THE Sl STAnoN 0. Out,! FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY WITH A REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV BY JAMES BRECK PERKINS AUTHOR OF ''FRANCE UNDER RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN '* BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY C6e fPOoex^iife \3res5, Cambribge 1892 Copyright, 1892, Bt JAMES BRECK PERKINS. All rights reserved. SECOND EDITION. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H, O. Houghton & Company. DC 151 P4ff 1892 PREFACE. This book covers the regency of the Duke of Or- leans, with a review of the more important phases of the long reign of Louis XIV. I expect hereafter to discuss some other periods of French history dur- ing the eighteenth century. The present volume, how- ever, is entirely distinct ; the history of the century naturally divides itself into epochs, any one of which can be studied by those who so desire, without any necessary reference to the others. Historical students now feel bound to consult the most trustworthy authorities. To discover the truth of history, as well as the facts in a court of law, hear- say and secondary evidence can only be received when no better can be found. For almost everything that concerns the government itself, in its administrative and diplomatic relations, official documents and diplo- matic correspondence are the most satisfactory sources of information. Many of these, for this period of French history, have been published. Most of the valuable manuscript authorities are found at the Na- tional Library at Paris, and especially in the Archives R.'100685 IV PREFACE. des Affaires Etraiigeres. The courtesy of the French government allows students of French history to have access to whatever they care to examine. The literature of the time and contemporary me- moirs furnish the best idea of the social and intel- lectual condition of the period. The newspapers of this era are of little importance ; as we understand the institution of the press, it cannot be said to have existed. It is impossible for any one to read all the documents and printed matter which may contain in- formation. There is, however, little difficulty in de- ciding what is of the most importance, and on what authorities one can safely rely. The views which may be taken of the events and characters of the re- gency, and of the administration of Louis XIV., will differ ; the lessons to be drawn from these periods will be differently interpreted by different writers. So far as the occurrences themselves are concerned, I do not think that any important sources of information will be discovered which will throw new light upon them. It is manifestly impracticable to give all the author- ities which are examined. A statement as to the pur- poses of a king or a minister may be based upon the impression produced by reading fifty letters ; a state- ment as to the economical condition of a district may be founded upon as many reports of superintendents and other officials. To refer to them all, still more to cite liberally from them, would make the notes far more voluminous than the text. I have endeavored PREFA CE. V to refer always to the most important autliorities on which I rely. This is sufficient to serve as a guide to any one who cares to examine critically any passage in the text ; for the ordinary reader, long lists of ref- erences and numerous citations serve no purpose. Paris, March, 1892. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. France ik the Eighteenth Century. Effect of the Revolution Reign of Louis XIV. . . , . Commercial Development of France . Influence of Literature . . , . Decline of Monarchical Feeling . Religious Condition of France . Contest with Parliament Loss of Foreign Possessions of France . Influence of French Literature in Europe Influence of England . . . . Influence of the American Revolution Condition of the Aristocracy . Results of the Revolution . FAOB 1 2 3 6 7 10 13 14 16 17 18 20 21 CHAPTER IL The Early Years of the Administration of Louis XIV. 1661-1670. Condition of France in 1661 23 Ministers of Louis XIV. 25 Character of Louis XIV 26 He assumes Control of the Government .... 29 Corruption of Fouquet . 31 Misery of the People 33 Fouquet's Overthrow decided upon 35 Festivities at Vaux 36 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. Arrest of Fouquet ........ 37 Trial and Sentence of Fouquet ..... 38 Dispute with Spanish Ambassador at London . . .42 Quarrels with the Pope ....... 44 Purchase of Dunkirk ........ 47 Suppression of Internal Disorders ..... 48 Splendor of the Court 50 CHAPTER III. Wars with Spain and Holland. 1667-1679. Claims upon the Possessions of Spain . Renunciation of Maria Theresa Birth of Charles II. ... Claims made by Louis on Brabant . Death of Philip IV War between England and Holland . Invasion of the Spanish Low Countries Alarm excited in Holland The Triple Alliance . Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle Treaty between France and Austria Acquisitions by France Condition of Lorraine and Alsace Louis's Indignation against Holland Alliance with England Alliance with German Powers . Improvements of Louvois . Invasion of Holland Offers made by the Dutch . The Dikes are cut . Cruelties practiced in Holland Alliance in Behalf of Holland Death of Turenne Louis's Military Tastes . Terms offered to Holland Peace made with Holland Peace of Nimeguen 52 63 66 57 58 59 61 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 71 72 73 76 76 77 78 79 80 81 84 86 87 TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER IV. Colbert. 1661-1683. Birth and Appearance of Colbert Employed by Mazarin .... Appointed Superintendent by Louis Financial Condition of France . Measures to reduce the Debt Measures against the Farmers General . Improvement in the Condition of France Protective Tariffs in France Manufacturing Industries .... Principles advocated by Colbert His Encouragement of Manufacturers Protective Tariffs of Colbert . Their Effect on the Country Condition of the Country in 1698 Opinion of the Merchants in 1700 Increase in Wealth in the Eighteenth Century The Edicts regulating Manufacturers Edicts forbidding Exportation of Grain . Result of Colbert's Policy .... His Colonial Policy ..... His Death and Wealth .... 90 91 93 95 96 98 100 101 103 105 106 109 112 114 116 117 118 120 123 124 126 CHAPTER V. Louis the Great. Louis's Position in Europe .... His Influence upon the Nobility Life at Versailles ..... Character of the Nobility under Louis XIV. Embassies from Foreign Countries Completion of the Louvre Improvements in Paris . . . . Construction of Palace of Versailles Literature under Louis XIV. Pensions paid Authors .... Louis's Relations with Women 129 130 131 134 135 137 138 139 142 144 147 X TABLE OF CONTENTS. Madame de Maintenon 148 Her Political Influence ....... 166 Veneration felt for Louis XIV 158 His Character 160 CHAPTER VI. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 1685. Religious Policy of Louis XIV. . Growth of the Huguenot Party in France Edict of Nantes . . • . . Treatment of Huguenots by Richelieu Their Treatment by Mazarin Restrictive Measures of Louis XIV. Conduct of the Gallican Church . Endeavors to convert Huguenots Persecution of Huguenots . Dragonnades ..... The Huguenots profess Catholicism Revocation of Edict of Nantes Praise received by Louis Treatment of the New Converts Flight of Protestants from France Institution of the Galleys Relaxation in Severities Petty Persecution .... Results of the Revocation of the Edict Louis's Quarrels with Innocent XL Action of the Gallican Church Quarrels over the Privileges of Ambassadors 164 165 166 167 168 169 171 172 175 177 182 184 185 187 189 190 195 196 199 204 205 207 CHAPTER VII. Coalitions against France. 1680-1697. Results of Early Reign of Louis XIV. Proceedings of the Courts of Reunion Annexation of Strasburg .... Bombardment of Genoa ..... 209 211 212 215 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI Treatment of the Duke of Savoy Persecutions of the Vaudois Feeling against Louis in Europe . League of Augsburg Quarrel over Electorate of Cologne Beginning of the War Expedition of William of Orange Devastation of the Palatinate • Capture of, Namur Louis leaves the Army Death of Louvois Barbarities practiced in the War Condition of France Terms with the Duke of Savoy Treaty of Ryswick 216 217 218 219 220 222 225 227 228 230 232 233 234 235 236 CHAPTER VIIL The Spanish Succession, 1698-1713. Question of the Spanish Succession Claimants on the Succession Negotiations for a Partition First Partition Treaty Second Partition Treaty Feelings of the Spanish . Negotiations at Madrid Good Faith of Louis XIV. Condition of Charles II. of Intrigues of Porto Carrero Will of Charles II. It is accepted by Louis XIV. . Duke of Anjou declared King of Spain Apprehension excited in Europe Conduct of Louis XIV. War declared ..... Recognition of the Pretender by Louis War of the Spanish Succession Defeats of the French Discontent in France Spain 239 241 243 244 246 249 251 253 259 261 262 264 267 268 270 271 271 272 273 275 Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS. Louis endeavors to make Peace . Conduct of the Allies Conduct of Philip V. of Spain . Madame dcs Ursins Financial Condition of France Victories in Spain Peace of Utrecht Conduct of the English Ministers Overthrow of Madame des Ursins 277 279 280 281 283 285 285 287 289 CHAPTER IX. The Close of the Reign of Louis XIV. 1712-1715. Death of the Dauphin 293 Death and Character of the Duke of Burgundy . . 294 Grief of Louis XIV 296 Destruction of Port Royal 297 Death of Louis XIV 298 Growth of Royal Power in France ..... 300 Condition of the Aristocracy ...... 302 Privileged Classes ........ 303 Local Institutions of France ...... 304 Provincial States ........ 306 Municipal Bodies ' . . . 308 They lose the Right to elect Officers .... 310 The French Parliaments ....... 312 Condition of the Peasantry 313 Effect of Louis's Government ...... 314 Changes in Industry ....... 315 Legal Reforms ......... 317 Monarchical Government in France .... 319 Decline in Religious Belief ....... 320 Social Grievances 322 CHAPTER X. The Regency. 1715. Lack of Respect for Louis XIV. The Office of Regent 324 326 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xm Philip V. intrigues to be Regent . The Duke of Orleans Will of Louis XIV Session of the Parliament Will of Louis XIV. set aside Appointment of Councils Inefficiency of the Aristocracy Quarrels over Precedence Right of Bastards to inherit the Throne Degradation of Duke of Maine Release of Prisoners .... Religious Policy of Regent His Political Views . . . •. Financial Condition of France Efforts at Reformation Depreciation of the Currency . CHAPTER XI. Dubois and the English Alliance, 1715-1717. Character of Cardinal Dubois Preceptor of the Duke of Orleans Letter of Orleans's Mother Religious Character of Dubois Treatment of the Pretender Louis XIV. refuses to assist him English friendly to Duke of Orleans Offers of an Alliance Conduct of Orleans Defeat of the Jacobites Negotiations for an Alliance Dubois's Visit at the Hague He goes to Hanover Charges that he was bribed Character of Stanhope Formation of Triple Alliance Results of this Measure Justification of the Treaty . 327 328 . 332 335 . 336 338 . 340 342 . 343 345 . 346 347 . 351 353 . 355 358 . 360 362 . 365 368 . 371 372 . 374 376 . 378 379 . 380 383 . 385 386 . 387 389 . 390 391 XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. The Quadruple Alliance and War with Spain. 1718-1720. Character of Philip V 397 He is governed by his Wives ...... 398 Character of his Second Wife ...... 400 Life of Philip V 401 His Superstition . . . ...... 402 Claims as to his Renunciation ...... 404 His Animosity to Orleans •. . . . . . . 406 Alberoni 407 Schemes of Alberoni ........ 409 Hostility to France 410 The Spanish invade Sardinia ...... 412 Dubois Ambassador at London ..... 413 The Quadruple Alliance ....... 415 The Spanish invade Sicily ...... 417 War against Spain 418 Conspiracy of Cellamare 419 Arrest of the Conspirators ....... 422 The French invade Spain 424 Overthrow of Alberoni 425 CHAPTER XIII. Law and his System. Early Life of John Law 428 His Theories on Finance ....... 430 His Proposals to the Scotch 433 Career as a Gambler ....... 435 Visits Paris 436 His Offers to the Regent 438 Views in Reference to a Bank 440 The Regent favorable to Law 443 Law's Bank organized .....•• 444 Its Beneficial Effect 445 Its Change to a State Bank 446 TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV CHAPTER XIV. The Mississippi Company. 1717-1720. Law's Plans for Foreign Commerce Organization of the Company of the West Territory ceded to it . Capital of the Company . Other Franchises obtained by it . The Company of the Indies Obtains Farm of the Taxes Funding of the National Debt Increased Issues of Currency Attempts to colonize Louisiana Reports as to its Wealth Beginning of Speculation in Shares Issues of Stock Advance in Prices .... Subscriptions for Shares Speculation in the Rue Quincampoix Fluctuations in Prices Fortunes realized .... Apparent Prosperity .... Reforms effected by Law He is made Controller General . Dividends promised on the Stock 448 449 450 451 452 454 455 456 458 459 462 465 468 470 471 473 476 477 479 480 482 483 CHAPTER XV. The Failure of the System. 1720-1721. Speculators begin to realize High Price of Provisions .... Edicts against Luxury .... Measures against Use of Gold and Silver Their Use is prohibited .... Purchase of Shares by the Company Violence in Efforts at Colonization Murder committed by Count Horn . 486 487 488 489 491 492 494 495 XVI TABLE OF CONTENTS. Speculation forbidden ........ 498 Reduction in Value of Shares ...... 500 . 503 504 . 507 508 . 510 512 . 514 516 Law's Measures repealed .... Disturbances in Payment of Bank Notes Fall in Price of Shares .... The System abandoned .... Law leaves France ..... His Character and Conduct Liquidation of the Bank and the Company Future History of the Company of the Indies Results of Law's System 517 CHAPTER XVL The Ministry of Dubois. 1717-1721. Influence of Dubois 520 Contests with the Parliament ...... 522 Visit of Peter the Great 527 Embassy from the Sultan of Turkey .... 530 Treatment of the Jansenists ...'.. 534 Quarrels over the Bull Unigenitus ..... 536 Intrigues for Dubois's Promotion as a Cardinal . . . 538 Death of Clement XI 544 Dubois made a Cardinal ....... 546 CHAPTER XVII. The Close of the Regency. 1721-1723. Dubois made Prime Minister Alliance with Spain .... Majority of Louis XV. . . His Coronation ..... Miracles at Paris .... Voltaire ....... Influence of the Regency on Literature Scientific Progress in France . The Worship of the Sacred Heart Growth of Paris ..... 547 548 549 550 552 552 554 556 557 559 TABLE OF CONTENTS. xvii Influence of Paris Career of Cartouche Death of Dubois . Death of Orleans Influence of the Regency CHAPTER XVIII. The Morals of the Regency Moral Condition under the Regency Moral Condition under Louis XIV. Life led by the Duke of Orleans Suppers of the Palais Royal Opera Balls .... Fetes at St. Cloud Mistresses of the Regent Dissipation at Versailles The Duke of Richelieu The Duchess of Berry Children of the Duke of Orleans Laxity of Moral Judgment Relaxation of Religious Belief . Character of Louis XV. Last Words of the Duke of Orleans 561 562 567 569 570 . 572 574 . 576 577 . 578 579 . 580 582 . 583 584 . 588 590 . 591 593 . 595 Index 597 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. CHAPTER I. FRANCE EN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. The history of France in the eighteenth century justly claims the attention of the student of politics, of society, and of literature. The last hundred years have witnessed political and social modifications more im- portant than those of any era since the institution of Christianity and of the Roman Empire. In the intel- lectual movement of the years preceding, we must seek the origin, the vivifying cause, of the changes which have so rapidly transformed modern civilization, and during those years it is certain that France exercised the greatest influence of any European state. Few now deny that the French Revolution affected profoundly and permanently forms of government and conditions of society. Even those who are most eloquent in denunciation of its crimes admit that its results have changed the face of Europe. The causes of a movement of such importance can be traced far back, but in a general way it may be said that the conditions which determined its nature and controlled its consequences are to be sought between the death of Louis XIV. and the meeting of the States General. It was impossible that a monarchy like that of the Bourbons, or institutions such as those of the old 2 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. regime, should continue indefinitely in France, but it was uncertain how long that form of government could exist, and what would be the beliefs and the influence of the French peoi^le when old traditions had passed away. The three quarters of a centuiy which precede 1789, though less dramatic and less lurid than the era of the Revolution, can be studied Avitli equal profit by those who seek to know the record of the past, in order to derive from it lessons for the present, and admoni- tions for the future. The reign of Louis XIV. extended over seventy years, and in so long a period it largely modified the institutions and the power of France. Her European position was far more commanding at the close of the seventeenth century than at its beginning. Alike in political power, in the influence exercised by her so- ciety, in the attention attracted by her literature, France was confessedly the leading state of Europe. Additions of new territory had increased her strength and her prestige ; they had gratified the pride of a peo- ple which has always been eager to extend the boun- daries and the influence of the fatherland. The as:- grandizement of France during the seventeenth century is not to be condemned as the result of a series of pirati- cal excursions. The growth of nations by the absorp- tion of smaller communities, adapted by situation and by race to assimilate with the larger body, has been the law of European progress. Thus France has been built up. Thus Italy has been consolidated in our own days. The greatest subdivision of Europe coincided with the worst condition of the poor, and the lowest phases of general intelligence. The unification of great nations, in the past as in the present, has attended the de- velopment of civilization. FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 3 The early successes of Louis XIV. were followed by reverses, and his reign ended in disaster. It was shown that the omnipotence of the master was not accompa- nied by omniscience ; a severe rule became irksome when its results were defeat abroad and distress at home. But the feeling of relief that welcomed the death of the old king was far from being a desire for any radical change in the system of government. The child who succeeded to the throne was an object of affection and veneration to the entire nation. When he was dangerously ill, every one was in consterna- tion ; his recovery was greeted by demonstrations of delight which were universal and unfeigned. Bour- geoisie united with nobility in a common glee ; the fisherwomen of the market were as exuberant in their joy as the courtiers of the Louvre.^ The regency of the Duke of Orleans lasted only eight years, but it was not without a considerable effect upon the destinies of the country. It was a break in the political and the religious traditions of the reign of Louis XIV. The new activity imparted to busi- ness during this period was an event of equal impor- tance. Nothing is more erroneous than to suppose that constantly increasing misery at last excited revolt against the government and the institutions of the old regime. The Revolution in France at the close of the eighteenth century was possible, not because the condi- tion of the people had grown worse, but because it had become better. The material development of that country, during the fifty years that preceded the con- ^ Accounts of the demonstrations at the recovery of the young king in 1721 are given in the journals of Barbier and Buvat. The fisherwomen presented an enormous sturgeon. — Journal de Marais, ii, 183. 4 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. vocation of the States General, had no parallel in its past history. Neither the weight of taxation, nor the extravagance of the court, nor the bankruptcy of the government, checked an increase in wealth that made France in 1789 seem like a different land from France in 1715. The lot of large classes was still miserable, the burden of taxation upon a large part of the popu- lation was still grievous, there were sections where Arthur Young could truly say that he found only pov- erty and privileges, but the country as a whole was more prosperous than Germany or Spain ; it was far more prosperous than it had been under Louis XIV. An enthusiastic observer declai'ed that one seemed to breathe in that fair land the perfume of public feli- city.i Such an improvement in material conditions neces- sitated both social and political changes. In the most disastrous periods of French history, an alteration in the form of government, effected by the community at large, would have been impossible. Hunger and de- spair might excite a Jacquerie, bands of starving sav- ages might burn the castle of a gentleman and murder his family, but such excesses had no permanent result. The villeins of a feudal lord, ignorant, miserable, men- tally inert, were as incapable of attempting important political changes as were the beasts they tended. The bourgeoisie, though more prosperous and more intelli- gent, bore little resemblance to the same class in the eighteenth century. A revolution like that of 1789 was impossible until the condition of the people, both materially and mentally, was far removed from what it had been in the Hundred Years' War, or even dur- ing the era of the Fronde. ^ Mcmoires dii Comte Beugnot. FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 5 Dense ignorance was still widespread in France in the latter part of the eighteenth century, but the intellectual condition of the middle classes had been largely, and that of the lower classes somewhat modi- fied. The proportion of the peasantry capable of mental action more varied than providing for physi- cal needs was larger under Louis XVI. than under Louis XIV. In the cities, and among the middle and upper classes, increased activity and freedom of thought were among the most striking features of the age. The wealthy merchant no longer viewed society as did the bourgeois who kept a little shop on the Pont Neuf under the Valois kings. " The merchants have discarded their former dress," said Voltaire, " polite- ness has gained the shop." Even this change in manners was symbolical. But while social conditions had altered, political institutions remained unchanged. New wine had been poured in, but the old bottles were still used. Tailles and corvees were no more severe in the eighteenth than in the fifteenth century, but they were more odious. A feudal privilege, which had then been accepted as a part of the law of nature, was now regarded as contrary to nature. The pre- eminence of birth, which had been freely accorded by the merchant and the member of Parliament of the seventeenth century, was galling to their descendants. The member of the third estate, who felt that in wealth and intelligence he was the equal of a social superior, chafed at distinctions which were the more strenuously insisted upon as they began to be ques- tioned. Thus a demand for social equality, for the abolition of privileges and immunities by which any class profited at the expense of others, was fostered by economical changes. It received an additional 6 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. impetus from the writings of theorists, philosophers, and political reformers. The influence of literature in France during the eighteenth century was important, yet it is possible to overestimate it. The seed of political and social change was sown by the writers of the period, but the soil was already prepared to receive it. The books of Voltaire and Rousseau and the Encyclopaedists would have been impossible a century earlier, and if they had then appeared they would have failed of effect. We can more truly say that a subversive literature was the result of the unsettled condition of men's minds, than that public opinion was first unsettled by a subversive literatui-e. It was only in the latter part of the century that a great influence was exercised by the writers who attacked established institutions. In St. Simon's me- moirs, written about 1745, he refers to the imprison- ment of Voltaire in the Bastille when he was a young man, and adds, by way of excuse for speaking of so paltry an event, that Voltaire had since become some- what of a personage in society of a certain kind. This remark expressed the contemptuous feeling of a duke and a peer for any one who was not distinguished by birth, but it would not have been made later. When St. Simon wrote, Voltaire was known as a poet and a wit ; it was not until years afterward that he became a power in Europe whom sovereigns feared and the popidace worshiped. Had the duke written in 1775, he would probably have denounced Voltaire as an atheist, a criminal, and an object of loathing, but he would not have dismissed him with mild contempt as one who was denied access to the inner mysteries of aristocratic society. FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 7 The course of events, the conduct of their rulers, prepared the minds of the French people for political change, and accounted for the influence which litera- ture acquired. The doctrines of philosophers found easy access to the hearts of a people with whom rev- erence for royalty and a tranquil acceptance of an established government had been succeeded by con- tempt for the king and hatred for the regime under which they lived. We can trace this change of sentiment during the reign of Louis XV. The popular affection which encircled his cradle accompanied him when he had grown to be a man. During the long administration of Fleury, the young king was submissive to the wishes of his minister, but after the cardinal's death the people looked forward with expectation to the exercise of the personal authority of their sovereign. His early breaches of morality excited little criti- cism among his subjects. Henry IV., the most popu- lar, and Louis XIV., the most powerful, of French monarchs, had indulged in the gallantry which was deemed a prerogative of sovereignty, and it had not interfered with the performance of their duties as rulers. " The king's relatioas with women will develop his genius and his sensibility," wrote one chronicler, and he declared the criticisms upon Mme. de Pompa- dour to be outrageous. " It is enough that the king is attached to a woman," he said, " to make her an object of respect to all his subjects." ^ Few events are more noticeable in the history of the age than the extraordinary expressions of grief and affection that were excited by the illness of Louis XV. in 1744. The agitation at Paris was extreme. ^ Journal de Barbier, ii. 154 ; iv. 367. 8 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Crowds besieged the houses of the ministers to hear the latest bulletins from Metz, where the king was lying ill. The churehes were filled with people pray- ing for his recovery. When it was reported that he had received the last sacraments, men wept in the streets. A cori-esponding outburst of joy greeted his recovery. Statues were erected in his honor. Te Deums were sung. A preacher hailed him as Louis the well beloved, and all the nation adopted the title. " What have I done to be so loved ? " the king himself asked. Certainly he had done nothing, but the expla- nation was correctly given. " Louis XV. is dear to his people, without having done anything for them, because the Fi-entsh are, of all nations, most inclined to love their king." ^ This affection, the result of centuries of fidelity and zeal for monarchical institutions, and for the sover- eigns by whom they were personified, was wholly de- stroyed by Louis's subsequent career. The vices to which he became addicted were those which arouse feelings not only of reprehension, but of loathing. They excited both aversion and contempt. The ad- ministration of the country was as despicable as the character of the sovereign. Under Louis XIV. there had been suffering and there had been disaster, but France had always preserved a commanding position in Europe. Even when vanquished, she had not been humiliated. But now defeat and dishonor were the fate of a people alike powerful and proud. Foreign empires were lost ; the influence of France in Europe was impaired, If it was not destroyed. Impotent gen- erals commanded the army, inefficient ministers di- * Memoires d'Argenson, ii. 44. FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 9 rected the counsels of the state. It was a goverument that paralyzed the energies of 25,000,000 people.^ For almost twenty years Mme. de Pompadour con- trolled the destinies of France. The courtesan by whom the land was ruined had none of the heroic qualities of Agnes Sorel, none of the amiable qualities of Gabrielle d'Estrdes. Oppressive taxation and con- stant defeat were the results of a vacillatiuff and im- potent tyranny. The low profligacy into which the king had sunk, the nullity of his character, the turpi- tude of his mistress, the weakness of his administra- tion, the failure of all his plans, went far toward destroying the feelings of loyalty that had so long existed in the hearts of the French people. Some curious figures mark the decline in the estimation in which the king was held. In 1744, six thousand masses were said at Notre Dame for the restoration of Louis XV. to health ; in 1757, after the attempted assassination by Damiens, there were six hundred ; when the king actually lay dying, in 1774, there were only thi-ee.^ The fall from six thousand to three measures the decline in the affection and resj)ect of the French people for their sovereign. It was with a public whose sentiments had thus altered that the new philosophy found acceptance. " Experience shows that we have had ten bad kings for one good one," wrote a man who had been a min- ister of state.^ A few years later, a president of the Parliament presented an address to the king, in which he said that the- courts advocated the cause of the peo- 1 Mem. d'Augeard, one of the secretaries of Marie Antoinette. 2 Journal de Hardy, 1774, cited in Aubertin, L' esprit public au dix-huili'emc siecle. ^ Argenson, vi. 4G5. 10 FRASCE UNDER THE REGENCY. pie, '' by whom you reign, and for whom you reign." It was but a step further to declare that the govern- ment must be by the people, of the people, and for the people. The new school of thinkers attacked both church and state, but the church, like the state, was itself the chief cause of its own overthrow. Few chapters of religious history are more lamentable than that of the Galilean church during the century which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. That measure was the iiist step on the road which led to the overthrow of the establishment by which it had been demanded. For a time the church could claim men like Bossuet, Fenelon, and Massillon, but they had obtained their nurture in a different era ; they died and left no succes- sors. A certain weariness in religious belief can be observed during the latter part of the reign of Louis XIV. ; it became more pronounced under his succes- sors. Not often has the cause of religion been so vulnerable to attack, and so lacking in defenders. The spectacle offered by the representatives of Chris- tianity was not one to check the progress of unbelief. It was not only that many who held high ecclesiastical dignities led lives that were a scandal to their profes- sion. Bigotry went hand in hand with immorality. The persecutions of the Huguenots were odious, but they were intermittent ; the contest over Jansenism was waged without intermission. The articles of be- lief so fiercely discussed were metaphysical subtleties, which might have stirred the Eastern church in its early days, but which now seemed without meaning to intelligent men. Religious belief was defined with a narrowness that would have been extreme in the age of Thomas Aquinas. Such tenets could not thrive in FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 11 the age of the encyclopaedia. The bull Unigenitus, issued by the Pope at the dictation of the Jesuits, con- demned many of the dogmas held by their Jansenist opponents. The community made no deep study into the bewildering doctrines of grace and free-will, which were anathematized by the bull. The cause of Jan- senism was espoused by the Parliament, and by hun- dreds of thousands of fair-minded men, because the bigotry and the intolerance of the Jesuits and the higher clergy had become unbearable. The Jansenists were loved for the enemies they had made. " The good city of Paris," said one of its citizens, " is Jansenist from head to foot." ^ The burgesses did not claim to comprehend either efficacious, or cooperative, or pre- venting grace ; they adopted the cause of the persecuted from indignation at the conduct of the persecutors. The Archbishop of Paris directed his clergy to refuse the sacraments to the dying unless they declared their adherence to the doctrines of the Unigenitus. The Parliament protested against these orders and forbade their observance. Half a century was fiUed with such contests. While Huguenot preachers were broken on the wheel, and Jansenist professors were refused the sac- raments, the morality of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the Gallican church was at its lowest ebb. When cardinals and bishops were sensualists, and friars and curates were bigots, the laity became unbelievers. An institution which had absorbed a large propor- tion of the wealth of the community and refused to share in the public burdens, among whose official expo- nents was found scandalous luxury and often scanda- lous vice, which declared eternal salvation to depend 1 Barbier, ii. 202, 1731. 12 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. upon the acceptance of incomprehensible subtleties, and persecuted with ferocity those who questioned these tenets, could not continue to control men's minds in France of the eighteenth century. It is not too much to say that such was the organization which then represented Christianity. It fell of its own weight ; its representatives worked its overthrow. Catholicism exists in France to-day because it is not what it was a hundred and fifty years ago. If one wishes to under- stand the rapid spread of skepticism in the latter part of the eighteenth century, he has only to study the history of the church dui-ing the eighty years that pre- ceded the expulsion of the Jesuits. The loss of reli- gious feeling, said an acute observer in 1753, was not to be attributed to the teachings of philosophers, but to the hatred of the priests ; they could hardly show themselves in the streets without being hooted after.^ In the church, as in the state, there was great im- provement during the years that immediately pi'e- ceded the Revolution, but public feeling had gone so far that such changes accelerated the catastrophe instead of retarding it. If the Jesuits had lost con- trol of the policy of the church in France half a cen- tury earlier, if principles of Christian toleration and self-abnegation had been practiced and preached by the clergy, the attacks of writers like Voltaire would have failed of their effect. Bat in 1764 the suppres- sion of the Society of Jesus was regarded as a surren- der of the outworks by those who were resolved to overthrow the entire organization of the Christian religion. The effect of a measure depends more on when it is done than how it is done. The contest between the monarchy and the judi- ^ Memoir es (V Argenson. FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 13 ciary also helped to prepare men for the doctrines of the Revolution. The measure of political power which the French Parliament had acquired was anom- alous ; it rested on no sure basis, its capacity for de- velopment was limited by the nature of the body. In the fiercest of the conflict between Louis XV. and the courts, their final overthrow was predicted, because they were fanatical, and tyrannical, and stu- pid. ^ The criticism was just, and the Parliaments passed away with other institutions of the old regime. In the new political organization there was no room for them. But in the absence of any constitutional check on the arbitrary caprice of the king, whatever might answer for a check seemed of value. When there were no representative institutions, a body of men decorous in their character, conservative in their views, independent of the royal authority, appeared to stand for the cause of the people. At a time when the policy of the king was sure to be odious, a body which was in chronic opposition was sure to be popu- lar. When they refused registration of a royal edict, they seemed to be right, because the edicts were al- most always wrong. When their members were arrested or exiled, they were extolled as martyrs of public liberty. At last the Parliaments were abol- ished and new courts established in their stead. At a different era and under a more vigorous govern- ment, this measure would probably have succeeded. A system in which judges held their offices by pur- chase or by inheritance was not one which could have withstood the innovations of a king who was either respected or feared ; but in 1771, Louis XV. was neither respected nor feared. The overthrow of a 1 D'Alembert to Voltaire, 1766. 14 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. body which stood in the way of the royal authority appeared to be the downfall of part of the system of which the king was the 'head. The destruction of the Parliaments produced an effect like the expulsion of the Jesuits. The old organism was beginning to give way. The Parliaments were regarded as almost as ancient and venerable as the monarchy itself. If the one could be destroyed, why not the other ? Insti- tutions, whose origin was lost in the obscurity of the past, had seemed like a necessary part of nature. If one such could be done away with, and society con- tinued to exist, why might not others be destroyed without harm ? When the Parliaments were abolished, this act of vigor, instead of terrifying the unruly, suggested the possibility of doing without the king. It was not only the internal development of France that made the eighteenth century a critical era in po- litical and social progress. The conflict between that country and England decided the fate of untold mil- lions in India and America. England has become the great colonial power of the world, and we complacently assume that from the qualities of English-speaking people it was foreordained that such should be her destiny. It is by no means clear that this was a neces- sary result. A century and a half ago, it seemed pos- sible, and even probable, that India and a great part of America would remain under French control. In Canada, an enterprising colony, though it had suffered from injudicious government, still bade fair to estab- lish the power of the Bourbons over enormous tracts of fertile land which were traversed by hardy pioneers and explorers. The title of the French crown to the valley of the Mississippi was practically uncontested. The sovereignty of France had been asserted over that FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 15 great territory ; the fleur de lis was the only flag that floated within its boundaries. A nominal suzerainty could easily have been transformed into an undis- turbed possession. In India, the genius of such men as La Bourdon- nais and Dupleix bade fair to do for the Louis what Clive and Hastings were actually to do for the Georges. Had Pitts instead of Pompadours ruled France in the eighteenth century, had another Richelieu risen to sup- port the efforts of Dupleix and Montcalm, French gov- ernors might now administer the affairs of Hindustan, the Jleur de lis or the tricolor might float at Montreal, the French tongue be the only one heard in Louisiana and Arkansas, and over vast territories west of the Mississippi. Of all the evils which France suffered from misrule, none was more serious than the over- throw of her hopes of colonial development from the Bay of Bengal to the waters of the Great Lakes. The results of this contest for foreign supremacy were of an importance that can hardly be overesti- mated. Great portions of the New World were settled and ruled by English instead of French speaking peo- ple ; the ancient races, the swarming populations of India, were brought under the influence of Teutonic instead of Latin polity and civilization. The position of England was assured as the greatest colonizing power since Rome. In the purposeless continental wars of Louis XV., the blood and the money of the French people were freely expended, with little glory and less gain. The maritime contest with England was one of the conflicts which affected the future develop- ment of the world ; in the importance of its results^ it is not unworthy to be compared with the contests be- tween Persia and Greece, between Carthage and Rome. 10 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. It was lost for France, almost by default, through the inefficiency of her rulers. The French might find some consolation for the loss of foreign jjossessious in the intellectual empire which they acquired. The authority of the writers whose works so materially affected the beliefs and destinies of their own countrymen was not bounded by the con- fines of France. No other people, since the overthrow of the Koman Empire, has possessed an intellectual influence equal to that exercised by France at this pe- riod. It was in no wise due to the political position which she then held. The power of that country in the latter part of the eighteenth century was far less im- posing than it had been under Louis XIV. The states of Euroj)e no longer felt it necessary to combine against the ambition of France. She had ceased to be formidable to her neighbors. At the close of the reign of Louis XV., France was of less importance in European politics than either England or Austria. Though her population was four times as great as that of Prussia, the genius of Frederick had placed his kingdom almost on an equality with its rival. It was at this era that French writings influenced the thought of every European country, that they were read from the Atlantic to the Volga, that the origin of every important political or social change on the Continent can be traced to principles inculcated by French thinkers. At St. Petersburg and Berlin, French literature was regarded as the only literature ; French became the language of letters as well as of diplomacy. It may safely be said that the works of Voltaire were more read in Russia than those of any Kussian writer, were more read in Germany than those of any German writer, and were more read in the Low FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 17 Countries than those of any Dutch writer. The state of European thought and the condition of European peoples would have been different if Voltaire and Rousseau, Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, had never put pen to paper. The theories propagated by the French people have modified the political and social condition of all peoples. If priority were to be claimed upon the principles by which popular rights and a greater degree of per- sonal freedom have been obtained, it would be awarded to England. The influence of English thought upon the leaders of the philosophical movement in France is as marked as the influence of the philosophical move- ment upon the rest of Europe. It was a natural result of political events. Rarely has such an object-lesson been given to a great nation. In population and in wealth, England was inferior to France ; a smaller amount of money was collected to defray the expenses of her government ; a smaller army was employed to maintain her honor. But in that country a reasonable freedom was enjoyed by the individual ; the voice of the people was sufficiently potent to obtain for a great statesman the control of the policy of the state ; the burden of taxation was imposed with sufficient wis- dom and equality to enable the nation to bear it with- out exhaustion ; the cottage of the peasant was not plundered by the tax-gatherer that the castle of the nobleman might be untouched. That nation had ended a great war with glory, had extended her dominion almost from the rising to the setting sun, had acquired a position which she was not to lose. In France, a monarch possessing absolute power used it with abso- lute folly ; his mistress was allowed to put her favor- ites in charge of the army and of the state, to oppose 18 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Soubise and Bernis to Frederick and Pitt. A war had been undertaken of which the only motive was to punish a sovereign who had said uncivil things of Mme. de Pompadour, and to help a sovereign who had written polite things to her. It had been begun in foUy, prosecuted with dishonor, and had ended in dis- grace. The two systems were judged by their results. English political principles, English philosophical principles, influenced the views of almost every one of the great French writers during the last half of the century. Clarified, and sometimes rarefied, by the medium through which they passed, they entered into the thought and the literature of Europe. Another branch of the English-speaking people ex- ercised an important influence upon the destinies of France. Much in the administration of Louis XVI. deserves the sympathy of posterity, but nothing was more admirable than the assistance given to the Ameri- can colonies, which were struggling for national exist- ence. Jealousy of England was among the incentives which led the French to interfere in behalf of the colo- nists, but their action was not due to this alone. A sincere sympathy for the principles proclaimed by the Americans gave enthusiasm to an interference sug- gested by more selfish motives. Had it not been for the aid of France, and of the governments that were enlisted in the cause by her example, it is possible, and perhaps probable, that England would have succeeded in overcoming the resistance of her rebellious subjects. Doubtless, with the resources of the country, and with the growth of population which was inevitable, the United States, sooner or later, would have become independent, but the new nation would have been foi-med under different auspices, and have had a differ- ent history. FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 19 The victory which France secured for her allies has- tened the end of the old regime. Those who hoped for its indefinite continuance reckoned the American war among the errors by which Louis XVI. involved his dynasty in ruin.^ " The American Revohition has laid the foundation of another in France, if government does not take care of itself," wrote, in 1788, the most sagacious of foreign observers.^ The siiccessful for- mation of a government organized upon the principles of equality and democracy prepared the overthrow of the ancient monarchy. Such was the condition of France in the latter part of the century that alike the wisdom and weakness of man, the virtues and vices of rulers, the debauchery of Louis XV. and the well- meant efforts of Louis XVL, helped to destroy the old regime. Any long continuance of the system then in force was impossible. Doubtless it might have been modi- fied, and the appearance have remained, though the reality had departed. The difference between such a result and the radical change which the Revolution effected would have been only in name. The essence of the French monarchy, as it had long existed, was that it should be absolute, that it should govern un- restrained by any other authority. This had been the theory proclaimed by the rulers, and this was the nature of the government. "Kings are absolute lords," Louis XIV. had written for the instruction of the dauphin. To substitute for such a system one of which the power should be exercised by the people, ^ The American war was enumerated at the court of Vienna among the instances of the insane policy of Louis XVI. — Mem. d'Augeard, 279, 287. 2 Arthur Young, September 22, 1788. 'JO fhance under the regency ami of which the king should be only an ornamental portion, -- one which, like the present government of Enghuul, should be a republic in everything but name, — would have been as complete a transformation as that which was actually effected. In other words, the monarchy could only exist if shorn of all its power; it could escape annihilation only by being reduced to a state of Nirvana ; it must pass away, or become a legal fiction. It was as unlikely that a voluntary surrender should be made of the aristocratic privileges of the old regime as of the authority of the king. Some of those who enjoyed tiiem j)raised the views of philosophers who advocated equal rights, but their commendation was due to the fact that such doctrines were viewed as intellectual amusements, and not as practical questions. It is not surprising that the upper classes should have been oblivious of the approach of the Revolution, when we consider the political incapacity which they showed in other respects. " It is a government of nai row minds and narrow intelligences," wrote, in 1758, a man who w\as himself one of its members. Thirty years later, at the verge of the Revolution, another observer truly said that on the side of the govern- ment there were only people with small wit, small ideas, and small devices.^ The probability of great political changes was long predicted by those who possessed any political foresight. Argenson had writ- ten over thirty years before : " All orders are discon- tented at once, all the material is combustible. An emeute can become a revolt, and a revolt become a revolution, when the peojjle will choose its tribunes and its comitia, and king and ministers will be de- * Afem. de Bezenval, ii. 250. FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 21 prived of their power to do harm." The possibility of such a revolution was not realized by those who had it in their power to do aught to avert it. " They ate and drank and sat and walked, loitered and smirked and smiled and chatted, with that easy indifference that made one stare at their insipidity," wrote Arthur Young of a party of nobles with whom he supped, when the States General had assembled, and the fate of the old regime was in the balance.^ They were un- concerned at the great social and political changes that were impending, because they had no comprehen- sion of them. They were children in politics. The well-meaning king was equally unfit to battle with the events which were to determine his own fate and that of his dynasty. "Yesterday, w^hile it was actually a question whether he should be a doge of Venice or a king of France, the king went a-hunt- ing." 2 Thus the Bourbon dynasty under the old re- gime prepared for its fate. The results of the Revolution belong to modern polities. The hoj^es of a regeneration of the race, of the complete triumph of virtue, of unmixed happiness resulting from untrammeled liberty, which gave en- thusiasm to those who preached the doctrines of the Revolution, and victory to the armies who sought to establish them, have not been wholly realized. Yet no one who knows the condition of the French people to-day, and what it was one hundred and fifty years ago, can say that the enormous change for the better is not, in large degree, the fruit of the changes which the Revolution accomplished. The excesses and the bloodshed which accompanied the overthrow of old institutions still excite with many 1 Journal, 174. ^ lb. 181. 22 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. aa iminoasured reprobation. They are infinitely to be regretted : honest men and pure women were bar- barously nmrdered ; the cause of better government lost ground all over the world from the incapacity and the crimes of those who claimed to be its friends. But there were many years in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when more people died in France from need and misery, resulting from unwise and un- just systems of administration and taxation, than per- ished by violence during the worst period of the Revo- lution. The death of a peasant's child, caused by bad government and iniquitous social systems, deserves the consideration of those who study the history of peoples, as much as the unjust execution of a marquis at the behest of Bareres and Fouquier Tinvilles. The follies and tjrranny of the Revolution, and the unfortunate oscillations of French political life which have since ensued, are to be attributed, not to the fact that the people changed their form of govern- ment, but to the fact that down to that period they had no experience in self-government ; they were not due to the overthrow of the old r(3gime, but to the fact that it had continued so long. In a nation accus- tomed to take part in the regulation of its own affairs, and habituated to principles of political equality, the overthrow of the monarchy would have been followed neither by the massacres of September, nor by the military despotism of Napoleon. In order to understand the history of France in the eighteenth century, it is well to make some examina- tion of the administration of Louis XIV, to see the system of government which he perfected, and the condition in which he left the country at his death. The results of his rule modified the development of France. CHAPTER II. THE EARLY YEARS OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 1661-1670. France, at the death of Mazarin, was the most powerful state in Europe. There were many defects in the character of the cardinal who, for eighteen years, had controlled her destinies. He was greedy for money ; he was inclined to duplicity and not averse to deceit ; he was sometimes timid and often ir- resolute ; he lacked that elevation of purpose, that breadth of view, which the world requires in those whom it recognizes as its great men ; but he possessed an intellect of a high order, and in the long list of French kings and statesmen, there are few who have done so much to increase the power of France, and to secure for her that position of paramount influence in Europe which the French people have always desired and often possessed. Mazarin, in his foreign policy, was indeed the suc- cessor of Richelieu, but what Richelieu planned Maza- rin accomplished. In 1620, Spain was still regarded as a formidable rival ; in 1660, she was in a position of acknowledged inferiority. When Richelieu as- sumed power, the emperor was able to contend with the king of France on equal terms. Such was not the cas(; when Mazarin died. By the treaty of West- phalia, by the formation of the League of the Rhine, 24 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Germany was rendered incapable of united action, the influence of Austria was diminished, the authority of the empire was still further reduced. France, on the other hand, had largely increased in territory and in population. The great province of Alsace, Roussillon, and the most of Artois, large parts of Flanders and Lorraine, together with many isolated districts and cities, were added to France by the trea- ties of Westphalia and of the Pyrenees.^ While her rivals had become weaker, she had become stronger, and further progress had been made in the slow but steady growth of the kingdom of the French, a growth which had commenced under Hugh Capet, and which, amid many vicissitudes, had continued under his suc- cessors for seven hundred years. The young king who succeeded to the throne in 1643, and whose reign really began in 1661, found himself occupying a commanding position in Europe, and he found the ablest living statesmen already in his employ. The first twenty years of the administra- tion of Louis XIV., though not free from mistakes, constitute a brilliant epoch in French history. The king was successful in his wars, nations prostrated themselves at his feet almost as soon as his armies entered their borders, cities and provinces were added to his domains. Never before had France been so feared, and not until the victories of the Revolution and of the first Napoleon did she again excite equal alarm. Internal prosperity accompanied the early years of this period. The outward display of wealth, ^ The whole of Alsace was not formally incorporated into the French kingdom by the treaty of Westphalia, but, excepting cer- tain portions which were not ceded, it became practically French territory. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 25 the erection o£ buildings, imposing though not al- ways beautiful ; the organization of institutions of learning and art, industry and commerce, — com- mendable though not always useful, — did much to create the halo which surrounded the age of Louis XIV., and which still hovers over it, though with a tarnished lustre. The great ministers of Louis XIV. had been se- lected and trained by the great cardinal. With the exception of Louvois, no man of extraordinary abili- ties was ever found in Louis's councils, save those whom he received as a legacy from Mazarin. Lionne, Le Tellier, and Colbert were, with Louvois, the men who took the most active part in the government of France during the early years of the reign. Lionne was perhaps the most adroit diplomatist in Europe. His abilities had been early discovered by Mazarin, and he was given the opportunity of exercising them in the most important and thorny negotiations. He had been sent to Rome, to Madrid, to Germany, and everywhere he had shown the highest order of diplo- matic finesse. He had drawn the articles of renuncia- tion for Maria Theresa at the peace of the Pyrenees in such a manner as to give Louis abundant pretext in the future for claiming that he was not bound by them. For ten years after Mazarin's death, he had charge of the complicated relations of Louis XIV. with almost every nation in Europe, and no one could have been more skillful in choosing the fit time for ac- tion, in discovering the plans and the errors of other governments, in investing with apparent rectitude the questionable conduct of his own sovereigii. Le TeUier had been engaged in public affairs for over twenty years. Though with less talent than Lionne, he was 2(; FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. a man of much sagacity, of great experience, always prudent, willing to conceal himself behind the shadow of his master, the ideal servant for such a king. Col- bert was less known. He had as yet held no important oflice, but it was understood that for some years he had been more closely associated with Mazarin than any other man in France ; that he had gained the entire confidence of the cardinal, both in his ability and his integrity; and that the latter had specially recom- mended him to the favor of the king. While the ministers did much, yet the young king, who believed that all was his work, was actually an important factor. The character of Louis XIV. was so curious, and in some respects so complex, that it is difficult to decide how much credit he should receive for what was accomplished during his reign. That he was responsible for some of the greatest mistakes ever committed by a French monarch, that he brought dis- aster to France and untold misery to her people by a colossal vanity, by unbounded ambition, by reckless extravagance, by a narrow-minded and superstitious bigotry, is clear to any one who has studied the period, not from gossipy memoirs or eulogistic histories, but from the sources which tell the actual motives of the governors, and the actual condition of the governed. Yet, while much in his career excites reprobation, and some things in his character arouse contempt, he was far from being a commonplace man. Compared with a timid and irresolute sovereign like his father, or a vulgar debauchee like his successor, Louis XIV. seems a great king ; and, whether for good or evil, he left the marks of liis policy and of his beliefs on the govern- ment, the people, and the traditions of France. Louis formed the resolve to be his own master, and ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 27 to decide upon liis own policy, and from that resolve he never consciously swerved. Undoubtedly he was largely influenced by his ministers, and by the dis- creet suggestions of some of those near to him. If one could advance ideas that should seem to be those of the king, could insinuate his own views as the reflec- tion of what was already in the royal mind, it was not difficult to guide a monarch who, of all things in the world, most disliked to be guided. Still the king's own character and desires had much to do in the decisions that were reached. He could be led in certain direc- tions, but they were those towards which he was by nature inclined. In the early years of his administration Louis de- serves much praise and little blame. He dismissed Fouquet and terminated his career of corruption. He chose Colbert for financial minister, and kept him in that position until his death. For many years the king showed a sincere desire not only to magnify his own name and fame, but also to increase the prosper- ity and well-being of his people. He sympathized with Colbert in his plans for lightening taxation, for removing financial abuses, for codifying and clarifying the law. He was not a man who could take the initia- tive in such measures, but he gave them an intelligent approval. It is erroneous to suppose that Louis XIV. wag grossly ignorant ; that he had been purposely trained to idleness and debauchery, or abandoned to a deplorable neglect. Certainly he was not deeply versed in history, he was destitute of scientific know- ledge, he was little addicted to reading, and in all those respects his intellectual condition was that of most of his brother sovereigns. He had been educated in the same manner as the young noblemen who were his 28 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. companions, and that was very imperfectly. But he hail received what might justly be called a royal training, wliieh was of more importance for a king than knowing when Ptolemies had reigned, or what poets had flourished in past centuries. He was famil- iar with the relations of France with other countries ; he understood the character of the men who held offices ; he was acquainted with the intrigues of the court ; he knew how to carry himself in his intercourse with otliers ; he had learned to be dignified, courteous, reserved, and to conceal his thoughts and emotions to an extraordinary degree. Mazarin had not concerned himself with his young master's progress in Latin, but he had shown him how peoples could be governed and states increased ; the Duke of Villeroy had not insisted that Louis should know his lessons, but he had taught him the bearing and manners that were fit for a king.^ Though Louis was fixed in his views, when once formed, he reached his conclusions slowly, and for many years his policy was largely controlled by the men he found about him. Those were the great years of his reign. Unfortunately for him, he was to meet with a success that dazed him. He was told that he 1 La Porte has left a most sinister account of the manner in which Louis was brought up. St. Simon, Afem. xii. 13, has ex- pressed the same idea with his customary vigor, and from these sources most historians have received an exaggerated notion of Louis's ignorance. These writers are to be taken with nmch allowance. St. Simon's prejudices led him into exaggerations which were strengthened by his genius for dark coloring, and La Porte was a disappointed, discharged, and malevolent servant. Louis was not a well-educated man, but I think I have given a fair statement of the training which he received for the position which he was to fill. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 29 was the greatest of men and of kings, that he was invincible in arms and unequaled in wisdom, until a conviction that such was the case filled a mind natu- rally inclined to the belief. His great ministers died, and he thought himself equal to educating others who should take their places. His egotism grew, until for him France existed only to subserve his splendor, and he plunged the country into the most disastrous of wars, only that two thrones might be filled with the fruit of his loins. Many years, however, were to pass before the character of Louis was to be fully devel- oped, and before the sinister results of some phases of it were to become apparent. The cardinal died on March 9, 1661, in the palace of Vincennes. His death had been for some time expected, and, as is usually the case with those who have long held public office, it was generally desired. The public eagerly discussed the probable successor to his power. Le Tellier and Lionne had their advo- cates, but Fouquet, on account of his financial ability and his great prominence, was regarded as the man most likely to succeed to Mazarin's place. No one sug- gested the possibility that the young king might take control of his own affairs, and give his personal atten- tion to the government of his kingdom. For nearly forty years Richelieu and Mazarin had successively held the position of prime minister, with almost unlim- ited power. There was nothing in the early life of Louis XIV., or in his character, so far as it was known, to lead one to suppose that he would change this mode of government. He was a man of twenty-two when Mazarin died, and he had shoAvn no desire to take any, active part in political affairs. He was fond of the cardinal, and he had submitted to his control with 30 I RANGE UNDER THE REGENCY. child like docility. Mazarin had chosen a wife for him, had selected his ministers, had decided all ques- tions of war and peace. Louis had been slow in his physical as well as in his intellectual development, but of late he had shown a decided taste for amusement, aud all supposed that his time would be wholly occu- pied with the pleasures that were at the command of one who was young, handsome, robust, and a king. At seven on the morning of March 10, the chief ministers were summoned to a council. Louis stated to them that thus far he had allowed his affairs to be controlled by the cardinal, but it was now time that he should himself direct them, and they could aid him with their counsels as he should demand.^ The public were also informed that the king in person was to contiol the affairs of the state, and to him all must apply who sought for direction or for favor. The declaration that Louis was to be his own chief minister was diffei-ently received by different classes. Among the masses of the people it was regarded as a favorable omen. That mistaken policy and oppres- sive measures were always the work of ignorant and wicked ministers was a popular belief as well as a political maxim. The axiom that the king could do no wrong was not regarded as a mere legal fiction by the subjects of monarchs two centuries ago. Now that the sovereign was to take charge of his own af- fairs, his interests and those of his people would be the same, and he would see that all wrongs were made right. At the court, on the other hand, the announcement of Louis excited amusement rather than enthusiasm. Few believed that he would persevere in his under- ^ Mem. de Lome'nie de Brienne. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 31 taking. He would soon weary of long conferences and tedious details, and some one else would decide on measures in which the king's part would be con- fined to signing his name. Such, however, was not to be the case. Louis was endowed with great persist- ence ; he resembled Philip II. of Spain in a strong taste for the details of business ; he was a man of methodical habits and of a somewhat stolid character, and for fifty-four years he attended councils witli his ministers, and directed even the minutiae of govern- ment with the same regularity that he held his levees and ate his enormous meals. He adopted a routine of life when he was but little over twenty, and he felt no desire to change it when he had reached threescore years and ten. The death of Mazarin left Fouquet the most promi- nent of the king's advisers. For six years he had managed the finances as he saw fit.^ He had found a corrupt system, and he had rendered it more cor- rupt. He had enabled his friends to become enor- mously rich at the expense of the state ; he had given freely of the public funds to men of rank and influ- ence ; he had acquired for himself palaces and estates, where he displayed a splendor worthy of a Roman proconsul. The money with which he indulged in a prodigal extravagance came from the public treas- ury. The legitimate gains of the office he held were great ; he increased them by corrupt practices. He received large amounts from those who made con- tracts with the state, or who obtained the farm of the 1 He was appointcrl with Servien, February 8, 1G53. Servien died ill 1659, and Fouquet became sole superintendent, but iii 1654 he was given control of the receipts and of raising money. — Edict of December 24, 1654, MSS. Bib. Nat. 32 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. taxes. Sometimes he was a partner in these opera- tions. Often money was taken in great sums for which no exphmation was given, except that it was chiinu'cl to be in payment of advances which he had made. In all this there was nothing very novel. Corrup- tion in public office, though not universal, was com- mon. It was not a thing of recent growth. Robbery or oppression by those in power is the general rule in history. The comparative honesty of officials which is now found in most civilized nations is essentially modern, due partly to better organization and business methods, partly to increased })ublicity and to a stronger feeling of responsibility to the people for the proper administration of their affairs. Perhaps also the ten- dency towards a monotonous uniformity which is laid to the charge of modern democracy has had an influ- ence on those who still endeavor to abuse public trust for private gain. The frauds of officials are now on a smaller scale ; they are commonplace, they lack the boldness, they fail of the dazzling proportions of cor- ruption such as that of Fouquet.^ The superintendent had two most costly tastes, a passion for building and a passion for women.^ It was at Vaux that he chiefly indulged his taste for buildins:. Three villa2:es were demolished to increase ^ In a late work, M. Lair has claimed that the ordinarily accepted view of Fouquet's career was unjust, and this position, to some extent, seems to be approved by M. Camille Rousset. ^I. Lair's defense of Fonquet is learned, ingenious, and agree- al>le, but not convincing. "^ ALazarin is said to have told Louis that if Fouquet could get women and building out of his head, he would be capable of great things. The report of this conversation was sent to the superintendent by one of his spies. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 33 the dimensions of his park. The chateau was designed by Levau, the frescoes were by Le Brun, the gar- dens were arranged by Le Notre in the fashion which delighted contemporaries ; painted boats floated on the lake, artificial cascades made music to the ear, jets of water formed rainbows in the sunlight. Over 8,000,000 livres, it was said, were spent on the beau- ties and splendors of Vaux.^ Fouquet lavished money with equal profnseness upon the objects of his affection. One maid of honor demanded and received 50,000 crowns, paid in ad- vance, to become his mistress. She seems to have been of a practical turn of mind, and to have pos- sessed thrift if not virtue. She had lon^ held a writ- ten promise of marriage given by a reluctant duke ; with such a sum for a dowry, she hoped to induce him to fulfill his engagement. After all, she lost both the duke and the superintendent, and was obliged to seek the religious retreat of a convent.^ While the money of the public was thus squandered on palaces and prostitutes, a contemporary tells us of the condition of those who paid the taxes. A physician of Blois writes : " For thirty-two years I have seen nothing which approaches the desolation at Blois and in the country about. The famine is so great that the peas- ants are eating carrion, and as soon as an animal dies they devour it. . . . Though there is a little barley, ^ Full accounts of Vaux and its beauties can be found in the poems of La Fontaine, as well as in less familiar contemporary literature. 2 The letters which describe the entire intrigue are in the Biblioth^que Rationale, Papiers de Fouquet, t. i., ii., and are most unedifying reading. They are chiefly written by a go-between. The maid of honor is usually called Menneville, but she signed her name de Manneville. 34 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. it has not been sold, because no one has any money to pay for it. This district subsists from the sale of wine, but it cannot be sold, nor are there horses to draw it to market, on account of the severity of the taxes." ^ Such was often the condition of a consider- able [)art of the population of France. Sometimes it was extreme misery, at best it was need, hardship, and penury. To a large extent, the splendor of the king and the magnificence of the nobility were ultimately paid for by people whose lot was miserable, and who had neitlier the possibility nor the hope of bettering it. This is a fact that must not be forgotten in form- ing our judgment upon the ancient regime, and the Revolution that destroyed it. Colbert had long been an enemy of Fouquet, and had written Mazarin complaining of the procedure of the superintendent. The cardinal, however, had de- layed taking any action, and his death left Fouquet at the height of his prosperity. The young king de- cided upon his overthrow very soon after Mazarin's death.2 The corrviptiou of the superintendent was offensive to Louis, and his prodigality and display were equally so. The chateau and the gardens of Vaux were more magnificent than anything which the king then possessed, and this was irritating to a sensitive and jealous vanity.^ Fouquet undertook to ^ M. Bellay to Marquis of Sourdis. Abundance of similar let- ters from other sections can be found in Correspondance Admi- nistrative sous Louis XI v., and in MSS. at the Bib. Nat. Bellay closes by asking a remission of one half of the taille. Louis, in a letter to his mother, says that he had decided upon the arrest by May. — (Euvres, v. 53. 2 Buddings, furniture, silver, and ornaments were for the financiers, Colbert wrote Louis, while the king's buildings were delayed by lack of money, and the royal mansions were unfur- ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 35 render a statement to the king-, and, relying on his ignorance of financial matters, he falsified it in some respects. The errors might not have been detected by Louis, but they were exposed by Colbert.^ Though Fouquet's overthrow was determined, it was postponed, and the king concealed his purpose with that courteous dissimulation of which he was always a master. The superintendent was not without anxiety, but he felt that his position was probably secure. Louis proceeded with great precaution towards the measure upon which he had decided. Only a few years before, the arrest of an influential nobleman had been a seri- ous enterprise for the government. The absolute au- thority of the sovereign was not yet so unquestioned as it was fifty years later. Fouquet appeared to be so powerful, he had put under obligations so many of influence in the state, that his overthrow seemed a nished. — Mem. in Colbert's own handwriting, now in the Bib. Nat. " La mauvaise satisfaction qu'avait sa majesty . . , particu- li^rement de la dissipation qu'il faisoit dans ses batiments." — Le Tellier to Bezons, September 17, 1661, D. G., 169. ^ It has been frequently asserted that Fouquet endeavored to become the lover of La Valliere, who was then Louis's mistress, and that this increased the royal indignation. Among the MSS. preserved in the Bib. Nat. is what purports to be a copy of a letter sent Fouquet by one of his go-betweens, in which she says she had offered 20,000 pistoles to La Valliere, and had been indignantly repulsed. Many of the letters found in Fouquet's famous cassette des poulets were destroyed, and many were fabri- cated. Among those preserved, one has to decide upon their authenticity from internal evidence. I am convinced that the letter in reference to La Valliere was manufactured. It has been accepted by most historians as a proof of Fouquet's pre- sumption and a reason for Louis's indignation ; but closer re- search destroys many of the piquant anecdotes of history. One finds more that is grimy and less that is picturesque. 30 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. formidable undertaking. Among his papers, which were seized, was found a plan for resistance by force, in case of his arrest.^ The result showed that he had mistaken the time and his own position. The Fronde was passed, and of all those whom he had bribed so liberally, not one raised a hand in his behalf. In the mean time Fouquet continued to give offense by his financial irregularities, and still more by a dis- play of ostentatious magnificence. Fetes were given at Vaux of a splendor hitherto unknown. In August, 1661, Louis himself and Anne of Austria were there entertained. It was said that six thousand guests were invited to the festivities. Over four hundred plates of massive gold adorned the table. The foun- tains played ; nymphs, satyrs, and dryads disported themselves for the amusement of the spectators.^ Te- dious grandeur such as this was dear to Louis's heart. When palaces were built and parks were laid out for him, they resembled those of Vaux. He loved the monotonous regularity of the walks and the artificial clipping of the trees, sea-gods reciting poems which told of his greatness, and marine monsters spouting his praise. But such splendor displayed by a sub- ject, and a subject who did not owe his wealth to the king's liberality, was offensive. Louis was anxious to have Fouquet arrested in the midst of the festivities ; he deferred his purpose, but only for a time. 1 The text of this project is found in the Bib. Nat., MSS. de Colbert. It was drawn np when Fonqnet feared that Mazarin would attempt his overthrow, and was in Fouquet's own hand- writiuf^. 2 Full accounts of the festivities at Vaux are found in La Fon- taine, and in the memoirs and journals of the time. An inventory of the furniture was made after Fouquet's arrest. — MSS. Bib, Nat., Porte/euilles de Valiant, t. iii. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 37 On the 5th of September, the king was at Nantes, where Fouquet and the other ministers had followed him. In the morning the superintendent had a long interview with Louis, who ti-eated him with his usual courteous affability. As he was leaving the chateau he was arrested by D'Artagnan, a lieutenant of the mus- keteers. The prisoner asked to see the order, lest there should be some error, and then said that he had sup- posed no one in the kingdom stood better with, the king than himself. He was taken to the chateau of Amboise and closely confined.^ The fallen minister was greeted with contumely by the people, who had indeed little reason to love him. " If he escapes you," they cried to D'Artagnan, " we will hang him with our own hands." ^ The indignation against Fouquet when he was first arrested was universal. The details of his peculations, his preparations for armed resistance, the scandalous correspondence brought to light between him and his numerous mistresses, excited the censure of all. If he had been promptly brought to trial, he would ^ The most trustworthy account of Fouquet's arrest is the official report prepared by Foucault, and published in the intro- duction to vol. ii., Mem. d'Ormesson. The Memoires de Lonienie de Brienne purport to give a full account of this affair, and con- tain many dramatic incidents. They have been largely relied upon by historians, but they are inaccurate. Louis's own account, CEuvres de Louis XIV., t. i. 101-104, and a letter written by him to his motlier, lb., t. i. v. 50-54, on the day of the arrest, are the most satisfactory evidence of the views of the king, and the manner in which they were carried out. A paper prepared by Colbert gives the arrangements for the arrest. With his usual attention to detail, he even provided how Fouquet's linen should be sent to him. 2 Mem. d'Ormesson, ii. 99. He was told this by D'Artagnan himself. 38 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. undoubtedly have been sentenced to death ; but the delays which resxdted from the procedure adopted by Louis and Colbert saved his life. Fouquet demanded to be tried by the Parliament. This was denied, and a special commission was appointed, as was usually doue iu political prosecutions of importance. It would have been easy to select a few items of malversation, and the trial would have been comijaratively brief. Instead of that, the indictment covered almost the whole of Fouquet's administration. ^ He sought to meet it by claiming that he was driven to such irregu- larities, either by the rapacity of Mazarin, or by the necessities of the state. Instead of harming France, he claimed that he had saved her by raising money when no one else could obtain it ; if he had acquired great estates, he owed for them, and it was doubtful whether after years of service he had enough money to pay his debts.^ A short answer to this was, that every year he had spent millions upon himself, all of which had come, directly or indirectly, from the public treasury. But many things turned popular opinion in his favor. Col- bert's measures against the financiers, and his reduc- tion of the public rentes, made the government un- popular among the classes with which the judges were associated. The minister wisely reduced the exces- sive number of fete days, which were a burden on the industry of the country, and the church cried out against this as an irreligious act. On the other hand, thoiigh Fouquet had been presumptuous in his pros- 1 " Indictment " is not an accurate term for the procedure, but it conveys the idea to P>nglish readers. - The defenses of Fouquet have been published, and are ex- ceedingly voluminous. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 39 perity, he now showed both dignity and firmness. He manifested, moreover, an edifying contrition, and trans- lated a psalm to occupy his weary hours.^ He had at once demanded a confessor, one of special capacity, neither an ignoramus nor a Jansenist, he wrote, be- cause he had long accounts to render to his God.^ He was transferred to the Bastille during his trial, and it was not till 1664 that he was examined orally before the commission. The Chancellor Seguier pre- sided, and questioned him with the insolence and unfairness which French judges often regard as the proper manner to address one accused of crime. Fou- quet answered with sjjirit and adroitness, and made a favorable impression upon the court. Both Louis and Colbert brought gTeat pressure on the judges to shorten the trial, and to render the judg- ment that was desired. It was extraordinary, said Colbert, that the most powerful king of Europe could not bring the trial of one of his own subjects to a close." But the French judges held their places by inheritance or by purchase. They could not be re- moved, they formed almost a caste in the state, and they were impatient of royal influence. Not until December, 1664, was the sentence of the court pro- nounced. There could be no quesrion of Fouquet's guilt; the king desired that he should be punished by death, and from that fate Fouquet's friends sought to save him. Nine voted for death, thirteen voted for banishment and confiscation of his estates.* Even the 1 Mem. d'Ormesson, ii. 80. ^ Fouquet to Le Tellier, October, 1661. ^ Ormesson, ii. 137. The remark was made by Colbert to Ormesson's father. Ormesson himself was one of the recalcitrant judges. * The news of Fouquet's escape was received with delight. 40 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. latter punishment might seem sufficiently rigorous, but the king was greatly offended. The judges who voted for mercy were never forgiven, and they sacrificed all hope of advancement. By a curious application of the royal right to exercise clemency, Louis changed the sentence of banishment to imprisonment for life. It would hardly seem a more violent exercise of arbitrary power if he had imposed the penalty of death of his own motion, but even Louis XIV. hesitated to execute a man without a sentence from some sort of judicial tribunal. An act contrary to all rules of law aroused no comment among the French. Even the friends of Foucpiet made no protest ; no fixed system controlled the arbitrary autliority of the sovereign, and no public opinion condemned its excesses. Fouquet was taken to the prison of Pignerol and closely confined. He was allowed abundant facilities for hearing daily mass, and he was allowed little else. Five times a year he might confess himself, but he could see neither his wife nor his friends. Not until fourteen years had passed was he permitted to see his family ; and although the rigor of his confinement was slightly diminished, he remained in the prison of Pignerol mitil his death in 1680.1 " Ainsi M. Fouquet, qui avoit est^ en horreur, et qui tout Paris eust vu ex^cutt^ avec joye incontinent apres son proces com- mence, est devenu le sujet de la douleur et de la commiseration publiques, par la hayne que tout le monde a dans le cceur contre le gouvernemeut present." — Journal d' Ormesson, December 20, 10G4. ^ The authorities for the latter part of Fouquet's career are abundant. In Me'moires d^ Ormesson, \6[. ii., is a detailed account of the trial, which shows also the changes in public opinion and the sentiments of the judges. Ormesson voted against death, and was punished for his conduct by a petty persecution. Jour- ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 41 The overthrow of a powerful minister showed that Louis intended to act with energy in the internal affairs of his kingdom. It soon appeared that in his relations with foreign powers he was resolved to con- duct matters with a high hand. Questions of pre- cedence had long been deemed of much importance by the various European governments. Ambassadors nal de Foiccault also contains an official report of the trial. A large part of this has been published by M. Ch^riiel. The let- ters contained in Fouquet's cassette are among the MSS. in the Bib. Nat. Some of them have been published. Fouquet's own version of his career occupies no less than fifteen volumes, pub- lished as De'fenses de Fouquet, edition 1665. CEunres de Louis XI v., i. 101-104, V. 50-54, give the king's version of the mat- ter. The memoirs of Abb^ de Choisy and Mme. de Motteville contain some information. Many documents throwing light on Fouquet's conduct, and Colbert's own letters and memoirs pre- sented to Mazarin and the king, and of the greatest impor- tance, are contained in Lettres de Colbert, t. i. The letters of Mme. de S^vign^, written day by day, give a charming account of Fouquet's examination, and the sentiments of his friends at the closing scenes of the trial. Many valuable letters and documents are published in Chdruel's Memoires sur Fouquet. References to Fouquet's career and overthrow are found in innumerable letters and contemporary memoirs. Some curious letters are published in Causeries d'un curieux. Walcke- naer, Mt'moires sur Mme. de Sevigne may profitably be consulted on Fouquet's financial procedure. The fact of Fouquet's death in 1680 has been disputed. An ingenious scholar has claimed that he lived until 1703, and that he was the Man with the Iron Mask. This theory is as plausible as any other that has been advanced on that question, which is not saying much. Fouquet's death in 1680 is proved by more satisfactory evidence than the existence, to say nothing of the identity, of the man with the mask. Tlie documents to show that any man was kept a prisoner, in the man- ner which has excited so much interest in posterity, are not above suspicion. It is of course possible that there may have been some such caprice of punishment ; but if so, there is neither evidence nor any satisfactory theory to show who was the person. 42 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. had wrangled as much over their order of going as over the terms of the treaties they signed. Such mat- ters were not likely to be disregarded by a monarch to whom etiquette was dear, and who felt that deference to his person and to those who represented him was almost a law of nature. The precedence of the representatives of France over those of Spain had long been asserted, and was usually conceded. But though always claimed by the former, it was not acknowledged by the latter. The Baron of Vatteville was in 16G1 the Spanish envoy at London, while the Count d'Estrades represented the French. Vatteville resolved to contest the question of precedence, and by arms if necessary. He was sure of the sympathy of the mob in any brawl with the French, and he had the confidence in his success which was justified by the result. Estrades, at the request of Charles IL, sought to avoid an encounter, but such measures were not acceptable to his master. He received specific orders to appear at the next pub- lic ceremonial, and to seize and hold the first place. Accordingly, at the reception of the ambassador of Sweden, the French gathered some five hundred men, while the Spanish also assembled in strong force. A fight took place in the streets, in which the Spanish had the best of it. The horses drawing the French minister were killed, and also several of his men, while the coach of Vatteville, with fifty drawn swords to guard it, went triumphantly through the city next to the coach of the king. " At which," says Pepys, " it is strange to see how all the city did rejoice. And in- deed we do naturally all love the Spanish, and hate the French." i 1 Pepys, Diary, vol. i. 223, September 30, 1G61. Pepys says ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 43 The triumph was short-lived. When the news reached Louis, he was thrown into a violent rage. He proceeded with a vigor that was easy for him, be- cause he was eager for war, and because France was powerful and Spain was weak. The Spanish minister at Paris was at once dismissed. A peremptory de- mand was made for the punishment of Vatteville, and Philip IV. was informed that Louis would exact proper satisfaction unless his requests were heeded. The situation of the Spanish king was indeed lament- able. He knew, so far as he had intelligence to know anything, that the vast possessions of the Spanish monarchy lay scattered and undefended, ready for the spoiler. He was approaching the end of a life of dis- aster ; he was infirm in body and mind. He yielded everything. Vatteville was recalled and disgraced. The Count of Fuensaldagua was sent to Louis as am- bassador exti'aordinary. In a solemn audience at the Louvre, before the representatives of the foreign pow- ers, he apologized for the past, and announced that his master had ordered his ministers in all courts to aban- don any contest for precedence over the representa- tives of France. Such a victory was dear to the young king. The completeness of the submission and the elaborate ceremonial of the surrender gratified his pride, his vanity, and his fondness for parade.^ the French were four to one. Louis, on the other hand, clainas that the Spanish had 2,000 supporters to 500 of the French. — CEuvres, i. 124, 125. Pepys visited the French headquarters after the encounter, and says: " They all look like dead men, and not a word among them, hut shake their heads." ^ Duniont, Corps Diplomatique, vi. part 2, 403, 404. A full and an accurate account of this entire imbroglio is found in CEuvres de Louis XIV., i. 118-140. He gave his personal at- 44 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. The next year gave Louis a still more conspicnows o])i)ortunity of asserting his dignity. The Pope Alex- ander VII. had been on indifferent terms with Maza- rin, and for some years the French had no represen- tative at the papal court. In 1662, Louis sent the Duke of Crequi as his ambassador. The French min- isters at Rome claimed many privileges ; their retainers were apt to be quarrelsome, and they were regarded with small favor by the Roman officials. Both sides were well provided with cutthroats and desperadoes, and it required little to excite a skirmish. In August, 1662, as the result of some brawl, the Corsican guard attacked the palace occujDied by the Duke of Crequi. Bullets were fired ; several were killed, among them a page of the duchess, and the firing continued for some time.i The duke demanded the punishment of the aggressors, but he demanded it in vain, and he with- drew from the city. The Pope hated the French. He was far removed from France. He hoped that if Louis resorted to vio- lence, other Catholic powers would intervene, and he contented himself with a nominal punishment of some of the offenders. But he miscalculated the man with whom he had to deal. Louis was always a sincere and a bigoted Catholic ; but like others of equal sincerity, he allowed his religious zeal to exercise itself where it was most convenient. His piety never deprived him tention to the matter, and was rigorous in the assertion of his rights. « C'est k nous k former nos resolutions, personne n'osant ni ne pouvant quelquefois nous les inspirer aussi bonnes et aussi royales que nous les trouvons en nous-memes," he writes his son m his account of the affair, p. 131. 1 Letter of Duke of Crdqui to king, August 21, 1662: Affaires Etrangeres. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 45 of a mistress ; his veneration for the Pope never re- strained him from asserting his own dignity. His wrath was now fierce, and he resolved to teach the suc- cessor of St. Peter that he owed deference to the kinff of France as well as to the king of heaven. The papal nuncio was sent to the frontiers under military guard, and Louis declared that he would enforce satisfaction for his dignity by arms. The monarch who was to re- voke the Edict of Nantes narrowly escaped beginning his military career, as did that other great Catholic, Philip II., by a war against the Holy Father. In the spring of 1663, an army of twenty-four thousand men prepared to march to Rome.^ The Parliament de- clared Avignon reunited to France. The Sorbonne solemnly condemned the asserted infallibility of the Pope, and any claim of authority on his part over the temporal affairs of kings. While Louis prepared to batter down the gates of Rome, he sought to do it piously. He did not wish to be reproached with send- ing Huguenots to attack the Holy Father. The su- perintendent, who had charge of the provisions, was directed to pay special attention to fast days, and to see that on Fridays the soldiers had saltfish and cheese instead of meat.^ Thus equipped with both temporal and spiritual weapons, in September, 1663, the advance guard crossed the Alps. In the early spring the whole army was to be reunited and to pro- ceed to Rome. In the mean time Alexander VII. sought for suc- cor, but in vain. Neither the king of Spain nor the Emperor cared to be involved in a war with France in order to save the dignity of a petulant Pope. The 1 Le Tellier to Superintendent of Aubeville, March 19, 1663. 2 D. G. 182, cited by Rousset. 46 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. ])eople looked upon the affair with indifference. The Italian princes were not disposed to defend a poten- tate whom they hated as a prince and did not rever- ence as a bishop. When escape was impossible, when it was certain that in a few days the French would be at the gates of Kome, Alexander submitted. He was not treated with the leniency which his predecessor had received from Philip II. Everything was done to exalt the king and to mortify the Pope. The Duke of Crequi was met at the frontier, and solemnly es- corted to his palace at Kome. The Corsican guard had already been dismissed, and all Corsicans were now declared forever debarred from the service of the papal government. A pyramid was erected at Rome, on which was inscribed the crime and the punishment of the Corsicans. As a final act of humiliation. Car- dinal Chigi, the Pope's nephew, who was believed to have encouraged the assault, was sent to Versailles as papal legate, and there presented to Louis the regrets of his Holiness for this unhaj^py occurrence, and the assurances of his own respect and devotion. On these conditions only did Alexander obtain forgiveness. Avignon was restored, and the advance of the French was countermanded.^ These diplomatic triumphs produced a great moral ^ The history of the military operations against the Pope can be found in the letters preserved lu the Ddpot de la Guerre. They are condensed in Rousset's Histoire de Louvois. See, also, for the history of this transaction, Instructions donne'es aux Am- bassadeurs de France, t. vi. Rome, 98-156 ; Letters of Louis published in (Euvres de Louis XIV., t. v. pp. 91, 110, 113, 165, etc. The treaty signed by Alexander is found in Dumont's Corps Diplomatique, t. vi. part 3, 1-4. An account of the apology tendered by Chigi is found in the Gazette for 1664. The terms of the apology were inserted in the treaty, that there might be no ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 47 effect in Europe, and France and her king excited alike admiration and fear. Besides these victories, which added to Louis's prestige, he achieved more substantial successes, which increased the territory of France. Dunkirk, situated on the Straits of Dover, was hardly less important than Calais, either as a port for commerce in the hands of the French, or as a cen- tre of operations for a hostile power. Cromwell had obtained Dunkirk for England, as a condition of the help he gave Mazarin against Spain. Its possession gratified English pride, and was of value in case of a war with France. But England was now ruled by an inglorious instead of by an heroic master. Louis wished to secure Dunkirk, and Charles II. was as anxious to sell his cities to the French king as he was to sell himself. Tlie bargain was closed in 1662 at 5,000,000 livres, and for this sum the king sold what the Protector had won. The transaction excited just indignation in England, and just congratulation in France. Dunkirk was at once strongly fortified, and has ever since remained a French city.^ Another transaction revealed a different phase of Louis's character. By the treaty of the Pyrenees, he had agreed to give no further assistance to Portugal. Now, as during all his life, he showed that he did not regard himself as bound by treaties. He stated his views with perfect frankness. France and Spain were evasion. Histoires des deme'le's de la cour de France avec la cour de Rome, written by Desmarais, a secretary of Cr^qui, and Chantelauze's Le Cardinal de Retz et ses Missions, contain most of the official documents of importance on the history of this imbroglio. 1 The results of the negotiations as to the purchase of Dun- kirk are fairly enough stated in (Euvres de Louis XIV., i. 167- 178. The treaty is in Dumont, Corps Dip., vi. part 2, 432. 48 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. natural enemies ; treaties between them were of neces- sity temporary: secret infractions were expected on both sides, and a violation of their terms was really no breach of good faith ; like the compliments of society, these were required, but not believed.^ Accordingly he secretly furnished assistance to the Portuguese, and, that they might obtain an ally in England, he took an active part in the negotiations which resulted in the marriage of Charles II. with Catharine of Por- tugal. The strength of the government was shown also in the repression of internal disorders. In many of the remote districts of France, violences were frequent, and were committed with impunity. Lawlessness was deemed the proof of gentle birth, of a blood that scorned restraint, and offenders of rank defied the au- thority of the courts. Special tribunals were now organized, vested with an unlimited authority for the restoration of good order, and they proceeded with a vigor that terrified the unruly. The charges against some of the offenders illustrate the relics of feudal life that still existed in the France of Louis XIV. The Marquis of Canillac, the head of an illustrious family, which had given two Popes to the church, had durins: a lonsf life led a career of unchecked license in Auvergne. His subjects not only paid the royal taille, but an additional one to Monsieur the Marquis, to Madame his wife, and to each of his children. From the abuse of his judicial authority over his subjects ^ (Euvres de Louis XIV., i. 63-65 : " Distinctions sur la foi des trait^s." These so-called works of Louis XIV. were not all writ- ten by him, but they were prepared under his dictation, and ex- press his views with absolute accuracy. Any doubts as to their authenticity have long been removed. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 49 his chief revenues were obtained, and the peasants paid dearly for remission fi-om imaginary crimes. A dozen ruffians, who acted as his henchmen, were known in all the country as the Twelve Apostles. Their cate- chism was the sword. ^ Another nobleman had taken a recalcitrant offender, and for several months kept him confined in a damj) closet, where he could neither sit nor stand.^ Such cases certainly were exceptional, but the authority ex- ercised by the strong over the weak was large, and was correspondingly liable to abuse. Innumerable relics of the feudal system could still be found in every province of France. Even serfdom was not entirely extinct. The magistrates sent to Auvergne heard the demand of certain serfs of the monks of St. Augustine to be declared free because born of free fathers, but they declined to render a decision. It was not until a century later that serf- dom was entirely abolished in France.^ ^ Les Grands Jours d' Auvergne, 261. 2 76., 224. 8 Les Grands Jours d 'Auvergne, by Fldchier, gives a full ac- count of the special court sent into Auvergne. The conflng of this body excited such terror among the disorderly nobility that many of them fled, and were condemned by default. The peas- antry were correspondingly excited, and in their gross igno- rance supposed that lands which they had sold would be restored to them, and the seigneurs would be at their mercy. One of the popular songs wi-itten to welcome the Grands Jours may show those curious in such matters the difference between the patois then used in that district and the ordinary French : — Vez Clairmou ou I'y o A Clermont il y a Quanquas gens de roba Quelques gens de robe, Que font, dins que lio Qui font dans ce lieu Mou6 qu'on ne soulio. Mieux qu'on n'avait coutume. Another account of the proceedings of the court is given in 50 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. While the power of the government was asserted both at home and abroad, Louis also attracted the at- tention of the world by a magnificence hitherto un- known, and by a succession of fetes of unexampled splendor. The carroussel of 1GG2, which has left its name to the court of the Louvre in which it was held, was the first of the gorgeous spectacles by which Louis gratified his love for display, excited the admi- ration of his contemporaries, and depleted the pockets of his courtiers. Five companies, representing differ- ent nations, commanded by the king and by princes of the blood, jousted for the reward of honor or of smiles. The costumes of the riders, and all the acces- sories of the fete, were costly and magnificent. The device of the sun was selected by Louis for himself. So pompous an emblem gratified the vanity of a king who felt that his relations to his fellows were like those of the sun to the solar system. The court life of France was never so brilliant as dur- ing the early manhood of Louis XIV. Manners were courteous, bearing was dignified, and conversation was entertaining. The gloomy piety of later years had not ^et thrown its cloud over the pleasures of life. The moral atmosphere was perhaps little purer than under Louis XV., but there was less grossness. Louis XIV. was not a moral man, but he was not a vulgar man. He had already begun the career of gallantry which he followed without intermission until Mme. de Maintenon led him back to the paths of virtue. His favorite was now Mile. La Valliere, a young maid of Journal de Dongois MSS. Other reports ou the disorders prev- alent in many parts of France are found in Rapport au Roi sur Touraine ; lb. sur Poitou ; Lettrcs, etc., de Colbert • Correspon- dance administrative sous Louis XIV., passim. ADMINISTRATION OF LOUIS XIV. 51 honor, beautiful, but not brilliant, who has gained a somewhat unique reputation as being one of the few women in French history who have felt any shame in being known as the mistress of a king. The monarch also made some efforts at concealment. Louis had not yet reached the condition of imjjerial indifference when he took pride in displaying his harem to all Europe. Under the influence of Colbert's reforms, the condi- tion of France was rapidly improving. Louis had a preeminent position abroad, and it would have been possible to have added considerably to the territory of France, and at the same time to have increased her internal wealth. The reign of Louis XIV. might have been one of happiness and prosperity. But the young king was devoured by a desire for war. He thirsted for military glory ; possessing the abilities of a Philip II., he had the restless ambition of a Na- poleon. No great conqueror has wasted human life, or ruined his own states to gratify a lust for victory, with more unconcern than this king, who did not know enough to fight a battle. The wars of Louis XIV. were soon to begin, and for the most of fifty years they kept Europe in commotion and France in misery. CHAPTER III. WAKS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 1667-1G79. The cause, or at least the pretext, for the early wars of Louis was found in the rights he claimed by virtue of his wife over some of the possessions of Spain. The territories which still acknowledged alle- giance to Spain were as scattered and defenseless as they were numerous. The great province of Franche Conite was nominally subject to the Spanish king. It was rich, fertile, and populous. It was adjacent to Burgundy, and could be seized by the French armies, almost without resistance. The Low Countries, which had remained under Spanish control when their sister states obtained their liberty, were a still more tempt- ing prize. They contained many great cities ; their skilled artisans were not excelled by those in any other part of Europe ; relieved from the incubus of Spanish misrule, they might rival Holland in trade, they might render France as great a commercial as she was a military power. It seemed an easy task for Louis to wrest a large portion of them from the tot- tering power of Spain ; unless checked by a coalition of the European states, he might even hope to annex to France all of the territories which now form the kingdom of Belgium. The claims of Louis upon the Spanish succession constituted the great political question during the whole of his personal administra- WARS V/ITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 63 tlon. He began to assert his rights immediately after his marriage, and they were not finally settled until shortly before his death. The Spanish kings had decayed with the empire which they governed. Vigor of body failed, as did vigor of mind, and it was long apparent that the ex- tinction of the direct line of Charles V. was probable. The laws of Spain, unlike those of France, did not exclude women from the throne. Sons were preferred in the succession, but in the failure of a son, the crown passed to a daughter. It was largely by marriages and female succession that Spain had been consoli- dated into one kingdom, and by virtue of the same law it now became possible that a foreigner might be called to the Spanish throne. In 1621, Philip IV. became king of Spain. He married a sister of Louis XIII. of France, and had several children, all of whom died young, save one, Maria Theresa, who in 1660 was married to her cousin Louis XIV. Philip's first wife died, and he then married an Austrian princess. By her he had five children, but they all died in infancy except the son, who became Charles II., and a daughter who was married to the Emperor Leopold. Maria Theresa was the only surviving child of Philip's first marriage; her father was old and feeble, and after his death only the life of an infant brother, the sickly child of infirm parents, was between her and the Spanish throne. The possibility that Maria Thei-esa might become the heiress of this great though enfeebled empire, and that France and Spain might be united under the rule of her posterity, had been considered during the negotiations for the peace of the Pyrenees. In such a case the Spanish felt that their own country would be absorbed by the more powerful monarchy, and to 54 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. guard against this evil they had insisted that Maria Theresa should renounce any claim upon the succes- sion to whicli she might become entitled, and that Louis should join in this renunciation. Only upon these terms would Philip consent that his daughter should become the bride of the French king. Articles were accordingly drawn, by which, with all possible formalities, and with the greatest copiousness of dip- lomatic verbiage, she renounced, for herself and for her posterity, any claim upon the Sisanish throne, or upon any portion of the inheritance which might fall to her. Louis swore upon the cross and the lioly Gos- pels that he would respect and observe this renuncia- tion of his wife. But the contract for her marriage provided also that Maria Theresa should receive as dowry 500,000 crowns, and Lionne had drawn the fourth article as follows : " In consideration of the payment of the said 500,000 crowns, according to the terms above expressed," Maria Theresa waived her rights as a possible heir.^ The Spanish plenipoten- tiaries objected to this wording, but Lionne told them that they need only pay the money, and it could do them no harm. The renunciation which Maria The- ^ Articles 4-6, Contrat de mariage, Traite des Pyrenees, art. 33. Renunciation signed June 2, 1660, Corps Dip., vi. part 2, 288. " Que moyennant le pavement effectif fait k sa majesty trfes chrdtienne des dits 500,000 ^cus d'or sol, ou leur juste valeur aux termes qu'il a ^te ci-devant dit, la dite s^r^nissime infante se tiendra pour eontente et se contentera du susdit dot, sans," etc., etc. — Negociations relatives a la succession d'Espagne, t. i. 52. In this great work, M. Mignet has published the most important diplomatic papers of the French government during a period of almost twenty years. — France under Richelieu and Mazarin, ii. 318-334. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 55 resa signed, and which Louis swore that he would ob- serve, said nothing about the dowry. It was, how- ever, executed in conformity with the provisions of the original marriage contract, and the two documents might properly be construed together. The Spanish never paid a sou of the 500,000 crowns thus agreed upon for a dowry. It illustrated the apathy and deadly torpor that had settled upon Spain, that a pro- vision so important should have been utterly neglected. But money was always lacking in a kingdom from which industry and intelligence had fled, and where indolence waited for the gold of Western possessions to satisfy its needs. The French were not solicitous for payment ; they preferred the pretext which this neglect of payment gave their claims, to a sum of money that was insignificant to a king as powerful as Louis. While diplomats were drawing protests and renun- ciations, and Louis was swearing upon the Gospels that they shoidd be observed, neither he nor any of his ministers for one moment entertained the thouirht of respecting them. Fourteen years before, when Mazarin had first suggested the plan of a marriage between Louis and the Infanta, he had written that France could claim the possessions of Spain in her right, no matter what renunciation was given.^ Dur- ing the negotiations for the peace of the Pyrenees, the Spanish minister himself admitted that, should Maria Theresa become heiress to the Spanish crown, he might hope that France would respect the renun- ciation, but he did not expect it.^ ^ Letter of Mazarin to plenipotentiaries at Miinster, January 20, 1G46. 2 Mazarin to Le Tellier, August 23, 1659. 5G FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. In IGGl, Maria Theresa gave birth to a son. Her father, Philip IV., was still living, but the French ambassador at Madrid began cautiously to suggest the rights that Louis might assert in behalf of his wife and his child. While claiming that the renun- ciation was invalid, he endeavored to obtain from Spain a formal rescission of it. If that could be given, Louis offered his aid for the subjugation of Portugal, which was still engaged in its long war for liberation.! Philip gave little heed to the counsels of wisdom, but he sought eagerly for those of re- ligion. He now advised with the Inquisitor-General, as well as with doctors learned in the law, and they decided that the renunciation was valid, and must not be abrogated.^ In truth, Philip was little inclined to comply with the request of the French minister ; he wasted no love upon his son-in-law, whose overbearing conduct constantly outraged him and offended the pride of his subjects. In the mean time Philip's only son lay at death's door. The body of Saint Diego was taken from its resting-place and carried to the chamber of the sick child. He seemed better, and the court and king declared that a miracle had been wrought.^ But more than dead saints was needed to give vigor to Spain and her sickly princes : six days later the In- fante was dead. Shortly afterwards the queen gave birth to another son, but he was so infirm that his death was constantly expected. Feeble and diseased ^ Letters of Louis to Embrun, January 1 and February 14, 1GG2. 2 Dispatch of the Archbishop of Embrun, French ambassa- dor at Madrid, to Louis XIV., May 4, 1662. « Dispatch of the Archbishop of Embrun, October 26, 1661. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 57 as the child was, he was to become Charles II. of Spain, to lead a miserable existence for nearly forty years, and to postpone for a generation the great question of the Spanish Succession. While Charles lived, Spain appeared to be safe from French aggression on any plea of the rights of Maria Theresa. Even if no renunciation had been given, a daughter could demand nothing so long as there was a son to receive and possess the heritage. Louis now advanced claims of a novel character, which could be enforced immediately on the death of Philip IV. Ingenious jurists were employed to devise theories by which France could assert rights over a large portion of Europe, and one of them unearthed an ancient custom which prevailed in Brabant and in several provinces of the Low Countries. By this, the children of the first marriage succeeded to the paternal inheritance, to the entire exclusion of those of a second union. Maria Theresa was the only surviving child of Philip's first marriage, and on her father's death, therefore, these provinces, as it was claimed, became hers, to the exclusion of her half-brother. It was easy to reply that this custom was one which prevailed only among private individuals ; that it regulated the man- ner in which the artisan's tools or the merchant's wares should be distributed, and had no application to the supreme authority in the state ; that, in the history of all the various houses by which these prov- inces had been ruled, no trace could be found of a law of succession which was unknown to the politics of Europe. If the French had the worse of the argu- ment, they had much the better of the situation. The Spanish declared that Louis relied on his armies for 58 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. reasons and on his cannon for persuasion, and he was content to be thus provided.^ In September, 1665, Philip IV. died. His long reig'n of over forty years had been a series of misfor- tunes, and the dismemberment of the Spanish empire had gone on apace. "God grant that you may be more fortunate than I," he said, as he lay dying, to the child who was to succeed to the throne. His final wish was not to be fulfilled. The last male heir of Charles V., with a diseased body and an infirm mind, was to have only misery for his lot. Charles II. was four years old when he became king of Spain, He was still too weak to stand, and it was long before he was able to speak. He had neither teeth nor hair, he could not hold his head erect. His tottering limbs, his expressionless face, his deformed jaw and lolling tongue, gave no hope for future vigor, either mental or physical. The foreign ambassadors were solemnly presented to this infirm representative of royalty. The king was held in his chair by a nurse, while the ministers offered their congratulations.^ By Philip's will, he had declared his younger daugh- ter, wife of the Emperor Leopold, the heiress to the throne, should Charles die without issue ; he had di- rected that none of the possessions of Sj)ain should be alienated, and he had appointed his wife, Marie Anne of Austria, as regent.^ She was a woman of little ability, but obstinate in her preference for the 1 " Apr^s tout, ce ne sera pas le plus ou le moins cl'^crltures qui d^cidera cette affaire," Louis wrote his ambassador in Spain. — King to Embrun, October 20, 1665. 2 Embrun to Lionne, November 5, 1665 ; lb. to Louis, July 17, 1664. ^ Mignet, Negociations relatives a la succession d'Espagne, i. 382-386. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 59 Austrian house to which she belonged. The reins of government, as so often happened when a sovereign was weak in intelligence but zealous in religion, fell into the hands of the priest to whom her spiritual welfare was intrusted. The regent's confessor was a German Jesuit, called Father Nithard. He was soon made Inquisitor-General, and was actually the prime minister. He possessed no natural capacity that might enlarge the contracted views of priestcraft, and his ad- ministration was of no service either to God or man. Louis informed the regent of the claims of his wife upon certain parts of the Low Countries, and asked that these might be surrendered, or due compensation be made. The Spanish were weak in defense, but they were strenuous in refusal. The regent declared that such a proposition v/as unheard of and flagrantly unjust, and that if it were pressed she should trust in the protection of God to defend the cause of her son.^ Unfortunately, she took no steps to provide the threatened provinces with any other means of resist- ance, and Louis proceeded, though with great deliber- ation, towards the enforcement of his claims. A war had broken out between England and Hol- land, and the Dutch demanded aid from France, ac- cording to a treaty to that effect. Louis was loath to furnish it, but he did so at last. He desired the friend- ship of the English king, and he knew that in Charles II. of England he could purchase a valuable ally at a reasonable price. Though the two nations were at war, Charles wrote his sister, after a naval battle, where the English with little reason claimed a victory : " This great success does not at all change my inclinations 1 Queen of Spain to Marquis de la Fuente, September 19, 1665. 60 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. towards France, wliieli you may assure the king my brother from me, and that it shall be his fault if we are not very good friends." ^ Louis used every effort to restore peace between the belligerents, and early in 1667 he obtained from Charles a promise that for a year he would make no alliance contrary to the interests of France.^ Louis was thus assured that England would not interfere if he should invade the Low Countries. In the mean time, with the sagacity that characterized all their diplomatic relations while Lionne had charge of them, the French had still fur- ther isolated Spain and Flanders from aid from any quarter. A treaty was made with Portugal. By the League of the Rhine, and by the liberal expenditure of money in buying both princes and ministers, to which the diplomatic successes of the French at this period were largely due, Louis long exercised over a large part of Germany a greater influence than the Emperor.^ The princes whose dominions were near the Rhine agreed that they would not allow Austria to send troops through their territories to assist the Spanish in Flanders.^ Louis's army was now in readiness, and he was safe from interference. In May, 1667, a lengthy manifesto was published, in which the rights claimed by the French king were stated to the world.^ The renun- ciation originally signed by Maria Theresa was void, it was alleged, because neither the laws of God nor 1 Charles II. to Henrietta of England, June 8, 1GG6. 2 lb. to Queen Mother, April, 16G7. * " The German princes hold that the German faith is due to him who pays for it," writes Villeneuve to Colbert, May, 1064. * These treaties are found in Mignet, Negociations, etc., ii 23-40. s Traitt des droits de la Reine, in 318 pages. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 61 man allowed parents to abandon their children's rights, and it would be monstrous to suppose that a young princess, ignorant of such matters, and living under the authority of her father, could deprive her children of the great possessions that might be theirs. Fur- thermore, the dowry, the 500,000 crowns, which by the terms of the treaty were the consideration for this unrighteous sacrifice, had never been paid, and there- fore the instrument had become null and void. It was for this reason that neither Louis nor Maria Theresa had ratified it in France after their mar- riage, though this was necessary to give it any valid- ity, and the Spanish, knowing the weakness of their position, had never presumed to ask for such a rati- fication. ^ As the renunciation was of no force, the customs of Brabant and the other provinces were then set forth, by which the French queen was entitled to those territories, to the exclusion of her brother by the second marriage. It was not, therefore, said the manifesto, in hostility to Spain that Louis was now to enter the Low Countries. He sought no war, he had no desire to acquire glory by feats of arms ; but as a just and pious king he took possession in behalf of his wife and of his son of the inheritance which was theirs, that their subjects might live in peace and happiness under their lawful sovereigns.^ A few days after this pronunciamento, Louis with an army of 50,000 men, commanded by Turenne, en- tered the Spanish Low Countries. They were prac- tically undefended ; 20,000 troops, poorly armed and supplied, could offer little resistance to the French army, under the command of the ablest soldier in ^ Traite des droits de la Reine, 73. 2 lb., 1-4. 62 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Europe. Cliai'leroi, Oudenarde, Lille, and other cities were captured after brief sieges. The operatious hardly deserved the name of a war. Louis brought his wife, his mistress, and his courtiers to be the wit- nesses of his glory. Magnificent equipages, horses gorgeously caparisoned, courtiers brilliant in laces and gold trimmings, ladies arrayed in the latest fashions of Paris, visited the captured cities. The splendor of Solomon and the grandeur of the king of Persia, wrote an eyewitness, could not be compared with the pomp that surrounded Louis XIV.^ The king in- dulged himself in what was long his strongest pas- sion, — the tranquil siege of cities that were sure to surrender, where there was no chance of failure and no risk of harm, and where his mistresses and his courtiers could be in constant attendance to tell him how great a soldier he was. By September military operations ceased, and the king returned to the court. As in most campaigns at this period, the season of activity was short, and the results were proportionally meagre. The insuffi- ciency of supplies, the lack of effective organization, and the bad condition of the roads, to some extent made this unavoidable. As a result, wars dragged along through years, and wei'e brought to a close more from exhaustion than from decisive victories. It was not until after 1789 that the system of warfare as well as of society was revolutionized. The invasion of the Low Countries excited wide- spread alarm among the Dutch. The conquest of those provinces would bring France to their doors, and the French, under an ambitious king, were far more for- midable neighbors than the Spaniards. Peace had ^ Memoires de Coligny. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 63 been made between England and Holland, and tlie Dutch now beo^an their lono- ao-itation for a barrier between them and France. For almost a century an alliance between Holland and France had been among the political maxims of both countries. The Dutch had been aided in their contest with Spain by the French. France could justly claim that she had given succor in the hour of need to an infant com- munity which had now become a great and a free state, as later she was to render still more valuable assistance to American colonists in their war for in- dej)endence. The interests of both France and Hol- land had largely been the same ; both had been united against the dangerous power of Spain. This condition of affairs had now changed. Spain was no longer formidable, while the borders of France were con- stantly approaching more closely to Holland. Com- mercial complicatious, also, had soured the good-will of the Dutch. By the tariff of 1667, Colbert had interfered seriously with the trade between the two countries. Cherishing the delusive belief that the way to increase the wealth of France was to diminish that of her neighbors, he was rendering her commercially odious, as Louvois was to make her odious politi- cally. The Dutch now wished Louis to declare what acces- sions would satisfy the rights which he asserted. The demands made by the king, considering his success and the helpless condition of Spain, were moderate. He agreed to forego all his claims, if the Spanish would cede the territory which was actually in posses- sion of his armies, or he would accept Franche Comte in exchange. With some modifications, the Dutch 64 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. were conteut with these terms.i gome years before, De Witt had sought to reach a settlement of the iiu- peiuling question of the Spanish Low Countries, and had proposed that certain portions should be annexed to France and Holland, and of the residue a republic should be formed, which should be guaranteed against invasion by these powers. Such has very nearly been tlie final lot of these provinces, after an infinite amount of war and bloodshed. To this arrangement Louis was willing to accede, but the merchants of Amster- dam feared that such a project might again open Ant- werp to foreign commerce, and enable her to share in trade of which they wished the monopoly, and the nesotiations ended in smoke.^ The proposal that was now made needed only Spain's approval to bring the war to a close, but the Spanish were always unwilling to recognize the actual condi- tion of affairs. Though they could do nothing to resist the French, they still hoped that aid might come from some quarter. Louis therefore continued his prepara- tions for renewed hostilities in the spring. In January, 1668, under the guidance of Sir Wil- liam Temple, the famous Triple Alliance was formed, by w^iich England, Holland, and Sweden agreed upon a settlement of the present war, which was to be en- ^ Ne'gociations relatives a la succession d'Espagne, t. i. part 2, sec. 1 ; t. ii., part 4, sec. 1 ; Lettres et Negociadons d^Estrades. Some cities were to be added to the cession of Franche Comt^, had the Spanish elected to avail themselves of this alternative. 2 Correspond ance de Hollande, 67, 70 ; Lettres d'Estrades, t. il. ; Estiades to Louis, March 30, April 12, May 31, June 15, August 9, October 11, 1063 ; Louis to Estrades, April 6, June 15, July 13, September 21, 1669, etc. ; Ne'gociations relatives a la suc- cession d'Espagne, i. 185-290. These negotiations extended over more than a year. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 65 forced by ai'ms if necessary. The Tinj)le Alliance has been loudly vaunted as having checked the unright- eous ambition of Louis XIV. and saved Europe from untold ills. Sir William Temple on this occasion, as all during life, gained a reputation for much greater wisdom than he possessed. The acquisitions, with which the treaty of the Triple Alliance said Louis must be content, were those which he had already offered to accept.^ The only result of the alliance was that the Spanish lost all hope of obtaining aid, and consented to abandon what they could not regain. In the spring of 1668, the representatives of England and Holland met at St. Germain, and there agreed with Louis that, unless the Spanish forthwith surrendered the terri- tory in question, they would join aruis with him and compel its cession.^ The pressure thus brought to bear overcame even Spanish apathy, and in May the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed. Perhaps from a desire to spite the Dutch, who had failed to come to their assistance, the Spanish ceded to France the territory occupied by her armies, instead of exercis- ing the option by which they could abandon Tranche Comte and preserve the Low Countries intact.^ The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was unsatisfactory to most of Louis's advisers, and throughout these negotia- tions he certainly showed great moderation in his de- mands. The French armies had already taken posses- sion of Franche Comte. Louis had 100,000 soldiers ready for another campaign. Neither Spain nor the ^ This is what Charles II. said in a letter he wrote Louis apolo- gizing for having joined the Triple Alliance. — Charles to Louis, February 3, 1608. 2 Mignet, Treaty of St. Germain, ii. G2G, 630. 3 Letters of Sir William Temple, i. 330-333 ; Lettres d'Estrades, t. V. GG FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Triple Alliance eoulil have prevented the conquest of the whole of the Low Countries, if the war had been continued with vigor. Louis decided, however, to abide by the terms he had originally offered, and upon that basis the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was made. It added to France but a small section of the Spanish Low Countries.^ In the mean time a treaty had been executed be- tween France and Austria which might well have changed the face of Europe. By it, those countries decided upon the distribution to be made of the Span- ish empire in the event of Charles dying without issue. Thirty years before what is known as the first l)artition treaty, Louis and the Emperor agreed ujion a division, which would have been carried into effect had Charles died within a few years, as there was every reason to exj^ect. It would have added so greatly to the power of France, and to her capacity for indus- trial and conamercial development, that Louis XIV. might well have claimed the lasting gratitude of all patriotic Frenchmen. To the Emperor was conceded the succession of the Spanish throne, with the most of its foreign dependencies. Nominally this was much, but really it would have proved as unimportant for the interests of Austria as the actual rule of the Bour- bons in Spain was to France. In return for this, Franche Comte, the whole of the present kingdom of Belgium, and a large amount of territory in the North of Spain would have been annexed to France, and 1 The treaty is found in Dumont, Corps Dip., and the negotia- tions in reference to it in Negociations sur la succession d'' Espagne, t. ii. 482-047 ; Letters of Sir William Temple, vol. i ; Negociations d'Estrades, t. v., and vi. 1667-68 ; Lettres, etc., entre Dewitt et les Ambassadeurs, t. iv. ; (Euvres de Louis XI V., ii. 360-372. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 67 would to-day have contained a population of over 6,000,000 intelligent, industrious, and prosperous French people.^ Unfortunately for that country, it was more than thirty years before Charles died, and then lier interests were sacrificed to make a king of Louis's grandson. Thus far in his career the policy of Louis XIV. had been marked by a just regard for the welfare of his kingdom ; nor is it open to the reproach so often uttered, that it consisted in the unscrupulous plun- der of defenseless provinces. The extension of the French boundaries overthrew no prosperous commu- nities, it violated no rights which could be regarded as sacred. In our own day, Alsace and Lorraine have been taken from France without a protest from any one except those affected. Yet their inhabitants were contented members of a nation to which they had long belonged ; they spoke the same tongue, they en- joyed the same prosperity ; to wrest them away was as violent a measure as if Normandy or Touraine had been cut out of the country of which they form a part. Far different was the situation of the territo- ries which, during the seventeenth century, were an- nexed to France. The most of them were nominally under the rule of the Spanish, but to that people they ^ This treaty and the steps that led to it are found in Nego- gociations relatives a la succession d^ Espagne, t. ii. 323-482. By its terms, Naples, Sicily, and the Philipjjine Islands were also to be added to France. The possessions in Italy would have been a source of weakness rather than of strength. The correspon- dence in reference to this treaty illustrates the superiority of French diplomacy at this period. It shows also how, when other arguments did not suffice, Louis reached his ends by bribing the representatives of every government, no matter how exalted their rank. 68 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. were bound by no ties of kith or kin ; they did not speak the Spiinish tongue ; neither in customs, nor in- dustries, nor manners, had they anything in common with Spain. Accidents of birth or of conquest had rendered them subject to the kings who filled the Spanish throne. They were bound together in dis- cordant and unfruitful union ; they were subjected to the worst of governments, the unintelligent rule of strangers. Their industries were harassed, their trade was checked ; they were ground down by the imposi- tions of greedy governors ; they were exposed to the evils of apathetic inefficiency. The rule of Spain in her provinces combined the abuses of tyranny and the confusion of anarchy. Nor was the condition of Lorraine and Alsace any better. The rule of the dukes of Lorraine hardly deserved the name of a government. The people of that unhappy province were oppressed in time of peace, and defenseless in time of war.^ The varied and complicated rights which extended over Alsace furnished its inhabitants neither the pride which may be felt in a great state, nor the peace and tranquillity which can sometimes be found in a small one. In many of the neighboring districts, French was the or- dinary speech of the people. In France they could find their best markets, with her people they would naturally assimilate. The government of that coun- try was stiU very defective ; the condition of large portions of her inhabitants was still very miserable, but it was much better than that of most of her ^ The reunion of Lorraine to France was not completed until the eighteenth century. During a considerable part of the sev- enteenth century it was, however, to a greater or less degree in the possession of France. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 69 neighbors. It may safely be said that incorporation with France increased the prosperity, the happiness, and the future development of every town, city, or province that was added to her boundaries during the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, Louis's attention was now diverted from territorial aggrandizement, for which some justi- fication could be pleaded, to the indulgence of a petty spite and to avenging a mortified vanity. The Triple Alliance had been excessively disagreeable to his pride. It was not the substance of the treaty to which he objected, wrote his minister, but the form of it was distasteful.^ It was upon Holland that his wrath was especially directed. He had assisted the States General in their war with England. He had agreed with them on the acquisitions with which he would be satisfied.^ He had dealt with them, as he felt, magnanimously, and in return for this, forgetting both gratitude and good manners, they had induced England and Sweden to join in an offensive alliance. They had presumed to dictate terms to him. A little republic had seen fit to interfere with a great king. Their ambassador had been insolent during the negotiations. It was charged that a medal had been struck in Holland representing Joshua bidding the sun to stand still, and symbolizing the Dutch minister checking the progress of the king, who had chosen the sun for his device.^ " The origin of the ^ Lionue to Estrades, February 3, 1668 : Letters of Temple, i. 148. 2 Louis to Estrades, October 14, 1667. ^ M. Van Beuningheii, the offending minister, denied that any such medal was ever struck. — Pomponne to Louis XIV., March 2, 1669. 70 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. present war," wrote Louis in 1674, " may be charged to the ingratitude and the insupportable vanity of the Holhinders." ^ His courtiers declared that it was not for merchants to be dictating the policy of kings ; they should confine themselves to their shops and their bills of lading. The Dutch were in Louis's eyes all that was most odious : they were republicans, they were Protestants, and they were insolent. Before the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, he had resolved that he would chastise them, and that they should be compelled to submit to ignominious terms.^ Lideed, both Louis and his ministers, and Charles II. as well, contemplated the entire destruction of the republic, leaving perhaps some mutilated portions of it under the rule of Charles's nephew, William of Orange.^ During four years, the preparations for this wicked undertaking were carried on with the greatest ability and foresight. Then the storm burst, and it seemed that the ruin of Holland was inevitable. Fortunately, Louis and Louvois were so blinded by success and by arrogance that they lost their opportunity. After six years of war, the Republic emerged unscathed from the greatest peril that had threatened it since the armies of Alva lay encamped before the walls of Haarlem. The first step of the French was to draw England 1 Mem. de Louis XIV. sur le campagne de 1672, MSS. D^pot de la Guerre, published by Rousset. 2 Memoire cited above, and all the diplomatic correspondence of this period. 3 Substantially this statement of their purpose is found in in- numerable letters and instructions. Negociations d'Estrades, i. 394 ; Projet d'un traite, December 18, 1669 ; Mem. de Louvois a Conde, November 1, 1671, " d'abaisser les Hollandois et de les an^antir, s'il dtait possible." WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 71 from the Triple Alliance. This was not a difficult task. Most unwillingly had Charles found himself in a position of hostility to the French. Louis XIV. was to Charles II. the embodiment of earthly great- ness and human felicity ; he had much money and many mistresses, and he was not bothered with a Par- liament. On the other hand, the English king had no sympathy with the Dutch. They had not befriended him when he was a wanderer ; they encouraged indus- try and respected virtue. Charles told the French minister that he wished to treat with Louis as one gentleman with another, and on this basis of easy courtesy he proceeded to sell himself and his people.^ He gladly consented to annul the Triple Alliance, and to unite England with France for the destruction of a Protestant republic.^ But Charles was timid, and fickle, and greedy, and it was long before he would actually sign a satisfactory agreement. Though he cared little for religion, he had a taste for consulting signs and soothsayers. Louis, therefore, sent over an abbe, who had a great reputation in astrology, in the hope that, if his ally was indifferent to the opinion of his people, he might incline to the judgment of the stars. Unluckily, the astrologer attempted that most perilous form of prophecy, foretelling the result of a horse race. The king's son, the Duke of Monmouth, laid great sums on the horses that were designated by the abbe's horoscope, and lost all that he wagered. 1 Ruvigny to Louis, May 21, 1668. ^ " Et d'autant que la dissolution dn gouvernment des Etats G^n^raux, qui est la fin principal e qu'on se propose dans cette guerre," etc. — Form of treaty proposed by Charles, Corres. d'Angleterre, 85. 72 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. The unfortunate prophet was hastily ordered back to France.^ Other negotiators were more successful, and in 1670 treaties were signed by which Charles undertook to assist Louis in the projected war against Holland, on receiving a liberal subsidy. By secret articles, he also promised that he would declare himself a Catho- lic ; and for this act of piety Louis paid him 150,000 pounds sterling, and agreed to furnish 6,000 French soldiers to repress any resistance of the English when the apostasy of their king should be publicly declared.^ Havino- thus obtained from Charles the most dis- graceful treaty that can be found in English history, Loviis turned his attention to Germany. There he met with little trouble. In November, 1671, the Emperor promised to remain neutral while France attacked the States General. Sweden abandoned the Triple Alliance for a subsidy. The smaller German states were still more easily managed. Those of any importance agreed, in consideration of various sums of money, that Holland should receive no aid in her hour of need. Louvois grumbled that he had to waste a day, because the bishops of Miinster and of Strasbourg got so drunk overnight celebrating the situation that they could do no business.^ These episcopal authorities 1 Lionne to Colbert de Croissy, February 23, 1669 ; Colbert to Lionne, March 18, 1669 ; Charles to Henrietta, March 22, 1669 ; Lionne to Colbert, May 4, 1669. 2 The two treaties, one signed at Dover on June 1 [N. S.], 1670, and the other in December, are found in Neg. rel. a la succession d'Espagne, t. ii. part 4, sec. 1. The treaty provided for the payment of 2,000,000 livres tournois for the conversion, which represented about 150,000 pounds. — Colbert to Louis XIV., December 30, 1669, et passim. * Louvois to Le Tellier, January 4, 1672. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 73 were trying to the diplomats. Strasbourg's passions were lucre and liquor. " Every time the Bishop of Strasbourg has anything to pay," wrote Luxembourg, " he offers up prayers for peace, and every time he takes a drink he is eager for war." ^ The Bishop of Miinster was a more belligerent character, and his ca- reer was not unlike that of some robber baron of an earlier age. At his court the soldier of fortune, the cutthroat, and the desperado were always welcome. His life was occupied in constant brawls, and in petty warfai-e with his neighbors. The revenues which were exacted as the dues of the church were spent either in drink and debaucheiy, or in the support of lawless soldiers, who eked out their pay by plunder. The Christian inhabitants of the provinces under Turkish misrule suffer less to-day from their governors than did the subjects of many of the petty states of Germany, of which the Bishopric of Miinster was an extreme type. At last the bishops were sobered and paid, and they signed their treaties with France. While Holland was thus isolated by an adroit diplo- macy, the French armies were reorganized and pre- pared for war by the genius of Louvois. Louvois was a man of only thirty, but he had already acquired an influence over Louis greater than that of any other of his advisers, and which for many years was to prove disastrous to the best interests of France. His power over his master was due to talents of a high order. As a war minister he has had few equals. He was not one of the ordinary class of administrators who are content to follow in the traditions of their predeces- sors. To his innovations it was due that for fifty years the French armies were superior to those of any other 1 Luxembourg to Louvois, January 31, 1672. 74 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. European state. No man understood better than he that, to fight well, a soldier must feed well. He estab- lished magazines of provisions ; he saw that the bag- gage wagons were sufficiently numerous, that the guns were in good order, and that there was plenty of am- munition. Under his iron rule, the frauds of officers who kept in their command fifty barefooted and half- starved men, and drew pay for one hundred well- equipped soldiers, were checked, if they were not supjiressed. Aided by Vauban, Louvois organized the engineers as a separate branch of the service. The rapidity with which cities yielded to the French is the best proof of its efficiency.^ It was impossible that the Dutch should remain ignorant of these preparations for their overthrow. They sought to counteract them, but with small suc- cess. When the Triple Alliance was formed, De Witt had expressed his fears at abandoning France in re- liance on the unstable counsels of England.^ Plis apprehensions were now to be realized. The Dutch prostrated themselves before Louis, in the endeavor to avert his hostility. They met only with rebuffs. If they sought to know wherein they had given offense, they were informed that it was better for them that their misdeeds should remain untold. Nor were they any more favorably received in England. They tried 1 The reformations effected by Louvois are described with great clearness in Histoire de Louvois, t. i. ch. iii., by Camilla Rousset. M. Rousset has made such research in the correspon- dence and archives of the department of war that he has left little to be added. One may, however, be permitted to doubt whether all his investigations have shown his hero to be any less responsible for the fatal political errors that have long been laid to his charge. ^ Letters of Sir William Temple, i. 162. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 75 in vain to keep Charles from deserting the alliance which he had made only four years before. In their extremity they sought to satisfy British pride by con- senting that a whole Dutch fleet should lower its flag before a single English warship, if England would remain true to her agreements.^ But if Charles did not resemble his brother of France in the qualities wherein he deserved admiration, he showed himself his equal in insolence w^hen dealing with a weaker nation in distress. All was now ready, and in May, 1672, Louis in- vaded Holland at the head of 100,000 men. The only justification for his act which he gave the world was, that he could no longer repress his dissatisfaction at the conduct of the United Provinces without tar- nishing his glory.2 At the same time the English fleet endeavored to effect a diversion by sea. The part of the English in this war was as inglorious as their undertaking it had been indefensible. On the sea the Dutch held their own, but on land everything yielded before the French. Holland had no forces with which she could resist such an army as that of the invaders, and city after city surrendered in rapid succession. In June the passage of the Rhine was effected. This famous feat of arms was in truth one of the easiest of Louis's many easy exploits. The French cavalrv swam the river for the short distance that it was too deep to be forded. A few Dutch soldiers on the other shore immediately ran away.^ Yet neither Miltiades at Marathon nor Charles Martel at Poitiers ever received one tenth of the adulation 1 R(?ponse par les Etats Gt^iieraux, February 3, 1G72. 2 Ordinance of April 6, 1672. 3 " A military operation of the fourth order," said Napoleon. 76 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. poured upon Louis XIV. for the passage of the Rhine, in which his own part was confined to standing upon the bank and looking on ; " attached to the shore by his o-reatness," said Boileau, in words which were meant for praise. It is not strange that courtiers should have declared Louis to be a great general ; the extraor- dinary thing is that both courtiers and king believed it. The French had now overrun a large part of Hol- land, and, had their armies proceeded with rapidity, it is possible that they could have captured Amster- dam itself. The States General were overcome by terror at an advance which seemed irresistible, and in June their representatives presented themselves before the conqueror with the most humiliating proposals. They offered to surrender almost a third of the terri- tory of the United Provinces, and to pay an indemnity of 10,000,000 livres for the expense Louis had in- curred in accomplishing their ruin. Fortunately for the welfare of the republic, Lionne was dead, and the king was now controlled by the counsels of Louvois. The representatives were treated with studied discour- tesy and their offers were declined. At last the French ultimatum was announced. Holland was required to surrender a very much larger portion of her soil ; the war indemnity was fixed at 24,000,000 livres ; the ex- ercise of the Catholic religion was to be allowed in what little was left of the republic, and the Catholic priests were to receive stipends from the state. And lastly, in each year a solemn embassy must visit Louis and present him with a medal, on which should be in- scribed a device thanking him for having the second time restored peace to the United Provinces.^ Even these terms, which would have been the an- 1 Dispatch of Louis XIV. to Colbert, July 1, 1672. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 77 nihilation of Holland as an independent state, Louis and Louvois in their infatuation believed would be accepted. "I am mistaken," Louvois wrote liis father, " if they do not return and agree to all that has been demanded." ^ It was impossible for Louvois to attach any importance to moral forces. He recognized no force but brute force. He was insolent by nature; the Dutch were down, and he felt no desire to spare them. His intellect was too narrow to realize that the condition of affairs might change. He gained for himself a fame that he would not have desired ; for to the blunders of Louvois, quite as much as to the determination of William, raust we ascribe the deliv- erance of Holland from overthrow. Louis was easily induced to follow the counsels of his minister, and he was so happily organized that he never acknowledged, even to himself, that he had made a mistake. " Ambi- tion and the love of glory are always pardonable in a young prince who has been as well treated by fortune as I," he wrote, when discussing afterwards his refusal to accept the proposals of»the States General.^ Many of the Dutch had protested against the terms which had already been offered, and the insulting propositions of Louis roused the whole country to resistance. Already the dikes had been cut, and a large portion of Holland was restored to the ocean from which it had been won. The French could con- quer the land, but the waves of the sea set bounds to their progress. Amsterdam was saved, and the oppor- tunity for further victories was lost. In August, Louis rejoined his sultanas at Saint Germain, and the cam- paign was over. ^ Louvois to Le Tellier, July 2, 1072. 2 Mem. of Louis XIV. on campaign of 1672. 78 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Odious cruelties were practiced in those parts of Holland of which the French had isossession. "M. de Maqueline was obliged to burn a village," Luxem- bourg wrote Louvois, "and as it was night, nothing was saved. Horses and cattle were burned, and they say plenty of peasants, women and children." ^ The country was given over to pillage and conflagration, and sucli cruelties met with the ai:>proval of the minister of war. " Take all the advantage possible," he said, " without troubling yourself about the good or the ill will of the inhabitants." ^ " The soldiers roasted all the Dutch in the village of Swanimerdam," he wrote the Prince of Conde ; " they did not let one escape." ^ It was by such measures that Louvois roused his op- ponents to a desperate resistance. The waves of the sea laid waste the fields of Holland, but it was better than leaving them to be plundered by a brutal sol- diery. The burghers of Amsterdam watched the wa- ters rising about their pleasant villas, where they had smoked their pipes and counted their gains, with the feeling that this was less painful than to see them burned to the ground by the mercenaries of Luxem- bourg. The excitement of the Dutch public led to a lament- able act of barbarity. John De Witt had long held the chief authority in the state, and he had shown alike the patriotism of a citizen and the wisdom of a statesman. He and his brother were now held responsible for misfortunes which they had been un- able to avert. With better reason, they were charged with jealousy of the growing power of the Prince of 1 Luxembourg? to Louvois, November 16, 1672. 2 Louvois to Luxembourg, August 27, 1672. 3 Louvois to Condd, January 7, 1673. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 79 Orange, the future William III. of England. The two brothers were torn to pieces by a brutal mob, and William of Orange, at twenty-one, was made Stadt- holder and Captain-General of the republic. Young as he was, he possessed the obstinate determination, the power of heroic resistance, of his ancestors, and he hated Louis as his great-grandfather had hated Philip. At last Europe, which apparently had been content to view with apathy the extinction of a prosperous state, was roused to action. The Emperor interfered in behalf of Holland. Spain gave such aid as she could. The Elector of Brandenburg joined the al- liance, and in two years there was hardly a power in Germany that was not in arms against France. Nor was Charles long able to hold England in the interests of Louis. Never have the French been more hated by the English than at this period, when their king was a French pensioner, and when the gold of Louis was used to make England despicable in the sight of Europe. Charles struggled, with more con- stancy than he usually showed, to remain lirm in his alliance. The French spent money freely in endeavors to corrupt the members of Parliament. But money is not efficacious against public opinion, where this has free opportunity for expression. In 1674, peace was made between England and Holland. By giving liberally to Charles, that he might prorogue the Par- liament for long periods, the French representatives succeeded in keeping England neutral.^ Though she no longer joined in the war against the Dutch, she did not take up arms in their behalf. ^ " Rien ne me parait d'une plus grande importance qne d'eloi- gner I'assemblde du parlement d'Angleterre." — Louis XIV. to Colbert de Croissey, ambassador at London. 80 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. The invasion of Holland in 1672 led to a European war that was not ended until 1678. France had to contend with Holland, Spain, and the most of Ger- many. She received no assistance except from Swe- den, whose military impoi'tance had greatly decreased since the days of Gustavus Adolphus. This formi- dable alliance had been excited by reckless vindic- tiveness, but it was confronted with resolution and success. It showed how far the resources of France exceeded those of any other European state, that, with only one unimportant ally, she was able to contend against such a combination. She possessed, however, many advantages. Holland was her only opponent who was not crippled by constant financial distress. The Dutch were obliged to contribute liberally towards the support of the armies of their confederates, and, as with all such alliances, the effectiveness of this was diminished by divided councils and mutual recrimina- tions. On the other hand, one purpose governed the armies of France; they were supplied and equipped by Louvois, they were commanded by Luxembourg and Turenne. Turenne was intrusted with the army of the Rhine, and his last campaigns are regarded as masterpieces of the art of war. He had begun his military career at fourteen. Daring almost forty years of his life he had been actually engaged in fighting, he had become the greatest soldier of his age, and one of the greatest of history. As he was reconnoi- tring near the village of Sasbach, on July 21, 1675, a chance ball struck him and he fell dead. The eight marshals who were created after his death were de- clared to be only the small change for Turenne, but the French armies still continued to he led with ability. Luxembourg now revealed himself as a great captain. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 81 Far inferior to Turenne, both in character and in the skill needed to conduct a successful campaign, he was perhaps his equal in the actual hour of battle. Often the Prince of Orange encountered him with every prospect of success, and as often the quick intuitions of Luxembourg seized the opportunity and gained the victory, Conde made his last appearance in the field during this war. At twenty-one he had been a great general ; at fifty he was but an irresolute and unsuccessful commander, and he now retired from the service. Holland was soon relieved from the burden of hos- tile occupation. Early in 1674, the French withdrew their forces from that country ; the endeavor to chas- tise the republic was abandoned, and the scene of war was transferred to the Rhine and to Flanders. The occasion had been lost for the summary punishment of the offending Dutch, and Louis now concentrated his attention on obtaining some further territory from Spain. The French again took possession of Franche Comte, and each year they captured some towns in the Spanish Low Countries. The king took part in many of these sieges, and his military correspondence during these years is of interest. He delighted in warfare. He sent off letters to Louvois at all hours of the night ; he was always in hot haste for the latest re- ports from the field ; he gave directions as to the most trivial matters of military discipline. The men of a certain company must be up by six to report ; the baggage wagons must pass by a certain bridge ; the guards must encamp at a certain distance from the royal tent. In war, as in peace, Louis delighted in details. But the conviction of his greatness as a gen- eral more and more filled his mind. The adulation 82 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. that was poured upon him might have turned the head of a man more modest by nature. Colbert was less fervent in his praise than many others ; he was one of the few who dared to grumble at his royal master. Yet Colbert wrote, when Besan^on had surrendered after a little leisurely cannon practice : " Your Ma- jesty has captured the citadel in twenty-four hours. We can but wonder in silence, and daily praise God that we live under the reign of a king whose power is bounded only by his desires." ^ Such flattery seems highly seasoned, but it was relished. The accounts which Louis has given us of his cam- paigns are interesting from their frankness. Other men may have been equally content with themselves, but they have hesitated about giving solemn and per- manent expression to their gratification. Writes hon- est Pepys : " I counted that I had made myself now worth about eighty pounds, at which my heart was glad and blessed God." Louis expresses his pleasure at his own exploits with the same naivete, and some- times upon no greater provocation. " It is with de- light," he writes, " that I have laid siege to places which the greatest captains of our age have not dared to undertake. I aspired to surpass them, and at least I have succeeded in enterprises which they deemed impossible." ^ And yet, often as he commanded his armies in per- son, he could never summon up resolution to fight a pitched battle. In 1676, the French with superior forces were near Bouchain. As the Prince of Orange marched to the rescue of the place, he exposed himself to an attack which could hardly have failed of suc- 1 Colbert to the kineruke lost, his con- cubines in dismay following their retreating lord, while low-bred Dutch soldiers rioted in the royal tent 1 Louvois to Le Tellier, May 14, 1670 ; Mcmoires de Saint Simon, xii. 6, 7 ; Mtm. de La Fare, 284, ed. Michaud. 84 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. and feasted from the royal i)late. Never after such a spectacle could he walk with the same majestic dignity through the stately gardens of Versailles. France continued to show herself able to contend against her enemies with success. In 1678, Ghent and Ypres were captured, and the French conquests were carried into the heart of Flanders. On the other hand, the armies of the empire made no progress, and William of Orange was singularly unfortunate in his military operations. In the mean time, as Louis had abandoned any hopes of chastising the insolence of the Dutch, he en- deavored to draw them from the alliance against him by the offer of favorable terms. The commercial pol- icy of France had alienated Holland as much as Louis's ambition.^ The king found that he must propose con- cessions in order to induce that country to make peace. He accordingly announced his readiness to reduce largely the excessive tariff of 1667, and to do away with other restrictions which had hampered the trade of Holland without increasing that of France. These proposals had a mollifying influence upon the burgh- ers of Amsterdam and of the great commercial cit- ies. Louis endeavored also to conciliate the hostility of William of Orange ; he made the most flattering suggestions, but without success.^ The prince felt that it would be dishonorable to desert his allies ; he was ambitious for reputation as a soldier, and he regarded France and her king with the animosity that a cru- sader felt towards the Crescent. But many of the * Abundant proofs of this can be found in the correspondence between De Witt and the Dutch ambassadors at Paris. 2 Louvois to Estrades, August 19, 1674 ; Louis to Ruvigny, August 25, 1674. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 85 Diitoh were less zealous in the prosecution of a te- dious war from which they could now escape, not only without loss, but with actual gain. There was also a large party in Holland which was jealous of the in- fluence of the Prince of Orange. They feared that he would seek to overthrow their republican institu- tions, and various incidents had aroused their appre- hensions. The deputies of Gueldres offered William the sovereignty of their j^rovince, with the title of duke. Zutphen followed their example and Utrecht approved of the measure, but the step excited such opposition in Holland and Zealand that the plan was abandoned. William's friends declared that he desired the offer of a crown only that, like Caesar, he might put it by, but there were those who thought he would fain have had it.^ The progress of the war had nt)t been attended with such success as to excite en- thusiasm. The Prince of Orange showed more taste than talent for fighting. His enemies declared that history told of no general who at the same age had lost so many battles, or had been forced to raise so many sieges. At last terms were agreed upon, which secured to France and to Europe a few years of respite. Hol- land abandoned her allies, and was the first to lay down arms. The English had agreed with the United Provinces that if peace was not made by August 11, 1678, they would unite their forces against France. At eleven on the night of the 10th, the French and Dutch representatives at Nimeguen signed articles by which the war between their countries was brought to ^ Memoirs of Sir William Temple, 93, ed. Michaiid ; Ruvigny to Pompoiiiie, February 25, 1675 ; Van den Bosch to Estrades, February 18, 1G75. 86 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. an end. The Dutch surrendered nothing save a few unimportant foreign possessions. On the other hand, by an edict that was immediately issued, their goods were allowed to enter France, subject only to the moderate duties of the tariff of 1664. ^ Many of the restraints npon their commerce which Colbert had es- tablished were now abolished. Holland had gained, rather than lost, by the seven years' war which had been undertaken to accomplish her overthrow. It was with good reason that the announcement of the treaty stirred the phlegmatic Dutch to enthusiasm ; that their streets were filled with jubilant crowds ; that the pub- lic buildings blazed with fireworks, and the fountains ran red with wine.^ The Prince of Orange was, how- ever, bitterly opposed to the peace. He declared it to be a shameful desertion of the allies, nor could he reconcile himself to the large accessions of territory which France received from Spain. He had been unable to prevent the agreement for a peace, but he attempted to break it in a manner that is a stain upon his memory. On the 14th of August, three days after the treaty had been signed, and when he must have known of its existence, he made a desperate assault on the French army before Mons. If he could gain an important advantage, he might still hope to be able to prevent the ratification of the treaty ; but if he expected to win a victory from the Marshal of Lux- embourg, he had learned nothing from the uniform experience of the past. A bloody battle was fought at Saint Denis, without advantage to either side. Two thousand men were killed and twice as many wounded ^ Actea et memoires de la paix de Nimegue, ii. 590-652 ; Cor- respondance de Hollands, 108. 2 Avaux to Louis, September 29 and October 6, 1678. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 87 to gratify William's desire to gain the glory of a victory, and to protract a war which had lasted for seven years. On the next day he received from the States General a letter telling him that peace had been made.^ Spain was compelled to yield the territories which Holland had agreed upon as the measure of compen- sation to which France was entitled. Tranche Comte was surrendered, and has ever since remained a part of France. In Flanders, Saint Omer, Cambray, Va- lenciennes, and many other important cities were ceded, while Louis relinquished a few places which he had obtained by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.^ The peace of Nimeguen fixed the northern boundary of France substantially as it remains to-day. The Emperor had ^ There seems no justification for this battle, and it illustrates the merciless tenacity of the character of the Prince of Orange. Neither William's own statement, nor the version of his ad- mirer. Sir William Temple, deny that the Prince was aware, as a matter of fact, that an agreement had been reached. William claims that he did not really know of the signature of the treaty, and so was at liberty to prevent a peace which he knew was im- minent, and of which he disapproved. — Letters of William to Fagel, August 15, and to States General, August 17, 1678. Gour- ville is not always above suspicion, but he was an intimate friend, and his report of a conversation with the prince, p. 576, ed. Michaud, I think gives the facts of the case. From the reports that had reached William, he had no doubt that a treaty had been signed. At the same time, he had i-eceived no official no- tice, and could truthfully say that he had no certain legal know- ledge of its existence. Years afterwards William spoke of Gour- ville as one of his oldest acquaintances, and wrote Portland to present his compliments. — William to Portland, July 13, 1698. The letters and reports of the Duke of Luxembourg contain an accurate account of the battle. 2 Actes et memoires de lapaix de Nimegue, ii. 729-751. 88 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. no choice but to follow the example of his allies. The border provinces of jGrermany had been barbar- ously ravaged by the French armies ; ashes marked the site of many once flourishing villages of the Palati- nate ; all desired peace. Only the Elector of Bran- denburg was reluctant to make terms. He had cap- tured Pomerania from Sweden, and he was loath to surrender it. Fidelity to his allies was one of Louis's virtues. He was resolved that Sweden should not suffer from the ill-success that had befallen her in a war undertaken in his behalf, even if he had to con- tinue the conflict in order to compel restitution. The elector jjoured out his wrath on the Dutch. He had taken up arms to save them from destruction, he said, and now they had shamelessly deserted him ; when they were again in extremity they would look in vain for the aid which they repaid with base ingratitude.^ He implored Louis to let him keep a little of what he had gained.^ But neither reproaches nor suppli- cations were of any avail. Nearly everything that Sweden had lost was again surrendered to her. The elector and some of the other German princes were consoled by considerable sums of money, which France paid to secure restitution for her ally. By the sum- mer of 1679, Europe was again at peace.^ The treaty of Nimeguen is the high-water mark in the fortunes of Louis XIV. He had encountered suc- cessfully a European coalition. He had gained im- portant accessions of territory. France was strained by her exertions, but she was not in the wretched con- 1 Actes, etc., de Nimegue, ii. 657-662. 2 Elector to Louis, May 26, 1679. * These various treaties are contained in Actes, etc., de Ni- megue, t. iii., iv. WARS WITH SPAIN AND HOLLAND. 89 dition to which she was later reduced. The authori- ties of Paris in 1680 solemnly bestowed upon Louis the title of "the Great." Posterity has declined to recognize it, and the succeeding years of Louis's reign furnish abundant grounds for the refusal. We must now turn to the internal affairs of the kingdom ; to the efforts to increase its wealth by com- mercial regulations, and to enhance its piety by the persecution of heretics ; to the influence exercised by the monarch upon literature, manners, and political institutions. CHAPTER IV. COLBERT. 1661-1683. Jean Baptiste Colbert was born in 1619 at Rheims, and, like most of the great ministers of the Bourbon dynasty, he belonged to the middle classes. When he had become a great man, complacent gene- alogists traced for him an ancient pedigree, but in fact his ancestors were respectable and sturdy bour- geois. His father was a dealer in cloth, and in his shop the young Colbert may have acquired the habits of order, economy, and integrity which were to make him famous.^ In appearance, as in conduct, he was distinguished from men like Fouquet, who squandered the nation's money with perfect good-breeding. His face was dark and forbidding ; heavy black eyebrows, concealing deep-set eyes, gave him a stern and austere expression.^ Amid a court where courteous and afPa- ble manners characterized the relations of even the bitterest enemies, Colbert's demeanor was brusque and his speech was icy. Mme. de S^vigne compared him to the North Pole. She had occasion to ask a 1 Memoires d^ Ormesson, ii. 486, 487. "I have seen his father," says Ormesson ; " he was a little fellow, with a respectable ap- pearance, and was an honest man." The father came to Paris late in life, and bought a petty municipal office. Ormesson's informant claimed that Colbert was an exceptionally stupid boy. 2 Mem. de Choisy, 575, ed. Michaud. COLBERT. 91 favor of him, and was as chilled by the interview as though she had ventiu?ed into the region of eternal snow.^ Little is known of the early years of Colbert's life, but when thirty-one he entered the service of Car- dinal Mazarin. This employment proved the opening for a career which made him during many years the most influential man in France, and which modified the financial policy of that coimtry. His opinion of his employer was at first anything but favorable. In his letters he complains of the cardinal's irresolution, of his delays, and of his man- ners. Even the way in which Mazarin pursed his mouth and shook his head while talking, the young employee found most offensive. " He has never taken thought for the morrow," Colbert wrote Le Tellier, " and now he does not consider in the morning what will happen at noon." It was with difficulty, he said, that he could endure the conduct of a man for whom he had no regard.^ Colbert's opinion of the cardinal changed in time. He received from Mazarin favors and money in abundance, and he was grateful. He discovered, also, that while it was easy to criticise the Italian, who made many promises and kept few, whose French was poor and whose manners were not always pleasing, yet this man who seemed so supple was a great statesman, who followed with undeviating purpose the policy that would increase the power of France. While Mazarin was a sagacious politician, he was a poor financier. His private estate was in the same 1 Lettres de Mme. de Sevigne, iii. 331 ; v. 143. 2 Colbert to Le Tellier, June 12, 23, 1650, January 4, 1652. " Notre homrae est encore pis qu'il n'estoit," he writes Le Tellier in 1652. 92 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. confusion as the public treasury, and Colbert desired an opportunity to bring order out of chaos. He told the cardinal that he must have some one to take charo-e of his affairs who would be zealous and faith- ful, and in whom he could put entire confidence, and he insinuated that the proper man was at hand. " I would not have allowed the horrible waste you have made of your property," he wrote Mazarin, with the same freedom of speech that he sometimes used in after years, when he had Louis XIV. for a master.^ Mazarin was judicious enough to follow this advice. Colbert was made superintendent of the cardinal's estate, and he managed it with such skill that the cardinal died the richest man in France. Colbert devoted himself to his employment with the same untiring zeal that he showed afterwards in more important positions. He scolded his master roundly for his extravagance ; he watched the smallest details of his affairs with eager interest. As he obtained more of Mazarin's confidence, he sometimes gave ad- vice about political questions. In one letter he sug- gests plans for reforming the finances of the nation, in the next he says that he has found some cloth that will make an exceedingly warm robe de chamhre for his Eminence, and apparently he was equally interested in both subjects. He gave a great deal of attention to the welfare of some sucking calves ; he counted the eggs as carefviUy as a market-woman ; he was soli- citous about the cardinal's wine, anxious about his melons, and distressed about his clothes. When the king was to marry, Colbert was charged with some of the preparations, and this reduced him to a sad plight. 1 Colbert to Mazarin, February 17, May 4, June 27, Septem- ber 1, 1651. COLBERT. 93 It was to no purpose that Mazainn wrote him not to disquiet himself over such bagatelles.^ Restless activ- ity, and a desire that all things should be done right, whether great or small, were the distinguishing quali- ties of Colbert's character. The supposed speech of Mazarin on his deathbed to Louis XIV. has been often quoted. " I owe you all, but I pay the debt in giving you Colbert." ^ It was not in such stilted language that the cardinal expressed himself, and this famous saying rests on no authority but the gossip of a vivacious and an untrust- worthy abbe. But in the most solemn manner Maza- rin left the record of his judgment on Colbert. By his will, made shortly before his death, the cardinal gave Colbert the house in which he was living, and he then says : " And I i^ray the king to employ him in his service, because he is faithful." ^ It was high praise and just praise. Extraordinary fidelity, rather than extraordinary intellect, rendered Colbert useful and made him famous. Colbert was appointed superintendent of finances by Louis, and this mark of confidence was followed by many others. He was made a secretary of state ; he was given charge of the navy, of the colonies, and 1 Lettres de Colbert, t. i. 208, 220, 224, 424, et passim. " Never since I have been in the world," he writes Mazarin, "have I had so much anxiety as I have now lest something should be lacking at the king's marriage. I attend to nothing else from five in the morning until eleven at night." — Letter of March 5, 1C60. 2 Mem. de Choisy, 579, ed. Michaud. 8 Arch, des Aff. Etr. Fr., 171. "Estant fort fiddle." This was the will by which Mazarin left his estate to the king. The final will was executed a few days later, and Colbert was ap- pointed one of the executors. 94 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. of the royal buildings. These varied employments required an enormous amount o£ labor, but they hardly satisfied his prodigious industry. He regaixled sixteen hours as no more than a fair day's work. " You ask me whether it is better to work by day or by night," he wrote his son ; " I answer that one must work both by day and night." For many years he exerted a large influence in the counsels of the king. His master's confidence was fully accorded to him, and the minister was willing to undertake duties which to us seem incongruous. He was intrusted with the delicate task of making preparations for the safe and the secret entry into the world of the children of Mile, de la Valliere.^ He attended to the mission thus assigned him with zeal, and without repugnance. He saw that proper j^ersons were employed, and that due secrecy was preserved. The king regarded no service connected with himself as degrading; he saw no incongruity in employing his ministers as mid- wives, or in combining the care of his bastards with the charge of his finances. Colbert regarded his master with affection and veneration. It might seem that an ostentatious and extravagant king would not have excited the admira- tion of an austere and thrifty financier. But Louis seemed as wonderful a sovereign to Colbert as to his other subjects, and the minister worshiped the mon- arch with entire sincerity. " We live under the greatest king who ever bore a sceptre," he wrote one of his subordinates, when Louis was peacefully taking possession of Tranche Comte, "who is now at the head of his army, performing feats that will astound. 1 P articular ites secretes de la vie du Roi, a fragment written by Colbert himself. COLBERT. 95 posterity." ^ And yet his bourgeois common sense and his desire that taxation should be moderate and the finances in order were often so disturbed by Louis's extravagance that he rated him roundly. " Your Majesty," he wrote in 1680, " has never con- sulted your receipts in order to decide upon your ex- penses, a course so extraordinary that certainly there is no other example of it." ^ Unfortunately there have been innumerable examples of the same procedure, and with others, as with Louis XIV., it usually ends in bankruptcy. The finances of France when Colbert assumed their charge, after the overthrow of Fouquet, were in the utmost confusion. Taxation was so heavy that a large part of the population were in constant misery. The government received so little of the proceeds that it was in constant embarrassment. In the cottaare of the peasant there was need because the tax-gatherer took so much; in the palace of the king there was need because the tax-gatherer returned so little. In 1661, the sums collected amounted to 84,000,000 livres. Yet so much had been assigned for advances, or was absorbed in the payment of enormous rates of interest and of fraudulent debts, that the net income of the king was only 32,000,000.3 Colbert resolved to increase the revenue of the king and to diminish the- burdens of the people, and he did both. These results were accomplished in part by methods which would now be equivalent to repudiation, and would destroy national credit. But financial measures of that period cannot be judged altogether by present 1 Colbert to M. de Seve, May 25, 1674. 2 Lettres, etc., de Colbert, ii. 256. 3 Forbonnais, Recherches sur les Finances, i. 289. 90 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. standards. There was so much of confusion, of irregularity, and of fraud, that the remedies were as violent as the disease. Evidences of indebted- ness had been issued in great quantities, some for a small consideration and some for none at all. Yet all might claim to be regular on their face ; they passed from hand to hand like other securities ; the refusal to recognize any of them could be denounced as a violation of the national faith. Colbert was lit- tle disturbed by such considerations. He regarded the state as a minor, which could always avoid a con- tract made to its own detriment. He proceeded to revise the various issues of rentes, and the assign- ments of revenue, which constituted the national debt. Those that were wholly fraudulent in their inception he canceled ; the others were reduced to the amounts which the government had originally received upon them.i It was in vain that an outcry was raised against such measures by those who claimed that they had purchased these securities in good faith, and that they would be ruined by their repudiation. Dubois declared the government of France to be strong be- cause it could repudiate its debts at pleasure. Cer- ^ Full accounts of these measures can be found in Lettres et memoires de Colbert, a work in nine great volumes, containing the most important of Colbert's correspondence and official papers, and published by the French government under the su- perintendence of M. Clement, who devoted a large portion of his life to the study of Colbert's career. See, also, Forbonnais, Recherch.es sur les Finances. Clement's Histoire de Colbert, pub- lished in 1874, is founded upon his official correspondence, and is the most valuable work on the subject. In the Journal d'Or- messon can be found the complaints of those who were aggrieved by Colbert's measures, and this gives an interesting picture of the manner in which the minister was regarded at the time. See, also, Regtstres de V Hotel de Ville. COLBERT. 97 tainly it availed itself frequently of this prerogative. The measures of Colbert, though they may appear violeut, were necessary and justifiable. The rentes had been neither issued nor purchased as such securi- ties now are. Few sustained any more serious injury from their reduction than the loss of unconscionable profits which they had hoped to make. The credit of the state was so poor that its evidences of debt were purchased as one now deals in the bonds of Turkey, or of a bankrupt South American republic. There was the chance of a great profit, and purchasers felt neither surprised nor gTeatly aggrieved if they were disappointed in their hopes. As a result of such measures, the net receipts of the government were largely increased. In 1670, the gross receipts of the state were only 12,000,000 livres more than in 1661, but the net receipts had increased almost 40,000,000.^ These figures are the best justification of Colbert's measures. Boileau wrote of the pale rentier, who had just read the edict reducing his income by a quarter, but the inconvenience experienced by some was far more than counterbalanced by the relief given to the taxpayers.2 The cancellation of a large amount of securities issued in fraud and rarely held by hoiia fide purchasers was beneficial to the country at large, and by this result the policy of a statesman must be judged. It was with equal vigor that Colbert proceeded against another class, who had profited too largely at the expense of the government. A large proportion of the taxes imposed in France were let to contractors, farmers general, as they were called. They paid to ^ Forbonnais, i. 445. ^ Boileau, Satire, 3. 98 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. tlie state the amount of their bids, and then collected from taxpayers all that could be justified by the finan- cial edicts in force, and often much more. Such a system was vicious in its nature, and became more so in its operation. The farmers general were the rich- est class in the community. The splendor of their chateaux and the extravagance of their living were notorious. They drove the finest horses, drank the best champagne, and kept the most beautiful mis- tresses. A court was now organized to investigate the contracts made with the farmers of taxes during twenty-five years, and to compel the repayment to the state of whatever had been gained above a reasonable profit. Death was no protection, for the families were obliged to surrender a wealth that had been unjustly earned. Those who had dealt with the government were required to state the amount of their fortunes, and to show that these had been honestly acquired. If a financier was rich, it was regarded as conclusive evidence that he had made unjust gains at the expense of the state. Such legislation certainly savors of Turkish modes of procedure. Its justification was that the entire system of the collection of taxes in France was little better than that which is now prac- ticed by Turkish Beys in Asia Minor, or by the tax- gathers on the Upper Nile. The court proceeded with the vigor that was desired by the minister. Enormous fines were imposed on the wealthy finan- ciers. Some escaped from France, some died of fright at the prospect of losing their gains. At last a com- position was made. The various persons against whom proceedings were taken surrendered in the ag- gregate about 90,000,000 livres of evidences of debt against the government, and paid 20,000,000 in COLBERT. 99 money.^ We may safely assume that the securities surrendered by the offenders had cost them but a small percentage of their nominal value. It was characteristic of Colbert's conservatism that he suggested no change in a system which was es- sentially erroneous, and which was liable to constant abuse. With the exception of the taille, the sums to be realized from taxation continued to be sold to those whose interest was to pay the government as little as possible, and to collect from the people as much as possible.^ During his own administration, however, the farms were let to the best advantage. Forty mil- lion livres were realized in 1670 from the proceeds of taxes which in 1661 had yielded but 23,000,000, and this great gain was not attended by any considerable increase in the burdens imposed upon the taxpayers.^ On the other hand, Colbert gave constant attention to reducing the amount of the taille, the direct tax imposed upon the property of the mass of the com- munity, and he is entitled to the praise due the man who lightens the burdens of the poor.^ The result of such measures was a great improve- ment in the financial condition of the country. France was prosperous, and the sums which Colbert was able to furnish his master enabled him to display a magni- ficence and to support an army such as covdd. be main- 1 Mem. d' Ormesson, i. 400 et pas. Ormesson was a member of the Chamber of Justice. — Lettres de Colbert, t. i., ii. 2 There were some taxes besides the taille which were not farmed, but of comparatively small importance. " Forbonnais, t. i. * Mem. de Colbert au Roi: Lettres de Colbert, ii. 120. In 1657, the taille had .reached 53,000,000 livres, but it was less in 1001. At the close of Colbert's administration, it had been reduced to 35,000,000. 100 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. taiued by no other monarch. The war of 1672 com- pelled Colbert to resort again to loans, but the credit of the country under his administration was good. He borrowed during the war at from six to eight per cent, and at the close of it he funded the debt at five per cent. Holland was the only other European govern- ment which at that period could obtain money at such low rates. The ameliorations which Colbert effected in the financial condition of France, important and benefi- cial at the time, are of less interest now because the methods of taxation under the old regime have ceased to exist. On the other hand, his commercial system and its results can still furnish instruction. Similar questions arise at the present day. The policy of Colbert for fostering industry and increasing national wealth has had many advocates, both in his own country and in other lands. It demands, therefore, careful examination. France was naturally a rich country. Her soil was fertile, her people were industrious and thrifty. She had a large seacoast ; she possessed advantages of cli- mate and situation favorable for her development as a manufacturing and distributing centre. Her popu- lation was three times as large as that of England. With judicious systems of taxation, and an opportu- nity for the free development of enormous natural resources, France was sure to increase steadily in population, wealth, and happiness. This natural tendency Colbert sought to hasten by artificial means, and these endeavors are the most in- teresting part of his career. His name is identified with protective tariffs, and with paternal theories of government. The French have always shown them- COLBERT. 101 selves believers in the efficacy of public control of pri- vate enterprise. The views of Colbert long exerted a large influence in this direction, and they are not with- out weight, even in the greatly modified form in which such tendencies still exist in France. It is, however, a serious though a common error to suppose that he introduced any new elements into commercial legisla- tion. He was not the father of protectionism in France, any more than he was the first to insist on state regu- lation of the size of cloaks, or the quality of cloths. In fact, there was nothing novel in Colbert except his integrity and his efficiency. His zeal was new, his policy was old. He took the commercial theories of the past and enforced them with fresh vigor. Edicts, by which the entry of foreign goods had been re- stricted or prevented, form a part of the commercial history of the Middle Ages. They can claim the same sanction of antiquity as the edicts which forbade the shipment of gold, or prohibited undue luxury in dress. Import duties and the prohibition of importations can be found as far back as the seventh century ; they can be found wherever trade was sufficient to attract the attention of the government, and the facilities of trans- portation made it possible for one country to deal with another. Under Philip the Fair, the exportation of wool was forbidden at the request of the French man- ufacturers, that they might get their raw material more cheaply. Repeated edicts were promulgated by Francis I. and his successors, which forbade the im- portation of various classes of foreign goods. In 1572, imder Charles IX., an edict prohibited the importa- tion of linens, velvets, carpets, and many other articles, " that the subjects of the king may devote themselves more to such manufactures, and gain the profits which 102 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. are now made by foreigners." ^ Both the practice and the theory of a protective tariff appear in this ordi- nance. Enactments of this kind were frequent in France and elsewhere, thougli they were chai-aeterized by the irregularities of all medieval legislation, and were sporadic rather than systematic. Spain was es- pecially severe in her prohibition of foreign manufac- tures, and long continued constant to this policy. In fact, it may be said that any legislation or lack of legislation by which men are allowed to manufacture as they please, buy as they please, or sell as they please, is essentially modern. What is new is liberty, and what is old is restraint. The duties imposed on foreign goods during the early part of the seventeenth century were, on the whole, less in France than in Si)ain, England, and many other European countries. Sully had shown a tendency towards liberality in interstate commerce, and he endeavored, though without success, to agree with Queen Elizabeth upon a reciprocal reduction of the duties on English and French products. Riche- lieu and Mazarin were absorbed in foreign politics, and gave little attention to questions of duties or im- portations. The tariff on goods entering France was Jieavy on some articles and light on others ; but at the period of Mazarin's death, the duties were ad- justed rather with the view of obtaining the greatest amount of revenue than from any definite policy of protection. If Colbert was not the originator of protective the- ories in France, still less was he the creator of her manufacturing industries. Doubtless he did much to stimulate them, but the manufactures of France had ^ Anciennes lois fran^aises, xiv. 241. COLBERT. 103 been important before the Edwards began to assert their claims to the French throne. The cloths of J'rance were sold in the East in the days of the cru- saders. By the thirteenth century, the knives and leather of Rouen found a market from Scotland to Sicily. The cutlery and the jewelry of Languedoc were known over all of western Europe. Under Louis XL the manufacture of silk goods was estab- lished, and in the time of Richelieu forty thousand people in Touraine alone earned their livelihood by this industry. Many of the trades which furnish articles of luxury and of beauty reached a great de- velopment under Francis I. and Catherine de Medici. The influence of the Renaissance was felt in the artis- tic work of France almost as much as in that of Italy. Copper and bronze wares, furniture, plate, and pot- tery were made with a perfection which still excites admiration. Catherine established at Orleans manu- factures of carpets and of silk stockings. At Nimes fine serges were made, laces at Senlis, and morocco goods at La Rochelle. Under Henry IV. mulberry- trees for silkworms were planted extensively in south- ern France. Workmen came from Italy to assist in developing the manufacture of glass. Manufacto- ries were started of crapes, satins, laces, and dam- ask. The manufactories of paper in Angoumois were said to have been the largest in the world, until an injudicious impost checked their prosperity.^ In the early part of the seventeenth century, the industries of France, though insignificant if contrasted with those of to-t was of the character that we might expect. One man wrote a Latin poem of twelve hundred verses on the birth of the dauphin. A flood of poetry followed the king's recovery from a trifling illness, — among others, writes Chapelain, " a French ode by a young man named Racine," which was re-polished under Chapelain's advice, and the author received a pen- sion.^ " I have a Latin poem," he writes again, '■'• of over two hundred verses, very fine, and entirely filled with the praises of his Majesty." A history of the reign was prepared from the medals which had been struck of Louis's achievements. A copy was sent to the most important officials, with a circular stating that this was a book that every public man should always have in his hands, or on his table.^ Yet the rigor of the censorship was never more severe than at this era. The historian who dared to tell the truth ; the patriot who advanced any plan for public reformation which differed from the accepted policy ; the writer who expressed any views in politics, religion, or philosophy which were distasteful to the king, or who failed to bestow the proper amount of adulation, —received no pension : he had his book pub- lished anonymously in Holland, and was fortunate if he did not find himself in the Bastille for his pains. The intellectual torpor of tJie last twenty years of the reign was the natural result of such methods, and it is the best proof that literature was harmed more tlian helped by the patronage of Louis XIV. Indeed, this seems to have been fatal to the development of liter- ary or of military genius. Great generals and great 1 Chapelain to Colbert, June 23, 1663. ^ Circulaire du Comie de Pontchartrain, March 8, 1702. LOUIS THE GREAT. 147 writers were in their full vigor when Louis assumed power. Turenne and Conde were ready to fight his battles, Moliere and Racine were prepared to make his theatres famous. But the intellectual atmosphere ceased to be favorable for the growth of great men. Those whose characters had been formed under Riche- lieu and the Fronde died and left no successors. The last years of Louis's reign were as poor in literature as they were in military achievement. One could not give a just idea of the great king, in the period of his highest glory, without some ref- erence to the many and beautiful women who were the objects of his affection, whose varying favor was regarded at the court as the most important question of the day, and was not viewed with indifference even by foreign nations. Any great detail on this subject is, however, neither edifying, nor of advantage to pos- terity. In such matters Louis XIV. was not more nor less an offender than almost all kings of France, and most kings of every nation. He would be less subject to censure, if his role as a Lothario had not been ac- centuated by his career as a Diocletian. Royalty has often proved a formidable enemy to female virtue, and Louis was in every way fitted to please. Apart from the halo which encircled him as a king and a con- queror, his person was handsome and imposing. He expressed himself always with justness, and often with felicity. He was a master of that courteous deference to ladies which was the more agreeable when practiced by a great monarch. Such a man would have been a dangerous admirer though he had not been a sover- eign ; if he had not been the king, he would still have been the most elegant gentleman of the court. Louis's relations with his mistresses were attended 148 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. with the same publicity as the other actions of his life. Virtue was not paid the tribute of even the pretense of secrecy. The king's conduct was marked also by the same curious lack of appreciation of others' feel- ings that he always manifested. The queen was a woman of small intelligence, but she was not destitute of the natural feelings of a wife, and Louis regarded her, if not with affection, at least with friendliness. Yet, in the solemn processions through conquered towns, she was obliged to drive in the same carriage with La Valliere and Montespan, the two favorites at that period, and the public jested about the three queens. Louis XIV. was the last man to have of- fered an affront to his wife, or to have allowed it from others, but he was unconscious of the nature of his act. Mistresses as well as wife shared the glory of belonging to him ; the world was entitled to see thera, as it was entitled to see all the acts of the sun of royalty, from its rising to its going down. That there could be any feeling of bitterness, any sense that he had violated another's rights or outraged another's position, no more occurred to his mind than such an idea occurs to the Great Turk when he surveys his harem. The career of the woman, the widow of a comic poet of inferior position, who succeeded the descend- ant of Charles V. as wife of the most powerful king in Europe, excites more curiosity than that of dissolute beauties like Montespan and Fontanges. " Her posi- tion is unique in the world," wrote Mme. de Sevigne ; " no one ever has or ever will occupy another like it." ^ This is entirely true, and it is equally true that while the influence of Mme. de Maintenon in French 1 Lettres, vii. 287, LOUIS THE GREAT. 149 history has been grossly exaggerated, she was an im- portant factor in the latter years of Louis's reign. Her early life is well known. The daughter of a Huguenot gentleman of dissolute conduct and reduced fortune, she was married when a young girl to the jDoet Scarron. He surrounded her with companions of abundant wit and scanty morals, and left her a widow, young, charming, and poor. Her attractive manners gained her friends ; a few years later she was appointed governess to the bastard children of Mme. de Montespan by Louis XIV., and this humble position proved the foundation of her extraordinary fortune. As the result of the life she had led, we might expect to find a person vivacious and attrac- tive, but of fluctuating morals, and to whom it would seem the height of human felicity to be the mistress of a king. Mme. de Maintenon shows how far in- born character remains unaffected by its environ- ment. She had already espoused two religions ; she had seen the phases of poverty, need, and shift. As a child, she had tended the turkeys in her aunt's chicken yard.^ She had married an elderly cripple, because he offered to furnish her a home.^ She had been the friend of Ninon, the most famous of courte- sans ; she had been surrounded by men and women to whom religion was a tradition and virtue a jest. She now took charge of the fruits of what was justly stigmatized as a double adultery ; her patron was the mistress, and her protector was the lover. Yet no woman brought up in the retirement of a province, ^ Conseih aux Demoiselles, t. i. 98. 2 It is said that Scarron offered either to marry her or to provide for her in a convent. She chose marriage, though it was no more than a form. 150 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. and surrounded only by priests and social recluses, was ever more steadfast to the principles of religion and discreet conduct. No one ever realized more thor- ougldy that virtue is the best policy. No one was ever more resolved to run no risk of eternal damna- tion for the sake of transient pleasures. She believed the doctrine, and her conduct was consistent with her belief. She was fortunate enough to be lacking in human passion, and to be provided in the highest degree with good judgment and common sense. She could say with truth, "I was a good child, and by irreproachable conduct I attracted the praise of every one." ^ And therefore it was that, not only to her dear pupils at St. Cyr, but to all others, she became the model of the little girl who was always good, and was rewarded by having a great king come and marry her : of the woman who always said wise things and never did foolish ones, and who secured for herself the very best to be had in this world and the next. The character and influence of Mme. de Maintenon have been subjected to grave misconstruction, as the result of curious literary forgeries. An ingenious writer in the last century published what purported to be her correspondence, in which was contained much that she did write and much that she did not. By far the most interesting letters, those that seemed to throw light on great historical problems, to epitomize with felicity her own views and conduct, in her va- ried career, were the invention of an editor who wished to interest and amuse his public. The sentence so often quoted, " I sent him away always despondent and never despairing," is in one of tliese, and was no more uttered by the supposed author than was the still ^ Lettres e'difiantes, v. 926. LOUIS THE GREAT. 151 more famous saying constantly attributed to Louis XIV., "L'Etat, c'est moi." Critical examination shows us that a very large proportion of the famous remarks of great men were afterwards invented for them by little men. The penny-a-liner indites the apothegm which the monarch should have uttered.^ A century later, the forgeries of La Beaumelle have been exposed ; the character of Mme. de Maintenon becomes more commonplace, and we can see clearly what man- ner of person she was. ' We see a woman who gov- erned her steps, not with a deep and subtle policy, but with a judgment of uncommon clearness ; who was sin- cerely anxious for the king's salvation, and still more anxious for her own ; and to whom politics were of very much less interest than her relations with her confessor, or the progress of the school at St. Cyr. In assuming the charge of the king's illegitimate children, Mme. de Maintenon might seem to counte- nance the immoral life which he was leading, and she exposed herself to the perils of an existence spent in the midst of a licentious court. On the other hand, her position brought her into intimate relations with the king, and might prove of great worldly advan- tage ; she wished to retain it, and at the same time she wished to be safe. " I wish to insure my salvation," she wrote her confessor.^ But she felt sure of herself 1 These letters were published by La Beaumelle in 1752. The sagacity of Voltaire led him to doubt the authenticity of some of them, but they were generally accepted. The genuine letters of Mme. de Maintenon can be found in Lettres Jiistoriques et edi- Jiantes, Lettres sur V education des filles et Conseils aux demoiselles, 6 vols, in all ; Correspondance Generale, edited by Lavallde, 4 vols. Many are still unpublished, and she burned her corre- spondence with the king. 2 Correspondance Generale, i- 221, September 13, 1674. 152 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. even in the trying situation in which she was phiced. " I know that I can insure my salvation here," she wi'ote again, and, with the spiritual complacence that is often found in those whose conception of religion is as narrow as hers, she added : " 1 go to mass once al- ways, and twice on certain days ; I think often of God, and dedicate my actions to Him. ... I do not know my sins. I have good intentions and so I do little evil, and a desire to be esteemed puts me on my guard against my passions."^ She -charged her confessor with her salvation, and to him she appealed for con- stant direction. She wished to know whether she could without sin join the king in the repast he took at midnight on the close of fast days, and whether her stay at the court was involving her in any possible peril. 2 " Abandon yourself to your spiritual guide like a child," she wrote a friend ; " do blindly what he says, without reasoning ; that is the easiest and the safest way." ^ The easiest and the safest way was the one which she desired to follow. She remains an illustrious example of the great class who derive from the teachings of Christ nothing, save a desire to secure for themselves in the future an indefinite con- tinuance of agreeable existence- No one could remain in the midst of the intrigues and gallantries of the court of Louis XIV. without giving some attention to earthly interests. The posi- tion of Mme. de Maintenon seemed at first an obscure ^ Maintenon to Abbd Gobelin, January 8, 1680. It is just to say that she accused herself later in the letter of being worldly- minded, and too free in her judgments ; of wicked thoughts, though not of wicked deeds. ^ Correspondance Generale, i. 207 et passim. 8 lb., iii. 106. LOUIS THE GREAT. 153 one, but she soon became a personage who could not be lightly disregarded. Mme. de Montespan com- bined great beauty and much wit with a violent dispo- sition, and she did not always spare her royal lover. On the other hand, Mme. de Maintenon's even dispo- sition, her good judgment, and the remarkable charm of her conversation gradually attracted the king's at- tention. He was not a brilliant talker himself, but he could appreciate agreeable conversation. He found in Mme. de Maintenon a woman who always entertained him, and never annoyed him. She was three years older than he, but she was still attractive physically. We have no need of apocryphal letters to make us sure that Louis desired her for his mistress, and that she was steadfast in her refusal to occupy that position. Instead of that, she undertook her great project of the king's refoT-mation, that his life might no longer be a public scandal, and his eternal safety no longer be endangered. It is impossible that she could have dreamed of becoming Louis's wife as the result of such efforts. The queen was in good health, and bade fair to live as long as her husband, and even were she to die, the idea that Louis XIV. would wed one of his own subjects, and one of comparatively low degree, would have been regarded as the hallucination of a diseased mind. She probably hoped that with a reformed king she could enjoy a permanent favor that would be con- sistent with good morals, and moreover she had a natural taste for conversions. Later in life she un- dertook the conversion of relatives and Huguenots from love of the work ; and to lead a great king back to the paths of virtue seemed to her an enterprise worthy of the loftiest Christian zeal. Bossuet was 154 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. eno-ao-ecl in the same endeavor, and with manly bold- ness he reproved the king for his immoral life. Louis was a good Catholic, a timorous Christian, and by no means a hardened sinner. As a result of such exhor- tations, the king resolved to renounce his evil ways, and amid tears and sobs he bade a solemn farewell to Mme. de Montespan. The favorite was furious at Bossuet. She offered bribes and she shed tears, but neither availed. She was still more indignant at the woman whom she had brought into intimate relations with the king, and who now used the influence she had o-ained for her benefactor's overthrow. It was in vain that Mme. de Maintenon declared that she was act- ing in the way to secure her friend's real happiness, both in this world and the next. Mme. de Montespan was a type of the ordinary royal favorite, greedy, in- triguing, and ambitious, and tranquillity and a quiet conscience were not what she understood by happiness. The king himself proved a backslider. He was again ensnared by the charmer, and the only apparent re- sults of the efforts for his reformation were that a few years later he had three mistresses instead of one. Notwithstanding this ill success, Mme. de Mainte- non retained her favor, and continued to work at the task which she had undertaken. Her early life had taught her the exceeding discomfort of scanty means. She now secured herself against any danger of such evils in the future. The king gave her the property of Maintenon ; she discarded the plebeian name of Scarron, and took from her new estate the title by which she is known to history. Her efforts for the reformation of the king, after years of disappoint- ment, were at last crowned with victory. Louis was becoming older, his religious instincts grew stronger LOUIS THE GREAT. 155 with years, he was devoting his energies to a great effort for the extirpation of Protestantism within his dominions, and his irregular life appeared the more unseemly in one who was loudly proclaimed as a champion of the faith. Mme. de Montespan was again discarded. The other mistresses were abandoned, Louis became an exemplary husband, and Mme. de Maintenon held her position as a virtuous favorite and a Christian adviser. In July, 1683, the queen suddenly sickened and died. The relations of ten years had strengthened Mme. de Maintenon's hold upon the king's respect, and upon his affection. She had refused to be his mistress, and he now offered to make her his wife. The marriage was undoubtedly decided upon within a very few weeks after the queen's death. It was not often that Mme. de Maintenon's caution allowed any indiscreet remark to go on paper, but in September she wrote her confesssor, " I have need of strength to make a good use of my happiness." ^ In the eaiiy part of 1684, Louis XIV. was pri- vately married to Mme. de Maintenon, at midnight, in the presence of a few witnesses bound to secrecy. He was then forty-five and she was forty-eight. The mar- riage was never publicly acknowledged, but it was generally known that such a relation existed between the parties. At state ceremonials, Mme de Mainte- non assumed only the rank to which she was nominally entitled, but in private, in her relations with the king, with his family, and with all others, her actual position was really, if not formally, acknowledged. She was the uncrowned queen. Only an extraordinary woman could have tempted 1 Mine, de Maintenon to Gobelin, September 20, 1683. 156 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. a man like Louis XIV. to contract a misalliance. It is still stronger proof of her qualities that the attach- ment, which she had thus aroused, never weakened. For thirty years she was Louis XIV. 's wife. Dur- ing all that time he continued a devoted husband, and he never repented of his act. She was always able to amuse him, she never sought to push her influence too far, her conversation never became wearisome, her advice never became distasteful. When her own po- sition is considered, and the man with whom she had to deal, such a result shows a rare combination of tact, judgment, intelligence, and the power to please. Her influence on Louis's character was very consid- erable. Had it not been for Mme. de Maintenon, his licentious tastes would probably have continued their course until his advancing years might have been as in- decent as those of his successor. It was due to her that the king's old age was dignified and seemly. Prob- ably, however, it would have been better for France if the latter years of Louis XIV. had been devoted to Barrys and Pompadours instead of to piety and persecution. The political influence of Mme. de Maintenon was considerable, but it has been much exaggerated. She took an active interest in church affairs and in the selection of bishops, but she was not the woman to instigate the king to any novel policy, either of intol- erance or of ambition. She cared more about St. Cyr than she did about the Edict of Nantes or the Spanish Succession. She was called upon to give an opinion on both of those great questions ; on both of them she advised wrong, but she advised as the king desirefl. In her efforts to reform Louis's conduct she appealed to his religious instincts, and unfortunately LOUIS THE GREAT. 157 the king's return to religion was accompanied by an increasing zeal for persecution. It is in this way only that Mme. de Maintenon can be regaixled as largely responsible for the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. She approved the act, and so did almost every Catholic in France, until experience had shown its disastrous results. She believed that those who died Huguenots were sure to be eternally punislied. She was honest in her conviction, and it was natural and even praise- worthy that she should endeavor to save whom she could from such a fate. She was narrow in her faith, but she was sincere. Mme. de Maintenon often wearied of the cares and trials of her great position, but she never wearied of the school of St. Cyr. Instituted by her to furnish an education for girls of good families but small means, — the class to which she had herself belonged, — she devoted to it a constant and a judicious supervi- sion. The school became fashionable, and attracted the attention of the court. Racine wrote jjlays to be there acted ; the characters were taken b}^ the pupils, and excited more interest than any performance by the actors of the king's troupe. Mme. de Maintenon saw danger for the pupils from such publicity, and checked it. She was indeed an admirable directress, combining experience, judgment, and love for the work. So long as St. Cyr remained a school for girls, she continued its patron saint. The pupils were taught to regard her as the greatest and wisest of women. Her precepts were instilled into their minds ; they studied her letters of advice as rever- ently as their books of devotion. To have doubted the wisdom of any precept which she had inculcated would have been like questioning the doctrines of 158 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. the church. A century later, a visitor observed at St. Cyr what would have best pleased the foundress, — angelic purity combined with Prussian discipline. Never in modern times did the veneration and the love for a king approach so nearly to a form of wor- ship as in the reign of Louis XIV. It was the re- ligion of royalty. During the defeats and the misery of the war of the Spanish Succession, the monarch became odious to his subjects. He was an old man. The time comes with most great actors in public life when the world wearies of them, and so it was with him. But during the long years of his success and of his splendor, he was regarded with admiration and with affection by the most of his subjects, as well as by those who immediately surrounded him. The in- stinct of royalty was still strong in the French mind. The splendor of the reign was gratifying to the na- tional pride. Louis believed that the rule of an abso- lute king was the best form of government, as sincerely as he believed in the doctrine of transubstantiation, and that also was the political creed of his people.^ We may well include this reign within the period which led up to the Revolution, but as yet the feeling of reverence for the kingly office existed in unabated force. The doctrine of divine right found none to question it. The king was anointed with the sacred oil brought from heaven by a dove ; he still touched the afflicted, and the divine grace imparted to him had the power to cure human ills. When Louis's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, was born, the peo- ple wei'e wild with joy. Bonfires blazed everywhere ; in all the streets tables were set with meat and wine ; passers-by were forced to stop and partake. In their 1 Q^uvres de Louis XIV., i. 59. LOUIS THE GREAT. 169 delirium the courtiers even embraced the king, and he allowed such a familiarity amid the tumult of joy and excitement.^ As a mark of veneration for the great sovereign, statues were raised to him in almost every important city of France. The inscription on the statue at Poi- tiers declared Louis the Great to be the arbiter of war and peace, an immortal hero, the joy of the world. When the statue was unveiled, the orator explained the difference between the service due to God and to the king, and said that, though Louis the Great did not possess all the infinite perfections which pertained to the Creator alone, yet he had those qualities which most closely approached divinity, and which made him on earth its image and representative.^ The oration was read by the king with approval, and he rewarded its author by appointing him an academician.^ When the statue of Louis the Great was dedicated in the Place des Victoires at Paris, the governor of the city and the civic bodies marched about it with solemn prostrations, as was done before the statues of the deified emperors of Rome. Nothing was wanting, says a contemporary, but the incense and the sacri- fices. The Duke of La Feuillade craved the privilege of burial directly under the image of his master, and even contemplated having lamps about it, which, like those in consecrated shrines, should burn night and day in token of perpetual adoration.* Another con- temporary tells us that when certain persons passed through Louis's bed-chamber they made a deep obei- ^ Mem. de Choivj, 594 ; Mem. de Sourches, i. 134. 2 Relation de ce qui s'est passe, etc., August, 1687. 8 Mem. de Foucault, Introduction, 39. * Mem. de Choisy, 602 ; Mem. de St. Simoti, ii. 216. 160 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. sauce to the couch on which the monarch reposed at night. It was not unnatural that, surrounded by such perpetual incense, the king should feel that he was far removed from the ordinary lot of humanity. It was partly from this cause that Louis, who was a courteous man, so often seemed unfeeling in reference to others. The ladies of the court, and the mem- bers of his family, were obliged to follow him in weari- some journeys, no matter how wretched, or even how critical, might be their condition of health. He would enter the chamber of Mme. de Maintenon, who often suffered from fever or from headache, and who had the genuine French fear of a draught of air : at once the windows were thrown open, the musicians would play, the tumult of the court would begin.^ Louis himself had perfect health. He did not intend to cause discomfort to the feelings of those around him, but he grew egoistical until he forgot that they had any feelings. The same failure to appreciate the world about him, or in any way to put himself in the position of others, led to some of his gravest political mistakes. He could not realize that affronted and despoiled na- tions would at last combine against him. He could not understand that a million of his subjects would not at his command abandon the beliefs of their an- cestors, and commit their salvation to the Pope, whom their creed stigmatized as the Antichrist. With Louis XIV. as with Napoleon, egoism became a disease, and brought its own punishment. 1 Etat de la France en 1G97. This usage is also given by that worshiper of etiquette under Louis XV., the Duke of Luynes. — Mem., ii. 290. " Mem. de St. Simon, xii. 132. LOUIS THE GREAT. 161 The character of the sovereign, who is no longer called Louis the Great, seems trivial and common- place when we compare him with a Cromwell or a Lincoln. Yet though the king had a nari-ow mind, a limited intelligence, and an excessive vanity, he still deserves our attention and our praise. If Louis does not rank high intellectually, he was a master of conduct, of the art which regulates the external rela- tions of men. It is a phase of life too little valued in modern existence, but the good manners of which Louis XIV. gave an example to the world have their influence upon a man's character, as well as upon his genuflections. The king was courteous to all his fel- low-men, no matter of what degree. If he claimed the deference that was his due, he was equally careful to give to others the courtesy that was their due. He paid to women the respect which is justly claimed as a proof of the advance which Western civilization has made over that of the East. Even the humblest female servant, when she met the king of France, re- ceived from him some mark of courteous recognition.^ Louis was far removed from the vulgar and indolent voluptuaries who have so often fiUed an inherited throne. All his life he worked regularly and consci- entiously. His judgment was not always accurate, but he exercised it according to such measure of light as he had. He had an elevated conception of the office which he held, and he endeavored to live up to his ideal. He attached perhaps an undue importance to external parade, but he regarded this as a respon- sibility as well as a pleasure. Once he was obliged to undergo a severe, and even a dangerous, operation. ^ Mem. de la Duchesse d* Orleans, i. 39 ; Mem. de St. Simon, xii. 75. 162 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Every day, no matter what inconvenience or pain it cost him, he had his regular audiences, and the life of the court went on around him as usual. " We are not private persons," he said ; " we owe ourselves to the public." ^ If kings were raised far above ordinary hu- manity, they must show their superiority by indiffer- ence to the common ills and disappointments of men. He knew how injurious was a slighting Avord when it fell from royal lips, and he rarely uttered one. He praised with a delicate grace ; he did not often reprove, and when he did, it was with dignity and re- straint. If, in his diplomatic relations, his faith was kept to the ear rather than to the sense, in his private life, when he gave his word he kept it. He rarely promised anything, but when a subject had once re- ceived the king's engagement he need disquiet him- self no more. He disliked ill-mannered tricks ; he disliked low amusements; he never lost his temper. He sought to give pleasure to all whom he met, and he was scrupulous not to cause pain or mortification, either by ill-nature or by inadvertence. He justly deserved to be called a gentleman. If we consider the kingly office in its external qualities, in all that appeals to the popular imagina- tion, that excites deference, that gratifies the taste for splendor and jiomp, — and we should sadly misjudge human nature if we thought these things of small importance, — no man on the world's stage has better played the part of the king. The dignity of such a life strengthens the character. The latter years of Louis's reign were full of disaster. His armies were unsuccessful ; he was compelled to beg peace from enemies whom he had despised. He ^ Mem. de Sourches, i. 464. LOUIS THE GREAT. 163 was mortified in liis pride and wounded in his affec- tions. He bore himself with fortitude ; he accepted what was inevitable ; he resisted manfully, so far as resistance was possible. Washington at Valley Forge was not a more illustrious example of the manner in which adversity should be faced. A great man Louis XIV. certainly was not, but we may justly call him a great king. CHAPTER VI. THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. 1685. The reign of Louis XIV. is memorable for re- lio-ious enterprises which seem inconsistent in their nature. It witnessed a systematic and long-continued oppression of the members of a faith which, for almost a century, had been protected by the law of the land. At the same time Louis was involved in constant controversy with the Holy See, and was more hated at Rome than any French king since Philip the Fair. It might seem that a monarch who persecuted his subjects for not acknowledging the papal authority, and himself refused obedience to the Holy Father, was probably a bigot from policy and an innovator from inclination. Such was not the fact. Louis was not one of those who have just religion enough to persecute. He was led on to his fatal policy towards his Protestant subjects by the combined influence of a narrow faith, a dull mind, and a stubborn perti- nacity. The history of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes is a record of folly interspersed with cruelty. The lamentable failure of the effort to destroy dissent was at last acknowledged, even by those who had advised it. It injured France without extirpating heresy. The growth of the Huguenot party in France led REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 165 to the civil wars of the sixteenth century. The ad- herents of the new faith increased rapidly in numbers ; their creed was espoused by many of the most power- ful nobles, until it seemed possible that Calvinism might become the dominant religion of the state, or at least might establish itself on terms of equality with the Catholic Church. But the mass of the population remained constant to the belief of their ancestors. The result of the civil wars was, on the whole, unfa- vorable to the Huguenots. Their position was weak- ened, also, by the massacre of St. Bartholomew. That butchery is now condemned by those of every creed ; indirectly it injured more than it helped the church on whose behalf it was undertaken. Yet the massacre fulfilled the purpose of its instigators : it dealt to the Hug-uenot party a blow from which they never en- tirely recovered. Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot by birth, became heir to the French crown. It was impossible, how- ever, for him to become the king- of France, with a recognized and peaceable title, unless he professed the Catholic faith. He attached slight importance to the distinctions between different beliefs, and it cost him little to abjure the Huguenot creed. It was the act of a statesman, and by it he secured peace and pros- perity for his subjects, whether Catholic or Calvin- ist. While Henry yielded allegiance to the Pope, he was resolved to obtain all reasonable toleration for the associates of his early years, whose blood had been freely shed in his behalf. In 1598, he issued the famous Edict of Nantes. By this the Huguenots of France were placed in a position which, if it did not content the ambition of their leadei's, was satisfac- tory to all who had been contending for freedom of IGG FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. conscience and liberty to worship God. They were allowed the exercise o£ their religion in the places where it was, as matter of fact, established ; they were eligible for any office ; they enjoyed the same political rights as Catholics ; courts composed of members of both creeds were established for the de- cision of disputes between those of different faiths. In no other country of Europe was such a measure of toleration extended to those who refused to adopt the religion of the state. It went beyond the desires of the Catholic party in France, and would only have been granted by a sovereign who, like Henry IV., was destitute of strong beliefs, and was more interested in secular than in religious politics. The Parliament of Paris was composed of magistrates of the highest rank, and fairly represented the educated and con- servative classes. This body refused to register the edict, and ceased its resistance only upon the repeated orders of the king. The death of Henry IV. was followed by new troubles for the Protestant party, but the responsi- bility of these must rest upon their own leaders. Later in the century, the Huguenots were treated by Louis XIV. with gross injustice, but the policy of liichelieu towards them strengthened France, without oppressing religion. Our sympathy for them when the victims of bigotry should not blind our judg- ment upon their conduct, when it was governed by ambition instead of by piety. During the long years of civil war, the Huguenots had been driven to adopt some form of organization as a protection against their enemies. The need for such an organization no longer existed. By the Edict of Nantes they had secured the right to worship God in peace according REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 167 to their own consciences. Having obtained tliis, they no longer required captains and armies for their pro- tection, nor was there any reason why they shouhl endeavor to become a distinct military and political body in the state. During the early part of the seventeenth century, however, the Huguenots con- tinued to occupy a position for which there was no longer a justification. They divided the territory, where their members were numerous, into military departments, under the command of influential noble- men. Their general assembly assumed to declare war upon the government, and to levy taxes upon the faithful for its prosecution. The Huguenots allowed themselves to become the tools of ambitious leaders ; to take part in insurrections that had no excuse but disappointed ambition, and no object but personal advancement. Richelieu resolved to destroy their po- litical organization, and in this endeavor he acted in the true interest both of the French monarchy and of the Protestants themselves. He was successful in his attempt. The capture of La Rochelle marked the end of the Huguenot party as a disturbing element in France. To use a modern expression, they retired from politics. They mingled with the rest of the com- munity as citizens, entitled to the same privileges and subject to the same laws.^ While Richelieu laid low the walls of their for- tified towns and dissolved their circles and military organizations, he did not in the least restrict their religious privileges. He was a sincere Catholic, and would have been glad to lead the erring sheep into ^ For a fuller statement of the position of the Hii(:fnenot party at this time, I would refer to France under Richelieu and Mazarin, i. 83 et seq. 168 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. the one fold, but he was too sagacious a statesman to weaken France by a policy of persecution. The Huguenots now entered upon a period of tran- quillity and prosperity. Practically they were undis- turbed in the profession of their faith. Doubtless they were often subjected to petty annoyances, and some- times to injustice. The great majority of the people were Catholics, and religious toleration had not en- tered into the habits or the convictions of the age. But on the whole, the Edict of Nantes was fairly car- ried out. The Huguenots possessed the industry and the intelligence which usually accompany good morals ; they were thrifty and prosperous. On Sundays they attended their temples without fear of disturbance, joined in singing the psalms which were dear to them, and listened with pleasure to the discourses of ministers who were renowned for their ability and their prolixity. On week days they added to their worldly estates with reasonable success. They had no cause to be dissatis- fied with the government, and they were entirely loyal to it. During the wars of the Fronde, ambitious no- blemen endeavored to induce the Huguenots to take up arms, but they piped to them in vain. The Prot- estants were contented, and they remained peaceful. Mazarin regarded a Huguenot and a Catholic with equal favor. The cardinal was a statesman and not a priest, and he was imbued with the tolerant princi- ples of modern days. Perhaps it was because, like Henry IV., he was not a man of strong beliefs. Huguenot generals led armies to victory during his administration ; Huguenots filled important positions in the finances. He recognized the steady allegiance of the party during the disturbances of the Fronde, and he rewarded it with favor. " The little flock feeds REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 169 on poisonous herbs," he said, " but it does not wander from the fold." Such was the condition of the Protestant party in France when Mazarin died and Louis XIV. assumed power. Different theories have been advanced as to the conduct and the purposes of that monarch. It has been claimed, on the one hand, that he early re- solved upon a policy of persecution, and that long- years were occupied in systematic preparation for the overthrow of heresy. On the other hand, Louis has been repi-esented as tolerant, or at least indifferent, in his early years, and to the evil influence of Mme. de Maintenon, assisted by .Jesuit confessors, have been ascribed the barbarities of the dragonnades and the evils of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Nei- ther of these views is correct. Louis was naturally a bigoted Catholic ; his mind was narrow, and any conception of religious toleration was outside of his mental grasp. Hardly had he assumed power when he resolved to restrict the privileges of the Huguenots in every way in which it could legally be done. All temples that were not authorized by the terms of the edict were to be destroyed ; no Protestant could hope for promotion in the councils or the armies of Louis XIV.^ Unfortunately, when one is resolved to attack a distasteful minority by all legal means, the endeavor is sure to lead in time to the adoption of illegal means. AVhile Louis wished to draw his Huguenot subjects from the errors of their waj's, he intended that they should have the benefit of the laws which already ex- isted in their behalf. Even when the era of perse- cution had fairly begun, the king disapproved of the ^ See this policy stated, Instructions aux Ambassadeurs, Rome, vi. 108, April 17, 1002. 170 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. violent measures which his agents adopted in the work of persuasion, and to a large extent he remained in io-norance of the brutality and oppression by which soldiers, priests, and officials sought to swell the list of conversions. It is creditable to his character that he opposed such measures, though it does not speak well for his intelligence that he was deceived as to their existence. In the early part of his reign, Louis prepared what may be called a manual of royalty for the use of his son. In this he has stated the views which he then held as to the treatment of his Protest- ant subjects. He declared the existence of the sect a calamity which he regretted, that he was resolved to grant them no favor, and to hold them to the letter of the law. " But those who wish to employ violence," he writes, " do not understand the nature of the evil." ^ In 1663, he wrote to Charles II. remonstrating against the severities which the English Parliament sought to inflict upon Catholics, and appealing to the modera- tion with which Huguenots were treated in France.^ Three years later, we find a letter in which the king declares that his Protestant subjects were as faithful to him as any others, and should receive equal consid- eration.^ Notwithstanding these professions, which were rea- sonably sincere, Louis already hoped that victories over heresy might be added to his other triumphs. Twenty- one years before the revocation of the edict, the French minister at Vienna declared that his master was most eager to extirpate dissent, and that, if his reign con- tinued to be successful, in a few years heresy would 1 (Euvres de Louis XIV., i. 84-89. 2 Louis to Charles II., April 4, 1663. 3 Louis to Duke of Saint Aiguan, April 1, 1666. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 171 be extinct in France.^ Such a statement received no disavowal, and it expressed the hopes which Louis already entertained. Still he desired that the great work should be accomplished without violence, and that the Huguenots should be converted and not persecuted. A king who was thus disposed was encouraged and incited by his clergy. The two cardinals who had ruled France for almost forty years had given little heed to ecclesiastical counsels, but Louis listened will- ingly to religious advisers, and was inclined to conform to their requests. He was a man who could be easily influenced, and the advice which he received from the clergy was peculiarly adapted to operate upon his mind. Every five years the Gallican Church held a general assembly, and from 1660 to 1685 each assembly de- manded further restrictions upon the Protestants, un- til at last there was nothing left to ask. The revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes has been declared the work of Jesuit confessors. It is doubtful if Pere la Chaise gave the measure any more hearty approval than did Bossuet and Flechier. The Gallican clergy deserve no special condemnation for their action ; they must be judged by the era in which they lived. Tol- eration was almost unknown outside of France. It was not only Catholic countries, like Spain and Aus- tria, which had extirpated heresy, and would have undertaken the task again if there had been occasion for it ; the cause of tolerance fared little better in tlie most enlio-htened of Protestant nations. When Louis XIV. in 1672 demanded the free exercise of the Cath- olic religion in Holland, this request excited deeper 1 Gr^monville to king, December 18, 1664. 172 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. iiulignatioii among- the Dutch than his endeavors to rob them of their provinces and deprive them of their commerce. In England, not only the Catholics but Protestant dissenters were subjected to injustice, of which the end has hardly been reached two hundred years later. As late as 1696 a man was hanged in Edinburgh for heresy.^ Notwithstanding the mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew and the dragonnades, the history of religious freedom in France compares favor- ably with that of any other European nation. In the march of toleration France has often been in the van, and has rarely been far in the rear. From about 1675 we find a noticeable Increase of activity in the endeavors to lead, or to drive, the Huguenots into the fold of St. Peter. The king be- gan a systematic restriction of the privileges which they enjoyed. Complaints were made that temples had been erected in places not authorized by the edicts ; a commission was appointed to investigate these charges, and its decisions, with rare exceptions, were unfavorable to the Protestants. Louis became more strict in his orthodoxy as he grew older. The endeavors of Bossuet and Mme. de Maintenon for his conversion stimulated his interest in religious ques- tions. In 1678, the treaty of Nimeguen was signed. An almost unbroken peace of ten years followed, and this respite from foreign complications afforded the opportunity for undisturbed religious persecution. It is clear that by this time Louis had formed the defi- nite purpose of extii-pating dissent in his kingdom. He was led on alike by piety and by ambition. Doubtless he believed that . he was serving God in this great undertaking, but he was also accomplishing ^ Lea, History of the Inquisition, i. 354. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 173 what wovilcl add to his own eternal renown. He had concjuered foreign kings, and now he would beat down foreign gods. Posterity should see that the forces of heresy yielded to the arms of Louis the Great.^ It was soon discovered that the favor of the king- could be secured by converting heretics in Languedoc as well as by winning battles in the Lowlands, and Louis found his servants only too zealous in carrying out his desires. The most of the Huguenot nobility had already de- serted the faith of their ancestors. The loss of royal favor if they continued constant to their religion, and promotion and pensions if they abandoned it, were the means by which their conversion had been ef- fected. The Marshal of Turenne, the greatest soldier of the age, at last followed the examples which had been set by Condes and Colignis, and at the mature age of fifty-seven renounced the errors of Calvinism. The Huguenot party once contained a considerable proportion of the greatest families in France. It lost them all. Two centuries later the French nobility is still noted for its stanch allegiance to the Catholic Church. The humbler members remained more constant to their faith. They were, indeed, less exposed to tempta- tion. A duke or a viscount might be allured by a mar- shal's baton, or by the collar of the Order of the Holy Ghost, but such bribes were not offered to a silk weaver of Tours, or to a wine merchant of Bordeaux. Nor had they been much disturbed by efforts for their enlightenment. Zealous members of the Catholic ' Expressions sneh as these can be fonnd in innumerable eulo- gies and pamphlets of the period. The praise that pleuses re- veals the motives of the actor. 174 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. clergy had occasionally souglit to rescue a soul in danger of perdition, but no organized attempt had been made for the conversion of the Huguenots. Under the auspices of Louis himself, a systematic endeavor was now made to lead the entire body of French Protestants into the Church of Rome. Per- suasion and money were the agencies which were first relied upon. A fund was set apart for the conversion of heretics, and was dispensed by bishops and officials in religious bribery. The sums paid for converts were small. The average current rate was about six francs. Pellisson wrote that he would not forbid the payment of one hundred francs, but if such an amount was given freely it would unduly increase the market price.-^ The persons who were thus induced to pi'ofess themselves Catholics were naturally very questionable converts. Some claimed to be Calvinists, only that they might receive a few francs for changing their faith. Others saw an opportunity for gaining a little money, and were ignorant or careless as to the act for which they received it. Whether genuine or fictitious, many renunciations were reported at Paris, and they stimulated the king to persevere in the task which he had undertaken. Other inducements were offered to those who were willing to recant. Ministers who abandoned their religion were given pensions. The new converts, as they were styled, were exempted from the taille, and from hav- ing soldiers quartered in their houses. But it was soon urged that, if it was well to offer inducements to those who docilely submitted to the desire of their ruler for their conversion, it was also desirable that penalties should be imposed on the obstinate who 1 Me'moire de Pellisson, June 12, 1677. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 175 refused to profess the true faith. If a Huguenot ar- tisan had renounced the error of his ways, and was entitled to have his taxes reduced, and to be freed from the annoyance of soldiers living in his family, was it not both just and expedient that his more obstinate companion in heresy should pay a double tax, and should have soldiers billeted upon him until he saw the fallacies of Calvinism? Thus the pay- ment of rewards for conversions led to a system of penalties for those who would not be converted. Al- most every bishop and superintendent sent to Paris a suggestion for some new edict, by which the con- dition of those who continued Husruenots could be made more miserable, and hardly any suggestion was declined. The five or six years which preceded the revocation were filled with a mass of incoherent and confused legislation, directed against the Protestants in France. They could not hold any public offices ; they could no longer pursue the profession of an ad- vocate or a doctor; their schools were closed; they were excluded from many trades ; they could not be apothecaries. The women could not act as midwives, lest, through their godless indifference, some new-born babe should die unbaptized, and thus incur eternal damnation.! A measure more odious than any of these declared that children seven years of age were competent to decide upon their religious creed.^ An infant of seven or eight, that could comprehend reli- gious questions no more than it could the squaring of the circle, was induced to utter some word, to sign some paper, which expressed a belief in Catholicism. 1 Declarations, February 20, 1680 ; June 15, 1682 ; July 11, 1685; August 0,-1685, etc. 2 Declaration, June 17, 1681. 176 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Forthwith it was declared to be converted. It might be taken away from the home of its heretical parents. They must pay for its support, though deprived of the charge of its spiritual and physical welfare. No law could be devised which should furnish occasion for more odious interference, should cause more heart- breaking separations. It enabled the crafty priest, the zealous proselyter, to carry misery into almost every Protestant household in France. The example set by Mme. de Maintenon illustrates the methods practiced by those eager for the work. Her cousin still remained a Huguenot, and refused to allow his children to be educated as Catholics. Thereupon he was ordered to sea on a cruise, and in his absence Mme. de Maintenon seized the children, and had them placed in Catholic schools. The father returned to pour out his wrath on his kinswoman, but it was in vain. She had obtained the prey, and she declined to relinquish it. She had stolen in the name of the Lord ; she had fraudulently rescued the children from the clutches of the enemy, and she would not surren- der them to a heretic. It is unnecessary to say that they were soon induced to profess themselves Catholics. The daughter, who was then nine years old, has told us the story of her conversion. She was pleased with the music in the royal chapel, and she agreed to become a Catholic if she were allowed to hear it daily, and guaranteed against any more wdiippings.^ By such ar- guments children were made Catholics ; and when the infantile profession had once been made, the severest penalties were imposed upon parents who interfered with the belief which their offspring had adopted. ^ Souvenirs de Mine, de Cm/lus, 478, 479, ed. Michaud ; Corre- spondance Generale de Mme. de Maintenon, ii. 157 el pas. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 177 The most odious oppression, and that which has most impressed posterity, grew out of the billeting of soldiers upon Protestant families. In the thing itself there was nothing new. It was an indirect mode of taxation, to which a large proportion of the people had long been subjected. When the soldiers were stationed in any district in France, they might law- fully be quartered upon the pojDulation, and the sol- dier had the right, in the house to which he was ' as- signed, to dishes upon which to eat, a bed, a seat by the fire, and a place by the candle.^ Such an institution was liable to abuse, even when the strictest injunctions for good order were imposed upon the soldiers. It was easy to see what misery they could inflict, when they understood that their duty was to convert their hosts by making life dis- agreeable for them. To Marillac, superintendent of Poitiers, belongs the gloomy distinction of having first used the soldiers as a means of conversion ; upon Louvois, the minister of war, rests the responsibility of having allowed it. In 1681, a regiment of dragoons was sent into Poitou to be quartered upon the Hu- guenots who had refused to be converted, and from them the ill-omened name of the dragonnades had its origin. The superintendent was ordered to see that the dragoons committed no disorders in the houses where they were stationed ; and as complaints of their conduct reached Versailles, vigorous remonstrances were sent to Marillac.^ They were unheeded, as simi- lar remonstrances were unheeded during the years that followed. The local officers were fierce in their /eal, and apprehended nothing worse than mild cen- ^ Reglement, November 12, 1661. 2 Louvois to Marillac, March 18, May 7, August 23, 1681. 178 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. sure if they sinned from excess of fervor in the good work. They knew that the king was pleased when lono- lists of conversions were sent to him, and, if he was over-nice as to the means employed, they did not feel bound to respect his scruples. Who wishes the end wishes the means, was the motto adopted by the agents of the government. It needed no great saga- city to see that when an ignorant and brutal soldiery were quartered upon those whom they regarded as obstinate heretics, with the avowed object of driving them to abandon their faith, they would regard any excesses not only as venial, but as praiseworthy. The efforts of Marillac produced many converts, but nevertheless the government ceased for a while the use of the instrument of conversion upon which he had relied. Louis was annoyed because frequent com- plaints came to him of the cruelties perpetrated by the soldiers ; the reports of their sufferings, which the Huguenots carried all over Europe, excited an out- cry that was unwelcome at Versailles. This lull in persecution was followed by a fiercer outburst. En- couraged by the appearance of greater lenity, some of the Protestants undertook to rebuild churches that had been destroyed, and in places there were trifling dis- turbances. It was absurd for the ministers of Louis XIV. to claim that there was any danger of serious resistance from the Huguenots. The authority of the king was firmly established, and the Protestants had neither the power nor the inclination to resist the measures which the government adopted. Yet the least trace of insubordination, when their churches were burned, their meetings dispersed, or their wives insulted, was treated as rebellion against the king. The charge of the measures against the Protestants REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 179 was assumed by Louvois, and he proceeded with as little mercy as when he gave the Palatinate over to fire and pillage. I^ouis was always irritated by any resistance to his wishes, and the delay of the Hugue- nots in doing what he desired hardened his heart against them. He was urged on by confessors, bishops, and ministers to the gTcat work of conversion. In 1683, the persecution of the Huguenots was again in fuU blast, and it was not relaxed until the Edict of Nantes had been revoked, and the public observance of the Huguenot faith had been forbidden in France. The year 1685 was the great epoch for missionary activity, and the dragonnades were directed by the fiery zeal of Louvois. In Beam, in Guienne, in Lan- guedoc, in all the districts where the Protestants were numerous, soldiers were sent to be quartered on those who remained obstinate. The superintendents asked for dragoons to second the missionaries, and their requests were granted. ^ It is true that orders were also sent to allow no excesses. The Huguenots might be compelled to furnish the soldiers food and shelter, until they were willing to declare themselves Catholics, but no other violence must be exercised^ It was impossible that these directions could be en- forced among troops sent on such an errand. The object of the superintendents was to make converts, ^ Journal de Foucault, 79. Foucault was superintendent in Bdarn in 1685, and his journal is one of the most valuable authorities as to the persecution of the Huguenots. The official correspondence of Louvois contains full particulars of the prog- ress and the extent of the dragonnades. 2 Louvois to Boufflers, July 31, 1G85, August 22, etc. It was much like a general's turning soldiers loose into a captured city, and telling them to remember to be civil to the ladies, and not to break the furniture. 180 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. ami the troops pleased them best whose labors were most efficacious. At the least sign of resistance, orders for violent measures came from the war office itself. " You may increase the allowance for food ten times," Louvois wrote the superintendent at Dieppe, " and permit the cavalry to make whatever disorder is necessary in order to drive those people from their position, and furnish an example which will help to convert others." ^ The extent of the cruelties practiced was perhaps exaggerated by the sufferers, but it is certain that they were a disgrace to the age of Louis XIV. If the soldiers did no worse, they wasted the substance of those on whom they were billeted in riotous eating and drinking. When the unhappy Huguenot could furnish them no more money to buy supplies, they sold his furniture ; and when the proceeds of that were gone, he might be thrown into prison.^ The pe- cuniary losses were not the worst of this oppression. Even when the soldiers did not indulge in actual vio- lence, they often made a hell of the houses in which they were quartered. They insulted the wives, and cracked foul jests with the daughters. They kept the family awake all night with singing and carousing, with drinking liquor at their expense, and roaring out indecent ditties. They entered an orderly and reli- gious household, and existence there became like life in a brothel or a dramshop. Sometimes their practices far exceeded even these devices for makinof existence unendurable. Men were 'O ^ Louvois to Beauprd, 17 and 19 November, 1685; Louvois to Foucault, November 17, 1G85. "^ Louvois to Bezons, November 27, 1685 ; Louvois to Fou- cault, December 17, 1685. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 181 hung up by tlieir thumbs to the timbers o£ theii' own cottages, because their views on purgatory or transub- stautiation were not acceptable to the dragoons about the hearth. A wife was tied to the bedpost while the soldiers toasted ^er husband's naked feet by the fire. Many were thrown into loathsome prisons for not observing some edict. A minister seventy-two years old, who had preached in violation of law, was broken upon the wheel. ^ The best proof of the severity of the dragonnades is the effect they j^roduced. Many became Catholics through other means of persuasion, but it was the fear of the soldiers which converted whole provinces in a week. " It is certain that the mere approach of the troops will produce a great number of conver- sions," said the superintendent of Beam.- The Arch- bishoiJ of Aix confessed that the fear of the dragoons persuaded many more than either his money or his eloquence.^ " Crowds of former heretics," wrote a superintendent, " now sing Te Deums within the ^ Mem. de Cosnac, ii. 120. Cosnac endeavored to convert him before his execution, but in vain. The authorities for the severi- ties practiced xipon the Huguenots are to be found in innumer- able books and pamphlets published by refugees. Benoit, a refugee, in his Histoire de V Edit de Nantes, has devoted five large volumes to the subject, which contain much of value, though he writes from a strong partisan standpoint. 2 Mem. de FoucauH, 118. 8 Mem. de Cosnac, ii. 111. "J'avoue que la crainte des dra- gons et les logements dans les maisons des h^retiques y pou- voient contribuer beaucoup plus que moi," he says, speaking of the result of his own exertions. " Tlie Huguenots are ill-dis- posed," writes the superintendent of Orleans, " si I'ou n'ayde la parole de Dieii de I'approche de quelques troupes." — Cor. des Con. Gen., i. 73. Such expressions are very frequent. They sound blasphemous, but they were not so regarded by the writers. 182 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. churches, and cry ' Vive le roi ! ' without." " Every bulletin/' writes Mme. de Maintenon, '' tells the king of thousands of conversions." ^ In Beam, where there had been 22,000 Protestants, soon but 400 were left. The superintendent has re- lated his religious victories in a ousiness-like manner. " I went to Pontacq," he says, " with the bishop, to work at conversions." In two days they made a hun- dred proselytes. " Orthez was the last place to be con- verted. I sent the soldiers there, who brought them to terms." ^ In other districts the progress was even more rapid. In the generality of Bordeaux 60,000 changed their faith in twenty days."^ The city of Orange was turned from its heresy in a single day. Only one min- ister remained obstinate. " As for the judges of the Parliament," wrote the officer in charge, " they would have declared themselves Mahometans if I had de- sired."* The time in which the work of enlighten- ment would be completed was predicted with accuracy. In Languedoc, where there were almost 200,000 Prot- estants, the Duke of Noailles wrote that by November 25 the province would contain no more Huguenots. Encouraged by the rapidity of the work, he wrote again that he had asked until November 25, but the month of October would be as much time as he should require.^ It was indeed ample. There were more ^ Lettres edijiantes, i. 316. 2 Memoire de Foucault, 101, 125, 127. ^ Louvois to Con. G^u., September 7, 1685. * Tessd to Louvois, November 13, 1685. ^ Noailles to Louvois, cited in Rulhiere, Eclaircissements his- ioriques sur les causes de la revocation de I'edit de Nantes, i. 317- 319. Noailles states the number of Huguenots in Languedoc at 240,000, but the more trustworthy figures of D'Aguesseau put it atl82,787. — D. G., 795. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 183 Huguenots in Languedoc than in any other province in France. In a few days all but an insignificant fraction were enrolled as Catholics. The nature of the conversions which were thus ob- tained may be easily imagined. Superintendents and bishops were not disturbed as to the sincerity of their victims, nor exacting as to the form of abjuration to be required. Some made the sign of the cross at the bottom of a paper held by a dragoon. Others were claimed as proselytes if they would say the words " Jesus Maria." Meetings were called of the Protest- ants in some town or city ; a motion was made that they adopt the Catholic faith ; it was carried without resistance, and all the inhabitants were at once re- ported as converted. A panic spread thiough the Prot- estant population. In one province after another it was announced that the Huguenots had abandoned their belief. Terrified and disheartened, the bulk of the French Huguenots submitted to any form of abjuration which would free them from present evils, with little thought of what might be the final results of their act. It is curious that professions thus made and thus obtained should have furnished any satisfaction to those who honestly believed in the Catholic religion, or that it should have been hoped that men and women whose conversions were due to the fear of out- rage and ruin would imbibe a saving conviction of Catholic truth. But such a belief accorded with the desires and prejudices of the time. Te Deums were sung and guns were fired as the news came of the great victories of the faith. The palace and grounds of Versailles were magnificently illuminated. There is no doubt that Louis thought that the work had been accomplished, and that practically all of liis subjects 184 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. were now adherents of the one church. The king desired the result so greatly that he was eager to be- lieve that it had been achieved. The fact that Prot- estantism had practically ceased to exist was urged as a reason for the repeal of the Edict of Nantes. The opinion of two theologians and two jurisconsults was asked for the king's enlightenment. They advised him that he might lawfully revoke the edict, and that by so doing he would promote the welfare of religion and of his people. A memorial was presented which sug- gested that such an act might drive the Huguenots from France and weaken the kingdom. Louis replied that he had reflected upon this, but reasons of interest were unworthy of consideration when compared with the advantages of a measure that would insure tran- quillity for the state, would restore to religion its for- mer splendor, and to authority its lawful rights. The council was unanimous for the revocation.^ On October 17, 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes was signed by the king, and on the 22d it was recristered with the Parliament of Paris. The Huguenot pastors were ordered to leave the country within fifteen days ; all Protestant temples were to be destroyed at once, and the exercise of that form of worship, either in public or private, was forbidden in France.^ The repeal was received with applause by the whole Catholic population. Of all the acts of Louis XIV., this was the one upon which praise and eulogium were most lavishly bestowed. The official instrument was said to have been hastened that the aged Le Tellier might execute it as chancellor. " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace," he ^ Memoire of Duke of Burgundy. 2 Mem. de Foucault, 135 et seq. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 185 exclaimed, as he set his seal to the paper by which dis- seut was abolished. A few days later he died, declar- ing this to be the crowning act of fifty years of public service. Crowds from Paris rushed out to the great temple at Chareuton, which could hold 14,000 wor- shipers, and tore it down amid frantic enthusiasm. The Parliaments had protested against the Edict of Nantes ; they registered its revocation with unani- mous approval. Mme. de Sevigne expressed the sen- timents of polite society when she wrote that the king had done nothing so memorable, and declared the dragoons to have been good ministers, whose work the missionaries would now perfect.^ Engravings rep- resented angels bearing the revocation to Bossuet and La Chaise, while Louis stood by ready to affix his name. Poets declared this to be the greatest achieve- ment of the greatest of monarchs. Amid the general outpouring of praise, the voice of the clergy was most distinct. Bossuet proclaimed Louis XIV. a new Constantine, a Theodosius, and a Charlemagne, who had sustained the faith and exter- minated heresy. His hearers were bidden to love the piety of Louis, and to make the heavens resound with their acclamations. " The work is worthy of your I'eign and of yourself," said the great preacher. " Heresy is no more. . / . May the King of Heaven preserve the king of earth. It is the prayer of the churches ; it is the prayer of the bishops." The Arch- bishop of Aix, acting as spokesman of the general as- sembly, predicted that the destruction of heresy would redound more to Louis's fame than all the triumphal arches which commemorated his other achievements.^ ^ Leltres de Sevigne, vii. 470. 2 Discourse at the assembly of cler, 1687. " II faut at- tendre de la boiitd divine la cessation dc, ce desordre." — Louis to Avaux, October 30, 1G87. 2 See Mem. de Pontchartrain, 1G97, complaining that the su- perintendents, by their excessive zeal, were driving new con- verts out of France, and that such conduct must be stopped. See, also, Cor. Gen., i. 120, 176 et pas. 196 FRANCE UN DEI} THE REGENCY. lytes to the mass, as a profanation of the mysteries of relicion. In the confusion of ordinances and of their enforcement, the unhappy convert was involved in hopeless embarrassment. He asked a priest to marry him, and was told that his Catholicism was so dubious that he was not entitled to the benefit of the sacra- ments of the church. He resorted to a form that satisfied his own conscience, and some zealous civil functionary prosecuted him for refusing to comply with the regulations as to marriage. For almost a century, a large body of people lived in apprehen- sion of having their marriages declared illegal, their children bastards, and their wills invalid.^ While dragonnades were abandoned, and violent endeavors to compel the new converts to comply with Catholic usages were only resorted to in some tran- sient burst of piety, those who attended any public exercise of the reformed faith still exposed themselves to the utmost rigor of the government.^ Even those who met in private houses, and there joined in prayer and song, were punished by imprisonment and the gal- leys.^ A large reward was offered for the arrest of the ministers, who returned at the peril of their lives to exhort the victims of oppi-ession to remain constant in the faith, until this tyranny was overpast. Assem- blies were held in the open air, amid remote forest^ or under the overhano^ing; rocks of the Cevennes. Senti- nels watched to report the api^roach of any troops who might have learned of the meeting. When the 1 Rulhi^re, Edairdssements sur les causes de la revocation de I'edil de Nantes, ii. 114, 178 et pas. 2 The penalty imposed by the law was death. — Decl., July 1, 1686. 8 Mem. de Foucault, 162, 270. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 197 soldiers succeeded in surprising these assemblies, they were directed to fire on them, and to spare neither men nor women. A Protestant who joined in the public worship of his faith was hunted down and shot like a noxious beast.^ Notwithstanding these dangers, ministers were found ready to exhort, and auditors eager to listen. " They came out of their holes to pray God and disappeared like spirits," complained Mme. de Sevigne, " until the governor of the province was wearied of their pursuit." ^ A minute espionage filled the reports of the police during the latter part of his reign, and a petty perse- cution occupied much of its energies. Some one wrote that a doctor among the new converts had spoken lightly of the mass ; and his case had to be investi- gated. The religious zeal of a tallow-chandler, the statement that a tinsmith was slack in his observances, furnished occupation for the officers of the state.^ The conduct of the Duke of La Force and his family was deemed worthy of the personal attention of the sover- eign, and is discussed in innumerable state documents. The duke's children were taken away from him, and were educated to such good purpose that his son be- came an active persecutor of the Huguenots. The duke himself was driven to profess Catholicism, but his wife remained a stanch Protestant, and under her influence the religious zeal of the duke was unsatisfac- tory. He was sent to the Bastille, and after two years he was induced to sign a second abjuration. As he was sick, his wife was allowed to attend him, and as:ain 1 Mem. de Foucault, 219 ; Louvois to Foucault, March 1, 1688; Mem. de Cosnac, 116 ; Louvois to La Trousse, August 23, 1688. ^ Correspondance, viii. 532. 8 Cor. adm., iv. 288, 403 et pas. 198 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. his conduct excited disapproval. A spy reported that, while the duke claimed to be too ill to attend mass, he had been seen visiting his stables. Thereupon a police officer was sent to take up his residence at the chateau, and to see that the wife did not talk religion to her husband. A priest was presently sent to his assist- ance, and the officer was directed to follow his victim both day and night. The dnke could not be left, even when he entered his bedchamber, lest the duchess should use those moments for his religious perversion. Tormented alike in body and mind, the unhappy man at last died. For fifteen days before his death, his wife was not allowed to see him. Louis assured his courtiers that thanks to such measures the duke would die a good Catholic.^ The autos dafe of the Inquisi- tion were perhaps more cruel, but they were certainly more dignified than a persecution such as this. As it became manifest that the treatment of the Huguenots was injuring France without helping Ca- tholicism, some voices were raised for an abandon- ment of the effort at conversion. They met with no response from a king who never owned that he was wrong. It is possible that if those who advised Louis to revoke the Edict of Nantes had foreseen the results, they would have dissuaded him from the act. But the king would not now admit that he had made a mis- take. His faith in himself was so implicit that he prob- ably never realized that he had made one. Mme. de Maintenon gave her opinion, in writing, against any ^ Journal de Dangeau, vii. 70. The orders of the king, the letters of the chancellor and other officials, directing the man- ner in which the duke and his wife should be watched and shadowed, will be found in Correspondance administrative, t. iv. 392, 422, 480, etc. They extend over several years. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 199 modifieatiou of the edicts in reference to the Hugue- nots, and she touched the king most nearly when she wrote that it would injure his reputation to abandon an enterprise for which he had been so much praised.^ Fervent Catholic as he was, the hope of gaining fame as the converter of millions was the most powerful motive that operated on the mind of Louis XIV. in his policy in reference to his Huguenot subjects. He would never have revoked the Edict of Nantes had he dreamed that this would be the one act of his reisfn which would receive the universal condemnation of posterity. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes was a crime and a failure. The amount of material injury which it did to France has, however, been greatly exagger- ated. Historians write as if that country was in a highly prosperous condition before the revocation, and by the results of that act alone was reduced to poverty and distress. It would seem to be supposed that aU the industries of the kingdom %ere in the hands of Huguenots, that they fled from France in a body, and left no one behind who could weave or bind, sell or buy. This rs far from being correct. The population of France was then about 20,000,000. The number of the Huguenots was little over 1,000,000.^ It is im- 1 Let. ed., iv. 457, 1697. 2 These figures are aj^proximate. From the reports of super- intendents and other officials, it is, however, possible to ascer- tain the Huguenot population very closely. Martin estimates the Protestants at a million and a half, but the data which he must have accepted will not bear analysis. The mass of the Hugue- nots were in a few southern provinces, and Languedoc was the district where they were most numerous. The most trustworthy reports give the Protestant population of that province at less than 200,000, or about one to seven as compared with the Catho- 200 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. possible to ascertain the exact number who left France, but it can be safely stated that during the entire rei"n of Louis XIV. the number of refugees did not exceed 250,000.^ Certainly this was a serious loss ; but five times as many emigrants have left Germany within a period of ten years, and that country has not suffered. An enormous emigration from Great Bri- tain has for years gone hand in hand with a great increase in national wealth. If France had been pros- perous and well governed, if her taxes had been judi- lics.— iVm. d'Aguesseau, 1685 ; D. G., 795. Languedoc contained nearly one fifth of the French Huguenots ; and in many of the northern provinces the Protestants were an insignificant minority. Taking the entire country, the Protestant population was not over one to twenty. Louis had every opportunity to ascertain the number of the French Huguenots ; and after the edict had been revoked, when he might naturally have overestimated rather than underestimated, he stated it at a little less than a million. — Louis to Cardinal d'Estr^es, October 19, 1685 ; Janu- ary 17, 1686. 1 These figures are also aerived from the comparison of a great number of official documents and reports, as well as from esti- mates of intelligent contemporaries. They are certainly large enough. In Lauguedoc, for example, the report^ of the super- intendent in 1699 states that the entire emigration down to that time was less than 5,000. This may be an underestimate, but the same report gives the number of new converts then in the province at 198,000. — Rapport sur Languedoc, par Baville. Aguesseau, a very trustworthy authority, gave the Protestant population in 1685 at only 182,000. In other words, practically, the entire Protestant population of Languedoc had remained there. It had increased rather than diminished. Allowing for errors in these calculations, it is certain tliat the emigration from that province was small. In some northern provinces the per- centage of emigration was larger, but an estimate that one quar- ter of the entire number of Huguenots left France is too large rather than too small. If we can trust such statistics as we have, the emigration was much less. REVOCA TION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 201 clously imposed and economically collected, if there had been sufficient demand for her wares, if there had been no more deep-seated cause for her industrial de- cline than the loss of Huguenot refugees, the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes would not have checked her material development. Had there been a demand for the product, thei-e were plenty of hands ready and competent to do the work which had been performed by the Huguenot artisans who fled to other lands. In the southern provinces the emigration was com- paratively small. Three fourths of the Protestant population were unwilling to leave their fatherl^^nd. They were exposed to more or less of oppression and injustice, but on the whole their material condition, after the first fury of persecution was over, was about what it would have been had the Edict of Nantes re- mained in force. The report of 1699 from Languedoc shows that the new converts, in other words the Prot- estants, were more prosperous than their Catholic neigh- bors, and many of their merchants were very rich. This was thirteen years after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The superintendent, a bigoted Cath- olic, justly says that this condition of greater ease was due to their greater industry, but it shows also that the benefits of the intelligence and thrift of the Huguenots were not lost to France. Those who left their country were undoubtedly in- dustrious, thrifty, and useful citizens. As was said to the French government by one of its merchants, " The flight of the Huguenots carried away good heads and strong arms." ^ They carried their intelligence, their integrity, their knowledge of useful arts, to England and Holland, Switzerland and Prussia, even to the ^ Mem. of a delegate from Lyons, 1701. 202 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. remote regions of Guiana and tlie Cape of Good Hope. They added to the prosperity of the countries which profited by French bigotry ; but an emigration of one per cent, of the population, during a period of thirty years, was a minor element in the material decay of France. Then as now, industry, thrift, and willingness to labor were found among Catholics as well as Protestants. To exhausting wars, royal extrava- gance, unjust taxation, unwise commercial regulations, was it due that the peasant starved in his hut, that the silk looms of Tours were idle, that the weavers of Lyons were in rags, that the merchant of La Ro- ehelle found no one to buy his wares. More than anything else in the administration of Louis XIV., the treatment of the Huguenots excites our right- eous indignation, but it was not the feature of it which was most injurious to the material welfare of the country.^ 1 The most valuable data from which to estimate the injury done to the commercial interests of France by the Huguenot persecutions are in the Correspondance des Controleurs Gene'raux, and in the reports of the superintendents as to the condition of France in 1698. A comparison of figures, which is too often omitted by statistical writers, will assist in reaching a correct result. All agree that the departure of the Huguenots was one of the causes of the extreme depression which existed in 1698, but not the principal cause. The industrial condition of France at that time would have been little better, if no Huguenot had ever fled across the borders. Languedoc was the province where the Huguenots were the most numerous. Thirteen years after the Edict of Nantes was revoked, Languedoc was still the most prosperous section of France. — Rapport de Baville. In many of the northern provinces, where trade was stagnant at that period, there had been hardly enough Protestants to people a village. The arts, which the Huguenots are sometimes supposed to have introduced into Holland and England, were those which in 1667 REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 203 The indirect results of the revocation were more serious. It did not, indeed, destroy Protestantism as an element in French life. When religious freedom was allowed a century later, the number of those who were still Protestants, though the public services of their church had long been forbidden, was nearly as large as when the dragoons of Louvois began to act as missionaries.^ The Protestants in France to-day bear nearly the same proportion to the Catholic popu- lation that they did under Louis XIV. But an era of persecution at the end of the seventeenth century was an injury to the cause of religion itself. To this was it due, in some part at least, that the austerity and bigotry of the later years of Louis XIV. were followed by the license and the infidelity of the Re- gency ; that, while fanatics in 1685 were busied in tearing down Protestant temples, a century later their descendants were murdering Catholic priests and wor- shiping the Goddess of Reason. While the voice of praise from almost every quarter greeted the overthrow of heresy, Louis's achievement received at Rome only a tardy and chilling approval.^ It was said that Innocent XL condemned the mea- sures used against the Huguenots, and that he had no Colbert claimed had reached such a development iu those coun- tries, that France ne 3ded a prohibitive tariif to protect her from their competition. ^ Rapport de Breteuil, 1786. ^ It was not until March, 168G, that the Pope ordered a Te Deum to be sung over the victory of the faith, and this he did with reluctance. He sent to Louis a formal congratulation at the revocation of the edict, but the representatives of France admitted that the prodigies accomplished in the conversion of heretics were regarded coldly at Rome. — Lettre de Rome, Sep- tember 18, 1085 ; Depeche du due d'Estrees, November 13, 1685. 204 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. words of praise for armed ajjostles.^ Even if he was not averse to persecution, he certainly entertained no affection for the persecutor. The wrangles of Louis XIV. with the Vatican are of little importance in re- ligious history. It was over no question of doctrine that the king quarreled with the Pope. Louis had no thought of imitating Henry VIII.; he was not the man to start schisms, or to think of organizing na- tional churches. He was always the best of Catholics, even when he was on the worst of terms with the Pope. The disputes with Rome, like those with many of the minor powers, grew out of the monarch's inordinate desire to assert his own prerogative. The French kings enjoyed in most of the kingdom what was called the "regale," — the right to receive the emoluments of a bishopric while it remained vacant. In four south- ern provinces this right did not exist, or if it existed, it had not been exercised. Louis proceeded to assert this prerogative over the whole of France. The most of the clergy acquiesced, as they acquiesced in what- ever the monarch did. Their dependence on the king was greater than on the Pope ; from Versailles, and not from Rome, came their preferment. Two only of the bishops refused to recognize the claims made by the sovereign. Innocent XI. was then Pope, a man of learning and of good morals, narrow in his views, pertinacious in his policy, and who had endeavored to reform the abuses he found at Rome. He bore little love for the French or their monarch. At Rome, as elsewhere, the representatives of the great king had not exercised their office with meekness, nor dis- turbed themselves about the dignity or the sensibili- ties of those with whom they had to deal. Innocent ^ Relazioni dagli Amh. Ven. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 205 now sustained the protesting bishops in their position. Louis proceeded to exercise the rights he claimed, and the Pope excommunicated those who acted under the royal commands. This quarrel continued for several years. A gen- eral assembly of the Gallican Church was called in 1682, and, under the leadership of Bossuet, it ap- proved the king's right of regale as he asserted it, and adopted four articles which were long the subjects of religious disputation. By them, the assembly de- clared that the Pope had no authority over the tem- poral affairs of kings, and no right to depose them ; that the privileges of the Gallican Church must be preserved, and that the papal utterances were not be- yond question, until they were ratified by a general council of the church. The French clergy under Louis XIV. may be called monarchical, rather than Gallican. They supported the king in any position he took, as implicitly as did the rest of his subjects. When he quarreled with the Pope, they asserted the right of the church at large to correct the errors of its head. AVhen Louis, towards the end of his reign, became more submissive to papal authority, the views of his clergy assumed a more ul- tramontane hue. The articles of the assembly of 1682 were in the highest degree offensive to Innocent XI. With a long array of his predecessors, he held to the doctrine of papal infallibility, which, curiously enough, was never formally recognized by the church in the cen- turies of faith, and was at last adopted in an age of incredulity. Louis appointed to bishoprics those who had subscribed to the four articles. The Pope de- clared that he could not accept as bishops the heretics 206 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. named by the king, and he refused to send the bulls re(iuired to complete their ecclesiastical authority. ^ The most zealous of Louis's followers declared that, unless the Pope yielded to reason, the other bishops would consecrate the new incumbents and dispense with papal ratification. Such a step might well have been regarded as the beginning of a schism ; it was threatened, but it was not attempted. Innocent was very old ; while Louis's representatives expressed no hope that years would bring him wisdom, they un- doubtedly anticipated that death would soon relieve the situation.^ In this dispute the king was probably in the right. A controversy arose on another question in which he was entirely in the wrong. The foreign ambassadors at Home had long possessed a right of sanctuary, one of the disorderly mediaeval privileges which furnished immunity for the murderers and highwaymen of a town, and rendered the vicinity of an ambassador's house such a district as Whitefriars is described in the " Fortunes of Nigel." This custom was inconsistent with orderly government, with the authority of the ^ Correspondance de Rome., 293, 124. The French retaliated by claiming that Innocent would not confirm the nominees be- cause they would not say that he was infallible. 2 The details of these controversies can be found in the Cor- respondance de Rome for three years ; the proceedings of the Assembly of 1682 ; the proceedings of the Parliament of Paris, the harangues of its attorney-general ; and in innumerable con- temporary pamphlets. Michaud, in his Louis XIV. and Innocent XL, has published, in four volumes, a large amount of official correspondence in reference to these disputes. The information thus furnished is not accompanied with much critical sagacity. It is a curious frame of mind that accepts the statements made in letters of an ambassador, in reference to an unfriendly poten- tate, as conclusive evidence of the facts. REVOCATION OF EDICT OF NANTES. 207 police, and the safety of the citizens. Innocent XI. declared that he would receive no representative of any foreign pow^er, which insisted upon this obnoxious privilege. All the governments save France consented to abandon it, but Louis replied that he did not model his conduct on the example of other sovereigns, and he refused to surrender the right of sanctuary. Why he should have deemed his dignity increased if a Sicilian assassin could murder a man on the Corso, and escape punishment by lodging himself near the palace of the Frencli minister, it is impossible to see. Why he should have thought it worth while on such a ground to irritate a potentate who might be useful to him is equally impossible to discover. During some years, Louis's conduct in many respects can only be characterized as the unbridled wantonness and naugh- tiness of power. His ambassador proceeded to Rome with directions to surrender no rights that pertained to his position.^ He entered the city, the Italians com- plained, surrounded by soldiers and cutthroats, as if he were taking possession of a conquered town. The Pope refused to receive the minister, and declared him excommunicated. He attended mass at the chapel of the French embassy, and the Pope put it under inter- dict, because the sacrament had there been adminis- tered to a man under the ban of the church.^ ^ Louis to Lavardin, November 18, 1687. 2 Correspondence between Lavardin, the French ambassador, and Louis ; Italian broadside on Lavardin's conduct, etc. ; In- struction aux amhassadeurs, t. vi., Rome. Lavardin was authorized to make some sliglit concession on the right of sanctuary, but as the Pope would not receive him, there was no opportunity for negotiation. Etiquette required that he should kneel in present- ing his compliments to the Pope, but his instructions .said that, unless he was soon asked to rise, he might cut them very short. Page 290. 208 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Such were the relations between the king and the Pope when events in other lands enabled Innocent XL to gratify his feelings by aiding the great confed- eration formed to check the power and humiliate the pride of Louis XIV. CHAPTER VII. COALITIONS AGAINST TEANCE. 1680-1697. If Louis XIV. had died in 1683, a man of forty- five, his record woukl have been one of unbroken success, unequaled by that of any other king during seven ly,indred years of French history. In the eigh- teen years that the government was administered by Mazarin, the treaties of Westphalia and of the Pyre- nees had marked the triumphs of French policy, had added new provinces to France, and had given her an influence in Europe superior to that of Spain or the empire. The personal administration of Louis, for almost a quarter of a century, could compare favor- ably with what was accomplished in his name while he was a minor. The territory of France had been still further increased; and so powerful was that coun- try that it was able to contend on equal terms, not only against any other European state, but against a coalition of all the European states which were then regarded as great powers. These results had been ob- tained by wars which had not exhausted the land, and by a foreign policy which had usually been sagacious. Great men, both in politics and literature, had made illustrious the forty years during which Louis had been a king. Reforms in taxation had lessened the burdens of the people and added to their prosperity ; 210 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. reforms in administration had increased the order of the country and the efficiency of the army. The per- secutions of the Huguenots were indications of a nar- row belief, but thus far they had not been sufficient to attract the special attention of posterity.^ History might have chastened the expressions of adulation which contemporaries lavished upon Louis XIV., but it would have been forced to admit that his rule had made France more powerful, and had not rendered her people less happy ; that, if the government had been centralized, it had also been better administered ; and that the reign was one upon which a patriotic Frenchman might look with pride, and without serious disapproval. » Like many others, Louis XIV. lived too long for his own fame. The last thirty years of his reign throw a light upon his policy, his abilities, and the results of his administration, which modifies his posi- tion in history. Our opinion of the monarch is al- tered, not because he was unfortunate, but because he brought his misfortunes upon himself. It was in these years that he revoked the Edict of Nantes ; that he united EurojDe against France by a tyrannical and short-sighted policy ; that he bronght his kingdom to the verge of ruin in the endeavor to establish his grandson on the Spanish thi'one. Men like William of Orange had opposed the treaty of Nimeguen on account of the additional territory which it secured for France, and because they believed that Louis would not rest content with what he had obtained. The result showed that their apprehensions were justified. Peace had hardly been declared when the French began to make further acquisitions, under ^ This statement would have been true in 1682. COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 211 the guise of judicial proceedings. The king had a taste for legal technicalities, on which to rest the de- mands which his ambition suggested. Territorial ag- grandizement under the plea of national sympathies, of political projsaganda, or community of race, is a more modern procedure. Louis's claims, from the inheritance of the empire of Philip II. down to the lordship of a village in Flanders, were based upon some special pleading, upon the construction to be put upon a will, a charter, or a treaty. This was both annoying and alarming to his neighbors. Few pri- vate estates would be safe from contention, if the statute of limitations did not silence obsolete claims. It was impossible to say upon what territory some claim of right would be devised for Louis XIV., and equally impossible to say that he would not attempt to enforce it. The years between the treaty of Nimeguen and the formation of the leaoue of Augsburg were filled with lawsuits of this nature, brought by the king against his neighbors. Louvois was at the height of his power, and he controlled the foreign policy of France. The animosities which he excited, when added to the apprehension of Louis's ambition and the resentment aroused by the persecution of the Huguenots, united Europe against that country. More than thirty years had elapsed since the peace of Westphalia. Daring that time France had occu- pied the acquisitions which she had then obtained, and the peaceful acquiescence of all concerned would seem to have settled any question as to what territory was ceded. The conduct of the pai'ties is the best adjust- ment of a boundary, whether the question be the frontier of a state or the location of a line fence. It 212 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. was now claimed, however, that France had not re- ceived all to which she was entitled by the terms of that treaty as well as by the more recent one of Nimesruen. Snch controversies were submitted to French local courts, whose decisions natui'ally were in favor of their own country. The judgments of these tribunals, by which towns, cities, and duchies were de- clared reunited to France, were promptly followed by the enforcement of French sovereignty over the dis- puted district. The acquisitions thus made were not very important, but the process was irritating. Ter- ritories were abstracted which had recognized the jurisdiction of German electors, of Sweden, and of Spain, and those various govei*nments, though little weakened, were greatly angered. The German diet asked of Louis to state the extent of the claims which he intended to enforce. The only answer they re- ceived was that the monarch purposed to obtain what had been ceded by the treaties. The diet agreed to submit to the judgments which the courts of reunion had pronounced before 1681, but the decisions were as elastic as the claims. Louvois began to erect a fortress on a bit of land that had not been reunited. The Ger- mans protested, and the minister wrote the Parliament of Metz to send him a decree covering the territory in question, and to antedate it. The decree was forth- coming, duly certified as of a date six years earlier, and the minister went on with his fortifications.^ Such a procedure was amusing, but the amusement of baiting one's neighbors may be carried too far. In 1681, the important city of Strasbourg was added to these new acquisitions. There was no treaty 1 Louvois to Sdxe, November 27, 1G87 ; to La Goupilli^re, December 3 ; D. G., 800. COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 213 sufficiently elastic to cover this ancient republic, and the French took it by the strong hand. Money was freely used to obtain the good-will of influential burghers, and the citizens of a commonwealth which had existed for more than four centuries, seeing that resistance was useless, consented without much reluc- tance to merge their individuality in the French king- dom. They were given liberal terms. Most of their civic privileges were preserved ; they were allowed, to a large extent, freedom of trade and freedom from imposts ; while the cathedral was restored to the ser- vice of the Catholic Church, the Protestants were secured in their religious privileges. ^ Strasbourg was really a pai-t of Alsace, and neces- sary for the safety of that province ; nor did its citizens lose by the surrender of an independence which, in the changed condition of Europe, could not have en- dured much longer. But on the day that Strasbourg was united to a kingdom of which it was to remain a contented member for two centuries, another acquisi- tion was made that served no purpose except to ex- cite the apprehensions of Europe. After a series of obscure negotiations, Casal, a powerful fortress in northern Italy, was turned over to the French armies. This was a new quarter for Louis's activity. The nu- merous pamphlets, which declared that he aspired to universal monarchy, seemed to derive plausibility from the seizure of a town whose only value was as a basis for Italian conquest.^ These appropriations of neighboring territory at last ^ Documents inedits concernant V Alsace ; Correspondence of the Department of War. ^ La conduite de la France j La monarchie universelle de Louis XIV. J Soupirs de la France esclave, etc. 214 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. led to a petty war with Spain. Spain alone could make no opposition to the armies of France ; the Em- peror was engaged in a war with Turkey ; England was subsidized, and the rest of Europe was not yet ready to take up arms. In 1684, a truce of twenty years was made, which left Louis in occupation of Strasbourg, Luxemburg, and all the territory which had been reunited to France by decrees rendered prior to August 1, 1681. His rights were not formally and finally conceded, but if either wisdom or moderation had characterized his policy, he would have remained in imdisturbed possession, and these important ac- quisitions would have been permanently incorporated with France. Instead of such a course, the next few years were filled with acts alike so offensive and so useless, that they seem like wanton attempts to excite the indignation of Europe. Certainly they were not the measures of a wise, a just, or a magnanimous sovereign. Genoa had long been viewed by Louis XIV. with an unfavorable eye. Her only offense was that her people were apprehensive of his policy, and criticised his conduct with unbecoming frankness.^ Even this was not allowed by the counsels which prevailed at Versailles. The citizens were warned of the fate in which such sentiments would involve them. They were ordered to restore to the descendant of a politi- cal offender the property of his ancestor, with interest for a century ; they were directed to discontinue build- ing galleys and strengthening their navy, because their sympathies with Spain rendered such conduct sus- picious. Genoa had fallen from the position which she once 1 Estrades to Louvois, December 12, 1681. COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 215 held. Her merchants no longer controlled the trade of the East ; her fleets no longer commanded the waters of the Mediterranean ; but she was still a free and an independent state, at peace with all the world. The republic declined to comply with requests wliich proceeded on the theory that she owed obedience to Louis XIV., as much as did Marseilles or Calais. The punishment was pi'om23t. A fleet sailed from Tou- lon and bombarded the town. Ten thousand bombs were thrown into an unprotected city, because it had declined to obey the arbitrary commands of a foreign sovereign. A large portion of Genoa was destroyed. The palaces of the doge and of the great nobles, which had long been the admiration of Europe ; the ware- houses of the merchants, whose ships carried the pro- ducts of civilization to exchange for the luxuries of the East and the fruits of the West ; the houses of thousands of humble citizens, were consumed by the flames. The light of the conflagration was so power- ful that by it one could read at night on the French vessels stationed far out in the bay.^ " The princes of Europe have learned that one does not offend with impunity the greatest monarch of the world," wrote Louis himself, quoting with approval the sentiment of one of his ministers.^ The Genoese were informed that this punishment would be followed by still se- verer chastisement if they did not submit. The city was in no position to contend with Louis XIV. In conformity with his commamds, the chief officials vis- ited the great monai'ch and presented the apologies of the citizens. The doge, to whom the words of his address were dictated, informed Louis that in valor, ^ Louvois to Cr^qui, June 1, 1G84. 2 Louis to Estrades, November 19, 1684. 216 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. greatness, and magnanimity he excelled all kings of history. These expressions of adulation, the pompous ceremony, the solemn parade, gratified the vanity of a king whose only real grievance was that the Gen- oese had questioned his omnipotence and criticised his wisdom. By the laws of Genoa, the doge was not al- lowed to leave the city. He was shown the splendors of Versailles, and asked what seemed to him most won- derful. " That I should be here myself," was his rej^ly. Savoy, like Genoa, was treated as if it were a tribu- tary state. The duke's ministers were chosen for him, and his policy was dictated to him. He wished to take a trip to Venice, but the French ambassador told him that this would be distasteful to Louis XIV. " I did not suppose that such a bagatelle would be even known to the king," said the young duke ; but he obeyed and remained at home.^ He desired to send a minister to Madrid. He was informed that this could not be allowed, and no ambassador was sent.^ In a far more serious matter he was forced to sub- mit to foreign dictation. In the latter part of 1685, Louis was in the flush of victory over the Huguenots. The Edict of Nantes had just been repealed, the ef- forts of his soldiers had produced hundreds of thou- sands of conversions, and a taste for persecution had been fostered by evil advisers and unwise applause. In the valleys of the Alps lived a few thousand simple-minded people, who might claim to be the re- ligious descendants of thef ancient sect of the Wal- denses, but whose faith had long been identified with the more modern Protestantism of the Reformation. Neither their retired life nor their pure morals had • ^ Estrades to Louis, October 25, 1684. ^ Correspondance de Savoy. COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 217 secured them peace, but the last persecution to which the Vaudois were subjected had been checked by the strong hand of Cromwell. Since then they had en- joyed thirty years of tranquillity, and had no reason to fear ill-treatment at the hands of their present sover- eign. The Duke of Savoy, though a boy in years, pos- sessed the sagacity which for centuries has been found in his extraordinary family ; he had inherited the in- tellect of his ancestors, without the bigotry which they had sometimes shown, and he did not wish to disturb peaceable and industrious subjects. But Louis XIV. had extirpated heresy in France, and he now resolved - to destroy it among his neighbors. First the letters from Versailles held up to the young duke the great achievements of the French king in the cause of re- ligion, and suggested that there was an opportunity for him to imitate this example. The prudent duke expressed the warmest admiration at the overthrow of heresy in France, but he showed no desire to un- dertake it in Piedmont. Such remissness was not allowed. Victor Amadeus was soon informed that, unless he expelled the heretics from his domains, he would be visited with serious marks of the royal displeasure. The French armies assembled on the frontier of Piedmont, and the duke saw that there was no refuge but submission. He accordingly ordered the Vaudois to leave his dominions, but his sincerity was so distrusted that he was not allowed to enforce his own commands. iV French army entered Piedmont, and proceeded to invade tlie distant valleys occupied b}^ the sectaries. They met with a brave and a fruitless resistance. Villages were destroyed, men and women killed ; the devastation of the Palat- inate was anticipated in the valleys of the Vaudois. 218 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. At last the French commander couhl send a satisfac- tory report to Louvois : " This country is completely desolated ; there are neither people nor animals left. I hope that we shall remain here until the race is en- tirely extirpated. If the soldiers do not kill those who are taken with arms in their hands, they are sent to the hangman." ^ All were not killed : some ten thousand men and women were made prisoners. This number was soon reduced by disease. " These mala- dies," wrote Louis, " will relieve the duke from the trouble he has had in the care of these rebels, and I doubt not that he will be easily consoled for the loss of subjects whom he can replace by better and more faithful ones." ^ Victor received an offer for the purchase of the captives, to be used by the Turks as galley slaves, and if he had accepted it, he could have pleaded that Louis XIV. had set the example of send- ing Protestants to the galleys. He declined to follow that precedent, and turned over the Vaudois prisoners to the Protestant canton of Berne.^ Louis's policy had at last consolidated all Europe against him. In the early part of his reign, almost every Protestant state in Germany was an ally of France. During the long war with Holland, Sweden remained constant to his interests. In Amsterdam an influential party among the merchants inclined to the French alliance, and resisted the persistent efforts of the Prince of Orange to protract the war. ^ Catinat to Louvois, May 9, 1686. ^ Louis to Marquis d'Arcy, November 8, 1686. 8 The memoirs and letters of Catinat and Correspondance de Savoy, Aff. Etr., are the authorities for this lamentable chapter of history. A full account of it is given in Rousset's Histoire de Louvois. COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 219 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the per- secution of the Hixgiienots, made an enemy of every Protestant state in Europe. Wherever the refugees went, they related the story of their wrongs and of their sufferings. The churches and the market-places of Amsterdam and Berlin, of Stockholm and Copen- hagen, resounded with tales of the woes of Protestant brethren, inflicted upon them by the wicked king of France. The victim of bigotry showed the wounds that he had received from his cruel persecutors ; he told of a daughter languishing in prison, of a brother toiling in the galleys. The zealous Catholic joined with the zealous Prot- estant in condemnation of the French king. Louis had affronted the Pope ; he had seized the revenues of the church ; he had insisted that the quarters of his ambassador at Rome should continue the safe resort for murderers, thieves, and harlots, who could thus practice their wickedness with impunity almost in the presence of the Holy Father. The ministers of the Emperor declared that Louis would gladly see the infi- dels in possession of Vienna ; that he sympathized with the policy of the Great Turk, and imitated his conduct and his cruelty. Catholics and Protestants, republics and monarchies, were eager to combine against a sovereign who was the common enemy of all.i In July, 1686, the league of Augsburg was formed, ^ See, for these various grounds of accusation, La conduite de la France, Dialogue entre Genes et Alger, villes foudroye'es, Les larmes de V Angleterre, La cour de France turhanisee, etc., etc. The number of such pamphlets issued about tliis period is prodigious. I have given a statement of their comjjhiints, without discussing how far they were justified. 220 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. by which the P^mperor, Spain, Sweden, and most of the German princes bound themselves to maintain an army of sixty thousand men, and to act in unison against any infraction of the treaties in force. ^ Such a pur- pose seemed pacific, but it was easy to foresee that the course of events woukl soon involve the league in actual conflict with France. Louis was sufficiently sagacious to appreciate the gravity of this combination, and his conduct was now characterized by greater moderation. The Duke of Savoy again undertook a journey to Venice, and the French did not hazard offending him by any further prohibitions. The spirit of insubordi- nation to the would-be master was visible elsewhere than in Piedmont. Louis sought to convert the twenty years' truce into a permanent treaty, but to this nei- ther Spain nor the Emperor would consent. While all Europe was in this condition of unrest, a change in the political situation brought the agitation to a crisis. The Elector of Cologne had long been devoted to the interests of France, and Cardinal Fiirs- tenberg, the Bishop of Strasbourg, had been chosen as his coadjutor. This would ordinarily have secured for him the succession, and Fiirstenberg was the devoted servant of the Fi*ench king, to whom he owed his bishopric and his cardinal's hat. In June, 1688, the elector died. A rule of the chapter made the Pope master of the situation. By this provision, a candi- date who already held a bishopric required two thirds of all the votes of the chapter, while otherwise a majority was sufficient. The Pope could dispense with the requirement, and this he usually did without ^ Dumont, Corps Dip. Spain and Sweden were members of the league by virtue of the possessions which they held in the empire. COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 221 question, for it was not often that one was chosen to so exalted a position who did not already hold im- portant ecclesiastical offices. But while he had the power to grant a dispensation, he had an unquestion- able right to refuse it. Louis was now to find how short-sighted was the policy by which he had alienated Innocent XI. It was essential to France that the Elector of Cologne should be her ally. His territo- ries were important, both from their size and from their situation ; he could send twelve thousand men into the field. To have a friendly elector was a matter far more important than the gratification of an ob- stinate vanity in preserving useless and odious privi- leo'es. Louis had insisted that his ambassador at Rome should yield nothing of his prerogatives, and by his persistence in this demand he lost the Elector of Cologne as an ally. Prince Clement of Bavaria was brought forward as the candidate of the oppo- nents of France. Out of twenty-four votes, Fiirsten- berg had thirteen, and Prince Clement nine. Unless Fiirstenberg could obtain a dispensation, he was not canonically elected, and the choice of the elector fell to the Pope himself. In this emergency Louis sent a special messenger to Innocent. He offered to aban- don the privileges of his ambassador, and to consent that Prince Clement should be chosen coadjutor and secured in the succession, if the Pope would con- firm the election of Fiirstenberg. Unless this were done, the Pope was warned that his conduct would excite a general war in Europe ; Prince Clement, he was reminded, was not twenty j^ears old, and had never taken orders, though he already held two bish- oprics ; the Holy Father was adjured to prevent the scandal of such a choice, and the waste of Christian 222 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. blood that would result from it.^ His enemies de- clared that Innocent XI. was not a good Catholic, but no one ever claimed that he was not a good hater. A general war waged against Louis XIV. had no terrors for the Pope. He refused even to receive the king's envoy. When informed of this, Louis sent a violent letter denouncing Innocent's conduct. " God will jjunish him that is guilty," said the Pope when he had heard the letter read, and without leaving the room he directed that the bull should be sent forthwith which designated Prince Clement as archbishop and Elector of Colos:ne.^ In the Ion"- conflict between Innocent and Louis, the Pope was enabled to inflict the last and the most injurious blow. Of all the king's enemies, it is doubtful whether any two did him more harm than the Pope and the Duke of Savoy, whom he had domineered and browbeaten from mere wantonness. Louis de- clared that he would support the rights of Cardinal Fiirstenberg ; the French army, under the command of the dauphin, advanced to the Ehine and laid siege to Philipsburg, and a nine years' war was formally begun. Though the French king was nominally the ag- gressor, it was certain that war would soon have been declared upon him. The position of Europe was such that he had either to surrender the acquisitions of the last ten years, or gain what advantage he could from the initiative in a conflict that was inevitable. He had been severely criticised because he began the attack in Germany, and left the Prince of Orange to prosecute his expedition against James II. undisturbed. ^ Instructions au Chamlay, July 6, 1688 ; Louvois to Chamlay, July 23, Pupiers de Chamlay. It was claimed that Prince Cle- ment was but fifteen. — Cor. de Rome, 318, 319. 2 Nouvelles de Rome, October 3, 1G88. COALITIONS AGAINST FRANCE. 223 Undoubtedly the acquisition of the English crown by- Louis's bitterest enemy was the severest blow that he could receive, but it is not probable that any move- ment of his armies would have prevented it. He was long aware of the purpose of the Prince of Orange. Of this he had informed James, and he had notified the Dutch that any act of hostility against that sov- ereign he should regard as an attack upon himself. James had complained bitterly of Louis's interfer- ence, and had proclaimed offensively that he was in no need of such protection.^ He was not the faithful servant to Louis that his brother had been, and if he had remained on the throne it is more than probable that he would have been found acting with the league of Augsburg against the French.^ Louis, however, did not allow his conduct to be governed by pique, and he continued to act in James's interest. He was, indeed, far from anticipating the sudden and complete success which awaited William in England. He be- lieved that the English people would remain constant to their sovereign, and he did not expect that in a few months William of Orange would be their acknow- ledged king.3 In this he was wrong, but it is impossible to see how he could have prevented this result. In the years that were past he might, indeed, have so shaped his policy that it would have been impossible for William to equip an army in Holland, with which to try his fortune in England. By his persecution of the Hugue- nots, and by regulations directed against Dutch trade, ^ Louis comments on this in his letter to Barillon, September 30, 1688. ^ Negociatiom d'Avaux, vi. 276. ' Proofs of this are abundant in Louis's correspondence. 224 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Louis hail alienated his friends in Holland. His ambassador, the Count of Avaux, wrote repeatedly that by reason of these measures the Dutch were rally- ing as one man around the Prince of Orange. Louis answered that he did not purpose to be dictated to by the merchants of Amsterdam as to the manner in which he should treat his own subjects, and that to change his commercial policy would show a feebleness unbecoming his dignity.^ When the Dutch had been soured by years of such conduct, when every move- ment of Louis XIV. since the peace of Nimeguen had bettered the position of his wily antagonist, it was too late in the summer of 1688 to save James II. The Hollanders were irritated with Louis, and were will- ing to abet the Prince of Orange in his designs. The English nation was eager for a change. If William had sailed over in a yacht, with only a body-guard of followers, it is probable that his expedition would have been successful. It was not the army he brought with him that secured him the English crown. He suc- ceeded because England wished to be rid of James II. The blame which has been lavished on Louis be- cause he did not begin the war by an invasion of the Low Countries seems unjust.^ The result of the inva- sion of Holland in 1672, when she was without an ally, did not encourage such an attempt in 1688, when all Europe would have taken up arms in her defense. It is certain that William would not have been turned from his purpose, whether the armies of Louis be- 1 Neg. oriocl. Early in 1712 a malignant fever at- tacked the Duchess of Burgundy, and in a few days she was dead. Her death was followed by that of her husband and of their oldest son. On the same day, the remains of the three were deposited among the tombs of the French monarchs at St. Denis. Three successive dauphins of France, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of Louis XIV., died suddenly within a year. The Duke of Burgundy was the pupil of Fenelon ; he was a man of exemplary life, of serious purposes ; had he reigned, it has been thought that a golden age would have come for France, that the course of history would have been changed, and the benefits of the Revolution might have been obtained, without its horrors. There seems to have been little ground on whicb to base these sanguine expectations. The Duke of Bur- gundy was doubtless an amiable young man ; he died when only twenty-nine, and it is possible that his views would have broadened with years and experience. He would not have devoted his life to hunting wolves, like his father, nor to debauchery, like his son ; he was neither an idler nor a profligate. Unfortunately, how- ever, men of the most unexceptionable morals often make very poor kings. There is every reason to think that the Duke of Burgundy would have sought to reform the state, not by progress but by retrogression. His ideals of government were in the ages that were past, and it would have been impossible to apply them in the France of his day. He wished to restore to the aristocracy an influence which would have been as much out of season as a feudal castle ; in religion he was the narrowest of bigots ; he approved of the revo- CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 295 cation of the Edict of Nantes ; he was even more adverse to toleration than his grandfather ; to recall the Huguenots, he said, would be an impious measure, and fraught with dangers to the country. His religious practices wei-e not of the character which indicate a broad mind ; he observed the services, the fasts, the minutest regulations of the church, with a rigor that would have been commendable in the time of St. Louis, but seemed unseasonable in the age of Voltaire. Even his grandfather sometimes sneered, when the duke would not leave matins or complines to attend to im- portant matters of state. He disapproved of the thea- tre ; he thought that opera airs savored of sin ; he has recorded his surprise at finding pure morals inculcated by the pagan writers of antiquity. He was apprehen- sive of savants, and feared that any increase of know- ledge among the lower classes would be prejudicial to the state. A simple-minded peasant, who could nei- ther read nor write, he regarded as a better citizen than a scholar in search of new truths in science or politics. He had occasionally been given the command of an army, but he had shown no capacity for the manage- ment of men. He was not timid physically, but he was irresolute and helj^less in any crisis, and the dis- asters of the campaign of Oudenarde were largely due to his inefficiency. When the army marched from Tournay and a battle was imminent, the duke joined the bishop in praying for victory, instead of advising with his generals as to the means to obtain it. He gave his opinion on the question of whether the Pretender should be treated as king of England, and declared that no honest man should hesitate to recoir- nize the prince who was a legitimate sovereign. When 296 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Louis was uncertain, the duke was in distress, and he was overjoyed when his grandfather was induced to comuiit one of the most serious mistakes of his long reign.^ Nothing that the Duke of Burgundy ever did or said indicates that he was fitted to rule France in the eighteenth century with wisdom ; like Charles I. of England, he had neither the instinct to be in harmony with the drift of opinion, nor the force to control it. It is not the wicked men, but the wrong- headed, who do the most harm. The Duke of Bur- gundy would probably have been as impotent as Louis XVI. to arrest the course of the French Revolution.^ The deaths of the duke and his amiable wife were the only misfortunes which seem to have caused genu- ine grief to Louis XIV. The pleasures of the court had gone on with hardly a check when Louis's son died, but at the loss of his grandson the old king was perceptibly affected. His court had long lost some of its early splendor ; and the views of the king, and still more those of Mme. de Maintenon, became stricter with years. She questioned the propriety of the pro- fane music for which Louis still had a strong taste ; she feared that the ladies of the court wore their dresses too low ; while she admitted that piety was now the fashion, she distrusted the sincerity of many of its professors.^ The burden of entertaining the king, who had become old and despondent, weighed ^ See letter of Duke of Burgundy to Philip V., October, 1701. ^ The best authorities for the views and character of the Duke of Burgundy are his papers, published by his eulogist, the Abb^ Proyart, and the memoirs of St. Simon, who was his confidant, and one of his most ardent admirers. See, also, Projets flu Gouvernement du Due de Bourgogne, a system of re- forms prepared by St. Simon and pul)lished byMesnard. 3 Lettres ed. de Mme. de Maintenon, ii. 446 ; vi. 269. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 297 upon her, and she longed for the hour when she could find a permanent retreat at St. Cyr. Religious wrangling disturbed the last years o£ the kinof's life. His confessor was now Father Le Tel- lier, an intriguing and intolerant Jesuit. By him the Pope was induced to issue the famous bull Unigenitus, which anathematized many of the doctrines of the Jansenists, and, as it was claimed, many tenets which had the authority of the Bible as well as of Janse- nius. The endeavor to force both clergy and laity to profess their faith in the Unigenitus continued a cause of dissension and persecution in France for more than half a century, and made as many unbe- lievers as the writings of the Encyclopaedists. The king was ignorant in religious matters, and he could be easily controlled by an unscrupulous casuist. He was brought to give his assent to the destruction of the ancient monastery of Port Royal in the Fields, so famous for the piety and the genius of those who had been connected with it. The aged sisters, who still remained there, were carried off under the charge of gens d'armes, as if they had been the inmates of a disorderly house ; the church and the convent were torn down, and not a stone left standing ; even the dead who were there buried were taken from their resting-places. Such an act of vandalism marked the culmination of the religious policy of the age of Louis XIV. In the summer of 1715, the king's health began to decline. It seems almost certain that, if he had been treated with skill, his life could have been prolonged for manv years. His constitution was one of extraor- dinary vigor ; his habits had been of unusual regu- larity ; he had daily taken a great deal of outdoor 298 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. exercise ; he could expect to pass fourscore untroubled by physical decrepitude. His case did not receive proper treatment. His physician insisted that the ailment was not serious, until it was too late to arrest its progress. Such has been the advance of science that the humblest of us would now be promptly Qured of a malady which, in the eighteenth century, short- ened the life of the greatest king of Europe. In the latter part of August it was known that Louis had but a few days to live. He met death with the dignity and self-possession that he had shown during all his life. One after another his principal officials and the members of his family were brought in to see him for the last time. For each he had some fitting words of kindly reminder, or of judicious advice. He thanked his courtiers for their faithful service, and expressed the hope that they would some- times think of him. " I pass away," he added, " but the state remains forever. Continue faithful to it, and set an example to my other subjects." The young prince who was to succeed him was brought to his bedside. " You will be a great king," he said, " but your happiness will depend upon your submission to God, and the care which you take to relieve your people. For this reason you must avoid war as much as possible. It is the ruin of the people. Do not follow the bad example which I have set you. I have imdertaken war too lightly, and have continued it from vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a pacific prince, and let your chief occupation be to relieve your subjects." ^ ^ Dangeau, xvi. 126, 128. Daiigeau is the most trustworthy authority on these remarks, as he is on anything concerning the king's private life. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 299 Whatever were Louis's faults, he always recognized the responsibility of a monarch to those whom he ruled. The child whom he advised was, unhappily, to grow up destitute of any sense of responsibility. The kins: said to Mme. de Maintenon that he had heard much of the difficulty of dying, but, now that the dreaded moment had come, he found it very easy. She stayed by him until he had lost consciousness. Then she felt that her duty was accomplished : she bade farewell to her servants, abandoned the court where she had long wearied of her extraordinary for- tune, and retired to the convent of St. Cyr, there to stay during the remaining years of her life. Louis bade adieu to earthly greatness with tranquillity, and Mme. de Maintenon with eagerness. On Septem- ber 1, 1715, Louis XIV. died. He was not quite seventy-seven, and he had been king of France for over seventy-two years. His was the longest reign in French history. The reign of Louis XIV., extending over almost three quarters of a century, and controlled during all that time by the same political principles, furnished an opportunity for the full development of the theory of government which that monarch professed. It con- trasts forcibly with the rapid fluctuations of more re- cent times. A period of equal length in French his- tory takes us from the time when Turgot was dismissed from the counsels of Louis XVI. because his policy was too liberal, to the republic of 1848 ; in that of England, from the endeavors '')f George III. to in- crease the influence of the crown, to the repeal of the corn laws under Peel ; in that of the United States, from the day that Washington was first inaugiarated President, to the battle of Bull Run. When we con- 300 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. sider the changes in political institutions, in social conditions, in intellectual beliefs, which those coun- tries have experienced during seventy years, we can appreciate the results produced by a government which, during such a period, followed an unchanging policy. The theor}' of government which was professed by Louis XIV., and which during his reign was brought to a high degree of development, was, that the absolute power of the monarch should be unfettered either by the aristocracy, by the representatives of the nation, or by the action of independent local bodies. Authority, as he believed, should be lodged in the king alone, and upon the central government should devolve the care of the interests of the kingdom as a whole, and of the smaller political bodies of which it was com- posed. The growth of royal power at the expense of the au- thority once exercised by a feudal aristocracy was far from being a novel principle ; it was not devised by Richelieu, nor first developed by Louis XIV. Such had been the tendency of French development from the days of Hugh Capet, from the time when it can properly be said that there was a kingdom of France. It had been interrupted by many vicissitudes, by the misery and disasters of the Hundred Years' War, and more recently by the wars of religion ; but though its progress had been slow, it had also been sure. This development of the royal office was required, alike that France might exercise a larger influence, and that she might enjoy .i greater prosperity. With but few exceptions durinj a period of six hundred years, when the authority of the king was well established, the country enjoyed comparative order and prosperity ; CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 301 and when the authority of the king was impaired, the influence and the well-being of France were less- ened. In other words, order and the opportunity for improvement were_only found under the protection of the monarch. The condition of France when Richelieu assumed power was far removed from that of France under Philip the Fair or Louis XI. The cardinal found the influence of the aristocracy diminished, and he left it more diminished. The Prince of Cond^, under- the regency of Marie de Medici, no longer possessed an independent authority such as had been exercised by the Duke of Brittany under Louis XI. He was, however, a much more powerful nobleman than his grandson under Louis XIV. When the reign of Louis XIII. began, there were nobles who still had a certain degree of local influence and authority, who retained some relics of their feudal foothold, whose position did not depend wholly on the offices with which they might be intrusted by the king. This was not so a century later. The nobility still pos- sessed privileges, but they no longer possessed power. Princes and dukes looked to the monarch's warrant for their authority, and they could look nowhere else. Deprived of that, they were as powerless as an arti- san in his shop, or a peasant on his acre of land. It was the policy of Richelieu to destroy the rem- nants of authority of the feudal aristocracy. His traditions were followed by Mazarin and Louis XIV. The troubles of the Fronde do not deserve the name of an aristocratic, much less of a popular reaction. They were the turmoils excited by selfish intriguers against the authority of an unpopular foreigner ; their only importance was in the harm which they did. 302 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. The reactionary tendencies of the little group of well- meaning and unwise men, who built their hopes upon the Duke of Burgundy, had no opportunity for their develoj)ment. At no time after tht^ death of Mazarin was there any more possibility of a French nobleman asserting his authority against that of the king, than there is of the Duke of Devonshire inciting a rebellion against Queen Victoria. The overthrow of the independent authority of the aristocracy was certainly advantageous to France. Their influence had ceased to be beneficial; it was impossible that it should continue to exist. A grad- ual waning of their power has been the usual fate of bodies which, like the French aristocracy, constituted a privileged caste. The English nobility consisted of a number of persons possessing a certain political authority, who were freely recruited from the com- monalty, whose families were commoners, who had themselves often been commoners for a good part of their lives. They long continued the leaders of a community with which, to a large extent, they were identified in feeling and sentiment. But in France every member of a noble family was noble. The privileges which belonged to the duke belonged to all his offspring. They were removed from the rest of the nation, as he was himself. Like the sons of the Brahmin, they were of a different caste from the Pariah. They could not become the representatives of a comnmnity from which they were separated by law and by sentiment. Members of the third estate were ennobled, or were allowed to share in the im- munities possessed by the nobility, but the body of nobles, though inci-eased, remained distinct. In the eighteenth century there were in France over 200,000 CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 303 persons noble by birtli, privileged by law, constitut- ing one of tlie three estates of the kingdom.^ In Eng- land under Queen Anne, about two hundred members constituted the order of the jjeerage. Such a differ- ence goes far to account for the different political de- velopment of the two countries. The authority of the French throne was svifficieut to destroy the power of the nobility, and it could also have accomplished the task of making them equal before the law with the rest of the community. The attempt was not made. Such a measure would have been a social revolution, but more than any one change it would have tended to avert a political revolution, and to preserve the monarchy as an institution in France. The history of the eighteenth centuiy shows how the continuance of prerogatives and immunities which had no longer any reason for existence, which were the rudimentary and atrophied organs of political life, helped to pre- pare the Revolution of 1789. The incurable egoism of the privileged could be overborne only by the luonarchy. Cities, officials, burgesses, trades, as well as nobles and clergy, pos- sessed privileges, different in degree, but all to some extent galling. It was contrary to human nature that these shoidd be voluntarily surrendered. No men have ever been granted advantages by the law, whether social, political, or commercial, without honestly be- lieving that the safety and welfare of the state de- pended upon their preservation. So far, therefore, as the monarchy attacked the position of the aristo- cracy, the criticism to be passed upon the government 1 This figure represents the entire body of nobles of all ages. M. Taine estimates the number at only 140,000, which seems to me to be too low. 304 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. of Louis XIV. is, not that it went too far, but that it did not go far enough. The question is more embarrassing when we con- sider the influence of the centralizing tendencies of his reign upon the local institutions of France. There were two causes for the existence of numerous and diversified forms of local government and provincial institutions in that country. Such had been the con- dition of all European countries during the Middle Ages. France itself had been built up, province by province, and sometimes city by city, the newly ac- quired territories retaining the privileges and customs which they had possessed before they were merged into the kingdom of the French. Thus few countries originally contained a greater diversity of legal sys- tems and local institutions. In no other nation, per- haps, has the tendency been stronger towards centrali- zation. The Revolution followed in the footsteps of Richelieu and Louis XIV., and its traditions are adopted by the French republic of to-day. The results of the action of many of these local bod- ies were unsatisfactory. Incoherent powers in sterile union accomplished nothing.^ Yet even in their im- perfect development they possessed some of the ad- vantages which usually belong to the regulation of local affairs by those of the vicinage. In a few of the provinces representative bodies still existed, having an authority analogous to that of the States General for the kingdom. They were regarded by the govern- ment with an evil eye. The governors were directed to shorten their sessions.^ " The close of the States," ^ Thomas, Une province sous Louis XI V. 2 Colbert to superintendent, December 19, 1670. " Vons ne sauriez rien faire de plus agrdable h sa Majestd que de terminer en peu de temps I'assemblde des Estats de Languedoc." See, also, Lettres, iv. 63 et pas. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 305 wrote a minister, " is the end of agitation and of vexa- tion to good citizens." ^ The States were warned that unless they were sub- missive, it would be long before they would again be allowed to assemble.^ The superintendents disputed their jurisdiction. They were abolished in many of the provinces where they had once existed. Langue- doc, Provence, Burgundy, Brittany, and Artois were the principal districts in which provincial States still remained. Under Louis XIV., their power of fixing the quota to be contributed by the province to the general government became little more than nominal, but it was not so at the beginning of his reign. Then the amount of the grant was often a subject of long wrangling between the assemblies and the repre- sentatives of the crown. The nobles and the clergy were usually ready to accede to any demands made by the sovereign, but the delegates of the third estate were less tractable. " This is excusable," wrote a governor, " because it is the third estate which has to bear almost all the impositions." ^ Various measures were adopted to induce the delegates to comply with the king's desires. The unruly were sometimes sent into banishment ; money was freely used ; a large proportion of the delegates could be reached by bribes, and the authorities at Paris authorized the expenditure of the requisite sums.^ These evidences of indejien- dence disappeared as the absolute authority of Louis 1 Cor. Adm., i. 13. * Lettres de Colbert, iv. 68. " Vous pouvez les assurer que de longtemps ils no se verrout ensemble." — Letter to Count of Giignan, December 11, 1671. ^ Louis of Bourbon to Colbert, June 18, 1662. * The details of this can be found in Lettres de Colbert and Correspondance Administrative sous Louis XIV. 300 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. XIV. became firmly established. "I speak in the name of a king, and a king- who rnles," said the Prince of Conti to the States of Languedoc. The gov- ernor had only to announce the requirements of the sovereign, and they were acceded to without question. Still the condition of the pi'ovinces which retained their local States was usually more prosperous than that of the rest of France. Even if they were sub- jected to the same burdens, the collection was in their own hands, and this advantage was sufficient to affect materially the condition of the people. The cost of carrying on the state is a grave problem at all times, but the question of taxation was more serious in the age of Louis XIV. than it is to-day. The expense of the government was larger in proportion to the wealth of the community. The maintenance of large armies, the salaries of an inordinate number of offi- cials, as well as the costly surroundings of the sover- eign, made the administration of Louis XIV. as ex- pensive as modern governments, while the wealth of the country was vastly less. Not only did the taxes consume a larger part of the national income, but the exemption of the richer classes from a considerable portion of their burden rendered it more grievous for the poor. This condition was aggravated by the cost of collection. When we consider the profits of the farmers of taxes, the frauds of officials, the forced sales of the cows, the crops, and the furniture of the peasant who had no ready money, it is not too much to say that every hundred francs of which the gov- ernment had the benefit cost one hundred and fifty francs to the taxpayer.^ Now, the expense of collecting one hundred francs does not amount to two francs. 1 Bois Guillebert, a governmental official, estimated the cost CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 307 The effect of Colbert's reforms was shown in the increased prospei'ity which France enjoyed during the first years of his administration. Colbert, however, was too conservative to introduce any radical changes in the imposition and collection of taxes. Under him a bad system was well administered. Under his suc- cessors the same system remained, and the former evils reappeared. One marked difference distinguished the provinces with local States, and its effects illustrate the importance of wisdom in modes of taxation. It is much the fashion to sneer at economic laws, and to deride the theorists who attach weight to them. The study of history shows that the communities by which they are disregarded suffer in purse, as much as the popvdations of the East who disregard the laws of hygiene suffer in health. In the most of France, the taille was imposed on the supjiosed amount of the personal propei-ty of the taxpayer. Its imposi- tion was attended by the irregularities and the abuses that are inseparable from that system. One was taxed too much ; another escaped altogether. One lived in squalor, lest he should be suspected of hav- ing money ; another corrupted the assessor and was left off the roll ; his neighbors were obliged to pay his quota, and sought in vain for redress.^ In the provinces where the taille was collected by means of the local States, it was imposed upon the land. It was assessed and collected with ease and with cer- of collecting at a much higher figure. — Letter to Vauban, August 22, 1704. A flecret of 1709 says that the expense of collection in Burgundy, which was a pays d'Etats, was from one fourth to one half of the amount of the taille. 1 There are innumerable complaints of such abuses iu the official correspondence. 308 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. tainty. There were few unjust exemptions ; the rate was free from violent fluctuation ; farmers and peas- ants bought land or adjusted their rents with refer- ence to an impost which was certain and uniform. The contemporary writers all admit the advantages of a system which the general government failed to introduce in the rest of France.^ In the administration of the smaller local bodies we find less efficiency and more extravagance. A great number of municipalities still retained the right to choose their local officers, and exercised a considerable deoree of self-srovernment. Some of these could trace their institutions back to the days of the Roman dominion. Others held their charters for services rendered their sovereign in wars against Edward of England or Charles of Burgundy. Many had received grants of privileges from their feudal lord, which had been confirmed by the monarch. These local rights were much curtailed under Louis XIV., usually upon the pretext that the inefficiency of the officials needed the supervision of the general government. Such accusations were often well founded. Most of the towns had incurred liabilities which they met with difficulty. In proportion to their wealth, the cities were more heavily in debt in the seventeenth century than they are in the nineteenth.^ Many of them were ^ Colbert was among those who perceived the advantages de- rived from this mode of taxation. He seems to have desired its extension, but he was unable to carry his projects into execution. Arthur Young, Travels, p. 20, edit, of 1889, says : " We are now in Berri, a province governed by a provincial assembly ; consequently the roads good and made without corvdes." This provincial assembly in Berri was recent, but in a few years it effected great improvements in the condition of the province. ^ Illustrations of this can be found in Correspondance des Con- troleurs Generaux, and in Lettres de Colbert. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 309 entirely bankrupt. The revision o£ their indebted- ness, which Colbert undertook, proved so great a task that it was not completed during the twenty-two years of his ministry. The local officers were usually chosen by a small body of electors, the principal burgesses of the town. On the whole, their administration was no better than that of our modern city governments, elected by uni- versal suffrage. It is doubtful whether it was as good. Inefficiency was common and corruption was not rare. There are constant complaints of the expenses of the officials. Mayors and aldermen went up to Paris, nominally to protect the interests of their fellow-citi- zens, and enjoyed at their expense a trip which was as rare a luxury then as a journey to America is now. Junketino; at the cost of the community was a more serious evil in Marseilles and Bordeaux than it is in New York and Philadelphia.^ The citizens of Mar- seilles complained that their consuls must needs go to Aix with a coach-and-four, and spend over five thou- sand livres in the display of unbecoming style.^ Large disbursements were often explained by the necessity of bribing the ministers and courtiers whose assistance was sought. The deputy of Boulogne wrote his con- stituents that he had given four hundred and fifty florins to persons of distinction, in order that they might favor the interests of the city.^ By a series of edicts Louis XIV. deprived these cen- 1 The references to such trips, and complaints of their ex- orbitant cost, are very frequent in the documents relating to municipalities. 2 Arch. Nat. H., 1314. 8 Inv. Arch. Boulogne, 988, cited by Babeau, La ville sous Van- den regime. 310 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. tres of local political life of the independence which they had enjoyed. The cities were forbidden to levy any new imposts, except by authority of the king.^ They were required to submit their expenses to the sui^erintendent, who represented the general govern- ment, and these could not exceed a specified amount without the consent of the royal council.^ In 1692, the right to elect municipal officers was taken from them ; the general government assumed this function, and disposed of the offices at prices varying with their importance and their emoluments. This measure seemed to extinguish what little life was still left in the municipal organizations. Like many other im- portant political changes, it was adopted solely as a means of raising money. Kings have destroyed the liberties of their subjects from a desire to get money, as subjects in turn have overthrown the au- thority of their kings from an unwillingness to pay it. Louis sold these offices to those who wished to purchase them, but he was equally willing to sell them to the municipal corporations themselves. The most of them clung to the remnants of their political exist- ence, and purchased from the government the right to choose their own officials. The process was so sim- ple, and usually so efficacious, a way of raising money, that it was several times resorted to during the eigh- teenth century. A city paid for the privilege of electing its officers, only to be deprived of it after a few years, unless it would again pay ransom for its independence. The vitality of the city and town governments in France was thus impaired during the reign of Louis 1 Arret of 1GG5. 2 Edict of April, 1683. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 311 XIV., and never again have they possessed the impor- tance which they had during the Middle Ages. In the eighteenth century, a country parish could not repair the roof of the church which the wind had damaged, nor rebuild the crumbling wall of the parsonage, with- out the authority of the government.^ The theories of centralized administration under the old resime survived the Revolution, and are found with little modification in the French republic. It is probable that the material condition of these small political bodies was benefited by the change ; the superintendent was usually a much more intelli- gent man than the mayor or the alderman, and he was quite as honest. The injury which resulted from this phase of centralization was indirect. The towns- people lost their interest in aif airs over which they ex- ercised merely a nominal control. At Dijon, early in Louis's reign, 1,500 and 1,600 votes were cast at muni- cipal elections, in 1711 only 311, and only 349 in 1714. The history both of England and of the United States shows that the education of the citizen in the manage- ment of the affairs of his town or city is the best training for an intelligent performance of his duties as a member of the state. The man who has acquired correct views about country roads and the town pump is usually fitted to vote and act with judgment on questions which affect the welfare of the republic. The French of the provinces were deprived of this training. They remained ignorant and apathetic con- cerning a government in which they had no part. " A parish," said Turgot, " is a collection of hovels, and of inhabitants who are as passive as their huts." All intellectual and political life centred in Paris. The ^ Tocqiieville, L'ancien Regime, 75. 312 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. influence of that city on the revolutions of the last hundred years is one of their most striking features. The destiny of France has been decided at Paris, as that of the empire was decided at Rome. This was not the case to the same extent in the earlier history of the kingdom. To the centralizing tendencies of the reign of Louis XIV. the increase in the influence of the capital was largely due. The French Parliaments were also subjected to vig- orous repression at the hands of the king ; they were stripped of their political power. The part taken by the Parliament of Paris in the disturbances of the Fronde excited the animosity of Louis XIV. while he was still a lad. Parliament and Jansenist were the two names which, during all his life, were most odious to him. One of his first public performances, when only a youth of sixteen, had been to appear before the Parliament of Paris, booted and spurred and with whip in hand, and to tell the members roughly that he demanded an unquestioning obedience. It was then that the famous apocryphal remark, " L'etat c'est moi," was supposed to have been uttered by the young king.^ The Parliaments during Louis's reign were forced to confine themselves to their legitimate duties ; they were judicial bodies and nothing more. The tenacious spirit of these organizations was not overcome during the sixty years that they dared not question the com- mand of the master. Immediately after Louis's death, they were influential enough to treat with the regent, and to set aside the will of the sovereign whom they had long obeyed. We shall find them in the eight- eenth century playing an active, though not often a ^ France under Richelieu and Mazarin, ii. 279. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 313 useful, part in the state. These bodies of lawyers were more successful in resisting the attacks of the central government than any other of the political institutions of France ; but this power of resistance was not accompanied by an equal amount of wisdom. Of the political organizations, which were to some extent independent of the monarchy, the Parliaments were the most tenacious of life, and their existence was of the least value to the community.^ When Louis died, in 1715, the population of France had somewhat diminished ; trade was disordered, and agriculture was not prosperous. In a famous passage. La Bruyere has described the condition of the peas- ants under Louis XIV. : " One sees certain wild ani- mals, male and female, scattered over the country, black, livid, burned by the sun, attached to the soil, which they cultivate with an invincible pertinacity. They have an articulate voice, and when they stand erect they show a human face, and in fact they are men. At night they retire into their dens ; they live on water, black bread, and roots." ^ This picture is somewhat overcolored. Certainly, the condition of the tillers of the soil was sufficiently miserable. They were often hungry and always dirty. But the great moralist was led by his love of glitter- ing contrasts to make his portrait more striking than the original. He intended by his description to show how despicable was the condition of the peasants, quite as much as to show how lamentable it was. An evil in French society, far more serious than the lack 1 An account of the organization of the French Parliaments and of the growth of their political authority will be found in France under Richelieu and Mazarin, i. 379-391. 2 La Bruyere, ii. 61, De Vhomme. 314 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. of soap in the hovels of the poor, was that the rich re- garded the peasantry with the same feelings that the planters of the Sonthern States entertained towards their slaves. The distinction of classes destroyed any community of sentiment. Later in the century, the philosophical literature of the day produced some change in this respect. Interest in the welfare of the lower orders became fashionable. Even then, it was not sufficiently universal or well grounded to be of much service in solving the social problems of France. The government of Louis XIV. exercised, however, an important influence in preparing France for the increasing prosperity of the eighteenth century. It established order throughout the kingdom ; it swept away the last traces of feudal and mediaeval lawless- ness. The advantages which would naturally have resulted wei^e hindered during the reign of Louis himself by long wars and unwise financial measures. But the work was done. The first requisites for pros- perity, freedom from internal commotion and private violence, the unquestioned supremacy of the law, were established in France. After Louis's death the coun- try enjoyed long seasons of peace. Its commercial system became more liberal. The petty shopkeeping of the Middle Ages was succeeded by larger business ventures. France was in a position to reap the full benefit of these changes. The impetus to trade which was given by the enterprises of Law, and which more than counterbalanced the temporary disasters that followed the ruin of his system, the economical theo ries of the physiocrats, the reforms of Turgot and of his disciples, could have their full effect. From 1715 to 1785, the population of France increased thirty- CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 315 three per cent, and its foreign trade five-fold. This great advance was, in no inconsiderable part, due to the fact that the centralized government of Louis XIV. had secured for his subjects and for their posterity the blessings of undisturbed tranquillity and order. In this reign we can find the beginning of another important social and economical change. When Col- bert commenced his ministry, the trade institutions of the Middle Ages were still in force. Almost every branch of industry was in the hands of some corpora- tion, which jealousl}'^ guarded for its members the ex- clusive right to exercise it. Admission was obtained by a long apprenticeship ; by strict regulations as to the number that might be received, the dangers of excessive competition were sought to be prevented. These restrictions upon trade undoubtedly increased the price of commodities, and tended to check any large development of industry. Improvements came slowly where competition was restricted. The en- deavor of each organization to hold the monopoly of some branch of industry excited constant quarrels as to where one trade began and another stopped. End- less litigation grew out of such questions. For two hundred years the disputes of the bootmakers and the cobblers were before the courts, in order to determine in what condition of dilapidation the shoe escaped the jurisdiction of him who had the right to make, and belonged to him who had the right to repair. The contests between the bakers and the pastry-cooks, the tailors and the menders, were equally involved. It was almost impossible for any new invention to avoid the attacks of those who claimed that by it their privi- leges would suffer. When Erard commenced the man- ufacture of the pianos which have become so famous, 316 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. the corporation of liitemakers declared that his in- struments would deprive them of their vested rights. Onl}^ through the influence of the queen was he al- lowed to proceed.^ The sumptuous dinners and the liberal fees, by which the members of many crafts were obliged to celebrate their admission to the privileges of the order, were abuses of less importance. The masterpiece, by which the apprentice must prove his skill, became little more than an opportunity for display. We find the officers of one city charged with the duty of eating a turkey, and deciding whether it was sufficiently well roasted, and garnished, and basted, to justify the ad- mission of the artist into the worshipful company of the cooks. The endeavors of Colbert to organize great indus- tries, to start manufactories where the work was to be done on the large scale of more modern times, broke into this system of guilds and petty trades. These innovations were carried further in the eighteenth cen- tury. During that period, France passed from the industrial systems of the Middle Ages to those which now prevail in all great commercial states. The medi- eval guild passed away, to be succeeded by the mod- ern manufacturer. The results of such chanfjes were seen in the progress of invention, the increase in wealth, the growth in production, which characterized the industrial history of France during that century. It is not so clear that the effect of these changes on the social condition of the body of the workmen was at once beneficial. The development of industry must sooner or later be of advantage to all who labor. The mechanics and artificers of the present day share in ' Levasseur, Classes ouvrieres, ii. 40G. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 317 the material benefits which have been obtained for the community. But the apprentice of a mediaeval guild, though he went without much that his descendant en- ]oys, had a somewhat different social position ; his lot was more intimately connected with that of his mas- ter ; no apparent conflict of interests drove him to combine with his fellows against his employer. The industrial revolution which began under Colbert, and which has since proceeded further, created the feeling among large bodies of men that a great gulf divided them from their employers. The relations of appren- tices towards masters, whose places they might expect to fill, were different from those which exist between a modern employer of labor and his hundreds or thou- sands of employees. The apprentice, though a servant in his master's family, felt himself a member of it. If he was often scolded when well, he was generally cared for when ill. The employee looks often with sullen envy at the mansion of the great manufacturer, the threshold of which he will never cross, where his name is unknown, and his welfare or adversity are matters of indifference. Whatever may have been the other benefits residting from such changes, their tem- porary effect has been to develop social classes, among which the violences of the Revolution and the Com- mune found eager advocates. The changes made in legal procedure belong to the beneficial measures of this reign. The reforms which Colbert desired were not wholly carried into effect, but by the code of Louis XIV. important ameliora- tions were introduced. By it the practice of the law continued to be I'cgulated until it was replaced by the code of Napoleon. To simplify and unify legal sys- tems is always one of the most important duties of 318 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. the legislator, and such measures were especially needed in France. Provinces of the written law and of the unwi'itten law were in equal confusion. It was not until the llevolution that the French enjoyed the blessing of a uniform system of law for the whole land, but the code of Louis effected some improvement in a mass of incoherent mediaeval customs and pro- cedure. Imperfect legal systems breed litigation. The great frequency of lawsuits in France during the seventeenth century attracts our attention. The cost of legal pro- cedure was an item in the expenses of provinces and cities, as well as of individuals, far more important, relatively, than it is at present. The duration of law- suits is an evil now, but it was a more serious evil then. There was little exaggeration in saying, that to be a litigant was to have an occupation ; that a law- suit begun in youth endured till age, and was left to posterity.^ The volume of business in France two hundred years ago was vastly less than it is now, but there were more lawsuits. Colbert sighed for some means by which to lessen the ruinous amount of litiga- tion, and his desire for reformation in this respect has been gratified. Some improvement can be seen in the eighteenth century. Chalon sur Saone was probably a fair type of other French towns. In 1655 there were fifty-two advocates in that city, and in 1787 there were but thirty-one.^ The French judges no longer occupy the position which they held under the old regime. The loss of the political authority which the courts once sought to exercise to some extent accounts for this change ; but 1 Montesquieu, " C'est un dtat que d'etre plaideur," etc. ^ Statistics given by Babeau, La vie rurale. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 319 the fact that litigation absorbs a smaller proportion of the time and wealth of the community has tended to diminish the imjiortance of lawyers as a class. It is not unlikely that such may be the result of the devel- opment of civilization in all countries. The system of government which reached its high- est development under Louis XIV. was at the same time nearing its end. Duiang seventy years, he and his ministers labored to render the power of the mon- arch unrestrained, and a little over seventy years later the monarchy ceased to exist. The system proved unfitted for the needs of the eighteenth century. Yet the absolute power of Louis XIV. was far from be- ing the capricious despotism of a Sultan of Turkey ; though in no constitution was found a definite limit, beyond which the sovereign could not exercise his wiU, he was restrained by institutions which, although weakened, could not be entirely disregarded, by cus- toms and traditions which controlled the French king, as the unwritten principles of the constitution are respected by the English Parliament. However abso- lutely the uncontrolled power of the king was pro- claimed, it was held in check by the innumerable usages and traditions of a highly civilized society. That such a form of government was the best for the nation as well as for the sovereign, Louis XIV. believed as implicitly as any man can believe in any institution, human or divine. His faith in the absolute power of the king was as enthusiastic as the faith of Harmodius and Aristogeiton in the liberty of the people. " Kings," he wrote, " are absolute lords, and have by nature the full and free disposition of the property of all, alike that of the church and of the laity. . . . Nothing establishes so surely the happi- 320 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. ness and welfare of the country as the perfect union of all authority in the person of the sovereign. The least division works great evils. . . . The prince can- not allow his authority to be shared by others, with- out making himself responsible for the infinite disor- ders which ensue. . . . To receive the law from his people is the worst calamity that can befall one of our rank. The will of God is that he who is born a sub- ject should obey and make no question." ^ Such was the theory of the master, and such was also the belief of his subjects. The bodies which still possessed any independent power naturally sought to preserve it, but the nation as a whole was content with the administration of Louis XIV. The misfortunes of his later years caused some grumbling, but a desire that the nation should take a more active part in its own government hardly found articulate utterance. The people did not enjoy political freedom, and they felt no regret at the deprivation. The French boasted of their loyalty to their sovereign, and viewed with horror rebellion and regicide among the English. At the close of Louis's reign, one might well have thought that the system of government which he had per- fected was destined to a long duration. Certainly, there was little to indicate the rapid change in senti- ments and beliefs of the next seventy years. Yet the monarch had unwittingly done much to excite this intellectual revolution. The difference in relisrious sentiment is one of the marked distinctions between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries in France. The seventeenth century was an age of faith. Great preachers flourished. New religious orders were organized. The older orders of the church * (Euvres de Louis XIV., t. i. 59 et passim. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 321 developed new life and new activity. The Jesuits, the Jansenists, the members of the Oratory, the preachers of the Mission, the disciples of the Port Royal, all worked for the cause of Christianity. The charities of St. Vincent de Paul and the austerities of La Trappe were alike manifestations of a sense of religious responsibility. Such an era, characterized by a broad-minded charity and by an active zeal in good works, was fol- lowed within a century by a great increase of infidel- ity. This result was largely due to the measures of Louis XIV. and of his religious advisers in the lat- ter part of his reign. Bigotry and persecution be- came the recognized manifestations of Christian zeal. An epoch of self-sacrifice, of pity for man's physical woes and zeal for his spiritual enlightenment, was succeeded by one where the narrowest conception of religion was extolled, and the slightest deviation from it was punished. The Huguenots, who were an important element in French religious life, were obliged either to leave France, or to live in a condition of half-disguised hypocrisy. The vigorous intellects of the Jansenists were exposed to a long persecution, from which their pure morals did not save them. By the endeavors to compel an acceptance of the bull Unigenitus, Louis and Le Tellier left behind them a heritage of strife. The king was little versed in such questions, and his zeal was measured by his ignorance. His writings show the nervous apprehension of Jansenism which his Jesuit confessors had instilled into him. The Duke of Orleans claimed that when he wished to take an officer with him to Spain, the king at once pro- tested and declared that the man was a Jansenist. 322 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. " He cannot be that," rejoined tlie duke, " for he does not believe in a God at all." " That I did not know," said the monarch, and no further objection was luade.^ Even if the incident was colored by the malice of Or- leans, the king's ignorance and bigotry in religious matters do not require anecdotes to illustrate them. The devotional zeal which was assumed by the courtiers, during the latter years of the reign, was in many cases only a cloak by which to advance their interests, or to avoid the royal disapproval. Alike the king, Mme. de Mainteuon, and the Duke of Bur- gundy favored the employment of those who made loud professions of religious zeal. They sowed for- malism to reap hypocrisy. The bigotry and the per- secutions of Louis XIV. were succeeded by the license and the infidelity of the regency ; they prepared the way for the revolt against religious belief which char- acterized the eighteenth century in France. Vincent de Paul and St. Cyran had been succeeded by Bossuet and Pascal ; La Chaise and Le Tellier were followed by Voltaire and Diderot. The age of Louis XIV. already seems remote, and we imagine it to be free from many of the grievances of the nineteenth century. The study of the past shows the existence of most of the evils which are deemed peculiar to the present. The stately halls of Versailles, the life of Paris when Racine wrote and Bourdaloue preached, seem removed from the vulgar ills of the present. But the same complaints were raised, and with as much foundation. The desire for gain was quite as strong. Money, it was said, made all equal. The valet, who had jobbed in government contracts with good fortune, chatted familiarly with 1 Related by the Duke of Orleans to St. Simon. CLOSE OF REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 323 the duke, and found all doors open to the parvenu who was sufficiently rich.^ The poor no longer showed a respectful courtesy to those of rank, but were sullen and bold.^ Children had forgotten the reverence due their parents ; a good servant was a treasure that could rarely be found. ^ The social evils which we believe to be new are usually very old. We may reflect with gratitude, that for many of the blessings which we now enjoy, one would search in vain in the age of Louis XIV. ; that thought is freer and educa- tion more general, labor is better paid and comfort more widespread, than when the great monarch took his daily walk in the gardens of Versailles. ^ Souvenirs serieux et comiques, 1708, pp. 178, 179. 2 Lettres d'un Sicilien. 8 Cited in Babeau, Les artisans d'autrefois. CHAPTER X. THE REGENCY, 1715. The monarchical feeling was strong among the French, but it extended only to living sovereigns. It was the personal embodiment of royalty for which the people entertained respect and affection. No na- tion showed less regard for its rulers when the breath was out of their bodies. To this Louis XIV. was no exception. His death excited no regret among his subjects, and his obsequies received no attention. The heart of the monarch was deposited with the Jesuits, who claimed its custody in death, as they had pos- sessed it in life. Not half a dozen of all his court were sufficiently interested to attend the ceremony. When his remains were taken to their resting-place at St. Denis, they received scanty marks of respect. Where the funeral cortege was not the object of in- sult, the people viewed it with indifference. Louis's death was the signal for the appearance of numerous satirical verses, which were bitter beyond precedent.^ " Our eyes were too full of tears during his life to have any left for his death," said one, while another ^ The heart of the king was given to the Jesuits, and his en- trails were buried at Notre Dame. " A St. Denis, eomme k Versailles, II est sans cceur et sans entrailles," wrote one libelist. THE REGENCY. 325 declared that, however cruel and heartless the king had been in his lifetime, he had imitated the Messiah in dying for the good of the world. Thirty funeral orations preserved at the National Library, all of which describe with eloquence the virtues and achieve- ments of Louis the Great, do not offset these lam- poons as indications of popular feeling. When so little respect was paid to the obsequies of the king, it was unlikely that his last wishes should be regarded. Louis XIV. left a will, solemnly de- posited in the custody of the Parliament, by which he sought to regulate the government during the mi- nority of his successor. There were many reasons which led him to regard this period with special so- licitude. Louis XV. was but five years of age when he succeeded to the throne of an old man of seventy- seven. His minority would continue for eight years, and, though upon completing his thirteenth year a king of France was by law supposed to assume the control of the state, it was impossible that he should become his own master at so immature an aae. The disturbances in which France had been involved dur- ing the minority of Louis XIV. suggested the pos- sibilities which might be in store for his successor. Even if the altered condition of the country rendered unlikely any recurrence of the troubles of the Fronde, Louis was desirous for the continuance of the policy and the principles which he had adopted. Tlie person who was entitled to the office of regent during the minority that was soon to begin did not enjoy the confidence of the king, and was an object of aversion to almost all of those by whom the monarch was surrounded. The Duke of Orleans was nephew of Louis XIV., and by virtue of the provisions of the 32G FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. treaty of Utrecht he now stood next to the dauphin in the line of succession. Tlie mother of Louis XV. was dead, and the position of regent belonged to his nearest male relative. No edict or statute so declared, but such was deemed to be the well-established po- litical tradition. It rested, indeed, on scanty pre- cedent. There had been three minorities during the last two hundred years, but in each case the regency had been intrusted to the mother of the king. It was necessary to go back to the period of the Eng- lish wars to find this authority claimed as a matter of right by the first prince of the blood. But the growth of strict monarchical theories, by which the throne was held to descend in the royal family according to the rules of primogeniture, and in conformance with divine law, seemed by analogy to secui'e the control of the state during a minority to the prince next in succession. Louis XIV. was the last man to seek to interfere with such principles, even if the rights se- cured by them devolved upon a person whom he did not regard with favor. The nearest relative of Louis XV. was his uncle, Philip V. of Spain. Had Philip remained Duke of Anjou, his right to the regency would have been be- yond question. Plis grandfather regarded him with tender affection, and his desire for an intimate union between the French and Spanish peoples would have been gratified if their policy for a number of years could have been directed by the same person. But the allies during the late war, in order to guard against the possible union of the two thrones, had in- sisted that Philip should renounce all his rights as a French prince. This had been one of the conditions of the peace of Utrecht, and had been embodied in THE REGENCY. 327 the provisions of that treaty. It was with rehictance that Louis consented to this sacrifice, but he had agreed to it, and he had compelled his grandson to execute the renunciation with all the required formali- ties. Though Philip had not dared to disobey his grandfather's commands, he was as faithless to this engagement as he was to all engagements. In dupli- city, Philip V. was as far the superior of Louis XIV. as he was his inferior in every kingly quality. Indeed, the extent of falseness of which he was capable is surprising, when we consider how limited was his intelligence. The ink was hardly dry upon the treaty which se- cured Philip his crown, when he endeavored to induce his grandfather to violate its conditions. The Spanish ambassador at Paris was instructed that, as the renun- ciations had not been freely executed, his Catholic Majesty felt that it was perfectly proper to disre- gard them.^ In conformity with these directions, the Cardinal del Judice labored with Torcy, the French foreign minister, to have Philip named by Louis as regent of France during the minority which, in all probability, would soon begin. Torcy, apparently, was not averse to such a step, but it met with an in- surmountable obstacle in Louis XIV.'s resolution to keep faith with the allies, and to save his country from the possibility of another war. In this, as in all he did in reference to the peace of Utrecht, Louis acted with firmness, with wisdom, and with the utmost good faith. The choice of Philip as regent of France would have excited the apprehensions which had been ^ Grimaldo to Judice, May 23, 1714. I owe the letters now contained in the Spanish archives to the learned and able work of M. Baudrillart, PhUij)pe V. et la Cour de France. 328 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY allayed by his renunciation, and would probably have again arrayed England, Holland, and Austria in arms aoainst France. The Spanish minister was informed that Louis was resolved to observe the terms of the treaty, to preserve peace, and to avoid any pretext for a rni)ture.^ While the king felt that his plighted faith and the welfare of his people excluded Philip from the re- gency, and that the Duke of Orleans was therefore entitled to it by right of birth, he desired so to restrict his authority that the policy of the state shoidd remain unchanged. Orleans's character and career were such as to justify, to some extent, the distrust with which he was regarded by his uncle. Philip, Duke of Or- leans, was now forty years of age. His father, the younger brother of Louis XIV., had been a man de- void of capacity and destitute of ambition ; effeminate in appearance and character ; whose existence was a nullity, excejDt as it was varied by weak and despicable vices. The duke's mother was a German princess by birth, and she always remained German at heart. Fifty years of life in France did not acclimate her to the atmosphere of Versailles. She had an acute mind, good morals, bad manners, and a vulgar tongue. Her only son, the future regent, was even further removed in thought and demeanor from the stately graces, the decorous conduct, the conservative views, of those by whom Louis XIV. was surrounded. In intelligence, in mental vigor, he was an extraordinary man, but he lacked the power of concentrating his abilities upon a 1 Judice to Philip, July 3, 1714 ; Torcy to Ursins, July 2, 1714 ; Louis to Philip, August 23, 1714 ; Louis to Iberville, August 22, 1714. "I shall not make the least change in the solemn renunciation of my grandson." THE REGENCY. 329 serious purpose. His mother said that he had every talent except that of making his talents of use. He was a good musician and composed some pretty operas ; he painted well ; he was a competent officer ; he was a good speaker ; there were few branches of learning with which he had not at least a superficial acquaint- ance. His tastes led him to one class of studies, which had much to do with the evil reputation from which he suffered during life. He had a fondness for chemistry, and amused himself by indulging in the experiments which still allured the students of that science. It was said that the duke and a craftsman of great repute were engaged in endeavors to make gold ; that he had a glass of some liquor in which he could see future events ; that he and his assistants often labored day and night in the great laboratory which he had built, occupied in repeated, though unsuccessful attempts to evoke the Devil, and to get on speaking terms with him.^ This was very harmless trifling, but it was enough to excite suspicion in a community where many still cherished a lingering belief in magic potions and black arts, and similar nonsense. Orleans was early married to his cousin, one of the illegitimate daughters of Louis XIV. She had little to make her attractive, and the marriage was con- tracted merely to gratify the wishes of the king. The young duke may have consented to the alliance from a politic desire to gain favor with the monarch, but his subsequent conduct rendered the sacrifice of no avail. He plunged into dissipation of every kind, and he had the weakness, not uncommon with young men, of wishing to be thought more wicked than he was. " My nephew is a braggadocio of vice," said Louis 1 Mem. de St. Simon, iv. 459, 462 ; ix. 262 et pas. 330 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. XIV. He was bad enough, without any need of brag- gin"": he drank too nnich; he luul numerous mistresses and many illegitimate children ; he was loud-spoken in his professions of infidelity. He cherished a hopeless admiration for the grand prior of France, who during forty years had never been to bed sober.^ He felt for him, says St. Simon, the veneration that a bishop has for a father of the church. Such conduct was distasteful to the king, and was little relished by the conunuuity. In 1712, the Duke of Burgundy, his wife, and his infant son died suddenly within a few days of each other. Appalled by such a series of calamities, the public insisted that they were due to foul play, and the voice of cahunny at once de- clared the Duke of Orleans to be the guilty man. He had been using his secret arts, his poisonous di-ugs, his noxious philters, to clear the way for himself to the throne ; he was already near it, and a few more mur- ders would make him king of France. He was hooted at in the streets when he attended the funeral of the dau- phin. " See the murderer ? " was heard from every side. There was not an iota of evidence to sustain these charges. No one now doubts that the Duke of Bur- gundy and his son died from natural causes. Orleans was a profligate, but he was as incapable of gaining a throne by murder as Fenelon or D'Aguesseau. He was not a man of violent ambition, and while his char- acter was weak, it was not criminal. He had no af- finity with a Richard III. If he had reaUy been the l)loodthirsty fiend that he was declared to be, he would not have stayed his hand when only the life of Louis XV. was between him and the throne, and when his position as regent made it easy to remove the last ob- stacle from the way. 1 Mem. de St. Simon, xi. 178. THE REGENCY. 831 With his usual good judgment, Louis XIV. at once recognized the lack of any foundation for these atro- cious calunmies, and he gave them no credence. But a lack of proof rarely interferes with the greedy accept- ance of such scandals by the multitude. A goodly i)ro- portion of the Parisian public believed that Orleans had murdered the young princes. AVhenever Louis XW was sick during the regency, many at once began to shake their heads, and to say that the regent was again at work with his j)liilters ; the name of poisoner always appeared in the libels with which he was attacked.^ The courtiers at Versailles for the most part adopted the opinion of the Paris bourgeoisie. Even those who did not believe the charges avoided anv intercourse with one who was under the ban of jjublic disapproval. He was shunned in the royal salon ; if he approached a group of courtiers, one after another slipped away, until he found liiniself alone.^ It illustrates Louis XIV.'s tenacity in following what he believed to be his duty that neither the calum- nies with which the Duke of Orleans was assailed, nor the hatred felt towards him by those nearest tlie king, nor the distrust of his character and his pur- poses entertained by the monarch himself, inchiced him to nominate any one else as regent. He regarded that office as due to Orleans by virtue of his birth and * When tlie young Louis XV. was taken to Versailles, in 1722, Pie man was put in the Bastille for saying that they would take ti;e king to Versailles and from there to St. Denis. " lie will never return," said many of the si)octators of his dcpurturo. — Journal de Marnls, ii. 288, 21)8. The Duke of Burgundy and his oldest son ha■ Though the weakness of the regent's character pre- vented him from effecting any important changes in the nature of the government, he anticipated many of the views which became prevalent in France half a century later. He was an admirer of the English political system ; he demanded liberty for himself, and he was willing to accord it to others. He loved to tell of the adventures of a young man who ventured to compete with Charles 11. for the affection of one of his favorites, and how the fortunate rival dared to show himself in the presence of the sovereign without fear of being sent to the Tower. Later in the century, English liberties were loudly praised in France, and lettres de cachet were de- nounced' as an unbearable tyrannj^, but hardly a trace ^ The arguments of St. Simon against the recall of the Huguenots can be found in his Memoires, t. xiii. 83 et seq. 352 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. of such sentiments can be found in the period of the i-eo-ency. One of the noblemen, to whom the regent rchitcd this anecdote with approval, declai-ed that such a condition of things was an insult to royalty and a scandal to the kingdom.^ A system of constitutional government, and guaranties for personal liberty, ex- cited little admiration among the bourgeoisie. They contx'asted their own tranquillity with the turmoil of England. " That nation is doomed never to be tran- quil, and to be the slave of the liberty of which it boasts, and which it pursues with such audacity," wrote one of the most intelligent of French lawyers of the English in 1722.2 The French indulged in the luxury of criticising their rulers, but there was no demand for important changes in the form of government. The evils that existed were regarded as the necessary evils of any government. Occasional complaints of taxation, occa- sional wrangles with the Parliament, were of no more* significance than similar manifestations in the past. The great majority of the public concerned themselves very little about the administration of affairs. They had no voice in it, and they regarded it as none of their business. Newspapers were almost unknown ; those which appeai'ed contained no news ; they were read only by the few who were interested in court gossip. The administration of Louis XIV. left to his suc- cessor a legacy of debt as well as of persecution. The indebtedness of the state was so heavy that it was impossible to pay the interest upon it, and meet the ordinary expenses of the government. In such a ^ Mem. de St. Simon, xi. 169 et seq. ^ Journal de Marais, ii. 293. THE REGENCY. 353 dilemma, its repudiation was suggested as the sim- plest policy to adopt. The conception of monarchical government strengthened the arguments for such a course. The nation was absorbed in the monarch ; the king was the state. If this were so, could it not be argued with plausibility that those who lent their money, lent it to the king ? Why should the burden of his recklessness be cast upon the nation when he had passed away ? Why was Louis •XV. more liable for the debts of his ancestor than any other grandson of a bankrupt grandsire? If the principle were es- tablished that money borrowed by a king of France was a debt against him alone, and was not binding upon his successors, it might indeed be difficult for future sovereigns to contract indebtedness, of which the payment would be problematical. But such a result would be a gain. A king would have to live within his income. He could not ruin himself and his country by undertaking wars to gratify his ambition, or by building palaces to please his vanity. The credit of the French kings was so bad that they could only borrow at ruinous rates ; it would be much better if they couLl not borrow at all.^ Such arguments were not regarded as valid by the regent. An endeavor was made to keep faith with the public creditor, but how to do it was a question that would have embarrassed a Colbert or a Turgot. The detail of the condition of the treasury is not im- portant. In round figures, the expenses of the govern- ment for the year 1715 were about 150,000,000 livres ; the gross receipts of taxation were 165,000,000, but after deducting the amount assigned to secure the 1 These views were well set out by St. Simon, but be was not the only one who held them. 35-i FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. payment of interest, less than 70,000,000 remained. There was a floating debt of nearly a milliard livres, and the entire indebtedness was over three milliards. The debt had increased twenty-fold in thirty years. Such were the financial results of the government of Louis XIV.^ The Duke of Noailles, the chief of the council of finances, wrote to Mme. de Maintenon : " We have found matters in a more terrible state than can be described ; both the king and his subjects ruined ; nothing paid for several years ; confidence entirely gone. Hardly ever has the monarchy been in such a condition, though it has several times been near its ruin. . . . The picture is not agreeable, but it is only too true." ^ A large portion of the debt had been contracted at usurious rates. The credit of the government was poor, and its financial system was bad. It had been the victim of its necessities during the war of the Spanish Succession, as it had been during the period of the Fronde. The treasury had been plundered under the ministry of Chamillart, as it had been plun- dered under the ministry of Fouquet. The same causes produced the same results. Those who dealt with the administration of the finances, who lent money to the government, or who obtained the farm of the taxes, made unconscionable profits in the sev- enteenth century, and they continued to do the same in the eighteenth century. The evil was never cured until there was a radical change in the system of the imposition and the collection of taxes. No intelligent ^ Forbonnais, Reckerckes sur les finances, t. ii. ; Lettres du Due de Noailles, and Deliberations du conseil des finances, MSS. Bib. Nat. ; Recherches historiques sur le systeme de Law, 1-14. ^ Noailles to Mme. de Maintenon, September 21, 1715. THE REGENCY. 355 effort was made at such a reformation until the ministry of Turgot. The financial system of the old regime was not destroyed until the Revolution. The Duke of Orleans and his advisers did now what had been done before : they obtained present relief by measures that were harsh and often unjust, and they left the system to breed further evils in the future. A rigorous examination was made into the nature of the indebtedness of the state, and the nomi- nal amount was largely reduced. The rate of interest was lowered on the sums that were held to be justly due. The frauds of those who dealt with the gov- ernment were notorious ; those who obtained the farm of the taxes paid to the state too little, and took from the people too much ; those who lent money to the king received usui-ious rates of interest. During the more disastrous period of the war of the Succession, it was said that, on an issue of 32,000,000 livres of rentes, the government received only 8,000, 000. ^ A special court was organized to investigate the frauds of government conti'actors and officials, and to inflict upon them such punishments and such fines as it saw fit.^ It was vested with an unlimited authority, which it exercised with harshness. Those who had dealt with the government were required to state the amount of their wealth, and they were then assessed on the theory that they had made too much. Samuel Ber- nard, the great banker, assessed himself 9,000,000 livres, and paid it volvintarily.^ The entire amount ^ Dutot, Reflexions politiques sur les Jinances, 866. Dutot was one of the officers of Law's bank. 2 Edicts, March 7 and 17, 1716 ; Anc. his frangaises, xxi. 80, 85 ; Declaration, September 18, 1716. 2 MS. Journal de la Re'gence, ii. 513. 350 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. of fines imposed by the Chamber of Justice was over 200,000,000, and the names of over 4,400 persons ap- peared on the lists. In addition to the loss of money, severe penalties were inflicted on many. The populace was exultant at the sufferings of a class of men whom it had little reason to love. One offender was con- demned to make reparation by marching to the pillory with bare feet, carrying a lighted torch, and bearing a sign on which were the words : " Robber of the people." After that, he was sent to the galleys. His sufferings excited no compassion, and the mob cried out to hang him. At the Tournelle, a brutal con- cierge fastened him to a tree, and allowed the mob, at four sous a head, to watch his misery and vent their reproaches. When another was exposed in the pillory, he was covered with mud hurled at him by the women that stood around. They even complained when he was allowed additional covering to protect his half- naked body from the excessive cold.^ Both of these criminals claimed that they had simply carried out the orders of men high in authority, and this was probably true. The severity with which the Chamber of Justice proceeded soon transferred popular sympathy to the side of the offenders, and a year after its organization the court was abolished.^ Its procedure was so arbi- traiy that, while some were punished too severely, many escaped altogether, and this was still more true of the fines. It is doubtful if the state received one half of the amounts imposed.^ Few men found it so hard to say No as the Duke of Orleans, and the 1 Journal de la Regence, ii. 391, 649. 2 Edict of March, 1717. 8 Mem. de Noailles, ed. Michaiul, 264. THE REGENCY. 357 facility of his character was utilized. It was an open scandal that a large number of financiers escaped paying anything to the state, by bribing those who had the ear of the regent. " For 300,000 livres I will get you a remission of your penalty," said a count to a contractor who had been fined 1,200,000. " Ah, Monsieur le Comte, you are too late," replied the contractor ; " I have already made a bargain with Mme. la Comtesse for 150,000." ^ If this conversa- tion was fictitious, it was a type of many bargains which were actually made and carried out. By the measures adopted, the nominal indebted- ness of the government was largely reduced, and the amount of the annual interest was diminished in still larger proportion. It was a partial bankruptcy, in justification of which it could be urged that a con- siderable proportion of the indebtedness was fraudu- lent, and that to pay it in full was impossible. The expenses of the government were also reduced. The regent secured peace for France during his ad- ministration, and as a result the cost of the army was lessened, and the extraordinary expenses, which had long swollen the budget, disappeared. With more questionable wisdom, a reduction of about ten millions was made in the sum spent annually on the navy .2 There was a great need of economy, but the navy was the last department in which it should have been practiced. The French marine was des- tined long to be neglected, and the result was disas- trous to the interests of that country. No successor arose to Colbert in the zeal which he had shown to develop the naval strength of France. ^ Cochiit, Laro, son si/st'eme et son epoqne. ^ Comparison des depenses de 171G avec celles de 1715 ; Forbon- nais, ii. 451; Projet des depenses, 1717, 1718. 358 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Some reductions were made in taxation, but it was cluirac'teiistic of the spirit of the old regime that the tax which was first reduced was the one which should have been last retained. A capitation tax had been imposed during the late war, the burden of which to some extent fell upon all classes. The repeal of it was vehemently demanded as soon as the war was ended. The government hazarded a deficit, rather than continue a duty which was in part paid by the privileged classes. The capitation was offensive be- cause it was fair.^ A resort to the unfortunate practices of the late reign counteracted the benefits that might have re- sulted from some of the measures adopted by the regent. The value of the currency was lowered. The government called it in for recoinage, and hoped to make a profit of 200,000,000 livres on receiving gold- pieces at sixteen livres and reissuing them at twenty. Hardly one third of this amount was realized.^ The depreciation of the currency seemed a temporary advantage to debtors, but the injury done to business at large more than offset this gain. Trade continued dead. There was still an annual deficiency in the government budget. Lemontey estimates that from 814 to 1726 the amount of silver contained in a French livre was re- duced from twelve ounces to one sixth of an ounce, 1 The relics of the capitation tax were so arranged that in time it fell almost entirely on the unprivileged classes. A count who on an income of 40,000 livres originally paid from 1,700 to 2,500 livres, shortly before the Revolution paid but 400. A bourgeois with 6,000 livres of revenue, who had at first paid 70 livres, at last paid 720. — Taine, Uancien Regime, 475, 476. 2 For these measures, see Lettres de Noa'dlef: and Registres du ComeU des Finances ; also, Forbonuais, ii. 389, 390, THE REGENCY. 359 and that, by fraudulent recoinages scattered over nine hundred years, the government had endeavored to plunder the people out of seventy-one times the entire value of coin in circulation.^ In 1726, under the ministry of Fleury, the value of silver and gold was at last placed substantially where it still remains. From then to the Revolution, France, for the first time in her history, experienced the benefits of a cur- rency of unvarying value. It is not strange that we should find in that period a greater prosperity than the country had ever before enjoyed. 1 Lemontey, i. 61. CHAPTER XI. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 1715-1717. There was little probability of important changes in the foreign policy of France while this remained under the control of a council. But there was an obscure retainer of the Duke of Orleans who had no fear of innovations, who was restless to make a place for himself in the world, and who combined industry and boldness with an acute and active mind. It was not strange that the influence of a body of respectable and incapable officials steadily grew less, and that the entire control of the foreign policy of the kingdom was soon in the hands of an able and a resolute man. The Cardinal Dubois has enjoyed the sad distinc- tion of being declared the most wicked, unscrupulous, and corrupt of all the prime ministers of France. Even historians of accuracy and fairness still refer to the power held by a low-born, profligate, and apostate priest, as the worst phase of degradation in the dissi- pation of the regency. Dubois was j)ortrayed as a man of the lowest order by the Duke of St. Simon, whose glowing pages have often been received as con- clusive evidence as to the events and the characters of his epoch. He was odious to his high-bred colleagues because ho was low-bred ; he incurred the unfavorable judgment of most of his contemporaries because, in DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 361 an age when innovations were regarded with sus- picion, he dared to depart from the political traditions of the past. With the exception of a few modern scholars, he has found none to defend him. Certainly Dubois was not a man of lofty ideals or of unselfish purposes. His morality was not edify- ing, but it compared favorably with that of most of his associates ; he was fond of money, but he was less greedy in its pursuit than the majority of those who had equ.al opportunities to acquire it ; he pushed his own fortunes with unremitting vigor, but he is not the only man in high position who has been guilty of that offense. If an unprejudiced study does not discover in Cardinal Dubois a statesman of the capacity of Richelieu, nor a patriot of the purity of Lafayette, it does show him to be a man of unusual ability, and not a man of unique badness. There is no reason for lamenting his tenure of office as a degradation to France. Careful investigation leaves the complexion of Dubois's moral character somewhat dusky, but it was by no means as black as it has been painted. If he is to be judged as a statesman, there is still less reason for regarding his elevation to power as un- seemly. There were few of those who had control of the affairs of France in the eighteenth century whose record was more creditable. Dubois was neither a trifler like Calonne, nor an imbecile like Brienne. If in character he was inferior to Fleury, in intellect he was his superior. Had France continued to be gov- erned by the policy of Dubois, she would have been spared the humiliation which she suffered from the follies and the vices of his successors. Guillaume Dubois was born at Brives in 1656. His father was a country doctor, who combined the 3(32 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. sale of drugs with the practice of his art. As the sou of the apothecary Dubois was always known, and it is certain that this had much to do with the dis- favor with which he was regarded by his contempo- raries. The young Dubois received a good education, chiefly because his promise as a student obfeined the patronage of those who were willing to aid him. At the age of twenty-seven, he took the first step on the road which was to lead to fortune : he was appointed iinder-preeeptor of the king's nephew, then known as the Duke of Chartres, who afterwards became the regent. This appointment is of itself the most con- clusive evidence that at that age Dubois had a repu- tation for good parts, and not a reputation for bad morals. He did not owe his promotion to influential kinsmen. He was recommended for the place by the head of the college where he had studied, who was a man of learning and piety ; and he obtained the posi- tion from the head preceptor, who was a man of the highest character. It is now, however, that the special depravity of Dubois's nature is supposed to have developed itself. To the steadfast favor of the regent he owed his sub- sequent fortune ; this favor he is said to have gained by a shameful betrayal of his trust, and by abusing his position to initiate Orleans in the career of debauch- ery which he pursued during life. A preceptor who taught a pious youth to be a debauchee would cer- tainly possess a moral character of a very low order. But often as this accusation has been repeated against Dubois, there is not enough evidence of such conduct to authorize a judge to submit the question to a petty jury. It is not too much to demand that the facts of history, as well as the offenses of some obscure mis- creant, should be established by proof. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 363 The Duke of St. Simon declares that Dubois in- duced his pupil to plunge into debauchery, to desi3ise religion, to regard as sham all pretense of honesty in man or of virtue in woman.^ St. Simon was a con- temporary, and his memoirs are among the most valu- able authorities for the history of his time. But there are few wi-iters whose statements should be more care- fully scrutinized, few whose animosities have more deeply tinged all that they said. When St. Simon completed his memoirs he was an old man, embittered with the world, filled with rancor against those who had been more successful than he in the contest of life, wrapped in the intense pride of birth, through which he had all his days regarded his fellows askance. He hated Dubois because he was a vulgar adventurer who had gained the favor of the Duke of Orleans, because that prince had chosen to be guided by the son of an apothecary instead of by the son of a duke. With the venom in which he excels all writers, he has described the character of Dubois : " Every vice contended in him for mastery. Avarice, debauchery, and ambition were his gods ; perfidy, flattery, and ser- vility were his means. . . . An odor of falseness exhaled from every pore. . . . He owed his elevation to his vices. As preceptor, he corrupted the morals of his pupil ; as minister, he debased his fatherland and sold it to England ; as prince of the church, he died from the result of his debauches, blaspheming God." ^ Such accusations cannot be received without exami- nation, even when made by an associate and a contem- porary. Those whom the Duke of St. Simon hated — and there were few whom he did not hate — he hon- estly believed to be the most debased of men. The 1 Mem. de St. Simon, xi. 177. 2 jf^^ ^i. 175, 176. 364 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Duke of Noailles was a man of character and fair cajiacity, well legaitled in liis own day, and well spoken of by historians of the time. But he incurred the animosity of St. Simon, and it is thus that he de- scribes one who could be fairly summed up as an aver- age, second-rate soldier and politician : " I will not exaggerate the picture. Absolute truth shall be here, as always, my only guide. . . . The Duke of Noailles was the most exact, the most faithful, the most perfect copy of the serj^ent which beguiled Eve, and destroyed the happiness of the race, that humanity has been able to produce." ^ It is evident that, seen in the haze of St. Simon's animosities, personages of ordinary stature became strange and monstrous. His description of Dubois's character, which has been accepted as if it were a part of Holy Writ, is far from being accurate. The vices of Dubois have been magnified upon the panorama of history. The accusation that he obtained his pupil's favor by corrupting his morals has been repeated by historians from Voltaire to Martin. But the charge was first made when he had become a powerful minis- ter. His infamy was not discovered until he had be- come famous. On the other hand, his actual relations with his pupil appear clearly enough from the testi- mony of those who knew him when he was only a hum- ble retainer. Dubois was appointed under-preceptor of the future regent in 1683. Four years later the preceptor, St. Laurent, died, a man of the most upright character. He recommended Dubois for his own place. The appointment was made by Louis XIV., who had then reformed, and frowned upon any suspicion of immorality. Every detail in the life of 1 Mem. de St. Simon, xi. 227. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 365 a prince like the Duke of Chartres was known to the community. There were plenty of men who desired so responsible a position as that of his preceptor. We may be sure that, if there had been aught to criticise in the conduct of a low-born man like Dubois, it would have been reported to the king. The fact that Dubois was chosen for this position by Louis XIV. is persuasive evidence that, down to that time, nothing in his life had given occasion for scandal. He was then thirty-one years of age. The Duke of Chartres was growing to be a man, and he soon became known as one of the most dissi- pated of the young nobility. In this fact there was nothing extraordinary. When only seventeen he was married to a woman for whom he had no affection. He was surrounded by associates who were young, frivolous, and debauched. He was exposed to the temptations which lie in wait for a prince. He had no need of a middle-aged pedant as a teacher in the practices of dissipation. There was one person who certainly kept close watch of the duke's conduct, and that was his mother. She lamented the weaknesses of an only son, for whom she had a passionate fondness. If his preceptor had been, as Voltaire calls him, the pur- veyor of his pleasures, the fact could not have been concealed, during a long term of years, from an anx- ious and keen-witted mother. The letters which she wrote to Dubois, extending over sixteen years, are the best evidence that he was faithful to his trust, and that he endeavored to restrain his pupil from the dissipa- tion into which he plunged.^ " I assure you," she ^ The work of the Comte de Seilhac, L\ihbe Dubois, though of siuiill critical value, contains a large number of valuable let- ters aud documents in reference to Dubois. 366 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. wrote Dubois, " of uiy gratitude for your endeavors to make an upright man of my son." ^ "I shall be re- joiced if I can find some occasion of showing you my gratitude for what you do for my son and for me." " Surely you will find the recompense which your zeal and your pains merit." ^ Three years later she writes : " M. de Labetere " (the under-governor, a man of estimable character, and whose duties kept him con- stantly with the duke) " praised you yesterday for your zeal for the welfare of my son. Although I had no doubt of it, this gave me pleasure." ^ In 1696, she wrote to Dubois bewailing the misconduct of her son, " who had been educated with such care, to whom St. Laurent and you had taught moral and noble princi- ples." * " Whatever happens, I shall always be thank- ful to you for all the pains you have taken, and shall hope at some time to show my gratitude." ^ " I know right well that the bad conduct of my son is in no wise your fault, and I assure you of the continuance of my esteem." ^ " If it was not my duty to endeavor to correct my son by my remonstrances, I should long ago have renounced the labor, from the hopelessness of success. I admire your patience in persisting. Such pains are more meritorious before God than if you fasted on bread and water." '' Ten years afterwards we find the mother still assuring Dubois of the con- tinuance of her friendship and esteem.^ ^ Princess Palatine to Dubois, March 25, 1691. 2 lb., June 15 and August 13, 1691. s lb., June 11, 1694. 4 lb., July 12, 1696. 6 lb., August 6, 1696. 6 lb., August 10, 1696. ' lb., January 28, 1696. 8 lb., letters of 1706. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 367 Later in the abbe's career, the princess palatine be- came very unfriendly to him. He offended her, as he offended many others, when, from being a himible follower of the Duke of Orleans, he became a power in the state. She denounced him as a rogue and a trick- ster, as a traitor who sold his country, and in whom the truth could not be found, but she never complained of his conduct in reference to her son, because she, best of all the world, knew that there was nothing of which to complain. Louis XIV. was always informed of the conduct of those connected with the court ; he took what seems an excessive interest in a system of minute espionage. The behavior of the abbe did not escape his atten- tion, but he found nothing in it to forfeit his favor.^ He bestowed upon him a modest living. In 1698, he intrusted Dubois with a diplomatic position of minor importance. The admirers of Fenelon justly claim for him the purest reputation of the time in which he lived. He was preceptor of the Duke of Burgundy, and in a posi- tion where he must have known Dubois's character ^ Among the other fables due to the credulous braiu of St. Simon is that Dubois asked of Louis XIV. a cardinal's hat, as a reward for his influence in inducing Orleans to marry the king's bastard daughter, and that he lost Louis's favor by so preposter- ous a demand. It would have been most preposterous, consider- ing Dubois's humble position at that time, and that is one of the proofs that he never made it. Whatever else he was, certainly he was not a fool. As a matter of fact, at the time when he was sujiposed to have been demanding a cardinalate, we find him asking for a very modest living, and receiving it with ex- pressions of good-will from Louis XIV. and P^re la Chaise,- " as a person of merit, learning, and virtue." — Dubois to Pere la Chaise, August, 1692 ; Pfere la Chaise to the Due de Chartres, 1G92. 368 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. thoroughly. He would have recommended no one for an ecclesiastical preferment whom he thought to be an evil-liver. In 1691, he urged Dubois's appoint- ment as prior of Brives.^ Twenty years later we find him writing, " The Abbe Dubois, formerly preceptor of the Duke of Orleans, has been my friend for very many years." ^ In view of such testimony, it is idle to claim that Dubois began his career as a debauchee, or that he gained his master's favoi", by assuming the functions of a purveyor. On the other hand, he made no claim to any remarkable sanctity of character. He led such a life as many another abbe of the time, in- dulged in the forms of dissipation which he found to his taste, and paid very little attention to the reli- gious career to which he had nominally devoted him- self. This was not commendable, but it was far from unusual. He was by no means a conspicuous exam- ple of immorality. He never participated in the suppers of the Palais Royal, he had no taste for the roues, he did not seek to base his fortunes on the favor of some mistress of the regent. During the years that he occupied important office, he led a life of unusual abstemiousness. His enemies said that past excesses compelled him to refrain from further indulgence. It might be said with quite as much truth that his pro- digious industry and restless activity left him no time for dissipation. Indeed, the vices of Dubois's character were of a different nature. He lusted for power, and place, and a conspicuous position before the world, far more than 1 Fdnelon to Dubois, August 12, 1691. 2 F(;nel<)n, Archevequs de Cambrai to Mme. Roujaut, Octo- ber 14, 1711. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 369 he did for the pleasures of the senses. It was the envy excited by his remarkable fortune that filled his contemporaries with horror at the spectacle of so wicked a priest. Dubois was a politician in fact, and a priest only in name. When he was consecrated as Archbishop of Cambray, his enemies complained be- cause he had to receive instructions before he could say the mass. But as he made no claim to be spirit- ually minded, it was much more seemly that he should have taken no part in the ministrations of the church. He was not a priest at all, until he was obliged, three years before his death, to take orders to be made an archbishop. Like many French abbes, his relations with the church consisted solely in having a share in her revenues. If Dubois had not risen from such a humble position, his immorality would have aroused little comment. A prince might be an archbishop, and not allow this to interfere with a career of pleasure, but it was regarded as unseemly when a vulgar man filled high ecclesiastical office with little regard for ecclesiastical propriety. A cardinal whose father had pounded a pestle was bound to more discreet con- duct than one whose father had wielded a marshal's baton. Certainly we do not have to go beyond the limits of French history to find an abundance of car- dinals and archbishops whose immorality, and whose indifference to religion, was far more avowed, more unblushing, more outrageous, than anything ever laid to Dubois's charge, and by whose conduct the public was very little disturbed. Sixty years before, Cardinal Retz had endeavored to become prime minister, and it was not his lack of morals that defeated his ambition. He was a far more notorious evil-liver than Dubois. While Dubois dis- 370 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. charoed no religious duties, Retz claimed to perform those of a bishop. He exhorted the faithful on their sins ; he lias left for posterity a humorous account of the way in which he combined the mysteries of re- lioion with the practices of gallantry. But Retz was a man of high family, the grandson of a marshal of France. Ilis immorality was viewed with placid un- concern. Later in the century, Cardinal Rohan, of the great family of Rohan, was a far more profligate man than Dubois, and he aggravated the matter by being a fool besides ; yet he was, on the whole, popular with the connnunity. Such examples, which could be multiplied indefi- nitely, do not excuse the fact that Dubois was a worldly-minded, unscrupulous, and greedy man, who cared nothing for religion except as it would advance his ambition, but they do justify his own claim, that the most of those who denounced him as a wicked priest were more disturbed by his birth than by his morals. They were not without some excuse for their preju- dices. Dubois was not more ambitious, or intriguing, or greedy than many a well-born associate, but he lacked any refinement that might conceal such defects of character. He was vulgar in pushing his fortunes, and ill-mannered when he had attained success. " You can make a cardinal out of a cad," said one of his enemies, " but you cannot make a gentleman." ^ This criticism was just. Dubois never acquired either the instincts or the manners of a well-bred, high-minded man. He became prime minister, but he never got to be a gentleman. ^ Journal de Marais, ii. 272. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 371 When the Duke of Orleans was made regent, Du- bois was almost sixty. His life had been passed in obscurity. He had remained on friendly terms with his former pupil, and he had been intrusted with a mission for him in Spain, but a retainer of Orleans had little opportunity to advance his fortunes while Louis XIV. was alive. Dubois was not a person of sufficient importance to be admitted to any of the councils instituted by the regent, but he was now in favor with the head of the state ; he was eager for an opportunity to show his capacity, and he soon made one for himself. George I. became king of England a year before the death of Louis XIV. His throne was far from secure, and the Jacobites still based their hopes upon the friendship and the assistance which the French king had so long extended to the family of Stuart. By the treaty of Utrecht, Louis had given his word and faith as a king that neither he nor his heirs would molest the English princes of the line estab- lished by act of Parliament, and that they would give neither counsel nor assistance, neither money nor arms nor aid, to any other person laying claim to the throne of England.^ In conformity with the pro- visions of the treaty, the Pretender had been obliged to seek refuge in the possessions of the Duke of Lor- raine. While the French had thus formally aban- doned the interests of a famil}^ which had inflicted almost as much injury on France as on England, both Louis and his people strongly desired the restoration of the Stuart i)rince to the throne of his ancestors. The feeling was natural. The son of James IL was a bigoted Catholic, and the Catholicism of the French ^ Articles 4 and 5 of treaty. 372 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. court abated nothing of its zeal as the king grew older. The antagonism between the two peoples was strong. The French may have had an instinctive feeling that the restoration of the Stuarts would be the greatest evil that could befall the English, and this strength- ened their interest in the fortunes of the exiled family. We could hardly expect to find Louis XIV. very se- vere in refusing aid and comfort to the Pretender, when the English ministry, with the approval of the English queen and the good-will of a large part of the English people, were engaged in planning for a resto- ration of the Stuarts. The accession of the house of Hanover changed the aspect of affairs. George and his ministers had no predilection for Jacobitism, and the insecurity of his position rendered him apprehen- sive of any assistance which the Stuart prince might receive from French sympathizers. On the other hand, the Jacobites could no longer await tranquilly the demise of the sovereign. Anne was dead, and George was on the throne. The Pretender must as- sert his rights by arms, as there was now no possi- bility of his being recalled by acclamation. A great pressure was brought on Louis XIV. to furnish money and soldiers for an expedition to Eng- land in behalf of the Chevalier of St. George. His ministers approved of such an endeavor. His own sympathies were doubly enlisted : the chevalier was a Catholic, and he was a lawful prince. His was the cause alike of religion and of royalty. How far, under other circumstances, Louis XIV. would have felt him- self controlled by the terms of the treaty of Utrecht is uncertain. It was a time when sovereigns did not allow their agreements to interfere with their interests, or with their sympathies. But Louis was both wise and DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 373 sincere in his resolve that France should not again be involved in war. He would not require any further sacrifice from an exhausted country, either to gratify the king of Spain, or him who claimed to be the king of England. " As I wish to avoid any pretext of rupture," he wrote immediately after Anne's death, " I have dissuaded the Chevalier of St. George from his intention of going to England, and have made him see that failure in such an enterprise was sure, deprived, as he would be, of all assistance from me." ^ The partisans of the Stuarts continued, however, their endeavors to excite a rising in behalf of the good cause. The sanguine statements of the exiles were confirmed by the French minister in England. He wrote that the party of the Pretender was so strong that a revolution was imminent, and to excite it needed only the hope of aid from France.^ Berwick and Bo- lingbroke besought Louis for troops, but he refused to furnish them.'^ Of money he had none to give, even if he had desired. The great banker, Bernard, assured the English ambassador that the French king could not raise a sou for the Pretender, no matter what his wishes mioht be.* All that Louis did was to ask the king of Spain to advance some money, and Philip gave some slight pecuniary aid to the heir of the Stuarts.^ The Jacobite leaders believed that if 1 Louis to Philip, August 23, 1714. This important letter states clearly Louis's position, which has often been misstated. 2 See letters of Iberville for 1715, Aff. Etr. Iberville allowed his sympathies to affect his judgment. * See Mem. de Berwick, and letters of Bolingbroke published in Stanhope's History of England, vol. i. * Journal of Stair, July 31, 1715 ; Hardwicke Papers, vol. ii. ^ MS. Papiers de Torcy, 88 ; Bolingbroke to James, August, 5, 1715. 374 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Louis had lived he would have continued to furnish them indirect aid, and at last, perhaps, would have o-iven open assistance, but it is unlikely that he would have hazarded the fortunes of a war in behalf of the helpless recluse whom they sought to place on the English throne.i The preparations for an insurrection, and the sym- pathy with which such an attempt was regarded in France, filled George and his advisers with apprehen- sion. They had little hope of accomplishing anything with the ministers of Louis XIV. These were sure to do all that they dared in favor of a Catholic j)rince, and against a king whom they regarded as an heret- ical usurper. But Louis XIV. was sinking fast. The Duke of Orleans was not in sympathy with men who had shown no friendship for him. It was the manifest policy of England to support his interests against the claims made by Philip of Spain. If Philip became regent, or if he ascended the throne of France on Louis XV.'s death, the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht would be swept away ; the benefits of the war of the Spanish Succession would be lost ; the English would have to deal with a prince whose inclinations on behalf of the Pretender were as strong as those of Louis XIV., and who would be less restrained by feelings of prudence from giving expression to them. 1 For these hopes of the Jacobites, see letter of Bolingbroke to Mar, September 20, 1715. Louis's resolution not to involve France in war in behalf of the Pretender appears clearly from his letters to Iberville in the summer of 1715, Aff. Etr., t. 268- 270. He will give no aid to foment troubles in England, he writes on June 10 ; and as late as August 22 he says that the Pretender has neither troops nor vessels, and cannot invade England. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 375 Dubois has been credited with devising the famous union of interests between the house of Hanover and the Duke of Orleans, but such an idea was first sug- gested by the English ; it was urged by them while Louis XIV. was alive, and before Dubois had be- gun his diplomatic career. While it was still un- certain what disposition Louis would make of the regency by his will, Lord Stair, the English ambas- sador, was instructed to cidtivate intimate relations with the Duke of Orleans ; to offer the assistance of England to secure him the regency ; and to assure him that, should the dauphin die, she would support his rights to the throne of France.^ In return for this proffered aid, it was hoped that the duke would oppose the endeavors of the Pretender, and that he would be ready, when he should have the power, to give Eng- land satisfaction in the matters concernino^ which she sought redress in vain from Louis XIV.^ Orleans received these assurances of sympathy with warm ex- pressions of gratitude, but nothing more than polite words resulted from the neootiations.^ The Enslish were exuberant in their professions of interest, and felt that their ardor was not returned. Stanhope wrote that he could wish the Duke of Orleans to re- alize thoroughly the zeal of the king in his behalf ; that the duke was the dupe of those who claimed that his regency would be unopposed ; and that he was ^ See letters and journal of Stair, summer of 1715. 2 Instructions to Stair, January, 1715, record office, 352 ; Stanhope to Stair, Jtily 14, 1715, cited in Wiesener's Le Regent^ I' Abbe Dubois, et les Anglais. ^ Stair describes the situation in his journal, August 6 : "I have no news of the abbd, which makes nie think that the Duke of Orleans is willing to let the affair of the Pretender take its train without meddling with it." 376 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. allowing himself to be cajoled in the hope of being nanietl regent by Louis's will.^ Though Orleans did not seek to utilize these friendly offers, the news of his accession to the re- gency was received with great pleasure by the Eng- lish ministers. " If the Duke of Orleans receives as- much applause in France as in England," wrote the Spanish ambassador, " there was never a more for- tunate ruler." ^ A Jacobite insurrection soon broke out, and threatened the overthrow of the house of Hanover. In France, though the king of Spain took no steps to disturb Orleans as regent, he still insisted that his renunciation was of no validity, and there could be no doubt that he would seek to enforce his claims if the young king died. What so natural, said the English, as that George and Orleans, two riders equally threatened, should combine for their nuitual defense ! To each of them the treaty of Utrecht guaranteed the right to a throne ; let them agree to enforce its provisions, and protect the in- terests of both parties. Stair was authorized to pro- pose to Orleans a treaty by which the English would guarantee to him the peaceful possession of the re- gency, and the throne of France if Louis XV. should die leaving no sons. Nothing was asked of him in return except that France should, in like manner, guarantee George in the occupation of the English throne, and should give no aid to the Pretender.^ 1 Stanhope to Stair, August 23 and 28, 1715. 2 Mouteleone to Cellamare, October 15, 1715 : " Si el s'r Duque de Orleans logra en Francia tantos aplausos como se los hazen en Inglaterra, no liabra havido regente tnas dichoso." — Aff. Etr. 3 Instructions to Stair, October 14 and 16, 1715. Stair's jour- nal, October 24. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 377 The resent mioht thus have made an alliance with Ensiand on terms more favorable than those to which he at last agreed ; his friendship was now sought, while later he was himself compelled to make the ad- vances. But he was unable to decide upon this policy. Most of his advisers were filled with the sympathy for tlie Stuart cause which had so long prevailed at the court of Louis XIV. Huxelles, the chief of the coun- cil of foreign affairs, Villars, Torcy, St. Simon, were all eager for the success of the Pretender. They were sanguine as well. Scotland was regarded as abso- lutely lost to the house of Hanover.^ The Jacobites assured them that England would soon follow the example of the sister kingdom. Even if this were not so, the French ministers consoled themselves with the idea that a Stuart king at Edinburgh, and a Ger- man king at London, might be the best arrangement by which to check the overweening power of Great Britain.^ Lord Stair was pertinacious in his efforts to induce the regent to ally himself with England. He obtained 1 Papiers de Torcy, i. 40, MS. Bib. Nat. Fr. 10, 670. This valuable rdsum^ of the foreign relations of France during three years was made by Torcy, the minister of foreign affairs under Louis XIV. As a member of the council of regency, he was familiar with Orleans's policy, and as superintendent of posts he obtained an intimate knowledge of diplomatic intrigues by the simple process of opening and reading the letters that passed through his hands. " It is not pleasant to write when one is sure tliat liis letters will be opened," said Stair, letter of December 11, 1715, to Bubb. Such, however, was the practice at many other courts, as well as at that of France. 2 Gazette de la Re'gence, January 17, 1710. The writer claims that he was told by members of the council of regency that they would assist James to the throne of Scotland, but did not wish him to obtain also that of England. 378 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. jilenty of fail* words, but no treaty of alliance. The irritation of the English at such conduct was not with- out reason. The Jacobites had no chance, said Stan- hope ; the folly and the perversity of the Pretender's supporters were stupefying, and so also was the weak- ness of the regent, who abandoned his own interests to please those imbeciles. If the regent now regarded tlie troubles of England with indifference, declared Stair, England would watch with equal calmness the embarrassments in which he might afterward be in- volved.i In his uncertainty, the regent gave fair words to both sides, and he gave a little surreptitious aid to the Jacobites. Bolingbroke was at Paris, and he showed his knowledge of the weak side of Orleans's character by the bribe which he proposed. The regent was any- thing but a model father of a family, but he atoned for neglecting the education and the morals of his daughters by an excessive desire to get them well married. Would not the Chevalier of St. Georce, suggested Bolingbroke, who with the aid of France might be king of England, be a very eligible hus- band for one of them ? ^ Orleans would certainly have been pleased to see James III. a king, if one of his daughters could have been the queen. ^ However, he had no wish to involve France in war, and he continued to play a part which was 1 Papiers de Torcy, i. Y! et seq. 2 Bolingbroke to James, August 15 and November 9, 1715. 3 Bolingbroke to James, November 9, 1715 : " I have opened a new door of access to the regent. He has still the marriage in his head, and a little good fortune would make the bait suc- ceed to draw him on." See, also, Iberville to Torcy, September 26, 1715. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 379 neither dignified nor jji-ofitable. He allowed some vessels to be loaded with arms for the use of the rebels. Stanhope said that unless this was rectified forthwith, it would be regarded as an open declaration in behalf of the Pretender. Thereupon the ships were unloaded, and the arms were stored in the royal ar- senal. At the same time Orleans assured the Duke of Ormond of his friendsliip for the cause, and of his intention to furnish an abundance of supplies.^ The Pretender had to be content with small favors from timid friends, and he wrote Orleans that he could not find words to express his gratitude for all the marks of friendship which he had received.^ The English, on the other hand, were outspoken in their dissatis- faction. " The first good news from England will change all this," wrote Stair to Stanhope, and he was right.^ The intelligence of the Jacobite defeats in Scotland produced consternation in the little coteries of the Palais Royal. " Two days ago the Chevalier of St. George was king of England in everybody's mouth. . . . To-day they begin to talk of him as the Pre- tender." * The complete overthrow of the Jacobite cause soon followed. Left to himself, Orleans had always inclined to the idea of an English alliance. His advisers, who had predicted the success of the Pre- tender, were shown to have been egregiously wrong, and they had only succeeded in putting their master ^ Ormond to Chevalier of St. George, October 21, 1715 ; The Stuart Dynasty, 401. 2 James III. to Orleans, December 26, 1715, cited by Ld- montey. ^ Stair to Stanhope, November 12, 1715. * Journal of Staii:, December 1 and 2, 1715. 380 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. in a most embarrassing- position. One more illustra- tion was fiunisliod of the fact that, whenever France tried to help the Stuarts, she always involved herself in trouble without doing them any good. The Duke of Orleans showed more readine^ to proceed to formal neiiotiations with Ensi'land than he had before mani- fested. The repentant offender was not, however, at once restored to the good graces of his former friends. Georue felt that he had befriended Orleans when he was in need of help, and in return the regent had at most stood neutral when his ally was in peril. If the English king had not been harmed by the insurrec- tion, he had been a good deal frightened, and he considered the regent to have shown liimself an un- grateful trifler. Lord Stair courteously but firmly presented to the criminal a list of his misdeeds. ^ The regent was a difficult man to get the better of in a controversy of this kind. He was now warm in his congratulations at the happy success of King George. The best proof that he had given no aid to the Pre- tender was, he said, the notorious fact that the Stuart prince had landed in Scotland entirely unprovided with arms or munitions of war.^ The English were still ready to enter into a treaty with France, but their eagerness had passed with the danger that excited it. Before any alliance could now be made, the regent must show that he was sincere in his protestations of friendship by driving the Preten- der to the other side of the Alps. The present French republic has been criticised because it is unwilling to allow those who assert a right to the French throne ^ See memorial of Stair, printed in Lamberty, Memoires pour servir a I'histoire du dix-huitihne siede, t. ix. 2 Stair's journal, March 10, 171G ; Lamberty, ix. 388. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 381 to enjoy the protection of a government which they desire to overthi'ow. The English were not content with such mikl measures in reference to the Stuart family. George wished to ^jursue his unfortunate rival beyond the limits of civilization ; no one could furnish bed or board, fire or shelter, to the homeless wanderer, and expect any favors from England. By the treaty of Utrecht, Louis XIV. had agreed to expel the Pretender and his followers from France. The Chevalier of St. George had found refuge in Lorraine, and the regent had declined to demand of its duke that he should abandon the luckless fua:i- tive.i After the failure of the rising in 1715, the English government itself made the request. The Duke of Lorraine did not care to give offense to a jjowerful state, and he requested James to leave. The prince thereupon went to Avignon. That city was part of the papal dominions, and it hardly seemed as if France had any business to interfere with his stay there. But Avignon was surroimded by French territory ; from it the chevalier could easily commu- nicate with his French sympathizers. Orleans was informed that, as a preliminary to any treaty, he must not only expel the English Jacobites fi'om France, but he must bring sufficient pressure to bear upon their chief to compel him to move on. When the Pretender was once safely beyond the Alps, George was ready to make a treaty of alliance, but this was an indispensable prerequisite.^ The regent was willing to make the removal of the Pretender from Avignon one of the articles of a ^ Lamberty, Repanse au Mtmoire, 389. 2 Stair to Bubb, March 30, 171G ; Stanhoi)c to Stair, April 27, 1716 ; Stair to Stanhope, May 9, 1716. 382 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. treaty ; lie would agree that the Stuart prince should actually leave that city before the treaty was finally ratified ; he wished with all his heart, he said, that the chevalier was already on the other side of the Alps.^ But to chase a defeated, luckless, and friend- less prince from one of the few places in Europe where he could hope for refuge was neither an agree- able nor a dignified occupation. If such a step were a condition of a treaty of alliance, it might be re- garded in France as a political necessity ; but even if the Pretender were expelled from Avignon, Orleans was not certain that the English would then agree on terms acceptable in other respects. His conduct would be regarded by his people as alike odious and ridiculous, if he should join in the pursuit of an un- happy man who had done him no harm, and should not obtain for France the benefits of an alliance with England. Thus the negotiations were brought to a standstill. " The French have sent the Pretender to Avignon ; if they are sincere, let them find some means to get him out," said Stanhope. " I wish he would leave," replied the regent, " but I don't want to drive him out by threats of stopping the pension of the former queen of England, and then find myself as far as ever from a treaty of alliance." It was now that the Abbd Dubois appeared on the stage. He is not entitled to the credit of having ori- ginated the idea of an alliance between France and England. Nor was it owing to his skill as a diploma- tist that the English at last agreed to the alliance, for other complications made the English government as desirous for it as it had been during the Jacobite rising. But he succeeded in holding his volatile mas- ^ Stair to Stanhope, May 2, 1716. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 383 ter to a policy wliich was for his own interests and for the interests of France : by his adroitness and his zeal, he smoothed over difficulties, softened the asperity of Stanhope, soothed the susceptibilities of George ; he accomplished more in a few days of per- sonal conference than the dignitaries of the council of foreign affairs could have done in as many years of stately diplomacy. The English king set out for Hanover in July, 1716, accompanied by Stanhope. On the 2d of that month, Dubois left Paris for the Hague, in order to try the effect of a personal interview with the Eng- lish minister. So irregidar a procedure was severely criticised by the functionaries of the foreign office, but the regent was not turned from his purpose.^ Dubois was so adroit that he might be of use, and so insignificant that he could do little harm. At the Hague the unofficial diplomat assumed to be an ama- teur in search of rare books and pictures, a r61e for which he was well fitted. He met Stanhope, with whom he had been on friendly terms in former years, and he endeavored to pave the way for an alliance between two princes, whose interests he declared to be the same, and who, if once united, could look with indif- ference on the hostility of the rest of the world. His master, replied Stanhope, had once been eager to as- sist Orleans, but he had been chilled to the heart by the belief that the duke had furnished assistance to the Pretender. Whether that prince remained at Rome or Avignon, said the secretary, he regarded as a mat- ter of perfect indifference : if ever France sent an army to invade England, it needed only the Pretender ^ Memoires secrets de Dubois. These memoirs, arranged by S^velinges, contain many valuable documents and letters. 884 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. at the head of it to insure its faihire ; but his master wished to have the Stuart prince on the other side o£ the Alps. These and similar questions were debated between the English secretary and the French abb(3, with the result that Stanhope's disinclination for an alliance with France was considerably diminished. ^ Dubois brought into his negotiations a vivacity which appears in his correspondence. The diplomacy of the day had a formal and a dignified phraseology ; it used many words to say little. It had a speech to itself, like the technical and redundant tautology of the law. Dubois thought that the language with which ordinary humanity expressed its ideas was good enough to discuss treaties. It had the merit of being much more intelligible than the accredited forms. His dispatches remind one of Le Sage in their lightness of touch, and in their humor. In speech as well as in character, Dubois had something of Gil Bias. This informal conference had one most important effect : it convinced Stanhope and his master that the regent was acting in good faith, and really desired an alliance with England.^ Other events soon made the English king equally desirous. As Elector of Han- over, he was involved in disputes with the northern powers. He feared a war with Russia ; he was already embroiled with Sweden ; the possibility of a combina- tion between the Czar and the regent appalled him.^ He became anxious for an alliance with France, and ^ For the detail of this interview, see Dubois's dispatch of July 23, 1716, the fullness of which may be imagined from the fact that it occupies 177 pages. It is as vivacious as it is long. See, also, letters of Stanhope to Townsend, July 21, 23, 1716. 2 Stanhope to Stair, August 3, 1716. ^ This appears clearly from the letters of Stanhope published in Wiesener, Le Regent; L'Abbe Dubois et les Anglais; Stan- DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 385 the captious objections by which an agreement of that nature had been delayed were waived. In August, Dubois went to Hanover, where he con- tinued his negotiations with Stanhope, and had inter- views with the king himseK. The abbe was indefat- igable. Conferences went on day and night. He writes, " We negotiated in our dressing-gowns and in our nightcaps." Where both parties were eager, it was not difficult to agree, but there remained some stumbling-blocks. The English were willing to main- tain the rights of the regent to the French throne, but if this were put in so many words it would give abundant opportunity for his enemies to revile. They would declare that the very wording of the treaty showed that Orleans had sacrificed France to secure his own interests. Dubois wished that the English should guarantee the treaty of Utrecht, by which the same result would be attained without its appearing so boldly.^ But how could Whig ministers consent to guarantee a treaty which they had so often de- nounced in Parliament as an infamous surrender of the rights of England and her allies ? The difficulty was at last adjusted by choosing for the guaranty hope to Townsend, September 25, 1716 : " I was, you know, very averse at first to this treaty, but I think truly, as matters now stand, we ought not to lose a minute in finishing it." Stan- hope to H. Walpole, October 6, 1716 : " Since it is to be feared that matters may come very soon to an open rupture between the Danes and Muscovites, for which reason his Majesty is de- sirous of giving the finishing stroke to the treaty with France as soon as possible." To Townsend, October 9 : " Had it [the treaty] been less advantageous than I think it really is, the situ- ation of affairs in the nortli made it absolutely necessary to close with France." — Letters in Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole, vol. ii. ^ Stanhope to Methuen, August 24, 1716. 380 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. those articles of the treaty of Utrecht which had reonhited the succession of the French throne, and secured the rights of the house of Hanover in Eng- land. On other debated questions an agreement was also reached. In October, a preliminary convention between the two countries was signed by Stanhope and Dubois.^ It has been said, from that day to this, that Dubois received a pension from England for betraying the interests of his country. The difference in the sums supposed to have been paid shows that the charge rests on no authentic information. One writer says that the pension was 50,000 crowns. Another has it 100,000. The imagination of St. Simon goes far beyond these figures. He says that Dubois received a pension of 40,000 pounds sterling, a sum that would be equivalent to a million dollars a year now.^ The amount would be a sufficient refutation of the charge. As matter of fact, no one has ever found in the Eng- lish or the French official papers the slightest evi- dence that he received a penny. Certainly there was no need to give him a pension of 40,000 pounds, or of one pound, to make him eager for an alliance with England. Such a measure he believed to be for the interests of his master, and upon it rested his hopes for his own advancement. It would have been much more natural if an endeavor had been made to bribe Stanhope, who at the beginning was hostile to an ^ A formal treaty between England and France was signed at the Hague on November 28, and this was replaced by the treaty of the Triple Alliance, signed January 4, 1717. 2 St. Simon, xv. 313. St. Simon intimates that this pension began in 1718. Others think it must have begun when the Triple Alliance was made. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 387 alliance with France, and that is exactly what was done. Dubois described the transaction to his master: " When our negotiations at Hanover were undecided, I found so natural an opportunity to make to M. Stan- hope the offer which you directed, that I hazarded the compliment, and I was never more delighted than to see that he allowed me to say it all, even to naming the price, which I fixed at 600,000 livres, to which he listened graciously, and without flying into a pas- sion. ^ My satisfaction was increased when he replied that your Royal Highness was so great a prince that no one need blush to be the object of your generosity. . . . Since then, I have spoken of this matter again seven or eight times." ^ At the last, Stanhope refused to take the money. He expressed his gratitude to the regent, but he would not receive the bribe. Dubois declared that his con- duct was heroic. The adroit abbe did, indeed, view life from the standpoint of Gil Bias. To us, the re- fusal seems less heroic, but standards of honesty have changed. An English statesman of this generation would kick downstairs a man who made an offer such as Stanhope listened to graciously ; but if he listened and deliberated, he refused at last. Many and per- haps most statesmen of that age would have accepted. " It is the only thing in the negotiation in which I have entirely failed," writes Dubois ruefully. But he was allowed to indulge in other courtesies. When ambassador to England in 1718, he writes the regent to send some of the choicest brands of champagne and burgundy. " The best and the strongest," says ^ " Ce qu'il dconta gracieusement et sans se gendarmer." 2 Dubois ail idgeiit, October 30, 171G. 388 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. the abbe, " and I supplicate your Royal Highness to have them selected by a connoisseur." Half of this was for the king, and half for Stanhope. The sec- retary could appreciate such a courtesy. Dubois de- scribes one of the interviews in Hanover, which fol- lowed a dinner gfven by Stanhope to some Germans. The English minister declared that the ordeal had been severe. He had thirteen German guests, and they had consumed seventy bottles of wine, besides five or six of strong liquors. Still Stanhope was able to acquit himself honorably, even in an encounter of such gravity, and after the dinner was over he talked politics with Dubois for four hours. The abbe, who lived most abstemiously, wrote his master that wine extracted the truth even from the most taciturn. ^ As the success of the negotiations was assured, Du- bois began to receive the honors to which his victory entitled him. He again visited the Hague, but he no longer stopped at obscure taverns, in the disguise of an itinerant collector of pictures. He was made am- bassador. He appeared in state. " I have bought six beautiful black mares," he writes with much glee. Dubois had waited long for the pomps of the world, and he enjoyed them thoroughly when at last he had secured them. He was nervously anxious at the delay in the final ratification of the treaty. " These delays have cost me more tears than would fill a pail," he wrote his master. This was not the style which the ambassadors of Louis XIV. used in their dispatches to the king, but it expressed the idea. At last the great woi-k was done ; the treaty was signed, the vision of future honors was already present to the abbe's ambition. " I signed at midnight," he writes the re- 1 Dubois au regent, November 4, 1716. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 389 gent ; " I am happy to have been honored with your orders in a matter so important for your welfare, and I am more indebted for this mark of confidence than if you had made me a cardinal." ^ Holland decided to join in the agreement which had been made between England and France, and on January 4, 1717, the treaty was signed at the Hague, which is known as the Triple Alliance. By this in- strument the three states, in order to preserve their own tranquillity and the peace of Europe, guaranteed the observance of those articles of the peace of Utrecht by which the succession to the throne of Great Britain was confirmed in the Protestant line, in conformity with the acts of Parliament, and by which the succession to the crown of France was regulated. In other words, they confirmed the exclusion of Philip and his heirs from the French throne, and guaranteed the succession to the Duke of Orleans, if Louis XV. died without children. The powers agreed to furnish assistance in money and troops to any one of the three which should be attacked by any other state or prince.^ It was provided that the Pretender should not be allowed to reside in France, Lorraine, or Avignon, and that no one of the three countries would furnish an asylum to the fugitive rebels of the others. The works which had been begun at Mardyck were to be destroyed, or so changed that they could not be used for the refuge or equipment of ships of war. The pro- visions of this article, to which the English attached great importance, were regulated in minute detail.^ ^ Dubois ail regent, January 4, 1717. 2 A separate article between France and Holland limited this agreement to European possessions. 3 The treaty in French is published in Dumont, Corps Dip., viii. 484-488. " 390 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Before the final ratifications of the treaty were exchanoed, the Pretender was requested to leave Avio-non. He offered to go without resistance if the regent would promise to pay his debts, and this con- dition was at once accepted. On February 6, 1717, he abandoned Avignon, crossed the Alps, and sought refuse in Rome. There at last he was allowed to rest in peace. The Triple Alliance changed the policy of France ; she joined hands with a country which was regarded as an hereditary enemy ; as a result of the alliance, French armies within two years were marching against a Bourbon king of Spain. Such a measure was loudly condemned by those who were imbued with the politi- cal principles of Louis XIV. It is still condemned by many French liistorians as an abandonment of the legitimate policy of France. It would seem to be supposed that some law of nature required that France should always be hostile to England, and that she should forever waste her substance in order to further the interests of any prince who had the blood of Louis XIV. in his veins. The Triple Alliance, like any other political mea- sure, must be judged by its results. What France needed was peace. She had no intei*ests of her own to be subserved by war ; and yet it is probable that if she had remained isolated in Europe, she would soon have been embroiled with some of her neigh- bors. The Triple Alliance was sufficiently strong to secure peace and to enforce it. The Emperor was obliged to abandon his hopes of stirring up a new war, by which he might gain more of the possessions of Spain. Philip V., after an insignificant contest, was obliged to abandon his designs for a war by which DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 391 he might recover from Austria some of what she had already taken. The policy of both these countries was to claim everything, and to concede nothing. Both were compelled to accept the terms of the treaty of Utrecht, and to leave Europe for a little while at peace. France had an opportunity to enjoy the in- creasing prosperity which lay before her during the eighteenth century. Undoubtedly, his personal interests led Orleans to seek the friendship of England. In this there was no wrong. If Louis XV. died leaving no male descend- ants, the throne of France had been secured to Orleans by a treaty to which all the great powers of Europe were parties, and by the solemn renunciation of Philip V. It was as proper for him to protect his rights in France, as for the house of Hanover to protect its rights in England. He could justly claim that his interests and those of the French nation were identical. His acces- sion to the throne would have been viewed with ap- proval by the nations of Europe ; it would not have involved France in war ; it would have saved the land from the rule of a sickly and bigoted imbecile like Philip V. A sentimental cry was raised that the Duke of Or- leans had abandoned the Stuart cause, that he refused the hospitality of France to Catholic and legitimate princes. It was a sufficient answer to such laments that the regent only followed in the footsteps of that bulwark of monarchy and Catholicism, Louis XIV. By the treaty of Utrecht, Louis had promised to ex- pel the Stuart princes from France, to give them no further aid nor comfort, to recognize the Protestant succession to the English throne. He had wisely agreed to these terms in order to obtain peace for his 392 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. country. The regent cannot be blamed for consent- injr to conditions similar to those embodied in the great treaty which closed the war of the Si)anish Suc- cession. There was, indeed, a difference in the manner in which the j^rovisions of the two treaties were per- formed. Torcy and the other ministers of Louis XIV. continued their intrigues with the Jacobites. They pursued the fallacious policy of trying to force a Catholic king upon a Protestant nation, — a policy which for twenty -five years had been a failure, and which had helped to involve France in disaster and disgrace. They acted in bad faith, and Orleans and Dubois acted in good faith. The policy of the regent was both more honest and more wise. " If you furnish an army to the Pretender," wrote Dubois to his master, " what is the result ? A war where you will encounter all the ancient enemies of France, and will have for allies a handful of Jacobites, who con- spire better than they fight." These were words of wisdom, and the French people had reason to be grate- ful to Orleans that he decided to heed them. Not only did Orleans make friends with England, said the enemies of the treaty, but he neglected the true interests of France : he abandoned the Spanish alliance ; he lost the fruits of thirteen years of war which France had endured in order to place a Bour- bon on the throne of Spain. A century and a half later we find a judicious historian like Martin declar- ing that the regent, for his selfish interests, overthrew the policy of Richelieu and Louis XIV. and chained France to England. ^ Such expressions can only be explained by the tendency to accept without examina- * Histoire de France, xv. 122. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 393 tion what has often been said. An alliance with Spain had been no part of the policy of Eichelieu. War had raged between the two countries during almost the whole of his administration. No more had it been the policy of Louis XIV. He had constantly been at variance with the Spanish kings. The boundaries of France had been enlarged from the spoils of the Span- ish monarchy. Because a Bourbon king had been established on the Spanish throne, was France neces- sarily to find her true interest in a perpetual union with that country ? The facts of history are the best answer. The fifteen years during which Louis XIV. had Spain for an ally were the most disastrous years of his reign. Under Fleury an alliance was again made with Spain, and the interests of France were imperiled in the endeavor to obtain advantages for the children of the Spanish queen. Later in the cen- tury Spain had increased in strength, and was a more important factor in the politics of Europe than under Philip V. Yet what did France gain by the famous family compact? She gave away Louisiana to con- sole her ally for the losses which it suffered. An alli- ance with Spain always proved an incubus to France, and history furnishes no record of anything which she ever gained by it. It would have been impossible for the regent to have had Philip V. as a friend, no matter how much he might have desired such a result. Philip regarded Orleans as a future rival to the French throne ; he entertained for him the hatred of a dull man for a clever man, of a bigot for a free-thinker. At the beginning of his administration the regent made ad- vances to Spain, but he met with no encouragement. His ambassador was informed that Spain no longer 394 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. needed the counsels of France, tli;it the king of Spain desired liiniself to enjoy the liberty which he allowed, to others.^ Philip V. was a man superstitious in belief, false in heart, and feeble in intellect. His wife was a shrew, whose only passion was a fierce affection for her off- spring, as blind and as cruel as that of some wild beast.^ It was impossible to make any union with thcni, except by involving France in perpetual wars with half of Europe, in order to obtain for the Span- ish king the provinces which he coveted but was not powerful enough to conquer. Nor was the idea of an English alliance any stai*t- ling innovation in French politics. The sagacity of Mazarin had obtained England as an ally, and by her help he had brought a long war with Spain to a suc- cessful termination. Louis XIV. had been the ally of England almost without intermission, until Wil- liam III. mounted the throne. The change of dynasty did not forbid such a policy for the future. The Georges were not possessed of the crusading ardor of William against France. An alliance with England was not a departure from the policy by which France had grown great. All that Orleans abandoned of the traditions of France was the insane delusion which, for twenty-five years, had identified the glory of that country with the restoration of the Stuarts. The chief enemies of the Triple Alliance were those whose rabid Catholicism had already done so much harm. The alliance with England secured peace and prosperity. ^ St. Aignon to king, February 3, 1716. ^ Doclington wrote Stanhope, in 1716, that the absolute con- trol of Spanish policy would belong to the highest bidder for the queen's sons. DUBOIS AND THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE. 395 The wars with England later in the century entailed the loss of a foreign empire. The recent consented to abandon the works at Mar- dyck, but this was carrying- out the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht, by which Dunkirk was to be dis- mantled. An exaggerated importance was attached to this provision, but Lille had been restored to France as compensation for it, and it should have been exe- cuted in good faith. It is a curious illustration of the manner in which Dubois and all his works were reviled, that even the verbiage of the treaty has been the subject of the most unmeasured condemnation. In the duplicate of the treaty kept by the English, George was described as king of Great Britain and France, while Louis XV. was designated as the most Christian king. Indignant patriots have declared that the heir of Louis XIV. was not even allowed the use of his own name.^ Not- withstanding the eminence of the historians who have repeated this charge, it would not have been advanced by any one who had been at the trouble of reading the verbiage of prior treaties between France and England. In precisely this form they had been drawn, not only at the peace of Utrecht, but in treaties made between Louis XIV. and Charles 11. when the latter was the pensioner of the former. In this manner the protocol of the duplicate in Latin was always expressed. The French copy gave the name of the French mon- arch first, and described both him and his English brother by their real and not by their imaginary titles. In the body of all these treaties the French monarch was uniformly described as the most Christian king. When Dubois was supposed to be lowering the dignity * See both L^montey and Martin. 396 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. of France at the behest of a foreign state whose pen- sioner he was, he was only following the precedents authorized by the most powerful and the most punc- tilious king that ever sat on the French throne.^ The criticisms on the form, as well as on the sub- stance, of the treaty by which the Triple Alliance was made, seem destitute of good ground. The prince who ratified it may have been an unprincipled libertine, the abbe who framed it may have been an unscrupu- lous adventurer, but the policy which it established was for the true interests of France. ^ This subject is discussed at length, and with a thorough knowledge of the question, in the work of M. Wiesener. It is not important, except as it illustrates the manner in which many of the criticisms on Dubois and the regent were made by those who were not willing to be at the trouble of familiarizing them- selves with the facts. CHAPTER XII. 'THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE AND WAR WITH SPAIN. 1718-1720. The establishment of a Bourbon prince on the throne of Spain was regarded as the great and final achieve- ment of the reign of Louis XIV. The critics of the regent denounced his failure to act in harmony with that sovereign as the unpai-donable error of his adminis- tration. It is \vell, therefore, to consider the charac- ter and the policy of the grandson of Louis XIV., who for forty-six years reigned in Spain, exercising an authority uncontrolled either by popular or by aristocratic institutions. Philip was a youth of seventeen when he was chosen as king of that country by the wnll of Charles 11. Intellectually, he was less developed than befitted his years ; of education he had not so much as most boys of ten possess now ; in will, in the power to impress himself on men, to control the policy of the great people whom he was called upon to rule, he was de- ficient to an extraordinary degree ; and in all these respects he was much the same when he died, an old man of sixty-three, as when he mounted the throne, a lad of seventeen. Such a youth was necessarily controlled by those by whom he was surrounded, and Louis XIV. was obliged to give careful attention to their choice, in order to 398 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. exercise any influence on the affiiirs of Spain. It was in vain that he wrote his grandson that he must learn to exert his own volition, to be able to say, " I will." The letters of Louis XIV. to the young king were as judicious as they were kindly, but they were without effect upon the prince to whom they were addressed. Philip continued, however, submissive to the orders which he received. Sometimes he was sullen in his obedience, but he never ventured to disobey his grand- father when the commands were peremptory. He re- tained also an affection for France and the French, but such a feeling was of small importance in so weak a person. The confidential adviser of his early career wrote : " One could make him sign a league against France mth the same facility that he would sign a passport." ^ In this feeble character there was one strong pas- sion, but it served only to render the sovereign still more dependent and despicable. He was the most uxorious of men. The most ingenious of comic writers have been unable to portray a condition of marital dependence equal to that of the monarch of the most widely extended empire in the world. The henpecked husband whom we find in fiction appears a man of independent will and fearless character when com- pared with Philip V. of Spain. His first wife was a woman of sprightliness and capacity. In ruling the kingdom, she found some consolation for a life every moment of wliich, by day and night, was spent in the society of a taciturn and stupid man. Philip was weak enough to be governed by his wife, and weak enough to be coaxed by others into trying to escape from this subjection. One of the French ambassadors 1 Louville to Torcy, April 30, 1701. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 399 conceived the idea of establishing relations with the Sjjanish king, of which his female rulers should have no knowledge. Philip sent communications to his grandfather, which were prepared by him and the minister. In these he expressed what he thought were his actual desires. He also sent the ordinary formal letters, which were dictated by his wife, or by Mme. des Ursins when she was in Sj)ain. " Do not put any confidence in the official letters which I shall be obliged to send you, in order not to disturb the peace," wrote this most weakly of princes.^ Louis XIV. had the feelinsfs of a kins: and of a gentleman, and the spectacle of his grandson confess- ing that he dared not express his real sentiments, because he was afraid of a disturbance with his wife, was in the highest degree distateful to him.^ He knew Philip's character well enough, also, to be sure that this feeble attempt at independence would be short-lived. So it proved. The surreptitious corre- spondence was discovered. The penalties imiiosed upon the erring husband are a secret of state, but they were doubtless severe. During the forty years that Philip remained a king, he never again ventured to rebel against the authority of his wives. He now sent a formal recantation of all that he had said in his personal letters, and was forgiven.^ The corre- spondence is a curious illustration of the character of those whom the fortune of birth sometimes puts in great places. In tracing the policy of Philip V. as a ruler, we are naturally obliged to consider the sequence of his wives. 1 Philip to Louis XIY., January 13, 1705. ^ Louis to Philip, February 1, 1705. 3 Philip to Louis, March 10, 1705. 400 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. His first wife, who was a princess of Savoy, died in February, 1714. In June, he was affianced to a prin- cess of Parma. In September, he was married to her by proxy, and he was greatly distressed at the delays in her journey to Spain. On December 24, she at last reached her imj)atient spouse. A week later the French charge (T affaires could truly write, " The queen governs the king despotically." ^ The authority which she acquired in the honeymoon she never allowed to relax. Her arrival was accompanied by an entire chansre in the (government. She dismissed Mme. des Ursins, without even consulting Philip, and the king dared show no resentment.^ He earned her favor by imjilieit obedience to her commands.^ His life with the new queen was spent in the same manner as' with the former one. An existence more monotonous, and apparently more wearisome, could hardly be con- ceived. It was a perpetual tete-a-tete by day and night, with no variation from the 1st of January to the 31st of December. Sickness of whatever nature was not allowed to be an excuse for separation. Their Catholic majesties rose together, dressed together, rode together, ate their meals together, went to mass to- gether, said their prayers together. The queen was allowed a few moments to herself during her toilet and for her confession. Even that must be brief. The king waited in the next room, and, if he thought that she was occupying too much time in the confes- sion of her sins, he opened the door and called to her. 1 Pachau h, Torcy, December 31, 1714. 2 Oriy k Torcy, January 5, 1715. 8 Even Torcy, who favored Philip's claims to the French throne, writes : " It is to be hoped that the king will fall into proper hands, it is so easy to abuse his goodness." — Torcy to St. Aignan, April 8, 1715. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 401 Almost every clay the king played at the mall. Three times he went down the long- mall in his game, and three times he returned, never more and never less. Though the queen took no part in the sport, she was required to follow him and keep constantly at his left hand. If, in talking with some one, she fell behind even four or five paces, Philip at once turned round and looked at her, and she hastened to resume her place. Every day, also, the king and queen participated in what was most improperly styled the chase. Hunting, when it requires exercise and skill, and still more when there exists an element of danger for the hunter as well as the hunted, is a sport the manliness of which atones for any appearance of cruelty. It was far otherwise with the butchery which furnished the daily amusement of Philip V. He and his wife were driven to the rendezvous. In the mean time three or four hundred peasants scoured the woods, and drove before them the game of every kind with which these were filled. In due time animals of various sorts began to pass before the inclosure where the king and queen were stationed, and they fired at them as they went by. Nothing came amiss, — boars, wolves, deer, hares, foxes, martins. Some were killed ; many more were wounded, and crept off in the woods to die. An hour spent in butchering barnyard fowl would have been quite as enlivening and manly sport, but, such as this was, it furnished endless delight to the Spanish king.^ ^ The best authority for the detail of Philip's life is St. Simon, who was an ambassador at Madrid, and who always describes with equal accuracy and vividness what he saw with his own eyes. But the routine of Philip's life was almost as well known as that of Louis XIV., and is described in most of the corre- 402 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Philip's religious nature was as narrow and super- stitious as we might expect. His confessor was his constant confidant : to him he disclosed the petty doubts and fears which disturbed him ; how should he say his prayers on St. Elizabeth's Day ; what cere- monial must he follow on the octave of the dedica- tion of the Holy Trinity ; at what moment should he begin fasting; at what moment should he cease praying? Such questions, solemnly reduced to writ- ing, were daily presented to his confessor, and have been preserved for posterity.^ The confessor, who was a sensible man, told him that it was not alone prayers and penitence which made a saintly king ; that, if he would occuj)y himself with the duties of royalty, he could accomplish more for God's glory than did many preachers and missionaries.^ Such advice was unheeded. Philip was in constant fear of dying, and often he insisted on keeping his confessor by him all the night. Frequently he awoke, and at once de- manded ghostly counsel on some doubt that had tra- versed his feeble brain. At one time he was so appre- hensive of the administration of a secret charm or poison, that his attendants had endless trouble to in- duce him to chanoe his clothes or his linen. ^ The description which St. Simon gives of Philip in 1721 does not seem strange, when we consider the life which he had led for twenty years. He was bent and shrunken ; his chin projected, his gait was a shuffle, his speech was a drawl, and his appearance imbecile.* spondence of the time. See letters of St. Aignaii and the other French ambassadors at Madrid. ^ They are still preserved among the archives of Alcala. 2 Direccion que practicaha S. M. Arch. Alcala. 8 St. Aignan k Huxclles, September and October, 1717. ^ St. Simon, xvii. 350. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 403 Such was the prince to place whom on the throne of Spain half a million Frenchmen perished. The treas- ury was bankrupt, the fields lay untilled, trade was stagnant, misery was widespread ; and all this that a grandson of Louis XIV. might reign at Madrid with as little profit to Spain as to France. What an enor- mous price to pay, and what a beggarly reward to receive ! Philip's second wife possessed a character as vigor- ous as his was weak. She was a woman without ex- perience in affairs of state, her mind was narrow and suspicious ; but she had an active intelligence, untir- ing energy, and unusual power of will.^ Two sons by Philip's first wife were living. The second wife also had children. There seemed slight probability that they would inherit the Spanish crown, and her ener- gies were occupied in finding thrones and principali- ties for them elsewhere. For that end she had no more hesitation in involving Spain and all Europe in war than has a tigress in killing a fawn for her cubs. The establishment of the sons of Elizabeth of Parma controlled the politics of Spain for quarter of a century ; it wasted many lives, and produced endless disturbance in Europe. Elizabeth may have been entitled to demand advan- tages for her offspring as compensation for the exist- ence which she was forced to lead. A lifelong tete-d- tete with such a man as Philip must have been misery equal to that caused by the most refined and ingenious tortui-es of the Inquisition, In company Philip rarely opened liis mouth, and with his wife he would sit for ^ "She lias the heart of Lombardy and the wit of Florence," writes the Prince of Monaco to Torcy; " Elle vent tres forte- ment." — October 19, 1714. 404 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. hours in silence. When he did talk, it was of the chase, of his clothes and those of his children. And yet, in order to hold her ascendency, the queen was obliged to keej) him always in her view. Sometimes she would not even let him confess in secret. He loved flattery, and she praised him constantly. She lauded his skill at the mall, his presence, his dress ; she even told him how intelligent he was, and how great a king.^ A resolute woman hesitates at nothing. Though Philip's character was feeble, it was not difficult to induce him to plunge his country into war. He had a certain vague ambition, a desire to be regarded as a powerful king, and he was as unscrupulous as mon- archs who possessed greater ability. While he waked his confessor at night to get instructions as to the order of his devotions, he had no regard for the trea- ties he signed, or the oaths he swore ; and he pursued with a stubborn pertinacity his plans for obtaining anything which he desired. His readiness to plunge Spain and France in war to accomplish his purposes, if he had been an able man, would have made him a dangerovis man. In order to conclude the peace of Utrecht, Louis had compelled his grandson to execute a renunciation of his rights as a possible heir to the French throne. It was asserted by those who opposed the treaty then, and by those who have condemned it since, that this renunciation was invalid. When the English ministers demanded it as a condition of peace, Torcy had replied that in France it was a fundamental law that the near- est heir received the throne, not from the preceding king, but directly from God, and that this divine ordi- 1 See Memoires de St. Simon, xvii. and xviii., during his em- bassy at Madrid. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 405 nance no renunciation could affect, and only God could alter.^ This position was nonsensical, and Torcy knew it quite as well as Bolingbroke. The argument was advanced to make the English desist from a de- mand to which Louis was reluctant to accede. There was no such law in France. Even if there had been, Bolingbroke's answer was complete, that, though God gave a prince the right to inherit, there was no law that prevented his surrender of the right ; even the most strenuous advocates did not claim that the law of God forbade a king to abdicate. But in France there had never been any positive enactment such as Torcy claimed, nor had there been an immemorial usage which should take the place of written law. If the throne of France by God's decree must always descend in a direct line, Louis XIV. was an usurper. Carlo\'ingian and Merovingian sovereigns had been dethroned ; they had partitioned the territory of France among themselves to suit their own tastes ; the Bourbons were not the lawful heirs of those who had once ruled in that land. Even if Louis XIV. was a lawful sovereign, it was certain that Philip V. was not. He was king of Spain by virtue of the renun- ciation of his father and his older brother. If Torcy was correct, that a prince could not deprive his off- spring of their rights by birth, then the infant Louis XV. was manifestly entitled to the throne of Spain as well as of France, and the renunciations by which Philip had been placed on it were contrary to the law of God, and void.^ Philip had secured his rights in ^ Torcy to Bolingbroke, March 22, 1712 ; to Bonnac, April 4, 1712. "^ This argument was used hy Louis XIV. when he was en- deavoring to persuade Philip to sign the renunciation to the 40a FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. Spiiiu as a compensation for yielding his possible riiilits in France. Though the renunciation o£ the Duke of Anjou was valid by the laws of France, as well as by the laws of common sense and common honesty, yet it was very doubtful whether it would be observed. A similar doubt enveloped every treaty that was made. The fact that sovereigns violated their agreements with facility could be obviated by no skill in the framers of treaties. A humorous diplomat had suggested that to each of the elaborate phrases, in which the renun- ciation of Philip was couched, should be added the words, " In the same manner as was expressed in the renunciation of Maria Theresa," in violation of which Philip was now on the Spanish throne. Louis XIV. regarded the instrument executed by the king of Spain as in all respects valid, and he was distressed when Philip, notwithstanding his scruples of conscience as to fasts and formulas, declared that he would not respect his oaths or his agreements. " I am sure that you regret giving occasion to the charges that you are seeking pretexts to avoid the renuncia- tion to which you have solemnly sworn," he wrote his grandson.^ The only check upon Philip was removed when his grandfather died. He had long regarded the Duke of Orleans with animosity. During the war of the Succession, Orleans for some years commanded the armies in Spain. When Louis XIV. believed that it was impossible that Philip could retain the Spanish French throne. " II ne doit point avoir do peine h suivre I'ex- emple de ceux qui I'ont placd sur la trone." — Louis k Bonnac, April 28, 1712. 1 Louis to Philip, August 14, 1714. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 407 throne, Orleans became involved in some indiscreet intrigues, founded on his own contingent rights if Philip were compelled to abdicate. There was nothing in what he did contrary to his obligations to that sovereign, but his conduct was injudicious.^ Mme. des Ursins conceived a strong dislike for Orleans, and Philip disliked what she disliked. Subsequent events had only strengthened his aversion. At last Orleans obtained the regency, which Philip wanted for him- self. He entertained for the regent both hatred and fear. His terrors were increased by the reports of Or- leans's crimes which were sent from Paris. Philip was easily led to believe that the wicked cousin, who had already poisoned his brother, was now seeking an opportunity to poison him. A new favorite had attained to power in Spain, and for four years controlled the destinies of that country. Giulio Alberoni, like so many of those who have reached the highest dignities of the church, was of very humble extraction. He was an Italian, born near Piacenza, and was the son of a gardener. He took orders, obtained the good-will of the Duke of Ven- d8me, and in 1711, as his secretary, first visited Spain. Two years later he was appointed consular agent for the Duke of Parma, whose subject he was. He used his influence to induce Mme. des Ursins to choose the niece of that duke as Philip's second wife ; and when Elizabeth Farnese had arrived in Spain, and estab- lished her wifely authority over her husband, the road lay clear for Alberoni's advancement. He was of the same nationality as the queen ; he had helped her to ^ All the documents and evidence in reference to this chapter of Orleans's life can be found in Baudrillart, Philippe V. et la Cour de France, t. ii. oh. i. 408 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. the position which she hekl ; he enjoyed her entire eonlulence. lie soon became the prime minister of Si)ain, Jiud exercised in that country a despotic au- thority. To the rule of a French princess succeeded the rule of an Italian priest. Spain seemed to be un- able to supply men from her own soil who could play any part in the state. Alberoni desired to be made a cardinal, and the influence of Spain was exercised to procure him this honor. Clement XI. hesitated. So unfit did he regard Alberoni for the purple, that he said he should undoubtedly burn in hell if he made him a cardinal. Even if the Pope entertained such gloomy apprehensions, he decided to run the risk. In July, 1717, Alberoni was declared a cardinal, and this dignity increased the influence which he already pos- sessed. Alberoni has often been likened to Dubois. Both had risen from a very humble social jDosition, both were violent and vulgar in their speech and manner, both were eager and unscrupulous in pursuing their own advancement, and both attained the highest dig- nities of the church and state. The analogy cannot be carried further. Dubois was a man of sagacity ; no one considered n:\pre carefully than he the condi- tion of the states and the character of the men with whom he had to deal; no one was more adroit in persuading others to adopt his own conclusions. Al- beroni possessed the reverse of these qualities. He has been compared with statesmen like Riche- lieu and Mazarin ; it has been said that under favor- able cii'cumstances he might have rebuilt the power of Spain, and accomplished results as brilliant as those effected l)y the great French cardinals. No comj^ari- son could be more inaccurate. The essential quality THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 409 of a statesman is to recognize what is possible, to abide the fitting hour, to seize the opportunity of to-day and watch for the opportunity of the morrow. But Alberoni was a dreamer. His political schemes were as impracticable as those of his royal master. Like a petulant child, he refused the advantages which he could obtain, because they were not all that he de- sired. He was always hoping for some mysterious turn of affairs. He devised vast political combinations, which came to naught ; he hoped to conquer England with a few thousand ill-equipped troops, to overthrow the authority of the regent by means of a handful of discontented intriguers. He failed in everything that he undertook, because he would never recognize that the world was what it was, and not what he wished it to be. Alberoni claimed great credit for himself because he organized in Spain a considerable navy and army, because lie did something to rouse that country from its lethargy. But all that he accom- plished by his energy he destroyed by his folly.i The cai'dinal stimulated all the 'vague, ambitious hopes which agitated Philip's brain. The plans of the feeble king and his chimerical minister would have required the power of Louis XIV. in his palm- iest days to have any chance of accomplishment. All the provisions of the treaty of Utrecht were odious to them, and they were eager to overthrow the arrange- ment by which, only three years before, the peace of Europe had been made and the crown of Philip as- sured. Spain must recover her lost possessions in Italy ; Gibraltar must be restored ; Parma and Tus- ^ " E uomo di talento. ma von da miuistro, perche violente, s drucciolo e senza prudenza," said an Italian diplomat who knew him well. — Relazione di Lascaris. 410 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. cany must be secured for the son of Elizabeth Farnese. It would have been impossible for the most powerful state in Europe to obtain such advantages, and they were not likely to be accorded to one of the weakest. An unfriendly policy towards the regent accorded with the prejudices of Philip and the plans of Al- beroni, A new treaty was made with England, by which she secured great commercial advantages. On the other hand, French trade and French merchants were harassed. They were subjected to heavier im- positions than when Spain was governed by kings of the house of Austria. The French ambassador re- monstrated, but without success. At the same time, engineers were employed to repair the fortifications on the line of the Pyrenees towards France, which had been suffered to fall into decay. ^ Such was the spectacle presented within three months of the death of Louis XIV. to those who believed that ties of blood governed the policy of princes, and that the Pyrenees no longer existed. Orleans sent to Madrid the Mar- quis of Louville, who had formerly been an intimate associate of the Duke of Anjou, but Alberoni was too wary to allow the king to be exposed to the blandish- ments of a friend of his youth. Louville was met with letters, purporting to be by Philip's order, but of the existence of which the sovereign was perhaps unaware, which directed him to return forthwith to France. It was with difficulty that he found a physician to attend him in an illness, such was the apprehension of any relations with a man who was distasteful to the queen and her minister.^ ^ See letters of St. Aignan to regent and to Hnxelles, October and November, 1715 ; Papiers de Torcy, i. 29 et pas. 2 See letters of Louville, July and August, 1716, Aff. Etr. Esp.; Papiers de Torcy, t. i. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 411 Baffled in liis attempts to remain on good terms with Philip, the regent joined the Triple Alliance. The assertion in the treaty that this alliance was made to secure the tranquillity of Europe was no idle boast. "Your vo3^age to the Hague, Monsieur I'Abbe," said Stanhope to Dubois, when the instru- ment was signed, " has saved the waste of human life. There are nations who will be indebted to you for their tranquillity, though they do not know it." In pursuance of a policy that was alike judicious and humane, the endeavor was now made to adjust the points of contention between Austria and Spain, and to prevent the recklessness of Philip and Alberoni from kindling a European war. Spain had already taken the first step towards an appeal to the sword. Alberoni constantly declared that the Austrians must be driven from Italy.^ Such a purpose woidd have been deserving of sympathy, if the object of freeing Italy from the burden of Aus- trian occupation had not been to subject her to the incubus of Spanish occujaation. Any consideration for national interests, or affinities, or sympathies was unknown to the politics of this period. Such ideas were so foreign to political conceptions that they were not even advanced as pretexts. " They cut and pare states and kingdoms as if they were Dutch cheeses," wrote Alberoni of the statesmen of the day.^ "After all," said the regent to Stair, " what does the nation amount to ? " " Very little," replied the ambassador, " until a standard is raised." ^ The standard was not raised until late in the century. ^ Papiers de Torcy, passim. ^ Alberoni to Dodingtoii, April 16, 1718. The policy of which he complains in this letter was also his own. 8 Aff. Etr. Esp., Mem. et Doc, 135. 412 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. The Spanish had long been preparing a naval force of considerable strength. It was certain that an ex- pedition was contemplated in some direction, but the real object was concealed, for Alberoni had the fac- ulty of keeping his own counsel. To the Pope he inti- mated that the fleet would sail against the Turks, so soon as a cardinal's hat was bestowed on a minister who had it in his power to do good work for the cause of Christ. In August, 1717, the fleet set sail. It did not proceed against the infidels, but nine thousand men landed on the island of Sardinia, which had been ceded to Austria by the treaty of Utrecht. The Emperor was engaged in a war with the Turks, his Italian possessions were scantily garrisoned, and the Spanish captured the island without difficulty. Thus the war between Spain and the empire was again kindled, and it seemed probable that all the parties to the contest of the Spanish Succession would soon find themselves in arms. The admirers of Albe- roni have claimed that he was opposed to commencing hostilities, but was forced to begin war at the express command of the Spanish king. The cardinal's letters and conversations suj^port this claim.^ But those who suppose that Philip V. was capable of insisting upon so important a measui-e, contrary to the wishes of his minister, are ignorant of his physical and mental con- dition. His health at this period was more infirm than usual, and during the autumn his life was in danger. Alberoni had long been strengthening the Spanish army and preparing a fleet ; he was not a man who, like the father of Frederick II., equipped soldiers for ^ See especially his letter to the Duke of Popoli of June 10, 1717, which is so often regarded as decisive as to Alberoni's wishes. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 413 the pleasure of looking at them. In June, Alberoni wrote a strong letter declaring- that Spain was not ready for war. In this he was sincere. He had not yet been elevated to the cardinalate, and he knew that the Pope would be mortally offended when he discovered that the Spanish exjDedition was intended for Italian invasion. On July 12, Alberoni was made a cardinal, and early in August the fleet sailed for Sardinia. The hostile measures taken by Spain increased the desire of England and France to secure the continu- ance of peace. In September, 1717, Dubois was sent as ambassador to London. His mission was accom- panied with important political results ; his letters illustrate, also, many of his own peculiarities. He was charmed with England. " There is no other country in the world," he writes, " whei-e one can see so many pretty women." ^ He was equally impressed by the populousness of London. The Pont-Neuf, he said, seemed like a solitude in comparison. The abbe was always eager to make friends, and he scorned no means of obtaining their favor. He ordered dresses for many of the ladies of the court. He describes the complexion, the height, the figure, even the color of the hair, of those for whom they were intended ; he directs, with anxious attention, the manner in which the trains should be finished. Nor did he give less attention to his larder, that he might furnish pleasure to the husbands as well as to the wives. Perigord truffles were ordered, cheeses from Brie, and marma- lades of extraordinary delicacy. His cook fell sick, and he was in despair. The names were sent of can- didates for the office, and he criticises them with a ^ Cited in Auberfcin, L' Esprit publique au dix-huitieme siecle. 4U FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. seventy befitting the gravity of the situation. " You speak of the cook of M. d'Armenonville, but M. d'Ai-menouville did not understand good living. His brother, the Bishop of Orleans, lived on salsify. It is impossible that a good ofiicer should be turned out from that school." ^ A minister who was diligent in small matters did not neglect those of more importance. The regent was earnest in demanding for Spain the advantages which might reasonably content its sovereign. The English sought to reconcile the Emperor to the treaty of Utrecht, against which he had so bitterly protested. The negotiation was long protracted, but at last it was agreed between France and England that the Em- peror must acknowledge Philip as king of Spain, and Philip must surrender any claim upon the possessions ceded to Austria ; in consideration for this, Don Car- los, Philip's son by Elizabeth Farnese, should be rec- ognized as heir to the duchies of Tuscany and Parma, and Sicily should be ceded to Austria by the Duke of Savoy, who was to receive Sardinia in exchange. The Spanish must, of course, withdraw their troops from Sardinia and agree to keep the peace.^ These terms were reasonable. England and France asked no advantages for themselves ; they sought only to preserve the tranquillity of Europe. But an arrangement that was fair to each party was distaste- ^ Letters cited by Aubertin. 2 These negotiations can be followed in the correspondence between Dubois, the regent, and Huxelles, preserved in the Archives des Affaires Etrangeres. The history of the Quadruple Alliance, f I'oui the Austrian archives, has been written by Weber, Die Quadrupel Allianz, vom Jahre 1718. Equally valuable infor- mation is found in Papiers de Torcy, MSS. Bib. Nat. THE QUADRUPLE ALLIANCE. 415 ful to Spain and to Austria. The Emperor proposed an alliance with France, to be purchased by the surrender of Alsace to Germany ; he was willing to treat with England, i£ Majorca and Sicily could be secured for him, without allowing Tuscany to fall to the lot of a Bourbon prince. It was with reluctance that he would agree to renounce the title of king of Spain, though it was as visionary as if he had called himself the king of Jerusalem.^ Dealing' with these unreasonable demands was not an easy task, but it was successfully accomplished. The secret council at Vienna displayed an unusual amount of sagacity. The minutes of its proceedings recite that, in the hope of getting more by waiting longer, Austria had suffered serious disadvantages at the successive treaties of Nimeguen, Ryswick, and Utrecht.^ It was thought wise, therefore, not to delay in entering an alliance which secured the fertile island of Sicily in exchange for the barren island of Sardinia. In July, 1718, an agreement was signed between France and England. Austria became a party to it in August, Holland subsequently joined ; and it thus became the Quadruple Alliance.^ Spain was asked to accede to the terms agreed ^ Protokoll der Coufereuz-Sitzung vom 2 Februar, 1716 ; kai- serliches Rescript an Hoffman vom 26 Juni, 1715, cited by Weber. 2 Weber, 31. 8 The treaty is found in Dnmont, viii. 531. The credit for the successful termination of these protracted negotiations belongs chiefly to Stanhope and Dubois. One is surprised to find in the correspondence that St. Simon was then a zealous partisan of Dubois. " He told me you could be sure of his devotion," writes Chavigny. It was probably when Dubois as cardinal took prece- dence of the duke, that St. Simon discovered how wicked a man he was. 416 FRANCE UNDER THE REGENCY. upon by the four great powers. Even if they had been less favorable, it was useless for her to op- pose them. Spain could not have resisted such a combination in the days of Philip II., and it was folly to suppose that she could do so in the condi- tion to which she had fallen under Philip V. But the terms of the treaty were such as could prop- erly have been accepted. The inheritance of the duchies of Tuscany and Parma was secured to a Boui'bon prince, the son of the Spanish queen. In their eagerness to avoid war, George I. and his min- isters were willing to surrender Gibraltar, which had been captured fourteen years before. Spain could have escaped the humiliation of seeing the English flag over the sti'onghold where it still floats, almost two centuries later. ^ That country could have pursued her course of material improvement, could have con- tinued to strengthen her ai^niy and her navy, until she might have assumed a position in Europe not in all respects inferior to that which she formerly occupied. It was necessary to abandon the dream of reconquer- ing the possessions surrendered by the treaty of Utrecht. Bat that was only a dream. The increased prosperity of Spain was largely due to the fact that she was relieved from the care of distant provinces which had cost her much and yielded little.^ It is the conclusive proof of Alberoni's incompetency that he let this opportunity go by, and wasted the resources ^ The willlnguess of George and Stanhope to surrender Gibral- tar as a condition of peace appears beyond question in the letters published by Coxe and in Stanhope's History of England, as well as in the French di{)lomatic correspondence. — Letters of the regent, and Papiers