yti^a/ c/C.^4u>r^ ^^/i^^'^^-^ 7/ri*i ^rjt/y ^ '^^ra/t/< rf^a Property Of H.MORSE srepHEi^s Do NOT REMOVE PROM SEMlilAR ? 7^ jEuropean 1bl9torp Europe in the Middle Agfe By Olu'er J. Thatcher and Ferdinand ScHCviLL, Professors of History in the Uni- versity of Chicago. With lo maps, izmo, 680 pages, $2.00 net. A Short History of Medieval Europe By Oliver J. Thatcher, Ph.D. With maps. i2mo, 340 pages, $1.25 net. History of Modern Europe By Ferdinand Sch%,vill, Ph.D. With maps and genealogical tables. Crown 8vo, 450 pages, I1.50 net. MODERN EUROPE HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE BY FERDINAND SCHEV^ILL, Ph.D. INSTRUCTOR IN MODERN HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO WITH MAPS AND GENEALOGICAL TABLES NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1898 Copyright, 1898, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS HENRY MORSE STEPHEUS TROW DIRECTORY PRINTING AND aOOKBINOINQ COMPANY NEW YORK ^^ AUTHOR'S NOTE During the preparation of this book I have received valuable help from many people, to all of whom I desire to make a grateful ac- knowledgment of my indebtedness. Especially do I thank my colleagues of the History Department, Messrs. Thatcher, Catterall, and Thompson, and Mr. Linn, of the Department of Rhetoric. I am also under deep obligation to Miss Moxley, who has kindly prepared the Index. F. S. University of Chicago, July 1st, i~898. 509735 CONTENTS Introduction : page a. Why We Date the Modern Era from the End of the Fifteenth Century ... i b. The Voyages of Discovery and the Eu- ropean Colonization of the New- World 4 c. The European States at the Beginning of the Modern Period ii PERIOD I The Reformation and the Wars of Religion ; from Luther to the Peace of Westphalia, {^i^i'j-1648?) I. The History of the Reformation in Germany to the Peace of Augs- burg (1555) ..... \ ... . 27 II. The Progress of the Reformation in Europe and the Counter Reforma- tion of the Catholic Church ... 47 III. Spain under Charles I. (1516-56), known AS Emperor Charles V., and Philip II. (1556-98) ; HER World Eminence •AND HER Decay 59 IV. England under the Tudors (1485- 1603) ; Final Triumph of the Refor- mation under Elizabeth (1559-1603) 68 vii viii Contents CHAPTER PAGE V. The Revolt of the Netherlands and Triumph of the Seven United Prov- inces (1566-1648) 100 VI. The Reformation in France to the Religious Settlements of 1598 (Edict of Nantes) and 1629 .... 119 VII. The Thirty Years' War (1618-48) and the Peace of Westphalia 141 PERIOD II The Era of Absolutism and the Dynastic Wars j from the Peace of Westphalia to the French Revolution. {1648-178^.) I. England in the Seventeenth Century. The Stuarts, the Puritan Revo- lution, and the Establishment of THE Constitutional Monarchy under William III 163 II. The Ascendancy of France under Louis XIV. (1643-1715) 200 III. The Rise of Russia under Peter the Great (1689-1725) and Catharine the Great (1762-96); the Decay of Swe- den 215 IV. The Rise of Prussia in the Seventeenth AND Eighteenth Centuries .... 230 V. England and France in the Eighteenth Century 248 Contents ix PERIOD III The Political Revolutions and the Reconstruction of the Europeafi States ; from the French Revolution to the Congress of Berlin, (17 8^- 18'/ 8.) CHAPTER PAGE I. The French Revolution (1789-1815) . 266 II. The Attempt to Govern Europe in Accordance with the Principles and Articles of the Congress of Vienna (1815-30) i-7^2> III. The Revolution of 1830 in France and Elsewhere 344 IV. The Government of Louis Philippe (1830-48) and the French Revolu- tion OF 1848 352 V. The Revolution of 1848 in Germany, Austria, and Italy 359 VI. France under Napoleon III. — The Uni- fication OF Italy 372 VII. The Unification of Germany .... 380 VIII. Great Britain in the Nineteenth Cen- tury 392 IX. Russia and the Balkan Peninsula 400 Index 409 Chronological Tables .,,...'... 425 Maps 435 MODERN HISTORY INTRODUCTION. A. WHY WE DATE THE MODERN ERA FROM THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. During the last two centuries of the Middle Age (1300- The transfor- 1500), a series of changes transformed the states of Europe, byMiTRenafs- European society, and the European man himself. These s^"*^^- two centuries mark a transition period, and are very prop- erly called the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, state^ society, and man emerged from their mediaeval con- dition and assumed a new aspect, which we call modern. Modern History, therefore, we date from the period of the approximate completion of this evolutionary process, that is, from the end of the fifteenth century. ^ The agents and events which contributed most largely to this transforma- tion of Europe are here briefly enumerated. I. The Revival of Learning. — First in Italy, and later in the countries of the north, men began to interest them- selves in the long-forgotten literature and art of Greece and Rome. By patient labor they excavated, as it were, the buried culture of antiquity and added it to their meagre mediaeval stock. Thus gradually the narrow mental hori- zon of the mediaeval man extended until it included field 1 The year 1492 may, for its convenience, be adopted as a division mark between Mediaeval and Modern History. Mb^rd Europe after field of human endeavor and enterprise, which the preceding centuries either from fear or from indifference had avoided. Learning had been rehgious and dogmatic ; it now became free and universal. The scholar was no longer confined in the cowl. 2. The Revival of Industry and Commerce. — The later Middle Age is marked by the growth of the cities through industry and commerce. The prevalent mediaeval poverty gave way to a more general well-being which increased man's economic powers and enlarged his capacity of en- joyment. As society became more settled, manufactures spread and commerce grew emboldened to follow distant highways. The Crusades were instrumental in introducing the west to the luxurious east, and if they failed in their immediate object, there crowded behind the warriors of the cross the traders and the galleys of Venice and Genoa, which sec\ired a lasting and fruitful connection between the Le- vant and Europe. The Mediterranean became the great highway of international traffic. Soon the cities of the At- lantic coast and of the North and Baltic Seas, were drawn into the current of the new commercial life. Finally, in the fifteenth century, commerce was multiplied incalculably, we may say revolutionized, by the great voyages of discovery. 3. The Inventions, — The introduction of gunpowder (fourteenth century) altered entirely the conditions of war. The superiority of the mounted knight over the foot-soldier was thereby destroyed. Thus through its loss of impor- tance in the military field to which, during the Middle Age, it owed its political preeminence, the feudal order of nobles received an irreparable injury. A standing army of mer- cenaries was found by a ruler to be both more serviceable and more reliable than a self-willed aristocracy. The king in consequence began to emancipate himself from the con- trol of his nobles. Introduction ^ The invention of printing^ by multiplying books, made culture accessible to the many. Ideas, hitherto the privilege of the priest and noble, began to throw their light i ^to the dark and brutal lives of the lower orders. 4. The Growth of Absolutis^n. — The economic changes consequent upon the decay of the nobles and the growth of the cities, involved also a political revolution. If in the Middle Age the nobles had been the dominant political factor, it was, first, because they formed the army, and, secondly, because the one great source of wealth in that period, the land, was in their possession. In the Modern Period, owing to the invention of gunpowder, they were no longer necessary for the army, and land, owing to the growth of the cities, fell from its position of sole source of wealth. The king and the cities, who had a common en- emy in the nobility, soon found themselves strong enough to unseat their rival from his place of power. Gradually the king began to absorb the political powers of the no- bility. Thus the feudal state, in which the power was dis- tributed among the members of an aristocracy, decayed. In its place arose the absolute monarchy, with the power concentrated in one man. 5. The Voyages of Discovery. — The voyages of discovery must be reckoned in their effects among the most conspic- uous and far-reaching of the events which usher in the Mod- ern Age. The mediaeval geography did not push its in- quiries beyond the basin of the Mediterranean and of the North and Baltic Seas. Beyond these limits seemed to lie chaos. But now by the voyages of discovery there was communicated to Europeans the knowledge of vast lands be- yond their continent. The returning adventurers told of countries, sometimes of tropical luxuriance, sometimes of » Ascribed to John Gutenberg of Mainz, 1450. 4 Modern Europe forbidding cold and barrenness, and unfolded a tale of peoples, brown and black and red, who dwelt in all degrees of squalor and of splendor, here in adobe huts and there in golden palaces. Our plain earth acquired a new delight and wonder from such wealth of unexpected fact. Just as the Revival of Learning, which added new continents to man's mental world, had led him upon untravelled paths of intellectual investigation, so the discoveries, which com- pleted the knowledge of the physical world, pushed him out upon larger material enterprises. At one and the same time man was stimulated, as perhaps never in his whole history, to summon and exercise his mental and his physical resources. B. THE VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY AND THE EUROPEAN COLONIZATION OF THE NEW WORLD. It will be necessary to treat the voyages of discovery and their results in a little more detail. The voyages of discovery w^ere natural consequences of the expansion of commerce which followed in the wake of the Crusades. The trade with the Levant which had rapidly made Genoa and Venice rich, naturally aroused the cupidity of their The direction neighbors. In the fifteenth century the Spaniards and and ^he^^Por- Portuguese undertook to find a highway to the east other tuguese voy- ^-i^^^ tj^g Mediterranean. Their endeavors in this enter- ages. prise led to all the subsequent discoveries. The heroes of this chapter of human progress are therefore generally Span- iards and Portuguese, or Italians in the service of these nations. The Portuguese travellers were mainly governed by the idea of finding a sea-passage to India ^ by sail- ing around Africa ; they pushed eastward. The Spanish sailors sought to discover a sea-passage to India by circum- » India, in the fifteenth century, was a collective name for the whole Orient. Introduction 5 Vasco da Gama. navigating the globe; they pushed westward. Each of these series of undertakings was accompanied by marvel- lous successes, and each had a unique climax. In the year 1492 Christopher Columbus (Italian form of Columbus and name, Cristoforo Colombo ; Spanish form, Cristoval Co- lon), an Italian from the city of Genoa, who had entered the service of Isabella, queen of Castile, discovered, while seeking a westward passage to India, the island of San Salvador, and thus first demonstrated to the world the ex- istence of land beyond the Atlantic.^ The new continent was, by a tragical mishap, not named after its discoverer, but after a Florentine traveller and geographer, Amerigo Vespucci, who owed his fame to the fact that he wrote one of the first acceptable treatises on the New World. In the year 1498 the endeavors of the Portuguese to find an eastern sea-passage to India culminated in Vasco da Gama's suc- cessful voyage around the southern point of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope. This achievement, though it has not brought equal laurels, is, judged by its commercial results, hardly less memorable than that of the famous Genoese. In consequence of these triumphs discovery became a passion, especially among the Spaniards and the Portuguese. Where fame and wealth so amply rewarded the successful, every adventurer's soul felt a personal summons to strike out into the new and unknown realms. No period of his- The fever of discovery. Magellan. 1 It is highly probable that the Norsemen discovered America before Columbus. But their discovery was without result. Columbus sailed on his voyage August 3, I4q2, from Palos, with three small ships — the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. He landed on San Salvador (Guana- hani) October 12. Cuba and Hayti were also discovered upon this voy- age. Upon his return his sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, loaded him with honors (hereditary nobility, admiralty, etc.). He followed up his first voyage with three more voyages; second voyage (1493-96), on which he discovered Jamaica ; third voyage (1498-1500), on which he first touched upon the continent of South America at the mouth of the Ori- noco. It was from this voyage that he, the great benefactor of Spain, was brought back to Spain in chains. On his fourth voyage (1502-4) he landed on the coast of Honduras. He died, 1506, near Valladolid, be- lieving to the last that he had reached India. Modern Europe tory is so astir with action and enterprise, so illumined by the purple light of romance. Probably every voyage in- creased the store of the world's knowledge, but of all the later expeditions, the one which, by virtue of its boldness and its results, may claim a place beside those of Colum- bus and Vasco da Gama, is the famous first circumnaviga- tion of the globe. This remarkable triumph was achieved by a Portuguese in the Spanish service, Magellan,' after a succession of incredible hardships lasting three years (1519- 1522). One of the most notable facts in connection with the voy- The world ages of discovery was that the Europeans were not satisfied ^een Portii- ^^^ a mere acquaintance with the new countries or with gal and Spain, opening up new markets for the home traders; they also resolved to Christianize, govern, and colonize their dis- coveries ; in a word, they resolved to refashion them as a larger Europe. Naturally the zeal for colonial expansion, which almost immediately rose to extravagant proportions, led to shameless land-grabbing, and soon to quarrels among the rival nations. Spain and Portugal, the leaders in the movement, were the first to become involved in difficulties with one another, and their disputes brought about a famous intervention by Pope Alexander VI. (Borgia). In the fif- teenth century the Pope, as Christ's Vicar, was still reverent- ly regarded as the peacemaker, the best arbiter of quarrels arising among the Christian flock. Upon being appealed to by Spain and Portugal for a settlement of their rival claims, he drew (1493) a line of demarcation, first one hundred leagues and later three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, and gave all the land to be discovered east of this line to Portugal, all west of it to Spain. This line of demarcation, which cut through the > Magellan did not himself complete the voyage. He was killed on one of the Philippine Islands, 1521. Introduction eastern part of South America, secured to Spain the whole of the New World with the exception of what is now Brazil. At the beginning of the fifteenth century the chief cen- tres of Spanish colonization were : (i) The West India The Spanish group, whither Columbus himself had first directed the ^^ oni^s. stream of immigration ; (2) Mexico, which was won for the Spaniards by the great conqueror, Cortez ; and (3) Peru, which was acquired by Pizarro. The plain facts of the two last named conquests make many a mediaeval adventure of Arthur's knights and Charlemagne's paladins drop by comparison to the level of bare prose. Hernando Cortez sailed from Cuba in the year 15 19, and Cortez lands having landed upon the continent at Vera Cruz, ordered, 1519.^^^^°' as his first step, the destruction of the fleet which secured him and his men a refuge in case of disaster. Then he turned his face resolutely toward his enterprise. Six hun- dred Spanish foot-soldiers, 16 horsemen, 14 cannons, and 200 Indians made up his force. The country of Mexico was inhabited by various Indian The condition tribes in a comparatively advanced condition of civilization. The largest tribe, which lent its name to the loose polit- ical confederation in which these red men lived, was the Aztecs. To them belonged the privilege of furnishing the war chief of the league. Though they were, in their own •country, held to be great warriors, they seem to have been at heart a gentle and superstitious people. The most in- teresting facts about them are the following : they lived in large communal houses ; engaged in a kind of sun-worship which involved colossal human sacrifices (30,000 and even 70,000 victims at one time are mentioned in this connec- tion) ; practised, by means of an extensive net-work of canals, a developed agriculture, the chief products of which were corn and cotton ; and cultivated an attractive art which of Mexico. 8 Modern Europe of Mexico. found its best expression in gold and silver work and in a richly variegated pottery. The conquest Cortez was much favored in his plans of conquest by a fortunate alliance with an Indian tribe of the coast, the Tlascalans, who lived in mortal feud with the Aztecs. Be- cause of the help rendered by the Tlascalans the inland march of Cortez met with little or no opposition. The tribal chief of the Aztecs, Montezuma, or Emperor Mon- tezuma, as the Spaniards called him, seized with a feeling of religious awe for the white conquerors who had come across the unknown waters, even made the adventurers wel- come in Mexico, his capital city. There the unappeasable greed of the Spaniards soon occasioned quarrels with the natives. The imprisonment of Montezuma, impudently or- dered one day by Cortez, snapped the last bond of friend- ship between the Aztecs and their rude guests. Unable to cope with a general rising, the Spanish general found it necessary to evacuate the city. His position in Mexico, already precarious enough, was rendered seemingly hopeless at this juncture by the arrival of a second Spanish force which the governor of Cuba, jealous of his countryman's achievements, had sent against him, with orders to treat him as a rebel. But Cortez's undaunted spirit rose victorious over all his difficulties. He first defeated his Spanish rival, then returning with all the forces he could muster to the capital city of Mexico, he took it after a four weeks* siege. Forthwith opposition ceased ; whereupon Cortez, having executed the last emperor and successor of Montezuma, Guatimozin, assumed the rulership of all Mexico in the name of his king (1521). The conquest The conquest of Peru by Francisco Pizarro (1532) is a similar romantic story of difficulties faced with equanimity, of revolting crime against innocent and peaceful natives, pf stout endurance and heroism. The civilization of the of Peru. Introduction 9 Indians of Peru was even in advance of that of the Aztecs. The government was a sort Of oligarchy, exercised by the Incas, one of whom was regularly chosen chief Inca or king. Pizarro, like Cortez, was favored in his enterprise by circumstances. When he invaded Peru, he found the country in the confusion of civil war, occasioned by the rival claims of two brother Incas, Huascar and Atahualpa. Atahualpa had lately defeated his brother and taken him prisoner. In spite of the local turmoil, the odds against the Spaniards were overwhelming and could only be over- come by audacity. Pizarro, however, cruel, unscrupulous, a character of iron, was the very man whoni the situation required. With a large Peruvian army looking on, he boldly took its chief, Atahualpa, prisoner.^ As soon as the terrorized Inca had filled his prison chamber with gold and silver, in payment of his stipulated ransom, Pizarro treach- erously ignoring his promises, slew the prince and seized the country. The Portuguese travellers, who followed in the wake of Vasco da Gama, soon undertook, after the fashion of Spain, The Portu to bind to the home country by means of colonies the coun- tries which they had discovered in the Indian Ocean. The chain of colonies, which they had been engaged for some time in establishing along the west coast of Africa, was grad- ually extended to the East Indian Archipelago, to India proper, and Farther India. The Portuguese, who were not a numerous people, never succeeded in settling these coun- tries with their own race in such force as to supplant the na- tive element. They themselves understood this difficulty before long, and thereafter were satisfied with merely occu- pying advance-posts here and there, and with trying to se- guese colo- nies. 1 The exact figures of Pizarro's army are the most significant comment on his surprising conquest of Peru. He had one hundred and sixty- eight foot-soldiers and sixty-seven horsemen. lO Modern Europe ^'he English voyages. The French colonies. cure by treaties exclusive trade-privileges with the peoples among whom they settled. With Brazil, their one pos- session in the western world, the case was different. This country they succeeded in winning for their nation, and it has remained Portuguese in tongue and manners to this day. The northern European countries entered late, and with only gradually increasing fervor, into the contest for the possession of the new continents. The little which Henry VII. of England did to secure for his country a share in the great extension of the world is of importance only by rea- son of consequences which he did not remotely foresee. In 1497, Henry, jealous of Pottugal and Spain, at last equipped and sent westward one John Cabot, who was, like Columbus, a Genoese by birth. Cabot's purpose, as well as that of many English mariners after him, was to discover still another passage, a passage by the waters of the northwest, to the oriental fairy-land, India, and by this means to elude the Spaniards, who were pushing for this same India by fol- lowing a southwesterly course. The attempts of Cabot were destined to failure, but England by means of them se- cured at least a vague claim to the northeastern coast of America. This claim, after being allowed to lie forgotten for a period, was revived during the reign of Elizabeth and led in the progress of time to the foundation of the English colonies of North America. The French were even more lax than the English in the matter of colonization, and it was not until the reign of Henry IV. (i 589-1610) that they remembered that an empire was being divided without consideration of them- selves. They then hastened to undo as far as possible the consequences of their neglect by settlements in Canada, and, later, in Louisiana, that is, in the St. Lawrence and Missis- sippi basins. Introduction 1 1 The Dutch owed their colonies to the long war of inde- The Dutch pendence which they waged with the king of Spain. In 1580 Portugal, as will be seen hereafter, was temporarily- incorporated with Spain, the Portuguese colonies, in con- sequence of this act, becoming Spanish. The Dutch there- upon began to take away from the king of Spain both the Portuguese and the Spanish East-India trade and territory. This fact explains why the centre of the Dutch trade and colonial territory lies to this day in the Indian Ocean. \ C. THE EUROPEAN STATES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MODERN PERIOD. The Empire. The Holy Roman Empire, at one time dominant over Europe, had practically been reduced at the beginning of the Modern Period to the national state of Germany. About the year 1500, therefore, the words Empire and Germany have, to all intents and purposes, become inter- changeable terms. At the opening of the Modern Period Maximilian I. Theconstitu- (1493-1519), of the House of Hapsburg, was the head of Germany. the Holy Roman Empire. The family of Hapsburg had grown so powerful in the fifteenth century that the German crown had almost become its hereditary possession. Theo- retically, however, the crown was still elective. On the death of an emperor, a successor could be legally chosen only by the seven electors, who were the seven greatest princes of the realm.^ The seven electors, the lesser princes (including the higher ecclesiastical dignitaries, such as bishops and abbots), and the free cities, ranged in three 1 Of these seven electors three were ecclesiastical dignitaries and four were lay princes. The seven were : the archbishops of Mainz, of Co- logne, and of Trier (Treves), the king of Bohemia, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Brandenburg, and the count palatine of the Rhine. 12 Modem Europe separate houses, composed the imperial Diet. The Diet was the legislative body of the Empire, without the consent of which the emperor could not perform any important act. Emperor and Diet together constituted the imperial gov- ernment, if machinery, as decrepit as the machinery of the Empire had come to be, may be qualified by that name. In fact, the national government of Germany was little more than a glorious memory. Germany had not, like France, England, and Spain, advanced steadily in the later Middle Age toward national unity, but had steadily trav- elled in the opposite direction and lost her coherence. The numerous princes, margraves, counts, prince-bishops, and free cities, constituting the so-called " estates " of the mediaeval feudal realm, had acquired a constantly increas- ing independence of the central power, and had reduced the emperor to a puppet.^ The attempted The greatest interest attaching to Maximilian's reign is Maximilian. connected with the circumstance, that under him the last serious attempt was made to remodel the antiquated ma- chinery of the imperial government. In the latter half of the fifteenth century something like a wave of national en- thusiasm had swept over Germany. Voices had been raised throughout the land for reform, and sustained by these mani- festations, Maximilian and his Diet undertook to reinvigor- ate and modernize the constitution. In 1495 a Diet met at Worms to discuss the measures to be taken. The result was a miserable disappointment ; for what was done did not effect any substantial change in the position of the central author- ity, the emperor. Such reform as was carried out limited itself to the establishment of the greater internal security of 1 There were at this time about three hundred of these local govern- ments, some, like Saxony and Brandenburg, large enough to be respect- able, others as circumscribed as an American township. Germany was visibly verging toward a time when she would be decomposed, in fact and in law, into three hundred independent states. Introduction 1 3 the realm. The ri^ht of private warfare, the most insuffer- able survival of feudal times, was abolished, and a perpetual peace (ewiger Landfrieden) proclaimed. To support this peace there was instituted a special cou rt of justi ce, the Im- perial Chamber (Reichskammergericht), to which all con- flicts between the estates of the realm had to be referred for amicable adjustment. Later the Empire was divided , in order to assure the execution of the verdicts of the Imperial Chamber and for the greater safety of the realm against external and internal foes, ^ilitp ten adm inistr ative districts. This is the largest measure of reform which the local governments in control of the Diet would, out of jeal- ousy of the central government, concede. The emperor was left as before without an income, without any administrative functions, and without an army. He was and remained as long as the Holy Roman Empire continued to exist,^ a poor lay-figure, draped for merely scenic purposes in the mantle of royalty. (If we hear of powerful emperors in the future (Charles V. ,Vor instance), we shall discover that they owed their power, never to the Empire, but always to the force which they derived from their hereditary lands. In their hereditary lands they were what they could never be in the Empire, effective masters, j Maximilian, sometimes called the last knight, was a kind, The generous man, who might have been spared the various mis- ^^^^^ fortunes of his life, if he had not taken the Empire and its <^^aries V". threadbare splendors seriously. He tried to make good the ancient imperial claims to parts of Italy and naturally met with derision ; he tried to miite Europe against the Turks who had overrun the east (fall of Constantinople, 1453) ^i^d were moving westward up the Danube and along the Mediterranean, but he could not even influence his » Napoleon put an end to theH oly Roman Empi re jni8o6. 14 Modern Europe own Germans to a national war of defence.^ However, a number of matrimon ial b argains , richly compensated Max- imilian for his many political disappointments. In the year 1477 he married Mary o f Bur gundy, the only child of Charles the Bold and the heiress of the Netherlands, and in 1496 his snn_Phihp was united to Joan of C astile, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, first joint-rulers of united Spain. PhiHp dying and Joan becoming insane, t heir s on. Charg es was proclaimed, first, duke of Bur gundy, and, later, on the death of Ferdinand (15 16), king of Spain. Finally, when the Emperor Maximilian died (15 19) Charles, fell Jiei^ alsc) to^A^ustria^ and soon after was elected, in consequence of his gr eat position, to succeed his grandfather in the Em- pire^ The new emperor adopted the title ol Charles V. '^ Unluckily for Charles V. there had, just before Maximil- ian's death, broken out the ^reat Church schism, known as the Reformation . Owing to his training Charles's impulse was to treat the Reformation slightingly. But the Re for- mation was destined none the less to be the r o ck upon which his po wer w as shattered to pieces . Italy. Italy, at the end of the Middle Age, had fallen into even worse confusion than Germany, for the very semblance of The five lead- national unity had been abandoned. There were upon the ing states. peninsula fiv ejeading states : the duch y of Mil an, the re- ■^ publicof Venice , the republic of Florence, the states of the L - ~ . Church, a nd th^ing dom of Naples. The numerous small ^0^"^ states, like Savoy and Ferrara, were too inconsiderable to play a political role. During the fifteenth century the five leading states had been constantly engaged in wars among > In consequence of the indiflference of Europe, the Turks remained for the next two hundred years the most dangerous of all the enemies which the House of Hapsburg had to encounter. 2 A§ king of Spain he is Charles I. Introduction 1 5 themselves. These wars did no great harm until it occurred to the kings of Spain and France to turn the local divisions of Italy to their personal advantage. Spain at the e nd of th^Jifteenth century already j)ossess ed th e islands of Sar- dinia and Sicily^ and its royal Hous e was closely related to the ruling House of Naple s. Through these connections Spain acquired an active interest in Italian affairs. Unfor- tunately for Italy, France a l so became intere sted i n Italian affairs, when upon the death of the last Anjou (1481),^ such rights as the Anjou possessed to Naples were transferred to the king of France. Charles VIII. of France resolved on his accession to power to make good his claims upon Naples by force, and in 1494 he made his famous invasion of Italy. It was the first foreign interference in the affairs of the peninsula since the beginning of the Renaissance and became the prelude to Italy's decay and enslavement. Spain beings of course, unable to permit without opposition the extension of France, there began in consequence that contest between the two rivals for the possession of Italy, which lasted for over fifty years and ended in the complete victory of Spain . At the beginning of our period this re- sult was not yet apparent. But within a few years after the outbreak of the French-Spanish wars, the states of Italy, overrun and plundered by superior forces, commenced to exhibit, material alterations in their political status. iV<7//(fj-.4— If Naples, as it was the first, had remained the only source of quarrel between France and Spain, peace might soon have been reestablished. For, after having been traversed again and again by French and Spanish troops, the kingdom of Naples_ was definitely ceded by /Naples France to jpain (1504), of which it was destined to re-( |p'Sn'^?504. main a part for two hundred years (till the Treaty of ' The Anjou were a secondary branch of the royal House of France and had an old claim to the kingdom of Naples. 1 6 Modern Europe Utrecht, 17 13). Unfortunately, a second bone of con- tention between the two great western monarchies was foundiiithe duchy of Milan. /{Milan^^p-The duchy of Milan was legally a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, but was held at this time in practi- Struggle be- cally independent possession by the family of the Sforza. and Spain for When Charles VII I. of France died in 1498, Louis XII., of\iiian^^^'°'^ ^^^ successor, remembered that he was a descendant of a ' family, the Visconti, who had ruled in Milan before the Sforza. On the strength of this vague priority, Louis re- solved to supplant the Sforza upstart. Having invaded and conquered Milan in 1499, he held that city successfully until there was formed against him the HolvLeague, com posed of the Pope , V enice, Spain, and Englan d (15 12). The Holy League quickly succeeded in d riving the F rench out of Italy and in reinstating the Sfor za family in their duchy. Louis XII. died in 15 15, without having recon- quered Milan, but his successor, Francis I^ , immediately upon his accession, marched his army off to Italy to try in his turn the fortunes of war and conquest. His brilliant vic- tory of Marignano Ti'^i'^) a^ai n put the French in posses - ' s ion of Milan . For a short time now there was peace between France and Spain ; but naturally the Spaniards saw with envy the extension of French influence over the north of Italy, and when Charles, king of Spain, was elected emperor in 15 19, the necessary pretext for renewing the war with France was given into their hands, k has already been said that Milan was legally a fief of the Empir e. In his capacity of empero r, Charles co uld find a ready justi - fication for interfering in the aff airs of his dependen cy. Immediately upon his election he resolved to challenge the right of the French to Milan, and so the French-Spanish wars in Italy were renewed. ^«/V^.— In the fifteenth century Venice was the strong- Introduction ly est of all the Italian states. She called herself a republic, Venice begins but was more truly an oligarchy, the power lying in the -P~^^' hands of the nobles who composed the Great Council and elected the chief dignitary, the doge or duke. The power of Venice w as due to her immense trade and possessions in th e Orient. ^ In addition to these colonial territories she held the whqleji prtheastern portion of Italy ^ ^he Renaissance Period is the period of the glory of Venice ;'\at the beginning of the Modern Period that glory was already rapidly waning. The first o bstacle to the continued prosperity of Venice was furnished by the Turks. I The Turks having begun their irre- sistible march through western Asia and eastern Europe, unsparingly wrenched from Venice, bit by bit, her oriental trade and possessions.^ The second misfortune which befell Venice was the discovery by Vasco da Gama of the sea- passage to India around the Cape of Good Hope. This discovery, by drawing off the oriental commerce to Spain and Portugal, struck a fatal blow at Venetian prosperity. And to these reverses in the east were added reverses in the west. Because Venice had followed in the wars of Italy a treacherous and selfish policy, she had won the hatred of all parties. Finally they agreed to revenge themselves. In 1508, the emperor, the Pope, France, and Spain, formed the formidable League of Cambrai against her for the pur- pose of compassing her destruction. Although she managed by timely concessions to save herself from the noose which had been flung about her neck, she never again recovered her former prestige. The republic of Venice continued to decline during the whole Modern Period, but lived in some fashion or other till Napoleon made an end of it in the year 179.7. ^J^/orence.}—The repubhc of Florence, far-famed in the 1 She held the Morea, Candia, C ypru s, and most of the islands of the ^gean and loniaiTSeas. t8 Modern Europe Florence \ subjected to ' the Medici. The states of the Church acquire soli- darity. period of the Renaissance for its great artijjs_and_writers, had, in the fifteenth century, lost its free constitution and fallen under the domination of a native family, the Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent, the greatest of the line, ruled from 1469 to 1492). ^ut in spite of the Medici the love for the republic remained enshrined in the hearts of the people. When, therefore, the invasion of Charles VIII. (1494) offered a chance to cast off the Medicean yoke, the people rose, banished their tyrants, and reestablished the republic. Girolamo Savonarola, a pious monk, who had, through his stirring invectives against the general corrup- tion of manners, acquired a great following, became the popular hero and leader. For four years he controlled the government, and labored at the reform of morals. During the period of ^aA[onarola's_supremacyj Florence presented to her astonished contemporaries who dwelt upon the free heights of the pagan Renaissance, the picture of a narrow Bibl ical^jth eocracy. But in 1498 Savonarola's enemies compassed his overthrow and burned him at the stake. For a few more years the republic went on as best it could, until in 1512 the Medici reconquered the city. In 1527 the Florentines made a last attempt to regain their liberties. Again they cast the Medici out, but again the banished princes returned, this time with the help of Charles V. (1529), who now honored the head of the Medicean House, Alexander, by conferring upon him and his heirs, Florence and ,her_territoryLjinder the, name of the duchy >f Tuscany. -During the period of the Re- (later the grand djachy^ Th^^^tatesqf the ChurcJu^ naissance, the Popes, becoming pagan like the rest of the world, sacrificed every^ pnnciple to^ the desi re of being brill i ant secula i^jprjiices. Their dominant aspiration was to consolidate the territory of the Church. This territory, running across the middle of the peninsula, formed an ex- Introduction 19 tensive possession, but had unfortunately fallen in large part into the hands of petty_ tyrants. Pope Alexander VI. (149 2- 1 503) of the family or~Borgia, infamous for his murders and excesses, has the merit of having carried the papal policy to a successful issue. Through the unscrupu- lous agency of his son CaesarBorgia, the petty tyrants of the papal states were either poisoned or assassinated. Thus at last the Pope became master in the hereditary domin- ion of St. Peter. Alexander VI. was followed by two Popes, who, if they are not great spiritual lights, have nevertheless attractive personalities. They are Juhus II . (1503-13) and Leo X. (15 13-21), the latter a member of the famous Florentine family of the Medici. Both of these Popes will always be remembered for their splendid patronage of the arts .^ It was during the papacy of Leo X.. whose interests were literary, artistic, social, in short, everything but religious, and whose nature and associations inclined him to a pagan concep tio n of life, that there w£fe raised in Germany the cry for reform which led to the Protestant schism. < ^avoy,— \xi northwestern Italy, on the border of France, lay among the Alps the duchy of Savoy . At the beginning of the Modern Period the duke of Savoy was not yet an influential power. But during the next centuries he grew stronger and stronger through perseverance and hardihood, until finally his power surpassed that of any other prince of Italy. In our own century the House of Savov has become the royal House of united Italy. ^ Church of St. Peter begun ; Michel Angelo and Raffaelle at Rome. 20 Modern Europe ^' /<'m n France. p ^ • Theunifica- Under Charles VII. (1422-61) and Louis XI. (1461- France. 83) France had lost her old feudal character and become an absolute monarchy. The great dukes and counts had been forced into submission to the will of the king. The king had become master ; he had secured himself a revenue over which he had free disposal (through a land-tax called taille) and he had created a standing army, which was atnis and not at the nobles' orders? Ilouis XL also added to France several outlying provinces, which were neces- sary to the completion of the nation. These were\ Prov- ence^in the southeast and the duch^ of feui^undy^n the ^easT. When his son Charles ¥1117 (1483-98) acquired LBrittany in the northwest, the process of the unification of France may be said to have been completed. She was now composed intejnally under the constitution of the absolute king, in a manner which had not been possible in feudal times, and she was united and strong to act against exter- nal^foes. Under these circumstances Charles VIIL could afford to turn his thoughts to foreign conquest. Burning with ambition he undertook to conquer Naples on the strength of certain inherited claims, and invaded Italy (1494). But his policy of foreign conquest incited the hostility of his jealous neighbor Spain, and led to the great French-Spanish wars for the possession of Italy, which lasted with occasional interruptions for fifty years. The review of Italy has acquainted us with the early stages of this conflict. Charles VIIL, after a brief triumph, was forced to give up Naples. Finally it was ceded to Ferdi- nand of Spain (1504). Louis XII. of France (1498-15 15) renewed the struggle in Italy by laying hold of the duchy of Milan, and though he was forced to give up Milan in 15 12 (the Holy League), his successor, Francis I. Introduction 2 1 (1515-47), immediately reconquered it by the victory of Marignano (15 15). •^ — - — "* ^ Spain. The movement toward national unity and absolutism. The just observed in France, is no less characteristic of the po- of Spaisr^* litical development, during the fifteenth century, of Spain. The u nity of Spain, after having made steady progress for some centuries, was finally secured by the marriage of Fer- dinand (147 9- 151 6) and Isabella (i 474-1 504), who were the heirs respectively of the two largest Christian king- doms on the peninsula, Aragon and Castile. Both of these kingdoms had grown strong by championing the national cause against the Moors, who had, in the Middle Age, over- run the peninsula. In the year 1492 Granada, the last foot- hold of the Moors, was captured, and, therewith, the Mo^ hammedan power in Spain, which had lasted for eight centuries, came to an end. The unification of Spain inaugurated a period of terri- The torial expansion which is unparalleled in history. In the l^ain. same year in which the Moorish kingdom fell, Columbus ^a ^ -^^■ discovered America, and opened up to Spain the vast do- minion of the new world. Next Ferdinand, upon being drawn into war with France on account of the conquest of Naples by Charles VIII., succeeded in beating the French and seizing the kingdom of Naples for himself (1504). In 15 1 2 he further acquired that part of the border-kingdom of Navarre which lay upon the Spanish slope of the Py- renees. Thus it happened that when Ferdinand was suc- ceeded upon his death by his grandson, Charles I. (1516- 56), this young king found himself master of the most exten- sive territories of the world. Although Charles was, merely by virtue of his position as king of Spain, the leading sov- ereign ofJEyrope, he had additional interests and resources 22 Modern Europe as ruler of the Netherlands and archduke of Austria, which raised him far above any rival. Finally in 15 19, the electors of the Eni^ire made him emperor. X The growth of the royal power had meanwhile kept pace Absolutism with the extension of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella with Inquisition. . the aid of the cities put down the robber-knights and thus secured the peace of the land. Then the monarchs turned their attention to the nobility. The feudal Parliament of Castile (called Cortes) was first restricted in its influence, and then robbed of all importance. The Parliament of Ara- gon held out a little longer against the royal encroachments. But the act which more than any other registered the ex- tension of the central power, was the introduction of the Inquisition for the persecution of heretics and of enemies of the government — that is, of Jews, Moors, and, later, Prot-~ estants.^ How severely this organization interpreted its task, is witnessed by the fact that during the reign of the first Grand Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada (1483-98), about 10,000 persons were ^urned alive,^ 6,000 were burned in effigy, and 90,000 were condemned to ecclesiastical and civil penalties. England. England passed through momentous vicissitudes in the fifteenth century. Under an ambitious monarch she had become engaged in apolicy of foreign conquest. But hav- ing, under Henry V., conquered France (battle of Agin- ' It is necessary to note that the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition are not due solely to religious intolerance. The Inquisition was in the hands of the king, also a political weapon which he used to secure the racial unity of the peninsula. It must be remembered that Moors and Jews were very numerous, and that they constituted a real threat to the Span- ish domination. 2 Christian fanaticism denominated these abominations autos da fe (acts of faith). An auto da fe was, like a bull-fight, an occasrdn lor gen- eral merry-making. Introduction 23 court, 141 5), she had, under Henry VI. (1422-61) lost all her continental possessions again except Calais. Worse than this, under this same weak-spiritejd monarch she was torn by civi l w ar. The House of York, a branch of the reigning House of Lancaster, ventured to put forth a claim to the throne, and the war that ensued, called the War of the The end of Roses, lasted until 1485. In 1485 Richard III., the last the Roses° male heir of the House of York, was defeated and killed at the battle of Bosworth. The victor, himself of the House of Tudor, but, at the same time, a descendant of the House of Lancaster, succeeded to the throne as Henry VII. (1485-1509). Through the marriage of Henry VII. to Elizabeth, a daughter of the House of York, the new House of Tudor united the claims of both contending Houses, and thus the civil war came at length to an end. '""■^-^ — Under Henrv VI I.. an extremely cautious and politic: Henry vii. man, .there grew up in England the ^ ^ strong Tudor mon-^ "strong mon- archy^ Traditionally, the power in England lay in the':^!^' hands of the King and the Parliament, composed of the two Houses of the Lords and the Commons. But as at this time the House of Lords was more influential than the House of Commons, the power in England lay practically, as every- where in -feudal times, with king and noble s. Now the i^'w... ' " long civil war, which was really a war of two noble factions, ^,\ j^.(" had made great havoc among the ranks of the nobility. 5 -c^ 'J ' Moreover it had confirmed, among the middle classes, the • desire for peace. The nobility, diminished in authority, and the common people, disposed to concur in the repres- sion of the ruling class, established a situation by which the king was resolved to profit. It will be remembered that absolutism was in the air at the time, as is witnessed by the case of France and Spain. Without breaking any laws Henry managed to reduce to a minimum the importance of the second organ of government, the Parliament, by the sim- 24 Modern Europe pie device of calling it together as little as possible.^^ Then he turned his attention to the turbulent nobles. By for- bidding them to keep armed retainers, he deprived them of their military power, and by means of a special court of jus- tice, the celebrated Star Chamber, which he made dependent upon himself, he kept watch over them and punished them for misdemeanors. Peace, rapid and complete, was the re- sult. Of course the credit of the king received a great augmentation. In fact, England would have fallen as com- pletely into the hands of her sovereign as France had done, if the law had not remained upon her statute-books that the king could raise no money without the consent of his Par- liament. /This provision neither Henry VII. nor any of his successors ^dared abrogate... Thus, although not always ob- served, it remained the law of the land, and in the course of time, when the common people had acquired wealth and dignity, it was destined to become the weapon by which the ''strong monarchy" was struck to the ground and Parliament set in the monarch's place. (It was chiefly to rid himself of Parliament and strengthen the monarchy internally, that Henry kept clear of foreign Henry's policy war. War would have required money, and money would o peace. have required a session of Parliament, from which might have come an interference with the king's free determina- tions. The reign of Henry VII. was therefore, with trifling exceptions, a reign of peace. It was during the reign of Henry VII. that Columbus ^ ^ discovered America. England was not yet a great sea- ' Henry secures power, but Henry managed to secure at least a claim to the NorthAmer- "^w world, by sending out Xohn_Xabot, who in 1497 Jca- discovered the continent of North America. 1 He summoned the Parliament only twice during the last thirteen years of his reign. PERIOD I The Reformation and the Wars of Religion; from Luther to the Peace of Westphalia (1517-1648) bibliography. Bibliographies of this and of the subsequent periods of Modern His- tory exist in great number. The student is referred to the following works : W. F. Allen : History Topics for the Use of High Schools and Col- leges. C. K. Adams : Manual of Historical Literature. Gardiner and Mullinger : English History for Students. Lavisse and Rambaud : Histoire generale du IV« siecle a nos jours, ID vols. This is a general history with excellent bibliographies attached to every chapter. A list of convenient reference-books in English dealing with the First Period. General Histories. A. H. Johnson : European History, 1494 to 1598. An excellent short treatise. G. P. Fisher : The Reformation. Gives attention to the theological side of the movement. Hausser : The Period of the Reformation. A good book in the orig- inal German, but inadequately translated. Gives attention to the political side. Robertson : History of Charles V., 3 vols. Creighton : A History of the Papacy during the Period of the Refor- mation, 4 vols. L. Ranke : History of the Popes. Especially important for the origin of the Catholic Reaction. 25 26 Modern Europe Special Histories. Germany, Kostlin : Life of Luther. Gardiner : The Thirty Years' War. The reader is also referred to Luther's Table Talk and to essays on Luther, by Carlyle and Froude. France. G. B. Adams : The Growth of the French Nation. G. W. Kitchin : History of France, 3 vols. The third volume treats of the Reformation. Great Britain. J. R. Green : A Short History of the English People. S. R. Gardiner: Student's History of England; Atlas of English History. M. Creighton: The Age of Elizabeth. F. Seebohm : The Oxford Reformers. J. R. Green : History of the English People, 4 vols. J. A. Froude : History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, 12 vols. Vivid but not uniformly trust- worthy. Burton : History of Scotland, 8 vols. Judicious and interesting. Other Cotcntries. J. L. Motley: Rise of the Dutch Republic; also, History of the United Netherlands ; also, John of Olden-Barneveldt. Novels and Poems. (Works of the imagination possessing a historical basis.) Shakespeare : Henry VHI. Scott: Marmion. Lady of the Lake. Lay of the Last Minstrel. Scott : The Monastery. The Abbot. Kenilworth. These deal with the period of Elizabeth. Schiller : Wallenstein. A drama in three parts. Reade : The Cloister and the Hearth. Europe during the period of the Reformation. George Eliot : Romola. Florence at time of Savonarola. Manzoni : The Betrothed. Italy at time of Thirty Years' War Weyman : A Gentleman of France ; Under the Red Robe. CHAPTER I THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY TO THE . PEACE OF AUGSBURG (1555) At the opening of the Modern Period,^ Europe was almost completely inhabited by Christian peoples. The Moham- medan faith had just lost its last stronghold in western Europe (fall of Granada, 1492), but it had been more than compensated for this loss by the conquest, at about the same time, of the Balkan peninsula by the Mohammedan Turks. Europe was, however, substantially Christian, and was di- The Roman vided between two Churches, the Roman and the Greek, c^hufche^.'^^''^ These two Christian Churches had been originally one, but since the. eighth century, each had gone its own way in organization and doctrine: The Greek Church, embracing the Greek and Slav peoples who had been Christianized from Constantinople, the capital of the Roman Empire of the East, lay practically outside the circumference of the European civilization of early modern times and need not occupy us here. The Romah Church, on the other hand, was the church of western Europe, the church of civiliza- tion. It embraced all the Latin and Teutonic nations who had been Christianized from Rome, the capital of the Ro- man Empire of the West. The Catholic Church, as the Roman Church was called, The Catholic had, during the Middle Age, grown into a huge organiza- fundamental tion. The fundamental principle of the Catholic organi- U^'po^Ptical^""^ zation was the division of society into clergy and laity, power. The clergy were the appointed mediators between God and 27 28 Moderft Europe The Catholic Church : its spiritual or- ganization. man, the laity were the obedient flock who had nothing whatever to say in spiritual matters. From this theoretical division it A^as only a step to the view that the clergy were a superior set of beings ; that they ought not to be subjected to the laws of the laity ; and that they ought to be com- pletely independent of the civil authorities. The student of earlier history will recall that these claims were actually advanced and realized by the Church in the Middle Age. At the opening of the Modern Period, therefore, the clergy stood outside the pale of the common law, were governed by their own clerical law, and formed in every country of Europe a state within a larger state. The sum of these little clerical states made up the great clerical state of Eu- rope. The great clerical state of Europe was a state in the same sense in which France or Spain were states. It was ruled by the Pope, and had its capital at Rome. Thus, when we begin our survey of history, the Catholic Church wielded a tremendous political power. Naturally enough, having during many centuries laid an unwarranted stress upon its material position, it had fallen into increasing neglect of the spiritual ends for which it had been founded. But, although the Church may, in its eagerness to play a great worldly role, be fairly charged with neglect of its spiritual ends, it cannot be said to have forgotten them. For the purpose of governing Christianity, Europe was divided into dioceses, at the head of each of which was a bishop, who owed allegiance to the Poj^e. The diocese was then divided into parishes, and over each parish was established a priest.^ The intention was that not a » An adjunct to this system pf spiritual government had grown up in the monasteries. Monasteries were founded to afford men an oppor- tunity of saving their souls by withdrawing from the world. Similar institutions for women, called nunneries, followed. In the course of the Middle Age there were founded a great many orders of monasteries and nunneries (for instance, the Order of St. Benedict, the Order of St. Clara), and through gifts and legacies they had acquired an immense The Reformation in Germany 29 single layman should be without his necessary clerical supervisor, for without the priest no layman could save his soul. Thus far we have considered only the political power The doctrines and the spiritual organization of the Church. But it is nee- fo^g pnicdcfs essary to regard also its inner elements, its doctrines and °^ *^^ Church. its practices. The doctrines consisted of the beliefs as they had been formulated, at various times, by the Church Councils and by the Popes. They constituted a kind of philosophy of life, and had to be accepted one and all, by every believer. The individual had no right to submit them to a personal investigation and reject them, if reason and conscience so ordered. Naturally, too, in the long history of the Church there had been developed a peculiar religious service. Its characteristic feature was the mass. Furthermore, a whole host of distinctive prac- tices, such as worship of the saints, pilgrimages, auricular confession, fasts, and flagellation, had gathered, by a pro- cess of gradual accretion, around the religious life of the time. In the course of the later Middle Age, the organiza- The decay of tion of the Church, its doctrines, and its practices had stirred up occasional opposition. The organization, owing to its great political power, had become tyrannous, and the clergy were frequently corrupt and sensual. The doctrines and the practices, in many instances, were felt by an advancing society to be based on super- stition and unreason. Critics like Wiclif and Huss, though put down, roused a considerable echo throughout Europe. But the Church, rejecting all advice, obstinately stood out against reform. In the fifteenlh cQntury the wealth. In the thirteenth century two begging orders were established for a somewhat different end. Their members were called Friars (Friars of St. Francis, Friars of St. Dominic), and their chief object was to do pastoral work among the poor. the Church. 30 Modern Europe decay in the manners of the clergy was accelerated, chiefly by the influence of the pagan Renaissance. The clergy, too, heard the joyous call for an unfettered life that came from the humanists and artists. The Papacy, in the hands of such men as Sixtus IV. (1471-84) and Alexander VI. (1493-1502), fell into simony, licentiousness, and mur- der, wallowed in the slough of all the sins, and sank into disrepute before the Christian body of Europe. Un- der these conditions, a new protest against the abuses in the Church was more likely to gain an audience than any of the previous appeals ; and in fact, when the new protest was made at the beginning of the Modern Era, though it was only a simple monk who launched it, one-half of Europe immediately crowded around the champion of reform. The expansion In considering the origin of the great movement of the society. \ Reformation, it is not enough to lay stress upon _the_abiises — in the Catholic Church. Far more than to a decay within the Catholic Church, the Reformation was due t o a pro g- re^of civilization^^^an expansion in the life of man and of society. This progress, with its attendant features of a Revival^of Learning, a Revival of Commerce and Indus- try, has already been considered in the Introduction. The simple fact is, that the Catholic Church, with its tyrannous organization, with its abundant superstition and unreason, with its independence of the state authority, and with its constant intrusion into the private life of the in- dividual,^ was no longer adapted to the modern man and the modern society then in the process of formation. It offered man a strait-jacket, when what he wanted and needed was absolute freedom of limb, A greater enemy of the Catholic Church than its own^comiption, was, there- »The clergy performed a large number of fifhctions, which we regard as naturally pertaining to the state, at least, as supervisor. Xhcuew-born infant had to be consigned to the Church for baptism ; without the Church no man could marry, or be divorced, or make his will. The Reformation in Germany 31 fore, the newjiian .created by the Renaissance. Before we take up the Reformation in Germany, its home, it is only natural, then, that we should give some attention to the effects there of the Renaissance, and of its attendant feature — the Revival of Learning. The Revival of Classical Learning, by the so-called The Revival of humanistsj^ took, in Italy, the home of the movement, a Jtafy "and in pronounced pagan form. The work of the scholars of Rome ^^^ north, and Florence led to a gradual separation from Christianity, culminating in an actual contempt for it. When the Revi- val reached the Teutonic north, especially Germany and England, it exercised a different influence, an influence in keeping with the character of the northern peoples. Thei /serious and reflective north^was not, like the (facile and' impressionable south, immediately won over by the vision j of Greek joyousnes^and Roman splendor to throw away, I as useless ballast, the Christian acquisitions of the past. \ The northern scholars, too, turned back to the world which \ lay beyond the Middle Age ; however, they did not busy themselves with Greek and Latin documents only, but in- cluded in their range of study also the sources of Hebrew and of Christian history. They came to this intellectual work fresh and without guidance, and were delighted, like children, with their discovery of the ancient and simple Christianity of apostolic times. It is not surprising that to minds already suspicious of contemporary Christianity, the earlier form should have seemed heartier and nobler than the elaborate Roman Catholic form with the many picturesque features which had been added in the course of a long existence. Without giving up the kernel of Christi- anity, therefore, the northern scholars undertook to attack, by means of criticism and satire, everything in the Catholic Church that they considered as supererogatory and re- pulsive. 32 Modern Europe The northern^ The most important of these northern humanists, who are justly called the intellectual forerunners of the Refor- mation, are Reuchlin and Ulrich von Hutten of Germany, John Colet and Thomas More of England,^ Lefebre of France, 2 and Erasmus of Rotterdam. We are for the present particularly interested in those humanists who ex- ercised an influence on Germany, where the Reformation originated. Of these Ulrich von Hutten was easily the most active — a poet and a fighter rather than a scholar, who be- came famous through his collaboration in the Epistolce obscuronwi virorum, a biting satire against the opponents of enlightenment and progress. But the leader, the prince of the humanists, as he was called, was Erasmus. He lived at different times in France, England, and Germany and acqiilred a European fame. His most noteworthy piece of scholarship was a careful edition of the New Tes- tament in Greek with a Latin translation and notes (1516). Neither the Old nor the New Testament had been a house- hold book in the Middle Age. Erasmus planned to make them such ; it was his wish that the people should get an opportunity to acquaint themselves directly out of the Bible , \jA with the true Christian life without first appealing to their A^^s^ old tyrants, the clergy. Erasmus also, like Hutten, de- lighted in satire. His *' Praise of Folly " (15 11), lashing the stupidities and superstitions of the day, tremendously contributed to the popularity of reform. The human- Erasmus and his friends were students and not warriors. '^fo?m!^nor They wished to raise the culture of their day by educa- tion, and though they attacked the Church, they never thought of destroying, but only of reforming it. When, therefore, the movement which they had championed as- sumed, in the hands of a younger generation, an aggres- • For the work of the English humanists, see Chapter IV. 'For Lefebre, see Chapter VI. Luther The Reformation in Germany 33 sive character, and attempted to bring about an absolute separation of the north from the Church of Rome, the humanists, mild scholars that they were, with the ex- ception of such an occasional fighter as Hutten, fell off in terror from the cause which they themselves had launched in the world. They contributed to the making of the Re- formation, but when that movement became revolution- ary, they deliberately forsook it and returned to the bosom of Mother Church. Thus, although the humanists of the generation of Eras- Martin mus prepared the Reformation they 4id not make it. Its author is Martin Luther. Martin Luther was born No- vember 10, 1483, in the province of Thuringia. His ancestry for many generations back had been hard-working peasants, and peasant sturdiness and simplicity, with much of peasant obstinacy and superstition, remained character- istic of this son of the soil to the end of his days. By personal sacrifices his parents managed to send young Martin to the humanistic university of Erfurt for the pur- pose of making a lawyer of him, but in the year 1505, following what appears to have been an irresistible relig- ious impulse, he joined the Augustine Order and became a monk. A journey undertaken in 1 5 10 to Rome, the capital of Catholicism, but also at that time the centre of the most brilliant and profligate life of Europe, may have planted in the rigorous young monk the seed of his later antagonism to the Papacy. In any event, on his return to Germany he occupied himself with a deep study of the problems of the Christian life. St. Augustine and the mystics were his favorite authors. With the aid of these he developed what later became and still is, the fundamental doctrine of the Protestant Church, the principle of Justification by Faith. ^ * The Catholic Church taught that man is saved or justified by works. Custom had come to construe works as the mere performance of Church 34 Modern Europe The ninety- five tjieses againirrn- dulgences. Luther excites a general dis- This and other novel ideas were still simmering vaguely in his mind, when there occurred an event — Luther was then at Wittenberg, capital of Saxony, where he occupied a chair at the university — which forced from him an ex- pression of opinion. In 15 1 7 JohnTetzel, a Dominican friar, arrived in Sax- ony with a wallet of papal Indulgences. An Indulgence was a remission of punishment for certain acts of sin. It was originally granted only upon honest contrition, and as long as it was thus guarded from abuse had in it nothing un- christian. But the doctrine of Indulgences, like much else in the Catholic Church, had become vulgarized, especially after the Popes had discovered that it might be made useful as a source of income ; they began to sell Indulgences, without bothering about the contrition. During the reign of the briUiant Medicean Pope, Leo X. (1513-1521), who had wars to conduct and a church of St. Peter to build, the Papacy was particularly in need of money. Hence Tetzel's presence in Saxony with the ticketsofjmjdon at large and small prices adjusted to the size of the sin. Such vile traffic aroused a general indignation. Luther's distinction is that he alone had the courage to communicate his conviction on the practice to the public. On October 31, 151 7, he nailed to the door of the castle church of Wit- tenberg, his famous ninety-five theses against Indulgences. His bold words raised an immediate echo of applause throughout the land. But they also stung the supporters of Tetzel and of rigid Catholicism to a vigorous answer, and out of the contention which followed arose triumphantly the ProtestanJ; Church. When Luther published his ninety-five theses, he spoke as obligations — mass, confession, etc , and so rendered Christianity super- ficial and external. Luther's view of Justification by Faith tried to lead men back to the necessity of the inner acceptance of God. The Reformation in Germany 35 a son of Mother Church who was grieved at an excrescence Luther devel- which in his eyes injured her good name. But the opposi- cfftholic^opin- tion which he encountered in the next few years, forced '°^^- him to submit the whole system of the Catholic Church to an investigation, and soon he discovered, not without sor- row and surprise, that there was much else in Catholicism besides Indulgences which he could not accept. By 1520 he had even reached and published the conviction that the Papacy itself was a usurpation for which there was no Bibli- cal sanction. Leo X., easy-going and absorbed in pleas- ures, had been inclined at first to sneer at the trouble in Germany as *' a squabble of monks," but Luther's increas- ing audacity finally put an end to his patience. In 1520 he hurled his bull of excommunication at the lieretic. It re- mained to be seen whether Luther's courage would be broken by this means and the threatening schism of the Church ^verted. Conflicts in the past had frequently been followed by the humble submission of the disturber. But Luther was apparently made of severer stuff than his predecessors in rebellion ; at any rate he was not easily browbeaten. It is not too much to say that the face of the whole con- temporary world was at this critical moment turned upon him. Nothing daunted, he met the first onset of the Church with lofty courage. * As soon as the papal document arrived, he burned it, amidst a great concourse of partisans, before the gate of Wittenberg (1520). By this act Luther defi- nitely severed his connection with the Church of Rome. The attempted reform of the Church had been rejected by the Church itself; therefore it was clear that reform could only be realized by a revolution, ending in the establish- ment of a new Christian faith. If the excommunicated heretic did not suffer the penalty of death for his act of audacity in burning the bull, it was because a large part of the German people stood firmly by i During his retirement Luther began one of his most memorable works, the translation of the Bible into German. The Reformation in Gerina7ty 39 volted against their masters. The condition of the peasants . in Germany was indeed wretched. They were mere serfs of the soil, whose Hves were first their masters', then their own.i /The message of the Reformation fell upon them like a ray of hope from heaven. So they rose, these poor folk, and unguided as they were, or worse than unguided, since the incompetent revolutionary dreamers and scoun- drels whom Luther had denounced and driven out of Wit- tenberg were their leaders, they butchered their lords and created an insufferable anarchy. As usual the imperial au- thorities were incapable of taking any action. But the local authorities, that is, the princes, got together an army and scattered the disordered bands of the peasants to the winds (1525). Hounded on by Luther in coarse pamphlets the yictors massacred the poor insurgents until more than 50,000 had been cut down. Luther's partisanship seemed especially inexcusable to the supporters of the peasants, as he had first written a letter in which he had expressed his sympathy with their cause. Historians have usually found fault with Luther for his Luther's attitude in this matter. Certainly his brutal language and ^°'"* ° ^'^^^" his excited championship of the princes is inexcusable, but just as certainly he was right from .his own point of view in trying to keep the problem of Church reform as unin- volved as possible with social and political aspirations, however laudable these were in themselves. The poor down- trodden peasants, Hke the fanatic ''prophets" of Witten- berg, threatened to compromise his movement before the eyes of Europe, and Luther knew that if it was once under- stood to be identical with anarchy, it was lost. » The abject condition of the peasants is best brought out by the twelve | articles in which they formulated their demands. Some of these were : I game and fish to be free to all, all service beyond the original contract I to be paid for in wages, and arbitrary punishments to be put an end to. | The demands are moderate throughout and involve no more than is granted everywhere in our time as a matter of course. 40 Modern Europe The wars of France and Spain. The first war ; battle of Pavia. The second war and sack of Rome, 1527. While these things were going on in Germany, Charles V. was wholly engaged with the war against France. In fact, the wars with France continued throughout his reign and prevented him from ever giving his full attention to the German Reformation. There were altogether foi^r wars, covering the following periods: ist war, 1521-26; 2d war, 1527-29; 3d war, 1536-38; 4th war, i542'^44. The first war ended with the signal triumph of Charles. Charles's general defeated the French army at Pavia in Italy (1525) and took the king of France himself, Francis I., cap- tive. '* All is lost save honor," was the resigned message which this chivalrous monarch sent his mother at Paris. Charles had his royal prisoner transported to Madrid and there he wrung from him a peace (1526), by which Fran- cis ceded Milan and parts of France itself (Burgundy aJid Artois) to Charles. But hardly had Francis, regained his liberty when he hastened to renew the war. Charles had overstrained the bow. Francis could buy peace by the cession to his enemy of Milan, a foreign concjuest, but as long as there was life in France, her king could jiot^ grant nor could she accept a partition of her territory.^ The Pope and Henry VIII. of England, who had hitherto favored Charles in the struggle between France and Spain, now went over to Francis from fear that the emperor was striving for the supremacy in Europe. The most noteworthy incident of the second war was the sack of Rome (1527}^ ^^^ great French nobleman, the duke of Bourl^on, who had turned traitor and had been put by Charles at the head of a mixed troop of Spaniards and of German Protestants, was ordered to march against the Pope for the purpose of punishing him for his alliance with Francis. At the moment at which the walls of the papal capital were scaled Bourbon fel], and the rabble s^ diery, left without a master, put Rome to a frightful pillage. 1 rv^ The Reformation in Germany 41 Although the advantage in the second as in the first war Charles remained with Charles, he offered Francis somewhat more peror. acceptable terms (temporary retention by Francis of Bur- gundy) in new negotiations, which ended in the so-called Ladies' Peace of Cambray (1529). After the peace Charles had himself crowned emperor at Bologna (1529), and fig- ured in history as the first emperor^ who was crowned else- where than at Rome and the last who held it worth his while to be crowned at all. Charles, temporarily rid of France, was now resolved to Charles re- look once more into German affairs. 1^(^32? after an ab- Germany, sence of almost ten years, he again turned his face north- Jugs ^ urg"'^ ward. The Reformation was by this time an accomplished . i53p - fact, but Charles, who during his absence had received his information from Catholic partisans and through hearsay, still inchned, as at Worms, to treat it as a trifle. He was destined to be rudely awakened. A Diet^ had been called to meet him at the city of Augsburg. At the summons a brilliant assembly of both Lutheran and Catholic princes came together. In a dictatorial manner Charles abruptly demanded of his estates that the Edict of Worms be at length executed throughout Germany^ and that all un- authorized Church innovations be straightway abandoned. Thereupon the Lutheran princes resolved to^remonstrate with , the emperor. They bade Luther's friend and co-worker, 'yyiJufl^-''^'-^^^ Melancthon^ who was the greatest scholar of the Reforma- tion and one of its most attractive figures, to draw up a fair statement of the Lutheran beliefs. This statement, under the name of the Confession of Augsburg, won such favor among Protestant ^ contemporaries, that it straightway be- 1 Strictly speaking, Louis the Pious is the first mediaeval emperor who was not crowned at Rome. But as Louis lived seven hundred years be- fore Charles, at a time when the ideas of the mediaeval Empire were not yet fixed, his case hardly furnishes a precedent. 2 The Lutherans had acquired the name of Protestants, from the protest 42 Modern Europe The League of Schmalk- alden. Postponement of the civil war. came and has since remained the platform of the Lutheran Church. Melancthon's document the princes then humbly presented to the emperor, in the hope that he might be convinced thereby that there was nothing in Protestantism which was dangerous to the state. But Charles was not to be moved from his opposition. He closed the Diet of Augsburg with a statement in which he reiterated his first demand. As the Protestants had in consequence every reason to anticipate a struggle with the emperor, they united in a great defensive league, which from the place of meeting received the name of the League of Schmalk- alden. Both sides now stood opposed to each other, ready for action ; but just as civil war seemed to have become inevi- table, the news reached Germany that the Turks were about to attack Vienna. The Turks had already carried the terror of their name into eastern Germany two years before. In face of a danger threatening all alike, the civil., struggle had, of course, to be postponed. In an agreement which Charles signed with the Protestants at Nuremberg (1532), he abandoned the measures which he had advo- cated at Augsburg, and was thus enabled to march against the Turks at the head of a brilliant army representing united Germany. Before this display of force the Turks fell back. On his return Charles found other things to do than fight the German Protestants. The Mohammedan pirate of the north coast of Africa, who were engaged in destroying the European commerce, urgently demanded his attention. For the next few years he gave his time to the destruction of their strongholds in Tunis and Tripoli, and thus the sup- pression of Protestantism in Germany was again postponed. To Charles all this must have been hard to bear. The which they pubh'shed in 1529 (at the Diet of Speier) against the execution of the Edict of Worms. The Reformation in Germany 43 French, the Turks, and the African pirates were among them keeping his hands full, and were always intercept- ing his arm at the very moment at which he was about to draw his sword against the Protestant revolution. In the following year there broke out a third war with New wars. Francis I. of France (1536-38), only to be succeeded by between the fourth and last (1542-44), which was concluded by the ^^eTurks. ^""^ Peace of Crespy. In this peace Charles definitely gave up his claim to Burgundy. But the most striking feature of these last two wars, a feature which among contemporary Europeans caused an unspeakable surprise,, was the alli- ance which Francis concluded against Charles with Soliman the Magnificent, the Turkish Sultan. A union between Christians and Mohammedans presented an unprecedented spectacle, and the contemporary world was unable to read the meaning of this new departure. To us, however, it is plain. In the modern world which, in the sixteenth cen- tury, was gradually taking shape, religious considerations were to yield the place to the great political interests of monarchs and nations. " The peace of Crespy set Charles free to try once more to eradicate the German heresy. His propositions for an amica- ble settlement having been steadily rejected by the Protes- tants, he was now resolved to try force. As a result of his open preparations for war the league of the Protestant princes and cities, the so-called League of Schmalkalden , began to provide for its defence. At the moment at which hostili- ties threatened to begin, Luther, the much-struggling and much -suffering, died (1546). He was spared the pain of seeing his countrymen in arms against each other because of a movement of which he had been the creator. His life The death of \ throughout was brave and simple, and if it is stained with " --^-_Ll-^^ outbursts of coarseness and vulgarity, it is the part of gen- erosity to ascribe them to the difficult circumstances in 44 Modern Europe The first war of religion in Germany. The defeat of the emperor. which he, the untrained monk, called suddenly to the post of danger and of action, had been placed. If he has be- come dear to the German people and to the Protestant world in general, it is not only because he created the new faith, but also because his large, hale figure, which we picture seated at the family board and surrounded by a circle of fresh young faces, breathes a broad sympathy and humanity.^ The first war of religion in Germany, called the war of Schmalkalden, broke out in the year of Luther's death (1546). The Protestant forces, led by the foremost Prot- estant princes, John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse, lacked order and direction. Charles, advancing step by step, ended the war at one stroke at the battle of MiihJ- berg (1547), where the leading Protestant prince, the elec- tor of Saxony, was taken prisoner. The triumph of the emperor was in no small measure due to the treachery of a Protestant prince and relative of the elector, Maurice of Saxony. Maurice was a capable, unscrupulous man, who for the price of the electorate of his relative, lent Charles his aid. The price once paid, he remembered that he, too, was a Protestant, and gradually cutting loose from the emperor prepared to undo the conse(^uences of the victory of Miihlberg. Charles, after the victory of Miihlberg, which had ended with the complete submission of the Protestants, undertook to heal the schism by dictating terms of j^eace. He pre- pared a union of the Protestant and Catholic Churches through a measure called the Interim. The Interim estab- hshed 3.modus vivendiiox Protestants, until the great Church Coun cil which was sitting at Trent had determined what • Among other Catholic practices, Luther condemned also the celibacy of the clergy. In the year 1525 he, the monk, married a nun, Catharine Bora, who, like him, had renounced her vows. The family life of Luther deserves study, and will be found to have a real poetic flavor. The Reformation in Germany 45 was to be done with them. The Protestant world felt with consternation that in this half-way measure lay the begin- ning of the end. An increasing discontent grew soon to a revolutionary enthusiasm, and when Maurice of Saxony came back to his co-religionists, Germany suddenly rose, and Charles found himself helpless before the united dem- onstration (1552). Maurice might even have taken him captive. '* I have no cage for so fine a bird," he is report- ed to have said. So the emperor escaped. But his life- long war against the Lutheran heresy had come to an end. Broken by defeat, but too proud to acknowledge it, he ordered his brother Ferdinand to sign a preliminary peace with the Protestants. At the Diet of Augsburg, in the year ij^, a final peace, known as the Religious Peace of Augsburg, was ratified by the emperor and the estates. "■" ^""- In the Peace of Augsburg the Lutheran Church received The terms of legal recognition as an independent ecclesiastical establish- Augsburg, / ment. It was determined that every estate of the Diet, }^^ that is, every prince or imperial city, should have the right to accept or reject the Lutheran faith and then, as convic- tion urged, to introduce it into or banish it from his prov- ince. Tolerance for the rulers but not for the people, after the principle ciijus regio, ejus religio (religion pertains to the territorial lord), was made, in accordance with the still feudal notions of the day, the fundamental principle of the Protestant - Catholic adjustment. However, though the principle of the equality of the two faiths was in general established, one important article, called the Ecclesiastical The Ecclesi- Reservation, was introduced in favor of the old Church, vation. There still were in the year 1555a large number of bishop- rics and archbishoprics in Germany, Mainz, Cologne, Wiirzburg, Munster, etc., with territorial possessions amounting perhaps to one-sixth of the whole German soil. These properties it was agreed in the Ecclesiastical Reser- •■^ 46 Modern Europe vation should never be reformed, but should remain the pos- session of the Roman Church ; therefore, if a bishop should turn Protestant, that action would be admissible for his own person, but he would have to resign his see and allow the chapter to elect another and a Catholic bishop in his place. It was this article providing so tenderly for the Catholic interests which soon caused much confusion, be- cause it was found in practice that it could not be kept ; and in the end the quarrels resulting from it brought on a second war. Henry II. of The victory of the Protestants over the emperor was quers the three "ot purchased without a heavy loss for Germany. Maurice bishoprics. ^^ Saxony had found it necessary, in order to make sure of victory, to ally himself with Henry 11. of France, and in the same year (1552) in which Maurice drove the emperor over the Alps, Henry H. invaded Germany and occupied the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Although Charles laid siege to Metz immediately upon the reestablishment of peace with the Protestants, the French were able to beat him off and retain possession of their conquests. Abdication of The emperor, whose life was worn out with his long DrvisionofThe conflicts and labors, could not recover from the blow of dknnhiionl these last disasters. He abdicated his crown (1556) and retired to the nionastery^ of San Yuste in Spain, where he died two years later. Hardly in the history of the world has so proud a life set so humbly. Upon his abdication the vast Hapsburg possessions, which he had held in his sole hand, were divided. His son Philip got Spain (with her colonies), the Italian territory (P^aples and Milan), and the Netherlands. His brother, Ferdinand, got the Austrian lands and therewith the imperial crown. Henceforth until the~extinction of the Spanish line (1700) we have in Europe two Hapsburg Houses, a Spanish and an Austrian branch. CHAPTER II THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION IN EUROPE AND THE COUNTER REFORMATION OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH The Protestant Reformation spread rapidly from Ger- The spread of many over the Teutonic north, and even made inroads ^'■otestantism. upon France, Italy, and Spain. It met with opposition everywhere ; sometimes it was suppressed, sometimes it forced the governments to recognize it; but wherever it raised its head, its form was modified more or less by the national character of the people among whom it appeared, and by the local circumstances. The succ ess of the Reformation was most complete and Denmark, rapid in the Scandinavian north. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden ac- Sweden, the three Scandinavian powers, had been united c^ept Lutheran- under one king since the Union of Calmar (1397). At the beginning of the sixteenth century the UnionTell apart, Sweden having revolted and established her independence under the native house of Vasa. Denmark and Norway, on the other hand, remained united, under a Danish king, down to the time of Napoleon. The pphtical confusion that was occasioned in Scandinavia by the struggle of Swe- den for independence favored the religious innovations. Within twenty years after Luther's proclamation against Indulgences (151 7^, the Lutheran Church had become the sole and state Church of all the Scandinavian countries. The north produced no great reformer of its own, and therefore accepted the Church of its nearest neighbor, Ger- many. 47 48 Modern Europe TheReforma- tion in Switzer- land. Ulrich Zwingli' Religious di- vision of the Swiss. The case was different with Switzerland. Switzerland consisted, in the sixteenth century, IdF a dozen or so of cantons, all technically a part of the Empire, but practi- cally constituting independent republics, bound together in a very loose federation. In 1518 Ulrich Zwingli, a priest of the Canton of Glarus, made an energetic protest against the doctrine of Indulgences. By transferring his activity to Zurich, the intellectual centre of the country, he soon gath- ered around himself a powerful party of reform. His suc- cess in Switzerland was as immediate and signal as that of Luther in Germany. Zwingli always maintained that he had arrived at his re- form doctrines in complete independence of Luther. There is every reason to believe that this assertion is true. It simply goes to prove that there was in Europe a general trend of opinion toward reform. After an attempt at a union between himself and Luther had failed, chiefly, it must be confessed, through Luther's fault, Zwingli estab- lished his own Reformed Church in Switzerland.^ All the Swiss cantons, however, could not be won to the new faith. The simple and uneducated foresters and mountain- eers of the upper Alps (inhabitants of the so-called Forest Cantons) remained stanchly Catholic. Only the Cantons on the Swiss border, which were under the influence of the two progressive cities, Zurich and Berne, accepted Zwingli 's teaching. In the war between the two faiths which fol- lowed (1531), the Catholic cantons won the decisive victory of Cappel. As Zwingli himself fell on this occasion, the Catholics might have driven a hard bargain. Nevertheless they concluded peace with the Protestants on the same basis as the Catholics and Protestants of Germany did a few years > Zwingli's Reformed Church differed little from the Lutheran Church. The only serious difference — a djffercDce which caused Luther to reject the proffered union — touched the'doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Progress of the Reformation in Europe 49 later at Augsburg : each local government or canton was allowed to accept or reject the Reformed faith as it pleased. In consequence of this settlement, Switzerland, like Ger- many, is partly Catholic and partly Protestant to this day. A little after these events in the eastern or German part of Switzerland, there arose in the western or French part another great Protestant leader, whose influence was des- tined to become more wide than that of Luther himself. This leader was John Calvin , and the city which he made famous as the great hearth of the new Protestant worship was Geneva. Geneva, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, oc- cupied a curious political position, which may be qualified as a half-way station between mediaeval and modern con- ditions. The city, like many another mediaeval town, had acquired a limited self-government, but its old feudal masters, the duke of Savoy and the bishop of Geneva, still exercised over it a number of sovereign rights. Since these rights were irksome to the citizens, the Genevese began to crave complete independence ; they engaged in war, and having, with the aid of the western cantons of the Swiss Confederation, roundly beaten both the duke of Savoy and the bishop of Geneva, they undertook to govern their city as a free community (1535). Henceforth the republic of Ge- neva leaned toward its ally, the Swiss Confederation, but did not become a formal member of it until toward the end of the century (1584). Meanwhile, the war for independence, engaged in by the city, had been accompanied by a second revolution. The feud against the bishop had drawn the wrath of the Genevese upon the Catholic Church and gradually driven them into the arms of Protestantism. It was only after this double revolution, culminating in polit- ical freedom and in Protestantism, had been achieved, that The Reforma- tion in Gene- va. Geneva , becomes independent. Geneva becomes Protestant /" 50 Modern Europe The life of Calvin. Calvin comes to Geneva. Calvin, lord of Geneva. there began the connection with Geneva of the man who gave the revolution in that city its final form and made it famous. It was a stroke of chance which brought John Calvin to Geneva. He was born in the province of Picardy, in France, in 1509, studied law, and during his student days at Orleans and Paris came into contact with advocates of the Reform movement. Having been forced in consequence of his enthusiastic acceptance of the new faith to flee from France, he spent his exile engaged in hard studies in Germany and Switzerland. He closed this period of his life with the publication of his theological masterpiece, the ''Institutes of the Christian Religion" (1536), which was long regarded as the completest doctrinal justification of the Protestant faith in existence. It was shortly after this work had appeared that he undertook a visit to France, which brought him for a night's rest to Geneva (1536). The Protestant faith had only been introduced into Geneva the year before, and was still in a most precarious condition. Farel, the leading preacher of Geneva, learn- ing of the presence in the town of the famous theologian, called upon him, to engage him to lend his aid in the evangelization of the city. Calvin declined the offer ; his life work, he told Farel, was marked out for him ; it was not that of the soldier in the ranks, but concerned itself with study and scholarship. Then Farel arose and solemn- ly pronounced a curse upon him, for refusing, for the sake of his ease, to fight the battles of the Lord. The unexpected accusation shook Calvin to the very roots of his nature. When he spoke again, it was to accept a place in the band of the Protestant workers of Geneva. The work which Calvin now entered upon lasted, with the exception of a short exile, until his death (1536-64). Hardly ever in the history of the world has a man held a ^ Progress of the Reformation in Europe 5 1 community so like clay in his hands as Calvin did the fair city on the shores of Lake Leman. The formal organization of the city government he did He establishes not at once change, but he profoundly affected the ad- government, ministration of affairs by impressing upon the governors of the city that, as the officials of a Christian govern- ment, they were established for the purpose of enforcing God's commands. The best interpreters of these com- mands, he insisted, at the same time, were the clergy. From this it would naturally follow, that, although the Church was subject to the state, yet the Church, through the clergy, would practically dominate the state. It was due to the influence of Calvin's strong personality, that Geneva for many years presented the rare spectacle of Church and state working harmoniously together, each master in certain respects, yet subject to the other in others. In modern times certainly, the theocratic ideal of government has nowhere else been so completely real- ized. Calvin is the father of the Presbyterian form of Church He establishes government. In the New Testament he found mention ^ian iorm oP made of four distinct officers — the teacher, the pastor, the cEurcTTgov- .- ' ^..,. ' ernment. p resbyte r, and the deacon. These he regarded as divinely appoiiitfed and therefore necessary in every true Church. Accordingly, he made his schools an essential part of the Church, and chose for them the best Christian teachers possible. The importance which he attached to schools is shown by the fact that he ranked the teachers with the pastors. The presbyters (elders) were laymen, whose special duty was to oversee the morals of the people ; the deacons were intrusted with the care of the poor. The government of the Church, as a whole, was in the hands of the teachers, pastors, and presbyters, who formed a con- sisto rv or presbytery . In theory the congregation, also, had 52 Modern Europe a certain voice in the government, but in Geneva, at least, if not in other Calvinistic Churches, the congregation was kept in strict subjection to the consistory. The author- ity of the consistory in Church matters became absolute. Calvin super- Calvin's chief concern was with the morals of his peo- vises the /-. • i i , i ^ ^i . . . morals. pie. Convinced that the grand purpose of Christianity was right conduct, he bent all his energies toward securing it. To this end, he attempted to regulate in all its details the life of the city. All kinds of amusement were forbidden, as likely to lead to excess and sin, and fines were imposed on every thoughtless word and deed. Attendance on prayer-meetings and the singing of psalms were the only permissible forms of recreation. The citizens were re- quired to devote themselves wholly to the serious service of God. Naturally enough, not all the people were able or willing to repress their good spirits, and therefore en- deavored to evade the severe regulations imposed upon them. The consistory in such cases resorted to the most arbitrary methods, and practically made of itself an in- qiiisitorial body. In everything, except the name, the Inquisition was established in Geneva, and not without bloody results. Under this pressure the gay and joyous city assumed the character of a staid monastery. Ca lvin became the fatherof^Piiritaiusnu ^^^ G_eneva the first Puri- tan congregation. The case of The famous case of Servetus may serve to remind us that the Protestants were then as far from granting religious lib- erty as the Catholics. Servetus was a learned physician,^ who denied the doctrine of the Trinity. There was a literary quarrel of long standing between him and Calvin, and when, in the year 1553, he ventured, in a foolhardy manner, into Geneva, Calvin had him arrested and con- victed of heresy. Letters were dispatched to all the prom- ^ It is said that he discovered the circulation of the blood. Servetus. Progress of the Reformation in Europe 53 inent Protestant teachers and preachers of Europe, and all were unanimous in declaring that Servetus should suffer death for denying what they were bound to consider an es- sential doctrine of their faith. He was accordingly burned at the stake (1553). The fame of Calvin and his reformed city spread over The spread all Europe, and thousands of exiles from Catholic lands fled thither. Geneva became a city of refuse to all the distressed Protestants of France, England, Scotland, and the Netherlands. Calvin labored for the spread of his doctrines in all these lands, and aided the exiles to return and work secretly as missionaries of the Reformed faith. In this way, and with the aid of other circumstances, he was able to replace the influence of Luther in all of the countries west^f thejlhine, and even in parts of Germany itself, and to introduce into them his type of Protestantism. From the point of view of the success of the Reformation this was entirely well. For toward the middle of the century, Catholicism was marshaling its forces for an at- ^ /-^ ^' tack upon its revolted subjects, and the combative Calvin- ism was much better suited than the pliant Lutheranism to meet and rout the enemy. Ever since the thirteenth century, there had been heard The Catholic in all parts of Europe, loud and frequent calls for a reform back upon^ts of the Catholic Church. But the Popes, regardless of P^*^* [ , . complaints, had gone their own way, seeking after wealth L^o-v^ jiJ"^ and political power. This secular policy produced its jxf^^'^ legitimate fruit in such Popes as Alexander VI., Julius II., I i and Leo X., who were, in a certain sense, capable men, but lacked all claims to personal holiness. At length, toward the middle of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church, \^ >S O yielding"f61Tie reforming spirit, and determined to coun- teract the movement begun by Luther, instituted a series of relormatory measures. 54 Modern Europe The reform of the Papacy. Symptoms of the revival of Catholic life. This Counter-Reformation in the Catholic Church, with- out changing the hierarchy or the doctrines, nevertheless brought about a real religious revival, especially among the Catholic clergy, and filled that body with new earnestness and zeal. The Popes themselves had been very slow to ob- serve the change in the religious atmosphere of Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century. They lingered in the Renaissance and its pleasant byways long after the rest of Europe had grown agitated over the question of saving its soul. Leo X. (15 13-21) paid no attention to the Reformation, and had the courage to pronounce the aston- ishing opinion that it was a mere brawl begun by a drunken monk. Hadrian VI. (1522-23), his successor, who was a northerner by birth and acquainted with the northern pas- sion for reform, was deeply in earnest, and sent his legate to the Diet of Nuremberg with a written confession of the shortcomings of the Papacy ; but death cut short his pon- tificate, and his successors remained untouched by the re- ligious change and indifferent to the increasingly earnest temper of Europe till the accession of Paul IV. (1555-59). Paul IV. was the first Pope_who fully perceived the pre- carious condition of the Church. Without countenancing the least change in the Catholic system, he nevertheless in- augurated an era of reform by quietly abandoning many of the abuses^about which there had been so much complaint. With him begins a long series of Popes who, in contrast to the easy manner of life fashionable with the Renaissance Popes, maintained a vigorous moral code and devoted them- selves with eager zeal to ecclesiastical interests. Prominent symptoms of a change in the temper of Catholicism were the translation of the Bible under Cath- olic direction into the popular tongues, its circulation among the Catholic laityj the enrichment of the Church services by the introduction of the singing of hymns in the ^:^--.a ,....>-~::lCj^ Progress of the Reformation in Europe 55 vernacular by the congregation, and more frequent ad- dresses and sermons. The revival showed itself also in the formation of several new religious orders, such as the Theatines_(i524) and the Capuchins (1525). The mem- ^w^^ bers of these new orders tried to exemplify the teachings of ;' ' ^'^ Jesus in their daily lives, and devoted themselves to prac- q^ _ . tical Christian work, preaching, teaching, and caring for the poor and the sick. Their pure lives and their zeal did much to restore the religious life of the Catholic peoples. Of all the orders of the Counter- Reformation the Order The Order of the Jesuits, or '' Regiment of Jesus," was, however, jesuiis. destined to play by far the most important role. It at- tained an immense membership, influenced the Councils of the Church, and, by its clever missionary work, won back to the Catholic faith many provinces which had accepted the doctrines of the Reformation. Its founder, Ignatius . Loyola, was a Spanish nobleman whose highest ideal was that of a soldier until, in consequence of a severe wound received in the service of the king, his master (1521), he chanced to read some ''Lives of the Saints." These so fired his imagination that he became filled with the desire to emulate the Christian heroes. His first efforts were wildly romantic and fruitless. He eventually saw that his education was not sufficient, and at thirty-three years of age he began to study Latin, philosophy, and theology. While at school in Paris he made the acquaintance of some kindred spirits, and with them he founded his new society (1534), for the purpose, at first, of doing missionary work among the Mohammedans. Circumstances prevented the sailing of the enthusiasts for the Orient, whereupon they resolved to go to Rome to offer their services to the Pope and also to secure his sanction for their order. In 1540, after considerable hesitation. Pope Paul III. confirmed^he"' order and the rules which Loyola had composed for it. 56 Modern Europe The organiza- tion of the Jesuits. The activities of the Jesuits. (- Loyola modelled his order after the army. Its funda- mental principle was discipline. By a clever system of in- struction which had regard for individual peculiarities, the candidates for the order were so trained as to become un- hesitating and obedient tools in the hands of their master. Since they took a special vow of obedience to the Pope, this ruler soon saw their usefulness, and by heaping the or- der with honors, rights, and privileges, quickly made it the most powerful one in Europe. The Jesuits engaged in every kind of activity. They were famous preachers and confessors, and became especially ex- pert in dealing with the Catholic conscience and in caring for souls. They carried on foreign mission work on a grand scale, planting their stations in all parts of the world. Realizing that youth is the most impressionable age, they fostered education. By their superior methods of instruc- tion they attracted to their schools the best young men of the time, and instilled into them the doctrines of their faith. For more than a hundred years they led Europe in educa- tion.") They devoted themselves also to politics and be- came cunning^diplomats and intriguers. Everywhere they made themselves felt, and it was due in great measure to their comprehensive and untiring efforts, that Protestantism was destroyed in Italy, Spain, France, Poland, and in the dominions of the Hapsburgs, and that these lands remained attached to the Catholic Church. } Even in the Protes- tant countries, Germany, England, and Scandinavia, the Jesuits were able tjo bring their Church into prominence again, and to put into jeopardy the existence of the Re- formed Churches. Their work in the high places of the world was especially successful, and in the course of the seventeenth century, /'Germany was startled by the news of the return of many a Protestant prince to the bosom of mother Church. ) Among their greatest triumphs is the cop- V Progress of the Reformation in Europe 57 version of the Stuarts and of the electoral House of that country, Saxony, which was the cradle of the Reformation. Perhaps the most important factor of the Counter -Ref- The Council ormation was the Council of Trent. The Council of Trent ° '^^^^*- (in session at intervals, 1545-63), rendered the Catholic Church the signal service of unifying the Catholic doc- trines as they had never been unified before. In the body of the tradition of the Catholic Church there were many conflicting tendencies and records. These differences the Council of Trent removed, and then formulated the Cath- olic creed anew, in sharp opposition to the doctrines set up by the Protestants. There were many Catholics present at this Council who were inclined to a compromise with the Protestants for the sake of making the Church one again, but the strict papal party, under the leadership of the Jesuits, was able to prevent the Council from making any concession. The acts of this Council now constitute the creed of the Catholic Church^ Only" a few important additions have since been made ; such are, for instance, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which was announced in the year 1854, and the doctrine of the Infallibility of the Pope, which was promul- gated at the Council of the Vatican, in the year 1870. The last important factor which contributed to the success of the Counter-Reformation, was the Inquisition. The Inquisition, called also the sanctum officium (Holy The Inquisi- Office), was an ecclesiastical court, established for the pur- *^°"* pose of tracing and punishing heresy. The penalty, which the judges or inquisitors pronounced, was usually confisca- tion of property or death, and was executed by the civil authorities. The Inquisition was not an invention of the Counter-Reformation. In a mild form it existed through- out the Middle Age. Pope Innocent III. (11 98-1 2 16) first organized it effectively, and had himself the pleasure 58 Modern Europe of seeing its complete success against the Albigenses. Naturally, the zealots of the Counter-Reformation began early to urge its employment against the heretical followers of Luther and Calvin. Owing, however, to the abhorrence with which the Inquisition, because of its terrible and vague prerogative, filled the people, and owing further to the jealousy of the governments, which dreaded the interference of an ecclesiastical court, this^ en gine of repressipn\was not everywhere admitted. A notable activity it exhibited only in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. In the last-named country it produced quite the opposite effect of that in- tended ; but in^talyand Spain it operated with such com- plete success, that the Reformation no sooner showed in those countries signs of life than it was crushed. CHAPTER III SPAIN UNDER CHARLES I. (1516-56), KNOWN AS EM- PEROR CHARLES V,, AND PHILIP II. (l 5 56-98); HER WORLD EMINENCE AND HER DECAY From the Spanish national point of view, it was a great The reign of misfortune that Charles I. (1516-56) was elected to the 1516-56. ' Empire in 15 19, and became Emperor Charles V. Hence- forth, having duties to perform in Germany, he could no longer give his whole time to Spain. In fact, from the time of his imperial election, he seems gradually to have lost sight of the national point of view; he became, above all, desirous of playing a grand European role, and that naturally brought with it a division of his service and a perpetual compromise of the interests of all the nations which he represented. Now the interests of Spain and Germany were not necessarily opposed. One great inter- est, the defeat of the Turks, who were pushing along the Danube into Germany, and along the Mediterranean toward Spain, they even had in common ; but what had Germany to do with the emperor's Italian wars or his colonial pol- icy, and what benefit did Spain derive from his life-long struggle against Protestantism ? Moreover, Charles being the absolute monarch of Spain, the governmental machin- ery was utterly dependent upon his direction, and yet, of a reign of forty years, he spent in Spain hardly fifteen. It is true he was the greatest political figure of his day and his fellow-actors upon the European stage shrank to pigmy size when he made his entrance ; it is true, he was of tire- 59 6o Moderfi Europe less activity and with all seriousness tried to live up to the demands which the old illusory ideal of the emperor, the arbiter of the world, made upon him ; but it is also true that his grandeur was a personal grandeur, and not identi- fied with the nation, as is the case with the world's great sovereigns, for instance, Elizabeth of England and Henry IV. of France. In a word, Charles used the Spanish re- sources for his own, and not for Spanish ends. The beginning Because of Charles's half-hearted devotion to Spain, Spain of Spain.'^^^ suffered irremediable internal injuries during his outwardly brilliant reign. In fact, her gradual decay may be dated from his time. To prove this, we need only examine the events of Charles's history. We have heard of the emper- or's long wars against the French and the Turks in con- nection with his reign in Germany. These wars were waged notably with Spanish men and Spanish money ; without bringing an adequate return they drained the coun- try of its blood and of its gold. Further, the absolutism which under Ferdinand had been employed against the nobles and had stood for order and progress, came to be used under Charles as an instrument of popular repression. Thus, when at the outset of Charles's reign there was a great revolt of the cities, it was suppressed (15 21) with terrible severity, and the liberties which the towns had hitherto enjoyed were practically annulled. The Parlia- ment (Cortes) of Castile, too, was condemned to a l^s_of its dignity and influence. A people which loses its polit- ical rights is in danger of losing, sooner or later, its vitality. And to make things worse, in the place of the free institu- tions which Charles ruined, there arose, more threatening than ever, the colossal instrument of religious and political tyranny, the Inquisition. The cruel executions of Moors and Jews, which had been popularized under Ferdinand and Isabella, continued, with the same zest, under Charles. Spain Under Charles I and Philip II 6i Whatever else pertaining to Charles's reign was unpopular, these holocausts of heretical victims the sincere and fervid intolerance of the Spanish people accepted with entire satisfaction. What could Protestantism hope of such a country, de- Protestantism voted to its faith with mediaeval fanaticism ? True, small ^" ^^^^' groups of Lutherans began to form here and there, notably in Seville and Valladolid. But when Charles first heard of them, seized with incontroUable rage, he ordered the inquisitors to pluck out the heresy, root and branch. So Protestantism got no foothold in Spain. The last thirteen years of his reign Charles spent in Ger- Philip II. many. The Protestant successes there broke his spirit, the kingdom and he resigned his crowns in 1556, Spain to his son Philip, o^ Spam. Austria to his brother Ferdinand (see Chapter I., page 46). Philip II. (1556-98) on his accession found himself at the head of states (Spain and colonies, Naples, Milan, and the Netherlands) hardly less extensive than those which Charles had governed, and as he did not become emperor, he had, from the Spanish point of view, the great excel- lence over Charles, that he was a national king. As such, he endeared himself to his people and still_ lives in their niemory. It is curious that this same Philip, whom the Spaniards The character esteem so highly, should stand before the rest of Europe as ° 1 ip • the darkest tyrant and most persistent enemy of light and ^progress whom the age produced. To this traditional Euro- pean picture there certainly belongs a measure of truth ; but calm investigation teaches us that this truth is asso- ciated with prejudice and distorted by exaggeration. Philip 11, was a severe, cold, and narrow-minded man, whose heart was in the Catholic faith and whose hand was at its service. Therefore his guiding thought, while there was life in him, was to maintain that faith — by bloody re- 62 Modern Europe pression of heresy through the Inquisition, where he had the power ; by war, where war was Hkely to prove feasible. Every Protestant when he thinks of Phihp II. thinks of the Inquisition. But the Inquisition was not PhiHp's in- vention, nor did he, although he made a revolting use of it, handle it more cruelly than his predecessors. Indeed a close scrutiny of his life will convince us that the title *' Demon of the South," which his enemies popularized, does him too much injury and also too much honor. Too much honor, for he no more possessed a demon-like fire and resolution than he was governed by the abominable vices traditionally associated with the Prince of Darkness. He was rather a slow, plodding burgher, who took his business of kingship very seriously, and who, but for his radical intolerance, would have been as foreign to any kind of enthusiasm as the head of a bank. He passed his days and his nights over state affairs. Every document had to go through his own hands. Historians who have examined his papers declare it incredible that so much matter should have been written by one man in one lifetime. In fact, work was his failing, for work with him degenerated into the rage for minutiae, and ended by enfeebling his grasp of essentials. In other respects, too, the comparison of this ogre of the Protestant mythology with a good typical burgher proves applicable. Out of business hours he was a tender and devoted father.^ His letters to his daughters during an occasional absence are amiable, and in their own stately way even humorous. Philip as the It is true that Philip became the champion of the Ca- Catholicism. tholic reaction, which is to say that he identified himself with the greatest movement of his half of the century and » His conduct toward his son, Don^ Carlos , has been the cause of frequent defamation of his name. "'fhe~belieT'now is that his attitude was moderate and even admirable. Philip did not put his son under arrest until the plots and madness of Carlos threatened the safety of the state. Spain Under Charles I and PJiilip II 63 rushed into war with the Protestant world of the north. Catholic intolerance, doubtless, led him to take delight in this role, but he was far removed from being controlled in the conflict, like his father, Charles, by the mainspring of mere ambition. An impartial student must agree that his wars were as much forced upon him by Protestant aggres- sion and the logical progress of events, as determined by his own Catholic impulses. (As things stood, after the Coun- cil of Trent, a great R-otestant-Catholic world-war was inevitable. ] It came by way of the Spanish Netherlands. The Netherlands revolted, and Philip set about putting down the revolt. His measures there were barbarous ; they were the traditional Spanish measures, the rack and the fagot ; worst of all, from the political point of view, they proved inadequate in the end. The Netherlands could not be pacified by Philip, and gradually won the sympa- thies and secured the aid of the French Huguenots and the German and English Protestants. So the war widened; finding herself opposed in the Netherlands by the united Protestant peoples, Spain, in order to secure the Catholic sympathies, put herself forward as the champion of the Pope and of Catholicism. It is from this stand-point of the inevitableness of the The Dutch religious struggle that Philip's wars should be considered. ^ PhUip w^ith^tht They all centre about the war with the Netherlands. This English, famous war will be treated in detail in another chapter. It began soon after Philip's accession, and turned to the advantage of the Dutch, largely because they succeeded in interesting the whole Protestant world in their heroic struggle. Protestantism gradually becoming aware of the ' A war with France (1556-59), which took place at the beginning of his reign, for purely political reasons, deserves to be kept distinct from these later wars, all of which have a certain religious character. This war was a triumph for Philip, and was conclu^^ed by the Treaty of Cateau-Cam- bresis (1550) ; it is memorable as the last great success of Spain against France. Henceforth the tables are turned. 64 Modern Europe \ri. Catholic reaction, came to feel itself threatened in its very existence by the power of Spain, the avowed champion of that reaction. Closely and more closely the Protestant peoples crowded about brave Holland. Philip saw himself gradually engaged in a world-war ; to the war with the Dutch rebels was added a war with the French Hugue- nots under Henry of Navarre, and a war with the England of Elizabeth. Furiously Phihp turned at length upon his leading Protestant enemy, upon England. The Armada, The height of the struggle between Spain and England . , ' - was the sending of the great fleet, the Armada, against the / X>^^y' heretic island-kingdom (1588). The Atlantic waters had '^ ,vr, never seen the like ; but the expedition failed miserably by reason of the superior skill and audacity of the English sailors and the disasters caused by wind and water. Philip bore his defeat with dignified resignation. He spoke un- affectedly of the deep grief it caused him " not to be able to render God this great service. ' ' But the destruction of the Armada settled the fate of the religious war. It deter- / / mined that the Dutch should not be reconquered ; it es- Z tablished the Protestant world henceforth securely against ^ the Catholic reaction ; and it prepared a naval successor " s^ for degenerate Spain in youthful England?N The Dutch and the English were -riot Philip's only enemies. Worse heretics than the Protestants, the Moham- medan Turks, engaged his attention during his whole reign. The Turks were then, and continued for some generations to be, the terror of the west. Austria, Venice, and Spain suffered most heavily from their raids and conquests. The Mohammedan pirates of northern Africa constantly plun- dered the Spanish coasts ; bit by bit the Turks reduced the Venetian possessions in the east ; and foot by foot they pushed across Transylvania and Hungary toward Ger- many. Finally, in their great need, the Pope, Venice, and Spain Under Charles I and Philip II Spain formed an alliance ( 15 71 ), and in the same year their united fleet ^ won a brilliant victory over the Turks, off" Lepanto , in Greece. The commander-in-chief of the Philip's wars Christians was the young and talented Don Tohn of Aus- xurks.^ tria, a half-brother of Philip II. His genius and Philip's Lepanto. own energy in raising supplies contributed the largest share to the triumph. Hardly more than thirty Turkish vessels escaped the ruin ; 30,000 Turks were killed, 12,000 Chris- tian rowers freed from slavery. The victory brought neither Spain nor Christendom any great immediate benefits, but the Mohammedan sea-power was checked, and though still threatening for more than a hundred years to come, fell from this time into a gradual decline. ( Lepanto is one of the proud moments of the history of Philip and of Spain. \ But a greater triumph than Lepanto even was Philip's ac2uisition_of Portugal. Still, it cannot be said that this success was due to any special cleverness of his own, Por- tugal was the only state of the peninsula of the Pyrenees which Spain had not yet absorbed. Frequent marriages between the royal Houses had, however, prepared a union of the two states. In 1580 the last native king of Portugal died, and Philip, who had a fair claim, thereupon took pos- Philip session of the state and of her colonies. The Portuguese, ponujal. proud of their nationality and their achievements during the Age of Discoveries, accepted the yoke of the greater state unwillingly. The memories of Portuguese indepen- dence would not perish, and after Spain had entered upon its decline, and only forty years after Philip's death, Portugal rose and won back her freedom, under a new royal House, the House of Braganza (1^0). Since then Portugal and Spain have never been united. The battle of Lepanto brought an immense mass of ships into action. \ The Turks and Christians had about the same number of galleys, more I than two hundred each. But the Turks had in addition many lighter / vessels. On the other hand, the Christian ships were better manned. / 66 Modern Europe PhHip's inter- If Philip's career as champion of CathoHcism was, on the whole, an unsuccessful one, his internal rule was hard- ly more fortunate. There had already been a perceptible decay of agriculture and commerce under Charles. Under Philip the decline continued. The farms lay deserted ; the roads were neglected and soon untravelled. Then by the extermination of the Moors or Moriscoes, ordered under Philip, the country lost its most industrious element ; the terrible Inquisition, employed against these people, turned Granada and the south, which, under Mohammedan rule, had bloomed like a valley of Paradise, into a cemetery. The Jews^on being persecuted because of their faith, carried elsewhere their capital and energy. Finally, the heavy yoke of absolutism crushed all independence of thought and action. Thus the Spanish monarch himself, by depriving the people of the exercise of their political intelligence, by crushing their initiative in business enterprise, and by per- secuting the industrious foreigners, the Moriscoes and Jews, condemned his own country to death by dry-rot. Reasons of the Inguisitipn and absolutism — these are the names of the ^ p^nis e- (^i^jgf diseases which racked the body of the Spanish nation. As they are associated with the central power, it is natural to ascribe the decline of Spain solely to her bigoted, unwise kings. It is true her kings are guilty, but let us remember that no people dies by its kings alone ; a people dies or lives by its own strength or weakness. Judged by this truth, the Spanish character is largely responsible for the dissolution of the Spanish power. To their native intoler- ance, which cut the Spaniards off from all new ideas, was added a lordly pride and a southern indolence, which ren- dered them disdainful and incapable of steady, saving work. Philip III. and Philip III. (i 598-1621), who succeeded Philip II., was ' '** ■ an utterly incapable man. In 1609 he was forced to bend his pride in a way in which his father had refused to do. Spain Under Charles and Philip II 67 and conclude with the rebel Dutch a twelve years' truce. It was a public acknowledgment of Spain's decline. Under Phihp IV. (1621-65) the country dropped def- initely to the second and third rank among European powers in consequence of the disgraceful treaties of West- jpha lia (1.648) ^ and of the Pyrenees (1659) ^ which closed her long wars with the Netherlands and with France. In 1659 the political, social, and material dechne of Spain was patent to every observer. It is an unsolved problem why, during^Jhe_decline of Spanish cult- Spain under the Philips, there should have been a literary and artistic activity, such as few countries have ever en- joyed. Spain created a great national literature (Cervantes, d. 1616, the author of ''Don Quixote; " Lope de Vega, d. 1635, and Calderon, d. 1681, dramatic authors) and a •great national art ( Velasquez , d. 1660, and Murillo, d. 1682). ;7/X ClW^ » See Chapter VII. a See Period II. , Chapter II. CHAPTER IV ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS (1485-1603) ; FINAL TRIUMPH OF THE REFORMATION UNDER ELIZABETH (1559-1603) Henry VIII. , i^og-1541. The character of Henry Vlil. The English hun/anists. Henry VH. , the first Tudor monarch and creator of the "strong monarchy," died in 1509, and was succeeded by his son Henry VlH. Henry VXII. was under twenty years of age at his accession. ■ He was a young man of attractive presence, skilled in gentlemanly sports, such as riding and tennis, condescending with all people, free-handed and fond of pageantry, and altogether the idol of his nation, which received him with acclamations of joy. And not least exultant over his coming to power were the English hu- manistSk. For Henry had been brought into the circle of the new learning by his tutors, and was reputed to be fa- vorably inclined toward it. The chief English humanists have already been men- tioned. They were John Colet, Sir Thomas More, and finally Erasmus, who, because he lived a long time in England, may be associated with his English friends, al- though he was born at Rotterdam and found the chief field of his activity on the Continent. These men, with a number of others of the same free disposition, spread over England, by written and spoken word, the fervently ac- cepted gospel, partly original with them and partly bor- rowed from Italy, of the new classical learning. It in- 68 England Under the Tudors 69 eluded the communication of the spiritual philosophy of Plato and the plan of a reformed and simple Christian life, based on the teachings of the New Testament. Because the University of Oxford became a seat of humanistic in- fluence, the humanists are known generally in England as the Oxford reformers. The Oxford reformers, like Hutten and Reuchlin in Theaspira- Germany, performed the important service in England of humanists, clearing the way for the Reformation. The mediaeval darkness was, perhaps, thicker here than elsewhere, and therefore much greater efforts were required to clear the scholastic rubbish out of the schools, to direct theology away from profitless doctrinal discussions to the living sources of life flowing in the Bible, and to render men's minds capable of enjoying the beauties of the ancient liter- atures. Colet's attention was especially given to the crea- tion of a new boys' school. With his own fortune he founded the school of St. Paul's, where affectionate interest displaced the old magisterial brutality, and Greek and Latin literature, taught in a fresh way, crowded out the petrified studies of the schoolmen. St. Paul's school became the model for many new schools created in the following years/N Sir Thomas More was a member of Parliament, and Sir Thomas Moi pia. under Henry VIII. held several important positions in the ^°^^^ " ^^°' government. Dear as he held the reform of life and relig- ion, he was no less desirous of bringing about a reform of the state. In his famous book, '^ Utopia " (the Kingdom of Nowhere, 1516), he exhibits his view of a well-ordered society. It is not a serious charge against the work that it is impractical, since it does not pretend to anything more than the presentation of an ideal toward which govern- ment and society ought to advance. Justice, reason, intel- ligence, freedom, and equality are the pillars of More's visionary kingdom, and by exhibiting the delightfulness of 70 Modern Europe Breach be- tween Henry and the humanists. Henry's first war with France. a life established upon such a basis, he brought sharply to the mind of his contemporaries the shortcomings of the kingdoms of which they formed a part. The Utopia is a comprehensive, socialistic programme, dictated by a gen- erous love and pity of the poor and heavy-laden, and it is encouraging to observe that many of its demands ^ have been realized by the progress of centuries. Other and more fantastic demands form the substance of the platform of the socialists of to-day. The joy of the Oxford humanists over the accession of Henry was not destined to last long. Henry, indeed, distinguished the propagandists of the new learning by various honorary appointments ; but he soon showed that he did not take their principles of reform of Church and state seriously, and was clearly determined upon following the egotistical bent of his mind. Under the smooth exte- rior of the king there appeared, to the general surprise, a stubborn and brutal personality, which, as the years passed, fell more and more under the dominion of its passions. A very few years after Henry's accession, the humanists knew beyond doubt that they had been mistaken in their man. In 1512, Henry definitely abandoned the policy of peace, which had made his father strong and had filled the treasury, and without any real cause, for mere notoriety's sake, plunged into the Spanish-Frencli difficulties, which had broken out over the possession of Italy. He joined Spain and the Pope in the Holy League (15 12) which was directed against France, and while Louis XII. of France was engaged in Italy, Henry invaded his rival's territory » In Utopia education was general ; there were wise sanitary pro- visions and clean, broad streets ; criminals were treated with kindness and won back to order by affectionate instruction ; religious tolerance was established as a state maxim. More than this, there was in force a state of things which tallies largely with the expectations of our modern socialists. Something like their eight-hour labor law, for instance, was realized in Utopia. England Under the Tudor s Jl from Calais, then still an English possession. The only re- sult of these campaigns across the channel was a cheap vic- tory, known as the Battle of the Spurs (15 13). r—— - — -~^^ A more decisive advantage was gained in another direc- Flodden Field, tion. When the king of France found himself threat- -1,.._ ened by Henry, he revived the alliance with James IV., the king of Scotland, and while Henry was campaigning futilely in France, James crossed the Scottish border and pushed south. It was a moment of extreme danger for the English. But Catharine of Aragon, Henry's queen, who acted as regent in his absence, displayed an unusual activity, and at Flodden Field the army she had summoned signally defeated the Scots Qsjj)- King James and the flower of his nobility remained dead upon the field. ^ It was the last time the Scots seriously threatened the prestige of Eng- land. The favorite adviser of Henry at this period of his life Woisey, arch- was Thomas Woisey (1471-1530). Woisey was a mere Lord Chan- burgher's son, but having joined the clergy rose rapidly by ^^ii^^- virtue of his talents from post to post, until the king's fa- vor won for him the archbishopric of York, and at the same time raised him to the position of Lord Chancellor, the highest post in the civil administration of the realm (15 1 5). Thus Woisey became the king's second self. Unfortunately he was over-fond of power and its outward symbols, such as gorgeous palaces, trains of servants, and sumptuous feasts, and altogether his ambition and vanity outran his patriotism and intelligence. That such a king's adviser would not be a wholly reliable guide events proved. When with the year 151 7, Europe became agitated by Henry defends the question of the Reformation, it devolved on Henry to aglinst^^ adopt some definite attitude toward Luther's heresy. Henry Luther. ^The reader will perhaps remember that Scott's poem of Marmioa deals with this battle. *~""" ' """^ 72 Modern Europe was not untutored in theology. In fact, he prided himself upon being a master of all its intricacies, and his vanity prevented him from keeping his light concealed under a bushel. When Luther went so far as to attack the sacra- ments and the authority of the Pope, Henry published a vehement pamphlet against him (1521), whereupon the Pope, gratified at finding a champion among the roy- alty, conferred upon Henry the title of Defender of the ^ Faith. ^ But Henry had an ulterior object in defending the sovereignty of the Pope, more urgent than his love of the Head of the Church, more urgent even than his vanity. His attachment to the Pope was largely due to the peculiar circumstances of his marriage. Henry's Henry's marriage deserves close consideration. The marriage. reader will remember that Henry VH., in pursuance of his peace policy, had sought to associate himself with Spain. He calculated that England was threatened by France alone, and that Spain and England in alliance would render France harmless. Spain did not fail to see her own advantage in this policy of Henry, and finally Ferdinand of Spain and Henry VH. of England agreed to cement their interests by a matrimonial alliance. Accord- ingly the boy-prince of Wales, Arthur, was married to Catharine , daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella. But shortly after the ceremony Arthur died, and as the desire for the alliance continued as before, the idea naturally occurred to the families concerned to marry Arthur's widow to Arthur's surviving brother, Henry. However, an obstacle to this project was offered by a Church law, which forbade a man to marry his deceased brother's wife. In this dilemma, the then Pope, Julius II., granted a special dispensa- (■ > The sovereigns of England still bear this tftle despite subsequent events. It is an amusing stroke of historical irony,, that only a few years after a Pope had conferred this title, another Pope should have laid his anathema upon Henry, as the destroyer of the faith. England Under the Tudor s 73 tion, whereby the Church law was annulled for Catharine's and Henry's benefit. The way being thus cleared, the marriage actually took ^place immediately upon Henry's accession (1509). It will be easily understood that in the eyes of contemporaries the legality of Henry's marriage rested solely upon the Pope's special warrant. Now, if the Pope, as Luther affirmed, was an impostor and had no right to issue such a warrant, the law still held and the marriage was accordingly illegal. As at the time of Luther's first attacks upon the papal sovereignty Henry still loved his wife and wished to secure the succession to his children by her — although he had as yet but a single daughter, Mary — he was naturally alarmed when Luther ridiculed the claims of the man upon whose assumed power the legality of his marriage and of his daughter's right to the throne depended. ' Only a few years after Henry had thus ridden into the Henry desires lists, in behalf of the Papacy, there occurred an alteration in Henry's feelings which completely changed his attitude toward his marriage and toward the papal dispensation. Henry no longer loved his wife ; in her place he loved her young and charming maid of honor, Anne Boleyp; he had given up hope of having any more children by Catharine, and as he longed for a son who was likely to render the succession more secure than his^sickly daughter Mary could render it, he desired a new marriage ; and, finally, having fallen out with the Emperor Charles V. politically, he wished to break all the bonds — and there- fore also the marriage bond — which united him with the Spanish family. These reasons urged Henry to a divorce. A divorce The Pope re- in the Catholic Church is a matter of the greatest diffi- vorce. culty. But Henry's case seemed simple. The present Pope, Cjement__VII.^ would only have to withdraw Pope Juhus's marriage dispensation, which Henry in his change 74 Modern Europe of mind assumed to have been obtained by fraud, and everything would be satisfactory. The general regulations concerning a marriage between a brother-in-law and a sis- ter-in-law would immediately enter into force, and the royal marriage would, by that simple act, be rendered void. But supposing the Pope could not be brought to take Henry's point of view, would not Henry, who, by hook or by crook, wanted the divorce, and insisted on the fundamental illegality of his marriage, be pushed to take another stand ; would he not be urged to take back his own former invectives against Luther, and, together with the German heretic, insist that the Pope was a usurper and could not make that which the Bible ^ called wrong, right by his word ? Would not Henry, if balked in his plan of an amicable settlement of the divorce matter, be driven to adopt the alternative of violence ? And thus it came to pass. It will be remembered that in 1527 the troops of Charles V. sacked Rome. From this time on Pope Clement was delivered into the hands of Spain. Charles V. had only to forbid the grant of the divorce be- tween Henry and Catharine of Aragon, his aunt, and the Pope would have to obey. In the dilemma in which he found himself there was only one thing which Clement could do, and that was to put Henry off and let the mat- ter drag on. Henry allowed himself to be hoodwinked for a time, but in the end his patience gave out and he abruptly took matters into his own hands. The fall of Events now follow each other with confusing rapidity. Woisey. r^^^ ^^^^ .g ^^^ ^^jj ^^ Wolsey. Wolsey had engaged his credit to obtain the divorce. When he failed, the king dis- graced him. What had angered thq king especially was the > A text in Leviticus xviii. 16 seems to forbid marriage with a de- ceased brother's wife. The canonical prohibition drew its authority from the current reading of this text. England Under the Tudor s 75 fact that Wolsey, after having accepted the office of Papal legate, had, together with a legate of Italian birth, Campeg- gio, carried on in England a busy investigation of the di- vorce question, and then allowed the whole matter to end in nothing. An opportune death (1530) alone saved W.olsey from imprisonment in the Tower. ^ The king's mind was in turmoil and confusion till there Cromwell and arrived a man to steady and direct his will. This was with Rome. Thomas Cromwell, a former secretary of Wolsey's and a man of rude energy. He showed the king that the easiest way out of his difficulties was to follow the example of the princes of Germany, repudiate the Pope, make himself head of the National Church, and so have his divorce re- ferred to an ecclesiastical court dependent on himself. Cromwell undertook the direction of affairs. At a Con- vocation of the English clergy the payment to the Pope oi \hQ A Ji nates'^ was abolished (1532). That was tanta- mount to a declaration of war. Next Cranmer, a creature of Henry's and already half a Protestant, was appointed archbishop of Canterbury and primate of England (1533). Cranmer, at Henry's order, straightway pronounced the divorce, and shortly after, Anne Boleyn was publicly pro- claimed queen. Finally, in 1534, there was passed by Parliament the Act of Supremacy, which declared the king the Supreme Head of the Church of England. The schism was now complete. The papal excommunication which fell upon Henry's head was harmless thunder. Thus Henry, head of the state, became also head of the Church, or briefly, the English Pope. And never did a Pope at Rome try to carry out his will more high-handedly. ' Shakespeare (Henry VIII.) gives Wolsey's last authentic words al- most literally : " Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, He would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies." 2 The Annates were the first year's income of an ecclesiastical benefice, and the Annates of the bishoprics formed an important part of the Pope's revenue. !(> Modern Europe Death of Fish- er and More. The character of Henry's Protestantism. The suppres- sion of the monasteries, 1536. The enactments of the last year were immediately made a test of loyalty. Whoever pronounced an opinion against them was liable to a traitor's death. Bishop Fisher and Thomas More, the latter once Henry's friend and chan- cellor, and both friends of learning and righteous men, were among the first victims of the new policy. They paid for their unwillingness to recognize Henry as the Su- preme Head of the Church with their lives (1535). From the first, it was an interesting question how far Henry would depart from the accepted Catholic organi- zation, doctrines, and practices, and how far he would adopt the Protestant position. In his own heart he was as much a Catholic before as after the schism. The sole dis- tinction between Henry then and Henry now was, that he had taken, as regards England, the Pope's place. But to a certain extent he could not fail to be influenced by the Protestant Reformation, especially as long as his most trusted counsellor was Cromwell, who was secretly a Lu- theran. A number of innovatTons were therefore gradually admitted. The English Bible was put into every church. The doctrines concerning Purgatory, Indulgences, and Masses for the Dead were condemned. Pilgrimages were forbidden, miraculous images were destroyed. But the most incisive innovation, was the adoption, by the advice of Cromwell, of the suppression of the monasteries (1536). About 1,200 monasteries existed at this time in Eng- land. Their wealth was great, especially in land. With- out any doubt the king's greed, seconded by that of his nobles, urged him to accept toward them Cromwell's policy of suppression. But their suppression under any cond|tio_n may fairly be called a blessing. They certainly did not do good in proportion to their cost, and their very prin- ciple was opposed to the modern spirit, which demands that every man make himself of some practical use in the England Under the Tudors yy world. Nevertheless the recognition of this fact should not hinder us from condemning the exaggerated stories of the bestiality and iniquity of the monks and nuns, which Cromwell's agents embodied for their own political ends in their report to Parliament, called the Black Book. The monasteries, first the smaller, then the larger, were sup- pressed. Their immense wealth bepame the property of the king, who although he used it in part for the establish- ment of the new Church and in part for schools, lavishly distributed the largest share among the gentry in order to attach them to his party. ^ In recognition of these benefits the landed gentry became the sovereign's surest support in carrying out his ecclesiastical policy. Though the mass of the English people were hostile to The king es- the claims of the Pope and gladly accepted the Act of Su- half-way^ ^ premacy, they were, like Henry himself. Catholic in feeling Church, and disapproved of Cromwell's Protestant innovations. Revolts breaking out, here and there, especially a revolt in the north, called the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536), made the king aware that he had gone as far as was wise. From policy, as well as from conviction, he refused to make further concessions. Terrified by the confusion of opinion about him, he even fell victim to a partial reaction. In 1539 he ordered Parliament to pass ''an act for the abo- lition of the diversity of opinions," which is known as the Six Articles, or vulgarly as the Whip with Six Cords. The Six Articles were intended as a confession of faith of the new Henrian Church. Their spirit was Catholic ; they upheld, for instance, celibacy of the clergy, auricular con- fession, and transubstantiation ; all diversity of opinion was punishable with death. Under the reign of the Six ^The present nobility of England is, in part, the creation of Henry VIII. The seat of _ many_a noble Jiouse is an ancient_abbey. Lord Byron's seat, for Instance, was N'ewstead'Abbey. 78 Modern Europe Articles a persecution broke out, which struck Cathohcs and Protestants alike. The citizens who wished to live in peace, had to travel docilely the path, half way between Catholicism and Protestantism, which the king was pleased to designate as orthodox. One of the first victims of this partial reaction was Thomas Cromwell. That he had helped the king to his position of ecclesiastical supremacy could not save him. < In 1540, he was arrested and exe- cuted. His unprofit- Henry's foreign policy was throughout his reign confus- poHcy?'^^'^" ing and uninteresting. The important poHtical matter of the time was the rivalry between France and Spain, the respective sovereigns of which were Francis I. and Charles V. Henry's alliance was solicited by both monarchs, and as his interests were not directly involved, Henry was satis- fied to follow the man who offered the greater bribe. There- fore he was sometimes on Charles's side, sometimes on that of Francis, campaigned much and spent much money ; but in the end he gained nothing. His six mar- A personal page in Henry's history demands at least nages. passing recognition. It presents the story of his marriages. His native vulgarity and repulsive animalism exhibit them- selves here without relief. We have already followed the tragedy of Catharine of Aragon to the coronation of Anne Boleyn. AnneBoleyn gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth, and soon afterward was executed (1536). The next wife was Jane Seymour, who died a natural death, leaving a s on Edward. The fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, did not suit ^ Henry at all, and was hardly married when she was di- j\^ vorced (1540). As the fifth wife, Catharfne Howard, ' J* proved untrue, she was beheaded (1542), an3 so room was j^ ' made for a sixth, Catharine Parr, who, although occasion- ally in imminent danger, managed, by submission, to out- live the royal bluebeard. Engla7id Under the Tudors 79 Henry died in 1547. By the law of succession which The law of he estabhshed, the crown was to pass first to his son Ed- ward and Edward's heirs , then to his daughter Mary^ and her heirs, and finally to his daughter Elizabeth and her heirs. This law was just, and satisfied the Parliament and the people. Henry's character is sufficiently illuminated by the events Henry's merit which have been narrated in the foregoing pages. He was reformerf ^^^^ a man of brute energy, who recognized only the law of his own pleasure. His father had made the monarchy prac- tically absolute, and so the Parliament, instead of proving a barrier to his arbitrariness, was a servile instrument in his hands, which docilely recorded his will. English re- ligious independence, the crowning work of his reign, is, therefore, Henry's personal act ; not the Parliament's, nor the people's. Nevertheless, if, in the course of history, the Anghcan Church, which has developed from Henry's Act of Supremacy, has proved a benefit, the English people owe small thanks to Henry. Rather than to Henry, they owe the Anglican Church, in the form in which they know it, to Ehzabeth and to the band of devoted reformers who, under her general direction, gave it its moral earnestness and its high purpose. Edward VI., iS 47-53- As Edward VI. was but nine years old when his father Somerset lay at the point of death, Henry provided, during his son's Protecfor. minority, a council of regency, at the head of which he put Edward's maternal uncle, the duke of Somerset. Somerset, however, disregarding Henry's will, abolished the council and made himself sole regent, with the title of 1 The ingenuous reader will feel surprise at Henry's recognition of Mary as his legitimate child. It is a piece of frank inconsistency and severely impugns Henry's sincerity in the matter of the divorce. 8o Modern Europe The Protest- antism of Edward's reign. Permanent contributions of Edward's reign to the English Church. Protector. To this act the Parhament, accustomed to obedience, offered no objections. The obedience of Parhament soon stood a much harder test. For Somerset, supported by Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury, resolved to carry out a thorough Protestant reform. These two men abruptly determined that the Henrian Church, which was neither Protestant nor Catho- lic, should be remodelled after the faith of Calvin. Anglican historians are accustomed to speak of this period as " the Protestant misrule." Pictures and altars were swept out of the churclies, the rich vestments and the sacred processions were abandoned ; in a word, the Church was robbed of its elaborate Catholic character, and was made plain and Protestant. Moreover, the tendency of conti-. nental Protestantism toward the national idiom was fol- lowed, and the dead Latin of the service was replaced by the living English. In pursuance of this last laudable enactment, and to make possible the conduct of an English service, Cranmer issued, in 1548, the English Book of Common Prayer. Further, since the clergy was no longer to form a separate class outside of the nation, an order was published by which the principle of celibacy was, -Sban- doned. The inner change from Catholic to Protestant doctrine was no less complete than the above outward changes. In 1552, there was published and enforced throughout the kingdom, a new Confession of Faith, which is known as the Forty-two Articles of Religion, and which is saturated, through and through, with the Calvinistic spirit. These Forty-two Articles, reduced under Elizabeth to Thirty- nine, and somewhat tempered in tone, were saved, to- gether with the Book of Common Prayer, from the wreck of Edward's time, and became and have remained the two main pillars of the English Church. England Under the Tudor s 8i The Protestant government of Edward was no less intol- Religious per erant than the government of his father. Tolerance was as yet abhorred by all parties in England and on the Con- tinent as a weakness. Therefore, all who departed from the forms prescribed in the Prayer Book were perse- cuted, and a number of victims were even burned at the stake. The Protector Somerset, however, did not live to com- Northumber- plete the establishment of the Protestant Church. Dis- the regency, content was rife everywhere at his inconsiderate manner and his revolutionary programme, and in 1549 he fell a vic- tim to a plot of the nobles, and was beheaded. Although he was succeeded in power by his political opponent, the duke of Northumberland, the new regent substantially adopted Somerset's radically Protestant policy. Even had Northumberland been willing to make con- The precocity cessions to the Catholic party, he would have been hin- — *- dered by the will of the young king. Edward VI. was, as is frequently the case with invalid children, a boy of re- markable precocity. His uncle Somerset had given him a severe Protestant training, and he pored over the Script- ures with the fervor of a Calvinistic preacher. When he was twelve years old, the German reformer, Bucer, wrote of him : *' No study enjoys his favor as much as the Bible." His favorite diversion was a theological discussion, and out of his journal, which has come down to us, there looms a countenance bare of every boyish grace, and a mind which anticipates the Puritan of a generation yet un- born. Such a boy was only too likely to exhaust in a very few Edward years his low measure of vitality. Early in 1553, Northum- Jawof^^ berland perceived that Edward was dying. By law, the succession, succession would now fall to Mary, who, like her Spanish mother, Catharine, was a devoted Catholic. Northumber- 82 Modern Europe land and his friends had everything to fear from her, and in order to secure himself and them, he played upon the young king's Protestant conscience with such skill that he wrung from him at last a new law of succession. By this Edward excluded his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, from the throne, and bestowed the crown upon a great-granddaughter of Henry VII., the Lady Jane Grey. ^ The calculating Northumberland, however, had previously married Lady Jane Grey to one of his own sons, Guilford Dudley. Thus he hoped to perpetuate his power. Soon after signing the new law of succession, Edward died, July, 1553. Mary, ISSJS^- Mary hailed as Edward had hardly expired when Northumberland pro- sovereign, claimed Lady Jane Grey. But if he had any hope of carrying his candidate he was soon disillusioned. The mass of the people saw through his despicable intrigue and rallied around Mary, their legitimate sovereign. They hailed Mary gladly, because not only their sense of justice, but also their dearest hopes, designated her as their queen. For the majority of the people were still Catholic, and the radical Protestantism of Edward and Northumberland had aroused their animosity. From Mary they expected the return of the Mass and of the ancient Catholic practices from which they"were not yet weaned in their hearts. The Lady The Lady Jane Grey Was, in consequence of this un- jane Grey. hesitating devotion of the English people to their rightful » Genealogy of Lady Jane Grey. Henry VIL r«^ Henry VIIL Margaret. Mary = Duke of Suffolk. Frances = Henry Grey. Jane Grey. England Under the Tudor s 83 sovereign, crowned only to be deposed again. North- umberland justly paid for his ambition with his head. Un- fortunately, Lady Jane Grey, who was utterly innocent of the plot to depose Queen Mary, and who had accepted the crown from her father-in-law almost against her will, paid the same penalty. The gentle and refined young girl, the nine days' queen, has always excited a pathetic interest. The great public stage on which she died was not her choice; a quiet country seat, where her bright nature might have shone among a circle of friends and scholars, would have suited her better. Therefore she called the day on which she gave back her crown to the commission- ers who arrested her the happiest day of her life. It is certain that if Mary had adopted a moderate Mary plans a Catholic policy and taken her stand upon the platform of restoration.^ her father, Henry, her reign would have met the wishes of her people. But Mary had nothing about her suggesting compromise. Her Spanish blood called upon her to be faithful, above all things, to her faith. She, therefore, planned nothing less than a return of England to the Pope's fold — a full Catholic restoration. And that was a delusion. For, however the English people were attached to Catholic practices, the Act of Supremacy, proclaiming the English independence of Rome, had the full consent of the nation. The very first acts of Mary's reign left no doubt about her The Act of policy. The Parliament, always obedient to a word from abolished!^ the throne, straightway abolished all the acts which had been voted under Edward, reestablished the old faith, and forbade the new. When the married clergymen had been expelled and the old liturgy been reintroduced, the last measure necessary for the undoing of the work of the past years could be undertaken. In November, 1554, there arrived in London Cardinal Pole, the legate of the Pope, 84 Modern Europe Mary marries Philip. The Protest- ant martyrs. and the Parliament having abolished the Act of Supremacy of 1534, the English nation was solemnly received back by Pole into the bosom of Mother Church. The honest Catholic zeal of Mary labored even for a restoration of the dissolved monasteries, but here the Parliament, which was made up largely of landholders who had benefited by the secularization, showed itself intractable. If the ultra-Catholic policy of Mary alienated popular sympathies, she actually undermined her own throne when she so far disregarded the national prejudices of her people as to seek the alliance of Catholic Spain by offering her hand to Philip, son and heir of Charles V. The marriage with Philip was celebrated in 1554, and brought with it, as was expected from the Spanish husband's well-known intolerance, a sharper pursuance of Catholic aims. In fact, the religious persecutions which gave the finish- ing stroke to Mary's dying popularity and won for her from a Protestant posterity the terrible title of '' Bloody Mary," may be dated from the time of her marriage with Philip. Soon the prisons were filled with those who had stood in the foreground in Edward's time, and gradually the fires of persecution were lighted over the realm. It is the period of the Protestant martyrs. Sixty-five died by the fagot in the year 1555, seventy in 1556. Their stanch- ness in death did more toward establishing Protestantism in England than the doctrinal fervor of an army of Calvin- istic preachers could have done. It was even as Bishop Latimer said to Bishop Ridley at the stake : '' Master Rid- ley, play the man ; we shall this day, by God's grace, light such a candle in England, as I trust shall never be put out." For the stout part they played, Latimer and Ridley head the Protestant martyrology. But the persecu- tion struck a more prominent, if not a more noble victim than these, in the person of the deposed archbishop of England Under the Tudor s 85 Canterbury. This was the celebrated Cranmer, who had served under two kings. Cranmer, who had always shown a subservient spirit, flinched when the trial came and denied his faith. But in the face of death his courage came back to him. He thrust his right hand into the flame, and steadying it there, said, resolutely : '' This is the hand that wrote the recantation, therefore it first shall suffer punishment." If Edward's radical Protestantism made his reign de- The loss of tested, Mary's radical Catholicism produced the same re- sult. The hatred of her subjects soon pursued her even . into her palace. She was a quiet, tender woman whose intolerance was more the crime of the age than her own, and the harvest of aversion which was springing up about her was more than she could bear. Besides, her marriage was unfortunate. She loved Philip, but Philip cared noth- ing for her, and did not even trouble to hide his indifference to the sickly and ill-favored woman, twelve years older than himself. To crown her misfortunes, she allowed her Span- ish husband to draw her into a war with France, in which Philip won all the honor and Mary suffered all the dis- grace, by the loss of the last point which remained to Eng- land from her former possessions in France, Calais (1558). Doubtless the loss of Calais was for England a benefit in disguise ; she was thereby cut off from the Continent and directed to her true sphere, the sea. But to the living generation of P^nglishmen the capture seemed an insuffer- able dishonor. No one felt it more keenly than Mary. "When I die," she is reported to have said shortly be- fore her death (November, i^^8), '' Calais will be found written on my heart." 86 Modern Europe Elizabeth, i^^8-i6oj. The glorious Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn's daughter and Mary's younger reicTfi of Queen Eliza- half-sister, Succeeded to the throne on Mary's death. ^^ ■ EHzabeth's reign proved to be the r3[lost_glorious of any which England has ever had. Under her, Protestantism was firmly established in England ; the great Catholic sea- power, Spain, was challenged and defeated; and English life flowered in the poetry of Shakespeare and his con- temporaries more exuberantly and more exquisitely than ever before or since. To the national greatness, to which England suddenly raised herself in the sixteenth century, Elizabeth has lent her name. She appeared to the English people, and still appears, mirrored in a great time, and their generous loyalty, which gave her in her life-time the title of Good Queen Bess, has also encouraged them in the view that she was the fountain and the summary of all the virtues which throve in her day. Modern historians have scattered this delusion. They have separated the woman from her time, and it is a very different Elizabeth who ap- pears to the eye, now that the curtain of the myths which concealed her from view has been withdrawn. Elizabeth as a Elizabeth had few or none of the graces of womanhood and many or all of its weaknesses. Her vanity was excessive. Although a very plain-featured woman, she looked upon herself as a beauty of a particularly rare type. Gowns and jewelry were her passion. She could not live without flattery and flirtations, and fatuously accepting the com- pliments of the courtiers for true coin, allowed herself to be persuaded to dance and sing in her maladroit manner, before a brilliant court of gentlemen and ladies, who could hardly hide their amusement behind their handkerchiefs. Her manners were rude, especially at the council board, and her ministers were frequently annihilated by language woman. England Under the Tudors 87 which would have done honor to the camp and the fish- market. If Elizabeth was without the virtues which are specif- Elizabeth as a ically feminine, she certainly possessed what are generally ^ ^ ^sman. known as masculine talents. She had the sense of her selfish interest, an inflexible will, and an exceptional intelligence. Thus her hand firmly grasped the rudder, and the English bark travelled under her guidance straight for the goal. But the quality by which she rendered England perhaps her best service, her own age, if her contemporaries had been more clearly informed about it, would have been quick to call a sin. Elizabeth was lukewarm about matters of Elizabeth's faith, a sort of pagan. However such want of conviction ^^ '^^°"* be regarded in the case of a private individual, in the England of that day, shaken by religious passions, the sov- ereign's indifference was an undisguised blessing to the commonwealth. By reason of it, Elizabeth was delivered from the destructive religious radicalism of both Edward and Mary, and being relatively disinterested, was peculiarly fitted to play her royal part of mediator between antago- nistic faiths. In connection with Elizabeth's semi -pagan ism, it is necessary to remember that the sixteenth century was the century not only of the Reformation, but also of the Renaissance. Elizabeth had been brought up to read Latin and Greek, and was not unacquainted with the lan- guages and the literatures of the continent. Like the poets and dramatists of her time, she gave heed more to the voices coming from Italy than to the message of Luther and Calvin. The chief organ of Elizabeth's government was the The Privy Privy Council, a sort of cabinet, the advice of which ^^""^^^•. Elizabeth regularly heard before she arrived at a decision. In this body was gathered the best political talent which the country afforded. It is no small credit to Elizabeth to 88 Modern Europe The position of Parliament. Elizabeth re- turns to the religious pol- icy' of Tier r Jather. The Acts of Supremacy and Uniform- ity. have exhibited such discernment in the choice of her min- isters. Most prominent among them was William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who devoted a life of exemplary unselfish- ness to the advancement of English Protestantism and of the English sea-power. If Elizabeth was willing to consult in her affairs the Privy Council, which was a body of her own appointment, she was not inclined to grant any political influence to Parliament, which was elected by the people. Parliament remained, therefore, what it had been under the other Tudors, an obedient recorder of the royal will.. Thus the sovereignty of England was practically concentrated in Elizabeth's hands. The first question of Elizabeth's reign was the question of the Reformation. Edward had followed a policy of radical Protestantism and had failed ; Mary had followed a policy of radical Catholicism and had failed ; after these two experiments it was plain that extremes would have to be abandoned. Elizabeth, therefore, returned deliberately to the moderate policy of her father. In 1559 Parliament laid the foundations of the Anglican Church, as they stand to tHis day, by the Acts of Suprem- acy and Uniformity. By the Act of Supremacy the inde- pendence of England from Rome was again proclaimed and Elizabeth declared the highest spiritual authority, as she was the highest civil authority in the realm ; and by the Act of Uniformity, the clergy were forbidden, under heavy penalties, to depart from the beliefs and service which are laid down in the Forty-two Articles (soon re- duced to Thirty-nine) and the Book of Common Prayer of Edward's time. The Anglican Church thus established (also called the Episcopal Church, because of its government by bishops) may be described as a Protestant Church with a Catholic hierarchy. England Under the Tudors 89 Elizabeth's policy of a moderate Protestantism conformed The English to the wishes of the majority of the English people. In consequence the feeling of uncertainty, occasioned by the rapid changes of the previous reigns, was soon replaced by a merited confidence. Slowly Protestantism won its way into the hearts of the English people and crowded out the mediaeval faith. But for a long time the Catholic party was still a considerable factor in English life. Elizabeth could never afford to leave it out of her calculations. However, she was not, strictly speaking, a persecutor. Freedom of worship she would /not suffer. The Catholics had to bow to the Act of Uniformity, and worship in the national Church; but if they did not engage in poHtical conspiracies, they were in general not m®lested.^ In the proportion in which the Catholics decreased in Puritans number and importance, another party, as ill-disposed in separatists. its own way to the Anglican Church as the Catholics were in theirs, increased. This was the party of the Prot- estant radicals, who were not satisfied with Elizabeth's half-measures, and clamored for a thorough-going Protes- > tant organization. The Non-conformists, as these Protes- tants were called, soon split into two parties, Puritans and Separatists. The Puritans were moderate opponents, who did not sever their connection with the Anglican Church, because they hoped to win it over to their programme- Their name was originally a ni(^-name, given them by their Anglican adversaries in consequence of their demand for what they called a purer worship. This purer worship aimed at stripping the Anglican Church of many of the Catholic practices which had '•been retained, such as genu- flections, wearing the surplice, and decorating the altar. ^ , \ * The number of Catholics executed under Elizabeth reached the con- siderable figure of one hundred and eighty-seven. But, as stated above, they were executed mostly for political reasons, 90 Modern Europe The coming struggle be- tween Prot- estantism and Catholicism. The affairs of Scotland. The Separatists (also called Brownists after their founder, Robert Brown) were radicals, who knew no compromise. The Established Church was to them no better than the Roman Church, and they refused to attend it. On being persecuted under the Act of Uniformity, many took refuge on the Continent, and it was from among these fugitive Protestants that came, in a later reign, the pioneers of the new world, the Pilgrim Fathers. When Elizabeth ascended the throne it was not known what religious policy she would pursue. Philip of Spain was, therefore, very friendly to her, and even offered her his hand in marriage. But as her Protestant policy developed, a natural coolness followed between England, on the one hand, and Spain, supported by Catholic Europe, on the other. This coolness assumed a definite form of enmity when the Pope issued, in 1570 , a bull of excommunica- tion against the queen. EnglSid, more and more, almost unconsciously assumed the leadership of the Protestant worM, and since the Catholic reaction was growing more ambitious every day, it was plain that a great world-struggle between Protestantism and Catholicism, conducted chiefly by their respective champions, England and Spain, could not be long put off. Every event in Elizabeth's reign contributed to precipi- tate the struggle ; notably the queen's relations with Scot- land and Scotland's sovereign, Mary Stuart. Scotland had been England's foe for centuries, and the bitterness between the two kingdoms was probably never fiercer than at this time. Henry VII. had wisely attempted to es- tablish a greater harmony between the royal houses by mar- rying his daughter Margaret to James IV. But war was not thereby averted. James IV. and James V. both sym- pathized with France and both perished in the struggle against England, the latter (1542) when his only heir and England Under the Tudor s 91 "ta-T^ successor, Mary, was but a few weeks old. Mary Stuart's descent from Henry VII. and the prospective failure of Henry VIII. 's direct descendants, opened for the child the prospect of the English succession. On the death of Mary Tudor (1558), there was, with the exception of Elizabeth, no other descendant of Henry VII. alive, as prominent as she. To the Catholics, moreover, who saw in the daugh- ter of Anne Boleyn merely an illegitimate child, she had even a better claim than Elizabeth. Out of this relation of the two women to the English throne, sprang their intense hatred of each other, and the long and bloody drama of their jealousy, ending in Mary's death upon the scaffold. When Mary succeeded to the throne of Scotland, she was, Mary sent to as has been said, a child in arms. Her mother, another Mary, of the French family of Guise, assumed the regency, and in order to withdraw her child from possible English influences, sent her over to France, where she was soon be- trothed to the heir of the throne, the dauphin.^ Thus the interests of France and Scotland were newly knit, to the detriment of England, Mary of Guise soon met with great difficulties in Scot- The Protestant land. Toward the middle of the century the voices of the in Scotland. Reformation began to be heard in the land. Conversions grew apace, and soon the struggle between the old and the new faiths was engaged here as everywhere. But nowhere was it so brief and nowhere was the victory of the new teachings so decisive. Scotland was still a backward, feu- dal land, where the chief power rested with a lawless nobil- ity. The clergy, too, had considerable wealth and power, but their religious indifference and luxurious living had weaned from them the affections of the people. By the ^ The heir to the French throne received the title of dauphin in the Middle Age. The title is derived from the province of Dauphiny. In the same manner, the oldest son of the English king received the title of prince of Wales. 92 Modern Europe Establishment of the Kirk of Scotland, 1560. Mary Stuart returns to Scotland. operation of this circumstance the hold of the Catholic Church on Scotland had become so slight that the fiery ^ Calvinistic preachers, among whom John Knox_(i 505-72) occupies the first place, had only to proclaim the new faith, to have it accepted by the people. When the nobility, lured by the prospect of the rich Church lands, threw in their lot with the preachers, the political success of the Reformation in Scotland was assured. There was no hope for the regent Mary against the re- formers but in the French alliance. French troops were accordingly sent to aid her against her rebellious and hereti- cal subjects, and these were in possession of a number of important places and on the road to repressing the Protes- tant movement altogether, when Elizabeth ascended the throne. The wisdom of aiding the Scotch Protestants being obvious, Elizabeth immediately hurried men and ships to ihe north. These forces succeeded without difficulty in bringing the French to terms, and by the treaty of Edinburgh (1560) the latter agreed to abandon Scotland. As the regent died about the time that the French embarked for home, and as Queen Mary was still in France, the Protestant lords sud- denly found themselves masters of the situation. In a Par- liament composed of the friends of Knox, they established the new Church of Scotland, the Presbyterian Kirk (1560). It is not recorded with what feelings the absent queen heard of these occurrences. Her prospects at the time were so extraordinarily brilliant, that the doings of rude, nebulous Scotland probably affected her little. Her husband, Francis II., had lately become king of France, and ever since the death of Mary Tudor (1558) she and her husband had as- sumed the style of king and queen of England. But a quick succession of misfortunes greatly altered her circum- stances. Francis II. died in the year 1560, and about the same time Elizabeth secured her hold upon England- Scot- England Under the Tudors 93 land was now all that was left to Mary, and with a sudden assumption of energy, she hurried to her native country (1561). When Mary landed at Leith, she was only nineteen The situation years old. French life and training had made her a stran- '" '^^ ^" * ger in her own land. She was not skilled in Scotch affairs, and was confronted by a nobility which held the political power and had little respect for the sovereign. Worst of all, she, the Catholic, was divided by the abyss which in those days separated Protestantism and Catholicism, from the hearts of her subjects. It is necessary to realize these elements of the situation in approaching the problem of her rule ; but it is also necessary to have a view of her character, in order to understand how she affected and was in turn, affected by the situation. Mary was endowed by nature with admirable gifts. The character Grace of figure and grace of spirit were added to a nimble ° ^^^' wit and a keen intelligence. The chance that tossed her to France, furnished her with a rare opportunity for devel- opment. The court of the Valois had become the home of all the exquisite influences of the Renaissance, and the people she met there, the very air she imbibed, breathed joy and art. She soon became the ruling genius of a bright circle, and the hours revolved for her amidst dancing, music, and poetry. Her contemporaries never tired of praising her beauty; but better than formal beauty she possessed spiritual fascination, and could by the aid of it evoke that boundless loyalty which raises partisans for her even in our day. Thus endowed she was called to be a great queen, on one condition: she must subordinate her passions to her task of sovereign. But here it was that she failed. Her cousin Elizabeth, who did not fail in this particular, proved herself thereby, if not the better woman, at least, the greater queen. Comparing the two 94 Modern Europe sovereigns, who inevitably force a comparison upon us, standing as they do in history, flashing challenge at each other, there is no better summary of the contrast which they present than the familiar judgment :( Elizabeth was first statesman and then woman, Mary was first woman and then statesman.^ Mary marries Mary began well enough. She accepted the Presbyte- arn ey. ^.^^ Kirk and only reserved to herself the right of Catholic worship. For four years Scotland enjoyed peace. But in the year 1565, Mary married her cousin. Lord Darnley, and by that event she and all Scotland were plunged into troubles involving a succession of climaxes, unique in his- tory. The murder of Lord Darnley turned out to be proud, loutish, and dis- Darnfey. solute. Hardly married, he became the tool of the party of nobles opposed to Mary. They represented to him that if he did not enjoy full authority with the queen, it was due to one of Mary's foreign secretaries, an Italian, David Rizzio. Darnley, egged on by the nobles, resolved to have ven- geance. Together with some followers,- he fell upon Riz- zio, dragged him from the royal presence chamber, and ^ despatched him at Mary's door (1566). Much of what followed is uncertain. Certain it is that Mary's love for her husband was henceforth turned to poisonous hate. She planned revenge. For the present, Darnley and his party held the reins in their hands and she was forced to resort to dissimulation. By cleverly feigning affection, she brought her husband to his knees before her, separated him from her enemies, and quickly reacquired control. In February, 1567, the house where Darnley was living just outside the walls of Edinburgh was shattered by an explosion of gunpowder, and Darnley was found dead the next morning. Report fixed upon the earl of Bothwell, a dare-devil cavaHer, who was known to be in love with England Under the Tudor s 95 the queen, as the murderer. Was the queen his accom- pHce? The question has been put but never answered satisfactorily. By what followed the murder, however, she has compromised her good name beyond help. Not only did she permit Bothwell's trial for the murder of Darnley to degenerate into a mere farce, but shortly after his ac- quittal she married him. ( ' ' It was always maintained by Mary, that in marrying Bothwell she had not consulted her free will, but had yielded to violence. But her subjects, horrified at her con- duct, refused to believe her. They revolted against her, and although, with rare courage, she rallied again and again from defeat, by the year 1568 she found herself with- out further resources. Despairing of success, she sought Mary flees ta refuge in England. She would have done better to have "^ ^" ' sought it in the sea. She became Elizabeth's prisoner, and won her release only, after nineteen years, by laying her head upon the block. The government of Scotland was intrusted, on Mary's flight, to Mary's half-brother. Lord Murray, who assumed the regency in behalf of her infant son, Janies. It is not difficult to explain the policy which Elizabeth The expiana- adopted toward her royal cousin. It was dictated chiefly abeth's atti- ^^ by considerations of state. Looking out from London j"^^ toward over Europe the queen beheld a perplexing situation. She saw Philip II. in arms against the Protestant Netherlands (Alva and the Council of Blood, 1567), and the king of France preparing to make an end of the Huguenots (Mas- sacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572) ; she heard of constant plots on the part of her own Catholic subjects to raise Mary to the throne ; and she saw, in general, a threaten- ing concentration of the whole Catholic world for a su- preme blow against the Protestant heresy. The Catholic reaction organized by the Council of 96 Modern Europe Execution of Mary. Trent, which had just come to a close (1563), was now ripening to a climax. In the degree in which it matured, War between the Struggle between England and Spain was becoming in- England. evitable. Luckily at the approach of the great crisis the teni- per of Englishmen was hardening to steel. In the conscious- ness of their power, they even invited the threatening storm ; Sir Francis Drake and a dozen other freebooters fell upon the Spaniards wherever they found them, plundered them on the seas, and slaughtered them in their settlements. While Philip and Elizabeth were still protesting friendship in of- ficial potes, their subjects had already engaged in combat on their own account. Elizabeth's aid to the revolted Netherlands finally made an end of Philip's patience. He prepared against England an unexampled armament. It was the rumor of Philip's invasion of England, coup- led with the renewed activity of the Catholic supporters of Mary, that cost the unfortunate queen of Scots her life. Probably it had little value to her and death was not un- welcome. She had grown old and gray behind prison walls ; she knew herself beaten. Lord Burghley pretended to believe that Mary was a party to a conspiracy which a man by the name of Babington had directed against the life of Elizabeth, and persuaded the queen, who hypocrit- ically feigned reluctance, to sign her cousin's death-warrant. In February, 1587, Mary was executed at Fotheringay. The next year the war between Spain and England came to a head. Philip, having at length got together one hun- dred and thirty-two ships, proudly called his Invincible Armada, despatched them toward the English coasts. The plan was that the Armada should sail first to the Nether- lands, and by putting itself at the disposal of the duke of Parma, who commanded the Spanish troops in this part of the world, should enable that great captain to effect a land- ing in England. The island-realm was thoroughly alive to The English prepare to meet the Ar- mada. England Under the Tudors 97 its danger. In the face of the foreign invader, all relig- ious differences were forgotten and replaced by a flaming national enthusiasm uniting all parties. In fact, the Ar- mada may be called the death-blow of English Catholicjsm ; for from now on, to be a Catholic meant to be a friend of the tyrant Philip, and no true Enghshman would suffer the imputation of such dishonor. An army and a navy, filled with the spirit which is ready to do and die, were put at Elizabeth's disposal. But the main burden of defence fell necessarily upon the seamen. With such leaders as Lord Howard, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Martin Fro- bisher, many of whom had spent a life-time fighting the Spaniards on all known seas, the Englisb were not likely to fail for want of bravery and skill. Nor were they likely to fail for want of the material means of protection. They mus- tered even more ships than the Spaniards, finally no less than one hundred and ninety-seven. Though these ships were The defeat of no match in size for the Spanish galleons, by their speed, * ^ ^"^^ ^ their excellent equipment, and the perfect seamanship of their sailors they more than made up the difference in bulk. The Spanish fleet had hardly appeared, toward the end of July, 1588, off the west coast of England, before the small and rapid English vessels darted in upon their rear and flank. The damage which was done the Spaniards during a passage of the Channel lasting eight days, forced them to harbor off Calais for repairs. Here a number of fire-ships sent among them discomfited them so completely that the admiral gave up the enterprise. Finding the Channel blocked behind him, he tried to make for home by the coast of Scotland. But there he fell victim to the equinoc- tial storms, which proved to be even more terrible enemies than the English. The Spanish ships were shattered miser- ably upon the rocks, and only the barest remnant ever re- turned to Cadiz to tell the tale of the disaster. 98 Modern Eur op i The meaning of the English victory. Elizabeth's last years. England adopts the sea. England was safe; and more than England, the cause of Protestantism in the Netherlands and the world oyer. Spain and the Catholic reaction had staked their all upon the success of the Armada ; having lost, their aggressive- ness received an effective check. As for Elizabeth, the coming of the Spanish Armada was the climax of her brilliant reign. Henceforth her people identified her with the national triumph and worshipped her as the very spirit of England. But her private life slowly entered into eclipse. She was old, childless, and lonely. Her last sincere attachment, of which the earl of Essex was the object, brought her nothing but sorrow. Essex had been put at the head of an army destined to subdue Ireland, which was just then agitated by the fa- mous rising of O'Neil ; but as he flagrantly mismanaged his campaign he had to be dismissed in disgrace. Full of resentment against Elizabeth, he now engaged in a treason- able plot, but was discovered and executed (1601). It is hard to believe that the woman who all her life looked upon love and courtship as a pleasant recreation, should have really cared for the amiable earl ; certain it is, how- ever, that she went into a decline soon after his execution and died disgusted with the world ( 16 03). Most wonderful to consider remams England's varied progress during this reign. In fact, the reign became the starting-point of a new development. For the first time Englishmen grew aware that their true realm was the sea. The great sailors like Drake, Davis, and Frobisher voyaged to the remotest lands, and though they established no colo- nies, and though such attempts as were made by Sir Walter Raleigh, for instance, in Virginia, turned out to be prema- ture, the idea of a colonial empire in the future was im- planted in the minds of Englishmen ; and for the present, there were established lucrative commercial relations with England Under the Tudors 99 various parts of the world. Before the death of Elizabeth, England, which had theretofore allowed Spain a monopoly of the sea, had fairly entered upon the path of oceanic ex- pansion. The spread of the Anglo-Saxon race, one of the "most significant events of Modern History, may therefore be dated from the time of Good Queen Bess. With the increase of commerce, there came an increase of The expan- industry and wealth and a more elevated plane of living, which showed itself in a greater luxury of dress, in a court- lier society, and in the freer patronage of the theatre and the arts. Altogether England was new-made. The Italian Renaissance poured out its cornucopia of gifts upon her, and there followed such an energy of existence and expan- sion of the intellectual Hfe of man as make this period one of the great culture-epochs of history. The Englishman of Elizabeth's time broke away from thenarrowing mediaeval traditions and became, like the Italian of the previous gen- eration^ entranced by the beauty of the world which spread out before him, waiting only to be conquered. , It is this kind of man, exuberantly happy in the possession^ of him- self and his environment, who produces a great art.) The great art by which Englishmen expressed their sense Shakespeare of this fresh and delightful cont emporary life is the dram a. ^" .^^^'^' Christopher Marlowe (d. 1593), Ben Jonson (d. 1637), but especially William Shakespeare (d. 16 16) are its great luminaries. But the other fields of art and science were not left uncultivated. Edmund Spenser (d. 1599) wrote the great epic poem of the English tongue, the Faerie Queen, and Francis Bacon (d. 1626), the philosopher, re- volutionized science by abandoning the dead mediaeval methods and referring man directly to nature and ex- perience. CHAPTER V THE REVOLT OF THE NETHERLANDS AND TRIUMPH OF THE SEVEN UNITED PROVINCES (1566-1648) The Nether- lands under the Burgun- dian princes. The Nether- lands under the Haps- burgs. The part of Europe which has been designated from of old as the Netherlands or Low Countries, is embraced ap- proximately by modern Holland and Belgium. In the Middle Age the Netherlands consisted of a number of feudal principalities or provinces, constituted as duchies, coun- ties, or lordships (for instance the duchy of Brabant, the county of Flanders, the county of Holland), all of which were practically independent of all foreign powers and of each other, although there was not one to which France or Germany did not, by some unforgotten feudal right, have a claim. In the later Middle Age the House of Bur- gundy, a collateral branch of the House of France, had at- tempted to consolidate these provinces into a state, which should be independent of both the western and the eastern neighbor ; but before the project had succeeded the family died out in the male branch with Charles the Bold (1477). In spite of this calamity the political experiment of the Burgundian princes was partially successful. Louis XI. of France, indeed, took away the duchy of Burgundy and incorporated it with France, but the Netherlands proper passed into the hands of Charles's daughter Mary, and from her, through her marriage with Emperor Maxi- milian, to the House of Hapsburg. In due time they be- came the possession of Maximilian's grandson, known as Charles V. Charles having been born in the Netherlands, in the city of Ghent, always retained an affection for this 100 The Revolt of the Netfier lands ioi corner of his vast dominions, and therefore continued the efforts of his ancestors at consoHdating its diverse territories. His labor was not entirely without results. The provinces, seventeen in number, were under him united into a state possessing a certain measure of compactness. But that slight reform did not allay his fears about this precarious heritage. His rival, France, was likely to covet parts of the Netherlands, and in order to give them protection from that side, he incorporated them in a loose way and without impairing their independence, with Germany, as the cir- cle of Burgundy (1548). The Netherlands are peopled by two races, Kelts and The Kelts and Teutons, who, on the whole, have got along very well to- ^ ^ ermans. gether here. The Kelts are a minority, speak a French dialect, and inhabit the southern districts of what is now Belgium. The Teutons inhabit the northern half of what is now Belgium and the whole of what is now Holland. Although originally one in blood and speech, they have been artificially divided, by the chances of history, into Flemish, the Teutons of Belgium, and Dutch, the Teutons of Holland, and employ two slightly different German dialects. A good part of the land of the Low Countries is below Physical the level of the sea, and has been won from that element dykes and only in undaunted, century-long struggles by means of a canals, system of dykes, which form the rampart of the land against the hungry water. But the sea was not the only enemy to overcome in order to render the Netherlands habitable. The equally great danger arising to life and property in these parts from the periodical inundations of the great rivers, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt had to be met by an enterprise no less gigantic than the dykes. To carry off the overflow there was devised and gradually completed a system of canals, which covers the country like a net and distributes the water from the rivers over a 1 02 Modern Europe The advance of commerce and intelli- gence. The persecu- tions of Charles. vast area. The plentiful water-ways of Holland and Bel- gium, although due in the first instance to necessity, have proved a pure blessing. They have given the country the greenest and the richest meadows of Europe, and besides, furnish thoroughfares for traffic, which have the merit of cheapness, durability, and picturesqueness. The original inhabitants of the Netherlands were farmers, herdsmen, and fishermen. Commerce and industry, gaining a foothold gradually, created cities. These, in the course of the Middle Age, wrung charters from their feudal lords, acquired a substantial burgher freedom, and aided by their situation, favorable to a world-wide intercourse, presently eclipsed the other cities of the north. Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Haarlem, and many other cities shared under the Burgundian princes in the extension of trade and industry, and raised their country, in point of material prosperity, and of intellectual culture, to the first rank in northern Europe. During the long reign of Charles V. the activity of the inhabitants was spurred to its highest capacity, and the country advanced steadily in every department of civi- lization. The reign of Charles in the Netherlands, so successful in other respects, was in one very important particular, a conspicuous failure. The religious agitation which troubled Germany was naturally disrespectful of landmarks, and at an early point of its history was carried into the Low Countries. Charles, whose dependence upon the princes of the Diet, forced him, as we have seen, to a disastrous dila- tory policy in Germany, was not the man to hesitate where he had the power to act. In the Netherlands the Lutheran heresy was, therefore, met on its appearance by a relentless hostility, which waxed more and more fierce, as Charles's reign proceeded. The Inquisition, already engaged in its hateful activity in Spain, was established in the Nether- The Revolt of the Netherlands 103 lands also, and special inquisitors were appointed for every province. Confiscations, imprisonments, burnings at the stake became a daily occurrence. The edicts of Charles against heresy finally went so far as to pronounce the pen- alty of death against persons discovered to have in their possession suspected writings, against those who held secret prayer-meetings, and against whosoever ventured merely to discuss the Holy Scriptures. The Protestants in the Neth- erlands were long hardly more than a handful, but Charles's rigor did not exterminate them. In fact, their numbers swelled constantly. The persecution only served to illus- trate once more the famous observation that there is no seed like martyr's blood. To the original Lutherans were soon added Anabaptists and other revolutionary sects, who found the intelligent and liberal society of the Netherlands a fertile soil for the propagation of their tenets, and from the middle of the century the faith of Calvin, destined to give the Protestantism of Holland its peculiar mould, found admission, by way of France, into all the leading cities. In this part of the world, therefore, the Inquisition found a rich harvest. Contemporary guesses placed the figure of its victims during Charles's reign at 50,000 and even more. This is doubtless an exaggeration, but it is sufficiently cor- rect to establish that monarch's partial guilt in the great tragedy which followed. But as Charles was well loved in the Netherlands, there was during his life no important out- break against his system. At last, on October 25, 1555, broken by his failure in Germany, he formally, in the pres- ence of the States-General, resigned his crown to his son and heir, Philip II. It is a notable stroke of historical irony, that on that splendid occasion the aging emperor appeared, leaning for support on the arm of a young man, who, although his friend and favorite, was destined to do his son an irreparable injury, William, prince of Orange. [04 Modern Europe Increased per- The harsh, cold mind of Philip 11. was even less adapted Philip. t^^^ his father's to solve the religious troubles of the Netherlands. Like his father, his one notion of healing heresy was to extirpate it, root and branch. The Inquisi- tion was immediately spurred on to greater activity, until the fagot-fires lighted for the victims of the new faith fairly wrapped the country in flames. Philip himself remained in the Netherlands to watch over the execution of his orders, while terror began to steal, like a spectre, into every house- hold. The majority of the people, though still Catholic, shared the Protestant aversion to the senseless policy of the inquisitors, and a gradual discontent, boding a storm, settled upon all classes. The Peace of But there was other work in the world for Philip besides bresis, 1559. ~ persecuting the Dutch Protestants. In order finally to have his hands free he wished to close, by a decisive stroke, his father's long wars with France. He therefore prepared for a vigorous campaign. It will be remembered that in 1554 he had married Queen Mary of England, thereby se- curing himself a valuable ally. Having twice defeated the French, at Saint Quentin (1557) and at Gravehnes (1558), and having, in consequence, disposed them to a settle- ment, he refused to concern himself further about allied England, and concluded with France the Peace of Ca teau- Cambresis Cij^g). England paid for the assistance she had rendered Spain by the loss of Calais ; but Philip got what he wanted. The Peace of Cateau-Cambresis closes the first chapter in the long rivalry of France and Spain, and is the substantial admission of the supremacy of Spain in Europe. It was a feather in Philip's cap — ^just the kind of thing he needed to impress his various peoples. Now, at last, he resolved to go to Spain. I^eaving his half-sister, Margaret of Parma, as regent in the Netherlands, he sailed away (1559) never to return. The Revolt of the Netherlands 105 His departure hurried the threatening crisis. The gov- The growing eminent had been intrusted to the Regent Margaret and a ^^^^- ^'^ \^^ Council of State, composed chiefly of Philip's creatures. y\ It is plain that, if the master had encountered opposition, the measures of servile favorites of his were bound to arouse furious resentment. Moreover, Margaret's government, far from taking any trouble to attach the people to itself, seemed rather to make a business of alienating every class. The nobles, who had formerly had great influence in the ad- ministration, found themselves supplanted by a few upstart courtiers. Naturally their grievances brought them more closely together, and the most powerful of them, the Prince William of Orange, and the Counts Egmont and Home, rose into the position of opposition leaders. The burghers had even a longer list of complaints than the nobles. They were excited by the illegal quartering on their towns of Spanish troops ; they complained of the multiplication of bishoprics, which had the tendency of strengthening the hold of the Church; and, finally, they were insulted by the grievance, now a generation old, and borne with less and less patience, of the Inquisition and its judicial murders. Discontent was plainly ripening to revolt. The occasion for the rising was furnished by the nobles. The protest of In 1565 they formed a league among themselves, the pur- \^(^^ ^^' pose of which was to secure the abolition of the Inquisi- tion, operating, as they put it, '' to the great dishonor of the name of God and to the total ruin of the Netherlands." In the same document in which they made this complaint they avowed their continued allegiance to the king. It was not the dynasty against which they protested, but the abuse which the dynasty upheld. On April 5, 1566, three hundred of their number marched on foot through Brussels, which served as the capital of the country, to the palace of the regent, to lay a statement of their grievances in her [o6 Modern Europe hands. She was sorely perplexed by the imposing demonstra- tion, but half dead with fright, she promised to forward the document to the king. In a banquet that followed, the nobles, amidst a scene of unbounded enthusiasm, took the ■ name of beggars (gueux), which, so the legend runs, was flung at them insultingly by one of the courtiers as, petition in hand, they drew up before the regent. The revolt of The bold act of the '' beggars " thrilled the whole coun- breakerfri566. try. Unfortunately it unchained also the long-repressed indignation of the people. The government of the regent was set at naught. To all alike it seemed that the time had come when the restraints which had weighed upon them should be cast to the winds. The citizens, imitating the nobles, formed a league among themselves and raised money and soldiers. The Protestants openly avowed their faith, and gathering in large troops before the cities, listened with greedy ears to the revolutionary addresses of fanatic pastors. At length the excitement culminated in a furious revolt. The Catholic churches were invaded, their pictured win- dows, their saintly images were broken, their crosses and altars were shattered to fragments. The ruin of art wrought by these iconoclasts was incalculable. It was weeks before the fury spent itself, and months before the government rallied enough of the orderly elements to repress the in- surgents. Philip had received his warning. Would he understand it? The coming of It is very possible that the; abolition of the Inquisition and the proclamation of religious tolerance, which the nobles demanded, would have put an end to all trouble. | But these ideas were foreign to the rulers of that day, and^ seemed nothing less than deadly sin to a bigoted Catholic like Philip. Instead of assisting the regent in confirming the recently established order, he planned a fearful ven- geance. One of his best generals was the duke of Alva. Alva. The Revolt of the Netherlands 107 Soldier and bigot, he was the typical Spaniard of his day, animated with blind devotion to his king and to his faith. Him Philip commissioned with the punishment of the Netherlands, and in the summer of 1567 Alva arrived at Brussels at the head of an excellent corps of 20,000 Span- iards. Terror spread at his approach. Although his pur- pose was not stated, and might be peaceful, it was apparent that 20,000 soldiers were more than a mere company of honor. Just before Alva arrived Prince William of Orange, with a host of those who felt themselves compromised by the recent events, crossed the border into safety. Alva did not long leave the anxious people in doubt as The Council to whether he aimed at peace or war. A council, infamous ^'^ Blood, in history as the Council of Blood, was set up for the dis- covery of all those who had taken part in the late troubles. Whosoever was seized by the police was put to death ; thousands perished, hundreds of thousands fled the country. Among the more illustrious victims were the Counts Egmont and Home, whom neither their Catholic faith nor their services to the king could save. Paralyzed by the violence of the attack the country*meekly suffered the unheard-of persecution. In these difficulties the first help was extended from William of without. William of Orange ^ had saved himself to some '"'^"S'^- purpose. He now began the glorious career by which he founded the liberties of his country and became its hero and its martyr. The world has known many a better gen- eral and perhaps many a more skilful statesman, but it has never known a stouter, more courageous heart. Frequently » William is also called, and quite as properly, William of Nassau. The national hero of the Netherlands was not a born Dutchman. He belonged to an originally German family that was established at many points of Europe. Orange for instance, was a little principality in southern France ; Nassau lay in Germany. At Nassau William was born. His interest in the Netherlands was due to the large possessions which the family had there. io8 Modern Europe almost single-handed, and at best with hardly more than the divided support of his little people, he braved the world-power of Spain, and through defeat piled on defeat held out in his resolution. William the Silent is his title in history ; it tells a tale of patient endurance of every kind of disaster, and is another way of saying William the Brave. Thebeginning In the spring of 1568 Wilham, having collected about him his brothers and other emigrants, and having turned all his available possessions into money, began gathering an army for the purpose of invading the Netherlands. His project was equivalent to a declaration of war against Philip. Both sides, recognizing that the time for delibera- tion was over, now prepared to settle the issues between them on the battle-field. Their contemporaries, to whom it seemed that no amount of courage could wipe out the awful disproportion between the combatants in wealth and numbers, generally shrugged their shoulders in pity or derision at the diminutive people which challenged the greatest power of Europe. And yet, after a dramatic struggle of eighty years (i 568-1648), the small nation issued from the fight as victor. No war more honorable than this has ever been waged in the history of our race. The Spanish The first campaign of the long war of Dutch Independ- the*ffddf * G^ce proved the complete superiority of Spanish generalship and Spanish soldiery. First, William's brother, Louis, and then William himself were defeated and their armies scattered. Alva in consequence made light of the inva- sion. It had not been supported, as William had calcu- lated, by an internal rising. To all appearances the country, crushed under the Spanish heel, had fallen into a torpor. But if this was what Alva counted on, he was destined before long to a harsh awakening. The Nether- lands had, indeed, failed from fear to respond to William's The Revolt of the Netherlands 109 first call, but unfortunate as the campaign of 1568 was, it had had its effect ; it had excited the people for a moment with the hope of deliverance and so stiffened them for resist- ance. Alva's own folly did the rest. Every act of his strengthened them in their feeling that death was better than life under the Spanish rule. This appeared when Alva attempted (1571) to fill his empty treasury by a system of outrageous extortion, the chief feature of which was a tax of ten per cent, upon every commercial transaction, including even the purchase of the daily necessaries. To this mon- strous proposition the citizens responded simply by the clos- ing of their shops and the total cessation of business. While Alva was still embarrassed by the commercial deadlock which he had himself created, there came the news of the first triumph of the insurgents. If Spain held the land in her iron grasp, she could not in the same unchal- lenged way hold the sea, peculiarly the element of the Dutch. Dutch freebooters, known as the '* beggars of the The Dutch sea," had long done great harm to the Spanish trade, the^sS^^ °" but now (1572), rendered bold by the misfortunes of their fellow-countrymen, they swept down upon the coast, and secured the first stronghold in their fatherland at a point called Brille. Dozens of towns, especially in the northern provinces, felt suddenly encouraged to drive the Spaniards out, and Alva unexpectedly found his power limited to Brus- sels and the south. Thereupon the liberated province of Holland elected WiUiam the Silent its Stadtholder, ^ and Holland and Zealand together, both situated on the sea, be- came from this time forth the heart of the Dutch resistance. Thrown into the fiercest mood by these sudden reverses, Alva prepared to win back the lost ground. Pity hence- ' Stadtholder is about equivalent in meaning to Lord-Lieutenant. The choice of the word was determined by the desire not to offend Philip, whose legitimate right was at this time not yet questioned. no Modern Europe Barbarous forth was excluded from his thoughts. MechHn, Haarlem, the war. ^^^^ many Other towns, which he recaptured, were delivered to the unbridled excesses of the Spanish soldiery. Women and children were slaughtered in cold blood. The war en- tered upon a new stage, in which oppressors and oppressed thirsted for each other's blood like wild beasts, and neither sought nor gave quarter. It was a fight to the last ditch and of unexampled fury. Recall of Alva. Alva's incapacity to deal with the situation was soon apparent to friend and foe. Before the walls of Alkmaar he met, in the year 1573, with a serious check. His six years of government (1567-73) by Council of Blood and Inquisition had ended in unqualified disaster. Tired of staring at the ruin about him he demanded his recall. His successor as Spanish governor-general was Requesen s (1573-76). Requesens was a .sensible, moderate man, who might have done something, if matters had not gone so far under Alva. But although he abolished the Council of Blood and proclaimed an amnesty, everybody continued to look upon him with distrust. So he had to proceed with the The siege of military subjugation of the revolted provinces. The most notable event of his lieutenancy was the siege of Leyden (1573-74), When the city seemed for failure of provisions to be lost, William of Orange, all of whose attempts to suc- cor the city had been thwarted, resolved on an extreme measure : he ordered that the dykes be cut. As the water of the sea rushed over the fields, the ** beggars " crowded after in their ships, until their heroic efforts brought them to the walls of the city. Thus Leyden was saved, and its name was celebrated with tears and thank-offerings, wherever Protestants in Europe met to commune.' Prince William, wishing to reward the brave inhabitants for their heroism, offered them freedom from taxation or the Leyden, 1574. The Revolt of the Netherlands 1 1 1 establishment of a university. Wisely the single-minded burghers chose the latter, and during the next two cen- turies, the University of Leyden stood at the head of the universities of the world. The death of Requesens, which occurred in 1576, was the indirect cause of a further extension of the revolt. As yet it had been confined to the provinces of the north, which had generally adopted the Protestantism of Calvin, The death of and to such occasional cities of the south as inclined toward am?the Padfi- the same faith. Revolt from the Spanish yoke seemed to Ration of follow, wherever Protestantism had gone before. The grievances of the southern provinces against Spain were certainly as great as those of the north, but as the south- erners clung to the Catholic faith, they always retained some affection for the Spanish rule. For a brief moment, however, following the death of Requesens, north and south, Teuton and Kelt, Protestant and Catholic — in a word, the United Netherlands — bound themselves together in one re- sistance. The occasion was furnished by the general horror inspired by the Spanish soldiery, which, left leaderless upon the death of Requesens, indulged itself in stealing, murder- ing, and sacking of the cities. The '' Spanish Fury," as the outbreak was called, did especial damage at Antwerp. This, the richest trading city of the Atlantic seaboard, was reduced to ashes and condemned to a decline from which it did not recover for two hundred years. Indignation at these outrages swept the country and in the Pacification of Ghent (1576), north and south proclaimed their common interests and prepared to make a common stand against the oppressor. It was the most auspicious moment of the revolution, but it was not destined to bear fruit. The religious distrust be- North and t ween Protestants and Catholics, and less conspicuously, the o^oiwfy/ ^^^ national differences between Kelts and Teutons, fomented 112 Modern Europe The Union of Utrecht, 1579. The Seven United Prov- inces form an indepen- dent state. by the shrewd governors, Don John of Austria (1576-78) and the duke of Parma (1578-92), who succeeded Re- quesens, soon annulled the Pacification of Ghent and drove a wedge between the north and south, the result of which we still trace to-day, in the existence of a Protestant Holland and a Catholic Belgium. It was especially owing to Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, a most excellent general and diplomat, that the southern provinces were saved for Spain. He was clever enough to flatter their Catholic prejudices and to promise a restoration of their privileges. If he had not been con- stantly interfered with by Philip he might even have re- conquered the north. Thus with heavy heart William the Silent had gradually to relinquish the hope, extended by the Pacification of Ghent, of a united action of the whole Netherlands against Spain. Still he never wavered in his faith, and soon succeeded, on a smaller scale, in effecting an organization of the revolt. Hitherto the resistance had been left almost exclusively to the separate provinces. In 1579, the Protestant provinces of the north, finally seven in number (Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gelderland, Over- yssel, Groningen, and Friesland) formed, for the purpose of an improved defence, the Union of Utrecht. The Articles of the Union of Utrecht practically remained the constitution of the new Dutch Republic well into modern times. The character of the Union of Utrecht is often mis- understood. Its purpose did not go so far as the purpose of the American Declaration of Independence. It was rather in the minds of its originators a Protestant league, established for the purpose of defence against illegal aggres- sion, and did not preclude a reconciliation with the legiti- mate sovereign. Two years later, however, the final step was taken on the road toward independence (1581) ; the The Revolt of the Netherlands 113 States-General, or Parliament of the Seven United Province formally declared Philip deposed. As the crown was not conferred on anyone else, William of Orange, the heredi- tary Stadtholder of Holland, which was the largest and richest of the provinces, was allowed to keep the direction of affairs in his hands. Thus a new state made its en- trance into history. Philip had already seen that William the Silent was the The murder backbone of the resistance, and that by good or ill means [j^^ silent" he must be got rid of, if the revolt was to be mastered. ^584- When bribes failed to detach William from the cause of freedom, the Spanish bigot published a ban against him, declaring his life forfeit, and putting a price upon his head. Whoever murdered him was to receive a patent of nobihty and 25,000 gold crowns. Even such dastard- ly measures as these did not frighten William. In his answer, the famous '' Apology," he justified his course and drew a stinging portrait of Philip which will be memor- able to the end of time. But the rich offer of the Spanish blood-money had its effect. After a half-dozen attempts to dispatch William had failed, Balthasar Gerard, a fanatic from the Franche Comte, fatally shot him, as, arm in arm ^ with a friend, he was coming down the stairway of his palace at Delft (July 10, 1584). His last thoughts turned toward the struggle in which his countrymen were en- gaged. ^' Lord have pity on my soul," he said, *' and on this poor people." Gerard was executed, but Philip, who kept his word scrupulously, made over the promised re- ward to the murderer's heirs. William's death was a heavy blow to the cause of the The Enghsh Dutch, especially coming at the time it did. The duke of Parma was just then winning victory after victory, and constantly narrowing the territory of resistance; in fact only Holland and Zealand still held out against him. It 114 Modern Europe was becoming painfully evident, even to the most sanguine patriots, that nothing but the interference of the great powers of Europe could save the provinces. The defence, nevertheless, was not in the least abated. Maurice, the gifted seventeen-j^aT-old_so^n_of William, was appointed Stadtholder, and at his side there rose to influence, as Pensionary or Prime Minister, the wise, statesman -like John of Oldenbarneveldt. The States-General then offered the provinces to Queen Elizabeth. Although she refused to accept them, she could no longer safely or honorably deny them her help. Catholic Spain and Protestant England had already begun to clash upon the sea, and the Protestant sentiment of England had declared vehemently for the per- ^cuted co-religionists of the Netherlands. Cold and cau- tious as Elizabeth was, she never set herself against the national wishes, and so, in 1585, the first English troops, under the command of the queen's favorite, the earl of Lei- cester, were dispatched to Holland in aid of the insurgents.^ Although Leicester proved thoroughly incompetent, and had in 1587 to retire in disgrace, his interference brought relief and probably through its consequences saved the Dutch. Abandoning the prey which he had almost capt- ured, Philip IL turned furiously upon the English. For the next years, he seems to have forgotten his original enterprise; first the English, and then the French Huguenots Spain dissi- engrossed his thoughts. There follow the disaster of the e^^rin^o'ther Armada (1588), the campaigns in France against the Protestant Henry of Navarre (1589-98), and in general such a dissipation and ruin of the Spanish power, as made wars. • The most celebrated name among these Englishmen was that of the poet, Sir I'hilip Sidjiey. At the siege of Zutphen, Sidney laid down his life for^tho Dutch cause. He was celelirated as the perfect knight, as the Sir Launcelot of his day, and the last gracious little act of his life, when he ordered that the water which was being offered him should be first presented to a common soldier dying at his side, lingers in one's imagination. The Revolt of the NetJicrlands 115 it forever impossible for Spain to return, with anything like the old energy, to the attack upon the young Republic. However, Philip 11. stubbornly held out against the Nether- lands. Even after the death (1592) of his great general, the duke of Parma, whose advice had almost always been good and had almost never been followed, he continued the war. Philip III., who was as proud as his father, suc- ceeded him (1598), and he too refused at first with the same obstinacy to listen to peace. But all this time the Dutch fortunes were plainly in the ascendant. Maur ice, who was a gallant soldier, especially skilled in conduct- ing a siege, won back from the Spaniards place after place; the brave Dutch sailors swept home and foreign waters clear of Spanish fleets; and the s tates man, John of Oldenbarneveldt, preserved the internal peace and encour- aged Dutch commerce — creating, in 1602, the celebrated India Company, to which the Dutch Republic owed in large measure her vast oriental trade and possessions. Under these conditions Spain at last saw herself forced to come to terms with her revolted subjects. Too arrogant , J U^ to acknowledge herself defeated and once for all recognize /viy^^^^ the Republic, she would do no more than conclude a ^^^f"^ Twelve Years' Truce (1609). j It was not the end, but as The Twelve good as the end. When the truce was over (1621), the JnXt'hJpSi^^e Thirty Years' War was raging in Europe, and although Spain ^^ Westphalia, tried to make the confusion serve her purposes, and again attacked the Dutch, the interference at different times of France, England, and the German Protestants, coupled with the firm resistance of the hardy little nation, rendered the second effort at the subjugation of the Dutch even more vain than the first. When the Peace of Westphalia (1648) put an end to the long German war, Spain at last declared herself ready for the great humiliation. Together with Germany and the other signatory powers of that famous ii6 Modern Europe Internal diffi- culties. The progress of civilization. peace-instrument she acknowledged the independence of the Dutch Republic. The young Republic was, of course, not saved from in- ternal conflicts. The fact that the Union of Utrecht united the seven provinces in only a loose way, caused constant difficulties. The seven local governments remained per- sistently jealous of the central authorities, consisting of Council of State and States-General, and tried to limit their influence. It was only because the province of Holland was stronger than the other six put together, and could im- pose her will, which made for unity, upon the rest, that the . centrifugal tendencies did not gain the upper hand. But perhaps even a more serious difficulty than this of provin- cial jealousy was the conflict which arose between the mon- archical and republican parties. Maurice of Nassau not unnaturally tried to acquire the sovereignty for his family, and the lower people, dissatisfied with the exclusive burgher regimen in the great trading centres, supported him will- ingly. Opposed to Maurice was the wealthy burgher class. This class preferred republican to monarchical institutions, but it desired selfishly to extend the republican privileges to none but members of its own order. At the head of this party stood the Grand Pensionary, John of Oldenbarneveldt. Under these conditions, Maurice and Oldenbarneveldt were not long in falling out, and finally in the year 1619, the hot-headed Stadtholder resolved to put an end to what he called the chicanery of the statesman. In bold defiance of law, he had the aged Pensionary arrested and beheaded. Although Spain hoped much from these and similar dis- sensions, they benefited her nothing, and hardly impaired, even momentarily, the marvellous Dutch development. In fact, the commercial and intellectual advance of the Republic, during the course of the war, remains the most astonishing feature of the period. It was as if the heroic The Revolt of the Netherlands Wj struggle gave the nation an irresistible energy, which it could turn with success into any channel. The little sea- board state, which human valor had made habitable al- most against the decrees of nature, became in the seven- teenth century, not only one of the great political powers of Europe, but actually the leader in commerce and in certain branches of industry ; contributed, beyond any other nation, to contemporary science; and produced a school of painting, the glories of which are hardly in- ferior to those of the Italian schools of the Renaissance. Such names as Hugo Grotius (d. 1645), the founder of in- ternational law; as Spinoza (d. 1677), the philosopher; as Rembrandt (d. 1674) and Frans Hals (d. 1666), the paint- ers, furnish sufficient support to the claim of the United Provinces to a leading position in the history of civiliza- tion. Their material prosperity, which was as wonderful in its way as their culture, was derived from a world- wide trade. This was particularly extensive with the East Indies, and it was here that there were developed the most permanent and productive of the Dutch colonies, although there were such also, at one time, in Asia, Africa, and America.^ The city of Amsterdam, in the province of Holland, was the heart of the vast Dutch trade, and, much like modern London, performed the banking business and controlled the money market of the entire world. It was a tragical fate that awaited the southern prov- inces, which had remained Catholic and had docilely submitted to the Spanish tyranny. They had to pay the inevitable penalty of resigning the rights of manhood ; henceforth their spirit was broken. Flanders and Brabant, which had once been celebrated as the paradise of Europe, fell into decay. The touch of intolerant Spain, here, as 1 It will be remembered, for instance, that the region of New York was originally settled by the Dutch. 1 8 Modern Europe everywhere, acted like a blight. It is a relief to note that The decay in one branch of culture, at least, the inhabitants continued southern to distinguish themselves. The names of the great paint- provinces. ^^^ Rubens (d. 1640) and Van Dyck (d. 1641) witnessed that the old Flemish spirit occasionally stirred in the tomb where it had been laid by Alva and Philip, and justified the hope that the future would perhaps bring with it a re- vival of French greatness. CHAPTER VI THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE TO THE RELIGIOUS SET- TLEMENTS OF 1598 (edict of n antes) and 1629 In the year 15 15 Francis I. ascended the French throne. Ever since 1494, when Charles VIII. had invaded Italy, the eyes of French monarchs had been riveted upon the penin- sula. They seemed not to be able to give up the dream of the south v^^hich filled their minds, and although driven from their conquests again and again, they always plucked up courage to return to the attack.^ Francis, who was young and filled with knightly ambition, had hardly ac- quired his crown when he hurried across the Alps. At Marignano (15 15) he won a splendid victory over the Swiss mercenaries of the duke of Milan, and gained, as a result, the possession of Milan itself. But the success natur- ally excited the jealousy of Spain. As soon as Charles V. The rivalry of had, at the Diet of Worms (1521), settled the affairs of charles. Germany to his fancy, he undertook to drive Francis out of Milan and also out of the duchy of Burgundy, which he be- lieved ought to belong to himself as heir of Charles the Bold. There followed the long duel between Francis and Charles, the incidents of which have been narrated in connection with the history of Germany (Chapter I.). The student will remember that the most notable events of the wars of these two monarchs were the battle of Pavia, where Fran cis was captured (1525), and the sack of Rome (1527). 1 See Introduction, p. 20. 119 I20 Modern Europe The attitude of Francis toward the Reformation. The desire for reform. To one overlooking the whole weary conflict Francis's particular title to honor is, that in spite of the constant en- croachments of Charles, and in spite of his own repeated defeats, he held stubbornly to his idea of an independent and united France, and by herculean efforts maintained it to his death. Fran ce was worsted by Spain, but proved that she could be neither diminished nor annihilated. In addition to this matter of the wars with Spain, there are also to be considered, in connection with the reign of Francis, the beginnings of the Reformation in France. Francis himself was a child of the Renaissance, and prob- ably brought neither interest nor understanding to bear upon the questions of religious reform. To his honor be it said that he had gone to Italy not for material conquests only. Bright-spirited and pleasure-loving, he had become enamoured of Italian life, of its social refinement, of its lux- ury of dress and dwelling, of its literature and art. It pleased him to be famed as a magnanimous patron, and he craved to become the friend of the great Italians of his day, and carry them all bodily to his own France, -in order that they might there inaugurate a period of equal artistic productivity. A man of such a temperament, in whom people saw the very embodiment of the Renaissance, would naturally be inclined to look upon religious agitations some- what ironically, and pass them by. And so it was with Francis until he discovered that the religious agitations bore a political aspect, and involved him in difficulties with the Pope and the rigid Catholic element of his people. Then, however, the time came when Francis, probably for purely political reasons, abandoned his indifference and became a persecutor. The beginnings of the Reformation in France are quite inde[jendent of Luther. In France, as elsewhere, theJRfir-^ naissance had brought a desire for reform of life in state The Reformation in France 121 and Church, and at the opening ot the new century certain select spirits were beginning to formulate their protests against existing conditions. At the time when Luther was stirring up Germany, a small circle at Meaux, advocat- ing the simplification of the Catholic Church, had already acquired a considerable influence. This is proved by the fact that among its patrons was no less a person than the favorite sister of Francis, Margaret of Navarre. These reformers of Meaux were primarily humanists. The circle of The leading figure among them was the venerable Lefebre. l^Sm. Desirous of furthering the cause of right living, he translated the Bible into French, preached the doctrine of Justifica- tion by Faith, and taught that Holy Writ was the only rule of life. All this associates him closely with Luther. With- out attacking the independence of Lefebre' s conclusions, it may, however, be asserted that they would have been wasted upon a restricted circle of scholars, if Luther's name, which was soon fixed upon them, had not given them a reputa- tion. This appears from the fact that Lefebre for a long time excited only mild protests; but hardly had Luther engaged in fiis^confTTct' in Germany when Lefebre became ^e subject of fanatical denunciation on the part of the Catholics in France. From the very first the famous Catholic seminary of Francis Paris, the Sorbonne, which looked upon itself as the persecutor. guardian of the orthodox faith, undertook to combat the heretical opinions of Lefebre and his followers. Neverthe- less, the opposition of this pedantic institution counted for little until the king was brought to its side. That occurred after the battle of Pavia (1525), when Francis needed the help of the Pope and the favor of his Catholic subjects to recover from the results of his defeat and captivity. The first executions of heretics in France were ordered at this time. Henceforward Francis, sometimes under the in- 122 Modern Europe The Walden- siaa massacre, 1545- The French Renaissance. Henry II. and liis religious policy. fluence of his sister and her friends, sometimes under that of the Sorbonne and its adherents, wavered in his attitude. On the whole, he grew increasingly intolerant.^ The last years of the life of Francis are sullied by one of the most fearful crimes of this whole fanatical age. Up in the Alps of Provence, there dwelt a small sect, called Wal- denses, who had maintained a heretical faith for centuries before Luthei'. Francis allowed himself to be terrorized by the Catholic reactionaries to such a point that, in a moment of weakness, he gave orders for the extermination of these poor peasants and mountaineers. The official re- port establishes, that three thousand persons were massacred, six hundred consigned to the galleys, and that, besides, many children were sold as slaves (1545). It was plain, toward the end of the reign of Francis, that France was looking forward to an era of religious conflict. But happily the Reformation was only one aspect of her sixteentl^ century life. The reign of Francis was also the period of her Renaissance. Under the tutelage of this refined monarch, the country began to raise itself to that high social level, which has since distinguished its civiliza- tion, and art and literature entered upon a new and memo- rable era. Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto, and a number of other Italian artists, brought to France by the king's bounty, gave the impulse which led to the creation of a native school of painting ; and Rabelais, the great satirist (d. 1553), and Clement Marot, the poet (d.1544), gave earnest by their works of a new and more comprehensive period of French literature than any that had preceded. The successor of Francis was his son, Henry II. (1547- 59). He was a different man from his affable father, ' It will be remembered as one of the religious events of his reign, which has had far-reaching consequences, that Francis banished young Calvin fr onijgaris. Chance took Ciilvinto GenevaTwllcre he ac^Qlred a much greater mfluence than he coul3 ever"BaveTSa^ in France. The Reformation in France 123 and his sombre character may be taken as an indication of the age of Cathohc fanaticism which was approaching. On the day of his coronation Henry II. is reported to have said that 'Mie would exterminate from his kingdom all whom the Church denounced." If he did not succeed in this pious enterprise it was because the spirit of resistance, ani- mating the Protestants, was stronger even than the spirit of cruelty which filled the king. Edict after edict was hurled / against the heretics, and hundreds were burned here, as in the Netherlands. If the system of the Inquisition was not formally established, France witnessed at least all the hor- rors of the Inquisition. And the only result was that the faith confirmed by martyrs' blood, struck its roots into the hearts of a constantly increasing band of Protestant wor- shippers. Henry II. inherited from his father his enmity against Henry it. ac- Spain. Although his religious policy was, as we have tiirce^bibhop- just seen, violently orthodox, Henry II. could on occasion "^^• subordinate his Catholic aspirations to the political neces- sities of his position. The danger from Spain, therefore, induced him, after a little scrupulous hesitation, to ally himself with the Protestant princes of Germany. When Maurice of Saxony, in behalf of the German Protestants, attacked the Emperor Charles V. (1552), Henry II., in order to support Maurice's action, suddenly invaded Ger- many and occupied the three western bishoprics, Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Charles, having bought his peace at home by concessions to the Protestants (Peace of Augs- burg), tried to drive Henry out again, but failed ; the bishoprics remained in the possession of France. The episode is interesting, as the first in modern times of those territorial disputes between France and Germany, which have continued through centuries and are still a burning question of Europe at this day. 124 Modern Europe War between Philip II. and Henry II. ^ The Peace of Cateau- Cambresis, 1559- The Huguenots begin to take a hand in poH- tics. Although the capture of the three bishoprics injured Germany, it was really an episode of the long wars be- tween France and Spain. When Philip succeeded his father (1555), the contest between the two countries was resumed with new vigor, until the great Spanish victories of St. Quentin and Gravelines in the Netherlands brought about the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis (1559). This peace settled all the territorial questions in favor of Spain, and left her undisputed mistress in Italy and in the Netherlands. But although France had been once more defeated, she managed to indemnify herself at the expense of another power. By the marriage of Philip II. to Mary Tudor, Spain had secured the alliance of England in the late war. In the year 1558, the French duke of Guise suddenly fell upon Calais, the last English possession upon the Continent, and by its capture completely obliterated the material con- sequences of the Hundred Years' War between France and England. In the sumptuous celebrations which followed the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis, Henry II. was, during a tournament, wounded in the eye, and shortly after expired (1559)- Until this time the Protestants of France had suffered their persecutions in patience. They had not preached re- volt nor sought political influence. But from the mere religious sect they had been, they now advanced to the role of a political party. The change certainly detracted from their dignity and purity, but was, as the history of Protestantism in Germany, England, and everywhere proves, inseparable from the aims of the movement. Prot- estantism, although primarily a faith, affected the state in certain important respects and, therefore, by or against its will, had to develop a political programme. Happy may those countries be called, in which the political programme did not completely bury the original notion of a religious The Reformation in France 125 re-birth ! France is not to be counted among them. Although Huguenotism,! as Protestantism was called in France, always mustered a body of serious reformers and enthusiastic Christians, it was, before long, employed by ambitious men as a cloak, beneath which to mature with impunity their political revolutions. This dangerous de- velopment of Protestantism in France was due, in large measure, to the confusion which followed the un«xpected demise of King Henry II. At the death of Henry, his son, Francis II. who was Francis II. but sixteen years old, and physically and mentally feeble, succeeded to the throne. When the power in an absolute monarchy, such as France practically was at this time, is not exercised by the sovereign, it is inevitably snatched up by some court faction. The situation at court, therefore, on the accession of Francis, has an unusual in- terest. The wife of the feeble Francis was Mary, Queen of The Guises. Scots. Although a woman of rare gifts, she was too young at this time to assume control, and thus it happened that the power fell into the hands of her French relatives — her mother's two brothers, of the family of Guise. The older, Francis, the duke of Guise, received the command of the army ; the younger, a cardinal of the Roman Church, undertook the control of the government. Both were ardent Catholics, attached with heart and soul to Rome and Spain. There were those, however, who believed that their own The queen- rights were infringed upon by this usurpation of the arinede' Guises. First to consider, is the mother of Francis II., M^^^^i- Catharine de' Medici. She was an Italian of the famous. ^ The terms Huguenotism and Huguenots were probably first apphed in derision to the French heresy and heretics. Neither origin nor mean- ing have been explained satisfactorily. 126 Modern Europe ^ and by virtue of certain representatives, also infamous family, which had risen to sovereignty in Florence. To an inordinate ambition she added some of the charac- teristic qualities of her nation, a rapid intelligence, dip- lomatic skill, and entire unscrupulousness. Although her name has become a designation for everything that is vicious in civil and rehgious war, it is now established beyond doubt, that she was not a Catholic fanatic, and that, if she became a persecutor, it was primarily because the persecution served some political end. Certainly her contemporaries were not in the habit of thinking her worse than her environment. While this fact does not prove anything in her favor, it ought to disincline us to see in her nothing but the vampire which ultra-Protestant writers have persistently contended that she was. The House of For the present, the mother of the king had nothing to ihc"suppon^ot say, and brooded over her wrongs in silence. The active the Hugue- opposition to the Guises came from another quarter — from a collateral branch of the royal family, the House of Bour- bon. The leading members of this House were Antoine, king of Navarre, and Louis, prince of Conde. Antoine had, by his lucky marriage with the heiress to the small king- dom of Navarre, on the border between France and Spain, acquired, if not much power, at least some dignity. In his capacity as head of the younger branch of the ruling House, he was prepared to insist that an important place be ceded to him in the council of state. His brother, Conde, supported him in his ambition, and both were soon sur- rounded by a considerable body of ''malcontents — " nobles, for the most part, who had been excluded from the honors and emoluments, and whose controlling idea seemed to be, that anything was permissible which tended to overthrow the usurping Guises. Now among the enemies of the Guises, who were a fanatically Catholic family, were nots. The Reformation in France 127 also the persecuted Huguenots, and out of the common ha- tred of Protestants and malcontents, there grew, before long, an intimacy and an alliance. Antoine, in a faith- less, vacillating spirit, Conde, more firmly, accepted the Reformed faith ; and many of their aristocratic supporters following their example, it came to pass, that Protestant- ism in France was gradually diluted and befouled with political intrigue. Of all these high-stationed Huguenots, the one man who has won the respect of friend and foe is Gaspard de Co iigny. CoHgny. He was related to the great family 5f Mont- ^"^^ "TTTOfency, and bore the dignity of admiral of France. Though he was not without political ambition, he merits the high praise of having been a man to whom his faith was a thing not to be bought and sold, and of having served it with single-mindedness to his death. Out of these relations of the factions around the throne, grew the intrigues which led to the long religious wars in France. It is useless to try to put the blame for them upon one or the other side. Given a weakened rojal executive ; the implacable religious temper which marks the society of the sixteenth century ; and a horde of powerful, turbulent, and greedy nobles, and civil war is a necessary consequence. We can notice only the more prominent symptoms of the coming outbreak. In the year 1560 there was organized, with the connivance of the Bourbon princes, the vast Con- The Conspira- spiracy of Amboise, which planned to make an end of the ^y^^^^'^o'^*^ • Guises. It was discovered and a fearful vengeance taken. Whoever excited suspicion was arrested and without a trial hung to the castle-roof of Amboise or drowned in the Loire. Shortly after, Francis II. died (December, 1560). His r\ ^jJ^'^ widow Mary, finding her role in France exhausted, there- "" ^y^ upon left for Scotland, and the Guises, who had held the 128 Modern Europe power largely through her, suddenly found that their ty- ranny had come to an end. The successor of Francis was his brother Charles IX., a weak boy but ten years old, Catharine be- during whose minority, custom called for a regency under comes regen. ^^ quecn-mother. C atharine d e' Medici, therefore, at a stroke realized her ambition. But her new position was far from easy, as Guises and Bourbons alike watched her with jealousy. She resolved, therefore, with much moderation, upon a policy of balance between the hostile factions ; called representatives of both into her council ; and published a succession of edicts, securing to the Huguenots a limited toleration. It was the first effort of the kind that had been made in France to settle the religious difficulties. Its end- ing in failure proved again, if proof were necessary, that no compromise could satisfy men who, like the Protestants and Catholics of the sixteenth century, were passionately set on realizing their own ideas without the abatement of a jot or tittle. While the Catholics were embittered by the extent of Catharine's concessions, the Protestants grumbled at the remaining limitations, and among the more fanatical followers of the two parties, sometimes with- out provocation, there occurred sharp conflicts, frequently ending in terrible excesses. The Massacre One of these conflicts, the Massacre of Vassy (1562), put ^^^' an end to hesitation and led to war. The duke of Guise was passing through the country with a company of armed retainers, when he happened, near Vassy, upon a band of Huguenots, assembled in a barn for worship. Sharp words led to an encounter, and before the duke rode away, forty Protestants lay dead upon the ground and many more had Been wounded. A fearful indignation seized their brothers in The faith, and when the duke of Guise was not imme- diately called to account by Catharine, Conde_and Coligny armed and took the field. The Reformation in France 129 Thus were inaugurated the religious wars of France, which were not brought to a conclusion until 1598, by the Edict of Nantes, and which in their consequences contin- Character of ued to trouble the country well into the next century. For our purpose it is sufficient to look upon the period from 1562 to 1598 as one war, though it is true that there were frequent suspensions of arms, supporting themselves upon sham truces and dishonest treaties. ^ The war, like all the religious wars of the century, was waged with inhuman barbarity, and conflagrations, pillagings, massacres^ and assassinations blot every stage of its progress. Protestants Tnd Catholics became brutes alike, and vied with each other in their efforts to turn their country into a desert. When the Treaty of St. Germain (1570), granting the The Peace of Protestants the largest toleration which they had yet en- " joyed, temporarily closed the chapter of conflicts, many of the original leaders had passed away. Antoine of Navarre had been killed in battle against his former friends, the Hu- guenots, whom he had treacherously deserted (1562) ; the duke of Guise had been assassinated (1563); and Conde had been unfairly slain in a charge of horse (1569). The head of the Huguenot party was now Antoine's young son. King Henry of Navarre, but the intellectual leader- ship fell, for the present, upon Coligny. Meanwhile, a moderate party had formed in France, Growth of a which tried to make the Peace of St. Germain the begin- j^y, ^^^^ ^^' ning of a definite settlement. It was only too clear that the bloodshed which was draining the country of its strength, ruined both parties and brought profit to none but the enemies of France. The more temperate of both sides. ' Eight wars have been distinguished as follows : First war, 1562-63 ; second war, 1567-68 ; third war, 1568-70 (ended by the peace of St. Ger- main) ; fourth war, 1572-73 ; fifth war, 1574-76 ; sixth war, 1577 ; seventh war, 1579-80; eighth war (called the War of the three Henries) 1585-89, which continued in another form until the Edict of Nantes (1598). I30 Modern Europe The wedding of Henry of Navarre and Margaret of Valois, The alh'ance of Catharine and the Guises against Colig- ny. Coligny prominent among them, began to see the folly of the struggle, and King Charles himself, who was now of age, inclined to their view. And yet such were the mutual sus- picions and animosities, that the effort to remove all cause of quarrel precipitated the most horrible of all the incidents of the war, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. After the Peace of St. Germain, Coligny had come up to Paris and had rapidly acquired a great influence with the king. The young monarch seemed to be agreed to put an end for all time to internal dissension, and to turn the strength of the united country against the old enemy of France, Spain. For this purpose he arranged, as a prelim- inary step, a rnarriage^between his sister Margaret and young Henry of Navarre. Joyfully responding to the in- vitation of King Charles, the Huguenots poured in swarms into Paris to attend the wedding of their chief, which was celebrated on August i8, 1572. The wedding seemed to inaugurate an era of Protestant triumphs. Coligny's star, shedding the promise of tolera- tion, was rising steadily ; that of the Guises and their ul- tra-Catholic supporters, standing for the principle of no- compromise, was as steadily setting. But suddenly the orthodox party, which, seeing ruin ahead of it, had fallen into a desperate mood, ready for any undertaking, received an unexpected addition. Catharine de* Medici, originally hardly more attached to the Guises than to the Huguenots, because primarily solicitous only about her own power, had lately lost all influence with the king. She knew well whither it had gone and fixed the hatred of a revengeful and passionate nature upon Coligny. Burning to regain her power she now put herself in communication with the Guises. On August 2 2d, as Coligny was entering his house, a ball, meant for his breast, struck him in the arm. The king, who hurried in alarm to the bedside of his The Reformation in France 131 councillor, was filled with indignation, and swore to take a summary revenge upon the assassin and his accomplices. The terror of discovery and punishment, which now racked Catharine and the Guises, drove them to devise some means by which they might deflect the king's vengeance. On the spur of the moment, as it were, The Massacre they planned the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. This fa- Jhoiomew. mous massacre is, therefore, not to be considered, as was '572. once the custom, the carefully laid plot of the Catholic heads of Europe, but rather as the bloodthirsty improvisa- tion of a desperate band. Catharine de' Medici and the Guises were its authors, and the fervidly Catholic population of Paris was the instrument of their will. How the king's consent was got, when all was ready, would be difficult to understand, if we did not know that he was weak and cowardly, and ready for any measure when hoodwinked and terrorized. On St. Bartholomew's day (August 24th), a little past midnight, the tocsin was sounded from the churches of Paris. At the signal, the Catholic citizens slipped noiselessly from their houses, and surrounded the residences which had been previously designated by a chalk mark as the homes of Huguenots. Coligny was one of the first victims of the ensuing fury, Henry of Guise him- self presiding at the butchery of his Huguenot rival. That night the streets flowed with blood, and for many days after, the provinces, incited by the example of the capital, indulged themselves in similar ' ' bloody marriages.' ' Henry of Navarre escaped death only by temporarily renouncing his faith. The victims of this fearful exhibition of fanati- cism amounted to 2,000 in Paris, and 6,000 to 8,000^ in the rest of France. We are helped in understanding the spirit of the time when we hear that the Catholic world, the 1 These are the figures given by modern historians. Old writers used to speak glibly of fifty thousand 'and more. 132 Modern Europe Henry III., 1574-89- Prospect of the succession of Henry of Navarre. The war of the Three Henries. Pope and Philip of Spain at its head, made no effort to conceal its dehght at this facile method of getting rid of adversaries. War with all its dreary incidents straightway flamed up again. In 1574 Charles IX. died, out of remorse, as the Huguenots were fain to believe, for his share in the great crime of St. Bartholomew. His brother, Henry III., suc- ceeded him on the throne. A new element of interest was introduced into the struggle only when the death of Henry's last brother, the duke of Alengon, and his own failure to have heirs, involved, with the religious question, the ques- tion of the succession. By the law of the realm the crown would have to pass upon Henry's death to the nearest male relative, who was Henry of Navarre, head of the collateral branch of Bourbon. But Henry was a Huguenot, the enemy of the faith of the vast majority of his future subjects. EveiTbefore" his suc- cession appeared probable, Henry of Guise and his followers had formed the Holy League, which pledged itself to the interests of the Church, even against the king. As the Holy League satisfied the current fanaticism of the day, it became the rally ing-point of Catholic France, and before long, Henry III. found at his side a man more really king than himself — his former friend and present head of the League, Henry of Guise. In measure as he tried to live up to his royal duty of mediating between the contending factions and establishing peace, he found himself deserted by the League, which would have no peace. France was, in consequence, soon divided into three camps, the ultras of the two religious parties, headed respectively by Henry of Guise and Henry of Navarre, and between them the party of the moderates (politiques), headed by King Henry. There follows the phase of the struggle known as the war of the Three Henries (1585-89), which steeped the country The Reformation in France 133 in such confusion that men soon indulged in every form of lawlessness without punishment. In December, 1588, King yO^ Henry, who had tried all possible shifts to secure peace, even to the point of resigning the real power into the hands of the head of the League, indignantly resolved to put an end to his humiliation. He invited Henry of Guise to his cabinet, and there had him treacherously dispatched by his guard. But the League now turned in horror from the murderer, and Paris and Catholic France declared for his deposition. In his despair the king fled to Henry of Na- varre, and was just about to advance with his Huguenot sub- jects upon his capital, when a fanatical Dominican monk forced admission to his presence and killed him with a knife (August, 1589). Thus the House of Valoi s had come to an end. The question was now simply between Henry of Navarre, the rightful claimant to the crown, and the League, who would have none of him. The new Henry, Henry JV., first king of the House of Henry iv. Bourbo n, was a bnaye. soldier, an intelligent ruler, and an League, ^f^ble gentleman. He was the idol of his followers, but his followers were only a small part of France. The at- tachment of the Catholic majority he knew could only be won slowly, and certainly not by force. Therefore, he undertook with wisdom and patience to assure them of the loyalty of his intentions and win their recognition. If the League could only have found a plausible rival for the throne, Henry might have been annihilated ; but his claim was incontrovertible, and that was his strength. FoTlhe" present no one thought of disarming. Henry won a num- ber of engagements, notably the battle of Ivry (1590), but the League, supported by Philip of Spain, could not be scattered. At last Henry, weary of the interminable struggle, re- Henry abjures,^ solved to take a decisive step. He abjured his faith and ^^[^^f^tantism^ 134 Modern Europe begged to be readmitted into the Catholic Church (1593). His calculation of the consequences of this measure proved to be correct. He was almost immediately recognized throughout France, the League fell apart, and the war ceased. In February, 1594, he was solemnly crowned at Chartres, and in March he took possession of his capital amidst the unbounded rejoicings of those same Parisians, who had clamored on St. Bartholomew's day for his head. Opinion has always been much divided on Henry's con- version. But there is no necessity for lingering over it Henry's justi- long. It was purely a political measure, and a well-calcu- lated one as the result shows, and though Henry professed before the priest that the change was with him a matter of conscience, we know that the conversion sat lightly upon him. ** Paris is well worth a mass," was all the comment he offered his friends to explain his defection. Joyful, sensual spirits, such as Henry, are usually not overbur- ^ dened with annoying religious convictions. His Protest- antism had been a matter of birth and custom, and his Catholicism did not pierce an inch deeper. Under these circumstances, since his Protestantism arwi his Catholicism were morally of equal value, it was perhaps a wholly wise thing to drop the religious pretence, which alone separated his country from a desired peace. The first important business of the recognized king was to secure his country the benefit of a permanent religious pacifi- The Edict of cation. The edict which was intended to establish it, was an es, 159 . pu^^iighed at Nantes, April, 1598. Although it was not a decree of toleration such as satisfies our modern feeling, it was the best the time could afford. It gave the great nobles and the citizens, in a certain number of specified cities, permission to establish the Protestant worship, but it rigorously excluded that worship from all episcopal cities and from Paris. Furthermore, the Edict of Nantes placed The Reformation in France 135 the Huguenots on a level with the Catholics before the law ; and finally, to reassure them, and as a kind of guarantee of its promises, made over to them a number of fortified towns, of which La Rochelle was the most important. It was this last measure that later caused a renewal of the civil war, for it was a dangerous concession and made the Huguenots an independent armed power within the state. In the same year (1598) Henry closed the war with Spain, due to Spanish interference in behalf of the League. Though he was not unwilling to proceed against his med- dHng neighbor with all vigor, he saw that his country was for the present in no condition for foreign conquest, and that he would better reserve his strength for the future. So Henry ends he signed the Peace of Vervins (1598) on the basis of mu- whh ^SpaTn,'^ tual restitutions. ^598. Now that France was at peace within and without, Henry seriously set about the task of building up again his ruined country. With the aid of his Protestant minister, internal gov- the duke of Sully, he re-established the finances, and ad- Henry"and vanced commerce and industry. The administration of ^^^^y- Sully covered France with good highways, laid out canals, introduced many new branches of industry, and even made attempts to plant colonies in the New World, notably in Canada. When, after years of labor, Henry saw himself in posses- sion of an ordered and flourishing commonwealth, he be- gan again to turn his attention to foreign affairs. The Henry plans to House of Hapsburg, governing through its two branches House' of the dominions of Spain and of Austria, was still to his mind Hapsburg. the great enemy of France. That France and the House of Bourbon must grow at the expense of Spain and the House of Hapsburg became Henry's fixed resolution. In 1610, a local quarrel in Germany was just about to furnish him with a desired pretext to interfere against the Hapsburgs,. 136 Modern Europe when he was killed by the dagger of a half-insane Catholic ^ u/ fanatic, named Ravaillac. To this day '' Good King \ " 1 V Henry " is dear to the French people, and his popularity 1 /qA ft U^^^^^^Njias never been eclipsed by that of any of his successors. O^^ At Henry's death his son Louis XIII. (1610-43) was but The regency nine years old. A regency had therefore to be set up under Medici!^ ^ Louis's mother, Marie de' Medici, whom Henry IV. had married, upon the grant of a divorce from his first wife, Margaret of Valois. Marie, an Italian of the same House as the former regent, Catharine de' Medici, was a weak woman without talents of any kind. The sovereign power was, therefore, soon in a bad way. Favorites exercised the control, and the turbulent nobility, which had been repressed by the firm hand of Henry IV., began again, as at the time of Francis II. and Charles IX., to aspire to political importance. Among these nobles the Huguenot aristocracy, who had been permitted by the Edict of Nantes to keep up an army and several fortified places, assumed an especially threatening tone, and judg- ing from the confusion which followed Marie's assumption of power, it seemed more than likely that France was drift- ing into another era of civil war. The advent of If France was saved from this calamity, it was due, and ■ — ' solely due, to one man, Arman^Jean^duJPl^sis, known as Cardinal Richelieu. When he entered the royal council, to become almost immediately, by the natural ascendency of his intellect, first minister (1624), the queen-regent had already been supplanted by the king; but under the king, who had much more of his mother in him than of his father, and was slothful and unintelligent, the affairs of the realm had not been in the least improved. Richelieu, therefore, found himself confronted by a heavy task. But his unique position proved a help to him ifi fulfilling it. Having entered the Church, his talent had been so far rec- The Reformation in France 137 gramme. ognized that he was appointed cardinal in 1622, and from the shelter which his ecclesiastical dignity afforded him, he was able to deliver with impunity many a blow which would otherwise have cost him his life. The extraordinary power which he wielded for eighteen years (1624-42) to his death, and which completely obliterated the king, might in the hands of a less conscientious man have degen- erated into the most repulsive tyranny ; but Richelieu, on the whole, put it at the service of an enlightened patriot- ism. He set himself two aims ; the first, to strengthen the His pro- m oiiarchy within, for which purpose he must break the power of the nobility, both Catholic and Protestant ; the second, to enlarge the monarchy without, in pursuance of which end he must renew the wars with his country's old rival, Spain and the House of Hapsburg. The power of the Catholic nobility Richelieu did not break without resistance. But the banishment of the king's worthless brother Gaston, the duke of Orleans, and the execution of a number of high-born plotters, who fan- cied that their names were a protection against punishment, gradually enforced obedience. Far more serious was the case of the rebellious Hugue- nots. They had been involved in the various desultory insurrections during the regency of Marie de' Medici, and their action was so much the more dangerous, as they were legally provided with the means of warfare — an army and fortified towns. It had become perfectly palpable by this time, that the Huguenots, if they were a religious sect, were also a political party, equipped with a power that could make them, at need, independent of the government. This state within the state, Richeheu was resolved to put an end to. He did not argue in the least Hke a fanatic. In fact, although a cardinal of the Catholic Church, he clearly made the distinction between religion and politics, and an- Res'sts the nobility. Resists the Huguenots. 138 Modern Europe Siege of La Rochelle. Peace with the Huguenots, 1629. RicheHeu plans to humiliate Spain. He interferes in the Thirty Years' War. nounced, in taking up arms against the Huguenots, that the quarrel was not with their faith, but only with their politi- cal privileges. The campaign against the Protestants in which he now engaged was rapid and successful. Its one memorable feat was the siege of La Rochelle, on the west- ern coast — a siege in which Richelieu himself took the com- mand, and which was heroically sustained by the Rochel- lese, ineffectually aided by their English ally, Charles I. When La Rochelle fell (1628), the Huguenots were at the cardinal's mercy. That in those embittered and intolerant times he remained true to his best convictions compels our respect. Richelieu, Jhechurchrnan, made himself the first great practical exponent of our modern conce ption of tole- ration. He signed a peace with the Rochellese, and later with the other Huguenots, in which he secured them all the privileges of the Edict of Nantes, barri ng the exc ep- tional political power. For the present, the troubles of France were ended and all classes brought under the law of the king. The coun- try was in the same tranquil condition as under Henry IV., and like Henry IV. Richelieu could now afford to interest himself in European affairs. He could, in other words, ex- ecute the setond part of his political programme, which was the humiliation of the House of Hapsburg. It was a most convenient circumstance that Germany was at this time convulsed by her great Thirty Years' War. With the instinct of the statesman, Richelieu felt that if he helped the Protestants there against the Catholics, repre- sented by the Emperor and by Spain, he would sooner or later acquire some permanent advantages for France. His gradual interference which proceeded from subsidies of money in Germany and light campaigns in Italy, to the recruitment of large armies, finally secured his king the balance of power in the German war, and made France The Reformation in France 139 practical dictator of Europe when the Peace of Westphaha (1648) ended the struggle. Richelieu did not live to see this result (he died 1642), but the advantage which France secured on that occasion may be written down to his statesmanlike conduct of the government. Richelieu is sometimes called the creator of the absolute Richelieu monarchy in France. That is aif exaggeration, for ever absoiutfsm. sihce the time of Louis XI. (1461-83) the French kings had been breaking the constitutional shackles that limited their will. However, at the time of Richelieu, there still were a number of ill-defined institutions which possessed a certain customary influence, operating as a restriction upon the king's power, and these Richelieu systematically reduced in importance. Of these restrictive institutions those most in view were The states- the States-General (etats generaux) and the Parliament of and the Paris (parlement). The States-General were a kind of parlement. legislative body of feudal character, which derived *^their ~~^^~-^ — ' name from the fact that they constituted the general as- sembly of the three estates of the realm — the clergy, the nobles, and the burghers. The kings had been in the habit of consulting this body from time to time, but it had never succeeded in securing for itself, like the English Parlia- ment a firm place in the government. The States- General were called together in 1614, at the time of the troubles of the regency, and then not again for one hundred and sev- enty-five years, in fact, till the time of the French Revolu- tion. There occurred in this time no formal abrogation of their powers; what happened was that Richelieu and his successors merely permitted the institution to fall into obliv- ion. The Parliament of Paris (there were a dozen others in the provinces), radically different in its functions from the English Parliament, was chiefly a judicial body, we might say a supreme court. For no particular reason it had I40 Modern Europe acquired the strange right of registering the king's de- crees. The king, as absolute master, could indeed publish new laws as he pleased, blit custom required that they be sealed by the Parliament with its official seal in order to be valid. That looked on its face like an important privilege ; however, it was not of much avail, because if the registration was refused, the king could force the hand of the recalcitrants by ordering the registration in person. Such a session of the Parliament, when the king attended in state, was called ''a bed of justice " (Ht de justice). The Parliament also Richelieu in his high-handed manner disregarded and abased, but soon after his death it acquired its old prerogatives again, and from then until the Revolution (1789) it acted, within its limited sphere, as a check upon the absolute power of the king. On the whole, therefore, France has reason to accept Richelieu's internal labors with a somewhat qualified approval. Progress of Richelieu's reign exhibits France advancing toward the cufture. zenith of her culture. He himself established the famous Academy of France, as a kind of sovereign body in the field of letters (1635), and lived to see the birth of the French drama in the work of Corneille (The Cid, 1636). M CHAPTER VII THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR (l 6 1 8-48) AND THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA The Peace of Augsburg (1555) ended the first religious The Peace of war of Germany, by an attempt to accommodate the claims doff not end of the Catholics and the Protestants. But this attempt did Joubief of^ not and could not succeed. The article, called the Eccle- Germany, siastical Reservation, tried to protect the Catholic Church by forbidding all future secularizations of her territory, but the article had hardly been adopted when triumphant Pro- testantism infringed upon it at every point. The Catholics were thus furnished with a standing complaint against their rivals. And other difficulties were not wanting. Shortly after the Peace of Augsburg, the Protestantism of Calvin, which called itself the Reformed faith in distinc- tion from the current Lutheran faith of Germany, spread, especially in the southwest (Palatinate), until it threatened to supplant the older Protestant worship. Thereupon the Lutherans, who with the intolerance of the age, hated their Reformed brethren as much as they hated the Catholics, joined the latter in insisting that the Calvinistic doctrine had no legal basis, since it was not included in the Peace of Augsburg. Thus Calvinism led a very precarious ex- istence. It is a wonder that in spite of the incessant quarrels of Peace is pre- the three parties, which filled all the Diets with their theTmmrd^'te clamor, the peace was so long preserved. Probably jeal- successors of ousy of one another and fear of the consequences of the 141 142 Modern Europe sanguinary struggle which would follow, kept them from proceeding to extremes. Moreover, the immediate suc- cessors of Charles V., his brother, Ferdinand I. (1556-64), and his nephew, Maximilian II. (1564-76), were moder- ate men, who hoped to achieve more for the unity of Chris- tianity by peace than by war. They kept up amicable relations with the Protestant princes of both sects and con- centrated all their efforts upon mediation. The advance The long truce between the two faiths, which outlasted ism. ° ^^ ^ ■ the century, was at first highly favorable to the Protestants. Lutherans and Calvinists alike were little impeded in their propaganda, and soon the whole German north had become solidly Protestant, while in the south, Austria and Bavaria themselves, states which were looked upon as mainstays of the Catholic faith, were becoming dangerously infiltrated with the heretical poison. The Venetian ambassador, an acute student of social phenomena, wrote at this time that scarcely one-tenth of the inhabitants of Germany still pro- fessed allegiance to the Papacy. The statement may have been an exaggeration, but it proves that the disposition of the people was favorable to the new faith, and that if the Protestants would only have ceased their mutual bickerings and organized their propaganda, they could, without the help of persecution, by the mere force of circumstances, have driven Catholicism out of Germany. The growth of But the laxness of the Protestants lost them the prize, reaction. °'^ and soon the Catholics, arousing themselves from the leth- argy into which they had fallen, reorganized their forces at the Council of Trent, under the leadership of the Jesuits, and boldly undertook the reconquest of Germany. From the time of Emperor Rudolph II. (1576-1612), anew Catholic vigor became noticeable. The Jesuits stole their way to the hearths of the ruling Catholic families, and from the courts of Vienna and Munich, as operating cen- Thirty Years' War and Peace of Westphalia 143 tres, gradually widened the sphere of their influence. They did their work with firm zeal and noiseless caution. They served their princely masters, as father-confessors or as min- isters of state, and in either case controlled their policy ; they founded schools and colleges; they sent their mis- sionaries into all hesitating communities, and soon amazed the Protestants with the news of the reconversion to Mother Church of princes and whole territories. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the tension Protestant had so increased that, when a Catholic army took posses- catholic" sion of the free City of Donauworth (1607), because the League. Protestant population there had insulted a Catholic pro- cession, the Protestants met in indignation and established a Union for purposes of mutual protection (1608). Their step was answered the next year (1609), by a similar organi- zation on the part of the Catholics, which they called the Holy League. Henceforth, Germany was divided into the two hostile camps of League and Union, either ready to take the field against the other as soon as the occasion served. Under the circumstances the opinion was becom- ing general, that the terrible suspense about the endless re- ligious questions ought finally to be terminated, one way or another. From the first, however, this difference be- tween the two religious camps ought to be noted, that, while the Catholics were firmly organized under a capable man, Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, the Protestants, owing to their old divisions, gave their Calvinistic president, Frederick, the count palatine of the Rhine, only a wavering support. The occasion that the two parties were looking for, in The affairs of order to begin the war, was at length furnished by Bohemia. The kingdomof Bohemia, a state inhabited by Slavs (Czechs) and Germans, was a member of the Empire, and had, under Ferdinand L been added to the possessions of the 144 Modern Europe House of Hapsburg. By the same irresistible process by which the faith of Luther had found its way into the Aus- trian territories, it had succeeded in getting a foothold in Bohemia. When Emperor Rudolph tried to root it out, he found that it was too strong for him, and was forced, in the end, to accept it. His charter of 1609, called the Letter of Majesty, practically established freedom of worship for Bohemia. But both Rudolph and his successor, Matthias (161 2-19), bore with the Protestants only out of necessity, and from the numerous indignities put upon the new faith, it became evident to all that the The revolution charter was not intended as a final settlement. In the year 1618. ' 1618, the Protestants, angered beyond endurance at the brutal disingenuousness of Matthias, rose in revolt against his representatives. They invaded their castle residence at Prague, and tossed them roughly out of the window. * Then they set up a government of their own. Thus the challenge that Protestants and Catholics had been awaiting for years was given; the Thirty Years' War had begun. The four It is customary to divide the Thirty Years' War, for con- Periods of the , -, . -TTT^l-T-wl- Thirty Years' venience sake, into four periods — the Bohemian-Palatine ^' Period (1618-23), the Danish Period (1625-29), the Swe- dish Period (1630-35), and the French-Swedish Period (1635-48). Perhaps the most striking feature of the war is, that, beginning with a local struggle in Bohemia, it should gradually have spread until it included all Europe. The above divisions indicate the widening circles. From Bohemia it first extended over southern Germany (Bohemi- an-Palatine Period) ; then slowly, northern Germany and its •This famous act has invited much amused comment. The three men, thus summarily projected down a height of one hundred feet, arrived at the bottom shocked, but whole. The Catholic world never tired of crying miracle, while the Protestants prosaically explained the successful fall by a reference to the heaps of ancient refuse which Ut- tered the grouncf. Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia 145 nearest Protestant neighbor caught fire (Danish Period) ; and finally, country upon country was moved to take part, until the war was no longer a German struggle at all, but assumed, first, the aspect of a general conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism, and secondly, the character of a struggle between the two great dynasties, Hapsburg and Bourbon, for the supremacy in Europe. The Bohemian- Palatitie Period. — The revolutionaries at Prague had hardly set up their government, when they appealed to the Protestant Union for help. This distract- The Union ed body was never capable of resolute action, but it sent hemian rebels. sufficient aid to permit a successful preliminary campaign against an unprepared enemy. In the midst of it (16 19) the incapable Matthias died, and the Hapsburg dominions passed to amanof altogether different mould, Ferdinand II. Ferdinand II. (1619-37), who had been brought up Ferdinand II., by the Jesuits, united with a narrow Catholic intolerance ^ ^^^^' many incontestable Christian virtues and undeniable ex- ecutive ability. He was acknowledged in all his domin- ions but Bohemia, and the electors of the Empire, although the electoral college was partly Protestant, so far accepted the time-honored ascendancy of the House of Hapsburg as to elect him emperor. Ferdinand felt that having gained so much, he must now undertake the recovery of Bohemia. He appealed to the Catholic League for Appeals to the help, and Maximilian of Bavaria, its president, readily heip?^^ ^^ granted it. Maximilian and Ferdinand had been brought up to- gether under the same Jesuit influences, and from boyhood had been sincerely attached to each other and to their re- ligion. Maximilian was even more active and more Maximilian of capable in a practical sense than Ferdinand, and so was ^^^"^ doubly urged, by religion and by ambition, to lend his friend aid for the Bohenyan enterprise. Moreover, 146 Modern Europe The decisive Bohemian campaign. The Palatin- ate occupied by the Cath- oHcs. events had just taken a new turn. The Bohemian Prot- estants, in order to strengthen their hand, had elected Frederick, count palatine of the Rhine and head of the Protestant Union, king of Bohemia, and Maximilian, as head of the League, felt that he could not let his adversary assume this honor unchallenged. In the year 1620, there followed the campaign which decided the fate of Bohemia. Frederick, the new king, proved utterly inadequate for his task. The Protestant Union gave little help; the Lutheran elector of Saxony even joined the Catholics. At the battle of the White Hill, just outside of Prague, the united forces of the em- peror and the League scattered the army of Frederick to the four winds, and drove Frederick ^ himself precipitate- ly across Germany to the Netherlands. Ferdinand and his Jesuits immediately took possession of Bohemia and forced it back to Catholicism. The war would now have been over if the Catholics had been contented with their first success. But urged on by Spain and the Jesuits, the emperor allowed himself to be hurried into a new and larger enterprise. He placed the defeated count palatine Frederick under the ban of the Empire, and commissioned Maximilian to occupy his ter- ritories, \vhich straggled in loose array along southern Germany from the Rhine to Bohemia, and were known under the name of ^ the Palatinate. Even the Lutherans, hitherto indifferent, became excited at this outrage, and a number of campaigns were necessary before Maximilian's troops could execute the imperial order. And now a new danger arose. Protestants the world over had expressed their grief at the defeat of their co- > Frederick is known under the derisive sobriquet of the Winter-king. He was monarch for a season only, and vanished at the coming of the spring. • Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia 147 religionists in Germany, while the European Catholics eel- The situation ebrated the emperor's victory as their own. Religion, it te^resT the rest must be remembered, was still the dominant interest of the °^ Europe, day. Thus Frederick's misfortunes gradually won him the sympathies of foreign Protestant monarchs, and especially of James I. of England, whose daughter Elizabeth 1 Frederick had married. But all the larger states which sympathized with Frederick were for the present restrained from giving help by difiiculties of their own. James I. had begun that quarrel with his Parliament, which under his successor led to civil war, and annulled England's influence in continen- tal affairs until the time of Cromwell. France, too, where Richelieu had just come to power (1624), was interested in sustaining Frederick against the House of Hapsburg, but had her hands full with the difficulties caused by the Huguenots. Again, in the Netherlands the twelve year's truce had come to an end (162 1), and Spain had just renewed the war against her former subjects, while the leading Scan- dinavian power, Sweden, was engaged in fighting Russia and Poland. The only power, therefore, which, for the present, could be persuaded to interfere in behalf of the count pal- atine was Denmark. As things then stood, interference from some quarter or another was becoming absolutely necessary, if Protes- tantism in southern Germany was not to be given up as The emperor lost. For the emperor, rendered bold by the general Euro- paSt^nate as i1 pean situation, favorable for the moment to Catholicism, it were his. had just taken another step, from which the full intention of the Jesuits who controlled him, could be easily inferred : he had given the electoral dignity and part of the territory of the banished Frederick to his Catholic ally, Maximilian, duke and henceforth elector of Bavaria (1623). 1 Frederick and Ehzabeth are the ancestors of the present sovereigns of England (see genealogical chart). 148 Modern Europe The theatre transferred to the north. The two Cath- ohc armies of Tilly and Wallenstein. VVallensteiu's methods. The Danish War {162^-2^). — In the year 1625, Christian IV., king of Denmark, liaving secured the prom- ise of money-help from England, gave ear to the sup- plications of the Calvinistic wing of the German Protes- tants and placed himself at their head. The theatre of the war was thus immediately transferred from the south to the north. Again the Catholics won a complete victory. The two Protestant armies which took the field, one under Christian IV., the other under the adventurer Mansfeld, were neither well disciplined nor well led. The two Catholic armies which operated against them were in every way their su- periors. The first of these had been equipped by the Catholic League and was commanded by Tilly, the victor of the White Hill, while the second had only lately been got to- gether by the personal activity of a Bohemian nobleman, one Wallenstein^, who placed it at the service of the emperor. This Wallenstein was destined to acquire a terrible repu- tation in Germany, for it was he who inaugurated that system of warfare which was soon imitated by others, and makes the Thirty Years' War a term of horror to this day. The emperor, owing to the exhaustion of his treasury, had hitherto waged the war primarily with the troops of the League. Wallenstein now proposed the bold plan of rais- ing an army for him which should cost him nothing. His notion was convincingly simple ; the army was to live by fines, confiscations, and rapine. Wallenstein's personal magnetism, his promise of large pay and plunder, soon furnished him with a numerous army of adventurers, who cared neither for Catholicism nor Protestantism, and blindly served their chief. Wherever this army passed, were it through land of friend or foe, it left a desert behind. » Wallenstein's real name was Waldstein. The wrong form has its justification in custom. Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia 149 A victory won by Wallenstein over Mansfeld, at the Denmark Bridge of Dessau (1626), and another won by Tilly over ^^^^^^ P^^^^- Christian IV. at Lutter (1626), proved decisive of the Danish fortunes. The armies of League and emperor in- vaded the peninsula of Jutland, and, though Christian con- tinued to defend himself, he had finally to give way. In the year 1629 he was glad to sign the Peace of Llibeck with the emperor, upon terms which secured him his terri- tories in return for the promise that he would not again interfere in the affairs of Germany. Even before the Peace of Lubeck was signed, Wallenstein Waiienstein's had covered the whole Protestant north with his troops. His ^ ^"^' remarkable mind was nursing designs so vast and intricate that no historian even of our day can claim to have pene- trated them. Probably their gist was to destroy the power of the German princes, to build up a strong united Ger- many under the emperor, with himself as a kind of mayor of the palace, and to make Germany a naval power. His successes were unchecked till he arrived at Stralsund, a First defeat at port of the Baltic Sea. This city, although he vowed in his 1-629.^"" ' wrath he would have it, ^'even though it were fastened to heaven by chains of iron," he could not take, and was forced to retire. Next to herself, Stralsund owed her de- liverance to the supplies, secretly contributed by a voluntary ally, Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden. This monarch had been for some time planning to interfere in the Ger- man war, but he was detained by a war which he had begun with Poland. While he was bringing this to a close and preparing to come in person to Germany, a number of events occurred there that greatly facilitated his projects. In spite of the slight check at Stralsund, the year 1629 The Edict of marks the climax of the Catholic successes. 7'he Peace of Liibecl^had removed Denmark from the struggle ; in the 1629. I50 Modern Europe Dismissal of VVallenstein. Reasons for the coming of Gustavus Adolphus length and breadth of Germany there was no army to re- sist the emperor ; and Wallenstein and Tilly held both the north and the south. This triumphant situation persuaded Ferdinand II. to strike a decisive blow at the Protestant religion. He pubhshed (1629) the Edict of Restitution, by which the Protestants were ordered to give up all Church territories which had been taken into posses- sion since the Peace of Augsburg (1555). As this affected two archbishoprics, nine bishoprics, and many monasteries, altogether a considerable fraction of German land, it will be understood why all Protestants, even the sluggish Lu- therans, were seized with consternation. For a moment differences were forgotten, and all stood firm, ready to re- new an opposition which seemed to have been broken by the tide of Catholic victory. Luckily for the Protestants, the emperor himself by his very next step frustrated his own policy. Wallenstein's savage warfare, above all, his imperial policy, which involved the ruin of the princes. Catholic and Protestant alike, had won him their united hatred. At the Diet of Ratisbon (Regensburg, 1630), they fiercely demanded his dismissal. The emperor hesitated for a moment, and then gave way. Wallenstein was forced to take leave of his army at the very moment when there gathered against Ferdinand the worst storm which had yet threatened. Swedish Period {i6jo-jf). — Wallenstein's retirement occurred almost at the same time as the landing in Germany of an army of Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus. What were the motives of this Swedish king in thus intervening in Ger- man affairs? They can still be made out with perfect ease. First, he was certainly moved by self-interest. Sweden was a Baltic power and had been striving for some time to make of the Baltic a *' Swedish lake." The wars which Gustavus Adolphus had directed against Russia and Poland were Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia 151 waged in obedience to this ambitious policy, and had prac- tically secured Sweden the whole Baltic coast as far as Prussia. The attempt of Wallenstein to establish the emperor along the northern coast of Germany might certainly be conceived as a danger by a Swedish patriot, and Gustavus, frightened at Wallenstein 's successes, gradually became convinced that the safety of his state depended upon the defeat of the House of Hapsburg. Secondly, he was an ardent Protestant, ready to risk a blow for a cause he loved. It is unnecessary to try to measure mathematically, as some historians have attempted to do, which of these two motives was dominant in his mind. Capable men, such as Gustavus, who combine ideal aspira- tions with a sense of the necessities and realities of power, always follow a line of action which delicately strikes the balance between a multitude of considerations. In any case, Gustavus came as a rescuing angel to the aid of a dying cause, and immediately gave to events that larger proportion, which lifted the brutal struggle of the religious parties momentarily to a higher plane. Everyone who follows the story of his intervention must feel that he merits the title he has won of the Protestant Hero. Gustavus attempted, upon landing in Germany, to se- Attitude of the cure the alliance of the German princes. But this was no pr^nceT easy matter. They were glad enough to have his help, but they had legitimate scruples about contributing in person to the defeat of their emperor and handing over Germany to a foreigner. While Gustavus was still negotiating with them, aid came to him from another quarter. Richelieu had now mastered the Huguenots (fall of La Rochelle, 1628), and was determined, like Gustavus, to proceed vig- orously against the Hapsburgs. Under the circumstances nothing was more natural than that France and Sweden Alliance with should form an aUiance, which was duly concluded in 1 63 1, and which henceforth determined the course of the France. 152 Modern Europe The sack of Magdeburg, 1631. The battle of Breitenfeld, 1631. Gustavus becomes the hero of Prot- estant Ger- many. Occupies Bavaria. war. For the present, however, the part of France was hmited to a contribution of money to the Swedish treasury. All this time Gustavus was in the north, waiting for the Protestant princes to join him. While they were still hesitating, fearful alike about the oppression of the em- peror and the salvation promised by the king of Sweden, the army of the League, under Tilly, took, plundered, and utterly destroyed the great Protestant city of Magdeburg (1631). The horror of the terrible massacre (20,000 in- habitants were butchered by the soldiery) did more than persuasion, and threw the Protestants, and, above all, the greatest prince of the north, the elector of Saxony, upon the Swedish side. Having secured this important ally, Gustavus could now march south against Tilly without fear of an insurrection at his back. At Breitenfeld, near Leipsic, a great battle took place, in which Swedish gen- eralship and discipline astonished the world by utterly de- feating the veteran army of Tilly (September, 163 1). The victory of Breitenfeld laid all Germany at the feet of Gustavus. Never was there a more complete dramatic change. The Catholics, who, a year before, had held the reins in their hands, were now in exactly the same help- less position in which the Protestants had then found them- selves. Gustavus, received everywhere with jubilation by the Protestants, whom he had delivered, marched without opposition, straight across Germany to the Rhine. The march was nothing less than a triumphal progress. But in spite of flattery Gustavus did not" allow himself to be car- ried off his feet. However, during the idle hours of the winter -quarters on the Rhine, all kinds of plans crossed his mind ; it is probable that he thought for a moment of making himself emperor of Protestant Germany. The spring, and the work which it brought, scattered such dreams. Again taking the field he directed his forces Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia 153 straight upon the country of his enemies. Triumph was added to triumph in the new campaign. At the river Lech, Tilly was defeated and killed, and shortly after, Mu- nich, the Bavarian capital, fell into the hands of the Swedes- To the world at large it seemed as if Vienna was likewise doomed. In this terrible situation Ferdinand again turned to Wallenstein for help. That general, since his dismissal, had been sulking on his estates. When Ferdinand's ambas- Wallenstein sador now besought him for aid he affected indifference, but rescue, at length he allowed himself to be persuaded to collect an army, upon condition that his command be declared per- manent and absolute. Then he floated his standards to the wind, and immediately the old veterans flocked around their beloved leader. In the summer of 1632 Wallenstein and Gustavus, the two greatest generals of their day, took the field against each other. After long futile manoeuvring around Nurem- berg, in which Wallenstein won some slight advantages. The battle of the two armies met for a decisive encounter at Liitzen, not vember, 1632. far from Leipsic (November, 1632). The armies of that day were not large; 20,000 Swedes confronted about as many Imperialists. After the Swedish army had knelt in prayer and the trumpeters had sounded the grand old hymn of Luther, ''A Mighty Fortress is our God," Gustavus ordered the attack. The combat was long and fierce, but the Swedes won the day; they won, but at a terrible cost. In one of the charges of horse, the impetuosity of Gustavus had carried him too far into the ranks of the enemy, and he was surrounded and slain. With the death of the king of Sweden, all higher inter- Degeneration est vanishes from the war. His great achievement had the death of been this : he had saved the cause of Protestantism in Ger- Gustavus. many, and perhaps, in the world — that is, he had saved a cause which, however repulsive in some of its manifesta- 154 Modern Europe Swedes defeated at Nordlingen, 1634- Murder of Wallenstein. The emperor desires peace. tions, was without doubt tlie cause of human freedom. But now on Gustavus's death, the war lost its meaning. Ad- venturers, raising armies on their own account, robbed and murdered on zig-zag marches through Germany, and foreign powers interfered for their own greedy ends until the original question of religion was completely buried from sight. For a few more years the Swedes, under various lieu- tenants, trained in the school of Gustavus, and under the political direction of the Chancellor Oxenstiern, who represented Gustavus's infant daughter, Queen Christine, tried to hold what had been won for them. But in 1634 they were defeated by the Imperialists, under the younger Ferdinand, the emperor's son, at Nordlingen, and had to give up southern Germany. Wallenstein was, at that time, no longer at the head of the imperial forces. Having fallen under the suspicion of treachery he was murdered by a band of conspirators at Eger, in Bohemia, just as he was making ready to betray his master to the Swedes (February, 1634). The victory of the Imperialists at Nordlingen had two important consequences. First, it reestablished the prestige of the emperor. Thereupon Ferdinand, who had at last learned a lesson in moderation, resolved to make peace with his Protestant subjects. He signed the Treaty of Prague with the elector of Saxony, in which he virtually withdrew the obnoxious Edict of Restitution (1635). But the concession came too late to end the German troubles. In fact, the decision between peace and war had imperceptibly pa.ssed out of the hands of the German princes, and now lay with those powers, who, through the faults of the Germans, had been drawn into Germany to take a hand in their struggles. At this very moment — and this is the second consequence of the emperor's victory at Nordlingen — the Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia 155 most dangerous of all of Germany's enemies was preparing France enters to interfere in the war. Richelieu, as we saw, had contented himself hitherto with supporting Sweden with money. But since the battle of Nordlingen proved that Sweden alone was no longer a match for the emperor, Richelieu now resolved on a more vigorous interference. In 1635 he declared war against the emperor and against Spain. French- Swedish Period, 16^^-48. From now on the war was the conflict of the House of Bourbon, allied in Germany with Sweden and in the Nether- lands with the Dutch, against the Spanish and the Austrian Changed char- branches of the House of Hapsburg ; and the theatre of the ^var. struggle of these two dynasties for the leadership in Europe was the territory where their interests clashed — the Nether- lands, Italy, and, of course, Germany. The Protestant princes, mere pigmies in this universal contest, sank more and more out of sight. If the war continued, it was not be- cause of any interests of theirs, but because Richelieu was set upon reducing the Hapsburgs in the world, and would not retire until France and Sweden had gained a firm foot- hold in Germany. The campaigns of this last period of the war consist, therefore, of a patient forward thrust across the Rhine into southern Germany, on the part of France, and a steady movement southward from the Baltic, on the part of Swe- The attack of den. The emperor, aided by subsidies from Spain, but svre"cfen^" rarely by her troops (for Spain was engaged to the extent of her capacity in the Netherlands and Italy), made what re- sistance he could, while the Germans looked on, for the most part indifferent, weary to death of the long struggle, and unable to see any further meaning in it. Under these conditions, and especially after the great generals, Turenne and the prince of Conde, were put at the head of the French 156 Modern Europe troops, the emperor was steadily pushed back. Year in, year out, Germany was harried by fire and sword. The cities fell into decay, the country was deserted by the peasants. When the product of labor was sure to become the booty of marauders, nobody cared to work. So the people The long fell into idleness, were butchered, or died of hunger cSrniany. ^r of pestilence. The only profession which afforded se- curity and a livelihood was that of the soldier, and soldier meant robber and murderer. Armies, therefore, became mere bands, organized for pillage, and marched up and down the country, followed by immense hordes of starved camp-followers, women and children, who hoped, in this way, to get a sustenance which they could not find at home.^ Finally, defeat upon defeat brought the emperor to terms. Ferdinand II., who had begun the war, having died in the meantime, it was his son and successor, Ferdi- nand III. (1637-57), who put an end to the general mis- ery by signing, after wearisome negotiations, a peace with all his enemies, called the Peace of Westphalia (1648).'* The end of the The Peace of Westphalia is, from the variety of matter '^^^' which it treats, one of the most important documents in history. First, it determined what territorial compensa- tion France and Sweden were to have in Germany for The main sub- their victories over the emperor ; secondly, it laid a new basis Peace of ^ for the peace between Protestantism and Catholicism ; and, Westphaha. thirdly, it authorized an important political readjustment of Germany. All these rubrics will be considered separately. As to the first rubric, Sweden received the western half of Pomerania, and the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden. By these possessions she was put in control • "A body of 40,000 fighting men drew along with it a loathsome following of no less than 140,000 men, women, and children." — Gardiner. "The cities of Mfinster and Osnabruck, where the plenipotentiaries met to negotiate this peace, lie in the Province of Westphalia. Thirty Years' War and Peace of Westphalia 157 of the mouths of the German rivers, the Oder, Elbe, and Cessions to Weser, and therewith of a good part of the German ship- l^a^nlS! ^""^ *° ping. France was confirmed in the possession of the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, which she had acquired under Henry II. (1552), and received, in addi- tion, Alsace, with the exception of the city of Strasburg and a few inconsiderable districts. Under the second rubric, we note that the Peace of The religious Augsburg was confirmed, and that the toleration these ^^"^"^^"'^• granted to the Lutherans was extended to the Calvinists. In regard to the bishoprics, which the Edict of Restitution had declared to be Catholic, the victory remained substan- tially with the Protestants, for the year 1624 was desig- nated as ''normal year," it being agreed that whatever land had been Protestant at that time should remain Prot- estant, and vice versa. Under the third rubric it is necessary to note a variety Disruption of political and territorial changes within Germany. First, o^^^''"^^"y- the princes were given a number of new sovereign rights ; among others, the right of forming alliances with each other, and with foreign powers. Therewith the decentral- ization of Germany was completed, and the single states legally declared as good as independent. Furthermore, the heir of the deposed elector and count palatine Fred- erick was reinstated in his father's Rhenish territories, and an eighth electorate created for him. And notably, the elector of Brandenburg received additions of territory, which made him not only the greatest Protestant prince, but the greatest prince altogether in Germany, after the emperor. Brandenburg, thus enlarged, was destined to Growth of grow into a kingdom (Prussia), and become in time the ^i^^^denburg. rival and conqueror of Austria, and the recreator of the German political unity of which the Peace of Westphalia made an end. As a last curious item, it may be added 158 Modern Europe Switzerland and the Netherlands. Effect of the war on Ger- many. The Peace of Westphalia closes the era of religious wars. that Switzerland and the Dutch Netherlands (Seven United Provinces), which had once been members of the Em- pire, but had long ago won a practical independence, were formally declared free from any obligations to that body. Germany after her insufferable crisis lay insensible and exhausted. Perhaps the contemporary stories of the ruin done by the war are exaggerated, — in any case it is certain that Germany took more than a hundred years to recover from her disasters. In some respects, doubtless, she is only just now recovering from them. The simple fact is, that the material edifice of civilization, together with most of the moral and intellectual savings of an ancient society, had been destroyed, and that what was left was barbarism. The generation which survived the war had grown up without schools, almost without pastors and churches, and to its men- tal and moral bluntness it added, owing to the long rule of force, a disdain for all simple and honest occupations. Yet, if there was to be a recovery, it would have to result from long, conscientious labor in all departments of prog- ress. Was the nation likely to appreciate this necessity ? Figures, although the statistics of those days are uncertain, help us to realize the terrible situation. Augsburg, the great southern centre of trade, had had 80,000 inhabitants ; the war reduced the city to a provincial town of 16,000. Whole districts were depopulated : in Brandenburg, one could travel days without meeting a peasant ; in Saxony, bands of wolves took possession of the empty villages. Finally, the war left the Empire with a population of about 12,000,000 — that is, with one-third the number it had once possessed. The Peace of Westphalia had also a European signifi- cance. It dealt with so many international affairs, that it may be said to have been, in a measure, a constitution of Thirty Years War and Peace of Westphalia 159 Europe, and practically, it was the basis of European public law till the French Revolution. We may also take it to mark a turning point in the destinies of civilization. From the time of Luther the chief interest of Europe had been the question of religion. Europe was divided into two camps, Catholicism and Protestantism, which opposed each other with all their might. In the Peace of Westphalia, the two parties recorded what they had gradually been learning, — which was, that such a fight was futile, and that they would better learn to put up with each other. Almost imperceptibly men's minds had grown more tolerant, even if the taws were not always so, and this is, when all is said, the more satisfactory progress. The best proof of the improved state of the European mind toward the middle of the seventeenth century, is offered by the prac- tical application of this very peace instrument. The toleration there granted was merely of the old kind — the toleration of the princes, but not of the individuals, ex- pressed by the famous cujus regio, ejus religio (he who The principle rules the country may settle its religion) — yet, persecution of individuals was henceforth the exception, and not the rule. It would be an exaggeration to say that the principle of toleration had now been conquered for humanity, or that the squabbles for religion's sake ceased in the world, but it may be asserted, without fear of contradiction, that toleration had won with the Peace of Westphalia a definite recognition among the upper and the cultured classes. Dur- ing the next one hundred and fifty years, the principle filtrated gradually through the literary labor of many noble thinkers, to the lowest strata of society, and became in the era of the French Revolution a possession of all mankind. As early as the period of the Westphalian treaties, however, religion ceased to be the first interest of states, or the primary cause of their quarrels. That place was taken by of toleration. i6o Modern Europe political interests ; in other words, governments concerned themselves primarily henceforth with problems of their own reconstruction or with territorial aggrandizement at the expense of their neighbors. A new period of European history had begun, which we call the period of absolutism and the dynastic wars. PERIOD II The Era of Absolutism and the Dynastic Wars; FROM THE Peace of Westphalia to the French Revolution (1648-1789). bibliography. General Histories. [For General Histories which cover the whole Modern Period the reader is referred to the preceding bibliography.] Wakeman : European History, from 1598 to 171 5. Full of good material, well arranged, and well presented. Hassall : European History, from 1715 to 1789. Intended as a con- tinuation of Wakeman. There are a number of serviceable volumes in the Epoch Series. Such are : The English Restoration and Louis XIV. ; The Age of Anne ; The Early Hanoverians. Others will be referred to under Special Histories. Special Histories. [For Special Histories which cover the whole Modern Period the reader is referred to the preceding bibliography.] Germany. Longman : Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. Good and readable. Carlyle : History of Frederick the Great. A work on a unique scale. Unfolds a magnificent panorama of the whole eighteenth century. Truthful in spirit, but not always correct in detail. 161 1 62 Modern Europe France. Voltaire: The Age of Louis XIV. Offers an almost contemporary view. Spirited but inaccurate. Also, The Age of Louis XV. Great Britain. Gardiner : The Puritan Revolution. An excellent sketch. Gardiner: History of England (1602-42), 10 vols. This and the other works of Gardiner may be called authoritative. Gardiner: History of the Civil War (1642-45), 4 vols. Gardiner: History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate (1649-60), 2 vols. Carlyle : Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 2 vols. This col- lection constitutes Cromwell's noblest monument. Lecky : England in the Eighteenth Century, 8 vols. McCarthy : The Four Georges. Readable but unsubstantial. There are a great number of contemporary memoirs. P^or the period of Cromwell see Whitelock ; for the Restoration, Pepys and Evelyn. Other Countries. Voltaire : History of Charles XII. of Sweden. Interesting and anec- dotal, but not trustworthy. Works of the Imagination. Scott : The Fortunes of Nigel. Time of James I. Stott : Peveril of the Peak. Time of Charles II. Thackeray : Henry Esmond. Time of Marlborough. Thackeray : The Virginians. Later Eighteenth Century. A great number of the spirited stories of Dumas and Weyman deal with this period. CHAPTER I ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. THE STUARTS, THE PURITAN REVOLUTION, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY UNDER WILLIAM III. Reign of James I., i6oj-2^. Elizabeth was succeeded upon her death by the next James, the first heir to the crown, James I., the son of Mary Stuart. Great Britain James, who was already king of Scotland, united in his per- son for the first time the sovereignty over the kingdoms con- stituting Great Britain. But it must be understood that the union of England and Scotland which the accession of James established, was for the present, merely what we may call a personal union ; that is, the accession of James gave the two countries a common sovereign, but not, as yet, common laws and institutions. It was unfortunate that at a time when the character of Character of the sovereign greatly influenced the government, such a ^ man as James should have been on the throne. Physically he was anything but regal — a bent, shuffling figure, ^' a king of shreds and patches" — and morally he was totally devoid of force and fibre. But he had intelligence, or rather information, and his exhibition of a pedantic knowl- edge drew from Henry IV. of France the derisive compli- ment : *' James I. is the wisest fool of Christendom." All this might have made him harmless, if he had not had the most exaggerated idea of his office, and the obstinacy to insist upon that idea on all occasions. He formulated his 163 1 64 Modern Europe The favorable conditio^ of the kingdom. James alien- ates the Puri- tans. theory as follows : ' * As for the absolute prerogative of the crown, that is no subject for the tongue of a lawyer. It is atheism to dispute what God can do ; so it is presumption in a subject to dispute what a king can do, or say that a king cannot do this or that." Such a theory had been maintained in England by certain popular monarchs — EHz- abeth herself had held no other — but how if the monarch were unpopular and systematically alienated his people ? The accession of James occurred at a favorable moment. The defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) had established the authority of England without. Within, the Catholics were a waning party, and the Anglican Church, which was alone recognized by the law (Acts of Supremacy and Uni- formity, 1559), had, under Elizabeth, acquired solidarity and respect. The Puritan party within the Church, which inclined toward Calvinistic views, was by no means violent, and could be conciliated by a few concessions taking account of their aversion to the surplice, to genuflections, and similar externals of the service. The question was whether James would show the breadth of mind which the solution of this question demanded. Shortly after his accession, in 1604, he called a confer- ence at Hampton Court for the purpose of discussing with the Puritans the feasibility of Church innovations. Un- fortunately he lost his temper on that occasion, and with- out cause, flared up against the Puritan ministers. He groundlessly denounced the Puritans as enemies of epis- copacy, and pledged himself with undue emphasis to the support of that system of church government. ^' No bishop, no king," was the substance of his harangue. All this was very foolish ; for, apart from the folly of making the main- tenance of the monarchy depend on the maintenance of the bishops, it was impolitic to impute to the Puritans a pro- gramme which they had never supported, but which would England in the Seventeenth Century 165 from now on appear more and more attractive. Once more let us remember that the Puritans at this time were far from being revokitionary ; that they accepted the Church of England and the principle of episcopacy ; and that they de- manded only a few liberties, chiefly respecting ceremonial non-essentials. It was, therefore, extremely unwise on the part of the king to dismiss the Puritan petitioners gruffly, and to order, shortly after this declaration, the removal from their livings of those of the clergy who refused to con- form to every minute prescription of the Anglican service. The Catholic party, too, had expected an alleviation of The gunpow- its position through James's accession. When it found that nothing was done to make its lot lighter, certain desperate men resolved upon vengeance. They deliberately planned to destroy the whole English government, king, Lords, and Commons, by one gigantic stroke. They heaped gunpow- der in barrels in the Parliament cellars, and set November 5, 1605 — the day of the opening in state of a new session — for the monstrous crime. Suspicion, however, had been awakened through a letter of warning, sent by a conspirator to a friend who was a member of the House of Lords; and luckily, on the very eve of the planned disaster, Guy Fawkes, the hardiest of the conspirators, was discovered keeping watcti among the explosives. He and his helpmates were arrested and executed, and the English people were once more confirmed in that intense hatred and distrust of the Catholic faith which long remained the first article of their religious and political programme. The gunpowder plot had the effect of attaching such extreme odium to the Catholic party that it greatly dwindled and may almost be left out of consideration in the future as an element of the population. The troubles with the Puritans and Catholics were not The rights of king and Par- the only difficulties which James's pohcy raised about him. liament. 66 Modern Europe The question of who con- trolled the na- tion's purse Increasing se- verity of the Parliament. He managed also to quarrel with his Parliament. In the England of that time the rights of king and of Parliament were not accurately determined, and the king's prerogative was necessarily vague. It must be remembered that there was no written constitution, and that the legal basis for every political action was found in a mass of frequently con- flicting customs and statutes. Under these circumstances a monarch could do a great many things which a Parlia- ment might, on the ground of some ancient ordinance, dis- pute, but which a Parliament, if well-disposed in general toward the monarch, and if convinced that the particular act was wise, would not dispute. Now James's finances fell into disorder, — a sore matter with every government. Probably a little clever leading of Parliament would have brought that body around to a complete and wholesome reform of the finances, but James preferred in his high-handed and stupid way to order the levy of a number of questionable taxes on his own author- ity, and to trust to luck that Parliament would, after a little haggling, yield him the point. In this he was mistaken. Parliament after Parliament allowed itself to be dissolved rather than take his dictation in this matter. And what was the result ? What originally had been merely a practical business question, was soon raised to a matter of principle, and the irritated Commons began to ask themselves if the king had a right to raise any kind of tax at all without their consent. In this way the question, who controlled the nation's purse, was definitely placed before the people, and an answer would have to be found sooner or later, whether by peaceful adjustment or by war. James and his Parliaments, therefore, quarrelled through- out his reign, with the result of an increasing irritation on both sides. In the year 162 1 the spite of the Commons reached the point of a savage attack on the whole adminis- England in the Seventeenth Century 167 tration, the incident culminating in the famous impeach- ment of the Lord Chancellor, Francis Bacon. The great philosopher stood, by virtue of his office, near the king, and it was felt that a blow which struck the servant would not be lost upon the master. Evidence having been adduced that Bacon, the highest judge of the realm, had received fees The trial of which practically amounted to bribes, he was condemned to imprisonment and to a heavy money fine. James made no attempt to shield his minister from justice, but he honor- ably stepped in to preserve the greatest thinker of his time from the worst consequences of the verdict. There can be no doubt that Bacon was guilty of illegal practices, but, as he himself argued in his defence, they were the common custom of the day. And it may be asserted that these prac- tices would not have met with condemnation if the Parlia- ment had not desired a scapegoat to satisfy its deep irrita- tion against the king. The trial of Bacon is symptomatic of a new attitude of the Parliament toward the king, and therein lies its constitutional importance. To his unpopularity James's foreign policy contributed. James's policy His one notion was peace. That was not bad in itself, but James contrived an impractical course. He tried to asso- ciate himself with Spain, arguing that an understanding between the leading Protestant and the leading Catholic power would secure peace to the world. Unfortunately the Spaniards only hoodwinked him, and the English became thoroughly disaffected by this policy of knuckling down to their ancient foe. Nevertheless the king persisted in his course. In 16 18 he had Sir Walter Raleigh, one of the popular Elizabethan heroes, executed for venturing to attack a Spanish village in South America. And when, in that same year, the Thirty Years' War broke out in Germany, instead of assisting his son-in-law, Frederick of the Palati- nate, who was elected king of Bohemia, he remained an of peace. 1 68 Modern Europe The journey to Madrid. English colo- nization. Ireland. America. indifferent spectator, in the hope that Spain would some- how kindly interfere in his relative's behalf. In the end his son-in-law was driven from Germany. But in spite of the fact that all the world was arming James was still talk- ing peace. In 1623 he resorted to a last measure to attach Spain to his policy. He sent his son Charles, under the direction of his favorite, the duke of Buckingham, to Madrid, to effect a union of the two royal houses in the form of a marriage be- tween the Infanta, the sister of the Spanish king, and the heir of the English throne. Charles and Buckingham took the journey in a romantic disguise which suited their temper and their youth. But the exactions of the court of Madrid were such that they soon left in disgust. James thereupon did what he should have done long ago. He resolved to make war upon Spain, but died before anything had been done (1625). It is a relief to turn from this chapter of mistaken efforts to the more productive field of James's colonial enterprises. In 16 10 occurred the first settlement of Ulster, the north- eastern province of Ireland, with English and Scotch colo- nists. Before James's time Ireland had given to monarch after monarch nothing but trouble, and James hoped that his scheme of colonization would bring the unruly island under his control. However, in order to carry out his pol- icy he had to confiscate the land and crowd the natives back into the marshes. This act of violence, which the Irish took to be nothing less than a crime, stamped an indelible hatred of the English in their souls. In the new world, another and an altogether more happy colonization was un- dertaken. In 1607 the first permanent English colony was planted in Virginia, and in 1620 the first band of Separatists, a party of radical Puritans, who had separated themselves from the Anglican Church and h?id at first taken refuge England in the Seventeenth Century 169 from persecution in Holland, set out across the Atlantic. From the valiant labors of themselves and their Puritan successors in the wilderness of Massachusetts developed in time a prosperous colony, and sprang the germs of that society which became the United States of America. Fur- thermore, in 161 2, the East India Company, which had India, been chartered under Elizabeth, secured its first foothold in India. Thus, the victories of Elizabeth's reign having cleared the way, the Anglo-Saxon race planted under James the seeds of its expansion in the east and in the west, and laid the foundations of the English commercial supremacy of our day. Reign of Charles I. , 162^-4^- Charles I., who succeeded James in the year 1625, was Character of outwardly very unlike his father. His face, familiar to us ^^ ^^' from Van Dyck's frequent reproductions, was handsome, and his manner kingly. He was also intelligent and con- scientious, but the trait of Stuart obstinacy in him spoiled all. Regarding the royal prerogative, he shared the views of his father, and believed, like James, that a Parliament ought not to be conciliated, but cowed. The two main difficulties created by James bore imme- Struggle be- diate and dangerous fruit in the new reign. James had me^t^and^^'^' roused the slumbering Puritanism of his subjects and had a'hfad"™^^ *° raised the question with his Parliament as to who controlled taxation. Charles, by persisting in James's course of hos- tility to Puritans and Parliament, succeeded, in an incredi- bly short time, in developing the prejudices of his people into a violent opposition to himself, and in rousing the Com- mons, who had been servilely docile under Elizabeth and, even while protesting, had been deeply respectful under James, to the point where they plainly put the question : who was sovereign in England, Parliament or king ? I^O Modern Europe Charles falls out with I he Commons in m tters of re- ligion. Charles falls out with his Parliament over the war with Spain. In the very year of his accession, Charles married Hen- rietta Maria, a sister of Louis XIII. of France. This mar- riage with a CathoHc was extremely unpopular in England. It was rendered doubly so by the fact that Charles had entered upon an agreement with Louis to offer the English Catholics his protection. Over this concession to a hostile faith the Parliament straightway flew into a passion. It grew still more excited when the fact became known that the king had lavished favors upon certain Anglican churchmen who had publicly attacked the Calvinistic doctrines then held by the majority of Englishmen. There is no doubt that the king meant well enough, and certainly he was far from the thought of betraying the cause of Protestantism ; but his religious liberalism bore the character of laxity in the minds of the severe believers of that day and aroused gen- eral suspicion. The Commons, in consequence, adopted an uncompromising Protestant policy. They began to lay more and more stress on those features of the Anglican Church which were emphatically Protestant, and less and less on those which had been retained from the Catholic estabhshment. Thus while the doctrines aroused their en- thusiasm, they grew increasingly indifferent about the prac- tices and ceremonies. From these latter, however, the king, who had a fondness for outward show, would abate no jot or tittle. Monarch and Commons, as a result, drifted farther and farther apart on questions of religion ; and under the unconscious action of resentment, the people began falling away from their own ceremonial Anglican traditions and edging over to Puritan ground. Protestant- ism had only lately become the sovereign faith of England, and now a conflict was threatened in its bosom. Not satisfied with alienating his people by arousing their religious animosity, the king also alienated them by his political conduct. The war with Spain furnished England in the Seventeenth Century 171 him the occasion. He had inherited it from his father, and was bent on carrying it on. The ParHament was not unwilHng to give him support — for the war with Spain was popular — but to such grants of money as it made, it attached the condition that the war be carried on effec- tively and under good leaders. This condition Charles, to his misfortune, neglected. He intrusted the conduct of the war to the duke of Buckingham, once his father's favorite and now his own, and the duke of Buckingham, who was handsome and dashing, but unfit for weighty busi- ness, reaped nothing but disaster. Two expeditions, one di- rected against the Spanish Netherlands and the other against Cadiz, ended in utter failure. Thereupon, the Commons refused to give the king more money until the duke was removed from the council, and, as the king refused to allow himself to be dictated to in the matter of his ministers, there ensued a deadlock which Charles tried in vain to break by the repeated dissolution of Parliament. In the year 1627 matters grew worse. The king, not Buckingham content with one war upon his hands, allowed himself with France, to be driven into a war with France, in behalf of the French Huguenots who were being besieged by Richelieu in Ta Rochelle. As the Huguenots were hard pressed, and there was no other way of getting money for a rescuing expedi- tion, Charles adopted a perilous device : he forced the rich to make him a loan. But the sums, thus illegally extorted, brought no blessing. A relief expedition, which sailed for Rochelle under Buckingham, failed as miserably . as the attack upon Cadiz. As a result ignominy in the war with France was added to the ignominy already in- curred in the war with Spain. The Parliament which met in 1628 was therefore justified The Petition in its outbreak of wrath against the Government. Before ° ^^ granting another penny it insisted that the grievances of the 172 Modern Europe Murder of Buckingham, 1628. Tunnage and Poundage. nation be redressed. In a document called the Petition of Right, it made a formal assertion of its claims. The Petition of Right declared forced loans illegal, and main- tained that no tax whatever could be levied without the con- sent of Parliament. Further, it condemned a number of practices, such as arbitrary arrests and billeting of troops upon householders, in which the king had lately indulged as if they were a part of his royal prerogative. The Peti- tion of Right was firmly announced to be a prerequisite to all further concessions by the Parliament. Charles, who had two wars on his hands and no money, had to give way. The Petition of Right, celebrated as a renewal of Magna Charta, was accepted and became the law of the land (1628). However, the Petition of Right did not dispose of the internal troubles. The obnoxious Buckingham was not dis- missed ; the excitement, which had permeated all classes, did not subside. Proof of the degree of hatred which the party strife had reached was offered soon enough. While a new expedition to Rochelle was fitting at Portsmouth, a fanatic patriot, John Felton by name, stabbed the duke of Buckingham to death (1628). The king grieved over the loss of his favorite, but his policy remained obstinately un- changed. And this at a moment when a struggle was threatening with his Parliament greater than any that had preceded ! It was the practice in England to vote certain customs duties, called Tunnage and Poundage, at the beginning of a reign, for the duration of the king's life. These formed the most considerable income of the treasury, and without them the government could not be carried on. By an oversight, the Commons had not voted Tunnage and Poundage for the life of Charles, and now that they had a grievance against him, they resolved not to vote this tax until they had received in return fresh assurances of good England in the Seventeenth Century 173 government. Charles grew highly excited over their con- duct, which to him seemed mere bickering, and in the session of 1629 the conflict between king and Commons broke out anew. After a few unfruitful negotiations, The crisis of Charles determined to dissolve Parliament ; but the mem- ^ ^^' bers getting wind of it, passed, before the adjournment, amidst a scene unparalleled for excitement in English Par- liamentary annals, a number of resolutions, affirming that the levy of Tunnage and Poundage was illegal and that whosoever paid it was a traitor. Thus over the question of Tunnage and Poundage, war Definite was virtually declared between king and Parliament. The t^eg^ king long rivalry of the two parties left little hope of an ^g^j^^"^^^^" amicable adjustment between them. One or the other, king or Parliament, therefore, was likely to win, and which- ever won would be the real ruler of England. For the next eleven years (1629-40) the king had the Eleven years upper hand. The extensive prerogative acquired by his parliament, predecessors gave him at first a distinct advantage over the ambitious Commons. Among other privileges, he was not obliged to assemble Parliament at all, unless he wanted a new subsidy, and as anything was better than having Parlia- ment again, he now resolved to get along with the revenues he had. But this plan necessitated economy, and, above all, the termination of the expensive wars with France and Spain. Before the end of 1630, therefore, Charles had made his peace with these two powers. His outlook now was, on the whole, exceedingly hopeful. Tunnage and Poundage, although condemned by the Commons, was reg- ularly paid into the exchequer by a people who were not yet ready to renounce their king, and Tunnage and Pound- age, taken together with a number of other taxes which had been regularly provided, were found quite sufficient for the ordinary expenses of the administration. 174 Modern Europe Wentworth and Laud. Laud's Church policy. Charles's chief advisers during the eleven years* interlude of practically absolute government were Thomas Went- worth, better known by his later title of earl of Strafford, and William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury. As the king's person was still regarded with the old sacred respect, all the violences committed in Church and state during the period of rule without a Parliament were laid at the door of these two men. Them and not the king the people held to be responsible for this unwelcome reign of '^ thorough," and directed against them, as the years came and went without a Parliament, a bhnd passion of hatred. Laud stood for the tendency in the English Church which emphasized dignity and ceremony — the same tendency with which the king had already identified himself. In fact, it was because of his own love of ceremony and uniformity that the king had bestowed his favor upon the inflexible and earnest Churchman, and had rapidly promoted him from post to post. Finally, in the year 1633, Charles appointed Laud archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all England. Therewith Laud was in a position to put his and the king's ecclesiastical convictions into practice. By means of parochial visitations and other measures, he soon imposed upon all ministers of the Church a strict adherence to the forms of the Prayer Book, and did not even hesitate to in- troduce a {^"^ new ceremonial innovations on his own authority. Thus the communion table was surrounded by an iron railing, giving the chancel something of the appear- ance of a Catholic altar. As a result, the Puritan ministers either resigned or were dismissed, and the Puritan element of the population was practically ejected from the Church. Even those Englishmen who submitted to the new regime hated the unwisdom which thus drove a wedge into the Christian body. Wentworth was a man of far greater intellectual powers England in the Seventeenth Century 175 than either Laud or Charles. His position in public life The character -.,,-. . . 1 of Wentworth. seems to have been grounded on the honest conviction that a king who governs well is better than a babbling, dis- traught Parliament. Doubtless, therefore, being one of Charles's favorite advisers, he urged the king to take a firm stand against Parliament and people, but it is quite erro- neous to make him responsible for all the ill-advised meas- ures which followed the dissolution of 1629. For as early as 1633 he was sent as Lord-Deputy to Ireland, and could thenceforth exercise Only an indirect influence on English affairs. Certainly Wentworth cannot be charged with the great blunder committed in connection with ship-money, ^ip- The ship- money was a tax collected by Charles in the year 1634, for SinanceTof the purpose of creating a navy. The ordinary method of ^^34 and 1635. getting supplies for such an end would have been to ap- peal to Parliament. That the king shrank from doing. So he hit upon a subterfuge. In former times monarchs had, when the country was in danger, ordered the counties bordering on the sea to furnish ships. Charles reenacted this statute in the year 1634, with a certain show of legal- ity; but in the year 1635, utterly regardless of legahty, he ordered the inland counties to contribute money to the same end. Plainly, Charles's process in the matter of ship-money The case of was a breach of the Petition of Right. More than that, it ^^3^^"^^"' ran counter to the most ancient privileges of Parliament and the whole spirit of English history. The protest against the royal exaction was therefore general, and when a country gentleman, John Hampden by name, preferred, rather than pay his assessment, to suffer arrest and trial, he made himself the hero of the hour. The court, when the case came up, decided against Hampden, but so wide was the disaffection following upon Hampden's trial that it re- 1& Modern Europe Charles falls out with the Scots. The First Bishops' War, 1639. The Second Bishops' War, 1640. quired only an occasion and England would show that the loyalty which had bound her for ages to her royal house, had suffered fatal impairment. That occasion was furnished by Scotland. In the year 1637, Charles, with his usual neglect of popular feeling, ventured to introduce into Presbyterian Scotland the Prayer Book and certain of the Episcopal practices of England. The answer of the Scots to this measure was to rise in in- surrection. They drew up a national oath or Covenant, by which they pledged themselves to resist to the utmost all attempts at changing their religion. Their unanimity and enthusiasm gave them an irresistible power. In view of it Charles hesitated ; then to gain time he proposed negoti- ations ; but finally, when he found there was nothing left to do but to submit or fight, he declared war. There follows the campaign of 1639 against the Scotch Covenanters,w hich is known as the First Bishops' War. It was a miserable fiasco. Owing to want of funds, the king led northward a mere ill-equipped rabble, and when he arrived upon the scene, found himself compelled to sign a truce. Between his Scotch and English subjects, whom he had alike alienated, his position was now thoroughly humil- iating. In order to avenge himself upon the Scots, he required effective money help from England, and effective money help from England involved calling a Parliament. In one or the other direction he had, therefore, to make concessions. Charles fought a hard battle with his pride, but finally, feeling that the Scotch matter was the more pressing, he summoned a Parliament (1640). Thus the long period of government without a Parlia- ment had come to an end. When, however, the Parlia- ment, kno^vn as the Short Parliament, began, instead of voting moneys, to remind the king of the nation's grievances, Charles flamed up once more and dismissed it. England in the Seventeenth Century 177 Once more, in despite of his lack of funds, he conducted a campaign, known as the Second Bishops' War, against the Covenanters (1640). But when the second experiment had failed as badly as the first, he had to acknowledge him- self finally beaten. In the autumn of 1640 he summoned another Parliament, which he knew he should not be able to send home at his will. The Parliament which met has received from his- tory the name of the Long Parliament, and is the most The Long famous legislative body in English annals. It sat for al- 1^0!^""^^ ' most two decades, witnessing, and itself initiating, the transformation of England. The Long Parliament took, as soon as it was installed, the reins into its hands. First the past had to be avenged. Accordingly Strafford and Laud were impeached and exe- The victory of cuted.^ Next every institution {e.g. , the court of Star Cham- ^ ommons. ber) which had proved irksome, every tax {e.g., ship- money) which the king had made serve his despotic ends, was abolished. Thus the whole constitution was practical- ly remodelled ; Parliament declared everything, the king nothing. It was the Parliament's answer to the king's des- potic rule. Could a king of Charles's temperament sub- mit for long to such a terrible abasement ? For a year the king bore with the altered circumstances. But he was watching for his chance, and the first division Division in the among the Commons was his signal to strike. The Com- o"^"^'^"^- mons had agreed admirably on all the political questions at issue between themselves and the king. Differences ap- peared only when the religious question was presented. The sentiment against the Episcopal system had made * The technical proceeding against Strafford was not called an im- peachment, but a bill of attainder. He was executed, in spite of Charles's promise to protect him, May, 1641. " Put not your trust m princes," were his last words. Laud was not executed until 1645. 178 Modern Europe Charles sides with the Epis- copalians. Attempted arrest of the five members. The king unfurls his banner at Nottingham. The advan- tage is, at first, with the king. a great deal of progress of late years, but a strong con- servative element still supported it. Under the circum- stances Puritans and Episcopalians in the Commons fre- quently came to hard words, and naturally, as soon as this opening in the hitherto solid phalanx of the opposition was apparent, Charles took advantage of it. He threw in his lot with the Episcopalians, and so once more rallied about him a party. » In January, 1642, he calculated that he was strong enough to strike a blow at the predominance of Parliament, and attempted to arrest the five leaders, Pym, Hampden, Hazel- rigg, Holies, and Strode, in full Parliamentary session. But the attempt failed, and Charles, always a little tim- orous, had not the courage to brave the situation which he had himself created. When London rose in arms Charles fled to York. Thus the two questions of Puritanism and of taxation in which the king had taken sides against the majority of his subjects, led to civil war. In August, 1642, Charles, unfurling his banner at Nottingham, bade all loyal Eng- lishmen rally to their king. The Parliament in its turn gathered an army and prepared to take the field. The parties about to engage each other seemed to be very equally matched. The king's party, called the Cavaliers, held the north and the west, York and Oxford being their chief towns, while the adherents of the Parlia- ment, known derisively as Roundheads, for the reason that many of them cropped their hair close, held the south and the east, with I^ondon for their centre. Neither side was well furnished with troops, but the fact that the slashing country gentlemen crowded into the king's service gave the royal side, at first, the advantage. In the early campaigns the army of the Parliament was steadily driven back, and on one occasion London, the Parlia- England in the Seventeenth Century 179 mentary centre, almost fell into the king's hands. It was really not until the year 1644 that the Parliament began to develop an efficient army. At the same time there rose Oliver into prominence the man who was destined to turn the ^°"^^^ • tables on the king and bring the war to a conclusion — Oliver Cromwell. Ohver Cromwell is one of those surprising characters who sum up in themselves a whole period of their nation's history. He was a country gentleman of the east of Eng- land, whose life had become bound up in the Puritan cause. With firmness and strength, he coupled an ex- traordinary amount of practical good sense, which en- abled him to see things exactly as they were. When every- body else was in consternation over the victories of the king, and undecided what to do next, he went straight to the core of the military problem, with which the Parlia- ment was vainly wrestling. He thus expressed himself to Hampden : ^^ Your troops are, most of them, old, decayed serving men and tapsters. . . . Their troops are gentle- men. Do you think that the spirit of such base fellows will ever be able to encounter gentlemen ? You must get men of spirit or else you will be beaten still." His prac- tical eye had seen the thing needful, and his practical sense urged him to do it, unmindful whether the babbling Parliament supported him or not. Gradually he collected about himself a special troop of men of his own mind — Puritans who had their hearts in the cause ; and this troop soon won for itself the grim title of Cromwell's Ironsides. In the campaign of 1644 Cromwell's Ironsides first Marston prominently showed their metal. They contributed largely ^^^' ^ ^' to the great victory of Marston Moor over Prince Rupert,^ 1 Prince Rupert, known as Rupert of the Rhine, was the son of Eliza- beth, the daughter of James, who had married Frederick of the Palati- nate. i8o Modern Europe The army reforms. The decisive campaign of 1645. Naseby. Alliance be- tween Scots and Parlia- ment. the king's nephew and the dashing leader of his horse. The battle of Marston Moor lost the king his hold upon the north. At the battle of Newbury, which took place a few months later, it is probable that the king would have been crushed entirely if Cromwell had not been thwarted by his sluggish and incapable superiors. That winter Cromwell fiercely denounced in Parliament the lax method of carrying on war which had hitherto prevailed, and so convincing were his criticisms that the Commons now carried out a number of sweeping reforms. By means of two ordinances, called the Self-denying Ordi- nance and the New Model, the army was completely reor- ganized. By the Self-denying Ordinance the incapable Par- liamentarians gave up the commands they held to trained officers, and by the New Model the spirit of Cromwell's Ironsides was introduced into the whole army. The spring of 1645 found Sir Thomas Fairfax at the head of the re- formed forces and Cromwell in command of the horse. The effect of the change made itself felt at once ; the campaign of 1645 proved decisive. At Naseby, in the heart of England, the king made his last formidable effort (June 14). The gallant Rupert plunged, as usual, through the squadrons of horse opposite him, but his reckless pursuit took him miles away from the battle-field, and before he could return, Cromwell had broken the king's left and centre and won the day. f'or almost a year the king still held out, vainly hoping relief from this or that small cir- cumstance. In May, 1646, judging that all was over, he surrendered to the Scots, who occupied the English north. The Scots had joined the English Parliament against the king in the year 1643. They had treated the first sugges- tions of alliance with indifference, and when they finally con- sented to join the English, they made a very hard condition. They demanded that their own Presbyterian system of England in the- SeventeentJi Century i8l church government be also established in England. The stiff Puritan opinion in the Parliament revolted at first at the thought of a foreign dictation, but as the majority were well disposed to the Presbyterian system, and the danger from the king was pressing, the alliance between Scots and Parliament was formally approved on the proposed basis. However, a handful of commoners standing for religious Presbyterians tolerance protested against the treaty to the last. To them dents, the uniformity of belief enforced by the Presbyterian Kirk was exactly as hateful as the uniformity of service demanded by the Anglican Church. But being a mere handful, they would have been overridden without a word if they had not received support from a very important quarter : their religious views had the approval of Cromwell and his Iron- sides. Under the circumstances the majority was obliged to proceed with caution, especially while the war contin- ued and the troops had to be kept in good-humor. Thus the contention slumbered for a time, but as soon as the battle of Naseby had been won and the enemy scattered, the quarrel between the Presbyterians and the Indepen- dents, as the advocates of tolerance were called, assumed a more serious aspect. When the king surrendered to the Scots he was well in- The calcula- formed of these differences of opinion among the victors, ting, and hoped, in his small-minded way, to find his profit in them. Let the army, representing the Independents and their view of tolerance, only fall to quarreUing with the majority of the Parliament, representing the Presbyterians and their uncompromising system of uniformity, and his, the king's, alliance would prove invaluable. Herein Charles calculated both well and ill. In the The Parlia- year 1647 the Scots surrendered him, on the payment of the army. a good price, to the Parliament. The Presbyterians there- upon, having him in their power, tried to hurry through a 1 82 Modern Europe settlement with the captive monarch. Utterly neglectful of the wishes of the army, they promised Charles to restore him if he would only give his royal assent to the Presby- terian Establishment. But as soon as the army heard of these secret and dishonest machinations of the parliamentary majority, it was filled with indignation and rose to defeat them by force of arms (1648). So far Charles had calcu- lated well. Largely through his own clever policy of delay, a new civil war had broken out among his enemies. The second In the result, however, Charles's petty calculations shot 1648 ^^^' wide of the mark. Although the Parliament was supported by the Presbyterian Scots and by bands of hastily organized royalists, it was no match for the victors of Naseby. In a few weeks Fairfax and Cromwell had laid their enemies at their feet. Pride's i)urge, Then the army returned lo London to have vengeance ^ "* ■ upon what it called the bloody authors of the struggle, the Presbyterian majority of the Commons and the king. On December 6, 1648, a troop under the command of Colonel Pride expelled the Presbyterian members, to the number of about one hundred, from the Hou.se. No more than fifty or sixty commoners retained their seats, and these were the mere tools of the army. Of course they consid- ered themselves as good as any English legislative body that had ever sat, but the people fixed upon them the con- temptuous term of the Rump Parliament. The execution Next the army turned upon the king, firmly resolved to January 30', Subject him to a trial. As there were no legal provisions *^9- in the constitution for such a step, it became necessary to resort to illegality, and by an act of the now servile Parlia- ment there was created a special High Court of Justice to try the king. The end, of course, was to be foreseen. The army, with Cromwell at its head, would not have pro- ceeded to such extremes of violence if it had not been England in the Seventeenth Century 183 profoundly convinced that with this king, whose every act was a subterfuge, whose every word an equivocation, there could be no peace. The High Court of Justice found the king guilty of treason, and on January 30, 1649, he was executed on a scaffold before his own palace of Whitehall. He had never been shaken in the conviction that the right, during the whole course of the civil war, had been with him, and he died bravely in that belief. . The king's death had been preceded by the dissolution The break- of the House of Lords because of the refusal of that body to constitution, take the army's side. The English constitution, therefore, was now a wreck ; the king and Lords had disappeared, the Commons were a fragment. The power lay solely with the array, and the burning question of the day was : Would the revolutionists of the army be able to build a new con- stitution along new lines ? For eleven years the leaders of the army attempted to The main idea realize their ideal of government. That ideal was born of Revolutionists! the deep religious conviction that every man must indeed be a Christian, but that he must be allowed to worship God after his own fashion. In consequence, Cromwell and his friends desired a government of upright Puritan men, who tolerated every belief but Popery. Unfortunate- ly the vast majority of contemporary Englishmen were roy- alists or Presbyterians and abominated the men in power. The experiment of a Puritan government, therefore, had sooner or later to end in failure. The Commonwealth and the Protectorate, 164^-60. On the death of the king, the Rump Parliament voted The Common- that England was a Commonwealth, and appointed, pro- visionally, a Council of State to act as the executive branch of the government. There was work enough ahead for the young Republic. wealth. 1 84 Modern Europe Cromwell sub- dues Ireland (1649^ and Scotland (1651). Dismissal of the Rump Par- liament, 1653. In Ireland and Scotland Charles II. had been proclaimed king. The Council of State insisting that these kingdoms should not be allowed to go a separate way in politics, Cromwell was despatched against them. In 1649 he brought the Irish to terms by means of bloody massacres at Drogheda and Wexford. Then a rule of force was established such as even Ireland had not seen before, and a great part of the land was confiscated for the benefit of the conquerors. This done, the victor turned to Scotland. At Dunbar (1650) Cromwell's soldiers, whose tempers were like the steel with which they smote, scattered one Scotch army; and when a second army, with Charles II. in its midst, struck across the border in the hope of stirring up an English re- bellion, Cromwell starting in pursuit met it at Worcester, in the heart of England, and won the crowning victory of his life (165 1 ). Charles II. escaped, after various romantic adventures, to the Continent ; but the Scots came to terms, and thus the authority of the Commonwealth was estab- lished throughout Great Britain and Ireland. Now that England had peace, the question of a per- manent government became more pressing. Everybody clamored for a settlement. Only the Rump Parliament was in no hurry, and the fifty or sixty members who com- posed it clung to office, finding power a delightful thing. Naturally, practical men, like Cromwell and his soldiers, watched the delays of the legislators with growing impa- tience. In April, 1653, the great leader, despairing of good through such a Parliament, resolved to have done with it. He invaded the Parliament with a detachment of troops and ordered the members home. " Come, come," he shouted in indignation, "■ we have had enough of this. It is not fit you should sit here any longer." Thus the last fragment of the old constitution had vanished. A new Parliament, freely elected by the nation, would England in the Seventeenth Century 185 have been one solution of the difficulties which now con- fronted Cromwell. But such a Parliament would imme- diately have called back the king, and Cromwell was ready- to try all other means before he declared that the great cause, which to his fervid mind was also that of God, had failed. He therefore nominated an assembly of Puritan partisans to act as Parliament. In an opening speech he told them that they were called because they were godly men. But although they doubtlessly meant well, they were inexperienced and crotchety. The people refusing to take them other than humorously, derisively called them Bare- Barebones' bones' Parliament, from one Praise-God Barebones who sat ig^y,^"^^"*' among them. Luckily, after a few weeks the nominees recognized their own unfitness and resigned (December, 1653)- Some government had to fill up the gap, and so Oliver Oliver, Protec- Cromwell now accepted a constitution, called the Instru- ment of Government, which was drawn up by his officers, and which named him Lord Protector. By the Instrument of Government, Oliver, the Lord Protector, together with a Council of State, was to exercise the executive, while a Par- liament of a single house, from which all partisans of the king were excluded, was to perform the legislative func- tions of government. The new attempt came nearer than any of the others to being a solution of the political dif- ficulties into which England had been plunged ; but, un- fortunately, even this partial success was due solely to the fact that the new constitution practically placed in control an entirely efficient man. The five years (1653-58) of Oliver's rule as Protector were, however, full of difficulties. His first Parliament insisted on revising the Instrument of Government. As that was tantamount to calling the whole settlement in ques- tion, Oliver dissolved the Parliament in anger (January, i86 Modern Europe The Protecto- rate is internal- ly a failure. England re- fuses to accept toleration. The Protecto- rate a success abroad. 1655). For a while now he ruled without a Parliament. There were frequent attempts upon his life, republican con- spiracies, royalist risings, the cares and annoyances insep- arable from power. Oliver confessed with sorrow that " it was easier to keep sheep than to govern men." But his brave spirit was undaunted and he met every difficulty as it arose. As it was better to rule with the nation than with- out, he called a second Parhament in the year 1656, and with this he got along more smoothly for a while. The tra- ditional English conservatism governed this assembly, and it tried to get back upon the lines of the old constitution. It even offered to make Oliver king. But he declined the honor without regret, and when the old difficulties sprang up again, owing to the tendency of the Parliament to meddle with the Instrument of Government, Oliver reproachfully dis- solved it like its predecessor (February, 1658). In all this time the great principle of toleration for which Oliver stood had made no progress. Oliver's idea had been to give all Protestant Christians, whether they were Episcopalians, Presbyterians, or Puritans, the protec- tion of the law. But the fierce religious temper of the time hindered the majority from seeing any right outside of their own faith, or feeling any obligation to put up with any other. Oliver, like all men who are ahead of their time, was left without support. The animosities of his antago- nists, as well as of his followers, even forced him before long to trench upon his own principles. In 1655 he began per- secuting those who held to the Book of Common Prayer, and long before his end he had the bitter conviction that the government of the Puritan Commonwealth rested on no single principle that had taken root in the nation, and that it lived entirely by the will and vigor of one man. If Oliver was thus reaping failure at home, he added triumph to triumph abroad. From 1652 to 1654 there had England in the Seventeenth Century 187 been a war with the Dutch caused by the famous Naviga- tion Act. The Dutch had in the seventeenth century got the carrying trade of the world into their hands ; by means of the Navigation Act (1651) the ParHament planned to bring part of it to England. The Act ordained that im- ported goods be carried in English ships, or else in ships belonging to the country in which the goods were produced. The Dutch declared war rather than suffer this injury, and The first ,^ ,^ 1 r • ^ • Dutch war. under their admiral Van Tromp won a number of victories. But the great English admiral, Blake, restored the English prestige, and finally the Dutch had to accept what they could not alter. Soon after Oliver entered into an alliance with France War with (1655) against Spain. Jamaica, in the West Indies, was ^^'"" taken from Spain by an Enghsh fleet, and Dunkirk, ^ in the Spanish Netherlands, after a French-English victory over the Spaniards on the Dunes, was surrendered to Cromwell's representatives. Since the days of Elizabeth, the name of England had not enjoyed such respect as it did now. Oliver's arm reached even to the Alps, and at his command the duke of Savoy ceased from persecuting his Protestant subjects. Thus to the end the Protector held the rudder firmly. The death of But his health was broken by his great responsibility, and Septembers,' on the third day of September, 1658, shortly after a great ^^^^' storm had swept over the island, he passed away. It had been his '-'fortunate day" — that was his own word — the day of his birth and of the great victories of Dunbar and Worcester ; and now, it was the day too of his death. His last prayer, in which breathes all his Christian fervor, all his honesty and chari ty , has been recorded for us . ' ' Lord , ' ' ran a part of it, *'Thou hast made me, though very 1 Dunkirk was held only till 1662, when Charles II. sold it to France. i88 Modern Europe Anarchy. The Resto- ration, May, 1660. unworthy, a mean instrument to do Thy people some good. . . . Pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are Thy people too. ' ' Cromwell's death was followed by a year of pure anarchy. As a genuinely popular government, supporting itself upon the will of the majority, had never existed, the republic may be said to have passed away with the man who made it. For awhile, however, Richard Cromwell, Oliver's common- place son, ruled as Protector (to April, 1659); then the soldiers tried their talents; and finally, even the Long Parliament appeared again upon the scene. Clearly, after all these shifts, Charles II. was the only choice left ; it was but necessary that some strong man should act in the absent king's behalf and order would be restored. The strong man was found in General George Monk. Monk, one of Cromwell's most capable lieutenants, refusing to close his eyes longer to the real situation, determined to promote the restoration of the Stuarts and the reinvigoration of the old constitution. Charles II. was merely asked to promise a general pardon. This Charles did in a declaration^ made at Breda, in Holland, and when, a month later, he landed at Dover (May, 1660), he was received with universal shouts of welcome. Some days before a new Parliament had formally restored the ancient constitution. It voted that '* the government is, and ought to be, by king. Lords and Commons." The Resto- ration is a change in hfe and manners. The Restoration. Charles II. (^1660-8 f) and Ja7nes II Charles II. was one of the most popular monarchs Eng- land ever had ; but his popularity was due not so much to his talents as to his vices. To understand this we must > His general pardon was later ratified by Parliament, only the regicides (members of the court which had condemned Charles I.) being excluded England in the Seventeenth Century 189 remember that the Restoration is a complex movement. It marks not merely the break-down of the Puritan experiment of government, but also a revulsion from the severe and colorless scheme of life which the Puritans imposed upon society. Like one who had thirsted a long while, the Englishman of the Restoration, therefore, threw himself greedily upon splendor and distractions. Now Charles II. had lived long in France, and there his light nature had drunk its fill of the gayety and licentiousness which were then the reigning influences in the country of Louis XIV. Upon his restoration, Charles naturally became the apostle of French manners in England, and it was largely under his patronage that English life assumed a frivolous charac- ter. Profligacy soon became the fashion of the day, and the king added to his constitutional function of sovereign the social function of master of the revels. It was because of this, and because he was witty and amiable, in short, a good fellow, that he was popular. His subjects called him **The Merry Monarch." Charles had a good deal of intelligence, but no energy. Political in- In the end his resolutions inevitably succumbed to his in- c?Ee7 ° dolence. His pleasures went before everything else, and when a conflict threatened with his subjects, he was in the habit of giving way, with the joke, that, whatever happened, he did not care to go again upon his travels. So weak-kneed a monarch was not likely to imperil the Restoration. Now that the monarchy was restored, it was as if the The constitu- revolution had not taken place, for the constitutional ques- tions buried tions at issue between king and Parliament were left exactly t^^^poranly. from it. Thirteen of these were executed. The Restoration further sul- lied its beginnings by a mean vengeance upon the body of a great man. The dead Oliver, whom living no royalist had dared to confront, was dragged from his tomb at Westminster Abbey and hanged like a thief at Tyburn. I90 Modern Europe The Cavalier Parliament. Its religious intolerance. The Corpora- tion Act, 1661. The new Act of Uniformity, 1662. as they had been before the war broke out. But even in the year 1660 it was clear that, unless the English people forgot their history, these questions would, sooner or later, have to be adjusted, and then there would be a renewal in some form or other of the civil struggle. For the present, however, the quarrel over the measure of the king's prerog- ative was entirely forgotten in the rejoicing over the resto- ration of order and security. The Cavalier Parliament, as the Parliament elected in 1 66 1 and allowed to hold power for eighteen years, was significantly called, completely expressed this reactionary sentiment of the country: it was more royal than the king. One of its first acts was to vote that no one could lawfully take arms against the sovereign. Little likelihood existed, therefore, that this body would stir up the old political differences between the monarch and his Commons. With regard to the old religious differences, which had contributed so largely to the war between king and Par- liament, they abruptly took a different form. There was in the Cavalier Parhament only one opinion : the Church of England and nothing but the Church of England. The first Legislature of the Restoration was in fact so extrava- gantly Anglican that the king himself became alarmed. And well he might have been troubled, in view of the very severe measures which this Parliament passed against its religious adversaries. In the year 1661 the Parliament enacted the Corporation Act, which provided that every one who held an office in a municipal corporation would have to take the oath of non-resistance to the king, and receive the sacrament ac- cording to the rites of the Church of England. The meas- ure, of course, turned all non-Anglicans out of the city governments. The next year (1662) there followed a new Act of Uniformity, by which every clergyman and school- England in the Seventeenth Century 191 master who did not accept every prescription of the Book of Common Prayer was expelled from his living. Hun- dreds of the Presbyterian and Puritan clergy resigned their cures rather than assent, and from now on men of these faiths, together with the adherents of the other sects which had lately arisen, such as the Baptists and the Quakers, were embraced by the common name of Dissenters. In the religious history of England this formal and definite The Dissent- ejection of the Puritan element from the Church marks a notable mile-stone. It will be remembered that the Puri- tans in general had not wished to separate from the national Church, but desired rather to so modify its forms that it might ''comprehend" them. From now on all hope of ' ' comprehension ' ' was given up. The Dissenters, of what- ever color, accepted their exclusion from the Church of England as an irrevocable fact, and henceforth directed all their efforts upon acquiring toleration for their own distinct forms of worship. But the Cavalier Parliament was the last body in the The Convent- world to give ear to such a request for religious liberty. As in its opinion, the proper way to treat Dissenters was to suppress them, it simply continued its anti- toleration measures. In the year 1664 it passed the Conventicle Act, by which all meetings of Dissenters for religious purposes were punished with fines culminating in transportation ; and a year later (1665) there followed the Five Mile Act, by the terms of which no Dissenting minister was allowed to reside within five miles of a borough, town, or any place where he had once held a cure. It is not probable that the Cavalier Parliament would The real ene- 1 • • 1 1 .1 -1.1 11 nny is Catholi- have msisted on the national creed with such vehemence, cism. if it had not been persuaded that toleration granted to the Dissenters would open a loop-hole for the Catholics. And just then the suspicion against Catholicism was stronger in 192 Modern Europe the land than ever, because of the secret machinations of the court in behalf of this faith. Had the facts that were only whispered in the palace-passages been known at West- minster, there can be no doubt that the religious legisla- tion would have been even more stringent than it was ; for Charles, although afraid to publish the truth, had not long after the Restoration, secretly embraced Catholicism. Foreign A monarch who identified himself so little in religious po icy. matters with his people was not likely to serve them in for- eign affairs. In fact, his guidance of England was weak and unintelligent, being determined simply by aversion to the Dutch and affection for Louis XIV. of France. The commercial rivalry between the Dutch and English had lately become very intense; moreover, the two na- tions laid conflicting claims to several colonies. In 1664 The First the First Dutch war of the Restoration broke out, and was the^Restora-° fiercely continued for three years (1664-67). The two tion, 1664-67. nations again proved worthy adversaries, as in the time of Cromwell, and although neither acquired a conspicuous advantage over the other, the Dutch at one time sailed up the Thames and blockaded London. However, this suc- cess was more of a disgrace for England than a positive calamity, and when peace was signed the Dutch were forced to make a sacrifice. They ceded their American colony. New Amsterdam, which was thereupon renamed New York, in honor of the duke of York, the king's brother. Before the close of the war London was visited by a memorable succession of calamities. In the year 1665 a The plague terrible plague is calculated to have swept away nearly 100,000 people. There was nothing anomalous about this visitation, for similar ravages of disease were not uncommon in Europe at that time, owing to the overcrowding of the cities and their insufficient sanitary arrangements. But the plague did not end London's troubles. Hardly had it van- and the fire. England in the Seventeenth Century 193 ished when a fire broke out which destroyed the whole City (1666).^ Although the suffering from this new ca- lamity was great at first, the fire proved a blessing in the end, for London was rebuilt on a broader, handsomer scale, and infections like the plague never again ravaged the population. This was the time in European politics of the ascendancy The friendship of France. The leading fact of the general situation was chades^ ^" that Louis XIV. was planning to extend his territory at the expense of his neighbors. The logical policy of England as the rival of France would have been to support the vic- tim against the aggressor ; but Charles was no patriot and allowed himself to be determined by personal motives. Naturally his riotous life kept him involved in constant money difficulties. Fortunes were flung away on entertain- ments or were lavished on courtiers and mistresses. To get money, therefore, became Charles's first object in life, and Louis XIV. , who was always a clever manager, was per- fectly willing to oblige his brother of England, if he could by this means buy England's aid, or, at least, her neu- trality in the conflicts he anticipated. Now the French king began his aggressions in the year 1667, by invading the Spanish Netherlands ; but after taking a few towns he was forced to desist, chiefly owing to the energetic pro- test of the Dutch. No wonder that Louis resolved to have Treaty of revenge on this nation of traders. By the secret Treaty of ^°'^^^' ^^^o- Dover (1670) he won over Charles by a handsome sum to join him in his projected war against the Dutch ; and Charles, in his turn, stipulated to avow himself a Catholic and to accept aid from Louis in case his subjects on the news of his conversion revolted against him. When, in the year 1672, everything was at length ready, The business heart of London is known by this name. 194 Modern Europe Second Dutch War of the Restoration. The Declara- tion of Indul- gence. The Test Act, 1673. Louis and Charles fell upon the Dutch, engaging in what in England is known as the Second Dutch War of the Resto- ration. Just as the war was about to break out, Charles, not yet daring to announce himself a Catholic, published a decree of toleration, the so-called Declaration of Indul- gence, which, overriding the statutes of Parliament, set Catholics and Dissenters free. Such a declaration invites the sympathy of us moderns, but it is necessary to remem- ber in judging it that its motives were impure. This the people knew, and when Parliament met, it insisted, before it would vote supplies for the war, on the king's withdraw- ing his Declaration. When this was done (1673), the war had lost its interest for Charles, and as the English people were learning to feel more and more strongly that their real enemy was the French and not the Dutch, Charles further gave way to popular pressure and concluded peace (1674). Thus the Treaty of Dover came to nothing, except in so far as it involved the Dutch in another heroic combat for their life and liberty. So stubborn was their defence under their Stadtholder, William III. of Orange, that Louis XIV. finally followed Charles's example and withdrew from the struggle (Peace of Nimwegen, 1678). But the Parliament was not satisfied with having forced the king to withdraw his Declaration of Indulgence. To further secure the country against the secret machinations of the court, it added a crowning act to its intolerant re- ligious legislation — the Test Act (1673). The Corpora- tion Act (1661) had already purged the municipalities of non- Anglicans ; by the Test Act^ the exclusion was ex- tended to officeholders of any kind. The king's own brother, the duke of York, an avowed Catholic, was among » The Test Act is so named because every man, before taking office, was tested W\^ regard to his faith by his willingness or unwillingness to take the sacrament as prescribed by the Church of England. England in the Seventeenth Century 195 the victims of this act and was forced to resign his post of Lord High Admiral. But the terror of a CathoHc regime was not yet de- stroyed. The distrust that had grown up on the rehgious question between the reigning family and the people was The Popish so intense that it led the blinded Protestants into the most ^^°*' ^^^^* ludicrous extravagances. One of them is known as the '' Popish Plot" (1678). A certain Titus Gates, a man of a very bad reputation, told a long story before a magistrate to the effect that he had discovered a conspiracy on the part of the Catholics to institute in England a second Saint Bartholomew. Although Gates' s story was palpably ab- surd, it was instantly beheved, and as a result of the frantic agitation which seized all England a number of prominent Catholics were confined in the Tower, and a paragraph was added to the Test Act, by which the Cath- olics were barred from the House of Lords, the only place where they had not hitherto been disturbed. Charles died in the year 1685, after a reign of twenty- five years. Gn his deathbed he did what he had been afraid The death of to do during his life : he confessed hin;iself a Catholic. Sss^^^^ "'' Charles's reign is marked by an advance in the polit- ical life of the nation which deserves sharp attention. Under him there began to be formed for the first time parties with a definite programme and something like a permanent organization. It is evident that this was a sig- Whigs and nificant step toward the guidance and control of political °"^^' opinion within and without Parliament. The parties formed became known as Whigs and Tories,^ and the chief ques- tion on which they split was the question of toleration. The Tories, who were the country gentlemen, stood for no- 1 These names were originally taunts. Tory is derived from the Irish and signifies robber. Whig comes from Whiggam, a cry with which the Scotch peasants exhorted their horses Applied as a party name, it was intended to convey the idea of a sneaking Covenanter. 196 Modern Europe toleration for Dissenters; the Whigs, on the other hand, whose ranks were filled up from the great nobles and the middle classes, wished to promote this act of justice; both parties, being equally Protestant, agreed in denying toleration to the Catholics. Whigs and Tories from now on play a role of increasing importance in the history of England. James 11. {1685-88). James is un- James 11. , who succeeded his brother Charles, was not popu ar. ^^^ ^ Catholic, which, of course, raised an impassable bar- rier between him and his subjects, but he was also imbued with the same ideas of Divine Right as his father Charles I., and he held to them as stubbornly as ever that monarch had done. Under these circumstances the new reign did not promise well. And such favor as the king at first enjoyed he lost very soon owing to his unintelligent measures. His Catholic As James was a Catholic among Protestants, he should at oolicv- the very least, have kept quiet. But he seems to have been possessed with the idea that he had been made king for the express purpose of furthering the Catholic cause. He did not even trouble himself to proceed cautiously. In imitation of his brother, he published, in the year 1687, a Declaration of Indulgence,. abolishing all penalties against Catholics and Dissenters. Regardless of the universal discontent he pub- lished the next year a Second Declaration, and ordered it to be read from all the pulpits. Most of the clergy refused The trial of the to conform to this tyrannical order, and seven bishops pre- is ops, I . gg^j-gjj |-Q ti^e Y\Vig a written protest. James's answer was an order that legal proceedings be taken against them. Im- mense excitement gathered around the trial, which occurred in June, 1688. The Bloody Meanwhile other irregularities and illegalities of the king had added to his unpopularity. In the year of James's Assizes. England in the Seventeenth Century 19/ accession, the duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II., had risen in rebellion and claimed the throne, but he was caught and executed. James might have been satisfied with this success. He preferred, however, a gen- eral persecution. He sent into the west, among the people who had supported Monmouth, an infamous judge by the name of Jeffreys, for the purpose of ferreting out Mon- mouth's adherents. The mockery of justice engaged in by Jeffreys is known as " the Bloody Assizes — " this inhuman monster not being satisfied until he had hanged three hun- dred and twenty poor victims, and transported eight hun- dred and forty to the West Indies. The odium of these misdeeds, of course, fell upon the king. All this was for a time put up with by the people because Birth of a male the next heir to the throne, James's daughter Mary, who ^'^' ^^ ' was the child of his first marriage and the wife of William of Orange, was a Protestant. When, however, James's sec- ond wife gave birth, in June, 1688, to a son, who by the English law would take precedence over Mary, consterna- tion seized the whole people. The son, it was foreseen, would be educated in the Catholic religion, and thus the Catholic dynasty would be perpetuated. As the birth of the son and the trial of the seven bishops occurred about the same time (June, 1688), England was filled with excite- ment from end to end. Seizing the opportunity, a few pa- triotic nobles invited William of Orange and his wife Mary to come to England's rescue. In November, 1688, William landed in England, and The Glorious immediately the people of all classes gathered around him. 1688. The army which James sent against him refused to fight, and James found himself without a supporter. Seeing that the game was up, he sent his wife and child to France, and shortly after followed in person. Perhaps never in his- tory had there been so swift and so bloodless a revolution. 198 Modern Europe The Parliament, which met to deH berate on these events, declared the throne vacant, and offered it to William and Mary as joint sovereigns. As William and Mary Throne were not the legitimate heirs, the sovereign of England Wiiifamlnd was by this act virtually declared to be the nominee of the Mary. Parliament, and henceforth, the doctrine that an English king held his office by Divine Right, and not by the suf- frages of the people, was quietly dropped. The Parliament furthermore fortified its position against the king by a Bill of Rights (1689), in which it reasserted all the claims of the Petition of Right (1628), and severely Hmited the king's so- called dispensing powers, by virtue of which James II. had Bill of Rights, claimed the right to dispense temporarily with such dis- ^' tasteful acts as those dealing with Catholics and Dissenters. Therewith the conflict between king and Parliament was over, and Parliament had again won. And the new victory was far more satisfactory than the earlier radical victory of Cromwell, for the ancient historical constitution was not destroyed this time but merely 77iodified in accordance with the national needs. The difficulty between king and Parlia- ment had been from the first the vague character of the royal prerogative. From now on, the king's power in the matter of taxation and interpretation of the laws was ex- actly defined by the Bill of Rights, and the Bill of Rights stood, not only on the statute books, but had also, in the course of a long struggle, become a part of every English- man's political faith. TheTolera- If the '' Glorious Revolution" secured the quiet polit- ical development of England, it was no less successful in preparing the way for the settlement of the religious ques- tions which had harassed England throughout the seven- teenth century. For on motion of the Whigs, Parliament passed, almost simultaneously with the Bill of Rights, a Toleration Act, by which Dissenters were given the right England in the Seventeenth Century 199 of public worship. The Test Act^ indeed was not re- pealed, and Catholics were treated as harshly as ever, but the Toleration Act satisfied the religious demands of the majority of Englishmen, and religious peace was, by means of it, established in the kingdom. Bill of Rights and Tol- eration Act inaugurated in England the era of the new and genuine constitutionalism. The literature of the seventeenth century presents, in The literature. sharp contrast, the two theories of life which combated each other under the party names of Cavalier and Round- head. The moral severity, the noble aspirations of Puritan- ism found a poet in John Milton ('' Paradise Lost," 1667), and a simple-minded eulogist in John Bunyan ('' Pilgrim's Progress," 1675). But the literary reign of these men and their followers was short, for the Restoration quickly buried them under its frivoHty and laughter. Inevitably literature followed the currents of the contemporary life, and Milton and Bunyan were succeeded by a school of licentious dram- atists and literary triflers. John Dryden (1631-1701), although himself a man of sturdy qualities, became, by the force of circumstances, the leader of the Restoration set. If the Restoration were to be judged merely by its con- The scientific tributions to literature, it would have to be called a petty age. Luckily it made up for its dulness in art in another way: the Restoration marks a notable revival of the scientific spirit. A symptom of this was the founding, in the year 1660, of the Royal Society for the express purpose of pro- moting the investigation of scientific problems. The names of Locke and Newton, which grace this period, are sufficient evidence that the aims of the Royal Society were crowned with success. revival. * Although the Test Act was not repealed, the holding of office by Dissenters was frequently suffered by the connivance of the authorities. CHAPTER II The work of Richelieu. Mazarin, Richelieu's successor. THE ASCENDANCY OF FRANCE UNDER LOUIS XIV. (1643- 1715) The work of Richelieu had cleared the way for the su- premacy of France in Europe. By destroying the political privileges of the Huguenots and by breaking the power of the nobility, he had freed the royal authority from the last restraints which weighed upon it, and had rendered it abso- lute. In foreign matters Richelieu had engaged France in the Thirty Years' War, and had reaped for her the benefits of the Peace of Westphalia (1648). But just at this point, as France was about to assume a dominant position, she was threatened once more, and as it proved, for the last time under the old monarchy, by civil war. The government, upon the death of Louis XIII. (1643), passed into the hands of his queen, Anne of Austria, who was named regent for the five-year-old king. At the same time the post of prime minister, which had been occupied by Richelieu, fell to the confidant of the regent, another churchman and an Italian by birth. Cardinal Mazarin. Most faithfully did Mazarin carry out the political inten- tions of Richelieu, but he encountered naturally, like his predecessor, the envy of the great nobles, the chief of whom was the famous general, the prince of Conde. The Peace of Westphalia had not yet been signed, when certain nobles rose (1648) against the crown, in the hope that the new minister would prove not to be of the metal of his prede- cessor. The event showed that they were mistaken. Al- Ascendancy of France Under Louis XIV. 201 though the Parliament of Paris and occasional municipalities joined the high-born rebels, thus giving the new civil dis- turbances something of the character of a popular move- ment, the Fronde (1648-53), as the rising against Mazarin The Fronde, was called, was never anything at bottom but the struggle of the nobility to recover its feudal privileges. Such a struggle deserved to fail ; and if it now failed it was chiefly because France saw, as her whole history urged her to see, that in a question between king and nobles, her self-interest bound her to the former. The Fronde may be called the death-agony of the nobility as a feudal governing class. From the time of its suppression the nobles gradually trans- formed themselves into a body of docile courtiers, who were never occupied with anything more serious than the dances and spectacles of Versailles. The Peace of Westphalia was signed between France and the Austrian branch of the House of Hapsburg, Because France, in union with the Dutch, had been very successful The war with in the Spanish Netherlands she was unwilling to draw off ^^^"' and conclude a peace with the Spanish branch of the Haps- burgs without an adequate reward. As this was refused, war with Spain still went on after the Peace of Westphalia had composed the rest of Europe. The Fronde occurring at this time, turned the tables and inclined the balance for some years in favor of Spain, but as soon as the Fronde was beaten down, Mazarin was able to win back the lost ground and force Spain to terms. Owing to foreign war and internal revolution, Spain was, in fact, at her last gasp. When she signed with France the Peace of the Pyrenees The Peace of (1659), she signed away with it the last remnant of the su- 1659. ^'"'^"^^^' premacy which she had once exercised in Europe. France, the victor, took the place of Spain in the councils of the Continent, and signalized her triumph by acquiring from Spain certain small territories along the Pyrenees and in 202 Modern Europe The personal government of Louis XIV. Absolutism becomes Divine Right. The spread of government by Divine Right. the Spanish Netherlands (Roussillon and several places of Artois). With the glory of the Peace of the Pyrenees still linger- ing around him, Mazarin died (1661). Thereupon the young Louis XIV., now twenty-three years of age, resolved to take the governmenT into his own hands. When he ex- pressed to the assembled secretaries that he would hence- forth be his own prime-minister, many of them may have smiled and doubted. But he kept his word : the varied business of the French Government was transacted from Mazarin's death to his own end practically by himself. It is said that he once stated his political theory in the words : Vetat c' est moi (I am the state). Whether used by him or not, the phrase, expresses admirably the spirit of his reign, for he held himself to be the absolute head of the state, and regarded his ministers not as the responsible heads of departments, but as clerks. It is characteristic that the sun was his favorite emblem, because he was pleased to imagine, that as the earth drew its sustenance from the central lumi- nary, so the Hfe of France emanated from himself: le roi- soleil (sun-king), was the title given him by idolizing cour- tiers. Absolutism had existed in Europe long before Louis XIV., but Louis XIV. hedged the absolute monarchs around with a new divinity, and gave the doctrine of the Divine Right of kings a more splendid setting and a more general currency than it had ever had before. There is nothing beautiful to us in government by Di- vine Right. But it is not difficult to explain that govern- ment historically. It came into existence simply because there was nothing better at hand. The feudal state had been destroyed ; the national state not yet created ; and as things stood, the only reliable element of government was the king. It was so the Continent over. The peculiar distinction of Louis XIV. lies in having realized the ideal Ascendancy of France Under Louis XIV. 203 of the new absolutism in advance of others. Beginning with him, however, the new absohitism made the conquest of Europe. Everywhere it tended to raise the king above the law and to destroy all the public institutions which served as barriers to his will. And just here it was that the germ of danger in the new system lay. Monarchs who were worshipped like gods were Hkely to forget that they must needs have an end beyond their bon plat sir, their good pleasure, as the courtly phrase ran. The abuses which crowded upon the path of the new absolutism in- evitably therefore, after a century and a half, led to its overthrow and to the evolution of other more just and pop- ular principles of government. Louis began auspiciously enough by giving much atten- The king's re- tion to the improvement of the machinery of government. He reorganized the diplomatic service ; he rendered the administration more effective ; he enlarged the army and navy ; and he purged the finances of disorder and estab- lished them upon a sounder basis. The king's most ef- ficient helper in all this was Jean Colbert (1619-83). Colbert. Colbert served the king as minister of finance, and merely by putting an end to the traditional peculation of the tax- gatherers, succeeded in turning the annual deficit of the state into a surplus. This same Colbert is also celebrated as the father of French manufactures. He encouraged the native industries by developing and applying the system of protection (known at the time as the mercantile system), with a greater measure of severity than had been practised up to that day. Foreign goods were practically excluded by Colbert from the country. Whatever ill resulted from the system, cer- Theprosper- tainly French silks, brocades, laces, and glass captured, and ^ ^° have held to this day, );he markets of the world. Colbert also improved the means of internal communication by 204 Modern Europe Louis be- comes a con- queror. His wars. Louis antag- onizes Europe. building the best roads and canals which Europe could then boast, and he favored the establishment of colonies. Set- tlements were, at this time, made in the West Indies, Louis- iana, and India. In a word, France seemed intent, in the early years of Louis XIV., on matching the political and military supremacy already attained, with the more sub- stantial supremacy, which is the result of a long period of commercial and industrial prosperity. Unfortunately Louis's successes turned his head. He was only a young man, and had only governed a few years, and now he found himself the cynosure of all Europe. In all truth he could say that he was the first power of the world. But in measure as he found that his neighbors were no match for him, he began to be tempted by the thought of making them his dependents. It was not a high ambition, this, still it won the day with him. In the year 1667, therefore, Louis entered upon a career of aggres- sion and conquest, which after a few brilliant results, led to such a succession of disasters that the man whose progress had been attended by clouds of incense wafted by admiring courtiers closed his career in ignominy. Four great wars substantially filled the rest of Louis's life. They were : i. The War with Spain for the posses- sion of the Spanish Netherlands (1667-68); 2, the War with the Dutch (1672-78); 3, the War of the Palatinate (1688-97) ; 4, the War of the Spanish Succession (1701- 14). When Louis, in the year 1667, surveyed the political situation, and, noting his own prosperity and the weakness of his neighbors, resolved on a war of conquest, he must have debated carefully whither he would best move. He decided finally that it would be wisest to extend the French boundaries toward the east. Probably he argued that France needed to be strengthened, most of all, on this side. Ascendancy of France Under Louis XIV 205 By choosing to expand eastward, however, he was bound to antagonize the three countries, which were directly- threatened by this move : Spain, the Dutch, and Germany. Sooner or later, too, he was likely to arouse the jealousy of the ancient rival of France, England. Did Louis, when he began war so lightly, reckon with the chance of a Eu- ropean coalition against him? Probably not. He saw only the contemporary divisions of Europe and his own brilliant opportunity, and Hke every other adventurer, he let the future take care of itself In 1667 Louis suddenly invaded the Spanish Nether- lands. The fact that he tried to justify himself by putting forth some vague claims of his Spanish wife to these ter- The war of the ritories, only added hypocrisy to violence. His well-ap- edands, 1^7- • pointed army took place after place. Spain was too weak ^^• to offer resistance, and if the Dutch, frightened at the pros- pect of such a neighbor as Louis, had not bestirred them- selves, Louis would have overrun all the Spanish Nether- lands. The Triple Alliance of the Dutch, England, and Sweden, formed by the rapid ingenuity of the republican patriot, John de Witt, who was at this time at the head of the Dutch^ Government, bade Louis halt. Louis, on oc- casion, could distinguish the possible from the impossible. In answer to the threat of the Triple Alliance, he declared himself satisfied with a frontier strip and retired. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) formally secured him in his bold theft (1668). For the next few years Louis seemed to be dominated by a single thought — revenge upon the Dutch. The Dutch The isolation had been the soul of the Triple Alliance; the Dutch pri- of ^he Dutch. marily hindered his expansion eastward. The plan he now formed was to sever the Dutch from all their friends and allies, and then fall upon them unawares. The diplo- matic campaign, preliminary to the declaration of war, was 206 Modern Europe crowned by complete success. Sweden and the emperor were detached from the Dutch by treaties of neutrahty; and Charles 11. , by the Treaty of Dover ^ (1670), was even pledged to join the forces of England with the French in the proposed war. In the spring of 1672 everything was ready. While the combined French and English fleets en- gaged the Dutch fleet under the celebrated Admiral Ruy- ter in the Channel, the French army, led by Conde and Turenne, invaded the territory of the Seven United Prov- inces by following the course of the Rhine. In a few weeks most of the provinces, owing to the decay The House, of into which de Witt had permitted the army and fortresses theTront.^ to fall, were in the hands of the French. And now a terri- ble indignation swept over the alarmed people. They fell upon and murdered the republican leader de Witt, and would be satisfied with nothing less than the triumphant re- instatement of the House of Orange, which, at the close of the Spanish war, the republicans had quietly shelved. In an outburst of enthusiasm, William III. of Orange was made Stadtholder and supreme commander on sea and land. This The character William was far from being a genius, but he was sprung from an heroic race, and the responsibility for a nation's safe- keeping which was put upon him in astern crisis, brought out his best qualities. The English ambassador, on the occa- sion of the French invasion, invited him to submit, urging that it was easy to see that the Republic was lost. "I know one means of never seeing it," he replied, '^ to die on the last dyke." It was this spirit that now steeled the temper of the little people and enabled them to emulate the deeds of their ancestors against Spain. Before Louis could take the heart of the Netl^erlands, the city of Amsterdam, the Dutch had, at the order of William, » See page 193. Ascendancy of France Under Louis XIV 20/ cut the dykes and restored their country to the original The Dutch dominion of the waters. Louis had to retreat ; his oppor- generah^""*^^ tunity was lost. But Europe was now thoroughly aroused, and before many months had passed, there had ralhed to the cause of the Dutch, the emperor, the states of the Empire, and Spain. In the year 1674 the position of Louis was still further weakened. Li that year the state of English pub- lic opinion forced Charles IL to abandon Louis and make his peace with the Dutch. Louis was thereupon left to face a great continental coalition with no ally but remote Swe- den. The odds in a struggle with all Europe were patently against Louis, and although the superiority of French or- ganization and French generalship enabled him to win every pitched battle with his foes, he was glad enough to end the war when peace was offered. By the Treaty of Nimwegen (1678) his supremacy in Europe was confirmed, and he was permitted, in recognition of that supremacy, to incorporate the Franche Comte, a detached eastern prov- ince of Spain, with France. The second war, too, although it had roused a Euro- pean alliance against Louis, had brought him its prize of a new province. Louis was now at the zenith of his glory. Louis takes The adulation of his court became more and more slavish, " ^^^ until the flattered monarch imagined that he could do every- thing with impunity. His imperious temper is well exhib- ited by an event of the year 1681. In a period of complete peace he fell upon the city of Strasburg, the last stronghold of the Empire in Alsace, and incorporated it with France. A cloud that settled on the spirit of the king at this time prepared a monstrous action. The frivolous, pleasure- loving Louis, having lately fallen under the influence of a devout Catholic lady, Madame de Maintenon, the gover- ness of some of his children, was suddenly seized with re- ligious exaltation. To Madame de Maintenon the eradica- 208 Modern Europe The Revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes, 1685. England joins Europe against Louis. tion of heresy was a noble work, and Louis, taking the cue from her, began gradually to persecute the Protestants. At first, innocently enough, rewards were offered to vol- untary converts. Then the government proceeded to take more drastic measures; wherever Huguenots refused on summons to become Catholics, rough dragoons were quar- tered on the recalcitrants, till they had become pliant. These barbarities became known as dragonnades. Finally, in 1685, two years after Louis had formally married Mad- ame de Maintenon, and had thus become thoroughly en- slaved to her policy, he revoked the Edict of Nantes, by virtue of which the Huguenots had enjoyed a partial free- dom of worship for almost one hundred years. Therewith the Protestant faith was proscribed within the boundaries of France. The blow which by this insane measure struck the prosperity of the country was more injurious than a disastrous war. Thousands of Huguenots — the lowest esti- mate speaks of 50,000 families — fled across the border and carried their industry, their capital,^ and their civili- zation to the enemies of France — chiefly to Holland, America, and Prussia. The occupation of Strasburg and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were events belonging to an interval of peace. But Louis was already planning a new war. When his preparations became known, the emperor, the Dutch, and Spain concluded, at the instigation of William of Orange, a new alliance. Happily before the war had weH begun, a lucky chance won England for the allies. In 1688 James \\. was overthrown by the ** glorious Revolution," and William of Orange became king of England. As the » The industry and the capital of the Huguenots are not mere phrases- The Huguenots and their co-religionists everywhere were the hardest workers of the time, largely through the direct influence of Calvin. Cal- vin interpreted the commandment : Six days shalt thou labor, literally, and abandoned the dozens of holidays which forced Catholic workmen * to be idle a good part of the year. Ascendancy of France Under Louis XIV 209 temper of the English people had at the same time become thoroughly anti-French, William had no difficulty in per- suading them to join Europe against the French tyrant. Thus in the new war — called the war of the Palatinate, from the double fact that Louis claimed the Palatinate and that the war began with a terrible harrying by fire and sword of that poor Rhenish land — Louis was absolutely without a friend. This third war (1688-97) is, for the general student, thor- oughly unmemorable. Battles were fought on land and on The War of sea, in the Channel, in the Netherlands, and along the 1688-97. Rhine, and generally the French proved their old supe- riority ; but they were not strong enough to reap any ben- efit from their successes against the rest of Europe, and in 1697 all the combatants from mere exhaustion were glad to sign, on the basis of mutual restitutions, the Peace of Ryswick. The War of the Palatinate was the first war by which Louis had gained nothing. The fact should have served him as a warning that the tide had turned. And perhaps The Spanish he would not have been so utterly scornful of the hostility of Europe if there had not opened up to him at this time a peculiarly tempting prospect. The king of Spain, Charles IL, had no heir, and at his death, which might occur at any time, the vast Spanish dominion — Spain and her colonies, Naples and Milan, the Spanish Netherlands — would fall no one knew to whom. The Austrian branch of Hapsburg had, of course, a claim, but Louis fancied that his children had a better title still in right of his first wife, who was the oldest sister of the Spanish king. The matter was so involved legally that it is impossible to say to this day where the better right lay. Anticipating a struggle with Europe over the coming in- heritance, Louis entered into negotiation with his chief ad- inheritance. 2IO Modern Europe Louis signs and rejects the Partition Treaty. The Grand Alliance. The combatants compared. versary, William III. of England, long before the death of Charles II. had made the inheritance a burning question. A partition treaty was accordingly agreed on by the two leading powers of Europe, as the most plausible settlement of the impending difficulties. But when, on the death ot Charles II., November, 1700, it was found that the Span- ish king had made a will in favor of Philip, the duke of Anjou, one of Louis's younger grandsons, Louis threw the partition treaty to the winds. He sent Philip to Madrid to assume the rule of the undivided dominion of Spain. The House of Bourbon now ruled the whole European west. " There are no longer any Pyrenees," were Louis's exultant words. It was some time before Europe recovered from the shock of its surprise over this bold step, and nerved itself to a re- sistance. William, of course, was indefatigable in arousing the Dutch and English, and at last, in 1701, he succeeded in creating the so-called Grand Alliance, composed of the emperor, England, the Dutch, and the leading German princes. Before the war had fairly begun, however, Will- iam, the stubborn, life-long enemy of Louis, had died (March, 1702). In the war which broke out, called the war of the Spanish Succession, 1702-14, his spirit is to be accounted none the less a potent combatant. In the new war the position of Louis was more favorable than it had been in the ])receding war. He commanded the resources not only of France but also of Spain ; his soldiers still had the reputation of being invincible; and his armies had the advantage of being under his single direction. The allies, on the other hand, were necessarily divided by conflicting interests. What advantages they had lay in these two circumstances, which in the end proved decisive: The allies possessed greater resources of money and men, and they developed superior commanders. Ascendancy of France Under Louis XIV. 21 1 The great French generals, Conde and Turenne, were now dead, and their successors, with the exception of Marshal Villars and Vauban, the inventor of the modern system of fortification, were all men of commonplace capacity. In the highest commands, where France was weak, England and Austria on the other hand proved themselves particu- larly strong. They developed in the duke of Marlborough and in Eugene, prince of Savoy, two eminent commanders. Equally gifted, they planned their campaigns in common, with sole reference to the good of the cause, and they shared the honors of victory without the jealousy which often stains brilliant names. Not even the Thirty Years' War assumed such propor- The War of tions as the struggle in which Europe now engaged. It succSn is was literally universal, and raged, at one and the same time, sjJIJJ^g ^fg at all the exposed points of the French-Spanish posses- sions, that is, in the Spanish Netherlands, along the upper Rhine, in Italy, in Spain itself (where the Hapsburg claim- ant, the Archduke Charles, strove to drive out the Bour- bon king, Philip V.), on the sea, and in the colonies of North America. The details of this gigantic struggle have no place here. We must content ourselves with noting the striking military actions and the final settlement. The first great battle of the war occurred in 1 704, at Blen- The victories heim, near the upper Danube. The battle of Blenheim was Mar"b?rough. the result of a bold strategical move of Marlborough, straight across western Germany, in order to save Vienna from a well-planned attack of the French. Together with Eugene, Marlborough captured or cut to pieces the French army. At Blenheim the myth of French invincibility was ex- ploded, and the English soldier there again revealed his capabilities to Europe. In 1706 Marlborough won a splendid victory at Rami Hies, in the Netherlands, and in the same year Eugene defeated the French at Turin and drove 212 Modern Europe A Tory ministry succeeds the Whigs. The death of Emperor Joseph. The Peace of Utrecht, 1713. them out of Italy. These signal successes were followed in the years 1708 and 1709 by the great victories of Oude- narde and Malplaquet. Oudenarde and Malplaquet left France prostrate, and seemed to open up the road to Paris. The road to Paris, however, owing to a number of un- expected occurrences, which utterly changed the face of European politics, was never taken. In 17 10 the Whig ministry in England, which had supported Marlborough and advocated the war, ' was overthrown, and a Tory ministry, in favor of peace at any price, succeeded. Thus from 1 7 10 on, Marlborough's actions in the field were paralyzed. The next year there happened something even worse. In 1 7 1 1 the Emperor Joseph died, and was succeeded by his brother, Charles VI. As Charles was also the candidate of the Grand Alliance for the Spanish throne, the death of Joseph held out the prospect of the renewal of the vast empire of Charles V. Such a development did not lie in the interests of England and the Dutch, and these two nations now began to withdraw from the Grand Alliance and urge a settlement with the French. Louis, who was utterly exhausted and broken by defeat, met them more than halfway. In 17 13, the Peace of Utrecht ended the war of the Spanish Succession. By the Peace of Utrecht the Spanish dominions were divided. Everybody managed to get some share in the booty. First, Philip V., Louis's grandson, was recognized as king of Spain and her colonies, on condition that France and Spain would remain forever separated. Next the em- peror was provided for ; he received the bulk of the Italian possessions (Milan and Naples), together with the Spanish Netherlands (henceforth Austrian Netherlands). The Dutch were appeased with a number of border fortresses in the Austrian Netherlands, as a barrier against France ; and Ascendancy of France Under Louis XIV. 213 England took some of the French possessions in the New World, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia (Acadia) and the Hudson Bay Territory, together with the Spanish rock of Gibraltar, which gave her the command of the Mediter- ranean Sea. The ambitious and dissatisfied emperor re- fused, at first, to accept this peace, but he was forced to give way and confirm its leading arrangements by the Peace of Rastadt (17 14). Shortly after the Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt, Louis Louis's death. XIV. died (September, 1715). The material prosperity that he and Colbert had created. in his early years, had vanished, and he left a debt-burdened country and a fam- ished population. His disastrous end was a merited pen- alty for a foolish ambition. But to his contemporaries he remained to the day of his death, the grand monarque ; and that title is a good summary of him as he appears in history, for it conveys the impression of a showy splendor which is not without the suspicion of hoUowness. The brilliancy which Louis's long reign lent' France cast The domi- a spell upon the rest of the world. Under its action Louis's French court became the model court of Europe, and the so-called <^'vihzation. good society, the world over, adopted, for more than a century, the French tongue, French manners, French fashions, and French art. That such mere imitation could bring other nations no solid cultural advantages goes with- out saying, but it is fair to recognize that French civiliza- tion under Louis must have possessed an irresistible attract- iveness to have excited such universal admiration. Louis established his court at Versailles. There he built ' Versailles a vast palace at fabulous expense, whither he drew the capitai^o/ ^ aristocracy of France, to lead, under his eyes, the life of France, polished elegance, with its round of plays, pastorals, fetes, hunts, and dances. Perhaps royalty never had, before or after, so distinguished a setting. 214 Modern Europe The bloom of Under Louis, French literature was enriched by some of literature. its best productions. It is the period of the pseudo-class- icists, whose work is not without much of the artificiality which was naturally absorbed with the life of the time, but who possess, nevertheless, genuine human qualities. France points proudly to Corneille (d. 1684) and Racine (d. 1699), writers of notable tragedies, and Moliere (d. 1673), author of the wittiest and most searching comedies that have ever been written. CHAPTER III THE RISE OF RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT (1689- ^725) AND CATHARINE THE GREAT (l 762-96) ; THE DECAY OF SWEDEN The Russian people do not make their . entrance into history until the ninth century, when they were conquered by a band of Norsemen and united in a state under Rurik. The Norse family of Rurik continued to rule in Russia for over seven hundred years. This period was a period of barbarism, and only one or two facts connected with it are really memorable. In the tenth century the Russians became Christians, being converted to the Greek form of Christianity by mis- sionaries from Constantinople. Three hundred years later there occurred a great calamity. Russia was overrun by the Mongols, barbarians from Asia, and it was only after a subjugation of two hundred and fifty years that Ivan III., known as the Great, succeeded in casting off the for- eign yoke (1480). This same Ivan also reduced the power of the great princes and the municipalities, and laid the foundations of the absolute monarchy. Ivan IV. (1533- 84), known as the Terrible, added to these triumphs. By the conquest of Astrachan from the Tartars, he pushed the Russian boundary southward to the Caspian Sea.^ He also 1 Ivan also ventured to discard the old title of Grand Duke of Muscovy for the more distinguished one of Czar. Czar is supposed to be derived from Cassar, and its adoption meant that the rulers of Russia considered themselves, now that Constantinople had fallen (1453), the heirs of the traditions of the Eastern Empire. 215 The conquest of Russia by the Norsemen, The unifica- tion of Russia under Ivan III. and Ivan IV. / i 4^ 2i6 Modern Europe attempted to acquire for Russia a hold upon the Baltic, and thus gain an outlet toward the west. This plan failed, but Ivan's ambition was inherited by his successors. In fact, until the plan was realized under Peter the Great, the Russian monarchs seem to have buried every other aspiration. The House of The House of Rurik came to an end in 1598. For the Romanoff t^ • • ,. . ^ next ten years Russia was m a condition of anarchy, and the whole state seemed on the verge of falling a prey to its jealous western neighbors, Sweden and Poland. in_26jLi_ the national party, however, succeeded in putting one of its own number, Michael Romanoff, upon the throne, and under the House orthis"prrnceTHe state rapidly revived. Theconquest Not only did the early Romanoffs banish the Polish and Swedish influence, but they also succeeded in greatly ex- tending the Russian power through the acquisition of Si- beria. This vast conquest, covering the whole of northern Asia, was not the reward of a succession of military tri- umphs. Rather than to the Russian monarchs the acqui- sition of Siberia is to be ascribed to the enterprise of Russian traders and adventurers, who, as they penetrated progressively into the ice fields of Asia in search of furs and walrus ivory, annexed territory after territory in the name of their master. The accession The Romanoffs came to honor in the person of Peter, o eter, i 2. ^^^^ succeeded to the throne, together with his older brother Ivan, in the year 1682. As the new Czars were, at that time, still boys, and Ivan little better than an imbecile, the government was exercised for some time by an older sister, Sophia, in the capacity of regent. However, in 1689 Peter, who had then attained his seventeenth year, resolved to take matters into his own hands. He declared the regency at an end, and summarily sent Sophia to a nunnery. As the sickly Ivan (d. 1696) was harmless. The Rise of Russia 217 Peter generously allowed him to play the part of a co-ruler for the few more years that he lived. In order to understand Peter's programme, it is necessary The three to review the chief elements of the political and intellectual Peler's\Tfe.° position of Russia at the time of his accession. In the second half of the seventeenth century the Russians were still in life and manners an Asiatic people, who were con- nected with European culture by but a single bond — their Christian faith. Their political situation seemed, at first sight, more hopeful. But in spite of the vast area of the state, which included the eastern plain of Europe and the whole north of Asia, Russia was so cooped in on the west and south by a ring of great powers, Persia, Turkey, Poland, and Sweden, that she was practically an inland state and in actual danger of strangulation for want of an outlet to the sea. Finally, it is necessary to understand the Russian constitution. The Czar was the absolute master, but there existed two checks upon his power — the patriarch, the head of the Church, who exercised great influence in re- ligious matters, and the Streltsi, the Czar's body-guard, who, because they were a privileged force, felt inclined to regard themselves superior to their master. This whole composite situation Peter soon seized with a statesmanhke grasp, and admirably moulded it, through the efforts of a long rule, to his own purposes. He set himself, in the main, three aims, and met in all a degree of success which is fairly astonishing. These aims were the following: He resolved to make the culture connection between Russia and Europe strong and intimate ; he labored to open a way to the west by gaining a hold on the Black and on the Baltic seas ; and, lastly, he planned to rid himself of the restraint put upon his authority by the patriarch and the Streltsi. Peter is a difficult person for a modern man to under- 2l8 Modern Europe Peter's char- acter. Peter's first conquest : Azov. Peter's jour- ney of in- struction. Stand. One aspect presents him as a murderer, another as a monster of sensuality, and still another as a hero. We have the key to his character when we remember that he was a barbarian of genius — never anything more. Civil- ized standards applied to him are unjust and fail. Bar- barity was an element of his blood, and all his strenuous, life-long aspirations for the nobler things of the mind and the sweeter things of the soul never diminished in him a certain natural depravity. Therefore, his life is full of the strangest contrasts. With barbarian eagerness he assimi- lated every influence that he encountered, good and evil alike, and surrendered himself, for the time being, to its sway with all his might. Certainly, his distinguishing characteristic is an indomitable energy : Peter's life burnt at a white heat. Peter's first chance to distinguish himself came in the year 1695. The emperor was at that time waging war against the Turks, who were beginning to show the first symptoms of collapse. Seeing his opportunity, Peter re- solved to make use of the fortunate embarrassment of the Turks to acquire a southern outlet for Russia. In 1696 he conquered the Port of Azov. The future now opened more confidently to him,, and before taking another step he determined to visit the West and study the wonders of its civilization with his own eyes. Peter spent the year 1697-98 in travel through Germany, Holland, and England. The journey, undertaken with a large suite of fellow-students like himself, was meant purely as a voyage of instruction. Throughout its course Peter was indefatigable in his efforts to get at the bottom of things, at the methods of western government, at the sources of western wealth, at the systems of western trade and manufacture. ** I am a learner," is the motto encircling the seal which he had struck for this voyage. The Rise of Russia 219 At Zaandam, in Holland, he hired out for a time as a common ship-carpenter, ship-building from the time of his boyhood having been a passion with him. But he did not, because of it, neglect the examination of the other devel- oped activities of the west. He attended surgical lectures, visited paper-mills, flour-mills, printing presses, in short, was untiring in his efforts to assimilate, not a part, but the whole of western civilization. In England, King William received him with especial cordiality and assisted him in every way in the prosecution of his studies. The rough Peter was the joke of the day among the fashionable people of London, but the intelligent at London and else- where were spurred to interest by this enthusiastic worker, who labored so conscientiously to fit himself for the task of practical reformer of the barbarian people which he ruled. The opportunity for putting the results of his trip to the test of practice came sooner than Peter expected. At Vienna he heard that the Streltsi had revolted. He set The streltsi out post-haste for home, established order, and then took a fearful vengeance. Over a thousand of the luckless guards were executed with terrible tortures. Rumor reports that Peter in his savage fury himself played the headsman. Sovereign and executioner — this combination of offices filled by Peter, clearly exhibits the chasm that then yawned between Europe and Russia. But no one will deny that there was method in Peter's madness. The Streltsi had been a constant centre of disaffection, and had frequently threatened the throne. Now was the time, as Peter clearly saw, to get rid of them. Those who were not executed were dismissed, and the troop was replaced by a regular army, organized - on the European pattern and dependent on the Czar. Peter's reforms now crowded thick and fast. Everything 220 Modern Europe The Church made de- pendent on the Czar. His civiliz- ing labors. Peter turns to the Baltic. foreign was fostered at the expense of everything national. He introduced western dress. By means of a tax he op- posed the Russian custom of wearing long beards, and arm- ing himself with a pair of scissors, occasionally, with his own imperial hand did execution on his subjects. Many were the superstitious Russians who saw in this revolution- ary hatred of beards a threat directed at the orthodox religion. The clergy especially became increasingly sus- picious of Peter's policy. As the discontent of the clergy was a danger to the throne and a hindrance to reforms, the Czar resolved to make that order more dependent on himself. When the patriarch died in 1 700, Peter committed the functions of the primate to a synod which he himself appointed and controlled, and thus the Czar became the head of the Church as he already was the head of the state. To enumerate more than a part of Peter's activities in behalf of his state is quite impossible. He invited foreign colonists and mechanics to Russia in order that his back- ward subjects might be aided by the best instruction of Europe ; he built roads and canals ; he encouraged com- merce and industry; and he erected common schools. The fruits of these vast civilizing labors ripened of course slowly, and Peter did not live to gather them. But his efforts at making himself strong through a navy and army, and at extending his territory to the sea, were crowned with a number of brilliant and almost immediate successes. After his return from the west, Peter was more desirous than ever of gaining a hold on the Baltic. Azov, on the Black Sea, was worth little to him as long as the Turks held the Dardanelles. The west, it was clear, could be best gained by the northern route. But the enterprise was far from easy. The Baltic coast was largely held by Sweden, and Sweden, the first power of the north, was The Rise of Russia 221 prepared to resist any attempt to displace her with all her energy. The rise of Sweden to the position of the first power of The great- the north dates from the time of Gustavus Adolphus (i6i i- Sweden. 32). Gustavus extended his rule over almost the whole of the northern and eastern shore of the Baltic, and by his interference in the Thirty Years' War, his daughter Christina, who succeeded him, acquired, as her share in the German booty, western Pommerania and the land at the mouth of the Weser and the Elbe (1648). Sweden was now for a short time the rival of France for the first honors in Europe. Unfortunately, her power rested solely on her military organization, not on her people and her resources, and, as experience proves, no purely military state is likely to live long. But as the Swedish rulers of the seventeenth century were capable men, especially in war, they succeeded in maintaining the supremacy which Gustavus had won. However, they injured and antagonized so many neighbors that it was only a question of time when these neighbors would combine against the common foe. Denmark to the west, Brandenburg-Prussia to the south, Poland and Russia to the east, had all paid for Sweden's exaltation with severe losses, and nursed a deep grudge against her in patience and silence. The long awaited opportunity for The league revenge seemed at length to have arrived, when in the year poiand^'and 1697, Charles XII., a boy of fifteen, came to the throne. Russia. 1700. His youth and inexperience appeared to mark him as an easy victim. Therefore, Denmark, Poland, and Russia now formed a league against him to recover their lost ter- ritories (1700). The allies had, however, made their reckoning without Charles xii. the host. Charles XII. turned out, in spite of his youth, °^ Sweden, to be the most warlike member of a warlike race — a perfect fighting demon. To his military qualities he owes his great 222 Modern Europe The marvel- lous campaign of 1700, Victory of Narva. reputation. But beyond them he lacked almost every virtue of a ruler. Extravagantly flighty and unreasonable, he was never governed by a consideration of the welfare of his state, but always shaped his policy by his own notions of pride and honor. He was Don Quixote promoted to a throne, and though he could fight with admirable fury against windmills, he could not govern and he could not build. In the year 1700 his full character was yet undis- covered, and people stopped open-mouthed with wonder, as he rose, splendid, like a rocket, in the north. Before the coalition was ready to strike, young Charles gathered his troops and fell upon the enemy. As the forces of Denmark^ Poland, and Russia were necessarily widely separated, he calculated that if he could meet them in turn, the likelihood of victory would be much increased. He laid his plans accordingly. In the spring of 1700, he suddenly crossed from Sweden to the island of Seeland, and besieged Copenhagen. The king of Denmark, unprepared for so bold a step, had to give way, and readily signed with Charles the Peace of Travendal (August, 1700), in which he promised to remain neutral during the remainder of the war. The ink of this document was hardly dry be- fore Charles was off again like a flash. This time he sailed to the Gulf of Finland, where Peter was besieging Narva. Peter had with him at Narva some 50,000 men, while Charles was at the head of only 8,000 ; but Charles, never- theless, ordered the attack, and his well-disciplined Swedes soon swept the confused masses of the ill-trained Russians off the field like chaff. The Russians now fell back into the interior, and Charles was free to turn upon his last and most hated enemy, August the Strong, king of Poland. Before another year had passed, Charles had defeated August as roundly as the sovereigns of Denmark and Russia. Thus far the war had been managed admirably. Charles The Rise of Russia 223 might have made his conditions and gone home. But ob- Charles's mis- stinate as he was, he preferred to have revenge on August, whom he regarded as the instigator of the alliance. He resolved not to give up until he had forced his adversary to resign the Polish crown, and had appointed as successor a personal adherent. But an attempt such as this, necessi- tated getting Poland into his hands. The difficult and ambitious plan led to the undoing of his first successes, and finally, to the ruin of his life. Poland was at this time in a condition hardly better than Anarchy in anarchy. The nobles held all the power and were sover- eign on their own lands. The only remaining witnesses of a previous unity were a Diet, which never transacted any business, and an elected king, who was allowed no power and had nothing to do. In the year 1697, the Poles had even elected to the kingship a foreigner, August the Strong, elector of Saxony. Now when in the year 1 701 King August was defeated by Charles, the majority of the Poles were glad rather than sorry, for August had engaged in the war with his Saxon troops, and without asking the consent of the Polish Diet ; but when Charles began making con- quests in Poland and insisted on forcing a monarch of his own choosing on the Poles, a national party naturally gathered around August, who, although a foreigner, was, nevertheless, the rightful king. For many years following the brilliant campaign of 1700 Charles in Charles hunted August over the marshy and wooded plains of Poland. Always victorious, he could never quite suc- ceed in utterly crushing his enemy. Even his taking War- saw and crowning his dependant, Stanislaus Lesczinski, king, did not change the situation. Finally, in 1706, Charles decided on a radical measure. He suddenly in- vaded Saxony, in order to injure August in that part of his possessions from which he drew his largest revenues. As 224 Modern Europe The progress of Peter. Pultava, 1709. Russia takes the place of Sweden. Saxony was a part of the Empire, Charles's act of aggres- sion drew upon him an angry protest from the emperor. But luckily for Charles, the emperor was then engaged with all his resources in the War of the Spanish Succession, and dared not raise up against himself another enemy. Thus Saxony left to herself succumbed to her invader, and August was forced to sign a peace in which he acknowledged his rival, Stanislaus, king of Poland. Of course, a peace signed under such conditions was illusory. In fact, August broke it as soon as an opportunity offered. But the peace with August at length set Charles free to act against the Russians. Too much time had been lost already, for since Peter's defeat at Narva, great things had happened. The Czar had indeed fallen back, but he was resolutely determined to try again, and while Charles was, during six long years, pursuing spectres in Poland, Peter carefully reorganized his troops, and conquered half the Baltic provinces (Ingria, Carelia, Livonia, Esthonia). In 1703 he founded on the newly acquired territory the city of St. Petersburg, destined to become the modern capital of Russia. Charles, following his usual method, immediately after having wrung a peace from August resolved on a decisive stroke against the Russians. He marched (1707) for the old capital, Moscow, very much like Napoleon one hundred years later. But he was defeated by the hardships of the march and the rigors of the climate before he met the enemy. When Peter came up with him at Pultava (1709), the Swedes fought with their accustomed bravery, but their sufferings had worn them out. And now, Narva was avenged. The Swedish army was literally destroyed, and Charles, accompanied by a few hundred horsemen, barely succeeded in making his escape to Turkey. The verdict of Pultava was destined to be final. Sweden stepped down The Rise of Russia 225 from her position of great power into obscurity, and a new power, Russia, henceforth ruled in the north. As for Charles, the Sultan received the famous warrior Charles at kindly, and offered him Bender for a residence. There Turkey. Charles remained five years — long enough to make Bender the name of one of the maddest chapters of his madcap career. While at Bender, he held it to be the business of his life to drag the Sultan into a war with Peter ; but the Sultan, whose states were in decay, long refused to meet his wishes. When he did give way (17 11), the first campaign came near ending in a signal triumph, for Peter, who was no general, allowed himself and his whole army to be caught in a trap ; but at the suggestion of Peter's clever wife, the Grand Vizier, who led the Turkish forces, was offered a bribe, and as a result Peter was allowed to slip oft" before Charles had his revenge. The whole bad adventure merely cost Peter Azov, on the Black Sea. As for Charles he raved like a madman on seeing his foe escape, and when the Sultan, tired of the impertinence of the eternal meddler, requested him, a little later, to leave his territory, Charles obstinately refused to budge. It took a regular siege to bring him to understand that his entertainment in Turkey was over, and even then he fought like a demon upon the roof of his burning house until he fell senseless. At length, after an absence of five years, he turned his face homeward (17 14). But Charles returned too late to stem the ebb of the Swedish destinies. The surrounding powers had taken ad- vantage of the king's long absence to help themselves to whatever part of Sweden they coveted. Charles met them, indeed, with his accustomed valor, but his country was exhausted, and his people alienated. In 1 7 18, while besieg- The death of ing Frederikshald in Norway, he was killed in the trenches, ^^^^^^^' ^7i8. the probability being that he was shot by a Swedish traitor. 226 Modern Etirope His sister, Ulrica Eleanor, who succeeded him, was com- pelled by the aristocratic party to agree to a serious lim- itation of the royal prerogative. Then the tired Swedes hastened to sign a peace with their enemies. Denmark agreed to the principle of mutual restitutions ; the German states of Hanover and Brandenburg acquired payments out The Russian of the Swedish provinces in Germany ; August the Strong acquisi ions. received recognition as king of Poland ; but Peter, who had contributed the most to the defeat of Charles, got too, by the Treaty of Nystadt (1721), the lion's share of the booty : Carelia, Ingria, Esthonia, and Livonia, in fact, all the Swedish possessions of the eastern Baltic except Finland. The execution Peter was now nearing the end of his reign. His rule had brought Russia a new splendor, but though he could enumerate successes such as fall to the lot of very few men, he was not spared defeat and chagrin. For one thing his efforts in behalf of Russian civilization were not appreci- ated. The Russians objected to being lifted out of their barbarism, and it took all of Peter's iron will to exact obedience to his measures of reform. Under the circum- stances the national party, which directed the opposition to Peter, soon fixed its hopes upon Peter's son and heir, Alexis, and Alexis, for his part, shunned no trouble to exhibit his sympathy with a reactionary policy. With a heavy heart Peter had to face the possibility of a successor who would undo his cherished life-work. For years he took pains to win Alexis over to his views, but when his efforts proved without avail, he resolved, for the sake of the state, to strike his son down. The resolution we may praise; the method was terrible. It exhibited once more all of Peter's latent savagery. The Czarowitz was tortured in prison until he died (17 18), and the probability is that the father presided in person at the execution of the son. The Rhe of Russia 227 When Peter died (1725), it seemed for a time as if Catharine ii., Russia would return to her former Asiatic condition. The ^^ ^"^ " government fell into the hands of a succession of dissolute, incompetent Czarinas, who had few interests in life beyond their own pleasures. Out of this sorry plight the country was drawn by the accession of a remarkable woman, who had enough good sense to accept the traditions of Peter's reign, and enough power to continue them. This was Catharine IL, the wife of Peter III. Catharine, by birth a petty princess of Germany, had married Peter III. when he was heir-apparent. She was not only intelligent and energetic, but also wholly unscrupulous, and shortly after Peter III., who was crochety and half insane, had as- cended the throne (1762), she had him strangled by two of her favorites. Although she thus acquired the supreme power by means of a crime, once in possession of it, she wielded it with consummate skill. Being of western birth, she naturally favored western civilization. Peter the Great himself had not been more anxious to found schools, and create industries and a commerce. More important still, she took up Peter's idea of expansion toward the west. With Sweden annihilated by Peter, the only other Catharine European powers which pressed upon Russia, were Poland ditroy"^Po- and Turkey. Poland lay across the land-route which led }^"d and from Russia to the west, and Turkey held the water-route which led to Europe by the Black Sea. Catharine gave her life to the abasement of these two European neighbors, and before she died she had succeeded in destroying Poland and in bringing Turkey to her feet. The hopeless anarchy of Poland had been brought home Polish to everyone in Europe, when Charles XII. of Sweden sue- Tib^rZnveto. ceeded in holding the country for a number of years with a mere handful of troops (i 702-1 707). The weakness of the country was due to the selfish nobles and their impos- 228 Modern Europe Russia, Prussia, and Austria equally responsible for the par- tition. The First Par- tition, 1772. sible constitution. To realize the ludicrous unfitness of this instrument, one need only recall the famous provision called liberum veto, which conferred on every noble the right to forbid by his single veto the adoption by the Diet of a measure distasteful to himself. By liberum veto one man could absolutely stop the machinery of government. Under these circumstances Poland fell a prey to internal conflicts, and soon to ambitious foreign neighbors. As it is a universal law that the weak are exposed to destruction from the strong, Poland has herself to thank in the first place for the ruin that overtook her in the eighteenth cen- tury. But that fact, of course, does not exempt from guilt the powers that threw themselves upon her like beasts of prey, and rent her asunder. It is useless to investigate what one person or power is responsible for the idea of the partition of Poland. The idea was in the air, and the three powers which bordered on Poland and benefited from the partition — Russia, Aus- tria, and Prussia — must share the odium of the act among them. It is, however, true that, of the three co-oper- ating sovereigns — Catharine of Russia, Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Maria Theresa of Austria — Catharine and Frederick appear in a much severer light than Maria Theresa, who long held out against her son and her prime minister when they urged the necessity of participating in the proposed robbery. Diplomatically considered, the First Partition of Poland was a triumph for Frederick the Great ; for Catharine was counting on swallowing the whole booty, when Frederick stepped in, and by associating Austria with himself forced the Czarina to divide with her neighl)ors. The First Par- tition belonging to the year 1772 did not destroy Poland. It simply peeled off slices for the lucky highwaymen ; the land beyond the Dwina went to Russia, Galicia to Austria, The Rise of Russia 229 and the Province of West Prussia to Prussia. But the principle of interference had been once estabhshed, and a few years later the fate of Poland was sealed by a Second The Second and a Third Partition (1793 and 1795)- Poland ceased udons. '1793^^' to exist as a state, when her last army, gallantly led by ^795- Kosciusko, went down before the Russians ; but as a peo- ple, she exists to this day, and stubbornly nurses in her heart the hope of a resurrection. Her signal success over the Poles excited Catharine to Catharine's increased efforts against the Turks. In two wars (first war, overtheTurks. 1768-74; second war, 1787-92), she succeeded in utterly defeating the Turks, and in extending her territory along the Black Sea to the Dniester. It was a fair acquisi- tion, but it did not satisfy her ambitious nature. She dreamed of getting Constantinople, and left that dream as a heritage to her successors. , They have cherished it dearly, and during the hundred years since her death they have struggled patiently to push their^ frontiers to the Bosporus. Catharine left Russia at her death (1796) the greatest power of the north. Her life, like that of Peter, is stained with crime and immorality, but these two have the honor of having lifted Russia almost without aid, and often in spite of herself, to her present eminent position. CHAPTER IV THE RISE OF PRUSSIA IN THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGH- TEENTH CENTURIES The develop- ment of Bran- denburg. The Hohen- zoUern take hold of Bran- denburg. The modern kingdom of Prussia has developed, by a gradual process, out of the ancient mark of Brandenburg. The mark of Brandenburg was founded in the tenth cen- tury, when Germany was practically confined to the terri- tory between the Rhine and the Elbe, as a bulwark against the Slavs, who were constantly pushing in from the east. With the increasing strength of Germany, the mark as- sumed the aggressive, crowded back the heathen Slavs foot by foot from the Elbe to the Oder and beyond, and took their land in possession for German and Christian civiHza- tion. Before the end of the thirteenth century the mark had become a considerable state, and was organized as one of the four lay electorates of the kingdom of Germany. But the race of fighting margraves, known as the Ascanians, to whom Brandenburg owed its extension, died out in the thirteenth century, and for some time there reigned such confusion that the electorate threatened to fall back into barbarism. Out of this anarchy it was saved by the for- tunate accession pf the line of Hohenzollern margraves, who have guided its destinies to this day. The Hohenzollern proved themselves, in general, a fam- ily of tough fibre, who by patient labor raised themselves from rung to rung of the ladder of dignities, until in our day the head of the House has become emperor of re- united Germany. But before the year 1415, when the 230 The Rise of Prussia 231 Hohenzollern, Frederick, was invested with the electorate of Brandenburg, the family had not filled a large role in the history of Germany. In the south, in Franconia, where they were settled, they had hardly been more than respectable nobles. Frederick of Hohenzollern took up his task in his new The Hohen- acquisition of Brandenburg with energy, brought back the Rhim?"'"^^ order, and mapped out the lines of future progress. One provinces and hundred years later, his successor, Joachim II., the con- temporary of Luther, ranged himself on the side of the Reformation without, however, arriving at anything like such a role in the religious history of the period as the elector of Saxony. It was in fact not till the seventeenth century that the margrave of Brandenburg began to outstrip all the other princes of the Empire, for under the Elector John Sigismund (1608-19) ^^ family fell heir to two lucky legacies, which secured for it considerable territories in the extreme east and in the extreme west of Germany. In 1609 this John Sigismund acquired, by the death of the last duke of Cleves and Juliers (Julich), a share of the duke's dominions, and in 1618 he succeeded to the duchy of Prussia. The term Prussia was applied rather indefinitely in the History of Middle Age to the land which lay along the eastern shore of the Baltic. The country owed its name to the heathen and Slav tribe of Prussians, who had held it before the order of the Teutonic Knights had, in the thirteenth cen- tury, conquered them, and won their land for the German nation. Prussia was gradually settled by German colonists and was ruled by the Knights, under their Grand Master, in full independence, until the king of Poland, as the re- sult of a successful war, annexed 'the western half of the territory (West Prussia), and gave back to the Knights the eastern half (East Prussia), solely on condition that they hold 232 Modern Europe ^/ Poor showing during the Thirty Years' War. Acquisitions made at Peace of Westphaha. it as a fief of his crown (the Treaty of Thorn, 1466). In the history of this province of East Prussia the great Protestant movement of the sixteenth century effected an important change. The Grand Master of the Knights, Albert, a younger member of the House of Hohenzollern, adopted in 1525 the Protestant faith, and thereupon, with the consent of his PoHsh suzerain, converted the Prussian dominion of the Teutonic Knights into a duchy with himself as duke. In 1 61 8, Albert's line having failed, the duchy of Prussia, or more exactly East Prussia, fell to Albert's relative of Brandenburg. It was at this time that there broke out in Germany the Thirty Years' War. The combined Hohenzollern possess- ions along the lower Rhine, in Brandenburg, and in East Prussia, should have made the elector of that period, George Wilham (1619-40), an important factor in the struggle; but as he was a man without courage and intelligence, and too fearful to throw in his lot definitely with either emperor or Swedes, his lands were equally harried by both. It was left to George William's son, Frederick William (1640-88), known as the Great Elector, to carry the name of Branden- burg into European politics. When Frederick William succeeded to the throne (1640), the Thirty Years' War had reduced his lands to the utmost misery. He straightway adopted a vigorous policy, ex- pelled both Swedes and Imperialists from his states, and in general displayed such energy, that, when the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was signed, he received a number of valuable additions of territory — namely, the three secular- ized bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, and Magdeburg, and the eastern half of Pomerania. Brandenburg had a valid claim to all of Pomerania, but the claim could not be realized, as a great power, Sweden, took the western and better half of Pomerania for herself. The Rise of Prussia 233 Frederick William found himself, at his accession, at the He unifies his head of three groups of territories — the Brandenburg terri- torfe^s!^^^^' tories, the Cleves territories, and the Prussian territories — and each group was organized as a separate little state with its own Diet (Landstande), its own army, and its own ad- ministration. Frederick William, after a hard struggle, replaced the government of the Landstande by his absolu- tism ; declared the local army national ; and merged the three separate administrations. He thus amalgamated his three states into one, and to all intents and purposes created a united monarchy of which he was absolute master. As he was a tireless worker, his influence was bound to be felt in many ways. He encouraged industry and agricult- ure ; he drained marshes ; and he built the celebrated Frederick William canal, which joins the Elbe and the Oder. He was constantly drawing colonists into his dominions, and when the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) drove so many Huguenots into exile, the Great Elector's warm intercession in their behalf, attracted to Brandenburg some 20,000 of them, who were settled around Berlin, and succeeded, in the course of a few gene- rations, in turning the sand-wastes which encompass the capital into a pleasant garden. Frederick William was also a man of large political Frederick Tjr 1 1 ^ .^ ^ (. (. William Views, if he kept an army it was not for purposes of pa- rade; he wished to maintain himself against his neighbors, and to be ready, when the chance came, to extend his do- ereignty, minion. The "result of this alertness was that he became involved in many wars. In the Northern War, between Sweden and Poland (1655-60), begun by the restless spirit of Charles X. of Sweden, the successor of Queen Christina, he made himself so invaluable to both sides, that by skilful and unscrupulous manoeuvring, he induced the king of Poland to renounce the suzerainty of East Prussia, and give acquires East Prussia in lull sov- 234 Modern Europe He defeats the Swedes. The Silesian dispute. the duchy to him in full sovereignty. This was his greatest political triumph. A much greater military triumph he won a few years later. In 1672, Louis XIV. fell upon Holland, and Frederick Will- iam, together with the emperor, marched to the assistance of the hard-pressed Republic. In order to draw the elec- tor back from the Rhine, Louis now persuaded the Swedes, his only ally, to invade Brandenburg. The elector there- upon hastened homeward at his best speed, and succeeded in surprising and utterly defeating the Swedes at Fehrbellin (June, 1675). The military reputation of Brandenburg was henceforth established, and in the course of the next few years the elector clinched matters by driving the Swedes completely out of Pomerania. But when the general Euro- pean war came to an end, by the Treaty of Nimwegen (1678), Frederick William was not allowed to keep his conquest. Louis XIV. stood faithfully by his ally, Sweden, and insisted that she should not pay for her help to him by territorial sacrifices. With a sore heart, Frederick William had to give way, and in a treaty, signed near Paris, at St. Germain-en-Laye (1679), ^^ regretfully restored to the Swedes what he had won. After this disappointment he tried to advance his inter- ests in Silesia, where the House of Hohenzollern had an- cient claims to certain provinces. Silesia, whether rightly or wrongly, was held at this time by the emperor, and the emperor did not choose to regard the elector's claims as valid. As the emperor was the stronger, he could afford to insist on his point of view. But the time came when the emperor was preparing a great league against France, and then Frederick William with his fine army was wanted as an ally. The emperor, who was Leopold I., thereupon declared his willingness to adjudicate the differences between himself and Brandenburg, and finally, The Rise of Prussia 235 after many negotiations, he induced Frederick William to sign away, in return for the district of Schwiebus in Silesia, all his other rights in that province (1686). But the em- peror played a double game. While one agent was ne- gotiating this arrangement with the elector, another was persuading the elector's son, who was not on good terms with his father, to take a sum of money, and promise, in return, to give back Schwiebus on his accession. Two years later Frederick William died (1688), and his son Frederick, who succeeded him, had to live up to the bar- gain. However, he expressly insisted that the restoration of Schwiebus involved the revival of all those rights to the Silesian territories which had been signed away. This Silesian incident is of importance, because it turned up again some fifty years later, and then the Machiavellian triumph of the emperor Leopold drew upon the House of Hapsburg a terrible catastrophe. The elector Frederick was a very different man from his The elector shrewd, practical father. Having been weak and deformed in pjus^sla/"^ from his birth and incapable of hard work, he had learned ^^oi- to care very much more about the pleasures of the court than about the duties of his office. His reign is memorable for one fact only : Frederick won for the elector of Brandenburg the new title of king in Prussia. The title was granted by the emperor Leopold, in order to secure Frederick's alliance in the War of the Spanish Succession which was just break- 7^ ing out. On January 18, 1701, the coronation of Fred- erick took place at Konigsberg, the capital of East Prussia, ^ and henceforth the Elector Frederick HL of Brandenburg was known by his higher title of King Frederick L in Prus- sia.^ The title, king in Prussia, was adopted in preference iThe form of the title, king in Prussia, was due to the fact that all of Prussia did not belong to the Hohenzollern ; Poland still held the western half, and might reasonably have objected to the title, king c;/" Prussia. 236 Modern Europe Frederick William I., the great internal king, 1713-40. Creation of the Prussian bureaucracy. Frederick William's one war. to that of king of Brandenburg, because Frederick wished to be king in full independence, and that was possible only in Prussia, as Prussia was not a part of the. Empire. The name Prussia was henceforth used as a common designation for all the Hohenzollern states, and gradually supplanted the use of the older designation, Brandenburg. Frederick's successor. King Frederick William I. (1713- 40), is a curious reversion to an older type. He was the Great Elector over again, with all his practical good sense, but without his genius for diplomatic business and his polit- ical ambition. He gave all his time and his attention to the army and the administration. By close thrift he man- aged to maintain some 80,000 troops, which almost brought his army up to the standing armies of such states as France and Austria. And what troops they were ! An iron dis- cipline moulded them into the most precise military engine then to be found in Europe, and a corps of officers which did not buy its commissions, as everywhere else at that time, but was appointed strictly by virtue of merit, applied to it a trained and devoted service. In his civil administration he continued the work of centralizing the various departments, which was inaugurated by the Great Elector. A ''General Directory " took complete control of the finances, and its severe demands gradually called into being the famous Prussian bureaucracy, which in spite of its inevitable '* red tape," is notable to this day for its effectiveness and its devotion to duty. Certain it is that no contemporary government had so modern and so thrifty an administration as that of Frederick William. For these creations of an efficient army and a unified civil service, both of which were made to depend directly and solely upon the crown, and for a healthy financial sys- tem, which yielded that rare blessing, an annual surplus, Frederick William I. deserves to be called Prussia's greatest tricities. The Rise of Prussia 237 internal king. On the other hand, he failed to win for himself in Europe a position commensurate with his strength, because he was completely wanting in political capacity. He engaged in but one war. In 1709 we saw that Charles XII. was defeated at Pultava, and that the neighbors of Sweden made use of the opportunity of his absence in Turkey to divide his territories. Frederick William, unable to close his eyes to the good fortune which beckoned, joined Russia, Denmark, and Poland, and in the year 17 13 took possession of a part of Swedish Pomerania. In the peace signed after Charles XII. 's death (1720), he declared himself contented with the territory around Stettin, thus acquiring for Prussia at last a convenient port upon the Baltic. This sturdy king, who did so much for Prussia, made His eccen- himself, by reason of his personal eccentricities, the laugh- ing-stock of Europe. His ideal of the king was the patri- arch. He had his eye upon everybody and everything. If he suspected a man of being wealthy, he would order him to build a fine residence to improve the looks of the capital. If he met an idler in the streets he would belabor him with his cane, and end by putting him into the army. But, per- haps, his wildest eccentricity was his craze for tall soldiers. At Potsdam, his country residence, he established a giant- guard, from which he won recruits from all parts of the world. He hung over his giants like a tender father, and was so completely enslaved by his hobby, that he, who was thrifty to the point, of avarice, offered enormous prices in all markets for tall men, and did not scruple to capture them by force when they refused to enlist. This unpolished boor naturally kept his elegant neigh- bors in convulsions of laughter by his performances. At one point, however, his eccentricities threatened to end not in laughter but in tears. The king's son and heir. 238 Modern Europe The youth of Frederick the Great Frederick's accession, 1740. The death of Charles VI., 1740. Frederick, known afterward as the Great, was a self-willed, careless fellow, with artistic inclinations, and in all respects the opposite of his military, practical father. Parent and son had no understanding of each other, and when Frederick William attempted by corporal punishment to coerce his son, the proud prince resolved to run away. In the year 1730 he tried, with the aid of some friends, to carry out his design, but was betrayed at the moment of its execution. Frederick William almost lost his mind from rage. He threw his son into prison, and for a time was determined to have him executed as a deserter. When the crown prince was at last released, he was put through such a training in the civil and military administrations from the lowest grades upward, as perhaps no other royal personage has ever received. The disciphne doubtless awakened resent- ment in Frederick, the gay prince; but Frederick, the serious-minded king, was enabled thereby to know every branch of his vast administration like a thumbed book. In the year 1740 Frederick II., who had now reached the age of twenty-eight, succeeded his boorish father. As he had spent the last years of his father's life in retirement at Rheinsberg, where he had gathered around himself a circle of dilettanti, and given himself up to the pursuit of art and literature, everything else was expected of him, when he ascended the throne, rather than military designs and political ambition. But an unexpected opportunity brought out all his latent mihtary gifts. A few months after Frederick's accession, in October, 1740, the Emperor Charles VI., the last male of the line of Hapsburg, died. Long before his death, foreseeing the troubles that would arise, he had by a law, which received the name of the Pragmatic Sanction, appointed his oldest daughter, Maria Theresa, his sole heir, and during his whole life he bestirred himself to extract from the European The Rise of Prussia 239 powers guarantees of this Pragmatic Sanction. These guar- antees having been obtained from all the leading states, sometimes at a great sacrifice, he died with composed con- science, and the archduchess Maria Theresa prepared immediately to assume the rule of Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and the other Hapsburg lands. It was at this point that Frederick stepped in. His father had guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction, too, but Frederick did not choose to consider that circumstance. He thought only of the old Prussian claims to parts of Silesia and this unparalleled opportunity to realize them by means of the full treasury and the large army of his father, and in December, 1740, invaded the disputed province. His act was the signal for a general rising. Spain, France, Savoy, Bavaria, and Sax- ony, foUowine: his example, all dished up some kind of Frederick in- vades Silesia, claim to parts of the Austrian dominions. They sent their armies against Maria Theresa, and their greed merely mocked at that poor princess's indignant remonstrances. Thus hardly was Charles VI. dead, when it was apparent that the Pragmatic Sanction was not worth the paper it was written on. It might have gone hard with Maria Theresa if she had The War of not found splendid resources of heart and mind in herself, Succession. and if she had not gained the undivided support of the many nationalities under her sway. Her enemies were descending upon her in two main directions, the French and their German allies from the west, by way of the Danube, and Frederick of Prussia from the north. Un- prepared as she was, her raw levies gave way, at first, at every point. On April 10, 1741, at Mollwitz, Frederick won a great vicfory over the Austrians, clinching by means of it his hold upon Silesia. In the same year the French, Saxons, and Bavarians invaded Bohemia. So complete, for the time being, was the dominion of the anti -Austrian 240 Moderfi Europe Charles VII. of Bavaria, emperor. End of the First Silesian War, 1742. The Second Silesian War, 1744-45- alliance that it was even enabled to carry the election of its candidate, the elector Charles of Bavaria, for the imperial office. The elector assumed his new dignity with the title of Emperor Charles VII. (1742-45), and for the first time in three hundred years the crown of the Empire rested upon another than a Hapsburg head. But at this point Maria Theresa's fortunes rose again. Her own pure enthusiasm did wonders in restoring and organizing her scattered forces. The army of the coalition was driven out of Bohemia ; Bavaria was in turn invaded and occupied. The Prussians, who had likewise entered Bohemia, in order to help the French, were hard pressed, but saved themselves by a victory at Czaslau (May, 1742). Thereupon Maria Theresa, who saw that she could not meet so many enemies at one and the same time, declared her willingness to come to terms with her most formidable foe. In 1742 she signed with Frederick the Peace of Breslau, by which she gave up practically the whole Province of Silesia. What is known in Prussia as the First Silesian War had come to an end. Maria Theresa now prosecuted the war against her other enemies with increased vigor. England and Holland, old friends of Austria, joined her, and the war assumed wider dimensions. During the next years the French consistently fell back. The Emperor Charles VII. lost his Bavarian dominions, and there was every chance that Maria Theresa would become master of Germany. Aware that in that case he could not hold his new conquest a year, Frederick was moved to strike a second blow. In 1744 he began the Second Silesian War, in which his calculations were completely successful. He first relieved the French and the Bavarians by drawing the Austrians upon himself, and then he defeated his enemy signally at the battle of Hohen- friedberg (i 745). On Christmas day, 1 745, Maria Theresa The Rise of Prussia 241 bought her peace of Frederick by a renewed cession of Silesia (Peace of Dresden). For a few more years the general war continued. After End of the Frederick's retirement it was waged chiefly in the Austrian Austrian Suc- Netherlands, where a newly risen French general, Maurice cession, 1748. de Saxe, gave Maria Theresa a great deal to do. Finally, in 1748, everybody being tired of fighting, the contestants signed the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), by which Maria Theresa was universally recognized as the sovereign of Austria. Already as early as 1745, her husband, Fran- cis of Lorraine, had been elected emperor in place of Charles VII., who had died in misery (1745). Thus the affairs of Germany were gradually brought back into the accustomed rut. The War of the Austrian Succession had come to an end, and, against everybody's prediction, the empress's splendid qualities had maintained the Austrian dominions intact, with the exception of certain slight ces- sions in Italy and the one substantial sacrifice of Silesia. When Frederick retired from the Second Silesian War, Prussia a great the position of Prussia had been revolutionized. The P°^^^' king had received from his father a promising state, but it was of no great size, and it enjoyed no authority in Europe. Frederick, by adding Silesia to it, gave it for the first time a respectable area ; but that acquisition alone would not have raised Prussia to the level of Austria, France, England, or Russia. It was the genius displayed by the young king, who stood at the head of Prussia, which fell so heavily into the balance, that Prussia was henceforth counted among the great powers of Europe. Frederick, having thus won his military laurels, settled Frederick's down to the much harder work of governing with wisdom and elevating his people materially and mentally. The ten years of peace which followed the Second Silesian War are crowded with vigorous internal labors. He drained the 242 Modern Europe Frederick, the philosopher. Voltaire. Maria Theresa nurses plans of revenge. great swamps along the Oder, and colonized the land thus won, in one case with 2,000, in another with 1,200 families. He promoted the internal traffic by new canals, and estab- lished new iron, wool, and salt industries. Finally, he planned for the whole of his dominions a new and uniform code of laws, and prescribed a rapid and simple adminis- tration of justice. All of Frederick's various labors never destroyed in him the light, humanistic vein which marks him from his birth. He engaged in literature with as much fervor as if it were his life-work, and took constant delight in composing music and in playing the flute. What pleased him most, however, was a circle of spirited friends. He was espe- cially well- inclined to Frenchmen, because that nation represented, to his mind, the highest culture of the Europe of his day. A larger or a smaller circle of Frenchmen was about him all his life to comment and to laugh, and for a number of years (1750-53) he even entertained at his court the prince of the eighteenth century philosophers, Voltaire. But after a period of sentimental attachment, the king and the philosopher quarrelled, and Voltaire van- ished from Berlin in a cloud of scapdal. In any case, the momentary conjunction of the two bright particular stars of the eighteenth century — the one its greatest master in the field of action, the other its greatest master of thought and expression — has. an historical interest. All this while Frederick was aware that Maria Theresa was not his friend. A high-spirited woman such as the empress was not likely to forget the deceit of which she had been made the victim. She hoped to get back Silesia, and for years carefully laid her plans. As early as 1746 she entered upon a close alliance with Russia. Next, her minister Kaunitz planned the bold step of an alliance with France. In the eighteenth century an alliance between The Rise of Prussia 243 Hapsburg and Bourbon, the century-old enemies, seemed ridiculous. The rule in Austria had been the alliance with England, and any other arrangement seemed to be con- trary to the law of nature itself. Kaunitz, however, ac- The diplo- complished the miracle of a diplomatic revolution, which tion of 1756. " during the next years turned Europe topsy-turvy. His plans were greatly aided by the following circumstance : Eng- land and France were making ready, in the middle of the century, to contest the empire of the sea.^ Both were look- ing for continental allies, and as Prussia, after holding back a long time, was induced at last to sign a convention with England, France was naturally pushed into the arms of Prussia's rival, Austria. In the spring of 1756 this diplo- matic revolution was an accomplished fact. The two great political questions of the day, the rivalry between England and France, on the one hand, and of Prussia and Austria, on the other, were about to be fought out in the great Seven Years' War (1756-63), and the two northern and Protestant powers of England and Prussia were to consoli- date therein their claims and interests against the claims and interests of the Catholic powers, France and Austria. Even before the formal declaration of war (May, 1756) Military plans the grand struggle between France and England for the supremacy over the colonial world had broken out in Amer- ica, India, and on all the seas. For the immediate future England was engaged with all her forces in meeting France at these various points. The result was that Prussia had to meet single-handed one of the most formidable combina- tions of history. Coolly reviewing the situation of 1756, one may fairly say that the Austrian diplomacy was justified in the belief that the hated rival of Austria was as good as annihilated. The union with France was the basis of the > See the next chapter. 244 Modern Europe "fhe Seven Years' War begins, 1756. The famous campaign of 1757- confidence of Maria Theresa and Kaunitz, but there were also, signed or being signed, and hardly less important, a whole series of alliances with Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. The plan of the Austrian cabinet was that the Austrians should march upon Frederick from the south, the French from the west, the Russians from the east, the Swedes from the north, and so shut in and choke to death the new power of which they were all jealous. Frederick's one chance in this tremendous crisis was to move quickly. Before the allies had declared against him, he therefore, by a lightning stroke, occupied Saxony, and invaded Bohemia (autumn, 1756). The next year his enemies, whose number had meanwhile, at the instigation of Francis I., the husband of Maria Theresa, been increased by the accession of the states of the Empire, marched upon him from all points of the compass. Again he planned to meet them separately before they had united. He hurried into Bohemia, and was on the point of taking the capital, Prague, when the defeat of a part of his army at Kolin (June 1 8th), forced him to retreat to Saxony. Slowly the Austrians followed and poured into the coveted Silesia. The Russians had already arrived in East Prussia, the Swedes were in Pomerania, and the French, together with the Im- perialists — as the troops of the Empire were called — were marching upon Berlin. The friends and family of Frederick were ready to declare that all was lost. He alone kept up heart, and by his courage and intelligence freed himself from all immediate danger by a succession of surprising victories. At Rossbach, in Thuringia, he fell, November 5) 1757? with 25,000 men, upon the combined French and Imperialists of twice that number, and scattered them to the winds. Then he turned like a flash from the west to the east. During his absence in Thuringia the Austrians had completed the conquest of Silesia, and were already The Rise of Prussia 245 proclaiming to the world that they had come again into their own. Just a month after Rossbach, at Leuthen, near Breslau, he signally defeated, with 34,000 men, more than twice as many Austrians, and drove them pell mell over the passes of the Giant Mountains back into their own domin- ions. Fear and incapacity had already arrested the Swedes and Russians. Before the winter came, both had slipped away, and at Christmas, 1757, Frederick could call him- self lord of an undiminished kingdom. In no succeeding campaign was Frederick threatened by The situation such overwhelming forces as in 1757. By the next year ^^^^"^P' England had fitted out an army which, under Ferdinand of Brunswick, operated against the French upon the Rhine, and so protected Frederick from that side. As the Swedish attack degenerated at the same time into a mere farce, Fred- erick was allowed to neglect his Scandinavian enemy, and give all his attention to Austria and Russia. No doubt even Prussia , , , . T^ . T^ • against Aus- so, the odds agamst Prussia were enoruious. Prussia was a triaand poor, barren country of barely 5,000,000 inhabitants, and in ^"s^^^- men and resources, Austria and Russia together outstripped her at least ten times; but at the head of Prussia stood a mil- itary genius, with a spirit that neither bent nor broke, and that fact sufficed for awhile to establish an equilibrium. It was Frederick's policy during the next years to meet Frederick tlie Austrians and Russians separately, in order to keep t'lem from rolling down upon him with combined forces. In 1758, he succeeded in beating the Russians at Zorndorf and driving them back, but in 1759 they beat him in the disastrous battle of Kunersdorf. For a moment now it looked as if he were lost, but he somehow raised another troop about him, and the end of the campaign found him not much worse off than the beginning. However, he was evidently getting weak ; the terrible strain continued through years was beginning to tell ; and when George 246 Modern Europe England deserts him. Peace with Russia, 1762. Peace with Austria, 1763. The second period of peace, 1763- 86. III., the new English monarch, refused (1761) to pay the annual subsidy, by which Frederick was enabled to keep his army on foot, the proud king himself could hardly keep up his hopes. At this crisis Frederick was saved by the intervention of fortune. Frederick's implacable enemy, the Czarina Eliz- abeth, died January 5, 1762. Her successor, Peter III., who was an ardent admirer of the Prussian king, not only straightway detached his troops from the Austrians, and signed a peace, but went so far as to propose a treaty of alliance with the late enemy of Russia. Peter III. was soon overthrown (July, 1762), but although his successor, Cath- arine II., cancelled the Prussian alliance, she allowed the peace to stand. This same year England and France came to an understanding (Preliminaries of Fontainebleau, 1762) and hostilities between them were at once suspended on all the seas. So there remained under arms only Aus- tria and Prussia, and as Austria could not hope to do unaided what she had failed to do with half of Europe at her side, Maria Theresa, although with heavy heart, resolved to come to terms. In the Peace of Hubertsburg (February, 1763), the cession of Silesia to Frederick was made final. Counting from the Peace of Hubertsburg Frederick had still twenty-three years before him. They were years de- voted to the works of peace. And all his energy and ad- ministrative ability were required to bring his exhausted country back to vigor. We now hear again, as during the first period of peace (1745-56), of extensive reforms, of the formation of provincial banks, the draining of bogs, the cutting of canals, and the encouragement of industries ; in a word, we hear of Frederick doing everything that an energetic ruler has ever been known to do. Only two political events of this period of Frederick's life claim our attention. In 1772 the troubles in Poland The Rise of Prussia 247 led to the First Partition of that unhappy country among Russia, Austria, and Prussia. Frederick received, as his The acquisi- share, the province of West Prussia, estabhshing, at last, Prussia, by means of it the necessary continuity between his cen- tral and his eastern provinces. In 1778, another war threatened to break out with Austria. Joseph II. (1765- Danger of an- 90), the gifted and fiery son of Maria Theresa,^ now influ- Austria, 177b. enced affairs in that country and anxious to use every opportunity to extend his power, was planning to absorb Bavaria. This Frederick was bound, if necessary, to resist by arms, and therefore took the field. The quarrel was, however, adjudicated before a battle had been fought, and the so-called War of the Bavarian Succession came to an end in 1779 by Joseph's sacrificing his ambition. In 1786 Frederick died at his favorite residence. Sans Souci, after a reign of forty -six years (i 740-86). The great result of Frederick's reign, from the European The rivalry of point of view, is, that he called into life a new power. Prussia. From the German point of view, the most significant fact in connection with his life is, that he created the dualism between Austria and Prussia, and that from his time on the ancient Catholic power, Austria, the traditional head of the confederation, was engaged in fierce rivalry with up- start Protestant Prussia for the control of Germany. In fact the mutual jealousy of these two states is the central theme of German history for the next one hundred years. It is only within the memory of living men (1866) that this chapter has been definitely closed by the final victory of Prussia and by the exclusion of Austria from Germany. In that famous settlement, introductory to the unification of Germany (1871), it is not difficult to perceive that Frederick had a hand. 1 Maria Theresa did not die till 1780. She held the reins of govern- ment till her death, but naturally her son Joseph, who succeeded liis father Francis I. as emperor in 1765, largely influenced her councils. CHAPTER V ENGLAND AND FRANCE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The result of the " Glorious Revolution." William in- troduces a new foreign policy. Rivalry of France and England. The *' Glorious Revolution " of 1688 ended the period of the civil wars in England. It had established the Prot- estant sovereigns, William and Mary, upon the throne ; it had, by the Bill of Rights, defined the respective spheres of king and Parliament, thus rendering future attempts on the part of the monarch to make himself absolute, impossible ; and it had paved the way to an understanding between the Established Church and the Dissenters by the Toleration Act. Thus the English monarchy had at last been set upon the path of genuine constitutionalism. For the first few years of his reign, William had to se- cure his throne by fighting. James II. had sought refuge with Louis XIV., and the decision of the French king to espouse the cause of James naturally threw England on the side of the allies, consisting of the emperor, the Dutch, and Spain, with whom Louis had just engaged in the war known as the War of the Palatinate (1688-97). This was the first time that England had reached out a hand to the powers of the Continent to help them against the continued aggres- sions of Louis XIV. Her national interests had long ago demanded that she associate herself with the enemies of France, but it was one of the penalties she paid for putting up with Stuart rule, that she was not governed for her own, but for dynastic ends. It is the great merit of Will- iam to have amalgamated the interests of the nation and the interests of the monarchy, and to have given a direction 248 E7igland and France in the Eighteenth Century 249 to English affairs which was steadily maintained during the next century, and ended not only with checking the ambition of France on the Continent, but also in wresting from her her best colonies, and the undisputed supremacy of the seas. The War of the Palatinate has been dealt with elsewhere William con- • 1 T • ^rT^r 1 r ' ^ qucfs Ireland, m connection with Louis XIV. ; one chapter of it, however, the insurrection of Ireland, must be embodied in the history of WiUiam's reign. In March, 1689, James II. landed in Ireland, and immediately the Irish, who were enthusiastic Catholics, gathered around him. To them James II. was the legitimate king, while to the English and Scotch set- tlers of Ireland, who sympathized with Protestant William, he was no better than a usurper. Again the terrible race- hatred of Celt and Saxon flamed up in war. The Protes- tants were driven from their homes, and for a time it looked as if the island would fall back to its original owners. However, on July i, 1690, William defeated James II. at Battle of the the battle of the Boyne. James, who was a poor soldier, °^"^' ^ ^' thereupon hurried back to France, shamefully abandoning to the English mercies the people who had risen for his crown. The measures now taken by William and his suc- cessors against the Irish broke their resistance to English rule for a hundred years. It will be well, before we speak of these measures, to re- The relation view the relations of England and Ireland during the whole and inland, seventeenth century. When James I. mounted the throne, Ireland had been a dependency of the English crown for many centuries — but hardly more than a nominal one, for the English rule and law extended over no more than a few districts of the eastern coast, known as the English pale. The heart of the island was held by the native tribes, who, governed by their chiefs, in accordance with their own Brehon laws, were, year in year out, as good as indepen- 250 Modern Europe The policy of confisca- tion under Cromwell and William. dent. Now in the last years of Elizabeth, there had taken place the great rising of O'Neill, the chief of an Ulster tribe, and when it was finally smothered under James, James found himself master of all Ireland. He was the first English mon- arch who could boast of this distinction, and he immediately celebrated his triumph by ruthlessly confiscating six coun- ties in the province of Ulster, and handing them over to English and Scotch colonists (1610). The Irish were sim- ply crowded out, with no more said than that they must seek subsistence elsewhere. The act of 16 10 created an implacable hatred between oppressors and oppressed. In the year 1641, when the troubles between king and Parliament temporarily annihilated the power of England, the Irish fell upon the colonists of Ulster, and murdered them or drove them from their homes. The English re- venge for this outrage had of course to be delayed until the execution of the king and the victory of the Parliament had re-established the authority of the nation. At length, in 1649, Cromwell undertook to reconquer Ireland. He was successful, but, as he himself confessed, imbued his hands with blood like a common butcher. To understand the massacres indulged in by the Puritan soldiery, it is necessary to remember, that, to a Puritan, an Irishman was not only a national enemy but also a Papist — that is, an enemy of the true faith. As such, all Irishmen were simply regarded as standing outside of the law of humanity. Without any consideration of the results, therefore, three of the four provinces of Ireland, Ulster, Leinster, and Munster, were now confiscated for the benefit of the English. The Irish were bidden to go find bread, or else a grave, in the wilder- ness of Connaught. When William III. overthrew the next insurrection at the battle of the Boyne (1690), the policy of confiscation was applied to most of Connaught too. Therewith the Irish had become a landless people in England and France in the Eighteenth Century 2^1 their own land. As if that were not misery enough, the EngHsh Parhament, by its legislation under William and his immediate successors, deprived the island of its com- merce and its industry as well, by forbidding it to carry on trade with other countries. Thus, by a merciless appli- cation of the rights of conquest, the Irish were gradually reduced to becoming tenants, day-laborers, and beggars, and tenants, day-laborers, and beggars they have remained to this day. It has already been said that William's great merit as William labors sovereign of England was that he enabled her to follow her France, natural inclination and range herself with the enemies of Louis XIV. He gave all his life as English sovereign to creating a system of balance to the power of France. This system he discovered in the alliance of England, the em- peror, and the Dutch, and it was this alliance which waged the War of the Palatinate (1689-97), with the result that Louis XIV. drew off, at the Peace of Ryswick, without a gain. William spent the next years in negotiating with Louis an equitable division of the expected Spanish heri- tage; but when, in the year 1700, the king of Spain, Charles II., died, Louis XIV. cut short the argument, by sending his grandson, Philip, to Madrid to assume the rule of the undivided Spanish dominions. Out of this wan- ton act grew the War of the Spanish Succession, for which William had hardly prepared, by a renewal of his continental alliances, when he died (1702). His wife, Mary, having died some years before (1694), without is- sue, the crown now passed, by virtue of the Act of Set- tlement (1701), to Mary's sister Anne. The Act of The Act of Settlement further provided, with regard to the succes- 1701. ' sion, that, in case of Anne's death without heirs, the crown was to pass to the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her descendants, the principle which determined the 252 Modern Europe Growth of Parliament ; decline of - king. Freedom of the press. Annual vote of supplies. The War of the Spanish Succession. selection of Sophia being that she was the nearest Prot- estant heir.^ WilHam's reign is constitutionally very interesting. Al- though the Parliament, as we have seen, had won in the long struggle with the king, it was not inclined, for that reason, to rest upon its laurels. It now proceeded to reap gradually the harvest of its victory. From William's time on we have, therefore, to notice a continual enlargement of the sphere of the Parliament, accompanied by a proportion- ate restriction of the sphere of the king, until we arrive at the condition which obtains in this century, when the sov- ereign of England is hardly more than a sovereign in name. A number of acts, passed under William, prepared this development. We notice of them only the more important. First to consider is the removal of all restrictions weighing on the freedom of the press (1695) ; henceforth there ob- tained in England that state of free opinion which is the necessary concomitant of free government. Secondly, we note that WilHam's Parliaments fell into the habit of making their money-grants for one year only — which custom had the consequence of necessitating annual Parliaments, since the king's officers were not qualified to collect a revenue that had not first been regularly voted. From William's time on, therefore, the king's old trick of getting rid of Parliament by indefinite adjournment, had to be aban- doned. The event of the reign of Anne (1702-14), overshad- owing all others, was the War of the Spanish Succession. It has been treated elsewhere. England won therein a leading position among the powers of Europe. But Marl- borough's march of victory from Blenheim to Malplaquet did not excite universal approval in England. The Tories, See genealogical chart. England and France in the Eighteenth Century 253 who were recruited largely from the gentry, had never looked upon the war with favor. As the taxes grew heavier and the national debt became more burdensome, an increas- ing part of the population rallied to the opposition. It was with the aid of the Whigs, who were in control of the min- istry, and of the duchess of Marlborough, who controlled the easy-going, good-natured queen, that the duke was enabled to carry on his campaigns in the Netherlands and Ger- many. However, the duchess, being a high-strung and ar- rogant lady and not always capable of holding her tongue, gradually fell out of favor, and in 17 10 the queen, having become disgusted with the whole Whig connection, abruptly, dismissed the Whigs from office. There followed a ministry of Tories, with a policy of peace at any price, and the re- sult was that Marlborough was disgraced, and that Eng- land signed with France, in 17 13, the Peace of Utrecht. Although the peace involved a breach of faith toward the allies, and although the negotiators did not get all they might have had, some of the results of the war could not be sacrificed. England acquired from France, Newfound- land, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson Bay territory ; from Spain, Gibraltar and Minorca ; but, best of all, she could now count herself without a rival upon the sea. An event of Anne's reign, which, although not much Union with noticed, was hardly less important than the War of the 17^.^° ' Spanish Succession, was the union with Scotland. Since the accession of James I., Scotland and England had had the same sovereigns, but, for the rest, had remained jeal- ously independent of each other under separate Parliaments and separate laws. In 1707 the century-old suspicion be- tween the two nations was forgotten long enough for an agreement to be arrived at, by which the two Parliaments were merged in one. Scotland henceforth sent her repre- sentatives to the House of Lords and House of Commons 254 Modern Europe Accession of the House of Hanover. Rule of the Whig aris- tocracy. Development of cabinet government. at Westminster, and the two nations accepted the same lot in good and evil fortune. In the year 17 14, Anne died, and the crown fell to the House of Hanover. The Electress Sophia, who had been designated by the Act of Settlement as the eventual heir, having preceded Anne in death, her son, George I., now ascended the throne. Some great stroke on the part of the Pretender, the son of James II., was expected, but when it fell (17 1 5), it turned out to be harmless. The man who claimed to be James III. had hardly landed when his courage failed him, and he turned back to France. George I. (1714-27), immediately dismissed from office the Tories, who were known to be favorable to the Stuarts, and chose his advisers from among the Whigs. He clung to the Whigs for the rest of his life, and so introduced that government of the Whig aristocracy, which is one of the leading features of the constitutional history of the eigh- teenth century. This prolonged power of a single party helped Parlia- ment in taking another step toward acquiring complete con- trol of the state; with George I. is associated the begin- ning of cabinet government. We have already seen that, as far back as Charles II. the Parliament was divided into Whigs and Tories. As things stood then, though the ma- jority of the Commons were Tory, the king could continue to choose his ministry from the Whigs. Sooner or later it was bound to appear that such a division was harmful, and that to attain the best results the ministry would have to be in accord with the majority of the Commons. The reform meant a new loss of influence by the king, but under George I. the development was duly effected. Henceforth the ministry was still named by the king, but, as no set of men, who had not first assured themselves that they were sup- ported by a majority in the Commons, would accept the England and France in the Eighteenth Century 255 appointment, the Parliament practically dictated the king's cabinet. With the annual vote of supplies, and with cabinet and party rule established as practices of the English Gov- ernment, the constitution may be said to have reached the character which distinguishes it to-day. George's reign was a reign of peace. It furnished just Waipoie's rule the opportunity which the Whigs wanted to develop the sense™'""" prosperity of the great middle class, upon which they de- pended against the combination of Tory squire and Tory clergyman. The leading man among the Whigs, and author of their policy, was Sir Robert Walpole. One may sum up his ideas by saying that he wished to settle Eng- land under the Hanoverian dynasty, and give free play to the commercial and industrial energy of his countrymen. The period which he directed is therefore well entitled the era of common sense. To carry out his programme, Wal- pole needed a steady majority in the Commons. He got it in part, at least, by corrupting members. '' Every man has his price,'' was his cynical estimate of his countrymen. But there can be no doubt that more than to corruption^ he owed his long lease of power to the popularity which he acquired by keeping his policy in touch with the wishes of the people. It was only when Walpole deliberately set himself against War with the people that he lost his hold. George I. had meanwhile ^^^^' ' been succeeded by George II. (1727-60). The new king was, like his father, without intelligence, but was possessed, like him, with a certain honesty and solidity. Under the direction of Walpole, he continued the peace policy of George I., until a succession of events plunged Europe again into war. In the year 1738, a storm of indignation swept over the English people at the restrictions which Spain had for ages been putting upon English trade with the Spanish colonies. Walpole, against his will, was forced to 256 Modern Europe declare war (1739). The next year the continental powers became involved among themselves, owing to the death of Emperor Charles VI. (1740) and the dispute about the Austrian succession. England, through her kings, who were also electors of Hanover, had an immediate interest in the Continent at this time. In fact, the connection of England and Hanover is of great consequence all through the eighteenth century. As England and Hanover offered England's war help to Austria, when Maria Theresa saw herself attacked gen?rai war. ^ ^7 ^^^^ greedy and unscrupulous neighbors ; and as Spain was allied with France, it became inevitable that the two wars, that of England and Spain, and that of Austria and France, should, though they had a distinct origin, be merged into one. There followed the general conflict, known as the war of the Austrian Succession (i 740-48). ^ As Walpole was unsuited for an enterprise of this nature, and as, moreover, he stood personally for peace, his ma- jority melted away, and, in 1742, he resigned. He had directed the destinies of England for twenty-one years (1721-42). The War of The War of the Austrian Succession, as far as England Succession took a hand in it, was principally waged in the Austrian iish"pSnt??^' Netherlands, which France had invaded, and upon the view. seas,. and in the colonies. On the seas the English main- tained their old mastery, but in the Netherlands they and the Austrians lost ground, owing chiefly to the superior ability displayed by the French commander. Marshal Saxe. In 1745, the marshal won the great battle of Fontenoy, and overran all the Austrian Netherlands ; but when peace was signed in 1748, at Aix-la-Chapelle, the powers one and all restored their conquests, an exception being made only in favor of Frederick of Prussia, who was allowed to retain Silesia. » See page 239. England and France in the EigJiteenth Century 257 A memorable incident of this war was the attempt of The invasion Charles Edward, son of the Pretender, and known as the Pretender, '^ Young Pretender, to win back his kingdom. The defeat ^'^^^' of the British at the battle of Fontenoy was his opportunity. In July, 1745, he landed, with only seven men, in the Highlands of Scotland. The Highlanders were at this time still divided, as in ancient times, into clans, at the head of which stood hereditary chiefs. As Kelts, they were by no means friendly to the Teutonic Lowlanders of Scotland and to the English. Moreover, they were practically self- governed, and were subjected to the Hanoverian government at London in hardly anything more than name. That Prince Charlie, as the Young Pretender was fondly called, had thrown himself upon their mercy, touched their hearts and aroused their enthusiasm. The Highlanders flocking to him in crowds, he was soon enabled to take Edinburgh. For a moment now the government at London lost its head, but when the troops had been hurried home from the Netherlands, it was soon found that the wild courage of feudal clans was of no avail against the discipline of a trained army. On Cul- loden Moor (April, 1746) the Highlanders were defeated with fearful slaughter by the king's second son, the duke of Cumberland. Prince Charlie, after many romantic advent- ures, made his escape ; but he lived ever afterward in indo- lence abroad, and gave no further trouble (d. 1788). His failure marks the last Stuart attempt to recover the throne. While England, under Walpole, was preparing to as- The Regency sume the industrial leadership of the world, France was doing little or nothing to recover from the disasters of the War of the Spanish Succession. When Louis XIV. died, in the year 17 15, he was succeeded by his great-grandson Louis XV. (1715-74). As Louis XV. was but five years old at the time, the government during his minority was exercised in his name by the nephew of Louis XIV., Philip, 258 Modern Europe Cardinal Fleury. France acquires Lorraine. The War of the Austrian Succession from the French point of view. duke of Orleans. The Regent Orleans although a man of intelligence, was utterly debauched, and unable to contrib- ute anything toward raising France from fhe miserable eco- nomical and financial condition into which the country had been plunged by Louis XIV. Perhaps the one good point about the rule of the regent was, that he insisted on peace. But it was not enough to make him popular, and he died, regretted by no one, in the year 1723. Shortly after. Cardinal Fleury, the con- fidant of the young king, assumed control of affairs (1726- 43), and though he reversed the regent's inner policy, and improved the finances and the administration, he clung to Orleans's policy of peace. When he finally declared war, it was only in obedience to circumstances which he could not control. In the year 1733 France became involved with Austria, because of the different sides taken by these two powers in the election of a Polish king. The so-called War of the Polish Succession (1733-35), which was the result, is wholly unmemorable, but for the acquisition by France of the duchy of Lorraine. Lorraine was still tech- nically a member of the Empire, though the hold of France had been steadily tightening upon it during the last hundred years. Now it was definitely merged with the western kingdom, thereby completing the long list of conquests which France had been making from Germany since the time of Henry II. (1552). In the year 1740, the death of the Emperor Charles VI. and the accession in Austria of the young girl Maria Theresa, so completely turned the head of the court party at Versailles, with the brilliant chance that the situation offered of war and conquest, that Cardinal Fleury had again to yield to his environment and declare war. The War of the Austrian Succession involved all Europe for eight years, as we have seen, but when it was closed by the Peace of England and France in the Eighteenth Century 259 Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), France recognized Maria Theresa, and withdrew without a gain. As we approach the middle of the eighteenth century we The rivalry notice that the old struggle of France for the supremacy in and England. Europe enters upon a new stage. The remedy which Will- iam III. of England had proposed in order to meet this aspiration, the aUiance, namely, of England, the Dutch, and Austria, had proved itself quite sufficient for checking French ambition on the Continent. It became an acknowl- edged fact — the war of the Austrian Succession had again proved it — that the military power of France was in de- cline. The Continent could at last forget its terror of the French name; the French armies had been repeatedly de- feated and the French aggression on the Continent defi- nitely checked. Moreover, the naval power of France had been destroyed as far back as the time of Louis XIV. But in spite of the precarious condition of the country, French colonial expansion went on all through the reign of Louis XV., and in North America and India was entering into sharp rivalry with England. The question which now arose was, whether a nation whose land-power had been checked and whose sea-power formed no threat, should be allowed to find compensation for its loss of influence by the acquisition of a colonial empire. Slowly, as the century advanced, the gaze of Frenchmen and of Englishmen turned across the seas, and slowly the centre of interest, which in the long struggle of France for supremacy in Europe had been the Continent, shifted from the Continent to the colonies. Such change of interest gradually involved a subtle England and change of international relationships in Europe. In meas- ^"Jve partner- ure as France 'withdrew from her aggression against her ^^^P- continental neighbors, she conciliated her enemy Austria^ and in measure as she emphasized her colonial ambition, 26o Modern Europe Prussia sides with England, Austria with France. The Seven Years' War, 1756-63. Pitt, captain of England. she aroused the increased hostility of England. Thus, by the gradual operation of circumstances, England and France had, toward the middle of the eighteenth century, been brought face to face to fight out the great question of supremacy in the colonial world ; and in this colonial ques- tion, Austria, the old ally of England against France, had no immediate interest. Was Austria or any other conti- nental power likely, under the circumstances, to take part in the war? The war between France and England which followed, called the Seven Years' War (1756-63), is properly the most important struggle of the century, for it determined whether America and India were to be French or English. But though the Continent had no immediate interest in the colonial question, it nevertheless participated in this war. That was owing to the circumstance that the German powers, Austria and Prussia, had a quarrel of their own to settle, and that by choosing sides in the French-English conflict, Prussia allying herself with England and Austria herself with France, they brought about a fusion of two distinct issues. France made great sacrifices in the Seven Years' War to maintain her power. She sent an army over the Rhine to co-operate with the Austrians against the Prussians and the English, and she prepared to defend herself with might in America and on the sea. Unfortunately she was governed by an ignorant and vicious king, who was too feeble to persist in any policy, and who was no better than the puppet of his courtiers and his mistresses. The real direc- tion of French affairs during the war lay in the hands of Madame de Pompadour. While government was thus being travestted in France, the power in England fell into the hands of the capable and fiery William Pitt, known in history as the Great Com- England and France in the EigJiteenth Century 261 moner. He now organized the strength of England as no one had ever organized it before. Fleets and armies were equipped and dispatched in accordance with a simple and comprehensive plan to all parts of the world. Under these circumstances, victory necessarily fell to England. The English vic- French army in Germany was badly beaten by Frederick the Great at Rossbach (1757), and later held in effective check by the English and Hanoverian forces under Ferdi- nand of Brunswick. But the most signal advantages of the English were won not in Europe but on the sea and in the colonies. First, the French were driven from the basin of the Ohio (1758).^ In the next year Wolfe's capture of Quebec secured the course of the St. Lawrence, and there- with completed the conquest of Canada. Furthermore, in India, the celebrated Lord Clive (victory of Plassey, 1757), crowded out the French and established the English influ- ence, while the great maritime victories (1759) of Lagos and Quiberon confirmed England's ancient naval greatness. In the year 1760, while the war was at its height, George iii., George II. died, and was succeeded by his grandson, George HI. (i 760-1820). George HI. had one leading idea, which was to regain for himself the place in the gov- ernment which had been usurped by the Parliament. So completely was he absorbed by this policy, that the war had only a secondary interest for him. He therefore dis- missed Pitt, who was identified with the war, from office (1761), and shortly after ordered Lord Bute, a minister of PeaceofPari? his own independent appointment, to conclude peace with France. Although the English negotiators, in their haste ' The French had claimed the whole Mississippi basin, and in order to shut out the English had built a fort on the upper Ohio. ^ In 1755 Gen- eral Braddock was sent out to destroy the French fort, but refusing to be guided by the advice of the Virginian officer, George Washington, was badly beaten. When the French fort was finally taken, it was re-baptized Pittsburg, in honor of England's great minister. 262 Modern Europe The American Revolution, 1776. The Peace of Versailles, 1783. Irish troubles. to have done, occasionally sacrificed the English interests, the great results of Pitt's victories could not be overturned. By the Peace of Paris (1763) England acquired from France, Canada and the territory east of the Mississippi River, and reduced the French in India to a few trading post?. If the Seven Years' War is the greatest triumph of Eng- land in history, she was visited soon afterward with her severest disgrace. In the year 1765 the British Parliament levied a tax upon the American colonies, called the Stamp Act. When it became known that the tax aroused discon- tent, it was wisely withdrawn, but at the same time the principle was asserted and proclaimed that the British Par- liament had the right to tax the colonies. As the Amer- icans would not accept this point of view, friction grew apace and soon led to mob violence. The British ministry, which was under the direction of a very high-spirited king, resorted to military force, and the answer of the Americans to this measure was the resolution to revolt (Declaration of Independence, 1776). In 1778 the colonists, through their agent, Benjamin Franklin, made an alliance with France, and from this time on the English were hard pressed by land and by sea. Finally, the surrender of Yorktown (1781) to the American hero of the war, George Washing- ton, disposed the English to peace. In the Peace of Ver- sailles (1783) England made France a few unimportant colonial concessions, but the really memorable feature of the peace was the recognition of the independence of the American colonies. This American success stimulated the Irish to demand for themselves a greater measure of freedom than their land had hitherto enjoyed. There had always been an Irish Parlia- ment, but its legislative power was illusory ; it could pass no act which had not been first approved by the English England and France in the Eighteenth Century 263 Privy Council. A further weakness of the Irish Parlia- ment was that only the great Protestant land-owners were represented in it. Toward the end of the eighteenth cen- tury the feeling began to spread, even among a part of the Protestant population of Ireland, that the alleviation of the eternal Irish misery was dependent, first of all, on the abol- ition of the English supervision, and as the government at London had been rendered cautious by the American revo- lution, the ministry was persuaded to put an act through Parliament establishing Irish Legislative Independence, or Irish Legis- what would now be called Home Rule (1782). Unfortu- pend^ence,^' nately the island was not pacified by this concession. The ^782. religious animosities existing between the Catholic natives and the Protestant colonists were of such long standing that they could not be buried in a day. When in 1798 disturbances took place which were accompanied by ruth- less massacres on both sides, the younger Pitt, who was Prime Minister at the time, resolved to have done with the insufferable situation. He passed (1800) an Act of Union The Act of which destroyed the independence of Ireland for good and all, and incorporated the Irish Parliament with the British Parliament at London. Since then Ireland has been ruled in all respects from the English capital. The Act of Union did not greatly occupy the public mind. For when it was passed the French Revolution, though it was now in its twelfth year, was still holding the attention of all Europe riveted upon it. yf Union, 1800. PERIOD III The Political Revolutions and the Reconstruction OF THE European States; from the French Revolution to the Congress of Berlin (1789-1878) BIBLIOGRAPHY. General Histories. [For General Histories which cover the whole Modern Period, the reader is referred to the bibliography of Period I.] H. M, Stephens: European History from 1789 to 1815. Valuable especially for the developments in France. Rose: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era (1789-18 15). Valu- able especially for the history of Napoleon and his struggle with Europe. Muller : Political History of Recent Times (1815-80). Fyffe : History of Modern Europe. 3 vols. Special Histories. [For Special Histories which cover the whole Modem Period, the reader is referred to the bibliography of Period I.] Great Britain. McCarthy, Justin : A History of Our Own Times, 4 vols. McCarthy, Justin : Ireland Since the Union. France. Lanfrey : Napoleon I. 4 vols. Antagonistic to Napoleon and his policy. Taine : The Ancient Regime and the French Revolution. An unri- valled analysis of French society. 264 Period III — Bibliography 265 Madame de Remusat, Memoirs of. Invaluable for the study of the personality of Napoleon. Seeley : Napoleon I. Maintains a comprehensive historical point of view, Sloane : Napoleon I. A large, fair treatment. Carlyle : The French Revolution. Properly an epic, giving the view rather of a poet than of a historian. Gertnany. Seeley : I^ife and Times of Stein ; or, Germany and Prussia in the Na- poleonic Age. 3 vols. An excelleat and intimate study. Bigelow : History of the German Struggle for Liberty. 2 vols. Vivacious but careless. Von Sybel : The Founding of the German Empire by William I, A splendid monument to the skill of Bismarck. Lowe : Prince Bismarck. 2 vols. Full of insight and appreciation. Whitman: Imperial Germany. A capable analysis of politics and society. Italy. Mazade : The Life of Count Cavour. Thayer : The Dawn of Italian Independence. 2 vols. Works of the Imagination. Dickens : Tale of Two Cities. Time of French Revolution. Victor Hugo : Ninety Three ; also Les Miserables. Gras : The Reds of the Midi. Time of the French Revolution. CHAPTER I THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1815) The condition of France at the end of the eighteenth century. Decav due to system of government. If the seventeenth century, which recalls the names of Richelieu, Colbert, and Louis XIV., was the period of the expansion of France, the eighteenth century, associated with such names as the Regent Orleans, Louis XV., and Madame de Pompadour, proved the period of French de- cay. We have just seen that the Seven Years' War all but completed the ruin of the kingdom ; the defeats of the armies of France in Germany destroyed her military pres- tige, and her maritime disasters overthrew her naval power and deprived her of her colonies. But the loss of her great position was not the worst consequence of the Seven Years' War. France found herself, on the conclusion of the Peace of Paris (1763), in such a condition of exhaustion, that it was doubtful, even to patriots, whether she would ever recover health and strength. The case, at first sight, seemed anomalous. Here was a country which, in point of natural resources, had the advan- tage over every other country of Europe ; its population, which was estimated at 25,000,000, was greater than that of any rival state ; and the mass of the nation had no cause to fear comparison with any other people, as regards indus- try, thrift, and intelligence. If this people so constituted tottered in the second half of the eighteenth century on the verge of disruption, that circumstance cannot be ascribed to any inherent defect in the nation. It was due solely to the break-down of the system of government and of society, which bound the nation together. 266 The French Revolution 267 The reader is acquainted with the development of the The king is absolute power of the French king. The king had ab- sorbed, gradually, all the functions of government. In fact, as Louis XIV. himself had announced, the king had be- come the state. ^ The local administration, once the pre- rogative of the nobihty, had, with the overthrow of the nobility in the seventeenth century, been transferred to royal appointees, called intendants ; the feudal Parliament, or States-General, had fallen into abeyance ; and whenever the supreme law-courts of the realm, known 2.% parlements ^ tried by refusing to register a royal decree to exercise the small measure of power which they possessed, the king cowed them by a lit de justice. In an address delivered on the occasion of such a /// de justice (1766), Louis XV. could, without fear of contradiction, make the following assertion concerning the royal prerogative : "In my person resides the sovereign authority. I hold the legislative power and share it with no one. The entire public life is sustained by me." It is plain that such extensive duties devolving on the king, only a very superior monarch was capable of holding and giving value to the royal office. Louis XIV. never failed at least in assiduity. But his successor, Louis XV., who was weak and frivolous, and incapable of sustained work, shirked the exercise of the powers which he none the Louis XV. less claimed as his due. Instead of laboring in his cabinet, he allowed his time to be monopolized by hunts and spec- tacles, and his vitality to be consumed by entertainments frequently prolonged to revolting orgies. The result was that the business of governing fell to a greedy horde of courtiers and adventuresses, who were principally concerned with fattenis*- their fortunes, and who sacrificed with no See Period II., Chapter II. 268 Modern Europe more regret than is expressed by a shrug of the shoulders and a laugh, every interest of the state. The feudal If under Louis XV. the centralized monarchy progres- '^priviieged sively declined, the whole social fabric which that monarchy orders. crowned, exhibited no less certain signs of decay and dis- ruption. French society, like that of all Europe, had its starting-point in the feudal principle of class. In feudal times there had been recognized two great governing classes, the clergy and the nobility. In return for certain fundamental services rendered by them to society, such as instruction, spiritual comfort, administration of justice, and maintenance of the peace, they had been granted a per- sonal direction of the subjects committed to their care, much like the authority which a father exercises over his children. The absolute monarchy of France had, to a greater extent than the monarchy of any other country, relieved the feudal orders of their duties ; the monarchy had gradually taken it upon itself to administer justice and maintain peace. But the monarchy compensated the feudal orders for the loss of political influence, entailed l)y the sacrifice of their real functions, by leaving in their hands a great number of their old rights. Thus the clergy and nobility were generally exempt from taxation. In the old feudal times, such exemption was the just recompense for specific services rendered to society. Now, although the services were rendered by the king, the feudal orders were still favored with the old freedom from taxation ; conse- quently, what had once been an act of justice, had become an iniquity. The army, the We are now in a position to understand why the France themiministra- of the eighteenth century was divided into privileged and (ion reserved unprivileged classes, or into subjects who paid, and into subjects who did not pay. Such a division was abominable, but the social injustice, existing in France, did not end The French Revolution 269 here. Not only had the feudal orders become mere privi- leged orders, who did not contribute to the support of the government in a measure even approximately proportionate to their strength, but all the honors and emoluments of the monarchy were reserved to them. No least lieutenancy in the army, which the money of the commoners supported, was open to a son of a commoner, and neither the Church nor the government, except in rare instances, admitted into their service the man of humble birth. The membership of the two orders to whom these ex- The numbers ^ . . ., J ^1 n^, and the wealth tensive privileges were reserved, was not very large. Ihe oftheprivi- noble famihes numbered 25,000 to 30,000, with an aggre- ^^s^^- gate membership of perhaps 140,000 ; and the clergy, in- cluding the various religious orders and the parish priests, had an enrollment of about as many names. These two castes between them owned about half the land of France, so that it could be fairly claimed by the indignant people that the principle of taxation which obtained in their coun- try was: to relieve those who did not need relief, and to burden those who were already overburdened. But if nobility and clergy were, comparatively speaking, Their mode of very well off, their means were not sufficient to satisfy the demands which their style of life made upon their purses. The king required the nobles to live at court the greater part of the year ; at Versailles and Paris they accordingly ruined themselves by maintaining great houses and indulg- ing in fetes, games of chance, and all the excitements of ^ ^ an idle society. The great Church dignitaries, who were, for the most part, younger sons of noble families, emulated and if anything outshone the secular nobility by the lavish- ness of their mode of life. The result was, that the court swarmed with a bankrupt aristocracy which lived from hand to mouth by means of pensions granted by the king out of the public treasury. These pensions, running up 270 Modern Europe The upper and the lower clergy. The progress of the Third Estate. into the millions, and lavished upon creatures whose only merit was, as a contemporary writer put it, *' to have taken the trouble to be born," were the sorest affliction of the budget, and the least excusable factor contributing to the annual deficit. There is no need to say that a hierarchy which recruited itself from the nobility, and like the nobility spent its days in hunting, gambling, and paying visits, was not suited to discharge its spiritual functions. But it would be a mis- take to suppose that the mode of life of the higher clergy prevailed among the rank and file. In the provinces there were to be found priests on starvation salaries, who devoted themselves to their parish duties with mediaeval fervor. These hardly felt that there was any bond between them and their noble superiors, while a thousand ties united them with the people from whom they were sprung. A notable consequence of this fact was, that when the revolu- tion broke out, the lower clergy sided with the people against the privileged hierarchy. The commoners, or members of the Third Estate (tiers etat), who were shut out from the places of authority re- served to the first two estates of the realm, were reduced to finding an outlet for their energy in the field of business enterprise or else in literature. They succeeded in piling up wealth both in Paris and in the cities of the provinces, untiltheir resources, constantly increased through thrift and hard work, far exceeded those of the nobility, who con- cerned themselves only with elegantly spending what they had and what they could borrow. Thus the bourgeoisie had long been better off than the nobility ; and now they proceeded to surpass the nobility in other respects. For increase of wealth had brought increase of leisure and of the desire and power to learn and grow. So it happened that in the progress of the eighteenth century, the Third The French Revolution 271 Estate had fairly become the intellectual hearth of France. One need for proof look only at the great writers of the eighteenth century — for example, Voltaire and Rousseau ; they are almost without exception of the middle class. But if the bourgeoisie was doubtlessly prospering, the The misery case was different with the vast majority of French subjects, \^^ class." " who are often called the Fourth Estate, and who embraced the two utterly wretched classes of the urban proletariat and the peasants. The proletariat was composed of the artisans and day-laborers, and was the product of the new industrial system. Being of recent origin it was unorgan- ized and consequently completely under the heel of the capitalist middle class. The middle class controlled the commercial and industrial situation by means of its guilds, and shut all but old bourgeois families out of them with as much zeal as the nobles displayed in keeping their ranks free from the defilement of citizen upstarts. With reference to the proletariat, the middle class was, in its turn, a privi- leged order, and we can easily understand that the oppres- sion with which the bourgeoisie saddled the proletariat was filling that body with a ferment of increasing discontent. But the class of which the condition was most abject, was, The misery undoubtedly, the peasants. Their obligations exceeded all antry. justice and reason. The lord of the manor exacted rent from them ; the Church levied tithes ; and the king collected taxes almost at will. The result was that the peasants did not have enough left over from their toil to live on. Vast areas of the soil of France had, therefore, in the course of the last few decades been deserted by the peasants, and in some of the most fertile places famine had become an annual guest. An English gentleman, Arthur Young, who made a journey through France, just before the outbreak of the Revolution, was horrified by the bent, starved, and diseased figures which he encountered in all the villages. And if the reg- 272 Modern Europe The demand for reform. The intellect- ual revolt ular taxes by any chance left anything in the hands of the peasants, that little was constantly jeopardized by certain remaining feudal obligations. Thus the lord of the land had the sole right to hunt, and the peasant was forbidden to erect fences to shut out the game from his fields. If the cavalcade from the chateau dashed over the young wheat in the spring, the peasant could do nothing but look on at the ruin of his year, hold his peace, and starve.^ A government struck with impotence, a society divided into discordant classes — these are the main features of the picture we have just examined. French public life in the eighteenth century had become intolerable. Dissolution of that life, in order that reform might follow, was patently the only possible escape out of the perennial misery. This the educated people began to see more and more clearly, and a school of writers, known as the philosophers, made themselves their mouthpiece. The eighteeenth century is the century of criticism. Men had begun to overhaul the whole body of tradition in state, Church, and society, and to examine their institu- tional inheritances from the point of view of common sense. If things had been allowed to stand hitherto, because they were approved by the past, they were to be permitted hence- forth only because they were serviceable, and necessary to the present. Reason, in other words, was to be the rule of life. This gospel the philosophers spread from end to end of Europe. They opened fire upon everything that ran counter to reason and science — upon the intolerance of the Church, upon the privileges of the nobility, upon the abuse of the royal power, upon the viciousness of criminal justice, and a hundred other things. ' Other vexatious feudal dues were the corv^es (compulsory mending of the roads), bridge-tolls, and the obligation to grind corn in the mill of the lord, and bake bread in his oven. The French Revolution 273 Although the revolt against the authority of tradition was The centre of universal in the eighteenth century, the leading names ^'"^'^ ^^*' among the philosophers are those of Frenchmen. This in itself is an indication that France was the country most in need of a reign of reason. And of all the French philos- ophers, Voltaire- * and Rousseau ^ carried on the most effec- tive agitation in behalf of the new programme. By means of their work and that of their followers, it was brought about that long before the Revolution of 1789 there had occurred a revolution in the realm of ideas, by which the hold of the existing Church, state, and society on the minds of men had been signally loosened. All that the material Revolution of 1789 did was to register this fact in the institutions and in the laws. A society which has become thoroughly discredited in the minds of those who compose it, is likely to fall apart at any moment, and through a hundred different agencies. The agency which directly led up to the French Revolu- tion, and gave the signal, as it were, for the dissolution of the ancien regime, was the state of the finances. The debts of Louis XIV. had been increased by the wars and extrav- agances of Louis XV., and by the middle of the eighteenth century France was confronted by the difficulty of a chronic deficit. As long as Louis XV. reigned (1715-74), the deficit was covered by fresh loans. Although the device was dangerous, it did not arouse any apprehension in that monarch's feeble mind. " Things will hold together till ual revolt is France. The chronic deficit. ' Voltaire (1694-1778), excelled in the use of mockery. He made the contemporary world ridiculous to itself Because his writings were so specifically addressed to his own time, they have not all retained their interest. Perhaps his most valuable production is " I'Essai sur les Mceurs. '' 2 Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78) was a Genevan by birth. In his " Emile " (a work on education) and his " Contrat Social" (a work on so- ciety), he prea-^hed the return from artificiality to nature. Both Voltaire and Rousseau were eloquent in their demand for civil and religious lib- erty. 274 Modern Europe The accession of Louis XVI. Attempts at financial re- form. my death," he was in the habit of saying complacently, and Madame de Pompadour would add, nonchalantly, ''After us the deluge." When Louis XVI. (1774-92) succeeded his grandfather, the question of financial reform would not brook any fur- ther delay. The new king was, at his accession, only twenty years old. He was honestly desirous of helping his people, but he had, unfortunately, neither the requisite energy nor the requisite intelligence for developing a pro- gramme, and carrying it through, in spite of opposition. His queen, Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria, was a lovely and vivacious creature, but as young and inexperienced as himself. The fifteen years from Louis's accession to the outbreak of the Revolution (1774-89), constitute a period of unin- termitted struggle with the financial distress. The question was how to make the revenues meet the expenditures. New taxes proved no solution. Excessive taxation had already reduced the country to starvation, and where there was noth- ing, no tax-gatherer's art could succeed in pressing out a return. Plainly the only feasible solution was reform. The lavish expenditure of the court would have to be cut down ; the waste and peculation in the administration would have to cease ; and the taxes would have to be re- distributed, the burdens being put upon the shoulders that could bear them. For the consideration of these matters Louis at first called into his cabinet a number of notable men. Among his ministers of finance (contr61eur general) were the economist Turgot (1774-76), and the banker Necker (first ministry, 1778-81 ; second ministry, 1788- 90). Both labored earnestly at reform, but both became the victims of the hatred of the courtiers and the nobles, who would neither consent to retrench their expenses nor give up their privileges. The French Revolution 275 For a few years after Necker's first dismissal, the govern- The king ap- ment eked out an existence by means of loans. The per- states-°Gen- sistent practice of this abuse, however, inevitably under- ^^^^• mined the national credit. Toward the end of the eighties the king stared bankruptcy in the face. Since he was ab- solutely without further resource, he now resolved to appeal to the nation. The determination was in itself a revolution, for it contained the admission that the absolute monarchy had failed. In May, 1789, there assembled at Paris, in order to take counsel with the king about the national dis- tress, the States-General of the realm. The States-General were the old feudal Parliament of The states- France, composed of the three orders, the clergy, the meri^con^'" nobles, and the commons. As the States-General had not ^^H^f by the feudal orders. met for one hundred and seventy-five years, it was not strange that nobody was acquainted with their mode of procedure. So much was certain, however, that the assem- ■ bly had formerly voted by orders, and that the action of the privileged orders had always been decisive. The first question which arose in the assembly was whether The question the feudal orders should be allowed this traditional suprem- stales^Generai acy in the new States-General. Among the members of are to be an ^ ° ancient or a the Third Estate, as the commons were called in France, modern body, there was, of course, only one answer. These men held that the new States-General were representative, not of the old feudal realm, but of the united nation, and that every- body, therefore, must have an equal vote. In other words, the Third Estate maintained that the vote should not be taken by order, but individually. As the Third Estate had been permitted to send twice as many delegates (six hun- dred) as either clergy or nobility (three hundred each), it was plain that the proposition of the Third Estate would give that body the preponderance. The clergy and nobil- ity, therefore, offered a stubborn resistance ; but, after a 276 Modern Europe month of contention, the Third Estate cut the knot by boldly declaring itself, with or without the feudal orders, the National Assembly (June 17). Horrified by this act of violence the king and the court tried to cow the com- mons by an abrupt summons to submit to the old procedure, but when the commons refused to be frightened, the king himself gave way, and ordered the clergy and nobility to join the Third Estate (June 27). Thus, at the very be- ginning of the Revolution, the power passed out of the hands of the king and feudal orders into the hands of the people. The National Assembly (lyS^-gi). The National Assembly in- telligent, but unpractical. The leading men. The National Assembly, which was thus constituted to regenerate France, was composed of the most intelligent men whom France could then boast. Moreover, the mem- bers were animated by a pure enthusiasm to serve their country. In fact, it was impossible to live in that momen- tous year of 1789 without feeling that an unexampled op- portunity had arrived for helping France and all mankind forward on the road of civilization. Something of this magnanimous spirit invaded the Assembly, and directed its labors from the first day. Unfortunately, a fatal defect more than counterbalanced this generous disposition. The Assembly was composed of theorists, of men who were in- experienced in the practical affairs of government, and was, therefore, calamitously prone to treat all questions which arose as felicitous occasions for the display of parliamen- tary eloquence. When the Assembly convened there existed as yet no political parties. But gradually parties began to form about the men who, by virtue of their talents, took the lead. Only a few of these can be pointed out here. There was the Marquis de Lafayette, who had won a great name for The French Revolution 277 hinself in the American Revolution, and who, though a noble, sympathized with all the aspirations of the people. He was known to be generous, and, for the present, gener- osity sufficed to qualify him as a leader. No man during the first stage of the Revolution had a greater following within and without the Assembly. The best representative of the dogmatic and philosophical spirit of the Assembly was the Abbd Sieyes. He carried to absurd lengths the idea that government was a matter of paper decrees, capable of being fashioned after some new principle every day. Then there was the lawyer Robespierre, whose circle, though not large at first, made up for the smallness of its numbers by the stanchness of its devotion to the dapper little man who regarded it as his business to parade on all occasions a patriotism of an incorruptible Roman grandeur. But the man who rose head and shoulders above the rest of the Assembly was Count Mirabeau. Mirabeau was a born statesman, perhaps the only man in the whole Assem- bly who instinctively knew that a government was as natu- ral and gradual a growth as a plant or a child. He wished, therefore, to keep the inherited monarchy intact, with just such reforms as would restore it to health arfd vigor. The strong constitutional monarchy, much stronger than that of England, was his ideal. Unfortunately, he never suc- ceeded in acquiring a guiding influence. In the first place, he was a noble, and therefore subject to suspicion ; then his early life had been a succession of scandals, which now rose up and bore witness against him, undermining confi- dence in his honor. The primary business of the National Assembly was the Degeneration making of a new constitution. ^ It was of the highest im- SJjtion dueTo portance that this work should be done in perfect security, *^^ '^°^* ' For this reason the National Assembly is known also as the Constit- uent Assembly. 278 Modern Europe Growth of anarchy. Fall of the Bastille, July 14. free from the interference of popular passion and violence. As the National Assembly represented the propertied in- terests, there seemed to be every chance of calm and sys- tematic procedure; but unfortunately the Assembly soon fell under the domination of the mob, and that proved the ruin of the Revolution. The growth of the influence of the lower elements, who interpreted reform as anarchy, is the most appalling concomitant of the great events of 1789. If we understand this fact, we have the key to the awful degeneration of what certainly was, at its outset, a gener- ous movement. For this degeneration the king and the commons were both responsible, as well by reason of what they did as of what they did not do. Let us understand that the sudden failure of absolutism in June, 1789, naturally threw France into unutterable confusion. Parisian mobs frequently fell upon and murdered the royal officials, while the peasants everywhere freely burnt and plundered the castles of the nobles. In view of these irregularities, king and National Assembly should have united to maintain order, but unite they would not, because the king, who was under the domi- nation of Marie Antoinette and the court, distrusted the Assembly, and because the Assembly feared the designs of the court and the king. And in fact, early in July, it was discovered that the court was plotting to dissolve the Assembly, and overawe the Parisians by the concentration of troops. At this news a tremendous excitement seized the people. Armed crowds gathered in the streets, and clamorous to teach the court a lesson, threw themselves upon the Bastille, the ancient state prison and royal fortress in the heart of Paris. After a bloody encounter with the royal troops, they took the gloomy stronghold, and in their fury razed it to the ground (July 14). The French Revolution 279 The fall of the Bastille was celebrated throughout France Expected as the end of tyranny and the dawn of a new era of broth- erty? equality, erly love. And in truth there was much suggestive of a ^^^ fraternity, new and promising beginning in the destruction of a mon- ument which had been the witness of the brutalities of mediaeval justice, and of the wanton oppression of the abso- lute king. Now indeed we know that July 14 was far from being the birthday of hberty, equality, and fraternity; but it is not difficult to understand why the French people, cherishing the memory of that generous illusion, should have made July 14 their national holiday. The king at Versailles did not misread the lesson which The the episode of the Bastille pointed. All thought of using ^'"'^'^^ ^°"' violence was temporarily dropped, and the irreconcilables of the court party, with the king's brother, the count of Artois, at their head, left France in disgust. Thus began the so-called emigration, which, continuing for the next few years, soon collected on the borders of France, chiefly along the Rhine, hundreds and thousands of the old priv- ileged classes, who preferred exile to submission to the new system. Thus the storming of the Bastille promised at first to The National clarify the situation. Again the king made his bow to the Lafayette. Revolution : he paid a formal visit to Paris as a pledge of reconciliation, and was received with acclamations of joy. The well-to-do citizens in return seemed to be determined to have done with violence and follow the way of sensible reform. They organized a militia, called the National Guard, in order to secure Paris from the excesses to which the city had lately been exposed, and made the popular Lafayette commander. Unfortunately the condition of the capital was most precarious. The multitude of the idle was growing in numbers every day, and their misery, which the general stoppage of business steadily sharpened, was 28o Modern Europe pushing them to the brink of savagery. It was a question whether Lafayette, with his citizen-guard, would be willing or able to chain the mob when passion should transform it into a wild beast. The events The test Came soon enough. In October, the rumor of and 6.^° ^^ ^ another plot, on the part of the remnant of the court party, ran through Paris. Excited men and women told each other that, at a banquet of officers, held at the palace of Versailles, the new tricolor' cockade had been trampled under foot, and the health of the king and queen drunk, amidst scenes of wild enthusiasm. What really happened was perfectly justifiable, but suspicion of the king and court had sunk so deeply into the hearts of the Parisians that every disparagement of the monarch, however silly, was sure to be believed. Demagogues announced that the king was the cause of the famine in the city, and that he and the court intercepted the grain-carts outside of Paris, in order that the patriots might starve. On the morning of October 5, 10,000 women, fierce and haggard from long suffering, set out for Versailles to fetch the king to Paris. As they straggled over the dusty roads all the male and fe- male riff-raff of the suburbs joined them. In the face of this tremendous danger Lafayette, the commander of the militia and guardian of the civil order, did nothing. If, as is now supposed, he remained inactive, in order to get the king into his power, an indelible stain attaches to his character. Certain it is, that it was only when the National Guard refused to wait longer that he consented to conduct it to Versailles, and preserve peace. When he arrived there in the night, some hours after the women, he found everything ' The tricolor was the insignia of the new National Guard. It was formed by adding to the blue and the red, the colors of Paris, the white of the Bourbon kings. The tricolor became the emblem of the Revolu- tion, and is now the national flag of France. The French Revolution 281 in the greatest confusion. By his timely intercession, how- ever, he saved the lives of the royal family, and thus was enabled to pose in the gratifying role of preserver of the monarchy. But if the mob spared the king and queen, it declared firmly, at the same time, that it would be satisfied with nothing short of the removal of the king and the royal family to Paris. What could the king do but give his consent ? On the 6th, the terrible maenads, indulging in triumphant song and dance along the road, escorted '' the baker, the baker's wife, and the baker's little boy " to the The king con- Tuileries at Paris. The National Assembly, of course, fol- Tuileries. lowed the king, and was quartered in the riding-school, near the palace. The events of October 5 and 6, in hteral truth, ruined The mob the monarchy, and Lafayette cannot escape the charge preme. of having contributed in large measure to the result. The king at the Tuileries, indeed, if that was what La- fayette wanted, was now practically Lafayette's prisoner, but Lafayette himself, even though it took him some months to find it out, was henceforth the prisoner of the mob. The great October days had allowed '^ the patriots," as the mob designated itself, to realize their power, and having once tasted the sweets of violence, they would require more than Lafayette's energy to bring them back to a respect of the law. Henceforth, organized under clever and unscrupulous leaders, *' the patriots " play the decisive role in the Revolution, gradually but resistlessly forcing the king, Lafayette, the National Assembly, and all the constituted authorities of France, to bow down before them to the dust. What greatly contributed to the power of the mob was The clubs, the excitement and vague enthusiasm which possessed all classes alike. We must always remember, in order to un- derstand the tremendous pace at which the Revolution de- 282 Modern Europe Cordeliers and Jaco- bins. The abolition of privileges, August 4. veloped, that the year 1789 marks an almost unparalleled agitation of public opinion. Leading symptoms of this agitation were the innumerable pamphlets and newspapers which accompanied the events of the day with explana- tory comment. But the most prominent and unique wit- ness of the exaltation of men's minds was offered by the clubs. Clubs for consultation and debate became the great demand of the hour ; they arose spontaneously in all quarters; in fact, every coffee-house acquired through the passion of its frequenters, the character of a political asso- ciation. Of all these unions the Jacobins and the Cor- deliers soon won the most influential position. The Cor- deliers recruited their numbers from among the Parisian ^' patriots." Danton and Marat were among their leaders, and the tone of the club was, from the first, wildly revolu- tionary. The Jacobins began much more gently. They offered a meeting-point for the constitutional and educated elements, and rapidly spread in numberless branches or so-called daughter-societies over the length and breadth of France. Unfortunately, however, this club too soon fell un- der the domination of the extreme revolutionary tendencies. Lafayette, Sieyes, and Mirabeau, whose power was at first dominant, were gradually displaced by Robespierre ; and Robespierre, once in authority, skilfully used the club as a means of binding together the radical opinion of the country. Throughout the years 1789 and 1790, the National As- sembly was engaged with providing for the government of France, and in making a constitution. The great question of the privileges, which had proved unsolvable in the early years of Louis XVL, caused no difficulties after the Na- tional Assembly had once been constituted. On August 4, 1789, the nobility and clergy, in an access of magnan- imity, renounced voluntarily their feudal rights, and de- The French Revolution 283 manded that they be admitted into the great body of French citizens on a basis of equahty. August 4 is one of the great days of the Revolution. Only one other burning question inherited from the an- Financial dis- cien regime remained — the question of the finances. The general cessation of business which attended the Revolu- tion contributed of course to the depletion of the treasury. In order to avoid bankruptcy, the National Assembly now- confiscated the property of the clergy, valued at many mill- ions, and began the issue against it of paper money called assignats {^x's>X. issue, December, 1789). The assignats dX Assignats. the beginning formed a perfectly sound device, but owing to the continued needs of the treasury they were multi- plied to such a degree that they represented soon only a portion of their face value, and, as the cheaper money, drove the gold and silver out of the country. The time, there- fore, was not far off when it would take a bagful of assig- nats to buy a pair of boots. Under these conditions, the finances fell into frightful disorder, and through the per- manent derangement of business contributed in no small measure to the increasing anarchy of the Revolution. In the intervals of the discharge of the current business. The character the Assembly deliberated concerning the future constitution stitution. of France. By slow degrees that creation marched during the succeeding months to completion. Of course it is not possible to examine it here in any degree of de- tail. If we remember that it was the work of men who had suffered from an absolute executive, and were under the domination of the dogmatic philosophy of the eighteenth century, we shall understand its principal feature. This feature of the new constitution was that the legislative branch of the government was made superior to the execu- tive branch. It was provided that the legislative function should be exercised by a legislature of one house elected for 284 Modern Europe two years by all the active citizens ^ of the kingdom. Mira- beau, the great statesman of the Revolution, fought hard to preserve the king that measure of power which an executive requires in order to be efficient ; but he was unappreciated by his colleagues and distrusted by the king, and in almost all important matters met defeat. Broken down by disap- pointment and reckless excesses he died (April, 1791), prophesying in his last days, with marvellous accuracy, all the ulterior stages of the Revolution. Death of Mira- The death of Mirabeau was lamented generally as the beau, pn , j^^ ^^ ^^ Revolution of its greatest orator. Perhaps the king, who had been strongly drawn to the statesman dur- ing the last months of his life, was the only one to feel that Mirabeau's death meant much more — meant, in fact, the removal of the last gate which hemmed in the revolution- ary floods. Ever since October 6, Louis had been the The intoiera- virtual prisoner of the populace, and had lost all influence the king.'^" ^ o^^ ^^ shaping of events. The constitution, which in the spring of 1791 was nearing completion, and would soon be forced upon him, he regarded as intolerable. But as long as Mirabeau lived he retained some hopes of a change among the legislators in his favor. When Mirabeau's death robbed him of this illusion, it is not strange that his thoughts should have turned to flight as the only means of escaping from a position that was not only insuff'erable for him as ruler, but exposed his queen, his children, and all who were dear to him to daily and hourly insult. The attempted The flight of the king and the royal family was arranged flight, June 20, . , , ,-,.,/- x a 1791. With the greatest secrecy for the night of June 20. A little less delay at the post stations, or a little more care on the part of the king to keep himself in concealment, would ' Citizens were divided by this constitution into two classes : active and passive. Only the active class, composed of those who paid a certain small contribution, in the form of a direct tax, could vote. The French Revolution 285 have crowned the venture with success. But the king was recognized at Sainte Menehould by one Drouet, the son of the postmaster; and a Httle farther on at Varennes, where the change of horses was accidentally prolonged, the travellers found themselves hemmed in by the mob, and ar- rested. A few days after their departure the fugitives were brought back to Paris as prisoners. The flight of the king divided opinion in Paris sharply. Division of It gave the constitutional monarchists their first inkling °P^^'°'^- that they had gone too far. A monarch was neces- sary to their constitutional fabric, and here they beheld their chosen monarch refusing to serve their plan. They began in consequence to exhibit suddenly for the captive and disarmed Louis a consideration which they had never accorded him in the days when he still had favors to dis- pense. The democrats, on the other hand, such as Danton and Robespierre, regarded the flight as a welcome pretext for proclaiming the republic. A struggle followed (July, 1791), the most ominous which Paris had yet witnessed ; but the monarchists were still a majority, and by ordering out the National Guard against the rioters, won a victory. The Assembly, on hearing from the king that he had never meant to leave the soil of France nor employ force against The king rein- his subjects, solemnly welcomed him back to office ; and Louis, in return, to mark his reconciliation with his subjects, accepted and swore to observe the constitution. The As- sembly was pleased to imagine that it had, by its magnani- mous reinstatement of the king, settled all the difficulties of the situation. On September 30, 1791, the last artistic The Assembly touches having been added to the constitution, it dissolved self, 1791. itself, and retired from the scene. Its strenuous labors of two years, from which the enthusiasts had expected the renovation of old Europe, culminated in the gift to the nation of the completed liberal constitution. The question 286 Modern Europe now was : would the vaunted constitution at length inau- gurate the prophesied era of peace and happiness ? The Legislative Assembly (October i, lygi, to September 21, 1792)' Inexperience of the new legislature. The majority is republican. The answer to the above question would depend largely upon the First Legislative Assembly, which, elected on the basis of a new constitution, met the day after the National Assembly adjourned. By a self-denying ordinance, char- acteristic of the mistaken magnanimity which pervaded the National Assembly, that body had voted the exclusion of its members from the Legislative Assembly. The seven hun- dred and forty-five new legislators of France were, there- fore, all men without experience. That alone constituted a grave danger, which was still further increased by the fact that the prevailing type of member was that of the young enthusiast, who owed his political elevation to the ora- torical vigor he had displayed in his local Jacobin Club. The dangerous disposition of the Assembly became ap- parent as soon as the members grouped themselves in parties. Only a small fraction, called the Feuillants, un- dertook to support the constitution. The majority, com- posed of the two parties of the Gironde^ and theMountain,^ favored the establishment of a republic. From the first day, the Assembly set deliberately about destroying the monarchy. The stages by which it accomplished its work of ruin we need not here consider, but the supreme blow against the king was delivered when he was forced to de- clare war against Austria, and except for this declaration, » So called from the fact that the leaders of the party hailed from the department of the Gironde. 'This party owes its name to the circumstance that its members took their seats in the Assembly upon the highest tiers of benches. The French Revolution 287 which marks a new mile-stone in the Revolution, we can almost forget the Legislative Assembly entirely. The declaration of war against Austria was the conse- The Assembly quence of the menacing attitude toward France of the French against aS- emigres, under the leadership of the count of Provence and *^^^' ^P"^' the count of Artois, the two brothers of the king, and of the rising disquiet of monarchical Europe over the excesses of the Revolution. The Emperor Leopold IL was naturally alarmed by the situation of his sister Marie Antoinette and of her children; but, as a prudent man, he was far from desirous of engaging in a war on her account. The Assem- bly knew of his sympathies for the French royal family, and chose to consider him, moreover, the special patron of the e'mig?'es. Thus the suspicion in which the republicans held the emperor mounted continually, and when, upon re- peated requests, Leopold refused to show an exemplary rigor against the emigres, who were scattered in armed troops along the Rhine, the Assembly, in a passion, declared war (April 20, 1792). Unfortunately, the capable Leopold had died a month The war des- before the declaration was made, and it was his incapable come general, son, Francis IL (i 792-1835), who was called to do battle with the Revolution. But Leopold had before his death made some provision against the eventuality of war with France. In February, 1792, frightened by the dangers to the cause of monarchy lurking in the Revolution, he had persuaded Frederick William II. of Prussia to league him- self with him in a defensive alliance. The declaration of April 20 brought, therefore, not only Austria, but also Prussia, into the field. Thus began the Revolutionary Wars which were destined to carry the revolutionary ideas to the ends of the earth, to sweep away landmarks and tra- ditions, and to lock old Europe in death-grapple with new France, for over twenty years. 288 Modern Europe French There can be no doubt that the republican Girondists, ^ ^^^^* who were the real originators of the war, expected an easy victory. They saw, in a vision, the thrones of the tyrants shaking at the irresistible onset of the revolutionary ideas, and themselves hailed everywhere as the liberators of the human race. But the first engagement brought a sharp dis- appointment. The undisciplined French forces, at the mere approach of the Austrians, scampered away without risking a battle, and when the summer came it was known that the Austrians and Prussians together had begun the in- vasion of France. At this unexpected crisis wrath and ter- ror filled the republicans in Paris. They began to whisper the word treason, and soon their orators dared to denounce the king publicly, and in the vilest language, as the author of the French defeats. Every day brought the Prussian van nearer Paris ; every day added to the excitement of the frightened citizens. When the duke of Brunswick, the Prussian commander-in-chief, threatened, in a silly procla- mation, to wreak vengeance on the capital, if but a hair of Blame put on the king's head were injured, the seething passion burst in a wave of uncontrollable fury. In the early morning of August lo, the mob, organized by the republican leaders, marched against the Tuileries to overthrow the man whom the orators had represented as in league with foreign des. pots against the common mother, France. Events of Au- When, during the night, the signal bells from the steeples rang out the preconcerted summons over the city, the king and his family knew that the supreme struggle had come. Dispersed about in small groups, the palace inmates passed the night discussing the chances of the coming day. Of all the soldiers, a regiment of mercenary Swiss could alone be counted on. The resolution taken in this supreme mo. ment to win or die at the head of this faithful guard, might have restored confidence in the king ; but Louis XVI. was the kini gust lo, 1792. The French Revolution 289 the last man to be moved by a heroic impulse. If there had ever been one settled determination in his breast, it was that no French blood should flow for him in civil war. At eight o'clock in the morning, seeing that the mob was making ready to storm the palace, he abandoned it to seek shelter in the Legislative Assembly. The Swiss guard, de- serted by their leader, made a brave stand. Only on the king's express order did they give up the Tuileries, and at- , tempt to effect a retreat. But the odds were against them. The enraged populace fell upon them and butchered most of them in the streets. Meanwhile the Assembly was engaged in putting its Break-down of official seal to the verdict of the mob. With Louis him- and the^con^s/ self present, the members voted the suspension of the king, t^^ion. and ordered the election of a National Convention to con- sider the basis of a new constitution. The present Assem- bly agreed to hold over till September 2 1 , the day when the new body was ordered to meet. Thus perished, after an existence of ten months, the constitution which had been trumpeted forth as the final product of human intelligence. The suspension of the king left the government legally The govern- in the hands of the Legislative Assembly and of the min- hands of the istry which the Assembly appointed. But as the capital Mountain ^ ^ was in the hands of the mob and the machinery of govern- ment paralyzed, it was found impossible to keep the real power from falling into the hands of the demagogues, who, on August 10, had had the courage to strike down the king. These victorious demagogues were identical with the Moun- tain party in the Assembly, and with the '^patriots," who had just possessed themselves, by means of violence, of the city council or commune. The most prominent figures of this dread circle were Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, and these and their henchmen were the real sovereigns of France during the interlude from August 10, the day of the over- 290 Modern Europe The Mountain defends France. de- Prussians feated at Valmy, Sep- tember, 1792. The Septem- ber massacres. throw of the monarchy, to September 21, the day of the meeting of the National Convention. It was plain that the first need of France in this crisis was to beat back the invasion. The Mountain, therefore, made itself the champion of the national defense. Its ora- tors steeled the hearts of the citizens by infusing into them an indomitable courage. '' What do we require in order to conquer? " cried Danton from the tribune of the Assembly; " To dare, and dare, and dare again." The fatherland was declared in danger ; all occupations ceased but those which provided for the necessaries of life and furnished weapons of defense; finally, the whole male population was ordered under arms. Whatever we may think of this system of gov- ernment by violence and frenzied enthusiasm, it certainly accomplished its first end: it put an army into the field com- posed of men who were ready to die, and so saved France. Slowly Danton's recruits checked the Prussian advance. Finally, on September 20, General Kellermann inflicted a defeat upon the Prussians at Valmy. In view of the lack of provisions and the incessant rains, Frederick William now lost courage, and unexpectedly gave the order to retreat. A few weeks later not a Prussian was left upon French soil. This really great achievement of the radical democrats was unfortunatlely marred by a succession of frightful crimes. To understand why these were perpetrated, we must once again picture to ourselves the state of France. The country was in anarchy ; the power in the hands of a few men, reso- lute to save their country. They were a thoroughly un- scrupulous band, the Dantons, the Marats, and their col- leagues, and since they could not afford to be disturbed in their work of equipping armies by local risings among the supporters of the king, they resolved to cow the constitu- tionalists, still perhaps a majority, by a system of terror. They haled to the prisons all to whom the suspicion of being The French Revolution 291 devoted to the king attached, and in the early days of Sep- tember they emptied the crowded prisons again by a deUb- erate massacre of the inmates. An armed band of assassins, regularly hired by the municipahty, made the round of the prisons, and in the course of three days dispatched over - two thousand helpless victims. Not a hand was raised to stop the hideous proceedings. Paris, to all appearances, looked on stupefied. The National Convention (^September 21, I7g2, to October 26, 1795)' The short interlude of government by terror came to an France is de- end temporarily, when the National Convention met (Sep- pubhc.^ ^^' tember 21) and assumed control. The first act of this body was to declare France a republic. As the defeat of the Prussians at Valmy, which occurred about this time, was followed soon after by the repulse of the Austrians from the walls of Lille, France was freed from all immedi- ate danger from without. Thus the Convention could turn its attention to internal affairs. In the precarious condition in which France then found The Gironde herself everything depended upon the composition of the tain, new governing body. It was made up of almost eight hun- dred members, all republicans ; but they were republicans of 'Various degrees of thoroughness. There were the two par- ties of the Gironde and the Mountain, known to us from the Legislative Assembly, and between them, voting some- times with the Gironde, sometimes with the Mountain, but definitely attached to neither, was the Plain. The Giron- dists dreamed of a new Utopia, which was to be straightway realized by legislation ; they wished to end the period of murders, and thus wipe away the stains which were begin- ning to attach to the name of liberty. The Mountainists were men of a more fierce and practical mood; they thought 292 Modern Europe Trial and death of the king. The first coa- lition against France. primarily of saving France from the foreigners, and were willing to sacrifice liberty itself to further that great end. The ideal of the former party was the free state, of the latter the strong state. Naturally the two governmental programmes, which were inherently antagonistic, began to clash as soon as the Convention was organized. That the chasm between the Gironde and Mountain was absolutely unbridgeable was exhibited on the Convention's taking up its first important business, the trial of the king. Ever since August lo, the king and his family had been confined in the prison of the Temple. In December the deposed monarch was summoned before the bar of the Con- vention. The Girondists were anxious to save his life ; but the Mountainists, backed by the threats of the mob, carried the Convention with them. By a vote of 366 to 355, the citizen Louis Capet, once Louis XVL, was condemned to death, and on January 21, 1793, he was executed on the guillotine. On that eventful day no hand was raised to save the monarch, who, however he may have failed in intelligence and energy, had always been faithfully devoted to the interests of his people. The execution of the king raised a storm of indignation over Europe, and a great coalition, which every state of importance joined, sprang to life for the purpose of punish- ing the regicides of the Convention. Thus the war with Austria and Prussia promised to assume immense proportions in the coming year. The members of the great coalition planned to attack France from every side, and humble her pride in one rapid campaign. The English were to sweep down upon her coasts, the Spaniards to cross the Pyrenees and attack France from the south, the Piedmontese to pour over the Alps at the southeast, and the Austrians and Prus- sians to operate in the eastern provinces, along the Rhine. Under these circumstances, the question of the defence of The French Revolution 293 the French soil became again, as it had been in the summer of 1792, the supreme question of the hour. And it was plain that, in order to meet her enemies, who were advanc- ing from every point of the compass, France would be Overthrow of required to display an almost superhuman vigor. The new crisis quickly developed the animosities between Gironde and Mountain into implacable hatred. There can be no doubt that both sides were equally patriotic, but it was not now primarily a question of patriotism between them, but of the most practical means for meeting the threatening invasions. The philosophers of the Gironde insisted on presenting moral scruples, on spinning out end- less debates ; and because the case would not wait upon scruple or debate, the fanatics of the Mountain resolved to strike their rivals down. Mobs were regularly organized by Marat to invade the Convention, and howl at its bar for the heads of the Girondist leaders. Finally, on June 2, 1793, twenty-two of them, among whom were the brilliant orators Vergniaud, Isnard, Brissot, and Gensonne, were excluded from the Assembly, and committed to prison. The fall of the mild-mannered Girondists meant the removal of the last check upon the ferocity of the Moun- tain. The government now lay in its hands to use as it The Mountain would, and the most immediate end of government, the ^^P'^^"^^- Mountain had always maintained, was the salvation of France from her enemies. To accomplish that great purpose, the Mountain now deliberately returned to the successful system of the summer of 1792 — the system of terror. The phase of the Revolution, which is historically famous as the Reign of Terror (La Terreur) — it may profitably be called .the Long Reign of Terror in order to distinguish it from the Short Reign of Terror of August and September, 1792 — begins on June 2, with the expulsion from the Conven- tion of the moderate element, represented by the Gironde. 294 Modern Europe The Commit- tee of Public Safety. Robespierre. Carnot, the great organ- izer. The Reign of Terror {June 2, lygj, to July 27, 1794)- The Short Reign of Terror of the summer of 1792 was marked by two conspicuous features : first, an energetic defense of the French soil, and, secondly, a bloody repres- sion of the oppositional elements in Paris. The Long Reign of Terror reproduces these elements merely developed into a system. What is more likely to secure an energetic defense than a strong executive? The Mountain, there- fore, created a committee of twelve, called the Committee of Public Safety, to which it intrusted an almost unlimited executive power. The Committee of Public Safety goes back in its origin to April, 1793 ; but the very fact that it does not acquire its sovereign influence until after the fall of the Gironde, proves how intimately, it was associated with the Mountainist scheme of government. Of the Committee of Public Safety the most conspicuous figure was Robespierre. For this reason the whole period of the Terror is sometimes identified with his name. But Robespierre, if most in view, was by no means the most active of the members of the committee. He was indeed the hero of the mob and the Jacobins, and therefore was invaluable for the prestige of the executive; but the men of the committee who organized the armies and saved France were Carnot, Prieur, and Lindet. During the prolonged internal convulsions, Carnot, Prieur, and Lindet quietly and unostentatiously did their duty. They organized the general levy, equipped the armies, appointed the generals, and mapped out the cam- paigns. If France was able to confront the forces of the coalition by armies, which soon exceeded the coalition in numbers,! and even before the end of 1793 checked the ' It is usually said that Carnot mobilized 1,000,000 soldiers. Even if the statement is an exaggeration, it argues, in any case, an immense The French Revolution 295 armies of combined Europe at all points, this great feat may be written down primarily to Carnot and his two associates. The executive having been thus efficiently provided for, it remained to systematize the repression of the anti-revolu- tionary elements. The machinery of the Terror, as this The machin- 1 „ 1 1 . 1 ery of the Ter- systematization may be called, presented, on its comple- ror. tion, the following constituents: First, there was the Law of the Suspects. By this unique measure the authorities were authorized to imprison anyone soever who was denounced to them as ''suspect."^ The iniquitous Law of the Suspects soon taxed the prisons to the utmost. To empty them was the function of the second element of the terrorist machinery, called the Revolutionary Tribunal. This was a special court of justice, created for the purpose of trying the suspects with security and dispatch. At first the Revolutionary Tribunal adhered to certain legal forms, but gradually it sacrificed every consideration to the demand of speed. The time came when prisoners were haled before this court in companies, and condemned to death with no more ceremony than the reading of their names. There then remained for the luckless victims the third and * last step in the process of the Terror; they were carted to an open square, called the Square of the Revolution, and amidst staring and hooting mobs, who congregated to the spectacle every day, as to a feast, their heads fell under the stroke of the guillotine. Before the Terror had well begun, one of its prime insti- Marat and gators, Marat, was overtaken by a merited fate. Marat day. was the mouth-piece of the utterly ragged' and abject ele- 1 Almost incredible remains the definition of "suspect " furnished by this law. It reads: "Suspect are those . . . who speak mysteri- ously of the misfortunes of the Republic ; who report bad news with an assumed air of grief ; who do nothing for the cause of liberty," etc. 296 Modern Europe ment of Paris. He had lately developed a thirst for blood, that passes all comprehension, and associates him forever in history with such names as Caligula and Nero. And yet this monster called himself and was hailed as ''the friend of the people." The blow which finally 4)ut an end to his wild declamations was delivered from a quarter from which he had reason to believe that he had no more to fear. Many of the Girondists, who owed their overthrow primarily to Marat, had succeeded in making their escape to the provinces. At Caen, in Normandy, the fugitives aroused the sympathies of a beautiful and noble-minded girl, Charlotte Corday. Passionately afflicted by the divisions of her country, which she laid at Marat's door, she resolved by a bold stroke to free France from the oppressor. On July 13, 1793, she succeeded in forcing an entrance into his house, and stabbed him in his bath. She knew that the act meant her own death ; but her exalta- tion did not desert her for a moment, and she passed to the guillotine a few days after the deed with the sustained calm of a martyr. Death of Ma- The dramatic incidents associated with so many illus- rie Antoinette. ^ . . . r ^i. - t. • i ^ • .^• October, 1793. trious Victims of the 1 error can receive only scant justice here. In October, Marie Antoinette was summoned be- fore the Revolutionary Tribunal. A number of untenable charges were trumped up against her by the prosecuting attorney ; she met them with noble dignity, and on receiv- ing her death-verdict, mounted the scaffold with all the stanchness befitting a daughter of the Caesars.* A few days after Marie Antoinette, the imprisoned Girondists to > Marie Antoinette left two children, a princess of fifteen years, and the dauphin, T.ouis, aged eight. The princess was released in 1795, but before that mercy could be extended to the boy, he had died under the in- human treatment of his jailors. The systematic torturing to death of the poor dauphin is one of the most hideous blots upon the Revolution. The dauphin is reckoned by legitimists as Louis XVII. The French Revolution 297 the number of twenty-one travelled the same road. The next conspicuous victims were the duke of Orleans and Madame Roland, each hostile to the other, but charged alike with complicity in the Girondist plots. The duke of Orleans, hea^i of the secondary branch of the House of Bourbon, richly merited his sentence. His life had been a web of lies and intrigues ; to avenge himself on Louis XVI., with whom he had quarrelled, he had coquetted with the mob, and assumed the style of a good Jacobin. When titles were condemned, he had taken, in order to show the thoroughness of his conversion to the republican faith, thenameof Philip Egalite (Equality). Finally, in 1792, he other victims. was elected to the Convention, as deputy for the city of Paris, and there, amidst the execrations of the republicans themselves, he committed his final act of knavery in voting for the death of the king. A different type of person was Madame Roland.^ Her beautiful, vague enthusiasm for a regenerated public life naturally drew her to the Girondist party. For a time her house had been their meeting-place ; she herself, with the emotional extravagance characteristic of the period, had been worshipped as their muse, as their Egeria. Her ideals were noble, and she is reported to have died apostrophizing the statue of Liberty, erected near the guillotine, with the words : ^' Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name." But it would be a mistake to suppose that the Terror The Terror in was limited to Paris and directed merely against prominent ^^^ provinces individuals. By means of revolutionary committees, it was transplanted to the provinces, and here, relieved of the restraint exercised occasionally at Paris by the Con- » Madame Roland owed her influence in part to her husband, who was a prominent member of the Gironde and a minister during the last months of the reign of Louis XVI. Roland made his escape, on the proscription of the Gironde, but committed suicide on hearmg of the death of his wife. 298 Modern Europe Justified by scattered revolts. vention, it raged with a ferocity which degenerated in some instances into pure blood -madness. As far as the Mountain troubled itself to give a justi- fication for extending the system of the Terror to the prov- inces, it founded its argument on the necessity of main- taining the unity of France. And that the unity of France was threatened, on the fall of the Gironde, there can be no doubt. A number of departments took no pains, when apprized of the overthrow of the moderates, to con- ceal their indignation at the Mountain ; Lyons, the second city of the realm, actually revolted ; the port of Toulon surrendered to the English ; and, worst of all, in the west, the Vendee, where the royalist and conservative peasants ^ had already arisen in behalf of th^ king, the insurrection became general, when the usurpation of the Mountain held out the prospect of the permanent rule of violence. The govern- This difficult situation the Convention, directed by the Terror crushes Mountain and the Committee of Public Safety, met with tions"^""^'^ unflinching resolution. It sent an army against Lyons, and in October, 1793, after a brave resistance, Lyons was taken. Then the Convention resolved to inflict an un- heard-of punishment : it ordered the destruction of a part of the city, and the erection on the ruins of a pillar, with the inscription : *' Lyons waged war with liberty ; Lyons is no more." In December, 1793, the French again acquired Toulon, chiefly through the skill of a young artillery officer, Napoleon Bonaparte ; and, in the same month, another army scattered the insurgents of the Vendee. In order to complete the work of pacification in this part of the country, the Convention sent one Carrier, with full powers, to the administrative capital of the northwest, Nantes. The vengeance wreaked by this madman upon the priests and peasants captured in the war make the practices of the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris seem The French Revolution 299 like child's play. Dissatisfied with the slow process of the guillotine, Carrier invented new methods of wholesale execu- tion. The most ingenious, the noyade (drowning), con- sisted in loading an old vessel with one hundred, two Carrier at hundred, and even eight hundred victims — men, women, and children — floating it down the Loire, and then scuttling it in the middle of the river. By measures like these, the Terror managed to hold all France in subjection. But the rule of the Terror was, perforce, exceptional. Sooner or later there was bound to occur a division among its supporters, and when division came the revolu- Disruption of ^. . ^ , • i I. i.1 ^1 Terror inevita- tionists were sure to rage agamst each other, as they ^jg had once raged in common against the aristocrats. The supreme statesman of the period, Mirabeau, had foreseen that development. In a moment of prophetic insight, he had declared that the Revolution, like Saturn, would end by devouring its own offspring. The first signs of the disintegration of the party of the Terror began to appear in the autumn of 1793. The most radical wing, which owed its strength to its hold on the government of the city of Paris, and which followed the lead of one Hebert, had turned its particular animosity against the Catholic faith. To replace this ancient cult, despised as aristocratic, there was proclaimed the religion of Reason ; and, finally, in order to hurry the victory of this novel faith, the Hebertists in the municipality decreed the closure of all places of Catholic worship in Paris. As End of the this ultra-revolutionary step was sure to alienate the aff"ec- Marchl'1794. tions of the confirmed Catholics, who were still very nu- merous, Robespierre took the earliest opportunity to de- nounce Hebert and his whole ilk before the Jacobins. Finally, in March, 1794, the last thread of his patience having snapped, he abruptly ordered the whole atheistic band to the guillotine. 300 Modern Europe End of the Dantonists, April, 1794. Robespierre supreme. Introduces the religion of the Supreme Be- ing. The overthrow of Hebert was followed by that of Dan- ton and his friends, although for an altogether different reason. No man had done more than Dan ton to establish the reign of the Mountain. A titanic nature, with a claim to real statesmanship, he had exercised a decisive influence in more than one great crisis; France had primarily him to thank for her rescue from the Prussians in the summer of 1792. But now he was growing weary. The uninter- rupted flow of blood disgusted him, and he raised his voice in behalf of mercy. Mercy, to Robespierre and his young follower the arch-fanatic. Saint Just, was nothing less than treason, and in sudden alarm at Danton's ''moderation," they hurried him and his friends to the guillotine (April 5, 1794). Thus Robespierre was rid of his last rival. No wonder that it was now whispered abroad that he was plan- ning to make himself dictator. And between Robespierre and a dictatorship there stood, in the spring of 1794, only one thing — his own political incapacity. That he had the Jacobins, the municipality of Paris, the Convention, and the Committee of Public Safety in his hands was proved by their servile obedience to his slightest nod. On May 7 he, the deist, who bor- rowed his faith, as he borrowed his politics, from the writ- ings of Jean Jacques Rousseau, had the satisfaction of wresting from the Convention a supreme decree. Thereby the worship of Reason, advocated by the atheists, was over- thrown, and the Convention declared that the French people recognized a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul; and on June 8, 1794, the ludicrous religion of the Supreme Being was inaugurated by a splendid festi- val, at which Robespierre himself officiated as high priest. Two days later, he showed in what spirit he interpreted his spiritual function. In order to facilitate the condem- nations, he had the Revolutionary Tribunal, by formal The French Revolution 301 enactment in the Convention, multiplied, and the pro- cedure of that body stripped of its last vestiges of legal form. Now only it was that the executions in Paris began in a really wholesale manner. During the six weeks before the adoption of the new religion, the numbers of those guillotined in Paris amounted to 577 ; during the first six weeks after its adoption, the victims reached the frightful figure of 1,356. No government office, no service ren- dered on the battle-field secured immunity from arrest and death. At last, the Terror invaded the Convention itself. Paralyzed by fear that body submitted, for a time, to the unnatural situation. But when the uncertainty connected with living perpetually under a threat of death had be- come intolerable, the opponents of Robespierre banded together in order to crush him. With his immense fol- Fall of Robes- lowing among the mob he could doubtless have anticipated Thermidor. his enemies, but instead of acting, he preferred to harangue and denounce. On the 9th of Thermidor (July 27),^ he and his adherents were condemned by the Convention and executed the next day. The Rule of the Thermidorians {July 27, 17^4, to October 26, 179s)' The fall of Robespierre naturally put an end to the Ter- ror. The Terror had, after a year of terrible ravages, be- 1 The Convention, guided by its hatred of the royalist past, had intro- duced a new system of time reckoning. Since the birth of the Republic was regarded as more important than the birth of Christ, September 21, 1792, the day when monarchy was formally abolished, was voted the be- ginning of a new era. The whole Christian calendar was at the same time declared to be tainted with aristocracy, and a new calendar devised. The chief feature of the new revolutionary calendar was the invention of new names for the months, such as : Nivose, Snow month ; Pluviose, Rain month ; Ventose, Wind month, for the winter months. Germinal, Budding month ; Floreal, Flower month ; Prairial, Meadow month, for the spring months, etc. It is worthy of notice that the Convention introduced one change which has become popular. It supplanted the old and complicated system of weights and measures by the metrical system. 302 Modern Europe Return to mild counsels. The Thermi- dorians de- stroy the in- struments of the Terror. Progress of the war. come so thoroughly discredited, even among its own sup- porters, that the Convention would not have dared to continue the abominated system even if it had so desired. The Thermidorians, many of whom had been the most active promoters of the Terror, bowed, therefore, to the force of circumstances. They heaped all the blame for the past year on the dead Robespierre, and calmly assumed the character of life-long lovers of rule and order. Slowly the bourgeoisie recovered its courage, and rallied to the sup- port of the Thermidorian party ; finally, a succession of concerted blows swept the fragments of the Terror from the face of France. The municipality of Paris, the citadel of the rioters, was dissolved ; the Revolutionary Tribunal dis- persed ; the functions of the Committee of Public Safety restricted ; and, to make victory sure, the Jacobin Club, the old hearth of disorder, was closed. During the next year — the last of its long lease of power — the Convention ruled France in full accord with the moderate opinion of the majority of the citizens. But if the Terror fell, its overthrow was due also to the fact that it had accomplished its end. Its excuse, as we have seen, was the danger of France, and whatever else be said of it, it had really succeeded in defending France against the forces of a tremendous coalition. On this defense the reader must now bestow a rapid glance. In the campaign of 1793 the French had valiantly held their own, although they hard- ly dared as yet to do more than stand on the defensive, but, in 1794, Carnot's splendid power of organization, and his gift for picking out young talents, enabled the Revolution- ary army to carry the war into the territory of the enemy. In the course of this year Jourdan's army conquered Bel- gium, and shortly after Pichegru occupied Holland. Bel- gium, as a part of the Austrian dominions, was quickly annexed to France, but Holland was merely modelled, after The French Revolution 303 the example of France, into the Batavian Repubhc, and, for the present, confirmed in its independence (1795). At the same time, the old animosities between Prussia and Austria having broken out again, the French were en- abled, in their German campaign, to occupy the whole left bank of the Rhine. These astonishing victories prepared Peace with the disruption of the coalition, and as the Thermidorians, spain.^jgs. for their part, had no desire to continue the war forever, they entered, on receiving information of the favorable dis- position of Prussia and Spain, into negotiations with these governments, and in the spring of 1795 concluded peace with them at Basle. By these treaties the position of France was made very much more easy; of the great powers, England and Austria alone were now left in the field against her. Meanwhile, the Convention had taken up the long-neg- Convention lected task for which it had been summoned : in the course constilu\1on^^ of the year 1795 it completed a new constitution for re- publican France. This constitution was all ready to be pro- mulgated when, in October, the Convention had to meet one more assault of the Jacobin element. Animated with blind hatred of the parties of order, and exasperated by the pros- pect of a constitution which would sweep mob-rule out of existence, the lower orders marched upon the Convention to cow it by violence, as they had cowed it so often. But the Convention had been, for some time, filled with a different spirit. It resolved to defend itself, and intrusted one of its Bonaparte members, Barras, with the task, but Barras, being no sol- Convention^ dier, conferred the command of the troops upon a young October, 1795. friend of his, present in Paris by chance. Napoleon Bona- parte. This young officer had already creditably distin- guished himself at Toulon, and wanted nothing better than the opportunity Barras off"ered. When the mob marched against the Convention on October 5, young Bonaparte 304 Modern Europe received them with such a volley of grape-shot, that they fled precipitately, leaving hundreds of their comrades dead upon the pavement. It was a new way of treating the Pa- risian mob, and it had its effect. Henceforth, in the face of such resolution, the mob lost taste for the dictation which it had exercised unquestioned for six years. Thus with the appearance on the scene of Bonaparte and his soldiers, the chapter of revolutionary violences had come to an end. The The Convention could now perform its remaining busi- ofThe yea?iii. ^ess without fear. On October 26 it dissolved itself, and the new constitution went immediately into effect. This constitution is called the Constitution of the year III., from the year of the republican calendar in which it was com- pleted. Its main provisions mark a return from the loose, liberal notions of the constitution of 179 1 to a more com- pact executive. Nevertheless, the tyranny of the ancien regime was still too near for the dread of a single executive to have vanished utterly. Therefore, a compromise was found in an executive of five members, called the Directory. The legislative functions were intrusted to two houses — a further departure from the constitution of 1791, the single legislative house of which had proved a failure — called re- spectively, the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of the Ancients. The Directory {lyg^-gg). The Directory The Directory wished to signalize its accession to power catnp^gn by a brilliant victory over the remaining enemies of France A^^stria. — England and Austria. But an attack upon England was, because of the lack of a fleet, out of the question. With Austria, the case was different, and Austria the Directory now resolved to strike with the combined armies of France. In accordance with this purpose, "the organizer of victory," The French Revolution 305 Carnot, who was one of the Directors, worked out a plan by which the Austrians were to be attacked simultaneously in Germany and Italy, Two splendid armies under Jourdan and Moreau were assigned to the German task, which was regarded as by far the more important, while the Italian campaign, undertaken as a mere diversion, was intrusted to a shabbily equipped army of 30,000 men, which, by the influence of the director Barras, was put under the command of the defender of the Convention, General Bo- naparte. But by the mere force of his genius, Bonaparte upset completely the calculations of the Directory, and gave his end of the campaign such importance that he, and not Jourdan or Moreau, decided the war. Bonaparte's task was to beat, with his army, an army of Bonaparte Piedmontese and Austrians twice as large. Because of the ^^ ^' ^^'^' superiority of the combined forces of the enemy, he natu- rally resolved to meet the Piedmontese and Austrians separately. Everything in this plan depended on quick- ness, and it was now to appear that quickness was Bona- parte's great tactical merit. Before the snows had melted from the mountains, he arrived unexpectedly before the gates of Turin, and wrested a peace from the king of Sardinia-Piedmont, by the terms of which this old enemy of France had to surrender Savoy and Nice (May, 1796). Then Bonaparte turned against the Austrians. Before May was over, he had driven them out of Lombardy. The Pope and the small princes in alarm, hastened to buy peace of France by the cession of territories and of works of art, while the Austrians tried again and again to recover their lost position. But at Areola (November, 1796) and Rivoli (January, 1797), Bonaparte, by his astonishing alert- ness, beat signally the forces sent against him. Then he crossed the Alps to dictate terms under the walls of Vienna. This sudden move of Bonaparte's determined the em- 3o6 Modern Europe The Peace of Campo For- mio, 1797. Napoleon creates two republics in Italy. Bonaparte, the hero ot France. Napoleon's life. peror Francis II. to sue for peace. Although his brother, the archduke Charles, had, at the head of the Austrian forces in Germany, beaten Jourdan and Moreau in the campaign of 1796, the emperor was not prepared to stand a siege in his capital. His offers were met half-way by Bonaparte, and out of the negotiations which ensued there grew the Peace of Campo Formio (October, 1797). By the Peace of Campo Formio, Austria ceded her Belgian provinces to France, recognized the French political crea- tions in Italy, and promised to use her influence to get the Empire to accept the principle of the Rhine boundary. In return for these concessions, she received from France the Republic of Venice, which Napoleon had just occupied. The French political creations in Italy which Austria recognized by the Peace of Campo Formio were the per- sonal work of Napoleon, having been established by him out of the conquests of the war. They were the Cisalpine Republic, identical, in the main, with the old Austrian province of Lombardy, and the Ligurian Republic, evolved from the old Republic of Genoa. Both these re- publics were modelled upon the Republic of France, and were made entirely dependent upon their prototype. When Bonaparte returned to France, with the Peace of Campo Formio in his hand, he was greeted as the national hero, for he had at last given France the peace which she had been so long desiring. And while renewing peaceful relations between her and the Continent, he had won for her terms more favorable than her greatest monarch had ever dreamt of. A man who had in a single campaign so distinguished himself and his country naturally stood, from now on, at the centre of aff"airs. That Napoleon Bonaparte should obtain a position of pre-eminence in France, before he had reached the age of thirty, would never have been prophesied by the friends ^ TJie French Revolution 307 of his youth. He was born at Ajaccio, on the Island of Corsica, on August 15, 1769. It so happened that, in the very year of his birth, the island was in the throes of a revolution. The natives of Corsica, Italians by race, had long been under the power of the Republic of Genoa, when, in the year 1768, France obtained the cession of the island from the Genoese, who were no longer able to hold it. At the time of Napoleon's birth, therefore, the French were occupied in establishing a military and a foreign rule over his native land. Amidst impressions associated with the forcible overthrow of his country's freedom, and in the grasp of ideas of revenge, stubbornly nourished by the class of small nobles to which he be- longed, the young Corsican grew up. The first notable turn in his fortunes occurred, when still a boy he was sent to France to be reared in a military school. In France, though he continued to hate his new country, he was, owing to the poverty of his family, forced to remain. In due course of time he became a lieutenant of artillery, and it was while he was holding this commission among a na- tion which he detested that the French Revolution broke out, and opened a free field for all who were possessed of strength and talent. Naturally, the great movement of the Revolution affected the mind and fortunes of every inhabitant of France. Its irresistible current now bore the young Napoleon along, until he gladly enough forgot his narrow Corsican patriotism, and merged his individuality with that of his French conquerors. We noted his first great feat at Toulon. The four short years which lay be- tween Toulon and Campo Formio had carried him by rapid stages to the uppermost round of the ladder of success. With the Continent at peace with France, the Directory The improved had cause to congratulate itself. The government had France" ° made itself respected abroad, and at home there was a 3o8 Modern Europe England at- tacked in Egypt, 1798. Battle of Abu- kir Bay. The failure of the Egyptian campaign. higher degree of order and prosperity than had existed for many years. An especial merit of the Directory had been the withdrawal of the worthless paper-money (assignats) of the Revolution, and the return to somewhat sounder principles of financial order. In the Directorial cup of gladness there was only one drop of bitterness — England still held out relentlessly against France. Therefore, in the year 1798, the Directory planned against England a great action in order to bring her to terms. The lack of a fleet put a direct attack upon the island-kingdom, now as ever, out of the question. It was, therefore, resolved to strike England indirectly, by threat- ening her colonies. With due secrecy an expedition was prepared at Toulon, and Napoleon given the command. Nelson, the English admiral, was, of course, on the outlook, but Bonaparte succeeded in evading his vigilance, and in May, 1798, set out for Egypt. Egypt was a province of Turkey ; then, as now, it was the key to the Orient. Es- tablished on the Nile, Bonaparte could cut the connection of England with India and the East. It was for this reason that Nelson immediately gave chase when he got wind of Napoleon's movements, and although he arrived too late to hinder the French from landing near Alexandria, he just as effectually ruined the French expedition, by attacking the French fleet on August i, at Abukir Bay, and de- stroying it utterly. Bonaparte might now go on con- quering Egypt and all Africa — he was shut off from Europe and as good as imprisoned with his whole army. Thus the Egyptian campaign was lost before it had fairly begun. Napoleon could blind his soldiers to the fact but he hardly blinded himself. Of course he did what he could to retrieve the disaster to his fleet. By his victory over the Egyptian soldiery, the Mairjeliikes, in the battle of the Pyramids (1798), he made himself master of the The French Revolut-ion 309 basin of the Nile. The next year he marched to Syria. The seaport of Acre, which he besieged in order to estab- lish communication with France, repulsed his attack ; the plague decimated his brave troops. Sick at heart Bona- parte returned to Egypt, and despairing of a change in his fortunes, suddenly resolved to desert his army. On August 22, 1 7 99, he contrived to run the Enghsh blockade, and on October 9, he landed with a iQ\N friends at Frejus. Though the army he had deserted was irretrievably lost,^ that fact was forgotten amid the rejoicings with which the conquer- or of Italy was received in France. The enthusiastic welcome of France which turned Bona- The Second ,,. ^-n-'^ • 11 • Coalition, parte s journey to Pans into a triumphal procession was 1798, 1799. due partially to the unexpected reverses which the Direc- tory had suffered during the young general's absence. Bonaparte was hardly known to have been shut up in Egypt, when Europe, hopeful of shaking off the French as- cendancy, formed a new coalition against the war-like Re- public. Austria and Russia, supported by English money, gladly renewed the Continental war, and the year 1798 was marked by a succession of victories which swept the French out of Italy and Germany. At the time when Bonaparte made his appearance at Frejus, an invasion of France did not seem out of the question. No wonder that the hopes of the nation gathered around Napoleon, thi the dashing military leader. What other French general had exhibited such genius as Bonaparte, had won such glory for himself and France ? Moreover, the people were tired to death of the party spirit and the continued uncer- tainty threatening with ruin property and life. The ex- ecutive of the five Directors, unable to maintain even the show of harmony, was beginning to lose its grip. So evi- 'The army surrendered to the English a year later. 310 Modern Europe dently had disorder set in that the royahsts came out of their hiding-places, and negotiated openly about the re- turn of the legitimate king. In short, in October, 1799, France was in such confusion that everybody turned spon- taneously to Napoleon as toward a saviour. Napoleon Bonaparte was hardly apprized of this state of public Directory. Opinion, when he resolved to act. With the aid of two ^799- Directors, Sieyes and Roger-Ducos, he overthrew the gov- ernment. The only resistance which he encountered was from the Chamber of Five Hundred, and that body was overcome by the use of military force. The ease with which Bonaparte executed the coup (V etat of November 9, 1799 (i8th Brumaire), proves that the Constitution of the Year III. was dead in spirit, before he destroyed it in fact. The Consulate {lygg to 1804). Napoleon Bonaparte was now free to set up a new constitution, in new consutu-^ which an important place would be assured to himself. ^^^^' Rightly he divined that what France needed and desired was a strong executive, for ten years of anarchic liberty had prepared the people for the renewal of despotism. Thus the result of Bonaparte's deliberations with his friends was the Consular Constitution, by which the government was practically concentrated in the hands of one official, called the First Consul. Of course, the appearances of popular government were preserved. The legislative func- tions were reserved to two bodies, the Tribunate and the Legislative Body, but as the former discussed bills without voting upon them, and the latter merely voted upon them without discussing them, their power was so divided that they necessarily lost all influence. Without another coup (T etat J by means of a simple change of title, the Consul Bonaparte could, when he saw fit, evolve himself into the Emperor Napoleon. The French Revolution 31 1 But for the present, there was more urgent business on Napoleon hand. France was at war with the Second Coalition ; there itaty! ^" was work to be done in the field. The opportune with- drawal of Russia, before the beginning of the campaign, again limited the enemies of France to England and Aus- tria. The situation was, therefore, analogous to that of 1796, and the First Consul resolved to meet it by an anal- ogous plan. Concentrating his attention upon Austria, he sent Moreau against her into Germany, while he himself went to meet her, as once before, in Italy. By a dramatic march in the early spring over the Great St. Bernard Pass, a feat which only Hannibal had performed before him, he was enabled to strike unexpectedly across the Austrian line of retreat, and to force the enemy to make a stand. In the Battle of Marengo, which followed (June 14, 1800), he crushed the Austrians, and recovered all Italy at a stroke. Again Francis II. had to admit the invincibility of French arms. In the Peace of Luneville (1801), he reconfirmed Peace of Lune- all the cessions made at Campo Formio, and as the Empire ^^ ^' ^ °^* became a party to the Peace of Luneville, there was no flaw this time in the cession of the left bank of the Rhine. It is this feature of the Rhine boundary which gives the Peace of Luneville its importance. As the Peace, furthermore, re-delivered Italy into Bonaparte's hands, to do with as he pleased, he now re-established the Cisalpine and Ligurian Republics in their old dependence upon France. Again, as in 1798, the only member of the coalition Peace of which held out against France, was England. How hum- ^"^*^"^' '^°2. ble the great sea-power? Bonaparte's naval power was as inadequate now as ever, and, in no case, did he have any de- sire to renew the Egyptian experiment. Being at the end of his resources, he opened negotiations with the cabinet at London, and in March, 1802, concluded with England, on the basis of mutual restitutions, the Peace of Amiens. 312 Modern Europe France at peace with the world. Bonaparte un- dertakes the reconstruction of France. Return of prosperity. France was now, after ten years of fighting, at peace with the whole world. The moment was auspicious, but it re- mained to be seen whether she could accumulate the strength within, and inspire the confidence without, which would enable her to make the year 1802 the starting-point of a new development. Certainly Bonaparte showed no want of vigor in engag- ing in the tasks of peace. Nor was he discouraged by the chaotic prospect which opened up before him. It is not too much to say, that in consequence of the wholesale de- struction and careless experimentation of the last decade, there was not, when Bonaparte assumed power, a principle nor an institution of government which stood unimpaired. The work before the First Consul during the interval of peace which followed the treaties of Luneville and Amiens was, therefore, nothing less than the reconstruction of the whole of France. Of this situation Bonaparte was well aware, and he was entirely wilhng to shoulder its conse- quences. In a public proclamation he announced that the disturbances were now over, and that he considered it his special task to ''close" the Revolution and to ''consoH- date " its results. Such being his programme, one of his first cares was to restore business confidence. He completed the return to a sound currency, engaged in great public enterprises, such as the building of roads and public edifices, and showed an intelligent, though perhaps meddling, interest in commerce and industry. The mere return of order did the rest ; and France found herself, in a surprisingly short time, marching toward an era of prosperity. Surely the country had reason to be satisfied with its "saviour." Supported by the good will of the whole people, the First Consul now undertook to plant a number of fundamental institutions, which, in spite of all the revolutions of the nineteenth century, exist The French Revolution 313 to this day, and are Bonaparte's best title to fame. Let us give these institutions a briet consideration. The internal administration of France had, under the a new central- late governments, fallen into complete anarchy. The con- tration'"' stitution of 1791 had divided France into eighty-three departments, and had supplanted the old centralized ad- ministration of royal appointees by the English system of local self-government. Among a people untrained in politics self-government is a dangerous experiment ; in revolution- ary France it proved a flat failure. Reform of the civil service had, therefore, become inevitable, and since Na- poleon's advent to power meant a return to monarchical lines, it is no wonder that the government should have re- curred to the principle of the old centralized administra- tion. Impelled by his view of the situation, the First Con- sul now invented a 'system of prefects and sub-prefects who, appointed directly by the government, ruled the eighty-three departments like so many *' little First Con- suls." The success of the new creation was, from Napo- leon's point of view, complete. Not even Louis XIV. had held the provinces so well in hand as Napoleon held them by virtue of his army of administrative nominees. Next Napoleon gave back to France her religion and her Reconciliation Church. The Revolution had consistently antagonized church^ 1801. the Catholic Church ; it had confiscated its property, and had attempted to enslave its ministers to the state. Na- poleon, although he was personally without any fixed re- ligious views, knew that the restoration of the Church would not only win him the gratitude of the better classes, but would also materially contribute to the sta- bility of his government. Soon after his advent to power he opened negotiations with the Pope which ended in a peace called the Concordat (180 1). By the terms of the Concordat, the Church, on the one hand, resigned its 314 Modern Europe claims to its confiscated possessions, but the state, in re- turn, assumed the maintenance, on a liberal basis, of the priests and bishops. Besides, the government reserved to itself the nomination of these latter. Thus the Church was re-established, but in very close dependence on the state. Return of jus- But Bonaparte's greatest creation was the reconstruction Napoleon. of the French courts and laws effected by the Code Na- poleon. The juridical confusion reigning in France, before the Revolution, is indescribable; Roman, customary, and statutory law had never been harmonized, even for a single province; and in neighboring provinces, there were often radically different systems in force. The Revolution had made an attempt to straighten out the confusion, but had not got far when Bonaparte came to power. With his remarkable energy he soon had a commission of expert lawyers at work upon a new French legal system, and be- fore long (1804) he was enabled to publish the results of their labors. By the Code Napoleon, all France received a common book of laws and a common system of justice, whereby the dispatch of law-suits was made rapid, cheap, and reliable. No labor of a similar degree of perfection had been performed since the great codifications of Ro- man law under the Emperor Justinian. If Bonaparte had sincerely attached himself to the pol- icy of peace, heralded by the above creations, it is not im- probable that he would have succeeded in *' consolidating " the results of the Revolution. But the works of peace and the duties of a civil magistrate could not long satisfy his boundless hunger for action and his love of glory. An ir- repressible energy led him to aspire to the splendor of a conqueror like Alexander, or to the majesty of an emperor of the sway of Augustus. Slowly, almost instinctively, he began to break away from his policy of peace, and to spurn his popular programme of " closing " the Revolution. In The French Revolution 315 1802 he had himself elected consul for life. The step Napoleon brought him within view of the throne, and in May, 1804, Emperor!"^rfe- he dropped the last pretense of republicanism, and had member, 1804. himself proclaimed emperor of the French. Finally, in December of the same year, amidst ceremonies recalling the glories of Versailles, he crowned himself and his wife Josephine at the Church of Notre Dame, at Paris. The Empire {1804 to iSi^'). The change of France, from a republic to a monarchy, naturally affected the circle of subject-republics with which she had surrounded herself. Their so-called ^' free- dom ' ' had been the gift of France, and could not log- ically stand when France herself had surrendered hers. At a nod from Napoleon, the Batavian Republic now changed itself into the Kingdom of Holland, and thankfully ac- cepted Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, for king. In like manner, the Cisalpine Republic became the King- Napoleon, dom of Italy ; but in Italy, Napoleon himself assumed the May,°i8o^. ^' power, and in May, 1805, was formally crowned at Milan. At the same time the Ligurian Republic suffered the lot which Piedmont had suffered some years before, and was incorporated with France. Even before these momentous changes, the confidence with which the European governments had first greeted Napoleon had vanished. Slowly they began to divine in him the insatiable conqueror, who was only awaiting an opportunity to swallow them all. As early as 1803 con- Renewal of the tinned chicaneries between him and England had led to a S."^'^^ ^"^" renewal of the war. Napoleon now prepared a great naval armament at Boulogne, and for a year, at least, England was agitated by the prospect of a descent upon her coasts ; but the lack of an adequate fleet made Napoleon's project 3i6 Modern Europe chimerical from the first, and in the summer of 1805 he unreservedly gave it up. The Third Co- He gave it up because England had succeeded in ar- ahtion. ranging with Austria and Russia a new coalition (the third). No sooner had Napoleon got wind of the state of affairs, than he abandoned his quixotic English expe- dition, and threw himself upon the practical task of defeat- ing his continental enemies. The Austrians were far from ready, and moreover, their armies were badly led. At Ulm, Napoleon performed the clever feat of taking captive the whole Austrian advance-guard of 25,000 men. The remnant of the Austrians thereupon fell back upon Mo- ravia to effect a junction with the advancing Russians. Thus the road to Vienna was left uncovered, and Napoleon Austerlitz, entered the Austrian capital in triumph. A few days later (December 2, 1805) he inflicted a decisive defeat upon the combined Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz. Again Emperor Francis II. (1792-1835) was reduced to bow down before the invincible Corsican, and at the Peace of Pressburg (December 26, 1805) he gave up Venice, which was incorporated with the Kingdom of Italy, and the Tyrol, which was incorporated with Bavaria. At the same time, the small South German states, Bavaria and Wurtemberg, were recognized as kingdoms. Napoleon ere- This last provision of the Peace of Pressburg made a full federadon o"" revelation of Napoleon's German policy ; clearly he wished *8o6^^'"^' ^° increase the lesser states of Germany to the point where they could neutralize the power of the two great states, Aus- tria and Prussia. For this reason he lavished favors upon them, and made them so dependent upon his will, that they could offer no resistance when he proposed to them the idea of a new political union. This union was the Con- federation of the Rhine, which all the important German states, with the exception of Austria and Prussia, agreed The French Revolution 31/ finally to join, Napoleon himself assuming the guidance of it, under the name of Protector (1806). The Confedera- tion of the Rhine was a great step forward in the realization of Napoleon's imperial idea, which, it was now plain to all, was fixed upon the conquest of Europe. Naturally the Confederation of the Rhine effected a revo- lution in the old German political system. With southern and western Germany acknowledging allegiance to a new union of French origin, what room was there for the old Empire ? Having been deserted by its supporters, it was actually at an end. Therefore, at the news of the new Confederation, the Emperor Francis II. resolved to make The end of the a legal end of it as well, and formally resigned. Thus Empire.''"'''" perished the Holy Roman Empire, which had stood in the world since the times of the great Augustus. Never was there an institution so long in dying. Centuries ago it had lost its efficacy, and its very venerability had become an aggravation of its weakness. Certainly no German had any cause to shed a tear at the passing away of such a national government. As for Francis II., he consoled himself for his loss by adopting the unhistorical title of em- peror of Austria. The interference of Napoleon in Germany brought about Relations of next, the ruin of Prussia. Ever since 1795 (Treaty of Prussia ^" Basle) Prussia had maintained toward France a friendly neutrality, and all the persuasion and threats of the rest of Europe had not induced her to join the Second and Third Coalitions. The government at Berlin, utterly blind to the great change toward militarism which had taken place in the French policy with the proclamation of the Empire, persisted in its amicable course, and even ventured to hope for all kinds of advantages by a close association with France. For a time, too, such advantages were realized ; but as soon as Napoleon had destroyed the power of Austria, he 3i8 Modern Europe The elements of Napoleon's strategy. Overthrow ot Prussia, 1806. ceased showing further care for the elevation of Prussia. On the contrary, he now planned to abase her power, and de- liberately inaugurated toward Prussia a policy of provoca- tions, which the obsequious government of the peevish King Frederick William III. (i 797-1840), refused for a long time to resent. By the autumn of 1806, however. Napoleon's acts had grown so flagrant that Prussia, to save the rem- nant of her self-respect, had to declare war. Again Napoleon had an opportunity to show that the old military art of Europe could not maintain itself against his methods. As we examine these now, they surprise us by their mathematical simplicity. To get ready earlier, and to march more rapidly than the enemy, and then, having en- countered him, to strike him at the weakest spot, with all the force that could be summoned — these principles must have presented themselves to many a general before Napo- leon. And history tells us that these principles had indeed been held, but none the less it remains a fact that Napo- leon's vigorous application of them was altogether new. The campaign of 1806 brought Napoleon's genius into view as no campaign did that had preceded it. But if Napoleon won, his soldiers shared the honors with him. For the Prussian troops, recruited on the old mercenary system, and pledged merely to the monarch who hired them, were as little the equals of the great national French armies, animated by the ideas of country and glory, as the Prussian commander, the ancient duke of Brunswick, who had been trained in the antiquated school of Frederick the Great, was a match for the fiery young emperor. On October 14, 1806, old and new Europe clashed once more; and at the battles of Jena and Auerstadt, fought on that day, the military monarchy of the great Frederick was over- whelmed. With a bare handful of troops, Frederick Will- iam III. fled toward his province of East Prussia, in order The French Revolution 319 to put himself under the protection of Russia, and before the month of October had passed Napoleon had entered Berlin in triumph. All central Europe now lay in Napoleon's hand. An- Campaign other man would have preferred to rest before continuing Russia, 1807. his triumphs, but Napoleon felt unsatisfied as long as there was someone who had not bowed to him in submission. In order to humiliate the presumptuous ally of Prussia, the Czar Alexander (1801-25), Napoleon now set out for Rus- sia. But having in June, 1807, won the splendid victory of Friedland (East Prussia), he magnanimously accepted Alexander's overtures of peace. The Czar Alexander was a young man with a mind im- Peace of Tilsit, aginatively colored, and with a heart open to all generous humbled, impulses. He had long felt a secret admiration for the great Corsican, and now, when he met him under romantic circumstances, on a raft moored in the river Niemen, he fell completely under the spell of his personality. The con- sequence of the repeated deliberations of the emperors, to which Frederick William of Prussia was also admitted, was the Peace of Tilsit (July, 1807). By this Peace Russia was restored without loss, but Prussia was thoroughly humiliated and condemned to the sacrifice of half her territory. The Prussian provinces between the Elbe and the Rhine were made into a Kingdom of Westphaha for Napoleon's brother Jerome, and the Prussian spoils of the later PoHsh Parti- tions were constituted as the Grand-duchy of Warsaw, and given to the elector of Saxony, whom Napoleon in pur- suance of his established German policy created king. Thus Prussia was virtually reduced to a secondary state. But the most important feature of the Treaty of Tilsit Alliance was, perhaps, the alliance between France and Russia, N^^poieon which was, at Napoleon's wish, developed from the simple ^^ peace. It is a strange thing to see two people who have been 320 Modern Europe Napoleon at the zenith. War against England ; the Con- tinental System. fighting each other suddenly turn about and swear eternal fi-iendship. But the eloquence which Napoleon displayed at Tilsit so fascinated the young Czar that he was completely won over to the French emperor's ideas. What these ideas were, in the year 1807, cannot be stated exactly, but it is very likely that they embraced a division of Europe into an Empire of the East and an Empire of the West, something after the fashion of the Roman Empire of Diocletian ; at any rate. Napoleon promised not to interfere with Alex- ander in the east and exacted, in return, a free hand for him- self in the west. Furthermore, he secured Russia's help in case of the continuation of the war with England. The Peace of Tilsit carried Napoleon to the zenith of his career. He was now emperor of the French and king of Italy ; he held Germany as Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and Switzerland as Mediator of the Helvetic Republic ; and in certain scattered territories, which he had not cared to absorb immediately, he ruled through subject- kings of his own family. His brother Louis had been created king of Holland ; his brother Joseph, king of Na- ples ; his brother Jerome, king of Westphalia ; but no mat- ter how fine their titles were, they were, one and all, the vassals of the emperor. Thus central Europe lay prostrate before him, while in the east Russia was his ally. To a man of Napoleon's imperiousness it was an intolerable indignity that one nation still dared threaten him with impunity — England. The war with England, renewed in 1803, had been practically settled, when in October, 1805 — Napoleon being then on his march to Vienna — Nelson destroyed the allied French and Spanish fleets off Trafalgar. The great Nelson perished in this engagement, at the moment of victory. Since then fighting on the seas had ceased. Though Napoleon might strike the inhabitants of Vienna The French Revolution 321 and St. Petersburg with fear, his power, being military and not naval, ended with the shore. In the dilemma in which he found himself he now hit upon a curious device in or- der to bring England to terms. He resolved to ruin her commerce and sap her strength by the so-called Continental System. As early as November, 1806, he sent out from Berlin a number of decrees enforcing the seizure of English goods, and ordering the cessation of English traffic in all French and allied ports ; and at Tilsit he had, with the con- sent of Alexander, declared the commercial breach with England incumbent on all Europe. As England imme- diately responded with a blockade of all the continental ports, the conflict between England, dominant on the seas, and Napoleon, dominant on the Continent, now took the form of a vast struggle between the shore and the ocean. The Continental System may fairly be called the begin- The ning of Napoleon's downfall ; for it marks the point where syslem "'^^ the great genius overreached himself. Let anyone examine prepares '=> ^ ■> Napoleon s the Continental System in all its bearings, and he will be downiaU. forced to the conclusion that the emperor's late astonishing successes on the Continent must have impaired his sense of the possible. With the Continental System and what fol- lowed it, he tried to do the impossible, and so undermined his own throne. For by means of the Continental System, Napoleon not only declared a commercial war against Eng- land, but against Europe as well, and — what made this lat- ter phase of the conflict worse for him — he declared war this time not against the European sovereigns, whom he might despise, but against the peoples, who were in many cases attached to him, as to their liberator from feudal thraldom, and whom he could, under no circumstances, afford to alienate. But alienate and incense them he did when he impoverished them by the prohibition of trade. Misery 322 Modern Europe Napoleon occupies Por- tugal. Napoleon gives Spain to his brother Joseph, 1808. gradually invaded the idle sea-ports; factories and com- mission-houses shut down. A sullen discontent spread through Europe, and wherever men starved, they raised their hands to heaven and invoked destruction on the man who had become the scourge of Europe. Napoleon's successes had been, in no small measure, due to the sym- pathy with which the peoples, as distinct from their rulers, had everywhere received him, who brought equality and justice and the other great blessings of the Revolution ; but what hope would there be for him in the future, if he turned the popular hatred of tyranny, by the aid of which he had conquered, against himself? Thus the Continental System inevitably matured the national revolts of the Euro- pean States, and the progressive national revolts were bound, sooner or later, to shatter Napoleon's quixotic cos- mopolitan Empire. The first protest against the Continental System was made, curiously enough, by little Portugal. In order to close its ports against the English, Napoleon occupied it with an army, November, 1807. The resistance offered at first was small, and the royal family fled to Brazil. For the same purpose. Napoleon next occupied Spain. The relations between France and the Spanish Bourbons had, since the peace of 1795, been exceedingly friendly; Napo- leon and Charles IV. of Spain had even become allies, and the latter had exhibited his good faith by sacrificing his fleet, for Napoleon's sake, at Trafalgar. Nevertheless, Napoleon now deliberately planned to deprive his friend of his kingdom. Taking advantage of a quarrel between the king and his son Ferdinand, he invited the royal pair to Bayonne, to lay their quarrel before him, and there, instead of adjudicating between them, he forced both to resign their rights to the throne (May, 1808). Spain was thereupon given to Napoleon's brother Joseph, who, in The French Revolution 323 return, had to hand over his kingdom of Naples to Napo- leon's brother-in-law, the great cavalry leader Murat. The unexampled violation of law and justice of which The Spanish Napoleon made himself guilty at Bayonne occasioned a ^^^^ ^' terrible excitement among the Spaniards. Spontaneously the various provinces of the proud nation rose in revolt against the foreign usurper. Napoleon had dreamt of a peaceful conquest ; he awakened to find a country in conflag- ration. But with his usual courage, he took up the gaunt- let that was thrown down to him. The French troops had beaten all the armies of Europe ; the degenerate Spaniards, he argued, would go down at a blow. And if the Span- iards had met him with a regular army, his anticipation would no doubt have been realized. But they met him in a guerilla warfare, which consisted in darting from secret ambuscades upon detachments and rear -guards, and for such primitive tactics Napoleon's troops were unfitted. The summer of 1808 brought him a harvest of small calamities, and to make things worse, England began, gradually, to take a hand in the Spanish affairs. Having waited in vain for Napoleon to seek her on the sea, she found and seized this opportunity to seek him on the land. In the summer of 1808 an English army landed in Portu- England helps gal for the purpose of supporting the Portuguese and Span- ish national revolts. When Napoleon, angered by the check received by his political system, appeared in person on the scene (autumn, 1808), he had no difficulty in sweep- ing the Spaniards into the hills and the English to their ships, but he was hardly gone when the Spaniards again ventured forth from their retreats, and the English forced a new landing. Napoleon had now to learn that a resolute people can- Successes of ■ T_ 1 t-ni r< • 1 11 J • the Spaniards not be conquered, i he Spanish war swallowed immense ^nd of Well- sums and immense forces ; but Napoleon, as stubborn in ^"g^on. 324 Modern Europe his way as the Spaniards, would give ear to no sugges- tion of concession. Slowly, however, circumstances told against him. The revolts showed no signs of abating, and when, in 1809, a capable general. Sir Arthur Wellesley, known by his later title of duke of Wellington, took com- mand of the English forces, and foot by foot forced his way toward Madrid, Napoleon's Spanish enterprise became hopeless. Of course, that was not immediately apparent ; but what did become all too soon apparent was that the enslaved states of central Europe were taking the cue from the Spaniards, and were preparing, in a similar manner, a popular struggle to the knife with their oppressor. Failure of the In the year 1809, Austria, encouraged by the Spanish Austrian re- • • j ^ r\ r^ ^ .• i volt, 1809. successes, was inspired to arouse the Germans to a national revolt. But the result proved that the effort was premature. As Prussia was still occupied by French troops and the whole territory of the Confederation of the Rhine was pledged to Napoleon's interests, only detached bodies of Germans responded to Austria's call. At Wagram (July, 1809) Napoleon laid Austria a fourth time at his feet. In the Peace of Vienna which followed, she was forced to cede Salzburg to Bavaria, East Galicia to Russia, and the Ulyrian provinces to France, and had reason to consider herself fortunate for being allowed to exist at all. It is altogether probable that Napoleon would have made an end of Austria, if he had not been forced at this time to provide for a complete change of his political system. The fact was, the Czar Alexander was getting tired of the arrangements of Tilsit. The Peace of Tilsit practi- cally shut Russia off from the west, and made it incumbent upon the Czar to accept before-hand every alteration in that part of Europe which Napoleon chose to dictate. Then the Continental System, to which Alexander had pledged himself, was proving in Russia, as elsewhere, a heavy burdea The French Revolution 325 Napoleon noticed the diminishing heartiness of the Czar, Napoleon and resolved to secure himself against defection by allying ance^whh^"' himself with Austria. Austria was, after the war of 1809, Austria, in no position to refuse the proffered friendship, and when Napoleon further demanded, as a pledge of good faith, the hand of the emperor's daughter Marie Louise, that request, too, had to be granted. In consequence of these changed political plans. Napoleon divorced his first wife, the amia- Napoleon ble Josephine Beauharnais, and in April, 18 10, cele- phine!^^ ^^^" brated his union with a daughter of the ancient imperial line of Hapsburg. When, in the succeeding year, there was born to him a son and heir, ^ he could fancy that his throne had finally acquired permanence. And surely never did Napoleon's power exhibit a greater outward splendor, never did his behests meet with more implicit obedience, than in the year 181 1. So unchal- lenged was his supremacy that he could now proceed to incorporate the States of the Church, Holland, and half of northern Germany directly with France, in order to se- cure the strict application of the Continental System. The only cloud in a fair sky was the Spanish rising, and that incident, with a little power of illusion, coMd be comfort- ably minimized to a military bagatelle. As Napoleon Napoleon pre- looked about enslaved Europe, he could not unreasonably fhTo^y Russ'ia'!' convince himself that now was the time, or never, to put an end to the last independent state of the Continent, the eastern colossus, Russia. He had indeed once made a friend of that nation, for the purpose of securing an un- hampered activity in the west. Having long since ob- tained from the alliance of Tilsit all that he could hope, it had now become a burden to him as well as to Alexander. ' Known as king of Rome and styled by imperialists, Napoleon II. He died young (1832), at the court of his grandfather, the emperor of Austria. 326 Modern Europe The campaign of 1812. The burning of Moscow. The retreat. The breach between Napoleon and Alexander became definite in the course of the year 181 1. Both powers, therefore, eagerly prepared for war ; and in the spring of 181 2, Napoleon set in movement toward Russia the great- est armament that Europe had ever seen. A half million of men, representing all the nationalities of Napoleon's cos- mopolitan Empire, seemed more than adequate to the task of bringing the Czar under the law of the emperor. And the expedition was, at first, attended by a series of splendid successes. In September Napoleon even occupied Moscow, the Russian capital, and there calmly waited to receive Alexander's submission. But he had underrated the spirit of resistance which ani^ mated the Empire of the Czar. Here, as in Spain, a de- termination to die rather than yield possessed every man, woman, and child. Napoleon was destined to receive, at the very culmination of a triumphant campaign, a terri- ble witness of the popular aversion. He had hardly ar- rived in Moscow when the whole city was, in accordance with a carefully laid plan on the part of the retreating Rus- sians, set on fire and burned to the foundations. The burning • of Moscow meant nothing more nor less than the loss of the campaign. Moscow gone, there was not the least chance of finding adequate winter quarters in Russia. What was there left to do ? Napoleon, with heavy heart, had to order the retreat. The rest of the campaign can be imagined, but not told. The frost of a winter, unexampled even in that northern climate ; the gnawing hunger, which there was nothing to appease, but occasional horseflesh ; and, finally, the fierce bands of en- veloping Cossacks racked that poor army, till its disci- pline broke and its decimated battalions melted into a wild heap of struggling fugitives. Napoleon was unable to stand the sight of the misery and ruin, and, on December The French Revolution 327 5, deserted the army, and hurried to Paris. In his ab- sence Marshal Ney, who on this retreat earned the title of '^ the bravest of the brave," did what human valor could do to save the honor of France and the wreck of her mili- tary power. Late in December the remnant of the so- called grand army dragged itself across the Niemen into safety. The loss of his splendid army in Russia was, in any case, a serious calamity for Napoleon. But it would become an irremediable catastrophe if it encouraged central Europe to proclaim against him the national revolt, and created new complications at a juncture when he required all his strength to repair the unique disaster of his life. Unluck- ily for Napoleon, patriots everywhere felt this fact instinc- tively. Here was a moment of supreme importance, offer- Europe pre- ing to all the conquered peoples of Europe the alternative ^^^^^ of now or never. And at the call of the patriots, they rose against their tyrant and overthrew him. But the honor of having risen first belongs to Prussia. The Peace of Tilsit had ground Prussia into the dust, but it had also prepared her redemption. A number of sober and patriotic men, notably Stein, Hardenberg, and Scharnhorst, had, after the overthrow at Jena, gained the upper hand in the council of the weak king, and had carried The revival of through a series of reforms, such as the abolition of serf- dom and the reorganization of the army on a national basis, which, as by some process of magic, rejuvenated the state. And better even than the new institutions was the new patriotic spirit, informing young and old. When this renovated nation heard of Napoleon's ruin on the Russian snowfields, it was hardly to be contained for joy and impa- tience. All classes were seized with the conviction that the great hour of revenge had come ; no debate, no delay on the part of the timid king was suffered,, and resistlessly Prussia. 328 Modern Europe Prussia de- clares war, 1813. First half of the campaign of 1813, Second half of campaign of 1813. Battle of Leip- sic. swept along in the rising tide of enthusiasm, he was forced to sign an alliance with Russia and declare war (March, 1813). The disastrous campaign of 181 2 would have exhausted any other man than Napoleon. But he faced the new situation as undaunted as ever. By herculean efforts, he succeeded in mustering a new army, and in the spring of 181 3 he appeared suddenly in the heart of Germany, ready to punish the Prussians and the Russians. Life and death depended on his defeating these two powers before the Confederation of the Rhine and, above all, before Austria, had fallen off from his alliance. At Liitzen (May 2), and at Bautzen (May 20), he maintained his ancient reputation. But clearly the day of the Jenas and Friedlands was over : the allies after their defeat fell back in good order upon Silesia, and Napoleon had to confess that his victories had been paid for by such heavy losses that to win, at this rate, was equivalent to ruin. On June 4 he agreed to an armistice in order to reorganize his troops. Both parties now became aware that the issue of the campaign depended upon Austria; so delicately adjusted were the scales between the contestants that the side upon which she would throw her influence would have to win. In these circumstances Metternich, Austria's minister, undertook, at first, the role of mediator, but when Napoleon indignantly rejected the conditions for a general peace which Metternich proposed, Austria threw in her lot with the European coalition, and in the autumn of 1813 there followed a concerted forward movement on the part of all the allies : Prussians, Russians, and Austrians crowded in upon Napoleon from all sides. Having the smaller force (160,000 men against 255,000 of the allies), he was grad- ually outmanoeuvred, and at the great three days' battle of LeijDsic (October 16-18) crushed utterly. With such The French Revolution 329 remnants as he could hold together he hurried across the Rhine. Germany was lost beyond recovery. The ques- tion now was merely: would he be able to retain France? If the allies had been able to think of Napoleon in any other way than as a conqueror, it is very probable that they would not have pursued their advantage beyond Leip- sic. But Napoleon, as the peaceful sovereign of a re- stricted France, was inconceivable, and therefore, after a moment's hesitation on the shores of the Rhine, the allies invaded the French territory resolved to make an end of their enemy. Still Napoleon, always fearless, held out. Military men regard his campaign of the winter of 1814 Campaign of as worthy of his best years ; but he was now hopelessly ^ ^^' outnumbered, and when, on March 31, the allies forced the gates of Paris, even Napoleon's confidence received a shock. As he looked about him, he saw the whole east of France in the hands of his enemies of Leipsic, while the south was as rapidly falling into the power of Wellington, who having signally defeated the army of Marshal Soult in Napoleon Spain, was now pursuing it across the Pyrenees. On April 6, 18 14, Napoleon declared at his castle of Fontainebleau that all was over, and offered his abdication. The allies generously conceded him the island of Elba, as a residence, and then gave their attention to the problem of the future of France. Not from any enthusiasm for the House of Bourbon, but merely because there was no other way out of the difficulties, they finally gave their sanction to the accession to the throne of Louis XVIII., brother of the last king. As regards the extent of the restored kingdom, it was agreed in the Peace of Paris that France was to receive the boundaries of 1792. This important work being completed, a general con- The Congress gress of the powers assembled at Vienna to discuss the reconstruction of Europe. The modern age has not seen 330 Modern Europe a more brilliant gathering. All the sovereigns and states- men who had stood at the centre of public attention dur- ing the last momentous years were, with few exceptions, present; besides the monarchs of Russia, Austria, Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, whose presence was, naturally enough, largely ornamental, there attended, in behalf of the governments of Europe, such men as the Englishmen Castlereagh and Wellington, the Frenchman Talleyrand, the Prussian Hardenberg, and the Austrian Metternich. But before the Congress ofVienna had ended its labors, the military coalition, which the congress rep- resented, was once more called upon to take the field. For, in March, 1815, the news reached the sovereigns of Vienna that Napoleon had made his escape from Elba, and had once more landed in France. Napoleon's The resolution formed by Napoleon in February, 181 5, Elba. to try conclusions once more with united Europe was the resolution of despair. It was folly on the part of the allies to expect that a man like him, with a burning need of ac- tivity, would ever content himself with the httle island - realm of Elba, especially as France, his willing prize, lay just across the water. It was equal folly on the part of Napoleon to fancy that he could thwart the will of united Europe ; but being the man he was, there was a moral cer- tainty that, sooner or later, he would make the attempt to do so. On March i he landed unexpectedly near Cannes, accompanied by a guard of eight hundred of his old veter- ans, who had been permitted to attend him in exile, and no sooner had he displayed his banners, than his former soldiers streamed to the standards to which they were attached with heart and soul by innumerable glorious mem- ories. Marshal Ney, who was sent out by Louis XVIII. to take Napoleon captive, broke into tears at sight of his old leader, and folded him in his arms. There was no The French Revolution 331 resisting the magnetic power of the name Napoleon ; the kikewarm partisans of the restored king, who recruited their forces largely from the middle class, fell away from the Bourbon monarch with even more than their customary alacrity, and while Louis again fled across the border, the hero of the soldiers and the common people entered Paris amidst the wildest acclamations. The Hundred Days, as Napoleon's restoration is called. The Hun- form a mere after-play to the great drama of the years 18 12, an^istoncaT 1813, and 1814, for there was never for a momenta chance of interlude, the emperor's success. The powers had hardly heard of the great soldier's return when they launched their excommuni- cation against him, and converged their columns from all sides upon his capital. That Napoleon might under the cir- cumstances win an encounter or two was undeniable; but that he would be crushed in the end was, from the first, certain as fate. The decision came in Belgium. There Wellington had gathered an English-German army, and thither marched to his assistance Marshal Bliicher with his Prussians. These enemies, gathered against his northern frontier, Napoleon resolved to meet first. With his usual swiftness he fell upon Bliicher on June 16 at Ligny, before this general could unite with Wellington, and beat him roundly. Leaving Marshal Grouchy with 30,000 men to pursue the Prussians, he next turned, on June 18, against Wellington. Wellington, who had taken a strong defensive position The battle of near Waterloo, resolutely awaited the French attack. All the j^ne^^s^'isis. afternoon Napoleon hurled his infantry and cavalry against the iron duke's positions ; he could not dislodge his enemy, and when, toward evening, the Prussians unexpectedly made their appearance on his right, he was caught between two fires, and totally ruined. Precipitately he fled to Paris and there abdicated a second time. Deserted by all in his 332 Modern Europe Napoleon sent to St. Helena. The Bourbon Restoration. The perma- nent results of the French Revolution in France and in Europe. misfortunes, he now planned to escape to America, but on being recognized as he was about to embark, he was taken prisoner, and by the verdict of the European coalition con- veyed, soon after, to the rocky, mid-Atlantic island of St. Helena. 1 At Paris^ meanwhile, the allies were celebrating their victory by again raising Louis XVIII. to the throne (Sec- ond Peace of Paris) on conditions somewhat more severe for France than those of the year before. Thus the Revolution was over. It had begun with an at- tack upon the Bourbons and it had ended by restoring them. Had all the enthusiasm, the frenzy of the last twenty-five years been for nothing ? Certainly not. In the first place, the re-established Bourbon monarchy was not and could not be the absolute monarchy of 1789. Then the French Revolution had swept away, not only in France, but in Europe generally, the lingering rubbish of feudalism, and in the place of feudalism had set up the basic principles of democracy. To speak summarily it had destroyed the principle of class privilege and established in its stead the l)rincipleof social equality; it had proclaimed the princi- ple of individual liberty, especially in matters of religion ; finally, it had announced the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people. And these principles have become, in the course of the nineteenth century, in spite of the opposition from absolutistic and feudal quarters, the foundation of modern life. » At St. Helena Napoleon died (1821), after a captivity of six years. CHAPTER II THE ATTEMPT TO GOVERN EUROPE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES AND ARTICLES OF THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA (1815-30) The battle of Waterloo having rung down the curtain on The Congres: the great Napoleonic drama^ the plenipotentiaries at Vienna ruled by could, in all peace of mind, bring their deliberations to a *^rhfcMes'^^ close. They were embodied in the Acts of the Congress of Vienna, and, than these, no political treaties have ever been more universally condemned. But there is really something to be said for the Viennese treaties. First, let it be remembered that the mere size of the task which was presented to the Congress was immense. Then there was the conflict to adjust between the ancient territorial rights, which had been impaired or destroyed by the rev- olutionary wars, and the new territorial rights, which had, in consequence of these wars, come into being. Taking all things into consideration, it was not unnatural that governments, which had suffered so severely from revolu- tion as the governments represented at Vienna, should have inclined toward a reactionary policy. It was not found difficult, therefore, for them to agree that the principle should be adopted to restore, as far as possible, the pre-revolutionary sovereigns or their heirs, and put them in possession of their old or an equivalent territory. This dominant principle of the Congress received the name of 'legitimacy," and its stanchest champion became the Austrian minister, Prince Metternich. 333 334 Modern Europe Extravagance of the reactionists. The territorial reconstruction of the great powers. Now such a principle certainly has its exciise, but the Congress of Vienna made the mistake of applj'ing it blindly and in direct contravention, in frequent cases, to the rights of nationality and to the popular demand of free institutions. Only the mastering longing for rest, which had come over Europe after the unparalleled agitation of the last twenty-five years, explains why the very arbitrary arrangements of the Congress were accepted without pro- test. Sooner or later, however, a protest was sure to be made. The various peoples of Europe would remember the national and liberal ideas, which had been made common property by the Revolution, and then the narrow, reac- tionary policy of the Congress would become the subject of criticism and attack. In fact, the substance of the history of the nineteenth century is the conflict between the re- actionary policy adopted by the governments at the Con- gress of Vienna and the expanding national and liberal ideas of the people themselves. The Congress of Vienna concerned itself, first of all, with the restoration of the great powers. The two Ger- man powers, Prussia and Austria, acquired a territory as extensive but not identical .with that enjoyed before the era of Napoleon. Though they gave up their claims to most of their Polish provinces, they received ample com- pensation, Austria in Italy, and Prussia in western Germany. The Polish provinces surrendered by Austria and Prussia were given to Czar Alexander; who generously agreed to unite them with parts of his own Polish spoils, and form them into a npw kingdom of Poland, with himself as king. England was rewarded for her share in the victory over Napoleon by a number of French and Dutch colonies, notably South Africa (the Cape) and Malta. Thus each one of the great powers which had contributed to the overthrow of the Corsican conqueror was not only re- The Attempt to Govern Europe 335 stored to its former condition, but received a substantial increase.. The Congress encountered its greatest difficulties in ar- The " legit- ranging the affairs of Italy and Germany. As regards I-!Sto^red^in^^^ Italy, these difficulties were finally met by the application, ^*^^y- in a loose way, to the Italian situation of the principle of legitimacy. The kingdom of Naples^ (also called the kingdom of the Two Sicihes) was restored to the ''legit- imate ' ' Bourbon king ; the Pope got back the States of the Church; Tuscany was returned to its legal sovereign, a younger member of the House of Hapsburg ; Piedmont, increased by the Republic of Genoa, was restored to the king of Sardinia ; and Lombardy and Venice, far and away the richest provinces of Italy, were delivered over to Austria. There were also established a number of smaller states — for instance, Parma, Modena, I.ucca — but it will be seen at a glance that the dominant power of the peninsula, on the basis of these arrangements, was xA-ustria. As for Germany, the Napoleonic wars had been a blessing Instead of uni- . 11111 1 ty^ Germany in disguise. I o note only one result : they had destroyed gets the i5«w. the old impotent Empire, and had reduced the number of sovereign states from over three hundred to thirty-nine.^ Certainly this last revolution had vastly improved the chances for a new German unity. But the obstacles in the way of such a movement were still too great to be immedi- ately overcome. From century-old habit the .thirty-nine states looked upon each other with ill-favor, and even if the lesser ones could have mastered their mutual distrust, there 1 Napoleon's creature, King Murat of Naples, tried to head an insur- rection against the Bourbon king, but was caught and executed (1815), 3 The thirty-nine states may, for convenience sake, be divided into three groups^ i, large states, Austria and Prussia ; 2, middle states, Ba- varia, Saxony, Hanover, Wurtemberg, all raised to the rank of king- doms by Napoleon ; 3, small states, Hesse, Weimar, etc. 336 Modern Europe The Holy Al- liance. Reaction in Spain followed by revolution. Still remained as a barrier to union the ineradicable jealousy between Austria and Prussia. Under these untoward cir- cumstances, the utmost concession of the sovereign states to the popular demand for unity was a loose confederation called Bund. The constitution of the Bund provided for a Diet at Frankfurt, to which the governments of the thirty- nine states were invited to send delegates, but as the con- stitution carefully omitted giving those delegates any power, the Diet could enact no laws to speak of, and the Bund re- mained a farce. We have already seen that the point of departure for the deliberations of the Congress of Vienna was the hatred of revolution. This hatred developed into a fanatical faith, and in order to support better the cause of quiet and order against revolutionary disturbers, it was agreed on the part of the more ardent of the reactionary powers — Russia, Austria, and Prussia — to form what is known in history as the Holy Alliance. The Holy Alliance was on its face nothing more than a pledge on the part of Czar Alexander, Emperor Francis, and King Frederick Will- iam to rule in accordance with the precepts of the Bible, but as these precepts were understood to be absolutist and reactionary, the Holy Alliance meant in reality the determination to fight revolution with united forces wher- ever it showed itself. The first revolution to shake Europe out of the unworthy stupor, into which she had fallen on the overthrow of Na- poleon, occurred in Spain. The fall of Napoleon had brought back to that country the deposed Bourbon mon- arch, Ferdinand VH. While his subjects had engaged in his behalf in one of the most heroic struggles of history^ he had enjoyed a luxurious captivity in southern France, from which he never once thought of escaping to put him- self at the head of his people. This fact sufficiently char- The Att erupt to Govern Europe 337 acterizes the man. On his return to Spain ^ he thought only of recovering all the autocratic rights of his ancestors. He began his rule with a perjury. Although he had sworn to govern according to a constitution, once in possession of the country, he deliberately set aside the constitution which the patriots had enacted during his absence, and which is always referred to as the Constitution of 181 2, and -never substituted another for it. Then he started out on a poHcy which involved the abolition of all the Napoleonic reforms, the restoration of the monasteries, and the persecution of the patriots. By 1820 his government had made itself so intolerable that the liberals rose in revolt. The king, who was a coward at heart, immediately bowed to the storm, and restored the Constitution of 181 2. Before reactionary Europe had recovered from the surprise and indignation caused by the news from Spain, a revolution similar to that of Spain shook the kingdom of Naples. In Naples the Congress of Vienna had restored another Bourbon king, also named Ferdinand. This Bourbon king was perhaps the very worst Revolution in specimen of the reactionary monarch then to be found in ^^P**^^- ^^^o. Europe, and his government was not only oppressive but despicably impotent. A mere public demonstration, grow- ing out of a general merry-making over the victory of the Spanish liberals, sufficed to frighten the king into the ac- ceptance of a constitution similar to that of Spain. In view of these threatening movements in Spain and Mettemich in Naples, Metternich, the Austrian premier, called together Europe 7o put a European Congress, first at Troppau (1820), and later at downrevdu- Laibach (182 1). At these conferences he put the question before the great powers, whether revolutions should be suf- 1 Ferdinand returned to a Spain shorn of her colonies in Mexico and South America. During the Napoleonic wars these colonies had been forced to govern themselves, and had taken such a liking to indepen- dence that they refused to put themselves again under the Spanish yoke. Finally, in the course of the Twenties, they declared themselves free republics. 33^ Modern Europe fered, or whether Europe would not be acting more wisely to pledge herself to uphold the old order by interposing in Spain and Naples, and by threatening to interpose wherever the sacred rights of a legitimate monarch were attacked. Backed by his friends of the Holy Alliance, he carried his point at these Congresses ; Europe formally adopted a policy of repression against revolution, and initiated its programme by charging Austria with the restoration in Naples of what Metternich was pleased to call " order." Austria makes Of course it was hardly to be expected that the Neapoli- conltitution^of tans would Stand up against Austria. At the approach of Naples. ^j^g Austrian army, the liberal government immediately went to pieces, and King Ferdinand was restored as abso- lute monarch. When the Piedmontese tried to raise an insurrection in the Austrian rear, this movement was like- wise put down by' Austrian intervention. Thus the whole peninsula fell practically into the hands of Austria (182 1), which power from this time forth drew upon it the pas- sionate hatred of the Italian patriots. France re- This first success SO greatly delighted Metternich and his ism in Spain, reactionary henchmen that they resolved to play a still ^^^3' bolder game. At a new Congress, held at Verona (1822), they resolved on intervention in Spain, and this time com- missioned France with the execution of their verdict. In obedience to the orders of the powers, a French army, under the duke of Angouleme, the nephew of the king, marched across the Pyrenees, and overthrew the Spanish liberals. As a result King Ferdinand was restored, and celebrated his return to absolute power by a series of cruel executions. Thus the reaction maintained its grip on Europe. In the face of its despotic repression of free opinion and popular action, the terrorized i^eoples began to lose hope in their future, and for awhile silently ac- cepted what they could not change. The Attempt to Govern Europe 339 While the west was thus cowed and degraded by a The Re- ridiculous tutelage, a little country in the far east boldly c^eece^^isli. ventured to assert the inalienable right of every people to liberty and self-government. This little country was the historic land of Greece. The very name of Greece had almost fallen into oblivion when, in 182 1, the inhabitants of the old peninsula aroused Europe to surprise and enthusiasm by rising concertedly against the power of the Turks, in whose repulsive bondage they had lain for many centuries. The Sultan in his rage at the audacity of the little people allowed himself to be hurried into abominable atrocities (20,000 Greeks, for instance, were murdered in the island of Chios), but the Greeks resisted the Turkish tyranny every whit as bravely as theijr ancestors had, at Marathon and Thermopylae, held out against the Persian invasion, and, though defeated, could not be subdued. In the year 1825 the Sultan saw himself »educed to calling in the aid of his great vassal, Mehemed Ali, the Pasha of Egypt. Mehemed Ali had, by favoring European reforms, created a strong army and navy, and though nominally a subject of the Sultan, was really more powerful than his master. Mehemed, desirous of putting his suzerain under obliga- tions to himself, willingly responded to the Sultan's appeal ; he fitted out an army under his son Ibrahim, which seized and terribly devastated the Morea (Pelopon- nesus). One year of Ibrahim's warfare made it clear that the Greek revolt would be extinguished, sooner or later, by streams of blood. Up to this point the governments of Europe had taken no part in the struggle, though it was a Christian nation which was fighting against Mohammedans. The European peoples, indeed, had exhibited a sympathy which stood out in noble contrast with the apathy of the rulers, and many were the volunteers who, joining the Greek ranks, had sac- 340 Modern Europe England, France, and Russia inter- fere in behalf of Greece. Russia forces the Sultan to acknowledge the independ- ence of Greece, 1829. rificed wealth and life for the sacred soil of the old Hellenic culture, but scattered volunteers^ do not decide great causes, and the governments, as has been said, remained cold and indifferent. However, the interference in behalf of the Turks, on the part of the Egyptian, Mehemed Ali, persuaded the powers that they could no longer honorably stand aside. The first to move was the English minister, Canning. He succeeded in persuading Czar Nicholas, who had succeeded Alexander in 1825, to interpose with him in behalf of the Greeks. France also lent her aid to Canning's project of intervention, and when Ibrahim on the demand of the western powers refused to put an end to hostilities, the united French and English fleets attacked him at Navarino, and totally ruined his naval power (1827). The Sultan now saw that he must grant the Greeks their independence, but before he had made up his mind to humble himself in so conspicuous a manner, the Czar Nich- olas, impatient of further delay, declared war against him (1828), and invaded the Danubian provinces. The next year (1829) the Russians crossed the Balkans, and de- scended upon Constantinople. But before they could take that city, the Sultan had given way completely. In the Peace of Adrianople (1829) he granted Servia, Moldavia, and Wallachia, the leading provinces of the Balkan penin- sula. Christian governors, and recognized the independence of Greece. A conference of the powers at London, held to settle the affairs of their protege^ determined that Greece was to be a free monarchy, and offered the crown to prince Otto of Bavaria. This Otto ruled as first king of Greece until the year 1862. The most notable fact of his reign is that in 1843 he granted the country a representative con- stitution. ' Lord Byron (died at Missolonghi, 1824) holds an honorable place in this European band. The Attempt to Govern Europe 341 The independence of Greece was the first great victory ofhberahsm in Europe since the Congress of Vienna. It was destined to be the prelude of a much greater one in the old home of revolution — France. The battle of Waterloo had for the second time brought The danger of the Bourbons back to France. But upon the second resto- restoration in ration, as upon the first, wise men everywhere looked with ^''^"^e. apprehension. For, unfortunately, the Bourbons and the emigrant nobles returned with all the old prejudices with which they had departed ; during their long foreign resi- dence they had, as Napoleon said, learned nothing, and forgotten nothing. Louis XVIII. encountered no opposition on his entry into Paris, but he aroused no enthusiasm, either. France, momentarily exhausted by her tremendous struggles against Europe, seemed to be willing to submit to anything. But, nevertheless, her submission was deceptive. To certain benefits of the Revolution she was attached with all her heart. Thus the country was fervently devoted to the new social system, by which the privileged classes were abol- ished and everybody was equal before the law. Would the restored Bourbons, who were by force of tradition and training identified with the political ideas of the ancien regime, be able to govern a modernized France, reared in the faith of liberty and equality? The allied monarchs themselves entertained grave doubts Louis xvill. about the wisdom of the Bourbon restoration. In order constkution. to set the king upon the right path, they insisted, before they would leave French soil, that Louis XVIII. pledge himself to a constitutional government. Louis XVIII. , who was happily the most sensible and moderate member of the royalist party, very willingly acceded, and published a constitution {la charte), by which he accepted the situa- tion created by the Revolution, and assured the people a share in the government by means of two legislative 34- Modern Europe Louis's liberal beginnings. His reaction- ary ending. Charles X. (1824-30) attempts to restore ab- solutism. chambers, the Chamber of Peers and the Chamber of Deputies. Being himself animated by good-will toward his people, Louis XVIII. persisted for a time in a liberal policy. The right of suffrage, which by the constitution was possessed by those only who owned a very considerable property, was somewhat extended (18 17), and certain burdensome restrictions on individual liberty were removed. But un- fortunately Louis was old and feeble and soon permitted the ultra-royalist faction at the court to gain the upper hand in his council. At the head of this faction stood the count of Artois, Louis's brother and heir to the throne. For a time Louis struggled against the ultra-royalists, but when the duke of Berry, the son of Artois and the hope of the royal House, was murdered by a fanatic (1820), the king ceased offering resistance, and the reactionary tide set in definitely. The liberal members of the cabinet were dismissed, the suffrage and the freedom of the press again restricted. France became the vassal of Metternich and the Holy Alliance, and, in the year 1823, accepted the shameful commission to put down liberalism in Spain and restore the absolute monarchy of the perjured and vicious Ferdinand VII. When Louis XVIII. was succeeded on his death (1824) by his brother Charles X. , things rapidly went from bad to worse. Charles X. , as count of Artois, had been the head of the noble emigres, and was as much detested by the people as> he was idolized by the feudal party. The reign of reaction was now unchecked. Among other measures, one billion francs were voted to the nobles to indemnify them for their losses during the revolution. Finally, it was planned to muzzle the press and gag the universities. But at this point the Chamber of Deputies refused to serve the reaction further, and had to be dissolved (1830). Thereupon the The Attempt, to Govern Europe 343 prime minister, the unpopular duke of Polignac, urged the king to take by decree what he could not get by law, and on July 26, 18^0, there appeared under the king's seal four The July ordinances, which arbitrarily limited the Hst of voters, and ^'■'^^"^n'^es. put an end to the freedom of printing. The ordinances substantially meant the abandonment by the king of legal courses, the revocation of the constitution, and the return to absolutism. Did France have no answer to so mon- strous an attempt? CHAPTER III THE REVOLUTION OF 1830 IN FRANCE AND ELSEWHERE The July rev- The four ordinances of July 26 caused an immediate Paris. tumult in the capital. Bands of students and workmen paraded the streets cheering the constitution. But their cheers changed soon to the more ominous cries : down with ministers ! down with the Bourbons ! The king was amusing himself at the time at St. Cloud, and did not raise a hand in his defence. The few troops in the city soon proved themselves inadequate to restrain the multitude, and after a number of sharp encounters, in which many citizens were killed, withdrew into the country. For a moment it seemed that the capital was delivered over to anarchy. The moder- In this confusion a number of prominent members of cites offer tlie crown to Louis the middle-class or bourgeoisie met at the house of the Phihppe. banker Lafitte to discuss what was to be done. They were men equally averse to tyranny and to disorder ; all that France needed and desired according to them was a genuinely constitutional monarchy. They therefore re- solved to concur in the deposition of Charles X. and his heirs, and offer the crown to the popular head of the sec- ondary branch of the House of Bourbon, Louis Philippe, duke of Orleans. Louis Philippe was the son of that dis- reputable duke of Orleans (Egalit6) who had voted for the death of Louis XVI., and had been guillotined by the Terror. As a young man he had served in the Revolution- ary army, and though he had abandoned France in 1793, 344 The Revolution of i8jo in France 345 and little had been heard of him since, he was reputed to be a man of firm, liberal principles. When the self-con- stituted committee of the Parisian moderates waited upon him to tender him the crown, he at first feigned reluctance, but was finally persuaded to accept the governorship of the realm until such time as the Chamber of Deputies, rep- resenting the country,, had come to a decision. Charles X. was all this time off at his palace of St. Cloud, lulled by all sorts of fond illusions. He inchned from the first to treat the Parisian rising as a trifle, and was not aroused to its significance until his troops were driven out of Paris. Then he hurriedly cancelled the obnoxious ordinances, and in order to save his House even tendered his own abdication in favor of his grandson. But these con- cessions came too late ; his ambassadors were not so much as heard in Paris, and reluctantly Charles X. turned his back for the third and last time upon France to seek refuge across the Channel. When the Chambers assembled at the beginning of Au- gust, they immediately declared the throne vacant, and offered the crown to Louis Philippe. He had already ap- peared in the city some days before, and had, after publicly assuming the tricolor, the emblem of the Revolution, under- taken the government temporarily as lieutenant-governor. Now he hesitated no longer to take the final step ; at the solicitation of the Chambers, he solemnly swore to observe the constitution, and adopted the style of Louis Philippe, King of the French. Thus France had inaugurated a new experiment in government which is named from the Orlean- ist dynasty, now promoted to the control of affairs. Meanwhile the report of the July Revolution in Paris had travelled abroad. Ever since the seventeenth century France had assumed in Europe the leadership in political ideas. Every action upon her public stage was watched The flight of Charles X. Louis Philippe becomes King of the French. The July rev- olution awak- ens an echo in Europe. 346 Modern Europe The revolution in Belgium. Antagonism between Hol- land and Bel- gium. by her neighbors with eager interest. Therefore the fall of the Bourbons and the victory of the people sent a flutter of eager hope through the nations which had been injured and shackled by the Congress of Vienna. Evidently the time had at last come to venture a blow, and in the course of the year 1830 country after country, imitating the example set by the Parisians, raised its voice in behalf of freedom and self-government. The most immediate stir was caused among the north- eastern neighbors of France, the Belgians. And perhaps no people had suffered more than the Belgians from the high-handed methods of the Congress of Vienna. With- out even the pretense of consulting the wishes of the peo- ple, the country of Belgium, once known as the Spanish and then as the Austrian Netherlands, and from 1794 to 1815 an integral part of France, had, at Vienna, been in- corporated with Holland. The idea of the Congress was to create a state to the northeast of France strong enough to resist a renewal of French aggression. The kingdom of the Netherlands, as the fused states of Holland and Bel- gium were called, was given to the ancient Dutch House of Orange, and was expected to keep a close eye, in behalf of the European peace, on the old disturber of that peace — France. This idea, taken by itself, was so good that it is perhaps pardonable that the Congress overlooked a great number of insurmountable details. Holland and Belgium had been for centuries travelling their own roads, and had developed each its own set of material and intellectual interests. Thus while Holland was a great colonizing and commercial country, Belgium was primarily an industrial country; further, Holland was Protestant, Belgium was Catholic ; and, most incisive of all differences, Holland was Teutonic, and Belgium, though it was by blood and si^eech of mixed The Revolution of i8jo in France 347 Teutonic and French character, was by civilization and feel- ing entirely French. The union therefore caused discomfort to the Belgians The breach, from the first. They protested against the over-lordship ^^ ^ ' which Holland, the smaller partner, was exercising, and finally demanded a separate administration. When King William resisted these claims they resolved, in August, 1830, to imitate the Parisians, and accordingly revolted. There followed a month of juggling and negotiations, but in Sep- tember the Dutch army clashed with the populace of Brus- sels, and after a warm encounter was forced to evacuate the city. Now that blood had flowed and animal passions had been excited, an amicable adjustment became impossible. Too late King William offered to accede to the Belgian de- mands. When his offer was rejected, he prepared for war. At this point, the European powers became alarmed, and at a conference held at London resolved to interfere. Al- though the eastern powers would gladly have supported the House of Orange, they had troubles of their own to at- tend to, and so reluctantly acceded to the proposition ot France and England to grant the Belgians independence. Belgium made This matter having been settled without much difficulty, the ent kingdom. powers next approved of a Belgian congress to take into its hands the internal aff'airs of the country. When this con- gress met (November, 1830), it declared in principle for a limited monarchy, and then set about constructing an ap- propriate constitution. When all was done, it offered the crown to Prince Leopold, of the German House of Saxe- Coburg, and Leopold actually assumed the government in 1 83 1, with the title of king of the Belgians. King William of Holland, jealous of his rights, and chagrined at the action of the powers, made ready to resist the Belgian independ- ence by arms, but a combined naval and military demonstra- tion by England and France at his borders brought him to 348 Modern Europe Germany and Italy. In Germany the small states become constitutional. his senses, and in July, 1833, he finally bowed to the inevi- table. Holland and Belgium have ever since gone their own way under separate kings. It is to the credit of King Leo- pold (1831-65) that, although a foreigner, he should have made himself entirely acceptable to his new people, and that under his wise rule Belgium prospered as she had not pros- pered since the evil day, when she fell into the clutches of Spain. As the two great central European countries, Germany and Italy, had received very ungenerous treatment at the Congress of Vienna, it might be expected that the July revolution would create a widely sympathetic movement among them. But although they enjoyed neither national unity nor freedom, and had every cause for discontent, their revolutions of 1830 were, for different reasons, most insignificant affairs. In Germany every important development hinged, naturally, upon the action of the two great states, Prussia and Austria. But owing partly to the ancient habit of obedience, and partly to the rather effective administra- tion of the government, the people of these two states did not, in 1830, stir against their reactionary monarchs. However, in a great many of the smaller states, like Bruns- wick, Hanover, and Saxony, the cry was raised for a liberal constitution, and in each instance the princes had to give way, and establish a modern representative government. As the south German states, the most notable of which were Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, had, by the free act of their sovereigns, been granted liberal constitutions soon after 181 5, the result of the commotions of 1830 for Germany may be summed up thus : With that year practi- cally all the smaller German states had declared for sensible constitutional progress, Austria and Prussia, the natural leaders, alone persisting in the antiquated absolute system. The Revolution of i8jo in France 349 Of course it was clear as day that before long the people of Austria and Prussia would be affected by the same aspira- tions which had been manifested among their smaller neighbors. The limited energy which the revolution of 1830 mani- The revolu- fested in Germany spent itself, as the results witness, on not a national the demand for popular local governments. The revolu- "movement, tion made no atttempt to remedy the other great difficulty of Germany, her national disintegration. The Diet of the Bufid representing the princes and not the people, was left untouched by the revolution of 1830, and went on sitting at Frankfurt, as feeble and despised as ever. Some years evidently would have to pass before patient Germany had gathered the further energy to protest against this farce of a national government. If in Italy there was aroused no great commotion by the The Italian July revolution, it was due to the lingering memories of the 1830 of no unfortunate Neapolitan insurrection ten years before (1820), consequence, and of the armed intervention of Austria which had fol- lowed. Ever since, Metternich was keeping a close watch upon the peninsula, and holding himself ready to fall at a moment's notice from his vantage-point of Lombardy upon any disturber of the peace. The great secret society of the carbonari, which tried to bind together the patriotic Ital- ians of all parts of the peninsula for the purpose of a con- certed action in behalf of an independent and liberal Italy, agitated, therefore, in vain. Only in isolated regions, notably in the States of the Church, the people rose in 1830 against their governors. But the Austrians, just as in 182 1, imme- diately, on receipt of the news, invaded the disturbed ter- ritories, scattered the insurgents, and established the old tyrannies. The total result for Italy of the revolution of 1830 was an increased hatred of the Austrian master and meddler. 3 so Modern Europe Poland These agitations of Germany and Italy were mere trifles in I 30. compared to the great insurrection which, in consequence of the Parisian revolution, took place in Poland. The reader will remember that at the Congress of Vienna Poland was partially restored. Prussia and Austria having surrendered for an adequate compensation certain of their Polish spoils to Russia, the Czar Alexander, who was a man of extremely generous disposition and full of kindly feeling toward the unfortunate Poles, seized the opportunity afforded by this acquisition to re-establish, with somewhat restricted bound- aries, the old kingdom of Poland. Although a despot in Russia, he gave the kingdom of Poland a constitution, and promised to rule there as a constitutional king. Under him Poland had a separate administration and its own army. This was certainly something ; but unfortunately it was not enough for the proud nation, which remembered that it had been a great power when Russia, its present master, was no more than a mean and snow-bound duchy of Muscovy. Everywhere there were murmurs of discontent, and when the magnanimous Alexander died (1825), and was succeeded by his severe and unpopular brother, Nicholas, they swelled to ominous proportions. In November, 1830, under the leadership of a few young enthusiasts, the capital, Warsaw, suddenly rose in insurrection. The revolution The Russian governor of Poland was Constantine, the successful. Czar's brother. He lost his head during the riot at War- saw, and almost immediately abandoned the city. As he marched off toward the Russian frontier the Polish prov- inces rose in rebellion behind him, declaring themselves of one mind and heart with the patriots of the capitaj. Thus, the Poles being, before a week had passed, masters in their own land, they set up a provisional government at Warsaw, and prepared to defend themselves. TJie Revolution of i8jo in France 351 Plainly the condition of success was unity of purpose and The revolution action. But that was the one thing which could not be fsai.^^"' had. The landed nobility, with its high-flying feudal notions, could not be made to agree with the democracy in the city ; quarrels between the two classes were patched up only to break out again ; and with weakness, disunion, and treason annihilating* the government which they left behind, the raw Polish soldiers marched out to meet the great Russian army, organized by a superior intelligence, and directed by the energy of a single will. But in spite of disadvantages, the Poles stood their ground with all their ancient gallantry and death-defying courage. Kosciusko, the hero of their splendid defence of 1795, would have had no occasion to blush for them. But mere valor was of no avail ; at Os- trolenka (May, 1831) the Russians overwhelmed the Poles with their numbers. A few months later (September, 1831) the Russian army, assisted by a traitor in the Polish government, again entered Warsaw. Thus the seal of fate was set upon the finis Polonice pronounced in the previous century. When Czar Nicholas again took hold, it was with the Poland grim resolve to remove all chances of another Polish rev- absorbed by olution. He firmly believed that he had been trifled with Russia, by the Poles because he had proved himself too kind. He would not err in that way any more. He now determined that Poland should be merged with Russia as a Russian province, and kept in check by a Russian army of occupa- tion ; the very language of the Poles was to be replaced by the Russian tongue ; and their Catholic faith was to make room for the Greek Orthodox Church, of which the Czar was the head. Poland now fell into a sad eclipse. Bound and gagged she lay at the feet of Russia ; but as long as there was life, her people were determined to cling to their na- tional memo/ies. And they have clung to them to this day. CHAPTER IV THE GOVERNMENT OF LOUIS PHILIPPE (1830-48) AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1 848 LouisPhilippe, MEANWHILE France, the country in which the revolu- the citizen- . , , , •.••!. king. tionary movement had begun, was experimenting with its new Orleanist government. Clearly the success of the vent- ure depended, first of all, on the character of the new king and his power to conciliate the numerous opposition. And at first glance Louis Philippe, who was shrewd and well- meaning and quite without the ancient affectations of royalty, did not seem an unsuitable man for the royal office. But his situation was extremely perilous, for France was divided into four parties, three of which could not possibly be rec- onciled with the reigning government. The Bonapartists, the Bourbonists or Legitimists, and the Republicans, although differing radically among themselves, existed by virtue of governmental principles which were antagonistic to the Orleanist dynasty, and so there remained nothing for Louis PhiHppe to do but to identify himself with the party of quiet Constitutionalists which recruited its num- bers from the well-to-do middle class or bourgeoisie. By that step, however, he declared himself not the head of the country, but the head of a party, and gave an undeniable basis to the derisive sobriquet of rot-bourgeois (citizen- king) fixed upon him by the opposition. Growth of the And there was another and unexpected rea.son why this classes. championship of the capitalist middle class was likely to prove threatening. As is well known the most important 352 The Government of Louis Philippe 353 social fact of the nineteenth century is its industrial develop- ment. The increase of manufactures has drawn together in the cities vast aggregations of workmen, and the increase of intelligence has led these workmen to combine in trades- unions and political parties, and to demand from their employers increasing social benefits. The result has been the conflict of capital and labor, for which we have found no solution to this day. Now, at the time of Louis Philippe this conflict was just beginning, and the phenomenon being new, his government was thoroughly dismayed by it. What was to be made of the enthusiasts called socialists who were advancing all kinds of humane but dangerous programmes ? That Louis Philippe should have treated these people with harshness is not particularly strange, but he ought to have considered that he was thereby alienating from his dynasty the whole working population of France, and turning them over to the Republicans. Because of the natural preference of Louis Philippe for Guizot and the middle class, the whole period of his government king-fad-^ (1830-48) has been called the reign of the bourgeoisie, risers. And most of the prominent advisers of the king were men of that estate. Their programme, as is usual with persons of the thriving middle class, had, on the whole, an honest, virtuous character, but was disfigured by occasional narrow prejudices. The leading men of the Chamber of Deputies were Guizot and Thiers, distinguished alike in their day for their literary labors,^ and filled equally with eager patriotic zeal. They became determined rivals, dividing the Chamber between them, and occupying in turn the chief post in the ministry. Both were equally resolute in stand- > Both are celebrated as historians. Guizot wrote a deeply philo- sophical treatise, called "The History of Civilization," and Thiers pro- duced a brilliant narrative of the French Revolution, the Consulate, and the Empire. 354 Modern Europe ing by Louis Philippe and in fighting the plots of the Le- gitimists, the Bonapartists, and the Republicans, but they fell out over the important question of the enlargement of the voting body, which came more to the foreground every year, and finally caused a new revolution. The leading In these two matters, the putting down of the insurrec- Lou^ifphii. tions of the opposition and the enfranchisement of new ippes reign. clalfees of voters, lies the chief interest of the domestic history of Louis Philippe's reign. Legitimists and Re- publicans never ceased conspiring, but the government, ever on the watch, disposed of them without difficulty. It also disposed without difficulty of the Bonapartists. But as their two attempts to rout the government, although ludicrously feeble in themselves, had an astonishing sequel, it is necessary to give them a word. After the death (1832) of Napoleon's only son at Vienna, the great emperor's nephew, Louis Napoleon, considered himself heir of the traditions of .the House of Bonaparte. He had spent his youth in exile, chiefly in Switzerland, looking with longing eyes across the boundary toward the land of his dreams. In 1836 he resolved to see if the Napoleonic memories were still alive in France, and sud- denly appeared at Strasburg. But the soldiers did not rise, as was expected, and Louis Napoleon was captured. At Paris they treated the matter as a joke ; the prince was put on board a vessel, and shipped to America. But in 1840 he tried his luck once more, this time by attempting a land- ing at Boulogne. The second fiasco was as signal as the first, but Louis Philippe's patience was now at an end, and he permitted the offender to be condenmed to imprison- ment for life. All Europe laughed heartily at the impotent revolutionist, but it was not to be denied that he had brought the name of Napoleon once more before the public, and that that fact might be of consequence. However, no The Government of Louis Philippe 355 man then in authority in France could be persuaded to look upon the propaganda of the prisoner in a serious light. Bonapartism was regarded as dead. Therefore, when in 1846 Prince Louis evaded his jailers, and made his escape to England, nobody was in the least concerned. At the very time when Prince Louis regained his free- The question . . of the exten- dom the question of the suffrage had entered a crisis, sion of the suf- Among a population of 30,000,000, there were only 200,- ^^^^* 000 voters. The discontent of the masses at so absurd a situation was rapidly becoming ominous. Thiers, having a warmer feeling for the people than most Orleanists, pro- posed in the chambers again and again an extension of the suffrage. Guizot, who was then prime minister, and narrow-minded in proportion to his respectability, would not even listen to the new demands. Thiers and his friends thereupon resolved to stir up public opinion, and so force the minister's hand. They held popular meetings coupled with banquets all over the country. February 22, 1848, they set for a so-called Reform Banquet in Paris. When its arrangements were interfered with by the police, the meeting was given up, but the great crowd which had gath- ered for the celebration thereupon took to parading the streets and shouting for the deposition of Guizot. The next day (February 23), the king dismissed the The break- ministry and made an effort to conciliate the opposition, oXanistmon- but a company of soldiers having fired at the mob, killing archy, Febru- and wounding some fifty men, caused the passions of the people to flame up anew. Houses were sacked and the pal- ace of the Tuileries surrounded by armed men. Finally, on February 24, Louis Philippe, convinced that discretion was the better part of valor, fled from his capital to take refuge, as Charles X. had done eighteen years before, in England. The Orleanist monarchy might yet have been saved if the deputies, among whom the Constitutionahsts had a 356 Modern Europe A republic with a provi- sional govern- ment. The Socialist demands. Republicans vs. Socialists. clear majority, had stood their ground like men, and pro- claimed the succession of the young grandson of Louis Philippe, the count of Paris. But when the rioters broke into the parliamentary hall, the frightened members surren- dered the field, and sought safety in flight. Thus the rabble, with the poet Lamartine at its head, found itself master of the legislature and of the situation. Spurred on to act with promptness, it then and there declared for a Republic, and appointed a provisional government of which Lamar- tine became the moving spirit. Thus on February 24, 1848, the Republicans had won the day. But they were far from being a unanimous party. The Socialists formed an important wing of the Republican fold, and that they were not going to permit themselves to be simply merged with the majority appeared from the first. They secured a representation in the provisional government, and straightway demanded the proclamation of their Utopian programme. The provisional government had to give in so far as to proclaim the so-called *' right to labor" and to establish '' national workshops," where the unemployed of Paris were guaranteed a living in the service of the state. There were even some crack-brained agita- tors, who, going further, wanted the government to pro- claim community in property and wives, but they were put off for the present. Meanwhile elections had been ordered for a National Assembly to settle in detail the forms of the new Republic- It met at the beginning of May, 1848, and straightway taking the control into its own hands, dismissed Lamartine's provisional government. Being composed largely of solid, order-loving Republicans from the country, the Assembly was imbued with the strongest antipathy toward the socialist city faction, which aspired to manage the state. Carefully it made ready to put an end to the prevalent confusion, and The Government of Louis Philippe 357 win Paris back to the principles of law and decency. Great masses of troops were concentrated in the city ; then the most virulent and anarchistic of the disturbers were, after a short resistance (May), put under lock and key; finally (June), the Assembly attacked the root of all the difficulties, the " national workshops." This much-trumpeted socialist venture had, after a few "The national months' trial, proved an unequivocal failure. Of course ^°^ ^ °^^' the guarantee which it offered of daily pay had drawn an immense rabble to Paris. But as there were no adequate provisions for employing the applicants industrially, they had to be put to useless digging and carting. Nevertheless, in June, 1848, over 100,000 '' national wbrkmen " were on the government's pay-roll. The drain on the treasury was terrible ; besides, it was perfectly plain to every man with eyes to see that the expense was incurred for a profitless phantom. The good sense of the nation as well as of the Assembly revolted at the further continuation of this socialist farce. When the Socialists recognized by the proposition to dis- The Socialists solve the ''national workshops" that the day of their june, 1848.' favor was over, they rose in insurrection in order to get by force what they could not get by law. They barricaded themselves in their quarters, and for four days (June 23 to 26) made a heroic stand against the troops under General Cavaignac, who in this crisis had been appointed dictator. Never had Paris, accustomed as it was to riot- ing, witnessed street-fights of such dimensions as it wit- nessed now: the Socialists were not put down until ten thousand men had been stretched dead or wounded upon the pavements. Of the captured insurgents four thousand were transported across the seas. The frightful disease of the state had demanded a frightful remedy ; but recovery was the reward, for sociahsm was ruined and order established. 358 Modem Europe The new republican constitution. Louis Napo- leon, presi- dent. Napoleon a threat to the republic. The National Assembly, now at last in unquestioned au- thority, turned next to its business of making a republican constitution. It voted that the legislative function should be entrusted to a single chamber, elected on the basis of universal suffrage, and it assigned the executive, in imitation of the United States, to a president, elected directly by the people for a period of four years. When the constitu- tion prepared on the above lines was ready, the Assembly ordered the presidential election (Dec. lo, 1848). To the surprise of Europe, Lamartine and Cavaignac, who had been most in sight during the previous months, received only a comparatively few votes ; the vast majority of bal- lots were cast for Prince Louis Napoleon. Prince Louis Napoleon was already present in France. Having been elected to the National Assembly, he had taken his seat in the month of September. His election, a few months later, to the presidency was an ominous symptom of public opinion, filling the genuine Republi- cans with keen apprehension. The astonishingly large majority of the imperial pretender clearly revealed that although France had a republican constitution, four-fifths at least of her people were still monarchists at heart. CHAPTER V THE REVOLUTION OF 1 848 IN GERMANY, AUSTRIA, AND ITALY From 1830 to 1848, Germany and Italy, divided and Central impotent, were delivered over to reactionary influences, prepared to But in both countries the liberal and national spirit, fos- g^^^pj^ tered by the poets and writers, was steadily growing, set by France. These eighteen years of government by repression form a sad period ; but its burden was lightened for the patriots by the conviction that the people were slowly ripening toward another movement in behalf of constitutionalism and unity more compact and reasoned than that of 1830. And it is a fact that even without the Paris Revolution of 1848, the revolt of Central Europe against the spirit of reaction could hardly have been long put off. As it was, the news of the Paris revolution straightway set both eastern neighbors of France on fire. That city, which the spirit of reaction had, as it were. The revoiu- declared its chosen residence, was one of the first to feel the M^arch 1848!^' breath of the new freedom. On March 13, 1848, Vienna rose and drove old Prince Metternich, who more than any man had shaped the events of the first half of the century, from the chancery of the Austrian empire, and from the capital. Thereupon concession on concession was wrested from the government. Terrified by the unexpected strength displayed by the revolutionists, the Emperor Fer- dinand had to promise a constitution and a parliament. Absolutism in Austria seemed to have been laid in its grave. 359 36o Modern Europe Revolution throughout Austria and Germany. The German patriots call to- gether a Ger- man Parlia- ment. The position of the German Parliament. The news of the revohition at Vienna had hardly been carried abroad when it was followed by sympathetic action in all the component parts of the polyglot empire of the Hapsburgs. Germany, too, on which the hand of Metternich had lain with particular heaviness, was seized with exultation at his fall. There were riots in many of the small states of Germany, and on March i8, Berlin followed the example of the German sister-city of the south. The king of Prussia, Frederick William IV. (1840-61), at the request of the citizens, withdrew the troops from the capital, and promised a parliamentary government. Thus by a single united effort the German people of north and south seemed to have realized all their liberal aspirations. But another aspiration — the longing for an effective German union — had always been closely associated with the constitutional programme. Most wisely the various local leaders, elated over the liberal successes, argued that, now or never, was the time to strike for a national govern- ment. Having met in council, they agreed to call a general German Parliament for the purpose of establishing the bases of a federal government. The German Parliament, elected by universal suffrage, met in May, 1848, at Frankfurt-on-the-Main. It was composed in large part of the most distinguished men of the land, and was animated with a generous zeal for Ger- man unity. But intelligence and zeal alone do not suffice for lasting performances ; what heart and mind conceive, force must realize. Thus the great question before the German Parliament was not so much : would it prove itself wise enough, but rather would it have the force to effect the changes which it was about to advocate ; in other words, could it make good the claim which it was putting forward of being the sovereign body in Germany? For the first few months the German Parliament expe- Revolution in Germany, Austria, and Italy 36] rienced no difficulties. The terrified governments bowed Certainty of /- A • 1 1 Struggle be- to its authority. Even the emperor of Austria and the tween the Par- king of Prussia seemed to have resigned their sovereign golj^e'rnments.^ rights to the democratic body sitting at Frankfurt. But suppose the case that, on the lessening of the popular press- ure at Vienna and Berlin, one or the other of the great monarchs refused to accept a decree forwarded from the Parliament — what then ? There would then be a conflict of authorities which would furnish a test of the relative strength of the new national assembly and the old state governments. The test was offered, and that soon enough, by the The question T 1 • !• • mi 11- r of Schleswig Schleswig - Holstem complication. 1 he two duchies 01 and Holsteln. Schleswig and Holstein occupy the southern half of the peninsula of Jutland, and are inhabited for the most part by a German -speaking people. They were at that time united with Denmark in a personal union, that is, their duke was also king of Denmark ; but they lived, in spite of that fact, under their own laws, of the observance of which by the king of Denmark they were exceedingly jealous.^ Now it had lately become apparent that the Danish royal House would soon die out in the male line. The Danish law provided that, in such an event, the crown should pass to the female line ; by the law of the duchies, however, the succession to Schleswig-Holstein would fall to a secondary male branch. In fear of this separation, the king of Denmark pub- lished for Schleswig-Holstein, in the year 1846, a new law of succession by virtue of which the union of Denmark and The revolt of the duchies was secured for all time. The disaffection 1848. aroused thereby throughout the duchies was general, and ' The connection between the duchies and Denmark was analogous to that of England and Scotland under James I. 362 Modern Europe in 1848 the Schleswig-Holsteiners, encouraged by the gen- eral confusion in Europe, and resolute to make themselves independent of a power which according to their view disregarded their rights, boldly cast off the Danish yoke. The Parlia- Since as Germans they appealed to the Parliament at men e . Frankfurt for help, that body, claiming to represent the German name, could not remain deaf to their cries. It ordered Prussia and some other states of the north to march their troops into the duchies, and in, the name of Germany drive the Danes out. That feat was soon accomplished, for the Danes are not a powerful nation ; but the Danes took revenge by destroying the Prussian shipping of the Baltic. This the king of Prussia stood for a while, but when in the course of the summer it seemed to him that the tide of revolution in Germany was running lower, he took heart, and, without consulting the German Parliament, signed a truce with the Danes which practically delivered Prussia makes the brave Schleswig-Holsteiners over to their Danish mas- peace, ters (August 26, 1 848). When the Parliament heard of August, 184 . j.j^-g ^^j. -J. ^^ furious against the disobedient king. There was talk for a time of civil war ; but the talk subsided very quickly, and, on second thoughts, the Parliament en- dorsed everything which Prussia had done. The long and short of the situation was that Prussia had an army and the Parliament not. But Prussia having by this occurrence discovered the essential impotence of the Parliament, would not the other governments before long discover it too ? In fact, the local governments began gradually to pick up courage, and as early as September, 1848, it was plain that the national Parliament at Frankfurt was a beautiful illu- sion, and that its days were numbered. Milan and While the local revolutions, the national Parliament at agTinsV^^ Frankfurt, and the Schleswig-Holstein war were engaging ^"^^'■j^' the attention of Germany, Italy was stirred from Sicily to Revolution in Germany^ Austria^ and Italy 363 the Alps by a similar political movement. At the first news of the revolution at Vienna, Milan and Venice rose against th Aiistrians, drove out the troops, and declared for independence (March, 1848). The Austrians, although thoroughly surprised, retired in good order under their general, Radetzky, to the impregnable fortifications of the Quadrilateral,^ and awaited re-enforcements. Milan and Venice set up provisional governments and called upon Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, and the other Italian gov- ernments to come to their help against the foreign tyrants. As the revolutionary fever had already seized Tuscany, Rome, and the other states, and the liberal spirit was All Italy everywhere triumphant, assistance was freely promised from help, all sides, and in the spring of 1848 Italian troops, contrib- uted by all the provinces of the peninsula, converged in long lines upon the middle course of the Po. The expected war of all Italy against the foreign oppressor was at length engaged. Of the motley Italian army thus hurriedly mobilized to The assist the Lombards and Venetians, Charles Albert, king of crush the king Sardinia, assumed the command. The fact that he was the of Sardinia ' and his head of the House of Savoy, the oldest ruling family of Italian allies, 1848—49. Italy, and that he had expressed his sympathy with the con- stitutional and national aspirations of his countrymen, pointed him out to all Italians as their natural leader. But his difficulties were great. His troops were undisciplined, the rival governments which sent them distrustful. Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that when the veteran and skilful Radetzky ventured forth from his defenses, he should have decided the war at a stroke. On July 25, 1848, the Austrians won the great battle of Custozza, scat- tered the Italian forces, and straightway re-entered Milan. I The district enclosed by the four great fortresses of Verona, Mantua, Peschiera, and Legnago. 3^4 Modern Europe Sardinia makes peace, March, 1849. Lombardy and Venice reconquered. The revolution general in Italy. When, after a six months' armistice, Charles Albert tried his luck once more, he met with no better success. Sick at heart, he abdicated, and was succeeded by his son, the fa- mous Victor Emmanuel II. (March, 1849). When young Victor Emmanuel professed his willingness to sign a peace, Austria, harassed sufficiently in other quarters, made no ob- jections. By the terms of the peace agreement the defeated monarch of Sardinia-Piedmont paid a money-fine to Aus- tria, but did not lose a foot of territory. Before that document was signed, Austria had already re- established her hold on Lombardy, and now, after a brave, resistance on the part of the people, she put her yoke on Venice as well. Thus, only a little over a year after the hopeful rising of March, 1848, the Austrian soldiers had again laid the Italian north at their feet, and had again proved their ancient valor and the strength of their emperor. But to the Italians also the war had brought a benefit. Through stinging disaster they had learned the lesson that they must stand shoulder to shoulder if their righteous cause was ever to triumph ; and they had become per- suaded by a comradeship of arms, no less sacred because disastrous, that the House of Savoy was their natural point of union. Even before the Austrians had regained their two prov- inces of Lombardy and Venice, the revolutions in the cen- tral and southern part of the peninsula had come to an end, and the old reactionary spirit had again triumphed. In March, 1848, nobody would have predicted that result; the rulers of Tuscany, Modena, the States of the Church, and Naples had all been forced to sanction the revolution on pain of being driven from the country. Of course, such a sanction extracted from a reactionary despot was in- voluntary and, though confirmed by an oath, likely to be withdrawn at the first opportunity which offered. Revolution in Germany^ Austria^ and Italy 365 In Naples the reactionary opportunity offered itself very The liberals soon to the monarch, chafing under constitutional restraints. Naple?^^ ^" As early as May, 1848, only three months after the victory of the revolution, the royal troops broke the resistance of the people, and re-established the absolute throne. There- upon southern, like northern, Italy relapsed again into quiet and reaction. But far and away the most interesting Rome, happenings on the Italian stage, next to those in Lom- bardy, occurred in central Italy, at Rome. In the year 1848, Pius IX., a very earnest and affable The Pope, man who had won the favor of his subjects by a number of tween two ^' generous measures, was sovereign Pontiff and lord of the ^^^^- States of the Church. He sympathized with the liberal party, and on the first stirrings of the revolution granted his people a constitution. But when it came to joining in the national war with the rest of Italy against Austria, he called a halt. A universal Pope, he argued, leading Cath- olics to be slaughtered by other Catholics was a ludicrous and impossible figure. On the other hand, the Romans gen- erally maintained, and with as much show of reason, that an Italian prince who contributed nothing to the over- throw of the tyrants of Italy was no better than a traitor. Now it was that the Pope began to experience the calamity of his double position as a spiritual and a temporal ruler. In his dilemma he did nothing ; but the Romans, who The Pope wished passionately to help their Lombard brethren against ber, 1848 Austria, grew so dangerously restless that Pius IX. finally fled from the city, and took refuge in Gaeta, on Neapolitan soil (November 24, 1848). Thereupon Rome fell com- pletely into the hands of the revolutionists under the lead- ership of the famous agitator Mazzini, and at Mazzini's in- stigation, the Pope was declared to have forfeited his tem- poral dignities, and the papal dominions were proclaimed a republic. 366 Modern Europe The Roman Republic. Austria — the German, Slav, Hun^rian, and Italian re- volts. Mazzini's new Roman Republic never had more than a fighting chance to hve. CathoHc peoples the world over were horrified at its high-handed treatment of the Holy Father, and made ready to interfere. Louis Napoleon, president of the French Republic, was especially delighted at the opportunity offered by the Roman events to curry favor with the Catholic clergy and peasantry of France. He now sent an army to Rome to sweep Mazzini and his republicans out of the city. General Gari baldi, who had been made commander-in-chief, put up a gallant fight, but in the end had to give way to numbers. In July, 1849, the French entered the conquered city, and the old papal regimen was re-established. A few months later the hated Pope returned to the Vatican. There was now no further talk of reform ; Pius IX. 's early liberalism had died from terror during his exile at Gaeta. Thus, after a year of wild excitement, Italy again enjoyed peace under her petty and despised princes ; but it was a sullen peace, for it was im- posed by foreign bayonets. While these things were happening in Italy, the reaction had again definitely set in in Germany and in Austria. In the spring of 1848 Austria seemed to have gone to wrack and ruin. This empire of many races was held tpgether by only a few customary ties, and under the pressure of the March events they snapped like thin threads. Hardly had the Germans, as has been described, revolted at Vienna, when all the other Austrian peoples followed suit. In a few weeks there were separate revolutions among the Slavs (Czechs) at Prague, among the Hungarians at Budapest, and among the Italians at Milan and Venice; Austria seemed destined to fall into four independent states corre- sponding to the four leading races of which she was made up. If that dissolution did not actually occur in 1848, it is due solely to one institution — the Austrian army. Dur- Revolution in Germany, Austria, and Italy 367 ing all the disturbances the army held loyally together under its natural head, the emperor, and gradually restored quiet. In June, Windischgraetz, the general commanding in The Slavs, Bohemia, was ordered to proceed against the riotous Slavs itaiiTns^recon- of Prague. He put them down without much trouble, and q^^red. then marched south against the Germans at Vienna. There the actions of the students and other revolutionists had lately grown so extravagant that the emperor had taken refuge in the country. In October, Windischgraetz, after a bloody street-fight, forced an entrance into the capital. The revolutionists were shot upon the barricades or else cruelly executed. Thus the Slavs and the Germans having been reduced to order, there remained only the struggle with the Italians and the Hungarians. But as Radetzky was rapidly beating the former into submission (battle of Cus- The Hunga- tozza, July 25), almost the whole force of Austria was now home rule. free to be concentrated upon Budapest. Although the Hungarians had bowed for centuries to the yoke of the Hapsburgs, they had never lost their proud, in- dependent, spirit. Under their leader, Louis Kossuth, they had now, in the summer of 1848, made themselves as good as independent. They did not object to a ruler of the House of Hapsburg, but they wished to be free of the connection with the other parts of the many-tongued empire. As the programme of the emperor and his ministry was, in sharp Russia and contrast to the Hungarian idea, the maintenance of the in- the Hungarian divisible Hapsburg realm, Windischgraetz, in order to real- ^u^f ^igdo^"' ize it, moved in the winter into Hungary at the head of 100,000 troops. The Hungarians fought splendidly for their freedom, and at first actually drove the Austrians back ; but Kossuth, overelated at his success, made the mistake of proclaiming Hungary a republic (April, 1849), and immediately Czar Nicholas, in alarm at the progress of the democratic spirit gust, 1849. 368 Modern Europe Austria again on her legs. The reaction spreads to Germany. Prussia gets a constitution, 1849- at his very border, offered to help out his brother of Aus- tria with a flank attack. In the summer the Austrians from the west and the Russians from the east caught the Hun- garians between them, and quickly made an end of their resistance (August, 1849). Hungary, broken in spirit and resources, stolidly reassumed the Austrian yoke. As for Austria, she had, after a year of terrible commo- tions, successively subdued the revolution among her Slav, her German, her Italian, and her Hungarian subjects, and was now again a great power under the absolute govern- ment of her young emperor, Francis Joseph, who had only just succeeded his uncle, Ferdinand, on the throne (Decem- ber, 1848). The victory of the reaction in Austria was sure to affect greatly the affairs of Prussia and Germany. In fact, hardly had the king of Prussia heard of the victory ofWindisch- graetz over the people of Vienna, when he resolved to pro- ceed against the revolutionists in his own capital. He there- fore ordered the troops to take possession of Berlin, and dis- solved the Prussian Diet, which was engaged in making a constitution for Prussia. There was little resistance, for the people were greatly attached to their House of Hohen- zollern. Probably for this reason King Frederick Wilham IV. was loath to disappoint their liberal expectations alto- gether. Of his own free will he presented the people, in February, 1849, with a constitution, and although it was not as democratic as could have been wished, it at least secured to the Prussian people a share in the government. Revolution was thus put down in Prussia as elsewhere, but here, almost alone, the king had been wise enough to accept the more moderate popular demands. We left the German Parliament at Frankfurt at the time of its first great discomfiture, in the matter of the Schleswig- Holstein war (September, 1848). That difficulty had Revolution in Germany^ Austria, and Italy 369 proved that the ParHament could not exact obedience from a great state like Prussia. But if that was the case before The German , . , - , ,,. 1 T^ 1- Parliament en- the triumph of the governments at Vienna and Berlin over dangered by the revolutionists, how would matters stand after these gov- ^^ reaction, ernments had recovered their strength ? In fact, Austria and Prussia paid less and less attention to the Parliament which, having been elected by the people of all the states, still claimed to be the sovereign body in Germany. Although the members of the Parliament were themselves The crown bitterly conscious that their power was waning, they kept Frederick bravely to the task for which they had been called together, ^pru^jl^'' In the course of the winter (1848-49) they completed their constitution for united Germany ; there now remained only the difficult matter of finding a head for the new constitu- tion — an emperor. And on this rock the whole labors of the Parliament were shattered to pieces. Naturally the choice lay between the two greatest German princes, the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia. The ques- tion of their respective merits was hotly debated, but the fact that Prussia was more of a German state than dis- jointed Austria, finally won a majority for Frederick Will- iam IV. Emperor Francis Joseph was furious ; being a Hapsburg, he looked upon the Hohenzollern as mere up- starts, and swore to declare war rather than recognize a German emperor of that line. Under these conditions all Germany fixed its eyes with anxious interest upon the deputation from the German Parliament, which in April, 1849, travelled to Berlin to offer to the Prussian king the crown of united Germany. Frederick William IV. was, unlike most of his family, a Frederick timid man. He had a deep respect for the Hapsburgs, as declines being the traditional rulers of Germany, and a great dread of ^"^P^''^^- their military power. But he was also moved by a keen German patriotism, and believed that the long humiliation 370 Modern Europe of Germany ought to be put an end to by the creation of a strong central government. Unfortunately, the proffered imperial rr^7£/// gave no guarantee of imperial /^w 142/ 75, n-, 79. 80 ; under Elizabeth, 88 Covenanters, 176, 177 Cisalpine Republic, 306, 315 Cranmer, 75, 80, 85 Civil Wars (England), 178 ff. ; 182 Crespy, Peace of, 43 ff- Crimean War, 373/. ; 402 Clement VII., 73 Cromwell, Oliver, 179 ff. ; 182, 184 ; Clergy of France, 269/ Protector, 185/". / death of, 187 Clive, Lord, 261 Cromwell, Richard, 188 Cobden, Richard, 396 Cromwell, Thomas, 75, 76, 78 Code Napoleon, 314 Crusades, 2 Colbert, Jean, 203/; Culloden Moor, battle of, 257 Colet, John, 32, 68, 69 Custozza, battle of, 363, 378 Coligny, Gaspard de, 127, 128, 129, 130 Colonies, Spanish, 7 ; English, 10 ; Czaslau, battle of, 240 Danton, 282, 285, 289/ ; 300 French, 10; Dutch, 11 Darnley, Lord, 94/. Committee of Pubhc Safety, 294, Declaration of Independence, 262 302 Declaration of Indulgence, 194 Commonwealth, the, 183/ Denmark, 47, 147 #; 149; league Commune of Paris, 389 with Poland and Russia, 221 / ; Conde, prince of, 12.6 ff.; 155, 206 361/ Concordat, the, 313 Diet, the, 11, note ; 12 ; of Worms, Confederation of the Rhine, 316 36, 119 ; of Augsburg, 41 ; of Nu- Congress of Berlin, 405 remberg, 54 ; of Ratisbon, 150 Congress of Laibach, 337 Directory, the, 304, 310 Congress of Troppau, 337 Dissenters, 191 Congress of Verona, 338 Don John of Austria, 112 Congress of Vienna, 329/ ; 333^. Dover, Treaty of, 193, 206 Conspiracy of Amboise, 127 Drake, Sir Francis, 96, 97 Constantine of Russia, 350 Dresden, Peace of, 241 414 Index Drogheda, 184 Dryden, John, 199 Dudley, Guilford, 82 Dunbar, battle of, 184 Dunkirk, 187 Dutch, in Netherlands, loi; war with England, 187, 192, 193 ff. ; 205 ff.; 210, 212 ; and Louis XIV., 205 Dutch Colonies, 11, 117 Dutch Repubhc, 115, 116/ East India Company, 115, 169 East Roumelia, 405 Ecclesiastical Reservation, 45, 141 Edict of Nantes, Revocation of, 207/ Edict of Restitution, 149/! ; 154 Edict of Worms, 2,1 Edinburgh, Treaty of, 93 Edward VI., 78, 79, 81, 82 Egmont, count, 105, 107 Egypt, 308 Elector of Saxony, 36, 44, 146, 152 Elizabeth, 78, 79 ; character, 86 f. ; religious policy, 88 ; and Mary Stuart, 90, 93/ ; last years, 98 yi Elizabeth of the Palatinate, 147 Elizabeth of Russia, 246 England, 22^ ; under the Tudors, 68 ff. ; church of, 75, 79, 88 ; on the sea, 96, 98 ; expansion of life, 99 ; in seventeenth century, 163^ ; Commonwealth and Protectorate, 183^ ; under Charles II., 188^. / under James II., 196 y.; under William and Mary, 197 ; Grand Alliance, 208, 210/., 212; Seven Years' War, 243^, 260; in eigh- teenth century, 248^. ; and Ire- land, 249^; War of Spanish Suc- cession, 252 ; union with Scotland, 253; War of Austrian Succession, 240, 256 ; and Napoleon, 320^. ,• in Crimean War, 398 ; a world em- pire, 397/ English Cabinet, 254 English Colonies, 10, 261 /. ,• 334 Erasmus, "ytf. Essex, earl of, 98 Eugene, prince of Savoy, 211 Eugenie, 387 Fairfax, Sir Richard, 180, 184 Farel, 49 Fawkes, Guy, 165 Fehrbellin, battle of, 234 Felton, John, 172 Ferdinand and Isabella, 21, 22 Ferdinand I. (Germany), 46, 142 Ferdinand II. (Austria), 145^./ 154, 156 Ferdinand III. (Austria), 156 Ferdinand (of Brunswick), 261 Ferdinand (of Coburg), 406 Ferdinand (of Naples), 337 Ferdinand VII. (Spain), 336/ Fisher, Bishop, 76 Five Mile Act, 191 Flemish, the, loi Fleury, Cardinal, 258 Flodden Field, battle of, 71 Florence, \T f. Fontenoy, battle of, 256 Fotheringay Castle, 96 Fourth Estate, 271 France, 20 ; Reformation in, 119 ff.; Renaissance in,. 122 ; under the Guises, 125 ff.; War of Three Henries, 132 ; under Richelieu, 136 ff. ; 137 ; Thirty Years' War, 151, 15s; under Louis XIV., looff.; War of Spanish Succession, 211 ; Seven Years' War, 243 ff.; 260; in eighteenth century, 2\Z ff. ; 266; given a constitution, 341/! ; Rev- olution, 266 ff. ; under Louis Philippe, 352^; Second Repub- lic, 358 ; under Napoleon III., 372 ff. ; Third Republic, 389 / Franche Conte, 207 Francis I. (Austria), 241, 244 Francis I. (B'rance), 16, 20 ; French- Index 415 Spanish wars, 40, 43 ; alliance with German Empire, constitution of, 388 Turks, 43 ; rivalry with Charles V., German Parliament, 360, 361, 362, 119/.; a persecutor, 121/; patron 368 #. of art and literature, 122 Germany, 11 f.; Reformation in. Francis II. (Austria), 287, 317 27 ff.; Thirty Years' War, Mxff.; Francis II. (France), 92, 125, 127 Protestantism, 142 ; under Ferdi- Francis II. (Naples), 377 nand II., 145 ff.; Napoleonic wars Francis Joseph, 368, 369 in, 335 ; effect of July Revolution, Franco-Prussian War, 386/". 348 // Revolution of 1848 in, Franklin, Benjamin, 262 359 ff-: unification of, 380 ff. Frans Hals, 117 Gibraltar, 213, 253 Frederick I., 235 Gironde, 286, 291 /./ 293 Frederick William, the Great Elect- Girondists, 288 or, 232 ff. Gladstone, 397 Frederick the Great, 238 ff.; 241 /; Glorious Revolution, the, 197 and Voltaire, 242 ; Seven Years' Grand Alliance, 210 War, 244^; Second Peace Pe- Gravelins, 104. 124 riod, 246 / Great Britain in the eighteenth cen- Frederick William I., 236 ff. tury, 392 iJ^ Frederick William II., 287 Greek Church, 217, 220 Frederick William III., 318, 319 Greek Revolution, 339 ff.; 402 Frederick William IV., 360, 368, 369, Grouchy, Marshal, 331 370 Guatimozin, 8 Frederick of the Palatinate, 143 ; Guise, duke of, 128, 129 King of Bohemia, 146 ; and James Guise, Henry of, 132, 133 I., 167/. Guises, the, 125, 127/./ 130 Frederick of Hohenzollern, 231 Guizot, 353, 355 Frederickshald, 225 Gunpowder Plot, 165 French Colonies, 10, 204, 261 f. Gustavus Adolphus, 149, \$off.; 221 French Empire, 315 ff. French Revolution, 266 ff. Hadrian VI., 54 French-Spanish wars, 20, 40, 43 Hampden, John, 175, 178 Friedland, battle of, 319 Hanover, House of, 254 Frobisher, Lord, 97 Hapsburg, House of, 11, 13/; 46; Fronde, the, 201 and Richelieu, 138, 145, 155 Fueillants, the, 286 Hardenberg, 327 Hazelrigg, 178 Gambetta, 386/ Hebert, 299 Garibaldi, 366, 377 ff. Helena, St. , Island of, 332 Gaston, duke of Orleans, 137 Henrietta Maria, 170 Geneva, 49 ff. Henry II. (France), 46, 122 /, 124 Genoa, Republic of, 335 Henry III. (France), 132, 133 Gensonne, 293 Henry IV. (Henry of Navarre), 129, George I., 254/. 131, 132 ; abjures Protestantism, George II., 255, 261 133/; and House of Hapsburg, George III,, 246, 261 /. 135 ; assassinated, 136 4i6 Index Henry V. (England), 22 Henry VI. (England), 23 Henry VII. (England), 23/ Henry VIII. , 40, 68, 70 / ; foreign policy, 78 ; marriages, 72, 78 ; head of church, 75 ; Protestant- ism of, 76, 79 Hesse, 384 Hohenfriedberg, battle of, 240 HohenzoUern, 230 f. Holland, 112, 187 ; aids Maria Theresa, 240 ; and French Revo- lution, 302, 315, 325 ; breach with Belgium, 347 Holies, 178 Holy Alliance, 336 Holy League, 16, 70, 132, 133, 143, 145 Holy Roman Empire, 11, 13, 317 Home, Count, 105, 107 Howard, Lord, 97 Hubertsburg, Peace of, 246 Hudson Bay Territory, 213 Hugo, Grotius, 117 Huguenots, 124 /, 128 ; and Edict of Nantes, 134/.; a political party, 136 ff.; leave France, 208; in Prussia, 233 Humanists, 32/.; 68^.; 121 Hundred Days, the, 331 Hungary, 366^. Hutten, Ulrich von, 32, 38 Ibrahim, 339 Incas, 9 Independents, the, 181 India, 5, 9, 10 ; Enghsh in, 261 Indulgencies, 34, 48 Inquisition, in Spain, 22 ; first or- ganized, 57, 66 ; in the Nether- lands, 102 f.; 105 Ireland, 98 ; colonization of Ulster, 168 ; subdued by Cromwell, 184 ; Act of Union, 263 ; relation to Eng- land, 249 jf. ; at present time, 396/ Ironsides, 179 Isnard, 293 Italy, i^ff.; and Holy Alliance, 335, 337. 338 ; July Revolution in, 349 ; Revolution of 1848 in, 362/; united Italy, 374^. Ivan III., 215 Ivan IV., 215 Ivry, battle of, 133 Jacobins, 282, 294, 302 Jamaica, 187 James I. (England), 95, 147, 163^ James II. (England), 194, 196 f.; 248/ James III. (the Pretender), 254 James IV. (Scotland), 71 Jane Grey, 82, 83 Jane Seymour, 78 Jeffreys, 197 Jena, battle of, 318 Jesuits, sSff-; 142/; 147 Jews, 66 Joachim II., 231 Joan of Castile, 14 John Frederick of Saxony, 44 John Sigismund, 231 Jonson, Ben, 99 Joseph, emperor, 212 Josephine, 324 Jourdan, 302, 305 Julius II., 72 July Revolution, 344 j^ Kaunitz, 242/. Kellermann, 290 Kelts, loi Knox, John, 92 Kolin, battle of, 244 Kosciusko, 229, 351 Kossuth, 367 Kunersdorf, 245 Lafayette, 276, 279, 280^ Lafitte, 344 Lagos, battle of, 261 Lamartine, 356, 358 Lancaster, House of, 23 Index 417 Landfrieden, 13 Lun^ville, Peace of, 31X Lanstande, 233 Luther, Martin, 33^. La Rochelle, 138 Lutheran Church, 45, 47 Latimer, 84 Lutter, battle of, 149 Laud, 174, 177 Lutzen, battle of, 153, 328 Law of Suspects, 295 Lyons, 298 League of Cambrai, 17 League of Schmalkalden, 42 Magdeburg, 152 Lech, battle of the, 153 Magellan, 6 Lefebre, 32, 121 Magenta, battle of, 375 Legislative Assembly, 2^6 ff. Maintenon, Madame de, 207/. Legitimacy, principle of, 333 Mainz, 45 Leicester, earl of, 114 Malplaquet, battle of, 212 Leipsic, battle of, 328/ Mansfeld, 148/ Leopold L (emperor), 234, 235 Marat, 282, 289, 293, 295/ Leopold II. (emperor), 287 Marengo, battle of, 311 Leopold (of Belguim), 347 Maria Theresa, 238/ / 242/". / 246, Leopold of Hohenzollern, 385/". 247 Lepanto, battle of, 65 Marie Antoinette, 273, 287, 296 Lesczinski, Stanislaus, 223/! Marie Louise, 324 Leuthen, battle of, 245 Marignano, battle of, 16, 119 Ley den, 110, iii Marlborough, duke of, 211, 252 Ligny, battle of, 331 Marlowe, Christopher, 252 Ligurian Republic, 306 Margaret of Navarre, 121 Lindet, 294 Margaret of Parma, 104 Lissa, battle of, 378 Margaret of Valois, 130, 136 Lit de Justice, 267 Marot, Clement, 122 Literature of seventeenth century, Marston Moor, battle of, 179/ 199 Martyrs, 84/ Locke, John, 199 Mary (of England), 73, 79 ; queen. Lombardy, 335 82 ff. ; character, 85 Lope de Vega, 67 Mary Stuart, 9off. ; 125 Lorraine, 258, 386, 388 Mary of Burgundy, 14, 100 Louis XII., 16, 20 Massachusetts, 169 Louis XIII., 136 Matthias, 144, 145 Louis XIV., 193, 200^./ 250, 267, Maurice de Saxe, 241 273 ; death of, 213, 257 Maurice of Nassau, 114, 115, 116 Louis XV., 257/ ; 267, 273 Maurice of Saxony, 44, 45, 123 Louis XVI., 274, 284, 292 Maximilian I., 11, 12 ff. Louis XVII., 296, note Maximilian II., 142 Louis XVIII., 329, 332, 341/ Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, 143, Louis Philippe, 344// 352 y. 145./. Louis Napoleon, 354, 358 Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, Loyola, Ignatius, 55/ 384/ Liibeck, Peace of, 149 Mazarin, looff. Lucca, 335 Mazzini, 365 /. 4i8 Index Meaux, 121 Narva, battle of, 222 Medici, the, 18, 34 Naseby, battle of, 180 Medici, Catharine de', 125, 128, 130 National Assembly, 276 ff. ; 282, 285 Medici, Marie de", 136 National Convention, 289, 290, 291^. Mehemid, Ali, 339 National Guard, "zygff. ; 285 Melancthon, 41 Navarino, battle of, 340 Metternich, 328, 330, 337, 349 Navigation Act, 187 Metz, 46, 123, 157 Necker, 274 Mexico, 7, 8, 384^^ Nelson, 308, 320 Milan, 16, 40, 212 Netherlands, 63 ; revolt of, 100 /". / Milton, John, 199 Seven United Provinces, \\2.ff.: Minorca, 253 in Thirty Years' War, 147, 155 ; Mirabeau, 277, 282, 284 declared free, 158 Modena, 335 New Amsterdam, 192 Mohammedans, 27 Newbury, battle of, 180 MoUwitz, battle of, 239 Newfoundland, 213, 253 Moltke, von, 383, 386 New model, 180 Monasteries, 76 Newton, John, 199 Mongols, 215 Ney, 327. 330 Monk, George, 188 Nice, 376 Monmouth, duke of, 196/ Nicholas, Czar, 340, 350^! / 373^ / Montenegro, 405 402 Montezuma, 8 Nimwegen, Treaty of, 194, 207, 234 Moors, 21, 66 Nordlingen, battle of, 154 More, Sir Thomas, 32, 68, i 59,76 Norsemen, 5, note ; 215 Moreau, 305, 311 North German Confederation, 384 Moscow, 326 Northern War, the, 233 Mountain, the, 286, 291/ ; 293 Northumberland, duke of, 81, 82, 83 Muhlberg, battle of, 44 Norway, 47 Munster, 45 Nova Scotia, 213, 253 Murat, 323, 335 Nystadt, Treaty of, 226 Murillo, 67 Murray, Lord, 95 Gates, Titus, 195 O'Connell, Daniel, 393 Nantes, Edict of, 129, 134/ Oldenbarneveldt, John of, 114^. Naples, 15/ .• 212, 33S/'-/ 377 O'Neil. 98 Napoleon Bonaparte, 298, 303: in Orange, House of, 206 Italy, 305, 306 ff. ; First Consul, Osman Pasha, 404 310 ; centralized administration, Ostrolenka, battle of, 351 313; emperor, 314; and Prussia, Otto, King of Greece, 340 317/: / and Alexander, 319 / / Oudenarde, battle of, 212 abdication of, 329 ; return from Oxenstiem, Chancellor, 154 Elba, 330 ; death, 332 Oxford reformers, 69 Napoleon II. (king of Rome), 325, 354 Pacification of Ghent, in, 112 Napoleon III., 372 ff.; 384^ Palatinate, 146, 147 ; War of, 209 Index 419 Papacy, reform of, 54 Poland, 221/; 223, 227 ff.; first par- Parlement, 139// 267 tition of, 228 /.; 247 ; revolution Parliament, under Elizabeth, 88 ; un- in, 350 /. der James, 166/ / under Charles, Pole, Cardinal, 83 / 169/:/ Short, 176; Long, \n ff. ; Poles, 407 184, 188 ; Barebones', 185 ; Cav- Polignac, 343 alier, 190 y. Polish Succession, war of, 258 Parma, 335 Pomerania, 156, 232, 234, 236 Parma, duke of, 96, 112 Pompadour, Madame de, 260 Partition Treaty, the, 210 Popes : Alexander VI., 6, 19, 30, 53 ; Paul IV., 54 Julius II., 19, 53, 72; Leo X., 19, Pavia, battle of, 40, 119 34. 53, 54 ; Sixtus, 30 ; Hadrian Peace : of Adrianople, 340, 402 ; of VI., 54; Clement VII., 73 / Augsburg, 141 ; of Amiens, 311 ; Popish Plot, the, 194 / of Breslau, 240 ; of Cambray, 41 ; Portugal, 65, 322 of Paris, 261 /, 329 — modified, Pragmatic Sanction, 238 /. 332, 374. 402 ; of Prague, 383/; of Pride's Purge, 182 San Stefano, 404 /; of Pressburg, Prieur, 294 316 Printing, 3, note Peasants' Revolt, 38 / Privileged orders, 268 ff. Peru, 7, 8 /. Privy Council, 87/ Peter the Great, 216 ff, ; at Narva, Protectorate, the, 185 ff. 222 ; progress of, 224 /; loses Protestant Union, 143, 145 Azov, 225 Protestantism: in Germany, 142 / ; Peter III., 227, 246 147 ; in Bohemia, 146 ; Edict of Petition of Right, 171/. Restitution, 150; and Gustavus Phihp II. (of Spain), 46, 61 ff.; war Adolphus, 153; in England, 170; with Dutch, 63, 104 ; the Armada, in Prussia, 232 64, 96 ; acquires Portugal, 65 Provence, count of, 287 Philip III. (of Spain), 66/ Prussia, 2^0 ff.; increase in power, Philip IV. (of Spain). 67 241 ff; and French Revolution, Philip V. (of Spain), 212 287 ff-; 3^7 /•; 319 ; revival of, 327 Philip, duke of Anjou, 210 ff.; war of 1866. 378, 382 / Philip, duke of Orleans, 257 /. Pultava, battle of, 224 Philip Egalite, 296, 344 Puritans, 89; and James I., 164/; Pichegru, 302 and Charles I., 174, 189, 191 Piedmont, 335 Pym, 178 Pitt, William, earl of Chatham, Pyrenees, Treaty of, the, 67^ 201 260/ Pitt, William, the younger, 263 Quiberon, battle of, 261 Pius IX., 36s Pizarro, 7, 8 / Rabelais, 122 Plague, the, 192 Radetsky, 363 Plain, the, 291 /. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 98, 167 / Plassey, battle of, 261 Ramillies, battle of, 211 Plevna, battle of, 404 Rastadt, Peace of, 213 420 Index Reform Bills, 395 Ruyter, admiral, 206 Reformation: in Germany, 2j ff.; Ryswick, Peace of, 209 in France, iig ff.; 124 /,; 131 ; in Switzerland, 48, 49 ; in Scandina- Sadowa, battle of, 378, 383 via, 47 ; in England, 68 /; 86 St. Bartholomew, massacre of. 95, Reformed Church, 48 130, 131 Reichskammergericht, 13 St. Germain, Peace of, 129 Reichstag, 388 St. Germain-en-Laye, Treaty of, 234 Reign of Terror, 294 / St. Just, 300 Rembrandt, 117 St. Menehauld, 285 Renaissance, 1 St. Petersburg, 224 Requesens, 110, iii St. Quentin, 104, 124 Restoration, the, 188 San Yuste, 46 Reuchlin, 32 Sans Souci, 247 Revolution of 1848, 355 ff. Sardinia, 15, 375 ff. Revolutionary Tribunal, 295, 302 Sarto, Andrea del, 122 Richard III., 23 Savonarola, 18 Richelieu, 136 ff.; 200 Savoy, 19, 363, 376 Ridley, Bishop, 84 Saxe, Marshal, 256 Rivoli, battle of, 305 Scandinavia, 46 Rizzio, 94 Scharnhorst, 327 Robespierre, 277, 282, 285, 289 ; and Schleswig-Holstein, 361 /,• 370 // Committee of Public Safety. 294 ; 381/ and Hebertists, 299; fall of, 300/ Scotland, 71, op ff. ; war v 'ith Roger-Ducos, 310 Charles I., 176, 180 ; subdued by Roland, Madame, 297 Cromwell, 184 ; union with Eng- Romanoff, House of, 216 land, 253 Rome, sack of, 40, 119; against Sebastopol, 374 Italy, 378 Sedan, battle of, 387 Rossbach, battle of, 244, 261 Self-Denying Ordinance, 180 Roumania, 403, 405, 406 Separatists, 89/ ; 168/ Roundheads, 178, 199 September massacres, 290 Rousseau, 271, 273 Servetus, 52 Royal Society, 199 Servia, 405, 406 Rubens, 118 Seven Years' War, 243/: , 260 Rudolph II., 142 Sforza family, 16 Rump Parliament, 177, 182 ff. Shakespeare, 99 Rupert, Prince, 179, i8o Ship-money ordinances, 175, 177 Rurik, 215 Siberia, 216 Russia, 215 ff.; 224 // under Catha- Sicily, IS, 377 rine II., 227 ff.; and French Revo- Si^yes, 277, 282, 310 lution, 309, 311, 325 ff.; territorial Silesia, 234/ ; 239/". ; 246 acquisition, 334 ; and Greek Revo- Six Articles, the, 77/. lution, 340; and Poland, 350// Slavs, 230, 390 and Crimean War, 373 /; and Solferino, battle of, 375 Balkan Peninsula, 400 ff. Soliman the Magnificent, 43 Index 421 Somerset, duke of, 79/ ; 81 Thirty-nine Articles, 80, 88 Sophia (of Hanover), 251 Thirty Years' War, 138, 141-156 Sophia (of Russia), 216 Thorn, Treaty of, 232 Sorbonne, the, 121 Tilly, 148/ ; ISO, 152, 153 Soult, Marshal, 329 Tilsit, Peace of, 319/ Spain ; 21 .ff; under Charles V., 59 Tlascalans, 8 ff. ; acquires Portugal, 65/ ; war Toleration Act, 198 in Netherlands, 108 ff. ; and Na- Tories, 195/ poleon, 322 / ; war with Eng- Torquemada Tomas de, 22 land, 255/ ; reaction in, 336^. Toul, 46, 123, 157 Spanish colonies, 7 Toulon, 298 Spanish literature and art, 67 Trafalgar, 320 Spanish Netherlands, 118, 205, 212 Travendal, Peace of, 222 Spanish Succession, war of, 210/". ; Treaty : of Pyrenees, 6j ; of West- 251, 252 phalia, 6rj, 156/". ; of Edinburgh, Spenser, Edmund, 99 92 ; St. Germain, 129 Spinoza, 117 Tricolor, 280 Stamp Act, 262 Tripoli, 42 Star Chamber, 177 Tunis, 42 States of the Church, 335 Tunnage and Poundage, 172 _^ States-General, 139/. ; 275 Turenne, 155, 206 Stein, 327 Turgot, 274 Stettin, 237 Turin, Peace of, 305 Strafford, earl of, 174/ ; I77 Turkey, 225, 227, 229, 339^ Stralsund, 149 Turko-Russian Wars, 402, 403, 404 Strasburg, 207 Turks, 13, 14, note ; and Venice, 17 ; Streltse, the, 217, 219 in Germany, 42 ; and Francis I, , Strode, 178 43 ; in Spain, 59 ; war with Philip Sully, 13s II., 64/; and Peter the Great, 218 Sweden, 47 ; in Thirty Years' War, Tuscany, 18, 335 147, 149, 150^. ; defeat of Nord- Two Sicilies, Kingdom of, 335 lingen, 154; a great power, 221^ ; Tyrol, 316 227 ; and Louis XIV., 234 Swiss Guard, 288 Ulrica Eleanor, 226 Switzerland, 48^ ; 158 Union of Calmar, 47 Union of Utrecht, 112, 116 Talleyrand, 330 Utrecht, Peace of, 212, 253 Test Act. 194, 393 Tetzel, 34 Valmy, battle of, 290 Teutonic Knights, 231, 232 Valois, House of, 133 Teutons, loi Van Dyck, n8 Thermidoreans, Rule of, 301/ Van Tromp, 187 Thiers, 353, 355, 389 Varennes, 285 Third Coalition, 316 Vasa, House of, 47 Third Estate, 270/, ; 275 Vasco de Gama, 5 Third Republic, 387, 389/ Vassy, massacre of, 128 422 Index Vaubon, 211 Velasquez, 67 Vendee, 298 f. Venice, 17, 316, 335, 378 Verdun, 46, 123, 157 Vergniaud, 293 Versailles, 213 Versailles, Peace of, 262 Vervins, Peace of, 135 Victor Emmanuel II., 364, 374/".; Vienna, Peace of, 324 ; Congress of, 329/ Villars, Marshal, 211 Vinci, Leonardo de, 122 Virginia, 168 Visconti family, 16 Voltaire, 242, 271, 273 Voyages of discovery, 3, 4 ff. Wagram, battle of, 324 Waldensian massacre, 122 Wallenstein, 148 ff.; death of, 154 Walpole, Sir Robert, 255 / War of the Roses, 23 Washington, 262 Waterloo, battle of, 331 Wellington, duke of, 324, 329, 330, 392. 393 Wentworth, Sir Thomas, 174/ ; 177 Westphalia, 319 Westphalia, Peace of, 67, 115, 139, 156 ff. ; 158/ ; 201, 232 Wexford, 184 Whigs, 195/. White Hills, battle of, 146 William, Prince of Orange, 103, 105, 107 ff. ; Stadtholder, 109 ; death of, 113 William I. (Prussia), 380 ff. ; Em- peror, 388 William, king of Holland, 347 WiUiam and Mary, 198 ff. ; 210, 248, 249 ; constitution develops under, 252 Windischgraetz, 367 Witt, John de, 205, 206 Wolfe, 261 Wolsey, Thomas, 71, 74 Worcester, battle of, 184 Worms, Diet of, 36 ; Edict of^ 37, Worth, battle of, 386 Wurtemberg, 316, 383, 384 Wiirzburg, 45 York, House of, 23 Yorktown, 262 Young, Arthur, 271 Young Pretender, 257 I Zomdorf, battle of, 245 ' Zwingli, Ulrich, 48 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 425 10 u O t> lO u i + i 1 .3 P^ t u — *© — > a > J y^ M i! b 1 6 e4 3 g u (72 > '3) 13 Si 5~ -s 1 fU '5 < 1 iT W .s a c3 1 .1 10 E W < e 2. + •1 w § 1/1 3 P4 tS 1 < 1 V? t4 , J 3 <5 1 a >o *"~' _; ffi U ^ •o c "0 + c rt ti^ c c c« ;3 rt a — s -s- C/2 1 In tt u 1 ^ 2 > ^ w P4 G 'w' Ul . d (4 bfl s 1? ■a '8, Q i 1 3 1 + V 2^ II ^ 3 -1 Sc 1^ < i "ol K < 'B 1 S-B >-H ** s i ? .& o._ C/3 c ^ '5 — !H < ft C .2 ex a« o u fa fa E^ ?" 2 2 « J! in 0< SI 3j 6.S •c « bdE a. 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CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 43t u Pi pq N N •J en < > Q < < > O en W en O w H •s •3 (] •is '^ e« ** fJ>^ iW Mt»< «o o ^8 g SI 2 ^ p. c« tl 1 <:| CI •-« ^-^ u e( 3 a -rt — ~.2 to Wi 2 ^ O U « i o si ^ _w S ^ E-o o M O. g se* 432 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 6§ t) < C/3 n VO + w -— ' + ^ ffi <-• g >» 1 f-l u c/5 C + < .2 o — 'C- u •a u s .2 (ii i fe 1 W W H W ^ ffi ^ CJ .3 H VO D + Q u W — 'C ffi 3 Cli H S t^ ■* w « C .E_E_E. i^^^^^M CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES 433 x; 5 > u § i I » 7 *^ >0 CO ^-N t^ 00 00 00 w ™ TO O O - C — S — M — to fa ^ < < ■3 £;■ 434 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES X .5 rt -I- i ^ — 3 ci I— I (U o X"^ ^2 CO u) ^' o c « ft 111 e C c o MAPS i. europe during the reformation. 2. the netherlands at the truce of 1609. 3. germany at the commencement of the thirty years' war. 4. england and wales january i, 1 643. 5. western europe, showing the principal changes effected by the treaties of utrecht and ras- TADT, I 7 13-14. 6. EUROPE, ILLUSTRATING WARS OF CHARLES XII. AND PETER THE GREAT. 7. EUROPE AT THE TIME OF THE GREATEST EXPANSION OF napoleon's POWER, l8l2. 8. EUROPE AFTER THE CONGRESS AT VIENNA. 9. THE BALKAN PENINSULA IN THE YEAR 1 88 1. Longitude 15*^ West from 10" Greenwich S'" Longilude 1 1 EUROPE / during the Reformation. ■~^ SCALK OF MILES. ^. 9S -m:\i vK-ti O R w VA/ ^^ «z3' ^ 7^ // » E *'0(hp ^ford ^ /Bremen' ^OoCnt o^■<^|j^~'^ \^°'°8ne ''ersoj.' J CO vervTns"'' — ,o -o Trier MJ ... Tfxertrtmrg .{worms 'I ■ " ^*"^-« A/nbSlf-'^'"'""' Tour .JV Charoll] ijyoV L / JV:. .;(£U9 "■ange •**>SI10D>.L ' r'o^ Marspiiies i i ^T ul / f 1 i 1 . L TTJ Eccltsiattiial States la 1 1 the haudt ofJ^ntestants I I Do.iTi the handi i — "i of CatkoUc* I I "Mle^laM Lay States □ JMjminioiu of the lay li'aiuhe^ I 1 'atholie i!^«__CZl. __ uf l/ie Ifoime of A»i<.: ia L_J Jtugaell^ Struthtrs.N.Y. \^ =i^J "t vw^~w (-. ■^ v>-. 2 c V £ .1 I -nx Louyitude Eatt 5- /rom '^ EUROPE at the Time of the Greatest Expansioo of NAPOLEON'S POWER. 1812. SCAX.B OP MILES. V x> ^"do ilogue ^Cologne -hapelle \j: {farls n ■""'••"■noblea, N^ iJ d m ^tsti^ Jirth^. "'■agoza/ ^>i»ORR.iP. /"IIKLVETK J] J/^z>/r^^|^,,^.^^,^ r*. M.-X.Co.,BvffaU>, A'. I'. Lonyitudt K I r ■Lu ^^ Lonifitude £aat 5° /n Boundary of German Coufcdtraiiou, thus: Prussia in 1815, thus : I " I Othcc German Territory, thus; 1 1 EUROPE after the Congress at Vienna, ^ ^ 1815. SCALE OP MILES. 160 :30 KILOMKTKRS. -^ "'■*y/ (iMa.vcijft) ^'e»-saT;i(.;y!^^ rS^'^'~-'-K(^ ^!'v^lottel,"y<^- ^''' Orleans ^^4r y^y -'•llltes Dijou H Toulfl JV .Marseilles J Corslcap <; ^lEDlfERRANEAN (:r3 ^ fi^ Sax o y r of Saxony,.>" J -\ "\. \ ^ / \ /"'^ ^J^^V-" — '''' £ .^ aS \ I TyrjW ) CaV-lJth 1 Munich > A u^tTr i II \^ V 1 ^ :^!A!^ 4 ^.«^' "^v^'-^^;':.*V x / /:•. ^ >/.hV'^ -A ^ 30^ Oreenwich B s THE BALKAN PENINSULA IN THE YEAR 1881. lEkivtcrinoslav ?.„?? so SCALE OF MILKS 20 '^ 1^ ,,'," KILOMETKRS 100 ISO 500 IbO ?oo p. Crimea '^en of Azof SebastoiJolJ Balaklavi^ LACK E A '-^'^^y l^rulii'oi^'^ Ami"' & M Konia Kaisatiy*-'*^ Aflana^ Tarsus Cyprus^- E A Ximasol ,AU-ppo Jlrivroli 3 Beirut Bit\i« S 1 D«a betif °\]rfa Vl \ •}Sos«\ I ,a»t 30" from Greenwich 3^^ / oPatittftscus AUH/. Recent Works on History EUROPE IN THE MIDDLE AGE By OLIVER J. THATCHER and FERDINAND SCH VILL, Professors of History in the University of Chicago. With lo maps. 680 pages, i2mo, $2.00 net. Existing histories of the Middle Age, upon which so much light has been thrown by the researches of recent years, are either summary in treatment or minutely expansive, and not infrequently devoted to certain phases of the subject at the expense of others. This work aims to avoid both extremes, being sufficiently complete and comprehensive for the college student, while at the same time not neglecting the necessity for conciseness of statement. Its purpose is to serve as a text-book for Freshman or Sophomore classes, and it is based on the authors' long experi- ence as teachers in Chicago University. The period covered is from the First Century to the Italian Renaissance in the Six- teenth Century. Numerous maps and chronological tables add much to the usefulness of the book. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface. XII. The Growth of the Papacy. Introduction. XIII. The Struggle Between the I. Europe: Its Peoples and the Papacy and the Empire Christian Church. (1056-1254). II. The Migrations of the Na- XIV. Monasticism. tions. XV. Mohammed, Mohammed- III. The History of the New Chris- anism, and the Cru- tian German States. sades. IV. The Reaction of the Empire XVI. The Development of the Against the Germans Cities, More Especially V. The Franks (481-814). in France. VI. The Dismemberment of the XVII. Italy Empire XVIII. France (i 108-1494). Eng- VII. The Political History of land (1070-1485). France (887-1108). XIX. The Lesser Countries of VIII. Germany and Its Relation to Europe to 1500. Italy (887-1056). XX. Germany (1254-1493). IX. England and the Norsemen XXI. The Papacy (1250-1450). (802-1070). XXII. The Civilization of the X. The Normans in Italy. Middle Age. XI. Feudalism. XXIII. The Italian Renaissance. "I have taken pleasure in examining the book which seems to be well adapted to supplement a good lecture course. . . . The book is done in a scholarly and workmanlike manner that must commend it. The perspective is good, and I notice some statements of important facts that are admirable in brevity and clearness."— Prof. E. A. Start, Tufts College. " It is evident at a glance that it is a book of a very superior order. It not only embodies the facts which are necessary to a proper conception of the period, but presents them in a form that cannot fail to prove interesting to the reader. On this ground, no less than for its scientific accuracy, I believe the book will be welcomed by teachers and students." —Prof. J. H. DuBBs, Franklin and Marshall College. RECENT WORKS ON HISTORY " I shall use the book next term with the Sophomore class. While the arrangement is somewhat peculiar it corresponds more nearly to my ideas of what is adapted to a college class begiiming the study of mediaeval history than any other text-book before the public." —Richard A. Rice, Professor in Williams College. " Professors Thatcher and Schwill, of the University of Chicago, are the joint authors of this attractive volume of 650 pages, intended as a text-book for Freshmen or Sophomores. They have learned the need of such a work, even by the side of Prof. G. B. Adams and Prof. E. Emerton's recent volumes', and they seem to have supplied this need with skill and adequate scholarship.' Their twenty-three chapters include especially good treatments of the migra- tion of the nations, feudalism, monasticism, Mohammedanism, the civilization of the Middle Age and the Italian Renaissance. The style is well adapted to the class-room, being free from rhetoric, clear and flowing. Altogether the book marks a great advance in its line."— Z'A^ Literary World. " It embraces more topics than might be supposed to come within the limits of its title, but this makes it all the more useful, not only to students, for whom it was designed, but for those whose time forbids extended research on subjects connected with the history of the Middle Ages. . . . The book deals with history in its true sense, and not with the mere record of dynasties and battles. The authors are teachers, and their work shows that they understand what it has been most difficult to find— a simple, accurate, comprehensive text-book rather than a monograph."— ^roc'^/yw Daily Eagle. "The best sources of information have been consulted; the information is conveyed in exceedingly lucid statements, and the book certainly fills a gap in the literature of college studies. It can be most heartily commended to the confidence of teachers and students."— CA^Vra^i? Advance. "The arrangement, too, is original, forcible, and thoroughly logical, and the literary style, with its short, direct, clearly wrought sentences, is well cal- culated to'attract and hold attention. One would be almost willing to assert that Professors Thatcher and Schwill have produced the ideal hand-book on the history of mediaeval 'E.ViXO^^."— Boston Beacon. " As instructors in the University of Chicago these authors have been able to judge accurately of the needs of undergraduate students and have en- deavored, we should say with a large measure of success, to meet these require- ments . . . the book is entitled to the place of an authoritative work." —Public Opinion. A SHORT HISTORY OF MEDIAEVAL EUROPE By OLIVER J. THATCHER, Ph.D., Professor of History In the University of Chicago. With Maps, lamo, 340 pages, $1.25 net. The publication of such a volume as this has been frequently urged by those who are acquainted with the author's well- known larger work, " Europe in the Middle Age.'' The volume covers the history of Europe from the First Century to the Italian Renaissance in the Sixteenth. It is admirably adapted in every respect for use as a high-school text-book. •' To compress within a single volume the history of so long a period is indeed a difficult task. Still, the author has successfully accomplished it in the volume now before us. It is complete and comprehensive, and admirably adapted for use as a text-book in high and preparatory schools and for the general reader as well. No other single volume can be found which compares with thjs in sao^^.^'— The Journal of Education. RECENT WORKS ON HISTORY •' The material is well classified, clearly and concisely stated. In dealing with the intricacies of mediaeval detail historians are apt to lose sight of prominent features— to immerse civil and moral tendencies in a strictly chron- ological narrative. The endeavor in the present history is to bring into bold relief the principles which underwent evolution during this confused period in such a manner as to show origin, development and results. In fact, the book is a social and civil study. Aided by excellent maps and chronological tables, the book is an unusual production in the way of school histories, efficient and well adapted to class woxVy— Boston Transcript. " Long stretches of time must be passed over with brief mention, of course, when the story of so many centuries is covered in a single volume, but the author has been able, by always bearing in mind the continuity of history, to make his narrative more ititeresting than such works usually are." —Chicago Inter-Ocean. " The book is good for the school, and for public and private libraries. It will answer every ordinary purpose as a work of reference. Surely a book so much needed, so useful, so delightful, and appealing to so large a class of readers cannot fail to find wide acceptance and take an assured place." —Boston Advertiser. A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE By FERDINAND SCH 7ILL, Ph.D., Instructor in Modern History in the University of Chicago. Crown 8vo, 450 pages. $1.50 net. The lack of any one-volume text-book covering this period of history has been so generally recognized as to be frequently commented upon, though works on particular epochs or phases of European History are almost beyond reckoning in numbers. Dr. Sch /ill is the first to provide a single volume covering the course of events in Europe from the Italian Renaissance to the present day. The book is intended to fill the needs of High School and College classes, and to serve as a manual for the gen- eral student. Indeed the reading public at large will find it spe- cially attractive as well as instructive. To one with limited time at his disposal, seeking to gain a comprehensive survey of the last three eventful centuries in Europe, Dr. Schwill's work is of invaluable service. The usefulness of the volume is enhanced by numerous maps, bibliographies at the beginning of each chapter, and genealogical tables, while a clear topical arrangement guides systematic study. Used in sequence to " Europe in the Middle Age," or the smaller book, "A Short History of Mediaeval Europe," the "History of Modern Europe" completes a course in General European History in harmony with the best and most widely recognized principles of historical study. RECENT WORKS ON HISTORY THE OXFORD MANUALS OF ENGLISH HISTORY Edited by C. W. C. OMAN, M.A., P.S.A.. Fellow of All Souls ColIeg:e, Oxford. The Series consists of six volumes, bound in neat cloth, with maps, genealogies, and index. Price. 50 cents net, each. I.-THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH NATION (55 B.C.-1135 A.D.). By C. G. Robertson, B. A., Fellow of All Souls College. 11 —KING AND BARONAGE (A.D. 1135-1328). By W. H. Hutton, B.D., Fellow and Tutor of St. John's College. III.— THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR (A.D. 1328-1485). By C. W. C. Oman, M.A., Editor of the series. IV.— ENGLAND AND THE REFORMATION (A.D. 1485-1603). By G. W. Powers, M.A., sometime Scholar of New College, v.— KING AND PARLIAMENT (A.D. 1603-1714). By G. H. Wakeling, M.A., Fellow of Brasenose College. VI.— THE MAKING OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE (A.D. 1714-1832.) By Arthur Hassall, M.A., Student and Tutor of Christ Church. AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES A Series of five volumes containing a Connected History of the United States from the Discovery of America to the present day, divided into five distinct epochs, each of which Is treated by a writer of eminence and of special authority In this field. The volumes are sold separately, and each contains maps and plans. Each lamo, $1.25. THE COLONIAL ERA— 1492=1756 By QEORae PARK FISHER, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in Yale University. i2mo, 348 pages. THE FRENCH WAR AND THE REVOLUTION- 1756- 1783 By WILLIAM M. SLOANE, Professor of History in Columbia Uni- versity. i2mo, 409 pages. THE MAKING OF THE NATION— 1783-1817 By General FRANCIS A. WALKER, Late President of the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology. i2mo, 314 pages. THE MIDDLE PERIOD— 1817-1860 By JOHN W. BURGESS, Professor of History, Political Science, and International Law In Columbia University. i2mo, $1.75. THE CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION-1 860- 1877 By JOHN W. BURGESS, Professor of History, Political Science, and International Law in Columbia University. i2mo. A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR SCHOOLS By WILBUR F. GORDY. Principal of the North School, Hartford, Conn. Crown 8vo, 480 pages, $1.00 net. CHARLES SCRIBNER*S SONS PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK ■^P«P^:- UNIVERSITY OF CAtlFORNM LIBRARY ;"" 5J"^^^ -jHe last date stamped below F.nes*ed«,e:,5ce„t.„o.„,,,,„,,,,„^ One dollar on seventh day overdue. mV IQ 1947 I5i'.far'49P<; m 15 1849 ^^'i' -h.q'^^ i5Jun'49B6 LD21-100«.l2,'46(A2M2si6)4I20 O l»44 '^■i ^^^ y /v ■ \.) > r THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY