MODERN HISTORY,
FROM THE FRENCH OF
M, MICHELET.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION.
BY A. POTTER, D.D.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1855.




Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York.




INTROD UC T ION.
THE last thirty years have witnessed remarkable improvements among the scholars
of Germany and France, in their methods of
historical research and in their style of historical composition. In delineating the progress
of.events, the historian of these countries has
become accustomed to embrace a much greater variety of topics than formerly. He has
learned, too, to scrutinize the authenticity of
facts more carefully, and to draw some of his
most important information from sources which
were once regarded either as unworthy of his
notice, or as foreign from his inquiries. He
has also learned to deal with facts, as significant of great principles, and to fix their historic value according as they represent more or
less clearly and expressively the essential features of an age or the important revolutions of
a system. In fine, these writers have been
gradually imbodying in practice the fine idea




Vili          INTRODUCTION.
that history is only philosophy teaching by example; and they have striven to make her lessons alike clear and impressive. The subscriber is not insensible of the difficulty of all such
attempts, nor of the fallacies which have been
perpetrated under the imposing title of the Philosophy of History. Still, every effort to make
history more full, accurate, and instructive,
merits applause, and it is an effort in which
the two great nations just mentioned have been
eminently successful. The learned and indefatigable Germans took the lead in it, and they
have been followed with yet greater brilliancy,
and with hardly inferior industry, by several
French historians. The names of Guizot, Villemain, Mignet, Thiers, the'two Thierrys, Sismondi, Barante, and Michelet, among the
French, will at once occur to the student of
history as justifying this remark. It has long
been considered the reproach of English and
American scholars, that so little has hitherto
been accomplished towards diffusing the same
spirit of research and the same just conceptions
of historical study in two countries which, of
all others, have the deepest interest in possessing them.




INTRODUCTION.                ix
To assist in some slight degree towards removing this reproach, and to introduce to the
knowledge of the public generally an elementary work conceived and executed after this
new method, is the main object of the present
translation.  The author, M. Michelet, is one
of the most learned, laborious, and elegant of
that remarkable school, who have been engaged during the last twenty years, in France, in
illustrating ancient and modern history. His
intense devotion to his studies is said to have
ruined his health, and will probably deprive the
world of the full fruit of his researches.* With
great philosophical sagacity, he combines what
is so apt to be wanting in the German historians-a brilliant imagination, a clear and picturesque style, and great felicity of illustration.
Universal histories, especially if in the form of
abridgments, are usually meager and spiritless.
The reader will find that Michelet, like his
great predecessor Bossuet, is an exception.
His summary is constantly relieved by reflections full of weight and vivacity, and his gen* His principal works are a History of France (unfinished); a History
of the Republic of Rome (a translation of which is now preparing); Memoirs of Luther (compiled from his own writings); Selections from Vico
(with notices of his Life and Writings); Chronological Tables, &c., &c.




X             INTRODUCTION.
eralities are made significant amd interesting
by examples as vivid as they are novel.
Another circumstance which gives interest
to the work, while it calls, at the same time,
for some caution in accepting its conclusions,
is, that the author has been accustomed to survey history from a point very different from
that occupied by English and American historians. He is a Frenchman, a monarchist, and
a Roman Catholic; and, though more than usually free from prejudices, it is not to be expected that he should escape them entirely. To
those who are sincerely desirous to take an
enlarged and philosophical view of events, it
must sometimes be grateful to neutralize the
force of their own prepossessions by the aid of
tolerant and enlightened minds, who have been
formed under different systems of religion and
law. It is due to the author to add that he is
no bigot. A Roman Catholic, he still acknowledges with gratitude the inestimable blessings
conferred on the world by the Protestant Reformation; a monarchist, his sympathies are
still with the people; a Frenchman, and therefore bound, as he supposes, in common with
all Frenchmen, to regard " his glorious count




INTRODUCTION.              xi
try as the pilot of the great vessel of humanity,"" he has yet a heart and an understanding
large enough to do justice, with few exceptions, to virtue and greatness, wherever he
finds them.
It was the subscriber's intention to have animadverted in notes on some views of the author's which he regards as erroneous. The
unexpected bulk, however, to which the volume has swelled prevents the execution of
this design, and he therefore leaves this task to
the discrimination of the reader or instructer.
While this work will be useful to general
readers, its more immediate object is to furnish
a good text-book in modern history for schools
and colleges.t In Guizot's History of Civilization in Europe we have philosophy without
facts. In most abridgments used in seminaries
of learning, we have facts without philosophy.
This work seems to have struck the golden
mean so essential in a good text-book, and the
subscriber has only to regret that the circumstances under which the translation was made,
and the unavoidable interruptions to which he
* See Preface to Michelet's Introduction d P'Histoire Universelle.
t It has been adopted as a text-book by the Royal Council of the University of France.




xii          TINTRODUC'ION.
has been subjected, have prevented its attain.
ing greater precision and spirit. He trusts it
will not be found altogether unworthy of its
original or of its object.
It was also proposed, in the first instance, to
add questions for the assistance of instructers
and pupils. The want of room prevents this;
but the subscriber may be allowed to remark,
that if those questions had been prepared, they
would not have superseded labour on the part
either of teacher or scholar. Little faith is reposed in methods of teaching which relieve
either of these parties from the necessity for
exertion. It should rather be our object to
awaken and encourage such exertion, and
hence these questions would have been so framed as to provide the pupil with subjects for
examination beyond the limits of his text-book.
This vdolume will be found to contain many
allusions and hints which must prove, unless
explained, quite unintelligible to young students, and many brief notices, also, of events
and revolutions which deserve to be investigated. The editor would suggest, that the
student may, in many instances, be left with
great advantage to prosecute these investiga



INTRODUCTION.            Xlli
tions, and work out the explanation of these
hints for himself; proper books being pointed
out, and the fruit of his inquiries being brought
to the teacher for his examination and approval. Such a course would render the progress
of a elass through the book necessarily slow,
but it would be a progress fraught with unspeakable advantages to the tastes and habits
of the scholar.
In conclusion, the subscriber has only to express his hope that this work may contribute,
in some degree, to diffuse among the young a
taste for historical studies, and to promote in
all its readers a generous and enlightened interest in the cause of freedom, humanity, and
religion.
A. POTTER.
Un'io College, Augutst, 1843.
B








C 0 N   E N Tr S.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.       Page x=
INTRODUCTION.. xxiit
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN HISTORY... 25
FIRST PERIOD.
FROM THE TARKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE BY THE TURKS TO THE
REFORMATION OF LUTHER, 1453-1517',. 37
CHAPTER I.
Italy —War of the Turks, 1453-1494.
Splendour of Italy: Venfice, Florence, Rome, &c., &c.-Her real Decline.-Condottieri, Tyrannies, and Conspiracies.-Machiavelian Politics. - Threatening Conquest. - Turks, Spaniards, French.- Taking
of Constantinople, 1453. —Attempt of John of Calabria upon the
Kingdom of Naples, 1460-1464. -Diversions of the Albanese Scanderbeg, of Hunniades, and of Mathias Corvin in Hungary.-Project
of the Crusade, which fails by the Death of Pius II., 1464.-Venice
calls upon the Turks.-Taking of Otranto, 1480.-The Venitians call
upon RWn6 of Anjou.-The Pope calls upon the Swiss.-Savanarola
foretels the Conquest of Italy..39
CHAPTER II.
The West-France and the Netherlands, England and Scotland, Spain
ard Portugal, in the second half of the 15th Century.. 51
I. FRANCE, 1452-1494.
End of the English VWatrs.-Feudalism: Houses of Burgundy, Brittany,
Anjou, Albret Foix, Armagnac, &c., &c.-Grandeur of the Duke of
Burgundy. —Advantages of the King of France: First perpetual Tat,
first Standing Army, 1444.-Death of Charles VI1.-Accession of Louis XI., 1461.-Death of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.-Accession
of Charles the Bold, 1467.-League for the Public Good.-Treaties of
Conflans and St. Maur, 1465.-Conference of Peronne, and Captivity of
the King, 1468.-Second League of the great Vassals, dissolved by the
Death of the Duke of Guienne, Brother of Louis, 1472.-Invasion of Edward IV.-Treaty of Pequigny, 1475.-Charles the Bold turns against
Germany, then against the Swiss.-His Defeats at Granson and at Morat, 1476.-His Death, 1477.-Mary of Burgundy marries Maximilian of
Austria.-Louis XI., Master of Anjou, of Maine, of Provence, of Artois.
and of Franche Comt6, 1481-82.-His Death. -Regency of Anne of
Beaujeu, 1483.-Pretensions of the States, 1484.-Humiliation of the
Grandees.-Charles VIII. prepares for the Expedition into Italy. 53
II. ENGLAND, 1454-1509. SCOTLAND, 1452-1513.
England: Marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of Anjou.-Death of
Gloucester-Loss of the French Provinces.-Richard of York, War



XVi                      CONTENTS.
wick. —(ondemnation of the Ministers.-Richard Protector, 1455.Battles of Northampton and Wakefield.-Death of Richard.-His Son,
Edward IV., 1461.-Defeat of the Lancastrians at Towton, and at Exham, 1463. —Overthrow of Edward IV. at Nottingham, 1470.-Battle
of Tewksbury.-Defeat and Death of Henry VI., 1471.-Death of Edward IV., 1483.-Richard III.-H-enry Tudor.-Battle of Bosworth.Henry VII., 1485.-Increase of the regal Power.-Scotland: Contest
of James II. against the Aristocracy.-His Alliance with the House of
Lancaster.-James Ill., 1460.-James 1V., 1488.-Reconciliation of
the King and the Nobility.-Battle of Flodden.-James V., 1513 P. 69
~ III. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 145' —1521.
Henry IV., King of Castile, 1454.-Revolt of the Grandees in the Name of
the Infant. —l)eposition of Henry.-Battle of Medina del Campo, 1465.
-John II., King of Aragonl.-Revolt of Catalonia, 1462-72.-Marriage
of Ferdinand of Aragon with Isabella of Castile, 1469.-War against
the Moors.-Taking of Grenada, 1481-92.-Ferdinand and Isabella repress the GTandees and the Cities, relying on the Aid of the Inquisition,
established in 1480.-Expulsion of the Jews, 1492.-Forced Conversion of the Moors, 1499.-Death of Isabella, 1504.-Ministry of Ximenes.-Conquest of Navarre, 1512.-Death of Ferdinand, 1516.His Successor, Charles of Austria.-Revolt of Castile, Murcia, &c.,
&ztc., 1516-1521........                                 88
CHAPTER III.
The East and, th/e _North-German and Scandinavian States in the second
half of the 15th Century.
Empire of Gernmany.-Preponderance and interested Policy of Austria.The Rise of Switzerland. —The Decline of the Teutonic Order.-Cities
of the Rhine, and of Swabia.-Preponderance and Decline of the Hanseatic League.-Rise of Holland.-Wars of Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway. —Freedom of Sweden, 1433-1520. 110
CHAPTER IV.
East and'Vorth-Slavoonic States and Turkey, in the second half of the
15th Century.
Progress of the Turks, 1411-1582.-Podiebrad, King of Bohemia.-Mathias Corvin, King of Hungary, 1458.-Wladislas, of Poland, reunites
Hungary and Bohemia.- Poland under the Jagellons, 1386-1506.Contest of Russia with the Tartars, the Lithuanians, and the Livonians, 1462-1505.122
CHAPTER V.
T'ars of Italy, 1494-1516.
Louis the Moor calls for the Aid of the French.-Charles VIII. invades
Italy.-League against the French.-Battle of Formosa, 1495.-Louis
XII. invades Milan, 1499.-War with the Spaniards of Naples.-Defeat of the French at Garigliano, 1503.-Alexander   VI. and Cesar
Borgia.-Julius II.-Revolt of Genoa against Louis XII., 1507.-Italy,
the Empire, France, Hungary, conspire against Venice.-Holy League
against France, 1511-12.-Victories and Death of Gaston de Foix,Bad Success of Louis XII., 1512-14. —Francis I. invades Milan.l-Battle of Marignan, 1515.-Treaty of Noyon, 1516... 131




CONTENTS.                        XVii
SECOND PERIOD.
FROM THE UE1FORIMATION TO TItE TREATY OF WE STPIHALIA, 15171648.... Page 149
INTRODUCTION.......... 151
(I APTiEs t   VI.
Leo Xa., Firancis I., and C;larZes FV.
Francis I., 1515.-Charles V., Emperor, 1519.-First War agailnst
Charles V., 1521.-Disaffection of the Duke of Bourbon, 1523.-Battle of Pavia, 1525.- Captivity of Francis I.-Treaty of Madrid, 1526.
-Second War, 1527.-Peace of Cambray, 1529. —Public Alliance of
Francis I. with Solyman, 1534.-Third War, 1535.-Truce of Nice,
1538.-Renewal of Hostilities, 1541.-Battle of Cerisoles, 1544.Treaty of Crepy. —Death of Francis I. and Henry VIII., 1547.-Internal Situation of France and Spain.-Reformation.-First Persecutions, 1535 —Massacre of the Vaudois, 1545... 153
CHAPTER VII.
Luther-Reformaalion in Germany — Var of the Turks, 1517-1555.
Luther attacks the Sale of Indulgences, 1517. —He burns the Pope's Bull,
1520.-Diet of Worms, 1521.-Secularization of Prussia, 1525. --
War of the Peasants of Swabia, 1524-5: —Anabaptists.-Catholic
League, 1524.-Protestant League, 1526.-War of the Turks.-Solyman, 1521.-Invasion of Hungary, 1526.-Siege of Vienna, 1529.Diet of Spire, 1529.-Confession of Augsburg, 1530.-League of
Smallkalde, 1531.-Revolt of the Anabaptists of Westphalia, 1534.Troubles and internal Wars of Germany, 1534-46.-Council of Trent,
1545.-War of Charles V. against the Protestants.-Battle of Muhjerg,
1547.-Revolt of Maurice of Saxony, 1551.-Peace of Augs'urg,
1555.-Death of Charles V., 1558.  179
~ I. ORIGIN OF THE REFORMATION... 181
II. FIRST STRUGGLE AGAINST THE REFORMIATION. 191
CHAPTER VIII.
Reformation in England and in the North of Europe, 1521-1547.
t I. ENGLAoND AND SCOTLAND, 1527-1547.
Divorce of Henry VIIL-England separates herself from the Roman
Church, March 30th, 1534.-Pilgrimage of Grace.-Persecution of
Catholics and Protestants, 1540. —Attempts on Scotland, 1542.-Submission and administrative Organization of Wales and Ireland. 205
( II. DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND NORWAY, 1513-1560.
Christian II. turns the Danish Nobility against him, Sweden, 1520; the
Hanse Towns, 1517.-Gustavus Vasa.-Insurrection of Dalecarlia..Christian II. replaced in Sweden by Gustavus Vasa, 1523; in Denmark and Norway by Frederic of Holstein, 1525.-Independence of
the Danish Church, 1527; of the Swedish Church, 1529.-Death of
Frederic I. —Civil War, 1533.-Christian III. abolishes the Catholic
Worship, 1536, and incorporates Norway with Denmark, 1537. 213




XV1i1                    CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
Calvin-Reformation in France, England, Scotland, the Netkerle jnde, tm
St. Bartholomew, 1555-1572.
Calvin at Geneva, 1535.-Calvinism  enters France, the Netherlands,
England, and Scotland.-Opposition of Philip 11.-His Marriage with
Mary, Queen of England, 1555.-Peace between the King of SpaiP
and Henry II., King of France, 1559. —Establishment of the Inqui
sition, 1561. — Marriage of Mary Stuart with Francis II., 1560.Struggle between England and Scotland, 1559-1567.-Accession oa
Charles IX., 1561.-Massacre of the Vassi.-Civil War, 1562.-Peace
of Amboise, 1563; of Longjumeau, 1568.-Battles of Jarnac and Montcontour, 1569.-Persecutions in the Netherlands.-Council of TrouL
les, 1567.-Revolt of the Moors of Spain, 1571.-St. Bartholomew,
1572.........         Page 22i
CHAPTER X.
Farther Events to the Death of Henry IV., 1572-1610 —Glance at the Sit
uation of the Belligerant Powers after the Religious Wars.
I. DEATH OF CHARLES IX., 1574.
Insurrection of the Netherlands, 1572.-Union of Utrecht, 1579.-Formation of the League in France, 1577.-Power of the Guises.-Battle
of Coutras, 1587.-Barricades.-States of Blois, 1588.-Assassination of
Henry III.-Accession of Henry IV.-Death of Mary Stuart, 1587.-Armament and bad Success of Philip II., 1588.-Grandeur of Elizabemt
242
II. To THE DEATH OF HENRY IV., AND A GLANCE AT THE BELLIGERANT POMWERS.
Mayence.-Combat of Arques.-Battle of Ivri, 1590.- States of Paris,
1593.-Abjuration and Absolution of Henry IV., 1593-1595.-Edict of
Neptes.-Peace of Vervins, 1598. —Veakness of Spain; Expulsion of
the' Moors from Valencia, 1609.-Administration of Henry IV.-Affluence of France.-Assassination of Henry IV., 10... 254
CHAPTER XI.
Revolution of England, 1603-1649.
James I., 1603. —Charles I., 1625.-War against France, 1627. - The
King tries to govern without a Parliament, 1630-1638.-Trial of Hampden, 1636.- Covenant -of Scotland, 1638.- Long Parliament, 1640.Commencement of the Civil War, 1642.-Covenant of England and
Scotland, 1643.-Success of the Parliamentaries.-The Power passes
to the Independents.-Cromwe]l. —The King gives himself up to the
Scots, who betray him, 1645.-Revolt and Predominance of the Army.
— Trial and Execution of Charles I. -Abolition of the Monarchy,
1649......... 266
CHAPTER XII.
The Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648.
Maximilian II., 1564-1576-Rodolph II., 1576-1612.-Mathias, Emperor,
1612-1619.-Insurrection of Bohemia.-Commencement of the Thirty
Years' War.-PALATINE PERIOD, 1619-1623: Ferdinand II.-War
against the Protestants.-Bohemia, the Palatinate.-Triumph of Ferdinand. —DAN Rsl PER!OD, 1625-1629: League of the States of Loswer




CONTENTS.                        XiX
Saxony.-Success of Tilly and Waldstein.-Intervention of Denmark
and Sweden.-SWEDISH PEEIOD, 1630-1635: Gustavus Adolphus invades the Empire.-Battle of Leipzig, 1631.-Invasion of Bavaria.Battle of Lutzen.-Death of Gustavus Adolphus, 1632.-Assassination
of Waldstein, 1634.-Peace of Prague, 1635.-FRENCH PERIOD, 16351648: Ministry of Richelieu, &c., &c.-Battle of the Dunes, 1640.Battle of Leipzig, 1642; of Friburg, Norlingen, Sens, 1644,1645, 1648,
&c., &c.-Treaty of Westphalia, 1648.... Page 280
CHAPTER XIII.
The East and the North in the 15th Century.
~ I. TURKEY, HUNGARY, 1566-1648..  294
4II. POLAND, PRUSSIA, RUSSIA, 1505-1648.. 297
4 III. DENMARK AND SWEDEN... 302'CHAPTER XIV.
Discoveries and Colonies of the Mioderns-Discoveries and Establishments
of the Portuguese in both Indies, 1412-1582.
I. DISCOVERIES AND COLONIES OF THE MODERNS. 304
~ II. DISCOVERIES AND ESTABLISHMENTS OF THE PORTVGUESE.
The Infant Don Henry encourages the Navigators.-Discovery of Madeira, the Azores, Congo, 1412-1484; of the Cape of Good Hope, 1486.
-Voyage of Vasco de Gama, 1497-1498.-Discovery of Brazil, 1500.Almeida and Albuquerque, 1505-1515.-Submission of Ceylon, 1518.
-First Connexions with China and Japan, 1517-1542.-Decay of the
Portuguese Colonies.-Ataide and John of Castro, 1545-1572. —Sovereignty of the Spanish, 1582..305
CHAPTER XV.
Discovery of America-Conquests and Establishments of the Spaniards
in the 15th and 16th Centuries.
Christopher Columbus.-Discovery of America, October 12th, 1492.Second Voyage, 1493: —Third, 1498.-Discovery of the South Sea, 1513.
-Cortez, Conquest of Mexico, 1518-1521.-Pizarro, Conquest of Peru,
1524-1533.-Discoveries and various Establishments, 1540-1567. 313
CHAPTER XVI.
Literature, Arts, and Sciences in the 16th Century-Leo X. and Francis I.                        331
~ I. LITERATURE AND ARTS.... 332
6 II. PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCES... 335
CHAPTER XVII.
Troubles at the Commencement of the Reign of Louis XIII.-Richelieu,
1610-1643..ouis XIII.-Regency, Concini, Luynes, 1610-1620.-Richelieu.-Siege
of Rochelle, 1627.- War of Thirty Years.- Richelieu supports the
Swedes. - War against Spain, 1636. - Conspiracy of Cinq Mars. -
Death of Richelieu, and of Louis XIII., 1642-1643... 336




XX                       CONTENTS.
THIRD PERIOD.
FROM THE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION,
1648-1789.... Page 351
PART I.-1648-1715.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Troubles under Mazarin-Rise of Colbert-Louis XIV., 1643-1661.
Administration of Mazarin.-Battle of Rocroi, 1643.-Victories of Conde.
-Treaty of Westphalia, 1648.-The Fronde, 1648-53.-Treaty of the
Pyrenees, 1659.-Louis XIV. governs by himself, 1661.-Administration of Colbert..353
CHAPTER XIX.
Continuation of the Reign of Louis XIV., 1661-1715.
War of Spain.-Conquest of Flanders and Franche Comt6.-Triple Alliance against France.-Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1667-1668.-Invasion of the united Provinces, 1672.-League against France, 1673-75.
-Victories and Death of Turenne, 1674-75.-Peace of Nimeguen,
1678.-Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685.-Louis XIV. declares
War against almost the whole of Europe, 1686.-War for the Succession of England, 1688.-Luxembourg and Catinat.-Peace of Ryswick,
1698.-War for the Succession of Spain, 1698-1713.-League of Europe against France, 1701.-Victories of the Confederates.-Peace of
Utrecht and Rastadt, 1712-13.-Death of Louis XIV., 1715.. 367
CHAPTER XX.
Literature, Sciences, and Arts in the Century of Louis XV.
~ I. FRANCE. 397
Ii. ENGLAND, HOLLAND, GERMANY, ITALY, SPAIN. 403
PART II.-1715-1789.
CHAPTER XXI.
Dissolution of the Monarchy, 1715-1789.
Louis XV.-Regency of the Duke of Orleans, 1715.-Ministry of Bourbon, 1723; of Fleury, 1'726-1745.-War for the Succession of Austria,
1740.-Reverses of the French.-Victories of Fontenoi and Raucoux,
1745-46.-Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748.-Seven Years' War, 1756.
-Family Covenant, 1761.-Abolition of the Jesuits, 1764; and of the
Parliament, 1771.-Louis XVI., 1774.-Turgot.-Neckar.-Calonne.
Assembly of the Notables, 1787.-States-General, 1789.. 408




AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
IN composing an abridgment, we ought particularly to consider for whom it is written.
The present summary is addressed to the
youthful public of our schools and colleges:
it is intended to be committed to memory, and
to serve as a text-book for the lessons of the
professors.
If, however, it should fall into the hands of
that part of the public for whom we do not
write, we think they. should be previously apprized of the object and form of our Summary,
lest they should seek therein for that which
does not appertain to it.
First, we have laid more stress upon the
history of political events than upon the history of religion, institutions, commerce, letters,
or the arts. We are not ignorant that the
second is still more important than the first;
but it is with the study of the first that we
commence.
Facts and dates do not often occur in this
little book; it is an abridgment, and not a
chronological table like those we have published. The "Chronological and Synchronological Tables"* were a sort of storehouse
* See Handbook for Readers for a notice of these tables.




XX11             PREFACE.
where a date might be looked for, and facts
brought together and compared. In this summary our purpose was quite different: to leave,
if possible, in the memory of pupils who should
learn it by heart, a lasting impression of Modern History.
To attain this end, it would be necessary
first to mark, in a comprehensive and simple
division, the dramatic unity of the history of
the last three centuries; afterward, to represent all the intermediate ideas, not by abstract
expressions, but by characteristic facts, which
should strike the imagination of youth.' Few
of these would be required, but they should be
well selected, in order to serve as symbols for
all others, so that the same facts would present to the child a succession of images-to
the man, a chain of ideas. We speak of what
we wished to do, not of what we have done.
The history of the nations of the north and
east of Europe occupies comparatively little
space in this abridgment. The narrow limits
within which we were obliged to confine ourselves did not permit us to give to it the same
development as to the history of those nations
who have advanced at the head of European
civilization.




INTRODUCTION.
IN the ancient history of Europe, two predominant nations occupy the scene in turns;
there is, generally, unity of action and of interest. This unity, less apparent in the Midfdle
Ages, reappears in Modern History, and is
principally manifest in the revolutions of the
System of Equilibrium.
The History of the Middle Ages and Modern History cannot be accurately divided. If
we consider the History of the Middle Ages
as terminating with the last invasion of the
barbarians (that of the Ottoman Turks), Modern History will comprehend three centuries
and a half, from the taking of Constantinople
by the Turks to the French Revolution, 14531789.
Modern History may be divided into three
periods: I. From the taking of Constantinople to the Reformation of Luther, 1453-1517.
II. From the Reformation to the Treaty of
Westphalia, 1517-1648. III. From the Treaty of Westphalia to the French Revolution,
1648-1789. The System of Equilibrium (Balance of Power), prepared in the first period, is
formed in the second, and is maintained in the
third. The last two periods subdivide themselves into five ages of the System of Equilibrium, 1517-1559, 1559-1603, 1603-1648, 16481715, 1715-1789.








PRINCIPAL  Hti:IARACTERISTIC3
OF MODERN HISTORY.
1st. The great states, which are formed by the
successive union of fiefs, tend afterward to absorb
the small states, either by conquest or by marriage.
The republics are absorbed by the monarchies,
the elective by the hereditary states. Their tendency to absolute unity is arrested by the System
of Equilibrium (Balance of Power). The marriages of sovereigns among themselves bring into
Europe the connexions and rivalries of a family.
2d. Europe tends to subject and civilize the rest
of the world. The colonial power of the Europeans only begins to be shaken towards the end of
the eighteenth century-importance of the great
maritime powers —commercial communications between all parts of the globe (hitherto nations had
communicated more frequently by war than by
commerce). Politics, which in the Middle Ages,
and till the end of the 16th century, had been governed by religious interests, are more and more
influenced among the moderns by the extension of
commerce.
3d. Difference between the Southern nations
(whose languages and civilization are of Latin
origin) and the Northern (whose civilization and




26     PRINCIPAL CHARACTERIST'lCS OF
languages are Germanic).  The Western people
of Europe develope civilization and carry it to the
most distant nations.  The Eastern people (principally of Slavonic origin) are long engaged in
shutting Europe against the barbarians; their progress also in the arts of peace is slower. It is the
same with the Scandinavian nations, who are situated farthest from the centre of activity in the system of European civilization.
FIRST  PERIOD.
From the taking of Constantinople by the Turks to
the Reformation of Luther, 1453-1517.
This period, common to the middle and modern
ages, has fewer striking characteristics than the
two following: the events in it present an interest
less simple, and a combination less easy to seize.
History is still occupied with the internal working
of each state, which tends to imbody itself before
it is connected with the neighbouring nations.
The first essays at a system  of equilibrium (balance of power) date from the end of this period.
The nations, already civilized in the Middle
Ages, must be subdued by those who have preserved the exclusively military spirit of barbarous
times. The inhabitants of Provence and Languedoc were thus overcome by the French; the Moors




MODERN HISTORY. -           27
by the Spaniards; the Greeks by the Turks; the
Italians by the Spaniards, the French, and the
Germans.
Internal Condition of the principal States.
The nations of Germanic and of Slavonic origin.Among the first alone, subject to a feudal system
properly so called, a free citizenship, favoured by
the progress of wealth and industry, is established;
it supports the kings against the nobles.
In the middle of the 15th century, the feudal
system has triumphed in the Empire; it has humbled the kings in Castile; it has prolonged its independence in Portugal, which was occupied with
wars, and with the discoveries in Africa; also in
the three kingdoms of the North,' which had been
in a state of anarchy since the Union of Calmar;
in England, with the aid of the wars of the Roses,
and at Naples, amid the quarrels of the houses
of Aragon and Anjou. But in Scotland the kings
already assail it; in France, Charles VII., conqueror of the English, prepares for its downfall by
his institutions, and before the end of the century,
the reigns of Ferdinand the Catholic and Ferdinand the Bastard, of John II. of Portugal, of Henry
VII. and Louis. XI., will establish the regal power
upon the ruins of the feudal system.
Three states detach themselves from this group.




28    PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
While the other states tend towards monarchical
unity, Italy remains dismembered. The power of
the dukes of Burgundy attains its summit, and falls
into ruin, while the military republic of the Swiss
is increasing in strength.
The two great Slavonic nations present a contrast, which foreshadows to us their destiny. Russia becomes one, and emerges from barbarism. Poland, though she thoroughly modifies her constitution, still clings to the anarchical form of a barbarian government.
Relations of the principal states among themselves.
The Europeah commonwealth has no longer that
unity of movement which religion gave to it at the
era of the Crusades; its parts are not yet clearly
separated, as they will be by the Reformation. It
is now divided into several groups, whose limits
are determined by the geographical position of the
nations as much as by their political relations:
England, with Scotland and France; Aragon, with
Castile and Italy; Italy and Germany, with all
the states (directly or indirectly); Turkey unites
itself with Hungary; Hungary with Bohemia and
Austria; Poland is the common bond of the East
and of the North, of which she is the preponderating power. The three kingdoms of the North and
Russia form two separate worlds.




MODERN HISTORY.                29
The Western States, for the most part filled with
internal commotions, are relieved from foreign wars.
At the North, Sweden, subjected during sixty years
to Denmark, breaks the Union of Calmar; Russia
emancipates herself from the Tartars; the Teutonic
order becomes a vassal of Poland. All the Eastern States are threatened by the Turks, who have
nothing to fear from behind them since the taking
of Constantinople, and who are only stopped by the
Hungarians. The emperor, occupied with establishing the grandeur of his house, Germany with
repairing the evils of the political and religious
wars, seemed to forget the danger.
Detaching the history of the North and East, to
follow without distraction the revolution of the
Western States, we see England and Portugal, but
especially Spain and France, reach an imposing
grandeur, as well by their conquests in recentlydiscovered countries, as by the concentration of all
national power in the hands of the kings. It is in
Italy thai those new powers are to unfold themselves by an obstinate struggle. It is necessary,
then, to observe how Italy was opened to foreign
natiots, before she fostered the infancy of that
struggle, of which she is to be the theatre in this
and the following period.*
* The limits of this sketch do not permit us to carry forward the his
tory of civilization in even course with political history. We shall cou
C




30    PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
SECOND PERIOD.
From  tke Reformation to the Treaty of Westphalia,
1517-1648.
The second period of Modern History is opened
with the rivalry of Francis I., Charles V., and Solyman: it is most eminently characterized by the
Reformation. The house of Austria, whose colossal power could alone close Europe against the
Turks, seems to have defended only to enslave it.
But Charles V. encountered a triple barrier. Francis I. and Solyman withstand the emperor from
motives of private ambition, and save the independence of Europe. When Francis I. is exhausted,
Solyman seconds him, and Charles finds a new obstacle in the league of the Protestants of Germany.
This is the first stage or era of the Reformation, and
tent ourselves here with noticing its points of departure in the 15th
century.
The rise of the spirit of invention and discovery. In literature, the
enthusiasm of learning arrested for a time the development of modern
genius. Invention of printing (1436, 1452). More frequent use of gunpowder and of the compass. Discoveries by the Portuguese and Spaniards. Maritime commerce, centred till then in the Baltic (Hanseatic
League) and in the Mediterranean (Venice, Genoa, Florence, Barcelona,
Marseilles), is extended to every sea by the voyages of Columbus, Gamsa,
&c., and passes into the hands of the Westein nations towards the end
of this period. Commerce by land; Lombard merchants; the Low Countries, and free cities of Germany, entrep6ts of the North and South.
Manufacturing industry of the same nations, especially of the Low Couno
tries.




MODERN HISTORY.              31
of the System of Equilibrium (Balance of Power),
1517-1550.
1550-1600.  Second era of the System of Equilibrium, and of the Reformation.
The Reformation has already spread itself in
Europe, and particularly in France, England, Scotland, and the Low Countries. Spain, the only
Western country that had remained closed against it,
declared herself its adversary. Philip II. wishes
to bring Europe back to religious unity, and to extend his dominion over the Western nations.  During all the second period, and especially in this
age, the wars are at once foreign and domestic.
1600-1648.  Third era of the System of Equilibrzum (Balance of Power), and of the Reformation.
The progress of the Reformation brings about,
at length, two results, simultaneous, yet independent of each other: a revolution, whose catastrophe
is a civil war, and a war, which presents to Europe the characteristics of a revolution, or, rather,
of a European civil war. In England, the victorious Reformation becomes divided within itself, and
its partisans are arrayed against each other. In
Germany, it draws all the people into the vortex of
war for thirty years. From this chaos issues the




32     PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
regular system of equilibrium, which is to prevail
during the following period.
The Eastern and Northern States are no longer
strangers to the political system of Western Europe, as in the former period. In the first age or
era, Turkey takes her place in the balance of Europe; in the third, Sweden interposes still more
decidedly in the affairs of the West. The second
era brings the Slavonic States, through Livonia, in
contact with the Scandinavian States, to which
they have been hitherto strangers.
At the commencement of this period, the sovereigns reunite all the national strength in their own
hands, bestowing internal repose and foreign conquest on the people in compensation for their privileges. Commerce is widely diffused, notwithstanding the system of monopoly which is organized at the same epoch.
THIRD  PERIOD.
From the Treaty of Westphalia to the French Revolution, 1648-1789.
In this period the moving power or motive is
purely political: it is the maintenance of the System
of Equilibrium (Balance of Power). It is divided
into two parts, of about seventy years each: before
the death of Louis XIV., 1648-1715; after the
death of Louis XIV., 1715-1789.




MODERN HISTORY.              33
1. 1648-1715. Fourth age or era of the System
of Equilibrium.
At the commencement of the third period, as at
that of the second, the independence of Europe is
in danger.  France occupies the political rank
which Spain held, and exercises, in a greater degree, the influence of a superior civilization.
As long as Louis XIV. had for adversaries only
Spain, already exhausted, Holland, an exclusively
maritime power, and the Empire, divided by its negotiations, he dictated laws to Europe. England,
at last, under a second William of Orange, resumes
the part which she had played from the time of
Elizabeth, that of principal antagonist to the preponderating power. In concert with Holland, she
annihilated the pretensions of France to the sovereignty of the seas. In concert with Austria, she
confines her within her natural limits, but cannot
prevent her establishing a branch of the house of
Bourbon in Spain.
Sweden is the first Northern power. Under two
conquerors, she twice changed the aspect of the
North, but she is too weak to obtain a lasting supremacy. Russia arrests her, assumes this supremacy, and retains it. The system of the North has
little connexion with that of the Southern States of
Europe, except by the old alliance of Sweden with
France.




34     PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
II. 1715-1789.  Fifth era or age of the System
of Equilibrium (Balance of Power).
The establishing of the new kingdoms of Russia
n.ad Sardinia mark the first years of the eighteenth century. Prussia is to be, with England, the
arbiter of Europe, while France is weakened, and
Russia does not yet attain her full strength.
During the eighteenth century there is less disproportion between the powers. The preponderating nation being insular, and essentially maritime,
has no interest in relation to the Continent other
than to maintain the balance of power. This policy she pursues in the three Continental wars between the Western States. Austria, mistress of the
greatest part of Italy, might have seized the balance
of power; England, her ally, permits her to be despoiled of Naples, which becomes an independent
kingdom; France wishes to annihilate Austria;
England saves the existence of Austria, but does
not prevent Russia from weakening her, and becoming her rival.  Austria and France wish to annihilate Prussia; England relieves her, as she had
before relieved Austria-directly, with her subsidies, and indirectly, by her naval warfare against
France.
On the ocean and in the colonies, the balance of
power is broken by England. The colonial wars,




MODERN HISTORY.             35
which form one of the characteristics of this century, give her an opportunity to ruin the naval power both of France and Spain, and to assume a
vexatious jurisdiction over neutrals. A most unexpected revolution shakes this colossal power. The
most important colonies of England escape from
her yoke, but she boldly faces all her enemies,
lays the foundation of an empire in the East, as
vast as that which she loses in the West, and remains mistress of the seas.
Russia grows as well by internal development
as by the anarchy of her neighbours. For a long
time she harasses Sweden, plunders Turkey, absorbs Poland, and advances herself in Europe.
The system of the Northern States is mingled more
and more with that of the States of the South and
West. The revolutions and bloody wars which are
about to break forth at the end of the fourth period,
will blend into one single system all the European
States.








FIRST PERIOD.
1453-1517.








SUMMARY
OF
MODERN HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
ITALY-WAR OF THE TURKS, 1453-1494.
Splendour of Italy: Venice, Florence, Rome, &c., &c.-Her real becline.-Condottieri. Tyrannies, and Conspiracies.-Machiavellian Politics. - Threatening Conquest. - Turks, Spaniards, French.- Taking
of Constantinople, 1453. —Attempt of John of Calabria upon the
Kingdom of Naples, 1460-1464. -Diversions of the Albanese Scanderbeg, of Hunniades, and of Matthias Corvin in Hungary.-Project
of the Crusade, which fails by the Death of Pius II., 1464.-Venice
calls upon the Turks.-Taking of Otranto, 1480.-The Venitians call
upon Rtni of Anjou.-The Pope calls upon the Swiss.-Savanarola
fortells the Conqulest of Italy.
Italy-Venice.-In the midst of a feudal barbarism, of which the fifteenth century still bore the
traces, Italy exhibited the spectacle of an old civilization. She impressed strangers by the venerable authority of religion, and by all the pomp
of opulence and of the arts. The Frenchman or
German who crossed the Alps, admired in Lombardy that skilful agriculture, and those innumerable canals, which make the valley of the Po one




40              SUIMMARY OF
vast garden. He beheld with astonishment, rising
out of the lagoons of the Adriatic, the wonderful
Venice, with her palaces of marble, and her arsenal, which, it was said, employed fifty thousand
men. From her ports three or four thousand vessels sailed every year, some for Oran, Cadiz, and
Burges; others for Egypt or Constantinople. The
mistress, Venice, as she called herself, ruled by
her proveditors in almost every port, from the
extremity of the Adriatic to that of the Black: Sea
Florence - Rome. - Farther off was ingenious
Florence, secure (under the Comos and Lorenzos)
that she would forever be a republic. At once
princes, citizens, merchants, and men of letters, the
Medicis received by the same vessels the tissues
of Alexandria, and the manuscripts of Greece.
At the same time that they revived Platonismn by
the labours of Ficino, they erected, by the aid of
Brunelleschi, the cupola of St. Mary, facing which
Michael Angelo wished his tomb to be placed.
The same enthusiasm for letters and the arts existed at the courts of Milan, Ferrara, Mantua, Urbino, and Bologna. The Spanish conqueror of
the kingdom of Naples imitated Italian taste; and
for making a treaty of peace with Cosmo de Medicis, he only demanded a haLdsome manuscript of
Livy. In Rome we find erudition itself seated in
the chair of St. Peter, in the persons of Nicholas




MODERN HISTORY.               41
V. and Pius II. This universal cultivation of let.
ters seemed to have humanized the feelings. In
the most bloody battle of the fifteenth century, there
were not a thousand men killed.* The combats
were scarcely more than tournaments.
Condottieri. — In the mean time, an attentive
observer might easily see signs of the decline of
Italy. The apparent gentleness of manners was
but a growing enervation of national character.
The wars, from  being bloodless, were only of
longer duration, and more ruinous. The Condottieri traversed Italy in undisciplined troops, always
ready to join the opposite standard for the least increase of pay; war had become a lucrative game
between the Piccinini and the Sforza. In every
place there were little tyrants, extolled by the
learned and detested by the people. Literature,
to which Italy herself ascribed her glory, had lost
the originality of the fourteenth century; to Dante
and Petrarch had succeeded Philelphus and Pontanus.   Nowhere was religion less regarded.
Nepotism afflicted the Church, and deprived it of
the respect of the people. The usurper of the
domains of the Holy See, the Condottieri Sforza,
dated his letters e Firmiano nostro invito Petro et
Paulo.t
Conspiracies.-The expiring genius of Italian
* Machiavelli, Storie Florentine, i., vii.  t Id. Ibid., book v




42              SUMMARY OF
liberty still made fruitless efforts by conspiracies.
Porcaro, who believed himself the subject of
Petrarch's prophetic verses, attempted to re-establish
a republican government in Rome. At Florence
the Pazzi, and at Milan the young Olgiati, with
two others, stabbed both Julian de Medicis and
Galeas Sforza in a church (1476-1487).  The
madmen believed that the liberty of their degenerated country depended on the life of one man.
Lorenzo de Jliedicis -. Inquisitors of the State,
1454. —The two governments of Florence and of
Venice passed for the wisest of Italy.  Lorenzo
de Medicis caused his verses to be sung to the
Florentines, conducted in person through the
streets of the city pedantic and sumptuous rnasquerades, and yielded himself blindly to that royal
munificence which was the admiration of men of
letters and the precursor of the bankruptcy of
Florence. At Venice, on the contrary, the coldest
self-interest seemed the only law of the government. There were no favourites, no caprice, and
no prodigality.  But this government of iron subsisted only to contract more and more the unity of
power. The tyranny of the Ten was not sufficient,
there must be created in the very bosom of this
council Inquisitors of State (1434). This dictatorship made the affairs of the Republic successful
abroad, but it was by draining the sources of its in



MODERN HISTORY.                  43
ternal prosperity. From 1425 to 1453, Venice had
enlarged her territory by four provinces, while her
revenues were diminished more than one hundred
thousand ducats. In vain she endeavoured to retain, by sanguinary measures, the resources which
were escaping from her.* The time was not far distant when Italy was to lose at once her commerce,
her riches, and her independence. There was only
wanting another invasion of the barbarians to
wrest from her the monopoly of commerce, and
of those arts which were to be hereafter the patrimony of the world.
Turks - French - Spaniards.-Who are to be
the conquerors of Italy? the Turks, the French,
or the Spaniards? This is what no foresight may
determine. The popes, and the greater part of the
Italians, dreaded, above all, the Turks. The great
Sforza, and Alphonso the Magnanimous, thought
only of closing Italy against the French, who laid
claim to Naples, and might demand Milan.t  Venice, believing herself invincible in her lagoons, negotiated without distinction with one and another,
sacrificing sometimes to secondary interests her
honour and the safety of Italy.
* If we may believe the MS. published by Mr. Daru (vol. vii.), as containing the statutes of the Inquisitors of State, these inquisitors caused
the mechanic to be put to death who carried to acother country and
branch of industry which was useful to the commonwealth.
t Sismondi, History of the Italian Republics, p. x., pg. 28.




44                SUMMARY OF
Constantinople, 1453. — Such was the situation of that country when she heard the last cry
of distress from Constantinople (1453). Separated already from Europe by the Turks and by her
schism, this unhappy city saw before her walls an
army of 300,000 barbarians. At this critical moment, the Western nations, accustomed to the complaints of the Greeks, paid little attention to them.
Charles VII. achieved the expulsion of the English from France; Hungary was disturbed; the
phlegmatic Ferdinand III. was occupied in erecting Austria into an archduchy. The possessors
of Pera and Galata,* the Genoese and the Venitians, were calculating the greatness of their loss,
instead of preventing it. Genoa sent four vessels;
Venice deliberated whether she should renounce
her conquests in Italy, to preserve her colonies
and her commerce.t In the midst of this fatal
hesitation, Italy sees the fugitives from Constantinople landing upon all her shores. Their recitals
filled Europe with shame and terror; they bewailed the Church of St. Sophia changed into a
mosque, Constantinople pillaged and deserted, and
more than sixty thousand Christians dragged into
slavery; they described the prodigious cannons
of Mohammed, and that appalling moment, at early
* Suburbs of Constantinople, inhabited by the Greeks, Armenians, &c.
t Daru, Hist. of Venice, part ii., b xvi, and "Pieces Justificatives,"
t. viii.




MODERN  IXSTORY.                  45
morn, when the Greeks beheld, at awakening, the
galleys of the infidels traversing the land,* and
descending into their harbour.
John  of Calabria, 1460-1464. - Europe was
roused at last. Nicholas V. preached the Crusade; all the Italian States were reconciled at
Lodi (1454). In other countries multitudes of
men took the cross. At Lille the Duke of Burgundy exhibited at a banquet a picture of the
desolate Church, and, according to the rites of
chivalry, vowed to God, the Virgin, the ladies, and
" le faisan," that he would fight against the infidels.
But this ardour was of short duration; nine days
after having signed the treaty of Lodi, the Venitians made another with the Turks; Charles VII.'would not permit the Crusade to be preached in
France; the Duke of Burgundy remained in his
dominions, and the new attempt of John of Calabria upon the kingdom of Naples occupied all the
attention of Italy.
Scanderbeg.-The true and only champions of
Christianity were the Hungarian Hunniade and the
Albanian Scanderbeg. The latter, whose barbarous heroism recalls fabulous times, struck off, it is
* It is said that the sultan transported his fleet in one night to the
harbour of Constantinople, by sliding the vessels upon planks smoothed
over with grease.-See Cantimir and Saadud-din, Histoire Ottomane,
MS., transl. by M. Galland, cited by M. Darun, Hist. de Venis,, 2d edit.,
Pieces Justificatives, vol. viii., p. 194-6.
D




46                  SUMMARY  OF
said, with a single blow the head of a wild bull.
He was seen, like Alexander, whose name the
Turks applied to him, to leap alone within the
walls of a besieged city.   Ten years after his
death, the Turks divided his bones among them,
believing that they would become invincible. To
this day the name of Scanderbeg is chanted in
the mountains of Epirus.
Hunniades, 1456-Mathias Corvin.-The other
Soldier of Jesus Christ (Hunniades), the white
knight of Wallachia, the devil of the Turks, as he
was also called,* arrested their progress, while
the movements of Scanderbeg forced them backward. At the time the Ottomans attacked'Belgrade, the bulwark of Hungary, Hunniades passed
through the army of the infidels, to throw himself~
into that city; he repulsed during forty days the
most furious assaults, and was celebrated as the
saviour of Christendom   (1456).  His son, Mathias Corvin, whom  the gratitude of the Hungarians raised to the throne, opposed his garde noire.
the first regular infantry which that people ever
had, to the janizaries of Mohammed II. The
* The first title is that which was always assumed by Scanderbeg;
the second, that by which Hunniades is generally designated among his
contemporaries (Comines, vol. vi., ch. xiii.); the third was given him by
the Turks, who pronounced his name to their children, to frighten them
(M. de Sacy, in the "Biog. Universelle," art. Hunniade), as the Sara.
cens formerly threatened theirs with Richard Coeur de Lion




MODERN HISTORY.              47
reign of Mathias was the glory of Hungary.
While he fought successively the Turks, the Germans, and the Poles, he founded in his capital a
university, two academies, an observatory, a museum of antiquities, and a library, which was then
the most considerable in the world. This rival of
Mohammed II. spoke, like him, several languages,
and, like him, he was the friend of literature, while
he retained the usages of the barbarians. It is
said that he had accepted the offer of a man who
engaged to assassinate his father-in-law, the King
of Bohemia, but he rejected, with indignation, the
proposition to poison him: " Against my enemies,"
said he, " I will employ only steel." -It is to him
that the Hungarians owe their Magna Charta (Decretum majus, 1485. See chapter iii.) A Hungarian proverb suffices for his eulogy: " Since the
time of Corvin there is more justice."
Pius II., 1464.-Pope Pius II. and the State
of Venice were leagued with this great prince,
when Servia and Bosnia, subjugated by the Turks,
opened to them the road to Italy. The pontiff was
the soul of the Crusade; he had appointed a rendezvous at Ancona to those who would go with
him to fight the enemy of the faith. The accomplished secretary of the Council of Basle, the most
polished mind of the age, and the most subtle of
diplomatists, becomes a hero in the chair of St.




48              SUMMARY OF
Peter. The noble idea of the salvation of Chris.
tendom seemed to have given him a new soul.
But his strength was inadequate. This venerable
man expired upon the shore, in sight of the Venitian galleys which were to have borne him to
Greece (1464).
Paul II. — Venice tributary to the Turks, 1479. —
His successor, Paul II., abandoned this.enerous
policy. He armed against the heretical Bohemians the son-in-law of their king, this same Matthias
Corvin, whose valour should have been exercised
only against the Turks. While the Christians thus
weakened themselves by their divisions, Mohammed II. swore solemnly in the Mosque, which had
been the Church of St. Sophia, the extermination
of Christianity. Venice, deserted by her allies,
lost the island of Negropont, which was taken by
the Turks in sight of her fleet. In vain Paul II.
and the Venitians sought allies, even to the extremity of Persia; the schah was defeated by the
Turks, and the taking of Caffa shut from the Europeans, for a long time, all communication with the
Persians. The Turkish cavalry spread themselves
in the Friouli as far as Piave, burning the crops, the
woods, the villages, and the palaces of the Venitian nobles. At night the flames of this conflagration were visible even as far as Venice. The Republic abandoned the unequal struggle, which she




MODERN HISTORY.              49
had sustained alone during fifteen years, sacrificed
Scutari, and submitted to a tribute.
Death of Mohammed II., 1480-81. —Pope Slxtus
IV., and Ferdinand, king of Naples, who had ren.
dered no assistance to Venice, accused her of hay
ing betrayed the cause of Christendom.  Aftei
having favoured the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and
then declared open war with the Medicis, they turn
their restless policy against the Venitians. The
vengeance of Venice was cruel. At the same time
that Mohammed II. made an attack upon Rhodes,
they learned that a hundred Turkish vessels, under the escort of the Venitian fleet, had passed into
Italy; that Otranto was already taken, and its governor sawn asunder. Great was their dismay, and
the event would perhaps have realized their worst
fears, if the death of the sultan had not arrested
for some time the progress of Mohammedan conquest.
Savanarola.-The Italians thus saw strangers
interposing in their quarrels. The Venitians, after
having drawn in the Turks, took into their service
Rene, the young Duke of Lorraine, who was heir
to the claims of the house of Anjou upon the kingdom of Naples. Since 1474, Sixtus IV. had called for the aid of the Swiss.  The barbarians were
accustomed to pass the Alps, and they related
in their own country the wonders of beautiful




50                 SUMMARY  OF
Italy; some celebrated her luxury and her wealth,
others her climate, her wines, and the delicious
fruit.* Then the prophetic voice of the Dominican Savanarola was raised in Florence, who thus
denounced upon Italy the chastisement of Babylon and Nineveh: " O Italy! O Rome! says the
Lord, I will deliver you into the hands of a people
who shall destroy you from among the nations.
The barbarians shall come up against you, like
hungry lions,... and behold, the dead shall be so
many that they that bury shall run through the
streets, and shall cry,' Who hath any dead?' and
the one shall bring his father, and another shall
bring his son....  O  Rome! I say again unto
thee, repent! O Venice! O Milan, repent!"t
But they persisted. The King of Naples entrapped his rebellious subjects in the snare of a
perfidious treaty. Genoa remained a prey to the
factions of the Ardoni and the Tregosi. Lorenzo
de Medicis on his deathbed refused the absolution
to which Savanarola had annexed the freedom of
Florence as a condition.  At Milan, Ludovic the
Moor imprisoned his nephew, preparatory to poi* See the merry and amusing history composed by the loyal servant
of the good knight, without fear and without reproach.-Vol. xv. of the
Collection of Memoirs, p. 306, 334, 335.
t Savanarola, Prediche quadragesimali (1544, in -12): predica viges.
ima prima, p. 211, 212. See also Petri Martyris Anglerii Epistol., cxxx.,
cxxxi., etc.: " Wo to thee, Mother of the Arts, O beautiful Italy," &c.,
&c. 1493.




MODERN  HISTORY.                  5
soning him.  Ro]ric Borgia assumed the tiara,
under the name of Alexander VI.  The inevitable
moment had now arrived.
CHAPTER.Io
THE WEST-FRANCE AND THE LOW  COUNTRIESENGLAND AND SCOTLAND —SPAIN AND PORTUGALtE
IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 15TH CENTURY.
BEFOR, they disputed for the possession of Italy,
it was necessary that the great powers of the W~test
should be free from  feudal anarchy, and should unite
all the national strength in the hands of the kings,
The triumph of monarchical power over feudalism is
the subject of this chapter.  With feudalism perish
the privileges and the liberties of the Middle Ages.
These liberties perished, like those of antiquity,
because they were privileges. Civil equality could
only be established by the triumph of monarchical
power.?s
The instruments of this revolution were churchmen and civilians. The Church, recruiting its
ranks only by election, in the midst of the universal hereditary system which was established in the
Middle Ages, had raised the conquered above the
Equality makes rapid progress at the very moment that the political liberties of the Middle Ages are expiring. Those of Spain were
overthrown by Charles V. in 1521, and in 1528 the Cortes of Spain permitted every citizen to wear a sword, that they mnight defend thernse.veo
against the noble,,.-See Ferreras, part xii.




52                SUMMARY OF
conquerors the sons of the citizens, and even of
the serfs, above the nobles. In their last struggle
against aristocracy, the kings demanded statesmen
and counsellors from the Church. Duprat, Woolsey, and Ximenes, who were all cardinals and
prime ministers, rose from obscure families. Ximenes had commenced by teaching law in private.*
The churchmen and the civilians were both imbued with the principles of the Roman law, which
was much more favourable to monarchy and to
civil equality than the feudal customs.
The features of this revolution present some difference in the different nations. In England it is
prepared and accelerated by a terrible war, which
exterminates the nobles; in Spain it is complicated by the struggle of religious creeds. But everywhere it offers one common characteristic: the
aristocracy, already conquered by royal power, endeavours to lessen its influence by overturning
reigning families, to substitute in their places the
rival branches. The means employed by the two
parties were odious, and often atrocious. Policy
in its infancy can only choose between violence
and perfidy; see at a later period the death of the
Earl of Douglas, the Dukes of Braganza and of
* Gomecius, fol. ii.-Giannone remarks that, under Ferdinand the Bastard, the Roman laws prevailed at Naples over the Lombard laws, by
the influence of the professors, who were at the same time both magistrates and lawyers (book xxviii., chap. v.).




MIODERN  HISTORY..53
Viseu, above  all, that of the  Earl of Mar, and  of
the Dukes of Clarence and Guienne. Yet posterity, deceived by their success, has exaggerated the
talents of the princes of this epoch (Louis XI., Ferdinand the  Bastard, Henry VII., Iwan  III., &c.,
&c.). The most skilful of all, Ferdinand the Catholic, is only a fortunate impostor in the eyes of Machiavel.*
~ I. FRANCE, 1452-1494.f
End of the English Wars.-Feudalism: Houses of Burgundy, Brittany,
Anjou, Albret, Foix, Armagnac, &c.. - Grandeur of the Duke of
Burgundy.-Advantages of the King of France: first perpetual Tax,
first standing Army, 1444.-Death of Charles VII., accession of Louis
XI., 1461.-Death of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, accession
of Charles the Bold, 1467.-League for the Public Good.-Treaties ot
Conflans and St. Maur, 1465.-Conference of Peronne, and Captivity
of the King, 1468.-Second League of the great Vassals dissolved by
the Death of the Duke of Guienne, Brother of Louis, 1472.-Invasion
of Edward IV., Treaty of Peguigny, 1475.-Charles the Bold turns
against Germany, then against the Swiss; his Defeat at Granson and
at Morat, 1476.-His Death, 1477.-Mary of Burgundy marries Maximilian of Austria.-Louis XI., Master of Anjou, of Maine, of Provence, of Artois, and of Franche Comptr, 1481-82.-His death; Regency of Anne of Beaujeu,1483.-Pretensions of the States, 1484.-Humiliation of the Grandees.-Charles VIII. prepares for the Expedition
into Italy.
State  of  France. —When  the  retreat  of the
English permitted France to recover herself, the
* See Machiavel, Familiar Letters, April, 1513, May, 1514.
t Principal authorities: vol. ix., x., xi., xii., xiii., xiv., of the collection
of Memoirs relative to the History of France, edition of Mr. Pelitot, particularly the volumes which contain the Memoirs of Comines' History of
the Dukes of Burgundy by M. de Barante, part vii., and following.
E




54               SUMMARY OF
husbandmen, descending from the castles and for.
tified cities, where the war had confined them,
found their fields untilled and their villages in ruins; the disbanded troops continued to infest the
public roads, and to levy upon the peasantry. The
feudal barons who came to aid Charles VII. to
expel the English, were kings upon their own territories, and acknowledged no law, either human
or divine. A count of Armagnac styled himself
count by the grace of God, caused the officers of
Parliament to be hung, married his own sister, and
beat his confessor when he refused to absolve him.*
The Duke of Burgundy during three years asked
bread from his prison windows, until his brother
caused him to be strangled.
Power of the great Vassals.-The oppressed people turned all their hopes towards the king. It
was from him that they expected some alleviation
of their misery.  The feudal system, which in the
tenth century had been the salvation of Europe,
had now become its scourge. This system, since
the wars with the English, seemed to regain its
ancient strength. Without mentioning the Counts
of Albret, Foix, Armagnac, and many other nobles,
* Papers relating to the Trial of John IV., count of Armagnac, cited
by the authors of the Art of verifying Dete& It was John V who
married his sister.




MODERN HISTORY.            55
the houses of Burgundy, of Brittany, and of Anjou
vied with royalty in its splendour and power.
Provence, a heritage of the house of Anjou, was
a rallying-point for the population of the South, as
Flanders was for that of the North; to this rich
province were joined Anjou, Maine, and Lorraine,
thus surrounxding on every side the king's domains.
The spirit of ancient chivalry seemed to have taken
refuge in this heroic family; the world was filled
with the exploits and misfortunes of the King Rene
and of his children. While his daughter, Margaret of Anjou, maintained the rights of the red rose
in ten battles, John of Calabria, his son, took and
lost the kingdom of Naples, and died at the moment when the enthusiasm of the Catalonians had
raised him to the throne of Aragon. Aspirati6ns
so vast, and wars prosecuted at such a distance,-destroyed the power of this house in France. The
character of its chief, also, was not adapted to sustain an obstinate struggle against the royal power.
The good Rene, in his last years, was almost entirely occupied with pastoral poetry, painting, and
astrology. When told that Louis XI. had taken
Anjou from him, he was painting a beautiful gray
partridge, and did not suspend his work.
The true head of feudalism was the Duke of
Burgundy. This prince, richer than any king in
Europe, united under his government French prov




56              SUMMARY OF
inces and German states, an innumerable nobility
and the most important commercial cities in Europe.
Ghent and Liege could each furnish forty thousand
infantry. But the elements which composed this
great power were too various to agree well together. The Hollanders would not obey the Flemings,
nor the Flemings be subservient to the Burgundians. An implacable hatred existed between the
nobility of the castles and the people of the mercantile towns. These proud and opulent cities
united the industrious spirit of modern times with
the violence of feudal customs. The moment that
the least attempt was made upon the privileges
of Ghent, the deans of the guilds sounded St.
Roland's bell, and planted their banners in the
market-place. Then the duke, with his nobles,
mounted their horses, and battles and torrents of
blood followed.
Strength of the King. —The King of France, on
the contrary, was generally supported by the cities.
In his dominions, the lower classes were much
better protected against the higher. It was a citizen, Jacques Cceur, who lent him the money necessary to reconquer Normandy. The king in every
place repressed the license of the soldiers. Since
1441, he had cleared the kingdom of disorderly
bands (compagnies) by sending them against the
Swiss, who gave them their due at the battle of




MODERN HISTORY.             57
St. James. At the same time he established the
Parliament of Toulouse, extended the jurisdiction
of the Parliament of Paris, notwithstanding the objections of the Duke of Burgundy, and limited all
the feudal tribunals. In seeing an Armagnac exiled, an Alen9on imprisoned, the natural son of a
Bourbon thrown into the river, the nobles learned
that rank was no protection from the law. A revolution so happy, made every innovation which
was favourable to monarchical power most welcome. Charles VII. formed a standing army of
fifteen hundred lancers, instituted the militia of free
archers, who were to remain at home, and to perform their military evolutions on Sundays; he laid
a perpetual tax upon the people without the authority of the States-General, and there was not a murmur among them (1444).
The grandees themselves contributed to increase
the royal power, which they disposed of by turns.
Those who did not govern the king were contented
to intrigue with the dauphin, and to excite him
against his father. The face of all was changed,
when Charles VII., who had retired into Burgundy,
sunk under the troubles which his son had occasioned him (1461). At the funeral of the king,
Dunois said to all the assembled nobility, "The
king, our master, is dead; let each one provide for
himself."




~5.8              SUMlMAMtRY OF
Louis XI., 1461.-Louis XI. possessed none of
that chivalric disposition, in favour of which the
French pardoned so many weaknesses in Charles
VII. He liked negotiations better than battles,
dressed himself meanly, and was surrounded by
persons of low quality. He took a footman for his
herald, a barber for master of ceremonies, and called the Provost Tristan his gossip. In his impatience to humble the nobles at his arrival, he dismissed all the ministers of Charles VII.; he took
from the lords all influence in the ecclesiastical
elections, by abolishing the Pragmatic Sanction;*
he incensed the Duke of Brittany by endeavouring
to deprive him of the rights of royalty; he provoked the Count of Charolais, a son of the Duke
of Burgundy, by redeeming the cities of the Somme
from his father, and by wishing to withdraw from
him the gift of Normandy; finally, he dissatisfied
all the nobles, by having no regard for their privileges of the chase, the most grievous offence, perhaps, which could be offered to a gentleman of that
age.
League for the Public Good.-The dissatisfaction of the nobles did not show itself until the
growing infirmities of the Duke of Burgundy had
placed all the authority in the hands of his son,
* Pragmatic Sanction, the ordinance of Charles VII. of France, drawn
up 1438, and on which rest the liberties of the Gallican Church.




MODERN HISTORY.             59
the Count of Charolais, afterward so celebrated
under the name of Charles the Bold. The Duke
John of Calabria, the Duke of Bourbon, the Duke
of Nemours, the Count of Armagnac, the Sieur of
Albret, the Count of Dunois, and many others,
then leagued themselves, for the public good, with
the Duke of Brittany and the Count of Charolais.
They had secret intelligence through their agents
in the Church of N6tre Dame, at Paris, and wore
a rosette of red silk as a token of cognizance.
To this coalition of almost the whole nobility, the
king endeavoured to oppose the cities, and particularly Paris. He there abolished all the excise
duties, and formed a council himself, composed of
citizens, members of Parliament, and of the University; he confided the queen to the care of the
Parisians, and wished her to give birth to his
children in their city, which, of all the cities in
dte world, he loved the most.,  There was little effected in this attempt of the confederates.  Louis
XI. had time to overcome the Duke of Bourbon.
The Duke of Brittany joined the principal army
only after the battle of Montheri. The art of war
was so entirely forgotten since the expulsion of
the English, that, with an exception of a small
number of troops, each army took to flight.* The
king then entered into some deceptive negotiations,
* Comines, boelr i., chap. in.




60               SUMMARY OF
and the threatened dissolution of the league decided the confederates to make a treaty with the
enemy (at Conflans and at St. Maur, 1465). The
king granted all their demands; to his brother he
gave Normandy, a province which, from itself
alone, paid a third part of the royal revenues; to
the Count of Charolais, the cities of the Somme;
and to all the others he gave strong castles, seigneuries, and pensions. In order that the public
good might not appear to be entirely forgotten, it
was stipulated, for form's sake, that an assembly of
notables should consult about it. The greater part
of the other articles were not more seriously executed than the last; the king-availed himself of
the revolt of Liege and of Dinant against the
Duke of Burgundy to retake Normandy, and had
the principal articles of the treaty of Conflans annulled by the states of the kingdom (at Tours,
1466), and compelledLthe Duke of Brittany to renounce his alliance with the Count of Charolais.
then Duke of Burgundy.
Conference of Peronne, 1468.-Louis XI., who
hoped, by the power of his address, to appease the
Duke of Burgundy, went himself to meet him at
Peronne (1468). The duke had just heard of the
revolt of the people of Liege, who were excited
against him by the emmissaries of the King of
France.  They had made their bishop, Louis of




MODERN HISTORY.            61
Bourbon, a prisoner, murdered the archdeacon, and,
in horrible sport, they threw his limbs about from
one to another. So great was the fury of the
Duke of Burgundy, that the king for a moment
trembled for his life. He saw enclosed within the
castle of Peronne the tower in which the Count
of Vermandois had caused the death of Charles
the Simple; but he was happily relieved from apprehension. The duke was satisfied with making
him confirm the treaty of Conflans and taking him
before Liege to behold that city laid in ruins. The
king, at his return, did not fail to have all that he
had just sworn to annulled by the states.
Death of the Duke of Guienne, 1472.-There
was now a more formidable league against him
than that of the public good. His brother, to whom
he had just given Guienne, and the Dukes of Brittany and Burgundy, had drawn to that place most
of the lords who had been hitherto loyal. They
asked aid of the King of Aragon, John II., who
made claims to Roussillon, and of Edward IV.,
king of England, brother-in-law to the Duke of
Burgundy, who felt that it was necessary for the
safety of his reign to employ abroad the restless
spirits of the English. The Duke of Brittany did
not dissemble the views of the confederates. " I
am so interested for the good of the kingdom of
France," said he, "that, instead of one king, I




624                 SUMMARY  OF
would give her six." Louis XI., at this time, could
not hope for the support of the cities, which he
had just loaded with taxes. The death of his
brother could alone break the league: his brother
died.  The king, who was regularly informed of
the progress-of his illness, ordered public prayers
for the health of the Duke of Guienne, and, at the
same time, he made his troops advance to seize his
estates. He stopped the proceedings against the
monk who was suspected of having poisoned the
prince, and had it reported that the devil strangled
him in his prison.
Landing of Edward IV,, 1475. —Louis XI., having thus disposed of his brother, repulsed John II.
from Rousillon, Charles the Bold from Picardy, and
arrested all his enemies within his kingdom.* But
the greatest danger was not passed. The King of
England landed at Calais, claiming, as was the
custom, his kingdom of France. The Duke of
Burgundy, instead of receiving the English at their
arrival, and conducting them himself into a country
where all was new to them, had gone to make war
in Germany. In the mean time, the weather was
* He freed himself of the Duke of AlenCon by imprisoning him (1472);
of King Rdn6 by depriving him of Anjou (1474); of the Duke of Bourbon
by giving Anne of France (1473-74) to his brother, and by nominating him
for his lieutenant in several provinces of the South (1475); and, finally, of
the Count of Armagnac and Charles d'Albret (1473), the Duke of Nemours, and the Constable of St. Pol (1475-77) by causing them all foul
to be put to death.




MODERN HISTORY.              63
unfavourable; though Edward had lodged the citizens who followed him in good quarters, yet they
were unaccustomed to such a life, and soon became
weary of it; they had imagined that, having once
crossed the Channel, they would have a battle within
three days.-(Comines, b. iv., ch. xi.)  Louis had
the address to make the king and his favourites accept of gifts and pensions, and laughed heartily at
thus overcoming an army which came to conquer
France.
War of Charles the Bold against Germany.He had now nothing more to apprehend from
Charles the Bold. This haughty prince had conceived the plan of establishing still more extensively the old kingdom of Burgundy, by uniting to
his territories Lorraine, Provence, Dauphiny, and
Switzerland. Louis XI. was careful not to interfere with him; he prolonged the truce, and "let
him go to knock against the Germans."  The duke
had undertaken to make the town of Neuss receive
one of the pretenders to the archbishopric of Cologne; all the princes of the Empire, with an army
of a hundred thousand men, assembled to watch
his movements. He persevered for a whole year,
and only left this unhappy siege to turn his army
against the Swiss.
Dqfeat of Granson, 1476-Defeat of Morat.This nation of citizens and peasantry, who for two




64              SUMMARY O
centuries had been free from the yoke of the house
of Austria, had always detested both its princes and
its nobility. Louis XI., when dauphin, had proved
the bravery of the Swiss at the battle of St. James,
where sixteen hundred of them preferred death
rather than to retreat before twenty thousand men.
The Sire of Hagenbach, governor for the Duke of
Burgundy, in the county of Ferrette, annoyed their
allies, and did not scruple to insult them. "We
will flay the Bear of Berne," said he, "and take
his skin offurfor a lining."  The patience of the
Swiss became exhausted; they made an alliance
with their ancient enemies, the Austrians, had
Hagenbach beheaded and defeated the Burgundians at Hericourt. They endeavoured to appease
the Duke of Burgundy; they showed him that he
could gain nothing from a contest against them.
"There is more gold," said they, " in the spurs of
your knights than you will find in all our cantons."
The duke was inflexible. Having invaded Lorraine and Switzerland, he took Granson, and
caused all the garrison, which had surrendered on
parole, to be drowned. In the mean time, the
army of the Swiss advanced; the Duke of Burgundy imprudently went to meet them, and thus
lost the advantage which the plain afforded to his
cavalry. Posted upon a hill, which yet bears his
name he saw them descending from the mountains,




MODERN HISTORY              65
shouting " Granson! Granson!" while the whole
valley echoed with the sound of those enormous
trumpets, named by the Swiss the " Bull of Uri,"
and the " Cow of Unterwalden," and which, they
said, they had received from Charlemagne. Nothing
could check the confederates. In vain the Burgundians essayed to penetrate the forest of spears
which constantly advanced towards them. The
route was soon complete. The camp of the duke,
his treasures, and his cannon became the spoils of
the conquerors; the silver found among his treasures was shared without counting, and was meas.
ured out by hatfuls.  But they knew  not the
value of all that they had gained. A soldier sold
the great diamond of the Duke of Burgundy for a
single crown. Yet Charles tlie Bold would learn
no wisdom from misfortune. Three months after
this loss he attacked the Swiss at Morat, and there
met with a still more bloody defeat. At that battle the conquerors slew all the enemy, and raised
a monument of the bones of the Burgundians.
Cruel as at Morat was long a proverb with the
Swiss.
Defeat at Nancy, 1477.-This last defeat was
the ruin of Charles the Bold. He had drained his
good cities of men and of money, and for two
years his courtiers were constantly under arms.
He now yielded to a melancholy, which bordered




66              SUMMARY OF
on derangement; he allowed his beard to grow,
and would not change his clothing. Still he was
obstinately bent on attacking the young Prince
Rene, and on endeavouring to remove him from
Lorraine. This prince, who had fought on the
side of the Swiss, was vain of speaking their language. and even sometimes adopted their costume;
he found them ready to aid him. The Duke of
Burgundy, whose army was reduced tosthree thousand men, had little hope for the result of the battle; but he was reluctant, and ashamed tofly before
a child. At the moment of the charge, the Italian
Campo Basso, with whom Louis long since had
contracted for the life of Charles the Bold, tore off
the red cross, and thus commenced the defeat of
the Burgundians, 1477. Some days after the battle, the body of the duke was found; it was borne
in great pomp to Nancy; Re6n  sprinkled it with
holy water, and taking the hand of his cousin, said,
" Fair cousin, God keep your soul! you have given
us a good deal of trouble and dificulty." But the
people would not believe in the death of a prince
whose exploits had so long occupied all minds
They confidently expected that he would soon ap
pear to them again, and ten years afterward the
merchants delivered goods without pay, on condition that they should receive double when the great
Duke of Burgundy returned.




MODERN HISTORY.             67
The fall of the house of Burgundy gave permanent strength to that of France. The proprietors
of the three great fiefs of Burgundy, Provence,
and Brittany, having died without male heirs, the
French kings broke the succession to the first in
1477, secured the second by virtue of a will, 1481,
and the third by a marriage, 1491.
War against Maximilian.-Louis XI. at first
hoped to obtain the whole heritage of Charles the
Bold by marrying the dauphin to his daughter,
Mary of Burgundy. But the States of Flanders
were not inclined to obey the French; they gave
the hand of their sovereign to Maximilian of Austria, afterward emperor, and the grandfather of
Charles V. Thus began the rivalry of the houses
of France and Austria. Notwithstanding the defeat of the French at Guinegate, Louis XI. remained master of Artois and Franche Compte, which, by
the treaty of Arras, were to be the dowry of Marguerite, daughter of the archduke, who was promised to the dauphin, Charles VIII.
Charles VIII. —When Louis XI. left his throne
to his son, who was still a child (1483), France,
which had suffered so much in silence, now raised
her voice. The States, called together in 1484 by
the regent, Anne of Beaujeu, wished to give their
delegates the principal influence in the council of
regency; to vote a tax for only two years, at the




68              SUMMARY OF
end of which they should be again cailed together
and, lastly, to regulate the division of the tax themselves.  The six nations, into which the states
were divided, began to reproach each other, and
wished to be formed into territories, like Languedoc and Normandy, when the dissolution of the assembly was pronounced. The regent, by her firmness, continued the policy of Louis XI. in regard
to the grandees. She conquered the Duke of Orleans, who disputed the regency with her, and
united Brittany to the crown, by marrying her son
to the heiress of that duchy (1491).  Thus the
work of humbling the great vassals was accomplished. France attained that unity which was to make
her formidable to all Europe, and the old servants
of Louis XI. were followed by a generation young
and ardent as their king. Charles VIII., impatient
to give importance to his claims upon the kingdom
of Naples, which he had inherited from the house
of Anjou, appeased the jealousy of the King of
England with money, gave up Roussillon to Ferdinand the Catholic, Artois and Franche Compte to
Maximilian, thus sacrificing three of the strongest
barriers of France. But the loss of a few provinces is of little importance to the future conqueror
of the kingdom of Naples, and of the empire of the
East.




MODE RN HISTORY.                     69
II. ENGLAND, 1454-1509. SCOTLAND,
1452-1513.
England: Marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of Anjou.-Death of
Gloucester.-Loss of the French Provinces.-Richard of York, Warwick; Condemnation of the Ministers, Richard Protector, 1455.-Battles of Northampton and Wakefield; Death of Richard, his Son, Edward IV., 1461.-Defeat of the Lancastrians at Towton and at Exham,
1463.-Overthrow of Edward IV. at Nottingham, 1470.-Battle of
Tewksbury, Defeat and Death of Henry VI., 1471.-Death of Edward IV., 1483.-Richard IIT.-Henry Tudor; Battle of Bosworth;
Henry VII., 1485.-Increase of the Regal Power.-Scotland: Contest
of James II. against the Aristocracy.-His Alliance with the House
of Lancaster.-James III., 1460.-James IV., 1488.-Reconciliation of
the King and Nobility.-Battle of Flodden.-James V., 1513.
Henry VI.-  Warwick.-The French, who, during a century, had always been defeated by the
English, had, at last, their turn. The English,
driven from the French cities in every campaign
by Dunois or Richmond, returned to their provinces with shame, and blamed their generals and
their ministers for their defeat; it was now the
quarrels of the uncles of the king, now the recall
of the Duke of York, which had caused their disgrace. To the conqueror of Agincourt had succeeded the young prince Henry VI., whose innocence and gentleness were not formed to contend
with these troublesome times, and whose feeble
reason became completely deranged at the commencement of the civil war. While the annual
revenue of the crown amounted to only ~5,000
F




70                SUMMARY OF
sterling,* several noble families had amassed royal
fortunes by marriages, or from inheritance. It is
said that the Earl of Warwick, one of the last and
most illustrious examples of feudal hospitality, supported on his estates as many as 30,000 persons;t
when he kept house in London, his vassals and his
friends consumed six oxen at a meal.t To this
colossal fortune he added all the accomplishments
of a chief of a party. But his courage was a stranger to the chivalric point of honour, for this chief,
who was seen to attack a fleet of twice the size of
his own,~ often fled without blushing, when he
found his soldiers yield.ll Without mercy towards
the nobles, in battles he always spared the people.
In review of his actions, how can we be astonished
that he attained the surname of King-maker?
Margaret of Anjou.-The court, which was already too feeble to contend against such men, again
aggravated, as if designedly, the discontent of the
people. When the hatred of the English against
France was imbittered by so many reverses, the
court gave them a French queen.  The fair Margaret of Anjou, daughter of King Rene of Provence, was to bring into England the heroic spirit
of her family, but not its milder virtues. Henry
* Lingard, vol. v. of the Fr. translation, p. 259.
1 Hume.               ~ Lingard, vol. v., p. 284.
O Lingard, vol. v., p. 282.    1 Comines, book iii., ch, vii




MODERN HISTORY.             71
purchased her hand by yielding Maine and Anjou;
and instead of receiving a dower, he gave one. A
year had scarcely elapsed since this marriage, when
the uncle of the king, the good Duke of Gloucester,
whom the nation adored for his warlike spirit, was
found dead in his bed. Bad tidings from France
rapidly succeeded each other. While still indignant for the loss of Maine and Anjou, the news
arrived that Rouen and all Normandy were in the
hands of the French; their army found no resistance in Guienne; not a soldier was sent from England, not a governor endeavoured to oppose it, and
in August, 1451, the city of Calais was all that belonged to the English on the Continent.
York Protector, 1455.-The national pride, so
cruelly humbled, now began to seek a champion.
All eyes were turned towards Richard, duke of
York, whose claims, though long proscribed, were
superior to those of the house of Lancaster. The
Nevilles, and a great part of the nobility, rallied
around him. The Duke of Suffolk, the queen's
favourite, was their first victim. Afterward an impostor caused the revolt of the men of Kent, who
were always the first for a revolution, conducted
them to London, and beheaded Lord Say, another
of Henry's ministers. At last Richard's own partisans came armed to St. Alban's, and demanded
that Lord Somerset should be delivered to them




72              SUMMARY OF
who, after having lost Normandy, had become
prime minister. Here was the first blood shed in
that war which was to continue thirty years, to
cost the lives of eighty-four princes, and to exterminate the ancient nobility of the kingdom. The
Duke of York made a prisoner of the king, conducted him in triumph to London, and was satisfied
with the title of Protector for himself (1455).
His Death.-In the mean time, Margaret of Anjou armed the northern counties, which were decided enemies to innovation. She was defeated
at Northampton. Henry again fell into the hands
of his enemies, and the conqueror, no longer dissembling his aim, made the Parliament declare him
presumptive heir to the throne. He had thus attained the summit of his ambition, when he encoun
tered near Wakefield the army which the indefatigable Margaret had again assembled. He accepted the combat, notwithstanding the inferiority of
his forces, was conquered, and his head, decked by
the queen with a crown of paper, was set upon the
walls of York. Rutland, his son, who-was scarcely twelve years of age, fled with his tutor; he was
overtaken at the bridge of Wakefield, when the
poor child, unable to speak, fell upon his knees;
the tutor having pronounced his name, Lord Clifford exclaimed, " Thy father killed my father-thou
must die, thou and all thy race," and stabbed him




MODERN HISTORY.             73
to the heart. This barbarity seemed to have opened an abyss between the two parties; from that
time scaffolds were erected upon the fields of battle, and not a life among the conquered was spared.
Edward IV., 1461-Margaret in France, 1463.
— At this time the quarrels of the red and white
rose (badges of the houses of York and Lancaster)
became more systematic. Warwick had the son
of the Duke of York proclaimed king by the populace of London, under the title of Edward IV.
(1461). The child of a civil war, Edward per.
mitted blood to flow without compunction; but he
interested the people by the misfortunes of his father and his brother; he was only twenty years
old, he loved pleasure, and was the handsomest
man of the age. The Lancastrian party had only
in their favour the long possession of the throne,
and the oaths of the people. When the queen
dragged towards the South a tribe of unbridled
northern peasants, who were only paid by plunder,
London and the richest provinces attached themselves to Edward, as their defender. Warwick
speedily led the young king against her, as far as
the village of Towton. It was there that, during
a whole day and in a violent snowstorm, the two
parties fought, with a fury rarely evinced even in
civil war. Warwick, seeing that his party were
giving way, killed his horse, and kissing the cross




74                 SUMMARY OF
which formed the hilt of his sword, swore that he
would share the fate of the last of his soldiers.
The Lancastrians were precipitated into the River
Cock. Edward forbade his army to give quarters
to the vanquished, and 38,000 men were drowned
and massacred. The queen, having no more resources, addressed herself to strangers, to the
French; she had already given up Berwick to the
Scotch; she went over to France, and promised
Louis XI. to give him Calais as a pledge, to obtain
thereby a feeble and odious assistance. But the
fleet which carried her treasures was shattered by
the tempest; she lost the battle of Exham, and
her last hopes (1463). The unhappy Henry soon
fell again into the power of his enemies. The
queen at last arrived in France with her son, after
encountering the greatest dangers.
After victory came the division of the spoils.
Warwick and the other Nevilles had the principal
share. But they soon saw their interest superseded by the relations of Elizabeth Woodville, a private gentlewoman, whom the imprudent love of
Edward raised to the throne.* Then the King-maker thought of nothing but how to destroy his own
* According to a tradition generally received, Warwick had negotiated in France the marriage of the King of England with Bonne of Savoy, sister-in-law of Louis XI., during the time that Edward was married to Elizabeth Woodville. This tradition is not confirmed by the
three principal contemporary historians.-Lingard.




MODERN HISTORY.            75
work; he negotiated with France, caused a rebellion in the north of England, drew even the brother
of the king, the Duke of Clarence, into his party,
and made himself master of the person of Edward.
England had for a moment two royal captives: but
Warwick soon saw himself compelled to fly with
Clarence, and to go over to the Continent.
Edward IV. expelled, 1470.-York could only
be overthrown by the army of Lancaster. Warwick became reconciled with that same Margaret
of Anjou who had caused his father to be beheaded, and returned to England in the vessels of the
King of France. In vain Charles the Bold had
warned the indolent Edward; in vain the people
in their ballads chanted the name of the exile, and
alluded in the rude plays of that age to his misfortunes, and to his virtues. Edward only roused
himself on hearing that Warwick was approaching
with an army of sixty thousand men. Betrayed
by his own party at Nottingham, he saved himself
so precipitately, that he landed almost alone in the
territories of the Duke of Burgundy.
Death of Warwick —Henry VI., 1471-Edward
IV., 1483. —While Henry VI. was leaving the
Tower of London, and the King of France was celebrating the restoration of his ally in public fetes,
Clarence, who repented of the aid which he had
rendered to the house of Lancaster, recalled his




76              SUMMARY OF
brother to England. Edward departed from Burgundy with means furnished secretly by the duke,
and went on shore at Ravenspur, the very place
where Henry IV. had landed to dethrone Richard II. No obstacle opposed his advance, and
he declared, as he proceeded, that his intention
was only to claim the Duchy of York, his family inheritance. He wore the ostrich feather (worn
by the partisans of the Prince of Wales, son of
Henry VI.), and made his followers cry, " Long
life to King Henry!" But as soon as his army
was strong enough, he dropped. the mask, andprepared to dispute the throne with the Lancastrians
upon the plain of Barnet. The treachery of Clarence, who went over to his brother with 12,000
men, and the embarrassment caused by their mistaking the sun, which Edward's party bore upon
their arms, for the blazing star of their opponents,
occasioned the loss of the battle, and the death of
the Earl of Warwick. Margaret was attacked: before she could collect the troops which remained
to her, she was vanquished, and taken, with her
son, to Tewksbury. The young prince was conducted to the tent of the king. "Who has made
you so bold as to enter my territories?" said Edward to him. " I came," proudly replied the young
prince, "' to defend my father's crown and my own
inheritance." Edward, angry at the reply, struck




MODERN HISTORY.            77
him with his gauntlet in the face, and his brothers,
Clarence and Gloucester (or perhaps their knights),
threw themselves upon him, and killed him. It is
said that on the same day that Edward entered
London, Henry VI. was assassinated in the Tower
by the hand of the same Duke of Gloucester
(1471). From that time the triumph of the red
rose was secured, and Edward had nothing more
to fear except from his own brother. He anticipated Clarence by taking his life under some frivolous pretext; but, if we may believe common
report, he was poisoned by Gloucester (1483).
See above, his expedition to France.
Richard II. —Edward had scarcely left his
throne to his young son, Edward V., when the
Duke of Gloucester had himself proclaimed Protector. The queen-mother, who knew too well
what protection she had to expect from a man
whose appearance alone made one shudder, fled
for refuge to Westminster, but the sanctity of the
place was no barrier to Richard; she tremblingly
placed her two children under his guardianship.
But he could attempt nothing against them while
their natural guardians were living, especially Lord
Hastings, the personal friend of Edward IV. One
day Richard entered the council-chamber with a
smiling countenance; then suddenly changing his
looks, he exclaimed, " What punishment do they




78                SUMMARY OF
deserve who conspire against the life of he protector? See into what a condition the wife of my
brother and Jane Shore (who was the mistress of
Hastings) have reduced me by their sorceries!"
and he showed a withered arm, which had been in
this state from his birth. Then addressing Lord
Hastings, he said, " It is you who are the instigator of all this; by St. Paul, I will not dine until
your head is brought to me." He struck upon a
table, a crowd of soldiers entered the hall, dragged
Hastings away, and beheaded him in the courtyard upon a piece of timber which they found
there.  The Parliament then declared the two
young princes bastards, and the sons of a bastard.
A Doctor Shaw preached to the people, " that illegitimate slips would not be useful;" a dozen workmen threw their caps in the air, crying " Live King
Richard!" and he accepted the crown to comply
with the commands of the people. His nephews
were smothered in the Tower, and a long time after,
the skeletons of two children were found under the
stairway of the prison. -
Death of Richard III., 1485. — Nevertheless,
the throne of Richard III. was not firm; there remained in a remote part of Brittany a scion of
Lancaster, Henry Tudor, of Richmond, whose
claims to the crown were unquestionable. He
was, by his grandfather, Owen of Tudor; of Welsh




MODERN HISTORY.             79
origin. The Welsh invited him to England.*
With the exception of the northern counties, where
Richard had many partisans, all England waited
for Richmond to declare themselves in his favour.
Richard, not knowing on whom to rely, hastened
the crisis, and advanced as far as Bosworth. Scarcely were the two armies in sight of each other,
when Richard recognised in the hostile ranks the
Stanleys, whom he believed to be on his side. He
then bounded forward, the crown upon his head,
crying " Treason! Treason!" killed two gentlemen
with his own hand, overthrew the standard of the
enemy, and opened the way even to his rival; but
he was overwhelmed by numbers. Lord Stanley
tore the crown from him, and placed it on the head
of Henry. The body of Richard, stripped of everything, was thrown on a horse, the head hanging on
one side, the feet on the other, and was thus conveyed to Leicester (1485).
Henry VII., Tudor.-Henry united the claims
of the two rival houses by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV. -But his reign was
a long time disturbed by the intrigues of the widow
of Edward, and of his sister, the dowager Duchess of Burgundy.  At first they raised against
him a young baker, who passed himself for the
* Thierry, Hist de la Conqubte de l'Angleterre par les Normands, volk
i., 2d edit.




80              SUMMARY OF
Earl of Warwick, son of the Duke of Clarence.
Henry having defeated the partisans of the impostor at the battle of Stoke, employed him as a scullion in his kitchen, and soon after, as a reward
for his good conduct, he gave him the charge of
his falconry. A more formidable rival afterward
raised himself against him. This mysterious personage, who resembled Edward IV., took the name
of the second son of that prince. The Duchess of
Burgundy acknowledged him for her nephew, after
a solemn examination, and publicly named him
The White Rose of England. Charles VIII. treated him as a king. James III., king of Scotland,
gave him one of his relatives in marriage, but his
attempts were unsuccessful. He successively invaded Ireland, the north of England, the. county
of Cornwall, and was always repulsed. The inhabitants of this county, deceived in the hopes
which they had formed at the accession of a prince
from the Welsh race, refused to expose themselves
for the Pretender. He was, notwithstanding his
pretensions, mad'e prisoner, and was compelled to
read in Westminster Hall a confession signed by
his own hand; in it he acknowledged that he was
born at Tournay, of a Jewish family, and that his
name was Perkin Warbeck. Another impostor,
having assumed the name of the Earl of Warwick,
Henry VII., to terminate all these troubles, had




MODERN HISTORY.             81
the true Earl of Warwick put to death: an unfortunate prince, whose birth was his only crime, and
who, from his earliest years, had been shut up in
the Tower of London.
English Aristocracy.-Such was the end of the
troubles which had cost so much blood to England.
Who was conquered in this long contest? Neither
York nor Lancaster, but the English aristocracy,
who were decimated by battles and wasted by
proscription. Nearly a fifth of the estates in the
kingdom (if we may believe Fortescue) had fallen
by confiscation into the hands of Henry VII. What
was still more fatal to the power of the nobles,
was the law which permitted them to make over
their estates by breaking the entails. The increasing want of luxuries, until then unknown, made
them eagerly avail themselves of that permission
which was to bring on their own ruin. To reside at court, they quitted their ancient castles,
where they had reigned as sovereigns since the
conquest.  They discontinued those sumptuous
entertainments and that hospitality by which they
had so long retained the fidelity of their vassals.
The men of the barons found the court-hall and the
banquet-room deserted; they abandoned those who
abandoned them, and returned to their homes king's
men. —(Abolition of the Law of Maintenance.)
Reign of Henry VII.-The first care of Henry




82              SUMMARY OF
VII., during all his reign, was the accumulation
of la treasury; one could rely so little upon the future after so many revolutions! The exacting of
feudal debts, the redeeming of feudal services,
fines, confiscations-all means were good to him
to attain his end. He obtained money from his Parliament to make war against France, and he procured money from the French to purchase peace,
thus gaining from his subjects by war, and from his
enemies by peace.-(Bacon. )
He sought also to support his throne by alliances
with the best-established dynasties-gave his
daughter to the King of Scotland, and obtained for
his son the infant of Spain (1502-3).  In his
reign navigation and industry received their first
impulse. He sent a Venitian, Sebastian Cabot,
in search of new countries, who discovered North
America, 1498. He granted to several cities the
exemption from a law which forbade a father to
place his son in apprenticeship unless he had an
income of twenty shillings from real estate. Thus,
at the moment when Henry VII. is establishing
the unbounded power of the Tudors upon the
downfall of the nobility, we see the beginning of
the rise of that Commons which, in a century and
a half, will overthrow the Stuarts.
Scotland. -The time was still far distant in
which the other kingdom of Great Britain would




MODERN HISTORY.                83
become as regularly organized. Scotland contained many more elements of discord than England. First, its mountainous country had made it
more easy to resist the conquered races. The
sovereignty of the Lowlanders over the Highlanders, of the Saxons over the Celts,* was purely nominal. The latter scarcely knew any sovereigns
but the hereditary chiefs of their clans. The principal of these chiefs, the Earl of Ross, the Lord
of the Isles, was, with respect to the kings of Scotland, considered more as a tributary sovereign than
as a subject. He was the secret or avowed friend
of all the enemies of the king; the ally of England
against Scotland, and of Douglas against the Stuarts. The first princes of this dynasty spared the
Highlanders, from want of power to subdue them;
James I. expressly exempted them from obeying
any law, "seeing," said he, " that their custom is
to rob and kill each other."t Thus English civilization, which was gradually pervading Scotland,
was arrested at the Grampian Hills.
Douglas.-The lords and barons to the south of
these mountains were indefatigable adversaries to
the royal authority, particularly the Lords Douglas;
this heroic family had disputed the throne with
* The mountaineers always call the other Scots Saxons.
t Pinkerton, Hist. of Scotland, from the accession of the house of
Stuart to that of Mary, with appendices of original papers.




84              SUMMARY OF
the Stuarts ever since their accession to the dynasty,~and hadsince gone to combat with the English in France, and had returned with the title of
Counts of Touraine, as a trophy of their victory.
In the family of the Stuarts even, the kings of
Scotland had rivals; their brothers or their nephews, the Dukes of Albany, governed in their names,
and harassed them with their ambitious pretensions.
If to these troubles we add the singular circumstance of a succession of six minorities (1437-.
1578), we can comprehend why Scotland was the
last kingdom to emerge from the anarchy of the
Middle Ages.
After the French wars, the contest against the
Douglases became more terrible, and the kings
displayed more of violence than of ability in it.
Under James II., William Douglas was enticed by
Chancellor Crichton to the castle of Edinburgh,
and after some pretended form of justice, was condemned to death (1440). Another William Douglas, the most insolent of all that bore the name,
having been summoned by the same prince to Stirling, provoked him to the utmost by his outrageous
language, and was stabbed by his own hand (1452).
His brother, James Douglas, marched against the
king at the head of 40,000 men, compelled him to
fly into the North, and would have conquered him
if he had not insulted the Hamiltons, who were.




MODERN H[ISTORY.             85
until then, attached to his family. Douglas, deserted by his own party, was obliged to fly into
England, aid the war of the Roses just beginning,
prevented the English from making use of this
dangerous exile to embroil Scotland. The earls
of Angus, a branch of the house of Douglas, received him, and were scarcely less formidable to
the kings than the Earl of Douglas himself. Soon
after the Hamiltons also rebelled, and became,
with the Campbells (earls of Argyle), the most
powerful lords of Scotland in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries.
James III., 1460.-In the reign of James III.,
Scotland extended her territories towards the north
and the south by the acquisition of the Orcades
and of Berwick; the reunion of the earldom of
Ross to the crown destroyed forever the power
of the Lord of the Isles, and yet no reign was ever
more disgraceful; no prince ever shocked the
opinions and customs of his subjects as did James
III. What Scottish laird would deign to obey a
king who, a stranger to the warlike amusements
of the nobility, was always concealed in a strong
castle, surrounded by English artists, and deciding
upon peace and war after the counsel of a musicmaster, a mason, and a tailor? He had gone so
far as to forbid the nobles to appear armed at his
court, as if he was afraid to see a sword
G




86              SUMMARY OF
Still, he might have been supported against the
nobility by the commons or the clergy; but he
estranged them both, by taking from the boroughs
the election of their aldermen, and from the clergy
the nomination of their dignitaries.
His death, 1488.-James III., who knew his
own weakness, feared that his two brothers, the
Duke of Albany and the Earl of Mar, might wish
to supplant a king so deservedly despised. Influenced by the prediction of an astrologer, he decided to imprison them in the castle of Edinburgh.
The Duke of Albany saved himself; the cowardly
and base monarch thought to secure his repose by
causing his younger brother to be bled to death.
The favourites triumphed; Cochrane, the mason
and architect, dared to take the spoils of his victim, and to assume the title of the Earl of Mar.
Such was his confidence in the future, that, in putting some base money in circulation, he said, " Before my money shall be withdrawn, I shall be
hung," and thus it was. The nobles seized the
favourites in the presence of the king, and hanged
them on the bridge of Lawder. Some time after,
they attacked the king himself, and formed the
most extensive conspiracy that had ever threatened the throne of Scotland (1488). The barons of
the North and of the West still retained their loyalty, but James fled at the first encounter, and fell




MODERN HISTORY.             87
from his horse into a stream of water. He was
carried into a neighbouring mill, and asked for a
confessor; the priest who presented himself belonged to the enemy's party; he received the confession of the king, and then stabbed him.
James IV.-His death, 1513.-James IV., whom
the malecontents raised to the throne, had a happier reign than his father. Instead of the humble
duty of subjects to a king, the barons rendered
homage to him, as the most brilliant knight of the
kingdom. He completed the ruin of the Lord of
the Isles by uniting the Hebrides to the crown; he
established courts of royal justice throughout all
the northern part of the kingdom. Neglected by
the French, James IV. allied himself to the king
of England, Henry VII. When Henry VIII. invaded France, Louis XII. implored the assistance
of the Scotch; Anne of Brittany sent her ring to
their king, thus designating him for her knight.
James would have accused himself of disloyalty,
had he not succoured a suppliant queen. All the
ords and all the barons of Scotland followed him
on this romantic expedition. But he lost much
valuable time in the castle of Mrs. Heron, near
Flodden, where he remained as if from enchantment, which was only broken by the arrival of the
English army. He was conquered, notwithstanding his bravery, and all of his nobility were slain




88                    SUMMARY OF
with him (1513). The death of twelve counts,
of thirteen lords, of five eldest sons of peers, with
a great number of barons, and ten thousund soldiers, delivered up Scotland, drained and exhausted
for a century, to the intrigues of France and of
England.
~ III. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, 1454-1521.
Henry IV., King of Castile, 1454; Revolt of the Grandees in the Name
of the Infant; Deposition of Henry; Battle of Medina del Campo, 1465.
-John II., King of Aragon; Revolt of Catalonia, 1462-72.-Marriage
of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, 1469.-War against
the Moors; Taking of Grenada, 1481-92.-Ferdinand and Isabella repress the Grandees and the Cities, relying on the Aid of the Inquisition,
established in 1480.-Expulsion of the Jews, 1492.-Forced Conversion of the Moors, 1499.-Death of Isabella, 1504.-Ministry of Ximenes.-Conquest of Navarre, 1512.-Death of Ferdinand, 1516.His Successor, Charles of Austria; Revolt of Castile, Murcia,-rc.,
&c., 1516-1521.
THE barbarians of the North and South, the
Goths and Arabs, encountered each other in Spain.
Arrested by the ocean in the  Spanish  Peninsula,
they fight there, as in an enclosed field, during all
the Middle Ages. Thus the spirit of the Crusades,
which transiently agitated all the other nations of
Europe, has formed the basis of the Spanish character, with its ferocious intolerance and its chivalrous pride exalted by the violence of African passions, for Spain still adhered to barbarism, notwithstanding the strait between them. On this side we
again find the productions and families of Africa,




MODERN HISTORY.                 89
and even its deserts.* A single battle delivered
up Spain to the Moors, and it has required eight
hundred years to subdue their power.
lIoors-Spaniards.-The Christians had been
masters since the 13th century; in the 15th, Mussulman population concentrated In the kingdom of
Grenada, and, as if bounded by the sea, could move
no farther; but we already see to which of the two
nations the empire of Spain belonged; on the side
of the Moors, a crowd of merchants, heaped together in the rich cities, made effeminate by the
baths and the climate; peaceable husbandmen, employed in their rich valleys with the care of the
mulberry-trees, and with the working of silk-a
lively and ingenious people, who lived only for music and the dance, who loved gaudy and showy
clothing, and were even dressed in their gayest
garments for their graves; on the other side, a
grave and silent people, clothed in brown and
black, who loved nothing but war, and war of the
most bloody kind; who left commerce and the
sciences to the Jews, and knew not a more excellent title than Sons of the Goths, a race haughty in
their independence, terrible in love and in religion.
* There is an adage in several parts of Old Castile, that the lark that
would traverse the country, must carry its grain with it.-Bory de Saint
Vincent, Itinlraire, p. 81. On the sterility and feeble population of Aragon, even in the Middle Ages, see Blancas, cited by Hallam, vol iv,r p.
$56.




90               SUMMARY OF
With them there was no distinction of rank; the
citizen did not pay for his privileges, and the peasant, who also bore arms against the Moors, felt his
dignity as a Christian.
Resistance to the Kings.-These men, so formidable to the enemy, were scarcely less so to their
kings. For a long time the king had only been as
the chief of the barons; the King of Aragon sometimes prosecuted his subjects at the tribunal of the
justiza, or grand justiciary of the kingdom. The
spirit of resistance in the Aragonese had passed
into a proverb, like the pride of the Castilians:
" Give a nail to an Aragon, and he will drive it
with his head sooner than with a hammer." Their
oath of obedience was haughty and threatening:
I" We, who separately are as great as you, and who,
united, may be greater than you, we make you our
king, on condition that you will guard our privileges;
if you do not, no!"
Jews.-The kings of Spain also preferred to employ the new Christians, as they called the converted Jews and their children; they were more
intelligent, and more submissive. The tolerance
of the Moors had formerly drawn them into Spain,
and since the year 1400 more than a hundred thou
sand Jews had been converted. They made themselves necessary to the king by their skill and address in business, and by their knowledge of med



MODERN HISTORY.             91
icine and of astrology. It was a Jew who, in
1468, performed the operation for a cataract upon
the King of Aragon.  Commerce was in their
hands; they had got by usury all the money of
the country, and it was to them that the king
intrusted the raising of the taxes. What titles to
the hatred of the people! That hatred broke out
several times in a terrible manner in the populous
city of Toledo, of Segovia, and Cordova.
The Grandees.-The grandees, who saw themselves gradually put aside by the new Christians,
and, in general, by men of inferior rank, became
the enemies of the royal authority, which they could
not dispose of to their own advantage. The nobles of Castile armed the infant Don Henry against
his father, John II., and had the favourite of the
king, Alvaro de Luna, beheaded. His immense
property was confiscated, and during three days a
basin was placed upon the scaffold, near his corpse,
to receive the alms of those who were willing to
contribute towards the expenses of his burial.
Henry IV., King of Castile, 1454-Battle of
Medina del Campo, 1465.-When Henry IV. became king, he endeavoured to abridge the power
of the grandees, which they had held since he
was Infant of Spain, but at the same time he irritated the cities by raising the taxes on his own authority, and by daring to n)minate deputies to the




92              SUMMARY OF
Cortes.* He also was made contemptible by hia
connivance at the debaucheries of the queen, andi
by his own cowardice. The Castilians could not
obey a prince who withdrew himself from the ar.
my at tke moment of battle.  The chief of the
grandees, Carillo, archbishop of Toledo, Don Juan
de Pacheco, marquis of Villana, and his brother,
who possessed the grand-mastership of St. Jago
and of Calatrava, opposed to the king his brother,
Don Alonzo, who was still a child, and declared illegitimate the Infanta Donna Juana, who was believed to be the daughter of Bertrand la Cueva, the
lover of the queen; they exposed the effigy of Henry upon a throne in the plain of Avila, and having
stripped it of the royal ornaments, threw it down,
to put Don Alonzo in its place. After an indecisive battle (Medina del Campo, 1465), the unhappy king, deserted by every one, wandered at random in his own kingdom, in the midst of castles and
cities, which shut their gates against him, without any person condescending to arrest him. One
evening, after a journey of eighteen leagues, he
ventured to enter the city of Toledo; the alarm bell
was sounded, he was obliged to fly, and not one
of the horsemen who were with him would even
lend him a horse.
John II. of Aragon.- Aragon and Navarre
* Mariana, Teoria de las Cortes, cited by Hallam, vol. i., p. 416-424.




MODERN HISTORY.              93
were not more tranquil. John II., who had succeeded his brother, Alphonso the Magnanimous,
inthe kingdoms of Aragon and Sicily, withheld
from his own son, Don Carlos de Viarra, the crown
of Navarre, which this young prince inherited from
his mother (since 1441). His stepmother excited
the father against his son for the advantage of
her own children (Ferdinand the Catholic, and
Leonora, countess of Froix).  The never-ending
factions of Navarre, the Beaumonts, and the Grammonts, prosecuted their private quarrels under the
name of the two princes. Twice was the cause of
justice vanquished in a pitched battle; twice did the
indignation of Don Juan's subjects force him to set
at liberty his unhappy son. Don Carlos having
died from poison or grief (1461), his sister, Donna
Blanca, inherited his rights. Her father intrusted
her to her younger sister Leonora, who poisoned
her in the castle of Orthey. Catalonia was already
in rebellion; the horror of this double parricide
gave a new excitement to their minds; the Catalonians, who could not have Don Carlos for their
king, now worshipped him as a saint. They called to the throne, successively, the King of Castile,
the Infant of Portugal, and John of Calabria, and
they only submitted themselves after ten years of
resistance (1472).
Ferdinand and Isabella, 1469-1479.-During
H




94              SUMMARY OF
the period in which John II. was hazarding Catalonia, Ferdinand, his son, had gained Castile. The
brother of Henry IV. being dead, the grandees had
substituted in his place his sister Isabella. To support her against the king, they married her to the
Infant of Aragon, who was, after her, the nearest
heir to the throne (1469). Henry IV. soon died,
in consequence of an entertainment given to him
by his reconciled enemies (1474). When dying,
he affirmed that Donna Juana was his legitimate
daughter. Galicia, and all the country from Toledo as far as Murcia, had declared themselves
for her. The King of Portugal, her uncle, Alphonso
the African, was betrothed to her, and came with
his knights, who had conquered Arzila and Tangier, to support her cause. The Portuguese and
Castilians met for battle at Toro (1476).  The
Portuguese were vanquished, and the arms of Almeida, which were borne upon their standard, were
hung in the Cathedral of Toledo. This check sufficed to discourage the Portuguese; all the Castilian lords ranged themselves on the side of Ferdinand and Isabella; the crown of Castile was secured
to them, and the death of John II., who left Aragon to them (1479), enabled them to turn all the
forces of Christian Spain against the Moors of
Grenada.
1481-1492. —It was a common saying among




MODERN HISTORY.              95
the Moors, that the fatal termination of their dominions in Spain had arrived. A Fakir troubled
Grenada with his ominous predictions: they were
sufficiently warranted by the state of the kingdom. Already, under Henry IV., Gibraltar had:
been lost. Some cities, strongly situated, but without ditches, having no exterior fortifications, and
defended only by a wall, the thickness of which
could afford no protection; a brilliant cavalry,
prompt to charge or to fly; such were the resources
of the people of Grenada. They could not rely
upon Africa. The time was past when hordes of
the Almohades and the Almoravides were able to
overwhelm the Peninsula. The only aid which
the Sultan of Egypt afforded them, was to send the
guardian of the Holy Sepulchre to Ferdinand to
speak to him in their favour, but he was soon drawn
off from this distant affair by the fears which the
Ottomans inspired.
Taking of Grenada, 1492.-Although the Christians and the Moors, every year alternately, infested the country of their enemy, burning the vines,
olives, and orange-trees, a singular agreement existed between them: the truce was not to be considered as broken, even if one of the two parties
should have captured a city or a town, provided it
was taken possession of without the form of war,
without banners and trumpets, and in less than




96              SUMMARY OF
three days. Zahara, which had been obtained in
this manner by the Moors, was the pretext for the
war. The Spaniards invaded the kingdom of Grenada, encouraged by their beautiful queen, whom
alone the Castilians would obey. In this army we
already see the future conquerors of Barbary and of
Naples, Pedro of Navarre, and Gonsalvo of Cordova. In the course of eleven years, the Christians
became masters of Alhama, the bulwark of Grenada; took Malaga, which was the entrepat of the
commerce of Spain with Africa, and Baca, which,
it is said, contained one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants; and at last came, with eighty
thousand men, to lay siege to Grenada itself. This
capital was a prey to the most furious discords.
The son was armed against his father, and brother
against brother. Bobadil and his uncle had divided the remains of this expiring sovereignty; the:
uncle sold his share to the Spaniards for a rich
earldom. Bobadil, who was an acknowledged
vassal of Ferdinand, remained; but, instead of
directing the people, he followed the example of
their obstinate fury. T'he siege lasted nine months.
A Moor attempted to stab Ferdinand and Isabella;
the camp was entirely destroyed by fire; but the
queen, whom no event discouraged, ordered a city
to be built in its place, and the town of Santa Fe,
erected in twenty-four days, proved to the Mussul



MODERN HISTORY.               97
men that the siege would never be raised.* At
last the Moors opened their gates, upon the assurance that they should retain judges of their own
nation, and the free enjoyment of their religion
(1492).
Columbus —In the same year Christopher Columbus gave a world to Spain.t
The kingdoms of Spain were reunited with the
exception of Navarre, the sure prey of two great
monarchies, between which nature herself seemed
to have divided it in advance. But it was necessary that parts drawn together by force should
of themselves form one body. The Castilians regarded the Aragonese with a jealous eye; they
both saw continual enemies in the Moors, and in
the Jews, who lived in the midst of them.  Every
city had its immunities, every grandee his prerogatives.  All these obstacles must be overcome,
these heterogeneous forces must be assimilated, before they could be turned towards conquest. Notwithstanding the ability of Ferdinand, notwithstanding the enthusiasm which Isabella inspired,
this end was attained only after thirty years of effort. The means were terrible, commensurate with
the energy of such a people; the price was the
dominion of two worlds in the 16th century.
* Petri Martyris Angleri Epistole, 73, 91, &c. The author was an
*yewitness of these events.' Epitaph of Columbus.




98              SUMMARY OF
Cortes-Santa Hermandad.-The Spanish Cortes, which alone were competent to regulate these
conflicting elements, were the most ancient assemblies of Europe; but establishments formed in the
anarchy of the Middle Ages had not that organization which alone could ensure their permanency. In
1480, only seventeen cities of Castile were represented; in 1520, not a deputy was sent to the Cortes
from Galicia. Those of Guadalaxara alone voted for
400 boroughs or cities. It was nearly the same in
Aragon. The rivalry of the cities perpetuated this
abuse; in 1506 and 1512 the privileged cities of
Castile repelled the claims of the others. Thus,
to retain his power, Ferdinand had only to leave
the field open to these rival pretensions. He obtained by the Holy Brotherhood of the cities (Santa Hermandad), and by the revolt of the vassals, the
submission of the grandees; by the grandees, the
submission of the cities; and by the Inquisition,
the obedience of them both.*  The violence of the
grandees determined Saragossa to allow him to
change her ancient municipal constitutions, a thing
which she had always forbidden. The organization of the St. Hermandad, or Holy Brotherhood ot
the cities of Aragon, which would have terminated
the private wars of the lords, was arrested by them
(1488), and the king was compelled, in the Cortes
of 1495, to postpone its establishment for ten years;
* In Galicia alone he destroyed forty-six castles.




MODERN HISTORY.             99
but the people of Saragossa were so irritated at this,
that, during a long time, the justiza of Aragon, who
were not willing to take the oath of the Brotherhood, did not dare enter the city.  Henceforth
royalty was to inherit a great portion of the attachment of the people for that very magistracy
which had so long been considered the rampart
of the public liberties against the encroachments
of kings.
Yet Ferdinand and Isabella would never have
acquired absolute power, if the necessities of the
crown had left them dependant upon the Cortes.
They twice revoked the concessions of Henry
IV.-concessions by which they themselves had
purchased the submission of the grandees (14801506). The union of the three grand-masteries of
Alcantra, of Calatrava, and of St. Jago, to their
dominions, which they had the address to make
the knights yield to them, gave them at once an
army and immense wealth (1493, 1494). At a later period, the kings of Spain having obtained permission from the pope to sell the Bull of the Crusade, and the benefice of bishoprics (1508-1522),
they became the richest sovereigns of Europe, even
before they had drawn any considerable sum from
America.
Portugal.-It was by similar means that the
kings of Portugal established their power. They




100             SUMMARY OF
arrogated to themselves the privileges of the orders
of Avis, of Saint Jago, and of Christ, for the purpose of placing the nobility in a state of dependance upon them. In a similar diet (at Evora, 1482),
John II., successor to Alphonso the African, revoked the grants of his predecessors, took from the
lords their power over life and death, and placed
their domains under the royal jurisdiction. The
indignant nobility appointed the Duke of Braganza
for their chief, who called upon the Castilians to
aid them; the king had him tried by a commission, and beheaded; the Duke of Vizen, the first
cousin of Don Juan, and his brother-in-law, also
conspired against the king, and the monarch stabbed him with his own hand.
Inquisition in Spain. —But what ensured the triumph of absolute power in Spain was its reliance
upon that religious zeal, which was the national
trait of the Spanish character. The kings leagued
themselves with the Inquisition, that great and powerful hierarchy, the more terrible as it united the
regular power of political authority with the violence of religious passions. The establishment of
the Inquisition met with the greatest opposition from
the Aragonese. Less in contact with the Moors
than the Castilians, they were less exasperated
against them: the greater part of the members of
the government of Aragon were descended from




MODERN HISTORY.                          101
Jewish  families.    They  remonstrated  earnestly
against the secret proceedings, and against the confiscations, which, they said, were contrary to the
fueros of the kingdom. They even assassinated
one of the Inquisitors, in hope of frightening the
rest. But the new establishment was too conformable to the religious ideas of the greater part of
the Spaniards not to withstand these attacks. The
title of Familiar of the Inquisition, which  secured
exemption from municipal duties, was so much
sought after, that in certain cities these privileged
men exceeded in number the other inhabitants, and
the Cortes were obliged to keep them in order.*
* Inscription placed by the Inquisitors, a short time after the establishment of the Inquisition, upon the castle of Triana, in a suburb of Seville:
" Sanctum Inquisitionis officium contra hazreticorum pravitatem in Hispania regnis initiatum est Hispali, anno 1481, &c., &c. Generalis Inquisitor
primus fuit Fr. Thomas de Torquemada. Faxit Deus ut in augmentum
fidei usque saeculis permaneat, &c., &c. Exsurge, Domine; judica causam tuam. Capite nobis vulpes." Anotherinscription, placed in 1524 by
the Inquisitors on their house at Seville: " Anno Domini 1481, sacrem
Inquisitionis officium contra haereticos Judaizantes ad fidei exaltationem,
hic exordium sumpsit; ubi, post Judaeorum ac Saracenorum expulsionem
ad annum usque 1524, divo Carolo, &c., &c., regnante, &c., &c., viginti millia hareticorum et ultra nefandum haereseos crimen adjur/runt;
nec non hominum fere millia in suis htoresibus obstinatorum posteid jure
previo ignibus tradita sunt et combusta. Domini nostri imperatoris jussu et impensis licentiatus de La Cueva poni jussit, A.D. 1524."
It is worthy of remark, that many of tie popes condemned the rigour
of the Inquisition of Spain. Since 1445,Nicholas V. had forbidden any
difference to be made between the old and new Christians. Sixtus IV.,
Innocent VIII., and Leo X. kindly received the numerous appeals which
were made to their tribunals, and reminded the Spanish Inquisitors of
the parable of the good shepherd. In 1546, when Charles the Fifth




102               SUMMARY OF
Expulsion of the Jews, 1492. -  After the conquest of Grenada, the Inquisition no longer limited itself to the prosecution of individuals. An order was proclaimed against all Jews, commanding
them either to become converts within four months,
or to depart from Spain, taking neither gold nor silver with them (1492). One hundred and seventy
thousand families, forming a population of eight hundred thousand souls, sold their effects in haste, and
fled into Portugal, to Italy, Africa, and as far as the
Levant.  They were then- seen to give a house in exchange for an ass, and a vineyardfor a piece of linen or cloth. An historian of the age relates, that
he saw a crowd of these unhappy beings land in
Italy, and die of famine and penury near the Mole
of Genoa, the only place in that city where they
were permitted to rest for some days.
Inquisition in Portugal, 1526.-The Jews who
nad retired into Portugal, were only received there
by paying eight crowns of gold for each person;
they were also obliged to depart from the kingdom
within an appointed time, under the penalty of becoming slaves, a penalty which was most rigorously enforced, and yet it is said that the first Jews
who arrived wrote to Weir brethren in Spain," The
wished to introduce the Inquisition into Naples, Paul the Third encouraged the resistance oi: the Neapolitans, reproaching the Inquisition of
Spain for not profiting by the examples of mildness which that of Rome
had given them.




MODERN HISTORY.             103
land is good, the people are simple, and we have water; you may come, for all will belong to us."  Don
Manuel, the successor of Don Juan, emancipated
all those who had been made slaves. But in 1496
he commanded them to depart from the kingdom,
leaving their children under fourteen years of age;
the greater part preferred to receive baptism, and
in 1507 Manuel abolished the distinction between
the old and new Christians. The Inquisition was
established at Lisbon in 1526, and from thence extended itself as far as the East Indies, where the
Portuguese had landed in 1498. (See below.)
Moors of Grenada.-Seven years after the expulsion of the Jews (1499-1501), the King of
Spain undertook, by means not less violent, to convert the Moors of Grenada, to whom the capitulation guarantied the free exercise of their religion.
Those of the Albaydin (the most elevated part of
Grenada) revolted first, and were followed by the
savage inhabitants of Alpuxarros. The Gandules
of Africa came to support them, and the king, having found the difficulty of reducing them, furnished vessels to those who were willing to go to Africa; the greater part, however, remained, pretending to become Christians.
Death of Isabella, 1504-Ximenes.-The reduction of the Moors was followed by the conquest of
Naples (1501-1503), and the death of Isabella




104                   SUMMARY OF
(1504). This great queen was adored by the people of Castile, whose noble character she so well
represented,* and whose independence she had defended against her husband. At her death the
Castilians had but a choice among foreign masters.
They must obey either the King of Aragon or the
Archduke of Austria, Philip le Beau, sovereign of
the Low Countries, who had espoused Donna Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, heiress to the kingdom of Castile. Such was their antipathy against the Aragonese, and particularly
against Ferdinand, that, notwithstanding all his intrigues to obtain the regency, they joined themselves to the archduke, as soon as he landed in
Spain.  At first the conduct of Philip was popular;
he arrested the violence of the Inquisition, whi;ch
was ready to excite a general insurrection, but he
deposed all the corregidors, and all the governors
of cities, to give their places to his own Flemings; finally, he had Donna Juana confined as
* The principal part of the glory of this reign must be attributed to
Queen Isabella. She evinced the greatest courage during the vicissitudes of her youth: when Ferdinand fled from Segovia, she undauntedly
remained there; she would guard the Alllhama, at the gates of Grenada,
when her most valiant officers proposed a retreat. She consented reluctantly to the establishment of the Inquisition. She loved literature,
and aided its advancement; she understood Latin, while Ferdinand could
scarcely sign his name. Notwithstanding the objections of Ferdinand,
she armed the fleet which discovered America. She defended the accu
sed Columbus, consoled Gonsalva de Gordova in his disgrace, and gave
liberty to the unhappy Americans.




MODERN HISTORY.            105
insane, whose feeble reason was unsettled by jealousy. Philip soon died (1506). Yet Ferdinand
would not have been able to govern Castile, had he
not been supported by the confessor and minister
of Isabella, the celebrated Ximenes de Cisneros,
archbishop of Toledo, in whom the Castilians admired both the politician and the saint. He was
a poor monk, whom the Archbishop of Grenada
had given to Isabella for her confessor and counsellor. Great was the astonishment of the court
when this man of the desert appeared there, whose
paleness and austerity reminded them of Paul and
Hilarion. Even in the midst of grandeur he rigorously observed the rules prescribed by St. Francis, travelling on foot, and begging for his daily
nourishment. It was necessary to have an order
from the pope to oblige him to accept the Archbishopric of Toledo, and to force him to live in a
manner appropriate to the opulence of the richest
benefice in Spain. He yielded, allowing himself
to wear the most valuable furs, but they only covered the coarsest stuffs; he ornamented his apartments with magnificent beds, while he continued
to sleep on the floor. In this humble and austere
life he retained the haughty dignity of the Spanish
character, which was visible in all his actions; the
nobles whom he had crushed could not repress
their admiration of his courage. An ordinance




106             SUMMARY OF
which was about to set Ferdinand and his son-inlaw at variance, Ximenes dared to tear in pieces.
One day, as he was crossing a place during a bullfight, the infuriated animal broke loose and wounded some of his attendants, without making him
quicken his pace.
_Moors of Africa-Navarre.-The Castilhans,
thus finding in Ximenes the heroic spirit of their
great queen, forgot that they obeyed Ferdinand,
and the last years of this prince were marked by
the conquest of Barbary and Navarre. The war
with the Moors did not seem ended, inasmuch as
those of Africa, being strengthened by a multitude
of fugitives, infested the coasts of Spain, and found
a sure refuge in the ports of Oran, of Penon de
Velez, and in many other haunts. Ximenes projected an expedition against Oran, defrayed its expense, and conducted it in person. The capture
of that city by Pedro of Navarre, of which he was
an eyewitness, was followed by that of Tripoli, and
by the subjection of Algiers, of Tunis, and of Fremecen (1509-1510). Two years after, the reunion
of Navarre, which Ferdinand had taken by force
from John of Albret, completed that of all the kingdoms of Spain (1512).  Leonora, countess of
Foix, had a month's enjoyment of this throne,
which she had bought with her sister's blood.
After the death of her son Phebus, the hand of




MODERN HISTORY.           107
Catharine, her daughter, which had been solicited
in vain for the Infant of Spain, was given by the
French patty to John of Albret, that her domains
of Foix, Perigord, and Limoges might always be
attached to France. As soon as the two great
powers which were struggling in Italy came in
close contact with each other, Navarre, from her
geographical position, found herself divided between Ferdinand and Louis XII.
Ximenes was 80 years old when the dying
king named him for regent until his grandson,
Charles of Austria, should arrive (1516). He confronted with equal boldness enemies from without
and within. He prevented the French from conquering Navarre by means as novel as they were
daring: he had the walls of all the cities pulled
down, except Pampeluna, and thus removed every
stronghold, in case of an invasion. At the same
time, he formed a national militia, made himself
sure of the cities by giving to them the power
to levy the taxes themselves (Gomecius, f. 25),
and revoked the concessions which the late king
th.ad made to the grandees. When the latter came
to claim those grants, and expressed some doubts
as to the powers which had been given him,
Ximenes answered, pointing from a balcony to a
formidable train of artillery, " You see my powers!"
Charles V. King, 1516. —The Flemings gave




108             SUMMARY OF
offence to Spain from the moment of their arrival.
They disgraced the dying Ximenes, and nominated
a stranger, a youth of twenty years, to replace him
in the first seat of the kingdom. They established
a tarif of all the offices, and if we may thus speak,
put up Spain at auction. Charles assumed the
title of king without waiting for the consent of the
Cortes. He convoked the Cortes of Castile at
some small place in Galicia, and demanded a
second subsidy before they had paid the first;
he procured it by force or bribery, and departed
to take possession of the imperial crown, without
disquieting himself, though he left a revolution behind him. Toledo had refused to send delegates
to these Cortes; Segovia and Zamora put their
deputies to death, and such was the horror they
inspired, that there was not a person willing to
plunder their houses, or to pollute themselves with
the wealth of the traitors. In the mean time, the
evil was disseminated over all Spain. Castile, and
all of Galicia, Murcia, and the greater part of the
cities of Leon and Estremadura, were in rebellion.  The insurrection was not less furious in
Valencia, but it bore a different character. The
inhabitants had sworn a Hermandad against the
nobles, and Charles, discontented with the noble,
had the imprudence to confirm it. Majorca followed the example of Valencia, and was even willing




MODERN HISTORY.            109
to surrender herself to'the French. In these two
kingdoms the woollen-drapers were at the head of
the Hermandad.
John of Padilla.-The Communeros first invaded Tordesillas, where the mother of Charles V.
resided, and performed all their acts in the name
of that princess. But their success was of short
duration. They had demanded, in their remonstrances, that the lands of the nobles might be
subject to taxes.  The  nobles abandoned a
party whose victory would have been prejudicial
to them. There was no union between the cities
themselves. The old rivalry of Burgos and Toledo revived: the former submitted to the king,
who secured to the city its commercial freedom.
The only hope of relief for the distracted Communeros rested in the French — army, which had invaded Navarre; but before they could effect a junction with it, they were overtaken by the Leales,
and entirely defeated (1521). Don Juan of Padilla, the hero of the Revolution, sought death in
the ranks of the enemy; but he was dismounted,
wounded, taken prisoner, and beheaded the next
day. Before his death, he sent to his wife, D.
Maria Pacheca, the relics which he wore round
his neck, and wrote h'is celebrated letter to the
city of Toledo: "To thee, the crown of Spain,
and the light of the world; to thee, who hast been
I




110               SUMMARY  OF
free from the time of the Goths, and who hast
given thy blood to secure thy liberty and that of
the adjacent cities, thy legitimate son, John of
Padilla, makes known, that by the blood of his
body thine ancient victories are about to be revived, and renewed," &c., &c.  The subjection
of Castile was followed by that of the kingdom of
Valencia, and of all the rebellious provinces. But
Charles V., instructed by such a lesson, respected
thenceforth the pride of the Spaniards; he affected
to speak their language, resided much among them,
and preserved in this heroic nation the instrument
with which he hoped to subdue the world.
CHAPTER III.
THE EAST AND THE NORTH.-GERMAN AND SCANDINAVIAN STATES IN THE SECOND PART OF THE
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Empire of Germany.-Preponderance and interested Policy of Austria.Rise of Switzerland.-Decline of the Teutonic Order.-Cities of the
Rhine, and of Swabia.-Preponderance and Decline of the Hanseatia
League.-Elevation of Holland.-Wars of Denmark, Sweden, and
Norway.-Enfranchisement of Sweden, 1433-1520.
German States.-If we consult the analogy of
customs and of languages, we must include in
the number of the Germanic States the Empire




MODERN HISTORY.            111ill
Switzerland, the Netherlands, the three kingdoms
of the North, and even England in several respects; but the political relations of the Netherlands and of England with France have obliged
us to place the history of those powers in a preceding chapter.
Germany.-Germany is not only the centre of
the Germanic System; it is a small Europe in the
midst of the great one, where the varieties of population and of territory present themselves with a less
decided diversity. We there find, in the 15th century, all forms of government, from the hereditary,
or elective principalities of Saxony and Cologne,
to the democracies of Uri and Underwaldt; from
the commercial oligarchy of Lubeck, to the military aristocracy of the Teutonic Order.
This singular body of the empire, whose members were so heterogeneous and so unequal, and
whose head was so powerless, seemed always
ready to fall to pieces. The cities, the nobility,
the greater part of the princes even, were almost
strangers to an emperor whom the electors alone
had chosen. Yet a common origin and language
have maintained the unity of the Germanic body
during centuries; add to this the need of mutual
support, the fear of the Turks, of Charles V., and
Louis XIV.
Austria.-This empire always remembered that




112             SUMMARY OF
it had governed Europe, and from time to tfne re.
sumed its rights in empty proclamations. The most
powerful prince of the 15th century, Charles the
Bold, had appeared to acknowledge them, by soliciting the royal dignity from the Emperor Frederic. These superannuated pretensions might become formidable, since the imperial crown had
been settled upon the house of Austria (1438).
Placed between Germany, Italy, and Hungary, in
the very centre of Europe, Austria must prevail
over the last two countries, at least by the spirit
of perseverance and of obstinacy; unite with this
that policy, more ingenious than heroic, which by
means of a succession of marriages gave to the
house of Austria the price of the blood of other
nations, and subjected to it the conquerors with
their conquests; she thus gained on the one side
Hungary and Bohemia (1526), on the other the
Netherlands (1481), and by the Netherlands Spain,
Naples, and America (1506-1516), and by Spain,
Portugal and the East Indies (1581).
Imperial Power in the House of Austria. —Towards the end of the 15th century, the imperial
power was so fallen, that the princes of the house
of Austria often forgot that they were emperors,
while occupying themselves only with the interests of their hereditary estates. Nothing drew
their attention from this policy, which must, soon



MODERN HISTORY      P       113
er or later, restore to them the imperial power itself. Thus Frederic III., who was always beaten by the Elector Palatine, or by the King of
Hungary, was deaf to the cries of Europe, which
was alarmed by the progress of the Turks. But
he erected Austria into an archduchy, and attached
the interests of his house to those of the popes, by
sacrificing to Nicholas V. the pragmatic of Augsburgh; he married his son Maximilian to the
heiress of the Low Countries (1481). Maximilian
himself became, by his insignificance and his poverty, the derision of Europe, travelling constantly
from Switzerland to the Low Countries, and from
Italy to Germany; imprisoned by the inhabitants
of Bruges, beaten by the Venitians, and accurately
noting his affronts in his red-book. But he inherited the States of Tyrol, of Goritz, and part of Bavaria. His son Philip le Beau, sovereign of the
Netherlands, married the heiress of Spain (1496);
one of his grandsons (treaty of 1515) was to marry
the sister of the King of Bohemia and of Hungary.
Constitution of the Empire, 1495-1501.-While
the house of Austria thus prepares its fiuture grandeur, the empire endeavours to regulate its constitution. The Imperial Chamber, henceforth a permanent body (1493), must put a stop to private
wars, and must substitute a government of laws
for that state of nature which still prevails among




114             SUMMARY OF
the members of the Germanic body. The division
of the parties will facilitate the exercise of this jurisdiction. A regency is destined to watch over it,
and supply the place of the emperor (1500). The
electors refuse for a long time to enter into this
new  organization.  The emperor opposes the
Aulic Council to the Imperial Chamber (1501), and
these salutary institutions are thus weakened in
their infancy.
This absence of order, this want of protection,
had successively obliged the most distant subjects
of the empire to form confederacies, more or less
independent, or to seek for foreign support. Such
was the situation of Switzerland, of the Teutonic
Order, the Confederation of the Rhine and of Swabia, and of the Hanseatic League.
Prussia.-In the same epoch, we see the rise
of Switzerland and the decline of the Teutonic
Order. The second of these two military powers,
a sort of vanguard, which the martial genius of
Germany had carried even to the centre of the Slavonic States, was obliged to surrender to the King
of Poland that Prussia which the Teutonic knights
had conquered and Christianized two centuries before (treaty of Thorn, 1466).
Switzerland.-Switzerland, separated from the
Empire by the victory of Morgarten and by the
league of Brunnen, had confirmed its liberty by




MODERN HISTORY.            115
the defeat of Charles the Bold, which taught to
feudal Europe the power of infantry. The alliance of the Grisons, the acquisition of five new
cantons (Soleure, Basle, Schaffhausen, Appenzell,
Fribourg, 1481-1513), had raised Switzerland to
the summit of grandeur. The citizens of Berne
and the shepherds of Uri saw themselves caressed
by popes and courted by kings. Louis XI. substituted a Swiss guard in place of the free archers
(1480). In the wars of Italy, they formed the best
part of the infantry of Charles VIII. and of Louis
XII. From the time that they crossed the Alps in
the train of the French, they were welcomed by
the pope., who opposed them to the French themselves, and they governed for a moment in the
north of Italy (under the name of Maximilian
Sforza). After their defeat at Marignan (1515),
religious discords armed them against each other,
and confined them closely to their mountains.
The two commercial powers of Germany did
not form a body sufficiently compact to imitate the
example of Switzerland, and render themselves independent.
Cities of the Rhine and of Swabia. —The league
of the cities of the Rhine and of Swabia was
composed of rich towns, among which those of
Nuremberg, of Ratisbon, of Augsburg, and of
Spire held the first rank. These are the cities




11              SUMMARY OF
which carried on the principal trade by land between the North and the South. The merchandise, arrived at Cologne, passed through the hands
of the Hanseatics, who distributed it in all Northern Europe.
Hanseatic League. -The Hanseatic League,
composed of twenty-four cities, comprised all the
northern shores of Germany, and extended over.
those of the Netherlands. Until the sixteenth
century it was the predominant power of the
North. The great Hall of Lubeck, where the general assemblies of the Hanseatics were held, still
attests the power of these sovereigns. They had
united by innumerable canals the ocean, the Baltic, and the greater part of the rivers in the north
of Germany; but their principal commerce was
maritime. The Hanseatic counting-houses in London, in Bruges, in Bergen, and in Novogorod were
in many respects similar to the factories of the
tenitians, and of the Genoese in the Levant: they
resembled a garrison. The clerks in them were
not permitted to marry, for fear that they might instruct the natives in commerce and the arts.*
They were only received into the offices after
some cruel trials, which guarantied their courage,
and business was almost everywhere transacted
* See Mallet, Histoire de la Ligue Hanseatique, Genoa (1805). Thf
author has often been indebted to the labours of Sartorius..




MODERN HISTORY.            117
with arms in their hands. If the agents of the
Hanseatics carried to Novogorod or to London
some Flemish cloth which was too coarse, too
narrow, or too dear, the people rebelled, and often
assassinated some of them. Then the merchants
threatened to leave the city, and the alarmed inhabitants yielded everything. The inhabitants of
Bruges having killed some of the Hanseatic men,
the latter exacted as a condition of the re-establishment of their office in that city, that several of the
citizens should make l'amende honorable, and that
others should go on a pilgrimage to St. James of
Compostella and to Jerusalem. The most terrible
punishment which the Hanseatics could inflict on
any country was never to return to it. When
they had no establishment in Sweden, the inhabitants were in want of cloth, of hops, of salt, and of
herrings; in the revolutions, the Swedish peasant
always was in favour of those who furnished him
with herrings and with salt. The Hanse Towns
also exacted excessive privileges; in the greater
part of the seaport towns in Sweden, at least one
half of the offices were occupied by them.
Yet this great power did not rest upon a solid
basis. The long line occupied by the Hanse
Towns from Livonia to the Low Countries was
narrow throughout, and everywhere intersected by
foreign states or by enemies. The cities which




118             SUMMARY OF
composed it had different interests and unequal
rights; some were allies, some proteges, and some
subjects. Their commerce even, the source of
their existence, was precarious. Being neither
agriculturists nor manufacturers, they could only
transport and sell foreign produce, and they were
dependant upon a thousand accidents, political or
natural, which no foresight could prevent. For
instance, the herrings, which about the fourteenth
century had left the coasts of Pomerania for those
of Scandinavia, commenced in the fifteenth century to emigrate from the shores of the Baltic
towards those of the Northern Ocean. The subjection of Novogorod, and of Plescow also, to the
Czar Iwan III. (1477), and the capture of Bruges
by the imperial army (about 1489), closed the two
principal sources of their riches to the Hanseatics.
At the same time, the progress of public order rendered the protection of the Hanse Towns useless to
a great number of the Continental cities, particularly since the constitution of the empire was established (1495). The cities of the Rhine had never
been. willing to unite with them; Cologne, which
had entered into their league, separated from them,
and asked the protection of Flanders. The Hollanders, whose commerce and industry had grown
up under the shade of the Hanse Towns, had no longer need of them when they became the subjects




MODERN HISTORY.            119
of the powerful houses of Burgundy and of Austria,
and began to dispute with them the monopoly of
the Baltic. At once agriculturists, manufacturers,
and tradesmen, they had the advantage over a
power entirely commercial. The Hanseatics, to
defend their commercial interests against these
dangerous rivals, were obliged to interpose in all
the revolutions of the North.
Denmark-Sweden —Norway.-Christianity and
civilization having passed from Germany into Denmark, and from thence into Sweden and Norway,
preserved to Denmark for a long time the preponderance over the two other states. The Swedish
and Norwegian bishops were the most powerful
lords of those countries, and they were equally devoted to the Danes; but the kings of Denmark could
only avail themselves of that preponderance by
continual efforts and by frequent concessions to the
Danish nobles, which placed them in a state of dependance upon them: these concessions were only
made at the expense of royal authority and of the
liberty of the peasants, which by degrees sunk into
slavery. In Sweden, on the contrary, the peasants
were not far below the ancient liberty of the Scandinavian nation, and they formed even a political
order. This difference in its constitution explains
the force with which Sweden shook off the yoke
of the Danes. With regard tQ the Norwegians,




120              SUMMARY OF
whether the clergy had more influence among
them than among the Swedes, or that they feared
to obey Sweden, still they generally showed less
repugnance to the Danish dominion.
Revolutions of the North, 1453-1520. - The
celebrated union of Calmar, which seemed to promise so much of glory and of power to the three
kingdoms of the North, had only made Sweden
and Denmark subject to the yoke of the Danish
and German princes, by whom they were surrounded. The revolution of 1433, like that of 1521,
commenced among the peasants of Dalecarlia;
Englebrecht was its Gustavus Vasa, and, like him,
was supported by the Hanse Towns, whose monopoly the King of Denmark (Eric, the Pomeranian
nephew of Margaret of Waldemar) combated by
favouring the Hollanders. The union was re-established for some time by Christophe the Bavarian,
the king of bark, as the Swedes called him, from his
having been obliged to subsist on the bark of a tree;
but after his death (1448) they expelled the Danes,
and the Germans put themselves under the dominion of Charles Canutson, marshal of the kingdom,
and refused to acknowledge the new king of Denmark and Norway, Christian, the first of the house
of Oldenburg (from whence came, by the branch
of Holstein Gottorp, the last dynasty of Sweden,
and the present imperial house of Russia). The




MODERN HISTORY.            121
Danes, strengthened by the reunion of Sleswick
and Holstein (1459), twice re-established their
authority over Sweden, with the aid of the Archbishop of Upsal (1457-1465), and were twice expelled by the party of the nobility and the people.
At the death of Charles Canutson in 1470, Sweden appointed successively for administrators three
lords of the name of Sture (Stenon, Swante, and
Stenon). They were supported by the husbandmen, whom they recalled to the Senate. They
fought with the Danes before Stockholm (1471),
and took from them the famous banner of Danebrog, which they regarded as the palladium 6f the
monarchy. They founded the University of Upsala at the same time that the King of Denmark instituted that of Copenhagen (1477-1478). In fine,
if we except a short period, during which Sweden
was obliged to acknowledge John II. successor to
Christian I., they preserved its independence until
1520.




122                SUMMARY OF
CHAPTER IV.
EAST AND NORTH —SLAVONIC STATES AND TURKEY IN THE SECOND PART OF THE FIFTEENTH
CENTURY.
Progress of the Turks, 1411-1582.-Podiebrad, King of Bohemia; Matthias Corwin, Kinig of Hungary, 1458.-Wladislas, of Poland, reunites
Hungary and Bohemia. —Poland under the Jagellons, 1386-1506.Contest of Russia with the Tartars, the Lithuanians, and the Livonians, 1462-1505.
Slavonic States.-The conquest of the Grecian
Empire by the Ottoman Turks may be considered
as the last invasion of the barbarians, and the termination of the Middle Ages. It was a nation ot
Slavonic origin, situated on the route of the barbarians of Asia, who shut them out from Europe,
or at least that arrested them  by powerful diversions. Russia, which had already exhausted the
fury of the Tartars in the fourteenth century, again
becomes formidable to them under Iwan III.
(1462). A first league, composed of Hungarians,
Wallachians, and Moldavians, is formed, like a reserve of the Christian army, to protect Germany
and Poland against the invasion of the Turks.
Poland, with no enemies in her rear, has just sub



MODERN HISTORY.              123
dued Prussia, and penetrated to the Baltic (14541466),
Causes of the Progress of Turkey. -  I. The
following causes explain the rapid progress of
the Ottoman conquest during the fifteenth century: 1st, their fanatical and military spirit; 2d.
their disciplined troops, opposed to the feudal
militia of the Europeans, and to the cavalry of the
Persians and the Mamelukes; the appointment of
janizaries; 3d, the particular situation of the
enemies of the Turks; in the East, the political
and religious feuds of Persia, the feeble basis of
the power of the Mamelukes; in the West, the
discords of the Christian world: Hungary protects it on the side of the land, and Venice on
the side of the sea; but both are weakened, one
by the ambition of the house of Austria, the other
by the jealousy of Italy and of all Europe; the
inefficient heroism of the knights of Rhodes and
of the princes of Albany.
Bajazet I., 1481.-In the first chapter we have
seen Mohammed II. completing the conquest of the
Grecian Empire, failing in his invasion of Hungary,
but seizing the sovereignty of the sea, and making
Christendom tremble.  At the accession of Bajazet
to the throne (1481), the scene changed, and terror seized the sultan: his brother Zizim, who
had disputed the throne with him, fled for refuge to




124              SUMMARY OF
the knights of Rhodes, and became, in the hands
of the King of France, and afterward of the pope,
a pledge for the West. Bajazet paid considerable
sums to Innocent VIII. and to Alexander VI., that
they might retain his brother a prisoner. This
unpopular prince, who had commenced his reign by
beheading the Vizier Achmet (the idol of the janizaries, the old general of Mohammed II.), was influenced, despite of himself, by the military ardour
of the nation. The Turks first turned their arms
against the Mamelukes and the Persians; defeated
by the Mamelukes at Issus, they prepared the destruction of the conquerors by depopulating Circassia, where the Mamelukes recruited.
After the death of Zizim, having no longer a
civil war to fear, they attacked the Venitians in
Morea, and threatened Italy (1499-1503); but
Hungary, Bohemia, and Poland put themselves in
motion, and the accession of the Sophis renewed
and regulated the political rivalry of the Persians
and Turks (1501). After this war, Bajazet disaffected the Turks by a peace of eight years; he
wished to abdicate in favour of his son Achmet,
but was dethroned and put to death by his second
son Selim. The accession of the new prince, the
most cruel and martial of all the sultans, spread
terror both over the West and the East (1512);
no one knew on whom he would fall first, Persia,
Egypt, or Italy.




MODERN HISTORY.            125
Hungary and Bohemia. - II. Europe would
have had nothing to fear from the barbarians if
Hungary, united to Bohemia in a permanent way,
had held them in sufficient respect; but the former
attacked the latter in her independence and religious creed. Thus weakened by each other, they
were fluctuating in the fifteenth century between
the two powers, Slavonic and German (Poland
and Austria), which surrounded them. Reunited,
from 1453 to 1458, under a German prince, again
for some time separated and independent under
national sovereigns (Bohemia until 1471, Hungary to 1490), they were once more reunited under
Polish princes until 1526, the period in which
they became decidedly subject to the dominion of
Austria.
Podiebrad and Matthias 1458.-After the reign
of Wladislas of Austria, which was rendered illustrious through the exploits of John Hunniade,
George Podiebrad seized the crown of Bohemia, and
Matthias Corvin, the son of Hunniade, was chosen
King of Hungary (1458). These two princes successfully opposed the chimerical pretensions of the
Emperor Frederic III. Podiebrad, in protecting
the Hussites, incurred the enmity of the popes.
Matthias gained a glorious victory over the Turks,
and obtained the favour of Paul II., who offered
him the crown of Podiebrad, his father-in-law.
K




126              SUM-MARY OF
The latter objected to the alliance of Matthias with
the King of Poland, by which he was made to
acknowledge the oldest son of Wladislas for his
successor. At the same time, Casimir, the brother
of Wladislas, attempted to take the crown of Hungary from Mathias by force. Matthias, thus pressed
on all sides, was obliged to renounce the conquest
of Bohemia, and to content himself with the provinces of Moravia, Silesia, and Lusacia, which
should return to Wladislas if he survived Mathias
(1475-1478).
The King of Hungary compensated himself at
the expense of Austria. Under the pretence that
Frederic III. had refused him his daughter, he
twice invaded his dominions, and kept possession
of them. With this great prince the Christian
world lost its principal defender, and Hungary her
conquests and her political preponderance (1490).
Civilization, which he had endeavoured to introduce in this kingdom, was delayed for several
centuries. We have already mentioned (chapter
i.) what he did for literature -and for the arts.
By his Decretum Maujs, he regulated military discipline, abolished judicial combats, and forbade his
subjects to appear armed at the fairs and in the
market-places; he ordered that punishment should
no longer be extended to the relatives of a criminal,
that their property should no longer be confis.




MODERNS HISTORY.            127
cated, aind that the king should not accept- of mines
of gold, of salt, &c., &c., without recompensing the
proprietors of them.
Wladislas.-Wladislas of Poland, the King of
Bohemia, having been elected King of Hungary,
was attacked by his brother, John Albret, and by
Maximilian of Austria, both of whom claimed that
crown. He appeased his brother by the cession
of Silesia (1:491), and Maximilian, by entailing the
house of Austria upon the kingdom of Hungary,
in case he should leave no male heirs (see 1526).
Under Wladislas, and under his sont Louis II.,
who, when yet a child, succeeded him in 1516,
Hungary was ravaged with impunity by the
Turks.
Poland. - III. Poland, reunited to Lithuania
since 1386 by Wladislas Jagellon, the first prince
of that dynasty, was, in the fifteenth century, the
preponderating power in the Slavonic States.
Covered on the side of the Turks: by Wallachia,
Moldavia, and Transylvania, the rival of Russia
for Lithuania, of Austria for Hungary and Bohemia, she contended with the Teutonic Order for
Prussia and Livonia. The principal source of her
weakness was the jealousy of two nations of different languages, who of themselves composed
the body of the state. The Jagellons, Lithuanian princes, would have wished their country in



128             SUMMARY OF
dependent of Polish laws, and that it might regain
Podolia. The Poles, on the other hand, reproached Casimir IV. with passing the autumn, the winter, and the spring in Lithuania.
Treaty of Thorn, 1466. — Under Casimir, the
second son of Wiladislas Jagellon (fifth of the
name), the Poles protected the serfs of Prussia
against the tyranny of the Teutonic knights, and
forced upon the latter the treaty of Thorn (1466),
by which the order lost the western part of Prussia,
and became the vassal of Poland for Eastern Prussia. Who at that time would have said that Prussia would some day dismember Poland? At the
same time the Poles gave a king to Bohemia and
to Hungary (1471-1490). The three brothers of
Wladislas, John Albret, Alexander, and Sigismund
I., who were successively elected kings of Poland (1492, 1501,'1506), made war against the
Wallachians and the Turks, and obtained brilliant
advantages over the Russians. Lithuania, separated from Poland at the ascension of John Albret to
the throne, was definitely reunited to her by Alexander.
Government of Poland. —Towards the year 1466,
the continuance of the war, bringing back the same
wants, introduced a representative government into
Poland; but the pride of the nobility, which alone
was represented by its nuncio, maintained the an.




MODERN HISTORY.              129
archical forms of barbarous times; they continued to exact unanimous consent in their deliberations. Furthermore, on important occasions, the
Poles remained faithful to their ancient customs,
and one could see, as in the Middle Ages, numberless armed Polish noblemen deliberating in an
open field, sword in hand.
Russia. - IV. In the fifteenth century, the Russian population presents to us three classes: the
children of the Boyards* (descendants of the conquerors); the free peasants, farmers of the former, and whose condition was gradually approaching slavery; and, finally, the slaves.
The grand-duchy of Moscow was constantly
threatened, in the West by the Lithuanians and
the Livonians, in the East by the Tartars of the
great horde of Kasan and of Astrachan; she found
herself enclosed by the commercial republics of
Novogorod and of Plescow, and by the principalities of Twer, of Vereia, and of Rezan. In the
North many savage and pagan nations were spread
over the country. The Muscovite nation, though
still barbarians, were at least settled in permanent
abodes, and must destroy the wandering tribes of
the Tartars., The grand-duchy, as an hereditary
state, must sooner or later prevail over the elective, states of Poland and Livonia.
* A name given to the Russian nobles.




130             SUMMARY OF
1462-1505 - Iwan III.-To oppose the great
horde, he made an alliance with the Tartars of
Crimea; to oppose the Lithuanians, he allied himself with the Prince of Moldavia and Wallachia,
with Matthias Corvin, and with Maximilian. He
separated Plescow and Novogorod, which could resist him only by making common cause. He weakened gradually the Republic of Novogorod, made
himself master of it in 1477, and exhausted it by
forcing its principal citizens away. Made powerful by the alliance with the Khan of Crimea, he imposed a tribute on the Kazanais, refused that which
his predecessors paid to the great horde, which
was soon destroyed by the Nogais Tartars (1480).
Iwan reunited Twer, Vereia, Bostof, Yaroslof; he
made war for a long time against the Lithuanians,
but Alexander, having reunited Lithuania to Poland, allied himself with the knights of Livonia;
and the Czar, who, since the destruction of the
great horde, had cared less for his allies of Moldavia and Crimea, lost all his ascendency; he was
defeated at Plescow by Plettemberg, master of
the knights of Livonia (1501), and the year of
his death (1505) Kasan revolted against the Russians.
Iwan IV.- Iwan first took the title of Czar.
Having obtained from the pope the hand of Sophia
Paleologue, a refugee at Rome, he placed on his




MODERN  HISTORY.                   131
arms the double eagle of the Grecian Empire. He
allured, and retained by force, Grecian and Italian
artists.  He was the first who assigned  fiefs to
the children of the Boyards, under condition of a
military service; he introduced order in the finances, established posts, united into a code (1497)
the ancient judicial institutions, and vainly endeavoured"to distribute among the children of the Boyards
the  estates  of the  clergy.   Iwan  had  laid  the
foundations of Iwangorod in  1492 (where, later,
Petersburgh was built), when the victories of Plettemberg shut from the Russians during two centuries the passage to the Baltic.
CHAPTER V.
FIRST WARS OF ITALY, 1494-1516.
Louis the Moor calls for the Aid of the French.-Charles VIII. invades
Italy.-League against the French. —Battle of Formosa, 1495.-Louis
XII. invades Milan, 1499.-War with the Spaniards of Naples.-Defeat of the French at Garigliano, 1503.-Alexander VI. and Caesar
Borgia.-Julius II.-Revolt of Genoa against Louis XII., 1507.-Italy,
the Empire, France, Hungary, conspire against Venice.-Holy League
against France, 1511-12.-Victories and Death of Gaston of Foix.Bad Success of Louis XII., 1512-14.-Francis I. invades Milan.-Battle of Marignan, 1515.-Treaty of Noyon, 1516.
WHEN, in this age, we traverse the'maremmes*
of Sienna, and when we find in Italy so many
~ Unhealthy tracts of country.




132             SUMMARY OF
other traces of the wars of the sixteenth century,
an inexpressible sadness comes over us, and we
execrate the barbarians who commenced this desolation.  This desert of the maremmes was made
by a general of Charles V.; these ruins of burned
palaces are the work of the landsknechts of Francis I.; these disfigured paintings of Guillo Romnano still attest that the soldiers of the Constable
of Bourbon had their stables in the Vatican. But
let us not accuse our forefathers hastily. The
wars of Italy were neither the caprice of a king
nor of a nation. During more than half a century,
an irresistible impulse had led all the people of the
West, as formerly those of the North, beyond the
Alps. Their calamities were almost as cruel, but
the result was the same: the conquerors were
raised to the civilization of the conquered.
Louis the Moor calls for the Aid of the French.
— Alarmed by the threats of the King of Naples,
whose granddaughter had married his nephew,
John Galeas (see chap. i.), Louis the Moor resolved to support his usurpation by the aid of the
French. But he was far from knowing what power
he had drawn into Italy.  He was himself seized
with astonishment and terror when he beheld (September, 1494) this formidable army descending
from the Mount of Geneva, which, from the variety
of the costumes, arms, and languages, resembled




MODERN HISTORY.              1.33
an invasion of all the nations of Europe-French,
Biscayans, Bretons, Swiss, Germans, and even
Scotch; that. invincible gendarmerie, those heavy
brass cannons, which the French had made as
movable as their armies.  A war entirely new
for Italy commenced.  The ancient tactics, which
in battle required one squadron to follow another,
were at once overcome by the impetuosity of the
French, and the calm courage of the Swiss. The
war was no longer an affair of martial discipline;
it was to be terrible, inexorable; the conqueror
understood not even the prayer of the conquered.
The soldiers of Charles VIII., full of distrust and
hatred towards a country where they feared to be
poisoned at every repast, massacred, in regular order, every prisoner.*
Savanarola.-At the approach of the French,
the old governments of Italy dissolved themselves.
Pisa delivered herself from the Florentines, and
Florence from the Medicis. Savanarola received
Charles VIII. as the scourge from God, sent to
punish the sins of Italy. Alexander VI., who,
until then, had negotiated at the same time with
the French, the Aragonese, and the Turks, heard
with dismay the word of censure and degradation,
and concealed himself in the castle of St. Ange.
* At Montefortino, at Mount St. John, at Rapallo, at Sarzana, at Toscanella, at Fornoo, at Gaete.
L




134              SUMMARY OF
He delivered up, with trembling, the brother of
Bajazet II., supposed by Charles VIII. to be necessary to him, in order to conquer the Empire of the
East; but he delivered him  poisoned.  In the
mean time, the new King of Naples, Alphonso II.,
fled to a convent of Sicily, leaving his kingdom to
be, defended by a monarch of 18 years. The
young Ferdinand II. was abandoned at St. Germano, and saw his palace pillaged by the populace
of Naples, always furious against the vanquished.
The French soldiers no longer fatigued themselves
by wearing armour, but pursued their conquest
leisurely in their morning attire, without any trouble
other than to send their quartermasters before
them to prepare their lodgings. The Turks soon
saw the fEeurs de lis waving at Otranto, and the
Greeks taking up arms.*
The partisans of the house of Anjou, plundered
for sixty years, had thought to conquer with Charles
VIII.; but this prince, who cared little for the
services which they had been able to render to
the kings of Provence, exacted no restitution from
the opposite party. He dissatisfied all the nobility
by announcing his intention to limit the feudal jurisdiction, after the example of those of France.
He nominated French governors for all the cities
and fortresses, and thus decided several cities to
* Comines, book vii., chap. xvii.




MODERN HISTORY.            135
raise again the standard of Aragon. At the end
of three months the French were wearied with
the Neapolitans, the Neapolitans weary of the
French; they had forgotten their projects upon the
East, and were impatient to return, to relate to
the ladies of their own country their brilliant adventures.
Formosa, 1493.-In the mean time, a league,
which was almost universal, was formed against
Charles VIII., who must hasten to regain France,
if he did not wish to be made a prisoner in the
kingdom which he had come to conquer. In again
descending the Apennines, he met at Formosa the
army of the allies, composed of forty thousand
men; the French had only nine thousand. Having in vain demanded a passage, they forced it,
and the enemy's army, which endeavoured to arrest them, were put to flight by a few charges of
the cavalry. Thus the king re-entered France
gloriously, having justified all his imprudence by
one victory.
Death of Savanarola. - The Italians, believing
themselves delivered, called Savanarola to account
for his sinister predictions; and his party, that of the
Piagnoni (Feuillants), who had freed and reformed
Florence, beheld all his influence overthrown. The
friends of the Medicis, whom they had bitterly
persecuted, and the Pope Alexander VI., whose




136             SUMMARY OF
excesses Savanarola had attacked with great free.
dom, seized the occasion to destroy a faction which
had exhausted the capricious enthusiasm of the
Florentines. A Franciscan monk wishing, he said,
to prove that Savanarola was an impostor, and that
he possessed neither the gift of prophecy nor of
miracles, offered to pass through a burning fire with
him. Ont the appointed day, when the pile was
arranged, and all the people in expectation, the
two parties made some difficulty, and a violent
rain -completed the ill-humour of the people. Savanarola was arrested, tried by the commissioners
of the pope, and burned alive. When the sentence
was read to him, by which he was cut off from
the Church, " From the Church militant," said he,
hoping thenceforward to belong to the Church triumphant (1498).
Italy discovered that there was but too much
truth in these prophecies.
Louis XII., 1498-Division of the Kingdom of
NVaples. —On the same day of the ordeal by fire of
Savanarola, Charles VIII. died at Amboise, and
left the throne to the Duke of Orleans (Louis XII.),
who joined to the claims of his predecessor upon
Naples -those which his grandmother, Valentine
Visconti, gave him upon Milan. As soon as his
marriage with the widow of Charles VIII. had secured the reunion of Brittany, he invaded Milan in




MODERN HISTORY.             137
concert with the Venitians.  The two hostile armies were partly composed of Swiss; those of
Ludovic refused to fight against the banner of their
canton, which they saw in the army of the King
of France, and deserted the Duke of Milan. But
in returning to their mountains, they took possession of Bellinzona, which Louis XII. was obliged
to yield to them, and-which became to them the
key of Lombardy. Milan being taken, Louis XII.,
who could not hope for the conquest of Naples
while opposed by the Spaniards, divided that kingdom with them by a secret treaty. The unfortunate Don Frederic, who then reigned, called the
Spaniards to his aid, and when he had led Gonzalvo di Cordova into his principal fortresses, the
treaty of transfer was notified to him (1501). This
odious conquest only engendered war. The two
nations contended for the salt-tax which was levied
on the travelling flocks that in the spring passed
from the Puglia into the Abruzzo, and which was
the surest revenue in the kingdom. Ferdinand
amused Louis XII. by a treaty until he had sent
sufficient re-enforcements to Gonzalvo, who was
blocked up in Bartella. The military skill of the
great captain, and the discipline of the Spanish infantry, obtained advantages everywhere over the
brilliant courage of the French troops. The valour of Louis d'Ars and of D'Aubigny, the ex



138               SUMMARY OF
ploits of Bayard, who, it is said, defended a bridge
against an army, could not prevent the French
from being beaten at Seminara and at Cerignola,
nor from being driven a second time from the kingdom of Naples by their defeat at Garigliano (December, 1503).
Death of Alexander VI., 1503. —Louis XII.
was still master of a great part of Italy, sovereign
of Milan and lord of Genoa, ally of Florence and
of the Pope Alexander VI., who relied on none
but him.*  He extended his influence over Tuscany, Romagna, and the State of Rome. The
death of Alexander VI., and the ruin of his son,
were events scarcely less fatal to him than his defeat at Garigliano. The Italian power of Borgia,
which raised itself between the possessions of the
French and those of the Spaniards, was as tlie
advance guard of Milan.
Caesar Borgia deserved to be the ideal of Machiavel, not for having shown himself more perfidious
than the other princes of that epoch: Ferdinand
the Catholic could disprove that; not for having
been the assassin of his brother, and the lover of
his sister; he could not surpass his father in de* Cesar Borgia of France, by the grace of God Duke of Romagna and of
Valentinois, &c., &c. (passport of the 19th of October, 1502). He said to
the ambassador of Florence, the King of France, our common mastef
(10th January, 1503). Legation of Machiavel with CasarBorgia.




MODERN HISTORY.             139
pravity or cruelty; but for having made a science
of crime; for having established a school and
given lessons in infamy.* In the mean time the
hero of the system, by his bad success, pronounced
its most memorable condemnation. The ally of
Louis XII. and standard-bearer of the Church, he
employed during six years all the resources of
cunning and of courage. He believed that he
was working for his own aggrandizement; he said
to Machiavel that he had foreseen everything; at
the death of his father he hoped to be made pope,
through the influence of eighteen Spanish cardinals, who had been appointed by Alexander VI.; in
the Roman States, he had gained the lower class
of nobles, destroyed the higher; he had exterminated the tyrants of Romagna; he had attached to
himself the people of that province, who were
happy under his vigorous and skilful administration.  He had foreseen everything except the
event of his being ill at the period o his father's
death, and this event happened. Both the father
and the son, who, it is said, had invited a cardinal
with the intent of putting him to death, drank the
poison which they had prepared for him.  "This
man, so wise, seems to have lost his reason," then
* Machiavel says somewhere, He has sent one of his pupils. Hugues
de Moneade, a general of Charles V,., boasted to have been the pupil of
that school.




140             SUMMARY OF
wrote Machiavel (November 14,1503). Forced
by the new pope, Julius II., he abandoned all the
fortresses that he possessed, and then delivered
himself up to Gonzalvo de Cordova, believing that
another's word was better than his own. (Letter of
4th November.) But the general of Ferdinand the
Catholic, who said that "the robe of honour ought
to be of a loose tissue," sent him to Spain, where
he was imprisoned in the citadel of Medina del
Campo.
Julius I. —Julius II. followed up the conquests
of Borgia from motives less personal. He wished
to make the pontifical state the predominant state
of Italy, to deliver all the peninsula from the barbarians, and to constitute the Swiss the guardians
of Italian liberty. Employing by turns both spiritual and temporal weapons, this intrepid pontiff
consumed his life in the execution of this incongruous project; the barbarians could only be
driven awa) by the assistance of Venice, and
Venice must be humbled, in order to make the
Church the preponderating power of Italy.
Julius II. at first wished to give libertY to his
countrymen, the Genoese, and encouraged their
revolt against Louis XII. The nobles, favoured
by the French government, ceased not to insult
the people; they went everywhere armed with
poignards, on which they had engraved, " I chastise




MODERN HISTORY.             141
the low-born." The people revolted, and chose a
dyer for their doge. Louis XII. soon appeared
under their walls with a brilliant army; the Chevalier Bayard ascended without difficulty the mountains which covered Genoa, and cried aloud to
them, "Knights of the yardstick, merchants, defend yourselves with your measure-sticks, and
throw down the pikes and lances, which you are
not accustomed to."* The king, unwilling to ruin
so rich a cit.y, caused only the doge and a few of
the citizens to be hung, burned the privileges of
the city, and constructed a fortress which commanded the entrance of the port (1507).
League of Cambray, 1508.-The same jealousy
of monarchies against republics, of the poor against
industrious opulence, soon armed the greater part
of the princes of the West against the ancient rival of Genoa.  The government of Venice had
known how to profit by the faults and the misfortunes of all the other powers; it had gained from
the fall of Ludovic the Moor, from the expulsion
of the French from Naples, and from the ruin of
Caesar Borgia. So much success excited the fears
and the jealousies of the Italian powers themselves,
who ought to have desired the grandeur of Venice.
"Your lordships (Machiavel wrote to the Floren* Champier, The Deeds, together with the Life of the worthy Chevalier
Bayard, &c.




142             SUMMARY OF
tines) have always told me that it was Venice which
threatened the liberty of Italy."* From the year
1503, M. de Chaumont, lieutenant of the king in Milan, said to the same ambassador, " It will so happen that the Venitians will now have no occupation
but fishing; and for the Swiss, we are sure of
them" (22d January).  This conspiracy against
Venice, which existed since 1504 (treaty of Blois),
was renewed in 1508 (league of Cambray, 10th
December) by the imprudence of Julius II., who
wished, at any price, to recover some of the cities
of Romagna. The pope, the emperor, and the
King of France, proposed to the King of Hungary
to enter into a confederation, for the purpose of retaking Dalmatia and Esclavonia. The Dukes of
Savoy and of Ferrara, and even the Marquis of
Mantua, were also willing to aid in the overthrow
of a power which they had so long feared. The
Venitians were defeated by Louis XII. at the
bloody battle of Aignadel (1509), and the balls
of the French batteries flew even to the Lagunes.
In this perilous moment, the decision of the Senate
of Venice did justice to its reputation for wisdom,
They declared that they wished to save the provinces from the miseries of war; they absolved
them from the oath of fidelity, and promised to in* Legation to the Emperor, February, 1508. See, also, the Legatioa
to the Court of France, February 13, 1503.




MODERN HISTORY.            143
demnify them for all their losses at the return of
peace. Whether from attachment to the Republic,
or from hatred of the Germans, the peasants of
Verona would sooner permit themselves to be
hung than abjure St. Mark, and cry Vive l'Empereur. The Venitians gained a victory over the
Marquis of Mantua, retook Padua, and defended
the city against Maximilian, who besieged it with
100,000 men. The King of Naples and the pope,
whose claims were satisfied, made peace with Ven
ice; and Julius II., who only thought to drive the
barbarians from Italy, turned his impetuous policy
against the French.
Holy League.-The projects of the pope were
greatly assisted by the injudicious economy of
Louis XII., who hail reduced the pay of the Swiss,
and who would no longer permit them to procure
provisions from Burgundy and Milan. The error of
Louis XI. was now perceived, who, in substituting
the mercenary infantry of the Swiss for his free archers, had placed France in the power of strangers.
It became necessary to replace the Swiss by the
German Landsknechts, who were recalled by the
emperor on the eve of the battle of Ravenna. In
the mean time, the pope had commenced the war;
he summoned the Swiss into Italy, and made them
enter into the Holy League against France, Ferdinand, Venice, Henry VIII., and Maximilian




144             SUMMARY OF
(1511-12). While Louis XII., doubtful whether he
could defend himself against the pope without sinning, consulted the learned doctors, and assembled a
council at Pisa, Julius II. besieged Mirandola in
person, lodged himself, with his trembling cardinals, under the fire of the city, and made his entrance there through the breach.
Gaston of Foix. - The ardour of Julius II.,
and the policy of the allies, were for an instant
disconcerted by the sudden appearance of Gaston
of Foix, the nephew of Louis XII., at the head of
the French army. This young man, 22 years of
age, arrived in Lombardy, gained three victories in
three months, and died, leaving behind him the
memory of the most impetuous general Italy had
ever known. At first he intimidated or won the
Swiss to his cause, and made them return to their
mountains; he saved Bologna, which was besieged, and, favoured by the snow and a hurricane, he
rushed with his army into the city (7th February).
On the 18th he was before Brescia, which had
been retaken by the Venitians; on the 19th he
had taken it by storm; on the 11th of April he
died a conqueror, at Ravenna. In the terrific rapidity of his success, he spared neither his own
troops nor the vanquished. Brescia, during seven
days, was delivered up to the fury of the soldiery;
and it is said that the conquerors massacred 15,000




MODERN HISTORY.             145
persons, men, women, and children. Truly, the
Chevalier Bayard had few imitators.
Gaston, on his return to Romagna, attacked
Ravenna, in order to force the army of Spain
and the pope to accept battle.* The cannonade
having commenced, Pedro de Navarre, who had
formed the Spanish infantry, and relied on them
for victory, kept them lying flat on their faces,
expecting, with cold-blooded indifference, that the
cannon-balls would cut to pieces the gendarmerie
of the two armies. The Italian soldiers lost all
command of themselves, and were beaten by the
French. The Spanish infantry, after having sustained the combat with an obstinate valour, retreated slowly. Gaston, furious with indignation, precipitated himself, with twenty soldiers, upon them,
penetrated into their ranks, and there found his
death (1512).
From that time success no longer attended Louis
XII. The Sforza were re-established at Milan, and
the Medicis at Florence. The army of the king
was beaten by the Swiss at Navarre, by the English at Guinegate. France, attacked in front by
the Spaniards and Swiss, beset in the rear by the
English, beheld her two allies of Scotland and of
Navarre vanquished and plundered. (See chap. ii.)
* See the letter of the Chevalier Bayard to his uncle, vol. xvi. of the
Collection of Memoirs.




146             SUMMARY OF
The war had no longer an object. The Swiss
reigned at Milan under the name of Maximilian
Sforza; France and Venice were humbled; the
emperor was exhausted, Henry VIII. discouraged,
Ferdinand satisfied with the conquest of Navarre,
which opened to him the frontier of France. Louis
XII. concluded a truce with Ferdinand, abjured
the Council of Pisa, left Milan to Maximilian Sforza,
and espoused the sister of Henry VIII. (1514).
(See, later, his administration.)
Francis I., 1515 - Jfarignan.-While Europe
believed that France was prostrated, and, as it
were, superannuated with Louis XII., she displayed
unexpected resources under the young Francis I.,
who had just succeeded him (lst of January, 1515).
The Swiss, who supposed that they had guarded
all the passages of the Alps, heard with terror that
the French army had opened a way through the
valley of Argentiire. Two thousand five hundred
lancers, ten thousand Biscayans, and twenty-two
thousand Landsknechts passed through a defile
which had never been entered except by the hunters of the chamois. The French army advanced,
while negotiating, as far as Marignan; there the
Swiss, whom the French thought they had gained
over, threw themselves upon their invaders with
their pikes, eighteen feet long, and with broadswords in both hands, without artillery, without




MODERN HISTORY.                     147
cavalry, and employing no other military resource
but bodily strength, they marched in front of the
batteries, the discharges of which carried away
w-hole files of their troops, and sustained more
than thirty charges from those great war-horses,
covered with steel like the soldiers who mounted
them. In the evening they had broken the line
of the French army. The king, who had fought
most bravely, saw  but a small number of his men
around him. But during the night the French
collected their dispersed troops, and the battle was
renewed in the morning, more furiously than ever.
At last the Swiss, hearing the war-cry from the
Venitians, the allies of France, Marco! Marco!
were persuaded that all the Italian army had arrived; they closed their ranks, and retreated, but
with so proud an air that no one dared to pursue
them.* Having obtained from Francis I. more
money than Sforza was able to give them, they
appeared no more in Italy. The pope also made
* Letter of Francis I. to his Mother. " All night we remained in the
saddle, the lance in hand, the helmet on the head.... and because I
was the nearest to our enemies, I was obliged to keep watch, so that
they did not surprise us in the morning... and believe, madame, that
we have been 28 hours on horseback, without eating or drinking. For
two thousand years there has never been seen so fierce and so cruel a
battle; they say that that of Ravenna was but trifling compared to this.. and let no one say that the gens d'armes are armed hares, for...
Written in the camp of St. Brigide, Friday, 14th September, 1515."17th vol. of Collection of Memoirs.




148   SUMMARY OF MODERN HISTORY.
a treaty with the conqueror, and obtained from
Francis the concordat which abolished the pragmatic sanction. The alliance of the pope and
Venice seemed to open to Francis I. the way to
Naples. The youthful Charles of Austria, sovereign of the Netherlands, who had just succeeded
his grandfather, Ferdinand the Catholic, in Spain,
had need of peace to regulate his vast heritage.
Francis I. enjoyed his victory, instead of completing it. The treaty of Noyon gave a moment of
repose to Europe, and allowed the two rivals time
to prepare for a more terrible conflict (1516).




SECOiND PERIOD.
FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE TREATY OF WESTPHALIA.
1 517-1648.
M








SECOND PERIOD.
INTRODUCTION.
IF we regard only the series of wars and of
political events, the sixteenth century is an age
of blood and ruin. It opens with the devastation
of Italy by the merciless troops of Francis I. and
of Charles V., and the frightful ravages of Solyman,
who annually depopulated Hungary. Then follow those terrible struggles of religious creeds, in
which the war was one not only of nation against
nation, but of city against city, and of man against
man; when it intruded even to the domestic fireside, and raged between father and son. They
who should leave history at this crisis, would believe that Europe was about to fall into a state of
profound barbarism. But far otherwise: the delicate plant of the arts and of civilization grew and
gathered strength amid those violent shocks which
seemed ready to destroy it. Michael Angelo
painted the Sixtine Chapel the very year of the battle of Ravenna. The youthful Tartaglio rises from
the destruction of Brescia to become the restorer




152             SUMMARY OF
of mathematics. The grand epoch of law among
the moderns, the age of L'H6pital and Cujacius,
was also that of the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
The peculiar characteristic of the sixteenth
century, and that which distinguished it so decidedly from the Middle Ages, was the power of
opinion, which at that period truly became the
sovereign of the world. Henry VIII. dared not
repudiate Catharine of Aragon without consulting
the principal universities of Europe. Charles V.
sought to prove his faith by the persecution of the
Moors, while his armies made a prisoner of, and
ransomed the pope. Francis I. raised the first
funeral pile which was ascended by the Protestants of France, in order to excuse to himself and
his subjects his connexion with Solyman and with
the Lutherans in Germany. Even these acts of
intolerance were so much homage rendered to
public opinion. Princes then courted the praises
of those most unworthy to bestow renown. The
Kings of France and Spain vied with each other
in their eagerness to obtain the favour of Paul Jove,
and of Peter Aretinus.
While France is slowly following Italy in the
more elegant developments of intellect, two nations of a profoundly serious character relinquish
to them the letters and arts, as trifling toys or
profane amusements. The Spaniards, a politic




MODERN  HISTORY.                   153
people, inflamed with the lust of conquest, draw
their strength, as the Romans did formerly, from
their attachment to old maxims and ancient creeds.
Occupied in conquering and governing Europe,
they relied in all speculative matters upon the authority of the Church. While Spain inclines more
firmly to a political and religious unity, Germany, with its anarchical constitution, surrenders itself to every variety of opinions and of systems.
France, placed between both, will in the sixteenth
century be the principal field -of battle, where
these two opposing spirits will contend. The conflict will be the more violent and lasting, in proportion as the forces are more equal.
CHAPTER VI.
LEO X., FRANCIS I., AND CHARLES V.
Francis I., 1515.-Charles V., Emperor, 1519.-First War against
Charles V., 1521.-Disaffection of the Duke of Bourbon, 1523.-Battle of Pavia, 1525. —Captivity of Francis I.; Treaty of Madrid, 1526.
-Second War, 1527.-Peace of Canlbray, 1529.-Public Alliance of
Francis I. with Solyman, 1534.-Third War, 1535.-Truce of Nice,
1538.-Renewal of Hostilities, 1541.-Battle of Cerisoles, 1544.Treaty of Crespy; Death of Francis I. and Henry VIII., 1547.-Internal Situation of France and Spain; Reformation; First Persecutions, 1535.-Massacre of the Vaudois, 1545.
Francis I. and Charles V.-However severely




154             SUMMARY OF
we may judge Francis I. and Leo X., we must
guard against comparing them with that ignoble
generation of princes who closed the preceding
age (Alexander VI., Louis XI., Ferdinand the
Catholic, James III., &c., &c.). In their faults
even there was at least some glory, some grandeur.
They certainly did not make the age in which
they lived, but they showed themselves worthy
of it; they loved the arts, and the arts at this day
still speak for them, and demand an offering of
thanks to their memory. The price obtained by
selling the indulgences which roused Germany to
resistance, paid for the paintings of the Vatican,
and for the construction of St. Peter's. The extortions of Duprat are forgotten; but the royal establishment for printing, the College of France, remain.
Charles V., surrounded by his statesmen and his
generals, between Lannoy, Pescaire, Antonio de
Leyva, and as many other illustrious warriors, presents himself to us under a graver aspect. We see
him constantly traversing Europe, to visit the widely-separated parts of his vast empire, speaking to
each people in their own language, making war by
turns upon Francis I. and the Protestants of Germany, upon Solyman and the barbarians. He was
the true follower of Charlemagne, and the defender
of the Christian world. In him the statesman
predominated over the warrior. He presents to




MODERN HISTORY.            1. 55
us the first model of the sovereigns of modern times;
Francis I. is but a hero of the Middle Ages. When
the empire became vacant by the death of Maximilian I. (1519), and the Kings of France, of
Spain, and of England claimed the imperial crown,.
the electors, fearing to become subjects of foreign power, offered the crown to one of their own
number, Frederic Le Sage (the wise), elector of
Saxony. This prince caused it to be given to
Charles V., and merited his surname by the wisdom of his choice. Charles V. was the one of
the three candidates whose power would be most
inimical to the liberty of Germany, but he was
also the most capable of defending it against the
Turks. Selim and Solyman were reviving at this
time the fears which had disturbed Europe in the
time of Mohammed II. The master of Spain, of
the kingdom of Naples, and of Austria, was alone
able to close the civilized world against the barbarians of Africa and Asia.
Thus, with their competition for the imperial
crown, broke out the bloody rivalry of Francis I.
and Charles V. The former claimed Naples for
himself, and Navarre for Henry of Albret; the
emperor demanded the imperial fief of Milan
and the dutchy of Burgundy. Their resources
might pass as equal. If the empire of Charles
was larger, it was not so compact as that of




!I:S6-            SUMMARY OF
France. His subjects were richer, but his authority was more limited.  The French gendarmerie
had not less reputation than the Spanish infantry.
The victory would accrue to him who could engage the King of England in his party. Henry VIII., not without reason, took for his motto,
Whom I defend is Master. Both gave a pension
to his prime minister, Cardinal Wolsey, and both
demanded his daughter Mary in marriage; one for
the dauphin, and the other for himself. Francis
I. obtained an interview with him near Calais, but,
forgetting that he had still need to gain him, he
eclipsed him by his grace and his magnificence.*
Charles V., more artful, had anticipated that interview by visiting Henry VIII. in England. He had
gained Wolsey by permitting him to hope for the
papal crown. The negotiation was also much
more easy for him than for Francis I. Henry VIII.
was already indisposed towards the King of France,
who governed Scotland by the Duke of Albany, his
prote6g  and his subject,t to the prejudice of Mar.
garet, the widow of James IV., and sister of the
King of England. By an alliance with Charles
* The place of this interview was called the Field of the Cloth of
Gold.
t Pinkerton, vol. ii., p. 135. The regent himself, in his despatches,
calls the King of France my master, and he valued the great possessions
which he had in France much more than the regency of the kingdom of
Seotland.




MODERN HISTORY.           157
V., too, he hoped to recover a part of those domains
which his ancestors had formerly possessed in
France.
Everything succeeded with the emperor. He
gained Leo X., and he had afterward the merit
of raising to the papal chair his preceptor, Adrian
of Utrecht. The French, who penetrated into
Spain, arrived too late to aid the insurgents (1521).
The Governor of Milan, Lautrec, who, it is said,
had exiled nearly half of the inhabitants of Milan,
was driven from Lombardy. It was the same
thing again the following year; the badly-paid
Swiss demanded discharge or battle, and brought
defeat on themselves at Bicoque. The money designed for the troops had been disposed of by the
queen-mother, from hatred to the general.
The Constable of Bourbon.-At the moment
when Francis I. expected to enter Italy, an internal enemy placed France in the greatest danger.
He had bestowed favours on the Constable of
Bourbon, one of those who had contributed most
to the victory of Marignan. Charles, count of
Montpensier, and dauphin of Auvergne, held from
his wife, the granddaughter of Louis XI., the
dukedom of Bourbon and the earldoms of Clermont,
Marche, and other domains, which made him the
greatest lord of the kingdom. At the death of his
wife, the queen-mother, Louise of Savoy, who had




158             SUMMARY OF
wished to unite herself to the constable, but who
had received a refusal, now desired his ruin, as
she could not marry him. She contested his title
to that rich inheritance, and obtained through her
son, that the property should be put in sequestration. Bourbon, enraged, resolved to join the emperor (1523). A century before, this revolt would
have involved no idea of disloyalty. The most
accomplished chevaliers of France had entered
into the League for the Public Good. More recently, in Spain, Don Pedro de Giron, discontented with Charles V., had been seen to renounce
to his face all obedience to him, and to take the
command of the'Communeros. But here was no
question of a revolt against the king; at that epoch it was impossible in France. This was a
conspiracy against the very existence of France,
which Bourbon was plotting with strangers.  He
had promised Charles V. to attack Burgundy as
soon as Francis I. had passed the Alps, and to excite a rebellion in five provinces, of which he believed himself master; the kingdom of Provence
was to be re-established in favour of the constable,
and France, shared between Spain and England,
would cease to exist as a nation. He soon enjoyed
the misfortunes of his country. As general of the
armies of the emperor, he saw the French fly before him at Brigassa; he beheld the Chevalier




MODERN HISTORY.             159
Bayard mortally wounded, lying at the foot of a
tree with his face towards the enemy, and said to
him "that he felt great pain at seeing him in this
state, who had been so virtuous a chevalier."
Bayard replied, " Sir, pity me not, for I die a man
of honour. -But I pity you, who fight against your
king, your country, and your oath."
Bourbon believed that, at his first appearance in
France, his vassals would rank themselves with
him under the imperial banners. Not a being
moved. The Imperialists were repulsed at the
siege of Marseilles, and only saved their exhausted army by a retreat, which seemed more like a
flight. Instead of overthrowing the Imperialists in
Provence, the king preferred to precede them into
Italy.
Pavia, 1523. —At an epoch of military science and tactics, Francis I. believed himself still
in an age of chivalry. He made it a point of honour not to retreat, even to conquer. With an obstinate courage, he maintained the siege of Pavia
(1523). He gave no time to the badly-paid Imperialists to disperse of themselves. He weakened his army by sending a detachment of 12,000
soldiers towards Naples. His superiority consisted in his artillery; he wished to decide the victory
by the gendarmerie, as at Marignan; he precipitated himself before his artillery, and rendered it use



1:60               SUMMARY  OF
less. The Swiss fled; the Landsknechts, with
their colonel, the White Rose,* were entirely destroyed. Then all the weight of the battle fell
upon the king and his gendarmerie. The old
heroes of the wars of Italy, Parlisse, and Tremouille, were laid prostrate; the King of Navarre,
Montmorency, the Adventurous,t and a great many
others, were made prisoners. Francis I. defended
himself on foot; his horse had been killed under
him, and his armour, which we still have, was all
indented by the force of bullets and lances. Happily, one of the French gentlemen, who had revolted
with Bourbon, perceived him, and saved his life;
but he would not surrender himself to a traitor, and
he sent for the viceroy of Naples, who received
his sword on his knees. According to tradition,
he wrote in the evening a single word to his
mother: "Madame, all is lost except our honour!"t
Captivity of the King — Treaty of Madrid.Charles V. knew well that all was not lost; he did
not exaggerate his success; he felt that France
was strong and entire, notwithstanding the loss of
* The Duke of Suffolk.     t The Marshal de Flethranges.
* See the letter, in which Charles V. informs the Marquis de Denia
of the captivity of Francis I. (Sandoval, pt. i., b. vii. ~ 11, p. 487, fol.,
Antwerp, 1581), and the letter of Louise de Savoy, written to the emperor in favour of her son, and that of Francis I. to the different orders
of the state, and the Act of Abdication, vol. xxi'., p. 69, 71, and 84 of
the Collection of Memoirs.




MODERN HISTORY.             161
an army. He hoped only to draw from his prisoner an advantageous treaty. Francis I. had arrived in Spain, judging from his own feelings that it
would be sufficient for him to see his good brother
in order to be sent back honourably to his kingdom.
But he did not find it so. The emperor ill treated
his prisoner to obtain from him a richer ransom,
In the mean time, Europe evinced the highest interest in behalf of this soldier king.* Erasmus,
the subject of Charles V., dared to write to him in
favour of his captive. The Spanish nobles demanded that he might be a prisoner on parole, and
offered themselves as his security. But it was
only at the expiration of a year, when Charles V.
feared that his prisoner might escape from him by
death, and when Francis I. had abdicated in favour of the dauphin, that he decided to release him,
making him sign a most disgraceful treaty. The
King of France renounced his pretensions to Italy
-promised to do justice to the claims of Bourbonto yield Burgundy-to give his two sons as hostages, and to ally himself by a double marriage
with the family of Charles V. (1526).
At this price Francis was free. But he did
not leave that fatal prison as he had entered it; he
left behind that noble frankness of character, that
* The expression of Montluc, speaking to Francis I. himself, vol. xxi.,
p, vi,




162             SUMMARY OF
heroic confidence which, until then, had formed
his glory. Even at Madrid he had secretly protested against the treaty. Reinstated as king, it
was not difficult for him to elude it. Henry VIII.,
alarmed at the victory of Charles V., had allied
himself with France. The pope, Venice, Florence, Genoa, even the Duke of Milan, who, since
the battle of Pavia, had all been in the power
of the imperial armies, now regarded the French
only as liberators. Francis I. caused the States
of Burgundy to proclaim that he had no authority
to give up any part of France; and when Charles
V. claimed the performance of the treaty, accusing
him of perfidy, he replied that he lied from his
throat, and challenged him to meet him in thefield,
at the same time proffering to the emperor a choice
of weapons.
Taking of Rome, 1527. — While Europe was
expecting a terrible war, Francis I. thought only
how to make. a compromise with his allies, in order
to alarm Charles V.,, and ameliorate the conditions
of the treaty of Madrid. Italy remained a prey to
the most hideous war which had ever dishonoured
humanity; it was less of a war than a long chastisement inflicted by a ferocious soldiery upon a disarmed people. The badly-paid troops of Charles
V. would neither obey him nor any other power;
they even ruled their generals. During ten entire




MODERN HISTORY.             163
months Milan was abandoned to the barbarity of
the Spaniards. As soon as it was known in Germany that Italy was thus delivered up to pillage,
thirteen or fourteen thousand Germans passed the
Alps, commanded by George -Frondsberg, a furious Lutheran, who wore a chain of gold on his
neck, with which he said he designed to strangle
the pope. Bourbon and Leyva led, or, rather, followed this army of brigands. It gathered, as
they proceeded, a crowd of Italians, who practised
the vices of the barbarians, though they could not
imitate their valour. The army took the road
through Ferrara and Bologna; it was on the point
of entering Tuscany, and the Spaniards swore only
by the glorious pillage of Florence. A more powerful impulse, however, led the Germans, as it had formerly their predecessors, the Goths, towards Rome.
Clement VII., who had made a treaty with the
Viceroy of Naples, seeing the army of Bourbon
approach, seemed to blind, himself, or, rather, appeared to be fascinated by the very greatness of
the danger. He discharged his best troops at the
approach of the Imperialists, believing, perhaps,
that Rome disarmed would inspire them with some
respect.  On the morning of the 6th of May,
Bourbon commenced the assault (1527). He wore
a white uniform, that he might be more easily distinguished by his own, and by the enemy's men.




164             SUMMARY OF
In such an odious enterprise, success alone could
restore his self-esteem. Perceiving that his German foot-soldiers but slowly aided him, he seized
a ladder and mounted it, when a ball struck his
loins; he felt that the blow was fatal, and ordered
his attendants to cover his body with his cloak,
and thus to conceal his fall. His soldiers but too
well avenged his death. From  seven to eight
thousand Romans were massacred the first day;
nothing was spared, neither convents nor churches;
not even St. Peter's. The streets were strewed
with relics, and with the ornaments of the altars,
which the Germans threw away, after having
stripped them of the gold and silver. The Spaniards, still more rapacious and cruel, renewed every
day, during nearly a year, the most frightful atrocities of the victory; everywhere was heard the cry
of miserable beings whom they tortured even to
death, to make them confess if they had concealed
any money. Often they tied them in their houses,
that they might find them again when they wished
to renew their torture.
Lautrec —Doria.-Great was the indignation of
Europe when it heard of the pillage of Rome, and
of the captivity of the pope. Charles V. ordered
prayers for the deliverance of the pontiff, who was
more a prisoner of the imperial army than of the emperor.  Francis I. believed this a favourable mo



MODERN  ETISTORY.           165
ment to introduce those troops into Italy, which
some months sooner might have saved Rome and
Milan. Lautrec marched towards Naples, while
the imperial generals negotiated with their soldiers,
to induce them to leave Rome; but, as in the first
wars, they gave them no money. The plague destroyed 4the French army. Yet nothing was lost
as long as they preserved tn Intercourse with France
by sea. Francis I. most imprudently displeased
the Genoesq Doria, the first mariner of the age.
It seems, said Montluc, that the sea dreads this man.
They kept from him the ransom of the Prince of
Orange; they did not pay the mariners of his galleys, and they appointed to his prejudice an admiral of the Levant; and what irritated him still
more was, that Francis I. did not respect the privileges of Genoa, and wished to transport to Savona
the commerce of that city. Instead of compensating him for these various grievances, the king
gave orders to arrest him. Doria, whose engage
ment with France had just expired, offered himself
to the emperor on condition that his country should
be independent, and again govern in Liguria.
Charles V. offered to acknowledge him for Prince
of Genoa, but Doria preferred to be the first citizen
pf a free city.
Treaty of Cambray, 1529.-In the mean time,
the two nations desired peace. Charles V. was
N




166             SUMMARY OF
alarmed at the progress of the Reformation, and by
the invasion of the terrible Solyman, who had just
encamped before Vienna. Francis I., whose resources were exhausted, thougit only how to
restore his wasted kingdom at the expense of his
allies. He wished to redeem his children, and to
retain Burgundy. Even when at the point of signing the treaty, he protested to his allies of Italy
that he would not separate his interests from theirs.
He refused permission to the Florentines to make
a separate peace with the emperor, and he signed
the treaty of Cambray, by which he abandoned
them, the Venitians, and all his partisans, to the
vengeance of Charles V.. (1529). This wretched
treaty forever banished the French power from
Italy. From that time the principal theatre of
war will be everywhere else: in Savoy, in Picardy,
in the Netherlands, and in Lorraine.
Charles V. in Africa, 1535.-While the Christian world hoped to enjoy some tranquillity, a
plague, until then unknown, depopulated the shores
of Italy and of Spain. Towards this period, the corsairs of Barbary began to make the treaty des blancs.
The Turks first devastated the countries which they
intended to invade; it was thus that they made
almost a desert of Southern Hungary, and of tho
western provinces of the ancient Grecian Empire.
The Tartars and the infidels of the Barbary States




MODERN HISTORY.             167
skirmishing troops of the Ottoman power, contributed, the one in the East, the other in the South,
to this system of depopulation. The knights of
Rhodes, whom Charles V. had established on the
island of Malta, were too weak to clear the sea of
those innumerable vessels with which Barbarossa,
the Dey of Tunis, and the Admiral of Solyman
had covered it. Charles V. resolved to attack the
pirate in his own retreat (1535). Five hundred
vessels transported to Africa an army of thirty
thousand men, composed in great part of veteran
troops, who had been engaged in the wars of Italy.
The pope and the King of Portugal had enlarged
this fleet. Doria had joined his galleys to it, and
the emperor himself, with the elite of the Spanish
nobility, embarked in it. Barbarossa had not forces
enough to oppose the most formidable armament
which the Christian world had sent against the
infidels since the Crusades. Goletta was taken by
assault, Tunis surrendered itself, and 20,000 Christians delivered from slavery, and brought back to
their country at the expense of the emperor, caused
all Europe to bless the name of Charles V.
Alliance of Francis I. with Solyman. —The conduct of Francis I. presents a painful contrast.
He had just declared his alliance with Solyman,
when he made a treaty with the Protestants of
Germany, and with Henry VIII., who had repudi



168             SUMMARY OF
ated the aunt of Charles V., and had abandoned the
Church. Neither of them afforded the aid which
he had expected from them. Solyman had gone
to lose his janizaries in the boundless plains of
Asia. Henry VIII. was too much occupied with
the religious revolution in his own kingdom, which
proceeded with so much violence. The confederates of Smalcalde had no confidence in a prince
who caressed the Protestants at Dresden, and
burned them in Paris. Francis I. was not deterred
from renewing the war; he invaded Savoy, and
threatened Milan (1535). The Duke of Savoy,
alarmed by the claims of the mother of the King
of France (Louise of Savoy), had espoused the
sister-in-law of Charles V. The Duke of Milan,
accused by the emperor of making a treaty with
the French, endeavoured to exculpate himself from
the charge by having, on some trifling pretext, the
ambassador of Francis I. beheaded. Charles V.
announced in Rome, in the presence of the envoys
from all the Christian world, that he was assured
of victory, and declared that, "if he had not more
resources than his rival, he would go that moment,
with his arms tied, a cord around his neck, and
throw himself at the feet of Francis and implore
his pity." Before commencing the campaign, he
shared between his officers the domains and the
grand dignities of the crown of France.




MODERN HISTORY.                     169
Provincial Legions. —In fact, all the world believed that Francis I. was lost.  They knew  not
what resources France had within itself. Since
1533, the king had decided to concentrate the
military strength of France in the infantry, and in
a  national infantry.   He  remembered  that the
Swiss had caused the loss of the battle of Bicoque,
and perhaps that of Pavia; that the landknechts
had been withdrawn by the emperor on the eve
of the battle of Ravenna. But thus to give arms
to the people was, they said, running a great risk.*
In an ordinance on the privileges of the chase,
passed in 1517, he had forbidden any subject carrying arms under the severest penalty; yet now
he decided to form seven provincial legions, each
of 6000 men, and drawn from the frontier provinces.   These  troops  were  still undisciplined,
when the armies of Charles V. entered at the
same  time  into  Provence, Champagne, and  Picardy.  As Francis I. did not rely upon their valour, he resolved to arrest the enemy by devasta* At the first sound of war, King Francis organized the legionaries,
which was a very good expedient, had it only been followed up; for this
is the true way to secure having always a good army on foot, as the
Romans did, and to keep the people disciplined, although I know not if
this be a benefit or an evil. The question is not a small one: Shall I
prefer to trust myself to my countrymen, or strangers? (Montluc, vol.
xx., p. 385). The Memoirs of Montluc and De Tavanes show that some
gentlemen were placed in each legion, and that the bravest were those
containing the most.




170             SUMMARY OF
ting the country. All of Provence from the Alps
to Marseilles, and from the sea to Dauphiny, was
laid waste with inflexible severity, by the Marshal
Montmorency; villages, farms, mills, were all
burned, and not an appearance of cultivation remained. The marshal, established in an impregnable camp between the Rhone and Durance, was
quietly waiting for the destruction of the emperor's
army, which was before Marseilles.  Charles V.
was compelled to retreat, and was obliged to consent to a truce, of which the pope was the mediator (truce of Nice, 1538). A month after, Charles
and Francis met at Aigues-Mortes; and these
princes, who had treated each other so outrageously, one of whom accused the- other of having
poisoned the dauphin, now exchanged every assurance of fraternal affection.
Feebleness of Charles V. - The only cause of
the truce was the exhausted power of the two rivals. Charles V. endeavoured to gain the Cortes
of Castile by authorizing a permanent deputation
in imitation of that of Aragon, and by renewing
the law which excluded strangers from offices of
the government; yet he was not able to obtain
money either in 1527, or in 1533, or in 1538. The
city of Ghent had taken up arms rather than pay a
new tax. The administration of Mexico was not
yet organized-; Peru, as yet, belonged only to those




MODERN HISTORY.              171
who had conquered it, and who desolated it by
their civil wars. The emperor had been obliged
to sell a great part of the royal domains; he had
contracted a debt of seven millions of ducats, and
could find no bank which would loan at 13 or 14
per cent. This penury excited towards 1539 a
revolt, which was almost universal in the armies
of Charles V. T'hey rebelled in Sicily, pillaged
Lombardy, and threatened to deliver Goletta to
Barbarossa. The means to pay the arrears due
to the soldiers, and to disband the greater part of
them, had to be found, and at any price.
Feebleness of Francis. —The King of France
was scarcely less embarrassed. Since the reign
of Charles VIII., the wealth of the nation had
been rapidly developed through the effects of its
internal tranquillity, but the expenses exceeded by
far the resources. Charles VII. had 1700 armed
men. Francis I. had 3000, without counting 6000
light-horsemen, and often twelve or fifteen thousand
Swiss. Charles VII. levied less than two millions
of taxes; Louis XI. five millions, and Francis I.
near nine millions. Since 1484,* the kings had
not assembled the States-General to supply these
expenses. They had substituted for them the assemblies of the notables (1526), and more frequently had raised money by ordinances, which
* Once only at Tours in 1506, and then only to annul the treaty of Blois.




172             SUMMARY OF
they made the Parliament of Paris register. Louis
XII., the father of the people, first diminished the
taxes, and farmed them out (1499); but towards
the end of his reign he was obliged to increase
the duties, to make loans, and to alienate the royal
domains (1511-1614). Francis I. established new
taxes (particularly in 1525), sold and multiplied
judicial offices (1515, 1522, 1524), founded the
first perpetual revenue upon the HOctel de Ville,
transferred the royal domains (1532-1544), and
instituted the Royal Lottery (1539).
In this facility of ruining himself Francis I. had
the advantage over Charles V. He availed himself of it when the emperor had failed in his great
expedition against Algiers (1541-1542).  Two
years before, Charles V., passing through France,
when on his way to repress the revolt of Ghent,
had amused the king with a promise to give to his
second son, the Duke of Orleans, the- investiture
of Milan. The Duchess d'Etampes, who governed
the king, seeing his powers weakened, and fearing
the enmity of Diana of Poictiers, the mistress of
the dauphin, made great efforts to procure for the
Duke of Orleans an independent establishment,
where she might also find an asylum at the death
of Francis I. Add to this principal cause of the
war the assassination of two French envoys, who,
crossing Italy to go to the court of Solyman, were




3IODERN HISTORY.            173
killed in Milan by the order of the imperial governor, who seized their despatches.  Francis relied upon his alliance with the Turks, and upon
his treaty with the Protestant princes of Germany,
of Denmark, and of Sweden; he attached William, duke of Cleves, particularly to himself, by
making him espouse his niece, Jeanne d'Albret,
who afterward became the mother of Henry IV.;
he invaded, at almost the same time, Roussillon,
Piedmont, Luxembourg, Brabant, and Flanders.
Solyman joined his fleet to that of France; they
bombarded the castle of Nice in vain. But the
odious spectacle of the crescent united to the
Jeurs de lis alienated all the Christian world from
the King of France. Even those who, until now,
had favoured him, became regardless of the interests of Europe, in order to unite themselves with
Charles V. The empire declared itself against
the alliance with the Turks.  The King of England, who had been reconciled to Charles since
the death of Catharine of Aragon, joined the party
against the King of France, who had given his
daughter to the King of Scotland. Henry VIII.
defeated James V. (1543); Charles V. overthrew
the Duke of Cleves (1543); and having nothing
more to fear in the rear, they both agreed to invade
the dominions of Francis I. France alone, with
all against her, displayed an unexpected vigour;
0




174             SUMMARY OF
she fought with five armies, and astonished the
confederates by the brilliant victory at Cerisoles;
the infantry gained that battle, lost by the gendarmerie. Charles V., badly supported by Henry
VIII., and recalled by the progress of Solyman in
Hungary, signed, at thirteen leagues from Paris, a
treaty, by which Francis renounced his claims to
Naples, Charles his to Burgundy. The Duke of
Orleans was to take possession of Milan (1545).
The King of France and Henry VIII. soon proclaimed peace, and they both died in the same
year (1549).
The long contest between the two great powers
of Europe is not yet terminated; but; for the future, it is combined with religious interests, which
we cannot comprehend without tracing the progress of the Reformation in Germany. We will
stop here, and take a retrospect of the past, and
examine what has been the internal situation of
Spain and of France during the rivalry of Francis
I. and Charles V.
Spain.-In Spain, royalty'was speedily verging
towards that absolute power which it had attained
in France. Charles V. imitated the example of
Ris father, and made several laws without the
sanction of the Cortes. In 1538, the nobles and
the prelates of Castile, having rejected the general
tax of the Sisa, which would have been raised upon




MODERN HISTORY.            175
the, sale of provisions by retail, the King of Spain
ceased to convoke them, alleging that they had
no right to vote taxes which they did not pay.
The Cortes were composed of but thirty-six deputies, sent by eighteen cities, which alone were
represented. The nobles repented too late of
having joined the king, for the purpose of overthrowing the Communeros, in 1521.
The power of the Spanish Inquisition increased
more rapidly as Charles V. became more alarmed at the commotions in Germany, and more apprehensive for the political consequences of religious innovations. The Inquisition was introduced into the Netherlands in 1522, and if the
Neapolitans had not most obstinately resisted, it
would have been established among them in 1546.
After having withdrawn from the Inquisition the
right of exercising the royal jurisdiction (in Spain
1535-1543, in Sicily 1535-1550), it was again
given to them.  Since 1539, the inquisitor-general, Tabera, had governed Spain in the absence of
the emperor, in the name of the Infante, afterward
Philip II.
The reign of Francis I. was the most brilliant
era in the history of royal power in France before
the ministry of the Cardinal Richelieu. He commenced by concentrating in his own hands the ecclesiaslical power by means of the Treaty of the




1 76            SUMMARY OF
Concordat (1515), limited the ecclesiastical jurisdiction (1559), organized a system of police, and
silenced the Parliaments. The Parliament of Paris
had been weakened under Charles VII. and Louis
XI. by the formation of the Parliaments of Grenoble, Bordeaux, and Dijon (1451,1462,1477); under
Louis XII. by the Parliaments of Rouen and Aix
(1499, 1501). During the captivity of Francis I.,
the Parliament endeavoured to recover some ilnportance, and commenced a prosecution against the
Chancellor Duprat. But the king, after his restoration, forbade them to interfere with political affairs, and again deprived them of their influence
by increasing the offices under government, and
authorizing them to be sold.
Francis I. boasted that he had placed kings
from henceforth beyond control. But the increasing agitation of men's minds which we remark under his reign, augured new troubles. That spirit
of freedom which was now applying itself to religion was one day to enter with redoubled vigour
into political institutions. First, the reformers made
remonstrances against the manners of the clergy;
the Colloquia of Erasmus, of which there were
24,000 copies, were quickly exhausted. The
Psalms, translated by Marot, were adapted to the
airs of romance and sung by gentlemen and ladies
at the court, while the ordinance which re~quired




MODERN HISTORY.              177
the statutes, to be hereafter written in French,
enabled all the world to know and to discuss
political affairs (1538). The court of Margaret
of Navarre, and that of the Duchess of Ferrara,
Rene of France, were the rendezvous of all the
partisans of the new opinions. The greatest levity
of mind and the most profound fanaticism, Marot
and Calvin, met each other at Nerac. Francis I.
had at first seen these commotions without apprehension. He had protected the first Protestants
of France against the clergy (1523-1524). In
1534, when he wished to make a treaty with the
Protestants of Germany, he requested Melancthon
to present a conciliatory confession of faith. He
favoured the revolution of Geneva, which became
the focus of Calvinism (1535). Yet, since his return from Madrid, he had become more severe towards the Protestants of France. In 1527 and in
1534 the fermentation caused by the new doctrines
being manifested by outrages towards the images
of saints, and by placards affixed to the Louvre,
several Protestants were burned by a slow fire, in
presence of the king and of all the court. In 1535
he ordered the suppression of the printing offices,
under pain of death; but upon the remonstrance
of Parliament in the same year, he revoked that
ordinance, in order to establish the censorship.
The end of the reign of Francis I. was marked




178             SUMMARY OF
by a frightful event: the Vaudois, who were inhabitants of some of the inaccessible valleys of
Provence and Dauphiny, had retained the doc.
trines of Arius, and were about to adopt those of
Calvin. The strength of their positions in the
midst of the Alps caused some apprehension, and
in 1540 the Parliament of Aix ordered that the
two principal points of their union, Cabriere'and
Merindol, should be burned. After the retreat of
Charles V. (1545), the decree was executed, notwithstanding the expostulations of Sadolet, bishop of
Car'pentras. The president D'Oppede, Guerin the
advocate of the king, and Pauline, the old envoy
of the king to the Turks, penetrated into the valleys, and with barbarous cruelty exterminated all
the inhabitants, and converted the whole country
into a desert. This terrible catastrophe may be
considered as one of the first causes of our civil
wars




MODERN  HISTORY.                    179
CHAPTER VII.
LUTHER -- REFORMATION IN GERMANY- WAR OF
THE  TURKS, 1517-1555.
Luther attacks the Sale of Indulgences, 1517.-He burns the Pope's Bull,
1520.-Diet of Worms, 1521.-Secularization of Prussia, 1525. -
War of the Peasants of Swabia, 1524-5.-Anabaptists.-Catholic
League, 1524.-Protestant League, 1526.-War of the Turks; Solyman, 1521.-Invasion of Hungary, 1526.-Siege of Vienna, 1529.Diet of Spire, 1529.-Confession of Augsburg, 1530.-League of
Smallkalde, 1531.-Revolt of the Anabaptists of Westphalia, 1534.Troubles and internal Wars of Germany, 1534-46.-Council of Trent,
1545.-War of Charles V. against the Protestants; Battle of Muhlberg,
1547.-Revolt of Maurice of Saxony, 1551.-Peace of Augsburg,
1555.-Death of Charles V., 1558.
ALL the governments of Europe had attained a
monarchical unity, and the system  of equilibrium
(balance of power) was established among them,
when the ancient religious unity of the West was
broken by the Reformation.  This event, the greatest of modern times, together with the French
Revolution, separated one half of Europe from the
Roman Church, and led to the greater part of the
revolutions and wars which took place before the
treaty of Westphalia. Since the Reformation, we
find Europe divided in a manner which coincides
with the division of races. The Roman race have
remained Catholics. Protestantism reigns over




180             SUMMARY OF
those of the Germanic race, and the Greek Church
among the Slavonic nations.
The first epoch of the Reformation presents Luther and Zwingle in opposition, the second Calvin
and Socinus. Luther and Calvin retained a part
of the dogmas of the Church, and of its hierarchy.
Zwingle and Socinus reduced religion by degrees
to deism. The pontifical monarchy was overthrown by the Lutheran aristocracy, and this is
attacked by Calvinistic democracy. It was a reformation within the Reformation. During both the
first and second periods, some ancient anarchical
sects, who were composed partly of prophetic visionaries, arose, and gave to the Reformation the
formidable aspect of a war against society; these
were the Anabaptists in the first period, the Independents and Levellers in the second.
The principle of the Reformation was essentially
active and progressive. Divided even in its infancy, it spread itself over Europe under a hundred
different forms. Repulsed in Italy, in Spain, in
Portugal (1526), in Poland (1523), the privileges
allowed to the Calistins contributed to its establishnient in Bohemia: in England the remembrance
of Wickliffe was its support, and it proceeded
adapting itself to every degree of civilization, and
conforming to the wants of every country. Democratic in Switzerland (1525), aristocratic in Der.



MODERN HISTORY.            1i81
mark (1527), it associated itself with the royal
power in Sweden (1529), and in the Empire with
the cause of Germanic privileges.
~ I. ORIGIN OF THE REFORBMATION.
Reformation, 1517-Leo. X.-In the memorable year 1517, from which we generally date the
commencement of the Reformation, neither Europe
nor the pope, nor Luther himself, had dreamed of
so great an event. The Christian princes had
leagued themselves against the Turks. Leo X. had
invaded the duchy of Urbino, and raised to the
highest pinnacle the temporal power of the Holy
See. Notwithstanding the embarrassment of his
finances, which obliged him to make a sale of indulgences in Germany, and to create at one time
thirty-one cardinals, yet he lavished with prodigality the treasures of the Church upon artists and
men of letters. He sent even to Denmark and
Sweden in search of monuments of the history of
the North. He authorized the sale of Orlando Furioso* by the pope's letter, and received an eloquent epistle from Raphael upon the restoration of
the antiquities of Rome. In the midst of these
cares, he learned that a professor of the new University of Wittemberg, named Martin Luther, already known by having in the preceding year ven* Published in 151t




182                SUMMIARY  OF
tured some bold opinions in matters of faith, had
just attacked the sale of indulgences. Leo X., who
himself corresponded with Erasmus, was not
alarmed by these novelties; he replied to the accusers of Luther that he was a man of talents,
and that the whole dispute was only a quarrel of
monks.*
Luther.-The University of Wittemberg was
founded by the Elector of Saxony, Frederic the
Wise, and was one of the first in Germany where
Platonism had triumphed over school divinity, and
where literary instruction was associated with that
of law, theology, and philosophy.  Luther had at
first studied law, afterward he became monk, and
then, having taken the monastic habit in a fit of devotion, he had resolved to seek philosophy from
Plato, and religion in the Bible. But he was less
distinguished by his extensive knowledge than by
a vivid and passionate eloquence, and, by a facility
then extraordinary, of discoursing upon philosophical and religious subjects in his mother tongue;
it was this by which he carried away all the world.t
This impetuous spirit, once let loose, went farther
than he had intended.t He attacked first the
* Che fra Martino aveva bellissimo ingegno, e che coteste erano invidie fratesche.                         t Bossuet.
t Luther, in his preface to the Captivity of Babylon, says, " In spite
of myself, I am forced to become wise, from day to day, since masters so
renowned attack me, now together, then separately. I have written for




MODERN HISTORY.                         183
abuse, then the principle of indulgences, afterward the intercession of saints, auricular confession, purgatory, the celibacy of the priests, and
transubstantiation; finally, the authority of the
Church, and the character of her visible head. He
was entreated to retract by the legate Cajetan, but
in vain; he appealed from the legate to the pope,
from the pope to a general council; and when the
pope had condemned him he dared to retaliate,
and solemnly burned on the square of Wittemberg
the bull of condemnation and the volumes of the
canon law (15th of June, 1520).
Zwingle.-An act so daring seized all Europe
with astonishment. The greater part of the sects
and heretics had formed themselves in secret, and
would have been happy to remain unknown.
%wingle himself, whose preaching at the same
ten years on indulgences, but I now repent that I published this little
volume. I was still wavering, from a superstitious respect for the tyranny of Rome; I then believed that indulgences should not be condemned; but since, thanks to Sylvester and other defenders of indulgences, I have learnedahat they are but an invention of the papal court
to destroy faith in God, and get wealth from men. Finally came Eccius
and Emser with their band, to teach me the supremacy and unlimited
power of the pope. Not to show myself ungrateful towards such learned
men, it becomes me to acknowledge that I have profited much by their
writings. I denied that popery was of Divine right; I admitted that it
was of human origin. After having heard and read the subtleties by
which these poor people would raise their idol, I am convinced that the
papacy is the kingdom of Babylon and the power of Nimrod, the strong
huntsman."




184                    SUMMARY OF
period had withdrawn half the Swiss from the authority of the Holy See, did not announce himself
with such boldness.* They imagined that something very great must belong to him who had constituted himself the judge of the head of the Church.
Luther pronounced his own boldness and his success a miracle.
Causes which favoured the Reformation.-In the
mean time, it was easy to perceive how many favourable circumstances encouraged the reformer.
The pontifical monarchy, which alone had brought
some harmony into the anarchical chaos of the
Middle Ages, had successively been weakened by
the progress of royal power and of civil order.
The scandals with which a great proportion of
* Zwingle, a cure of Zurich, commenced preac~hing in 1516: the captons of Zurich, of Basle, of Schaffhausen, of Berne, and the allied cities
of St. Gaul and of Muhlhausen, embraced his doctrine. Those of Lucerne, Uri, Schwitz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, Sololhurn, and Valais, remained faithful to the Catholic religion. Glari and Appenzel
were divided. The inhabitants of the Catholic cantons, democratic in
their form of government, and dwelling almost altogether without the
cities, retained their ancient forms of worshiVland received pensions
from the pope and from the King of France. Francis I. in vain offered
himself as mediator between the Swiss; the Catholic cantons would
not accept the proposed pacification; those of Zurich and of Berne cut
off their supplies. The Catholics invaded the territory of Zurich, and
gained a battle over the Protestants, in which Zwingle was killed, fighting at the head of his flock (battle of Cappel, 1531). The Catholics,
more barbarous, more valiant, and less rich, would have conquered, but
they were not able to support the war for so long a time as the Protest.
ant cantons.- Sleidan. Muller, Univ. Hist., vol. ii., p. 159.




MODERN HISTORY.            185
priests afflicted the Church, daily undermined an
edifice already shaken by the spirit of doubt and
of contradiction. Two circumstances contributed
to complete her ruin.  First, the invention of
printing gave to the innovators of the sixteenth
century the means of communicating and propagating their tenets, which were wanted by those
of the Middle Ages, and which enabled them to resist a power as strongly organized as that of the
Church. Afterward the financial embarrassment
of many of the princes induced them to avail themselves of a doctrine which placed the riches of
the clergy at their disposal. Europe at that period presented a remarkable spectacle, in the disproportion between its wants and its resources, a
result of the recent elevation of a central power in
each state. The Church paid the balance. Several Catholic sovereigns had already obtained permission from the Holy See to exercise a part of
its privileges. The princes of the North of Germany, whose independence was threatened by the
master of Peru.and Mexico, found their Indies
in the secularization of ecclesiastical wealth.
Germany necessarily the Birthplace of the Reformation. —The Reformation had already been attempted several times: in Italy by Arnold of Brescia, by Waldus in France, and by Wickliffe in England. But in Germany it was to have a firmer




186             SUMMARY OF
foundation. The German clergy were richer, and,
consequently, more envied. The Episcopal sovereignties of the Empire were given to the younger
branches of noble families, who brought the violent and scandalous manners of worldly men into
the ecclesiastical ranks. But the greatest hatred
was against the court of Rome, against the Italian
clergy, whose fiscal genius had exhausted Germany.  From the time of the Roman Empire, the
constant opposition between the North and the
South seemed as if personified in Germany and
Italy. In the Middle Ages there was some order
in the combat; power and intellect, violence and
politics, the feudal system and Catholic hierarchy,
hereditary succession and elective government,
were prizes in the contests of the Empire with the
priesthood; the critical spirit, at its revival, prefaced an examination of opinions by an attack upon
persons. In the fifteenth century, the Hussites
forced some concessions by a war of thirty years.
In the sixteenth, the connexion of the Italians
with the Germans only served to augment their
ancient antipathy. Led constantly into Italy by
the wars, the men of the North were scandalized
at the magnificence of the popes, and those pageantries with which worship delights to surround itself in Southern countries. The ignorance
of the Germans increased their displeasure; they




MODERN HISTORY.            187
regarded as profane all that they could not comprehend, and when they repassed the Alps, they
excited the horror of their barbarous fellow-citi..
zens by describing to them the idolatrous feasts
of the new Babylon.
Diet of Worms, 1521 - Luther at Wartburg. —
Luther knew well the state of their minds. When
he was summoned by the new emperor to the Diet
of Worms, he did not hesitate to go there. His
friends reminded him of the fate of John Huss. " I
am legally summoned to appear at Worms," he replied, " and should I see conspired against me as
many devils as there are tiles on the roofs, I would
go there in the name of the Lord." A great number
of his partisans insisted upon attending him, and
he entered the city escorted by a hundred armed
knights. Having refused to retract, notwithstanding the public request and the private solicitations
of the princes and electors, he was exiled from
the Empire a few days after his departure. Charles
V. also declared himself against the Reformation.
He was King of Spain; he needed the influence
of the pope in his affairs in Italy; finally, his title
of Emperor, and of First Sovereign of Europe,
constituted him the defender of the ancient faith.
Similar motives influenced Francis I.; the new
heresy was condemned by the University of Paris.
The young King of England, Henry VIII., who




I 88            SUMMARY OF
made pretensions to theology, wrote a volume
against Luther. But he found zealous defend6rs
in the princes of Germany, especially in the
Elector of Saxony, who seemed to have even put
him forward. This prince had been the imperial
vicar in the interregnum, and it was then that
Luther had dared to burn the bull of the pope.
After the Diet of Worms, the elector, thinking that
affairs were not yet matured, resolved to preserve
Luther from the effects of his own impetuosity. In
returning from the Diet of Worms, when in the
midst of the forest of Thuringen, Luther was carried
off by some masked horseman, who concealed him in
the castle of Wartburg. Shut up for nearly a year
in this place of captivity, which, however, seemed
to have governed all Germany, the Reformer commenced his translation of the Bible into the German language, and inundated Europe with his
writings. These theological pamphlets, printed
as soon' as written, penetrated into the most distant provinces, and were read by families at their
evening reunion; and the invisible preacher was
heard throughout all the Empire.  Never had
writer so entirely understood the feelings of the
people. His fierce audacity, his satirical jesting,
his apostrophes to the higher powers of the world,
to the bishops, to the pope, to the King of England,
whom he treated with a magnificent contempt of




MODERN HISTORY.            189
them -and of Satan, charmed and excited all Germany; and the burlesque parts of these popular
dramas only rendered their influence more sure.
Erasmus, Melancthon, and the greater number of
learned men, pardoned the proud boasting and vulgarity of Luther for the violence with which he
attacked the scholastic divinity of the schools.
The princes applauded a reformation which conduced to their gain. Besides, Luther, while exciting the passions of the people, forbade the use of
any other weapon than that of words. " It was the
word," said he, " which, while I slept tranquilly
and drank my beer with my dear Melancthon, has
shaken popery more than prince or emperor ever
did."
Albert of Brandenbourg, 1525. —But in vain did
he flatter himself that he could restrain passions,
once excited, within the boundaries of an abstract
discussion; men were not slow in deducing from
his principles more rigorous consequences than he
wished. The princes had taken possession of
ecclesiastical property; Albert of Brandenbourg,
Grand-master of the Teutonic Order, secularized
one state entirely; he espoused the daughter of
the new King of Denmark, and declared himself
the hereditary Duke of Prussia, under the Lordparamount of Poland. This was a terrible precedent in an empire full of ecclesiastical sovereigns,
P




190               SUMMARY OF
who might be tempted to essay a similar usurpa.
tion (1525).
Effect of the Reformation upon the people, 1524Anabaptists.-Yet this was not the greatest danger. The lower class of people and the peasants,
who, for a long time, had been stupified under the
weight of feudal oppression, heard the learned and
the princes speak of liberty and of enfranchisement, and they applied to themselves sentiments
which were not uttered for them. The demand
of the poor peasants of Swabia will ever remain, in
its rustic simplicity, a monument of courageous
moderation.* By degrees, the constant hatred of
the poor against the rich was revived, blind and
furious, as in the Jacquerie, but already assuming
a systematic form, as in the time of the Levellers.
It was complicated with all the first principles of
religious democracy which had been suppressed in
the Middle Ages.  Lollards, Beghards, a crowd of
prophetic visionaries, were roused. The rallyingword was the necessity of a second baptism; the
aim, a terrible war against established order, and
every kind of order; a war against property, it
was robbery for the benefit of the poor; a war
against science, it destroyed the equality of nature, and tempted God, who had revealed all to his
* Di6 12 Artikel der Bauernschaft. See, at the end of Sar torius,
Bauernkrieg, and in the German works of Luther, Wittemberg, 1569,
vol. ii., p. 64.




MODERN HISTORY.             191
saints; books and paintings were inventions of
the devil. The fiery Carlostadt had already given
the example, by rushing from church to church,
breaking the images and destroying the altars. At
Wittemberg the students burned their books before
the eyes of Luther. The peasants of Thuringia,
imitating those of Swabia, followed the enthusiast
Muncer, overthrew Muhlhausen, called the workmen of the mines of Mansfeld to arms, and endeavoured to join themselves to their brethren of
Franconia (1524). On the Rhine, in Alsace and
in Lorraine, in Tyrol, Carinthia, and Styria, the
people everywhere took arms. The magistrates
of every place were deposed; the lands of the nobility were seized, and the people forced the nobles
to exchange their titles and their clothes for common names and apparel like their own. All the
Catholic and Protestant princes armed themselves
against them; the heavy cavalry of the nobles
crushed them in a moment, and they were treated
like wild beasts.
~ II. FIRST STRUGGLE AGAINST THE REFORMATION.
The secularization of Prussia, and especially the
revolt of the Anabaptists, gave to the Reformation
a most threatening political character. The two
opinions became two parties (Catholic at Ratisbon, 1524, and at Dessau; Protestant at Torgau,




192              SUMMARY OF
1526). The emperor watched for the proper mo.
ment, to overthrow one by the other, and, at the
same time, to subject both Catholics and Protestants. He believed that the moment had arrived
when the victory of Pavia made his rival a captive. But in the year following a universal league
in the West was formed against him. The pope
and all Italy, Henry VIII., his ally, declared war
against him. At the same time, the election of
Ferdinand to the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary
drew the house of Austria into the civil wars of
that kingdom, and (if we may thus speak) unmasked Germany, and placed her face to face with
Solyman.
Selinz-Solyman, 1521-Siege of Vienna, 1529.
-The progress of the Ottoman barbarism, which
daily approached nearer, complicated the affairs of
Europe in a most alarming manner. The Sultan
Selim, that rapid conqueror, whose ferocity made
the Turks themselves tremble, had just doubled the
extent of the dominion of the Osmanlis.  This
tiger, by three bounds, had seized Egypt, Syria,
and Arabia. The brilliant cavalry of the Mamelukes had perished at the foot of his throne, in the
great massacre at Cairo.* He had sworn to break
the red heads,t in order afterward to turn the strength
* "Hi! c'est Sultan Selim!..." Allusion of an Arab poet to this
massacre in Kantimir.
t The Persians are so called by the Turks.




MODERN HISTORY.            193
of the Mohammedan nations against the Christians.
A cancer, of which he died, absolved him from
keeping this oath. In the year 926 of the Hegira
(1521), Sultan Selim passed to the Eternal Kingdom, leaving the empire of the world to Solyman.*
Solyman the Magnificent girded on the sabre at
Stamboul the same year that Charles V. received the imperial crown at Aix-la-Chapelle.  He
commenced his reign by the conquest of Belgrade and Rhodes, the two keys of Mohammed
II. (1521-2). The conquest of Rhodes secured
to the Turks the empire of the sea, in the eastern
part of the Mediterranean. Belgrade opened Hungary to them. When they invaded this kingdom
in 1526, the young king, Louis, could assemble
only 25,000 men against 150,000. The Hungarians, who, according to the ancient custom, took
off the spurs from him who bore the standard of
the Virgin, were nevertheless defeated at Mohaez. Louis and his general, Paul Tomorri, bishop
of Colocza, were killed in the defeat, and a great
many other bishops, who bore arms during the constant perils of Hungary, lost their lives. Two
kings were elected at the same time, Ferdinand of
Austria and John Zapoly, waywode of Transylvania. Zapoly, obtaining no assistance from Poland,
applied to the Turks themselves. The ambassador
* Epitaph of Seli~r.




194              SUMMARY OF
of Ferdinand, the gigantic Hobordanse, who was
celebrated for having vanquished, in single combat, one of the most valiant pachas, had dared to
brave the sultan; and Solyman had sworn that, if
he did not find Ferdinand at Buda, he would go to
Vienna to seek him. In the month of September,
1529, the dark circle of an innumerable army enclosed the capital of Austria. -Happily, a crowd
of valiant men, Germans and Spaniards, were
found there. Among them were Don Pedro de
Navarre, and the Count of Salm, who, if we believe the Germans, had taken Francis I. at Pavia.
At the end of twenty days, and of twenty assaults,
Solyman pronounced an anathema against the sultan who should again attack that fatal city.  He
departed in the night, destroying all bridges behind
him, strangling his prisoners, and on the fifth day
he had returned to Buda. He consoled his wounded
pride by crowning Zapoly, that unfortunate prince,
who, at the same time, beheld from the windows
of the citadel of Pesth 10,000 Hungarian prisoners, whom the Tartars of Solyman had surprised
in celebrating the feast of Christmas, and whom
they drove before them like flocks.
What was Germany doing while the Turks were
breaking through all the ancient barriers, and while
Solyman was dispersing his Tartars beyond Vienna?  She was disputing about transubstantiation




MODERN HISTORY.            195
and about free-will. Her most illustrious warriors
were seated in the diets, and were interrogating
doctors. Such was the intrepid phlegm of that
great nation-such its confidence in its own strength
and numbers.
Confession of Augsburg, 1530 —League of Smalkalde, 1530.-The war with the Turks and with
the French, the taking of Rome, and the defence
of Vienna, had so entirely occupied Charles V.
and his brother, that the Protestants obtained toleration until the next council. But after the peace
of Cambray, Charles V., seeing France exhausted,
Italy i.n subjection, and Solyman repulsed, undertook to try the great cause of the Reformation.
The two parties appeared at Augsburg. The disciples of Luther, who were designated by the
general name of Protestants, since they had protested against the prohibition of innovation (Spire,
1529), wished to be distinguished from all the
other enemies of Rome, whose excesses might
bring reproach on their cause; from the Zwinglian
Republicans of Switzerland, who were odious to
the princes and the nobility; and, above all, from
the Anabaptists, who were proscribed as the enemies of order and of society. Their confession,
softened by the learned and peaceable Melancthon,
who, with tears, addressed the two parties, was
repulsed as heretical.  They were commanded




196            SUMMARY OF
to renounce their errors upon pain of being put
under the ban of the Empire (Augsburg, 1530).
Charles V. seemed even ready to employ violence,
and for a moment the gates of Augsburg were
closed. The diet was scarcely dissolved when
the Protestant princes reassembled at Smalkalde,
and there concluded a defensive league, by which
they were to form one body (December 31, 1530),
They protested against Ferdinand's assumption of
the title of King of the Romans. The contingents
were settled; they applied to the Kings of France,
of England, and of Denmark, to aid them, and
they held themselves ready for a combat.
Germany reunited by Solyman. — The Turks
seem again to be charged with the reconciliation of
Germany. The emperor heard that Solyman had
just entered Hungary at the head of 300,000 men,
while the pirate Khair Eddyn Barbarossa, who was
become Captain Pacha, had joined the kingdom of
Tunis to Algiers, and was the terror of all the
Mediterranean. Charles V. hastened to offer to
the Protestants all that they had demanded: religious toleration, the preservation of secularized
property until the next council, and admission to
the Imperial Chamber.
Defeat of the Turks.-During the negotiation,
Solyman was arrested for a month before a small
and miserable town by the Dalmatian Juritzi. He




MODERN HISTORY.            197
endeavoured to gain time in going across the impassable roads of Styria, when the snow and ice already covered the mountains, but the formidable
appearance of the army of Charles V. decided his
retreat. Germany, reunited by the promises of
the emperor, had made the greatest efforts. An
army, composed of Italian, Flemish, Burgundian,
Bohemian, and Hungarian troops, joined themselves to the imperial army, and brought a force of
90,000 foot-soldiers and 30,000 horsemen, of whom
a great number were covered with iron.* Never,
since the time of Godfrey d'Bouillon, had there
been an army more European. The light cavalry
of the Turks was soon surrounded and cut in pieces.
The sultan only regained courage by going out
from those narrow passages through which the
Murr and Drave flow, and entering the plain of
Waradin.
Anabaptists of Munster — John of Leyden.Francis I. and Solyman now relieved each other in
occupying Charles V. The sultan, after invading
Persia, had gone to be crowned at Bagdad. The
King of France attacked the emperor by making
an assault upon his ally, Savoy. The decisive
rupture between the Catholics and Protestants of
Germany was delayed by this new war for twelve
years, but the interval was not a period of peace.
* P. Zove, an eyewitness.




198-            SUMMARY OF
First, the Anabaptists broke out anew in Munster,
under a more frightful form, and from the same anarchical phrensy, proceeded a strange government,
a monstrous union of democracy and tyranny.
The Anabaptists of Munster followed exclusively
the Old Testament; they believed tlmt, as Jesus
Christ was of the race of David, his kingdom was
to be of Jewish form. They acknowledged two
prophets of God, David, and John of Leyden their
chief, and two prophets of the devil —the pope
and Luther. John of Leyden was a journeyman
tailor, a daring and ferocious man, whom they had
made their king, and who was to spread the kingdom of Jesus Christ throughout the world. The
princes were beforehand with him.
Council of Trent, 1545. —The Catholics and the
Protestants, who, during a short period, had formed one common cause against the Anabaptists,
were afterward only more at enmity. They constantly spoke of a General Council; nobody -desired it. The pope dreaded it; the Protestants
challenged it in advance. The council (reunited
at Trent, 1545) might bind the unity of the Catholic hierarchy more closely, but it could not restore
the unity of the Church. The weapons of war
alone could decide it. The Protestants had already
driven the Austrians from Wurtemberg; they had
dispossessed Henry of Brunswick, who took ad



MODERN HISTORY.            199
vantage of the judgments of the Imperial Chamber
for his own profit. They incited the Archbishop
of Cologne to imitate the example of Albert of
Brandenburg, who had given them the majority in
the Electoral Council.
Battle of Muhlberg, 1547.-When the war with
France was terminated, Charles V. and his brother
made a treaty with the Turks, and united themselves closely to the pope, in order to overthrow at
the same time the religious and political liberties
of Germany. The Lutherans, warned by the imprudence of Paul III., who proclaimed the war as
if it had been a crusade, rose, under the Elector of
Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, to the number of 80,000. Abandoned by France, England,
and Denmark, who had excited them to the war,
separated from the Swiss by their horror of the
blasphemies of Zwingle, they were still strong
enough if they had remained united. Charles V.
diminished their numbers by taking from them, under the canons of Ingolstadt, Maurice, the young
duke of Saxony, who had made a secret treaty with
him, had betrayed the Protestant cause, and invaded the states of his father-in-law, the elector.
Charles V. had now only to overthrow the isolated
members of the league. Immediately after the death
of Henry VIII. and Francis I. (21st January, 31st
March, 1547), which event had deprived the Prot



200             SUMMARY OF
estants of every hope of succour, he marched
against the Elector of Saxony, and defeated him at
Muhlberg, 24th April. The two brothers abused
the power which that victory had obtained for them.
Charles V. condemned the elector to death by a
court-martial of Spanish officers, over whom the
Duke of Alba presided, and deprived him of the
cession of his electorate, which he transferred to
Maurice. He retained the Landgrave of Hesse a
prisoner, whom he had deceived by a cowardly
stratagem, and showed that his victory was neither
for the Catholic faith nor for the Constitution of
the Empire.
Ferdinand imitated his brother. Since 1545 he
had declared himself a feudatory of Solyman for
the kingdom of Hungary, reserving all his forces
for an attack upon Bohemia and Germany. He reestablished the archbishopric of Prague, which
had been so formidable to the ancient Hussites,
and declared himself hereditary sovereign of Bohemia. In 1547 he endeavoured to raise an army
without the authority of the States, in order to attack the Lutherans of Saxony, who were the allies
of the Bohemians. That army was raised, but it
was against the prince, who had violated his oaths.
The Bohemians leagued themselves together for
the defence of their constitution and of their language. The battle of Muhlberg delivered them to
Ferdinand, who destroyed their privileges.




MODERN HISTORY.                201
Martinuzzi. -  Hungary had not less to complain of.  The fatal war of Ferdinand against
Zapoly had rendered this kingdom accessible to
the Turks. All the national party, all those who
would have neither the Turks nor the Austrians
for masters, ranged themselves around the Cardinal George Martinuzzi (Uthysenitsch), who was
tutor to the young son of Zapoly. This extraordinary man, who at twenty years of age still gained his living by attending to the fires in the royal palace of Buda, had become the master of Transylvania. The queen-mother calling the Turks to
her aid, he treated with Ferdinand, who was at
least a Christian; he caused the cry of war to
be raised everywhere,* assembled in a few days
70,000 men, and at the head of his heiduques he
conquered the city of Lippe, which the Austrians
could not retake under the infidels. This success
and this popularity alarmed the brother of Charles
V. Martinuzzi had authorized the Transylvanians
to repress the licentiousness of the German soldiers with arms. Ferdinand caused him to be assassinated, but this crime cost him Transylvania.
The son of Zapoly was established there, and the
* Beeket's History of Martinusius, p. 324. A man on horseback, completely armed, and one on foot, holding a bloody sword, went throughout the country raising the cry of war, according to the ancient custom
of Transylvania.




202             SUMMARY OF
Austrians only preserved what they possessed of
Hungary by paying tribute to the Ottoman Porte.
Charles V.-In the' mean time, Charles V. oppressed Germany and threatened Europe. On the
one side, he excepted from the alliance which he
proposed to the Swiss, Basle, Zurich, and Schaffhausen, which he said belonged to the Empire;
on the other side, he pronounced the sentence of
outlaw against Albert of Brandenburg, who had
become a feudatory of the King of Poland: he even
disaffected Ferdinand, and separated the interests
of the two branches of the house of Austria by
endeavouring to transfer the succession of the Empire from his brother to his son. He had introduced the Inquisition in the Netherlands. In Germany, he wished to impose on the Catholics and
Protestants his Inhalt (Interim), a conciliatory arrangement, which united them in one point, their
hatred for the emperor. The Interim has been
compared to the Establishment of Henry VIII., and
not without reason; the emperor also assumed a
privilege of the pope.  When Maurice of Saxony, son-in-law of the landgrave, demanded the
liberty of his father-in-law, which he had sworn to
maintain, Charles V. declared to him that he absolved him from his oath.
But his most unfeeling act of arrogance was
leading in his train the Landgrave and the venera



MODERN HISTORY.             203
ble Elector of Saxony, as if to triumph in their persons over German liberty.  Germany now, for the
first time, saw strangers violate her territory in the
name of the emperor: she was crossed in every
sense by Italian mercenaries and by wild Spaniards, who laid Catholics and Protestants, friends
and foes, equally under contribution.
Maurice of Saxony —Pacification of Augsburg,
1555.-To overthrow this unjust power, which
seemed immovable, the young Maurice of Saxony,
the principal instrument of the victory of Charles V.,
alone was competent. Charles V. had caused the
Electorate of Saxon y, and the place of the chief of
the Protestants of Germany, to be transferred to
a more able prince.  Maurice found himself the
sport of the emperor, who retained his father-inlaw a prisoner. A number of little books and satirical prints, which circulated in Germany,* described him as an apostate, a traitor, and the scourge
of his country. A profound dissimulation concealed the projects of Maurice: first he must raise
an army without alarming the emperor; he engages to submit Magdeburg to the Interim, and
to join the troops of the city to his own. At the
same time, he made a secret treaty with the King
of France. The emperor, having again refused
liberty to the landgrave, received two manifestos
* Id., i., xxiii.




204             SUMMARY OF
at the same time, one from Maurice in the name
of Germany, which represented it to be plundered by the Spaniards, and outraged in the official
history of Louis of Avilla;* the other was from
the King of France, Henry II., who styled himself
Protector of the Princes of the Empire, and who
placed a cap of liberty between two swords at the
head of his manifesto.t While the French invaded
the three bishoprics, Maurice marched rapidly towards Innspruck (1552). The aged emperor, sick
and without troops, departed in the night, during a
heavy rain, and was carried towards the mountains
of Carinthia; and had not a iiutiny of his troops
retarded Maurice, Charles V. M ould have fallen into
the hands of his enemies. He was obliged to yield.
The emperor concluded the convention of Passau
with the Protestants, and the bad success of the
war, which he continued against France, changed
this convention to a definite peace (Augsburg,
1555). The Protestants professed their religion
freely, retained the ecclesiastical property which
they possessed before 1552, and were permitted to enter the Imperial Chamber.  Such was
the first victory of religious liberty; the critical
spirit, having thus obtained a legal existence, followed from this time a determined course through
obstacles which were not able to retard it. (See.
* Id., i., xxiv.              t Id. ibid.




MODERN HISTORY.                  205
farther on, the germes of war comprised in that
peace.)
Abdication of Charles V. —The emperor, abandoned by fortune, "who does not love old men,"*
resigned the Empire to his brother, his kingdom to
his sons, and retired to end his days in the solitude of the monastery of St. Just. His own obsequies, which he celebrated while living, were but a
too faithful picture of that eclipsed glory which he
had survived.t
CHAPTER VIII.
TEE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND AND THE NORTH
OF EUROPE, 1521-1547.
~ I. ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND, 1527-1547.
Divorce of Henry VIIL-England separates herself from the Roman
Church, March 30th, 1534.-Pilgrimage of Grace.-Persecution of
Catholics and Protestants, 1540. —Attempts on Scotland, 1542.-Submission and Administrative Organization of Wales and Ireland.
THE Germanic States of the North, England,
Sweden, and Denmark, followed the example of
Germany; but in separating themselves from the
Holy See, the last three states, influenced by the
spirit of aristocracy, preserved in part the Catholic hierarchy.
* Saying of Charles V.
t A Spanish historian is said to have discovered proof, recently, that
these alleged obsequies never took place.
Q




206             SUMMARY OF
Henry VIII.-The revolution effected by Henry
VIII. ought not to be confounded with the true Reformation of England. That revolution only caused
England to separate from Rome, and to confiscate
the power and property of the Church for the benefit of the kings. Made, without conscience or conviction, by the king and the aristocracy, it was only
the last term of that absolute power in which the
English had indulged the crown, for half a century,
in hatred of the anarchy of the Roses. The propagation of the ancient doctrines of Occam and
Wickliffe rendered the higher classes indifferent
to religious innovations. This official reform had
nothing to do with that which operated at the same
time among the lower orders of the people, through
the spontaneous enthusiasm of the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists, who came in crowds from
Germany, the Netherlands, and Geneva. This
Reformation soon predominated' in Scotland, and
finished by conquering the other in England.
Anne Boleyn-Schism, 1534.-The cause of
the aristocratic and royal Reformation of England
was trifling; it seemed to arise from the ephemeral passion of Henry VIII. for Anne Boleyn, maid
of honour to the queen, Catharine of Aragon, aunt
of Charles V. At the expiration of twenty years
after marriage, he remembered that the queen had
for some months been the wife of his brother. It was




MODERN HISTORY.           207
at the moment when the victory of Pavia, breaking
the equilibrium of the West, had alarmed Henry
VIII. at the success of the emperor, his ally; he
went over to Francis, and solicited his divorce from
Clement VII. The pope, threatened by Charles V.,
sought every means to gain time; and after having
committed the judgment to the legates, he had the
cause tried at Rome. The English were no longer
pleased at the prospect of the divorce; besides
the interest which Catharine inspired, they feared
that a rupture with Spain would arrest the commerce of the Netherlands. They refused to resort
to the markets of France, by which they might
have replaced those of Flanders. In the mean
time, some more daring counsellors, who had
succeeded the cardinal legate, Wolsey, Cromwell,
the Minister of State, and Cranmer, doctor of Oxford, whom Henry had made Archbishop of Canterbury, destroyed his scruples, by purchasing for
him the approbation of the principal universities
of Europe. The king triumphed at last, and the
clergy 6f the kingdom were accused for having acknowledged as legate the disgraced minister. The
deputies of the clergy only obtained their pardon
by a present to the king of 100,000 livres, and by
acknowledging him as the protector and supreme
head of the Church of England. On the 30th of
March, 1534, that declaration having passed both




208              SUMMARY OF
chambers in a bill, was sanctioned by the king, and
any appeal to Rome was prohibited. On the 23d
of the same month, Clement VII. pronounced sentence against the divorce, after the almost unanimous advice of his cardinals: thus England was
separated from the Holy See.
Prodigality of the King-Pilgrimage of Grace.This change, which seemed to terminate the revolution, was only the commencement of it. At
first the king declared all ecclesiastical power suspended; the bishops, at the expiration of a month,
must present a petition to resume the exercise of
their authority. The monasteries were suppressed,
and their property, equivalent to 7,000,000 of francs,
was united to the crown. But the king soon dissipated all. It is said that he gave a landed estate
to one of his cooks who presented him with some
delicate dish. The valuable furniture of the convents, with their maps and their libraries, were
seized and scattered in all directions. The pious
monks were indignant; the poor no longer found
their sustenance at the gates of the monasteries.
The nobility and landholders imagined that if the
convents ceased to exist, their property would not
fall again to the crown, but would return to the reprdsentatives of the donors.  The inhabitants of
five counties of the north armed themselves, and
marched towards London, to accomplish what they




MODERN HISTORY.           209
called the Pilgrimage of Grace; the other party negotiated with them, and promised much, but when
they had dispersed, they hung them by hundreds.
Bill of the Six Articles.-The Protestants, who
at that time abounded in England, thought that
they would be able to establish themselves there,
aided by this revolution. Henry VIII. taught them
how much they had deceived themselves. Nothing
in the world would induce him to renounce his title of Defender of the Faith, which his book against
Luther had procured. He maintained the ancient
faith by his bill of the Six Articles, and persecuted
both parties with impartial intolerance. In 1540,
Protestants and Catholics were drawn on the same
hurdle from the Tower to Smithfield; the Protestants were burned as heretics, the Catholics hanged
as traitors, for having denied the supremacy.
Lambert.-The king having in every point replaced the pope, solemnly established his religious and political infallibility.  He forced the
Parliament to make a decree that his proclamation should have the same power as bills passed in
both chambers. But, what was more terrible, he
believed in his own infallibility, and regarded as
sacred every caprice of his passions. Of six wives
which he had, two were driven away, two beheaded under the pretext of adultery: the last with difficulty escaped the same fate for having supported




:210             SUMMARY OF
the opinions of the Protestants  He exercised a
cruel and meddling despotism in his family, and
treated all the nation as if they were of his household. He had a translation made of the Bible, and
prohibited all others; those of good condition alone
were permitted to read it, and any other individual
was liable to one mnonth's imprisonment for every
time he opened the Bible. He wrote or revised
two books himself for the religious instruction of
the people. (the Institution and Erudition of the
Christian). He disputed in person-against the innovators. A schoolmaster named Lambert, prosecuted for having denied the real presence, was
called by the archbishop to the head of the Church;
the king argued with him, and after a five hours'
dispute, asked him if he would yield or die; Lambert chose death, and was burned. A yet stranger
scene was the sentence of St. Thomas of Canterbury, who had died in 1170.  He was cited to
Westminster, as if alive, accused of treason, and
at the expiration of the usual delay of thirty days,
he was condemned for non-appearance. His relics
were burned, and his wealth, (that is), the shrine
and the offerings which decorated it, were confiscated for the benefit of the kIing.
Scotland. —Henry VIII. would have extended
his religious tyranny over Scotland, but the French
party which governed there was attached to the




MODERN HISTORY.           211
Catholic religion, and all the nation abhorred the
English yoke. In speaking of the King of England, Sir George Douglas wrote, " There is not a
child who would not throw stones at him; the
women would break their distaffs on him; the
people would sooner die than attempt to prevent
them; the greater part of the nobility, and all the
clergy, are against him."
The young Queen of Scotland (Mary) remained
under the care of James Hamilton, count of Arran,
son of him of whom we have already spoken; he
was named governor by the Lords, although the
will of the deceased king designed the Cardinal
Beaton for regent; and Scotland was comprised
in the treaty concluded between England and
France in 1546 (see chapter viii.). The King of
England died one year after.
Servility of the English Parliament.-During the
last year of his reign, Henry having expended the
prodigious sums which he had drawn from the suppression of the monasteries, sought new resources
in the servility of his parliament. He had disciplined it at an early hour, and at the least resistance he reprimanded the varlets of the mob. Since
1543, he demanded an enormous subsidy. He had
forced out new sums under every form -duties, free
gifts, loans, alteration of coin. Finally, the Parliament, sanctioning the bankruptcy, left to him all




212              SUMMARY OF
that he had borrowed since the thirty-first year of
his reign. They maintained that before the twenty-sixth, the receipts of the Exchequer had surpassed the sums of all the taxes imposed by his
predecessors, and that before his death this sum
was more than doubled.
Wales and Ireland.-It was under Henry VIII.
that Wales was subjected to the regular forms of
the English administration, and that Ireland knew
some civil order. The innovations of Henry VIII.
were not well received in this island, neither by
the English colonists, nor by the native population.
The government of the country was commonly
intrusted to the Irish, to Kildare or Ossory (Osmond), chiefs of the rival families of Fitzgerald
and Butler. The young son of Kildare, believing
his father to have been killed at London, presented
himself to the council, and in his name declared
war against Henry VIII., king of England. The
wise counsels of the Archbishop of Armagh could
not prevail over the chanting of an Irish bard, who,
in the national tongue, excited the hero to avenge
the blood of his father. His valour could do nothing
against the English discipline: he stipulated for a
full pardon for himself and his friends, and was beheaded at London. Thus tranquillity re-established
itself. The Irish chiefs solicited for themselves
the dignity of the peerage: O'Neal, the most cele



MODE0RN  HISTORY.               213
brated of them  all, will reappear later under the
name of the Count of Tyrone.
II. DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND NORWAY, 1513-60.
Christian II. turns the Danish Nobility, Sweden, 1520, and the Hansa,
1517, against himself.-Gustavus Vasa.-Insurrection of Dalecarlia. —
Christian II. replaced in Sweden by Gustavus Vasa, 1523; in Denmark and Norway by Frederic of Holstein, 1525.-Independence of
the Danish Church, 1527; of the Swedish Church, 1529.-Death of
Frederic I.; Civil War, 1533.-Christian III. abolishes the Catholic
Worship, 1536, and incorporates Norway with Denmark, 1537.
WHILE Protestant Germany sought in political
liberty a guarantee for her religious independence,
Denmark and Sweden confirmed their revolution
by the adoption of the Reformation.
Christian II.-Christian II. had equally irritated
the Danish nobility, against whom  he protected
the peasants; Sweden, which he inundated with
blood (1520); and the Hanseatic cities, to which
he had closed the ports of Denmark by prohibitions (1517). He soon found himself punished
both for the evil and the good which he had done.
Governed by the German priest Slagheck, who
was once a barber, and by the daughter of a Dutch
tavern-keeper, he followed with little dexterity the
path which led the princes of the South of Europe
to absolute power. He wished to ruin the nobility
of Denmark and conquer Sweden. He kept troops
in pay in Germany, Poland, and Scotland; he had
R




214             SUMMARY OF
obtained 4000 men from Francis I. One battle ren
dered him master of Sweden, which was already
rent asunder by the quarrels of the young Stenoi
Sture, administrator, and the Archbishop of Upsal
Gustave Troll. He had all those bishops and senators tried by an ecclesiastical court who had voted
for the deposition of Troll, and on the same day
they were beheaded and burned at Stockholm, in
the midst of a mourning people. In all the provinces of Sweden through which Christian passed,
gallows and scaffolds were erected. He abused
the conquered, declared himself hereditary king,
and proclaimed that he made no knights among the
Swedes, because he owed Sweden to his own
sword.
Gustavus Vasa.-In the mean time, the young
Gustavus Vasa, the nephew of the former king,
Charles Canutson, succeeded in escaping from
the prison in which Christian retained him. The
Lubeckians, who saw in the latter the brother-in
law of Charles V., sovereign of the Dutch, their
enemies, and who knew that he had demanded
their city of the emperor, obliged Gustavus Vasa
to go to Sweden: discovered by the Danes, Gustavus escaped from retreat to retreat, and was
one day wounded by the lances of those who
sought him in a load of straw. They still show
at Falhun, at Ornay, the retreats of their liber



MODERN HISTORY.            215
ator. He at last arrived at Dalecarlia, among that
hardened and intrepid race of peasants by whom
the revolutions of Sweden have always been commenced. He mingled with the Dalecarlians of
Copparberg (country of copper mines), adopted
their costume, and offered his services to one
among them. At Christmas, 1521, seizing the
opportunity of an assembly celebrating the feast,
he addressed them on the great plain of Mora.
They remarked, with joy, that the north wind had
not ceased to blow while he spoke: two hundred
of them followed him; their example drew all
the people after them; and, at the expiration of
a few months, the Danes possessed in Sweden
only Abo, Calmar, and Stockholm.
Frederic of Holstein. — Christian had chosen
precisely this critical moment to attempt a revolution in Denmark, which was sufficient to shake the
strongest throne. He published two codes, which
armed against him the two most powerful orders
in the kingdom-the clergy and the nobility. He
suppressed the temporal jurisdiction-of the bishops,
prohibited the plundering of shipwrecked effects,
took from the lords the right to sell their peasants,
and permitted the ill-treated peasant to quit the
domain of his lord. The protection of the peasants, which had caused the popularity of the Stures
in Sweden, ruined the King of Denmark. The




216             SUMMARY OF
nobles and bishops called his uncle Frederic, duke
of Holstein, to the throne. Thus Denmark and
Sweden escaped from him at the same time.
The Swedish Church.-After having conquered
Sweden from strangers, Gustavus freed it from the
Swedish bishops. He took from the clergy their
titles and jurisdiction; encouraged the nobles to recover the ecclesiastical lands upon which they
could have some claim; finally, he took from the
bishops the castles and strongholds which they
had in their hands, and by the suppression of the
appeals to Rome, the Swedish Church found herself independent, without abandoning the hierarchy
and the greater part of the Catholic ceremonies
(1529). They increased the number of farms to
13,000, of which the king was master. Having
thus humbled the head of the aristocracy in the
episcopal power, he had easier work with the nobility, and taxed unmolested the feudal lands, and
declared the crown to be hereditary in the house
of Vasa.
States of Odensee, 1527. —The bishops of Denmark, although they had contributed to the revolution, were not happier than those of Sweden.
It only benefited the nobles, who demanded from
Frederic I. a right over the life and death of
their peasants. The preaching of the Lutheran
doctrine was ordered; the States of Odensee




MODERN HISTORY.            217
(1527) decreed liberty of conscience, abolished
the celibacy of ecclesiastics, and broke all ties between the Danish clergy and the Holy See.
Captivity of Christian. —The most distant countries of the North, who were less accessible to the
new opinions, did not yield to this religious revolution without resistance. The Dalecarlians were
armed by the clergy against the king whom they
had themselves chosen.  The Norwegians and
Islanders only saw in the introduction of the Protestant Creed a new tyranny of the Danes. Christian II., who had fled to the Netherlands, thought
to profit by this disposition. This man, who had
once chased a fugitive bishop with bulldogs, now
joined his cause to that of the Catholic religion.
With the aid of several princes of Germany,
of Charles V., and some Dutch merchants, he
equipped a fleet, landed in Norway, and penetrated
from thence into Sweden. The Hanseatics armed
themselves against the Dutch, who led on Christian. Beat, and obliged to shut himself up in Opslo,
he gave himself up to the Danes, who promised
him liberty, and kept him twenty-nine years in the
dungeon at Scanderbourg, with no companion but
a dwarf.
Lubeck - Christophe of Oldenburg. — At the
death of Frederic I. (1534), the bishops made an
effort to prevent their impending ruin. They en.




218             SUMMARY OF'
deavoured to place on the throne the youngest son
of this prince, aged eight years, who was not yet
in favour of Lutheran doctrines, as was his oldest
(Christian III.); they were much influenced by the
circumstance that this child was born in Denmark,
and had spoken the language of the country from
his infancy, while his brother was considered as a
German. This attack of the bishops against the
nobility, of the Catholic faith against the new doctrines, of Danish patriotism against foreign influence, encouraged the ambition of Lubeck. This
republic had gained little by the ruin of Christian
II. Frederic had formed companies. Gustavus
favoured the English. The democratic administration, which had replaced at Lubeck the ancient
oligarchy, was animated more by the spirit of conquest than by that of commerce. The new men
who conducted it, the burgomaster Wullenwever,
and the commandant Meyer, a locksmith, entertained the project to renew in a kingdom the democratic revolution which they had made in a city,
in order to conquer and divide Denmark. They
intrusted the command of the revolutionary war to
an illustrious adventurer, the Count Christophe of
Oldenburg, who had signalized himself in the war
against the Turks; he had only his name and his
sword, but he consoled himself for his poverty, it
is said, by reading Homer in the original. He




MODERN HISTORY.           219
entered Denmark, stirring up the inferior c.asses
in the name of Christian II.: a magical name,
which always rallied the Catholics and peasants.
All was deception in this wicked war: the Democrats of Lubeck named Christian II. to the people,
but thought only of themselves; their general
Christophe worked neither for Christian nor for Lubeck, but for his own interests. The calamities of
this war were such, that the rWar of the Count has
remained a proverbial expression in Denmark. The
general consternation turned all minds to Christian
III. The Senate retired to Jutland, which alone
remained to them, and summoned him from Holstein, to which he had withdrawn. Gustavus aided
him. The young king himself besieged Lubeck,
and forced it to call back its troops. The peasants,
beaten everywhere, lost all hope of liberty. Christian III. entered Copenhagen after a long siege.
The Senate had the bishops arrested, deprived
them of their property, and substituted for them
superintendents, charged to preach the Evangelic
Religion. Thus arose the absolute power of the
nobility by the defeat of the clergy and peasants.
Christian III. acknowledged the throne elective,
and promised to consult the grand-master of the
kingdom, the chancellor, and the marshal, who
were to receive complaints against the king. The
Danish nobility decided that Norway should be




220            SUMMARY OF
only a province of the kingdom. Protestantism
was established there. The powerful archbishopric of Drontheim became a simple bishopric;
the ancient spirit of resistance ceased to manifest
itself, if we except the troubles at Bergen, excited by the tyranny of the Hanseatic factors, and
the revolt of the peasants, who were forced to
work in mines under the order of German miners.
Iceland.-Poor Iceland, between its snows and
volcanoes, endeavoured also to repulse the new
faith which they wished to impose on it. The
Icelanders had the same repugnance to a Danish
government as the Danes had to German influence.
The bishops Augmont and Arneson resisted, at
the head of their people, until the Danes had cut
off the head of Arneson. Arneson was not esteemed for the regularity of his conduct, but he
was deplored as the man of the people and as a
national poet: it was Arneson who, about 1528,
introduced printing in this distant isle.
Thus was the religious and political revolution
of Denmark everywhere confirmed, notwithstand-.
ing a new attempt of Charles V. in favour of the
elector palatine, husband of his niece, daughter of
Christian II. Finally, the alliance of Christian III.
with the Protestants of Germany and Francis I.,
decided the emperor to acknowledge him. He




MODERN HISTORY.                        221
obtained for his subjects of the Netherlands the
liberty to navigate the Baltic Sea i this privilege
was the last blow aimed at the Hanseatic League,
and one from which it did not recover.
CHAPTER IX.
CALVIN - REFORMATION IN FRANCE, ENGLAND,
SCOTLAND, THE NETHERLANDS, TO ST. BARTHOLOMSEW, 1555-1572.*
Calvin at Geneva, 1535. —Calvinism passes into France, the Netherlands,
England, and Scotland.-Opposition of Philip II.-His Marriage with
Mary, Queen of England, 1555.-Peace between the King of Spain
and the King of France.-Henry II., 1559.-Institution of the Inquisition, 1561.- Marriage of Mary Stuart with Francis II., 1560.Struggle between England and Scotland, 1559-1567.-Accession of
Charles IX., 1561. - Massacre of Vassi; Civil War, 1562.-Peace of
Amboise, 1563; of Longjumeau, 1568.-Battles of Jarnac and Montcontour, 1569.-Prosecutions in the Netherlands.-Council of Troubles,
1567.-Revolt of the Moors of Spain, 1571.-St. Bartholomew, 1572.
PHILIP II., son and successor of Charles V., did
not, like his father, unite the Empire with the crown
of Spain; but he became in good measure the sovereign  of  England  by  his  marriage  with  Mary
* To separate, in the 2d part of the sixteenth century, the history of
Spain, the Netherlands, France, England, and Scotland, would be condemning ourselves to continual repetition; yet, to facilitate the instruction, we will look back to chapter xii. of the Chronological Tables (part
i., p. 515-520), which contains the programme of these different histories. We shall find there many facts or dates which could not enter
into a general view of this period.




222              SUMMARY OF
(1554), daughter of Henry VIII. The King of
France had to encounter in him the master of Spain
and the Netherlands, the ruler of Italy and England,
and the possessor of the mines in America. He
made his attack, however, on the first. The Guises, a junior branch of the house of Lorraine, claimed, as heirs of Re6n of Anjou, the kingdom of both
Sicilies; they found means to conduct an army to
Italy. The track seemed to be beaten; Brissac,
master of Piedmont, had made a descent upon
Milan; the Gascon Montluc defended the city of
Sienna obstinately. But no one in Italy believed
in the lasting success of the French; no Italian
power declared itself for Guise. The Duke of
Alba, who waited for him in the Abruzzo, exhausted the ardour of the French. Guise himself demanded his recall, and went to repair the defeat
of St. Quentin (1557) by the taking of Calais.
France, encouraged by this last victory, thought
to find in him a saviour. The Constable of Montmorency, then prisoner of the Spaniards, negotiated
the peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559). Of all his
conquests, Henry II. only retained Calais (for eight
years), the three bishoprics, and some places of
Savoy. This went to destroy the hope of foreign
conquests; but the kingdom found itself closed
against foreign invasions; this treaty had secured to
it the three gates of England. Germany, and Italy.




MODERN HISTORY.            223
The reconciliation of the kings of France and
Spain was but a league against the Reformation,
which daily took a more alarming character. At
its first outbreak it had done little more than destroy; in its second stage it endeavoured to lay
the foundation of a system. At its appearance it
had leagued itself with the civil power; the Lutheran Reformation had been in several respects
the work of princes, to whom it subjected the
Church.  The people waited for a reformation
which should inure to them. It was given by
John Calvin, a French Protestant exiled at Geneva. The first reformation had conquered Germany in the north, the second subdued the Netherlands, England, and Scotland. Everywhere it
encountered an obstinate adversary in the Spanish
power, which it everywhere conquered.
Calvin, 1535.-When Calvin passed from Nerak to Geneva (1535), he found this city liberated
from its bishop and from the dukes of Savoy, but
kept in the greatest fermentation by the plots of the
servile classes, and the'continual indignities offered by the gentry. Calvin became the apostle and
legislator of it (1541-64), making himself judge between the paganism of Zwingle and the popery of
Luther. The Church was a democracy, and the
State was absorbed in it. Calvinism, like the Catholic religion, had a territory independent of all




224               SUMMARY OF
temporal power.  The union of Berne and Fribourg permitted the reformer to preach behind the
lances of the Swiss. Placed between Italy, Switzerland, and France, Calvin shook, all the West.
He had neither the impetuosity, the simplicity, nor
the facetidusness' of Luther. His style was sad
and stern, but powerful, concise, penetrating. More
consistent in his writings than in his conduct, he
began by asking toleration from  Francis I.,* and
finished by causing Servitus to be burned.
Progress of his Doctrines.-At once the Vaudois,
and all the restless and ingenious population of the
south of France, who had been the first to rebel
against the yoke of the Middle Ages, rallied
around the new doctrine.  From Geneva and Navarre, it had spread to the commercial city of Rochelle, and from thence to the then literary cities
of the interior, Poictiers, Bruges, Orleans; it
penetrated into the Netherlands, and associated
itself with the bands of Rederikers, who overran
the country, preaching against abuses.  From
thence, passing over the sea, it came to disturb the
victory of Henry VIII. over the pope, and seated
itself on the throne of England with Edward VI.
(1547). From England it was carried by Knox
* Prcfatio ad Christianissimum regem qud hic ei liber pro confessions
fidei offertur. This eloquent morsel opens his book of Christian Education, published in 1536, which he has translated himself,




MODERN HISTORY.                225
into uncivilized Scotland, and only stopped at the
entrance of the mountains, where the Highlanders
preserved the faith of their ancestors with their hatred of the Saxon heretics.
Assemblies of Paris, 1550. —At first the assemblies were secret: the first which met in France
were held at Paris in the street of St. Jacques
(towards 1550); they soon multiplied. Fires to
burn heretics were useless. It was so delightful for the people to hear the Word of God in
their own language. Many were attracted by curiosity, others by compassion; some were tempted by the danger even. In 1550 there was but
one Reformed. church in France; in 1561 it had
more than two thousand. Sometimes they assembled in the open fields to the number of eight or
ten thousand persons; the preacher mounted a cart
or a pile of trees; the people placed themselves before the wind, to gather the words with more ease,
and finally all united, men, women, and children, in
singing psalms. Those who had arms watched
around. Then came the colporteurs, who unpacked catechisms, small books and prints against the
bishops and the pope.*
* There was, for example, the Cardinal of Lorraine holding the young
Francis II. in a bag, who endeavoured to force out his head ta lTeathe
from time to time. In the Netherlands they sold the Cardinal Granvelle, prime minister of Philip, hatching eggs, from which bishops crept
forth, while the devil touched the head of each, blessed him, and said,




226               SUMMARY OF
They did not thold these assemblies a long time.
Not less intolerant than their persecutors, they
wished to exterminate what they called Idolatry.
They commenced by overthrowing the altars,
burning the paintings, and demolishing the churches. In 1561 they called on the King of France to
break down the images of Jesus Christ and the
saints.
Philip II., 1556. —Such were the adversaries
that Philip II. undertook to combat and annihilate;
he everywhere met them in his path; in England,
to prevent him from marrying Elizabeth (1558); in
France, to balance the power of the Guises, his
allies (1561); in the Netherlands, -supporting by
their fanaticism the cause of public liberty.*
The cosmopolitan character of Charles V. had
been succeeded by a prince all Castilian, who
disdained all other language, who abhorred any
creed foreign to his own, who wished everywhere
to establish the regular forms of Spanish administration, legislation, and religion.  First he constrained himself to marry Mary, queen of England (1553), but he did not deceive the English.
The glass of beer which he solemnly drank at his
landing, the sermons of his confessor on toleration,
gave him no popularity. They believed rather in
Behold my much-beloved son.-Mem. of Cond6, i;., 656; and Schiller, Hist.
of the Revolt of the Netherlands, b. iii., chap
* Everywhere since 1563




MODERN HISTORY.                227
the burning piles erected by his wife. After the
death of Mary (1558) he no longer dissembled;
he introduced Spanish troops into the Netherlands,
maintained there the Inquisition, and at his departure, in a measure declared war against the defenders of the liberties of the country in the person of
the Prince of Orange.* Finally, he united himself with Henry IH. against domestic enemies, who
threatened them both alike, by espousing his
daughter, Elizabeth of France (peace of CateauCambresis, 1559). Mournful circumstances saddened the festivities of this ominous peace. A
tournament was given near the Bastile, where the
Protestant Anne Dubourg awaited death. The
king was wounded, and the marriage took place
in the night at St. Paul's. Philip II. returned to
his States never again to leave them, and in memory of his victory of St. Quentin he built the monastery of the Escurial, and consecrated with it fifty
millions of piasters. This gloomy edifice, all built
of granite, is visible at the distance of seven
leagues. No sculpture embellishes the walls; the
boldness of the arches constitutes the sole beauty.
The buildings are arranged in the form of a gridiron.t
* The king, on embarking, said to the Prince of Orange, who cast-the
blame on the representatives, No, nolos etados, ma vos, vos, vos.-Van
der Vyncht.
t Instrument of martyrdom of St. Laurence: the battle of St. Quentin
was gained by the Spaniards on the day of his feast.




228             SUMMARY OF
Jesuits.-At this period the minds of the people
in Spain had reached the last degree of religious
exaltation. The rapid progress of the heretics in
all Europe, the victory which they had attained over
Charles V. by the treaty of Augsburg, their violence against the images, their outrages on the
holy host, which the priests related to the frightened Spaniards, had produced a redoubled fervour.
Ignatius of Loyola, who was entirely devoted to
the Holy See, founded the order of the Jesuits
(1434-40). St. Theresa de Jesus reformed the
Carmelites, and inflamed all their souls with the
fire of a mystic love. The monks of the same name,
of the mendicant order, soon followed in this reformation. The constitution of the Inquisition was
fixed in 1561. If we except the Moors, Spain
was united as a single man in violent horror
against the infidels and the heretics. Closely united to Portugal, which the Jesuits governed, disposing of the ancient bands of Charles V., and of
the treasures of the two worlds, she undertook to
subject Europe to her empire and to her faith.
Elizabeth, 1559. - The dispersed Protestants
rallied themselves in the name of Queen Elizabeth,
who offered them an asylum and protection. Everywhere she encouraged their resistance against
Philip II. and the Catholics. Absolute in their
kingdoms, these two monarchs conducted with the




MIODERN HISTORY.            229
violence of two party chiefs. The scrupulous de.
votion of Philip, and the chivalrous spirit of the
court of Elizabeth, blended themselves with a
system of intrigue and corruption; but victory
awaited Elizabeth; the times were on her side.
She ennobled despotism by the enthusiasm with
which she inspired the nation. Those even whom
she persecuted were for her, in spite of everything.
A Puritan, condemned to lose one hand, had it
hardly cut off, when he took his hat with the other,
and waving it in the air, cried Long live the queen!
It was thirty years before the two adversaries
met in battle. The combat had taken place previously in Scotland, France, and the Low Countries.
Mary Stuart.-It did not continue long in Scotland (1559-1567). The rival of Elizabeth, the
fascinating Mary Stuart (widow of Francis II. at
18 years), saw herself a stranger in the midst of
her subjects, who detested in her the Guises, her
uncles, who were chiefs of the Catholic party in
France. Her nobles, sustained by England, joined with Darnley, her husband, and stabbed an
Italian musician, Rizzio, her favourite, before her
eyes. Soon after, the house which Darnley inhabited, near Holyrood, blew up; he was buried
under its ruins, and Mary, carried'away by the
principal author of the crime, was married to him
S




230              SUMMARY OF
of choice or through constraint. The queen and
the party of the lords accused each other. But the
queen was weakest. She found no refuge but in
the states of her deadly enemy, who retained her
a prisoner, gave the guardianship of her young son
to whom she pleased, reigned in her name in
Scotland, and was enabled in future to wrestle
with less disadvantage against Philip II.
William of Orange.-But it was principally in
France and the Netherlands that Elizabeth and
Philip carried on a secret war. The soul of the
Protestant party in these two countries was the
Prince of Orange, William the Taciturn, and his
father-in-law, the Admiral Coligni, unfortunate
generals, but profound politicians, of melancholy
temperament, and in spite of the blood of Nassau
and of Montmorency, animated by the democratic
instinct of Calvinism. A colonel of the infantry
under Henry II., Coligni collected around him all
the lesser nobility; he gave to La Rochelle a Republican organization, while the Prince of Orange
encouraged the confederation of the Gueux, and
laid the foundation of a more durable republic.
Francis of Guise. — The great Guise and his
brother, the Cardinal of Lorraine,* governed France
* See, in the Memoirs of Gaspar de Tavennes, the comparison of the
advantages which the rival houses of Guise and Montmorency had obtained from Henry II., part xxiii., page 410.




MODERN HISTORY.            231
under Francis II., husband of their niece, Mary
Stuart (1560). Guise had been the idol of the
people since he took Calais in eight days from the
English. But he had found France ruined. He
found it necessary to recover the alienated domains, and to suppress the levy of 50,000 men,
that is to say, to disarm government at the moment
in which the revolution burst forth. Thousands of
petitioners besieged Fontainebleau; and the Cardinal of Lorraine, not knowing what to answer them,
had a notice posted, that every one who did not
leave the city within 24 hours should be hung.
Conspiracy of Amboise, 1560. -- The Bourbons
(Antoine, king of Navarre, and Louis, prince of
Conde), who saw with regret the public affairs in
the hands of the two youngest of the house of
Lorraine, profited by the general discontent. They
associated themselves with the Calvinists, with
Coligni, with the English, who came at night to
negotiate with them at St. Denis. The Protestants marched in arms towards Amboise to seize
the person of the king; but they were betrayed
to the Guises, and slain on their way. Some of
the Protestants, who had been kept to be executed
before the king and all the court, bathed their
hands in the blood of their beheaded brethren, and
raise. them to Heaven against those who had betrayed them. This horrible scene seemed to bring




232              SUMMARY OF
misfortune on all who had witnessed it -Francis
II., Mary Stuart, the great Guise, and the Chancellor Olivier, Protestant at heart, who had condemned them, and who-died from remorse on that
account.
Charles IX. —Hpital.-At the accession of the
young Charles (the ninth of his name, 1560), the
power belonged to his mother, Catharine of Medicis, if she had known how to keep it; she caused
it to be taken from the Guises, the chiefs of the
Catholics, and the government stood isolated between the two parties. She was not an Italian
with the ancient politics of the Borgia, who could
hold the balance between energetic men who despised her: she was not worthy of this period of
deep convictions, and the period itself was not
worthy of the Chancellor H6pital,* a noble picture of calm wisdom, which is powerless in the
midst of passion. Guise seized again, as chief
of the party, the power which he had lost. The
court furnished him with a pretext by softening
the edicts against the Reformers, by those of St.
Germain and of January, and by admitting their
doctors to a solemn discussion in the conference
of Poissi. At the same time that the Calvinists
took up arms at Nismes, the Duke of Guise pass.
* The Chancellor HMpital, who had the lilies in his heart.-L'PEtoile,
hIv., 57.




MODERN HISTORY.             233
ing through Vassi to Champagne, his men quarrelled with some Huguenots who were listening to
preaching, and killed them (1562). The civil war
commenced.  Cesar, said the Prince of Cond6,
has passed the Rubicon.
First Civil War, 1562-1563. —At the approach
of so terrible a conflict, both parties scrupled not
to apply for the aid of foreigners. The old political barriers which separated the people fell before
religious interest. The Protestants demanded aid
from their brethren in Germany; they gave up
Havre to the English, while the Guises entered
upon a vast plan, formed, they say, by the King of
Spain, to crush Geneva and Navarre, the two seats
of heresy; to exterminate the Calvinists of France;
and, finally, to vanquish the Lutherans in the Emlnpire. The parties assembled on all sides with a
wild enthusiasm. In these first armies there was
no gambling, no profane language, nor dissipation;
prayers were held in common morning and evening.
But under this exterior of sanctity their hearts
were not the less cruel. Montluc, the governor of
Guienne, went through his province with hangmen.
One could know, said he himself, where he had
passed, for on the trees by the roadside they would
find the signs. In Dauphiny there was a Protestant, the Baron of Adrets, who precipitated his prisoners from the top of a tower on the point of pikes




234             SUMMARY OF
Death of Francis of Guise, 1563.-Guise was
first conqueror at Dreux; he took Conde, the general of the Protestants, prisoner, divided his bed
with him, and slept profoundly at the side of his
mortal enemy. Orleans, the principal place of the
Protestants, was only saved by the assassination of
the Duke of Guise, whom a Protestant wounded
from behind by the discharge of a pistol (1563).
Whatever his ambition and connexions with Philip
II. may have been, posterity will pardon a man
who said to his assassin, " Now I will show you
how much sweeter that religion which I follow is
than the one you profess: yours has counselled
you to kill without hearing me, having received
no offence from me; and mine commands that I
forgive you, fully convinced, as I am, that you wished to kill me without cause."
Treaty of Amboise, 1563-of Longjumeau, 1568
— of St. Germain, 1570.-The queen-mother, relieved of a master, made a treaty with the Protestants (at Amboise, 1563), and found herself obliged,
by the indignation of the Catholics, to violate all
the articles of the treaty by degrees. Conde and
Coligni tried in vain to seize the young king; defeated at St. Denis, but always formidable, they imposed on the court the peace of Longjumeau (1568),
surnamed " Boiteuse et malassise," which confirmed that of Amboise. An attempt of the court to




MODERN HISTORY.               235
seize the two chiefs led to a third war. All:moderation left the councils of the king with the Chancellor Hopital. The Protestants took La Rochelle,
instead of Orleans, for a place of arms; they assessed themselves, in order to pay their German
auxiliaries, whom the Duke of Deux-Ponts and the
Prince of Orange led with them through all France.
Notwithstanding their defeat at Zarnac and Moncontour (1569), notwithstanding the death of Conde
and the wounds of Coligni, the court was obliged
to grant them a third peace (St. Germain, 1570).
Their worship was to be free in two cities of a
province; they left to them for places of security,
La Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La Charite.
The young King of Navarre was to marry the sister of Charles IX. (Margaret of Valois). They
even led Coligni to hope that he should command
the aid, which, they said, the king wished to send
to the Protestants of the Netherlands. The Catholics shuddered at a treaty so humiliating after four
victories; the Protestants themselves, hardly realizing it, only acquiesced on account of their weakness,* and the wisest among them expected from
this hostile peace some dreadful calamity.
Persecution in Flanders.-The situation of the
* The admiral says that he would wish rather to die than fall back
into these confusions, and see so many evils happen before his eyes,..Lanose, vol. xxxiv., p. 290.




236              SUMMARY OF
Netherlands was not less frightful. Philip II. comprehended neither the liberty or spirit of the North,
nor the interests of commerce; all his subjects, Belgians and Dutch, turned against him; also the Calvinists, persecuted by the Inquisition; and the nobles, from henceforth without hope of re-establishing their fortunes, ruined in the service of Charles
V.; the monks, who feared the reform ordered by
the Council of Trent, as well as the establisbment
of new bishoprics, to be endowed at their expense;
finally, the good citizens, who beheld the introduction of Spanish troops, and the overthrow of the
ancient liberties of the country, with indignation.
At first the opposition of the Flemings obliged the
king to recall his old minister, the Cardinal Granvella (1563); the greatest lords formed the confederation of the Gueux, and hung wooden porrengers around their necks, associating themselves
thus with the lower classes (1566). The Calvinists raise their heads on all sides; print more than
five thousand works against the ancient worship;
and in the provinces of Brabant and Flanders alone
they plunder and profane four hundred churches.
This last excess filled up the measure of crime.
The savage soul of Philip I. already conceived
the most fatal plans; he resolved to pursue and exterminate his terrible enemies, whom he met everywhere, even in his family. He included in the




MODERN HISTORY.            237
same hatred as well the legal opposition of the noble Flemings as the image-breaking fury of the
Calvinists, and the obstinate attachment of the poor
Moors to the religion, language, and customs of
their fathers. But he would not act without the
sanction of the Church; he obtained from the Inquisition a secret condemnation of his rebels in
the Netherlands; he questioned even the most celebrated doctors, among others, Oradug, professor of
theology at the University of Alcala, upon the
measures which he ought to take with regard to
the Moors; Oradug replied by the proverb, "Des
ennemies toujours le moins." The king, confirmed
in his plans of vengeance, swore to give an example in the persons of his enemies in a manner that
should make the ears of Christendom tingle, though
it placed all his estates in danger.
He began by following, without distinction of person, and with an atrocious inflexibility, the bloody
councils which he had caused to be given to the
court of France by the Duke of Alba. His son,
Don Carlos, spoke of going to place himself at
the head of the rebels of the Netherlands; Philip
caused his death to be hastened by physicians
(1568). He organized the Inquisition in America
(1570); he disarmed all the Moors of Valencia in
one day; forbade the Moors of Grenada to wear the
Arabian dress, or to speak their own language; he




238              SUMMARY OF
prohibited the use of the baths, of the Zembras, the
Leilas, and even the green branches, with which
these unfortunate beings covered their graves;
their children of more than five years must go to
school to learn the Castilian religion and language
(1563-68). In the mean time, the bloody Duke
of Alba, at the head of an army fanatical as Spain,
and profligate as Italy,* marched from Italy to
Flanders.  At the report of his coming, the Swiss
armed themselves to cover Geneva. One hundred
thousand persons, imitating the Prince of Orange,
fled from the Netherlands.t The Duke of Alba
established, at his arrival, the Council of Troubles,
the Council of Blood, as the Belgians called it, and
which he composed partly of Spaniards (1567).
All those who refused to abjure heresy-all who
had been present at sermons, were they even Catholics-all who had tolerated heretics, were equally
put to death. The Gueux are prosecuted; those
even who had only solicited the recall of Granvella, were sought after and punished; the Count
Egmont, whose victories at St. Quentin and Gravelines had conferred honour on the commencement
of the reign of Philip II., the idol of the people,
and one of the most loyal servants of the king,
perished on the scaffold. The efforts of the Prot* See the details in Meteren, book iii., page 52.
t Nothing has been done since they permitted the Taczturn to escape#
said Granvella.




MODERN HISTORY.             239
estants of Germany and France, who raised an
army for Louis, son of the Prince of Orange, were
baffled by the Duke of Alba; and, as a greater insult to his victims, he had a statue of bronze
erected in the citadel of Antwerp, which trampled
slaves under its feet, and threatened the city.
There was the same barbarity, the same success
in Spain; Philip seized with joy the opportunity
of the revolt of the Moors to overwhelm those unfortunate people. At the moment that he turned
his arms abroad, he would leave no resistance behind him; the weight of the oppression gave some
courage to the Moors; a manufacturer of Carmine,
of the family of Abencerrages, had secret communication with some others; clouds of smoke
arose from mountain to mountain; the red colours
were raised again; the women even armed themselves with long packing needles, to pierce the
bellies of the horses; the priests were killed everywhere. But soon the veteran regiments of Spain
arrived. The Moors received some feeble succour from Algiers; in vain they implored the aid
of the Sultan Selim. Old men, children, suppliant
women, were massacred without mercy. The
king ordered that all over ten years who remained
should become slaves (1571).
St. Bartholomew, 1572. - The feeble and despicable government of France was unwilling to




240             SUMMARY OF
be left behind. The exasperation of the Catholics
had become extreme since they saw at the nuptials
of the King of Navarre and Margaret of Valois,
in Paris, those gloomy and severe men whom they
had so often encountered on the field of battle, and
whose presence they regarded as an insult. They
counted their own number, and began to cast dark
looks on their enemies. Without giving credit to
the queen-mother or to her sons for a dissimulation
so long continued, and a plan so well devised, we
can imagine that the possibility of such an event
had strengthened the inducements to the peace of
St. Germain. Yet so daring a crime would not
have been resolved on had they not feared for a
moment the power of Coligni over the young
Charles IX. His mother and brother, the Duke
of Anjou, whom he began to threaten, recovered
their influence over this feeble and capricious being, through fear, which soon turned to rage, and
which caused him to resolve upon the massacre of
the Protestants as readily as he would before have
ordered that of the principal Catholics. On the
24th of August, 1672, about two or three o'clock
in the morning, the bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois
sounded, and the young Henry of Guise, thinking
to avenge the death of his father, commenced the
massacre by cutting the throat of Coligni. There
was heard nothing but the cry, " Kill! kill!" The




MODERN HISTORY.            241
greater part of the Protestants were surprised in
their beds. A wounded gentleman was pursued,
the halbert in his back, even to the chamber and
bedside of the Queen of Navarre.  A Catholic
boasted that he bought from the murderers more
than 30 Huguenots, to torture them at pleasure.
Charles IX. had his brother-in-law and the Prince
of Conde brought before him, and said to them, the
Mass or Death!  It is said that he fired from the
window of the Louvre on the Protestants, who fled
from the other side of the river. The next morning
a hawthorn having reblossomed in the churchyard
of the Innocents, fanaticism was reanimated by
this pretended miracle, and the massacre recommenced. The king, the queen-mother, and all the
court went to Montfaucon to see what remained of
the body of the admiral. We must add H6pital to
the victims of St. Bartholomew; when he heard
the odious news, he wished the gates of his house
to be opened to the murderers who might come;
he survived it only six months, always repeating,
"Excidat illa dies aevo /"
A circumstance as horrible as St. Bartholomew
itself was the joy which it excited. They struck
medals of it at Rome, and Philip II. congratulated
the court of France. He thought Protestantism
subdued. He associated St. Bartholomew, and the
massacres ordered by the Duke of Alba, with the




242                SUMMARY OF
glorious event of the battle of Lepanto, in which
the fleets of Spain, the pope, and Venice, commanded by John of Austria, natural son of Charles
V., had destroyed the Ottoman navy in the prece.
ding year. The Turks conquered by sea, the
Moors reduced, the heretics exterminated in France
and in the Netherlands, seemed to prepare the way
for the King of Spain towards that universal monarchy to which his father had vainly aspired.
CHAPTER X.
FARTHER EVENTS TO THE DEATH OF HENRY IV.,
1572-1610-GLANCE  AT THE  SITUATION  OF
THE BELLIGERANT POWERS AFTER THE RELIGIOUS WARS.
Death of Charles IX., 1574.-Insurrection of the 4etherlands, 1572.Union of Utrecht, 1579.-Formation of the League in France, 1577.Power of the Guises.-Battle of Contres, 1587.-Barricades, States of
Blois, 1588.-Murder of Henry III., 1589.-Accession of Henry IV.Death of Mary Stuart, 1587.-Armament of Philip II., 1588.-Grandeur of Elizabeth.
Death of Charles IX.-King  Charles, hearing
on the evening of the same day, and all the next
day the accounts of the murders anQ slaughters of
old men, women, and children, drew aside Mr.
Ambroise Pare, his first surgeon, to whom  he was




MODERN HISTORY.            243
much attached, although he was of the Protestant
religion, and said to him, " Ambroise, I know not
what has come over me these two or three days,
but I find my mind and body in disorder: I see
everything as if I had a fever; every moment, as
well waking as sleeping, the hideous and bloody
faces of the killed appear before me; I wish the
weak and innocent had not been included."  From
that time he lingered on, and eighteen months after
a bloody flux carried him off (1574.)
Henry III.-The crime had been useless. In
several cities the governors refused to consummate
it. The Calvinists throwing themselves into La
Rochelle, Sancerre, and other places of the South,
defended themselves there most desperately. The
horror inspired by St. Bartholomew gave them
auxiliaries, by creating among the Catholics a
moderate party, which they called the Politicians. The new king, Henry III., who returned
from Poland to succeed his brother, was known
as one of the authors of the massacre. His own
brother, the Duke of Alen9on, fled from the court
with the young King of Navarre, and thus united
the Politicians and Calvinists.
Philip loses half of the Netherlands. —The tyranny of the Duke of Alba was not more successful
in the Netherlands. As long as he contented
himself with erecting scaffolds the people rermain



244             SUMMARY OF
ed quiet; they saw, without revolting, the most
illustrious heads of the nobility fall. There was
but one way to render the discontent common to
Catholics and Protestants, to nobles and citizens,
to Belgians and Dutchmen: it was to establish
oppressive duties, and let the badly-paid soldiers
plunder the inhabitants: the Duke of Alba did
both.  The duty of the tenth, levied upon provisions, made the agents of the Spanish revenue interpose in the smallest sales in the markets and shops.  The innumerable forfeits, the
continued vexations, irritated all the population.
While the shops were closed, and the Duke of
Alba had the merchants who were guilty of having
closed them hung, the gueux marins (it is thus
that they called the fugitives, who lived by piracy),
driven from the ports of England on the demand
of Philip II., seized the fort of Brielle, in Holland
(1572), and commenced the war in this couintry,
intersected by so many branches of the sea, rivers,
and canals. A number of cities drove away the
Spaniards. Perhaps there yet remained some
means of pacification, but the Duke of Alba taught
the first cities which gave themselves up that they
had neither clemency nor good faith to hope for.
At Rotterdam, Malines, Zutphen, Naarden, the
capitulations were violated, the inhabitants killed.
Harlem, knowing what she had to expect, broke




MODERN HISTORY.            245
the dams, and sent ten Spanish heads as payment
of her tenth. After a memorable resistance, she
obtained pardon, and the Duke of Alba confounded
in a general massacre the sick and wounded.
The Spanish soldiers felt themselves some remorse
at this want of faith, and in atonement they consecrated a part of the booty to build a house for the
Jesuits in Brussels.
Under the successors of the Duke of Alba, the
licentiousness of the Spanish troops, who plundered Antwerp, forced the Walloon provinces to
unite in the revolt with those of the North (1567);
but this alliance could not last. The revolution
was consolidated by being concentrated at the
North in the union of Utrecht, the commencement
of the Republic of the United Provinces (1579).
The intolerance of the Protestants restored the
southern provinces to the yoke of the King of
Spain. The Dutch population, all Protestant, all
German in character and language, entirely composed of citizens, and given to maritime trade, drew
that which was analogous to itself from the southern provinces. The Spaniards could reconquer in
Belgium the walls and the territory, but the most
industrious part of the population escaped them.
The insurgents had offered successively to submit themselves to the German branch of the house
of Austria, to France, and to England. The ArchT




246             SUMMARY OF
duke Mathias offered them no succour. Don Juan,
brother and general of Philip II., the Duke of Anjou, brother of Henry III., Leicester, favourite of
Elizabeth, who wished successively to become
sovereigns of the Nethdrlands, showed themselves
equally treacherous (1577, 1582, 1587). Holland,
regarded, by all to whom she addressed herself,
as prey, decided finally, for want of a sovereign,
to remain a republic. The genius of this rising
state was the Prince of Orange, who, abandoning
the southeirn provinces to the invincible Duke
of Parma, contended against him by policy, until
a fanatic, armed by Spain, had assassinated him
(1584).
The League, 1577.-While Philip lost half of
the Netherlands, he gained the kingdom of Portugal. The king, Don Sebastian, had thrown himself on the coast of Africa with ten thousand men,
in the vain hope of conquering it and penetrating
to: India. This hero, as he would have been in
the time of the Crusades, was in the sixteenth century but an adventurer. His uncle, the Cardinal
D. Henri, who succeeded him, having died soon
after, Philip II. seized Portugal in spite of France,
and of the Portuguese themselves (1580).
Battle of Coutras, 1587. —In France all was
propitious to Philip. The fickleness of Henry
III., that of the Duke of Alenqon, who placed him



MODERN HISTORY.             247,e,  at the head of the French Protestants, and
afterward of those of the Netherlands, had decided
the Catholic party to seek a chief out of the royal
family. By the treaty of 1576, the king had
granted the liberty of worship to the Calvinists
throughout all the kingdom, excepting Paris: he
gave ihem a divided chamber, whose members
were one half Roman Catholics, and the other
half Protestants, in every parliament; and several
cities for security (Angouleme, Niort, La Charite, Bourges, Saumur, and Mezieres), where they
might hold armed garrisons, paid by the king.
This treaty determined the formation of the League
(1577). The associates swore to defend the religion; to bring the provinces back to the same laws,
exemptions, and liberties which they had at the time
of Clovis; to proceed against those who should injure the union, without respect of person; finally, to
-render prompt obedience and faithful services to the
tchief who should be named.  The king thought to
become master of the association by declaring himself its chief. He began to have a glimpse at the
designs of the Duke of Guise; they had found
in the papers of a lawyer who had died at Lyon,
returning from Rome, a piece in which he said
that the descendants of Hugh Capet had hitherto
reigned illegally, and by a usurpation, cursed of
God; that the throne belonged to the princes of




248             SUMMARY OF
Lorraine, the true posterity of Charlemagne. The
death of the brother of the king encouraged these
pretensions (1584.) Henry having no children,
and the majority of the Catholics repudiating the
heretic prince, to whom the crown would devolve,
the Duke of Guise, and the King of Spain, brother-in-law of Henry III., united themselves to dethrone the king, leaving the spoils to be quarrelled
for afterward. They had but too many means to
make him odious. In the reverses of his army
there seemed as much of treachery as of misfortune; the feeble prince was at the same time beaten by the Protestants and accused by the Catholics.
The victory of Coutras, where the King of Navarre made himself illustrious by his valour and his
clemency towards the conquered (1587), exasperated the irritation of the Catholics to the highest
degree. While the League organized itself in the
capital, Henry III., divided between the claims of
a monkish devotion and the excesses of a disgusting debauchery, gave to all Paris the spectacle of
his scandalous prodigality and puerile tastes. He
spent 1,200,000 francs at the marriage of Joyeuse,
his favourite, and had nothing to pay a messenger
to carry a letter, on which depended the safety of
the kingdom, to the Duke of Guise. He passed
his time in arranging the collars of the queen and
in curling his own hair. He had himself made




MODERN HISTORY.            249
prior of a fraternity of white penitents.  "At the
beginning of November, the king made known
through the churches of Paris, which were the oratories, otherwise called Paradises, that he daily
went to, in order to bestow his alms and pray in
great devotion, leaving off his ruffled shirts, of
which he had formerly been so careful, to adopt
the Italian fashion of wearing the collar turned
over. He generally rode in his coach with the
queen, his wife, through the streets and squares of
Paris, carried small lapdogs, had grammar read to
him, and learned to decline."'
Thus the crisis became imminent in France and
all the West (1585-1588); it seemed necessarily
favourable to Spain; the taking of Antwerp by the
Prince of Parma, the most memorable achievement
of arms in the sixteenth century, completed the
reduction of Belgium (1585). The King of France
had been obliged to place himself at the discretion
of the Guises (the same year), and the League took
for its home an immense city, where religious fanaticism was re-enforced by democratic fanaticism
(1588). But the King of Navarre resisted the
reunited forces of the Catholics, even against all
probability of success (1586-87). Elizabeth gave
an army to the United Provinces (1585), money to
the King of Navarre (1585); she frustrated all
* L'Etoile, part xlv., p. 123.




.250             SUMMARY OF..the -conspiracies (1584-5-6), and struck Spain and
-the Guises in the person of Mary Stuart.
Death of Mary Stuart. —For a long time Elizabeth had replied to the solicitation of her counsellors, Can I kill the bird which sought refuge in my
bosom? She had accepted embroidery and Parisian robes which her captive offered her. But the
increasing provocations of the great European contest, the fear which it constantly caused Elizabeth
for her own life, and the mysterious power of the
Jesuits, who from the Continent constantly disturbed
England, brought the queen to the last extremity.
Notwithstanding the mediation of the Kings of
France and Scotland, Mary was condemned to.death by a commission, as guilty of having conspired with foreigners for the invasion of England and the death of Elizabeth. A saloon was
hung with black in the castle of Fotheringay; the
Queen of Scotland appeared there in her richest
garments; she consoled her weeping domestics,
protested her innocence, and pardoned her enemies.
Elizabeth aggravated the horrors of this cruel decision by affected regrets and hypocritical denials
(1587).
Barricades, 1588. — The death of Mary Stuart
was nowhere more resented than in France. But
who should avenge it? Her brother-in.law, Henry
III., fell from the throne; her cousin, Henry of




MODERN HISTORY.            25Guise, thought to ascend it. France was mad after
this man, for to say in love with him would be too
little. Since his success over the Germans, the
allies of the King of Navarre, the people called
him by no other name than the New Gideon, the
New Macabee; the nobles called him Our Great;
he had only to go to Paris to be master of it. The
king forbids him; he arrives, and all the city runs
before him, crying, " Vive le Duc de Guise!  Hosannafilio David!"  He braves: the king in the
Louvre, at the head of 400 gentlemen. From that
time the Lorraine party believed they had gained
their cause: the king was to be thrown into a
convent; the Duchess of Montpensier, sister of
the Duke of Guise, shows the scissors of gold
with which she was to shear the Valois.  The
people everywhere raised barricades, disarmed
the Swiss, whom the king had just called into
Paris, and had them all massacred without the
sanction of the Duke of Guise. A moment of irresolution caused the latter to loose all; while he
delayed attacking the Louvre, the aged Catharine
de Medicis amused him with proposals, and the
king, in the mean time, escaped to Chartres.
Guise tried in vain to reunite himself to the Parliament. "'Tis a great pity," said to him the president Achille, of Harlay, " when the valet chases
the master; as for the rest, my soul is for God,




252             SUMMARY OF
my heart for the king, my body in the hands of
the wicked."
States of Blois. —The king, liberated, but abandoned by all, was obliged to yield; he approved
of all that had been done, gave up a great number
of cities to the duke, named him chief-general of
the armies of the kingdom, and called the StatesGeneral to Blois. But the duke wished a higher
title. He overwhelmed the king with so many
outrages, that he wrung from the most timid of men
a bold resolution-that of assassinating him.
Thursday, December 22, 1588, the Duke of
Guise found a billet under his napkin, in which
was written, " Take care! they are about to play
you a foul game." Having read it, he wrote below, " They will not dare," and threw it under the
table. "This is," said he, " the ninth warning today." Notwithstanding these warnings, he persisted in going to the council, and as he crossed the
chamber where the forty-five members had assembled, he was killed.
Destruction of the Armada. —During this tragedy,
which favoured more than it thwarted the designs
of Spain, Philip II. undertook the conquest of England, and the avenging of the death of Mary Stuart.
On the 3d of June, 1588, the most formidable armament which ever appalled the Christian world
left the mouth of the Tagus: one hundred and




MODERN HISTORY.            253
thirty-five vessels, of a size till then unheard of,
eight thousand sailors, nineteen thousand soldiers,
the flower of the Spanish nobility, and Lope de
Vega with the fleet, to chant the victory. The
Spaniards, intoxicated at the spectacle, honoured
the fleet with the name of the Invincible Armada.
She was to join the Prince of Parma at the Netherlands, and to guard the passage of thirty-two
thousand veteran soldiers. The forest of Waes,
in Flanders, was converted into transport ships.
The alarm was extreme in England; they showed
at the church doors the instruments of torture
which the inquisitors brought overSin the Spanish
fleet. The queen appeared on horseback before
the army assembled at Tewksbury, and promised
to die for her people.  But the strength of England
was in her navy. The greatest seamen of the
age, Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, served under
Admiral Howard. The small English vessels
harassed the Spanish fleet, already partly disabled
by the elements; they beset her with their fireships; the Prince of Parma could not leave the
po;ts of Flanders, and the rest of this formidable
fleet, driven by the tempest even to the coasts of
Scotland and Ireland, went to conceal itself in the
ports of Spain.
The remainder of the life of Elizabeth was but
one triumph; she baffled the attempt of Philip II
U




254               SITMMARY OF
on Ireland, and prosecuted her victory over all the
seas. The enthusiasm of Europe, roused by such
success, assumed a form the most flattering to
woman, that of ingenious flattery. The age of
Elizabeth was forgotten (55 years). Henry IV.
declared to the ambassador of England that he
thought her handsomer than his Gabriele. Shakspeare pronounced her the fair Vestal, seated upon
the throne of the West; but no homage touched
her more than that of the witty Sir Walter Raleigh,
and the young and brilliant Earl of Essex; the
former had commenced his fortune by throwing
his cloak under the feet of the queen, who was
crossing a muddy place; Essex had charmed her
by his heroism. He fled from court in spite of
her orders, to take part in the expedition of Cadiz;
he there jumped on shore the first one, and if they
had confided in him, Cadiz might, perhaps, have
remained in the hands of the English.  His ingratitude and tragical end saddened the last days
of Elizabeth.
Q II. TO THE DEATH OF HENRY IV. —GLANCE AT
THE SITUATION OF THE BELLIGERANT POWERS.
Mayennet —Combat of Argues.-Battle of Jori, 1590.-State of Paris,
1593.-Abjuration and Absolution of Henry IV., 1593-1595.-Edict of
Nantes.-Peace of Vervins, 1598.-Weakness of Spain; Expulsion of
the Moors from Valencia, 1609.-Administration of Henry IV. —Affiuence of France.-Assassination of Henry IV., 1610.
Philip II., repulsed from Holland and England,




MODERN HISTORY.            255
turned all his forces against France; the Duke of
Mayenne, brother of Guise, not less able, but less
popular, could not counterbalance the gold and the
intrigues of Spain.
Assassination of Henry III., 1589. -As soon
as the news of the death of Guise had arrived
in Paris, the people dressed themselves in mourning; the preachers thundered; they hung the
churches in black; they placed wax images of the
king on the altar, and pierced them with needles.
Mayenne was created chief of the League; the
States named forty persons to govern. Bussi Le
Clerc, who from a master-at-arms and an attorney
had become governor of the Bastile, sent half of the
Parliament there. Henry III. had no resource but
to throw himself into the arms of the King of Navarre; both came to besiege Paris. They encamped at St. Cloud, when a young monk named
Clement assassinated Henry III. by stabbing him
in the lower part of his stomach. The Duchess
of Montpensier, sister of the Duke of Guise, who
awaited the news on the road, received it first, almost frantic with joy. They offered in the churches the image of Clement for the adoration of the
people; his mother, a poor country woman of Burgundy, having gone to Paris, the people came before her, crying, "Happy the womb that has borne
thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked!" (1589).




256             SUMMIARY OF
Henry IV.-Arques —Ivri.-Henry IV., abandoned by the greater part of the Catholics, was
soon closely pressed by Mayenne, who confidently
expected to lead him, bound hand and foot, to the
Parisians. Already they let out the windows to
see him pass. But Mayenne had to deal with an
adversary who slept not, and who wore out, as the
Prince of Parma said, more boots than slippers.
He waited for Mayenne near Arques, in Normandy, and fought with three thousand men against
thirty thousand. Henry, supported by a crowd of
gentlemen, now took his turn to attack Paris and
pillage the Faubourg St. Germain.
The following year (1590) there was another
victory at Ivri on the Eure, where he beat Mayenne and the Spaniards. We have the words
which he addressed to his troops before the battle:
" If you will run the hazard for me, my companions,
I will also for you. I will conquer and die with
you... guard well your ranks, I beg of you, and if
you lose your colours or standard, lose not sight of
my white feather; you will always find it in the path
of honour and victory." From Ivri he came to
blockade the capital; this unfortunate city, a prey
to the fury of the Seize* and the tyranny of the
Spanish soldiers, was reduced to the last extremity
* A fanatical league formed at Paris, called the League of the Six.
teen.




MODERN HISTORY.            257
of hunger: they made bread even of the bones of
the dead; mothers devoured their children.  The
Parisians, oppressed by their defenders, only found
pity from the prince who besieged them. He allowed a great number of useless mouths to pass
out. Shall I, whose duty it is tofeed them, be their
destroyer? Paris must not be a graveyard; I will
not reign over the dead. And again he said, I resemble the true mother of Solomon; I would rather
not have Paris than to have it torn in pieces. Paris
was delivered only by the arrival of the Duke of
Parma, who, by his skilful manceuvres, forced
Henry to raise the siege, and afterward returned
to the Netherlands.
Abjuration of Henry IV., 1594.-In the mean
time the party of the League was daily growing
weaker. The bond of their party was hatred towards the king. It had prepared its own dissolution by assassinating Henry III. A war at the
time divided the principal factions: that of the
Guises, upheld especially by the nobility and Parliament; and that of Spain, sustained by obscure
demagogues. The second concentrated in the
large cities, and, without military spirit, distinguished itself by the persecution of the magistrates
(1589-91). Mayenne repressed it (1591), but
only at the expense to the League of its democratic energy. In the mean time, the Guises,




258             SUMMARY OF
twice beaten. twice blockaded in Paris, could not
sustain themselves without the support of those
same Spaniards whose agents they had proscribed.
Divisions broke out in the States of Paris (1593);
Mayenne caused the pretensions of Philip II. to
miscarry, but without gain to himself.  The
League, which was in effect dissolved from that
moment, lost every pretext for its continuance, by
the abjuration, and, above all, by the absolution of
Henry IV. (1593-95), and it lost its principal
point of support by the entrance of the king into
the capital (1594). He pardoned every one, and
the very evening of his entrance visited Madame
de Montpensier. From that time the League was
nothing but a burlesque, and the Satire Menipp6e
gave it the finishing stroke. Henry gained his
kingdom, piece by piece, from the hands of the nobles, who had divided it among themselves.
Peace of Vervins, 1598.-In 1595 the civil war
made room for a foreign war. The king turned
the military ardour of the nation against the Spaniards. In the memorable year 1588 Philip II. at
last yielded; all his projects had failed, his treasures were exhausted, his navy nearly ruined. He
renounced his pretensions to France (May 2), and
transferred the Netherlands to his daughter (May
6). Elizabeth and the United Provinces were
alarmed at the peace of Vervins, and made a clo



MODERN HISTORY.             259
ser alliance with each other; Henry IV. had seen
that nothing more was to be feared from PlWip II.
(who died September 13). The King of France
terminated its internal troubles at the same time
with the foreign war, by yielding religious toleration and political guarantees to the Protestants
(Edict of Nantes, April).
Weakness of Spain. —The situation of the belligerant powers, after these long wars, presented a
striking contrast.  It is the master of both Indies
who is ruined. The weakness of Spain only increased under the reign of Cardinal Lerma and
the Duke of Olivarez, favourite of Philip III. and
of Philip IV. Spain, not producing enough to buy
the metals of America, they cease to enrich her.
Of all that is imported in America, a twentieth or
more is manufactured in Spain. At Seville, the
sixteen hundred looms which worked on wool and
silk in 1536, were reduced to four hundred towards 1621. In one year alone (1509) Spain
drove out a million of industrious subjects (the
Moors of Valencia), and was forced to grant a
truce of twelve years to the United Provinces.
On the contrary, France, England, and the United Provinces made rapid improvement in population, wealth, and greatness.
Prosperity of England, the Netherlands, and
France.-Since 1595, Philip IL, by closing the




260             SUMMARY OF
port of Lisbon against the Dutch, had forced them
to see; the commodities of the East in the Indies;
and there to found an empire on the ruins of that
of the Portuguese. The Republic was troubled
within by the quarrels of the Stadtholder and the
Syndic (Maurice of Orange and Barneveldt), by the
contest between the military power and civil liberty, between the war party and the peace party
(Gomarus and Arminius), but the want of national
defence assured the victory to the former of these
two parties. It cost the life of the venerable Barneveldt, who was beheaded at seventy years of
age (1619).
At the expiration of the twelve years' truce there
was no more civil war, but a regular war, a scientific war, a school for all the soldiers of Europe.
The military skill of the general of the Spaniards,
the celebrated Spinola, was balanced by that of
Prince Frederic Henry, brother and successor of
Maurice.
In the mean time, France, under Henry IV., had
emerged from  her ruins. Notwithstanding the
weak points of this great king, and the faults which
an attentive examination may discover in his reign,
he merited not the less the title to which he aspi,
red, that of restorer of France. All his cares were
bent upon regulating and making the kingdom
which he had conquered flourish: useless troops




MODERN HISTORY.              261
were discharged; order in the finances succeeded
to the most shameful peculations and robbery; he
paid, by degrees, all the debts of the crown, without pressing the people. The peasants even now
repeat that he wished them to have a fowl in their
pots every Sunday: a trifling expression, but a paternal sentiment. It was an astonishing circumstance, that, notwithstanding the exhausted state
of the kingdom, and the practice of peculation, he
had, in less than fifteen years, diminished the burden of taxes four millions; that all other duties
were reduced to one half; that he paid one hundred millions of debts. He purchased domains to
the amount of more than fifty millions; all the public places were repaired, the magazines and the
arsenals filled, the great roads maintained. Eternal praise is due for all this to Sully and to the
king, who dared to choose a soldier to re-establish
the finances of the State, and who earnestly cooperated with his minister.
Administration. - Justice. was reformed, and,
what was much more difficult, both religions lived
in peace, at least to appearance. Agriculture was
encouraged. " Tillage and pasturage," said Sully,
" are the two breasts which have nourished France,
the true mines and treasures of Peru."  Commerce
and the arts, less patronised by Sully, were still
held in honour. Fabrics of gold and silver enrich



262             SUMMARY OF
ed Lyons and France. Henry established factories of tapestry, both of wool, and of silk worked
with gold. They began to make small glass mirrors, after the fashion of Venice. To him, too, we
owe silkworms, and the plantations of mulberrytrees, in spite of the opposition of Sully. Henry
had the canal of Briare cut, by which the Seine
was joined to the Loire. Paris was enlarged and
embellished; he built the Place Royal; he restored all the bridges. The Faubourg St. Germain belonged not to the city; it was not paved;
the king charged himself with all. He had that
beautiful bridge built on which the people still behold with emotion his statue. St. Germain, Mouceaux, Fontainebleau, and especially the Louvre,
were enlarged, and almost entirely rebuilt. He
gave lodgings in the Louvre, under that long gallery
which is his work, to all kinds of artists, whom he
often encouraged by kind attentions, as well as by
rewards. He was, finally, the true founder of the
Royal Library. When Don Pedro, of Toledo,
was sent as ambassador by Philip III. to Henry,
he no more recognised a city, which he had
once seen so unfortunate and languishing.  "It is
because then the father of the family was not here,"
said Henry to him; " now that he takes care of his
children, they prosper."- Voltaire.
Projects of the King. —France had become the




MODERN HISTORY.            263
arbiter of Europe. Owing to her powerful mediation, the pope and Venice had been reconciled
(1607); Spain and the United Provinces had at
last ended their long conflict (1609-1621); Henry IV. went to humble the house of Austria; if
we believe his minister, he designed to establish a
perpetual peace, and to substitute law in place of
that state of nature which still obtained among the
members of the great European family. All was
ready: a numerous army, provisions of all kinds,
the most formidable artillery of the world, and forty-two millions in the vaults of the Bastile. A blow
from a dagger saved Austria. The people suspected the emperor, the King of Spain, the Queen of
France, the Duke of Epernon, the Jesuits. All profited by the crime, but the fanaticism which pursued during all his reign a prince who was always
suspected of being a Protestant at heart, and who
wished to make his religion triumph in Europe, is
sufficient to explain it. The blow had been attempted seventeen times before Ravaillac.
His Death (1610).-" Friday, the 14th of May,
1610, a solemn and fatal day for France, the king, at
1 o'clock A.M., heard mass at the Feuillants; on
returning he retired to his cabinet, where the Duke
of Vendome, his natural son, whom he loved much,
came to tell him that La Brosse, who professed astrology, had said to him that the constellation under




264             SUMMARY OF
which his majesty had been born threatened him
with great danger this very day; therefore he
advised him to take care of himself. To this the
king replied, laughing, to M. de Vendome,' La
Brosse is an old rogue, who desires to have your
money, and you are a young fool to believe him.
Our days are numbered by God.' The duke then
told the queen of the same prediction, who begged
the king not to leave the Louvre for the rest of the
day; to her he made the same reply. After dinner the king laid down on his bed to sleep, but not
being able to do so, he arose sad, disquieted, and
thoughtful, and, after walking in his chamber for
some time, he threw himself again on the bed.
But still not being able to sleep, he arose and ask-.ed one of his life-guards what time it was. He replied that it was four o'clock, and said,'Sir, I see
your majesty sad and pensive; it would be better
to take a little air; this would revive you.''That's
well said: have my carriage prepared; I will go to
the arsenal, to the Duke of Sully, who is indisposed, and who takes a bath to-day.'
" The carriage being ready, he left the Louvre,
accompanied by the Duke of Montbazon, the Duke
of Epernon, the Marshal of Lavardin, Roquelaure,
La Force, Mirabeau, and Liancourt,: who was the
first equerry. At the same time he charged M. de
Vitry, captain of his guards, to go to the palace and
hasten the preparations for the entrance of the




MODERN HISTORY.            265
queen, and he ordered his guards to remain at the
Louvre. Thus the king was only followed by a
small number of gentlemen on horseback and some
footmen. The carriage was, unluckily, open on all
sides, as it was fine weather, and the king wished
to see the preparations which were making in the
city. His carriage passing from the street St.
Honore into that of Ferronnerie, found on the one
side a cart laden with wine, on the other a wagon
with hay, which caused a confusion; he was
obliged to stop. The street is very narrow, caused
by the shops which are built against the wall of
the graveyard of St. Innocents'.
"In this embarrassment, the greater number of
the footmen went into the graveyard, to run more
at their ease, and to go before the carriage of the
king at the head of the street. Of the only two
valets who had followed the carriage, one advanced to remove this obstacle, and the other stooped to tie his garter, when a wretch, a demon from
the infernal regions, named Francis Ravaillac, a
native of Angouleme, who had time, during the embarrassment, to see on which side the king was
seated, stepped on the wheel of the carriage, and,
with a knife sharpened on both edges, struck him
a blow between the second and third ribs, a little
below the heart, which made the king exclaim,' I
am wounded!' But the wretch, without being




266                  SUMMARY OF
frightened, repeated the blow, and struck him a
second time in the heart with such force that the
king  could  only heave  a  heavy  sigh, and  die.
This second blow was followed by a third, so much
was the parricide exasperated towards his king;
but it only touched the sleeve of the Duke of Montbazon.
"Amazing thing! none of the gentlemen who
were in the carriage saw-the king struck; and if
this monster of the infernal regions had thrown
away his sword, no one would have known from
whence the blow came; but he remained there, as
if to show  himself, and to glory in being the greatest of assassins."*
CHAPTER XI.
REVOLUrION  OF ENGLAND) 1603-1649.1
James I., 1603.- Charles I., 1625. - War against France, 1627. — The
King tries to govern without a Parliament, 1630-1638.-Trial of Hampden, 1636.-Covenant of Scotland, 1638.-Long Parliament, 1640.Commencement of the Civil War, 1642. — Covenant of England and
Scotland, 1643.- Success of the Parliament. - The Power passes to
the Independents. - Cromwell. - The King gives himself up to the
Scots, who betray him, 1645. - Revolution and Predominance of the
Army. - Trial and Execution of Charles I. - Overthrow of the Monarchy, 1649.
James I., 1603. —When James I. succeeded
* L'Etoile, part xlviii., p. 447-450.
t If this chapter presents any interest, we are indebted for it to the




MODERN HISTORY.                 267
Elizabeth, the long reign of this princess had
somewhat wearied the enthusiasm and submissive
spirit of the nation. The character of the new
prince was not calculated to change this disposition.
England beheld with evil eye a Scottish king, surrounded by Scotchmen, belonging, on the side of
his mother, to the house of Guise, more versed in
theology than in politics,* and who turned pale at
the sight of a sword. He displeased the English
in everything, as well by his imprudent proclamations in favour of the Divine right of kings, as
by his project to unite England and Scotland, and
his toleration towards the Catholics, who conspired against him (Gunpowder Plot, 1605). On
the other hand, the Scotch saw with no greater
satisfaction his attempts to subject them to the English Church. James, entirely devoted to his favourites, made himself, by his prodigality, dependant on the Parliament, at the same time that he irritated it by the contrast between his pretensions and
his weakness.
It had been the glory of Elizabeth to elevate the
nation in its own eyes; the misfortune of the Stuarts was to humble it. James abandoned the title
works of Messrs. Guizot and Villemain, from which we have made extracts, and have often copied. We have also drawn some precious information from the works of M-. Mazure, although the object of his work
is generally foreign to that of this chapter.-History of the Revolution,
1688,
* Henry IV. called him Maitre Jacques.




268             SUMMARY OF
of adversary of Spain and chief of the Protestants
in Europe. He did not declare war against Spain
till 1625, and then in spite of himself. He had
his son married to a Catholic princess (Henrietta
of France).
Charles I., 1625.-At the accession of Charles
I. (1625), the king and people knew not themselves to what degree they were already estranged
from each other. While the monarchical power
triumphed on the Continent, the English Commons
had acquired an importance inconsistent with the
ancient system of government. Under the Tudors,
the humiliation of the aristocracy, the division of estates, the sale of the ecclesiastical property, had both
enriched the people and given them confidence in
their own strength. They sought political guarantees. The institutions which might have afforded
these guarantees existed already; they had been
respected by the Tudors, who made an instrument
of them. But a motive as powerful as religious
interest was necessary to give life to those institutions.  The Presbyterian reformation, an enemy
to the Anglical reformation, found the throne standing between herself and episcopacy. The throne
was attacked.
Petition of Right.-T-he first Parliament sought
to obtain, by the delay of subsidies, the redress
of public grievances (1625). The second accused




MODERN HISTORY.            269
the Duke of Buckingham (the favourite of the
king) as their author (1626). During these two
assemblies, the unfortunate wars of Spain and
France took from the government what popularity
it yet possessed. The second war had been undertaken to aid the Protestants, and to deliver La Rochelle (the misfortune of Buckingham at the Isle
of Rhe, 1627). The third Parliament, waiving all
minor contests, demanded, in the Petition of Right,
an explicit sanction of those public liberties which
were to be acknowledged sixty years after in the
Declaration or Bill of Rights. Charles, seeing all
his demands rejected, made peace with France and
Spain, and tried to govern without calling the Parliament (1630-1638).
Strafford and Laud.-He anticipated no farther
resistance.  His only difficulty was to reconcile
both parties who disputed for the ascendency, the
queen and the ministers, the court and the council.
The Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud, who
wished to govern, at least in the general interest
of the king, were precipitated into very many violent and vexatious measures. The monopoly of
the greater part of provisions was sold, illegal duties were sustained by servile judges, and by tribunals of exception. Unheard-of fines were the punishment of most offences. The government, badly
sbpported by the proud aristocracy, had recourse
X




270              SUMMARY OF
to the English clergy, who usurped, by degrees
the civil power. The Nonconformists were persecuted. A great number of men, who could no longer
support so odious a government, went to America.
At the moment when an order of the council forbade the emigrations, eight vessels, ready to depart,
lay at anchor in the Thames; in one of them Pym,
Hampden, and Cromwell were already embarked.
Trial of Hampden-Long Parliament (1640).The public indignation burst forth on the occasion
of the trial of Hampden. This gentleman preferred being imprisoned to paying an illegal tax of
twenty shillings. One month after his condemnation, the Bishop of Edinburgh having tried to introduce the new English liturgy, a frightful tumult
broke out in the Cathedral; the bishop was insulted, and the magistrates were chased by the populace. The Scotch engaged by oath in a covenant,
by which they bound themselves to defend the
sovereign, the religion, the laws, and the liberties
of the country against all danger.  Messengers,
who repaired from village to village, carried it to
the most remote parts of the country, as thefiery
cross was carried into the mountains, to call to war
the vassals of a lord. The Covenanters received
arms and money from the Cardinal Richelieu, and
the English army having refused to fight against
their brothers, the king was obliged to place hinm,




MODERN HISTORY.             271
se61f at the discretion of a fifth Parliament (Long
Parliament, 1640).
Civil War (1642).-This new assembly, having
so much to revenge, implacably prosecuted all those
who were styled delinquents, Strafford especially,
who had irritated the nation, less by actual crimes,
than by the violence of an imperious temper.
Strafford himself entreated the king to sign the
bill of his condemnation, and Charles had the
deplorable weakness to consent. The Parliament
took possession of the government, directed the
employment of the subsidies, reformed the decisions of the tribunals, and disarmed the royal authority by proclaiming itself indissoluble. The dreadful massacre of the Protestants of Ireland gave to
Parliament an opportunity to seize the military
power; the Irish Catholics had risen against the
English who were established among them, and
everywhere attacked their tyrants, mocking the
queen, and displaying a false commission of the
king. Charles, driven to extremity by a threatening remonstrance, went in person to the House to
arrest five of the members. He failed in this great
stroke of policy, and left London to commence the
civil war (January 11th, 1642).
The Parliament party had the advantage of enthusiasm and of numbers: it had the capital, the
great cities, the ports, the fleet. The king had the




272             SUMMARY OF
majority of the nobility, more skilled in arms than
the Parliamentary troops. In the counties of the
north and west the Royalists ruled, the Parliament
in those of the east, in the middle and southeast,
the most populous and richest. These latter counties, joining each other, formed a circle around
London.
Edge Hill-Newbury, 1643. —Marston Moor.The king soon marched towards the capital, but
the indecisive battle of Edge Hill saved the adherents of the Parliament. They had time to organize themselves. Colonel Cromwell formed in the
counties of the east volunteer squadrons, who opposed religious enthusiasm to the sentiments of
honour which animated the cavaliers. The Parliament was again successful at Newbury, and united itself with Scotland by a solemn covenant (1643).
The good understanding of the king with the Highlanders of the north and the Irish Catholics accelerated this unexpected union of two people who,
until then, were enemies. It is said that a great
number of Irish papists, called by the king, were
mixed with the troops from their island; and that
even women, armed with long knives, and in a
savage dress, had been seen within their ranks.
This Parliament would not receive the letters of
that which the king had convoked at Oxford, and
pushed on the war with new vigour. Enthusiasm




MODERN HISTORY.            273
had carried some families so far as to deprive themselves of one repast a week, to offer its value to
the Parliament; an ordinance converted this offering into an obligatory tax for all the inhabitants of
London and the adjacent parts. The nephew of
the king, Prince Rupert, was defeated at Marston
Moor, after a bloody battle, by the invincible stubbornness of the saints of the Parliamentary army,
the cavaliers of Cromwell, who received on the
field'of battle the surname of Ironsides. They
would have been able to send to the Parliament
more than one hundred standards of the enemy,
if, in their enthusiasm, they had not torn them in
pieces to ornament their caps and their arms with
them. The king lost York and all the north. The
queen saved herself in France (1664).
Second Battle of Newbury. —This disaster seemed, for an instant, repaired. The king had obliged
the Earl of Essex, general of the Parliament, to
capitulate in the county of Cornwall. The Irish
bands had landed in Scotland, and Montrose, one
of the bravest cavaliers, having appeared suddenly
in their camp in the dress of a Highlander, had
gained two battles, raised the clans of the north,
and spread terror even to the gates of Edinburgh.
Already the king marched towards London; the
people closed their shops, fasted and prayed, when
they heard that he had been defeated at Newbury




274              SUMMARY OF
(for the second time). The Parliamentary troops
had performed wonders; at sight of the cannons,
which they had but lately lost in the county of
Cornwall, they threw themselves upon the royal
batteries, seized their own pieces, and carried them
away, embracing them with joy.
Act of Renunciation.-At this time a misunderstanding broke out among the conquerors. The
power escaped from the Presbyterians to pass to
the Independents.  This latter party was a mixture of enthusiasts, philosophers, and libertines;
but it drew its unity from one principle, the right
to freedom of conscience. Notwithstanding their
crimes and their reveries, this principle ought to
have given them victory over adversaries less energetic and less consistent. While the Presbyterians believed that they were preparing peace by
vain negotiations with the king, the Independents
placed themselves at the head of the war.  Cromwell declares that those in power prolonged it designedly, and the Parliament, through disinterested
motives, or through fear of losing its popularity,
decided* that every one should renounce his own
advancement, and that the members of the Parliament should no more hold any civil or military office.
Naseby —The King given up to the English.,* By what was called the Setf-denoing Ordinaance.




MODERN HISTORY.            275
Cromwell found means, by new success, to exempt
himself from the common rule, and the Independents overthrew the royal army at Naseby, near
Northampton. The papers of the king, found after
the victory, and publicly read at London, proved
that, notwithstanding his protestations, repeated a
thousand times, he had called for the aid of foreigners, especially of the Irish Catholics. In the
mean time, Montrose, abandoned by the Highlanders, who went to hide their booty at home, had
been surprised and defeated.  Prince Rupert,
known until then by his impetuous courage, had
given up Bristfl at the first summons. The king
wandered for a long time from city to city, from
castle to castle, constantly changing his disguise;
he stopped at Harrow-on-the-Hill, hesitating to enter the capital, which he saw at a distance. Finally, he retired, from fatigue more than choice, to
the camp of the Scotch, where the resident minister of France had given him hope of finding an
asylum, and where he soon perceived that he was
a prisoner. His hosts spared not their outrages towards him. A Scotch clergyman, preaching before him at Newcastle, gave out to the congregation the 52d Psalm, which commences, "Why
boastest thou thyself, thou tyrant, that thou canst
do mischief?"  The king, suddenly rising, sung,
"Be merciful unto me, O God, for man goeth




276             SUMMARY OF
about to devour me; he is daily fighting and troub.
ling me. Mine enemies are daily on hand to swallow me up; for they be many that fight against
me;" and, from a sudden transport, the whole congregation joined him. But the Scotch, despairing
of making him accept the covenant, gave him up
to the English, who offered to pay the expenses
of the war.
The unfortunate prince was but an instrument
for which the Independents and Presbyterians disputed until they destroyed it. The misunderstanding was at its height between the army and Parliament. They took the king from the place where
the commissioners of the latter guarded him, and,
without receiving the orders of the chief general,
Fairfax, Cromwell had him led to the army.
Cromwell.-In the mean time a reaction in favour of the king took place. Bands of citizens
and apprentices, half-pay officers, and marines
forced the gates of Westminster, and constrained
the chamber to vote for the return of the king.
But sixty members fled to the army, which marched towards London. Its entrance into the capital
was the triumph of the Independents. Cromwell,
seeing the Presbyterians eclipsed, fearing for his
own party, hesitated for a moment if he should not
work for the re-establishment of the king. But
knowing well that he could not in any way se




MODERN HISTORY.           277
cure this prince's confidence, he began to aim
higher, and thought of withdrawing the king from
the army, as he had taken him from the Parliament. Charles, alarmed by menacing intelligence,
escaped, and went to the Isle of Wight, where he
found himself in the power of Cromwell.
The Levellers.-The ruin of the king was the
seal of reconciliation between Cromwell and the
Republicans. He had been obliged to repress the
anarchical faction of the Levellers in the army;
he had seized one of them in the midst of a regiment, and had him condemned and executed on
the spot, in the presence of the army; but he was
careful not to be always at variance with a party
so energetic.
Condemnation of the King, 1649.-He regained
them by beating the Scotch, whose army came to
second the reaction in favour of the king. The
Parliament of England, alarmed by a victory so
prompt, which must turn to the profit of the Independents, hastened to negotiate anew with the
king. While Charles was disputing with the
deputies of Parliament, and repulsing with probity
the means of escape which his servants prepared for him, the army removed him from the Isle
of Wight, and purged the Parliament. Colonel
Pride, with the list of the proscribed members in
his hand, occupied the gate of the Commons at the




278             SUMMAARY OF
head of two regiments, and repulsed with violence
and insult those who persisted in claiming their
rights. From the time that the party of the Independents had gained the ascendency the enthusi.
asm of the fanatics was at its height. The king
was put on trial before a commission over which
John Bradshaw, a cousin of Milton, presided.
Notwithstanding the opposition of most of the members, and, among the rest, of the young and virtuous
Sidney; notwithstanding the challenge of Charles,
who maintained that the Commons could not exercise a parliamentary authority without the concurrence of the king and lords; notwithstanding the
mediation of the Scotch commissioners, and the
ambassadors of the States-General of the Netherlands, the king was condemned to death. At the
moment when the judge pronounced the name of
Charles Stuart, brought to answer a charge of
treason, and other great crimes presented against
him in the name of the people of England.....
"Not by one half of the people," cried a voice,
"Where are the people? where is its consent? 01iver Cromwell is a traitor!"
The whole assembly quickly rose, all eyes turn.
ed towards the gallery: " Down with the women!"
cried Colonel Axtel: " Soldiers, fire upon them t"
They recognised Lady Fairfax.
After the sentence, they refused to hear the




MODERN HISTORY.           279
king. They dragged him out amid the insults
of the soldiers, and cries of "Justice! Execution!" When it was necessary to sign the order
for his death, they had great trouble to assemble
the commissioners. Cromwell, almost the only
one gay, bustling, bold, gave way to the most violent fits of his accustomed buffoonery; after having signed as the third, he daubed the ink in the
face of Henry Martyn, who was seated near him,
and who instantly returned it. Colonel Ingoldsby,
his cousin, whose name was among the judges,
but who had not set in the court during the trial,
by accident entered the hall. "This time," cried
Cromwell, " he will not escape us;" and seizing
Ingoldsby with loud bursts of laughter, aided by
some members who were there, he placed the pen
between his fingers, and, guiding his hand, forced
him to sign. Finally, they collected fifty-nine signatures, several names scratched in such a manner,
either designedly, or from agitation of mind, that it
was hardly possible to decipher them.*
Execution of Charles I., 1648. — The scaffold
was erected against a window of Whitehall. The
king, after having blessed his,children, went there,
his head raised, with firm step, walking before his
soldiers, who escorted him. Many people soaked
their handkerchiefs in his blood. Cromwell wished
* Guizot




280                    SUMMARY OF
to see the body, already placed in the coffin; he
looked at it attentively, and raising its head with
his hands, as if to assure himself that it was well
severed from the body, said, " There was a body
well built, and that promised a long life."
The House of Lords was abolished the year
after. A great seal was engraved, with this motto:
The first year of liberty restored by the blessing of
God, 1648.*
CHAPTER XII.
THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1618-48.
Maximilian II., 1564-1576.-Rodolph II., 1576-1612.-Mathias Emperor,
1612-1619.-Insurrection of Bohemia.-Commencement of the Thirty
Years' War. - Palatine Period, 1619-1623: Ferdinand II. - War
against the Protestants, Bohemia, the Palatinate.-Triumph of Ferdinand. —Danish Period, 1625-1629: League of the States of Lower
Saxony.-Success of Tilly and W~aldstein.-Intercession of Denmark
and Sweden. - Swedish Period, 1630-1635.: Gustavus Adolphus invades the Empire.-Battle of Leipzig, 1631.-Invasion of Bavaria.Battle of Lutzen; Death of Gustavus Adolphus, 1632. — Assassination of Waldstein, 1634.- Peace of Prague, 1635. - French Period,
1635-1648: Ministry of Richelieu, &c., &c.-Battle of the Dunes, 1640.
-Battle of Leipzig, 1642; of Friburg, Norlingen, Sens, 1644, 1645,
1648, &c., &c.-Treaty of Westphalia, 1648.
THE Thirty Years' War is the last conflict sustained by the Reformation.   This war, indeterminate in its march and its object, is composed of
* Old style. This date corresponds to February 9, 1649.




MODERN HISTORY.             281
four distinct wars, wherein the Elector of Palatine,
Denmark, Sweden, and France, successively play
the principal part. It becomes more and more
complicated, until it embraces all Europe. Several causes prolong it indefinitely: first, the close
union of both branches of the house of Austria
and the Catholic party; the opposite party is not
homogeneous; second, the inaction of England,
the tardy mediation of France, the weakness of
Denmark and Sweden.
The armies which carried on the Thirty Years'
War were no longer feudal militia; they were standing armies, but armies which the sovereigns could
not maintain (see, above, the armies of Charles
V., in the wars of Italy). They lived at the expense of the country, and ruined it. The ruined
peasant became a soldier, and sold himself to the
first comer. The war prolonging itself, thus formed armies without a country, an immense military
force, which floats in Germany, and encourages
the most gigantic projects of princes, and of private individuals even.
Germany again becomes the centre of European
politics. The first contest of the Reformation
with the house of Austria was renewed, after sixty
years' interruption; all the powers took part in it.
Results. —Europe seems as if it must be overthrown, and yet we perceive but one important




~2812          SUMMARY OF
change; France had succeeded to the supremacy
of the house of Austria. The influence of the
Reformation will no longer be sensible, and the
treaty of Westphalia commences a new world.
Maximilian II.-Rudolph II. —Whether from
fear of the Turks, or from the personal moderation
of the princes, the German branch of the house of
Austria, in the second part of the sixteenth century, followed a policy entirely opposite to that of
Philip II. The tolerant policy of Ferdinand I.
and Maximilian II. favoured the progress of Protestantism in Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary;
they even suspected Maximilian to be Protestant
at heart (1555-1576). The feeble Rudolph II.,
who succeeded him, had neither his moderation
nor -his ability. While he shut himself up with
Tycho Brahe, to study astrology and alchymy, the
Protestants of Hungary, Bohemia, and Austria
made one common cause. The Archduke Mathias, brother of Rudolph, favoured them, and forced
the emperor to yield Austria and Hungary to him
(1607-1609).
Succession of Juliers.-The Empire was not less
agitated than the hereditary states of the house of
Austria. Aix-la-Chapelle and Donawerth, where
the Protestants had made themselves masters, were
put under the ban of the Empire. The archbishop, Elector of Cologne, who wished to secularize




MODERN HISTORY.            283
his states, was deposed. The reopening of the
succession of Cleves and Juliers again complicated the situation of Germany.  Protestant end
Catholic princes, the Elector of Brandenburgh, the
Duke of Deux-Ponts, and others, claimed it equally. The Empire divided itself into two leagues.
Henry IV., who favoured the Protestants, intended
to enter Germany, and to avail himself of this state
of things to humble the house of Austria, when he
was assassinated (1610). Instead of being deferred, the Thirty Years' War only became more terrible.
Mathias, Emperor —Battle of Prague, 1621.
— Mathias, after having forced Rudolph to yield
Bohemia to him, succeeded him in the Empire
(1612-19), and also in all the embarrassments of
his position. The Spaniards and Dutch invaded
the dukedoms of Cleves and Juliers. The Bohemians, conducted by the Count of Turn, rose for
the defence of their religion. Turn, at the head
of a part of the States, repaired to the councilroom, and precipitated the four gouverneurs into
the ditches of the castle of Prague (1618). The
Bohemians pretended it to be an ancient custom of
their country to throw double-dealing ministers out
of the window. They levied troops, and, not wishing to acknowledge as successor to Mathias a
pupil of the Jesuits, Ferdinand II., they gave the




284             SUMMARY OF
crown to Frederic V., elector of Palatine, son-inlaw of the King of England, and nephew of the
Stadtholder of Holland.
Palatine Period of the Thirty Years' War,
1619-23.-At the same time, the Hungarians
elected the Waiwode of Transylvania, Betlem Gabor, for king. Ferdinand, who was besieged for
a short time by the Bohemians in Vienna, was
supported by the Duke of Bavaria, by the Catholic
league of Germany, and by the Spaniards. Frederic, who was a Calvinist, was abandoned by the
Lutheran union. James I., his father-in-law, was
satisfied with negotiating for him. Attacked in
the capital of Bohemia itself, he lost the battle of
Prague by his negligence or his cowardice. He
dined tranquilly at the castle, while his subjects
died for him in the field (1621). Notwithstanding
the valour of Mansfield, and other partisans who
ravaged Germany in his name, still he was driven
from the Palatinate; the Protestant union was dissolved, and the electoral dignity transferred to the
Duke of Bavaria.
Waldstein —Danish Period, 1625-1629.-The
States of Lower Saxony; threatened by an approaching restitution of ecclesiastical property,
called the princes of the North, who were united
to them by community of religious interest, to the
aid of Germany. The young King of Sweden,




MODERN HISTORY.            285
Gustavus Adolphus, was at.that time occupied in a
glorious war against Poland, the ally of Austria.
The King of Denmark, Christian IV., undertook
their defence. At the approach of this new war,
Ferdinand would not depend on the Catholic league,
of which the Duke of Bavaria was the chief, and
of which the celebrated Tilly commanded the
troops. The Count of Waldstein,* officer of the
emperor, offered to form him an army, provided he
was permitted to enrol fifty thousand men. He
kept his word. All the adventurers who wished
to live by pillage surrounded him, and he made
laws equally for the friends a'hd the enemies of the
emperor. Christian IV. was defeated at Lutter.
Waldstein reduced Pomerania, and received from
the emperor the estates of the two Dukes of Mecklenburg, and the title of General of the Baltic.
But for the succour which the Swedes threw into
the place, he would have taken the powerful city
of Stralsund (1628). All the North trembled. The
emperor, in order to divide his enemies, granted to
Denmark a humiliating peace (1629). He ordered
a restitution to the Protestants of all the property
secularized since 1555. Then the army of Waldstein fell back upon Germany, and overran it at
pleasure; several states were exhausted by enormous contributions.  So great was the distress of
* IRe signed himself Waldstein, not Wallenstein.
Y




2:86            SUMMARY OF
the inhabitants, that some of them dug,p corpses
to satisfy their hunger, and the dead were found
with their mouths still filled with raw herbs.
Gustavus Ado7phus, 1630-Battle of Leipzig,
1631 - Swedish Period, 1630-1636. - Deliverance came from Sweden and France. Cardinal
Richelieu disengaged the Swedes by procuring for
them a truce with Poland. He disarmed the emperor by persuading him that he could not have his
son elected king of the Romans unless, he sacrificed Waldstein to the resentment of Germany,
and, while he thus deprived himself of his best
general, Gustavus Adolphus entered the Empire
(1630). Ferdinand was but little alarmed at first;
he said that this king of snow would melt away on
approaching the South. They knew not yet what
these men of iron were; this army, heroic and pious
in comparison with the mercenary troops of Germany. A short time after the arrival of Gustavus
Adolphus, Torquato Conti, general of the emperor,
demanded a truce, in consequence of the severe
cold; Gustavus replied that the Swedes knew not
winter. The genius of the conqueror disconcerted
the German routine by an impetuous tactics, which
sacrificed everything to the rapidity of its movements, and which lavished men to shorten the war.
To make himself master of the strongholds by following the course of the rivers, to secure Sweden




MODERN HISTORY.           287
toy cdIoing the Baltic against the Imperials, to deprive them of all their allies, to hem in Austria
before attacking it, such was the plan of Gustavus.
If he had marched straight to Vienna, he would
only have appeared in Germany as a foreign conqueror; by driving off the Imperials from the
Northern and Western States, which they were
destroying, he presented himself as the champion
of the Empire against the emperor. Tilly, who
had first opposed him, arrested not the torrent;
he only drew the hatred of Europe on the Imperial
troops by the destruction of Magdebourg. Saxony
and Brandenburgh, which wished to remain neutral, were drawn into an alliance with Gustavus by
the rapidity of his success. He defeated Tilly in
the bloody battle of Leipzig (1631). While the
Saxons prepared themselves to attack Bohemia,
he beat the Duke of Lorraine, penetrated into Alsace, and subjected the Electorates of Treves, Mayence, and the Rhine, to which Richelieu would
have extended the rights of neutrality; but Gustavus wanted either friends or enemies. Finally, Bavaria is invaded at the same time as Bohemia, Tilly
dies in defending the Lech, and Austria is opened
on all sides.
It was now absolutely necessary that Ferdinand
should have recourse to that proud Waldstein whom
he had driven away. For a long time he saw the




288            SUMMARY OF
emperor and the Catholics, as it were, at his feet;
he was, he said, too happy in his retreat. They
could only conquer this philosophical moderation
by giving him in the Empire a power nearly equal
to that of the emperor.
Lutzen, 1632.-At this price he saved Bohemia,
and marched on Nuremberg, to arrest the arms of
Gustavus. There was great astonishment in Europe when they saw the two invincible men for
three months encamped face to face without taking
advantage of an opportunity so long expected.
Waldstein at last put himself in motion, and was
met by the King of Sweden near Lutzen. Gustavus made an attack, wishing to defend the Elector
of Saxony. After several charges, the king, deceived by the darkness of a fog, threw himself before the enemy's ranks, and fell, struck by two
bullets. The Duke of Saxe Lauenburg, who afterward went over to the Imperial party, was behind
him at the fatal moment, and was accused of
his death. They sent the buff-skin coat which
the Swedish hero wore to Vienna (1632). All
Europe mourned Gustavus. But why? He may
have died most opportunely for his glory. He had
saved Germany, and had not had time to oppress it.
He had not restored the Palatinate to the dispossessed elector; he had destined Mayence for
his Chancellor Oxenstiern; he had showed his




MODERN HISTORY.            289
disposition to reside at Augsburg, which would
have become the seat of a new empire.
Assassination of Waldstein. —While the able
Oxenstiern continued the war, and had himself
declared chief, at Heilbron, of the League of the
Circles of Franconia, Swabia, and Rhine, Waldstein
remained in Bohemia in a state of formidable inaction. It was for him that Gustavus seemed to
have laboured in destroying throughout all Germany
the Imperial party. He had served him both by
his victories and by his death. " Germany," said
Waldstein, " cannot contain two men like us." After
the death of Gustavus he was alone. Shut up in
his palace at Prague, with a royal train of attendants, and surrounded by a crowd of adventurers
who had attached themselves to his fortune, he
there watched for the proper opportunity. This
terrible man, who was seldom seen, who never
laughed, and who only spoke to his soldiers to
make their fortune or to pronounce their death,
was the hope of Europe. The King of France
called him his cousin, and Richelieu offered his interest to make him King of Bohemia. It was
time that the emperor made a decision; he took
the decision of Henry III. in respect to the Duke
of Guise. Waldstein was assassinated at Egra;
and Ferdinand, remembering the services he had




,290            SUMMARY OF
formerly rendered to him, had 3000 masses said
for the peace of his soul (1634).
In the mean time, the Elector of Saxony had
made his peace with the emperor. The Swedes
were not strong enough to remain alone in Germany. It was necessary that France, in her turn,
should descend to the field of battle.
Richelieu, 1635-French Period, 1635-1648.Richelieu, who then governed France, found it
given up to Spanish influence, and harassed by
the princes and the nobles, by the mother of the
king, and by the Protestants (government of AMary
of Medicis, 1610-17, and of the favourite De
Luynes, 1617-21). This great minister, employed:
against the last the system of Henry IV., with
this advantage, that he was not obliged by any
former engagement, or by any motives of gratitude,
to have that respect for them which might be inimical to his own interests. He had taken La
Rochelle from them by constructing a dam of 800
toises in the sea (as Alexander formerly did at the
siege of Tyre); had conquered, disarmed, and by
a magnanimous policy appeased them (1627-28).
He turned himself against the grandees, had the
mother and brother of the king driven from France,
and caused a Marillac and a Montmorency to perish on the scaffold (1630-32). He had prisons in
his house at Ruel; he had his enemies condemned




MODERN HISTORY.            291
there, that he might safely deride or defy the judges.
Nothing remained for him but to give some dignity
to these odious victories over his internal enemies
by conquests abroad (1635).
Bernard of Weimar.-First, he bought over Bernard of Weimar (the best disciple of Gustavus Adolphus), with his army. He united himself with the
Dutch to divide the Spanish Netherlands, while at
the other end of France he retook Roussillon; the
alliance with the Duke of Savoy secured to him the
passages of Italy. Having commenced from the
side of the Netherlands, France gained in Italy
more glory than real advantage. But the Dutch,
her allies, destroyed the Spanish navy in the battle
of the Dunes (1639). Bernard of Weimar took the
four forest towns,* and also Friburg and Brisach,
under the walls of which he obtained four victories.
He forgot that France had already purchased his
conquests from hiin. He was going to make himself independent, when he died, as opportunely
for Richelieu as the death of Waldstein was for
Ferdinand.
Success of the French. —Everything became favourable to the French from the moment that the
rebellion of Catalonia and of Portugal forced Spain
into a defensive war (1640). The house of Bra* Rhinfeld, Valdshut, Sechingen, Lauffenburg, called forest towns,
because near the Black Forest.




292             SUMMARY OF
ganza ascended the throne of Portugal with the
applause of Europe. The French victors in Italy
took, in the Low Countries, Arras'and Thionville.
The great Conde gained the battle of Rocroi five
days after the accession of Louis XIV.: a happy
omen for this great reign, which encouraged France
after the death of Richelieu and Louis XIII.
Battle of Leipzig, 1642.-The war had now
changed its character for the second time. To the
fanaticism of Tilly, and of his master Ferdinand
II., to the revolutionary genius of the Waldsteins
and the Weimars, had succeeded able tacticians,
a Piccolomini, a Merci, generals of the emperor,
Banner, Torstenson, and Wrangel, pupils of Gustavus. War being a profitable trade for so many
people, peace became more and more difficult.
France, entirely occupied with protecting her conquests of Lorraine and Alsace, refused to join the
Swedes to overthrow the house 6f Austria. Torstenson thought for a moment that he could conquer without the aid of the French. This paralytic general, who astonished Europe by the rapidity of his manceuvres, had renewed the glory of
Gustavus Adolphus at Leipzig (1642). He had
given a blow to the Danes, the secret friends of
the emperor; the alliance with Transylvania permitted him, finally, to penetrate Austria (1645).
The defection of Transylvania, and the death of
Torstenson, saved the emperor.




MODERN HISTORY.             293
Ferdinand III., 1637-Conde —Treaty of Westphalia, 1648.-In the mean time, negotiations had
been opened since 1636; the accession of Ferdinand III. to the Empire seemed necessarily to favour them (1637). Although the mediation of the
pope, of Venice, and of the kings of Denmark, Poland, and England, had been rejected, the preliminaries of peace were signed in 1642. The death of
Richelieu revived the hopes of the house of Austria,
and retarded the peace. The victories of Conde at
Friburg, at Nordlingen, and at Sens (1644-45-48),
that of Turenne and the Swedes at Sommershausen, and, finally, the taking of Little Prague by
Wrangel (1648), were necessary to decide the
emperor to sign the treaty of Westphalia. The
war continued only between Spain, France, and
Portugal. Principal articles: 1st. The peace of
Augsburg (1555) is confirmed and extended to the
Calvinists. 2d. The sovereignty of the different
States of Germany within their own territory is
sanctioned, also their right to the general diets of
the Empire; those rights are warranted internally,
by the position of the Imperial Chamber and Aulic
Council, to which an equal number of Protestants
and Catholics were hereafter to be admitted; externally, by the mediation of France and Sweden.
3d. Indemnities awarded to several states, and, to
secure them, a great amount of ecclesiastical propz




294             SUMMARY OF
erty is secularized. France obtains Alsace, the
three bishoprics, Philipsburg, and Pignerol, the
keys of Germany and Piedmont: Sweden, a part of
Pomerania, Bremen, Verden, Wismar, &c., three
votes at the diets of the Empire, and five millions
of German dollars: TheElector of Brandenburg,
Magdebourg, Halberstadt, &c., &c.: Saxony, Mecklenburg, and Hesse Cassel, are also indemnified.
4th. The son of Frederic V. recovers the Lower
Palatinate of the Rhine (the Upper Palatinate remains in the hands of Bavaria); an eighth electoral dignity is created in his favour. 5th. The
United Provinces are acknowledged as independent of Spain; the United Provinces and Swiss
Cantons, independent of the German Empire.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE EAST AND NORTH IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
0 I. TURKEY, HUNGARY, 1566-1648.
Solyman the Magnificent. —The reign of Solyman the Magnificent had been the summit of Ottoman grandeur. Under him the Turks were equally formidable by land and by sea; they were admitted into the system of Europe by their alliance
with France against the house of Austria. Soly



MODERN HISTORY.             295
man endeavoured to give fixed laws to his people,
collected the maxims and ordinances of his predecessors, supplied those which were lost, and settled the civil hierarchy. He embellished Constantinople by rebuilding the ancient aqueduct, of
which the water is divided among eight hundred
fountains; he founded the Mosque Souleimanieh,
to which four colleges are attached, a house of
refuge for the poor, an hospital for the sick, and a
library of two thousand manuscripts. The Turkish language ennobles itself by a mixture of Arabian and Persian; Solyman himself made verses
in these languages. In his old age the sultan was
entirely governed by Rouschen (Roxalana), whom
he had married, and who caused him to put his
children by a former marriage to death. The empire, exhausted by so many wars, seemed to grow
old with him under the influence of the government
of a seraglio. Solyman prepared its ruin by taking
the command of the armies from the members of
the imperial family.
Lepanto, 1571.-Under his indolent successor,
Selim II. (1566-1574), the Turks took Cyprus from
the Venitians, who received but little assistance
from Spain; but they were defeated in the Gulf of
Lepanto by the combined fleets of Philip II., Venice, and the pope, under the orders of Don Juan of
Austria. Since this check, the Turks allow that




296             SUMMARY OF
God, who has given them the empire of the land,
has left the dominion of the sea to infidels.
Under Amurat III., Mohammed III., and Achmet
I. (1574-1617), the Turks sustained, with various
success, long wars against the Persians and the
Hungarians. The janizaries, who by their revolts
had troubled the reigns of these princes, put to
death their successors, Mustapha and Othman
(1617-1623).  The Empire rose under Amurat
IV., the Intrepid, who employed the turbulent spirit of the janizaries abroad; took Bagdad, and interposed in the troubles of India. Under the imbecile Ibrahim (1645-49), the Turks, always following the impulse given to them by Amurat, took
Candia from the Venitians.
Hungary.-This kingdom had been divided between the house of Austria and the Turks since
1562. From this division rose a continual war.
The jurisdiction of Transylvania was another cause
of war between Austria and the Porte. In the interior, Hungary was not more tranquil. The Austrian princes, hoping to increase their power by
leading Hungary back to religious uniformity, persecuted the Protestants and violated the privileges
of the nation. The Hungarians rose under Rudolph
II., Ferdinand II., and Ferdinand III.; the princes
of Transylvania, Etienne Botschkai, Betlem Gabor,
George Regotzi, placed themselves successively at




MODERN HISTORY.            297
the head of the malecontents. By the pacifications
of Vienna (1622) and of Lintz (1645); by the decrees of the diets of Oldenburg (1622) and Presburg (1647), the kings of Hungary were forced to
consent to the public exercise of the Protestant
religion, and to respect the national privileges.
II. POLAND, PRUSSIA, RUSSIA, 15051648.
Poland triumphed over the Teutonic Order, a
German power, which, though feebly sustained by
the Empire, had pushed itself beyond Germany
into the heart of the Sclavonic States. In recompense for this, however, she neglected to protect the
Bohemians and Hungarians in their revolts against
Austria.
The two great nations of Sclavonic origin had
frequent communication with each other, but little
intercourse with the Scandinavian States, till the
revolutions of Livonia engaged them in a common
war, towards the middle of the 16th century. Livonia then became for the North of Europe what
Milan had been for the South.
Prussia, 1525-State of Poland and Prussia in
thefirst half of the 16th Century-Accession of Wasili IV. (Iwanowitch), 1505, and of Sigismond I.,
1506.-The feeble Wasili had the imprudence to
break with the Tartars of the Crimea, whose ser



298             SUMMARY OF
vices had been so useful to Iwan III.; he completed the subjection of Plescof, took Smolensk from
the Lithuanians, but was defeated by them in the
same year (1514). He united himself to the Teutonic Order against the Poles, but was not able to
save Prussia from  submitting to Poland.  The
grand-master, Albert of Brandenburg, embraced
Lutheranism (1525), secularized Teutonic Prussia,
and received it in fief from Sigismond I.
Iwan IV., 1533-1584. 1533, Accession of Iwan
IV. (Wasiliewitch) in Russia; 1548, of Sigismond
II., called Augustus, in Poland.-During the mi.
nority of Iwan IV., the power passed from the
hands of the Regent Helene to several princes,
who supplanted each other. 1547, under the influence of the Empress Anastasia, Iwan IV. restrained
at first the violence of his character. He completed the humbling of the Tartars by the definitive
reunion of Kasan, and by the'conquest of Astrakan (1552-1554).
Livonia, 1558-83 - War of Livonia. - The order of the knights of Porte-Glaive, conqueror of
the Russians (1502), had been independent of the
Teutonic Order since 1521. But towards this
epoch all the powers of the North preferred their
claims on Livonia. Iwan IV. having invaded it
in 1558, the grand-master, Gotthar Kettler, preferred to reunite it to Poland by the treaty of Wilna




MIODERN HISTORY.          299
(1561), creating himself Duke of Courland. The
King of Denmark, Frederic II.. master of the
island of CEsel, and of certain districts, and the
King of Sweden, Eric XIV., having been called
to aid the city of Revel, and the nobility of Esthonia,
took part in the war, which was prosecuted by
land and by sea.
The Czar encountered two obstacles in his plans
of conquest: the jealousy of the Russians against
the strangers, whom he preferred before them, and
the fear which his cruelty had impressed upon the
Livonians. He crushed all his subjects who were
able to resist him, whether in the trading class or
among the nobility (1570), and finally invaded
Livonia in the name of a brother of the King of
Denmark (1575). But Poland and Sweden united
themselves against the Czar, who made peace
with Poland by giving up Livonia to her, and concluded a truce with Sweden, which remained in
possession of Carelia (1582-83). He died in 1584.
[Code of Iwan IT/., 1550, presenting a systematized view of all the ancient laws-Gratuitous justice-All landholders subjected to military service
-Establishment of a regular pay of the soldiersInstitution of the permanent militia of the guards
-Commerce with Tartary, Turkey, and Lithuania.
The wars of Livonia and Lithuania closing the
Baltic to the Russians, they had no longer commu



300             SUMMARY OF
nications with the rest of Europe, except by winding round Sweden through the seas of the North.
1555, the Englishman, Chanceller, sent by Queen
Mary to find a northern passage to the Indies, landed
at the place where, afterward,Archangel was founded; there was regular commerce between Russia
and England until the civil wars of Russia (1605).
-1577-81, discovery of Siberia.]
Successions of Poland, 1572; of Russia, 1593.The dynasty of the Jagellons was extinguished in
1572, by the death of Sigismond Augustus; that
of Rurick in 1598, by the death of Czar Fedor
I., son and successor of Iwan IV. From these
two events resulted directly, or indirectly, two long
and bloody wars, which again set up as prizes all
the northern dominions; one xwar had the succession of Sweden for its object, the other the succession of Russia. The first war, which lasted sixtyseven years (1593-1660), was twice interrupted:
first by the second war (1609-1619), and afterward
by the Thirty Years' War (1629-1655).
False Demetrius. - The throne of Poland became purely elective 1573-1575. Henry of Valois
appeared in this kingdom only to sign the first
Pacta Conventa, 1570-1587. The accession of
Ethienne Batthon, prince of Transylvania, delayed
the moment when Poland was to lose her preponderance. He limited the power of his subjects




MODERN HISTORY.           301
(Dantzic, Riga, 1578-1586); he humbled Russia
and Denmark (1582-85). 1587, Sigismond III.,
son of John III., king of Sweden, elected King
of Poland, found himself, at his accession to the
throne of his father, in a difficult position. Sweden
was Protestant; Poland Catholic; theyboth claimed Livonia. The uncle of Sigismond (Charles
IX.), chief of the Lutheran party in Sweden, prevailed over him, both by policy (1593) and by
arms (1598). Thence a war between the two
nations, which was interrupted only at the moment
that they took Russia for a field of battle. The
usurpation of Borris-Godunow, and the impostures
of several false Demetrii, who called themselves
heirs of the throne of Moscow, made the Poles
and Swedes hope either to dismember Russia, or
to give her one of their princes as master. Their
hopes were defeated. A Russian (1613-1645),
Michael Fedrowitch, founded the house of Romanow. 1616-1618, Russia gave up to Sweden Ingria and Russian Carelia; to Poland the territories
of Smolensko, Tschernigow, and Nowgorod-Serverskoi, and she lost all communication with the
Baltic.  1620-1629, the war recommenced between Poland and Sweden, and was continued to
the period in which Gustavus Adolphus engaged
in the Thirty Years' War (1629.  Treaty of six
years, renewed in 1635 for twenty-six).




302             SUMMARY OF
Sigismond III. and his successor, Wladislas
VII. (1632-1648), sustained long wars against the
Turks, the Russians, and the Cossacks of the
Ukraine.
Poland yielded to Sweden the part of predominant power in the North, but she retained her superiority over Russia, whose development had
been retarded by her civil wars.
Prussia, 1563.- Joachim II., elector of Brandenburg, obtained from the King of Poland the
investiture of the fief of Prussia.  1618, at the
death of the Duke Albert-Frederic (son of Albert
of Brandenburg), the Elector John Sigismond, his
son-in-law, succeeded him. 1614-1666, the electoral branch also received a part of the succession
of Juliers, in virtue of the claims of Anne, daughter
of the Duke of Prussia, Albert-Frederic, and wife
of the Elector of Brandenburg, John Sigismond.
The son of the latter, Frederic William, founded
the grandeur of Prussia.
~ III. DENMARK AND SWEDEN.
In the 16th century these two states were the
prey of internal troubles, and sustained long wars.
The resources of the two nations, however, were
developed, and they became prepared for the Thirty
Years' War. The conduct of Sweden at that time




MODERN HISTORY.            303
was a prelude to the heroic part which she was to
play throughout all the 18th century.
Peace of Stettin, 1570.-The weakness of Denmark and the internal troubles of Sweden terminated (by the peace of Stettin, 1570) a long quarrel, which had existed between these kingdoms
since the rupture of the Union of Calmar. Denmark was from that time tranquil, under the long
reigns of Frederic II. (1559-158S) and of Christiern IV., down to the period when the latter, rather
an able minister than a great general, compromised
the repose of Denmark by attacking Gustavus
Adolphus (1611-1613), and by taking part in the
Thirty Years' War (1625).
The unworthy son of Gustavus Vasa, Eric XIV.
(1560-1568), had been dispossessed by his brother,
John III. (1568-1592), who undertook to re-iestablish the Catholic religion in Sweden. The son of
John Sigismond, king of Sweden and Poland, was
supplanted by his uncle, Charles IX. (1604), father
of Gustavus Adolphus. See, above, the article Poland.




304              SUMMARY OF
CHAPTER XIV.
DISCOVERIES AND COLONIES OF THE MODERNS —
DISCOVERIES AND ESTABLISHMENTS OF THE PORTUGUESE IN BOTH INDIES, 1412-1582.
~ I. DISCOVERIES AND COLONIES OF THE MODERNS.
Principal Motives which have determined the Moderns to seek new Countries, and to establish themselves
there.-lst. Martial and adventurous spirit, desire
to gain by conquest and pillage. 2d. Commercial
spirit, desire to acquire by the legitimate method
of exchange. 3d. Religious spirit, desire either to
convert the idolatrous nations to the Christian faith,
or to escape themselves religious persecution.
Te owe the foundation of the principal modern
colonies to the five most western nations who have
held, successively, the empire of the seas: to the
Portuguese and Spaniards (15th and 16th centuries); to the Dutch and French (17th century);
finally, to the English (17th and 18th centuries).
The Spanish colonies had, at first, the exploring
of the mines for their principal object; the aim of
the Portuguese was commerce, and the raising of
tributes imposed upon the conquered. The Dutch
colonies were essentially commercial; those of
the English were both commercial and agricultural




MODERN HISTORY.             305
The principal difference between the ancient
and modern colonies is, that the ancient only remained united to their mother-country by a sort of
filial bond. The moderns are regarded as the
property of their parent country, which interdicts
to them all commerce with strangers.
Direct Results of the Discoveries and Establish.
ments of the Moderns.-Commerce changed both
its form and route. For land commerce, maritime
was generally substituted; the commerce of the
world passed from the countries situated on the
Mediterranean to the Western countries. The indirect results are innumerable; the one most remarkable is the development of the maritime powers.
Principal Routes of the Commerce of the East
during the Middle Ages.-In the first half of the Middle Ages, the Greeks carried on the commerce with
India through Egypt, then through the Black and
Caspian Seas; in the second, the Italians carried
it on through Syria and the Gulf of Persia; finally,
through Egypt. Crusades. Voyages of Rubruquis,
Marco Paolo, and John Mandeville, from the 11th
to the 14th century. At the commencement of the
14th century the Spaniards discovered the Canaries.
~ II. DISCOVERIES AND ESTABLISHMENTS OF THE
PORTUGUESE.
The Infant Don Henry.-It belonged to the most




306             SUMMARY OF
western nation of Europe to commence a train
of discoveries, which have spread European civilization over all the world. The Portuguese, restrained by the power of Spain, and always at
war with the Moors, from whom they had conquered their country, had to turn their ambition
towards the coast of Africa. After a crusade of
several centuries, the ideas of the conquerors were
enlarged; they conceived the project of seeking
new infidel nations, in order to subject and convert
them. A thousand old narratives excited their
curiosity, their valour, and their avarice; they
wished to see those mysterious countries where
nature had created monsters, or where she had
strewed gold on the surface of the ground. The
Infant Don Henry, third son of John I., seconded
the ardour of the nation. He spent his life at
Segres, near the Cape of St. Vincent; there, with
his eyes fixed on the seas of the South, he gave
instructions to the pilots who first visited those unknown climes. Cape Non, the fatal limit of ancient navigators, had already been passed; they
had discovered Madeira (1412-13); they passed
even Cape Boyador and Cape Verde; they discovered the Azores (1448); they had gone, too, beyond
that formidable line where they believed that the
air burned like fire. When they had pushed beyond Senegal, they saw, with astonishment, that




MODERN HISTORY.           307
the men, who were of a lead colour north of this
river, were entirely black at the south. On arriving at Congo, they saw a new heaven and new
stars (1484). But what encouraged the spirit of
discovery more powerfully, was the gold which
they had found in Guinea.
Cape of Good Hope, 1486.-They now began
to pay more respect to the reports of the ancient
Phoenicians, who pretended to have made the circuit of Africa, and they hoped that, by following
the same route, they would be able to reach the
East Indies. While the king, John II., sent two
gentlemen by land to the Indies (Covillam and
Payva), Barthelemy Diaz touched at the promontory which terminates Africa in the South, and
named it Cape of Tempest; but the king, who
from that time was sure of finding the route to the
Indies, called it the Cape of Good Hope (1486).
It was then that the discovery of the New World
astonished the Portuguese, and redoubled their emulation. Two nations, however, were ready to dispute the empire of the sea; they had recourse to the
pope; Alexander VI. divided the two new worlds:
all which was east of the Azores was to belong to
Portugal; all west was given to Spain. They
traced a line on the globe, which marked the limits
of these reciprocal rights, and which they called
the line of demarcation. New discoveries soon
disturbed this line.




308             SUMMARY OF
Vasco de Gama, 1497-1498.-At last the King
of Portugal, Emmanuel the Fortunate, gave the
command of a fleet to the famous Vasco de Gama
(1497-1498). He received from the king the journal of the voyage of Covillam; he took out ten
men condemned to death, whose lives he might
risk if needful, and who by their courage might
merit pardon. He spent one night in prayers in
the Chapel of the Virgin, and received the sacrament on the eve of his departure. The people, in
tears, conducted him to the shore. A magnificent
convent has been founded gn the spot from which
Gama departed.
The fleet approached the terrible cape, when the
crew, terrified by this stormy sea, and dreading a
famine, rose against Gama. Nothing could stop
him; he put the ringleader in irons, and taking
the helm himself, he doubled the extremity of
Africa. Greater dangers awaited him on the eastern coast, which, as yet, no European vessel had
visited. The Moors, who traded with Africa and
India, laid snares for these new-comers, who appeared to share the treasures with them. But the
artillery terrified them, and Gama, traversing the
gulf of seven hundred leagues which separated
Africa from India, landed at Calicut, thirteen
months after his departure from Lisbon.
Upon landing on this unknown shore, Vasco




MODERN HISTORY.            309
forbade his men to follow him, or to come to his
help, if they heard that he was in danger; and
notwithstanding the plots of the Moors, he caused
Zamorin to accept the alliance of Portugal.
Alvares Cabral. —A new expedition soon followed the first, under the orders of Alvares Cabral;
the admiral received from the hands of the king a
hat blessed by the pope. After having passed the
Cape Verde Islands, he took to the wide sea,
moved far towards the west, where he saw a
new country, rich and fertile, where everlasting
spring reigned: this was Brazil, the country, of all
the American Continent, nearest to Africa. There
are but thirty degrees of longitude from this country
to Mount Atlas: this was the land which they ought
to have discovered first (1500).
Albuquerque, 1505-1515.-The address of Cabral, Gama, and Almeida, first viceroy of the Indies, frustrated the efforts of the Moors, divided the
natives of the country, and armed Cochin against
Calicut and Cananor.  Quiloa and Sofala, in
Africa, received the laws of Europe. But the
principal founder of the Empire of the Portuguese
in the Indies was the variant Albuquerque; he
took, at the entrance of the Gulf of Persia, Ormus, the most brilliant and polished city of Asia
(1507). The King of Persia, to whom she had
belonged, demanded a tribute from the Portuguese;
A A




310             SUMMARY OF
Albuquerque showed to the ambassador his cannons
and balls: " There," said he, " is the coin with
which the King of Portugal pays tribute."
The Venitians.-In the mean time, Venice saw
the sources of her riches drained; the route from
Alexandria began to be neglected. The Sultan of
Egypt perceived that there were no more duties
upon provisions from the East; the Venitians
leagued with him, and sent to Alexandria frames
of wood, which were transported to Suez, and
of which they made ships (1508). She had at
first the advantage over the Portuguese, but she
was afterward defeated, as were also the other
armaments which continued to descend the Red
Sea. To prevent new attacks, Albuquerque proposed to the King of Abyssinia to alter the course
of the Nile, which would have changed Egypt into
a desert.
He made Goa the chief of the Portuguese establishments in India (1510). The occupation of
Malacca and Ceylon rendered the Portuguese
masters of the vast sea which terminates the Gulf
of Bengal at the north (1511-1518). The conqueror died at Goa, poor and disgraced, and with
him departed all the justice and all the humanity
of the conquerors. Long after his death, the Indians went to the grave of the great Albuquerque
to demand justice from him for the grievances
caused by his successors.




MODERN HISTORY.            311
Empzre of the Portuguese. - The Portuguese
having introduced themselves to China and Japan
(1517-42), possessed for some time all the maritime commerce of Asia. Their sway extended
over the coasts of Guinea, of Melinde, of Mozambique, and of Sofala; over those of both Indies,
over the Malaccas, Ceylon, and the Sonda Islands.
But they had little more in this vast extent of
country than a chain of factories and forts. The
decay of their colonies was accelerated by several
causes: first, the distance of their conquests;
second, the feeble population of Portugal little
calculated to extend their establishments; their
national pride prevented an amalgamation of the
conquerors with the conquered; third, the love
of plunder, which was soon substituted for the
spirit of commerce; fourth, the disorder of the administration; fifth, the monopoly of the crown;
sixth, and finally, the Portuguese, who were satisfied with transporting the merchandise to Lisbon,
and did not distribute it in Europe, must sooner or
later be supplanted by more industrious rivals.
John of Castro.-The downfall of their Empire
was retarded by two heroes, John of Castro (154348) and Ataide (1568-72). John of Castro had
to fight the Indians and the Turks united. The
King of Camboja had received from the great
Solyman engineers, founders, and all the imple.




312             SUMMARY OF
ments for a European war. Castro, nevertheless, delivered the citadel of Diu, and triumphed
at Goa, after the manner of the generals of antiquity. He wanted funds to repair the fortifications of Diu; he made a loan in his own name
from the inhabitants of Goa, giving them his whiskers for security. He expired in the arms of St.
Francis Xavier, in 1548. Only three reals were
found in the house of this man, who had the management of the treasury of the Indies.
Ataide.-The government of Ataide was the
epoch of a universal rising of the Indies against
the Portuguese; he faced every opponent, beat the
army of the King of Camboja, composed of a hundred thousand men, defeated Zamorin, and made
him swear to have no more vessels of war. Even
when he was again pressed in Goa, he refused to
give up the most remote possessions, and made vessels depart for Lisbon with the yearly tribute of the
Indies.
After his' death everything rapidly declined.
The division of India into three governments again
weakened the Portuguese power. At the death of
Sebastian, and his successor, the Cardinal Henri
(1581), Portuguese India followed the fate of Por
tugal, and passed into the unskilful hands of the
Spaniards (1582), until the period that the Dutch
came to divest them of this vast empire.




MODERN HISTORY.           318
CHAPTER XV.
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA —CONQUESTS AND EST-ABLISHMENTS OF THE SPANIARDS IN THE 15TH
AND 16TH -CENTURIES.
"' ONE of the most wonderful facts in regard to
our globe was, that one half of its inhabitants
had always been ignorant of the other half; all
which had before appeared grand sinks into insignificance when compared with this species of new
creation.
"' Christopher Columbus.-Columbus, struck with
the enterprises of the Portuguese, conceived that
one might do something even greater, and from only
attentively observing a map of the globe, he judged that there must be another world, and that he
would find it by steering continually towards the
west.  His courage was equal to the force of his
genius, and only the greater, that he had had to combat the prejudices of all the princes. Genoa, his native city, treated him as a visionary, and thus lost
the only opportunity which could be offered for its
aggrandizement. Henry VII., king of England,
more eager for money than capable of hazarding it in
so noble an enterprise, would not listen to the brother




314              SUMMARY OF
of Columbus; he was himself refused by John II.,
of Portugal, whose views were entirely turned towards the coast of Africa. He could not address
himself to France, where the navy was always
neglected, and where affairs were more than ever
in confusion, under the minority of Charles VIII.
The Enperor Maximilian had neither ports for a
fleet, nor money to equip it. Venice might have
undertaken it, but, whether the aversion of the Genoese for the Venitians did not permit Columbus to
address the rival of his country, or that Venice
could imagine no grandeur beyond her commerce
with Alexandria and the Levant, Columbus had
no hope left but in the court of Spain. It was,
however, only after eight years of solicitation that
fhe court of Isabella accepted the advantages which
the citizen of Genoa desired to bring her. The
court of Spain was poor; the Prior Perez, and two
merchants, named Pinzone, advanced 17,000 ducats for the expenses of the fleet. Columbus had a
patent from the court, and finally departed from the
port of Palos, in Andalusia, with three small vessels, and the empty title of admiral.
" Discovery of America, 1492 —Second Voyage,
1493.-Thirty-three days from the Canary Islands,
where he took in water, he discovered the first
island of America (October 12th, 1492), and during
this short passage he suffered more from the mur-*




MODERN HISTORY.            315
murs of his crew than he had endured from the rebuffs of the princes of Europe. This island, situated about a thousand leagues from the Canaries,
was named St. Salvador. He soon after discovered the other Bahama Islands, Cuba, and Hispaniola, which latter is now called St. Domingo. Great
was the surprise of Ferdinand and Isabella when
they beheld Columbus, at the end of seven months,
returning with Americans of Hispaniola, with cu
riosities of the country, and, above all, with gold,
which he presented to them. The king and queen
made him sit down, wearing his hat, as a grandee
of Spain, and they conferred on him the title of
the First Admiral and Viceroy of the New World.
He was everywhere regarded as a peculiar being,
sent from heaven.  It was the same with all who
had embarked under his orders. He again departed with a fleet of seventeen vessels (1493), and
discovered the Antilles and Jamaica. The doubts
and fears which his enterprise had excited were
changed into admiration after the success of his
first voyage, but that admiration became an envious jealousy in the course of his second.
"He was an admiral and a viceroy, and he
might also add to these titles that of benefactor of
Ferdinand and Isabella; and yet, judges sent in his
own vessels to watch over his conduct, brought




316             SUMMARY OF
him back a prisoner to Spain; the people, who
heard that Columbus had arrived;ran to meet him,
as the tutelary genius of their country. They led
Columbus from the vessel-he appeared before
them-but it was with irons on his hands and on
his feet.
" Third Voyage, 1498.-This cruel treatment was
inflicted by order of Fonseca, bishop of Burgos,
and superintendent of the armament. The ingratitude was as great as the services were memorable. Isabella was scandalized at it: she repaired
this insult as well as she was able; but they retained Columbus four years, either from fear that
he might appropriate to himself that which he had
discovered, or that they only wished to obtain time
to inform themselves of his conduct. Finally, they
sent him back to the New World (1498). It was
on this third voyage that he perceived the continent at ten degrees from the equator, and that he
saw the coast where they have since built Carthagena.
" Americo Vespucci.-The ashes of Columbus are
no longer interested in the fame which he enjoyed.
during his life, of having doubled the works of
creation. Yet men love to render justice to the
dead, whether it is that they flatter themselves with
the hope that thereby it will be the better rendered
to the living, or that they naturally love the truth.




MODERN HISTORY.            317
Americo Vespucci, a merchant of Florence, has
enjoyed the glory of giving his name to the new
half of the globe, in which he did not possess an
inch of ground; he pretended to have first discovered America. Were it true that he had made
that discovery, the glory of it would not be his; it
appertains incontestably to him who had the genius
and the courage to undertake the first voyage."Voltaire.
The Spaniards at the Antilles — Las Casas.While daring navigators pursued the work of Columbus, and the Portuguese and English discover North America, and while Balboa perceives
from the heights of Panama the Southern Ocean
(1513), the blind Cqapidity of the Spanish colonists
depopulate the Antilles. These first conquerors
of the New World were the refuse of the Old.
Adventurers, impatient to return to their own country, could not await the slow returns from agriculture or from industry. They knew no other riches
than gold. This error cost America ten millions
of men. The feeble and effeminate race which inhabited the country soon succumbed under their
excessive and unhealthy labours. The population
of Hispaniola was reduced, in 1507, from a million
of people to sixty thousand. Notwithstanding the
benevolent orders of Isabella, notwithstanding the
efforts of Ximenes, and the pathetic remonstrances




318             SUMMARY OF
of the Dominican monks, the depopulation spread
itself between the tropics. No voice was raised
in favour of the Americans more courageously, nor
with more firmness, than the voice of the celebrated Bartholomew de Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa,
the protector of the Indians. Twice he went to Europe to plead their cause solemnly before Charles
V. It is heart-breaking to read in his Destruccion
de las IndtAs of the barbarous treatment which those
unfortunate beings suffered.
Ferdinand Cortez.-We hardly know whether
to admire the bravery of the conquerors of America or to detest their ferocity. They had in four
expeditions discovered the coasts of Florida, Yucatan, and Mexico, when Ferdinand Cortez left
the island of Cuba for new expeditions on the
Continent (1519). "This simple lieutenant of the
governor of a newly-discovered island, followed by
less than six hundred persons, having only eighteen horses and a few pieces of cannon, went to
subjugate the most powerful nation of America.
At first he was happy enough to find a Spaniard
who had been for nine years prisoner at Yucatan,
on the road to Mexico; he served him as interpreter. Cortez advanced along the Gulf of Mexico, sometimes caressing the natives of the country, sometimes making war upon them. He found
cultivated cities where the arts were honoured.




MODERN HISTORY.            319
The powerful republic of Tlascala, which flourished
under an aristocratic government, opposed his passage; but the sight of the horses, and the sound
of a single cannon, put these badly-armed multitudes to flight. He made a peace as advantageous
as he desired; six thousand of his new allies of
Tlascala accompanied him on his way to Mexico. He entered that empire without resistance,
in spite of the fortifications of its sovereign; this
sovereign commanded thirty vassals, each of whom
could appear at the head of one hundred thousand
men, armed with arrows and sharp stones, which
served them instead of iron.
" Mexico.-The,ity of Mexico, built in the middile of a great lake, was the finest monument of
American industry; immense causeways crossed
the lake, and it was covered with little barges, nlade
from the trunks of trees. In the city were spacious
and commodious houses, constructed of stone; markets; shops which shone with works of gold and silver, engraved and carved; varnished earthenware;
stuffs of cotton and feathers, which formed designs,
made brilliant by the most vivid colours. Near the
great market was a palace, where summary justice
was administered to the tradesmen. Several palaces of the emperor, Montezuma, increased the magnificence of the city; one of them was surrounded
by gardens, where they cultivated only medical




320             SUMMARY OF
plants; superintendents distributed them gratuitously to the sick; they gave an account to the
king of the success attending their use, and the
physicians kept a register thereof, in their manner,
without knowing how to write. The other species of magnificence only indicated the progress
of the arts; this last shows the progress of morals. If human nature did not unite good and
evil, one would not be able to comprehend how
this morality could be reconciled with human sac.
rifices, the blood of which flowed before the idol
Visiliputsli, who was regarded as the god of the
armies. The ambassadors of Montezuma said to
Cortez (if we may believe the latter) that their
master had sacrificed in his wars near twenty thousand enemies each year in the great temple of
Mexico. This is, perhaps, an exaggeration; the
reporter may have wished to excuse in this way
the cruel injustice of the conqueror of Montezuma;
but afterward, when the Spaniards entered the
temple, they found among its ornaments human
sculls suspended as trophies. Their police, in
every other respect, was humane and wise: the
education of youth formed one of the great objects
of the government. There were public schools
established for both sexes. We still admire the ancient Egyptians for having known the year to contain about three hundred and sixty-five days. The




MODERN HISTORY.            321
Mexicans had carried their astronomy as far. War
was among them reduced to an art; it was this
which had given them such superiority over their
neighbours. Great order, in their finances maintained the grandeur of an empire, which was regarded by its neighbours with fear and envy.
" Reception of the Spaniards.-But those warlike
animals on which the principal Spaniards were
mounted, that artificial thunder which was formed
in their hands, those wooden castles which had
brought them over the ocean, the iron with which
they were covered, and their marches, reckoned by
their victories, all were so many subjects for admiration, and added to that weakness of human nature which is so attracted by novelty, they caused
Cortez to be received in the city of Mexico by
Montezuma as his master, and by the inhabitants
as their god. They threw themselves on their
knees in the street when a Spanish servant passed. It is related that a cacique of the district
through which a Spanish captain passed offered
him slaves and game.' If thou art God,' says he,'there are men, eat them; if thou art man, there
are provisions, which these slaves shall prepare
for thee.'
" Montezuma.-By degrees, the court of Montezuma, growing familiar with their guests, ventured
to treat them as men. A part of the Spaniards were




322             SUMMARY OF
at Vera Cruz, on their road to Mexico; a general
of the emperor, who had secret orders, attacked
them, and although his troops were conquered
there were three or four Spaniards among the kill
ed; the head of one of them was even carried tc
Montezuma. Cortez then performed the most da
ring, as well as the most guilty act of his life: lie
went to the palace, followed by fifty Spaniards, led
the emperor prisoner to the Spanish quarters, forced him to give up those who had attacked his
men at VTera Cruz, and had irons placed on the
hands and feet of the emperor himself, as a general
would punish a common soldier; finally, he compelled him publicly to acknowledge himself vassal of
Charles V. Montezuma and the principal men of
his empire gave, as a tribute incident to this homage, six hundred thousand marks of pure gold,
with an incredible quantity of jewels and works
of gold, and of whatever was most rare in the fabrics of several centuries. Cortez destined one fifth
for his master, took one fifth for himself, and distributed the rest among his soldiers.
" We may count it among the greatest of prodigies,
that while the conquerors of this New World were
at war among themselves, their conquests did not
suffer. Never was truth less like truth; while
Cortez was on the point of subjecting the Empire of
Mexico with 500 men who remained to him, the




MODERN HISTORY.             323
Governor of Cuba, Velasquez, more offended at
the glory of Cortez, his lieutenant, than at his disobedience, sent nearly all his troops, which consisted of eight hundred foot-soldiers, eighty horsemen, well mounted, and two small pieces of cannon, to reduce Cortez, to take him prisoner, and
to follow out the course of his victories.  Cortez,
having on the one side to fight a thousand Spaniards, and on the other to hold the Continent in
submission, left eighty men to be responsible to
him for all Mexico, and marched, followed by the
rest, against his compatriots; he defeated a part
of them, and gained over the rest. In short, this
army, which came to destroy him, ranged itself
under his banner, and he returned to Mexico with it.
"The emperor was constantly in prison in his
capital, guarded by eighty soldiers; he who commanded them, on a true or false report that the
Mexicans were conspiring to deliver their master,
had seized the opportunity of a feast, when two
thousand of the first lords were completely intoxicated by their strong liquors; he fell on them with
fifty soldiers, killed them and their suite without resistance, and robbed them of all the gold ornaments
and jewels with which they had decorated themselves for this feast. This enormity, which all the
people attributed, with reason, to the fury of avarice, exasperated these men, heretofore too patient;




324             SUMMARY OF
and when Cortez arrived, he found 200,000 Americans in arms against eighty Spaniards, who were occupied with defending themselves and guarding the
king. They besieged Cortez, to deliver their king;
they precipitated themselves in crowds on the cannons and muskets. The Spaniards were fatigued
with firing on them, and the Americans followed
each other in crowds, without being discouraged.
Cortez was obliged to leave the city, where he would
have been starved; but the Mexicans had broken
all the causeways; the Spaniards made bridges
with the bodies of their enemies; in their bloody
retreat, they lost all the treasures which they had
seized for Charles V. and themselves; victorious
in the bloody battle of Otumba, Cortez undertook
to lay siege to that immense city. He caused
more vessels to be built by his soldiers and by the
Tlascalians, whom he had with him, that he might
re-enter Mexico by the lake itself, which seemed
to forbid his entrance. The Mexicans feared not
a naval battle; four or five thousand canoes, each
one laden with two men, covered the lake, and
came to attack the nine vessels of Cortez, on
which he had about 300 men. These nine brigantines, which had cannons, soon overthrew the fleet
of the enemy. Cortez, with the rest of his troops,
fought on the causeways. Seven or eight cap.
tured Spaniards were sacrificed in the temple of




MODERN HiSTORY.            325
Mexico.  But, finally, after new combats, they
took the new emperor.  It was Gatimozin, so
famous for the words which he pronounced when
a receiver of the treasures of the King of Spain
had him placed on burning charcoal, to know in
what part of the lake he had thrown his riches;
his grand priest, condemned to the same punishment, uttered cries: Gatimozin said to him,' And
I, am I on a bed of roses?'
" Taking of Mexico, 1521. —Cortez was absolute
master of the city of Mexico (1521), with which
all the rest of the Empire fell under the Spanish
dominion, as also CastillS d'Or, Darien, and all
the neighbouring countries. What was the reward
of the wonderful services of Cortez? That of Columbus-he was persecuted. Notwithstanding the
titles with which he was decorated in his native
country, he was little respected there; he could
hardly obtain an audience of Charles V. One day
he pushed through the crowd which surrounded
the coach of the emperor, and stepped on the step
of the door. Charles asked who this man was.' It is he,' replied Cortez,' who has given you
more kingdoms than your ancestors have left you
cities.'
" Peru.-In the mean time, the Spaniards sought
for new countries to conquer and depopulate. Magelhaens (Magellan) had gone round South AmeriB




326             SUMMARY OF
ca, traversed the Pacific Ocean, and was the first to
circumnavigate the globe. But the greatest American nation, next to Mexico, yet remained to be discovered. One day, when the Spaniards weighed
some pieces of gold, an Indian, turning the scales
upside down, said to them that at six days' journey
towards the south they would find a country where
gold was so common that they used it for the most
common purposes. Two adventurers, Pizarro and
Almagro, a foundling and a swineherd, who had
become soldiers, undertook the discovery and the
conquest of these vast countries, which the Spaniards have distinguishedcby the name of Peru.
" From the country of Cusco and the neighbourhood of the tropic of Capricorn, to the height of
the Isle of Pearls, a simple king stretched his absolute dominion over a space of nearly thirty degrees; he was of a race of conquerors which they
called Incas. The first of these Incas, who had
subjected the country and imposed laws upon it,
passed as the son of the sun. The Peruvians
transmitted important facts to posterity by knotted
cords. They had obelisks, regular dials to mark the
points of equinoxes and solstices. Their year had
365 days. They had raised prodigies of architecture, and cut statues with a surprising skill. This
was the best governed and most industrious nau
tion of the New World.




MODERN HISTORY.             327:'"The- Inca Huescar,* father of Atabalipa, the last
Inea, under whom this vast empire was destroyed,
had; increased and embellished it much. This inca, who conquered all the country of Quito, had
made, by the hands of his soldiers and conquered
people, a grand road of five hundred leagues, from
Cusco to Quito, over valleys filled up, precipices
and mountains levelled. Relays of men, established every half league, carried the orders of the monarch over all his vast empire.  Such was its police;
and if one would judge of its magnificence, it is sufficient to say that the king was carried: i his jour,
neys on a throne of solid gold, which was found to
weigh twenty-five thousand ducats, and that the litter, composed of bars of gold, on which was the
throne, was borne by the highest personages of the
kingdom.
"Pizarro, 1552. — Pizarro attacked this empire
with two hundred and fifty foot-soldiers, sixty horsemen, and twelv3 small cannon. He arrived through
the South Sea on the heights of Quito, beyond the
equator.  Atabalipa, son of Huana, reigned at
that time (1532); he was at Quito with about
forty thousand soldiers, armed with arrows and
pikes of gold and silver. Pizarro, like Cortez,
commenced by offering the friendship of Charles
V. to the Inca. When the army of the Inca and
* More properly Huana. Huascar was the brother of Atabalipa.See Robertson's America.-Tr.




328             SUMMARY OF
the feeble Castilian troops were in presence of each
other, the Spaniards were willing to give the colour
of religion to their cause. A monk, named Valverde, advances with an interpreter towards the
Inca, a Bible in his hand, and says to him that he
must believe all this book says. The Inca, approaching it with his ear, and hearing nothing, threw
it on the ground, and the combat commenced.
"' The cannon, the horses, and arms of iron had
the same effect-on the Peruvians as on the Mexicans; they took but little pains to kill them; and
Atabalipatlragged from his throne of gold by the
conquerors, was loaded with irons. To procure a
speedy liberation, he obliged himself to give as
much gold as one of the saloons of his palace
could contain as high as his hand, which he raised
above his head. Each Spanish cavalier had 240
marks in pure gold; each foot-soldier 160. They
divided about ten times as much silver in the same
proportion. The officers had immense riches; and
they sent to Charles V. 30,000 marks of silver,
3000 of unwrought gold, and 20,000 marks of
heavy silver, with 2000 of gold coin of the country. The unfortunate Atabalipa was, nevertheless,
put to death.
"Diego of Almagro marched to Cusco, making
a road through multitudes of human beings. He
penetrated into Chili. Everywhere they took possession in the name of Charles V. Soon after,




MODERN HISTORY.            329
discord embroiled the conquerors of Peru, as it
had divided Velasquez and Ferdinand Cortez in
Northern America.
" Civil Wars.-Almagro and the brothers of Pizarro commenced the civil war in Cusco itself, the
capital of the Incas; all the recruits which they
had received from Europe divided themselves, and
they fought for the chief whom they chose. They
had a bloody battle under the walls of Cusco without the Peruvians venturing to profit by the weakness of their common enemy. Finally, Almagro
was made prisoner, and his rival had him beheaded; but soon after he himself was killed by the
friends of Almagro.
" Already the Spanish government had been organized in all the New World; the great provinces
had their governors; tribunals, called Audiences,
were established; archbishops, bishops, tribunals
of inquisition, all the ecclesiastical hierarchy, exercised their duties as at Madrid, when the captains
who had conquered Peru for the emperor, Charles
V., wished to take it for themselves. A son of
Almagro had himself acknowledged governor of
Peru; but the other Spaniards, choosing to obey
masters who resided in Europe in preference to
their companion, who had become a sovereign, had
him put to death by the hand of a hangman."Voltaire.




.... ~ ~0       SUM1MARY OF
A new civil war was stifled in the same man.
ner. Charles V., finally yielding to the remon.
strances of Las Casas, had to guaranty personal
liberty to the Indians, by determining the tributes
and services to which they should be subjected
(15:42).
The Spanish colonies took up arms and declared
themselves for the chief Gonzalo Pizarro. But
the name of the king was so respected that it was
sufficient to restore order to send an old man, an
inquisitor (Pedro de la Gasca). He gathered
round him the greater part of the Spaniards; he
gained over some, overthrew the others, and secured to Spain the possession of Peru (1546).,
Spanish Empire in America-  Outline of the
Spanish Empire in America.-If we except Mexico and Peru, Spain, in reality, only possessed the
coasts. The people of the interior could be subjected only as they were converted by missions,
and attached to the soil by civilization.
IDiscoveries and Different Establishments, 1540.
-Expedition of Gonzalo Pizarro to discover the
land east of the Andes; Orellana traverses South
America by a voyage of 2000 leagues. Establishments: 1527, the province of Venezuela; 1535,
Buenos Ayres;: 1536, province of Grenada; 1540,
St. Jago; 1550, Conception; 1555, Carthagena and
Porto-Bello; 1567, Caraccas.




MODERN HISTORY.            331
Administration.-Political government: in Spain,
Council of the Indies and Court of Commerce and
Justice; in America, two viceroys, audiences,
municipalities. Caciques and protectors of the Indians. Ecclesiastical government (entirely dependant on the king): archbishops, bishops, cures, or
teachers, missionaries, monks; Inquisition established in 1570 by Philip II.
Commercial Administration-Monopoly. —Privileged ports in America, Vera Cruz, Carthagena,
and Porto-Bello; in Europe, Seville:(later, Cadiz);
fleet and galleons. Agriculture and manufactures
are neglected in Spain and in America, for the
exploring of the mines; slow increase of the
colonies, and ruin of the metropolis before 1600.
But in the course of the sixteenth century, the
enormous quantity of precious metals which Spain
must draw from America contributes to make her
the preponderating power of Europe.
CHAPTER XVI.
LITERATURE —-ARTS AND SCIENCES IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY —LEO X. AND FRANCIS I.
THE fifteenth century had been an age of learning; enthusiasm for antiquity had caused the path
so happily opened by Dante, Boccacio, and Pe



332             SUMMARY OF
trarch to be abandoned. In the sixteenth century
modern genius is -brilliant with a new effulgence,
never to be extinguished.
The march of mind at this' epoch presents two
very distinct movements: the first, favoured by the
influence of Leo X. and Francis I., belongs to
Italy and France; the second is European. The
former, characterized by the progress of literature
and arts, is arrested in France by civil wars, and
retarded in Italy by foreign wars: in Italy the
genius of literature is extinguished under the yoke
of the Spaniards; but the impulse given to the arts
prolongs itself to the middle of the following cen.
tury. The second movement is the development
of a daring spirit of doubt and of examination. In
the seventeenth century it was partly arrested by
a return to religious creeds, partly turned towards
the natural sciences, but it will reappear in the
eighteenth.
~ I. LITERATURE AND ARTS.
Independently of the general causes which have
produced the regeneration of literature, such as the
progress of security and wealth, the discovery of
the monuments of antiquity, &c., &c., several particular causes have given it a new energy with the
Italians of the sixteenth century:  1st. Books
have become plenty, thanks to the progress of
printing; 2d. The Italian nation, being no more




MODERN  HISTORY.                   333
able to control her destiny, seeks consolation in
intellectual and literary enjoyments; a number of
princes, and especially the Medici, encourage
scholars and artists; illustrious writers profit less
by this patronage.
Italy -  Poetr. -  Poetry, which, with the arts,
forms the principal glory of Italy in the sixteenth
century, unites taste and genius in the first part of
this period. The epic muse raises two immortal
monuments. Comedy and tragedy present some
essays, in truth, not above mediocrity. The most
opposite styles of satire and pastoral poetry are
cultivated.  It is especially in the latter that we
remark the rapid decay of taste.
Boiardo    died in 1490     Trissino    died in  1550
Machiavel   "    1529       Tasso          "   1596
Ariosto     "    1533       Guarini        i   1619
Prose.-Eloquence, the slow  product of literature, has not time to form  itself.  But several historians approach the style of antiquity.
Machiavel  died in 1529     Paul Jove    died in  1562
Fr. Guicciardini"  1540     Baronius            1607
Bembo         " 1547
Learning.-The ancient languages are cultivated much more than in the preceding age, but this
glory is eclipsed by many others.
Pontanus    died in 1503   Sadolet      died in 1547
Aldus Manucius"   1516      Fracastor       "   1553
John Second   "   1523     J. C. Scaliger    "   1558
Sannazar      "   1530      Vida            "   1563
A., J. Lascaris  "   1535   P. Manutius     "   1574
Bembo         "   1547      Aldus Manutius  "   1597
Cc




334                SUMMARY OF
Arts.-Superiority  in the arts in Italy is the
characteristic trait of the sixteenth century. The
ancients remain without rivals in sculpture; but
the moderns equal them  in architecture, and in
painting they perhaps surpass them. The Roman
school excels in perfection of design, the Yenitian in beauty of colouring.
Giorgione   died in 1511    Primatice  died in 1564
Bramante     " 1514    Palladio          " 1568
Leonardo de Vinci "  1520  Titian        " 1576
Raphael      "  1518     Veronese        " 1588
Corregio     "  1534     Tintoret        " 1594
Parmesair    "  1534     Augustin Carrache " 1601
Jules Romain   "  1546   Caravage        " 1609
Michael Angelo "  1564   Hannibal Carrache " 1609
John Udino   "  1564     Louis Carrache    " 1619
France.-France followed Italy at a distance
The historian Comines died in 1509. Francis I
founds the College of France and the royal print
ing-press. He encourages the poet Marot (1544),
and the brothers Du Bellay (1543, 1560), negotiators and historians. His sister, Margaret of Navarre (1549), cultivates literature herself.  Francis
I. distinguishes Titian, draws Primatice and Leonardo de Vinci into France. He builds Fontainebleau, St. Germain, Chambord, and commences
the Louvre. Under him flourished John Cousin
(1589), designer and painter; Germain: Pilon,
Philibert de l'Orme, John Goujon (1572), sculptors and architects; the scholars, William Bu



MODERN HISTORY.            335
dmus (1540), Turnebe (1563), Muret (1585),
Henry Stephens (1598), a celebrated printer;
finally, the celebrated lawyers Dumoulin (1566)
and Cujacius (1590). After the reign of Francis
I., the poet Ronsard (1585) enjoyed a brief reputation; but Montaigne (1592), Amyot (1593), and
the Satire Menippee, gave a new character to the
French language.
Germany, Spain, &c., &c.-The other countries
are not so rich in eminent talents.  Yet Germany boasts her Luther, the shoemaker poet, Hans
Sachs, and the painters Albert Durer and Lucas
Cranach. Portugal and Spain have their illustrious writers-Camoens, Lope de Vega, and Cervantes; the Netherlands and Scotland their men of
letters and their historians-Justus Lipsius (1616)
and Buchanan (1582). Among the forty-three
universities founded in the sixteenth century, fourteen were established by the kings of Spain alone,
ten of them by Charles V.
~ II. PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.
Philosophy. —Philosophy, in the preceding century, was cultivated only by the learned. It was
limited to attacking the school divinity, and opposing Platonism to it. By degrees, impelled by a
more rapid movement, it extends its examination
to every subject. But the human mind then sought
after knowledge at hazard; there was no method,




336                  SUMMARY OF
and too little observation. Many learned men were
discouraged, and became the most daring skeptics.
Erasmus died in 1533       Montaigne died in 1592
Vives     "    1540       G. Bruno   "   1600
Rabelais   "    1553      Charron    "   1603
Cardan    "    1576       Bcehmen   "   1624
Telesio    "    1588      Campanella "   1639
Politics. - The theory of politics began with
Machiavel; but at the commencement of the sixteenth century, the Italians had not made progress
enough in this science to perceive that it accorded
with morality.
Machiavel died in 1529    Bodin died in  1596
Thomas More " 1533
Natural Sciences.-The natural sciences leave
chimerical systems to enter upon the path of observation and experience.
Paracelsus died in 1541    Gesner died in 1565
Copernicus  "  1543        Pare       "   1592
Fallopius   "  1562        Vieta      "   1603
Vesalius    "  1564        Van Helmont"  1644
CHAPTER XVII.
TROUBLES AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN
OF LOUIS XIII.-RICHELIEU, 1610-1643.
THE general characteristic of the seventeenth
century is the progress both of royalty and of the
Tiers-Etat.* The progress of royalty was only
* i. e., Third Estate, or Commons.




MODERN HISTORY.             337
suspended twice, i. e., by the minorities of Louis
XIII. and Louis XIV. The Tiers-Etat is arrested
only towards the end of the reign of Louis XIV.
At this period, the king, having for a long time had
nothing to fear from the nobility, gave up the ad.
ministration to them. Hitherto all the ministers,
Concini, Luynes, Richelieu, Mazarin, Colbert,
Louvois, had risen from the plebeians, or, at the
most, from the lowest nobility. Some of the admirals and superior officers of the armies of Louis
XIV. belonged to the lowest ranks of the people.
In the first part of this century political action was, as it were, negative. It endeavoured
to overthrow the great obstacles to monarchical
centralization, the nobles and the Protestants. In
the second half, there was under Colbert an effort
at legislative organization; and, above all, at an
administrative one; productive industry was more
esteemed.  France acts powerfully within and
without; she produces, she wages wars.  But
production keeps not pace with consumption.
France exhausts herself to complete her territory,
by means of necessary and glorious conquests.
The course of her internal prosperity is also retarded by the extent of her wars and conquests,
and by an aristocratical reaction. The nobility
seize the monarchical power, place themselves
everywhere between the king and the people,




338             SUMMARY OF
and communicate to royalty their own decrepitude.
Louis XIII.-Mary of Medici Regent-Concini.
— Henry IV. found great difficulty in supporting
himself between the Protestants and Catholics.
This indecision could not continue after his death;
one side had to be chosen, and it was the Protestant side. The great war of Germany, which had
commenced, offered to the King of France the
noble post of chief of the European opposition
against the house of Austria; the post which,
twenty years later, Gustavus Adolphus took. The
king was dead; Louis XIII. an infant, Mary of
Medici, the regent, and Concini, her minister, both
Italians, could not perpetuate Henry IV. This
child, this woman, could not mount on horseback
to make war on Austria.  Not being able to
fight Austria, it was necessary to have her for a
friend. As they could not lead the nobles and
the Protestants in Germany on a Protestant crusade, they must, if possible, gain over the nobles
and weaken the Protestants. This policy of Concini, which has been so much blamed by historians,
received its justification from the best judge on this
subject, from  Richelieu himself, in one of his
writings. The nobles, from whom Henry IV. had
not:been able to take their strongholds, a Conde,
an Epernon, a Bouillon, a Longueville, found them



MIODE RN HISTORY.         339
selves all armed at his death; they exacted money,
and it was necessary, in order to avoid a civil war,
to deliver the treasury of Henry IV. to them (twelve
millions, and not thirty, according to Richelieu).
Then they demanded the States-General (1614).
These states doing nothing, did not answer the
expectation of the nobles; they showed themselves
devoted to the crown; the Tiers-Etat claimed a
declaration of independence from the crown in
regard to the pope. The nobles not being able to
draw anything from the States, had recourse to
force, and united themselves with the Protestants
(1615); a strange alliance of the ancient feudal
party with the religious Reformation of the sixteenth century. Concini, tired of a middle course,
had the Prince of Conde, chief of the coalition,
arrested; this bold proceeding announced the era
of new politics; the young Richelieu had appear.
ed (1616).
De Luynes, 1617.- An intrigue of the court
overthrew Concini for the benefit of the young
Luynes, a favourite domestic of the little king,
who persuaded him to liberate himself from his
minister and from his mother (1617). Concini
was assassinated; his widow, Leonora GaligaY,
was executed as a sorceress. Their true crimes
were robbery and venality. Luynes did little except to continue the ministry of Concini. He had




340             SUMMARY OF
one enemy more, the mother of the king, who
twice excited fears of a civil war. The Protestants took daily.a more threatening attitude. They
demanded, arms in hand, the fulfilment of that
dangerous Edict of Nantes, which allowed a republic to exist within the kingdom. Luynes drove
them to extremities by reuniting Berne to the
crown, and declaring that in that province ecclesiastical property should be made over to the
Catholics. This was precisely what the'emperor
wished to do in Germany, and it was the principal
cause of the Thirty Years' War. Richelieu, at a
later period, avoided this mistake. HIe did not
trouble the Protestants about their usurped property; he only interested himself about their strongholds. Their assembly of La Rochelle (1621)
published a declaration of independence, divided
the 700 Reformed Churches of France into eight
circles, regulated the raising of money and men,
and, in one word, organized the Protestant Repub.
lic. They offered to Lesdiguibres 100,000 crowns
a month if he would place himself at the head of
their army and organize it. But the old soldier
would not, at the age of eighty, leave his little
kingdom of Dauphiny to accept the command of
this undisciplined party. Luynes, who had taken
the command of the armies and the title of Con.
stable, miscarried disgracefully before Montanban.




MODERN HISTORY.            341
where he had conducted the king. He died in this
campaign (1621).
Richelieu- War against the Pope and the Protestants-Intrigues of Gaqton.- It was only two
years afterward that the queen-mother introduced
her creature, Richelieu, into the council (1624).
The king had an antipathy for this man, in whom
he seemed to foresee a master. The first thought
of Richelieu was to neutralize the power of-England, the sole ally of the Protestants of France.
This was done in two ways: first, he supported
Holland; he lent her money to obtain vessels;
and, secondly, the marriage of the King of England with the beautiful Henrietta of France, daughter of Henry IV., increased the natural indecision of Charles I., and the distrust of the English
towards his government. The cardinal thus began by an alliance with the English and the heretic Dutch, and by a war against the pope; we
may judge from this what freedom of mind he
brought into politics. The pope, given up to the
Spaniards, held for them the small Swiss canton Valteline, thus guarding that entrance of the
Alps, by which their Italian possessions communicated with Austria. Richelieu hired some Swiss
troops, sent them against those of the pope, and
gave Yalteline to the Grisons, not without having
assured himself by a decision at Sarbonue that he




342              SUMMARY OF
could do it conscientiously. After having defeated the pope, he defeated in the following year the
Protestants (1525), who had again taken up arms;
he defeated and he managed, but he was not able to
destroy them. He was shackled in the execution
of his grand projects by the most contemptible intrigues. Women excited the young; the domestics of Gaston, duke of Orleans, spurred his slothful arhbition. They wished to give him a support
from abroad, by making him marry a foreign princess. Richelieu endeavoured first to gain them
over. He gave a marshal's staff to Ornano, governor of Gaston.  This imboldened them, and
they plotted his death. Richelieu caused, moreover, their principal accomplice, the young Chalais,
to join him, but obtained nothing. Then changing
his policy, he gave Chalais up to a committee of
the Parliament of Bretagne, and had him beheaded
(1626). Gaston, while they took off the head of
his friend, married, without saying a word, Mademoiselle de Montpensier. D'Ornano was shut up
in the Bastile, and died there soon after, doubtless
from poison. The favourites of Gaston were condemned to die at the Bastile (Puylaurens, in 1635).
Such were the politics of the time; as such, we
read them  in the Machiavel of the seventeenth
century, Gabriel Naude, librarian of Mazarin. The
motto of these politics, as Naud6 gives it, is this:




MODERN HISTORY.             343
Salus populi suprema lex esto. For the rest, they
were consistent in the choice of means. It is the
same atrocious doctrine which inspired our terrorists of'93. It seems to have left Richelieu neither
doubts nor remorse. As he expired, the priest
asked him if he pardoned his enemies. " I have
never had any," replied he, " other than those of the
state." He had uttered at another time these words,
which make us tremble: "I dare undertake nothing without having well thought of it; but when I
once form my resolution, I proceed straight towards
my end: I overthrow all-cut down all; and, final.
ly, I cover all with my red robe."
Taking of La Rochel7e.-In reality, he marched
straight onward with a terrible inflexibility.  He
suppressed the office of Constable; that of Admiral
of France he took for himself, under the title of General Superintendent of the Marine. This title would
seem to announce him as destroyer of La Rochelle.
Under the pretext of economy, he ordered the reduction of pensions and the demolition of fortresses.
The fortress of Protestantism, La Rochelle, was
finally attacked. A coxcomb, who governed the
King of England, the handsome Buckingham, had
solemnly declared himself in love with the great
Queen of France; they closed against him all entrance to the kingdom, and he caused war to be
declared against France. The English promised




344             SUMMARY OF
succour to La Rochelle; it revolted, and fell under
the grasp of Richelieu (1627-28). Buckingham
came with several thousand men, to be beaten
on the isle of Rhe.  Charles I. had afterward
many other affairs on hand. With the famous
Petition of Right (1628) commenced the revolution
of England, to which Richelieu was anything but
a stranger. In the mean time, La Rochelle, abandoned by the English, saw herself cut off from the
sea by a prodigious dam of 1500 toises: we may
still distinguish the remains of it at low water.
The work took more than a year: the sea carried
off the dam more than once. Richelieu did not let
go his booty. French Amsterdam, of which Coligny had thought to make himself a second William of Orange, was seized in her waters, and
made inland; separated from her proper element,
she could but languish. Protestantism was killed
by the same blow, at least as a political party.
The war still continued in the South. The famous
Duke of Rohan put an end to it by an agreement
for 100,000 crowns.
War of Italy, 1629-30.-After having divided
the Protestant party in France, Richelieu beat the
Catholic party in Europe; he forced the Spaniards
into their Italy, where they had reigned since
Charles V. By a short war he cut the knot of difficulty in the succession of Mantua and Montser



MODERN HISTORY.            345
rat; they were small possessions, but great military posts. The last duke had bequeathed them to
a French prince, the Duke of Nevers. The Savoyards, fortified in the Pass of Suza, thought
themselves impregnable, and Richelieu himself
thought so. The king took this terrible obstacle
in person; the Duke of Neyers wasg confirmed in
his authority; France had an advance station in
Italy, and the Duke of Savoy knew that the French
passed near whenever they wished (1630).
Day of Dupes.-During this great war, the mother of the king, the courtiers, the ministers even,
made a silent and cowardly attack upon Richelieu.
They thought to have dethroned him. He saw
Louis again, spoke to him a quarter of an hour, and
found himself once more sovereign. This day was
called the Day of the Dupes. It was a comedy.
Richelieu prepared to depart in the morning, and
his enemies did the same at night. But the piece
had its tragical side. The cardinal had the two
Marillacs, the marshal and the superintendent, both
creatures of his who had turned against him, arrested. Without speaking of the crime of extortion and peculation, so common at this period, they
were guilty of having endeavoured to cause the
failure of the war of Italy, by retaining the sums
which were appropriated for it. The head of one
of them was taken off. What was most odious in




346              SUMMARY OF
this: act was, that the criminal was tried by a com.
mittee of his' personal enemies, in a private house,
even in the palace of Richelieu, at Ruel.
Revolt of Gaston-Montmarency Decapitated. —
The queen-mother, a more embarrassing enemy,
had been arrested and intimidated. She had decided to make her escape, with her son Gaston,
to Brussels. Gaston, aided by the Duke of Lorraine, whose daughter was his second wife, assembled some undisciplined troops, and entered
France.  He had been invited by the nobles,
by Montmorency among others, to be Governor of
Languedoc.  The nobles wished this time to play
quit or double.  To join with Montmorency, it
was necessary to traverse the kingdom. The
badly-paid soldiers of Gaston recompensed themselves with their own hands on the road. Everywhere the cities closed their gates against these
brigands. The junction took place at Castelnaudari, and nevertheless they were beaten (1632).
Gaston threw away his arms, and again made
peace, delivering up his friends; he took an express oath to love the ministers of the king, the cardinal in particular. Montmorency, wounded and
taken, was cruelly beheaded at Toulouse. Men
deplored this last representative of the chivalrous
and feudal world. Already his father, the Duke
of Bouteville, father of:the celebrated Luxemburg,




MODERN HISTORY.           347
had been beheaded in 1627 for having fought a
duel. When such heads fell, the nobles began to
comprehend that they must no more trifle with the
government and the law.
Thirty Years' War.- The Thirty Years' War
was then at its height. Richelieu could not interfere with it directly, as long as he had the nobles
upon his hands. The emperor had at that time defeated the Protestant party; the Palatine was
ruined (1623); the King of Denmark left the party (1629). The Catholic armies had the greatest
generals at their head —the tactician Tilly, and
that demon of war, Waldstein. To lift up the
Protestants, to rouse unwieldy Germany, required
a movement from abroad. Richelieu searched the
North, even beyond Denmark, and from Sweden
he drew Gustavus Adolphus. He first relieved
him from the war with Poland; he gave him
money, procured him an alliance with the United
Provinces and with the King of England. At the
same time, he had the address to determine the
emperor to disarm himself. The Swede, a poor
prince, who had more to gain than to lose, rushed
atonce into Germany, fell upon it like a thunderbolt, confounded the famous tacticians, and beat
them with ease, while they were studying how to
avert his blows. He took from them with one
stroke the whole of the Rhine, the whole of the




348             SUMMARY OF
west of Germany. Richelieu had not foreseen that
he would proceed so swiftly. Happily, Gustavus
perished at Lutzen; happy alike for his enemies,
for his allies, and for his own glory. He died
honest and unconquered (1632).
_French Period, 1635-48. —Richelieu continued
his aid to the Swedes, closed France on the side
of Germany by confiscating Lorraine, and declared
war upon the Spaniards (1635). He thought the
house of Austria sufficiently checked to enable him
to make division of its spoils. He had bought
over to his interest the best pupil of Gustavus
Adolphus, Bernard of Saxe Weimar. But this
war was difficult at first. The Imperialists entered by Burgundy, and the Spaniards by Picardy.
They were not more than thirty leagues from
Paris. All was confusion; the minister himself
seemed to have lost his reason. The Spaniards
were driven back (1636). Bernard of Weimar
gained his glorious battles of Rhinfeld and Brisach
for the benefit of France; Brisach and Friburg,
those impregnable places were also taken. The
temptation became strong for Bernard; he wished
with the money of France to form himself a small
sovereignty on the Rhine; his master, the great
Gustavus, had not had time; Bernard had as little.
He died at thirty-six years, most opportunely fox
France and Richelieu (1639).




MODERN HISTORY.            349
Catalonia and Portugal, 1640- Cinq Mars.In the following year (1640) the cardinal found
means to simplify the war. It was creating one in
Spain among her own subjects, and more than one.
The East and West, Catalonia and Portugal, took
fire all at once. The Catalonians placed themselves under the protection of France. Spain
wished to follow the example of Richelieu, to procure for her benefit an internal war in France.
She made a treaty with Gaston, and with the nobles. The Count of Soissons, who moved before
he was ordered, was obliged to save himself among
the Spaniards, and was killed in fighting for them
near Sedan (1641). The faction was not discouraged; a new plot was contrived in concert with
Spain. The young Cinq Mars, master of the
horse, and favourite of Louis XIII., engaged in it
with an imprudence which lost Calais. The prudent De Thou, son of the historian, knew of the
affair, but kept it secret. The king himself was
not ignorant that they plotted the ruin of the minister. Richelieu, who at that time was very sick,
seemed lost beyond help. Yet, having succeeded
in procuring a copy of their treaty with the foreigner, he had still time to prosecute his enemies before his death. He caused the head of Cinq Mars
and of De Thou to be cut off; the Duke of Bouillon,
who had already been denounced, purchased his
D n




350   SUMMARY OF MODERN HISTORY.
life by giving up his city of Sedan, the focus of all
these intrigues. On the other side of France, Richelieu at the same time took Perpignan from the
Spaniards. These two places were a legacy from
the cardinal to France, which they covered on the
North and South. This great man died in the
same year (1642).




THIRD PERIOD.
1648-1789.








PART  I.-164   1715.
CHAPTER XVIII.
TROUBLES UNDER MAZARIN - COMMENCEMENT OF
COLBERT S ADMINISTRATION-LOUIS XIV., 16431661.
Louis XIV., 1643 —Mazarin.-The death of
Richelieu was a deliverance for all the world. Men
breathed freely. The people gave vent to their
joy in songs. The king sung them himself, all
dying as he was. His widow, Anne of Austria,
was regentess in the name of the new King Louis
XIV., who was then six years of age. France,
after Richelieu and Louis XIII., as after Henry
IV., found herself under the feeble sway of a woman who knew not how to resist her enemies or
retain her own power. A contemporary writer
says, that then there were not more than three little
words in the French language-" The queen is so
good." The Concini of this new Mary of Medicis
was an Italian of much talent, the Cardinal Mazarin. His administration was as deplorable at home
as it was glorious abroad; it was disturbed by the




354             SUMMARY OF
ridiculous revolution of the Fronde, and made illustrious by the two treaties of Westphalia and the
Pyrenees; the first remained the diplomatic chart
of Europe until the French Revolution. The good,
the bad, were equally an inheritance from Richelieu; he had taxed to excess every energy of
government; it naturally relaxed under Mazarin.
Richelieu having daily to engage in some deadly
combat, had lived, as it regarded finances, on tyrannical expedients. He had consumed both present and future means by destroying credit. Ma.
zarin, finding affairs in this condition, increased the
disorder, letting the people take, and taking himself. He left at his death two hundred millions
worth of property. He had always too much sense
not to feel the value of order in the finances. On
his deathbed he said to Louis XIV., he thought
he had acquitted himself of all wrong towards his
master by giving him Colbert. A part of this embezzled money was used honourably. He sent Gabriel Naude all over Europe to purchase valuable
books at any price; thus he formed his admirable
Bibliotheque Mazarine, and he opened it to the
public. This was the first public library in Paris.
At the same time he gave to Des Cartes, who had
retired to Holland, a pension of one thousand
crowns, which was regularly paid to him.
Rocroi, 1643.-The new reign was commenced




MODERN HISTORY.             3So
by victories.  The French infantry for the first time
took rank in the world by the battle of Rocroi;
(1643).  This event was a very different affair
from a battle; it was a great social fact. Cavalry
form the aristocratic arm of a nation-infantry the
plebeian. The appearance of infantry is the appearance of the people. Whenever a national sentiment springs up, infantry appears.  As is the
people, so are the infantry. During the century
and a half that Spain had been a nation, the Spanish foot-soldier reigned on the field of battle, fearless under its fire; respecting himself, though in
rags, and causing everywhere the Sefior Soldade
to be respected; for the rest, gloomy, avaricious,
and covetous, badly paid, yet patiently waiting the
pillage of some good city in Germany or Flanders.
They had in the time of Charles V. sworn " by the
sacking of Florence;" they had plundered Rome,
then Antwerp, then innumerable cities of the Netherlands. Among the Spaniards there were men of
all nations, especially Italians. National character
disappeared. Their esprit de corps, and the ancient honour of the army, still sustained them when
they'were carried by land to the battle of Rocroi.
The soldier who took their place was the French
soldier, the ideal of the soldier, impetuosity dis.
ciplined. Though far, as yet, from comprehending
the; true nature of patriotism, this soldier had still a




356             SUMMARY OF
warm affection for the land of his birth. It was
a merry population of the sons of labourers, whose
grandfathers had fought in the last religious wars.
These wars of partisans, and these skirmishes at
pistol-shot distance, made a whole nation of soldiers; there were traditions of honour and bravery
in their families. The grandchildren enrolled, and,
conducted by a young man of twenty years, the
great Conde, forced the Spanish lines at Rocroi,
and routed the ancient bands as gayly as their descendants, under the command of another young
man, broke the bridges of Arcola and Lodi.
Since the time of Gustavus Adolphus, war had
breathed a more liberal spirit. Armies trusted less
to materiel, more to moral force. Tactics, if I may
so speak, had become spiritualized. Since they
had felt this inspiration, men could march without
counting the enemy. They required a daring spirit
at their head; a young man, confident of success.
Conde, at Friburg, threw his staff into the ranks
of the enemy; all the French ran to bring it back.
Treaty of Westphalia, 1648.-Victory engenders
victory. The lines of Rocroi forced, the barrier of
Spanish and German honour was also forced forever. The following year (1644), the skilful and
aged Mercy suffered the lines of Thionville to be
carried; Conde took Philipsburg and Mayence,
the central position on the Rhine. Mercy was




MODERN HISTORY.            357
beaten again, and completely routed at Noolingen
(1645). In 1646 Conde took Dunkirk, the key of
Flanders and of the Straits.  Finally, on the 20th
of August, 1648, he gained in Artois the battle of
Lens. On the 24th of October the peace of West.
phalia was signed. Conde had simplified the negotiations.
Conde.-These five years of unheard-of success
were fatal to the good sense of Cond6. He did not
think of the people who had gained his victories;
he took them to himself, and all the world, it is true,
thought with him. This is what made him enjoy in
the Fronde the part of bully, and hero of the theatre:
soon deceived, disappointed, powerless, and ridiculous, he became angry with himself and with everybody, and joined the enemy; but he failed, for he
no longer commanded the French.
The Fronde.-The very year of this glorious
treaty of Westphalia, which terminated the European war, and gave Alsace to France, the most
ridiculous of revolutions broke out. The Fronde
(this war of children, suitably named after a game of
children) was doubtless ridiculous in its issue, but
much more in its principle; it was, at bottom, a revolt of the lawyers against the law. The Parliament armed itself against the royal authority from
which it was derived. It took to itself the power
of the States-General, and pretended to be the dele



358             SUMMARY OF
gate of a nation, who knew nothing of it. It was
at this time that the Parliament of England, the true
Parliament, in the political sense of the term, had
decapitated its king (r649). On the other hand,
the populace of Naples made for themselves a king
of a fisherman (Masaniello, 1648).  The Parliament of France, composed of lawyers, who purchased their places, did not make war on the dynasty, nor on royalty, but on royal power alone.
From their conduct for two centuries, nothing like
this could have been foreseen. In the religious
wars, they had shown much timidity and docility.
Favourable for the most part to new ideas, they
had yet registered the decree of St. Bartholomew.
Under Richelieu this same docility continued; the
Parliament had furnished him with commissions
for his sanguinary courts, and yet had not. been the
less ill treated, violated, and interdicted (Paris,
1635; Rouen, 1640). They were much humbled.
But when they again raised their heads, and felt
that those heads were still on their shoulders, and
saw their master dead, they thought themselves
valiant, and spoke boldly. It was a pleasant escape bf scholars from between two severe masters;
from Richelieu and Louis XIV., from violence and
power.
Mole' —-Retz.-In this tragi-comedy the most
amusing actors after the French Mars, as they




MODERN HISTORY.            359
called. Conde, were the opposite chiefs of the two
parties of Parliament-the immovable President
Mole, a simple bar of iron, who yielded to no man,
nor to any opinion: and on the other side mobility
itself, personified in the coadjutor, the famous Cardinal Retz. This petulant young man had commenced by writing, at the age of seventeen, a
history of the conspiracy of Fiesco; then, to join
practice with theory, he had entered into a conspiracy against Richelieu. His happiness was to
hear himself called the young Catiline. When he
entered the Parisian Senate, he let a dagger fall
from his pocket. Knowing that Caesar had debts,
he contracted debts. Like Caesar, he has left commentaries. He only wanted a Pharsalia.
The extreme misery of the people would scarcely admit of new taxes. Mazarin lived upon casual
expedients and oppressions. His superintendent
of finance, Emeri, another Italian, having in compensation for a heavy tax, withdrawn four years'
payment from the Royal Companies, exempted
the Parliament. The Parliament would not be
exempted alone, and refused to register the edict.
It declared its union with the Royal Companies,
inviting the other Parliaments to accede (May 13,
June 15, 16.48). Mazarin thought he struck a
great blow by having four counsellors arrested
while they were carrying the standards taken at




360             SUMMARY OF
the battle of Lens to the Church of N6tre Dame,
and were chanting the Te Deum. This was the
commencement of the insurrection. Of the four
prisoners, the one most dear to the people was an
imbecile old counsellor, who pleased them by his
simplicity and his fine white hair. His name was
Broussel.  A mob collected before his door; an
old servant harangued them. By degrees the noise
increased, and soon the cry of " Liberty and Broussel!" was heard from a hundred thousand lips.
The Court at St. Germain.-The princes, the
nobles, the Parliament, and the lower classes were
all at- first against Mazarin. The queen was obliged to leave Paris with her infant son.  They
slept at St. Germain upon straw. It was a miserable time for kings. The Queen of England, who
was a refugee at Paris, remained in bed during the
winter for the want of wood. In the mean time
the Parliament raised troops, the lawyers mounted
their horses, and each carriage-gate furnished one
armed footman. The Viscount Turenne, who was
of the intriguing house of Bouillon, thought the
time had arrived for recovering Sedan, and made
himself for a moment general of the Fronde. Turenne was of a cold and grave disposition, yet in
joining that party he also made court to Madame de
Longueville. Every general, every chief of a party, every true hero of romance or of history, must




MODERN HISTORY.             361
at that time necessarily have a lady of his thoughts,
and be in love.
Arrest of the Princes, 1650-Treaty of the Pyrenees, 1659.-The Spaniards, who entered France
in order to profit by this crisis (1649), reconciled
for the moment both parties through fear. Cond6,
who until then had remained faithful to the court,
felt that they could not do without him and became
an insupportable necessity. It was then that they
created for him and the young men around him the
title of etits maitres.  He bargained with both parties at the same time; it was necessary to have him
arrested (1650). This was a pretext for Turenne,
who was about to join the Spaniards, and who declared that he contended for his deliverance. The
party of the princes and of the Frondeurs, finding
themselves united and supported by Spain, Mazarin had to yield. He retired to let the storm pass
by; the following year he returned, gained over
Turenne, and vainly endeavoured to bring the
king back to Paris (battle of Porte Saint Antoine,
1652). One year more, and, the weakness of the
parties having become complete, the Parisians
themselves forced the king to return (1653). The
Frondeurs crowded the antechambers of Mazarin.
Cond6 and the Spaniards were defeated by the
royal army, at that time commanded by Turenne.
Mazarin without scruple united himself with the




362            SUMMARY OF
Republic of England, with Cromwell, and crushed the Spaniards. Turenne gained the battle of
the Dunes (1658), which gave Dunkirk to the
English, and to France the peace of the Pyrenees (1659). The treaty of Westphalia had
guarantied to France her barriers of Artois, Alsace, and Roussillon; that of the Pyrenees gave
her Gravelines, Landrecy, Thionville, Montmedy.
The young King of France married the Infanta of
Spain, with a dowry of 500,000 crowns, which
was not paid. The infanta renounced all right of
succession to the kingdom of Spain. Mazarin did
not dispute this: he foresaw what these renunciations would be worth (1659).
There was at this time the most complete triumph of royalty, and the most perfect harmony
between the people and one man, ever known.
Richelieu had defeated the nobles and the Protestants; the Fronde had ruined the Parliament by
forcing it to acknowledge them. There remained in
France but one people and one king. The former
lived in the latter; it could no longer be said to live
by means of its own vital powers alone. When
Louis XIV. said, " The kingdom is mine," it was
neither bombast nor boasting, but the simple an
nouncement of a fact.
Louis XIV.-The young Louis was the man to
act this magnificent part. His cold and solemn




MODERN HISTORY.            363
figure hovered for fifty years over France with the
same majesty.  In the first thirty he sat eight
hours daily in the councils, connecting business
and pleasure —hearing, consulting, but judging for
himself. His ministers changed and died, but he
was always the same; he went through duties,
ceremonies, feasts of royalty, with the regularity of the sun, which he had chosen for his emblem.
Colbert.-One of the glories of Louis XIV. was
to have retained for twenty-two years as minister
one of those men who have done the most for the
glory of France: I mean Colbert. He was the
grandson of a linendraper of Rheims, of the sign
of the Long-vetti; his mind was not brilliant, but
solid, active, and indefatigable. He reorganized
the affairs of the interior, of commerce, of the
finances-those even of the navy, which he placed
in the hands of his son; he only wanted the offices
of minister of war and of justice to be king of
France. The war was conducted (since 1666)
by Louvois, a violent and fierce administrator,
whose influence balanced that of Colbert. Louis
XIV. seemed to be placed between them, as between his good and evil genius. Both were at all
times necessary; they formed the equilibrium of
this great reign.
When Colbert entered upon affairs, in 1661, the




364              SUMMARY OF
duties were eighty-four millions, and of these the
king touched hardly thirty-two. In 1670, in spite
of wars, he had raised the revenue to one hundred
and sixteen millions. His first financial operation,
the reduction of interest, gave a heavy blow to
credit. His industrial regulations were singularly
vexatious and tyrannical. But he regarded commerce with the most enlightened views. He appointed consulting committees of merchants, established free entrepots, made public roads, and gave
security to commerce at sea by destroying pirates.
At the same time he carried a bold hand into political administration. He repressed the exemptions
from duties which the ecclesiastics, the nobles,
and citizens of the free cities extended to their
tenants, by representing them as mere servants.
He revoked, in 1664, all the letters of nobility issued since 1630. He declared all the accounting offices to be fortuitous, in order to suppress
them  by degrees.  Colbert is reproached with
having encouraged commerce more than agricul.
ture; yet he forbade seizure, for payment of debts,
of the bedding, clothes, horses, oxen, or utensils o0
husbandmen, and of more than the fifth of their
cattle. He kept grain at low prices, by prohibiting its exportation. *We must consider, too, that,
the greatest part of the country being still in the
hands of the princes and nobles, encouragement




MODERN HISTORY.             365
given to agriculture would have been less profitable to the people than to the aristocracy. On the
contrary, commerce was in the hands of the middling class, which began to rise.
This man, who came from a counting-room, had
a feeling for the true grandeur of France. He
forgot his economy when disbursements would
bring glory to his country.  "It is necessary," he
wrote to Louis XI V., "to save five sous on unnecessary things, and to throw away millions when
your glory is in question. A useless repast of
three- thousand livres gives me incredible pain;
but when millions of gold for Poland are required,
I would sell all my property, would pawn my wife
and my children, and would go on foot all my lifetime to procure it." The principal monuments of
Louis XIV., his noblest establishments, the observatory, library, and academies, belong in a great
measure to Colbert. He caused pensions to be
given to the scientific men and artists of France, and
even of foreign countries. " There was not," says
a contemporary writer, " a learned man, however
distant from France, who did not receive some
mark of his respect." " Although the king is not
your sovereign," he wrote to the Dutchman, Isaac
Vossius, "he wishes, nevertheless, to be your
benefactor."
Whatever reproaches may be uttered against
E E:




366              SUMMARY: OF
Louis XIV., such letters offer at least some palliation; and to them we must add the: HBtel des
Invalides, the city of Dunkirk, the canal between
the two seas, and, above all, Versailles. This
wonderful monument, to which no other country
can furnish a-parallel, is the emblem of the greatness of France centralized for the first time in the
seventeenth century. Those wonderful masses of
verdure, and that hierarchy of bronze, of marble,
of fountains, and cascades, rising one above another
on the royal mount, from the monsters aid tritons
which howl below, to those beautiful ancient'statues which crown the platform: with the' serene
likeness of the gods; there is through all a glorious picture of the monarchy itself. These waters, which rise and descend with so much:grace
and majesty, seem to represent the vast social circulation which then for the' first time, took place:
power and wealth ascending from the people tto
the king, to be returned in the shape of glory, order, and security.  The mother of Apollo, the
charming Latona, in whom the unity of the garden
seems to centre, silences the insolent clamours ofthe group -which surrounds her; from men they
become croaking frogs.  Is Is)t this the: regency
triumphing over the Fronde?




MODERN H-1ITORY.          367
CHAPTER XIX.
CONTINUATION OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV.,
1661-1715.
FRANCE, standing alone and invincible, while
the greater part of the states of Europe were
prostrate, now claimed, and obtained the supremacy. The pope having permitted the ambassador
of France to be insulted in an outrageous manner,
and his hotel to be violated, Louis XIV. demanded
the most humiliating amends. The pope was
obliged to drive his own brother from his dominions, and to erect a pyramid to perpetuate his huimiliation (1664). At the same time that he treated the spiritual chief of the Christian world so severely, Louis XIV. defended the interests of
Christendom upon the sea and upon land; he freed
the sea from the pirates of Barbary (1664). To
the Emperor Leopold, engaged in a war against the
Turks, he sent troops, who played the most brilliant part at the battle of St. Gothard.
Spain.-Against whom will France go to display
the power which she has just announced? There
are but two nations in the West, England being
paralyzed by. the return of the Stuarts. There is




368             SUMMARY OF
Spain and Holland, the conquered and the conqueror. Spain is still that prodigious vessel, the prow
of which was in the Indian seas, and the stern in the
Atlantic Ocean; but the vessel has been dismasted,
disabled, and cast ashore in the tempest of Protestantism. A gale of wind has carried away her
long-boat-Holland. A second has taken Portugal
from her, and laid bare her planks; a third has detached the East Indies. What remains is vast and
imposing, but inert and immovable, yet awaiting
ruin with dignity.
Iolland.-On the other hand was Holland, that
hardy, avaricious, and reserved nation, which did
so many great things without greatness.  First,
they lived in spite of the ocean; this was the first
miracle: then they salted their herrings and cheese,
and changed their infected tuns to tons of gold;
next, they made this gold fruitful by means of a
bank —their gold pieces bore young. In the middle of the seventeenth century they had gathered
at pleasure the spoils of Spain, had taken the sea
from her, and the Indies besides. The Spanish
Netherlands were held in a state of siege by virtue
of a treaty. Spain had consented to the closing
of the Sheldt and the ruin of Antwerp (1648).
The Belgians were prohibited from selling the produce of their soil. Holland was already a vampire
couched on Belgium, sucking her life; and growing
fat upon her leanness,




MODERN HISTORY.           369
Conquest of Flanders.-Such was the situation
of the West when France attained the summit of
her power. The land yet belonged to Spain, the
sea to Holland. The office of France in the seventeenth century was the dismembering of the
one and the weakening of the other; the first
was easier than the last. France had armies, but
as yet no vessels. She commenced with Spain.
First, France united herself, to appearance, with
Holland against-Spain and England, who disputed for the dominion of the seas. France promised aid to the Dutch, but she permitted the three
powers to dash their vessels against each other,
and to destroy their navies in the most obstinate
naval battles which as yet had ever been fought.
Philip IV. being dead (1667), Louis XIV., quoting the civil law of the Netherlands, pretended
that his wife, who was the eldest daughter of the
deceased, ought to succeed him in preference to
the younger son.  It is true she had renounced
the succession, but the promised dowry had not
been paid. The French army entered Flanders
in all the pomp of the new reign. Turenne at the
head, then the king, the ministers, the ladies in the
golden carriages of the court; then Vauban, who, as
they advanced, established himself in the different
places and fortified them. Flanders was taken in
two months, and has been kept. The same win



370            SUMMARY -OF
ter, when they thought the war suspended (January, 1668), the troops marched through Champagne
to Burgundy, and fell on Franche-Comte. Spain
had expected nothing of the kind. The authorities of the country had been purchased beforehand.
All was finished in seventeen days. The exasperated court of Spain wrote to the governor, "that
the King of France should have sent his lackeys
to take possession of the province, instead of coming to it himself."
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1668.-These rapid
successes reconciled Spain and Holland.  The
latter did not care to have the great king for a
neighbour. We find the Hollanders interesting
themselves for Spain, defending her, and uniting
themselves with England and Sweden in her behalf; the Hollanders had the address to make
England demand that union. Three Protestant
states are thus armed to defend Catholic Spain
against Catholic France.  This singular event
shows how far we already are from the sixteenth
century, and from religious wars (triple alliance of
the Hague, 1668). Louis XIV. was content with
French Flanders, and gave up Franche-Comt6.
Holland had protected Spain, and compelled
France to draw back. A citizen, a sheriff of Amsterdam, declared to the king, in the midst of all
his glory, that he should go no farther. Insolent




MODERN HISTORY.            371
medals were struck. The sheriff of Amsierfdawas represented with a sun and this device: "In
conspectu meo stetit sol."
From that time the contest in Europe was between
France and Holland. France could not advance one
step without meeting Holland. At first the king
purchased with ready money the alliance of England and Sweden. Charles II., who had already
betrayed England by selling Mardick and Dunkirk to France, once more sold the interests of his
country. They promised to the nation some of the
Dutch islands; to the king, money for his feasts and
his mistresses. The young and seductive Duchess
of Orleans, sister-in-law to Louis XIV., sister of
Charles II., negotiated, when on a triumphant journey, the shame of her brother. It was she who
died so young and so deeply mourned, for whom
Corneille and Racine each composed a Berenice,
and Bossuet the celebrated funeral discourse.
Creation of a Navy.-In the mean time, the army
of Louis XIV. had been increased to eighty thousand men. It received through Louvois the most
formidable organization.  For the first time, the
bayonet, so terrible a weapon in French hands, was
placed on the top of the musket. The indefatigable
genius of Colbert created a navy. France, so lately
obliged to borrow vessels from Holland, had in 1672
one hundred; five navy arsenals were built-Brest,




872             SUMMARY OF
Rochefort, Toulon, Dunkirk, Havre. Dunkirk is,
unhappily, ruined; but Toulon and Brest, withn their
vast constructions, their mountains removed to
make room for vessels, still attest the Herculean
efforts which France then made, and the memorable defiance which she gave to Holland respecting the dominion of the seas
Holland held the sea, and thought to hold all. The
party of the sea governed; the De Witts in council,
and Ruyter in the fleets; the De Witts were statesmen, geometers, pilots, and sworn enemies of the
land party, of the house of Orange, of the stadtholdership. They seemed to forget that Holland belonged to the Continent; they only saw in it an
island. The fortresses fell to ruins; Holland had
twenty-five thousand bad soldiers, and this, too,
when the French frontier had been advanced, and
almost touched theirs.
Conquest of Holland, 1672. —Suddenly one hundred thousand men moved from Flanders towards
Holland (1672). " This was," says Temple, "as
a peal of thunder in a clear sky." They left Mastricht behind them, without amusing themselves
with taking it; they seized Gueldren, Utrecht, Upper Yssel; they were four leagues from Amsterdam. Nothing could save Holland. Her allies
of Spain and Brandenburg, the only ones she had,
could not wrest this prize from Louis XIV. It




MODERN HISTORY.            373
was the conqueror alone who could save her, by
his mistakes, and he did it.  Conde and Turenne
wished to dismantle all the forts; Louvois preferred
that garrisons should be stationed there, that is, that
they should disperse the army. The king sided
with Louvois. They relied on walls; they thought
to take Holland by merely placing their hands ofn
the stones, but Holland escaped. At first the amphibious republic wished to throw herself on the
water and embark for Batavia with her gold. The
war abating, she hoped once more to resist by land:
the people threw themselves furiously on the chiefs
of the sea party, the De Witts; they were cut in
pieces: Ruyter looked for the same fate. All the
forces of the Republic were intrusted to the young
William of Orange.
William of Orange..-This general of twentytwo years, who, as his first trial, undertook, almost
without arms, to confront the greatest king of the
earth, had in his feeble and almost dying frame the
calm and inflexible obstinacy of his grandfather,
the Taciturn, the adversary of Philip II. He was
a man of bronze-a stranger to every feeling of
nature and humanity. Raised by the party of De
Witt, he was their ruin; a Stuart by the family of
his mother, he overthrew the Stuarts; the son-inlaw of James II., he dethroned him; and England,
which he had taken from his family, he left to
F F




374             SUMMARY OF
those whom he hated, to the princes of the house
of Hanover. He had but one passion, but it was
atrocious-the hatred of France. It is said that
at tile peace of Nimeguen, when he endeavoured
to surprise Luxemburg, he already had a knowledge of the treaty; but he still thirsted for French
blood. It is remarkable that this great and intrepid general almost always waged war while retiring before his foe; but his admirable retreats
were worth victories.
Europe leagued against Louis XIV., 1674.At first, in order to defend Holland, William drowned it: he opened the sluices, while Ruyter made
sure of the sea by defeating the French and the
English, and came to moor his triumphant fleet in
the inundated plain of Amsterdam. Then William
armed against France both Spain and Austria. He
detached England from Louis XIV.; Charles II.
was forced by his Parliament to sign the peace.
The Catholic neighbours of Holland, the Bishop
of Munster, the Elector of Cologne, then Brandenburg, then Denmark, then the Empire, all Europe,
declared themselves against Louis XIV. (1674).
It was now necessary to abandon the towns of
Holland, and retreat. The French repaid themselves, as usual, at the expense of Spain. Louis
XIV. seized Franche-Comt6, which has been retained by France.  In the Netherlands, Cond6,




MODERN HISTORY.            375
with an inferior force, gave battle to the prince
in that furious contest at Senef. Conde conquered, but it was a victory for the Prince of Orange.o have stood his ground before Conde at an equal
loss. Upon the Rhine, Turenne, who, like Bonaparte, increased in boldness as he increased in
years, kept all the Empire in awe. Twice he
saved Alsace, twice he penetrated Germany. It
was then that the Palatinate was burned by the
order of Louvois. The Palatine was secretly allied with the emperor, and it was proposed to leave
only a desert to the Imperials.
Death of Turenne, 1675.-Turenne, re-entering
Germany, was about to strike a decisive blow,
when he was killed at Saltzbach (1675). Conde,
being sick, withdrew the same year.
Duquesne, 1677.-We see that at this period the
destiny of France depended not on one man. The
allies, though they believed France disarmed by the
retreat of the two great generals, could not break
the frontier of the Rhine, and lost in the Netherlands, Conde, Boudrain, Aire, Valenciennes, Cambray, Ghent, Ypres. Duquesne, who was sent to
the succour of Messina, which had revolted against
Spain, engaged Ruyter in a terrible naval battle in
sight of Mount _/Etna. The allies alone lost there
twelve ships, six galleys, seven thousand men,
seven hundred pieces of cannon, and, what was




376             SUMMARY OF
worth more than all, Ruyter. Duquesne destroyed their fleet in a second battle (1677).
Peace of Nimeguen, 1678. —The allies now
wished peace; France'and Holland were equally
exhausted. Colbert asked leave to retire from the
ministry if the war was continued. Still this peace
of Nimeguen was advantageous for France. She
retained Franche-Comte and twelve places of the
Netherlands; she had Friburg for Philipsburg.
Denmark and Brandenburg gave up what they
had taken from Sweden, the ally of France. Holland alone lost nothing, and the great European
question remained unsettled (1678).
This is the zenith of the reign of Louis XIV.
Europe had been armed against him, and he had
resisted; he was still increasing in power. He
assumed to himself the title of Great. The Duke
of Feuillade went farther. He kept a burning lamp
before his statue, as before an altar. We seem to
be reading the history of the Roman emperors.
Literature.-The brilliant literature of this epoch
is but one hymn, to royalty. The voice which rose
highest was that of Bossuet; it was as Bossuet
himself represented in his " Discourse on Universal History;" the kings of Egypt were praised by
the priests in the temples, in presence of the gods.
The first period of the great reign, that of Des Cartes, of Port Royal, of Pascal, and Corneille, did not




MODERN HISTORY.            377
present such unanimity: literature at that period
was animated by a spirit ruder and more free. At
the period at which we have now arrived, Moliere
had just died (1673), Racine had put forth his
Phaedra (1677), La Fontaine published the last six
books of his Fables (i678), Madame de Sevigne
wrote her Letters, Bossuet meditated on the knowledge of God and of himself, and prepared the Discourse on Universal History (1681). The Abbe
F6nelon, still young, a simple director of a convent
for young ladies, lived under the patronage of Bossuet, who regarded him as his disciple. Bossuet
leads the triumphal choir of the great century, in
full assurance of the past and of the future, between eclipsed Jansenism and impending Quietism,
between the gloomy Pascal and the mystical F6nelon. In the mean time, Cartesianism is pushed
to its most formidable consequences. Malebranche
makes human intelligence an emanation from God;
and in Protestant Holland, struggling with Catholic France, the fathomless gulf of Spinoza is about
to open itself, to swallow up at once Catholicism
and Protestantism, liberty, morals, God, and the
world.
Chamber of Reunion.-In the mean time, Louis
XIV. reigns in Europe. The sign of royalty is
jurisdiction. He wishes the powers of Europe
to acknowledge the decision of his Parliaments.




378            SUMMARY OF
The. Chambers of Reunion interpret the treaty
of Nimeguen, and reunite the dependances, which
had been yielded to him. One of the dependances was nothing less than Strasbourg (1681).
They hesitate to obey; he bombards Luxemburg
(1684). He bombards Algiers (1683), Tripoli
(1685). He bombards Genoa; he would have
crushed it in its marble palaces, had not the doge
come to Versailles to ask pardon (1684). He
bought Casal, the gate ofItaly; he built Huningen,
the gate of Switzerland. He interposed in the affairs of the Empire; he wished to make an elector
of Cologne (1689). He reclaimed, in the name of
his sister-in-law, the Duchess of Orleans, a part
of the Palatinate, invoking in this affair, as in that
of Flanders, the civil law against the feudal law.
The decisions of the law were supported by force,
Europe was disarmed, and Louis XIV. remained
armed; he increased his navy to 230 vessels; towards the end of his reign his armies amounted to
450,000 men.
Declaration of the Clergy, 1682.-At the same
time the monarchy attained its greatest degree of
centralization.  The two chief obstacles were
crushed: the pontifical power and the Protestant
opposition. Since 1673 an edict had declared all
the bishoprics of the kingdom subject to the throne
In 1682 an assembly of thirty-five bishops, of which




MODERN HISTORY.            379.
Bossuet was the soul, decided'" that the pope had:
authority only over spiritual things; that in such
things even the general councils were superior to
him, and that his decisions were only infallible
after the Church had accepted them." The pope
from that time refused bulls to all the bishops and
abbes whom the king nominated, so that in 1689
there were twenty-nine diocesses in France without
bishops. They spoke of making a patriarch. In
1687, the pope, wishing to abolish the right of asylum which the ambassadors enjoyed at Rome for
their hotels and quarters, Louis XIV. alone refused. The French ambassador entered Rome at
the head of eight hundred men, and maintained his
privilege by force of arms.
Revocation of thze Edict of Ntantes-Madame de
Maintenon. —That which quieted the religious conscience of Louis XIV. in this affair was, that, while
he humbled the pope, he crushed the Protestants.
Richelieu had destroyed them as a political party,
but he had left them their vote in the Parliaments,
their synods, and a part of their interior organization.  He vainly flattered himself that he could
lead them back by persuasion. Louis XIV. employed money, and seemed greatly to have advanced the work; it was announced to him every
morning that a district, a city, were converted; he
need only to act with a little vigour, they said, and




380              SUMMARY OF
he would restore the unity of the Church and of
France. (Revoking of the Edict of Nantes, 1685.)
This was the idea of the greatest men of the time,
especially of Bossuet. The employment of violence in a matter of faith, the infliction of a temporal evil to procure an eternal good, was not repugnant, at that time, to the feelings of any person.
It is necessary, however, to say that at this period
there was great exasperation against the Protestants. France, limited in her success by Holland,
felt that she had another Holland in her own bosom which rejoiced at the success of the first. As
long as Colbert lived he defended them; excluded
from offices, they had turned their activity towards
industry and commerce, and they troubled France
no more; they enriched it. After Colbert, Louis
XIV. was governed by Louvois, the enemy of Colbert, and by Madame de Maintenon, to whom he
was secretly married towards 1685. Madame de
Maintenon was born a Calvinist; and was granddaughter to the famous Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigne, one of the chiefs of the Protestant opposition against Henry IV. This discreet and judicious person had herself abjured her religion, and
would have made all the Protestants do the same;
of a cold disposition, the misery of her early years
seemed to have petrified her heart, and rendered
her more than ever insensible, She was the wid.~




MODERN HISTORY.           381
ow of Scarron, the cripple, the author of the ZAneide Burlesqued, before she became the wife of
Louis the Great. She had no children; she knew
no maternal affection. It was she who advised the
most odious measure of persecution: to take the
children from their parents in order to convert them.
The cries of the mothers, at this, rose to heaven.
The power of Louis XIV. was limited without
by the Protestant opposition of Holland, and within
by the Calvinists. Disobeyed for the first time,
the government showed a ferocious violence, which
was not in the heart of Louis XIV. Vexations of
all kinds, confiscations, the galleys, the wheel,
gibbets, all weree employed. The dragoons, who
were placed among the Calvinists, aided the missionaries in their own way. The king did not know
one half of the excesses which were committed. In
closing the kingdom, confiscating the property of the
fugitives, sending those to the galleys who favoured
their escape, the state lost two hundred thousand
subjects; according to some, five hundred thousand.
Multitudes escaped to England, to Holland, and to
Germany, but the greater number went to Prussia.
They became the most bitter enemies of France.
William charged the French more than once at the
head of a French regiment. Much of the success
of the war of Ireland was due to the old Marshal
Schomberg, who preferred his religious faith to his




882             SUMMARY OF
country. The infernal machines which was made
to blow up Saint Malo in 1693, had been invented
by a refugee.
Expulsion of James II., 1688.-It was precisely
at this time that the majority of the European powers formed the league of Augsburg (1686). Catholics and Protestants, William and Innocent XI.,
Sweden and Savoy, Denmark and Austria, Bavaria, Saxony, Brandenburg, all, with one accord,
were against Louis XIV. They accused him,
among other things, of having, by his correspondence with the revolted Hungarians, opened Germany to the Turks, and with having led that terrible
invasion, from which Vienna was saved by John
Sobieski. Louis XIV. had only the King of England, James II., for him; an unexpected revolution
overthrew James, and placed England in the hands
of William. The second and definitive catastrophe
of the Stuarts, prepared long since by the unworthy government of Charles II., broke out under his
brother.  James did not imitate the hypocritical
evasions of Charles; he was a good man, but of
limited faculties, self-willed, and obstinate; he declared himself to be a Catholic and a Jesuit (this
is literally correct); he contributed in every way
to his own downfall, and he did fall. His sonin-law William, called from Holland, took his place
without striking a blow (1688).




MODERN HISTORY.            383
Louis: XIV. entertained James II. magnificently,
and espoused his cause. He threw the gauntlet
to Europe, he declared war against England, Holland, the Empire, Spain, and the pope. During
the time that the French Calvinists strengthened
the armies of the league, multitudes from all nations
came to take part in.the armies of Louis XIV. He
had regiments of Hungarians and Irish. One day,
when he was complimented upon the success of
the French army, he replied, " Say, rather, the army
of France."
This second period of the reign of Louis XIV.
is occupied with two wars of succession-the succession of England, and the succession of Spain.
The first war terminated honourably for France
by the treaty of Ryswick (1698), and yet the result was against her; she acknowledged William.
In the second war, terminated by the treaties of
Utrecht and Rastadt (1712-1714), France experienced the most humiliating reverses, and yet the
result was most favourable to her. Spain was secured to a grandson of Louis XIV., and from
henceforth was open to French influence. England and Spain gained by this double revolution.
The era of English liberty is the ascension to the
throne of William (1688); since that of Philip V.
(1701), population, which had been decreasing in
Spain, has always increased.




384             SUMMARY OF
Add to these results the elevation of two secondary states, hereafter indispensable to the preservation of the balance- of power in Europe: Prussia and Piedmont, which we may distinguish as
the German and Italian resistance. Prussia, both
German and Slavonic, unites by degrees the Germany of the North, and counterbalances Austria.
The kingdom of Savoy-Piedmont will guard the
Alps, and will close them; the Italian Alps against
France, the French against Italy.
We must mark in advance these fine and useful results, in order to console ourselves for the
many reverses of France which remain to be related.
Luxembourg. —France, in 1689, most cruelly defeated Germany.  She placed a desert between
herself and her enemies. All the Palatinate was
burned the second time; Spire, Worms, and more
than forty cities and villages, were burned. Two
generals made head rapidly in Flanders and them
Alps, viz., Luxembourg and Catinat, in whom
we see a second Conde and Turenne. Luxembourg was a general of inspiration and of sudden
movements, carrying on war as a great lord; often
surprised, but never conquered. After his great
battles at Fleurus, Steinkerk, and Nerwinden
(1690-92-95), from which he brought so many
standards, he was called the upholsterer of Notre




MODERN HISTORY.            385
Dame. This brilliant general was deformed by
nature. William always said, " Can I not beat,
then, this little hunchback?"
Catinat.-Catinat regarded war as a science.
He became an officer by chance; from a family of
lawyers, himself a lawyer at first, he was the first
example of a plebeian general. There was something of the antique in that man. He made his
way slowly by his own merit; it was long before
he obtained command, and he was never in favour.
He asked for nothing, received little, and often refused offers. The soldiers, who loved his simplicity and good-nature, called him le Pere de la
Pensde. The court received his services with regret. When he had defeated the Duke of Savoy
at Staffarde, had taken Saluce, and routed the enemy at Suzes (1690), Louvois wrote to him, "Although you have served the king very badly in this
campaign, his majesty yet wishes to preserve for
you your ordinary allowance." Catinat was discouraged at nothing; he endured the rudeness of
Louvois, and the difficulties of this hard war in the
Alps, with the same patience.
La Hogue, 1692. —The heaviest blows were
struck in Ireland and on the sea. Louis XIV
wished to bring England back under French influence. He made James enter Ireland; he sent him
supplies after supplies, fleet after fleet.  James




386             SUMMARY OF
miscarried. The odious aid of the French and
Irish confirmed the English in their hatred of
him. Instead of raising Scotland, which waited
for him, he remained in Ireland, amused himself
with sieges, and was beaten at the Boyne. Louis
XIV. was not discouraged; he gave him money to
arm and equip thirteeJ thousand men, and he attempted to send him twenty thousand; Tourville
and D'Etrees escorted them with sixty-five vessels. D'Etrees being wind-bound, Tourville found
himself with forty-four vessels opposed to eighty.
He demanded orders from the court. Louis XIV.
bade him force a passage. This terrible battle
of La Hogue cost the French only seventeen vessels, but the confidence and pride of their navy
was gone. It was reduced in 1707 to thirty-five
vessels, and was resuscitated again, but for a
moment, under Louis XVI. The battle of La
Hogue marks the era of England's dominion over
the seas (1692). Louis XIV. caused one of his
medals to be struck, bearing a threatening Neptune, with the words of the poet, " Quos ego...."
The Dutch struck a medal which bore for its device, "Maturate fugam, regique haec dicite vestro:
Non illi imperium pelagi...."
Peace of Ryswick, 1798. —The terrible ravages
of our corsairs, of Jean Bart, and Duguay-Trouin,
with the bloody battle of Nerwinden gained by




MODERN HISTORY.             387
Luxembourg, and that of Catinat at Marseilles
(1693), by degrees rendered the allies more tractable. The Duke of Savoy yielded first. Indeed,
the war was ended for him, all the strong places
being in the hands of the French. They offered
him restitution, and for his daughter a prospect of
the throne of France; she was to marry the Duke
of Bourgoyne, grandson of Louis XIV., heir of the
monarchy.  The defection of Savoy (1696) decided, by degrees, the others.  France retained
Roussillon, Artois, Franche-Comte, and Strasburg,
but she acknowledged William. This was, in fact,
to be conquered (peace of Ryswick, 1698).
Will of Charles IH., 1700.-This peace was but
a truce accorded to the sufferings of the people.
A grand question occupied Europe. This or that
province of Spain was not in controversy, but the
entire Spanish monarchy, with Naples, the Netherlands, the Indies. As Charles V. had been
laid out alive in his coffin, and had assisted at
his own funeral, so Charles II., the last of his descendants, assisted at the funeral of the monarchy.
This old man of thirty-nine years, governed by his
wife, by his mother, by his confessor, and influenced by all the world, made his will and destroyed
it. The King of France, the emperor, the electoral prince of Bavaria, and the Duke of Savoy, all
born of Spanish princesses, claimed the spoils in




388             SUMIMARY OF
advance. At one time they were for the Bavarian,
at another for the Austrian; they also spoke of
dismembering the kingdom. The poor king saw
all this while yet alive; he was exasperated at it.
Ignorant and changeable as he was, he still knew
that he wished to ensure the unity of the Spanish
monarchy. He decided for a prince who was
most capable of maintaining this unity; he chose
a grandson of Louis XIV.; then opening the
tombs of the Escurial, he disinterred his father,
mother, and first wife, and kissed their bones.. It
was not long before he joined them (1700).
Louis XIV. accepted the legacy and the danger. He sent to Spain the second of his grandsons, the Duke of Anjou, who became Philip V.,
on his departure, he addressed him in those noble
words, which from century to century will appear
more true and more profound: "There are Pyrenees no longer." The immediate consequence was
a European war. Notwithstanding the advice of
his council, he also decided to acknowledge the
son of James II. as Prince of Wales, and to maintain at once the succession of Spain and of England.
Declining Vigour of France.-It was, however,
full late to commence such a war. Louis XIV.
had reigned fifty-seven years. He had grown old;
all had grown old. France seemed to become pale




MODERN HISTORY.           389
at the age of her king. The glories of his reign
were all departing by degrees. Colbert was dead,
Louvois was dead (1682, 1691), Arnaud also, and
Bpileau, and Racine, and La Fontaine, and Madame
S6vign6; soon the great voice of the age, Bossuet,
was heard no more (1704). France, in place of
Colbert and Louvois, had Chamillart, who increased
the number of her ministers; Chamillart was governed by Madame de Maintenon, Madame de
Maintenon by Babbien, her old servant. Strange,
too, that another woman should govern England
after King William; I speak of Queen Anne,
daughter of James II., and granddaughter, through
her mother, of the historian Clarendon, as Madame de Maintenon was granddaughter of Agrippa
d'Aubign6.
From being placed in the hands of ennobled
citizens (Chamillart, Le Tellier, Pontchartrain, &c.,
&c.), the government became only more favourable
to the nobility, who had been prodigiously increased of la'e. They were ignorant of commerce and
industry, arrogant, and incapable. They had invaded the antechamber, the army, and especially
the civil offices. The small nobles were officers
or clerks at their option. There were soon as
many officers as soldiers, as many clerks as principals. The great lords bought regiments for their
young children' they commanded the armies, and
G G




390             SUMMARY OF
allowed themselves to be taken at Cremona and at
Hochstadt.
MIarlborough and Eugene.-There were, at this
time, two men at the head of the allied armies capable of profiting by all this: an Englishman and
a Frenchman, Marlborough and Eugene. The latter, a younger son of the house of Savoy, but son
also of the Count of Soissons and of a niece of Mazarin, may be called French. Marlborough, the
handsome Englishman, was cold, but acute and judicious; he studied under Turenne, and returned to
France her own lessons. Eugene, although Vendome called him a bad financier, was a man of
extraordinary tact, who troubled himself not much
about rules, but who thoroughly understood places,
things, persons, knew the strong and the weak, and
took advantage of the weak. IHis most striking
and easy successes were over Ottoman barbarism.
This man, who always went straight to the point,
won victories alternately at the two extremes of
Europe, over the great king, and over the Turks,
and it seemed as if he had saved both liberty and
Christianity.
These two generals had one convenience for
prosecuting war, that is, they were practically kings
in their respective countries; they fought in the
summer, they governed and negotiated in the winter.
They had full power, and needed not, on the eve of




MODERN HISTORY.             391
a battle, to send to Versailles to obtain authority to
conquer.
/illeroi —  endome.-In 1701, Catinat gave up
the army to the magnificent Villeroi, whom Prince
Eugene took in his bed at Cremona. Eugene did
not gain by it. Villeroi was replaced by Vendome,
grandson of Henry IV., a true soldier, with the
manners of a woman. Vendome, like his brother,
the great prior, remained in bed until 4 o'clock
P.M. He was one of the youngest generals of
Louis XIV.; he was only fifty years old. The
soldiers adored him even for his bad qualities.
There was little order, or foresight, or discipline in
this army, but much boldness and gayety; courage
made amends for all.
Villars.- Catinat commanded on the coast of
Germany, and Villars under him. The latter, impatient at the prudence of his chief, gained rashly
the battle of Fridlingen (1702); then, piercing into
Germany, he gained besides, in spite of the Elector
of Bavaria, the ally of Louis XIV., the battle of
Hochstadt (1703). Villars excited the enthusiasm
of his soldiers by his bravery, his boasting, h'i
handsome military figure. At Fridlingen they proclaimed him Marshal of France on the field of
battle.
The road to Austria was open, when it became
known that the Duke of Savoy had resolved to take




392             SUMMARY OF
part- against France and Spain, against his two
sons-in.law (1703). Down to this time the allies
had gained no signal advantage over France. She
fought, however, along all her frontiers, and within them; at once against the world and against
herself. The Calvinists of Cevennes, exasperated by the severity of the intendant Basville, had
been in arms since 1702. Among other generals,
Villars and Berwick were sent against them. The
latter was a Stuart, a natural son of James II., who
became one of the first tacticians of the age. "
Defeat of Hochstadt, 1704-Of Turin, of RamilZies, 1705-1706. —Villars was far off in Languedoc,
and Catinat had retired when the army of Germany,
intrusted to M.M. de Marsin and Tallard, experienced at Hochstadt, on the very theatre of the victory of Villars, one of the most cruel defeats that
France had ever suffered. They had thrown themselves blindly into Germany on the road to Vienna,
where Marlborough and Eugene cut them off; the
plan had been so laid, that, independent of the killed, 14,000 men gave themselves up without having
ibeen able to fight (1704). Villars hurries on in
time to cover Lorraine, while Vendome gains an
advantage over Eugene in the bloody affair of Cas.
sano (1705). In 1706, Vendome was replaced by
La Feuillade in Italy. France experiences two
great defeats: by that of Turin, Eugene takes from




MODERN HISTORY.            393
France the whole of Italy; by that of Ramillies,
Marlborough drives her from the Spanish Netherlands.
Defeat of Oudenarde, 1708 —Misery of France.
-In 1707, the allies penetrated into France through
Provence; in 1708, through Flanders (defeat of
Oudenarde); 1709 was a terrible year: first a fearful winter, then a famine. The misery was universal. The footmen of the king begged at the gate
of Versailles; Madame de Maintenon ate brown
bread. Whole companies of cavalry deserted their
unfurled standards to gain a living by contraband
trade. The recruiting officers had to chase down
men. The taxes assumed every form to reach the
people; public documents were taxed; men paid
to be born and paid to die. The peasants, pursued
into the woods by the officers of the king's revenue, armed themselves, and took the city of Castres
by storm. The king could not get a loan at four
hundred per cent.; the national debt before the
death of Louis XIV. amounted to nearly three
thousand millions.
The allies suffered also. England ruined herself
in order to ruin France. But Europe was led on
by two men who wished for war, and, besides, the
humiliation of Louis XIV. was a spectacle too
pleasant to be lost. His ambassadors could get no
replies except in derision. It was necessary, they




394             SUMMARY OF
said, that he should undo his own work-he must
dethrone Philip V. He even condescended to
offer money to the allies to keep up the war against
his grandson. But no, they wanted that he should
drive him away himself; that a French army should
fight against a French prince.
Victory of allplaquet, 1709. —The aged king
then declared that he would place himself at the
head of his nobility, and would go to die on his
frontiers. He addressed himself for the first time
to his people; he called upon them to judge, and
exalted himself even by his humiliation. The manner in, which the French fought this year (1709)
indicates plainly how much the war had become
national. It was on the 9th of September, near the
village of Malplaquet; the soldier, who had been
in want of provisions all day, came to receive his
bread-he threw it away to engage in battle.. Villars, seriously wounded, was carried from the field;
the army retired in good order, not having lost eight
thousand men; the allies left fifteen or twenty thousand on the spot.
Victory of Denain, 1712 - Treaty of Utrecht,
1712.-In Spain, the throne of Philip V., established by Berwick at Almanza (1707), was confirmed at Villaviciosa by Vendome (1710); he
made the young king sleep on a bed of standards.
In the mean time, the elevation of the Archduke




MODERN HISTORY.            395
Charles to the Empire (1711) caused Europe to
fear the reunion of the Empire with Spain. To
humble Louis XIV., in order to elevate a Charles
V., was no trouble. England was tired of paying;
she saw Marlborough, who had been gained over
by the Dutch, carrying on the war for their interest. Finally, the victory by Villars at Denain,
gained by a surprise, injured the reputation of
Prince Eugene (1712). This terrible war, in which
the allies had expected to dismember France, did
not take one province from her (treaties of Utrecht
and Rastadt, 1712; of La Barriere, 1715).
France only gave up some colonies. She maintained the grandson of Louis XIV. on the throne
of Spain. The Spanish monarchy, it is true, lost
its possessions in Italy and the Netherlands; she
ceded Sicily to the Duke of Savoy; the Spanish
Netherlands, Naples, and Milan to Austria; but
she gained by concentrating her own estates, and
by escaping the embarrassment of those distant
possessions, which she could neither defend nor
govern; the two Sicilies were soon to return to a
branch of the Bourbons of Spain. Holland had
several places in the Netherlands to defend with
Austria, at their common expense. England secured the recognition of her new dynasty; she gained
a footing at Gibraltar and on Minorca, at the entrance of Spain, and in the Mediterranean. She oh



396             SUMMARY OF
tained for herself and for Holland a commercial treaty disadvantageous to France.  She required the
demolition of Dunkirk, and prevented France from
furnishing supplies to it by the canal of Mardick.
She maintained there, most unworthily, an English
commissary, to assure himself, with his own eyes,
that France did not rebuild the city of Jean-Bart.
" They went to work," says a contemporary, " at
the demolition of Dunkirk; they demanded eight
hundred thousand livres for demolishing only the
third part of it." Even at this day we cannot
read without pain and indignation the sorrowful
petition addressed by the inhabitants of Dunkirk
to the Queen of England.
Death of Louis XIV., 1715.-Such was the end
of the great reign. Louis XIV. survived the treaty
of Utrecht for a short time (died 1715). He had
seen nearly all his children die within a few years,
the dauphin, the Duke, the Duchess of Bourgoyne,
and one of her sons. In his deserted palace there
remained only an old man, almost eighty, and a
child of five years. All the great men of the reign
had gone; a new age had commenced. In literature, as in society, all energy was relaxed. This
epoch of luxury and of ease announced itself at
a distance, by the agreeable quietism of Madame
Guyon, who reduced religion to love. The able
and eloquent Massillon only touched upon doctrine




MODERN HISTORY.             397
in his discourses, attaching himself chiefly to
morals.  The political boldness of Fe6nlon belongs rather to the eighteenth century.
CHAPTER XX.
LITERATURE, THE SCIENCES, AND ARTS IN THE
AGE OF LOUIS XIV.
DURING the first half of the seventeenth century the genius of literature and of the arts was still
brilliant in the states of the South. The genius of
philosophy and of the sciences illuminated the nations of the North, more especially in its second half.
France, alone stationed between them, shines with
a double lustre, spreading over all polished nations
the sovereignty of her language, and placing herself from henceforth at the head of European civilization.
~ I. FRANCE.
France, like Italy, has her great literary age, succeeding to long periods of agitation. A monarch,
the object of national enthusiasm, animates and encourages genius. The religious spirit was at that
period the chief inspiration of literature. Religion,
between the attacks of the sixteenth and those of
the eighteenth century, animates her defenders
with a new force. Literature, besides, receives a




398              SUMMARY OF
special impulse from the social spirit natural to
the French, but which can develop itself only
with the progress of ease and security; it is to
this character that French literature owes her
superiority in dramatic poetry, and in all delineation of manners.  A capital and a court are the
arbiters of literary merit. They have less originality, but they attain the perfection of taste.
The seventeenth century presents two distinct
periods. In France, the first extends to 1661, the
epoch at which Louis XIV. begins to reign by
himself, and to exercise some influence over literature. The writers who lived, or who formed
themselves in this period, still retain something
of the style of the sixteenth century. Thoughts
are more boldly expressed, and are more profound; still taste is the attribute of some men
of genius.  To this period belong (besides the
painters Poussin and Le Sueur) a great number
of writers: Malherbe, Racan, Br6beuf, Rotrou,
and the great Corneille; Balzac and Voiture; Sarrasin and Mezerai; Des Cartes and Pascal. Rochefoucault, Cardinal de Retz, and Molibre mark the
transition from the first period to the second.
France, in the age of Louis XIV., produces no
epic; her great poem is written in prose. Brilliant period off dramatic poetry.  Tragedy attains
nobleness, strength, and sublimity; afterward fol



MODERN  HISTORY.                   399
low  grace  and  pathos.   In  comedy, unrivalled
by other nations.   Three  ages of French  comedy: profound philosophy, coupled with a naive
gayety; gayety  without philosophy; self-interest
without gayety. The opera attains the rank of
literary works. Satire attacks that which is ridiculous rather than that which is vicious; and,
above all, she attacks ridiculous literature. The
epilogue becomes a small dramatic poem. Lyric
poetry flourishes late, and displays more art than
enthusiasm. The pastoral remains feeble, or too
spiritual.   Light poetry  is more  graceful than
pointed.
DRAMATIC POETS.
Rotrou       died in 1630   Th. Corneille  died in 1709;
Moliere        "  1673      Regnard        "  1709
Pierre Corneille  "  1684   Brueys        i"  1723
Quinault       "  1688      Campistron     "  1723
Racine         "  1699      Dancourt       "-  1726
Boursault      "  1708      Crebillon       "  1762
OTHER POETS.
Malherbe     died in 1628   Segrais      died in 1701
Br6bouf        "  1661     Boileau         "  1711
Racan              1670     La Fare        "  1713
Ienserade      "  1691      Chaulieu       "  1720
Mlle. Deshouheres "  1694   J. B. Rousseau   "  1741
La Fontaine    "  1695
The eloquence of the bar did not reach great
excellence.   (Le  Maistre, 1658; Patru, 1681;
Pelisson, 1693.) The eloquence of the pulpit surpasses all the models of antiquity. Funeral ora



400                     SUMMARY OF
tions reappear under a form unknown to the ancients.
ORATORS.
Cheminais      died in 1689     Flechier       died in 1710
Mascaron         "   1703       F6ndlon          "   1715
Bourdaloue       "   1704       Massillon         "   1743
Bossuet          "   1704
History  was  loose  and  coldly  elegant.    The
Discourse on Universal History opened a new
route for history. Abundant materials are deposited in memoirs and in the correspondence of
ministers.   A  number of other branches are cultivated with success. Novels rival comedy. Woman
attains, in the carelessness of an intimate correspondence, the perfection of familiar style. Translation makes some progress, and literary criticism
commences.
HISTORIAN
Sarrasin      died in 1654     Amelot de la Houssai  1706
Perefixe         "   1670       Boulainvilliers    "   1722
Cardinal de Retz"   1679       Fleuri            "   1723
M6zerai'  1683       Rapin de Thoiras"   1725
P. Ma(inbourg   "'  1686        Daniel            "   1728
Mme. de Motteville   1689       Vertot            "   1735
Saint Real       "   1692       Dubos            "   1742
Varillas         "   1696       Saint Simon      "   1755
P. d'Orleans     "   1698
LEARNED HISTORIANS.
Th. Godefroi  died in 1648      Godefroi       died in 1681
Sirmond          "   1651       Ducange          "   1688
P6tau            "   1652       Pagi              "   1695
Labbe            "   1667       Herbelot          "   1695
Valois            "   1676      Tillemont         "   1698
Moreri            "  1680       Cousin            "   1707




MODERN HISTORY.                          401
Mabillon       died in 1707     Basnage         died in 1725
Ruinart           "   1709      Le Clerc           "   1736
Baluze            "   1718      Montfaucon         "   1741
WRITERS ON DIVERS SUBJECTS.
Voiture        died in 1648     Bouhours        died in 1702
Vaugelas          "   1649       Perrault          "   1703
Balzac            "   1654       St. Evremond      "   1703
Du Ryer           "   1656       F6nelon            "   1715
Scarron          "   1660       Tourreil           "   1715
D'Ablancourt      "   1664      Mad. de Maintenon"   1719
Arnault d'Andilly "   1674      Hamilton           "   1720
Le Bossu          "   1680      Dufresny           "   1724
De Saci           "   1684      La Motte Houdart "   1731
Chapelle         "   1686       Mad. de Lambert "   1733
Ant. Arnaud       "   1694      Duclos             "   1742
Lancelot         "   1695       Mongault           "   1747
Mad. de Sivign6  "   1696        Le Sage            "   1747
Mlle. de Lafayette "   1699      Fontenelle         "   1757
Bachaumont        "   1702
Metaphysics give a new impulse to the human
mind. Moralists accumulate observations without attempting to give to morality a scientific form.
They begin to carry the philosophical spirit into
natural sciences. Some isolated skeptics in this
age form the tie between the sixteenth century and
the.eighteenth century.
PHILOSOPHERS.
Des Cartes     died in 1650      Bayle           died in 1706
Gassendi          "   1655       Malebranche       "   1715
Pascal            "   1662       Huet              "   1721
La Motte le Vayer "   1672       Buffier           "   1737
La Rochefoucault "   1680        L'Abb6 de St. Pierre  1743
Nicole            "   1695       Foatenelle        "   1757
La Bruyere        "   1696
The sciences are not neglected. Rise of mathe.




402                    SUMMARY OF
matics. Beginning of geography. Commencement-of scientific voyages
SAVANS AND MATHEMATICIANS.
Des Cartes    died in 1650    L'Hdpital      died in 1704
Fermat          "   1652      James Bernouilli "   1705
Pascal          "   1662      Nicolas Bernouilli "   1726
Pecquet         "   1674      John Bernouilli   "   1748
Rohault          "   1675
TRAVELLERS.
Samson        died in 1667    Tournefort    died in 1708
Bochard          "   1669     Chardin          "   1713
Bernier          "   1688     De'Isle        "   1726
Vaillant         "   1706
Classical learning is not less cultivated than in
the sixteenth century, but is less noticed.
LATIN SCHOLARS AND POETS.
Saumaise      died in 1653    Jouvenci       died in 1716
Lefevre          "   1672      Madame Dacier'"  1722
Rapin            "   1687     Dacier           "   1722
Furetidre        "   1688     De la Rue         "   1725
Menage           "   1691     Da la Monnaie   "   1728
Santeuil         "   1697     Le Card. de Polignac  1741
Commire          "   1702     Brumoi           "   1742
Danet            "   1709
Although the cultivation of the arts of design is
not the principal characteristic of the age of Louis
XIV., yet it contributed to the splendour of this
brilliant period. Architecture reflects on it the
brightest lustre. Painting, at first cultivated with
genius, experiences a decay, which must increase
in the following century.




MODERN HISTORY.                    403
PAINTERS.
Le Sueur    died im 1655   Mignard       died in 1695
Le Poussin     "  1665    Jouvenet         "  1717
Le Brun        "  1690     Rigaud          "  1744
SCULPTORS.
Puget        died in 1695   Coysevox     died in 1720
Girardon       "  1715      Coustou        "  1733
ARCHITECTS,
Fr. Mansard  died in 1666   Claude Perrault died in 1703
Le N6tre       "  1700      H. Mansard     "  1708
ENGRAVERS.
Gallot       died in 1635   Audran       died in 1703
Nanteuil       "  1678
MUSICIAN.
Lulli died in 1687.
II. ENGLAND, HOLLAND, GERMANY,
ITALY, SPAIN.
England, Italy, and Spain follow France closely
in the career of literature; the two former (with
Holland) go beyond her in that of the sciences.
Notwithstanding the appearance of some superior
men, the development of Germany does not yet
commence. Italy, in the first half of the seventeenth century, preserves the glory of painting,
which Flanders shares with her.
1. Literature.-The names of Bacon and Shakspeare mark the first flight of English genius; but
the religious wars for a long time arrest all speculation;yet it is to religious wars that we must
ascribe the phenomenon of Paradise Lost (notwith



404                   SUMMARY OF
standing the late appearance of this poem, 1669).
Under Charles II., England is subjected to the literary, as to the political influence of France; and
this spirit of imitation exists in all the classical
period of English literature (from the accession of
Charles II. to the death of Queen Anne, 16611714).   In  this period  England  produced three
great poets (Dryden, Addison, Pope), many witty
and ingenious poets, and several distinguished
prose writers.
ENGLISH POETS.
Shakspeare    died in 1616    Walter       died in 1687
Denham           "  1666      Dryden          "   1701
Cowley           "  1667      Rowe            "   1718
Milton           "  1674      Addison         "   1719
Rochester        "   1680     Prior           "   1721
Butler           "  1680      Congreve        "   1729
Roscommon        "   1684     Gay             "  1732
Otway.           "   1685     Pope            "   1744
ENGLISH PROSE WRITERS.
Clarendon     died in 1674    Addison         a  1719
Tillotson        "   1694     Steele          "  1729
Temple           "   1698     Swift           "  1745
Burnet           "  1715      Bolingbroke     "   1751
Italian  literature  has lost its brilliancy.   An
original and profound thinker (Vico, died 1744)
founded at Naples the philosophy of history; we
remark some respectable historians in Italy, but
poetry is superseded by wit and affectation.
ITALIAN POETS.
Marini        died in 1625    Salvator    died in 1675
Tassoni          "  1635




MODERN  HISTORY.                   405
ITALIAN HISTORIANS.
Sarpi        died in 1625    Bentivoglio  died in 1644
Davila          "  1634      Nani           "  1678
Spanish literature exhibits a prodigy of philosophy and of humour; after the names of Cervantes
and the two great tragic poets, follow those of several historians.
SPANISH WVRITERS.
Cervantes     died in 1616   Lope de Vega died in 1635
Mariana         "  14        Solis          "  1686
Herrera             1625     Calderon       "  1687
2. Philosophy.-England, prepared by theological and political controversies, opens new roads
to metaphysics and political science. Germany
opposes a single man to all the metaphysicians
and philosophers of England (Leibnitz).  A Dutchman erects Atheism into a system (Spinoza), but
another philosopher of the same nation (Grotius)
gives to morals a scientific form, and shows that
it ought to govern the interests as well of societies as of individuals. This new science, first
resting upon erudition, is afterward supported  by
philosophy.
ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS AND POLITICIANS.
Bacon         died in 1626   Locke       died in 1704
Hobbes          "  1679      Shaftesbury    "  1713
Sidney          "  1683      Clarke         "  1729
Cudworth        "  1688
DUITCH PHILOSOPHERS AND POLITICIANS.
Grotius      died in 1645    Gravesande  died in 1742
Spinoza         "  1677
H H




406                   SUMMARY OF
GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS AND POLITICIANS.
Puffendorf died in    1694    Wolf   died in   1754
Leibnitz'r         1716
3. Sciences.-These had in Bacon a legislator
as well as a prophet, but they received their true
direction only from Galileo and Newton. A mwltitude of savants ranked themselves as followers of
these great men.
ENGLISH.
Bacon         died in 1626    The Gregories died in 1646,
Harvey           "  1657       75, 1708
Barrow           "  1677      Newton      died in 1726
Boyle            "  1691..   Halley         "  1741
ITALIAN.
Aldrovandi    died in 1615    Borelli     diedin 1679
Sanctorius      "  1636      Viviani         "  1703
Galileo         "  1642      Cassini         "  1712
Torricelli       "  1647
DUTCH.
Huygens       died in 1702    Boerhaave   died in 1758
GERMAN AND DANISH.
Kepler        died in 1630   Kirkher      died in 1680
Tycho Brahe     "   1636     Stahl           "  1735
4.' Learning.-It exercises itself upon a greater
variety of subjects.' The antiquities of the Middle
Ages and of the East share the labours of the learned, who, until then, had been exclusively occupied
with classical antiquities. English scholars: Owen,
Farnaby, Usher, Bentley, Marsham, Stanley, Hyde,
Pococke. Scholars of Holland and the Netherlands:
Barlieus, Schrevelius, Heinsius, the Vossii.   Ger



MODERN HISTORY.                       407
man scholars: Freinshemius, Gronovius, Morhof,
Fabricius, Spanheim.  Learned Italians: Muratori,
&c., &c.
5. Arts. —The decay of the arts followed in
Italy the decay -of literature; painting alone was
an exception. Lombard school. Flemish school.
ITALIAN PAINTERS.
Guido         died in 1642     Guercino      died in 1666
L'Albano         "   1647      Salvator Rosa   "   1673
Lanfranc         "   1647      Bernin, sculptor, archiDomenichino       "   1648       tect, and painter,  1680
FLEMISH PAINTERS.
Rubens         died in 1640    Rembrandt  died in 1688
Van Dyck          "   1641     The young Teniers   1694
The elder Teniers     1649




PART II. —1715-1789.
CHAPTER XXI.
DISSOLUTION OF THE MONARCHY, 1715-1789.
IN the interval between Louis the Great and
Napoleon the Great, France descended a steep
declivity, at the bottom of which the ancient monarchy, encountering the people, was shattered in
pieces, and gave place to the new order of things
which still prevails. The unity of the eighteenth
century is found in a preparation for this grand
event. First, the literary and philosophical war
for religious liberty; then the great and bloody
battle for political liberty, a ruinous victory over
Europe, and, in spite of a transient reaction, the
definite establishment of constitutional order and
civil equality.
The house of Orleans appears at the commencement, and again at the close of this period.
The Regent —Law.-While the deceased king
went alone and without pomp to St. Denis, the Duke
of Orleans caused his will to be broken by the Parliament. The policy of the regent, his life, his




MODERN HISTORY.           409
manners, his whole person, were entirely opposed
to those of the preceding reign. All the old barriers
fell. The regent invited private persons to give their
advice upon public affairs; he proclaimed the maxims of Fenelon; he had Telemaque printed at his
own expense; he opened the library of the king to
the public. The financiers, who under the last reign
had enriched themselves by the misery of France,
were tried by a hot-headed chamber, and acquitted
or condemned at random; these violent measures
against the financiers only increased the popularity
of the prince. But it was not sufficient to condemn them; it was necessary to replace them by
other means, to look to this debt of three thousand
millions which Louis XIV. had left. Then a
grand scheme was tried; a Scotch banker, named
Law, a disciple, as he said, of Locke and Newton, came to make in France the first trial of
credit. He opened a bank, substituted bills for
money, and mortgaged those bills on an enterprise
for collecting the imnmense revenues of the kingdom, and on the colonial riches of an unknown
world.  He created the Mississippi Company.
For the first time men refused gold; the value of
the bills grew hourly. In the street Quincampoix,
at the doors of the offices where they changed
this inconvenient metal for paper, there were constant throngs of people. The regent becomes one




410             SUMMARY OF
of the directors of the enterprise, and makes himself a banker.  Yet confidence was shaken; this
idolatry of paper had its unbelievers; it fell rapid.ly. Wo to the last possessors! There was a
strange change: the rich became poor, and the:
poor rich. Wealth, which had hitherto belonged
to the soil, and stood immovable in families, for
the first time took wings; she followed henceforth
the wants of commerce and industry. An analogous movement took place all over Europe; the
minds of men, if we may so speak, were detached
from the earth. Law, making his escape from the
kingdom in the midst of imprecations, left behind
him, at least, this benefit (1717-1721).
Alberoni.-The regent, in his facility at adopting
new ideas, in his scientific curiosity, in his loose
manners, is one of the types of the eighteenth centu.
ry. He enjoins the Bull* out of regard for the pope,
but is not the less impious. His licentious friends
are nobles; but his man, his minister, the true
king of France, is the rogue Cardinal Dubois, the
son of an apothecary of Brives-la-Gaillarde. The
regent was naturally an ally of England, which,
under the house of Hanover, also represented the
modern principle, as in Germany did the young
royalty of Prussia, and in the North, Russia created by Peter the Great. The common enemy was
Spain, at whose expense the peace of Utrecht was
* The bull Unigenitus, &c.




MODERN HISTORY,            411
made. Spain and France, enemies, although relations, regarded each other with a hostile eye.
The Spanish minister, the intriguing Alberoni, undertook to restore the old principle over all Europe.
He wished to give back to Spain all she had lost,
to give the regency of France to Philip Y.; he
wished to re-establish the Pretender inl England.
To accomplish this, Alberoni counted on hiring the
best swordsman of the time, on taking into pay
the Swede, Charles XII.; this royal adventurer
was to be paid by Spain, as Gustavus Adolphus had
been by France. This vast project failed entirely.
Charles XII. was killed; the Pretender failed in
his attempts; the Spanish ambassador was taken
in the act of conspiring with the Duchess of
Maine, the wife of a legitimated son of Louis
XIV.; this little and spirited princess had believed that, from her academy at Sceaux, she
might change the face of Europe. The Memoires
of the Fronde, which had just appeared, excited
her emulation. The regent and Dubois, who felt
neither hatred nor friendship, found all this so ridiculous that they punished no one except some poor
gentlemen from Brittany, who were the most conspicuous in the conspiracy (1718). France, England, Holland, the emperor, all united against Alberoni, and formed the quadruple alliance. Yet,
in 1720, Spain obtained for her consolation Tus



412              SUMMARY OF
cany, Parma, and Plaisance, and the emperor, in
giving her the investiture of these states, forced
the Duke of Savoy to take Sardinia in exchange
for Sicily. Europe was determined to have peace,
and it was agreed for at any price.
Ministry of the Duke of Bourbon and of Fleury,
1725-45. —The oppressive and unskilful ministry
of the Duke of Bourbon, who governed after the
death of the regent (1723-26), was soon replaced
by that of the prudent and circumspect Henry, expreceptor of the young king, who quietly seized
both upon the king and the kingdom (1726-1745).
Louis XV., who to his seventh year walked in
leading strings, and to his twelfth year wore a waist
of whalebone, was destined to be led during all
his lifetime. Under the economical and timid gov-.
ernment of the old priest, France was only troubled by the affair of the bull, the convulsions of
Jansenism, and the remonstrances of Parliament.
France, asleep under Henry, was united to England, asleep under Walpole; an unequal union
from which France drew not the least advantage.
England was at that time the admiration of the
French; they went to study with the free-thinkers
of Great Britain, as once the Greek philosopher
did with the Egyptian priests. Voltaire went
there to study Locke, Newton, and his tragedy of
Brutus (1730). The president, Montesquieu, more




MODERN HISTORY.           413
circumspect since the publication of his Persian
Letters (published in 1721), found in England a
model for the imitation of all nations. No one
thought of Germany, where Leibnitz was dead,
nor of Italy, where Vico lived.
There were so many causes for war in the
midst of this great calm, that a single spark from
the North wrapped Europe in flames.
France sustains Stanislaus -Stanislaus obtains
Lorraine. —Under the ministry of the Duke of
Bourbon, a court intrigue had induced the marriage of the King of France to the daughter of a
prince without a kingdom, Stanislaus Lesczinski,
whom Charles XII. for an instant had made King
of Poland, and who had retired to France. At
the death of Augustus II. (1733), the party of
Stanislaus arose in opposition to that of Augustus
II-I., elector of Saxony, son of the deceased king.
Stanislaus had sixty thousand votes. Villars and
the old generals pushed into war; they pretended
that they could not dispense with supporting the
father-in-law of the King of France. Henry suffered himself to be driven into it; he did too little
to succeed, but sufficient to compromise the French
name. He sent three millions of money and fifteen
thousand men against fifty thousand Russians. A
Frenchman, who -was accidentally present at the
arrival of the French trooDs (the Count de Plelo,




414             SUMMARY OF
ambassador in Denmark), blushing for France, pla.
ced himself at their head, and was killed.
Spain declared herself for Stanislaus against
Austria, that supported Augustus.  This distant
war in Poland was a pretext for her to recover
her possessions in Italy; she succeeded partly,
through the aid of France. While Villars was invading Milan, the Spaniards retook both Sicilies,
and established there the Infant Don Carlos (1734
-1735). They kept this conquest by the treaty of
Vienna (1738). Stanislaus, as a recompense for
the throne of Poland, received Lorraine, which at
his death would belong to France; the Duke of
Lorraine, Fran9ois, son-in-law of the emperor, and
husband of the famous Maria Theresa, had Tuscany in exchange, as a fief of the Empire. The
last of the Medicis had died without posterity.
Henry hastened to make a treaty to secure the
two Sicilies to the Bourbons of Spain, in spite
of the jealousy of the English. Add to this that
ten thousand Russians had advanced as far as the
Rhine. It thus became apparent, for the first time,
that this European Asia could stretch her long
arms beyond Germany, even to France.
Thus France, though superannuated with Fleury
and Villars, under a minister of eighty years, and
a general as old, had still gained Lorraine. Spain,
renovated by the house of Bourbon, had gained




MODERN: HISTORY.           415
two kingdoms from Austria. Austria, still under the
house of Charles V., represented the old European
principle, which was destined to perish in order to
make room for modern principles. The Emperor
Charles VI., full of fears like Charles II. of Spain in
1700, had, at the price of the greatest sacrifices,
endeavoured to secure his estates to his daughter
Maria Theresa, wife of the Duke of Lorraine, who
had become Duke of Tuscany.
Growing Strength of Prussia - Frederic II.In face of ancient Austria rose Prussia, a German, Slavonian, and French state, in the middle
of Germany. No country had received more refugees after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes. Prussia was destined to renew the ancient Saxon opposition to the emperors.  This state, though poor,
and without any natural barrier, which could oppose
to an enemy neither the canals of Holland nor the
mountains of Savoy, had nevertheless grown and
extended, a pure creation of politics, of war, that is
to say, of will, of human liberty triumphing over nature. The first king, William, was a hard and brutal soldier, who had spent thirty years in amassing
money, and in disciplining his troops with the blows
of his cane. This founder of Prussia regarded
the state as a regiment. He feared that his son
would not continue the same policy, and was tempted to behead him, as the Czar Peter did his son




416             SUMMARY OF
Alexis. This son, who was Frederic II., did not
please his father, who valued only height and
strength, and who everywhere collected men of six
feet to compose regiments of giants. The young
Frederic was small in stature, with broad shoulders, with a large hand and piercing eyes-a strange
figure. He was a wit, a musician, a philosopher,
with immoral and frivolous tastes, a great composer of trifling French verses; he had no knowledge
of Latin, and despised the German language; a
simple logician, who could neither attain the beauty
of ancient art nor the depth of modern science.
Yet he had something for which he merited his
title of Great: he willed. He would be brave; he
would make Prussia one of the first states of Europe; he would be a legislator; he would that his
deserts of Prussia should be peopled; and he accomplished all. He was one of the founders of
the military art between Turenne and Napoleon.
When Napoleon entered Berlin, he only wished
to see the tomb of Frederic; he took his sword for
himself, and said, " This is mine."
Prussia was a new state, which owed its most
industrious citizens to the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes; it was sooner or later to become the centre
of modern false philosophy.  Frederic II. comprehended the part he had to play; he declared
himself in poetry and in philosophy the disciple of




MODERN HISTORY.            417
Voltaire; this was to make court to current opinions: in this the frivolous tastes of Frederic served his most serious projects. The Emperor Julian
had been the ape of Marcus Aurelius; Frederic
was that of Julian. At first, in honour of the Antonines, whom Voltaire proposed to him as models,
he wrote a sentimental and moral book against
Machiavel. Voltaire, in his simple enthusiasm, revised the proof sheets, lauded the royal author, and
promised a Titus to the world. At his accession,
Frederic wished to destroy the edition.
Maria Theresa and Frederic, 1740.-The same
year the Emperor Charles VI. died, and Frederic
became king (1740). All the states that had guarantied the throne to Maria Theresa took arms
against her. The moment seemed to have arrived
to cut the great body of Austria in pieces. All
hasten to the carnage. The most antiquated claims
are revived: Spain claims Bohemia and Hungary;
the King of Sardinia, Milan; Frederic, Silesia;
France demands nothing save the Empire itself for
the Elector of Bavaria, a client of her kings for more
than half a century. The elector was chosen without difficulty, and, at the same time, was named
general-in-chief of the King of France. Two
brothers, named Belle-Isle, disturbed France with
their chimerical projects. Fleury made war for the
second time in spite of himself, and, as in the first,he




418             SUMMARY OF
caused it to miscarry. The French army was badly paid and badly fed, and after some easy successes, it dispersed itself in every place where it could
subsist: it left Vienna on one side, and forced its
way into Bohemia; on the other side, Frederic, conqueror at Molwitz, lays his hand on Silesia (1741).
Maria Theresa was alone; her cause seemed
lost. With child at the time, she believed " that
there would not remain a city for her to be confined
in." But England and Holland could not see the
triumph of France with indifference. The pacific
Walpole falls, subsidies are given to Maria Theresa, an English squadron forces the King of Naples
to neutrality. The King of Prussia, who has obtained what he wished, makes peace. The French,
who wait in vain in Bohemia, lose Prague, and
return with great difficulty over the snow. BelleIsle, therefore, was at liberty to compare himself to
Xenophon (1742).
The English land on the Continent, and place
themselves at Dettingen, in the midst of the French
army, which suffered them to escape and itself to be
beaten:(1743). The French troops were thrown:back on this side the Rhine, and the poor Emperor of Bavaria was abandoned to the vengeance
of Austria.
The King of Prussia did not count on this. Maria' Theresa had again become so strong that she




MODERN HISTORY.            419
could not fail to retake Silesia-from him. He placed
himself, therefore, by the side of France and Bavaria, and returned to the charge; he entered Bohemia, and assured himself of Silesia by three victories, invaded Saxony, and forced the empress and
the Saxons to sign the treaty of Dresden. The Bavarian being dead, the Austrian caused her husband
to be made emperor (Francis I., 1745).
In the mean time the French had the advantage
in Italy. Seconded by the Spaniards, the King of
Naples, and the Genoese, they established the Infant Don Philip in the dukedoms of Milan and
Parma. In the Netherlands, under the Marshal
of Saxony, they gained the battles of Fontenois and
Raucoux (1745-6).  The former, so celebrated,
would have been lost without remedy, if an Irishman, named Lally, moved by his hatred of the English, had not proposed to break their columns with
four pieces of cannon. An artful courtier, the Duke
of Richelieu appropriated this conception and the
glory of this success to himself. The Irishman,
sword in hand, entered the English columns first.
In the same year, France hurled on England her
most formidable enemy, the Pretender. The Highlanders of Scotland welcomed him, rushed from
their mountains with an irresistible impetuosity,
swept cannons from their course, and demolished
squadrons with their swords. This success was




420             SUMMARY OF
necessary for France. Her navy was reduced to
nothing. Lally obtained some vessels, but the English guarded the sea; they prevented the Scotch
from receiving succour. They had over the Scotch
the advantage of numbers and wealth, a good cavalry and a good artillery. They conquered at Culloden (1745-46.)
Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748.-The Spaniards
withdrew from Italy. The French were driven
from it. They advanced in the Netherlands. England feared for Holland, and re-established there the
stadtholdership. The success of France against
Holland served at least to bring about peace. She
had lost her navy, her colonies; the Russians for
the second time had appeared on the Rhine. The
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle gave back to France her
colonies, assured Silesia to Prussia, Parma and Plaisance to the Bourbons of Spain. Against all hope
Austria still maintained herself (1748).
Philosophical and Literary France.-France had
had painful experience of her weakness, but she
would not profit by it. The government of the old
priest was succeeded by that of the king's mistresses. Mlle. Poisson, marchioness of Pompadour,
reigned twenty years. Born a citizen, she had
some feelings of patriotism.  Her creature, the
comptroller Machant, wished to impose taxes on
the clergy; D'Argenson directed the administration




MODERN HISTORY.            421
of the war with the talent and severity of Louvois
In the midst of the little war between the Parliament and clergy, false philosophy gained ground.
At the court even, it had partisans; the king,
enemy as he was to new opinions, had his small
printing-press, and printed himself the economical
theories of his physician, Quesnay, who proposed
a tax to be levied upon land; the nobility and
clergy, principal proprietors of land, must pay
most of it. All these schemes only ended in vain
conversations; the old corporations resisted; royalty, caressed by the philosophers, who wished to
arm it against the clergy, experienced a vague terror at the view of their progress. Voltaire prepared a general antichristian history (Essay on
Manners, 1756).  By degrees, the new philosophy emerged from this polemical form, to which
Voltaire had reduced it. In 1748, the President
Montesquieu, the founder of the Academy of
Natural Sciences at Bordeaux, gave, though in a
disconnected and timid form, a materialist theory
of legislation, drawn from the influence of climates; such is at least the predominant idea of
the Spirit of the Laws: a book, so ingenious, so
brilliant, sometimes so profound. In 1749 the colossal Natural History of Buffon appeared; in 1751
the first volumes of the Encyclopaedia, a gigantic
monument, which was to contain the whole of the
I




422             SUMMARY OF
eighteenth century, polemics and dogmatics, econo.
my and mathematics, irreligion and philanthropy,
atheism and pantheism, D'Alembert and Diderot.
Condillac had briefly expressed all that the age
comprises: Treatise of Sensations, 1754. In the
mean time the religious war was continued by
Voltaire, who had posted himself at the central
point of observation in Europe, between France,
Switzerland, and Germany, at the entrance of
Geneva, and in the chief place of the ancient
Vaudois, of Arnold of Brescia, of Zwingle, and of
Calvin.
Seven Years' War, 1756. —This was the height
of the power of Frederic.  Since his conquest
in Silesia he had lost all prudence.  In his
strange court at Potsdam, this witty warrior scof
fed at God, at the philosophers, and at his brother
sovereigns; he had used Voltaire ill, who was the
principal organ of opinion; he assailed in his epigrams both kings and queens; he believed neither
in the beauty of Madame Pompadour, nor in the
poetical genius of the Abbe Bernis, the prime minister of France. The opportunity seemed favourable for the empress to recover Silesia. She excited all Europe, and the queens above all; she
enlisted the Queen of Poland and the Empress
of Russia; she courted the mistress of Louis XV.
The monstrous alliance of France with Austria




MODERN HISTORY.            423
against a sovereign who maintained the equilibrium of Germany, seemed to unite all Europe
against him. England alone aided him, and gave
him subsidies. England was at that time governed by a gouty lawyer, the famous William Pitt,
afterward Earl of Chatham,. who raised himself
by the power of his eloquence and his hatred towards the French. England desired two things:
the preservation of the European equilibrium, and
the ruin of the French and Spanish colonies. Her
grievances were great; the Spaniards had ill
treated some of her subjects who were engaged in
contraband trade, and the French in Canada prevented them from building on their territory. In the
Indies, La Bourdonnaie, and his successor Dupleix,
threatened to found a great power in face of the
English. The English, as a declaration of war,
confiscated three hundred French vessels (1756).
It was amazing to behold in this war the little
kingdom of Prussia, amid the masses of Austria,
of France, of Russia, going from one to another,
and confronting all. This is the second epoch of
the military art. The simple adversaries of Frederic believed that he owed all his success to the
precision of the manoeuvres of the Prussian soldiers, to their skill in military tactics, in firing five
times in a minute. Frederic had certainly perfected the soldier as a machine. But this could be




424             SUMMARY OF
imitated; the Czar Peter III., and the Count St.
Germain, made automaton soldiers by a free use
of the cane. What they could not imitate was the
quickness of his manceuvres and his well-ordered
marches, which gave him great facility in concentrating those rapid masses on the weak side of
the enemy.
In this terrible chase which the great armies of
the allies gave Prussia, we cannot avoid remarking
the amusing circumspection of the Austrian tacticians, and the rash folly of the great lords who
conducted the armies of France. The Fabius of
Austria, the wise and sluggish Daun, limited himself to a war of opposition; he found no camp
strong enough, no mountains inaccess~ile enough;
Frederic always beat those paralytic armies.
Rosbach, 1757.-First, he rid himself of the
Saxons. He did them no injury; he only disarmed them. Then he struck a blow at Bohemia.
Repulsed, abandoned by the English army, which
had decided at Closterseven to fight no longer,
threatened by the Russians, conquered "at Zaegerndorf, he went to Saxony, and there found the
French and Imperialists united. Four armies surrounded Prussia. Frederic believed himself lost;
he wished to put an end to his existence; he wrote
so to his sister, and to Argens. He only feared
one thing: that after his death the great distributer




MODERN HISTORY.             425
of glory, Voltaire, would not perpetuate his name;
he wrote an epistle to appease him, thus imitating
Julian, who, when mortally wounded, drew from
his robe and pronounced a discourse which he
had composed for such an occasion. " As regards
myself," said Frederic, " as regards myself, threatened by shipwreck, it is my duty, facing the storm,
to think, live, and die as a king!" The epistle
finished, he defeated the enemy. The Prince
of Soubise, expecting to see him fly, rashly pursued him; then the Prussians unmask their
troops, kill three thousand men, and take seven
thousand. They found in the camp an army of
cooks, comedians, and hairdressers, a quantity of
parrots and umbrellas, and I know not how many
cases of lavender water (1757).
The tactician alone can follow.the King of Prussia in this series of beautiful and scientific battles.
The Seven Years' War, whatever the variety of its
vicissitudes may be, was a war of policy and of
strategy; it had not the interest of wars of opinion, nor of those wars for religion and liberty which
occur in the sixteenth century, and in our own.
Family Compact, 1761.-The defeat at Rosbach
renewed at Crevelt —great reverses, balanced by
trifling advantages-the total ruin of the French
navy and of the French colonies-the English
masters of the seas and conquerors of India-the




426             SUMMARY OF
weakness, the humiliation of all old Europe before
young Prussia-this is the Seven Years' War. It
terminated under the ministry of M. de Choiseul.
This minister, a man of spirit and talent, thought to
strike a great blow by arranging the family compact
between the different branches of the house of
Bourbon (1761).
In the midst of the humiliations of the Seven
Years' War, and even by means of these humiliations, the drama of the age makes rapid strides towards its development. Who had been conquered
in this and the preceding war? France? No, but
the nobility, who alone furnished the officers, the
generals. The enemies of France could not question French bravery after Chevert and D'Assas.
Had one not seen, in the combat of the exiles,
French soldiers climbing the Alps under showers
of grapeshot with which the cannons were loaded,
and leaping on the cannons of the enemy even
through the embrasures, while the pieces recoiled?
As to the generals, the only ones that we can venture to name at this epoch are Saxe and Broglie,
who were foreigners. He who appropriated to himself the glory of Fontenoi, the great general of the
century, according to the saying of women and of
courtiers, the conqueror of Mahon, the old Alcibiades of the old Voltaire, Richelieu, had shown suff-i
ciently, during the five campaigns of the last war,




MODERN HISTORY.             427
what one ought to think of a reputation so skilfully got up. These campaigns were at least lucrative; he brought back enough from them to build
on the boulevards of Paris the elegant pavilion of
Hanover.
J. J. Rousseau. - Towards the end of this ignoble war of seven years, in which the aristocracy
had fallen so low, the great plebeian mind burst
forth. It was as if France had cried to Europe,
C It is not I who am conquered!" In 1750, the son
of a watchmaker of Geneva, John Jacques Rousseau, a vagrant, scribe, and footman by turns, had
cursed all science in his hatred of a spurious philosophy, and of'the caste of literary men; then he
cursed all inequality in his hatred of a degenerated
nobility (1754). This rage for levelling streamed
in torrents through the letters of his New Heloise
(1759). Naturalism is expounded in his Emily,
Deism in the profession of the faith of the Savoyard Vicar (1762). In the Social Contract, finally,
appeared the three maxims of the Revolution, traced
by a fiery hand.
The Revolution advanced so irresistibly, that the
king, who foresaw it with terror, worked for it in
spite of himself, and opened its path. In 1763 he
founded for it his temple, the Pantheon, which'was
to receive Rousseau and Voltaire. In 1764 he expelled the Jesuits; in 1771 he abolished the Parlia



428             SUMMARY OF
ment.  A tractable instrument of necessity, he
overthrew with an indifferent hand whatever yet remained standing of the ruins of the Middle Ages.
Abolition of the Jesuits, 1764.-The society of the
Jesuits, which was believed to be so deeply rooted,
was annihilated without a blow through all Europe.
The Templars had perished in like manner in the
fourteenth century, when the system to which they
belonged had lasted its time. The Jesuits were
given up to the parliaments, their deadly enemies.
But, at the same time that the stones of Port Royal had fallen on the heads of the Jesuits, the downfall of the latter was fatal to the parliaments.
These corporations, encouraged by thfeir increasing
popularity and by their recent victory, would move
along the old paths. The imperfect balance of the
old monarchy encountered the elastic opposition of
the parliaments, who remonstrated, adjourned, and
ended by respectfully yielding. Some courageous
and decided men, among others Breton la Chalotais, undertook to lead them farther. In the trial
of the Duke of Aiguillon they stood firm; they were
broken up (1771). It was not to the judges of
Lally, of Calas, of Sirven, of Labarre, that it belonged to achieve the Revolution, still less to the
coterie that overthrew them. The spirited Abbe
Terray, and the jovial Chancellor Maupeou, allies of
the Duke of Aiguillon and Madame du Barray, were




MODERN HISTORY.            429
not honest enough to have the privilege of doing
good. Terray, who had charge of the finances, remedied the disorder a little, but did it through bankruptcy. Maupeou abolished the venality of offices,
and dispensed justice gratuitously, but no one would
believe that it was gratuitous in the hands of the
creatures of Maupeou. All the world ridiculed their
reforms; no one more than themselves. Irrepressible laughter burst forth at the appearance of the
Memoirs of Beaumarchais. Louis XV. read them,
as did everybody, and was much amused with
them.  This egotistical monarch perceived the
growing danger of the crown more clearly than any
one, but he judged with reason, that, after all, it
would outlast him (died in 1774).
Louis XVI., 1774.-His unfortunate successor,
ILis XVI., inherited all this danger. Many people had conceived sad forebodings on the occasion
of his marriage fetes, when several hundred persons were suffocated. Yet the accession of the
honest young king, seating himself with his graceful queen on the throne, now happily purged of Louis XV., had excited in the country immense hope.
For a society jaded and worn out, this was an
epoch of happiness and genuine emotion. It cried,
admired itself and its tears, and believed itself
again young. The fashionable style was the idyl;
at first, the insipidity of Florian, the innocence of




430             SUMMARY OF
Gesner, then the immortal eclogue of Paul and
Virginia. The queen built herself a hamlet, and
bought a farm in Trianon. The philosophers conducted the plough by writing. " Choiseul is husbandman, and Voltaire is farmer." All the world
interested itself for the people, loved the people,
wrote for the people. Benevolence was fashionable; they gave small alms and great feasts.
While the higher circles enjoyed this sentimental comedy, that great movement of the world continued, which was about to sweep away everything in a moment. The true confidant of the
public, the confidant of Beaumarchais, grew daily
more bitter; he changed from comedy to satire,
from satire to the tragical drama. Royalty, Parliament, nobility, all staggered with weakness; the
world was as if intoxicated. Philosophy evn
sickened under the poison of Rousseau and Gilbert. Men believed no more in religion or irreligion; they wished to believe, however; strong
minds went incognito to seek for creeds in the
phantasmagoria of Cagliostro, and in the trough of
Mesmer. In the mean time, the everlasting dialogue of rational skepticism  resounded through
France; the evident dogmatism of Kant responded
to the nihilism of Hume, and over all rose the great
poetical voice of Goethe, harmonious, immoral, and
indifferent. France, in commotion and preoccu



MODERN HISTORY.            431
pied, heard nothing of all this. Germany pursued
the scientific epic poem; France worked out the
social drama.
Turgot - Necker. - What gives a comic air to
the gloom of these last days of the old society, is
the contrast between great promises and complete
inefficiency. Inefficiency is a common trait of all
the ministers of that time. All promise, and can
do nothing. M. de Choiseul would defend Poland, humble England, exalt France by a European
war, when he could not defray the expenses of
the day; if he had wished to execute his projects,
the Parliament, who sustained him, would have
abandoned him. Maupeou and Terray dissolved
the Parliament, and could find nothing to replace
it; they wished to reform the finances, and they
had to rely on none but the robbers of the public
treasury. Under Louis XVI., the great, the honest, the sanguine Turgot (1774-1776), proposes
the true remedy-economy, and the abolition of
privileges. To whom does he propose them?
To the privileged party, who overthrow him. In
the mean time, necessity obliged them to call to
their aid an able banker, an eloquent foreigner, a
second Law, but more honest. Neckar promises
wonders: he encourages everybody, he announces
no sweeping reform, he proceeds gently. He inspires confidence, he has recourse to credit, he




432             SUMMARY OF
finds money, he borrows. Confidence and a good
administration would augment commerce - commerce would create resources. Short loans were
made on the strength of casual, slow, and distant
resources. Neckar finished by relinquishing his
own plans and returning to the means proposed by
Turgot-economy, and equality of taxes. The account which he rendered was an expressive acknowledgment of his weakness (1781).
War of America, 1778-84. —Neckar, we must
confess, had had a double conflict to sustain. He
had, besides the expenses of the interior, to defray
those of the war which France carried on in favour
of youthful America (1778-84). France contributed at that time to raise against England an English rival. Although the latter has shown that she
does not care to remember the aid, never was money
better employed. The country could not pay too
much for the last naval victories of France and the
creation of Cherbourg.  There was then a rare
season of confidence and enthusiasm.  France
envied America her Franklin; the young French
nobility embarked in the crusade for liberty.
Notables, 1787.-The king, who had vainly tried
the patriotic ministers, Turgot and Neckar, was
now influenced by the queen and the court, and
chose courtiers as ministers. One could not find
a minister more agreeable than M. de Calonne, a




MODERN HISTORY.            433
guide more ready to encourage his master to plunge
gayly into ruin.  When he had exhausted the
credit which the wise conduct of Neckar had created, he knew not what to do, and assembled the
Notables (1787).  He had to confess that the
loans had been raised within a few years to 1646
millions of francs, and that an annual deficit existed of 140 millions. The Notables, who themselves belonged to the privileged classes, gave advice and accusations in place of money. Brienne,
raised by them to the place of Calonne, had recourse to duties; the Parliament refused to register them, and demanded the States-General, that
is to say, their own ruin and that of the ancient
monarchy.
States-General, 1789. — The philosophers had
been overthrown with Turgot, the bankers with
Neckar, the courtiers with Calonne and Brienne.
The privileged would not pay, and the people could
not any longer. The States-General, as an eminent historian said, only decreed a revolution, which
had already taken place (opening of the StatesGeneral, May 5th, 1789.)
THE END.