost to tillage. "It was, " said Frederick II., "a new creation to undertake." He recommenced all his CHAP. XXV.] CREATION OF PRUSSIA. 433 works of improvement, draining marshes, covering sandy plains with plantations, constructing dykes to recapture from the sea what it had seized during a great tempest in 1724. In order to aid his people in rebuilding the ruins made by war he distributed in the provinces in twenty-three years 25,000,000 Prussian crowns and created a system of landed credit which the French imitated not long ago. He reor- ganized public instruction and reformed the administration of justice with the aid of the great Chancellor Cocceii. The latter, said the king, was "a sage who would have done honor to the Greek republics." He moreover abolished torture." One day seeing a peasant condemned by an unjust sentence, he set aside the decision and caused to be published in the journals : "The humblest of peasants and even the beggar is a man equally with the king. Before justice all are equal." The prophecy of Prince Eugene was being verified. This electorate, changed into a kingdom, was becoming dangerous for Austria. After having torn from her her fairest prov- ince it monopolized her influence in the empire. Although at Sans-Souci neither Hermann nor Luther was greatly respected, and although the cry, "Vivat Teutonia!" was not repeated there, nevertheless the effort was already being made to assume the character of a power exclusively Ger- man and Protestant in opposition to Austria, a Catholic and half-Slavic state, whose imperial mantle was only a patch- work of many pieces. When in 1777 the Elector of Bavaria died without children Maria Theresa purchased the succes- sion from the direct heir, the Elector Palatine. The trans- action was advantageous to Austria, to whom it gave an unbroken territory from the frontiers of Turkey as far as the Rhine, that is, almost all southern Germany. Frederick opposed the scheme and was supported by the courts of Versailles and St. Petersburg. After a bloodless campaign the Franco-Russian mediation brought about the peace of Teschen (1779). The Duke of Deux-Ponts, heir of the Elector Palatine, received the Bavarian succession, Saxony and Mecklenburg obtained indemnities, and Austria gained a few districts by which the Tyrol was joined to her other dominions. Frederick was satisfied with the glory of hav- ing been the arbiter of Germany. That was already a sufficient advantage for the successor of the Brandenburg electors. But there was one other: Prussia was gaining much from the fact that Austria did not become stronger. CHAPTER XXVI. MARITIME AND COLONIAL POWER OF ENGLAND. England from 1688 to 1763. The English East India Company. THE revolution of 1688 had had as its results: at home, the revival of national liberties, both political and religious; abroad, the substitution of England for " * exhausted Holland as the antagonist of France and of Louis XIV. The wars of the League of Augsburg and of the Spanish succession ruined the navy of France and permitted her rival to grasp the scepter of the seas. War is not commonly favorable to public liberty; however, England strengthened hers during the great struggle. At home the glorious William III. met only with annoyance and opposition; he was compelled to dismiss his Dutch guard; his revenue was parsimoniously doled out to him by the Houses; and to obtain a few subsi- dies he was obliged to sanction the Triennial Act (1694), which enacted that no Parliament should last more than three years. So he was seen more often at The Hague than at London ; it was said that in England he was only a stadtholder, while in Holland he was a king. His death was caused by a fall from his horse (March 16, 1702). His wife, Queen Mary, had seven years before preceded him to the tomb, and as he left no children, the second daughter of James II. succeeded. In 1696 he had commenced a hospital for disabled soldiers at Greenwich, a place already famous for the observatory which Charles II. had founded there. Good Queen Anne, a zealous Protestant, had married in 1683 the Prince of Denmark, brother of Christian V., who died in 1703. She had as favorite until 1710 Lady Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the general of that name, whom Lady Marlborough' s proud and haughty CHAP. XXVI.] POWER OF ENGLAND. 435 character then brought into disgrace. The most important domestic event during the reign of Anne was the union of England and Scotland in a single state under the name of Great Britain. Thenceforward there was but one Parlia- ment ; Scotland was represented by sixteen peers in the House of Lords, and by forty-five members in the House of Commons (May i, 1707). Abroad Admiral Rook took Gibraltar (1704), and Maryborough gained the victories of Hochstadt, or Blenheim (1705), Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709). His disgrace, merited by his peculations, and the parliamentary revolution of 1710, which brought the Tories to power in place of the Whigs, led to the treaty of Utrecht (1713). The Whigs were identified with the revolution of 1688 and had consequently been very zealous for the war against France. We have considered the principal advantages this treaty conferred on England. Another treaty, concluded in 170.3, with the court of Lis- bon had important consequences. The Portuguese agreed to always receive the manufactured products of England, and Great Britain the wines of Portugal, on which the cus- toms duty was to be one-third of that imposed on the wines of France. Portugal therefore became an English market; all the gold of Brazil hardly sufficed to pay the workmen of Manchester and Leeds, and foreign importations rendered the development of national Portuguese industry impossible. There were between the son of James II., legitimate heir to the crown according to the claims of birth, and the prince whom an act of Parliament called to the throne, George of Brunswick-Luneburg, great-grandson of James I. on the side of his mother, Sophia, Dowager Electress of Hanover, fifty-seven persons whose rights were superior to those of the elector. But George was a Protestant and a violent enemy of Louis XIV. That was a sufficient title with the English. He was a foreigner, but England has never since the Norman conquest had sovereigns of her own blood, and she has been none the worse on that account. George I. did not know a word of English nor of the constitution which he swore to observe: he was let off by leaving the government in the hands of Robert Walpole, chief of the Whig party, whom he called to power. This sudden about- face and the condemnation of two Tory leaders, Ormond and Bolingbroke, persuaded the Stuart pretender, who was called the Chevalier of St. George, that the moment was ripe 43 6 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. for a restoration. A movement took place in Scotland (1715). He disembarked there at the commencement of the following year, but the battle of Sheriffmuir in the county of Perth caused the destruction of all his hopes, and he was reduced to seeking safety under a disguise. Two lords were beheaded, other insurgents hanged or quartered, a thousand deported to the colonies. This success was profit- able to the royalty. Walpole, willing to increase a power of which he was the depository, had Parliament declared sep- tennial. He thus had less often to renew his bargains w y ith the members. George, menaced by the Pretender, and the Regent of France, menaced by Philip V., drew together. Walpole, fallen from power in 1717, but four years after restored to the government, which he administered until 1742, pro- posed to avoid foreign and domestic agitations. In order to prevent the first he endeavored, in concert with the French ministers, and especially with Fleury, to preserve peace in Europe. He succeeded, save for one short war against Spain, which arose over the question of the India Company founded by Austria at Ostend, and which was marked by a fruitless attempt of the Spaniards against Gibraltar (1727). At home he bought the majority in Par- liament, calmed the country, attached the mass of the nation more and more to the principles of the revolution of 1688 and to the princes who were its representatives; at the same time he directed English commerce into a path of ever advancing prosperity. When George I. died in 1727 his son, George II., suc- ceeded. They had lived very badly together. Apparently the new king was to change everything in the government, but he changed nothing, inasmuch as he kept Walpole. Financial disorders and scandalous embezzlements, which were brought to light by trials, and were necessary results of the corrupting system of the prime minister, marked the beginning of this reign. Satires of every sort were aimed at Walpole. He muzzled the press and subjected the theater to a rigorous censorship. The opposition thundered against him, the people burned him in effigy ; he paid a little dearer for votes in support of the ministry and kept his majority. However, public spirit awoke, and even the power which he had developed, the business spirit, over threw him. In 1739 the nation forced Walpole to declare CHAP. XXVI.] POWER OF ENGLAND. 437 war against Spain, which refused to open its harbors to English commerce. This war became merged in 1742 in the general conflagration. Walpole could no longer con- tinue minister of this new policy; he fell. He has been called a conscience jobber, and he boasted of knowing every man's price. But if he perverted the institutions of his country he did not destroy them; and as he was the real ruler under the son just as under the father, the country became accustomed to the constitutional formula, "The king reigns and does not govern." The general war which overthrew Walpole was that of the Austrian succession. England could not allow her ancient continental ally to succumb. The successor of Walpole, Lord Carteret, sent an army into Germany. The king wished to take command in person. As Elector of Hanover he felt the greatest interest in German affairs, and this continental possession, useless to England, often ham- pered her policy in this contest and in many others. We have seen that the expedition turned out badly, and that George II. extricated himself from a bad predicament at Dettingen only by the blunder of one of the French generals. To the continental war England gave only desultory atten- tion; but when Admiral Mathews left the naval battle at Toulon indecisive public opinion demanded his removal: already on the western side of the Channel it was no longer admitted that England could not be everywhere victorious upon the sea. The defeat of the Duke of Cumberland, son of George II., at Fontenoy (May n, 1745) opened the Netherlands to the French; the same year an attempt made by the pretender Charles Edward, grandson of James II., carried danger to the very heart of Great Britain. The latter prince after four years waiting had obtained from France a fleet and 15,000 soldiers to overthrow the house of Hanover. Disembarking in Scotland in 1745, he gathered around him many Highland chiefs, entered Edin- burgh, defeated General Cope at Prestonpans, and penetrated as far as Derby, about no miles distant from London. Forced by the lawlessness of his soldiers and the indiffer- ence of the English Jacobites to retreat, he nevertheless was the victor (January 28) at Falkirk, but was utterly beaten at Culloden by the Duke of Cumberland (April 27). Bloody reprisals followed. Five lords and more than two hundred persons were first executed. Charles Edward, on 43 8 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. whose head had been put a reward of 30,000 pounds ster- ling, wandered five months from retreat to retreat in the midst of the greatest dangers. He returned to France thir- teen months after his departure. Scotland paid for this disastrous expedition with the last remains of her nation- ality; the hereditary jurisdiction, sole vestige of the feudal regime, was abolished ; so too was the clan system, as also the custom of wearing the Highland costume or plaid, in which the design varied according to the clan. While this drama was being enacted the victories of Marshal Saxe in the Netherlands rendered useless the successes of the English in America. When the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed (1748) they found they had gained by this war only an increase of the national debt, which rose from fifty to eighty million pounds sterling. Walpole died in 1748, three years after his disgrace. The following year Lord Newcastle replaced Lord Carteret. Under his ministry commerce was favored, sea fisheries encouraged by bounties, the exportation of machinery and looms forbidden, the interest on the national debt reduced from 4 to 3^ per cent., the army diminished, the city of Halifax founded by veterans in Acadia, or Nova Scotia, a province in North America, which was ceded by France in 1713, and another establishment formed upon the Mosquito coast on the Gulf of Mexico. But in 1754 one of the minis- ters gave in his resignation, disapproving the policy of Lord Newcastle, who risked engaging England in a costly war in consequence of alliances contracted with German princes for the defense of Hanover, then menaced by the King of Prussia. This minister was the son of a plain squire, and possessed an income of hardly two hundred pounds sterling. The rotten borough of Old Sarum had sent him to Parliament at the age of twenty-seven, and his contemporaries named him "the great commoner." He was William Pitt. As long as Walpole was minister Pitt sat on the opposition benches. Appointed in 1746 vice-treasurer of Ireland, privy council- or, and paymaster general of the English troops, he distin- guished himself in these functions by his wisdom in reform, his integrity, and his unselfishness. In 1756 at the fall of the Duke of Newcastle Pitt returned to office, but not till 1757 did he direct affairs as prime minister. During the first audience which he had with the king he said: "Sire, grant CHAP. XXVI.] POWER OF ENGLAND. 439 me your confidence; I will deserve it." "Deserve it," replied George II., "and you will obtain it." Pitt kept his word; only he was the national minister of England, and not the courtier of the Hanoverian prince. France learned too well his talents and his hate during the Seven Years' War, into which, as during all the period from 174710 1761, he infused an energy which was fatal to the French military and commercial marine and to the French colonies. Thus the Commons, proud of those useful successes, granted everything without difficulty to the fortunate minister. On his demand the army was raised to 175,000 men, and he obtained all the subsidies which he solicited. The death of George II. in 1760 brought to the throne his grandson, George III. This young prince of twenty- two, pious, economical, of irreproachable morals, but of a feeble intellect, which after 1769 at several times and dur- ing long years was clouded, showed, contrary to his two predecessors, a marked and constant preference for the Tories. Pitt wished both the greatness and the liberty of England. He was unable to yield to the preferences of the king, and quitted the ministry in 1761 in consequence of a parliamentary check which Lord Bute inflicted upon him on the question of the declaration of war against Spain. This retirement of the great minister did not arrest the successes of England. To Pitt in reality is due the honor of having imposed on France the treaty of Paris, which carried so high the colonial power of England, and which, nevertheless, he reproached the ministers for having signed, thinking that France had not been brought sufficiently low. It is now fitting to trace the picture of England's prodi- gious colonial empire. England, despite her insular position, had not been originally a maritime and colonial power. Under Henry VII. the Venetian Gabotto (Cabot) in the The English . V ' i East India Com- service of that prince coasted along the north pany ' of America, without, however, founding there any establishment. The navy was developed under Eliza- beth by Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and Cavendish. But only at the beginning of the seventeenth century did the colonizing spirit show itself in England, when troubles drove from the mother country a great number of her children. In the middle of that century the Navigation Act forced England to become a great mercantile power ; at its end 44 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. the decline of Holland and the ruin of the French marine gave to England the empire of the seas. The English had thought first of the East Indies. In 1600 the East India Company was founded. Its capital was 70,000 pounds sterling in ten-pound shares.* It estab- lished a few factories at Bantam in the island of Java, at Surat on the Gulf of Cambay, and at Madras on the coast of Coromandel. The Dutch, then absolute masters of the seas, drove the English from these feeble positions, and the company was near dissolution. It kept alive, however, obtained from the Grand Mogul in 1650 the right of traffick- ing in Bengal, and acquired in 1688 from the Crown the island of Bombay, which Charles II. had received as the dower of his wife, Catherine of Portugal. In 1683 a new catastrophe: the Dutch deprived it of Bantam, and the acts of brigandage committed by John Child in Hindustan pro- voked reprisals from the Grand Mogul, Aurangzeb. The colony of Bombay was in danger; fortunately for it the Indian despot pardoned the guilty (1689). Escaped from this peril, the company obtained some lands on the banks of the Hooghly, one of the arms of the Ganges, and there founded Calcutta (1690) ; it had acquired a few years previously Bencoulen in the island of Sumatra, but it had experienced enormous losses in the war of the League of Augsburg: it was estimated that the French then inflicted upon the commerce of Great Britain losses to the amount of 675,000,000 francs, or 27,000,000 pounds sterling. A new company which was formed was another obstacle.! In the end, better understanding their interests, the two companies ceased making on each other a ruinous war. They united their funds in 1702 ; the fusion was completed seven years after by the establishment of a central single administration for the direction of affairs. Thus was defi- nitely accomplished that association of merchants which equipped fleets, maintained armies, possessed an immense * Twelve years later its capital was raised to 400,000 pounds, and voyages were then undertaken on joint stock account. ED. f The new company General Society trading to the East Indies had powerful patrons and a capital of 2,000,000 pounds. Evelyn's diary of March 5, 1698, states : "The old East India Company lost their business against the new company by ten votes in parliament, so many of their friends being absent, going to see a tiger baited by dogs." ED. CHAP. XXVI.] POWER OF ENGLAND. 44* territory, governed innumerable peoples, and had kings as tributaries.* But before reaching such a condition it had many struggles to sustain. The war of the Spanish succession was fatal to its commerce: the French privateers continued against it the system that had so well succeeded during pre- ceding hostilities. The death of Aurangzeb (1707) came at a fortunate time ; the anarchy which followed his death, and the rivalries of the Indian princes, permitted it to extend and grow rich. One power then eclipsed England in the Indies, and that power was France. During the reign of Francis I. mer- chants of Rouen had hazarded an expedition which went no farther than the Cape of Good Hope. After the reli- gious wars an East India company under Henry IV. was established in Brittany ; Richelieu founded a second, Col- bert a third in 1664. The latter, more successful, which means better conducted, than the others, planted a first factory at Surat in 1675, and then another in 1676 at Chandernagor, which twelve years after it bought from Aurangzeb. Pondicherry, the most important point it occu- pied, was acquired from the King of Beidjapour in 1679. The Dutch with reluctance saw the French in those regions. They made themselves masters of the place in 1693 and fortified it, but for their enemies: the treaty of Ryswick restored Pondicherry to France. This splendid establish- ment, which, however, lacked a large harbor, could have become the center of a vast dominion. Unfortunately the company was abandoned; its ruin was hastened by the pro- hibition against importing into France the manufactured products of India. The war of the Spanish succession increased its distress ; the peace of Utrecht did not concern itself with India, where the English and French interests had not yet reached a development bordering on antagonism. Then appeared the famous Law with his projects, chimerical because so gigantic. He united the companies of the West, of China, of Africa, and of the East Indies in a single body under the name of Perpetual Company of the Indies (1719). The Perpetual Company fell two years after with the system, * In 1709 the company was able to loan the government 3,190,000 pounds at 2/4 per cent. The profits of the early voyages were seldom less than 100 per cent. ED. 442 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. but it revived in 1723 and reached a new prosperity. Pon- dicherry found in Dumas, sent as governor general in 1725, a skillful and active man, who obtained from Mohammed Schad, the Grand Mogul, the right of coining money ; and for an insignificant sum bought the city and territory of Karikal (1730) from an Indian pretender to the kingdom of Tanjaour. The French company then grew with rapidity; it pos- sessed factories at Calassor in Orissa, at Chandernagor, at Dakka in Bengal, at Calicut, at Mahe, and at Surat. The empire of the Mogul was divided into nine great provinces, governed by soubabs or viceroys; these provinces in their turn were subdivided into districts administered by nabobs. After the death of Aurangzeb all these princes became, or sought to become, independent. The French company like the English took advantage of these rivalries to strengthen its establishments; it intrusted with the care of its interests in those remote regions two remarkable men, La Bourdon- nais, governor general of the islands of France and of Bour- bon, whose resources he developed, and Dupleix. The latter, appointed in 1742 governor of Pondicherry and director general of the French factories in India, formed the project, which the English have since carried out, of making a terri- torial power of the company, which till then had been only commercial. When the war of the Austrian succession broke out, the hostilities, despite the propositions of the cabinet of Ver- sailles and after the refusal of the cabinet of St. James, had the colonies as their theater. La Bourdonnais quitted the islands of France and Bourbon to operate on the coasts of the Indian continent in concert with Dupleix. Unhappily jealousy arose between these two superior men, discord paralyzed their strength and rendered their exploits fruit- less. Thus La Bourdonnais, victorious over an English squadron, besieged Madras, which offered a ransom of 10,000,000 francs. Dupleix arrived, annulled the capitula- tion, pillaged the city, gave it up to the flames, and even had his rival removed from his command at the island of France. La Bourdonnais on return to France found pub- lic opinion prejudiced by the accusations of Dupleix; he was confined in the Bastille and remained there several years without the opportunity of being heard in his defense. Meanwhile the English returned to Madras and besieged CHAP. XXVI.] POWER OF ENGLAXD. 443 Pondicherry; Dupleix by an admirable resistance forced them to retire. Some time after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle terminated hostilities (1748). Delivered from the war with the English, Dupleix resumed his projects of conquest. He secured the triumph of a pre- tender as Soubab of the Deccan, and obtained from him Mazulipatam and increase of territory around Pondicherry and Karikal. Then he ruled from the river Kristna to Cape Comorin and governed 30,000,000 men with absolute power. Opposed by Lawrence and Clive, English officers, who were supported by good troops as well as by the Mahrattas and the princes of Tanjaour and Mysore, he could not obtain the success of his candidate as Nabob of Carnat. These expeditions cost much ; the merchants, of whom Dupleix was the agent, did not ask glory and conquests, but divi- dends; abandoned by the government of Louis XV., which should have recognized the value of such a man, he was recalled (1754). Weeping he quitted that land of India where he had given France a coast line 200 leagues long by from 25 to 30 broad with a revenue of 14,000,000 francs, and had established French influence over an empire five or six times more vast. In 1763 he died at Paris in misery. The English have said of him that, had he been sustained by his government, India would have belonged to France. By practicing his policy they have achieved the conquest of that wonderful empire; their native army, which a few years ago brought them into serious peril after having rendered so signal services, is only a copy of that which Dupleix had organized; the position to which they have reduced the Indian princes is the same which he began to impose upon them. England did not lose time in taking possession of this fair heritage to which France put forth no claim of inheritance. Her flag so far covered only a small number of forts; a prince of Bengal in 1756 even seized from her Calcutta, which Clive retook. At that moment broke out in Europe the Seven Years' War. The two companies, English and French, agreed upon neutrality; this was violated by the English, who destroyed Chandernagor (1757) because Suradja Dowlah, Nabob of Bengal, wished alliance with the French. By the victory of Plassey (1757) Clive over- threw that prince and replaced him by another chief, who ruled in the interest of the English. This one success was 444 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. worth seven or eight million francs to Clive and three times as much to the company. The Marquis of Bussey, former lieutenant of Dupleix, still upheld the French influence. He was replaced by Count Lally, an Irishman in the service of France. He was an officer of talent and a man of great courage; he had an Irish hatred for the English; but he was hot-headed and violent and rendered himself odious to the other agents of the company, far more, it is true, by his integrity than by his vices. He had imagined that Arcot was still the land of wealth, that Pondicherry was provided with everything, and that he would have a perfect support from the company and the troops. In all these anticipations he was deceived: no money in the cash box, few munitions, blacks and sepoys for the army, private individuals wealthy and the colony poor, utter absence of subordination. This deception devel- oped in him ill humor, which is unworthy of a leader and always injurious to business. However, he speedily seized Gondelour, but failed before Madras (1750). After having for a long time defended Pondicherry he was obliged to capitulate and the city found itself in ruins (1761). Return- ing to France, Lally was accused of treason and shamefully put to death; gagged to prevent his speaking to the people, he was carried to execution in a tumbril (1766). At the solicitation of his son, Lally-Tollendal, this sentence was in 1778 declared unjust. The French colonies in East India were lost. By the peace of 1763 Pondicherry, Karikal, and Chandernagor were restored to France, but stripped of their territory and fortifications. Lord Clive was almost as unfortunate as Lally. Sent in 1764 to Hindustan with full powers, he forced the Grand Mogul to abandon to the company the collection of the revenues of Bohar, Bengal, and Orissa, minus an annual tribute of 7,500,000 francs. But afterward accused in the House of Commons of pecu- lation, although the report of the commission of inquiry when speaking of his faults had also spoken of his services, he was unwilling to survive what he regarded as an injustice, and so committed suicide (1774). The English no longer had European rivals in India. Then they were forced to fight against the famous Haidar AH, sovereign of Mysore ; they concluded a disadvantageous treaty with him in 1769, but four years later completed the conquest of -Bengal. The company was nevertheless near CHAP. XXVI.] POWER OF ENGLAND. 445 bankruptcy ; the government came to its assistance on con- dition that it should enjoy the right of exercising a rigorous inspection of its political affairs. Driven from Bengal, Haidar AH united the Mahrattas and the Nizam of Deccan against the English. This coalition, formed at the moment when war had broken out in America, seemed to put the English in peril (1778), especially as France had granted her alliance to the American colonies; but France no longer had important forces in India, and she speedily lost Chandernagor, Karikal, and Pondicherry. Two victories of Haidar Ali were useless (1780); he was forced into retire- ment (1781) after a great defeat. France then sent to his assistance the famous Bailli de Suffren, one of her best admirals, who beat the English as many times as he met them. But Haidar Ali died the same year (1782). He left a worthy successor in his son, Tippoo Sahib, who was called the Frederick II. of the East; he was at least the energetic representative of Indian nationality and one of the most remarkable men of modern Asia. Tippoo Sahib continued the war; but he lost the French alliance when the treaty of Versailles, reconciling England and France, restored Pon- dicherry, Karikal, and Chandernagor to the latter poAver, and to Holland its former possessions with the exception of Negapatam (1783). He then signed the treaty of Man- galore (1784). Tippoo Sahib recommenced the war in 1792 and sus- tained it seven years with success; he perished while defending his capital, Seringapatam (1799). Since that moment the English have been the real rulers of India; they still possess that vast and opulent country where they have 150,000,000 subjects, whom their first governors oppressed with pitiless cruelty. A successor of Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, the modern Verres, by his exactions occasioned a famous trial with which England resounded seven years (1788-95). CHAPTER XXVII. FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Origin and Constitution of the English Colonies in America. American War (1775-83). THE English had not counted upon Hindustan, and Hin- dustan is to them a mine abounding in wealth. They had counted upon colonies in truth less opulent, but less remote. To-day those colonies are free, they have Origin and grown rich, but for themselves, they constitute constitution of an important power, and vie with their mother c o e i o n i es g l f n country for commercial and maritime superi- America. ority. In the sixteenth century the English made many voyages of discovery along the coast of North America, and some few attempts at colonization, especially under Walter Raleigh in the province which he named Virginia in honor of Queen Elizabeth. He expected to find gold and silver mines on this coast as in Mexico. In 1606 two companies, the London Company and the Plymouth Company, were formed to work them. James I. divided between them the territory situated between 34 and 48 north latitude. The former had Virginia, where it founded Jamestown ; the lat- ter, New England. No precious metals were discovered; but the whale fishery on the coasts of Greenland and the cod fishery near Newfoundland accustomed English vessels to frequenting those shores; and colonists were attracted by the rich lands of Virginia, where tobacco culture rapidly assumed importance. The intolerance of the home govern- ment soon forced others to the lands of the northern com- pany. In 1620 Puritans, escaping from old England, where they were persecuted by James I., sought beyond the ocean a place where in their own way they could worship God; they established themselves at the foot of Cape Cod, not many 44 6 CHAP. XXVII.] FOUNDATION OF UNITED STATES. 447 miles from the spot where Boston was to rise a few years later. At the same time the Bermudas and a part of the Antilles were occupied; in 1629 the colony of Massachu- setts Bay was organized; then came those of New Hamp- shire and Maine (1630), united to Massachusetts in 1691, of Maryland, ceded in 1632 to an Irishman, Lord Baltimore, who settled there 200 Catholic gentlemen, of Connecticut, (1635), and of Rhode Island (1636). Under Cromwell the English captured Jamaica from the Spaniards, and a little later they took from the Dutch the New Netherlands, of which they made three provinces, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. Charles II. through policy encouraged the movement of emigration which his father had provoked by persecutions. He gave Carolina, which was afterward divided into two provinces, to eight English lords, and made a like donation to William Penn, who called the country where he settled Pennsylvania (1682). By the treaty of Utrecht England acquired Acadia, or Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Hud- son's Bay (1713). Georgia was not occupied before 1733. All these colonies, founded at the expense of private per- sons and not held in leading strings by the home govern- ment as were those of France, developed rapidly. The English colonists, who numbered only 40,000 in 1630, formed in 1660 a population of 200,000 souls. Canada, colonized much earlier, had meanwhile only attained a population of eleven or twelve thousand. The reason is that the English colonies were the cradle wherein civil, commercial, and re- ligious liberty was found, while monopoly and the most strict dependence arrested all progress in Canada. They were open to all comers, and there was no conquered party in the home revolutions which did not find in America an asylum all ready to receive it : New England, whose code was called the body of liberties, for the "Roundheads" and repub- licans; Virginia for the Cavaliers; Maryland for the Catholics. There were three kinds of government, charter govern- ments, royal governments, and proprietary governments. In the first (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) the colonists by their agents or representatives exercised legislative, executive, and judicial functions. In the second (Virginia, New York, the Carolinas, Georgia, New Hamp- shire, and New Jersey) the governor and all the function- 448 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. aries were named by the king, but the legislative assemblies were elective. In the third (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsyl- vania) the proprietors had the legislative and executive power. There also, however, existed legislative assemblies, named partly by the proprietors, partly by the people. Hence, developed or limited, the representative system existed everywhere in the English colonies, while the French of Canada had been unable to obtain the right to appoint a syndic or mayor at Quebec, "it not being good," wrote Colbert, "that one should speak for all." Printing, which was introduced into the French colony only in 1764 after France had lost it, existed in 1636 in Massachusetts; a law of that province required under penalty of fine that there should be a primary school for each community of 50 hearths and a grammar school in each village of 100. A college for the higher studies was founded in 1636 in order that, said they, the learning of their fathers should not be buried with them in their tombs.* The colonies had at first full commercial liberty. This was withdrawn by Cromwell. Still they never conformed save imperfectly to restrictive laws. Especially was this true of Massachusetts, the most flourishing of all, which replied to the representatives of Charles II. : "The king can enlarge our liberties, but has no authority to diminish them." At that moment the Stuarts were making most earnest efforts to build up absolute power; they established it in the colo- nies. Massachusetts lost her charter; it was restored by the revolution of 1688. In 1739 the idea of taxing the colonies was suggested to Walpole. "I have already against me," he replied, "all old England; do they wish me to make young England also my enemy?" But the Seven Years' War, politically so favorable to England, had raised its debt to 100,000,000 pounds, on which there was an annual interest of 2,720,000 pounds. After the Seven Years' War under the ministry of Lord Grenville, father-in-law of the younger Pitt, Parliament imposed upon the American colonies the stamp tax, which compelled them * Before the revolution eight colleges had been founded, all still existing, widely known, and influential. These are Harvard, founded 1636 ; William and Mary, 1693 ; Yale, 1701 ; Princeton, 1746 ; King's (now Columbia), 1754 ; Brown, 1764 ; Queen's (now Rutgers), 1766 ; Dartmouth, 1769. ED. CHAP. XXVII.J FOUNDATION OF UNITED STATES. 449 to employ for documents a paper stamped at London and sold at a high price (1765). The opposition* which this impost excited compelled its revocation by the ministry the following year. It was replaced by a tax on glass, paper, and tea (1767). The colonists, invoking the grand principle of the Eng- lish constitution that no citizen is bound to submit to taxes not voted by his representatives, refused to pay these duties, and ninety-six towns formed a convention at Boston, whose members agreed to buy no English merchandise as long as justice was not done to their complaints. In the one year 1769 the English exportations to America diminished more than 600,000 pounds. Lord North, Prime Minister of England, seeing commerce decrease, proposed the repeal of the new duties except that on tea. This half concession satisfied nobody. The inhabitants of Boston threw into the sea three cargoes of tea which had arrived from England, and the minister closed the port of Boston by act of Parlia- ment (1774). A general congress of the colonies met at Philadelphia. It addressed an ineffectual remonstrance to the king; and, as William Pitt, who wished both the liberty of the Americans and the integrity of the British empire, had foreseen, war broke out. Upon the American continent war was carried on at three points: at the northeast in the vicinity of the important cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia; war c^775-83). an i n the northwest toward Canada, which the Americans endeavored to draw into their movement, and whence the English were able to attack in the rear the colonists, whom they menaced in front from the ocean; lastly in the south around Charleston in South Carolina, where the English with their fleet had every advantage for carrying on the war. Therefore the Americans were obliged to divide their forces, and their troops had to march enormous distances. When France took part in the war it extended over all the seas. The opening of hostilities was marked by a success which strengthened the heart of the insurgents: the American militia at Lexington defeated an English detachment (1775) and 30,000 Americans besieged General Gage in Boston. * The first colonial congress, consisting of twenty-eight delegates from nine States, met October 7, 1765, at New York, and there issued the famous Declaration of Rights. ED. 45 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. It was a multitude, but not an army. To organize it con- gress appointed as generalissimo George Washington, a rich Virginian planter, who as a colonial officer had distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War against the French. While he introduced discipline and sustained military order, the western colonists invaded Canada and captured Montreal, but their leader, Montgomery, was killed at the siege of Quebec. Carleton repulsed them from that city and drove them from the province. The capture of Boston by Wash- ington (March 17, 1776) was inadequate compensation. However, congress dared to break irrevocably with Great Britain by declaring the independence of the thirteen colo- nies (July 4, 1776), who formed themselves into a confeder- ation, in which, however, each State preserved its religious and political liberty. In this declaration were to be remarked the following principles which seemed to issue from the heart of French philosophy :* "All men are created equal ; they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends," for which it has been established, " it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it." The English ministry had bought of the German princes 17,000 mercenaries. The American volunteers, without magazines, without resources, could not at first hold their own against the veteran regiments, well supplied and well paid, which were directed against them. Howe captured New York and Rhode Island, and inflicted upon Washing- ton near the River Brandywine a check which exposed Philadelphia. Discouragement crept into Washington's * The immense share of the French in inspiring and achieving the independence of the colonies is very inadequately set forth in most American accounts of the Revolutionary War. It is well known that some of the opening sentences of the Declaration of Independence are taken almost verbatim from the " Contrat Social " of Jean Jacques Rous- seau, and that ideas developed by French philosophy were the inspiration of the writer of that Declaration, Thomas Jefferson. It is indeed too much to assert, as is often done, that resistance to British oppression was the achievement pre-eminently of any one section or the result of any 'one school of politics. But the vast debt which Americans owe to the ideas of French thinkers and to the material assistance of France through what otherwise might have been a hopeless struggle ought never to be forgotten by an honorable and grateful people. ED. CHAP. XXVII.] FOUNDATION OF UNITED STATES. 45 1 army. The royalists, the few partisans whom England retained, commenced to act and several States wavered in their new allegiance to America. Congress withdrew to Baltimore in Maryland, abandoning Philadelphia, which Howe entered (September n). But the American general knew even in the midst of the hardest experiences how to preserve the judicious audacity which such a war demanded. He resumed the offensive at Germantown (October 10), and if he was not a conqueror, he at least escaped defeat. This persistency saved his country, for thus retaining Howe in the vicinity of Chesapeake Bay he hindered him from unit- ing with Burgoyne, who was marching with a splendid army from Canada. The militia of the west, whom Washington had re-enforced by some of his best troops, stopped Burgoyne at Saratoga (September 19), surrounded his army, and obliged him (October 17) to lay down his arms. France had hailed with enthusiasm a revolution wherein she recognized herself. She received the American pri- vateers in her harbors, and Holland sold them munitions. To determine France to convert this indirect assistance into an alliance the United States sent a deputation to Paris, at the head of which was the illustrious Franklin, who during his stay in France was the object of a constant ovation. The young nobility, exalted by philosophic ideas, and all on fire to efface the shame of the Seven Years' War and to fight against a detested rival, wished in a crowd to set out for America. The Marquis de la Fayette, aged hardly twenty, quitted his enceinte wife, and himself chartered a vessel which he loaded with arms. But the government dreaded a rupture with Great Britain. Turgot had demanded that France remain neutral, well foreseeing that England would gain more by acknowledging the independence of her colonies than by holding them restive under the yoke. De Ver- gennes, in accord with the cabinet of Madrid, was satisfied at first by sending indirect assistance; he secretly advanced Beaumarchais the money necessary for him to dispatch to the colonists the arms and munitions which they lacked. The defeat of Saratoga decided Louis XVI. to yield to the solicitations of Franklin and of his ministers. On February 6, 1778, he signed with the United States a com- mercial treaty, fortified by an alliance offensive and defen- sive if England declared war against France. The English ambassador was at once recalled. 45 2 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. Lord North to avert the peril offered the colonies by a conciliatory bill more than they had asked at the outset of the war. It was too late; the Americans rejected all con- cessions which did not include the recognition of their inde- pendence; the war continued. France fortunately had passed through the hands of Choiseul, who had restored her navy. A fleet of twelve ships and four frigates under Count d'Estaing set out from Toulon for America (1778); another was formed at Brest to fight in European waters; finally, an army was got ready to make a descent in England. The victory of the frigate La Belle Poule, which dismasted an English frigate, gloriously opened hostilities. Count d'Orvilliers, sailing out of Brest with thirty-two vessels, brought the indecisive battle of Ouessant against Admiral Keppel (July 27). England was appalled at seeing France reappear upon the sea on an equal footing with her, and summoned the admiral before a council of war. Not to have obtained the victory was to her the same thing as defeat. In America Clinton, threatened with being surrounded in Philadelphia by the army of Washington and the French fleet of d'Estaing, retired upon New York, which he entered only after a check experienced at Monmouth. To divide the forces which pursued him he sent Colonel Campbell into Georgia, and the war then extended to the southern colonies. It reached the Antilles; the Marquis de Bouille there captured Domenica, but the English seized St. Lucia, which d'Estaing could not retake. In India France lost Pondicherry. Then were reaped the fruits of the policy of the Duke de Choiseul, who had renewed the alliance of France with Spain. The latter power offered its mediation, which England refused. Persuaded by the Count de Vergennes, who pointed out Gibraltar, Minorca, and the Floridas ripe for reconquest, she declared war against England and united her fleet to that of France (1779). The Count d'Orvilliers with sixty-six ships of the line sailed toward Portsmouth; great disaster may have been spared England by a tempest which dispersed his fleet. Having gained nothing by this great armament France sought consolation in the capture of Grenada, which, after a victory over Admiral Byron, was seized by d'Estaing, who was the first man to leap into the enemy's intrenchments. CHAP. XXVII.] FOUNDATION OF UNITED STATES. 453 This event resounded prodigiously in Paris. Admiral Rodney was then there, detained for debts which he could not pay. One day while dining with Marshal de Biron he spoke contemptuously of the successes won by the French navy, saying if he were free he would soon bring it to rea- son. The marshal immediately paid his debts. "Depart, sir," he said to him, "endeavor to keep your promises. The French have no wish to win through means of obstacles which prevent your fulfilling them." This chivalrous generosity cost France dear; Rodney almost kept his word. He beat a Spanish fleet, revictualed Gibraltar, which a Franco-Spanish army was besieging, and in the Antilles the following year (1780) fought three battles with the Count de Guichen. But the count rendered the victory uncertain and captured on his return to Europe an English convoy of sixty ships with a booty worth 50,000,000 francs. The year 1780 was favorable to the English arms. The diversion attempted by Clinton in the south had succeeded; Georgia was occupied. This success emboldened him to attempt another enterprise. He saw the Americans, already weary of the war, intrust to France and Spain the task of their salvation, and Washington reduced to inactivity by the misery of his army. He quitted New York with a part of his forces, captured Charleston in South Carolina, where he made 5000 prisoners, and there left Cornwallis, who defeated all the generals charged by congress with the recovery of the province. A check of Count d'Estaing before Savannah, which he wished to enter before the breach was opened, for a moment compromised the American cause. But a vast coalition was forming against the maritime despotism of England. To hinder France and Spain from receiving from the north- ern states the naval munitions necessary to their arsenals, the English arrested and searched neutral ships. Hence arose a thousand vexations and abuses and the ruin of the trade of neutrals. Catharine II. was the first to proclaim the freedom of the flag (1780) on condition that it did not cover contraband of war, such as powder, balls, and can- non; to support this principle she proposed a scheme of armed neutrality which was successively accepted by Sweden and Denmark, Prussia and Austria, Portugal, the Two 454 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BooK VI. Sicilies, and Holland.* England forthwith declared war against Holland, the weakest and most vulnerable of the neutral states. Rodney threw himself upon St. Eustatius, a Dutch colony, where he made the seizure of more than 16,000,000 francs' worth, which the brave Lamothe-Piquet retook in sight of the English shores. England bowed under the burden. France having sent to the Americans money and an army under Rochambeau, the allies had a succession of victories (1781). The Span- iards captured Pensacola in Florida, and Count de Grasse laid waste the English Antilles. "He is six feet tall," said the French sailors, "and six feet one inch on the day of battle." His victories contributed to those which Washing- ton, Rochambeau, and La Fayette gained on the American continent. On October n, 1781, they forced General Corn- wallis to capitulate in Yorktown with 7000 men, 6 ships of war, and 50 merchant vessels. This was the second English army which had been made prisoner during the war. This exploit was decisive for American independence. The English, who still held New York, Savannah, and Charles- ton, thereafter acted only on the defensive. At the same time Marquis de Bouille took from them St. Eustatius; the Uuke de Crillon, Minorca; and Suffren, one of the most illustrious French sailors, who had been sent to the East Indies to protect the Dutch colonies, gained there four naval victories (February and September, 1782). Already he was forming with Haidar Ali, Sultan of Mysore, vast plans for the destruction of the English domination on that continent when he was arrested by peace. In the Antilles the English retained no other important possession than Jamaica; this island de Grasse endeavored to sieze in 1782, but, attacked by superior forces under Rodney, he was defeated and captured; on his ship there were only three men unwounded. That battle of Les Saintes, which was without serious results, was given great * The league proposed to defend these principles, which were finally recognized by England in 1854 in the treaty of Paris : The neutral flag covers merchandise except contraband of war which might serve the enemy ; neutral vessels can go anywhere save into ports blockaded by an effective force ; the neutral, unless convoyed by a vessel of war, is liable to search, but the ship exercising that right must remain a cannon shot distant and send alongside only a boat with three men on board. ED. CHAP. XXVII.] FOUNDA TION OF UNITED STA TES. 455 importance in public opinion. It was forgotten that this was the first lost in that war by the French. The skillful defense of Gibraltar against the combined forces of France and Spain was another check. That siege had excited universal expectation. Count d'Artois, a brother of Louis XVI., obtained from the king permission to proceed thither. The place was blockaded by 20,000 men and 40 ships. Two hundred pieces of ordnance from the land side and ten floating batteries opened (September 13) a tremendous fire against the rock, which was defended by its formidable position and by the courage of the English governor, Eliot. The fortress, attacked as no other had ever been, soon found its condition hopeless. It had hurled 600 red-hot balls in vain against the floating batteries, when one of these last projectiles pierced unperceived the weatherboards of the Tailla Perdra, where all the precau- tions enjoined by the inventor had not been taken. It made its way silently, reached the powder and blew it up. The fire gained the two neighboring batteries; the Spaniards under the pretext of preventing the English from capturing the rest set them on fire. In this siege 12,000 men perished and Gibraltar remained with the English. However, England had lost her reputation of invincible upon the seas; her commerce had enormously suffered; her debt had increased over 100,000,000 pounds sterling. Lord North, leader of the war party, resigned from the min- istry and was replaced by the Whigs, who made proposals of peace to the cabinet of Versailles. France, for her part, had spent 1,400,000,000 francs, but at least she had obtained a grand and noble result, the independence of the United States. Peace was signed (September 3, 1783). It was honorable for France, who caused the shameful article of the treaty of Utrecht relative to Dunkirk to be erased; it obtained for Spain Minorca; for France, Chan- dernagor, Pondicherry, Karikal, Mahe", and Surat in the Indies; Tabago and St. Lucia in the Antilles; the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon with the right of fishery on the coasts of Newfoundland; finally, Gore"e and Senegal in Africa. This war, the last triumph of the ancient mon- archy, carried with it a lesson : that lesson is that France, when seriously resolved, can in a hand to hand conflict with England dispute the empire, or at least secure the liberty, of the sea. 45 6 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Peace did not terminate the labors of Washington. He had to appease the murmurs of his soldiers, who believed themselves forgotten the moment they were no longer use- ful. Their lot regulated, he tendered his resignation; a plain, private individual on the banks of the Potomac in the shade of his vine and fig tree, he lived tranquil in his man- sion of Mount Vernon in Virginia, with the glory of having founded the independence of his country and with the purest name of modern times. By the freedom of the United States England lost a large part of her American colonies ; but she retained British North America and the Antilles; she had possessions in Africa, many forts or factories on the Gambia, the colony of Sierra Leone, Cape Coast on the Gold Coast, and the island of St. Helena; she opened herself a new world in the Pacific Ocean, where at Botany Bay she established a con- vict station, and where she founded Sidney in 1788; she continued her aggrandizement in the Indies, where Tippoo Sahib resisted her in vain; so that despite her defeats she remained the foremost maritime and commercial power of the world. CHAPTER XXVIII. DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. DECLINE OF THE OTTO- MANS. GREATNESS OF RUSSIA. Russia from Peter the Great to Catherine II. Catherine II. (1762-96); First Partition of Poland (1772). Treaties of Kainardji (1774) and Jassy (1792). Second and Third Partitions of Poland (1793 and 1795). WHILE a new nation was being born on the other side of the ocean an ancient nation in aged Europe was dying in the fatal embrace of a power which only a Russia from u r u j * i *. i Peter the Great few years before had taken its place among to Catherine II. the great stateg> The real successor of Peter the Great was Catherine II. Let us, however, indicate the line of Russian princes. Catherine I., wife of the founder of the empire, ruled after him for two years, under the guidance of Ment- schikoff, who continued the work of the master to whom he owed all. Under Peter II., son of the unfortunate Czare- vitch Alexis, the influence of the minister seemed to increase. But a young favorite, Ivan Dolgorouki, of a family which claimed to descend from Rurik, captivated the mind of the Czar, and the veteran minister was overthrown and exiled to Siberia. Peter II. having died prematurely at the age of fifteen (1730), the Dolgoroukis and the Galitzins gave the empire to Anne of Courland, a niece of Peter the Great, imposing upon her conditions which, if observed, would have destroyed the work of Peter to the profit of the aristocracy. This was the first attempt made by the nobility to reseize the power; the second was the great conspiracy of 1825, but in the interval the nobles butchered three emperors, Ivan VI., Peter III., and Paul. I. Anne had no great difficulty in freeing herself from the restrictions placed upon her power. The Galitzins were banished, the Dolgoroukis sent to Siberia, and everything yielded to the favorite Biren, son of a peasant of Courland, who put to death with torture all those who gave him umbrage. Siberia even did not protect the princes Dol- 457 45 8 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [Boon VI. gorouki against his hate. Four of them were quartered, others beheaded; 12,000 of their partisans died painful deaths; 20,000 were exiled. In 1737 Anne caused her favorite to be chosen Duke of Courland, despite the resist- ance of the nobility of that province; who a few years before had declined to recognize him as a plain gentleman. This reign, however, did not lack a certain splendor. Anne, fol- lowing the example of Peter the Great, surrounded herself by foreigners, many of whom showed marked talent. Russia successfully interfered in the war of the Polish succession, and caused Augustus III. to be recognized in spite of the claims of Stanislaus Leczinski, the choice of the nation, whom in 17343 Russian army besieged in Dantzic. "Never," says a contemporary, "during this war did 300 Russians turn aside to avoid encountering 3000 Poles." The Porte, which had allowed the Poles to be oppressed, suffered for its mistake. The Irishman Lascy entered Azof; in 1736 the German Munich forced the defenses of Perecop and traversed the Crimea without being able to hold it. The following year, after the alliance concluded with the Aus- trians, he carried by assault Otchakof, the rampart of the Ottoman empire on the Dnieper; in 1739 he took Khotzim on the Dniester, crossed the Pruth, which had been so fatal to Peter the Great in 1711, and entered Jassy. He wished to go farther still, to cross the Danube, the Balkans. He counted upon an insurrection of the Greeks; he did not doubt that with their aid he could seize Constantinople. But the reverses experienced by the Austrians in the loss of Orsova (1738) and the defeat of Krotzka near Belgrade (1739) obliged the Russians at the peace of Belgrade (1739) to restore all these conquests. Munich has remained cele- brated like Suwarrow for a sometimes savage energy. In front of Otchakof a column refused to advance, appalled by the terrible fire of the enemy: he had cannon pointed against it. Seeing that the soldiers counterfeited sickness so as to remain in the rear, he prohibited sickness in his army under pain of being buried alive. The following day three soldiers suffered the penalty in front of the camp. Anne had designated as her successor her nephew, Ivan VI., who was still in the cradle, the son of her sister, the Duchess of Brunswick. Biren was to be regent. The duchess gained over Munich and after a month's reign Biren was sent to Siberia. The national vanity was irritated at see- CHAP. XXVIII.] DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. 459 ing foreigners thus dispose of the crown and the power. Elizabeth, second daughter of Peter the Great, with 105 grenadiers from the Preobrai'enski regiment under the com- mand of the German Lestocq, went to the palace, took pos- session of it, committed the duchess to prison and confined in it Ivan VI., who twenty years after was butchered by his keepers. A terrible reaction broke out against the foreigners. Biren was recalled from Siberia, but Munich took his place and remained there twenty years. Many others had a simi- lar lot. Some few more fortunate escaped, such as Keith, Lascy, Lowendall, and the mathematician Euler, who put their talents at the service of less barbarous governments. Besides, there was only a change of men, for favoritism con- tinued. In place of the German Munich there was the Russian Bestucheff. The reign of Elizabeth (1741-62) was on the whole disastrous. At home she allowed the institutions of Peter the Great to perish. She abolished the death penalty, but replaced it by deportation to Siberia, which was worse ; though heads could no longer be made to fall as under Peter the Great, yet entire peoples could be transported to that icy tomb, where, it is said, she exiled 80,000 persons. Abroad she conquered Finland, of which the English mediation prevented her retaining more than a part (1743); for frivolous motives she made against Fred- erick II. a war as furious as it was impolitic. Her death saved Prussia from almost inevitable ruin. Peter III., who succeeded her, was son of a duke of Holstein-Gottorp and of an elder daughter of Peter the Great. He was the great- great-grandfather of the present Czar. Peter III. had for the Prussian hero an admiration as unreasonable as had been the hate of Elizabeth. He declared himself the ally of Frederick and placed the Russian troops at his disposi- tion. But this incapable prince did not reign long; at the very time when he was about to punish the disorders of his wife she forestalled him, dethroned and strangled him. She took the name of Catherine II. Three peoples were an obstacle to Russia, barring the west against her: Poland, Sweden, and Turkey. Catherine II. was to take possession of the first; Alexander I. of half of the second. Nicholas afterward desired to absorb the third in its entirety, and only at this last attempt did Europe rise to arrest the Muscovite ambition. 460 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. How could this people, born yesterday, prevail against its glorious neighbors? Through their weakness rather than by its own strength, although that was enormous. Sweden, too poor by herself to carry on war, which had become so costly, too scantily populated to make head as formerly with her small armies against the multitudes which after the time of Louis XIV. it became the fashion to put on foot, had just expended with Charles XII. her last sol- dier and her last coin. She needed time and repose in order to restore her strength. Meanwhile Russia purchased a party among the Swedes, and till the time of Gustavus III. by her intrigues and her gold kept Sweden in dependence. The Ottomans had strong frontiers and rich provinces. But they had lost their warrior dash. After a century of furious marches and victories over Europe and Asia this people, born under the tent and ill prepared for wealth and domination, had fallen back into Oriental apathy, whither its religious doctrine of fate \vas inevitably to lead; after excess of activity and ambition there came excess of repose and indolence. The sultans, who passed from the prison to the throne, carried there no acquaintance with men or things, and their ministers were like them. Venality cor- rupted everything in both the civil and military orders. While the world was marching around them the Otto- mans had stopped. Their military organization, which was superior in the fifteenth century to that of the Europeans, not having been improved, had become exceedingly inferior. The janissaries were no longer a defense against danger from without; at home they were a continual menace by their turbulent disposition. Finally, Mussulman disdain for the Christians had prevented fusion, so they were less a great people than an army of occupation camped north of the Bosphorus; but the conquered, allowed by Ottoman tolerance to exist as a national body, formed over against them a mass of populations two or three times more numer- ous, who opened the ear and extended the hand to every foreign intrigue. So in Turkey there was forcible superposi- tion of the smaller number upon the larger; the masters, whom so many perils surrounded, wasted two centuries in losing their aggressive qualities, in increasing their vices and consequently in diminishing their strength. Is it any wonder, then, that the recollection of Mohammed II. and of Soulei'man I. no longer excited any terror in Europe? CHAP. XXVIII.] DESTRUCTION OF POLAND, 461 In Turkey there was a center, an authority, which has made it endure. In Poland there was none whatsoever. An immense plain, but without natural boundaries, Poland was a state, geographically badly made; furthermore and above all, it was a state badly organized which moved in an opposite direction from Europe and civilization. A heroic struggle, continued three or four centuries, against the Mon- gols, the Russians, and the Ottomans, had developed a most brilliant and warlike nobility, but no burgesses, no people. The peasant was a serf. One hundred thousand nobles esteemed themselves all equal and claimed the same rights. In the general diet the opposition of a single deputy blocked everything liberum veto; if the diet unanimously voted some measure which a few nobles did not approve they banded themselves together to resist it and these armed insurrections were legal. A Pole obeyed only the law which he approved. In theory this was beau- tiful; in practice, detestable; from it resulted perpetual anarchy. They had adopted in 1572 for their monarchy the elective system, a sort of government which would be the best if it were not the most difficult, and which can only be good for a far-advanced and well-established nation, whom political and social education has rendered capable of its exercise. In Poland this regime engendered only weakness and confusion, and opened the door to every intrigue of the foreigner. Besides they had reduced this elective royalty to nonentity, leaving it neither the law to make, nor the army to command, nor justice to administer, and that too at a time when all Europe bestowed absolute power upon its kings, when Europe concentrated in a single hand each national force. While Gustavus Adolphus, Turenne, Frederick II., were making over the art of war, the Poles remained a magnifi- cent chivalry, destitute of fortresses, artillery, or engineer- ing. While religious hatreds were subsiding they renewed in the full eighteenth century against the Lutheran and the Greek dissenters the laws of the most evil days of intoler- ance, and they, contemporaries of Voltaire, manifested all the furies of the league. It costs something to utter so severe words concerning that great national calamity. Nevertheless it is indeed necessary for the world to know, as a lesson to mankind, that if Poland perished it was because she was unwilling to save herself by herself curing her evils. But her enemies put forth so much violence and 462 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. duplicity in slaying her, and in resisting them she showed, during her last moments, so heroic a courage, that she justly gained when dying an immortal renown. Catherine II. was a German, a princess of Anhalt- Zerbst; she endeavored from the beginning to make her origin forgotten. She flattered the Muscovite Catherine II. -j v , ^i i i_ -. (1761-96); First pride by affecting to respect the habits of her fand I (x770 f P subjects, and she employed foreigners, but without submitting to their control. To mon- strous vices she joined much activity, vigor, and penetration. She completed the work of Peter the Great, and made of the Russian empire a first-class power. First she reinstated Biren in the duchy of Courland; then after the death of Augustus III. she proposed as King of Poland one of her creatures, Stanislaus Poniatowski. In spite of the opposition of the patriots, who, having at their head the intrepid Mokranowski, refused to deliberate under the intimidation of Russian bayonets, the Russian candidate was proclaimed under the name of Stanislaus Augustus (September 7, 1764). Poland, a worm-eaten colossus, without a base since it had no people, without a head, because, strictly speaking, it had no king, could be saved only by an energetic reform. Such a reform neither Russia nor Prussia would allow to be accomplished. Frederick II., who had no scruples of any sort, long revolved in his mind the plan of a dismemberment of Poland which would give him the territory situated between his Prussian provinces and Pomerania. Early he sounded the Czarina upon the subject, but Catherine feigned that she did not understand, already reserving Poland for herself alone. They agreed, however, upon one point, the continuation of anarchy in the unhappy state, and, before the election of Poniatowski, concluded a treaty of alliance wherein the maintenance of the Polish constitu- tion was stipulated. It was not difficult to press the Poles to dangerous resolu- tions: the affair of the dissenters served as a pretext. Catherine declared that she took them under her protection, and compelled the diet to repeal the laws enacted against them. The bishops protested. The Russian ambassador had two of them arrested, whom he sent to Siberia. Rome was indignant; Voltaire applauded; Frederick II. waited. He did not wait long. The Catholics formed the Confedera- CHAP. XXVIII.] DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. 463 tion of Bar (March i, 1768), which took as its standard a picture of the Virgin and the infant Jesus. The Latin cross marched against the Greek cross; the peasants slaughtered their lords; Poland waded in blood. The Prussians entered in the western provinces, the Austrians in the county of Zips ; the Russians were everywhere. England, already anxious at the disposition shown by her American colonies, kept herself apart from continental affairs. In France Choiseul sought means of saving Poland but found none. The Duke d'Aiguillon, his successor, had made up his mind in advance to its abandonment. How- ever, action was taken at Constantinople, and the sultan, persuaded by de Vergennes, the French ambassador, declared war against Russia because of a violation of his territory by the Zaporogian Cossacks, who had pursued even upon Ottoman soil some of the confederates of Bar (1768). But the armies of Catherine had everywhere the advantage: at Khotzim and Azof in 1769; at Bender near Ismail in 1770; Moldavia and Wallachia were occupied, and a Russian fleet, commanded by English officers, burned the Ottoman fleet in the Bay of Tcheshme southwest of Smyrna. All Europe applauded at this disaster. The barbarians, they said, must be driven from Europe, and with joy they saw the Russians charge themselves with their expulsion. One man alone, Montesquieu, judged that the Ottoman power was necessary to the European balance of power. But Austria, troubled by the progress of Catherine II. upon the lower Danube, signed a secret treaty with the Porte. Frederick also was alarmed. He brought back Catherine II. to the affairs of Poland by letting a glimpse be caught of the menacing union of Prussia and Austria. His brother Henry went to St. Petersburg to persuade the empress. The spoliation was not accomplished without a struggle. But the defenders of Poland, Pulawski, the French Dumouriez, whom the Duke de Choiseul had sent there, and Oginski, a great general of Lithuania, could not by their courage make up for numbers. They were even abandoned by the Ottomans, who signed an armistice with Russia. A handful of French officers and soldiers under the brave Choisy resisted heroically in Cracow and endured a long siege. The king, Stanislaus Augustus, as if it was no concern of himself or of his country, let things go and 464 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. remained at Warsaw in the midst of the Russians. To make an end the three courts declared that whoever took up arms in Poland should be treated as brigands and incen- diaries; and (August 5) at St. Petersburg they concluded the treaty of partition, of which (September 5) their ambas- sadors gave notice to the king and republic of Poland. Maria Theresa, the empress queen, Catherine II., Empress of all the Russias, and Frederick II., King of Prussia, wish- ing, they said, to arrest the flow of blood in Poland and to restore tranquillity, had resolved to enforce their rights to several Polish provinces. In consequence the three powers demanded the convocation of the diet in order that it might arrange with them the new boundaries of the republic. The diet was held at Warsaw (April 19, 1773) and the treaty was there accepted. Russia obtained all the country situated east of the Dwina, that is to say, Polish Livonia, all the palatinate of Mycislaw, the extremities of the palatinate of Minsk, and a part of the palatinates of Witepsk and Polotsk; Austria reserved to herself Galicia and Lodomeria with the rich salt works of Wielicza and Sambar ; Prussia acquired Prussian Poland, save Dantzic and Thorn, together with Great Poland as far as Netz, thereby uniting the province of Prussia to its German states and putting under its control the larger part of the commerce of Poland. These provinces had been occupied even before the end of the year 1772. The three powers elsewhere guaranteed to Poland the rest of its possessions. The same year, 1773, when that great iniquity was accomplished an adventurer named Pugatscheff, first a soldier, then a deserter, finally a bandit, gave himself out among the Cossacks, his compatriots, as Peter III., who had escaped from his assassins. He got together a numerous army, made rapid progress, thanks to a war against the Ottomans which had stripped southwestern Russia of troops, spread terror in Moscow, which he ought to have attacked instead of losing his time at the siege of Orenburg, where he was repulsed by Prince Galitzin, and captured and sacked Kazan. But he had alienated the minds of the people by ravaging everything on his march ; so his party diminished little by little. He was finally betrayed by one of his accomplices in consideration of 100,000 rubles, taken to Moscow in an iron cage, and beheaded with five of his partisans (1775). CHAP. XXVIII.] DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. 4^5 Hostilities with Turkey, momentarily interrupted in 1772, had recommenced in 1773. The war was at first favorable T . f to the Ottomans, who twice caused the siege KaVnardji (1774) of Silistria to be raised, but at last inclined and j assy (1791). tothe s i de of R uss i a . General Romanzoff beat the Grand Vizier near Kainardji in Bulgaria, forty- two miles south of Silistria, and (July 10, 1774) forced the Ottomans to accept the treaty of Kainardji, which over- threw to the advantage of Russia the balance of power in eastern Europe. Turkey recognized the independence of the Tartars of the Crimea and the Kouban, who soon underwent the Russian influence, accorded to the Rus- sians free navigation of the Black Sea, and ceded Kinburn at the mouth of the Dnieper, Yenikale, Kertch, Azof, and Taganrog, together with the tongue of land included be- tween the Dnieper and the Bog. She also agreed to pay a war indemnity of 4,500,000 rubles. Turkey was to grant an amnesty to the Greeks who had come to the assistance of the Russians, and to acknowledge the Czar's right to a protectorate over Moldo-Wallachia. The treaty stipulated nothing for Poland, the occasion and cause of the war. Even this silence was a ratification of the iniquity of 1772. The following year (1775) Catherine subjugated the for- midable republic of the Zaporogian Cossacks, who formed a half-independent state in the empire, lived by brigandage, and arrested the consolidation of Russian authority north of the Black Sea. The partition of Poland had only whetted the appetite' for similar acquisitive enterprises. In 1777 Austria wished to take Bavaria. This time Russia opposed; and by the treaty of Teschen (1779), of which she together with France be- came guarantee in consequence of the right she obtained of enforcing its stipulations, she opened up Germany to her- self; two years later, in order to more easily prosecute her intrigues, she appointed ministers resident to the petty Ger- man courts. But what she forbade to Austria she permitted to herself on a vaster scale. The Ottomans were in full decline : why should they not meet the same fate as the Poles? As early as the year 1777 Catherine, in contempt of the treaty of Kainardji, had had her troops enter the Crimea, whose khan sold her its sovereignty in consideration of a pension which was not paid. In 1783 she took possession of it, and in 1786 Potemkin commenced the erection of 466 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [Book VI. Sebastopol. She also seized the country of Kouban, and made Heraclius, King of Georgia, accept her protection. The Russian domination was crossing the Caucasus. The Czarina carried her views farther still. She gave the second of her grandchildren the name of Constantine; she had a medal struck with his bust and on the reverse Constanti- nople with the Seven Towers shattered by the thunderbolt. Ostentatiously she announced her schemes by a triumphal journey in Tauris (1787), during which she came to an under- standing with Joseph II. for the division of the Ottoman empire. At Kherson a triumphal arch bore a Greek inscription, of which the English minister gave a somewhat free translation in the words "Road to Byzantium." The translator was wrong, but the ambassador was right. In fact, Catherine about that time had with Count de Segur a conversation which her grandson Nicholas resumed in 1853 with Sir Hamilton Seymour. "Nothing would be more easy," she said, "than to hurl the Turks back into Asia. France should have Crete or Egypt as its share." The Divan replied to these provocations by a declaration of war (1787). Attacked both by the Russians and Aus- trians, the Ottomans were assisted only by the King of Sweden, Gustavus III., who after a bold dash in Finland, finding himself betrayed by his nobility and menaced by Denmark, signed the peace of Vareta (1790). However, the Ottomans at first bravely resisted their assailants: the Aus- trians were driven beyond the Save, Joseph II. was defeated at Temesvar, and the Russians were worsted in a naval bat- tle in sight of Sebastopol (1788). But Khotzim and Otchakof were captured; the following year the Russians were victors at Fockschany; the Austrians took Belgrade, Potemkin made himself master of Bender, and Suwarrow entered Ismail after frightful carnage. Fortunately the suspicions of Prussia awoke; she concluded an alliance with the Porte. Holland and England joined her, and at the con- ferences of Reichenback obliged Leopold, successor of Joseph II., who died in 1790, to grant the Ottomans the peace of Sistova (1791), which cost Turkey only Orsova and a district of Croatia on the left bank of the upper Unna. At the same time 80,000 Prussians collected in sight of the Russian frontiers. Catherine II., disturbed by these hostile manifestations, accepted the preliminaries of Galatz (1791). The treaty of Jassy named the Dniester as the boundary of CHAP. XXVIII.] DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. 467 the two empires. Russia retained the fortress of Otchakof, the Crimea, and the Kouban (1792). She had expended in her conquests, it is said, 150,000 men; but that was an out- lay which the Czarina did not heed. Poland paid for Turkey. The first dismemberment had opened men's eyes, and everybody in the kingdom under- ^ stood that the only way to save the country Second and , J . J . , . . _,, * Third partitions was to change its anarchical constitution. The and^95J nd ^^ successor of Frederick II. encouraged the reformers through fear of Russia, and promised his alliance if the army should be raised to a well-organized force of 60,000 men. The diet decreed that the liberumveto and the law of unanimity should be abolished; that the legis- lative power should be shared by the king, senate, and nuntios, and the executive power intrusted to a hereditary king. The most lively enthusiasm burst out in the nation (1791). But time was lost in decreeing these reforms; when ready for enforcement the inclinations of Prussia had changed. She had returned to her alliance with Austria because of affairs in France, and intending with Austria to stifle one revolu- tion in Paris, she could not favor another at Warsaw. Poland, abandoned to herself, vainly dispatched 8000 sol- diers, commanded by Koskiusko, to contend with 20,000 Russians: she was anew dismembered under the pretext that the Polish patriots were Jacobins. By two treaties, signed July 13 and September 25, 1793, Russia took half of Lithuania, Podolia, the remainder of the palatinates of Po- lotsk and Minsk, a portion of the palatinate of Wilna, half of the palatinates of Novogrodek, Brzesc, and Volhynia. Prussia obtained the major part of Great Poland, with Thorn and Dantzic, which she had coveted for a long time, together with Czenstokow in Little Poland. As in 1776, a derisive clause guaranteed to the republic integrity of the possessions which were left. This scandalous iniquity brought about an uprising. Koskiusko, at the head of 4000 badly armed Poles, and counting upon the support of Austria, who had not taken part in the second dismemberment, marched against the enemy and defeated 12,000 Russians at Raslawice. War- saw expelled its garrison, and the insurrection rapidly spread (1794). But it lacked material means; it was distracted by internal divisions. The accession of Austria to the coali- tion of Prussia and Russia was a mortal blow to the Poles. 468 THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. [BOOK VI. Koskiusko, conquered by Suwarrow at Maciejowice (October 10), fell covered with wounds and crying "Finis Poloniae!" He was captured with his friend the poet Niemcevitch and carried to Russia, where he remained in captivity till the death of Catherine. Suwarrow marched at once on Warsaw and seized it after the assault of Praga, which recalled that of Ismail. Poniatowski abdicated for a pension of 200,000 ducats, which he did not long receive, dying soon after at St. Petersburg (February n, 1797). The definitive partition of the country was concluded between the three powers. Austria had the larger part of the palatinate of Cracow and those of Sandomir and Lublin, and thus extended as far as the upper course of the Bog; Prussia obtained the districts between the Niemen as far as Grodno and the Bog with Bialistok and Plotsk. Russia kept the rest (1795). Thus was consummated that shameful violation of international law which blotted the country of Sobieski from the map of Europe an iniquity doubly fatal, both from what it did and from what it authorized to be done. If in the treaties which followed the great wars of the coalition the people and the countries were divided like flocks and farms at the convenience of the conquerors of the day, it was but the application of examples given by the authors of that vast spoliation. Catherine the Great died the following year (November 9, 1796) from an apoplectic stroke. She was, for good as for evil, a remarkable woman. She caused voyages of dis- covery or scientific explorations to be undertaken by Pallas, Falko, and Billings, and she flattered western civilization in the person of its chief representatives; she carried on a cor- respondence with Voltaire and the encyclopedists, invited d'Alembert and Diderot to reside near her, and herself translated the "Belisaire" of Marmontel. She solemnly assembled deputies from all the provinces to have them write a constitution of the empire which was not written. She allowed the question of abolition of serfdom to be agi- tated, concerning which Montesquieu had just said: "The slave owner insensibly accustoms himself to the lack of all moral virtues and becomes proud, hasty, harsh, choleric, voluptuous, and cruel." But not a serf was freed. She invited foreigners to Russia, but permitted very few Russians to visit foreign countries. The Governor of Moscow lament- ing that the schools remained empty, she replied to him, CHAP. XXVIII.] DESTRUCTION OF POLAND. 469 "My dear prince, do not complain that the Russians have no desire for instruction; if I institute schools it is not for us, it is for Europe, where we must keep our position in public opinion. But the day when our peasants shall wish to become enlightened both you and I will lose our places." Sweden was menaced by the same fate as Poland, because it also was divided by factions, by the French party, or the Hats, and the Russian party, or the Caps, and because at Stockholm as at Warsaw the monarchy had no strength. In 1741 the Hats caused war to be declared against Russia so as to destroy the treaty of Nystadt ; this war turned out badly, and without the assistance of England, who inter- posed her mediation, Sweden would have lost Finland. By the treaty of Abo (1743) she ceded only a few districts. From that day the influence of Russia preponderated in Sweden, and the money and promises of the foreigner main- tained the factions which prevented the reorganization of the country. The king, Adolphus Frederick (1751-71), constantly dreamed of the revolution which his son Gustavus III. accomplished; but he recoiled before the menaces of his two powerful neighbors. We remember the treaty of 1764, which served as a point of departure for the dismem- berment of Poland; a like convention, which became known only in 1847, was concluded between Prussia and Russia for the maintenance of the constitution, that is to say, of the anarchy, of Sweden. The decision of Gustavus III. prevented its realization. His coup d'ttat of August 19, 1772, completed by the constitutional act of 1789, was successful. The aristocracy, which was surrendering the country to the foreigner, was obliged to restore his necessary prerogatives to the king. The war which Gustavus III. declared against the Russians in 1788, in which he destroyed their fleet at the naval battle of Swenska Sound (1790), Avould have perhaps indemnified Sweden for some of its losses if the king had not been betrayed by nobles among his officers, who two years after caused his assassination (March 16, 1792). A mad king, Gustavus IV., a weak king, Charles XIII., and the election as heir presumptive of Marshal Bernadotte, who forgot France to throw himself into the arms of Russia, caused the fall of Sweden into a sort of vassalage to the Czars, whence the almost recent war of the Crimea has only just enabled her to escape. BOOK VII. PRELIMINARIES OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. CHAPTER XXIX. SCIENCES AND LETTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Scientific and Geographical Discoveries. Letters and Arts. THE eighteenth century was for the sciences what the seventeenth had been for letters and the sixteenth for the _ . ..... arts, an epoch of immense progress and almost Scientific and . F _. geographical of creation. Physics was regenerated by Franklin and Volta, mathematical analysis by La Grange and La Place; botany by Linnaeus and de Jus- sieu ; zoology by Buffon, who moreover popularized geology; while Lavoisier gave firm foundations to chemical science. At the same time learned navigators continued the work of the great sailors of the fifteenth century and carried almost to perfection the investigation of our globe. Descartes, Pascal, Newton, and Leibnitz had enabled mathematics to make marked progress and had created new branches of science. It remained to render practical the lofty conceptions of those grand geniuses and to advance in the path which they had opened. This was the task of the learned men of the eighteenth century, of Euler, Clai- raut, d'Alembert, and principally of La Grange and La Place. La Grange manifested rare precocity. At nineteen he solved a problem proposed by Euler; the following year he wrote the first essays of that "Method of Variations," which alone would suffice to immortalize his name. To enu- merate all the labors of his eminently investigating mind 47 2 THE FRENCH RE VOL U TIOX. \ \ '. .K VII would require too much time. It suffices to say that he carried pure analysis to the highest degree of perfection, that he developed the differential and the integral calculus, the discovery of which Newton and Leibnitz disputed with each other, and that none else has spoken a language at once so elegant and so clear in the exposition of the most abstruse theories. He was born at Turin of parents of French origin and died at Paris in 1813. Napoleon had made him senator. La Place (1749-1827), son of a poor peasant of the valley of Auge in lower Normandy, owed to d'Alembert the first employment which permitted him to reside at Paris. In his "Mecanique Celeste" he gave a complete demonstration of the different astronomical laws which control the system of the universe. Thereby he completed the work of his illustrious predecessors, so that mathe- matical astronomy owes to him no less than to Newton and Kepler. His "Exposition of the system of the World" is a model of purity and elegance; his "Theory of Probabilities" has become classic and has furnished the chief principles of similar works that have been published since. La Place died almost in our time, loaded with honors by Napoleon and Louis XVIII. He was Minister of the Interior during six weeks after the fall of the Directory in 1799; under the empire he was senator and count. After the restoration he received the title of marquis. His works were reprinted in 1844 at the expense of the state. Lalande (1732-1807) by no means accomplished so important labors, but he popularized the study of astronomy by continuous lessons through forty years at the College of France. Euler of Basel (1707-83), perfected differ- ential and integral calculus, reduced analytical operations to a greater simplicity, and wrote in French to the Ger- man Princess of Anhalt-Dessau, niece of the King of Prussia, his celebrated "Letters," wherein he treats of physics, metaphysics, and logic. Clairaut (1714-65), geometrician and astronomer, at the age of fifteen pre- sented interesting memoirs to the Academy of Sciences, and at eighteen was received as a member into that society. He went to Lapland (1736) to measure near the pole a degree of the meridian which Bouguer and La Condamine measured at the equator. Some time afterward Lacaille established himself at the Cape of Good Hope in order to draw up the map of the southern heavens. We have already CHAP. XXIX.] SCIENCES AND LETTERS. 473 spoken of d'Alembert (1717-83) who also made himself known at the age of twenty-two by learned memoirs. He was both a great geometrician and an able writer; and to this double glory he added another, that of resisting the most seductive offers of monarchs in order to remain in France at the head of the Academy of Sciences. Among his works are: "Treatise on Dynamics," "Treatise on Fluids," "Reflections upon the Winds," "Researches at Different Points upon the System of the World," and "Pre- liminary Discourse of the Encyclopedia." Bailly (1736- 93) is more celebrated by his role in the Revolution than by his "History of Astronomy," which, however, brought him much honor. Monge (1746-1818) created descriptive geometry. The English Bradley (1692-1762) discovered the aberration of light and the nutation of the terrestrial axis. William Herschel (1738-1822), a simple organist who became by force of will a profound astronomer, fabri- cated and perfected the instruments he was too poor to buy; he discovered Uranus, two satellites of Saturn, and the movement of our solar system toward the constellation of Hercules ; by an attentive study of the nebulse he created stellar astronomy. Physics, to which Bacon applied experiment, had fallen with Descartes into the regions of hypothesis, from which the eighteenth century set it free; since then it has progressed rapidly. Two men especially during that period contributed to the advancement of that science, Franklin and Volta. They recognized, studied, and investi- gated profoundly the marvelously varied effects of that mysterious agent which we call electricity. Born at Boston in 1706, Franklin had educated himself all alone without the assistance of any master. Loving mankind, although he understood men thoroughly, he cultivated science, not for his pleasure or vanity, but to increase the welfare of his fellows. Thus having demonstrated at the peril of his life that the electricity of the clouds is the same as that of the machines, and having observed the properties of points, he immediately applied this principle to the preservation of public and private edifices, and Philadelphia, his adopted city, was covered with lightning rods. He especially excelled in the difficult art of popularizing science: his Almanac and his "Sayings of Poor Richard" did for the United States what all the ordinances imaginable could not 474 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. have done. "What are balloons worth?" one asked him. "What is the newborn child worth?" he replied. The Italian Volta from Como early showed extraordinary sagacity in the conduct of experiments. Physics owes him a number of ingenious instruments, such as the electro- phorus, the electric condenser, and the electroscope. But his chief discovery is that of the fruitful principle that the contact of bodies is a source of electricity. Gal- vani of Bologna in 1791 had discovered those singular phe- nomena of electricity to which his name has been given. Three years later Volta invented the pile, which, perfected, has wrought in chemistry, commerce, and manufactures a profound revolution. Loaded with honors by Napoleon, this grand physicist died as recently as 1826 at the age of eighty-one. We shall mention also Reaumur (1683-1757), who con- structed the thermometer which bears his name, and who perhaps is still more celebrated as a naturalist than as a physicist; he wrote "Memoirs to Serve in the History of Insects"; Coulomb (1736-1806), inventor of the torsion balance which bears his name, and by which he dis- covered the laws of electric and magnetic attraction and repulsion; the Marquis of Jouffroy, who in 1783 ascended the Saone in the first steamboat, an invention which then unfortunately remained useless; Montgolfier, who that same year made the first ascension in an air balloon. In Eng- land Stales (1677-1761) devised ventilators; Watt (1736- 1819) invented the condenser, gave mathematical precision to the steam engine, and economized two-thirds of the fuel, so that an invention which had remained almost barren became one of the most powerful instruments of modern industry. In Italy Fontana (1730-1805) made profound researches in physics and chemistry, and was one of the first to represent in colored wax the parts of the human body. Until the eighteenth century chemistry, through lack of an intelligent method, had been able to make little real progress. A great number of phenomena had been observed, but ability was lacking to deduce from them any general law. The theory of the German physician Stahl (1660- 1734) upon phlogiston, a peculiar principle existing in com- bustible bodies, and escaping from them during combustion, had led astray the most sagacious intellects. It was Lavoi- sier who made of chemistry a real science. In 1775 he CHAP. XXIX.] SCIENCES AND LETTERS. 475 demonstrated that the combustion of bodies and the calcina- tion of metals are the result of the union of oxygen with those bodies, and that the escape of heat which is then pro- duced has as its cause the change in the condition of the oxygen. In 1784 he decomposed water, which he found was formed of oxygen and hydrogen. The theory of phlo- giston was already overturned, as well as that of the four elements. A chemical nomenclature remained to be estab- lished. This was the achievement of Morveau, but Lavoi- sier, Berthollet, and Fourcroy were associated with that great reform. They all signed the famous memoir of 1787. "Chemistry is easy now," said La Grange; "one learns it just like algebra." Berthollet (1748-1822) discovered the decoloring properties of chlorine and those of carbon for purifying water; Fourcroy (1765-1809) discovered several compounds detonating on percussion, and perfected the analysis of mineral waters and of animal substances; the Scotchman Black (1728-97) was the first to suspect the existence of carbonic acid, which he called "fixed air," and made known latent heat; Cavendish (1731-1810) analyzed the properties of hydrogen gas and disputed with Lavoisier the honor of having discovered the composition of water; Priestley (1733-1805) was the first to isolate oxygen, which opened the road for Lavoisier; Scheele of Stralsund (1742- 86) discovered chlorine and many other chemical elements. What Lavoisier had done for chemistry Buffon and Lin- naeus did, the former for zoology, the latter for botany. Both were born in 1707, Buffon at Montbard in Burgundy, Linnseus at Raeshult in Sweden. Appointed intendant of the Royal Garden, Buffon consecrated no less than fifty years to the study of nature. His thirty-six volumes of "Natural History" succeeded each other without interrup- tion from 1749 to 1788, and are universally admired for majesty of style and beauty of description. Buffon is reproached for having immoderately employed hypotheses in his "Epochs of Nature." None the less there remains to him the glory of having founded geology. By laying down the grand principle that the present condition of our globe results from changes of which it is possible to trace the history, he pointed out the way to Cuvier and Elie de Beamount. Linnaeus, the reformer of botany, was at first a shoemaker's apprentice, and no free play was afforded to his genius till he was twenty-three years old. First it was 47 6 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. necessary to find a method. Learned men classed vege- tables only according to their bulk or their external appear- ances. Linnaeus was able to penetrate the intimate mys- teries of plant reproduction, and proposed the sexual method. Though to-day abandoned for the natural method, which de Jussieu founded on the subordination of the character of plants, his classification none the less indicated great prog- ress. Besides, there is in his works, as in his "Systema Naturae" and "Philosophica Botanica, " something which will never perish; above all, his nomenclature and also his descriptions, so original and so exact. At the side of Buffon place must be reserved for his co-laborers, Daubenton (1716-99), to whom we owe a "History of Animals," and Gueneau de Montbeillard (1720-99), who wrote a "History of Birds." Adanson (1727-1806) deserves also special mention as a botanist ; he remained five years in Senegal that he might there study natural history. Mineralogy was created by the Abbe Haiiy (1743-1822), who nevertheless built upon the admirable labors of the Saxon Werner, and was developed by Dolomieu (1750- 1801), who on foot traversed the greater part of Europe to prosecute his observations. In medicine and surgery we shall enumerate only the names of Bordeu (1722-66), who was opposed to the ideas of Boerhaave, and who attributed to every organ a sensi- bility peculiar to itself; of Parmentier (1737-1816), who popularized the cultivation of the potato in France, and ren- dered numerous services to the popular food supply; of Des- sault (1744-1805), one of the founders of surgical anatomy and the master of Bichat ; of Pinel, who showed that the insane were not dangerous creatures who must be chained, but diseased persons who might be cured; of the Abbe de 1'Epee, who in his Institution for Deaf Mutes corrected one of the errors of Nature (1778); of Valentin Haiiy, who mitigated another by founding the Institute of the Blind. We must also mention several Italians: Vallisneri (1661- 1730), who made numerous experiments in entomology and human organology, and combated the doctrine of spon- taneous generation; Spallanzani (1719-99), celebrated for his valuable researches upon the circulation of the blood, digestion, and microscopic animals; Morgagni (1682-1771), one of the masters of anatomical science. Finally, we must speak too of the Englishman Jenner, who in 1775 discovered CHAP. XXIX.] SCIENCES AND LETTERS. 477 vaccination, and of Cheselden (1688-1752), who made the first operation for cataract upon a person born blind. The geographical discoveries of the eighteenth century had not the same motive as those of the early days of the modern era. The underlying principle of the latter had been the love of gain or religious sentiment. The explora- tions of the eighteenth century had above all a scientific aim. Columbus had discovered the new continent, Gama the route to the Indies; Magellan had made the circuit of the globe; in the seventeenth century the Dutch had landed at New Zealand (1606) and at Van Diemen's Land (1642) and the German Kaempfer at Japan (1683). After them nothing could be gleaned. But if there was little hope of meeting with new continents, still it remained to be demon- strated that beyond certain latitudes our globe is uninhabit- able. Such was the result of the three voyages of Dampier around the world (1673-1711), of those of Anson (1740), Byron (1765), Wallis and Carteret (1766), and especially of Captain Cook. This great mariner, who owed his knowledge only to himself, had commenced his reputation by tracing as early as 1759 a map of the St. Lawrence, which has not been surpassed. In his first voyage around the globe he visited Tahiti, made the circuit of New Zealand, and coasted along the shores of Australia (1768-71). Less fortunate than the French Bougainville, his rival in glory, who had just discovered the Society Islands, the Dangerous Archi- pelago, and the island of Bougainville (1766-67), Cook like Magellan was assassinated, but by the natives of Oceanica (1779). His death has rendered celebrated the Bay of Karakakoua in the Sandwich Islands. On the track of Cook and Bougainville, La Perouse (1785) and d'Entre- casteaux (1791) traversed in every direction the perilous labyrinth of islands and archipelagoes which to-day forms the fifth part of the world. They have rendered the Great Ocean almost as well known as the European seas. But those voyages were even less serviceable to geography than to the general physical knowledge of the globe, to astronomy and natural history. It would be impossible to recapitulate all the curious observations, the interesting facts, and the useful indications they have contributed to science. La Perouse perished in his task. In 1827 the last vestiges of his ship- wreck were found near the Vanikoro Islands. Bass and Flinders made in 1798 the circuit of Tasmania; Bering 478 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. had discovered in 1728 the strait which bears his name; and in 1711 the French Kerguelen traversed the southern seas. While the physicists were laying bare new forces, and the navigators new lands, the writers for their part were dis- covering a new world. Letters and T . j ., j- arts. Literature was not, as during the preceding century, confined mainly to the artificial; it had invaded all and claimed to regulate all. The most virile forces of French intellect seemed directed toward the pur- suit of the public welfare. Men labored no longer to write fine verses but to sharpen pointed maxims. They no longer painted the oddities of society in order to find themes of ridicule but to transform society itself. Literature became a weapon which each, the headstrong as well as the skillful, wished to wield, and which, ceaselessly striking in every direction, caused terrible and incurable wounds. Through a strange inconsistency, those who had the most to suffer from this invasion of literary people into politics were the very ones who most applauded. The society of the eigh- teenth century, frivolous, sensual, selfish, preserved in the midst of its vices reverence for intellectual things. Never were the drawing rooms so animated, politeness so exquisite, conversation so brilliant. There talent almost held the place of birth, and the nobility, with a chivalrous rashness which recalls that of Fontenoy, endured with a smile upon their lips the fire of those glowing polemics which sons of the burgesses aimed against them. "Then," says Malesherbes, "a lofty enthusiasm had taken possession of all minds." Three men were at the head of the movement Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau. The former, whose real name was Arouet, was born at Paris in 1694. His father was a former notary originally from Poitou. He saw only the disastrous years of the great king, and was one of the most ardent in the reaction which burst forth against the religious customs of the last reign. When twenty-one years old he was sent to the Bastille on account of a satire against Louis XIV., which he had not made; already he was paying the penalty for his reputation of wit and malice. Entering upon his career with his tragedy of "(Edipus," full of menac- ing verses (1718), and with the "Henriade," a defense of religious toleration (1723), he speedily attained renown and CHAP. XXIX.J SCIENCES AND LETTERS. 479 was everywhere sought for. One day, however, he felt the inconveniences of that high aristocratic society into the midst of which he had been early introduced, and in which his light and brilliant mind, his fine and delicate tempera- ment, took its ease. A Chevalier de Rohan-Chabot, having spoken of him with impertinence, had been forthwith chas- tised by one of those winged words which Voltaire shot off so well. He took revenge, like a cowardly and brutal great lord, by the hand of his lackeys. Voltaire, who had no lackey, demanded reparation. The nobleman by another dastardly act obtained from the minister the confinement in the Bastille of the impertinent plebeian who dared to pro- voke a haughty aristocrat. Soon set free, but on condition of going abroad, Voltaire went to England "to learn how to think." He remained there three years; he brought back the ideas of Locke, Newton, and Shahspere with a much more ardent worship of free thought and free church than of political liberty. On his return his plays "Brutus" and "The Death of Caesar" introduced upon the French stage a reflection of the grand English tragedian, while his English "Letters" popularized the ideas of the wise philos- opher and the great astronomer. This, however, was not without persecution. The latter work was burned by the hand of the headsman. Voltaire, who owed two of his masterpieces, "Zaire" and "Tancrede," to Christian sentiment, desperately attacked the Church; his earliest and most constant efforts were directed much more against that spiritual power which pre- vented thought than against civil authority, which prevented only action. For this war he allied himself with the sover- eigns and sought their protection. He was in correspond- ence with the great Catherine of Russia and with many Ger- man princes. He sojourned at the court of Frederick II., a skeptical and lettered prince, whose French verses he corrected and with whom he finally quarreled. He then established himself at the extremity of France on the very frontier, so that at the least indication of peril he might escape to Ferney near Geneva. Thence there issued, carried by every wind, light poems, epistles, tragedies, romances, historical, scientific, and philosophical works, which in a few days made the tour of Europe. Growing old with the century, he turned like it to more serious thoughts. The evil condition of society became, as 480 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. it were, his personal enemy and love of justice his most ardent passion. He assisted and defended the victims of deplorable judicial errors; without rest he denounced the numerous faults of legislation, of jurisprudence, and of pub- lic administration. All the reforms he solicited in the civil order were accomplished after him. He exercised in some degree during fifty years the intellectual government of Europe. He justly merited the hatred of those who believe that the world should remain un progressive and the admi- ration of those who look upon society as obliged to labor without cessation for its material and moral improvement. President de Montesquieu (1689-1755), of calmer and graver mind, though author of the "Persian Letters," a satire profound and formidable while seeming trivial (1721), passed twenty years in composing a single book, the "Spirit of Laws," but it was an imperishable monument he was rearing. "The human race had lost its title deeds," said Voltaire; "de Montesquieu has just refound them." Montesquieu searched for and gave the reason of civil and political laws; he set forth the nature of governments; and though he condemned none, though changes annoyed him, his preferences were nevertheless most evident, and it was English liberty which he offered to the admiration of France. When he visited Great Britain in 1729 he wrote: "At London, liberty and equality!" He was half mistaken as to England; but sixty years before 1789 he suggested the motto of the Revolution. Rousseau, son of a Genevan watchmaker (1712-78), com- menced to write only at the middle of a life already long, crowded full with faults, miseries, and contradictions. When thirty-eight years old he composed his first "Dis- course against the Sciences and the Arts." It was a decla- ration of war against civilization ; his second work upon the "Origin of Inequality among Men" was another against the entire social order. In "Emile" he outlined a chimerical plan of education; in the "Social Contract" he proclaimed the principle of national sovereignty and universal suffrage, placing great truths and great errors side by side, but always expressing both with peculiar eloquence. The eighteenth century, at once so old and so young, had many conventional sentiments; it understood of the human heart only the emotions of pleasure, and of nature only operatic and boudoir decorations and the yew trees of Ver- CHAP. XXIX.] SCfEA T CES A.\'D LETTERS. 481 sailles. To this frivolous society Rousseau gave a vigorous shock which brought it back to natural sentiments; in his "Nouvelle Heloise" he opened its eyes upon real nature and genuine passions; he created the poetry on which the nineteenth century has lived. Considering only the political point of view, we may say that the influence of these three men was going to be again encountered in the three main epochs of the Revolution: that of Voltaire in the universal glow of 1789, that of Mon- tesquieu in the efforts of the constitutionalists of the National Assembly, that of Rousseau in the thought, if not in the acts, of the ferocious dreamers of the Convention. Near those great writers, in a less agitated but sometimes higher region, Buff on abode, an intellect serene and majestic, like that very nature of which he was the peerless painter. Behind the leaders were the soldiers: Diderot, a stormy and unequal writer, and d'Alembert, an able geometrician who endeavored to organize the army of philosophers. They founded the Encyclopedia, the first volume of which appeared in 1751. This was an immense review of all human attainments, which were in it exposed in a new fashion, that was often menacing for social order and always hostile to religion. Pretentious declaimers went farther still : Helvetius in his book on the "Mind," Baron d'Holbach in his "System of Nature," Lamettrie in his "Human Machine," Abbe Raynal in his "Philosophical History of the Two Indies." But a place apart must be left for the Chancellor d'Agues- seau, whose elegant ordinances of reform constitute the Code Louis XV. ; for the moralist Vauvenargues, who wrote this line: "The great thoughts come from the heart"; for the Abbe de Condillac, a powerful analyst; for his brother, the Abbe de Mably, a bold publicist; finally, for the Marquis de Condorcet, who, condemned later with the Girondists, composed while waiting for death an "Outline of the Progress of the Human Mind," and who was wont to see humanity as a tireless traveler advancing each day stronger, happier, and freer on the route which God had shown. The philosophers attacked everything; the economists claimed to touch only material interests. In the seventeenth century it was believed that a nation was rich according as it bought less and sold more. Quesnay demonstrated 482 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. that the precious metals are the sign of riches, but not riches themselves; true wealth he found in agriculture. Gournay sought it in manufactures. The theory of the Scotchman Adam Smith, who lived long in France, was more com- prehensive; according to him wealth existed in labor, and labor had three modes of application-; agriculture, manufactures, and commerce. His pupils recognized a fourth: intellectual labor, or the arts, letters, and sciences. Thus human thought, long imprisoned in purely meta- physical speculations, or limited to the unselfish adoration of the Muses, now sought to solve the most difficult prob- lems which interest human society. And all, philosophers like economists, found the solution on the side of liberty. From the school of Quesnay issued the celebrated axiom, "Let things alone," which found application when the edicts of 1754 and 1764 recognized freedom in the grain trade, and which Turgot was anew to proclaim. The Marquis d'Argenson had said the same thing under another form, "Do not govern too much." There are two sides to be observed in the literature of the eighteenth century, one serious, the other frivolous. The arts possessed only the latter. Exclusive search after grace caused the beauty of lines and types to be forgotten. Charming works were produced; the mansions of the rich were decorated with light and coquettish elegance; but not a single grand statue was sculptured or a grand picture painted. So Versailles was deserted for boudoirs, and the architects reduced their plans to the modest proportions of a society which knew not how to carry the lofty air of the preceding age. Ange Gabriel, who died in 1772, erected the t\vo charm- ing colonnades of the Place de la Concorde, drawing his inspiration from the colonnade of the Louvre; also the Military School, a pretty edifice, which is belittled by the immensity of the Champ de Mars, and the theater of Ver- sailles and the castle of Compiegne; Robert de Cotte ( I 735)> the colonnade of Trianon; Soufflot (1781), the Pantheon; Servandoni (1766), the portal of St. Sul- pice, which is too highly lauded, destitute as it is of that simple grandeur which marks the portal of the Pantheon; Antoine, the heavy edifice of the Mint.. The sculptors have left even less. They are G. Coustou (1745); Pigalle (1785), by whom are the statue of Voltaire at the Institute, CHAP. XXIX.] SCIENCES AND LETTERS. 483 and the tomb of Marshal Saxe at Strasburg; Bouchardon (1762), several statues at St. Sulpice and the cumbrous fountain of Rue de Crenelle. The painters had more merit, especially Watteau (1721), although he represented only conventional art with his operatic shepherdesses; Carle Vanloo (1760), whose ".^Eneas Carrying Anchises" is greatly praised, and J. Vernet (1789) famed for sea pieces. But Boucher (1770), whom his contemporaries did not scruple to call the French Raphael, is deservedly forgotten, as are his figures "fed on roses." Greuze (1726-1805) deserves a place of his own on account of the simple and graceful artlessness of his painting. Some of his pictures will in all ages continue masterpieces. They are the "Village Bride," the "Paralytic Father," the "Good Mother," the "Little Girl with the Dog." Rameau (1764) created a revolution in music. CHAPTER XXX. ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. Disagreement between Ideas and Institutions. Agitation of Mind and Demands for Reforms. Reforms Accomplished by the Govern- ments. Last Years of Louis XV. (1763-74). Political and Military Decline of France. Attempt at and then Abandonment of Reforms under Louis XVI. (1774-93). THE movement which took possession of the human mind is the most striking spectacle presented by the eighteenth _.. . century. The sixteenth century had been Disagreement . / 1-1 i T i between ideas witness of a like outburst, but in the limited and institutions. sphere o f re li g i OU s ideas. Men no longer occupied themselves with dogmas ; they no longer devoted all their thought, as at the time of Luther and Calvin, to questions of grace and free will. Men sought for their rights and their duties. The spirit of examination, invol- untarily inaugurated by Luther and Calvin, really made victorious, strengthened, and extended by Descartes and Voltaire, by science and literature, was breaking its last chains. Never had been seen a curiosity so keen upon every subject and an audacity so great in venturing out of traveled paths. During years consolation had been sought for an abuse in an epigram and for an iniquity in a song. "They sing, therefore they will pay," said Mazarin. But already there was less singing; the mind became more serious and more formidable in its scope. Confronting a royalty that seemed to take pleasure in its degradation, a nobility that no longer knew how to furnish generals, and a clergy in which were found no more Bossuets or Fenelons, men questioned the rights and investigated the titles of those powers formerly so revered. The principal work of royalty in modern society had been to found the unity of territory and the unity of control by 484 ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 485 overthrowing feudalism, which erected every fief into a state, and which gave a thousand chiefs to each of the European nations. That struggle, which commenced in France in the twelfth century, was completed in the seventeenth by Riche- lieu and Louis XIV. But the ground was covered with the debris of conquered feudalism. Everywhere among indi- viduals and among institutions existed the most shocking inequalities and the most strange confusion. Let us picture the spectacle in France. At the same time to approximate the truth we must remember that abuses were still greater in absolutist Europe. I. Political condition. The constitution not being written, everything reposed on usage and was only a matter of opinion, consequently variable just like the opinion which had ceaselessly varied. Royalty was in theory an absolute power. This, however, it never was in fact, for it was opposed by numerous and powerful interests, traditions, and precedents, erected into fundamental laws; so that personal right being vaguely denned, and political customs being still more defective than the institutions, all sought to encroach on the domain of each and none was kept in its place. The ministers at need laid their hand upon justice as the parliaments did upon law, in order to violate both. A royal edict was to be exe- cuted only after having been registered by Parliament, but the Council of State issued commandatory decrees which did not require that formality. The clergy and the nobility had their tribunals; the third estate exercised public func- tions which it had bought for cash; and as to the greater number of offices, the king was stripped of one of his most important prerogatives, the right of summoning the most capable and the best to the service of the state. There were six ministers: the Chancellor or Chief Jus- tice, who possessed hardly more than a title, since he did not hold the seals, the Controller General of Finance, and the four state secretaries of the Royal Mansion, War, Navy, and Foreign Affairs. These ministries presented the most peculiar confusion of responsibilities, and furthermore they geographically divided the kingdom among themselves. Thus the provincial governors and lieutenant governors did not depend upon the Minister of War, but the Post Office was in his department, as were Dauphine and all the territories conquered since 1552. The Minister of the Navy was at 4 86 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. the same time Minister of Maritime Commerce and had under his control the consulates and the Chamber of Com- merce of Marseilles. The Minister of Foreign Affairs regu- lated the pensions and administered the provinces of Guy- enne, Normandy, Champagne, and Berry. The Minister of the Royal Mansion had under him ecclesiastical affairs and the lettres de cachet* together with Languedoc, Paris, Provence, Brittany, and Navarre. Among the responsibili- ties of the controller general were bridges and highways, hospitals, prisons, epidemics, commerce by land, and agri- culture. As to administrative divisions, there were as many as there were different administrations. The limits of the 34 intendancies, of the 25 financial divisions, of the 40 governments or provinces, of the 135 archbishoprics and bishoprics or dioceses, of the 17 parliaments and sovereign councils or jurisdictions, of the 22 universities, and the like, constantly encroached upon each other. One of the most deplorable principles of administration was to obtain money by the creation of useless offices which burdened the public. "Pontchartrain," said St. Simon, "in eight years furnished as much as 150,000,000 francs by only parchment and wax. " He had appointed hereditary criers of interments, tasters of Parisian beers, controllers of wigs, and a thousand like officers. This abuse had another and a peculiar effect: the number of office holders greatly exceeding the needs of the service, these officers served only in turn. Thus in the court of justice for the salt taxf at Paris the officers alternated every year. A clerk of the courts exercised his functions only each third year. Thirteen parliaments and four provincial councils pro- nounced in sovereign capacity upon civil and criminal mat- ters. More than 300 bailiffs' or seneschals' courts judged in first instance. They had the public ministry, with which the * The lettres de cachet were sealed letters containing some order from the king. Exile or imprisonment, without accusation or time limit, was often inflicted by them, and they were considered the most odious violation of personal liberty. It is stated that during the reign of Louis XV. 150,000 of these infamous orders were issued. ED. f Seventeen such tribunals that of Paris being the most important were established in different cities of the kingdom, occupied exclusively with investigating and judging violations of the laws concerning the gabeile, or salt tax. These laws were minute and vexatious almost beyond description. ED. CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS A 7^ REFORM. 487 ancients were unacquainted, but there was no justice of the peace, an officer whom the Revolution introduced. The parliaments had very unequal jurisdictions. That of the parliament of Paris included two-fifths of France. Besides, there were military and commercial, seignorial and ecclesi- astical tribunals. Those of the cities had only a local police jurisdiction. However, the senate of Strasburg could condemn to death. As to the spiritual judges of the "offi- cialties" or church courts, they could inflict perpetual imprisonment, and sometimes the high lord justiciary, in order to assert his rights, "would hang a man who deserved banishment." The courts of aids or of appeals, cham- bers of accounts or financial courts, and the coinage courts of appeal controlled all trials relative to imposts, coinage, and questions of gold and silver. The Grand Council, the Council of the Royal Mansion, the Tribunal of the Univer- sity of Paris, the royal captainries, and the like had a special jurisdiction. Certain individuals could be tried only by certain tribunals. The civil law consecrated many acts of injustice, but the penal law ordered torture before decision, and with frightful facility lavished mutilations, death, and the most atrocious punishments without allowing the accused a defender to make his plea, without permitting any opposing argument, without even requiring of the judge that he give a reason for his decision. In 1766, because a wooden cross had been broken to pieces on the bridge of Abbeville, a young man of nineteen, the Chevalier de la Barre, was sentenced, though his guilt had not been proved, to be burned alive after having had his tongue and his hand cut off; four others condemned to the same punishment escaped by flight. Legal proceedings, slow, complicated, carried on in dark- ness and silence, sought less for truth than for a culprit ; and in advance considering the accused condemned, often struck the innocent. In 1770 Montbailly was broken on the wheel at St. Omer for a crime of which the Superior Council of Artois and all France three months after declared him not guilty. In vain had Voltaire made France and Europe resound with his eloquent protests, against lamen- table judicial errors; in vain had the work of Beccaria pointed out the true principles of criminal legislation; in vain decrees of the Court of Appeals, each day more fre- quent, gave warning to the judges: Parliament rejected all THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. reform, and in 1785 President Dupaty had to exercise equal perseverance and courage to save from the wheel three men unjustly condemned. The magistracy, if upright and enlightened, was better than the law. But the law was such that it exposed the most conscientious judge to error and inevitably caused the accused to tremble even though inno- cent. "If I were accused of having stolen the towers of Notre Dame," said some distinguished person of that time, " I should judge it prudent to run away." On the other hand, society was so encumbered by so many still existing relics of the Middle Ages that there were even found in it cus- toms handed down from Merovingian days. Thus even at Paris the right of asylum was enjoyed by the inclosure of the Temple. The nobles no longer formed conspiracies; extraordi- nary commissions were no longer seen as formerly rescuing the accused from their natural judges. But still the king frequently ordered imprisonment or exile without trial and sometimes without time limit; many trials were stopped by a bed of justice or called up to the Grand Council, which was still another means of avoiding them. The magistrates, clerks, and officers of justice were not paid by the king or were paid very badly; thus they sought remuneration from the prosecution and defense at a rate which they themselves fixed. As in that most unequal society, a privilege, a prohibition, or an obscure regulation was encountered at every step, the trials were innumerable and endless, and the contesting parties were the prey of what a contemporary, a royal advocate, did not scruple to call "the brigandage of justice." These exactions annually cost the parties in litigation 44,000,000 francs, money of to-day, or according to a minister of Louis XV. even 60,000,000. The jurisdiction of the parliament of Paris reached in certain directions to a distance of 150 leagues from the capital another cause of ruin to those who were compelled to travel exceedingly far in quest of a justice that was very slow. Credit is a force that only develops in states where the law is stronger than the caprices of power. Hence it was not found in France; it even existed less for the government than for individuals. "One was reduced," says Count Mollien, "to calculate the chances of a contract made with the ministers like those of a very risky loan." The most CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 489 solemn promises having been a hundred times violated, the treasury obtained advances only by giving guarantees; furthermore even under these shameful conditions it often paid a usurious interest of twenty per cent, for advances upon the general revenue. However, all this time the British government was easily obtaining money at four per cent. This means that the financial strength of England was already five times greater than that of France. Now war demands courage and talent, but it also requires much money. The accounts were so badly kept that they were audited only ten, twelve, and even fifteen years after the expiration of some transaction whose operations were to be retraced : they were so confused that no one, not even the ministers, knew just what the state had to pay nor what it had to receive. In 1726 Fleury abandoned to the farmers general some arrears of accounts that the treasury neglected ; the farmers obtained from these arrears about 100,000,000 francs. On the very eve of the Revolution, de Calonne, Necker, and the notables never could agree upon the real amount of the deficit and of the public debt. Besides, from the time of Francis I. the public treasury was confounded with the private purse of the monarch, so that the king drew by handfuls from the common bank without any other formality than an order drawn upon the treasurer to pay the sum indicated in the draft. Louis XV. during a single year thus borrowed 180,000,000 francs which were for the most part employed in paying for his pleasures or his cour- tiers. In 1 769 after six years of peace the expenses exceeded the revenues by 100,000,000 francs, and certain revenues were consumed ten years in advance. There were even advances upon the year 1779. The imposts presented the strangest confusion, and the government did not itself enjoy all the receipts. The indirect imposts were given out to companies of revenue farmers and to sixty farmers general, who called them- selves the "pillars of the state," and who crushed it rather than gave it support. On the one hand, they made the treasury pay a usurious interest: on the other they swelled their receipts by all possible means. Thus the product of the "donative of joyous advent," raised under Louis XV., was abandoned to them for 23,000,000 francs; they drew from it more than 40,000,000. In the space of six years farming the dues on articles of consumption gave them a 49 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. profit of 96,000,000 francs. Thus there is no reason for astonishment at their scandalous wealth. One of them, Bouret, squandered 42,000,000. And yet they were forced to share with the courtiers, assuring them presents, that is to say, pensions or proportional benefits from the profits. Great lords, great ladies, accepted these shameful gifts. Louis XV. himself stretched out his hand; he also was a receiver of presents or a silent partner. These revenue farmers had at their disposition a code so complicated that the taxpayer could not understand it, so rigorous that for the one act of fraud in salt there were con- stantly 1700 or 1800 persons in prison and more than 300 at the galleys. The treasury was not more indulgent: if a single receiver of taxes did not bring in his receipts the four principal taxpayers of the district were arrested, though they owed nothing to the state, and they were kept in prison till they had made good the deficit. It was the odious system of Roman administration with the liability of the curials. The nominal effective military force in time of peace was 170,000 men, of whom 131,000 were infantry, 31,000 cav- alry, and 8000 belonging to the Royal Mansion, but the real effective force did not reach 140,000 men. In this number are reckoned 12 Swiss regiments, 8 German, 3 Irish, and i Swedish. The 21,000 frontier guardsmen hardly served in time of peace, and likewise the 60,000 militia of the provin- cial regiments. The grades were multiplied beyond meas- ure; there were no less than 60,000 officers, either in active service or on leave; according to a regulation 01 1772 a regi- ment of cavalry of 482 men should possess 146 officers and under officers, which made one chief for less than three men. Grades were bought, even in the select troops, and the pur- chasers could become general officers without having ren- dered any military service. The Duke de Bouillon was a colonel at eleven years of age, the Duke de Frousac at seven; his major was twelve. Despite the reforms of Choiseul there was still immense waste in the army and a bad system of enlistment vitiated its composition. The regular army was recruited by volunteer enlistments and the militia by lot, which annually called out 10,000 men, who were bound to serve six years. But the drawing by lot of the militia, which weighed principally upon the country places, was marked by the most scandalous abuses; and if CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 491 the volunteers made good soldiers, the recruiting agents often sent to the regiments the dregs of the great cities. Thus every year there were 4000 desertions to the enemy. The clergy was divided into clergy of France in the ancient provinces and foreign clergy in the territories con- quered subsequent to Francis I. This distinction had no importance save as to 'the imposts. But the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, Verdun, and Strasburg, suffragans of Treves or Mayence, and the five bishoprics of Corsica, suffragans of Pisa or Genoa, took no part in the general assemblies of the clergy. The archbishops of Besancon and Cambrai had, on the contrary, foreign suffragans. The dioceses were very unequal: that of Rouen contained 1338 parishes; those of Toulon and Orange 20. The revenues were like the dioceses. The Bishop of Strasburg had an income of 500,000 francs; he of Gap, 8000; and Fleury signed himself "Bishop of Frejus through divine indigna- tion." A great number of abbes possessed an income of hardly 1000 francs; the Abbe of Fecamp could spend 120,000, and he of St. Germain three times as much. Many curates were very rich, but many vicars were dying of hunger. Louis XVI. deserved their gratitude by fixing their minimum allowance from the tithes at 350 francs. The king appointed to all positions of any importance in the Church; the bishops, the chapters, and the lay lords appointed to the rest. To recapitulate, 12,000 bishops, abbes, priors, and canons divided among themselves more than 40,000,000 francs, about one-third of the revenues of the church ; eight times as many priests and religious per- sons had to be content with the two-thirds remaining. I am not speaking at all of the petty abbes who belonged neither to the world nor the Church, and who scandalized both. II. Social condition. Instead of one single law there were 384 different cus- toms; hence it might happen that what was legal in one province was illegal in another. Since each parliament had its peculiar regulations, the diversity of legislation was still further increased by diversity of jurisprudence. The three orders of the state, the clergy, the nobility, and the lower order, were distinguished by privileges or duties which made of the French people three different nations, each having its own hierarchy and its distinct 49 2 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. classes. Thus there was the great and the petty nobility, the former living at the court and on the state, the latter in the province and upon its own scanty revenues; the upper and the lower clergy, the one very rich, the other very poor. In the third estate there were 50,000 families possessing judicial offices by hereditary claim, who formed a real aristocracy and did not associate with the financiers; the burgess disdained the artisan; and the peasant, at the bottom of the ladder, endured with wrath all the weight of a society which crushed him. In the family there were ine- qualities, since the right of primogeniture left to the younger sons only their sword or the Church, and to many of the daughters only the convent. Below the three orders were the serfs, the Protestants, who had no civil status, and the Jews. As to the provinces, some, "state territories, " as Langue- doc, Burgundy, Brittany, and Artois, had a shadow of liberty for the conduct of their affairs, and hence were in a better situation; the others, "elect territories," knew only the absolute commands of the court; finally, the latter paid imposts which the former did not pay or paid in less proportion. Some, as Lorraine, the Three Bishoprics, and Alsace, had no customhouses between them and foreign countries; others were surrounded by customhouses in every direction. In 1789 the provinces of southern France were separated from each other as from foreign countries by customhouses along their boundaries. The same measure of salt was to be paid for, here 6 francs, and there 62. The impost of the twentieth* was less heavy in Lorraine, Alsace, and Franche Comte than in the other provinces ; Lorraine was not even subjected to the capita- tion tax; so that old France found itself more burdened than new France which it had conquered. I am not speak- ing here of the privileges of localities, corporations, and individuals. In Paris in 1783 the administrators of the H6tel des Invalides, of the Military School, of the Bastille * The twentieth was originally a feudal tax, giving the lord one- twentieth of the entire harvest or of certain crops produced on his lands. It was designed to provide for the expenses of fortification, and payment exempted the vassal from hand labor thereon. It varied in amount according as the lord was able to exact less or more. So the tithe, nomi- nally one-tenth paid to the government, varied in just the same way according to the ability of the taxgatherer. ED. CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPl^S AT REFORM. 493 and various religious communities paid no internal customs duties. From this sprang up a multitude of abuses; many commodities were introduced for persons reckoned privi- leged who were not so. Two classes of nobles divided among themselves all the offices : that of the sword monopolized the positions in the army, the principal dignities in the Church, and the chief places at court, and of representation ; that of the robe filled all the high places in the judiciary and administration. There were left to the plebeian only manufactures, com- merce, and finance. He had the chance, it is true, if his business prospered, of purchasing letters of nobility and becoming a marquis, though sure to experience the sarcasms of people not yet ennobled, and the perpetual disdain of those who were. The nation then paid in taxes almost as much as to-day. But three things rendered this burden much heavier for that generation than for this: they were much more poor, less numerous by a third, and subjected to a most unequal assessment. Thus the clergy, which, in addition to the revenues of its immense property, received the tithe from all land, whether noble or not, paid nothing or almost noth- ing; it made "gratuitous gifts." The nobility and the royal officers, except in certain districts, were not subjected to the villain tax or the land tax; they were subject to all the other direct imposts, the capitation tax and the twentieth of the income, but a great number found means for exemption from the whole or a part. The people who pos- sessed only half the lands of France alone paid the villain tax, 91,000,000 francs, the seignorial dues, estimated at 35,000,000 francs, the forced labor on the roads, 20,000,000 francs, and the tithe. The latter in some localities was a fortieth, in others a fourth, of the net product, and altogether cost the tillers of the soil 133,000,000 francs. For the highways, for example, many of which were constructed under Louis XV., the state defrayed only the cost of indi- cating their direction and of engineering; their materials were furnished and utilized by means of the corvee, or forced contribution and forced labor; so these undertak- ings, so beneficial to the entire country, were executed at the expense of the rural population and excited their resentment. A noble was beheaded ; a plebeian was hanged. That, 494 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. however, could hardly be real ground of complaint, inas- much as the difference was only in form. But it often happened that for the same offense committed in common the penalty was very different according as the culprit be- longed to the nobility or the people. Corporations, wardenships, and trade franchises pre- vented the development of manufactures by limiting the number of trade-masters, whereby competition was de- stroyed, and by permitting the exercise of only that trade wherein one had served his apprenticeship. Thus each was confined in his craft as in a jail. He who wished to become a master could not do so save he had paid for a trade fran- chise 3000, 4000, or even 5000 francs. In that sum the trial piece, the presents, and the entertainment are not reckoned. Even after having disbursed all that amount the applicant had not purchased the right of perfecting his industry, for such improvement was an attack on the antecedent rights of the corporation. The weaver of stuffs could not dye them; he who dyed the thread had no right to dye the silken or woolen stuff; the hatter had no right to sell hosiery. Chained by minute regulations, the manufacturers were liable to see their products destroyed by the police for some inadvertence, or for some modification which in no way injured the purchaser. "Every week during many years," said an inspector of manufactures, "1 have seen 80 or 100 pieces of goods burned at Rouen because some regulation upon the weaving or the dyeing had not been absolutely observed, .although the article was in no way misrepre- sented." There was indeed only one sort of money, that of the king. Afte_r 1726 commerce had not been hampered by alterations in kind, or by sudden and official variations in the value of the silver mark, but it was still distracted by diversity of weights and measures, which varied from city to city. Till 1770 the India Company by its commercial privileges had obstructed the efforts of private merchants. That company had just been abolished; but in the interior business had still to contend with injurious restrictions and harmful monopolies. Thus at Rouen one company had the monopoly of supplying the city with grain ; another had that of the transport of wheat; a third, that of grinding it in its mills, to the great injury of the inhabitants, who were for- bidden to provide themselves elsewhere. Grain did not circulate from one province to another, so speculators at CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 495 will could produce famine or abundance at given points ; that is to say, they could in one place sell very dear or buy won- derfully cheap. Finally, the interior customhouses which isolated the provinces rendered commercial relations as difficult as with foreign countries, and the toll houses assessed 96,000,000 francs on goods transported. To descend the Saone and the Rhone from Gray to Aries, one had to stop and pay thirty times, so that on this route, of which Nature herself had defrayed all the cost, commerce left in the hands of the tollkeepers from twenty-five to thirty per cent, of the value of the articles transported. Let us add that the Catholic countries had every year fifty holidays more than the Protestant countries: the latter, working more, could sell cheaper. Yet the French colonies were so flourishing and European industry so backward that, in spite of all, French commerce prospered. Nearly one-fifth of the lands, immobilized in the hands of the clergy, yielded little, because it was withdrawn from the influence of personal interest; almost all the rest, cultivated on halves by petty farmers, gave hardly more. The divi- sion of property had begun; but the land only came into possession of the peasants encumbered with rents, a mark of ancient servitude. There were few cattle not one- fourth as many as in France to-day and consequently there was impoverishment of the soil as result of insufficient fer- tilization. Few great proprietors were themselves cultiva- tors. "One could not count," said a contemporary writer, "three hundred lords who lived on their lands." This is the evil from which Ireland has suffered so terribly that a word has been coined to represent it, "absenteeism." Vauban and Bois-Guillebert already had complained of the discredit attaching to the occupation of the cultivator. A decree of the Council of State was necessary in 1720 to authorize nobles without derogation of rank to hire for cul- tivation the lands of princes of the blood. A writer further- more said in 1788: "The occupation of the farmer is despised in the central provinces, but is less discreditable in Brie, Beauce, and Picardy." This contempt arose from the profound misery in which the peasant lived, ruined by imposts, by forced labor, and by the restrictions applied to trade in grain; he was ruined, moreover, by the seignorial rights of maintaining warrens, dovecotes, and hunting grounds, all of which were so many scourges for the field of 49 6 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BooK VII. the poor man, and sometimes even for that of the rich. The excellent roads constructed under Louis XV. were found only between the great cities. The larger number of highways in France are not more than a century old, and in many of the provinces the roads not royal were impassable eight months in the year. As to liberty of persons and property, the former was put at the discretion of the ministers and their friends by arbitrary warrants of imprisonment without accusation or trial; the latter was menaced by the confiscation which could be found written in every law, by the arbitrary power with which the court was armed for the creation of new imposts, by a justice which was not always impartial, and by decrees of suspension which dispensed the nobles from pay- ing their debts. Malesherbes, president of the Court of Aids, said to the king in remonstrances that have remained famous, "Through arbitrary warrants of imprisonment no citizen is secure from beholding his liberty sacrificed to satisfy some revenge, for no person is so great as to be safe from the hatred of a minister, nor so humble as to be unworthy of that of a tax farmer." The most severe regulation continued in vigor against Dissenters. In 1746, 200 Protestants on account of the exercise of their worship were condemned to the galleys or imprisonment by the parliament of Grenoble alone. In 1762 the parliament of Toulouse had a pastor hanged for having exercised his ministry in Languedoc, and beheaded three young gentlemen who had armed in their own defense against a Catholic riot. The same magistrates caused the Protestant Galas to be broken on the wheel under an accu- sation of having killed his son, who wished, it was said, to become a Catholic, but who in reality had committed sui- cide. Sirven and his wife in 1762 escaped a like fate only by flight. Censorship of the press still existed. There were even several censorships, that of the king, that of Parliament, and that of the Sorbonne. Often they contradicted each other. A book amnestied by one was burned by the other. Con- sequently it circulated at a higher price, but circulated none the less, sometimes even under the protection of the ministers. The law ordered the penalty of branding, of the galleys, of death, against the authors or colporteurs of books CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 497 hostile to religion or the state. A few simple persons let themselves be arrested, but most often the administration shut its eyes, and this mingling of excessive severity and of blind toleration only irritated public curiosity. The decrees were investigated in order to know what books one should read. This was the century when the Abbe Galiani defined eloquence as "the art of saying everything without going to the Bastille." Fre"ret went there on account of an article on the Franks ; Lepre"vost de Beaumont, secretary of the clergy, remained there until 1789, twenty-one years, for having denounced to Parliament the "famine compact."* All accounts show the frightful misery of the people. The peasants of Normandy lived in great part on oats and clothed themselves with skins; in Beauce, the granary of Paris, the farmers lived on alms a portion of the year; some were reduced to making bread of ferns. In a great number of provinces the use of meat was unknown. Says a writer about 1760: "The monthly consumption of meat by three- fourths of the population of France did not amount to more than a pound for each person. Even the rich were poor, for salaries in the offices which they bought at a high price, thereby paralyzing enormous capital, were very badly paid by the state, and did not return them the interest of their money, while their vast domains, poorly cultivated, were almost unproductive. Vauban estimated that in all France there were not more than 10,000 families in easy circum- stances. Quesnay, the physician of Louis XV., the "thinker," as the king called him, estimated that the income of the soil did not bring its proprietors more than 75,000,- ooo francs, while the same soil to-day yields its owners over twenty times as much. His estimate was without doubt too small, but it is sure that during a hundred years the population has not doubled, while agriculture has increased its products several fold. Not long ago a few survivors could remember the miserable clothing with which the mass of the people, the laborers, were protected against *An ironical term, suggested by the "family compact" of Choiseul, here applied to the attempt of certain speculators to obtain control of the grain, thus create a famine, and then sell at their own prices. That this project was formed, and that it was favored by the Abbe Terray, con- troller general from 1770 to 1774, there seems no doubt. ED. 49 8 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. the inclemency of the weather. What La Bruyere says of the peasant presents a faithful picture. Philanthropic institutions did not lack: Christian charity had multiplied them; but, since the financial resources of the nation were very limited, relief was insufficient, and bands of beggars were constantly seen traversing the country and terrifying the cities. France had then about 800 public hospitals whose inmates numbered 1 10,000 souls. But the mortality in them was frightful: at the Hotel-Dieu at Paris it was annually two out of nine, that is to say, three times what it is to-day. So great was the inadequacy of supplies, and so great the ignorance of the simplest hygienic rules, that in that hospital, the richest in France, people with all sorts of diseases, even those the most contagious, were brought together in the same room, and sometimes as many as five or six in the same bed ; for there were only 1219 beds, often occupied at the same time by 6000 invalids. "At Bicetre, " said Necker in a report to the king, "I have found in the same bed nine old men wrapped up in rotten rags." So, in view of all these causes, there is no reason for astonishment that the average duration of human life was then estimated to be much shorter than it is to-day. Thus the Middle Ages, destroyed in the political system, in the civil system still existed. Hence arose profound disagreement between the constituent elements of society. In its dominant ideas and customs the world had readied the eighteenth century; in its usages and in many of its institutions it was still in the thirteenth. As soon as this difference was felt a revolution was imminent, for new ideas necessarily demand new institutions. Yet such a result was desired neither by the court nor by any of those who throve upon abuses as upon a legitimate property. Did a minister speak of reform? He was driven from his place. Did the writers seek to pierce those palpable clouds gathered by the government around itself? A decree of the council absolutely forbade the publication of anything whatsoever upon matters of public administration. In 1768, only twenty years before Mirabeau and the Con- stitutional Assembly, poor wretches were sent to the galleys for having sold a few books among which was "The Man for Forty Crowns," the innocent pamphlet of Voltaire. CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 499 Very glorious and very strong must be the government which can extinguish under its feet the torch lighted by public opinion. Louis XIV. had done this Agitation of l , . J , . . . . mind and de- when it cast very feeble gleams. This Louis fbrml 8 f r "" X Y- could not do - The ruinous abuses of which I have just spoken, those rasping ine- qualities, that immense disorder, and those miseries had provoked examination into their cause. Vauban and Bois- Guillebert had demanded reforms from the economical and Fenelon from the political point of view. During the regency intellectual liberty, and even license, were in keeping with the freedom of manners. The Duke of Bourbon endeavored in vain to arrest such impatient investigation. Under his ministry was organized the Basement Club, the first opened in France. Fleury closed it. But at the same time a future minister, the Marquis d'Argenson, in his "Con- siderations on the Government of France," written before X 739> demanded decentralization, the abandonment of all local administration to municipal and cantonal councils, freedom of trade at home and abroad, and the use of the ballot in the choice of royal officers. "It will be said that the principles of the present treatise, favorable to democracy, tend to the destruction of the nobility; in so saying men will not mistake! ... I only ask that the most stupid prejudice should be set aside in order to agree that two things are principally desirable for the welfare of the state: first, that all citizens should be equal each to each; second, that each man should be the child of his own deeds. The nobles are to the state what the drones are to the hive." Therein was fully announced one of the articles of faith of the Revolution. Another minister, Machault, proposed to replace the villain tax, which the people alone paid, by a territorial impost to which the privileged classes, nobles and priests, should be subjected. Choiseul himself also spoke of reforms. The monasteries seemed to him as to Colbert too numerous ; he estimated, as did the estates of Pontoise in 1561, that discontinuance of the immunity from taxation which the Church enjoyed in its immense dominions would in a marked degree contribute to the re-establishment of the dilapidated finances of the state. If such ideas were fermenting in the minds of public men, what was not being said by those who had undertaken the task of examining all social, political, and religious ques- 500 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. tions? We have already contemplated the entirely new role attempted by the literature of the eighteenth century. This intellectual movement, from the top to the bottom of society, had succeeded in creating in Europe a new power, whose influence the governments commenced to feel, and which compelled the kings, even those most powerful, to reckon with it. In France the nation, for a long time the indifferent spectator of those patient efforts, had finally taken interest in them, had become anxious for reforms and desired a change. The desire was common that the administration should no longer be a frightful labyrinth where the most skillful would lose his way; that the public finances should no longer be set up for pillage; that each man should have security for his personal liberty and for his fortune ; that the crimi- nal code should be less bloody and the civil code more just. The demand was made for religious toleration instead of a dogma imposed under penalty of death ; for law founded upon principles of natural and rational right in place of the arbitrariness, the inequality, and the confusion of 384 pro- vincial customs; for similarity of weights and measures instead of the most extreme confusion; for imposts paid by all instead of the taxation of misery and the exemption of wealth; for emancipation of labor, and for free competition instead of the monoply of corporations; for free admission to public offices instead of the privilege of birth and for- tune; for the most active solicitude instead of indifference concerning popular interests; in a word, for equality before the law and liberty according to right. These demands were so vigorous and so general that the necessity of doing justice to them was evident to all clear- seeing eyes. Never was a more terrible movement preceded by more numerous prophets sounding the alarm. Catinat, Vauban, St. Simon, even Leibnitz, during the lifetime of Louis XIV. were appalled at the future. As early as 1697 a magistrate, Bois-Guillebert, said: "The lawsuit is now about to take place between those who pay and those whose only function is to receive." And Fenelon in 1710: "It is an old, shattered machine which still goes on with the impulse formerly given it, and which will finally break itself to pieces at the first collision." The Duchess of Chateau- roux, the only woman who wished to draw Louis XV. from CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 501 his torpor, "saw a great overturning at hand unless some remedy was applied." At home, abroad, the same thing was thought, by Lord Chesterfield as well as by the German philosopher and profound thinker, Kant, by Malesherbes as by the English ambassador. Said the first, "Everything which I have ever met in the history of symptoms, pre- cursors of great revolutions, exists to-day in France and daily grows larger." In fact, according as the century advanced and national shame augmented, as after Rossbach there was the pare aux cerfs* and the famine compact, voices at first satirical became stern and terrible. The reign which had commenced with the "Persian Letters" ended with the "Social Con- tract." Some hoped; others were affrighted. Rousseau was consulted in 1761 by a councilor of the parliament of Paris upon the choice of an asylum in Switzerland, and he adds; "That letter did not by any means surprise me, for I thought like him and like many others that the declining constitu- tion menaced France with speedy ruin." Two years later the parliament of Rouen said to the king himself: "Evils are at their height and presage the most horrible future." Finally, Voltaire wrote (April 2, 1764) to the Marquis de Chauvelin: "Everything which I behold is sowing the seeds of a revolution which will infallibly come about, and which I shall not have the pleasure of witnessing. The French reach everything slowly, but at last they reach it. The light is so diffused from one place to another that it will burst forth at the first opportunity and there will be a fine uproar. The young people are very fortunate : they will see splendid things." Those splendid things were unhappily mingled with horrid catastrophies, which could have been forestalled by earlier concessions to legitimate desires. A timid attempt was made; in the second half of the eighteenth century the government, aroused and excited by French ideas, recog- * Name given to the buildings and grounds occupying a large portion of the park at Versailles, and in which under Louis XIII. deer were shut up. Under Louis XV. these buildings were replaced by elegant edifices wherein were confined young girls of unusual beauty who had been kid- napped or bought from their parents, and who served the infamous pleasures of the king. The expenses of this establishment amounted to over $20,000,000. ED. 5 02 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. nized the necessity of accomplishing reforms, would it con- jure away a revolution. The movement extended from one end of Europe to the other; its existence can be demonstrated in Portugal and fol- lowed across all the continent to the depths of Russia. Let us consider its character and consequences. Joseph I., fourth successor of that John IV. of Braganza who in 1640 had freed Portugal from Spanish domination, _ , wished in his turn to deliver it from its miser- Reforms ac- , , , . . compiished by able condition. ments. govern ' He intrusted the power to Joseph of Car- valho (1750), who was afterward created Mar- quis of Pombal. That minister endeavored to become the Richelieu of Portugal. Fearing that the influence of the Jesuits would thwart his projects, he implicated that order in a plot to which an attack upon the life of the prince gave plausibility, and they were expelled from the kingdom (1759). He diminished the power of the Inquisition; he intimidated the nobles by exiling the most illustrious lords, a Souza, a Braganza. An earthquake which cost the life of 30,000 persons destroyed Lisbon (1755); he rebuilt it in a few years and made it one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. From that moment every year was marked by useful crea- tions or honorable attempts: manufactures were encouraged by increasing the duties levied on foreign products ; agri- culture was stimulated by the foundation of a special school, by the construction of the canal of Oe'yras, and by drain- ing the Alentejo; public instruction was aided by the foundation of a college for the nobles and of free public schools; the army was reorganized, the pay of the soldiers made secure, and its effective force raised to 32,000 men; reform was introduced into the collection of the taxes, and the financial administration was improved; the piracies of the Barbary states were repressed; the island of Mozambique, the key of Portuguese commerce in the Indies, was forti- fied; more colonists were sent to Brazil; in 1763 the immense grants of lands in Africa and America which had been made by the predecessors of Joseph I. were revoked ; in 1754 a commercial company was established to monopolize the trade with China and the Indies, and in 1755 an other was formed called the Company of Maranhao and the Grao Para. Unfortunately he wished to do good violently, and good is not thus done. His best institu- CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. $03 tions were victims of the violence which had established them, and Portugal, a moment galvanized by his powerful administration, fell back after him into its former feebleness. Under Pedro IV. in 1781 Pombal was declared a criminal and deserving of severe punishment ; however, the govern- ment was satisfied with sending him into exile, where he died ten months later. Spain also revived under her new dynasty. Philip V., an indolent prince, did very little for her regeneration. He resigned, then resumed, his crown, and always let himself be governed by others: by the Princess Orsini; by Alberoni, who came near setting Europe on fire; by his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, who involved him in wars at the end of which he at least obtained the kingdom of the Two Sicilies for one of his sons (1734), and Parma and Piacenza for the other ( 1 748) ; finally, by the wise Patinho, who was emphatic- ally dubbed "the Colbert of Spain," but who labored to restore the Spanish navy. Under Ferdinand VI. this upward tendency became more definite (1746-59). This sovereign on two days every week accorded an audience to every comer. He diminished the imposts, encouraged agriculture, improved the administra- tion of the finances and of justice, reanimated commerce, manufactures, and the navy, dug the canal of Castile, and in 1753 concluded with the Holy See a concordat which left to the King of Spain the bestowal of the ecclesiastical benefices. When he died at the age of forty-five the treasury contained nearly 59,000,000 francs. During his reign Lima and Quito in Peru were almost destroyed by earthquakes; Spain had suffered also in that of Lisbon. Don Carlos, the eldest son of Philip V. and of his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, gave up to one of his children the crown of Naples, which he had worn since 1734, and took that of Spain under the name of Charles III. (1759-88). He summoned to the ministry in 1766 an able diplomat, Count d'Aranda, who in a single night had 2300 Jesuits arrested and conducted beyond the frontier (1767). All correspondence with them was forbidden; they were allowed only a small pension; of this they were finally all deprived on account of the bad conduct of one in their number. Naples and Parma imitated this example, and in 1773 Pope Clement XIV. decreed the abolition of the order. This measure showed that the minister would tolerate no abuses. 504 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. He established a police which gave security to Madrid, had a census taken of the population, limited the rosarios, or religious processions, and even attacked the Inquisition. Rome and the clergy in 1773 succeeded in removing him from the ministry by sending him as ambassador to France. But one of his successors, the Count de Florida Blanca, son of a plain burgess of Murcia, sought like him the regenera- tion of his country, so the reforms by no means stopped. In order to fill the gaps in the population and to revive agriculture numerous German fanners were invited into the peninsula. The highways were repaired ; the canal of Ara- gon, opened under Charles V., was continued; the canals of Manzanares, of Murcia, of Guadarama, of San Carlos, and of Urgel were begun; domestic trade in grain was made free; and the Bank of St. Charles was founded. The cloth manufactory of Gaudalaxara, organized by Alberoni in 1718, was united to that of San Fernando, which thereupon gave employment to 24,000 workmen. The linen manufactory of St. Ildephonse and the armory at Toledo were encour- aged. A decree of 1773 declared that commerce and manu- factures were in no way derogatory to the nobility ; other decrees endowed Spain with a collection of natural history, with a botanical garden, with several academies of painting and drawing, with a general customhouse and post office. For the army and navy an artillery school was founded at Segovia, a school of engineers at Cartagena, of cavalry at Ocana, of tactics at Avila, and the fleet was raised from 37 ships of the line, which it numbered in 1761, to almost 8oj so it was able to appear with honor in the American war at the side of the French squadrons. However, Charles III. failed in two attempts against the Barbary pirates, and could not retake Gibraltar from the English. When he died in 1788 the revenues of Spain had tripled and its population increased from seven to eleven millions. His work was unfortunately compromised by the incapacity of his suc- cessor, the feeble Charles IV., who at Bayonne was to resign his throne into the hands of Napoleon. Before becoming King of Spain Charles III. had gov- erned the kingdom of Naples under the name of Charles VII. There also he had accomplished happy reforms with the aid of his minister, Bernardo Tanucci. There were in the kingdom no less than eleven distinct systems of legisla- tion, a heritage left by the eleven peoples, Normans, Swa- CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 505 bians, Angevines, Aragonese, Austrians, and others, who had possessed the country in whole or in part. These were simplified and a uniform code undertaken. The clergy pos- sessed privileges and immunities incompatible with the good order of the state. These were diminished by a concordat signed with Pope Benedict XIV. in 1741, which also limited the number of priests by reducing the ordinations to 10 for every 1000 souls. Tanucci then attacked, not in their property, bufin their jurisdictions, the nobility, who wished to remain feudal. He made the law higher than the grandees, the tribunals than seignorial justice, and rendered the nobles more docile by inviting them to the court. Sciences and letters were encouraged, the Academy of Herculaneum and other academies founded, the higher studies and secondary instruction strengthened by impor- tant improvements, and Naples embellished with magnificent monuments, as the Theater of San Carlo and the Royal Hospital for the Poor. Regent during the minority of Fer- dinand IV., who at the age of eight succeeded Charles VII. in 1759, Tanucci acted with still more vigor; he abolished tithes, suppressed a great number of monasteries, reduced by a half the ecclesiastical body, banished the Jesuits (1767), and reorganized public instruction. A disgrace terminated his ministry, which lasted no less than forty-three years (1734-77), during which he had touched many things, but without obtaining durable results. The reign of Ferdinand IV. continued in the midst of the greatest adventures till 1825. After Tanucci everything at Naples depended upon the caprices of the queen Maria Carolina, sister of the emperor Joseph II., and famous on more than one account, especially for her hatred against the French after 1789. On the death in 1737 of John Gaston, the last of the Medicis, Tuscany had been assigned to the husband of Maria Theresa, Francis, Duke of Lorraine, who became emperor in 1745. Under this prince, who as a foreigner was little loved by the Tuscans, wise reforms were intro- duced into legislation and finance by the able ministers, the Prince de Craon and Count de Richecourt. His second son, Peter Leopold, brother of the emperor Joseph II. and of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, governed Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. "Constantly occupied in reforming all the abuses introduced during more than two hundred years 506 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. by a vicious administration, he simplified the criminal laws, restored freedom to commerce, rescued entire provinces from beneath the waters, and divided the land thus gained among industrious cultivators, whom he charged a by no means exorbitant rent; he thus doubled the products of agriculture, and restored to his subjects an activity and industry which they had long since lost. But sometimes he angered them by an inquisitorial vigilance, and he encoun- tered violent opposition in his ecclesiastical reforms. The people who owed him so much regretted him little." (Sis- mondi). He had abolished the death penalty. In the states of the King'of Sardinia two edicts of 1761 and 1762 had accorded emancipation from feudal claims, a boon which France was to obtain only after 1789. The new spirit, introduced by the emperor Joseph II., son of Maria Theresa, penetrated even aged Austria. This prince had been elected Emperor of Germany on the death of his father, Francis I. of Lorraine, in 1765, but his mother had retained the power in the Austrian states. Following then the example of Peter the Great, eager to learn, but without the patience to ttach himself, as Frederick II. said in a letter, Joseph II. began to visit foreign countries, and then traversed his own dominions; on the death of his mother in 1780 he launched impetuously into his re- forms. The different countries which formed the Austrian state, each governing itself by its own laws, had no bond between them; Joseph endeavored to unite them by one vast admin- istrative organization. He abolished separate jurisdic- tions and divided the territory into thirteen governments subdivided into districts. There were as many courts of justice, as many military commands and police magistrates, as there were governments. The general administration was divided into four departments, of Politics, of Adminis- tration properly so called, of Justice, and of War. All affairs were centralized in the state chanceries of Vienna, and the Provinical States were suppressed ; the despotism of the emperor was substituted for the vexations of the feudal regime. In 1780 tithes, forced labor, and seignorial rights were abolished. A single religion, the Roman Catholic, was recognized; but papal bulls had no force till after approval by the emperor, and the members of the clergy were sub- CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 507 ordinated to the temporal power; the revenues of certain bishoprics were reduced; more than one thousand monas- teries were converted into hospitals, houses of instruction, or barracks; four hundred new parishes were founded; wor- ship was freed from certain superstitious practices; the right of primogeniture was abolished ; marriage was declared a simple civil contract and divorce facilitated. A celebrated edict of toleration (October 13, 1781) authorized the exer- cise of the Greek and Protestant worship, the Jews were admitted to the public schools and a new translation of the Bible was made into German. Pope Pius VI., who under- took a journey to Vienna in order to arrest the emperor in his reforms, obtained only the courtesies due to his age and his character. Joseph II. was by no means learned; however, he encour- aged the sciences and arts; he founded universities, public libraries, and chairs of the physical and natural sciences, and took away from ecclesiastics the censorship of books in order to bestow it on enlightened men of letters; but he forbade his subjects to travel to foreign countries before they were twenty-seven years old. Commerce and national industry received a profound impulse; manufactures were established, provincial customhouses abolished ; the impor- tation of foreign goods was subjected to enormous duties ; the provinces were for the first time authorized to exchange their products ; Trieste and Fiume were declared free ports; new routes were opened, and canals dug or repaired. So Joseph II. touched everything. He wished to renew all, to improve the material well-being of his subjects and especially to increase his power. But he erred in combin- ing this work of internal reforms with an aggressive policy and an unbounded ambition. His claims to Maestricht and to the country on the other side of the Meuse involved him in quarrels with Holland, which ended in extorting from the latter 10,000,000 florins and in making her contract an alliance with France. His schemes upon Bavaria brought about the conclusion of a new league, offensive and defen- sive, between the kings of Prussia and England, the elec- tors of Saxony and Mentz, and a multitude of German princes. He dreamed of dividing the Ottoman empire with Russia, and when the sultan, who felt himself threatened, declared war against the Russians (1787), Joseph, alleging that he was the ally of Russia, attacked the Porte without 508 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. reason (1788). He failed, however, before Belgrade; the Grand Vizier Yusuf penetrated into Hungary, and he was himself defeated at Temesvar. Field Marshal Laudon and the Prince of Coburg restored the honor of his arms; but the peace of 1791 assured to Austria in return for her enor- mous expenses no other advantages than the acquisition of two petty territories. But troubles broke out in Hungary, where the nobles were his enemies because he had violated their feudal privileges, and where the people were hostile to him because he had wounded them by his religious innova- tions; the Netherlands rose, because he wished to subject them to new imposts while depriving them of their ancient liberties; finally, the French Revolution bursting forth menaced not only the power of his sister, Maria Antoinette, but of every absolute king. Joseph 11. regretted what he had done, was appalled at the future, and sadly descended to the tomb (February 20, 1790). We have seen the glorious place which Frederick II., King of Prussia, had taken among the princes who sought to be the reformers of the eighteenth century. She whom her conquests caused to be called Catherine the Great aspired to similar distinction. She flattered western civiliza- tion in its principal representatives, carried on a correspond- ence with Voltaire and with the Encyclopedists, invited d'Alembert and Diderot to live near her, and herself trans- lated the "Belisaire" of Marmontel. But at the same time she wrote to the Governor of Moscow, who complained that the newly founded schools remained empty, the words which we have already quoted. In Sweden Gustavus III., who by the revolution of 1772 had reseized absolute power, abolished torture and checked the venality of the judges. He founded workhouses for beggars, ordered that physicians at the expense of the state should visit even the remotest villages, and that every day laborer the father of four children should be exempt from personal taxation. He attracted workmen from all the countries of Europe and doubled the product of the iron and copper mines, the chief wealth of the country. Com- merce increased, favored by the privileges accorded to sea- men, and by the fact that Marstrand at the mouth of the Cattegat was made a free port. Grain could circulate freely; by the aboltion of twenty-two holidays the product of the national labor increased. Like Frederick II., Gustavus CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 509 III. wrote much, even attempting dramas, and like him was a passionate admirer of French literature. It was France who had given the impulsion to the grand movement that agitated entire Europe, and she herself Last years of seemed destined not to participate in the Louis xv. 0763- reforms which her ideas had caused to be ob- 74); political and . , . . military decline tamed for other peoples. Instead of being regenerated each day she descended lower on the slope which removed her far from the high position whither she had been carried by the preceding century. She was enfeebled by the successes of Frederick II., and by the advent of a new state among the great powers. At the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle she appeared the foremost of military states, thanks to the victories of Mar- shal Saxe which had thrown upon her a reflection of the glory of Louis XIV. But the Seven Years' War had shown the folly of the French generals, the lack of disci- pline among her soldiers, and, despite a few happy excep- tions, the decline in French military qualities. On the sea it was not only decadence: it was complete downfall. To repair her ruins, to arrest the internal disorganization, to make headway with appropriate reforms against the revolu- tion that was approaching, none could count upon the prince who was himself abandoned to the most shameful disorders. What Louis was incapable of himself doing he meant no other should do; not that he possessed a great minister, for the Duke of Choiseul was only an able man who loved his country and who saw a few of the national ills that must be cured. He was confined to the administration of his two ministries of war and marine, and concerned himself only with the military organization of France and with her foreign alliances. When peace was made he endeavored to lessen the waste of which the army was the victim, and to bring up its ranks to the full quota, so that a rapid transition from a peace to a war footing should be easy. He resumed the work of Machault in the creation of a fleet, and had 64 vessels and 50 frigates or corvettes constructed. Corsica, which had revolted against the Genoese, its former masters, was conquered and in 1768 united to the French territory. In 1769 Napoleon was born there, just in time to be a Frenchman. Three years earlier the death of Stanislaus had brought about the reunion of Lorraine to France. The English threatened Spain with war: Choiseul forthwith pre- 5io THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. pared a formidable armament, which made them reflect. At the same time he encouraged the opposition which was developing among the Anglo-American colonies against their mother country; he detached Portugal and Holland from the English alliance, endeavored to fortify the Swedish government against the intrigues of Russia, and extended a friendly hand to Poland, which under the weight of the vices in its constitution daily drew nearer the abyss. This foreign policy experienced only one reverse in the unfortu- nate attempt to colonize Guiana. One important act of Choiseul's administration, although not emanating directly from him, was the suppression of the Jesuits, whose constitu- tion was condemned by a decree of Parliament in 1762 after a famous trial, occasioned by the bankruptcy for 3,000,000 francs of Father Lavalette, prefect of the missions to the Antilles. The Jesuits left behind them a powerful party which did not pardon the minister for their expulsion. In order to destroy him every means was employed. To Mme. de Pompadour, who had died in 1768, the Countess du Barry succeeded, whose mere presence was a stain upon Versailles. The Duke de Choiseul refused to bend before that woman. She beset the king to obtain his dismissal. In 1770 he was exiled. During all the century the parliaments had shown a spirit of opposition which the king endured with difficulty. Their contentions with the clergy in regard to the bull Unigenitus, which condemned the Jansenists, and which the parliaments rejected, disturbed all the eighteenth century. The king, having vainly striven to impose silence upon them, exiled them in 1753. They returned just as determined to con- cede nothing. The trial of the Jesuits revived the quarrel; another in 1770 against the Duke d'Aiguillon made the struggle burst out. The king in a bed of justice having stopped the proceedings, the magistrates suspended the administration of justice. "They wish," said the king, "to subject the crown to the clerk's office." He bestowed upon d'Aiguillon the place of Choiseul, and the Chancellor Mau- peou suppressed the parliaments, which he replaced by new courts of judicature. This was a portentous event. Riche- lieu and Louis XIV. had destroyed the political importance of the nobility. Louis XV. destroyed the great body of the magistracy. What remained to prop up the old edifice and to shelter the monarch? CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 511 And everyday the shame of that monarch increased. In 1773 it was Poland which Austria, Prussia, and Russia divided without anything being done by France to hinder this execution of an entire people. In 1765 it was the asso- ciation called the famine compact, which was above all a detestable administrative measure, and which obtained renewal of its lease for the monopoly of grain and thus brought about the artificial famines of 1768 and 1769. It was lettres de cachet, which were multiplied in an appalling degree, and which surrendered the liberty of citizens to any rich or powerful person who had a passion to satiate or a revenge to satisfy. It was finally the Abb6 Terray, who found no other remedy for reduction of the state debt than bankruptcy. To the protestations which rose from every side Terray coldly replied: "The king is the master; neces- sity knows no law." He none the less permitted the exist- ence of an annual deficit of 41,000,000 francs. And yet since 1715 the imposts had more than doubled, having risen from 165,000,000 to 365,000,000 francs. Louis XV. did not fail to see that some terrible expiation was approaching, but he found consolation in saying: "It will surely last as long as I ; my successor will get out of it as best he can." His successor was only twenty years old. He was the son of the Dauphin, consequently grandson of Louis XV. Attempt at He was a prince of pure morals, of limited and abandon- intelligence, of extreme timidity of character under" ^Louis and speech, who loved the good, who wished xvi. (1774-89). i^ I DU (- w h o was unhappily too weak to impose his will upon the people about him. First he dispensed the people from the gift of joyous advent; he reformed the law which rendered the taxpayers jointly responsible for the payment of the imposts; and in order to give an early satisfaction to public opinion he recalled Par- liament. He caused the aged and frivolous Maurepas to re-enter the ministry; but he replaced Maupeou and Terray by Malesherbes and Turgot. The former as early as 1771 had demanded the convocation of the States General, and the latter was a man of superior intellect, and the only states- man of that age who could have forestalled the Revolution by making and directing it himself. Later the king gave the ministry of war to another honest man, the Count of St. Germain, who wished to reorganize the army just as his col- leagues intended to reorganize the finances and administra- 512 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. tion, but who, with good ideas and injudicious execution, hastily laid his hands on many things, and on the whole injured the general cause of reform. Turgot would have wished to apply at once the vast refor- matory scheme he had conceived, but the opposition which his first attempts encountered obliged him to proceed slowly. He attended first to what was most pressing. He authorized the free circulation of grain and flour throughout all the kingdom; his enemies hastened to spread the rumor that their exportation was going to be permitted; the people were made to fear a famine. Riots broke out in the country districts, and even at Versailles and Paris. It was neces- sary to use force (May, 1775). A more violent explosion against Turgot took place when he had caused the adoption by the king of a project for replacing forced labor on the roads by an impost which the proprietors were to pay. The abolition of wardenships and trade privileges, that is to say, the introduction of liberty into manufactures as he had wished to introduce it into commerce, further increased the number of his enemies. The chief minister, Maurepas, stealthily undermined his credit with the king; the queen attacked a controller general who talked only of economies. Malesherbes, perse- cuted like him by the anger of the privileged classes, was the first to give way; he tendered his resignation; Tur- got, of stronger metal, waited for his dismissal. On May 12, 1776, he received the order to quit the ministry. Vol- taire addressed to him his "Epistle to a Man," and Andre Chenier celebrated his name in his "Hymn to France." Four months had hardly passed when the king granted to the privileged classes the re-establishment of forced labor and of trade privileges. However, the American war was about to begin. In order to meet the new expenses recourse was had to the Genoese banker Necker, who enjoyed a high reputation as a financier. As he was a Protestant and a foreigner, he received only the title of Director of Finances (October, 1776). During five years he bore himself with honor in a position which was rendered exceedingly difficult by the narrow and jealous character of Maurepas, the indolence of the king, and the cupidity of the courtiers. He had to make good the deficit which Turgot had only had time to diminish, and to provide for the costs of the American war CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 513 and for the enormous expenses of a court encumbered with a host of officers of every title and of servants of every description. This he succeeded in doing without augment- ing the taxes and without largely economizing upon the court, but by reduction in the costs of collection, by a thou- sand small but useful reforms, and by loans amounting to 400,000,000 francs, which were for the most part placed as life annuities. It was well to make an appeal to public credit, but borrowing on onerous terms was deferring and not solving the difficulty ; so under this honest administra- tion of a skillful banker who was not a great minister the gulf continued to deepen. In order to fill it Necker counted upon peace, upon the future; but who is master of what is to come? Necker fell two years before the end of the war. The occasion of his fall was his famous "Account Rendered of the Financial Condition," published in 1781, which made so much noise, and yet which was so incomplete, as it showed only receipts and ordinary expenses. In it no word was said concerning loans or expenses for war. In it the receipts appeared greater than the expenses by 10,000,000 francs. The public, charmed that from its eyes was lifted even a corner of the thick veil which concealed the finances, welcomed this publication with immense applause. The capitalists loaned the minister 236,000,000 francs. But the court was irritated at this appeal to public spirit. If day- light was poured upon the financial administration, what would become of pensions and of all the customary pillage? In the presence of the clamors of the court Louis XVI. once more yielded; when Necker, with exhausted patience, tendered his resignation it was accepted by the king (May 21, 1781). Besides these financial reforms, some honorable acts had signalized his administration ; he had emancipated the serfs of the royal domain, had abolished the right of mortgage which gave up to the lord all the property acquired by his fugitive serf in a foreign country, and had done away with preliminary torture. In the American war France aided the ascent of a new people to a place among the nations. Other acts indicated the influence which was returning to her. By her subsidies to Sweden, by her openly expressed intention of supporting Gustavus III., she arrested the shameless ambition of Prussia and Russia; on the other hand, she contributed to 514 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. [BOOK VII. rescue Bavaria from the attacks of Austria, and to save the empire from a war between the two great German powers by causing her mediation and that of Russia to be accepted by Austria and Prussia at the Congress of Teschen (1779). Her diplomacy was therefore as happy as her arms. But victory is costly, and the financial administration had fallen into the hands of the incapable Joly de Fleury, and then into those of the wasteful Calonne, who in three years and in time of peace obtained loans to the amount of 500,- 000,000 francs. The situation became worse instead of better, and the moment came when all must be revealed to the king. Then the prodigal became a reformer. Calonne devised a plan wherein were mingled the ideas of all his predecessors; he proposed to subject the privileged classes to the impost and to a land assessment, to establish pro- vincial assemblies, to diminish the villain tax, and to give freedom to trade in grain. An assembly of notables, con- vened (February 22, 1787) in order to discuss these pro- posals, received them with marked disfavor; Calonne fell, but the deficit was not made good. Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, an ambitious and brilliant schemer, who mingled business and pleasures, was chosen to replace him, but was not more skillful. Parlia- ment refused to register the edicts which established new taxes, and declared that deputies of the nation alone had the right of consenting to such impost. Louis XVI. in a bed of justice forced the hand of Parliament, and that body was once more exiled. But disturbances broke out everywhere. Brienne, at the end of his resources, convoked the States General for a meeting, May i, 1789. A second assembly of notables, called to decide what should be the representa- tion of the nobility, clergy, and third estate, decided in favor of equality in the number of deputies from each order. This would give the majority to the two privileged classes. Public opinion became indignant; Necker, recalled to the ministry of finance, decided the king to declare of his sovereign authority that the deputies of the third estate should be equal in number to those of the other two orders. The French Revolution was begun (1789). By recapitulating the sum total of this chapter we see that under the pressure of French ideas the spirit of reform had gained possession of all Europe. The princes volun- tarily put themselves at the head of the movement. They CHAP. XXX.] ATTEMPTS AT REFORM. 515 wished to suppress abuses, to destroy privileges, and to bestow welfare upon their peoples. But these reforms were in purely material affairs, and they tended much more to increase the revenues and the power of the monarchs than to raise the moral level and the political condition of the subjects; hence they were powerless in the majority of the states, because the governments took no thought for their own reformation, and because, through lack of good institu- tions, everything still depended upon the hazard of royal birth, which might make the absolute power pass from the hands of an intelligent prince to those of one incapable. Under Charles IV. and Godoy Spain fell back almost as low as under Charles II. The time of the lazzarone flour- ished at Naples anew under Queen Caroline and her minister Acton. Joseph II. agitated but did not regenerate Aus- tria. Already it has been seen what Catherine II. thought of reforms for her people. In Prussia alone a great man did great things; and in France, since skillful ministers who wished to do them did not succeed, the nation took their accomplishment" upon itself. THE END. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE Popes, Emperors, and Princes who reigned in the Principal States between 1453 and Popes. NICHOLAS V., . CALIXTUS II. (Borgia), Pius II. (Aneas Silvius Piccolo- mini), . PAUL II., SlXTUS IV., INNOCENT VIII., ALEXANDER VI. (Borgia), Pius III., . JULIUS II. (della Rovere), LEO X. (de Medici), ADRIAN VI., CLEMENT VII. (de Medici), PAUL III. (Farnese), . JULIUS III., . MARCELLUS II., PAUL IV. (Caraffa), Pius IV., PiusV., GREGORY XIII., SlXTUSV., . URBAN VII., . HENRY VI., (dethroned 1461) House of York. EDWARD IV., . EDWARD V., RICHARD III., . (dethroned 1485) House of the Tudor s. HENRY VII., . HENRY VIII., EDWARD VI., ir of Year of ssion acce ssion 1447 GREGORY XIV., 1590 1455 INNOCENT IX., 1591 CLEMENT VIII., 1592 H58 LEO XI., 1605 1464 PAUL V. (Borghese), . 1605 1471 GREGORY XV., 1621 1484 URBAN VIII. (Barberini), 1623 1492 INNOCENT X., 1644 1503 ALEXANDER VII. (Chigi), l6S5 1503 CLEMENT IX., 1667 1513 CLEMENT X., . 1670 1522 INNOCENT XI., 1676 J 523 ALEXANDER VIII., 1689 1524 INNOCENT XII., 1691 1550 CLEMENT XL, . 1700 J555 INNOCENT XIII., 1721 1555 BENEDICT XIII., 1724 1559 CLEMENT XII., 1730 1566 BENEDICT XIV., 1740 J 57 2 CLEMENT XIII. 1758 1585 CLEMENT XIV. (Ganganelli), 1769 IS90 Pius VI., 1775 England. 1422 JANE GREY, 1553 MARY I., 1553 ELIZABETH, 1558 1461 House of the Stuarts. 1483 1483 JAMES I. (King of Scotland after 1567), 1603 From this time England and Scotland had the same sov- 1485 ereigns, though the official 1509 union took place so late as 1547 * a y J > I 77- Si* CHRONOLOGICAL LIST. England. Continued. Year of accession CHARLES I., . . 1625 (beheaded 1649) REPUBLIC, . . 1649-1660 OLIVER CROMWELL (Protector), 1653 RICHARD CROMWELL, " 1658 (resigned 1659) CHARLES II., . . . 1660 JAMES II., . . . ^85 (deposed 1688) WILLIAM HI. and MARY II, (Mary II. died 1694) House of Hanover. GEORGE I., GEORGE II., . GEORGE III., Year of accession 1727 France. CHARLES VII., . Louis XL, . CHARLES VIII., 1422 1461 1483 Branch of Orleans. Louis XII., . . . 1498 Branch of Angouleme. FRANCIS I. , . . 1515 HENRY II., . ... 1547 FRANCIS II., CHARLES IX., HENRY III., Branch of the Bourbons. HENRY IV., Louis XIII., Louis XIV., Louis XV., . Louis XVI., 1550 1560 1574 1589 1610 1643 1715 1774 Emperors of Germany. FREDERICK III., . . 1440 MAXIMILIAN I., . . 1493 CHARLES V., . . . 1519 (abdicated in 1556) FERDINAND I., . . 1558 (King of Hungary and Bo- hemia after 1527) MAXIMILIAN II., . . 1564 RUDOLPH II., . . 1576 MATHIAS, . . . 1612 FERDINAND II., . . 1619 LEOPOLD I., . . 1658 JOSEPH I., . . . 1705 CHARLES VI., . . . 1711 (died 1740) CHARLES VII. (Albert of Ba- varia), . . . 1742 The Austro - Lorraine branch commences with Francis I., Duke of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa, daughter of Charles VI., . . . 1745 JOSEPH II., . . . 1765 (he became sovereign of Aus- tria only at death of Maria Theresa in 1780) Naples. ALPHONSO I., . FERDINAND I., ALPHONSO II., . FERDINAND II., FREDERICK III., FERDINAND THE CATHOLIC, H35 1458 1494 1495 1496 1504 From that time till 1713 the kings of Spain were also kings of Naples. EMPEROR CHARLES VI., King of Naples from . . . 1713 DON CARLOS, . . 1735 FERDINAND III., . . 1759 Ottoman Empire. MOHAMMED II., BAIEZID II., . SELIM I., SOULEIMAN I.. SELIM II., ' . 1481 . 1512 1520 . 1566 MOURAD III., MOHAMMED III. ACHMET I., MUSTAPHA I., OSMAN II., 1574 J 595 1603 1617 1617 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST. 5'9 Ottoman Empire. Continued. Year of Year of accession acce ssion MUSTAPHA I. (a second time), . 1622 ACHMET III., . I73 MOURAD IV., . . 1623 MAHMOUD I., . 1730 IBRAHIM, . . . 1639 OSMAN III., 1754 MOHAMMED IV., . . 1649 MUSTAPHA III., 1757 SOULEIMAN II., . . . 1687 ABD-UL HAMID \., 1774 ACHMET II., . . 1691 SELIM III., . 1789 MUSTAPHA II., . . . 1695 Poland. CASIMIR IV., . . . 1445 VLADISLAUS (son of preceding), 1632 JOHN I. (Albert), . . 1492 JOHN CASIMIR (brother of pre- ALEXANDER I., . . . 1501 ceding), 1648 SIGISMUND I., . . 1506 MICHAEL VIECNIOVIECSKI, 1669 SlGISMUND II. (Augustus), . 1548 JOHN SOBIESKI, 1674 HENRY (Henry III. of France), 1572 AUGUSTUS II. (of Saxony), 1697 STEPHEN BATHORI (of Tran- STANISLAUS LECZINSKI, 1704 sylvania), . . . 1575 AUGUSTUS III., 1733 SIGISMUND III. (of Sweden), 1587 PONIATOWSKI, . 1764 Prussia. FREDERICK I., . . . 1701 FREDERICK WILLIAM I., 1713 (was Frederick III. as Elector FREDERICK II. (the Great), 1740 of Brandenburg) FREDERICK WILLIAM II., 1786 Russia. VASILI III. (Grand Duke of ALEXIS, .... i64S Moscow), . . . 1423 FEODOR II., . 1676 IVAN III. (the Great), . 1462 IVAN V. and PETER I, (the VASILI IV., . . . 1505 Great), 1682 IVAN IV. (the Terrible), . 1533 (Ivan died 1696) (took title of Czar 1547) CATHERINE I., 1725 FEODOR I., . . 1584 PETER II., 1727 (with him the race of Ruric ANNE, 1730 became extinct in 1598) IVAN VI., 1740 BORIS GODOUNOFF, . . 1598 ELIZABETH, . 1741 (died 1605) PETER III., 1762 Interregnum and troubles till CATHERINE II. (the Great), 1762 house of Romanoff succeeded, fojnded by Michael, . . 1613 Sardinia. VICTOR AMADEUS II. (Prince CHARLES EMMANUEL III., 1730 of Piedmont, and Duke of VICTOR AMADEUS III., 1773 Savoy 1675), became King of Sardinia, . . . 1715 Scotland. JAMES II., . . . 1437 JAMES VI., 1567 JAMES III., . . . 146 (became King of England in JAMES IV., . . 1488 1603, since which time Scot- JAMES V., . . 1513 land and England have tne MARY STUART, . . . 1542 same sovereign) 520 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST. Spain. Year of accession Kingdom of Ar agon. ALPHONSO V., . . . 1416 JOHN II., . . . 1455 (King of Navarre through his wife after 1425) FERDINAND II. (the Catholic), 1479 (married to the Queen of Cas- tile in 1469) Kingdoms of Castile and Leon. JOHN II., . . . 1406 HENRY IV., . . . 1454 ISABELLA I., . . 1474 JANE THE FOOLISH, . 1504 (daughter of Isabella I. and of Ferdinand II. the Catholic, King of Aragon) United Crowns of Aragon, Castile. and Leon, or Kingdom of Spain. FERDINAND II. (the Catholic), 1500 Year of accession (King of Aragon since 1479 ; as Ferdinand V. in Castile ; and conqueror of Navarre in 1512) CHARLES I., . . 1516 (son of Jane the Foolish, and emperor as Charles V., . 1519 PHILIP II., . . . 1556 PHILIP III., . . . 1598 PHILIP IV., . . . 1621 CHARLES II., . . . 1665 House of Bourbon. PHILIP V., . . . 1700 (abdicated 1724) Louis I., . . 1724 PHILIP V. (the second time), . 1724 FERDINAND VI., . . 1746 CHARLES III., . . . 1759 CHARLES IV., . . 1788 Sweden. House of Vasa. GUSTAVUS I. (Vasa), . ERIC XIV., . JOHN III., SlGISMUND, . CHARLES IX., . GUSTAVUS II. (Adolphus), CHRISTINA, 1523 1560 . 1568 1592 . 1600 1611 . 1632 CHARLES X. (Gustavus), . 1654 CHARLES XI., . . 1660 CHARLES XII., . . . 1697 ULRICA ELEANORA, . 1719 FREDERICK I., . . . 1721 ALPHONSO FREDERICK, . 1751 GUSTAVUS III., . . . 1771 INDEX. ACUNHA, NUNO D', conquest of Diu by, 1531, 122 Adanson, Michel, 476 Addison, Joseph, 379 Africa, Portuguese colonies in, sixteenth century, 129 ; Portuguese exploration in, fifteenth century, 119 Agnadel, battle of, 1509, 85 Agriculture in France during the eigh- teenth century, 495 Aigues-Mortes, interview of Charles V. and Francis I. at, 1538, 106 Aix-la-Chapelle, peace of, 1748, 421, 438 Alais, peace of, 1629, 261 Albania, conquest of, by Mohammed II., 70 Alberoni, Giulio, Spanish minister, downfall of, 402 Albuquerque, A. de, exploits of, in India, 1507-12, 121 ; Hindu vener- ation for, 122 Alenc.on, John of Valois, Duke of, im- prisonment and death of, 20 Alexander VI., Pope, 65 ; submission of, to Charles VIII. of France, 78 Alexis Petrovich, Czarevitch, rebellion and death of, 398 Algiers, submission of, to the Ottomans, 1518, 73 Almagro, companion of Pizarro, rebellion and execution of, 128 Almeida, Francisco d', first Portuguese viceroy of India, 121 Alphonso of Castile proclaimed King of Spain, 42 Alphonso V., King of Portugal, Louis XI. of France and, 49 Alsace, cession of, to France, 1648, 284 ; defeat of the allies in, by Turenne, l6 75i 34 2 Alva, Duke of, barbarities of, in the Netherlands, 1567-73, 208 ; submission of Rome to, 1557, 114 Amboise, conspiracy of, 1560, 218 ; treaty of, 1563, 222 America, discovery of, by Columbus, 1492, 124 ; first exports of, 131 ; Span- ish colonies in, sixteenth century, 129 ; Vespucci and. 125 American revolution, France and, 451 ; opening of, 449 ; results of, 455 Amyot and the literature of the sixteenth century, 144 Anabaptists, outrages by, in the Nether- lands, 168 ; rise of, 166 Andrea of Pisa, Italian sculptor, 148 Andrussow, treaty of, 1667, 327 Anglicanism. See CHURCH OF ENGLAND Anjou, Francis, Duke of, military opera- tions of, in 1569, 224 Anne, Czarina of Russia, reign of, 457 Anne, Queen of Great Britain, accession of, 1702, 358 ; reign of, 434 Anne of Austria, Queen-regent of France, Cardinal Mazarin and, 311 Anne of Beaujeu and Maximilian of Germany, 25 ; regency of, 24 Anne of Brittany, marriage of, to Charles VIII. of France, 26 Antilles, discovery of, by Columbus, 1493, 125 Antome, Jacques D., architectural work of, 482 Arabia, submission of, to the Ottomans, 1517. 73 Aragon and Castile, union of, 43 Aranda, Pedro P., Count of, ministry of, 53 Architecture in France in the sixteenth century, 155 ; in the seventeenth cen- tury, 377 ; new school of, in Italy, in the sixteenth century, 147 Argyle, Archibald Campbell, Earl of, in- vasion of Scotland by, 1685, 352 Ariosto's " Orlando Furioso, and Boi- ardo's " Orlando Inamorato," 142 Aristotle and Plato in the sixteenth cen- tury, 141 Aries, capture of, by Charles V., 1536, i5 Armada, Spanish, failure of, 1588, 217 Armagnac, John V., Count of, terrible punishment of, and his relatives, by Louis XL, 20 Arnauld, Antoine, theological works of, Arras, capture of, by the French, 1640, 280 ; treaty of, 1482, 23 Art in Europe in the seventeenth cen- tury, 381 Art in France, Colbert as the patron f> 337 ! Henry IV. as the patron 521 522 INDEX. of, 252 ; in the sixteenth century, 15^ ; in the seventeenth century, 365 ; in the eighteenth century, 482 Art in Germany during the Renais- sance, 156 Art in Italy, causes of rapid decline in, 154 Astronomical discoveries in the seven- teenth century, 384 Astronomy, Copernicus and the develop- ment of, 158 Augsburg, diet and confession of, 1530, 167 ; interim of, 1548, 170 ; League of, against Louis XIV., 1686, 346; war of. League of, 355 ; peace of, 1555, 171 ; ecclesiastical reservations of peace of, 268 Augustus II., King of Poland, death of, 407 ; reinstatement of, 393 ; renounces his throne in favor of Leczinski, 1706, 3?. 1 Aulic Council, founding of, by the Emperor Maximilian, 54 Austria, acquisition of territory by, under the Emperor Maximilian, 55 ; and France, opening of the conflict be- tween, 1519, 91 ; at the opening of the Thirty Years' War, 270 ; at the close of the seventeenth century, 357 ; decline of, in the eighteenth century. 413 ; designs of France against, 1740, 415 ; Henry IV. of France and, 251 ; reforms in, in the eighteenth century, 506 ; Turkey and, war between, 1787, 507 Austrian succession, war of, 414 Aveni, defeat of the Spaniards at, by the French, 1635, 279 Azores, discovery of, by the Portuguese, 1431, 120 BABINGTON, ANTHONY, execution of, 1586, 216 Bacon, F., " Novum Organum," 380 ; works of, 244 Bade, Josse, early publisher of Paris, 139 Bahamas, discovery of, by Columbus, 1492, 125 Baiezid II., Sultan of the Ottomans, 71 Bailly, Jejin S., 473 Balboa, survey of isthmus of Panama by, 1513, 126 Balzac, Honore de, works of, 366 Baner, John G., military successes of, 280 Banks, development of, in the sixteenth century, 137 Bar, Confederation of, 1768, 463 Barbarelli, Giorgione, works of, 152 Barbaroussa, Ottoman pirate, raTages of, in the Mediterranean, 103 Barnabite order, creation of, 192 Barry, Marie J., Countess of, 510 Bart, Jean, naval exploits of, 361, 362 Basement Club, 499 Batavians, Belgians and, union of, 1576, 205 ; Walloon provinces and, conflict between, 1577-81, 210 Battle of the Spurs. 1513, 87 Bavaria, succession of, purchase of, by Maria Theresa, 1777, 433 Bayard, Pierre du Terrail, Chevalier, death of, 94 ; defense of Mezieres by, 1521, 93 ; Italian campaigns of, 83, 87 Bayle, Pierre, works of, 373 Beaton, Cardinal, assassination of, 1546, 179 Beaufort, Francois de Vend6me, Duke of, military operations and death of, 339 Beauvais, gallant defense of, 1472, 17 " Bed of justice," 406 Belgians, Batavians and, union of, 1576, 205 Belgrade, peace of, 409 ; siege of, by Mohammed II., 52, 69 Belle Isle, Charles L. A. Fouquet, Count of, schemes of, against Austria, 1740, 415 ; retreat of, from Prague, 1742, 417 Belle Isle, battle near, 1747, 420 Bellini, Giovanni, master of Barbarelli and Titian, 152 ; and the colorist school of painting, 149 Bembo, Cardinal, influence of, upon Italian literature, 141 ; on the condition of the clergy before the Reformation, 161 Bentivoglio, Guido, 380 Bernard, St., on the condition of the Church before the Reformation, 161 Bernhard, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, mili- tary success of, 279 Bernouilli, Jacques and John, 385 Berthollet, Claude L., Count, chemical work of, 475 Bethencpurt, John of, conquest of the Canaries by, 1402, 119 Beza, Theodore, severe doctrines of, 175 Bibbiena, Cardinal, " Calandra," 142 Bible, Luther's translation of, 165, 166 Bill of Six Articles, 1539, 181 Bills of exchange, first use of. 137 Biren, John E. de, Duke of Courland, infamous career of, 457 Biron, Armand de Gontaut, Baron de, Marshal of France, conspiracy of, 1600, 251 Black, Joseph, chemical work of, 475 Blanc, Cape, first passage of, by the Por- tuguese, 1444, 120 Blenheim, or Hochstedt, battles of, 1703, 1704, 359. Blois, treaties of, 1504, 1505, 83 Bocold, John, Anabaptist leader, 168 Boehme, Jakob, 379 Boerhaave, Hermann, 385 Bogesund, battle of, 1520, 171 Bohemia, Catholic restoration in, 1620, terrible effects of. 273 ; and Hungary, struggles of, against Austria, in the fifteenth century, 51 Boiardo's "Orlando Inamorato," and Ariosto's " Orlando Furioso," 142 Boileau Despreaux, Nicolas, works of, 37 1 Bojador, Cape, first passage of, by the Portuguese, 1433, 120 Bomb-boats, invention of, 1681, 344 Bonnivet, Guillaume G., Seigneur de, campaigns of, in Italy, 94 Books, earliest printed, 139 INDEX. 5 2 3 Bordeu, Theophile de, scientific work of, 476 Borgia, Caesar, 82 ; crimes of, 143 Borromeo. Charles, St., 195 Bossuet, Jacques B., Bishop of Meaux, Bourdaloue and, 367 ; on the condition of the Church before the Reformation, 161, 163 Bothwell, John Hepburn, Earl of, Mary Stuart and, 214 Bothwell Bridge, battle of, 351 Boucher, Jean, works of, 483 Boulogne, ransom of, from the English, by Henry II., in Bourbon, Charles, Duke of, Constable of France, Bayard and, 94 ; death of, 97 ; treason of, 94 Bourbon, Louis H., Duke of, exile of, 407 ; Marchioness of Prie and, 406 Bourdaloue, Louis, Bossuet and, 367 Boyle, Robert, 385 Boyne, battle of, 1690, 355 Bradley, James, discoveries by, 473 Braganza, house of, establishment of, on the throne of Portugal, 1665, 339 Bramante and Michael Angelo, 147 ; and the new school of architecture in the sixteenth century, 147 Brandt, Sebastian. " Bark of Fools," 146 Brazil, discovery of, by Cabral, 121 ; early commerce of, Portuguese monop- oly of, 131 ; first colonists of, 123 Breda, compromise of, 1566, 208 Briel, capture of, by the " Beggars," 1572, 208 Brienne, Lomenie de. See LOMNIE DE BRIENNE Brissac, Charles de Cpsse, Marshal of France, defense of Piedmont by, 1554, 112 Brittany, Francis II., Duke of, 25 Broglie, Victor F., Duke of, Marshal of France, campaigns of, in the Seven Years' War, 427 Brunelleschi and the new school of archi- tecture of the sixteenth century, 147 Bruyere, Jean de la. " Characters," 369 Buckers, Haas, musical inventions of, 156 Buckingham, George Villiers, Duke of, assassination of, 1628, 293 ; disgraceful administration of, 289 ; impeachment of, 1626, 292 ; James I. and, 289 Buffon, George L. L., Count of, zoolog- ical work of, 475 Burgoyne, General John, surrender of, !777> 45 1 Burgundy, Charles the Bold, Duke of, alliance of, with Edward IV. of Eng- land, 14; and Louis XL, 12; in Lor- raine and Switzerland, 18 ; last cam- paigns and death of, 18, 22 Burnet, Gilbert, 380 CABOT, JOHN, discovery of Newfound- land by, 1497, 128 Cabot, Sebastian, discoveries by, 128 Cabral, Alvarez, discovery of Brazil by, 121 Cadan, treaty of, between Lutherans and Catholics, 1534, 109, 167 Cade, Jack, Rebellion of, 29 Cadiz, sack of, by the English, 1596, 218 Cajetano, Cardinal, mission of, to Luther, 164 Calais, capture of, by the Duke of Guise, 1558, 114 Calas, Jean, execution of, 496 Calcutta, Portuguese factory established at, by Alvarez Cabral, 121 Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, 379 Calicut. See CALCUTTA Calmar, union of, restoration of, 1520, 171 Calonne, Charles A. de, ministry of, 514 Calvin, J., and the literature of the six- teenth century, 145 ; " Christian Insti- tutes," influence of, 177 ; Geneva under, 1540-^64, 175 ; Luther and, 187 ; severe doctrines of, 175 Calvinism, doctrines of, 184 ; in France, rise of, 176 ; in the Netherlands, Lutheranism displaced by, 176 Camaldules, order of, creation of, 1522, 192 Cambrai, treaty of, 1529, 98, 101 ; vio- lation of, by Charles V., 104 Camisards, revolt of, 359 Camoens, Luis de, works of, 379 Canada, discovery of, by Jacques Cartier, 1534, 128 ; loss of, by France, 430 Canals, development of, in France, under Colbert, 333 ; with locks, invention of, fifteenth century, 137 Canaries, conquest of, 1402, 119 Candia, siege of, by the Ottomans, 1645- 69, 324. 339 Cano, Melchior del, lieutenant and suc- cessor of Magellan, 127 Cardona, Raymond de, defeat of the French by, 1512-13, 87 Carr, Robert, favorite of James L, 289 Cartier, Jacques, discovery of Canada by, 1534, 128 _ Cassini, Domenico, 384 Castile, union of, with Aragon, 43 ; insur- rection in, against Charles I., 1519, 48 ; Ximenes and, 47 Castro, John de, and Portuguese domin- ion in India, 122 ; death of, 123 Cateau-Cambresis, treaty of, 1559 ; mu- tual concessions under, 115 Catherine of Aragon, divorce of, from Henry VIII., 180 Catherine de Medici, queen of Henry II. of France, character of, 203 ; edict of, against Protestantism, 223 ; Guises and, 221 ; regency of, 218 Catherine, Czarina of Peter the Great, diplomacy of, 393 Catherine II., Czarina of Russia, charac- ter of, 462. 468 ; death of, 468 ; reforms attempted by, 508 ; reign of, 459 Catholics and Protestants, conflict be- tween, opening of, 169 Catholics in England, persecutions of under Queen Elizabeth, 216 ; Test Bill and, 350 5 2 4 INDEX. Catholic Church, in Spanish and Portu- guese colonies, 133 ; reform of, under Pope Pius V., 1566-72, 197 ; seculari- zation of property of, effects of, 166 Catholic League in Germany, formation of, 1601), 269 Catholicism in England, James II. and, 352 ; under Mary, 182 ; in Scotland) downfall of, 212 ; renunciation of, by Edward VI., 182 Cavendish, Henry, chemical work of, 475 Cerdagne and Roussillon, surrender of, to Louis XI. of France, 1462, n Cerisoles, defeat of the Spaniards at, by the Duke of Enghien, 1544, 107 Cervantes, Miguel de, 379 Ceylon, Portuguese conquest of, 1518, iac Champagne, Philippe de, works of, 375 Charles V., emperor of the \Vest (Charles I., King of Spain,), accession of, to the throne of Spain, 47 ; alliance of, with Andrew Doria, 98 ; alliance of, with Henry VIII. of England, 1543, 107 ; and Francis I., King of France, 91 ; and the interim of Augsburg, 170 ; and Soule'iman I., truce between, 1545, 109; colonial government under, 130; crowned by Pope Clement VII., 98; destruction of Terouanne by, 1553, 112; flight and submission of, in ; insurrection against, in Castile, 1519, 48 ; invasion of France by, 1544, 108 ; invasion of Provence by, 1536, 104 ; league of Smalkalde against, 1532, 102 ; monopoly in the African slave trade granted by, 1517, 132 ; narrow escape of, from Maurice of Saxony, 170; Netherlands under, 207 ; papacy and, in 1541, 190; perfidy and cruelty of, to German Protestant princes, no; Philip II. and, "239; policy of, toward the Reformation, 167,169, 176; Pope Leo X. declares for, 93 ; relinquish ment of his crowns by, 1556, 112; siege of Magdeburg by, 170 ; siege of Metz by, 1552, 112 ; surrender of Piedmont to, 104 ; violation of treaty of Cambrai by, 104 Charles VI., Emperor of the West, accession of, 1711, 360; "pragmatic' of, 1713, 414 ; succession of, 414 Charles VII., King of France, progress of royal authority in last years of, 8 Charles VIII., King of France, character of, 81 ; Italian expedition of, 1494, 76; Ludovico Sforza and, 78 ; marriage of, to Anne of Brittany, 26 ; Naples sub- mits to, 1495, 79 ; reign of, 24 ; retreat of, from Italy, 79 ; Rome submits to, 1494, 78 Savonarola and, 78 Charles IX., King of France, brief reign of, 203 ; character of, 225 : Coligny and, 226 ; under the regency of his mother, 219 Charles I., King of England, accession of, 1625, 291 ; civil war under, 298 ; final defeat of, at Naseby, 1645, 300 ; Parlia- ment and, conflict between, 292 ; reign of, 292 ; surrender of, by the Scotch, 1647, 301 ; trial and execution of, 1649, 302 ; tyrannical government of, 294 Charles II.. King of England, coronation of, as King of Scotland, (651, 305 ; emigration encouraged by, 447 ; Louis XIV. and, alliance between, 349 ; recall of, 1660, 310 ; Whigs and, 350 Charles II., King of Spain, succession of, 357 Charles III., King of Spain, reforms attempted under, 503 Charles IV., King of Spain, reign of, 504 Charles Gustavus, King of Sweden, defense of Warsaw by, 325 ; invasion of Denmark by, 1658, 326 Charles XII., King of Sweden, accession of, 1697, 390 ; alliance of, with the Cossacks under Mazeppa, 1708, 392 ; character of, 390; death of, 1718, 395 ; Frederick William I. of Prussia and, 412 ; military achievements of, 390 ; overthrow of, by Peter the Great, 1709, 393 ; residence of, in Turkey, 394 Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. See BTRGUNDV Charles Stuart, the Pretender, defeat of, at Culloden, 1746, 419 Chateaubriant, edict of, against the Protestants, 1551, 17* Chateauroux, Marie A. de Nesles, Duch- ess of, Louis XV. and, 417, 418 Chatham, William Pitt, Earl of, Fred- erick the Great and, 426 ; ministry of, 438 Cheracco, peace of, 265 Chevert, Francois de, surrender of Prague by, 1743, 417 Cheselden, \Villiam, 477 Choiseul, Etienne F. de, Duke of, min- istry of, 431, 509 Choisy, Francois T. de. Abbe. "Me- moirs," 369 Christian II., King of Denmark and Nor- way, deposition of, 1523, 171 ; Philip II. and, 238 ; seizure of crown of Sweden by, 171 Christian III., King of Denmark, Protes- tant reforms under, 173 Christian IV., King of Denmark, inva- sion of Germany by, 1625, 273 Christian of Brunswick, defeat of, by Tilly, 1622, 273 Church, condition of, at the opening of the Reformation, 161 Church of England, doctrines of, 185 ; organization of, 1562, 183 Cinq-Mars, Henri Coiffier, Marquis of, conspiracy and execution of, 1642, 263 Cities of safety, in France, under the treaty of St. Germain, 1570. 225 Clairaut, Alexis C., astronomical work of, 472 Clarence, Duke of, brother of Edward IV. of England, 32 Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 380 Clarke, Samuel, 381 Clement VII., Pope, accession of. 96; coronation of Charles V. by, 98 ; death of, 102 INDEX. S'S Clergy, disorders among, at the time of the Reformation, 161, 162 Clermont, Louis de Bourbon-Conde, Count of, campaigns of, in the Seven Years' War. 427 Clinton, Sir Henry, campaigns of, in the American revolution, 452 Clive, Robert, Lord, conquest of India by, 443 : death of, 1774, 444 Colbert, Jean B., death of, 1683, 346 ; financial administration of, 331 Coligny, Gaspard de, Admiral, attempted assassination of , 227 ; character of, 224 ; Charles IX. and, 226 ; defense of St. Quentin by, 1557, 114 ; expedition of, to the Netherlands, 225 ; military opera- tions of, in 1569, 224 Colombia, discovery of, by Columbus, 1502, 125 Colonies, North American, government of, 447 Colonial congress, first, 1765, 440 Colonization by European nations, nature and results of, 129, 136 Colonna, Prosper, capture of, at Villa- franca, 89 Columbus, Christopher, and the route to India, 123 ; discovery of America by, 1492, 124 ; disgrace and death of, 125 ; voyages of, 1492-1502, 125 Commerce, French, development of, under Colbert, 334 ; progress of, under Henry IV., 249 ; of Holland, progress of, in the sixteenth century, 245 Compiegne, castle of, imprisonment of Marie de Medici at, 261 Concino Concini, Marshal d'Ancre, career of, in France, 256 ; Henri, Prince of Conde, and, 257 ; murder of, 1617, 258 Concordat of 1516 between Leo X. and Francis I. of France, 89 Conde, Henri, Prince of, Concini and, 257 Conde, Louis I. de Bourbon, Prince of, assassination of, 1569, 224 ; attempt of, to capture the royal family, 222 ; con- spiracy of Amboise and, 219 ; defeat and capture of, 1562, 220 Conde. Louis II. de Bourbon, Prince of, the Great, brilliant campaign of, against the Spaniards, 1643, 281 ; capture of Dunkirk by, 1646, 282 ; imprisonment of, 1650, 315 ; insurrection under, 1651, 316 ; restoration of, to favor, 318 ; re- tirement of, to Flanders, 1652, 317 ; Turenne^and, 217 Condillac, Etienne B. de, 481 Condorcet, Marie J. A. N. Caritat, Mar- quis of, 481 Congress, colonial, 1765, 449 Constable, in France, derivation of the word, and nature of the office, 21 Constantinople, capture of, by the Otto- mans, 59, 67 Contades, Louis G. E., Marquis of, Marshal of France, campaigns of, in the Seven Years' War, 427 Cook, Captain James, voyages of, 477 Copenhagen, diet of, 1530, 173 ; treaty of. 1660, 326 Copernicus and his astronomical system, 158 Corneille, Pierre, works of, 370 Cornwallis, Charles, Marquis of, surrender of, at Yorktown, 1781, 454 Corbie, capture of, by the Spaniards, 1636, 279 Correggio, works of, 152 . Corsica, conquest of, by France, 1768, 509; occupation of, by Henry II. of France, 1554, 112 ; restoration of, to the Genoese, under the treaty of 1559, "5 Cortes, Ferdinand, conquest of Mexico by, 1519, 126 ; cruelties of, in Mexico, 127 ; disgrace and death of, 127 Corvmus, Mathias, capture of Vienna by, 1485, 53 Cosmo de Medici. See MEDICI Cossacks, revolt of, at Azof, 1705, 389 Coster, Lawrence, and movable type, 138 Cotte, Robert de, architectural work of, 482 Coucy, edict of, revocation of, 178 Coulomb, Charles A. de, scientific work of, 474 Council of the Indies, Spanish, creation of, by Ferdinand, 1511, 130 Courts of justice, French, during the eighteenth century, 488 Cousin, Jean, French artist, 155 Coustou, Guillaume, 482 ; and Nicolas, works of, 376 Coutras, battle of, 1587, 230 Covenanters. Scotch, origin of, 1638, 295 Coysevox, Antoine, works of, 376 Crespy, treaty of, 1544, 108 Crimea, seizure of, by Catherine II., 1783, 465 Cromwell, Oliver, administration of, 309 ; assumes the title of Protector, 1653, 306 ; barbarities under, in Ireland, 1649, 303, 307 ; beginning of career of, 299 ; death of, 1658, 309 ; defeat of Prince Rupert by, 1644, 300 ; intended emigration of, 295 ; Parliament ex- pelled by, 1653, 306 ; progress of Eng- land under, 308 ; victory of, at Dunbar, 1650, 305 ; Worcester captured by, 1651, 305 Cromwell, Richard, brief protectorship of, 309 Cronstadt. See KRONSTADT Cuba, discovery of, by Columbus, 1492, 125 Cudworth, Ralph, 380 Culloden, defeat of Charles Stuart at, 1746, 419, 437 Cuzco, strife among the Portuguese cap- tors of, 128 D'AGUESSEAU, HENRI F., 481 D'Aiguillon, Duke, 510 D'Alembert, Jean le Rond, works of, Dampier, William, 477 D'Argenson, Antoine J. Dezallier, on the government of France in the eigh- teenth century, 499 526 INDEX. Darnley, Henry, Mary, Queen of Scots, and, 214 Daubenton, Louis J. M., 476 Daun, Leopold J. M., Count of, cam- paigns of, in the Seven Years' War, 425 Davila, Henrico C., 380 Declaration of Independence, signing of, 1776, 450 Declaration of Rights, signing of, by William III., 1689 Delisle, Guillaume, 384 Delorme, Philibert, French architect, 155 Denmark, alliance of, with Francis I. of France, 1541, 107 ; at the opening of the Thirty Years' War, 268 ; conquest of, by Charles XII. of Sweden, 390 ; invasion of, by Charles Gustavus, 1658, 326 ; overthrow of the aristocracy in, 1660, 326 ; Reformation of the sixteenth century in, 173 ; States General of, suppression of, by the aristocracy, 1540, 173 ; treaty of, with Francis I. of France, 1541, 103 Descartes, Rene, influence of, on science, 383 ; philosophical system of, 372 Despreaux, Nicolas Boileau. See Boi- LEAU Dessau, confederacy of Catholic princes formed at, 1525, 167 Dettingen, battle of, 1743, 417 Diaz, Bartholomew, discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by, 1486, 120 Diderot, Denis, works of, 481 Dieppe, early explorers from, 1364-1410, 119 Discoveries, maritime, first, 118; prog- ress of, under Queen Elizabeth, 243 Diu, conquest of, by Nuno d'Acunha, 1531, 122 ; defense of, by John de Castro, 122; Portuguese victory at, 1508, 121 Djem, Ottoman prince. See ZIZIM Dolgorouki, princes, banishment and slaughter of, 457 Donatello, founder of the Florentine school of sculptors, 148 Doria, Andrew, alliance of, with Charles V., 08 ; expeditions under, against Ottoman pirates, 103 Dormans, battle of, 229 Dragout, Ottoman pirate, conquest of Tripoli by, 1551, 104 Drake, Sir Francis, American expedition of, 1577-80, 216 Dreux, battle of, 1562, 221 Drogheda, massacre at, under Cromwell, 1649,303 Dryden, John, 379 Dubois, Guillaume, appointed Arch- bishop of Cambrai, 401 Dubourg, Anne, execution of, 179 Duguay-Trouin, Rene, naval exploits of, 362 * Dunbar, battle of, 1650, 305 Dunkirk, capture of, by the Prince of Conde, 1646, 282 ; by Turenne, 1658, 318 Dupleix, Joseph, administration of, in India, 420, 442 Duquesne, Abraham, bombardment of Genoa by, 1685, 345 ; Mediterranean pirates suppressed by, 344 EAST INDIA COMPANY, Dutch, 146 ; Eng- lish, origin and history of, 440 Edgehijl, battle of, 1642, 298 Education in the North American colo- nies, 448 Edward IV., King of England, alliance of, with the Duke of Burgundy, 14 ; futile invasion of France by, 19 ; pro- claimed king, 31 Edward VI., King of England, renuncia- tion of Catholicism by, 182 Egypt and Syria, conquest of, by the Ottomans, 1516, 72 Elizabeth, Queen of England, accession of, 1558, 183, 211 ; aid furnished to French Protestants by, 220 ; charac- teristics of, 211 ; condition of England under, 242 ; death of, 1603, 244 ; ex- communication of, by Pope Pius V., 1570, 215 ; Mary Stuart and, 215 ; Philip II. of Spain proposes marriage to, 212 Elizabeth Petrowna, Czarina of Russia, reign of, 459 Emanuel the Fortunate, King of Portugal, 5 Emigration from England to America under Charles I., 294 Enghien, Duke of. See CONDE, Louis II. DE BOL'RBON, PRINCE OF England, attempted invasion of, by Louis XIV., 1692, 355 ; civil war in, under Charles I., 298 ; coalition against, in 1780, 453 ; colonization methods of, 136; commonwealth of, declared, 1649, 303; condition of, at the middle of the fifteenth century, 27 ; condition of, in 1661, 320 ; condition of, under Henry VIII., 181 ; condition of, under the Stuarts and Cromwell, 286 ; emigration from, to America, under Charles I., 294 ; France and, alliance of, under George I., 402 ; India and, 443 ; Netherlands and, treaty between, 1585, 216 ; Portugal and, treaty between, 1703, 435 ; prosperity of, after the religious wars of the sixteenth century, 241 ; Reformation of the sixteenth century in, 180 ; restoration of the monarchy in, 1660, 309 ; revolution of 1688, 349 ; results of revolution, 434 ; Scotland and, union of, 1707,435 ; Spain and, religious war between, in the six- teenth century, 212, 215 ; territorial additions to. under the treaty of Paris, 1763, 431 ; war of the Austrian suc- cession and, 416, 437 ; war of the Spanish succession and, 360 English literature, Elizabethan era of, 244; in the seventeenth century, 379 Engraving on copper, first, 156 Epee, Charles M. de 1', and deaf mutes, 476 Erasmus. " Cplloquia," great demand for, after the invention of printing, 139 ; literary career of, 145 INDEX. 5 2 7 Ercilla y Zuniga, Alonzo, works of, 370 Eric XIV., King of Sweden, Philip II. and, 239 Escurial, palace of, 201 Essek, defeat of the Austrians at, by Souleiman I., 1537, 105 Essex, Robert Devereux, Earl of, mili- tary operations of, as leader of the parliamentary army, 298 ; rebellion and execution of, 1601, 244 Estaing, Charles H., Count d', in the American revolution, 452 Etables, treaty of, 77 Etching, invention of, 156 Eugene, Fran5ois of Savoy, Prince, mili- tary operations of, against the Mila- nais, 1701-02, 359 ; retreat of, from France, 1712, 361 ; victories of, over the Ottomans, 1716-17, 413 Eugenius IV., Pope, re-establishment of the University of Rome by, 140 Euler, Leonard, mathematical work of, 4?i. 472 Europe, condition of, at the middle of the fifteenth century, i ; in 1661, 320 ; in the sixteenth century, effects of the influx of American gold and silver, 135 ; low standard of morals in, 143 ; in the eighteenth century, 484 Evangelical Union of Germany, forma- tion of, 269 FAIRFAX, THOMAS, LORD, leader of the parliamentary forces, 300 " Famine compact '' in France, 497, 501 Farnese. Alexander, Duke of Parma, campaigns of, in the Netherlands, 210 ; death of, 1591, 232 ; invasion of France by, 1590, 231 Farnese, Pietro L., assassination of, no Faust, or Fust, Johann, invention of printing by, 138 Felton, John, assassination of the Duke of Buckingham by, 1628, 293 Fenelon, Francois de Salignac de la Mothe, works of, 368 Ferdinand I., Emperor of the West, acces- sion of, 1556, 112 Ferdinand II., Emperor of the West, restoration of secularized property by, 275 ; Thirty Years' War and, 271 ; victory of, at White Mountain, 1620, 2 7 3_ Ferdinand III., Emperor of the West, Turenne and, 283 Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Spain, accession of, 43 ; and Isabella, Colum- bus and, 124 ; colonial government under, 130 ; perfidy of, 143 ; revival of the Inquisition by, 44 ; second mar- riage of, 83 Ferdinand VI., King of Spain, reforms attempted under, 503 Ferdinand I., King of Naples, reign of, 66 : treachery of, 143 Ferdinand II., King of Naples, flight of, I 4Q5> 79 Ferdinand III., King of Denmark, over- throw of the aristocracy by, 326 Ferdinand of Austria, King of Hungary, 101 Fermat, Pierre, discoveries of, 384 Ferrari, of Bologna, Italian mathemati- cian, 158 Fieschi, Giovanni L., conspiracy of, no Filicaja, Vincenzo da, works of, 379 Finiguerra, first engraver on copper, 156 Finisterre, Cape, battle of, 1747, 420 Fleix, peace of, 1580, 229 Fleury, Andre H. de, Bishop of Frejus, influence of, over Louis XV., 406 ; military operations of, 1733-35, 47> 498 ; ministry of, 407 ; war of the Austrian succession and, 417 Florence, _ entry of Charles VIII. of France into, 1494, 78 ; in the fifteenth century, 61 Fontaine. See LA FONTAINE Fontana, Felix, scientific work of, 474 Fontenoy, battle of, 1745, 418 Fornovo, battle of, 1495, 80 Fourcroy, Antoine F. de, chemical work oil 475 France, absolute monarchy in, under Louis XIV., 329 ; agriculture in, during the eighteenth century, 495 ; American revolution and, 451 ; and England, negotiations for peace between, 1711, 361 ; architecture in, in the sixteenth century, 155 ; army of, during the eighteen ;h century, 490 ; army of, reforms in, unuer Louvois, 338 ; army of, sufferings of, in 1709, 360 \ army of, under Henry IV., 250 ; art in, in the sixteenth century, 154 ; Austria and, in 1740, 415 ; Austria and, opening of the conflict between, 1519, 91 ; Calvin- ism in, development of, 176 ; civil war in (the Fronde), 314 ; clergy of, during the eighteenth century, 491 ; coalition against, 1672, 342; College of, Erasmus declines the direction of, 145 ; College of, founding of, by Francis I., 1530, 144 ; colonization methods of, 136; com- merce of, development of, in the first half of the eighteenth century, 422 ; commerce of, at the middle of the fifteenth century, 8 ; commerce of, after the edict of Nantes, 246 ; com- merce of, in 1661, 320 ; commerce of, at the close of the war of the Spanish suc- cession, 364 ; England and, alliance of, under George I., 402 ; famine in, 1709, 360 ; finances of, during the eighteenth century, 488 ; finances of, John Law and, 403 ; under Colbert, 331 ; finance of, under the Paris-Duverneys, 406 ; government of, during the eighteenth century, 485 ; Holland and, alliance of, 1627, 261 ; Holland and. commercial rivalry of, under Louis XIV., 340 ; India and, in the eighteenth century, 420, 441 ; invasion of, by the allied forces, 1513, 87 ; invasion of, by Charles V., 1544, 108 ; law of, revision of, under Louis XIV., 336; manufac- tures in, during the eighteenth cen- tury, 494 ; navy of, in the Seven Years' 5*8 INDEX. War, 429 ; navy of, revival of, under Colbert, 335 ; navy of, weakness of, in the war of the Spanish succession, 361 ; obligation of the United States to, 450 ; Ottoman empire and, alliance of, 101 ; Ottoman empire and, alliance of, re- nounced by Louis XIV., 339 ; political and military decline of, in the eighteenth century, 509 ; protective tariff in, under Louis XIV., 332; Reformation of the sixteenth century in, 176 ; religious wars in, in the sixteenth century, 218 ; results of the Thirty Years' War to, 284 ; social condition of, during the eighteenth century, 491 ; Spain and, wars between, 317, 402 ; States General of, convocation of, 1614, 256 ; taxation in, during the eighteenth century, 480, 492 ; territorial increase of, under Col- bert, 335 ; treaty of Paris and, 1763, 432 ; treaty of Vienna and, 1738, 408 ; under Cardinal Richelieu, 263 Francis I., King of France, alliance of, with the Ottoman empire, 102 ; alliance of, with the Scots, 100, 103 ; alliance of, with Sweden and Denmark, 1541, 107; and Charles V.,9i ; and Charles V., interview of, 1538,106 ; and Henry VIII. of England, 100; as patron of art and letters, 143, 155 ; assassination of envoys of, by the governor of the Milanais, 1540, 107 ; capture of, by the Spaniards, 1525, 95 ; death of, 108 ; Italian expedition of, 1515, 88 ; Milan submits to, 1515, 89; 1524, 95; recap- ture of Piedmont by, 105 ; Reforma- tion of the sixteenth century and, 177; seizure of Savoy by, 1535, 104 ; treaty of, with Denmark, 1541, 103 Francis II., King of France, brief reign of, 203 ; marriage of, to Mary Stuart, 204 Francis Xavier, St., and John de Castro, 123 ; death of, 1552, 133 ; missionary labors of, in India and Japan, 133 Franklin. Benjamin, scientific work of, Frederick III., Emperor of the West, reign of, 51 Frederick I., first King of Prussia (Fred- erick III., Elector of Brandenburg), accession of, 1688, 410; ambitious schemes of, 411; crowns himself King of Prussia, 1701. 411 ; death of, 411 Frederick II., the Great, King of Prussia, accession of, 1740, 413 ; campaigns of, in the Seven Years' War, 424 ; conquest of Silesia by, 1740, 415 ; dreary youth of, 412 ; Earl of Chatham and, 426 ; first campaign of, 413; growth of Prussia under, 423 ; Poland and, 462 Frederick William I. of Prussia, alliance of, with Russia and Austria, 1733, 412; character of, 411 ; conquest of Swedish territory by, 412 Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, declination of the crown of Germany by, 91 ; protector of Luther, 164 Frederick V., Elector Palatine and King of Bohemia, flight of, 273 ; supineness of, 272 Frederick of Hohenzollern, Burggrave of Nuremberg, origin of Prussia under, 1417, 409 Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, conquests of, 410 Frederick I., King of Denmark and Nor- way, accession of, 1524, 171 ; Protes- tantism embraced by, 1525, 173 Frederick, King of Naples, betrayal of, by Gonsalvo of Cordova, 82 Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, Prince-consort of Sweden, accession of, 1720, 395 Freiburg, battle of, 1644, 282 ; treaty of, iS'Si 89 French and Indian war in America, 1754, 423 French language, characteristics of, in the sixteenth century, 143 French literature in the sixteenth cen- tury, 144 ; in the seventeenth century, 365 ; in the eighteenth century, 478 ' French Revolution, causes of, 484 ; open- ing of, 514 Fronde, war of the, in France, 314 1 Frondsberg. George, 97 '. Fuessen, treaty of, 1745, 418 GABRIEL, ANGE, architectural work of, 482 Galiga'i, Leonora, wife of Concini, execu- tion of, 1617, 258 Galilei, Galileo, discoveries of, 383 Gama, Vasco da, voyage of, to India, 1497-98, 1 20 Gassendi, Pierre, Descartes and, 372 Gebhard of Truchsess, Archbishop of Cologne, Catholicism renounced by, 1582, 269 Geneva, separation of, from the Catholic Church, 174 ; under Calvin, 1540-64, 175 Genoa and the renaissance of letters, 140 ; bombardment of, by Duquesne, 1685, 345 ; Columbus and the senate of, 124 ; in the second half of the fif- teenth century, 59 Geography, reformation of, in the sev- enteenth century, 384 Geographical discoveries of the eigh- teenth century, 477 George I., King of Great Britain, acces- sion of, 1714, 435 ; alliance of, with the Regent of France, 402 George II., King of Great Britain, acces- sion of, 1727, 436 George III., King of Great Britain, ac- cession of, 1760, 439 i Germaine de Foix, Queen of Ferdinand, King of Spain, cession of Naples to, 1505- 83 German literature in the sixteenth cen- tury, 145 ; in the seventeenth century, 379 Germantown, battle of, 1777, 451 Germany, art in, during the Renaissance, 156 ; Catholic restoration in, in the sixteenth century, 269 ; classical schol- ars of, in the sixteenth century, 146 ; INDEX. 529 condition of, at the middle of the fif- teenth century, 51 ; condition of, in 1661, 324 ; invasion of, by Henry II. of France, 1551-52, in ; invasion of, by Christian IV., 1625, 273 ; invasion of, by Gustavus Adolphus, 1630, 276 ; invasion of, by Louis XIV., 1688, 356 ; results of the Thirty Years' War to, 284 Ghent, submission of, to France, 1538, 106 Ghiberti, Lorenzo, Italian sculptor, 148 Ghirlandajo, Domenico del, master of Michael Angelo, 149 Gibraltar, capture of, by the English, 1707, 360 ; siege of, by the Count d'Artois, 1782, 455 Giotto and his school of painting, 148 Girardon, Francois, works of, 376 Goa, capture of, by Albuquerque, 1510, 121 Goertz, George H., Baron von, intrigues and execution of, 394, 395 Gold and silver, American, effects of in- flux of, in Europe, sixteenth century, !35 Gondi, Paul of. See RKTZ, J. F. P. DE GONDI, CARDINAL DK Gonsalvo of Cordova, betrayal of Freder- ick, King of Naples, by, 82 Goujon, Jean, French sculptor, 155 Gourville, Jean Herault de, historical work of, 369 Granada, siege of, 1491, 44 Granvelle, Cardinal, administration of, in the Netherlands, 207 Grasse, Francois J., Count de, capture of, in Jamaica, 1782, 454 ; victories of, in the Antilles, 454 Greek Church in Russia, reformations in, under Peter the Great, 397 Greek colonies, nature and development of, 135 Greek empire, conquest of, by Mohammed II., 69 Greenwich Hospital, founding of, by William III., 1696, 434 Gregory XIII., Pope, Gregorian calendar established by, 197 Gregory, James, 385 Grenada, island of, capture of, by d'Es- taing, 1779, 452 Greuze, Jean B., works of, 483 Grey, Lady Jane, execution of, 1553, 182 Grijalva, Hernando de, discovery of Mexico by, 1518, 126 Grotius, or Van Groot, Hugo, 380 Guanahani, island of, landing of Colum- bus on, 1492, 124 Guatemozin, Emperor of Mexico, torture of, by Cortes, 1521, 126 Guebriant, Jean B. Budes, Count of, mili- tary successes of, 281 Guidi, Domenicho, works of, 379 Guinea, discovery of, 1364, 119 Guise, house of, Catherine de Medici and, 203 Guise, Francis, Duke of, capture of Calais by, 1558, 114 ; invasion of Italy by, 1556, 113 Guise, Henry of Lorraine, Duke of, alli- ance of, with Philip II., 1584, 230 ; assassination of, 221 ; defeat of Conde by, 1562, 220 ; League and, 229 ; mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew's Day and, 227 Gunpowder Plot, discovery of, 1605, 287 Guns, siege of, by Souleiman I., 1532, 102 Gustavus I., King of Sweden (Gustavus Vasa), accession of, 1523, 171 : corona- tion of, 1528, 173 ; development of the country under, 173 ; Protestantism in- troduced by, 172 Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, death of, 1632, 277 ; invasion of Ger- many by, 1630, 276 ; military operations of, in Livonia and Prussia, 1625, 276; Richelieu and, 276 Gustavus III., King of Sweden, cam- paigns of, 469 ; reforms under, 508 Gutenberg, John, invention of printing by, 138 Guyenne, Charles, Duke of, brother of Louis XL, 16 HABEAS CORPUS, veto of, in England, l6 79, 35 * Hague, The, league of, 1701-03, 358 ; Philip II. and, truce between, 1609, 211 ; States General of, separation of, from the Netherlands, 1581, 210 ; triple alliance of, 1668, 340 Haidar Ali, struggles of, against the English, 444 Halley, Edmund, 385 Hampden, John, trial of, lessons of, 295 Harvey, William, 385 Hassan, Ouzoun, Tartar chief, defeat of, by Mohammed II., 70 Hastings, Warren, trial of, 445 Haiiy, Rene J., Abbe, 476 Haiiy, Valentin, 476 Hayti, discovery of, by Columbus, 1492, 125 Helvetius, Claude A., 481 Henries, three, war of the, 1586-89, 230 Henry II., King of France, accession of, 1547, 108 ; and Pope Paul IV., 113 ; efforts of, to suppress Protestantism, in ; foreign policy of, in ; invasion of Germany by, 1551-52, in; Reformation and, 178 ; secret alliance of, with Ger- man Protestant princes, in Henry III., Kingof France, accession of, 1574, 228 ; defeat and assassination of, 1589, 231 Henry IV., King of France and Navarre, the Great, accession of, 1589, 231 ; assassination of, 1610, 252 ; canal with locks constructed by, 137 ; condition of France under, 747 ; death of, 1610, 255 ; designs of, against Austria, 251 ; favor- ites of, 250 ; marriage of, to Princess Marguerite, 226 ; patronage of the arts by, 252 ; Protestantism renounced by, 233 Henry VI., King of England, 29 Henry VII., King of England, character of, 36 ; Columbus and, 124 ; founder of the Tudor dynasty, 33 ; suppression of public liberties by, 35 53 INDEX. Henry VIII., King of England, alliance of with Charles V. of Germany, 93, 107 ; and the Holy League, 97 ; and Louis XII. of France, 88; divorce of, from Catherine of Aragon, 180 ; excom- munication of, by Pope Clement VII., 180 ; marriage of, to Anne Boleyn, 1532, 180 ; persecutions under, 181 ; siege of Boulogne by, 1544, 108 ; wives of, 181 Henry IV. , King of Castile, 42 Henry, son of King John I. of Portugal, African explorations of, 119 Herrera Tordesillas, Antonio de, 380 Herschel, William, astronomical work of, 473 Hexham, battle of, 1463, 31 Hispaniola, island of, depopulation of, by slavery, 131 Historical works of the seventeenth century, 380 Hobbes, Thomas. " Leviathan," 380 Hochstedt, battles of. See BLENHEIM Hohenzollern, house of, growth of Prussia under, 1417-1640, 409 Holbach, Paul Thyry, Baron of, 481 Holland, condition of, in 1661, 321 ; France and, alliance of, 1627, 261 ; France and, commercial rivalry of. undo- Louis XIV., 340 ; invasions of, by the French, 1672,341 ; 1747,420; Navigation Act of 1651 and, 305 ; prosperity of, after the religious wars of the sixteenth century, 245. See also HAGUE Holy League, formation of, 1511, 86 Hopital, Michael de 1', religious policy of, 219 Hospitals in France, condition of, during the eighteenth century, 498 Hubertsburg, treaty of, 432 Hudson's Bay, discovery of, by Sebastian Cabot, 128 Huguenots in France, Richelieu and, 260 ; Mamelukes and, conflict between, at Geneva, 1530, 174 Hungary, and Bohemia, struggles of, against Austria, in the fifteenth cen- tury, 51 ; conquest of, by Soulei'man I., 1529, 101 : division of, by the treaty of Wuitzen, 1536, 106 ; recapture of, by Soulei'man I., 1541, 106 ; struggle for, between Charles V. and Soule'iman I., 1529, ^167 Huniadi, John, raises the siege of Bel- grade, 52, 69 Hutten, Ulrich von, 145, 147 Huyghens, Christian, 384 Hyder Ali. See HAIDAR ALI IGNATIUS DK LOYOLA, founder of the Jesuits, 192 Index, Congregation of the, establishment of, 191 India, conquest of, by England, 443 ; France and, in the eighteenth century, 420, 441 ; John Law and, 441 ; mis- sionary labors of St. Francis Xavier in, J 33 ; Portuguese colonization in, 1500, 121 ; route to, Columbus and, 123 Indulgences, traffic in, 163 Innocent XL, Pope, Louis XIV. and, conflict between, 1687, 345 Inquisition, establishment of, in Spanish colonies, 134 ; in Spain under Ferdi- nand, 44 ; revival of, 1542, 191 Inquisitors, state, of Venice, despotic rule of, 60 Insurance companies, first, 137 Ireland, barbarities under Cromwell in, 1649, 33. 37 Isabella of Castile, Queen of Spain, 43 ; death of, 125. See also FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. Italian literature of the Renaissance, licentiousness of, 142 ; of the seven- teenth century, 379 Italy, architecture in, in the sixteenth century, 147 ; art in, causes of rapid decline in, 154 ; condition of, in the second half of the fifteenth century, 56 ; condition of, under the treaty of 1559, 115 ; condition of, in 1661, 323 ; defeat of the Spaniards in, by the French, 1642, 280 ; French conquests in, 1744, 419 ; invasion of, by Charles VIII. of France, 1494, 76 ; invasion of, by Maximilian, 1495, 80 ; invasion of, by Louis XII. of France, 1500, 81 ; inva- sion of, by Francis I. of France, 1515, 88 ; invasion of, by the Duke of Guise, 1556, 113 ; printing in, rapid growth of, 139 ; struggle for, between France and Austria, 94 Ivan VI. of Russia, murder of, 459 JAMAICA, attack upon, by the French, in 1782, 454 James I., King of England (James VI. of Scotland), character of, 286 ; death of, 1625, 290 ; Duke of Buckingham and, 289 ; Parliament and, conflict be- tween, 288 ; recognition of, 1603, 286 ; writings of, 290 James II., King of England, accession of, 1685, 351 ; Catholicism and, 352 ; flight of, 1688, 353 ; invasion of Ireland by, 1690, ^55 James V., King of Scotland, invasion of England by, 1542, 107 Janissaries, revolt of, under Mourad II., 68 Jansenism, leaders of, 373 Japan, missionary labors of St. Francis Xavier in, 133 Jassy, treaty of, 1791, 466 Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre, sus- picious death of, 226 Jeffreys, George, Lord, infamy of, 352 Jenner, Edward, 476 Jesuits, banishment of, from Spain, 1767, 503 ; founding of, 192 ; missions of, rapid growth of, sixteenth century, 135 ; organization and work of, 193 ; rapid progress of, 194 John III., King of Sweden, alliance be- tween Philip II. and, 239 John II., King of Portugal, Columbus' and, 124; reign of, 49 INDEX. 531 John, Don. See JUAN ohn of Aragon, usurpation of, 41 ohn of Leyden. See BOCOLD, JOHN ohn Frederick, Elector of Saxony, cap- ture of, at Muhlburg, 1547, 169 Joinville. treaty of, 1584, 230 Joseph I., King of Portugal, reforms under, 502 Joseph II., Emperor of Austria, reforms under, 506 Jouffroy, Marquis de, invention of the steamboat by, 1783, 474 Juan, Don, son of Charles V., defeat of the Ottomans by, 1571, 237 ; in the Netherlands, 209 Julian, Cardinal, on the condition of the clergy in the fifteenth century, 162 Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar, 197 Julius II., Pope, and Louis XII. of France, conflict between, 86 ; as patron of letters, 140 KAINARDJI, treaty of, 1774, 465 Kardis, treaty of, 1661, 326 Kepler, John, discoveries of, 383 Knox, John, confession of, adopted by the Scotch Parliament, 1560, 212 ; Reformation in Scotland and, 180 Koskiusko, T., and the partition of Po- land, 467 Kronstadt, Russia, harbor of, 396 LA BOURDONNAIS, BERTRAND F. MAH(S, COUNT OF, conquests of, in India, 420, 442 La Bruyere. See BRUYERE Lacaille, Nicolas L. de, Abbe, astronom- ical work of, 472 Ladislaus VI., King of Bohemia and Hungary, 52 La Fayette, Gilbert du Mottier, Marquis de, in the American revolution, 451 La Fontaine, Jean de, works of, 372 La Grange, Joseph L., mathematical work of. 471 Lainez and the Council of Trent, 195 Lalande, Joseph J. Le Frangais de, astronomical work of, 472 Lally, Thomas A., Count, administration of, in India, 430, 444 ; execution of, 444 Lamettrie, Julien Offray de, 481 La Mothe le Vayer, Franqois de, works of, 373 Lancaster and York, houses of, War of the Roses between, 28 Lancelot, Claude, works of, 373 La Perouse, Jean F. Galaup de, voyages of. 477 La Place, Pierre S., Marquis de, mathe- matical work of, 471, 472 La Quintinie, Jean de, works of, 376 La Rochefoucauld, Francois, Duke of. "Maxims," 367 ; "Memoirs," 370 Las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, labors of, in behalf of Indians, 131 Latin language, universal use of, by Ger- man scholars of the sixteenth century, '45 La Tremouille, Louis II., Sire de, capture of Louis XI. by, 1486, 25 ; 1488, 26 ; repulse of the English by, in Picardy, 1523. 94 Laud, William, Archbishop of Canter- bury, persecutions by, 295 Laurentius Petri, Lutheran preacher, honors bestowed upon, by Gustavus I., 172 Lautrec (Odet de Foix), Marshal of France, death of, 98 ; defeat of, 1522, 93 Lavoisier, Antoine L., chemical work of, Law, John, financial schemes of, 403 ; French power in India and, 441 League, Catholic, in France, in the six- teenth century, 229 League of Public Welfare in France, 1465, ii Le Brun, Charles, works of, 374 Leczinska, Mary, marriage of, to Louis Xy., 1725, 406 Leczinski, Stanislaus, and the throne of Poland, 391, 407 Lefort, Gervaise, Peter the Great and, 388 Leibnitz, Gottfried W., works of, 381, 383 Leighton, Alexander, barbarous punish- ment of, 294 Le Maistre de Sacy, Isaac, translation of the Bible by, 373 Lenet, Pierre, historical work of, 369 Le Notre, Andr6, works of, 376 Lens, battle of, 1648, 283 Leo X., Pope, accession of, 87 ; and the concordat of 1516. 89 ; as patron of letters. 140 ; declaration of, for Charles V. of Germany, 93 ; extravagant expen- ditures of, 163 ; .treachery of, 143 Leopardi, Alexandro, Italian sculptor, 148 Leopold I., Emperor of the West, and the Spanish succession, 357 Lescot, Pierre, French architect, 155 Le Sueur, Eustache, works of, 374 Lettres de cachet, 486 Lexington, battle of, 1775, 449 Liberty, political, appreciation of, by the French, 330 Liege, sacking of, 1468, 15 Lima, founding of, by Pizarro, 1541, 128 Linnaeus, or Linne, Carl von, botanical work of, 475 Lisbon as a commercial center in the six- teenth century, 123 ; under the Mar- quis of Pombal, 502 Lissa, battle of, 1757, 426 Literature, Louis XIV. as a patron of, 337 ; of the sixteenth century a cause of the Reformation, 160 Livonia, capture of, by Gustavus Adol- phus, 1625, 276 Lodi, peace of, 1454, 57 Loire and Seine rivers, canal between, constructed by Henry IV., 137 Lomenie de Brienne, Etienne C., ministry of, 514 London, treaty of, 1515, 88 Longjumeau, treaty of, 1567, 223 Lopez de Vega. See VEGA 532 INDEX. Lorraine, Claude Gelee, called, works of, 375. Lorraine, France and, after the Thirty Years' War, 284 Louis XI. King of France, and Alphonso V. of Portugal, 49 ; capture of Per- pignan by, 1474, 21 ; cession and re- taking of Normandy by, 13 ; death of, 23 ; defeat and capture of, by La Tre- mouille, 25, 26 ; imprisonment of, in the castle of Peronne, 15 ; letter posts established by, 1464, 136 ; ransom of the cities of the Somme by, it ; reign of, ip; surrender of Cerdagne and Rous- sillon to, 1462, ii ; terrible punishments inflicted by, 20 Louis XII., King of France, accession of, 81 ; and Henry VIII. of England, 88; and Pope Julius II., 86; conquest of Milan by, 1500, 82 ; death of, 88 ; Italian expedition of, 1500, 81 ; marriage of, to Mary of England, 88 ; plots of, while Duke of Orleans, 24, 77 ; resist- ance of Venice to, 1509, 85 ; surrender of Naples to, 1501, 82 Louis XIII., King of France, Albert de Luynes and, 257 ; death of, 1643, 266 ; minority of, 255 Louis XIV., the Great, King of France, absolute monarchy of, 329 ; and the Duke of Savoy, 357 ; and the Spanish succession, 357 ; attempted invasion of England by, 1692, 355 ; birth of, 1638, 262 ; Charles II. of England and, alliance between, 349 ; closing years of reign of, 363 : coalition against, 1672, 342 ; death of, 1715, 363 ; decline of power of, 359 ; foreign policy of, 338 ; invasion of the Netherlands by, 1667, 339 ; invasion of Holland by, 1672, 341 ; invasion of Germany by, 1688, 356 ; League of Augsburg against, 1686, 346 ; marriage of, to Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, 1660, 318 ; minority of, 311 ; palaces erected by, 377i 378 ; Pope Innocent XI. and, con- flict between, 1687, 345 ; recognition of William III. by, 1697, 357 ; revocation of the edict of Nantes by, 1685, 346 ; triumph of, over allied Europe, 1678, 343 Louis XV., King of France, accession of, 1723, 405 ; Duchess of Chateauroux and, 417, 418; Fleury and, 406; last Cars of, 509 ; marriage of, to Mary czinska, 1725, 406 ; minority of, 363, 401 ; supposed fatal illness of, at Metz, 1744, 418 ; war of the Austrian succes- sion and, 417 ; weakness of government of. 499 Louis XVI., King of France, accession of, 1774, 511 Louise of Savoy, Queen-regent of France, and the treason of the Constable of Bourbon, 94 Louvois, Francois Michel le Tellier, Mar- quis of, administration of, 337 ; cap- ture of Strasburg by, 1681, 344 ; death of, 1691, 356 Louvre, palace of, construction of, 377 Loyola. See IGNATIUS DE LOYOLA Lubeck, peace of. 1626, 275 Ludlow, Edmund, Republican leader in Ireland, 307 Ludovico il Moro, restoration of the university of Pavia by. 140 Lulli, Jean B., music of, 377 Luther, Martin, appeal of, to a general council, 164 ; at the diet of Worms, 165 ; attack by, on the system of in- dulgences, 163 ; Bible translated by, 165, 166 ; birth of, 163 ; bull against, 1520, 165 ; Calvin and, 187 ; Colloquy of Ratisbon and, 190 ; death of, 1546, 109, 169 Lutherans, struggles of, in the sixteenth century, 109, 269 Lutheranism, doctrines of, 185 ; in the Netherlands, Calvinism displaces, 176 Lutzen, battle of, 1632, 277 Luxemburg, Francois H. de Montmo- renci, Duke of, military successes of, 1690-93, 356 Luynes, Albert de, favorite of Louis XIII., 257 MABLY, GABRIEL B. DE, 481 Machiavelli, N., philosophy of, 141 " Madame," applications of the appella- tion, 368 Madeira, island of, discovery of. by the Portuguese, 1419, 120 Madrid, treaty of, 1526, 96 Magdeburg, siege of, by Charles V., 170 Magellan, Ferdinand, death of, 127 ; dis- covery of Magellan's Strait by, 1520, 127 ; voyage of, important results of, 127 Maintz, Archbishop of, and the sale of indulgences, 163 Malabar, Portuguese conquest of, 1515, 122 Malacca, Portuguese conquest of, 1511, 122 Malplaquet, battle of, 1709, 360 Malta, attack upon, by Soule'iman I., 1565, 237 Mamelukes, Huguenots and, conflict be- tween, at Geneva, 1530. 174 ; overthrow of, by the Ottomans, 1516, 72 Mansart, Frangois, and Jules H., works of, 376, 377 Mansfield, Ernst, Count of, exploits of, during the Thirty Years' War, 273 Manufactures in England, progress of, under Queen Elizabeth, 243 Manufactures in France during the eigh- teenth century, 494 ; progress of, under Henry IV., 248 Manufactures in Spain, in the eighteenth century, 504 Manzo, J. B., Marquis of Villa, Works of, 379 Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry VI. of England, flight of, to Scotland, 1463, 31 ; popular feeling against, 29 Margaret of Parma, Philip II. and, 207 Marguerite of France, Princess, marriage of, to Henry IV., 226 INDEX. 533 Maria Theresa, Empress of the West, accession of, 1740, 414 ; in the Hunga- rian diet, 1741, 416 ; purchase of the succession of Bavaria by, 1777, 433 Mariana, Juan de, 380 Marie de Medici, imprisonment of, at Compiegne, 262 ; regency of, 255 Marignano, battle of, 1515, 89 Mariotte, Edme, discoveries of, 384 Marlborough, John Churchill, Duke of, disgrace of, 361 ; military operations of, during the war of the Spanish succes- sion, 359 Marot, Clement, and the literature of the sixteenth century, 144 Marseilles, repulse of Charles V. at, 1536, 105 Marston Moor, battle of, 1644, 300 Mary, Queen of England, marriage of, to Philip II. of Spain, 112, 182; re-estab- lishment of Catholicism by, 182 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, birth of, 107 ; Duke of Norfolk and, 215 ; Earl of Bothwell and, 214; Earl of Murray and, 213, 214; execution of, 1587, 217; forced abdication of, 214 ; Guises and, 204 ; imprisonment of, effects of, 215 ; marriage of, to Francis II., 204 ; marriage of, to Henry Darnley, 214 ; return of, from France, 1561, 213; treatment of, by Queen Elizabeth, 315 \ trial and condemnation of, 1586, 216 Mary of England, sister of Henry VIII., marriage of, to Louis XII. of France, 88 Mary of Burgundy, marriage of, to the Emperor Maximilian, 22 Masaccio and the naturalist school of painting, 149 Masham, Abigail, favorite of Queen Anne, 361 Massillon, Jean B., Bishop of Clermont, oratory of, 367 " Masters of petitions," French, duties of, 336 Mathias, Emperor of the West, Rudolph II. and, 271 Matthiesen, John, Anabaptist leader, 168 Maurepas, Jean F. Phelippeaux, Count of, ministry of, under Louis XVI., 511 Maurice, Elector of Saxony, double treachery of, no, in, 170 Maximilian, Emperor of the West, acquisition of territory by Austria under, 55 ; Anne of Beaujeu and, 25 ; character and reign of, 53 ; founding of the Aulic Council by, 54; invasion of Italy by, 1495, 80; marriage of, to Mary of Burgundy, 22 Maximilian II., Emperor of the West, reign of, 270 Maximilian of Bavaria, Catholic League and, 269 Mayenne, Charles of Lorraine, Duke of, ambition of, 233 ; suppression of the " Sixteen " by, 232 Mazarin, Jules, Cardinal, Anne of Austria and, 311 ; death of, 1661, 320 ; ministry of, 312, 319 ; patronage of art and letters by, 319 Mazeppa, alliance of, with Charles XII., 1708, 392 Medici, Cosmo I. de, Florence under, 62 Medici, Giovanni J. de, devastation of Tuscany by, 1554, 112 Medici, Lorenzo de, conspiracy of the Pazzis against, 63 Medici, Pietro II. de, and Savonarola, 64 Mediterranean Sea, Ottomans and, in the sixteenth century, 237 Meistersanger school in German liter- ature, 145 Mercy, Francois, Baron of, military oper- ations of, 282 Merle d'Aubigne and the literature of the sixteenth century, 145 Metz, siege of, by Charles V., 1552, 112 Mexico, conquest of, by Cortes, 1519, 126; discovery of, by Grijalva, 1518, 126 ; war of independence in, 1810, outbreak of, 131 Mexico, city of, capture of, by Cortes, 1510. 126 Mezieres, defense of, by the Chevalier Bayard. 1520, 93 Michael Angelo, and Bramante, 147 ; as a poet, 150 ; influence of, on the Renais- sance, 149 ; Raphael and, 153 Middle Ages and modern times, bound- ary between, i Mignard, Pierre, largest fresco in Europe bys 377 Milan, printing established at, 1469, 139 ; surrender of, to Francis I., 1524, 95 Milanais, the, and the Sforza dynasty, 58 ; Austrian campaigns against, 1701-02, 359 ; conquest of, by France, 1500, 82 ; 1734, 408 ; submission of, to Francis I. of France, 1515, 89; usurpation of the government of, by Ludovico Sforza, 81 Milton, John, 379 Minard, President, assassination of, 179 Missions, early, in America, 132 Modern times and Middle Ages, bound- ary between, i Mohammed, the Prophet, standard of, transferred to the Ottomans, 73 Mohammed II., Sultan of the Ottomans, conquest of Albania by, 70 ; conquest of the Greek empire by, 69 ; defeat of Ouzoun Hassan by, 70 ; reign of, 67 ; siege of Belgrade by, 52, 69 Moliere, Jean B. Poquelin, called, works of, 371 Monastic orders, suppression of, in Eng- land, 1536. 180 Mongon, treaty of, 1626, 260 Monge, Gaspard, 473 Monk, George, and the restoration of the English monarchy, 309 Monmouth, James, Duke of, invasion of England by, 1685, 352 " Monsieur," applications of the appella- tion, 368 Montaigne, M., and the literature of the sixteenth century, 144 Montbeillard, Gueneau de, 476 Montcalm de St.Veran, Louis J., Marquis of, campaigns and death of, 430 534 INDEX. Montcontour, defeat of the Protestants at, 1569, 224 Montespan, Franchise A., Marchioness de, sons of, declared heirs to the crown, 363 Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, Baron of, works of, 480 Montezuma, Emperor of Mexico, seizure of, by Cortes, i5iq, 126 Montgolfier, Jacques E., inventor of air- balloons, 474 Montmorency, Anne de, Constable of France, death of, 223 ; devastation of Provence by, at the approach of Charles V., 1536, 105 ; invasion of the Nether- lands by, 1556, 113 ; taken prisoner at St. Quentin, 1557, 114 Montmorency, Henri II., Duke of, exe- cution of, 1632, 262 Montpensier, Gilbert de, 80 Montrose, James Graham, Marquis of, execution of, 1650, 304 Moors in Spain, end of domination of, 43 More, Thomas, Erasmus the guest of, 145 Morgagni, Giovanni B., 476 Motteville, Mme. Franchise B. de. " Memoirs," 369 Mourad II.. Sultan of the Ottomans, revolt of the Janissaries under, 68 Munich, Burkhard C., military career of, in Russia, 458 Muhlburg, battle of, 1547, 169 Munzer, Thomas, and the Anabaptists, 167 Murner, Thomas. " Bark of Fools," 146 Murray, James Stuart, Earl of, Mary Stuart and, 213, 214 Music, religious, Palestrina and. 157 Musical instruments, development of, in the sixteenth century, 156 NANTES, edict of. guarantees of, 234 ; revocation of, by Louis XIV., 1685, 346 Napier, John, 385 Naples, Academy of, restoration of, by Valla and Pontano, 140 Naples, cession of, to the Queen of Spain, 1505, 83; devastation of the coasts of, by Barbaroussa, 1537, 105 ; reforms in, under Charles VIII-i 504 ; siege of, 1527, 158 ; submission of, to Charles VIII. of France, 1495, 79 ; surrender of, to Louis XII. of France, 1501, 82 ; under Ferdinand I., 66 Narbonne, treaty of, 77 Narva, defeat of the Russians at, by Charles XII. of Sweden, 1700, 391 Naseby, battle of, 1645, 300 Navarre, struggle for, 1520, 93 Navigation Act, English, of 1651, Hol- land and, 305 Necker, Jacques, ministry of. 512 Nemours, Gaston de Foix, Duke of, Italian campaigns and death of, 87 Nemours, Louis d'Armagnac, Duke of, Viceroy of Naples, 83 Netherlands, Calvinism in, 176 ; England and, treaty between, 1585, 216 ; French conquests in, 1745-46, 418 ; invasion of, by Henry II. of France, 1554, 112 ; in- vasion of, by Montmorency, 1556, 113 ; invasion of, by Louis XIV., 1667, 339 ; 1691, 356 ; Reformation of the sixteenth century in, 176 ; religious war of the sixteenth century in, 206 ; wealth of, in the sixteenth century, 207 Neutrality, armed, league of, 1780, 453 New World, discovery of, far-reaching influence of, 134 ; division of, between Spain and Portugal, 127 Newcastle, Thomas H. Pelham, Duke of, Earl of Chatham and, 438 Newfoundland, discovery of, by John Cabot, 1497, 128 ; occupation of, in 1524, in the name of France, 128 Newton, Sir Isaac, discoveries of, 383 Nice, bombardment of, by Souleiman I., 1543, 107 ; truce of, 1538, 106 Nicolas, Italian sculptor, 148 Nicole, Pierre, works of, 373 Nimeguen, treaty of, 1678, 343 Noailles, Adrien M., Duke of, Marshal of France, war of the Austrian succession and, 417 Norfolk, Thomas Howard, Duke of, in- trigues and execution of, 215 Normandy, cession and retaking of, by Louis XL, 13 North America, English colonization in, 446 Nuremberg, peace or interim of, 1532, 167 Nymphenburg, treaty of, 1741, 415 OATES,TITUS, and the Popish Plot, 350 Odensee, diet of, 1527, 173 Olaus, Lutheran preacher, honors be- stowed upon, by Gustavus I., 172 Opera, first performance of, 1599, 157 Opitz, Martin, 379 Orange, color of the Protestant party, 1688, 354 Orinoco River, discovery of, by Colum- bus. 1498, 125 Orleans, Louis II., Duke of. See Lot/is XII., KING OF FRANCE Orleans, Philippe, Duke of, alliance of, with George I. of England, 402 ; death of, 1723, 406 ; regency of, 401 Orleans, truce of, 1514, 88 Otranto, seizure of, by the Ottomans, 1480, 58 Ottoman empire, condition of, in 1661, 3-27 ; decline of, in the eighteenth cen- tury, 460 ; European alliance against, 1532, 102 ; extension of, under Soulei- man I., 101, 106; France and, alliance of, effects of, 101 ; France and, alliance of, renounced by Louis XIV., 339 ; from 1453 to 1520, 67 ; wars of, against Aus- tria, in the seventeenth century, 413 Ottomans, defeat of, in the Gulf of Le- panto, 1571, 237 ; invasion of Russia by, 1710, 393 ; Mediterranean and, in the sixteenth century, 237 ; siege of Candia by, 324. See also TURKEY PAINTING, development of, during the Renaissance, 148 ; European schools INDEX. 535 of, in the seventeenth century, 381 ; Giottesque school of, 148 Palestrina, influence of, on religious music, 157 Papacy, condition of, in the second half of the fifteenth century, 64 ; under the treaty of 1559, TI 5 : at tne middle of the sixteenth century, 189 Paper, early manufacture of, 139 Papin, Denis, inventions of, 384 Pare aux cerfs, 501 Parchment and the invention of printing, 139 Paris, siege of, by Henry III. and Henry IV., 1589, 231 ; surrender of, to Conde, 1652, 317 ; treaty of, 1763, 431 Paris-Duverney, brothers, French finances under, 406 Parliament, English, arbitrary powers of, in the fifteenth century, 27 ; Charles I. and, 292 ; expulsion of, by Cromwell, under Queen Elizabeth, 242 Parliament of Paris, demands of, 1643, 3*3 Parliaments, French, 312 Parma, Duke of. See FARNESE, ALEX- ANDER Parmentier, Antoine A., scientific work of, 476 Pascal, Blaise, influence of, on science, 383 ; works of, 373 Passau, compromise of, 1552, HI, 170 Patkul, J. Reynold, Peter the Great and, 390 Paul III., Pope, reforms in the Catholic Church under, 189 Paul IV., Pope, and Henry II. of France, 113 ; director of the Council of Trent, 1545, 195 : Italian liberty and, 196 ; submission of, to the Duke of Alva, 1557, 114 Paulette, right of, 247 Pavia, University of, restoration of, by Ludovico il Moro, 140 Paz/is, conspiracy of, 63 Peasants' war in Germany, 1525, 167 Pensacola, capture of, by the Spaniards, 1781, 454 Peronne, castle of, imprisonment of Louis XI. in, 15 ; treaty of, 15 ; nullification of, 1 6 Perpignan, siege and capture of, by Louis XI., 1474, 21 Perrault, Claude, works of, 376 Persecutions in England under Charles I., 294; under Queen Elizabeth, 216 ; under Henry VIII., 181 ; under James I., 287 ; under Mary, 183 Persecutions in France in the sixteenth century, 179 ; in the eighteenth cen- tury, 496 Persia, massacres in, by the Ottoman armies, 1514, 72 Peru, conquest of, by Pizarro, 1529-35, 128 Perugino and the Umbrian school of painting, 149 Peter I., the Great, Czar of Russia, bar- barous punishment of rebels by, 388 ; campaigns of, against the Swedes, 1700-09, 392 ; death of, 1725, 399 ; despotic rule of, 397 ; expedition against Persia by, 1722, 399 ; industrial development of Russia under, 396 ; re- forms instituted by, 389 ; seizure of the government by, 1680, 388 ; " testa- ment " of, 309 ; travels of, 388, 395 Peter III., Czar of Russia, accession of, 1762, 428 ; murder of, 459 Protestants, liberty of conscience granted to, at Passau, 1552 Philip II., King of Spain, accession of, 1556, 112 ; alliance of, with the Duke of Guise, 1584, 230; alliance of, with Sweden and Poland, 239 ; character of, 202 ; Charles V. and, contrast between, 239 ; Christian II. of Denmark and, 238 ; conquest of Portugal by, 235 ; death of, 241 ; designs of, on the crown of France, 1593, 233 ; Eric XIV. and, 238 ; extent of empire of, 201 ; Hague and, truce between, 1609, 211 ; Inquisi- tion established in America by, 134 ; mafc-iage of, to Mary, Queen of Eng- land, 112, 182 ; policy of, in the Nether- lands, 207 ; proposal of marriage to 8ueen Elizabeth by, 212 ; viceroy of harles V. at Rome, 1547, no Philip V., King of Spain, proclamation of, 1700, 358 ; reign of, 503 Philip I., Landgrave of Hesse, surrender of, at Muhlburg, 1547, 169 Philippine Islands, discovery of, by Ma- gellan, 1521, 127 Philosophical works of the seventeenth century, 380 Piacenza, battle of, 1745, 419 Pjcard, Jean, discoveries by, 385 Piedmont, defense of, by Brissac, 1554, H2 ; recapture of, by Francis I., 105 ; surrender of, to Charles V., 104 Pigalle, Jean B. de, 482 Pilon, Germain, French architect, 155 Pinel, Philippe, and the treatment of the insane, 476 Pirates, Barbary, suppression of, by Louis XIV., 344 ; Ottoman, in the Mediter- ranean, 1535, 103 Pius II., Pope, resistance of Ottoman in- vasion by, 57, 69 Pius V., Pope, Queen Elizabeth excom- municated by, 1570, 215 ; reform of the Catholic Church under, 197 Pizarro, assassination of, 1541, 128; con- quest of Peru by, 1529-35,^ 128 Plato and Aristotle in the sixteenth cen- tury, 141 Poissy, Colloquy of, 230 Poland at the opening of _ the Thirty Years' War, 267 ; condition of, 1661, 327; conquest of, by Charles XII. of Sweden, 1702, 391 ; invasion of, by Charles Gustavus, 1656, 325 ; invasion of 1768, 462 ; partition of, 1771, 461 ; partition of, second, 1793, 467 ; par- tition of, third, 1795, 468 ; Russia's first 536 INDEX. step toward the acquisition of, 1667, 327 ; weakness of, in the eighteenth century, 461 Pombal, Sebastian J. C. Melho, Marquis of, ministry of, 502 Pomerania, capture of, by Gustavus Adol- phus, 1630, 276 Pompadour, Jeanne A. Poisson, Mar- chioness of, Seven Years' War and, 426 Pondicherry, defense of, 1748, 421 Poniatowski, Stanislaus Augustus, last King of Poland, 462 Pope, Alexander, 379 Portugal, alliance of, with Siam. 121 ; and Spam, colonization methods of, 129, 136 ; discoveries by, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, great results of, 134 ; division of the New World between, 127 ; colonies of, Catholic Church in, 133 ; commerce of, with the East, rapid development of, 123 ; con- dition of, at the middle of the fifteenth century, 49 ; in 1661, 322 ; condition of , under Spanish rule, in the sixteenth century, 236 ; conquest of, by Philip II., 235 ; England and, treatf be- tween, 1703, 435 ; reforms attempted in, under Joseph I., 502 Port Royal, school of, 373 Portuguese literature in the seventeenth century, 379 Posts, letter, establishment of, by Louis XI. of France, 1464, 136 Poussin, Nicolas, works of, 374 Prado, treaty of, 1728, 403 Prague, retreat of Belle Isle from, 1742, 417 ; treaty of, 1635, 278 Praguerie, the, in France, 10 Presbyterians, Cromwell and, 302 Press, censorship of, in France, during the eighteenth century, 496 Prie, Jeanne A. de Berthelot, Marchion- ess of. Duke of Bourbon and, 406 Priestley, Joseph, chemical work of, 475 Printing, in France, advance of, under Francis I., 144 ; invention of, 138 ; in- fluence of, upon education, 140 Privateers, English, in the sixteenth cen- tury, 215 Protective tariff in France, inauguration of, by Colbert, 332 Protestant princes in Germany, perfidy and cruelty of Charles V. to, no ; secret alliance of Henry II. of France with, in Protestants and Catholics, conflict be- tween, opening of, 169 ; origin of name, 167 Protestantism, economic effect of, 188 ; in France, barbarous measures for the suppression of, under Henry II., in ; during the eighteenth century, 496 Provence, invasion of, by Charles V., 1536, 104 "Prudents," French political party, for- mation of, 228 Prussia, coalition against, 1756, 424 ; coasts of, capture of, by Gustavus Adolphus, 7652, 276 ; condition of, at the close of the Seven Years' War, 432 ; France and, in the war of the Austrian succession, 415 ; growth of, under Frederick the Great, 423, 432 ; house of Hohenzollern and, 1417-1640, 409 ; ori- gin of the kingdom of, 1417, 409 ; recog- nition of, as a kingdom, under the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, 411 ; refuge for Protestants under Frederick William 1., 4'3 Pruth, treaty of, 1711, 393 Prynne, William, heroism of, 294 Puerto Bello, New Granada, commerce of, sixteenth century, 131 Pufendorf, Samuel, 380 Pugatscheff, Yemelka, insurrection and execution of, 464 Puget, Pierre, works of, 375 Pultowa, defeat of Charles XII. at, 1709, 393 Punishments, barbarous, in France, in the eighteenth century, 487 Puritans, emigration of , to America, 1620, 288 ; rapid increase of, under Charles I., 294 Pyrenees, treaty of, 1659, 3 1 " 8fEBEC, battle of, 1759, 430 uesnay, Francois, economic theories of, 481 Quito, capture of, by the Portuguese, 128 RABELAIS, F., and the literature of the sixteenth century, 144 Racine, Jean, works of, 370 Rameau, Jean P., musical work of, 483 Rancoux, battle of. 1746, 419 Raphael, Michael Angelo and, 153 ; works of, 153 Rastadt, treaty of, 1714, 362 Rathmines, battle of. 1649, 303 Ratisbon, diet of, 1684, 346 Ravaillac, Francois, assassination of Henry IV. by, 252 Raynal, Guillaume T. F., Abbe, works of, 481 Reaumur, Frne A. Ferchault de, scien- tific work of, 474 Reform in France, attempts at, 484 Reformation of the sixteenth century, Charles V. and, 167, 169, 176 ; in Eng- land, 180 ; in France, 176 ; in Germany, 160 ; in the Netherlands, 176 ; in northern Europe, 171 ; in Scotland, 179 ; in Switzerland, 174 ; results of, 184 Reformed Church of Scotland, democratic tendencies of, 186 ; organization of, by Knox, 180 Regale, the, Louis XIV. and, 345 Regnier, M., and the literature of the sixteenth century, 144 Religious toleration in Austria, edict for, 1781, 507 ; in the Ottoman empire, 68 Religious wars of the sixteenth century, theater of, 204 Renaissance of the arts, 147 ; of letters, 140 INDEX. 537 Requesens, Luis de, unsuccessful cam- paigns of, in the Netherlands, 209 Retz, Jean F. P. de Gondi, Cardinal, im- prisonment of, 1652, 317 ; " Memoirs," 369 ; plot of, against Anne of Austria, 3 J 4 Rhodes, Knights of, warfare of, on the pirates of the Mediterranean, 104 Richard III., King of England, Anne of Beaujeu and, 25 ; usurpation of the throne by, 33 Richelieu, Armand J. du Plessis, Car- dinal, attack on England by, 1624, 260; condition of France under, 263 ; death of, 1642, 265 ; Gustavus Adolphus and, 276 ; influence of, over Louis XIII., 259 ; Marie de Medici attempts the overthrow of, 261 ; " Memoirs," 369 ; military successes of, 264 ; patronage of art and letters by, 265 ; Thirty Years' War and, 278 ; Wallenstein's removal secured by, 1630, 276 ; war of, upon the Huguenots, 260 Richelieu, Louis F. A. du Plessis, Duke of, Marshal of France, Seven Years' War and, 424 Rochelle, capture of, by Richelieu, 1628, 261 ; confession of, 226 : peace of, 1572, 228 Rocroy, battle of, 1643, 281 Rodney, Admiral George B., Lord, naval exploits of, 453 Roemer, Olaus, 384 * Rohan, Henri, Duke of, Huguenot rising under, 258 Roman Catholic. See CATHOLIC Rome in the second half the fifteenth century, 64 ; printing established at, 1465, 139 ; sack of, under the Constable Bourbon, 1526, 97 ; submission of, to Charles VIII. of France, 1494, 78; University of, re-establishment of, by Pope Eugenius IV., 140 Romorantin, edict of, 219 Ronsard, Pierre de, and the literature of the sixteenth century, 144 Roskild, treaty of, 1658, 326 " Rosnis," origin of the appellation, 249 Rossbach, battle of, 1757, 426 Rota, tribunal of, at Rome, 190 Rotrou, Jean de, works of, 370 Rouen, early explorers from, 119 Rousseau, Jean J., on the government of France in the eighteenth century, 501 ; works of, 480 Roussillon, and Cerdagne, surrender of, to Louis XI. of France, 1462, n ; cap- ture of, by the French, 1642, 280 Royalty and modern society, 484 Rudolph II., Emperor of the West, Mathias and, 271 Ruel, convention of, 1649, 315 Rupert, Prince, defeat of, by Cromwell, 1644, 300 Russell, William, execution of, 1683, 351 Russia, alliances of, under the treaty of Amsterdam, 395, 396 ; condition of, in 1661, 327; condition of, at the opening of the Thirty Years' War, 267 ; con- dition of, at the opening of the eigh- teenth century, 387 ; from Peter the Great to Catherine II., 457 ; industrial development of, under Peter the Great, 396 ; invasion of, by the Ottomans, 1710, 333 ; reforms attempted in, under Catherine 1 1 ., 508 ; Seven Years 1 War and, 428 ; Turkey and, 1768, 463 ; Turkey and, war between,- 1695, 388 Rutland, Count of, son of Richard Plan- tagenet, murder of, 31 Rye House Plot and executions of Sid- ney and Russell, 1683, 351 Ryswick, peace of, 1697, 357 SACHS, HANS, 146 St. Andrew, order of, founding of, by Peter the Great. 389 St. Bartholomew's Day, massacre of, 1572, 227 St. Denis, battle of, 1567, 223 St. Denis, Cathedral of, 233 St. Germain, Claude L., Count of, cam- paigns of, in the Seven Years' War, 427 St. Germain, treaty of, 1570, 225 St. Jean de Ulloa, Mexico. See VERA CRUZ St. Menehould, treaty of, 1613, 256 St. Peter's Church, Rome, indulgences granted to contributors to, 163 St. Petersburg, founding of, by Peter the Great, 396 St. Pol, Count of, execution of, 1475, 22 St. Quentin, defeat of the French at, 1557* "4 St. Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, Duke of. " Memoirs," 370 Salt tax, orgaMOf, in France, 486 Saluzzo, Marquis of, treachery of, 104 Samson, Nicolas, 384 Santa Fe, Spain, founding of, 44 Sardinia, reforms in, in the eighteenth century, 506 Sarpi, Pietro : " Fra Paolo," 380 " Satire M^nippee," 366 Savonarola and Charles VIII. of France, 78 ; and Pietro II. de Medici, 64 Savoy, Charles III., Duke of, 104 Savoy, Charles Emanuel II., Duke of, Louis XIV. and, 357 Savoy, restoration of, by Henry II. under the treaty of 1559, 115 ; seizure of, by Francis I., 1535, 104 Saxe, Maurice, Count of, Marshal of France, war of the Austrian succession ' and, 417 Scanderbeg, Prince of Albania, 70 Scheele, Karl W., chemical work of, 475 Schiites and Sunnites, 72 Schinner, Mathieu, Cardinal of Sion, 89 Schism, religious, in England, origin of, 1 80 Schoeffer, Peter, invention of printing by, 138 Science, development of, in the sixteenth century, 157 ; in the seventeenth cen- tury, 382 ; in the eighteenth century, 47 1 Scotland, alliance of, with Francis I. of 538 INDEX. France, 100, 103 ; Charles II. declared king of, 1649, 303 ; Catholicism in, downfall of, 212 ; England and, union of, 1707, 435 ; Reformation of the six- teenth century in, 179 ; revolt in, 1680, 35' Sculpture, Italian, development of, 148 Sebastian, King of Portugal, death of, in Africa, 235 Sevastopol, naval battle at, 1788, 466 Seine and Loire rivers, canal between, constructed by Henry IV., 137 Selim the Ferocious, Sultan of the Otto- mans, poisoning of his relatives by, 72 Senlis, treaty of, 1493, 55, 77 Servetus, Michael, burning of, 175 Seven Years' War, 422 ; results of, 431 ; taxation of the American colonies and, 44.8 Sevigne, Marie de Rabutin, Marchioness de, on Racine. 370 Seville, treaty of, 1729, 403 Sforza dynasty, Milan and, 58 Sforza, Ludovico il Moro, and Charles VIII. of France, 78 ; captivity and death of, 82 ; usurpation of government of Milan by, 81 Shakspere, William, works of, 244, 379 Shoe, association of, in Germany, 166 Siam, Portuguese alliance with, 121 Sidney, Algernon, execution of, 1683, 351 Siena, restoration of, to the Medici, under the treaty of 1559, 115; siege and capitulation of, 1554-55, 112 Silesia, conquest of, by Frederick the Great, 1740, 4.15 Sistova, peace of, 1791, 466 " Sixteen," faction of, suppression of, 1592, 232 Sixtus V., Pope, reforms and improve- ments under, 198 Slave trade, African, beginning of, 1517, 132 Slavonia, conquest of, by Soule'iman I., 1531, 102 Smalkalde, diet of, 1531, 167 ; League of, against Charles V., 1532, 102 ; dis- ruption of, no Smith, Adam, economic theories of, 482 Scares d'Albergaria, Lopez, conquests by, in India, 1515-18, 122 Society, modern, influence of royalty upon, 484 Society of Jesus. See JESUITS Socotora, capture of, by Albuquerque, 1507, 121 Soissons, Charles de Bourbon, Count of, death of, 1641, 262 Soleure, treaty of, 19 Solis, Antonio de, 380 Somme, cities of the, ransom of, by Louis XI., ii Sophia, Princess, confinement of, in a convent, by Peter the Great, 388 Soubise, Charles de Rohan, Prince of, Marshal of France, campaigns of, in the Seven Years' War, 425 Soufflot, Jacques G., architectural work of, 482 Souleiman I., Sultan of the Ottomans, accession of, 74 ; alliance of, with Ven- ice, 123 ; and Charles V., conflict be- tween, over Hungary, 1529, 167 ; and Charles V., truce between, 1545, 109 ; attack upon Malta by, 1565, 237 ; bom- bardment of Nice by, 1543, 107 ; con- quest of Hungary by, 1529, 101 ; con- quest of Slavonia by, 1531, 102 ; defeat of the Austrians by, at Essek, 1537, 105 ; extension of the Ottoman empire under, 101. 106 ; futile attempt of, to dislodge the Portuguese, in India, 1538, 122 ; recapture of Hungary by, 1541, 106 ; siege of Guns by, 1532, 102 ; siege of Vienna by, 1529, 101 Spain, acquisitions of territory by, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, 46 ; colonies of, Catholic Church in, 133 ; colonies of, cultivation of European products forbidden in, 131 ; condition of, at the middle of the fifteenth cen- tury, 40 ; condition of, at the death of Philip II., 1598, 241 ; 1661, 322; Eng- land and, religious war between, in the sixteenth century, 212, 215 ; France and, war between, seventeenth century, 317 ; 1718-20, 40-.; ; inquisition in, 134 ; Por- tugal and, colonization methods of, 129, 136 ; Portugal and, discoveries by, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, great results of, 134 ; Portugal and, division of th*e New World between, 127 ; reforms attempted in, under Fer- dinand VI. and Charles III., 503 ; treaty of Paris and, 1763, 432 Spallanzani, Lazaro, scientific work of, 476 Spanish literature in the seventeenth century, 379 Spanish succession, war of, 357 ; results of. 363 Spires, diet of, 1529, 167 Stahl, Georg E., phlogiston theory of, 474 Stamp tax, British, of 1765, revocation of, 449 Star Chamber, revival of, under Henry VII., 35 States General of Denmark, suppression of, by the aristocracy, 1540, 173 ; of France, convocation of, 1614, 256 Sten Sture, last Swedish administrator, death of, 1520, 171 Stockholm, siege of, by Gustavus I., 1523, 171 Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of, organization of a standing army in Ire- land by, 295 ; trial and execution of, 1641, 296 Stralsund, siege of, 1715, 394 Strasburg, capture of, by Louvois, 1681, 344. Slrelitzi, revolt of, 1698, 388 Stuart, Charles E., the Pretender, out- break under, 1745, 437 Stuart, James F. E., the Pretender, out- break under, 1715, 435 Sualem, Rennequin, engineering work of, at Versailles, 378 INDEX. 539 Sueur. See LE SUEUR Suffolk, Duke of, murder of, 29 Sully, Maximilien de Bethune, Duke of, economic measures of, 247 ; sent into retirement by Marie de Medici, 256 Sunnites and Schiites, 72 Susa, treaty of, 265 Sweden, alliance of, with Francis I. of France, 1541, 107; and the partition of Poland, 469 ; Christian II. seizes the crown of, 171 ; coalition against, 1699, 390 ; condition of, at the opening of the Thirty Years' War, 268 ; condition of, in 1661, 325 ; condition of, at the open- ing of the eighteenth century, 387 ; condition of, after the war with Russia, 1700-15, 3Q4 ; development of, under Gustavus I., 173 ; partition of territory of, under the treaty of Nystadt, 1721, 395 ; reforms in, in the eighteenth cen- tury, 508 ; Reformation of the sixteenth century in, 172 ; results of the Thirty Years' War to, 284 Swenska Sound, battle of, 1790, 469 Switzerland, condition of, 1661, 325 ; Reformation of the sixteenth century in, 174 ; religious war in, 1528-31, 174 Syria and Egypt, conquest of, by the Ottomans, 1516, 72 TANUCCI, BERNARDO, ministry of, 504 Tartaglia, Italian mathematician, 158 Tassoni, Alessandro, works of, 379 Tavannes, Gaspard de Saulx de, Marshal of France, victory of, at Jarnac, 1569, 224 Taxation , in France during the eighteenth century, 489, 492 ; of North American colonies, results of, 449 " Tea-party," Boston, 449 Temple, Sir William, 380 Terouanne, destruction of, by Charles V., 1553, 112 Teschen, treaty of, 1779, 433, 465, 514 Test Bill, English, passage of, 1673, 35 Tetzel, Johann, and the sale of indul- gences, 163 Theatins, order of, creation of, 1524, 192 Thirty Years' War, cause of, 271 : events leading up to, 267 ; results of, 283 Thirty-nine Articles, adoption of, 1562, 183 Thurn, Count of, Utraquists and, 271 Tilly, John Tzercias, Count of, military operations of, during the Thirty Years' War, 273 Tippoo Sahib, conquest of, by the Eng- lish, 1799, 445 Titian, works of, 152 Torgau, union of Reformed princes formed at, 1526, 167 Torquemada, Thomas de 45 Torstenson, Leonard, Count, military suc- cesses of, 281 Toulon, battle of, 1744, 420 Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de, 384 Tower of London, 30 Towton, battle of, and flight of the queen, 1461, 31 Traventhal, treaty of, 1700, 391 Trent, Council of, 1545-62, 109, 169, 195 ; causes of long recess of, 1552-62, 196; results of, 195, 200 ; transfer of, to Bologna, 1546, 196 Trianon, Grand-, cost of, 378 Triple alliance of The Hague, 1668, 340 Tripoli, conquest of, by Dragout, 1551, 104 Trivulcio, Giovanni J., Marquis of Vigevano, Italian Marshal of France, 81, 89 Tudor dynasty, founding of, 33 Tuileries, palace of, construction of, 377 Turenne, Henri de Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount of, defeat of, at Marienthal, 1645, 2 ^2 : Dunkirk captured by, 1658. 318 ; Conde and, 317 ; invasion of France by, 1650, 316 ; last campaign of, 1675, 342 ; successes of, in Germany, 1648, 283 Turgot, Anne R. J., ministry of, 511 Turkey, Austria and, war between, 1787, 507 ; Russia and, 1768, 463 ; Russia and, war between, 1695, 388. See also OTTOMAN EMPIRE Tuscany, devastation of, by Giovanni de Medici, 1554, 112; reforms in, in the eighteenth century, 505 "Twentieth" tax in France, 492 "V, 505 in Franc Type, movable, invention of, 138 ULRICA ELEANORA, Queen of Sweden, accession of, 1720, 395 Unigenitus, bull, 401 United States, debt of, to France, 450 ; foundation of, 446 Universities, European, revival and estab- lishment of, fifteenth century, 140 Upsal, victory of Gustavus I. at, 1521, 171 Utraquists, outbreak of, under the Count of Thurn, 1618, 271 Utrecht, Congress of, 1711, 361 : treaties of, 1713, 362; treaties of, recognition of the King of Prussia under, 411 VALLISNERI, ANTONIO, scientific work of, 476 Valtellina, revolt of, 1624, 259 Vanloo, Carle, works of, 483 Vareta, peace of, 1790, 466 Vassy, massacre of Protestants at, 1562, 220 Vatican library, rebuilding of, by Pope Sixtus V., 199 Vauban, Sebastien le Prestre de, Marshal of France, Strasburg fortified by, 344 Vaucelles, treaty of, 1556. 112 Vaudreuil, Louis P. de Rigaud, Marquis of, campaigns of, in Canada, 1756-60, 410 Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers, Marquis of, 481 Vega, Lopez de la, works of. 379 Velasquez, Governor of Cuba, rebellion of, against Cortes, 1520, 126 Vendome, Louis J., Duke of, military successes of, 1709-10, 360 540 INDEX. Venice, alliance of, with Soule'iman I., 122 ; in the second half of the fifteenth century, 59 ; printing established at, 1469, 139 ; resistance of, to Louis XII., 1509, 85 ; University of, founding of, 1470, 140 Vera Cruz, Mexico, commerce of, six- teenth century, 131 ', founding of, 1519, 126 Verd, Cape, first passage of, by the Por- tuguese, 1446, 120 Vernet, Claude Joseph, works of, 483 Verocchio, Andrea, Italian sculptor, 148 Verozzani. occupation of Newfoundland by, in the name of France, 1524, 128 Versailles, construction of, in the seven- | teenth century, 378 ; treaty of, 1756, 424 Vervins, peace of, 1598, 234 Vesalius of Brussels, anatomical dis- coveries of, 158 Vespucci, Amerigo, injustice of naming the continent for, 125 Vienna, capture of, by, Mathias Corvinus, H^S, S3 , siege of, by, Soule'iman I., 1529, 101 ; siege of, by the Bohemians, 1619, 272; treaty of, 1731, 403; treaty of, 1735-38, results of, to France, 408 Viete, French mathematician, 158 Villafranca, capture of Prosper Colonna at, 89 Villars, Louis H., Duke of, Marshal of France, military operations of, 1709, 360 Villaviciosa, battle of, 1710, 360 Villeroi, Francois de Neufville, Duke of, Marshal of France, military operations of, in Germany, 1701-06, 359 Vinci, Leonardo da, invited to France as an engineer, by Francis I., 1516, 137 ; masterpieces of, 140, 151 Vives, scholar of the sixteenth century, 146 Volta, Alessandro, scientific work of, 473, Voltaire, Francois M. Arouet, called, on the government of France in the eigh- teenth century, 501 ; works of, 478 WALDENSES, massacre of, 1545, 178 Wallenstein, Albrecht, Count Waldstein, assassination of, 1634, 278 ; military operations of, during the Thirty Years' War, 275 ; removal and recall of, 1630- 32, 276 Walloon provinces of the Netherlands, Batavian provinces and, conflict be- tween, 1577-81, 210 Walpole, Robert, Earl of Oxford, ministry f> 435 War of the Roses, 28 Warsaw, defense of, by Charles Gustavus, 1656, 325 ; diet of, 1773, and the parti- tion of Poland, 464 Wartburg, castle of. Luther at, 166 Warwick, Richard Nevil, Earl of, the King-maker, intrigues and execution of, 30-34 Washington, George, American revolu- tion afld, 450 ; in the French and In- dian war, 423 ; last years of, 456 Watt, James, inventor of the steam engine, 474 Watteau, Antoine, works of, 483 Weslau, treaty of. 410 Westeras, States General of, 1524, separa- tion from the Catholic Church author- ized by, 172 Westphalia, treaties of, 1648, 283 Wexford, massacre at, under Cromwell, 1649, 303 Whigs, English, Charles II. and, 350 White Mountain, battle of, 1620, 273 Whitelocke, Bulstrode, 380 Willaert, Adrian, founder of the first school of music, 157 William III., King of England, accession of, 1689, 354 ; and the Spanish succes- sion, 357 ; death of, 1702, 358 ; Declara- tion of Rights signed by, 1689, 354 ; French driven from Holland by, 1672, 342 ; landing of, in England, 1688, 353 ; recognition of, by Louis XIV., 357 William, the Silent, of Nassau, Prince of Orange, assassination of, 1584, 210 ; character of, 209 Wishart, George, burning of, 179 Witchcraft delusion in Europe, 157 Witt, John de, murder of, 342 Worcester, battle of, 1651, 305 Worms, diet of, 53 ; Luther at, 166 Wurtemberg. Ulnch, Duke of, reinstated by the Reformers, 1534, 167 W'uitzen, treaty of, 1536, 106 XIMENES, Archbishop of Toledo, adminis- tration of, in Castile, 47 YORK, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, DUKE OF, intrigues and death of, 29 York and Lancaster, houses of, War of the Roses between, 28 Yuste, monastery of, retirement of Charles V. to, 1556, 113 ZAPOLI, JOHN, Magyar pretender, 101, 106 Zizim, or Djem, Ottoman prince, murder of, 71 Zwingli, Ulrich, first preacher of the Reformation in Switzerland, 174 PRINTED IN U.S. A D29 D95 Duruy, Victor, 18J1-1894. $ Histery f medern times, from the fall f Constantinople to the French revolution; A 000 594 745 2